December 3, 2024 • 40 mins
Colin ranks the top 10 teams in the NFL after week 13
7-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady joins the show to talk about the late hit on Trevor Lawrence and Michigan's upset of Ohio State
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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. Here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's hour two to Tuesday. Tom Brady. He's gonna be
joining us at about five minutes live in Los Angeles.
It's The Herd wherever you may be, and however you
may be listening then or making us part of your day.
It's funny. We had that conversation about cam Ward. If
you're Kyle Shanahan, your team's old and getting expensive, and
you're watching Sean McVay, your primary rival in division, and
(00:50):
you're thinking to yourself, by their defense is young and inexpensive,
how do I catch up? How do I catch up?
And all of a sudden, Broc Purty. Now the second
injury is cam Ward on the table. Cam Ward makes
up a lot of ground. You look around the NFL
and you get these young, dynamic quarterbacks. You have to
pay him for four years you can change a lot.
(01:10):
You can keep some of those older guys that seem
really expensive. So here we go. It is Tuesday. Top
ten teams, the Herd Hierarchy, fire away.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Heard Hierarchy Time. Now go the top ten NFL teams
according to College Number ten.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, Seattle's not gonna win shootouts. They're zero to five
if they're asked to score if they give up more
than twenty five points and Gino Smith has been sacked
nineteen times in the last four games. He throws too
many picks. But I like the coaching staff. I like
their perimeter talent at wide receiver and corner. Their pass
rush better than it was in previous years. They're a
(01:50):
top ten team. I don't know if they can win
a playoff game maybe, but I'll put Seattle at ten.
Number nine. I like Denver. I think they have one
of the best coaches, maybe the best coach after Andy
Reid in the NFL. They've won five of seven games.
They're only losses to Baltimore in Kansas City. Vo Knicks
eight and three over his last eleven games. Does not
(02:11):
make a lot of mistakes. Their offensive line quietly Sean Payton,
an offensive coaches rebuild it in two years. PFF has
it at number two, Denver at nine, number eight, Baltimore. Listen,
they're only team in the league averaging four hundred yards.
Mark andrews Lamar Jackson's a Flowers, Dereck Henry. There's a
(02:32):
lot to like special teams. Bit of a liability now,
justin Tucker. It's called age mid thirties, and the back
end of the defense outside of Kyle Hamilton worries me.
I'm gonna put them there. They're scoring defense is bottom
quarter of the league, so that worries me. It's like
having a bad bullpen. You can outplay people and lose games.
I have Baltimore at eight, number seven. Sammy Darnold. Eventually
(02:56):
I was right. He's a baller. Leads the NFL with
forty six completions of twenty plus yards. This is not
a dink and dunk offense. They will throw the ball
down the field. I think Kevin O'Connell is really a
spectacular coach. They are seven and one in one score games.
That's not just Darnold, that is coaching. Vikings at seven,
(03:17):
number six Pittsburgh Steelers. I think they're ceilings a little
bit low but they're five and oh against teams that
are five hundred or better. It's a classic Mike Tomlin recipe.
His teams have always played well as underdogs or backed
into a corner. Russell Wilson say what you want passer
rating in the fourth quarter of one hundred and twenty.
(03:39):
He's good when it matters, and to me, that's a
team that can win a playoff game. Or two. Number
five green Bay, they're still a tad young. Are they
a super Bowl team? Point? Does Jordan Love have a whipman?
He's got some talent. They become a power run team
now they play at Detroit Thursday. I actually kind of
like him in that spot. They're top five and total
offense and rushing offense. They become more of a power
(04:00):
running team now with Josh Jacobs and I'm here for it.
I do feel there's still a year off green Bay
at five. Number four, Okay, my final four teams are
the teams I think can win a Super Bowl. Kansas
City Listen, he's been sacked. Patrick Mahomes has five times
in back to back games. I don't like the protection
right now at offensive tackle. They're getting Isaiah Pacheco back
(04:21):
that helps play action. They eleven and one in one
score games. Their point differential is the lowest ever for
an eleven and one team. I don't love that, but
I trust Andy Reid, Mahomes, Kelsey, Chris Jones and Spags.
I haven't met four.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Detroit's getting banged up on the defensive end. That worries me.
Third toughest schedule remaining. Will they get knocked out of
the perch and will Philadelphia to be a number one seat?
They've led by ten plus points in ten of eleven games,
so they usually play with the lead. Probably won't be
like that in the playoffs. I think Thursday is fascinating.
I have Detroit at three, number two Philadelphia. They figured
(04:58):
out Jalen Hurts. Hurts twenty touchdowns, one pick in his
eight game winning streak. I don't want him throwing thirty times.
I don't want Brady's in Mannings throwing forty times. They've
figured it out. By the way, this team's nine to
zero when aj Brown plays. I've never seen a great
team led by a receiver, but they don't lose when
he plays. I have Philadelphia at two, number one Buffalo.
(05:20):
I think it's the best version of Buffalo. I like
that they have James Cook Dalton Kincaid. They've missed multiple
good players during this stretch. I love Josh Allen and
he's matured. He's not as reckless as he once was.
I think they have their best offensive line, their best
running game. When Josh first got there, all their best
players felt like defensive guys. Now I think many of
(05:42):
their best players are offensive guys, and they're getting healthier
on the defensive side. Let's put Buffalo at number one again.
I generally, in my herd hierarchy think about three to
four teams can hoist a trophy. I don't think Green
Bay can or Pittsburgh. They're darn close at five and six, respectively.
And with that, Tom Brady twenty three years seven rings
(06:03):
most Super Bowl wins, passing yards, touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Okay, so you know I'm I'll get to Michigan Ohio
State because I won't be able to wipe the smile
off you. That was nuts. I want to start with this,
the late hit on Trevor Lawrence. So I got mixed emotions.
I want my quarterback to have some mobility, but I
also think you leave the pocket Tom and you're a
(06:29):
running back, where are you on this hit?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
I've watched obviously been a part of the NFL for
a long time, and I remember there was an instances.
I'll start by saying, there's mixed emotions that I have
about it as well. I remember in two thousand and one,
I think we played at Buffalo and I slid late
and Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills and
he came up out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me.
(06:58):
My helmet went flying off, and I got back and
I ran to the huddle, and I had a lot
of teammates that came up to me the next day
and said, dude, these.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Guys are coming.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
You got to get rid of that football, and if
you're going to slide, you better get down.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
These guys are coming to get you. And it was
a great.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Kind of learning experience for me because I realized that
when I'm out of that pocket, things were moving a
lot faster for me, and the defense is trying to
be very aggressive. And over time, the NFL has obviously
done a lot of things to protect players, and player
health and safety has been on and on and on
and the only aspect that I think is very challenging,
(07:35):
and certainly for Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
But it is also the reality of a very physical
sport that we play. But the only way defensive players
have to be aggressive. That's their nature. I always tried
to be aggressive on offense. We tried to a block aggressively,
and at the same time the defense.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Tries to tackle aggressively.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
So I don't know, there's there's an aspect to me
that I think the quarterbacks and the certainly the quarterbacks
need to take better care of themselves. I've seen Josh
Allen running a lot, I see Lamar Jackson running a lot,
and it's a great skill set to have. A lot
of times I wish I had that skill set. And
at the same time, when you run, you put yourself,
oh yeah, in a lot of danger. And when you
(08:15):
do that, I don't think the onus of protecting an
offensive quarterback who's running should be on a defensive player.
I don't think that's really fair to the defense. So
if you slide and it's you know, everyone can argue.
Was it black and white or was it just a
gray area. Do you slide late or is it unnecessary roughness.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Or is it a late hit? You know, to me,
a late hit is very late.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
There's quarterbacks that I see running in tiptoe on the
sideline and they're not even out of bounds and they
get hit as they're starting to step out of bounds
and there's a penalty flag thrown. So the aspect again
for a play caller. There's more design runs for quarterbacks
ever now than in the history of the NFL. So
are we really trying to protect quarterbacks? Because if you
(09:00):
are trying to do it through the rules, then why
are the offensive coordinators not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping
them under the pocket and not designing as many quarterback runs?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So I think there's just it's.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Gone to a point where there's really and everyone would
label a certain player as a dirty player.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You know. I don't like that one bit.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I you know, maybe they find or penalize a quarterback
for sliding late, you know, and say, look, if we
don't want these hits to take place, we've got to
penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize
the defensive player for every single play that happens when
there's a hit on a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So I said this last week, I said, you know,
I was thinking about this, go back to Lombardi. The
dynasties in league history are Green Bay with Lobardi, Steelers, Patriots, Chiefs,
Ravens have always been great, and then the Niners in
Dallas and as you know, going up in the Bay.
(10:00):
Joke that Mark Twain used to say that the coldest
winter he ever spent was a summer in the Bay,
and Dallas gets ice storms. There's never been a warm
weather dynasty. And I'm watching the Niners play the Bills,
and Tom, the Bills look like when you're eight years
old and it snows for the first time and you
go with your friends in the backyard. They were having
the time of their lives. And I think it matters.
(10:21):
I think Buffalo now with James Cook, Tom, did you feel, yeah,
when you played Peyton SCC Dome team, did you feel
it was an advantage?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I felt like that was a great advantage that we
always had, which is why those regular season games were.
If they were in Foxborough, they were obviously advantage for us.
But if it was early in the season, the weather
wasn't that critical. I think you used the weather to
your advantage. And even when I went to Tampa, I
would say there was an advantage being a warm weather
team playing against a team that was coming from the
(10:54):
north of the Northeast. So you use what you have
to an advantage, and that's you because your body acclimates
to it. I saw that Niner Bill game. There were
a lot of forty nine Er players that were slipping
on the turf, yeah, and not a lot of Bills
players that were slipping on the turf. And the point
is is when you're in those environments, you know exactly
what shoes to wear, You know how many layers that
(11:14):
you have to put on in order to get the
job done. So when you have those climates, that's what
you try to play too. I knew for me, I
knew how many hand warmers I needed in my quarterback
pouch per ten degrees. For every ten degrees that the
weather drop below seventy, I'd put one heat pack. So
if it was, you know, forty degrees, it would be
(11:36):
sixty to fifty forty degrees, I'd put three heat packs
just to keep a.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Consistent temperature for my hands.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
So those are all the things you learn over time,
through a lot of trial and there, through a lot
of days in practice, and that's where you get a
home field. So if you're Buffalo or the Chiefs and
you play in this cold weather year round, you better
believe you have an advantage playoff time when a team
that comes from a warmer climate comes in plays you
at your home stadium.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So I'm watching bow Nixt last night. Now he had
sixty one college starts. That helps a lot. You did
not have this as an advantage. You had a defensive coach,
a defensive culture, do your job. There was some rigidity
to the culture. You were in offensively until Moss arrived
and you broke every record. But I watched bow Nix,
(12:22):
and you know what I took from it? Tom last night.
My one takeaway Sean Payton with a lead against Miles
Garrett had this kid thrown from the end zone and
I'm like, wow, that that there's no babysitting there. That's
what you could do. You don't let rookie quarterback. That
was my takeaway was Okay, Sean, totally trust this kid.
(12:44):
What was your takeaway watching them?
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That's a great point and it's the trust that a
coach has in a player. You can it manifests itself
all the time. I can always tell when I watch
a play caller try to manage a game from the
sideline and he's trying to manage the risk. And when
you have a quarterback where you feel like, you know what,
I know, he's going to make good decisions, well, then
you can actually go out there and you don't have
to manage. It's hard to manage a quarterback because you're
(13:08):
in the eye of the storm on every play you
touch the ball seventy snaps. So when you have a
quarterback that you're trusting is making good decisions, well, then
you want to give them more opportunities. So and I
see that with a lot of play callers as well,
when they do trust them, let's spread, let's be an empty,
let me give you five different options, let me get it,
get you out there on the perimeter to make good throws.
(13:29):
I'm going to have you manage end of game situations.
That takes a great developmental coach, and I would say
Sean Payton certainly is that. He's a phenomenal coach and
a quarterback that wants to embrace that opportunity to learn
a skill set of how to manage a game. Not
just hey, coach, what's to play? Tell me what to do? Coach,
(13:50):
tell me the play? But why are we calling that play?
Why are we in this situation? Why don't we understand
the why behind what we're doing? How do we beat
man coverage? How do we beat zone coverage? Why are
we calling this play in this situation? And then Okay,
I understand why you're doing that. So if we don't
get the look we want, I can manage the play
as a quarterback and get to the next down while
(14:12):
still making a positive play.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So Michigan has beaten Ohio State four straight times, and
I do believe one time last year Michigan just had
far better players. They were stacked, But generally I think
Ohio State has an edge in personnel. It can be slight,
but I do feel they feel more sec than Big
ten the way they recruit, but the difference is definitely
(14:35):
Michigan's had an identity with Harbaugh early, middle, and late,
and he just handed that identity to his new coach.
Ohio State's talented, but I don't know what they are,
and I think to myself. You've told me this, and
so was Edelman, that every Patriot team had a different identity.
I feel like I've been watching Ohio State for five years.
(14:56):
I'm like, yeah, they're talented. What are they? How do
you How did Belichick create it? How do you create
Because there's a lot of a lot of coaches can
recruit in college, the great ones urb you know, the
Urbans and the Knicks create the identity and recruit. How
do you do it?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I think a lot of is you define the type
of player that you want, and you define the type
of team you want to build, and then you find
players that have those skill sets physically and those values
kind of mentally, emotionally. Michigan is a very tough, hard
nosed team. They run the ball very well. You know,
they haven't been great throwing the ball. But if I
looked at Ohio State strengths and we says they have
(15:37):
a great seven on seven team, they got guys that
can throw the ball to in.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
The second half. They don't even target their best players.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So to me, it's like, I may as well be
out there playing receiver for Ohouse date.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I can't run, I.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Couldn't catch, but it doesn't matter if you don't throw
me the ball, just like they didn't throw a lot
of their best players the ball in the second half
of that game. So whenever we got to big games,
let's say the Super Bowl, yeah, you'd say there's seventy
plays left in the game. In our season, the entire
six months of work, seven months of work is going
to come down to seventy plays. What do we want
(16:09):
those seventy plays to look like? And then you reverse
engineer it and you say, okay, we're gonna want forty
passes and thirty runs. Well, what forty passes do we want?
We could design one hundred and fifty of them if
you want. Now, there's one hundred and ten of those
that won't get called. So why don't we just dial
it down and dial it back to the only the
specific ones where best players are going to touch the
(16:30):
ball doing the best things that they do. And we're
gonna go out like that. If we lose, we lose.
If we win, you know, great, but we're not going
to lose doing things that we don't do well. And
I think the coaches, coach Belichick would always say coaches
lose games and players win games. And he didn't mean
to say that coaches are not valuable. Coaches need to
(16:50):
put their players in a position to win. They do
instruct you, they give you this is the plan. It's
up to the coach to clearly identify a plan every
week about how you're going to win the game. We
would come in on a Wednesday morning. I thought the
best thing that coach Belichick did, and there was a
lot of them, was he would clearly define for offense, defense,
(17:10):
and special teams, this is how we're going to win
the game this week. Don't worry about last week, don't
worry about next week. This unique challenge yet we have
today or excuse me, on a Sunday. We're going to
deal with that based on these three or four areas
on each side of the ball and in the kicking game,
and if we execute in these areas, we're going to
(17:32):
give ourselves a great chance to win. It doesn't mean
we're guaranteed to win, and there's times where we can
misevaluate what those things are. I'll never forget we played
the Chiefs once and we doubled. I think Travis Kelce
a bunch and not Tyreek Hill. Maybe the one of
the early times we played Tyreek Hill and he went
for like one eighty or two hundred something crazy. He
came in the next day and he says, the guys,
(17:53):
we're never doing that again.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We screwed that up.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
If we play these guys again, we know who we're
going to double and it's going to be Tyreek Hill.
So it's just you gotta have some formula for what
you're trying to accomplish. What's the bulls eye that we
need to hit and we need to get you know,
the coaches to deliver that to the players in all
three phases of the game, for them to go out
there so that they have something to hit. And if
(18:17):
they do that and you identify it clearly, I think
you give your team a great chance to win.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So Nick Wright was on before me and he posed
this question. So, Kansas City's eleven and one and they're
winning by paper thin margins. So of all your teams,
the team that blew people out was the Randy Moss teams.
There's no ring you're three to four team. You were
winning close games, and so this Chiefs team is the
(18:44):
closest to your team. I want you to take me back.
People keep saying, well, the Chiefs are lucky, and I'm like, timeout,
that block field goal, that was coaching, third down efficiency,
that is coaching. I don't want to hear lucked. That's
even Rubik's Qubes and Roulette. There's some strategy to it, right.
Did you feel that for three to zero four team,
(19:06):
did you feel like, you know, what close game we're
winning it. We're just better than everybody at it.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Definitely I think that, look, you're gonna have a close games,
You're gonna blowouts. To win the close games is always
the mark of a really good team. To win when
you're not playing your best football is the mark of
a very good team. I just think the Chiefs are
so dangerous because if it's a one score game in
the fourth quarter and Patrick has the ball.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
He just he's incredible.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
He comes, not that he comes likef because he comes
to life all day long, but he's so dangerous because
then he has four downs late in the game where
you got to stop him for four downs, not three,
And that's a dangerous aspect for any defense you have
to kind of pull away from. And that they're hard,
you know, it's a hard team to pull away from
because they do such a good job defensively. So I
think when they transition from really this great offensive team,
(19:56):
and I would say when Patrick first started, they weren't
as good on defense. Now they have a tremendous defense.
They got Spags as a phenomenal coach. He's got them
playing well defensively. Patrick is going to manage the game
so well. He's going to throw to the open guy
when it's He's got Travis out there that is going
to make the right decisions and the big moments like
we've seen time and time again. So they have a
(20:18):
group of players that that organization does so many things
the right way. They're going to be tough to beat
in the playoffs. I don't care who they play, where
they play, it's it's it's a lot like the teams
that I played for at the Patriots. If you were
going to beat us, man, you had to beat us.
We weren't going to beat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Hey, was vrabel a good sport? When you texted him
after the Michigan win, did he take it? Well? I
bet he didn't, did he?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
I have very little comments on that because a lot
of the times Braves will somehow figure out how to
turn it on you and then you're the you know,
you're the jerk that texted him, So sometimes I lay
back on him.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
But he's a typical Ohio State guy. Let me say that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, they're all saying Tom, believe me, I've worked with them.
The Michigan guys bring a different level of class. I'll
just say that.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
There we go. Yeah, this is absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Great scene you man, hey Colin.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Great seeing you buddy, great beat on your show. I
appreciate it all.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, love having you, Tom Brady. Yeah, the that I
still cannot It was funny when Michigan beat Ohio State.
Everybody went on the internet went crazy and I was
literally like, I got to sleep on this. I don't
know what to say now, I'm watching the strange. I
cannot believe that game. I literally the next morning got
up to work out and I thought, okay, I got
(21:36):
something to say.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Now, can I give you an alternative theory?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
People are not going to like this oka with the
twelve team playoff, this was not must win for Ohio State.
I know it's the biggest game in the spool and
it's massive and they were geeked for it, but I
don't buy that all I'll just say is I didn't
see anything exotic or creative at all from the Ohio
State offense. Tovey, No, I know nothing. I mean, they
couldn't move the football.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think it was must win for this staff, but
I don't think it ends the season.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
There's a difference, So losing that didn't kill them. And honestly,
you want to win that game.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I know.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
I'm not saying anybody for Ryan Day.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It's the biggest game of his life. Yes, and he
said that, you know, but I will say it does
not eliminate them. I could use. It's like when Texas
got boat raced by Georgia. I said it. I'm like, oh,
that's great because when they play them again, and they
probably will, that's I mean, aren't they playing them now?
I think advantage Texas. Texas has an age advantage. Not
(22:33):
only were they beaten, they were physically humiliated. Not only
did Ohio State lose to Michigan, they lost it home
to a team that couldn't pass. It's humiliating. So Ryan
Day can come in guns of blazon as a coach,
so I think in a weird way, it eliminates pressure.
The pressure now is on Oregon, it's on Texas, it's
not on Georgia. It's not on Ohio state.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Well, is Georgia locked for the playoffs? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
No, I'm just saying, if you told me who's got pressure,
pressure's not in Ohio state anymore. Well, there can't be
the pressures on Texas and Oregon.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Are we one hundred percent yuer Ohio states in the playoffs?
I think they're back. Okay, so there's no pressure on them.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
They just eliminated that. Yeah, in a weird way. They
didn't want to, but they did.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
One more. Heard the Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
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Speaker 1 (23:26):
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Speaker 2 (23:47):
This is the herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Let's get to the forty nine ers.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Colin, what a promising start to the season. It's all
going to rye. Christian McCaffrey is headed to the IR
But not only that, Jordan Mason, his backup tough runner,
he's also IR bound. The Niners are five and seven,
tied for last in the NFC West or no, sorry,
just last place in the NFC West, and the injuries are.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Just such an issue.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Former forty nine Ers Dante Whittner believes the team needs
a defensive overhaul heading into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yep, let me say it.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
The forty nine Ers season is over and the Super
Bowl hangover is real. This forty nine Ers roster doesn't
have the depth and particularly on the.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Defense side of the ball going into next season.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
There's no guarantee that this forty nine Ers team is
just going to get back to their championship aspiration and
winning ways. This roster is going to need an overhaul
focusing on top tier talent on the interior of this
defensive line and quality depth and all positions.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, tell me there, I can give you six different
Eagles in their prime that early players and six to
seven Lions. Give me the best players and I mean
elite players for the Niners that are in their prime, Well, healthy.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Three of their defensive players currently are only playing that
were in the NFC or NFC Championship last year.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's all they've got left.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Everybody's banged up. Yeah, but let's give him a shout out.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
I just went back colin twenty nineteen forty nine Ers
lose the Super Bowl. Okay, they got to the Super Bowl.
Twenty twenty six and ten there were injuries. Twenty one
lose the NFC Championship game to the Rams. Twenty two
lose the NFC Championship. That was the Brock party injury gave.
Twenty three lose the Super Bowl. That's four of five
years where they got to the championship or the Super Bowl.
(25:40):
That's an amazing run. These things don't last forever. It
feels over.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I think it's a little more than a defensive overhaul.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Color Well.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I also think you have a big question. You gonna
pay brock perty fifty five million? You become the Cowboys
really fast. Paying a B plus.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Guy a plus shot he's getting fifty five, Well, nobody
would do that.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Next man up.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I would try to, I mean I would try to
move off of Ayuk. But that ship is Sales, Who's
taken him on coming off the injury.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You know, well, last year I would have moved off
Ayuk or Depot. I wouldn't have drafted the receiver in
the first round. I would have gone defensive line. I
think the defensive line. When Bosa plays, it's good. When
he doesn't, it's weak. I think they pay a couple
of different linebackers. I think you have to make you know,
I'd move off the corner. Having great corners means nothing.
The Jets have the best corners in the league. It
(26:28):
means nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
How's this going? It just hit me listening to you.
Forty nine ers drafted pearsall early.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
They're not going well?
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Right?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
You need to draft for the trenches. Texans. Let's go
get Stefan Diggs. How's that working out? Bill's get off
of a wide receiver?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Get better?
Speaker 4 (26:43):
How what they do it?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
The teams?
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Everybody's just And I know it's easy to say this now,
but in March and April, when this matters for free agency,
we need to remember. It isn't about the flashy Watches
and all the wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Elite neighbors make the Giants offense riveting. Get I mean
the Giants have a bad right tackle Evan Neil. If
you don't have good tackles and a great center, I mean,
it's just the reality is the closer to the football
you are, generally, the more you matter in football, not
the perimeters. You don't need great corns. I love having
Patrick Sartan for Denver. I love having one great corner,
(27:19):
but having a great secondary doesn't mean anything. If you
have one good corner, you're fine. And having great receiving
corps overrated.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
A lot of people out there listening are saying, well,
there's only so many good offensive linemen. No, no, no,
you gotta keep going for them in multiple routes.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
By the way, Denver's got the number two rated O
line outside of left tackle Bulls where all their Pro bowlers.
It's coaching. There's a reason Bill Callahan, Dante Scarnekia, these
coaches every year had It's like anything else you can
coach up. I mean, you can't make guys faster, but
offensive line is about cohesion and chemistry and intelligence. It's
(27:55):
the coaching unit on the field. Sean Payton took that
a line made it top ten this year. They're number two.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
That Sean paton the other one that's weird is the
Eagles lose Kelsey. They're awesome center, right, everybody thinks they're
gonna pull back. They added Barkley and they've actually not
lost a step.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I think they're better than they.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
Were last Now, they did start last year ten and
one right before creating Just remember offensive line people.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Next up, here's another story, Colin wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Hows this.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
The Ravens acquired Deontay Johnson at the trade deadline and
he has done absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Four games.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
He's got one catch for six yards.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
He's played twenty two snaps and interestingly, and we touched
on this yesterday, he didn't get on the field against
the Eagles, even after there was an injury to one
of their starting receivers. Jean Harbaugh was asked about this.
Take a listen.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
At this time, I'm gonna have to wait, don't. Just
to clarify it.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
There's there's some moving.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
Parts there that we're gonna have to figure out and explore.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Just see where we're at.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I know it's not the question he asked you.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
You why, It's the best I can do in fairness
to everybody right now.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, Deontay continue to be on the team up to thought.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
I think, like I said, we'll just work it out
see where we're at over the next few days.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And this week, well three teams now are struggling with him.
It's probably a Deontay Johnson maturity issue. I mean that
this is the all the warning signs of just I mean,
if to be as talented as him and bounce around
the league as much as he has for his age,
that's probably what it is.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
He needs a major wake up call.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
I mean remember last year at this time with Pittsburgh's
I think there was a game against the Colts and
he would They just like.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Snapped it around the goal line and he like pretended.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
To block like you do in like practice, and everybody
highlighted it.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
You could see he just this is not good.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
And there's another team goal slashing wide receiver not quite
panning out.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
Final story Colin.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
The NFL IS handed down a three game suspension to
Houston linebacker Aziz al Schaire for repeated violations of safety
rules after this just disgusting hit on Trevor Lawrence. Demiko
Ryans unbelievably defended al Shayer's play, and now GM Mick
Casio has followed suit.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Colin.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I can't believe he's saying this.
Speaker 8 (30:11):
Quite frankly, it's embarrassing. So I think the big thing
from our and they're talking about a player who's never
been suspended, never been ejected. So now we're saying that
he's going to be suspended for three games. All teams
want this is just some level of consistency. And we've
talked at the leak quite frankly, but we don't have
a good explanation. Dinko talked to him yesterday. So I mean,
it is what it is. I'm sure Azz will go
(30:31):
through whatever process he's going to go through, and then
we'll deal with it accordingly. But I think what we
take umbrage is is just the picture that's been painted
about his ease, his intentions, who he is as a person.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I mean, it's quite frankly, Oh well, I wouldn't have
spended him three games. I think it's a one game suspension.
I think it's a I think it was late, but
it wasn't. I think a lot of this is it's
Trevor Lawrence. It looks bad, you know, he freezes up.
The aesthetics of this are part of it. Now he
now I would suspend him for three games.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Yeah, I got no problem with that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's a long I don't know if we.
Speaker 6 (31:08):
Have the tape, but I watched it online.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So the Bears Texans game, Caleb Williams got decked out
of bounds. You'll never believe who did it. I'll share here.
The Bears went over and were like, what the hell's
wrong with you? Get in his face? He punches Roshawn Johnson. Now,
the refs missed it, so he wasn't ejected, but he
would have got ejected for that. So this argument, he's
never been suspended, never been ejected. That's like, come on,
give me a break, just because they didn't see it.
(31:32):
I don't know that he's a dirty player, but he
has a dirty history this year that's undeniable.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
There's video evidence of it.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
And in week two he punched the guy on the sideline.
So his guy's gotta clean up his act man. That's
a And we gotta protect quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I'm not but again, I think quarterbacks have to be
more responsible. You know, Lamar Jackson used to not slide,
and now he slides like you Trevor slid. What are
we talking about? He slid really late.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, if this is Patrick.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Mahomes getting decked, let me eight game suspension season.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It does matter. The aesthetics, Trevor Lawrence, he freezes up
all that stuff matters. The NFL has always been keenly
aware of their television product, no question about that.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Were you, uh you ever take any of these hits
in high school when you were QB.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
One, I didn't run, just sat on them, sat in
the pocket and through darts.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
J Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by The Herd Line news.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Actually great news for NFL fans. You need a quarterback
to win big and here's the great news about that. Seriously,
and I'll give it to you next.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sunday, a huge.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Doubleheader on Fox starts as the Panthers take on Jalen
Hurds and the Eagles, or on their regional action than
in America's Game of the Week, Josh Allen and the
Bills take on Stafford and the Niners.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
At Rams or Bears Diners.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
Check local listings for the games in your area a
little file.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So I kind of agree with Brady as I think
on that late hit stuff. There is some culpability to
the quarterback. And what happens is Josh Allen does this.
We got some video on Patrick Mahomes. Kenny Pickett did
this in college. Remember I must have showed that one
hundred times. So here's here's Mahomes faking the slide. Well
you make Now you wonder why defensive players get pissed
(33:33):
and want to hit you twice as hard. So all
we've done in the NFL for a decade now is
take rules that the defense could implement, and we've taken
them all away. So they're all bitter. And by the way,
that means they get fewer hits, fewer sacks, fewer tackles,
fewer less money. Offensive guys now make all the money.
Safeties don't get paid. Linebackers, good ones don't get paid.
(33:54):
So these defensive guys are like, wait a minute, time
out here, who gets paid a great pass rusher? You'll
see teams move ian Patrick Shirtan got paid as a
corner most teams l Kansas City. Let's good corners go
San Francisco with Ward will let him go. So these
defense this comes down to money. Defensive players are like,
how do we get paid? Yeah, Max Crosby gets paid
or Aaron Donald in this prime there's always one great
(34:15):
go look at the Rams their money. Now that Donald left,
it's all offense, the Chiefs money, Chris Jones and all offense.
I mean they're paying Joe Tooney, who's a guard. So
you've changed the rules to hurt defensive players and they're
not getting paid. And that's what it comes down to.
So defensive guys are hyper aggressive. They may take more
(34:35):
chances to get interceptions. I mean it's like when politicians say,
it's not about the sex of the money, it's about
the sex of the money. This is a lot of
this is commerce. Is that defensive guys are like, we
don't get paid, we can't hit anybody, and so they
want to make an imprint on the games. Now, was
the hit late, Yes it was late, but a three
game suspension. I mean, this is a sport with the
(34:56):
regulated levels of violence. You can hit quarterback and you'll
see guys now when they hit the quarterback, if they
put their body weight on them, they get penalized. Now
can imagine being three hundred and ten pounds. You create inertia,
you hit a quarterback and then you have to be
Olga Corbett and make sure you balance your bodies so
you don't lean on the quarterback. So I do get
(35:17):
the frustration with defensive players. Now, the HiT's late. I'm
acknowledging that three games. It's like a fifth of the
a fifth of the season, and I don't like that.
That to me is too long. And again, Trevor and
I've seen Aaron do this and Josh Allen they slid
a little late, just to half a step late. And
you're asking, guy, I mean, think about what a defensive
(35:39):
player does. An offensive player is choreography. A defensive player
is attack. Your job is a defensive player Ray Lewis
and his prime blow stuff up. You're walking your tnt
in cleats, blow stuff up, and then you're like, hey,
slow down though here that's not a gear that's implemented
very often for a defensive player. Your job is to
(35:59):
just blow through a brick wall. Offensive players memorize the
playbook choreography efficiency, don't move early. So it's two different sensibilities.
So I'm not defending the late hit but three games
seems way too much for me. The other thing is
what the Bengals are doing this year is insane. They're
two and four when scoring thirty three or more points.
(36:20):
The rest of the league is fifty two to one.
So what Joe Burrow is doing is putting up historic numbers,
and they're terrible. It's almost impossible to do. And I
look this morning at the NFL standings and basically, best
quarterback wins the division AFC East, Josh Allen, AFC South,
C J Stroud, AFC North still in play, Lamar Jackson
(36:41):
AFC West, Mahomes NFC East Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield tied
with Atlanta. The Falcons have beaten him twice. But Baker
right now is the best quarterback in that division.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Golf.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I mean, listen, Darnold's having a great year. Goff's the
best quarterback, been to a super Bowl. He's leading the
only division and it's still in play that you're like,
well that team La Ram Stafford, they're a game out
and so so you gotta have a quarterback to win
in this league. We all know that here are three
things that are really good. Number one, the quality of
(37:11):
quarterback coaching is much better today. And I'll give you
an example. How I know that Gino Smith, Sam Darnold,
and Baker Mayfield, they were cast off. Even Bryce Young
a year ago, bumb bus get him out of here.
Now how you watching the last month? Get you got
a new coach you can play. So the quality of
quarterback coaching is better. It's allowing for reboots. Gino gets
(37:32):
a better coach, Donald gets a great coach, Baker gets
the right coach. Guys that were done the over cast off, nope, reborn.
The second thing, and I looked this up this morning.
The hit rate for quarterbacks is going up. So it
used to be about a fifty to fifty proposition. But
guys now get more snaps in high school seven on
(37:54):
seven camps, they get more snaps in college. They see
different offenses. The coaching is I just afore mentioned, is better.
So what's happened? The hit rate for first round quarterbacks
is going up. Since the Darnald Baker class, there have
been twenty seven quarterbacks drafted in the first round, only
ten busts. And remember three or four of those busts
were in the COVID season, which was a wonky weird
(38:18):
couple year and a half of football where the kids
weren't playing the same schedules, they weren't getting the reps.
There weren't even fans at games. The practice schedule was
modified or altered. So you basically have ten busts twenty
seven guys that can play. That's a pretty good hit rate.
That's pretty good, and I would say three or four
of those guys are COVID misses. And the third thing,
(38:42):
and this is you know, it's a real thing, is
that if you just watch the current history of the
league and you see sports go through this, right, we
now have three draft classes twenty eighteen, twenty twenty and
twenty four. Three draft classes since twenty eighteen where you're
getting at least four guys that can play in this
(39:03):
league in franchise guys. I mean, people forever talked about
the l Way Marino draft like that was the thing
for thirty years. We've had three of those in six
years now. This is not a great draft, but Shador
Sanders cam Ward look like they can play. Jalen Milrose
more of a prospect. Who knows, But last year was
great and you're seeing it now. I mean Vo Nicks good,
(39:27):
Caleb Williams super talented. Jayden Daniels probably makes the playoffs.
Drake May getting better by the month, and by the way,
Pennix is the guy that I thought Atlanta got him.
I think he'll be great. JJ McCarthy's hurt look good
in the preseason. So it's pretty clear you got to
have a quarterback to win in this league. But there
are signs here the hit rates going up. We are
(39:49):
having because of all the seven on seven camps, more
snaps by the time you're fourteen years old. They're just
more quarterbacks getting injected. And the quarterback coaching is significantly
better than it was seven, eight, nine years ago. All right,
Mark Sanchez, last hour, I want to thank Tom Brady
and Nick Wright for stopping by Live in Los Angeles.
It's the Herd.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noone Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's hour two to Tuesday. Tom Brady. He's gonna be
joining us at about five minutes live in Los Angeles.
It's The Herd wherever you may be, and however you
may be listening then or making us part of your day.
It's funny. We had that conversation about cam Ward. If
you're Kyle Shanahan, your team's old and getting expensive, and
you're watching Sean McVay, your primary rival in division, and
(00:50):
you're thinking to yourself, by their defense is young and inexpensive,
how do I catch up? How do I catch up?
And all of a sudden, Broc Purty. Now the second
injury is cam Ward on the table. Cam Ward makes
up a lot of ground. You look around the NFL
and you get these young, dynamic quarterbacks. You have to
pay him for four years you can change a lot.
(01:10):
You can keep some of those older guys that seem
really expensive. So here we go. It is Tuesday. Top
ten teams, the Herd Hierarchy, fire away.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Heard Hierarchy Time. Now go the top ten NFL teams
according to College Number ten.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, Seattle's not gonna win shootouts. They're zero to five
if they're asked to score if they give up more
than twenty five points and Gino Smith has been sacked
nineteen times in the last four games. He throws too
many picks. But I like the coaching staff. I like
their perimeter talent at wide receiver and corner. Their pass
rush better than it was in previous years. They're a
(01:50):
top ten team. I don't know if they can win
a playoff game maybe, but I'll put Seattle at ten.
Number nine. I like Denver. I think they have one
of the best coaches, maybe the best coach after Andy
Reid in the NFL. They've won five of seven games.
They're only losses to Baltimore in Kansas City. Vo Knicks
eight and three over his last eleven games. Does not
(02:11):
make a lot of mistakes. Their offensive line quietly Sean Payton,
an offensive coaches rebuild it in two years. PFF has
it at number two, Denver at nine, number eight, Baltimore. Listen,
they're only team in the league averaging four hundred yards.
Mark andrews Lamar Jackson's a Flowers, Dereck Henry. There's a
(02:32):
lot to like special teams. Bit of a liability now,
justin Tucker. It's called age mid thirties, and the back
end of the defense outside of Kyle Hamilton worries me.
I'm gonna put them there. They're scoring defense is bottom
quarter of the league, so that worries me. It's like
having a bad bullpen. You can outplay people and lose games.
I have Baltimore at eight, number seven. Sammy Darnold. Eventually
(02:56):
I was right. He's a baller. Leads the NFL with
forty six completions of twenty plus yards. This is not
a dink and dunk offense. They will throw the ball
down the field. I think Kevin O'Connell is really a
spectacular coach. They are seven and one in one score games.
That's not just Darnold, that is coaching. Vikings at seven,
(03:17):
number six Pittsburgh Steelers. I think they're ceilings a little
bit low but they're five and oh against teams that
are five hundred or better. It's a classic Mike Tomlin recipe.
His teams have always played well as underdogs or backed
into a corner. Russell Wilson say what you want passer
rating in the fourth quarter of one hundred and twenty.
(03:39):
He's good when it matters, and to me, that's a
team that can win a playoff game. Or two. Number
five green Bay, they're still a tad young. Are they
a super Bowl team? Point? Does Jordan Love have a whipman?
He's got some talent. They become a power run team
now they play at Detroit Thursday. I actually kind of
like him in that spot. They're top five and total
offense and rushing offense. They become more of a power
(04:00):
running team now with Josh Jacobs and I'm here for it.
I do feel there's still a year off green Bay
at five. Number four, Okay, my final four teams are
the teams I think can win a Super Bowl. Kansas
City Listen, he's been sacked. Patrick Mahomes has five times
in back to back games. I don't like the protection
right now at offensive tackle. They're getting Isaiah Pacheco back
(04:21):
that helps play action. They eleven and one in one
score games. Their point differential is the lowest ever for
an eleven and one team. I don't love that, but
I trust Andy Reid, Mahomes, Kelsey, Chris Jones and Spags.
I haven't met four.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Detroit's getting banged up on the defensive end. That worries me.
Third toughest schedule remaining. Will they get knocked out of
the perch and will Philadelphia to be a number one seat?
They've led by ten plus points in ten of eleven games,
so they usually play with the lead. Probably won't be
like that in the playoffs. I think Thursday is fascinating.
I have Detroit at three, number two Philadelphia. They figured
(04:58):
out Jalen Hurts. Hurts twenty touchdowns, one pick in his
eight game winning streak. I don't want him throwing thirty times.
I don't want Brady's in Mannings throwing forty times. They've
figured it out. By the way, this team's nine to
zero when aj Brown plays. I've never seen a great
team led by a receiver, but they don't lose when
he plays. I have Philadelphia at two, number one Buffalo.
(05:20):
I think it's the best version of Buffalo. I like
that they have James Cook Dalton Kincaid. They've missed multiple
good players during this stretch. I love Josh Allen and
he's matured. He's not as reckless as he once was.
I think they have their best offensive line, their best
running game. When Josh first got there, all their best
players felt like defensive guys. Now I think many of
(05:42):
their best players are offensive guys, and they're getting healthier
on the defensive side. Let's put Buffalo at number one again.
I generally, in my herd hierarchy think about three to
four teams can hoist a trophy. I don't think Green
Bay can or Pittsburgh. They're darn close at five and six, respectively.
And with that, Tom Brady twenty three years seven rings
(06:03):
most Super Bowl wins, passing yards, touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Okay, so you know I'm I'll get to Michigan Ohio
State because I won't be able to wipe the smile
off you. That was nuts. I want to start with this,
the late hit on Trevor Lawrence. So I got mixed emotions.
I want my quarterback to have some mobility, but I
also think you leave the pocket Tom and you're a
(06:29):
running back, where are you on this hit?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
I've watched obviously been a part of the NFL for
a long time, and I remember there was an instances.
I'll start by saying, there's mixed emotions that I have
about it as well. I remember in two thousand and one,
I think we played at Buffalo and I slid late
and Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills and
he came up out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me.
(06:58):
My helmet went flying off, and I got back and
I ran to the huddle, and I had a lot
of teammates that came up to me the next day
and said, dude, these.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Guys are coming.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
You got to get rid of that football, and if
you're going to slide, you better get down.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
These guys are coming to get you. And it was
a great.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Kind of learning experience for me because I realized that
when I'm out of that pocket, things were moving a
lot faster for me, and the defense is trying to
be very aggressive. And over time, the NFL has obviously
done a lot of things to protect players, and player
health and safety has been on and on and on
and the only aspect that I think is very challenging,
(07:35):
and certainly for Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
But it is also the reality of a very physical
sport that we play. But the only way defensive players
have to be aggressive. That's their nature. I always tried
to be aggressive on offense. We tried to a block aggressively,
and at the same time the defense.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Tries to tackle aggressively.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
So I don't know, there's there's an aspect to me
that I think the quarterbacks and the certainly the quarterbacks
need to take better care of themselves. I've seen Josh
Allen running a lot, I see Lamar Jackson running a lot,
and it's a great skill set to have. A lot
of times I wish I had that skill set. And
at the same time, when you run, you put yourself,
oh yeah, in a lot of danger. And when you
(08:15):
do that, I don't think the onus of protecting an
offensive quarterback who's running should be on a defensive player.
I don't think that's really fair to the defense. So
if you slide and it's you know, everyone can argue.
Was it black and white or was it just a
gray area. Do you slide late or is it unnecessary roughness.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Or is it a late hit? You know, to me,
a late hit is very late.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
There's quarterbacks that I see running in tiptoe on the
sideline and they're not even out of bounds and they
get hit as they're starting to step out of bounds
and there's a penalty flag thrown. So the aspect again
for a play caller. There's more design runs for quarterbacks
ever now than in the history of the NFL. So
are we really trying to protect quarterbacks? Because if you
(09:00):
are trying to do it through the rules, then why
are the offensive coordinators not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping
them under the pocket and not designing as many quarterback runs?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So I think there's just it's.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Gone to a point where there's really and everyone would
label a certain player as a dirty player.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You know. I don't like that one bit.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I you know, maybe they find or penalize a quarterback
for sliding late, you know, and say, look, if we
don't want these hits to take place, we've got to
penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize
the defensive player for every single play that happens when
there's a hit on a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So I said this last week, I said, you know,
I was thinking about this, go back to Lombardi. The
dynasties in league history are Green Bay with Lobardi, Steelers, Patriots, Chiefs,
Ravens have always been great, and then the Niners in
Dallas and as you know, going up in the Bay.
(10:00):
Joke that Mark Twain used to say that the coldest
winter he ever spent was a summer in the Bay,
and Dallas gets ice storms. There's never been a warm
weather dynasty. And I'm watching the Niners play the Bills,
and Tom, the Bills look like when you're eight years
old and it snows for the first time and you
go with your friends in the backyard. They were having
the time of their lives. And I think it matters.
(10:21):
I think Buffalo now with James Cook, Tom, did you feel, yeah,
when you played Peyton SCC Dome team, did you feel
it was an advantage?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I felt like that was a great advantage that we
always had, which is why those regular season games were.
If they were in Foxborough, they were obviously advantage for us.
But if it was early in the season, the weather
wasn't that critical. I think you used the weather to
your advantage. And even when I went to Tampa, I
would say there was an advantage being a warm weather
team playing against a team that was coming from the
(10:54):
north of the Northeast. So you use what you have
to an advantage, and that's you because your body acclimates
to it. I saw that Niner Bill game. There were
a lot of forty nine Er players that were slipping
on the turf, yeah, and not a lot of Bills
players that were slipping on the turf. And the point
is is when you're in those environments, you know exactly
what shoes to wear, You know how many layers that
(11:14):
you have to put on in order to get the
job done. So when you have those climates, that's what
you try to play too. I knew for me, I
knew how many hand warmers I needed in my quarterback
pouch per ten degrees. For every ten degrees that the
weather drop below seventy, I'd put one heat pack. So
if it was, you know, forty degrees, it would be
(11:36):
sixty to fifty forty degrees, I'd put three heat packs
just to keep a.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Consistent temperature for my hands.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
So those are all the things you learn over time,
through a lot of trial and there, through a lot
of days in practice, and that's where you get a
home field. So if you're Buffalo or the Chiefs and
you play in this cold weather year round, you better
believe you have an advantage playoff time when a team
that comes from a warmer climate comes in plays you
at your home stadium.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So I'm watching bow Nixt last night. Now he had
sixty one college starts. That helps a lot. You did
not have this as an advantage. You had a defensive coach,
a defensive culture, do your job. There was some rigidity
to the culture. You were in offensively until Moss arrived
and you broke every record. But I watched bow Nix,
(12:22):
and you know what I took from it? Tom last night.
My one takeaway Sean Payton with a lead against Miles
Garrett had this kid thrown from the end zone and
I'm like, wow, that that there's no babysitting there. That's
what you could do. You don't let rookie quarterback. That
was my takeaway was Okay, Sean, totally trust this kid.
(12:44):
What was your takeaway watching them?
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That's a great point and it's the trust that a
coach has in a player. You can it manifests itself
all the time. I can always tell when I watch
a play caller try to manage a game from the
sideline and he's trying to manage the risk. And when
you have a quarterback where you feel like, you know what,
I know, he's going to make good decisions, well, then
you can actually go out there and you don't have
to manage. It's hard to manage a quarterback because you're
(13:08):
in the eye of the storm on every play you
touch the ball seventy snaps. So when you have a
quarterback that you're trusting is making good decisions, well, then
you want to give them more opportunities. So and I
see that with a lot of play callers as well,
when they do trust them, let's spread, let's be an empty,
let me give you five different options, let me get it,
get you out there on the perimeter to make good throws.
(13:29):
I'm going to have you manage end of game situations.
That takes a great developmental coach, and I would say
Sean Payton certainly is that. He's a phenomenal coach and
a quarterback that wants to embrace that opportunity to learn
a skill set of how to manage a game. Not
just hey, coach, what's to play? Tell me what to do? Coach,
(13:50):
tell me the play? But why are we calling that play?
Why are we in this situation? Why don't we understand
the why behind what we're doing? How do we beat
man coverage? How do we beat zone coverage? Why are
we calling this play in this situation? And then Okay,
I understand why you're doing that. So if we don't
get the look we want, I can manage the play
as a quarterback and get to the next down while
(14:12):
still making a positive play.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So Michigan has beaten Ohio State four straight times, and
I do believe one time last year Michigan just had
far better players. They were stacked, But generally I think
Ohio State has an edge in personnel. It can be slight,
but I do feel they feel more sec than Big
ten the way they recruit, but the difference is definitely
(14:35):
Michigan's had an identity with Harbaugh early, middle, and late,
and he just handed that identity to his new coach.
Ohio State's talented, but I don't know what they are,
and I think to myself. You've told me this, and
so was Edelman, that every Patriot team had a different identity.
I feel like I've been watching Ohio State for five years.
(14:56):
I'm like, yeah, they're talented. What are they? How do
you How did Belichick create it? How do you create
Because there's a lot of a lot of coaches can
recruit in college, the great ones urb you know, the
Urbans and the Knicks create the identity and recruit. How
do you do it?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I think a lot of is you define the type
of player that you want, and you define the type
of team you want to build, and then you find
players that have those skill sets physically and those values
kind of mentally, emotionally. Michigan is a very tough, hard
nosed team. They run the ball very well. You know,
they haven't been great throwing the ball. But if I
looked at Ohio State strengths and we says they have
(15:37):
a great seven on seven team, they got guys that
can throw the ball to in.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
The second half. They don't even target their best players.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So to me, it's like, I may as well be
out there playing receiver for Ohouse date.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I can't run, I.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Couldn't catch, but it doesn't matter if you don't throw
me the ball, just like they didn't throw a lot
of their best players the ball in the second half
of that game. So whenever we got to big games,
let's say the Super Bowl, yeah, you'd say there's seventy
plays left in the game. In our season, the entire
six months of work, seven months of work is going
to come down to seventy plays. What do we want
(16:09):
those seventy plays to look like? And then you reverse
engineer it and you say, okay, we're gonna want forty
passes and thirty runs. Well, what forty passes do we want?
We could design one hundred and fifty of them if
you want. Now, there's one hundred and ten of those
that won't get called. So why don't we just dial
it down and dial it back to the only the
specific ones where best players are going to touch the
(16:30):
ball doing the best things that they do. And we're
gonna go out like that. If we lose, we lose.
If we win, you know, great, but we're not going
to lose doing things that we don't do well. And
I think the coaches, coach Belichick would always say coaches
lose games and players win games. And he didn't mean
to say that coaches are not valuable. Coaches need to
(16:50):
put their players in a position to win. They do
instruct you, they give you this is the plan. It's
up to the coach to clearly identify a plan every
week about how you're going to win the game. We
would come in on a Wednesday morning. I thought the
best thing that coach Belichick did, and there was a
lot of them, was he would clearly define for offense, defense,
(17:10):
and special teams, this is how we're going to win
the game this week. Don't worry about last week, don't
worry about next week. This unique challenge yet we have
today or excuse me, on a Sunday. We're going to
deal with that based on these three or four areas
on each side of the ball and in the kicking game,
and if we execute in these areas, we're going to
(17:32):
give ourselves a great chance to win. It doesn't mean
we're guaranteed to win, and there's times where we can
misevaluate what those things are. I'll never forget we played
the Chiefs once and we doubled. I think Travis Kelce
a bunch and not Tyreek Hill. Maybe the one of
the early times we played Tyreek Hill and he went
for like one eighty or two hundred something crazy. He
came in the next day and he says, the guys,
(17:53):
we're never doing that again.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We screwed that up.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
If we play these guys again, we know who we're
going to double and it's going to be Tyreek Hill.
So it's just you gotta have some formula for what
you're trying to accomplish. What's the bulls eye that we
need to hit and we need to get you know,
the coaches to deliver that to the players in all
three phases of the game, for them to go out
there so that they have something to hit. And if
(18:17):
they do that and you identify it clearly, I think
you give your team a great chance to win.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So Nick Wright was on before me and he posed
this question. So, Kansas City's eleven and one and they're
winning by paper thin margins. So of all your teams,
the team that blew people out was the Randy Moss teams.
There's no ring you're three to four team. You were
winning close games, and so this Chiefs team is the
(18:44):
closest to your team. I want you to take me back.
People keep saying, well, the Chiefs are lucky, and I'm like, timeout,
that block field goal, that was coaching, third down efficiency,
that is coaching. I don't want to hear lucked. That's
even Rubik's Qubes and Roulette. There's some strategy to it, right.
Did you feel that for three to zero four team,
(19:06):
did you feel like, you know, what close game we're
winning it. We're just better than everybody at it.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Definitely I think that, look, you're gonna have a close games,
You're gonna blowouts. To win the close games is always
the mark of a really good team. To win when
you're not playing your best football is the mark of
a very good team. I just think the Chiefs are
so dangerous because if it's a one score game in
the fourth quarter and Patrick has the ball.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
He just he's incredible.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
He comes, not that he comes likef because he comes
to life all day long, but he's so dangerous because
then he has four downs late in the game where
you got to stop him for four downs, not three,
And that's a dangerous aspect for any defense you have
to kind of pull away from. And that they're hard,
you know, it's a hard team to pull away from
because they do such a good job defensively. So I
think when they transition from really this great offensive team,
(19:56):
and I would say when Patrick first started, they weren't
as good on defense. Now they have a tremendous defense.
They got Spags as a phenomenal coach. He's got them
playing well defensively. Patrick is going to manage the game
so well. He's going to throw to the open guy
when it's He's got Travis out there that is going
to make the right decisions and the big moments like
we've seen time and time again. So they have a
(20:18):
group of players that that organization does so many things
the right way. They're going to be tough to beat
in the playoffs. I don't care who they play, where
they play, it's it's it's a lot like the teams
that I played for at the Patriots. If you were
going to beat us, man, you had to beat us.
We weren't going to beat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Hey, was vrabel a good sport? When you texted him
after the Michigan win, did he take it? Well? I
bet he didn't, did he?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
I have very little comments on that because a lot
of the times Braves will somehow figure out how to
turn it on you and then you're the you know,
you're the jerk that texted him, So sometimes I lay
back on him.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
But he's a typical Ohio State guy. Let me say that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, they're all saying Tom, believe me, I've worked with them.
The Michigan guys bring a different level of class. I'll
just say that.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
There we go. Yeah, this is absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Great scene you man, hey Colin.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Great seeing you buddy, great beat on your show. I
appreciate it all.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, love having you, Tom Brady. Yeah, the that I
still cannot It was funny when Michigan beat Ohio State.
Everybody went on the internet went crazy and I was
literally like, I got to sleep on this. I don't
know what to say now, I'm watching the strange. I
cannot believe that game. I literally the next morning got
up to work out and I thought, okay, I got
(21:36):
something to say.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Now, can I give you an alternative theory?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
People are not going to like this oka with the
twelve team playoff, this was not must win for Ohio State.
I know it's the biggest game in the spool and
it's massive and they were geeked for it, but I
don't buy that all I'll just say is I didn't
see anything exotic or creative at all from the Ohio
State offense. Tovey, No, I know nothing. I mean, they
couldn't move the football.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think it was must win for this staff, but
I don't think it ends the season.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
There's a difference, So losing that didn't kill them. And honestly,
you want to win that game.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I know.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
I'm not saying anybody for Ryan Day.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It's the biggest game of his life. Yes, and he
said that, you know, but I will say it does
not eliminate them. I could use. It's like when Texas
got boat raced by Georgia. I said it. I'm like, oh,
that's great because when they play them again, and they
probably will, that's I mean, aren't they playing them now?
I think advantage Texas. Texas has an age advantage. Not
(22:33):
only were they beaten, they were physically humiliated. Not only
did Ohio State lose to Michigan, they lost it home
to a team that couldn't pass. It's humiliating. So Ryan
Day can come in guns of blazon as a coach,
so I think in a weird way, it eliminates pressure.
The pressure now is on Oregon, it's on Texas, it's
not on Georgia. It's not on Ohio state.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Well, is Georgia locked for the playoffs? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
No, I'm just saying, if you told me who's got pressure,
pressure's not in Ohio state anymore. Well, there can't be
the pressures on Texas and Oregon.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Are we one hundred percent yuer Ohio states in the playoffs?
I think they're back. Okay, so there's no pressure on them.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
They just eliminated that. Yeah, in a weird way. They
didn't want to, but they did.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
One more. Heard the Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
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turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
This is the herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Let's get to the forty nine ers.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Colin, what a promising start to the season. It's all
going to rye. Christian McCaffrey is headed to the IR
But not only that, Jordan Mason, his backup tough runner,
he's also IR bound. The Niners are five and seven,
tied for last in the NFC West or no, sorry,
just last place in the NFC West, and the injuries are.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Just such an issue.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Former forty nine Ers Dante Whittner believes the team needs
a defensive overhaul heading into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yep, let me say it.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
The forty nine Ers season is over and the Super
Bowl hangover is real. This forty nine Ers roster doesn't
have the depth and particularly on the.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Defense side of the ball going into next season.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
There's no guarantee that this forty nine Ers team is
just going to get back to their championship aspiration and
winning ways. This roster is going to need an overhaul
focusing on top tier talent on the interior of this
defensive line and quality depth and all positions.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, tell me there, I can give you six different
Eagles in their prime that early players and six to
seven Lions. Give me the best players and I mean
elite players for the Niners that are in their prime, Well, healthy.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Three of their defensive players currently are only playing that
were in the NFC or NFC Championship last year.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's all they've got left.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Everybody's banged up. Yeah, but let's give him a shout out.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
I just went back colin twenty nineteen forty nine Ers
lose the Super Bowl. Okay, they got to the Super Bowl.
Twenty twenty six and ten there were injuries. Twenty one
lose the NFC Championship game to the Rams. Twenty two
lose the NFC Championship. That was the Brock party injury gave.
Twenty three lose the Super Bowl. That's four of five
years where they got to the championship or the Super Bowl.
(25:40):
That's an amazing run. These things don't last forever. It
feels over.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I think it's a little more than a defensive overhaul.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Color Well.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I also think you have a big question. You gonna
pay brock perty fifty five million? You become the Cowboys
really fast. Paying a B plus.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Guy a plus shot he's getting fifty five, Well, nobody
would do that.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Next man up.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I would try to, I mean I would try to
move off of Ayuk. But that ship is Sales, Who's
taken him on coming off the injury.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You know, well, last year I would have moved off
Ayuk or Depot. I wouldn't have drafted the receiver in
the first round. I would have gone defensive line. I
think the defensive line. When Bosa plays, it's good. When
he doesn't, it's weak. I think they pay a couple
of different linebackers. I think you have to make you know,
I'd move off the corner. Having great corners means nothing.
The Jets have the best corners in the league. It
(26:28):
means nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
How's this going? It just hit me listening to you.
Forty nine ers drafted pearsall early.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
They're not going well?
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Right?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
You need to draft for the trenches. Texans. Let's go
get Stefan Diggs. How's that working out? Bill's get off
of a wide receiver?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Get better?
Speaker 4 (26:43):
How what they do it?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
The teams?
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Everybody's just And I know it's easy to say this now,
but in March and April, when this matters for free agency,
we need to remember. It isn't about the flashy Watches
and all the wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Elite neighbors make the Giants offense riveting. Get I mean
the Giants have a bad right tackle Evan Neil. If
you don't have good tackles and a great center, I mean,
it's just the reality is the closer to the football
you are, generally, the more you matter in football, not
the perimeters. You don't need great corns. I love having
Patrick Sartan for Denver. I love having one great corner,
(27:19):
but having a great secondary doesn't mean anything. If you
have one good corner, you're fine. And having great receiving
corps overrated.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
A lot of people out there listening are saying, well,
there's only so many good offensive linemen. No, no, no,
you gotta keep going for them in multiple routes.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
By the way, Denver's got the number two rated O
line outside of left tackle Bulls where all their Pro bowlers.
It's coaching. There's a reason Bill Callahan, Dante Scarnekia, these
coaches every year had It's like anything else you can
coach up. I mean, you can't make guys faster, but
offensive line is about cohesion and chemistry and intelligence. It's
(27:55):
the coaching unit on the field. Sean Payton took that
a line made it top ten this year. They're number two.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
That Sean paton the other one that's weird is the
Eagles lose Kelsey. They're awesome center, right, everybody thinks they're
gonna pull back. They added Barkley and they've actually not
lost a step.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I think they're better than they.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
Were last Now, they did start last year ten and
one right before creating Just remember offensive line people.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Next up, here's another story, Colin wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Hows this.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
The Ravens acquired Deontay Johnson at the trade deadline and
he has done absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Four games.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
He's got one catch for six yards.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
He's played twenty two snaps and interestingly, and we touched
on this yesterday, he didn't get on the field against
the Eagles, even after there was an injury to one
of their starting receivers. Jean Harbaugh was asked about this.
Take a listen.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
At this time, I'm gonna have to wait, don't. Just
to clarify it.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
There's there's some moving.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
Parts there that we're gonna have to figure out and explore.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Just see where we're at.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I know it's not the question he asked you.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
You why, It's the best I can do in fairness
to everybody right now.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, Deontay continue to be on the team up to thought.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
I think, like I said, we'll just work it out
see where we're at over the next few days.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And this week, well three teams now are struggling with him.
It's probably a Deontay Johnson maturity issue. I mean that
this is the all the warning signs of just I mean,
if to be as talented as him and bounce around
the league as much as he has for his age,
that's probably what it is.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
He needs a major wake up call.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
I mean remember last year at this time with Pittsburgh's
I think there was a game against the Colts and
he would They just like.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Snapped it around the goal line and he like pretended.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
To block like you do in like practice, and everybody
highlighted it.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
You could see he just this is not good.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
And there's another team goal slashing wide receiver not quite
panning out.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
Final story Colin.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
The NFL IS handed down a three game suspension to
Houston linebacker Aziz al Schaire for repeated violations of safety
rules after this just disgusting hit on Trevor Lawrence. Demiko
Ryans unbelievably defended al Shayer's play, and now GM Mick
Casio has followed suit.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Colin.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I can't believe he's saying this.
Speaker 8 (30:11):
Quite frankly, it's embarrassing. So I think the big thing
from our and they're talking about a player who's never
been suspended, never been ejected. So now we're saying that
he's going to be suspended for three games. All teams
want this is just some level of consistency. And we've
talked at the leak quite frankly, but we don't have
a good explanation. Dinko talked to him yesterday. So I mean,
it is what it is. I'm sure Azz will go
(30:31):
through whatever process he's going to go through, and then
we'll deal with it accordingly. But I think what we
take umbrage is is just the picture that's been painted
about his ease, his intentions, who he is as a person.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I mean, it's quite frankly, Oh well, I wouldn't have
spended him three games. I think it's a one game suspension.
I think it's a I think it was late, but
it wasn't. I think a lot of this is it's
Trevor Lawrence. It looks bad, you know, he freezes up.
The aesthetics of this are part of it. Now he
now I would suspend him for three games.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Yeah, I got no problem with that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's a long I don't know if we.
Speaker 6 (31:08):
Have the tape, but I watched it online.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So the Bears Texans game, Caleb Williams got decked out
of bounds. You'll never believe who did it. I'll share here.
The Bears went over and were like, what the hell's
wrong with you? Get in his face? He punches Roshawn Johnson. Now,
the refs missed it, so he wasn't ejected, but he
would have got ejected for that. So this argument, he's
never been suspended, never been ejected. That's like, come on,
give me a break, just because they didn't see it.
(31:32):
I don't know that he's a dirty player, but he
has a dirty history this year that's undeniable.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
There's video evidence of it.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
And in week two he punched the guy on the sideline.
So his guy's gotta clean up his act man. That's
a And we gotta protect quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I'm not but again, I think quarterbacks have to be
more responsible. You know, Lamar Jackson used to not slide,
and now he slides like you Trevor slid. What are
we talking about? He slid really late.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, if this is Patrick.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Mahomes getting decked, let me eight game suspension season.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It does matter. The aesthetics, Trevor Lawrence, he freezes up
all that stuff matters. The NFL has always been keenly
aware of their television product, no question about that.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Were you, uh you ever take any of these hits
in high school when you were QB.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
One, I didn't run, just sat on them, sat in
the pocket and through darts.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
J Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by The Herd Line news.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Actually great news for NFL fans. You need a quarterback
to win big and here's the great news about that. Seriously,
and I'll give it to you next.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sunday, a huge.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Doubleheader on Fox starts as the Panthers take on Jalen
Hurds and the Eagles, or on their regional action than
in America's Game of the Week, Josh Allen and the
Bills take on Stafford and the Niners.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
At Rams or Bears Diners.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
Check local listings for the games in your area a
little file.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So I kind of agree with Brady as I think
on that late hit stuff. There is some culpability to
the quarterback. And what happens is Josh Allen does this.
We got some video on Patrick Mahomes. Kenny Pickett did
this in college. Remember I must have showed that one
hundred times. So here's here's Mahomes faking the slide. Well
you make Now you wonder why defensive players get pissed
(33:33):
and want to hit you twice as hard. So all
we've done in the NFL for a decade now is
take rules that the defense could implement, and we've taken
them all away. So they're all bitter. And by the way,
that means they get fewer hits, fewer sacks, fewer tackles,
fewer less money. Offensive guys now make all the money.
Safeties don't get paid. Linebackers, good ones don't get paid.
(33:54):
So these defensive guys are like, wait a minute, time
out here, who gets paid a great pass rusher? You'll
see teams move ian Patrick Shirtan got paid as a
corner most teams l Kansas City. Let's good corners go
San Francisco with Ward will let him go. So these
defense this comes down to money. Defensive players are like,
how do we get paid? Yeah, Max Crosby gets paid
or Aaron Donald in this prime there's always one great
(34:15):
go look at the Rams their money. Now that Donald left,
it's all offense, the Chiefs money, Chris Jones and all offense.
I mean they're paying Joe Tooney, who's a guard. So
you've changed the rules to hurt defensive players and they're
not getting paid. And that's what it comes down to.
So defensive guys are hyper aggressive. They may take more
(34:35):
chances to get interceptions. I mean it's like when politicians say,
it's not about the sex of the money, it's about
the sex of the money. This is a lot of
this is commerce. Is that defensive guys are like, we
don't get paid, we can't hit anybody, and so they
want to make an imprint on the games. Now, was
the hit late, Yes it was late, but a three
game suspension. I mean, this is a sport with the
(34:56):
regulated levels of violence. You can hit quarterback and you'll
see guys now when they hit the quarterback, if they
put their body weight on them, they get penalized. Now
can imagine being three hundred and ten pounds. You create inertia,
you hit a quarterback and then you have to be
Olga Corbett and make sure you balance your bodies so
you don't lean on the quarterback. So I do get
(35:17):
the frustration with defensive players. Now, the HiT's late. I'm
acknowledging that three games. It's like a fifth of the
a fifth of the season, and I don't like that.
That to me is too long. And again, Trevor and
I've seen Aaron do this and Josh Allen they slid
a little late, just to half a step late. And
you're asking, guy, I mean, think about what a defensive
(35:39):
player does. An offensive player is choreography. A defensive player
is attack. Your job is a defensive player Ray Lewis
and his prime blow stuff up. You're walking your tnt
in cleats, blow stuff up, and then you're like, hey,
slow down though here that's not a gear that's implemented
very often for a defensive player. Your job is to
(35:59):
just blow through a brick wall. Offensive players memorize the
playbook choreography efficiency, don't move early. So it's two different sensibilities.
So I'm not defending the late hit but three games
seems way too much for me. The other thing is
what the Bengals are doing this year is insane. They're
two and four when scoring thirty three or more points.
(36:20):
The rest of the league is fifty two to one.
So what Joe Burrow is doing is putting up historic numbers,
and they're terrible. It's almost impossible to do. And I
look this morning at the NFL standings and basically, best
quarterback wins the division AFC East, Josh Allen, AFC South,
C J Stroud, AFC North still in play, Lamar Jackson
(36:41):
AFC West, Mahomes NFC East Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield tied
with Atlanta. The Falcons have beaten him twice. But Baker
right now is the best quarterback in that division.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Golf.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I mean, listen, Darnold's having a great year. Goff's the
best quarterback, been to a super Bowl. He's leading the
only division and it's still in play that you're like,
well that team La Ram Stafford, they're a game out
and so so you gotta have a quarterback to win
in this league. We all know that here are three
things that are really good. Number one, the quality of
(37:11):
quarterback coaching is much better today. And I'll give you
an example. How I know that Gino Smith, Sam Darnold,
and Baker Mayfield, they were cast off. Even Bryce Young
a year ago, bumb bus get him out of here.
Now how you watching the last month? Get you got
a new coach you can play. So the quality of
quarterback coaching is better. It's allowing for reboots. Gino gets
(37:32):
a better coach, Donald gets a great coach, Baker gets
the right coach. Guys that were done the over cast off, nope, reborn.
The second thing, and I looked this up this morning.
The hit rate for quarterbacks is going up. So it
used to be about a fifty to fifty proposition. But
guys now get more snaps in high school seven on
(37:54):
seven camps, they get more snaps in college. They see
different offenses. The coaching is I just afore mentioned, is better.
So what's happened? The hit rate for first round quarterbacks
is going up. Since the Darnald Baker class, there have
been twenty seven quarterbacks drafted in the first round, only
ten busts. And remember three or four of those busts
were in the COVID season, which was a wonky weird
(38:18):
couple year and a half of football where the kids
weren't playing the same schedules, they weren't getting the reps.
There weren't even fans at games. The practice schedule was
modified or altered. So you basically have ten busts twenty
seven guys that can play. That's a pretty good hit rate.
That's pretty good, and I would say three or four
of those guys are COVID misses. And the third thing,
(38:42):
and this is you know, it's a real thing, is
that if you just watch the current history of the
league and you see sports go through this, right, we
now have three draft classes twenty eighteen, twenty twenty and
twenty four. Three draft classes since twenty eighteen where you're
getting at least four guys that can play in this
(39:03):
league in franchise guys. I mean, people forever talked about
the l Way Marino draft like that was the thing
for thirty years. We've had three of those in six
years now. This is not a great draft, but Shador
Sanders cam Ward look like they can play. Jalen Milrose
more of a prospect. Who knows, But last year was
great and you're seeing it now. I mean Vo Nicks good,
(39:27):
Caleb Williams super talented. Jayden Daniels probably makes the playoffs.
Drake May getting better by the month, and by the way,
Pennix is the guy that I thought Atlanta got him.
I think he'll be great. JJ McCarthy's hurt look good
in the preseason. So it's pretty clear you got to
have a quarterback to win in this league. But there
are signs here the hit rates going up. We are
(39:49):
having because of all the seven on seven camps, more
snaps by the time you're fourteen years old. They're just
more quarterbacks getting injected. And the quarterback coaching is significantly
better than it was seven, eight, nine years ago. All right,
Mark Sanchez, last hour, I want to thank Tom Brady
and Nick Wright for stopping by Live in Los Angeles.
It's the Herd.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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