September 16, 2025 • 30 mins
Former Patriots WR Julian Edelman stops by to talk about the culture of the Chargers improving quickly, if the Eagles should move AJ Brown, and Joe Burrow being injured again.
Danny Parkins from First Things First talks about Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson so far this year, the importance of good ownership, and Jim Harbaugh improving the Chargers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And with that, Julian Edelman is now joining US Live. Julian,
you have a relationship with Mike Vrabel, who is a
little bit like Harbond that he's very intense. It's kind
of physically intimidating. How you know this was the worst
defense in the league twenty games ago, now it's the best.
How do certain coaches forget the playbook? How do you
(00:45):
change a culture like Harbaugh's done?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I think you lean on fundamentals. They'd be they're fundamentally sound. Tackling, blocking,
I remember Belichick always used to say this game comes
down two things, blocking and tackling. If you can get
those things tackle in the open field, when you're in
a zone coverage, which you see a lot of teams
miss those tackles that turn into thirty yard explosive plays.
(01:12):
If you can get fundamentals down, not turn the ball over,
not beat yourself with pre snap penalties.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
That's how you.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Change a culture right away, not with all the talking,
not with this, it's with the actions that they they're
showing that they're doing. I mean, what are they they
They're I think zero in the turnover margin, or they
maybe plus one in the turnover margin. They haven't thrown
any picks, they haven't had many turnovers. They're starting to
get production out of their you know, first round draft
(01:42):
pick a couple of years, Quinton Johnson, which is I
think the huge difference maker. So they've looked very good,
and I think when a coach comes in and establishes
that if he wants to be a tough football team,
tough football teams don't beat themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know, if you go look at that last iteration
of the Patriots with Gronk you and Tom Randy Moss
was gone. You were not a big, over the top offense.
And I watched Philadelphia and AJ Brown just doesn't get looks.
And my takeaway is that's not who they are. Like
your Patriot teams. It's built on third down, a fishing
(02:17):
quarterback play. You don't have the quarterback throwing forty two times,
and I almost feel like when you play the Eagles,
it's demoralizing because there is very little there. And if
you go back to your New England teams, those last couple,
the one that beat Atlanta, you were not an over
the top offense. Philadelphia's got AJ Brown, but they don't
(02:38):
really throw it deep very often. When that's not part
of your offense. Did you ever look at it as
a weakness or did you look at it like, hey,
zero to fifteen yards, we're the best offense in the league.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
We just don't do it over that. I think that's
a loaded question. AJ Brown. If you take him out
of the equation, then you condense the field. Then they
don't have to think about the deep target. Then the
one time they do get that one matchup, that one
on one matchup on the outside where he gets an explosion,
play that that. That's tough to do when you don't
(03:14):
have them out there. They're kind of like a military man.
They have air air support and they have land ground support.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
You know right now they don't have to use their
air force.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
That's how they're built. Because their team is built so well.
They're a complementary football team, and they do what's best
to win the game. They don't really care about number statistics,
which was very similar to us.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
The ultimate statistic is the winning loss callum.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And you know, if they can have the mental toughness
where guys can understand that role, they're going to be
unstoppable because there's going to be a time where someone
is taking out their run games, someone's keying out on
Saint Quan and Jalen and they may have a little
new wrinkle and they're going to have to lean on
that task game and win outside the numbers. And AJ
Brown's probably top five at doing that. So there's going
(04:00):
to be a time where they're gonna need him. They
just got to keep them happy.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
So I listen, the Bengals don't have a run game.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The offense is very predicated on Joe Burrow throwing the
ball down the field. But I said, there is a
skill Eli manning, Tom Brady mahomes in not getting hurt.
It's not all happens to justin fields. By the way,
he gets banged up a lot, Brock Purdy gets banged
up a lot. And I look at Joe Burrow and
he is one of those guys he sits there for
(04:27):
the last second and go back to Tom.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
If when you consider how long Tom played, I'm sure
he was banged up from time to time. But one
of the biggest injuries he ever suffered was ripping his
hand before a game because it got got in a helmet.
I don't remember Tom getting blindsided very often. Did Tom
talk about and practice avoiding the sacks and avoiding injury?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well, those are the injuries that you knew about Tom.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I mean Tom played through some stuff that he just
wouldn't which I don't know if that's legal or not.
But there's times where he had a broken foot. No
one knew about it, that he played with broken ribs.
He just didn't really publicize it. But I tell you
one thing that Tom always did. He always thought about
his body. He thought about that in his preparation. He
had his little he had Alex s Guerrero around him
(05:18):
twenty four to seven. So if he's pre cont like
if he's subconsciously thinking about this all the time, it
translates into your game. You know when Burrow got hurt, Yeah,
that's you kind of double back and you're going in.
There's people on the ground. I mean, those are those
are high risk areas to be in.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think Tom just didn't put himself in those situations
unless it was like something he had to do. And
I think a lot of this also has to come
down to how their team is constructed. Everyone knows they
got to throw the ball vertically to win. They don't
have a defense that's going to get them turnovers. They
have zero run game, so there's a built up pressure
for Joe Burrow to have to make plays and it's
(06:01):
something that we've seen him be able to do. But
they haven't been able to one game win games, and
they haven't been able to stay healthy. I think they
have to fundamentally kind of change their team because this
is what we're starting to see in his career, is
that he you know, Joe's getting hurt. How does Joe
not get hurt, Hit him less, give the ball to
(06:22):
other people more, and get the ball out of his hands.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
So I think they really have a fundamental problem with
how their team's made.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I said, when it comes to young quarterbacks, some of
it is the eye test. I watch JJ McCarthy, he
looks overwhelmed. I watch Caleb Williams, and he's more of
an ad liver and Ben Johnson's more on script and structure.
Sometimes I look at stuff and go, oh, that doesn't
feel like it works when you look at Caleb and
(06:49):
the Bears. Obviously their defense stunk against Detroit, But I
do feel like the coach has a system and he
didn't draft Caleb. Caleb doesn't really work for the system.
Josh and Tom, I mean they were both get it
out quick. I remember the Charger playoff game when Boss like, dude,
I can't even.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Get to you. The balls out so fast.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I don't know if Caleb has built the play like that.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Is it possible He's not.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
I think it's way too early to tell. We got
to take in consideration. This is a second system out
of college in his second year.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
We all know that Ben Johnson has a very verbal
offense that is very operation driven that you know, has
two plays in the play call and he's missing these
wide open throws because his mind is racing. He's not
really comfortable quite yet with the operation of this offense.
Look last year and bo Nicks with his first year
(07:47):
with Sean Payton, they looked like a disaster. The first
couple of weeks of the season, right. That's because Sean
has you know, a complex system.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
There's a certain way of doing it things.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You got to kind of beat the backyard football out
of the young guys, which takes little time. And we
got to recalibrate that this is kind of Caleb's rookie season.
It's a completely different offense schematically, verbiage, everything that he
was going from last year, which was completely different what
he was doing the year before.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
So there's times where this offense is looked competent.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I don't I don't remember any time last year the
offense looking competent. So that's a plus, you know what
I mean. They've they've done better in certain situations. There's
been improvement. They just got to continue this and remember
that he's you know, he's going into his rookie year
with this is a rookie year, you know, with a
new offense. So it's going to take some time to
(08:42):
get you know, the verbal communication in. I mean, Ben Johnson,
I guarantee probably gives two play calls every time you
come in. You got to communicate the play, You got
to communicate the personnel group. You got to get to
the line of stramage. Take a pre snap reade, look
at the front, look at the coverage, make sure all
your guys are assigned. Then go get the right play
called according to what you're seeing in the pre snap
(09:04):
reed with, which can completely change in the.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Post snap read.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's a lot of stuff for a young guy, which
you know that he's getting taught that. So you know,
you can compare Caleb's first time to all the other
guys that Ben Johnson had for the first time, Jared Goff.
Jared Goff was in the same system with Sean McVay.
That's the same verbage as Ben Johnson stuff, So it's
not the same kind of comparison. He had, you know,
three four years under his belt in a similar system,
(09:29):
going to Ben Johnson, who you know did that. So
I think it's a combination of both Ben Johnson learning
Caleb on what he does well and what he doesn't
do well and trying to get those things out and
and Caleb trying to learn this system.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I mean, it takes time. He's you know, he's.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah. I thought.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I thought it was actually a big win for the Patriots.
They got a special team's touchdown. It was a it
was a go back and forth game. They've had a
huge defensive play late. I still think they need juice
on the outside. I think they're kind of a limited offense.
But I gotta tell you, when I watched it, Drake
May didn't make any mistakes. Big special teams play, big
defensive play like this may not have been a big
(10:12):
win for a Edelman Brady Gronk team, but Miami's always
been a tough spot. And I came out of that
game and I thought, oh, that was an easy loss.
You could have lost that game so easily. I was
kind of impressed with it.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
You, I was really impressed with it.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
It's a division opponent that has had continuity for a
long time, and even a Brady Gronk Edelman team struggled
playing in Miami in that heat in September, and they
went and got it done. They looked like a better
shaped team, more fundamentally sound football team.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
If you look at some of their stats.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
What the first week on third down against the Raiders,
they were four and fourteen on third down.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
They were one for three in the red area.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
This last week, I think they're seven for twelve in
third down. They're three for four in the red area,
so that's improvement. They only punted twice. They had a
couple pre snap penalties that they got to get fixed,
but that'll come. They look like similar to what I
was saying with the Bears, who didn't have any competency
the year before. They look like an offense that's getting better,
(11:13):
that's learning each other. There's guys making plays, and this
is the early part of the year for everyone, So
you know, not anyone who hasn't been together is gonna
look like they're a pro football team. Especially with the
CBA and how these guys are supposed to practice, this
is gonna take some time on learning your team. There's
not really it's really hard for these guys to prepare
(11:35):
for other teams. There's not a lot of films to
learn what these wrinkles are. Once these things start getting
adjusted and settled, they're gonna be able to coach from
these things and get better. So you're already seeing improvement.
They got a lot more to do, but it's awesome
to see that they got a divisional win.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
By the way, again, early September, it's it can be hot.
Northern teams going down hot. We lost their a bunch, Yeah,
Julian as always games with names. New episode every Tuesday,
sitting in the studio now Sundays on Fox NFL Kickoff.
But I appreciate starting buying.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
No problem, I'll see you guys.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
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Speaker 6 (12:20):
Hey it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker, for twenty two minutes of piping hot
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Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've
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(12:41):
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Speaker 4 (12:51):
No, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
This is the Herdline News, all right, Colin.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Let's get started with the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
They were able to come back and beat the Giants
in a thriller, but the defense has a lot of holes.
They've traded Michael Parsons last month and they've given up
sixty one points in two games. Jerry Jones knows the
defense needs to step up.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
It's bang into the scheme. You've got to you've got
to handle your responsibilities and you've got to really do
that all over the defense.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
You've got to.
Speaker 8 (13:28):
Do your responsibility, that's first and foremost, and then make
that play if it's there. But the main thing is
you can't just be there trying to make a play.
You can't be a lone ranger out there. You've got
to be a part of a team.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I think if you're a Cowboy fan, you have
to be so encouraged by your first two weeks. You're
so encouraged by Dak's movement accuracy. I mean, Brian Schottenheimer
has a lot of people might included thought this is
a five win team.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I said, a five win team. You were more optimistic.
But when I watch him today, that offense alone, if
Dak is healthy, that's a seven eight nine win team
just on the offense alone.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Yeah, the Bengals of the NFC.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
Now, the real question is can the defense get help
if Bland comes back. So Jerry Jones obviously is speaking
because he loves to talk to the media, He says
he has a real chance to play Bland, their great cornerback,
against the Bear Sunday.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Now, if he doesn't play and Caleb.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
Doesn't cook in this one, Colin, that's.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
Gonna be a real bitter pill to swallow for Chicago fans.
I don't want to say it's.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Over for Ben and Caleb after three games, but you'll
have to admit if he can't.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I mean, what do you think.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
The team total would be? Like, what's a good number
for the Bears to score.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Against this Cowboys defense? Twenty seven to twenty eight points?
Speaker 7 (14:49):
Yeah, I think three or four touchdowns should be in
play for the Bears of this.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, and I'm not talking garbage time.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
If you lose a shootout to dak it's thirty two,
twenty eight and you know, Caleb completes sixty five percent
of his throws two TD snow picks. He's not great,
but it's a fight to the end. That's improvement. My
problem was the first week. In the second week, great
opening drive, but by the third quarter, it just came unraveled,
and it's like, Okay, I feel like I'm watching the
(15:16):
same thing. So I didn't see a lot of growth.
But I don't think. I think this defense and this
environment is built for growth. I think Caleb will look better.
Danny Parkins will have that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
I think.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I think it'd be really, really rough if Caleb gave
you the third straight nice opening drive downhill from there,
that would be hard to stomach.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
Now we know Jadavian Clowney is expected to make his
debut for the Cowboys defense, so they'll get another guy
in the front. I mean, I don't know how much
of a factor he'll be. He's more of a name
at this point in his career. But hey, Dallas is trying.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
I had to get got Kenny Clerk from the Packers,
and now Jadavian Clowny's really four five against the run game.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
College's okay, he can play. He solid. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Next up is the Miami Dolphins Colin. They are zero
and two and the Sharks are circling around Mike McDaniel.
There was a banner that flew over the stadium in
Week two against the Patriots calling for the firing of
McDaniel and GM Chris Greer. McDaniel says he's not worried
about job security and his players are backing his coach,
with linebacker Chop Robinson saying, it's not him out there
(16:27):
on the field, it's really on us. We got to
get better. However, I have talked to some Miami fans
Colin that I know down there. So they play on
Thursday against the Bills. Their next game is down until
next Monday against the Jets. If they get embarrassed and
housed by Buffalo, this is the time you get extended
prep right for the next week. It's not just a
(16:49):
seven Sunday to Sunday. I would not be surprised if
some a move was made.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, I will say Steven Ross, the owner, and Mike
McDaniel have had multiple conversations, so that has been reported.
I've been reading, I've been reading Joe Shad and other
writers down in Miami. So the owner and the coach
are talking on a weekly basis, pregame, post game, so there.
I mean. I don't think they want to make a move,
and I do think their coach is on the right
side of the ball. What really worries me is the
(17:16):
lack of culture and the lack of effort. Again, this
is not a great roster. Chris Greer has been the GM.
I think longer than anybody almost in the AFC. It
feels like he's been there forever. I don't like the roster.
I agree, So I don't think this is all Mike McDaniel,
but the culture feels broken. That's where you lose me.
I can deal with losses, but what are you? What
(17:37):
is Miami? I don't think there're anything specifically, and that's
this is a year.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Or what four or five for him? Well, here's the
other problem.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
Remember if they fire him, really remember the Jets fired
Salah last year early and what happened. The defense completely
fell apart, If the offense falls apart from Miami, you're
looking at like one, two, three wins, quick number for you, Colin. Okay,
Brian Dabele and McDaniel were hired the same.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Year, Okay.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
Mike McDaniel is twenty eight and twenty five with two
playoff trips. Brian Dabele is eighteen and thirty four and
one with one playoff trip.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
So McDaniel has ten more wins than Brian Dabele.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
They were both hired the same offseason, and everybody wants
to run McDaniel out of town.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yet Dabel all of a sudden, nob were talking about Dabell.
I'm just saying I'm a McDaniel guy.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Like I think, I think it's understood that this is
dables last year. I think that's understood.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Final story is, oh, everybody's favorite practice squad quarterback Shadeer Sanders.
Remember that report over the weekend that the Ravens wanted
to draft Shadeur one hundred and forty first overall, but
passed because he allegedly said he didn't want to be
the backup stuck behind Lamar Jackson. Well, of course, the
media asked Shadoor about this, and he said, Colin, wait
(18:51):
for it. I'm focused on the now. I don't really
want to talk about anything in the past. I don't
remember anything pre draft. I go to practice every day
and there's a twenty four hour rule. That's not a denial, Colin,
I just Bolton, You've talked for years. Baltimore is one
of the best franchises in the league.
Speaker 8 (19:12):
Agreed.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Yeah, he said, I don't want to go there because
I'll be stuck behind the mark.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh, I mean he listened between the legendary draft room,
the two ninety five mile hour speeding tickets, and that
quote he either got really bad advice or he's got
really bad judgment. But he's not leading the scout team,
so it's probably a little bit of both. And I
think Dion Sanders, you know, has not distanced himself from it.
(19:37):
But I think Dad gave him great poor advice. And
I think this is just, you know, a cautionary tale
of you know, Dad leaning.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
On the sun.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Nico iamaliav at the UCLA quarterback, sometimes Dad squeezed so hard.
The love is so you know, intense that they they
see they.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Squeeze too hard. Like it's just I think should have.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Got really really bad advice, and I think the UCLA
quarterback similarly really bad advice. You don't leave Tennessee, which
has always been even though they haven't won as much
in the last one of years, it's a football power.
I mean Tennessee is play off Yeah, I mean Tennessee
is college football to UCLA, which has no nil money
and is the second best program by a long shot
(20:21):
in their own city. Sometimes guys, young people get bad advice.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
J Macklin news, Well.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
That's the news, and thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The herd Line.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
News Well, he worked in Chicago for over a decade. Uh,
and there wasn't a lot of winds and happiness and
rainbows and birds chirping with the Bears. Danny Parkins next
on what he's seeing with Chicago is their home.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
It comes to.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Young quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson looked absolutely overwhelmed. Daniel Jones with
the Giants looks kind of limited. Caleb looks a little
like the early shades of Josh Allen. He's just out
of control, but the horsepower is clearly there. Danny Parkins,
(21:21):
who did Chicago Radio Forever, First Things, first weekdays at
three eastern after our show, I guess the encouraging thing
is there is a Josh Allen aspect which is arm horsepower.
You can see it. But Josh was wild at Wyoming.
He was wild for a year and a half and
(21:41):
then all of a sudden, year two he started improving.
Is that your kind of feel like, Okay, it's got
a little Josh. He doesn't look limited like Daniel Jones
or JJ McCarthy. He's not overwhelmed. Like Anthony Richardson, like,
I don't feel it's that do you.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Not even close?
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Colin?
Speaker 9 (21:58):
I mean, it hasn't been good, but it hasn't been awful.
And I think people have gone a little bit too
far here with this sky is falling narrative because at
the beginning of games on script it's looked good. Some
of the offscript stuff, the improvisation has been very impressive.
It's been frustrating. Week one felt a little bit like
(22:20):
Week nineteen, just an extension of last year. But I
do think that coming out of that Detroit game there
were signs of improvement from Caleb Williams. But it also
speaks to we are such a quarterback driven culture that
we're asking these tough questions about Caleb Williams. And I
get it, number one pick, it's the quarterback. It's a
quarterback league. The defense gave up fifty points like that.
(22:43):
Caleb Williams is not a linebacker, a pass rusher, or
a cornerback. So coming out of that Lions game with
Caleb Williams, concern just seems a little misplaced to me.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You know, Ben Johnson, young guy, first job, he's been
not defensive, he's not Brian Kelly at LSU at the mic,
but he's trying to be very supportive.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
It's a fine line.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
He wants to be supportive, but he doesn't want to
get pushed over. In the preseason, he went, he said,
Tyson vagent, this guy is razor sharp.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And I thought that's a that may be a little
too much. I offered a Jmac this week. I said,
if the Dallas defense stops him, do you think Ben
Johnson drives home after the postgame and thinks maybe I
got to make a quarterback change?
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Or does that sound ludicrous?
Speaker 9 (23:38):
It sounds ludicrous, Colin, And when you said it earlier
in the show, frankly, it upset me. I was a
little angry with you, and I considered texting you, but
then I realized, no, we could just do this on
the air the old fashioned way. Like Ben Johnson was
the hot coaching candidate in twenty twenty four. He interviewed
for the Chargers job, he interviews for the command job,
(24:00):
he interviews for the Seahawks job. He's on at the
top of everybody's list this last year, and he chooses
Chicago and at the introductory press conference, he says, yeah,
the quarterback was a big part of the reason why
this is the job that felt right for me.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
And then two games.
Speaker 9 (24:18):
In or I guess in your scenario, after the third game,
he's going to be driving back to the suburbs of
Chicago and be like, you know, on one hand, I
have the generational talent who you just compared to Josh
Allen who struggled his first few years in the league
and then it was ultimately unlocked. And on the other hand,
I have the undrafted kid out of Shepherd.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Huh. Which one am I gonna go with?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 9 (24:42):
I think it's completely nonsensical.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
And why it made me angry if I could.
Speaker 9 (24:46):
Keep going here is last week you have this unbelievable access.
You can talk to billionaires and owners and gms, and
you have the goat. You have Tom Brady on your
show and you're like, my theory, Tom is thank you
giving of year.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Two, I will know it.
Speaker 9 (25:02):
And then we saw week two and it wasn't perfect,
and you came out on the air on Monday were like,
forget Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
How about October first?
Speaker 9 (25:12):
You just abandoned those principles off of two games and frankly,
it upsets me.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I'm very emotional person.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, how about this, you are how about this? You
and I have talked about this off the air. So
much of this league is ownership. I mean, Tampa's ownership
stays out of the way. Todd Bowles doesn't have an ego.
Baker Mayfield looks like a top five quarterback in Cleveland.
Impulsive owner, ohways, desperate, bitter media like environment matters. Chicago's
(25:41):
got one of the poorest ownership groups, a lot of
kids upstairs. Ryan Pole's many myself included, surprised. He got
an extension that Ben and Caleb are just literally climbing
a hill every day in this organization and that it's
just going to be harder than it would be at Buffalo.
The Bills were a playoff team before Josh Allen arrived.
(26:02):
So how about the argument that it may never be
perfect because this is an imperfect organization.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Well, I think that there's a ton of truth to that.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
You know this, Ben Johnson took his car in for
an oil change and they were like, you need a
new transmitter, you need new brakes, you need new wheels,
and frankly, you need an entire new car like this
is a big job. It's a big organizational overhaul the Bears.
Bears fans come by their cynicism with this stuff honestly
because the Bears organization have not given them a reason
(26:35):
to have the benefit of the doubt. So I think
it's a big job with big culture shifts that need
to take place. But I would also say, before Joe
Burrow got to Cincinnati, the Bengals were the Bungles. Before
Patrick Mahomes got to Kansas City, it had been since
Todd Blackledge that they had won a single regular season
(26:55):
game with the quarterback that their franchise had drafted, not
a play off game. A regular season game with the
quarterback that the Chiefs had drafted had won a single game.
So if you get it right at coaching quarterback, you
can overcome a lot. And I just think it's way
too early to think that Ben and Caleb can't be
the right combination it is.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I want to end with this. I'm a big Justin
Herbert fan. I covered Oregon. He's such a nice kid,
but there's always been this push and pull.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
On you know what.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He got four interceptions in the playoffs, blew a huge lead.
In my take is well, he finally got an adult
as a coach, and now he's really good as somebody
that hasn't lived in LA and watches from afar from
an organization not like the Bears, but it's been an
organization that has blown multiple opportunities through the years in
(27:48):
huge games charging it. I think that's now gone, you hope.
How do you view Justin Herbert a relatively young quarterback.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Like a top five talent in the NFL?
Speaker 9 (28:02):
And I felt that coming into this year, and it
was reflected on the lists and the topics that we
would do on the show.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
All last football season.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
To me, Justin Herbert is the ultimate eye test quarterback, Like,
if you watch the games, you know that this guy
can do everything that anyone would want from a quarterback
on the football field, and at times he has been
let down by Anthony Lynn, by Brandon Staley, by yes,
having the worst game of his career at the worst
moment possible in Houston, but also knowing that two of
(28:31):
those four interceptions were off of his pass catcher's hands
and the interior of his offensive line was an absolute
disaster against the top five pass rush.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
In the NFL.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
In Houston last year, and he had a great first
half of that game against Jacksonville, and then Jacksonville staged
an up at comeback on the Charger defense, not on
Justin Herbert. So the playoffs success will come. But I
believe that he is a Hall of Fame talent. I
believe that there's an MVP Award in his future. I
believe that there's a super Bowl in his future. And
yet Jim Harbaugh is a big part of the reason why.
(29:02):
But I felt that way before Harball got there, simply
because he passes every possible way of just watching the
games and saying, yep, that dude's got it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Sometimes you don't need.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
More than that.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
It's an eye test thing. And Justin Herbert's that level
of player.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, I felt that when I Jayden Daniels in college.
I remember saying, it's gonna look like Lamar Jackson, not
quite as fast, better from the pocket. That's gonna work
in the NFL. And to your point, JJ McCarthy looks overwhelmed.
That's what my eyes tell me. He looks overwhelmed. Danny Parkins,
first things first, does an amazing job? Show is now
three hours? Not to because Danny said, I'll carry some.
(29:38):
I'll carry some.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
Of the weight.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And he is, by the way, great seeing you, Buden.
Thanks Colin, you bet really really sharp guy. Love seeing him.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
No, I think Herbert's one of those that were so
we're so rough on quarterbacks and postseason success.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
We don't do that in baseball.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Mike Trout does nothing, and everybody that covered the sport
for a decade said, Mike Trout's the best player.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
We don't do that. Even in the NBA. James Harden,
he's unbelievable. Yeah, he falls apart in the playoff. Doesn't
matter with quarterbacks, and people are on Lamar Jackson every January.
He won seventy six percent of his games in the AFC.
Pervert's the real Deal. First Thing's First coming up next week.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And with that, Julian Edelman is now joining US Live. Julian,
you have a relationship with Mike Vrabel, who is a
little bit like Harbond that he's very intense. It's kind
of physically intimidating. How you know this was the worst
defense in the league twenty games ago, now it's the best.
How do certain coaches forget the playbook? How do you
(00:45):
change a culture like Harbaugh's done?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I think you lean on fundamentals. They'd be they're fundamentally sound. Tackling, blocking,
I remember Belichick always used to say this game comes
down two things, blocking and tackling. If you can get
those things tackle in the open field, when you're in
a zone coverage, which you see a lot of teams
miss those tackles that turn into thirty yard explosive plays.
(01:12):
If you can get fundamentals down, not turn the ball over,
not beat yourself with pre snap penalties.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
That's how you.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Change a culture right away, not with all the talking,
not with this, it's with the actions that they they're
showing that they're doing. I mean, what are they they
They're I think zero in the turnover margin, or they
maybe plus one in the turnover margin. They haven't thrown
any picks, they haven't had many turnovers. They're starting to
get production out of their you know, first round draft
(01:42):
pick a couple of years, Quinton Johnson, which is I
think the huge difference maker. So they've looked very good,
and I think when a coach comes in and establishes
that if he wants to be a tough football team,
tough football teams don't beat themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know, if you go look at that last iteration
of the Patriots with Gronk you and Tom Randy Moss
was gone. You were not a big, over the top offense.
And I watched Philadelphia and AJ Brown just doesn't get looks.
And my takeaway is that's not who they are. Like
your Patriot teams. It's built on third down, a fishing
(02:17):
quarterback play. You don't have the quarterback throwing forty two times,
and I almost feel like when you play the Eagles,
it's demoralizing because there is very little there. And if
you go back to your New England teams, those last couple,
the one that beat Atlanta, you were not an over
the top offense. Philadelphia's got AJ Brown, but they don't
(02:38):
really throw it deep very often. When that's not part
of your offense. Did you ever look at it as
a weakness or did you look at it like, hey,
zero to fifteen yards, we're the best offense in the league.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
We just don't do it over that. I think that's
a loaded question. AJ Brown. If you take him out
of the equation, then you condense the field. Then they
don't have to think about the deep target. Then the
one time they do get that one matchup, that one
on one matchup on the outside where he gets an explosion,
play that that. That's tough to do when you don't
(03:14):
have them out there. They're kind of like a military man.
They have air air support and they have land ground support.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
You know right now they don't have to use their
air force.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
That's how they're built. Because their team is built so well.
They're a complementary football team, and they do what's best
to win the game. They don't really care about number statistics,
which was very similar to us.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
The ultimate statistic is the winning loss callum.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And you know, if they can have the mental toughness
where guys can understand that role, they're going to be
unstoppable because there's going to be a time where someone
is taking out their run games, someone's keying out on
Saint Quan and Jalen and they may have a little
new wrinkle and they're going to have to lean on
that task game and win outside the numbers. And AJ
Brown's probably top five at doing that. So there's going
(04:00):
to be a time where they're gonna need him. They
just got to keep them happy.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
So I listen, the Bengals don't have a run game.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The offense is very predicated on Joe Burrow throwing the
ball down the field. But I said, there is a
skill Eli manning, Tom Brady mahomes in not getting hurt.
It's not all happens to justin fields. By the way,
he gets banged up a lot, Brock Purdy gets banged
up a lot. And I look at Joe Burrow and
he is one of those guys he sits there for
(04:27):
the last second and go back to Tom.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
If when you consider how long Tom played, I'm sure
he was banged up from time to time. But one
of the biggest injuries he ever suffered was ripping his
hand before a game because it got got in a helmet.
I don't remember Tom getting blindsided very often. Did Tom
talk about and practice avoiding the sacks and avoiding injury?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well, those are the injuries that you knew about Tom.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I mean Tom played through some stuff that he just
wouldn't which I don't know if that's legal or not.
But there's times where he had a broken foot. No
one knew about it, that he played with broken ribs.
He just didn't really publicize it. But I tell you
one thing that Tom always did. He always thought about
his body. He thought about that in his preparation. He
had his little he had Alex s Guerrero around him
(05:18):
twenty four to seven. So if he's pre cont like
if he's subconsciously thinking about this all the time, it
translates into your game. You know when Burrow got hurt, Yeah,
that's you kind of double back and you're going in.
There's people on the ground. I mean, those are those
are high risk areas to be in.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think Tom just didn't put himself in those situations
unless it was like something he had to do. And
I think a lot of this also has to come
down to how their team is constructed. Everyone knows they
got to throw the ball vertically to win. They don't
have a defense that's going to get them turnovers. They
have zero run game, so there's a built up pressure
for Joe Burrow to have to make plays and it's
(06:01):
something that we've seen him be able to do. But
they haven't been able to one game win games, and
they haven't been able to stay healthy. I think they
have to fundamentally kind of change their team because this
is what we're starting to see in his career, is
that he you know, Joe's getting hurt. How does Joe
not get hurt, Hit him less, give the ball to
(06:22):
other people more, and get the ball out of his hands.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
So I think they really have a fundamental problem with
how their team's made.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I said, when it comes to young quarterbacks, some of
it is the eye test. I watch JJ McCarthy, he
looks overwhelmed. I watch Caleb Williams, and he's more of
an ad liver and Ben Johnson's more on script and structure.
Sometimes I look at stuff and go, oh, that doesn't
feel like it works when you look at Caleb and
(06:49):
the Bears. Obviously their defense stunk against Detroit, But I
do feel like the coach has a system and he
didn't draft Caleb. Caleb doesn't really work for the system.
Josh and Tom, I mean they were both get it
out quick. I remember the Charger playoff game when Boss like, dude,
I can't even.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Get to you. The balls out so fast.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I don't know if Caleb has built the play like that.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Is it possible He's not.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
I think it's way too early to tell. We got
to take in consideration. This is a second system out
of college in his second year.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
We all know that Ben Johnson has a very verbal
offense that is very operation driven that you know, has
two plays in the play call and he's missing these
wide open throws because his mind is racing. He's not
really comfortable quite yet with the operation of this offense.
Look last year and bo Nicks with his first year
(07:47):
with Sean Payton, they looked like a disaster. The first
couple of weeks of the season, right. That's because Sean
has you know, a complex system.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
There's a certain way of doing it things.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You got to kind of beat the backyard football out
of the young guys, which takes little time. And we
got to recalibrate that this is kind of Caleb's rookie season.
It's a completely different offense schematically, verbiage, everything that he
was going from last year, which was completely different what
he was doing the year before.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
So there's times where this offense is looked competent.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I don't I don't remember any time last year the
offense looking competent. So that's a plus, you know what
I mean. They've they've done better in certain situations. There's
been improvement. They just got to continue this and remember
that he's you know, he's going into his rookie year
with this is a rookie year, you know, with a
new offense. So it's going to take some time to
(08:42):
get you know, the verbal communication in. I mean, Ben Johnson,
I guarantee probably gives two play calls every time you
come in. You got to communicate the play, You got
to communicate the personnel group. You got to get to
the line of stramage. Take a pre snap reade, look
at the front, look at the coverage, make sure all
your guys are assigned. Then go get the right play
called according to what you're seeing in the pre snap
(09:04):
reed with, which can completely change in the.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Post snap read.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's a lot of stuff for a young guy, which
you know that he's getting taught that. So you know,
you can compare Caleb's first time to all the other
guys that Ben Johnson had for the first time, Jared Goff.
Jared Goff was in the same system with Sean McVay.
That's the same verbage as Ben Johnson stuff, So it's
not the same kind of comparison. He had, you know,
three four years under his belt in a similar system,
(09:29):
going to Ben Johnson, who you know did that. So
I think it's a combination of both Ben Johnson learning
Caleb on what he does well and what he doesn't
do well and trying to get those things out and
and Caleb trying to learn this system.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I mean, it takes time. He's you know, he's.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah. I thought.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I thought it was actually a big win for the Patriots.
They got a special team's touchdown. It was a it
was a go back and forth game. They've had a
huge defensive play late. I still think they need juice
on the outside. I think they're kind of a limited offense.
But I gotta tell you, when I watched it, Drake
May didn't make any mistakes. Big special teams play, big
defensive play like this may not have been a big
(10:12):
win for a Edelman Brady Gronk team, but Miami's always
been a tough spot. And I came out of that
game and I thought, oh, that was an easy loss.
You could have lost that game so easily. I was
kind of impressed with it.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
You, I was really impressed with it.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
It's a division opponent that has had continuity for a
long time, and even a Brady Gronk Edelman team struggled
playing in Miami in that heat in September, and they
went and got it done. They looked like a better
shaped team, more fundamentally sound football team.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
If you look at some of their stats.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
What the first week on third down against the Raiders,
they were four and fourteen on third down.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
They were one for three in the red area.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
This last week, I think they're seven for twelve in
third down. They're three for four in the red area,
so that's improvement. They only punted twice. They had a
couple pre snap penalties that they got to get fixed,
but that'll come. They look like similar to what I
was saying with the Bears, who didn't have any competency
the year before. They look like an offense that's getting better,
(11:13):
that's learning each other. There's guys making plays, and this
is the early part of the year for everyone, So
you know, not anyone who hasn't been together is gonna
look like they're a pro football team. Especially with the
CBA and how these guys are supposed to practice, this
is gonna take some time on learning your team. There's
not really it's really hard for these guys to prepare
(11:35):
for other teams. There's not a lot of films to
learn what these wrinkles are. Once these things start getting
adjusted and settled, they're gonna be able to coach from
these things and get better. So you're already seeing improvement.
They got a lot more to do, but it's awesome
to see that they got a divisional win.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
By the way, again, early September, it's it can be hot.
Northern teams going down hot. We lost their a bunch, Yeah,
Julian as always games with names. New episode every Tuesday,
sitting in the studio now Sundays on Fox NFL Kickoff.
But I appreciate starting buying.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
No problem, I'll see you guys.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
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 6 (12:20):
Hey it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker, for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball talk, featuring the biggest names and newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
(12:41):
So do your sofa favor and listen to Inside the
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you get your podcast.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
No, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
This is the Herdline News, all right, Colin.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Let's get started with the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
They were able to come back and beat the Giants
in a thriller, but the defense has a lot of holes.
They've traded Michael Parsons last month and they've given up
sixty one points in two games. Jerry Jones knows the
defense needs to step up.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
It's bang into the scheme. You've got to you've got
to handle your responsibilities and you've got to really do
that all over the defense.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
You've got to.
Speaker 8 (13:28):
Do your responsibility, that's first and foremost, and then make
that play if it's there. But the main thing is
you can't just be there trying to make a play.
You can't be a lone ranger out there. You've got
to be a part of a team.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I think if you're a Cowboy fan, you have
to be so encouraged by your first two weeks. You're
so encouraged by Dak's movement accuracy. I mean, Brian Schottenheimer
has a lot of people might included thought this is
a five win team.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I said, a five win team. You were more optimistic.
But when I watch him today, that offense alone, if
Dak is healthy, that's a seven eight nine win team
just on the offense alone.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Yeah, the Bengals of the NFC.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
Now, the real question is can the defense get help
if Bland comes back. So Jerry Jones obviously is speaking
because he loves to talk to the media, He says
he has a real chance to play Bland, their great cornerback,
against the Bear Sunday.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Now, if he doesn't play and Caleb.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
Doesn't cook in this one, Colin, that's.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
Gonna be a real bitter pill to swallow for Chicago fans.
I don't want to say it's.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Over for Ben and Caleb after three games, but you'll
have to admit if he can't.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I mean, what do you think.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
The team total would be? Like, what's a good number
for the Bears to score.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Against this Cowboys defense? Twenty seven to twenty eight points?
Speaker 7 (14:49):
Yeah, I think three or four touchdowns should be in
play for the Bears of this.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, and I'm not talking garbage time.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
If you lose a shootout to dak it's thirty two,
twenty eight and you know, Caleb completes sixty five percent
of his throws two TD snow picks. He's not great,
but it's a fight to the end. That's improvement. My
problem was the first week. In the second week, great
opening drive, but by the third quarter, it just came unraveled,
and it's like, Okay, I feel like I'm watching the
(15:16):
same thing. So I didn't see a lot of growth.
But I don't think. I think this defense and this
environment is built for growth. I think Caleb will look better.
Danny Parkins will have that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
I think.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I think it'd be really, really rough if Caleb gave
you the third straight nice opening drive downhill from there,
that would be hard to stomach.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
Now we know Jadavian Clowney is expected to make his
debut for the Cowboys defense, so they'll get another guy
in the front. I mean, I don't know how much
of a factor he'll be. He's more of a name
at this point in his career. But hey, Dallas is trying.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
I had to get got Kenny Clerk from the Packers,
and now Jadavian Clowny's really four five against the run game.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
College's okay, he can play. He solid. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Next up is the Miami Dolphins Colin. They are zero
and two and the Sharks are circling around Mike McDaniel.
There was a banner that flew over the stadium in
Week two against the Patriots calling for the firing of
McDaniel and GM Chris Greer. McDaniel says he's not worried
about job security and his players are backing his coach,
with linebacker Chop Robinson saying, it's not him out there
(16:27):
on the field, it's really on us. We got to
get better. However, I have talked to some Miami fans
Colin that I know down there. So they play on
Thursday against the Bills. Their next game is down until
next Monday against the Jets. If they get embarrassed and
housed by Buffalo, this is the time you get extended
prep right for the next week. It's not just a
(16:49):
seven Sunday to Sunday. I would not be surprised if
some a move was made.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, I will say Steven Ross, the owner, and Mike
McDaniel have had multiple conversations, so that has been reported.
I've been reading, I've been reading Joe Shad and other
writers down in Miami. So the owner and the coach
are talking on a weekly basis, pregame, post game, so there.
I mean. I don't think they want to make a move,
and I do think their coach is on the right
side of the ball. What really worries me is the
(17:16):
lack of culture and the lack of effort. Again, this
is not a great roster. Chris Greer has been the GM.
I think longer than anybody almost in the AFC. It
feels like he's been there forever. I don't like the roster.
I agree, So I don't think this is all Mike McDaniel,
but the culture feels broken. That's where you lose me.
I can deal with losses, but what are you? What
(17:37):
is Miami? I don't think there're anything specifically, and that's
this is a year.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Or what four or five for him? Well, here's the
other problem.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
Remember if they fire him, really remember the Jets fired
Salah last year early and what happened. The defense completely
fell apart, If the offense falls apart from Miami, you're
looking at like one, two, three wins, quick number for you, Colin. Okay,
Brian Dabele and McDaniel were hired the same.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Year, Okay.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
Mike McDaniel is twenty eight and twenty five with two
playoff trips. Brian Dabele is eighteen and thirty four and
one with one playoff trip.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
So McDaniel has ten more wins than Brian Dabele.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
They were both hired the same offseason, and everybody wants
to run McDaniel out of town.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yet Dabel all of a sudden, nob were talking about Dabell.
I'm just saying I'm a McDaniel guy.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Like I think, I think it's understood that this is
dables last year. I think that's understood.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Final story is, oh, everybody's favorite practice squad quarterback Shadeer Sanders.
Remember that report over the weekend that the Ravens wanted
to draft Shadeur one hundred and forty first overall, but
passed because he allegedly said he didn't want to be
the backup stuck behind Lamar Jackson. Well, of course, the
media asked Shadoor about this, and he said, Colin, wait
(18:51):
for it. I'm focused on the now. I don't really
want to talk about anything in the past. I don't
remember anything pre draft. I go to practice every day
and there's a twenty four hour rule. That's not a denial, Colin,
I just Bolton, You've talked for years. Baltimore is one
of the best franchises in the league.
Speaker 8 (19:12):
Agreed.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Yeah, he said, I don't want to go there because
I'll be stuck behind the mark.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh, I mean he listened between the legendary draft room,
the two ninety five mile hour speeding tickets, and that
quote he either got really bad advice or he's got
really bad judgment. But he's not leading the scout team,
so it's probably a little bit of both. And I
think Dion Sanders, you know, has not distanced himself from it.
(19:37):
But I think Dad gave him great poor advice. And
I think this is just, you know, a cautionary tale
of you know, Dad leaning.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
On the sun.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Nico iamaliav at the UCLA quarterback, sometimes Dad squeezed so hard.
The love is so you know, intense that they they
see they.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Squeeze too hard. Like it's just I think should have.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Got really really bad advice, and I think the UCLA
quarterback similarly really bad advice. You don't leave Tennessee, which
has always been even though they haven't won as much
in the last one of years, it's a football power.
I mean Tennessee is play off Yeah, I mean Tennessee
is college football to UCLA, which has no nil money
and is the second best program by a long shot
(20:21):
in their own city. Sometimes guys, young people get bad advice.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
J Macklin news, Well.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
That's the news, and thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The herd Line.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
News Well, he worked in Chicago for over a decade. Uh,
and there wasn't a lot of winds and happiness and
rainbows and birds chirping with the Bears. Danny Parkins next
on what he's seeing with Chicago is their home.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
It comes to.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Young quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson looked absolutely overwhelmed. Daniel Jones with
the Giants looks kind of limited. Caleb looks a little
like the early shades of Josh Allen. He's just out
of control, but the horsepower is clearly there. Danny Parkins,
(21:21):
who did Chicago Radio Forever, First Things, first weekdays at
three eastern after our show, I guess the encouraging thing
is there is a Josh Allen aspect which is arm horsepower.
You can see it. But Josh was wild at Wyoming.
He was wild for a year and a half and
(21:41):
then all of a sudden, year two he started improving.
Is that your kind of feel like, Okay, it's got
a little Josh. He doesn't look limited like Daniel Jones
or JJ McCarthy. He's not overwhelmed. Like Anthony Richardson, like,
I don't feel it's that do you.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Not even close?
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Colin?
Speaker 9 (21:58):
I mean, it hasn't been good, but it hasn't been awful.
And I think people have gone a little bit too
far here with this sky is falling narrative because at
the beginning of games on script it's looked good. Some
of the offscript stuff, the improvisation has been very impressive.
It's been frustrating. Week one felt a little bit like
(22:20):
Week nineteen, just an extension of last year. But I
do think that coming out of that Detroit game there
were signs of improvement from Caleb Williams. But it also
speaks to we are such a quarterback driven culture that
we're asking these tough questions about Caleb Williams. And I
get it, number one pick, it's the quarterback. It's a
quarterback league. The defense gave up fifty points like that.
(22:43):
Caleb Williams is not a linebacker, a pass rusher, or
a cornerback. So coming out of that Lions game with
Caleb Williams, concern just seems a little misplaced to me.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You know, Ben Johnson, young guy, first job, he's been
not defensive, he's not Brian Kelly at LSU at the mic,
but he's trying to be very supportive.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
It's a fine line.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
He wants to be supportive, but he doesn't want to
get pushed over. In the preseason, he went, he said,
Tyson vagent, this guy is razor sharp.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And I thought that's a that may be a little
too much. I offered a Jmac this week. I said,
if the Dallas defense stops him, do you think Ben
Johnson drives home after the postgame and thinks maybe I
got to make a quarterback change?
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Or does that sound ludicrous?
Speaker 9 (23:38):
It sounds ludicrous, Colin, And when you said it earlier
in the show, frankly, it upset me. I was a
little angry with you, and I considered texting you, but
then I realized, no, we could just do this on
the air the old fashioned way. Like Ben Johnson was
the hot coaching candidate in twenty twenty four. He interviewed
for the Chargers job, he interviews for the command job,
(24:00):
he interviews for the Seahawks job. He's on at the
top of everybody's list this last year, and he chooses
Chicago and at the introductory press conference, he says, yeah,
the quarterback was a big part of the reason why
this is the job that felt right for me.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
And then two games.
Speaker 9 (24:18):
In or I guess in your scenario, after the third game,
he's going to be driving back to the suburbs of
Chicago and be like, you know, on one hand, I
have the generational talent who you just compared to Josh
Allen who struggled his first few years in the league
and then it was ultimately unlocked. And on the other hand,
I have the undrafted kid out of Shepherd.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Huh. Which one am I gonna go with?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 9 (24:42):
I think it's completely nonsensical.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
And why it made me angry if I could.
Speaker 9 (24:46):
Keep going here is last week you have this unbelievable access.
You can talk to billionaires and owners and gms, and
you have the goat. You have Tom Brady on your
show and you're like, my theory, Tom is thank you
giving of year.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Two, I will know it.
Speaker 9 (25:02):
And then we saw week two and it wasn't perfect,
and you came out on the air on Monday were like,
forget Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
How about October first?
Speaker 9 (25:12):
You just abandoned those principles off of two games and frankly,
it upsets me.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I'm very emotional person.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, how about this, you are how about this? You
and I have talked about this off the air. So
much of this league is ownership. I mean, Tampa's ownership
stays out of the way. Todd Bowles doesn't have an ego.
Baker Mayfield looks like a top five quarterback in Cleveland.
Impulsive owner, ohways, desperate, bitter media like environment matters. Chicago's
(25:41):
got one of the poorest ownership groups, a lot of
kids upstairs. Ryan Pole's many myself included, surprised. He got
an extension that Ben and Caleb are just literally climbing
a hill every day in this organization and that it's
just going to be harder than it would be at Buffalo.
The Bills were a playoff team before Josh Allen arrived.
(26:02):
So how about the argument that it may never be
perfect because this is an imperfect organization.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Well, I think that there's a ton of truth to that.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
You know this, Ben Johnson took his car in for
an oil change and they were like, you need a
new transmitter, you need new brakes, you need new wheels,
and frankly, you need an entire new car like this
is a big job. It's a big organizational overhaul the Bears.
Bears fans come by their cynicism with this stuff honestly
because the Bears organization have not given them a reason
(26:35):
to have the benefit of the doubt. So I think
it's a big job with big culture shifts that need
to take place. But I would also say, before Joe
Burrow got to Cincinnati, the Bengals were the Bungles. Before
Patrick Mahomes got to Kansas City, it had been since
Todd Blackledge that they had won a single regular season
(26:55):
game with the quarterback that their franchise had drafted, not
a play off game. A regular season game with the
quarterback that the Chiefs had drafted had won a single game.
So if you get it right at coaching quarterback, you
can overcome a lot. And I just think it's way
too early to think that Ben and Caleb can't be
the right combination it is.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I want to end with this. I'm a big Justin
Herbert fan. I covered Oregon. He's such a nice kid,
but there's always been this push and pull.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
On you know what.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He got four interceptions in the playoffs, blew a huge lead.
In my take is well, he finally got an adult
as a coach, and now he's really good as somebody
that hasn't lived in LA and watches from afar from
an organization not like the Bears, but it's been an
organization that has blown multiple opportunities through the years in
(27:48):
huge games charging it. I think that's now gone, you hope.
How do you view Justin Herbert a relatively young quarterback.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Like a top five talent in the NFL?
Speaker 9 (28:02):
And I felt that coming into this year, and it
was reflected on the lists and the topics that we
would do on the show.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
All last football season.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
To me, Justin Herbert is the ultimate eye test quarterback, Like,
if you watch the games, you know that this guy
can do everything that anyone would want from a quarterback
on the football field, and at times he has been
let down by Anthony Lynn, by Brandon Staley, by yes,
having the worst game of his career at the worst
moment possible in Houston, but also knowing that two of
(28:31):
those four interceptions were off of his pass catcher's hands
and the interior of his offensive line was an absolute
disaster against the top five pass rush.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
In the NFL.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
In Houston last year, and he had a great first
half of that game against Jacksonville, and then Jacksonville staged
an up at comeback on the Charger defense, not on
Justin Herbert. So the playoffs success will come. But I
believe that he is a Hall of Fame talent. I
believe that there's an MVP Award in his future. I
believe that there's a super Bowl in his future. And
yet Jim Harbaugh is a big part of the reason why.
(29:02):
But I felt that way before Harball got there, simply
because he passes every possible way of just watching the
games and saying, yep, that dude's got it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Sometimes you don't need.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
More than that.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
It's an eye test thing. And Justin Herbert's that level
of player.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, I felt that when I Jayden Daniels in college.
I remember saying, it's gonna look like Lamar Jackson, not
quite as fast, better from the pocket. That's gonna work
in the NFL. And to your point, JJ McCarthy looks overwhelmed.
That's what my eyes tell me. He looks overwhelmed. Danny Parkins,
first things first, does an amazing job? Show is now
three hours? Not to because Danny said, I'll carry some.
(29:38):
I'll carry some.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
Of the weight.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And he is, by the way, great seeing you, Buden.
Thanks Colin, you bet really really sharp guy. Love seeing him.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
No, I think Herbert's one of those that were so
we're so rough on quarterbacks and postseason success.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
We don't do that in baseball.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Mike Trout does nothing, and everybody that covered the sport
for a decade said, Mike Trout's the best player.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
We don't do that. Even in the NBA. James Harden,
he's unbelievable. Yeah, he falls apart in the playoff. Doesn't
matter with quarterbacks, and people are on Lamar Jackson every January.
He won seventy six percent of his games in the AFC.
Pervert's the real Deal. First Thing's First coming up next week.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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