THE HERD - Hour 3 - Who survives between John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, is the NFL MVP race settled?
December 30, 2025 • 35 mins
Reports continue to swirl about the job security for two NFL coaches ahead of Sunday, and Colin weighs in. Nick Wright stops by and bucks the idea that Drake Maye has now definitively taken the lead for the MVP race over Matthew Stafford. Nikola Jokic is out four weeks, but Colin doesn’t think the Lakers can take advantage of any of this in the Western Conference. Colin doesn’t want to see Oregon quarterback Dante Moore on the Jets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
He's a busy guy doing a lot of things multimedia.
We don't want to take too much of his time
now that he's in the third hour. He's the co
host and a friend. First things first, his name is
Nick Right. His name is Nick Right, and it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
That is hold on, hold on. That is one hell
of a way to explain. I got bumped from the
spot I've been in for seven years for Joel Klatt.
When I got the text like, hey, can we move you?
This is like it's a Herd hierarchy then Nick Wright
every Tuesday, damn near a decade. Honestly, I said yes,
(01:03):
of course, And in my head I'm like, oh, Tom
Brady must be coming on, like that would make sense.
I was like, that's why I turn it on. And
I love Joel best looking man in sports TV. But
that's it, just a very quick anytime the ego gets
a little too big, it's nice to have a reality check.
(01:24):
And it's Joe Klatt's schedule far more important than within
with something we've done for a decade.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
So no problem. I'm glad you could make time for me,
mister coward.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Thank you you bet. I did tell them yesterday. I
said I'd preferm in the second hour. It has to
go through Nick, so I.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Did you know, no problem, don't worry.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So I still I'm I just don't buy Buffalo. I
don't think you can win a super Bowl trailing seven
out of eight weeks. They're so bad in the first half.
They're worse than Cleveland, you know, since week ten in
the first half. So I have them ten. And by
the way, I've said this with the Chargers, you can't
win multiple playoff games with an O line that bad.
(02:06):
You can't win when you constantly put a cape on
Josh Allen, anything else, anything jump out to you here.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, so I guess here's what I would say. I
feel like you can do the You can't win a
super Bowl with X with every team this year.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Like if I were to go through your hierarchy.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I would feel like the Seahawks, We're gonna trust Darnold
in four straight or three straight huge spots feels tricky.
The Niners, the team that gets to the quarterback less
than any team in the league, that many defensive injuries,
good to do it.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Patriots have looked great.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
The real knock on them is simply a quarterback's first
ever playoff run. He's going to go all the way
and they haven't faced the stiffest competition.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
The Jags have.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know how much I like Trevor Lawrence and want
to believe in the Jags, but they were a shaky
team until five weeks ago. They were winning despite not
playing great. The Rams are They playing their worst football
of the season at the worst time of the season.
The Eagles have played thirty two halves this year, colin
(03:17):
three of them ten percent. They have negative yards passing.
One in ten halves they go negative yards passing.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
We don't trust.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
To me, the Broncos are the Texans offense or the
Bears defense. And then you get to Buffalo, So I
agree with you, it's a yeah. But season here would
be the positive case for Buffalo. After Sunday night, I
didn't know their defense had that in them. The defense
actually bowed up in that game. They got let down
(03:47):
by Josh Allen, who's been great, made some mistakes. The
sack he took to take him out of field goal range,
the fumble is bad luck, but in chase after it
and he missed an easy throw. Can Josh Allen, who,
by the way, this is the other question, never won
a road playoff game. Win three in a row to
get to the super Bowl. If not now win But
(04:09):
I just feel like there is not now that the
Rams look a little shaky, and I don't I don't
think we have the clear cut, you know, all well rounded,
perfect team this year.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
This is what happens.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The moral of the story is, this is what happens
when the Chiefs aren't in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Everyone's got issues. I mean, it really is just not
the same.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's just it's just so much better when the Chiefs
are there, and then there's a standard to hold teams
to such a bumber Yeah, no, that's actually.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
True and funny.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
It's both.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
You know, the.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Philadelphia is a fan. I said this earlier. If I said,
I'm going to tell you the tendencies of this franchise,
Their coach spars with fans, they fire super Bowl winning
quarterback winning coaches, they move off super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
They go halves without completing a pass. Their coach is
(05:10):
a firestarter and sometimes feels kind of immature, and there's
draw between their star receiver and the quarterback. You'd be like, okay,
that's Carolina, the Saints, the Jets.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Are the Eagles the greatest dysfunctional franchise in American sports?
I don't expect you to know hockey? They're kind of no.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What a great question, So I don't, so I'm not.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I consider myself. I know this is in sound arrogant,
A true.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Top shelf basketball and football historian, not so much baseball.
So I like, were the Billy Martiney Yankees like this?
Were they really good? I don't, you know, I'm not
quite sure. Typically, when we think of dysfunctional teams, you
think of, you know, the Vikings when they had you know,
(06:03):
Earmuff's kids, the sex boat stuff in the two thousand aughts.
I think of the Trail Blazers team that you covered. Yeah,
and that, by the way, like the Blazers, they were good.
They went on playoff runs, but you don't think of champions.
Maybe you could argue the Barry Switzer Cowboys had some
(06:25):
of this, and that is maybe the similarity is just
really stacked roster that the roster the talent becomes almost
mistake proof.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
But man, Colin, here's what we now know.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Philly is going to be the two or the three seed,
and we know so they're going to play either the
six or the seven. If they're the two, they get
green Bay that I think they should be okay in
that spot. But if they are the three, if either
they lose this weekend or Chicago wins, and Philly is
the three, then the three seed you will be playing
(07:01):
either the Niners or the Rams. We know that guaranteed.
Those are the only two teams that can be the six. Man,
I feel like I like either of those teams to
go to Philadelphia and beat them. Given how they're playing
right now, I just can't trust that they don't have say,
they have Saquan, but Squan hasn't been able to save
them this year, and they were playing their worst football
(07:22):
of the year. They lost three straight. Jalen had the
five turnover game. They then beat Josh Johnson and Kenny Pickett,
and people were like, it's fixed. I don't know that
it's fixed. And in Buffalo it didn't seem fixed. Even
though the defense hats off to Fangio, the defense is unbelievable.
I don't think that's going to be enough for them
this year.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So I acknowledge we all have biases. I'm a traitist
with quarterbacks. Yeah, I want I want. I always say
I want my quarterbacks like my furniture, big and hard
to move. I like big, I like strong, I like tough,
I like like. I like guys who throw picks, guys
that throw it down the field, like I I sure,
and then and then and now I don't know what
(08:06):
to do with Brock Purty because he looked like a
version of looked awesome. I mean, the last three weeks
with a good old line, he missed. He didn't have kittle.
Trent Williams and you and I have been on this,
and I think you and I have mostly been right
on the quarterback stuff. I look at Brock party I'm like,
(08:28):
not big in a big arm. He's a pretty good athlete.
And then I watched him and I'm like, okay, three
or four weeks in a row. He's just go as
any quarterback in the league. I could say, well, it's
it's it's Shanahan, but Trey Lambs didn't work, Garoppolo was Okay,
wasn't this What do we make of Purty?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So listen, I think both things can be true. The
last two weeks, in particular, he's been sensational, and last
week against Caleb he was He went blow for blow,
throw for throw. Yeah, with a guy who you and
I both believe has MVP caliber traits. So I am
(09:07):
not taking anything away from Purdy for what he did
the last couple of weeks. That can be true, While
it also can be true that we the information we
gleaned from seeing mac Jones in this offense with these
players for half the season not be as good as Purty,
(09:28):
but be really good. Be you know, oh wow. If
you had never seen mac Jones before, you'd be like, oh, okay,
that's obviously a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But we know he's not.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
So I think that can go into the Purty grade
and evaluation. I also have said, and people don't believe
me on this, and I'll be honest, I don't even
know if I totally believe myself on this when I
say I'm not trying to be a rock purty hater.
I'm just trying to give credit where it's fully due.
But I want that to be the case. And what
(09:59):
the reason I I say that is, It's not that
I don't want Party to get credit. It's that credit
there's only so much credit to go around and to me,
this year, the two leading actors for the Niners have
been Kyle Shanahan, who has been brilliant, and Christian McCaffery,
who I think is the offensive player of the year
in this league. I think Christian McCaffery having another two
(10:22):
thousand yards from scrimmage season, the touchdowns, the touches, the
only consistent person on their offense all year to have
them a game away from the one seed. He has
been brilliant. Party since he's come back from injury has
been very good and the last two weeks has been exceptional.
I still am hesitant, and in fact not hesitant. I
(10:46):
am at the moment, unwilling to elevate him past a
certain tier of quarterbacks because of what I saw mac
Jones doing, because of what I saw perty look like
last year. But he's been awesome in the last two weeks.
There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I had Mike Rabel on earlier, and I didn't ask
him this because I had talked about it earlier. But
it was very easy in year two to go Lamar
should be MVP because he's so explosive and dynamic and
stylistically so unique. And it was very easy with Mahomes
he was winning so many games to go, Yeah, that's
an MVP. He throws left handed, He's got the best
arm in the league. The guy is clever, he's fun.
(11:20):
I think it's harder to look at Drake May and go.
He's very accurate, he's very sturdy. I like his leadership.
It's all hard until last night. You were like, let's
give it to Stafford three weeks ago, so let's give it.
Let's give it to Alan. Drake May is Brady with
a little bit of mobility, and Brady to the very end,
seth Wickersham wrote a column ones I remember this reading it,
(11:43):
and to the very end there were sources saying in
the building a lot of quarterbacks could win here. I'm like,
could a lot go to Tampa and Hoysted Trophy. I
don't think so. So I think Drake May is going
to now now win MVP, and I'd argue he has
been the most consistent quarterback in the league since Week three.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
So here, listen.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I think Drake May is awesome. I think that, and
I came on with you two months ago and I
said May and Vrabel are a lesson for all the
perpetual rebuilding franchises that it does not take five years
if you have the right coach and the right quarterback.
It takes two years. And they've only had the coach
for one year. So if you've had the same coach
(12:27):
and same quarterback for two years and it's not working,
one of them, at least one of them is not
the right guy. I said a month ago that when
I am doing the top five quarterbacks in the league,
forget you know, in ten years or moving forward right
now this moment, Drake May's on that list. I believe
in Drake May. I think he's excellent, and if he
wins MVP, I don't think.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It's a crime.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
But I think what is happening to the NFL MVP
over the last three seasons is a crime, a sports crime,
and that is this. It feels to me, Colin, like,
because we do the MVP horse race starting in week four,
that what the MVP race has actually come down to
(13:14):
is this. It feels like everything up until December first
is simply about determining who are the three or four
quarterbacks eligible for the award, And this year it was
Stafford way ahead of everyone.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Drake May and Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Snuck in at the end, and then it's as if
there is a whole new season and amongst those three players,
MVP just becomes December Player of the Month. It's like, Okay, Stafford,
May and Allen, who has the best closing kick? That
guy's the MVP. Because I am ten days removed from
(13:53):
Matt Stafford throwing for four point fifty and scoring thirty
seven on maybe the best team in the league, one
of the best defenses. We are seventeen or twenty days,
fourteen days removed from Drake May having the worst game
of his season. Again, he's had a great season, but
against Buffalo in a big spot, I think Drake is excellent.
(14:17):
If I had a ballot, he would be second on it.
But what bothers me about where I think the MVP
race is going is if you took all thirty two games.
These two guys have played sixteen each and rearranged the
order randomly. I think Stafford wins nine out.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Of ten MVPs.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But because Drake May is finishing best and Stafford's had
one of his worst games, he's gonna win it. I
think Stafford's been the best player this year.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well, you've got a hit show that starts around the corner,
and since we've pushed you to like a co pilot, so.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I gotta go. I know it's unbelievable. I got the show.
I also have a very.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Very demanding podcast boss that demanded two episodes for me
this morning.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm just working. I'm just working like crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Happy holidays, Colin, great to see you, brother, Merry Christmas,
Happy New yeark all.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right, the super fun talented Nick Wright. First things first,
after our show, I am a very demanding boss. I
think you know j Mack knows that tittle to the metal.
So nice to have Rabel on today. He already sent
me a nice text. He nice guy. The Yeah, it's
it's I always. The NBA is interesting because I grew up.
(15:29):
My first player I love was doctor J and I
was reading an article today about Peter Vessey retirement and
it was great, great article about you know, covering all
these old NBA stars, and the NBA has always been
a sport, like the style matters, like culture style. I mean,
like Walt Fraser, the way he dressed everything. But you know,
(15:51):
Walton was against authority, Like that's football is really not
about that. Football is about winning games. But it did
did the quarterback position. It's just it's it's funny. Now
you can go to the very end of Tom Brady
in New England and I swear at Seth Wickersham, great writer.
There were writing articles at the end of the Brady
(16:13):
run and there were sources in the building saying, you
know a lot of guys could win here. And I'm like,
all right, Cam tried, Mac tried, Garoppolo tried. That's not
winning nearly as much. It's it's and then there's the
divorce Belichick Brady and you look and you're like, yeah,
Tom was about seventy five percent of it, probably that
maybe maybe sixty five. He was the greater part of it.
(16:38):
But like Drake May's game is so efficient and it's
it's not boring, boring is the wrong word, but it's
just so efficient. It doesn't jump through the television. He
just completes passes one after another after another, and he's
very good against the blitz, which young quarterbacks generally are
(16:59):
against the blitz. So he doesn't get into trouble. He's
not running for his life. So much of Drake May
is pre snap, getting out of trouble and completing seven
out of ten throws. Meet Tom Brady with movement out
of pocket movement.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win big at the sportsbook, and all the best guests.
(17:48):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
J Mackle the.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
News, No, no turn on the news. This is the
herd Line News.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Oh boy, Colin, Big day in the NFL. We got
some breaking news out of Dallas. The Cowboys just released
cornerbacks Trayvon Diggs, two years after signing him to a
ninety seven million dollar extension. More egg on the face
of Jerry Jones. We'll hear from him shortly. Diggs is
gonna go through waivers and you know what, Colin, I
(18:29):
think I think he's eligible to be picked up by
any team in the playoffs. Here we're still waiting on that.
I don't know if anybody will take a gamble on him.
One could argue, hey, he hasn't been a good scheme
fit with Debra Flus. What are you doing dumping Hi?
Because Deebra Flues is toasted anyway, But the Cowboys remain
a mess. He's gonna Digs will be eight and a
half million dollars a dead cat money next year. Gotta
(18:51):
love that, Jerry.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I think the Cowboys are going edge rusher and corner
in around one of the draft.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Here's your boy, Jerry Jones talking about releasing Trayvon.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
Did we had a expectation in our secondary and I
thought we would be good at all phases of it.
That's a team wide breakdown for us not to play
better defense than we've had. Not a member of this
breakdown per se, just him.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, they're terrible at corner. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Obviously tough day for the Diggs family. We know what
his brother's going through in New England right now with
some charges. Colin, I can't get over the fact that
Jerry Jones is he's the owner of the team and
they released a cornerback who's barely done jack squad this year,
and the first thing Jerry does is go give an
interview about it the owner. What are we going to
get perspective here? This is goofy, Colin, What is happening? Still?
(19:46):
I'm just this is if you're a Cowboys fan, Hey,
you know who's next? Is Bland the other guy they paid.
We'll see what happens with him. Like, I know, you
love the Jerry move for Quinn Williams.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I think they're going to get the top corner in
the draft. They're going to get a top three edge rusher.
But how would they get in the top cornerback in
the draft. Well, there's about there's two really good first
round corners. They're gonna get one of them, and then
they're also going to get probably the third best edge rusher,
second third best edge rusher. So so they'll solve some
of their defensive issues. Quinn Williams is Kenny Clark? Have
(20:21):
you know? They haven't drafted that poorly. They overshown been
a good player. I think they're I like overshithings. I
think their bigger issue is do you love the staff?
Because there's Nick right just said.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Let me't even got the Pickens. Pickens is a big one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Do you what are you you tagging him?
Speaker 5 (20:35):
You're paying him?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (20:36):
No, Flornoy, ceed Lamb, Turpin go draft another fifth round.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Flornoy looked great because everybody was focused on the whiteouts
and Floornoy's left alone? Or is Flornoy like an emerging stuff?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Ceedee? Lamb's a guy that you sometimes you have to
bracket and double team. So Turpet and FLOROI are gonna get.
I think Floray's a good player.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah, I like him. H Lamb had a case of
the drop seas this year. Listen, you could put lipstick
on a pig all you want this is a disaster
situation in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Let me just say Let me just say this New England.
I think I've hit four in a row, maybe five,
of predicting who's gonna double their win Tonal based on
if they make a move at coach, Dallas will be
my team next year.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
But who's or who are they getting? Come on, come on,
they're dumping shoddy one and done.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Half Lee day ble Come on?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Really another first time head coach in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Oro, I'm Jason Garrett. Have never been a coach.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
He was on the staff for years. He was Jerry's guy.
Jerry wants a good I'm just gonna say stuff I regret. Anyways,
let's move on to the Chargers. Colin. They secured a
playoff spot, but they have ruled out Jim Harbor. I'm
sorry not Jim Harball has ruled out Justin Herbert for
this week as well as other starters, which is smart.
They are now massive underdogs against Denver in a game.
(21:57):
It doesn't mean anything. Thank you, Jim Harbaugh. And here's
sound Harball sitting as guys.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Health and winning.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's uh, that's it.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Yeah, there's no way to predict we're going on the
road first round.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
All all potential teams.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Would be would be good.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
The guys that need to you have the most bruises,
that need to.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
The most healing, we will pull them back.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Justin. Herbert would be one.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
We'll see how the rest of the week goes. Tomorrow. Listen,
it's we've got something. I'll tell you what what what
do we have tomorrow? You don't need Burrow Mahomes in
the playoffs. Some of these playoff matchups are fascinating.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Okay, the Chargers Patriots, let's do it now, and i'd
ha pick for.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I would say New England at home would win that game. Interesting,
let's just break it down real quick.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Who's got the head coaching advantage New England Chargers?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And they're both a coaches, both are great and so
no edge.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
It's a watch. Okay, who's got a new quarterback edge?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, I think at this point Herbert is so seasoned.
But I mean Drake May's first playoff game, that's a
at home pressure Khalil Matt coming off the edge, Jesse
mentor DC. That's a tough ask for a week one. Yeah,
but if it's snowing so far as Chargers going into
a snowstorm.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
So it's not overrated narrative. I totally disagree if this is.
If this somehow is three and a half, I'm considering
next year's salary just like I just I love Harbor
listen man, and they're resting their guys. I love if
Patriots are playing their guys because they still have a
shot at I think the number one. But Denver would
have to lose to the Charges, which isn't happening. Can
(23:45):
we just get real talk. I don't like looking through
the fifteen permutations for what could happen.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Do you like doing that or no, well there's not
fifteen of them?
Speaker 5 (23:53):
I know, No, I mean they set me Chargers playoff.
There's okay, find fifteen.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
There's a different if if Baltimore wins tomorrow, I'll do
AFC playoff picture stating that Baltimore wins and then that
because that I think they're gonna win, then we know
what's gonna happen. And I think, you know, I think
nobody's talking about Denver's gonna have all home games and
don't lose at home. Jacksonville is the only team in
(24:18):
two years that's got him at home. And Jacksonville Chargers, Texans.
Those are warm weather teams having to go playing snow.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
So you sounding confidence that Sean Payton's going to the
Super Bowl? Hunh, make it, make it, make it interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Perhaps take a deep breath.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I'm excited, all right. Final story, Colin, we got some
crappy news out of the NBA. Nicola Jokic, currently the
best player in the league, had just a brutal moment
here where his own player backing up steps on his
on Yokic's foot. The knee buckles. There were some major fears.
The good news is ligaments are intact and it's a
hyper extended knee. He's gonna miss at least four weeks.
(25:03):
If you are in the awards market, Jokic missing four
weeks cannot win the MVP because they have this silly
got to play sixty five games or whatever, and Yokic
now is missing four weeks, he can't win the MVP.
So obviously the Nuggets have major injury problems right now.
Aaron Gordon is down. I mean, they're starting guys I'm
not familiar with, Colin. This is really good news for
(25:27):
the young San Antonio Spurs, who are establishing themselves, I
believe is the best team in the league. It's okay,
see and the Spurs at the top of the West
record wise. If the Lakers can tread water without Reefs,
listen the Nuggets for a month, what are they gonna be?
Five and five and fifteen. They're not gonna be good
without Jokis at all. There's a chance for the Lakers
to gain some ground. Oh, come on, they're not good Lakers.
(25:50):
Lakers have so many they're so bad right now defensively, Hey,
why don't you start saying nice things about them? Because
JJ Reddick will then come on the show.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
JJ Reddick's busy. I mean, they have these NBA guys coaching,
living on four and a half hours sleep. He's trying
to fix the defense. I think JJ Reddick's busy, Like
I think, you know, everybody's like, Oh, JJ Reddick he is.
You know, he's really rough on these players. It's okay
if the NBA players occasionally Charles Barkley and JJ Reddick
don't pander to them. NFL guys get crushed all the time.
(26:22):
So what he better win games? Lakers stink defensively. Somebody
needs to call him out.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Go off.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
J McK of the news.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The
Herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Laker's fourth worst defensive rating in December in the league.
Fans know it. Think about this. They don't have any
three and D guys. Like the NBA is a three
and D league, has been for a decade. In December,
opponent shot forty one from the three point line. They
just can't get out to defend it. It's brutal. I
(26:58):
mean that, that's just brutal. And that's a that's a
roster composition issue. That's not JJ reddicks fault. I mean,
it's been a three and D league forever. They don't
have any three and D guys. Jared Vanderbilt's got some dexterity.
You know, he's a little bit he's versatile as a defender,
but so many diversaal defenders. It's an offensive it's an
offensive roster. That's not JJ Redicks fault. Don't blame him.
(27:22):
He inherited it. It's the hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Saturday Prime time Hoops is on Fox with a Big
ten showdown as fifth rank Purdue takes on Wisconsin at
Aultin Soft at eight pm Eastern Saturday on Fox Thursday,
Big college football games. I think Oregon Texas Tech is
going to be interesting. So Dante Moore is fascinating. There
could be a domino effect. Here's my big opinion, and
(27:55):
it actually helps Oregon, helps Dante More and hurts crappy
NFL teams for a quarterback. I don't think he's gonna
play particularly well against Texas Tech, but I think Oregon
probably finds a way to win. He was good against
James Madison, five touchdowns, surmanderd yards completed seventy percent. He
wasn't great against Iowa. He was it was bad weather.
(28:16):
He wasn't great against Indiana. He was good against Penn State.
They turned out to be not very good. I like
Dante More a lot, but he's twenty years old. What
a disaster it would be to send him to the Jets.
What a disaster it would be to send him to
a bad team with a shaky ownership.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I want to see the kids succeed. Reportedly, he's a
great kid, and I think Texas Tech Oregon's best case
scenario for the program is they win and Dante maybe
has a bad pick, doesn't blow everybody away. I think
that's best case because Donald. Look how good Donald is,
(28:55):
And remember how good Donald was in college at USC.
He went to New York the dysfunctional Jets, and he
was twenty and it was a disaster. So you can't
overcome weird ownership, bad coaching, shaky front offices, weak rosters,
no matter unless you're Andrew Luck out of college. So
(29:15):
here is Todd McShay last week on the show about
Dante more going forward.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
I love him.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
I think he's going to be a great pro. If
he were solely listening to my advice, I would say
go back to school for another year, man, because I
have evidence from twenty five years that I've gathered that
the number starts that he has, which is what seventeen,
I think at this point it'll be eighteen, nineteen, twenty,
somewhere in that range, the chances of him succeeding with
(29:46):
another twelve, thirteen, fourteen starts next year are significantly higher.
Twenty five years of data telling me that Todd's wright.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So it's just he's a really talented kid, but we've
seen the time and time again you get stuck with
the wrong franchise. Look at how good Sam Darnold is
now winning record, Carolina winning record, Minnesota winning record, Seattle
disaster in New York. So the other thing, I tend
(30:15):
to see myself as America's honesty broker. I had the
voice of college football Joel klatt on earlier, who is
also the voice of reason on USC and Notre Dame
ending there at least for the time being. I think
(30:36):
they'll resume it at some point, perhaps, but ending their rivalry,
and Clatt sees it like I do.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Listen, it does not bemoove anybody. I can't believe I'm
saying this, but like to schedule Notre Dame because they
have such an advantage over these teams that are playing
and in the Big ten in the SEC's cases, much
more difficult schedules. And now there's this bar, like a
(31:08):
minimum bar, where all Notre Dame has to do is
be in the top twelve with their schedule.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
That's that's crazy. Miami, if Notre dame side deal would
have been intact this year, Miami, who just beat Texas
A and M in the playoff, Miami would have been
bounced out by Notre Dame, and Miami beat Notre Dame.
(31:37):
Think about that, meaning there could be a scenario if
USC Notre Dame played, USC beat Notre Dame, is ranked
a head of Notre Dame and would get bounced out
by Notre Dame and their automatic bid. Think about that.
Miami this year would have been bounced out and they
beat Notre Dame head to head and had four common
(32:02):
opponents and beat three of the four. So just put
yourself USC in Miami's shoes. They would have been knocked
out and beat Notre Dame. So again I said before
all these former Trojans that are upset, are any of
you guys business guys? Any of you guys entrepreneurs. Would
you go into a business deal where a guy had
(32:22):
a side deal that you weren't, you didn't know, or
you didn't have even if you didn't know, and he
could take a majority of the profits because of the
side deal.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I wouldn't do a business deal like that.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Colin can I ask why do you, I know you
hate this Notre Dame auto in the top twelve. Why
do you think the committee cut the deal with him,
Then why would you do the deal a Notre Dame,
Hey cool playing a conference? No, we want you. Why
do you think they said you're auto top top twelve
because Notre Dame is a huge brand.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, that they are. And also Notre Dame cut a
deal because Notre Dame knows if USC doesn't play us,
our schedule will easily be the weakest of any top
ten to twelve program.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So now this could all be averted if if you
didn't have these automatic qualifiers like Tulane and James Madison.
If you took those out, then I think USC would
be more comfortable saying, hey, if we're ranked top twelve,
we get in. But now you can be ranked tenth.
If you're USC Notre Dame twelve, you could have beaten
them head to head and Notre Dame gets in automatically.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I'm not going into no, it's smart by Notre Dame. Right,
you would admit that. You can say the other side
is like upset, why would you do it? But it's Notre.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Dame smartly is prioritizing the playoff and we're not.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
We don't care about a conference, we don't need no
conference because guess what, we've got to deal with NBC
and teams are willing to play us for a marquee game, right, Cincinnati,
all these other middling to your programs and guess what,
Notre Dame. They then could bake in one loss of
seat and still get to the playoffs. It's genius business
from their end.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
And USC says, no can do. We're now, We're now
inarguably the toughest conference. If you look at USC schedule
next year, Ohio State, Oregon, Washington at Indiana at Penn State.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Well, we don't know if Indiana and Penn State are
going to be great, but the other two yes, that
in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Is going to be really good. They got major money
and a great coach. They got NFL dudes everywhere. They're
going to ten though. Come on, oh, I think they
are really Mark Cuban. You see the writing checks. Have
you seen the two families writing checks for Indiana. Indiana's
got a great business school. Indiana's here to stay.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
I think this deal makes sense for both sides, USC
and Notre Dame. There's no loser here except the fans
who missed the game, right.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I mean Michigan used to play Notre Dame. They stopped
playing at the sport's more popular than ever. I think
college football is a bit of a mess, but it's a.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know well, but you know not everything that's a mess.
I've gone. I mean, we've all gone to events, we've
all gone to parties. We've all been in relationships that
are a bit of a mess, but they're fun. USC
played nine conference games this season. I don't think you
need to add another
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three eastern nine am to noone Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
He's a busy guy doing a lot of things multimedia.
We don't want to take too much of his time
now that he's in the third hour. He's the co
host and a friend. First things first, his name is
Nick Right. His name is Nick Right, and it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
That is hold on, hold on. That is one hell
of a way to explain. I got bumped from the
spot I've been in for seven years for Joel Klatt.
When I got the text like, hey, can we move you?
This is like it's a Herd hierarchy then Nick Wright
every Tuesday, damn near a decade. Honestly, I said yes,
(01:03):
of course, And in my head I'm like, oh, Tom
Brady must be coming on, like that would make sense.
I was like, that's why I turn it on. And
I love Joel best looking man in sports TV. But
that's it, just a very quick anytime the ego gets
a little too big, it's nice to have a reality check.
(01:24):
And it's Joe Klatt's schedule far more important than within
with something we've done for a decade.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
So no problem. I'm glad you could make time for me,
mister coward.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Thank you you bet. I did tell them yesterday. I
said I'd preferm in the second hour. It has to
go through Nick, so I.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Did you know, no problem, don't worry.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So I still I'm I just don't buy Buffalo. I
don't think you can win a super Bowl trailing seven
out of eight weeks. They're so bad in the first half.
They're worse than Cleveland, you know, since week ten in
the first half. So I have them ten. And by
the way, I've said this with the Chargers, you can't
win multiple playoff games with an O line that bad.
(02:06):
You can't win when you constantly put a cape on
Josh Allen, anything else, anything jump out to you here.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, so I guess here's what I would say. I
feel like you can do the You can't win a
super Bowl with X with every team this year.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Like if I were to go through your hierarchy.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I would feel like the Seahawks, We're gonna trust Darnold
in four straight or three straight huge spots feels tricky.
The Niners, the team that gets to the quarterback less
than any team in the league, that many defensive injuries,
good to do it.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Patriots have looked great.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
The real knock on them is simply a quarterback's first
ever playoff run. He's going to go all the way
and they haven't faced the stiffest competition.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
The Jags have.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know how much I like Trevor Lawrence and want
to believe in the Jags, but they were a shaky
team until five weeks ago. They were winning despite not
playing great. The Rams are They playing their worst football
of the season at the worst time of the season.
The Eagles have played thirty two halves this year, colin
(03:17):
three of them ten percent. They have negative yards passing.
One in ten halves they go negative yards passing.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
We don't trust.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
To me, the Broncos are the Texans offense or the
Bears defense. And then you get to Buffalo, So I
agree with you, it's a yeah. But season here would
be the positive case for Buffalo. After Sunday night, I
didn't know their defense had that in them. The defense
actually bowed up in that game. They got let down
(03:47):
by Josh Allen, who's been great, made some mistakes. The
sack he took to take him out of field goal range,
the fumble is bad luck, but in chase after it
and he missed an easy throw. Can Josh Allen, who,
by the way, this is the other question, never won
a road playoff game. Win three in a row to
get to the super Bowl. If not now win But
(04:09):
I just feel like there is not now that the
Rams look a little shaky, and I don't I don't
think we have the clear cut, you know, all well rounded,
perfect team this year.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
This is what happens.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The moral of the story is, this is what happens
when the Chiefs aren't in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Everyone's got issues. I mean, it really is just not
the same.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's just it's just so much better when the Chiefs
are there, and then there's a standard to hold teams
to such a bumber Yeah, no, that's actually.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
True and funny.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
It's both.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
You know, the.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Philadelphia is a fan. I said this earlier. If I said,
I'm going to tell you the tendencies of this franchise,
Their coach spars with fans, they fire super Bowl winning
quarterback winning coaches, they move off super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
They go halves without completing a pass. Their coach is
(05:10):
a firestarter and sometimes feels kind of immature, and there's
draw between their star receiver and the quarterback. You'd be like, okay,
that's Carolina, the Saints, the Jets.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Are the Eagles the greatest dysfunctional franchise in American sports?
I don't expect you to know hockey? They're kind of no.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What a great question, So I don't, so I'm not.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I consider myself. I know this is in sound arrogant,
A true.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Top shelf basketball and football historian, not so much baseball.
So I like, were the Billy Martiney Yankees like this?
Were they really good? I don't, you know, I'm not
quite sure. Typically, when we think of dysfunctional teams, you
think of, you know, the Vikings when they had you know,
(06:03):
Earmuff's kids, the sex boat stuff in the two thousand aughts.
I think of the Trail Blazers team that you covered. Yeah,
and that, by the way, like the Blazers, they were good.
They went on playoff runs, but you don't think of champions.
Maybe you could argue the Barry Switzer Cowboys had some
(06:25):
of this, and that is maybe the similarity is just
really stacked roster that the roster the talent becomes almost
mistake proof.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
But man, Colin, here's what we now know.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Philly is going to be the two or the three seed,
and we know so they're going to play either the
six or the seven. If they're the two, they get
green Bay that I think they should be okay in
that spot. But if they are the three, if either
they lose this weekend or Chicago wins, and Philly is
the three, then the three seed you will be playing
(07:01):
either the Niners or the Rams. We know that guaranteed.
Those are the only two teams that can be the six. Man,
I feel like I like either of those teams to
go to Philadelphia and beat them. Given how they're playing
right now, I just can't trust that they don't have say,
they have Saquan, but Squan hasn't been able to save
them this year, and they were playing their worst football
(07:22):
of the year. They lost three straight. Jalen had the
five turnover game. They then beat Josh Johnson and Kenny Pickett,
and people were like, it's fixed. I don't know that
it's fixed. And in Buffalo it didn't seem fixed. Even
though the defense hats off to Fangio, the defense is unbelievable.
I don't think that's going to be enough for them
this year.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So I acknowledge we all have biases. I'm a traitist
with quarterbacks. Yeah, I want I want. I always say
I want my quarterbacks like my furniture, big and hard
to move. I like big, I like strong, I like tough,
I like like. I like guys who throw picks, guys
that throw it down the field, like I I sure,
and then and then and now I don't know what
(08:06):
to do with Brock Purty because he looked like a
version of looked awesome. I mean, the last three weeks
with a good old line, he missed. He didn't have kittle.
Trent Williams and you and I have been on this,
and I think you and I have mostly been right
on the quarterback stuff. I look at Brock party I'm like,
(08:28):
not big in a big arm. He's a pretty good athlete.
And then I watched him and I'm like, okay, three
or four weeks in a row. He's just go as
any quarterback in the league. I could say, well, it's
it's it's Shanahan, but Trey Lambs didn't work, Garoppolo was Okay,
wasn't this What do we make of Purty?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So listen, I think both things can be true. The
last two weeks, in particular, he's been sensational, and last
week against Caleb he was He went blow for blow,
throw for throw. Yeah, with a guy who you and
I both believe has MVP caliber traits. So I am
(09:07):
not taking anything away from Purdy for what he did
the last couple of weeks. That can be true, While
it also can be true that we the information we
gleaned from seeing mac Jones in this offense with these
players for half the season not be as good as Purty,
(09:28):
but be really good. Be you know, oh wow. If
you had never seen mac Jones before, you'd be like, oh, okay,
that's obviously a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But we know he's not.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
So I think that can go into the Purty grade
and evaluation. I also have said, and people don't believe
me on this, and I'll be honest, I don't even
know if I totally believe myself on this when I
say I'm not trying to be a rock purty hater.
I'm just trying to give credit where it's fully due.
But I want that to be the case. And what
(09:59):
the reason I I say that is, It's not that
I don't want Party to get credit. It's that credit
there's only so much credit to go around and to me,
this year, the two leading actors for the Niners have
been Kyle Shanahan, who has been brilliant, and Christian McCaffery,
who I think is the offensive player of the year
in this league. I think Christian McCaffery having another two
(10:22):
thousand yards from scrimmage season, the touchdowns, the touches, the
only consistent person on their offense all year to have
them a game away from the one seed. He has
been brilliant. Party since he's come back from injury has
been very good and the last two weeks has been exceptional.
I still am hesitant, and in fact not hesitant. I
(10:46):
am at the moment, unwilling to elevate him past a
certain tier of quarterbacks because of what I saw mac
Jones doing, because of what I saw perty look like
last year. But he's been awesome in the last two weeks.
There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I had Mike Rabel on earlier, and I didn't ask
him this because I had talked about it earlier. But
it was very easy in year two to go Lamar
should be MVP because he's so explosive and dynamic and
stylistically so unique. And it was very easy with Mahomes
he was winning so many games to go, Yeah, that's
an MVP. He throws left handed, He's got the best
arm in the league. The guy is clever, he's fun.
(11:20):
I think it's harder to look at Drake May and go.
He's very accurate, he's very sturdy. I like his leadership.
It's all hard until last night. You were like, let's
give it to Stafford three weeks ago, so let's give it.
Let's give it to Alan. Drake May is Brady with
a little bit of mobility, and Brady to the very end,
seth Wickersham wrote a column ones I remember this reading it,
(11:43):
and to the very end there were sources saying in
the building a lot of quarterbacks could win here. I'm like,
could a lot go to Tampa and Hoysted Trophy. I
don't think so. So I think Drake May is going
to now now win MVP, and I'd argue he has
been the most consistent quarterback in the league since Week three.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
So here, listen.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I think Drake May is awesome. I think that, and
I came on with you two months ago and I
said May and Vrabel are a lesson for all the
perpetual rebuilding franchises that it does not take five years
if you have the right coach and the right quarterback.
It takes two years. And they've only had the coach
for one year. So if you've had the same coach
(12:27):
and same quarterback for two years and it's not working,
one of them, at least one of them is not
the right guy. I said a month ago that when
I am doing the top five quarterbacks in the league,
forget you know, in ten years or moving forward right
now this moment, Drake May's on that list. I believe
in Drake May. I think he's excellent, and if he
wins MVP, I don't think.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It's a crime.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
But I think what is happening to the NFL MVP
over the last three seasons is a crime, a sports crime,
and that is this. It feels to me, Colin, like,
because we do the MVP horse race starting in week four,
that what the MVP race has actually come down to
(13:14):
is this. It feels like everything up until December first
is simply about determining who are the three or four
quarterbacks eligible for the award, And this year it was
Stafford way ahead of everyone.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Drake May and Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Snuck in at the end, and then it's as if
there is a whole new season and amongst those three players,
MVP just becomes December Player of the Month. It's like, Okay, Stafford,
May and Allen, who has the best closing kick? That
guy's the MVP. Because I am ten days removed from
(13:53):
Matt Stafford throwing for four point fifty and scoring thirty
seven on maybe the best team in the league, one
of the best defenses. We are seventeen or twenty days,
fourteen days removed from Drake May having the worst game
of his season. Again, he's had a great season, but
against Buffalo in a big spot, I think Drake is excellent.
(14:17):
If I had a ballot, he would be second on it.
But what bothers me about where I think the MVP
race is going is if you took all thirty two games.
These two guys have played sixteen each and rearranged the
order randomly. I think Stafford wins nine out.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Of ten MVPs.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But because Drake May is finishing best and Stafford's had
one of his worst games, he's gonna win it. I
think Stafford's been the best player this year.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well, you've got a hit show that starts around the corner,
and since we've pushed you to like a co pilot, so.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I gotta go. I know it's unbelievable. I got the show.
I also have a very.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Very demanding podcast boss that demanded two episodes for me
this morning.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm just working. I'm just working like crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Happy holidays, Colin, great to see you, brother, Merry Christmas,
Happy New yeark all.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right, the super fun talented Nick Wright. First things first,
after our show, I am a very demanding boss. I
think you know j Mack knows that tittle to the metal.
So nice to have Rabel on today. He already sent
me a nice text. He nice guy. The Yeah, it's
it's I always. The NBA is interesting because I grew up.
(15:29):
My first player I love was doctor J and I
was reading an article today about Peter Vessey retirement and
it was great, great article about you know, covering all
these old NBA stars, and the NBA has always been
a sport, like the style matters, like culture style. I mean,
like Walt Fraser, the way he dressed everything. But you know,
(15:51):
Walton was against authority, Like that's football is really not
about that. Football is about winning games. But it did
did the quarterback position. It's just it's it's funny. Now
you can go to the very end of Tom Brady
in New England and I swear at Seth Wickersham, great writer.
There were writing articles at the end of the Brady
(16:13):
run and there were sources in the building saying, you
know a lot of guys could win here. And I'm like,
all right, Cam tried, Mac tried, Garoppolo tried. That's not
winning nearly as much. It's it's and then there's the
divorce Belichick Brady and you look and you're like, yeah,
Tom was about seventy five percent of it, probably that
maybe maybe sixty five. He was the greater part of it.
(16:38):
But like Drake May's game is so efficient and it's
it's not boring, boring is the wrong word, but it's
just so efficient. It doesn't jump through the television. He
just completes passes one after another after another, and he's
very good against the blitz, which young quarterbacks generally are
(16:59):
against the blitz. So he doesn't get into trouble. He's
not running for his life. So much of Drake May
is pre snap, getting out of trouble and completing seven
out of ten throws. Meet Tom Brady with movement out
of pocket movement.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win big at the sportsbook, and all the best guests.
(17:48):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
J Mackle the.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
News, No, no turn on the news. This is the
herd Line News.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Oh boy, Colin, Big day in the NFL. We got
some breaking news out of Dallas. The Cowboys just released
cornerbacks Trayvon Diggs, two years after signing him to a
ninety seven million dollar extension. More egg on the face
of Jerry Jones. We'll hear from him shortly. Diggs is
gonna go through waivers and you know what, Colin, I
(18:29):
think I think he's eligible to be picked up by
any team in the playoffs. Here we're still waiting on that.
I don't know if anybody will take a gamble on him.
One could argue, hey, he hasn't been a good scheme
fit with Debra Flus. What are you doing dumping Hi?
Because Deebra Flues is toasted anyway, But the Cowboys remain
a mess. He's gonna Digs will be eight and a
half million dollars a dead cat money next year. Gotta
(18:51):
love that, Jerry.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I think the Cowboys are going edge rusher and corner
in around one of the draft.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Here's your boy, Jerry Jones talking about releasing Trayvon.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
Did we had a expectation in our secondary and I
thought we would be good at all phases of it.
That's a team wide breakdown for us not to play
better defense than we've had. Not a member of this
breakdown per se, just him.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, they're terrible at corner. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Obviously tough day for the Diggs family. We know what
his brother's going through in New England right now with
some charges. Colin, I can't get over the fact that
Jerry Jones is he's the owner of the team and
they released a cornerback who's barely done jack squad this year,
and the first thing Jerry does is go give an
interview about it the owner. What are we going to
get perspective here? This is goofy, Colin, What is happening? Still?
(19:46):
I'm just this is if you're a Cowboys fan, Hey,
you know who's next? Is Bland the other guy they paid.
We'll see what happens with him. Like, I know, you
love the Jerry move for Quinn Williams.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I think they're going to get the top corner in
the draft. They're going to get a top three edge rusher.
But how would they get in the top cornerback in
the draft. Well, there's about there's two really good first
round corners. They're gonna get one of them, and then
they're also going to get probably the third best edge rusher,
second third best edge rusher. So so they'll solve some
of their defensive issues. Quinn Williams is Kenny Clark? Have
(20:21):
you know? They haven't drafted that poorly. They overshown been
a good player. I think they're I like overshithings. I
think their bigger issue is do you love the staff?
Because there's Nick right just said.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Let me't even got the Pickens. Pickens is a big one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Do you what are you you tagging him?
Speaker 5 (20:35):
You're paying him?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (20:36):
No, Flornoy, ceed Lamb, Turpin go draft another fifth round.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Flornoy looked great because everybody was focused on the whiteouts
and Floornoy's left alone? Or is Flornoy like an emerging stuff?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Ceedee? Lamb's a guy that you sometimes you have to
bracket and double team. So Turpet and FLOROI are gonna get.
I think Floray's a good player.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah, I like him. H Lamb had a case of
the drop seas this year. Listen, you could put lipstick
on a pig all you want this is a disaster
situation in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Let me just say Let me just say this New England.
I think I've hit four in a row, maybe five,
of predicting who's gonna double their win Tonal based on
if they make a move at coach, Dallas will be
my team next year.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
But who's or who are they getting? Come on, come on,
they're dumping shoddy one and done.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Half Lee day ble Come on?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Really another first time head coach in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Oro, I'm Jason Garrett. Have never been a coach.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
He was on the staff for years. He was Jerry's guy.
Jerry wants a good I'm just gonna say stuff I regret. Anyways,
let's move on to the Chargers. Colin. They secured a
playoff spot, but they have ruled out Jim Harbor. I'm
sorry not Jim Harball has ruled out Justin Herbert for
this week as well as other starters, which is smart.
They are now massive underdogs against Denver in a game.
(21:57):
It doesn't mean anything. Thank you, Jim Harbaugh. And here's
sound Harball sitting as guys.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Health and winning.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's uh, that's it.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Yeah, there's no way to predict we're going on the
road first round.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
All all potential teams.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Would be would be good.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
The guys that need to you have the most bruises,
that need to.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
The most healing, we will pull them back.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Justin. Herbert would be one.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
We'll see how the rest of the week goes. Tomorrow. Listen,
it's we've got something. I'll tell you what what what
do we have tomorrow? You don't need Burrow Mahomes in
the playoffs. Some of these playoff matchups are fascinating.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Okay, the Chargers Patriots, let's do it now, and i'd
ha pick for.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I would say New England at home would win that game. Interesting,
let's just break it down real quick.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Who's got the head coaching advantage New England Chargers?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And they're both a coaches, both are great and so
no edge.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
It's a watch. Okay, who's got a new quarterback edge?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, I think at this point Herbert is so seasoned.
But I mean Drake May's first playoff game, that's a
at home pressure Khalil Matt coming off the edge, Jesse
mentor DC. That's a tough ask for a week one. Yeah,
but if it's snowing so far as Chargers going into
a snowstorm.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
So it's not overrated narrative. I totally disagree if this is.
If this somehow is three and a half, I'm considering
next year's salary just like I just I love Harbor
listen man, and they're resting their guys. I love if
Patriots are playing their guys because they still have a
shot at I think the number one. But Denver would
have to lose to the Charges, which isn't happening. Can
(23:45):
we just get real talk. I don't like looking through
the fifteen permutations for what could happen.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Do you like doing that or no, well there's not
fifteen of them?
Speaker 5 (23:53):
I know, No, I mean they set me Chargers playoff.
There's okay, find fifteen.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
There's a different if if Baltimore wins tomorrow, I'll do
AFC playoff picture stating that Baltimore wins and then that
because that I think they're gonna win, then we know
what's gonna happen. And I think, you know, I think
nobody's talking about Denver's gonna have all home games and
don't lose at home. Jacksonville is the only team in
(24:18):
two years that's got him at home. And Jacksonville Chargers, Texans.
Those are warm weather teams having to go playing snow.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
So you sounding confidence that Sean Payton's going to the
Super Bowl? Hunh, make it, make it, make it interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Perhaps take a deep breath.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I'm excited, all right. Final story, Colin, we got some
crappy news out of the NBA. Nicola Jokic, currently the
best player in the league, had just a brutal moment
here where his own player backing up steps on his
on Yokic's foot. The knee buckles. There were some major fears.
The good news is ligaments are intact and it's a
hyper extended knee. He's gonna miss at least four weeks.
(25:03):
If you are in the awards market, Jokic missing four
weeks cannot win the MVP because they have this silly
got to play sixty five games or whatever, and Yokic
now is missing four weeks, he can't win the MVP.
So obviously the Nuggets have major injury problems right now.
Aaron Gordon is down. I mean, they're starting guys I'm
not familiar with, Colin. This is really good news for
(25:27):
the young San Antonio Spurs, who are establishing themselves, I
believe is the best team in the league. It's okay,
see and the Spurs at the top of the West
record wise. If the Lakers can tread water without Reefs,
listen the Nuggets for a month, what are they gonna be?
Five and five and fifteen. They're not gonna be good
without Jokis at all. There's a chance for the Lakers
to gain some ground. Oh, come on, they're not good Lakers.
(25:50):
Lakers have so many they're so bad right now defensively, Hey,
why don't you start saying nice things about them? Because
JJ Reddick will then come on the show.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
JJ Reddick's busy. I mean, they have these NBA guys coaching,
living on four and a half hours sleep. He's trying
to fix the defense. I think JJ Reddick's busy, Like
I think, you know, everybody's like, Oh, JJ Reddick he is.
You know, he's really rough on these players. It's okay
if the NBA players occasionally Charles Barkley and JJ Reddick
don't pander to them. NFL guys get crushed all the time.
(26:22):
So what he better win games? Lakers stink defensively. Somebody
needs to call him out.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Go off.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
J McK of the news.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The
Herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Laker's fourth worst defensive rating in December in the league.
Fans know it. Think about this. They don't have any
three and D guys. Like the NBA is a three
and D league, has been for a decade. In December,
opponent shot forty one from the three point line. They
just can't get out to defend it. It's brutal. I
(26:58):
mean that, that's just brutal. And that's a that's a
roster composition issue. That's not JJ reddicks fault. I mean,
it's been a three and D league forever. They don't
have any three and D guys. Jared Vanderbilt's got some dexterity.
You know, he's a little bit he's versatile as a defender,
but so many diversaal defenders. It's an offensive it's an
offensive roster. That's not JJ Redicks fault. Don't blame him.
(27:22):
He inherited it. It's the hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Saturday Prime time Hoops is on Fox with a Big
ten showdown as fifth rank Purdue takes on Wisconsin at
Aultin Soft at eight pm Eastern Saturday on Fox Thursday,
Big college football games. I think Oregon Texas Tech is
going to be interesting. So Dante Moore is fascinating. There
could be a domino effect. Here's my big opinion, and
(27:55):
it actually helps Oregon, helps Dante More and hurts crappy
NFL teams for a quarterback. I don't think he's gonna
play particularly well against Texas Tech, but I think Oregon
probably finds a way to win. He was good against
James Madison, five touchdowns, surmanderd yards completed seventy percent. He
wasn't great against Iowa. He was it was bad weather.
(28:16):
He wasn't great against Indiana. He was good against Penn State.
They turned out to be not very good. I like
Dante More a lot, but he's twenty years old. What
a disaster it would be to send him to the Jets.
What a disaster it would be to send him to
a bad team with a shaky ownership.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I want to see the kids succeed. Reportedly, he's a
great kid, and I think Texas Tech Oregon's best case
scenario for the program is they win and Dante maybe
has a bad pick, doesn't blow everybody away. I think
that's best case because Donald. Look how good Donald is,
(28:55):
And remember how good Donald was in college at USC.
He went to New York the dysfunctional Jets, and he
was twenty and it was a disaster. So you can't
overcome weird ownership, bad coaching, shaky front offices, weak rosters,
no matter unless you're Andrew Luck out of college. So
(29:15):
here is Todd McShay last week on the show about
Dante more going forward.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
I love him.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
I think he's going to be a great pro. If
he were solely listening to my advice, I would say
go back to school for another year, man, because I
have evidence from twenty five years that I've gathered that
the number starts that he has, which is what seventeen,
I think at this point it'll be eighteen, nineteen, twenty,
somewhere in that range, the chances of him succeeding with
(29:46):
another twelve, thirteen, fourteen starts next year are significantly higher.
Twenty five years of data telling me that Todd's wright.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So it's just he's a really talented kid, but we've
seen the time and time again you get stuck with
the wrong franchise. Look at how good Sam Darnold is
now winning record, Carolina winning record, Minnesota winning record, Seattle
disaster in New York. So the other thing, I tend
(30:15):
to see myself as America's honesty broker. I had the
voice of college football Joel klatt on earlier, who is
also the voice of reason on USC and Notre Dame
ending there at least for the time being. I think
(30:36):
they'll resume it at some point, perhaps, but ending their rivalry,
and Clatt sees it like I do.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Listen, it does not bemoove anybody. I can't believe I'm
saying this, but like to schedule Notre Dame because they
have such an advantage over these teams that are playing
and in the Big ten in the SEC's cases, much
more difficult schedules. And now there's this bar, like a
(31:08):
minimum bar, where all Notre Dame has to do is
be in the top twelve with their schedule.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
That's that's crazy. Miami, if Notre dame side deal would
have been intact this year, Miami, who just beat Texas
A and M in the playoff, Miami would have been
bounced out by Notre Dame, and Miami beat Notre Dame.
(31:37):
Think about that, meaning there could be a scenario if
USC Notre Dame played, USC beat Notre Dame, is ranked
a head of Notre Dame and would get bounced out
by Notre Dame and their automatic bid. Think about that.
Miami this year would have been bounced out and they
beat Notre Dame head to head and had four common
(32:02):
opponents and beat three of the four. So just put
yourself USC in Miami's shoes. They would have been knocked
out and beat Notre Dame. So again I said before
all these former Trojans that are upset, are any of
you guys business guys? Any of you guys entrepreneurs. Would
you go into a business deal where a guy had
(32:22):
a side deal that you weren't, you didn't know, or
you didn't have even if you didn't know, and he
could take a majority of the profits because of the
side deal.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I wouldn't do a business deal like that.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Colin can I ask why do you, I know you
hate this Notre Dame auto in the top twelve. Why
do you think the committee cut the deal with him,
Then why would you do the deal a Notre Dame,
Hey cool playing a conference? No, we want you. Why
do you think they said you're auto top top twelve
because Notre Dame is a huge brand.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, that they are. And also Notre Dame cut a
deal because Notre Dame knows if USC doesn't play us,
our schedule will easily be the weakest of any top
ten to twelve program.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So now this could all be averted if if you
didn't have these automatic qualifiers like Tulane and James Madison.
If you took those out, then I think USC would
be more comfortable saying, hey, if we're ranked top twelve,
we get in. But now you can be ranked tenth.
If you're USC Notre Dame twelve, you could have beaten
them head to head and Notre Dame gets in automatically.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I'm not going into no, it's smart by Notre Dame. Right,
you would admit that. You can say the other side
is like upset, why would you do it? But it's Notre.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Dame smartly is prioritizing the playoff and we're not.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
We don't care about a conference, we don't need no
conference because guess what, we've got to deal with NBC
and teams are willing to play us for a marquee game, right, Cincinnati,
all these other middling to your programs and guess what,
Notre Dame. They then could bake in one loss of
seat and still get to the playoffs. It's genius business
from their end.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
And USC says, no can do. We're now, We're now
inarguably the toughest conference. If you look at USC schedule
next year, Ohio State, Oregon, Washington at Indiana at Penn State.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Well, we don't know if Indiana and Penn State are
going to be great, but the other two yes, that
in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Is going to be really good. They got major money
and a great coach. They got NFL dudes everywhere. They're
going to ten though. Come on, oh, I think they
are really Mark Cuban. You see the writing checks. Have
you seen the two families writing checks for Indiana. Indiana's
got a great business school. Indiana's here to stay.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
I think this deal makes sense for both sides, USC
and Notre Dame. There's no loser here except the fans
who missed the game, right.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I mean Michigan used to play Notre Dame. They stopped
playing at the sport's more popular than ever. I think
college football is a bit of a mess, but it's a.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know well, but you know not everything that's a mess.
I've gone. I mean, we've all gone to events, we've
all gone to parties. We've all been in relationships that
are a bit of a mess, but they're fun. USC
played nine conference games this season. I don't think you
need to add another
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