May 3, 2021 • 40 mins
How Colin grades the NFL Draft for each team
The Packers will be fine IF Jordan Love can play
The Jets need to be patience
The Cowboys had a weird draft
Guest: Albert Breer
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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Sports Radio. Ah. Here we go on a Monday, live
(00:27):
in Los Angeles. This is the Herd, wherever you may
be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports
Radio FS one, one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong, There is plenty of both. I
love the Draft, sat there all weekend. Hello, Joey Taylor
(00:50):
is joining me. I love It's my thing. This is
actually a very packed sports weekends and the draft all weekends.
Kentucky Derby, the Louise Ariola fight. Busy weekend. It was
Lakers look like they're in trouble. Lebron got hurt. We'll
get to that. So let me start with this is.
I don't give draft grades. I think they're very consumable,
(01:10):
but sort of ridiculous. I'm not going to pretend I
know how well you're sixth and seventh and mostly your
fifth round picks are going to do. It's silly. I
mean I saw this weekend. Oh Patriots get an A plus.
If Mac Jones is average, it's a bad draft. Oh
the Jets draft. Can Zach Wilson play? Or is he
completely overwhelmed for two years? My prediction in the best
(01:31):
defensive coach division in football. I'm not going to make
grades on drafts. I mean these teams that drafted quarterbacks.
If your quarterback doesn't work, it's a terrible draft. Chicago's
could be a great draft, or it could be terrible.
So I'm not going to waste time now. I will
say this. My job is to give you as potentially
(01:51):
accurate an evaluation as I can. So what I've done.
Anybody that's listening to me, joy's been here. What I
do every Monday after the draft, I think has a
much greater chance to be accurate. I take your top
two or three top free agents, your top two or
three draft picks, and then those guys it's a much
greater chance they hit. And I thought there was three
(02:15):
teams that got an A plus and they were already
really good rosters. I thought the Cleveland Browns get an
A plus for their off season, The LA Chargers get
an A plus for their off season, and the Kansas
City Chiefs get an A plus for their off season.
So let me explain. Cleveland's already got a nice roster.
They made the playoffs and they won a playoff game,
(02:36):
but their back end was awful. They not only addressed
their linebacking and secondary, they massively upgraded. This is that
was as good a weekend as the Cleveland Browns have
ever had in terms of addressing more of their issues.
So you get Jadeveon Clowney, Troy Hill, John Johnson, These
(02:57):
guys have played in the league, these guys have These
are grown ups. These are men, not boys in the NFL.
Then you go get a corner Greg Newsom, who I
had going in the first round earlier than they got him,
and maybe the linebacker for Notre Dame. So what you
get here is a mix of veterans, you get a
mix of youth. You get guys who have called plays.
(03:19):
John Johnson for the Rams has been calling plays for
a defense. You get grown ups, kids, and you attack
your one weakness, and I already know you got a
good coach and can win a playoff game because I
saw it last year. That is an A plus off season.
You had a weakness, you solved it with veterans and
draft picks, not just kids. I don't want to hear.
(03:40):
Oh we drafted nine, you got it. I don't a lot.
Most gms in trades don't want nine picks because half
these guys don't pan out. So Cleveland a plus. Let's
go to the Chargers. Really good roster but a bad
old line. Not only did they solve their old line,
it could be as good as any not named Kansas
(04:02):
City or maybe the Colts in football. Corey Linsley pro bowler,
from bad at center to a Pro Bowl center. Then
they got Rashaan Slater, Asante Samuel, and Josh Palmer. Josh
Palmer is going to be the surprise third round pick
in the draft. Had a bad college quarterback, kids as
stud so they attacked with Justin Herbert. They attacked their weakness,
(04:25):
got a Pro Bowl center many graded the top left tackle,
and then they got the best corner drafted in the
second round. And again Jared Cook, Corey Linsley and the Steelers.
I didn't put it here, but they got a Steeler
guard as well, major upground. And it's not just upgrading
for any quarterback, it's upgrading for Justin Herbert. They already
have good weapons. And the team that's not getting mentioned
(04:45):
that had a great offseason as the Kansas City Chiefs,
Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. What do they need to
make it work? A good quarterback check Mahomes, A good
offensive line that was a huge issue in the Super Bowl.
They not only made their offensive line great, they added depth.
They got Orlando Brown, Pro Bowl left tackle, Joe Tuney,
(05:06):
Pro Bowl guard, Kyle Long out of retirement, Austin blythe
top ten center. Then they drafted Creed Humphrey from Oklahoma,
the best center. Now they have two legitimate elite centers.
Their weakness linebacker. They got Nick Bolton, who I thought
should have been drafted higher. These are playoff teams already.
These are good rosters already that had a hole. And
(05:29):
the Browns attacked their linebacker in secondary, the Chargers attacked
their offensive line. What the Chiefs did to their offensive
line is beyond attacked shark Nado. They got stuff flying
all over here. They added a great center, then a
college center, and again you're given Maholmes justin Herbert, Baker, Mayfield.
(05:51):
These are guys that can. These are big time. You know,
I got my issues with Baker, but he won a
playoff game, so to me, those are a plus offseasons.
Stefanski won Coach of the Year, Herbert was the best
rookie quarterback, and Annie Reid Mahomes Enough said, now, I
want to mention two other drafts I thought were really
strong because the coaches used to coach in college, so
(06:11):
I predicted they do well in the draft. They did
Jacksonville in Carolina again Urban just out of college, Matt
Rule one year out of college. I thought both of
them showed a complete direction. Both went heavy into offense.
They're both offensive coaches. The Jacksonville Jaguars went quarterback, running back,
(06:32):
offensive tackle. They're telling you right now, we're gonna build
a running game. We're gonna build a running game to
take the pressure off Trevor Lawrence. For the first time
in a decade. Jacksonville's got a direction, I believe, a
culture changer and stars. Offensively, they're not going to be
very good. Defensively, they'll score points. Same thing for Carolina.
(06:52):
They're not going to be a great team. But they
went out and said we're gonna get hyper athletic at
quarterback Sam Darnold. They got the best corner in the draft,
and then look what they did wide receiver, left tackle,
tight end. I'll say this Chubb A. Hubbard is gonna
be potentially the steel of the draft. So I don't
think those off seasons are as good as the Chiefs, Browns, Chargers.
(07:14):
But these teams, these offensive coaches said we're gonna be explosive. Now,
if you want me to just drade best draft, I
don't do it because I don't know what your fifth, six,
seventh round guys are gonna be. But I will say
the Miami Dolphins on sheer draft five picks four could
be high end starters and Hunter Long may eventually start
at tight end. I thought Miami in terms of just drafting,
(07:38):
I love their draft last year, mostly two. But Jalen
Waddle now gets to play with this college quarterback. So
the three A plus off seasons, Browns, Chargers, Chiefs. The
two teams were the college coaches with an offensive background,
clearly head in the offensive direct Urban and the Jags
(08:01):
Matt Ruin. The Panthers and just in terms of draft.
I thought Miami crushed it just in terms of draft picks. Okay,
So the Aaron Rodgers situate, it's so weird, and I
actually love you know. Aaron is the gift that keeps
on giving. So Aaron Rodgers day of the draft, Charger
or Packers burned him a year ago, I'm gonna burn you.
(08:23):
And so right now the story is, the ball is
in Mark Murphy's court. Aaron wants the Packer GM out,
the GM of the Packers, Brian Gudenkin's he went and
got Jordan Loved last year apparently went a little rogue.
Here's the whole thing here, It's not that complicated. If
Jordan Love, who they drafted last year in the first round,
(08:44):
can play, your problems are really not that dire. What
you do after June one, you trade Aaron, so you
split up the salary cap hit. You called Denver, say
give me three first rounders and Jerry Judy the wide receiver.
(09:05):
If Jordan Love can play and you drafted him in
the first round, he doesn't cost anything. So the dead
cap hit for Aaron Rodgers isn't the end of the world.
It all comes down to con Jordan Love play I'm
not saying problem completely solved, but think about this. If
(09:25):
you could go to a Denver and that appears to
be the leader in the clubhouse for him and get
like Jerry Judy their receiver last year, I'd have Davante Adams,
Jerry Judy, Aaron Jones, a top five offensive lineman, and
Robert Tony in the tight end had eleven touchdowns last year,
and Matt Lafleu of the coach in a division with
dysfunctional Detroit Kirk Cousins and rookie Justin Fields Green boot
(09:47):
would win the division, would win the division, probably easily
if Jordan Love can play. And that's why you took
him right in the first round. I always said the
Jordan Love move, I understand it, but it only only
works if he can play. But instead Jordan Love is
(10:08):
a beautiful mystery. In the words of Aaron Rodgers, is
he Paxton Lynch? Some say is is he potentially a
B plus mahomes? Some say is he's had a year
in the system. Can the dude play? We don't know.
Because of COVID, the media is not allowed to go
to practice, so nobody knows. Is he Paxton Lynch? Is
(10:32):
he Patrick Mahomes. But but I mean, there have been
more UFO sightings in the last seven days than Jordan
Love sightings in the last year. So this whole situation
with Aaron Rodgers, if you're at practice and you're watching them,
and you're like, he's eighty five percent of Josh Allen
or Mahomes, you got no issues. Aaron's thirty seven to
(10:52):
collar bones, very expensive, prickly, difficult to get along with.
It's a divorce. He wants to go play West, He's
somebody from Hollywood. He's doing Jeopardy. You're fine. I mean
your division, let's be honest, is dysfunctional. Your Chicago hopes,
Justin Fields can play Dan Campbell, Lyons, Kirk Cousins, Limitations Minnesota.
(11:17):
This all comes down to a general manager in Green
Bay who said, hey, this kid is potentially great. All right,
it's on you if he is. This is not that
big of a deal. I mean, don't get me wrong,
Aaron Rodgers will leave. But it's not like if Aaron
goes to the Broncos, he's gonna line up nine straight
(11:37):
Super Bowls. He's thirty seven, He's never had that. Tom Brady,
I want to play forever Jeane, He's already doing Jeopardy.
You know, Aaron's had injuries. Tom didn't have those kind
of injuries. And frankly, if you go to a division
with Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes, I'm not that is
a lot of barriers to go through to just win
(11:57):
the division. Forget super Bowls. But but if if Jordan
Love can't play, then you got to fire the GM
because it was a terrible pick. You may have ruined
the culture of the Packers and you ticked off your
franchise quarterback. So it all comes down to the general manager,
Brian Gungas, do you know what you're doing? If Jordan's
(12:19):
Love can play, It's not This is pretty easy. I
mean when Mahomes they recognized he could play. The Alex
Smith situation, see a buddy thanks from entering. All comes
down to that Brett Veach and Andy Reid draft a
guy that none of us watched play in college, didn't
know anything about. Well, you got Alex Smith as Alex
(12:41):
Smith gonna be offended? What? Oh boy? That he's pretty good?
No problem. If Jordan Love can play, move Aaron get
picks Jerry Judy, You're gonna win your division. Most problems
I tell my kids this all the time. Most problems
get overstated. God go to social media. Everything's the end
(13:04):
of the world. We just had a pandemic. California had
a fifteen billion dollars surplus in a pandemic. Today in
La County, we didn't have a single death. There's ten
million people here. The COVID rate in La County is
point six percent. This is the most diverse county in America.
We're through it. A pandemic. Economy is flying. Nothing's the
(13:27):
end of the world. As long as you're prepared. If
Jordan Love can play, then you're prepared. All right. We
got a lot of stuff. By the way, Cleveland, I
talked about this about three weeks ago. Remember when I said,
schedule release is May twelfth. It's Wednesday. Everybody thinks schedule
(13:48):
release is, you know, overrated. It is so important for Cleveland. Also,
thoughts on the Jets all weekend long. What do you
think of the Jets draft? I'll tell you what I
think of it. That's coming up next. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and
(14:11):
the iHeart radio app. Don't wait until Sunday to surprise mom.
Go to one eight hundred flowers dot com right now,
click the radio icon, enter my name heard two dozen
multi colored roses twenty nine ninety nine. So everybody wants
to know, Oh, our our draft grade? And one of
the teams obviously they picked second, they got Zach Wilson.
How was the Jets draft? And my thing is it
(14:33):
doesn't matter. They're a fourth place team. The Jets fans
don't need a draft grade. What they need is patients.
It's a bunch of firsts. You have a first time
head coach and a first time play cooler, and a
rookie quarterback from a small town, and several offensive players
who were in their first or second year. It's a
(14:53):
fourth place team. Just be patient. Miami was ten and six,
great special teams, great defense, and had a great offensive draft.
You're not finishing ahead of them. Buffalo was thirteen and three.
Has one real weakness pass rush. First two picks pass rushers.
New England spent a fortune in the offseason, has the
(15:15):
best football coach ever, Cam Newton. Year two and eight
players op back in. You're not beating them. They were
seven and nine and that was a disaster for them.
The New York Jets are a fourth place team. Listen,
there's four teams in the NFL that I think are
going to finish last two. I would pick today Detroit
and Houston. Two others Philadelphia and the Jets. I presume
(15:38):
their fourth place teams. Zach Wilson looks eleven, small town Utah,
big city New York. This is gonna take time. You
gotta be patient. I mean god, Zach Wilson's mom looks
twenty eight. Forget Zach, this is just a young kid.
This is a brutal division. Defensive coaches best defensive coach
(16:01):
division easily in the NFL. Zach Wilson is going to
be completely overwhelmed for two years. That's why I said,
you could have made an argument to keep Darnald because
at least he's seen the coaching in this division. So
you're starting over at quarterback. This is Sam Darnold is
a rookie. The difference is he as a competent general
manager and a much better left side of the offensive line.
(16:25):
But how did the Jets draft go I don't know.
It doesn't really matter. How is your patience. That's gonna matter.
Don't call sports talk radio when they're one in five.
That's what they're probably going to be if they have
to face Belichick and Brian Flores and Sean McDermott early.
Everything's perspective. Perspective will control your happiness. If I said
(16:47):
to you, you're a six and eleven team, that's not
necessarily a disaster, if you'll lose a bunch of close
games and Zach Wilson can play. If I was a
Jet fan today and you said Zach's he's a hit
and we lost a ton of close games, I'd take
six and eleven tomorrow, tomorrow now if you tell me
you're seven and ten and Zach Wilson has seventeen picks,
(17:15):
And to be honest with you, you got some scheduling breaks,
Cam got hurt, You didn't play him twice. Ah, you
just gotta sit back, let it play out, Let this
puppy bake, because you've got a first time head coach
and a first time play caller and a rookie quarterback
and rookies everywhere. And I got no idea how it's
gonna turn out. By the way, nobody does, including Robert
(17:36):
Sala and Joe Douglas. No team in the NFL is
a bigger question mark than the Jets. You cross your fingers,
you hope it's good. You hope the kid can play.
But he's going from small town Utah to the biggest
city in America and the surliest media. Joey Taylor with
the news. No, No, this is the herd line news. Well,
(17:58):
I don't know how patient Chicago fans are going to be,
but head coach Matt Nagee is they're not rushing Justin
Fields onto the field next season. They did make an
aggressive move up to get him, and he is not
making any guesses about when Fields will make his debut.
For him, it's going to be exciting for him to
just come in here and learn how to be a
(18:20):
professional quarterback. It's not going to happen overnight. When the
time is right, I promise you, every single person will know,
including Justin, when it's the right time. And that's naturally
how it happens. Well, it's not the Kansas City Alex
Smith Patrick Mahomes situation. This is Chicago and both of
you are on the hot seat itself and in the
(18:42):
GM and Chicago has not had a quarterback in decades,
and you just made an aggressive move up for a
guy that a lot of people had ranked second right
behind Trevor Lawrence, and some people even thought he might
be a better prospect than Lawrence. He will play this year,
so yes, he's going. We're going to see him on
the field. If you're, you know, questioning at all how
people feel about your current quarterback situation without Dustin Fields,
(19:04):
you can go and check the mentions under that QB
one post that you guys put up with Andy Dalton. Also,
look at the schedule. Remember how last year, a couple
of years ago, we predicted when lamar ch action would start.
Remember we nailed it. We predicted week eleven, and we
kind of predicted when two would get an opportunity. Wait
until the Bear's schedule comes out, if they get a
bye or the Lions are coming up in week nine.
(19:27):
You know, I don't even think it'll last that long.
I don't either, but there's a time to play him.
So listen. If it's Green Bay at Lambeau, you're not
going to start him. Look at your schedule. Matt Naggie
is gonna look at that thing and go Okay, we
got the Lions, then a bye and then home against
blank Then you build some momentum. So he's gonna play.
(19:49):
My guess is first couple weeks in November he'll play. Yeah.
I don't. I don't think it's going to be very
long at all. First of all, the fan base wants
to see him. Yeah. Second of all, what is your
quarterback situation? Nick Foles and Andy Dollin? So how are
either of them going to fare against the Green Bay Packers.
The fans are gonna want to see him. And I
don't subscribe as much as other people do to like
(20:11):
rookie quarterbacks need to sit for a year. I think
if you have a very stable organization, if you have
a situation where the coach has no heat on them,
the GM has no heat on them, which is not
the situation in Chicago. You guys are coming off a
great season, you know, that's everything that was going on
with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs like they drafted their
quarterback of the future. They had a very stable situation.
Alex Smith, great pro was playing in the playoffs. This
(20:33):
is not the same situation. So I don't I don't
think that it's always the best thing for a quarterback
to sit as a rookie, Like, there is some value
in learning what not to do when you lose, how
to recover from getting blown out. Like I didn't think
that was a good situation for two of last year.
If he was healthy, I think he should have been
out there. You also have more to evaluate when you
let a rookie quarterback start. This is a different situation
(20:56):
obviously because they're in the hot seat. So they may
try and win a few games to your point before
they put him out there, But let them get blown
out once or twice, and there's not going to be
any patience from the fan base anymore. So. The Roncos,
who I thought, sure, we're taking justin Fields, did not
draft a rookie quarterback this year, so they will have
a competition between Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater in the preseason.
(21:17):
When asked how he would split reps between the two,
head coach Vic Fangio says he expects it to be
fifty fifty throughout OTAs in training camp, and both Lock
and Bridgewater will have an equal chance to get the
starting job. I don't I think that they're still in
the conversation with Aaron Rodgers. I don't think that this
is the I mean, how could you pass up on
mac Jones and Justin Fields unless that was the Citi scenario.
(21:38):
It's interesting because Aaron Rodgers, there was a story that
leaked this weekend he was interested in the Raiders. It's
like time out, time out, time out, Aaron. Denver's actually
the last two drafts has gotten a lot of good
players like Denver. If I told you tomorrow Aaron Rodgers
on Denver, that's a good football team. I would feel
(22:00):
better about Aaron Rodgers on on Denver's team than Oakland Ver, Sorry,
Las Vegas for sure. Yeah, if I told you Aaron
Rodgers on the Raiders, you'd be like, well, there'll be
in a lot of high scoring games with Mahomes and
Justin Herbert. So like, I think Denver is one of
those places that it was almost like Peyton Manning years ago.
Peyton Manning looked around and went, you know, Denver just
(22:20):
needs a quarterback. I think Denver's once again in the
just needs a top quarterback. Plus, could you see Aaron
Rodgers and Gruden. Well it's good for the I mean
it's good for us, It's good for the Marquis. Yeah,
but I mean, do you think that two of them
would there enough? My first job are in the room
for the two of them. My first job out of
(22:40):
college was Vegas. Siegfried and Roy always look good on
the Marquis. Gruden and Aaron's great on the Marquis. It
doesn't mean it's gonna win, but it would. You could
not get a ticket for five years. I would love it,
But I'm just saying I don't know if that's a
long term winning situation. And we know at the end
of the day, Gruden is the one with the contract.
So finally, it's little trouble in Laker Lands a little.
(23:04):
Lebron was back on the court Friday after missing over
a month with an ankle injury, but his return did
not help the Lakers much. They lost one ten, one
oh six to the King the Kings, and afterwards Lebron
says he doesn't think he'll ever be back to one
hundred percent. And then last night they lost again to
the Raptors. Lebron was held out of the end of
the game with soreness and his ankle and they lost
(23:26):
one twenty one, one fourteen. It's totally off well, here's
sort of the issue. So I'm sure you saw Lebron's
quote about the play in tournament. So the Lakers are
six in the West, thirty six and twenty eight. The
next five games are the Nuggets, Clippers, Blazers, Sons, and Knicks.
And there's eight games remaining in the season, and seeds
(23:48):
seven through ten in each conference will participant will participate
in the play in tournaments. Seven will face eight and
nine will face ten, and then the winner between seven
and eight will become the seven seed in the playoffs.
The loser seven and eight will face the winner between
nine and ten for the eight seed in the playoffs.
So these next five games are very important, yeah, and
(24:08):
they not want to slip into into the play in tournament,
and then they really have right now, they just have
no chemistry at all. And you've got Lebron who just
kind of feels all year he's been a little bitter.
You know. Lebron generally at the end of a season
to the next season gets one hundred and twenty days off.
This year he got seventy. Now he's getting older, so
(24:29):
he wants more, not fewer, So he got almost half
the time off. He didn't want an All Star Game.
He didn't want the season to start in December. He
doesn't want the play in tournament. Older Lebron is like
he's telling you he is deeply concerned about his body
boom he got hurt yesterday. Yeah, I mean, and I
get it, And if I was Lebron, I'd feel the
same way. But there's a whole league, so you know,
(24:54):
these are things we have to do, Like you have
to have an All Star Game, you have to start
the season so you can get back on track for
next year. Yeah yeah, other teams and other players and
need to get the season in. And of course we
don't even want to talk about what would happen if
we didn't, because the CBA would blow up. So yes,
I get it, and I'm sure Lakers fans don't want
to hear that either. But that's that's the way that
it's going this year. It's unprecedented times. Not a great
(25:15):
weekend for the Dodgers or the Lakers. What's happening, Joey
with the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for
the herd lie. Well, it was starting Thursday, a magical weekend.
We all knew it was gonna be Trevor Lawrence and
Zach Wilson, and then nobody knew what was going to happen.
Number three Niners go Trey Lance, Albert Brewer brought to
(25:37):
you by Mercedes Benz The Best or Nothing m MQB okay.
So you know, there's a lot of different stories out there.
I don't think it was a smoke screen. My takeaway
was Kyle Shanahan wanted Mac and got voted out. That
was always kind of my feeling. But you know, who knows.
What do you believe happened the shift from Mac to
Trey Lance? Well, I just think the gap, the gap
(26:00):
closed on where Mac's biggest advantage was, which was the
part of the game that happens above the neck. You know,
really like, if you talk to enough teams about this,
what they'll tell you is he was so advanced. He
operated so fast and I'm not talking about foot speech,
just the way he processed the game was so fast
that you could see him overcoming his physical limitations. And
(26:23):
you know, the Niners were pitting him against another guy
and two other guys really that that didn't have those
physical limitations. And I think the Niners learned about Trey Lance.
But a lot of other teams learned about Trey Lance.
His football IQ was off the charts. His character is
really good. He just needs to play more, that's really it,
you know, and he only played seventeen games at the
collegiate level. There are issues there with the fact that
(26:46):
you didn't see him playing from behind very much at
North Dakota State. I think you'd argue the gap between
North Dakota State and their competition is larger than the
gap between Alabama and their competition, and so there were
a lot of like cool situations that you didn't see
Trey Lance in. So he is a little bit more
of a pure projection. But I think the difference for
(27:06):
the Niners was the one area where mac Jones held
a lead over the other two guys. I mean really,
over the course of the month between the trade and
the draft, Trey Lance was able to close that gap
to the point where the Niners felt like they couldn't
pass up on the upside that Lance brought to the table.
You know, before we get into the Aaron Rodgers stuff,
I'm not a big believer in draft grades. It's consumable,
(27:28):
I get it, it's fun. I did think Miami just
in terms of first four or five guys taken. I thought, boy,
that is a good draft. You know, it's funny when
I watched Miami's draft, My takeaway is the Jets are
a fourth place team. Is that Buffalo's better? New England's
got all the opt ins And I thought Miami, which
has great defense and special teams, went offense. I guess
(27:51):
if I said best draft weekend, is there anybody for
you that stands out? You know, it's funny say mentioned
the Jets. I think the Jets did really well. Let's
move the quarterback aside because it's unpredictable what will happen
with the quarterbacks. But I really think if you look here, Colin,
there's almost like a self awareness here of how they
screwed Sam Darnold, you know what I mean? Like over
the last three years, a big reason why Sam Darnold
(28:14):
hasn't didn't didn't reach his potential was because of what
was around him. And I don't know if Sam Darnold's
ever going to make it as a franchise quarterback, but
you know, I think there's still a lot of unknown
there because the situation around him was so broken. So
what does Joe Douglas do he hires, you know, a
head coach who's going to put in the most quarterback
friendly system in football. And if you look at their
(28:35):
first four picks, okay, go right on down the line,
high character guys. Beyond the quarterback, you've got an offensive
guard and Olive Vera Tucker that's gonna play next to
McKay Beckton. So now you've got two foundation pieces on
the offensive line. You give him a slot receiver in
Elijah Moore who's going to create easy completions, and then
you give him a back in Michael Carter who can
(28:55):
catch the ball out of the backfield. And so you know,
I think it's hard to grade things a couple of
days after the draft, but I think just looking as
far as value goes, you look at where they got
Vera Tucker. I thought that was a good spot to
get him. A lot of teams viewed Elijah Moore as
a first round pick. They got him at the top
of the second round. And I don't think very many
people had all expected Michael Carter to be there in
the fourth round they got him. And what I really
(29:17):
like about it again is there's an acknowledgement that they
need to do more around the young quarterback to really
figure out who that young quarterback is. And so I
think now they're giving you know, they're giving Zach Wilson
a much much better chance to succeed in New York
than they ever gave Sam Arnold. All Right, you talked
to Brian guden Counts yesterday, the GM of the Packers.
(29:38):
I had said earlier in the show today, listen, if
Jordan Love can play, this would make this all much
easier to digest. But again, we've had more UFO sightings
than Jordan Loves sightings in the last couple of weeks
because the COVID no media is around practice. So I
have no idea. So take us to your conversation as
much as you can tell us about the GM of
(29:59):
the Packers yesterday. Yeah, I mean, he's got his feet
planted in the ground on this one. And I think
it's an important detail to remember. He was with the
organization in two thousand and eight when all this was
going on with Brett Farve, and so you know I
brought up to him the parallels there. I mean, Farv
was mad. If you remember at the time Colin because
they hadn't been aggressive enough around him, and really the
(30:19):
flashpoint was not getting Randy Moss. The year that Randy
Moss went to New England. Then you look at the
general manager of the relationship between the general manager and
the quarterback. There was a coaching change involved. It was
to Mike McCarthy with Farv, it was to Matt Lafleur
with Rogers, So there are a lot of parallels there.
But when I asked Kudacoons about that and how his
(30:40):
experience there might serve him now, basically said that it
was different because the organization in two thousand and eight
made a decision they were going with Aaron Rodgers. And
he told me point blank, we're not making that sort
of decision right now, and we won't be making that
sort of decision for the foreseeable future. And if you
read between the lines calling, I think he hit the
nail on the head there. And this isn't coming from Goodakoons,
(31:01):
is coming from other people who I think would know.
I don't think they think Jordan loves Ready, and I
think they feel like they've got a championship team right now,
a team that obviously has been in the Championship round
the last two years, and I don't think they think
it would serve that team particularly well to put Jordan
on the field Jordan Love on the field right now,
and so I think, as much as anything else, this
(31:21):
is again the belief that they really, they really do
think that Aaron Rodgers has a few good years left
at the level he played out last year. But beyond
just that, I don't think that they feel like they've
got the I would say answer for right now on
the on the roster. I'm not sure if they feel
like there's any doubt long term on him, But as
far as the answer for it right now, I don't
(31:42):
think Jordan Love is it all right? Listen, Ryan Pace,
I've been critical of him, he felt like in the
last year he's on the hot seat. But I do
think it takes some guts to go up and get
Justin Fields, who I think is everything. Andy Dalton is not.
You know, big arm athletic, young, super inexpensive. Now, kind
(32:04):
of take me through that move by the Bears from
what you can tell happened. Well, really, you know, Matt
Naggie's had his eye on the guy for over a year.
He's got a really close relationship with Ryan Day. The
two played against each other as quarterbacks in the Atlantic
Ten over twenty years ago. They've known each other since,
and Day really put Naggie on to Justin Fields back
in March, to the point where, and Naggie told me
(32:26):
this late last night, he would make a point of
watching Ohio States games on Saturdays when they were on
the road from the team hotel because he was really
just fascinated in Fields as a prospect. Now, I think
there was a limit to how far they were willing
to go to get him. But once he got past
that little rung of you know where you expect some
quarterback movement, you know, the lines potentially trading down from
(32:47):
seven didn't happen. The Panthers and Broncos didn't take quarterbacks
in eight and nine. That was the point where they
needed to get aggressive. And so I know the Cowboys
weren't willing to move too far down. They didn't want
to go beyond what was the perceived cliff in the
mid teens, So they wind up moving back two spots.
And you know, then, of course the Bears are able
to find a trade partner in the Giants, and I
(33:08):
can tell you there's there's a belief that the upside
here with Justin Fields is very, very high. Yeah, I'm
not sure how quickly they get him on the field, Colin,
but I think it's important to remember that Matt Naggie
was in Kansas City in twenty and seventeen part of
the process, in part of the process in scouting Patrick
Mahomes and also part of developing Patrick Mahomes that rookie
(33:29):
year when he was red shirts. So I'm not saying
Justin Fields is going to be red shirted, but I
do believe him that they feel like what's best for
Fields is to wait until he's truly ready to put
him on the field. And maybe that happens in September,
maybe it happens in December, maybe it happens in twenty
and twenty two. But I really feel like they they
they think, because of the way that Naggie handled the
development of Mahomes back in seventeen, that if they can
(33:51):
serve this kid right, just you know, in terms of
his development, there could be something really special there. Albert Brewer,
Monday Morning Quarterback. Good seeing you get Bud appreciated. All right, thanks,
con all right, why next? Wednesday is a massive day
for the Cleveland Browns and what to make of the
Cowboys Draft. It was kind of odd. Thoughts on both
(34:14):
of those Coming up next plus Colin Right, Colin wrong,
top of hour two. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd Weekdays and Noon Easter ninety em Pacific. Hey,
it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller
along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would meet a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour?
(34:34):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben
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Explorer some amazing facts about a human nature and more.
Let'sten to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
(34:54):
All right, welcome back, Good dude. Have you in on
a Monday. Colin right, Colin wrong, top of next hour.
Next Wednesday is a huge day for the Cleveland Browns
because next Wednesday is the release of the schedule. Now,
of course it's the release of the schedule for everybody.
But of the six or seven really good rosters in
(35:16):
this league, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, I mean we kind
of we know the good rosters. Cleveland's one of those.
Cleveland's gonna have potentially nine new starters on defense. Now,
Kansas City has rebuilt their offensive line. That's going to
take a while for it to work, no question, But
it's Andy Reid, it's Mahomes. It should work quickly next Wednesday.
(35:41):
If you go look at who Cleveland faces next year,
I already know who they play, I don't know when
they play them. So you look at their schedule and
there's four dogs in it. Lions, Texans, Broncos, and Bengals
are getting better, but they're not great. You want to
face those teams, perhaps early with all these new defensive starters.
(36:02):
What you don't want to face early is offenses that
bring back everybody Green Bay. I don't want Andy Reid.
By the way, say what you want about the Bears,
but Matt Naggie's only lost two games ever coaching in September.
Next Wednesday, everybody wants to know who do we face,
(36:23):
and when you face them, of all these super Bowl
level rosters, one is going to have nine new starters
on one side of the ball. And I love the
Browns offseason, but you've got to watch out here Cleveland faces.
Think of all these coaches they face next year. Matt Lafleur,
Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, Harbad twice, Zimmer who Vegas thinks
(36:46):
Zimmer's one of the best coaches, Mike Tomlin twice. That's
a lot of good coaches. And they bring back experienced,
veteran offenses in many cases, and you got nine new
guys on the defensive end. That's why I've said Cleveland
schedule is going to be fascinating. Where does it land.
(37:07):
We know they're gonna be good, but they could be
a little bit of a hot mess on the back
end of that defense. In September, guys running all over
the place. So next Wednesday schedule release gonna break down
that Brown schedule. The other draft that's fascinating. That hasn't
gotten a lot of talk today. Now we all know
the Dallas Cowboys are a huge brand, but as you
(37:30):
bounced around the channels today, there's not a lot of
talk about the Dallas Cowboys draft, and that's because it
was weird. It was a weird draft. They didn't get
a great edge rusher. We're not sure they got a
great corner. They took a couple of stabs on some
red flags. Guys meaning guys, was some you know, a
(37:52):
little sketchy personal history character stuff what the Cowboys did.
And this happens in life too. You go on a
date and it starts clunky. Okay, go to the bathroom,
get your confidence back or something. Come out, start over.
There's an old saying, don't let a bad loss become
(38:12):
two losses, like get over it. Dallas got sort of
disjarred because they wanted a corner and we all had
him taking a corner and the two are off the board,
and then they didn't quite know what to do. So
Dallas goes, Yo, Okay, we'll take a linebacker. And they
didn't really need a linebacker, and in fact, they took
(38:32):
two linebackers, and I'm not sure they really needed two linebackers.
And I'm not really sure. The corner they got from
Kentucky is a hit, and the corner from Oregon State
was a massive reach. And there's some red flags on
some of the guys they drafted. There's a reason nobody's
talking about the Cowboys draft is the offense is gonna
(38:55):
be way better than the defense. And I don't know
what it's gonna look like, but I felt dallas Us
draft was sort of the classic. We all thought we
knew what they were gonna take, and I think Dallas
thought they knew what they were gonna take, and all
of a sudden, JC horn went earlier than everybody thought.
Then Sir Tan's gone to Denver. We thought they were
(39:16):
taking a quarterback in Dallas likes up and goes, whoops,
we don't really need a linebacker, but he's the best
player and we're gonna take one and see what happens.
And I just felt the Cowboys were sort of off
the entire draft. Not that it's a disaster, let's just
wait and see it play out, but it's it's really
(39:36):
uneven with some reaches, some personality quirks, some guys that
could be good but could be really just a massive reach.
And that's why to me, I think it's it's a
riddle wrapped in an enigma. I don't know what Dallas
did in the draft. Obviously went heavy defense. They took
(39:59):
an offense of lineman who had some sketchy background stuff. No,
a big question mark for the Cowboys. Just the one
thing they needed was a corner and an edge rusher.
I'm not sure they got it. I know, I'm really
not sure they did that. Great. Okay, So top of
the hour, Colin right, Colin wrong. We'll give you the
very latest. We'll keep updating you on the Packer situation. Folks.
(40:22):
They're either moving him this year or next year. He's
not going to be there in two years that we know.
This year could be a little bit too much of
a cap pit. But one more year max for Aaron
in Green Bay hour or two next
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
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 heard you're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Ah. Here we go on a Monday, live
(00:27):
in Los Angeles. This is the Herd, wherever you may
be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports
Radio FS one, one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong, There is plenty of both. I
love the Draft, sat there all weekend. Hello, Joey Taylor
(00:50):
is joining me. I love It's my thing. This is
actually a very packed sports weekends and the draft all weekends.
Kentucky Derby, the Louise Ariola fight. Busy weekend. It was
Lakers look like they're in trouble. Lebron got hurt. We'll
get to that. So let me start with this is.
I don't give draft grades. I think they're very consumable,
(01:10):
but sort of ridiculous. I'm not going to pretend I
know how well you're sixth and seventh and mostly your
fifth round picks are going to do. It's silly. I
mean I saw this weekend. Oh Patriots get an A plus.
If Mac Jones is average, it's a bad draft. Oh
the Jets draft. Can Zach Wilson play? Or is he
completely overwhelmed for two years? My prediction in the best
(01:31):
defensive coach division in football. I'm not going to make
grades on drafts. I mean these teams that drafted quarterbacks.
If your quarterback doesn't work, it's a terrible draft. Chicago's
could be a great draft, or it could be terrible.
So I'm not going to waste time now. I will
say this. My job is to give you as potentially
(01:51):
accurate an evaluation as I can. So what I've done.
Anybody that's listening to me, joy's been here. What I
do every Monday after the draft, I think has a
much greater chance to be accurate. I take your top
two or three top free agents, your top two or
three draft picks, and then those guys it's a much
greater chance they hit. And I thought there was three
(02:15):
teams that got an A plus and they were already
really good rosters. I thought the Cleveland Browns get an
A plus for their off season, The LA Chargers get
an A plus for their off season, and the Kansas
City Chiefs get an A plus for their off season.
So let me explain. Cleveland's already got a nice roster.
They made the playoffs and they won a playoff game,
(02:36):
but their back end was awful. They not only addressed
their linebacking and secondary, they massively upgraded. This is that
was as good a weekend as the Cleveland Browns have
ever had in terms of addressing more of their issues.
So you get Jadeveon Clowney, Troy Hill, John Johnson, These
(02:57):
guys have played in the league, these guys have These
are grown ups. These are men, not boys in the NFL.
Then you go get a corner Greg Newsom, who I
had going in the first round earlier than they got him,
and maybe the linebacker for Notre Dame. So what you
get here is a mix of veterans, you get a
mix of youth. You get guys who have called plays.
(03:19):
John Johnson for the Rams has been calling plays for
a defense. You get grown ups, kids, and you attack
your one weakness, and I already know you got a
good coach and can win a playoff game because I
saw it last year. That is an A plus off season.
You had a weakness, you solved it with veterans and
draft picks, not just kids. I don't want to hear.
(03:40):
Oh we drafted nine, you got it. I don't a lot.
Most gms in trades don't want nine picks because half
these guys don't pan out. So Cleveland a plus. Let's
go to the Chargers. Really good roster but a bad
old line. Not only did they solve their old line,
it could be as good as any not named Kansas
(04:02):
City or maybe the Colts in football. Corey Linsley pro bowler,
from bad at center to a Pro Bowl center. Then
they got Rashaan Slater, Asante Samuel, and Josh Palmer. Josh
Palmer is going to be the surprise third round pick
in the draft. Had a bad college quarterback, kids as
stud so they attacked with Justin Herbert. They attacked their weakness,
(04:25):
got a Pro Bowl center many graded the top left tackle,
and then they got the best corner drafted in the
second round. And again Jared Cook, Corey Linsley and the Steelers.
I didn't put it here, but they got a Steeler
guard as well, major upground. And it's not just upgrading
for any quarterback, it's upgrading for Justin Herbert. They already
have good weapons. And the team that's not getting mentioned
(04:45):
that had a great offseason as the Kansas City Chiefs,
Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. What do they need to
make it work? A good quarterback check Mahomes, A good
offensive line that was a huge issue in the Super Bowl.
They not only made their offensive line great, they added depth.
They got Orlando Brown, Pro Bowl left tackle, Joe Tuney,
(05:06):
Pro Bowl guard, Kyle Long out of retirement, Austin blythe
top ten center. Then they drafted Creed Humphrey from Oklahoma,
the best center. Now they have two legitimate elite centers.
Their weakness linebacker. They got Nick Bolton, who I thought
should have been drafted higher. These are playoff teams already.
These are good rosters already that had a hole. And
(05:29):
the Browns attacked their linebacker in secondary, the Chargers attacked
their offensive line. What the Chiefs did to their offensive
line is beyond attacked shark Nado. They got stuff flying
all over here. They added a great center, then a
college center, and again you're given Maholmes justin Herbert, Baker, Mayfield.
(05:51):
These are guys that can. These are big time. You know,
I got my issues with Baker, but he won a
playoff game, so to me, those are a plus offseasons.
Stefanski won Coach of the Year, Herbert was the best
rookie quarterback, and Annie Reid Mahomes Enough said, now, I
want to mention two other drafts I thought were really
strong because the coaches used to coach in college, so
(06:11):
I predicted they do well in the draft. They did
Jacksonville in Carolina again Urban just out of college, Matt
Rule one year out of college. I thought both of
them showed a complete direction. Both went heavy into offense.
They're both offensive coaches. The Jacksonville Jaguars went quarterback, running back,
(06:32):
offensive tackle. They're telling you right now, we're gonna build
a running game. We're gonna build a running game to
take the pressure off Trevor Lawrence. For the first time
in a decade. Jacksonville's got a direction, I believe, a
culture changer and stars. Offensively, they're not going to be
very good. Defensively, they'll score points. Same thing for Carolina.
(06:52):
They're not going to be a great team. But they
went out and said we're gonna get hyper athletic at
quarterback Sam Darnold. They got the best corner in the draft,
and then look what they did wide receiver, left tackle,
tight end. I'll say this Chubb A. Hubbard is gonna
be potentially the steel of the draft. So I don't
think those off seasons are as good as the Chiefs, Browns, Chargers.
(07:14):
But these teams, these offensive coaches said we're gonna be explosive. Now,
if you want me to just drade best draft, I
don't do it because I don't know what your fifth, six,
seventh round guys are gonna be. But I will say
the Miami Dolphins on sheer draft five picks four could
be high end starters and Hunter Long may eventually start
at tight end. I thought Miami in terms of just drafting,
(07:38):
I love their draft last year, mostly two. But Jalen
Waddle now gets to play with this college quarterback. So
the three A plus off seasons, Browns, Chargers, Chiefs. The
two teams were the college coaches with an offensive background,
clearly head in the offensive direct Urban and the Jags
(08:01):
Matt Ruin. The Panthers and just in terms of draft.
I thought Miami crushed it just in terms of draft picks. Okay,
So the Aaron Rodgers situate, it's so weird, and I
actually love you know. Aaron is the gift that keeps
on giving. So Aaron Rodgers day of the draft, Charger
or Packers burned him a year ago, I'm gonna burn you.
(08:23):
And so right now the story is, the ball is
in Mark Murphy's court. Aaron wants the Packer GM out,
the GM of the Packers, Brian Gudenkin's he went and
got Jordan Loved last year apparently went a little rogue.
Here's the whole thing here, It's not that complicated. If
Jordan Love, who they drafted last year in the first round,
(08:44):
can play, your problems are really not that dire. What
you do after June one, you trade Aaron, so you
split up the salary cap hit. You called Denver, say
give me three first rounders and Jerry Judy the wide receiver.
(09:05):
If Jordan Love can play and you drafted him in
the first round, he doesn't cost anything. So the dead
cap hit for Aaron Rodgers isn't the end of the world.
It all comes down to con Jordan Love play I'm
not saying problem completely solved, but think about this. If
(09:25):
you could go to a Denver and that appears to
be the leader in the clubhouse for him and get
like Jerry Judy their receiver last year, I'd have Davante Adams,
Jerry Judy, Aaron Jones, a top five offensive lineman, and
Robert Tony in the tight end had eleven touchdowns last year,
and Matt Lafleu of the coach in a division with
dysfunctional Detroit Kirk Cousins and rookie Justin Fields Green boot
(09:47):
would win the division, would win the division, probably easily
if Jordan Love can play. And that's why you took
him right in the first round. I always said the
Jordan Love move, I understand it, but it only only
works if he can play. But instead Jordan Love is
(10:08):
a beautiful mystery. In the words of Aaron Rodgers, is
he Paxton Lynch? Some say is is he potentially a
B plus mahomes? Some say is he's had a year
in the system. Can the dude play? We don't know.
Because of COVID, the media is not allowed to go
to practice, so nobody knows. Is he Paxton Lynch? Is
(10:32):
he Patrick Mahomes. But but I mean, there have been
more UFO sightings in the last seven days than Jordan
Love sightings in the last year. So this whole situation
with Aaron Rodgers, if you're at practice and you're watching them,
and you're like, he's eighty five percent of Josh Allen
or Mahomes, you got no issues. Aaron's thirty seven to
(10:52):
collar bones, very expensive, prickly, difficult to get along with.
It's a divorce. He wants to go play West, He's
somebody from Hollywood. He's doing Jeopardy. You're fine. I mean
your division, let's be honest, is dysfunctional. Your Chicago hopes,
Justin Fields can play Dan Campbell, Lyons, Kirk Cousins, Limitations Minnesota.
(11:17):
This all comes down to a general manager in Green
Bay who said, hey, this kid is potentially great. All right,
it's on you if he is. This is not that
big of a deal. I mean, don't get me wrong,
Aaron Rodgers will leave. But it's not like if Aaron
goes to the Broncos, he's gonna line up nine straight
(11:37):
Super Bowls. He's thirty seven, He's never had that. Tom Brady,
I want to play forever Jeane, He's already doing Jeopardy.
You know, Aaron's had injuries. Tom didn't have those kind
of injuries. And frankly, if you go to a division
with Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes, I'm not that is
a lot of barriers to go through to just win
(11:57):
the division. Forget super Bowls. But but if if Jordan
Love can't play, then you got to fire the GM
because it was a terrible pick. You may have ruined
the culture of the Packers and you ticked off your
franchise quarterback. So it all comes down to the general manager,
Brian Gungas, do you know what you're doing? If Jordan's
(12:19):
Love can play, It's not This is pretty easy. I
mean when Mahomes they recognized he could play. The Alex
Smith situation, see a buddy thanks from entering. All comes
down to that Brett Veach and Andy Reid draft a
guy that none of us watched play in college, didn't
know anything about. Well, you got Alex Smith as Alex
(12:41):
Smith gonna be offended? What? Oh boy? That he's pretty good?
No problem. If Jordan Love can play, move Aaron get
picks Jerry Judy, You're gonna win your division. Most problems
I tell my kids this all the time. Most problems
get overstated. God go to social media. Everything's the end
(13:04):
of the world. We just had a pandemic. California had
a fifteen billion dollars surplus in a pandemic. Today in
La County, we didn't have a single death. There's ten
million people here. The COVID rate in La County is
point six percent. This is the most diverse county in America.
We're through it. A pandemic. Economy is flying. Nothing's the
(13:27):
end of the world. As long as you're prepared. If
Jordan Love can play, then you're prepared. All right. We
got a lot of stuff. By the way, Cleveland, I
talked about this about three weeks ago. Remember when I said,
schedule release is May twelfth. It's Wednesday. Everybody thinks schedule
(13:48):
release is, you know, overrated. It is so important for Cleveland. Also,
thoughts on the Jets all weekend long. What do you
think of the Jets draft? I'll tell you what I
think of it. That's coming up next. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and
(14:11):
the iHeart radio app. Don't wait until Sunday to surprise mom.
Go to one eight hundred flowers dot com right now,
click the radio icon, enter my name heard two dozen
multi colored roses twenty nine ninety nine. So everybody wants
to know, Oh, our our draft grade? And one of
the teams obviously they picked second, they got Zach Wilson.
How was the Jets draft? And my thing is it
(14:33):
doesn't matter. They're a fourth place team. The Jets fans
don't need a draft grade. What they need is patients.
It's a bunch of firsts. You have a first time
head coach and a first time play cooler, and a
rookie quarterback from a small town, and several offensive players
who were in their first or second year. It's a
(14:53):
fourth place team. Just be patient. Miami was ten and six,
great special teams, great defense, and had a great offensive draft.
You're not finishing ahead of them. Buffalo was thirteen and three.
Has one real weakness pass rush. First two picks pass rushers.
New England spent a fortune in the offseason, has the
(15:15):
best football coach ever, Cam Newton. Year two and eight
players op back in. You're not beating them. They were
seven and nine and that was a disaster for them.
The New York Jets are a fourth place team. Listen,
there's four teams in the NFL that I think are
going to finish last two. I would pick today Detroit
and Houston. Two others Philadelphia and the Jets. I presume
(15:38):
their fourth place teams. Zach Wilson looks eleven, small town Utah,
big city New York. This is gonna take time. You
gotta be patient. I mean god, Zach Wilson's mom looks
twenty eight. Forget Zach, this is just a young kid.
This is a brutal division. Defensive coaches best defensive coach
(16:01):
division easily in the NFL. Zach Wilson is going to
be completely overwhelmed for two years. That's why I said,
you could have made an argument to keep Darnald because
at least he's seen the coaching in this division. So
you're starting over at quarterback. This is Sam Darnold is
a rookie. The difference is he as a competent general
manager and a much better left side of the offensive line.
(16:25):
But how did the Jets draft go I don't know.
It doesn't really matter. How is your patience. That's gonna matter.
Don't call sports talk radio when they're one in five.
That's what they're probably going to be if they have
to face Belichick and Brian Flores and Sean McDermott early.
Everything's perspective. Perspective will control your happiness. If I said
(16:47):
to you, you're a six and eleven team, that's not
necessarily a disaster, if you'll lose a bunch of close
games and Zach Wilson can play. If I was a
Jet fan today and you said Zach's he's a hit
and we lost a ton of close games, I'd take
six and eleven tomorrow, tomorrow now if you tell me
you're seven and ten and Zach Wilson has seventeen picks,
(17:15):
And to be honest with you, you got some scheduling breaks,
Cam got hurt, You didn't play him twice. Ah, you
just gotta sit back, let it play out, Let this
puppy bake, because you've got a first time head coach
and a first time play caller and a rookie quarterback
and rookies everywhere. And I got no idea how it's
gonna turn out. By the way, nobody does, including Robert
(17:36):
Sala and Joe Douglas. No team in the NFL is
a bigger question mark than the Jets. You cross your fingers,
you hope it's good. You hope the kid can play.
But he's going from small town Utah to the biggest
city in America and the surliest media. Joey Taylor with
the news. No, No, this is the herd line news. Well,
(17:58):
I don't know how patient Chicago fans are going to be,
but head coach Matt Nagee is they're not rushing Justin
Fields onto the field next season. They did make an
aggressive move up to get him, and he is not
making any guesses about when Fields will make his debut.
For him, it's going to be exciting for him to
just come in here and learn how to be a
(18:20):
professional quarterback. It's not going to happen overnight. When the
time is right, I promise you, every single person will know,
including Justin, when it's the right time. And that's naturally
how it happens. Well, it's not the Kansas City Alex
Smith Patrick Mahomes situation. This is Chicago and both of
you are on the hot seat itself and in the
(18:42):
GM and Chicago has not had a quarterback in decades,
and you just made an aggressive move up for a
guy that a lot of people had ranked second right
behind Trevor Lawrence, and some people even thought he might
be a better prospect than Lawrence. He will play this year,
so yes, he's going. We're going to see him on
the field. If you're, you know, questioning at all how
people feel about your current quarterback situation without Dustin Fields,
(19:04):
you can go and check the mentions under that QB
one post that you guys put up with Andy Dalton. Also,
look at the schedule. Remember how last year, a couple
of years ago, we predicted when lamar ch action would start.
Remember we nailed it. We predicted week eleven, and we
kind of predicted when two would get an opportunity. Wait
until the Bear's schedule comes out, if they get a
bye or the Lions are coming up in week nine.
(19:27):
You know, I don't even think it'll last that long.
I don't either, but there's a time to play him.
So listen. If it's Green Bay at Lambeau, you're not
going to start him. Look at your schedule. Matt Naggie
is gonna look at that thing and go Okay, we
got the Lions, then a bye and then home against
blank Then you build some momentum. So he's gonna play.
(19:49):
My guess is first couple weeks in November he'll play. Yeah.
I don't. I don't think it's going to be very
long at all. First of all, the fan base wants
to see him. Yeah. Second of all, what is your
quarterback situation? Nick Foles and Andy Dollin? So how are
either of them going to fare against the Green Bay Packers.
The fans are gonna want to see him. And I
don't subscribe as much as other people do to like
(20:11):
rookie quarterbacks need to sit for a year. I think
if you have a very stable organization, if you have
a situation where the coach has no heat on them,
the GM has no heat on them, which is not
the situation in Chicago. You guys are coming off a
great season, you know, that's everything that was going on
with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs like they drafted their
quarterback of the future. They had a very stable situation.
Alex Smith, great pro was playing in the playoffs. This
(20:33):
is not the same situation. So I don't I don't
think that it's always the best thing for a quarterback
to sit as a rookie, Like, there is some value
in learning what not to do when you lose, how
to recover from getting blown out. Like I didn't think
that was a good situation for two of last year.
If he was healthy, I think he should have been
out there. You also have more to evaluate when you
let a rookie quarterback start. This is a different situation
(20:56):
obviously because they're in the hot seat. So they may
try and win a few games to your point before
they put him out there, But let them get blown
out once or twice, and there's not going to be
any patience from the fan base anymore. So. The Roncos,
who I thought, sure, we're taking justin Fields, did not
draft a rookie quarterback this year, so they will have
a competition between Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater in the preseason.
(21:17):
When asked how he would split reps between the two,
head coach Vic Fangio says he expects it to be
fifty fifty throughout OTAs in training camp, and both Lock
and Bridgewater will have an equal chance to get the
starting job. I don't I think that they're still in
the conversation with Aaron Rodgers. I don't think that this
is the I mean, how could you pass up on
mac Jones and Justin Fields unless that was the Citi scenario.
(21:38):
It's interesting because Aaron Rodgers, there was a story that
leaked this weekend he was interested in the Raiders. It's
like time out, time out, time out, Aaron. Denver's actually
the last two drafts has gotten a lot of good
players like Denver. If I told you tomorrow Aaron Rodgers
on Denver, that's a good football team. I would feel
(22:00):
better about Aaron Rodgers on on Denver's team than Oakland Ver, Sorry,
Las Vegas for sure. Yeah, if I told you Aaron
Rodgers on the Raiders, you'd be like, well, there'll be
in a lot of high scoring games with Mahomes and
Justin Herbert. So like, I think Denver is one of
those places that it was almost like Peyton Manning years ago.
Peyton Manning looked around and went, you know, Denver just
(22:20):
needs a quarterback. I think Denver's once again in the
just needs a top quarterback. Plus, could you see Aaron
Rodgers and Gruden. Well it's good for the I mean
it's good for us, It's good for the Marquis. Yeah,
but I mean, do you think that two of them
would there enough? My first job are in the room
for the two of them. My first job out of
(22:40):
college was Vegas. Siegfried and Roy always look good on
the Marquis. Gruden and Aaron's great on the Marquis. It
doesn't mean it's gonna win, but it would. You could
not get a ticket for five years. I would love it,
But I'm just saying I don't know if that's a
long term winning situation. And we know at the end
of the day, Gruden is the one with the contract.
So finally, it's little trouble in Laker Lands a little.
(23:04):
Lebron was back on the court Friday after missing over
a month with an ankle injury, but his return did
not help the Lakers much. They lost one ten, one
oh six to the King the Kings, and afterwards Lebron
says he doesn't think he'll ever be back to one
hundred percent. And then last night they lost again to
the Raptors. Lebron was held out of the end of
the game with soreness and his ankle and they lost
(23:26):
one twenty one, one fourteen. It's totally off well, here's
sort of the issue. So I'm sure you saw Lebron's
quote about the play in tournament. So the Lakers are
six in the West, thirty six and twenty eight. The
next five games are the Nuggets, Clippers, Blazers, Sons, and Knicks.
And there's eight games remaining in the season, and seeds
(23:48):
seven through ten in each conference will participant will participate
in the play in tournaments. Seven will face eight and
nine will face ten, and then the winner between seven
and eight will become the seven seed in the playoffs.
The loser seven and eight will face the winner between
nine and ten for the eight seed in the playoffs.
So these next five games are very important, yeah, and
(24:08):
they not want to slip into into the play in tournament,
and then they really have right now, they just have
no chemistry at all. And you've got Lebron who just
kind of feels all year he's been a little bitter.
You know. Lebron generally at the end of a season
to the next season gets one hundred and twenty days off.
This year he got seventy. Now he's getting older, so
(24:29):
he wants more, not fewer, So he got almost half
the time off. He didn't want an All Star Game.
He didn't want the season to start in December. He
doesn't want the play in tournament. Older Lebron is like
he's telling you he is deeply concerned about his body
boom he got hurt yesterday. Yeah, I mean, and I
get it, And if I was Lebron, I'd feel the
same way. But there's a whole league, so you know,
(24:54):
these are things we have to do, Like you have
to have an All Star Game, you have to start
the season so you can get back on track for
next year. Yeah yeah, other teams and other players and
need to get the season in. And of course we
don't even want to talk about what would happen if
we didn't, because the CBA would blow up. So yes,
I get it, and I'm sure Lakers fans don't want
to hear that either. But that's that's the way that
it's going this year. It's unprecedented times. Not a great
(25:15):
weekend for the Dodgers or the Lakers. What's happening, Joey
with the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for
the herd lie. Well, it was starting Thursday, a magical weekend.
We all knew it was gonna be Trevor Lawrence and
Zach Wilson, and then nobody knew what was going to happen.
Number three Niners go Trey Lance, Albert Brewer brought to
(25:37):
you by Mercedes Benz The Best or Nothing m MQB okay.
So you know, there's a lot of different stories out there.
I don't think it was a smoke screen. My takeaway
was Kyle Shanahan wanted Mac and got voted out. That
was always kind of my feeling. But you know, who knows.
What do you believe happened the shift from Mac to
Trey Lance? Well, I just think the gap, the gap
(26:00):
closed on where Mac's biggest advantage was, which was the
part of the game that happens above the neck. You know,
really like, if you talk to enough teams about this,
what they'll tell you is he was so advanced. He
operated so fast and I'm not talking about foot speech,
just the way he processed the game was so fast
that you could see him overcoming his physical limitations. And
(26:23):
you know, the Niners were pitting him against another guy
and two other guys really that that didn't have those
physical limitations. And I think the Niners learned about Trey Lance.
But a lot of other teams learned about Trey Lance.
His football IQ was off the charts. His character is
really good. He just needs to play more, that's really it,
you know, and he only played seventeen games at the
collegiate level. There are issues there with the fact that
(26:46):
you didn't see him playing from behind very much at
North Dakota State. I think you'd argue the gap between
North Dakota State and their competition is larger than the
gap between Alabama and their competition, and so there were
a lot of like cool situations that you didn't see
Trey Lance in. So he is a little bit more
of a pure projection. But I think the difference for
(27:06):
the Niners was the one area where mac Jones held
a lead over the other two guys. I mean really,
over the course of the month between the trade and
the draft, Trey Lance was able to close that gap
to the point where the Niners felt like they couldn't
pass up on the upside that Lance brought to the table.
You know, before we get into the Aaron Rodgers stuff,
I'm not a big believer in draft grades. It's consumable,
(27:28):
I get it, it's fun. I did think Miami just
in terms of first four or five guys taken. I thought, boy,
that is a good draft. You know, it's funny when
I watched Miami's draft, My takeaway is the Jets are
a fourth place team. Is that Buffalo's better? New England's
got all the opt ins And I thought Miami, which
has great defense and special teams, went offense. I guess
(27:51):
if I said best draft weekend, is there anybody for
you that stands out? You know, it's funny say mentioned
the Jets. I think the Jets did really well. Let's
move the quarterback aside because it's unpredictable what will happen
with the quarterbacks. But I really think if you look here, Colin,
there's almost like a self awareness here of how they
screwed Sam Darnold, you know what I mean? Like over
the last three years, a big reason why Sam Darnold
(28:14):
hasn't didn't didn't reach his potential was because of what
was around him. And I don't know if Sam Darnold's
ever going to make it as a franchise quarterback, but
you know, I think there's still a lot of unknown
there because the situation around him was so broken. So
what does Joe Douglas do he hires, you know, a
head coach who's going to put in the most quarterback
friendly system in football. And if you look at their
(28:35):
first four picks, okay, go right on down the line,
high character guys. Beyond the quarterback, you've got an offensive
guard and Olive Vera Tucker that's gonna play next to
McKay Beckton. So now you've got two foundation pieces on
the offensive line. You give him a slot receiver in
Elijah Moore who's going to create easy completions, and then
you give him a back in Michael Carter who can
(28:55):
catch the ball out of the backfield. And so you know,
I think it's hard to grade things a couple of
days after the draft, but I think just looking as
far as value goes, you look at where they got
Vera Tucker. I thought that was a good spot to
get him. A lot of teams viewed Elijah Moore as
a first round pick. They got him at the top
of the second round. And I don't think very many
people had all expected Michael Carter to be there in
the fourth round they got him. And what I really
(29:17):
like about it again is there's an acknowledgement that they
need to do more around the young quarterback to really
figure out who that young quarterback is. And so I
think now they're giving you know, they're giving Zach Wilson
a much much better chance to succeed in New York
than they ever gave Sam Arnold. All Right, you talked
to Brian guden Counts yesterday, the GM of the Packers.
(29:38):
I had said earlier in the show today, listen, if
Jordan Love can play, this would make this all much
easier to digest. But again, we've had more UFO sightings
than Jordan Loves sightings in the last couple of weeks
because the COVID no media is around practice. So I
have no idea. So take us to your conversation as
much as you can tell us about the GM of
(29:59):
the Packers yesterday. Yeah, I mean, he's got his feet
planted in the ground on this one. And I think
it's an important detail to remember. He was with the
organization in two thousand and eight when all this was
going on with Brett Farve, and so you know I
brought up to him the parallels there. I mean, Farv
was mad. If you remember at the time Colin because
they hadn't been aggressive enough around him, and really the
(30:19):
flashpoint was not getting Randy Moss. The year that Randy
Moss went to New England. Then you look at the
general manager of the relationship between the general manager and
the quarterback. There was a coaching change involved. It was
to Mike McCarthy with Farv, it was to Matt Lafleur
with Rogers, So there are a lot of parallels there.
But when I asked Kudacoons about that and how his
(30:40):
experience there might serve him now, basically said that it
was different because the organization in two thousand and eight
made a decision they were going with Aaron Rodgers. And
he told me point blank, we're not making that sort
of decision right now, and we won't be making that
sort of decision for the foreseeable future. And if you
read between the lines calling, I think he hit the
nail on the head there. And this isn't coming from Goodakoons,
(31:01):
is coming from other people who I think would know.
I don't think they think Jordan loves Ready, and I
think they feel like they've got a championship team right now,
a team that obviously has been in the Championship round
the last two years, and I don't think they think
it would serve that team particularly well to put Jordan
on the field Jordan Love on the field right now,
and so I think, as much as anything else, this
(31:21):
is again the belief that they really, they really do
think that Aaron Rodgers has a few good years left
at the level he played out last year. But beyond
just that, I don't think that they feel like they've
got the I would say answer for right now on
the on the roster. I'm not sure if they feel
like there's any doubt long term on him, But as
far as the answer for it right now, I don't
(31:42):
think Jordan Love is it all right? Listen, Ryan Pace,
I've been critical of him, he felt like in the
last year he's on the hot seat. But I do
think it takes some guts to go up and get
Justin Fields, who I think is everything. Andy Dalton is not.
You know, big arm athletic, young, super inexpensive. Now, kind
(32:04):
of take me through that move by the Bears from
what you can tell happened. Well, really, you know, Matt
Naggie's had his eye on the guy for over a year.
He's got a really close relationship with Ryan Day. The
two played against each other as quarterbacks in the Atlantic
Ten over twenty years ago. They've known each other since,
and Day really put Naggie on to Justin Fields back
in March, to the point where, and Naggie told me
(32:26):
this late last night, he would make a point of
watching Ohio States games on Saturdays when they were on
the road from the team hotel because he was really
just fascinated in Fields as a prospect. Now, I think
there was a limit to how far they were willing
to go to get him. But once he got past
that little rung of you know where you expect some
quarterback movement, you know, the lines potentially trading down from
(32:47):
seven didn't happen. The Panthers and Broncos didn't take quarterbacks
in eight and nine. That was the point where they
needed to get aggressive. And so I know the Cowboys
weren't willing to move too far down. They didn't want
to go beyond what was the perceived cliff in the
mid teens, So they wind up moving back two spots.
And you know, then, of course the Bears are able
to find a trade partner in the Giants, and I
(33:08):
can tell you there's there's a belief that the upside
here with Justin Fields is very, very high. Yeah, I'm
not sure how quickly they get him on the field, Colin,
but I think it's important to remember that Matt Naggie
was in Kansas City in twenty and seventeen part of
the process, in part of the process in scouting Patrick
Mahomes and also part of developing Patrick Mahomes that rookie
(33:29):
year when he was red shirts. So I'm not saying
Justin Fields is going to be red shirted, but I
do believe him that they feel like what's best for
Fields is to wait until he's truly ready to put
him on the field. And maybe that happens in September,
maybe it happens in December, maybe it happens in twenty
and twenty two. But I really feel like they they
they think, because of the way that Naggie handled the
development of Mahomes back in seventeen, that if they can
(33:51):
serve this kid right, just you know, in terms of
his development, there could be something really special there. Albert Brewer,
Monday Morning Quarterback. Good seeing you get Bud appreciated. All right, thanks,
con all right, why next? Wednesday is a massive day
for the Cleveland Browns and what to make of the
Cowboys Draft. It was kind of odd. Thoughts on both
(34:14):
of those Coming up next plus Colin Right, Colin wrong,
top of hour two. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd Weekdays and Noon Easter ninety em Pacific. Hey,
it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller
along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would meet a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour?
(34:34):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben
Maller show. Colt hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen?
Picture if you will a world will we chat with
captains of industry in media, sports and more every week
Explorer some amazing facts about a human nature and more.
Let'sten to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
(34:54):
All right, welcome back, Good dude. Have you in on
a Monday. Colin right, Colin wrong, top of next hour.
Next Wednesday is a huge day for the Cleveland Browns
because next Wednesday is the release of the schedule. Now,
of course it's the release of the schedule for everybody.
But of the six or seven really good rosters in
(35:16):
this league, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, I mean we kind
of we know the good rosters. Cleveland's one of those.
Cleveland's gonna have potentially nine new starters on defense. Now,
Kansas City has rebuilt their offensive line. That's going to
take a while for it to work, no question, But
it's Andy Reid, it's Mahomes. It should work quickly next Wednesday.
(35:41):
If you go look at who Cleveland faces next year,
I already know who they play, I don't know when
they play them. So you look at their schedule and
there's four dogs in it. Lions, Texans, Broncos, and Bengals
are getting better, but they're not great. You want to
face those teams, perhaps early with all these new defensive starters.
(36:02):
What you don't want to face early is offenses that
bring back everybody Green Bay. I don't want Andy Reid.
By the way, say what you want about the Bears,
but Matt Naggie's only lost two games ever coaching in September.
Next Wednesday, everybody wants to know who do we face,
(36:23):
and when you face them, of all these super Bowl
level rosters, one is going to have nine new starters
on one side of the ball. And I love the
Browns offseason, but you've got to watch out here Cleveland faces.
Think of all these coaches they face next year. Matt Lafleur,
Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, Harbad twice, Zimmer who Vegas thinks
(36:46):
Zimmer's one of the best coaches, Mike Tomlin twice. That's
a lot of good coaches. And they bring back experienced,
veteran offenses in many cases, and you got nine new
guys on the defensive end. That's why I've said Cleveland
schedule is going to be fascinating. Where does it land.
(37:07):
We know they're gonna be good, but they could be
a little bit of a hot mess on the back
end of that defense. In September, guys running all over
the place. So next Wednesday schedule release gonna break down
that Brown schedule. The other draft that's fascinating. That hasn't
gotten a lot of talk today. Now we all know
the Dallas Cowboys are a huge brand, but as you
(37:30):
bounced around the channels today, there's not a lot of
talk about the Dallas Cowboys draft, and that's because it
was weird. It was a weird draft. They didn't get
a great edge rusher. We're not sure they got a
great corner. They took a couple of stabs on some
red flags. Guys meaning guys, was some you know, a
(37:52):
little sketchy personal history character stuff what the Cowboys did.
And this happens in life too. You go on a
date and it starts clunky. Okay, go to the bathroom,
get your confidence back or something. Come out, start over.
There's an old saying, don't let a bad loss become
(38:12):
two losses, like get over it. Dallas got sort of
disjarred because they wanted a corner and we all had
him taking a corner and the two are off the board,
and then they didn't quite know what to do. So
Dallas goes, Yo, Okay, we'll take a linebacker. And they
didn't really need a linebacker, and in fact, they took
(38:32):
two linebackers, and I'm not sure they really needed two linebackers.
And I'm not really sure. The corner they got from
Kentucky is a hit, and the corner from Oregon State
was a massive reach. And there's some red flags on
some of the guys they drafted. There's a reason nobody's
talking about the Cowboys draft is the offense is gonna
(38:55):
be way better than the defense. And I don't know
what it's gonna look like, but I felt dallas Us
draft was sort of the classic. We all thought we
knew what they were gonna take, and I think Dallas
thought they knew what they were gonna take, and all
of a sudden, JC horn went earlier than everybody thought.
Then Sir Tan's gone to Denver. We thought they were
(39:16):
taking a quarterback in Dallas likes up and goes, whoops,
we don't really need a linebacker, but he's the best
player and we're gonna take one and see what happens.
And I just felt the Cowboys were sort of off
the entire draft. Not that it's a disaster, let's just
wait and see it play out, but it's it's really
(39:36):
uneven with some reaches, some personality quirks, some guys that
could be good but could be really just a massive reach.
And that's why to me, I think it's it's a
riddle wrapped in an enigma. I don't know what Dallas
did in the draft. Obviously went heavy defense. They took
(39:59):
an offense of lineman who had some sketchy background stuff. No,
a big question mark for the Cowboys. Just the one
thing they needed was a corner and an edge rusher.
I'm not sure they got it. I know, I'm really
not sure they did that. Great. Okay, So top of
the hour, Colin right, Colin wrong. We'll give you the
very latest. We'll keep updating you on the Packer situation. Folks.
(40:22):
They're either moving him this year or next year. He's
not going to be there in two years that we know.
This year could be a little bit too much of
a cap pit. But one more year max for Aaron
in Green Bay hour or two next
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