January 8, 2020 • 43 mins
Now that Tom Brady has said he won't retire Colin thinks the best place for him is still with the Patriots and explains why. He says the winner of the Aaron Rodgers/Mike McCarthy divorce is not known yet even though most people think Rodgers was the winner. FS1's Nick Wright tells Colin that the Patriots might not even want Brady to come back in 2020. Plus, FOX Sports NFL Insider Peter Schrager talks about why the Giants hired Joe Judge and who the Browns are targeting with the final vacant head coaching position.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of 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 Herd is
the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher on Fox
Sports Radio. This Sun of Wednesday is the Herd. Wherever
(00:27):
you may be and however you may be listening. We're
live in Los Angeles. It's iHeartRadio, Foxports Rudio and FS one.
Joy Taylor is joining me. We have Joe Thomas, the
great left tackle of the Cleveland Brown stops by today.
Nick Wright, Peter Schrager stops by today. We are act
good prep this morning. A lot of topics. Joy Taylor's
joining me. Joy, how are you? I'm great. There's so
(00:47):
much going on, so much come much. Letting the NBA
to lot in the NBA as well, get to the
Lakers in a few minutes. Let me just say this,
Football is the sport we watch in America. We live
a lot of things. We love football. We bet on football,
we watch football, We go to football games. We're into
football as a country. We really are. In the ratings
(01:10):
are four or five, six, seven times greater than everything
else out there, four times better than even college football,
and we love that too. So when you're really emotional
about something like football, like a family, sometimes you need
to take a deep breath, add context, add perspective, because
all of us, myself certainly included, we can get too
(01:30):
far down the hole, too into the tunnel, and not
give things perspective. And I've been saying with Tom Brady,
I think it's fifty fifty if he stays in this morning,
I really feel like it's eighty twenty ninety TENI staying
in New England, not just because of the Instagram post
he released yesterday that came out and said Leston, after
(01:51):
a few days of reflection, I'm grateful and humbled by
our team. I can't get ready to go back at it,
he says. In life and football, failures inevitable. You don't
always win. I've got more to prove. So on his Instagram,
Tom is acknowledging I'm not retiring. I'm coming back, so
put that to bed. I do think it's a perfect
(02:12):
time for him but he doesn't think it's a perfect
time for him. So what I think doesn't matter. The
question becomes what does Tom do? And let me just
throw this out. We do this a lot, and I'm
guilty of it. I try not to be, but I
think the public is really guilty of it. We always
bury dynasties about a year early. Everybody wants to bury Alabama. Well,
(02:35):
they just had the number two recruiting class in the country.
They just landed the first or second best quarterback, and
outside of Florida in the SEC next year, nobody comes
close to stacking up with what they return. Alabama is
going to be in the playoff next year. Right now,
yan clems in her favorite and only Florida in the SEC.
I think can match up. LSU loses a lot of people. Okay,
(02:56):
we want to bury New England. I get it. We
do this with hynasties. But let's look at New England.
Let's take a deep breath now the season's over. We
love football, we get emotional. We bet it. They lose,
they win. They were twelve and four. They're the best
coach in the league. They have the best offensive line
coach in the league. Matters for quarterbacks. Their division is
still below average compared to other divisions. They get their
(03:20):
fullback James Devlin, their kicker Gronkowski, and their center David
Andrews back. Those will all help scoring. Nikkil Harry's in
their second year as a wide receiver takes a long time.
Mohammed Sanu comes back, probably for another year. And let's
be honest, best wide receiver draft ever. What they really
missed this year? They didn't miss defense. It was number
(03:40):
one in the NFL. The special teams weren't a problem.
That was great. What they didn't have as weapons? And
it's the best wide receiver draft class ever. Aj Green's
a free agent, Amari Cooper's a free agent. Robbie Anderson
of the Jets a deep threat as a free agent.
You don't have to even bring up Obj or Ab.
There's all sorts of free agent wide receivers out there,
all of them. And you know we do this. We
(04:02):
tend to bury things before they're dead. I'll give you
an example. Friends, Frasier and Seinfeld are still the most
watched thing on all these Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime subscription services.
They're all fighting over Frasier. They're all frighting over Seinfeld Hulu.
They're all you know, NBC, give us Frasier back, give
(04:23):
us Friends back, give us Seinfeld. They're still all fighting
over this stuff. I know it's not cool to say
I watch Seinfeld. I know it's not cool to say
I watch Friends. That's what people are comfortable with, So
we tend to bury dynasties. In New England is still
the smartest team in the AFC. They appear to be.
They still have the best at several things. They get
(04:44):
three key components back offensively, and I think they're fine.
And this morning, here's what I know. I don't have
anything in common with Tom Brady except this. I like habit.
I love habit. I'm a repetitive guy. I can go
to mock drafts all day, the same one. And this
is what I know about Brady. Bratty loves habit, he
(05:07):
loves process, he loves repetition. That's the only thing we
have in common. And let me tell you, I've moved
cross country three times. It disrupts that. It disrupts it.
LaVar Arrington came on this show and said, and when
you move all those little things that you love exactly
(05:27):
where you park and exactly the free way you take
and it takes you nine minutes, and you go to
pizza and get your coffee and then it's four minutes
from there. Brady loves that. I love that and moving.
I've done it three times. It's a pain in the butt.
LaVar Arrington talked about that for Brady. Will he be
willing to give that up? There's so many different things
(05:50):
that will play a part after you've been in a
place for twenty years. Think about how his locker is
set up. Think about who handles the small minute details
of what he eats in the morning, what he eats
in the noontime, What are his snacks, How does he
like his socks? What type of spikes does he like?
Where I sit in the meeting rooms. There are so
(06:13):
many things just within the football aspect of it. This morning,
context take a deep breath. Tom Brady went to Instagram
and I'm going on radio and TV. I think it's
eighty twenty. He's a patriot. I didn't a couple of
days ago. That's what football does to us. I think
(06:36):
eighty twenties back in New England's very good. Next year,
all right, let's go to this Mike McCarthy, new coach
to the Dallas Cowboys, former coach Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre,
the Packers is going to hold a press conference today
after our show. It's when our show ends. It'll be
right after that, about fifteen minutes after that. And there
was a story yesterday that one of the reasons that
Jerry Jones hired Mike McCarthy is because Jerry Jones felt
(07:01):
we played him ten times, he went seven and three
against us, and we always thought we had better players.
And that's not a bad reason to hire somebody. I mean,
there's a reason that people are hiring New England gms
and New England assistants and New England coordinators. You know,
Miami's like, well, if you can't beat them to join them,
we'll hire Brian Flores. There's a reason Josh McDaniels and
(07:22):
Nick Kazariope you know in New England probably take over
the Cleveland Browns. It's not a terrible reason to hire somebody.
You go up against him and they beat you with
less talent, or at least the perception is you've got
more talent, they've got less talent, and they keep beating you,
so that I don't have a problem with that. But
here's the funny thing. When Mike McCarthy and I'm divorced.
So when Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers got a divorce,
(07:45):
people love the judge a divorce. In the first month,
I'm gonna go to the gym, get my abs. I
won the divorce, and that's not how divorces go. Are
we sure Aaron Rodgers is gonna win this divorce? Aaron
Rodgers plays Seattle and Russell Wilson this weekend, the best
road team in the league, and Mike McCarthy takes over
(08:07):
an incredibly talented offensive roster in Dallas. He never had
an offensive line like that. He never had a running
back like Zeke He never he never had an owner.
In Green Bay, He's got an aspirational, driven owner, the
best offensive line he's had, the best running back he's had,
and a very capable quarterback and a team that would
(08:28):
Jason Garrett won the division. We do this in divorces.
Go to the gym. I'm gonna look great. Russell Westbrook,
Kevin Durant, Oh Westbrook was the man for about six months,
MVP triple double. Five years later, we rolled our eyes
at Westbrook, never won a playoff series. He's a stat monster.
(08:51):
Having his worst shooting year of his career. No, I
mean he's now shooting thirty six percent. It's the worst
of his year. Roll your eyes at Westbrook. Kobe and Shack.
Shack won that divorce. First couple of years, got a
title in Miami. Five six years later, Kobe's got multiple titles.
(09:12):
Kobe's winning an oscar, Kobe's very refined. His business has
never been stronger. Kobe won. Farv and the Packers, oh
far you know, a little scrappy with the Jets. But
he goes to Minnesota for a couple of years and
they every time they played Green Bay, they knocked the
live and you know what out of him, he gets
to the NFC champion Jet and then six seven years
(09:33):
later it was the right move. Aaron Rodgers won a
Super Bowl and Aaron Rodgers was really talented. And Aaron
Rodgers this year won the division. And Farve's down somewhere
talking about football, and Aaron's got another five six years
left and he's fantastic. Be very careful about the divorce,
(09:54):
and let's be honest about it. When McCarthy got fired.
It was outdated. Dinosaur. This guy is, he takes over
he's an offensive coach. He never had anything like that
in Green Bay. He didn't have an owner. He kept
complaining to Ted Thompson, give me some players. Well players,
(10:14):
free agents don't want to play in Green Bay. You
know where free agents do want to play in a
state with no state tax. For an owner that tends
to overpay. Jerry Jones, that's a nice thing to have.
He now has an owner who will overpay, pay early,
and by the way, in a state where players love,
players love, professional athletes love Texas, they love Houston, they
(10:36):
love Dallas, they like San Antonio. No state tax. Great
place to go free agents. Dallas is ohwa's competitive. Basically,
Dallas turns down players for free agency. So be very
careful on this. I think the first the first little year.
But we did look at stats. Yesterday we talked about
(10:57):
the stats of Aaron Rodgers. Since Mike McCarthy's left yards
down per game, third down conversions down, second half adjustment
points down. He didn't elevate the records better because the
Bears and the Lions imploded and because they gave him
a defense. But it's not like the Packers and Aaron
Rodgers elevated to a new galaxy. They still only have
(11:19):
one Super Bowl in the last decade, and Mike was
part of it, and it may be their last one.
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. I
get people when you live in Los Angeles and I
go to the car wash or I go to the
grocery store, do those kind of things people come up.
You know. I had a couple of people yesterday, What
(11:39):
do you do? And blah blah blah. One of the
things they asked me about is why aren't you talking
a lot about the Lakers? Well? What do you think
about the Lakers? And I said, everything I needed to
be confirmed about the Lakers was confirmed in like six games.
Anthony Davison, Lebron and Danny Greene, the three key components
for postseason success, are playing beautifully together. I needed to
(12:00):
see that. It happened fast. Anthony Davis is always dealing
with nagging injuries. Would he, for the first time in
his career be willing to play through them? He has,
by the way, his MRI has cleaned this morning. We
just got note of that. Anthony Davis yesterday declined the
Lakers max extension offer. It doesn't mean anything. He's not
leaving Los Angeles. It's been perfect. He's averaging twenty eight
(12:22):
a game, ten rebounds, almost three blocks of three assists.
It's been terrific. He got hurt last night. He's going
to travel with a team. He's fine. He is banged
up a lot, his shoulder, his back. You know, he's
one of those guys to knock on him in the
NBA from the people I trust, one of the smartest
guys in the NBA. When he was out there talking
to teams said, the knock on him in the league
(12:44):
is for a twenty five twenty six year old. He
gets banged up a lot. You can't dispute that. The
second thing was he doesn't love playing through injuries. Some
guys do, some guys do not. Kawhi doesn't want to.
Anthony Davis didn't in New Orleans, but he has this year,
played through a lot of days. He didn't feel great.
Lebron's pushing him, Lebron's hardening him. He's trying to create
(13:07):
this sort of playoff medal which nobody is healthy by
the playoffs. Everybody's sore after the playoffs except James Harden,
who I don't know doesn't get hurt, plays every game
and just parties all night and comes back the next
day and drops forty four. He's an outlier. But I
don't think this team was built for January. I think
they were built for June. I think they're older. I
(13:28):
do believe they need to cash in this year because
the Clippers have more good young players. I think they'll
age better. Golden State's gonna have a number one pick
Steph Clay Draymond and a ton of room cap space
for the Greek freak or a big free agent. So
I do think this season is a cash in season.
Lebron's gonna be going into what his eighteenth year, Danny
(13:50):
Green is old, and Anthony Davis is breakable. But that
is my opinion on the Lakers. Everything I needed to
know for the regular season was confirmed in two weeks.
A d and Lebron play great together. Ad is for
the first time in his career, willing to play through
nagging injuries. Danny Green seems to work perfectly with both.
(14:12):
I do worry that if they trade Kyle Kuzma at
the deadline, there's a lot of rumors about that they
get even older. I think they need to get a
little younger so they can take some nights off in
the regular season. Kuzma's value maybe in the regular season,
not in the postseason. Or he's not going to get
a lot of touches in May and June, but he
needs a lot of touches now. So Lebron and ad
(14:32):
and Danny Green and older players can rest a little.
But Anthony didn't sign the contract extension. It doesn't mean anything.
He's traveling with the team. That means something to me.
That means he's again this year, willing to play hurt
and that was always the knock on him. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon
Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one
(14:55):
and the iHeart Radio app. My buddy hosts of First
Things First via the Coward Global satellite work sponsor by Mercedes.
Ben's the Best or Nothing, Nick Right. So I said yesterday,
I love the way Jeter retired and John Elway retired
and Kobe and it's one team, and you get you're
one of the all time greats, and it's neat and
Tony Gonzalez you wrap a bone, You're still capable. Elway
(15:17):
won a Super Bowl MVP. It would be just so
neat and tidy for Tom Brady to retire. Okay, he
told us last night he's not retiring. But it's funny, Nick,
football is the sport we bet both of us do,
and you get emotional to it, and so and a
Brady's emotional. So Brady takes a deep breath, comes out
with an Instagram and says, Okay, further reflection, I'm gonna
(15:38):
play again. And I was sitting there driving to work
this morning, and I'm thinking, further reflection. They still have
the best offensive line coach. They were twelve and four.
They have the best coach to get their kicker back
to fullback, back, their center back. Could I not argue, Nick,
the Patriots are the best place for a guy that
loves repetition Tom Brady. Well, I think in theory they
(16:00):
might be, but they have he I think clearly would
ideally like to stay in New England. I don't think
that's ever changed, but New England keeps flirting with the
idea that they don't want him to stay. And at
some point the disrespect becomes too much. You tried to
bring in my replacement four or five years ago. I
(16:22):
had to go above your head, Belichick to get him
shipped out of here. I then the three years leading
into this year, had the greatest comeback in Super Bowl
history in twenty sixteen, won a League MVP. In twenty seventeen,
and through for five Hondy in the Super Bowl. Won
another Super Bowl in twenty eighteen while beating the League
MVP on the road in the conference championship game in
(16:44):
comeback fashion. And you wouldn't give me an extension. You said, Nope,
We're gonna play it year to year. Tom, I said,
I want to play till I'm forty five. You won't
even give me an extension till I'm forty three. And
then this year goes as poorly as it does. And
he says he's Drew Brees as Michael Thomas and Russell
Wilson as the rookie wide receiver. Maybe they should have
(17:04):
drafted and Patrick Mahomes as all these other weapons, And
all of a sudden, the Los Angeles Chargers look pretty good,
and you start to wonder if the Patriots, if Belichick
would even fight that hard to keep him, because with
or without a forty three year old Tom Brady, the
Patriot era, the Patriot dynasty is over. I feel like
(17:25):
Belichick knows it, and I wonder if he has opened
the door just enough for Brady to walk through it
and become your next door neighbor, your palatial Manhattan Beaches stay.
I would love that. Of course. Let me throw this
out with Joe Judge. I thought it was a panic move,
but let me let me just say this, Sean McVay,
I didn't know who he was when he got hired
(17:46):
at thirty. I didn't know who John Gruden was when
the Raiders gave him a job. Mike Tomlin was thirty four.
Young guys. If you go look at many of the
great coaches, they got hired in their thirties. Belichick was
thirty eight in Cleveland and grumpy. Okay, so Joe Judge
is thirty eight and Belichick kept giving him more and
more stuff to do because he spotted very early. This
(18:08):
guy is special. Are guys like me overreacting to Joe
Judge because yesterday I said panic move not qualified other
better candidates. Did I overreact yesterday? I don't know that
you overreacted. I had two reactions to the Joe Judge higher.
One is I actually liked the idea of special teams
(18:29):
coordinators getting head coaching jobs. I would prefer you have
been a head coach at some point somewhere along the way,
maybe a little more seasoned. But I've heard from enough
players who played for John Harball who said they liked
the way he was able to look at the entirety
of the team, not focus just on one side of
the ball, And I think it actually could be an asset.
(18:50):
And nobody, if you remove the missfield goals part of it,
nobody had better special teams than the Patriots. So I'm
happy for Joe Judge. He learned from Saving, he learned
from Belichick. I am not here to say that is
the wrong higher. But the other thread to this is
one a lot of people have discussed in it can't
be ignored in a league that is over sixty percent black.
(19:12):
It is an abomination that we have three black head coaches.
It is the same statistical probability if you woke up
tomorrow in a quarter of the National Hockey League's coaches
were black, you would say, well, that's a little curious development.
But when it's white people in the majority of it,
we don't have the same reaction. I'm not alleging racism
and not alleging a systemic issue to try to keep
(19:34):
people out of jobs, but the league has clearly gone
towards young, offensive minded, typically innovators. Yet Eric b Enemy
continually gets passed over when the two people who had
his job prior to him, Peterson and Nage, immediately get
head coaching jobs all of a sudden. Andy Reid calling
the plays isn't an issue for those guys, it is
(19:54):
an issue for b Enemy. Byron Leftwich helped Jamis Winston
throw for over five thousand yards. No one mentions his name.
Leslie Frasier made the playoffs with Christian Ponder. Christian Ponder
then as one down year, he's gone and he's relegated
to being a defensive coordinator for a damn good Buffalo
(20:16):
Bills team and no one brings him up. But we're
gonna recycle Jim Schwartz again. Really, so, I don't know
how to solve this. I'm not gonna act like I
have the fix. But and I feel badly that Joe
Judge all of a sudden became the face of it.
That ain't his fault. Good for him forgetting the job,
But the league's gotta figure out and the teams have
(20:37):
to figure out why they are so they have no
problem trusting black people to play for them and to
be positional coaches for them. But there seems to be
a very clear glass ceiling, and it's a major issue
that now seems to be getting worse rather than getting better.
By the way, we agreed with you on that yesterday.
(20:58):
There's sort of industry evidence that certain guys need opportunities
and they're not getting him. And Schwartz is a great
example who was a disaster in Detroit, an utter disaster,
and by the way, is struggling in Philadelphia to get
along with the head coach. Let me segway to this.
You have a relationship. Aaron Rodgers loves you for some
unknown reason. He just he and I do not connect.
(21:18):
There's no symbiotic relationship there. You guys connect. What evs
little jealous Not going to get into it, but I
will say this, we judge divorces based on the first
week you go to the gym, you get your abs.
We judge divorces. You know, Kobe Shack, oh Shack. About
five years later, Kobe won it. Westbrook kd We loved
(21:39):
Westbrook winning all the awards, and five years later Westbrook's
kind of a mess in the playoffs. Let me say
this one year McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. If Aaron loses
to Seattle and McCarthy takes over easily the most talented
team he's ever had in Dallas, where they have an owner,
(21:59):
they land free agents, They've got terrific young talent. He's
never had a back like that. Is it possible than
three or four years we're looking back and saying, maybe
Aaron's difficult, and maybe McCarthy was saddled with a guy
who's hard to coach, and McCarthy wins this divorce. It's
not impossible. It's not the craziest theory of yours I've
(22:23):
heard this month, but the month is young, and so however,
I don't think it's fair to say anyone was saddled
with Aaron Rodgers. And I am very curious to see
how Mike McCarthy works when all of a sudden he
isn't coaching one of the two most talented quarterbacks ever.
(22:44):
He has gone far to Rogers. Like you said, you're sponsored.
I just heard it sponsored by Mercedes bins. If you're
driving nothing but S five hundreds and then you get
a really nice Accura. Even if it's a good car,
it doesn't quite get up the way you're used to
on the highway. So I'm curious how McCarthy's offense works
with Dak As far as Aaron Rodgers was the more
(23:04):
important part of this. This is an incredibly critical game
for him. Yeah, he has that He's only had a
buy three times in his whole career. Brady had thirteen
of them. He's only had three. The first year with
a bye, they were fifteen and one. He was League MVP,
and they get annihilated by Tom Coughlin's purple face and
the Giants. His next time with a bye, that is
(23:27):
the epic comeback by the Seahawks in the NFC Championship
game that some people say was the fracturing point between
McCarthy and Rodgers all the way back in twenty fourteen.
If they don't take advantage of not only having a
bye this year, but avoiding the Saints who might have
been better than them. Then you start to wonder, is
(23:49):
Aaron Rodgers talent going to be used as an arrow
that has slung towards him Allah Wilt Chamberlain. People talk
about Wilt and how dominant he was almost as a
ling because he didn't win enough. So I'm not saying
Rogers got to win the Super Bowl this year, but
you can't go one and done when you have a
Seattle team that's been overachieving their talent level coming to
(24:12):
Lambo here this weekend. You know what, I was going
to ask you another question, and I don't even know.
I've only got a minute left. I'll just ask you this.
I'm not as high on Josh McDaniels as everybody else.
I think he's Lane Kiffin in the pros high IQ
debatable EQ. I think he can be rigid. I think
he's got and I like Lane. I text Lane all
the time. I think he's a very good coach, but
(24:34):
he's dug some holes for himself. I don't know if
Josh and that ego and that impatience is gonna work
with Baker. I really don't. I think he's gonna get
the job. So just way in for a minute. Is
he the magic of Lickser that solves the Browns nightmares? All?
I know you said, we don't have a lot of times,
and I apologize. I gotta do this. I gotta once
(24:54):
again bend over and pick up the name you just dropped.
Oh you text with Lane Kiffin all the time? Big Oh,
sorry about that, Colin Coward now aunt, listen McDaniels. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't hire a guy who renegged on the Colts
the way he did. But everyone seems to be over
that that but me, like everyone seems to be like
that was ancient history, that was twenty four months ago.
(25:17):
No one cares anymore. So I've got to move past it.
I do think it's possible he learned from his mistakes
in Denver, and I do think what he has learned
from Belichick, as far as teaching the team to not
allow any outside noise, is exactly what the Browns need.
(25:38):
And as far as the recycled head coaches who are
available to me, he would be near the top of
the list. But I do have similar EQ questions as
you do, and I don't know that we know those
have been solved. It's just that Belichick doesn't let his
assistance talk, so we don't have any exposed No, honestly,
(25:59):
they're not allowed, so we don't have any exposure to
whether or not he has matured. And before I go,
I missed your birthday Monday, so a happy belated birthday.
And they always say, the question always is what do
you get the person who has everything? And so my
response was nothing, And so I'll just say happy birthday,
but sincerely, I really appreciate your nothing. Be sure to
(26:20):
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun Easter
not a Empacific. So this weekend Lamar Jackson hosts and
the Ravens John Harbaut. They host the Tennessee Titans. I
think Baltimore wins. I think they went at convincingly. Mike
Vrabel was asked about how do you stop Lamar Jackson
and he had this funny response, other than try to
(26:41):
tie his shoelaces together. Not many people have had success.
You know, we'll have to prepare and try to get
our players as ready as possible to defend not only him,
but for mark Ingram and then Edwards. It's impressive what
they've done. Let me just say this, Deshaun Watson had
five game winning come from hind wins this year. He
(27:01):
trailed more than he led this year. I think it's
an amazing feat. It's harder to play quarterback when you trail.
I'm not saying Deshawn's better than Lamar, but Lamar hasn't
trailed a lot this year. The way to beat Baltimore,
and I mean, at this point it's about all I've got.
Get a lead and cross your fingers, force him to
(27:23):
play from behind. You'll scale off. You know, They'll have
to peel off some of their running plays and they
become perhaps a little more predictable. Kansas City is two
and oh against Baltimore. In one of their games, they
got a twenty three six lead. Baltimore had to throw.
They had more success. The Chargers beat him once when
they got a twelve nothing lead twenty to three. At
(27:44):
one point they had to peel off, did the Ravens.
Some of their running plays became a little more one dimensional.
You know, inevitably, what really makes Baltimore go is they're
great at running, and great at the quarterback running, and
great at passing, and great at long ball. Passing. They
do everything well. What you hope to do is, if
(28:06):
you get the coin flip, do not defer it. Take it.
Use every trick, play every scripted play, get a lead,
cross your fingers, and hold on for dear life. They're
doing so many things at a high level right now.
If you could scale off, peelback some of their run
options as the clock expires late first half, forced them
(28:27):
to throw, that may help. It's not like it's a solution,
but it's the only thing I can think of because
they're not losing much and I do see a little
bit of a threat there, and I do think playing
behind always impresses me. It's Deshaun Watson trailed more than
he led this year. That's really impressive. To make the
playoffs and win a playoff game with that stat that's
(28:48):
hard to do. I've said before, this Baltimore team really
reminds me of the Carolina twenty fifteen team. A lot
of energy, veteran coach, a unique quarterback talent. The league
is kind of bailin water on trying to figure out
how the hell to play it in the middle of
(29:10):
a year. It's like, how do we stop Cam? But
there's a difference here, and I got a lot of
hate mail. I never bought into Cam. Doesn't mean he
can't be great, but he was needy and moody and inconsistent.
I didn't think he was always coachable. His mechanics got
worse over time, and he wasn't very accurate. I never
(29:30):
bought I think teams ultimately become the personality of their quarterback.
New England is efficient and hard working. New England is resourceful.
That's Brady. Brady gets every ounce out of his talent. Carolina,
to me, was inconsistent. So is Cam. Lamar's different. I
(29:54):
can see them becoming a fifteen year dynasty. First of all,
he's gonna get hurt, everybody tells me, and I see
him get hurt once. Before you say that he never
got hurt in college. You had a spray and ankle, mister,
one game in college, Anthony Davis. If you tell me
Joe lmbad, you know they get hurt a lot. All right,
I've got several examples. I'd like to see Lamar get
hurt before you tell me he's gonna get hurt, because
(30:15):
I don't see him getting hurt, and I've seen him
get whacked. About fifteen times this year. But here's why
I buy in the Lamar. And I never bought in
the Cam. And everybody loved Cam's arm, and Cam's bigger
and stronger and the best red zone quarterback running ever,
but I never I never liked Cam's traits. I love
Lamar's traits. His mechanics are better, like I didn't like
(30:37):
his mechanics in college. Oh they're better and they're more consistent,
and they're getting better. So he's more coachable. He's got
a chip on his shoulder. Cam in college wanted to
be a star. Lamar wants to win football games. Lamar's
like I mean literally, he don't want to talk. He
not in all that stuff. He's totally into football. He's
totally coachable. His mechanics are getting better. He puts himself
(30:59):
in harm's way, but he's incredibly humble. When I look
at all these quarterbacks, you guys are falling in love
with arms, I'm falling in love with traits. I don't
like Baker Mayfield's traits. I don't like Johnny Manzielle's traits.
I didn't like Jay Cutler's traits. Jamis Winston in college
stealing krablegs. I don't like your traits. Your size is fine,
(31:20):
like Lamar's traits. Those are dynasty traits. I'm coachable. I
got a chip on my shoulder. My mechanics kit better.
Brady's been working on mechanics in the offseason. Will go
down to coast Rica with his wife. He's working on mechanics.
He's obsessed with it. He's obsessed with film. Russell Wilson
not the perfect size, is not the greatest arm. He
has great traits, driven, chip on his shoulder, resourceful. So
(31:45):
it's funny they This team really does remind me of
the Carolina Panthers. And I don't think it means they'll
lose in the Super Bowl. I don't. I would probably
give them a Super Bowl win unless they play the
Niners again. And I don't know. I'll wait till I
see it. But I think this thing lasts. I think
it's durable. I think it's gonna get better. I don't
think Lamar cares about being a star. I think he
(32:06):
wants to win games. I think he's humble and and this,
to me, this Baltimore thing has fifteen years on it.
It feels like it's gonna last. A long time. I
never felt that with Carolina, never felt it. So it's exciting.
I think they're gonna win this weekend. I don't think
there's a way to stop it. I think there's a
way to force Baltimore to scale off some of the
(32:29):
running plays if you lead late half, late third quarter.
But they're fun to watch. I like watching them, and
if they're the next Dynasty, I'm good with it. All
the things I love about football, all the traits and habits.
Baltimore's got all of them. I'm totally in. Never was
on Carolina, totally am here one more Herd. The Herd
streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week
(32:50):
within the iHeartRadio app Search Herd to listen live or
on demand whenever you like. We got all sorts of stuff,
And I lean on Peter Schreger. He does a Sunday
show with me. He also was one of the hosts
of Good Morning Football in the NFL Network via the
Coward Global Satellite Network, live from New York. Peter Schreger,
Fox NFL reporter, all right, this is what you do
for a living. This is what I lean on you on,
Joe Judge, I said, I read a bunch of stuff
(33:12):
this morning. He's verbal, he's got a presence. He blew
away gettleman. I know Belichick liked him. You did intel,
I said yesterday it felt like a panic move, but
you did some intel. What are you hearing on Joe
Judge that he comes from a great pedigree and as
a leader of men. I want to give some splashy
hot take that this was a rush tire or they
should have gone a different direction. But after talking over
(33:33):
the last twenty four hours, Joe Judge had an incredible
interview over the week and over the weekend, and then
they did their research and it's Belichick and it's Sabin
and at the bottom at the end of the day,
giants were looking at it and they said, Okay, here
are all our different options for meeting with all these
different guys. This guy's got five championship rings in ten years,
and Belichick and Saban from the Mountaintops were recommending him
(33:57):
to people to take a look. And Belichick this year
not only give him that wide receiver's role, but start
opening him up to the media a little bit more.
He was being groomed as one of these leaders of men.
Now here's the key thing Colin. He's not an XS
and o's guy, right, he doesn't do hey third quarter,
Daniel Jones third and twelve. He's not McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan
in the ear of the quarterback. He is a CEO.
The key is going to be who he brings in
(34:19):
as his offensive coordinator, who he brings in as his
defensive coordinator, and also what kind of culture he's building.
Because Pat Shermer is a good offensive coach, he's also
a good man. I'm told that Joe Judge, even though
he's thirty eight years old. This is going to be
a team that is going to practice hard. There will
be some live tackling in practice, and there will be
a new culture in New York, one that might be
(34:41):
a little bit more tough guy than finesse offense. Yeah,
that was the knock gun. Shermer not a ton of presence.
He was a good play caller, but didn't have that
and the team got couldn't get big tough yard or
make big tough stops. Let's go to Matt Rule. He's
been a turnaround guy, a little bit more of a
schematic guy than just a presence guy. Although he's suppos
to be a great motivational speaker. Now I thought everything
(35:03):
I read he was going to be the Giants coach.
Carolina snags him explain please, yeah, this is out of
a Hollywood script, and you'll love this more than anyone Collins. So,
David Tepper's the owner of the Carolina Panthers. Not only
was he a former minority owner of the Steelers, he's
also maybe one of the richest men in the world.
And he also built one of the most successful hedge
(35:23):
funds from the ground up at what he did at
Appaloosa on Wall Street. If you know Wall Street folks,
they talk about Temper as a closer, a guy who
just gets things done and has a vision ahead of
the game. So Tepper walks in there knowing he's going
to interview Matt Rule before the Giants, and everyone's thinking
Rule has all these connections to New York and the Giants,
and Temper basically did one of those moves where he's like,
(35:45):
ABC always be closing, You're not getting out of here.
And what he told Matt Rule was, I've already rebuilt
the entire business side of this building over twelve months.
I've cleaned up a lot there, and it's a blank slate.
I want you to build from the ground up, and
I'm going to give you that opportunity to do so.
I will also give you all of the resources, both
for you personally and for this program that you ever
(36:07):
will need. Tepper came in there and said, look, I
used to work with the Steelers. I'm a Western Pennsylvania
guy and we had three coaches from nineteen seventy on,
Chuck Noll, Bill Kaller, and Mike Tomlin. That's what I
want to build here. And stability is the key word.
You start thinking about all the money you can make,
you can build it on your ground up and you
can really build the old culture. Then you look at
(36:29):
the giants and I'm not saying Rule was way in
one or the other, but there's Mara, there's Tiss, there's Gettleman,
there's Kevin Abrams, There's all this stuff that this is
a blank slate in Carolina and a blank check from
David Tepper. He never left his living room. He got
the deal done. Amazing closing job by Tepper, got the
guy he wanted, and Matt Rule is going to be
the Carolina Panthers head coach. I'll tell you this he's
(36:49):
gonna do. His press conference is welcoming press conference today.
I think NFL fans are gonna be very impressed with
what they see. He's interviewed for two other jobs, the
Jets and the Colts, and I've had leadership in brass
from both those teams. Tell me he blew them away
for those gigs. Matt Rule is going to be a
guy to watch, not only at the podium, but with
what he builds in Carolina. Okay, so Mike McCarthy gets
the cowboy jobs, stayed the night with Jerry. He had
(37:11):
to say something that Jerry liked to hear, because I
don't think any of us thought he was the lead candidate.
Lincoln Riley didn't even get the you didn't even get
you know interviewed. So is it did he say something about,
you know, Jerry dak? I mean, what was the sauce
that got McCarthy for Jerry to say, stay the night
at my house, We got to meet for breakfast and
(37:32):
talk again. Sounds like a great situation if you're Mike McCarthy.
Here's the deal. Jason Garrett was gone regardless Jason Garrett
is this Princeton academic, this airdite guy who can do
it all and is really well respected and loved in
that building. If you bring in Lincoln Riley or you
bring in Urban Meyer, you're basically saying, Okay, guys, here's
what we can offer you. Mike McCarthy came in there
(37:53):
and Colin from everyone I speak to, was like, I
just want to coach ball. I want to coach football,
and I am focused on football, and I've taken the
past year to not only look at what maybe went
wrong at the end of the Green Bay era, but
what I can do to get better. This guy, I
talked about it on the Fox NFL kickoff show We Do.
They built a bunker in his house. He would have
Frank Signetti Junior, and he would have Jim Hazlitt come
(38:15):
over and on Mondays they would watch the entire league,
not just the broadcast copy. They'd go through the all
twenty two and watch all of these different teams and
use analytics, Yes, analytics. Mike McCarthy, who's this Western Pennsylvania
former tollbooth guy, would come in and say, let's look
at the analytics. Let's embrace it. He sold this to
Jerry Jones and said, basically, I just want to coach football.
And I watched all these quarterbacks. There's a lot to
(38:38):
like about Dak Prescott. I think I can get the
best out of him. This was a football hire through
and through. Jerry Jones is very happy with having a
football guy and Mike McCarthy and also bringing in what
he's going to have. And already they've hired the special
teams coach from the Rams, John Fossil, who's very well
respected known as Bones and Jet, and his defensive coordinator
we don't and Mike Nolan we know as a football
(39:00):
man as well. So this is going back to basics
Cowboys football. Let's get us back to greatness. Okay, Cleveland's
the last team. They got the pick of the letter here.
I've said before, I know Josh McDaniels is smart, he's
better than Freddie Kitchens. But until this owner's less impulsive,
and until Baker's less impulsive, I don't care who coaches.
I really don't. If the owner is this impatient, it'll
(39:20):
never work, and if Baker's this impulsive, it'll never work.
So I think those two things are key. But they're
gonna hire somebody here, I would guess that is offensive minded.
That's my gut with Baker. You got to save your
number one pick? Or am I wrong? Is Josh McDaniel
the leader in the clubhouse today? I don't think we're
having to answer to the Browns coaching job until early
(39:41):
next week. I'll tell you why. Josh McDaniels does an
interview till Friday, and the day before him to me
is a very interesting interview. Kevin Stefanski and Amy. You're
not going to hear a bunch out of on every show,
but Kevin Stefanski is the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.
Last year, Stefanski came in there and wowed the Browns,
absolutely blew them away, using analytics, forward thinking and spoke
(40:02):
to Paul de Podesta, who is one of the chief
strategy guys in that room, and spoke very clearly with him.
John Dorsey pushed hard and got Freddy Kitchens the job. Well.
De Podesta really liked Stevanski. He's gonna meet Thursday McDaniels
on Friday. Little note on McDaniels. The year that Baker
was the number one overall pick, there was a lot
of talk about how much the Patriots brass liked Baker Mayfield,
(40:25):
and knowing that Brady's days might be done at some point,
do we move up in the draft and try to
take a swing at Baker if he slips. He didn't slip.
But when you think offense in New England, Josh McDaniels
was one of those guys, and if he was interested
in Baker Mayfield, then I'm sure he's interested. Now. Two
more names, really quickly. Robert Slow the defensive coordinator, very
impressive out of San Francisco. He's a name you're hearing.
(40:47):
And Jim Schwartz is interviewing with the Cleveland Browns today.
He's got history with the Browns. Also a guy defense,
all business, no joking around. Let's be the best and
most discipline team on Sunday. That might work more than
the loudest team all offseason. By the way I said
this earlier, I got a lot of heat. I think
the Ravens remind me a lot of the Carolina Panthers
(41:08):
in twenty fifteen, where there's this unique quarterback the league's
baling water on how to face him. They've got a
ton of energy, a lot of young players in a
belief system. They're playing at home, and I think Baltimore
is a really special team. I don't think you can
stop Lamar. I think you can, you know, hopefully get
ahead on him, force him to maybe run less. But
I'll tell you I never bought into Carolina and Cam
(41:28):
because I didn't like Cam's habits. I thought he was
sometimes unfocused. I didn't like his mechanics. I thought he
was hard to coach. I didn't think he was always
humble and frankly, even in his MVP year, he completed
fifty nine percent of his throws. Lamar's a better thrower deep, intermediate, short.
I think he's humble. I think he's all about football.
I think the next dynasty could be staring as right
(41:51):
in the face in Baltimore, and I'm all in on it.
I like it. What if people around the league say
to you about Lamar and the Ravens going forward, this
team is so unique, and that they were the outliers
this year, and they were completely zigging when everyone was zagging.
You know, over the offseason they built an offense around
Lamar Jackson's talents. Now, Cam Newton was in that Mike
(42:12):
Schuler offense. He got a lot of draw plays. He
did some things with his legs. This team, they run
with a fullback and three tight ends in their core offense.
Sometimes they put six offensive linemen out. So everything Lamar's
doing a lot of that is just how great Lamar
is in the open field and how well he can pass.
The other part of it is they built a team
and an offense around his skill set. You will never
(42:33):
see a team block like they block for Lamar Jackson
in Baltimore. Watch it on Saturday Night. A lot of
times Andrew's boyle Anne hayden Hurst are all in the
field the same time, and a lot of times they're
blocking for him. And they've got a fullback in Patrick Ricard.
Not a lot of these teams use fullbacks. They use
the fullback. He's out there just about every play. Number
forty two he blocks for Lamar Jackson. So it's not
(42:56):
just Lamar, it's a philosophy. It's a culture and a
team that completely bought in to what they're doing. In
twenty twenty m beyond I love this. I think Lamar
Jackson's here to stay. And guess what if no one's
been able to hit him and knock them down in
seventeen weeks. I don't see it happening in the playoffs either. Yeah,
it never got hurt at Louisville either. Missed one game
because a sprained ankle. I sprained my ankle walk into
the set this morning, so he
Thanks for listening to the Best of 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 Herd is
the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher on Fox
Sports Radio. This Sun of Wednesday is the Herd. Wherever
(00:27):
you may be and however you may be listening. We're
live in Los Angeles. It's iHeartRadio, Foxports Rudio and FS one.
Joy Taylor is joining me. We have Joe Thomas, the
great left tackle of the Cleveland Brown stops by today.
Nick Wright, Peter Schrager stops by today. We are act
good prep this morning. A lot of topics. Joy Taylor's
joining me. Joy, how are you? I'm great. There's so
(00:47):
much going on, so much come much. Letting the NBA
to lot in the NBA as well, get to the
Lakers in a few minutes. Let me just say this,
Football is the sport we watch in America. We live
a lot of things. We love football. We bet on football,
we watch football, We go to football games. We're into
football as a country. We really are. In the ratings
(01:10):
are four or five, six, seven times greater than everything
else out there, four times better than even college football,
and we love that too. So when you're really emotional
about something like football, like a family, sometimes you need
to take a deep breath, add context, add perspective, because
all of us, myself certainly included, we can get too
(01:30):
far down the hole, too into the tunnel, and not
give things perspective. And I've been saying with Tom Brady,
I think it's fifty fifty if he stays in this morning,
I really feel like it's eighty twenty ninety TENI staying
in New England, not just because of the Instagram post
he released yesterday that came out and said Leston, after
(01:51):
a few days of reflection, I'm grateful and humbled by
our team. I can't get ready to go back at it,
he says. In life and football, failures inevitable. You don't
always win. I've got more to prove. So on his Instagram,
Tom is acknowledging I'm not retiring. I'm coming back, so
put that to bed. I do think it's a perfect
(02:12):
time for him but he doesn't think it's a perfect
time for him. So what I think doesn't matter. The
question becomes what does Tom do? And let me just
throw this out. We do this a lot, and I'm
guilty of it. I try not to be, but I
think the public is really guilty of it. We always
bury dynasties about a year early. Everybody wants to bury Alabama. Well,
(02:35):
they just had the number two recruiting class in the country.
They just landed the first or second best quarterback, and
outside of Florida in the SEC next year, nobody comes
close to stacking up with what they return. Alabama is
going to be in the playoff next year. Right now,
yan clems in her favorite and only Florida in the SEC.
I think can match up. LSU loses a lot of people. Okay,
(02:56):
we want to bury New England. I get it. We
do this with hynasties. But let's look at New England.
Let's take a deep breath now the season's over. We
love football, we get emotional. We bet it. They lose,
they win. They were twelve and four. They're the best
coach in the league. They have the best offensive line
coach in the league. Matters for quarterbacks. Their division is
still below average compared to other divisions. They get their
(03:20):
fullback James Devlin, their kicker Gronkowski, and their center David
Andrews back. Those will all help scoring. Nikkil Harry's in
their second year as a wide receiver takes a long time.
Mohammed Sanu comes back, probably for another year. And let's
be honest, best wide receiver draft ever. What they really
missed this year? They didn't miss defense. It was number
(03:40):
one in the NFL. The special teams weren't a problem.
That was great. What they didn't have as weapons? And
it's the best wide receiver draft class ever. Aj Green's
a free agent, Amari Cooper's a free agent. Robbie Anderson
of the Jets a deep threat as a free agent.
You don't have to even bring up Obj or Ab.
There's all sorts of free agent wide receivers out there,
all of them. And you know we do this. We
(04:02):
tend to bury things before they're dead. I'll give you
an example. Friends, Frasier and Seinfeld are still the most
watched thing on all these Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime subscription services.
They're all fighting over Frasier. They're all frighting over Seinfeld Hulu.
They're all you know, NBC, give us Frasier back, give
(04:23):
us Friends back, give us Seinfeld. They're still all fighting
over this stuff. I know it's not cool to say
I watch Seinfeld. I know it's not cool to say
I watch Friends. That's what people are comfortable with, So
we tend to bury dynasties. In New England is still
the smartest team in the AFC. They appear to be.
They still have the best at several things. They get
(04:44):
three key components back offensively, and I think they're fine.
And this morning, here's what I know. I don't have
anything in common with Tom Brady except this. I like habit.
I love habit. I'm a repetitive guy. I can go
to mock drafts all day, the same one. And this
is what I know about Brady. Bratty loves habit, he
(05:07):
loves process, he loves repetition. That's the only thing we
have in common. And let me tell you, I've moved
cross country three times. It disrupts that. It disrupts it.
LaVar Arrington came on this show and said, and when
you move all those little things that you love exactly
(05:27):
where you park and exactly the free way you take
and it takes you nine minutes, and you go to
pizza and get your coffee and then it's four minutes
from there. Brady loves that. I love that and moving.
I've done it three times. It's a pain in the butt.
LaVar Arrington talked about that for Brady. Will he be
willing to give that up? There's so many different things
(05:50):
that will play a part after you've been in a
place for twenty years. Think about how his locker is
set up. Think about who handles the small minute details
of what he eats in the morning, what he eats
in the noontime, What are his snacks, How does he
like his socks? What type of spikes does he like?
Where I sit in the meeting rooms. There are so
(06:13):
many things just within the football aspect of it. This morning,
context take a deep breath. Tom Brady went to Instagram
and I'm going on radio and TV. I think it's
eighty twenty. He's a patriot. I didn't a couple of
days ago. That's what football does to us. I think
(06:36):
eighty twenties back in New England's very good. Next year,
all right, let's go to this Mike McCarthy, new coach
to the Dallas Cowboys, former coach Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre,
the Packers is going to hold a press conference today
after our show. It's when our show ends. It'll be
right after that, about fifteen minutes after that. And there
was a story yesterday that one of the reasons that
Jerry Jones hired Mike McCarthy is because Jerry Jones felt
(07:01):
we played him ten times, he went seven and three
against us, and we always thought we had better players.
And that's not a bad reason to hire somebody. I mean,
there's a reason that people are hiring New England gms
and New England assistants and New England coordinators. You know,
Miami's like, well, if you can't beat them to join them,
we'll hire Brian Flores. There's a reason Josh McDaniels and
(07:22):
Nick Kazariope you know in New England probably take over
the Cleveland Browns. It's not a terrible reason to hire somebody.
You go up against him and they beat you with
less talent, or at least the perception is you've got
more talent, they've got less talent, and they keep beating you,
so that I don't have a problem with that. But
here's the funny thing. When Mike McCarthy and I'm divorced.
So when Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers got a divorce,
(07:45):
people love the judge a divorce. In the first month,
I'm gonna go to the gym, get my abs. I
won the divorce, and that's not how divorces go. Are
we sure Aaron Rodgers is gonna win this divorce? Aaron
Rodgers plays Seattle and Russell Wilson this weekend, the best
road team in the league, and Mike McCarthy takes over
(08:07):
an incredibly talented offensive roster in Dallas. He never had
an offensive line like that. He never had a running
back like Zeke He never he never had an owner.
In Green Bay, He's got an aspirational, driven owner, the
best offensive line he's had, the best running back he's had,
and a very capable quarterback and a team that would
(08:28):
Jason Garrett won the division. We do this in divorces.
Go to the gym. I'm gonna look great. Russell Westbrook,
Kevin Durant, Oh Westbrook was the man for about six months,
MVP triple double. Five years later, we rolled our eyes
at Westbrook, never won a playoff series. He's a stat monster.
(08:51):
Having his worst shooting year of his career. No, I
mean he's now shooting thirty six percent. It's the worst
of his year. Roll your eyes at Westbrook. Kobe and Shack.
Shack won that divorce. First couple of years, got a
title in Miami. Five six years later, Kobe's got multiple titles.
(09:12):
Kobe's winning an oscar, Kobe's very refined. His business has
never been stronger. Kobe won. Farv and the Packers, oh
far you know, a little scrappy with the Jets. But
he goes to Minnesota for a couple of years and
they every time they played Green Bay, they knocked the
live and you know what out of him, he gets
to the NFC champion Jet and then six seven years
(09:33):
later it was the right move. Aaron Rodgers won a
Super Bowl and Aaron Rodgers was really talented. And Aaron
Rodgers this year won the division. And Farve's down somewhere
talking about football, and Aaron's got another five six years
left and he's fantastic. Be very careful about the divorce,
(09:54):
and let's be honest about it. When McCarthy got fired.
It was outdated. Dinosaur. This guy is, he takes over
he's an offensive coach. He never had anything like that
in Green Bay. He didn't have an owner. He kept
complaining to Ted Thompson, give me some players. Well players,
(10:14):
free agents don't want to play in Green Bay. You
know where free agents do want to play in a
state with no state tax. For an owner that tends
to overpay. Jerry Jones, that's a nice thing to have.
He now has an owner who will overpay, pay early,
and by the way, in a state where players love,
players love, professional athletes love Texas, they love Houston, they
(10:36):
love Dallas, they like San Antonio. No state tax. Great
place to go free agents. Dallas is ohwa's competitive. Basically,
Dallas turns down players for free agency. So be very
careful on this. I think the first the first little year.
But we did look at stats. Yesterday we talked about
(10:57):
the stats of Aaron Rodgers. Since Mike McCarthy's left yards
down per game, third down conversions down, second half adjustment
points down. He didn't elevate the records better because the
Bears and the Lions imploded and because they gave him
a defense. But it's not like the Packers and Aaron
Rodgers elevated to a new galaxy. They still only have
(11:19):
one Super Bowl in the last decade, and Mike was
part of it, and it may be their last one.
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. I
get people when you live in Los Angeles and I
go to the car wash or I go to the
grocery store, do those kind of things people come up.
You know. I had a couple of people yesterday, What
(11:39):
do you do? And blah blah blah. One of the
things they asked me about is why aren't you talking
a lot about the Lakers? Well? What do you think
about the Lakers? And I said, everything I needed to
be confirmed about the Lakers was confirmed in like six games.
Anthony Davison, Lebron and Danny Greene, the three key components
for postseason success, are playing beautifully together. I needed to
(12:00):
see that. It happened fast. Anthony Davis is always dealing
with nagging injuries. Would he, for the first time in
his career be willing to play through them? He has,
by the way, his MRI has cleaned this morning. We
just got note of that. Anthony Davis yesterday declined the
Lakers max extension offer. It doesn't mean anything. He's not
leaving Los Angeles. It's been perfect. He's averaging twenty eight
(12:22):
a game, ten rebounds, almost three blocks of three assists.
It's been terrific. He got hurt last night. He's going
to travel with a team. He's fine. He is banged
up a lot, his shoulder, his back. You know, he's
one of those guys to knock on him in the
NBA from the people I trust, one of the smartest
guys in the NBA. When he was out there talking
to teams said, the knock on him in the league
(12:44):
is for a twenty five twenty six year old. He
gets banged up a lot. You can't dispute that. The
second thing was he doesn't love playing through injuries. Some
guys do, some guys do not. Kawhi doesn't want to.
Anthony Davis didn't in New Orleans, but he has this year,
played through a lot of days. He didn't feel great.
Lebron's pushing him, Lebron's hardening him. He's trying to create
(13:07):
this sort of playoff medal which nobody is healthy by
the playoffs. Everybody's sore after the playoffs except James Harden,
who I don't know doesn't get hurt, plays every game
and just parties all night and comes back the next
day and drops forty four. He's an outlier. But I
don't think this team was built for January. I think
they were built for June. I think they're older. I
(13:28):
do believe they need to cash in this year because
the Clippers have more good young players. I think they'll
age better. Golden State's gonna have a number one pick
Steph Clay Draymond and a ton of room cap space
for the Greek freak or a big free agent. So
I do think this season is a cash in season.
Lebron's gonna be going into what his eighteenth year, Danny
(13:50):
Green is old, and Anthony Davis is breakable. But that
is my opinion on the Lakers. Everything I needed to
know for the regular season was confirmed in two weeks.
A d and Lebron play great together. Ad is for
the first time in his career, willing to play through
nagging injuries. Danny Green seems to work perfectly with both.
(14:12):
I do worry that if they trade Kyle Kuzma at
the deadline, there's a lot of rumors about that they
get even older. I think they need to get a
little younger so they can take some nights off in
the regular season. Kuzma's value maybe in the regular season,
not in the postseason. Or he's not going to get
a lot of touches in May and June, but he
needs a lot of touches now. So Lebron and ad
(14:32):
and Danny Green and older players can rest a little.
But Anthony didn't sign the contract extension. It doesn't mean anything.
He's traveling with the team. That means something to me.
That means he's again this year, willing to play hurt
and that was always the knock on him. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon
Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one
(14:55):
and the iHeart Radio app. My buddy hosts of First
Things First via the Coward Global satellite work sponsor by Mercedes.
Ben's the Best or Nothing, Nick Right. So I said yesterday,
I love the way Jeter retired and John Elway retired
and Kobe and it's one team, and you get you're
one of the all time greats, and it's neat and
Tony Gonzalez you wrap a bone, You're still capable. Elway
(15:17):
won a Super Bowl MVP. It would be just so
neat and tidy for Tom Brady to retire. Okay, he
told us last night he's not retiring. But it's funny, Nick,
football is the sport we bet both of us do,
and you get emotional to it, and so and a
Brady's emotional. So Brady takes a deep breath, comes out
with an Instagram and says, Okay, further reflection, I'm gonna
(15:38):
play again. And I was sitting there driving to work
this morning, and I'm thinking, further reflection. They still have
the best offensive line coach. They were twelve and four.
They have the best coach to get their kicker back
to fullback, back, their center back. Could I not argue, Nick,
the Patriots are the best place for a guy that
loves repetition Tom Brady. Well, I think in theory they
(16:00):
might be, but they have he I think clearly would
ideally like to stay in New England. I don't think
that's ever changed, but New England keeps flirting with the
idea that they don't want him to stay. And at
some point the disrespect becomes too much. You tried to
bring in my replacement four or five years ago. I
(16:22):
had to go above your head, Belichick to get him
shipped out of here. I then the three years leading
into this year, had the greatest comeback in Super Bowl
history in twenty sixteen, won a League MVP. In twenty seventeen,
and through for five Hondy in the Super Bowl. Won
another Super Bowl in twenty eighteen while beating the League
MVP on the road in the conference championship game in
(16:44):
comeback fashion. And you wouldn't give me an extension. You said, Nope,
We're gonna play it year to year. Tom, I said,
I want to play till I'm forty five. You won't
even give me an extension till I'm forty three. And
then this year goes as poorly as it does. And
he says he's Drew Brees as Michael Thomas and Russell
Wilson as the rookie wide receiver. Maybe they should have
(17:04):
drafted and Patrick Mahomes as all these other weapons, And
all of a sudden, the Los Angeles Chargers look pretty good,
and you start to wonder if the Patriots, if Belichick
would even fight that hard to keep him, because with
or without a forty three year old Tom Brady, the
Patriot era, the Patriot dynasty is over. I feel like
(17:25):
Belichick knows it, and I wonder if he has opened
the door just enough for Brady to walk through it
and become your next door neighbor, your palatial Manhattan Beaches stay.
I would love that. Of course. Let me throw this
out with Joe Judge. I thought it was a panic move,
but let me let me just say this, Sean McVay,
I didn't know who he was when he got hired
(17:46):
at thirty. I didn't know who John Gruden was when
the Raiders gave him a job. Mike Tomlin was thirty four.
Young guys. If you go look at many of the
great coaches, they got hired in their thirties. Belichick was
thirty eight in Cleveland and grumpy. Okay, so Joe Judge
is thirty eight and Belichick kept giving him more and
more stuff to do because he spotted very early. This
(18:08):
guy is special. Are guys like me overreacting to Joe
Judge because yesterday I said panic move not qualified other
better candidates. Did I overreact yesterday? I don't know that
you overreacted. I had two reactions to the Joe Judge higher.
One is I actually liked the idea of special teams
(18:29):
coordinators getting head coaching jobs. I would prefer you have
been a head coach at some point somewhere along the way,
maybe a little more seasoned. But I've heard from enough
players who played for John Harball who said they liked
the way he was able to look at the entirety
of the team, not focus just on one side of
the ball, And I think it actually could be an asset.
(18:50):
And nobody, if you remove the missfield goals part of it,
nobody had better special teams than the Patriots. So I'm
happy for Joe Judge. He learned from Saving, he learned
from Belichick. I am not here to say that is
the wrong higher. But the other thread to this is
one a lot of people have discussed in it can't
be ignored in a league that is over sixty percent black.
(19:12):
It is an abomination that we have three black head coaches.
It is the same statistical probability if you woke up
tomorrow in a quarter of the National Hockey League's coaches
were black, you would say, well, that's a little curious development.
But when it's white people in the majority of it,
we don't have the same reaction. I'm not alleging racism
and not alleging a systemic issue to try to keep
(19:34):
people out of jobs, but the league has clearly gone
towards young, offensive minded, typically innovators. Yet Eric b Enemy
continually gets passed over when the two people who had
his job prior to him, Peterson and Nage, immediately get
head coaching jobs all of a sudden. Andy Reid calling
the plays isn't an issue for those guys, it is
(19:54):
an issue for b Enemy. Byron Leftwich helped Jamis Winston
throw for over five thousand yards. No one mentions his name.
Leslie Frasier made the playoffs with Christian Ponder. Christian Ponder
then as one down year, he's gone and he's relegated
to being a defensive coordinator for a damn good Buffalo
(20:16):
Bills team and no one brings him up. But we're
gonna recycle Jim Schwartz again. Really, so, I don't know
how to solve this. I'm not gonna act like I
have the fix. But and I feel badly that Joe
Judge all of a sudden became the face of it.
That ain't his fault. Good for him forgetting the job,
But the league's gotta figure out and the teams have
(20:37):
to figure out why they are so they have no
problem trusting black people to play for them and to
be positional coaches for them. But there seems to be
a very clear glass ceiling, and it's a major issue
that now seems to be getting worse rather than getting better.
By the way, we agreed with you on that yesterday.
(20:58):
There's sort of industry evidence that certain guys need opportunities
and they're not getting him. And Schwartz is a great
example who was a disaster in Detroit, an utter disaster,
and by the way, is struggling in Philadelphia to get
along with the head coach. Let me segway to this.
You have a relationship. Aaron Rodgers loves you for some
unknown reason. He just he and I do not connect.
(21:18):
There's no symbiotic relationship there. You guys connect. What evs
little jealous Not going to get into it, but I
will say this, we judge divorces based on the first
week you go to the gym, you get your abs.
We judge divorces. You know, Kobe Shack, oh Shack. About
five years later, Kobe won it. Westbrook kd We loved
(21:39):
Westbrook winning all the awards, and five years later Westbrook's
kind of a mess in the playoffs. Let me say
this one year McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. If Aaron loses
to Seattle and McCarthy takes over easily the most talented
team he's ever had in Dallas, where they have an owner,
(21:59):
they land free agents, They've got terrific young talent. He's
never had a back like that. Is it possible than
three or four years we're looking back and saying, maybe
Aaron's difficult, and maybe McCarthy was saddled with a guy
who's hard to coach, and McCarthy wins this divorce. It's
not impossible. It's not the craziest theory of yours I've
(22:23):
heard this month, but the month is young, and so however,
I don't think it's fair to say anyone was saddled
with Aaron Rodgers. And I am very curious to see
how Mike McCarthy works when all of a sudden he
isn't coaching one of the two most talented quarterbacks ever.
(22:44):
He has gone far to Rogers. Like you said, you're sponsored.
I just heard it sponsored by Mercedes bins. If you're
driving nothing but S five hundreds and then you get
a really nice Accura. Even if it's a good car,
it doesn't quite get up the way you're used to
on the highway. So I'm curious how McCarthy's offense works
with Dak As far as Aaron Rodgers was the more
(23:04):
important part of this. This is an incredibly critical game
for him. Yeah, he has that He's only had a
buy three times in his whole career. Brady had thirteen
of them. He's only had three. The first year with
a bye, they were fifteen and one. He was League MVP,
and they get annihilated by Tom Coughlin's purple face and
the Giants. His next time with a bye, that is
(23:27):
the epic comeback by the Seahawks in the NFC Championship
game that some people say was the fracturing point between
McCarthy and Rodgers all the way back in twenty fourteen.
If they don't take advantage of not only having a
bye this year, but avoiding the Saints who might have
been better than them. Then you start to wonder, is
(23:49):
Aaron Rodgers talent going to be used as an arrow
that has slung towards him Allah Wilt Chamberlain. People talk
about Wilt and how dominant he was almost as a
ling because he didn't win enough. So I'm not saying
Rogers got to win the Super Bowl this year, but
you can't go one and done when you have a
Seattle team that's been overachieving their talent level coming to
(24:12):
Lambo here this weekend. You know what, I was going
to ask you another question, and I don't even know.
I've only got a minute left. I'll just ask you this.
I'm not as high on Josh McDaniels as everybody else.
I think he's Lane Kiffin in the pros high IQ
debatable EQ. I think he can be rigid. I think
he's got and I like Lane. I text Lane all
the time. I think he's a very good coach, but
(24:34):
he's dug some holes for himself. I don't know if
Josh and that ego and that impatience is gonna work
with Baker. I really don't. I think he's gonna get
the job. So just way in for a minute. Is
he the magic of Lickser that solves the Browns nightmares? All?
I know you said, we don't have a lot of times,
and I apologize. I gotta do this. I gotta once
(24:54):
again bend over and pick up the name you just dropped.
Oh you text with Lane Kiffin all the time? Big Oh,
sorry about that, Colin Coward now aunt, listen McDaniels. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't hire a guy who renegged on the Colts
the way he did. But everyone seems to be over
that that but me, like everyone seems to be like
that was ancient history, that was twenty four months ago.
(25:17):
No one cares anymore. So I've got to move past it.
I do think it's possible he learned from his mistakes
in Denver, and I do think what he has learned
from Belichick, as far as teaching the team to not
allow any outside noise, is exactly what the Browns need.
(25:38):
And as far as the recycled head coaches who are
available to me, he would be near the top of
the list. But I do have similar EQ questions as
you do, and I don't know that we know those
have been solved. It's just that Belichick doesn't let his
assistance talk, so we don't have any exposed No, honestly,
(25:59):
they're not allowed, so we don't have any exposure to
whether or not he has matured. And before I go,
I missed your birthday Monday, so a happy belated birthday.
And they always say, the question always is what do
you get the person who has everything? And so my
response was nothing, And so I'll just say happy birthday,
but sincerely, I really appreciate your nothing. Be sure to
(26:20):
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun Easter
not a Empacific. So this weekend Lamar Jackson hosts and
the Ravens John Harbaut. They host the Tennessee Titans. I
think Baltimore wins. I think they went at convincingly. Mike
Vrabel was asked about how do you stop Lamar Jackson
and he had this funny response, other than try to
(26:41):
tie his shoelaces together. Not many people have had success.
You know, we'll have to prepare and try to get
our players as ready as possible to defend not only him,
but for mark Ingram and then Edwards. It's impressive what
they've done. Let me just say this, Deshaun Watson had
five game winning come from hind wins this year. He
(27:01):
trailed more than he led this year. I think it's
an amazing feat. It's harder to play quarterback when you trail.
I'm not saying Deshawn's better than Lamar, but Lamar hasn't
trailed a lot this year. The way to beat Baltimore,
and I mean, at this point it's about all I've got.
Get a lead and cross your fingers, force him to
(27:23):
play from behind. You'll scale off. You know, They'll have
to peel off some of their running plays and they
become perhaps a little more predictable. Kansas City is two
and oh against Baltimore. In one of their games, they
got a twenty three six lead. Baltimore had to throw.
They had more success. The Chargers beat him once when
they got a twelve nothing lead twenty to three. At
(27:44):
one point they had to peel off, did the Ravens.
Some of their running plays became a little more one dimensional.
You know, inevitably, what really makes Baltimore go is they're
great at running, and great at the quarterback running, and
great at passing, and great at long ball. Passing. They
do everything well. What you hope to do is, if
(28:06):
you get the coin flip, do not defer it. Take it.
Use every trick, play every scripted play, get a lead,
cross your fingers, and hold on for dear life. They're
doing so many things at a high level right now.
If you could scale off, peelback some of their run
options as the clock expires late first half, forced them
(28:27):
to throw, that may help. It's not like it's a solution,
but it's the only thing I can think of because
they're not losing much and I do see a little
bit of a threat there, and I do think playing
behind always impresses me. It's Deshaun Watson trailed more than
he led this year. That's really impressive. To make the
playoffs and win a playoff game with that stat that's
(28:48):
hard to do. I've said before, this Baltimore team really
reminds me of the Carolina twenty fifteen team. A lot
of energy, veteran coach, a unique quarterback talent. The league
is kind of bailin water on trying to figure out
how the hell to play it in the middle of
(29:10):
a year. It's like, how do we stop Cam? But
there's a difference here, and I got a lot of
hate mail. I never bought into Cam. Doesn't mean he
can't be great, but he was needy and moody and inconsistent.
I didn't think he was always coachable. His mechanics got
worse over time, and he wasn't very accurate. I never
(29:30):
bought I think teams ultimately become the personality of their quarterback.
New England is efficient and hard working. New England is resourceful.
That's Brady. Brady gets every ounce out of his talent. Carolina,
to me, was inconsistent. So is Cam. Lamar's different. I
(29:54):
can see them becoming a fifteen year dynasty. First of all,
he's gonna get hurt, everybody tells me, and I see
him get hurt once. Before you say that he never
got hurt in college. You had a spray and ankle, mister,
one game in college, Anthony Davis. If you tell me
Joe lmbad, you know they get hurt a lot. All right,
I've got several examples. I'd like to see Lamar get
hurt before you tell me he's gonna get hurt, because
(30:15):
I don't see him getting hurt, and I've seen him
get whacked. About fifteen times this year. But here's why
I buy in the Lamar. And I never bought in
the Cam. And everybody loved Cam's arm, and Cam's bigger
and stronger and the best red zone quarterback running ever,
but I never I never liked Cam's traits. I love
Lamar's traits. His mechanics are better, like I didn't like
(30:37):
his mechanics in college. Oh they're better and they're more consistent,
and they're getting better. So he's more coachable. He's got
a chip on his shoulder. Cam in college wanted to
be a star. Lamar wants to win football games. Lamar's
like I mean literally, he don't want to talk. He
not in all that stuff. He's totally into football. He's
totally coachable. His mechanics are getting better. He puts himself
(30:59):
in harm's way, but he's incredibly humble. When I look
at all these quarterbacks, you guys are falling in love
with arms, I'm falling in love with traits. I don't
like Baker Mayfield's traits. I don't like Johnny Manzielle's traits.
I didn't like Jay Cutler's traits. Jamis Winston in college
stealing krablegs. I don't like your traits. Your size is fine,
(31:20):
like Lamar's traits. Those are dynasty traits. I'm coachable. I
got a chip on my shoulder. My mechanics kit better.
Brady's been working on mechanics in the offseason. Will go
down to coast Rica with his wife. He's working on mechanics.
He's obsessed with it. He's obsessed with film. Russell Wilson
not the perfect size, is not the greatest arm. He
has great traits, driven, chip on his shoulder, resourceful. So
(31:45):
it's funny they This team really does remind me of
the Carolina Panthers. And I don't think it means they'll
lose in the Super Bowl. I don't. I would probably
give them a Super Bowl win unless they play the
Niners again. And I don't know. I'll wait till I
see it. But I think this thing lasts. I think
it's durable. I think it's gonna get better. I don't
think Lamar cares about being a star. I think he
(32:06):
wants to win games. I think he's humble and and this,
to me, this Baltimore thing has fifteen years on it.
It feels like it's gonna last. A long time. I
never felt that with Carolina, never felt it. So it's exciting.
I think they're gonna win this weekend. I don't think
there's a way to stop it. I think there's a
way to force Baltimore to scale off some of the
(32:29):
running plays if you lead late half, late third quarter.
But they're fun to watch. I like watching them, and
if they're the next Dynasty, I'm good with it. All
the things I love about football, all the traits and habits.
Baltimore's got all of them. I'm totally in. Never was
on Carolina, totally am here one more Herd. The Herd
streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week
(32:50):
within the iHeartRadio app Search Herd to listen live or
on demand whenever you like. We got all sorts of stuff,
And I lean on Peter Schreger. He does a Sunday
show with me. He also was one of the hosts
of Good Morning Football in the NFL Network via the
Coward Global Satellite Network, live from New York. Peter Schreger,
Fox NFL reporter, all right, this is what you do
for a living. This is what I lean on you on,
Joe Judge, I said, I read a bunch of stuff
(33:12):
this morning. He's verbal, he's got a presence. He blew
away gettleman. I know Belichick liked him. You did intel,
I said yesterday it felt like a panic move, but
you did some intel. What are you hearing on Joe
Judge that he comes from a great pedigree and as
a leader of men. I want to give some splashy
hot take that this was a rush tire or they
should have gone a different direction. But after talking over
(33:33):
the last twenty four hours, Joe Judge had an incredible
interview over the week and over the weekend, and then
they did their research and it's Belichick and it's Sabin
and at the bottom at the end of the day,
giants were looking at it and they said, Okay, here
are all our different options for meeting with all these
different guys. This guy's got five championship rings in ten years,
and Belichick and Saban from the Mountaintops were recommending him
(33:57):
to people to take a look. And Belichick this year
not only give him that wide receiver's role, but start
opening him up to the media a little bit more.
He was being groomed as one of these leaders of men.
Now here's the key thing Colin. He's not an XS
and o's guy, right, he doesn't do hey third quarter,
Daniel Jones third and twelve. He's not McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan
in the ear of the quarterback. He is a CEO.
The key is going to be who he brings in
(34:19):
as his offensive coordinator, who he brings in as his
defensive coordinator, and also what kind of culture he's building.
Because Pat Shermer is a good offensive coach, he's also
a good man. I'm told that Joe Judge, even though
he's thirty eight years old. This is going to be
a team that is going to practice hard. There will
be some live tackling in practice, and there will be
a new culture in New York, one that might be
(34:41):
a little bit more tough guy than finesse offense. Yeah,
that was the knock gun. Shermer not a ton of presence.
He was a good play caller, but didn't have that
and the team got couldn't get big tough yard or
make big tough stops. Let's go to Matt Rule. He's
been a turnaround guy, a little bit more of a
schematic guy than just a presence guy. Although he's suppos
to be a great motivational speaker. Now I thought everything
(35:03):
I read he was going to be the Giants coach.
Carolina snags him explain please, yeah, this is out of
a Hollywood script, and you'll love this more than anyone Collins. So,
David Tepper's the owner of the Carolina Panthers. Not only
was he a former minority owner of the Steelers, he's
also maybe one of the richest men in the world.
And he also built one of the most successful hedge
(35:23):
funds from the ground up at what he did at
Appaloosa on Wall Street. If you know Wall Street folks,
they talk about Temper as a closer, a guy who
just gets things done and has a vision ahead of
the game. So Tepper walks in there knowing he's going
to interview Matt Rule before the Giants, and everyone's thinking
Rule has all these connections to New York and the Giants,
and Temper basically did one of those moves where he's like,
(35:45):
ABC always be closing, You're not getting out of here.
And what he told Matt Rule was, I've already rebuilt
the entire business side of this building over twelve months.
I've cleaned up a lot there, and it's a blank slate.
I want you to build from the ground up, and
I'm going to give you that opportunity to do so.
I will also give you all of the resources, both
for you personally and for this program that you ever
(36:07):
will need. Tepper came in there and said, look, I
used to work with the Steelers. I'm a Western Pennsylvania
guy and we had three coaches from nineteen seventy on,
Chuck Noll, Bill Kaller, and Mike Tomlin. That's what I
want to build here. And stability is the key word.
You start thinking about all the money you can make,
you can build it on your ground up and you
can really build the old culture. Then you look at
(36:29):
the giants and I'm not saying Rule was way in
one or the other, but there's Mara, there's Tiss, there's Gettleman,
there's Kevin Abrams, There's all this stuff that this is
a blank slate in Carolina and a blank check from
David Tepper. He never left his living room. He got
the deal done. Amazing closing job by Tepper, got the
guy he wanted, and Matt Rule is going to be
the Carolina Panthers head coach. I'll tell you this he's
(36:49):
gonna do. His press conference is welcoming press conference today.
I think NFL fans are gonna be very impressed with
what they see. He's interviewed for two other jobs, the
Jets and the Colts, and I've had leadership in brass
from both those teams. Tell me he blew them away
for those gigs. Matt Rule is going to be a
guy to watch, not only at the podium, but with
what he builds in Carolina. Okay, so Mike McCarthy gets
the cowboy jobs, stayed the night with Jerry. He had
(37:11):
to say something that Jerry liked to hear, because I
don't think any of us thought he was the lead candidate.
Lincoln Riley didn't even get the you didn't even get
you know interviewed. So is it did he say something about,
you know, Jerry dak? I mean, what was the sauce
that got McCarthy for Jerry to say, stay the night
at my house, We got to meet for breakfast and
(37:32):
talk again. Sounds like a great situation if you're Mike McCarthy.
Here's the deal. Jason Garrett was gone regardless Jason Garrett
is this Princeton academic, this airdite guy who can do
it all and is really well respected and loved in
that building. If you bring in Lincoln Riley or you
bring in Urban Meyer, you're basically saying, Okay, guys, here's
what we can offer you. Mike McCarthy came in there
(37:53):
and Colin from everyone I speak to, was like, I
just want to coach ball. I want to coach football,
and I am focused on football, and I've taken the
past year to not only look at what maybe went
wrong at the end of the Green Bay era, but
what I can do to get better. This guy, I
talked about it on the Fox NFL kickoff show We Do.
They built a bunker in his house. He would have
Frank Signetti Junior, and he would have Jim Hazlitt come
(38:15):
over and on Mondays they would watch the entire league,
not just the broadcast copy. They'd go through the all
twenty two and watch all of these different teams and
use analytics, Yes, analytics. Mike McCarthy, who's this Western Pennsylvania
former tollbooth guy, would come in and say, let's look
at the analytics. Let's embrace it. He sold this to
Jerry Jones and said, basically, I just want to coach football.
And I watched all these quarterbacks. There's a lot to
(38:38):
like about Dak Prescott. I think I can get the
best out of him. This was a football hire through
and through. Jerry Jones is very happy with having a
football guy and Mike McCarthy and also bringing in what
he's going to have. And already they've hired the special
teams coach from the Rams, John Fossil, who's very well
respected known as Bones and Jet, and his defensive coordinator
we don't and Mike Nolan we know as a football
(39:00):
man as well. So this is going back to basics
Cowboys football. Let's get us back to greatness. Okay, Cleveland's
the last team. They got the pick of the letter here.
I've said before, I know Josh McDaniels is smart, he's
better than Freddie Kitchens. But until this owner's less impulsive,
and until Baker's less impulsive, I don't care who coaches.
I really don't. If the owner is this impatient, it'll
(39:20):
never work, and if Baker's this impulsive, it'll never work.
So I think those two things are key. But they're
gonna hire somebody here, I would guess that is offensive minded.
That's my gut with Baker. You got to save your
number one pick? Or am I wrong? Is Josh McDaniel
the leader in the clubhouse today? I don't think we're
having to answer to the Browns coaching job until early
(39:41):
next week. I'll tell you why. Josh McDaniels does an
interview till Friday, and the day before him to me
is a very interesting interview. Kevin Stefanski and Amy. You're
not going to hear a bunch out of on every show,
but Kevin Stefanski is the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.
Last year, Stefanski came in there and wowed the Browns,
absolutely blew them away, using analytics, forward thinking and spoke
(40:02):
to Paul de Podesta, who is one of the chief
strategy guys in that room, and spoke very clearly with him.
John Dorsey pushed hard and got Freddy Kitchens the job. Well.
De Podesta really liked Stevanski. He's gonna meet Thursday McDaniels
on Friday. Little note on McDaniels. The year that Baker
was the number one overall pick, there was a lot
of talk about how much the Patriots brass liked Baker Mayfield,
(40:25):
and knowing that Brady's days might be done at some point,
do we move up in the draft and try to
take a swing at Baker if he slips. He didn't slip.
But when you think offense in New England, Josh McDaniels
was one of those guys, and if he was interested
in Baker Mayfield, then I'm sure he's interested. Now. Two
more names, really quickly. Robert Slow the defensive coordinator, very
impressive out of San Francisco. He's a name you're hearing.
(40:47):
And Jim Schwartz is interviewing with the Cleveland Browns today.
He's got history with the Browns. Also a guy defense,
all business, no joking around. Let's be the best and
most discipline team on Sunday. That might work more than
the loudest team all offseason. By the way I said
this earlier, I got a lot of heat. I think
the Ravens remind me a lot of the Carolina Panthers
(41:08):
in twenty fifteen, where there's this unique quarterback the league's
baling water on how to face him. They've got a
ton of energy, a lot of young players in a
belief system. They're playing at home, and I think Baltimore
is a really special team. I don't think you can
stop Lamar. I think you can, you know, hopefully get
ahead on him, force him to maybe run less. But
I'll tell you I never bought into Carolina and Cam
(41:28):
because I didn't like Cam's habits. I thought he was
sometimes unfocused. I didn't like his mechanics. I thought he
was hard to coach. I didn't think he was always
humble and frankly, even in his MVP year, he completed
fifty nine percent of his throws. Lamar's a better thrower deep, intermediate, short.
I think he's humble. I think he's all about football.
I think the next dynasty could be staring as right
(41:51):
in the face in Baltimore, and I'm all in on it.
I like it. What if people around the league say
to you about Lamar and the Ravens going forward, this
team is so unique, and that they were the outliers
this year, and they were completely zigging when everyone was zagging.
You know, over the offseason they built an offense around
Lamar Jackson's talents. Now, Cam Newton was in that Mike
(42:12):
Schuler offense. He got a lot of draw plays. He
did some things with his legs. This team, they run
with a fullback and three tight ends in their core offense.
Sometimes they put six offensive linemen out. So everything Lamar's
doing a lot of that is just how great Lamar
is in the open field and how well he can pass.
The other part of it is they built a team
and an offense around his skill set. You will never
(42:33):
see a team block like they block for Lamar Jackson
in Baltimore. Watch it on Saturday Night. A lot of
times Andrew's boyle Anne hayden Hurst are all in the
field the same time, and a lot of times they're
blocking for him. And they've got a fullback in Patrick Ricard.
Not a lot of these teams use fullbacks. They use
the fullback. He's out there just about every play. Number
forty two he blocks for Lamar Jackson. So it's not
(42:56):
just Lamar, it's a philosophy. It's a culture and a
team that completely bought in to what they're doing. In
twenty twenty m beyond I love this. I think Lamar
Jackson's here to stay. And guess what if no one's
been able to hit him and knock them down in
seventeen weeks. I don't see it happening in the playoffs either. Yeah,
it never got hurt at Louisville either. Missed one game
because a sprained ankle. I sprained my ankle walk into
the set this morning, so he
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