0:00

Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.

0:02

Be sure to catch us live every weekday on

0:04

Fox Sports Radio in noon to three

0:07

Eastern nine am to noon Pacific.

0:09

Find your local station for the Herd at Fox

0:11

Sportsradio dot com, or stream

0:14

us live every day on the iHeartRadio app

0:16

by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.

0:19

This is the Best of the Herd with Colin

0:22

cowher on Fox Sports Radio.

0:27

All Right, here we go. It is a

0:30

Thursday Live Man

0:32

Los Angela, Since the Herd.

0:35

Wherever you may be, and however you may

0:37

be listening or watching, Thanks

0:39

for making us part of your day. I

0:41

appreciate that. I want to

0:43

thank Jmax for filling in more than

0:46

capably yesterday with Alex Curry

0:48

Great co Sel on one hour from now. So

0:51

yesterday was a very

0:55

interesting day in my life yesterday, Jmac

0:58

because as you know, I have a relationship

1:00

with Raymond Green because he's an employee

1:02

of a company that I founded. And

1:05

so yesterday, let's start with that. Draymond

1:09

Green was suspended indefinitely by

1:11

the NBA yesterday for actions on the court

1:13

inappropriate actions. It just

1:15

so happened that my two

1:18

top employees at my company in management.

1:20

The company is called The Volume. It's a podcast digital

1:22

company. Were with him when

1:24

the commissioner called for

1:26

three and a half hours or close to it.

1:29

We were working and have been working on a contract

1:32

with Draymond. We're going to resign him, but we've been

1:34

working on it for four or five months. It's complicated

1:36

because Draymond's a very effective podcaster,

1:39

and it's you know, it's a lot of contracts

1:41

for your big stars at any company

1:43

are a little more difficult, right, So we've been working on

1:45

that. Well, it all came to a head yesterday. We

1:47

were working on the contract, we finalized

1:49

it, and then he was suspended. So my

1:51

guys just happened to be in his

1:54

house and talking with him. So it's

1:57

very very different. So I was on

1:59

the phone this morning in last night with

2:01

my management team. Draymond

2:04

was very reflective, felt very sad about

2:07

it. Is a very thoughtful guy. Made

2:09

a mistake and knew it, and he is now sort

2:11

of questioning himself as all adults

2:13

do with complex lives. The Draymond

2:16

that I know, the employee

2:18

of The Volume, is a great teammate,

2:21

highly effective, incredibly

2:23

coachable, smart, thoughtful,

2:26

a great teammate, and

2:29

let's be clear, he's been a great

2:31

Golden State Warrior and outside of

2:33

Jordan Poole has really been

2:36

thought as a great teammate. That relationship

2:38

never worked, but it has been.

2:40

And I think I have a little bit of unique insight

2:43

and I do believe I have the right to share it. It's

2:45

been a tough few months for him. First

2:47

of all, all of us, I can only speak for men,

2:49

not women. Have a rabbi, a guru,

2:51

somebody close to us. It can be your wife, it can

2:54

be a brother, it can be a pastor. Draymond's

2:57

guru with the Warriors to get him through tough

2:59

times was Bob Myers, the former GM

3:01

a brilliant guy and a former basketball player.

3:03

Bob left and it's created

3:05

a hole in Draymond's life. They were on the phone

3:08

for multiple times yesterday. Also,

3:11

it's been a team that is struggling. The dynasty

3:13

is ending. It is ugly. They're losing a

3:15

lot of games and they feel a little bit hapless

3:18

and helpless as a franchise. And

3:20

if I may, I'd offer this third one because

3:22

we've been negotiating a new deal with Draymond.

3:24

He hasn't been podcasting, and Draymond,

3:26

I think would be the first to acknowledge that podcast

3:29

is not only good, but it's his therapy to some

3:31

degree. He can go look straight down the

3:33

barrel of a camera talk to you, the American

3:35

sports fan. He's just great at

3:37

it. He's like a broadcaster. He's got a Charles

3:40

Barkley ability. But I also

3:42

am old enough, and this is the advantage of being

3:44

in the fifties when I remember Charles Barkley,

3:46

who I adore, I love Charles Barkley

3:48

grabbed a fan and threw him through a window at

3:51

an Orlando restaurant. And I

3:53

grew up with Bill Lambier, who did things

3:55

that were wildly inappropriate on the court.

3:58

And I watched Dennis Rodman do

4:00

things, and in all cases

4:02

Barkley, Lambier, Rodman and Draymond

4:05

it's a different ask. You're asked to be

4:07

an enforcer, not just a score or a

4:09

defender. I know a guy

4:11

that was a hockey fighter for years. That

4:13

was his job. He wasn't the most skilled, he was a

4:16

fighter. And we had a long lunch

4:18

and talked about it one day about hockey fighters.

4:20

Every team would have one. They were called disruptors

4:23

and fighters Draymond, Rodman, Lambier.

4:26

Now, Barkley's obviously a highly skilled disruptor,

4:28

but he was at times asked to do

4:30

that, be the enforcer. It is a tough life.

4:33

Many of the hockey fighters medicated

4:36

through alcohol and drugs, many

4:39

very sad stories. That's not the case

4:41

with Draymond. Draymond's married,

4:44

kids, great employee,

4:47

but it has been a really rough six months

4:49

for him and I'm living through some of it and hearing

4:51

about it. Now, Let's be clear, this

4:53

is a sports suspension. The

4:56

internet loves an avalanche

4:58

and people loved to ski on. It's

5:00

why I'm not on the Internet much these days. I'm

5:02

sort of over it. It's bullying constantly.

5:06

But he

5:08

didn't sell drugs to kids. He's not an

5:10

arms dealer. He's not a shady politician.

5:14

He's a highly emotional

5:16

professional basketball player who

5:18

has become, like Rodman and Lambier, a

5:21

disruptor, and sometimes he crosses

5:23

the line. I am not defending

5:25

his actions. He absolutely should

5:27

have been suspended, and I don't have a problem

5:29

with indefinitely at all. But

5:32

I will defend him as a human being. I

5:34

will defend him as a coworker and employee.

5:37

He's terrific and a really good guy. He

5:39

was wrong and he knows he's wrong, and he's gone

5:42

through a very tough six months of no

5:44

Bob Myers, a dynasty falling

5:46

apart. We see it in football

5:49

New England, we see it in basketball Golden

5:51

State. It's hard, and it's hard on those

5:53

people. I know many

5:55

of you are thinking, come on, Colin, go after

5:58

him. He's a public figure. Public

6:00

figures don't get a hide. Their mistakes

6:02

are on TV, in radio, they're talked

6:05

about on talk radio shows. It's

6:07

different, and I always am conscientious

6:09

of that. I really like Draymond. I

6:11

hope he gets the help he needs. I

6:13

hope I can be there for him. I will defend

6:16

him to the end as

6:18

a guy, as a employee.

6:21

But what he did is wrong, absolutely

6:24

wrong. There's

6:26

a place for

6:28

regulated physicality and sometimes

6:31

crossing the line can be highly effective.

6:34

He burst through it, he knows

6:36

he bursts through it. And he's now going to

6:38

reflect the conversations

6:41

he had last night with my management

6:43

team, and I'm not going to share

6:45

very much of them, but were

6:47

incredibly thoughtful. There

6:50

was great sadness, he reflected.

6:52

He was critical of himself. But

6:55

what guts him at his soul

6:58

is that many of you think he's

7:00

now a bad teammate and on his

7:02

tombstone, that's all that's ever

7:05

mattered to Steph clay

7:07

Kerr and his guys and Bob Meyer being

7:10

a great teammate, and now many people

7:12

doubt that, and it's gutting him. All

7:14

update you as I learned more so

7:18

I met, you know, I wasn't around yesterday,

7:21

had some doctor appointments and stuff like that, and

7:23

so there was there was a

7:26

piece of audio from Cam Newton. His outfit

7:28

is quite something. But I am not a dresser, so

7:30

I'm really other than get your

7:32

hat on forward. You know, I don't. I don't talk much

7:34

about dress But he

7:37

got into a discussion and it should be noted

7:40

if he had not mentioned Dak Prescott,

7:42

this would be a local story. If

7:44

he just mentioned the other quarterbacks

7:47

and not Dak Prescott, nobody

7:50

cares. But Dak is the quarterback, highly

7:52

effective one of America's team. So

7:54

here is Cam Newton. He

7:57

has a right to an opinion. He's a former MVP,

7:59

got to his Super Bowl. Here's his thoughts on

8:01

quarterback.

8:02

Play as game managers

8:04

Brock parody to a

8:06

tongue of below, Jared Goff and

8:09

really Dad Prescott.

8:12

These are game managers. They're not different

8:15

makers.

8:15

And when you say game manager, I'm not asking

8:18

you to go out and win the game. I'm just asking you, not going

8:20

to lou not to lose the game. That's listen.

8:23

I don't give a damn what you do. You don't have

8:25

to score every time. You just don't have to throw

8:27

a pick every time either. If we're gonna really

8:30

call a spade a spade, a game

8:32

manager is different than a game

8:34

changer.

8:36

Now, first of all, that's very smart, and

8:38

he's right. A game

8:40

manager is different than

8:42

a game changer. That's a great line, and he's

8:44

right. And Cam

8:46

Newton was a game changer and Josh

8:48

Allen is a game changer. But

8:51

yet with both, I'm often left unsatisfied

8:55

because the all time greats and Cam

8:57

doesn't qualify. Are both Mahome

9:00

does. But the word managing

9:02

gets a really bad rap. Have

9:05

you ever thought about this that ninety percent

9:07

of life is managing. Your

9:09

wife's managing you, you're managing the

9:11

family, you're managing your ego.

9:14

I manage stuff all day. I've got

9:17

a three hour live TV show. It's

9:19

a lot of talking. There's

9:21

a show over at the other place. It's great. It's called PTI,

9:24

it's excellent. It's two guys a half

9:26

hour mine six times is long.

9:29

That doesn't make it a better show. I'm

9:31

just managing this thing. It's a lot

9:34

and managing football teams, and managing

9:36

families, and managing companies, managing

9:39

coworkers, and managing your friend group

9:41

and managing your family over the holidays.

9:44

We're all managers mostly

9:46

in life. You're trying to avoid the time bombs and the

9:48

big mistakes. Jimmy Johnson a couple of days ago

9:50

set on my show, you

9:52

lose more games on dumb plays

9:55

than you win them on great ones. It's all about

9:57

managing. Cam Newton

10:00

and Josh Allen aren't

10:03

as good at the game managing part,

10:06

although they are both game changers.

10:09

So let me get you into Dak Prescott again.

10:12

This would not be a story if Dak's name wasn't

10:16

mentioned. I think Dak is

10:18

a game manager. But when you're

10:20

the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys,

10:23

that's much harder to manage

10:25

than the Carolina Panthers. He

10:28

had to manage from Game one. Des Bryant's

10:30

immaturity and emotions. He

10:33

had to manage Zeke's immaturity. He's

10:36

always had to manage Jerry Jones

10:38

more than healthy ego, He's

10:41

had to manage the expectations

10:44

of being the Dallas Cowboys quarterback.

10:47

I would make an argument that Dak Prescott

10:50

on the field and off, is the greatest

10:52

game manager the sport

10:54

currently has. He's absolutely

10:57

great. Is he a game changer?

11:00

Once or twice a game, Dak will make a

11:02

throw that most people on the planet

11:04

can't. Josh Allen can, Mahomes can,

11:08

but most can't. Game

11:10

manager and managing in

11:12

life is underrated. Cam Newton,

11:14

by the way, would not be nearly

11:16

as effective as a Cowboy quarterback.

11:19

He led too often with his ego. He was

11:22

constantly distracted. Cam

11:25

and his game changing talent

11:27

was perfect for an ill relevant franchise

11:30

in the South. He could be the star of

11:32

He sold tickets, he sold merch, he won

11:34

games. Cam Newton was

11:37

perfect for Carolina, but

11:39

I would argue Dak is perfect

11:41

for the Cowboys. You

11:43

can't have a bigger ego than the owner. He

11:46

won't permit it. Jerry's

11:48

willing to take risks on highly

11:51

dysfunctional but highly talented

11:53

players, and Dak is asked

11:55

to put his ego aside and manage them.

11:58

If you look at people in life, in

12:01

any industry, it's the ability,

12:04

even for the super talented, to

12:06

manage themselves. Michael

12:09

Jordan was a super talent. He

12:11

didn't win anything until

12:14

Phil Jackson asked

12:16

him to put a bit of a governor on his game

12:18

and be a better teammate. It was when

12:20

Michael Jordan was willing to manage

12:23

his talent, pullback

12:26

better teammate, give up in key

12:28

spots that Michael became a legend.

12:31

That is not a criticism of Michael Jordan.

12:34

It shows you, as IQ his

12:36

self awareness and his passion

12:39

and commitment to winning. Managing

12:42

gets a bad rap. Dak

12:45

Prescott is in a unique

12:48

quarterback spot in the world.

12:50

Like I'm talking about real Madrid

12:52

star, I'm talking about

12:55

Manchester United striker

12:58

Dallas cowboy quarterback superstar

13:01

score for the Lakers. It's

13:03

why Lebron is so effective. He

13:05

is a great manager and

13:08

also a game changer, and Dak

13:10

may be a little less in the game

13:13

changing department. But

13:16

saying that Dak is a game manager is

13:20

to me, people do

13:22

not understand the lift of it.

13:24

It's much easier to quarterback the Buffalo

13:26

Bills than the Carolina Panthers and the Detroit

13:29

Lions. Dak is

13:31

one of the great managers of controversy

13:34

ego teammates I've ever

13:36

seen. I've never loved him as a thrower, but

13:39

his IQ coupled with his enormous

13:41

EQ. Don't take it as

13:43

a criticism. In fact, the ultimate

13:46

sign of respect for

13:48

Dak Prescott is

13:51

that it bothered you when his name was mentioned.

13:53

You were okay with Tua, you were okay

13:55

with Goff, you were okay

13:57

with Purty, but it ticked a

13:59

lot of people off when you mentioned Dak. And

14:02

my take is your damn Righty's

14:04

a game manager, maybe the

14:06

best I've ever seen. And

14:09

there you go. You know, I get

14:11

one day off and I get very reflective. Who knows,

14:13

maybe I should take every Wednesday off, Jay

14:15

Mack, get ready, wait

14:18

a secon.

14:18

Now, I gotta work every Wednesday solo.

14:20

I'm considering like three hours.

14:22

I mean, Alex was helping me out big time, but boy

14:24

that was and I got people coming at me from all

14:26

angles.

14:27

I mean, goodness, graciousness, see that's the life

14:29

of this show. You know I have a great

14:31

parlay for you this weekend. Thanks to DraftKings

14:33

Sportsbook. New users use the code

14:36

herd ager d when you download the app.

14:38

Here's my parlay picks. People

14:40

will sell their packer stock because they lost

14:42

to an average Giants team, but they're at home.

14:45

All give up the three and a half. I think they beat

14:47

the Bucks handily. Brown's minus

14:49

three and a half. Hosting the Bears Chicago

14:51

looked great, but Cleveland's defense

14:53

at home will be a different matter entirely.

14:56

Brown's by a touchdown and the Bills

14:59

minus to it home. Yeah, I like all

15:01

three favorites. All take them over the Cowboys

15:03

coming up a highly emotional thrashing

15:06

of the Eagles. You want to take the Herd

15:09

parlay. Check out DraftKings Sportsbook. New

15:11

users code is heard hger

15:14

d when you download the app. It's

15:16

easy. It's simple.

15:17

DraftKings twenty one plus in most eligible

15:19

states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility

15:22

restrictions apply. Gambling problem called one eight

15:24

hundred gambler in New York called eight seven seven

15:26

eight hope and wire text hope and y four sixty

15:28

seven three sixty nine. See show notes for full

15:31

details.

15:31

You're now entering the Noble Zone, sponsored by Credible

15:33

Great Rats and on the Bull. It's

15:36

crazy life here I am. We're signing

15:38

contracts that all worked out, My people are all

15:40

there. It just happened to be the day Draymond

15:43

Green is suspended. So I'll get back

15:45

to that talk about that in a bit later, But so

15:48

I thought i'd give you some perspective on that kind of situation

15:50

last night that happened. So anyway,

15:53

Jannis a little bit of a dust up.

15:55

So Milwaukee is playing Indiana

15:58

and Jannis has a huge night sixty four point.

16:00

He wanted to get the game ball after it's like one

16:02

of the big nights of his career. And apparently

16:04

some kid for Indiana had scored his first

16:06

points ever and they wanted to give the game ball to Indiana,

16:09

And so there was something that happened. You know, Giannis

16:11

is kind of going down the tunnel trying to get

16:14

the game ball and people

16:16

are getting all worked up, but he wants the ball, and

16:18

Indiana says, well, we'll give

16:20

it a little bit of a confusion here, and so

16:23

it's not that big of a deal, but Yanni's talked about it

16:25

after can you confirm

16:27

that you have the game ball from tonight?

16:29

I have no idea. I'm not gonna lie. I have

16:32

no idea. I

16:35

don't know, you know, I really don't know.

16:38

I don't know I have the ball, but I don't know if it's a game

16:40

bowl. It doesn't feel like the game bowl to me. It's

16:43

it feels like a bow like

16:46

I can. I can tell you know from I

16:48

played what thirty five minutes

16:50

today? You know, I know how the game

16:53

bowl felt. You know the ball

16:55

that I have, which I'll take and I'll

16:57

give it to my mom for sure, but uh sex

17:00

the game book.

17:02

So what I find fascinating with

17:04

Yannis this is the part and this is just

17:06

an incident. You know, it is not

17:08

much of a sports topic. But what I do think is interesting.

17:12

So Yannis entered the NBA is

17:14

almost a childlike innocence,

17:18

European player, eager, earnest,

17:20

just a kid. And

17:23

then the United States sports machine took

17:25

over. And that's about unforgiving,

17:28

relentless pressure, wealth

17:30

expectations, and harsh criticism

17:32

from talk show hosts, fans, coaches.

17:35

It's the United States sports machine and

17:38

Yannis now swears regularly, gets

17:40

after officials can be highly

17:42

critical and it's okay,

17:46

It's really okay. It happens

17:49

media, social media, fans

17:52

criticism. You can see it, hear it,

17:54

read it in the arenas. It

17:56

hardens you. And that's what

17:58

makes a great player in national soccer,

18:01

NBA, NFL. Are you resilient?

18:04

Can you handle it? Most

18:06

athletes can't. And what you're

18:09

watching is a hardening of

18:11

an international star who came in a

18:14

little puppy to this league and now he's

18:16

got a little bite to him. And I'm here for

18:18

it. All these years

18:20

of you know, the different industries

18:23

I've been in, podcasting, digital radio, TV

18:25

covering athletes. The number one quality

18:28

is not where you go to school. It's resilience.

18:31

Remember that Michael Jordan documentary. He's

18:33

fighting with the owner, he's fighting with

18:35

the GM, He's fighting with Rodman,

18:38

who's in Vegas partying. He's fighting

18:40

with Pippin. He punched Steve Kerr

18:43

resilience, Kobe Bryant fought

18:45

with Phil Jackson, fought with Shaq resilience,

18:49

and Jannis comes in and these

18:51

international players, you

18:53

know, I'm just so lucky to be here. And

18:56

then the sports machine takes over and we say,

18:58

oh, you want a championship a second and

19:02

then he has to go to his team and say, get

19:04

me a star. I'm out of here. And

19:06

so when I look at Jannis, the

19:08

growth of Yannis, it's

19:10

fascinating to watch what he was innocent,

19:14

childlike, funny, eager

19:17

to now the expectations have

19:20

been heaped on him, and he's got some bite

19:22

in him and he's got some fight in him, and

19:25

the path we stuperstars. I said this about

19:27

Jordan. Jordan was the best looking guy. He was

19:29

the best guy. He had the best marketing, he

19:31

had the best shoes, he was the coolest guy. He

19:33

was the winning the titles. Go watch that documentary.

19:36

It's not linear. He's battling the entire

19:38

time. So I liked young Yannis.

19:41

I like maturing Yannis. He's

19:43

changed and he's

19:46

needed to change and

19:49

become more resilient, with a

19:51

little bigger bite and more demanding

19:53

to get his way. Stars

19:56

people view them as a pain in the butt,

19:58

but we create it, we demand

20:01

it. Why not more when

20:03

Mahomes is barking on the sideline,

20:05

he should be happy, right? Why family

20:08

riches titles? No, we

20:10

do lists, We judge. We criticize,

20:13

they hear it. Young a yanis

20:16

loved him, maturing Yannis with a

20:18

bite, love him too. It's

20:20

part of what we do to

20:22

young people as part of the United

20:24

States Sports Machine.

20:27

Sunday, we got a huge doubleheader on Fox.

20:29

First, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs

20:32

take on the Patriots or other regional

20:34

action. Then in America's Game

20:36

of the Week, Jack Prescott

20:38

and the Cowboys take on Josh Allen and

20:41

the Bills. Check for the games in your area

20:43

Sunday on Fox.

20:46

A couple of stories here. I want to start with the

20:48

Dodgers in Shoheo Tawi. Details

20:51

of his contract are now pouring out. He

20:54

has a stipulation in his contract

20:56

that he can opt out if

20:58

Andrew Friedman, the president of

21:01

Baseball ops for the Dodgers, exits,

21:04

or the owner of the Dodgers, Mark

21:06

Walter exits. Otani can

21:08

leave. I love this. I have a saying

21:10

I say two or three times a year on

21:12

this show. In life. Don't

21:15

chase money. There's a sea of it. Chase

21:17

good management. There's very little of

21:20

it.

21:21

He was in.

21:21

Anaheim chaos,

21:26

zero playoff wins. He has no

21:28

interest in duplicating that. I

21:31

mean, have you ever noticed, folks, it's the same NFL

21:33

teams decade after decade,

21:36

year after year, drafting at

21:38

the top of the draft this year at Chicago,

21:40

Carolina, the Jets, Arizona,

21:43

Washington, the Raiders. Why

21:46

upstairs Otani's

21:49

like upstairs changes I get a

21:51

leave? Ask yourself this, when's

21:53

the last time the Kansas City Chiefs with

21:55

the Hunt family rock solid, were

21:58

bad for any extended period of time. They

22:00

were kind of bumpy two thousand and seven, two thousand

22:02

and eight, two thousand and nine. It happens when you don't

22:04

have a quarterback ready to go, like far to

22:06

Aaron Rodgers. But there's a

22:08

reason Kansas City's usually formidable,

22:11

a viable playoff team, and the

22:13

Bears aren't. So even

22:15

the biggest brands in the world. It can

22:18

be Real Madrid, it could be the

22:20

Lakers, it could be the Knicks. The Raiders at

22:22

one point were incredibly viable

22:24

year after year, a commitment to excellence,

22:27

and then upstairs gets all mangled. Otani

22:31

isn't asking for anything anything

22:34

but stability. That's

22:37

all he's asking for. He's

22:39

deferring his payments for stability.

22:42

He's asking to have a contract

22:44

which limits the movement upstairs for

22:46

stability. That's

22:48

it. He's twenty nine, he's not twenty

22:51

three. He's probably got four

22:53

great years left and then you'll see

22:55

slow declines. If he can avoid injuries,

22:57

maybe it's longer. But he's not

22:59

asking for anything other

23:02

than what wins in pro sports,

23:05

stability and the ability

23:08

with deferred payments to attract other

23:10

players around him. Clayton

23:12

Kershaw talks about his newest teammate.

23:15

That's great, I mean great, great for the Dodgers

23:18

obviously, and show hey, and he is

23:20

a unique, unique talent

23:22

and I don't think there's anybody like him. And once he

23:24

starts pitching again, you know, everybody wants

23:26

to watch it. You know, I want to watch it, so I get

23:28

the attraction. And from the opening day

23:31

ticket sales that I've seen, it's everybody's

23:33

pretty excited about it. So it's

23:34

a it's a fun time to be a Dodger fan

23:36

for sure.

23:37

Certainly is can't wait. So

23:40

Ben Roethlisberger has a podcast,

23:42

I mean who doesn't, and it's pretty

23:44

good. He talks about stuff, and whenever he talks

23:46

about the Steelers, he has a long history there,

23:49

so he's an expert in Steeler football and

23:51

knows it, and he has been critical

23:53

of Mike Tomlin. They just recently lost

23:55

twenty one to eighteen to the awful Patriots,

23:58

and we're blowing time out and they can't move

24:00

the ball offensive. Leon is a former great quarterback.

24:03

Roethlisberger has the right to an opinion and we

24:05

should listen, and he was highly critical

24:07

of Mike Tomlin.

24:09

You can't afford the second half of games

24:12

to burn silly timeouts

24:14

and not to have them late in the game, and

24:17

so to me, that is that's

24:20

bad. It's a bad coaching.

24:22

One of the leaders of the team kind of got on me

24:24

for saying that I felt that certain guys

24:26

on the team aren't in it for the team, they're in it for themselves. Well

24:28

now some of the guys on the team are saying the same thing, yea, So

24:30

maybe I wasn't too far off when I said that. It

24:32

just feels like that's something that's kind

24:35

of been lost on this team

24:37

a little bit.

24:38

So.

24:38

The Steelers have been a picture of mediocrity

24:40

for about six years. Been

24:43

played in some of those go back six

24:45

years, they won nine games, they won eight games,

24:47

they had one good year at twelve wins, and then nine

24:49

and then nine and now they're seven and six, six

24:52

years zero playoff wins.

24:55

In fact, they have three playoff wins

24:57

since twenty ten over eight

25:00

AJ McCarron, Matt Moore, and Alex Smith.

25:03

The Steelers' last playoff

25:05

win over an elite quarterback

25:08

was twenty ten Joe Flacco. It's

25:12

now twenty twenty three and in

25:14

three weeks twenty twenty four, and

25:16

in that time they've lost too in

25:19

playoff games, Blake Bortles,

25:22

Tim Tebow, Baker

25:25

Mayfield. As long as

25:27

Mike Tomlin is there, two things

25:29

will be true. It will be a

25:32

highly emotional one culture

25:34

and to a defensive culture it

25:37

will be toughness over ingenuity,

25:41

more alpha than actually offensive

25:43

details. That's how they

25:45

roll. The problem, of course,

25:47

and we're seeing this in New England. Is

25:49

what is winning in football today,

25:52

and it's ingenuity and its creativity.

25:55

It's McVeigh, it's Shanahan.

25:58

Look around enough fourteen playoff

26:01

teams today, Creativity,

26:04

ingenuity, offensive football.

26:06

Spend your money on the right side of the ball.

26:09

So I don't think Mike Tomlin's a bad

26:11

coach, and I think

26:13

Bill Pelijack Belichick is legendarily

26:16

a great coach, but like I referenced

26:18

Tom Landry earlier, cultures

26:21

change and coaches kind of

26:23

feel out of touch with the

26:25

current culture. Now, maybe all of this,

26:27

I could say, would be solved with a better quarterback.

26:30

But at the end, with Big Ben, who's

26:32

a Hall of Famer, it wasn't

26:35

pretty either. They weren't

26:37

winning playoff games. They were

26:39

losing to t Bow, Baker

26:42

Lake Bortles, and so two

26:45

things can be true. I can think Tomlin's

26:47

a good coach, and I can be deeply

26:49

concerned about their ability

26:52

to adapt offensively. Now,

26:54

the good news is, unlike New England,

26:56

they draft skill players at

26:58

an incredibly high level. So

27:00

the Steelers issues, to me, are

27:03

much easier to solve than

27:05

the Patriots issues. They can't

27:07

draft offense, they can't develop

27:09

it, They've got no feel for it. Steelers

27:12

always draft receivers, running backs, tight

27:14

ends, old linemen that can play, so they

27:16

they just need to get better at quarterback.

27:19

I do not believe Kenny Pickett's

27:21

the answer. I could certainly be wrong, but

27:25

big Ben has a right to an opinion. I

27:27

don't think he's necessarily wrong. And

27:29

they do not feel like a relevant

27:32

Super Bowl worthy discussion football

27:34

franchise today. I'm not saying you

27:36

have to fire the coach, but the coach

27:39

maybe has to be tweaked and

27:41

give half of this team to offense a

27:44

little more ingenuity, little less

27:46

concerned about toughness, little

27:48

less concerned about the chest out the alpha,

27:50

little more concerned about details. I

27:53

think that's a reasonable ask. I don't

27:55

think they're miles off. I tend

27:57

to think they're a quarterback off. New

27:59

England's problems are the Grand Canyon

28:02

deep, and they last a long time, and I'm

28:04

not sure you can get out of them. All right,

28:06

Jay mac hey, they got

28:08

a quick one for you.

28:10

Kenny Pickett has six touchdown

28:13

passes this season. He has like twelve starts. Joe

28:16

flaccol has five touchdown

28:18

bats.

28:18

Already in like what three games do and a half

28:21

games? Kevin Stefanski No,

28:23

I mean, we talked about this. I know it's boring to

28:25

everybody, so I won't spend too much time. You're educating

28:28

folks. Stefanski has

28:30

taken Joe Flaccoll off the couch and

28:32

they're moving the ball.

28:35

Shane Steichen has taken Gardner Minshew,

28:37

they may make the playoffs. Look

28:39

at what is happening. I'm looking at when

28:42

an offensive coach has

28:44

to use a backup. All through

28:46

this league, they're flourishing. When a defensive

28:49

coach gets a backup, and increasingly

28:51

backups play,

28:54

it is man overboard. Kevin

28:56

O'Connell won a game with Josh

28:58

Dobbs without a Prowse McVeigh

29:01

last year won a game Baker Mayfield had a single

29:03

practice. We are watching offensive

29:05

coaches. Remember, defensive

29:08

players are getting bigger, stronger, The hits

29:10

are more punitive, there's more injuries.

29:12

Offensive line play simultaneously

29:15

is getting worse. So we're getting more

29:17

injured quarterbacks. So your team is

29:19

going to have to play a backup. If you

29:21

have a defensive coach, you're screwed. If

29:24

you have an offensive coach. Kevin

29:26

O'Connell, Shane Steikin,

29:29

Mike McDaniel,

29:33

McVeigh. I mean brock perty Is

29:35

largely was a backup, has now become

29:37

an MVP. You think that's gonna happen with a defensive

29:40

coach. Trubisky got to the playoffs

29:42

twice. You watch him in the defensive coach

29:44

culture of Pittsburgh. He looks

29:47

like, look at how good this is? Insane.

29:49

The greatest example of this is

29:51

Tommy DeVito's first start. I sat

29:54

there on my couch watching it, and I thought, he's

29:57

not an NFL player. I'm not sure he's a good college

29:59

player. I watched the second start, I'm

30:01

like, he's kind of mobile.

30:04

His third start, I'm like, well, you can win

30:06

games with Tommy DeVito.

30:10

Tommy DeVito, I think he got benched

30:12

in Syracuse. That does not happen.

30:15

So as defensive players have gotten bigger, stronger,

30:17

and faster, offensive linees worse. You

30:20

cannot solve a quarterback injury

30:23

with a defensive coach. The proof is throughout

30:25

the league, top to bottom.

30:27

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd

30:29

weekdays and noon Easter not a em Pacific.

30:32

He's worked at NFL Films for forty

30:34

four years. If you like fantasy football,

30:36

betting on football, just want to get smarter in football.

30:38

We call it our NFL meat Sandwich fifteen

30:41

minutes of smart football. Greg Cassel

30:43

is joining us, So we said this

30:45

last week it was about as good

30:47

a loss as you can

30:49

have. When the Rams lost to the

30:51

Ravens and I watched Seattle

30:54

in Detroit, NFC teams go into that

30:56

early window and get destroyed

30:58

by Baltimore. And I felt the

31:00

Rams were the better team for most of

31:02

the game. And that's what I

31:04

thought. And I thought Stafford was

31:06

at times sensational.

31:09

What did the film say?

31:11

Yeah, I like watching Stafford, Colin,

31:14

I'm sure you do as well. The

31:16

Rams are a fun offense to watch because they do a couple

31:19

of things that are really difficult to defend

31:22

and really help Stafford obviously, and

31:24

that's reduced splits with their wide

31:26

receivers much closer to the formation. And

31:29

they use a ton of motion, both

31:32

same side motion and across the formation.

31:35

I mean, they have the second most snaps of motion

31:37

in the past game of any team

31:39

in the NFL, behind the Dolphins.

31:42

And you know what they do a lot is they change

31:44

the defense the strength of the offense.

31:46

They'll go from two by two to receivers

31:49

on each side to three by one, and

31:53

when they do that, the defense has to react.

31:55

If it's same side motion, then

31:57

it changes the numbers. Whose receiver numbers

32:00

one, who's receiver number two, who's receiver

32:02

number three? All this presents

32:04

communication issues for a defense and

32:07

that's what they're counting on, and that's why you

32:09

get I mean, Nikoua had I think

32:11

a thirty plus yard completion last

32:13

week where he was wide open on a crosser

32:15

and it was just with a little shift, a little

32:18

motion, and you could see that the Ravens

32:20

were confused.

32:21

I gotta tell you, these offensive

32:23

coaches deserve credit when they can take

32:25

up backup somebody on the

32:27

couch like Joe Flacco

32:30

and Cleveland Kevin Stefanski, and he is

32:32

highly effective. He made some

32:34

throws the last two weeks and I'm

32:36

like, I just shocked

32:39

how effective he is. What Stefanski

32:41

and Flacco, what are they doing.

32:44

Well? Flacco is a professional quarterback

32:46

who knows exactly what he's looking at.

32:49

And you know, and that's a really critical thing. I mean,

32:51

obviously playing quarterback, you know, he's the

32:53

kind of guy. I'm sure when he's eighty years old, Colin, he could

32:55

probably roll off the couch and throw a football. But

33:00

you know, now you're giving yourself a

33:03

three dimensional passing game because

33:05

he can attack vertically, he can get the ball down

33:07

the field. He sees safety rotation

33:10

instantly, he sees how

33:12

the defense responds, and he knows where

33:14

to go with the football. I mean, so much

33:16

of playing quarterback we get caught up, and we all

33:18

do. We get caught up in arm strength

33:21

and the trades. But so much is understanding

33:24

where to go with the football within

33:26

the timing and structure of the offense. And

33:29

Flacco knows that he's not going

33:31

to be surprised by anything that he

33:33

sees. And that's so critical

33:35

because sometimes a seven yard play is

33:37

a great play and you just take the seven

33:39

yards and you move on.

33:41

So Miami really struggled with Tennessee

33:44

and they should have won the game. But

33:47

again it's a physical team

33:49

giving Miami problems.

33:52

Is that what the tape is saying is

33:54

they're more finesse team and physicality

33:56

disrupts their offense.

33:59

Well, I thought that Shane Bowen, their decoordinator,

34:01

did a masterful job of playing Miami

34:04

tactically exactly how you have to play

34:06

them. When you play Miami, you actually

34:08

start on the back end, not the front

34:10

end, because what you need to do is

34:12

you need to create doubt Intua so

34:14

that when he hits his back foot, he doesn't

34:17

have that first window throw between

34:19

the numbers. That is absolutely critical.

34:21

So you start on the back end with

34:23

a lot of late rotation, a lot of

34:25

creative looks. After the ball is snap

34:28

and you prevent to it from hitting his back

34:30

foot and delivering the football, then

34:33

your pass rush becomes a factor, and

34:35

it has to be a four man pass rush. So

34:37

they approached it exactly the right

34:39

way and they execute it at a really high

34:42

level. And for those watching the game,

34:44

they probably saw that too. It did not have a

34:46

lot of those timing rhythm throws that

34:48

were used to seeing when they're playing well

34:50

because they took them away on the back

34:53

end. So you remember, Colin, those quick

34:55

drops. Pass rushers are going to get there

34:57

if that works. So that's why you start

34:59

on the back when you play the Dolphins,

35:01

not with your pass rush.

35:02

All right, let's get to the good teams here, brock pretty

35:07

you know it's I saw a stat this

35:09

week. San Francisco

35:11

throws the ball fewer

35:13

times than anybody in the league, but his third

35:16

and total passing yards, Well, that tell

35:18

that screams efficiency. That

35:20

screams That's what it screams

35:22

to me. So sometimes Perty makes throws

35:24

and I'm like, man, those guys are wide

35:27

open. Well he didn't make them wide

35:29

open. Sometimes you can throw a guy by open. So

35:31

are you impressed with his performance against

35:33

Seattle or are you impressed with the scheme and the coaching

35:35

of it?

35:38

Well, I think all those things go together.

35:40

I mean, we've seen a lot of talking this week about

35:42

oh, well, he's got good players. You know,

35:44

that is such a ridiculous argument. If you want

35:46

to take that argument, then I guess we should pull out all

35:48

these quarterbacks from the Hall of Fame. I mean, that's

35:51

a ridiculous coach

35:53

or rather have good players than not. But

35:56

their offense is so well schemed,

35:58

their use of motion, the way they

36:00

create adjustments for the defense

36:03

or shrink the defensive menu

36:05

because of all the motion, because defenses

36:07

don't want to get caught trying to communicate

36:10

and over communicate, and then they know exactly

36:12

what they're getting based on the motion

36:15

and the use of personnel and formation, and

36:17

that creates defined throws

36:20

for the quarterback. And as we've discussed

36:22

over the last month or so, Purdy's

36:25

natural sense of anticipation is

36:27

really really high level and

36:29

his ability to recognize

36:32

coverage. I mean that fIF four

36:34

yard touchdown he threw to Samuel Samuel

36:36

was not the primary receiver. Jennings

36:38

was the primary receiver, and he just happened

36:41

to see as he took the snap

36:43

and took his first step, he happened to see Jamal

36:45

Adams flat footed, and he said, you know what,

36:48

I'm going to have Samuel over the top

36:50

because Adams is not going to be in

36:52

position to turn and run. These are

36:54

the kinds of things he does at a really, really

36:56

high level.

36:58

Let's do a deep dive on Philadelphi and

37:00

their problems. I think I downplayed

37:02

them defensively. They're not very good. But let's

37:04

concentrate on Jalen Hurts and the offense.

37:07

They lost Shane Steichen. They have excellent

37:09

receivers, good tight ends, a good old line,

37:11

but it's not the same. I couldn't say the last game.

37:13

I watched their offense and they put four good quarters

37:15

together. It is choppy, it's

37:18

inconsistent. What does the film say

37:20

about Jalen and this offense.

37:23

Well, first of all, they use motion the least

37:25

of any team in the league, and I think today's

37:28

NFL you have to use motion to some extent.

37:31

They're in the gun, and they're not the only team like

37:33

this, Colin, but they're in the gun on almost every

37:36

single snap, and it is much harder

37:38

to marry your run game and your pass game

37:40

out of the gun. They've

37:43

lived last year really well on

37:45

a couple of things. Number One, Hurts

37:47

as a runner, as a design runner,

37:49

that was always the starting foundation and

37:52

the great equalizer. Defenses

37:54

are not responding this year the same

37:56

way they responded a year ago. They had an offseason

37:59

to study this. You cannot build

38:01

your offense around Hurts's legs. You

38:03

must find more schematic ways to maximize

38:06

the overall talent on the offensive side

38:08

of the ball. So they

38:10

need to figure that out. But

38:13

the other thing we saw last year which is not happening

38:16

this year because they're not easy throws. How

38:18

many times last year did we see Hurts

38:20

throw beautiful deep balls outside

38:22

the numbers? Okay, it seemed like every single

38:25

week he had two or three of those that were just

38:27

really really pretty well. This year, those

38:29

are not happening. Those are not routine easy

38:31

throws. So they've

38:34

got to figure some things out about how they want to

38:36

play offense. But I would really love

38:38

to see them use some more emotion. I think DeVonta

38:40

Smith would be a great motion receiver.

38:42

Is Are there defensive issues in

38:44

Philadelphia simply personnel

38:47

based or is it scheme? What's the film

38:49

say?

38:50

It's probably a combination. But look,

38:53

if I told you before this season, coming off

38:55

a year in which they led the NFL in sacks and

38:58

had the most third down sacks in

39:00

the league by far, if I told

39:02

you going into this season that they would not

39:04

be able to rush the quarterback, you would

39:06

have probably thought I was crazy. They have not

39:09

been able to rush the quarterback. They've

39:11

got the fewest third down sacks of any

39:13

team in the NFL, and that is

39:15

why their third down defense is the worst

39:17

in the NFL the absolute.

39:20

This is not a profound statement, but it's a true statement.

39:22

They have the worst combination you could

39:24

have on defense right now. They can't rush

39:26

the quarterback and they don't cover very well

39:29

because they're having issues in the secondary. We'll

39:31

see if they make changes. I mean, the last

39:33

two weeks have been difficult and as

39:35

they head down the stretch, yes, the schedule

39:37

is favorable, but this team is not

39:40

worried about beating the Giants or the Cardinals.

39:42

This team is worried about getting back to the super Bowl.

39:44

So it's very possible we could

39:46

be some changes in personnel and

39:48

in how they approach playing defense.

39:51

I want to focus on Josh Allen

39:53

and the Cowboy defense because they play this

39:55

week, and my feeling is Dallas

39:57

has feeling themselves a little now. It's Buffalo.

40:00

Buffalo's in an urgent setting. They have

40:02

to win these games, a real fight on their hands, and

40:05

there's an opening now because Miami gagged against

40:07

Tennessee. So I think Buffalo could seize this right.

40:10

And how Josh

40:12

Allen about against the Cowboys

40:15

defenses. I think if they

40:17

can create mistakes by Josh, Dallas

40:19

wins because Dak's not making a lot of mistakes and we've

40:21

talked about him at nauseum. But Josh

40:23

against the Cowboys defense, what do

40:26

you project happens.

40:28

Yeah, well, normally the Cowboys are a heavy

40:31

man to man defense, and so you have to

40:33

whip out your man beater concepts if

40:35

you're the Bills. But the flip side

40:37

of that for the Cowboys is you

40:39

have to have eyes on Josh Allen. You've got to account

40:42

for him. So the question is will

40:44

they play less man or will they still

40:46

play man and spy him because

40:48

somewhere along the line, you need eyes on Josh

40:51

Allen. But the Cowboys are a high

40:53

percentage. I believe they played the highest percentage

40:55

of man coverage in the National Football League.

40:58

That's their bread and butter, and they played

41:00

on third down. It'll be interesting

41:03

with how the Bills go about it because Iran

41:05

Bland is a beatable corner and

41:07

you've got to go after him. So that's

41:11

we know that the Bills have run

41:13

the ball better, but at their core, it's

41:15

a Josh Allen based outfense, and Josh

41:17

Allen's going to have to play well and they're

41:19

going to have to help him with their approach and their

41:21

schematics.

41:22

You know, it's funny every time I watch the Ravens,

41:24

I swear to God, every big game has been at home

41:27

this year, and it

41:29

just feels like, you know, every time they're playing a Seahawks,

41:31

the Lion's a ram. It's at home, and they're gonna

41:33

have some tough road games coming up. But

41:35

I really do I've

41:39

said this before, is most

41:41

great quarterbacks there's a juice, there's an

41:43

it that it's hard to describe. And

41:45

I think that Lamar was such a firework

41:48

show initially that we've never given him

41:50

credit for the improvement in the pocket. Now.

41:52

He may not be Stafford

41:55

or whatever, but there are times he said to

41:57

the pocket this past week against the Rams,

41:59

one time he rolled the left and he had

42:01

ability to run and he didn't. And

42:03

he sat there and he looked and he looked, and

42:05

I thought, that's growth because he had some space.

42:08

And he's always going to beat the linebacker one on one

42:10

right most of the time. So sure,

42:12

So I think I think he flies a little

42:15

under the radar because he was so dynamic

42:17

early that we don't give him credit

42:19

for some of the passing stuff. And I do

42:22

see a more patient quarterback.

42:24

But does a film say that.

42:26

You know, it's funny because I think he's had a very good year,

42:29

and I would say based on the film from this

42:31

week, this was not one of his better games.

42:34

But he made a couple of key throws. But this

42:36

week he missed some throws that

42:38

you have to make. He was his ball placement

42:40

wasn't quite as good even when the receivers

42:42

were open. I mean, he threw a touchdown to Odell

42:45

Beckham, which was a bad throw, and

42:47

it just happened. Beckham was so

42:49

wide open on the slugo the slang go concept

42:52

that he was able to adjust and catch it. But

42:54

for the most part, this was truly

42:56

not one of his better games. Here's the touchdown

42:58

of Beckham, but it was just not

43:01

one of his better games. But he

43:03

made some good throws when he had to. And

43:05

I think he's trying to be more

43:07

patient in the pocket just because

43:09

the system I think is better

43:11

from a passing element.

43:14

But I have to tell you when you get

43:16

into specific situations two minutes end

43:19

of games and of first half, red zone,

43:21

certain specific situations, he

43:24

is difficult to defend because of

43:26

the legs. I mean, you have to account

43:28

for that, and it's hard.

43:30

Let's go to the big play of the week against the Rams and

43:32

what was a wildly entertaining game.

43:35

It sure was, and the big play was

43:37

that touchdown late that actually put them ahead.

43:39

The Rams came back, of course to tie it. But

43:41

let's go to that play right now. This was a touchdown

43:43

to his a Flowers and I love the

43:46

whole concept of this play, the schematics

43:48

of this play. That's what always interests me, the schematics

43:51

of plays. And they had gotten a lot

43:53

of too high coverage from the Rams,

43:55

that's what they do, and they knew how to attack

43:57

it. So here's Lamar. He's going to be

43:59

in gun here and you're going to see what we call four

44:02

by one set becoming very common

44:04

in the league now. Four receivers to one

44:07

side. Okay, that's very difficult to

44:09

deal with in zone coverage. And here

44:11

you see the two high safety coverage.

44:13

It's essentially going to be what we call quarters.

44:16

And the two receivers you want to look at are

44:18

agal Are inside and then Flowers

44:21

just next to him, and they're both

44:23

going to run kind of crossers, are overs,

44:25

okay. And because of the coverage and because

44:27

of the four by one set, both

44:30

these routes are going to be run by

44:32

wide receivers versus safeties,

44:34

and you'll take that every day of the

44:36

week. So here you have Agalar he's

44:38

going to attack that safety, okay,

44:41

So he's going to remove that safety. So

44:43

now what do you get. You get Flowers

44:45

working against Fuller, good player,

44:47

but you'll take a wide receiver on a safety

44:50

every snap of the ball. So now

44:52

you get him running away from him, you get

44:54

Lamar seeing it, and you get a good

44:56

throw. This was one of his better throws of the game

44:59

and you get the late So this

45:01

is really well schemed based on what they had

45:03

gotten all game. Todd Monkin and his staff

45:05

had seen it. Lamar knew what he had

45:07

and this was a really good throw.

45:09

A moved left set up made a good

45:11

throw moving to his left. Greg is

45:13

always great stuff. Appreciate it.

45:16

Thanks Colin, Appreciate it.