OverDrive - Edwards on Parsons' conundrum with the Cowboys, Robinson landing with the 49ers and Manning leading Texas

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

ESPN NFL Analyst and Former NFL Head Coach Herm Edwards joined OverDrive to discuss the top ranked quarterbacks entering the season, the Lions looking to get back to the top, Micah Parsons' next steps, Brian Robinson Jr.'s deal with the 49ers, Shedeur Sanders' level with the Browns, Arch Manning's intangibles with Texas and more.

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Alpine Credits, where homeowners get approved. Fistral License 12-6-16-1-6 Now that's an intro song. That is an intro song. Top of the list. Jim Taddy, Dave Fescheck from the Toronto Star and Studio, strutty in his man cave. Overdrive is brought you by Fandul,

bringing you everything from the opening line. to the final score. Football tonight, Edmonton and Ottawa, 1, TSN 1 and 5, 7 o'clock pregame, NFL preseason, Minnesota, Tennessee, TSN 2 at 8 o'clock, and let's dive into some football now. Herm Edwards is here,

former NFL head coach, NFL analyst. Herm, welcome. How are you? I am well, like everyone else, trying to evaluate these teams. A lot of young quarterbacks have come into the league, and I think it's good in this sense. that a lot of them played well. Now, some of them might not start, you know,

according to where they're at and, you know, what the coach thinks. But when the quarterback play is good, obviously, it's better football to watch. And I think there's a slate of them now. These young ones have come in, either they're a rookie this year or they're a first-year player that really played well. So that's going to kind of be fun to watch as a season goes on. Yeah, I totally agree. And the learning curve is a lot fast.

I mean, there was a time where you had the clipboard for a number of years in the sideline. These guys jump right in, don't they? Yeah, they do. And, you know, a lot of these offenses are mirrored from college to pro football. You know, it used to be you ran a certain offense in college and you ran this kind of offense in the NFL. But now these quarterbacks are running the same offenses that they run in college. They're running in pro football, too. And the one that really kind of popped out for me was when I watched Chicago play.

And Caleb Williams, all of a sudden, Ben Johnson, coached from Detroit division where he was the coordinator and he goes to Chicago. And all of a sudden, Caleb Williams looked like a different guy. I was like, hmm, that's interesting, you know, didn't surprise me. But just things like that, you know, when you watch it, you go, well, okay, that's Caleb Williams. Because I remember him in college. You know, we played against when I was in Arizona. state and because I had jade daniels and he has as much talent as jaden does it's just last year he was all over the map you know but now all of a sudden he's in an offense with a coach that's coached

the quarterback well and he's he's going to play well for him this year hey herm you mentioned ben jonson the offensive coordinator from the lions who who's off to chicago as the head coach uh the host here who you're just speaking to mr tattie's a big lion's fan and he's got he's got a big big concern that a team that is gutted of its assistant coaches and its two main coordinators is going to have a real step-back year. I mean, in your experience, I mean, how is this going to affect the Lions and can they overcome it? Well, I think they've got a good football team.

They do. Now, it was a head scratcher in the playoffs, right? When you're at home and you play a rookie quarterback and they come in there and it kind of like, oh, boy, it didn't end well. Right, so they had to deal with that all year, but I think that they'll be okay. You know, Aaron went to the Jets. Aaron at Glenn played for me when I was at the Jets, and, you know, Ben went to Chicago. But I think, look, I think the division is better.

I think Minnesota will be better this year. You know, Green Bay is Green Bay. They always seem to play well. So, and Chicago's going to be better, you know, but I think Detroit is still a good football team. They still got good players. To say there's a trade made by San Francisco to bring in Robertson. So how does that how does he fit in beside McCarthy

and McCaffrey, I should say, how do they all fit together and get touches? Yeah, that's going to you know, that's the deal. How do you get them touches? And it's, you know, on paper it looks good. But when the game starts, obviously, how do you get them all rotated in there?

In San Francisco, you know, their deal is they're beat up. I mean, wow. They've got a lot of guys hurt, especially at the receiver position, right? And so, you know, they've got to get through that, but they've had a string of injuries where it's really, really, really hurt them. And so now the good thing for them, when you look at the schedule, to schedule ways in their favor, not a really tough schedule. It's okay. They can manage it, but still losing key players, especially on that side of the ball, for instance of some of these receivers,

that's going to hurt him a little bit. Herm, talk us through the Cowboys. I mean, Jerry Jones will, it doesn't, it hasn't matter of a microphone he doesn't like, and Micah Parsons, how does this work out? No, it's the Cowboys. Jerry is like the Barman Bailey, you know,

the circus, right? He always seems to keep the Cowboys on the top of everyone's list. You know, there's something in Dallas. We know, we know it's the Cowboys. And, you know, it's funny because Jerry knows, and I don't know who Michael Parsons' age it is, but, you know, you never know who's saying what. But, like, if he doesn't have that guy on defense, it's going to be a long year for Dallas Cowboys. I mean, he is. He's a game record.

I mean, you've got to – every play offensively, you've got to figure out how we're blocking the guy and where is he at, right? And, you know, they open up in Philly on Thursday. and it's always a cowboy. They open up the season in Philly on Thursday. And your best player is going to be standing on the sideline or watching it. So I think it gets done. It'll get done before. I would be baffling if it doesn't get done, right, before the season starts.

Yeah, I'm with you, Herm. Circling back to you, you talk about the lions and the thud of a season-ending loss that they had to the commanders and, And, of course, that rookie quarterback you alluded to, Jaden Daniels. I know you know him well, going back to Arizona State. I mean, what do you make of his sort of chances of progressing and moving forward in this league and becoming one of the elites that we talk about in the company of the best?

Yeah, well, that's his mindset. It was his mindset when I started him as a freshman at Arizona State, right? I mean, he was that kind of kid. You know, he jumped out on you. And I can remember in a meeting one day, we were watching practice. I'm standing over there watching, and I walked up to the coordinator. And we had a junior quarterback and had a senior quarterback and whatever. And I walked up to the coach.

I said, coach. You know, they're the little one that the Jay and Daniels. I said, yeah, because he's going to be the starter. He said, what? He's not a freshman. I thought, I don't care. Just put him in a game. He's betting everybody else.

You know, sometimes he's got to listen to your eyes. I thought I used to tell coaches all the time, hey, don't get caught up on the name or the number on the back of the Jersey with guys go to practice. Just listen to your eyes. What do your eyes tell you? And your eyes tell you, hey, that guy's really good. Well, then go play him. But I think he'll get it.

He'll improve, you know, Cliff Kingsbury is kind of interesting. Cliff was in Arizona when I was at Arizona State. So he watched him in college. He watched Jane play every week. And Cliff Kingsbury actually played for me when I was with the Jets. So I know Cliff pretty well. So he had already watched him in college, so it was an easy fit when he went to Washington

as the offensive coordinator to build the offense around Jaden. Herm, I'm a Giants fan, and I hate to say it's like, man, he's a good quarterback. I love watching him play, and we don't quite have that with New York just yet. Flip it over to another young quarterback who didn't get to play last year in Minnesota with J.J. McCarthy, you know, what can he and his teammates, and specifically, I guess, Jefferson, expect from a guy who, you know, missed a whole year last year?

Well, I think he's going to play well. I do. And, you know, the quarterback is kind of funny. I know all these guys. The head coach there was the quarterback at San Diego State, and he played with my son. Okay. So, I mean, he's going to be fine. That quarterback.

But wait a minute now, you said you're a Giants fan? I am a Giants fan. Let me tell you something. That quarterback you got in New York? Oh, boy. I'll tell you what. Here's what I can predict what might happen with the Giants. When you look at their schedule, that schedule is brutal.

The first two games, you know, the first four games are against all playoff teams, right? And the first two are away. I want to say it's who do they play, they play Dallas or somebody. But so if they start off slow, if they start off like one and three, Oh, Jason Dark's going in the game. He's going to play. They got a quarterback. That dark fellow?

Oh, boy, I like him now. You know who he reminds you of? He reminds me of this. And I said this, well, I was on television yesterday with the worldwide leader, that he reminds Davele of Josh Allen. Oh, boy. He can run. He's got a big time.

arm. He's just not as tall as Josh Allen. He's 2.13 pounds. He's about 6.3. Josh Allen's 6.5. But the same manner is how he plays when you watch him play. That's the first thing that jumped out of me after this dude runs around like Josh Allen. No regard for his body. He just kind of runs around and throws a hot pass and it's like, this guy's really good. So, you know, Russell Wilson's there. I get it. He's going to, you know, get him into the season. But if this thing kind of turns bad. And I know it. I had to do that when I had Vinnie Chesterbirdie and

Chad Pennington, you know. Kitty was the starter. He was the old veteran, get us to, and all of a sudden, we sat there at two and five. I made the change, and we ended up winning the division. Well, since you brought up Josh Allen, what do you think of the bills this year?

Oh, man, I love the bills. I love Josh Allen. But they all got the same problem. Right. Josh Allen, you know, now Aaron Rogers is over there with Pittsburgh, right? You got Joe Burrow, right? You got Lamar Jackson. All of those guys in the AFC, I say it every week. I said, hey, it ain't going to matter.

The regular season, when you get in the playoffs, can you beat Patrick Bones? And if you can't beat Patrick Bones, it's over. You're done. See, Patrick Hohenzo is on that run like Captain America was. Tom Brady. that's who I call Captain America Comprehend. And for years, if you're on the AFC side of it,

if you couldn't be Captain America and the Patriots, you weren't going. Now it's Patrick Mahones. Yeah, for sure. For sure, Hermon. You talk about young quarterbacks at the top of your segment and probably the guy that's getting the most

attention to anybody in the 2025 draft class was the guy picked in the fifth round. Shador Sanders. Obviously, Cleveland has got a very tumultuous history of the quarterbacks that goes back many, many years. But how do you think it's going to go for Shadour with the Browns this season? Well, all of a sudden, in that division, you got two quarterbacks that are 40 years old, right? Aaron Rogers, right? And the starter for Cleveland right now is a 40-year-old quarterback.

Shador is sitting there, but also Gabriel is sitting there. And I was asked like two days ago, coach, who do you like? I said, I like Shador. I've known Shador since he was a little kid. And I said, I like when he went in the game. But I said, when I saw Gabriel play, I went, whoa. You know who Gabriel is for those guys? I'm telling you who he is.

And I played against him when I was in the league, Brian Seip. He plays like Brian Seipp. except he's left-handed. Got the same height, the same mannerisms. I mean, you know, Brian's, I could run around a little bit, but he wasn't a runner, but he was very accurate, played in the pocket, kept the offense on schedule. And I watched him in that preseason game, and I was like, whoa. He made some throws where you just go, man, okay, now I see.

So it'll be interested in Cleveland, right, what they do, and how the season starts with them, too, because, if they falter a little bit, they'll have to get one of those young guys in. What do you look at with the Joe Burrow and his club, the Bengals? Have they done enough to get into the postseason with some of that talent they have? Well, they got talent on offense. They could score 30, but the problem was the defense could stop anybody, right? Right.

And I think what they've done, they've done some things defensively to try to get better. But, yeah, Joe Burroughs is another one. You know, what are you going to say? If you got him, you know, you sleep good on Saturday night when you're the coach because you've got a quarterback. But he's fabulous. And I think their offense is big time. They can throw it.

They can run it. Defensively, can they hold up? That's going to be the key, you know. Can it not be a shootout every time he has to play? If you have to score 30 every week, that's very, that's too hard. So, Herm, I mean, Eric Dickerson claimed that the NFL told teams not to draft Sanders. What's that all about? I don't understand that story.

Well, you know what? I don't know that. I think this is what happened. Okay. Because of the fact that, you know, he's kind of, all right, I shouldn't say flamboyant, but when you look at him, you know, how he presents himself, right? Nothing wrong with it. If you're a receiver, if you're a running back, if you're a defensive back,

everybody says, ah. But when you're the quarterback, it's like, eh. What are we doing here, right? And that had something to do with it. Trust me. It had something to do with it. But now, you know, he is where he's at. And he's going to be a good player.

But he's in a spot where, as I said, I thought, like, when they got him, I went, okay. And I didn't know a lot about Gabriel. I watched him a little bit. But when I watched him in the preseason, I went, man, that guy's good. And I said this. I said this yesterday. When I was on television, I said, look, if I had to play Gabriel or Sanders right now, I might go to Gabriel, the way he played.

Right. The way he throws the ball. I mean, the one thing about him, you know, this thing, the thing about offenses is this. When you're the offensive coordinator, you want the train to be on schedule. You want the quarterback to play within the framework of the schedule of the offense. And when you do that, you know, you could call plays. and you know him, we're going to stay on schedule, he'll keep us on schedule. When you have a quarterback that all of a sudden he's never on schedule,

then it just throws your offense out of whack, right? You make the big plays, but they're in a lot of third nates and third tens because you mess around and you don't keep it on schedule because you don't complete balls. So that's the other way of looking at it as well. Hey, I'm speaking to quarterbacks with famous family names. A lot of attention on Arch Manning down at the University of Texas. And now there's all this talk about, hey, he might not come out after one year this year.

His grandfather apparently has been quoted in a Texas magazine saying he's going to stay at Texas for beyond this season. Now with the NIL money, apparently he's a very well-paid young athlete playing college sports. What do you make of this and what can we expect? Boy, you guys call me the right week because you know where my girls go to school? Austin? Texas. Right. Texas. I got two of them at the University of Texas.

Wow. And they both work for the football team. I was just at practice three days ago. Nice. I was talking to him three days ago on the field when he was practicing. How do you look? I'll tell you what. Oh, boy, he's really good.

He's like his grandfather, Archie. He can run. You know, he's just like, he's just like, I mean, it's unbelievable. And Archie played for the Saints all those years. He got beat up, but was a really good quarterback, but he's big, he's strong, very accurate, a lot of poise. He has a presence about himself, too.

He has a really good presence about himself when you're watching. But he's going to be fun to watch now. And you're right, the NLI money. You can stay in college. You know, you don't have to leave. You're getting paid. I mean, what am I leaving? I'm enjoying this, you know.

I mean, pro football. I'll get to. But whenever he's the size of, ago, you take him. You don't even blink. You just pick him and say, let's go. Guaranteed, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's really, I know he's really good. I mean, he is really good. Really good. Herm, thanks very much. Enjoy your weekend. My pleasure, man. Thank you. Thank you. Herm, Edwards, ESPN NFL analyst and former NFL head coach. Some interesting stuff there. A lot of topics. A lot of quarterback talk. Jackson Dart? Like, John.

Ross Allen? Like, are you kidding me? I almost left guys and run right out to the bar. Like, that's incredible. Like, if he's even close to that guy. Quarterback's a big issue, right? But, I mean, Herm, obviously, is into the quarterbacks. And because my plan's been to tank, if I'm going to get Arch Manning, right?

He gets the second coming. But he can run. Eli couldn't run. Well, explore that as we move along. Got some baseball talk at the top of the hour. Overdrive live on YouTube, TSN 2, TSN-1050. Now for TSN-1050 Time Saver traffic. Quite jammed on the 4-10 in Brampton.

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