The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Aaron Rodgers, Browns, Baker Mayfield, and the Cowboys

Episode Date: August 8, 2018

Colin explains how Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is becoming a better leader, his thoughts on the Cleveland Browns on Hard Knocks, what he didn't like seeing about QB Baker Mayfield, and his thoughts on the Dallas Cowboys imperfections. Guests include Nick Wright, DeAngelo Hall, Chad Pennington, and Joel Klatt. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. This is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We are live in Los Angeles. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. The herd brought to you by Firestone Complete AutoCare. Keep your car running newer, longer. Joy Taylor is joining me. We've got Joel Clatt, Chad Pennington.

We've got DeAngelo Hall today. We've got Nick Wright joining us in about 25 minutes. Joy, it's great to have you in today. Thanks. Good morning, Colin. Good morning, everybody. I don't know how to quantify leadership. What's leadership?

Everybody said Derek Jeter had it. Arod didn't. Everybody says Magic had it. Not sure of COVID. we did. What is great leadership? I don't know. But I do know what it's not. Yeah, I don't know the healthiest foods in the world, but I know ice cream's not one of them, although I love ice cream. Aaron Rogers, is he a great leader? Well, I don't know, but I'll tell you this. I used to bang on him for being passive, aggressive. He's now aggressive. Yeah, he came out. Do you hear him yesterday talking about

young wide receivers. I like this, Aaron Rogers. One of the worst card decisions we've had. I don't know how you can make it any simpler. You literally have what the play would be in our terminology on the card. And the effort level is very low, especially what I'm accustomed to. Yeah, he didn't like him. He said they were terrible. He said at one point, he called it piss poor.

I like that Aaron Rogers. Again, I don't know what leadership is, but I know what it's not. I know it's not fake. Let me give you an example of a young quarterback who thinks this is leadership, and I'm here to tell you this is not leadership from Andrew Luck, a kid I like. I've said this before and probably after a very good. I don't think the sacks are necessarily indicative of how well our offensive line plans. A lot of those, you know, you could probably blame me for holding the ball too long.

I feel like I miss some opportunities to help put the, you know, the game away. The interception, good play by the DB, bad ball by me. Yeah, it was a bad read. I threw it late, bad throw, and they make you pay for those in the NFL. I'm disappointed myself for being a part of a slow start. I know that's not leadership, because nobody in the room bought that. Andrew Luck was drafted. The following two drafts, none of those players remain with the Colts. 30% of them are out of the league. One was an outright bust. Actually, probably four were outright busts. Even the first and second round picks, awful. I don't know what leadership is, but I know what it's not.

I've had a lot of bosses, inauthentic, always taking the blame. This one's on me. I don't buy it. I love that Aaron Rogers comes out and ripped his young receivers. I love it. By the way, if LeBron did that, would we have a problem? If Greg Popovich came out and ripped the player, will we have a problem? If Steve Kerr came out and ripped somebody, will we have a problem?

If Bill Belichick came out, Sean Payton came out and ripped the player, would we have a problem? Then why would I have a problem with the best player, arguably, some would say, no argument in the NFL coming out and ripping young teammates. I loved it. You know, there's a bumper sticker. You ever seen those bumper stickers? You're driving around joy. And the bumper sticker is, mean people suck. And you know the bumper sticker I'd put right next to it?

arrogance isn't uh don't don't confuse standards and arrogance okay standards isn't arrogance they're standards a lot of times we think old people they're just cranky this airline and this food no as people get older they have seen efficiency so when they deal with inefficiency it drives them crazy one of the things about doing this business now for 20 plus years? Like I've seen really good and I've seen really average and I'm not going to stand for really average anymore and nor should you. Old people aren't just cranky to be cranky, though some probably are, but they've lived a life of seeing efficiency and inefficiency and they don't want to do inefficiency anymore. They've been in a good airline. They've stayed at a good hotel. They've been in a good restaurant with good service.

or they work with good young receivers who are committed, talented, listen, and are coachable. And so when they're not, Andrew Luck going out and saying, it's on me, I don't know what great leadership is, but I know what it's not. Always taking the blame, never being demanding, love the new hyper-aggressive Aaron Rogers over the formerly passive, aggressive Aaron Rogers. Let me shift to the Dallas Cowboys. You ever go to a hotel and hotels got those circular mirrors in the bathroom? They're called like vanity mirrors, otherwise known as confidence killers.

And you go look in that vanity mirror and it magnifies every blemish, right? So you can have a slight imperfection on your skin and it looks like a civil war scar. And you walk around all day thinking, are people looking at that? No, it was a slight skin imperfection. But when you put a microscope on anything, and that's what those bathroom mirrors at a hotel are, they're like microscopes. It makes even a slight imperfection look like a major flaw. I read this morning another article telling me the Dallas Cowboys are doomed.

Cole Beasley, it says, Cowboys receivers will shock people because they're the assumption is they're just awful. No, no. Dallas is in the vanity mirror of the NFL. If I looked at the Cowboys and gave them a report card as a team, offensive line, which to me is the most important unit in the NFL, A plus. Defensive line, they found some good pass rushers, B plus. Running games matter, A plus.

Quarterback head coach, good solid B. Linebackers, when Sean Lee is healthy, a very, very nice group. and they drafted a young kid who I think could be a star. We just see on Sunday night the cowboy game all by itself. On Monday night football by itself, we see the cowboy game. On Thursday night football, do you know why it is? Because every network, CBS, Monday night football, ESPN, Fox Thursday, NBC Sunday night, they won't put the cowboys on.

And they often play as the only game left on television. Thursday by themselves, Monday night, by themselves, Sunday night, by themselves. That Fox game or that late CBS game, there's usually only one other game being televised in America. Take the Jacksonville Jaguars. Everybody loves the Jacksonville Jaguars. But that isn't a vanity mirror.

That's the regular mirror where everybody in the right lighting when you dim the lights a little bit, you go to a hotel bathroom, you dim the lights in the big mirror, everybody looks like a supermodel. You only watched the Jags play twice last year, both times against the Steelers. So you're like, man, Jacksonville, they are unbelievable. Did you watch them play twice against the Titans when they were 0 and 2 and once got beat 37 to 16? And in two games against the Titans, threw for a total of 350 yards?

Did you watch them get beaten by the awful New York Jets? the mediocre Arizona Cardinals, the 6 and 10-49ers. You didn't see those Jags games. You don't watch the AFC South last year because Deshawn Watson got hurt. And six of the eight quarters, the Jags faced the Texans. Deshaun Watson didn't play. Tom Savage did. And Andrew Luck got hurt so you didn't watch it.

So they went 4-0 against the Colts and the Texans. And they're going to go arguably, in my opinion, 0-and-4 against them this year. Okay. Dallas won one less game last year than Jacksonville. Better division. Better conference. When Dallas lost, it was often to quarterbacks who played at a pro bowl level. Jared Goff, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz. Marcus Marioada, shredded.

The Jags, Josh McCown beat them. Whoever was quarterbacking for Arizona beat them. The Cowboys had one ugly loss all season. Week two, high altitude, went to Denver and vomited for three hours. It was bad. And then they didn't have another one. Cowboys were also missing Zeke, their star running back for multiple games. Tyrod Smith, the best left tackling football.

And linebacker Sean Lee. really the glue to their defense. Okay, don't go to a hotel and look at that vanity mirror and think that's giving you an honest perception of yourself. Your skin is mostly fine. Your eyebrows look good. You're an attractive person, except in the vanity mirror. Okay, that's the Cowboys. If I have to see another cowboy article, how it's gloom and doom, it's a good football team.

Last two years with a baby quarterback, they've won 22 games. Only the Steelers and Patriots have won more. And you're in love with the Jags, who in a division where Andrew Luck and Deshawn Watson got hurt, had a nice 10-win season. One more W than the Dallas Cowboys in the better NFC East and in the significantly deeper NFC. Coming up next, oh joy.

Hard knocks was on last night. Sure was. We look back at the three moments of hard knocks where I kind of feel I saw something. The good, the bad, and the ugly. That's coming up next. Oh, yeah, Baker Mayfield will be in one of those. Hi, it's The Herd.

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You put a camera in front of people and they change and they amplify and they magnify. And I just don't think they're good. I would never want a camera in my locker room, my football locker room. The language can be coarse. I think it changes people. They start playing to the camera. Cleveland Browns were part of hard knocks. And, I mean, let's be honest, Baker Mayfield is going to be interesting.

So I think that was a big part of it. Three pieces of video I want you to watch. Number one, Hugh Jackson has always been kind of a player-friendly head coach. Got an ego. Jason Whitlock calls him hubris Jackson. Got a little bit of an ego, knows his offense, always been kind of a player-friendly coach. Todd Haley is the new offensive coordinator. Remember, he was the guy always yelling at Big Ben.

He's not player-friendly. He's angry friendly. He's friendly with anger all the time. He's just yelling and screaming and intense and he's putting his hands. They're on the same staff. Hugh's an offensive guy. Todd Haley's an offensive guy. Oh, good luck.

So here was that moment when you saw both things, Haley's frustration and opinions and Hughes' sort of ego and player-friendliness on display. They played to their reputations. We need to get so much done. Our team has to get mentally tougher and be able to fight through. the that we got to fight through. We got to change this drastically. And if we got guys that haven't done

sitting around doing nothing, you know, I just don't know how we're going to do it. Well, I respect you saying that. I mean, I used to sit in the same chair. Let me finish. Whoa, whoa, let me finish. I used to sit in the same chair as you guys sat in. The chair I sit in, a little different

the chair you guys sit in. I get to watch from a different lens. All taught me a long time ago. You know, what is it out? If you're a team, you do whatever the hell you want. If you're a team, you do it the hell you want. So this one's mine. So that's just the way it's going to be.

Okay, so we got Hughes Ego on display. He didn't need to say that. And Todd Haley's strong opinions on display, getting frustrated with players. Good luck with that. It's going to be Greg Williams also a defensive coordinator in that room. He's a yeller and a screamer and an ego guy. You got a lot of egos in that locker room. Offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator head coach, a lot of egos.

Belichick suppresses him. He gets the ego. In that locker room, your coordinators, head coach, you got egos. Good luck. Number two, Jarvis Landry wide receiver. I really appreciated this moment. Jarvis Landry was a very good player for the Miami Dolphins. Hard Worker. When you watch Hard Knocks, he is easily the best player they have. When you watch the highlights and you watch Jarvis Landry, now with the Cleveland Browns, it's pretty obvious you're going to get a full dose of Jarvis Landry a lot with them this year.

Here's his moment. If you go practice, practice. You can't get no better. Ain't nobody gonna get better by being on the sideline if you ain't hurt. If you're not fucking hurt, you gotta practice. Because you make other people work even harder. Now they had more fiss of getting hurt

because you don't want to practice because you've been a all that weak. Don't live here no more. That don't exist. It's contagious. bro. Like it's really contagious. It's contagious. Okay, I like that.

Des Bryant was pulling down the room. Jarvis Landry is trying to inspire the room. I like that. Now, I don't want you doing that every day and I don't want you doing that to coaches. But he is around that room he's their best player. And if you watch the tape

and hard knocks, he is easily their best player. And he is telling you, I'm setting the standards. Okay, you guys got to play through pain. This sport's about pain. I love that moment. Again, I don't want to see it every day. I don't want to see him like Des going after a coach. But that wasn't debasing.

That was inspiring in small doses. I love that. Okay, it's time to get to the Baker-Mayfield moment. Baker, by the way, is likable. He's fun. There were some stuff you watch and you laugh at. I'm not denying that. I liked him when I had him here.

But there's this piece of tape. And I don't. love it. Here we go. So I guess that's what you said when you said it was different. I tried to tell you. And what time do you normally get up in the morning? I was a little bit later this morning. No, no, I know. But what time do you know when they come over? Depends on when we sir.

Huh? Try and get in about two hours before. Okay. Do you ever come in with your boy five? He does his own little workouts in the morning. Where's your own little workout in the morning? Huh? Where's your own little workout in the morning? You start starting your career how you want to, you see what I'm saying?

It's a competition. All in everything you do, baby. You know how to do it. He was late to the first practice. You keep telling me he's not Johnny Mansell. You keep sending me tweets. He's not Johnny Manzo. Think Sam Darnold was late to his first practice?

Peyton Manning, John Elway, late to their first practice. Russell Wilson late to his first practice. Come on now, man, late to your first practice. But Colin everybody loves him. Yeah, when he shows up late to his first practice. Tyrod Taylor showed up an hour and a half early. Well, he was saying Tyrod shows up earlier than Baker. Baker said he's two hours earlier than everybody else.

Tyrod's just earlier than Baker is early. He wasn't late to practice. He was just later than Tyrod is early. By how much? I think he said an hour. But he's still two hours early to practice. I get what he was saying. Like if you want to be the starting quarterback,

get there when the starting quarterback is there. Tyrod gets it at 5 a.m. When Russell Wilson came into this league, I just joined Twitter. I had just joined Twitter. And this was like, you know, eight years ago or something, seven years ago. Russell Wilson would tweet in the facility and you could check the time. And it was 505 a.m. in Seattle. Just saying, Tyrod Taylor's beating you to the facility by an hour.

Am I crazy? I don't think, well, I mean, I don't think we should represent that he's late to practice when he's not late. But what troubled me more about that interaction was that the Baker's body language kind of wiggling away from him. You know, like when you're scolding your kid and they're kind of trying to walk away, like put a little space so you stop yelling. That was more of the issue. Like, just stand there and have a conversation with your head coach. If you want to be the starter, he's telling you he would, you know where you were talking about how owners kind of make suggestions to coaches? Hugh Jackson was.

making a suggestion. Right. That was not a, that was not a suggestion. He was telling you get there the same time or earlier than Tyrod gets there if you want to be the starter. That's what he was really saying. What was that, John? So already he has to remind him to get in earlier. He just started. But he's already getting in earlier. He's already coming in two hours earlier than everyone else. You ever work with somebody? You ever work with a slacker who thinks putting in 45 hours a week is really putting in the time? And it's like, everybody else is putting in 58, 62. You. Totally.

Baker's like, hey, I was here before the, a lot. Yeah, the guy you're competing with was here an hour 15 ago. I agree with you. I don't want to misrepresent. My bad. Late, the practice is not. Just later. Later than the other guy is early.

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Tom True Price, save $3,000 off MSRP on average. Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. I'm turning into the defender on this show. You really are. I know.

I got to defend Russell Westbrook. No, it's fair. It's fair. I'm saying late. But, I mean, I can remember Russell Wilson breaking in this league, and I just joined Twitter, and Russell Wilson's one of those guys I'm following, and he's like, just got to the facility, and I'm like, I can remember it thinking, five in the morning?

that's like, that means you're on the road at 415 in Seattle on the I-5. It's like, holy hell, the guy was married. He's this great-looking guy. You're the star quarterback. And I'm like, you're on the road at 4-15. That's before Pete Carroll's on the road, and he's a head coach. I'm interested as to whether Baker took Hughes's suggestion to heart and started getting there earlier. Because that's really what was happening there.

Hugh Jackson was telling him he needs to get there the same time the Tyrod gets there or earlier, is really what he was telling. him. I'm starting to, you're starting to have to be the defender of Baker Mayfield. I know. I am now a lover of Tyrod Taylor, who I've always thought, fine, but I'm not going to build my friend. Everything I hear about Tyrod Taylor, I like it more every time I talk about it. He's very well liked. Well, speaking with Baker, it's an adjustment, the speed to the speed of the NFL, obviously, and the what time you get in. Just weird, because Baker Mayfield is a two-time walk-on, so you would think he knows something about being an overachiever. Anyway, he's finally getting a hold of it, Baker says, the speed of the NFL.

Take listen. I think it's starting to slow down, but it's going to take a little bit to get to the level I was at Oklahoma, but that's, you know, just a part of the growing process. And so, you know, I've said it a couple times. There's been a lot of improvements since I first got here for a rookie mini camp that it slowed down, exponentially, honestly. So I'm excited where it's at right now. Any time I get the chance to play ball, yeah, I'd get excited.

But, you know, however much I play, I got to take advantage of that opportunity, that's for sure. That's for sure. That's a good thing to hear out of Baker, though. The game is starting to slow down. We were talking about Tom Brady the other day when Gronk was saying that he doesn't yell as much anymore. It's because it's just, he's done it so many times. He doesn't have to think about what he's doing anymore. Just like you said, this show gets easier for you every year because you know what you're doing.

You don't have to come in and figure out how to do radio. Everybody's overwhelmed their first year. Peyton Manning was overwhelmed. Andrew Luck was overwhelmed. And Carson went and they were all successful. Russell Wilson was overwhelmed for two years, but he was so gifted, he made it work. Right. I don't think Baker's gifted enough as he's overwhelmed to make it work.

That's why I think these guys that are like ridiculously talented, like Darnold and Wence and Russell and Luck, they're overwhelmed too. But LeBron was overwhelmed his rookie year from high school to the pros, but he's so damn talented. He's a force of nature that he kind of makes it work. The one thing about Baker, though, is that he was extremely accurate in college. So the speed transfer will hopefully be less of a gap. Got a great throwing motion and is remarkably accurate. That is Baker's best thing. He throws an accurate football.

So Carson Wentz, the Eagles franchise quarterback, has been withheld from 11-on-11 practice field drills recently because he's returning from torn ACL. And Nick Foles, ultimate insurance policy, Super Bowl MVP, is experiencing muscle spasms in his neck. Which he says is no big deal. and if they are worried, they are not showing it. Let's listen to Wence.

I don't think it's a big hurdle for me. I think, again, what I'd love to be out there on Thursday, absolutely, I'd love to play every day. But for me personally, I think I'll be fine if I don't get out there for preseason. Memo to all elite quarterbacks in the NFL. Do not play in the preseason. Just say, listen, boss, I got an ice cream headache. Can't get out there.

Nobody play in the preseason. Someday we're going to look at the NFL and go, what the hell were they thinking? A four-game preseason in the NFL would be like having a 22-game NBA preseason. You ever seen the NBA preseason? It's like eight games. They play them in like weird places. It's basically, it's like the N-1 tour.

It's like, hey, here's some NBA guys. starters play eight minutes. Four pre-season games is absurd. College football doesn't have a pre-season, and that's 19-year-olds. Like a superstar quarterback needs warm-up games? I don't think that superstar quarterback should be playing in the preseason either. I do think that the best football. preseason games are important for the rest of the guys in the roster.

But I think at any point, at any measure, if you are a star that's not coming off an injury, you should not be getting back out there. But I don't know. Are the Eagles not worried about any of this? They're fine. Their roster's good. They're fine. Yeah, they're fine.

Call back in three weeks and we'll talk about it. Finally, speaking of quarterback controversy, we have spoken a lot about which rookie quarterback will be named at the starter first and heading into the first week of preseason. the Cardinals have placed offseason edition Sam Bradford as their starter with Josh Rosen in the backup spot. So who do you think will be at this rookie class, it will be starting first? Sounds like Donald. I talked to somebody two days ago who's got good intel on the Cardinals, Rosen's their guy. They may not start him in week one, but they have been blown away by him.

And Rosen's their guy. Rosen will start. My prediction is Rosen will start at some point in September. Okay. Or first week of October. They love what they see. He's been great. Best behavior.

Players like him. Super smart. Asks a million questions, the coaches. Asks a million questions in coaching rooms. They love Rosen. Love him. But you're sticking with Sam Darmu. As the starter in September to start.

Joy Taylor with a new. news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Let's go to my friend via the Coward Global Satellite Network, New York City. Nick Wright, co-host, first things first. By the way, very interesting.

I watched Hard Knocks last night, and that coaching meeting, I got Haley's ego. Greg Williams got a major ego defensive coordinator. I've always supported Hugh Jackson because I think he's a good dude and he knows offense. But, you know, there are those that call him Huvers Jackson. You actually were in Kansas City with Todd Haley. That coaching room to me felt combustible, your opinion. Well, I think they brought in Greg Williams and they brought in Todd Haley this offseason for a reason to add some toughness.

And Todd Haley is a brilliant offensive mind if you can get along with him. I just thought it was an interesting room for Hugh to be essentially big boying saying, I've sat in your seat, but I'm now sitting in this seat. he's saying it to two guys in Greg Williams and Todd Haley who have both sat in Hugh's seat. Yes. And by a record perspective, we're more successful in that seat. And I can say that without knowing Greg Williams or Todd Haley's record off the top of my head because every coach in NFL history who is sat in that seat has been more successful than Hugh.

Yeah. And I haven't talked to Todd. I'm not assigning this time, but I'm watching it in my head thinking, I wonder if Todd Haley's thinking, well, let's see who's sitting in that seat around. week seven. Like, because I mean, if there, if something does happen and they don't get off to a good start and one in 31 turns into one and 37, the Browns, you wouldn't be shocked to make a coaching change. I don't know that you can make Greg Williams, the interim coach, given his history with the NFL and Todd Haley's there. One other point on this that I think is noteworthy.

I understand Hugh Jackson's point that we are trying to be, take preventative measure. measures. But the Browns haven't lost 31 games in the last two seasons due to injury. They've lost 31 games last two seasons because they've been terrible. And so I think Greg Williams and Todd Haley and the running backs coach and the other guys in the room maybe have a point like even if we are a little banged up, if we get tougher, if we get better, it will be good for us. So I understood the frustration there. By the way, you were talking about this thing on first things first. The Dallas Cowboys, if you go to a hotel room, in the bathroom, they have a vanity mirror, and it makes a slight imperfection on your face look like a Civil War scar.

Do not take the vanity mirror as truth. The Dallas Cowboys play on Monday night by themselves, Thursday night by themselves, Sunday night by themselves. And so we are overly harsh on the Cowboys. I like their team a lot. The Jaguars, conversely, we saw play twice against the Steelers. We think they're great. I like Dallas this year.

I do wonder about the loss of Jason Witten, who was a 15-year security blanket for a young quarterback. That really concerns me. But what do you make of the latest story that these receivers are awful? Cole Beasley said yesterday, we're going to shock the world. Are we overstating their wide receiver plight or what's your take on it?

All right, so on the Cowboys side, before we do anything on the Jaguars, like listen, sometimes things are awesome, yet they are still overrated. So I will, I'll go third rail here. How about the Beatles? The Beatles are awesome, yet they're still overrated because they're considered the greatest musical group of all time.

Oh, Colin, I know. For shame, for shame. Sometimes things aren't very good, yet they're still underrated. All to say, Andy Dalton, he's not very good, but we talk about him like he's terrible. Sometimes things, however, are properly rated. That is the Cowboys Receive. receiving group. The reason they are considered a bottom five group in the league is because we

keep hearing from Cole Beasley. On what other team would Cole Beasley have a speaking role? What other team would he be like, hey, five, eight guy who had 300 yards last year, give me your takes on what's coming. Except it's like, who else we're going to talk to? The running back wide receiver kick returner, they brought in from Los Angeles. What about the entire tight ends room that has less than 100 career yards? Like, no, no, no, the Cowboys, A plus offensive line, A plus running game. I think slightly underrated defense. But their passing attack right now appears to be dreadful, at least from a past catcher

standpoint, which puts a lot on the shoulders of Dak Prescott, who obviously was amazing his rookie year, not so amazing year too. Well, I am a DAC fan because I like his leadership qualities, and I think he, every time they put a mic in front of him, he says smart stuff. And by the way, I ran into Kevin Sumlin about a week ago, who admitted to me that he whiffed on DAC Prescott's the biggest mistake he's ever made in recruiting. And I asked him why. He said, you know what? I just didn't realize how smart he was. And football at that position, every time you talk, every snap, every audible.

I want to segue in to a quarterback, though, that I have been. tough on, Cam Newton. Pro football focused today, released an analytics poll on him and ranked him 17. Now, I rank him 12th. Two weeks ago, NFL executives and scouts ranked him 11th. I think that's reasonable. I've been tough on him. I think if, and I believe this to be true, Nick, if I took your 20-year career, I would take out your best year and your worst year. The remaining 18, you are what you regularly exhibit. And I would say you're very good. Maybe you had a bad year, you had a bad boss.

Maybe you had a great year. You had a perfect boss. Cam Newton, you take out his MVP season. Here's what he is. 21 to 14 touchdown to interception ratio. Passer rating at 84. 59% completions. 3,500 yards throwing.

Am I wrong? Am I negative? No. Listen, you, the Cam Newton, when you have evaluate him by those numbers alone is a slightly above average passer or slightly above average quarterback. But we have to stop with Cam Newton acting like the rushing doesn't count. Like, yeah, he scores, though he scored the most rushing touchdowns of any, not quarterback, player in football since he came into the league. He has the highest yards per carry since he came into the league.

He's top 12 in rushing yards, not amongst quarterbacks amongst players since he came into the league. let's throw all that out. He's the most effective and prolific rushing quarterback ever. So when you are an A plus at, let's just say that for most quarterbacks, 5% of the game, but for Cam, it's 15% of the game. And you're a B minus in the other part. That's how you in my eyes get closer to the 7-8-9 quarterback in football than 10, 11, 12, and certainly higher than 17.

Yes. You have to give Cam credit for the rushing stuff. And I'm not saying you're not, but like that is a part of it. Now, I will also say this. The last playoff game, Cam Newton won was the NFC championship game in 2015. In 2016, he was downright bad. In 2017, he wasn't good statistically. However, he had some unbelievable games and the team won a lot, and he was great in that playoff game that they lost. This is year eight. This is a very big year. year for Cam Newton. Cam Newton is the number one overall pick, the greatest single season of college football I've ever seen, a guy who went 15 and won the MVP and could have won a Super Bowl. It is important that Cam has more great games than terrible games this year as opposed to the ratio last year. If Cam is going to get in the back in the conversation as one of the four or five best quarterbacks in football, he needs to be better this year. And if you're watching things in Carolina. They already lost their right tackle. Norwell left and free agency. They've now lost two interior offensive linemen to injury already in camp. A lot's going to be on his shoulders.

I believe in talent and I think Norv Turner will help him a lot. I don't think you're way, listen, you're certainly not as wrong on Cam as you are about Westbrook. If that makes you feel better. Nick Wright, who by the way is sporting a wonderful tan. You look, look at you. He just I spent a little bit of time out of the country. Yeah. Thank you. Good seeing you, buddy. Appreciate it.

First things first. He calls me out all the time, but I get great joy out of it. Nobody rips me more than Nick, and I think I love him more every time he's on the show. Well, Nick and Baker. Yeah. Baker, I'm not sure I love yet. Nick, I love. Coming up next, the NBA released a schedule.

I got to taste that. I heard something on the radio this morning that shows you, good God, we just don't get how great LeBron is and the NBA schedule. You've got to hear this coming up next. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeard Radio app. Welcome back. NBA is going to announce today their Christmas schedule. It's their first big day every year on Christmas. The NBA comes out and gives you four or five games. I've been saying this for years. I don't care about the bottom 12 teams in the NBA. They're crap and they always have been.

Any sport doesn't have to air a certain number of games from lousy teams. Nobody says in the NFL, you've got to air the Browns every week. No, you don't. NBC never has to air the Browns. CBS never has to air the Browns on their national game. In the NBA, if you got six to seven good teams at the top that are viable, it's a great league. When Michael was running this thing in the 90s, there was about six good teams, Orlando, Seattle, Portland, Indiana, Jordan, Knicks, and just a bunch of crap. Nobody ever aired the crap.

So the latest games on Christmas, Bucks, Knicks, Thunder Rockets, Sixers, Celtics, Lakers, Warriors, Blazers, jazz. All interesting, all captivating, except the Knicks. So of the 10 teams you'll see, nine, I'm interested in. And who knows, in a year, maybe the Knicks have Jimmy Butler. They're more interesting. But I was also listening this morning to a, it's called Sirius XM radio. I don't know if you kids have heard about it. It's this new satellite radio thing, Sirius XM.

And so I'm listening to it, and they're talking about it. talking about on Sirius today they're going to have on their sports channel the NBA all-time fantasy five draft. And it was really funny because I'm sitting there thinking about the NBA. Analytics are everywhere in sports. Hockey, soccer, basketball, football, baseball. In football, the same thing that mattered 30 years ago matters today. Head coach, quarterback, offensive line.

If those are good, you win. The Steelers did in 75. The Niners did in the 80s. in 90s, then Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys did, and now the New England Patriots. Coach quarterback, and the quarterback always has a good guy, a good lineman up front. But in basketball, the game has changed due to analytics. You can't be a center. If you're a big guy in the NBA, you can't even have your back to the basket.

You have to face the basket now. It's not about rebounding. You can be an average rebounding team, LeBron D. Wade and Bosch were, and dominate the league. It's about possessions. You can't shoot a mid-range jumper anymore. There's no value in it. I mean, there's no value in two points. And so I was sitting there thinking,

I've always believed my all-time starting five would be Magic Michael, LeBron, Larry, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And I always felt like Larry was the only real pure shooter on that team. Kareem's obviously the most unstoppable two-point shot. And Michael Jordan's the greatest mid-referred. shooter of all time. Magic himself not much of a shooter, but he could score at the rim. But

think of how much analytics have changed. If you told me today that's my all-time starting five without qualifications. But in analytics now, if I had to start a team,

my all-time starting five with analytics, Magic Johnson doesn't start and either does Michael. Michael was a lousy three-point shooter. Colin it would be different. No, it wouldn't be. Five times Michael Jordan shot under 20% on threes.

He was a disastrous three-point shooter. You don't go from disastrous, ask Russell Westbrook to great. Michael Jordan was a ball hog. Michael Jordan wouldn't pass, therefore not allowing Larry Bird, LeBron, Steph Curry to get the shots. Michael Jordan, you want to call him the greatest of all times. time. Larry Bird and LeBron's skill sets translate. Kobe Bryant was always a better long-range shooter than Michael. Steph Curry is not Magic the player overall, but in the new era,

Steph Curry is a far more valuable player than Magic Johnson, and I bet Magic Johnson would admit that. Now, Michael would never admit anybody was better. But you forget about Michael Jordan. His career three-point shooting was worse than Westbrooks. Westbrooks, but in the middle of the year, League 10 years he's trying to make it a better shot. Some guys are not natural three-point shooters. Michael never was. He had two good years shooting a three. That's when the NBA moved the shot in.

They moved it back. He was awful again. Many suggested Michael's hands were too big. Like centers at the free throw line, Michael could not shoot a three, five times under 20 percent. And you think it's absurd to say that. But sports change. I didn't care about mobility for my quarterback 20 years ago.

I think it helps now. I think it does help now that if my quarterback can move a little bit because the spacing is different in the NFL. In Major League Baseball, I was never a huge fan of power hitters, but there was real value to Reggie Jackson. Now, Bryce Harper hits 220. I'm not paying him $400 million, even if he's putting butts in seats. So it's interesting as they release the NBA schedule for Christmas. sounds absurd to say that Kobe would start over Michael on the all-time team. But Kobe was always 85% of Michael.

But when compared to the game today, what matters, a three-point shot, Kobe's significantly more accurate than Michael. Larry Bird and LeBron are the only two. Twenty years ago and today, their skill set translates perfectly. And it really states how great LeBron is. LeBron James entered the league as a poor three-point shooter. and now is an incredibly effective three-point shooter. The three-point shot was always available in Michael's career,

and he wanted to get better. From the first day to the last, he was terrible. Like Westbrook, it's just never going to be part of his arsenal. And you know Michael worked at it because Michael worked at everything. Michael worked at baseball. Michael worked at everything. He was that competitive. Still couldn't shoot it.

Man, analytics has really changed. changed the game of basketball. For better or worse, you can argue about that. Chad Pennington, Joel Clatt, DeAngelo Hall. Hour 2 next in Los Angeles. This is the herd. This is the herd. Hour number two. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio on FS1. I hate my new music to start the hour. We're working on it. Long story. Lawyers involved. We'll get it fixed. Maybe we'll have a band come in and do it live. I'm not sure. Joy Taylor is joining me. I'm not a big fan of it or just saying that right now. Don't like it at all. Are you a big rock guy? I'm not just don't like what I've got. There's no, there's no crescendo.

It's just flat. I hate it. Let me say this before I get to my guest, DeAngelo Hall, is that, remember years and years ago when cell phones came about. It used to be, you know, a lot of people grew up and they didn't have cell phones. You had this thing at your house. And I can remember when I was a kid, I'd be on the phone and somebody would pick up the phone. They'd go, hey, get off the phone. Dad's got to make a call. to be like, I'm talking to my friend. Hey, get off the phone. My sister, Marlene, would get a, hey, get off the phone. And then they came out with cell phones,

where everybody could talk individually on their own phone. I love cell phones. But when cell phone companies came out, here was the deal. They gave you the phone for free. Short-term bling. Suckers fell for it. They just gave you the phone. What they wanted to do is sign you to a two-year contract.

They'd give you the phone for free. But you had to sign a two-year contract. Short-term, bling! Ownership was the real thing. Aaron Rogers came out yesterday. I really liked the new Aaron Rogers. He's aggressive, not passive-aggressive. He was talking about the NFL's franchise tag,

which I think is awful for players. I hate it. It's terrible. Aaron Rogers now is trapped. He has no leverage. Two years left in his deal, and then they can franchise tag him three years. Aaron said, I think we would be better

if we did not allow the franchise tag. That gives the team all the power over your future. It obviously restricts player movement. Oh, God, you're right. In the NBA, Otto Porter of the Washington Wizards has more leverage in power than Aaron Rogers in the NFL. I hate the franchise tag. But players, it was introduced in 1993, and players fell for it.

Hey, franchise tag. That means I'll be one of the top five paid players at my position. All right. Short-term bling. But the ownership was the thing. Owners love the franchise tag because you have no leverage. You have no power. They can threaten to franchise tag you.

They can call your agent and say, all right, go ahead, hold out. You'll look like a schmuck. The fans will hate you. The franchise tag is an owner's best friend. Sure, they give up short-term cash, but they don't have to relinquish any long-term ownership of their product. The player. Aaron Rogers is nailing this.

In 1993, the players got worked by the owners. And they should do everything in their power, including whatever they've got to do to get rid of the franchise tag. Cell phone companies gave you the phone. They gave you the bling. Ownership was the thing. They had you under contract. I don't like it. I've never liked it.

And with that I bring in DeAngelo Hall, 14 NFL seasons, tough guy, big talker, multiple-time pro bowler. By the way, did you ever get franchise tag? Because I hate it. No, I did not. Did players think it was great or not? No, guys don't. It really depends what position you play. You know, corners tend to not mind it so much because we don't tend to take the brunt of a lot of hits.

You know, if you play a running back, receiver, they tend to not like it because they felt like, man, you know, if I get hurt, you know, where does that leave me next year? They want long-term contracts. Everyone wants that long-term contract. As a corner, you never really, like, I never thought about it. I played on a one-year deal twice. And, I mean, I never thought about it. I never thought about getting hurt. You know, it was kind of an afterthought.

I just went and played and played ball. But if you play one of those positions. LeBron does the same thing. LeBron doesn't think about getting hurt. So LeBron loves one-year deals. You're a cornerback. You love one year deals. Levian Bell's like, I want four years. Exactly.

Because I'm getting too many hits. Taking too many hits. So Hard Knocks HBO last night. So Hugh Jackson's a players coach. Todd Haley gets after players. And they had this moment where they went back and forth. And Todd Haley's arguing, hey, I don't care if a guy's hurt. They got a suit up.

And Hugh Jackson's saying if he's hurt, maintenance, I don't want him suiting up. No, the coach Hugh Jackson obviously won. What did you make of the moment? Yeah, I mean, I felt like as a head coach, that's a moment that you listen to your coaches a little bit. Obviously, your way of things probably isn't the best. And I love Hugh. He was my offensive coordinator in Atlanta. And I know he's a player's coach, but at some point, you got to kind of get on some guys.

You know what I mean? Going on, O'N 16, to me, that should have said, look, all right, we need to change some things maybe a little bit. and I saw that clip and I understand this is Hugh, you know, this is huge time to shine. You know, he wants it done his way. But a guy like Todd Haley, who has been around this league a lot and has had a lot of success, has had some failures too.

So his way isn't necessarily always the right way, but it's just a different way. He's trying to. We've done it your way. Let's try. Todd's trying to change the culture. Exactly. You have to.

When you've been in a place like Cleveland for so long, no matter what guys you bring in there, you saw Jarvis Landry later. It's contagious. It is contagious. You know what I mean? You step in a building like that as a player, as a great player in Oakland. I stepped into that situation and it was contagious.

I felt myself not wanting to practice, not wanting to give full effort in practice and not understanding that, heck, if I want to be the same player that I am, I need to go as hard as I can. I can't worry about somebody else taking the day off. I got to go to work. And so the culture definitely has to change there. And I thought that was a great time for, you know, Hugh as a head coach to say, all right, Todd, you're right.

You know, we do need to get, you know, we got to make these guys just a little bit tougher. And, you know, I was a little disappointed. He didn't say that. By the way, Jarvis Landry, who you just mentioned, this was one of my favorite moments on the show. Now, I wouldn't want this every day. And I wouldn't want him doing it to coaches. But I thought it was inspirational where a very good player comes to a very lousy team. Here's Jarvis Landry, HBO's Hard Knocks, Cleveland Browns.

If you can't get no better. Ain't nobody going to get better by being on the fucking sideline if you ain't if you're not hurt, you've got to practice because you make other people work even harder. Now they had more fission to getting hurt because you don't want to practice because you've been a bit of all that weak. Don't live here no more. This is contagious, bro.

Like, it's really contagious. It's contagious. You ever seen that? I saw it a little bit earlier. What you mean? Have I ever seen a player do that? Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Sometimes it's needed. You know, the average fan doesn't see it because it's not on hard knocks every day. You know what I mean? But I've been in numerous locker rooms. I've been in numerous halftime locker rooms

that that's what's being saying. said, like, we got to get tougher. Like, period, point blank. Like, we play a sport that, yes, you have to be smart. Yes, you have to be fast. Yes, you have to, you know, be a ton of other things. But the most, the biggest thing, you have to be tough. You have to mentally be tough, physically be tough.

You have to feel like you can beat that guy across from you every single snap. Because if you don't, why are you out here? You're not out here for that guy to beat you up, right? You have to really believe it. And you can see you don't go on 16 just by chance. You know, some of those games Cleveland could have won, and they were just defeated before they stepped out there. Some of those games, they physically probably did get beat up.

And so, but I think they have a lot of players on that team who are going to change that culture. I don't, you know, I see them winning a lot of ball games. Yeah, I think they have a chance to win seven. They're mostly a six-and-10 team. I want to shift to the Dallas Cowboys. I've been saying this now for about a month, that when you've gone to a hotel before

and they have the vanity mirror, and you look in that vanity mirror, and you can have a slight imperfection, and it looks like it's Mount Basuvius, right? That's not the truth. That's not how people see you. The Dallas Cowboys are the vanity mirror in a hotel of the NFL,

that we watch them on Thursday by themselves. On Monday night football, nobody else is playing. On Sunday night football on NBC. Fox, we put them on the late game. No team in the NFL plays singularly by themselves on American TV like the Dallas Cowboys. So we micro-analyze them. I said if I had a report card, DiAngelo, their offensive lines are A-plus, their defensive line,

they've found some pass rushers now. Yeah, they have. Okay, it's B-plus. Running back's A-plus. Coach quarterback, let's give them a solid B. Some would say B-minus. I'd say B. And the linebackers, when they're healthy,

they've got a pretty interesting group of linebackers. I think we over-criticized them, do you? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, we over-criticized the Dallas Cowboys. And I think we put too much emphasis on Dez Bryant not being a cowboy anymore. I think everybody thinks that they're going to miss the Des Bryant who, you know, had 1,600 yards receiving. That's not the guy you're losing. You're losing a guy who can still make plays, but I just felt like was a really good number two receiver.

Yeah, he was a good, too. And I think what people don't take into consideration is some of the negative things that come with Des, To not have that in your locker room, I think is going to make that team even stronger than have an even closer bond. I think those receivers aren't going to be complaining about who gets the ball. I think it's just going to be more of a team atmosphere. I think they're going to be a run-first team. We talk about their running backs and their offensive line.

I mean, I see the Dallas Cowboys as a team that can't compete if they stick to the script. If they keep pounding the ball and really put their trust in Zeeke and let Dack do what he does great, you know, I think they have capable receivers that can make plays. By the way, you called out D'Andre Hopkins, speaking of Hard Knocks. You were on Hard Knocks a couple years ago, right? Yes. Yes. Guest Roll. A guest role.

Wasn't our team, but, yeah, we practiced against Houston. Yeah, Houston was in it. Do we have the tape of that when you were on Hard Knock? We do. Play the tape of that if you could. This is you. Yeah, just covering a double-moved comeback. DeAndre Hopkins.

Yeah. And you get hurt. Uh-huh. And that was a big part of hard knocks that year. You get hurt. Yeah. And you the other day were talking about DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah.

And you said, listen, Odell Beckham should be paid a lot more than DeAndre Hopkins. And DeAndre Hopkins went on Twitter and said, no disrespect. Keep my name out your mouth. Bottom line, he didn't like it. DeAndre Hopkins kind of taking a shot at you. Stop speaking on my name with that nonsense. Yeah. I was kind of like, you know, I didn't say DeAndre Hopkins is a terrible receiver.

I simply said that I thought Mike Evans, you know, well, Mike Evans and DeAndre just got paid a lot of money. Odell's up. I think he's a better receiver. I think he's going to be the highest paid receiver. And so for him to say that, you know, it kind of took me by surprise because, you know, you saw that clip of the route that was ran. And, you know, I played 14 years. I've got my ankles broken a time or two by some really shifty guys. Marshall Falk being probably one of the shiftyest I've ever seen.

And so to think that the world thinks that he somehow ran this amazing route and he got out his break so quick that I broke my ankle, like that route was one of the worst routes I've seen all camp. You know, I'm sitting. I'm sitting and I slip. And any DB or any guy who's played DB knows the feeling of slipping coming out of break. And, you know, it was kind of awkward because I did slip and kind of twist my ankle a little bit all at the same time. But it had nothing to do with the route he ran.

But Hard Knocks depicted it as if, because early in the practice, what you don't see is, you know, wearing one-on-ones. And Hop goes against one of my other young DBs, and he smacks them all in the helmet while running the route. And I'm like, come on, man, we're out here trying to get better. If y'all want to take it there, like we can take it there. Like, and, you know, and I'm getting pretty riled up ready to fight. They separate us, and he has the famous line, you know, I don't fear any, you know, I don't feel no man but God. And so then later on, because, you know, I never watched Hard Knocks.

Later on, I kind of see this meme circulating. And I'm like, and I don't, you know, I don't really pay any attention. I don't, you know, I don't mind, you know, the criticism. It kind of comes with the job. But for him to actually be a part of playing this up. as if he ran some dynamic route. I mean, that route was trash. Now, he is a good receiver.

Good receiver. He's a very good receiver. You know, I tell people all the time, hey, we not got into that little spat. Maybe he doesn't work as hard that season. That was the breakout season he had. But prior to that, I mean, hop was a young, up-and-coming receiver, great hands.

Houston really wasn't on the scene. It wasn't until that season that, you know, like I said, he had that breakout season. where I think he led the league and catches this year. But I love him as a receiver. I just prefer Odell Beckham. If you ask 10 corners in the league who's easier to cover, I guarantee OBJ name won't come out before Hopkins.

Bottom of, I never understand. If you're a wide receiver, you want to be discussed on my show. Like this whole thing, Joy, I never understood this. Keep your name out my mouth. Time out. If you're a professional athlete, the reason OBJ is selling jerseys

is because guys like me talk about him a lot. He is one of these polarizing tipping point athletes. Is he an NBA guy in the NFL? Is he coachable? Is he like LeBron James gets crushed on shows all day? LeBron never responds because LeBron gets part of greatness. Yeah. is polarization.

But we've seen this year, particularly with wide receivers, every wide receiver feels like they should be the highest paid wide receiver. So obviously there's a history there, which is why I think he responded. If there wasn't, I don't know that he would have responded anyway. But that's not how the contracts work. You get paid what the market value is when it's your turn to get paid. You can't renegotiate every time another person gets paid more than you. I know.

I'd love it if it worked that way. Timing is a huge factor in what we all make. And I've worked at companies where they really need me, and I've worked at companies where they don't feel they need me. It's the same with teams and athletes. Listen, if you're in a training camp and your contracts up and the other corners out for the year with an ACL, you get really valuable. Suddenly you are.

And by the way, if you're in a division, like right now, like right now because of Carson Wentz, in that division, you need pass rushers. If Carson Wentz behind that line just sits there, you start watching what the Cowboys are going to start paying some of these pass rushers and what Ryan Carrigan can make for Washington, if you have a great quarterback in a division, pass rushers and corners get paid. Absolutely.

I mean, go look at the AFC East. The Jets have overpaid for pass rushers. The bill's overpaid for Mario Williams. The Dolphins overpaid for everybody on the defensive line. DeAngelo Hall, good stuff. Coming up next, buy selling hold, a good one today. Chad Pennington, too. Friday, Big Three, is live on FS1 from Atlanta,

as some of the game's greatest legends take it to the court with an old school attitude. It all begins at 8 Eastern on FS1 and don't miss the playoffs starting August 17th on Fox or stream it all live on the Fox Sports app. Baron Davis has been very good so far. He's one of the stars offensively in this league. Don't be the guy in the room with a long, sloppy looking untuck shirt. Go to untucket.com code H-E-R-D for 20% off on tucket.com code heard. Chad Pennington, who's had the single best season for anything. Any quarterback in the AFC East not named Tom Brady over the last 18 years.

Very good year. Very good year will be joining us. Herm Edwards once told me, I asked him, who was the smartest player you've ever coached? And he said, first was Chad Pennington, and I'm not sure there's anybody in the same galaxy. So a very thoughtful guy will be joining us, a former Jet and Dolphin quarterback. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So a year ago, seven of the top 10 receivers in yardage were at least six foot one, 198 pounds. Yeah. Cole Beasley is 5-8, 180 pounds. Small. So the Cowboys say that they will go with a committee to replace Des Bryant, and Beasley has emerged as the leader of that committee.

Jason Garrett said my old high school coach, Fred Highland, used to say, when they get off the bus, don't look at the big guys. The big guys are playing because they're big. Look at the little guys. The little guys are playing because they're big. they're good. I don't know if that necessarily applies to high school. Yeah, Cole Beasley's not a number one. He is on a good receiving cora three. Well, yeah. He is, he's looking like the number one for the Cowboys by receivers this year. If you look at the size of the top receivers in the NFL

last season, I mean, Antonio Brown is kind of an outlier, but Julio Jones 6-3, Keenan, 6-2, the André Hopkins, Adam Thieland, Michael Thomas, Larry Fitzgerald. all over 6-1. Yeah. And then you look at their yardage. You got Cole Beasley at 5-8, 180 pounds with 314. Can I just say this? If Alan Hearns and Cole Beasley both have 60 catches, and that's realistic because Alan

Hurns is a big possession guy, Dallas will be fine. They'll be fine because if that's what they need, they need two guys to get 60 catches, they're going to score most of their touchdowns running the football. They don't need to have a superstar receiver. What they need is Hearns and Beasley, who have very. good hands, catching the ball, getting first downs. I feel like this is the ultimate experiment. They have Tavon Austin.

He's... It's going to be interesting. Okay, so the LeBron effect is everywhere in L.A. this summer. Rams cornerback Akib Taleb has personally requested that LeBron hook him up with some tickets. Take a listen. I'm trying to get some season tickets on the floor. I'm still looking for him.

I think they sold out, but I'm breaking the bank for him, man. So, Brian, King Jane, help me out, baby. Season tickets on the floor will run you the cheapest $30,000 each for the year. I got to be honest with you. That is not that bad. Right? $30,000. Let me ask yourself this.

The Lakers are really underselling those. So I get a seat for $30,000. You do get, if LeBron James makes the playoffs and we get just three home games, I could sell those each for $10,000. Are you going to tell me I couldn't sell a LeBron Lakers first round Utah Jazz First two games are in L.A. I can't sell those

for 10 grand a pop. It feels very low. If that's what it is... I mean, I'm looking at... I'm looking on online right now. Center court for one ticket for the season is $62,000. Okay. Now that's what it should be. But it's center court. Okay, that's center court. Sixty-two thousand is what it should be. But still. I would argue

honestly, with LeBron James, it should be $120,000. It's so cheap. Why don't you get some for the staff? We can all share. I agree. It keeps Talib said there's none available. Looking at it right now. It's available. So how much is it, honestly, if we could get a Laker rep in here. Jeannie Bus, how much does it cost for me to buy two tickets for the staff like 15 rows up? But I mean, decent seats.

You could write that off, Colin. That's a good point. I could. I think it's worth it. Good idea. I can't believe $30,000. I know. I feel like that's low.

In a city the size of Los Angeles for a... And look, I'm aware of how much $30,000 is, but I'm talking about people who are even thinking about buying court side tickets for the person that's even available to. $30,000 seems very low. I mean, think of it just if you're a business, like bringing clients there has got to be worth it to get that ticket. Well, first of all, anybody that buys those seats is riding them off.

Right. Probably. Okay, so that means instead of $30,000, it's costing you $15,000, because you're writing the whole thing off or some of it off. I'm not a accountant, but I'm not sure if the new Trump tax stuff, you can do that or not. But for most of my life, you could do that. But secondly, yes, something. Listen, if let's say I was a super rich guy and I could buy a Lear jet, that would cost me $18 million.

But if I could sell it the next day for 24, then it's not expensive. It's a bargain. $30,000 for a seat in the front row at Staples is, I can't even believe that number. Are you sure that's not a weekend pass? This is what I'm being told. That is a steal. It's crazy. I mean, not that we're trying to drive up ticket prices.

It just feels low. The Celtics games I could get 10 grand. Westbrook and Paul Georgia are in town. I could get it for eight. Don't you buy four then. Don't get greedy. I can't believe that number. I know.

So speaking of the Lakers, it's a new year, new Rondo. A lot of people were wondering how this Rondo situation was going to work here with the Lakers. But Rondo has made it clear that he's here to help the organization win, and he's here to help Lanzo. He said whatever they ask me, you know, my main objective is to win. I'm ready to help develop Lonzo as much as possible. If I'm not starting and he's starting, he's going to be ready to go and ready for anybody that comes his way and will be ready to roll.

I don't know who. This is a new Rondo. I know he's the likable Rondo. I don't know what's happening. I will say, of all the crazy guys they signed, Rondos by far my favorite. Well, Rondo is the most accompli. I mean, I guess Jail has two rings, but he's the most accomplished. Like, he's the biggest star.

And also. And also. I don't know of all of them that have signed. His baggage is based on intense competition. And it's kind of, you know, it's kind of an attitude. He has a reputation, you know, where's- He's demanding. Right.

Whereas the other guys that's more. Loopie. Right. Yeah, I mean, Michael Beasley and Lance and Javail are loopy. This guy is just hard on teammates who don't put the effort in he does. I can live with that kind of guy. Well, I mean, he can't be harder than LeVar. So maybe it's a good thing.

LeVar claims that they don't have somebody that can coach him and that isn't hard enough on him. So he's got Rondo now. So we'll see. Joey Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Line News.

Flexible test driving, transparent pricing, streamlined purchasing. When you go to get a car, you want to feel like somebody's on your team. At Hyundai, they are. Go to HyundaiUSA.com slash shopper assurance. It's their new program that makes life much. easier. Chad Pennington around the corner. We do it on Wednesday or Thursday. Usually Wednesday, you ask questions. I try to decipher it and give you answers. Here we go. Buy seller hold. Colin will decide if he'll buy it. Cells will decide if he'll buy it sell or hold.

Buy seller hold. The Cowboys will have a 1,000 yard receiver this season. I think they could have a receiver with 90 catches, but they'll be a little deck and dunk. Last year, Des only had 838 yards, and he was their home run threat, and Dak and Des never really played great together. Remember, Alan Hearns is the only receiver on Dallas's roster, who's ever had a thousand-yard season. And in two years with Dak, he loves to spread the ball around. But he's not great as a deep thrower.

They've never had, in two years, a thousand-yard receiver. So, John, sell, sell. Cowboys will not have a thousand-yard receiver. buy seller hold, Baker Mayfield will not start a single game in 2018. Remember Tyrod Taylor was bench last year. I mean, his story was

great, took the bills to the plus. He was bench last year. For Nathan Peterman. But for Nathan Peterman, who I think has a catalog with outdoor men's clothing. Each of the nine number one overall quarterback selected since Carson Palmer have started a game in their rookie season.

Gough, James Winston, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Matt Stafford, Jamarcus Russell, Alex Smith, and Eli Manning. John, sell, sell, sell. Baker Mayfield will start games this year. By seller hold, Jimmy Garoppolo will account for more touchdowns than Russell Wilson. Offensive lines matter. The Niners isn't great.

The Seahawks is utter trash. I don't think when people hear Garapolo, they quite understand what he did last year. The 49ers were 17th in passing yards a game before he started. They were first in the games he started. The 49ers were 28th in points per game before Garoppolo started. They were second 29 a game when Garoppolo started. He now has an upgraded offensive line at center and right tackle. So John, by, bye, go by.

Garopolo throws for more touchdowns than Russell Wilson, who once again, in Seattle will be running for his life without O-line. Buy seller hole, the Green Bay Packers will earn a first round buy. By NFC standards, they have an incredibly workable schedule. I believe they'll start off 6 and 0. Chicago at home, Vikings at home, Washington, Bills, Lions, Niners. Five and one at worst, 6 and 0 to start. And remember, historically in this division, and I don't think,

anything will change this year. He dominates Detroit and he dominates Chicago. My guess is he goes 4 and O against those two and he beats Minnesota in at least the early game as Kirk Cousins has a new system and a new coordinator. So John, buy, bye, buy, Packers win the division. When 11 games, get a first round by. It's actually not happened very many times. No, only two times in 10 years has Aaron gotten a bye. By seller hold, Jared Goff will throw more touchdown. passes then Aaron Rogers. Well, last year, Jared Doff had quite a year. 28 touchdown passes. But I kind of feel like last year was his first year and that this year people are going to look at that Rams team. Now they've got real video on golf. Not that he

won't be good, but he's got more mouths to feed, higher expectations, and the NFC in their schedule now. It's a first place schedule is tougher for the Rams. And Aaron Rogers has had four years of over 33 touchdown passes. Gough last year was remarkable and had only 28. So John, sell, sell, sell. Jared Gough will not throw for more TD passes than Aaron Rogers. They run the ball a lot too. Yep. Last one, buy seller hole. Jay Gruden will win more games this season than John Gruden. six of the first eight weeks the Washington Redskins face Andrew Luck, Aaron Rogers, Drew Breeze,

Cam Newton, and Dak Prescott. Two weeks later, Matt Ryan. This is an easy one. Oakland's in a division with Patrick Mahomes. How good Tee. Case Keenham, pretty average. How good is he? I say John. Sell, sell, sell.

Washington faces more good quarterbacks. and I think it's going to be close, but in the end, I think John's going to win a game more than Jay. By the way, I do revise my NFL picks. I get one chance to revise my NFL picks. The Raiders are a team I'm going to revise. Slightly. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Welcome back. You know, I'm watching the Hall of Fame this weekend, Joy. Your brother's a Hall of Famer, Jason Taylor. Yeah. Randy Moss is a Hall of Famer, and I'm, thinking Chad Pennington was there. Quarterback for the Jets and Dolphins, 11 years, first round quarterback. Herm Edwards told me the smartest player and the best team that he's ever coached in the NFL.

And Chad Pennington, you think NFL corners struggled to guard Randy Moss. So Chad played with Randy Moss at Marshall. At the time, I think they were Division I, Division I, AA. What do you think it was like for college corners? And I bring on Chad Pennington, who I've not talked to in a long time. Chad, you were at the Hall of Fame stuff. Go back to college in Randy Moss. Was it comical for college guys to defend him?

We have some video. What was it like? One year together in 1-A, I remember every 1-18 we played that year, all 13 of them, including SEC school time, BYU. They wanted to guard Randy one-on-one to start the game. And then once we proved that Randy was better than anybody they had out on the field, they would decide to go to double coverage,

and sometimes that didn't even matter either. Yeah, Randy had not only remarkable speed, size, but he had great hands. He actually knew the route tree. He's the best receiver I've ever seen, and I love Jerry Rice, but Randy's the greatest wide receiver I have ever seen. Now, you were a Jets quarterback, and it's different playing in New York. Sam Darnold, they're saying now, could start week one. Boy, that is a lot, Chad. He's 21. He's got the fewest starts of any of these first-round quarterbacks. He's the youngest. Do you think it's a good idea by the Jets? If it was my recommendation, I wouldn't recommend it.

And I'm just thinking long-term here. I know everyone's excited about young, armed talent and the potential. But you want the potential to have a chance to develop so that the potential can then become reality. And sometimes we get caught up in the potential of things, especially a young guy like Sam, who's 21 years old. I just think back to Alex Smith and him being thrown into the fire with the 49ers and then people riding him off. And then when he finally had a chance to develop, you know, the right people, he took off, and he's still playing at a high level now.

And so my recommendation, no matter what I would see in this first season, would not be to play Sam Donald. I think you have two really good veteran quarterbacks that can certainly hold down the fort while this young kid develops. I think having Joshua McCown in the room is going to just be, do so much for Sam and his development, both on and off the field. Bridgewater is certainly a proven quarterback as well for the short time he's been in. So they're really in a good sweet spot not to have to feel the pressure to play sand.

Yeah, I agree with you. They're in a rare spot where they actually have two smart veterans. Very rarely does anybody even keep three quarterbacks. I get Bridgewater and McCown. Of all the teams that have quarterbacks, that is a luxury. By the way, now Baker Mayfield's in Cleveland. Now, Cleveland's not the spotlight city, but because of his antics and his personality, He's a spotlight player.

What would you do with Baker Mayfield? What advice would you give Baker Mayfield if you could in year one? Competitive, certainly have the desire to play, but understand, don't let that derail you from the long-term goals of being the best professional quarterback you can be and create longevity. Just because you may go out there as a young player and have one great year, the consistency factor, that's what it's all about in this league, because teams start to study you.

They've got more game film on you. And so I would do the same thing in Cleveland. I think Tyrod Taylor is more than capable of handling that team. It's done a really good job. The one thing Baker is going to learn from Tyrod is how to protect the football, which is essential in the NFL, making sure that you don't turn the ball over, which Tyrod has done an excellent job of. He uses his feet well, so he can really learn from Tyrod as well.

You know, you had the single greatest individual season for any quarterback in the AFC East, not named Tom Brady in the last 18 years. You dealt with some injuries, but you were a highly effective quarterback, but you also faced a young Tom Brady. Chad, I want you to go way back. First time you played against him. First time you saw him. Did you ever recognize that this guy could be an all-timer?

Here's what I remember, Colin. I remember when Drew Bledsoe went down, and Benny Testfordy was our quarterback at the time in 2001. Drew Bledsoe goes down. We're in a tight ball game. The Jets are winning by three or four points. Tom comes in to lead a two-minute drill and takes them all the way down inside of the 20-yard line.

Doesn't have the game-winning drive. Doesn't throw the game-winning touchdown pass. And as I was walking on the field to shake his hand, I could just see it in his eyes. True disappointment. Whereas for a lot of young quarterbacks to get their first action, it would just be, man, that was fun. I really had a good time out there, my first action.

And he was truly disappointed that they did not win that game in his first action. And right then and there, not that I could see the future, but I did know something was a little bit different about this guy from a competitive standpoint and his expectations and standards for himself. Aaron Rogers yesterday did something I liked. I've criticized Aaron when he's passive aggressive. Yesterday, Chaddy was aggressive aggressive. He called out young receivers for not being prepared,

not knowing the plays on the cards, which he called simplistic. What is the line? Because I liked it. I don't think you can do it every day. Are there times that you have to call out teammates? Or are you a believer that you never call him out publicly? Well, I don't think he specifically gave name, correct? He was definitely just talking about young receivers.

So it was a group, which is important. It's also the young group. And so with these guys coming in, they have to learn how to be a professional. And nowadays with our teams being so much younger, and we don't have as many veterans on each team, they have to play earlier. And so I think Aaron was trying to create a sense of urgency for these guys to say, look, I need to depend on you. And we have no time to waste, no preparation to waste, no down, no practice to waste. We have to get it done. And that's part of it every day. And so I was completely okay with it. Certainly, if it was

Randall Cobb or something, he would never do that in a million years because that guy has proven himself. Now, he may have to have a personal conversation behind closed doors like this, just kind of gives them a jolt that they listen. We need better effort and everybody knows it, so everybody's going to be watched. By the way, you watch some SEC football. I didn't think Dak Prescott was an NFL quarterback when I watched him in college. And I said, I'm like, I think he's better than Tebow, but it's Tebow-Boe-esque.

It's underneath routes. I don't see the accuracy. I know you saw him in college. Are you surprised? I mean, what do you make of Dak Prescott? Does he have a lower ceiling, like many suggest? What do you make of him? Because there's a real division that he's okay.

The offensive line makes him. I really like him, although I don't think his ceiling is Big Ben. What do you make of him when you watch him play? Well, I think the first thing, when you look at a quarterback like Dak Prescott coming out of college, to Deshaun Watson coming out of college, that personal workout's really important just to see how they pass the football, to see if they can throw an NFL-type ball

with arc and pace. It's not just a line drive, one speed every time. Does he have touch? Does you have accuracy? I think DAC has proven that. So is Deshaun Watson. That's why they're starting to create a little consistency and show some success.

They've proven that they can pass the football. What you like about DAC is obviously to move, he can escape. and right now it's okay. It's a great running game. That's completely fine. When you look at Tom Brady and his evolution, they were a defensive-minded team when he was young,

and they really didn't flip the switch offensively until about 2007 when Randy came before. And then they started to be more of an offensive-minded team. So it's okay, especially for young quarterbacks as they continue to grow. I remember Phil Sims saying, you know, really a quarterback's prime is about 828-2-35. And that's why you see a guy like Tom Brady who's trying to hold on because he feels,

He's in such the right spot and has control of everything he's doing. That's why he's trying to play as long as he can. Chad, absolute pleasure. I want to thank you for coming on our show. Always appreciate your insight, my man. Colin, thanks. Great talking to you. You bet.

He was at that Hall of Fame with Randy Moss. By the way, I've had three friends text me. One of them, one of them is a salesman, one of them is a fireman, and one of them is in the media. Okay. these are not these are not like all rich guys these are my dudes they're all like dude if you can get season tickets for the lakers at 30 grand can i go in on them that seems like an incredibly low so we're getting some some conflicting reports on the actual location of those seats some of them are floor level not court side so the court side ones i don't think are available on on the resale market but very very very good seats for that price

Wow. We like good sportsmanship. That's why we're fans of Hyundai's new Shopper Assurance program, flexible test driving, transparent pricing, streamlined purchasing, learn more Hyundai USA.com slash shopper assurance. Learn for yourself, hour three. Next, The Herd. This is The Herd, wherever you may be,

and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, Joy Taylor, hour number three. Good to have you. And today on a, what is it today? Wednesday. It's Wednesday. I have a big lunch today, a very important person. Big lunch.

Do you nibble at big lunches or do you eat Hardy? I don't eat Hardy. I don't like napping. I get tired. I get it. So listen, in 15 minutes, Joel Klatz coming on. I'm going to give you my final four college football playoff. I take this stuff seriously.

I look at schedules. I look at buy weeks. He's going to push back on my top four playoff teams. And I'll come to LeBron's defense in 30 minutes. But there is an interesting story about Green Bay. So let me ask you a question. What's leadership? Everybody said Derek Jeter had it.

Arod didn't. Everybody says, Magic had it. Not sure if Kobe did. What is great leadership? I don't know. But I do know what it's not. Yeah, I don't know the healthiest foods in the world, but I know ice cream's not one of them, although I love ice cream.

Aaron Rogers, is he a great leader? Well, I don't know, but I'll tell you this. I used to bang on him for being passive-aggressive. He's now aggressive. Yeah, he came out. Do you hear him yesterday talking about young wide receivers? I like this, Aaron Rogers. It was one of the worst card sessions we've had.

I don't know how you can make it any simpler. You literally have what the play would be in our terminology on the card. And the effort level is very low, especially what I'm accustomed to. Well, I'm getting older and grumpier. I've been at this for a long time. I'm tired, too. You know, we're all a little tired. So you get a little tired.

The fuse gets a little shorter. And again, you know, you're in like the 14 play of a 14 play drive. And you get, you know, a low effort level and a MA, That's a little frustrating. Yeah, he didn't like him. He said they were terrible. He said at one point, he called it piss poor. I like that Aaron Rogers.

Again, I don't know what leadership is, but I know what it's not. I know it's not fake. Let me give you an example of a young quarterback who thinks this is leadership, and I'm here to tell you this is not leadership from Andrew Luck, a kid I like. I've said this before and probably after you know, I don't think the Saxon's necessarily indicative. of how well our offensive line plans. A lot of those, you know, you could probably blame me

for holding the ball too long. I feel like I miss some opportunities to help put the game away. The interception could play by the DB, bad ball by me. Yeah, it was a bad read. I threw it late, bad throw. And they make you pay for those in the NFL.

I'm disappointed myself for being a part of a slow start. I know that's not leadership, because nobody in the room bought that. I love that Aaron Rogers comes out and ripped his young receivers. I love it. By the way, if LeBron did that, would we have a problem? If Greg Popovich came out and ripped the player, will we have a problem?

If Steve Kerr came out and ripped somebody, will we have a problem? If Bill Belichick came out, Sean Payton came out and ripped the player, would we have a problem? Then why would I have a problem with the best player, arguably, some would say, no argument, in the NFL coming out and ripping young teammates. I loved it. You know, there's a bumper sticker. You ever seen those bumper stickers? You're driving around Joy, and the bumper sticker is mean people.

suck. And you know the bumper sticker I'd put right next to it? Standards isn't arrogance. They're standards. A lot of times we think old people, they're just cranky, this airline and this food. No, as people get older, they have seen efficiency. So when they deal with inefficiency, it drives them crazy. One of the great things about doing this business now for 20 plus years, Like I've seen really good and I've seen really average. And I'm not going to stand for really average anymore. And nor should you. I don't know what great leadership is.

But I know what it's not. Always taking the blame. Never being demanding. Love the new hyper-aggressive Aaron Rogers over the formerly passive aggressive Aaron Rogers. Let me shift to the Dallas Cowboys. You ever go to a hotel? and hotels got those circular mirrors in the bathroom.

They're called like vanity mirrors, otherwise known as confidence killers. And you go look in that vanity mirror, and it magnifies every blemish, right? So you can have a slight imperfection on your skin, and it looks like a civil war scar. And you walk around all day thinking, are people looking at that, No, it was a slight skin imperfection. But when you put a microscope on anything, and that's what those bathroom mirrors at a hotel are, they're like microscopes. It makes even a slight imperfection look like a major flaw. I read this morning another article telling me the Dallas Cowboys are doomed.

Cole Beasley, it says, Cowboys receivers will shock people because the assumption is they're just awful. No, no. Dallas is in the vanity mirror of the NFL. If I looked at the Cowboys and gave them a report card as a team, offensive line, which to me is the most important unit in the NFL, A plus. Defensive line, they found some good pass rushers, B plus. Running games matter, A plus. Quarterback head coach, good solid B.

Linebackers, when Sean Lee is healthy, a very, very nice group. And they drafted a young kid who I think could be a, star. We just see on Sunday night the cowboy game all by itself. On Monday night football by itself, we see the cowboy game. On Thursday night football, do you know why it is? Because every network, CBS, Monday night football, ESPN, Fox Thursday, NBC, Sunday night. They want to put the Cowboys on. And they often play as the only game left on television. Thursday by themselves, Monday night by themselves. Sunday night by themselves. That, Fox game or that late CBS game, there's usually only one other game being televised in America.

Take the Jacksonville Jaguars. Everybody loves the Jacksonville Jaguars. But that isn't a vanity mirror. That's the regular mirror where everybody in the right lighting when you dim the lights a little bit, you go to a hotel bathroom, you dim the lights in the big mirror, everybody looks like a supermodel. You only watch the Jags play twice last year, both times against the Steelers. So you're like, Man, Jacksonville, they are unbelievable. Did you watch them play twice against the Titans when they were 0 and 2 and once got beat 37 to 16? And in two games against the Titans, threw for a total of 350 yards?

Did you watch them get beaten by the awful New York Jets? The mediocre Arizona Cardinals, the 6 and 10 49ers? You didn't see those Jags games. When Dallas lost, it was often the quarterbacks who played at a Pro Bowl level. Jared Goff, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz. Marcus Marioada shredded. Shredded the Jags. Josh McCown beat them.

Whoever was quarterbacking for Arizona beat them. If I have to see another cowboy article, how it's gloom and doom, It's a good football team. Last two years with a baby quarterback, they've won 22 games. Only the Steelers and Patriots have won more. And you're in love with the Jags, who in a division where Andrew Luck and Deshawn Watson got hurt, had a nice 10-win season.

One more W than the Dallas Cowboys in the better NFC East and in the significantly deeper NFC. Coming up next, Joel Klatt, will challenge me as I unveil my final four in college football. Camps are open in college football. Cross your fingers, nobody gets hurt. We have got, to me, four obvious choices to end the year playing for the national title. Joel Clatt and I go head to head.

Plus, I defend LeBron against Mike Trout, like it needs defending. That's coming up with joy. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day. a week within the IHeart radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Friday, Big 3 is live

on FS1 from Atlanta as some of the game's greatest legends. Take it to the court with an old school attitude. It all begins at 8 Eastern on FS1 and don't miss the playoffs starting August 17th on Fox or stream it all live on the Fox Sports app. By the way, I forgot to tell you, I saw Dana White this weekend. Dana was mad at me and he thought

we were fighting. We had a Oh, I wonder why. I'm not going to get into it, but I bet I can guess. Dana White, I said something, and he fired back at me and called me a moron. He called you a moron. That's rude. Well, whatever. So we met. It was very good.

And we solved all our problems. I really liked it. Sometimes I'm a moron. Like briefly for like a second. Then the moron part leaves and the genius part comes back in. By the way, we're for good sportsmanship. Hyundai's new shopper assurance program, transparent pricing, flexible test driving. Go to Hyundai, USA.com, slash shopper assurance.

I'm so excited for my next guest because he's going to defend Baker Mayfield's awful appearance on hard knocks. I'm going to give you my final four in college football. I love them. Let's bring him on. Joel Klatte. I am so fired up for you today. There we go. Hi, Joy.

Oh, Joe? So let me start with it. I know, right? Hi, Colin. Hi, Joel. Here's the downside to go into Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC Big Dog programs. Here's the downside. is that the program every year

brings in a guy that plays your position and he's often better than you. So Jalen Hertz goes to Alabama, good quarterback wins title. And then Alabama says, hey, we're going to go get another quarterback too because we do that every year. And the guy they bring in,

he's way better than you. And now Jalen Hertz's like, well, you know, the coaches didn't talk to me. And my takeaway is the upside to going to Purdue as a five-star player. You're going to play for four years.

The downside to playing at Alabama as a five-star guy is, if you don't compete every day at practice, there's an NFL guy right behind you. Yeah. I got nothing against Jalen Hertz, but it's like, I don't know, I kind of side with Alabama on this one. Well, listen, I've got a lot of thoughts on this, but candidly, they don't have to do with Jalen specifically. You know, so what I'm about to say probably will be attributed to Jalen Hertz, and it's not meant for Jalen Hertz.

Okay. I'm going to use the term we as kind of a royal we as in all of us who have played the position of quarterbacks. You did, Colorado. We are the worst. We are entitled. or in large part selfish. And you have to be.

That's not a knock. You have to be to play that position. Only one goes out there. All right? I'm not trying to be best friends with my backup quarterback. Why? Because I got to beat them out.

Right? I got to keep them back there so that I can go play so I can help us win. So I understand probably better than some what this dynamic is like. What I'm frustrated with is the fact that we,

the football community, in particular from a young age, are now treating quarterbacks like individual sport athletes. We've got individual coaches for quarterbacks, they've got individual quarterback coaches even in high school. They've got all the seven-on-seven leagues, and they're trying to go to the Elite 11, which they do great things at the Elite 11. But again, you're treating them like an individual sport athlete. So the problem with that is that you become so self-absorbed that you lose the ability to fight through adversity. and I see in college football a narrative right now forming

that we've got a lot of really talented young quarterbacks that have no idea how to fight through adversity. I call it the only child syndrome in quarterbacking. They've never fought for their position. You know, if you're an only child, you never fight for any food at the dinner table. It's just all handed to you, right? I was the youngest of four.

If there was like a casserole out, it was on. You got to get yours. Tuna casserole, whatever it was. Mom makes it twice a month. You got to go for it. Hach brown and hamburger or something like that. You know what I mean? Gulosh.

I mean, but I think that we've lost that ability right now with young quarterbacks to just go fight for your position. You are not entitled to anything. And I'm talking again, all of you young players, go compete for and win your position. The backup running back or the starting running back is not concerned with how many times he spoke to the coach or who communicated with him about the depth chart. It's the depth chart. Go work your way up the depth chart and go forward from there. Two polarizing people I want to talk to. First, Baker Mayfield, who I've been marginally critical of.

On occasion. He has some defenders. So yesterday it was on heart. You call it defending. I call it keeping you real. Thank you. Okay, Baker Mayfield was on hard knocks. Yep.

Listen to this exchange. Troubling to say the least. Here we go. Do we have it? Hard knocks. Baker Mayfield. I guess that's what you said. When you said it was different.

I tried to tell you. And what time do you normally get up in the mornings? I was a little bit later this morning. No, no, I know. But what time you normally come over? It depends on when we saw it. Huh? Try and get in about two hours before.

Okay. You ever come in with your boy five? He does his own little workouts in the morning. Where's your own little workout in the morning? Huh? Where's your own little workout in the morning? You start starting your career, how you want to, you see what I'm saying? It's a competition, all in everything you do, baby.

know how to do it. Tyrod Taylor was there an hour, an hour and a half earlier than Baker Mayfield. Probably doesn't bother you. You sleep in guy? Where's clat? Hey, coach, I was here like eight minutes early. Hey, remember what was it about? I think it was like four and a half minutes ago you said like, yeah, sometimes I'm a moron.

Well, you're a moron right now. Do you remember that? I mean, you said it. I'm just using your own words. You said that. So you're okay with him showing up an hour and a half? Here's the problem with your take right now. is that every rookie in the national football league is having that exact same conversation with their coach.

The coach is having that conversation with said player. It just so happens that these two have a microphone right there. And it's featured on hard knocks. And it plays to your narrative. So you use it. It's just like the selective clips that you use for the Ohio State game about him, quote unquote, not celebrating with his team, even though he did because you cut the clips off early.

Here's the problem with this clip is that not only does every coach have, this conversation with every rookie in the National Football League, but it's a fake conversation. Let me tell you why. Because this coaching tactic is not correct. It's just not. I don't agree with this coach speak for the reason of every player is different. Every pattern is different.

Every work habit is different. Drew Breeze and Tom Brady don't do the exact same things. Aaron Rogers and Drew Breeze don't do the exact same things. Brady and Manning weren't the exact same type of player. Nick Foles didn't watch nearly the amount of film that Peyton Manning did, yet he's still a Super Bowl MVP. You do not have to be a clone to have success in the National Football League. The coach is trying to make himself feel better and more secure

by seeing that guy in at a certain time, the time in which the coach wants him. But work habits are so different. You go to the Counten Ohio Hall of Fame ceremonies last week, and you go to all the gold jackets, and you say, what were your work happens, and you're going to get a litany of different answers. Some guys work out well in the morning. That's when their body is right. They like to watch film in the morning.

Maybe they like to watch film after practice. Maybe their body's not right to work out until after practice. All I'm saying is that this is a coaching conversation that one is only being had to make the coach feel better about himself and happens with every single rookie, and I don't think we should blow it out of proportion. Baker is a football guy. He's going to be prepared, and I think he's going to start and should start. start for the Browns this season. Yeah, you know those guys in Canton that wear the gold jackets that played quarterback?

Not a lot of junk grabers in there. You didn't grab their junk in games. I mean, do you want to go back and look at every one of those players? By the way, the reason is that the cameras there. You don't think Warren Sapp was a little, you know, colorbacks. All I'm saying is why are the cameras at hard knocks? They're not with Sam Darnold because he didn't grab his junk. He didn't have a police video.

Part of the reason the cameras are there because Baker was a circuit. That's all I'm saying. Baker was not a circus. If you want to enable kids, that's fine. That's not how I parent. All I know is the guy walked on twice. He exceeded expectations every single season of his entire career. He won the Heisman trophy, which doesn't say much about your NFL prospects. But the fact remains he was a football guy. Did he make a couple of mistakes?

Yes. Does he have a chip on his shoulder? Yes. Let it play out. I mean, you want to bury the kid before he plays a game in the NFL because Hugh Jackson had some make myself feel better about myself conversation with Baker Mayfield. Listen, that conversation, Hugh Jack, like, save it. It was just very passive aggressive on Hugh Jackson's part. Of course it was. You should be in earlier. If you want him to come in earlier than Tyrod or the same time as Tyrod, say, hey, just so you know, you're in a quarterback competition and

the starting quarterback gets in earlier than you. So you say you want to be a starter. Maybe you should consider coming in earlier than him at the same time on you. But just say, oh, you know, Tyrod, he's a little earlier than you, you know. Hey, Goulet. Let me ask you this. Got a couple. enableers we're working with here. Let me ask you an honest question. If Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Brady

each had different work habits and Fitzpatrick showed up an hour earlier than Brady, does that make Fitzpatrick a better quarterback? That's just a hypothetical. Now you're just throwing... Why? I'm just asking you if player A shows up an hour early to whatever it is. Showing up early matters.

And player B doesn't. Does that make player A better at his craft? No. It doesn't. Hey, Joey, what time do I get here every morning? Guy in Schaigin rolls in off the toilet, reads the paper, and does a show. Goulet and I hear like four in the morning. You do get here very early. Okay, let's talk about another polarizing guy because I won that argument.

So, okay, here's my thing. I'm getting to my final four in college football. And by the way, one of these teams are going to push back on is going to be wrong. Yeah. Okay. So hardball. Let me defend hardball on this. Okay.

There was a really poor call against Ohio State in year two. Okay, they got it for, they stopped the Buckeyes. Yeah, it was a poor spot. I think it was a poor spot. It's a controversial spot. Okay. If it's a good spot, Michigan wins goes to the playoff. In his second year, we have now created a narrative because of two plays.

A punter dropped a ball against Michigan State. You know, by the way, as Parsell is a bad coach because Tony Romo dropped a snap in Seattle at a playoff game. No. And because a referee gave a bad spot in Columbus. otherwise he would have been 11 and 2 and 11 and 1 heading to the playoff. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. Hardbaugh takes ridiculous levels of heat. Well, I think it's agenda driven.

There are people that don't like him. Okay, so he rubs people the wrong way, and he's going to bear the brunt of criticism from those people, and they choose to create a false narrative, very similar to what you do with Baker Mayfield, just to hate on him. And they do the same with Jim Harbaugh. So at least you understand now what you're doing because that's what some people do against Jim Harbaugh. The fact remains is he won in five against his biggest rivals. Yes, he is. And would he like to change that?

Absolutely. But like you said, a punt snap and a bad spot and this narrative is completely different. The fact of the matter is, if you look at what Michigan was before Jim Harbaugh got there, junk. And what they are now, everybody in the world would say they are exponentially better off. And that's the fact. He's won at every single level he's coached at, almost every single year. He exceeds expectations, save for last season. We'll see what happens this year.

I will tell you this. That's a great defense. It's the most talented quarterback he's had at the college level since Andrew Luck. I think Michigan has a really good chance to win the East Division. They have to go to Notre Dame at Ohio State and at Michigan State. I don't love their schedule. Hard early, hard late, hard in the middle. Okay, here we go.

So I think I've done a pretty good job through the years. You know, top tens, who knows? Yeah. But I do think there are based on three things that matter to me. Hard to win a national title without a really good coach. Yeah. Hard to win a national title without really good personnel. And it is harder, even for Alabama to win a national title,

when you have like three tough road games. Okay. So you need the coach, the personnel, and schedule matters. Yeah. Here's my college football playoff. Clemson has an elite coach, the best defensive front arguably since like the Miami hurricane days, three NFL guys. ever. I mean, four guys in the top two rounds up front. It's incredible. They will suffocate most teams. Alabama's got my personnel. Defense won't be quite as good. But their schedule is so bad,

it doesn't matter. It's awful. So they got the coach, the personnel. It's care. Penn State. Now, we know the Big Ten, Joel, it's really good. Especially that division. Okay. So they're going to get a team in. Yeah. Even if you have a one or a two lost team, the conference is going to be so much better than the Big 12, so much better than the Pac-12. Penn State. So Michigan goes to Notre Dame, to Michigan State, to Ohio State. Ohio State goes to TCU, Penn State, and Michigan. Wisconsin goes to Iowa, who has the best quarterback, maybe in the country. Watch that kid be a top 10 quarterback, Stanley.

At Michigan, at Penn State. Penn State. Wisconsin at home, Ohio State at home, easy at a conference. They have to go to Michigan on Saturday, November 3rd. I'll take Penn State in the national championship. And by the way, Washington doesn't play USC and gets. the host Stanford. Those are my four pushback. I can't push back against Clemson and Alabama. I would be shocked if they were not in the playoff. I think the other two spots are where you're going to

see most of the disagreements, right? I think that Penn State is a really good team. They got a Heisman Trophy caliber player at quarterback, and he's 14 and 0 at home. So that home schedule bodes well for them. Now, what I'm concerned with with Penn State is that they lose Joe Moorhead, their coordinator, they lose Sequin Barclay, their dynamic running back. They lose Mike Kosicki, their tight end, and Deshaun Hamilton, very good slot receiver who was great on third down. That's just on the offensive side. They lose both defensive tackles, the Cothran, not brothers. They weren't brothers, but both last name Cothran.

They lose Jason Cabinda, maybe the strongest leader in all of college football and Marcus Allen in all conference safety. So all of a sudden, right down the middle of your defense, you're getting weaker. I think Penn State could struggle with all of those losses. I know they still have James Franklin and Trace McSorley. That's great to have your head coach. He's also a great. recruiter. He's recruited very well. It will be tough for them just because of all those losses. Their schedule certainly helps them out. Now Washington, the only pushback on Washington is their

schedule in conference has this little anomaly. They go to UCLA and then the very next week they travel to Oregon. Oregon is off a buy. That's dangerous. Oh, that is. That's very dangerous. And quite frankly, they have to beat Auburn. And then if they, They beat Auburn, then they're going to be allowed to maybe slip up and potentially even lose. I do think that's a tough one. Auburn's rebuilding their offensive line. I think Washington should win. They should.

There's two NFL quarterbacks there. Auburns is a better prospect at quarterback in the NFL. Auburn's rebuilding their old line and Auburns had two crucial wide receiver injuries. So I think Washington wins a fairly low-scoring football game. Just to give you an idea, Oklahoma has not played back-to-back consecutive week road games. since 2011. And Washington's got to go consecutive week road games. The second being at Oregon, a true contender with a top 10 pick at quarterback.

Yes. Off a buy. That's a really good call there, clatt. That's a rough one. Okay, so in review, you whiffed on the Baker Mayfield opinion, but you were pretty good everywhere else. You know, listen, you're so funny. The first thing you're like, we've got to be tough wrong quarterbacks. And then I got that junk grabbing Baker Mayfield guy, and you're like, you're too tough on quarterbacks, coward.

Let's be honest about it. it. All I said is that quarterbacks need to fight through adversity. And guess what that kid did? I mean, listen, he walked on, had to go to a different school. He's fought through adversity. You want a guy that's going to compete for and win a job? It's Baker Mayfield. Tyra Taylor's got no shot. Hey, by the way, Baker Mayfield's going to be their quarterback. I got a lot of pushback on the show yesterday from a lot of people. By the way, Baker, I was almost like a proud father. When he came on this show, he just crushed you. It was like an empty soda can. Like, you know, you stepped on an empty soda can. It was so good.

Give me a break. It was so good. So I said this yesterday on the show, and Joy pushed back on this. I mean, seriously, I said, she goes, could you tackle somebody in the NFL? And I said, well, if I was a free safety, had an angle and Baker's running down the sideline. Oh, so he's the one you're going to tackle. I can chop his legs out. Okay.

You don't think so. No. I mean, you don't think I can tackle Baker Mayfield. Clearly. No. Okay, I'm a free safety. I've got an angle. And he's, you know, kind of slowly jogging down the field.

I couldn't pop those legs. I would give you like a zero percent. chance. I think Colin's going through something, Joel. He's going to pull up to work tomorrow in like a pink or green Lamborghini or something. Is there a little bit of life going on right now? I mean, you're not, you're not

tackling Baker Mayfield. You don't think anybody in the NFL I could tackle. What about this? I'm a, your only chance is Brady. You guys, you know, I mean, you're both middle-aged guys running slowly around the field. I mean, maybe you can bring him down. I'd literally go to tackle him. I'd be like,

hey, man, I can't. What do you think, Joy? Tom Brady. Is that his best chance? And listen, this is not a shot at Colin, but I think sometimes we get a little too close to athletes and we forget that they're professional athletes and make a whole dollars for a reason. I totally agree. People have no concept how good professional athletes are.

Right, but the difference is... Okay, let's do this. Could I tackle you? No. Oh, down a sideline? No, I take your pretty boy face right out. Not a chance. I would go head hunting for you.

Now, this I fully support, and I feel like we should just go to a field and find out. You would be in concussion protocol. I'd go right after you. I've been in plenty of concussion protocols, and I don't think you could break a paint of glass. We need this on tape. Joel Clatt, everybody, Joy Taming with the news.

We do need this on the news. This is the herd line news. So, Colin claims he runs every day. I do. I'm going to run today after the show. I went jogging soft yet on the beach. It was lovely. He goes to a club.

Running on the beach is very hard. Rocky side. Speaking of Baker Mayfield, he insists it's business as usual and prep for his first NFL action Thursday night against the Giants. Hugh Jackson said all week he expects Baker to play, quote, quite a bit. But if you thought he'll have any first game jitters, you are wrong.

I played this game for a long time. I don't get nervous, so I'm going to say that I'm not going to have to worry about that part. I'm not going to be able to put my mind exactly how Eli Manning's thinking, but if I see a concept, I'm going to run it just like we do. What do you expect to see from Baker? He's not really a nervous jittery guy.

I don't expect that. I think they're going to pretty vanilla defenses, pretty vanilla offenses, and I think he'll complete 65% of his throws. I don't, that's not, with my questions about Baker sometimes judgment, maturity, and ceiling. But again, you put him in a preseason game. I think most of these quarterbacks, like I think Donald Rosen, Baker are going to look good in the preseason.

I don't think Lamar Jackson's ready to play in the NFL, so he did not look good in preseason. I don't think Josh Allen's ready to start. so I don't think he'll look good in preseason. But Rosen, Darnold, and Baker, you're going to walk away and go, you're going to feel pretty good about it because they, I mean, Baker completed 70% of his balls in college. And he has a nice motion. It's kind of effortless.

It's very natural. When he throws the football, you're like, that's the way it should look. Right. I hope for his sake and for the Brown's sake that he doesn't struggle early, you know, go out there, Johnny Mansell style, which I don't expect in any way. But I do hope that he doesn't struggle. in this first preseason game. Baker is a significantly, in my opinion,

better pocket quarterback than Johnny. Johnny's a run-around guy. Baker can sit there and throw darts. Okay, so the NCAA has announced a series of policy changes regarding their rules for student athletes. So this comes in response to the ongoing FBI investigation into several prominent college basketball programs, which was a pretty big deal a couple months ago.

It's kind of quieted down. But there are some significant changes. So student athletes will be able to participate in the NBA draft and return to school if they're undrafted, which is big. And elite high school basketball recruits in college players can be represented by an agent who can help them make informed decisions about going pro. I like that part. Yeah. So the old rule was players were allowed to declare for the draft without hiring an agent. But if they hired an agent, that meant that they were not allowed, they weren't be eligible to participate in college athletics anymore, which is insane.

You should always be allowed to hire proper representation and protect yourself. I mean, it's crazy. And by the way, this just says every single Kentucky player and Duke player can compete. You know, I mean, they can say I'm eligible for the draft. And if they don't get picked, they just go back to school. Well, they should. That's what I totally agree. Both these make their common sense rules that benefit the kid.

Yes. And it's unfortunate that it has to take something like an FBI investigation for them to think of like what's best. for the student athletes. The saddest thing happens when a kid says, okay, I'm going to go pro and doesn't get drafted. Right, and then can't go back and finish school. Yeah, these are both in, these are helping young people, so I'm for both new rules.

They're great rule changes. Okay, so we had a lot of back and forth about this last hour. You have people texting you. Yeah. So we're going to set the record straight. So this all started with Akib to Leib saying that he needs LeBron to hook him up with some tickets. Okay.

For Lakers games because he's very excited about LeBron playing for the Lakers. Now, we had some bad information on the floor seats being $30,000 a seat. Which I thought was a steel. We thought was very, very low. Yeah. Like, bizarrely low. Right. And then we began trying to talk to you into purchasing those seats so that we all can go as a staff.

Okay. So the best available seat left is on the first row of the beginning of the regular seats. Yeah. So still excellent seats, but not on the floor. And that's $62,000 a seat for the season. Okay. A little more realistic. Okay, so basically the floor seats are probably in the 75,000, 100,000.

Right, right, at least. And none of them are available. Because you have to imagine that people have had Lakers season tickets, whether they were bad or good for forever. They may sell individual games, but they're not selling their season tickets. I don't call. I think I've gotten free tickets from the L.A. Kings twice and the Lakers once. I don't like getting free tickets.

Oh, what are you crazy? You do? Of course. Who pays for tickets in this business? Okay. Well, I have a high ethical standard. That's good of you. That's good of you. Next time, take them and give them to us. Yeah, exactly. How selfish. You know what? I am demanding front row seats game one with the wrong. I'm not saying you demand anything.

You don't demand it? No. What do you call up and beg? No, I mean, like if you have an, I don't ask for court side playoff tickets, but I mean if there's some extra tickets laying around and I can go to a game. Who do you call? I mean, people that you know in the business.

You know, you know people that work for different organizations. Jeannie Bus, this is Colin Coward. I'm sure Jeannie would be happy to host Colin. Six tickets center court for my children. No, he's not six. You get a ticket for you and your wife and go to a Lakers game and see LeBron. You don't go every, you're not asking for season tickets. I'm sure Jeannie will hook you up.

Okay. All right. I enjoy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. Coming up, craziest LeBron take I've had all year. That's next and best for last.

Welcome back. Oh, good last segment. I don't want to waste any time. Let's do Best for Last. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last. So Bleacher Report, which is generally a fairly redeemable blog,

came out with a headline in a story yesterday that LeBron's great, but Mike Trout of the Angels is the generation's most dominant male athlete. The quote was here, calling LeBron the most dominant American male athlete diminishes the greatness of one much less newsworthy star Mike Trout. His greatness is so enormous and consistent that most fail to recognize how much better than everybody else Trout is at hitting a baseball. Now, I would not dispute that he is the best baseball player out there. Bryce Harper's more fun to watch. Aaron Judge Tham, he is more fun to watch. Mike Trout's an all-star, a seven-time, all-star, a two-time MVP, five seasons with 30-plus home runs.

He's already hit 30 this year for the awful angels. But dominant is the wrong word because he's simply not as involved. And to be dominant in a household, in a business, you have to have a high involvement rate. So here's what we found when we talked about participation rates. in the past three years, LeBron James is either on the court he's average 38 minutes out of 48, playing offense, defense, running up and down the court. So LeBron is involved in 79% of the plays. His participation rate in the last three years is 79%.

To be dominant, you have to be involved. You're going to be a dominant boss, a dominant parent, a dominant athlete. You have to be involved. His participation rate is 79%. Tom Brady. On the field, under center, passing running, hiking, handing it off, and yes, occasionally receiving. His participation rate is 46%.

Not nearly as high as LeBron's, but still almost half the time. Now, Mike Trout, we totaled up how many times he's at the plate during a game, how many times he's on base, how many times the ball is hit to him in the outfield, and he has a chance to make a play on the ball. His participation rate for Mike Trout, remember, more dominant than LeBron, his participation rate is 13 percent. Folks, in fishing, actual trout, have a higher participation rate. He is on the Seinfeld show Newman. This is not to say he's not remarkable, but this is why an individual baseball player in the field, unless you're on the mound with a ball,

you simply don't translate to wins and losses, as good as Aaron Judge is. He's better because of their payroll and what he's surrounded by. That Mike Trout is simply not involved in the game like any baseball player, and you can't dominate if you're not involved in anything. Best for last.

Tomorrow, Anthony Lynn, NFL head coach for the Chargers, who I have picked to win the division, most people do in all those magazines, will be joining us. So I thought this was interesting. You know, I'm such a, I'm such a hater of Cam Newton. I'm so anti-Cam Newton. Very interesting. So pro football focus ranks every NFL quarterback entering the league.

This is based on analytics. Number one, Brady, two Aaron Rogers, three Matt Ryan, four, Drew Brees, five, Russell Wilson, six Big Ben, seven, Andrew Luck, eight, Phillip, Rivers, nine, Carson, Wentz, 10, Matthew, Stafford, 11, Jimmy Garoppolo, 12, Dack Prescott, 13. 13 Derek Carr, 14 Kirk Cousins, 15 Alex Smith, 16 Marcus Marriott. What's that? What's that? 17 Cam Newton. Closer to James Winston than he is Carson Wentz. Oh, I thought I was a hater. As I've said before, take out people's best year, take out people's worst year. In life, you are what you repeatedly do.

take out Cam's great MVP year when everything clicked. And you take out his worst year, maybe his rookie year, here's what you're left with. A marginal quarterback who's got good legs, 84-passer rating. Nick Wright earlier defended Cam Newton. You're certainly not as wrong on Cam as you are about Westbrook, if that makes you feel better. But we have to stop with Cam Newton acting like the rushing doesn't count. Like, yeah, he scores, though he scored the most rushing touchdowns of any, not quarterback,

player in football since he came into the league. He has the highest yards per carry since he came into the league. He's top 12 in rushing yards, not amongst quarterbacks amongst players since he came into the league. Let's throw all that out. He's the most effective and prolific rushing quarterback ever. I don't dispute that, but I do believe that so much of football, now, since huddles have been eliminated, is pre-snap. Is that can you effectively change plays at the line of scrimmage? And the guys that do are really good. Russell Wilson, Aaron, Brady.

I think Cam goes to the line. I've been told this and he's got to play and he's just going to do it. And I don't think he's an accurate thrower. Now, my rankings with Cam have always been 12th best in the league. Pro football focus does analytics, has him at 17. The NFL execs last month or ESPN, 30 execs and scouts had him at 11. And that's kind of where I see him. But a lot of times get called a hater.

I just think when I look at quarterbacks, we are in a precision era, and he's not precise enough for me. See you tomorrow. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline.

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