The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 09/05/2018

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

Colin thinks the Packers are the big loser in the Khalil Mack trade and explains why. He thinks the Cowboys biggest problem isn't on their roster or even a member of the organization. Plus, Super Bowl Champion and former Linebacker Bryan Cox comes in studio to talk about the Steelers lack of recent success and why he thinks the Giants are setting up for another disappointing season. Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin. and cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. I'll be dealing cards at the Mirage in five hours. I've got my blackjack shirt on.

Joy Taylor is joining me. How are you today, Joy? You're into this black shirt today. I don't. Skip Bayliss and Shannon. Skip Baylis. He wears a lot of those. He looks like dynamic.

It's a Johnny Cash look. Yeah. I mean, look at me. I don't know. Almost out of place. I got to start with this. Everybody yesterday, and I did this in regard to the Raiders. Because I come in every morning.

I have a bunch of shirts I can wear. I chose this to talk about the Raiders. Everybody thinks the Raiders lost in the Khalil Mack story goes to the Bears, right? Everybody's banging on the Raiders. And I was banging on the Raiders yesterday. And I thought about it. I got to pay respects to the Raiders. my black shirt today. And the reason I'm doing that, because they were not the real loser in the

Khalil Mac deal. The real loser was Aaron Rogers. I want you to think about this. I want you to think about this. If you're the Green Bay Packers, why didn't you get Khalil Mack? A, you're the only team in the NFL with two first round picks next year. Have them. You're it. Nobody else has them. One quick, you get two firsts, we get the next Lawrence Taylor. B. You knew rival bears in your division. You play them twice a year, we're going after Khalil Mack. It had been reported before the deal. Aaron Rogers has had two collarbone surgeries. Want to face him minimum 10 times next five years? That Viking pass rush and Khalil Mack the next Lawrence Taylor? Really, want Aaron to see that? Think he's going to get to

in a couple times? I don't know. Play them 10 times in five years. You want to face the next Lawrence Taylor? C. Green Bay's defense right now is young and mostly cheap. You've got room to spend big money on a Khalil Mac.

D. Reggie McKenzie is a former Packer executive. He's the current Raiders GM. You had a built-in emotional psychological advantage. You had a guy that respects and likes the Packers in the building, and he didn't use it. E, we've got history here, folks. Green Bay is not where free agent stars go.

They don't go to Green Bay. So when you can get them in a trade, you get him in a trade. F. Aaron Rogers never loses in the playoffs when you give him help defensively. When Green Bay gives up fewer than 23 points in the playoffs, Aaron Rogers has never lost. But here's what Green Bay has given up in his losses in the playoffs. 51 points, 37 points, 45 points, 28 points, 26 points, 44 points. Green Bay is 7 and 1, if you can just hold people to a reasonable number, 23. You've got good interior defensive

lineman, you drafted corners. Next year, the one thing in the first round you're going to draft, you were going to draft a defensive end, a pass rusher. I said this yesterday. Once again, people in Green Bay, this organization is

not comfortable with risk. But Colin, but Colin, we signed Aaron Rogers to an extension. That's not risk. That's duh. That's like telling my kids, hey, don't walk out in front of traffic. that's like, hey, I didn't jump out of a plane without a parachute.

Of course you re-sign Aaron Rogers. That's not courage. That's like you're idiots if you don't do that. Kaleel Mack, well, it takes a little courage. You've got to give up stuff to get stuff. I mean, Green Bay, you got a guy off a collarbone surgery. You knew your rival was going after him. I mean, you do realize the Patriots traded Garoppolo to the other conference.

They don't want to face him. You knew the rival bears were going after him, and they already have a good defensive front. You already got Minnesota's defense. Now you got Chicago's defensive front. And you had two first round picks. And you know if you give Aaron a little defensive help, he never loses in the playoffs. The one time you gave him a defense, he won you a Super Bowl. I mean, come on.

I don't want to hear that signing Aaron Rogers took guts. That's the biggest, duh, in professional sports. courage would have been we're going to give up two first round picks to get Khalil Mack. You had it. You're not a free agent destination and you blew it.

Let me shift to this. Hard Knocks, final edition was on last night. I'm a parent. I've got kids and I've got stepkids. And here's the way it works. Everybody watching me that's a parent. Every parent listening to me knows what I'm about to say is true.

I said, dad, sometimes I'll talk to my wife. And you have these conversations. You know, do you think he's ready to do this by himself? Is she ready to do it by himself? And your kids are all different. Some are more mature. Some are less mature. Some can handle being out by themselves.

Some can't. And it really happens a lot with dry, when you're young. Is she ready for a driver's license or one of those like permits where the parents are in the car? And if you really trust your kid and you think they're mature and they can handle it, you just get them a driver's license and you don't have to be in the car and you just let them go. They're going to drive to another state and you trust them. That's a great, great feeling as a parent.

and it shows you the respect for the kid. But if you just get them a learner's permit, honey, we'll let you drive, but dad and I'll be in the car as we go to the grocery store. You love them. You think they're capable, but you don't really trust them yet. Maturity.

So Baker Mayfield on Hard Knocks, last night got a learner's permit. Watch this with Hugh Jackson. Watch. I've made a decision. to make Baker the backup quarterback. I just wanted to make sure I want you guys to hear it from me. I said all the stuff that flies out there and all that

B. Okay, thank you. I need to speak to you for a second. You're a very talented young man. Keep grinding. Okay, and I'm going to keep creating situations for you to even do more. I hope you understand the opportunity that's in front of you right now, but you've earned it. I'm not just giving it to you.

You've earned it. Okay? Appreciate it. All right, buddy. The number one pick has earned. the backup quarterback role. What the Browns coaches are saying is, we think you're talented,

you're a really good kid, but right now, we're going to bring you along kind of slowly here. Philadelphia with Carson Wentz and the Jets was Sam Darnold. When Wentz went to Philadelphia, they already had a starter, Sam Bradford. They had a starter.

They were going to bring Wents along slowly. When the Jets had Sam Darnold fall to them at number three, Josh McCown was very good last year. Go look at his stats week one through 14. They brought in Teddy Bridgewater in March. They had a starter. But Wence and Darnold were so impressive that the coaches slash parents said, we're going to trade the quarterback.

We're going to trade Sam Bradford. We're going to trade Teddy Bridgewater. It's your car. Now, we know you're not going to be the best driver on the road. We know you're not going to be a perfect driver. But here's the keys. We'll see you tomorrow. Cleveland, even with just Tyrod Taylor, you have earned your right to a learner's permit.

But mom and dad will be in the car. Let's go to the grocery store. That's what happened yesterday. because this is why Baker was never a number one pick. He'll work in the NFL. He'll be fine. He'll win games. That's not it.

Number one picks. Carson Wentz came into Philly. And Sam Darnold came into the Jets. And they are so impressive. Number one quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Cam. Create these wow moments where you're like, whoa, whoa, we got ourselves to stop.

He's not refined and polish. We don't need Sam Bradford. We don't need Teddy. Remember when Doug Peterson was on my show a week ago? And I asked him, in camp, when was that moment you were like, okay, we can trade Sam Bradford. We got ourselves a star. There was a moment in training camp that year, our first year, where he alluded to rush and did one of his sort of that Washington, remember the clip of the Washington Redskins last year, opening day.

He made that amazing scramble where he kind of duck and spun out. Well, he did one of those type of moves in training camp his first year as a rookie and completed the ball down the field. And at that point, you're just kind of going, this kid's got something to him. He's going to be a special kid in this league, a special talent and a mighty fine quarterback. That's what a number one or number two or number three pick at quarterback should be. That they're not refined. They're not perfect, but Cam did things and Luck did things.

And Carson went to two pick did things. And Darnold is the number three pick. They do things. And you're willing to trade veterans who at the moment are better than them. But there are just, wow. That's what parents do. That's what I've done. My daughter, very mature kid at a very early age, here's the keys.

Here's the keys. You're not going to be the best driver on the road, but here are the keys. At this point, I love my son, but I'm not letting him ride his bike without me kind of keeping my eye on him. Where are you going? Where are we're? Here's the bike, but don't turn right there. It's different. It's not a matter of not loving.

It's not a matter of this is the way parents operate. This is the way we all operate. When we feel you are so talented, so good. You can do it on your own. overcome mistakes. And Sam Donald's going to have 20 picks. He's going to fumble the ball. You're going to get beat up.

Same with Carson Wentz. This is why if you're going to draft the quarterback number one, you better know he's going to give you some wow. And you can give him keys to that card day one. And he is just going to burrow through it. He's just, Peyton Manning, he's going to throw picks. He's just going to have so much talent. Cam's going to have so much talent.

Lux got to have so much talent. They just got burrow through it. That's what Cleveland did yesterday. Told Baker, he earned a learner's permit. It's like getting your kid a Ferrari and then getting a learner's permit. Like maybe you should have, you know, started him with a neon or something. Neon. That was my first car.

Was it? Yes. And I was very, I was a terrible driver. There was no reason I should have. I had a pacer GMC or AMC or something pacer. I think it eventually blew up at a gas station, but that was my... I wasn't in it at the time. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd.

Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. So I'm listening to Troy Aikman yesterday's on Dallas Radio. Everybody's picking apart in the Cowboys. Yesterday, I put out my official NFL predictions. I had the Cowboys at 9 and 7 last month. I reduced them to 8 and 8. Why I'll get to that in a second. So Troy Aikman comes out yesterday and talks about, you know, this team, no

DES, no Witt, some of the issues they're going to be presented with. If I were DAC, and I'm looking at this receiving core, yeah, maybe it's now more of a four-wide type situation, and you're not relying or, you know, the tight end between Cole Beasley and Tavon Austin and this Michael Gallup, who I've had a chance to watch a little bit. I like a lot of the things that he has shown. And then, of course, Alan Hurons coming in via free agency, passing game could still. I completely agree. But I don't think that's their biggest problem. The reason I have the Cowboys now at 500, and I like it. them. But there's a reason I have them at 500. It's not about who's in the building. It's about

who's out of the building. I have a basic rule predicting NFL games. If I don't have a pro-bowl quarterback. And I like Dak. He's about 15th best quarterback in the league today. And I'm facing multiple pro-bowl quarterbacks who are better than my current quarterback. I'm not going to be a dominating team. Dallas's biggest problem is the quarterbacks they face. They will face in 11 games, a quarterback that's better than DAC and seen largely as a Pro Bowl quarterback. Carson Wentz twice, Russell Wilson, Cam, Matt Ryan, Breeze, Matt Stafford, Andrew Luck, Deshawn Watson, Alex Smith, two times. That's about 70% of the schedule. By the way, Blake Bortles, they face him too, and he's got an amazing defense, though he's not a pro bow. So you could say 12 of the 16 games,

he's up against it. Now, and again, I like Dak. Much higher on Dak than everybody else. I have him, you know, middle of the pack, but I like him. I think he's a beat quarterback. He's a franchise guy. You're not going to be a dominating team facing those quarterbacks. Compare that to Tom Brady.

Tom Brady faces five all year elite level quarterbacks. Stafford, Luck, Rogers, Cousins, Big Man. and I would say two of those Rogers, Ben, maybe three, luck, you could argue on a lot of Sundays are as equal. So three of 16. That's why I like New England, and I don't love their roster, but I like them to win the division. My Super Bowl picks this year are the Pittsburgh Steelers facing the Atlanta Falcons. Why? Because Big Ben's a Pro Bowl quarterback, and he'll only face five, and they got close last year, and they got a chip on their shoulder.

and the Atlanta Falcons were really good last couple years. Got a little chip on their shoulder, lost at Philly could have won, and they only face six Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Dallas faces 11 and doesn't have a Pro Bowl quarterback. So we're all, you know, kind of marginalizing. And by the way, I thought Troy was totally accurate. We're all kind of beating up on the Cowboys. They'll be this, they'll be this, this.

Here's what they will truly be 11 of 16 weeks. Less talented at quarterback. Hard to make the playoffs when that's your reality. Not an excuse. An excuse is the dog ate your homework. A reality is somebody teabone me driving to work or school. Like 11 to 16 games, you'll have the less talented quarterback. I don't feel you can be a playoff team.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. When I pick my topics every day, I'm trying to pick stuff that I think you're interested. in. So some of these stories you may be interested in. The tough part for me is I never want to fake it on the air. I never want to pretend like I care about something that I don't. So what I'm trying to do every morning when I do this show is find stories that you'll watch and find stories I feel strongly about. And then when we can connect, I really care. But I saw this headline this morning.

and there's five stories in the NFL I keep seeing written about, talked about, I'm just over them. I'm just completely over them. I can't even fake it anymore. Let's go through my top five stories. I'm tired of faking that I'm interested. Number one.

Here it is. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady addresses retirement acknowledges, quote, there's an end coming. No kidding. He's 41. Yes. The end is needed.

It's like sitting in a theater for two hours and ten minutes. The end of the movie's coming. How do I know? Because you're two hours and ten minutes into the movie. We've been talking about this really for like two years now. Okay, it's, yes. Because it started at halftime of the Falcons Patriots Super Bowl. It was like, this is the end of Tom Brady.

Look up Daredeerboy's playing. I mean, our people in the newspaper industry, There's a million stories with New England. Forget the NFL. And this is nothing against USA today. But God, for the love of God, I love the Patriots. I love Brady. I can't even fake it anymore.

I have a strong feeling, Colin, that there will be a time when Tom Brady retires from football. I have the same feeling. It's weird, right? Weird. The movie in the theater is going to end. I just know it. It's a weird feeling. Here's the second story.

Number two. Yeah. Labian Bell, is he going to play it for? the Steelers in week one? Folks, they win with him, they win without him. He's going to eventually play this year. Week four, week six. I mean, seriously, the Browns are in their division. The Bengals are in their division.

They've got pro bowlers up front. The best receiving core outside of Atlanta in the NFL. Big Ben, veteran coach, led the NFC and Sacks. Listen, he's going to play eventually. You know, he, listen, he, I'm not going to, do I have to talk about this every week? they're 10 and 4 in the games he hasn't played. The Steelers have shown an ability. They are so gifted at so many places in a kind of weak marginal division.

They're winning this thing with or without him. Whether he starts week one and week three, he'll start at some point play, be good, and they'll be a playoff team. Now, as a fantasy football player, I have to push back a little bit. We kind of need to know if we can draft him high, you know. But week's he going to be back. Some important stuff going. Third story.

Number three. Who is going to sign Colin Kaepernick in the NFL? I don't know. He's suing the league. Like, you know what suing means? I'm trying to get money out of you. I'm not saying Colin Kaepernick's not good enough to start in the league. But let's be honest.

Nobody's going to build a franchise around him. If at all, he's a backup, I got to spend this much time worried about a backup in the NFL. He's a backup quarterback. He hasn't played in years. years. The only and by the way, he deserves, he doesn't deserve, I don't care. He's not good enough as a

quarterback, and I don't want to talk about politics. I want to talk about football. I'm a sportscaster. Nobody's ever come up to me in my life and said, Colin, who's your favorite senator? Colin, if you had to rank top five governors, who would they be? Nobody's ever said that, because nobody cares about my political thoughts. And I think

Kampernick can be an interesting, fascinating guy on other shows, not mine, but as a football player, he's okay. better than some, worse than many. I'm just done talking about it. Well, at this point and the situation with the lawsuit, it's pretty obvious that he's not going to get a job in the NFL. But numbers-wise, his last year playing,

while the team was obviously awful, his numbers were equivalent to Andy Dalton and Tyrod Taylor. But they're not suing the league. Right, but that's why he's not going to... The discussion of whether he's going to get a job in the NFL at this point... It's done. It's in a non-discussion. All right.

Here's the fourth one. This one's embarrassing. Nick Foles should start, not Carson Wence week one. And when Wence comes back, he's going to have to fight for his starting job. Oh, shut up. Nick Foles and Carson Wence. People. You're talking about Air Force One and a prop plane.

What are you talking about? Carson Wendz is an all-time talent. Nick Foles almost quit two years ago. Good. God, Nick Foles in the Super Bowl. Mark Sanchez got the back-to-back AFC championship games, beat Brady in New England, beat Peyton Manning in Indianapolis.

Tim Tebow won six straight games. Would you stop trying to convince me Nick Foles is a challenger for Carson Wends? Come on. There's not a general manager in the league in a decade that have given the choice between those two would say, let me think about it. Let me make some calls to my scouting department.

They'd be like, who's asking again? What's your name? You think these guys are close? They're not close. The minute Wents can play, he'll play. Lord, I'm tired of that. And finally, number five. Where's Des Bryant going to play?

Where's Des Bryant going to play? I was kind of interested in this for about a week. But it doesn't really matter because he's not a number one receiver. Receivers, even the great ones in this league like Julio Jones and O'Dell Beckham Jr. Don't really translate to wins. They can be good and get yards. but nobody's going to build a franchise around Des Bryant. Nobody really trusts the maturity of Des Bryant.

The Cleveland Browns passed. The Patriots are desperate and passed. Listen, somebody's going to figure out a way to get him on a team, and they're going to figure out how to get him on a team once the season starts so they can cut him if he becomes, you know, a headache. But Des Bryant's not winning games in this league. I mean, he had 800 yards last year for the Cowboys. The Dowell's Cowboys, knowing Jason Witten,

was probably going to retire, knowing their weakest position was receiver, knowing they planned a division with the Philadelphia Eagles, Super Bowl champs, and a great defense, knowing Pat Schumer's going to the Giants, Giants are going to be better. They're like, we're out of, we're done with Des Bryant. And that's from an organization, Dallas historically, Jerry Jones, that loves players who everybody else is afraid of. The Des Bryant story. So in review, these five stories, I can't fake anymore.

Tom Brady retiring, duh, Labian Bell's holdout. Colin Kaepernick deserves a job. Carson Wentz is better than Foles, potentially. Or no way, excuse me, Nick Foles and Carson Wence, we should be arguing over who starts, and then Des Bryant, where is he going to go? Because my job, basically, honestly, is a talk show host,

is to find stuff that you'll listen to and watch, and that I at least have enough passion that I can talk about it for five. minutes at a time. Boy, these five I'm done with. I think Desa will actually be incredibly interesting once he does end up on a team because I have the feeling like Des is going to talk finally about what his mentality or what the process has been this whole time that we're all speculating about. It's almost like this extended MBA free agency type of thing with Des, like, but he won't sign anywhere.

So that'll be interesting again once he finally signed somewhere because, well, he'll talk. Really? I think so. The only thing that keeps me interested in the DES situation is it seems like he has this strategy that no one else understands. That to me is what is interesting about it. The fact that he's not signed anywhere, I mean, logistically, just talking about the contract situation makes sense. Doesn't Des do a bunch of stuff that nobody understands? He's kooky-madukee.

Like, Dez is, when the Cowboys said no thanks, I think that's sense. a huge message in the league. Jerry says thanks, not no thanks, to players who can be trouble. When Jerry Jones is like, I'm out. Yeah, I think that Jerry and Des, it seems like they still have a good relationship because Des only talks about everyone but Jerry. He talks about all the other players, coaching staff. Yeah, Jerry's staff, Jerry's son came to him and said, Dad.

Yeah, it seems like this was forced on Jerry. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. So Terry Bradshaw, I came out a couple years ago, and I criticized Mike Tom and I said, he reminds me of Pete Carroll. He's clearly good enough to win a Super Bowl, but it's a lot of pro player, raw, raw, pompom stuff. And it's like, that stuff over time erodes.

You can sell that for a while. But I've been saying this about the Steelers. In the last seven years, with Big Ben, with great pass rushers, with superstar running backs, pro bowlers on the offensive line, best receiving court, maybe in the league or second to Atlanta. In seven years, in an easy division where they get home field, they got three playoff wins. And they're all ugly.

One of them was against the Bengals in that mess of a game in which Cincinnati had it and lost it more than the Steelers won it. The other one was over Matt Moore's Miami Dolphins. You remember that. And the other one, they couldn't score a touchdown, six field goals to beat Kansas City. in a rare, boring, Steeler playoff game. That's not good enough.

It's like Harbaugh. Nobody doubts Harbaugh can coach. But right now at Michigan, that's not good enough, and everybody's unloading on him. Nobody has a problem unloading on Jim Harbaugh. Nobody thinks he's a terrible coach. But we're saying is, for the Michigan job, for the standards, not good enough.

Can't just beat Purdue and nine wins a year. Not good enough. Got to win 11. Got to beat Ohio State. That's all I'm saying. So Terry Branshaw, criticized him again. Every time Terry criticizes him, it's like, whoa,

what are you saying? He's saying when everybody's saying. This is Terry Bradshaw with on Mike Tomlin. He's really a great cheerleader guy. I don't know what he does, but I don't think that he's a great coach at all. His name never even pops in my mind when we think about great coaches in the NFL.

Okay, so that was last year. Major blowback. He said it this past weekend he was talking. Terry Bradshaw said this. I played for a tough sucker, and I was afraid of it, and we played our ass off for him because we feared him. And I don't see that with this guy. He's chest bumping and all that. I'm sorry, but he's not my kind of coach, and I said it before. I'll say it again. My criticism is, how can you have this great offense and you being a defensive guy? And I think that football team should have been in another Super Bowl or two.

How could they not be? So I got a former legend twice. By the way, Big Ben has come out publicly, multiple times and been critical of him. This is Big Ben, the current quarterback. We'll chew this up, and we need to be more disciplined and more accountable. They're a great football team. Like I said, we're undisciplined and not accountable. That's why they're one of the best in the business, and we're not right now.

Okay, those guys have earned the right to an opinion. Terry and Big Ben then James Harrison Longtime Steeler came on my show and he said this I feel like it needs to be more disciplined some of the things that they do coaching-wise I feel like some of situations

that we were in when we were there as far as time management calling of defenses you know we had a situation where we had double-call defenses because you know one thing was said then someone said something else so you got half the defense playing one defense

the other half playing something else. So you get situations out there where it looks bad like, oh, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. Well, he's just playing a different defense possibly on that play than what the other half of the defense was playing. When I have three people who have all earned the right to an opinion and they all have the same opinion, and it's something that I talked about three years ago because I noticed it, it doesn't mean Mike Tomlin can't coach. But, I mean, we're crushing Harbaugh. We know Harbaugh can coach.

He's one coach of the year multiple times. he's won championship small level, rebuilt programs, got to a Super Bowl. We crush Harbaugh. By the way, we crush Tom Coughlin. Barry Switzer has three national titles on a Super Bowl. We don't even pay him the respects of acknowledging he exists. I mean, we kind of skip over Jimmy Johnson to Bill Pard sells.

We don't even acknowledge Barry Switzer. All I'm saying about Tomlin is, when I got three guys, three legends, earn the right to an opinion, saying the same thing. They've got to be on something. Last seven years, you're from Pittsburgh. Last seven years, three playoffs wins. They've all been. They've definitely underachieved.

There's no question. So Bradshaw will get more pushback. Mine takeaway. What is he saying that it's inaccurate? Well, Bradshaw's getting pushback because... He's Terry Bradshaw. He's Terry Bradshaw. And he's, you know, he's supposed to have the Steelers back.

But he's, that's his opinion that that's what's happening. I don't agree that you need to be, you know, this... R rigid. Yeah, this ridiculous old school. You know, there's a balance to everything. You have to deal with players these days differently than you did in the 70s. That's just the way it is. No, I agree with that.

But there is a balance to it. I think the one thread that they all have in common is that there seems to be a lack of discipline amongst the team. And by the way, my eyes tell me that. My eyes tell me. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 12 NFL seasons, multiple pro bowls, a Super Bowl champ. And he also played under guys like Don Shula, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Dave Wonstadt. I love him as a guest, the former all pro.

linebacker, one of the first real outspoken dudes that paid attention to in the NFL, Brian Cox, in the herd today. I said when I watched Brian Cox, I was like, I don't know if I like Brian Cox. That guy's a talker. Then I met Brian Cox. I was like, man, you played under so many great coaches. I actually think the reason that great coaches like you is because they considered you a cerebral player.

And not everybody is. And I was thinking about this. So Bradshaw's come out, James Harrison's come out, big bands come out and criticize Tomlin, little Lucy Goosey. Coaches are different. You played under Belichick and Parcells. Right. Not Lucy Goosey. How would you have played under Tomlin?

Because Belichick, you love Parcells and Belichick. They love you and you love them. Exactly. How would you have played under a Lucy high emotion coach? I'd be fine. Here's the thing, though. you know, he's won a Super Bowl, and not many coaches have won the Super Bowl. This day and age of players, you can't get into a situation or a place where you coach these guys hard.

These millennials need a little bit of patting on the butt and pep talks. And so Tomlin does that well. And so it works for him. You don't have to do anything but be yourself. Okay, so your thing is be yourself. Be yourself. Do you think if Parcells was 34 today? But Bill would be smart enough to get, because Bill was a psychology guy.

Right. Bill would be smart enough to figure out, I can't bark at these guys all the time. Well, he did bark at the guys all the time. And the difference is, though, in this damn age, the coaches coach the coaches to be hard on the guys. And then the head coach come behind and plays mother or father. Hey, put the arm around. Hey, let's get this right. That's the reputation for Nick Sabin, by the way.

But that's what all coaches are doing. doing today. And, you know, to talk about the millennials, I'm one of those throwback guys that think you coach them all hard. And the guys that are resilient and the guys that are tough, those are the guys that are going to play well for you, any coaching staff. You were, so with Khalil Mack, my takeaway is, is that there's four or five positions I'm going to pay for. Right. Quarterback, left tackle, pass rusher, interior, Aaron Donald level guy, maybe, you know, the elite corner, the captain of a defense. If you get these rare Ed Reed, guys that kind of are coaching the defense, a coach on the

field. So Raiders are like, no thanks. Here's what I wonder. How does it play in the room in Oakland when he was valuable, great, a good dude and Derek Carr's best friend? You've been in locker rooms when guys have been moved. New England's done that a couple of times. How does it play in the Raiders locker room?

not good that you get rid of a guy that can help you win. The second thing is, though, I think in this whole issue is John Gruden's ego, he came in and he tried to attack the big dog. And if I get this guy to straighten up, everybody else will fall in line. And so the other aspect of it is the money. The Raiders didn't have money to pay Kalil Mac. And so it was going to be at a standstill for a long time. Until October, until they get their TV money,

they wouldn't have the money to pay $140 million. And so what John Gruden did was he started the campaign of talking. We played bad with him. We can play better without him. And then all of a sudden they start talking about let's trade them. Let's get these draft picks and Chicago bit. And so now to give him two first round draft picks in Oakland and to get Khalil Mack $140 million, that is gigantuan in this day.

So you don't like what the Chicago Bears did? I think it's going to help them, but it's not enough to tilt the field for me. Because they're not paying, you know, Trabisky's on that rookie contract. Right. But they don't have enough offense in my mind. Everybody's talking about what Nagia has done and how good they look in the preseason. That's preseason. Real deal starts Sunday, we'll see.

I don't think they have enough offense to beat Minnesota or Green Bay in that division. And Khalil Mack in the defense, the defense has played well the last few years under... Fagio? Fagio. So to me, I don't think they have enough to tilt the field to make them that much better to playoff contender, in my mind. So the Philadelphia Eagles, we have these four things. The Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl. The NFL is a lot like music.

There's a lot of one-hit wonders. There's a lot of team. The dirty birds in Atlanta, and then they just disappear. Right. You know, I think Saxonville is going to shrink a little bit because Andrew looking Deshawn Watson are back now in their division. That's just my prediction. But Philadelphia wins.

Right. Okay, I got, they're putting up Super Bowl signs in the building. the starting quarterback's not ready. They opened with Atlanta, who they beat last year, got a little chip on their shoulder. Their offensive coordinator, the quarterback coach leave. Their coach got, again, a book deal. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Like, I look at Philadelphia, these are the warning signs in my life of watching the NFL that they're not going to repeat. I don't think they repeat anyway. Green Bay Packers are a team to beat in all the football. But two things struck me. They wanted to bench Nick Foles in the preseason or talking about how he's not playing up the park.

And then secondly, when you play in front of passionate fans who haven't won anything in a long time like the Eagles fans, they're buying dinners for all the players, they're kissing all the players. You can do no wrong in Philadelphia. You can go out there and do some of the craziest stuff and you won't get arrested in Philadelphia right now. You start to get a sense that, you know,

oh, man, we're still on this Super Bowl cloud and you forget to go to work in the offseason. So to me, I think that they can struggle. Now, having said that, I think they can beat Atlanta on Thursday because Atlanta can't score on their defense. You look at the last two times they played, Atlanta scored 10 and I think 13 points.

So the defense holds them down against Atlanta. But I do think that you get a little bit of sense of I'm the most important piece. I was the reason we won. And it takes you five or six weeks. It's a Super Bowl hang on. No, it's really interesting. So the Phillies had a two-year run when they were great.

Right. Evaporated. Sixers had this Alan Iverson finals evaporated. Flyers get to the Stanley Cup final. Evaporate. I think, to your point, Philadelphia has always had a little bit of a stepbrother chip on their shoulder. New York's got the money.

D.C.'s got the power. Boston has the history, and they have the hoagy. And I think Philadelphia, to your point, when they win or are great in professional sports in their city, they are a puffier chest town. Yes, they are. I think that's just the nature of the city. And the players relish in it,

and then they wake up a couple days later and go, we're not prepared for the next season. The only thing that I think can help their case is, in my opinion, the NFC East is not that strong. You don't think so. Johnson no good. Now, that's a little strong. No good?

No good. Nate Solder, Odell, Sequin Barclay. No good. No good. They might win five games. Oh, come on. Look, you got Pat Sherman as your head coach, bro. Yeah.

You don't like Pat Schumer? No. Why? He's a good man, but, I mean. Look at his record. I mean, I don't see winning coming out of there. So you look at the Dallas Cowboys overrated, in my opinion. Fair, fair to say.

The defense is going to play good. The addition to Chris Rashad is huge. So the defense let them down before. The issue I have is the strongest group on their team, the offensive line, they have two of the strongest guys missing. One is coming back this week. The other guy is the illness. I think Frederick has the illness and not due to come back for a while.

will Zeke Elliott be able to run the ball the way he has? Without the guys. Without the guys. Because that was the foundation of their team. Now you take two of those guys out of one guy out and the other guy coming back off the injury. So you think Philadelphia is the best of an average division? Of an average division, yes.

So I think they can still get the 10 and 6th and win the division. But to me, the Green Bay Packers, everybody's on this Rams kick. If the Rams have to go to Green Bay in the wintertime in the playoffs, Green Bay is going to dust them up. And Green Bay's defense is going to be so much more improved than they've been. Aaron Rogers still going to score. Minnesota's going to score points. The Rams are going to score.

But to me, it's Green Bay or bus. Finally, you know New England very well. You know Belichick. I said this year, between losing a left tackle, they only have one great player in the box defensively, Dante Hightower, off an injury, Edelman out until October. It does feel like, I know it's Belichick, I know it's Brady, but it does feel like the weakest New England team in a while, no? But does it matter? Who's going to beat them in the east?

Nobody in the- You got Buffalo starting with a quarterback that, you know, was so bad last year, and all of a sudden they resurrected them and said, this is the guy we're going to throw out there instead of putting Rosen out there. You got the New York Jets who have played good defense, but they're starting a rookie quarterback. And they don't have the offensive pieces. They don't. And the Miami Dolphers are overrated.

They just, they can't get it right. So, you know, before they wanted to be able to. running team, now they went out and, you know, get Tannenhill back, and now they think they can spread it out and throw it. They just don't have a clue. So even if the, the Patriots are weaker this year than they've been in a while, they still come out, get into the playoffs, and anything can happen. They do probably get a buy. Yeah. I mean, listen, and this is no knock on Alabama, but the SEC until this year has been down for a few years. And Pete Carroll, when he dominated the Pac-12, Pac-12 was down. Right. Some part of Brady's greatness has been, he's had a lot

of buys and a lot of home playoff games. Yes. I mean, they've played at Foxborough a ton in his career, mostly because the three other organizations, Buffalo, New York, and Miami have largely been poorly run. Exactly. It gives you home playoff games and buys to get healthy. Exactly. Brian Cox,

great stuff on Speak for Yourself, I imagine, later today. Yes, sir. Good. So great seeing you. Nice being here. I appreciate it. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And no is telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise,

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