The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 09/12/2018

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

Colin explains why Bill Belichick's assistants never work out as head coaches in the NFL after reports surface that the Lions are already fed up with Matt Patricia. He thinks it’s possible that teams have simply figured out Dak Prescott and he can't adjust. Plus, The MMQB's Albert Breer talks about why Russell Wilson isn't beloved in the Seahawks locker room and why it’s too soon to judge Jimmy Garoppolo. 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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Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud

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or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Hurd. This is the best of the third. The Hurt with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is The Hurt. Wherever you may be and however, you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1. The sweaters are back.

It's fall, baby. Football season. Joy Taylor is here joining me today on a Wednesday, a packed, packed Wednesday show today. Morning. Are we both wearing our sweaters? We are. We kind of moved into sweater weather. Well, I didn't wear my button down under the sweater, so we're not.

We're not twining too hard. Yeah, the heat's come down a little bit today. We got good stuff. I want to start the show with something that I never really thought about before, but I watched Matt Patricia, another Belichick guy, and it just didn't work on Monday. The Lions, there's multiple reports since he took the job. Players don't like him. Players don't relate to him.

He's too gruff. He works too hard. You watch him on the sidelines, hat on backwards, pencil. He's a mess. Nobody's communicating. Stories out today. He's over his head. nobody likes him. Another Bill Belichick guy is not working. And it is remarkable. How many Bill Belichick?

Josh McDaniel failed. Charlie Weiss didn't work. Bill O'Brien. Good luck. Jim Schwartz fired. Eric Mangini. Romeo Cronel. By the way, all different cats. All different dudes. Some are more quiet, Romeo Cronel. Some are more empathetic. Eric Mangini. Some are gruff. Charlie Weiss, all different kind of coaches, none of fail. And we know that Belichick is the best coach in the NFL. In my opinion, he's as good at coaches we've ever had. And that includes the Lombardies, the Jimmy Johnson's, the Parcells, the Bill Walsh. He's as good as they have.

And another assistance not working. But here's what's interesting. Andy Reid, Mike Holmgren, Denny Green. We don't consider them as good a head coach. But why are their coaching trees much more successful? Andy Reed and Mike Holmgren, Todd Bowles, Doug Peterson, Pat Schumer, Ron Rivera, John Harbaugh, Super Bowl. It's amazing. Guys are winning.

You got Super Bowls. Mike Holmgren, similarly. Very successful coaching tree. Denny Green, Tony Dungee, Mike Tomlin, Jim Caldwell got to a Super Bowl. Brian Billick won a Super Bowl. What's happening here? And I have a belief about this. that Belichick is as close to a football genius as we've ever had.

There's a lot of smart people in Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs was a genius. There's a lot of smart people in science. Elon Musk is probably a tortured genius. Geniuses are not good mentors. They're not as caring. They're not as patient. They don't put their arm around you.

They're not taking you out for dinners. geniuses do not make good mentors. When you're around a genius, and I think I've only worked around one person that I thought was sort of at a different level upstairs, you just siphon everything you can from them. I had a friend who worked for Bill Gates. It's like Bill's not patient enough to make you great. What you do is study Bill Gates, figure out as much as you can about Bill Gates, hopefully don't tick off Bill Gates, but he's not.

not going to put his arm around you and hug you. He's changing the world. Bill Belichick is not a great mentor. And proximity to genius doesn't make you a genius. Even inside a family with the same DNA, you can have the smart daughter and the dumb son. So even DNA in the same house, same school, same parents, same blood, same everything, proximity to genius doesn't make you a genius. But if you look at Bill Belichick's coaching tree, there are disasters in the NFL everywhere. And you just have to realize that is that some people, I think Andy Reid's a really good coach. Mike Hongren's a really good coach. Denny Green's a really good coach.

But I never thought of them as football savants. But I do think of them and I've met all of them and I like all of them. They're more caring. They'll put their arm around you. They'll share wisdom. They're more patient. Chris Carter was talking about Denny Green, who he played under in Minnesota, the kind of guy he was. And it doesn't really sound like Belichick.

Listen. Even in losing, there's some ugly parts to this business. Denny Green used to go back on the plane and check on every single guy. How are you doing? Saw you had a rough one. All right. Take it easy. He used to tell me, when I tore both my calves, I'll see you next Sunday.

On Sunday. And in that little personal touch, that comes with being a seasoned coach, which these coaches don't have. And it will be a problem because it ain't the X's the O's in the NFL. It's the Willies and the Joe's. And you need football players to go out there and do that work. And that's something that he's going to have to learn. But Denny Green after games goes down to every player on the plane. How you're doing?

How you're feeling? How's the family? Don't get too down. That's not Belichick. Geniuses don't do that. Steve Jobs didn't do that. Elon Musk is not doing that. Andy Reid is.

Mike Hungren is. Sometimes, and I'll give you an example. Belichick wasn't Belichick until he found the perfect quarterback who was as driven as him as focused as him, as aspirational as him, as tough on himself as him. Belichick didn't work. He didn't work in Cleveland

and he was 5-11 in Green Bay. Belichick is a lot like a comedic genius and again, Elon Musk, Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry David. Larry David created Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's kind of considered a genius. Larry David was a failed stand-up comic, frustrated. And then he met his Tom Brady.

His Tom Brady was Jerry Seinfeld, who was the perfect, driven, less chaotic, take a deep breath, cerebral comic that could pacify and understand the genius of Larry David. And then Larry is an all-timer. Belichick wasn't working in this league. He's not patient. He's not the greatest mentor. He was failing in this league. Larry David was just a smart comic and failing.

Then Brady and Seinfeld come into it and they find the perfect mate to handle their genius, just as driven, just as aspirational, and can take the edge off Bill and the edge off Larry David. So just because your boss and your near him is smart, proximity to genius has never, even inside a house with the same parent, same DNA, has never equaled a genius. All right, I want to shift gears to my,

you know, I've been kind of in a relationship with Tom Brady for years, kind of kicking him to the curb for Sam Darnold. we're breaking up, Tom and I. Maybe you have a year left. But I am flirting right now with Sam Donald. That guy's amazing. And you know I love Sam Darnal. But people are going bonkers.

I'm listening to radio yesterday. I literally heard a host say, listen, if he is a Hall of Fame quarterback, the Giants are going to be reeling for years. Folks, he beat Detroit. He beat Matt Patricia. I love. But here's the thing everybody's missing

about the Sam Darnold story. When you say the Jets, you just think of dysfunction. The Jets aren't that dysfunctional. Let me give you dysfunctional. The Cleveland Browns last 19 years. Two winning seasons. The Jets have had nine winning seasons.

That's not dysfunctional. Detroit has no playoff win since 1991. The Jets have seven. Chicago's had four head coaches in six years. The Jets have had half that and just gave Todd Bowles an extension. And Buffalo is once again the worst team in the league. I can't remember a year in the last two decades. I thought the Jets were the worst team in the league.

I'm trying to find years. The bills weren't. Okay. Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo. Those are utter dysfunction. Even against the Giants, you think of the Giants is great. and the Jets as a mess. Let's go to the last decade. Giants have four

playoff wins. Jets have four playoffs wins. The Giants have won five more games. In the last decade. In the last decade. And that's with the Jets being in a division with Tom Brady. So that's O in two most years. The Jets are actually

built. They're built for a young quarterback to succeed. And I love Donald. They're no bigger fan in the American media. as Sam Donald. The Jets are not as dysfunctional. First of all, and I've said this, Joy has been here.

I've said this now twice in the last month. Todd Bowles is the best coach in the NFL with a losing record. Jeremy Bates, the offensive coordinator, is an excellent offensive coordinator. The Jets have had one owner in 19 years. Their defense way above average. They have the single best backup slash mentor quarterback in the NFL. and Josh McCown, and it's not close.

If Josh McCown retired at the end of the year, 32 NFL teams would hire him. The Jets are going to. They also have a ton of cap space. The Jets have $105 million of cap space at the end of the year. That's the most in the NFL. They can get them a left tackle, two running backs and a slot receiver. And they also play in the weaker AFC.

In fact, they play in the weakest AFC East. They get the bills twice a year. the Dolphins twice a year. I love Sam Darnold. Nobody loves, nobody loves Sammy. I'm in Sam's club. I mean, I got the card, baby. Is Sammy now?

He's Sammy. He's my Sammy. I mean, honestly, he's my Sammy. But the Jets aren't that as functional. Sam Darnold's got a much better situation going forward than the Baker Mayfield does, or Josh Allen does. This is a real defense. I don't got the Steelers in my division and the Ravens. I got the Patriots.

You know, it is a weird thing about the Jets, when you think of the Jets, even with the Rex Ryan era, everyone forgets the AFC championship games. They were right there. Like Mark Sanchez is known as being the butt bumble. They went to the back to the championship championship. The AFC championship games. We are labeling, you know, there's a lot of businesses out there that you label one thing.

You know, I was talking, this morning we were talking about this, the adult film entertainment business. It's all run by Ivy League guys. You're like, oh, it's all run by guys that went to Dartmouth and Princeton and Harvard. Yale. You know what I mean? You look at the Jets and you're like, oh my God, last 10 years, they've lost five more games in the Giants, been to the playoffs and won four times. That's why branding's important. The Jets, Sam Darnold's going to work. And I don't think he's Cam Newton as an armed talent. I don't think he's Andrew Luck as a talent. I don't think he has

Patrick Mahomes' arm talent. But he's got a real defense, a ton of cap space, weaker division, grade O.C, the best mentor backup quarterback, perhaps the league has ever had. And this team has $105 million of cap space. They're going to be able to spend $105 million on a tackle or running. Lavian Bell may be a New York jet. And I'm not joking on this. If the jets go 4 and 0, don't be shocked if they make a play for Lavian Bell. I mean, if the jets start winning games and look out and they're 3 and 1 and they're like,

You know what, in our division? We may not be New England. We may be able to pose some wins with our defense. So as much as I, and I love Sammy. I'm a card-carrying member of Sam's Club. This is not Cleveland. Trubisky's got more to overcome in Chicago. This is not Deshawn Kaiser Baker in Cleveland.

This is not Josh Allen and Buffalo. Those are messes. You got to overcome. There's not a ton to overcome in New York. The Jets aren't a mess. Be sure to catch live. editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on

Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. So I'm reading a story this morning. Many of Tom Brady's highest paid peers had atrocious weeks reminding us once again Tom Brady's amazing value. Nobody would dispute that. Tom's only been the highest paid quarterback in the league briefly for one

year in 2010. It's not that he has a supermodal wife. You know, you can use all the excuses. Tom Brady's a team guy. He's taken a little bit less knowing it helps my team get more players. Nobody disputes. He is, I mean, no reasonable person. He's the greatest quarterback of all time. Stop with the Aaron Roger stuff. Yeah, he's got a great arm. So did Elway. Montana, one more. Football's about W's not about stats and arm talent. But let me defend all the quarterbacks that

get bashed for these huge contracts. Yes, when Tom Brady is making less than all these guys, it makes them look sometimes after bad weeks like schmucks. Let me give an example of guys that are people think are overpaid. Let me give you the five guys that I hear constantly from fans that are overpaid. Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan, Matt Stafford, Derek Carjo, Flacco. Let me just defend each one of them. Let's start with Kirk Cousins. We know in the NFL windows close really quick.

Seattle's going to be a dynasty. Oh, wait, they may finish third or fourth. Minnesota's defense is really talented. In a couple of years, it's going to be really expensive, and they can't keep all the players. you're in a division with Aaron Rogers twice a year. Windows closed, man. He's way better than Case Keenham.

Okay, he makes $28 million a year. Case Keenham, Kirk Cousins, not a GM in the league that would take Case Keenum. Windows closed fast. You're in a division with Aaron Rogers. You got to strike when the iron is hot. I don't even consider him overpaid.

You got to pay money for an umbrella in C.N. Seattle and a pool in Phoenix. You got a defense like this in Minnesota, and Aaron Rogers, probably still in his prime for two to three more years. You pay whatever it takes to get a stabilizing asset. Let's go to Derek Carr, 25 million a year. He's a bum, right?

Regressing, right? You do realize this is right now, not Cleveland, this is the West Coast version of the Browns. They're playing in a baseball stadium. Nobody else in the league does that. And it's the worst baseball stadium, not just the worst football stadium. He's an adult.

a great passing talent. He's a worker. You're in a division with the smartest game caller in the league Andy Reed with a borderline Hall of Famer Philip Rivers, with Denver, which has maybe the best pass Russian football now with Bradley Chubbin von Miller. What are you going to do? What do you want to do? Matt Flynn? What do you want? Derek Carr, take his rookie year out when he was over his head. He's above 500. They just gave him a football coach that's been out of the sport for a decade. They just let a Hall of Famer first ballot, Khalil Mack go for picks. You don't think Derek Carr's worth $25 million or not paying attention to the league. How about Joe Flacco? God, does he get smoked? He's making $22 million. That's a discount these

days. By the way, won two times in the playoffs in Foxborough. You know how many Peyton Manning won in Foxborough during his playoff career? How about a bagel? He's 10 and 5 in the playoffs, the Super Bowl and MVP. In the last decade, one losing season. We don't even know if John Harbaugh is a great coach. We think he's okay. He's had one losing season. By the way, he's only been hurt once.

This guy's like Eli Manning with a better arm. He is available constantly in a division with the Pittsburgh Steelers. You're freaking out over this? This guy goes on the road. He wins two times as many times as he wins in the playoffs. He's a 10 and 5 playoff quarterback with a ring and a trophy and an MVP. You're not going to pay $22 million for him? For the record, most of his career,

rear, they've had no good receivers. This year they went out and got like five and drafted two tight ends. Generally, Flacco has elevated a rotten receiving corps. How about Matt Stafford? Yeah, it's 27 million bucks. That's a lot of money. He's the best quarterback by a mile in franchise history. Matt Stafford has the most passing yards in NFL history for a quarterback under 30. The owner's dysfunctional, the front office has been dysfunctional, now they've got a dysfunctional coach. The last six years, he's had one bad season, and it was just seven and nine. Again, Again, Minnesota had better players in that run, and Green Bay had Aaron Rogers. He has a winning record against the Bears, and he's 500 against Minnesota, which is a well-run, well-coached, unbelievably organized organization.

Seven straight years? Over 4,000 yards. You're not going to pay $27 million for Matt Stafford? Matt Ryan. Everybody thinks I hate Matt Ryan. Are you kidding me? Matt Ryan makes $30 million a year. He's 95 and 64 in a division with Drew Brees and Cam.

six 10 winning seasons, six playoff appearances. The entire franchise had a total of eight before he got there. He came into an organization that was bizarre. The head coach quit and Michael Vick was beloved but got messed up and went sideways, got off into the weeds. It was controversy. Nobody wanted to like Matt Ryan. He's got 95 and 64.

You keep telling me Matt Ryan, Kurt Cousins, Matt, Stafford, Derek Carr and Joe Flackle. Yes, nobody's Brady. We get that. And nobody's Brady. When you're called the goat, there's generally not a guy that's like you. Well, yeah, that's kind of the point. Like, you're not going to get another Brady.

There's only one of him. So don't get off that. So because you can't get Brady, you can't pay anybody else? Yes. I mean, these are the guys that get crushed all the time. I remember when Russell, I had a friend in the Northwest. They're like, dude, would you pay Russell Wilson that? I'm like pizza defensive coordinator.

They got all their money tied up in defense. He's never had an elite receiving corps. You know, they had a great center. They got rid of him, never recovered. There's only so many franchise quarterbacks out there. Yeah. And when you get them. If you need to figure out how that works, just go take a look at the Browns.

How long they've been, they would love to pay somebody $30 million a year. If they could find someone to play quarterback there. Don't use this exception as the rule. Tom's a historic outlier. LeBron's a historic outlier. Right. So it's like if you can't get LeBron James, then you shouldn't pay anything. anybody else.

Come on. Take a deep breath, people. These guys are all worth their money in the league we have now, which leans heavy offense. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. The way it works in sports is you come into a league. I mean, college coaching and NFL coaching, NFL is way better. I mean, even Nick Saban dominates college football couldn't work in the NFL. Steve Spurrier dominates college football.

Can't work in the NFL. College football coaches, a lot of gym teachers. NFL, great coaching. SEC dominates college football. many great SEC coaches have gone to the NFL and succeeded. Like, I can't think of any. So what happens in the NFL as a player, you come into the NFL and everybody gets film on you and they break you down. In Major League Baseball, you're a rookie baseball player. You come in and they just feed you fastball, fastball, fastball, whack, whack, whack, whack,

all of a sudden they notice at the All-Star break, he can't hit it off speed stuff. Curve, curve, curve, curve, steady diet. That's what happens in pro sports. A lot of people are great early. A lot of people are great initially. People couldn't stop COVID. Bobby Bryant for 17 years. They still can't stop Kevin Durant, Steph Curry. They can never stop Steve Nash at the end until he got old. Okay, so this is what happens in football, is that in football you come into the league as a quarterback. Some come into worse situations than others, but Dak got drafted in the fourth round. So, you know, he came to a team that had players. Dallas had a steady owner, a steady coach, they had a good staff, they had this young star

running back, they had a good offensive line, they had some good linebackers. I mean, also, like the Cowboys were a mess. He inherited a pretty good offense, right? Jason Witten, Des Bryant, that offensive line, Jason, Garrett. So he comes into the league and he has some success. And he's played 22 games since the end of that great streak, that 11-0 streak, right? In that streak, who may he was, it says here, he completed 70% of his passes seven times in that 11-0 run. Now he's done it less than half of that in their recent games. And he's not the same player. He's had under 200 yards passing in seven of his last nine games.

Three straight regular season games, no TDs, first three quarters, scored fewer than 10 points in five his last nine games. So the question is, you come into the league and Dax really good. Does he have a second gear? Alex Smith never did. Case Keenham doesn't really have it. A lot of guys. You see this in the NBA.

In the NBA, the coach in the system can get your points at Kentucky. But then you get to the NBA, they watch film on you, your rookie year. And by the second half of your rookie year, they figure out that 95% of guys that go to Kentucky can't create their own shot. They're just dudes. NBA's filled full of guys that can't create their own shots. So now, Andrew Luck was very good in his first two years. They had all this film. Then he came back and threw 40 touchdowns and 16.

16 picks and went to the AFC championship. He had a second gear. Carson Wentz comes in. First year. Oh, my God. First four, oh, my God. And they got all this film on Carson Wentz. And they threw it at him and whamm.

He jams through the ceiling. He had a second gear. I don't know if Jared Goff has a second gear. Last year really counts as his rookie season. But he had a great left tackle. Amazing running back. Sean McVeigh, good receivers. Winnable division.

So I know Jared Goff's first gear when he's surrounded by a bunch of stuff, good. I'm kind of waiting for him to go through to the next gear. Deshawn Watson. I got like seven, eight games. I don't know if Deshawn Watson has a second gear. Now, you could say, well, Dak was drafted in the fourth round. Brady was drafted in the sixth, Montana in the third, Russell.

Draft order is not the be all end all. Generally, great quarterbacks historically go in the first round. But there's a lot of guys that have gone on the second, third, fourth, fifth, six, whatever. But this is the classic example, is that's why you've got to. to be, I project on a lot of guys. With Dak, they got to film on him now. NBA guys get film with the All-Star break.

Major League Baseball Scouts get filmed by the All-Star break. A lot of guys tear it up until the league has film on you. And the question, because does Dak have that second gear? And I've been, these are, the things I like about Dak are not his arm and not his talent. What I like about him is he's thick, he's going to last, he's mobile, he's not going to get hurt. He's a good leader. There's chaos in the organization. He is not an elite thrower of the football.

Well, this is what I can remember everyone saying about Zach who had doubts about him after the first year. Just temper your expectations because he had Zeke who had an incredible rookie year and he had his offensive line intact. So everyone was saying this pretty much coming after, coming after Dax's first year. And then last year, there was so much dysfunction with the team that really this is the year that Jack has to show. if he is the elite quarterback that everyone thought he was in his rookie year. I want to shift gears to Des Bryant. There's an old saying in sports that nobody's going to love you like your first team. The Mariners drafted Ken Griffey.

He ended up with the Reds, but nobody loved him like the Mariners. You marry your high school sweetheart. If it doesn't work out, you get remarried. Nobody's going to love you like your high school sweetheart. It may not work, but she loves you. She's known you. She knows all your issues. So when you're a pro athlete, I say this often,

come John Wall, come into the league ready to go. Come into the league. Because now you're two surgeries in. All you athletes out here, come into the league ready to go. I tell my kids this. You have no idea. The best job in the world may be all. offer to you at 23.

It's a tech company. They have stock options. And you're immature, hat on backwards. Bad interviewer. I told my daughter, join a sorority just for the interviews, just for the contacts. Because when you're out at 21 years old, you could go up to Silicon Valley for an interview and the best job offer you get. It's not linear in life.

Could be at 22. Be ready for it. Don't be a schmuck. Don't be a screw off. There's a million guys. I know at 22, follow them on Twitter, screw-offs. When you're a pro-athlete,

be ready to show your appreciation, work your arse off, and deliver. Because you only got about seven peak years and that first team loves you. And Des Bryant blew it. Des Bryant blew it. Right now, the Eagles need receivers.

They could get a cowboy. He knows all their plays. They're not interested. Washington's down to three receivers. They're not interested. The Eagles would rather throw to Nick Foles than Des Bryant. New England's desperate. They went out yesterday and acquired Corey Coleman. That's not going to work.

He's not a guy. He struggled to stay in Buffalo, couldn't learn the playbook fast enough, and Tom Brady is demanding when it comes to the playbook. Learn it now, faster, you're gone. Des Bryant screwed it up. He's a finger pointer. That guy's fault, that guy's fault, that guy's fault, that guy's fault. Turn that baby in.

babe, you just didn't take the league seriously. You didn't learn your route tree. You didn't appreciate how much time the Cowboys. Cowboys had security detail on you, first two years in the league. This team loved you. Nobody loves you like your high school sweetheart. Nobody loves you like your first team.

Nobody loved Ken Griffey like the Mariners did. Nobody's ever going to love Aaron Rogers more than Green Bay. They put up with this crap. By the time you get traded in the NFL, the NBA, you're just stats. and a cap hit. That is what you are. Not to be mean,

but by your second team on in the NFL, you're a piece of paper. What is he costing us and what does he produce? The love's gone. You're a stat and a cap hit. So when you come into this league, be ready to perform, be a grown-up,

appreciate who drafts you, because they put a lot of love into you and a lot of time into you. And they drafted you and they don't want to look wrong. So they're going to give you more patience. Nobody's more patient than the first team that drafts you. You'll never find. But the second guy that takes you in the trade, I mean, by the way, Martavis Bryant goes to the Steelers.

They put up with a lot of crap. He goes to the Raiders. They cut him. Now they're bringing him back for a one year deal. Nobody's more patient than your first team. And I look at Des Bryant and I'm like, dude, you screwed it up. You had a team that was in love with you. They hired security to follow you.

town. They took care of you. They hid things. They baby you. They enabled you. And you blew it. And now you're not as good. Amazon Prime Series. We saw you blow up at coaches. And there are teams all over the NFL that are in the division of the Cowboys that are desperate for a wide receiver. Last night, Des is doing some burner account thing. And people are like, no thanks. Cowboys overlooked that stuff for years. Everybody think, you know, I'm just going to go to college. I'm going to come out of college. I'm going to go to Amsterdam. I'm going to smoke some weed. I'm going to go hang out. Just live my life. And they're like at 30. I'm going to live with my parents. Oh, at 23 Amazon just offered your stock options. You get your hat on

backwards, champ. Be ready. Des wasn't. That's life. 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. a former Patriot beat writer for the Boston Globe, one of America's great newspapers, a former cowboy beat reporter for the Dallas Morning News. Again, one of the great American sports pages. He's been an NFL writer for the sporting news and was the senior NFL reporter for the Monday morning quarterback. He's our friend Albert Breer joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. First of all, congrats. You're the boss man at MMQB. Way to go, Albert. Nice going. Congrats.

Yeah, I've been in the job for two or three months, but I guess they actually made it officially official now. No difference for me, but thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. Let's start with this. Matt Patricia, it didn't look good. I mean, you, I've said this before. You can see bad very quickly. You can see bad service at a restaurant. You can watch the voice and tell somebody who can't sing. Matt, Patricia, that just looked awful. Why do the disciples of Holmgren work and Tony Dungey work and Andy Reed work and Bill Parcell's work? and they don't work with Belichick. Well, what's the answer here?

Well, I mean, I think you've got to put it on the individual guys first. The biggest commonality I've seen in the failure of Bill's guys and going other places is that they try to be too much like Bill. I think we saw it with Eric Mangini, both of the Jets and the Browns. We saw it with Josh McDaniels in Denver. And what those two guys had in common is they'd never worked anywhere else. Bill O'Brien's a little different because you could actually say that he came up under George O'Leary, not Bill Belichick. And by the time he got to Belichick, he was actually a fully

formed coach. Mangini and McDaniels weren't that way. And that's why I think you have to at least have your radar up with Patricia, because other than some low-level quality control stuff, he really hasn't worked anywhere but New England. And he hasn't worked in any other NFL team but New England. And so I think it's certainly worth watching here. Now, I think Matt's smart enough, and he's actually said this to me directly. He knows he has to be himself. But if you're going to do things the way they do him, Foxborough, you better get some results pretty quickly because it's hard to keep selling what you're doing on those guys if they aren't winning or they aren't individually producing.

You know, I'm looking at Jimmy Garoppolo this weekend, and I tried to add some context today. I said, folks, his last six or seven starts, they've been against the Vikings defense and the Jags defense and the Bears defense and the Rams defense. And it's like he's throwing a pick a game. But they were still in that game. Minnesota had the number one defense in the league. He was on the road with a rebuild it off. you know, San Francisco is still rebuilding a big chunk of their offense.

Give me your takeaway when you've talked to the Patriots. I think people are now freaking out because Jimmy Garoppolo now lost a game and threw three picks, but I still think he's on track. You? Yeah, I think he's fine. I think this is the natural progression for quarterbacks now. And this is something all your viewers, your listeners can keep an eye on. I think when young quarterbacks get in games for the first time,

there's actually a window there where they have an advantage over everybody else. because coaches are doing so much to make these quarterbacks comfortable now from a scheme standpoint. And because there isn't a lot of tape on these individual players, you usually have like a four to six week window there where the rookie quarterback looks really, really good. And then what happens? Well, you know, the other team starts to get tape. And they see what they're doing scheme-wise to make the quarterback comfortable. And they're seeing who the quarterback is as a player.

And then they got to readjust. Carson Wentz went through this two years ago in Philadelphia where got off to about six, seven game start, where he looked unstoppable, and then teams started sitting on the short stuff, forcing him to make harder throws, and he regressed. Then he comes back year two and he looks okay. So I think this is part of what's natural for young quarterbacks now is that there's a short period of time where they're able to kind of build some momentum and play well, and other teams don't know how to deal with them,

and then they go through kind of that second adjustment. I think that's where Jimmy Garoppolo is right now. Were you surprised how good Sam Darnal was? No. I mean, again, I think that this is part of the deal with young quarterbacks. They did some things to make him look comfortable. I think he's a little bit of a different cat, though. If you watch him, just watch closely.

Watch the way his head moves. Watch the way that he deals with pressure. Watch the way that he keeps his eyes down field when he scrambles. I think there were a lot of good signs on Monday night. In addition to the fact that Jeremy Bates and that offensive staff were making him feel comfortable with some of the things that they were doing. And I think there are two primary things that Sam has that, we saw at USC to transfer right right over to the NFL that are going to help him in playing through an entire season as a rookie quarterback in the NFL.

Number one, he can take hits. We saw that yet last year at USC behind a young offensive line. He took some hits against Detroit. He was able to bounce back from that. I think that's something that he has that won't go away. The other thing that he has that won't go away, and we saw this at USC compartmentalizing mistakes. Last year at SC, he turned the ball over a lot. You know what?

He was always able to bounce back from those. they got off to a rough start early in the year. What happens? They come back and win the conference. We actually saw that on Monday night. He comes out, he throws a pick six first play. That could be where a rookie crumbles. What happens?

He's able to compartmentalize that mistake and move on. So those two qualities, I think we saw both those qualities on Monday night, and they're going to serve them well the rest of the year. By the way, Des Bryant, Philadelphia is showing us they'd rather throw to Nick Foles than Des Bryant because they need help. Washington's down to three receivers. yesterday the Patriots picked up a guy who has struggled in Buffalo,

a young receiver, struggled to get the playbook down, and we know the intensity of New England, their rhythm and their playbook. What are your sources telling you on Dez? Well, there's a question about whether or not he can run anymore. I know the Dallas coach has felt like he really lacked the explosiveness he had earlier in his career. And if you can't run by any people, the question is, what is he now? He's not a great route runner. He doesn't have a great head for the game.

What he can do, he can catch the ball in track. He's competitive. He's tough. So there's something to work with there. The bigger question here is, is he willing to be the number two or number three guy? What you hear from people in Dallas is, you know, Dack felt like every four or five plays he had to look over and make sure Des was still engaged and Des was still good. And that's fine if the guy is Des Bryant of 2014. That's harder to deal with when he's Des Bryant of 2017. So I think that's part of the question now is, okay, you're not a number one receiver anymore, Des.

Des, are you okay with being the number two or number three? Well, you know what that means is that means you're going to be running down the field and maybe there's going to be stretches of 10 or 15 plays where we're not going to look your way. Are you okay with that? I think for him to get into one of these places where he's going to go to a place where he can get a one-year deal and be with a winning team, he's got to convince teams of that, that he's willing to be a role player and not the number one guy anymore. We've seen guys do it before. Larry Fitzgerald's a great example of it out in Arizona. We've seen guys where they scuffle against the idea of not being a number one anymore. Terrell Owens was a good example of that.

This has got to prove or showed other teams, I'm willing to be that Larry Fitzgerald type of guy going forward. You know, I will say this. I want to circle back to New England because you cover the league, but you have extensive sourcing within the organization and very few do. I just found it was remarkable. Houston's defensive front almost didn't touch Tom. They got a new left tackle. They lost a running back, Danny Amandola. I've said this like marriages change like the honeymoon stage of the marriage then then you have sacrifices you get later and later in a marriage and it changes and it does feel like Tom and Bill had a rough had a rough patch here in the off season but God when I watched that opener and was like you know maybe they just come to a new place and this is you know what we're not best friends but we're really good for each other because

I don't think you can play that well if your quarterback and coach are not seeing eye to eye. They were surgical. I mean, they have had bad September games. They were surgical. Where are they at today? Well, one advantage Bill has is that he's never been buddy-buddy with any of these guys. You know, it's always been when you're playing for him, it's a business relationship. He's never been cuddly with his players.

In fact, when older guys go back there, they say it's incredible. the difference they see in Bill Belichick. He's warm, he's friendly when they come back as ex-players. They didn't see that when they were current players. And that goes for even the greatest quarterback of all time. And so I think this has always been part of the deal with Bill and Tom. And one of the things the crafts really banked on here and getting through this offseason was that these guys are so competitive, they're so professional,

and they're so locked into the idea of playing winning football that when it counts, it's going to be okay. And I think that really did wind up happening here. As for the Alex Guerrero stuff, I think with both Brady and Grancowski, this is going to have to be dealt with at some point. And I think when those two players and their agents sat down with the Patriots, that's when it was quietly taken care of. So that was the one piece of business that they really had to get off the table before the season. It seems like that's been taken care of. And again, it looks like the Kraft family's bet that once the real games begin, these guys are going to be focused and it's going to be where it needs to be.

it looks like that that's paying off i want to throw another one at you Pete carroll on russell wilson now russell wilson last year led the NFL and touchdown passes with by most people agreeing it was a bad o line it was a bottom third okay so this weekend he got destroyed von miller had one of the all people forget calil mac was amazing von miller was unbelievable yeah and he was uh and and and russell wilson was running for his life and after the game Pete Carroll said, you know, Russ needs to just do a better job. He said, I'm not trying to cover. He can play way better than he played.

Now, I don't want to take it out of context. But I wonder on this thing, that you had the ESPN magazine article. You know, Pete's a defensive guy. He put his arms around Michael Bennett and Richard Sherman. To Pete and Russell, what is that relationship like? Because Pete's now, he's getting close to 70, Albert, and it's his last year in his contract. Well, he has two years left. He does have two years.

He has two years left on his contract, which means generally decision time with a coach is when he's got a year left. So they'll have to deal with that after the year. I would say that I think it's interesting when you hear what Carol said, it almost sounded like a deliberate attempt to say we're holding him accountable too. That's what I thought. I know a lot of people like, look, a lot of the discord there in that organization over the course of the last two or three years.

And I can tell you this because I've talked to these guys, those defensive players did not feel like Russell Wilson was being held accountable or being held to the same standard that a lot of them were. And that issue there was only exacerbated when some of those guys were shown the door in the offseason. And so I think there really is this feeling in that organization. You know what? We got to hold Russell Wilson accountable. And if he's going to get another contract here, he's going to have to earn it. And so the thing I really paid attention to listen to Pete Carroll after the game, they seem to be publicly holding

Russell Wilson more accountable than they have in the past. And I think that that's not just talking to Russell Wilson. I think it's also talking through Russell Wilson to the rest of the team saying, hey, this guy's being held accountable to. God, that's so weird. I mean, if you look at his passer rating, his TD interception, his completion percentage, he's on a track for a Hall of Fame career. And there's resentment toward him.

Pete was 7 and 9 and 7 and 9 before. I just tell you this, though. Okay. I think the one thing that's interesting, and look, Robert Clemco and Greg Bishop did a great job on the story they did for us last week. And now I was in on that a little bit. One thing I can tell you is really interesting about the way Russell's handled all of this. He became a star very, very quickly. And he, for one reason or another, was never sort of part of the club in that locker room. Yeah. And quarterbacks are different everywhere. Quarterbacks are treated differently. They're paid differently. They're drafted differently when they're. they come into the league. It's almost like they're golfers versus the rest of the sport, right? They're just different.

I would say that what you see with a lot of the top quarterbacks, the guys who really make it work, your Peyton Mannings, your Tom Brady's, your Aaron Rogers is there's always subtle ways that they try to make sure that they emphasize, I'm one of the guys. For Aaron Rogers, it's having his interview, his weekly interview at his locker rather than doing it at a podium. Tom Brady, when he was younger, whenever he did a commercial, he basically insisted to whatever company it was, my offensive linemen are coming with me. They're going to be in the commercial too. The top quarterbacks, what you usually see is they make a real effort to be one of

the guys, to make sure that the other guys in the locker room know, hey, you're as important to me as anything else. And I think a lot of the older guys in the Seahawks locker room over the course of the last few years felt like Russell hadn't made that effort. Going forward for Russell, I think that's going to be really important because as he gets older, it's going to be harder and harder to relate with the guys in the locker room. This happens with a lot of different quarterbacks. He's got to make sure that he continues to try to build. He works on trying to build the relationship with the rest of the guys in the locker room. That hasn't happened in the past. I think it's a big reason why this problem exists for him now. And it's something

I think he's certainly going to have to address going forward in Seattle. Big boss man at Monday morning quarterback.com. Really, really, really, really good stuff on Russell Wilson and the Seahawks and the Patriots. Albert love your work. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in.

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