The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 10/02/2018

Episode Date: October 2, 2018

Colin thinks Patrick Mahomes has become the most watchable QB in the league but warns fans to remember that it won't always be as smooth as this moving forward. He reveals his top ten NFL teams in the Herd Hierarchy including a brand new team that he says will be around for a while. Plus, Super Bowl Champion QB Trent Dilfer explains why offense has become so easy in the NFL. 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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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis, coming to her, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the Best of Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRodio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by search heard. This is the best of the herd with Colin 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. Joy Taylor is joining me on a Tuesday. Good morning after watching that incredible spectacle last night with Patrick Mahomes. It was an incredible game. NFL ratings up on all the windows. that in about five minutes. Let's start with Patrick Mahomes. He's the talk of the day. So I was sitting watching him last night and he's pretty amazing. He is a jump off the television screen talent.

And as much as I like all the other young quarterbacks in the league, Sam Donald, you know, you know I like him. They don't have his arm talent. He's the most talented young quarterback last two years to come in this league. Last three years, you'd include Jared Gough. Jared Gough is not as talented. Does not have the arm of Patrick Mahom. I'm showing our FS1 audience. That's an absolutely ridiculous throw. Might as well just have fun and show you the left-hander he made as Von Miller was chasing him around the field. Let's turn the sound up to one of the plays of the year in the NFL.

Third and five. Kelsey's a man on the drag. Here comes. Oh, how it's got a first down. Joe, are you kidding me? Wow. This guy is incredible. You know, there's many years ago they talked about Montana Magic in Kansas City.

Look at this guy. Vaughn Miller on his heels. He throws it left-handed. He puts it in his left hand and shot puts it to Tyreek Hill for a third down conversion. Yeah. If you had a television quarterback rating, he's number one right now. And I'm not even sure, frankly, it's not even close.

Here's the thing. He's really talented. Brady's got rings, but we don't worship Brady. We think of him as kind of a grinder, a workaholic, really responsible and coachable. There is a downside. There is a burden to great wealth and great talent. It is not a coincidence that Whitney Houston's great voice and Mike Tyson's great power and Tiger Woods great talent all came crashing down.

Because the burden when you're as talented as Patrick Mahomes, it leads you to dark places. You don't have to work as hard. Nobody will ever call you a system quarterback. They'll worship you. You'll make throws you shouldn't make. It is not a coincidence that our greatest musicians, our rock stars, our Mike Tyson's, our Tiger Woods, our Whitney Houston's crash.

That kind of power, that kind of talent comes with a burden. People compare him to Brett Favre. I find him intellectually more spongel. like, more coachable, little less ego. I like Patrick Mahomes going forward over Brett Farrv, although he's clearly at this point, not Brett Farrve. But what's interesting about the NFL, when you look at the all-time interception leaders, you would think the guys that throw a lot of interceptions, you know, they couldn't get the

ball there, the ball dies, a defensive back comes over. No, it's the guys with the strongest arms. It's Joe Namath and Brett Farrv and John Elway and Big Ben and Dan Marino. And it's the guys Vinnie Testa Verdi that could throw a strawberry through a battleship. It's guys that threw heaters. Because when you have the ability to throw the ball anywhere, you'll want to throw the ball anywhere. Is that when you have an unlimited voice, an unlimited power, an unlimited talent, you think of it as fewer obstacles.

No, it's just a different set of obstacles. The best thing Mahomes has going for him is he got to sit for a year. He's got great weapons and a remarkably innovative head coach. Donald walked into the league, very few weapons and a defensive coach. Baker walks into the league, the pressure of being a number one pick, injected quickly into playing and a completely dysfunctional organization top down. Mahomes, with all his gifts, got the perfect coach, got to sit for a year behind a smart veteran. And oh yeah, Travis Kelsey, Sammy Watkins, Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill.

It is the perfect quarterback storm. And the downside of that is he's never going to have a bad year. He's not going to have those growing pains of Baker Mayfield. He's not going to have that embarrassing year of Jared Goff. He's not going to kick it around for the next year like Sam Darnold. He's never going to get shut out like Josh Allen. He's never going to sit on the bench like Lamar Jackson. And you think that's all good.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That comes with its own set of pressure. Patrick Mahomes has never had a bad game, never got humiliating. never got shut out, never got mocked and ridiculed. You look around this league, most of the guys who are superstars in the NFL at quarterback were overlooked, buried, crushed, humiliated. And it builds that thing on your shoulder called a chip. I think Patrick Mahomes is amazing.

But that kind of amazing talent in any walk of life, a big brain, a great arm, The perfect voice, great power, comes with its own set of issues. I think the kid will handle it. I think he's got the perfect coach. I think he's got the perfect city. I think he's a really, really great kid whose dad played some pro sports. But don't think it'll be all easy. Because he is right now in America the most fascinating football player to watch.

And he's still a kid. Can't wait to watch it unfold. Let me shift to this. NFL ratings, CBS up, Fox up, Thursday night football, up. I don't know the number last night, but I would imagine it's up. In fact, 9.1 last night up. In fact, also important 13% growth among people making over 150,000 big income advertisers like that. Why would this be?

offense, offense, offense. If Patrick Mahomes does not play last night, that game is won by Denver, and this morning it does not lead my show. We're talking about defense, sacks, 13 to 10. The NFL does not need to accommodate Clay Matthews. Clay Matthews and pass rushers need to change. I am so old.

hearing everybody whine about these poor defensive players who can't get a break from officials. I want to show you two pieces of video. Twitter, the angry bird was outraged when Baker Mayfield flag was hit by a raider. Barely hit, you can barely notice it. How in the world is that a flag? Put dresses on these guys. This is outrageous. No, it's not.

The Raider defensive player led with the crown of his helmet. If the crown of his helmet is three to four inches higher, guess who's starting next week for Cleveland? Terrod Taylor. They're back to being uninteresting. That's a flag. Don't lead with the crown of your helmet. By the way, Khalil Max figured it out.

Von Miller has figured it out. Clay Matthews is still complaining. Here's some audio from last night. The best pass rusher in the league or second Vaughn Miller. Roll the tape. There's been a lot of conversation about roughing the past in the National Football League.

But just watch Von Miller. He's got an opportunity to hit my homes and then land on him. He says, you know what? I'm not going to get a penalty here. And just full speed, just driving him into the ground. But he decides, you know what? I can't do that because that's a point of emphasis and I don't want to get flag and hurt my team.

Nice move there by Von Miller. Thank you, Patrick Mahomes. By the way, do you know the backup for the Kansas City Chiefs? I had to look it up. It's Chad Henney. If Vaughn Miller puts his weight on Patrick Mahomes and Patrick Mahomes leaves the game and they put in Chad Henney for the rest of the year, when Chiefs games are on on Sunday, instead I'll go to Jiffy Loob

and watch them work on other people's cars. That'll be more entertaining. 31 of 32 NFL teams have starting quarterbacks that are starting quarterbacks. One doesn't, the San Francisco 49ers. And by the way, be totally honest, unless you live in the Bay Area. When you see a 49ers game now from this point forward, it's just frankly not as compelling. Clay Matthews is 32 years old. He comes from a legendary smart football family.

He's been in the NFL for a decade. evolve. Von's evolving, Khalil Max evolving, Clay Matthews evolve. I'm over having everybody whine about the hits. In every walk of life, academics, landscapers, pilots, me, we all have to evolve, new information, let's change it. But Baker Mayfield, crown of that helmet, four inches, up, he gets whacked in the face, and I got Terrod Taylor for the next two weeks. Those are the ratings. Patrick Milhomes whacked last night by Vaughn Miller.

I got Chad Henney. That's not a sound you want to hear in the NFL or me make. I'm over it. Belly aching. Ratings up everywhere. There's a reason. It's not the tackling thing. It's the quarterback thing.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Some things you could say, but they're hard to do, like having patience, working out, eating right? Right? Like those are hard to do. Everybody says it's going to eat right. It's hard to eat right. I had just a big plate of nachos last night. I didn't want to do that. It was right in front of me and the cheese was melting and my son had it and I had to have some. And then working out. I feel like working out every day. Some days I get up, I don't want to work out. Patience is hard. Got to have patience. Got to have patience. Pittsburgh, three coaches, three head coaches since 1969. Cleveland Browns, three head coaches in four years.

They got the way to do it in their own division, but it's hard to be patient. And with Laby and Bell, right now, oh, Pittsburgh's in the last place. I'm hearing a lot of this. Pittsburgh, you've got to get going. You've got to get going, Pittsburgh on Lavey and Bell. You're in last place. Pittsburgh's really, really good at the patience thing. Lottie you wanted Chuck Null, Fire.

at the end. You wanted Bill Cower at the end, you got tired of him. Mike Tomlin, everybody wants out the door right now. Pittsburgh is very, very good at not only saying we can be patient, but being patient. And everybody's banging on the Steelers. But let me just say this.

The Rams, and this is what I hear people saying. Well, Rams took care of Todd Gurley. Arizona took care of David Johnson. And the Atlanta Falcons took care of Devonte Freeman. Well, yeah, but those guys didn't have two failed drug tests and get busted in a car for drug use.

Think about it this way. Every player has a Carfax report. This is the simplest way to think about it. Every player has a Carfax report. Levian Bells has two accidents and a transmission's been swapped out. And that affects what people are going to pay for the car. And now you got James Connor. You're leasing James Connor and he gets you to and from work.

You may not have heated seats, but you're not running into telephone polls either. The Steelers do not trust Levian Bell. And the Steelers have a right not to trust Levian Bell. And the Steelers have a history of being really, really patient. In 2015 and 2016, both years, Lavian Bell started the year. Suspended. This is not a Todd Gurley situation. Todd Gurley has a completely trustable personality with nothing on his car fax report.

And Devante Freeman. I mean, Levy and Bell's a really talented kid. But they're not in the wrong here. What they're basically saying is, we'll give you a deal. But we have a history here of being patient. We'll wait it out. Now, there's a report this morning that Levy and Bell is going to report, you know, the bye week, week seven, week eight. All right.

But if you want to play with the pitch, Steelers, and you're going to try to force their hand, they win always. They do. Cleveland, three coaches, four years, Pittsburgh three since 1969. They don't listen to the noise. They don't feel the pressure. They're the opposite of a low self-esteem sports program. They're the opposite of the Clippers or the Mets or the Jets.

Like the Steelers, they got all sorts of trophies and rings. They're in no hot rush. They're in no hurry. And the division is not running away from the Steelers. Baltimore's good. They're not perfect. Cincinnati's interesting, but they're Cincinnati. In Cleveland, they're probably a year away.

Baker another 10, 15 starts from really clicking. They already gave away a game this weekend against Oakland. So let's add context to Lavian Bell and people freaking out. If you think the Steelers are going to fold on this, you pick the wrong organization, man, because they say they're patient and they got 50 years of showing you their patient. And that Carfax report for Lavian Bells got all sorts of dings on it

and accidents on it and swap transmissions on it. And that goes a long way and you deciding what you're going to pay for a car. 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. So one of the big stories over the weekend was Earl Thomas,

great player. off the Seattle Seahawks sideline. And, you know, I said this a couple years ago with Pete Carroll. He's got the slogans, kumbaya, a lot of politics. I think Pete's a good guy. But some of it, it's with Pete, he comes in. The program explodes. And then it sort of unravels after eight or nine years.

And I'm seeing it USC and Seattle Seahawks kind of the same thing. He's still a good coach. He's very good defensive coach. And so when Earl Thomas gets hurt, goes off the field, I hear a lot of people supporting him, including Pete Carroll on Seattle Radio, said, hey, hey, hey, don't go crazy. He's a kid. It happens. Here it is.

People that are criticizing whatever happened don't understand. This was an, you know, earth-shattering moment for a kid. You know, he's trying to play this game he loves and all of a sudden this happens again. He knew exactly what had happened to him.

You know, so he went right to what it's going to take to get back and all the, you know, and he had it all just totally figured out. and is as emotional as you can get. But he was very chilled about it. You know, on the field, he was an unbelievable stud about handling it.

So give him a little slack. You know, this is this very, very difficult moment that most people would never understand what that was all about. All right. So let me just add this. He was on his second Seattle contract, which he agreed to.

It's not like he's been jobbed. He's in a state with no state income tax. And he's lucky because he plays safety, which has been marginalized and reduced in importance. so he's not going to get the payday he wants. But I heard something on Monday night football last night. I mean, forget the fact that nine years he's played in a state with no income tax and he's made $55 million. He's got a lot of money.

But last night I'm watching Monday night football and one of the announcers says, well, he's only the sixth highest paid safety, yet he appears to be the bet safety. Okay, my brain hurts. Let's slow down on this. do you know who the highest paid left tackle in football is? That's a really important position. It's Nate Solder of the Giants. He is the fourth best tackle in his own division. He's not Tyron Smith, not Jason Peters.

He's not Trent Williams or the Redskins. Nate Solder is the highest paid left tackle. He's the fourth best left tackle in his division. Well, Colin, that's just one position. Do you know the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL is, Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins appears to be the third or fourth favorite target of Patrick Mahomes. The second and third highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL are Alex Smith and Jimmy Garoppolo.

And the highest paid tight end is Jimmy Graham, who would not start for New England or Kansas City. In fact, Gronk is the eighth highest paid tight end. And I think like Travis Kelsey, who I think is as good as Gronk or better, is now ninth. Earl Thomas, you went to the University of Texas. They have a business school. You should have taken more business classes. In what profession, except for like commissioned, like car salesman, are you ever the highest paid person?

At the same time, you're the best at what you do. I mean, I work in radio. The way it works is you generally get paid for what you did. If you're a legend, Paul Harvey was making more at 80 than he was at 60. And he was way better at 50. Go around the NFL right now. This is how it works. Texas econ classes.

Please take them people. If you go to the school there, you will be paid. And then the next week, somebody else will sign a contract. Every week, every month, every year, players in your position are signing contracts. And so being the highest paid guy is all about. timing. Aaron Rogers until recently was like 11th highest paid quarterback. Brady now is 15th. Nate Solder, highest paid tackle. Sammy Watkins, highest paid wide receiver. Gronk is the sixth, my bad, six highest paid tight end. Travis Kelsey's eight. And those are the two guys in the league

nobody can guard. Jimmy Graham's got one touchdown. With Aaron Rogers, he's number one. I mean, at some point, Earl Thomas, okay, you're at a position that's getting marginalized. you're on your second contract in Seattle, which you negotiated, and frankly, you're the sixth highest paid. Considering you're closer to the end of your contract in the beginning, that's about what you should be paid. And if you didn't get hurt, you would have signed a new contract, then you would have been the highest paid safety. Nobody's hosing you here. It's basic economics. 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.

Herd hierarchy The top 10 NFL teams According to college Number 10 My new favorite NFL team I think they're going to stay in the herd hierarchy For the rest of the year The Chicago Bears

Number one in sacks Number two in rush defense Number two in takeaways Khalil Mack defensive stars Listen I have reservations About Mitch Trubisky I do I think he's got a really low ceiling

But I think there's two teams in the NFL When I watch their offense The Rams and the Bears with Matt Nagy it's like they're using different playbooks. So many looks, so multiple, so much motion. It's got a college field to it. I love what I see from the Chicago Bears. Their best start since 2013 Bears at 10.

Number nine. Carolina at 9. Here comes Norv Turner. And what do you know? Cam Newton has career high in completion percentage, passer rating, and touchdown to interception ratio. Here's the other thing. They're different than everybody else in this league.

Everybody else is throwing. They have the number one. offense because they have the best rushing quarterback and they're frankly just playing to their strengths and my knock on camozo has been he's not a precision thrower in a precision league but norv turner is the secret sauce he is closer now to 65 66 percent which is way above cam's average a couple years ago he was at 54 percent i've got carolina i still like their front seven defensively a lot i've got him at number nine number eight Philadelphia Eagles listen They lost Frank Reich.

He's now the coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He was running their offense last year. Frank's really good, and it's noticeable. And they've had a rough September, and they're two and two. But they're still number one in the NFL in rush defense. And if you can stop people running, you make them one-dimensional. Ultimately, you win games and get the ball back. Carson Wentz has been inactive.

Now he's back. Let's get him home for a couple of games. Let's get Carson Wentz in that running game and those receivers back for a couple games. This is still as good as any roster in the NFL, Eagles at 8. Number seven. Minnesota Vikings, not every loss is doom and gloom. I thought they looked great against the L.A. Rams. I really did. I really like what I saw. By the way, here's their issue. They're last in rushing. So they put everything, everything, a lot of third downs where they have to have Kirk Cousins make a play. Mostly Kirk Cousins has delivered. Career high and passing yards a game.

The problem is they're getting to third down a lot. They did it against the Rams. They got the third down 16 times. Why? Because they can't run. And so they're trying to run. And the weakness of this team is the offensive line. But it is still a roster outside of the offensive line full of B minus B and B plus guys.

I've got the Vikings at seven. Number six. The Saints, I was really surprised. Generally, the last nine times, the Saints had gone on the road. It was the second game of a road trip. They were one and eight. and they went up to New York, and that game was never in doubt. And again, the Saints do a couple of things well that people don't notice.

First of all, it's a very good offensive line. And you think about their receivers, you think about Peyton, you think about Breece. That's a very good offensive line. They can control the clock. The second thing is, they are third in rush defense, so they're forcing you to throw. And Alvin Kamar leads the NFL in scrimmage yards a game this season. 152.80's not a fluke. I have the Saints at 6.

number five. I didn't have them in. I'll just put New England in there because they're going to win their division. Because the Jets and the Bills are starting rookie quarterbacks in Miami is Miami. Ten straight wins against the dolphins at home. Now, they've still got big issues. They don't get to the quarterback. They're 29th in sacks.

Now, I think they can get away with that in a lot of games, especially in their division. Because those rookie quarterbacks, not a lot of weapons for Josh Allen and Buffalo, and not a lot of weapons for Sam Darnold in New York. I think it will come back to haunt them when they play a Kansas City, when they play a Baltimore later in the year. They just don't get to the quarterback. But Edelman comes back. He's their number one.

Gronks their number two. Their third best target is James White, the running back. So that allows Chris Hogan to be a fourth option. Philip Dorset to be a fifth option. Cordoral Patterson to be a sixth option. Who knows where Josh Gordon is? If Josh Gordon now, with Edelman coming back, can just remain active, they will have largely solved their biggest weakness outside of their pass rush, which is weapons.

Number four. Four best teams. These to me are the Super Bowl frontrunners. Number four, Jacksonville. Great defense. Number one defense, number one scoring defense, number one pass defense. It's a combination of great corners, tremendous pass rush. Their best start in 14 years. I got to say this, though. Blake Bortles may have some limitations, but he looks more comfortable on third down than he has ever lurked in his career. And it should be noted. He lost Marquis Lee, Alan Hurons a possession receiver, Leonard Fournett's been hurt. There's every reason for Blake Bortles to not look good.

But on those third downs, we know the defense is great. He's looked in really comfortable. So this is for the first time why I'm buying into it. He doesn't have that panic look, that rush look. I have the Jags at 4. Number 3. All right, Kansas City is amazing. but their last in total defense.

And again, last night was a firework show. You have got to clean up that pass defense. Case Keenham had time. Case Keenham delivered a lot of big passes last night. They're going to win games because this offense has a great coach, a great quarterback, a great back, a great tight end, a couple of nice deep threats. But in the end, I think their defense is an albatross and will come back to haunt them if they don't get it cleaned up.

Number two. My Super Bowl dark horse before the year, I think the Baltimore Ravens, watch out. Number two in total defense, and third down defense is great. They're getting people off the field. And by the way, the new NFL, Joe Flacco, pushed by the draft of Lamar Jackson. Joe Flacco's having a great year. I said this about Baltimore before this season. They drafted two tight ends, and they acquired three new receivers.

So Flacco's got five new parts. do not judge them in the first two or three weeks. This is a team by November when those young tight ends who can both play. And these receivers, John Brown, Crabtree, they can play. This team is guaranteed to get better as the season goes on. They haven't allowed a second half touchdown this season. They've outscored opponents 49 to 9 in the second half. And they're good on special teams, Baltimore at two.

Number one. I kind of think by a long shot, the Rams. I think they have as good a defensive coordinator as anybody has. Their defensive line is terrific. They're banged up a corner, but they're still good. Offensive line, terrific. Running back, quarterback, head coach, receiver, concepts. The only knock I have on the Rams, their pass rush is very hit and miss.

They're pretty ordinary at linebacker. And again, if you get into a game against Aaron Rogers later this year and you're not getting pressure on him, then you're going to put incredible pressure on. on Marcus Peters at corner, Sam Shields, and Akib Talib. But for now, punter, kicker, coach, coordinator, lines, I think by a touchdown, the Rams are the best team in the national football league. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Oh, it's one of my favorite 10 minutes of the week. Trent Dilfer, I'm not going to waste any time.

Played a decade and a half. Super Bowl champ, Pro Bowl, or drafted by the buck six overall. Trent Dilford via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Okay, the offense is Lord, Mitch Trubisky, six touchdown passes. They're exploding. Give me the big picture why they're exploding. All right. So I think you've got to go back, let's use an arbitrary number of, say, 10 years.

Before 10 years ago, the NFL offensively was a league of can't. What do I mean by that? Well, you couldn't throw the ball more than you run it. You couldn't displace your tight end. You couldn't take running backs and line off outside receivers. You couldn't weigh at a high tempo because you'd be exposed in your defense. You couldn't run your quarterback. You definitely couldn't run the zone read.

You couldn't have RPO's. People didn't know, they didn't know what to call them at that time, run-pass options. And the last 10 years or so, it's really become a league of can. Now we can do anything. So you have to ask yourself, why, after years and years of years, the NFL's saying we can't do this, why are they saying they can't do this? Why are they saying they can now? And it's very simple.

Forever team innovation worked its way down from the NFL to college to high school. Well, about 10 years ago, maybe even longer, it started working its way up. And I said this about seven, eight years ago on ESPN. I said, watch out. In the next 10 years, you might not recognize the NFL game. Because what I knew was going on were college coaches, we're going to high school programs and going, whoa, we're to recruit a kid, but we love what you're doing offensively. Why don't you come to our school and teach us this? And the colleges start doing it. And everybody loves how explosive college football

is. But the NFL said, no, no, we can't do that. That could never work in the NFL. Well, then all of a sudden, NFL programs start bringing college coaches in saying, how do you guys do that? Teach us how to do that. And it became a league of can. I think that's a huge reason why you're seeing the scheme changes. Number two, this is the first generation of quarterback that is growing up with all access to all the quarterback information and reps you could ever want. Never before have you able to go to Amazon and see how Tom Brady trains or go to whatever and see Jared Goff and the Rams or go pull up everything elite 11 training or go watch Quincy

Avery in Atlanta train to Sean Watson along with 10 other high school and college kids or Jordan Palmer in California. and you have camps where NFL players come in, high school, college players are there as well. Think about the seven on seven. Think about the tens of thousands of more reps that, let's say, Jared Goff has in his bank than a quarterback that was drafted in the 1990s, early 2000s, who never had seven on seven, who didn't get to read defenses, who didn't understand the difference between a short side throwing a boundary throw, who didn't have to idea Mike linebacker, C-7,

secondary rotation, yada, yada, yada, basically be a quarterback. So these quarterback, these offenses have expanded rapidly. Then I do think the rules play a big part of it. I think video games play a big part of it. I was a coach's son. I knew as much football as any college quarterback

when I went to college. And I'll tell you right now, every kid I talked to in high school knows more football than I knew at that time because of video games and exposure. So it's just the perfect storm. By the way, people comparing Brett Farve and Patrick Mahomes. You know both. Take me back to Farv's rookie year.

Second year. Did he look like this? Well, I got my brains being in by him for six straight years. I think I was Owen Penn against him in Lambo. I watched him win those three MVP's. To me, he's the greatest talent and playmaker that ever played quarterback. And I watch this Patrick Mahomes kid, and I think he's better than Brett was at this stage. And I bet you if you got Brett on an interview, he would say the same thing.

Brett had the huge arm like Mahomes. Brett was fiercely competitive. Brett could turn nothing into something. But this kid plays with rhythm and timing, discipline with his eyes. When he does do his athletic stuff, is playing beyond the exos. He's not careless with the ball.

Yeah. If you notice these plays where he's running around and you're showing him right now and creating the location of the ball is safe. It's accurate and safe. He doesn't come close to football. fumbling in the pocket. He has incredible instinct. I think he's a generational talent and a kid that's going to be as good as we've ever seen. I don't want to put you on the spot, but everybody in the

NFL either says they've got their quarterback and they believe it. And then I think there's about five teams that say it publicly, there's a kid at Oregon, Justin Herbert, who's a potentially very special kid. And there's a couple of teams out there. Listen, if you're Eli Manning and you're the giant and you finish six and ten and I got some pieces around, I got Odell, I got Sequin Barclay. You know, a lot of the bad teams, Trent, are going to have top ten picks and they don't need a quarterback. The jets

don't need one. The bills don't need one. Cleveland doesn't need one. What team in the NFL, Giants, Dallas, Jags, Miami, do you think is saying they love their guy, but if they had a chance to get the kid from Oregon, they would.

Well, I'll even talk to a bigger scope. I think we've all dated somebody before we found our bride that we dated for a while. We didn't want to be alone, so we didn't, but we knew we weren't really going to marry. And I think that's going on in five or six places in NFL, that they are in a dating relationship with their quarterback. And it's a good dating relationship.

They've met each other's parents. They're talking about moving in. Like, they're close. You would almost call to marriage, but they're still dating. And I think that organization is, I got to hold on to this until I finally, I find the one I want to marry. And I think most of them want to marry the kid out of Oregon,

Justin Herbert, or Drew Locke out of Missouri, or Wade on Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State, or two at Alabama, or Will Greer at West Virginia. They have their eyes on those players say, man, I really want to marry that type of talent, but I may not ever get to meet him slash her. So I've got to hold on the one I have and make the most of this relationship why I can,

because I'm not sure if I'm going to be introduced to my future bride down the road. Does that make sense? I think that's going on in five or six places. Yeah, and I do think it's a Miami and a Jacksonville. Finally, three minutes left. Dallas says, Zeeks are a guy. We're led by Zeke.

And I say to myself, you're not getting to Super Bowls, led by running games. I don't buy that you can do. And I like running backs. But Goff has to be good for Gurley to explode. What do you make a Dallas saying, Zeke's leading our franchise? I think he's leading them this year.

They have to find an alpha perimeter player. They have to find a big time playmaker, a guy that you lean on and all those, you know, every TV analyst will show you all 22. Here's a one-on-one on third and seven. And Julio Jones and A.J. Green and, you know, Antonio Brown, they make the play. The Cowboys have a lot of those looks too, and they're not able to get that alpha person open and making plays, explosive plays. I think they're one piece away, as I've said before, before we can truly

judge DAC and this offense's ability to go the distance. Now, I think there's another element we touched on earlier. I do think that Scott Linehan, who have a lot of respect for, he's been a great coordinator in this league for a long time, but I do think he needs to continue to grow and innovate and add more Saturday concept to this offense while they're looking for that alpha perimeter player. I'm with you. I don't think it could be a Zeke Elliott centric offense and get to the Super Bowl. I think if it's Zeke Elliott and they find another alpha, a big time playmaker, whether that's in free agency or in the draft, then that can be good enough to take them the distance.

All right. We've got to run, Trent Delfrey. You got anything on YouTube I should look at? Anything you're doing right now, business-wise here, quick? I'm boring as heck. Just check out Soul and Science on NFL Network's pre-game show on Thursdays. John Brackenstein doing our thing there. Soul and Science, Trent Delford.

Good talking to you, bud. Thanks, buddy. Always fun. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day. seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. 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 we're doing our quarterly NFL awards. We're having awards today. These are our quarterly NFL awards, and Joy Taylor is going to offer up some nominees. Let's go. All right. The first award in the Herald.

NFL quarterly awards. The best team with a losing record. And the nominees are the one, two, and one, Pittsburgh Steelers, the one and three Atlanta Falcons or the one, two, and one, Minnesota Vikings. Well, the Steelers defense, I don't think is that fixable. Atlanta's got too many injuries that they can't overcome. I would say the Minnesota Vikings are the best team of the losing record. By the way, they beat the Rams last year. They matched up with the Rams very well on Thursday night. Minnesota's a real football team. Upset alert. They go to Philadelphia with extra days to prepare. And Kirk Cousins, they may not run the football. They're still passing it well. Minnesota's the best team right now with a losing record. Okay. The next category is worst team with a winning record. The nominees are the 3-1

Chicago Bears, the 3-1 Miami Dolphins, or the 3-1 Tennessee Titans. I believe in the Chicago Bears. I love their coach Matt Nagy and defensively up front. It's nothing but dudes. And the Tennessee Titans are limited, but I think they've got a certain culture I believe in. The Miami Dolphins are the worst team of the winning record. And I think that New England game, there are losses, and then there are losses. And that was embarrassing. You could have gone three and a half up on New England, and to not even compete was so Miami Dolphins. That's the worst team in the league with the winning record.

Tried to tell you. All right. Next, we have frequent Colin Cowherd targets who has impressed you the most. the nominees are Baker Mayfield, Cam Newton, Joe Flacco, or John Gruden. This is tough because Cam has become a precision thrower. Baker is about what I thought he would be. John Gruden, this past week I finally bought him, but my winner is Joe Flacco, drafted two rookie tight ends, three new wide receivers, and I got to be honest with you.

I think they're the first, second or third best team in the league. Flacco, I thought, on the road, they played some tough team. Flacco's kind of blown me away. All right. The best player without a supporting cast, the nominees are Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, or Aaron Rogers. Okay. Andrew Luck has no running game. They don't even try to run the football.

What did he have? 62 attempts this year? I think they rushed the ball 17 times. Three of them were Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck is working, not a limited running game. They have no running game and don't even try to hide it. And they still only have one weapon on the perimeter. He's the best player without a sporting cast.

Could be a destination for Levi-on-Bel. All right. The next category. A storyline you're most tired of. The nominees are the Brady-Belichick feud, the Levy on Bell holdout, or the controversy over the roughing-the-passer rules. Some Brady and Belichick was the first drama in years, so I was kind of fascinated by it.

Levy and Bell does wear me out, but I think he would make the jets in the twas and the tour. Colts really interesting. So I think the idea of where he would lands kind of fascinating. I'm over roughing the passer. Von Miller last night, Khalil Mack the weeks before,

have figured it out. Go for the ball or grab the player and set him down. Clay Matthews. Von Miller's figured it out. Khalil Max figured it out. By the way, 31 and 32 NFL teams have their starting quarterback. The ratings are up. The one that doesn't, San Francisco,

I'm not going to watch the rest of the year. I mean, I'm certainly not going to go seek them out. I may watch them because they're on. The league's doing this because they want healthy quarterbacks. It's smart. All right. And finally, in the Hurt NFL Quarterly Awards, the worst decision category. By the way, John, where's this music from?

It sounds very... It's like canned award show music. It's very awardy. Well, that's kind of the idea. These are awards. Okay. So the nominees are for Worst Decision category. The Raiders trading away Kalea Mac.

the bill starting Nathan Peterman week one or Jimmy Garapolo dating an adult film star Well dating an adult film star is a brief lapse in judgment and starting Nathan Peterman was a longer

but mostly brief error in judgment Khalil Mack you're going to pay a price for that for the next several years John Gruden was quoted saying this week he had another strip fumble sack he was quoted in saying that to Mike Silver I think for a lot of reasons

I got to tell you, too, my biggest knock on the Raiders right now is it on the pass rush. And they had it and they let it go. You know, it's weird. I almost wonder, Gruden has been so busy building up this offense. You know, he went and got, you know, Jordy Nelson, and, you know, he went and got Metavius Bryant, and he's trying to get his offensive system in. You almost wonder, did Gruden watch a ton of cops? Kaleel Mack, because, again, it's not like the Raiders were on Monday Night Football when

Gruden was doing it. Yeah, but it's not like Kaleel Mack is like sneaky good. It's like an under-the-radar player. It's pretty well known that Kaleo Mac is a big deal. So even if you didn't watch tape, I'm pretty sure they have like a little highlight reel. Do you know how good you have to be? Do you know how good you have to be to be a defensive player and make me want to turn your game on? I mean, honestly, J.J. Watt had a little bit of that.

Dion Sanders had that. But in my life, it had been about three guys that I'm like, oh, I'm going to watch that defensive player. Ray Lewis had a little bit of that. And I, I mean, Khalil Mack gets me to a television set. That he is absolutely incredible. Those have been our heard quarterly awards. That music, I thought, was very fitting, very dramatic. It was very regal.

I mean, these are prestigious awards. These are prestigious awards. These are very prestigious. 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 Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

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