The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 10/04/2018

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

Colin applauds Tom Brady for being honest while other great QBs act like politicians. He thinks Drew Brees is well ahead of Aaron Rodgers in the all-time QB rankings. Plus, Greg Cosell of NFL Films talks about the Packers’ offensive struggles and why Patrick Mahomes is so good this early in his career. 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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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 Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. This is the Best of the Heard. 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. FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me. Tonight, Patriots Colts. Last time Tom Brady lost Foxborough to the Colts. He was like 32 years old. Now he's like, you know, in his 60s. Joy is joining me this morning. How are you, Joy?

I'm great. Good morning. Today, I want to talk about honesty. And there's so little honesty. I don't think the media is honest. I don't think politicians are honest. Hopefully people in your family are honest. But a lot of people are selling you one thing and live in another.

And it's one of the reasons I'm a big Tom Brady fan. Tom Brady will get his 500th career touchdown pass tonight, probably tonight, if not in his next game. And only three people have ever done that when Tom does that. Brady, Fav, and Peyton Manning. And Tom Brady is the only one of those three still playing, and he's less popular than all of them still. Why would that be? Is he a bad guy? No.

Is he underachieved? No. Is he a bad dad? No. Bad husband? No. Tom is handsome, and he has a supermodel wife, and he does high-end endorsements. He's one of those dreaded coastal elites.

Ooh. That speaks not poorly of Tom that he's not as. as popular as Peyton Manning, who he's better than, or Brett Farr, who he was much better than. It speaks poorly of us. It's about jealousy and envy. They've done studies on this, folks. When we think people are pulling away from us, we like them less. Fear-based.

Oprah Winfrey, 20 years ago, lost weight. And her TV ratings went down. She got less popular. You see, politicians do this all the time. A very popular message with politicians. of you. I can relate to you. We are conjoined in this fight. No, you change laws. I'm a radio idiot. We're not even close to the same. You're changing legislation in America. You're a politician. You're a senator. You're a president. You're a governor. I just talk into a microphone.

We're not the same. I want to remind everybody listening today that Michael Jordan did not eat Big Macs or Ballpark Franks and he didn't wear Haynes underwear. I want to remind you that Peyton Manning doesn't eat Oreos, doesn't eat pizza a lot, does not drive a mid-sized sedan. My favorite Tom Brady quality is authenticity. He's never once tried to say, hey, hey, hey, I'm eating fast food tonight and a mountain dew. I'm one of you. No, he's never once tried to do that. Unlike your local politician or perhaps your federal one, your local columnist or your national one, your boss,

whoever it is, who's selling you one thing and delivering another, Tom's never done that. We should have a new rule in sports today that we reward people who are honest with us. Even if honesty makes us a little uncomfortable, even if honesty makes us a little jealous, even if honesty makes us a little envious. Did you ever see that documentary he did, Tom versus Time? Did that remind you of your life at all?

No, it never did, but it was real. It wasn't my real. My life isn't Costa Rica. My life is not that splendid. my life is not surfing in Costa Rica, Mansion on the Beach. That's not my life, but that's Tom's life, and that's a real life. No Oreos, no mid-sized sedans, no ballpark francs. By the way, there's nothing wrong with any of that stuff.

But even on my show, I tell advertisers, if I don't use it, I'm not telling people I use it. I think I owe you that. Real. Tom Brady is less popular than Fav and Peyton Manning, and it says nothing about him. It says everything about us. We always get the politicians and the celebrities we deserve. We get exactly what we deserve. Tom Brady's been a great dad, great husband, a great quarterback, a great teammate,

taking great pay cuts, and doesn't try to sell you a bunch of crap that he's not using. He's a hundred percent authentic. Sometimes you could even argue he's a little nerdy. He's a little geeky. But then he sort of shows us he's a little geeky. Tip of the cap to the greatest who's ever played, who keeps it as they say, 100. Let me shift to this because I'm really in the mood today to talk about honesty.

Most people, I'm probably one of these people, Most people don't like confrontation. Nobody ever comes up to me. It yells at me. They do on Twitter because they can be anonymous. You know what I mean? But like when I walk around the grocery store or a car wash or like, you know, everyday places, everybody comes up and says nice things.

I've been doing this 30 years. Nobody's ever come up once. I've been a jerk that was sober, sometimes drunk people. But, you know, that's alcohol speaking. But people don't like confrontation. So it's easier. I'm not saying it's better. It's easier to be honest anonymously.

You can rip somebody because they don't know it to you. And so every year, the NBA at this time of the year has their general manager survey. Anonymously, general managers vote on a variety of topics. Now, publicly, general managers will never criticize a star player because they, may want to get them. First of all, they don't want to be seen as anti-player because players control the NBA. Players don't really control the NFL. Players don't control baseball. I mean, they don't control high. Players control star players control the NBA. I mean, Robinson Canoza star, Mariners aren't in the playoffs. A's are in the playoffs without stars. In the NBA, stars

control the league. They fire coaches. They don't fire players. And so a general manager publicly will never rip a star because he wants to get stars and he doesn't he don't want to have a reputation he's anti-player but i like this survey because it's the one time every year general managers in the NBA can be absolutely honest because they can be anonymous and a lot of people in the NBA because Kevin Durant's going to be a free agent and they'd like to get Kevin Durant on their roster love Kevin Durant every bit as good as LeBron that's interesting because the general manager's NBA survey came out. LeBron won eight categories.

Best passer. Which player forces coaches to adjust most? Best small forward. Who will win MVP? Which new player will have the greatest impact? Best leader. Best IQ. Most versatile.

Hell, LeBron finished second and best big forward. He's not even playing that position. Kevin Durant won one category. Who do you want to take a big shot at the end of the game? By the way, he ranked third in the same survey, best shooter on his own team. LeBron won eight categories and finished second in a position he doesn't play. Yeah. When you can go anonymous, you can tell the truth.

Most versatile defender, Kevin Durant didn't get a vote. LeBron got third. LeBron stopped playing defense last year. So for the Kevin Durant is better than LeBron crowd, once general managers could be honest about it, not close. Oh, by the way, Steph Curry got votes in 11 categories more than Kevin Durant got. So on his own team, Kevin Durant got votes in fewer categories than Steph Curry. not even the biggest vote getter on his own team. So when you can go anonymous, you can be more honest.

And in a star-driven league, when nobody ever wants to criticize stars, it would have been very, very easy. The one that everybody will talk about today, the one category is, if you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player, who would it be? And LeBron got like fourth. But remember, that's always been a category about age. Last year, Carl Anthony Towns won it. Nobody in the NBA thought Carl Anthony Towns was better than LeBron. That category gets over-discussed. I can't believe.

That's an age category. GMs every year go out. I mean, Joe L.M.B. got votes. You know, I mean, Anthony Davis, Giannis got votes. Last year, it was Carl Anthony Towns. That's the one that'll get discussed today and people will freak out. LeBron should have won that. LeBron's in his, what, 16th year?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of general managers are, looking for the next star, not the current star. Don't pay that much attention to that one. But pay attention to what the GMs, who could be totally honest about LeBron and Durant, how the voting went. LeBron won eight categories, leader, passer, IQ, positions he doesn't even play he got votes in. Durant didn't get the most votes in the most categories on his own team. 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.

Can I say this? I know Bill Polly, and Bill Pollyon's a Hall of Fame executive. He built those great Bill's teams. He built the Peyton Manning teams. He is not charitable with his praise on players. He's brutally honest. He gets a lot of pushback because he's not a suck up. He'll tell you what he thinks. And he was one of the, he was the only analyst at ESPN who didn't say, Lamar Jackson's amazing. He's like, Lamar Jackson's not ready to play. He got a lot of pushback at ESPN. He's as honest as they get, but he's not already charitable. And this is what he said about Patrick Mahomes.

I've never heard him talk like this. Here you go. This is going to sound like hyperbole, but it's what I believe based on what I saw last night. The arm and release of Marino, the escapeability and the field division of Aaron Rogers, the accuracy of Aaron Rogers, and Marino, and the inventiveness of Farrv. So you're talking rare company there. Okay. Marino, Fav, Aaron Rogers, the three names he used. Now, I know what you're saying. Woo! Woo! That is some company. Marino, Farv, and Aaron Rogers. And you know what I thought? 51 combined

years, two Super Bowl wins. Talent, especially when it's initially compared to Godlike legends, doesn't pay off. Marino walked into this league, he was a god. Aaron walked into this league, he was a god. Farve walked into this league. He was John Madden's favorite player ever. By the way, Tom Brady doubted day one. Drew Brees doubted day one. Terry Bradshaw, struggles early.

Troy Aitman, one and 15 out of the shoot. Drew Brees, doubted. It's going to break virtually all the passing records if he plays three more years. Joe Montana, doubted initially. Patrick Mahomes, four and O. compared to Aaron Rogers, Marino, and Brett Farb. This is what I said about the Whitney Houston, Tiger Woods, and Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson was like 9-0, greatest fighter of all time.

Whitney Houston. First out, greatest singer of all time. Tiger Woods, 11 years old, signed by an agent. Going to be the next jack. When you go from, when you have no bumps and no pushback and you are treated like a god, your first day out, that criticism, that struggle is necessary to create greatness. I mean, this guy, how many road games has he played?

Has he ever played in snow yet? Is he ever played with an injury? Has he been sacked really hard by, you know, like Kaleel Macker? I mean, I don't know. I like him a lot. I really do. But we have a precedent. The struggle is necessary.

And Marino Farvin Rogers in my lifetime, I mean, came out and were like gods. Whitney Houston, Tyson, Tiger came out. They were just gods. Already better than Jack. Gonna blow out Jack's records. Tyson's better than Ali. Say, nah, Ali had to go to Zaire. Ollie got his jaw broken.

Ali lost to Frasier. That's what made Ali. The struggle was real. So when I hear those names and I hear these comparisons, I'm like, wow. But Marino Rogers Farr, 51 combined years, two Super Bowls. Bradshaw's got four, Brady's got five, Montana's got four, Aikman's got three, all those guys. Dumped on, crapped on, doubted, all of them.

Drew Bree is going to break every record if he plays three, four more years. All of them. Doubted, critics, crushed, dumped, broken, just saying. catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. You'll say things from time to time and that they seem obvious. And it's like, no, no, as long as I back stuff with data, I'm right. I don't hate. Hate doesn't, there's no such thing. You're a hater. Just be honest and be right. I'm not a fan boy. I don't wear pom-poms or Packer jerseys or Ravens jerseys to games. Okay? You do. I get it.

your fans. You should. But a couple years ago, a while back, I was talking about the eight best quarterbacks I've ever seen in my life. And I didn't put him in order. I just said, Peyton Manning, Brady, Joe Montana, Bradshaw, Elway, Marino, Troy Aikman, Breeze. Well, you work with Troy Aikman. No, I have three categories that decide who are the best quarterbacks I've ever seen. Production.

Are you productive? I don't care about just wins. Are you, what's your production? Number two, big wins. This isn't baseball. I don't care about your OPB. Yeah, you know me. I care about wins, Super Bowls, playoffs.

playoff wins. Number three is longevity. Do you do it a long time? These are the three things I judge quarterbacks on. Have you been productive? Have you won big games? This is not baseball. I don't care about career averages. I want championships. I want playoff wins, division titles. And third is, how long have you done it? And Mark Sanchez was good for an hour. How long have you done it? And so you go to pro. In my list, I didn't have Aaron Rogers. And I'm like, okay, let's look at the three categories because Breeze is going to set more records on Monday night football. So it's going to be a big Drew Breeze week. Breeze going to go out Monday night football and everybody's going to love Drew Bree. He's got to set records. And this is not an anti-Aren

Rogers. But if you look at productivity, let's look at productivity. Drew Breeze has more historical numbers. I mean, good God. Five thousand yards seasons. He's had five. Aaron's had none. I mean, he just, he blows Aaron Rogers away. And by the way, Breeze has years to go. Duration, longevity. Breeze check over Aaron Rogers at this current time. Big wins, they're even. I don't even

though, you know, Aaron's had some stumbles in the playoffs. I think Breeze and Aaron Rogers in terms of the Big W, they're the same. I still think both of them are going to win another Super Bowl. I think Drew Breeze has one more Super Bowl in him. Could be this year. And I think Aaron's got one more Super Bowl in him. I don't think it's this year, but it'll be sometime. But,

one of the reasons one of the things when I get close because I do think Aaron and Drew Breeze are close one of the things I really think about and I've said this time and time again I'm not impressed if you inherited a lot of money and made more money with a lot of money

I'm really impressed if you came from a screwed up family and you just made yourself a hell of a person what did you inherit in life never forget this Aaron Rogers inherited an NFC champion championship team from Brett Farr that was 13 and 3 with multiple pro bowlers. Drew Brees came to New Orleans.

They were wearing grocery bags on fans' heads. They were called the Ains. They were 3 and 13. They had one playoff win in franchise history. He saved the franchise post-Katrina. They were going to move the franchise. That was a big discussion. People left the city.

The team left the city. So in a tiebreaker, basically Aaron Rogers and inherited the 1990 Lakers. Drew Brees inherited the 1980 clippers. That's a thing. So, so often, because, you know, I know you millennials think that, you know, the Saints are just a great franchise. You're just absolutely convinced the Saints are a great franchise.

Before Drew Brees got there, their best player ever was Deuce McAllister, Archie Manning, who's the third best Manning ever at quarterback? A wonderful guy, but Joe Horn? I mean, nice players. I mean, Deuce McAllister is a heck of a player. Joe Horn, R.G. Manning. You got to remember, Drew Brees saved the franchise. Saved it.

They were a mess. They were Cleveland. They were Cleveland in a dome. They were a laughing stock. They could have lost the franchise. You know, you can't just be banging on millennials all the time, Colin. I like millennials, but they, sometimes they forget. Let's move on to the younger generation.

I'm like technically old. I'm 31. I'm a millennial. I like most things about you. Just not that I'm a millennial. I mean, I agree with you, though. I actually think that Drew Breeze is undervalued. I mean, he's just never spoke about it.

Maybe it's because of his demeanor. He's just a humble guy. And like you said, the Saints are organization that's not in a huge market. His prime was Manning's prime and Brady's. Prime. And, you know, again, go here. And now Aaron Rogers. Here's the eight best quarterbacks. I've seen play. Now, by the way, Dan Fouts and Aaron Rogers and Steve Young did not make the list. They were all unbelievable. But I go to production. Fouts didn't have the big wins necessary. And, you know, so again, Steve Young and Aaron

Rogers and Dan Fouts did not make this list. It was interesting. not feet. Does that say Peyton Manning above? No, no, I didn't put it in order. I just said, Peyton, Brady, Montana. And like, people say Bradshaw. Bradshaw was a monster for a decade. Big wins, production, did it forever.

Played hurt. Again, Marino, how do you have Marino in there? Because his production was so great, and he did it for so many years, that I would probably put him closer to eight than I would won, because he didn't have as many big win. Now, he won his division.

lot and he won playoff games but he never won a Super Bowl he never won a Super Bowl but he won a big games Dan won his division division you know it's like in college if you win the SEC and don't win the national championship that's still worth that's a real legitimate banner that's a prize winning the big 10 is a prize you don't have to just win the national championship so marino had a lot of wins in a it was a good division and marino was great and he won playoff games but he didn't win the big one so I'd knock him a little but yeah I mean uh breeze is uh yeah I just think he's remarkable. He's, you know, you're great when they compare young great players to you.

And that's what we do. I mean, it's, everybody's like, oh, he's the next Drew Breeze. Well, that's, that's pretty good. They only do that for about seven quarterbacks. You only ever hear he's the next blank. You know, you really never hear he's the next Aaron Rogers. Not Mahomes, but even Mahomes, you don't even see Aaron Rogers. But he's getting compared to Far.

Yes. And here's the other thing. the quarterback that in Green Bay that resurrected the franchise was the quarterback before Aaron Rogers. That was Brett Farve. The Packers were, they were a dumpster fire. And then Farv resurrected the franchise and then handed the baton to Aaron. I'm not blaming Aaron, but that's the reality. Breeze resurrected the franchise.

He had to do what Farve did. I don't think people remember, you know, young people remember just how bad the Saints were. They were Cleveland. You know, like Cleveland's so bad, they've been kind of pathetic. Like the Saints were so bad, they were like, they were a punchline on late night shows. They were pathetic. They were the Clippers in the NBA. When you can go and resurrect the Clippers, that's a lot harder than joining the Lakers.

Nothing against Kobe, but when you join the Lakers and you had Jerry West and you got, you got, you know, you got the Phil Jackson's and the Jay. And you get, then, oh, here comes Shaq. And that's a lot easier than resurrecting the Clippers or. the New Orleans Saints. 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. Nick Saban, story came out yesterday.

He makes $8.3 million at Alabama. Don't pay the players. I mean, guys, too much money. He's underpaid. He's underpaid. Nick Saban's underpaid 10 titles in five years. He gets 7% of their football revenue. Alabama football revenue makes $108 million a year.

His salary is 7%. Hell, I tip my waitress at Appleby's 22%. He makes 7% of Alabama. And for the record, that's just of Alabama football revenue. Alabama football revenue. He makes 7% of it. Five titles. Well, he's in a big national power.

They all win. Really? USC winning right now? Texas winning right now. Florida winning right now. Tennessee winning right now. Michigan winning titles right now? You think LSU is going to knock down a couple titles?

with that Ors are on? What are you talking about? National powers. Georgia doesn't have a national Thailand forever. Give me a break. Just because you're a national power, Alabama was a mess before he got there. They've had no NCAA baggage,

and he takes a whopping 7% of revenues. I'm not even counting the increase in admissions since he came to Alabama. We've had studies on this that when football teams win, like USC wins or Oklahoma wins, the admissions go up. You get 15,000 more kids want to be in your school. I'm not even counting those $42,000 a year checks from students. If I did, he'd be making about 2% of revenues at Alabama. This guy, Nick Saban should open up one of those GoFundMe accounts.

Give me a break. Oh, he's underpay. Oh, there's too much money. What about the players? What about them? What about the players? Kansas basketball and Alabama football, they're filling stadiums for the last 100.

years. You know, Tim Tebow is the only college player in my life where literally he was selling merchandise millions of dollars of merchandise. I mean, like Tim Tebow was his own industry. Hell, he's still his own industry. But if I have to hear again about, oh, these college coaches make so much money, he makes 7% of football revenues. Now, I'll criticize Nick Saban.

He goes to the podium three times a year and complains about stuff, which he yesterday he went on the podium to complain about stuff. Let me blast him for this because he's totally wrong on this. With two of success this season, how cool is it for you to see your fans kind of support him with things like Lay's and Hawaiian shirts and game day? Well, I think it's great. I think that, you know, I think what makes this a special experience here is when we have, you know, great support from everybody in the program, everybody that supports the program, all of our fans, all of our students. I can honestly say I was a little disappointed that there weren't more students at that.

the last game. You know, when I first came here, you used to play that tradition thing up there and everybody was cheering and excited and happy and there was a great spirit. Now they don't even cheer. They introduce our players. Nobody even cheers. And if that's not here, then does it continue to be special to be here or not? You know, to see half the students section not full. I've never seen that since I've been here before. Yeah, because the students are tired of you scheduling Louisiana Monroe at home. Alabama plays at least three cupcakes every year at home. They get a buy right before Auburn. They won't go on the road out of conference.

It's always a neutral field. His first five years, he wasn't as dominant, was he? Because he went on the road for out-of-conference games. Listen, Nick, okay, this is college football. You totally control your schedule. You schedule Panera bread, you know, twice a year. That's what you get. I mean, seriously, this is what you get.

Now, the fans show up for the good games because the students aren't stupid. They know when you're challenged, but that's totally on Nick. He totally controls, completely controls the schedule. He won't go on the road for out of conference games. He hasn't done that in the half decade. He always puts buys in front of the big ones. It's funny, the coincidence. He's always got a buy before LSU or a buy before Auburn. It's funny how it works. And he plays Panera Bread three times a year. That's on you. All right, from that, we go to an NFL meat sandwich, my favorite guy every week, 40 years NFL films. Greg CoSells joining us. Greg, how are you? I like Panera bread, Colin.

The Citadel, Arkansas State, Raging Cajuns. Come on. Come on. Come on. Everybody needs a good game against McNeese State once in a while. Let's start with this. Patrick Mahomes. Good Lord.

He's Marino. He's far. I mean, listen, he's talented. He hasn't played in the snow yet, and he plays in Kansas City. What's the tape say? Well, I just have a question. Are we ready right now to put Pat Mahomes in an historical context? After four starts this year and one start last year, he's played exceptionally well.

That's tough to argue. Last week, in the fourth quarter, he did a lot of what he did in college, which was play randomly outside of structure and make tremendous downfield throws. That's a strength of his game. But I think it's a little premature to put him in historical context. One can always talk about skill sets and traits. Obviously, there was a reason. people did not see him as the number one pick in a draft.

I think it's too early to say that everybody made a mistake. So I think we can talk about his performance to this point, but I think the historical context needs a little more time, don't you? Yeah, he plays in a cold weather city. He's yet to see a hailstorm. You know, I always say when you're playing outdoors in bad weather, the season to me doesn't start until Thanksgiving. So let's just see him.

And Andy Reid's teams, by the way, historically start very, very well. September. If the Patriots win tonight, and I suspect they will, the culture all banged up, it's in Foxborough, and Miami loses Sunday to the Bengals, I think they will. New England will once again lead their division, so, you know, let's not overreact here. But I did think without Julian Edelman, they were pretty sparse on the perimeter with dynamic playmakers, and I think their running backs are kind of average. But they did draft a kid from Georgia, Sony Michelle. Is he going to matter? Because he looked like he mattered this past week. He did. And I like Michelle, I guess more than you do. I liked him coming

out quite a bit. What was interesting with what they did, and you and I both know Belichick that he could never do this again the rest of the season because he plays week to week, but in this particular game, what he did was he lined up with a fullback. Michelle had 25 runs in this game. 19 of them had the fullback Devlin on the field. That's very rare in today's NFL, and that's what he chose to do. There was something about Miami's defense that he felt he could do that and be effective doing it. Yeah, but like you said, he may never do it again, but, you know, that's what Bill does better than anybody. So I said in the preseason, I don't take much from preseason, but Baltimore's first team lines, I said, you know what, I'm going to take a little out of Baltimore's preseason.

They look pretty good to me. And I also think Joe Flackle, when inspired, tends to be a better, he's not as aspirational as Brady. He doesn't wake up every morning wanting to be the greatest ever, but when pushed, he can be good. So what's the film say on Joe Flackle's resurgence? I think Joe Flacco, the last tune only well, may be better than I can recall in the last number of years. And people forget about Flacco. Flacco is a big man with a very strong arm. And velocity is not measured in how far you can throw a football.

Velocity in the NFL is measured on certain kinds of throws like deep digs that you have to throw between defenders and before a safety attacking it from up high. Those are arm-stained throws. Flacco has always had tremendous armstrained. Now, I don't know if it was on him or whether he was coached this way, but he sort of became a guy who wouldn't push the ball down the field. Now he's pushing the ball down the field more and throwing with tremendous accuracy. By the way, the Steelers, everybody's talking about Lavin Bell got to bring him back.

I mean, you're watching the film, how much is tape? Is he missed? James Connor seems, you know, he's fine. But here's the way I would answer that. And it's very difficult to quantify, but my guess is this is true. I think Levyon Bell is a player that defense's game plan for. I don't think James Connor is. Okay.

So, again, without knowing exactly a defensive coordinator's game plan approach from Wednesday to Friday, my guess is that he's game plan for so that impacts how you allocate your defensive resources and players, and that does impact Antonio Brown. Yeah. I think that's fair to say. I also think he's a tremendous wide receiver. I mean, he had like 80 catches last year. Right. That's fairly profound historically. So, listen, we know that Dak Prescott doesn't have Des and Witten.

We know his rookie year. I mean, listen, I didn't like him out of college. I thought he was a better T-bo. I didn't like his throwing motion or his accuracy. And he got beat up a lot in Mississippi State, so I wasn't high on him. And then he shocked me in year one. He really shocked me. And now I look at him and I think, God, he's got a really low ceiling. He's not that accurate after his primary guys cut off. I mean, what is the big difference year one to now? Is it just no Dez and no witness? Is that it? Well, I think that for Dez to be successful, the Cowboys need to be a balanced offense as success running the ball.

Then that changes everything for DAC. And we've talked about him before. He's not exceptionally accurate. He can make – he's an NFL quarterback so he can make throws. I mean, he hit Gallop this past week on a go route, a fade route, beautifully thrown ball. He certainly made a great throw to Elliott, beautifully designed play based on what they were getting in overtime from the Lions defense, with the linebacker covering Elliot, which had happened for about five plays before that last one. So it was a great call by Scott Linehan. But he can make throws. I just don't think he's consistent enough where if he has to drop back 35, 40 times every week, he can be your guy. You know, I want to talk, it's really interesting because football's the only sport. Greg CoSell, NFL films 30 years, football is the only sport where you practice six to seven times more than you play.

Yeah. It really is. It's the only sport like that. It's a lot of practice for very little playing. I mean, baseball is the exact opposite. So Aaron Rogers has not practiced as much lately. He said this week we weren't acceptable. Our offense wasn't acceptable.

Is it just a he's not practicing enough, or does a tape say something about the package? Packers' offense. Well, he did not have a strong game. Going the ball, he missed some routine throws. Their past game normally is not very rhythmic, but there's normally, when he's healthy, second reaction explosive past, they're not getting those now because his knee is obviously a bit of an issue. Rogers, and we've discussed this, Colin, for me, is a very, very difficult evaluation because he's in rhythm when he's moving and out of rhythm when he's playing from the pocket, which is the exact opposite of most quarterbacks. and I know I've said this to you before.

He's more jazz musician than classical pianist. He's, like I said, he's in rhythm when he's playing on the move as opposed. Yeah. He's really a different cat. I think his personality is different. His style is different. Yep. So you and I have had conversations about Mitch Trubisky mostly off the air,

and I think both of us think he's okay. But coaching matters. Jeff Fisher to Sean McVeigh, Jared Gough, it matters. Mitch Trubisky had just a fantastic game, and Bear fans are piling on me. They're like, Colin, you're a hater on this guy, and I'm like, listen, I watched the Bears play with Matt Nagy, Greg, and they look clever.

It's like they're using a different playbook than everybody. There's motions in different sets. I mean, what do you make of a six-touchdown performance? What do you make of it? I'll just tell you what the tape showed. I mean, it was an outstanding conceptual game plan by Nagy and the Bears' offensive coaching staff. They played a defense in the Bucks.

They're a ton of zone concepts, certain route concepts that break that down. The Bears went and used those route concepts all game, and the Bucks never made an adjustment. Quite honestly, they should have made an adjustment. I was surprised watching the tape. Now, you still have to make the throws. So we give Trubisky credit for that. But he made the throws that were defined and clean based on the route concepts versus those particular zone coverages. Yeah, I'm watching. He did make a couple of nice throws, Greg.

Without question. Yeah, he made a couple of, uh, yeah, it's kind of funny to watch. There were a ton of cover three and cover four beat a route concepts, and they kept getting the same coverage, and they kept beating it, and he made the throws. Yeah. So I watched Josh Rosen. I was very interested to watch him play against Seattle, and I got to tell you, I was kind of impressed. There was a couple of drops. I thought he looked. Oh, yeah, big drop. I thought he looked pretty good, did you? Yeah, I thought he looked really good.

And he looked like he did in college to me. There was a refinement. There was a nuance to his game in the pocket. He threw the ball with consistent accuracy, made some big throws, plays from the pocket extremely well, has a calm helmet, but yet went through progressions. I thought he threw the ball really well. And it's interesting when you see a quarterback that plays with a refined sense of timing,

how all of a sudden the offensive line looks a little better. Yes, yes. Now, explain that because that was my first takeaway. It's like, how come he's getting protection? Why is that? Well, quarterbacks in timing and get the ball out within the structure of the design play, always make an all-line look better. It's the reason that quarterbacks who move around a lot get sacked more.

It's a reason why Russell Wilson gets sacked a lot. DeShone Watson gets sacked a lot because they move often prematurely, and they break down their own pass protection. Well, I'm glad you liked him because I thought he had a couple of bad drops. I thought he played really, really well. I think they need some help on that offensive front. Without question. Yeah, it's not a great offensive line.

All right, your play of the week, it's the Rams, which I'm excited for, because, again, fun concepts are some college stuff they do with the running game I like. They're the best watch right now in the league, so here you go. Go for it. Oh, there are a lot of touchdown to Robert Woods. It was a seam ball, and it was a beautiful throw. Goff's accuracy has improved so much this year. he's really precise, but I loved what they did.

They shifted Gurley out wide as the number one receiver to the boundary, okay? So it's an empty set. So Anthony Barr and Holton Hill, what the Vikings did is they bumped, and now you had a linebacker bar over Woods. Okay, so they noticed that right away. So what you're going to get is what we call a force. That's what they're running here. Pre-snap, two deep safeties with Andrew Sendejo and Harrison Smith.

But now just before the snap, they rotate. So Smith drops down, Sendejo goes into the deep middle, away from Woods. So now Woods is running a vertical route. So that's exactly where got through it. And as I said, the ball placement just outstanding. He's so much better this year at that. And at late in the downpocket movement, he's clearly improved in those two areas. God, there's so much fun to watch.

It must be fun to watch their film. concepts, what they do. They have a distinct profile. They're very simple and very detailed at the same time. You know, it's funny. Somebody asked me the other day about them. I said, you know, in a weird way, they're kind of a power running team. Well, everything starts with the outside zone run game because that's what they work off of.

Goff on first down this year, Colin, is 46 for 56 on first down. Wow. Greg CoSale, great talking to you. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in.

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