The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 10/15/2018

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

Colin was amazed watching Tom Brady run the two-minute offense against the Chiefs and thinks scoring points has become almost too easy for Brady. He thinks the Raiders are completely trapped with Jon Gruden. Plus, Super Bowl Champion Trent Dilfer tells Colin why he has always liked Sam Darnold a little more than Baker Mayfield and its playing out that way 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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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 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, hour from now, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, and the O is entertaining Trent Dillford, a breakdown of what we watched last night,

and over the weekend, Joy Taylor is joining me on a Monday. Morning. Good morning. That was crazy last night. That was wild. That was surgical. You know, you're talking 40, 340, all these points. It was exactly what the NFL wants its football games to look like.

And I want to show you something. I want to take my time on this. So there was a moment in that game last night. Don't roll the tape yet. There was a moment in that game last night. And obviously you all saw it. But it needs to be shown again. And let's tell a little story.

In the history of the NFL, it used to be called the two-minute drill. You went without a huddle. and you rushed to the line, and it was fairly chaotic, and the good quarterbacks were like John Elway was like 50-50 at it. Tom Brady last night got the ball with two minutes and 23 seconds, buried in their own territory, and let's roll the tape, and here we go. Here's the two-minute drill. Tom Brady gets it.

All right, got a receiver out to that. Okay, they run it right into the line. All right, all right, all right. Let's get in one more play, one more play, before the two minute. Tom walks off the field, basically. Okay, we're, we're, that, that was the play. They just, they just, they didn't even run another play.

That was it. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, let's stop for a second. Okay, let's stop. Hold on. Okay. So now you kind of just wasted 15 seconds. I was just a run into the line.

Now what I want to see, now what I want to see is the two minute warning. Now, now it starts in earnest. Let's go to the play outside of that now. They come back. Here's the next point. Now we're getting the ball up the field. Now we're... Well, they ran the ball into the line again.

They're just wasting time here. I mean, this is ridiculous, right? They're just wasting time. These are two dives, two plays, one yard. Come on, guys, we've got to get up fast and we... Oh, they're not getting up fast. They walk to the line for the next play. Okay, here's the next play.

Okay, now this puppy. Now we're going to... All right, out to the flat. Get out of bounce. Get out of the ball. Oh no, the running back stays in bounds. Okay, rush to the line. Let's hurry.

Let's get. Oh, they're huddling. They're huddling. Oh, wait a minute. I get it. They're trying to eat clock. It is not about if they'll score. They're going to take the clock down to zero.

They have three timeouts. They didn't need to use any of them. This is how a veteran pilot lands in turbulence. You're freaking out in row 19. And they're saying, this is what I'm trained to do. This is what a surgeon does

with blood flying all over an emergency room. You're freaking out. This is what I've been trained to do. 31 other NFL teams will we score? For Tampa, excuse me, for Tom Brady, it was not if it was we want to score and there'd be zero seconds on the clock. They didn't use timeouts.

The only one they used, they could have spiked. They huddled. They didn't run out of bounds. They run back-to-back dive plays. You know how they say great athletes are in a zone? Tom Brady appears to now be in a 10-year zone. He's taken citizenship in a zone. This should be an instructional video on a two-minute drill.

It was not that long ago. when no huddling illustrated the lack of composure for an overwhelming number of teams outside of teams with veteran quarterbacks. That should be in the Hall of Fame. They are eating clock. They are not using timeouts. They are walking to the huddle.

They are huddling. They are staying in bounds. They are completely manipulating another NFL team. The nonchalant of that two-minute drill is something I've never seen. It is staggering. What you're watching is absolutely staggering. Tom Brady has mastered quarterback.

A couple years ago, he interviewed with R.J. Glazer, and people were talking about retirement. And Brady, in a moment of clarity and honesty, and it was actually, some would say hubris, but it didn't come off that way. Remember what he said to Glazer? Every time I go on the field, I feel like, all right, well, I know what to do. I know how to do it.

I know where to go with the ball. And, you know, football is in some ways easier now for me than it ever was because, you know, it's just I've been doing it longer. I've had the experience. And, you know, hopefully that experience can pay off. I mean, I'm watching that last night. I've never seen a two-minute drill like that. They were huddling.

They weren't getting out of bounds. They were running dive plays. They were in their own 30-yard line. Here's another play I want to show you. Another play I want to show you. So I want to switch to this. Coming into the year, there were four teams that we thought were going to have great defenses. Saxonville.

They were going to be great. Great last year. They were only getting better. Minnesota Vikings. Those young guys are only getting better. And we thought Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, they got Michael Bennett. Their pass rush is going to be ridiculous.

Fletcher Cox. You can't block him now. And then once Chicago got Khalil Mack, we were like, okay, you're looking at mini-filly, Jacksonville, Chicago. those defenses, whoee, I wouldn't want to face them. And they all got pushed around kind of over the last couple of weeks. There are no great defenses. Last night, what you watched was 43 to 40, wildly fun. The skill players dominated the game and you can't turn it off.

There is a play I want to show you, though. 520 left fourth quarter. Defensive lineman, Breeland speaks, wraps Tom Brady up. And he thinks Brady has thrown the ball. And so he lets go of him. Brady then moved toward the end zone runs in. Breeland speaks thinks he has him. But then when Tom motions, he lets go of him.

And I could just hear everybody watching that game. Colin, this is what is wrong with the NFL. That a defensive lineman had a sack and let go of him. And to that I say, oh, you mean defensive linemen now have to be thoughtful and strategic and contemplate, it's just not eating up to 340 pounds and squishing people. Yes, we are now asking our defensive linemen to be thoughtful and mindful and strategic and aware of where the ball is. Yes. And by the way, the one team that's had no issue with that late hit quarterback penalty, well, it just happens to be the most mindful, thoughtful, strategic football team in my life.

The New England Patriots. The result is six weeks in, one quarterback has hurt Jimmy Garoppolo. Multiple times yesterday. I'm talking a dozen times yesterday. I saw a defensive end or a defensive lineman grab a quarterback, hold him, play is over, and everybody gets paid the same. Nobody gets cut. Nobody gets yelled at.

Nobody gets screamed at. Yes. We've always made our quarterbacks think and our corners and our Mike linebackers. and our safeties and our coaches and our coordinators think, and our centers and our left tackles think. All sorts of shifting on offense, tight ends, choreography, move up, go over, double motion. Oh, now we actually ask the defensive lineman to think. Strip the ball perhaps, grab and hold, not drive Aaron Rogers into the turf.

Tackling now in football, when it comes to tackling the quarterback is like sound mixing at the Oscars. necessary, but a means to an end. Okay, as long as nobody gets hurt. Ratings are up, quarterbacks are healthy, and oh, by the way, Sunday night football was Mahomes and Brady putting on a clinic. And the reason Monday night football will not be as good tonight, it could easily be Garoppolo and Rogers, but it'll be Rogers and C.J. Bethard.

Now, Garoppolo did not get hurt in the pocket, and not every quarterback does get hurt being squished by a defensive lineman. But it takes two or three to ruin a Monday night football game. If Garapolo wasn't hurt, we'd go from Brady and Mahomes to Rogers and Garoppolo. That's exactly what the NFL wants. And if it means a couple of times a year, a defensive lineman thinks he has a sack, let's go and the quarterback runs in for a score late in a fantastic NFL game, then so be it.

I will take Breeland speaks, messing up, feel bad for the kid, good young, talented kid from, I think Ole Miss, I feel bad from him for him. I do. He didn't, he thought he was done. I'll take that every weekend. In fact, I'll take that 30 times a year over watching C.J. Bethard against Aaron Rogers tonight, which I'm not even sure by halftime if you'll want to keep watching it. Football at its best is thoughtful and strategic, and you watch as a fan and you play along with it,

and we've asked everybody to always do that. Gosh, how terrible. Now we ask the big uglies up front defensively, they've got to be thoughtful too. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. When you think of bad contracts in sports, you generally think of baseball where you sign, you know, a guy to a 10-year contract. John Carlos Stanton for the Yankees was a horrible contract in Miami. It's slightly better in New York, but it's a terrible contract.

Robinson can't know 10 years. He's already in trouble. You got like eight years left. NBA, you can get trapped by horrible contracts. But in football, you really can't. I mean, even Tom Brady could be cut tomorrow. You take a little cap hit for a year. But in the NFL, you rarely get trapped with a terrible contract.

This is why the NFL is the sport of hope. It has always been the sport of hope. In the NBA, if you don't have stars and you have bad contracts, you're done. Seven years. Bye-bye. In baseball, don't have the money, not big revenue, two bad contracts. Bye-bye, you're done. NFL, you can cut anybody and start over.

You can replace 40% of your roster year-for-year and your coaching staff completely and your GM. It's the sport of hope. There is one NFL team. that is trapped. It's the Raiders. John Gruden, 10 years, 100 million. This is the poorest NFL franchise. It is in terms of revenue. They cannot boot him after a year, pay him $90 million and then go pay another five for another guy. They can't even pay top dollar for coordinators now. They are trapped. I don't know if it's going to work, but they don't have any options. It has to work.

read the tea leaves. Many people believe they passed on Khalil Mack because they couldn't afford him. Now they're looking to trade Amari Cooper. They don't know where they're playing next year. Vegas, eventually, we are pretty sure. They are the rare NFL team. And it all comes down to this.

Why are they trapped? Because sports does something that is fascinating. Pro sports are overwhelmingly run driven played by men. And when you lose, it saps you of your dignity. This was the team that was the team of the decade in the 70s and 80s. Then 10 to 15 years of losing. Do you think Bob Kraft would ever give Belichick a 10-year deal? Oh, God, no.

But the poorest franchise would? You think Jerry Jones has given anybody a 10-year deal? Stan Cronkey? No. This is what we see time and time again from people with low self-esteem in sports. The Buffalo Bills. The quarterback has a good September. Let's sign Ryan Fitzpatrick. A huge deal. Oakland Raiders, John Gruden. I remember Gruden. A huge 10-year deal. I mean, Baker Mayfield right now has more interceptions than touchdowns, 55% completion rate. 72 quarterback rating, getting outplayed by Sam Darnold, and they'd sign him to a 10-year contract. right now in Cleveland. He's average so far. Sports for men in pro sports. It is remarkable how desperation creeps in.

The best organizations let the top players go are reluctant to sign even great players and coaches to long deals. Buffalo, Ryan Fitzpatrick had a good September. Let's give him a lifetime contract. John Gruden's been out of the sport 10 years. Let's sign him forever. Man, it's not hard to figure out. There are four or five organizations in pro sports in America. Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, New York Mets, L.A. Clippers that I've watched my entire life make moves out of desperation, a lack of self-esteem, lose utter confidence.

And the Raiders used to be, quote, commitment to excellence. but they are trapped and it rarely happens in the NFL and it happens a lot in the NBA and regularly in baseball sometimes I imagine in hockey but in the NFL it almost never happens and Oakland has no way out of this none at least the bills could eventually get rid of Ryan Fitzpatrick this is amazing this is utterly amazing are watching the worst team in the league, giving players away, report now that Amari Cooper's on the trading block,

it has to work. They have no options. There is no way out here. It's just, it's staggering what desperation does and losing does to otherwise seemingly very smart, successful men,

saps them of their dignity, lose all common sense. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd, weekdays and noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. So I've watched all the games. What I do on Sunday, Joy, you probably do the same. I sit, I watch in the morning. I live out west, 10 o'clock. I get my notepad. I watch the red zone. And then I put two games on live. And then at four, I watch a little red zone, but generally the last two big games. So I usually miss like one game a weekend. I don't, I don't spend a lot of time.

There'll be a bad like 4 o'clock game, you know, a late game. Then I watch Sunday night. Then I watch Monday night. I will watch the night, although I think Green Bay rolls over San Francisco with C.J. Beatherd being overwhelmed by Aaron Rogers, who's got his receivers all healthy. But I've watched every team play, virtually every game, except a handful. And my conclusion is, we've got to me nine teams that feel like they can string together multiple playoff wins and win the Super Bowl. I think New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City, and the Chargers and the AFC can string together multiple wins against good teams and win the Super Bowl.

and then I think in the NFC, the Rams, the Eagles, the Saints, and the Vikings can do the same. Now, I like Kansas City a little more than I like, let's say, Minnesota. I like New England more than maybe, say, the Chargers. But there's nine teams that I think can string it together. Now, there's two other teams, Carolina and Green Bay, I just need to see more. Okay, Carolina is at Philadelphia this week. I'm either joining them to this group or not. If they go in there and lay an egg, they're out.

If they go and their competitive win or lose, I probably put Carolina in. Cam's improved. Norve Turner's a good fit. They've got a running game. Don't like the way they played yesterday, a little overwhelmed. But Cam, by and large, outside of a late decision in the game, was pretty good. He looks comfortable, calm. Now they're healthier on defense.

And the other team is Green Bay. My gut feeling on Green Bay is I'm not going to include him. But if they're good tonight, they've got to buy in a couple of weeks. then they go to the Rams, to the Patriots. And if they chop it up and look pretty good, win or lose, they chop it up and go to L.A. and New England. They win competitive. They lose competitive.

So I got nine teams that I think look like they can win multiple games against good teams win the Super Bowl. Two more Carolina and Green Bay are close. I need to see more. And then there are four other teams that I don't think are good enough to win the Super Bowl. But they're good enough to beat all these teams on any given Sunday. Bears, Seahawks. Bengals and Atlanta.

Now, I don't see him going back. I don't see Cincinnati going to Foxborough, you know, and then like to the Chargers, and then to Pittsburgh. And I don't. But I think they could beat all those teams on any given Sunday. So the way to win a Super Bowl here isn't about just being talented. It's about being consistently, sustainably excellent. Got to win a road game in the playoffs.

Got to win a home game or two. Got to win the Super Bowl. So I think the Bears, Seahawks, Bingles, Falcons, lack the consistency, maybe the depth, the star power at coach or quarterback. So of all those teams combined, my nine plus Green Bay Carolina plus these four is 15 to 32, it's half the league.

That's half the league. NBA's got two teams this year, I think, and win it maybe three. Baseball, you look around to about six. I think half the league is in the conversation. They can beat anybody, they can string together wins, or they're damn close. So that's a good spot. Now, you may be saying, where are the Cowboys?

I don't have them in it. That doesn't mean Dallas. This speaks to the parody of the NFL. Dallas has a lot of things going for it. I love their young linebackers. I love their pass rushers. I think Ezekiel Elliott's a top five running back, and their own lines better than average.

Dallas is not a bad team. I don't have Dallas, even in the Bear, Seahawks, Bengals, Falcons group. And the reason is, they're averaging 12 points on the road. They haven't won a road game. They don't have a two-game winning streak. They're just not good enough consistently. But I think it shows you the power of the NFL that I've got, I don't have Dallas in this 15 and Dallas smoked Jacksonville yesterday. I just don't think they're consistent.

So that's kind of where I am after watching every team play multiple times at the top of the hour where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. You know, going back to the Cowboys about Dak Prescott. I was talking to my friend Nick Wright over the weekend. And he goes, you know, Dak Prescott's career makes no sense. It just makes no make any sense. He said, nobody liked him out of college. Then everybody loved him after his first year. And then nobody likes him again.

And then yesterday he's great. And I thought about that. And I thought, actually, it makes perfect sense. If you went to a restaurant five times, first time it was great, second time, it was really mediocre. Third time, it was good. fourth time it was bad, fifth time, you're not sure. It's an average restaurant.

It's just an average restaurant. There's 8,000 restaurants, you know, in your area code. Most of them are average. So when I look at Dak last night, it doesn't shock me. He is an average C quarterback. C plus, some nights be, but like an average restaurant, you're not quite sure what you're going to get visit to visit. You're not quite sure what you're going to get.

Dak, after the game, some taking tough questions after the game from his critics. As poorly as you've played overall leading up to this game and some of the questions going around outside that you have this level of performance as a group. Yeah, we haven't questioned anything inside. we leave the questioning to y'all. I've told you all from after the first week or second week that we weren't forming to our standards that were one, two, three plays away. The difference was the night we made those plays. So, Dax's pretty stern in his belief. You know, I thought last night was the perfect game for him. He ran about a dozen times, a lot of Cole Beasley underneath. He had a good running game helping him. I will say this for Dallas, and it's a very encouraging

thing. The hardest thing to find in the NFL is a great quarterback. I could argue the second hardest thing to find in this league are great pass rushers, and Dallas has drafted linebackers and pass rushers extraordinarily well. They've got a lot of good components. They really do. Their linebackers are really athletic. They're young, they're talented. They're going to be around for years, and their edge rushers are fantastic and young and talented. But at quarterback, it's very explainable. Dax, good enough. for now. 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. All right, Colin is right. Colin is wrong on a Monday. Here we go. Where Colin was right. The New York Giants passed on Sam Darnold. How ridiculous do they look now?

Sam Darnold is crushing it for the New York Jets. Yesterday, 24 of 30, 280 yards, 114 passer rating. congrats New York on getting a running back. Who's really, really good, but he's a running back. And there were 20 drafted. And half the league star running backs seemingly are undrafted.

Listen, Darnold has scored. The Jets' offense has scored over 40 twice and over 33 times in six games. And this is with an offensive line that pro football focus rates as one of the bottom five in the league, with a bottom five wide receiving core, a bunch of marginal running. running backs and a rookie tight end who's talented from Miami, but that's about it. You whiffed. You were afraid of offending the Manning family. How ridiculous do the New York Giants look today passing on Sam Darnold?

Where Colin was wrong. My Blazing Five was terrible. I was lucky to be two and three. First of all, I liked the Colts, the Jags, and Cleveland. They all got killed. The games weren't even competitive. I was on the wrong side of all three of those games. Now, I'm 58% for the year, which is, if I can end up there, I'll be very happy.

The Brown's loss was inexplicable. They were playing an L.A. team flying out east for an early game. I never liked that one. They were so incredibly Cleveland. This could be the game. And Cleveland didn't give you eight minutes of energy. To me, it was shocking how bad it was. It's not that they lost.

They didn't bring any energy. They lost very badly. But still, I think people underestimate the chargers. Yeah. All right. Where Colin was right. Oh, gosh. Jim Harbaugh, 6 and 1.

Jim Harbaugh's pretty good. Michigan rolled Wisconsin. And oh, by the way, their offensive line and their quarterback situation, which didn't look good at Notre Dame, it looks pretty good now. Can I give Harbaugh some credit here? You do realize that even though he knew he was going to play Wisconsin, he knew he had to go to Ohio State, he knew we had to go to Michigan State, he still was willing to schedule, you know, Notre Dame on the road.

Unlike Alabama, which won't play an out-of-conference road game against a legitimate team, Harbaugh, knowing his schedule years ago was brutal, was like, yeah, I'll go to Notre Dame still. The bottom line is Harbaugh's always been able to coach. They control their own fate. I don't know if they're a Final Four team, but they're certainly worthy of being in the discussion of a Final Four team, and they were reeling when he took the program over. Where Colin was rock. Brock Osweiler threw for 380 yards against the Chicago Bears.

And I watched that game as I picked my jaw off the floor for three hours. First of all, it was just a beautiful mess. They're going to do a documentary about that game 10 years from now. It was a mess and it was beautiful and it was wild. And there were fumbles at the one-inch line. But Osweiler made was in control. did not get sacked, was confident, made a couple of incredibly important throws down the stretch. And I said on NFL kickoff yesterday, I'm like, oh, this is going to be a nightmare.

I was, Brock Osweiler got a call in the morning you're starting, and I thought played as well as he has played in the last couple of years. Tip of the cap to Brock Oswider looked like a real NFL quarterback. Where Colin was right? We predicted Jacksonville, Saxonville, was a one-year story, that they wouldn't be great again, this would not last, is that Blake Bortle, sometimes he had an easier schedule, and Andrew Luckin, Deshawn Watson got hurt in their division. The bottom line is, they've been downhill since losing to New England. They've lost three or four. They're literally pathetic on the road,

and you can't tell me that any player in that locker room thinks Bortles is a franchise guy. In fact, you can't tell me any coach on that staff thinks Blake Bortles is getting us to the Super Bowl. I never bought into a team that gives itself a nickname, gets real loud and cocky. Their schedule was going to be harder. It was going to be a first-place schedule. And frankly, the AFC, as we predicted, was going to be a lot better this year. It is. And Saxonville is no more. Where Colin was wrong. Ed Orgeron, the coach at LSU, I mean, Joyce heard me say this. I never took him seriously as a head coach. I thought he was a great recruiter. I think Jimmy Johnson once told me he'd be one of the first guys he'd hire on his staff.

Great guy, great recruiter, great family guy. But I never really took him seriously as a the head coach. Well, they blew out Georgia. They beat Auburn. They beat Miami. And they've looked composed. They've looked organized. You know, he bombed at Ole Miss, and he just didn't look the part. USC passed on him. But I've got to be honest, when I watch LSU, it's not just that they're winning. They look good situationally. They look good and organized offensively. And Ed Orgeron has been terrific this year. Good enough to beat Alabama? I don't know. But

they have beaten Georgia. Auburn and Miami, and those are good teams, and they beat all of them, and that Georgia win was thoroughly impressive. Where Colin was right? John Gruden's 1 in 5, and the quarterback guru, Derek Carr has more picks than touchdowns. Listen, I got nothing but angry Raider fans when I said before the season. There are certain places in the world, Silicon Valley in the NFL, you can't take a decade off. You can't.

It changes. It's too fluid. He's got the personnel. wrong. They looked like they quit at the end of that game. He can't get the quarterback right. Don't ask me how Cleveland lost to this team. I mean, they have some very talented offensive personnel, and that was embarrassing. And they're stuck with his 10-year contract. It better work. It has to work. But we kind of predicted it would be a dumpster fire, and that's what it's been so far. Where Colin was right? Once again, Andy Dalton shrunk in a big spot. He always shrinks.

in a big spot. No touchdown passes in the second half. Quarterback rating in the second half of 77. Once again, Big Brother Ben feels like he's toying with the little brother Andy. Dalton's fine. But

it's kind of the Kirk Cousins thing. You're not making $20 million a year to beat Cleveland. They're paying you to beat Pittsburgh. And every time he gets into one of these games against the Steelers, no matter how well he playing, he shrinks. And in the second half, Andy Dalton didn't make big throws. And Big Ben,

like he's done throughout the history of this series, made all the big throws late to win it. Where Colin was raw. Just when I gave up on Dak Prescott, he had his game of the year. It was Dak at his best. He ran, Zeke ran, and underneath stuff to Cole Beasley. His passer rating was 107.5. He looked incredibly confident. You could tell the coaching staff tweaked the game plan to make it more DAC friendly and more about DAC running.

He had 11 rushes, including two. Probably would have had another one, but fumbled it and it came back to him. In the end, you know, I'd pretty much bailed on DAC. I think this is the way Dak Prescott at his best plays, and you watched it.

Where Colin was right? I bailed on Marcus Marioata about a year and a half ago. John Goulet, you were here. I said, listen, he's a nonverbal person at the most verbal position. You cannot keep blaming other people. I'm watching Sam Darnold chew it up, surrounded by a bunch of

me in New York. You can't have me wait four and five years. You can't. If I got to wait four years like Blake Bortles before you have the year, then you're not the guy. They were one for ten on third downs. By the way, he was sacked 11 times. Some of those are on you.

There's a reason Brady doesn't get sacked. He audibles out. He gets rid of the ball. You can't Keep me guessing if you're the man four or five years into a career, then you're officially not. I bailed on him a year ago, and I feel justified today. Where Colin was right? Just roll the tape. Bills have the ball at the 25-yard line.

Peterman. The Texans have scored 10 points in the last 11 seconds. And that is a look. You've seen a lot from Nathan Peterman in his career. A couple of weeks ago, I called him Nathan Perlman, and people said you can't get his name right. And I said, throw more touchdowns than interceptions and I'll get your name right. Do you realize he has three TDs and nine career picks? He's got three career TDs and two pick sixes. He should be a safety. He leads the NFL in interceptions. Okay. I know. I don't want to be

mean. So I'm just going to stop talking. But listen, you're you're keeping it real. It's not good. This is a hard. It's a hard league to be a quarterback. It's hard. It's really. Now, it's easier today. It's easier today than it's ever been. Do you know the last 13 quarterbacks drafted? One guy appears to be a guy that you just can't put behind the center in a big spot. That would be Paxton Lynch. The other 12 are working, varying levels, but I'm not saying this is easy. I'm not saying this is easy.

It is hard. But it's not three touchdowns, nine picks hard. No. It's not that hard. Colin right, Colin wrong. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. Via the Coward Global Satellite Network.

One of my favorite guys, almost a decade and a half in the NFL, a Super Bowl champ, a pro bowler and a buddy of mine, Trent Dilfer. Okay, you watched last night, you and I have talked ad nauseum about Brady. Let's talk Mahomes. Like, listen, New England did a good job forcing him out of the pocket more than Tom was forced out out of the pocket. Do you worry a little bit with Mahomes, though, Trent? There's a lot of hero plays here, a lot of out of the pocket.

and generally over a course of 15 years, you've got to make hay in the pocket, not superstar plays out of the pocket. What do you make him a homes? I would be concerned if the bulk of his work this year hadn't been from the pocket. Now, we're a highlight-educated football audience. So what most of the country has seen is his spin-around touchdown pass.

They saw him last night in prime time. The highlight showing him do the stuff out of the pocket. But he's played the bulk of the season with great rhythm, great timing from the pocket. So because of that last night, I didn't think he resorted back to what he's most comfortable doing. I think he was forced to do a lot of that by a highly aggressive New England Patriots game plan. They really took some chances coverage-wise, blitz-wise. They played casino blitz, which is a cover zero, bringing everybody four or five times. They brought extra rushers, played man behind it. It was obvious that the New England

coaching staff didn't think they could just line up and play coverage against this player and this team. And they were right. I mean, Kansas City went in there and put up 40 in Foxborough with two turnovers and only 53 plays. So again, I think the Patriots are and still are the class of the NFL for a bunch of reasons. But I was more impressed with Kansas City last night for their ability to only get 53 plays on the road with that kind of crowd noise and put up a 40 piece on the Patriots. Pretty impressive. Listen, you grew up, Fresno, Bay Area, you watch Montana, you know Brady.

Sometimes I watch Tom in the two-minute drill, and Trent, some of it's not coaching. I almost think some of it is an inner confidence. You're either built to be good in two minutes or you're not. Brady is so good at it. Maybe it's all the years. Maybe it's coaching. But you were around this league. there are guys who when it gets noisy, it gets quiet.

Tom's the best I've ever seen at that. Am I being too hyper on that? It's just, it's almost like he was built for two-minute football. I don't think I can say any better. I think there are just certain guys in every sport that their minds get quieter, the busier the environment is, the more chaotic, the more stressful. They find that gear where they can get quiet, they can get calm. They're supremely confident.

they've been playing the game in their mind the whole night, the whole day, so they're prepared for that moment. I thought Chris Collins, which did a great job last night talking about how they were being very stubborn with the run. They were forcing Kansas City and some looks. At some point, Tom Brady was going to take advantage of it to Grunkowski. Sure enough, play action, backside, pay that he audited to get Grong open. He audible to the play to get Grunk down the sideline to put the game away. he was just fantastic. And the thing that doesn't have the same sex appeal,

but to a football dork like myself, I thought was masterful as well, was how he handled the run game. This is obviously a New England team that wants to have more balance this year. This is not the spread-em-out option route to Edelman team. This is an offense that wants to run the football. They want to be physical.

They want to use the size of that offensive line, which they have for the first time in years. They want to lean on you. They have multiple backs they can give the ball to. and then they want to be opportunistic in the passing game with Tom Brady and strike you. What he did in the run game, auditing into good looks for his runners, adjusting the formations, adjusting the run packages is as good as I've seen in a long time. By the way, you know, you know I like Donald, and it was more about traits.

He's a bigger, stronger kid than Baker, but I like his traits. I don't like the nonsense. I think he's built to fail, win fail, same personality. touchdown pick, same personality. I like that. Baker, I can see two guys. I see Plant the Flag guy, head down guy. So I tend to like Donald more, plus he's bigger and stronger. What did you see from Baker?

Because Baker didn't have very good day yesterday. Is there anything that concerns you with Baker? Yes, that concern me coming into this draft. And I worked hard on this draft. I've known these kids forever and really wanted to give balanced analysis going into this year's draft. And Sam was my number one guy for a couple of reasons. Number one, he has that five to him that makes everybody around him feel better. Good, bad, in different situations, you're going to feel better when Sam Donald's around.

He has that every intangible trait you're looking for. I think physically he can get away with more bad things happening around him. A pocket collapsing in the middle. He's big, strong enough, athletic enough to manipulate that and still make throws. I think his downfield accuracy when you look at his entire career, USC was phenomenal. the ability to push the ball all over the football field into tight windows too, not just wide open receivers. Those are all the reasons I thought Sam would be great. Now, I think Baker is going to be a good quarterback.

But me and you talked about this a few weeks ago, Baker's guy decide what kind of quarterback he's going to be. Because he's got a choice now and you're seeing the bad decision come to fruition when he tries to be a playmaker, when he tries to be a playmaker, when he tries to do too much, when he's not willing to give up on a play, bad things happen. He is not a good enough athlete to be a full-time playmaker. He is a guy that must play the game like Drew Breeze has played it for years. On time from the middle of the pocket before it gets muddy in there. The Cleveland Browns have to do a good job of building their offensive line like the New Orleans Saints did with Drew Breeze, where they built it center guard guard. They weren't as concerned with the tackles.

Baker needs a clean interior of the pocket. He needs to play on time and he can be deadly. He can absolutely slice and dice you. But what you're seeing is the same thing you saw happen against Georgia last year. When you're able to rush Baker in the middle, get him moving laterally or moving backwards, his brain rights checks, his body can't cash. He tries to make plays that physically he is unable to make and they turn into interceptions. That's what you saw yesterday.

I think Baker can fix it, but it's on him to decide how he's going to play the game. Trent Dilfer joining us. I said there's nine teams that I look at, five in the AFC, four in the NFC, that I think are good enough, personnel coaching quarterback to string together multiple wins in a row, get to a Super Bowl, win or lose, who knows, but get there. That's part of it. And then there's two teams, Carolina and Green Bay. I need a couple more weeks. That's kind of how I feel today that I feel the Patriots Chiefs, Rams, Eagles, Steelers, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Vikings. Vikings. They can string together multiple wins against good teams. Panthers, Packers, darn

close. Give me two more weeks. Any pushback on that? Do you see teams I don't? Are there teams you don't like or do like that I don't have? You know, I saw the list earlier today. I wanted to push back on you. I really wouldn't. Maybe I would take the Steelers out, put the Texans in, but I don't, it's probably too early to tell on either. I think what's interesting about this, though, is a bigger conversation around the teams that most likely would be your favorites and that would be the Patriots obviously I would put the Eagles in there because they did it last year and they're starting around in the form and Carson's only going to get better and then obviously the chiefs and the Rams of those four teams three of them are playing with quarterbacks on their

first contract yeah therefore they're allowed to spread the money around and have a better 53 than these teams that have so much of money invests in their quarterback and maybe a quarterback back in the alpha receiver. It also makes me admire how the Patriots have done it even more because they've been paying Tom Brady a lot for a lot of years. And they haven't drinking the Kool-Aid of going and having to pay other signature players too much to keep them. They've been able to spread the wealth around.

They have value at receiver. They look for value at every position. Trent Brown, getting him to become their left tackles or the great off-season moves we've seen. It just makes me. continue to say they are so much better than everybody else at looking at it from 30,000 feet and managing a quarterback that eats up a bulk of their salary cap where these other teams panic. And once they pay the quarterback, they feel they have to pay the receiver, then they feel

have to pay the running back or the quarter. And there's just not enough money to be spread around until they take the quarterback out of the salary cap and put them aside and say, yeah, there's going to be a salary cap on quarterbacks, but they're not going to count to the rest of the cap, then you're going to see more examples of the chiefs, the Eagles, and the Rams that say, hey, we did pretty well in the draft getting the quarterback. Let's take advantage of this in this four-year window and go pay a bunch of other dudes and make a year or two run at this. Let's try to get to the championship game because you're not going to see what I don't like about the Packers and the Saints and some of those other

teams, the Steelers, is their 53s aren't that good. They have a lot of sizzle. The guys, paying, but they don't have a lot of depth. And that guy coming in playing the dime quarter isn't very good. And eventually he's going to get exposed. Finally, I was going to say something today. I told my staff as we were preparing for the show, I said, Todd Gurley

may be the best running back I've ever seen. I know that's crazy. But he's faster than Emmett. He's bigger than Marshall Falk. He can catch better than Adrian Peterson. And I'm like, God, he is so good. And then my staff said, oh, Trent's going to push back on that. So what are you going to

tell me when I say Todd Gurley looks as good as any running back I've ever seen. I think he's fantastic, but I don't know if he's the best running back in L.A. I think Melvin Gordon is as good as Todd Gurley. I think there are two best backs in football and they're both in L.A. When you watch the Chargers play and you watch how he is also the centerpiece of their offense and how many people he makes miss in open space and then is a ability to accelerate into contact when it is a scrum. I don't know.

I think it's either or Todd Gurley or Melvin Gordon, but Todd gets all the attention right now, as he should, because the Rams are undefeated. But people need to start paying attention to the San Diego Chargers and Melvin Gordon. They have a great quarterback. He's been great for a long time. But now they've surrounded him with a defense

that can get after you. They can get the ball back for you, an offensive line that's better than in years, a great runner, and now they've established that other perimeter threat to Keenan Allen. They really have all the pieces. I think in the AFC, you have Pats, Chiefs, and then I think it's Chargers. Trend Dilfer.

Great talking to you on a Monday, man. I got smarter. Thanks, buddy. Always fun, pal. See you. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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