The Herd with Colin Cowherd - BEST OF THE HERD – Seahawks Headed For Regression, Baker Mayfield Deserves To Be PAID, NFL Over / Unders

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

Jason McIntyre steps in for Colin Cowherd and states the defending Super Bowl Champion Seahawks are headed for regression this season after losing a couple of key pieces in the offseason. He shares his favorite win-total bets for the upcoming NFL season: why he’s high on the Lions and down on the Patriots. Plus, UCLA head coach Bob Chesney joins the show to discuss expanding the College Football Playoff and preparing to compete in the BIG 10.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Munges Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, curmudgins, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing.

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get your podcasts. Paul Verzi here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. I'm Will Farrow, Big Money Players Network, and IHeart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest, and we discuss the absolute best of things. It's that, and then there's everything else. Dude, his whole life has sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster. I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy he was. It was insane.

Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When teenager Joy Morgan discovered the religious group, Israel United in Christ, she believed she'd found the truth. Many believe she found a cult. Then she disappeared. The new podcast The Missing Sister explores her story, the family she left, and the religious group she found.

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on noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. This is the Best of the Hird with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. It's Wednesday. Here we go, the herd. From sunny Los Angeles, it's me.

Jason McIntyre is still in. For Colin Coward, we have an unbelievable show today. Yep, that screen is right. Ohio State superstar Jeremiah Smith, joining the show later on and obviously, also UCLA coach Bob Chesney. Hey, he's a JMU guy. Somebody graduated from JMU here.

I'm joined by Rachel Nichols. I know she's excited, Big Ten Media Days. I don't see any Northwestern people on that list. It's really confusing. Our great booker, Dave, is efforting someone on Northwestern, but we don't know who any of the players are. Hey, hey. Hey, hey.

Rachel had some big breaking news at the outset. She has seen Odyssey. Yes. Survey says. Excellent. Excellent work. Very into it. Love the whole thing.

What the family think? Were they as on board? Everyone was on board. We went and saw it in the full 70-millimeter I-Max experience, as Nolan intended, as the Internet will tell you. you was fabulous. It was great. Congratulations.

Quick. Went three hours. Went by quick. Not as quick as this show goes by in three hours. Yeah, I know. Very quick. Hey, listen, we might need four today. The NFL takes are flying.

Let's jump right into it. Guys, you know, one of the things that Colin loves to say about this show is he wants interesting, above all. He wants interesting. You know, if the takes are super hot, you may not like him. He may, he's wrong. Who cares? You're interesting.

We're making you think. Well, we had somebody yesterday on the show. Warren Sharp, really interesting individual guy who covers the NFL, kind of his own deal. And he said some fascinating stuff about the Seattle Seahawks. And yes, that we're talking about the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. The mighty Seahawks who beat the Rams twice last year. I mean, they steamrolled the Patriots in the Super Bowl. But he thinks the Seahawks could be a prime candidate for regression.

Now, I've been listening to a lot of NFL stuff. devouring NFL content, I ain't seen nobody say a word about the Seahawks taking a step back. Here's Warren Sharp yesterday on a potential regression for the Super Bowl champs. I don't think people realize the buttons that Kubiak was able to press last season that changed dramatically from 2024 to 2025, dramatically reduced the rate of 11 personnel, three wide receivers on the field, dropped it down, used a lot more 12, and was the number one most efficient offense out of 12 personnel. If this offense is not to that same level because Kubiak's ability to dial up these things

early on in games and on first down, keep the team ahead of schedule, he's no longer there. He's down in Las Vegas coaching the Raiders. That's going to be a big time problem for this offense. Folks, it's weird. 20 turnovers for Sam Darnel? I somehow forgot that. Now, you know, I've been on the show here for a few years now. You guys know I'm very numbers oriented, right?

The sun sets and rises every day with the numbers. That's my edge. You know, hey, I didn't play football at any level. How the hell am I on TV talking about NFL all the time? Because of the numbers, that's where I find my edge. And, you know, I had a take earlier this week that, let's just say some people disagreed with. And I had a former Super Bowl champion player, text me. He's two-time all pro.

And he's like, hey, J-Mac, listen, I love you. this take, you know, if you want the players to respect you, you can't say this stuff. And I told them, you know, respectfully, I didn't play at any level. They're not going to respect me regardless. Here are the numbers to back up my take. And the response was very silent, shall we say. I'm just telling you, the numbers say a lot about the NFL. And I know there's the, what I played and, you know, folks, I'm just telling you, look at some of these Seattle numbers.

So Warren outlined at 20 turnovers for Sam Darnold. Remember, this was on a defensive-led team. defensive lead. Yes, they return nine starters on defense. The defense will be very, very good. But if they take even a step back, a little bit, Sam Darnal has to do more. Sam Darnels has had two great 14 and three seasons

with a Brian Flores defense and a Mike McDonald defense. He didn't have to do much when he was pressed to do stuff, a bit of a turnover machine. Now, yes, you could say, well, Jay, four of those picks were in one game, right, against the Rams early in the season.

Okay, fair enough. When it came time to fourth quarter comebacks, Sam Darnold delivered. Well, not really. They weren't trailing often in the fourth. He had two fourth quarter comebacks. One of them was fluky as hell against the Rams. We know that. But, hey, sometimes you catch some breaks.

So I look at those Darnal turnovers. I'm like, oh, geez, that's significant. And then Warren mentions the loss of Clint Kubiak. So I drilled down deeper. Kubiak just didn't leave. He took two other coaches with him from the offensive staff. So now you're down three coaches from the offensive staff. and oh by the way

Kenneth Walker, the Super Bowl MVP and now we know that the new OC has never called plays before. Flurry is his last name and he comes from the Shanahan Kubiak system so it'll be run first but we had some issues in the backfield

do we not? Charbonnet coming off a major injury he's not really a bell cow and then you've got Price the young kid out of Notre Dame who I like but I don't know if he's going to hit the ground running and beyond that there isn't a lot of depth So now you're talking about, okay, so we're taking away the offensive genius in Kubiak,

who's now a head coach of the Raiders, we're taking away the Super Bowl winning MVP, and people will say, well, Kenneth Walker didn't do much in the regular season. You had two 100-yard games, very fair. And in the post-season, when you want to shrink the games and you want less on your quarterback, what do you do? You hand it off to K-dubs, and Walker was a monster. Two-100-yard games in the post-season, four touchdowns. it was a defense and running back led Seahawks team in the postseason, guys.

And again, I'm not saying they're falling off a cliff, okay? That's obviously not going to happen. But I did look at the schedule. It is somewhat difficult, especially down the stretch. If they are teetering in wild card territory at all, we got two very late games in the season against the Rams. There are two cross-country trips, one from Seattle to Philly, one from Seattle to Carolina.

And you just look at the schedule, you look at the losses, and you're like, hmm, is there regression happening in Seattle? We shall see. All right, now on to what I think is the biggest NFL actual news of the day, and that is the Baker Mayfield saga in Tampa. Folks, what?

Baker Mayfield is, this is a guy who led Tampa to the playoffs three of the last four years. And the team decided, we're not going to extend you. You're one of the lowest paid starting quarterbacks in the league. You know what? We're going to let you play it out here. Final year of your deal, no extension. And it caught me by surprise because I'm like, wait a minute, this is the same Baker Mayfield who has the same number of playoff wins as Dak Prescott. They both have two, by the way.

Like, well, we don't want to pay him. Now, I don't know if Baker's a franchise quarterback. I do know this. He's still only 31. He's still in his prime. And as I said, he got Tampa to the playoffs three of the last four years. Yeah, it's in kind of a weak division. I get it. But at the same time, what the hell's going on in Tampa? I mean, Baker's numbers since joining the bucks are very, very good across the NFL. He's put up good numbers.

And as Baker will tell you, he's not missing any games due to injury. This guy's showing up. Here's Baker in June talking about his need for a contract. Told you guys, it's not going to affect how I approach this. Things will happen when they should. But for now, I'm worried about getting better each day, finishing minicamp in this off-season program the right way and going into training camp. So, yeah, just handle it one day at a time.

What's an indication to you about, you know, bringing these negotiations about the need to dect your body even more? I mean, I know it's a delicate challenge. I've started every single game last year for the three years, so I don't know if that should ever be a question. Combative Baker. I like it. You know, we're shaping up to Baker betting on himself.

And if you want to go look at the track record, it kind of sort of has worked for him. Go back and look at what happened at Texas Tech when he got to college. Then he goes to Oklahoma, you know, and he gets jettisoned by the Browns. Betts on himself showed out against the Panthers. Betts on himself against the bucks. And now he's like, guys, can you pay me? And I did look, guys. Baker's around 16th in the league for quarterback salary this year.

But he's below guys like Daniel Jones. Sorry to beat up on Daniel Jones for the second time this week. And Deshawn Watson, who I don't think has done Jack Squat in the league in the last four years. how is Baker below them? I mean, $33 million is nothing to scoff at. That's a fine salary. But he's not even near what he should be paid. And again, I'm not saying he should be paid like Dak Prescott.

Again, same number of playoff wins. But you paid Dak Prescott and now Dallas can't get to the playoffs. So I don't think you pay Baker Mayfield $60 million. I don't even know if he's 50. But can we bump him up to 45 mil? Remember what's going on in Tampa. So they finished last season 2 and 7. That's not all on Baker.

They had a bunch of injuries. And, oh, by the way, Todd Bowles was so bad down the stretch. We don't even have time to drill down on how awful he was. They finished two and seven, missed the playoffs. So now you've got Bowles entering the season on the hot seat. No contract extension for your quarterback. By the way, there's no young quarterback in the pipeline that they're waiting on. And, oh, by the way, you just had two leadership anchors walk out the door in David and Evans.

and it's like, you know, Mike Evans is going to go catch passes in Sanford now, and it's like, Vita Vaya, get me out of here. What's going on in Tampa? I mean, I think Baker has a right to be upset. Again, I'm not saying you pay him at the top of the market, but letting him walk out the door, it's very difficult to find a quarterback in this league. So the Miami Dolphins are like, hey, let's move off to a, we'll get a new quarterback. Let's go get Malik Willis.

Malik Willis has proven nothing in the NFL. Absolutely nothing. I think he threw under 150 passes last year. Might have been less than that. And they're willing to pay him? And the bucks don't want to pay Baker Mayfield. Listen, if you want to do the full reset, go for it. They're going to be too good this year to draft in the top 10.

They're not going to be that bad. The division, I know some people love the Saints. I ain't in that boat. I think the Panthers are going to be on the struggle bus again. I tried to sell the staff on the Atlanta Falcons is a big story today. They're not biting. But both quarterbacks are. heard. Listen, Tampa could go out and win the division with Baker Mayfield.

That's how bleak that division is. And you don't want to pay him. I mean, show the man some respect. He brought you guys back after Tom Brady left. He won you a Super Bowl. Tom Brady leaves. And now Baker Mayfield's got you back at respectability and you don't want to pay him. Kind of disrespectful. All right. Coming up next here on the herd. Well, first of all, I got to sell this. The over-under bets are in, you know, I consulted the model last night. bunching the numbers. I'm ranking all the players so that if a left tackles out, you know what that kind of sort of means to the spread. I've got three overs and three unders that you are going to love. What I don't love is the next topic. And that is the Raiders have made a decision at

quarterback and it is not going to be Fernando Mendoza. I hate it. That's next year on the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I Heart Radio app. Hey, we're Kavino and Rich. Fox Sports Radio every day, 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern. But here's the thing. We never have enough time to get to everything we want to get to. And that's why we have a brand new podcast called Overpromised.

You see, we're having so much fun in our two-hour show. We never get to everything. Honestly, because this guy is over-promising things we never have time for. Yeah, you blubber lips. Blame in me. Well, you know what? It's called Over-Promise. You should be good at it because you've been over-promising women.

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Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Parades, I'll Believe in Anything, and Tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. stream encore on iHeartRadio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians.

Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leveh, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name. And this season, I've sat down with Joshua Hami, Sarah McLaughlin, John Legend, and more. Check out my new episode with Phineas.

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This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best. for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster,

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Are you guys big chiefs fans? Hell yeah. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here we go. Hour number two on the herd. Midweek show heavy on the NFL. We're going to do some over-under shortly. Remember, Ohio State star wide receiver, Jeremiah Smith dropping by the show probably in about 30 minutes. And then we got new UCLA head coach Bob Chesney, 215 Eastern. Oh, man, cannot wait to talk to him as he is a JMU guy as am I. I'm joined by Rachel Nichols.

Rachel, over under bets in July are always a difficult proposition. That's where you make your money, though, right? Because the idea is that most people haven't had the time to really look down and bear down on everything. You can get odds that aren't happening. That's fair. Yeah. I don't know what to do with some teams like Washington did not make this list. Because I don't know what they're going to be. They're going to be great, Jason.

They're going to be great. That's how they're going to be. They can't be worse than last year. All right. Man, why you got to be like that? Why am I taking strays all the way over here? Well, you know, it's Washington and Fernando Mendoza. Anyways, no, I'm just kidding.

All right, let's go to some over-under picks for the upcoming NFL season. We're going to start with a guy who lives near me. You know, I see him, not quite a neighbor, but he's in the neighborhood. Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions over 10 and a half wins. Now, I don't think they're a legit Super Bowl team, but this is heavily schedule-related. I do believe, thanks to a fortuitous schedule, that the Lions are going to be very, very good next year. And again, Jemir Gibbs is a stud, although he wants his contract. Amaraa St. Brown is excellent.

Jared Goff. The offensive line should be improved. It did take a step back last year. The defense is where the question marks lie. Obviously, secondary has major question marks. They will have Aiden Hutchison be starring off the edge. In the division, I think 11 wins will probably do the trick. Now, if you think that's high, I'm just telling you, look at the schedule for Detroit.

A lot of indoor games. a lot of winnable games, they're going to be favored, and it looks like 14 games this season. I'm just telling you, Detroit is going to beat up on some people. All right, so from an over, let's go to an under. And the first under is the New England Patriots, under 10 and a half wins. Okay?

We know they had one of the best schedules last year, this century in the NFL. It was lined up, everything for them perfectly. They're not a great team. They were very good. Drake May was excellent. You look at the defense, and it's fine. It did not look great in the Super Bowl.

It looked pretty good at home in the rain and the playoffs. But there's just nothing to me that jumps out about this team. However, adding A.J. Brown does throw a bit of a monkey wrench into this, because if they have the stretch-the-field receivers and the run game cooks, Rabel's offense is going to be good with May. That being said, the schedule is absolutely unforgiving. It is, you know, as you would expect, a very tough. first place schedule.

And I do believe there is some aggression. This is probably an eight or nine win team. Still in the wild card hunt, but definitely under 10 and a half for the New England Patriots. All right. Next bet, we're going back to the NFC. My Philadelphia Eagles, I'm riding that Jalen Hertz train baby.

I know people don't like him. I don't know what it is. Oh, he only throws to one part of the field. And they just keeps winning football games. He's got Sequod Barkley. He's got what I think is one of the best defenses in the NFC. It's right there with Seattle, guys. It is a tremendous defensive front.

The secondary has been excellent. And you look at some of these numbers of a wide receiver by committee. It's not really quite a pickier poison, but the tight end grouping is strong. The wide receivers are, there's no alpha. I don't think they have a number one, but I don't know that they need one. The real question is Sean Nannion's play calling. and the more you start to read about what he wants to do, it's starting to sound like not going to be a tush-push kind of year

for the Eagles. That being said, I still like them over 10.5 wins. I have them winning the NFC East. All right. So from an over, let's go to an under, and I'm going to go back to Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos under 9.5. Again, any time Vegas sends out a signal, you've got to interpret it in as many ways as possible.

So 14 wins last year. right host the conference championship game i mean hell if if bow nix doesn't get hurt against buffalo they probably beat the patriots at home right and they're in the super bowl now you go from 14 wins 11 and 0 in one score games to nine and a half when all they did was add jalen wattle what am i missing here something seems up in denver and i do believe that those first six games i don't know if we could pop the schedule on the screen but guys there's a real world where they're one in five or two and four after six games. It is that brutal of a schedule.

And again, the Davis Webb, Sean Payton stuff that we just talked to James Palmer about is very interesting. That is probably the most interesting head coach offensive coordinator subplot to watch. So I'm going under nine and a half wins on the Denver Broncos. Now back to an over. Jacksonville Jaguars? Jayback, what are you, over eight and a half? Listen, they're in a division with the Texans and everybody loves the Texans.

And we do have here in the notes that Jacksonville did need to win eight of nine down the stretch to get into the playoffs. I fondly remember that Chiefs game. Everybody loved the Chiefs. I told you guys, it was Monday night football. Give me Jacksonville. And Lloyd made the big play picking off Patrick Mahomes and running it back for the score. Tremendous game. That kind of jump started the Jags for the second half of the season.

Now, they did lose Travis E.T.N, the great running back. However, we also didn't see much of the superstar rookie wide receiver slash DB that they traded up in the draft for. And I do believe we're just going to see him, hopefully, only play one side of the ball where he can specialize. I like Trevor Lawrence over eight and a half wins for Jacksonville. And finally, we're going to the New Orleans Saints and I'm going to go under seven and a half. This is mostly a fade the public. Why? Everybody likes New Orleans.

Everybody likes Tyler Shuck. Now, if you look at some of the data, what we're hearing for the last, you know, two decades is there is zero correlation between late season surge and the next season, which kind of hurts Jacksonville, but I digress. So Tyler Shuck, good quarterback. He's got a solid receiving core. You know, Kellyn Moore did some nice things last year. I just, I'm not a believer in this defense, and I don't know about the schedule. It does not line up as great for the Saints. Under 7 and a half in a division where the Falcons don't really have a quarterback right now. Baker Mayfield seems P-Oed and everybody kind of sort of likes Carolina. It is so weird if you look at playoff odds for this division, it's wacky. Because basically, nobody knows who's going to be good.

I decided to go under 7.5 on the Denver Broncos. So to recap, overs, lions, Eagles, Jags, under Patriots, Broncos, Saints. And if you're keeping track at home, four of those six teams were in the playoffs last year. All right. So moving on from win totals to the Dallas Cowboys. I think we've done a great job, Rachel and I, the last, I don't know, eight days not talking about this irrelevant franchise that somehow drives unbelievable TV numbers because they were good 30 years ago. But Jerry Jones decided to open his mouth yesterday, talking to the media. I mean, again, camp just opened.

The Cowboys haven't done anything in a couple of years. They haven't threatened the Super Bowl in forever. And this is what Jerry Jones had to say to the media. I think we've got a chance to really be good. It's going to be hard. Bottom line is, I love the excitement. You guys, for all practical purposes, don't expect us to be a contender in the Super Bowl.

Y'all don't? Why would you? I like that. I do. I like that. And I like what we put together to show you that we can do it. So basically, Jerry Jones just skips over. We're going to win the division.

We're going to get to the playoffs. He just jumps right to Super Bowl. Why? Because this is what these guys do. These are the Elon Musks of the world. Just hype, hype, hype with no numbers at all to back it up. No evidence or anything. It's just driving the hype train.

Get everybody excited, get people talking, and now our show is force-feeding you. Dallas, Super Bowl contenders. Like, they've got no chance at the Super Bowl, none. I just looked at some of the numbers from FTN, Dallas, 3% chance at the Super Bowl, 39% chance at the playoffs. Now, it gets funnier because, you know, okay, the offense, they were good last year. Let's be real. The offense was very good.

Pickens and Lamb, Dak Prescott had a good year. Offensive line was a work in progress. but they were good. The defense was abysmal. 32nd by most advanced metrics. They were terrible. Losing Michael Parsons, you know, right before the season hurts. But through the Michael Parsons trade, Dallas has rebuilt.

And it looks to me like they're going to have as many as six, five or six new defensive starters. I'm really bullish on Caleb Downs. I think that's, you know, the crown jewel of this defense. But Jerry then decided to talk a little bit about the defense as if they weren't the worst in the league last year. Here we go. Oh, I think to contend for a Super Bowl,

which would, if you contend, you got a real chance of being in it and being in the game. I think those are the kinds of things that I don't believe are an outlandish or a reach to expect. And so that's a successful season. I expect us to be significantly improved. defensively, significantly improved.

And I actually expect us to improve over on the offense. And I expect the enthusiasm that coach has talked about here to be contagious on the field. I mean, he's 83 years old, guys. Maybe tomorrow

we'll have a list of the 32 NFL owners and see how many spoke at training camp. I'm going to guess, just I'm just guessing that we're looking at it on or five. He's doing this to hype the Cowboys so that podcast, radio, TV, all talk about them. Are they going to be good?

Define good. Their win total, according to the staff, is nine and a half. Okay. That's solid. They're going to be better than the Giants. I think I feel confident in saying that. I feel pretty confident in saying they're going to be better than Washington. They'll need to catch some breaks, you know, health-wise, to topple the Eagles.

maybe they win the division. That to me would be a massive season for Dallas if they won the division. But like just this leap to Super Bowl, just a news flash to anybody in the media. If you do like a Super Bowl bubble and the Dallas Cowboys are even in it, like you're doing it wrong. They do not deserve by any metric. Go look at the Super Bowl odds for all 32 teams. Dallas is not near the, they're not near the Super Bowl bubble.

but interestingly, neither are the bears, yet a lot of people love them. That could be because Ben Johnson is thought of as the next McVeigh. I mean, you know, Schottenheimer, it ain't the next McVeigh. So I just, I can't with Jerry, you know? It's just extremely frustrating. Now, I want to bring in Rachel here. Rachel, before we go to break, I just need to ask you, you've covered the NFL for a long time. Yes.

You know Washington well. I do. You know Dallas well. I know Jerry well. Will he ever shut up? No. Jerry Jones loves being Jerry Jones. If he doesn't talk like this, then he's not Jerry Jones anymore. Then he's just some guy who owns a football team.

Come on. It's like the end of Goodfellas. Some Schmoke, you know, right? Whatever. The guy eating pasta with ketchup on it. I like my owners quiet and behind the scenes. How do you like your owners? Look, I think Jerry Jones has made the Dallas Cowboys who they were.

They are America's team because of Jerry. Jones. This is the whole package. What I don't think Jerry Jones should be doing is running the personnel for this team. It is time. Let someone else have the range there. You can still be giving the press conferences. You can still be the face. You can still be telling everyone they're going to win the Super Bowl and the DAC Prescott's going to be the next president. Whatever outlandish claims you want to make, you can still do all of that stuff. You can still be Jerry Jones. You don't have to be one of those other guys. But let someone else make the personnel decisions because to me, the financials alone that he has messed up over the last five years.

It is so much money that he has unnecessarily had to pay out to these guys, that he has franchised and franchised instead of just extending them the way, say, the Eagles do early when you know they're talented. It's prevented you from adding more talent to the roster, and that is why they are in this cycle that they've been in. So let me ask. I thought, so when the Cowboys were winning Super Bowls in the 90s, you know, we'd love to talk about credit because both of us are married people, and I'm the,

guy who's like, hey, everybody, I just brought in the trash can from the curb? You know, like, can you give me some credit here? By the way, I scheduled this. Do you babysit your own kids, too? I do not babysit my own kids, but I do babysit our dog who's going through some stuff right now. He's going to be fine. Don't worry. But like, does Jerry get the Super Bowl credit for the 90s?

Or is it the coaches? Or is it the players? Dude, that was 30 years ago. So absolutely, Jerry gets some of that credit because he was doing the personnel stuff back then, too. and you give credit to the people designing the recipe and buying the ingredients in the grocery store to use the Bill Parcell's analogy

for the second time of the show. But he doesn't get the credit. If he gets the credit for that, he also gets some of the blame now. I would hope so. 30 years in, there's a reason that we don't see a 30-year president or GM of a team, right? Yeah.

At some point, you need a new voice, you need new thoughts, you need new people with new ideas. Head coaching in the NFL has certainly gotten so much younger than it was 20, 25. years ago and in the front offices we are seeing people look at things differently it's not just analytics or money ball or any of that stuff it is just approaching new realities differently the new contracting cap rules all of the different things that make a front office good

requires some new learning and turnover and jerry jones has just held on to that with such a grip that you have someone sitting up in front of a bunch of people at a press conference saying we're going to win the super bowl this year because in his mind that recipe is still good from 30 years ago. Yeah. So the tag on the screen says Jonzing for more. I'm Jonzing for less of Jerry Jones. But not less publicly. It's fine. Go be it. Go be your face.

I don't like Carnival Barkers. No. I want less. I don't. No. And that matters less to Cowboys fans. What matters more is somebody actually on the inside of the building making the decisions. Yeah, and he's not doing that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it.

Hello. My gosh. All your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHIR radio app. Gets the blood going up. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing.

Right on your screen. Cheers. Open the free IHR radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is Back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting.

Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leve, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name.

And this season, I've sat down with Joshua Homi, Sarah McLaughlin, John Legend, and more. Check out my new episode with Phineas. So I went home and I asked, Billy if she wanted to sing it, she immediately made it her own thing. No faith. You really know how to make me cry when you give me those oceans.

So come hang out with us in the studio and listen to Playing Along on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga shit together, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blood, blood. blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain. As opposed to his brain.

Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a, four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works.

I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered, sentences and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it.

Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself. I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohyn, Taoadon, Jalaka Yatliqa, citizen of Cherokee Nation. Are you guys big chiefs fans? Yeah.

This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back here on the herd. UCLA new football coach Bob Chesney stopping by in a minute to talk about how he's changing the culture with the Bruins. Chesney, of course, was at JMU before UCLA, and I know JMU very well having graduated from there. Our football program is okay, 1-A-B-A back in the day. Now we're legit.

And Chesney took us to the college football playoff. We did cover the spread, very important to some, against Oregon in the playoff on the road. That was a wacky fourth quarter, if you guys remember. This is shaping up as a monster college football season in the Big Ten. I mean, we just talked to Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State. We know Buckeyes are going to be good.

Michigan's going to bounce back. They've had a lot of turmoil if you followed the former head coach who was, well, we'll just move on from that. Michigan will bounce back and UCLA appears to be on the rise significantly. Their recruiting efforts have been massive. So let's bring in Bob Chesney, UCLA's new head football coach live from Big Ten Media Days. Bob, how are you, man? Thanks so much for joining the show.

Very excited. How's your first Big Ten Media Day going there? It's going good, man. It is a car wash for sure. Everywhere you turn, there's another interview, which is pretty awesome. And just getting a chance to see all these coaches in action and meet all the people and see a lot of the media.

It's been really great. Yeah, I was just looking at the depth chart. It looks like maybe 15 new transfer starters. I don't know if that's the exact number, but it's going to be a new culture. Talk about building. that of UCLA? Yeah, there's right now, we ended up with 63 new guys on this team, 45 of our transfers. So it is really that. We really want to try to find guys that have played meaningful

snaps. We want to find guys that have come from good cultures. We want to find guys that can add to our culture and continue to grow on a day-to-day basis. And that's what, you know, we feel like we found with these guys. So, you know, they bring energy to it every day. They love playing this game and they don't have to go to work. They get to go to work. And that's a really important part of us being able to turn this thing the right way. Yeah, so I'm a JMU graduate, so I was following you last season, incredible run to the playoff, outstanding. How big of a leap is it going from, hey, listen, Harrisonburg, Virginia is a lovely place,

but it ain't Westwood. Just talk about that leap and bringing a bunch of players to the West Coast. Yeah, so obviously there's a big difference between Harrisonburg and Los Angeles, as you know, and I love my time in Harrisonburg, and I think that the people, People that live there are very proud of it and proud of that football team and rightfully so. You know, it's just a team that continues to win at every level. And I've been really, again, proud to be associated with that, you know, that university. But we did.

We ended up bringing 10 players with us and those 10 that we brought with us, I think, are all guys that can contribute. Obviously, the stakes are a little higher here. The coaching, you know, the players, the stadiums that we're going to play in, just go through all the things. The area is a lot thinner at this current level, you know, where we're at. but I do think a lot of the same formula that came into what we were able to do, not only at JMU, but previous places, the fundamentals and those standards all still travel. I'm sure recruiting is a lot more fun. I know your guys are crushing it on the recruiting trail.

My guy Vic, who I know pretty well, he's killing it. I mean, talk about like just recruiting at UCLA versus what you experienced back at JMU. Yeah, well, very different, obviously. I think that just the idea of being on the West Coast, and, you know, when we bring a lot of guys out, we brought them out in January. So a little bit different weather than what they might have been going through on the East Coast and had an opportunity to just see the benefits of that. But, you know, just to me, I had to get out here. I had to meet a lot of these coaches. I had to be able to start to get a footprint going. Obviously, the amount of time I spent with a lot of these West Coast coaches has not been, you know, magnificent over my past bunch of years. but at the same point in time, it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality.

And I think we've opened our doors. We had 180 of them come to a free coaches clinic. A ton have been at practices, sat in our meeting rooms. Those are all things we've got to do as far as establishing this footprint and making sure that our time spent with them is extreme quality. Yeah, now we saw Kurt Signetti in Indiana make an incredible run here over the last two years. And instantly people are like, listen, this is how quickly it can be done in the new NIL era. You can turn programs around quickly.

I mean, you don't want to put too much of a burden. on you guys at UCLA, but I don't know. It seems like you guys are ranked about 13th in the preseason poll. Obviously, you can use that as motivation. What's a realistic goal for the squad this year? Yeah, I'm sure most coaches say the same thing, but for us, whatever our goals are, we have to have our standards that match them.

And our goals necessarily aren't public, but our standards are things that we have to live on a day-to-day basis. But I don't want to put any artificial ceilings on what we can accomplish and limit ourselves in any way. But I also don't want to hide behind the fact of, hey, this is a year where we're rebuilding and accepting less is what we're going to do. That's not the facts either. We've got to be able to go out here and play the brand of football that needs to be played in this league on the day-to-day basis and just continually, truly evaluate ourselves honestly and grow every moment we can. That's ultimately what this journey is about.

Yeah, very well-spoken, coach. I want to ask about the quarterback situation. You've got two brothers there who are really awesome. I hear a lot of buzz about Madden. Obviously, Nico, NFL prospect. Talk about the situation of quarterback right now and how optimistic you are. Yeah, well, obviously it all goes through that quarterback position,

as we all know. You watch games when teams go back and forth. It's usually the quarterback making some pretty heroic plays. And you have to be able to do that. You've got to play the game that's being played at that moment, whether it's tempo and you've got to speed up or you're down and you've got to do more things. But you've got to play each play individually throughout that.

And I think both of those guys embody that. They're very talented. As you know, they had illustrious high school careers, and they are in a position right now to lead a team and be sharing a room together, which is pretty rare about, you know, 20 minutes away from where they grew up. That's a special moment, and I think that's one of the things that I'm excited to just watch what they're capable of and make sure we put them in positions for strengths to be highlighted and weaknesses to be avoided. So, Bob, when I moved my family across the country here, man, that was tough, man, just moving across the country, setting up shop, you know, transitioning to FS1. I can't imagine what you're going through, you know, coming across the country, coaching UCLA, and now in the recruiting environment and NIL era. Can you just talk about how rapid of the last six months it's been for you, just a whirlwind?

Yeah, I mean, it's been just that. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the majority of it. It's not one of those moments where you just come over here and say, hey, this is all we got to do. There's things to be done in every single, you know, department that touches this program. and in every single person that touches this program. So that's really important. But again, I think probably, you know, the work's the work,

and we all understand that as coaches. I'm just proud of my family and the way they were able to handle it. And our kids came over here from Harrisonburg with, like, I think, two months of school left. So we're able to walk away from all their friends and just come over and integrate themselves into a new system, and across the country and meet new friends. And I'm just really proud of the maturity and the way that they made this transition.

And for me, a lot easier than, you know, if it would have went a different way and they weren't happy and didn't see the value in it. And I'm just really proud of what this, what my family's becoming as well. I got to ask, Bob, about the NIL. A lot of people are complaining. We've got to rein this in. It's out of control. I don't know. It almost seems like, hey, this is the hand we're dealt.

Shouldn't we just deal with it, guys? Let's stop complaining and get to work. Where do you stand on NIL? Are you one of these like, hey, well, you got to tighten it up here. This is out of control. Yeah. I mean, I do think there's an helmet to tighten it up. I don't think we want to see ourselves in moments where there's $75 or $100 million rosters out there.

I think that that really becomes the haves and haves and have knots and the playing field gets skewed quite. It's already there, but it could get skewed even a little bit more. But to me, what are we doing? You got to make a decision and either are competing or you're complaining. And I just will not allow our guys to go through a day where they're complaining. So the alternative is competing. So whatever the rules are that we got to play by, we got to play by them. And whatever we got to do, whatever work we got to put in to make sure that we're one of the teams that's more funded.

And that, you know, the fortunate part is I think we have the third or fourth highest alumni base in the entire country. We're located in a pretty cool area. And on top of it, it's a, you know, the number one public school in the country, six or seven out of the last eight years. There's a lot in here that I think we could all be really, really proud of. To me, I think it comes down the football right now. We have to be able to take these next steps. I said it before, but we won three national championships here in our athletic department. We won seven conference championships.

It was more than any other department in the country. We're one good football team away from being the most dominant athletic department in the entire world. And I think that's really important for all of us to understand and understand just how heavy that crown is to wear as a football program. And we got to tackle work on a day-to-day basis like it. So, Bob, you talked about how fertile the recruiting ground is out here. have you had a taste yet of what it's like battling the other school across town USC for recruits and the rivalry and what it means have you gotten any sense of that i know it's tough because you haven't coached the game yet yeah no i think as far as like the recruiting they do an

unbelievable job you know and obviously they're funded very very well so you know it's hard to really you know beat them at this moment just because they they have a little bit more than you do but at the same point in time you know we got to get this place right and we got to get it to a point where we can compete with anybody at any time, and we will do that. So I'm excited about it. I think I don't worry about any other teams. We have enough things we got to do on a day-to-day basis and get better at on a day-to-day basis that, you know, to worry about anybody else doesn't make any sense.

So we just got to continue to grow, honestly evaluate ourselves, and figure out what we've got to do to be better. Yeah, Bob, I want to wrap up a lot of chatter this week about the 24-team playoff. We're just making leaps. 24-team playoff, I have no problem with it. I like competitive football games, you know, but some other people, you know, some other leagues maybe are not as big of fans. Have you given any thought to this or you want to weigh in on it? Well, this is how I lived my life, you know, growing up, obviously in the D3, D2, FCS world, it was that. You know, you were in the tournament.

So you're who you scheduled, who you played, not necessarily, you know, how many losses you had, but who you lost to and by what margin is. what it came down to. And if your strength of schedule wasn't good, you weren't getting into playoffs. Like, that all mattered a lot. So we were constantly playing up, you know, whatever we were at. And we were constantly trying to find the best, like, schools to be able to, you know, boost our record at the end and our strength of schedule. And I think that's what we all got to consider and think about at this level. 24 to me, I don't know. I don't really have a strong opinion about it. I think whatever the rules are we'll play by. But when you look through it, I think basketball is at 70% of their teams make the play. I think almost every other sport is close to 45 or above as far as how many teams make the playoffs.

We're at 8% right now that have a chance to make the playoffs. 8%. Like that to me is just a little bit different. Now, how long is the season? What are we doing with the championship game? How much wear and tear on the players is this? You know, what are the ramifications of losing the bowl system for, you know, those towns and those people. Like, there's a lot.

There's, with every action, there's an equal and opposite, you know, reaction multiple times. over. So I think that's where, you know, someone's going to have to come up with these rules and figure out what the best path forward is, but I don't see an issue with, you know, letting more teams in, but at the same point in time, I get it if not. We just made it. You know, at a, you know, group of

five school, we just made it. So, you know, whatever the rules are, we'll play by them and we'll do our best together. I love it. Bob, great stuff. Thanks a lot. And, you know, continued success in your college football endeavors. I'll see it again this season. All right, man. I appreciate it a lot.

Thank you. I'm Munga Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, kermudgins, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcast. 150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be,

and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Paul Verzi here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. I'm Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and I Heart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest, and we discuss the absolute best of things. It's that, and then there's everything else. Dude, his whole life has sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster.

I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy he was. It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When teenager Joy Morgan discovered their relationship, religious group, Israel United in Christ, she believed she'd found the truth. Many believe she found a cult. Then she disappeared.

The new podcast, The Missing Sister, explores her story, the family she left, and the religious group she found. You know when you get that a feed, I'm like, I don't want to be here. I want to get out. I can I want to go to her now. All episodes available now to Bench. Listen to The Missing Sister on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.