The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Browns, World Series, Packers, & where Colin was right and wrong

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

Colin discusses the turmoil going on to the Cleveland Browns, why the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, why Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shouldn't be fired, the end of the Green Bay Packers-Los Angeles Rams game, and where he was right and wrong over the weekend. Guests include Doug Gottlieb, Nick Swisher, Trent Dilfer, and Greg Jennings. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast.

Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IheartRadio app by searching heard. We're listening to Fox Sports Radio. All right, we got a lot of things to address here. I don't think I've ever had a Monday show where I have more things to talk about

in one hour where Colin was right where Colin was wrong. Let's start with this breaking news. Breaking news. All right. This is the dysfunction. I said that Baker Mayfield was going to have to overcome.

Cleveland just fired their football coach. Let me get this straight. You're two, five, and one with a rookie quarterback. You've already faced the Steelers twice. Baltimore, the Chargers, and at New Orleans, you thought you'd be better than two, five, and one? If I'd have told you two, five and one with a game at Drew Breeze, at Big Ben, Flacco, Big Ben, Phillip River. You thought you'd be better than two and five and one. By the way, you've gone to overtime like 13 times so far this year.

So it's not like your players quit on the coach. Yesterday, your team played your butt off. You got beat by a better team on the road. So this is the dysfunction that Baker Mayfield is going to have to overcome. All these rookie quarterbacks have something to overcome, but Baker's going to have to overcome an organization that now, now I think the reason he got fired and Peter King's going to join us in a 15 minutes, I hope, bad optics. Hard knocks, he looked juvenile and an egomaniac, Hugh Jackson did. And I thought the last couple of weeks, I'm the head coach, I'm the head coach.

Again, he looked insecure, really bad optics. But the team was playing hard. They had a tough schedule with a rookie quarterback. And two, five, and one is nothing to be embarrassed about. So it's now Todd Haley's football team. And good luck to all these rookie quarterbacks. But this is what I said from day one. Carson Wentz didn't have to overcome dysfunction.

Jared Goff had to overcome it for a year. And look how bad he was. You get a rookie quarterback. It's hard enough. Part of me is like, this is what, Baker's got nine more, 10 more, 15 more years of this? Ridiculous. They got a buy in two weeks. They got a buy in two weeks.

You get another two weeks from now. Kansas City's next. I probably don't want to replace my coach as the chiefs are coming up next. So it just happened five minutes ago. Cleveland's going to have another coach. Speaking of optics, which I think got Hugh Jackson fired, not just the results, the optics. Even a model looks just. okay next to a supermodel.

I've been telling you for the last couple of weeks, Sean McVeigh is the NFL supermodel of coaches. He's going to get a lot of guys fired. Sean McVeigh is going to get not just bad coaches, but like Mike McCarthy, he's a good coach, got a Super Bowl, winning record, wins his division. In 52 seconds yesterday, the optics once again against Sean McVeigh were terrible. Kick off. Aaron Rogers is going to get the ball. You know what happens when Aaron.

Rogers gets the ball. All he needs is a field goal to win. And yet, Ty Montgomery, a marginal player for the Packers, brings it out of the end zone. Dude, take a knee. Aaron then gets one play before the two-minute timeout, and you still have one left. And we later found out that Mike McCarthy had told him, take a knee. So a marginal Green Bay Packer player, instead of being all in with his coach, says hell with my coach. Apparently he was pouting earlier in the game. He wasn't in a series. He was upset. A marginal player bails on his head coach. And then 52 seconds later, a superstar player, Todd Gurley, on a collection of superstars, can score. In 2018, he goes, no, I believe so much in my coach, so much in my system, I just want to win a game. We are in the entertainment capital of the world.

We are in the me, not we generation. And a superstar running back so believes in his team and his coach on a roster full of some dysfunctional guys, I am coachable. A marginal player for the Packers, hell with my coach, I'm doing my thing. That was a horrible, horrible look for Mike McCarthy.

And I've been saying this, is that McVeigh is going to get a lot of people fired. McVeigh is young. and fit and vibrant and intense and charismatic. He is the hottest young CEO in Los Angeles. And Mike McCarthy looked like an old Chicago cop. And one of his men in his department just bailed on him. And it was for the world to see in one of the great NFL games of the year.

Great creates clarity. And Sean McVeigh is going to get a lot of guys run out of this league. By the way, Mike McCarthy's good. I'm not talking Mike McCoy, Mike Malarkey. I'm talking Mike McCarthy. I'm talking a good coach. I'm talking the guy that wins his division. He and Aaron have had their issues, but he's a real coach.

But when you put him up in that 52-second window juxtaposed against McVeigh, where a marginal guy, marginal guy pouts, tries to run out of kickoff fumbles. Dude, take a knee. Obviously, there's 205 left. You give Aaron an extra free play, plus a timeout. All he needs is a field goal. You might as well give the Packers and one. win.

That makes McCarthy look weak. Doesn't control his team. Can't even control his marginal players. McVe takes a superstar. I mean, weren't you shocked when Gurley did that? Weren't you like, damn, that doesn't happen anymore in American sports? And that's in L.A. And a market that gasses up all the players and tells them out great a, they are, and they

go to Hollywood and they become stars. there's that. Man McVeigh has taken a roster full of guys Indomac and Sue. Uh, Kee Tilly, Marcus Peters, you know, star quarterback, star back.

Where it's so potentially combustible. And Gurley does that. By the way, here's Rogers and McCarthy reacting to tie Montgomery's decision after the game. Yeah, very disappointing. That play didn't lose the game, but it definitely took away an opportunity for us to go down and win it.

The plan was to stay in and give the ball to Aaron Rogers. The plan there is to stay in the end zone. You know, two minutes. We actually talked about it as a team, and we wanted to be north of two minutes with the one timeout. We want to put the ball in Aaron's hands. Bad look for McCarthy, bad look for his leadership. And that's a good coach.

But up against Sean McVeigh and what he's doing, Made them look second tier. Speaking of second tier, folks, there are very few great anything, great doctors, great landscapers, great architects, great anything. Okay? In baseball, the last great team we had was the Yankees in the late 90s, Hall of Famers. They had everything. Great starting staff.

Mariano Rivera, Jeter, leadership, as a great team. We've gone 20 years in baseball since we've had a great team. The Boston Red Sox are a great team. They're a great team. I mean, they went 11 and 3 in the playoffs. The Dodgers were overwhelmed. The Yankees were overwhelmed. The Astros were overwhelmed.

The Yankees won 100 games. Couldn't compete. Dodgers dominate the Nationally. Couldn't compete. Astros have maybe the best roster outside of the Red Sox in baseball, a great manager, great staff, great game. Couldn't really compete. But this morning, and this is what happens when you face a great team, the fan base that loses, we got to fire our manager.

Folks, it's not the manager. Dave Roberts did not have a great series. You could have put Casey Stingle, Tony LaRusa, Joe Torrey, and whoever invented baseball, and you're not beating the Red Sox. They led the division virtually the entire year. Aces, two of them, closers, great. VP's two candidates. Defense, fantastic. Home away.

Doesn't matter. Every Red Sock pitcher in this series got out. Every Dodger pitcher except rookie Walker Bueller couldn't get out. This is what happens when you face a great team. Great teams don't have to play perfect. Alabama football replaced their quarterback at halftime last year in the National Championship game in one. Great teams can do that.

The Golden State Warriors had a key injury, and Kevin Durant went into the emotional tank in the Western Conference Final for a couple of games. It didn't matter they won. The Red Sox weren't perfect. They don't have to be. But to beat a Warriors, to beat an Alabama, to beat a Red Sox team like this, you need perfection. And they didn't get it. Because perfection doesn't exist against great teams. They put more heat on.

They play faster. They play more efficiently. They've got better players. I mean, when you face all-time great, the team that loses the fan base is always like, well, what about the game two in this pitching change, in game four and that at bat, and game five? Yes, it was not a perfectly managed series, but Las Vegas made the Red Sox prohibitive favorites in the world series and prohibitive favorites in every game except game three in which the Dodgers won, but it took them 18 innings. Folks, we do this every year.

You know, we always want to blame the managers in baseball when they make one. six of what GMs do. It's an analytic sport. But we don't have great teams in sports very often. We just don't. The Red Sox is the first great baseball team in two decades. They are stacked everywhere. Everywhere. And for the record, the Red Sox in the last 15 years have won the World Series four times with three different managers.

Go ahead, Dodgers. Hire Joe Girardi. He's been fired twice. hired John Farrell. He just got fired by the Red Sox not long ago. It ain't the manager. The best team in baseball in two decades made the Dodgers look second tier. Made the Dodgers at times look like a AAA ball team.

Made the Astros, made the Yankees. Couldn't compete. Could not compete against this team. Let's give the Red Sox credit instead of firing people and dumping people in Los Angeles. Somebody's going to pay for Manny Machado. If Dave Roberts has fired somebody to hire him, you face great. It's impossible to play perfect. And the Dodgers didn't, as expected.

All right, great stuff today. Peter King around the corner, Cleveland's fired their coach. You're two, five and one with that schedule and a rookie quarterback. I don't know what you were expecting. I don't know what you were expecting. You got a buy week in two weeks. I don't know what you're expecting. Also, some thoughts.

Peter King and Doug Gottlieb today. We are absolutely packed. 45 minutes from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. In L.A., it's 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 IHeart Radio app.

I don't think Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley are the reason they're losing. If they had a field goal kicker, they'd probably beat, you know, four and three. Or four and four. if they had a field goal kicker. But Hugh Jackson's not good at the microphone. He's like John Gruden. He talks too much in a microphone.

And so the optics, let's get rid of him. I'll tell you what I would do. Cleveland's a mess. This Baker Mayfield thing has to work. The only chance for the Cleveland Browns to end this 20-year, two-decade abyss, the Baker-Mafield has to work. I'd go to Oklahoma and hire his coach, Lincoln Riley.

There's a lot of rumors. One of my executive friends, two weeks, ago said, if Jason Garragut gets run out of Dallas, keep your eye on Lincoln Riley, the Oklahoma head coach. Lincoln Riley should be coaching in the NFL. He's wasting in college. He's wasting his time. And nothing against Oklahoma.

Oklahoma can win regardless of their coach. They've won with six different coaches. Lincoln Riley to the Cleveland Browns in Oklahoma will be fine. They'll always be fine. It's like Ohio State. Regardless, they'll be fine. Cleveland's not fine without the right coach. They have a history of this.

They work only in small doses. Go to Oklahoma. You get Lincoln Riley. That gives Baker Mayfield the greatest chance to succeed. John Dorsey's a GM. Listen, John, you know, I don't agree with taking Baker Mayfield, number one. But the rest of his draft picks look pretty good. Denzel Ward looks pretty good to me.

He's small. I'd rather take a big pass rusher, but looks pretty good to me. And so, you know, I would not fire a coach now with Kansas City coming up in a buy-in-two weeks. I think you're at, you know, you go look at Cincinnati. Everybody told me before the season Cincinnati was going to be great. I would be upset with Marvin Lewis. You know, there are coaches in this league right now I wouldn't be happy with. Hugh Jackson, they're two, five and one with that schedule with a rookie quarterback in a rebuild?

That's not that terrible. And again, if they had a field goal kicker, they have one, probably two more wins. I mean, yesterday, Baker Mayfield, he couldn't do anything. He was getting crushed. They were just getting literally buried by a much better football team with a Pittsburgh's defensive front overwhelmed the Browns. That's not on Hugh Jackson. They were just overwhelmed.

Pittsburgh's got better personnel and a Hall of Fame quarterback and a coach that probably gets into the Hall of Fame. So we're still waiting for Peter King. I'll tell you, the Browns give me more free stuff than any team in the league. The Browns have made me money this year. They've given me segments this year. They just fired a coach in a Monday. Go get Lincoln, Riley, you know, solve this thing. Because if the Baker thing doesn't work, it's another 10 years of embarrassment.

But Lincoln plus Baker, that's his best chance to work at an elevated level. Let me go to this. There's something called empty calories. Empty calories, wasted calories. I'll give you an example. You ever seen a club sandwich? That middle row of bread always feels like wasted calories. I've never eaten a club sandwich and said, you know what makes the club sandwich the middle row of bread.

There's enough bread. Give me more bacon. Give me more tomatoes. Give me more lettuce. It's like wasted calories. I don't need a sandwich with more bread. I don't need more bread in my club sandwich. Just make me a better BLT.

It's wasted calories. Kirk Cousins, quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, always feels like empty calories to me. He gives me yards. He gives me completions. He gives me stats. but he can't make the play in the moment to produce the win. Green Bay tied should have won. Last night, home saints really dominated.

Rams played great, dominated. You ever noticed that? He's like empty calories. The club sandwich is fine with that middle row of bread. It's called a BLT. They're even better. And when I watch Kurt Cousins, well, he's second in the league of this, and third in the league in this, and fourth in the league in this.

And I get all the yards and I get all the completions. I look at the box score this morning. Oh, good God. It's like, woo, Kirk Cousins is great. That breeze guy, they didn't do anything. First downs, Vikings, yards, passing yards, yards, yards play. Vikings, Vikings, Vikings.

But here's all you need to know. Here's what the box score doesn't say. It was 30 to 13 Saints with nine and a half minutes left in Minnesota. That game, second half, it was over. So you can give me all the yards and all the stats. Kirk Cousins is now 4 and 21 in the 25 times he's played a team that's 500 or better. He's 4 and 21. And they all look the same. He's fine. I mean, against the Rams, it was pretty good. Yesterday, oh, it was pretty good. And I watched him against Green Bay,

and I'm like, hey, he's pretty good. I'm not paying you 30 large a year to be pretty good. You've got to win these games. He's like the opposite of Aaron Rogers. A lot of times, Aaron's game won't look pretty, but in the fourth quarter, two minutes to go in a drive, I want Aaron Rogers on the field. If I said to you, two minutes to go, line up the quarterbacks you want. I've seen Cam Newton last couple of weeks done it. I've seen Tom Brady do it. I've seen Drew Brees do it. I've seen Big Ben do it. I've seen all the, I've seen Philip Rivers do. I've seen golf do it against Seattle. Boom, boom. How far would you go down the list before Kirk Cousin's Jersey guy walked in the room and go, you got my guy.

It's not that he can't play. But how far would you go down the line if I said two minutes to go? Because that's the NFL. That's how Super Bowl is in. New England's been eight Super Bowl's. All eight have ended on the last possession. That's how Super Bowl's in. The last one did, the next one will.

So that's what it's about. It's not about yards. It's not about completions. Kirk Cousins feels like empty calories to me. He is that middle slice of bread in the club sandwich. But Colin, that's what makes it a club sandwich. That's why I don't order him. That's why I order BLTs.

I want more bacon, more tomatoes. I want an avocado. Give me some mayonnaise in there. I don't need the extra bread. A BLT's got more than enough bread. I don't need an extra layer of bread. And I don't need more yards and completions. I need wins here.

I don't want to get fired. I need wins here. And I'm not getting them with Kirk Cousins. Redskins now, by the way, Joey, lead their division without him. And Minnesota's worse with him. But he's got yards. He's got completions. Joy Tailing with the news.

No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. He also gives great speeches. He gives great speeches. He is a great speaker. So in the intangible department, he's great. It's like really, really good bread.

Yeah. All right, so first, Ty Montgomery made a mistake for the ages yesterday when he decided to run the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff return instead of taking a knee. That fumble prevented the king of clutch, Aaron Rogers, from getting a chance to win the game. So an anonymous Packer had more insight on Montgomery's decision. He told Mike Silver of NFL.com, they took him out on the previous drive for a play,

and he slammed his helmet and threw a fit. Then before the kickoff, they told him to take a knee, and he ran it out anyway. You know what that was? That was him saying, I'm going to do me. It's a bleeping joke. The player also added, I mean, what the bleep are you doing?

You've got Aaron Rogers, the best I've ever seen. You're going to take that risk. I mean, it's 12. All you have to do is giving the ball, and you know what's going to happen, which is basically what everyone else the entire world felt when they saw him fumble that ball. I mean,

for Ty Montgomery went to Stanford. He's a smart dude. He's been in the league. He's a smart dude. This is a good football operation. Aaron Rogers needs a field goal. I mean, that's just an ego play there. That's a total ego. It's like Ty. You went to you're smart dude. I mean, it's just, it's textbook. The only thing that you

have to do in that situation is not make the exact mistake that you made. And you did it because of ego. Yes. Because there's no way that the coach didn't tell you to take an E. The coach didn't even have to tell you to take a knee in that situation. This is your job. You know that you're supposed to take a knee and give

the ball to Aaron Rogers. So it really is your fault. I mean, there's rare situations in a game where you're like, no, that's on you. It's not the very end of the game. You're not scrambling, trying to make something happen in the last second you make a mistake. There's two minutes left any of a timeout.

You have to give Aaron Rogers the ball. That's called football. Bad situational football. girlie 52 seconds later great situational football and again I'll say it this is not college football these NFL games between these top teams joy

they're all decided like this I mean last year Philadelphia wins the Super Bowl the New England game Brady has the ball with a minute left the Atlanta game Julio Jones in the end zone corner you can lose that I mean you just forget this is not college football situations win games

it's really not who wins the game it's who doesn't mess up mostly late and you had the opportunity to not mess up. It could have not been on you. So sticking with that game, which you just mentioned, Todd Gurley, drew the ire of fantasy football and Vegas critics after his decision to stop short of the goal

line instead of scoring another touchdown. And here is Gurley on that decision. Bob, it's a big win. Your fantasy people might not be happy though at the ending there. Forget fantasy and forget Vegas. We got the win, so that's all that matters.

Yeah. Listen, I bet football games and I couldn't care less. If I got more of that from players, It's kind of, this is kind of reminds me of what the Steelers have struggled with this year. They've had a little too much me over we. And it's really cool that in a city like LA, which, you know, which elevates stars, that the best, the MVP of your football team's like, no, I'm good. I don't need to score. It's not about me.

It's about us. I love that. Forget the MVP of the football team. He may be the MVP of the league this year. But that's the whole, that's the whole beat the Rams have this year, though. That's why we're always talking about how you don't see them out and you don't hear a lot from them. they're all really on the same page, and that's the reason why they're winning. Like, they are all adapting that Belichickian one goal, one voice thing.

And that's a perfect example of that. I mean, that is a complete contrast of what happened with the Packers and the Rams in that situation. Also, I mean, look, I play fantasy football. I don't gamble, but I play fantasy football. I'm going to assure you they don't care. Yeah. At all. Finally, the Cavs announced.

firing of Ty Lou yesterday. He talked about at the beginning of the show. Both those Cleveland teams are without coaches right now. They added Larry Drew would take over as the interim head coach. And according to Joe Varden of the athletic, have players are not happy about the decision. Sources told Varden, the players are pissed. Loo's a players coach who is partially to vet, who is partial to veterans and his partiality toward them might have played a role in his dismissal. Kobe Altman and Lou have been at loggerheads over playing time in the general direction of the team since the start of training camp. They are

0 and 6, and they last lost to the Pacers, 119, 107. So, I can't say that I'm surprised, although the firing of Tailu six games into the season kind of feels like maybe you just figure this out

before the season starts. It kind of feels like Cleveland. It is, it is Cleveland, but we've seen this with other organizations as well. I just feel like there's more to the story when it comes down to this. So you went through all of training camps the whole summer, like you know who Tailu is. Yeah.

And you just lost LeBron James. I mean, I know Tristan Thompson said very high standards, Eastern Conference Finals, the finals four years in a row. We know who got you there, right? It wasn't you, Tristan. And it wasn't Ty Lou. And that's no disrespect to Ty Lou, but it was LeBron James, and you just lost him.

You have to give your organization some time to recover. When you have LeBron James in your organization, you put everything around him. You have a very short window to win championships in sports, so you leverage everything around what LeBron wants. And it's probably not going to work when he leaves, But I don't know, six games into the season feels a little like something else is going on. But I mean, Larry Drew is a good coach.

It's not like they're in a terrible situation. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Okay, so the breaking news today is Hugh Jackson has been fired by the Cleveland Browns. Todd Haley is the offensive coordinator. He's also been a head coach.

He's clearly capable of coaching this team. You know, Cleveland, the only way in the National Football League to really turn around a disaster. There's one way to do it. You get the right coach and the quarterback. By the way, Indianapolis Colts were a disaster. What did they do? They hired Frank Reich. Andrew Lux's back in healthy.

The Colts now, oh, they're scoring a bunch of points. I mean, you know, that's the reality of the NFL. You got to get the coach right in 2018 and you got to get the quarterback right. Then you get him weapons. Then you protect him with an offensive line. But Cleveland has failed so many times at quarterback. And I wasn't a fan of Baker-Mayfield because, by the way, in about two weeks, we're going to get into hail, snow, wind, and rain in Cleveland.

And this is a 5-11-a-half kid with a decent, not a great arm. I thought Cleveland should have taken Carson Wentz a couple years ago from North Dakota, 6-5 guy. I thought they should have taken Sam Darnold. I like big quarterbacks in northern divisions or guys with great arms like Aaron. Rogers, Jay Cutler, Matt Stafford. If you look at Northern divisions in football, Flacco, Big Ben, Cutler, Stafford, Aaron Rogers, big arms.

I'm a proponent of that. I wouldn't have taken Baker. But since you did, you now got to get it right. You can't screw this up. And so, to me, go get Lincoln Riley. And now you may not be able to do it now, but Oklahoma football is going to win forever. They'll figure out somebody to get. In the Big 12, they're the football program with Texas of note, and they're even bigger

than Texas in terms of winning last 30 years. But to me, you've got to ensure this works. When you are Cleveland, you have this dysfunction and this paralysis, just for years and years, the way to get out of it, you're in on the quarterback, and he's certainly good enough to win in this league. Baker's good enough to win. I mean, he's 2.5 and 1, and their schedule has been brutal. You've got to go get a coach.

And don't go cheap. Go get an offensive guy to make sure he wins. No. So, so Mary K. who's a very legitimate reporter. I've relied on her for years in Cleveland, says Hugh Jackson was fired after a meeting with Jimmy Haslam and John Dorsey, who told him the team had regressed and the leadership wasn't what they wanted per

a league source. Well, John Dorsey never hired Hugh. Hugh wasn't his coach, so that was problematic to begin with. We got a lot of things to unpack here today, top of the hour, less than 30 minutes away, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Doug Gottlieb's going to join me. Let me see also today. I've got Trent Dilfer.

I got Peter King, Greg Jennings, Nick Swish. We are packed. Don't go anywhere. Doug Gottlie's around the corner. His thoughts on this and more. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the Ihard Radio app. It's a Monday. Trent Dilfer, Peter King, Nick Swisher, Doug Gottlieb just joins me.

Fox Sports Radio after us. He's got a million things to say. Let's start with the breaking news today. Hugh Jackson fired. I mean, they face the top schedule, rookie quarterback. They're two, five, and one. If they had a kicker, they probably have four wins. Was this just because Hugh is bad at a microphone after him before games?

He was bad on hard knocks. Yes. And he also, this is being fired in the midst of your most successful season when you're two, five, and one doesn't speak well to Hugh Jackson. But this is one of those he or Todd Haley had to go. and apparently Todd Haley, because he's only been with the organization for six months, gets to stay. So I'm like, look, this is the most Cleveland thing ever. I mean, as he wasn't hired by Dorsey, and yet Dorsey, whether he was forced to or chose to keep Mon for a year,

and they couldn't even stomach getting to the year. So this one strikes me as odd in terms of timing, but this is a he goes or I go. And apparently, Jimmy Hassam decided that Hugh Jackson goes. I don't think anyone would argue that they're extremely well coached. that they're disciplined, that they've done the little things, or that he was impressive as a head coach in Hard Knocks, but I also wonder who they're going to turn it over to this year, and then all of a sudden now you run the risk of Baker Mayfield

going through three coaches in just two seasons. Is he able to get the most out of his talent, the most out of the talent around him, considering all the dysfunction within Cleveland? And by the way, you played basketball at Oklahoma State. You know the Oklahoma program. Anything happens in Oklahoma. I lean on Doug always.

Lincoln Riley, I heard two weeks ago from an executive in the NFL I trust, they said, that's the new McVeigh in this league. It's not in the NFL. Matt Nagy may be it. McVeigh is it. It's the kid at Oklahoma. You think Lincoln Riley would leave? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, would you leave a place where you can win 85, 90% of your games,

maybe even 95% of your games to join the Cleveland Browns? But obviously he has a relationship with Baker. And the league has shown not just with McVeigh, but other places. You look at what Matt Nagy is doing with the Chicago. Bears. You look at frankly what the Kansas City Chiefs are doing, using college-style inventive offenses, winning with your first 15 plays with young quarterbacks. That's the trend in the league. It's an offensive league now. So that's the guy you reach out to. I think the only other guy that's considered at that level would be Cliff Kingsbury, a Texas Tech, who may be

available. But the problem is that he and Baker Mayfield have a past and it's not really a good one. So with that in mind, Lincoln Riley has to be the number one guy. It's either Lincoln Riley or Bob Wiley, who's the offensive line coach with a huge belly. We want him to be the coach. By the way, I was talking to Jimmy Johnson, the legendary football coach yesterday at Fox as I come in on Sundays. And we were just talking about random stuff, not the Browns. And he said, listen, man, everybody wants to run people out. He goes, I tell all these young coaches and all these young GMs, don't fire people before you got somebody better than the guy you're firing.

Because he goes, by the way, even when I was with the Cowboys early, Sometimes you're playing guys. You don't want to play, but there's nobody better out there. Everybody wants to fire everybody. Like the Dodgers are like fired Dave Roberts. What Joe Girardi got canned in Miami and New York? Is he better? I don't know.

But the point is, we're in a firing culture. We're in an avalanche culture. Social media. Blow everybody up. It's like, God, give me a break. Okay, I want to shift to this. You know Aaron a little, Aaron Rogers. Obviously, Ty Montgomery went real selfish on that.

Aaron's reaction on the sideline. He turned to a teammate, and you could tell he was calling out Time Montgomery. Correct. I have this feeling, this theory, that Aaron has been carrying this franchise and to this day is. But now that he's got a big contract and he's turning 35 in about two months, when he starts losing, they're not going to be able to give him the pieces he needs. And I think he deep down knows that. So he feels like the clock is kind of shortening on him a little bit.

That's why that's so frustrating yesterday. Is that fair to say? I think, do you remember Marissa Tomey in, my cousin Vinny? Oh, yeah. When she says, my biological clock is ticking. That's Aaron Rogers. He's like, my football clock is ticking over here. Yeah.

They lost a game because Mason, Crosby, Mr. Reliable, misses five kicks. Yeah. And now they lose an opportunity because they're up 10-0 and Mike McCarthy chooses a run play on their own goal line to get a safety. Look, but I do not put it on Mike McCarthy for what happened with Ty Montgomery. That's Thai Montgomery going rogue. Ty Montgomery misses a block in the previous series, and it causes a sack, and it gets them off track,

so they don't score points. They don't play add-on. Then in the most selfish display of hero ball, I've seen in football in a long time, he catches a kickoff, should have taken a knee. Everybody thinks you take a knee. And instead he runs out, and then you fumble? I don't know, every, the entire football America was ticked

because we wanted to see Aaron Rogers on the field at the Coliseum against arguably the best defensive line in football. and see what he could do in the two-minute drill. I don't blame Aaron Rogers for being ticked. The Thai Montgomery did. I don't either. I don't blame Aaron. I don't. But I do think it's a bad look for McCarthy when his marginal player goes rogue

and McVeigh's superstar is all in. Okay. Before we canonize Todd Gurley, we do realize that mathematically, statistically, it was the wrong play to take a knee up two points. If you go into the end zone and you score eight, it's a touchdown. Now, you can kick the extra point, which is the only thing in question, and they could block it and run it back. But if you kick the extra point and you make it,

with Greg Zerline, you're up nine, the game is over. So, look, the Todd Gurley thing, we wanted to be Brian Westbrook with the Philadelphia Eagles up a point where it was the smart play. Actually, statistically, he could have gone into the end zone and it would have been fine. But it does speak to what McVeigh is doing, right? Sean, I did an NFL game a couple weeks ago, right?

I went down to Miami. Yeah. And they could not have been more effuse in their lack of praise over Indomacan Su. They're like, man, is it better without Edomacan Sue here? And it was Jake Cutler also being gone. But the idea that Indomacan Sue, he's a private subcontractor. He's a mercenary. He doesn't work out with the guys. He barely practices with the guys. He shows up on

Sunday and does his job. But there's not a lot of, not a lot of warmth where Indomacan Sue is there. I've heard that from every source I have in the league has said the exact same thing. Okay, but people are going crazy about Sean McVe's ability to call plays. His play calling, even even listening to his postgame comments was crummy yesterday. Their offense was not good. The reason they won that game was the defense kept playing, and the defense got after Aaron, and the defense got

stops. That's the genius to McVegas. He can motivate these guys that others have not been in. And to your point, he can get Todd Gurley to buy into the, forget fantasy points, forget hitting the over, forget being the win. I mean, everybody in Vegas ticked at him, but it is the play that signifies the Rams, in addition

to being statistically the best team, they are actually a team, which you don't have, not just in the NFL always, but don't have in LA sports? I would argue. Let me do just one basketball topic with you because you're well connected here. Since Dan Gilbert bought this team over a decade ago, we've only had two calves. We've had the calves with LeBron, good to great, and then the calves without LeBron, the worst team in the league that will get the number one pick.

Those are the only two calves since Dan Gilbert bought it. I could argue Ty Lou did not get fired this weekend. He got fired when David Griffin, LeBron's guy, got fired his GM and LeBron decided that day, I'm out on Gilbert again.

I can't trust this guy. And at that point, LeBron decided, emotionally, I'm out of here. That's what got to Tyloo fired. That this is symptomatic of... But Dan Gilbert twice has had LeBron and both times has complained

to people close to him. He's just, too high maintenance for me. It's the Dan Gilbert issue. Well, look, LeBron James can be too high maintenance, and Dan Gilbert can be a complete train wreck as an owner. Both of these things can, in fact, be true. What I think, look, part of the reason they were so bad without LeBron was they were

trying to be bad. If you go back and you ask David Griffin, for example, he was on my radio show, and I said, you know, what about the sense that LeBron James took over a team that couldn't win? He's like, look, in fairness to Kyrie, we didn't want to win. We were trying to not win. We were trying to get the number one pick in the draft, which I believe is simply the case with Cleveland. That's a terrible team, a terrible roster,

and they're trying to be bad, and they did Tailu a favor. Tailu is this easy, David Fisdale of 2018, 2019. Last year, Fisdale's the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. Everybody likes him, and then all of a sudden, Mike Conley goes down with injury, and the team says, we're out, we're tanking. We're trying to be bad. And they fired David Fisdale because he gets into it with Mark Gassol,

because they were trying to be bad. And David Fisdow goes on TV and now lands a better job. I don't know about the contract buyout and whether or not there's offset. But that's what's going to happen with Ty Lou. He gets the three NBA finals. Is he Brad Stevens? No. Is he the greatest coach?

No. But players like him. They play a hard for him. Players like him. And here's the thing. The hardest thing to do, in order to win an NBA locker room, you have to have won before. In order to have one before, you have to win a locker room, right?

It's a catch-22. Right. Tylo is one of like two or three guys that can walk into an NBA locker room and say, I've been there. I've done it. Yes, I had LeBron, but I've won a championship. He'll be a valuable commodity, and I think Cleveland did him a favor by paying him to not take 55-60 losses this season. All right, that's a good take. I like that take. There we go. So in the end... You wouldn't fire Dave Roberts? I mean, how are you taking Rich Hill out? He's pitching the game of his life. They played 18 freaking innings till 12.30 in the morning.

Rich Hill's out there giving in everything he's got. So he's like, you know what? I'm going to take the ball from me. I, I, because Andrew Friedman makes $7 million as the GM. How 9,000 is managing that team? They go to a computer. This is like, look, but why are you blaming the manager of Friedman's running the thing anyway? Because if the manager can't say, you know what? In this particular instance, I got it. Like your Dave, the reason Dave Roberts was hired was partially because he said, I'll give into analytics. That's right. But it's also partially because he was

the guy who stole the base, you know, for the Boston Red Sox and the down three games. He's been there. He's done that. So look, you. At some point you take the bullet and say, my gut, my baseball instincts tell me that even though every stat would tell you, and even Rich Hill, look, Rich Hill handed him the ball. Rich Hill wasn't fighting to stay in that game. But you go out there and you go, hey man,

give me a couple more outs. Just give me a couple more outs. Let me get to the seventh. I mean, between that and the misuse of bias and using Ryan Madsen tonight for a role. And play your best players. What the hell is this player? Max Muncie, he doesn't play in game two. What are we doing? No, I agree with that. I believe in analytics over analytics, but I will say this.

Aaron Boone got the Yankee job because he would succumb to the front office. I understand how the reason you get. Why do we kill the managers? Because at some point, it's your job and your team and you got to make the call, right? How you get the job and how you operate within the job, two completely separate and distinct things. And I agree with you. That's why he got this job.

Yeah. But that was maybe not a winnable series, but there were winnable games to which we should still be playing baseball. If you're a Dodger fan, you're hot, you're upset, and now we don't know what happens with Clinton Kirchow. It's just like me. I got this job because I listened to bosses and men in analytics. And if my ratings are no good, it's the guys upstairs that should be fired. It's not my fault.

I'm just listening to orders. Joy and I are just, they tell us what to talk about, and we just do. God leaves great, Colin right, calling wrong next, the herd. Ah, here we go, hour two, live in Los Angeles. This is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be. and however you may be listening. Fox Sports Radio. Iheart Radio.

And right here on FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me. Trent Dilfer, I'm told. Peter King still chasing him. Nick Swisher. Greg Jennings today, we're absolutely packed up. Breaking news today. Let's spend a couple of minutes on it. Breaking NFL news.

Baker Mayfield is going to have a new head coach. Hugh Jackson has been fired. I said before the season, I didn't think Hugh Jackson or Todd Haley. I didn't think they were a bad combination for Baker Mayfield. he's got running backs, he's got a nice tight end, he's got a star receiver, a couple of offensive guys. If Baker Mayfield can go 6 and 10 and you feel like he's the guy with that defense, I didn't think Hugh was the worst guy.

I mean, right now you've got to have offensive guys to win big in this league outside of Belichick, it seems like. But they don't think Hugh Jackson is the guy. The GM didn't hire him, so they're going to go get a new coach. I mean, Hugh Jackson, listen, there's a lot of ego and a lot of insecurity. He kept reminding everybody that he was. as the head coach. Bad optics, looked juvenile, looked insecure. I don't think anybody thinks Hugh Jackson's a top NFL head coach. I think he's a good offensive guy. I've always felt he's one of those NFL guys that could go to college and win. He'd be good in the living room.

You know, he's got kind of a handsome, good energy, good fun, good storyteller. But in the end, Cleveland's dysfunctional. If I'm the Browns, I go out and hire Lincoln, Riley, at Oklahoma. You've got to make this thing with Baker work. You got to make it work. And in 2018, it's an offensive league. Go get an offensive-minded guy with the right temperament to deal with Cleveland, the owner. John Dorsey can hire his guy because Cleveland's got talent. There's players here. They've got players. This is not a team. Sam Darnal's got no help. Josh Roden doesn't have much help. You know, a lot of these, Josh Allen at Buffalo didn't have a lot of help. Baker's got some players here. They've got some players here. This is not a, uh, uh, uh,

bereft of talent. So get Lincoln Riley, get it done. Hugh Jackson been fired, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, 2-5-1, which is not a horrible record considering their bad at kicking field goals and their schedule has been absolutely brutal. Doesn't get easier. Kansas City next. All right, we do it every Monday at this time. Where Colin is right, and where Colin was wrong, I'm plenty of both over the last week, and here we go. Where Colin was right? We are on fire with our football picks. A blazing football. another winning week. We picked the Packers to cover but not win against the Rams. Happened. We picked Seattle to go on the road as a dog and win they did. And we picked the Bears to not only win but cover against the injury riddled jets.

And they did. In fact, we should have been four in one. We got a terrible beat on the Bengals Buccaneers game where we had the Bengals and we were on the right side. And then Tampa back doored it. But again, over 60%. another winning week with Blazing Five. I've never been this hot before.

Where Colin was wrong. I sold all my Seattle Seahawks stock at the beginning of the year. Pete Carroll deserves a ton of credit. This is not a rebuilding team. Now, I don't know if they're going to be a playoff team, but they're not a rebuilding team. And they kind of, they changed it up. Pete said, we're going to be a conservative run first offense.

Last year, they couldn't run the ball at all. They drafted another running back, although they haven't played their first round running back didn't yesterday. They have become a low mistake, pound the football, own time of possession, and has always played good defense. DePiet's always been a very good defensive coach. I don't worry about that side. But I sold my stock. They're a power running team.

Control the clock. Never turn the ball over and play great defense. And I got to tell you, I watched them yesterday. That wasn't close with Detroit. To go on the road in the NFL and dominate a team of the good quarterback is hard. to do, and they completely absolutely controlled the Lions, who to that point had been playing good football. Where Colin was right?

Oh, yeah, Andrew Luck, it's amazing. When you give him a decent offensive line and a decent running game, he's second in the NFL and touchdown passes, which is incredible when you consider he's got one go-to offensive player, Ty Y. Hilton, who's been hurt some of the year. Listen, all Andrew Lucks ever needed was a little protection. And the new GM, Chris Ballard, in two years now, less than two years, has rebuilt that offensive line, especially guard, center guard, and they're giving Andrew Luck time to throw. And then they went and drafted a couple years ago, a guy named Marlon Mack, a running back.

He's been terrific. This is all Andrew Lucks ever needed. He's going to end up with 45 touchdown passes potentially, and it's not a great. They don't have a great defense. but every time Andrew Luck has been given a little help. He didn't even have pro bowlers around it, just a little help. He's second in the NFL and touchdown pack. Not Aaron Rogers, not Brady, not Breeze, Andrew Luck.

Where Colin was wrong. Adrian Peterson is fifth in the NFL in rushing? And the only guys he's behind are like Kareem Hunt and Zeke and Gurley. I mean, he's always kept himself in remarkable shape, but talk about not see this coming. He's even kind of eliminated most of his fumbling issues. I think he had one yesterday, but by and large, it's not just that he's picking up three or four yards at a time. Yesterday, he had a breakaway run.

Shocked. I mean, there's some guys in the NFL you just like give up on. You're like, okay, they're old, they're coming off injuries. They're not entirely coachable. Maybe this is why everybody kept giving him chances. Maybe it's the Redskins' offensive line. but he has been terrific for Washington. First and second down back, he's been absolutely terrific.

Where Colin was right? I said the Minnesota Vikings and the Jacksonville Jaguars would pull back. Got nothing but heat. I said, I don't buy in Saxonville long term, and I don't think Kirk Cousins is going to solve anything. I think he's fine, and the Vikings now are four, three, and one, and they're tying and losing games they should win, and the Jaguars are three and five,

and it feels like they've lost these. entire locker room. Listen, there are teams in sports that are lightning in a bottle. They get the right schedule. They're bizarrely healthy. They get elevated play from one or two guys who are average players, Case Keenham. And I, and I, this is what I predicted. I said, Minnesota is going to pull itself back. They'll be a good team, nine and seven, but they're not going to be a great team, and they're not. And Saxonville, I'm like, sorry, when you give yourself a nickname after brief success, you're not the corner office guy, you're the main hallway cubicle guy,

and both the Vikings and Jags have been exactly what we predicted. Where Colin was wrong. I did not think Cam Newton would be able to take Norv Turner, be coachable, and he's been an MVP, got $100 million in the bank, got a million commercials, and I said, you know, the Norv Turner thing, he's going to ask him to do things he can do,

doesn't want to do, but I got to give Cam a ton of credit. He's completing 66% of his throws. He's never been a precision thrower, and he's doing it now. He's being totally coachable. Every one of his games, he's been over 60%. That's a big deal for Cam. I mean, Cam had a year when he completed 53% of his throws.

He's not a precision thrower. Six straight multiple touchdown passing games. Never done that in his career. They're five and two. And the schedule for the next couple of weeks, they got the Lions in Tampa. They could wake up and be a seven and two football team. I've always seen Cam as a mega talent

that's just going to do what he does. And he's too talented to get rid of. and when he does get hot and they got a running game and a defense, but Cam's done a great job two weeks ago against Philadelphia. Fourth quarter to come back on the road was the most impressed I've ever been with Cam Newton, good for him. I didn't think he be this good. I didn't think he be this coachable.

He's been terrific. Where Colin was right. LeBron leaves the Cavs, their 0-and-6 and fire their coach. Yeah, we saw this coming about a mile away. Listen, this is an organization that has been over the last 15th, years, the worst franchise in the league when LeBron's not there. That's why they keep getting number one picks. LeBron was the number one pick.

And then Kyrie Irving, and then they had Anthony Bennett, and they screwed that up. This is not when an organization is inept. It's always about the owner in the front office. For years and years, the clippers were inept. Why? It was the owner. They got rid of the owner. Now they're at least, you know, got to punch your chance.

The minute LeBron left, I told you. they're going to go into the tank and be one of the two or three worst teams, and here they are. Where Colin was wrong. Well, I said before the year the Giants were a dark horse Super Bowl team. It's very dark. They're one in seven. I've been a little off on this. Nothing's working.

I mean, I shouldn't say nothing. Sequin Barclay has been terrific, but it doesn't matter. Nate's sold or left tackle I thought would be an upgrade. He's been totally exposed. I thought Pat Schumer was kind of the guy that could ignite them. he has not been great in the room I was actually shocked Brian Cox came on our show before the season

and I was shocked when he said this Johnson no good now that's a little strong no good no good Nate Solder Odell Sequin Barclay No good No good no good

No good They might win five games Oh come on You look you got Pat Sherman's your head coach bro No. Why? He's a good man, but I mean, look at his record. I mean, I don't see winning coming out of there. Yeah, I was wrong on that one. I saw winning coming out of there. And Brian Cox didn't, and he was right and I was wrong. Where Colin was right? The Steelers continue to be the most talented team in the league that doesn't appear to care about details.

Did anybody notice this yesterday in the Steelers game? After a safety, Cleveland got a free kick. You have to catch it. The Steelers treated it like a punt. That's a live ball. That's what coaches are there to do. Tell players about rules and stuff. This is why I keep saying. This is why I don't like them when they match up against New England. With the Patriots team do that, you've got to know that stuff.

That's your job to know that stuff. I never doubt Pittsburgh's talent. I never doubt it. Their pass rush now is awesome. New England has no pass rush. The Steers pass rush is frightening. But in big games, this is the kind of play. You can get away with this against Cleveland.

You're not getting away with this against Andy Reid. You're not getting away with this against Bill Belichick. It's like, come on. This is like Division III football play. Know the rules. Where Colin was wrong. No, I think I'm right. Aren't I right on this whole Rondo thing?

Where Colin was right? Yeah. Saturday night, Rondo's back. And LeBron James late in the game, passes the ball to Rondo. and Rondo has an opportunity here. Dude, score! And he didn't. You brought him there for IQ.

Like, that could have pulled him within one. This is a better team with Lonso. It's a better basketball team with Lanzo ball. They came back. Rondo comes back, gets more minutes, and this is what you had. I'm telling you, Lonso makes the cleaner play. He's as smart.

He pushes the ball. Rondo is an agitator and disruptive. We've seen it time and time again and Saturday night. It's another example of Rondo can outthink the room. He'll end up with nine assists, and I don't like seven of them.

That moment to me is like Lanzo dunks it and makes the play. Rondo has a brain fart. What are you doing? What are you doing? It's very J.R. Smith-esque. Oh, good Lord. Oh, good hell.

The Browns... Breaking news. The Browns have also fired offensive coordinator Todd Haley. So I'm going to eliminate him on the getting the job list. Do they know that they took a quarterback number one overall in the draft? They've got a rookie quarterback. He needs support. Stability.

So the two guys in the room who are the kind of guys who I, as I said before the year. You can't tell me that Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley don't know offense. They do. So now you fired Haley. By the way, Haley will get a job. Hugh Jackson will get a job. They'll get coordinator jobs.

This is, what are you doing to Baker Mayfield? You got to make this thing work. You got to, I mean, you got to make this thing work. It's just, it's madness. Yeah, I mean, it's done the impossible. I feel bad for Baker Mayfield. God. Can you do this kid a solid?

Can you have an offensive guy in the room? Peter King, Trendill, for somebody next, it's a hurt. This weekend, Dwayne Haskins and number eight Ohio State looks to get back in business at the shoe against Nebraska. That's coming up Saturday at 1130 Eastern on Fox or watch anywhere on the Fox Sports app. Yo, Ohio State had a buy. Coming off a buy. Shopping for car insurance, try Geico, saving people money.

75 years. They know what they're doing. com. This is one of my favorite 10 minutes of the week via the Coward Global Satellite Network. A decade and a half in the NFL won a Super Bowl trophy. Pro Bowler, Trent Dilfer is joining us. All right.

Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley are out. I mean, I'll just let you go with it. Your impressions on that. Well, I'm not surprised. I didn't watch a ton of hard knocks, but the people that did watch it told me that it was kind of a debacle.

Hugh and Todd both really strong personalities, both kind of old school in the roots as offensive guys, and obviously ownership thinking the teams regress. Now, I don't know if it's right or wrong. It's all speculational why it happened as well. However, I would say this, that when you draft a quarterback number one, especially in Cleveland now, they cannot, no matter what, end of the world situation, cannot let Baker fail. They can't have another quarterback put on that list of Cleveland quarterbacks that haven't worked out. So everything that you do in your organization, every conversation that you have, every meeting that's held, it has to start with one central topic.

And that's how do we best support Baker Mayfield? How do we make this work? And I also think at the same time, if you're Jimmy Haslam, if you're Dorsey, you're sitting there and you're watching Mitchell Trubisky in Chicago, who many think is not nearly the talent that Baker Mayfield is, having some significant. and putting up big numbers and looking like you really knows what's going on there, playing in a college offense, that that head coach is energized in city of Chicago with a quarterback-centric team and fresh ideas and innovation. And again, a lot of that Saturday-looking feel to their Sunday offense, I think they're probably saying to themselves, listen, we got to go find somebody

that has a very specific plan to how to make Baker productive using a lot of the Saturday concepts. We got to go find somebody that can come in here and add youth and energy and new ideas and above anything else, make sure that Baker throws for 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, because that will get people believing. That will give everybody hope. And then we can do the rest because we have good young players. We've done well in the draft. We can really build something special here. But the only thing that matters with the Cleveland Brown is getting Baker to be successful. And I think what you're seeing in NFL, whether it's

Kansas, whether it's Chicago, whether it's other organizations, the way to do that quickly is to bring that Saturday offense to your Sunday football team. Trent, Ty Montgomery, I mean, listen, situational football is hard. It's not easy. I mean, you're playing,

I've sat in the sidelines in NFL games. The game's going a thousand miles an hour. The fans are yelling. Your coordinator's yelling. The players are going. Football's hard. Football, hell, football practice is hard. hard. Okay, but there was a moment in that Packer game where it wasn't hard. Okay, kickoff, Ty Montgomery runs it out. Is that insubordination? What did you see there by him?

I think it speaks to something bigger than just what happened. I mean, I got to assume, and there's reports saying that he was told on the sidelines to take a knee, not to bring it out. I heard about him missing a block in the series before him, pouting a little bit, and the selfish move. move. All of that is irrelevant to the player having enough respect and emotional intelligence to do what he needs to do in that moment. The head coach's ultimate job. Now, it's not necessarily his job to go down the line and say, hey, Ty, don't bring it out. We want to give the ball to number 12. But the head coach's overall message should be respected. And if he tells the special teams coordinator tell Ty McComery, hey, no matter what, let's make sure Aaron has a chance

to go win this game for us, then it's the player's responsibility to obey that message. To me, there's a lack of respect there. If you're not going to do your job, if you're not going to listen to what your coach has to tell you, and a lack of emotional intelligence that if you can't get over a mistake that you made the series before and understand that you have one of the great players ever who's going to get the ball and only has to go 40-some yards to kick a field goal to beat the undefeated Rams, then there's bigger issues going on. I want to shift to Kirk Cousins. Listen, I called him earlier

empty calories that I'm not, you know, I get yard. It's pretty funny. I heard that. It's not that he can't win. I've said before, I didn't have a problem with Minnesota going out and getting him. I think he's better than Case Keenham. But I'm not a fantasy football player. You know, I am not in the yards and completions.

I'm kind of a believer in do you make the play. Aaron Rogers makes the play. Two-minute drill with Kirk Cousins. I don't feel great. about it. And so, and by the way, I love Philip Rivers. Sometimes Philip, two-minute drill won't make the play. He'll make the mistake. So I'm not saying Philip Rivers isn't great. And he's better than Kirk Cousins. But am I being too hard on Kirk Cousins? Because I watched last night and his stats are great. But in the end, that game was over with nine minutes to go at home.

I don't think you're wrong, Colin. I said this one is in Washington. I really like Kirk Cousins. I think he can win for you. But the numbers proved out that he was not a great critical situation. pass through. Wasn't great on third down, wasn't great in the red zone, wasn't great end-a-half, end-of-game situations. He's had some signature moments, but overall his career, he has not been great in what I would follow those critical moments. But really, that's where the argument has to start when you're differentiating between good and great quarterbacks, the NFL. I do think you're being unfair to have the conversation today. I don't think last night was necessarily the best example of that. I thought Kirk Cousins played hard last night. It was his two superstar receivers that turned that

game for him. A Thielen, who's just had an incredible year, is a great football player, fumbles the ball, leads to points for the Saints, and then Diggs cuts off a man route short and forces Perkins to a pick six. That's 10 points right now. I believe that's what they lost by. So I don't disagree with you overall that in today's football, it's really easy to get caught up in numbers. And a guy's good because he throws for a lot of yards and he throws a lot of touchdown, yada, yada, yada. I think you really do have to drill deep into a when are they playing their best football. Are they playing their best football when the other team knows they have to pass? Are they playing their best football when they have to bring a team back?

Are they playing their best football when it's hard to play good football? That's how I determine who are the best. And I think Kirk is still in the middle of the pack because he hasn't yet become great in those situations. I just think last night may not be the best example of this. Finally, listen, there's a lot of stories I like right now in the NFL. Drew Bree is getting old and really this team could win it all. I love the fact that he's getting into the twilight of his career and he's just as good as he's ever been. It makes me happy. I love the Andrew Luck story.

He's got a little help. But you saw something on Thursday that you loved. Talk about it. I think one of the best stories in the NFL this year is Deshawn Watson, the Houston tactics. And I think it's because of, I think it's because. of what we just talked about. Things have been hard. They started Owen free. They had two tough, schematical matchups early in the year for Billy O'Brien playing two coaches that know him very well schematically and make it difficult for him. Deshawn Watson being really

banged up, not just banged up, really banged up, like some stuff that most guys wouldn't play games with. They're O and three. He has a chance to maybe take a couple weeks off, get healthy, see how things go to see if the season's worth playing. Instead of he guts it out, what you really should do. And we talk about Aaron Rogers being a rogue. You got a banged-up me. Give me a break. This guy can't breathe during the week. And he's, you know, he's 0-3. He brings his team back to 5 and 3. I think he's one of the superstars we don't talk enough about. And I get it. I love talking about Mahomes. I love talking about all these other studs in the NFL. Deshaun Watts is one of the best players in this league. He's one of the toughest players in this

league. And he has single-handly put this team on his back and brought them back from the grave at O and 3 to 5 and 3 right now. And maybe it's because it's Thursday night football and the new cycle moves on into the weekend, college football and Sunday football. But we've got to talk more about DeShan Watson and one absolute, not just superstars, but what a poster boy for what quarterback should be.

This kid has it all. Yeah, leadership, toughness. I mean, they couldn't even fly him to the game. They had to put him on a bus. It's just, it is incredible. and beyond that. Revere. You know, Colin, he's revered. That's the word I was looking for. He's not just respected and liked by his teammates, both at Clemson and Houston. He's revered. Like, there is such a level of respect and understanding for his grit, his toughness, his talent.

He is truly one of the best players in this league. Great stuff. Trandell, for good talking to you, bud. Thanks, brother. All right. Cleveland's looking for a new football coach and a new coordinator. Here's Joy with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, this NFL season has been a flurry of trades and trade talks, including an unprecedented number of players looking to get out of their current situations.

And a league source told Mike Florio of pro football talk, quote, I've never seen a year where more players want to be traded. The fact that Deshaun Jackson asked is the laughable. So many players are asking to be traded. It's an ego thing. It's like wanting to be upgraded to first class. There are only so many seats. That's kind of a good analogy.

There's only so. They're not a lot of first-class. How dare you want to better your situation and your short amount of time to play professional football? I like it. You will stay with your defunctional team and you will like it. Yeah, I like trades. I'll tell you something. I think this is a prime example.

Sam Darnold needs help. They're not going to win the Super Bowl. Andrew Luck is a slot receiver away from that offense being unstoppable. Listen, Deshawn Jackson is need. there's a lot of people that could use Deshaun Jackson for a couple years. Speaking of that, the Patriots have already had a notable trade this season to acquire Josh Gordon, and they're apparently not satisfied with their receiving court just yet. And our very own Jay Glazer reported this yesterday, according to Foxport.

Oh, let's take a listen. Here's a surprise for you also. The New England Patriots, they are trying to go after a bona fide premium wide receiver, offering up high draft choices for that. By the way, Deshawn Jackson to New England with Tom Brady? That is, again, Deshawn's got talent. He's bounced around, but you put him in that environment. He's always been a hard worker.

I think there's three or four teams that could use. And I'm talking, by the way, Philadelphia Eagles right now, am I wrong on this? You don't think Philadelphia could use a deep threat with Carson Wentz? Well, okay, they got rid of him once. You know what? People get divorced and remarried. He spent some time there. Jay Glazer also reported that there were some Odell trade rumors that teams are swinging away so much so that the Giants.

Source told me this week the teams have actually called about Odell. Who? They came with some decent offers. Well, I don't know if I don't think that Jay's been going to reveal his sources. Tom Brady. They came with some decent offers, but they're not going to jump. They're going to pop the brakes on it for right now. So there could be some interesting moves.

Let me ask you this, though. The patients are in the market, apparently. Brady O'Dell Beckham. Tell me, that wouldn't be good for the league. It would be incredible. Oh, my God. It would be incredible, and it would be very interesting because the Patriots, despite their whole, you know, monotone, you know, Or Andro-Sentgeniti thing. They've rolled a guys.

They've had Gronk on their team for a very long time. He was a huge personality. Moss. Who completely buys into what's going on there. Cory Dylan. Who's said that he'd retire before getting traded. They're capable of managing a situation like that. And that would be incredible to watch.

And by the way, Josh Gordon, they just picked up. New England takes risks all the time. All the time. Finally, Josh Rosen's first rallies in NFL quarterback came after he spoke some confident words to his teammates. Here's Rosen and Larry Fitzgerald on his pep talk. I always try to give some sort of tidbit as I'm walking into the huddle. Sometimes try to make him laugh, sometimes motivate him a little bit. So I guess I needed a little something.

So, I mean, it was fun. Josh doesn't use profanity, man. He's a classy guy. He's a classy guy. If they went to USC with Carson, you know, with Carson. and Matt Liner, you know, he might have said something like that, but he's a clean-cut guy from UCLA. He had a nice drive. It was fun to watch.

It was nice, actually, to see that. Yeah, the game was boring, but the game was won. Josh Rosen, who we all dumped on Joy a week ago. Myselfian, we were all like, no good. This week, Baker and Darnold struggled, and Josh Rosen had the drive of the game late. I think it's important for young quarterbacks to have drives like this, and just, you know, tastes a little bit of success, even if you're in a, of the season that's not going well. Because he needs to build confidence. And he also got

Larry Fitzgerald to spike the ball, which is, you know. And he did this with a new coordinator, Joy. They fired his coordinator. So Josh Rosen, by the way, I think he's had like three coordinators in five years, college and pro, has a new coordinator for a week and he comes out and wins a game against a pretty good defensive front. That was fun. Just a note, guys, in the NFL, you know, if you're trying to get a rookie quarterback that you draft very high in the first rounds, off to a good start, you know, stability is kind of something that, I may want to think about having a place. Good stuff. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. By the way, I know a lot of people, we're not even to the halfway point. I've always said there's pre- Thanksgiving football and post- Thanksgiving football. There is a team out there with a losing record that I still think is incredibly viable, and I would keep my eye on them for the next 36 hours with the trading deadline. The Indianapolis Colts are three and five.

Remember, that division, Jacksonville and Tennessee combined have seven straight losses. Remember, Andrew Lucknow, the offensive line is settled. He's not getting sacked. He's got a running game in Marlon Mack. They have an explosive wide receiver in T.Y. Hilton. If you look at Indianapolis, they are the team in the NFL with a losing record. Keep your eye on them. I watched this entire game yesterday against the Raiders.

They now have a buy so they can. can get healthy. Then they play the Jags, Tennessee, and Miami Joy at home. They don't leave the state. They don't leave the state for a month. Then they get Jags, Houston on the road, Dallas Giants at Tennessee. So in the next month, they face Bortles, Marriota, Tana Hill, and Bordles. And they've got a decent pass rush. Chris Ballard, they've got this offense about a great slot receiver away. I would go to these bad teams. I would go to these giants. I would go, Raiders, I don't think, have a receiver they'd want. They let go of Amari.

Go to the bad team. Do you call up in Atlanta and say, Atlanta, you've got three wide receivers. Because the Colts have their offensive line now settled, especially guard, center guard. Those are good players. They've got a running game. They've got their tight end play has been tremendous. Jack Doyle, E. Braun, Eric Ebron's playing well. And a kid yesterday against the Raiders had a ridiculous catch.

I think we have, so they got the tight end figure, the O line figure. They got semblance of a running game. They got a deep threat. At the trading deadline, if I'm the Colts, now you may not catch the Texans, but that wild card spot for the three and five Colts is still available. Here's that touchdown yesterday. Luck steps up, fires towards the end zone.

One-handed catch. Mo Ali Cox, just like he did on the basketball court for VCU, going up high and bringing it down for six. That's his first NFL touchdown. Wow. So you start looking. Once you get the general manager right, they've solved their offensive line. They're still not great at tackle, but they solved their own line. They have a semblance of a running game. They've got a deep threat. The tight end play and the quarterback play have been excellent. There's a lot of teams out there with extra receivers. Atlanta, season over, Giants, season over. You've got teams in this league that would move a receiver to get a great draft pick. And I think Indianapolis is still, Three and five doesn't, it's not over. This team's schedule, if they went on a five-game winning streak and were eight and five, would not shock me at all.

Jacksonville's locker room's done. Tennessee plays hard but is limited. In Miami, again, Brock, Tannahill, luck. It's Miami. So we got good stuff. Okay, hold on. One more update. Cleveland's looking for a football coach.

I swear to God, I have said that at least 15 times in the last 10 years. Cleveland Browns are looking for a football coach. It's like being a weatherman in Phoenix. You could just put it on tape and just bring it out. It'll be sunny today. It could say that in June, May, April, July, the Cleveland Browns are looking for a football coach and an offensive coordinator. They have fired Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley.

It's, you know what, I feel duped. Because I'm from Pittsburgh, and I don't root for anything in Cleveland. And I feel like we all got dragged into this, like, Cleveland Hope scenario. By the way, you know who's available? Do you watch Hard Knocks? This guy is available. World War I, World War II, all those guys that fought in that war, right? They did push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, climbed the war up, and ran.

But none of this fancy. Okay? Right? And they won two World Wars. Two World Wars by doing Jumping Jacks, Push-ups and Sit-Ups. Two World Wars. You think they were all. worried when they're running across Normandy

about stretching? Are you kidding me? I don't know. A few people might have to hammer. Well, let me see. Give me my rubber band so I can stretch the run across that B. You've got to be kidding me. My bad, Browns don't need a coach. They've got one on staff. I don't think he's a big

fan of the TB12 method. Nick Swisher next. What to do with the Dodgers, Red Sox and World Series talk the herd. Curious based on your genetics, how your DNFX are weight, caffeine intake, sense of taste. Go to 23andMe.com. The Hurd. 23M.Me.com slash the herd.

By the way, the Cleveland Browns have fired their coach. I thought I'd bring on a guy who went to the Ohio State University, who was a member of the Cleveland Indians in Ohio, and he's also a former Yankee, so he's been at the very top of the food chain. Nick Swisher joining us.

Come on, Nick. Now, you were at the Packers' Rams game. You have six season tickets. You have more season tickets than anybody in the world. You have six Rams. If I'm not, if I'm not, mistaken. I feel like you partook in those six tickets at one time. I did. Yes, you did. So you saw the best game in the world yesterday, but you are a baseball football guy. Yes, sir.

And I want to talk about this World Series is that when you play a great team, and I think the Red Sox are the best team I've seen since maybe the late 90s. You're right. You're right. You're right. We're all going to crush Dave Roberts. How much heat does the Dodger manager deserve? Yeah, I mean, right now that just seems like what we're all doing. I mean, especially everybody in the media. I feel like it is kind of a tough thing, but at the end of the day, it's got to fall on somebody. When you're making these decisions, right, that happened, like who starts in your starting lineup, right? These are billion-dollar decisions, right? So I don't think it was just Dave Roberts' decision. I think he had some other people in the front office being like, hey, maybe Friedman was like, hey, this is how the lineup's going to be today, right?

And also, too, if that's the type of squad that you are and you're used to making a lot of changes and you're used to playing matchups a lot, why would you end up changing the way you do things, right? In the postseason, everything's magnified. But for him, he made a couple moves, right? That in my mind were the right moves at the time, but sometimes they don't always pan out, and I think that's why he's catching a lot of people. Would you fire him?

For me, no. I mean, I love what he does. I love what he does for the game. I think his guys respect him. I think he's built up an unbelievable squad over there in Chavez Ravine. And I think right now, if you look at who else are you going to go get, right? I feel like you've got a guy right here that took his team to two World Series back to back. And by the way, if he's such a bad manager, then why did he make all the right moves against the brewers?

When you face the best team in 20 years, I said this earlier, great teams don't have to play perfect. Alabama bench their quarterback in the national championship game and won. And still one. Okay, when you're great, you don't have to play perfect. Dodger fans are expecting their team to be perfect against a perfect team. Correct. I just thought the Red Sox had better players. I think that's the thing. I think we just haven't given the Red Sox the actual credit they deserve.

And at the end of the day, they were just better, right? In all facets of the game. This is what we do in the media. We dump before we congratulate. Always. Listen, Boston crushed the Yankees, crush the Dodgers and overwhelm the Astros. Yeah. Yeah, think about 100-win Yankees, right? Went right through them. Right through them. 100-win Astros, defending champs went right through them. Two-time defending NL-Champ Los Angeles Dodgers went right through them.

So at this point in time, how can we not give them the credit they deserve? If you took David Price of the Red Sox and you gave them to the Dodgers. Yeah? No, seriously. Sure. Because they both. Now, Kershaw is obviously not what he once was. Right.

So the Red Sox had the best ace, Chris Sale. And then David Price was actually better than sale in this series. Yeah. You go into a world series. I got two MVP. By the way. Exactly. Also, my home field advantage in Fenway is a real home field.

It's a real thing. Planet Dodger Stadium. It's sunny. Yeah. It's not nooks and crannies. Right. I just felt like when I watched these games, I'm like, listen, we're talking about an all-time great team. Yeah, there's no doubt about it.

I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, top to bottom. And also look at it from this perspective. Their star players weren't even the best players in the postseason. In the ALCS, Jackie Bradley Jr., right? The nine-hole hitter ended up winning the ALCS, right? Then we go to the World Series. Steve Pierce, who?

Steve Pierce, right? Got traded over halfway through the season, ended up playing, I think, 50 games for them, and ends up coming in three bombs in the World Series, eight stakes, goes home and takes home that unbelievable Raptor truck. That thing was sweet, by the way. And it's a winning the World Series MVP.

So if you get your role players and bench players doing what they're doing on top of your all-stars in the lineup, David Price, that was an X-Factor going into the World Series, and for him to do what he did was unbelievable. Also, give Alex Cora AC some credit for the way that he used his starters coming out of the bullpen in this entire series. By the way, a couple of years ago, the Warriors got to the finals in Andre Iguodala. Remember that, John? He was their best player.

That's what I'm saying, right? So when you can get your number one guy off the bench to play at an MVP level and you're good to begin with, you're just not going to beat the Warriors that year. You're not going to beat the Red Sox this year. Now, Clayton Kershaw is interesting. You know, everybody knows, 250 innings, best pitcher in baseball, like the new Sandy Kofax for about seven years. You can't pitch those innings forever. He doesn't have the velocity. You know, you're more of a baseball guy.

It feels like he relies more on the off-speed stuff now. Of course. Now, he can option out. Yes, sir. He's from the state of Texans. Yep. Went to high school. We saw those pictures with he and Matt Stafford. Yeah, right. If you were Kershaw, hell of a run in L.A. Yes, sir. Do you go to Houston? Do you go to Texas? No. So if you're asking me if I think he should opt out here in the next three days,

he's got two years left on his contract for $65 million. $65 million. That's unbelievable. So I think with where Clayton Kershaw is right now in his career, I don't think he should leave. And that's just a personal opinion. Because when I think of the Los Angeles Dodgers, that's who I think of. I think of Clayton Kershaw, right?

I don't think of anybody else. There's no one else that really comes to mind in this day and age. He is. He's the new version of Sandy Kofx right now. He's the face of your franchise. He has been since he came up in the big leagues in 2008 and made a name for himself. So I think for me, if you're Clayton Kershaw, what more do you want to get, right? You opt out of your contract because you think you're either going to get one or two things.

More years on your contract or more money on your contract. He doesn't need the money. That's what I'm saying. So I think for right now, for him, he's got to go where he's happy, right? And I know he's catching a lot of heat because everybody's talking about his postseason struggles and how much he struggled in elimination games for the Dodgers. But at the end of the day, he's the number one. He's the ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And if you don't have him for the regular season, you don't even think about getting yourselves into the postseason and playing for a championship. You know, it is interesting. You played for the A's. You played for the Indians. You played for Yankees. White Sox for a quick year? This Red Sox team is multiple guys could be MVP. Two aces.

Kimbril Closer. Manager Al Gore was great. Tremendous at home. Flew through. It's a little Alabama football. They flew through good teams. Yes, sir. Who was either, in your 12 years in the Bigs?

Mm-hmm. Was there ever a team like the Red Sox that you were either on or faced where you were in the opposing dugout and you knew, or maybe the dugout you were in, we are stacked. We have no flaws. Because I look at the Red Sox, they defense. Situational hitting was unbelievable. Power. Yeah. Corners.

I mean, you know, you think of that. 12 years. Yeah. I think the first team that comes to mine and only because I was part of it was our 09 Yankee squad. I mean, we had leadership. We had guys that hit for average. We had guys that hit for power. We had, you know, Andy Pettit, C.C. Sabathia in his prime.

In their prime. AJ Burnett. And by the way, the greatest closer ever, Mariana Rivera, shutting down games. So I think for myself, we felt that we didn't have any holes. And I think that we had the same outlook and approach that the Boston Red Sox had by saying every day we come to the ballpark, we're going to be successful. And whether you are or you're not, that's not the point. You are prepared.

You are ready. You have done everything that you've had to do to get yourself ready to compete at 7 o'clock. What a great feeling driving to the park from April. to October knowing you have the better players. Yes, sir. And that's exactly what I think Boston had. When you have, in my opinion,

and we're going to find out here coming up with the awards, the AL MVP, in my opinion, at Mookie Betts. Si Young winner. Leading off. You have a Cy Young contender and Chris Sale. J.D. Martinez, he has the chance to be the first designated hitter

to ever win the MVP. So I think when you have guys like that in your lineup on top of role players, like Steve Pierce, the Brock star, Brock Holt, you know, Zander Bogartz drove in 100 runs from the shortstop position, and Guardo Nunez comes out with some huge, a pinch-it, three-run, home run, right? So when you get all that help from all those different guys throughout your lineup, the one thing that I got to give Alex Quora a lot of credit for is his communication with those guys.

That's a lot of personalities, that's a lot of egos, man. And to be able to keep all those guys happy through the good times and bad, there's a reason why he's a world chair manager. Especially in Boston where people are naturally cranky anyway. That's what I'm saying. I mean, you know how the media goes. Oh, Boston's suffocating. They're brutal.

But they're world champs, my man. World champs, tip of the cap, Boston Red Sox, Nick Swisher, enjoy those Rams, they're 8-0. That's it, baby. Keep it going, boy. Sean McVeigh, you're a G, dude. Keep it going, my man. All right, the best investment in Los Angeles, Rams season tickets.

Nick Swisher, our three, where Pat Greg Jennings here, too, it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hour three, here we go live. This is the herd in Los Angeles. wherever you may be and however you may be listening i heart radio fox sports radio and fs one joy taylor is

joining me it has been a lively day today uh two minutes before we went on the air today the cleveland browns fired hugh jackson their head coach and then 15 minutes later they fired todd haley their offensive coordinator when baker manfield got drafted number one i said i wouldn't pick him number one a i don't like his off the field and sometimes on the field nonsense uh b it is a cold windy uh Northern Division. I want a big strong Carson Wentz, Big Ben Flacco guy. So he and I, Baker was never going to be my guy. But now that you drafted him and you've been on this 20-year abyss, the only way to make this puppy work is get the right coach for him. I'm not sure this morning that getting rid of two smart offensive guys, Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley, is the world's

best thing for Baker Mayfield. I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the remedy to this right now. You could have fired him last year. There's nobody on the market available. right now. Lincoln Riley is Baker Mayfield's college coach. He just talked a few minutes ago. I heard it. It doesn't sound like he wants to go to the NFL. He loves Oklahoma. He loves college football.

So again, Cleveland's history is let's fire a bunch of people and not have a replacement. It's not what I would do. You've got to make this Baker Mayfield thing work. Period. It doesn't matter about all the other players. Doesn't matter. Denver's got a bunch of good football players. don't have a star quarterback, not winning, third place, their division.

I don't care about your other good football players. You've got to get the quarterback to work. Quarterbacks got to work for Cleveland to end this embarrassing run. And I wouldn't have drafted Baker, but since I've got him, if I was a scout for them or the GM or the head coach of the Browns and I didn't want Baker, but I got to make it work. I don't want to get five. I got to make it work.

So if you're going to make it work, you better hire a great offensive coach. And I don't think on the market right now this morning, there's anybody better than Todd, Haley, and Hugh Jackson. I don't feel like that. Good God, you're 2.5 and 1. 2.5 and 1 with a rookie quarterback is not a terrible record when you've gone to New Orleans to face Breeze. You face Big Ben twice, Flacco, Philip Rivers. And if you had a field goal kicker, you'd be, you know, I mean, I'd make the argument, you'd be like 4 and 4.

And instead of 2, 5 and 1, I think you'd be 4 and 4 with a field goal kicker. Having faced Ben twice, Breeze, and Philip Rivers? I don't think that's terrible. I wouldn't have done this move. Lincoln Riley's who I'd hire, but I'm not sure he wants the job. I think he likes Oklahoma, but he's the guy I'd call, and I'd pony up the dough. All right. So we got a lot of stuff.

Greg Jennings around the corner as well, is that I've been telling you about Sean McVeigh for years. Well, for a year. I've been saying this guy is the difference between him and every other coach, and it was on full display yesterday. I've been telling you for the last couple of weeks, Sean McVeigh is the NFL supermodel of coaches. He's going to get a lot of guys fired. Sean McVeigh is going to get not just bad coaches, but like Mike McCarthy, he's a good coach, got a Super Bowl, winning record, wins his division.

In 52 seconds yesterday, the optics once again against Sean McVeigh were terrible. Kick off. Aaron Rogers is going to get the ball. You know what happens when Aaron Rogers gets the ball. All he needs is a feat. goal to win. And yet, Ty Montgomery, a marginal player for the Packers, brings it out of the end zone. Dude, take a knee.

Aaron then gets one play before the two-minute timeout, and you still have one left. And we later found out that Mike McCarthy had told him take a knee. So a marginal Green Bay Packer player, instead of being all in with his coach, says hell with my coach. Apparently he was pouting earlier in the, game. He wasn't in a series. He was upset. A marginal player bails on his head coach.

And then 52 seconds later, a superstar player, Todd Gurley, on a collection of superstars, can score. In 2018, he goes, no, I believe so much in my coach, so much in my system, I just want to win a game. We are in the entertainment capital of the world. We are in the me, not we generation. And a superstar running back so believes in his team and his coach on a roster full of some dysfunctional guys, I am coachable.

A marginal player for the Packers, hell with my coach, I'm doing my thing. That was a horrible, horrible look for Mike McCarthy. And I've been saying this, is that McVeigh is going to get a lot of people fired. McVeigh is young and fit. and vibrant and intense and charismatic. He is the hottest young CEO in Los Angeles.

And Mike McCarthy looked like an old Chicago cop. And one of his men in his department just bailed on him. And it was for the world to see in one of the great NFL games of the year. Great creates clarity. And Sean McVeigh is going to get a lot of guys run out of this league. By the way, Mike McCarthy's good. I'm not talking Mike McCoy, Mike Malarkey. I'm talking Mike McCarthy.

I'm talking a good coach. I'm talking the guy that wins his division. He and Aaron have had their issues, but it's a real coach. But when you put him up in that 52-second window juxtaposed against McVeigh, where a marginal guy, marginal guy pouts, tries to run out of kickoff fumbles. Dude, take a knee. Obviously, there's 205 left. You give Aaron an extra free play, plus a timeout.

All he needs is a field goal. you might as well give the Packers a win. That makes McCarthy look weak. Doesn't control his team. Can't even control his marginal players. McVeigh takes a superstar. I mean, weren't you shocked when Gurley did that? Weren't you like, damn, that doesn't happen anymore in American sports?

And that's in L.A. And a market that gasses up all the players and tells them out great a, they are, and they go to Hollywood and they become stars. Man, McVeigh has taken a run. roster full of guys endomic and sue, Keith to leave, Marcus Peters, you know, star quarterback, star back. It's so potentially combustible. And Gurley does that.

By the way, here's Rogers and McCarthy reacting to Ty Montgomery's decision after the game. Yeah, very disappointing. That play didn't lose the game, but it definitely took away an opportunity for us to go down and win it. The plan was to stay in and give the ball to Aaron Rogers. The plan there is to stay in the end zone. You know, two minutes. We actually talked about it as a team and we wanted to be north of two minutes with the one timeout. We want to put the ball in Aaron's hands. Bad look for McCarthy, bad look for his leadership. And that's a good coach. But up against Sean McVey and what he's doing made him look second tier. You know, some of this too with time on gummer. You know, some of this too with time on

he was a receiver in college that you've made into a running back and a part-time receiver, and he's on special teams. So, again, when you don't have a ton of talent, you spread talent thin. Time Montgomery every week is going to receiver meetings, running back meetings, special teams meetings. How about you just put somebody on the roster who can return kicks? How about that? You know, it's funny. If you look at every division in football, think about this.

Let's go division by division. I don't mean to just beat up on the Packers, but it'd be nice if Aaron Rogers had some help. Let's go to the – start in the AFC. In the AFC East, who leads the division? The Patriots. Who has the best quarterback in that division? Tom Brady, the Patriots. Let's go to the AFC North this morning.

Pittsburgh leads the division. Who has the best quarterback in that division? The Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, who leads the AFC South right now? Houston Texans, arguably Deshaun Watson, the best quarterback. Who leads the AFC West right? now, the Chiefs and the Chargers, Patrick Mahomes, Philip Rivers, arguably the best division. Well, let's, so the best quarterback, or the two best quarterbacks lead their division all through the

AFC. So let's go now to the NFC. So who leads the NFC East, Alex Smith and Carson Wentz? I would argue those are the two best quarterbacks in that division. Who leads the NFC, South, West? Jared Goff and Russell Wilson. Unquestionably right now, the two best divisions. best quarterbacks in the division. Who leads the NFC South? Oh, Drew Brees and

Cam Newton. So are you seeing a trend in seven of the eight divisions I've named? The best quarterback leads his division or the top two quarterbacks lead the division. Okay, let's go to the NFC North. Aaron Rogers is third. So what does that tell you? That in 2018, it's hard to screw it up. All the rules are for the quarterback. That if you have the best quarterback in a division, in seven of the eight divisions, the best quarterback leads the division. The only exception is Andrew Luck, who by the way, doesn't lead his division. But as I said earlier, and if you look at the numbers, he didn't have a ton to work with, and they're coming on strong on the schedule weekends.

The only team in the league that you sort of look at that's got the guy, it's been established, you know, is Aaron Rogers and he's third. Why? He doesn't have much to work with. I'm not saying Green Bay has no talent. Blake Martinez is a very good lineback. He's not a pro bowler, but he's a very good linebacker, a good player. I would say Devonte Adams, it's a very nice receiver.

Is he a pro bowler habitually in the NFC with all the good receivers? Probably wouldn't be, but he's a good receiver. And then you have Jayer Alexander, he's a rookie corner. He's terrific player, but he's a rookie corner and he was hurt. Those are really good players. I would love to have those football players. But when you compare them to the best of the best, you know, they're not Odell Beckham. They're not Julio Jones.

you know, they're not Todd Gurley. They're not, even Aaron's really, really good teammates are not superstars. They're good football players. So you start looking at the divisions. There's only one division in football, only one where an elite quarterback doesn't lead the division. And it's Aaron Rogers division, which tells you aggressive Chicago leads it, aggressive Minnesota lead it. And passive Green Bay, who doesn't want to go after Khalil Mack and let George. 40 Nelson go, they're in third.

That's it. Every other division, the best quarterback, the best two quarterbacks are arguably the best quarterback leads the division. The best in the NFC North is in third place. And by the way, if you look at the Packer's schedule coming up on the next month, they could be in fourth. And I'm not stretching it. They're at New England next. They could be in fourth place in two weeks. Look at the Lions schedule. Look at the Bears.

Look at the Packer's schedule. Man. Greg Jennings right around the corner. Car shopping can be confusing. A lot of terms. Dealer Price, List Price, here's what's not. Truecar.com save three grandf MSRP. Okay, Mary Kay Cabot, very legitimate NFL reporter, is saying that defensive coordinator

Greg Williams will be the Cleveland Brown's interim head coach. I don't know if that's the best for Baker Mayfield. He just lost two veteran offensive minds. Todd Haley's been whacked. Hugh Jackson's been whacked. I don't love that for Baker going forward. They'll probably, I guess, get very, very conservative. good luck. Their schedule gets really, really tough.

Browns are 2, 5, and 1. That's a pretty good record when you look at their schedule. Now, Lincoln Riley is the Oklahoma coach. He's terrific. He's the next Sean McVeigh. A lot of people think. He was asked about the NFL opening. And I said before, he coached Baker Mayfield. That's who I'd go get. I think that's the new NFL. I'd get Lincoln Riley. He was asked about it within the hour. I always want to be truthful.

The truth is for me is I love Oklahoma. I love coaching here. I love college football. I certainly don't have that itch right now. I don't know that I ever will, but I'm never going to be a guy that's going to stand up here and say, no way, no how will any of these things ever happen? I don't know that. But I know right now I could care less about the NFL.

That's as good an answer as you can have. You really can't ask for anything else. He's not going to get up there and say, yeah, I can't wait to get to the NFL. He said, listen, I'm not going to say never. because who in the world could say that, but I love where I'm at. I don't have an interest in that league, but I'll never say never,

because who in the world could say that? You just don't know about life. That's a perfect answer. Greg Jennings joining us now. Ten NFL seasons, Super Bowl ring, pro bowler. So you never returned kicks, right? I actually did. When?

Punt returns. In the NFL? Yeah, my first year. And then you stopped doing it. And there was against the jets. there was an all-out blitz or pump block. I caught the ball and I still tried to make a play. I got hit by like all 11 defensive guys running down.

Mike was like, I don't ever want him back there again. So I'm going to put a little bit this on the Packers. So Ty Montgomery was a college receiver. Green Bay says, I've got to put your running back, but you still got to go to the receiver meetings and you've got to go to the special teams meetings. Be nice. In New England, they have guys who are like receivers. then they have backs, then they have special teams guys.

Is this just Ty Montgomery butchering that? Is he selfish? Was he going rogue? Or is it possible? He's in too many meetings during the week? No, I'm not going to give any excuses to a guy like Ty Montgomery. He's a very smart player, which is why they have him and the luxury to move him around in all these different positions because he can handle it not only physically but mentally.

I think he shares the blame along with the coaching. staff because in this situation you have to be definitive and clear with what we're doing. You do not give the option of what you typically will say to a returner. If it's three yards or more in the end zone, don't bring it out. Obviously, when I listen to Mike McCarthy in his post-conference interview, he said the game plan was to not return it or whatever he said, and then he said to get the ball to Aaron Rogers. But the way he said it was almost like it wasn't a definitive game plan. It wasn't that he said it to everyone. In that situation, as a head coach, you have to be crystal clear.

And this is what separates good football teams from great football teams. Every team going into Foxborough or them coming to you, coaching staff and players know that we're not just playing the game on the field. We're playing the mental game. These players are going to be ready for any and every situation, well coached in any and every situation, because their coaching staff is going to be prepared and ready for every situation. You look at the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. In that situation, you have, you even have Antonio Brown back there who doesn't understand the situation. This is why you can't get over that New England. Patriot hump.

This is it. Because they don't make that mistake. They don't. Everyone on their roster understands every situation. No, a lot of people, so I like authenticity from people. If you're mad at me, tell me you're mad. I have no problem with that. A lot of times you bark at me.

I do. We fist bump. Because you're being real. You're keeping it 100. So yesterday, Aaron, you can tell Aaron, turn to a teammate in the sideline and say, But you know what? It'd be easy to bang on Aaron this morning, but I'd be pissed too. I'm not going to blame Aaron.

Aaron has a right. Aaron's smart and plays his butt off. You stole, not a game, you stole an opportunity from Aaron. I would be furious if I was Aaron Rogers. Look, I would pose it this way. Watching the game, as a fan, I felt like I was robbed of an opportunity to see what could have been, Whether they score or whether they don't, I still wanted the opportunity to be at the edge of my seat and to be in a place where something great can happen, but at least they will have the opportunity. Yesterday, with what took place?

You stole it from me. By the way, Greg, I felt for three and a half hours, for a majority of it, I thought the Packers outscheme the Ram and outplayed the Rams. Mike Patton did an amazing job. Great job defensively when it came to their approach. And mind you, they're coming off a by, so he had plenty of time to prep. But they prepped and they basically won that game. They did. And put themselves in position to where they could have won that game.

And again, going to Ty Monk, I am on the sideline. If I'm in that Green Bay uniform. Curious. I'm heated. I'm boiling at Ty Montgomery. But also at the situation. Why? Because I just want a chance.

Aaron Rogers looks at Devonty out. I'm like, what? What are we doing? Because if you just give me a chance, if you just give us a chance, we're moving the ball, we're making big plays, but now we have it taken away from us? You can't do that. Listen, all these rookie quarterbacks, yesterday,

Darnold, all those receivers are hurt. Baker, didn't have time to look. Steelers pass rush was unbelievable. Rosen was bad last week, but had a beautiful game-winning drive this week. Josh Allen's going to get crushed tonight against New England. all these rookie quarterbacks go into bad situations. That's why they go in the top 10 of the draft, right? I don't like what the Browns did today.

I don't like. I don't care if you don't like Hugh Jackson. They fired their offensive coach and their coordinator. I don't like that. I don't either. I don't like it because when I'm going into work today, I have to explain to a roster of 53 guys why we made the decision to fire not only our head coach,

but offensive coordinator. in a team in a locker room where did we ever see this Cleveland Browns team quitting? Did we ever say that they weren't? They've been into three, four overtime games this year. Like they are fighting. They just haven't learned how to win. Hey, yesterday this Steelers game, Steelers with a much better personnel, was a real football game until about eight minutes left. It was a real game.

And you have a young quarterback that has gained some, some, experience, but more than everything, he's earned the opportunity to draw from these guys that are in his room every single day. Hugh Jackson, Todd Haley, and now he has to start over. Now you give someone with a different vision that's on the other side of the ball that may want to do things a little differently. Why? You have the guys playing for you. You have a buy coming up. You have Kansas. Like, there are so many reasons why you don't do this. Greg Williams is an old school defensive guys, like John Fox.

What was Trubisky? But when he had John Fox, what's Trubisky now? Find this kid a young quarterback. Okay, so you live in a beautiful, Minnesota's beautiful people, beautiful state. Yeah, you live in a mostly, it's almost a... Oh, stop it. Just get to the point. Here we go.

So I said earlier, I said, Kurt Couss. is like he's like he's that middle slice of bread in a club sandwich. It's unnecessary. Just have a BLT. I want more bacon and tomato, less bread. He's empty calories. I got a bunch of completions and a bunch of yards, blah, blah, blah. He doesn't make the play in the moment. And I like him. He's fine. But they paid him 30 large for the play in the moment. What play did he not make yesterday? Yesterday maybe he made a lot of them. But it seems to me he's four and 21 against team that are 500 or better. When you didn't get, okay, let me, let me, number one, yes, the bread in the club sandwich,

it is, it is pointless. Kirk Cousin is not pointless. The reason why you acquire a guy like Kurt Cousins is because of what he's provided you on the offensive side of the ball. We've seen the way their defense played early in the season where they weren't up the par of what we saw last year and he was able to still win games because of it. This game that they lost yesterday was not on Kirk Cousins.

You can't replace in Xavier Rhodes a, who else was, Anthony Barr, Sandejo. You had so many guys that were out on the defensive side, and they still played well. Offensively, your two best players outside of your quarterback made the biggest mistakes of the game. The fumbled by Adam Thielen. He doesn't fumble. He fumbled. They get the ball. They put seven points on the board.

Then your other receiver, Stefan Diggs, look, I just want to say this. He stopped running. If on that route, it's a drive route, shallow cross, however you want to call it, whatever you want to call it. If you're looking, you're booking. If I'm looking at my quarterback, I am telling my quarterback, I am running or get me the ball.

That tells that it almost tells the quarterback, I'm ready. But the moment you're reading zone, manner zone, if I'm not looking at my quarterback, he knows you're going to sit it down. Did the, did the defender stop running? No. No, that's exactly what Stefan Diggs was supposed to continue to do. What's that whole book and looking thing? Book, if I'm looking, I'm booking. That means if my eyes are on you, I'm not going to sit it down.

You see me looking. I'm ready now. I'm running. You hit me in stride. That's on the drive. That's the drive concept. If you see a guy over there, that's why your eyes are supposed to be on the defense. You're reading that.

If I see a guy over there that takes away my ability to keep running, I sit it down. I'm not looking at my quarterback because I'm telling him I'm not ready to get the ball yet. But if I'm looking at my quarterback, that means I'm ready. There's nobody over here. I'm ready. Let me keep going. Not on Kirk Cousins. Not yesterday.

Your point, you're done. The club sandwich point was excellent. The club sandwich point was perfect. Just go BLT. Just but not for Kurt Cousins because they got him to win in the playoffs. And they got him to equate to winning, like I said, in the playoffs, not to go 14 and 2 or 15 and 1 or 16 and 0. No, we know they're going to make the playoffs. How far they go?

That's why they got Kurt Cousins. But this morning, it was funny. You just said, I know Minnesota is going to make the playoffs. If I said you this morning to the Packers, you seen their schedule? I have seen their schedule. They're not, are you thinking to make the playoffs? You seen the bear's schedule? I have seen the Bears.

Lions twice, Giants, 49ers. You see the Bears schedule? I like the Bears schedule. Today, Green Bay, Chicago, who makes playoffs? Today, I don't know, but I will tell you this. I trust Green Bay more than I trust the Bears. Okay, that's fair. That's a good answer.

That's a good answer. And you have, in the past, you've been talking about Aaron Rogers doesn't have pieces and all this, but I would. want to remind you of something. Remember this analogy you made about the iPhone? Yeah, what about it? When I have this, I don't need anything else. Aaron Rogers has enough

weapons. Remember, he's the iPhone. You said it. If I have my iPhone, I don't need my watch. I don't need my wallet. I can go pay. I went to most today and I paid with my wallet. So Aaron's the iPhone. He is the iPhone. You don't need anything else, really. But you have, because you have enough with that. I think the problem

is the knee and age. Like, it's starting to creep in there. And I think it's creeping more than what people, more than what people are making mention of it. No, they said, I think it was, it was, who said this last night? We had the game on Fox. That's what Aikman and Brennaman said,

is that if Aaron told the staff, if I'm wearing the brace, he told our Fox crew, if I'm wearing the brace, it's because it ain't right. So to your point, he's wearing the brace because it's not right, and he's turning 35 in December. Absolutely. Good stuff today. I like when you bring back my old bad analogies to burn me. Absolutely.

I mean, come on, stop. Stop. Don't forget. Don't forget it or something, too. If you're looking, you're booking. All sorts of good today from me. Joy Taylor. Thanks, bud.

No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. I remember if it's magic, beginning of the season? Remember how exciting that was? I do. Well, it's back. Oh, it is officially.

Yeah, the Bucs have a quarterback controversy. Again, James Winston was sent to the bench yesterday after throwing four picks with the bucks in an 18-point hole against the Bengals. Remember? I think it was last week I was talking about James Winston. Remember that? You were. You're not a big James Winston fan.

I mean, as I'm not about being a fan of him. I just don't think that he's the quarterback of the future for the box. Bad off-field judgment can often mean bad on-field judgment. Like Johnny Mansell off the field, you're like kind of ridiculous. And then you see Johnny on the field flipping people off. You're like kind of. Well, also we know that the, you know, teams tend to tolerate off the field stuff when you're performing on the field. And he's not.

If you're doing both, it's kind of a problem. So Ryan Fitzpatrick came in and erased that hole with the fourth quarter rally, including two touchdown passes and was everyone slipping out, Fitzmajc McIntych back. Obviously, the Bengals came back and spoiled the comeback, but Dirk Cutter was not happy about his looming quarterback controversy decision after the game. We don't need to talk. about, I mean, today's not the day I have to decide that, right?

I mean, I don't have any problem making decisions, and I'll make it when this time's right, but now it's probably not the right time to make it. They've got, and Fitzpatrick comes in and does what he always does. Always does that. First of all, he's super aggressive. He's like a little Philip Rivers in him. He loves to throw the ball down the field, and Mike Evans is, you know, Tampa's got real, real wide receiver talent and real tight-end talent.

So Fitzpatrick is one of those guys, he's a great relief pitcher. He comes in. He's hyper aggressive. He goes over the top and he smokes him. And, you know, it's one of those things with James. He's got so much talent. But you do wake up this morning and you're like, we're locked into him contractually for this year and next year.

There's nowhere to go. You're kind of trapped if you're Tampa. I just don't know what you do. I don't either. You're not going to be bad enough to get to be able to draft a quarterback. You know what I think you do? And I think you draft a quarterback and you say, listen, James, if you can't take the pressure from this.

kid we just drafted, you're not the right guy. If it, like Joe Flacco, makes you play better because we drafted a quarterback, then we keep you. But I think you have to do something with James to ignite something, and I would draft another quarterback. I honestly don't know what you do, especially when you have Fitzpatrick back through because he's just going to, he's just going to keep doing this. And then if you play him next week, he's going to maybe be good next week, and then he'll be terrible the week after that.

And you'll go back to James. There's no consistency. He was a little. There's no consistency. He was no consistency. He was 11 for 15, 194, 94 yards, and two TDs. Like, what do you do with that? What do you do with that?

So the calves, we've been talking all day about Hugh Jackson. Well, the calves fired Ty Lou yesterday, and Larry Jew will take over as the interim head coach. And according to Joe Barden of the athletic, the Cavs players were not happy about that decision. Sources told Varden, the players are pissed. Lou's a player's coach who is partial to veterans. His partiality toward them might have played a role in his dismissal. Kobe Altman and Lou have been at loggerheads over playing time and the general direction of the team since the start of training camp. Cabs are 06.

Well, he wants to apparently win games, and the front office wants to play young guys and get a great draft pick. That's what it sounds like to me. I don't know. I mean, you look at teams that lose LeBron James, you know, when the Cavs lost LeBron originally, they were bad for a while until LeBron came back. When the Heat lost LeBron James, they were bad that next year. You leverage everything that you have when you have LeBron James on your team. Otherwise, you're wasting your time with having LeBron James around. That's where the Cavs messed up the first time around with LeBron.

You've got to build your team around whatever LeBron wants, whatever he wants on the staff, whatever kind of personnel he wants on the team, however he wants to run everything, because it's LeBron's team, and that is what it is. You're not an organization that can push back on that. And when you are an organization that pushes back on that, like, say, the heat, he will leave. Now, he's in a situation with the Lakers, I think is probably a little different because you have someone like Magic Johnson and you have the history that the Lakers have. But what do you do? What do the Cavs expect to be this year? I mean, 22 wins. That's what we predicted on this show.

22 win team. I mean, players don't want to lose games that goes against the whole idea of being a professional athlete. And furthermore, I don't like the whole idea of planning on tanking at the beginning of the season. You are a franchise that's been dysfunctional forever. You can't just program everyone to just losing is okay. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, nope, better start doing some winning now. Like, I get it. You want to get a high traffic, but you also have to institute a culture.

Think big picture. It's not all about this year. Finally, the other team in Cleveland that's dysfunctional, That would be the Cleveland Browns. They fired Hugh Jackson and Greg Williams is being sourced as the interim head coach. Defensive guy. Defensive coordinator. Really, really old school yell scream guy.

Yeah. The last time he was head coach was in Buffalo in 2001, 2002. And something that Miles Garrett said yesterday has become even more notable now that this move has been made. Garrett questioned the defensive plan against the Steelers and said, I think we just took the wrong approach this time. I think we should have just stayed with what we did the first time. just go with faced calls and punch them in the mouth. I feel like we should have stuck with the same game plan. Oh, boy.

So the coordinator that they have announced as their interim head coach is not on the same page with Miles Garrett, probably their best defensive player. And so that's where you are, Cleveland. It really does. It's... All right, like, what else can you do but just sigh? Like, it's so frustrating. I honestly, I feel duped.

I really, for the first time in my life was actually sort of rooting for some sort of happiness for the Cleveland Browns. I was really thinking if they were going to put something together. There were some other good pieces on the team with Baker Mayfield. You get the number one overall draft pick. You pick the most interesting player. Baker had no chance yesterday. And anybody who watched that game, I can tell you something.

I don't know what happened, but about three weeks ago, it started with the Atlanta game. The Steelers pass rush now is the scariest in the league. And it started in that Atlanta game. Baker Mayfield had nobody in this league, including Tom Brady, could have succeeded against that pass rush. Baker Mayfield, when the ball is hiked, and it's 1001, and before you start your second count, there's seepage. And like you can see all these black jerseys, all these Steelers jerseys moving in on you. I mean, Pittsburgh's front yesterday is just blew people up for four hours.

It's not like that's an easy game for the Browns either. Like, that's someone, anyone expected you to go into Pittsburgh and win in that situation. I don't really know where the Browns go from here, but I know if you, you, you, I took Baker-Mayfield number one overall. You better start putting together. I know where they go from here. To the fourth place in the NFC, North. It's right around the corner.

Lordy. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Live News. Coming up the unforgettable lessons, we all learn from the NFL this weekend. That is next in Best for Last.

One more Herd? The Herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search Her. to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Sunday, it's a Fox NFL doubleheader, starting with Matt Ryan and the Falcons, taking on Adrian Peterson and the Redskins.

Then it's America's Game of the Week as Todd Gurley and the Rams battle Drew Brees and the Saints. It's all on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Check local listings. Yeah, this week, Ram Saints, 8-0 Rams, 6-1 Saints is your NFL game of the weekend. Let's not waste any time. Let's go best for last.

After almost three hours, Colin apparently, hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last. Well, I said as we went into this draft, there was five quarterbacks taken in the first round. I said, I concentrated

mostly on the big three. My favorite was Sam Darnold, USC. My second favorite was Josh Rosen, UCLA. And my third favorite was Baker Mayfield in terms of, I thought they could all play now. So let's introduce a new segment here today.

They are who we thought they were. They are who they thought we were. Let's look at the three rookie quarterbacks of note. Let's start with Sam Darnold. He is exactly what we thought he would be. He's an alpha. He's a big, strong kid. He's a playmaker.

We knew coming in, the Jets had no help at receiver, no running backs, and the second worst rated offensive line in the league. And he's been exactly what we thought. He has struggled against good defenses. Bears Vikings has really struggled. Minnesota and Chicago defenses are good. He struggled. But yet, when he has a running game, Colts, Denver, he's been good, successful in one. He is exactly what we thought he would be. He can make plays. He can make all the throws. He's an alpha. But as I said, going into the season, there are going to be times he looks absolutely overwhelmed.

He plays a little fast. He can be at times a little reckless. He is also the youngest of the three quarterbacks I liked with the fewest college starts. His season has been exactly what we thought he would be. So Sam Darnold, you are what we thought you were. They are who we thought they were. The second one is Josh Rosen from Arizona. Josh Rosen, I liked, I said he'll be the best-looking passer of the three. He throws a beautiful football. He's probably above the shoulders as intellectually capable as any of the three. He is not overly durable. he will have moments where you think he's the best player in the draft, but he's already been hurt.

He's not super athletic, and they don't have a good offensive line, and I don't know rookie defensive coach if they have the right coach. So I didn't expect much. I said when he does play, he's going to be spotty because of bad old line, and I don't know if he's got the right coaches, but yesterday it was classic that he engineered the game-winning drive. He made three or four throws in this game that were,

they looked like Brady. Josh Rosen has been who we thought he was. They are who we thought they were. Let's go to Baker Mayfield. We said coming in, he is super accurate. He's a gamer. He's full of chutzpah. And he'll make plays for you.

And that's what he's done. At home, time to throw. He is super accurate and under control. Now, I also said coming in, Thanksgiving on, it's a cold, windy, wet environment. I think he could struggle post- Thanksgiving. And I don't think he's that athletic. So if he tries to get outside and run around, I don't think he's the playmaker. He thinks he is.

And we have seen multiple times this year, when he tries to scramble around, it's a real hit-and-miss proposition. He can look completely overwhelmed by faster defensive players. When you keep him on script, when you have him, make 15-yard throws, and you give him time, he's a very accurate thrower of the football. So Baker-Mayfield, like Donald and Rosen, is who we thought he was. They are who we thought they were. This is one of those years when the prospects came in and we made predictions on what we thought we would see, and I think we have seen exactly what we thought.

By the way, I said Lamar Jackson, not ready to start. You can use him situationally. Baltimore smartly has. Josh Allen, I said, may have to start. He's not ready to start. And he has been the least impressive of all these guys so far. If you've got the dreaded stuff he knows and cold flu season, try VIX. Cynix nasal spray.

A couple of sprays works in seconds. Use his directed Synex nasal spray from Vicks. You know, I will save this with the Green Bay Packers. is that it's easy to pick on them this morning. But Joey, we talked about this Thursday, Friday. Their schedule's getting brutal. You know how sometimes you can kind of feel in a family, in a business, in a football team, you can kind of feel the tension like building body language comments.

It does feel like yesterday late. You've got four things going on with the Packers. Number one, Aaron signed a huge contract. So fair or not, we're going to talk about that. and that's going to limit some free agent capabilities. So you got that free agent thing. And, you know, Aaron knows when you start making that kind of money, people go, well, I mean, come on, you can't get free agents. So Aaron's aware of that.

Then you have the Time Montgomery situation yesterday. And then you have Mike McCarthy, who's always had not the greatest relationship with Aaron. They say they love each other. You got that rub. And then you also have an improving division. And it feels like to me, when I was watching Greenlee's, you know, when I was watching Greenlee's, Bay at the end of that yesterday. And now they have to go to New England, the best team in the league maybe and the best coach

team in the league. It does feel like it's kind of, it's Mike McCarthy could be in trouble here. We're getting to a boiling point. This water is heating. It's starting to bubble. And remember, Joy, the off season, before the season started, remember it was getting uncomfortable then, remember this moment. Well, my quarterback coach didn't get retained.

Yeah. You know, I thought that was an interesting change, really without consulting me. There's a close connection between quarterback and quarterback coach, and that was an interesting decision. Okay, so that was coming into the season. That was obviously some passive-aggressive tweaking. A little bit. And then they didn't, their bears, their rival paid for Khalil Mack. And then the first game he plays, Aaron Rogers gets dinged by that Khalil.

Mac Front. It's just feeling like yesterday I'm watching that and I'm like, somebody's going to lose a job here and it's not Aaron. I mean, you can get rid of Thai Montgomery, but I would argue they need Ty Montgomery because they don't have a running game and he's all they've got. And he's a smart guy who generally helps special teams and he can be a receiver. I just kind of feel like Joy, we're reaching a tipping point with Green Bay. It feels like it's starting to boil up and tensions are getting high.

And you could see even the way that Aaron Rogers reacted to that fumble. Like you used to be more stoic in that spot. He wasn't stoic. Not stoic. No, you're just seeing, you know, it's just all these, you know, it's the couple that they start sniping each other at parties. Like you're like, okay, now it's public. Now, I mean, both McCarthy and Rogers go into the post game and make it public.

It's no longer passive aggressive. It's aggressive. And now the bears are better. Their schedule gets easier. Minnesota's better. going to be a really interesting next seven, eight weeks for the Packers. It's the hurt. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets. to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.