The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Deshaun Watson, Lonzo Ball, World Series, Packers, and the Blazing 5

Episode Date: October 26, 2018

Colin discusses why Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson should've been drafted higher, why Los Angeles Lakers G Lonzo Ball is playing better, game 3 of the World Series, why the Green Bay Packers should be worried, and his Blazing 5 picks for the weekend. Guests include Chris Broussard, EJ Manuel, Dave Wannstedt, Nick Swisher, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the Iheart Radio app by searching heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, it's a Friday. Here we go. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Joy Taylor, blazing five in one hour. Joy Taylor is wearing the Houston Texans color scheme. I am. I think this is pink, but it's close enough to it. And you know what? They deserve it because they put it on the Dolphins last night.

It was really, really impressive. How are you doing? I'm doing great. We have a great show today and a Friday. One hour from now, blazing five, over 60 percent, hottest picks I've ever had in my career to this point.

We were four and one last week, and I like my picks even better this week. Let me start with this. Jishon Watson threw for five touchdowns. He had more touchdowns than incompletions last night. That was an eye-popping athlete. That was a special athlete. That was a unique athlete.

That's what a number one pick should look like, especially at quarterback. So let me start with this. I never understood why Mitch Tribesky got picked over Deshaun Watson. They played in the same conference in college. I watched them both play. It wasn't close. Secondly, is Nick Saban had six weeks to prepare for Deshawn Watson twice and couldn't figure out how to stop him.

Nick Saban stopped everybody in 10 years. The one guy couldn't stop Deshawn Watson, and he had six weeks twice and couldn't stop him. What you saw was part Michael Vick, part Big Ben, part Aaron Rogers, part Russell Wilson, little bit of Carson Wentz, a little bit of Cam Newton. What you saw last night was, wow. And that's why he should have been a number one pick and why Baker Mayfield should not. If you're a number one quarterback, I don't want qualifiers.

Well, you know, he's a little small, but I don't want butt. Well, you know, he said two-time walk-on, but I don't want walk-ons. Size, arm, mobility, athletic ability. I don't want to hear about Baker-Mayfield's dropped passes. This kid's dealing with the worst offensive line in football, has a hit and miss, mostly miss running game, and through 15 games, he's got 34 touchdown passes. That's second in the history of the NFL.

And he's doing it right now with a coach, very few people love, an atrocious offensive line in the improved AFC, only Kurt Warner has more and Dan Marino's right behind him. I don't want to hear about Baker Mayfield's dropped touchdown passes. He's got real backs. He's got a star receiver too. He's got a better O line. His defense leads the NFL and takeaways. Houston's defense, frankly, is talented but underachieving. I mean, I like Houston's defense, but it's not as good as it should be. Even Troy Ackman said that last night. Just watch this play last night. There's no qualifference. fires. This is what a number one quarterback should look like. I can't believe he wasn't taken number

one. Here it is. Here he is to his right on fourth and goal. Now back to his left. Now where to throw it. Now he finds a man and the pass is caught for the touchdown. Jordan Thomas again. It almost looked like it was designed, but I don't believe that it was. It's not an easy throw to make for a guy right-handed running like that to his left. But a good job finishing off there on fourth down for I mean, the guy had five touchdown passes. He had more touchdowns than incompletions. And for the record, he has a great wide receiver in DeAndre Hopkins, and that's about it.

That's about it. He doesn't have enough running backs that are good enough so they can trade one. Baker does. Baker's got a better O line. Baker's got a defense that leaves the NFL easily in takeaways. Baker so far has had a schedule that works to his advantage. This kid, that's what they look like. That's what number one picks look like.

That's why when Mitch Trubisky came out, I said, well, Mitch Trubisky could, he could work maybe, but that's not what a number one. Mitch Trubisky is not what a number one quarterback looks like. Mitch Trubisky, with a good defense, with the right coach, with a good running game, with, with, with, with, could work. This kid will be a superstar with talent

and is still working without much. He's got one great wide receiver. Now, give the Texans coaching staff credit. He dropped back to throw last night 20 times. At this point, he's got a couple of receivers he really likes. But can you blame him? The kid's running for his life, doesn't have a dependable running game. But I don't want to hear you run to Twitter this weekend and talk about dropped passes.

This kid's got outside of Hopkins nothing to work with, and he put on a clinic. And don't tell me, well, it was Miami. They had a winning record and just beat the Bears. And don't tell me Miami's no good. they just beat the Bears and had a winning record. And Adam Gase, a very, very good young coach. That kid, that's wow. That's what I get with Cam.

That's what I get with Ken. That's what I get with Wins. That's what I get with Andrew Luck. I get like, woo. Even though he did put it on my dolphins last night, it was nice to see because Deshaun Watson was thrilling. He was Patrick Mahomes before his injury. Yes.

He's just kind of been out of sight out of mind because they've sort of struggled to get to this point again. First time I ever watched the Houston Texans. They're not going to win the Super Bowl, but Joy, it's the first time I've ever watched them and seriously considered, oh, they're kind of in the Super Bowl group now. They're in that like 10, they're in this Super Bowl group, a 10 to 12 teams that you think if they can be healthy, get a break. I don't know if they have all the pieces they need.

I don't think they can't run the ball. To get to the Super Bowl, but I think if they put that together, Deshawn Watson is a franchise quarterback. Oh, God, yeah. And you've got to take them seriously now. You have to take them seriously. I don't want to hear about drop passes from the other guy. That's what it looks like when you got the right guy.

All right, let me shift to this. Speaking of the right guy, I always ask my staff, give me the box score. Even coaches look at box scores. Man, does Lonzo ball of the Lakers fill up a box score? Eight assists, 12 points, five steals, six rebounds, five for 10 as the Lakers beat the previously undefeated Denver Nuggets at home. By the way, he is shooting now 40% on threes. He is a very polished second-year player.

The Lakers are 2-1 with Lanzo starting. They'd be 3-0. They lost to the spurs in overtime. If LeBron could hit one free throw, they'd be 3-0 with Lanzo ball. They are cleaner offensively with Lanzo. The ball moves better with Lanzo ball. The Lakers got Rondo for two things. His IQ and his toughness.

but Lonzo's just as smart a basketball player and they got plenty of dogs on this team. Lance is a dog, Javelle McGee, Kyle Kuzma, dogs aren't their issue. Here's the most impressive thing, though, about Lonzo ball. When you come into the NBA or the NFL or Major League Baseball and you have a couple of flaws, even the great ones do, Magic Johnson couldn't shoot his first year in the league.

So when you come into the league and you got a couple of flaws and one year later, you've corrected both of them. Damn. He came into the league. We looked up the scouting report this morning. Doesn't have an NBA body. Worry about his three-point shooting.

His body's an NBA body. And last night once again, his three-point shooting is a real thing. Folks, Derek Rose, John Wall, Westbrook, they've been in this league over 10 years. They're big problems. They can't shoot the three. They still can't shoot it.

They're big problems. Don't play well with others. They still don't play well with others. For Lonzo ball to come in the league, we knew some stuff about him. Really good length. Plays well with others. terrific court vision doesn't turn it over that much considering how often he has the ball we knew

those things six six guard long great vision plays well with others we just didn't know that NBA body that's that's not an NBA body oh no he fixed that he fixed that in nine months and three-point shooting it looks like I'm not oh oh oh okay he fixed that too. That's what I say. Like when you come into the NFL Patrick Mahomes and you have a couple of issues and then a year later I'm like, I don't know, he's solved those issues. I mean, Cam Newton's having a pretty good year, but we're eight years in now.

He's just now getting the precision thing down. And Cam's good. But we've been waiting for that thing for years to get that thing. I got to tell you something. Lonzo Ball's impressive. If you told me next 10 years who's going to run in the show here, LeBron's gone and four. This kid's impressive. Here's a moment last night with Lonzo.

Lakers with the lead is three minutes to play. Lonzo Ball, step back three. I mean, he set up Yolkech for that step back. Yolkits went for it and, boy, did he pay the ultimate price. Lonzo Ball. And, you know, we all know the Lakers had the one big unsettled issue. Rondo Lanzo, Lanzo, which one's going to play with LeBron? Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith last night agree with me

they play faster they're much faster with LeBron Coosma when ball is pushing the ball that's just my personal opinion I think he's the X factor I root for him watched him you know since ninth grade eighth grade whatever it was I think he's a great player I'm happy that the focus is on LeBron and not other external things around him

impressive stuff Lakers pick up the win really really impressive when young guys come into a league and you're the quarterback, you're the point guard, you're going to be the franchise guy, you're going to have the ball in your hands. A year later, the two things I worry about, you solve both. Wow. That's, Derek Rose, Westbrook, John Wall, we're 10 years in. They haven't solved their issues.

People forget, you know, that NBA three point line is very far back. If you ever get confused, go to a game and actually look at it. It's really far. So if you put on weights and you get straight. stronger. It would make sense that you're able to shoot more threes. Yeah. I mean, listen, it doesn't look the most artistic three-point shot. It's not the most beautiful three-point shot. Hey, if it goes in. It goes in. I was always kind of, you know, I always kind of bristled at. You got to completely change a shot. Listen, man.

Your shot is not just, it's not just in your hands. It's your whole body. There's a lot of golf shots. A lot, not everybody looks like Fred couples. A lot of golfers have weird habits. If the putts go in, the putt's go in. Good stuff. Blazing Five off a great week. 45 minutes from now. We are absolutely packed today. Coming up next, and I'm guilty of this, just because something makes you comfortable doesn't mean it makes you better.

And there is a difference between the two. And I think Belichick knows it with Brady, and Brady just doesn't want to hear it. And I'll explain that's next. In LA, it's the herd. Be sure to catch live at. of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on

Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I-Hard Radio app. Blazing 5, 45 minutes from now off of 4 in 1 week. You've heard of comfort food, joy, of course, comfort food. Yes, love comfort food. Everybody loves comfort food. Not good for you. It's starchy, it's often fried food, but it makes you feel good.

And a lot of time, I love comfort food. I love mashed potatoes. Oh, I love mashed potatoes. Oh, and then these days they've got garlic mashed potatoes, lobster mashed potatoes. Tropso mashed potatoes. They're a great. Easy mashed potatoes. What makes you comfortable is not necessarily good for you, but it's called comfort food.

It makes you feel good. You know, you sit on the couch. You snuggle up. You watch an old movie. Comfort food. You fall asleep. I think it's very interesting. Gronk is returning for the Patriots this week.

He's become Brady's comfort food. Never forget this. Belichick tried to trade him. And Brady steps out and said, no, no, no, no, we're not. trading him. Belichick tried to trade him. By the way, you do realize that Belichick let go of Malcolm Butler, who can no longer play, Nate sold or left tackle who's been exposed, Danny Amandola, who has one touchdown in eight games, and Dionne Lewis, who has mostly disappeared. When it comes to personnel, Bill is almost always right. New England is 10 and 1 without Gronk.

Last three years. They're 22 and 6 with him. That whole Belichick Brady riff, we all get Belichick was right. Malcolm Butler can't play. At the end of last year, he couldn't play. And Dionne Lewis and Danny Amandola, they're not worth of money. And Nate Solders been exposed. And Belichick tried to trade Gronk. Don't forget that.

Do not forget that. When I read, Gronk is returning this week, it doesn't move the line in Vegas. Half a point. It doesn't matter. In fact, Gronk is 30 catches behind. We're not even halfway point in the NFL season. He's already 30 catches behind the leading tight end in the league. Zach Ertz.

George Kiddell and C.J. Bethard are better. Now, here's the key. Does it make Brady happier to have him? Yes. Is it a weapon? Well, yes. But wins and losses? and that's all Belichick cares about,

it's actually not helping. And I think Belichick tried to trade Gronk because of this. Brady uses Grunk as a crutch. He uses it as a crutch. I watched Brady last week. When Brady's at his best, he's spreading the ball around. It's infuriating.

If you're a defensive coordinator, he's throwing to backs, he's throwing to slots, he's throwing to Gordon, he's throw. But when Grunk comes back, Tom tends to sort of lean. on him. He can go into a gronk drive. And again, Gronk is becoming Brady's six foot, five and a half, two hundred sixty pound binky. Blanket is that, yes, it makes Tom happier and it makes Tom comfortable.

But you can't build an offense around grong. He's just not physically reliable. Travis Kelsey, you can build it around. Zach Hertz, you can build it around. Right now in San Francisco, George Kittle is more. available. But a lot of the things that make us comfortable don't make us better. And I think Belichick knows it. I think Belichick says, we're 22 and 6 with him. We're 10 and 1 without him. And Brady is forced when Gronk is not there to sprinkle the ball around the infield. And frankly, now with Josh Gordon, I find him more dangerous. They didn't eat drunk last week. I mean, Brady was totally impressive. Totally.

impressive. You go, I'm putting the numbers up. With and without Gronk, it's the same, it's the same football team. The only difference is Brady, Brady didn't have that crutch. That's why, you know, when he, when I see news like Gronk is back, my takeaway is, oh, Tom's going to be glomming on to Gronk. And Gronk is really good, but Brady, at his best to me, has eight targets. And I think Belichick knows it. And, Never forget this. Belichick tried to trade him. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Big night last night for the Lakers. Big win. The Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant, was in the house as well.

He sat courtside and got his first glimpse of LeBron and the purple and gold. And to no one's surprise, he got a warm standing ovation. Oh, that's nice. Let's watch. five-time world champion has returned to Staples Center. Number eight and number 24. Kobe, Brian. That was very nice. I love them some Kobe. Well, they should love Kobe.

Yeah, they should. Five rings of them. They should. They should hold a little space in their heart for LeBron. There's still some time for some more winning. So LeBron definitely took note and responded by notching his first triple double as a Laker. And obviously they got a big win on the back to back.

And after the game, Kobe told Bill Orham, it's bleeping awesome being here in this building, seeing the fans, seeing the energy back in the place. Yes. It's awesome. He said that in response to what he thought of seeing LeBron as a Laker. There are certain places. Joy, we've said this before. When I watch a game at Yankee Stadium, it feels different.

It looks different. I can feel it through the television. There's no question. I mean, when I watch football games at Ohio State. state. They just feel different through my television set that even other great Big Ten schools. When the Lakers are humming, it's just

a great, it looks different than other NBA arenas. It feels magical. The crowds lit up. You can see the celebrities. It's cool. It's just, it's Los Angeles. There's nothing. There's nothing quite, there's really no way to describe it. It's a star driven league in a star driven city. Yeah, I would say that the Lakers are a bit

more traditional than some of the other teams. I mean, obviously, you know, I'm, I'm I'm seeing the Miami heat intros and they're shooting flames in the sky. And, like, it's a bit more theatrical down there. But Miami, you know, we like to do a little bit extra. There's a little bit extra on it. Lakers are a bit more traditional when it comes to it.

But it's just, it's going to be a great season. It's going to be very interesting. And that was a big win for them last night. So Cowboys receiver, Colesley is feeling himself these days. He has 16 catches over the past two weeks while the rest of the Dallas wide receiving core has only 11 in that time. So obviously, Beasley is welcome. Amari Cooper with open arms. He said he has some juice off the line, getting off press. He is really good, which is one of the hardest things about the NFL. So if you got that,

there's no ceiling. If it's any easier for me, the defense is going to be in trouble. They got to do something different knowing he is over there. Thank you. This is a really good point by Cole Beasley. Yes. Because you remember when Cole Beasley was humming, because Bryant was out there. When you have a distraction on the outside, you can let that slot receiver go. You know, this is something to think about. When I was it, when I was growing, Growing up as a football fan, even until 10 years ago, a slot receiver was not a big weapon.

Like, it's almost like, oh, you have to have a great slot receiver. By the way, one of the hardest things for NFL GMs to find is slot corners. Okay, it's a really tough position because kids in college football, the great corner plays outside. Then you bring them to NFL and they've got to play in the slot. Right. And it's a hard position to find for NFL general managers. so Cole Beasley should never be your number one. But if you have Cole Beasley, a running quarterback, a workhorse, and you have a perimeter player,

this cowboy offense, I'm telling you, check back in about three weeks. Now, they're on a buy this week. Cowboys are on a buy, so Amari comes in and gets like 10 days to figure this stuff out. But I think game one next week with the Cowboys, he's going to be a factor. How silly, you know, to think at the beginning of the season, they might have thought that that was the formula for a successful offense. Finally, the Jags of Stars

realize that Blake Bordels is maybe not as very good. It's not that good. He's good, but he has some issues figuring out which team he's supposed to throw the ball to. But Bortles himself doesn't necessarily thinks that he deserves the current degree of scrutiny. Told Michael Silver, I totally understand

that I'm the scapegoat for this team. When we play good, the defense played well. The running back did good. The receivers made great plays. And when we play bad, is the worst quarterback on the face of the planet, and I'm sure it will never stop. In the past three games, all losses that the Jags have had. Bortles has thrown two touchdowns and five interceptions.

He also lost two fumbles. Listen, very rarely does the media just pick on the wrong guy. I mean, if you look at who the media goes after, it's generally the right guy. It just, yes, you're absolutely right. Now, we can be too harsh. Yes, we can be too harsh. We can maybe, some people don't want to go back and revisit and check facts and see if some actual improvements have been made.

So there's just, you know, you become kind of this image and you carry it with you. But isn't it on to you to just kind of change that narrative? Last year, Seattle's offense was a mess. Nobody was blaming Russell Wilson. We were going, they have no running game, no offensive line. This year, Seattle's offense last month is humming. Why? Well, Russell's still good.

The offensive lines better. They have a running game. So we were not picking on Russell Wilson because the media by and large was like, well, God, the kid's running for his life. By the way, when Deshawn Watson is struggled, we never pick on Deshawn. Why? Because their offensive line's not good. And Jacksonville's defense was really good last year.

And they still have a lot of the same people. There's something wrong with the situation. I mean, look, I'm not trying to take it overboard, but I'm just saying like, where the wins out there? Every criticism he gets is legit. Blake Bortle's getting, Andy Dalton gets heat. Andy Dalton should get heat. Okay. All right, Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. 30 minutes blazing five first, though. My guy, Chris Broussard, huge night of NBA stuff and a couple of massive games. Okay. It would be very easy, my friend, to just go after Westbrook. I am not.

Forget the fact that in the fourth, he was 0 for 7, three turnovers, couldn't hit a three and didn't have a point. But you're not going to go after. There is no reason to even mention that. Here's what I'm going to mention. And you know this. Paul George, in the free way of life, had a lot of exits to take. Join LeBron. Join the Lakers.

Live in L.A. He chose this team. He knew what Westbrook was. He knew what Billy Donovan was. He knew he would be heavily relied on because they don't have shooters. This is on Paul George. Okay, wet. It's like when people bang on Odell Beckham, I'm like, timeout.

Odell Beckham pre-contract, O'Dell Beckham post-contract, that's the same guy. If you want to make him rich, we can bang on Westbrook here. Paul George knew exactly what he was getting into. And he chose Applebee's, OKC, Westbrook, Billy Donovan. I agree. Look, whatever he wanted to do to make him happy personally, fine. But from a basketball standpoint, from the outside looking in, there's no question he made a mistake.

Now, I'll say this, Colin. I get it, and I actually respect it, when a guy says, you know what, I want my own team. I want to be the man. I think I can lead a team to a championship. Russell Westbrook's done that. Alan Iverson used to say, I want to stay in Philly.

If I don't win it, fine. But he's not the best player. Thank you. That's the thing. You're not the best player in O.K.C. You weren't going to be the best player in OKC or L.A. And you chose the guy that's harder to play with. You didn't.

It's not like you're playing with Jason Kidd. And you're like, hey, he just sets me up all the time. He makes me the top score. No, LeBron is more Jason Kidd than Westbrook is. You would have been the number two. And guess what? You are a number two. That's what you're built for.

You're not. We saw you as a number one for a couple years in Indiana. You're not. And you guys got beaten the first round. You were seventh eighth seed. Okay. I don't get it. I mean, the city you're from,

one of the best cities in the country, you would have been playing for a championship. They would be playing for a championship. I don't think they'd be better than Golden State, but they'd be right there with a chance to win a championship. And he would have been the number two to liberate. He made a mistake. No, and the freeway in life gives you all sorts of exits.

And that's why when people complain about their lot in life, I'm like, once you get about 30 years old, you're really, parents are not a factor. You're making your own choices. This guy had him, and he knew exactly what he signed up for. All right, let's talk about this, is that I don't recall, neither one of us thought Lonzo would be a bust. We didn't. We both thought there was something there because size, vision. I mean, UCLA basketball, he left.

It wasn't the same program. I mean, it was boring. Wow, boring. Okay. So the guy can play. But I got to tell you, when you can come into a league and have two issues and you appear to solve both in six months, Lonzo is the future at point guard on this team, right? He should be the future and the present.

Like, Rondo can be back Saturday against San Antonio. Lanzo should be the starter from now on. Now, if he starts struggling again and falters and he can't hit shots and all that, fine. You can go over the round of them. But right now, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart should be the starting back court for the Lakers. Okay. And here's the thing. You're right.

Give Lanzo, excuse me, a ton of credit for his hard work. But check this out. If you're, and I'm saying, like, if you're the top broadcaster, you're the top person in sports radio. Yeah. And there's a young guy, you know, fresh out of college and he's got his own show. And you take him under your wing. And you tell him, man, look, you can be great. I see everything and you've got everything you need.

Just keep working hard. You can be where I'm at. You can be great. That's how much confidence would that give that young kid? That's what LeBron is done with Lanzo Ball. Like it's beyond just the hard work that he put in an offseason. It is the best player in the world, the guy who was your idol growing up, coming and telling you, you got the goods, man.

believe in you. It's one thing for his dad to do it. That's his dad. And you've been hearing that your whole life, right? And he's over the top. LeBron's not telling him stuff over the top. He's telling him what he sees and he, and that confidence, that's why I think Lonzo's confident

to take the big shot. LeBron's not going to tell him, you know, jump on him for shooting, tell him not to shoot. He's going to tell him keep shooting. You can do it. That's why Lonzo's going to the hole a lot stronger. In addition to the he's bulked up. So I think that's a big factor. By the way, there is, I am a believer in be aggressive. Aggressive people,

I don't know if you can analytics show this, but if you look at the Warriors, they were good and aggressively recruited a great player. The Rockets were good, they aggressively recruited a great player. The Astros were good, and they went and got Verlander. And the Dodgers were good. They didn't need Machado, and they said, we're going to get Machado. I believe aggressive teams create momentum And what happens is, even if you work for this company and we sign somebody else that's good, everybody drives to work next day. They got a little more jump in their step. So the Rockets are like, we're going to go give away a bunch of picks for Jimmy Butler. And I got to tell you something.

I love this. If you look at Chris Paul's injury history, you may have a two-year window here. Right. I love what Houston is just saying, listen, we can sit here and keep patting ourselves on the back for how well we played Golden State. I, Jimmy Butler to Houston. I agree. I agree. Four picks. Look, the last time this happened, it was the Brooklyn Nets. They got Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and they're still paying for it.

So I get all that. But I'm with you. I would do it. First of all, those picks aren't likely to be very good. They're going to be low in the first round. Jimmy Butler, now everybody needs to know you're not giving up four picks unless there's an agreement in place that, look, we're going to offer you this max deal. You're staying here long. Jimmy's staying there. For the next four years, right.

Yeah. So I still think both teams at their best, Golden State is still the best team in the league. But Houston gets closer and everybody thinks Golden State's breaking up after this year. And so this isn't just about this year. It is this year. But it's also, if Durant leaves, we're the team to beat now. No question. Right? And one thing I'll give Darry credit for, we know he's the face of analytics in the NBA.

Yeah. But he makes a lot of moves that aren't analytically sound. Okay, so I had – They're basketball sounds. Oh, so I had lunch with him Saturday, and I said that. I said, Daryl, one of the things I respect about you, you embrace analytics, but you love – you like man analytics. Right, right.

And he said, he goes, listen, even Bill James, the baseball historian, doesn't like all the analytics. You can't be – you can't be glued. When I'm watching the Dodgers, sit their home run hitters. Dude, it's a world series. You've been living off the – home run all year. Now you're going to sit your top four homer here. You can't stare at a binder during games.

Like when you get to October, John Smolt says this, ball in play. Some guys get tight. Put the ball in play. And analytics doesn't measure that. Colin, just quickly on the Dodgers, if a manager did this 10 or 15 years ago, his sanity would

be questioned. I mean, really, his sanity would, and I'm not even joking. No, I know. You would be like, you're sitting your four leading home run hitters? What? Yeah, I'm going to take Paul O'Neill, a Jeter. You know, they don't analytically work and you'd be like, oh, we have to fire our crazy manager Joe Torrey. Finally, can I just say this? A lot of pro athletes retire and they're kind of pathetic and they do commercials to make money. Kobe looks good in retirement, man. I got to admit, this is one of

the smoothest, most impressive retirement ever. I've ever seen in my life. No. No. He looks so royal. Right, right. Does he not? No question. And you can see, like, he didn't go there last night to be like, hey, I'm Kobe, I'm back. Give me all this praise. He can do with it or without it.

He is comfortable in his own skin. He's obviously thriving in, you know, the business world and he got an Oscar for his, you know, dear basketball. There are a lot of ex-superstar athletes that need that spotlight. They're dying to have it, and they show up everywhere. That's not Kobe Bryant. What he's doing when he's talked with the media, he's just willing to talk. But he, look, we knew he was intelligent. And remember, when we first saw Kobe, he was 17,

and we saw all the growth, the mistakes, the flaws. He was a kid. He was like any 17-year-old and 21 and 25-year-old has. His was just in a fishbow. He's really matured. And I agree with you. I think he looks so. No, no question.

He looks so. And, you know, another guy that I think will do this is D. Wade. D. Wade will move out and just be a grown-up. And you'll be, you'll be like, he'll come to the games with his kids. He'll support Pat Riley. That's why when D-Wade left, I was so bummed out. I'm like, come on, dude, D-Wade. You're more smart guys.

You're like one of the guys that we are all like, don't be petty with this crap. Come back. Love your team. All right. Chris Brousard, great stuff. By the way, odd couple. Chris and Rob Parker weekday, 7 to 10 Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, Iheart Radio. love seeing you man coming up next

Vegas has bailed on Baker Mayfield they have and I'll show you why they've bailed on him not kidding when Vegas talks it's no emotion listen are you curious based on genetics how your weight might affect your diet foods to watch out for go and order your health and ancestry kit 23 and me.com slash the herd 23 and me.com slash the herd blazing five in 15 minutes I love my picks this week

week. Love them. We have all sorts of stuff today. It is a Friday. Listen, I have said, I've said before, everybody's very emotional about Baker Mayfield, because I don't think he's a number one pick. I think Cleveland took the wrong guy. But a lot of you, because you either hate me or love Baker, it's a very emotional topic. Vegas doesn't give a rip about anything, but money. That's why the first thing I look at, when I look at games, what's Vegas say about it? Okay, you got opinions. I got a opinions. And your opinions are more emotional than mine because my job is to not have really emotional opinions, but I am a human. But Vegas doesn't give a rip. Vegas has bailed on Baker-Mayfield.

They've bailed on him. The line this week, for a rivalry game, the Browns lead the NFL and takeaways, the Steelers tend to turn it over, and the Steelers are almost nine-point favorites, Eight and a half, eight, nine point favorites. Two weeks ago, the L.A. Chargers were a one-point favorite over Cleveland. Vegas watched Baker Mayfield get overwhelmed by the Chargers and then watched Baker Mayfield against the worst defense in the league, Tampa Bay for three quarters, could not move the football. Everybody moves the football and Tampa.

Okay. they bailed on him. Vegas is telling you Steelers are now like a nine point favorite. That is a huge number. And by the way, Cleveland's defense is better statistically than Pittsburgh's. And they're given Baker three turnovers a week. When Vegas bails on you, they bailed. They don't think he's as good as Ohio does and what the media does.

The media keeps putting up qualifiers for Baker. Well, if you do this and you do that and you do this, Deshawn Watson last night, that's what a number one picket quarterback looks like. Carson Wentz, Andrew Luck, that's what, Peyton Manning, John Elway, that's what a number one quarterback should look like. Not 5-11 and a half in a two-time walk-on who, if everything is right, I mean, Vegas, so another reason that I said Baker should have never been picked number one is because, A, it's a northern division.

So post- Thanksgiving the rest of his career, it's going to be wet, cold, dark, windy, damp. It's hard place to play. I want a bigger, stronger quarterback. I want Carson Went. I want a bigger, stronger dude, flacco, big Ben in that division. The quarterback without a great arm, Andy Dalton, has struggled in that division post-Thanksgiving. But I also said, I warned you about it in Hard Knocks, this coaching staff, Todd Haley got a big ego,

Hugh Jackson's got a big ego, they're just talking. This week, Hugh Jackson alone. Let's play a couple of bites from Hugh Jackson this week. being a head coach and ain't an offensive guy who's done this I think I have every right as a head coach you jump in here and see if I can help I feel like I have to and I want to you know that's that's what I know so I'm not going to continue to watch something that I know how to do keep being that way that's just the truth I'm the head coach of the football team period period there's nothing else that needs to be said nothing okay that was Sunday so joy and I were like did you have to say that so on Sunday it was hey this is my mom show. I'm the boss. And on Tuesday, Hugh talked again, and he backtracked.

I never said that I would take over to play calling. I can't worry about where everybody comes from and where everybody wants, how they want to write it. I can only go by what I say. And I know what I meant, and I know what I said. And I still feel the same way today. Okay. Of the many reasons, I wouldn't have taken Baker, number one.

Number one, I don't think he's athletic enough, big enough, strong enough to be in a northern climate. Number two is, I don't think he's that, I think he's talented, but I think he's closer to Case Keenham than Carson Wentz. And number three is this nonsense. This is not an easy job. Okay, for a, it's hard for a rookie quarterback in a well-run franchise. Okay. It's hard if you were replacing Brady and you got Bob Kraft and you have Belichick. I mean, we saw Garoppolo, he got hurt and, you know, Jacoby Brissette when he was young, Belichick, he was young. Belich, had him when Brady was suspended and he got shut out. He had one good game, one back. It's hard. This rookie quarterback thing is hard. Then you add in the weather, the Steelers are in your division,

the Ravens are in your division, and it's nonsense. But I looked at the number this week and my takeaway was Vegas has no emotion on this. Go ahead, run to Twitter. I don't want to hear about drop passes. Vegas is like, yeah, we saw him the last two weeks against the worst defense in the league. He couldn't do anything for three quarters. And we saw him against a good defense that's aggressive and he was totally overwhelmed. That eight point spread, that eight and a half point spread. That's not what the number should be. I mean, hell, Sam Darnold's getting seven and a half. He's got no weapons. He's going to Chicago and playing a Bears defense that's pissed because the last two weeks, they have games that should have won and lost. And he's only getting like a touchdown.

Blazing five top of the hour. Of the many things I want to talk about, there is a, I don't want to bury officials. Can I talk about that game last night just for two minutes here? The officials last night in the NFL game, it was a three and a half hour clown show. They butchered the opening kickoff. And I'm not going to rail on him, but they had a flag at half on a kneel down. I mean, kickoff, kneel down, and they managed to rob us, oh, I don't know, of the greatest catch in NFL history. Watch. Third down and eight, Watson, passed downfield, and one.

What a catch. DeAndre Hopkins. Oh. But it's offensive pass interference. Did he secure this catch? Oh, my God. He sure did. I mean, how good is that?

There was contact there. I'm not so sure that Howard wasn't interfering him as much as what Hopkins was with Howard. Mike Pereira. Kind of one of those where I get it. There is a little bit of a shove, but there's also a grab by the defender. You know, to me it's one of those hands fighting. Those I would rather see left alone and not called. That play now does not exist.

It doesn't exist. That's the best catch in league, maybe even including Odell Beckham's one-hander. Because that was a one-hander, and I'm going to put it underneath my legs. And DeAndre Hopkins was not in the greatest mood after the game. We played it a whole bunch of times to see if I pushed off. And, you know, I'm an honest judge. It was hand battling And the guy had two hands

It was off balance So I think Somebody owed me an apology I don't know who it is Somebody owe me Apolice By the way He also had a great play last year

I don't know if we have it Was it When was that play Oh yeah It was against the Giants right He had another one of the all-time great catches in NFL history you're taking away against the Giants.

You can go look it up on YouTube. It was years and years ago. It's like new rule in sports. Call less stuff. If you think it's holding but you're not sure and it's away from the play, just it didn't happen. It could have been caught. If you ever use the word could, don't call it.

That could have been, don't call interference. Because that play now doesn't exist. This is the herd. Hour 2 on a Friday. day wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We are live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1, World Series game tonight on Fox. Dodgers back home. Prohibitive favorite over the Red Sox because of the pitching matchup. And by the way, the Red Sox are throwing a right-hander, meaning the Dodgers' stars are actually allowed to play tonight. So I like

the Dodgers. Joy Taylor is joining us here an hour or two. It's been a, this is a, this is a great time of the year in sports. There's a ton going on in sports. A lot. Now, it's a crappy college football Saturday, but it's a great NFL Sunday, World Series tonight, NBA season underway. And it just so happens. I've been doing this thing called Blazing Five for like 10 years, right? And then six months ago, the Supreme Court said, sports gambling is legal in America. And I've been partying like a rock star from that second forward. It should have always been legal. But now the Supreme Court said, this gambling thing is real. So I feel like this is more than ever an important thing.

Can send you off to a nice weekend of riches. And The Blazing Five brought to you by Chili's three for $10 deal. Get a starter and entree of Coke, 10 bucks. Caso Burger, mushroom jack fajitas starter, Coke, 10 bucks. Chili's three for $10 deal. Last week, we were four in one. The Giants covered for us on Monday. So a four in one week, I feel great about our picks.

Here we go. That's a hot one. Let's blaze it up. Fire it up. It's Collins blazing five. Jets at Bears. All right, the Bears minus 7 at home.

That line maybe even going to 7 and 1 half and 8, and I like Chicago here. First of all, the Jets have a crisis at wide receiver. Multiple injuries. Guys out for the year. They also lost a running back.

This is the time of the year that you have to watch the IR. The Jets are massively depleted at wide receiver. And the Bears' defense is not in a great mood because they've had a couple of rough weekends. The Bears' defense, though, still ranked second in takeaways. The Jets' offense, third in giveaways. And by the way, Mitch Trubisky in his last three games, he and Matt Nagy got things working out. 11 touchdowns, three picks.

Chicago wins. I think they win convincingly 30 to 20. Seahawks and Lions. Seattle's the better team and they get a field goal. Like it. I love it. Listen, again, in NFL seasons, you can't look at a team in September and say, this is what they are. We know that with the Patriots.

Seattle, in the last four games, they came into this year, they didn't know what they were. They have righted the ship. They are now a mostly conservative, run first, power running game offense who doesn't turn. the ball over. In fact, in their last four games, three and one, 26 points a game, defense is tightened up, and they're plus seven turnover differential. That's the best turnover differential in the NFL since week three. And Pete Carroll's a defensive coach. He always elevates his personnel. Right now, they're that third-ranked scoring defense. I get the better team, and I get points. This is one of the easy ones. Seattle wins it, 27, 23.

Buccaneers at Bengals Listen, Cincinnati's at home and they only have to give up four and a half points. I like Cincinnati. Listen, Andy Dalton shrinks on Monday night football. He shrinks on Sunday night football. He shrinks against the Steelers.

But Andy Dalton, home against the bad defense, he fools us every time. He fools us every time in Tampa Bay's defense is atrocious. If you look at opposing quarterbacks this year against the Buccaneers defense, they're last in everything. They give up the most passing yards, the most passing touchdowns. They don't pick the ball off.

The average pass rating's 126. And here's the other thing. Andy Dalton at home will be comfortable. He's really actually a B to a B plus quarterback when he's comfortable. James Winston, Joy would have bailed on him. I'm close to bail on him. Here's the thing about James Winston. He turns the ball over like a lot every week.

There's a couple things about James Winston. But that is a big thing. Yeah. Okay. 32, 24, swallow the points, all take the Bengals at home to win and cover. 49ers at Cardinals. I don't want to watch this game. I just want to bet this game.

It's a worst watch all weekend. I'm going to take the 49ers. It's a pick-up, so I just have to pick the winner. In that locker room right now, that team believes in Kyle Shanahan. I'll tell you the story with San Francisco this year. That organization has done such a good job with their offensive line. all they need is Garoppolo, another draft. Right now the Cardinals' offense does nothing well.

They are last in everything. Yards rushing, big plays, third down, they're the pits. But actually the 49ers right now are running the heck out of the ball. They have the second-rank rushing offense this season, almost 140 yards a game. And again, I believe that in that locker room, even with CJ Befford, there is optimism in that locker room. It kind of feels like in Arizona season's done. I'm going to take the Niners to go on the road and beat Arizona 2623. Packers and Rams.

I mean, come on, folks. Aaron Rogers getting nine and a half points off a buy. I mean, even Mike McCarthy, who a lot of people, you know, I always hear you, Mike McCarthy is no good. Do you know what Mike McCarthy is off a buy? He's like Andy Reid. He's nine and three. The good coaches in this league, you give him an extra week.

Andy Reed, Sean Payton, Belichick, Mike McCarthy, he's nine and three off-bys. And by the way, three of the last four RAM games have been decided by seven or less. They don't have a consistent pass rush on the outside. Aaron can move away left or right from an interior rush. And here's everything. In Los Angeles, it's a great place to live, but it's not the most intimidating home crowd. You know, people are sipping their mitis, getting a sun tan. It's not like playing at Green Bay or at Pittsburgh or at.

Philly or at Frogsboro. It's a mild, it's a mild home field advantage. And Aaron Rogers since week five yards, yards, yards of play. He's top three in the league. Off a bye. This is too many points. I think the Rams win. I'm not going to give Aaron Rogers nine and a half points. It's no way. 3027 in what I think will also be a wildly entertaining game. That's our Blazing Five. Our picks, put them up on the board. Blazing 5 brought to you by Chili's three for $10 deal. Blitz your hunger with a starter, entree Coke, 10 bucks. Koso Burger starter, Coke, 10 bucks score with Chili's three for $10 deal. Let me expound upon this because I think Green Bay is going to play really, really well this week.

I just don't think they'll match up with some of the personnel. I just don't write. They have no running game. I mean, they have no running game. The Rams have the best running game, arguably, in the league, and they're at home. but if you go look at Green Bay's next five weeks, and I don't want to overstaff this, right? I'm not trying to hyperventilate here.

I can make the argument. It is the most important five-week stretch in Aaron Rogers' regular season career. And I don't think I'm, when I say that, there's a lot of reasons. First of all, Aaron Rogers is becoming a tweener. All the young quarterbacks we love, Mahomes, Wents to Sean Watson and golf. They all have much better rosters, much better teams.

The old guys, Rivers, Brady, Breeze, Big Ben, have much better rosters and much better teams. And I look at that at the Rams, at the Patriots, Miami, at the Seahawks, at Minnesota. Folks, they're going to come out of this potentially a four, six and one team. I mean, if they went two and three, wouldn't you take that today if you were a Packer fan? Wouldn't you take two and three? If I could tell you, you'll win at the Rams and you'll win at the Vikings, you take that today. If I gave you two and three with that. Well, what about the Dolphins?

If you can win, I don't know what are those road games you're going to win. And if they go one and four on this five-game stretch, and I think it's real possible. they're done in the NFC. My guess is Mike McCarthy is done in Green Bay and tell me who the next great coaching candidate is. Folks, I'm not hypervent

lady. This thing is staring us right in the face. This is a real thing. The young guns in this league are on much better teams with much better weapons and running games. The old guys in this league are in much better teams, much better rosters, and they got running games.

Aaron's got a weaker roster. Aaron's got virtually. I'm not even saying virtually. He's got no running game. And they're in the five toughest weeks in the NFL for any team. They are a nine and a half point dog. Aaron is 29th in the league in completion percentage. 10th in passer rating.

Folks, something's not right here. Something's not right here. This is crisis time for them. And Aaron talked about it this week. well we're going to have to play better we're going to have to play a lot better than we have to win those games this is an important stretch in our season

I'm not going to say it's going to define our season but it's definitely going to shake things out when we get on the other side of us and get back home in six weeks on where we're at in the race and what we're playing for it is absolutely here this is no more R-E-L-A-X it's closer to get her done G-E-T-R-D-O-N-E.

Get her done, because this is a rough, rough stretch. Coming up next. Westbrook's own four. Excuse me? What was that? Westbrook's own four? Lakers have won two and one. Did it somebody say that?

Westbrook's own four. I'll address that coming up next. In L.A., it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. You know, it's just blazing five brought to. you buy Chili's three for $10 deal. There it is, my blazing five.

Go to Chili's. Three items, an entree, starter, a Coke, $10, $10. Three for $10 deal. You know, I was just sitting here thinking about Dak Prescott. I'm so excited to see Amari Cooper. You know, if you really think about Dak Prescott, you want to know who Dak Prescott is. Dak Prescott is Mitch Tribisky. Is that they don't, they both have their, you know, throwing the ball downfield is not their strength.

And it took the bears a while until they figured out this year, we got to run Trubisky. This is going to be part of our offense. We're a better offense if Mitch Trubisky runs a little. By the way, that's what the Cowboys are. It took them a while to figure it out. Hell, if you want to know what DAC is, Dak's a fourth-round version of Mitch Tribisky. If you're not going to run them occasionally,

you're taking away a real component of who they are. Let me shift gears to Westbrook. Westbrook last night, it's like Christmas for me. The Cavaliers without LeBron are winless, and so is Westbrook. I mean, I could just sit here for hours and talk about this, but I'm not going to be that guy today. Because Westbrook is what he always is. He's not clutch.

He can't shoot. He's an incredible talent, but I'd never build my franchise around him with no chance at a title. But we forget sometimes when we talk about all these star athletes, there's a real human element here. A lot of people fear being on the biggest stage. They're not comfortable with it. I worked in radio. Some guys want to stay in Iowa. they don't want to roll the dice and potentially fail.

And there's nothing wrong with that. But a lot of people have talent, but they don't want to fail. And Paul George is exactly in his career where he should be. The number two guy in a small market with no chance to win a title on an O and 4 team. He chose all of them. In the freeway of life, exits or choices. and he chose knowing full well that he got frustrated in small market Indianapolis. He had LeBron, nope, Westbrook.

He had L.A., nope, OKC. He had stardom, nope, number two. I mean, hell, he was going to be the number two guy at either one of them. You're going to be a much bigger star if you're with LeBron number two than if you're with Westbrook number two. It's a real human element. Paul George, the fear of failing on the biggest stage. Well, the money was better.

Yes, the money was better. But the money is only better because you get a guaranteed fifth year. He would have gotten a fifth year in L.A. It's just not guaranteed. So the money is somewhat overstated. But Paul George's career, this is exactly where he should be. This is not like you're drafted. Like in the NFL, a guy gets drafted and he's trapped.

I mean, Aaron Rogers couldn't get out of Green Bay if he wanted to. They'd franchise tag him for the next three years. Andrew Luck, you know, I mean, Andrew Luck, even if they didn't give him that contract, that a franchise tagged him for three years. I mean, NFL guys get trapped. NBA guys have options. Okay. And Paul George had all sorts of options.

He just doesn't want to go on the big stage. He made the wrong choice. He's in a small market. He's playing with a guy that's impossible to play with. I mean, that fourth quarter last night summed it up. That's not the first time you're going to see those numbers. Those guys last night were a mess in the fourth quarter. Boston must have missed 15 open jumpers in the first half.

Boston was awful for a half, still one on the road and won. Like that, there's a reason you're going for, and there's a reason that Paul George is on a winless team. He didn't have to be. He did not have to be. He chose that. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Todd Haley is returning to Hinesfield as a visitor for the first time in his 23-year coaching career. Despite their big matchup against the Steelers, probably being on the forefront of Haley's mind, he's still being asked about what Hugh Jackson said after Sunday's loss to the Bucks. We talked about it, and this is an emotional game. I mean, it is not for everyone. You know, coaching the NFL, especially being in that spot, is not for everyone.

It is a high pressure, high-stress job. And, you know, we just got to keep doing what we know is right. I've been around, you know, a long time, been in this league, around a lot of different personalities. You know, one thing I'll never be, you know, is reactionary. You know, don't you think it's interesting, though? Is any offensive coordinator in the NFL holding more press conferences than Todd Haley? I don't hear any other offensive coordinator talking.

Isn't that weird? Tell me the last, why is Todd Haley talking to the press every week? Again, I don't even know Todd. I think he actually has, there's a lot of people I know in the league that, like, he's really intense, but he knows what he's doing. Maybe the other offensive coordinators speak locally and they're just not interesting. I don't know. Don't you think it's kind of weird? It is kind of weird.

How come the Dolphins, Adam Gase's coordinator isn't holding press? How come Josh McDaniels isn't? Frank Reich's offensive, I already know who it is. Why is this coordinator talking? I think we know why Josh McDaniels is in holding press conferences. But sticking with this matchup, it's been 14 years, and Ben Rothesberger still remembers the growing pains of his rookie season during his most recent appearance on 93-7.

The fan, Big Ben said he empathizes with Baker about being a starting quarterback at the rookie. You know, it's tough. I was lucky because I was on a great football team when we were winning football games. So I couldn't imagine the on the team as a young guy coming in and not winning football. football games, your body just doesn't have time to rest.

So you're physically worn out, you're mentally drained, and now you're out to play a game with grown men. It's not an easy thing to do, but like I said, I was blessed and lucky enough to win football games in my rookie year. It makes it a lot easier. You know, he does bring up a really interesting point, Joy, and I've talked to NBA guys about this. You just don't understand how easy college sports is and to get to the pros.

Like in college basketball, you play 30 games. 35. And by the way, if you're at Kansas, for instance, Joy, you're out of conference games are almost all home and then half your conference games are at home. You just don't travel that much. Then you go to the NBA and it's not only not a regional traveling situation, it's a national traveling situation with three times the games. And players are- I'm not necessarily counting playoffs. I've heard players at the Detroit, like in by January and yeah, rookie NBA guys are like, I can't keep weight on. Literally, I play, I sleep on the plane, we land, I go to my hotel, I get up shoot around.

They're like, I can't keep weight on. In the NFL, you go from 12 games, and if you play to Florida State Clemson, Alabama, you're better than 11 of them. In the NFL, if I'm Baker, I got to play the Steelers twice. I got to play the Ray, but Terrell Suggs twice? No, it's a huge step-out. The season is longer, and you're no longer playing against kids. You're playing against grown men. And by the way, in the NFL, your playmaker's role was getting hurt.

So, I mean, Baker Mayfield, they just traded a running back. He's got a wide receiver. So they've traded a running back Carlos Hyde and a wide receiver, Josh Gordon. So two months ago, Baker had both. They're now gone. And another receiver's hurt. So to defend Baker, and I don't defend him much, but quarterbacking as a rookie in the NFL is overwhelmingly hard. That's why we give them a pass sometimes, unless it's Baker.

Responding no passes. Finally, if you were the, if you were to have only one, You know what a GIF is? A GIF. Some people call it GIF. Oh, G-I-F. Yeah. I call it G-I-F.

Let me guess. I know what a meme is. Okay, a meme is like a funny picture. Like, I make a goofy face and it becomes a meme. A GIF is, what's so funny, Joe? No, I love your description of it. So a meme is, Baker Mayfield goes, and they put pictures everywhere. A GIF, I don't know what it is. What is it?

It's close to what you're saying. What is it? So it's like a moving picture on the Twitter machine. So what gifts stand for? It's the type of file, I believe. Okay, okay. Anyway, if you only had one, and then it was the Lance Stevenson blowing in LeBron's ear.

Okay, is that a gift or a meme? There's multiple versions of it. Okay. I'm sorry to confuse you. Anyway, you know the one I'm talking about? You know the visual I'm talking about. That was the genesis of our concern for the chemistry between Lance Stevenson and LeBron. And we were also concerned about LeBron and Lonzo's chemistry.

Yeah. No special gift or jiff for that. but after last night's win, LeBron gave them both some high praise. What is it that sparked the momentum in those final moments? Make them Dan's Lans. Did you ever think that you would be saying that? Make them Dan's Lans sparked our win tonight. The guy was unbelievable.

He's a very gifted basketball player, very cerebral basketball player. I think when he's playing aggressive basketball and thinking shot first, everything else opens up for him. You know, he's had some of the quickest hands that this league has. We were very concerned. Everyone was about the chemistry that this team is going to have. I think it's pretty good. I think you have to be happy with the progress that they've made through the first four games.

You know what I do like about the Lakers? They've identified what they are. That's not always the easiest thing. They're deep, they're long, they're athletic, they're mostly young, and they play to that. When the Cowboys finally figured out what that, was. Okay, let's have him run a bit. A lot of these teams in the NFL, they don't identify what they are. That's why Brady's so good. They, for 15 years, know exactly what they are. They

don't throw the ball over the top that much. The Lakers have very quickly figured out, we got to play fast to win. We got to get these guys up and down the court because we are deep. And I, and I think that's half of the battle in pro sports. Yeah, and Lanzo's the perfect element for that. Lonzo is really like an energy creator. When Lonzo gets going and if you really watch him, like watch him in the last four minutes of that game, almost every, he had impact on every defensive play, whether it was a seal or pressure.

Like, he brings the energy to that team, which is part of the reason why I think he should be starting over Rondo. I think Rondo has always been, was always brought in to help Lanzo develop. Like, Lonzo's the future of the Lakers. This whole idea that like they're going to trade him or something, like trade him if you want to. Good luck. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Do you know there's only been two college quarterbacks to ever win four straight bowl games in the history of college football? Pat White and my next guest, E.J. Manuel at Florida State. Pat White was at West Virginia. There's only two in the history of college football. He was with the dolphins.

Yes. For very short time. Yes, he was. And he had a very good preseason. Five years in the NFL. I haven't talked to him. him for about five, six years since I met him years ago at the other place. Let's bring an E.J. Manuel, former NFL quarterback, who, by the way, had a very good preseason

with the Raiders, and they let you go, which it's interesting. I didn't buy the Gruden stuff. Nothing against, John. I know him. I don't think you can be out of the league for 10 years. The world's changed. You got let go by them. Did you have a feeling that Gruden had just decided coming in? You weren't as dude. A little bit. It was basically myself and Connor Cook competing for the backup job behind Derek. And obviously we both knew that Derek was going to be the guy. Sure. I had been the backup the year before. So, you know, I felt like I had a good chance of earning my job back.

But, you know, I could kind of tell as OTAs, as mini-camp as, you know, the preseason went on. And I was taking pretty much the third reps in the games or in practice. I kind of felt like I wasn't Coach Gruden's guy. But, you know, for me, I just could control what I could control. And I was just going out there and playing well. I know John, he's in 10. I think he's smart. I don't know if this is going to work

because I don't know if players are going to buy into him. Tell me your experience with John. He's a TV personality who suddenly went back to coaching. I thought he was great. For me as a young quarterback and still considering young, my fifth year,

I was excited to learn from him. Obviously, Coach Gruden was doing a lot with the Gruden QB camps and things like that. So that's where I met him from. But he was teaching us a bunch and not just necessarily X's and O's, but also the nuances of being a quarterback and how to have, you know, how to have, you know, the moxie to talk in the huddle

and things like that. So that part was awesome. Now, obviously, when I got let go, I was obviously upset because it put me behind the eight ball. I didn't get a chance to get on with another team. But, you know, as far as working with him, you know, one-on-one, I thought it was great. E.J., let's talk Derek Carr. He had a rough rookie year, came back good with Del Rio. Then he's kind of struggled since. You know, there's the moment he gets hurt. There's a lot of questions. As honestly as you can say it, do you think he's a 10-year franchise quarterback? If so, why, if not why? Right. I think he is. The main reason being, you know, Derek has all the intangibles that you need to be a long time starting quarterback in NFL. What do you mean?

I'm talking about off the field. You know, obviously he's a, he's been a great player on the field. He's put up numbers. He's had a chance to grow. And I think that's the best thing that the Raiders have done for him, you know, being that they took him in the second round. I think 2014, team, they allowed him to have those growing pains, right? But, you know, sometimes it's not as easy as everybody thinks is. You just said it. Quarterback in the NFL is the hardest position in the game. And obviously, he's going to take all the bullets because they're one in six, one and seven, whatever right now.

But I do think he has the moxie to be a long-time quarterback in the NFL. I think so. Yeah, I think so. I think there was a report last year. Right. Now, now, I should note, I think this is really hard. He's a Christian kid. Right, right, right.

You know, the whole flag issue, the kneeling issue, It was tough for everybody. I'm not blaming anybody. Of course. Okay, it was tough for our network. There were reports that he had ticked off a few dudes in the room. Are those true? I think so.

You know, in that moment, I remember that it was before we played the Redskins. Yes. And that was the week President Trump was saying what he said. And obviously, we all felt away. And so, you know, kind of put Derek in a position where it was hard for him to, you know, say, hey, I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. It was almost like he had to pick sides. Yes.

And he tried to stay as neutral as possible. and I think that might have rub some guys the wrong way, but I've been in that position. I've been a starting quarterback in that league before, and I know it's extremely hard. You know, you have to, you can't please everybody. And Derek is the kind of guy, like you said, he's a Christian guy, so he's going to be himself,

but at the same time, I don't think guys always want to hear necessarily the politically correct thing to say. So I think that's kind of where it was hard for him. I think it was hard for everybody. It was uncomfortable, honestly. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I felt like that game is where our season kind of fell off. the, you know, off the road a little bit last year.

You know, we got beat pretty bad versus the Redskins. And I felt like that was somewhat of a distraction that we had to face, you know, going into that game. I like E.J. Manuel joining us. I like the Amari Cooper move. Now, is he worth a first round pick? Well, wide receivers now are really valuable because they're changing all the rules for offense. That's true. I liked him out of college and I liked him his first couple years.

And then there have been a little bit of statistical regression. people like he doesn't love football and part of me thinks maybe it's the dysfunction of the Raiders a little bit sometimes it's funny how guys go to certain teams and they pop right because like it's a better organization for sure for sure tell me what Amari does you've thrown to him yeah tell me the strengths of Amari cooper oh man extreme speed awesome jumping ability he's strong amari's a big guy you know I think guys see that he's so fast that they forget that he's actually, I would say, 220, 225 pounds and, you know, running a four or three. So I think Coop is a great receiver.

I think the Cowboys did, you know, an awesome thing for themselves and their offense. And really for Dak to give him basically a number one threat at receiver now with Coop. You know, I think he's a kind of guy that he imposes, you know, a mismatch every time he goes up against a DV. Do you think he's, some have suggested that he's a better slot than a sideline receiver. What do you think? I could see him doing well in the slot, mainly because he's going against Nichols. He's not going against necessarily the best corner. The best corner.

I'm not saying that Coop can't go against the best corner of the game, who I think is one of the best corners corners in the league. But I think him in the slot, he's so shifty that he can still do the ends and outs of a slot receiver, almost like a Beasley, but he can also go outside to us. So that's why I say he poses so many different mismatches, you know, for defenses and defensive coordinator. You know, it's funny. I've been tough on Dez and I've been tough on O'Dell Beckham, but I love Julio Jones because I have this belief that when you,

you're a young quarterback in this league, sometimes star receivers, you don't even admit it, but you feel like you owe them looks. For sure. I thought Dak kind of felt like, God, if I don't throw to Des, he's going to freak out. And I felt Eli felt that last year. Like, I owe this guy. Is Amari demanding? Will he be get me the ball guy? Is he high maintenance? Do you worry about that? I don't think so. He's not high maintenance at all. One thing about Coupe, he's just going to do what he needs to do. to be ready to play on Sundays? Yeah, he's very quiet.

Now, obviously, he will communicate with you. Obviously, he spoke to Derek as far as when we were in practice more because D.C. was a starter. But I do remember when I started versus the Ravens last year, he and I had a bunch of communication the week before, the Wednesday, the Thursday practices, making sure that we were on the same page. And so, yeah, I mean, Coup is a very laid-back guy. That's just him naturally.

So I don't think that's a knock on him. Obviously, that's his personality. But I think when he gets the ball in his hands, that's when he lights up. Mitch, I said, Mitch Trubesky reminds me of DAC. Right. Is that I want to see them run seven to eight times a game. And if they get hurt, they get hurt.

But they're both kind of, they got a Russell Wilson bill to them. They can take. I don't want to see Josh Rosen or Jared Goff running or Matt Ryan. Right. Is we're seeing now a lot of college offense move into the NFL. Right. I just have started noticing it. When did you feel that was happening?

Well, even when I was a rookie, I think they tried to implement some things that I did at Florida State, whether it's the zone read, the run-pass options that the Eagles do a bunch with Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. And obviously, it's productive. I think quarterbacks now, we're more elusive. I don't think we're 20 years ago you didn't really see too many guys that could take off and run. Even like watching Deshaun last night, look at all the plays that he made with his feet. I mean, he's almost unstoppable once he gets out of the pocket. And he can still beat you in the pocket. and I think DAC is the same way.

So to me, I felt like 10 years ago, that was a bad thing when you said a quarterback could run. But now I think it's almost a positive thing. By the way, you played in the same conference as Deshaun Watson. Do you remember the first time he saw him play? I want to say the first time I saw Deshawn when he was in high school at the Elite 11 camp. I was a counselor. I think it was me, Kirk Cousins and a couple other guys.

So he was like 16? Yeah, he was young. He was like 17, I think. And I saw him, you know, playing down there. And there was a bunch of guys, Deshaun Kaiser. I think Jared Gawf was in that group. So it was a good group of quarterbacks. I remember seeing him back then.

And I knew he had what he's doing now. I saw even back then when he was in high school. Is he a good dude? Great guy. See, that's what I... People think I don't like Baker Mayfield. Okay, first of all, he's fine. Yeah.

One of the reasons when I first met you, I said I like this kid. Quarterbacks different. Right. Okay. You're the guy that talks in the huddle. For sure. I want you to talk a little bit about that. James Winston worries me out of the huddle.

Baker Mayfield worries me. There's some nonsense going on in college. Did you notice it in the NFL when you got in that people judge quarterbacks differently? Tell me about that. For sure. I think you have to look at it like this. When you get in the huddle, there's 10 other men in that huddle

that are looking you in the eye, and they can tell if you're real or not, period. They can tell if you like the play that was called. They can tell if you studied the night before. They can tell all that. Really? So, yeah, if you're a fraud, they're going to figure it out within seconds. And so like I said, you're leading men at the end of the day, and you have to, you know, respect that. You can't be out, you know, off the field doing crazy things because you're not only representing yourself, you're representing the entire franchise, representing your fans, you're representing the city.

Now, you know, I think guys when they're young, they're a rookie, their second year quarterbacks, they have to learn that. And they still might think that they have, you know, the same, you know, looseness that they might have had in college, but you're not in college anymore. You know, you're dealing with, you know, guys who are eight, nine, ten-year events and you kind of have to, you know, be more of a professional. That's it. As long as you're a pro, I think your teammates will always respect you for that. By the way, you've had Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher, Rex Ryan. You've got some of the biggest personalities. You've had John Groot. Is there a coach?

Jack Del Rio. What coach did you connect with? I connected with Coach Fisher the most. Jimbo Fisher. Obviously, I was his first recruit, you know, coming out of high school. And he and I are still very close. I spoke to him probably two or three weeks ago. And, you know, I just check in with him, seeing how everything is going down there in a college station at Texas A&M.

So he and I are very close, but I would say every coach, I've taken something to learn from each guy. You know, I think Coach Fisher taught me the professionalism of the game, even though I was in college. Coach Morone, you know, kind of gave me some hard lessons. He benched me my second year, you know, and obviously that wasn't, you know, the only thing that he taught me. But, you know, I've learned so much from each guy. And I think as a man, not just a football player, each coach has been able to put something into my life that I'll, you know, be able to continue to have and use, you know, for my advantage later on in life. E.J. Manuel living right now in Hollywood. Hope I didn't give away too much.

If I was young and single and good luck and I'd live in Hollywood too. Oh, man, come on. So you're still available if somebody wants you. Yes, I'm ready to go. It's great seeing you again. Great to see you too. Easy guy to root for. Coming up next, something last night at the Laker game, I thought, was incredibly cool.

And there is one college football game to watch this weekend. And it's not the one you think, but it will change a program potentially for the next decade, a program that matters. That's coming up. Tonight, it's game three of the World Series between the Red Sox and Dodgers, with Boston taking a two-game lead. The Dodgers look to ignite the hometown crowd

as the series shifts to L.A. Red Sox Dodgers, game three, tonight at 7.30 Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Nine of the 12 Red Sox runs have come with two outs. That's the difference in this series, is the Dodgers get base runners and can't knock them in, and the Red Sox get base runners and knock them in. Now, I think Boston's a better team.

But tonight, Rick Porcelo goes right-hander for the Red Sox, meaning the Dodgers at home a better team can have their big left-handed sticks. Dodgers favor to win. Dodgers win tonight, my prediction, Red Sox won the series overall. I saw something in Los Angeles last night. Through all the years I've been doing this, one of the parts about this job that's kind of sad is watching pro athletes retire. They're beat up physically. They get bitter. Some don't have any money.

or they're doing desperate stuff, Winnebago commercials to pay the bills. So when you do see a guy that retires and there's a certain elegance to it and there's a certain refinement to it, it's really cool. Kobe Bryant last night showed up at the Lakers game. And I, you know, I had my question sometimes with Kobe,

but he's really retired well. He is helping others, doing new cool things and winning awards, supporting the new star in town. I think he really looks big. And I like it when our ex-presidents, even if they're on the different side of the political aisle, when Bill Clinton can support George Bush Sr.

Or George Bush Jr. can support Obama. I think it looks cool. I think it's classy. It's a nice thing to do. Remember when our presidents used to be able to do that? I like that Kobe Bryant supports LeBron James. I think it looks good. Maybe it's just optics.

Maybe it's easier in Los Angeles. because it's a transient town and none of us are from here, right? But it looks big. It looks right. I think a lot of it has to do with magic, too, though. You're probably right. When you have a culture like the Lakers have with the bus family and then you bring in someone like Magic Johnson who everyone respects,

and it's just this huge, positive family. Guy. Legend, giving charitable energy. And you put that at the top of your organization, I think it makes it easier for someone like Kobe to step in and just carry that torch. By the way, I think you're right because the Chicago Bulls have no connection to MJ. None. Why?

Because their front office and their ownership have been a pain in the butt. By the way, Larry Bird, I never hear him around the Celtics. Right. Like, it's cool. It's cool. You see a lot of that with the heat. The heat, the heat love to bring in. They're old guys.

Yeah, old players. Alonzo Morning, still part of it. Right. Always around the team. I want to see Brewery, Brett Fav, not doing a nose trimmer hair commercial. I want to see him up in Green Bay. I want to see him at a Packer game.

Nose hair's got to go, though, Colin. I know. I got nose hair. Listen, I'm getting into the nose hair age. So believe me, I'm buying those Brett Favreth things. But there's just a certain elegance. I want to see Ron Jaworsky at Eagle Games. I want to see Peyton Manning at Colts games.

It's cool because a lot of these guys retire and it's so clunky and it's bitter and they're broken down. and maybe Kobe deep down is like, what am I doing here? But he's making the effort and I'm for it. All right. Oh, by the way, there's Kobe's tweet. Welcome to the fam. Well done.

I like that. It's a crappy week of college football. Most of the big dogs are off. And there is one game of note in college football this weekend. And it is not the game you think. But it's the most important game. In college football right now, all the big dogs all have the right coach.

Clemson's got the right coach. Bama's got the right coach. Oklahoma's got the right coach. Georgia has the right coach. Michigan has the right coach. Penn State has the right coach. Notre Dame has the right coach. Ohio State has the right coach.

Texas has the right coach. Auburn's got the right coach. They're all good. It never works that way. There's always three or four of the big dogs, the traditional powers, it's not, it's not, the program slowly dying. The game to watch this weekend is USC hosting Arizona State.

USC is dying. Every time they venture out of the conference, Texas embarrassed, Notre Dame embarrassed, Ohio State embarrassed them, Alabama embarrassed them. They've been able to hide some of their flaws because the PAC 12, what do they go, oh and six in bowl games last year, is really weak right now. But outside of the SEC, which is deeper in. better than every conference. Every other conference needs one big dog to win. It's important for Clemson to be good in the ACC, in the ACC, excuse me. It's really important for Ohio State to be good

in the Big Ten. If they're not, it's not the same conference. USC is the football program of note on the West Coast. And when they're not good, the conference feels small and irrelevant. in USC right now, hosts Arizona State and Herm Edwards this weekend, and it's the most important game in college football. Because if you love college football, it's better when people Denver West have a national power, and they don't. Washington's a nice story. So, Stanford, USC has put 700 guys in the pros.

That's 100 more than Alabama. It's the biggest game of the weekend, and it's time for our spoiler alert. please look away if you don't want the answer to what's going to happen. Arizona State under Herm Edwards is a terrific defensive team. Arizona State beats USC 24 to 20. USC will be using a backup quarterback. They're slowly dying. USC's administration will figure it out after this weekend.

It's time to make a move by season's end. good to have you in we are our last hour today joy is packed we may have david ortees we got uncle dave dave wanstadt jimmy johnson's best friend in coaching to talk about the cowboys talk about the NFL this weekend uh so we're we are absolutely packed in the final hour of our friday show which gets me all worked up it i will say this in college football this year um you know a lot of people criticize the NBA well, I know Golden State's going to win. If you take out Golden State, it is wide open.

It is wide open in the NBA. If you take out Alabama, I have no idea who's going to end up in the playoff this year. I got to tell you something. I love college football. But in order for me to talk about it, the big dogs got to win. I'm not so sure Notre Dame is not the second best team in college football. They're not Alabama. They're not Alabama.

but my gut feeling is Notre Dame's the second best team I've seen this year once they made that quarterback change. I'm serious. That is really, really good for the sport. Uncle Dave, Dave Wonstadt, former NFL coach around the corner. Could be David Ortiz, Jason McIntyre. In L.A., it's the herd. Welcome back, Hour 3 live in Los Angeles.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. This is The Herd. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and Ryehart. here, FS1. By the way, we got a shout out to Greg Jennings, our teammate at Fox Sports and FS1. He's going to get inducted into the Western Michigan University Hall of Fame tomorrow. One of the best guys I've ever worked with. They're honoring him during halftime of Western Michigan versus Toledo tonight. So he's getting inducted into that Hall of Fame. Good dude, great family guy and hell of a player and an absolute pleasure to work.

with and no ego. Such, yeah. By the, you know, that's a good question. Why did it take so long? Yeah, really, seriously. Western Michigan. Yeah, we got to get these other guys in first. I mean, he hasn't been retired that long.

Well, yeah, but he played for like, you play like 12 years. Yeah, but don't you, don't they generally wait until, like, you know, your professional careers over? He could have gotten run over by a bread truck tomorrow. I mean, you got to get the stuff done. I mean, come on. He's a Hall of Famer.

Everything is about bread with you. Oh, by the way, tonight is World Series game three. My gut feeling the Red Sox better team win the series, but Walker Bueller's a rookie. He's a flamethrower for the Dodgers, big strapping stud. He throws like 98. He's pitching at home tonight.

Dodgers will win tonight at home, but I do think it's tough. I think the pitching matchups going forward absolutely favor of the Red Sox. So that one starts. Pre-game starts at 7 Eastern 4 Pacific on FS1. Dave Wonstat's going to be joining us in about five minutes. I do want to touch on this, though. So I watched the entire Thursday night football last night.

Houston crushed the dolphins last night. And it's clear and it's cool. The Texans have their guy. Jashon Watson threw for five touchdowns. He had more touchdowns than incompletions last night. That was an eye-popping athlete. That was a special athlete. That was a unique athlete.

That's what a number one pick should look like, especially at quarterback. So let me start with this. I never understood why Mitch Tribisky got picked over Deshaun Watson. They played in the same conference in college. I watched them both play. It wasn't close. Secondly, is Nick Saban had six weeks to prepare for Deshawn Watson twice and couldn't figure out how to stop him.

Nick Saban stopped everybody in 10 years. The one guy couldn't stop Deshawn Watson, and he had six weeks twice and couldn't stop him. What you saw was part Michael Vick, part Big Ben, part Aaron Rogers, part Russell Wilson, a little bit of Carson Wentz, a little bit of Cam Newton. What you saw last night was, wow. And that's why he should have been a number one pick and why Baker Mayfield should not. If you're a number one quarterback, I don't want qualifiers.

Well, you know, he's a little small, but. I don't want but. Well, you know, he said two-time walk-on, but I don't want walk-ons. Size, arm, mobility, athletic ability. I don't want to hear about Baker-Mayfield's dropped passes. This kid's dealing with the worst offensive line in football, has a hit and miss, mostly miss running game, and through 15 games, he's got 34 touchdown passes.

That's second in the history of the NFL. And he's doing it right now with a coach. Very few people love. an atrocious offensive line in the improved AFC. Only Kurt Warner has more and Dan Marino's right behind him. I don't want to hear about Baker Mayfield's dropped touchdown passes. He's got real backs. He's got a star receiver too.

He's got a better O line. His defense leads the NFL and takeaways. Houston's defense, frankly, is talented but underachieving. I mean, I like Houston's defense, but it's not as good as it should be. Even Troy Aikman said that last night. Just watch this play last night. There's no qualifiers. This is what a number one quarterback should look like.

I can't believe he wasn't taken number one. Here it is. Here he is to his right on fourth and goal. Now back to his left. Now he finds a man, and the pass is caught for the touchdown. Jordan Thomas again. It almost looked like it was designed, but I don't believe that it was. It's not an easy throw to make for a guy right-handed running like that to his left.

But a good job finishing off there on fourth down for the touchdown. touchdown. I mean, the guy had five touchdown passes. He had more touchdowns than incompletions. And for the record, he has a great wide receiver in DeAndre Hopkins, and that's about it. That's about it. He doesn't have enough running backs that are good enough so they can trade one. Baker does. Baker's got a better O line. Baker's got a defense that leaves the NFL easily in takeaways. Baker so far has had a schedule that works to his advantage. This kid, that's what they look like. That's what number one picks look like.

That's why when Mitch Trubisky came out, I said, well, Mitch Trubisky could, he could work maybe, but that's not what a number one. Mitch Trubisky is not what a number one quarterback looks like. Mitch Trubisky, with a good defense, with the right coach, with a good running game, with, with, with, with, could work. This kid will be a superstar with talent

and is still working without much. He's got one great wide receiver. Now, give the Texans coaching staff credit. He dropped back to throw last night 20 times. At this point, he's got a couple of receivers he really likes, but can you blame him? The kid's running for his life doesn't have a dependable running game. But I don't want to hear you run to Twitter this weekend and talk about dropped passes. This kid's got outside of Hopkins nothing to work with, and he put on a clinic.

And don't tell me, well, it was Miami. They had a winning record and just beat the Bears. And don't tell me Miami's no good. They just beat the Bears and had a winning record. And Adam Gase, a very, very good young coach. That kid, that's wow. That's what I get with Cam. That's what I get with K.

That's what I get with Wins. That's what I get with Andrew Luck. I get like, woo. That's what it looks like when you got the right guy. Former Bear coach, Dolphin Coach, National Champion defensive coordinator at Miami. Super Bowl defensive coordinator was Jimmy Johnson. He's Uncle Dave. Dave's story time wants that.

What is going on? Look at you. Well, not much. You like Watson. You love it. I loved Watson. That was my opening storyline on our NFL kickoff show Sunday morning. You love him.

I said that having him come back and Watt would make a difference, I was excited to see where this team could go. And I think it's all coming alive right now. I said, Dave, it was the first time I've watched the Texans in years. And maybe they're not in that five teams that can win the Super Bowl, but they're in the 10. Like sometimes, I remember Pete Carroll said this years ago, the better the player, I can't coach everything.

You've got to be able to do some stuff I can't coach. When I watched him last night, you can't, this is why Nick Saban couldn't do anything. He's off script. Right. He might have been, before he got hurt last year, he arguably could have been the most exciting player in the NFL.

He was Patrick Mahomes before Patrick. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the thing, you mentioned two points, you know, one that he threw 20 passes. Let's keep that in mind. That's a good thing. Yes. If you can keep him doing that, not 50,

I think that's going to make a big difference in his performance. The second thing, don't go too crazy on the dolphins now, okay? Come on, Coach. Are you kidding me? The only thing good about the dolphins is their coach calls good plays, Adam Gates, okay? I mean, they've got 11 sacks on the whole season. Okay. I mean, they're 29th in the league in sacks.

So they don't sack the quarterback very often. They may have sacked the bears, but, you know, that's not their forte. So it was a good win. It was a good win for Houston. but I'm not giving Miami very much credit. And I said that on our kickoff show last Sunday. You don't listen to anything. I listen to it.

You're just... I do. I listen to you. Okay, so we were talking about this yesterday. John L.A., dad was a coach, went to Stanford, ran an arena team, was a great quarterback, good businessman, and he's struggling to find a quarterback. Okay?

He drafted Paxton. He drafted Brock. He offered to keep Brock. This finding a quarterback thing is hard. do you think Gruden should give up Derek Carr? No. Let me tell you, just with all the players, and maybe there's more to the story that we're not aware of from a financial standpoint, an ownership standpoint, I don't know.

But I would just say this. And I was at Dallas when we had three number ones and three number twos and as many draft picks is about what you can have. And I went back and looked when this started happening with John Gruden. And he's a friend of mine. But I went back and looked at when he was at Tampa and when he was in Oakland, and you look at the, he had 10 total first-round picks. I think four of them worked out to the point where you would say,

boy, that was a good pick for us. 40 percent. I don't know. Is that good? One of them was the kicker, Janikowski. Yeah. Okay. My point is this.

Having picks is one scenario. Making the right picks is something else. And when you have a proven play, I gave up a first one. second round pick for Ricky Williams when I was at the Dolphins, right? So he was running back Ricky Williams. Running back Ricky Williams. But he was good for you, though. He led, coach, he went to, he led, one, was MVP in the NFL here.

He led to 1,800 yards Russian. So you gave up. Was he good for me? Yes, I gave up. But I gave up the draft picks as I was not convinced. We needed a running back desperately. It was Lamar Smith and he had kind of finished his career with us. And we needed a back and we were debating.

Are we going to take a chance and pick one in a, first run or can we get a proven guy and uh you know that's a debate a lot of guys like the youthful guys if you can pick them correctly and and that's uh that's easier said than done i'll leave it at that yeah i think derrick car if you got a first round pick it would be hard to duplicate derrick car i mean we you want you do college football here's his notable first round picks for john gruden you do college football you see all these college quarterbacks yep coach there's one in the whole sport I like. Justin Herbert at Oregon. You can have the rest of them. Yeah. You know, at this point, you know, he would probably be the top guy. Yeah.

But it's, it's going to be a gamble. And it's just not, this is what you get into. When you take a guy, a quarterback in the first round, you know, everything that comes with him. You know what I mean, from a standpoint, first round status, the money that comes with him, the agent, the fame. I mean, there's, you know, there's surrounding. I mean, there's a lot more to it than the kid just going from college. and going out and playing on a professional field. A lot more things he's got to deal with, particularly at the quarterback position, and some of these guys can't handle it.

When you have a guy that you know can handle it and you see him doing it, you just better be careful. By the way, you had many great years in Dallas. Your stories are hysterically funny. You're Jimmy Johnson's guy. You were always his defensive guy. If he was to coach again, you'd be as defensive guy,

and you wouldn't do TV. Jerry Jones is an interesting figure. I've always said, Jerry may meddle, but he is pretty patient with coaches. I mean, he gave Dave Campo three years. He gave Barry Switzer four in his nonsense. When you look at Jason Garrett, Dack going forward, do you feel like, let's start with Dack? Do you feel for Dack Prescott, this is a make or break year? I don't. I look at the history. Look at the history. We're talking about with coaches,

but if Jerry likes you, he's going to stick with you. liked Romo very early. Troy was there. I mean, the history of the Dallas Cowboys, when they had success, it has not been, you know, Jimmy was talking last night on the pregame show. I think since I left, the Bears have had 18 starting quarter. I mean, the Dolphins have had 18 quarterbacks since I left with Jay Feedler, okay? And they haven't won a playoff game since.

The point that I'm making is that Jerry, it was Troy for what, 12 or 13 years, right? Romo for 10 years, as you just said. Then there was the messy year where everybody got hurt. Yeah, you know, but the point is that I think Jerry likes, if he likes you, he wants stability at the quarterback position. I believe that in his mind, Dak Prestaught is his guy for the future and that he's going to go with them and he's going to try to do everything in his power that he can do to give him the best chance to be successful. You know, it's funny. People are being very critical via Mari Cooper deal. And my takeaway is this. I have a weird theory. this. Belichick quit drafting receivers early. He quit. Right. Because he butchered it. The wide receiver position is a very difficult position. Guards, tackles, centers, linebackers. They're dudes. They're

football players. Wide receiver is a little like an NBA dude. He's got a little personality, breaks a huddle first, kind of on his own. And if you go look at the last four or five years of wide receiver picks in the first round, coach, they've been busts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I think Amari Cooper is better and more tangible than what was available in the draft. And the Cowboys were like, listen, we got our pass rushers. I got my left tackle. I got my back and I got my linebackers. And I also think that this sends a message to his team.

When you look at that division, you know, the Redskins are at the top of the division. And they're a good football team. We agree on that. The Eagles, I think, still have probably the most talent. and they'll probably maybe get it together. We know where the giant track. Jerry's looking and saying, you know what, we're one game out of first place. And maybe one position.

Maybe one position. If we can do something, if I can do something, I mean, that's a motivating thing for the players on the team and the coaches. I mean, hey, you know what? This gives them a little spark. It might be the difference in them turning this season around. Trent Doefer said that. You want to drive to the practice every day saying can not can't.

Yep, absolutely. And now they drive, hey, we can go over the top. Yep, absolutely. We can throw 30 times. Okay. Listen, Baker Mayfield, now I didn't like his college nonsense. I hear that you think he's just having a great year.

Well, I would have taken him of all the quarterback. So let me tell you something. Over Darnold. And I want Sam Darnold to marry my daughter, okay? She's too old age. You have three kids. But if they were young, I mean, I love Sam Darnold. Don't get me wrong.

I've spent some time with him with Matt Liner. I love him. I think he's going to be. a great pro. But I looked at it this way before the draft. And my mind I said, you know, if you put the ball in a 20-yard line and you told me my job depends on it, take a

quarterback, and you got to get the ball in the end zone. Running it, throwing it, doing whatever you got to do, I would have taken Baker Mayfield. 5.11 and a half. Yeah, I know. I heard the same stories with Drew Brees. You know, same stories. I mean, that doesn't bother me. The guy can make the

throws. He's a competitor. Cleveland. Look where the guy's at. It's a mess. I watched one episode of that. Hard knocks. Hard knocks. And I said, I'll never watch that again. I mean, it was chaos in that staff meeting. Chaos.

I'm serious. Did you and Jimmy, tell me a funny story. Tell me a funny story. And then the head coach comes out last week and says, I'm going to get more involved in the offense. What kind of message does that send your quarterback that what you're doing isn't good enough? You know what I mean?

I mean, you might go into the offensive coordinator and say, hey, I'm going to be in meetings more. I want to do a little more of this, less of that, right? I've done that. I mean, that's, you don't announce it to the media that I'm going to be more involved. Joy said that. That's sending a wrong message to your team

and that something's broken. That's what you're saying. You know what? Something's broken. What we're doing? You know what that is, Colin? What? A lack of emotional discipline. That's right, which I love. Did he blame it all on emotions? I don't know. I know, but you're right. Well, it's an emotional reaction. By the way, you and Jimmy Johnson, story time, did you ever have, you know, you

think it was crazy because Jerry's crazy and Jimmy's, you know, he's big strong, and you're out there, the good-looking guy. It could have, and then Aikman's a superstar, and Michael Irvin's crazy. But you guys were, you didn't have a crazy week? What's the craziest? Crazy week, crazy hour. No, no, you know what, though, but I think. Your first year, you went one in 15, didn't you?

Oh, yeah, we won't one in 15. Yeah, we beat the Redskins 10, 109 or something out there. They had their 14 quarterback. God bless them. It was a guy that had won a Super Bowl. for him. And I think they signed him. Williams. William's So why didn't you guys go man overboard

that year? You just kept grinding away? No, you know what? We were to get, most of the guys on that staff were on the same staff with Jimmy at the University of Miami. You know what I mean? So he kind of took it all and he used to always believe in, and it was kind of the same way

with our personnel people. We brought the trainer with us. Yeah. We brought our PR guy with us. Yeah. So, you know, we kind of had the We had a, you know, they used to call us the old Miami Mafia. We used to jog together. There were six of eight of us every day at lunchtime. You go jog.

We would head out and go for a jog. And we would talk the game plan all the way out and all the way back. I mean, we were that close is what I'm saying. And everybody kind of knew their pecking order. Nobody was on an ego trip. And we all knew that if we won, hey, that there would be opportunities for everybody. Yeah. And that Cleveland situation doesn't feel like your Dallas situation.

No, oh, no, not by any means. Not by any means. It's a mess. Dave Wonstadt. Let's hear it for Uncle Dave. He doesn't give us, he has 37 current jobs in America. Miami Radio, Chicago TV. Good Lord, you're busy. Dave Wonstadt. Let's take a break. Jason McIntyre, Monday's headlines today. We may go out to Dodger Stadium as well. It's the Herd. One more Hurd? The Herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Welcome back. We've got to

got a lot of stuff today. Nick Swisher, Mr. Energy. He rolls out of bed and is just flying 100 miles an hour is going to join us. World Series game three tonight. A rookie thrower, Walker Bueller for the flame thrower for the Dodgers, goes at home where they're clearly more comfortable. They look cold at Fenway Park. They come back here. It's going to be about 80 this weekend. It's going to be a beautiful night. Nick Swisher joins us plus Jason McIntyre. Monday's headlines today. I love that segment. Here's Joy with the news. No, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, speaking of that World Series, the Red Sox have a 2-0 lead over the Dodgers, and there's been a lot of speculation about what they will do with J.D. Martinez tonight when the designated hitter spot is dropped at Dodgers Stadium. Martinez rolled his right ankle in the opener

after he slipped on second base after it rained earlier in the night. There's video of it there. He stayed in and played with it sore, including on Wednesday night when he delivered a key hits. Ow, wow. God. Yeah. But it's safe to say that J.D. Martinez's injury was the result of bad weather at Fenway, because obviously it was raining and he slipped.

So this is a summer warm weather sport and the most important games are played in October, in nasty weather. Isn't it kind of like kind of consider getting roofs put on some of these same? Well, I think if you had chopped off 18 games from nine, every owner gave nine back or eight back, and then you could end the season 30 days earlier, and then you'd be out of this thing by October 1st. I have always thought if just every owner just said, eight games will give back to the sport,

and they have different revenue splits, and then you'd be done by now. And that would be, if you were done two and a half weeks ago, you wouldn't have this. You wouldn't have this weather. I mean, look, like Marlins Park has an amazing roof, although I don't necessarily know if you need it other than just keeping it comfortable.

It's amazingly comfortable when the roof is closed. And it's beautiful when it's not crazy, thought out, but it's really just for the rain. Anyway, game through tonight at 7.30 p.m. Eastern on Fox. So Cowboys receiver, Cole Beasley, is feeling good these days. He has 16 catches over the past two weeks. The rest of the entire Dallas Y receiving corps only has 11 in that time. And Beasley is excited about the arrival of Amari Cooper because he says he has some juice off the line getting off the press. He is really good, which is one of the hardest things about the NFL. So if you got that, there's no ceiling. If it's any easier for me, the defense is going to be in trouble. They've got to do

something different knowing he is over there. And he's right. Yeah. I really do like this Amari Cooper thing. And I really think they have, if you look at it now, they got their left tackle, their quarterback, their dynamic outside receiver, their slot receiver. If I'm the Cowboys next year, the only thing I have to draft, Joy, I got to get a tight end. Goulin, I could be wrong on this. They've got to get a tight end. Baltimore drafted two rookies this year. And they'd probably go after a safety. And that's it. I mean, I look at Dallas and I'm like, if Dax's your guy and you believe he is with Amari Cooper, You really need a tight end, which, by the way, they generally don't go in the first round, so you can give up your first round pick. Right.

Yeah. Oh, did they try to get one this year? Yeah, the one the Eagles drafted. Oh, they wanted. They tried to. The Eagles jumped over them to draft them. Okay, because they need a tight end and they need a safety. Other than that, I like Dallas's personnel.

I do. I like them. I think they're an interesting team. It would have been interesting if they had, you know, committed to having a receiver earlier in the year. But, well, everything happens for a reason. Finally, Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant was in the house last night for a very big win for the Lakers. statement when he sat court side and caught a glimpse of LeBron, his first triple double for the Lakers, and he got a warm standing ovation to no one's surprise.

Five-time world champion has returned to Staples Center. Number eight and number 24. Kobe, Brian. Kobe fans are just, they're like zealots almost. It's like Jordan fans and Kobe fans. No, I mean, L.A. sports fans are different because the only thing I'd say about L.A. fans that's different than the rest of the country, and this is in Miami, too. When you have a beach, that becomes competition for sports. Yeah, it's competition for everything.

So you bail on bad teams. You still love your team, but in Cleveland, you won't bail on your NFL team that's one in six. In L.A., they'll just bail on your team. There's too many things to do here. I think even there's way too many things to do here. There's too many comfortable or exciting alternatives to watch the game at, you know, when you can go and pay all the money to go sit in the stadium and watch a terrible team, or you can sit at a Tiki Hut and, you know, drink a nice margarita by the beach and so watch the game.

You know what I'm doing tonight at my house? Jumping in the pool. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my son and I will jump in the pool tonight. So that that's why. Yeah, I mean, if you live in Cleveland and your options are stay inside and watch it in your house or go be cold, but watch it with a bunch of other people in Cleveland

and have a little fun, even if it's a bad team, you're going to go. It's a big difference. Enjoy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. An All-Star, a World Series champ, Mr. Energy,

Nick Swisher, baby. Come on. This is your time, Swish. Oh, man, I love it. How you do it? Hey, there's a whole heap of things to do in Cleveland guys, by the way. A heap? Just kidding.

Okay, so I am, I don't want to be one of these old crusty farts. I don't like analytics. I get some. Totally. But when you get to the NBA Western Conference finals, when I get to the playoffs, when I get to the World Series, I want my alphas. You're right. I don't like the Dodgers, staring at a binder, and not playing Cody Bellinger.

He's the National League Championship Series MVP. I'm with you. I mean, I totally agree with that. I think at the end of the day, after the series is over and you look back on all of it, you want to either win the series or lose the series with your best players. Give yourself the best opportunity. Sometimes the percentage is not always the best bet. Sometimes you've got to go with the enthusiasm, the hot bat, the excitement.

Hey, man, there's only a short span. That's why some of these teams that get hot, like the Milwaukee Brewers, make it as far as they do. If you get hot and continue to keep rolling like that, you can roll this thing out and win it. Here's the other thing. Boston is, the Red Sox are a little like the Patriots, no? Totally. Here's our dudes. I mean, you're so right.

I feel like, you know, Alex Korah, kind of Bill Belichick, you know, I feel like there's a lot of similarities of things that are going on over there. I feel like with the preparation, the way the Patriots prepare for somebody is out of this world. And from what's been now led out to the public, which is awesome, is J.D. Martinez is leading that charge and learning and going to the younger guys in the locker room and talking about hey, how to approach certain guys. And I had a few guys for myself.

Obviously, analytics weren't as big when I first got into the league. But to see these veteran guys helping everybody, helping advance the game, helping advance the knowledge of how hitting is done. It's a skill. It's a craft. And these guys can work that craft to a pulp, which is the reason why they are so relentless, especially with two outs. Yeah, I was going to say nine of the 12 Red Sox runs have come with two outs,

and the Dodgers have had base runners and just don't drive guys in. when you talk about postseason baseball, so go back to your career, and there are regular season games, and then there are playoff games, and then there's World Series games. As a batter, did you, do you short, I mean, how do you, you can't tell me that a June at bat in Tampa is the same. On a Tuesday afternoon. So what's the difference? This is why I want my stars out there.

What is the difference hitting in the World Series? Well, I think it goes beyond more than that. I think it's about knowing the individual. You spend almost 10 months together in preparation to play for a championship, right? Dave Roberts does such a good job by being, you know, a communicator talking to these guys. And that's where I think things have gone wrong, right? I feel like there is a little, they're in a little disarray. Guys are going to the ballpark, not knowing if they're going to be playing or not.

And sometimes this is where, you know, the old crusty guy needs to come out a little bit and say, hey, I know the analytics may say this is where I should be. but for me not putting in one of the stars on your team one of the reasons what excuse me why you got there cody bellinger you got to have that spark man and max and max munsey by the way who's also been made oh i haven't even mentioned him yet um how is it how does it play in the locker room like if you were in an NBA locker room and the coach said analytically we can't play chris paul for the rockets tonight right i just think you drive to the arena and everybody's like that doesn't i don't i don't how do players look at analytics yeah i think that's the thing i think

That's where communication comes in key. I think that's why you're seeing these young managers come out, guys like Rocco Baldelli who just got the job with the twins. I think it's all about having relationships, right? Building that trust, understanding, you know, where you are. So I think that's where Alex Cora has really kind of stepped up his game. I think after the pinch hit Homer by Eduardo Nunez, he came out and said it publicly, hey, this is what Alex Cora does.

He texts us the night before and lets us know, hey, you're either playing and this is why or you're not playing and this is why. And as a player, if you are approached in that manner, it's easier to take it on the chin. Sure, you drive to the park, I'm just going to work out today. I'll be on the bike. You know, hey, first time the right-handed guy comes in, hey, swish you're off the bench.

Okay, so now I'm mentally ready and prepared for that moment. And when that moment comes, it doesn't catch me off guard. I'm ready. And I think that's why, you know, the Boston Red Sox are really doing this, man. I feel like it's crazy to say that the Dodgers aren't even up there, But so far the way this series is gone, man, it doesn't look good. It's funny. When I watched the Dodgers at Fenway, they look cold.

So you played in Fenway for years and years. Fenway is, the first time I went to Fenway, I've only been to it a couple times. But when I was out there, I went with a friend Brian Berger, the first thing I realized is your seat is facing the outfield. Right. You're not even like aimed in the right direction. No, no. And also they were built for 142-pound men. So it's old.

Everybody's spilling over onto each other, right? It's like a really cheap airline. Totally. So when you played, when I look at the Dodgers and to win this series, they're going to have to go back and win a game at Fenway. Oh, there's no doubt, man. Absolutely. Is it the hardest place you ever played?

I think so. I think it's one of my favorite places, obviously Yankee Stadium being number one. But number two being Fenway, the atmosphere that in the World Series, I couldn't even imagine. But obviously with the rivalry with the Yanks and the Red Sox, it was so electric. couldn't even fathom what it is right now. Can you hear fans in Fenway? Yeah, that's the thing. You know me, man. I'm always paying attention. I always hear that stuff. I mean, some guys can lock it in and zero in. But Fenway Park has something special. It's been around this long for a reason. And once that stadium gets packed up,

which it has been all season long. And they're in, they're locked into their seats 40 minutes out. Oh, it's like a college football game. You know how college football game, the fans are the, you know, are the 12th player, right? They can help out. In Fenway, it's the same thing. Yankee Stadium, Riggly Field, those historic ballparks that have that, you know, juz about it, that can kind of get your team moving in the right direction when they need it. Okay, Dodgers have a rookie Walker Bueller, who's kind of an alpha. Yeah, oh, yeah, he's bad, man. He's got a swagged out.

He's cocky. I dig that, right? Because you're down 02, right? Who more would you rather have on the mound than a cocky, brash kid that's got something to him? Hey, he's got 100 miles an hour in the bank. God, look at that. Right? And let's think about this.

They've been throwing kind of middle 90s, you know, middle 90s, you know, low 90s, left-handed guys. Switching it over on the right side, I think is going to help a lot, right? I feel like... Now, the Red Sox, they don't care. They'll send their right-handed batters up. Well, that's the thing. The Red Sox are going to send out their lineup, right?

They've done it all season long. They won 108 games in the regular season for a reason. Mookie Betts was saying it. So, you know, if Mookie Betz is like, hey, this isn't by fluke. Like, this is by, you know, preparation, and we're good. and we have great approaches. I think watching that game against Clayton Kershaw in game one, to watch them spit on so many close pitches was amazing.

I mean, that goes in way before the game starts. That's not just in the abat. That's hours and hours of videotape to get you to that point. Fastest pitch I've ever, I go to the batting cage I used to, and I'd crank it up to 80. Oh, yeah. And I couldn't hit it much. I'd foul stuff off.

So, I mean, I can't even imagine 100. Who was the hardest thrower you ever faced? A Rollis Chapman, right? I think you can actually look it up on the Internet. I think. 102 right at my right at my nougat, man. What happened?

You know what? If you've actually seen the size of this man, you know, you act like you're going to go, but you know you're really not going to go, right? So I feel like at that point, I don't know whether he was having a bad day. You don't have a hundred and two, man.

That's scary. Like, because you hear it coming. If kids in a lot for the Dodgers, we'll throw a hundred miles an hour. Yeah. I think you're going to see more and more kids nowadays throwing a hundred miles an hour. That's unbelievable, man.

You can hear the ball. You hear it. Sometimes you've got to hit on sound. You know? What do you mean? You have to hit on sound. Yeah, man. Sometimes it looks like a little pellet assault coming in there.

Sometimes that's hard, right? To the normal person, I mean, it feels like sometimes it's like a softball and sometimes it's like a pellet assault. Do you remember Mike Witt? Oh, yeah. Mike Witt was a... Yeah, you could hear it. That's those guys spinning it. Like Lance McCuller is spinning his breaking ball.

You can hear it come out. You hear the seams kind of rip the air. It's pretty cool. Say what, John? Chabin threw it in him. He threw over your head. Yeah, yeah. Almost over the backstop, right?

Why didn't he like you? I don't know, man. We're buddies now, man. We're Yankees now, bro. But he didn't like you. Not? I guess not, man. Well, you know, it's the rivalry.

It was the Cincinnati Reds against Cleveland. Plus, you're a talker. Yeah, man. Sometimes I might have been able to get under some people's skin. I love Nick Swisher. All right. Good seeing you, buddy. Appreciate that.

J-Mack, Monday's headlines today. Coming up next, best for last. Tonight, it's game three of the World Series between the Red Sox and Dodgers with Boston, taking a two-game lead. The Dodgers look to ignite the hometown crowd as the series shifts to L.A. Red Sox Dodgers, game three tonight at 7.30 Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app. All right, let's not waste any time. 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. Jason McIntyre is the founder of the big lead. He's on Fox Sports Radio. I bring him on every Friday for the last 10 minutes of the show.

This is one of my favorite segments. We call it Monday's headlines today. What do you want to start, Colin? Here we go. So much good stuff this weekend. Okay, let's start with this one. Browns, eight and a half point dog. Browns at the Steelers, Monday's headlines today.

So you know, Browns are struggling. They were plus three in turnover margin last week. Still lost? That's not supposed to happen. I think after the Browns get destroyed, and Pittsburgh will kill them this weekend. The headline will be Baker Mayfield, still chasing Johnny Mansell's win total.

Johnny football, seriously, more wins than Baker Mayfield. Now, I know everybody, Joel Clatt wearing the Baker Mayfield jersey here and everything. Listen, quick reminder, guess who is 30th in passer rating in the NFL? Take a guess. Baker? Baker.

Baker Mayfield. Guess who's 31st in completion percentage? Baker Mayfield. Can we just admit that the high, is not really delivering on the field? Yeah, I mean, here's the funny thing about it. You know, it's like on Twitter, there's what Twitter says,

and then there's the real life. On Twitter, Baker Mayfield... He's a legend. He's a hero. He's a hero. In real life, he looks small. He was overwhelmed by the Chargers. Tampa Bay's defense is terrible. Worst in the league.

And he couldn't move the ball with good weapons for three quarters. And here's what's also bad. He's now taking 18 sacks. already. That's more than Sam Darnold, who's been starting the entire season. Baker's starting to get uncertainty in the pocket, and that's scary. He's hearing the footsteps, and he's kind of moving around and taking sacks.

It's starting to get ugly. I like Pittsburgh a lot this weekend. All right, Monday's headlines today. Redskins at the New York Giants. So I'm going to give you my favorite New York Giants stat in a moment, but it sounds like the fire sale is in order, right? They dumped two players this week. Yeah. Defensive starters.

Giants and disarray. I think the headline Monday will be Giants, up at halftime, go out to eat. I'm not kidding. This is a team in disarray. This is the biggest dumpster fire in the league. Colin, when you look at the O'Dell Beckham situation, since the boat trip, remember the infamous

boat trip, they're 4 and 20. Four wins since Odell Beckham said, hey, let's take the team on a boat trip to celebrate getting to the playoffs. I mean, look at this photo. This is going to go down in New York Giants' lore in history as like a low point. Seriously, this is not what this

franchise is about. And I'm telling you, This is getting scary for the Giants. Odell Beckham takes him on the boat trip, gets hurt last year, gets a massive contract, and now he's yelling at Eli Manning. I mean, is this the game where they bench the two-time Super Bowl winner? Eli Manning's got two touchdown passes to Odell. That's it to this season.

That's tied for 49th in the NFL. He's the highest paid receiver by a mile. All right. Packers at the Rams, Monday's headlines today. Great game. Are you going to this? No, but it's going to be my... I think it's going to be a really competitive game.

I may be there. We'll see, TBD. I actually think this is a massive game for Aaron Rogers' head coach. So do I. I think the headline will be on Monday. Help Wanted ad. Packers quarterback seeks new coach. I don't think you're wrong on this. If you look at their next five weeks,

they may come out of this thing four, six, and one. And with Aaron's massive contract, they're not trading him. I think McCarthy needs to have a great month. Guess who they have next week, New England Patriots. If they get crushed by the Rams, I think that could be McCarthy's last stand next week. This is a significant game. Remember, they don't want to get Aaron Rogers players. He's kind of complaining every offseason.

I think McCarthy's going to be the scapegoat. Are they the worst team in the NFC North? Detroit's better than them right now? Well, Chicago's better than them. I know they've lost by one. And the Vikings, we know are better than them. Well, Minnesota's absolutely better. Here's the thing.

They didn't take advantage of their early schedule. Bears at home, Vikings at home, Bills at home. They really had a, they should have come out of the month unbeaten. Hey, they gave up 30 points to C.J. Bethard. What is Jared Goff going to do to them this weekend? 30 points to the 49ers last week. I actually think it's a shootout. I think both teams move the ball. All right, here we go. Monday's headlines today.

Lakers Spurs Saturday. What are the headlines? I missed some of the show today. How many hours did you do on the Lakers? I didn't do a ton. I did some on Lanzo Ball, who I think is really come into his own. Well, actually, I think Lonzo will be the headline after Rajon Rondo. I believe he returns this weekend against the Spurs. I think the headline will be Rondo

Spits. Lanzo sits. I think you've got to go to Rondo. I want to quickly debate you on this. I hear laughter about the spitting. Joy, fire away. What do you got? They're going to bench Lanzo? It's not benching. He's not the starter. Like, we got to give this time to bait. Oh, why? Because of two games? because he was the number two draft pick last year

and he's playing great. This is a blessing of disguise for the Lakers. Rondo's not the future of the Lakers. No, but what does LeBron want? Let's start with what does LeBron want? He wants wins now. He wants veteran leadership. He wants guys who can produce instantly.

Lanzo's hit and miss still. Just like Brandon Ingram's hit and miss. Okay, Kyle Kuzma's delivering. Rondo delivered in the first game and a half before the suspension. I think you've got to go back to the veteran. The one thing I'll say, Javelle McGee's great. Lance Stevenson huge last night. I will say this.

Brandon Ingram's all over the map. He's in trouble. I will say this, that Ron would have been good in every game he played. Veterans generally are more consistent than younger players. Yeah, I mean, Lonzo's going to hit a couple threes. He's going to throw up an airball. He's not going to chase down a turnover. He was good last night, Joy. I'll give you that.

I just think you've got to go with the veteran who's better at defense without question. And what does LeBron want? He wanted in Cleveland, what? Veterans. Bring in the vets. He never, plays with young guys. And that's why I think keep an eye on the Brandon Ingram situation. We talked about that this week.

If anybody's going to be the scapegoat, and I don't know that they're going to trade him, but come trade deadline. If they need to make a move, I think Brandon Ingram's going to be the guy. I don't think you're necessarily wrong, although I wouldn't make that move. Finally, Monday's headlines today,

World Series Sox of Dodgers. Yeah, my family's Yankee fans. I was born in New York. And it pains me to say this. But I believe after tonight's game, the headline will be Red Sox victory parade schedule for tomorrow. It kind of feels over, Colin. Does it not?

It does. It has, first of all, it's not, we know the Red Sox had a better year, although the American League's got some choppy teams. Here's what I would say. The Red Sox will look more comfortable in warm L.A. than the Dodgers look in cold Boston. They just didn't even look comfortable in either game. And the Red Sox seriously controlled both games start to finish.

I think they're kind of better in all facets. I do not like anything about the Red Sox, but I unfortunately think they got this series. By the way, before I let you go, Monday on the show, Michael, Vic, Trent, Dillford, Colin, right, Colin wrong. How about Deshawn Watson last night? First time I can ever remember saying this. I watched the Houston Texans last night.

They've got their defensive line. They got their perimeter star. The coach is good enough, and they got their quarterback. It's the first time I ever thought, oh, they're in that sort of 10 to 12 team could win the Super Bowl if they get breaks. Well, I mean, the division is, who knows what, I mean, Tennessee, Jacksonville, they're struggling. Houston, if Deshawn's healthy, they feel, in fact, I'll tell you this, I think the second best team in that division, I think the Colts. There we go.

Well, they'll beat the Raiders this weekend. Well, I wanted to make that a headline. We had to cut it at the end, but keep an eye on that cold scheme. I love them. Did you take them in the Blazing five? I did not, but if you go look at the Raiders dissension, It's a really interesting thing. If it took them a while to Frank Reich system.

Yes. Do you know Andrew Luck's not getting hit anymore? In the last 150 dropbacks, I think he's been sacked like once or he hasn't been. Don't bury the Colts yet. Two teams getting healthy. Colts and the Seattle Seahawks. Have you looked at the Seahawks injuries? They were bad early this season.

They struggled. Everybody's healthy now. Seahawks, tell me you took them against Alliance. I did. That's the better of the week. Yes. That was my bed of the week in the NFL, Seattle Plus 3. By the way, you're a Jets fan.

Donald goes to Chicago. They have no wide receivers. They are in huge trouble at wide receiver. Operation Tank. Let's just get a high draft pick. Honestly, I don't get Darnold killed. That's basically the point. So in New York, do people buy Darnold, though?

Of course. They love him. I mean, look at the alternative. The New York Giants have nobody. The Buffalo Bills have Josh Allen. Nobody trusts him. Jets have the best quarterback in New York. The future's bright.

The present. Remember, the Bucks went to Chicago and lost five. 48-10. Yeah. And it feels like a similar situation for the Jets this weekend. Totally agree. They're in trouble. Okay, Monday show, we will absolutely be packed on this show.

Michael Vick stops by a very busy NFL weekend. Rams Packers, to me, is the most entertaining game. Trent Dilfer stops by, what a surprise, a pleasant surprise he's been, joining us on Mondays and Tuesdays this year. And as always on Monday, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Not much of a college football weekend. You get the World Series on Fox tonight and a great Sunday of NFL. Be safe.

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