The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 2 - Raiders, Irving, Chargers

Episode Date: October 14, 2021

Raiders owner Mark Davis needs to grow upColin discusses what the Nets should do with Kyrie IrvingThe Chargers have the right coachGuest: Greg Cosell Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go. Hour number two. In L.A., it's the hurt. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Tonight, Dodgers Giants, about 6 o'clock, NFL game Buccaneers, Philadelphia, about 5-5-15 Pacific Coast. So I will be having chicken farm. And watching the NFL and Major League Baseball, game five for the Dodgers Giants is nerve-wracking time. You're going to have to eat the chicken parm after the second half. Yeah, so about the third, fourth inning of baseball game, you order some chicken farm, about 8.15, 915 out. No matter what happens to baseball game, 915, 920, I'll be. Now, are you, when you get the delivery food, do you pop it in the microwave? Are you like an oven heater? No, I put it on a good plate, microwave 30 seconds a little bit.

It's usually fairly warm. Yeah, I don't like something I learned from my wife who was in the culinary industry forever. Hot food takes away the flavor. Yeah, it's got a cool a little bit. I like warm, little warm food. There are some pastas and stuff I like better cold. Pizza's better the second day. I disagree on the pizza thing.

I know I'm in the minority there, but I'll eat cold pizza, but pizza is best warm. A little melty cheese. All right. Well, I have to address this thing. Generally in the NFL, if you go look at the losing-est teams in the NFL last 20 years, Cincinnati, Cleveland, you know, Jets, Raiders, Detroit. they all have one thing in common. Sub-optimal ownership. Some have had good coaches.

Some have had good quarterbacks. If you're bad for 20 years, the person who owns your franchise doesn't know what they're doing. So Mark Davis owns the Raiders. He's the poorest owner in the NFL by a long shot. He may be the most clueless. So this week, John Gruden says terrible things, has to resign, right?

They find those emails. And where is Mark Davis the owner? He hides. He forces his quarterback and his GM to take all the bulls. He hides, has a terse email. Ask the NFL that got all the answers. Grow up. And then I saw this.

It's confirmed that Mike Mayak remains the GM and now has 51% of the control of the roster decisions. The interim coach has 49%. But timeout. That's a little murky. We knew that Gruden apparently, according to the information, Gruden had 51% of the control. Mayok had 49. telling you the structure of this business is a clown show. So the reason you want to give specific people, specific responsibilities in any business

is so you know who to fire eventually if something goes wrong or who to give a raise to. You can go to the scouting department and say, you are great. You have the southern region of scouting. So if you have three straight drafts and you miss on all the SEC players, there's a guy specifically I can replace. if and you have a big 12 regional Texas scout and he's crushing it well then I'm going to move him to director of scouting there's a reason in a company I own a small one that I give specific jobs to specific people so I can reward them or have to move off them this whole 51 49 thing I mean can you imagine giving an interim coach 49% of control he's a special teams guy for like 30 years

So the reason you have a problem in Seattle right now is because you have this 51-49 thing with Pete Carroll and the GM. The reason New England has no skill players in an era of skill players because Belichick is all mushy and I got control here and who's got control. The teams that are beating New England now, let's be honest, GM, coach, coordinator, quarterback, owner doesn't meddle, 51 49. So basically, who ran your personnel? So Gruden had 51% of control and then the GM at 49. Well, in the draft, if we both disagree,

then the coach gets the say over the general manager. So now I don't even know, Gruden's gone. I don't even know if Mayok is competent. How would I? He didn't have the final say. You create specific tasks for, specific people so you can reward them or eventually if you have to move off them. The structure of the Raiders explains a lot of what's wrong with the Raiders. 5149, that's what you do for ownership. If Joy and I share in ownership, she owns 51% of a company. I know I own 49 and we sell it.

She gets 51%. That's for ownership. GM coach, 5149. One's a coach. One's a GM. separate them. What does that even mean? Exactly. The structure of the Raiders. We talk and we collaborate, but at the end of the day,

the person with 51% has the final say. So then like, they have the say. It just means that they pay attention to what you say a little bit more than the other person. And when you look at the history of Gruden's ego, what it tells you was during the draft, Gruden made all the calls. Well, that's what's happening in Seattle since Paul Allen died. They've lost their hierarchy and structure. and Seattle's roster is top-heavy and kind of a disaster.

New England can't find skill people. Why Belichick had too much power and they didn't have specific people doing the scaffold. I've known two people that work for the Patriots that have left and said, it's no fun. January Bill called you off. He took over the draft. It's like that's why New England has no wide receiver or tight end talent of note. The best leaders find people who are great at what they do and delegate to them.

That's just, that's the structure of successful organizations. businesses, programs, if you're meddling or if you're taking pieces of what other people do great that you don't, why did you hire them? I work in radio. You have a sales director and a program director. You get in big trouble when the sales director thinks he's the program director. Correct. And I've seen that. That's when stations go down into the tank. Greg CoSell, 42 years, NFL film is now joining us live as he always does on Thursdays. So I'm looking at some of these Brady numbers. He's won 12 or 13 games and I was looking at some next-gen stats. And I'm not big football analytics, but I was looking at some numbers and he's got the fastest pass

and the longest air pass, blah, blah, blah. But I will say this. You've seen all the film. How much is scheme? How much is weapons? How much is Brady? How would you divvy it up? Because he's playing at a very high level right now? I would say that a good part of it is Brady. I mean, you can always look at scheme and every team has schemes, Colin, and sometimes the schemes work. But I think Brady right now, first of all, There's no quarterback in the NFL who's better before the snap of the ball. He wins before the snap of the ball. He knows where he's going.

And then his mechanics, they're repetitive. He throws the ball the same way every time. He also has a stronger arm than people have always given him credit for. His ball placement is incredibly precise. And he has a great feel for the pocket. He can manage the pocket as well as any quarterback in the NFL. He doesn't leave the pocket. He's never left the pocket even when he was young.

but he has a great feel for navigating the pocket, understanding where pressure comes from. He may be the best playing now and among the best ever at feeling pressure without seeing pressure. Quarterbacks can't see pressure. They must feel it. The quarterbacks that drop their eyes because they want to see the pressure, those quarterbacks end up struggling. Brady never sees pressure.

He feels it. That's great. Now they play Philadelphia tonight. Jalen Hertz is a playmaker. are they a bit, you know, their offensive line grades high, are they too reliant on Jalen Hertz? What is their offense right now? What do you see Greg on film? You know, that's an awesome question, Colin, because I'm not sure what they're off. Well, let's put it this way. Through five games, what we do know is they do not run the ball.

So right now through five games, there's no physicality to their offense. There's no meaningful run game. Hertz is in the shotgun on well over 92. percent of the snaps. This is the way they've chosen to play. Now, we can have a debate as to whether that's good or bad, but this is what the tape shows. So the question is, can you survive in this league with a young quarterback still learning the position when you have no meaningful run game? And that's a debatable question. But that is what their offense is right now. Now, that won't change tonight because they're playing against a buck's defense that is really, really good against the run. And I think they'll believe that they'll have to score significant points,

and they'll feel that the way to create explosive chunk plays is not by running the football. All right. So let's move off that game. Tray Lance, it was a game I watched in the corner because I was so into Cleveland and the Chargers. I saw bits and pieces of it. Is there anything you could take from Shanahan's game plan or Trey Lance in his opener against Arizona? Yeah, I mean, they ran a lot of design running plays for Trey Lance, which I think in and of itself, itself tells you something. I think right now Kyle probably doesn't feel that Trey Lance is ready to execute the subtleties and nuances of the Kyle Shanahan offense. He made a couple of really good throws. His best throw actually was dropped by Mohamed Sanu. It was a great

throw with timing and anticipation into his own window. He made a couple of other good throws, but there was also some poor ball placement. I think that he needs work on pace and touch with throws. He's a rocket ball thrower at this point. And that definitely comes into play on throws 10 yards and under, which are kind of a staple of what Kyle Shanahan wants to get done. So there were some ups. There were some downs. We'll see. My guess is after they come out of the buy, if Jimmy Garapolo is healthy, I would bet Jimmy Garapolo is the starting quarterback. All right. Speaking of rhythm, Pittsburgh's offense for the last 10 games I've watched is the same thing. And then you watch them against the Denver team and a Denver defense that we think.

highly of and you're like, you're like, oh, what, what just happened? So, so, so you tell me, teams Ebenflow, this is the first time in maybe 10 games. I watched Pittsburgh and went, oh, they can run the ball. It's a pulse. Was it Denver's bad schemes? Tell me the Pittsburgh offense. Do they have a rhythm now? Well, I think they took the approach that probably makes the most sense, given their personnel, both at quarterback and on the offensive line. They start two rookies on the O line. Big Ben is not what he was in his prime. You cannot have him drop back by choice 40 to 45 times. This was the first game this year, I believe, where he had under 30 dropbacks. He had 26. They had a balanced run pass ratio. Again, people can

take from that whatever they want. But in order to play that way, a couple of things have to happen. You must convert on third down. And they were outstanding on third down. You must score in the red zone. They had a really well-designed red zone touchdown to Chase Claypool. So to me, this is more the way they have to play. And it's funny because the Dallas Cowboys are playing the exact same way right now. But I think the Steelers have to play this way because they cannot rely on Big Ben to drop back 40, 45 times on a weekly basis. Not solely because of him, their all line can't handle that. Historically, we always overreact people do to stand-alone games. Sunday night football game, Monday night football game, Thursday night. Whatever happens, it's the greatest thing you've

ever seen. But Lamar Jackson's second half was pretty electrifying. It was pretty special. And so you and I have always said, you know, we don't worry about a lot of things with Lamar, but it's the passing, it's playing from behind. Is he getting better at that because it looks like to some degree he is? I would say he is. This was the best game he's had by far as a passer. And to me, it's not that relevant who the defensive backs were, because I'm a valuable. Jackson as an absolute. I'm isolating his traits, Colin. And his traits were the fact that he showed much better recognition of pressure and coverage. He showed excellent vision. He showed a higher level sense of timing from the pocket. He saw things. He worked through progressions.

And he threw the ball with accuracy. That's what you want from your quarterback. He stayed in the pocket, by the way. If you notice in that game, there were not many plays where we go, oh, that's Lamar Jackson. and he's going to run around. He stayed in the pocket. And I'm not suggesting now they should never say to him to run. He's obviously really good at it. But you see what happens when you stay in the pocket, execute the past game within the structure of the offense.

He really looked good the other night. Just very quickly, his numbers on straight dropbacks, I'm talking about where there was no run action, no backfield action. The straight dropback game that everybody says he can't execute, he was 29 for 33 for 343 yards and four touchdowns. That's pretty good. So we all know what we see with Justin Herbert.

Good decisions. Big kid can move. Like that's all obvious stuff. Cleveland this weekend, you just see certain things and you know he's good. What is the tape say, though, that impresses somebody like you that's watched tape for 42 years at NFL films? He's a really high-level mix of refurb. refinement, precision, and efficiency within structure. At times he's so good, he looks almost robotic and mechanical in a good way. And then you add in the fact that he's always capable

of special second reaction plays. And you cannot lose sight of the fact that he's 6, 5, 240 pounds. That's a trait. So that's what Justin Herbert is. And clearly, he's incredibly football intelligent because don't forget he's a second year player who learned a brand new offense this year and the way in which he plays within the structure of that offense, he looks like he's been playing in it for five years. Isn't that amazing? All right, Mahomes getting a little pushback. You know, people are, you know, in college, you know, when he played with a bad defense, he had to add Lib his win, made more mistakes. Kansas City's defense has forced 11 puns. You know, anytime you ask a quarterback to do more.

or even the great ones, you're going to have problems. Is that the issue with Mahomes and the turnovers is he knows he has to score on virtually every drive because Kansas City's defense is egregiously bad? Yeah, I'll answer that this way because let me tell you what the tape shows. Watching this game against the bills and saw how much two-man coverage the bills played, meaning man-to-man with two deep safeties, I thought back to week three when I watched the Chiefs versus the Chargers. Chargers beat them.

Chargers played a lot of two-man coverage. Thought back to the Super Bowl against the Bucks. Bucks played two-man coverage. Mahomes and this past game right now, they're struggling against two-man coverage. Now, they'll figure it out. Mahomes is great, and Andy Reid's been around the block a few times.

But think about this. When you play two-man, that's different from playing single high as a defense. Because what the Chiefs try to do versus man is they try to run away from man coverage with speed. that is much more difficult to do versus two-man when there's two safeties. Right. There's two people on the back end. So it's more difficult to run away from your man defender.

You're not running into open space. There's two back-end defenders. Yeah, it's a two-man coverage, basically two safeties deep. You're seeing this with Tyree Kill. People are just saying, we're not letting you over the top. So you're going to have to do 12 play drives. And that's one of mistakes happen. So we'll segue to the play of the week.

but I first want to ask you this question about it, because I think they're the best team in the league right now by maybe a bit. It was an interesting. The other day, it was an interesting point. Somebody came on the show. I forget who it was. I was Peter Schrager, and he said, it's like the Bills blew out the Chiefs twice. They blew them out.

There was a rain delay. They came out and blew them out again. It was like they were so much better. But how difficult is it to defend the Bills' offense? You know, they're trying to run a little more, but they're essentially a passing offense with Josh Allen. And Josh Allen is so gifted physically with the kinds of throws he can make, but also the run game element.

We saw them use the design run game element to affect him this early in the game. So that was clearly game plan. We know he can make plays outside of structure. He's seeing things now better than he ever has. He's not as scattershot as he once was. So they're a very difficult offense to defend. And I think Brian Dable is really good, really good at designing plays. This is a vertical offense, Colin.

They want to push the ball down the field. This is not a dink and dunk offense. So they have route concepts that attack all three levels, and that makes them difficult to defend. And we're going to take a look at one of the touchdowns from the game last week against the Kansas City Chiefs. So let's take a look at that right now, the touchdown from last week. Okay.

And here it is. This was the touchdown to Emmanuel Sanders. And we'll comment on the throw here in a second, but let's break down what, indeed happened. You're going to see Josh Allen and the shotgun. It's a two-by-two set. And the Chiefs match up to this with split safety coverage. There's two deep safeties. Now let's work to the field side of the formation where you have Emmanuel Sanders and Cole Beasley. Now what's going to happen here is you're going to see that Sneed is the corner, Thornhill is the

safety to that side of the field. Beasley is going to work inside intentionally because he needs, needs to grab the eyes and the attention of Thornhill because Sanders is going to run the out and up. And what they want to really get accomplished here is to get the one-on-one with Sanders. That's what they're trying to get accomplished. And that's exactly what they get. They get the one-on-one. Sanders runs the out and up. He gets on top of the corner. And that is a seed, Mr. Coward. And you may recall when I came into Fox a number of years ago, we talked about Josh Allen. He was still in college and we talked about his traits. I mean, this kid can throw, I mean, he just throws seeds on those deep balls. He really is. You told me a year ago when you talked about

Trevor Lawrence coming into the league and you said, Josh Allen's got way better traits than Trevor Lawrence. You said easily, yeah. Josh Allen is the most physically gifted quarterback in the league. Now, we can debate whether, you know, who the best is, but he's the most physically gifted quarterback in the NFL. Love that. Smalltown California kid. Greg Cosell's always. Great seeing you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it. You bet. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeard Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show, isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow

at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And it recognizes, in the Mental Health Awareness Month. I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important.

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learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kine Hayes? said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill?

Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84's big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tomorrow on Fox, the ALCS begins as Zander Bow. Guards leads the Red Sox against Jose Altube and the Astros. ALCS game one tomorrow's 730 Eastern, only on Fox in the Fox Sports app. Order Jersey mics on your mobile app. Get delivery to your door or pick it up at the nearest location. Limited time free delivery on Saturdays.

If you order through the Jersey mics app, Jersey mics be a sub-above. I was thinking about this. I'm not really outside of my radio. TV career. This. I like some control in this. But for this job, I relinquish a lot of control to a lot of people. I don't have. So in this, my career, I like to have some control over it because I've done well. I think I'm pretty good at it. Nothing against the salespeople are my bosses. But I do content. So what we do, we're good at it. Our bosses are great. They literally don't babysit us. Literally, we come in here, do a show, never see bosses, get free coffee, and go home. I mean, we are very

lucky. But I don't have the control gene that a lot of people have. Like, I don't need to control people. So my wife will get upset with me sometimes. She goes, what do you want for dinner? I'm like, ah, something like, she goes, you say that every time. She goes, where do you want to go? I'm like, you pick. I don't, maybe, so I once got my testosterone checked. I'm like, I don't like cars. And I don't need control. Am I? But testosterone came back normal. And I thought to myself, is there something I don't have the control gene? I don't need it. Where do you want to go to dinner? I don't know, you pick. Now I say I want to go here because I think it's, my wife finds it more attractive that if I pretend, I...

We like plans. Women like plans. I want to go have sushi on my terms. So now I do that. But I don't have, when I watch all the vaccine and the mandate stuff, the way I look at it is, if you want to limit your employment options, then don't get the vaccine. What do I care? It's less people in the building.

I don't care. If you can't fly, that means there's more seats available on the plane. But this idea of social media is trying to control what you think. I don't care what you think. Just don't tell me what to think. I don't care what you think. And I think some people are, I don't know if it's innate, you're born with it. I just didn't get the control gene outside of my radio TV career where I do want to control all bristle.

If you try to control what I say, the words out of my mouth. I understand the fear and anxiety that has been put on everyone over the past. year and a half. I think that some of it, yes. I think some people are, to your point, control freaks who think they know everything and are, you know, are just meatheads who don't understand that new information can provide a better life for you. Right, right. I think for a lot of people, it's fear. It's fear. A lot of what we thought was never going to be touched or changed in our lifetimes was completely flipped upside down. People couldn't run their businesses. People couldn't hire people. People couldn't, you know, serve their customers. And so this is their way of saying,

this is my choice and I have control over this, so this is where I'm going to draw the line on what other people are telling me to do. Now, it doesn't make any sense, but I understand the fear and anxiety that people have because of everything that's happened. So things get taken away from you and you do want, so what you're saying is basically, because I don't have this in me. So, and there's a lot of things like- Yeah, I don't either, but I understand how like, you know, corporate structure works and billionaires versus millionaires versus thousandaires and where my place is. in society and in order to move into different spaces. You have more power and all of those things.

But the pandemic took away some certainties. Yes. And so people who don't have a lot of certainties had them taken away. And so now they really are holding on to those few things they think they have. Yes. Okay, that explains it. That's why the freedom conversation keeps coming up because people feel like their freedoms are being taken away when in fact they are still absolutely free.

And also, we don't really have freedoms. When I get in my car, I have to wear a... No, no, no, I mean, we could go on this conversation forever. You're not free to drive a car. You're not free to drive a car. Safety belt, insurance. You have to buy the car. It has to be registered.

You have to register with the government. You have to get a license. You can not just wake up one day like, I'd like to drive a car and go buy a car and drive it. You're not free to do that. The definition of freedom is very layered and nuance, and it does no place on social media, because most people who are arguing about this,

don't even know what the word nuance means. Right. But I do, I can empathize, because I'm an empath, I can empathize with people's anxiety about losing things in their life that they never thought would be challenged. That's why I think the pandemic for me and my family has been, we've grown. We've gotten closer. We're not a control family.

We like different opinions. We have, we don't, we're not trying to control our kids. But also, you and I talk about this all the time. We have moved. I left Pittsburgh, a place where most people never leave. I've seen the world because I wanted to. And I've had the privilege to be able to do that. so I see things differently.

And I don't feel the need to your point to be in control of everything. It's a conversation about politics. I don't want to know everything. I want to go to brunch. I want to come to work with Colin. I want to talk about sports. I want to watch some sports. I maybe go shopping occasionally and travel.

That's what I want to do. I don't want to run the country. That's what I pay my taxes for. So there's someone else to do it. And there's a reason why there are levels of security and everything else. So when this spills over, and the reason obviously we're talking about this on a sports show is because it has, of course, spilled over into sports. Kyrie Irving and other players as well.

And mandates and everything else has affected how we are watching sports because we are all in a very fluid situation. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Conversation, by the way, which I cannot wait to no longer have anymore. Yeah.

Can't come soon. That I'd like to control. Yes. If I can flip that switch, please let me hit. it. So in Oklahoma's win over Texas last weekend, in an incredible all-time game that you couldn't write, quarterback Spencer Rattler was benched for freshman Caleb Williams, who led the team to the 55-48 comeback victory. Well, this week in the student newspaper, it was reported that Williams was taking a majority of the first team reps in practice, which would obviously show that he's on track to start this week against TCU on Saturday.

So following this news, the team canceled all their media availability. for the rest of the week leading up to the game. So the newspaper reportedly gained access to this practice information by viewing workouts from a public building on campus that overlooks the team's practice field. Okay. So they didn't have access to the actual practice, but this is how this got out.

Now, look, I don't have a problem with them canceling the media availability. Sure. These are student athletes. I think there's different provisions that should be given to them that aren't, you know, necessarily shouldn't be given to pros. but this is a very big deal because obviously Spencer Rattler is a athlete that we were talking about going very high in the draft and this was a game that, you know, big stakes and a lot going on and he was bench. Now, I'm still higher on Spencer Rattler than I think most people are at this point. Yeah, he's a kid.

He is, but I also think he, he's an athlete. And I do think that his intangibles, even in this situation, are reflective of his character. Like, this is a thing that happens in college football. You don't see this in the pros. The pros you get benched is a different situation. Like your career could be over. But Caleb Williams might get the start. He was 15 to 24, 211 11 yards, two passing touchdowns.

Hey, Kyler Murray had to transfer. Baker had to transfer. Happens all the time. Yeah, listen, you only have one star quarterback. So guys transfer all the time. Kyler Murray had to transfer. Russell Wilson had to transfer from North Carolina State because his coach said, I like Mike Glennon way more.

So coaches make mistakes and players get better. And, you know, in college, this is. of shorter window of development. So you're not going to sit on the bench and sacrifice time because the coaches decide to move on. Maybe it's better for this program or whatever. But this is obviously something we're going to be paying attention to and seeing who's starting.

So, Aaron Rogers. Oh, boy. His time in Green Bay is likely coming to an end after this season. I think we both agree that this is the last year for Aaron Rogers and Green Bay. At least that's what I believe. Well, after the Packers game against the Steelers in week four, Rogers was fueling the fire, speaking very highly of Mike Tomlin. They had a little flirtatious little moments.

And according to Jay Glazer, it could be a perfect match. In regards to Rogers potentially joining the Steelers in 2022, Glazer said, that makes sense. We take what Jay says very seriously around here. Now, it does make sense. If you're looking at what the situations for both of these organizations are, obviously the Packers had mentally prepared to move on from Aaron Rogers the moment that they took Jordan Love, where they did.

And the Steelers are now in a situation where it's very obvious that this is the end for the Ben Rothesberger era in Pittsburgh, at least, you know, that's what we're seeing. Listen, you can connect the dots on this stuff. Yes. It makes a ton of us. Aaron wants consistently better defense. He respects Tomlin. It's a proud franchise that is kind of, it's a little dying.

He can save it. If I was Aaron Rogers, this is an easy. I mean, like when I left the SBN, Fox was an easy choice because they, succeeded in a lot of stuff. There are times when you're leaving a company and you're like, oh, that's where I should go. Don't overthink it. Like Pittsburgh, don't overthink it. Tomlin, defense, wide receivers. By the way, we want Aaron to go somewhere where he can win because Aaron's good for us. He's good for the league. So like, I'm rooting for Aaron to go to Pittsburgh if he leaves Green Bay because he'll be on television a lot and win more games.

And the first thing you have to do is win your division, obviously. But there's a not that many bad divisions in the NFL anymore. You can talk about going, yes, but, you know, it could very quickly turn around. That's right. And, you know, if the other conversation was about Denver, well, that division's no better than the AFC North with Baker and the Browns and Lamar Jackson. So it's not like you're going to a different situation where you can just go through and cruise like that division.

So there's not that many bad divisions or options. And you have to look at the contract situation. So Rathesberger agreed to a one-year contract in March of 2021. He reduces salary from 19 to 14. His new contract added four voidable years from 2022 to 25 for salary cap purposes. So obviously Aaron Rogers is very expensive. Right. You know, they're going to have to make that work as well.

But I think Aaron would, I think Aaron's at the point in his career that he would rework his contract as much as possible. Aaron's smart enough to know that it's really, it's really helping if you get a defense that good, just push some money down the road. I think Aaron's smart and would figure that out. Yeah. Well, also, if he doesn't want to be in Green Bay, then he's going to have to be a little flexible. I'm really rooting for Aaron to go to Pittsburgh. I think it's great.

I am absolutely rooting for Aaron Rogers to go to Pittsburgh. And by the way, let's make this happen. By the way, great 15 years in Green Bay or however, go have great seven in Pittsburgh. It's like, aren't we happy that Brady went somewhere with weapons? I think we're all kind of as a media and fans moving on from the idea that you have to spend your entire career. Yeah, that's over.

with one organization. Like, that's not realistic anymore. And this is not an indictment of Ben Rathesberger either, who had an unbelievable career. But it's over. It's coming to an end. So Tua is back on the practice field for the Dolphins. He returned yesterday after missing three weeks with a broken ribs.

Okay, this is interesting. More, please. According to Brian Flores, he is expected to be ready to go on Sunday. Ah, I like it. We're moving enough in the right direction that he'll be out there. He'll have an opportunity to practice and hopefully, you know, hopefully playing the game. Ask him, he's 100%

He's fine. So he's not going to tell anybody any different. And, you know, he's made a lot of progress. Joy, got a window now about the next six weeks Jags Atlanta Texans Jets. So this is, this is his moment, Joy. You and I could be totally wrong.

This is the moment. I don't know what there is to be right or wrong about. I have not seen enough consistently up to a to make an evaluation of whether he is the future of the Miami Dolphins are not. I have and I think no. Which has always been my argument about to. I know Dolphins fan base has been freaking out for forever, which, look, it's been very quiet

in Miami over the past couple weeks, which is odd. But that's why I had an issue with how they handled it last year. You have to get an evaluation of these guys. It's why I like rookies starting right away if they can. You have to get them some momentum. Your point yesterday about two was perfect. There's no momentum for his career. None.

It's so choppy. Start him. Sit him. He messes up. at the end. Put Ryan Fitzpatrick in. Is he ready to play? Injury. Now he's injured again. Like, what is he? How do we know if he's capable of doing this? But the next six weeks, you got to do it. He's got some really nice opportunities. Yes. And by the way, I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong. If they go four and two and he plays well in five of the games, I'll own it.

Well, they're in London against Jacksonville on Sunday. That's a break. favored by three, according to Fox Bet. So this is a nice game to bring to a back in from injury and and start getting things rolling. Very good. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

He's by Carmen. I'm Dan Byrd. We have a brand new fantasy football podcast called I Want Your Flex. Twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday, we come up with new episodes to not only look back at what happened, what you need to do at that minute. it and also look ahead of what's coming up in the fantasy football world. That's right, Dan. Every week we're going to scour the waiver wire to find the pickups to turbo boost your fantasy lineup.

Sit, starts, fantasy football players' rankings to get you ready to dominate the competition. Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Harmon and me, Dan Byer, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts at wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me.

Clipper Taylor, the podcast. forth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, learn the hard way, with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes

when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and loss. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross,

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast,

learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just. because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Weather looking nasty, don't change your plans. Change your wiper blades. Michelin wiper blades available on Amazon Prime and at Walmart. Michelin wiper blades. One of the criticisms of the American media of which I am part of is that we often talk about the negative and I think that is true. I mean, let's be honest. We cover plane crashes, not landings. That criticism is of course true. The bad stuff, the stuff that can harm us is the stuff we cover. Ribbon cutting doesn't really affect our lives. A fire does.

Somebody on the freeways running from police does. So the media does tend to cover bad things and negative things, sometimes to protect us, sometimes because it's easier. But they do that. But I also think it's important to note that in my life, I've been doing this almost 30 years, and 99.9% of the people I deal with are amazing, not at work, on the street at the car wash, at the grocery store. I get nothing but hate on social media, but when I go out to a restaurant or at the car wash or a grocery store, old ladies, young kids say the nicest thing. And the reason is, is because most people are nice.

They really are. Most people are nice. The people that aren't nice make more noise, but most people want to be good dad. and good moms and good parents and good teachers. We had a situation this week where John Gruden had seven years of emails where he was not nice. And I didn't want to spend too much time on it because that's a John Gruden issue. And I'd rather highlight the really good people around sports. And one of those is the Chargers coach Brandon Staley, who was asked about those emails and the harshness of them. And I thought his response was worthy of time on this show.

here goes. You know, kindness and lifting people up and respecting people you don't know, I just think that, you know, that's such a big part of our thing here is listening to people and learning about people because I think what you'll discover is that we have so much more in common than not. Hopefully, you know, all of us can learn from this that it's about bringing people together for me so that people can become, you know, the people that they dream about. And I think that, you know, for me, you know, leading this football team and being someone, hopefully we can, you know, be a light for those people in those emails that not everybody's like that. That there's far more people that will love you than the opposite.

More Brandon Staley topics. Bless John Gruden. It is interesting that one of the things that I think is really powerful, and it's just the way the structure works, football has always been the sport of hope. It's really amazing. If you have a decent owner, because if you have a bad owner, you're screwed. But you can go from bad to good, like really fast, like really fast.

In baseball, you need a bunch of drafts, a bunch of drafts, bad, bad, bad. Kansas City Royals a few years ago. Bad, bad, bad, bad, a lot of draft picks, a lot of draft picks. And all of a sudden, oh, they're really good. And then they go back to being bad. But in basketball, you know, you draft a bunch of people, but there's only about eight great players per draft, right? And if you don't have one of those eight picks, you know, sometimes it's hard to go from bad to good.

Sacramento has been bad for a long time. They're good players, but you need about three great ones to win. Football's different. So for the last several, for the last decade, the Chargers have had really iffy O-lines, not been able to really get the coach right. And Philip Rivers, bless his heart, is just too damn unathletic, okay? They've solved all of those in like a year. Brandon Staley appears to be as good at the podium and good in-game,

like Sean McVeigh-level, like, oh, oh, God, he's great. Rishon Slater, the left tackle, doesn't just great as the best rookie left tackle. I've had two people now that look at film say, he may be the best left tackle in football. He's like 22 years old. And Justin Herbert is, it's crazy. And the Chargers have always been like the bad luck kids, you know, Linus on peanuts, you know, like somebody's pulling the football from them.

Nobody loses more games between Staley, the left tackle, and Justin Herbert. Folks, that's three of the four big things in this league. I mean, seriously, they have hit it out of the park. Greg Kosal was on earlier this hour, just talking about Herbert. And he's just a kid. He's on his second coach in two years, what the film says. He's a really high-level mix of refinement, precision, and efficiency within structure. At times, he's so good he looks almost robotic and mechanical in a good way,

and you cannot lose sight of the fact that he's 6, 5, 240 pounds. That's a trait. So that's what Justin Herbert is. And clearly, he's incredibly football intelligent, because don't forget, he's a second-year player who learned a brand-new offense this year. What's amazing about Herbert and Staley and Roshan Slater is we've interviewed all of them. They're just great people. And there are some bad people out there, and they often make a lot of noise.

But I would say the media does need to, and this is a very fair criticism of me and others. There are a ton of good people out there. Let's give them some publicity, too. About Brandon Staley's thoughts on the Gruden emails was pitch perfect. I thought it just was so, and I was so glad to see people sharing it all over the Internet. It's almost as if we all want good news and positive people. We're just struggling to find them. So when you're in the media and I'm as guilty as anybody, let's retweet the good stuff.

A lot of it out there. Let it be seen. All right. Mark Sanchez, he didn't bail on us. We're just using him on Thursday. We used to have on Tuesday. He's busy. A lot of people want Mark Sanchez.

So we moved in from Tuesday to Thursday. Escape QuickBooks, QuickSand with NetSuite by Oracle. It's the number one financial system. It gives you a little control over your financials and your HR and your inventory all in one place, no matter how fast you grow. Go to NetSuite.com slash herd. NetSuite.com slash heard. H-E-R-D. Our 3 next.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guide, not quite. Quite unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to Look Back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement

to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clivert Show

on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.