The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Jerry Jones, Lamar Jackson, Browns, and Rams

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Colin explains why the biggest issue preventing the Cowboys from going forward is Jerry Jones, why Lamar Jackson is a target and needs to be careful, why the Browns are upset with Baker Mayfield, and why the Rams need Todd Gurley to be healthy to succeed. Guests include Nick Wright, Solomon Wilcots, Drew Bledsoe, and T. J. Houshmandzadeh. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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

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

Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart Radio app by searching heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this on a Wednesday we are loaded is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Drew Bledsoe today. Nick Rydell yell at me today. It is great to have you. Joy Taylor is joining me today. Joy, how are you? I'm great. Drew Bledso. Drew Bledsoe next hour, former Patriot and Cowboy. That's awesome. He is a great friend of the show.

Drink his wine as well. He's got one of those celebrity wineries that's really, really an amazing winery. I want to start with this, though. You can be smart, but you have a blind spot and you make mistakes. So, I mean, I've been very lucky in my life. I've worked with a lot of smart people, but maybe because of the way you're raised, You know, you can have blind spots. Smart people cannot see obvious things sometimes.

I would say older Americans sometimes struggle with tech. Brilliant Americans over 60 years old. Billionaires struggle with tech. My 12, 13-year-old son knows more tech than the average 60-year-old billionaire. It's just the way the reality works. Jerry Jones is a very smart man. And Jerry Jones was talking about the Dallas Cowboys and the fact that he's the general manager.

And, you know, Jerry Jones, for the last 60 years, 65 years, has been successful in everything. Oil, retail, sports. He's got 25 different businesses. Stan Cronky, who's the richest or second richest NFL owner, relies on him. They're very close friends. So, of course, when Jerry wakes up in the morning, after 50, 60 years of being successful, he thinks I'm a pretty smart guy. But I think Jerry has a blind spot, and I've seen this a lot. So he was talking on Dallas radio yesterday about, yes, I'm the GM, yes, it all goes through me.

When you can cut out the person between the decision maker and the people doing the recommending, then you can make quicker, more succinct, and more responsive decisions. Nobody ever has had the final say but me. Now, you know, I really don't like to say that, but that's a fact. And so when we don't do good, we all know the ultimate total responsibility. And pro football, the guy that ultimately has the responsibility for paying the bills makes the decision. So he's sort of bragging about it, but he's ultimately diagnosing the Cowboys problem. They're a huge brand, but they're too insular.

So this is Jerry's blind spot. He's built a $5.5 billion family business. And he does watch football, but mostly cowboy football, I've been told. And this is where the cowboys have an issue, and I've seen this happen with a lot of businesses. It's a family business. Do you know the Cowboys' head coach is a former cowboy? The Cowboy quarterback coach is a former cowboy. The cowboy offensive coordinator is a former cowboy.

The offensive line coach is a former cowboy. The defensive tackle coach is a former cowboy. Cowboy, cowboy, family, family, cowboy. When you do not have a global search, when you do not move outside of your family, I've seen this a million times in college football, where you hire the top assistant. The coach leaves. Let's just hire the long time, a loyal assistant.

my whole life in the Pacific Northwest, it never worked. You got to go outside the family. Now, Charlotte, I mean, it's a classic family business. Jerry's the patriarch. His ambitious son is the number two. His super smart daughter, Charlotte, who went to Stanford. I've met her. She's sharp as a tack.

She's the, you know, runs the operation. Then the kind of less aspirational son sells stuff. And then Jason Garrett's brother, is the director of scouting, and Jason Garretto has been the adopted sort of son for Dallas. The Cowboys are like a college football program that won't go outside the athletic department. Like they won't go on a global search and find the best people. Oh, by, they did it briefly, Jimmy Johnson. They did it briefly with Jimmy and I, we're not comfortable.

Jimmy's got too much power. All right. And they did it briefly with Bill Parcells. He was outside of the family. It's just, it's got a little too much power. This, you can be smart and have blinders on. The term IOS is used is sometimes you have to take the telescope, flip it over and look through the other side of the telescope,

the other view of the world. And I think with Dallas, you can have a big brand and a great business, but be insular. They're sort of like Walmart. Like it's the Walton family. And there's nothing against Walmart. They built a great brand. But, you know, if even when you hired a CEO,

for Walmart, he felt like an outsider. He had no real power. Eric Mangini was on First Things First this morning, and he brought up a fascinating point about the downside to everybody in the building being a cowboy, and there's been very few global searches and people outside of the cowboy Jerry World and the family that would make people uncomfortable.

Here's Mangini. I think the issue is, with a GM, what you want to have as a head coach is the ability to have constructive conflict. You want to fight through issues. want to disagree with the owner. You can, owner slash GM, you want to have conflict. But at the end of the day, you're going to do what he wants you to do.

So you may not get to the right decision. You're just going to get to whatever decision Jerry wants. Listen, nobody can sit in a room with Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones, and you're an outsider and not think about, I just bought a house here, I have daughters here. I don't want to make Jerry and Stephen mad, but I totally disagree with what they're saying. And Stephen and Jerry are smart guys and good guys. and successful guys, but sometimes you don't understand that your name has so much power and leverage and fear surrounding it, it scares off good candidates and scares off really good conversations

in the room. And so Jerry there was sort of bragging about being the GM. He was actually diagnosing the problem, which is it's too much cowboy with the cowboys. Go outside, have influence beyond your athletic department and your family. And it's a great business. It's a $5.5 billion business, but I don't think the Cowboys have the best people in the NFL with all of their NFL operations. I think their scouting department's done a very, very good job. And I do think the Jones family loves college football on Saturday. They watch it.

They love it. It's a college football family. They'll watch the Texas Longhorns in Arkansas and Big 12 football on Saturday, whereas Belichick's not as much into that. So that part I like. But I just think sometimes you become insular. Smart people can make bad decisions and just don't understand the power they have and the limitations they create. Okay, here's an interesting story.

You know, Lamar Jackson's playing tomorrow night. He's obviously, it's fascinating. We have seen lots of quarterbacks who are athletic, Michael Vic, Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick. They're all, they all work. Do they all last? It's always been my point. They all work initially. RG3 was rookie of the year over Andrew Luck.

They all work, do they last? Cam's now all beat up. RG3 got beat up. Michael Vic didn't quite go initially as we thought it would. So Earl Thomas, former Seahawk now a Raven, he said he's noticing some of the hits in the last couple of weeks and NFL needs to step in here. Every time somebody hits him, like, man, we don't need to be taking those hits.

And I think the reps need to pay with closer attention to that as well, and protect him a little bit more. Because teams are trying to do, I'm not saying they're trying to hurt them more, but they're definitely going at his legs more than they was doing it at first. Yes, they are. They're not trying to end his career, but they are trying to hurt him, at least for the next three hours, so he has to go to the sidelines. It's very interesting here.

He is so fast and electric that there's a term in basketball called breaking a guy's ankles where you make a guy look really bad. even Alan Iverson even broke Michael Jordan's ankles a couple times, that Lamar is breaking ankles. He's making guys look really, really bad on film. Like he's embarrassing corners. He's embarrassing linebackers. And you go to that film room on a Monday or a Tuesday,

and it's a brutal film session for you as a linebacker. And those guys do not forget. And so there's a lot of comparisons to Lamar Jackson. but one of the things that we haven't mentioned Cam Newton a lot. So when Cam Newton came into the league, he embarrassed guys. He ran them over. He was so big and strong. And I said, Cam's got to get out of this Superman thing because he's going to create some embarrassment.

He's going to run over a corner, run over a linebacker, make him miss, do the Superman. That ain't going to play Monday in film session. and did you notice after Cam had his most profound year, the MVP year, do you remember how the hits got cheaper, later, and uglier on Cam Newton? Because when Lamar gets to it, remember those Cam Newton? Cam Newton started having big success and people started hitting him up high. Remember that hit against Atlanta? People started hitting him late because he had embarrassed them with a Superman.

Now, Lamar doesn't do the Superman stuff, but he makes guys. guys look insanely unathletic who have a lot of pride. And my point is on this, they're not trying to end Lamar's career, but they'd like to knock him out of games. You've talked to these old school NFL guys. Every single one you ask about him, they're like, oh, this wouldn't happen. We'd just knock him out. You're not going to make us look bad.

Now, Tom Brady can embarrass you with his arm, but players understand that's what quarterbacks do. Running backs can embarrass you with their legs. Everybody in the league knows that's what they're built to do. But when the quarterback, the star, the highest paid, the face of the franchise starts wiggling out there, and they're not supposed to make you as a linebacker look stupid, or you as a corner, or you as a safety, or as a defensive end. And it's no fault of Lamar. This is just a reality is if he gets to a Super Bowl, everybody in the league is going to spend an entire offseason going,

how do we stop him? Just like they did Cam. And the answer was, hit him a little late. Get them a little high. Take the penalty. And so when Earl Thomas says the league's got to step in, this is why I keep preaching. Lamar, learn to slide.

Do not let the NFL dictate your future. This is why Russell Wilson lasts. He's a baseball player. He's a great slider. Kyler Murray baseball player. Great slider. Aaron Rogers didn't play baseball. He's still a pathetic slider.

I watched a kid this weekend that played for Georgia. Jake Fromm is the worst slide I've ever seen. Don't leave this to the NFL. Lamar, learn to slide, learn to get down because you are so gifted, so nimble, so fast, so dynamic, you're humiliating guys, and they don't have a way to solve it. So they'll take it into their own hands. They'll hit you late, a little higher, little uglier, take the penalty, deal with an ejection. I guess my takeaway in Earl Thomas is, hey, the NFL is going to step in.

Don't leave it to the NFL. Listen, for 10 years, they couldn't figure out what a catch was. Do not leave it to the NFL. I would literally hire a sliding coach. I would, because he is so good, he's making guys look so bad, they're going to take it to their own hands on the defensive side. By the way, he plays tomorrow night against the Jets. It is not a good matchup for the New York Jets.

I'm going to address the Lavian Bell bowling story, which I think is the biggest non-story of my life. the Lavian Bell bowling story is just an absurd story, and he's getting ripped for it, and I don't get it, and I'll address that coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of The HARD weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports. Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context,

and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist,

Kier 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, 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 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. Kier Gains is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? My mom. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. and finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's first, friends stop by like Quentin Richardson. We dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Vick Synex nasal spray works up to 12 hours. Use only as directed. Vic's Sinex nasal spray. I've been using the that for years. I got so many things to talk about Nick Wright's going to be joining us in about 10 minutes. And so, yeah, I want to talk about this Lavian Bell story. Lavian Bell's been a very good New York jet. He hasn't had a great year because their offensive line. You'll watch it tomorrow night is awful. I think it's as bad as any offensive line in the NFL. I've been told they're not happy with any of their offensive linemen. They're going to draft three more offensive linemen acquired. They don't like any of them. And so Lavian Bell hasn't had a huge year, but he's been a good

teammate, a good guy, and he's a terrific player. He really is a good spirit. He understands the business. He's not bothered by trade rumors. So he got in trouble because last week, he got the flu, and he didn't play for the Jets as they beat Miami, but

somebody saw him bowling at one in the morning, and people did not like it. And I thought to myself, time out, time out, time out. So you dig a little deeper on this story. First of all, he was ruled out by the coach Adam Gase, because he'd been sick all week. And the doctors told him you've loved. nine pounds, you can't play a football game. You're too dehydrated. We've all been sick like

that where you lose a lot of weight. And so Adam Gase didn't want them around the players. What are your bosses always tell you? Don't get everybody else sick. I tell my staff this all the time. You're sick. Get out of here. I don't want to get joy sick. I don't want to get Gullay sick or tooie sick. Get out of here. So the coach is like the Jets have also had a lot of ugly press regarding their medical staff this year. So they're going to err on the side of go home. Secondly, he goes bowling. It's Saturday at 1 in the morning. So it's actually like, you know, it's almost the next day.

And then Sunday, the Jets beat Miami. He doesn't play. The bowling story comes out. He looks bad. First of all, bowling with friends is not carrying a football 20 times in the NFL. Go to a bowling alley. Look around. People eat nachos as they bowl.

Okay, go to a bowling alley and look around. It's not the most athletic people in the world. Going bowling with family is not the equivalent of taking 17 shots to the rib cage, blocking pass rushers and catching passes in the NFL. Okay, so this idea that, well, he is good enough to bowl, folks, it ain't exactly the U.S. Olympic track squad at a bowling alley. You know what I mean? Look around.

The second thing is, his doctor had told him you can't play. This has happened to me several times. About three or four times a year, I don't get big flus, but I get a fever. I'll get a 24-hour fever. And about once or twice a year,

I just don't come to work. Number one, I don't want to get everybody else sick. Number two is I don't have the ability, I think, to put on a good show because my energy is low. So I'm not going to cheat the audience, cheat joy, cheat everybody. I don't have the ability to do a three-hour show

and talk this fast. But I do have the ability to go to the store and buy some Theraflu and go to the market and buy things that'll make me healthier for 45 minutes and walk around. I just don't have the ability to do a three-hour show and the prep, and I'm hot. So Levy and Bell comes out and he says, folks, got to give me a break. Here's what the doctor said. They was unsure about my energy and my hydration and things like that.

So they helped me out of the game. but they did advise me to get out of the house and move a little bit. I had a lot of family and friends there because they were expecting me play. So everybody was in my house just kind of looking at me. And I felt better, a lot better, you know, so we went out, went out bowling, have fun. It's a non-story. The optics may not be great. I get that.

I get that. But a running back is the last position in the NFL that's not. not protected by the rules. They still take shots. You can't hit a wide receiver. You can't hit a tight end up top. You can't hit a quarterback. You can't even put your face up in a left tackle, right tackle's face, right?

As a pass rusher. You can smoke a running back. So a running back whose lost nine pounds can't play this week is not the same as feeling a little better, fever dips. You hydrate a little bit and you bowl with friends for an hour and a half in a local bowling alley as you eat nachos. and drink water. This is a non-story. Optics aren't great, but they're not that bad either. Reasonable people can see the truth in this story. Here's Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Patriots were booed off the field Sunday when they were down 20 to 7 to the chiefs at

half time, and Patriots linebacker, Kyle Van Nuoy, was not happy with how fans treated the home team. He said, too much booing for me. I thought it was disrespectful. Obviously, it sucks when it doesn't go the way that we want. But know that we're all trying. We're trying to put the best product on the field. We're not trying to disappoint anyone. Just imagine as a fan or a media person that our feelings are probably 100 times more.

Our livelihoods are on the line and we want to win. Now, look, normally I am not into the fan police. Okay? Yeah. Unless obviously you're doing something disruptive to someone else or doing something, you know, throwing something on the field. That aside. Telling people how to be fans is not my favorite thing to do. You pay your money.

You're invested emotionally. Yes. Mentally, financially, you deserve to enjoy this game however you want. If you want to leave early, leave early. If you want to come late, come late, whatever. You're paying tickets. It's your deal. I agree.

That said, it's a little bit much. Like, I felt like it was a little bit much during the game. It's a little ungrateful. I mean. I actually. Like, you are fully, like, I. You can boo if you want to. I'm just saying my opinion of your booing is you're out of your mind.

Yeah. It's funny when I heard it. My first reaction was, are they booing Tom Brady? Are they booing Tom Brady? Right. It's remarkable. You know, people forget this, Joy. They're going through a little bit, strangely, a little bit of a rebuilding year where they had 10 draft picks and they're trying to get them sort of, you know, into the people.

People forget this. Gronkin Edelman didn't win Super Bowls in their first couple years. This is two dynasties. It's the early one. Then it's the refine and rebuild, and then it's the last one. I think they've moved out of the dynasty, and they're back into the slightly rebuild or perimeter weapons. I don't think it's a super bowl. We think they just go to the Super Bowl every year, and they win it every year.

No, no, no, no, no. They went 10 years in between these runs of being good, but not just dominating. And I think Baltimore and Kansas City now have better players and equally good coaches. Lovely. There's still 10 and 3, and we might get a. buy at home. Yeah. Playoff.

So maybe just calm down just a little bit. Maybe this year. Scale back a little. Tone it down a little bit. I mean, Tom Brady did take pay cuts for your team for like most of his career. Most, yeah. So if I'm Tom Brady and I'm hearing them boo me, I might feel some type of way about it, which is kind of what Kyle Van Nuys saying.

Like, however, listen, the players are out there putting their bodies on the line. They obviously care more than the fans do. They're the ones doing it. Yeah. But in a year where there's a lot of. lot of conversation about what Tom Brady's going to do. He just announced he's stepping down as co-chair for the local charity event called Best Buddies Challenge.

Oh, he did. He'll still be the global ambassador for the organization, but that's just another, you know, breadcrumb and the Tom Brady possibly leaving. Interesting. Tile on some ungrateful fans. I don't know. Very interesting. There's a little ingredient in the Tom Brady drama stew.

Very interesting. Be grateful. Anyway, not fan police, though. You're entitled to do if you want to. Just my opinion. So the Giants had a 14-point lead at halftime over the Eagles Monday, but found a way to blow it and lose an overtime. They tied their franchise high losing streak of nine games,

and Saquan and Barclay is clearly frustrated with how this season is gone. We're a team that finds a way to lose a lot of games. Meaning, that keeps saying inconsistent. We're inconsistent football. We find a way to lose games. We've got to find a way to turn that to the other side and find a way to win games. What is that going to happen? I have no idea. I don't see quitting out of the one of the football field.

I don't see any laziness when we're out in practice field. We're all going to work every single day. We're going to win a football game and just not down our way. There's also a report now that head coach Pat Schumer and GM Dave Gettelman could both be fired after the season. Yeah, let me let me just, I think, I don't know if you agree with me. I think we both think Daniel Jones is good enough to be a franchise guy. I think we've, yeah, that's fair. I think there's some Joe Burrow here a little bit.

Good enough. I don't think he's as great as everybody else. I'm not a fan of Gettleman. not if Adam Schumer. You can rip Adam Gase, but you would have to admit there have been moments in Adam Gase's career

beating Belichick twice, beating the Cowboys this year, that you've gone. Well, Jets are kind of interesting. There's never been a moment this year with Pat Schumer that you've thought were competitive. I mean, they're not competitive.

The most interesting part of the giant season was when they switched from Eli to Daniel Jones. That was it. So you've got to give me glimpses of hope. Like Adam Gase, gives me glimpses of hope. And also, Adam Gase is getting a pass this year because of mono. And you just

can't fully evaluate this Jets season because of that. And you know, you can feel about it however you want to, but you're right. You have seen moments where Sam Darnold stepped up and they look like they're growing but you just can't evaluate them. Giants don't have that

excuse. I know Daniel Jones was hurt last week, but I mean, overall, you needed to see more from them this year. And Seekwon's right. Like that many losses is not just on the players. Ugly losses. Over in the first quarter losses. Yeah. So there's going to be some changes to the Giants

next year. It's probably deserved. It's just, it's a New York Giants. They're held to a different standard, as they should be. They are a cornerstone franchise. I would fire Shermer, and I hate doing this. I'd hire Ron Rivera. I'd keep Gettelman for one more year because they have a relationship.

Well, see, to me, that's where a lot of teams get into trouble because if you don't sometimes if you bring in a new coach that's not aligned with the GM well they are aligned though Rivera and work with Gettlement so as I'm not to say I'd give it a year I'd give

Rivera and Gettlement a year because they have worked together and had success I think they like each other well if they have a relationship that they do that's working like just a lot of guys have worked together that don't like each other's but so finally the Eagles wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey had to be card to the locker room after getting hurt in Monday night's wind

Doug Peterson said after the game. The foot injury was significant and now Jeffrey is reportedly out for the season. So this is another hits to the Eagles wide receiving cord. Deshaun Jackson is on IR. Nelson Aguilar has been dealing with a knee injury. It's over. That leaves only JJ, our Sega, Whiteside and Greg Ward fully healthy on the current roster. Nelson Aguilar status is still up in the air and they have three receivers on the practice squad. They have the Redskins. They're at the Redskins this week. So it's kind of a break for them. there, although the Redskins can rally and beat you.

Then they have the Cowboys, and then they're at the Giants, but they basically need to win out. So this is not great news for the Eagles. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lie News. WEEI Radio in Boston did a blame pie yesterday. We like blame pies.

We did one with the Lakers before the season started. Belichick and Nick Cesario are there, guys, the personnel department, got 30% of the blame. And this is what I've said. In the last five years, the Patriots have not drafted a pro bowl. Joe Tuny, offensive linemen, is their best draft pick. Never made a pro bowl. Jamie Collins is their last defensive player drafted who made a pro bowl.

I'm not saying Belichick doesn't know what he's doing with personnel. He's obviously a smart guy. But when I watch the Ravens and I watch the Chiefs and I watch the Niners and I watch the Seahawks and I watch the Saints, I see youth and athleticism and perimeter players and I don't see it with New England. So I think some of this is front office. And Nick Wright, my buddy, first things first for you, the Coward Global Satellite Network. In your blame pie, Mr. Wright, Belichick Brady, where does it land for you? Tom Brady gets half of it and the other half is divvied up amongst injury luck, retirement,

formulation of the team and lack of development of the receivers. But I do love how this is happening, how right now you got to be. to blame one of the goats. And what we're seeing is the quarterback goat has a hell of a lot more loyalty from folks in WEI in Boston or folks in Los Angeles in your television studio. If you got to throw dirt on one of them, well, Belichick really how good is he? Brady, it can't be his fault. I mean, look at these passes. I mean, obviously someone ran the wrong way. Obviously, that defender's not supposed to be there. Obviously, the first pass we showed where it goes 30 yards past the guy. Obviously, you should have caught it. I mean, look at this. Tell me the wrong

route that was run by the referee. Whose closest there? I don't know. Conflicting reports. But listen, you got a 42-year-old man trying to play quarterback. It's not going to work that well. And this is what you're seeing. So, yeah, Brady gets more than anybody else. But it's hard to blame him because he's just playing his age, but his age is not a very good one in the NFL. By the way, I said this after the Chiefs won. I picked Kansas City to win. I thought it would be more comfortable, and I thought that game shouldn't have been that close. It should not have been that close.

The block punt. They got a couple officiating breaks. I thought it was a bad win for Kansas City. You're from there. I know that doesn't play well. Aren't you concerned a little? It's not because I'm from there. You're unbelievable.

Aren't you concerned a little that it was that close? You're not bothered at all. That was that close. Colin, the Pats ran everything this side of the annexation of Puerto Rico to try to formulate some offense and they couldn't get out of the teams. They won the turnover battle and blocked a punt and couldn't get out of the teams. The thing that should be that going into the game was concerning for the Chiefs was their run defense and the Patriots could not run the ball at all.

Brady had never lost a game at home with Julian Edelman against an AFC opponent until this weekend. Belichick had never lost in the regular season to a quarterback under 25 until this weekend, and you're now going to give me the style points argument last year when they scored 31 in the second half in the regular season, 31 in the second half in the playoff game, you told me, ooh, fancy Patrick Mahomes all his toys, but can't get it done when it matters. one win and 38 big games in his career. And now going to Foxborough, beating them, knocking them out of contention for the one seed. They're going to have to hold on for dear life to get a buy. You're, eh, not that impressed. That is a bridge too far even for you, my friend.

Well, you make a compelling argument. Okay, I didn't like OBJ to Cleveland. Now, I did think Baker and him would be productive. He runs the best slant in the league. and Baker was, at least at one point, accurate at throwing a ball. But I never bought into the he wanted to be there. I think he's done some validation seeking the Orange Bentley, the visor. Look at me. He knows his brand is dying. I don't think he feels Baker is he doesn't want to be tied to him for his future.

There's just more great quarterbacks, even in his own division now. So I don't buy the OBJ to Cleveland thing. Here's what I worry about is that the GM is going to have to acknowledge. Okay, I butcher the coaching high. and I butcher the OBJ trade. And I don't know if that GM's willing to admit that because he's not getting another GM job. Where do you land on the OBJ Cleveland?

I know you have a relationship with OBJ. Yeah, I think it is worth reminding the audience as you did. He didn't have to be traded to Cleveland. Right. I think he thought maybe San Francisco, maybe New England. And when he was traded to Cleveland, he thought what I thought, which is, well, it's Cleveland, but at least for the first time in my career,

I'm going to get to play with a good quarterback. Instead, Baker's been worse this year than anyone even you could have possibly anticipated. And Odell has been on his best behavior, but living in Cleveland and not winning and not getting numbers and seeing your brand diminish as you're saying, that can't be a ton of fun. Your point that it's going to be tough for Dorsey to admit defeat on this so quickly when he's going to have to immediately admit defeat on the coach and his, his crown jewel, which is Baker, is obviously right now a stock that is dropping. Those are all really good points. I hope Seattle saves him. Seattle's got the picks. They've got the need. It would also, I think,

maybe do Odell well to be in a cosmopolitan city, but like a cool American city, but one far away from everything. Because the first three years of his career were the best opening three years of a career any receivers ever had. The next three years have not been. And you only get so many years. And so I'd love to see him with Russell Wilson. People talk about Green Bay. If my friend Odell goes from New York City to Cleveland to Green Bay, I don't know if he'll be able to handle it. And I'm not saying it's lost in Cleveland yet, but I do think they are, and we've talked about this before. They're your neighbor who already had a Lexus in the driveway, but the leak was roofing. Or the leak was roofing. The roof was leaking. And then they came home with a Bentley. And you're

like, but that roof is still leaking, bro. And so it hasn't worked out in that regard. I think you have been correct on that. Let's go to the Dallas Cowboys finally, Nick Wright. I said, you can be brilliant and have a blind spot. And Jerry Jones, his coach is a former cowboy, His coordinator is a former cowboy, his quarterback is a former cowboy. The director of scouting is Jason Garrett's brother. The defensive tackle coach is a former cowboy. It's real insular. It's real insular.

They're not going globally to find the best people. It's a bunch of family members and people within the family. I think that's the problem. I think they have an average coaching staff. What say you? Yeah, I think the coaching staff right now is the issue. You can't be this year, Colin, they've scored. more points and allowed fewer points, gotten more yards and allowed fewer yards than Green Bay.

Yet Green Bay has 10 wins. They have six, and you can't even just say, well, it's the quarterback difference because this year, Dak, he hasn't been quite as good as Aaron Rogers, but he's been relatively close. The coaching staff's been disastrous this season, and so they obviously need to overhaul it. You can't be 0 and 5 in 1 score games, 0 and 6 against teams with a winning record, but I'll defend Jerry Jones in this. I think, everyone acknowledges that Jerry Jones, the owner, the marketer, the stadium builder is an A to an A plus. People say, but Jerry Jones, the GM with the meddling and the press conferences, I don't think he's ideal, but you need to look no further than the NFC East. Jerry Jones take ownership

out of it. Is a better GM than Bruce Allen? He's a better GM than Dave Gettelman. He's probably not as good of a GM as Howie Roseman. And so like you, I understand Cowboys fans that want Jerry to take a step back. They want to sacrifice good in the pursuit of great. Sometimes you sacrifice good in the pursuit of great and you end up with awful. That's the concern there. So it's also one last thing. It's hard to find when they should have fired Jason Garrett prior to this year. It was 8 and 8, 8 and 8, 8 and 8. Then they go 12 wins. Then Tony gets hurt. Then they go 13 wins. Then Zeek gets suspended. Last year, he was teetering at three and five, but they trade for Amar and they salvage the season. So when was the year Jason Garrett was supposed to be fired? The answer is right now.

And then what will probably define this last part of Jerry's time owning the Cowboys is by who he hires to be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Hope he makes a hire that makes him a tad uncomfortable. I generally think that is the answer in all businesses. Nick Wright, first things first. Good talking to you, bud. Thank you. Does Patrick Mahomes now have two big wins in his career? Does he have two? Two.

He's got two. All right, good. Two big wins on my big card of big wins. Coming up next, the greatest thing I've ever seen in football. It was on HBO last night. It was the greatest thing. It's like crack for guys that love football. I'll tell you what it is next.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, A blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsClice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway 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 losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth?

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. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows.

Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the game. challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to hear something amazing. Discover matches. All the cashback you earn into your first year automatically dollar for dollar, no limit in how much you can earn. That is amazing. Millions of people are getting their cashback match. Discover cashback matched. What are you waiting for?

Learn more at Discover.com slash match. Drew Bledsoe, top of next hour. I've got some big rants today, and I can't jam all of them into the next six or seven or eight minutes. But a couple off the top I want to talk about. I made a bunch of calls last night on Joe Burrow, the LSU quarterback, and I think the media is nuts. I think fans are crazy. I think that we're going overboard. He's a nice prospect.

He's not a number one pick prospect. Joy disagrees. Everybody disagrees. I've got some thoughts on that on the top of the hour. because yesterday I was challenged to make calls. I have and I did. I'm very proud of you that you're also going to share. I'm going to share it.

Now, I'm not telling you where I got it from. I called a bunch of people and text a bunch of people. And I'm just going to, I'll just tell you my feeling on this, my theory on Joe Burrow, who I think we're going way too nuts on. We're going crazy on Joe Burrell. I still think Tua is going to be the steal of the draft for Alabama. But I want to go to this. Something last night.

It was on HBO. It's called The Art of Coaching, Belichick and Sabin. Well, if you listen to this show, this is candy for me. I mean, this is like dinner, I get a plate of candy, meth, perhaps, but a healthier version. So they're talking about a lot of things. And, you know, something over the course of my life that simplicity is really good. I tell my kids this all the time. Life's getting more complex and there's more voices.

try to simplify your life. The same stuff that makes me happy today made me happy 30 years ago. Come home, I got two dogs, they come jump into my arms every day. That makes me happy. I go home and take a 30-minute nap. It makes me happy. I work out every day. That makes me happy.

I have a cocktail at night and hang out and talk to my wife, and that makes me happy. When my kids laugh or they succeed, it makes me happy. The four or five things that make me happy of mostly outside of having kids, I didn't have kids early in life, make me happy. and it is interesting. One of the other things I believe to be true that gets overstated. People say to me all the time, oh, my son, he wants to be a sportscaster. And I always say, is he a hard worker?

Because you're not going to be any good unless you work hard. Because Howard Stern worked hard, and I work hard, and Joe Buck works hard. And everybody that Stephen A. Smith works hard. And everybody that does this at a high level works really, really hard. And it doesn't matter what prep school you go to. And it doesn't matter what college you go to. It doesn't matter. I make a lot more than most guys that went to Syracuse in Missouri.

It doesn't matter. They don't put the time in I do, or Joe Buck does, or Howard Stern did, or any great broadcaster around the country, there's a zillion. Okay, so the point is, Belichick and Sabin are talking last night, and this sounds simplistic. It sounds like you can't believe it. It sounds like nothing. And yet, Sabin's talking about Belichick and his attention to detail.

Here it is. One thing that you do that a lot of the NFL guys don't do. I don't know that you've ever picked one of our. are players that you never talk to me before you picked them. And there's a few other guys in the league that do that. But then there's another 30 teams that I never hear from, and they pick somebody, and I'm saying, how could they pick that guy? You know, or whatever.

You know, and then they come back and say, well, we didn't know this. Well, all you had to do is call. You know, I'm going to told you the good stuff and would have told you any issues. 30 NFL teams don't call Nick Saban. That's remarkable, actually. It's just call Nick Saban because he knows the odometer on players. Hard work.

Hello, can I talk to Nick Saban? I run the New York Jets. He'll take the phone call. You want to go into analytics. You wanted this, you want to that, you want. The people at the top of these industries, they just work harder. They make phone calls.

I said this last year. The New York Jets had the worst draft I'd ever seen. So they got their first pick, right, Quinn and Williams, at Alabama. That was good. After that, they took four guys. This is a rebuilding franchise that can't have misses. They took four guys. Two were total headcases. One's already gone an hour after they drafted him. Two were injured. So four of their first five picks had head case issues or injury issues. I called another team that's well run and they said, we didn't even have those guys, three of them on our board. We took them off the board. They were undraftable players. One was a head case. Two were a head case.

One had an injury issue that we weren't comfortable with. Like do homework, make calls. Look at injury reports. So whenever I see this stuff about, you know, oh, it's this that wins football games and that that wins football game. It's not that. There was another moment where Belichick was talking to Nick Sabin. So instead of Saban talking on this HBO show,

Belichick was talking to Sabin. And Belichick told the story. He goes, you know, I'll walk on a plane after we lose a football game. And everybody's on their iPads and they're looking at their tech and their analytics. And Bill said to Nick Sabin last night, And I look at those guys, and I'm like, guys, we didn't win because we couldn't tackle. You got to be able to tackle. And we didn't tackle very well.

It's the basics. In a very complex world with a million choices, the right answer is always, always work harder, simplify the complicated, and you'll win. Belichick and Sabin. Nobody works harder at recruiting the nick. Nobody's into more details in the NFL. Practice at New England is just different than everybody than Belichick. And that's why they're at the top.

That's why they're stars. Gucci Main says what, Joy? What does he say? Nobody cares work harder. Get. Pick the phone up and call Sabin if you're going to draft one of his players. Drew Bletsow next. One more herd?

The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsClyce brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo SlicLife 12 and the 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 losses. 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, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me,

he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Come on out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us

on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like, after you go through a training camp

with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, here we go, live in L.A. We are rolling this. On a Wednesday is The Hurt.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Three minutes from now, Drew Bledso. So our friend, all-time great at Wazoo. They lost to the Huskies this year. He may be in a bad mood. Also played in the NFL for a long time. Knows New England very, very well.

We'll broach some of that stuff. I want to talk. Joy Taylor is joining me. So yesterday, Joy and I got into this thing. She loves Joe Burrell. And I said, I like him, but I think the media is going crazy. And I've got some, so I went and made some calls and thoughts what my eyes were telling me, in my opinion. I wasn't seeking confirmation.

I was seeking. opinions from information from people. So you're ready? Here's what I worry about. With Joe Burrow at LSU, he was going to win the Heisman. I'm always very reluctant on quarterbacks from powerhouses, recruiting powerhouses. Alabama right now, zero NFL starting quarterbacks. LSU right now, zero NFL starting quarterbacks. Ohio State won, and he's not very good. Yet Cal has two. And NC State a few years ago had four. And there's a reason for this. There's a theory, and I don't even think it's a theory, I think it's a reason. College football for a quarterback at a powerhouse like LSU,

five-star offensive lineman, five-star receiver, five-star running back, four-star tied-in. It's a world of comfort and time. And receivers are wide open. But when you go to NC State and Cal, it's a three-star offensive lineman and a two-star receiver, and the windows are tighter. It's a world of duress. And when you make that leap from college and you've been under duress at Boston College, Cal, NC State, Louisville. To the NFL, it's an easier, less daunting, less jarring segue. If you go from, you know, Texas, Bama, LSU, and you have four and a half seconds to throw, and the receivers are wide open, that is not the NFL.

That's not the NFL for Tom Brady and the Patriots for the last 20 years. It is getting hit, moving, sliding, fast, throw, window, small. And so Joe Burrell plays behind great players. Last year, this guy completed 57% of his throws. Couldn't win the job at Ohio State. And now he's the best player in college football. You don't think it's LSU's talent. Now, I'm saying, I like Joe Burrell.

He's got the requisite size. He's got a good arm, but not great. He's athletic, but not crazy. He's a good NFL player. But I want to give you an example to this. here's the current AFC playoff quarterbacks look where they went to college.

Louisville, Michigan, Texas Tech, Clemson, Wyoming, Samford. One's a recruiting power. Clemson. That's a big boy recruiting. Five star guys everywhere. Let's go to the NFC starting quarterbacks. Where did they go to college?

Eastern Illinois, Cal, Purdue, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Michigan State. No recruiting powers. So those guys were getting the, you know what, kicked out of them in college, and now they go to the NFL and it's less jarring. LSU, no NFL starting quarterbacks. Bama, no NFL starting quarterbacks.

Ohio State, one, he's not very good. Games too fast for him. Right now, it's just too fast. Of course it is, because he played at Ohio State. And they ran drag routes, and he throws a six-yard slant to Paris Campbell who runs for 80 yards. That's not the NFL. It's not the way it works. And I'll give you an example.

Joe Burrow faced a kid this year. I'll give you an example. Joe Burrow faced a kid this year named Jordan Love from Utah State. Joe Burrow looked great. Jordan Love looked terrible. Joe Burrow won 42 to 6. But Joe Burrell's got a great coaching staff, not a good one, and great players. And Utah State coaches, not great.

I'm told it to below average staff, and they didn't have good players. Don't be shocked. If Jordan Love, who will drop in the first round and go to a Carolina, L.A. Chargers, go to a team with players, doesn't end up having a better career than Joe Burrell, who goes number one to Cincinnati, not a great owner, not a great front office, not a great scouting department, a terrible offensive line, AJ Green and cross your fingers. And in that game, everybody's like, oh, Joe Burrell's way better. Joe Burrell's got an NFL coordinator.

Jordan Love doesn't. But Jordan Love's going to drop in that draft and go to a team like 15, 18, 22, 24 with a great coach. And as Bill Belichick said last night in HBO, no player can overcome bad coaching in pro football. So that's my whole point. I like Burrell. But my people are all that I talked to last night have my same. concerns. They like him, but it's hard to judge a kid at LSU when you're throwing, look at the Cleveland Browns. OBJ, where'd he go to school? LSU. JARvis Landy, where

he'd go to school? LSU is a football factory. They got 38 guys on that roster that are NFL players. Utah State's got one, the quarterback. Well, I mean, if he goes to Cincinnati, I'm just saying. I don't even know if that's like a fair evaluation of what he could possibly become. Well, let's go to Drew Bledsoby, the Coward Global Satellite Network, number one draft pick overall, four-time Pro Bowl were in 14 years. So let's address this that I think where you land in the NFL as a rookie quarterback is not a tiny thing. I think it can be the deciding factor, Drew. Go ahead.

Oh, it's massive. It's absolutely massive. You know, you go all the way back to that historic class of quarterbacks in 84. Who had the most immediate success? Well, it was Marino. And he dropped in the draft. That was the big story, but he went to a better football team, right? You know, usually the teams that are drafting at the top of the draft,

they've earned the right to draft there by playing bad football, right? You know, but I do think that there's one of these guys, and I don't know who it's going to be, there's one of these guys that's going to win the lottery in this draft. And that's the guy that's drafted by the LA Chargers. You look at the Chargers. It's a good roster. They've played close football games. I'm assuming they move off of Philip Rivers, they're going to have huge, huge,

huge cap space. And the thing that people are missing this year is that the Chargers, the Chargers this year, they were playing without both of their starting offensive tackles for most of the year. Nobody's fourth offensive tackle is a great football player. So somebody's going to win the lottery. One of these quarterbacks is going to go to the Chargers and they're going to have very, very near-term success. By the way, on Joe Burrell, I like him. I don't love him as much as everybody else. Do you buy into my theory? See, you played at Washington State. So you did not have five-star offensive lineman. You were used to having to squeeze a ball in there. Do you have concerns on the Joe Burroughs and the Tua because of who they're surrounded by? Yeah, I do. I mean,

I share that theory, right? You know, you have to be aware when you're watching these guys that you can't fall in love with their statistics, right? You know, the statistics are going to be otherworldly no matter what. But then what you look at, and this is why I do like Joe Burrow, what you look at as a quarterback, is you look at, does the ball come out on time? It's a is it hitting the receivers most of the time in a good spot versus a, versus a spot where they got to reach out and grab it? You know, you can watch some guys and they're playing on such a good team. The receivers are wide open so they can be inaccurate and still have good stats. But I watched Joe Burrow.

The ball comes out on time. He throws it very accurately. The ball is hitting a receiver in the face a lot of the time, which is where it's supposed to be. So actually, I do like his game, Colin. I really think that he's going to be a successful NFL quarterback. But again, you know, we're talking about, you know, a guy. you've got to land in the right spot. Otherwise, you know, it just doesn't matter.

A pro bowler in 94, 96, 97, and 2002, Drew Bledsoe. I want to talk about the Patriots. You know them well. In fact, this summer, I believe you traveled with the owner Robert Kraft and many former Patriots to go to the Middle East. I remember you still have a lot of connections there. It's the blame game now, even though they're 10 and 3. It's the blame game.

So we can, you know, we can point fingers. Is there something, though, Drew, that you do see that's fairly clear that's not clicking with them. To me, it's a personnel issue. When you look at these quarterbacks, right? I remember there a couple years ago where people were wondering, what was wrong with Aaron Rogers? Why wasn't he accurate anymore?

His completion percentage was down. All this stuff. Well, he had some receivers hurt and was playing with a bunch of guys that he didn't know and therefore couldn't trust. As a quarterback, particularly as a pocket pass, so the most important thing you have to have is trust. You have to be able to turn the ball loose and know that your guys are going to be,

where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there. You know, and you look at Tommy, you know, the only guy who's got real trust with is Edelman. You know, you take Gronk out of the mix, you know, which having a great tight end, that's always a security blanket for a for a quarterback. But as a quarterback, if you're playing with guys that you don't know and don't have experience with, so you don't have that trust level, that to me is the biggest issue. And I think that that's why you're seeing frustration from Tommy and that's why you're seeing a lack of production from their offense. I want to shift.

You were an athlete, but a pocket guy. And I do think it's not a coincidence that Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson, who played baseball, don't get hit a lot. They slide brilliantly because they were in the baseball pipeline for years. Lamar Jackson does not slide much. And I look at him and I say, God, Cam was 6.6.250 and he got beat up. Running quarterback's work. They don't last. are you concerned about Lamar's style?

Well, first, I'm sort of offended, Colin. When you watch the Mar play, that doesn't remind you of me. I mean, come on. This dynamic, shifty. A lot of words that they described me back in the day. Yeah, I am concerned. I love watching Lamar Jackson play. Man, a dynamic.

He's a true dual threat. I've always kind of bristled that a lot of guys that get called dual threat quarterbacks, particularly like high school and college. Usually it just means they can't throw. But with Lamar, you know, he actually, you know, he can throw the ball. They're running an offense that's Taylor made for him, so it's really exciting. But yeah, the limit on his ceiling is going to be health. And, you know, how long he can stay healthy.

I remember watching, you know, RG3 and Russell Wilson came into the league's first year, or the same year. And I remember watching RG3. I think he was rookie the year that year maybe if it wasn't Russell. But he watched RG3 playing. Every time he got hit, it looked like a close. car crash. I mean, it looked like he was going to die, right? Whereas you watch Russell all these years, I mean, I can't recall seeing him get hit hard. He almost never takes a big hit. And so I think

with Lamar, you know, their coaching staff is going to have to work with him, and they're going to have to convince him to make what Dion Sanders used to call business decision. Right? Right. You know, for him, you know, go make those dynamic plays. But don't risk. getting hurt, you know, to get the extra few yards, you know, after you've already made a good play. Yeah. Finally, Dallas Cowboys have good players. So we know Jerry Jones is the GM. I mean, obviously, some of the operational side they're very good at.

Would it be, do you think it would be, because you do some coaching now, having the owner be your general manager to me, Eric Mangini said this morning, conflict is good. it would be hard to argue with the owner of the team. You'd never have a problem arguing with your GM and getting conflict and resolution. But arguing with your owner is like, did I make him mad when you drive home? Am I going to get fired? What do you make of Jerry being very public about the fact he's a GM? Do you think it would be hard to coach under that?

I do think that brings a level of complexity, you know, to the locker room, right? and it can undermine your coach and undermine his authority a bit. You know, I remember hearing about the Raiders when Al Davis was still alive and, you know, they were rotating through coaches and guys would walk by the head coach's office to go walk into Al's office, talk to Al. You know, and so I think you can, there is an undermining of authority that can happen in that situation. You know, I've always believed in the concept of mutual empowerment. And I think Jerry does do a good job of that with Jason. But then when the players all know that ultimately, you know, the guy that's writing the checks is the guy that's making the big decisions.

It can undermine your coach a little bit. The thing that's happening with the Cowboys right now, though, quite honestly, is they're the, you know, they're kind of the anti-patriots, right? You watch the Patriots through this incredible run of success, even though they've lost two and a row. road. It's incredible run of success. The number one thing they do is they don't beat themselves. They force the other team continuously to make the big mistake and lose the game. The Patriots never lose the game. The Cowboys are playing good football about 97, 98% of the time, but they seem to be making the wrong play at the wrong time that loses the football game for him. And that's what they have to avoid. By the way, he's got a family-owned winery, double-back winery. I drink his

wines. They're amazing. in Walla Walla, Washington, which is actually a very good wine region. And you got a new release or anything you want to tell us about? Let's see. We're not releasing our next wine until February. But, man, I'll tell you what. So for those out there that haven't followed some of the stuff, our winemakers, his name is Josh McDaniels, which just coincidentally happens to be the name of the Office of Coordinary for the Patriots, both of them at the very, very top of their game.

But Josh and his team at the winery, man, they continue to get better and better every year. We just released this, just last week, released our family wine, which is sort of a preview of the 2018 vintage. You know, it's still available. You can get some for the holidays. It's almost sold out already. But, you know, the family wine, great holiday wine, just sits on the table. It's very old world-style bottle. So you just drink wine.

You don't have to do all the swirly, you know, whiny kind of thing. You just pour yourself some wine and drink some wine. But the cool thing with A18, it's a preview of next year's vintage. So it's all the stuff that didn't make it into our flagship. And, man, it's really, really good stuff. So we're excited, man. It's been a lot of fun. Double back winery, Drew Bledso.

I love having you on the show. You look great today, man. You've aged well. One of these days, I keep threatening. One of these days I'm going to come actually sit down with you in L.A. I just haven't made it down there yet. I can't deal with the traffic, man. I'm a small town kid.

I just can't come to L.A. and sit in that traffic. I get it. It's called Uber. You don't have to sit in the back seat. All right, buddy, good seeing you. Thanks a lot, Colin. I always appreciate it, but. You bet.

By the way, there's something happened yesterday in the NFL. And we've said this before. Quarterbacks need to be a fire extinguisher, not gasoline. Okay. There's going to be a lot of little fires in a locker room. You want to put them out as a quarterback. You don't want to add gasoline to the fire. Did you see what happened in Cleveland?

Did you hear the story about the next big mess in Cleveland? That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway 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 rapidly. 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 to be a good person while you hear on earth? 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 All 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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck. My mama want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win, no matter. what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson,

we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court,

and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sunday on Fox, Aaron Rogers and the Packers continue their fight for the NFC North as they battle Khalil Mac. and the Bears. Then in America's game of the week,

the Rams take on DAC and the Cowboys as both teams make a push for the playoffs. Check local listings for the game in your area or catch it on the Fox Sports app. Bears Packers, that is ripe for an upset. Hey, Goulet, what's the line on Bears Packers? That's a very interesting game now. Green Bay could not put away Washington in the second half.

Green Bay has been very good on script, but they have struggled off script and in second halfs and making adjustments. Chicago is what, but probably getting about five. That's a very interesting game. Four and a half right now. Very interesting. Chicago, listen, you know how I feel about Trabiski,

but the Chicago staff has kind of figured out how to work Trabiski. Like they're taking what he can do and using it as best they could. By the way, quarterbacks say this every year. I say it a hundred times. Being a quarterback's not about, I can throw the ball a long way. being a quarterback, 30% of the contract is leadership, being a grown-up. It's why I wasn't a fan of Baker Mayfield. I don't think he's a bad human being.

I think he's got bad instincts. I think he's immature. I think he's cocky. His personality, I said it's undraftable if I was a GM. It's not undraftable in the league. I couldn't draft him. That's the most important position. And you set the table.

There's a reason Tom Brady does a Monday radio appearance in Boston. It's not the money. Tom's got a net worth of $500 million with his wife. They do it to set the table for the week. Reiterate what Belichick says. Here is the messaging for the week. Going ahead, it gets played on all Boston stations for all the Patriot fans for the world, the macro view of the world.

Tom goes on radio and reiterates Belichick's worldview for the week. He doesn't do it for the money. Tom puts out fires. What do you make of your defense? Well, remember last week? What did he say? Can't blame the referees. That was Tom's message.

That was Belichick's message. Don't blame the referees. It's on us. That comes from Belichick and Tom. They set the table. So Baker Mayfield, after a game, rips the medical staff and gets, has to apologize on Twitter.

Well, yesterday, so that door was opened by Baker Mayfield. He started a fire, didn't put it out like Tom. So Jalen Strong, a former Cleveland Brown, went to Twitter yesterday and ripped the medical staff of the Browns. And I can see all the Browns fans as delusional as they are saying, look, look, look, Baker was right. No, no, no, no, no. Jalen Strong wouldn't say that if Baker didn't open the door because Jalen Strong can't stick in the league. Jalen Strong can't play. He's not an NFL player.

And we'd all go, I'll stop making excuses. You can't play. I mean, he couldn't stick anywhere in the league. but when Baker opens the door, now he comes out, makes an excuse for his career, and it validates it in his eyes. It's a medical staff,

because Baker opened the door. This morning, the owner for Cleveland is pissed. He looks like a guy that can't even hire the right medical staff. The medical staff is furious. They look like clowns. The GM, John Dorsey,

I guarantee, is putting out fires because the medical staff's furious at Baker, who opened the door. Baker, that C on your uniform stands for captain, not cocky. When he came into this league, I heard about his great leadership qualities, and I said, what? The grabbing the junk stuff? The police video stuff? What are the leadership qualities?

I don't see him. I saw him with Russell Wilson. I see him with Lamar. I've seen him in the league with Andrew Luck. But I don't get it. The opposite of leadership is calling out coworkers. this door was opened by Baker. No way a guy, a kind of a guy that couldn't stick in the league,

he's going to come out and rip a medical staff because people would just laugh at him and go, dude, you're just not good enough to play. But once the quarterback opens it up, just a little bit the doors open. Now he fires about the medical staff, and now Dorsey's furious, the owner is furious. I told me to this yesterday.

I think there's a growing group of people in that organization that are about done with Baker. Now, remember, he doesn't make any money now. He's going to make real big boy money in about two years. They're going to be hands raised in those offices saying, I'm over him. I'm over it. I remember what he did with this medical staff stuff. So you can keep defending him, but in the end, that door was opened on the medical staff,

and this morning, it is not a fun place to be if you're the owner, if you're Baker, if you're Freddie, and if you're John Dorsey. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So LeBron was under fire for his poor performance back in 2011 when the heat lost the Mavericks in the finals. And he recently opened up about how difficult it was to move past the criticism and how he

knew it was time to get stronger mentally. The one instance that I could think about right off top was after the loss to Dallas in the 2011 finals. I knew that the physical side wasn't going to be. just to be enough. And also the level of scrutiny that I was dealing with and how I got out of my comfort zone, I lost the love of fun for the game. And I knew that was the mental side. It's interesting hearing LeBron talking about those finals now, because that's what everyone points to. Right. Right. It's the main criticism of LeBron James throughout his career, those 2011 finals,

which in all fairness, he probably deserves some criticism for that. And the heat didn't have didn't help set the tone for, you know, a nice humble rise when LeBron and Chris Bosch and Dway teamed up in Miami. But I will say to LeBron's credit, obviously the heat went on to win the next two finals and went to another one in 2014. I don't think people really understands, looking back on LeBron's career. Like the way that he's playing now, the way that the Lakers are playing, it's almost like, he has passed into a different part of his career, right? Like you mentioned before, like he's in the mogul stage of his career.

But when you look at that particular time of LeBron's career, I don't think anyone really understands the level of criticism that LeBron was getting. Like, he was, it was insane the level of hate that people had, not just for the heat and the team, but specifically for LeBron James. Like, when we think about it, he doesn't like to be the villain. LeBron tends to be a seeer of validation.

You can see him on Instagram. He rushes to join popular stances. Villain is not his role. He likes to be popular. He likes to be liked. And like some guys love to be the villain. Like Kobe kind of liked to be the villain. Jordan could handle it sometimes.

LeBron wants to be loved. And they're done wrong with it. That's not a weakness. Aaron Rogers, I think, kind of sometimes. Kevin Durant sometimes, certain athletes, they want to be liked a little more. They don't want to be the villain. I think everyone wants to be liked

or prefer to. to be liked, to prefer to be loved, but some people can thrive in that angry role. Yeah, an angry role. I do think that was part of the reason why LeBron ended up leaving the heat because that, that original big three like teaming up, it just blew up the sports world. It's interesting to hear him talk about it now. You know, LeBron at this stage of his career, Tom Brady, this stage of their career, like kind of opening up a little bit more to, you know, their past situations. So Troy Aikman has not let his Cowboys loyalties cloud his judgment.

this season. He's been very critical of Jerry Jones, and he doubled down on that when he was asked if he would ever see himself joining the team's front office. I doubt it. I think that's a real long shot. I believe that it's unlikely that Jerry will ever bring somebody in that can help this football team in that regard just because he's been real stubborn and steadfast and that he's the one in charge. And I think in a lot of ways, until that changes, this team's going to have some problems. There should be one voice, and it should come from the head coach. The players should know that. And ultimately, we all understand that the owner, whether it's here in Dallas or any other franchise, the owner ultimately makes the decisions. I mean, ultimately, he's the one who signs off.

I mean, you can always say, well, as the owner, I can do this and I can do that. There's no question that that's true. But I think there has to be one voice and one person that the player's answered to. Yeah, I mean, they don't empower their coach. They had Parcells and Jimmy and they left because they weren't empowered. And by the way, that's the only time they won big. Well, we've talked about it. If you have a boss that your direct boss tells you something and you don't like it and you can just go around him to the owner of the company and talk to him about it and then it's changed. And maybe that thing actually affects on the field.

Like that's a problem. I don't, I think that Jerry is obviously an incredible owner. He's an incredible businessman. The Cowboys are an impeccable organization. They support their players. They have great fan base. The facilities are incredible. Everything is top of the line.

But I do think there is something to this. Like you can't be everything to everyone. You should hire people who are great at what they do. That's how all companies function at the highest level. By the way, you know, I mean, Bill Gates had four kids. And Bill Gates decided I'm going to make my son the next CEO of Microsoft. And I'm not saying Bill Kate's kids wouldn't be smart.

I'm not saying Jerry's kids aren't smart. But in the world of tech, do you really think that Bill Gates kids would be the best qualified for every job? And I just think Charlotte Jones and Stephen Jones are very smart people. But I do think there's this sense that it's the Jones family. And whoever comes in, you have no power and you better not. You know that you're ultimately in trouble if you skirmish too much with the big guy. You have to be able to be challenged.

That's the only way that you grow, right? If you're comfortable, you don't grow. That's how it works. So if you walk into a room and your last name isn't Jones, as you said earlier, really going to feel empowered to say what you need to say. And sometimes things need to be said. It is an interesting perspective coming from Troy Aikman. I mean, he knows that organization as well as anybody. So it's an interesting critique. All right, well, it's the holiday season. And Khalil Mack is in the holiday spirit. This is a nice story. Over the weekends, he paid off over 300 active

layaway accounts at the Walmart in his hometown of Fort Pierce, Florida. It was a donation made through his foundation in total around $80,000. So a lot of families are not going to have to be. to worry about the rest of their Christmas lists having to pay for it. I like I've seen that story about three times. It's kind of become a trend. You're seeing this over and over where people of means are paying off their small hometown. I love this story. Yeah.

I mean, like layaway, you know, obviously you put a list in and you pay things over time rather than having to pay everything up front. In June, Mack also donated a hundred pair of cleats to the Fort Pierce Westwood football team. And Chris Middleton also bought a new winter coat for every child at a Milwaukee elementary school, is 315 total. It's part of his 12 days of Christmas. So I love that story. Guys are going around and spread a little holiday year for everyone.

It's very nice. That is nice. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. For the record, the Rams play the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. And I think the game, I think it's a very easy game to predict. And there's one factor and one person that will dictate.

the outcome of the game. And it's uncomfortable, and nobody ever wants to really talk about this in Los Angeles. But it's obvious that Sean McBay's offense, when Todd Gurley is at least at a B level, is very effective. And when he's not, it's not. And Todd Gurley last week had a nice week with a lot of carries and the offense flourished. All I need to know about the Cowboy Ram game, how is Todd Gurley's knee? The Rams have made it very private.

in terms of Todd Gurley for two reasons. One, they signed him too early, and it's kind of embarrassing for the franchise. Two, if they ever do move off him, they don't want to disclose, yeah, week to week, his knee hurts. And so, Sean McVeigh has gone out, and he's done a very smart job of sort of deflecting the questions about Todd Gurley. When people say, how come you didn't run Todd Gurley 30 times? How come you haven't been running Todd Gurley? Sean McVeigh smartly deflects it

so you don't pay attention to Todd Gurley. Me not being an idiot. You know, no, I think he's felt good and really he's done a nice job with that. So, you know, really it was, you know, you look at the Chicago game and then kind of just going from there, you don't want to make some of the same mistakes

that you ended up making earlier on in the season. And I think he's done a nice job handling a bigger workload. But then also you do have confidence in those other guys if they need to give him a spell. So basically, I'm an idiot. We know that Sean's not. This Gurley thing is very private. It's the elephant in the room.

Nobody wants to talk about it. If Gurley's capable of carrying it 20 times, and I don't think he's ever going to be the running back he was, but if he is, the Rams are a tough out. And the Rams are going to beat Dallas. They're a tough out when they can run the football. Because it just elevates what they already have, which is excellent tight-in, excellent wide receivers,

excellent schemes and good at the tackle positions on the line. And I think their quarterback is an excellent thrower of the football, Jared Goff. But it's that Ram Cowboy game, it's really not about the Cowboys. It's about the Rams. They'll win the game if Gurley is effective. But I don't know if he is. I don't know if he can do this back to back. I don't know if he can have three weeks in a row where he's really impactful

because they have been dancing around this thing for a year because it's kind of embarrassing. They're not the same football team without him. and if I had a medical report this morning that told me his knee is fine, he'll carry 17 times, six passes, I say Rams win. But you're not getting many straight answers on this Gurley-Neathing-e-thin-e-thing, because I think it's embarrassing to the franchise, what they paid him and paid him early. So I'll know very early in that game. Can Gurley play? Can he carry the rock nine times in the first quarter? And whether they're ahead or not, I'll feel good about where the Rams are against the Cowboys. Coming up next.

By the way, when Gurley has 15 touches, they're six-and-one. So it's not like Sean McVey's dumb. He knows the numbers. When Gurley can run 15 times or more, the Rams don't lose much. When they don't give him the ball, it's not because McVeigh's dumb. It's because the knee's bad. It's arthritic. It's not capable.

Didn't get enough rest after last week's big week. Solomon Wilcox played in the NFL for a long time. Pro football focus. I love bringing these guys on. We all have opinions on sports. They validate them through data or invalidate what my eyes tell me that is coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon

Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo SlicLife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway 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 losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? 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, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast,

learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app, Search learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifferts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good to have you in. Solomon Wilcox played in the NFL for six years. He now works at Pro Football Focus. All of our opinions, they're fun. We argue. But can you validate him with actual data?

and there's a couple of quarterbacks this year. I want to dig deeper on this stuff. And Solomon's joining us via The Coward. Global Satellite Network. Let's start with Jimmy G. George Kittle play is a spectacular play. I've liked him. I think I got the arm.

He plays with a ton of confidence, and he's mostly accurate. Is there a number behind the sauce, is there a secret sauce here to why he's succeeding quickly and at this level? Yeah. How about the fact that Jimmy G, who is playing well at this point in the season, 53% of his passing yards are created by the receivers producing yards after the catch.

That 53% of his passing yards is the highest of any quarterback in the National Football League. So the addition of Y receiver Emmanuel Sanders, and obviously the health and the productivity of George Kitto at the tight-in position, and it really does contribute to just how well the offense is producing and how well Jimmy G is producing that quarterback. That's interesting. You have him graded about 15th best quarterback, but yards after the catch are making him very productive.

Let's go to Brady. He's, you know, listen, Tom's older. I don't think he has quite the zip on the ball, but I still think he manages the pocket very smartly. But this team did not address tight end three years ago when Gronk hinted at retirement. and it's a very complex system, hard for rookies to come in and play initially. When you look at all the grades, who's at fault in New England?

What are you seeing? Well, we already have stated, even when talking about Jimmy G, the quarterback and his overall productivity, particularly when you're a stationary quarterback, has a lot to do with those players around you. And just as George Kitto and Emmanuel Sanders is affecting Jimmy G's productivity, the lack of a Grancowski, the lack of really a prolific receiver who can produce yards after the catch, who can produce by getting the ball down the field and creating explosive plays,

it's beginning to take its toll on the Patriots' offense. And you can see Tom Brady getting very frustrated because his receivers aren't able to get separation consistently, aren't able to get open, aren't able to produce those explosive plays that we're accustomed to seeing. And now when teams are blitzing him, Remember, he's always been very good against the blitz, Colin. This year, those numbers have come down.

He's always been very good at getting the ball out quickly and still having a high level of completion percentage. Those numbers have begun to come down. And you're right, as quarterbacks get older, they need more around them to happen in a positive matter. We're not seeing that right now with the Patriots offense. And so the productivity of Tom Brady, it has declined as a result.

Ryan Tannahill, Joy Taylor with me, spent a lot of time in Miami and said for years and years, you know, it's Ryan Tannahill was good but not good enough. Now he goes to Tennessee and I'm here in long-term contract and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Again, take me to the data with Tannahill. What part of it do you buy and what part is what's around him? Well, the fact that he is producing in terms of completing, what, 73% of his passes, second only to Drew Breeze in the National Football League. He is really a huge product, a huge part of why this team is producing offensively.

The system is asking him to drive the ball down the field accurately. He's making very good decisions with the ball. And as ball placement on those play action passes where they're taking shots down the field, I think we can see that with the completion percentage. So he's operating in a different offense than what we saw. in Miami, which was more of a West Coast offense, horizontal stretch, quick passing game. Now it's a more vertical stretch in Tennessee. He has the ball placement and the accuracy and excellent decision-making.

I think that's where we've seen an improvement with Ryan Tanyhill. Now, we'll tell you this. He has done this for stretches when he was in Miami. He had two seasons where he had back-to-back years over 4,000 yards passing. He had three consecutive seasons of 24 touchdown passes or more. So he's had good stretches. But right now I think he's playing with greater confidence, greater decision making, and greater ball placement with throwing the ball down the field.

And that's something that I think is an improvement on the Ryan Tannahill that we've seen in the past. Finally, a couple of minutes left, Solomon. Michael Vic Lamar Jackson. Lamar's going to break his all-time rushing record tomorrow. Is it more impressive what Michael did or Lamar did? Well, I think what Michael Vick did was very impressive. But what Lamar Jackson is doing, I think, is equally impressive, if not better. And you can go to our PFF website, and our Sam Monson did an excellent job of breaking it all down

and comparing Michael Vick and what he did in 2006. When he rushed for over 1,000 yards in a West Coast system, most of those runs, most of his yards were not by design. 74% was of the unpredictable and improvisational type of rons, whereas this offense with Baltimore is designed around the talents of Lamar Jackson. And let's face it, 65% of those runs are by design. And so this is a system that's tailored to his skill set, unlike what Michael Vick did, he had to make it up. Is there a West Coast system that was asked to throw the football, and he would scramble

and still create the 1,000 yards rushing. This is by design what Lamar is doing, but the offense is highly productive. 33 points a game. They're scoring on 22% of their possessions more than any other offense in the National Football League. So I think rightly so, you ought to design it around with his talents

and what he can do because he is producing at a rate like no other quarterback before. By the way, John Harbaugh's got to be first or second coach of the year. I think Mike Tomlin, If Mike Tomlin got into the playoffs, I'd give it to him. Who do you like? I like John Harbaugh.

It's a runaway. First of all, John is already beaten all those teams. He's beaten the Patriots. He's beat the Texans. He's beat the San Francisco 49ers. He's beating the Seattle Seahawks. He has run through a gauntlet of really good teams. He's beating the L.A. Rams as of recent.

And he has done it in an unconventional way. Remember, they were booing Lamar Jackson in this Baltimore Raven offense. when we saw them in that wild card game lost to the charges one year ago. Scrap the entire offense, he jettisoned the veteran quarterback. That was Joe Flacco and went all in on Lamar Jackson. And again, they're scoring at a rate that is historic right now in the National Football League. Their expected points per play leads any other team in the National Football League. And as I already said, they're scoring on a higher percentage of their offensive possession.

than any other team, and they're doing it by running the football. They're producing points as if they were a passing team, Colin, but yet this is a running team. And so I think it's very historic in terms of what they're doing. And I love what John Harbaugh did. He's changing the game because they convert over 50% of their third and fourth down plays. No other team in the NFL is converting that higher percentage of their third and fourth down plays. And we know third and fourth down, Colin, that's the number of their third and fourth down, Colin, that's,

That's money down in the NFL. Solomon Wilcox, pff.com. Great seeing you. Love your stuff, man. Continued success. We'll have you on soon. All right. Thank you.

New England's very interesting with their issues because it's such a complex system. It's very demanding on players. This is why they had 10 draft picks last year, New England. One, Chase Winovich has been situationally pretty good. The other nine, no impact. I think a lot of New England's problems,

the system's so adult. It's so hard for young players. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHard Radio app. Michelin Endurance XT, silicone wiper blades, real world proven. Last two times longer available at Walmart. T.J. Hushman's out of plate for over a decade in the NFL, made a pro bowl, and always has interesting takes. And it's great to have you on today. So you teach a lot of high school kids as they go into college. So I'm going to get, we're going to get to the Joe Burrell thing.

I'm not nearly as high on them as everybody else is. But I want to start with this. And I said with Lamar is that when a quarterback starts embarrassing corners and linebackers, they got to take things into their own hand. And people say, well, the NFL's got to protect Lamar. You can't let the NFL dictate your business. You got to protect yourself because they couldn't. figure out a catch for a decade. I do worry about Lamar being a little bit like Cam, where he's

making guys look so bad, they can't solve the Cam or the Lamar riddle, and they take it into their own hands. They hit him late, they hit him low, they hit him semi-cheap, they get ejected, but it gets him out of the division. When you look at Lamar, are there any concerns about viability long-term? Of course, we've never really seen this. Cam is huge, and his running style was to run you over, whereas Lamar is like a running back a receiver. He's trying to shake you and make you look bad. And I seen Earl Thomas's comments. He knows. He knows guys are trying to take him out because that's what he would do.

And I'm not trying to take you out for the entire season. I just want you to miss our game because I want to win that game. Right. And so he's right. And Lamar has to just be smarter because he hasn't been hit hard, but Buffalo hit him pretty well. They did. And there was times he could have gotten down and I'm not going to get these extra three yards and he kind of pushes the envelope.

And he's just going to have to learn from that. But I'm not so much concerned because he really doesn't get hit flush. He's so athletic that guys can't hit him flush. Let's talk about another quarterback. Baker Mayfield called out the training staff. I thought it was a egregious judgment. But since I'm so critical of Baker Mayfield, I just set it up for you to have any opinion you want. What did you make of doing that?

Stupid. it. He's an idiot. Like, you don't do that to people, man. Whether the training staff misdiagnosed OBJ or you don't do that. The training staff, you're with them every day. They are so cool. They're cool people. You just don't do that. Like, Baker, you're playing terrible. Now you talk and make people really look at how bad you're playing. Just shut up. Like, you don't do that to people. That's wrong. You treat people. They haven't done anything to you for you to just come out and bash them. And then you try to put the toothpaste back in the tube and say, oh, I would. wasn't criticized them. Yeah, you were, and you were wrong. You don't do that. By the way,

have you worked on teams where there are good medical staffs and not so good? Yes, yes. I mean, you'll be on team with something's wrong with me, ice and stem. Some of the ice and stem. And you know it, but I'm not going, I might say it to them. Like, man, why you just keep giving me ice and stem? I can do that myself. But you think I'm going to get in an interview and say, oh, man, our trainers suck. They don't know what they're doing. They misdiagnet. No, I'll say it to them, but I won't say it to the public. You just don't do people that way. If they end up losing

their job, they're probably done as trainers in the NFL. Baker Mayfield will continue to make the money. This is their livelihood. You don't do that to people. Patriots, who's to blame? This is how I look at it. When they win, who gets all the credit? Brady and

Belichick. And so they have to take the blame. They have to take the blame. But me, it has to be on Belichick because when I look at it, Brady takes all these discounts and he takes these deals, well, give me some weapons to work with. This has always been the running joke with us. Brady's been taking discounts for years,

and Tom looks around and goes, wait, he still don't have as good a running back. They lead the league and drops. Brady is a guy, you center, guard center up the middle. You have to keep the pocket clean. He's not worried about the ends because he'll step up in the pocket. He manipulates the pocket very well. you have to keep him clean up the middle.

And they haven't done that. He has no receivers. I think everybody is in agreeance. That ball that Jacobi Myers dropped. Should have been caught. Nikiel Harry probably catches that ball. Why isn't he playing? If he doesn't know the system after every play,

Brady, tell him what to do. Once you call the plan to huddle, you have this. It's that simple. I don't know why he's not playing. You drafted him in the first round. Make him the ex-receiver. Put him in single coverage and see if he can win. We talked about this, I think last time you were on,

I could make the argument that the downs, I mean, we know New England's system is very cerebral, very academic, and very kind of rigid. The upside is, man, they're really good outsmarting you. The downside is young guys don't come in there and have an impact. Edelman took five years. I wonder, should they lighten up a little bit offensively? Because it seems like every other team in the league, you draft a guy and he plays. Edelman took four years. It's too hard and complex for young college players.

Edelman didn't play because he had Wes Welker in front of him. That's number one. He just wasn't better than Wes. But you can play the ex-receiver. That's a single-side receiver away from the tight end, lines up on a line of scrimmage. It can't be that complex as an ex-receiver. When you're the ex-receiver...

So that's the one on the opposite side of the tight end by yourself. Yes, you line up and you're always on the line of scrimmage. It's not very complicated. If they play single high safety, the majority of the time the ball should go to the ex-receiver. Put him as an ex-receiver. He's a big kid. He has great hands. At least he demonstrated that at Arizona State and see what he can do.

He scored a touchdown that didn't count. Yeah. Give him a chance. Let's go back to, so you have done a lot through the years with high school players. You're a coach. You take players before they go to college. You're into this stuff. at it and a lot of the stuff you tell me, I don't, I say on the air, but I don't credit you

because you're a source sometimes for me. So I was saying earlier, I've got this kind of big belief system. I'm very reluctant to embrace college quarterbacks at Bama, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia. They're football factories. So all the receivers are great and wide open and all the offensive linemen are five star. And so it's a world of comfort. If you look at the NFL, who's starting right now, the AFC and NFC quarterbacks, if the playoffs started today, ones from a recruiting power. So right now, the current AFC quarterbacks were from Louisville, Michigan, Texas, Tech, Clemson, Wyoming, Samford.

Clemson's the recruiting power. If you go to the NFC current playoff quarterbacks, it's even sillier. It's Eastern Illinois, California, Purdue, Mississippi, State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, no recruiting powers. So my point is, Joe Burrow, five-star receivers, tight-ends NFL guys, offensive line. Of course his stats are huge. He's playing in a world of comfort. That is true.

What you said is true. But look what he's doing. He's not just putting up stats. He's breaking records. And so the talent that he has, yeah, they're five-star players. Jamar Chase, I believe, was a number two receiver coming out in the country. Terris Marshall Jr. was a number one receiver in the same recruiting class. Yes.

But Justin Jefferson was not a high recruit. And Joe Burrow is taking that offense in shattered. records. He's broken records. And so when you play with that talent, are you good? Or are you historical? He's been historical with it. And he throws the ball accurately. Those guys

make plays because they're really good players. You say Alabama, the quarterback's A.J. McCarran, he wasn't breaking records at Alabama. He's playing with great players. They get, Jalen Hertz, wasn't either. He gets two in there. He's historical. Yeah, because I think two is better than Burrow.

I'm not so sure of that. Tua, you look at his receivers with Jerry, Judy, Rugs, and Waddle. And even Smith, he has four NFL quality receivers. And LSU does as well. But Joe Burrow, he's a big kid. He throws the ball accurately. He's athletic enough to move around the pocket. And his season has been historical.

And he's not just, oh, I'm getting by with this talent around me. He's the reason why. Yeah, that's what Joy says. Well, we'll see when the draft comes. He's so competitive. I think what hurts him is he didn't play at Ohio State behind J.T. Barrett. He's better than J.T. Barrett. He didn't play.

Number one, J.T. Barrett didn't even get drafted. He's better than J.T. Barrett. It's okay. Urban Myers is a great coach. They just made a mistake with Joe Burrow. He's better than Duane Haskins. They just made a mistake because he wasn't recruited high. So when you're not recruited high, you start at the bottom of the depth chart, and you have to jump so many guys.

And it's almost impossible to jump that many guys when you start at the bottom. You're a Burrell fan. I love him. Like the kid is on. What he's done is unbelievable. We've never seen this before. Thank you. Well, the drafts in April.

That competitiveness, you can't teach that, man. He has it. All right. By the way, feel better with MDrive. Energy, lean muscle. Use the code H.E.R.D. 20% off. I got another question for you. So you have played in your career.

You played with the very, I would say, dramatic Ocho Cinco, Chad Johnson. Very talented. very dramatic. He was very expressive. One of the most talented receivers that ever play football. Yeah, very expressive. You know, he would never, I didn't always love him, but I never got no drugs, none of that stuff. He was like a little bit like T.O. Just very expressive, very dynamic.

I think OBJ. I don't worry about OBJ. I think he's a good, I think he's a good teammate. I think he's expressive. So the story is he wants out of Cleveland. Do you think it's because of Cleveland? Do you think it's because of Cleveland? Do you think it, if these stories are true and Jay Glazer doesn't miss, if he reports that it's true, why do you think he wants out? Oh, it's obvious. You go, you leave New York and you go to Cleveland.

You think you're going to a better quarterback, and you realize, ah, Baker's not that good. That's number one. So Baker's the first thing. Baker's the first thing. They're losing. That's number two. And my stat suffer.

I'm taking a hitting production. I'm in Cleveland, and I'm playing with Baker and he can't get me the ball. I got to get out of here. Because it's affecting his career and his image and what he is as a player. It's affecting him. Like, I leave New York to go to Cleveland.

I'm okay with that because I think I'm going with a quarterback that's ascending, that's on his way up, and we're going to win. Quarterback is not ascending. He's not on his way up. And we suck as a team. I got to get out of here. And rightfully so. It's not going to work out.

They need to get rid of him, send him somewhere where he can shine, and you can use this. I always go back to the Denver Bronco game. Now, fourth down play they had. He had man-to-man coverage and Baker didn't throw him the ball. You always go to your best receiver when you need him. You always do, and he didn't throw him the ball.

That shows me right there, like, either he's not being told that or Baker stripping. Simple as that. T.J. Hushman Zada, Pro Bowl, former Bengal, Raven, Seahawk, Raider. By the way, you like the Ravens, but you were more Bengal than Ravens. Are you a Ravens fan?

I like the Ravens. I've always said this. Best organization I played for, and I was only there one year, and I played awful. But just the way they do things. It's top of the line, man. It's a reason they win.

And when they played the Rams, I went and spent a lot of time with them out here, and there's a reason why. Yeah, they're really well run. Very well run. Infrastructure's great. Good seeing you, buddy. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Patriots were booed off the field Sunday when they were down 20 to 7 against the chiefs half time. And Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Nuoy was not happy with how the fans treated the home team. He said, too much booing for me.

I thought it was disrespectful. Obviously it sucks when it doesn't go the way we want, but know that we're all trying. We're trying to put the best product on the field. We're not trying to disappoint anyone. Just imagine as a fan or a media person that are feeling. are probably 100 times more. Our livelihoods are on the line and we want to win.

I thought this was outrageous. Booing. Kind of funny. I mean, it's funny because it's so, it's outrageous. Like, I don't like to be the fan police, as I said before. I don't like to tell people how to be fans. You're paying your harder money to be entertained

and you have a right to boo or yell or be happier or come late or leave early on whatever you want. Sunday late games, a lot of drunk people, too. Right, but I mean, booing is pretty normal at games. What's not normal is to boo Tom Brady after six championships and him taking pay cuts every single year to make sure that you can sign whoever you want. And, you know, just being able to be a fan of a dynasty.

We can trade spaces if you want, if you'd like to endure the Miami Dolphins over the last 20 years. Probably have a little bit more to boo about. Maybe the Bengals or the Browns perhaps like to have a conversation with you. But I do think this is kind of interesting, because, well, I don't necessarily buy into the idea that Tom Brady is going to be somewhere else. After a while, every little breadcrumb, you know, kind of starts to pile up. I think we're at like a crouton now, crouton-sized situation.

Tom Brady announced also that he's stepping down as the co-chair for a local charity event called the Best Buddies Challenge, Hiana Sport. He'll still be the global ambassador, but it's also adding cuts kind of to the speculation he's going to leave New England. Put his house up for sale. And there's a little bit. There's some stuff going on. Stuff, yeah. Stuff.

So Jerry Jones has been the DM of the Cowboys since he bought the team in 1989. The Cowboys are struggling this year. But he is still defending his position as the team's general manager. When you can cut out the person between the decision maker and the people doing the recommending, then you can make quicker, more succinct,

and more responsive decisions. nobody ever has had the final say but me. Now, you know, I really don't like to say that, but that's a fact. And so when we don't do good, we all know the ultimate total responsibility. And pro football, the guy that ultimately has the responsibility for paying the bills makes the decision.

You know, I think you said it best. I think you said it last week. We have normalized Jerry Jones. we have. This is not normal. Now all owners obviously make final decisions on the big decisions for a team and organization. As far as that goes, obviously he's, you know, top of the line.

They have a great organization, great facilities, great staff. Everything is top of the line. But they haven't won a Super Bowl in quite some time. This has to play a role in it. After a while, if you're changing coaches, if you're changing over whole teams at this point, You have an entire new roster from where you started. And the same results seem to discontinue.

Then the one consistent thing is what you need to look at. I understand what he's saying. Maybe you can make quicker decisions because there isn't a GM in between the coach and him. But there's a reason that you have a GM. It's the reason teams have a GM because you shouldn't be making those football decisions. Every organization, anyone that does anything, should always hire someone who is the best at what they do to do that thing it is they do. Right? Like I can't be great at everything.

you're not great at everything. You've people around that are great at that, and that elevates everyone together. It's a team for a reason. I think it's kind of started to get to that time where we're looking at what the actual issue is, and it might just be at the top. Finally, Eagles wide receiver, Alshan Jeffrey,

had to be cards of the locker room after getting hurt in Monday Night's win. Doug Peterson has said after the game that the foot injury was significant, and now Jeffrey was reportedly out for the season. This is another hit to the Eagles wide receiving corps. It's insane. It is.

I've never seen anything like it. It is. Deshawn Jackson's on IR. Nelson Aguilor has been dealing with a knee injury. So that leaves only JJ Arsego-Whiteside and Greg Ward fully healthy and on the current roster. And JJ's a rookie, so he's a kid, so you're not going to get a ton from him. And Nelson Aguilor's status is still up in the air going forward. They have three receivers on the practice squad, Marcus Green, Robert Davis, and Markin, Michelle, who's Sony Michelle's brother.

But they need to win out, and this is just rough for the Eagles this year. It is. Joy with the News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Line News. So there was E-Harmony, and then there's Match.com, and I've never gone to either. I've had friends go to Match.com, and then there's Tinder, and explain Tinder's that kind of discrete site.

It's a... To be clear, I'm not on Tinder. No, I'm not. So if you see my face on Tinder, you're being scammed. Okay, so Tinder is... I've never used it, but it's a dating app. Okay, it's a dating app. Dating.

Right. where you like I've never used it. So from what I understand is just a person's picture pops up and you either swipe right or swipe left. You swipe left. You don't want to talk to them. If you swipe right, you do want to talk to them or date them. Okay.

So we're going to do NFL quarterback Tinder next. Okay. Do we want to get into long-term relationships because there's a lot of interesting situations with quarterback? What do you do with Ryan Tannahill? What do you do with Brady? What do you do with this stuff? That's coming up.

to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Want to hear something amazing? Discover matches all the cashback you earn at the end of your first year automatically no limit. How much can be matched? Go to Discover.com slash cashback match. No limit on how much they will match. Well, I didn't go to E-Harmony. I've never been to Match.com, although I've had friends go there. And there was, I've never gone to farmers only. I've never done that. I think that I,

I'll be honest with you, that one is fascinating to me. Well, I mean, look, you want somebody who has the same interest as you. So you go, what if I own a winery, you're farming grapes? Can I go to Farmers.com?

I don't know. I don't know what kind of farming. They cut off because I guess technically that's farming. You're farming grapes. Cannabis. I own a hemp farm. That's farming.

Anyway, getting out a little sideways here. And then there's Tinder, which is a dating app. And so we thought, you know, with Tinder, swipe right, you like somebody, swipe left, you don't like them. And the staff came up and said, why don't we play quarterback Tinder? And so if I had to sign these guys to a fairly long-term contract, I mean, to me, three years, would I do it?

Would I swipe right or swipe left? You ready to go? I'm ready. Let's do it. All right. Do we have any Tinder music, John? Okay, here we go. Oh, dating game music.

All right. All right. Let's start with Tom Brady. free agent end of the year they do not have a succession plan sometimes he can be rigid and difficult but he's dominated this division I do not think pro football focus still has him at number 10 so I would swipe right I'd like a long-term relationship

Sean Watson he is eligible for an extension in the offseason he's done something that's virtually impossible win a division with a head coach none of us are quite sure about in a bad offensive line. That's virtually impossible so I would swipe right. I like Deshaun.

I love these pictures, by the way, guys. Ryan Tannahill. Free agent at the end of the year. He's had a remarkable year, about seven games so far. Now, as Solomon Wilcott said earlier, he's done this before to us. He's had his moments.

He's a big, strong kid who was not a perfect fit with the Miami offense. is a better fit with this offense. Franchise tagging me, yes, but long term I'd swipe left. No. Okay. Patrick Mahomes.

Eligible for an extension in the offseason. I don't go to Tinder, but, I mean, just look at the picture. You'd have to swipe right. I mean, how can you turn that down? I mean, you just can't turn that down. Philip Rivers. Okay. Listen, he's a free agent at the end of the year.

Here's the reality with Philip Rivers. In 2020, you can't be unalested. athletic and mistake prone. Tom Brady is not athletic, but he's not mistake prone. So Philip is a bad combination. He makes too many throws. You can't take back and he's unathletic. I would swipe left.

Yeah, plus, you know, the picture, he likes to travel. He probably won't be in town a lot. Yeah. Cam Newton. I've always thought he's got one year left and then he's tradable, but he is, the game has moved away from Cam. He's distracted and not entirely accurate and man, do I like accuracy.

There's quarterbacks in the league now. I don't even like, but they're accurate, and I'd keep them around for a while, so I would swipe left on Cam, no. All right, Kirk Cousins. Okay, this is a prime example, where he's got one year left, so he's going to be there for a year,

and they're winning games. But I think he's elevated by substantially gifted personnel. Best running back, maybe best tight-end group, first or second-best wide receiver group. So I've got a year left. I think we could date for about one more year, but long term, long term, I'd swipe left. I wouldn't resign him. I'd start drafting a quarterback this year.

Not a great dating out picture, by the way. Yeah, he was on the couch. He looked bored. He's sleeping. He's got the baby. He's got the baby. Did he have a baby in that picture? That is not a good dating site.

That is not. Everybody loves kids, but, you know. To a degree. Not the Tinder picture. All right. Mitchell Tribisky. No, it's funny. That's like that.

Look at that. That's a Tinder picture. That is a Tinder picture, yes. So he's a good handsome kid. I heard this weekend. He is, they say, he's the first in the building and the last out. He works his butt off. But I've had a very consistent sort of opinion on Mitchell.

Is that I don't think he's special. I don't think he has a special arm. He's athletic but not special. He has an arm, but it's not special. Hard work is wonderful. But boy, there's got to be some it here. And so despite the best-looking guy in the world picture, I'd swipe left on the Tinder on him.

I would not go long term. All right. Matthew Stafford looking very serious in his picture. Yeah. Okay, listen, he's talented. But I'm 10 years into this relationship, man. I've seen it. And now I'm getting, here's what worries me.

I'm getting health issues now. He's rarely had a good offensive line. He has been sacked a ton. You got Minnesota's defense. You got Khalil Mack chasing you down. Green Bay's defense is better. I can like a guy, but I just, what more do I need to see?

Compounding with health issues. Not enough big wins in big spots. I'm swiping left with Matt Stafford. No. Okay. Not long term. Dak Prescott. Now, this is always the one.

He's a free agent at the end of the year. So look at that Tinder picture. It's very fun. He's got gun show. He's a good looking guy. I got that NFL quarterback chin. Strong picture. I think there's coaching issues here.

I don't think he went from 13 and 3 to terrible. I don't think he suddenly got terrible. I think they hired an offensive coordinator and Kellynne Moore, who's over his head at times against veteran defensive coordinators. Some of his tangibles aren't great. His intangibles are amazing. I think his regression in terms of wins is not entirely on him. I think a lot of this is coaching.

So I'm going to swipe right and give this relationship a chance. I'm swiping right with that press. I agree. That's a good choice. Quarterback Tinder, there you go. So apparently, according to people in the know, e-harmony is a really long-term stuff. Farmers.com, you have to have. Farmers-only, yeah.

Farmers-only, you have to have a pitchfork in your life. Right. And then Match.com is kind of fun. And then Tinder is hookups. Tinder's not really for a long-term relationship. It's not. I do think some people do get long-term relationships. I don't think that's the goal of Tinder.

The goal of Tinder is a little shorter in the relationship. I don't think discreet. I mean, your face is on there. It's just, it's not really for the long-term situation. By the way, W-E-E-I in Boston did something. We do this. We call it the blame pie. Yes.

So, I mean, they never, they love their patriots. So this is an organization that, you know, booze when they have a sluggish first half, right? I mean, this is just what New England is. but WEEI did a poll and they called it their blame pie, which I don't know if we started that or somebody else, but I always like to blame pie. These are the results according to WEEI. Belichick and the GM took 30% of it and Brady 20%.

Then they blamed offensive line. Josh McDaniels, wide receivers, running backs. This is what I've said. I love Belichick, but they haven't had a pro bowler drafted in the last five years on offense or defense. Joe Tuney's the best offensive draft pick, never made a Pro Bowl offensive lineman. Jamie Collins, the best defensive draft pick.

He made a Pro Bowl like six years ago. So you can, and clearly Belichick knows personnel. He's obviously he does. But they had 10 draft picks this year. They're running back in the third round has 12 yards. Their offensive linemen's on IR. Their wide receiver in the first round is at best an occasional on the field player. He's often not on the field.

And Chase Winovich has been a specialty player. He's been a part-time specialty player, the only draft pick of 10 who feels like they've made an impact. So, you know, I think some of the criticism here is they have an incredibly cerebral, difficult, rigid system. And they're very demanding. I think it's very, very hard for young players to play. And this game is getting faster and younger and more athletic on the perimeter. And they don't look athletic enough. Carr, brother of Derek Carr, Raider

quarterback from the NFL Network, will join us tomorrow on the show. Speak for yourself coming up next. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo,

and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reaction, actions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlices on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs.

We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

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