The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Richard Sherman Podcast - Derek Stingley Jr. on GREAT Texans defense, NFL WRs & being a lockdown corner | Richard Sherman

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

Houston Texans star Derek Stingley Jr. sits down with Richard Sherman to break down what makes him one of the NFL’s premier lockdown corners. Stingley talks about dominating top receivers, the Texans’ elite defense, LSU’s DBU standard, and the mindset required to play corner at the highest level. Sherm and Stingley go deep on DB technique, ball skills, film study, confidence, penalty mindset, man vs. zone IQ, and how elite corners bounce back when a receiver wins a rep. Stingley also opens up about his “welcome to the NFL” moment, learning from LSU legends, working under DeMeco Ryans, and the wideouts across the league who don’t get the respect they deserve.  All lines provided by Hard Rock BetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, 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 ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 SportsSlice 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 reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.

And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. Jenchian win. She's an outsider to win the French name. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Leonard Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Welcome back to the Richard Sherman podcast. And we have a very special guest, a guy that is very tough to track down. But I'm happy to have him today, one of the best corners in the National Football League, Derek Stingley.

Appreciate you joining me, brother. Sir, glad to be here. Man, you, look, look, I'm not going to start no controversy. Y'all playing some great defense right now. Y'all playing some great defense. You had to pick last week. I'm going to start it off with that. The pick was incredible.

Why are you stiff-form that man like that? I mean, I thought it was just a normal stiff-form. Apparently it was, you know, not, but I don't know. You know, we get stiffed on them all the time, so I'm. Right. you got to give them back a little bit when you can. Yeah. That was a great play, though, man.

What did you read on that play? What did you see? Because, I mean, that was incredible. A lot of your books are really great. Your ones in the playoffs was great, too. I think your ball skills are next level. Obviously, they said you had 27 of them things in high school. I said, that's just silly numbers, man.

No, yeah, on that play, I mean, you know, I'm just looking at the verse. vertical. And then I saw, I saw the quarterback. He was looking at the, at two. And then, I mean, I just went to the ball. I seen the ball just get ball. You didn't, you didn't, uh, picked off the seema too a lot. That's what I'm saying. You, maybe it might have been your first game back from injury. Like, like a couple years ago, that might have been your first or second book. They ran a scene of vertical and you was on one. You came off of one and booked two. Um, do you prefer, and, and I know people always argue this. You do a great job following the best receiver and mirroring them. But when you in zone, you get to play with vision. And your football IQ is so high that you have an incredible feel for the zone, the space, the concepts you're getting.

Talk me through that. Well, I mean, it really doesn't matter, to be honest. I mean, if I'm a man, just being up there, just playing face-of-face or if I'm his own, just knowing that I'm communicating with, like, my teammate, my safeties, or the nickel. or whoever is next to me, just going out there, just whatever it is. Like, it doesn't matter. Just get the job done.

Yeah. What makes this defense so good? You know, it seems like y'all have a great, great combination of incredible pass rush and a great secondary. Y'all number one in the scoring defense. You only allow four pass and touchdowns this season, allow 14.7 points per game. And that's, look, that's giving you a chance to win every week. Talk me through that.

Y'all got a great D-line. Obviously, they're hunting up front, but in the back end, y'all locked in, too. Yeah, I mean, I mean, you pretty much said it all. Like, you know, the front, the D-line, they know how to work with each other. Like, they know whenever somebody is caging and containing around, and, you know, like, they all working together,

and then it's the same on the back end. And then whenever we all do that at the same time, on every play, at least we try to, every play. And then it's just a good result. So, I mean, it started with them. We say they're the engine of the defense. When you got to the league, was it what you thought it would be? In a sense of, like, business, yeah.

I mean, I knew coming in that, you know, it's a job. Like, you're here doing a job. But, I mean, it's still fun. Like, it's still football is football. Like, that part didn't change either. Like, I don't know. I mean, first coming into the league, obviously, the speed of the game was, you know,

had to get used to that. But other than that, it's been pretty much the same. Yeah. But that's one thing, y'all got an advantage at LSU, man. You're facing what you're going to face.

You're seeing what you're going to see. Yeah. Ain't much better. Ain't much better than what you've been seeing. Yeah. Talk me through that. You were the number one recruit in your class coming in, which is rare for a corner to be the number one recruit.

Is it true they offered you a night? grade? Yeah. And you played it on varsity in eighth grade. I didn't even know that was possible. Well, yeah, you know, I went to a small school. So, you know, it was possible for us. So did you, did you get any? Did you get any? Yeah, yeah. In eighth grade? Yep. Bro, that's like legendary stuff you tell as like a folk tell. Like, you know, you tell your grandkids, like, yeah. And when I was in eighth grade, playing varsity. Yeah, all about five, eight, and one. I don't even know. Like, I wouldn't, I was small out there.

But, yeah. Good times, good times. Yeah, you got a good feel. So what, what helped you? Was it, was it just, you know, having a, have an NFL around you, you know, family members. Obviously, your pops played pro baseball and, and played some arena football. Is it, was it just that that helped your mentality? Because obviously, every level, it seems like you've dominated.

and been the most mature. You came to the league. It didn't seem like it surprised you. As soon as you got your reps, you got in there, you were picking stuff off. Your first time in the playoffs, you picking stuff, well, not your first time in playoffs, but last year was one of the most dominant playoff runs for a DB.

I thought y'all had a really great chance. But tell me what really mowed your mentality coming up. I mean, it was really, you know, being around my pops. He played and he also coached in the, the arena football league. And I mean, it's just a little kid. I would be doing D.B.

drills with, like the players that was on his team were running a route tree, like against his D.Bs at practice. And just, I don't know. I mean, just being around him,

without him, I wouldn't be sitting right here talking to you at all, which is crazy, by the way. But, you know, just he mowed me into who I am.

So, I mean, I just got to keep it going. No question. You're doing a great job. keeping it going. You got 11 interceptions already. In your class, I would assume you got the most by far and away. Not a lot of them getting books right now, but you definitely hunting them. Who's been to, like, have you had your

welcome to the NFL moment? You know, sometimes guys have them. Sometimes it's not that big a deal. Yeah, I mean, it happened in practice. I'm going against Brandon Cooks. Obviously, my rookie year, I'm covering them and he is a jump ball that's in the end zone and I jumped up like to catch the ball and he he also got his hands on the ball and he ripped it away. And that was like the first time that somebody really like like took the ball away from me in the air. And I was just looking around like, oh, like that's crazy. Like Brandon Cook's like, you know, he called like, I don't know, whatever you think about him. But he's one of the, he's one of the great receivers to be in the league. Yeah, he made that play and I was just looking around like, yeah, this in the field and all.

Like, yeah. Yeah, that's for sure. In the NFL now. But cooks don't ever get enough credit. You get in front of cooks and you be slouching if you want to. But cook your grits. For real. It's crazy.

Yeah. Who you, I can't really talk to you about who the best receivers in National Football League is because you, you went against them in college and you probably see them a lot different. I mean, they still elite. He can't not say that. Hey, it's us to Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news,

huge news? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special.

So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one. one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself.

I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerner Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now.

And I actually can win on any. surface because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman. documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But outside of Justin and Jamar, who are you feeling like are some of the best receivers in the National Football League?

Oh, outside of Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. give me geared on with the jets uh mike evans is up there uh people don't give mike heavens the credit he deserved mike evans a handful no yeah yeah oh who was i played against hard uh devonte adams was always going to be up there um i can't even think of people right now for uh um you you you probably played against tarreek you probably played against Devante's split release stuff and how he moved his release package is sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's

always up there. Tariga would be up there. A lot of people saying Pucca right now. Fooka. Have you going to get to AJ Brown? See, that's the difference. You know, like people be ranking and doing all that. Like, everybody is great at something that they do. Like, that's why they're in the NFL. Like, like, everybody that you just said is

phenomenal at a specific thing and that's how they get their yards they touchdown. So I don't know. It's hard to rank people with any position. Yeah, right. Right, right. Because it just depends on any given day. Like, I give a lot of respect sometimes to receivers. People don't, like Stevie Johnson was an issue for me.

And we've talked about this a lot of times. Like, that boy had a split release and I had to figure that out. And, you know, I went against him once in Toronto and it was a long day. We won by like 30. But, you know, one of them days where you, you didn't have a good. great day. The team had a great day. My day wasn't great. And then he got signed by San Francisco, and I went against him again, and that much different, much different kind of day. I had two books on the day. It was Thanksgiving. I was eating turkey on the field after the game. Sometimes you've got

to get you get back. Yeah, living right. Oh, yes, sir. Living, living good. So who did you look up to outside of your pops and, you know, as a DB, as a corner that, you know, you tried to emulate? Uh, Tim Bailey. Uh, he was just all about somebody that, that I always seen, he wore number 24.

He got the interceptions. He, he was, he was able to cover, like press or off. Like, you know, he did everything.

And he, he, yeah, since I was the kid, Tim Bailey been one over. No, no question about it. Y'all,

LSU is DBEU and they put, put out some of the best. Did you ever have like a good relationship with like Tyron and Pat P and those guys? I mean, two of the best to play. Yeah, I mean, Pat, he would come back and work out with us, like teach us some of the stuff that he was either learning at the time or dealing with or playing with at that time.

Then we would just take that add to our game. Tyrant Matthew would come back and, like, talk to us before their games. Sometimes, like, break down the DB huddle. Who else? I mean, it's, yeah, it's a lot of people. Like, we got too many. A lot of people is coming back, though. Right, right.

Talk about another good corner of National Football League. Pat Surtain, won defensive player at a year last year. What was your reaction when you saw that? No, I mean, he deserved it. He's been, ever since day one coming into the league. He, you know, he's doing what he's doing now. So, like, you know, it's about telling somebody in our position got him. Right, right.

I think the last one was who, Gilmore. Gilmore. Yeah, Gilmore. Yeah, it's about. all time, it comes back to the cornerbacks. So I'm happy for him. Like, he deserved it. No question about it.

Y'all two right now are the top of the total pole, the top of the mountain as cornerbacks go in the national football league. But talk to me about how difficult it is to play. I played corner in the league, obviously, for 11 years. And it's so, these refs sometimes just be so on my goddamn nerves about some of the ticky-tech nonsense. And any given play, they could just decide to throw one, you know what I mean? Whether it's illegal contact or you call in PI, talk about how you've been able to navigate

around that. Well, I mean, just kind of like what they always teach us. If you're down the field and the receivers coming back, like my DB coach, Dino, he always say if you're getting beat on a go route and you find yourself catching up to the receiver, that doesn't mean that you're that much faster. I mean, the ball is in the air and they're slowing. down for you to turn around and, you know, look for the ball, make a play, whatever. Hopefully the rest wouldn't throw nothing if you're looking back for the ball.

They still can, but, you know, the chances of it go down. And then, I mean, at the line of scrimmages, making sure you're not too grab, like, grabbing too much with your hands. I mean, you know, whether you play with your hands a lot or not, like, certain, after a certain point, like, you know, sometimes it can hurt you if you still trying to use your hands too much. So, I mean, I don't know. Like, I just go through my process is starting at the line,

and then as you move away from the line, just eliminating, and you don't really need to use your hands for a run. Right, right, right, right. You're a hell of an athlete, so you don't need to use them much. Sometimes it's just some of them things where hand-fighting, you're hand-fighting down the field,

but that's why anytime it's nine ball, I'm shoulder in front of theirs, I look up, get them off the red line, and go get the money. to get it. Yeah, got to. So do you like to step kick or do you, or what are people call it, a step or place or everybody calls it something else, or do you like to motor or a soft shoe? I'm more of like a step, like either step in place or step in replace or, you know, whatever, like you said, whatever you want to call it. I don't really like to, what is it,

inch or pedal at the line. Because I want to get some type of contact, like, within that first movement. Because then at that point, then I just feel like I can kind of read, I can read the receiver easier after that. So, yeah. Yeah, I was total step kick. I couldn't do the motor stuff. I felt like it, even low key, I didn't like to pedal.

And your pedal was smooth as your pedal is smooth and clean and you get out of your brakes clean. I moved from receiver to corner like my junior year college. So I, I, everything I was doing when I changed over was pure like I understood. I knew what the place. I knew what they were about to run. So it was like, hey, I recognized the play. Bang, this about to be slant. This is about to be curled. It's about to be this. So it's like, I didn't feel like I needed to pedal. So I get to shuffle so I could have my foot in the ground so I could just break when I want to break because I start pedaling and I have my wrong, my left foot up. and then have to pedal one more cycle to get my right foot in the ground and all this.

So I started doing that side shuffle stuff. And we ran a lot of cover three. Obviously, you ran man on third down. But when I have vision and I can see it, I'm tough to deal with. But I really see a lot of that in your game, too. When you visual and you can see it, boy, they better be careful putting that ball over there. Yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes it, you know, isn't good.

Like, my eyes, you know, beat me sometimes, but try to eliminate that and then, you know, the ball in the air, try to go get it. How much, how much of what you do is film study route recognition, combination recognition, and how much of it you feel like it's just feel instincts? Like, I feel the movement. I feel the lean. I feel the hips drop. I feel like, I mean, of course, there's.

during the week, you do whatever, like, you film study, like, you do a whole bunch of that. But then you get in the game, like, sometimes you just got to know when, you just got to know certain situations. I feel like you just got to know when to turn that off, like, the analytical part of it and just be able to just go out there and play football. So I say about what and what, like, it's a different battle, like, throughout the game, like, whichever one you choose to use in those moments. Yeah, yeah, I feel the same way.

How was D'Amico? I mean, obviously, I know D'Amico, we were in San Francisco together, incredible player, incredible person, like just a great man. But how was he as a head coach? I've never seen him as a head coach. No, I mean, you know, he's a great coach. He, you know, he's always smiling. He's going to be smiling anytime you see him.

He's going to, you know, motivate you and make sure that, you know, you're ready to play. You know, he played defense or he played linebacker. So he understands what was really going on. Like from a player, like from a player's perspective, he understands like what's going on, whether that be on the field, all the fields or whatever. So, I mean, yeah, he just wanted a great coaches in the league.

And, you know, he can do this as long as he won't. Right. Speaking of that, how long, how long you want to do it? I'll try to play it on about 50. There you go. There you go. I love that. I love that.

Boy, come from Baton Rouge, about to play till he leave 50. Yeah. You ain't mad at that. I ain't mad at that at all. You got any questions for me? You know what I mean? You know, I don't want to make this more conversational, allow you to say what you got to say.

I mean, I mean, so Halfton, you talked about, you talked about, what's his name from the bill? at halftime what you was thinking like what you what you was all what were you trying to change like going into the rest of the team like so that that was that's a great question so he kept doing basically they were isolating me you know what I mean like they were he didn't because I'm a big time play recognition like I could if I see the formation I see this like I'm all pretty much analytical if I know the place on the field we are I can pretty much tell you what they're about to run. And this boy was breaking my rules. Like, he's supposed to run a slant. He would see me sitting

inside. And the boy, stutter, stutter, stutter, go route. I'm like, what the, what's that? You know what I mean? Then I'm like, okay, now he, he's feeling me for go route. So I'm like, all right, I'm going, I'm going for the go. That boy, stutter, stutter, slant. Like, okay, I just, he got me right now. Yeah. And so they got me, they put me in a slot of couple times. And this was early in my career. This is my second year in the league. And I wasn't as good in the slot as I ended up

being later in my career. And we in the red zone, you know, seven cuts in the red zone. But my grit's been getting cooked all game. I'm sitting there like I'm all. And so he gave me, he gave me inside release. And I'm like, all right, inside release, we're going slant.

And he banged me to the corner. Tug. Yeah. One of the two tugs I gave up that year, I tell you, I worked so hard in practice the next two months on everything. Boy, my feet were good. My eyes were good. My tech was good.

I wasn't letting it. What I would say is it humbled me enough to like give me, get me back where I needed to go. Because you know, you start feeling yourself, you get sloppy. Yeah. And I was, I was grateful. So at halftime, I really just was telling myself, like, come on, man, you got to lock in. You got a lock in. You can handle this, dude.

I mean, I think they only scored 13 points in the game. So it wasn't like they killed us. But it's just individually I held myself to such a high standard. I gave up 200-yard games in my career and he was one of them. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really just about patience, what I'm hearing. Yeah, yeah, it's about patience and trust.

And, you know, in those games, in those moments, that's when you can lose yourself. That's when you grow the most. People are like, man, you grow so much when you haven't grown. great game. No, you grow when you're having a bad game or somebody, you gave up a grad early. You give up a touchdown early or you give up a big play, like how you respond because they're coming back to you. Yeah. So. And so the great ones, like you, you can give up a play and then you book him later in the game. You book them in a fourth. Like, hey, I'm about to win this game. Just like this. And people don't

understand the mentality and a mindset you have to have to be able to respond and answer when when the ball finally come your way again and be able to change the game. Right. Yeah. One player at a time. That's it. One play at a time.

That's it. Uh-huh. You got anything else? That's a great question. No, that's about it. I appreciate you. It's crazy. You crazy.

You crazy. You're crazy, bro. I've been a big fan of your game, bro. You're one of the best doing it in college. You're one of the best doing it now. You obviously was one of the best doing it in high school. big fan of your game and if you ever need anything for me, don't hesitate to reach out.

Yes, sir. Appreciate you. Yes, sir. Call love. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick.

And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, 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. We perform. for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 reactions, in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.

And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. Jench. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now.

And I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.