The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - Hour 1 - No moral victories

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Colin's not giving out any moral victories to the Jets after the comeback against the Chiefs comes up short What to make of the Bills dominating win over the Dolphins Mac Jones continues to struggle as the Patriots QBSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or stream us live every day on the IHart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. All right, here we go. It is a Monday. We are live in Los Angeles. It's the herd. A lot to talk about, wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

Thanks for making us part of your day. Colin Wright. Colin wrong. One hour from now. Jamack. So close for your jets. How do you feel? this morning. Are there moral victories

in sports? I feel like Dion Sanders was asked that question over the weekend or maybe his son, the quarterback, was. I don't know. It feels like a moral victory if you're allowed to have that. All right, so let's start there. Kansas City ekes by and beats the jets in New York.

So if I'm a Chiefs fan, I say, we played poorly, Mahomes was off his game, we're on the road against the great defense, the opposing quarterback played out of his mind, and we won. Check.

If I'm a Jets fan, I'm like, Zach Wilson. Hey, man, that guy was great. Riffs did not give us a break. You know what I'm saying? Hey, Mahomes, we gave him nothing but trouble. And we overcame a 17-0 deficit. We should have won. I buy the Chief's argument.

Yeah. Kansas City's become LeBron. I don't really worry about an occasional regular season stinker. They'll figure it out. Kansas City last year lost to the Colts early in the season, had a special team's meltdown. The Texans were awful and took them to overtime. This week you had the Travis Kelsey, Taylor Swift relationship stuff

all over the papers, all over the distractions. Listen, the Jets, I know you're feeling great today. You lost. You weren't remotely ready to play. You trailed 17-0 at home. Zach Wilson still had the key turnover, a fumble late in the game. And when the Jets defense, that great defense had to make a stop. Mahomes toyed with it.

15 plays, 7 minutes, 24 seconds, and then to add insult to injury, he slides right before the goal line. He completely, completely absolutely got what he wanted. There's a reason, Aaron. Rogers is in the building. The franchise moved off Zach. He's not the guy. So moral victories don't work for me. When you needed him to make a play, he fumbled.

When you needed your Jets defense to make plays, Mahomes manipulated you for seven minutes and 24 seconds. Buffalo's 3 and 1, they're better. Miami's 3 and 1, they're better. New England already beat you. And now you've got to go play Miami twice at Buffalo, at New England, Chargers, Cleveland on the schedule, Philadelphia, too.

Last night was a game there for the taking, and you didn't take it. Ask yourself this, when it comes to movies, if it has a great beginning and a great end, it's almost always a great movie, right? Kansas City, 17-0-0-lead sealed it with a long drive. That's a good movie. Congrats on dominating the second quarter. I know I'm supposed to be Mr. Positive here, but, Mahomes struggled.

Zach Wilson played out of his mind for big chunks of that game. And you lost. In the beginning, Kansas City had a better game plan, better efficiency, jumped out to a huge lead, scuffled in the second quarter, a little bit in the third. But when it mattered, Mahomes, again, big drive. So you can see it two ways. I see it this way. A great franchise had an off night and still figured out how to have a great ending.

and win the game, get on a flight home. And a bad franchise with a quarterback they've already bailed on, let's be honest, they bailed on, and that's why Aaron's in town, outplayed for big chunks of the game in the middle, the Chiefs, but when it mattered, they fumbled and couldn't make a stop. So I understand that everybody's taking these positives away.

But in the end, what do you have this morning? Another loss, Aaron promising he'll come back late in the season. Let's be honest, he won't. He can't. That doesn't work that way. His age and that surgery. I know. There's supposed to be a bunch of positives here. I don't see it. That game was the Colts game last year where the Chiefs stunk for big chunks of it. Colts beat him. This game was the Texans game last year. Texans took him to overtime. You couldn't make a stop. So you can talk about all the victories and the moral stuff. I'm not trying to be negative. But we know in the end what happened. What happened was Kansas City didn't play well and still won.

that's what they do. That's what LeBron did in regular seasons. LeBron, for about a 10-year stretch, would end up in the finals. And that's why Kansas City ends up in Super Bowls. They don't play well. They're on the road. The other quarterback plays out of his mind, and they leave the building, fly back home with a W. All right, the other game that is worth noting.

So Miami Buffalo. So when you look at all these teams that we sort of, you know, we all kind of agree on teams that feel like they could get to a Super Bowl. You got San Francisco. You got Philadelphia. You got Buffalo. Who did I write? You got Dallas. You know, you got Miami maybe.

There's six or seven teams we talk about. Only one of them is pretty weak defensively in terms of personnel. I love Vic Fangio for Miami the coordinator. But their personnel is very average. They've allowed the fifth most points in the league. And so when you look at them, now statistically, I think Miami is built for track meets and not fist fights. They're not built for alley fights.

And yesterday was a little bit of that. If you look at the stats, first downs, time of possession, yards per play, passing yards, you would have thought this thing went to overtime. But if you watched the game, you saw Buffalo push Miami around. And that's really the issue. You can beat San Francisco Philly. You generally don't push them around. You can beat Kansas City.

You generally don't push them around. The Chargers offense, push. pushed him around and Buffalo pushed them around on both sides of the ball. And so Josh Allen, in the red zone against Miami, it looks like varsity against JV. Miami doesn't have the dudes. In the last 12 games against Josh Allen, they're 10 and 2. His passer rating is about 110. And in the red zone, it becomes so obvious. They don't have the personnel to stop Josh Allen. He's just better than all their athletes. He's just better than everybody they have on the defensive side with or without Vic Fangio. And here's the thing. I love Miami still. Best one.

watching the league arguably. They're a very strong offensive team. But this happens in September and early October. The weather's good. Remember, you scheme up your plays in the off season. And he reads one of the best September coaches of all time. You catch people off guard. You also, defenses don't tackle particularly well in September because now starters don't play in the preseason. You also in the summer, you get quarterbacks, tight ends, wide receivers, running backs all playing together. Right? You don't have defensive guys that go meet in California and Arizona and stand around. So offenses generally have an advantage over defenses early in the season. Then the defense gets some film. They can exploit you. They find tendencies. The weather gets cool.

And now, be honest, New England held Miami to 24 points and Buffalo held them to 20. So the two defensive coaches they've faced have pulled them back down to earth. Now, Miami's speed is so phenomenal. There's no question about this. They're going to make Denver's Swiss cheese defense look awful or the Chargers poorly coach defense look bad. But against Belichick and Sean McDermott in a decent pass rush, and now you don't get everything you want, and that's in September. Try playing those guys when it's 13 degrees in windy.

So I think when I look at the Miami Dolphins, they're going to go probably obliterate the New York Giants in a short week next week. You can bet that game right now. Miami's going to probably obliterate the Giants. But I think through four weeks, when you look at the Miami Dolphins, here's what we have. wildly creative, brilliant offense, much more built for track meets than street fights. Early in September, they caught people off guard. They're going to win a bunch of games against bad defenses or bad defensive coaches.

A lot of lobsided wins. But we do have a little tendency here. When you play McDermott's defense or Belichick's defense, it's just not quite as impressive. and when you face a great quarterback, which the AFC has Lamar and Josh Allen and Mahalms and Herbert, they kind of walked through this defense. Never forget, most of us thought the Chargers had that game one, up and down the field. Buffalo did have that game one. So it's fun to watch.

It's interesting. They're a track meet. I love Miami. But four games in now, we got a little sense here. You can move the ball up and down the field if you have an elite quarterback. and that's who you're going to face in the AFC playoffs late, an elite quarterback. Both Herbert and Allen up and down the field. And I think there's limitations to that.

I think they're going to be a great regular season team. I'm sure they'll win a playoff game. But we've got four games now. They're an avalanche against bad defenses, and they come back down to earth against good defensive coaches and good defensive cultures. And they have no answer for Josh Allen. absolutely no answer for Josh Allen. It was interesting yesterday.

You know, I've been on this thing for a couple of years about defensive coaches and how they don't do great with young quarterbacks. And I still think New England doesn't really know what to do with Mack Jones. But you can't qualify, you can't call Josh Allen a young quarterback anymore. And the truth is, Miami, he does whatever he wants. And Miami now has shifted to an offensive. culture. So Brian Flores in Miami couldn't stop him. Mike McDaniel's culture now is it's offense. That's what they spend their time at.

That's what they're great at. There is still a huge issue for Miami. And Josh Allen does whatever he wants against that franchise. Yeah, the only guy who could stop Josh Allen is Robert Tala in the New York Jets. They bottled up Allen, intercepted him a bunch in the opener. Josh Allen's hanging 30 plus on anyone else in the league. Colin, I don't know, Bill's going to be number one in the hierarchy tomorrow. They look really good. Well, I also think we have to be honest about this. Week one throwing the garbage.

I mean, Seattle looked awful. Buffalo looked awful. Like, there's some things you can take from it. But in the end, because nobody plays starters in preseason, it's now a 17-game schedule, just take out week one, and I feel like I know what the league is. Like week one, I'm like, I'm not sure what anybody is. And all of a sudden, now, the one thing we did see is Pittsburgh against the good defense,

Demico Ryan's, and then the Niners, like well-coached defenses, like, Kenny Pickett can't play. Like, I mean, honestly, can't play. He's hard now. Steelers, oof. They were disgusting. But it's interesting, that week one theory. So Belichick's used to be throw out the first four weeks. Remember, first September is like an incubation period. We see what's going on. You're saying now just week one is the only one just toss it out.

I just think it's impossible to get your arms around it because offensive coaches, Sean McVey goes up to Seattle and Pete Carroll has no idea what they're doing they catch them totally off guard. Now the Seahawks and the Rams feel very similar. That game wasn't even competitive. So I think offensive coaches, like Mike McDaniels got such an advantage

over all these coaches, scheming, and it's like now they've come back down to Earth when they face defensive culture. So this is what you have. But I found yesterday, I feel like I kind of know what everybody is now. Now, we had a good blazing five, obviously, but I do feel like we're a month in. After that Miami Buffalo game, I kind of have a feeling, strengths, weaknesses,

liabilities, shortcomings. I kind of feel like I kind of know the league today right now. That's where I'm at. Colin right, calling wrong in 45 minutes from now. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only league. but encouraged.

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. All right, welcome back. So we talk about this a lot, that when you're a young quarterback in the NFL, you're trying to figure stuff out. You need all the support you can have from your owner, from your team, from your roster. I thought two defensive coaches did a really disservice, a really bad job for the young quarterback. So Chicago can't do anything right. Their defensive coach can't figure out defense, huge problem, time to go. So it's 2828. Justin Fields gets you into field goal position. It's fourth and one. Pick a field goal.

Give Justin Fields a win. Doesn't matter if he loses the game. It doesn't matter. He needs positive vibes. So Justin Fields bring you down fourth and one. Oh, super creative play. What a shock you don't have one. They fail.

Denver gets the ball back, goes and kicks a field goal. And then you give Justin Fields the ball with about a minute left and say, hey, save us, kid. This is bad. You let him give you a 31, 28 lead, positive vibes. getting crushed on radio, crushed on TV, crushed by fans, he gives you the lead. If your defense fails, Matt Eber Fluse, a couple years now it's still awful. That's your side of the ball.

If the defense fails, then the coach can get crushed all week. But give the kid a win. He got you in field goal position. He played pretty well for most of the game, not great late, but pretty well. Lead you to a 21, 20, 38 lead. positive vibes all week. If your defense can't hold it, you can't hold anybody, that's a you problem. But you give your young quarterback a shot.

Instead, it's an uncreative shocker. Run into the line. You do not put the ball in the hands of your best offensive skill player, which is Justin Fields. Didn't I rip the charger coach last week for that? Give your star the ball. Move him, pick up a yard. If you're going to run a play, if not feet. field goal take a lead.

You were in that game. You outplayed him. Fields had his best game as a pro. You had a chance to cap it. Even if you lost that game. The last thing you remember is, hey, Fields got us down there. We led Justin Fields. There is hope for the future.

Instead, he fails there. You put the ball in the wrong hands. These defensive coaches can't figure it out. Would you give your best player on a fourth and won the ball like Philadelphia? Jalen Hurts? yesterday the Chargers to their credit on a fourth and one. I hated the call, but they gave it to Justin Herbert. You give it to a back.

What are you doing? Okay, then Washington, huge underdog, goes on the road in Philly. Sam Hal has a great, great throw to get you within a point. So let's roll the tape on that. Great play by Sam Hal. Played his butt off. You're a huge underdog on the road. You don't want to go to overtime with Jalen Hertz and a better roster on the road.

Go for two after this. go for two. If the kid doesn't make it, the story all week is, hey, Sam Howell played his butt off. He gave us, nobody expects you to win this game. In fact, after this touchdown pass, if you failed on the two-point conversion, you don't get crushed for it. Those are hard to make. Instead, you kick the extra point go to overtime as a 10-point dog on the road

against the better roster. Philadelphia was averaging 6.6.6.7. Six yards of play heading into overtime. You couldn't stop them anyway. They're a better team with a better quarterback and a better roster and a better old line. So these are two great examples. Set your young quarterback up for success.

When you're in a game at home and can take a lead, do it for the kid. When you're on the road as a huge dog, Philadelphia's defense is worn out, been on the field, end of the game, and you can win it and walk out of there and steal a win and go. for it. This is obvious stuff. This isn't deep contextualization. This is easy stuff. Just think about it. There's a difference between playing at home, playing on the road, playing a division rival, being a huge underdog, overachieving. It's amazing to me. Just two examples of defensive coaches that don't understand just basic stuff. This is why so many young

quarterbacks are failing with defensive coaches. They don't know. I mean, Pittsburgh's a great organization. Kenny Pickett, you're two years in. He's regressing. He wouldn't be regressing if he had Mike McDaniel. He wouldn't be regressing with Sean McVeigh. How McVeigh is getting all these young backs, young receivers, young offensive

linemen to play, you think it's coincidence? You think it's crazy that every time they bring somebody into the 49ers with Kyle Shanahan, they flourish? Christian McCaffrey's one of the best players in the league now. Half of you hated the trade. J-MAC with a news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Remember when they used to call him Riverboat Ron? Because he was a riverboat gambler, Ron Rivera, risk taker. Colin, not going for two days. Why would you ever want to go into overtime against a better quarterback, a better roster, a better team at home? Like when you can steal wins as a huge dog, it's like an understood rule in football. You just go for them. Philadelphia is on the field.

little gas defensively. Go for the win. His excuse was his offense was gas because they had to go like 90 yards in 90 seconds. Well, how does the defense feel? Bad move, but I had the Eagles in my survivor pool. All they had to do was win. I was a little stressing over that. By the way, Sam Howell, like alternating good weeks and bad weeks now?

Like Sam Howell was impressive, Colin. That final drive, the Motsie? Well, also, you know, take out week one. Josh Allen has crushed everybody. I think Washington just ran into the best team in the league. Philadelphia is undefeated, but they're not playing particularly well. To your throughout week one theory, you're right. Howell was good in Denver.

I mean, Buffalo is really really strong. Howell's been good all year. He was undressed, sacked nine times against Buffalo. Maybe it's just Buffalo is on fire. Buffalo is the best team in the league. It's just in week one. You don't play anybody in the preseason. Some moving parts on defense are not the same team.

Great point. Speaking of bad teams, oh my gosh. Joe Burrow and the Bengals. This was my Super Bowl pick before the season. Colin, they are an abomination. Three points, that's it in Tennessee. They got it on their first drive and did nothing the rest of the way. Second time this season, the Bengals scored just three points.

Joe Burroughs really ticked off. I would say whenever you're one and three, you're going to be frustrated. You're going to be angry. You're going to be wanting to win games. And we haven't been. and we're not going to let anything like that, you know, come between us. That's how you end up having a bad season. So we've had a bad start.

If I had a bad first quarter, so we got three more quarters of the year to get through and go from there. Yeah, well, they've stumbled a little early the last couple of seasons, but this feels different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way. I wonder what that's reflective of, huh? What's with slow starts?

Let's talk about them. Slow starts, Colin. It's on the coach. You got to get your team motivated. You got to get a great game plan. And I told you, after the Rams win, even they beat the Rams on Monday, I was like, ooh. Well, the Rams outplayed them for about two and a half, three quarters. I'm telling you, this coach on the Bengals should be on the hot seat.

I know they went to the Super Bowl recently, and they got Burrough, but I'm just, Bengals fans starting to turn yesterday. I don't know if you saw it online. It's starting to happen. I didn't. Here's another thing. How many times Burrow got smoked hard multiple times? And they just keep spending money on the offensive line.

Like, what's going on? Three, four years now. Somebody please protect Joe Burrow. I mean, he and Justin Herbert yesterday took shots. The kind of stuff that knocks quarterbacks out for the year. Did you see Chase after the game was like, I'm always bleeping open. He's not happy. T. Higgins got hurt, by the way.

And if you really want to see how far the Bengals have fallen, they're now on the road in Arizona this week. Do you want to guess what the line is for that game? Arizona favored by... No, no, no. Cincinnati at Arizona. Arizona's not favored. Come on. I think Arizona could beat him.

While the lines fall into three, Cincinnati only favored by three. It was like six and a half. Oh, I would take Arizona. I thought I watched Arizona against Dallas and San Francisco. Arizona plays really hard. They do. And I do think defensively, they're clever. And I think they're a little faster than we thought.

Josh Dobbs can make plays. I think Arizona is not a good team. They're going to be, at least now, you know, they still believe they can beat anybody. Maybe if they lose seven straight. But right now, I wouldn't want to play Arizona in Arizona. I wouldn't want to play them in the desert. Can the Bengals rebound? I don't think they're a playoff team right now, Colin.

I don't see a path to the playoffs. It's not good. The division is rough. It's a bad, bad start. All right, let's move on to another crappy team in that division. I'm done with these guys. The Pittsburgh Steelers, their worst offensive performance of the season Sunday scored six points.

They were one of six teams that did not find the end zone yesterday. It was a rough day for offense. After the game, Mike Tomlin, he's had enough. and adjustments will be made. Hell yeah, we got to make some changes, man. That was an ugly product we put out there today. And so we're not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome.

What those changes are, man, we'll put together a plan in preparation this week. It's not just the offense. Hey, defense did not sack CJ Stroud, generated no turnovers against a rookie quarterback. How about this? C.J. Stroud makes no mistakes, and they've got an excellent young defensive coach.

Some of this is, and by the way, I'm not comparing this to New England, Brady Belichick. But when the dynasty started in New England, it was basically a great defensive coach and a game manager and Tom that made no mistakes. Like he just didn't make mistakes. The formula, and this is not the Patriots, but the formula what Houston's doing to keep them in games is, excellent defensive coach, C.J. Stroud makes no mistakes. they're only two and two, but they're in every game. That's a formula.

Minnesota, in their good years, does this. You know, I mean, like, now, again, when Zimmer was there and they had a couple of decent defenses, and then you had Kirk Cousins doing what he does, low ceiling, like, there's a lot of wins on the table in the NFL being Houston, their formula. Excellent defensive coach, keep everything in front of you, make people beat you over the top, and have a quarterback that doesn't turn it over. you know, the old saying is you lose a lot more games in the NFL than you win. Houston may only win seven, eight games.

They need more playmakers, but their formula when you watch them play is a sustainable formula. Hey, by the way, seven or eight may win that division. I think three teams are two and two. Like, it's a jumbled mess. I'm going to say this. So I hype Pittsburgh in the off season. I hyped them this week. And one thing I told you I was worried about was the familiarity.

Damiko Ryan's coming from San Fran. The OC of the Houston Texans is the former passing game coordinator of the 49ers. You know who they look like the Texans on offense? They look like the 49ers. They ran the 49ers ran in week one to obliterate the Steelers. Nico Collins was in the role of Brandon Ayuk, and he destroyed Pittsburgh. Colin, the Steelers have to do some real soul searching. This Matt Canada situation, just get him out of the building.

It's over. Get him out. I don't want to see him calling plays anymore. I counted 10 teams, in my opinion, that will draft a quarterback New England after yesterday will. Atlanta will. So the Jets, I don't know if Zach Wilson played well the rest of the year, I can see him just saying fine. Might have been an outlier. We'll see.

But we'll see. But when you watch Pittsburgh, you can blame Canada. I've never been a huge Kenny Pickett guy. He's fine. But would Pittsburgh in the next draft round four or five, they don't need outside of O line, they got no needs here. Round four or five? Well, I mean, just to me. Maybe a little earlier than that.

The roster is mostly set. Colin, they had 53 yards at halftime. I know. The Texans had 271. I know. Brutal. I'm sorry, people. All right, final story.

NBA, big trade over the weekend. This is crazy. Drew Holiday, on the move again. He was traded from the Bucks to Portland, and over the weekend, he was shipped to Boston, sent in exchange for Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogden, and two first round picks to future. One of them is like 20-29. So that's way down the road. The Celtics officially have traded any depth they had.

They have now lost four contributors from their team for potential stars in Porzingis and Drew Holiday. This is risky for Boston. I think Boston now is the best team in the East. I thought this was a huge move. Interesting. So now, because what has been our issue with Boston? Coaching didn't solve that,

but the coach should be better in his second year. We always feel Miami-Faids Boston, spolster against the kid. Uh-oh, trouble. But the issue is, has been they become so reliant on Tatum that it's stressful. Will he be great late in games? Will he melt?

There is not nearly the pressure on Tatum now. I've got Jalen Brown, I've got Drew Holliday, I've got Porzingus. Robert Williams doesn't score. Porzingis is a very potentially dynamic offensive player in spurts. Drew Holliday is a much better offensive player than Marcus Smart. They are a significantly more dangerous offensive team, and that is our thing with Boston. We know they play hard. We know they play defense. We know they're smart. But our question was always, if Jason Tatum was off, you can't rely on outside of Jalen Brown. Al Horford, Robert Williams, Marcus

Smart. To me, this is four guys for Boston that can get you a bucket late in the game. Even Al Horford occasionally. But I mean, Porzinger's drew Jalen Tatum. Those guys are veterans. All those guys could get you a bucket with three minutes left in a playoff game. The big concern is in the front court. Porzingis, you know, has sadly a rich injury history. And Al Horford's 37. Behind them, there's like nothing. So, Porzingis is down for two months.

It's going to be tough for Boston. I'm with you. I think the best team in these, though. Yeah, I think, I mean, the question about Dame to Milwaukee, and I think that was a great fit and a great move, they still remain old. Outside of Janus, the team just feels everybody's past their prime. Middleton, Dame, Brooke Lopez, right? Whereas Boston,

Tatum's still in his prime. Jalen Brown's still in his prime. I don't know what Porzengis's his prime is. He's somewhere around... Zin his 20s. Yeah, I mean, to me, so Porzengas, for what he is, is in his prime. Jalen in his prime. Tatum in his prime.

Drew's out of it, but he takes such great care of himself. He's got a... He'll have a very long last six years of being a very steady player. So I think they're more athletic. I think they're better offensively. I think the pieces fit together. Marcus Smart could be at times a little bit of an agitator. Yeah.

Drew Holliday is more of a lute. lubricator and a better offensive player. I love it. Real quick. Portland, people want to know why would they add another point guard and Robert Williams after they just added Aiton? The thought is they will flip those two guys to contenders, you know, baby around the trade deadline and get more assets for the future. So not a bad deal for Portland. Jamack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Line News. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. What do you get when you combine a three-time manager of the year at a three-time national sports writer of the year?

It's the Book of Joe podcast. Hey, this is Tom Perducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network, and Sports Illustrated. And I'm Joe Madden, and we're going to be around to talk a little bit about managerial decisions, playoff games, and what may have occurred in the dugout, maybe in the 1980s. I can't wait for this, Joe. We're going to dive into what goes on in the dugout and behind the scenes in Major League Baseball. Cars, whined, whatever else we want to talk about. Listen to the Booker Joe podcast on the IHeart radio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifert Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

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

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away,

such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back. Good day having you in a Monday. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, top of next hour, and Greg Olson, great second hour planned. So there are the, when you, it doesn't matter if you're at work or not,

but if you're struggling at work, you're struggling in football, you're struggling, and there become these moments where your bosses are watching you or your teammates, your employees are watching you, and you have a great moment and everybody's like, he's going to make it. Eli Manning had a few of these in his first three years when he was struggling. Zach Wilson, maybe that was the moment yesterday for New York. I don't think it is. I think they've moved off him, but he had a great moment.

Justin Fields maybe got some allies in the building yesterday with his performance. But I thought yesterday was not only a bad day for Mack Jones, I think they've emotionally moved off him in New England, and I think they're going to draft a quarterback. So it has been reported. New England coaches in the offseason were furious with Mack Jones. That's been reported for seeking advice outside of the building. That happened about a year and a half ago.

The coaches were furious. It's well documented. I've been told his cheap shots, he was confronted by a teammate last year. His teammates don't like the cheap shots to players. He's had four or five of those. And then you just watch him athletically. In the AFC alone, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Mahalms, Trevor Lawrence, he looks junior varsity. He just doesn't have it.

He doesn't have, can he be accurate? At times, he looks so overwhelmed against feisty, fast defenses, against the Jets, against the Bills before. In this game against Dallas, like, he's pathetic. And so where are his allies in the building? When Mitch Trubisky struggled in Chicago, his teammates liked him. When Justin Fields has struggled at times in Chicago a lot, it feels like his teammates like him. Where are the allies for Mack Jones? He was called McEnroe Jones at Alabama.

He's ticked off the coaches. Basically, Belichick just told Bill O'Brien, you have him. I don't want to deal with him. He's apparently I've been told last year confronted by a teammate over the cheap shots. Nobody rushed to his defense this year. Nobody publicly defended him on the Sauce Gardner shot. And then you watch the body language. You watch him yesterday.

I have never seen a Belichick team. That listless with that little fight ever. Forget the score. That team had no juice, no energy. They weren't ready to go. Kansas City was struggling, but you could sense Mahomes, yelling, talking. There's a body language quotient.

There's a sense that Mahomes is never out of a game. You see this a lot with good quarterbacks and respected players. I don't think he has any allies in the building. I don't think the coaching staff loves him. I think he and Juju Smith-Schuster like, don't work. Well, whose responsibility is that? Make it work. If I'm going to criticize Aaron Rogers for not working with young receivers last year, and I did,

well, Juju Smith-Schuster's a veteran receiver. Max has been in the league now several years. Make it work. That's your job. A receiver can only do so much. Make it work. Mahomes makes it work. Burrough Allen, make it work.

Stefan Diggs, Josh Allen had drama. They talked it out. Now it's working again. That's a quarterback's responsibility. A wide receiver can only do so much. Josh Allen, you got to make it work. He did. And so I've just never seen a New England team,

no energy, bad body language. I mean, I'm not going to say they quit, but it's like that effort now, Christian Gonzalez got hurt. That's a problem. But here was Belichick after the game. He polled Mack Jones and had to answer some questions. Bill, what led to the decision to take Mack out with 3.41 remaining in the third quarter? I think there was any point leaving him in the game. Maybe starting next week against the Saints.

Yeah, so there's no point leaving him in the game. So, Bill, was he benched for bad performance or was he pulled because? No, I said there was no point in the game. leaving them out there, so I took them out. Not good. So I wrote down a list of the teams that I think are going to go and draft a quarterback early. We kind of know who it is. Like Atlanta, the Desmond Ritter stuff, it doesn't work.

He's not a franchise quarterback. Las Vegas, Garapolo's hurt. Aidan O'Connell's a backup. He's got something, but Josh McDaniels, you know, it's Vegas. They're going to go draft a big quarterback. It's a great college quarterback class. You know, and I was writing down all these names, some obvious, some not so obvious. Minnesota probably, if not moves off, drafts a quarterback.

The Jets probably at some point, not for a second pick, maybe third pick. They've got to have somebody in the building. I think New England's going to draft a quarterback. If you look at their roster, they need a speed receiver. They have no history of drafting them well in the first round. I think they're going to go get a quarterback. I think when you're losing, you've got to have something. You've got to have coworkers, coaches, culture.

By the way, you think Bob Kraft. likes all those cheap shots on his brand. That's bad for the culture. Belichick doesn't like him. He can say whatever he wants, but he doesn't have any allies, and that felt like a quarterback that just wasn't ready and quit. Did it not a little? I think the concerns are a little greater than that, Colin.

So this is the third game this season. They have started completely flat. They were down 16-0 to the Eagles like that. Mack Jones was a big part of it. They were down 17-3 to the Dolphins instantly. And now they're down 28-3 to the Cowboys. Jones a heavy reason. But I'm not going to give Belichick a pass. And I got to ask you, third straight season, Belichick has started one in three. Last year, everybody can blame Matt Patricia,

the rocket scientist. He's the reason. Okay, Bill brought in, you know, Bill O'Brien. And Bill was the one who drafted Bill Belichick, Mac Jones. Ultimately, this is all funneling back to Belichick. And I'll tell you now, that defense, the Gonzalez injury, if that's significant, and Judon went down late. So you're talking your two best defenders are now out? Colin, they have the second toughest schedule in the league. I was here in September or August saying, hey, this might be a five or six-win team. The Belichick hot seat stuff is going to be the topic in Boston.

My takeaway, though, and I do think right now, with Gonzalez out and Judon Hurt, they're a bottom 7-8 team. And in that division, which is arguably Buffalo, Miami are two of the top five teams. It's very realistic to think they're going to have a top eight pick. Okay, that's fair.

I think you have to draft a quarterback. Okay, the bigger question, Colin. do you let Bill Belichick draft a quarterback given he took Mac Jones. Mac Jones looks woefully unathletic in an era where you need an athletic mobile quarterback. And the Patriots offense looks stuck in the mud. He's going to give him Juju Smith-Schuster a big contract who can't separate. Matt can't run. He's immobile.

Like, listen, Belichick has done a lot. He's the greatest coach ever, blah, blah, blah. Are you letting him make that pick at quarterback in the top seven? Well, if he has a top seven pick, he's not going to get Drake, May, or Caleb. but I think there's going to be a packing. I think the first five guys outside of Caleb all feel similar. If Sanders kid doesn't come out, should her her Sanders. I think there's Caleb here.

And then I think there's like five guys. You could take any of them. If you got Michael Pennix or Drake May, I'd be fine with both. I think Pennix throws the prettiest ball in college football. So my takeaway is that draft was different. Mack was clearly the lowest ceiling of the Trey Lance, Justin Field. Like there was no, they didn't move up to get him. They just sat and waited.

He fell to them. So that Mac Jones was clearly the least athletic. If you look at this draft, there's Caleb Williams, and there's a gap. And it's a fairly sizable gap if Shadour Sanders doesn't come out. And I think you could take any of the next four quarterbacks. And if New England's in the top 10, because, by the way, you have a great receiver, two great offensive tackles, maybe the best college tied end I've seen, and a great player defensive end.

So if you have the 10th pick, you'll get a quarterback. Because there are Harrison maybe one of the best receiver prospects ever. The O-line prospects, left tackle prospects, are out. standing. So if you're in the top 10, you're going to get the third, fourth, or fifth-baths quarterback, and they're all kind of feel the same to me. Okay, but those quarterbacks you mentioned, Pennix, Shedur Sanders, we could even toss in the kid of Duke who got injured over the weekend. I don't know if those quarterbacks are what Belichick wants. Like, he needs a pocket guy. That's what works in his archaic mind. Like, he's playing like his team looks like a 1970s.

Oh, I know. That doesn't work in the modern era. Are you seeing the motion than McDaniel and Shannon? They're playing two different sports. Yeah, I know. It's a problem. So I've been highly critical of Brandon Staley of the Chargers, more craziness yesterday. So true to his brand, leading by a touchdown,

three and a half minutes left against a backup quarterback, and Khalil Mack is dominating the game, he decides to go for it deep in his territory. I would not have. But at least they ran the right play with a six, quarterback, which is, you know, the Philadelphia shove, right? Like, they ran the right play. I would not have gone for it, but they ran the right play.

They gave it to their best player. And this is his identity. He's going to go down with it, but this is his identity. He was true to his identity. And they ran the right play. Of course, Jalen Hertz squats about 600 pounds and is very small, hard to get a shot at. So maybe it's just that Jalen Hertz playing more than anybody else in the league. So I wouldn't have done that.

But you did the best you could with that decision after you made the decision. But the other part that's maddening is Assante Samuel then saves Brandon Staley with a pick. Could have gone for a pick six. That right tackle is not catching him. And he went down. His Staley's on the sideline waving, waving. I don't know what he's waving. He looks chaotic.

What is Asante Samuel doing? You lead by a touchdown. Pick six is 14. Kalee Mack is literally obliterating your offensive line. I don't care what analytics say. New rule on the show. If you can have a pick six with two and a half minutes left and go up by two touchdowns against the backup quarterback, you do. Always.

I don't get it. I don't think in the room. You're facing a rookie quarterback who's a backup quarterback with an offensive line getting rolled. You think that team's going to get 14 points? Contextualization. So I don't know what he was flipping, flopping on the sideline, what he was saying. but this, and by the way, what happened? Unlike the Chicago and the Washington quarterbacks who are not good enough to save coaching,

I question, Justin Herbert is and save the day with a great third down throw to Palmer for the first down. Again, Herbert saves the team again. Like last week in Minnesota with the dubious decisions, Herbert is so gifted, so great that without Austin Eckler, without Mike Williams, he'll still figure out a way to save the team. It's just, it's everything with the charge. There's even the last two weeks wins. I can't stand these fourth quarter deep in your own territory calls. And in both games, your pass rush is getting a ferocious rush on the opposing quarterback.

You're a defensive coach. You've got really interesting personnel. Kaleo Mack was unblockable. But Herbert in both instances, Sam Howland, Justin Fields, aren't really. ready yet to overcome coaching miscues. They're just not. They're kids. Justin Herbert's young, but he's a star. So there are no easy wins with the Chargers.

It's craziness every Sunday. Great TV. Exhausting. Hour 2 next. 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. 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. 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 game.

and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardweight with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what you're.

doing how many men carry a suit or armor it signals to the world that you not to be played with and just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to listen to learn the hard way on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast this is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human