The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - Hour 1 - Patrick Mahomes vs Joe Burrow

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Patrick Mahomes vs Joe Burrow seems like the new Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning rivalry  The Jets should be going after Jimmy Garoppolo instead of Aaron Rodgers The issues with the Denver BroncosSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Wow. Great, great. weekend. This weekend's a little dicier. A lot dicier. I do like the tagline I see on the screen right now. Got me very excited. Come to the dark side, cowherd. So I was thinking about this. Brady Manning kind of came out of nowhere, right? I mean, Peyton Manning was great in high school, great in college, number one pick. Big Ben looked the part. A lot of people thought it was going to be Big Ben, as be Peyton, man, and here came Brady. And now it's interesting.

A lot of us assumed it was going to be Mahomes and Josh Allen about two years ago. Right. And suddenly, and it's really clear, it's become Mahomes and Joe Burrow. Efficient, accurate, don't make the mistakes, clutch, great situationally. So three quarterbacks, Big Ben, Cam Newton, and Josh Allen came into this league and it was jaw dropping. Big, strong, physical, running over defensive players, running past defensive players. Big Ben, Cam, Josh Allen.

All three got defensive coaches. And I would argue at the very end, Cam Newton still had bad mechanics. Josh Allen's regressing with a defensive coach. And Big Ben, never great with DeVey. details. Mahomes. Mahomes was wild in college. Erratic. Andy Reed cleaned him up. Joe Burrow, early in his NFL career. A lot of picks. Zach Taylor polished him. An offensive head coach can't make you any more talented. But what they can do is scheme some layups, sandpaper, refine. Frank Reich did that with Carson Wentz. And,

Philip Rivers. And Andrew Luck had his most efficient year with Frank Reich. That's why he's a good coach for Carolina. That's what he does as a former NFL quarterback, the offensive coach. Why did teams pass on Brock Purdy? Do you think Brock Purdy would be this successful with a defensive coach? Because Justin Fields is far more talented. He got a defensive coach. Zach Wilson far more talented. He got a defensive coach. But yet Brock Purdy came into the NFL and the knock was, he's a lot, he's erratic. I heard that a lot. I went and looked up his pro scouting. He's erratic. He's wild. And then he got Kyle Shanahan. And Kyle Shanahan cleaned him up. In the last three Super Bowls, we've had six head coaches, all offensive.

There's four left, all offensive. You could be a car salesman, run a Mercedes dealership. You sell cars, you know cars, in and out. You could all. You could also do classic cars and eventually you'd sell cars too and both are in the automotive industry. But there's a difference between how much they really know about cars. Look at the coaches in the last five or six Super Bowls. It's Doug Peterson. It's Sean McBey. It was Bruce Ariens.

It's Andy Reed. And Bill Belchick. Four offensive coaches have won the last five Super Bowls. So as quarterback becomes more essential to the sport, and it is for safety reasons, they've cleaned up the sport. The people who can take these gems, seventh rounders like Brock Purdy, second rounders like Jalen Hertz, superstar talent like Mahomes. At the end of a season, more efficient, better situationally. You look at, you look at Brian Daibald did.

he didn't make Daniel Jones more talented. He cleaned up the interceptions and fumbles. He made him more accurate, leaned into his run game, got him doing a playoff game. And so we thought, a lot of us thought, Big Ben was going to end up more Super Bowls. Cam was going to be greater. Josh Allen was the future. But all of them in the end, I never felt like they could kind of clean up a lot of their situational stuff, their mechanics.

They made too many mistakes, not great in the details. And now that's what we have, Mahomes and Burrow, where you get the greatness without the longer that are in this league, you get the greatness without the mistakes. Mahomes this week talked about the matchup with Burrow and the Bengals. We have a lot of great offensive minds and on our side of an offense, and we're going to make sure we're going to try to throw different pitches at them, and they'll do the same to us and all their defensive coaches

and defensive players that they have. and so it becomes a great matchup between two great teams, and that's what you won the AFC championship. All right, so I saw this yesterday. Big headlines. Nathaniel Hackett gets hired by the Jets. And so the big headline here, according to a league source, they won Aaron Rogers.

That's the only reason they did it. So it's the classic Hail Mary. Now, if Zach Wilson could play, everybody before. fine. Robert Solace job would be safe. You know, the GM Joe Douglas. Nobody would talk about the left tackle and the quarterback he whiffed on. But if you whiff on the number two pick in the draft

and it's a quarterback, it sets off a chain of events and there's desperation. And so this feels so jets to me. It feels very panicky and very desperate. And the truth is, whenever you're in crisis, it can be at home in your marriage, it could be in your business, it could be with your football team.

What you have to do is, lean into what you're good at. The Jets are actually close. Belichick and the Patriots are increasingly dysfunctional. Miami's got weapons, but Tua increasingly can't stay healthy. Josh Allen and that rigid defensive system is regressing. And the Jets have all sorts of really good young players and most are cheap. They're not that far away. So why throw a Hail Mary? Do you know how many Hail Marys are completed in the NFL on the average year? Two. And it's the same in business. This is why Aaron Rogers doesn't fit. He's expensive. You'll have to make some decisions. He's prickly. He's semi-committed. He doesn't have any interest in working with young players and being a

mentor and teaching them the game. You know what works here? A double. Jimmy Garapolo. Everybody loves him. Knows the West Coast system. Get him reasonably priced. Don't have to give anything up.

He likes young guys. Everybody likes him. Hail Marys don't work on the field and they don't work in business. Lean into what you're good at. What are the Jets good at? Good defense, tough culture. and when Breeze Hall comes back, good run game. Find a left tackle, sign Jimmy, doubles.

I'll give you a prime example of this. This Hail Mary nonsense. The New York Giants, they had a mess on their hands. Bad roster, Kenny Gallaudet contract, Daniel Jones was a whiff. The Giants didn't panic. They got an offensive coach. They leaned into, this is what you do in crisis, they leaned into what they were good at.

Good defensive front. they strengthened it. Kavon Debedo. They leaned into Sequin Barclay, got him healthy and a lot of touches. And they cleaned up with an offensive coach. They cleaned up

Daniel Jones, the best version of him. And in panic. They weren't a Super Bowl team and think they were a Super Bowl team. They wanted to right the ship. Giants Cross Town did a really good job. Nobody thinks they're a Super Bowl team now. And they may never be with Daniel Jones, but they didn't panic.

Take the Pittsburgh Steelers, another very good blue blood organization. Big Ben leaves. They didn't panic. They said, let's go get Mitch Trubisky. Let's draft a quarterback to see where he falls. It's Kenny Pickett. What did they lean into? What are the Steelers?

They lean into defense. They lean into Mike Tomlin. They leaned into their tough culture. They leaned into the front office. and then slowly but surely they didn't panic. They brought Kenny Pickett in after a few games. He was going to make some mistakes, kept the game plan pretty simple. And what did they do?

Seven and two down the stretch? They didn't panic. The Giants didn't panic. They got better at the end of the year. They took Daniel to a place that may be the ceiling. Kenny Pickett, they didn't panic. They leaned into what they do well. There's so much dysfunction in this league.

I mean, the Steelers look around. Lamar Jackson didn't want to play or he was hurt or nobody knows what, Cleveland's Cleveland. All of a sudden you look around and you're like, next to Cincinnati, we're playing the best football in the division. The Giants look around and Washington's dysfunctional and Dallas has some of the dysfunction and Giants looking around at the end of the year and they're like, we're playing some of the best football in the division. The Jets, this feels like a Hail Mary. You're not a Super Bowl team. No, Super Bowl team. lean into what you're good at.

Okay? Tough. Get that star running back back. Go get a left tackle. Play real defense. You're closer than you think. Just go hit a double. Jimmy G's a West Coast offense guy.

I wouldn't have hired Hackett, but now he's in the building. He can do the West Coast offense thing. Aaron Rogers is a Hail Mary. He'd come in. You don't know if he's committed off-season. You got a bunch of kids. wide receivers and running backs. That's not Aaron's DNA.

By the way, it's not Tom Brady's DNA. He wanted Leonard Fernette. He wanted Gronk. He wanted A-B. These old quarterbacks don't want to deal with kids. Here's Robert Sala on the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett. You know, one of the great strengths is that he is a West Coast often West Coast guy with regards to scheme.

So there's going to be some continuity there. He's got a proven history of being able to develop a heck of a run game in every stop that he's ever been in. he's got a proven track record of tremendous relationships with all the quarterbacks as he's ever worked with. And he's gotten great head success with all the quarterbacks that he's worked with. I don't know if I agree with that. But the point being, Giants, Steelers, I don't think either one thought with Daniel Jones

or Kenny Pickett, they were a Super Bowl team. Lean into what we're good in. There's so much dysfunction in the league. if you can just do the best version of you, don't panic, hit a bunch of doubles. Every division has got a tire fire. Some divisions by the end of the year, New England now's a bit of a tire fire.

Defensive coordinator, offensive coach, more leaks than the Trump White House. Jets, take a deep breath. Miami's got a Tua issue. New England's got a dysfunctional issue. Buffalo's got a, this thing's regressing issue. young, cheap talent. Get a left tackle.

Get Jimmy G. Lean into you. Take a deep breath. It's amazing in this league. You don't panic. You don't go crazy. You're going to find your way to success. Jets are not that far off.

Hail Marys don't work on the field. They don't work in business either. How's that, J. Mack? Oh, glass half full, Colin for a Friday. Fired up. I love it, Cowell. heard, I'm on the Jimmy G train with you. I don't want Aaron Rogers in New York. Can you imagine him

with the prickly New York media and ayahuasca and all this wacky stuff? No thanks. I, uh, I, I, it, one thing we know about this league is there's six or seven dysfunctional organizations every year. They panic, they overreact, Cleveland goes and gives a guaranteed contract to Deshawn Watson. Just don't do that. Everybody in this league, even the bad teams has something they're good at. Like if you're at home and your wife and you are struggling, okay, what are you good at? You're good parents. Lean into the kids.

You both have good jobs. Lean into the kids. Lean into your careers. Try to solve the other stuff. Don't panic. This is a classic Jimmy Garapolo, West Coast offense, a unifier. By the way, Zach Wilson, not a unifier. Aaron, not always a unifier.

Garapolo, bring the locker room close together. Let's get all the guys going out on Friday nights. likes to hang out with everybody. Young guys, old guys, rich guys, new guys, Jeep guys. You're not that far off. Just get your act together, hit doubles. It's amazing. All the Giants did all year. Hit doubles. Made the playoffs with Daniel Jones. Want a game? They won a bunch of close game. They hit a bunch of doubles. Minnesota Vikings, a bunch of doubles won their division. I mean, that's kind of it. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1.

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SimplySafe. So this drives Dallas Cowboy fans crazy, of course. But Jerry Jones pledging his loyalty and elite. to Mike McCarthy. Here's what the coach said about his future in Big D. As far as my relationship with Jerry, just using his word, we're in an excellent spot. He's the partnership that we have, he's excited about.

He told me a number of times this week that he wants me to coach here as long as Coach Landry did. And I said, okay, you know, that's a long time. I feel really good about our relationships. I think our ability to discuss, and disagree is we do a good job of that. By the way, I do not think Mike McCarthy is one of the Cowboys' two biggest problems. I think the number one problem is Jerry Jones is, you know, the GM has control of personnel,

falls in love with players like Jalen Smith or Zeke and pays him too early or DAC. That's the number one issue. It's a dysfunctional front office. Number two, DAC is solid, but he's paid like Mahomes. so you have to get rid of Amari Cooper. Mahomes can get rid of Tyreek Hill and still be the best quarterback in the league. B quarterbacks can't lose their top receiver. You see the issues.

Now Dalton Schultz will be on his way, I presume. Suddenly B quarterbacks forced to make more plays, DAC, the interceptions and the mistakes go up. Dax's last two playoff games won. Last year, they scored 17 points and Dack completed 53% of his 3% of his. throws. This year, they scored 12. He had two picks and a passer rating of 64. As a quarterback, you get to blame one head coach, right? Aaron Rogers. This is Mike McCarthy's fault. Now we look at Aaron and say, yeah, some of the issues are an Aaron issue. Dak Prescott, blame Jason Garrett. That's fans media. It's Jason Garrett. And now we look at it and go, yeah, Dax's kind of limited.

Russell Wilson. Pete Carroll took a lot of heat. Now we look in Denver. In one year, we see Russell Wilson differently. I remember when James Winston came in. Ah, it's Dirk Cutter. It's Lovie Smith. And then he threw 33 picks.

I think it's 33 picks with Bruce Ariens. Get him out of here. Bring in Tom Brady. Every quarterback, the star quarterback, blame the first coach. Well, I don't think it's a coincidence that Mike McCarthy got to a Super Bowl with Aaron Rogers. Green Bay now struggles more in the playoffs than they did with McCarthy when Aaron was in his prime, and he's got the Cowboys with Dak and Cooper Rush winning 12 games

back to back. They have not done that since 1994 and 95. I do not think that is a coincidence. I don't always love Mike McCarthy's clock management. I didn't love Andy Reid's clock management forever in Philadelphia. He's gotten better at it. But you start looking, we're going to blame McCarthy for this. Joe Burrow took a bad O'line to the Super Bowl. Mahomes lost Tyreek Hill, rebuilt his own line, ends up in the AFC championship. Once you pay a quarterback what you're paying,

DAC, you've got to get rid of people. You're going to have flaws. You're going to be vulnerable. The stars can overcome it. Dak can't. McCarthy had no say on that. McCarthy didn't pay him. McCarthy knew Jerry Jones, it was very clear and often reported.

whoever was the coach had to deal with that because Jerry was going to pay him. That's not Mike McCarthy's issue. Zeke's contract. That was before Mike McCarthy got there. Jerry's the GM. There's nothing Mike McCarthy can do about that. I don't have to love everything about a coach, but we can't blame the coach. 12 wins, 12 wins, a Super Bowl.

Aaron got to blame McCarthy for everything. Now, Aaron's stuff is Aaron's stuff. Can't beat Jared Gough or Garoppolo at home. J. Mack with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Did you know, Colin, that Patrick Mahomes is going to appear in his fifth straight

AFC title game? This is fifth one straight that he's hosted. I know. Pretty impressive. So yesterday he said that he's been talking to the goat, Tom Brady, about advice getting ready for another AFC title game. Here's what Mahomes had to say. I talked to talk to Tom a little bit.

I mean, I have a good relationship with him now. And he gives me a lot of advice. Yeah, seriously, he gives me some advice to help me. I mean, why would you not want to learn from the goat, man? So anytime anybody like that wants to give me advice, I'll take it in. And it's cool to see the guys that you've watched growing up your whole life, be able to talk to you on that type of platform. You know, one of the things about the NFL is that if, you know, Brady,

you get to a point with Kansas City now. If you can be a number one seed, you get a box. you get a buy, you win one home game, and you're in the conference championship. So the league does a really smart job. They don't want to create too many obstacles for the great teams, right? Win a home game, you're in the conference championship. So this is sort of what Brady did at the end, constantly in the conference championship. It's what Mahomes is doing, and much harder for the wild card teams.

That's one thing. You know, sometimes people complain about the baseball playoffs. is that a really good team can have a good season, then you get knocked out very quickly, right? Like the NFL, this is the way it should work. If you got a great coach and a quarterback, you play a home game or two, you're in the conference championship every year.

So I just looked it up. Brady went to eight straight, AFC championship teams. Never hosted five straight, Mahomes. That's a pretty big honor, right? You know, every year. Brady went five and three when he went to the eight straight. If Mahomes does take an L this Sunday,

only two and three, despite hosting all of them. them. Let's say any, is that something or is that nothing? Well, I think once you've paid him, they would be better with the ward at corner and Tyree Kill at wide receivers. So I think the challenge for Mahomes isn't being great. The challenge for Mahomes going forward is balancing the roster with his enormous salary, which he's earned all of it. Now, that's why Brady and Breeze later decided, I'm going to take pay cut so we can keep guys. the challenge for the chiefs really is about managing their cap this point forward. It's not about you got the coach, you got the coordinators, you got all that.

You got this is what Buffalo is going to find out. You can't pay two safeties, a linebacker, four defensive linemen. You got to clean it up. I personally like the socialism in the NFL. They want everybody having a chance. They don't want the chief stay on top for a decade unless Mahomes takes less like Brady did. But I kind of like that they make it a challenge, right? This is kind of a math equation that you've got to solve over a number of years.

Well, think about baseball. So baseball doesn't have a salary cap per se. And there's probably eight teams right now that are AAA baseball teams. So the socialism aspect of what the NFL does with a hard cap, that's why you have seven new playoff teams every year. You don't have seven new playoff teams. And by the way, everybody's doing moneyball in baseball. Every team is hip to that.

It's like 15 years old, right? Everybody's doing the NFL is. huh, do we pay the quarterback once we find him, or do we just try to recycle quarterbacks in and out every four or five years? That's a big risk to take, but you'll have a better roster, Colin. I can tell you right now in baseball, the Mets are going to be good, the Yankees is going to be good, the Dodgers are going to be good, Houston. You can tell the Braves.

By looking at the salaries. You can kind of have a sense of, yeah, I mean, whereas in the NFL, it's, I mean, there were a lot of people that thought, remember when Tyreek Hill the day he got traded? People were freaking out. Yeah, oh, chiefs are falling off a cliff. A lot of people felt that. So it's like this socialism thing works for this sport. All right.

Next up, let's go to Brock Purdy. Cheapest quarterback left. I believe he's making something like $800,000 this year. So he's making that much as the last pick? It's somewhere in that range. I don't know the exact number. But he's made the leap from Mr. Irrelevant to starting the conference championship game on Fox. Many have questioned how did scouts miss on Purdy?

That includes Steve Smith, Sr., among them, who recently spoke about why he believes Scouts Wift. The last pick? How did that happen? You know how it happens. Scouts are scared. We keep saying, we're waiting for Brock Purdy's draft status to show up. You know why?

Because these scouts are lazy. And they look at schools and they say this and they say that. And they discount people based on some ancillary dumb. I don't even know how they evaluate, but they do. And it's awful. He has a decent point. But at quarterback, we don't see the best players from the, the best schools thriving.

Other positions, right? Left tackle, go to the SEC. You'll find somebody, right? But quarterback, everybody whiffed on Purdy, man. Yeah, I think quarterback's also hard because you touch the ball every play. Pressure is enormous. Personality, wonder lick. I mean, everything matters.

I mean, I always said about Wonderlick, I don't care much. Quarterback, I kind of care. You've got to be in the 20s or 30s. So there's a lot of things. There are a lot of elements to quarterback. Leadership's more important. You know, cognitive, discipline emotionally. You've got to kind of be in a grown-up at 23 years old.

Where, you know, I mean, you can be a wide receiver, a linebacker, and you're a little squirrely, but you're just a terrific player. You can, you know, nobody's leaning on you to run the franchise. I think quarterback is really hard. There's so many elements that you have to be good at, so many boxes you have to check. And let's be honest about this. most of the good quarterbacks go to teams with battle lines. There's a reason they're drafting at the top.

So then you often inherit a mess. And you have no chance, which is what Price Young may step into. And we're also over-drafting quarterback. So a lot of them just simply aren't as good because we need them so badly. So people are reaching on quarterbacks. Like Jalen Hertz fell in the draft. Remember Alabama Star transfers gets to play? Colin, what about Jalen Hertz?

This is two straight years playoffs. Could have been the MVP of the league. I mean, he looks like a franchise quarterback. Brock Purdy, we're still in, what is this, his seventh or eighth game? Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, Jimmy Johnson always talks about this, is that I've asked Jimmy on the air and off, what's the key? And he says, get smart players.

You know, some kids, it's hard. The NFL is, you have to have a playbook. And, you know, some guys take longer. It's just basketball. Like, you can play or not play. Like, I'll give you an example. So there's a lot of guys I'll watch at the college level because I love mock drafts. And I'll watch them and I'll think, oh, he'd be a great NFL guy.

And then he disappears into the tapestry of the NFL. And you're like, what happened to him? And people will say, you know, he had little injuries they hid. He wasn't really coachable. Like in the NBA, you can spot talent very, very early. I always tell the story years ago, I went to a Hartford basketball tournament, a girls' basketball tournament. My daughter was playing. And I'm sitting up there with a bunch of like college.

scouts kind of like, you know, looking at some of these players. And I'm there three minutes and I point over to a girl, little small girl. I'm like, who is that? And they're like, yeah, she's the best. She's the best. Now, how can I spot that in, why? You got an eye for talent. No.

Basketball talent. People knew who Dwight Howard and LeBron were when they were 15 years old. Football, you have violence. You have to get, you can go from high school to the pros and be very good. you're not even allowed to go from high school to football for three years minimum. So there's so much about the growth of your body. Fit with the system you go into? A lot of it's system fit.

Basketball, like if you can score and if you can get your own basket, you'll fit into most systems. Like the system becomes you. It's not the way it works in football. It's wild. Let's finish up with the Steelers. President Art Rooney had an end of the season press conference yesterday. topics ranging from keeping OC Matt Canada to Kenny Pickett's growth this season. One question he didn't seem to want to answer was about Mike Tomlin's future in Pittsburgh.

When asked about it, Rooney said, I don't like to speculate on coach's contract. We'll see. Huh. Very puzzling considering Tomlin I thought was outstanding this year. They were not supposed to be good. They were in the playoff mix until almost the very end. I can't believe they'd move on from Tomlin, wouldn't they? I don't think they would.

You had to think about that for a second. Well, it's just how many years does Sean McDermott and Mike get to figure out the offensive line, the run game, the coordinator? Like, I feel like Pittsburgh gives me kind of the same thing every year. Culture, toughness, defense, physicality. But the league's changing, and I'm not really interested in what you did nine years ago. I'm interested in you developing some of these offensive lines in this league, if you start looking at the ones that you keep scratching your head. Why can Andy Reed solve his O-line in a year? One year, one off-season, solved it. Why does it take Pittsburgh? We're on five now. Buffalo. We're on six years now.

I'm sorry, I look around. By the way, Cincinnati had a disastrous offensive line. One year, solved it. Offensive coach. I mean, Sean McVeigh came to the Rams with Jeff Fisher, disastrous offensive line, got Whitworth, made a couple draft picks. One year, they solved their offensive line. So this Pittsburgh team, Colin, if you looked at what they did, remember that Claypool move. They weren't going to pay him. So they trade him out. They got the rookie quarterback in Pickett. I think this is going to be an offseason. They're a team to watch. After the Super Bowl, you'll bet futures for next year. I'll be betting the Steelers to win the AFC next year. I really think this offseason could be huge for them. Winning the whole AFC? Winning the AFC, yes. Can he

pick it on the rookie deal? Listen, Buffalo is going to struggle next. year. I'll just put that out right now. I mean, Josh Allen's got to get right, the offense. I will serve this. Spotlight. With Pickett for the next four years. Could they just buy good tackles? Like, they can go buy an offensive line. That's what the Chiefs did. Joe Tuny,

bought them. Orlando, I think Orlando Brown, it was a trade. I forgot how they got him. But in the end, you can draft O-line. Pittsburgh's got to go buy offensive linemen. By the way, both KC tackles are free agents in soft season. You say it every year. There's going to be seven new playoff teams. Somebody's dropping out of the AFC. We don't think it's going to be Jacksonville.

You and I know who we like, Nick. We like Detroit's momentum. We like Pittsburgh. I like Pittsburgh a lot. Who else do we like? I mean, there's just a lot of uncertainty. If Aaron stays in Green Bay, my guess is Minnesota pulls back from going 11 and O.

I think the Rams are probably better next year. We'll see. So who don't you like? I think the bills feel like they're coming back. Bills feel like they're coming back. Let's see what happens. Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay of Brady leaves. Tampa Bay.

Yeah. The New York Giants, obviously. I don't know. Oh, come on. Hold on. We don't even know what they're doing a quarterback. Come on. They're keeping Daniel Jones.

So the New York Giants will be falling next year then, yes. Come on. Come on, really? Listen, AFC is going to be incredible next season. I mean, it's already awesome now. J-Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd-Lie News. So I got my two picks. Top of the 10. Feel good about one of them. Not really sure about the other one. These games are hard. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. This is Steve Kavino and Rich.

And together we are Kavino and Rich. Kvino and Rich. Thanks, buddy. That's right. Kavino and Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show. Heard weekdays from 5 to 7 Eastern 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Every Kavino and Rich show is available as a podcast. Search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcast and subscribe.

I'm such a rocking dude. The show features our unique take on sports, injected with some fun, humor, and relatability. Listen to Covino and Rich five days a week on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino and Rich, give me a hell, yeah. 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, Superhuman, documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care which I'll say it. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from back. 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

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

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

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sunday, it's the NFC Championship game presented by Intuit TurboTex as the 49. The designers take on the Eagles with a trip to Super Bowl 57 on the line. It all kicks off at 3 Eastern, noon Pacific, with pregame coverage starting at 1 p.m. Eastern only on Fox and the Fox Sports app. So it's speculation season on Sean Payton. A lot of these jobs have not been filled yet because people are waiting for Sean

Peyton to make up their mind. Yesterday, Carolina, Sean Peyton interviewed with them. They chose Frank Reich. I think it's a good hire. So there was a report yesterday by the Washington Post that said actually that Sean Payton is really concerned about the Broncos ownership. He likes Russell Wilson, though. Okay, that's the opposite of what the truth is.

And Sean Payton called out the reporter. I had dinner with Sean, spent about four and a half, five hours with Sean. From the very beginning, the issues with Denver are not ownership. They're cap space. It's hard to win in this league if you don't have flexibility. and can he get Russell Wilson right? Because last year, Russell was very wrong. And those are concerns.

Cap space, cap flexibility, and Russell Wilson. And I think he's rightly concerned with it. There's a disconnect. So many Seahawks took shots at Russell when he left Seattle. And that's not common. When Tom left New England, people weren't taking shots at him. That's not common. Generally, the quarterback is fairly well-liked.

When Garoppolo left the Patriots, guys loved him. If Garoppolo left the Niners tomorrow, he wouldn't have guys bad mouthing him. So Russell had guys bad mouth on him. And then you heard about the disconnect, his own chiropractor, his own this, his own that, his own office. So there's a real connection problem. And to prove this, if Russell Wilson came off a really solid year, 26 touchdown, seven picks, passer rating of 94, a solid year, not a great year, not as good as he was in Seattle. Sean Payton will be the coach tomorrow.

he would deal with the lack of cap flexibility because he would have a good quarterback, a great defense. You can always get picks. You can figure out ways to get picks. You move a player or two. That you'll always get. And they're only going to deal with one more year of, you know, cap or draft pick hell. So the truth is, Denver, Arizona, Carolina, Indie Houston, in my opinion, would have all hired Sean Payton. All of them would have hired Sean Payton if they had the opportunity.

Carolina found out Sean wasn't going to take it to the hired Frank Reich, but all of them have issues. And Denver's weird because it's potentially the best job if you can get Russell Wilson right with that defense. And it's also potentially the worst of all of them because then you're trapped paying your quarterback $55 million. Your own line's bad. You can't go buy that.

Got Mahomes twice a year, Herbert twice a year. And who knows if Brady shows up to the Raiders, you could have the fourth best quarterback. And I don't care how good a coach is. You can't win the division regularly with the fourth best quarterback. as it is right now, they have the third best quarterback with no chance to surpass Herbert or Mahomes. So I would pass on the job for that reason. I think if you even get Russell Wilson right, he's not as good as Mahomes or Herbert. So at best, you're going to have the third best quarterback in a division.

And that's if you get it right, and there's no guarantee you're going to get it right. But the stories that it's about ownership, let's be honest about ownership. There's three or four owners at any one time that meddle. Dan Snyder did, the old Al. Davis did Jim, Jim Ursa, he started meddling. By and large, most guys are closer to Robert Kraft. If you're winning, they stay out of it. Now, Kraft did dip into personnel.

He told Belichick, you got to move Garapolo. It ticked off Belichick, but it was ticking off Brady worse that Garoppolo was drafted in the second round and was a round, and so they got rid of him. And that, I believe, created a little bit of a rift, perhaps briefly with Robert Kraft and Belichick. But there are no perfect owners. If you're winning, they're all pretty good. If you're losing, they're on your butt and they're a pain. That's not the issue I've been told, spent five hours with him. The two issues are very clear and they're obvious. Cap flexibility is a problem. Everybody in the league knows it. And can I get Russell right? The reason I wouldn't take the job again, because if you get Russell right,

he's still not Mahalms or Herbert. So at best, you got the third best quarterback in the league. So there you go. But I will say this. You know, generally there's job openings and then they're very quickly, you've got a coach. I think a lot of people are just waiting for Sean Payton. That is my guess. So here's another thing that's interesting this weekend. And, you know, I don't, I don't, we all kind of know, Steve Smith is banging on scouts for Brock Purdy.

But football, there's a lot of variables in football. I mean, Terrell Davis ended up being a better. pro back than he was a college back. You know, for the longest time, you'd think it would be linear that, you know, you'd be a great high school quarterback. Then you'd go to like Ohio State and then you would go to the NFL. But how many great Ohio State quarterbacks have there been in the NFL? How many great USC quarterbacks?

How many great Alabama quarterbacks? It just doesn't work that way. In fact, I've made the argument for years. Toughness is an underrated part of being an NFL quarterback. and there's an advantage playing in college with less talented people. You get dinged up more, you get hit more. You have to throw to smaller windows. I think it's a little bit of a disadvantage.

If you quarterback with five-star high school athletes and all-Americans in college, it's easier. The margins are much wider in college. So Brock Purdy played at Ohio State. He didn't have a bunch of NFLers in front of him. He didn't have a bunch of NFL first round-wide receivers. He had a good running back, but he didn't have a lot of stars around him. So therefore, you have to plan a lot of close games. You're often coming from behind.

You're getting beat up a little in the pocket. That's called the NFL. So that's why you have so many quarterbacks. I mean, think about right now in the NFL. How many of Josh Allen went to Wyoming? Mahomes went to Texas Tech. Burrow had the transfer. Dak went to Mississippi State.

Jalen Hertz had the transfer. A lot, I mean, you start looking around. Jared Goff went to Cal. That's a rugby power. That's not a football power. Jared Goff got the, you know what, kicked out of him in college. So by the time he got to the NFL, he knew what it was like to quarterback in a muddy pocket, to have to play from behind, like to throw to guys that aren't NFL players.

So there's a huge advantage. That's why quarterback's hard. There's a huge advantage to having Matt Ryan, Boston College, Drew Breeze, Purdue, Big Ben, Miami of Ohio. You're not throwing to five-star athlete. We always say this about Mack Jones and two. Everybody's open at Alabama. receivers are wide open.

USC when they got the right coach, Pete Carroll, Lincoln, Ronnie. Wide receivers are wide open. Now, I think Caleb Williams will be good, but it's harder. But it is interesting. Just Brock Purdy has had 19 drives in the playoffs. Four touchdowns, eight field, goals, five punts. Joe Burroughs had 17.

Four touchdowns, three field goals, five punts. Brock Purdy is pretty good. Now, now, now, we know there's some physical limitations. You'd like him to be about an inch and a half taller. You'd like him to have a little better arm. You know, Burrough's a better, you know, Burroughs the better quarterback talent. You could also say, well, he's got really good weapons. So does Burrow.

Well, I mean, he's got a really good coach. Well, Zach Taylor's pretty good, too. So I think what's fascinating to me is if Brock Purdy, Because with the Niners, if Brock Purdy, even if he loses this weekend, but he loses 27, 26, and he's kind of a gamer. The Niners defense gives up a late touchdown to Hertz, but he's kind of a gamer. It creates unbelievable clarity. Jimmy Garoppolo, see ya, Trey Lance. See you, we'll get a draft pick.

Bosa will sign you a long-term deal. There are a lot of worse things in the world going into the next three years with Brock Purdy, knowing you have a great GM, a great coach, a great owner, and a great roster. That's a lot of great. And Brock Purdy. So now, if he just unravels against Philadelphia, looks like a rookie, then all of a sudden, you go back to lack of clarity for the Niners. We love everything about the Niners.

It's the quarterback thing we've been wrestling with for three years. Sunday, he plays great, win or lose. They figured out that part of the jigsaw puzzle. Signed Bosa. I think winning in Philadelphia is going to create, you're going to have to go with him long term. You know how hard it is to go into Philadelphia? That is an unbelievable task this weekend.

Hour two 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 games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

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

our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.