The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - HOUR 3 - College football playoff breakdowns with Urban Meyer, You only have so long with a star quarterback

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Former head coach and Fox Sports analyst Urban Meyer joins Colin and discusses the upcoming next round of the college football playoffs, including expectations for Oregon, what Ohio State will do with Ryan Day calling plays now and whether teams like Tulane and James Madison belong in the playoffs. You only have so long with a star quarterback, and Colin wonders if the door is closing for the Ravens while the Chiefs are heading for a rebuild, not a retool.See 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. 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 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 ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. From My Heart Podcasts, Saigon. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. They're pouring patril all over here. Freedom for Vietnam! There's a fire coming to this country and it's going to burn out everything.

Listen to Saigon. on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more.

Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcasts, Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in. Do that.

David O'Yello-O. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationship. or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gait and Moderato from Stranger Things, Tana Monsu, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard Podcast.

Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to New York. Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Fox Sports Radio. Here we go, final hour. Urban Myers around the corner. Man, Niners tonight. I'm rolling with a nine. You're not blazing five. I don't know what you guys are doing on Friday. You may want to drop by the old

radio TV show. Seriously. We need another fire extinguisher in this room till hot. Wait, so Cowher, are you doing picks for this week on Wednesday or Friday? Because here's

three games on Christmas Day. Will you include those in the picks? Let me think about it. Okay. Let me think about it. I hope I can play by those rules as well for headlines. Because I'm looking, I'm like, I don't know if I can get picks by Wednesday. I know. When you only have so many games, you know, I didn't think yesterday was going to be that interesting,

but then Saturday night was so unbelievable. And then you're watching New England last night was great. And then the, I mean, that just, you know, the league's always entertaining. What can you say? I'm always entertained. Aaron Rogers and the Steelers. Hello. Held off the Lions.

We already control the game. And to expand their division and lead in the AFC North. And I've said that's from the beginning. Although Aaron Rogers is merely duct tape for this offense, he and Mike Tomlin, they make it work. So it's getting better. Aaron Rogers said, you know, give me my guys, MBS, Adam Thielen. And, you know, it's typical Steeler fashion, a wide receiver, high maintenance, drama. You know, you got to always deal with that.

And despite the fact that a 230 to 15 rush advantage, they had to hold on for dear life. it was Pittsburgh, but I will say this about Aaron. He's just a lot of quarterback players just getting you out of trouble. He's made the offense slicker and smarter. You know, he just takes what's available, not a lot of negative plays. Right now, Aaron Rogers leads the entire NFL in fastest release. He's getting rid of the ball faster than any other quarterback. He's 42.

He doesn't want to get hit and he doesn't want that Steeler O line to get into trouble. because they really don't have the kind of receiving core or consistent run game that did yesterday that can get them out of trouble. So Aaron's like, give me the ball, let's get it out, stay ahead of the chains. I feel like Aaron has become like the oil, the lubrication for an offensive machine where the gears for the last seven years have been getting stuck. And he just comes in, get rid of the ball, audible to the right play, take what's available, don't get greedy. It's really smart. And by the way, this is the most impressed I've been with Aaron

Rogers in a long time. Well, what about Green Bay? Everybody wins in Green Bay. Hell, Malik Willis looked great last Saturday. Aaron Rogers, Jordan Love, Brett Farf, everybody looks good in Green Bay that quarterbacks. Backups come in. Malik Willis, they're dynamic. This offense, Pittsburgh, for seven years, they can't run the ball. The old line doesn't work. They, you know, turnstile offensive coordinator, Aaron gets the credit for this. He gets the credit. The longer this goes on this season, last three weeks, brings his friends in at wide receiver.

It's just it works. Jalen Warren, 2.45-yard runs dominate the lions. Lions have their own problems. But, you know, here's, you got Lamar Jackson can't stay healthy. You got Joe Burrow can't stay healthy. And Aaron's 42, and he's like, I'm staying healthy. I'm going to be available for my team. So he's just done all the little things well.

It's amazing what coaching can do or really smart veteran quarterback play. It's not always what they do. It's what they don't do. They don't throw picks. They don't take bad sacks. You know, they audible in and out of trouble and into advantages. So Mike Tomlin, you know, you say what you want. And I've had my grievances with Mike Tomlin.

Here they are again looking at a potential division championship. thankful of the fight and the win and we'll keep pushing because that's what you got to do this time of year win or lose you got to keep pushing and we will we're coming in tomorrow to watch the tape we ain't got time for victory Mondays and that's what I told the team okay now let's go to the team that lost Detroit one coach one has really changed the direction of two franchises in the same division Ben jose. Johnson used to be at Detroit. And wow, were they dynamic. The craziest third and fourth downed team in the league. Look at him now. He left and went to Chicago and the Bears are 11 and 4 and the best fourth quarter team in the NFL. For the record, the Cowboys weren't interested in Ben Johnson.

Congratulations. But the bears who have poor ownership, I mean like literally the poorest ownership and years of dysfunction upstairs and you watch them. Yeah. It's. It's been a work in progress. But I've heard this before from athletes. The great athletes, and Caleb Williams is a generational talent. He is special. They want, Caleb Williams wanted to be coached hard. He said there's nobody to watch film with me.

He wanted to be coached hard. He wanted somebody to get on him and enter Ben Johnson. I mean, Patrick Mahomes didn't become Patrick Mahomes because Andy Reid pandered. They disagree. The volume goes up. So and Caleb's got an ability to make the hard look easy. Sometimes the easy looks a little difficult, but the entire Bears organization. You know, again, once you get the coach right, Vrable in New England, Sean Payton and Denver,

Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers, Ben Johnson, it doesn't take long. Literally it takes like six to eight weeks. You build the staff, you get the planning, and then slowly but surely, you get into week six, week nine, week 12, week 15, you look up, this is a really good team. They do all the things that winning teams do. They win the turnover battle. They run the football. They've been lucky a little bit with health, mostly a very healthy team.

They don't have negative plays. So you're seeing the same thing in New England with Vrable, Sean Peyton, Jim Harbaugh. I mean, last year, the Bears, just a simple thing. Last year, do you remember this? The Bears were the worst fourth quarter team in the league. they couldn't even script plays appropriately. Now, third best. So they start smartly, they finish strongly,

and again, they've just gotten out of the stuff that loses games. No turnovers, no negative plays, the operation, the basic fundamentals, looks organized. And then, of course, you have Caleb Williams, who really is a unique talent. Here's the walkoff touchdown. On the fake Williams.

Looking downfield. And great coaches are like great movie directors. You got to let the star kind of do his thing. However, with a clear identity of what the movie is and what the game plan is. And people are going to say, well, I mean, the Bears got a little bit lucky. They recovered the onside kick. No, time out. They also had two games.

game-winning drives. And they also, in overtime, stop the Packers. So it's not just, well, teams block punts all the time, teams recover onside kicks. What do you do with the opportunities presented? And well-coached it. Last night, New England could have lost that puppy. New England maybe gets a big interception or a fumble recovery. Well, what do they do with it?

Well, coached teams take advantage. of those little breaks that every team in the league gets. Yep, the onside kick. Gotta be honest, that kind of surprised me. But it's what they did with it. And here's Caleb after. I got the best coach in the world. Let's put it that way.

And we have the best coaching staff in the world. And so you put the talent with the coaches and the people that care. You can strive for anything. You can reach anything. You can go after any goal. And when you go out there in that football field, your belief is at all-time high between players, between coaches, and, you know, you have outcomes like this. Yeah, I mean, Chicago's two best drives, one to get it to overtime, one that wins it in overtime. You talk all you want about getting lucky.

Every team gets the same amount of luck. Urban Myers around the corner. We've got four great games starting on New Year's Eve. unbelievable college football playoff games coming up. It's the Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of the Hurt weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

Pauly Fusco here with Tony Fuscoe. Yo, as everybody knows, we're the host of the award-winning Pauley and Tony Fusco show. Yeah. But instead of us telling you how great we are, here's how Dan Patrick described us when he came on our show. Quick, knowledgeable, knowledgeable, and funny, opinionated. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What are you doing? You're interrupting our promo. Yeah. He wasn't talking about you. You took those clips totally out of context. Oh, yeah? Well, after this promo, I'm going to take you out and beat you. Let me put this into context.

Shut up. Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Pauli and Tony Fusco show on I-Hod Radio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah. Hey, it's us, the 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. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... 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. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is. Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War.

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Keith Geomanca seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad. But secretly, he became someone else, a master of disguise who went. on a crime spree. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea? It seemed very crazy. But I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out. Did you allow yourself to think about how it could go wrong

and what that might look like? No. I didn't want to manifest that. I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that you, Your dad has been living a double life. That is not the look of an innocent man.

This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody, please! But there's so much more to me than me.

I'm an actor. I'm a comedian, and recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope I'm a Hypocrite. I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike! I'm a comedian! I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice.

One ring is too scary. Oh, cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the Mike Coutura Podcast Network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, um, boy, we got some good games. Ohio State, Miami. you're talking probably the two best defenses

and college football are going to meet. And Miami, listen, I'm going to give any college football team that can go on the road, Alabama and Miami and win, that's not as hard to do in the NFL. You got older players. To get college guys to go on the road, I actually thought Miami got a break. It was a day game.

So college football didn't want to go up against the NFL at night. And so Miami got a day game against Dan Am. To me, that was a touchdown advantage. Huge break. Urban Myers now joining us live, three-time national championship coach. Okay, so Ryan Day, because Brian Hartline took a new gig, Ryan Day has got to take over play calling. How does that make you feel? Do you like that? Well, the last two national championships, we were part of, first one of Florida,

Dan Mullen left to become the head coach Mississippi State. And I made the decision of bringing back. And it was a, I mean, I had to stay on top of it because like it or not, that coach, has now got a job. He's got a coach. Brian Hartline is the head coach of South Florida. And then Tom Herman left to be the head coach at Houston and I brought him back. And you have to stay on it. Here's a difference. Ryan Day is an elite play caller. So there will be no drop off.

He's knee deep in the offense. I think he made the right decision here. No offense to Brian Hartline. But Brian Hartline is the head coach of South Florida. Are you saying you weren't an elite play caller? You're making it sound like, well, were you more culture builder? Yeah, and I was a special teams coordinator, and I did more of the stuff. Yeah.

You know, Ryan has been a play caller most of his career. He certainly was for me, and I witnessed it. He's fantastic. So, yeah, if Ryan Day was not an elite play caller or has great experience doing it, I would have certainly brought the coordinator back. By the way, I, you know, everybody says Mario Cristobal can recruit. They don't like his game stuff. I don't know.

I thought Miami over the last three, four times I've watched them play. They've gotten better and better and better. To me, that's coaching. And I'd say it would, you know, your interpretation of what Miami presents for Ohio State and the challenges. Well, last time we saw Ohio State, they struggled on offense against Indiana. And Miami's offense, I'm really concerned about that. I've been concerned all year. And I made the comment about Carson Beck, that this will be the most,

this game and the one he just played. And every NFL scout is watching to say, can he be an NFL court? He's got all the tools. But just at times he's turned the ball over. So Miami, excellent. I don't put that on Carson Beck. I think they managed the game playing great defense.

Yeah. You know, you look at the end of the first half, Colin, they didn't really even try to go score. You know, they were just trained. They were, they had a good feel that their defense was going to just smother. A&M offense, which they did, and they managed a great game. Yeah. You know, I agree with you.

I think sometimes you as a coach can kind of feel like we don't need to take big swings here. They're not marching down the field on us. So I got to tell you, Kailen DeBore gets a lot of crap. And my take is you can't stack your rosters like Nick did. Those days are over. Even Georgia doesn't look like they used to look. I thought, I mean, what did you, what was your interpretation of falling behind 17

nothing coming back to win on the road? That does not happen a lot in college football against good teams. Yeah, our triple option podcast was live right before the game. We walked in there. I was with Coach Stoops, and that's one of the best college environments I've ever seen. And to fall behind like they did, I mean, they got punched right in the face. The crowd was behind. And we actually had Coach DeBoron today on the podcast.

And I asked them, every coach wants their team to hit adversity, yet not get injured and then also somehow win the game. It happened. So his team was, you know, his leadership was identified. That was one of the great performances. Here's the thing about Alabama. Team B is not very good. That's the team that lost to Georgia and the FCC championship in Florida State early.

I mean, I don't know if I've seen a better, a worse discrepancy between the best version of themselves and the worst. The best version, I don't know who can beat them. That's how good I think they are. Their worst version, they're not very good. So somehow they got to get consistency. And if they play like they played in that second, you know, the last three quarters of that game, they'll be in a final game. Wow. There's been a lot of talk about Kailen DeBore going to Michigan.

Do you buy that? Stop. No chance. No chance? He's in Alabama. You don't leave Alabama to go anywhere. No, no chance. Well, Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma to go to USC.

you coaches are you coaches are sometimes you know you get you get crazy a little bit so you think there's zero chance he he's got a good infrastructure you know you saw bif pogey come out today and said it's a malfunctioning organization that uh i think that that that job's a complete they're gonna have to that's a it's a like code there and said it's a malfunctioning think about what he just said a malfunctioning organization the last five years that's all that needs that's hard to believe. So let me throw this out. Marcus Freeman, apparently Notre Dame has signed rivalry games with BYU.

And I think that's a great matchup. BYU, the former independent, Notre Dame, the partial independent. They should play each other. That's a good game. I'd like to watch that. But it says here they likely won't play USC until 2030. Now, I'm for that. I'm not a traditionalist. I think USC now they're in the Big Ten does not need another cold weather game after they play Ohio State. I would say, okay, Notre Dame, you want to play me? Got to be in September, two out of three games are in L.A.

But Notre Dame's, you know, there's not going to let that stuff happen. Are you bothered that USC and Notre Dame don't play? I'm heartbroken. I am a traditionalist. I coached in that game when I was an assistant to Notre Dame. I love rivalries. I love the pageantry. I love, you know, the intersectional robbery.

I mean, we're getting ready to witness the worst non-conference scheduling in the history of our sport. It's, you know, Indiana played Old Dominion, Kennes, Arkansas State, I believe they're called, and Indiana State. That's, and they're the number one team in the land. So there's no reason to play a premier matchup, and it breaks my heart because I think that's awful for our sports. That's, of all the things that got to get fixed in college football, that's either one area or one B. that they're getting ready, Colin. You're going to see the worst September as you've ever seen in the game. Yeah, I've always had a theory.

You get one cupcake and then you get right into conference play, especially now with the playoff. We don't need Ohio State, Youngstown State, maybe one. Let's just get into the conference play. But, you know, scheduling's always been weird. Okay, I want to give you these four games. I want an opinion on all of them. I like Ohio State by about a touchdown over Miami.

I just, I think they have more weapons offensively. Ohio State 27, 20. What say you on that one? I say that Ohio State scores two touchdowns they win. I don't think the Miami's offense against the number one defense in the land at Ohio State, from what I've been watching in Miami, I think they're going to really struggle. I think Ohio State, last time we saw them, they really struggled against Indiana offensively. So I'm saying 20 to 10, 20 to 10, 24.

four to ten Ohio State. Okay. I'm going to go upset. Texas Tech, who's being ignored, is going to upset Oregon. Oregon is good, but Oregon can be beat. They're not quite as physically dominant as some of the other teams. I'm going to go Texas Tech with an upset. Who do you like?

Texas Tech, the only question is they played Utah, and they beat them. We were there. Big Noon was there, and then we saw them against BYU as well. They've only played BYU and Utah. those are two toughest opponents. So the one issue that Texas Tech has is they're going to look across the field and see a team that has what they got, you know, or better. You know, their roster is this will be the first matchup game that they've had all season.

So I think the point spreads like one or one and a half. Yeah. I think it's a walk off either way. I think it's a, I'm going to probably pick Oregon, but I love Texas Tech. Okay, Alabama, Indiana. I like Indiana here. I think they've, I think you got. Got two quality coaches, good college quarterbacks, both have excellent receivers.

I think Indiana can run the ball a little bit, can control time of possession a little bit. I'm going to take Indiana where you land. Yeah, Indiana, we've been covering them all year. We were at the Big Ten championship game. And, you know, I love to do this car. I love to walk next to their players and just get a feel for their size and their speed athleticism. Indiana, you know, even I didn't give them enough credit. But they went toe to toe with the Buckeyes.

And so I'm thinking, again, this is a walkoff that can go either way. It depends on if version A shows up of Alabama, Alabama wins that game. Alabama is a better, more talented team if Team A shows up. But Team A always doesn't show up. The most consistent team in a country is Indiana. They always show up. Yeah. All right.

Finally, I'll take Georgia by about a touchdown over Ole Miss. any different opinion there? I mean, Georgia's good. I agree with you. I think Georgia, I'm saying Georgia is probably the team to beat right now from their performance against up. That was the best performance of 2025 was the Georgia against Alabama and the FCC championship.

They were on fire. If they play like that, yeah, they'll win. They've also played a bunch of close games. So it's not like Georgia, the old Georgia three years ago. They played in a bunch of close games, and they're winning them. So let me ask you this. You tell me I'm crazy. on this. So my

take on the college football playoffs. So in March Madness, you have far more teams, but you've got like 15 teams with no chance to either win a game. You've got a bunch of nonsense. But it's part of the pageantry. It's part of the,

it's an exa bit, you know, part of what makes March Madness fun. If one of those teams pulls off an upset, it's like awesome. But most of the teams get dragged and they're blown out. And it's Carolina beaten something called Lips Gone by 30, whatever, but everybody's okay with it. In college football, you've only got 12 teams and we're outraged that there's two teams that

can't compete. And my take is, two's fine. If there were three to four, I wouldn't like it. But this point forward, I have the eight best teams in college football. And I'm okay with a couple of, you know, a couple of ugly little turbulent stuff. It bothers everybody. And my take is if you have a college football or basketball, lacrosse, If you have a college tournament and you invite a lot of people, you're going to get mismatches.

That's just they are otherwise just to have a 16 tournament. So I wasn't bothered by James Madison or Tulane. Were you? I was to a degree because I just don't think it's fair. You know, if the college football, there's only 12 teams. That's a big difference like you mentioned between March Madness and this one. You know, Texas played Ohio State early in the season. They should have been in the playoff.

I still don't. They got penalized for playing at Ohio State. Let James Madison or Tulango run up there and play in the horseshoe in early in the season and see what happens. You know, that would be probably a 25-point spread or more. So, yeah, I just think you saw Notre Dame, you saw Texas. You imagine what those games could have and would have looked like if they were to play to each other. And I don't know what anybody expected when James Madison had to go to Austin. They fought their ass off.

I mean, they scored points on them, but you just watch the NFL draft. It's not even close. And then the same with Tulane playing the way they played. You know, I just didn't know what people were, you know, when I saw them coming up, the matchups, I'm like, what are we doing? You know, this doesn't make sense to me. And I get what you're saying, but it's not March Madness. There's only 12 teams. Urban Meyer, are you golfing today?

Tomorrow. And the day after that? Big step down from last week, though. You were at Augusta. Augusta. With Alex Smith, my old quarterback, we had a ball. Oh, he's one of the nicest guys. He is one of the old-time.

He is great. All right, coach. Great seeing you. Great seeing you. Stay warm. I am. I'll be golfing in Chicago when it gets warm June 23rd. I kid because I care, you know.

J-Mack with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Oh, buyer's remorse on the Midwest there. Okay, let's get to the Green Bay Packers that came on Saturday night, Colin. What a thriller, except for the fact that Jordan Love got knocked out. If you're watching on TV, holy hell, look at this hit that he takes.

Boom. Now, listen, some people are saying that was a dirty hit. Love lowered his head. You know, like, again, I'm not, you know, I don't know. Look at it. He ducked into it and it was bad. He looked woozy. Packers fans obviously concerned.

Well, Malik Willis took over, Colin. I'm sure you saw he ended up getting a big hit at the end of regulation. Malik played well. He was so good on third down. Maybe the best backup in the league. He's up there, Mac Jones. But here's the bad news, Colin. We don't know if Malik Willis is going to be able to play this week.

That would be crushing news. So the Packers could turn to someone named Clayton Tune, a.k.a. Clayton Looney Tune to be the quarterback for Week 17 trying to retain a playoff spot. Bad news is they go to play against Baltimore. Colin, this game is Saturday night. It could be third stringer Clayton Toon against backup Snoop Huntley. You're telling me the quarterback depth isn't an issue.

That could be a big matchup Saturday night here in week 17. Yeah, I mean, listen, I still think there's a ton of star power. I know when the playoffs come around, I'm getting great young talent. And then some Stafford and Aaron Rogers and redemption stories like, Donald and Trevor Lawrence. So I think it's going to be great. So we need to recalibrate as we do the offseason, right? What did the bears do? You mentioned this early. They stole from the chiefs. Fortifying where? The offensive line, Tuni, right? They bolstered it. I think there will be a gold rush for offensive linemen. Anybody who's available, I'm grabbing them because that's the first,

easiest way to lose your quarterback. Jared Goff has struggled a lot. What happened? They didn't have a center. I think the most pivotal players this offseason will be offensive line. Simon, do you agree? Well, I mean, yeah, I don't think it's a quarterback free agent class of note. I think I always said this league is a finer quarterback, B, protect him. That's the first two things in this league. Andrew Luck and Indy, they couldn't protect him. He retired early. So, I mean, the first thing McVade did in L.A. went and got a left tackle for Jared Gough. So to me, when I see, and there's injuries, but if there's one area, I would go into a season over, paying and have more players than I need, it would be my all line. Yeah.

And I don't want to, even when it comes to the draft, you know, reaching for a tackle, that's fine. Remember, the Patriots were kind of, people took shots at them for drafting Will Campbell so early in the draft. I think he went top five. And they were like, oh, he's got short arms. Campbell's been terrific. And guess what?

Campbell went down with the injuries on IR now. Last week, tough struggle bus for Drake May. Now, this week against the Ravens, he was fine, but offensive line is everything. All right. Let's move to the Carolina Panthers, Colin. Wow. Break up the Panthers and Bryce Young. Another game-winning drive for the former number one pick.

Colin, he was good. Now, I know he only threw for a buck 91, but he made the big throws. Look at that, right, over the shoulder to Coker. They've got a nice little receiving group. Here's Bryce Young. T-Mex, great. Oh, T-Max outstanding. Here's Bryce Young on the grit, the Panthers show.

Coach talks about it all the time, finish. That's something that we take a lot of pride in, that we carry in. into every aspect of who we are as a team. And, you know, for us not to just talk it, but to walk it, to be resilient, to go and continue to battle, I wouldn't want to go to war with any other team. Yeah, I mean, listen,

half to half, they're a bit inconsistent, and it's not a terribly strong division. But I would say from an offensive standpoint, I think they had a good draft, and I think they get the most out of their talent, and that's all you can ask. And I think, you know, Bryce doesn't have the strongest arm, but he's accurate, he moves well.

I mean, he's, they like him. I mean, listen, he's got 32 touchdowns, nine picks. Passer rating, low 90s. Again, I think he got himself that fifth year extension. I think he's good enough. If he can stay healthy, they can keep surrounding him up front. The defense, they did a good job. The defense got much better.

It was awful last year. It's okay now. So it feels like they finally have, you know, David Tepper bought it. He was a little impulsive. Feels like they've taken a deep breath. they've reset with Canales, Morgan. It's a real organization now. They outplayed Tampa, no question.

Oh, yeah, Tampa's reeling. They've lost, I think, six of seven. So, Colin, what's the future for Bryce Young? You mentioned the fifth-year extension. I'm going to ask you, could he be a version of what we're seeing with Baker-Mayfield in Tampa and Sam Darnold in Seattle? Can he be a version of that? Okay, so here's the thing.

I wouldn't want him if it was cold weather. I mean, honestly, you're talking about cold weather. Tua was a pro bowler in warm weather. In Carolina, he's not a big strong. He's not a 6-5 guy. He didn't have a huge arm, but he plays... That division's a warm-weather division. I have no problem with Bryce Young,

spend some money in a warm-weather division. I don't think he's all-weather. He's not all-terrain. That's not it. I mean, that's when you need a bigger... Like, Drake May is a... His ball cuts through it. He's a big kid.

So I think Bryce Young I mean, listen, you don't want to start over a quarterback. Now, because he's been dinged up before, fourth round, fifth round, probably draft a quarterback and kind of groom him just in case. Yeah. But he's made himself some money. I mean, you joke about me.

I'm a warm weather tank top guy. I go to cold weather. I shrivel up. I mean, it's tough. I'll just say this. I think at the right price, Carolina can build a contender in the NFC, Colin. Like, that division is a – we know it's a joke.

Falcons can't get their act together. Bucks are reeling. I'm not believing the Tyler Shuck hype in New Orleans. If they can build wisely, they've got good receivers, two good backs. The offensive line is okay. The defense, as you said, is there. I think they can build a consistent 10-win team in that division with Price Young at the right price, like 35-th or 35-mill, you know, that kind of contract.

Final story, Colin, let's go to boxing where we had, yeah, we don't talk a lot of boxing here. So there was a quote-unquote heavyweight matchup Saturday between a YouTuber named Jake Paul against former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua. It was on Netflix. Joshua knocked him out in the sixth round. Actually broke Jake Paul's jaw in two places with that vicious right hand. I don't have a ton to add here, but I know you love boxing. I mean, Joshua is one of the best, you know, he's one of the best fighters we've had in a decade.

He could have knocked him out three punches in. I mean, you know, what Netflix does is fine with me. but I mean it was pretty obvious Joshua wasn't throwing his biggest stuff until later. I mean, he could have come out throwing blows first round and ended the fight. It was a total mismatch. And everybody kind of knew it was, but, you know, I'm sure they, you know, it feels like there were certain instructions to let's not make this a 30-second fight. Oh, interesting.

I mean, Joshua is a world-class fighter. He's 6-6-2-40. Why is a guy 6-1-21-15 getting in the ring? They're not even in the same weight class. I didn't understand this. I saw the highlights and the broken jaw x-ray, and I did hear from someone here on staff who was deeply close to this.

Jake Paul got paid. A YouTuber bringing an audience to Netflix got north of, I'm not even going to say the figure, but it's astronomical. Yeah. But is this what we're, is this boxing? Is this what we're doing? More people watch that than we'll watch any other fight

in the next 12 months. Okay. So, I mean, whether or it's right or wrong, UFC has stolen all of boxing thunder. Feels a little short-sighted. Hey, we could get a lot of people to watch this fight in December. Cool. What's on the game plan for 26?

Crickets. Yeah. Jay Mack with the News. So, tonight's the Niners. You know, it's normally you wouldn't be excited about this game, but the Niners are shockingly good. And Phillip Rivers at 44 years old is, you know, going to go at it again. he can't move, but he couldn't move, you know, when he was good.

So I like the Niners at this one, but my take is on the back end of the Colts defense, you can kind of make hay. So I think the Niners will move the ball down the field. But I am interested to watch. And it is, we've seen Kirk Cousins, we've seen Philip Rivers, we've seen Matt Stafford, we've seen Aaron Rogers. These old school guys are very good at the line of scrimmage. They're very good pre-snap.

There's limitations on how much they can move. but what Aaron's done in Pittsburgh is very redeemable. They just don't make a lot of mistakes. He keeps the chains moving forward. You know, he's not running around, getting in trouble. There's a lot of value in just stay ahead of the sticks, complete the passes that are open, get the ball off, don't take sacks, don't turn it over.

It's not the sexiest football. But, you know, I think the Colts will be viable for about three quarters tonight. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name?

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.

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in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually meet people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, it's, I've noted this couple times.

I think with Josh Allen and Caleb Williams, you do get these kind of unique quarterbacks that have so much talent. so much horsepower. I don't worry too much about stats. I talked about this last week. Caleb's improved on everything this year, except completion percentage. Here's Hasselback on Matt Hasselbeck on Caleb and the win over Green Bay. He put this team on his back in critical moments.

It was a struggle bus of a game, a very windy situation, rivalry game. And he had two incredible plays. And Ben Johnson, again, whether it's, special teams or offensive explosive plays or defense, onside kick. This is a guy that has his team, has the whole city believe in. And they believe they, I think a lot of people believe that they've got their quarterback. And for sure, he is quieting a lot of the doubters.

And, you know, it's last year he had 20 touchdown six picks, but they were, you know, you got the coach fired and the coordinator run out. So Ben Johnson's just alleviated a lot of the dysfunction. And I think, you know, Mike Vrable said this when he got the New England job. He said, you just don't realize here in New England how lucky you are, basically saying Tennessee is dysfunctional and political and poorly run. Well, Chicago's had that reputation forever. So there's things you have to overcome.

But I think if you have a superstar coach and a superstar level talent at quarterback, you can overcome it. It was, I mean, it's just all the big plays. This has become a fourth quarter team. And here's Hasselback on Ben and Caleb in year one. I think it's exciting for a guy like Ben Johnson because he was coaching Jared Goff, who does everything right, but doesn't have the mobility and escapeability to make a bad play call look great. And I think that's one thing Caleb can do. And yet at the same time

accomplishing the goal of the team, which was consistent play, never, ever, ever missing an open guy, never being the reason that a play wasn't successful. Maybe letting the offense work for you, some of those things. If you can put all that together, you can have an MVP quarterback. And the other thing that you're noticing all the success Bo Nix is having and Drake Mays having and Caleb Williams are having, why?

Well, they've got good coaches, but they're on their rookie contracts. So Denver's roster, Chicago's roster, New England's roster is better than people think, is that, you know, we talked, JMAX brought this up. Joe Burrow can't make the playoffs again. and you look at Baltimore.

That roster looks kind of thin, and you look at Kansas City. I think Kansas City's in a rebuild. Everybody else thinks retool. I think it rebuild. Folks, when you have a star quarterback, even if you have a star quarterback, you better make hay in four or five years

because once you pay Mahomes, look at his own line. Once you pay Lamar, look at his own line. Once you pay Josh Allen, look at his defense. That's if you, get a superstar quarterback. If Kansas City, not Buffalo, not Baltimore, they got the trophies. And so, and that's the reality of it.

There are some really elite quarterbacks on team friendly deals, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, those are team friendly deals. Brock Bertie's deal is not too bad. Brock Purdy's pretty good deal for the Niners. But it changes everything. And so a great part of both. No, Nix's success isn't just Sean Payton. It's a really good roster. And you look at the ability for New England to go out and get Stefan Diggs, and then they hit on, you know, Kyle Williams,

who's getting better and better as a deep threat. And, you know, you start you look around. It's you got, so Jay Mack said this earlier. Is it over? Is the door closed for Lamar Jackson? Well, he's expensive and because the O line's not as good. He gets dinged up more. So Josh Allen yesterday, gets stinged up. We saw Patrick Mahomes gets hurt. So, man, you got to make hey. There's just because once these star quarterbacks, what are you going to do? How many of them are going to sign team friendly deals?

They're not. You know, and this is not blaming him if Justin Herbert, and he shouldn't, if he'd have taken 10 million less, they'd have another tackle on the roster. But he shouldn't. He's been carrying that franchise with bad coaches for years. Justin should take every penny he can. So it's just, it's, if you look at the highest quarterback cap hits, let's see, they're putting it down here. I have it on the screen.

Do you want me to read them off? Yeah. So, let, Dak Prescott. Well, no playoffs. Okay. Matt Stafford, they have, now, they have aced like three drafts in a row. Like, they have just hit on every draft pick. But should be noted, secondary is not very good.

Special teams are a wreck with the Rams. They just fired the special teams. So then you go to Joe Burrell. Defense is awful. Lamar Jackson, roster's okay. Kyler Murray, roster's okay. Gino Smith, roster's horrible. So again, that's where you get into trouble when Gino Smith is a huge cap hit. I'll live with Stafford, but you just can't make me, you can't pay Gino Smith big money. Huge mistake by the Raiders.

So one of the top eight cap hits made the playoffs, and that's Stafford. Seven was Kirk Cousins and eight was Tua. So, Colin, let's spin this forward, 2006. Do you want me? I want to see it. Okay, here we go. Number one, Deshawn Watson is the biggest cap hit next year. They ain't making the playoffs.

We already know that. That's right. Number two is Patrick Mahomes. So all this, hey, the chiefs are going to do all this stuff in the off season. You might have to start with talking about his contract. Number three, Lamar Jackson, third biggest cap hit next year. That's right. Then it's Dak Prescott, followed by this one surprise me, Jared Gough, at five.

I thought the lines would have wiggle room, maybe not. Six, Kirk Cousins. Forget about him. Seven is two, eight, Josh Allen, nine, Kyler Murray. So again, I know people think, oh, it's Mahomes and Reed. Oh, it's Lamar and probably John Harbaugh. It's way deeper than that. The NFL has changed, man.

Listen, go look at Sam Darnold's roster. They moved off D.K. Metcalf to the less expensive JSN, Darnold signed a friendly deal. So you look at Seattle. By moving off D.K. Metcalfe, and by getting Darnel at a team-friendly deal, that roster is stacked. Jalen Hertz, I don't, Jalen Hertz does not have a huge cap hit. Therefore, Philadelphia's roster like Seattle between good drafting and the addition of a couple key pieces. I'm surprised Stafford's number is that high, but I think you just pointed it out,

one of the top 10 quarterback cap hits. Top eight are making the playoffs. And that's with probably the best coach in the league, Sean McVeigh. And they have, they've been on a string three years of hitting on draft picks. That is really special. Yeah. And then you marry that with the NFL playoff seedings and you're like, oh, that tracks. Like literally almost everywhere. It's like, oh, that guy doesn't have a big cap pit.

That's probably why they're successful. Here's who doesn't have a big cap hit. Bo Nix, Drake May, Trevor Lawrence, Aaron Rogers, Justin Herbert, top five seats. The other one, it's Sam Darnold, Caleb Williams, is Jalen Hurd, Bryce Young, Stafford. Of the top 10 seeds, one has the big quarterback cap hit. And again, Sean McVeigh is probably the best coach in the league.

And they've gone seven for seven on their last seven defensive picks. They've gotten either it's luck, either it's just brilliance, but they are, I mean, you get pook in the fifth round. That's not normal. You don't get players like that in the fifth round. So if you're looking for a team next year, I was early on this and I whiffed this year. but the Tennessee Titans have a ton of cap money. That is an attractive job for somebody

because nobody's getting paid on the Titans yet. So if you think there's five or six guys, you can go out there like Vrable did and add to the Patriots and you think Cam Ward has Drake May upside. I don't know, he might. I've seen some flashes from Cam Ward. I like him.

But that's an attractive job for the right coach. Now, if they go hire a defensive guy, I think we probably forget about it, right? As you noted, Liam Cohen, offensive guy, playoffs. Ben Johnson, offensive guy, playoffs. I think we've kind of hacked the NFL now. We know how to build the time. And then Mike Vrable is a defensive guy, but he's close with Josh McDaniels, who is arguably

the best offensive coordinator in the sport. So if you're a defensive guy, and Josh McDaniels, New England's very lucky, McDaniels has come out and said, I like living here. My wife likes it. My kids like it. And it's a great educational area in that area. Like New England's got craft, they got Vrable, and Josh just likes living there. Great schools, great place to raise your family.

So I figured they got lucky there because Josh isn't going to leave. But he's also, he's tried the head coaching thing. He's going to stay there. I'm telling you, I'm watching New England last night. Frustrating. As a Jets fan, very frustrating. Very. Although, how about this?

As a Jets fan, Dante Moore, I mean, I watched the J.MU game. I'm a J.MU grad. Dante Moore looked pretty damn good. Let's see what he does against Texas Tech. I wonder, do you think he's coming out now? Because his profile is skyrocketing and there's no other quarterbacks coming out. I don't think he is. I don't think he has enough college starts.

I think he's going to stay at Oregon. And Oregon is uniquely positioned to pay him, you know, whatever they're going to pay him. So, I mean, he may come out. It's, it's, I mean, part of it is I wouldn't want to go to a New York football team. Honestly, I wouldn't want to. Like, if I saw a team out there and I'm like, you know, this team's got, you know, you better look at ownership. You better look at ownership.

Excellent work today. First things first is around the corner. I'm liking the Niners tonight. Fun game with Philip Rivers and the Colts. 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 of me. and sick, tired and sick. 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, 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 home. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests, like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in. Do that. David O'Yellow-O.

I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gaten Moderato from Stranger Things, Tana Monsu, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Gorsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real House Wise franchise.

The drama, the alliances, and the T, everybody's talking about. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.