The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady, Dak Prescott, Sam Darnold, and Cam Newton
Episode Date: August 27, 2018Colin discusses New England Patriots QB Tom Brady hanging up on WEEI, why Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is so important, why New York Jets QB Sam Darnold should start over Teddy Bridgewater, and why ...this NFL season might be a good one for Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton. Guests include Shannon Sharpe, Albert Breer, Anthony Becht, and Mark Schlereth. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Joy Taylor is back.
I never ask where she goes.
Far away places, resorts all over the globe.
I just found out she had a great time.
I'm not saying.
I was in Cabo.
It's okay.
I'm back now.
You're back.
I'm back, yes.
Officially back.
this coming up weekend. We've got college football. We're ready to go. It's football season officially.
I want to start my show today on a Monday with this, is that when you've had power forever, it's very
hard to surrender it. And football's always been a controlling sport. The general manager controls the
players and the head coach controls the players and there's no guaranteed contracts. And if you do
something wrong, you are out of here. The NBA has got guaranteed contracts.
tracks. One or two star players can change a franchise and a city in commerce forever. So the NBA
coach has never felt all powerful. The NBA general managers never felt all powerful. So it's much
easier for a Steve Kerr to relinquish power, much harder for a football coach. But it's
coming and this is fascinating. So when I say team with Tom Brady, you think patriots. When I say Russell
team, you think Seahawks. When I say Aaron Rogers, team, you think Packers. But when I say
LeBron James team, you know what I think of? Maverick Carter, Chris Paul, the guys he runs with,
and, you know, whoever the team is currently. And that's okay. That's the way it should be for
superstars. We have no problem giving LeBron James or any NBA star latitude. He's got a trainer that
travels with him. He's got an agent that travels with him. He's got a marketing
shoe guy that travels with him. He's got his best friend that travels with him. He's his
confidant. Inner circles tight. It's his team. Wow. I don't problem with it. It's been happening
for 30 years. But in the NFL, Alex Guerrero, a career extending trainer wildly
respected around the league. Tom's opening a clinic. Players want to be in the clinic.
The fact that he now travels with Tom Brady again, Brady
on a local Boston radio station, WEEEI this morning.
They don't want to talk about the Patriots.
They don't want to talk about the wide receivers.
They don't want to talk about football.
What is it with Alex Carrero?
We saw the reports this weekend that Alex was on the team playing,
which he wasn't for the second half of last year, I guess, not on the sideline.
Is that accurate?
Yeah, he was with me this last week.
So it was, yeah.
What changed him not being on the team playing last year and this year?
You know, I don't want to, I'm not getting into all that.
Okay. When I ran in him at the Super Bowl last year, Minneapolis, and I talked to him there, he had said in his opinion that all this stuff had been overblown that he and Belichick actually had a pretty good relationship even then. Would you say that was true?
I said I don't want to get into it.
Okay. Go ahead, Evan.
Yeah. I mean, everyone knows it's well documented how, you know, the work that he and I do together.
No, I know. I understand that. I'm just trying to figure out because I saw the reports this weekend that he's traveling with the team. Was he on the sideline on Friday?
Yeah.
All right, guys.
Have a great day.
I'll talk to you later.
Oh, there he goes this morning, hung up on him.
The question is, not that he hung up on him,
why are we so hung up on Tom Brady having as 18 years,
age Super Bowl's world's greatest football player in the last two decades,
he's hanging up because we're hung up on Alex Guerrero.
By the way, finally, I've been pleading about this for several years.
quarterbacks take control of your career finally tom brady's like yeah this guy makes me last longer
i'm gonna i'm gonna travel with him check aaron rogers this franchise tag is garbage i'm trapped for five
years he says it check kirk cousins no i'm not going to sign with washington you didn't give me
the respect i deserve to win a bunch of games i'm out of here i'm gonna be a free agent and i'm gonna put
myself on the market. Check. This is exactly what I've been preaching for years. Why is it okay
when I say LeBron's team? I think of his guys, his friends, his confidence, those he respects
and trusts his agent, maybe a marketing guy, maybe a high school buddy. That's his team.
He's the best player in the world. I'm good with his team. But if Tom Brady says that,
Whoa, whoa.
Tom Brady's tired of answering to something as the greatest football player in America
should be an absolute understanding.
This is not a spa treatment.
It's not me going to, you know, the Marriott and getting a spa.
It is a career extending element to his career.
He has every right to do this.
I mean, Tom Brady is not a guy we can question.
Tom Brady's not like, you know, he's just pampered, he's an egomaniac, he's not a team guy.
Opposite, opposite, opposite of what I just said.
So this is really interesting to me is that in our football culture in America,
we bristle at the idea of Kirk Cousins saying no to a team.
And Aaron Rogers saying the franchise tag is garbage.
And Tom Brady saying, I'm traveling with a trainer.
When the Lakers signed KCP a couple years ago, remember?
literally Rob Polenka, the Laker GM, came up on the podium,
and remember what happened?
Who he mentioned twice?
Remember who he mentioned twice?
Here's the audio.
I would venture to guess there's people in the room that are familiar with the stories
in the book of Genesis,
where there was a time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert,
and all of a sudden bread came down from heaven.
That's kind of what today feels like.
for us to have KCP join.
As Magic said, too, I think Rich Paul and Farah from Clutch are here today,
I think just their understanding of sort of the free agent market and cap space
and all of the things that come into play when Rich texted me and said,
hey, I see you and Magic have been really, really careful with your space.
You're being very patient.
Yeah.
Let's talk.
It was like, you know, a lightning bolt hit us.
And we said, gosh, this has to be our focus.
we got to find a way.
Look who is sitting closest to the GM of the Lakers.
It wasn't a player.
It was part of LeBron's team
because KCP is represented by Rich Paul.
Part of LeBron's team.
When you say KCP, everybody in the league knows,
oh, that's part of LeBron's team.
Clutch sports.
He represents them.
So we have a player in the NBA
who literally can move players around to other teams.
Would you be upset of Tom Brady?
had an agent group that move players into the Patriots?
Why would you be upset with that?
That's what LeBron does.
Why can Aaron Rogers create Packer clutch sports and move players into the Packers that he represents?
Why are we letting NBA guys do this, but we're outraged by NFL guys traveling with a trainer?
I don't get it, never have, and I am pro for 100% behind franchise.
quarterbacks having, I don't know, an eighth of the power, Russell Wilson changed the city of
Seattle. He deserves as much power as Otto Porter of the Washington Wizards. I'm sorry. Crazy me.
Tom Brady hung up because we're hung up on Tom Brady. Ridiculous. You know, I was thinking about this,
is that my stepfather passed away yesterday. I was a handful in high school. I was a handful in high
school, but he was my little league coach and a very good man and became a really interesting influence
in my life. Now, we weren't close. He and my mom eventually broke up, but at her funeral, I made sure
when I saw my stepdad to mention something to him. I said, I really appreciated how you
stabilize my family. I just one of those kids in America. There's a lot of them that come from divorce,
and, you know, your life's going left and right and everywhere. And my stepdad at the time,
Irvin Herman, who passed away yesterday. And again, we weren't close at the end. I'm not trying to
make it into something it wasn't. He did stabilize my family, and I've always had great
appreciation for people who can stabilize things. People can have ceilings. I'm okay with it,
but stabilization is a real thing. It's why I've always defended Doc Rivers of the Clippers.
They were a grease fire for 40 years. He has stabilized them. And why I've always
defended Marvin Lewis of the Bengals, they were an embarrassment for four decades.
He stabilized them. That's why I've defended Doc. And every time I hear Docs, he'll
to get fired. Marvin's going to get fired. I'm like, no, no, no, no. What were they before they
arrived? So did you watch the Cowboys last night? Eight turnovers. Do you know the last time they
looked like that when Tony Romo got hurt before they drafted Dak Prescott? That's what they
looked like. Colin, they were playing with backups last night. Yeah, so was Arizona.
Arizona's backups didn't have eight turnovers. This is what I've said about Dak Prescott.
Zeeq fire, DES fire, Jerry's always making noise, biggest brand in the league.
Since Dak Prescott has arrived with the loudest franchise in America, not football franchise,
loudest sports franchise in North America is the Dallas Cowboys.
Joy, he has started 32 games, legit starts.
They have not only won 22 of 32, but of the remaining 10, they have been in the game.
for five of ten, one possession.
Now, they did have a really, really ugly three-game stretch.
Yeah, that was when they lost Sean Lee for two games.
Zeke, because of his legal action, and the best left tackle in football in 15 years,
Tyron Smith was out.
And oh, by the way, they lost at Atlanta.
They're pretty good.
Against the Eagles, Super Bowl champs, and the L.A. Chargers,
who, if they had a kicker, one-on-one, 13 games last year.
Dak Prescott is the great stabilizer.
Okay, as a kid, my stepdad could drive me crazy.
My dad was a doctor.
That's what you have to be.
And my stepdad was more blue collar.
But you know what?
There is real value in stabilizing families.
My dad had his issues.
My stepdad may have had a ceiling in my eyes as a kid.
But boy, he was my little league coach.
He was there.
No late night screaming.
It was really quiet in the house.
And I had a really awesome high school.
Got to be quarterback.
I remember my high school years very fondly.
Going home, food in the table, no yelling screaming.
Really stable.
Stabilization's a real thing.
The cowboys, when Romo got hurt before DAC arrived, were a mess.
Or in other words, they were last night.
This is the biggest, loudest, at times most dysfunctional, hard-to-manage brand there is.
You know, when people used to bang on Joe Tori of the Yankees, I used to always say,
you do get the Yankees in the 80s and Steinbrenner.
He walked into that room with A-Rod and Jeter and, I mean, Clemens.
And the Yankees, they kind of had a weird, strange blue-collar farmer,
do your work, head down, low key.
It was like all the circus stuff was Steinbrenner breathing down your neck.
It kind of evaporated.
Joe Torrey was a 9 to 5.
Show up.
Do your job.
Everybody get along as well as we can.
Not a lot of noise in the clubhouse.
Listen, I never thought DAC is Cam talented or Breeze accurate or Rogers rifle armed.
But I got to tell you something.
When I look at the Cowboys and I watch them last night, I'm like, yeah, that's what they look
like pre-DAC. 32 starts, 22 wins, 5-1 possession losses, and five other losses. He had a bad
three-game stretch when the city, the team, the organization, the O-line, the running back, and the
wide receiver caught fire. I'm good. And I continue to think, Dak, we don't understand his
real value, a value that's often overlooked in a lot of people. We are loaded today. We are loaded
today. You know how
people will say this from
time to time? Colin,
you know, you're different
now that you used to be at the other place.
You've changed. And to that, I always say,
well, thank you. I hope so.
New
information coming in
and I'm going to flip-flop
or maybe just
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It's a Monday. Joy Taylor is joining me. Got her Miami Dolphin colors all ready to go as the NFL
season is getting close. I got my Seahawks stuff on. A little bit of a homer, I admit that,
from the Pacific Northwest. We're wearing our home colors today. Maybe it's subliminal,
but we're getting close to the NFL season. Shannon Sharps on in 10 minutes. Albert Breer today,
all sorts of good stuff. So I say this from time to time, is that you'd want to
your doctor if he had new information and you were going into surgery or your kids were,
you'd want the doctor to use the new information. If you had a stock broker and the stock broker
says insiders are trading the CEO of that company just traded off shares, you'd be like,
ooh, new information, get me out of that stock. We always seek new information if it helps us.
But with a sportscaster, if I have a new opinion due to new information, it's like,
whoa, you're flip-flopping. No, I'm not flip-lopping. I have new information. I do my homework.
The way I looked at all these rookie quarterbacks, Joy and I disagree with this,
I am by and large a believer in let them start the year on the bench, watching,
and depending on their talent, start them after a month, start them by Thanksgiving, start them at the end.
But let them kind of develop.
You know, you have fewer OTAs, you know, the way the world works.
There's no huddles now.
Football is harder than ever for a quarterback, right?
And college football doesn't even look like pro football at the quarterback position.
But I'm watching Sam Darnold, and I'm thinking to myself initially, my opinion was Teddy Bridgewater's better, should start, and then bring Sam in off a bye week, Thanksgiving.
And, you know, I'm watching now.
And I still think Teddy Bridgewater this second is better, but it's so close.
I think you're better to start Sam Darnold and move Teddy and get a second round pick and a starting right tackle.
And it's just time.
The gap is not big enough.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Tom Brady and 1 being a college quarterback,
if Teddy Bridgewater's a 6.8,
Darnold to me looks like a 6.3 or a 6.4.
I still think Teddy's slightly more ready to win a game this year.
But, boy, it's close.
and if I can get a couple of pieces to help Sam, I think you just do it.
When I watch Flacco and Lamar, I see a big gap.
When I watch Bradford and Rosen, I see a smaller gap, but still a gap.
When I see Tyrod and Baker, I see a gap.
But what Donald and Teddy, how he has closed that gap in like three weeks,
I still like Teddy, but if he's done this in three weeks, what can he do in five weeks?
Six weeks, nine weeks.
and Teddy can get you real players.
Teddy Bridgewater is a starter in this league.
You can get stuff for Teddy Bridgewater.
You can get a starter somewhere on your team and a good draft pick.
I think the gap, I think Teddy's better now, but I think the gap is closing.
Sam Donald again looked very, very good.
I saw a story this morning where Jets players, quote, expect Sam to start.
The players now see it in practice.
They see it in games.
By the way, this is what I do as a parent, Joy, all the time.
I'm not seeking perfection.
With Sam Darnold, I'm not seeking with my rookie quarterback's perfection.
But once my kids are mature enough that I can leave with my wife overnight and they don't burn the house down,
then I go with my wife down to, you know, Laguna for a night or Malibu, right?
I know my kids still can't handle a burglar breaking in, but they won't light the house on fire.
Therefore, I feel good enough for a night to leave, go golf, go hang out, go spend time, go do something, and leave them in control of the house for 16 hours.
But I know they can't handle a burglary.
I know Sam Darnold can't single-handedly beat Philadelphia.
I know Sam Darnold can't go up against Indomacan Sue and Aaron Donald in the Rams secondary and torch it.
But I'm not looking for that.
He is now mature enough that Teddy Bridgewater can leave and go away.
and Sam won't burn the house down.
And I think you can really get some nice pieces with Teddy Bridgewater.
So crazy, crazy me.
I've changed my opinion, but I got new information.
And the gap with Teddy and Sam has closed really, really quickly.
Here's a play from the weekend.
Darnel, pumped, throw on a cross.
It's prior, the angle.
This is what I like about Darno.
He's trying to get these tight ends on the double post.
But what he does is he goes to his alternative when it's coming.
covered. Watch his eyes left. He wants the double post. It's not there. He's got a plan. He gets the ball to the
underneath receiver and they get a touchdown out of it. So again, having an understanding, having a
pre-snap idea of what potentially could happen and then follow him through with the alternative
receiver. That's a heck of a play. That's Jets color analyst Anthony Beck, who's here a next hour,
really smart guy. 35 minutes from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Shannon Sharp in 10,
here's Joy with the news.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
So Andrew Luck looked like his old self during the Colts' 2317 win over the 49ers on Saturday.
And it appears it's going to be an indication of his confidence going into the 2018 NFL season.
Sickleism.
I'm not going to lie to you guys.
I actually feel very good and strong.
My shoulder felt alive.
I was a little happier with where the ball went when I threw it.
You know, I felt like I felt like I had a little more of a sense, okay, you know, I want to back shoulder this to Ryan, you know, on the sidelines. Okay, good. It ended up where I wanted to. I feel way more confident. I feel like I get proven to my, you know, when I said prove it, I think really to myself.
And we've talked a lot about there being too many preseason games and you don't feel like certain people should be playing in the preseason. But do you like this for Andrew Love?
Yeah, no, no, I actually do. Like Andrew is one of the few guys. I'd like.
to see him take some snaps. I will tell you this. He doesn't quite look the same, but I said
this last week. He's going to be good this year. Is he going to be good second, third year when he took
them single-handedly to the AFC championship? So I don't, I think we should temper it a little bit.
He literally had a lacerated kidney. Okay. So, but I do feel like we are totally overlooking
the Colts in the weaker AFC. And I, well, I think that's probably part of just being
conditioned to overlook them because Andrew Luck has been out. We don't know what to expect from him.
And like you said, people are trying to temper their expectations of Andrew Luck coming back.
Because it is Andrew Luck at the end of the day, but he's coming back from a lot.
Yep.
But it's good here that he's feeling confident.
So, Jack's receiver Marquis Lee suffered a terrible knee injury Saturday when the Falcons safety.
DeMonte Casey drove his helmet into his knee.
The hit, Drew, are lowering the helmet penalty.
But Lee's teammate, Jalen Ramsey, is blaming the rulebook for the injury.
You can't be mad at 2-7.
Kind of got to be mad at the NFL, I guess.
I'm not mad at them, but, I mean, it's just how the rule is.
Like, people are scared to, people are scared to tackle normal, I guess,
just because they think they're going to get helmet-to-helmet
or they think they're going to get flagged.
And now it's not even flagged.
It's also, you know, potentially getting thrown out the game.
I don't know, man.
It's just tough.
I never want to see that happen to one of my teammates, period.
But I don't really, I can't really blame two-seven.
By the way, he keeps talking, but he hasn't been wrong in anything yet.
You know, what he's saying, everybody blasted him last week.
Oh, he's taking these opinions on quarterback.
He wasn't wrong on any of the stuff he said about the quarterbacks.
I don't think he's wrong on that.
No, and Marquis Lee will have surgery.
He'll be placed on IR today.
That's from the Jaggars official account.
Although, I mean, you could pretty much tell from that hit that was a really bad knee injury.
Here's my question about this now.
This is why it's confusing to me.
So this is a penalty.
This drew a leading with the head penalty.
What are you supposed to lead with?
Well, if you're a safety on that play, and I have a receiver running, running at me in his four.
Look at the receiver.
Okay, he's off to the races.
Where do I hit you?
Well, I'm just trying to figure out, like, physically, what do you lead with?
Are we tackling, like, elbow first now?
Or I just don't understand it.
These are grown men.
They're hard to bring down.
They really have to sort this out before the season gets.
started. I know we talked about it before. Like, they're going to do, they're going to call more
play, more penalties now in the preseason and examine it and figure out what is and what is not
a penalty. But I just, physically, I don't understand what you're supposed to leave with there. What
are you supposed to do? Hug him. I'm just like, please don't run past me. Maybe that'll work.
Finally, Friday's nights and any indication, the Patriots still have some work to do before the
season kicks off. They struggled a lot and their 25 to 14 loss to the Panthers and Belichick
had this to say after the game. You know, Panthers obviously did a good job tonight.
Coach Rivera, his staff, their team, played well in all three phases of the game.
And outplayed us across the board for four quarters.
So we got a lot of work to do.
It really wasn't any part of the game that was very competitive.
Just have to go back to work and see if we can find a way to do a few things better than we did them tonight.
I always love a good soundbite with all three phases.
of the game and it's...
I'm telling you, this New England receiving core
in September.
No Julian Edelman.
Philip Dorset, they're going to depend on him.
He was a marginal bust in Indy.
I mean, I know everybody loves Brady.
I love Brady. I love Belichick, but this is different this year.
I don't know.
You're probably right, but I just can't...
I cannot come around to doubt in the Patriots yet.
I've suffered with the Patriots for too long.
I'm just... I'm not ready to write them off yet.
I get it. I get it.
Bill's not convincing me of anything.
He went back to the room and out of scotch
I was just laughing at everybody panicking
I mean I've just we've seen this so many times before
I know but it feels different
I've been on this for two months
since April this is their Eric Decker retired
their 14th receiver moves since April 3rd
it feels it feels like mayhem
It feels like it but then you remember that it's the Patriots
and then they go win in the Super Bowl
and you're just annoyed
It doesn't I don't know I don't feel this time it feels real
Oh no maybe I'm wrong
We'll see joy with the news
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
The Hurd-Ly News.
One of the most decorated guys to ever play the game.
A Hall of Famer, he is a three-time Super Bowl champion, eight pro bowlers.
Many believe as good a tight end as the sport ever gave us.
Shannon Sharp, who only, only, I get him twice a year.
That's it.
Because he leaves undisputed and he goes and works out and I get you twice a year.
So let me start with this.
Brady receivers, are we freaking out or are we looking at a reality where Chris
Hogan is the guy.
Yeah, this is as bad as I've seen is also, Colin.
I mean, three guys got cut.
Eric Decker was retired like two years ago.
He just didn't tell anybody until yesterday.
He's what they call a shot player.
His body has failed him and he's lost confidence.
You watch him play in the games.
He's like, I shouldn't be here.
You watch him practice, they show clips of practice.
I shouldn't be here.
I think they allowed him to retire to give him his dignity
because he wasn't going to make the squad.
He was that bad.
They released Jordan Matthews, released Malcolm Mitchell,
Kenny Brett got released, they traded Brandon Cooks.
They can make all these moves because they believe Tom
with a healthy Gronk and Chris Hogan, that will be enough.
But man, you're asking an awful lot.
From marginal players.
They're marginal.
At best, those guys, I mean, Gronk, I believe Gronk is the most dominant non-quarterback
in all of football, regardless of position,
defensive line, cornerback, wide receiver.
But I only get him for 10 games.
You know he's going to get Nicked at some point.
Even Chris Hogan, he normally misses time during the course of the year with an injury.
But if anybody can do it, it's these two.
Tom Brady and Coach Belichick.
By the way, I said this.
When I say Team LeBron, I don't think Lakers or Cavs.
I think a Maverick Carter, Rich Paul.
Right.
I totally back NBA players traveling with her agent, a confidant, maybe a shoe marketing guy.
But I say Brady and Russell Wilson team, I think Patriots.
at Seahawks.
Right.
Tom has said,
hey,
listen,
I am the greatest
player of all time.
I'm going to have a
career extending
trainer with me
and people are
freaking out.
Right.
Why is it that we,
I have,
I am for quarterback
saying,
the franchise tag is terrible.
I think the thing is,
what's different is that
when Maverick Carter
or Rich Paul or
Randy Mim's
travel with LeBron,
he's not trying to recruit
other players.
They look at
Alex Guerrero
and the Patriots team staff,
if they say we didn't want you to ice for 20 minutes,
and Guerrero says,
no, you need only ice for 10.
There's where the conflict comes in.
If he's only going to work with Tom
or the guys he's working in,
but guys, I believe, this is me,
I haven't talked to anybody,
I believe other guys were going,
well, I see what he's doing for Tom,
I see what he's doing for Grom.
Well, let me go get a second opinion.
And so now we're paying the training staff
millions of dollars,
and they're going outside
to a guy that's not
trained through the,
traditional methods of school, orthopedics,
and they're getting their advice from him.
I think that's where the problem came in at,
but I don't have a problem either.
Because normally what happens is that you find somebody that's really good,
you recommend him.
A lot of guys start using him, and he does travel with the team.
We had one in Denver that did the very same thing.
But I think that's the biggest different, Colin.
If Randy Mims and Richie Paul were traveling,
and that's LeBron's team,
and they started trying to recruit,
I think there in lives would be a problem that the team would have and it's like,
nah, I think we need to step back from this.
So I said this is I grew up in a family of chaos.
So my stepfather came in and stabilized it.
And I've always believed that not everybody can be you.
Okay, not everybody's going to be a Hall of Famer.
Right.
But there are people that enter our lives.
It can be an aunt, an uncle, a coach that stabilize a room.
Yes.
And there's real value.
Right.
The Cowboys pre-DAC were a mess.
And the Cowboys are the loudest, most distracted brand in a North American sports.
Last night, DAC doesn't play.
Now, I know it was backups.
Right.
That's what they looked like before DAC.
Right.
Okay.
I'm not saying DAC is great.
But in 32 starts, 22 wins, 5-1 possession losses.
Are we undervaluing DAC on what he is doing with...
I got Zeke.
I had DES.
I got Jerry.
Boy, he looks like a stabilizing force.
When he doesn't play, they're a mess.
Yeah, everybody can't play quarterback,
and everybody can't play quarterback for a high-profile team.
And the thing is, although they were out,
they were without DAC,
you look at what Dak's going to be throwing to.
I don't know how much better it's going to get when he gets in there.
I mean, Michael Gallup, we're going to be counting on Michael.
So you don't like Dallas this year?
I'm not on, I think their defense can be really good,
but their offense is going to be predicated on Zeke.
How many can Zeke rush for 1,800-plus yards?
That's what it's going to take for the Cowboys to be good.
Those receivers?
Who is it tight end?
I think I might can make the squad that tight end.
I'm 50 with a bad knee.
And I think I might make the Cowboys that tight end.
So you're not as big on DAC as I am.
No, because I think everything is really predicated on Zeke.
He had an opportunity to show me that he can do.
I'm fine without Z.
You see these top quarterbacks, Tom Brady?
I don't care if I got a running game.
Ben, I don't care if I got a running game.
Breeze or Rogers.
These guys that can take that next step.
And that's what you say, when they say they're going to make the offense more
DAC friendly, they're saying we're going to ask you to turn around and hand the ball off to Zeeke.
We're going to ask you to get Zeeke more involved in the passing game because he doesn't throw
the ball down the field.
That's not his expertise.
Well, they're going to shorten the field.
They're like, you're not going to throw it over my head.
So we're going to play close to the line of scrimmage.
We're going to, they're going to try to take Zique away.
They're going to make this young man beat them throwing the football and see if he can beat them
throwing the football over the top.
Shannon Sharp, 14 years.
eight pro bowls, three rings, gold jacket guy.
Okay, I'm going to name a quarterback battle, and you tell me who should start
and why.
To Rod, Taylor, Baker, Mayfield, who starts and why?
I'm going to say Tyrod because I believe this team is ready to win right now.
It's hard for a rookie to come in and start winning right away unless everything is in place.
Ben didn't start right away.
Tommy Maddox got hurt the first game, and then Ben came in.
And they babysat him for about seven.
But they were loaded at every position.
Defense was ready to go.
A sound running game.
So they were straight across the board.
I believe, and plus, they want 1 in 31 over the past two season.
Hugh Jackson doesn't have the luxury of going O and 3,
0 and 4 with a rookie quarterback because that means Greg Williams or Todd Haley
is going to finish the rest of the season out.
Hugh knows that.
So I believe Tyrod will start.
Sam Darnold, Teddy, Bridgewater, who starts and why?
Well, looking at it now, I think Sam Darnel will start.
I think he got 10 million guaranteed in Josh McCown.
I don't know if somebody's going to take that contract.
Teddy Bridgewater is only $5 billion and he has value.
You can get something for Teddy Bridgewater.
No question.
The question is that I have for Teddy Bridgewater with his injury history and concussion history,
how good can he be?
The guy missed basically two years and he has a history of concussions.
So how good can he be?
I haven't seen him long term.
I haven't seen him play consistently for.
a year or two.
So that's the problem that teams are going to be up against.
Yeah, he throws the ball.
I mean, he's been unbelievable in the free season.
But you got to realize he was a starter,
and sometimes he's playing against guys.
They're going to be coaching in about a week.
Finally, John Gruden, I suspect this could be a mess.
Shannon Sharp thinks.
I agree.
I don't think everybody, well, Gruden is, you know, this,
and the quarterback whisperer.
I just, 10 years is a long time to be away from something.
In football?
It's hard for me to believe that a surgeon can be a way does no surgery for 10 years and just go right back in and pick back up.
It's just hard for me to believe.
I said this. Silicon Valley is like this.
Tech changes every year.
Yes.
Football changes every two years.
There are, you know, the post office today looks like the post office 10 years ago.
There are industries that don't change.
That's why people don't use it too.
Newspapers.
They look the same as 20 years ago.
But football.
I mean, there's no.
there's no huddles anymore.
No.
And there's really no fullback.
Everybody plays bases out of three wide receivers set,
one tied in on the running back.
The fullback is an eyesore.
It's a relic.
Things are so different now.
The way you meet,
the way you practice,
the way you attack the quarterback,
now they got this helmet rule.
Things have changed so much,
I mean, in the last two years,
let alone 10.
Shannon, players are more empowered now.
Oh, yeah.
10 years ago, if a coach in the NFL came in and said no politics understood,
if a coach came in and said no politics, half the room's like, well, I get an opinion on politics.
Right.
The world's changed.
Right.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's a different time now and everybody feels that they have a voice.
Everybody feels emboldened.
Sure.
Well, you think it's changed.
You let players get guaranteed contracts like they get in basketball, like they get in baseball.
That's why basketball players, then they say, well, why basketball players will take on issues that football players can't?
because Steph Curry is getting all $205 million of his dollars.
And the guy in football that signed for $100 million,
he's only going to get that 40 fully guaranteed money.
And those guys don't want to risk that.
I love having you on.
I love being on it.
Do you remember two years ago before Undisputed Start,
you came on this couch.
That was almost three years ago.
Three years ago.
And I said to management, get him a show fast.
I love what you've done.
I love having you on.
Thanks for having you.
I really appreciate you speaking up for me behind the scenes.
A lot of people don't know that.
but I know what you did for me. I appreciate it.
Shannon Sharp, undisputed. Back in a second.
You too, Joy.
When shopping for car insurance, consider GEICO. 75 years.
They know what they're doing. Geico.com.
Geico.com.
Joy Taylor joining us. Love having Shannon Sharp on the show.
At the top of the hour where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, plenty of both.
And Albert Breer will join us live.
Tom Brady hung up on the local radio station, the Patriot Station this morning.
the Alex Guerrero stuff.
I think Tom feels a little stress.
I don't think this wide receiving core is working out like they thought.
They're leaning heavily on Philip Dorset, who I think is a borderline bust in Indianapolis.
It's a mess.
I think it's a mess.
I think Tom's holding it together, but it's a mess, and he got frustrated this morning.
You know, I was thinking about this today.
I love the NBA.
In fact, one of the criticisms I get is you talk too much NBA.
But it's a star-driven league.
I think LeBron Lakers, for the first time in my life,
talk NBA in October, late October. I never do that. I usually do six months of football,
you know, and then I move into NBA in April. But, you know, this year it's going to be different.
LeBron to the Lakers is going to capture the league, and I think we've got, you know, some really good stories.
But the difference between the NBA and the NFL is hope. Listen, there are two overwhelming
favorites to win the NBA championship. Golden State. It would be shocking if they didn't win.
but I do think Boston and Houston are good enough to challenge them.
We saw Houston do that in a series.
Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, join those young Celtics with Brad Stevens.
Certainly good enough to challenge him.
So Golden State empirically is the team, and I think we have two real challengers.
And then after that, it's a bunch of teams, you know, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Lakers, Utah, Oklahoma City, Toronto, maybe San Antonio.
They're interesting, but they're not really tight.
Contenders. Nobody thinks Milwaukee is going to win the championship. That would be shocking.
It would be shocking if Toronto not only beat the Celtics, but then beat the Warriors.
That would be shocking. You can be interesting, but there's three T. It wouldn't be shocking if Houston with Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, James Hardin, wouldn't be shocking if in seven games, they won game seven in Houston, Golden State showing fatigue in the last year.
wouldn't be shocking.
Okay, think about the NFL.
Let's just look at the NFC.
I have no idea who's going to win the NFC.
None.
My choice right now is Atlanta.
I think there's probably the most underrated team in the league.
We forget they were in Philadelphia,
had beaten the Rams in L.A., traveled home to Atlanta,
then they went up to Philadelphia,
and had, with a minute left, fourth and nine,
fourth down on the nine-yard line,
Julio Jones, hands on the ball of the end zone.
Best receiver, arguably after,
Antonio Brown in the league had the ball,
dropped the ball, they win.
And they would have gotten to the Super Bowl because Minnesota came off the miracle
win and was flat the next week.
But I think Philadelphia has the best roster.
So Atlanta's my pick to meet Philadelphia in the NFC championship.
But after that, Ram, Saints, Packers, inches away.
Now, I would not be shocked if the Vikings, because their roster's fantastic and
their coach is really good.
And Kirk Cousins is probably better.
Oh, yes, he is by a long shot over Case Keenham.
If there are six teams in the NFC, I would not be the least at all shocked if they made the Super Bowl.
I'm not even mentioning teams I kind of like, like Dallas, Carolina.
Like I like them.
Carolina's front seven is loaded and Cam's already been to one Super Bowl.
Ron Rivera's already been to one Super Bowl.
And Dallas, I don't know.
O-line's healthy, best on line in the game.
Zeke best running back arguably kind of like them.
All right, let's go to the AFC.
Okay, I have the Steelers as winning the AFC.
see, even though I don't like the Patriots current momentum with wide receivers, they do have the best coach and quarterback in sports.
The chargers at 18 to 1 are the best Super Bowl bet by a mile. They have two elite pass rushers, an elite safety now, an elite corner and Hayward.
Mike Williams, their number one picket wide receiver got hurt a year ago. Oh my, he's back and he looks really good to go along with Keenan Allen.
They have a great running back, Melvin Gordon, Hall of Fame quarterback, good left tackle and center.
They're really good. Houston, Kansas City rosters.
loaded and Baltimore is my right now best team in the league that nobody gets.
Of all the teams I've seen in preseason, AFC or NFC, the team that looks significantly
better than I predicted two months ago is Baltimore.
These are the Super Bowl contenders.
Let me line them up in the NFL.
I would not be shocked if any of those teams were in the Super Bowl.
I wouldn't be.
I mean, Chargers are 18 to 1.
I wouldn't be shocked.
Chargers have a better roster right now than New England.
New England doesn't have two elite pass rushers.
New England doesn't have two receivers as good as Mike Williams and Kenan Allen.
New England doesn't have a left tackle as good as Russell Locoon.
I'm not sure New England has a running back as good as Melbourne Gordon.
But in the NBA, here are the title odds.
Golden State, overwhelming favorite, and we would all be shocked.
Of the six teams, Vegas gives a chance to win, wouldn't we be shocked if Toronto got to the final?
and be Golden State?
Wouldn't we be shocked?
I'm going to go with, they're not getting past Boston.
They're not getting past Golden State.
Folks, nobody sells hope like the NFL.
Nobody sells hope.
We know in the NBA, we got three teams that can win it.
We know in college football, we got about five.
And I love college football, and I love the NBA.
But we got, we have, look at all these teams.
In the NFL, the NFC is absurd. It is stacked.
I have Minnesota is my sixth best NFC team.
And there's a lot of people that think outside of the Rams, they have the best NFC roster.
And we know they have a capable coach and a capable quarterback.
Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong.
Hope is a real thing. NFL sells it like nobody else.
Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m.
on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app.
This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles.
IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1.
Joy Taylor is joining me.
What a lively first hour, Shannon Sharp stopped by.
Yes.
Albert Breer in five minutes.
And you're starting to come over to my side.
I am.
It's okay.
Starting to believe that a rookie quarterback can play.
Well, we do it every week at this time all year.
You used to do it just do it in the football season,
but people liked it so much.
They said, do it more we do.
In the last week, I've whiffed.
And sometimes I've been spot on where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong.
Where Colin was right?
Been on this for years.
The preseason is too long, and you should never play stars.
Well, what do you know?
If you watch the Rams, they won't play any of their good players.
Have you watched the Cowboys?
They won't play any of their good players.
The NFL preseason should be.
two games, and for anybody in this league longer than three years, you should not have to play in it.
Just increase joint practices.
If college football with 17, 18, 19-year-olds cannot have a preseason and have an NCAA limited
practice schedule with no joint practices, with no OTAs, where you've got midterms and classes,
and yet Notre Dame Michigan will play a week from today and look really, really fine.
Let's limit it.
I have been saying for years, coaches take control.
Control of the preseason, don't risk your stars.
And certain teams like the Rams, they don't even have an interest in playing their best players.
Where Colin was wrong.
Andy Dalton for years has been in my crosshairs.
They call him the red rifle.
And for years, I call him the beige water pistol.
But you know what?
He looked great yesterday.
He's looked great in the preseason.
When you stack him up with a lot of these young quarterbacks, he looks so refined.
Listen, he's been in the NFL seven years.
He's 63, 44, and 2.
Now, he can't beat Big Ben.
Well, guess what?
Not a lot of people are.
Okay, outside of Tom Brady, who do you feel good against when they face Big Ben?
Listen, there was a time that I thought he was overrated.
But now I look at Andy Dalton, and I look at a lot of these teams looking at rookie quarterbacks
and a lot of these bottom third teams in the NFL.
And you know who's better than all of them?
Andy Dalton, with an 89 passer rating, five playoff appearances, seven years, won 63 and lost 42.
I'm retiring forever beige water pistol.
He is a poised, albeit limited franchise quarterback,
but he has become a poised, refined, respectable franchise quarterback.
Where Colin was right?
I told you coming in.
I didn't care where Sam Donald went.
He looked the part of a number one quarterback, and boy has he.
He's bigger than Baker Mayfield.
He looks more poised than Baker Mayfield.
I don't want to hear excuses.
The Jets have a week.
old line, no tight ends and no running backs.
Cleveland at least has a great young running back and a star slot-wide receiver, and they
paid some money for their O line.
Okay, Darnold looks the part.
Okay, against the first team of the Giants, seven first-downs touchdowns.
Against the first team defense twice.
And that's not a terrible Giants defense.
There's players.
Two touchdowns.
He has looked the part.
He looks big enough, mobile enough, refined enough, strong enough.
He got the slide down, which he wasn't great at in college.
That's what a number one picture looked like, regardless of who went number one.
Where Colin was wrong.
I've been a big supporter through the years of Urban Meyer, the Ohio State coach.
But I got to be honest, after the last couple of weeks, he looks like an enabler that struggles with the truth.
He did it Florida, and he did it Ohio State.
And the gap between Nick Sabin and Urban Meyer is the Grand Canyon.
It seems a mile wide.
Finally on Friday, Urban Meyer released a press statement, which I agreed with.
Finally on Friday, he admitted, yeah, I sort of butcher this and that I wasn't as thoughtful as I should have been.
Listen, I always thought Urban Meyer.
I always kind of held him and Nick Saban as somewhere better than college football, capable of winning in the NFL.
But I got to be honest, I think of Urban Meyer now, and it's different.
And it bums me out because for years and years, I always considered him actually,
bit or better at times than Sabin, and it doesn't feel like that today. He feels like somebody
who can struggle with the truth. Where Colin was right? Listen, the Patriots wide receiver group,
I'm sorry. It is different this year. Kenny Britt, Eric Decker, 14 moves. 14 moves since April.
You're going to tell me last year they had Brandon Cooks. Last year, I got a kid named Mitchell,
everybody like, I'm telling you right now, I'm not here.
here to be hyperbolic.
But Julian Edelman will not play in September.
There's a reason Tom Brady is sniffing with everybody on WEI.
He sees what's going on.
This is different.
This is not.
Listen, the San Antonio Spurs dynasty did not fall off a cliff.
It's slightly eroded.
This feels like Duncan retires.
Spurs make the playoffs, but they're just not dynamic enough to beat the really good teams.
especially in the NFC.
Where Colin was right?
Josh Allen, I told you coming in, he was more project than prospect.
Well, this weekend, he finally faced the number one defense.
And where Donald looked smooth, he looked awful.
He was overwhelmed by Cincinnati.
81 yards of offense, sacked six or seven times.
He held the ball too long.
Now, again, I'm not saying their offensive line was great,
but he misfired on open passes, 6 of 12, 34 yards.
He does not look like a starter.
And again, a lot of these guys against twos,
Sam Darnold did it this weekend against ones and had back-to-back scoring drives.
You're like, oh, that's a starting quarterback.
Sam Donald's going to struggle.
He's not going to be completely, utterly springing a leak and drowning.
Josh Allen looked like a college quarterback.
He looked terrified by the end.
where Colin was wrong.
When Andy Reid traded up to get Patrick Mahomes,
I'm like, oh, good Lord, here comes another big arm guy.
Man, that kid.
Preseason passer rating, 1035.
That's against ones.
Completion percentage, 72%.
That's against ones.
And I love Andy Reid.
He and I text regularly.
And I was like, oh, no.
I'll be honest, he's facing ones.
He looks good.
and he's spreading the ball around to multiple players.
He's not like a lot of rookies, young guys.
They glom on to one or two guys.
He's not.
He is spreading it all over the yard.
Now I see why they traded up to get him.
He has really looked apart.
Where Colin was right?
The helmet rule, only nine helmet rule calls last weekend.
So what I said I predicted was the NFL was going to over-call it.
We were all going to over-react.
And then by the end of preseason, they were going to start pulling it back, pulling it back.
And also it shows that players now have adjusted to the rule.
So as predicted, the NFL over-called it.
I freaked out, you freaked out, the world freaked out.
Players' coaches adjusted.
And this week, week two to week three, 64% decline in helmet rule calls.
Listen, this is going to take a while.
But the pattern has been what we predicted.
over called, adjust by players this weekend.
When I watched games, it didn't freak me out as much.
Where Colin was right?
You know, last year, about mid-season, Goulet can defend me on this because he's a cowboy lover.
Last year I said, at the end of the year, I said,
Cowboys defensive line is going to be their next great offensive line.
Is anybody watching the Cowboys defensive line?
Did you see him against Arizona?
Now, the Cowboys were awful.
David Irving, Taco Charlton, DeMarco Lawrence, Randy Gregory,
Cowboys defensive line's a real thing.
It is a real thing.
Their offensive line gets all the love, and they got issues, by the way.
Their secondary's got issues.
They got a bunch of young guys.
Their linebackers look talented, but we don't know how good they are
and if they can stay healthy.
But I'm telling you right now, I said it last mid-season.
This has the potential in Dallas to be an elite top-five defensive line.
They are fast.
They can move laterally.
They can run up field.
They are long.
They are athletic.
And again, last night, their offense was a mess.
But that defensive line was dominating, overwhelming Arizona up front.
Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong.
And with that, via the Coward Global Satellite Network.
He's at Buffalo today, senior NFL reporter in MQB.
All right, Albert Breyer.
Tom Brady hangs up on WEEI this morning is that, you know, there's a lot of reasons I could say he's just getting tired of it.
These NFL franchise quarterbacks, look at the NBA guys.
If an NBA guy traveled with a trainer, nobody would care.
Tom's the best quarterback for 15 years and he can't travel with Alex Guerrero.
That's kind of how I see he's just frustrated with it.
What do you make of him blowing up this morning on radio?
Well, and remember, it's not the first time this has happened this summer.
He did punt a ball during practice, which got a fair amount of attention up in New England.
So I think he's still sort of working through some things.
He didn't go to, he wasn't at any of the OTAs.
Obviously, it's been a sideways offseason.
And they're working through a lot of issues on the offensive side of the ball.
Now, Gronk's still there.
You still have a loaded backfield.
But that receiver spot's going to be an issue going forward.
And I just make the argument now, they're going to have to find a different way to do it.
We've seen in the preseason, they've used James White.
The running back as a receiver a little bit more.
You've seen Jacob Hollister, a young kid they have out of Wyoming being used as a move.
tight end. And so I don't think that there are answers in the receiver group. I think they're
going to have to find answers elsewhere. I think Brady's shown a little frustration working through
that. Yeah, I mean, I said this before. Dynasties don't fall off a cliff. But when I watch the
Rams talent and the Pittsburgh's talent in Philadelphia and Atlanta, you know, Albert, at some point
systems alone can't win Super Bowl. You have to be dynamic at some spot. I do feel like,
Albert, this year's different, that they're just not dynamic enough at pass rusher or wide receiver.
Am I overreacting?
No, I'd agree with that.
I mean, I think, you know, we said it last year.
It was hard when you looked at their roster to find a guy who was under 25 years old and was a cornerstone.
In fact, one of the guys you would have pointed to last year at this time that was in that group is Brandon Cooks and he's gone.
And forever and ever and ever, they've been able to get by because Tom Brady has been their margin for error.
I mean, beyond just Bill Belichick in the system, number 12 has always been able to make it work.
If you look back, you can see years when they went deep in the playoffs, 2006 is a prime example
where they've been torn down at the skill positions and Brady has found a way to make up for it.
The question is at 41 years old is he still capable of doing it.
If he plays like he did at 40 last year to the league MVP, and the Patriots will be all right.
But if he slips even a little bit, that margin for error isn't what it used to be.
Sam Donald, I started the year saying Teddy's better.
It's pretty noticeable.
And then I watched last week and I'm like, okay, Teddy may still be better,
but at this point, I think Sam's good enough to be viable.
And I think you may be able to get stuff on the open market for Teddy like an offensive lineman.
Most of these rookie quarterback battles, I don't think the guys are ready.
Boy, Sam looks close, Albert, doesn't he?
He sure does.
And you know what the coaches really liked from the last preseason game?
Go back and watch that first drive.
We know how good he is at improvising.
We know how good he is off schedule.
He was making plays from the pocket.
He was going through his progressions.
He was doing things on schedule and going deep into his progressions in Jeremy Bates' offense.
He showed a mastery of what they're asking him to do.
And that's a really important piece here.
Now, of course, he's a rookie.
So he's going to be going through some different things.
There are two reasons that I'm going to give you why Sam Donald was equipped to play as a rookie quarterback in the NFL.
We saw both of them last year at USC.
Number one, he can take hits.
That's a big piece of this.
He's going to take hits behind that offensive line this year.
We saw him take hits last year behind a reworked offensive line at USC.
The second piece of this, he's got an ability to compartmentalize mistakes.
He still needs to be tighter with the ball.
He was a little careless.
He'd get a little careless last year at USC.
But what he did show at SC last year, when he made a mistake, he was able to put it behind him.
They got off to a little bit of a rough start there.
He was able to rebound and win the Pac-12 title.
In-game, you saw him being able to compartmentalize individual mistakes.
And so because he's got those two qualities, because he can take hits and he can compartmentalize mistakes,
the Jets feel very, very comfortable that he'll be fine out there as a rookie quarterback.
I think we've all seen evidence of it over the course of the three preseason games.
Okay, let's shift to Baker.
What are your sources say on Cleveland, Harrod, Taylor, Baker, Mayfield, Hugh Jackson.
What transpires there?
All right.
Well, Hugh told me directly because, you know, I know there's been some question, why isn't Baker taking first team reps, all that stuff?
And so I asked Hugh about this directly.
He was the quarterback's coach in Baltimore in 2008 when Joe Flacko as a rookie got them to the AFC championship game.
He was in Cincinnati with Andy Dalton who played as a rookie, who started as a rookie.
So my question to Hugh was, why aren't you doing that here?
And his answer was, I don't want to saddle Baker with all the history.
One in 31 over the last two years.
We haven't done well with rookie quarterbacks.
And Cody Kessler two years ago and Deshaun Kaiser last year.
And then there's a lineage of first round quarterbacks since.
since the Browns came back into the league,
from Tim Couch to Brady Quinn to Brandon Whedon to Johnny Mansell.
He doesn't want to saddle Johnny Mansell with all of that.
And so because of that,
he wants to give Johnny Manzell a chance to sit and learn
without having all of that on him.
And that's why they've been so resolute
in saying Tyrod Taylor's are starting quarterback
beyond just believing in Tyrodrod.
Yeah, Albert Breer is joining us senior NFL reporter,
the Monday morning quarterback.
So I said when I, my prediction on Josh Allen,
He and Lamar are projects, not prospects.
But then his footwork improved.
He looked pretty good against the twos.
This week, he looked overwhelmed against the ones.
You're in Buffalo.
Do they have a choice?
I mean, I just thought when I watched him against Cincinnati, Albert, I thought,
oh, good God, that's not, he's not ready.
Yeah.
What do you make of it?
I would agree with you.
I think his footwork's improved, and we have seen improvement over what he was at Wyoming.
Certainly, I think some of the work that Jordan Palmer did with him has taken hold.
and so he's a better player than he was a year ago.
You see some encouraging signs there.
But again, he was a pretty raw prospect coming into the draft process.
I still think he's pretty raw.
And you need to consider not just what's good for the bills here.
Is Josh Allen the right guy to start right now for the bills?
You also have to consider whether or not playing for the bills right now is good for Josh Allen.
This is a reworked offensive line.
Cordy Glenn's gone.
Richie Incognito's gone.
Eric Wood's gone.
And so I think that that's what Brian Dayball and Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean.
are wrestling with right now.
Do we want to get Josh Allen experience?
And is he even good for Josh Allen to be out there right now?
I think those are the questions they need to answer.
Albert Breer is joining us.
For the record, the Cowboys, you know, I know there's reservations on DAC,
eight turnovers last night.
An interesting point was brought up by somebody last week on our show that, you know,
because DAC was drafted in the fourth round, he's going to have some player rights now coming up.
whereas if you draft a guy in the first round, you know, teams can control that player for an extra year.
It feels like, you know, what if DAC is just so, so this year?
Is it a huge year for DAC?
Yeah, it is.
I think it is a big year for him because I don't think they necessarily have to extend him after a year three.
Remember, they still have the franchise tag after year four.
And so I still think this is a big year for DAC.
and it's a big year for him as a leader too.
I mean, that's a really young football team all of a sudden with Witten out the door and
Des out the door.
There are only three guys in that roster who are in their 30s and one is the kicker
and another is a long snapper.
Sean Lee's the only position player on that roster who's over 30 years old.
So they've committed to building around the offensive lineman, the young defensive lineman,
you've talked about the young defensive backs.
They feel good about where their youth is at.
Certainly now they've put DAC in a position to lead that team and this to become more about
DAC and more about guys like Ezekiel Elliott and more about guys like Zach Martin and Tyron
Smith. And so I think we've got a lot to learn about DAC over the course of the next
16 games. And one thing that's really interesting about this, they actually believe that
taking Des out of the equation is going to help Dak. And then it's going to play to his strength
a little bit. He's going to be able to go out there and play point guard a little bit more.
He used the whole field rather than worrying every three or four plays whether or not they got
to get Des the ball. Great stuff. Albert, who for the record would never mention,
this but got injured and he's literally on the IR.
Fighting through.
Fighting through this interview.
You do incredible stuff, Albert.
Thanks for coming on our show.
All right, thanks, Colin.
Coming up next, I've been critical of Cam,
but I saw something that is very promising with Cam.
And I want to discuss that.
I think this is a big year for Cam.
And what I saw this weekend, that's coming up.
Catching an MLB doubleheader Saturday on FS1.
First, John Carlos Stanton leads the Yankees.
against the Tigers, then the raised battle
Francisco Lendor and the Indians.
It all starts at 3.30 Eastern on FS1
or stream it live on the Fox Sports app.
By the way, Yankees picked up
three and a half games this weekend on the
scuffling Red Sox
and the Yankees, John Carlos Stanton's on fire
now. Very interesting.
All those big playoff games on Fox
and very interesting Red Sox scuffling.
Patriot scuffling.
What's happening to Boston?
They'll be even more miserable than usually.
All right, here we go.
So Cam Newton, I've been critical of.
And if I'm critical of somebody, there's a reason.
Colin, you're brutal on Baker Mayfield.
He's grabbing his junk.
He's a quarterback.
I got a police video.
I'm not a big fan of it.
Yeah, crazy nutty me.
I don't like police videos with franchise quarterbacks.
What an outrageous take.
Cam Newton, your brutal on him.
Yeah, that's because there's a reason.
Ten years ago, we became a precision league.
We're no longer a precision.
We are a precision league
for a quarterback. Let me give you an example.
It used to be
the big stud, big arm guys
in the 70s. Joe Namath,
Terry Bradshaw.
They completed like 50% of their
throws. And then in the 80s
and late 80s and 90s,
Elway Marino.
Big stud quarterbacks.
Well, that was closer to 55%,
58%. And then the big stud arms
were Aikman and Favreve.
Oh yeah, they moved into 60, 61%,
62%.
And now Aaron Rogers, the big arm guy, 60.
5%.
You're noticing a trend.
You could win Super Bowls in the 70s with 50%.
You win multiple Super Bowls.
You can win Super Bowls in the 80s in the mid-50s.
And then all of a sudden you win Super Bowls in 60%.
And that's different.
And so, yeah.
Yeah, the last 8 to 10 years, it has become a percentage.
Decision League.
And if Terry Bradshaw played today or Troy Akeman, I'd be like, button her up.
Come on.
You can't have these 50% games.
But I will tell you this.
They brought in Norv Turner.
And so far came in the preseason.
Against ones is 11 for 17.
Precision.
And against Miami, he was 9 for 12.
Precision.
And against Buffalo, he was 6 for 9.
Precision.
Listen, this game has changed.
the big armed guy won Super Bowls in the 70s at 50%.
Then it went up to about 55% to win Super Bowls.
Then I went up to about 60% to win Super Bowls.
Now the guys that are winning a lot like Brady Rogers and Breeze,
it's in the mid-60s.
Tom Brady last four or five years is like 66, 6.6%.
That's what you got to get to.
Now, if you go to the last four years, it's almost like airlines.
Like in the 70s, they glamorize smoking on.
planes. And then in the 80s, they started reducing smoking. And then the 90s, they banned it.
And now it's 2018. It's a federal crime at an airport or on a plane just to pull like a fire
extinguisher. Like just to play with that is a federal crime. In the 70s, there'd be ads smoking
on planes. In the 80s, they're like, not great. You can still do it, but let's not romanticize it.
In the 90s are like, I don't know why, but we allow smoking on planes.
To now, you touch a fire extinguisher.
That's a federal crime.
The world evolves.
Can't act the same on a plane or at an airport.
Can't say the same stuff.
Now you're taking shoes off and belts off and I've got a nickel in my pocket.
That's got to be on TSA's conveyor belt.
Joy Taylor with the news.
No, no, no, no.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
This is something that's never been said before, Colin.
The Patriots are heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl.
Wow.
It's very shocking.
Vovato's latest odds at the Patriots as a frontrunner's to win Super Bowl 53 with 6 to 1 odds,
followed by the Rams, the Vikings, the Steelers, Eagles, Packers, Saints, the Falcons, Chargers.
That is the shakiest Super Bowl favorite in a long time.
Because they are not as talented roster-wise as the Rams, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Philly,
New Orleans, Atlanta, or the Chargers.
So is this just Vegas respect?
Belichick Brady.
In the NBA, Golden State's the favorite.
It's a legit favorite.
We'd be shocked if they didn't win.
New England is the least talented roster of those eight teams on my screen.
I think their roster is similar to Green Bay.
But it's nowhere near Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chargers, Rams.
No way.
Philadelphia, no way.
That roster's not close to the Eagles.
I just don't know, Colin, I'm just not ready.
I'm living in fear of the Patriots still.
Well, that's because you've been haunted by them as a dolphin fan for two decades.
Yeah, for 20 years.
I'm just not ready to believe that it's over yet.
I mean, I'd like to, but I'm just, I'm not going to be the person.
I'll believe it when I see it.
It's spurs over.
It's not over over, but it's kind of spur.
Right, but I'm not ready to say that the spurs are, well, this is winning the Super Bowl odds, obviously.
Like, I don't think that the spurs are going to win the championship this year,
but I also don't think they're going to miss the playoffs.
I'm just not ready to leap to that yet.
I do see what you're saying, though.
And it does have a different feel,
and there's been all the rumors
and uncharacteristic things
that have happened around the team this year,
especially with the Super Bowl,
and the Malcolm Butler thing and everything else.
But I just don't know.
I'm living in fear. It's fine.
The backup quarterback position still remains a question mark
for the Raiders, and John Gruden isn't even sure
he has the backup quarterback on his roster.
I don't know.
We're going to continue to work,
continue to see who's available,
and, you know, I thought there were some good moments tonight,
and there were some moments tonight that weren't good.
It's been too inconsistent, but I'm not going to say much more tonight
until I see the tape.
But we're going to continue to evaluate it.
In my lifetime, the two best coaches easily at a podium
are John Gruden and Mike Tomlin.
Even just saying that, I'm fascinating.
with Gruden. Like, I watch him
and everything he says,
you know, Raider fans are sending me a lot of
hate. For the record, I'm
hoping they win. First of all, I think they're
a good brand. They're kind of the rebel
of the NFL. I love
Derek Carr. And I know Gruden and like
Gruden. I have real misgivings about
leaving an industry for a decade, being
close and going in. But
you know, I will say this. I've watched
every preseason Raider game.
There's something there.
They don't look disheveled. They don't
look disorganized.
They're, you know, when Derek Carr's playing, they look pretty good.
I mean, they're great for content.
Oh, God.
If you took the Cowboys out, the next five great brands in the league, Pittsburgh, Green Bay.
Raiders for sure.
Raiders are, now, now, it's been a dead brand for 15, 20 years, but it was, as a kid growing up,
it was every bit as big as the Cowboys.
But they just have history and the fan base, obviously.
Look, you need to get a backup quarterback.
Maybe this is the, maybe this is the Jets move.
Yeah.
You know, and Teddy Bridgewater out there.
Or does that cause problems?
I think that's interesting.
You need a backup quarterback.
You need a solid backup quarterback.
But Derek Carr is so good.
He's beyond Teddy Bridgewater.
I still think Bridgewater fits best in Miami.
Tanna Hill's coming off an injury.
Nobody's in love with him.
Teddy played high school football in Indiana.
Yeah.
That feels like, and I think Jacksonville's another one.
I think Bordals.
I think Bridgewater's.
better than Tannenhill and Borrell's. Not a ton
better, but he's better. Yeah. So finally,
there's no superstar on the planet that lives
more under the microscope than LeBron, obviously,
and he has plenty of critics. On a recent
trip to Shanghai, LeBron shared how
he does not let his failures overcome
him. He told the Global Times,
being able to accept failure is a process.
It's not wrong. You fail.
When people get so afraid to fail, they don't get everything
into it. I understand there will be a time I don't
succeed or may fail, but I won't stop. I will
continue to go back.
He's right. It is important to try.
If you don't try, people don't try things because they're afraid of failing.
Then you never succeeded anything either.
But I do think that this statement has a lot to do with why he didn't stay in Cleveland either.
Both times.
I mean.
Because he could have stayed in Cleveland and been comfortable and had expectations,
but not necessarily been crucified for not ever winning because it was Cleveland.
And Kim going to the Lakers is a big risk.
If he doesn't win here, he's going to be criticized.
A lot of people who take big professional gambles are offered opportunities to stay,
but they just want something new and fresh.
They want to extend the fun times in their life.
Because very few people go to work and have fun.
LeBron goes to work and he has fun.
You and I go to work and we have fun.
Our job is to just really extend the fun as long as we can.
Because we can, you know, there's a lot of people in every business, including ours, that aren't having fun.
When you go to work and it's fun, like LeBron, he just said, you know, Cleveland, I don't love the owner.
This roster is, I'm carrying it.
I'm getting older.
The Lakers, at least, you drive to work and you're like, this is a lot.
this is kind of hopeful.
In Los Angeles.
Yeah.
Or maybe he'll helicopter it in.
You have Kobe's Connect.
Like a bat.
It'll be like Batman's.
It'll have a big L on it,
flying over every night,
landing on the staples.
Joy with the news.
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
The Hurd-Lie News.
We've told you,
we think of all the rookie quarterbacks,
Darnold's the one that could start.
Coming up next,
I'm going to bring on a guy
that was a tied-in for the Jets
and Tampa Bay,
playing in the NFL for a while, Anthony Beck, he does the Jets preseason games.
And there are reports this morning that Jets players are now are kind of like, hey,
Darnold's the guy.
So we're going to bring on somebody that's been doing the Jets preseason games.
Anthony Beck's right around the corner.
He'll be joining us from New York.
Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.
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slash Colin.
In high school, in Pennsylvania, in college at West Virginia, and in the NFL for 12 years,
Anthony Beck was a reliable go-to tight end.
A mature guy who coaches like, and he started with the Jets, and he's now doing their
preseason games.
He's got a podcast called Spitting Fire.
I've been watching him as a color analyst.
He used to work at the place.
I used to work at ESPN as well, and we bring him via the Coward Global Satellite Network.
the former first round pick with over a decade in the NFL.
So I've had Shannon Sharp and Anthony Becked on today.
I'm giving love to tight ends.
So let's start, Anthony, with this.
You were a dependable player, not always flashy.
You could block, you could catch, coaches liked you.
And I think that's an underrated part of NFL football,
because the league is getting younger.
So with most of these quarterbacks, Anthony, I'm like they need to sit a year.
But I met Sam Darnold three years ago, and I sat on the eight,
he's different. He's a grown-up. This is why I fell in love with Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck.
How much of Darnold's personality is impressing the Jets? How much of his game is impressing the Jets coaches?
Everything. I think you're exactly right. He is really, what he's brought to the table, in my opinion,
is he's all ball. When he gets in the building, it's all ball. There's nothing else that's more
important to him. He's only played three years at the quarterback position. He's 21 years old,
and he's dived into this playbook, and he's mastered it. I've talked to him in the last couple
weeks before the games, and he said, I'm just dialed into every single scenario, everything that
the jets have thrown at me, and he's been on top of that. You've heard Todd Bowles and Jeremy
Bates, the coordinator, talk about that week in and week out. You know, his accuracy on the move,
his intelligence of the game and just playing the position for three years, his scrambling ability,
his movement skills, his ability to pre-snap read too.
A lot of the, and he had a bunch of scenarios in the preseason so far where there's been some blitzes
or he's gotten off the one and the two and he's had a plan.
He gets it to the checkdown.
He gets it to the crossing tight end.
He hits Terrell Pryor when two tight ends are running double posts on the backside in the red zone
and prior gets the ball underneath and he becomes the guy that scores the touchdown against the Giants.
So those things have been unbelievable.
I firmly have been a guy.
I'm a little old school, Colin.
I don't really like thrusting quarterbacks, rookie quarterbacks on the field.
I think he's demonstrated everything that you want in a young quarterback to make you feel good
and comfortable.
But I will hesitate that this is the NFL.
This is a league of intricate defenses.
It is not easy.
He's not on the Patriots.
He's not coming on the team that just went to the Super Bowl.
He's on the Jets, a team that's young, that's building, and that really is gravitating,
to him. That's another thing too. Are his teammates believing in what he can do on the field
and day to day in practice that they feel comfortable him? He even has that going for him.
But even with that all said, there is a luxury with the Jets right now. They have three starting
quarterbacks on their roster. And just because of that luxury, I think the risk outweighs the
reward of starting him now and one of these other two guys and letting him learn and grow for the
future, but there's no question. All those intangible and tangible things I just talked about
is what is leading the coaching staff, the organization, and even me at times believing he can get it
done. Now, Anthony, it's not a great offensive line. They don't, their tight end spots not loaded.
Running back's pretty meager. I do think they're wide receivers. If Robbie Anderson can give me
16 games, the receiving core may be better than I give them credit for. Could I make the argument,
though, that Teddy Bridgewater on the open market could get me a draft pick and a
an offensive lineman that Darnold's good enough to roll the dice and Teddy can get your stuff
on the market. Could I make that argument? There's no question Teddy can get you something on the
market. I don't know if the market's set to get the maximum value for him right now because I don't
know if anybody really needs Teddy Bridgewater. They may be enticed to have Teddy on their team
and maybe not loving their current position. But he definitely, the more he's played, the more he
shows becomes a huge asset for a lot of teams in the NFL.
You know, for me, Teddy is, when you look at this quarterback situation across the board,
I got to look and ask two questions.
Is there any quarterback on this team that's head and shoulders, head and shoulders above
anybody else?
That's the guy you should play.
If you look at the course of history, Aikman, he was head and shoulders against, I think
it was Steve Walsh.
There's no question.
He's playing.
Peyton Manning, head and shoulders against, was it?
Kelly Holcomb was the guy behind him.
No question.
Andrew Luck, same thing.
He's still in question what his future lies, but at the time he's the guy.
Or are they all the same across the board where you can pick and choose?
To me, his upside is bigger than both of Josh and Teddy.
I think he brings a lot to the table, but he hasn't done anything yet.
To be quite honest with you in a real game.
Teddy Bridgewater, to me, is the guy that, okay, he's young, he's 25, he's healthy, he looks great,
he's been accurate.
His stats have been equally as good as Sam playing with threes and some.
sometimes four in the preseason game.
And he's been to a Pro Bowl and he's led it to him to the playoffs and he's still 25.
So listen, you have some valuable options there to help the growth and development.
And we haven't really talked about the other things that restrict quarterbacks.
I mean, there's a nightmare situation brewing here with three games in what, 10 or 11 days to start your rookie career.
That's tough ask.
You know, I play with Chad Pennington.
He was a first round pick.
If you ask him straight up, if he was ready to start, he'd say he knew the playbook.
He had everything.
to be the starter, but he wasn't ready for that grind.
And we had Vinny Testivari there, and he was able to grow and come into that position
when he was ready.
And also, I'd love to have Sam Darnold ask great questions or ask dumb questions or even
make mistakes in closed doors instead of maybe saying it in front of Rich Zemini or Steve
Zervey or some of these other players or other reporters that he's going to have to deal with
every single week in the NFL after games.
So there's a luxury there.
You can go both ways, but you're right.
The jets are in a great position here, and this is going to be a tough decision.
Yeah.
You know, I said this last week.
We all know the good coaches, but there's always been a time in the NFL where good coaches,
Belichick, Pete Carroll, got fired.
One of the things I like about Donald, I like Todd Bulls, and boy, am I in the minority
on the internet.
When you look at the quarterback instability he's faced, they won five games last year without much,
and had six one possession losses,
mostly to good teams,
they beat playoff teams.
I think Bowles is the rare NFL coach
with a losing record
that's actually a really good football coach.
Now, I know you work for the Jets.
It is harder for some people to be critical,
but when I watch the Jets play, Anthony,
I see a well-coached team
without a ton of personnel.
Am I wrong?
They're young, number one.
We got to start with that.
Last year for me was eye-opening,
because you're right.
They were in so many games last year, and it was really impressive.
Listen, I was there day one when Taubles entered the NFL from college football.
In 2000, he was a defensive back coach for the Jets, my rookie year.
And I saw the same guy then that I see now, but I see a guy that's grown in so many aspects.
He was able to coach under guys like Bill Parcells, Al Groh, Bruce Ariens.
He's earned his stripes every single year becoming positional coach to a defensive coordinator.
And then again a defensive coordinator.
And now he's prepared himself for this position.
it doesn't surprise me at all that the players, the people in the building, everybody embraces him.
Now, he doesn't have the Starstruck Gruden, the Herm Edwards clichés or any of that stuff,
but Todd is well-liked, very smart and a very, very detailed head coach.
And you're right.
Only five wins last year.
They had a strong first year when he was there.
But I think they're growing a very strong nucleus.
the fundamentals and the interiors of this team,
the positive sense in the locker room is very strong,
even though they're a young team.
They have a good mix of veteran players,
and you'll see improvement across the board.
Their defense will be much improved this year
with the secondary and some of the pieces
that are the linebacker position,
and their draft picks.
We only talk about Sam Darnold,
but I think Sam Darnold,
I think Nathan Shepard,
a very underrated defensive lineman from Fort Hayes State.
He'll be a starter.
game one heading into the season.
So they have some pieces there that they can build on along with some of the guys they have now.
Anthony Beck, talented guy, former NFL tied end doing Jets games.
You'll hear a lot more from him.
We appreciate you stopping by.
You did a great job for us.
Thanks, Colin.
Appreciate it.
Anytime.
You bet.
Got good insight.
You know, it is interesting, as he pointed out.
The darn old thing's complicated because the Teddy Sam Gaps, not much.
They've got winnable games early.
you can get stuff for Teddy Bridgewater.
Like I think Terrod Taylor Baker, you know, I see a gap.
Flacco Lamar, I see a gap.
Bradford Rosen, I see a gap. The gap with this one now is small.
I do think Teddy's better today.
But, you know, you can make this argument too, Joy.
Play Teddy, because he's off an injury.
Show him off.
If you start looking at the Jets defense and who they face in the first month,
you could win three games.
This is not like the Browns who open up with the Steelers
and the Saints, and you're going on too.
Like the Jets could open up with either of these quarterback winning games.
And it's a very valid argument to say,
we're going to put Teddy on tape for the league, go three and one.
Now, maybe with Darnold, you go three and one or two and two.
But we're going to just show Teddy off.
We're going to put him, you know, you drive by the car dealership in the window,
they put the nice cars.
We're going to show Teddy off for a month.
Well, that could backfire too.
He doesn't play well or if he gets hurt.
Then you don't get anything for him.
And Donald is definitely.
the future of the franchise.
It's a really complicated
situation with the Jets.
I can't wait for it.
A lot of you are saying,
Colin, you're just rooting for Darnold
because you know,
you have been the guy that's been on him.
I'm rooting for all these guys
because if you ever watch the football game
with bad quarterback play,
yeah, mostly no, because it's unwatchable.
I don't want any of these guys to bust.
Like, you look at the NFC right now.
If Rosen's the real deal,
like you don't have a single NFC team without their future quarterback.
If Tribisky, and I've got my reservations, if Tribisky ends up being okay,
and I'm kind of on the fence on that, everybody in the NFC has got a guy.
It never works out.
There's always like three teams within a conference that are bailing water at quarterback.
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Hour 3 next.
Ah, hour 3.
This is the herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles.
Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1.
Joy Taylor is joining me, Hour 3 in Los Angeles.
I have so much energy today because the NFL season, I'm watching football.
I got a little college football this weekend.
We're about six, seven days away from college football opening up.
This is week three in the NFL joy where you can kind of watch teams.
You get in a sense of who's going to do things and who isn't going to do things.
It's fun, right?
Week three is always the best week.
Yeah, it's the best week.
I don't love the preseason.
I think a lot of it's junk, but week three-three is the best of the week.
So three-time Super Bowl champ Mark Schlarath in studio in 15 minutes.
It's going to call me out on something.
He sees something he likes and I don't.
Later for best for last.
We have a great best for last today.
You know the NBA game I do?
I give every team at the start of the season, the three-word game.
I can describe every NBA team in three words.
Well, I'm going to do AFC today, NFC tomorrow.
I can describe every AFC team in three words.
So that's where we are today.
But first, Tom Brady had a very interesting Monday morning.
So let me start there.
When you've had power forever, it's very hard to surrender it.
And football's always been a controlling sport.
The general manager controls the players and the head coach controls the players and there's no guaranteed contracts.
And if you do something wrong, you are out of here.
The NBA has got guaranteed contracts.
One or two star players can change a franchise and a city in commerce forever.
So the NBA coach has never felt all powerful.
The NBA general manager's never felt all powerful.
So it's much easier for a Steve Kerr to relinquish power.
much harder for a football coach, but it's common, and this is fascinating.
So when I say team with Tom Brady, you think Patriots.
When I say Russell Wilson, team, you think Seahawks.
When I say Aaron Rogers team, you think Packers.
But when I say LeBron James team, you know what I think of?
Maverick Carter, Chris Paul, the guys he runs with, and, you know, whoever the team is currently.
and that's okay.
That's the way it should be for superstars.
We have no problem giving LeBron James or any NBA star latitude.
He's got a trainer that travels with him.
He's got an agent that travels with him.
He's got a marketing shoe guy that travels with him.
And he's got his best friend that travels with him.
He's his confidant inner circles tight.
It's his team.
I don't have a problem with that.
It's been happening for 30 years.
But in the NFL, Alex Guerrero, a career,
extending trainer wildly
respected around the league. Tom's opening
a clinic. Players want to be in the clinic. The fact that he now
travels with Tom Brady again, Brady
goes on a local Boston radio station, WEEEI
this morning. They don't want to talk about the Patriots. They don't want to talk about the
white receivers. They don't want to talk about football.
What is it with Alex Carrero?
We saw the reports this weekend that Alex was on the team playing, which he
wasn't for the second half of last year, I guess, not on the sideline. Is that accurate?
Yeah, he was with me this last week, so it was, yeah.
What changed in him not being on the team playing last year and this year?
You know, I don't want to, I'm not getting into all that.
Okay. When I ran in him at the Super Bowl last year, Minneapolis, and I talked to him there,
he had said in his opinion that all this stuff had been overblown that he and Belichick actually
had a pretty good relationship, even then. Would you say that was true?
I said I don't want to get into it.
Okay. Go ahead, Evan.
Yeah.
I mean, everyone knows it's well-documented how, you know, the work that he and I do together.
No, I know.
I understand that.
I'm just trying to figure out because I saw the reports this weekend that he's traveling with the team.
Was he on the sideline on Friday?
Yeah.
All right, guys.
Have a great day.
I'll talk to you later.
Oh, there he goes this morning, hung up on him.
The question is, not that he hung up on him, why are we so hung up on Tom Brady having as 18 years,
eight Super Bowl's world's greatest football player in the last two decades.
He's hanging up because we're hung up on Alex Guerrero.
By the way, finally, I've been pleading about this for several years.
Quarterbacks take control of your career.
Finally, Tom Brady's like, yeah, this guy makes me last longer.
I'm going to travel with him.
Check.
Aaron Rogers.
This franchise tag is garbage.
I'm trapped for five years.
He says it.
Check.
Kirk Cousins.
No, I'm not going to sign with Washington.
you didn't give me the respect I deserve to win a bunch of games.
I'm out of here.
I'm going to be a free agent and I'm going to put myself on the market.
Check.
This is exactly what I've been preaching for years.
Why is it okay when I say LeBron's team?
I think of his guys, his friends, his confidants, those he respects and trusts his agent.
Maybe a marketing guy.
Maybe a high school buddy.
That's his team.
He's the best player in the world.
I'm good with his team.
but if Tom Brady says that, whoa, whoa,
Tom Brady's tired of answering to something
as the greatest football player in America
should be an absolute understanding.
This is not a spa treatment.
It's not me going to, you know, the Marriott and getting a spa.
It is a career extending element to his career.
He has every right to do this.
I mean, Tom Brady is not a guy we can question.
question. Tom Brady's not like, you know, he's just pampered. He's an egomaniac. He's not a team guy.
Opposite, opposite, opposite of what I just said. So this is really interesting to me is that in our football culture in America, we bristle at the idea of Kirk Cousins saying no to a team. And Aaron Rogers saying the franchise tag is garbage. And Tom Brady saying, I'm traveling with a trainer.
when the Lakers signed KCP a couple years ago, remember?
Literally Rob Polanka, the Laker GM, came up on the podium,
and remember what happened, who he mentioned twice?
Remember who he mentioned twice?
Here's the audio.
I would venture to guess there's people in the room that are familiar with the stories
in the book of Genesis,
where there was a time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert,
and all of a sudden bread came down from heaven.
that's kind of what today feels like for us to have KCP join.
As Magic said too, I think Rich Paul and Farah from Clutch are here today.
I think just their understanding of sort of the free agent market and cap space
and all of the things that come into play when Rich texted me and said,
hey, I see you and Magic have been really, really careful with your space.
You're being very patient.
Let's talk.
It was like, you know, a lightning bolt hit.
us and we said, gosh, this has
to be our focus. We've got to find a way.
Look who is sitting closest
to the GM of the Lakers.
It wasn't a player.
It was part of LeBron's team
because KCP is represented
by Rich Paul.
Part of LeBron's team.
When you say KCP, everybody
in the league knows, oh, that's part of LeBron's
team. Clutch
sports. He represents them.
So we have a player in the NBA
who literally can move
players around to other teams. Would you be upset if Tom Brady had an agent group that move players
into the Patriots? Why would you be upset with that? That's what LeBron does. Why can Aaron Rogers
create Packer clutch sports and move players into the Packers that he represents? Why are we
letting NBA guys do this, but we're outraged by NFL guys traveling with a trainer? I don't get it,
never have, and I am pro
for
100% behind
franchise quarterbacks
having, I don't know, an eighth
of the power,
Russell Wilson changed
the city of Seattle.
He deserves as much power
as Otto Porter of the Washington Wizards.
I'm sorry. Crazy
me.
Tom Brady hung up, because we're hung up
on Tom Brady. Ridiculous.
Coming up next, Mark Schlisle,
Lereth like something I've got dubious expectations of.
An NBA player of note.
Big news.
Joy Taylor has that as well.
We got a lot of show left and our best, best for last in a long time.
College football is back.
Labor Day weekend on FS1.
Catch three great matchups, including Heisman, hopeful, Bryce Love, and Stanford, hosting San Diego State.
Also, Texas looks to avenge last year's upset against Maryland.
Three days of four.
football starting Thursday on FS1 or stream all the action live on the Fox Sports
app. Keep your eye in Texas, folks. Tom Herman, keep your eye. College football's great when
Texas is. He's not playing with a lot of his guys, but he can really coach. Draft Kings hosting a
free team pick-um promo, week one, half the winning teams correctly. That's all you got to do
and get a share of a million bucks. DraftKings.com slash pick-um for details. And with that,
we bring in Mark Schlerth, multiple Super Bowls, three in fact, three big rings.
Multiple time pro bowler.
Shlareth and Evans, mornings in Denver.
Okay, let's start with this.
We got breaking news.
Let's show some Odell Beckham Love.
He just signed a five-year extension,
makes him the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL,
a $95 million dollar max deal.
This is breaking news.
65 million total guaranteed.
Mark Schlarith, your reaction.
Good for him, man.
I want everybody to get paid.
And good for O'Dell because O'Dell Beckham Jr.
is one of the most phenomenal receivers that we have ever seen in this league.
But I'll tell you what, find the video of him and three or four of his teammates celebrating in the locker room.
Because that says a lot about a person.
When you can celebrate somebody else's success, like, how often do you ever celebrate somebody else's success?
Somebody gets promotion and you're like, oh, man, I deserve that promotion.
Right.
Like here's a guy that in your locker room that gets paid.
and there's three or four guys dancing around like they just got paid.
Like it's that much excitement for Odell Beckham Jr.
So like I appreciate his passion.
Now there is a question about emotional maturity sometimes, right?
But don't get confused.
This guy is a passionate football player.
He brings great energy that way.
He needs to control the emotion sometimes.
And sometimes he lacks that emotional maturity.
But he grows up.
He continues to play the way he's played.
with the passion that he's played with, the work ethic that he's
played with, and the spectacular
nature with which he plays, I'm telling
you what, the guy is one of the best in the league.
They are my Super Bowl
Dark Horse team, and here's why.
So Beckham didn't play, he's back.
They were, it wasn't just that
they were average at
receiver, they were bad, now they'll get
great. They were awful at left
tackle. Now they'll be really good
Nate's older. They were awful at
running back. They'll be exciting with
Akewan Barkley. They were awful in play
calling. Now they get Pat Shermer. I can make the argument after quarterback, OC, left tackle,
running back, receiver in today's NFL with the rules are the four hit spots. They have made
massive upgrades in all of them. I think the Giants are a very interesting team. I really do.
Let me tell you, let me take it one step further that you didn't even come up with that
basically lends credence to your kind of what you think here is that that.
may have been the worst culture in football,
the New York Giants. Last year.
Last year, unbelievably bad.
That locker room, unbelievably
bad. They quit. Because of
the guy who was the head coach.
And to clear that out,
McAdoo, obviously, to clear that
out, and to bring in,
you know, to bring in Pat
Shermer and to now have healthy
guys, like you said, and players,
rearrange your offensive line,
get a running back that can be efficient.
I think a lot of people
like try to, you know, try to bury Eli Manning too soon, right?
I mean, they try to write the obituary a little too soon.
You put some weapons around Eli Manning.
I think you can still be very efficient.
And so get a better culture, better weapons.
This is a team in a division.
Come on.
What do we really think about Washington?
We know Philadelphia is good upstairs, good coach, good quarterback line.
But after that, there's a lot of, I think they could be good.
I think that.
I just know that winning back-to-back championships is really difficult.
There's only a few teams that have ever done it.
Even New England doesn't do that.
There's only a few teams that did it in the 2000, like 2003, 2003, 2003 or something like that.
But they did win back-to-backs.
I was on a team that won back-to-backs.
It's hard.
It is hard because once you're sated by success, a lot of guys want contracts.
A lot of guys are like, like we just talked about with the job.
Giants, guys celebrating Odell Beckham
Jr's contract, most guys are pointing
fingers like, why is that guy getting paid and I'm not getting paid?
I was part of the championship, but how come I can't get?
Like, there's a lot of that that goes
on. It's really hard to maintain
that focus, and we've seen them
not play very well, even though they're just
such a tight-knit group, we've seen
them come out here in the preseason
and almost like, I just don't
believe in mailing it in. The preseason, it doesn't
count, but it does matter. It matters
that you don't show up. It matters that you
don't play well. Those are things
that you look at and say, man, it matters how you establish yourself when you're playing this
game and they haven't played well. You know, it's interesting about Odell Beckham. I said this about a
year ago. He's the NFL's first NBA player. He got a shoe deal. Is that in my lifetime, first of
all, NBA guys, Blake Griffin, you know, good player, had like four commercials, national commercials
at one point. NBA guys have made money. A lot of them make more money on shoes. Derek Rose than
their game. But the NFL's always
been about the system. Maybe a quarterback
would have a, you know, a Dodge commercial.
But this is the
first, I think there's a chance
that O'Dell Beckham, you know how Steph Curry
is, maybe not Steph's not as good as
LeBron, but Steph has changed the game. He
eliminated the centers. He has
revolutionized the sport. If you don't shoot a three,
you can't be on the floor. Odell
Beckham to me, Mark, I wonder. This is,
this organization's the most conservative
organization in the NFL.
I mean, you talk about an
accounting firm in pads.
And they just gave a ton of money to a flashy personality-driven guy that doesn't
necessarily win games for him.
It feels like a little changing of the tide in the NFL where this whole off-season
mark.
Receivers are getting money.
Defensive guys aren't.
You know, it's interesting.
He'll have arrived.
I'll tell you when you know you've arrived as a spokesperson in the marketing world, when you
can sell cars that you don't fit in.
That's the NBA.
When you can sell a car that you don't actually fit in,
you know you've arrived.
He can sell anything.
Shaq can sell anything.
Hey, here's a little car.
I don't fit in it, but go ahead and buy it, you know?
That's the power of the NBA.
I do think Odell's got an NBA quality like I've never seen.
All right, so Tom Brady's on radio in his hometown of Boston,
and he hangs up the phone on the radio hosts.
What do you make of that?
The Alex Guerrero questions?
Well, I mean, this is the second time
Tom Brady has hung up the phone on a show that he is contracted to do.
Right.
I mean, so I'm sure with Tom, he was cordial.
They asked him.
They had a question.
It wasn't out of bounds.
The question wasn't out of bounds.
It wasn't vitriolic.
They didn't go after him.
He didn't want to talk about it.
And he mentioned twice that he didn't want to talk about it.
When they asked him again, he just said, all right, see around sometime.
Well, you know, we'll try this again.
next week. So Tom has earned the right to talk about what Tom wants to talk about.
18 years in the NFL, the greatest quarterback that's ever played. And, you know,
yeah, Alex Guerrero, he's got a quirky system. It seems to be working for Tom. And if he doesn't
want to discuss it, then that's fine. Yeah, the media this week was pressing Tiger Woods on
political talk. And he's like, I'm hungry. I want to go eat.
Right. Once you're a superstar, I mean, both Tom and Tiger answer the first question,
they're not going to extend a narrative for you as a reporter.
And if you're going to keep pressing the same question,
then they're just going to move on and stop the interview.
All right.
So what would you do with Sam Darnold?
We can see the gap between Flacco and Lamar.
I think you can see a gap between Bradford and Rosen.
The gap between Bridgewater and Darnold is not a gulf.
I think Teddy's better.
But what would you do if you ran the Jets?
Yeah, interestingly enough.
I mean, I think you have to look at yourself, like what kind of season do we expect
to have. What division do we play in? Or we're really going to catch the New England Patriots and what
sets us up best for the future. So I think that Donald's going to play eventually, whether it's
week one or whether it's week four, he's going to get to play. So you have to decide if those first
four or six games, if that's going to either retard his development or if that's going to excel
his development. And I would say based on what we've seen, based on decisions in the line of scrimmage,
based on reading out the routes, the route combination versus the coverage, that he's ready to play.
Yeah.
And on top of that, on top of that, honestly, this is why signing veteran quarterbacks is important.
I know a lot of teams don't like to do it.
They don't want to spend the $6 or $7 million, whatever it is, right?
Chump change in the overall scheme of things.
I mean, you could tilt over the cushions in the coach's office and grab $6 million, you know.
I mean, these teams make a lot of money.
Right.
To have a veteran set of eyes at the quarterback position, like John,
Josh McCown to let guys know how to play the game, how to study film.
Like there's a lot of guys that come to this league, and I'll just use, I'm in Denver.
I'm at practice every day.
I'll use Paxton Lynch as an example.
I believe that he thinks he's working hard.
I believe that he thinks he's studying hard.
But there's never been a veteran presence in that locker room.
They had it with Mark Sanchez.
They ended up cutting him and having Trevor Simeon and Paxson Lynch together.
And the same thing went down last year with the Broncos.
so you don't have a veteran set of eyes in there to say,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, rewind that.
Did you see that?
Oh, I don't see anything.
No, look at that.
I mean, it's what happens to most of us as young players.
I got drafted to the Washington Redskins.
I was with the hogs.
You know, I was named a starter halfway through my rookie year.
You had a bunch of Russ Grimm's.
I was in the film room with Russ Grimm.
Russ Grimm's the smartest football player I've ever been around.
Russ Grimm was our emergency quarterback.
He was.
I'm not kidding.
I know.
285 pound guard was the emergency quarterback.
Here's a, this is how smart Russ was.
We have some protection, right, and he's on the sideline.
And I come off, I come off, it's third down, whatever, we don't convert, we punt.
I come off.
And he says, where was the ref lined up?
I was like, what?
Not like, what defense were they in?
Where was a safety?
What was a linebacker doing?
He goes, where's a ref lined up?
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Where's the ref?
He goes, you don't check to see where the refs lined up?
I mean, he's incredulous, right?
Like, how can you be this dumb?
Like, you don't change?
I go, no, I never even thought about whether a dude, come on.
If the ref lined up inside of you, he's way inside of you,
you can yank a dude down with your right hand with your outside hand and not get called.
If he's on the edge of you because you're on the other hash,
he goes, you got to yank him down with your inside left hand.
He goes, come on now.
You've got to learn how to hold.
You've got to learn how to pay attention.
And I'm just like, I'm blown away.
Right.
But that's what veteran eyes give a guy.
So with Sam Darnold having a Josh McCown in there is worth its weight in gold.
Trent Dilfer told me, we were talking on the phone about half,
let's see, I called him two weeks ago.
And I remember where I was sitting.
And he said, let me tell you something.
He goes, the Jets don't have a quarterback coach.
He goes, they don't need one.
He goes, Josh McCown is the next player in the league that can go right into coaching today.
He said Josh McCown.
He goes, no, he's one of the best humans in the league.
People love him.
Yes.
He's totally for the community and the team.
He said, Josh McCown will retire.
And he goes, I wouldn't be surprised if the Jets just gave him a job as their quarterback coach.
Right.
And so Baker doesn't have that right now.
He's competing against a veteran and a coach who wants his job.
Darnold's got the advantage.
We have to be honest here, of a unbelievable guy in the room that helps him every day.
Yeah.
It is a massive deal.
For the record, you know, I was thinking about parody.
I was talking earlier on the show about parity.
I love the NBA.
But outside of Golden State, Boston and maybe Houston, that's about it.
I was looking at the NFC alone.
Mark, I don't, there are six teams if they won the NFC today.
Now, Dallas, I would be surprised.
But I can make the argument in the NFC that if the Packers, Saints, Eagles, Falcons,
Rams and Vikings, one.
I would not be surprised.
I mean, the Vikings I like less than Philadelphia because they lost Pat Schumer and they have a new new coach.
The NBA, as much as I like it, there is a mile gap between like Team 2 and Team 20.
Do you have somebody in the NFC?
I imagine we both like Pittsburgh a lot in the AFC.
It's a real good team.
Sure.
Is there an NFC team you feel today?
It's like, I'm all in on that team.
Green Bay with Aaron Rogers when he's healthy.
Yeah.
Like you mentioned the parody thing.
Just think about the NFC North.
Like you can make a compelling argument for Green Bay, for Minnesota,
and hey, have a couple things for all right?
Detroit.
Like you've got three teams in that division that you can say,
hey, there could be three playoff teams from that division.
You could get two wild cards out of that division.
I mean, it is so tight.
The same with the South, with Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina.
Carolina's got, I would argue Carolina's got,
the best front seven defensively in the league, which generally gets you to the playoffs.
And that's, if I read all the magazines, you know, I always read the NFL preseason
magazines. They're third by almost everybody. It's like, that's the best front seven. And by the way,
a former MVP quarterback now with one of the sharpest OCs in the league. And now they've got a
couple of really good running backs. Right. So, I mean, there are, you know, we look at,
is Aaron Donald going to get done with the Rams? How do they progress in their next, you know, the second
season under McVeigh. They're really intriguing. I mean, there are so many, in the NFC,
there are so many intriguing teams. You know, the AFC, you're looking at, you know, New England
and Pittsburgh. And they kind of feel a notch above. Right. And then, and then you feel like, well,
because the Chargers have Phillip Rivers that maybe they can do something special. But I think
there's just more question marks in the AFC. In the NFC, there just seems to be a lot of answers,
you know? And you're 100% right. I've always felt like,
there's probably 12 teams in the NFL whose ownership is truly committed to winning a championship.
And then there's, you know, then there's the other half or a little bit more than half that, like, hey, if a championship falls in our laps, that's great, right?
If the stars align, we stay healthy and all of a sudden somebody at the quarterback position plays better than we thought he could, you know, maybe we can get one.
But there's about 12 teams.
But that's pretty good because the NBA, I think there's about three teams that you look at and say, wow, they're all in.
They're all in.
And then there's a bunch of markets that you just look at and you're like,
hey, it's really fun to go to NBA games.
You know, we're not really going to win a championship.
But, you know, I live in one in Denver.
It's fun.
They're exciting.
They're a young squad.
You know, they've got some guys that are potential stars.
Zero chance to win a title.
You just got no chance.
Yeah.
None.
Mark Slareth.
Good seeing you, bud.
Oh, likewise.
Mark Slarth, three rings.
A lot of Pro Bowls.
Joy Taylor with a news.
No, no, no.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
Lots of big news today, Colin.
Odell's getting paid.
And as you mentioned earlier, one of the most beloved players in Spurs history is calling it a career.
Manu Genoobli posted this on Twitter just a few minutes ago.
Today, with a wide range of feelings, I'm announcing my retirement from basketball, immense gratitude to everyone, family, friends, teammates, coaches, staff, and fans involved in my life in the last 23 years.
It's been a fabulous journey way beyond my wildest dreams.
He's 41 years old.
Tony Parker is gone.
Manu's gone.
Duncan's retired.
Kauai was the next guy gone.
This is how dynasties end.
They're gradual.
They're gradual.
Pops now getting close to 70.
They're gradual.
This has got to hurt if you're a Spurs fan.
Well, he was, you know what?
Manu's one of those guys.
Is he the greatest sixth man ever?
He's probably the greatest.
I mean, that, that, that, that,
is not a small thing. No. He's probably the greatest six-man in league history. Well, him, Duncan,
and Parker are the winningish trio in NBA history. Is that true? Yeah. So, I mean,
not that, you know, Genobley was the thing that was going to put the Spurs over the edge for me
this year, but this is a big deal. I mean, he was the last part of that, I mean, obviously
besides Pop, of that Spurs dynasty base. You ever gone to a YMCA and there's like a 58-year-old guy
that can now he can't run very well, but he can still score.
Manu's going to be in a gym somewhere.
In Argentina, he'll be 74,
and he'll be still dropping like 18 points in games at the Y.
I mean, he was playing 20 minutes averaging 9 points.
He's just...
And just to think about that, 90% of kids in college will never make the NBA.
Of the ones that do, almost none will average 9 a game ever.
The dude could just get buckets.
It's crazy.
Well, I don't know.
It's going to be very interesting now, especially with Kauai.
gone. All right. So there's been some rumblings of someone else who's retired coming back to the NBA.
Speaking of running around the Y, Kobe Bryant. There's some rumors that he was going to be coming back to the NBA or possibly play for the big three.
And he went on the Rich Eisen Show and had this to say about it.
Come on. I want to hear it. I know. Me too. We have this. We don't have this. Okay, I'll read it.
When I retired, everyone was saying he's too competitive. He's not going to know what to do with himself.
He's going to have to come back. I took that as a personal challenge of them.
thinking that I'm a one-dimensional person,
but all I know how to do is dribble the ball,
shoot the ball, play basketball, and compete at that level.
So basically he's saying,
you shouldn't have said all he was going to do is have to come back
because now Kobe is taking that insane competitive drive
that he had with basketball and applying it to life after basketball.
He is definitely not coming back.
No, I mean, once you get to be Kobe Bryant,
I mean, you know what I love about Michael Jordan at the, you know,
was doing baseball and the Wizards and it was just kind of sloppy.
like Kobe ends with 60 points, drops the mic, wins an Oscar.
I thought he made it very clear he was done with that.
Listen, I could argue no NBA star has ever ended their career as well as Kobe.
Shaq was a beaten-up mess.
Michael was losing games for the Wizards, and he was not the same player.
Kobe dropped 60, dropped the mic, and then won an Oscar 12-month-old.
months later.
Like, that's, it is remarkable.
When you go in the history of the NBA, how many guys, I mean stars, Larry Bird could
no longer run.
Novitsky can't move.
I mean, I'm talking all time.
Great.
Shacks, Barkley falling apart physically.
Boy, Kobe ended it with elegance.
I just, you know what I think this is?
I think it's Kobe fans who are still upset the LeBron came because now it's going to
be LeBron's team and they can't deal with it.
So they're drumming up this idea that.
Kobe's going to come back and play and take the team back over from LeBron.
Kobe is retired and that's okay.
It's okay, Kobe fans.
Finally, Josh Gordon is back on the Brown's active roster.
The team decided to clear him on Saturday.
Hugh Jackson said he won't start week one, but he is back on the active roster.
And shortly after, Josh Gordon posted this on his Instagram account with the caption.
It was all part of the story, even the scary nights.
You know, I root for Josh Gordon.
this could be one of the greatest redemption stories in sports history if he's able to come back
because he's just so talented and the Browns have really stuck by him.
But with all the talk that's being discussed now with mental health and, you know, addiction,
dealing with a disease of addiction surrounding sports,
I really do root for Josh Gordon.
I hope that they are able to get him out there and he's able to get things back on track.
And it seems like they are really getting him and being patient with him.
Well, he is a bizarrely talented guy.
Right.
He just is better than almost everybody in the league.
He is just raw talent.
Yeah, raw talent.
He's an example of that.
So I don't know.
We'll see.
I mean, the Browns are so interesting this year there's so many characters with them,
but Josh Gordon is, I hope just for,
not just for Josh Gordon's sake,
but just for the overall, you know,
movement of mental health and supporting players
outside of just their physical health,
I hope that he ends up succeeding.
Totally agree.
Joy with the news.
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
The Herd Lye News.
Coming up, I'll give you every AFC team in three words.
We do it the NBA game.
We thought we'll do AFC today, NFC tomorrow, best for last.
Also, some breaking news in sports around the corner.
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H-E-R-D. The breaking news in the NFL,
O'Dell Beckham, assigned a massive contract
with the New York Giants, $95 million
max deal, $65 million guaranteed.
One of the things that has been
obvious over the last 12 months, joy,
is wide receivers are getting money.
Now, I believe there's two reasons
behind this. Number one is the
catch rule has been flipped. And if we suspect, and I do, one more catch a game will be allowed
and not disallowed, that's 400, 500 catches. Many of those will be touchdowns. That is a very
pro wide receiver rule. The helmet rule, will there'll be one helmet rule call per game?
I think that's reasonable. 500 calls automatic first down. Some of those will be in the red zone.
they'll give you points, field goal or touchdown.
You are seeing NFL people react suddenly to two rule changes,
both benefiting the wide receiver.
And I also think if you start looking around the league right now,
the teams I really like, Atlanta and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,
New Orleans, Minnesota, the Rams, the chargers,
they have dynamic playmakers.
I don't believe the receiver is.
one of the five most important positions.
But right now in the league,
if you're playing another team
with a franchise quarterback, you better have
somebody that changes the temperature of the room.
And the top teams in the league right now,
Philly, Pittsburgh,
Rams,
Atlanta, New Orleans,
Packers, they've got some difference makers. That's one of my
knocks on New England. They don't have
perimeter difference makers. I'm sorry,
but Gronk is a
seam guy down the middle, but you got to have some pop.
And you've got rule changes right now in the league that are benefiting receivers, and the
giants are like, you know what?
We got to pop.
We got to keep our pop guy.
So there you go.
Odell Beckham, beloved by fans in New York, sometimes lacks some emotional discipline,
but Antonio Brown can go sideways.
So can Levian Bell.
They also make the Steelers better.
Here we go on a Monday, best for last.
After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet.
Quit holding out on us, cowherd.
It's the best for last.
I do this on the opening day of the NBA.
I believe very few words can describe almost any situation.
And I call it the NBA three-word game.
I can literally describe an NBA team.
If you didn't watch the NBA, I could give you three words,
and it would pretty much sum up the team.
It's not that difficult.
You can see good, bad, and awful very quickly and can similarly describe good, bad, and awful very quickly.
So let's do today.
We'll do the AFC.
Tomorrow we'll do the NFC, the three-word game AFC edition.
Let's start with the AFC East, New England Patriots, Tom Brady's team.
It hasn't always been.
For a long time, this was Belichick's reign.
But Brady got rid of Garoppolo.
Brady skipped OTAs.
Gronk followed suit.
Brady gets his trainer on the plane.
This is now Tom Brady's team.
The owner, Bob Kraft, had to choose between the coach and the star quarterback,
and he chose the latter.
Jets.
Sam I Am.
Folks, whether he starts game one or not,
he has looked the best and most refined and most polished
and most durable of the first round quarterbacks.
and the conversations they are having right now in New York are not,
if they're going to trade Teddy Bridgewater,
it's when they're going to trade Teddy Bridgewater.
It's his franchise, Sam Darnold.
Buffalo Bills, no playoff return.
Listen, my sources in the NFL say Buffalo's got a real good coaching staff.
They really do.
But Josh Allen, with a rebuilt offensive line,
you watch that Cincinnati game,
Josh Allen is not Sam Darnold.
He's not that kind of player yet.
I don't think he's that durable for sure.
And him starting with a rebuilding offensive line and brand new wide receivers,
as good as that coaching staff is in Buffalo,
that's not a playoff team as of today.
Finally, Miami over the Tanna Hill.
I'm sorry.
Listen, he's coming off an injury.
They're rebooting the locker room.
But I look at Tom Brady and I look at Sam Darnold.
And I look at Ryan Tannehill, and I'm like, I think we've kind of hit a ceiling on this thing a little bit.
It'll be interesting to see because I think Adam Gase is a really smart offensive guy.
But boy, if Ryan doesn't pop here, where do you go?
You go and draft another quarterback.
AFC West Chargers just need a kicker.
Good God, folks.
They're loaded.
I mean, Mike Williams has popped during training camp, the number one pick last year that was hurt the wide receiver.
So now they have Keenan Allen and him.
Maybe they have questions a little bit at tight end.
But last year, if they had a kicker that could hit like PATs and short field goals, they're a 13-win team.
They were red hot in the last two months.
Kansas City Chiefs, Mahomes, sweet Mahomes.
I think they found their quarterback.
He's on the show tomorrow.
Patrick Mahomes.
He has looked spectacular against first team defenses.
We knew he had a cannon.
I'm always a little reluctant on guys with.
the cannon arm. He's looked really special. And his completion percentage is high. Let me tell you
something. Sammy Watkins and him haven't connected yet, but he and Tyreek Hill look really comfortable
already. Mahomes, sweet Mahomes. Raiders, oh, excuse me, Broncos, Elway's latest case, Case Keenham.
Listen, John Elway is trying to get this quarterback right. And Paxton Lynch, that didn't work.
And he got Tebow out of town. And Peyton worked for a few.
years and he's looking for the next Peyton and I don't think it's Case Keenham but in this league
you can't be awful at quarterback case Keenum's not awful at quarterback I think they're going to
realize very quickly that case Keenum was great because of Pat Shermer in Minnesota and I think
they're going to find out very quickly case Keenum's mostly a workable C plus at best quarterback
and finally Raiders must win baby John Gruden got 10 years
he's going to be tough on players.
He better win early because if he loses early,
John Gruden loving and barking football is going to get real old,
real fast because he can grind guys hard.
So he needs to win early for them to buy in to his style of coaching
because it is old school coaching.
AFC South, Texans, does Deshaun deliver?
A couple of ACLs, my guess he does,
but if he gets hurt in the first month,
uh-oh.
Colts, good luck charm.
Andrew Luck's back, they'll win.
Stop arguing, folks.
It's the easiest bet in sports.
If Andrew Luck starts, the Colts are good.
Jaguars, Saxonville to Lastonville.
I don't buy it.
Luckin to Sean Watson return.
And I think Jacksonville goes back to their rightful place in the AFC South.
And Tennessee, like their talent, but for God's sakes, tighten it up.
This organization, coaching changes, personnel changes, lose games they should win, tighten it up.
And finally in the AFC North, Steelers, Super Bowl bound, my pick to get there and win it.
Ravens, Joe Flacco's last stand.
Lamar Jackson was drafted to put heat on him, don't kid yourself.
Bingles, red rifle reloaded.
I can't believe I said that, but he does offer stability as a lot of teams in the AFC,
are looking and hoping for young quarterbacks to flourish.
And Brown's, Mayfield of Dreams.
Baker, Baker,
Touchdown Maker. We'll see you tomorrow.
No, I got a minute left.
Mayfield of dreams.
I didn't come up with that one.
That was my favorite one in the room,
and I didn't even come up with it.
Way to go, staff.
Good stuff.
We'll see you in the her tomorrow.
Last night, a blown call changed a game.
This morning, the internet lost its mind,
and nobody's telling you exactly.
what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting
through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story
behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves,
their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear.
Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.
Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.
Unhumor me with Robert 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get,
your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi,
we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes,
coaches and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them
moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like,
I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One.
founding partner of IHart Women's Sports.
Hey, what's good, y'all?
You're listening to Learn the Hard Way
with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games.
This space is about black men's experiences,
having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere,
but you're having them with a licensed professional
who knows what he's doing.
How many men carry a suit or armor.
It signals to the world that you're not to be played with.
And just because you have the capability
that does not mean that you need to,
Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
This is an IHart podcast.
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