December 24, 2024 • 43 mins
Colin thinks he knows why the Packers are able to develop quarterbacks consistently. Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez joins Colin to talk about quarterback play in the NFL and the redemption story of Sam Darnold.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd Podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noone Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks
for listening to the Herd podcast. Welcome back. Mark Sanchez.
(00:24):
In thirty minutes is going to break down that Sam
Darnold because he was doing that Seawk Minnesota game, which
ended up being just a great, great game live in LA.
It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. I want to thank you for making
us part of you. Dad. We got a lot of
choices out here. Jmack was at the Lakers game last night.
Austin Reeves didn't play well. They're not playing Dalton. Connect
(00:45):
to your liking.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
He needs a little a few more minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'll just say that they needed Max Christy as a
starter because it plays defense.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, the Dalton doesn't play much.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Reddick is tinkering. I like what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Let me see.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I think the Lakers are fine. They're gonna be in
the playoffs. Obvious, they're not a playing team. You're a
playoff team.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Lebron's played.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Top of the West is like ok.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
C, Houston, Denver's not quite right, they're not.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's tough. NBA is really difficult. A lot of medium
teams are good. In the NFL, it's top heavy, like
you said, and the bottoms just look.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah right now in the NFL ten teams with five
or fewer wins. Last year it was only five, So
the bottom is ugly and it shouldn't be because we
just had a quarterback class that went. It looks like
if JJ McCarthy can play, it's five for five. Drake
May Pennix, Pennix. One game it looked pretty good. It
was the Giant Giants JV team.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Come on, Penix. Then he's got to go on the road.
Can he do it on the road this week?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
First though, the Packers shut out the Saints last night.
Wasn't big lifting for Jordan Love to do too much.
And there's a reason that Green Bay has a history
of success drafting a quarterback and letting them sit for
three years because they have no owner. No oh, no meddling,
no demands. Even the great owners Stan Kronkey, Jeffrey Lurie,
(02:04):
Robert Kraft. They would want to see their investment. They
wouldn't want a first round pick on the bench for
three years drafting and developing. Last week, there's video of
the Crafts in their box wanting to be on camera,
reportedly telling CBS get us on camera, criticizing the coaches
play calling. Last week is story out the Jets, the
(02:26):
Jets owners, the kids harassing Jets players in the locker room.
Yet the Packers clinched their thirty seventh playoff appearance last night,
number one all time. You know who they surpassed The
Dallas Cowboys. Who's owner? An egomaniac needs to be on
radio every week dissecting the win. The Panthers seven coaches
(02:46):
in six years if you count the interims. Look upstairs,
that's why you're bad. Is it a shock? They're four
and eleven in Carolina and here is Green Bay, no meddling,
no owner. For years I always saw to it's a weakness.
Now I see it as a strength. All Green Bay
does is whatever is best for the development of their
(03:08):
young quarterback. Three straight quarterbacks, star star star, all three
Farbes in the Hall of fame, Rogers will be and
Love looks like he's on his way. It's all football
because as owners have gotten richer, all of them are
billionaires now and crazier and more impulsive. It gets in
the way of the development of the most important position.
(03:31):
Think it's a coincidence Aaron Rodgers is four and eleven
and now irrelevant, and in Green Bay he was a
back to back MVP and after Brady, the biggest star
in the league. Do you think it is a coincidence
that the Cleveland quarterback situation is the worst and messiest
in the league. It's not the coach's fault. Stefanski's great,
it's not the GM's fault. Andrew Berry's excellent. They draft well,
(03:54):
it's the haslums. You think it's a coincidence that Sam
Darnold is having an unbelievable year and in Carolina and
the Jetsy was a tire fire. No, the Wilf family
in Minnesota has always been very low profile. Ninety nine
percent of you don't know what the will family looks like.
It is not a coins only the Packers and I
(04:17):
used to see it as a weakness. Can draft a
young quarterback who's talented and sit him and develop him
for three years. Aaron could have played earlier, Jordan Love
could have played earlier. But if you're just about football,
no meddling, no ego, no impulsive, crazy person, that's what
(04:39):
you should do. Even these young quarterbacks now, Jaden Daniels,
he's good enough to play. But it wasn't the end
of the world. Michael Pennix sat. It wouldn't have been
to the end of the world if Drake may or
bow Nick sad. But I'm watching what Green Bay does,
even after their win last night. Here's the law room,
(05:00):
and what you don't see is an owner that needs attention. Listen.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I love this team, I love this energy, and we
get something special here.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
We just got to keep building on it.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
All right, way to handle your business.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
We go to the playoffs, thirty seventh playoff appearance, number
one all time for the smallest market in the NFL,
the smallest media surpassing Dallas. Who is Jerry is aged,
has regressed badly, and his need to talk right after
(05:36):
the game and beyond radio has increased. I do not
believe it's a coincidence. And now let's talk Jordan Love.
I'm finding this to be true, especially with young quarterbacks,
but old ones too. I can't separate the quarterback from
the coach because there is such a huge gap between
(05:57):
the really good coaches. And Jordan Love had on and
Matt Stafford has one, and Lamar has one, and Mahomes
has one, and Justin Herbert has one and Bo Nicks
has one. I can't separate them. The position's never been
more important, and there's a huge gap between the really
(06:17):
good coaches and the average ones. And I look at
Jordan Love and I see Matt Lafleur, Matt Lafleur, Kyle
Shanahan and Sean McVay. They're considered offensive wizards, but deep
down they love the power run game. I mean, you
ever watch a Rams game? How often Kyraen Williams tiny
notre damer Kyen Williams. Guy carries the ball twenty five
(06:38):
times a game. He's not Derek Henry, not built like
that Todd Gurley. If you go look at mcvay's history,
he wants to run the ball, even with Stafford and
with Goff two top ten quarterbacks. I mean Shanahan, I
mean he has a losing record in San Francisco without
Christian McCaffrey. The soul of Kyle Shanahan is the run game.
(07:00):
And it's the same with Matt Lafleur. Where did he
come from? Where did he build his resume? In Washington
behind a Shanahan a run coach, and in Tennessee with
Derrick Henry. So Jordan Love is throwing fewer passes that
he's ever thrown, six straight games under thirty attempts and
yet five straight games scoring over thirty. When I watch
(07:23):
Jordan Love, I see Matt Lafleur. He has reduced his attempts.
He's the captain, and Jordan Love is a great vessel.
I feel the same way with Herbert. Jim Harbaugh is
the captain. Herbert's the vessel. And it's amazing that in
both cases, and you're seeing this in Philadelphia too. The
quarterback is throwing less, but is winning more and the
(07:46):
team is often scoring more as the quarterback throws less.
And we all know quarterbacks the most important position in
the league. But what I'm finding in this league now
when I watch Green Bay, this is Matt Lafloure's team.
This is basically Tennessee with a better quarterback he had
Derek Henry. Now he's got Josh Jacobs, and I'm watching
(08:08):
Josh Jacobs like this. When Aaron and Matt were together,
it was Aaron's team. There were concessions. You have to
have concessions with Aaron and not a cheap shot. Just
Mike McCarthy found it out. You'll see the door if
you don't. But when I watched Green Bay, and this
is not a knock at Jordan Love because I think
he's a top ten quarterback in this league. Are higher.
There is a group of quarterbacks in this league and
(08:31):
they have a connection with a coach and we can
put it on the screen. But I can't think of
Mahomes without Reid, and I can't think of Stafford without
McVeigh and Herbert and Lamar and Jordan and Sam Darnold.
I just I can't separate them. I mean, I see C. J.
Stroud as great and Demiko Ryans is a great coach.
I don't see a connection there. They're both excellent. And
(08:53):
here was Jordan Love after the shutout.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
I still think there's a lot of a lot more
points out there for us, a lot more big time play.
I just think it's little things that you know when
we start being more consistent and dialing in on these
things that you know, the sky's limit for the offense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I was saying, is that there's this combination right now
in the NFL where you have this quarterback and head
coach connection. And I tend to think Zach Taylor's really good.
A lot of j Max pushback on that one. I
think Zach Taylor and Burrow work. I think there's front
office and ownership stuff there that is beyond his control.
But it is the league now we have for the record,
(09:31):
I was thinking about this last night watching Jordan Love.
There's only one great quarterback that would miss the playoffs
to show you how valuable quarterback is, it's Joe Burrow.
And if they beat Cincinnati this week and then Cincinnati
and then Denver loses to Kansas City the following week.
But if Kansas City beats Pittsburgh, they may rest starters
in the last week, especially like a Chris Jones and
(09:53):
a Travis Kelcey, and you may get sort of the
B team with Kansas City. But it's interesting because I
think Denver is who good at too many things not
to eke into the playoffs. If I said today. Who
do you that game? I think Denver's it's a two
and a half point spread. Who do you like in
that game?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I'm on the Bengals in that game. And listen, I
know you love Peyton and Knicks. I think everybody on
planet Earth would love to see Joe Burrow in the
playoffs go to Buffalo and try to take down the
Bills again. Remember he did it the year they went
to the Super Bowl. I think it was like twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Right now, he's the only great quarterback in the league
not in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And you said great. I know people love Mahomes. Burrow's
been way better than Mahomes this year.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Burrow's been arguably the second or third best quarterback in
the league this season.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Just his numbers.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It's just but Mahomes is winning games.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Mahomes is winning games. You know, it's a team sport.
Coach sport. Who's the defensive coordinator of the Bengals versus
the Chiefs?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Like, come on, that guy was getting love years ago.
What did he just forget how to coach?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, he forgot how to coach?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, how about how about this? The organization moved off
good players to save money at Jesse Bates.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
You see another pick six for the Falcons this past weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
He's been pretty good. They moved off him. He's been
pretty good player. I'm just saying Mark Sanchez around the
corner live in LA, It's the Herd.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Eastern a em Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Merry Christmas to all of you, including Tom Izzo, who
just sent me the most genuine, heartfelt text, Coach, Merry
Christmas to you. Always appreciate you supporting us. We have
tom Izzo on every year. Lad. Didn't you think last
year March Madness was amazing? We were both so in
the March Madness maybe because you were hitting best me, Mark,
(11:39):
you love it.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Outside of World Cup years marked Madness is the greatest
sporting event.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It was amazing. Well, that's why when everybody freaks out
about the college football playoff, like folks at year one,
let them work the kinks out. There's a lot of concessions,
there's bureaucracy. There's a reason Boise State gotta buy the
Mountain West. Notre Dame, by the way, can never get
a bye that point, they can go twelve and zero.
Notre Dame cannot get a buye because they don't have
a conference affiliation. So, I mean, that's totally unfair to
(12:06):
Notre Dame. So, but that was how this thing was structured.
You had to make a lot of concessions. And everybody's
freaking out, Yes, SMU go into Penn State. How about
this Penn State's really good. Let's just stop with that.
And I've said this for years, is how long did
it take for a sixteen seed to be to one
seed in March Madness? I mean, it happened a few
(12:27):
years ago, but it looked took forever. Yeah, how long
do I mean? How often do you get a fifteen
seed or a fourteen seed that went? Not very often.
So the fact of the matter is, as this tournament
expands from twelve to fourteen and probably sixteen, the first
round's gonna have some ugly games. You're gonna have Alabama
and Georgia hosting an SMU or a Boise State or whatever.
(12:47):
That's the reality of the tournament.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Are you surprised by all the hand ringing the media?
I've seen articles now I haven't read them.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
But I've seen headlights how we can change the playoff
going forward.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
We're not even done year one.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We're in the middle of the first playoffs and people
are like, here's some ideas.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'm like, first of all, what, First of all, the
first round of March Madness. We talk about the upsets,
you don't get a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I mean about the first round of the wildcard round
of the NFL last year, six games, five blowouts in
the first round. Five games were just underwatch about.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
The NBA seven game first round. Did Lebron lose a
game in the first round for you first? So it's like,
take a deep breath. This coming up. I believe Oregon
Ohio State will be the highest rated college football game
that's not a Natty in forever. So I think the
games are going to be great. Both you and I
(13:40):
think Notre Dame could beat Georgia. Both of us like
Boise State giving Penn State trouble. Remember Penn State blowout win,
another heavy favorite with potentially you know the winner of
Georgia Notre Dame waiting. Not potentially they are, So it's
a sandwich game, blowout win, big favorite. Here comes Notre Dame, Georgia.
(14:03):
Penn State better be careful. That is a bad spot
to be in. And Boise State has the best running
back in the sport. They ran all over Oregon. I
mean this kid had six touchdowns against Georgia Southern. I
think he had and three three times in Oregon.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
By the way, No, No Boys played Oregon tougher than then
Penn State played Oregon in in the Big Ten Championship.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Boise's live, folks.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Gonna they're getting ten and a half.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think it's up to eleven, so maybe the market
ta I don't care.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I'm taking the eleven. Yeah, jmack win.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
The news.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Turns this is the herd line news, all right.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I don't know if I love or hate this, but
this Antonio Pierce situation with Vegas is funny. So entering
last week, the Raiders were in line to have the
number one overall pick.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Then they beat the Jags, dropping them from first pick
to sixth.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Fans are outraised, everybody's cresfallen. Antonio Piers does not care.
Look at the smile on his face.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We don't do this to lose.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
They don't do this for anybody's statasy football team. You
don't do anybody's draft projections, then that matters to us.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
My name matters is winning and that's all we want
to do. I will say this, Let me defend Antonio Pearson,
Tom Tolesco. They play their butt off every weekend. They
are a block kick here and a miss pat. I
mean they could have easily mailed it in like the
Giants have. It feels like the Giants. The locker room's gone.
They are playing their butts off for Antonio Peers. They're
(15:36):
playing and let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I look at Rosby, by the way, No, Max Crosby.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. So I always say the NFL is about checking boxes.
Do you have a quarterback no? Do they have a
left tackle yes? Do they have a weapon Rock Bowers
is unguardable yes. Do they have an edge rusher yes?
Do they have a left tackle Colton Miller, Yes, they
have boxes check. That's why I think they'll look cousins
(16:01):
Darnold and cam Ward. I also think they made trade
down because they like the character of Jaln Milroe. I
wouldn't be shocked if the Raiders traded down, got another
pick and then took Jaln Milroe twelve because Milroe's not.
He's not a top ten pick, and not that many
(16:21):
teams need quarterbacks. But I think I just look at
the Raiders and I like how hard they play, and
I think the roster is not that far off. I
said this about Denver. Everybody said Denver's a five win team.
I said, folks, if bon Nicks can play, there's they.
They have a great left tackle, they Cortland Sutton, good
(16:41):
edge rusher like they had the weapons, good run games,
great corner in that division. I know, but I'm just
saying a real coach, no no disrespective here. Well, I
think I think they play very hard. It's easy to
mail it. I watched I watched the Saints last night,
quit da. I watched the Giants.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well know the thing about Daboll, the guys aren't even playing.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was, I'm a dable guy, but that that Atlanta
game was dicey.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
All right, Let's get to the Arizona Cardinals, who got
eliminated on Sunday with the overtime loss of the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know, they were in great position. A month ago,
they were in first place.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I lost four or five and Jonathan Gennon not under fire,
but he's taking responsibility in Arizona. I'm not satisfied with
the performance of the team that starts with me.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
So I'm what I'm really saying, that's an indictment on myself.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I'm not satisfied with myself.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, he was kind of I don't want to be me.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It's the holiday. He was a little goofy at his introductory.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Some of these some of these coaches aren't good in there.
Dan Campbell and Nick Sirianni were horrible on her opening
press conferences and they're on fire. Yeah, so I you know,
McVeigh was great, but I think McVeigh was like years
ahead of where most coaches are. I don't know what
to do in Arizona. I've been such a Kyler Murray advocate.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, can't win them all?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Cow heard by the way, Kyler will be without They
just announced this without his left tackle pills.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
John.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Can I do something that I haven't done in a month?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh, here we go, lock it in a pick?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
What is the line on the Rams Arizona six.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
On the screen? Because I saw this like seven minutes ago.
I looked during the commercial. It's six and a half.
It's gonna be seven by games.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Okay, I'm taking the six and a half now.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Okay, we'll take six. That's all the six on the screen.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay, six on the screen. I'm taking the minus six,
locking it in right. I'm gonna rams Is in my
blazing five minus six.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, So no left tackle Paris Johnson Junior or.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right tackle, No, no, no, I'm taking the rams as
one of my picks. I'm locking in the number.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now they look Arizona looks so deflated.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I also have there's another there's one great bet on
the board. I think rams is a really good bet.
Don't listen to me. I stink this shit.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Bengles.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, there's another one.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Javin's that well, that's tomorrow. But anyways, all right, we'll
get to the final throw.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
This is funny.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So Joel Embiid has been up and down this season,
and look at this.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
He got a h He got.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Ejected last night call for a charge, did not like it,
got in the face of the referee, teed up, continued
his tie rade on the sideline, got another technical ejected
for the second time in his career.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I guess maybe he wanted some extra rest ahead of
the Christmas Day game.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Look at him, he is very hot.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Look at him.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I think he's taking out some full season frustration on
the refs. There By the way, Lebron last night barking
at the refs.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
A lot was barked at the rest.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was like Luka Doncics levels last night. But just
seeing these stars. You know, Joel Embiid, he's having a
tough year.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Column.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I know you've been along.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You know what. I think he's mad at they told
him he had to play in back to back games.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I think, yeah, so Sixers on Christmas Day, they'll have Maxi, Paul,
Georgie and ANDB fully formed. And I'm sure you'll be
firing off some tweets watching that thriller.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch the Knicks.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, Nick should be nickx Wemby.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I'm gonna watch that. That'll be a good game. Christmas
Day is a right TV day. Oh wonder, I get
in a big long walk in the morning, cup of
Joe boom good.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Who needs family? You're gonna go to the gym too, Cigar,
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I'm going to see a friend. I'm going to see
my friend Eric and Kim, my friends at like one
thirty in the afternoon after.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Giving me the stiff arm, and you're just heading out. Well, no,
it's I see you have no cigar policy in our house.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, and you have young kids, and I'm you don't
want me around young kids.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I swear teach you some of these hip new words.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You know. Listen, I just got a nice drip.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
They might say that when you want.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
I just found out yesterday what yolo means.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh, what it's like nineteen I got lit, mid standing
on business.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Standing on business, and Yolo Sigma.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Wow, we got a sigma off stage. Wow? What about Aura?
That's another one. That's a new one. You're gonna wark.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
There's Beta, there's alpha, there's sigma. There's vibes. Vibes is
an old school vibes is so good. Yeah, you know what,
I'm really coming around and a lot of this stuff
really starting to be a player. Jay Mack with the news.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the
herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You guys are gonna laugh at me. I got kids,
so I want to have some reference point with a
lot of this stuff. But it was a big day yesterday. Yolo.
I used it in a sentence. Somebody asked me a question.
I said, hey, Yolo and the kids are like boom,
Daddy's got it all right, Let's bring him on. He
was so good this weekend, Mark Sanchez. He's got the
(21:34):
Raiders and Saints this weekend. Raiders are playing hard. They're
not winning much, but they're playing hard. So I watched
Green Bay last night, and you know, they're really young
and they're really good. But I really as I watched
that game, I thought, this is really Matt Lafleur's baby.
So you've done ramgames. I think people look at McVeigh
(21:55):
is a wizard. What he likes to do is run
Kiraen Williams twenty five times a game. Josh Jacobs for
Lafleur George pickup, Oh my god, Like I knew it
was a nice player. I mean he has transformed weirdly,
he's transformed the offense.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Well, it's all those running backs and maybe they'll finally
get the love they deserve this offseason when they re
up some of these deals. But look at Saquon Barkley,
the way he's elevated that Eagles team. Look at how
much pressure it takes off your quarterback. And with Josh
Jacobs and Jordan Love. I mean, their play action game
comes alive, those big hitches in the pocket and then
he just launches the ball down the field to receivers
(22:30):
who finally developed in dubs and Watson right. I think
that was just a minor injury to Watson. So they
have nothing to worry about. Don't forget Colin. I can't
say this enough. This team has skins on the wall
from last year's playoff run. They're young in age, not
in experience. They are a great football club, especially if
you got to go play them in the cold and
Green Bay. They get somebody, you know, potentially like in
(22:52):
Atlanta or somebody like that. I mean that's a real
issue for teams on the road in that environment. When
Jordan Love's playing like this, their defense is giving him
the ball back it is and you control the game
with Josh Jacobs on the ground, I mean there's something
to be said for that. They look like a special
group that could go deep.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
So I thought it was interesting. With Michael Pennix, I
was actually impressed on two of the balls he threw away.
I was like, he has so many starts in college
Indiana and Washington and with NFL wide receivers, and then
he got to sit for ten eleven twelve games this year.
I thought, now, I know it's a giant. I thought
he looked pretty poised.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So I thought this was a perfect formula to baptize
your rookie quarterback before he got to go play a
big game. And credit to Kirk Cousins for helping him
out during the week. That's a really tough position to
be in. So your heart breaks for the guy, but
at the same time, you got to be a pro
and watching a guy prepare like that these eleven twelve
weeks that he got to see Kirk, how he got
(23:50):
to see him pregame routine, how he got to see
him watch film. It was obvious. Plus the kid was
already leaps and bounds ahead of some other guys that
came in the league this year wise. And then what
do you do for a rookie like that. You stack
completions early, he can move, get him outside the pocket.
There were shades of Jayden Daniels in that game, Like
he looked a lot like Jayden. And when he moves
(24:11):
in the pocket, he's so sudden. Yeah, he freaks out
the defense man. He scares him that he can pierce
you quickly at least get back to the line of scrimmage.
So now you're not taking negative plays. Then I thought
they did an excellent job in the ground game, trust them, Robinson,
and then that opened up a ton of their play actions.
So Atlanta's got a lot in front of them. They
control their own destiny. They're gonna be playing hard this week,
(24:32):
big one on the road. But at least you know
the kids got a notch in his belt. I've done
it before, I've seen it, I've seen live reps. I
could take a breath and get ready to go face
that big monster. The commanders in Washington.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I say, it's not that you're great in the NFL often,
it's when you're great. The first time we knew Mahomes
was different is that he was so good from behind,
like down thirteen fourteen to nothing, Jade and Daniels fourth quarter,
like he made mistakes, he jailed. That's like high level stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
The way he played, it's overcoming adversity and he was
trying to give that game away early on. And that's
against a really good Eagles team that can get after you,
and you got to chase points. Those guys pin their
ears back on the defensive line. It turns into a
track meet and they're just rushing you all day long.
So that made his job even harder, and he still
was so calm, so poised, plenty of completions, found a
(25:26):
way to win the game. And sometimes it's ugly, but
all you gotta do is win, especially late meaningful football
in December like this, find a way to win as
soon as you can get over that mistake. He did
it immediately next trip, and I love what Kingsbury did.
It was quick completions right after an interception. Get the
ball down to the running backs, give me, stack me
three in a row. Let's go three for three after
that interception. Get him back on track because we know
(25:48):
when he's feeling good, he can distribute the ball anywhere
on the field. So I think those teams also understand
when you have a rookie like this, whether it's the
Falcons or the Commanders, when you have a young guy
playing like that, everybody's on notice. Everybody wants to make
sure they get that extra strain up front for half
a second just for him to get the football off.
You know, that diving catch, like we gotta make it
(26:10):
for this rookie. He's gonna make some mistakes just because
of his inexperience, but we got to be able to
overcome that. I think both of those teams, the veteran
roster guys on their team understand.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That Caleb Williams nine games without a pick, Allen nine
in the games. Does it mean he's not taking risks
or chances? What do you make of it?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
I mean, I think in some ways we're kind of
overthinking it. I don't know. If there's you know, sure,
you want to make mistakes, that's fine. That's what practice
is for. That's what kind of the rest of this
year is for. Yeah, but it's not I'm not saying
I want him to go out there and throw interceptions.
If he's playing clean football and he's not missing wide
open guys down the field, I'm fine with that. Don't
don't give it away just for fun, just to practice.
(26:48):
You know, it's not scout team reps. These are real,
live reps that are only gonna help his development. And
then that learning curve is gonna get cut down because
he's gonna have all this banked in his pocket every
single play he gets, every one more play, call, one
more scramble, one more scrambled drill, whatever it is, every completion,
that stuff matters, and he's just stacking good play after
(27:09):
good play despite all the chaos and everything going on.
Knowing there's going to be coaching turnover that's gonna pay dividends.
That's just a compounded interest, I guess, you know, and
sweat equity. That's what you want over a long period
of time. He'll look back on this year when they're
at the fourteen win mark, you know, owning the division
in a couple of years potentially like then, he'll look
back and go, man, I remember when it was really hard.
(27:31):
I'm glad I focused. I'm glad I kept my head down.
I'm glad I kept my mouth shut and just played hard.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I know you don't do AFC games, but I want
to ask you a question because I thought during the break,
I thought about this. Generally speaking, when I see great
quarterback play, I can identify why Lamar Jackson he's a
world class athlete. Josh Allen, Similarly, Mahomes and Stafford, whatever
you want to call the arm talent, the ability cognitively
(27:56):
to see stuff. Aaron Rodgers beautiful ball. It's fascinating. When
I watched Joe Burrow doesn't have a cannon moves fine,
I said, coming into the league, he's a better Tony Romo.
I always love Romo. I thought he was really good.
This guy has got a battle line. Every game he's
in is a track me. There are no close, low
(28:18):
scoring games. He is so brilliant. But I can't identify
aesthetically optically, it's not like Canon moves, well is he?
How do you when you look at Burrow and you
don't do bingal games, but you see a lot of them,
and you and you know enough people in the league,
(28:39):
even Herbert six ' five big, almost mechanically accurate. What
is Burrow's secret? Sauce?
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I think put him on any of these other thirteen
win teams, they're right at thirteen or fourteen wins as well.
You know, I think he can process with the top
players process. He's so quick because if you can't run,
let's say, like Lamar, you're gonna have to be more
of a dropback guy, right, whatever variation that is. And
then if you don't have the strongest arm, well then
(29:08):
you got to anticipate. Well, he's got to do both
and he does them both at a high level. I mean,
he's keeping these teams in his team in the game
most of the game. But when you throw it fifty
five times a game, you're just inevitably gonna throw more interceptions.
You're gonna have a couple more things that go wrong,
right Just you know, think how basic it is. You
hand the ball off from under center. You could either
(29:28):
fumble the snap, mess up the exchange, or fumble the
ball after you give it to the halfback. When you
drop back to pass, I mean three four other things
negative can happen. You can throw the interception, it could
be incomplete, you could take a sack, you could get hit, sack, fumble,
I mean, there's just so many more things that go
wrong every time you drop back to pass. And he
has to do it almost sixty times a game. So
if you're grading him or comparing him to some of
(29:50):
these other quarterbacks, he's doing it just as well, if
not better. He's just on a rough team. And you know,
part of it is they just don't run the ball.
It just kind of don't accurate. It's processing, some processing,
and anticipation, the accuracy, all three of those and the
other one I mean, no matter who my quarterback is,
whether you can run like Lamar or you're a statue
(30:11):
and have to throw from the pocket, I need you
tough between the ears, bottom line. And that dude's I mean,
you see the kind of standard he holds himself too.
Oh yeah, And he's one of those guys almost you know,
he doesn't understand some of the social normons sometimes of
like hey, dude, you can't talk about people like that,
But he's literally saying it about himself, right, and he
wouldn't say it about other people if he didn't hold
himself to that standard. Like you know, one of my
(30:33):
favorite stories of Jason Whitten. I mean, that dude was
like high tight end cowboys. I remember he came out
to the field one time and just riped the groundskeeper
because it was like the second week of the season
in September and there was like brown patches on the grass.
He goes, hey, what the hell are we doing out here?
Come on, let's go man, I'm here, I'm expected to
do it right. We all got to do it right.
Get this field right. Like I was like, geez, but
(30:57):
that was everybody, you know what I mean, Like the
cafeteria is that people selling tickets. Everybody was going to
be at that level because he puts them on that level.
So Burrow's got shades of that, and that's what that's
what makes him so competitive. He's a nasty competitor, an assassin.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, all right, Mark Sanchez, we got Donald stuff, which
I can't wait to watch.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Stuff's great.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, and you got a really good game. That was
a that was fun. There was enough turnover, drama and
great plays. It was one of the watches of the weekend.
You did a great job. We'll come back with that next.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern not a Empacific.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
All right. Sam Donald has been the redemption story of
the decade. Not quite MVP level, probably behind Lamar and
Josh Allen, but moving into that territory late game playmaking
not making mistakes. So you got some tape here, So
I think it's really hard to separate him from this group.
(31:51):
There's so much confidence I know in the late game.
Success gives you more bona fides in that locker room.
You got some tape for us.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yeah, He's only getting stronger and stronger as the season's
going on. That's what you want from your players. And
then he's building up a trust not just with the coordinator,
not just with you know guys around it, but everybody
in that building is starting to really gravitate towards this guy.
And he added another notch in his belt this week
on the road in Seattle. That crowd got into it.
(32:20):
It was a tight ball game, field goal type game,
back and forth the whole time. He gets banged up
on a play and the very next play hits the
game winner in the rain on the road, in the noise.
I mean, while you're hurt, you're kind of limp into
the line of scrimmage. I mean that is what you
want on tape for your guys to go back and see.
And it's like, all right, we got our guys, so
(32:42):
you're gonna see some themes and a lot of these
play actions. So the two hardest things to do in
the NFL as a quarterback. One is dropped back and past,
you know, fifty times a game. It's just mentally taxing.
The other one is hard to sell play action where
you go downhill, fake low pad level by the O
line and you turn your back to the defense because
the picture can change. Those are two of the hardest
things to do as a quarterback. He's doing this play
(33:03):
action stuff as a lead as anybody in the league
right now, and a lot of it is his feel
and movement in the pocket without looking at the rush.
He's keeping his eyes downfield. So let's roll his first clip.
They're always going to use movement, They're always going to
do something on offense to try and give him some tips. Well,
earlier in this ball game, they had been firing guys
off the edge. At one point they brought Witherspoon and
(33:25):
Woolen off the edge and double corner cat at them
and got a free runner. Thankfully they had a run
on so everything was fine. But after that, he's on
high alert. So his eyes are working back and forth,
and I love what they do on the edge for
Justin Jefferson, just trying to free him up either with
motion keep him off the ball. These traffic patterns are
making it tough for this defense to try and figure
(33:47):
out where is he? How can we get physical with him?
Are we doubling them? Are we zoning him? Are we
manning them? But this is the stuff the backside left tackle,
remember darrisaw goes down. They help Cam on the edge
the new tackle that they bring over from Jacksonville, and
Sam has to you have to be able to feel
this behind you, almost eyes in the back of your
(34:09):
head and kind of feel that color jersey behind you
and look at him. Just get up subtly into the pocket,
into the meat of the pocket. He's not escaping left
and right, he's staying in there, and we're watching what
he's looking at. So they're trying to take a home
run shot to Addison, who's a speedster in his own right.
So if you double JJ, you better watch out for
this kid. So he's taking the post, trying to rip
the top off the defense, and there goes Julian Love.
(34:30):
So while Sam is moving, feeling that guy behind him,
he's feeling that safety going deep. Now he knows I'm
gonna play this game underneath. They zoned off the entire
thing and put a guy job number twenty nine with Jefferson,
and he still runs away. So it's like box in
one right zone everybody and then man their best player,
they still can't stay with them. So now Sam is
(34:51):
looking to high low these defenders and find somebody underneath.
Now it's like a four man game with a little
sizzle on top, with Jefferson over the top, and he
has a couple completions underneath. This is what tells me
he's seeing it and knows when he's ready to take
a shot. He steps up and hits this ball on
the run across the field with a guy chasing him.
Nobody can stay with Justin Jefferson. I mean, you can't
(35:13):
guard the guy. It's it's unbelievable. And what they do
for him, why he gets so open and why Sam
can find him. Credit to Keenan McCardell, the receivers coach.
Credit to Wes Phillips, the coordinator, Kevin O'Connell. I mean,
they are constantly finding ways to scheme this guy open.
Because now watch how they're gonna play. They're gonna double
team him on this one. So this time they line
(35:34):
him up backside and go ahead and roll that clip.
They're gonna line him up backside, use motion once again,
give Sam some information. Everybody's just bumping over. He knows
it's gonna be zone again. Well, when you get zoned
and you put Justin Jefferson backside, your first look as
an offense has to be okay, how are they playing
NBRA eighteen? What are they gonna do? And Rieq Wollen
and Julian Love have them. Most of his routes are
(35:56):
gonna be completely dead. You can potentially hit a whole
shot on an outside something. But Sam's looking to see, Okay,
how are they playing this? How are they playing my
other side? That's probably where I'm gonna go on the
play now. Once again he's looking left and right, making sure,
confirming the coverage, confirming it's not corner cats. I got
no issues. Here comes the hardcore play action and once
(36:16):
he gets up in the pocket again, he feels it
on the back side. He doesn't see it, he feels
it and once again eyes in the back of the head.
The tackle does a great job of just moving him
all the way around, giving Sam a chance to step up.
The difference on this one when he gets up into
this pocket is NUOSU. They're pass rush specialist. He's right here,
(36:38):
and once he doesn't get penetration, he go, Okay, I'm
gonna start head hunting the quarterback. I'm gonna go find him.
So Sam's stepping up, trying to read something to the right,
justin Jefferson on the left is completely dead. So look
at these routes on the right. Once again, they're gonna
blow somebody through the top level of the defense. He's
your home run. They're gonna bring in Addison this time
on the inside in route, the inbreaker, and then he's
(37:00):
gonna have a couple guys underneath. That's where the play
is intended to go zero out of one hundred times?
Is this play gonna win the game? Going to Justin
Jefferson at the top of the screen there, there's just
no way you'd stop the picture here. When Kevin O'Connell
went to the line of scrimmage, he knew or went
to the when Sam goes to line of scrimmage looking
at the defense, Okay, JJ's dead. We're working on our
(37:21):
front side. Combo the fact that he got this ball
airborne on the way up to the line of scrimmage
with two guys there Julian Love and Rik Wollen, both
doubling Jefferson, Jefferson has the wherewithal to get to that
outside lane, the only place he could possibly put it,
even though he knows he's probably not getting this football.
As soon as that ball gets airborne, look at the
(37:41):
nuances of this outside shoulder. He gets to turn his body,
put his body in between him and the defender. Love
is like literally a nanosecond late to get to this
football that I.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Mean, yesterday, I should That is the best throat Darnold's
ever made.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Ever, hands down, no holds bar done deal. And it's
not what you intend to do. So you put some
of that stuff on tape, and you still get to
your combinations and work the routes and get the completions
you're supposed to get. And then you do stuff like that.
Now you're moving into that territory of those other players
you talk.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Let me throw this out. I'm just thinking about. This
is some of what Darnold feeling. You're in Seattle, you
drop back to pass, you can hear the crowd. Does
the crowd ever give you a tech? I mean, dude,
your backside, you're getting in trouble.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
I don't know if it's that. I don't think I've
ever heard the crowd there. When you really hear the
crowd is when you let the ball go and don't
see where the ball ends up, and you think you
know where it was going. If you're on the road,
and the crowd screams, you got to get up fast
because you probably have to make a tackle. Okay, you
don't hear anything after the ball, and it's just kind
of a low. Oh you're like, okay, I can take
(38:53):
my time getting up here.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
So when you hear the scream, get up.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
When you hear the scream on the road, you better
get up.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
One more thing to throw at you. Yeah, you know you.
You look at the Lions and they did that trick
play against Chicago, and Nick Rand said earlier, you know,
when Belichick would use that Edelman double pass against Baltimore.
They'd practice that for fifteen weeks.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Oh yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
There was no real need to do that other than
for Ben Johnson to show the Chicago grass I got
a bag of tricks here. What did you make of
that play call?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
I mean, I've seen it before at a shotgun where
you direct snap it to the halfback and the quarterback
jumps up as if you know it's an errant snap
going over your head. Like I've seen that. I've never
seen it like this. This was, you know, just a
little cheeky and another way they get back to their
why kind of throwback play. So the action's not that different.
It really only changed two guys, the running back and
(39:47):
the quarterback. And it's just a little you know, sizzle
on the play. I don't know if he's trying to
do it for you know, the coaching hire next year.
That's that's a lot to speculate, but it was You're like, oh,
that was kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
When you got a nine. Rex. Ryan wasn't a big
offensive trick play guy. But when I always asked Edelman,
how did you not give it away? How did you
practice throw? And he said, I went and got gloves on.
I started catching with Tom. Yeah on the sideline. Hey,
let's go play catch. He's like, that wasn't for the catching,
that was for the throwing. Yeah, when you got a
trick play, how do you demure? How does Mark be Like, No, biggie,
(40:23):
it's just a fullback die.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
If anything, you know, like on flea flickers and stuff
like that, or double reverse passes, you try and do
a lot of the same mannerisms as a run play,
so you you know, make the mic point. And then
he motioned the guy down. Hey, you got the fourth
guy strong, You're right there. You got thirty two boom.
You almost like oversell it a little bit, and they're like, oh,
here comes the run. We're good, you know, so okay,
but it's hard not to get giddy. You know, you're
(40:46):
supposed to be a grown up, but you're playing a
kid's game. So you're just like, oh my god, this
is finally it. You know, the eighteen toss throwback to
quarterback where you get to catch the ball. Yes, that
was like, oh, that's the only play I ever wanted,
you know, your whole career.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yes, yes, you know. I look at the Mahomes playing
the Texas. We have a minute left. I watched Mahomes.
It was actually faster off the injury. And it is
weird and maybe it's a you know, people mock the
dad bod, but there's a flexibility component to him. Donald
got smoked this weekend. Oh yeah, and came back. When
(41:23):
you're in the NFL by week four?
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Are you feeling it?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I was gonna say you never had a healthy week. No.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Remember uh Rogers, the big d tackle from the Browns.
One time he landed all three hundred and eighty pounds
of him right on my calf. I had a bruised
calf for like six weeks. And you're just not the
same and you're just fighting through it all the time,
knowing what it's gonna be. But you also know as
soon as you step on the field game day, like
it's as good as it's gonna be. I'm gonna make
(41:51):
it work. I mean, you a guy like Mahomes Lebron,
shots not falling, I'm driving to the hole, Kobe. You know, Jordan,
something's not right, something's not perfect in my game today.
I'm gonna find a way to win. I don't care
what it is. If I have to have the game
winning assist, if I have to sneak it to win it,
whatever it takes, I'm doing it. And you could tell
he's got that killer mentality.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Thirty six sacks this year, My homes is taking a
beat in man, what was the biggest sack year you
ever had?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Oo numbers wise? Yeah, well we only threw it about
ten times a game.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So we got a good left tackle too.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Grounded pound baby. Yeah, let's go say about shout out Nickman,
gold and prick and you.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Know you you you've got a good hole line.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Yeah, Woody Mary christ Mary, Chris, Happy Happy New.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Year, Happy New Year to Mark Sanchez You've.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Just remember there's Mid, there's Mid, and then there's Jmax
right below that.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Mary Christmas, you were sacked. You were sacked thirty nine
times in year three.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Ouch.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, that's a load, dude. And you're what are you?
Six three two twenty.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
No, you're not two thirty two thirty five.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
That's a lot of sacks.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Brother, Thanks coin, anything else you want to bring up? No, hey,
prappy memories.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
You survived. The tape guy, Marcus Freeman, Nick Wright, Mark Sanchez,
The Herd hierarchy. Merry Christmas. We are off tomorrow. Be safe,
enjoy your family. Live in La. It's been the Herd.
Speaker 5 (43:12):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like
Thanks for listening to The Herd Podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noone Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks
for listening to the Herd podcast. Welcome back. Mark Sanchez.
(00:24):
In thirty minutes is going to break down that Sam
Darnold because he was doing that Seawk Minnesota game, which
ended up being just a great, great game live in LA.
It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. I want to thank you for making
us part of you. Dad. We got a lot of
choices out here. Jmack was at the Lakers game last night.
Austin Reeves didn't play well. They're not playing Dalton. Connect
(00:45):
to your liking.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
He needs a little a few more minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'll just say that they needed Max Christy as a
starter because it plays defense.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, the Dalton doesn't play much.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Reddick is tinkering. I like what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Let me see.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I think the Lakers are fine. They're gonna be in
the playoffs. Obvious, they're not a playing team. You're a
playoff team.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Lebron's played.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Top of the West is like ok.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
C, Houston, Denver's not quite right, they're not.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's tough. NBA is really difficult. A lot of medium
teams are good. In the NFL, it's top heavy, like
you said, and the bottoms just look.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah right now in the NFL ten teams with five
or fewer wins. Last year it was only five, So
the bottom is ugly and it shouldn't be because we
just had a quarterback class that went. It looks like
if JJ McCarthy can play, it's five for five. Drake
May Pennix, Pennix. One game it looked pretty good. It
was the Giant Giants JV team.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Come on, Penix. Then he's got to go on the road.
Can he do it on the road this week?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
First though, the Packers shut out the Saints last night.
Wasn't big lifting for Jordan Love to do too much.
And there's a reason that Green Bay has a history
of success drafting a quarterback and letting them sit for
three years because they have no owner. No oh, no meddling,
no demands. Even the great owners Stan Kronkey, Jeffrey Lurie,
(02:04):
Robert Kraft. They would want to see their investment. They
wouldn't want a first round pick on the bench for
three years drafting and developing. Last week, there's video of
the Crafts in their box wanting to be on camera,
reportedly telling CBS get us on camera, criticizing the coaches
play calling. Last week is story out the Jets, the
(02:26):
Jets owners, the kids harassing Jets players in the locker room.
Yet the Packers clinched their thirty seventh playoff appearance last night,
number one all time. You know who they surpassed The
Dallas Cowboys. Who's owner? An egomaniac needs to be on
radio every week dissecting the win. The Panthers seven coaches
(02:46):
in six years if you count the interims. Look upstairs,
that's why you're bad. Is it a shock? They're four
and eleven in Carolina and here is Green Bay, no meddling,
no owner. For years I always saw to it's a weakness.
Now I see it as a strength. All Green Bay
does is whatever is best for the development of their
(03:08):
young quarterback. Three straight quarterbacks, star star star, all three
Farbes in the Hall of fame, Rogers will be and
Love looks like he's on his way. It's all football
because as owners have gotten richer, all of them are
billionaires now and crazier and more impulsive. It gets in
the way of the development of the most important position.
(03:31):
Think it's a coincidence Aaron Rodgers is four and eleven
and now irrelevant, and in Green Bay he was a
back to back MVP and after Brady, the biggest star
in the league. Do you think it is a coincidence
that the Cleveland quarterback situation is the worst and messiest
in the league. It's not the coach's fault. Stefanski's great,
it's not the GM's fault. Andrew Berry's excellent. They draft well,
(03:54):
it's the haslums. You think it's a coincidence that Sam
Darnold is having an unbelievable year and in Carolina and
the Jetsy was a tire fire. No, the Wilf family
in Minnesota has always been very low profile. Ninety nine
percent of you don't know what the will family looks like.
It is not a coins only the Packers and I
(04:17):
used to see it as a weakness. Can draft a
young quarterback who's talented and sit him and develop him
for three years. Aaron could have played earlier, Jordan Love
could have played earlier. But if you're just about football,
no meddling, no ego, no impulsive, crazy person, that's what
(04:39):
you should do. Even these young quarterbacks now, Jaden Daniels,
he's good enough to play. But it wasn't the end
of the world. Michael Pennix sat. It wouldn't have been
to the end of the world if Drake may or
bow Nick sad. But I'm watching what Green Bay does,
even after their win last night. Here's the law room,
(05:00):
and what you don't see is an owner that needs attention. Listen.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I love this team, I love this energy, and we
get something special here.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
We just got to keep building on it.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
All right, way to handle your business.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
We go to the playoffs, thirty seventh playoff appearance, number
one all time for the smallest market in the NFL,
the smallest media surpassing Dallas. Who is Jerry is aged,
has regressed badly, and his need to talk right after
(05:36):
the game and beyond radio has increased. I do not
believe it's a coincidence. And now let's talk Jordan Love.
I'm finding this to be true, especially with young quarterbacks,
but old ones too. I can't separate the quarterback from
the coach because there is such a huge gap between
(05:57):
the really good coaches. And Jordan Love had on and
Matt Stafford has one, and Lamar has one, and Mahomes
has one, and Justin Herbert has one and Bo Nicks
has one. I can't separate them. The position's never been
more important, and there's a huge gap between the really
(06:17):
good coaches and the average ones. And I look at
Jordan Love and I see Matt Lafleur, Matt Lafleur, Kyle
Shanahan and Sean McVay. They're considered offensive wizards, but deep
down they love the power run game. I mean, you
ever watch a Rams game? How often Kyraen Williams tiny
notre damer Kyen Williams. Guy carries the ball twenty five
(06:38):
times a game. He's not Derek Henry, not built like
that Todd Gurley. If you go look at mcvay's history,
he wants to run the ball, even with Stafford and
with Goff two top ten quarterbacks. I mean Shanahan, I
mean he has a losing record in San Francisco without
Christian McCaffrey. The soul of Kyle Shanahan is the run game.
(07:00):
And it's the same with Matt Lafleur. Where did he
come from? Where did he build his resume? In Washington
behind a Shanahan a run coach, and in Tennessee with
Derrick Henry. So Jordan Love is throwing fewer passes that
he's ever thrown, six straight games under thirty attempts and
yet five straight games scoring over thirty. When I watch
(07:23):
Jordan Love, I see Matt Lafleur. He has reduced his attempts.
He's the captain, and Jordan Love is a great vessel.
I feel the same way with Herbert. Jim Harbaugh is
the captain. Herbert's the vessel. And it's amazing that in
both cases, and you're seeing this in Philadelphia too. The
quarterback is throwing less, but is winning more and the
(07:46):
team is often scoring more as the quarterback throws less.
And we all know quarterbacks the most important position in
the league. But what I'm finding in this league now
when I watch Green Bay, this is Matt Lafloure's team.
This is basically Tennessee with a better quarterback he had
Derek Henry. Now he's got Josh Jacobs, and I'm watching
(08:08):
Josh Jacobs like this. When Aaron and Matt were together,
it was Aaron's team. There were concessions. You have to
have concessions with Aaron and not a cheap shot. Just
Mike McCarthy found it out. You'll see the door if
you don't. But when I watched Green Bay, and this
is not a knock at Jordan Love because I think
he's a top ten quarterback in this league. Are higher.
There is a group of quarterbacks in this league and
(08:31):
they have a connection with a coach and we can
put it on the screen. But I can't think of
Mahomes without Reid, and I can't think of Stafford without
McVeigh and Herbert and Lamar and Jordan and Sam Darnold.
I just I can't separate them. I mean, I see C. J.
Stroud as great and Demiko Ryans is a great coach.
I don't see a connection there. They're both excellent. And
(08:53):
here was Jordan Love after the shutout.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
I still think there's a lot of a lot more
points out there for us, a lot more big time play.
I just think it's little things that you know when
we start being more consistent and dialing in on these
things that you know, the sky's limit for the offense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I was saying, is that there's this combination right now
in the NFL where you have this quarterback and head
coach connection. And I tend to think Zach Taylor's really good.
A lot of j Max pushback on that one. I
think Zach Taylor and Burrow work. I think there's front
office and ownership stuff there that is beyond his control.
But it is the league now we have for the record,
(09:31):
I was thinking about this last night watching Jordan Love.
There's only one great quarterback that would miss the playoffs
to show you how valuable quarterback is, it's Joe Burrow.
And if they beat Cincinnati this week and then Cincinnati
and then Denver loses to Kansas City the following week.
But if Kansas City beats Pittsburgh, they may rest starters
in the last week, especially like a Chris Jones and
(09:53):
a Travis Kelcey, and you may get sort of the
B team with Kansas City. But it's interesting because I
think Denver is who good at too many things not
to eke into the playoffs. If I said today. Who
do you that game? I think Denver's it's a two
and a half point spread. Who do you like in
that game?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I'm on the Bengals in that game. And listen, I
know you love Peyton and Knicks. I think everybody on
planet Earth would love to see Joe Burrow in the
playoffs go to Buffalo and try to take down the
Bills again. Remember he did it the year they went
to the Super Bowl. I think it was like twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Right now, he's the only great quarterback in the league
not in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And you said great. I know people love Mahomes. Burrow's
been way better than Mahomes this year.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Burrow's been arguably the second or third best quarterback in
the league this season.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Just his numbers.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It's just but Mahomes is winning games.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Mahomes is winning games. You know, it's a team sport.
Coach sport. Who's the defensive coordinator of the Bengals versus
the Chiefs?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Like, come on, that guy was getting love years ago.
What did he just forget how to coach?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, he forgot how to coach?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, how about how about this? The organization moved off
good players to save money at Jesse Bates.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
You see another pick six for the Falcons this past weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
He's been pretty good. They moved off him. He's been
pretty good player. I'm just saying Mark Sanchez around the
corner live in LA, It's the Herd.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Eastern a em Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Merry Christmas to all of you, including Tom Izzo, who
just sent me the most genuine, heartfelt text, Coach, Merry
Christmas to you. Always appreciate you supporting us. We have
tom Izzo on every year. Lad. Didn't you think last
year March Madness was amazing? We were both so in
the March Madness maybe because you were hitting best me, Mark,
(11:39):
you love it.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Outside of World Cup years marked Madness is the greatest
sporting event.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It was amazing. Well, that's why when everybody freaks out
about the college football playoff, like folks at year one,
let them work the kinks out. There's a lot of concessions,
there's bureaucracy. There's a reason Boise State gotta buy the
Mountain West. Notre Dame, by the way, can never get
a bye that point, they can go twelve and zero.
Notre Dame cannot get a buye because they don't have
a conference affiliation. So, I mean, that's totally unfair to
(12:06):
Notre Dame. So, but that was how this thing was structured.
You had to make a lot of concessions. And everybody's
freaking out, Yes, SMU go into Penn State. How about
this Penn State's really good. Let's just stop with that.
And I've said this for years, is how long did
it take for a sixteen seed to be to one
seed in March Madness? I mean, it happened a few
(12:27):
years ago, but it looked took forever. Yeah, how long
do I mean? How often do you get a fifteen
seed or a fourteen seed that went? Not very often.
So the fact of the matter is, as this tournament
expands from twelve to fourteen and probably sixteen, the first
round's gonna have some ugly games. You're gonna have Alabama
and Georgia hosting an SMU or a Boise State or whatever.
(12:47):
That's the reality of the tournament.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Are you surprised by all the hand ringing the media?
I've seen articles now I haven't read them.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
But I've seen headlights how we can change the playoff
going forward.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
We're not even done year one.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We're in the middle of the first playoffs and people
are like, here's some ideas.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'm like, first of all, what, First of all, the
first round of March Madness. We talk about the upsets,
you don't get a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I mean about the first round of the wildcard round
of the NFL last year, six games, five blowouts in
the first round. Five games were just underwatch about.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
The NBA seven game first round. Did Lebron lose a
game in the first round for you first? So it's like,
take a deep breath. This coming up. I believe Oregon
Ohio State will be the highest rated college football game
that's not a Natty in forever. So I think the
games are going to be great. Both you and I
(13:40):
think Notre Dame could beat Georgia. Both of us like
Boise State giving Penn State trouble. Remember Penn State blowout win,
another heavy favorite with potentially you know the winner of
Georgia Notre Dame waiting. Not potentially they are, So it's
a sandwich game, blowout win, big favorite. Here comes Notre Dame, Georgia.
(14:03):
Penn State better be careful. That is a bad spot
to be in. And Boise State has the best running
back in the sport. They ran all over Oregon. I
mean this kid had six touchdowns against Georgia Southern. I
think he had and three three times in Oregon.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
By the way, No, No Boys played Oregon tougher than then
Penn State played Oregon in in the Big Ten Championship.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Boise's live, folks.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Gonna they're getting ten and a half.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think it's up to eleven, so maybe the market
ta I don't care.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I'm taking the eleven. Yeah, jmack win.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
The news.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Turns this is the herd line news, all right.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I don't know if I love or hate this, but
this Antonio Pierce situation with Vegas is funny. So entering
last week, the Raiders were in line to have the
number one overall pick.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Then they beat the Jags, dropping them from first pick
to sixth.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Fans are outraised, everybody's cresfallen. Antonio Piers does not care.
Look at the smile on his face.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We don't do this to lose.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
They don't do this for anybody's statasy football team. You
don't do anybody's draft projections, then that matters to us.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
My name matters is winning and that's all we want
to do. I will say this, Let me defend Antonio Pearson,
Tom Tolesco. They play their butt off every weekend. They
are a block kick here and a miss pat. I
mean they could have easily mailed it in like the
Giants have. It feels like the Giants. The locker room's gone.
They are playing their butts off for Antonio Peers. They're
(15:36):
playing and let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I look at Rosby, by the way, No, Max Crosby.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. So I always say the NFL is about checking boxes.
Do you have a quarterback no? Do they have a
left tackle yes? Do they have a weapon Rock Bowers
is unguardable yes. Do they have an edge rusher yes?
Do they have a left tackle Colton Miller, Yes, they
have boxes check. That's why I think they'll look cousins
(16:01):
Darnold and cam Ward. I also think they made trade
down because they like the character of Jaln Milroe. I
wouldn't be shocked if the Raiders traded down, got another
pick and then took Jaln Milroe twelve because Milroe's not.
He's not a top ten pick, and not that many
(16:21):
teams need quarterbacks. But I think I just look at
the Raiders and I like how hard they play, and
I think the roster is not that far off. I
said this about Denver. Everybody said Denver's a five win team.
I said, folks, if bon Nicks can play, there's they.
They have a great left tackle, they Cortland Sutton, good
(16:41):
edge rusher like they had the weapons, good run games,
great corner in that division. I know, but I'm just
saying a real coach, no no disrespective here. Well, I
think I think they play very hard. It's easy to
mail it. I watched I watched the Saints last night,
quit da. I watched the Giants.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well know the thing about Daboll, the guys aren't even playing.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was, I'm a dable guy, but that that Atlanta
game was dicey.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
All right, Let's get to the Arizona Cardinals, who got
eliminated on Sunday with the overtime loss of the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know, they were in great position. A month ago,
they were in first place.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I lost four or five and Jonathan Gennon not under fire,
but he's taking responsibility in Arizona. I'm not satisfied with
the performance of the team that starts with me.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
So I'm what I'm really saying, that's an indictment on myself.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I'm not satisfied with myself.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, he was kind of I don't want to be me.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It's the holiday. He was a little goofy at his introductory.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Some of these some of these coaches aren't good in there.
Dan Campbell and Nick Sirianni were horrible on her opening
press conferences and they're on fire. Yeah, so I you know,
McVeigh was great, but I think McVeigh was like years
ahead of where most coaches are. I don't know what
to do in Arizona. I've been such a Kyler Murray advocate.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, can't win them all?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Cow heard by the way, Kyler will be without They
just announced this without his left tackle pills.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
John.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Can I do something that I haven't done in a month?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh, here we go, lock it in a pick?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
What is the line on the Rams Arizona six.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
On the screen? Because I saw this like seven minutes ago.
I looked during the commercial. It's six and a half.
It's gonna be seven by games.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Okay, I'm taking the six and a half now.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Okay, we'll take six. That's all the six on the screen.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay, six on the screen. I'm taking the minus six,
locking it in right. I'm gonna rams Is in my
blazing five minus six.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, So no left tackle Paris Johnson Junior or.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right tackle, No, no, no, I'm taking the rams as
one of my picks. I'm locking in the number.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now they look Arizona looks so deflated.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I also have there's another there's one great bet on
the board. I think rams is a really good bet.
Don't listen to me. I stink this shit.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Bengles.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, there's another one.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Javin's that well, that's tomorrow. But anyways, all right, we'll
get to the final throw.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
This is funny.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So Joel Embiid has been up and down this season,
and look at this.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
He got a h He got.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Ejected last night call for a charge, did not like it,
got in the face of the referee, teed up, continued
his tie rade on the sideline, got another technical ejected
for the second time in his career.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I guess maybe he wanted some extra rest ahead of
the Christmas Day game.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Look at him, he is very hot.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Look at him.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I think he's taking out some full season frustration on
the refs. There By the way, Lebron last night barking
at the refs.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
A lot was barked at the rest.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was like Luka Doncics levels last night. But just
seeing these stars. You know, Joel Embiid, he's having a
tough year.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Column.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I know you've been along.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You know what. I think he's mad at they told
him he had to play in back to back games.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I think, yeah, so Sixers on Christmas Day, they'll have Maxi, Paul,
Georgie and ANDB fully formed. And I'm sure you'll be
firing off some tweets watching that thriller.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch the Knicks.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, Nick should be nickx Wemby.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I'm gonna watch that. That'll be a good game. Christmas
Day is a right TV day. Oh wonder, I get
in a big long walk in the morning, cup of
Joe boom good.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Who needs family? You're gonna go to the gym too, Cigar,
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I'm going to see a friend. I'm going to see
my friend Eric and Kim, my friends at like one
thirty in the afternoon after.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Giving me the stiff arm, and you're just heading out. Well, no,
it's I see you have no cigar policy in our house.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, and you have young kids, and I'm you don't
want me around young kids.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I swear teach you some of these hip new words.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You know. Listen, I just got a nice drip.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
They might say that when you want.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
I just found out yesterday what yolo means.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh, what it's like nineteen I got lit, mid standing
on business.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Standing on business, and Yolo Sigma.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Wow, we got a sigma off stage. Wow? What about Aura?
That's another one. That's a new one. You're gonna wark.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
There's Beta, there's alpha, there's sigma. There's vibes. Vibes is
an old school vibes is so good. Yeah, you know what,
I'm really coming around and a lot of this stuff
really starting to be a player. Jay Mack with the news.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the
herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You guys are gonna laugh at me. I got kids,
so I want to have some reference point with a
lot of this stuff. But it was a big day yesterday. Yolo.
I used it in a sentence. Somebody asked me a question.
I said, hey, Yolo and the kids are like boom,
Daddy's got it all right, Let's bring him on. He
was so good this weekend, Mark Sanchez. He's got the
(21:34):
Raiders and Saints this weekend. Raiders are playing hard. They're
not winning much, but they're playing hard. So I watched
Green Bay last night, and you know, they're really young
and they're really good. But I really as I watched
that game, I thought, this is really Matt Lafleur's baby.
So you've done ramgames. I think people look at McVeigh
(21:55):
is a wizard. What he likes to do is run
Kiraen Williams twenty five times a game. Josh Jacobs for
Lafleur George pickup, Oh my god, Like I knew it
was a nice player. I mean he has transformed weirdly,
he's transformed the offense.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Well, it's all those running backs and maybe they'll finally
get the love they deserve this offseason when they re
up some of these deals. But look at Saquon Barkley,
the way he's elevated that Eagles team. Look at how
much pressure it takes off your quarterback. And with Josh
Jacobs and Jordan Love. I mean, their play action game
comes alive, those big hitches in the pocket and then
he just launches the ball down the field to receivers
(22:30):
who finally developed in dubs and Watson right. I think
that was just a minor injury to Watson. So they
have nothing to worry about. Don't forget Colin. I can't
say this enough. This team has skins on the wall
from last year's playoff run. They're young in age, not
in experience. They are a great football club, especially if
you got to go play them in the cold and
Green Bay. They get somebody, you know, potentially like in
(22:52):
Atlanta or somebody like that. I mean that's a real
issue for teams on the road in that environment. When
Jordan Love's playing like this, their defense is giving him
the ball back it is and you control the game
with Josh Jacobs on the ground, I mean there's something
to be said for that. They look like a special
group that could go deep.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
So I thought it was interesting. With Michael Pennix, I
was actually impressed on two of the balls he threw away.
I was like, he has so many starts in college
Indiana and Washington and with NFL wide receivers, and then
he got to sit for ten eleven twelve games this year.
I thought, now, I know it's a giant. I thought
he looked pretty poised.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So I thought this was a perfect formula to baptize
your rookie quarterback before he got to go play a
big game. And credit to Kirk Cousins for helping him
out during the week. That's a really tough position to
be in. So your heart breaks for the guy, but
at the same time, you got to be a pro
and watching a guy prepare like that these eleven twelve
weeks that he got to see Kirk, how he got
(23:50):
to see him pregame routine, how he got to see
him watch film. It was obvious. Plus the kid was
already leaps and bounds ahead of some other guys that
came in the league this year wise. And then what
do you do for a rookie like that. You stack
completions early, he can move, get him outside the pocket.
There were shades of Jayden Daniels in that game, Like
he looked a lot like Jayden. And when he moves
(24:11):
in the pocket, he's so sudden. Yeah, he freaks out
the defense man. He scares him that he can pierce
you quickly at least get back to the line of scrimmage.
So now you're not taking negative plays. Then I thought
they did an excellent job in the ground game, trust them, Robinson,
and then that opened up a ton of their play actions.
So Atlanta's got a lot in front of them. They
control their own destiny. They're gonna be playing hard this week,
(24:32):
big one on the road. But at least you know
the kids got a notch in his belt. I've done
it before, I've seen it, I've seen live reps. I
could take a breath and get ready to go face
that big monster. The commanders in Washington.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I say, it's not that you're great in the NFL often,
it's when you're great. The first time we knew Mahomes
was different is that he was so good from behind,
like down thirteen fourteen to nothing, Jade and Daniels fourth quarter,
like he made mistakes, he jailed. That's like high level stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
The way he played, it's overcoming adversity and he was
trying to give that game away early on. And that's
against a really good Eagles team that can get after you,
and you got to chase points. Those guys pin their
ears back on the defensive line. It turns into a
track meet and they're just rushing you all day long.
So that made his job even harder, and he still
was so calm, so poised, plenty of completions, found a
(25:26):
way to win the game. And sometimes it's ugly, but
all you gotta do is win, especially late meaningful football
in December like this, find a way to win as
soon as you can get over that mistake. He did
it immediately next trip, and I love what Kingsbury did.
It was quick completions right after an interception. Get the
ball down to the running backs, give me, stack me
three in a row. Let's go three for three after
that interception. Get him back on track because we know
(25:48):
when he's feeling good, he can distribute the ball anywhere
on the field. So I think those teams also understand
when you have a rookie like this, whether it's the
Falcons or the Commanders, when you have a young guy
playing like that, everybody's on notice. Everybody wants to make
sure they get that extra strain up front for half
a second just for him to get the football off.
You know, that diving catch, like we gotta make it
(26:10):
for this rookie. He's gonna make some mistakes just because
of his inexperience, but we got to be able to
overcome that. I think both of those teams, the veteran
roster guys on their team understand.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That Caleb Williams nine games without a pick, Allen nine
in the games. Does it mean he's not taking risks
or chances? What do you make of it?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
I mean, I think in some ways we're kind of
overthinking it. I don't know. If there's you know, sure,
you want to make mistakes, that's fine. That's what practice
is for. That's what kind of the rest of this
year is for. Yeah, but it's not I'm not saying
I want him to go out there and throw interceptions.
If he's playing clean football and he's not missing wide
open guys down the field, I'm fine with that. Don't
don't give it away just for fun, just to practice.
(26:48):
You know, it's not scout team reps. These are real,
live reps that are only gonna help his development. And
then that learning curve is gonna get cut down because
he's gonna have all this banked in his pocket every
single play he gets, every one more play, call, one
more scramble, one more scrambled drill, whatever it is, every completion,
that stuff matters, and he's just stacking good play after
(27:09):
good play despite all the chaos and everything going on.
Knowing there's going to be coaching turnover that's gonna pay dividends.
That's just a compounded interest, I guess, you know, and
sweat equity. That's what you want over a long period
of time. He'll look back on this year when they're
at the fourteen win mark, you know, owning the division
in a couple of years potentially like then, he'll look
back and go, man, I remember when it was really hard.
(27:31):
I'm glad I focused. I'm glad I kept my head down.
I'm glad I kept my mouth shut and just played hard.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I know you don't do AFC games, but I want
to ask you a question because I thought during the break,
I thought about this. Generally speaking, when I see great
quarterback play, I can identify why Lamar Jackson he's a
world class athlete. Josh Allen, Similarly, Mahomes and Stafford, whatever
you want to call the arm talent, the ability cognitively
(27:56):
to see stuff. Aaron Rodgers beautiful ball. It's fascinating. When
I watched Joe Burrow doesn't have a cannon moves fine,
I said, coming into the league, he's a better Tony Romo.
I always love Romo. I thought he was really good.
This guy has got a battle line. Every game he's
in is a track me. There are no close, low
(28:18):
scoring games. He is so brilliant. But I can't identify
aesthetically optically, it's not like Canon moves, well is he?
How do you when you look at Burrow and you
don't do bingal games, but you see a lot of them,
and you and you know enough people in the league,
(28:39):
even Herbert six ' five big, almost mechanically accurate. What
is Burrow's secret? Sauce?
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I think put him on any of these other thirteen
win teams, they're right at thirteen or fourteen wins as well.
You know, I think he can process with the top
players process. He's so quick because if you can't run,
let's say, like Lamar, you're gonna have to be more
of a dropback guy, right, whatever variation that is. And
then if you don't have the strongest arm, well then
(29:08):
you got to anticipate. Well, he's got to do both
and he does them both at a high level. I mean,
he's keeping these teams in his team in the game
most of the game. But when you throw it fifty
five times a game, you're just inevitably gonna throw more interceptions.
You're gonna have a couple more things that go wrong,
right Just you know, think how basic it is. You
hand the ball off from under center. You could either
(29:28):
fumble the snap, mess up the exchange, or fumble the
ball after you give it to the halfback. When you
drop back to pass, I mean three four other things
negative can happen. You can throw the interception, it could
be incomplete, you could take a sack, you could get hit, sack, fumble,
I mean, there's just so many more things that go
wrong every time you drop back to pass. And he
has to do it almost sixty times a game. So
if you're grading him or comparing him to some of
(29:50):
these other quarterbacks, he's doing it just as well, if
not better. He's just on a rough team. And you know,
part of it is they just don't run the ball.
It just kind of don't accurate. It's processing, some processing,
and anticipation, the accuracy, all three of those and the
other one I mean, no matter who my quarterback is,
whether you can run like Lamar or you're a statue
(30:11):
and have to throw from the pocket, I need you
tough between the ears, bottom line. And that dude's I mean,
you see the kind of standard he holds himself too.
Oh yeah, And he's one of those guys almost you know,
he doesn't understand some of the social normons sometimes of
like hey, dude, you can't talk about people like that,
But he's literally saying it about himself, right, and he
wouldn't say it about other people if he didn't hold
himself to that standard. Like you know, one of my
(30:33):
favorite stories of Jason Whitten. I mean, that dude was
like high tight end cowboys. I remember he came out
to the field one time and just riped the groundskeeper
because it was like the second week of the season
in September and there was like brown patches on the grass.
He goes, hey, what the hell are we doing out here?
Come on, let's go man, I'm here, I'm expected to
do it right. We all got to do it right.
Get this field right. Like I was like, geez, but
(30:57):
that was everybody, you know what I mean, Like the
cafeteria is that people selling tickets. Everybody was going to
be at that level because he puts them on that level.
So Burrow's got shades of that, and that's what that's
what makes him so competitive. He's a nasty competitor, an assassin.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, all right, Mark Sanchez, we got Donald stuff, which
I can't wait to watch.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Stuff's great.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, and you got a really good game. That was
a that was fun. There was enough turnover, drama and
great plays. It was one of the watches of the weekend.
You did a great job. We'll come back with that next.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern not a Empacific.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
All right. Sam Donald has been the redemption story of
the decade. Not quite MVP level, probably behind Lamar and
Josh Allen, but moving into that territory late game playmaking
not making mistakes. So you got some tape here, So
I think it's really hard to separate him from this group.
(31:51):
There's so much confidence I know in the late game.
Success gives you more bona fides in that locker room.
You got some tape for us.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yeah, He's only getting stronger and stronger as the season's
going on. That's what you want from your players. And
then he's building up a trust not just with the coordinator,
not just with you know guys around it, but everybody
in that building is starting to really gravitate towards this guy.
And he added another notch in his belt this week
on the road in Seattle. That crowd got into it.
(32:20):
It was a tight ball game, field goal type game,
back and forth the whole time. He gets banged up
on a play and the very next play hits the
game winner in the rain on the road, in the noise.
I mean, while you're hurt, you're kind of limp into
the line of scrimmage. I mean that is what you
want on tape for your guys to go back and see.
And it's like, all right, we got our guys, so
(32:42):
you're gonna see some themes and a lot of these
play actions. So the two hardest things to do in
the NFL as a quarterback. One is dropped back and past,
you know, fifty times a game. It's just mentally taxing.
The other one is hard to sell play action where
you go downhill, fake low pad level by the O
line and you turn your back to the defense because
the picture can change. Those are two of the hardest
things to do as a quarterback. He's doing this play
(33:03):
action stuff as a lead as anybody in the league
right now, and a lot of it is his feel
and movement in the pocket without looking at the rush.
He's keeping his eyes downfield. So let's roll his first clip.
They're always going to use movement, They're always going to
do something on offense to try and give him some tips. Well,
earlier in this ball game, they had been firing guys
off the edge. At one point they brought Witherspoon and
(33:25):
Woolen off the edge and double corner cat at them
and got a free runner. Thankfully they had a run
on so everything was fine. But after that, he's on
high alert. So his eyes are working back and forth,
and I love what they do on the edge for
Justin Jefferson, just trying to free him up either with
motion keep him off the ball. These traffic patterns are
making it tough for this defense to try and figure
(33:47):
out where is he? How can we get physical with him?
Are we doubling them? Are we zoning him? Are we
manning them? But this is the stuff the backside left tackle,
remember darrisaw goes down. They help Cam on the edge
the new tackle that they bring over from Jacksonville, and
Sam has to you have to be able to feel
this behind you, almost eyes in the back of your
(34:09):
head and kind of feel that color jersey behind you
and look at him. Just get up subtly into the pocket,
into the meat of the pocket. He's not escaping left
and right, he's staying in there, and we're watching what
he's looking at. So they're trying to take a home
run shot to Addison, who's a speedster in his own right.
So if you double JJ, you better watch out for
this kid. So he's taking the post, trying to rip
the top off the defense, and there goes Julian Love.
(34:30):
So while Sam is moving, feeling that guy behind him,
he's feeling that safety going deep. Now he knows I'm
gonna play this game underneath. They zoned off the entire
thing and put a guy job number twenty nine with Jefferson,
and he still runs away. So it's like box in
one right zone everybody and then man their best player,
they still can't stay with them. So now Sam is
(34:51):
looking to high low these defenders and find somebody underneath.
Now it's like a four man game with a little
sizzle on top, with Jefferson over the top, and he
has a couple completions underneath. This is what tells me
he's seeing it and knows when he's ready to take
a shot. He steps up and hits this ball on
the run across the field with a guy chasing him.
Nobody can stay with Justin Jefferson. I mean, you can't
(35:13):
guard the guy. It's it's unbelievable. And what they do
for him, why he gets so open and why Sam
can find him. Credit to Keenan McCardell, the receivers coach.
Credit to Wes Phillips, the coordinator, Kevin O'Connell. I mean,
they are constantly finding ways to scheme this guy open.
Because now watch how they're gonna play. They're gonna double
team him on this one. So this time they line
(35:34):
him up backside and go ahead and roll that clip.
They're gonna line him up backside, use motion once again,
give Sam some information. Everybody's just bumping over. He knows
it's gonna be zone again. Well, when you get zoned
and you put Justin Jefferson backside, your first look as
an offense has to be okay, how are they playing
NBRA eighteen? What are they gonna do? And Rieq Wollen
and Julian Love have them. Most of his routes are
(35:56):
gonna be completely dead. You can potentially hit a whole
shot on an outside something. But Sam's looking to see, Okay,
how are they playing this? How are they playing my
other side? That's probably where I'm gonna go on the
play now. Once again he's looking left and right, making sure,
confirming the coverage, confirming it's not corner cats. I got
no issues. Here comes the hardcore play action and once
(36:16):
he gets up in the pocket again, he feels it
on the back side. He doesn't see it, he feels
it and once again eyes in the back of the head.
The tackle does a great job of just moving him
all the way around, giving Sam a chance to step up.
The difference on this one when he gets up into
this pocket is NUOSU. They're pass rush specialist. He's right here,
(36:38):
and once he doesn't get penetration, he go, Okay, I'm
gonna start head hunting the quarterback. I'm gonna go find him.
So Sam's stepping up, trying to read something to the right,
justin Jefferson on the left is completely dead. So look
at these routes on the right. Once again, they're gonna
blow somebody through the top level of the defense. He's
your home run. They're gonna bring in Addison this time
on the inside in route, the inbreaker, and then he's
(37:00):
gonna have a couple guys underneath. That's where the play
is intended to go zero out of one hundred times?
Is this play gonna win the game? Going to Justin
Jefferson at the top of the screen there, there's just
no way you'd stop the picture here. When Kevin O'Connell
went to the line of scrimmage, he knew or went
to the when Sam goes to line of scrimmage looking
at the defense, Okay, JJ's dead. We're working on our
(37:21):
front side. Combo the fact that he got this ball
airborne on the way up to the line of scrimmage
with two guys there Julian Love and Rik Wollen, both
doubling Jefferson, Jefferson has the wherewithal to get to that
outside lane, the only place he could possibly put it,
even though he knows he's probably not getting this football.
As soon as that ball gets airborne, look at the
(37:41):
nuances of this outside shoulder. He gets to turn his body,
put his body in between him and the defender. Love
is like literally a nanosecond late to get to this
football that I.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Mean, yesterday, I should That is the best throat Darnold's
ever made.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Ever, hands down, no holds bar done deal. And it's
not what you intend to do. So you put some
of that stuff on tape, and you still get to
your combinations and work the routes and get the completions
you're supposed to get. And then you do stuff like that.
Now you're moving into that territory of those other players
you talk.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Let me throw this out. I'm just thinking about. This
is some of what Darnold feeling. You're in Seattle, you
drop back to pass, you can hear the crowd. Does
the crowd ever give you a tech? I mean, dude,
your backside, you're getting in trouble.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
I don't know if it's that. I don't think I've
ever heard the crowd there. When you really hear the
crowd is when you let the ball go and don't
see where the ball ends up, and you think you
know where it was going. If you're on the road,
and the crowd screams, you got to get up fast
because you probably have to make a tackle. Okay, you
don't hear anything after the ball, and it's just kind
of a low. Oh you're like, okay, I can take
(38:53):
my time getting up here.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
So when you hear the scream, get up.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
When you hear the scream on the road, you better
get up.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
One more thing to throw at you. Yeah, you know you.
You look at the Lions and they did that trick
play against Chicago, and Nick Rand said earlier, you know,
when Belichick would use that Edelman double pass against Baltimore.
They'd practice that for fifteen weeks.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Oh yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
There was no real need to do that other than
for Ben Johnson to show the Chicago grass I got
a bag of tricks here. What did you make of
that play call?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
I mean, I've seen it before at a shotgun where
you direct snap it to the halfback and the quarterback
jumps up as if you know it's an errant snap
going over your head. Like I've seen that. I've never
seen it like this. This was, you know, just a
little cheeky and another way they get back to their
why kind of throwback play. So the action's not that different.
It really only changed two guys, the running back and
(39:47):
the quarterback. And it's just a little you know, sizzle
on the play. I don't know if he's trying to
do it for you know, the coaching hire next year.
That's that's a lot to speculate, but it was You're like, oh,
that was kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
When you got a nine. Rex. Ryan wasn't a big
offensive trick play guy. But when I always asked Edelman,
how did you not give it away? How did you
practice throw? And he said, I went and got gloves on.
I started catching with Tom. Yeah on the sideline. Hey,
let's go play catch. He's like, that wasn't for the catching,
that was for the throwing. Yeah, when you got a
trick play, how do you demure? How does Mark be Like, No, biggie,
(40:23):
it's just a fullback die.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
If anything, you know, like on flea flickers and stuff
like that, or double reverse passes, you try and do
a lot of the same mannerisms as a run play,
so you you know, make the mic point. And then
he motioned the guy down. Hey, you got the fourth
guy strong, You're right there. You got thirty two boom.
You almost like oversell it a little bit, and they're like, oh,
here comes the run. We're good, you know, so okay,
but it's hard not to get giddy. You know, you're
(40:46):
supposed to be a grown up, but you're playing a
kid's game. So you're just like, oh my god, this
is finally it. You know, the eighteen toss throwback to
quarterback where you get to catch the ball. Yes, that
was like, oh, that's the only play I ever wanted,
you know, your whole career.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yes, yes, you know. I look at the Mahomes playing
the Texas. We have a minute left. I watched Mahomes.
It was actually faster off the injury. And it is
weird and maybe it's a you know, people mock the
dad bod, but there's a flexibility component to him. Donald
got smoked this weekend. Oh yeah, and came back. When
(41:23):
you're in the NFL by week four?
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Are you feeling it?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I was gonna say you never had a healthy week. No.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Remember uh Rogers, the big d tackle from the Browns.
One time he landed all three hundred and eighty pounds
of him right on my calf. I had a bruised
calf for like six weeks. And you're just not the
same and you're just fighting through it all the time,
knowing what it's gonna be. But you also know as
soon as you step on the field game day, like
it's as good as it's gonna be. I'm gonna make
(41:51):
it work. I mean, you a guy like Mahomes Lebron,
shots not falling, I'm driving to the hole, Kobe. You know, Jordan,
something's not right, something's not perfect in my game today.
I'm gonna find a way to win. I don't care
what it is. If I have to have the game
winning assist, if I have to sneak it to win it,
whatever it takes, I'm doing it. And you could tell
he's got that killer mentality.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Thirty six sacks this year, My homes is taking a
beat in man, what was the biggest sack year you
ever had?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Oo numbers wise? Yeah, well we only threw it about
ten times a game.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So we got a good left tackle too.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Grounded pound baby. Yeah, let's go say about shout out Nickman,
gold and prick and you.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Know you you you've got a good hole line.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Yeah, Woody Mary christ Mary, Chris, Happy Happy New.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Year, Happy New Year to Mark Sanchez You've.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Just remember there's Mid, there's Mid, and then there's Jmax
right below that.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Mary Christmas, you were sacked. You were sacked thirty nine
times in year three.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Ouch.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, that's a load, dude. And you're what are you?
Six three two twenty.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
No, you're not two thirty two thirty five.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
That's a lot of sacks.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Brother, Thanks coin, anything else you want to bring up? No, hey,
prappy memories.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
You survived. The tape guy, Marcus Freeman, Nick Wright, Mark Sanchez,
The Herd hierarchy. Merry Christmas. We are off tomorrow. Be safe,
enjoy your family. Live in La. It's been the Herd.
Speaker 5 (43:12):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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