January 13, 2025 • 27 mins
NFL Wildcard weekend has left us with questions that need to be answered. Is the Ravens Lamar Jackson the best quarterback in the NFL? George Wrighster also lists the 5 best QBs in the NFL and NFL Playoffs including Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen. Does Justin Herbert get too much praise without winning playoff games for the LA Chargers.
Should the Pittsburgh Steelers fire Mike Tomlin?
The Philadelphia Eagles have some major beef and issues going on between their QB Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown their WR George Wrighster also discusses the LA Fires and what is really going on in Los Angeles and the impact on the Minnesota Vikings vs LA Rams game.
#lamarjackson #justinherbert #nflplayoffs #baltimoreravens #lachargers #nfl #joeburrow #patrickmahomes #joshallen #buffalobills #kcchiefs #kansascitychiefs #unafraidshow #georgewrighster #football
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Unafraid Show Daily Live, and this is a little bit
of a departure from what we normally make, which is
the college football content. Unafraid Show Daily is back, people.
We will be here Monday through Thursday in the afternoon
and then on Tuesday nights, Thursday nights and Sundays we
(00:25):
will have the regularly scheduled college football content. So that's
not going anywhere. But we did want to make sure
that Hafter, I'm done with the nightcap and that we
can talk about all of these sports things going out
and out in the world. And today we got a
bunch of good things to talk about. Majority of them
come from the NFL world, and we have wild Card
(00:46):
weekend and there were some disappointments and we got to
ask some very tough questions. Number One, is Lamar Jackson
QB one in the NFL, Now that's the question, justin
Herbert the social media quarterback? And is Mike Tomlin should
he be fired in Pittsburgh? Should they part ways move on?
(01:07):
And everything in between? And we got to talk about
the California fires that are going on. So that's what
we got today. So but first before we even get started,
I want to send prayers, thoughts and prayers to everybody
who has been affected by these fires. I've had friends, family,
all sorts of people impacted by it. Houses burned down
and everything. My family is safe. We're grateful for it
(01:31):
and grateful for your prayers and thoughts and everybody who's
checked in. So we appreciate that. All right. So we'll
start though with NFL Wildcard weekend cause and it all
started really with Lamar Jackson and company in the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and how you know, we were gonna view everything that
happened with them. Lamar finished one hundred and seventy five
(01:51):
yards two touchdowns, and then he ran for another eighty
one yards as well, and they're twenty eight to fourteen
victory over Pittsburgh where I think at one point time
they're up twenty eight to nothing. And so we're gonna
start with the Lamar Jackson part of this because the
question is is Lamar Jackson QB one in the NFL now,
as in the best quarterback in the National Football League
(02:14):
Because there's a lot of people that want to put
that on Josh Allen because he was the guy that
they wanted to be the MVP. Oh, they were pushing.
And but now when you come with Lamar Jackson winning
the division highest inner touchdown interception ratio in NFL history,
now all of a sudden, the whole MVP race changed.
(02:34):
And I believe that Lamar will win MVP now because
he was voted first team All Pro, which a lot
of those voters are saying, people that vote for the MVP.
So I'm not sure how you can have a guy
who is first team All Pro but then not the MVP.
I know we've seen it in the NBA where Lebron
was first team All NBA Defense, Mark Gasol was second
(02:57):
team defense, but he won defensive plaarity. I know sometimes
weird stuff happens, but I'd be willing to bet that
Lamar Jackson wins. And remember, this is a guy who
Bill Pollion and other people when he came out of
Louisville were like, yo, he's not a quarterback, he's a
running Essentially, what they were saying was is that he's
a running black. That's what it was. Because so many
(03:21):
times talent evaluators and everything else they don't know how
to well, they're getting a better job now of understanding
how to deal with a person's athleticism, because a quarterback's athleticism,
because it used to just be oh, we're gonna throw
him at wide receiver, put him at running back. He
could make exposed to plays for us. When in reality
(03:42):
is if you have that type of dynamic player with
the ball in his hands every single play and he
can process and has the arm talent to be able
to do it, that's the position. Well in the leadership
ability as well, that's the position that he should be
playing and not any of those other positions because of
the magnetude of the position. So we've seen Lamar Jackson
(04:04):
develop as a passer every single year. And I was
looking at his stats and I was like, wait, hold up.
We all know that this is his best year in
terms of touchdown passes. His previous high was his first
MVP year in twenty nineteen, where he thirty six touchdowns
six interceptions. Well, this year forty one and four, but
(04:25):
he threw for over four thousand yards for the first
time in his career. So we've watched through his seven
years in the NFL, We've watched that guy get better
and better and better as a passer every single year.
Then the narrative was, well, he can't win in the playoffs. Well,
he's winning in the playoffs and winning in a dominant
fashion now, and I believe for this season, Lamar Jackson
(04:51):
is QB one. He was the best quarterback in the
NFL in twenty twenty four. I still have Patrick Mahomes
number one in my overall, but after this this year,
this is something where if Lamar is able to get
his team past Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs or to
a super Bowl winner super Bowl, now we may have
(05:11):
to have a legitimate conversation not just off of one season,
but next year that could really change them overall rankings,
because right now, I got Lamar Jackson number one best
quarterback in the NFL for twenty twenty four. Pay attention
to the details. For twenty twenty four, Lamar Jackson was
the best quarterback is the best quarterback in the NFL.
(05:33):
I got Joe Burrow number two, got Josh Allen number three,
Patrick Mahomes number four, and Jared Goff number five, and
then after that we got like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold,
the rest of the crew. Those are the rankings that
we got for this year, and we got to be
able to get new information and say, yo, what that
(05:57):
dude doing is special? And look is wide receiver corps.
He's got Zay Flowers, who's out who's a good player obviously,
Rashad Bateman, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely. He's not playing with
t Higgins and Jamar Chase. He's not playing with that.
He's not playing with Justin Jefferson. He's not playing with
(06:20):
any of the top, like the top five to ten
wide receivers in the entire league. That's not what he's
playing with. I can't even imagine if he had those guys. Now,
with what he's been able to do, and you look
at the maturation from the original offense that he was
(06:41):
into now what he's done with todp Monkin love it.
But also in that game though the Steelers were playing,
and of course Mike Tomlin around this time of year,
he becomes an absolute lightning rod. People got their hot
takes and everything that they think about Mike. Well, the
(07:01):
question is should Mike Tomlin be fired? Should Pittsburgh move
on from him? Now, one school of thought, if you
fire Mike Tomlin, he's gonna have a job in ten
minutes if he wants one. There are a bunch of
coaches who will fire their coaches to have Mike Tomlin.
Now Here are Mike Tomlin's strengths right, his best strength.
(07:21):
And I know people who coach for him currently, know
coaches who've coached for him in the past. They all
talk about two things, his leadership and his consistency. And
to be a head coach in the NFL, you have
to be a great leader of men. And Mike Tomlins
has obviously won a super Bowl in the beginning of
his tenure with Ben Roethlisberger everything else, and at that
(07:45):
point in time, their defense wasn't as good as it
is now well, despite how bad they looked against the
Ravens in the playoffs, but he has built a culture
there where people are trusted. People trust him, they believe
in him, They know his consistency, and I believe that fans.
(08:06):
Of course, you grow tired of being just pretty good, right,
and you want to get to the mountaintop. But I've
always believed that fans actually have a tougher time with
their team. Yo yo, and like being good being bad
and you win a championship, be sorry is held in the
next few years, and so you have to applaud Mike
Tomlin's consistency, but where I believe, I would not fire
(08:29):
Mike Tomlin. However, though, I do believe that Mike Tomlin
needs a reset, and not a reset on his characters,
well on his character, not a reset on his morals,
not a reset on his leadership, not of any of
those things. I think he needs a reset on his
offensive philosophy. I never like the hire of Arthur Smith
(08:53):
as his offensive coordinator, and I do believe that he's
got a step into the modern age and just the
whole thinking about offense. He's got to hire one of
these hot shot young Ben Johnson type offensive geniuses on
offense and let them cook. That's what he's got to do.
(09:15):
And he's done a good job hiring at other positions
and put together a good, loyal, reliable staff. And I
know he doesn't like to make a lot of changes,
but that's probably the one change that Mike Tomlin needs
to make, is an offensive philosophy change. Say hold up,
(09:36):
hold up. I know that this is my team and
this is my imprint everywhere, but what I need to
do is say hold up, hold up. I gotta do
something like Nick Saban did. And remember Nick Saban was
stuck in a less miles sec run and punt football
type of game, and then he woke up one day
and was like, oh, damn, I need a quarterback. I
(09:56):
gotta be at a throw to ball. We can line
up in four wideouts still be able to run the
football and everything else. He recognized that football was changing
and that he had to change his philosophy and the
way that he was going to run the team, because
it's not just getting a good offensive coordinator. It is
(10:16):
because the head coach rains down in terms of the
way that the team will operate and the mentality. You
look at a guy like Dan Campbell over in Detroit. Yes,
Ben Johnson is really good at doing his job. But
if Dan Campbell was being more conservative and was like,
(10:36):
we're not going for it on fourth downs like it's
fourth and inches, punt the football and all that stuff,
that then changes the whole mentality of the team. It
changes the mentality of Ben Johnson as a play caller,
everything in between. So that's where Mike Tomlin has to
have some sort of growth, right And now, do I
(10:57):
believe his message is running stale in Pittsburgh? Absolutely not.
His team goes out and plays hard. He finds a way,
no matter what you give him at quarterback, finds a
way to put together a winning record every single year.
So if number one, you can find him a quarterback,
and truth be told, you don't even need to have
a great quarterback. You need a good quarterback. When you
(11:24):
look at what a team like the Minnesota Vikings has
done and Kevin O'Connell, what he's been able to do
with Sam Darnold, that's what he needs. He needs the
Kevin O'Connell in Pittsburgh. That's what he needs. Because your
quarterback play can work in the right system, if you
(11:47):
have the right offensive prowess, you can make it work.
Just like a guy like Kyle Shanahan, He's made it
work with lesser quarterbacks. Brock Thurty's not a top five,
top ten passer in the league, but does he look
like it a lot of times one hundred percent because
you're able to run the system and it works and
(12:08):
everything else. So that's important. So I would not fire
Mike Tomlin, but there is some consideration that he's got
to do some things significantly differently. What else is going on?
So over with the Philadelphia egos. This team is clearly good.
They won their playoff game. Everybody is, you know, joyous
(12:29):
and excited. They beat the Packers twenty two to twenty
last night, and you're like, hold up, hold up. Jalen
Hurts threw for one hundred and thirty one yards two touchdowns.
But the male content showed up again, and the mal
content is aj Brown, who finished the game one catch
for ten yards. Now, part of this is wide receiver
(12:53):
diva wide receiver because you just won an NFL playoff game.
You dominated the game twenty two to ten, and you're
upset that you only had one catch and visibly upset
in front of the media to where they know that
there's a problem with something. And yes, I do understand
(13:16):
as a pass catcher that you want to be involved
in the offense. You don't want to be out there
just doing cardio routes. You want to or running for
the love of the game. You want to be you
want to feel like you contribute it to the winning.
But sometimes that's not going to happen and it's gotta
be okay. And you pouting in the locker room is lame.
(13:38):
AJ Brown pouting? Oh Man I'm not gonna say anything.
You're actually saying something. Don't do that. You are actually
to the rest of your teammates. Everybody is looking at
you like this, dude, bro, I get that you want passes,
but we won in the playoffs. We are one step
closer to winning a Super Bowl. Maybe next game you'll
(14:01):
have thirteen catches for one hundred and seventy eight yards.
Maybe that's the case and it'll all balance out. But
this sort of attitude only brings up, only brings a distraction,
a disturbance in that locker room. And I wonder if
(14:22):
Justin of Justin Jalen Hurts comments about him reading that
book on the sideline because and if you don't know,
aj Brown brings that book on the sideline, Apparently nobody
had really paid attention, and everybody just asked him, why
the hell is he reading the book on the sideline,
and he was like, oh, it helps me with my
mental game. It's all mental and okay whatever, and they
(14:44):
asked Jalen Hurst. Jalen Hurts says, I've seen him with
the book. I never seen him read it though, And
I don't know if that was a shot or not,
because Jalen Hurst looks like the dude, like the dry eyes,
clear eyes, the yeah, the clear eyes, guy who can
tell a joke with a straight face, and you know,
and he's telling a joke or was there a little
(15:06):
bit of seriousness behind it? Because I do not believe
that the problems that AJ Brown presented this season about
Jalen Hurts are going to be fixed no matter what.
And if I'm the Eagles, I'm probably shipping AJ Brown
out after this season, no matter what happens, because I
don't believe that you can necessarily win a championship with
(15:29):
a guy who is this unhappy sixty seven catches, one
hundred thousand and seventy nine yards and seven touchdowns, and
I know that he's like, this isn't my usual production. Well,
in twenty twenty four you only played thirteen games, so
that contributed to it. And last year you had one
(15:50):
hundred and six catches for fourteen hundred yards, like every
year is not going to be a career year and
you but you did go for your third straight thousand
yard season, and that's got to be the thing. And
you focus on how do we get better? How do
I get open better? How can we change the offense
so it's cleaner for the quarterback, so we can all
eat better. But for you to be complaining on a
(16:13):
team that has that finished fourteen and three and just
won a playoff game, those are off season concerns that
you need to address. Don't be a powder in the
locker room. Don't do it. It's not good. The next
thing up that we gotta discuss is Justin Herbert, a
(16:33):
social media quarterback, is getting way too much praise and
all of this stuff. This is easy target, man. This
is a dude who is a one hundred percent easy target.
It is easy for people to look at Justin Herbert
and say, oh my god, he's overrated. Look at his
playoff wins, Look at the last three must win games. Yeah,
(16:54):
was that Jacksonville game where they lost what a twenty
seven point lead in the in the play of a
couple years ago? Was that bad? But situations and nuanced matters.
There's a reason why the Chargers fired their most recent
head coach, Brandon Staley. He was supposed to be a
(17:17):
defensive genius. Justin Herbert is putting up all type of
crazy stats and you're not surrounding him with a decent defense,
like your overall defense is that his entire over his
entire career with Brandon Staley, averaged like twenty three to
twenty four in the league. And you're supposed to be
a defensive guy. They're like, oh, but the best quarterbacks win.
(17:40):
The best quarterbacks typically have good defenses too. Tom Brady
never well, actually only two seasons in his entire career
finished with a defense that was not top ten. You
don't think that that helps with your offense sputters, or
you have some tough times, or your wideouts are are hurt,
not pay well, anything like that. You don't think that helps.
(18:02):
It absolutely does. So Justin Herbert is an easy target.
He is the guy that Emmanuel Acho is pointed out
like that he's going to go get So he actually
needs Justin Herbert to make the playoffs every year, have
some success, so then he can bang this drum. He
can bang it all year next year. We don't care
(18:23):
what happens in the regular season. We need to see
what you're gonna do in the playoffs. Well, he's on
the first season with a brand new coach the Chargers. Inexplicably,
if we're being honest, the Chargers inexplicably went eleven and
six this year. Nobody thought that that was going on. Nobody,
(18:47):
And you look at their offensive weapons. They got JK.
Dobbins and Gus Edwards at running back. Those are two
decent backs, neither one of them special. And your best
wide receiver is a rookie in lab McConkie. Yes he's good,
Yes he had a great game nine for one ninety
(19:07):
seven and a touchdown. But that's all you got. A
slot guy, that's what you got because Quinton Johnston, former
first round pick out of TCU, has not been good.
DJ Chark has just been okay. Will Disley's been cool,
Like what are we doing? So, yes, this is Jim
(19:30):
Harbaugh's first year. They were getting by this year on
playing on, like on being scrappy, like damn near like
Dan Campbell's second year with the Lions. They pull you
down and then they beat you. They drag you down
in the mud and then they beat you. That's exactly
what this Chargers team did. So the idea that Justin
(19:51):
Herbert somehow sucks that he's not a good quarterback, social
media quarterback, all of this stuff in between it is
absolute nonsense. Now, year two when the Chargers re up
their their wide receiver core because they have to this offseason.
If they go next year and they lose in the
(20:13):
first round of the playoffs and Justin Herbert has a
has a you know, a bad game, then then yes,
that's something to talk about. But Herbert finished fourteen for
thirty two, which is below fifty percent, two hundred and
forty two yards, one touchdown, four picks. Two of the
picks were his fault. Twoitte picks were not his fault,
but the quarterback gets charged with all four. But let's
(20:38):
be nuanced in the situation if you're not putting together
because it number one of it is hard to win
in the NFL playoffs hard. The better teams almost always
win because they're well coached. That's how they got to
the playoffs. But the more talented teams typically win playoff games,
especially in the earlier rounds. So let's not make a mistake,
(21:01):
and let's actually judge Justin Herbert on what the dude
has done, Like we did thirty eight hundred yards, twenty
three touchdowns, three picks with this wide receiver corps. Oh
and you know, oh my god, I can't believe he's
doing it. So what did you expect with the playoffs?
I mean, like, let's be honest, did we expect the
Chargers to end up in the AFC Championship game after
(21:24):
watching them this season? No? So why then attack a player,
call them a social media quarterback because you're looking for clicks.
This is engagement bait and we see it for what
it is. All right. Oh, the last thing that we
got to talk about is the La fires. And I'm
(21:46):
here in La so obviously I got a first hand
seat at what's going on. And yes, it is rough
out here, but let's dispel a few myths and narratives.
Number One, the whole city is not on fire, despite
what you're seeing on the news. The whole city is
not on fire. Are there two very significant fires that
(22:08):
have happened. Yes, the Eating fire out in Altadena, Pasadena,
which has destroyed thousands of structures and people's homes, businesses,
everything in between, and the Palisades fire, and both of
them are still raging, so yes, majorly affected. Then there
was a fire in Hollywood that burned up a couple
structures too. They were able to get that one under control.
(22:31):
The one that was close by me the Kenneth fire,
they were able to get that under control. So Number one,
want to give credit to our fire department. Want to
give credit to the inmates who are out here fighting
these fires, because there are a large portion of the
firefighters are inmates working for a dollar a day everything else,
(22:53):
and you know, trying to get time off and have
a career when they come out and everything else. So
number one, despite what the media tells, you know, the
city is not on fire. This is an interesting concept
because half the city is operating like normal, like businesses going,
people are going out to go eat all of this stuff.
(23:16):
But then you have another quarter of the population who
is impacted by the fire, whether it's close to them,
whether they have been evacuated where they're constantly feeling the
stress of the evacuation and everything else. And so that's
a quarter of the population, like people who are living
(23:38):
under this stress with their kids out of school and
everything else. And then you have another quarter of the
population who has directly been impacted by their house burned down,
that happened to their family, something like that. So the
entire city is not impacted. There are certain pockets of
areas that have been dramatically impacted and life has come
(24:00):
to a grinding halt there. And it has even moved
the NFL game this Yeah, it also moved an NFL
playoff game which is gonna happen tonight where you have
the vikings and the rams, which was supposed to happen
at so far, but then they moved it down to Glendale,
(24:22):
Arizona instead. I probably would have liked to see him
go to Vegas because that probably feels a little bit closer.
But anyways, so the games in Glendale, Arizona instead, and
ironically it's at State Farm of Stadium, where a State
Farm Stadium where just so happens to be one of
the companies that has dropped a lot of people's fire
(24:42):
insurance out here in California. But that leads to the
second point. You've had everybody from President Trump to people
who are Democrats, Republicans, everybody in between, criticizing Karen Bass,
criticizing Gavin News everything else. There is fair blame to
(25:05):
go around to a lot of people for things that
have happened. But let's clear a few things up. Number One,
these are not wildfires like you would typically see in
the summertime here where like the where the the shrubbery
wasn't cleaned and everything else I can attest to, at
least where I live at the fire departments have been
(25:27):
mad vigilant about brush clearance on people's houses. I gotta
notice about it. My neighbor got a huge fine about it.
So there have been some things, but like, can we
please stop? Can we please stop all the blaming and
and all of that until after the disaster is over.
(25:48):
Until after it's over. It'd be like your kid falling,
falling down getting hurt, and then everybody been and while
you guys are driving to the hospital and your kids
in surgery, and everybody's like, this is your fault and
this man, let's worry about all of that after So, yes,
is there blame to go around? Am I happy with
(26:09):
the situation? I no, But let's unpack all of this
because what happens is is when you have the leadership
who is in charge, and people are throwing arrows darts
and blaming them for everything that has happened. Now that
compromises your decision making because now you know the whole
(26:29):
world is looking and now it's like, oh, okay, hold up,
how is this decision going to play publicly versus what
is the right thing? That's the difference, because sometimes it's
leaders you have to make unpopular decisions that turn out
to be right later, but it may not play well publicly,
especially when you're under this much scrutiny and when people
(26:53):
are calling for you to get recalled as the governor
and everything else, impeached and everything in between. So that's
the part I don't like is, yes, our leadership should
be under significant pressure because they are responsible to the
people who voted them in. But also, let's play the
blame game after How about that? Does that make sense
(27:14):
to anybody except for me? And yeah, you guys, this
is the Unafraid Show Daily Live. I appreciate your time,
appreciate your energy. We will be back tomorrow, so make
sure that you tune in Monday through Thursday, here, on
Twitter or YouTube, everywhere in between. Peace Autum,
Unafraid Show Daily Live, and this is a little bit
of a departure from what we normally make, which is
the college football content. Unafraid Show Daily is back, people.
We will be here Monday through Thursday in the afternoon
and then on Tuesday nights, Thursday nights and Sundays we
(00:25):
will have the regularly scheduled college football content. So that's
not going anywhere. But we did want to make sure
that Hafter, I'm done with the nightcap and that we
can talk about all of these sports things going out
and out in the world. And today we got a
bunch of good things to talk about. Majority of them
come from the NFL world, and we have wild Card
(00:46):
weekend and there were some disappointments and we got to
ask some very tough questions. Number One, is Lamar Jackson
QB one in the NFL, Now that's the question, justin
Herbert the social media quarterback? And is Mike Tomlin should
he be fired in Pittsburgh? Should they part ways move on?
(01:07):
And everything in between? And we got to talk about
the California fires that are going on. So that's what
we got today. So but first before we even get started,
I want to send prayers, thoughts and prayers to everybody
who has been affected by these fires. I've had friends, family,
all sorts of people impacted by it. Houses burned down
and everything. My family is safe. We're grateful for it
(01:31):
and grateful for your prayers and thoughts and everybody who's
checked in. So we appreciate that. All right. So we'll
start though with NFL Wildcard weekend cause and it all
started really with Lamar Jackson and company in the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and how you know, we were gonna view everything that
happened with them. Lamar finished one hundred and seventy five
(01:51):
yards two touchdowns, and then he ran for another eighty
one yards as well, and they're twenty eight to fourteen
victory over Pittsburgh where I think at one point time
they're up twenty eight to nothing. And so we're gonna
start with the Lamar Jackson part of this because the
question is is Lamar Jackson QB one in the NFL now,
as in the best quarterback in the National Football League
(02:14):
Because there's a lot of people that want to put
that on Josh Allen because he was the guy that
they wanted to be the MVP. Oh, they were pushing.
And but now when you come with Lamar Jackson winning
the division highest inner touchdown interception ratio in NFL history,
now all of a sudden, the whole MVP race changed.
(02:34):
And I believe that Lamar will win MVP now because
he was voted first team All Pro, which a lot
of those voters are saying, people that vote for the MVP.
So I'm not sure how you can have a guy
who is first team All Pro but then not the MVP.
I know we've seen it in the NBA where Lebron
was first team All NBA Defense, Mark Gasol was second
(02:57):
team defense, but he won defensive plaarity. I know sometimes
weird stuff happens, but I'd be willing to bet that
Lamar Jackson wins. And remember, this is a guy who
Bill Pollion and other people when he came out of
Louisville were like, yo, he's not a quarterback, he's a
running Essentially, what they were saying was is that he's
a running black. That's what it was. Because so many
(03:21):
times talent evaluators and everything else they don't know how
to well, they're getting a better job now of understanding
how to deal with a person's athleticism, because a quarterback's athleticism,
because it used to just be oh, we're gonna throw
him at wide receiver, put him at running back. He
could make exposed to plays for us. When in reality
(03:42):
is if you have that type of dynamic player with
the ball in his hands every single play and he
can process and has the arm talent to be able
to do it, that's the position. Well in the leadership
ability as well, that's the position that he should be
playing and not any of those other positions because of
the magnetude of the position. So we've seen Lamar Jackson
(04:04):
develop as a passer every single year. And I was
looking at his stats and I was like, wait, hold up.
We all know that this is his best year in
terms of touchdown passes. His previous high was his first
MVP year in twenty nineteen, where he thirty six touchdowns
six interceptions. Well, this year forty one and four, but
(04:25):
he threw for over four thousand yards for the first
time in his career. So we've watched through his seven
years in the NFL, We've watched that guy get better
and better and better as a passer every single year.
Then the narrative was, well, he can't win in the playoffs. Well,
he's winning in the playoffs and winning in a dominant
fashion now, and I believe for this season, Lamar Jackson
(04:51):
is QB one. He was the best quarterback in the
NFL in twenty twenty four. I still have Patrick Mahomes
number one in my overall, but after this this year,
this is something where if Lamar is able to get
his team past Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs or to
a super Bowl winner super Bowl, now we may have
(05:11):
to have a legitimate conversation not just off of one season,
but next year that could really change them overall rankings,
because right now, I got Lamar Jackson number one best
quarterback in the NFL for twenty twenty four. Pay attention
to the details. For twenty twenty four, Lamar Jackson was
the best quarterback is the best quarterback in the NFL.
(05:33):
I got Joe Burrow number two, got Josh Allen number three,
Patrick Mahomes number four, and Jared Goff number five, and
then after that we got like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold,
the rest of the crew. Those are the rankings that
we got for this year, and we got to be
able to get new information and say, yo, what that
(05:57):
dude doing is special? And look is wide receiver corps.
He's got Zay Flowers, who's out who's a good player obviously,
Rashad Bateman, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely. He's not playing with
t Higgins and Jamar Chase. He's not playing with that.
He's not playing with Justin Jefferson. He's not playing with
(06:20):
any of the top, like the top five to ten
wide receivers in the entire league. That's not what he's
playing with. I can't even imagine if he had those guys. Now,
with what he's been able to do, and you look
at the maturation from the original offense that he was
(06:41):
into now what he's done with todp Monkin love it.
But also in that game though the Steelers were playing,
and of course Mike Tomlin around this time of year,
he becomes an absolute lightning rod. People got their hot
takes and everything that they think about Mike. Well, the
(07:01):
question is should Mike Tomlin be fired? Should Pittsburgh move
on from him? Now, one school of thought, if you
fire Mike Tomlin, he's gonna have a job in ten
minutes if he wants one. There are a bunch of
coaches who will fire their coaches to have Mike Tomlin.
Now Here are Mike Tomlin's strengths right, his best strength.
(07:21):
And I know people who coach for him currently, know
coaches who've coached for him in the past. They all
talk about two things, his leadership and his consistency. And
to be a head coach in the NFL, you have
to be a great leader of men. And Mike Tomlins
has obviously won a super Bowl in the beginning of
his tenure with Ben Roethlisberger everything else, and at that
(07:45):
point in time, their defense wasn't as good as it
is now well, despite how bad they looked against the
Ravens in the playoffs, but he has built a culture
there where people are trusted. People trust him, they believe
in him, They know his consistency, and I believe that fans.
(08:06):
Of course, you grow tired of being just pretty good, right,
and you want to get to the mountaintop. But I've
always believed that fans actually have a tougher time with
their team. Yo yo, and like being good being bad
and you win a championship, be sorry is held in the
next few years, and so you have to applaud Mike
Tomlin's consistency, but where I believe, I would not fire
(08:29):
Mike Tomlin. However, though, I do believe that Mike Tomlin
needs a reset, and not a reset on his characters,
well on his character, not a reset on his morals,
not a reset on his leadership, not of any of
those things. I think he needs a reset on his
offensive philosophy. I never like the hire of Arthur Smith
(08:53):
as his offensive coordinator, and I do believe that he's
got a step into the modern age and just the
whole thinking about offense. He's got to hire one of
these hot shot young Ben Johnson type offensive geniuses on
offense and let them cook. That's what he's got to do.
(09:15):
And he's done a good job hiring at other positions
and put together a good, loyal, reliable staff. And I
know he doesn't like to make a lot of changes,
but that's probably the one change that Mike Tomlin needs
to make, is an offensive philosophy change. Say hold up,
(09:36):
hold up. I know that this is my team and
this is my imprint everywhere, but what I need to
do is say hold up, hold up. I gotta do
something like Nick Saban did. And remember Nick Saban was
stuck in a less miles sec run and punt football
type of game, and then he woke up one day
and was like, oh, damn, I need a quarterback. I
(09:56):
gotta be at a throw to ball. We can line
up in four wideouts still be able to run the
football and everything else. He recognized that football was changing
and that he had to change his philosophy and the
way that he was going to run the team, because
it's not just getting a good offensive coordinator. It is
(10:16):
because the head coach rains down in terms of the
way that the team will operate and the mentality. You
look at a guy like Dan Campbell over in Detroit. Yes,
Ben Johnson is really good at doing his job. But
if Dan Campbell was being more conservative and was like,
(10:36):
we're not going for it on fourth downs like it's
fourth and inches, punt the football and all that stuff,
that then changes the whole mentality of the team. It
changes the mentality of Ben Johnson as a play caller,
everything in between. So that's where Mike Tomlin has to
have some sort of growth, right And now, do I
(10:57):
believe his message is running stale in Pittsburgh? Absolutely not.
His team goes out and plays hard. He finds a way,
no matter what you give him at quarterback, finds a
way to put together a winning record every single year.
So if number one, you can find him a quarterback,
and truth be told, you don't even need to have
a great quarterback. You need a good quarterback. When you
(11:24):
look at what a team like the Minnesota Vikings has
done and Kevin O'Connell, what he's been able to do
with Sam Darnold, that's what he needs. He needs the
Kevin O'Connell in Pittsburgh. That's what he needs. Because your
quarterback play can work in the right system, if you
(11:47):
have the right offensive prowess, you can make it work.
Just like a guy like Kyle Shanahan, He's made it
work with lesser quarterbacks. Brock Thurty's not a top five,
top ten passer in the league, but does he look
like it a lot of times one hundred percent because
you're able to run the system and it works and
(12:08):
everything else. So that's important. So I would not fire
Mike Tomlin, but there is some consideration that he's got
to do some things significantly differently. What else is going on?
So over with the Philadelphia egos. This team is clearly good.
They won their playoff game. Everybody is, you know, joyous
(12:29):
and excited. They beat the Packers twenty two to twenty
last night, and you're like, hold up, hold up. Jalen
Hurts threw for one hundred and thirty one yards two touchdowns.
But the male content showed up again, and the mal
content is aj Brown, who finished the game one catch
for ten yards. Now, part of this is wide receiver
(12:53):
diva wide receiver because you just won an NFL playoff game.
You dominated the game twenty two to ten, and you're
upset that you only had one catch and visibly upset
in front of the media to where they know that
there's a problem with something. And yes, I do understand
(13:16):
as a pass catcher that you want to be involved
in the offense. You don't want to be out there
just doing cardio routes. You want to or running for
the love of the game. You want to be you
want to feel like you contribute it to the winning.
But sometimes that's not going to happen and it's gotta
be okay. And you pouting in the locker room is lame.
(13:38):
AJ Brown pouting? Oh Man I'm not gonna say anything.
You're actually saying something. Don't do that. You are actually
to the rest of your teammates. Everybody is looking at
you like this, dude, bro, I get that you want passes,
but we won in the playoffs. We are one step
closer to winning a Super Bowl. Maybe next game you'll
(14:01):
have thirteen catches for one hundred and seventy eight yards.
Maybe that's the case and it'll all balance out. But
this sort of attitude only brings up, only brings a distraction,
a disturbance in that locker room. And I wonder if
(14:22):
Justin of Justin Jalen Hurts comments about him reading that
book on the sideline because and if you don't know,
aj Brown brings that book on the sideline, Apparently nobody
had really paid attention, and everybody just asked him, why
the hell is he reading the book on the sideline,
and he was like, oh, it helps me with my
mental game. It's all mental and okay whatever, and they
(14:44):
asked Jalen Hurst. Jalen Hurts says, I've seen him with
the book. I never seen him read it though, And
I don't know if that was a shot or not,
because Jalen Hurst looks like the dude, like the dry eyes,
clear eyes, the yeah, the clear eyes, guy who can
tell a joke with a straight face, and you know,
and he's telling a joke or was there a little
(15:06):
bit of seriousness behind it? Because I do not believe
that the problems that AJ Brown presented this season about
Jalen Hurts are going to be fixed no matter what.
And if I'm the Eagles, I'm probably shipping AJ Brown
out after this season, no matter what happens, because I
don't believe that you can necessarily win a championship with
(15:29):
a guy who is this unhappy sixty seven catches, one
hundred thousand and seventy nine yards and seven touchdowns, and
I know that he's like, this isn't my usual production. Well,
in twenty twenty four you only played thirteen games, so
that contributed to it. And last year you had one
(15:50):
hundred and six catches for fourteen hundred yards, like every
year is not going to be a career year and
you but you did go for your third straight thousand
yard season, and that's got to be the thing. And
you focus on how do we get better? How do
I get open better? How can we change the offense
so it's cleaner for the quarterback, so we can all
eat better. But for you to be complaining on a
(16:13):
team that has that finished fourteen and three and just
won a playoff game, those are off season concerns that
you need to address. Don't be a powder in the
locker room. Don't do it. It's not good. The next
thing up that we gotta discuss is Justin Herbert, a
(16:33):
social media quarterback, is getting way too much praise and
all of this stuff. This is easy target, man. This
is a dude who is a one hundred percent easy target.
It is easy for people to look at Justin Herbert
and say, oh my god, he's overrated. Look at his
playoff wins, Look at the last three must win games. Yeah,
(16:54):
was that Jacksonville game where they lost what a twenty
seven point lead in the in the play of a
couple years ago? Was that bad? But situations and nuanced matters.
There's a reason why the Chargers fired their most recent
head coach, Brandon Staley. He was supposed to be a
(17:17):
defensive genius. Justin Herbert is putting up all type of
crazy stats and you're not surrounding him with a decent defense,
like your overall defense is that his entire over his
entire career with Brandon Staley, averaged like twenty three to
twenty four in the league. And you're supposed to be
a defensive guy. They're like, oh, but the best quarterbacks win.
(17:40):
The best quarterbacks typically have good defenses too. Tom Brady
never well, actually only two seasons in his entire career
finished with a defense that was not top ten. You
don't think that that helps with your offense sputters, or
you have some tough times, or your wideouts are are hurt,
not pay well, anything like that. You don't think that helps.
(18:02):
It absolutely does. So Justin Herbert is an easy target.
He is the guy that Emmanuel Acho is pointed out
like that he's going to go get So he actually
needs Justin Herbert to make the playoffs every year, have
some success, so then he can bang this drum. He
can bang it all year next year. We don't care
(18:23):
what happens in the regular season. We need to see
what you're gonna do in the playoffs. Well, he's on
the first season with a brand new coach the Chargers. Inexplicably,
if we're being honest, the Chargers inexplicably went eleven and
six this year. Nobody thought that that was going on. Nobody,
(18:47):
And you look at their offensive weapons. They got JK.
Dobbins and Gus Edwards at running back. Those are two
decent backs, neither one of them special. And your best
wide receiver is a rookie in lab McConkie. Yes he's good,
Yes he had a great game nine for one ninety
(19:07):
seven and a touchdown. But that's all you got. A
slot guy, that's what you got because Quinton Johnston, former
first round pick out of TCU, has not been good.
DJ Chark has just been okay. Will Disley's been cool,
Like what are we doing? So, yes, this is Jim
(19:30):
Harbaugh's first year. They were getting by this year on
playing on, like on being scrappy, like damn near like
Dan Campbell's second year with the Lions. They pull you
down and then they beat you. They drag you down
in the mud and then they beat you. That's exactly
what this Chargers team did. So the idea that Justin
(19:51):
Herbert somehow sucks that he's not a good quarterback, social
media quarterback, all of this stuff in between it is
absolute nonsense. Now, year two when the Chargers re up
their their wide receiver core because they have to this offseason.
If they go next year and they lose in the
(20:13):
first round of the playoffs and Justin Herbert has a
has a you know, a bad game, then then yes,
that's something to talk about. But Herbert finished fourteen for
thirty two, which is below fifty percent, two hundred and
forty two yards, one touchdown, four picks. Two of the
picks were his fault. Twoitte picks were not his fault,
but the quarterback gets charged with all four. But let's
(20:38):
be nuanced in the situation if you're not putting together
because it number one of it is hard to win
in the NFL playoffs hard. The better teams almost always
win because they're well coached. That's how they got to
the playoffs. But the more talented teams typically win playoff games,
especially in the earlier rounds. So let's not make a mistake,
(21:01):
and let's actually judge Justin Herbert on what the dude
has done, Like we did thirty eight hundred yards, twenty
three touchdowns, three picks with this wide receiver corps. Oh
and you know, oh my god, I can't believe he's
doing it. So what did you expect with the playoffs?
I mean, like, let's be honest, did we expect the
Chargers to end up in the AFC Championship game after
(21:24):
watching them this season? No? So why then attack a player,
call them a social media quarterback because you're looking for clicks.
This is engagement bait and we see it for what
it is. All right. Oh, the last thing that we
got to talk about is the La fires. And I'm
(21:46):
here in La so obviously I got a first hand
seat at what's going on. And yes, it is rough
out here, but let's dispel a few myths and narratives.
Number One, the whole city is not on fire, despite
what you're seeing on the news. The whole city is
not on fire. Are there two very significant fires that
(22:08):
have happened. Yes, the Eating fire out in Altadena, Pasadena,
which has destroyed thousands of structures and people's homes, businesses,
everything in between, and the Palisades fire, and both of
them are still raging, so yes, majorly affected. Then there
was a fire in Hollywood that burned up a couple
structures too. They were able to get that one under control.
(22:31):
The one that was close by me the Kenneth fire,
they were able to get that under control. So Number one,
want to give credit to our fire department. Want to
give credit to the inmates who are out here fighting
these fires, because there are a large portion of the
firefighters are inmates working for a dollar a day everything else,
(22:53):
and you know, trying to get time off and have
a career when they come out and everything else. So
number one, despite what the media tells, you know, the
city is not on fire. This is an interesting concept
because half the city is operating like normal, like businesses going,
people are going out to go eat all of this stuff.
(23:16):
But then you have another quarter of the population who
is impacted by the fire, whether it's close to them,
whether they have been evacuated where they're constantly feeling the
stress of the evacuation and everything else. And so that's
a quarter of the population, like people who are living
(23:38):
under this stress with their kids out of school and
everything else. And then you have another quarter of the
population who has directly been impacted by their house burned down,
that happened to their family, something like that. So the
entire city is not impacted. There are certain pockets of
areas that have been dramatically impacted and life has come
(24:00):
to a grinding halt there. And it has even moved
the NFL game this Yeah, it also moved an NFL
playoff game which is gonna happen tonight where you have
the vikings and the rams, which was supposed to happen
at so far, but then they moved it down to Glendale,
(24:22):
Arizona instead. I probably would have liked to see him
go to Vegas because that probably feels a little bit closer.
But anyways, so the games in Glendale, Arizona instead, and
ironically it's at State Farm of Stadium, where a State
Farm Stadium where just so happens to be one of
the companies that has dropped a lot of people's fire
(24:42):
insurance out here in California. But that leads to the
second point. You've had everybody from President Trump to people
who are Democrats, Republicans, everybody in between, criticizing Karen Bass,
criticizing Gavin News everything else. There is fair blame to
(25:05):
go around to a lot of people for things that
have happened. But let's clear a few things up. Number One,
these are not wildfires like you would typically see in
the summertime here where like the where the the shrubbery
wasn't cleaned and everything else I can attest to, at
least where I live at the fire departments have been
(25:27):
mad vigilant about brush clearance on people's houses. I gotta
notice about it. My neighbor got a huge fine about it.
So there have been some things, but like, can we
please stop? Can we please stop all the blaming and
and all of that until after the disaster is over.
(25:48):
Until after it's over. It'd be like your kid falling,
falling down getting hurt, and then everybody been and while
you guys are driving to the hospital and your kids
in surgery, and everybody's like, this is your fault and
this man, let's worry about all of that after So, yes,
is there blame to go around? Am I happy with
(26:09):
the situation? I no, But let's unpack all of this
because what happens is is when you have the leadership
who is in charge, and people are throwing arrows darts
and blaming them for everything that has happened. Now that
compromises your decision making because now you know the whole
(26:29):
world is looking and now it's like, oh, okay, hold up,
how is this decision going to play publicly versus what
is the right thing? That's the difference, because sometimes it's
leaders you have to make unpopular decisions that turn out
to be right later, but it may not play well publicly,
especially when you're under this much scrutiny and when people
(26:53):
are calling for you to get recalled as the governor
and everything else, impeached and everything in between. So that's
the part I don't like is, yes, our leadership should
be under significant pressure because they are responsible to the
people who voted them in. But also, let's play the
blame game after How about that? Does that make sense
(27:14):
to anybody except for me? And yeah, you guys, this
is the Unafraid Show Daily Live. I appreciate your time,
appreciate your energy. We will be back tomorrow, so make
sure that you tune in Monday through Thursday, here, on
Twitter or YouTube, everywhere in between. Peace Autum,
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