Michael Thomas Gets Paid, Dak Prescott Should too, Jon Gruden Slips and Nick Saban Heeds Colin's Advice

Colin explains why NFL teams are the safest to own because of their inability to become trapped in these huge player contracts. He thinks Dak Prescott at 26 years old is by far the best Cowboys quarterback they've had and deserves to get payed. He also believes that, even after the Saints resigned Michael Thomas, they'll still fall through the floor next year. And, Nick Saban answers Colin's request to play against stronger competition while Jon Gruden might have just let slip who the new starting QB will be for the Raiders. Guests: Greg Cosell, Rob Parker, Nick Wright & Jane Slater, 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox sports
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Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Wednesday. This

(00:27):
is the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. We're on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and
FS one. One hour from now, Greg co Sell live
in studio. Wherever I go, people always say more Greg
Coo Sell, more, Greg Coo Sell. So we're gonna have
him on today for a couple of segments. We're gonna
have him on tomorrow for a couple of segments. He

(00:48):
comes and stops by once or twice a year, generally
right before the season as we get into August. So
one hour from now, Greg Coo Sell stops by for
about fifteen or twenty minutes, and Joey Taylor is joining me.
She's got that August sun shine. Look, I got the lavender,
she's got the yellow. We're celebrating summer. We are celebrating summer,
and summer means camps are opening in camps are underway.

(01:09):
Let me start the show with this today. This is
what I don't get about fans. Why do you want
players to make a lot of money. What you should
want is flexibility. You should actually be on the side
of the owner because players come and go. What you

(01:32):
want as a fan is your team to be financially nimble.
They don't get trapped in a bad contract. Washington Wizards,
John Wall. What you want from your team because you
grew up in the city, right You grew up in Milwaukee,
you grew up in Dallas, you grew up in Chicago,
you grew up in Atlanta, you grew up in Tampa.
The player, it'd be nice if he gets paid, But
you don't want your team to get trapped. That's when

(01:54):
you become a bad team. New England never gets trapped,
you know what I mean, They don't get San Antonio
Spurs rarely get trapped. So I never understood fans. We're like, yeah,
my guy got paid, What do you care. He's not
gonna hang out with you, he's not gonna party with you,
he's not going to spend it on you so he
can afford another yacht. But it's a prime example. Michael
Thomas just made one hundred million dollar extension five years.

(02:16):
He's worth every penny. But this is why the NFL's
got it right, in the NBA doesn't. So first of all,
Michael Thomas is very productive. Secondly, they've paid him almost
nothing for three years. Third now you only have to
guarantee sixty of the one hundred million, meaning if he
goes sideways, you can bail on it. And d he's

(02:38):
almost guaranteed to continue to be productive because it Drew
Brees and Sean Payton and that offensive concept. It's great
for him, he gets generational wealth, but it's great for
the team and the fan because listen, the Saints want
to win now and they're paying him now money for
the next three years. It's guaranteed, so his family's well off,

(02:59):
but the teams in a good spot. If the last
two years, if he gets hurt, team can move on.
He's still generationally wealthy. The team got every bit of
production out of him. Yes, it's a lot of money
to pay a wide receiver, but I've always said i'll
pay a quarterback, I'll pay a left tackle. I'll pay
a defensive lineman, and in some cases, I'll pay big
for a wide receiver. He's a guy i'd pay for.

(03:20):
Drew Brees is getting older, I'd pay for him. But
the reason this contract works is because there's so much
talent in American football. He was a second round forty
seventh pick. That you can if you paid nothing for
a house and the value just kept going out first
three years or mortgage, you don't mind overpaying on the
mortgage four or five and six in the year seven

(03:42):
because you paid nothing for it the first three years.
Take take Dak Prescott for example. So Dak Prescott his
costume nothing. He's been absurdly productive. I mean, Dak Prescott
in four years has made two point seven million dollars.
He's his guaranteed money has been under four hundred thousan dollars.
I don't mind if you pay him one hundred and

(04:02):
fifty million over the next five years because it comes
out to fifteen million dollars. So it changes Dak Prescott
and his family's life. He's worth every penny it helps
the player's life. That's a great story. Makes me feel good,
But I don't know dak I'm not gonna party with that.
It doesn't live my neighborhood right then, not gonna be
throwing street parties. I'm not gonna benefit from it. But
it also allows the Cowboys to feel like they win

(04:27):
it too. They got a ton of production and didn't
have to pay him anything. I never understand NBA fans,
we're like, yeah, my guy, John Wall, you're done. Your
franchise is dead in Washington, it's over. You're trapped. The
NFL doesn't get trapped. Yes, Michael Thomas now has generational wealth.
I'm happy for him, but the Saints can move out

(04:50):
of it in three or four years. If he gets
hurt or gets or go sideways. You know I'm playing.
I want to work his hard gets hurt, he still
gets sixty million guaranteed minimum, and the Saints can move
on and say, now we got to pay this new
quarterback that replaced Drew Brees. This is the NFL's secret sauce,
a hard cap. Everybody wins. The player wins, the fans win,

(05:13):
the owner wins, the coach wins, the star players family wins.
I've never understood this. In the NBA, you only get
about five new players a year that can really play
at a top level. So stars have ultimate leverage. Middle
middling players get paid a fortune and you know it.

(05:35):
In fans, role was like cheering for the big contract.
Why it's not spending it on you. You want your
team to be nimble enough that they can pay star
players when they're great, but when they erode, they get hurt,
they don't work as hard, just like a company. Just
like a company. If I ran a company, I would

(05:56):
pay my best people a lot of money, but if
they did go four or five years into it sideways,
I wouldn't be like baseball. I wouldn't. We want to
be locked into Joey Vado in your seven, eight, nine, ten.
I can't afford any pitching. This is where this is
where baseball and the NBA are a mess. You're paying
a lot of times for hope. Crossing your fingers. You

(06:18):
don't have leverage. There's not enough players coming into your sport.
The NFL has got it figured out. Everybody wins. The
Saints win, Michael Thomas and his family win, Mickey Loomis wins,
Gail Benson wins. The fans in New Orleans win because
they want to win now, and he's a great player,
so let's pay him now frontloaded sixty million guaranteed changes

(06:40):
his family's history, but it doesn't negatively change the fans
potential history. That's why why I think the NFL's number one.
You don't get trapped a good contract that I would
have paid every penny of it, all right, So, um,
speaking of pain, there's this, you know, consternation about oh, yeah,
paid Dak. We've got Pak, got paid Dak. So the

(07:01):
Dallas Morning News, a great American newspaper, went back and
they looked at all the great cowboy quarterbacks at twenty
six years old, Don Meredith, Roger Stauback, Danny White, Troy
ach Been, Tony Romo, and Dak Prescott. Well, what do
you know, Dak is way better than all of them,
not even close. Roger Stauback and Tony Romo had Tony
Romo had not attempted an NFL pass at twenty six either.

(07:23):
At Roger Stauback because of his military service, Don Meredith
and Troy Aikman weren't very good in the passes they
had thrown. And here is Dak hm. And this is
the funny thing about Dak. Dak's had to deal with
nothing but crap. In twenty sixteen, he comes in Tony Romo,
gets hurt and then calls an impromptu press conference, which

(07:46):
catches the whole state off guard at Dak's like, Oh,
I love Tony, I guess I'm starting. The following year,
he has to deal with Zeke's six game suspension. The
suspension hovered over training camp. Tyron Smith, the best left
tackle in football, gets hurt, and the last year he
loses Dez. He loses Jason Witton, he loses the best

(08:09):
center in football, Travis Frederick, and there's an anthem controversy
he has to put his arms around and the entire
time when the division. He also has to deal with
a public owner. He has to deal with a coach
who's on a perpetual hot seat. Pay the man. For
seven years, all you fans have done in Charlotte is

(08:31):
make excuses for Cam Newton. He's had above average offensive lines,
above average running games of an above average head coach,
above average defenses, Excuses, excuses, excuses. Dak Prescott has had
to deal with controversies, suspensions, an absurdly public There's not
even a second owner in the league that's close to

(08:52):
Jerry in terms of setting fires as an owner, controversy, suspensions,
the anthem thing, Jerry talking coach on the hot seat.
Jason Witten retires wins every single year, second winning his
record to Tom Brady since he came in the league.
Little perspective, Dallas Morning News says, let's look at all

(09:15):
these great Cowboy quarterbacks at twenty six, how were they?
Dak is significantly better than all of them. He doesn't
have the best arm, he's not the most mobile leadership,
good enough mobility, and oh by the way, oh by

(09:37):
the way, at the end of last year, I just
I just want to just want to make sure all
you Cowboy fans out there, and all you NFL hate
Dak guys, remember anybody know what Dak did in his
final eight games last year. Like a lot of young players,
he got better seven and one, sixty eight percent completion percentage,
passer rating over one hundred. He's also getting better. Here's

(10:02):
Dak Prescott last eight weeks of the NFL season. Young
people in all sports tend to get better. If you
look at his last eight weeks, seven and one, completion percentage,
passer rating, yards per game, up, up, up, up, up
against four playoff teams. All right, coming up, Saints fans

(10:25):
are trying to get in my face this morning. It's
not gonna work. That is not gonna work. I am
feeling good about the show and good about myself. Saints fans,
I think you're going to And then, by the way,
I've been right on this three straight years. I think
you're going into the tank this year. And I'll double
down on that. For those Saints fans who are of
the delusion that Michael Thomas's signing changes everything, it changes

(10:47):
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(12:19):
Nick write in ten minutes joining us, Greg Cosell Next hour,
Jane Slater, Rob Parker two. So yesterday I said, and
I've been pretty good on this. Joy saw me last
year say this. I pick a team and this is
the way it works in the NFL. This is not
a debate. There's at least one team every year in
the NFL that was really good and they fall through
the floor. It happens every year. I just happened to

(12:39):
predict the last two Minnesota in Jacksonville. I'm predicting New
Orleans this year. And so Michael Thomas signed a contract
yesterday and everybody's like, oh, will you say now, Colin,
You're still falling through the floor. We all thought you
were signing Michael Thomas. I didn't like to hold out situation.
I thought it was a distraction. But as Drew Brees

(13:00):
getting younger, is mark Ingram coming back, is your schedule
getting easier? New Orleans, it's over. You're falling through the floor. Okay.
The Saints offense last year, and this is how I
know Tom Brady and Drew Brees don't do steroids. Drew
Brees at the end of the last year look tired.

(13:20):
Your offense was a pop gun offense. Just like Tom
Brady didn't play well in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady
didn't play well in the AFC Championship. Tom Brady didn't
have a great December. Why because Drew and Tom are
old and they don't age particularly well when the weather
gets cold and they get hit and their five hundred
throws in. So did Drew Brees get early, get younger? Yesterday?

(13:42):
With a Michael Thomas signing. No, we all knew Michael
Thomas was coming back. The reason I have the Saints
falling through the floor is Carolina and Atlanta have excellent
rosters and excellent head coaches, and I think they bounced back.
I think the Saints schedule in the first month is
the toughest in the NFL, and the organization knows ob

(14:03):
j was a luxury for Cleveland. Cleveland already has a
quarterback in their athletic peak Baker. They have Jarvis, Landry,
David and Joeku. They have a stable of good running backs.
They didn't need Obj, but it's nice to have him.
Michael Thomas is a necessity for the Saints. He is

(14:24):
a necessity mark Ingram's gone, Max Unger retired. Tom Brady's
division hands him about five wins a year guaranteed. This
division doesn't hand you any wins guaranteed, except maybe hosting Tampa.
You can go in two against Carolina, you can go
in two against Atlanta, and Tampa can certainly beat you

(14:45):
in Tampa. So Michael Thomas doesn't change anything. We knew
he'd be a Saint because he has to be a Saint.
Drew Brees last year had the fewest attempts in fourteen years.
Drew Brees through under four thousand yards for the first
time in his Saint's career. The organization knows he needs
more help now. They know he was not the same
quarterback at the end of the year. And I love

(15:06):
Drew Brees. He's in my grade eight, the eight best
quarterbacks I've ever seen play. I am a huge fan
and I love Brady. But Brady in December on is
not as good as he is in October and November.
And the same for Drew Brees. Listen the Saints three
of the four top cap hits for the Saints offensive lineman.

(15:27):
The organization now is loading up their offense and paying
for their offense. New England pays for defensive players. The
Saints are paying for offensive players. Why Drew needs more
help now? So Michael Thomas wasn't a luxury. Michael Thomas
doesn't change anything. Michael Thomas was a necessity for this
football team. A highly productive, athletic, peak perimeter player for

(15:51):
an aging quarterback who lost Max Unger and mark Ingram
and who now December on looks like a guy who's
thirty nine forty, who's not taking peeds. He looks like
a normal human being. Hell, they age late in the
football season. Joy with the news. No, no, this is

(16:11):
the herd line news. All right, so we're all on
Zeke watch right now. Zeke is considered the best or
one of the best running backs in the NFL over
the last three seasons of his career and buried under
the car accident lawsuit. News last night was a report
from Josina Anderson who said just received another positive update
on the Zeke extension status. Still needs time, but if

(16:35):
things continue on the same track, I expect Elliott to
be the highest paid running back in the NFL across
certain metrics. Jives with the same tone I heard last Friday. Obviously,
nothing is done until signed. So now, what was that
thing you said about the wreck? Oh, there's a he
has a lawsuit. Remember the accident that he was in.

(16:57):
I believe it was last year and it kind of
to the sorry twenty seventeen and it kind of just
got it brushed under, you know, the rug there was
no injuries in it, but apparently he was being sued
by the person that he hits and now they're trying
to sue the Cowboys, and it's a lord oh mess.
It's probably not going to happen because you know, legal stuff.

(17:17):
But it is something else with Zeke right now. But
Josina is saying that it's it's trending towards he's going
to get an extension, and a very big extension at that. Now,
Todd Gurley is the highest paid running back right now
in multiple metrics. He his total value is fifty seven
point five million, which ranks first, and his yearly average
is fourteen point four million with forty five million in

(17:39):
guarantees and was not a huge factor in the Super
Bowl this year. Now, I'm all for everyone getting paid.
I would love for everyone to make as much money
as possible, but obviously the NFL is not structured that way.
I just think it's a mistake to take care of
Zeke before you take care of of that and amor
and a listen, it's it's you know, well, we'll see

(18:00):
how it plays out. This is just not a position.
I just have so many examples of teams who don't
do this. Zeke's best argument is I'm the best at
my position. If you're the best in your position in
the world, you generally get paid in all sports, in
music and entertainment, if you're the best actor, best actress,
you know, Serena is gonna get paid. She should like

(18:21):
to be. He doesn't deserve it. I'm just saying, can't
it wait till next year? Yeah? Yeah, well he forced it.
And so this is where you're at. Dallas is twenty
eight and twelve. With him, they average three hundred and
sixty one point five yards per game in four point
seven yards per rush, four and four without him. No,
not the same team. No, I mean, and a lot
of people argue that the reason that Zak is as

(18:41):
successful as he is it's because of Zeke. But you
can argue that in a lot of directions. But yeah,
Amari Cooper. Similarly, if you look at Dak with and
without Amari, he's a different quarterback. So I can make
an argument Amari has a mass He was seven and
two with Amari Cooper. Other than Tom Brady, can you
give me multiple examples of quarterbacks who are at least
level with no talent or well minimal talent around them

(19:04):
the pieces here and there. Philadelphia has got average To me,
Philadelphia has got average backs and average receivers. I think
they have a great system, and I think Carson Wentz
is a very unique talent. Who who I don't love Philadelphia.
I love Philadelphia's line play. I'm really mad on everything
else I love. I love their structure in their line play.
So I I just I wouldn't make that. I wouldn't

(19:27):
sign this contract with Zeke, But I listened. The Dallas
knows what they're doing. They appear to be well run
last five years. They're gonna pay them early, and here
we go. Well and another team that's in a little
bit of a pickle right now, the Dolphins, I would
describe it more of as a mess than a pickle.
But they have a quarterback battle. You know, as I
always say, if you have more than one quarterback, you
have no quarterback. That's weird. Well, Brian Flores announced that

(19:47):
Ryan Fitzpatrick has a leg up on Josh Rosen right now.
A right, you know, it's pretty clear to me the
ran Fitzpatrick is is leading the way. I think he's
done that in a lot of areas, from you know,
leadership to production on the field, You've been more productive
at the end of the day. That's where it comes down. To.

(20:07):
He runs the offense very efficiently. He has great rapport
with the entire team. He has a lot of leadership ability.
We need that to continue. We need him to grow
in that role. You know, this is an ongoing competition,
but you know, right now, I think I'd say he's
leading away. I never feel like the Dolphins. I just don't.
I don't understand the Dolphins. I don't like they're kind

(20:29):
of rudderless as an organization. I just never know where
they're going. I was very excited about this move with
Brian Flores. I was very excited about the trade for
Joshua's and and I thought that Ryan Fitzpatrick was a
good piece to the development puzzle. But it makes no
sense at all in any way to start Ryan Fitzpatrick
unless you're just scared of losing your job, which you're

(20:51):
not going to lose because they just hired you. The
Dolphins aren't that dysfunction. So you're basically complaining you don't
know the direction of the Dolphins, and who does this?
Is this is not I don't want to hear this.
You just traded for josh Rosen. Ryan Fitzpatrick is fifty
seventy five and one as an NFL starter. He is
a backup quarterback. He's a savory veteran for sure, but

(21:11):
let him teach Josh Rosen how to be a professional.
I feel bad for Josh Rosen. Really, where you get
drafted matters, the system that you go into matters, the
front office matters, and the coaching matters. And Josh Rosen
has had two really bad breaks so far, and this
is not helping his confidence either. So what you're telling
me is you're really interested in being average, not getting

(21:33):
a high draft pick next year, and not making any
progress with Josh Rosen, because that's what you're doing if
you start. Ryan Dolphins are a hard I feel this
with bad football teams in the NFL. There's one constant thread.
I can't from the outside have a sense of what
they're doing, like by the way you can be like
Cleveland is rebuilding. It has been bad, but I know

(21:53):
what they're doing. They're saying, we got Baker on a
rookie contract. We're going to get a lot of talent
for like two years until we have to pay. So
I see where Cleveland's going. They didn't need ob J
but they're like, we got the money, We're not paying
Baker or anything. Right, I saw what the rams were doing.
We're not paying golf anything. Let's take a chance on
a keep to leave. Let's go within. Dominicans sue they

(22:13):
weren't perfect guys in the locker room. I almost always
even bad teams or teams that are building, I get
where they're going. I never understand where Miami's going. There's
no identity, there's no directions. I like their helmets. Yeah,
I mean it's beautiful down there. It's hot. However, right now, though,
all right, finally, player mobility obviously has become more frequent
than ever in the NBA. But Zion, however, doesn't seem

(22:34):
interested in following that trend. He has his way, he'll
spend his whole career with the Pelicans. In an interview
with Complex, he said, I've always told myself I want
to stay with one team growing up. I loved what
Kobe did and Dirt did. Some people stay with one team,
but they get traded. My intentions are to stay with
the Pelicans my whole career. But if something happens, I
wouldn't leave because I hate the place. It's just the business.

(22:55):
So he left a little, a little crack in the
window there at the end of the end, Sir, But
I could see this from Zion. He feels like that
kind of player. I think it's a great thing to say.
I do believe Magic would have left had he not
been picked by the Lakers. I think Magic was too
magnetic to play in Charlotte. I think Shack was too

(23:18):
big to play in Orlando. The question isn't whether he
likes New Orleans or David Griffin, because I do think
the roster's fun. Is he so because he becomes so
magnetic that the league, the gravitational pull of the league.
I mean, look at this, joy Katie ends up in
Silicon Valley, then New York, Lebron ends up eventually in

(23:38):
Miami and Los Angeles. The history of this league is,
with very few exceptions, when you're super magnetic, the shoe company,
the agent, the league that it's not even your fault.
It's just you get pulled into Shack. Look shack at
a beautiful house on the Butler Chain of Lakes in Orlando.
I saw it. But the league is just pulling a

(24:00):
Nike and shoes and yeah, well that's what said. He
left a little, a little crock in the window there
at the end. If something happens, it's not because I
hate the place. He also talking the interview about playing
with R. J. Barrett, and he said that they had
talked about it when they were in college about you know,
wanting to play. The said, you know, if it works out.
If not, we understand. Michael Jordan gets drafted by Sacramento.
He didn't up there. Michael goes to Chicago. Well, who

(24:23):
was in Chicago. Well, when Michael was emerging, Oprah and
Cisco and Ebert, so you had like media superstars and
and Michael didn't spend his whole career there either, right,
So I think he's going to be so magnetic. The
challenges can you just keep the Zion business in a
small city. The business of winning helps you do that. Yeah,
I think they're gonna win some games there. Joy with

(24:45):
the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping
by The Herdline News. All right, let's go to New York.
First things first, co host with Chris Carter, Gena Wolf
as well my buddy Nick Wright via the Coward Global
Satellite Network. Listen, the Michael Thomas deal feels like to me,
I said, I think obj was a luxury for Cleveland.
They got plenty of pieces, but he's a nice luxury item.

(25:06):
He's a great player. Michael Thomas to me, is a
necessity for New Orleans. I mean this is you got
to get Drew Brees help. Because I watched him at
the end of the year, Nick, he looked old, and
I love Drew, So I think this kid deserves every
penny he made. What did you make of the highest
paid receiver contract? Ever? What do you make of it?
I mean, he's the highest paid temporarily, right, So Julio

(25:27):
is going to come in over the top of him.
Tyree hillmight Amari Cooper has a slight chance of it,
but he deserves to get paid. But you're one hundred
percent correct. They have to have him. Alvin Kamara is
a dynamic player. Michael Thomas is one of the most
reliable and productive receivers in football, and that's where they're
deadly weapons kind of end. Jared Cook could be very

(25:51):
good for them this year. He should be the best
tight end they've had since Jimmy Graham. But I do
think you're a little too low on the Saints. This
was a team at last year after losing the shootout
in Week one did fits Magic and Tampa. They did
go thirteen and one in their next fourteen games until
they rested everyone in Week seventeen. They then, of course,

(26:13):
were a bad call away from going to the Super Bowl. Now,
were they a different team the final five weeks of
the year when Mahomes overtook Breeze for League MVP, when
Breeze came back to the back a bit? Yes, But
when you play in New Orleans, when you can make
it to where your quarterback won't have to play cold
weather playoff games on a forty year old body, if

(26:34):
you have a good enough regular season, I'm not as
worried about the age. My worry for New Orleans is
they overcame the emotional devastation of the Minneapolis miracle. They
now maybe have even greater emotional devastation to overcome when
they don't think they lost that NFC Championship game, they
think it was stolen from them. Can they overcome that

(26:55):
again in what I do believe is their last best
chance to win a Super Bowl in this Drew brees EO,
I want to shift to Dak because we've both said
Dak's got a lower ceiling. I'll give you three quarterbacks
that I think have a little bit lower of a
throw the balls ceiling, Trubisky, Lamar and Dak. The difference

(27:16):
is I think Dak. I think Dak is showing us
something that we don't want to admit. In his last
eight games last year, he was very good. Now he
had a stinker. He had one stinker. Hey, Brady gets
those two. Everybody has those, Okay. I think Dak emerged
at the end of last year once you gave him
a Marie Tyron Smith came back his last eight games,

(27:40):
he completed seventy two twelveteen these three picks one hundred
three passer rating against four playoff teams. We know young
broadcasters improved, young attorneys approved right, young political figures improved.
Are you being a tad hard on Dak? Did we
see something at the end of the year that I
don't think we'll see from Bisky. I don't know if

(28:01):
Lamar can has a breakthrough ability. I kind of think
Dak's getting better. We just don't want to acknowledge it.
Do you see any of that? What I saw at
the end of last year was if you give Dak
Prescott every single thing a quarterback can ask for. The
best running back in the league, one of the best

(28:21):
offensive linemen in the league, and a number one wide
receiver and a softer defensive schedule. Then you know what,
maybe he can look like one of the eight best
quarterbacks in football. That's not a guy that I want
to pay thirty two million dollars a year for. Dak
has every game Deck's ever played, except for Zeke's suspension,
He's at a top two running back behind him. Every

(28:43):
game Deck's ever played, he's at a top five offensive
line in front of him, and most of the time
a top two or three offensive line. As soon as
he didn't have great weapons on the outside the beginning
of last season, he fell apart entirely. The Cowboys are
doing this backwards. Jerry Jones desperately needs to be right

(29:04):
in moving on from Tony Romo for Dak Prescott. When
it started to look like he was not going to
be right, they then trade away a first round pick
for a Marii Cooper, which not only cost them a
cheap good player on a rookie contract, but as a
new player jump their best player, Ezekiel Elliott in the

(29:25):
pay line, which I think potentially led to this holdout
we're dealing with now with Zeke. Listen, the NFL one hundred,
which is obviously a flawed list. They had fifteen quarterbacks
in that top one hundred, and we might disagree on
the order of those fifteen, but there's I don't think
a single one that you can make the argument Dak
is better than he is, at best the sixteenth best

(29:48):
quarterback in the league, probably eighteenth or not. Like I mean,
maybe you can say he's better than Kirk Cousins. I
know you want to say he's better than Cam, but
he's not. Like there's there's just those. So his best
case scenario is sixteenth out of thirty two. Like this
is that's not the guy you paid thirty two million

(30:08):
dollars a year or two, but it's going to be
the guy they paid thirty two million dollars a year
or two and they're gonna pay for it for the
next four or five seasons, I fear. Okay, speaking of
that list, I'm gonna put you in a tough position.
You love Baker, but you're from Houston, and you're from Houston,
and yeah, Casey Houston, so you've got You've got a
lot of peeps down in Houston, so I said this

(30:31):
week we're going crazy. Now we're going crazy. Baker finished
ahead of Deshaun Watson in the quarterback among players, and
I'm like time out, the numbers aren't close. Whereas Baker did,
I would say inherit very nice offensive pieces. Deshaun Watson

(30:51):
could not fly on a plane at one point last
year because he had a punctured lung. I'm gonna ask you,
you're a GM today, do you choose Baker or to
Shaun Watson to lead your team for the next seven
years in a vacuum GM today, It's very close, but
I choose Baker given the situations therein it's not close

(31:13):
at all. Like the situations do matter, and Colin you
are a far better talk show host than me. But
if you had to do it through string and a
ten can, I like my chances to Shaun Watson's playing
for a team who's GM right now? I think is
the former team chaplain of the New England Patriots. Look
it up. That is a true story. He don't doesn't

(31:35):
have a left tackle once again, he does have DeAndre Hopkins,
but that's about it. Baker has all the pieces. Baker's
more likely to be healthy. Baker over the last half
of last year was playing such exceptional football, and we
shouldn't act like the Cleveland Brown who I think. I
might be wrong, but I gotta do the math carry

(31:57):
the one. Oh yeah, in the two years before Baker
got there, they in one game that he just came
to a team and it's like, man, he did inherit
the ninety five Cowboys roster. He didn't. Okay, he's awesome
and everyone that's around him loves playing with him. And
I really like DeShawn. I like DeShawn a Ton. I
just think Deshaun didn't have the pieces, and I think

(32:17):
Baker's ultimate upside is just a little bit higher. Wow,
I am surprised by lack. I really am surprised by that.
I think, I really I think. I think Deshaun Watson
is doing what almost nobody in the league could do,
which is play behind the worst offensive line in the
league first two years in the league. I mean just
awful and put up. I mean, didn't they win eleven
games last year? That's almost unheard of in the NFL

(32:40):
with a bad old line. It's almost unheard of what
Deshawn's doing behind that offensive line. He should get creded for.
I'm all for building up DeShawn Watson. I'm with you
on that side of the argument. I think Deshawn's outstanding.
I think Baker has league MVP this year caliber ability.

(33:02):
I really listen, man, Guys in year two come in
and blow up the league. Mahomes did it, wentz almost
one an MVP in year two. Jared Golf just went
to the super Bowl. In year three. We saw Russell
Wilson went a super Bowl in year two. Guys in
year two can be really great, except for, of course,
your guy, Enjoy's guy Dak who in year two didn't

(33:22):
have the best running back in football for six games
and it all fell apart. All right, Nick, Right, all right,
we give were about a month out of football season. Nick.
It's absolutely great to see you and have a great Dan.
Thank you for coming on the show. You two, And
I apologize to your guy Andrew Luck today because I
was so wrong about him soap for so long because

(33:43):
I didn't know he was injured. So I I'll send
you that clip. You'll be very happy. I acknowledged Andrew
Luck as the guy you said he was. I came
on your show and compared him to Ryan Tannehill like
a total dupis I was wrong, Colin was right. I
owned it. We're moving on Nick right, good? Yeah, Well,
I mean everybody's not. You know. I once said on

(34:05):
the air that Juan Dixon University of Maryland would take
over the NBA and Kevin Durant couldn't bench one eighty five.
I had doubts about him. So it happens. You know,
we're not in the perfect business. Bill Belichick Whipp's on
draft picks. It happens. Okay. Yeah, My batting average is
like John just said, in my ear, it's like nine eighty.
It's not a thousand. Okay. I've whipped a couple of times.

(34:26):
Coming up next, John Gruden said something that was wildly
entertaining but didn't need to be said, and I can't
really figure out why he said it. And that's coming
up next in LA It's The Herd. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd week dayson noun Easter
nine am Pacific. Great to have you in, Mike Tomlin

(34:52):
and John Gruden, our first ballot Hall of Fame Sound
Bike quarter head coaches, they're great. So let me ask
you question. If you're Let's say you came home your
wife spent three hours making lasagna. I mean she really
put time into it. She would just felt like making
you a great dinner. And you sat down and said
you looked at it and said, yeah, I think I

(35:13):
want cheetos for dinner. That would be rude, right, that'd
be rude. So last year John Gruden had Derek Carr.
He completed sixty nine percent of his throws, he threw
for over four thousand yards, and his passer rating was
ninety four. That's with a bad offensive line, massive change
and letting Amari Cooper walk. That's a pretty good year

(35:38):
in a tough division. Chargers chiefs. And here's what Derek
Carr said about Here's what John Gruden said about his lasagna.
Here's what he said about his quarterback situation. This Nate
Peterman is growing on me. He's athletic. I know he's
had some nightmare performances in the NFL, but when you

(35:59):
watch you can see why. It's not all his fault.
But he's got some talent, he's got some athleticism, he
has some experience, here's an opening day starter for the
Buffalo Bills last year. I take that very serious. And
he's smart. He's done a good job. He's been consistent,
and I think he's starting to get his confidence back
and we all need that. He's your third string quarterback.

(36:23):
Could you say something nice about Derek Carr? Take out
Derek Carr's rookie year. And I've said this, take out Baker,
Sam Darnold, Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Troy Aikman.
A lot of these guys have had a horrible rookie years.
Take out a quarterback's first year in the league. Start
with year two, with coaching up, evil bad rosters, tough division.

(36:46):
Derek Carr's numbers last four years. Take out his rookie year, complete,
sixty four percent of his throws, ninety two passer rating,
one hundred and one touchdowns, forty two picks over four
thousand yards two hundred and fifty yards a game. That's
pretty good. That's a solid B quarterback to me, why

(37:06):
don't you talk about Derek Carr and Derek Cars the
guy that needs a little love. I mean, the Raiders
don't even they're not They're playing in a lame duck stadium.
They got two broadcasters, coach and GM. They got rid
of his best defensive player and his best offensive player.
They're rebuilding big chunks of their football team. Why aren't

(37:27):
talking about oh, Nate Peterrman. I don't even it's Gruden
sounding like a broadcaster talking about a backup who's challenging
a starter for a job. This Peterman's got something going on,
So I'm not I don't want to do I just
this morning, I said I and I the order on
this is close. I didn't give this a ton of time,

(37:49):
but I said, here's about this is what I would
say this morning. Are my top fifteen quarterbacks in the league.
Brady Mahalmes, Luck Wilson, Rodgers, Ben Rivers, Breeze, Matt Ryan,
went goff Garoppolo, Deshaun, Derek Carr, Maatt Stafford. H Cam's
probably sixteen, Baker's probably seventeen. So Derek Carr is very

(38:10):
much in the Deshaun Watson, Matt Stafford been a good
solid Bee hasn't won enough big games, but a good
salt be. But yet, Derek Carr is the only one
of those fifteen where don't you kind of feel like
the coach doesn't like him, Isn't Derek Carr the one

(38:30):
of the of the fifteen quarterbacks there? Virtually everybody is
singing the Praises has their back. Financially, Hell, Carson Wentz
can't stay healthy. They just paid them one hundred and
forty million dollars. I can't stay healthy. Derek Carr's the
only guy at the top fifteen quarterbacks. And maybe I
have him higher than you do, but I've got him
somewhere in the Garoppolo, Deshaun, Matt Stafford, Jared Goff. I

(38:55):
think Goff's a better arm talent, but but you know,
I don't get it, and I and you think I'm
picking on the Raiders. You know, by the way Gruden
talked about how much he loved Kyler Murray before the draft.
Could we give a little could just sprinkle a little
of that those love sprinkles on the cupcake, on the
Derek Carr cupcake. Could you just sprinkle a little love

(39:17):
around there. Derek carrs dealt with upheaval. He's moving the franchise.
He you know, the Raiders have been a mass offensive
line has been rebuilt. They got rid of Amari. They
got rid of Khalil Mack, little love, little support, not
asking for the world here. It is remarkable. You know.
The other thing I saw that um you know I

(39:40):
was talking about with Nick Wright about quarterback is not
a static position. Guys get better in guy's age. Breeze
and Tom Brady. I picked up on this about two
years ago, and Bucky Brooks called and said, I'd never
heard that. I said, if you really did a deep
dive on Tom Brady's December numbers, he looks tired. Tom
doesn't have the arms strength. It's okay. Tom's not taking peeds.

(40:03):
This is how you age, even if you drink Kale milkshakes.
Drew Brees at the end of last year, Drew Brees
did not look very good, but couldn't get the ball
down the field. You know later in the year. What
is interesting, though, is if you look at Dak Prescott,
a young quarterback, he was sensational in his last eight
games last year against four playoff teams, seven and one

(40:25):
seventy two percent completion. I don't know the answer to this.
We did a last eight weeks of the season. We
did We'll do a blind resume and I don't know
the answer. I don't know who this is. So for
our radio audience, the graphic shows Dak on the left
in his last eight games. And I do think the
last eight games of a season matter because Bill Belichick
has always said football starts at Thanksgiving. That's when the

(40:48):
NFL matters. New England does not play well in January.
Andy reidso has been great in January. The frustration for
Andy is is he great in December and January? He's
always played great in September. So, just to give you
a sense that quarterback the position is not static. Veteran
quarterbacks could show age late in season, and young quarterbacks

(41:08):
can improve later in seasons as they get more comfortable
with a playbook and of coaching staff. So my staff
put this up here for the radio listeners. I apologize
Dak Prescott's last eight games. Then there's two silhouettes, and
the silhouettes next to Dak Prescott. One quarterback went four
and three, the other three and five. Both completed a

(41:29):
significantly lower completion percentage. Both, by the way, had lower
passer ratings and similar TV to interception ratio. So can
you unveil who this is? For the TV oh, Tom
Brady and Aaron Rodgers. How about that? So it's a
thing like this quarterback thing. Veteran guys at the end

(41:54):
of years can erode. Young guys at the end of
a year can elevate their healthy still have a little
kick in their spring in their foot and then their arm,
and they get better with coaching and more experience and
see more films, just the reality of being a young employee.
You get better. So for all the dacked doubters out there,
interesting numbers, last eight games, he was better than Brady

(42:16):
and Aaron Rodgers. 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'd like. Ah, here we go, Hour two, This
live in Los Angeles is the Herd. Wherever you may
be in however you may be listening. We are live

(42:38):
in Los Angeles and iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS one.
Joy Taylor is joining me and Greg co selling about
three minute stops by. So don't go anywhere, Joy, how
are you? I'm doing great? You know how in art business,
Joy people always say they don't listen, right, But they
always hear it. Okay, they pushed back on social media.
Everybody says I never hear they listen. If there was

(43:02):
a guy on radio and TV blasting you all day,
would you not hear about it if not directly from friends?
So Nick saban, I don't listen to the critics. Really,
So a week ago I blasted Alabama. I said, the
reason you're struggling to sell out your games even though
you're winning all your football games, is this garbage home
schedule you give to your fans. It's garbage three or

(43:22):
four times a year. They're play Panera bread and Roast
beef tech and Alabama students are like, I'm not paying
top dollar for this. I'm not waiting for the Auburn game,
not waiting for the Georgia game. It's garbage. So a
day later, Alabama does something they haven't done in six years.
They scheduled the home and home with Wisconsin. Oh interesting,

(43:43):
they don't hear, though Nick never hears anything. Alabama is
shrinking their stadium this year, shrinking capacity. Why because kids
don't want to go even though they win. Because fans
want to be entertained. It's not entertaining being citadel fifty
eight to eight. And I like Nick Saban, but he
controls four games a year on that schedule, and he
won't play legitimate teams. Well, it's really difficult for us

(44:06):
to get a home and home. Funny, two days after
I ripped you, you found Wisconsin. It's not hard at all,
but you have to be willing to go to Wisconsin,
called Chris Peterson. It at Washington, they'll do a home
and home with you, but you're gonna have to go
to Seattle. And you don't like leaving the South. You
don't like going on the road. Because in year four,
Nick Saban lost three games at Alabama and he said,

(44:30):
I'm not going on the road anymore, and he started
messing around with the schedule. Pete Carroll at USC didn't
duck anybody. Pete Carroll would go to Virginia Tech and
not get a home game back. Pete Carroll would go
to Ohio State. Pete Carroll would go anywhere anytime. He
went to Auburn, he went to Arkansas, he went to
Virginia Tech. Pete Carroll went anywhere. He wasn't afraid of

(44:51):
anybody with USC's talent. He went to Virginia Tech one
year with a great team, and I don't think they
ever came back out to LA because Pete Carroll knew
in Los ange US people are not going to tolerate
Utah State. They want to be entertained, and Alabama fans
are like, we're tired of eating crap. They want to
go to Wisconsin and see Wisconsin come and don't tell
me the SEC just too tough. I'll give me a break.

(45:14):
If it's too tough, why do you win it every
year on a cakewalk? George is good. Everybody else in
that conference underachieves the last decade. Lord, I mean next year.
In next year, Alabama's three out of conference games are
Georgia State, Kent State, and UT Martin And then they

(45:35):
play USC. But they won't. They won't play USC on
the road. Well, let's go to Dallas and play him,
which you know you have like eighty percent of the
crowd because people in LA are too busy botoxing. Okay,
I'm done ranting, am I'm done now, but don't tell me.
You don't listen a day after I ran. And that's
nothing against Nick. I like Nick. But the reason people
aren't going to your games is because you're play garbage.

(45:57):
You can't keep hiking the prices up. Sometimes you just
got to hear the truth. Colin, Yeah, dang it all right,
Greg Cosell, almost three or four decades of four, you're right,
in between three and a half decades. At NFL Films,
we bring him in to Los Angeles a couple of
times a year. Greg, get up here. I'm sorry, I
just I went on hinge there for a couple of minutes.

(46:18):
Let's say we need. I was a little unhinged for
a couple of minutes. But this is why listen to
reality is in anything. If you double the ticket prices
for movies and the movies stunk half the time, you
wouldn't go to the movies, Right, You're right if they
If a restaurant doubled their prices, and about every other
time you went to a restaurant, you're like, this food
is not very good, you wouldn't go to the restaurant.
So do you think the SEC isn't as good as
people say? No? No, I think the SEC's fine. But

(46:41):
I'm tired of hearing it's so hard to win games here.
It's it's hard to go eleven and oh in the
Mountain West Conference. It's hard to win games. It's a
bunch of eighteen year old kids. Yeah, they have finals
and girlfriends and they you know, they're transferring now and
they leave early for the ar. You didn't mention Utah State,
But we'll get to that. Well, we're gonna get to that.
There's an interesting at Utah stay, yes, there is. Okay, Greg,

(47:02):
you look at film objectively, and so we talked about
you know, you are one of the first people who
said I like Aaron Rodgers, but he ad libs out
of too many wells and see plays. So knowing what
Matt Lafleur did for a year in Tennessee and knowing
Aaron Rodgers, how does that thing recomcile? How does it work?
Do you think it's going to be fascinating? Because Flora's background,

(47:23):
as you know, Colin is Kyle Shanahan. It's Sean McVay.
Last year, towards the end of the year in Tennessee,
he basically put Mario to under center, ran the bow
with Derrick Henry. His offense starts with the quarterback under center,
with the play action pass game, and it's all built
on structure. Look what Kyle Shanahan did with Nick Mullins.
Nick Mullins became a somewhat efficient quarterback because that kind

(47:47):
of offense defines the reads and the throws for the quarterback.
The quarterback has to play within the structure of the offense.
That's why coaches work eighteen hours a day, That's why
they do that. So it's going to be very interesting
with Aaron Rodgers, who of course already said, hey, you're
going to take away my ability to do a lot
of things. But we'll see how that works out. I'm

(48:08):
curious to see. I'm not real optimistic about that, No,
I'm not. I think Aaron Rodgers has spent much of
his recent career playing too much outside of structure. When
you watch tape. Okay, this is not, by the way,
in interpretation. This is a mathematical equation here. This is
like saying two and two is four. When you watch
tape of Aaron Rodgers, there's a ton of times where

(48:30):
the design of the route concept presented the throw within
the timing and structure, and he did not throw the ball. Now,
we know he's great in other areas. We know he
can make things happen outside of structure. We know he's
got a great arm. But at the end of the day,
you have to play in the NFL within the structure
of the offense to be really, really good all the time,

(48:54):
and I'm anxious to see how that works. Coaching obviously matters.
The knock Mike McCarthy was not creative enough, not enough motion,
blah blah blah. Right, but sometimes I could argue we
may give the coach too much credit. I like Sean
mcvagh a lot, but when I watched Jared Goff, I
see a tall, coachable, solid throwing, accurate, precise thrower of

(49:18):
the football who throws a feathery ball down the field.
I love McVeigh, but I think we're we are overlooking
what I see as a more talented Matt Ryan and
Jared Goff. I think Jared Goff's a very smooth thrower.
You know, you walk a very fine line because ultimately,
coaches are supposed to do a good job in defining
the reds in the throwers call, and that's their job.

(49:40):
Sean McVeigh did an excellent job with that basically until
the Super Bowl when Bill Belichick gave him some looks.
And you know, he's a young coach, and he even
admitted he wasn't ready to respond to that. But Goff
is a somewhat programmed quarterback. Now, that in and of
itself is not a negative statement. Some would say that
about Brady correct. I mean, if you talk to coaches

(50:00):
or you just talk to people and say, you know,
system quarterback, a lot of people think that's a negative term.
For a coach, that's a positive term because they have
a system and they want it executed. Jared Goff executed
Sean mcvay's system at a very high level. He's done
that now for two years in a row. And you
know Goff is, he's very programmed. They're under center more

(50:21):
than any team in the league. They are more than
any team in the league by far. They're under center,
not much shotgun at all. Everything is built off the
outside zone run action game, which limits pass rushed by
the front four, and it also impacts second level players
so that the reads become very defined and clear. For
a quarterback, Goff is not real good when it's not

(50:43):
clear and defined. But Sean McVay does a great job
with that. That's why I use the word program That's
what Goff is. He's programmed, but very very efficient. By
the way, Drew Brees is more programmed. Tom Brady has
more going wrong with that. Jared Goff, Joe Montana. Here's talent,
guys that weren't Marino, No super Bowls, Farv and Rogers

(51:04):
combined too. We buy into this. I love my talent.
Peyton Manning to some degree, had a system that he
had created and played within the structure of Payton zone system.
I think we freak out if we're so caught up
in arm strength and we're listen to reality and outside
of structure. Now that's become the new thing. These guys
who can run around and make plays. And yes, are

(51:26):
there times that that does become important because defenses have
become so detailed and so nuanced, particularly on third down
where the blitz packages have increased tenfold in the league. So, yes,
are there times the quarterback does have to be able
to make a play, no question. Okay, So this is
where you and I have differed a little. Russell Wilson,

(51:47):
who I think is as in his intuition is remarkable.
I would agree, but he needs because of his hyper athleticism,
he needs to be allowed and his size, his stature
so with Russell, I see some Steve Young, which is
you'd be diffusing some of his talent if you didn't

(52:08):
allow him to just kind of make it up on film.
Is Russell confounding to you? Sometimes? I think what most
interested me about Seattle last year, and I'd love to
hear your take on this is they brought in Brian Schottenheimer,
and obviously Pete Carroll allowed this to happen. That's why
I brought him in. But they ran an offense that
started and was founded on the run game, a lot

(52:30):
of under center, a lot of six offensive linemen. So
they basically ran an offense in which they were limiting
the number of throws of the quarterback and basically asking
him to be a complimentary piece, which is very interesting
given that we see Russell Wilson as a great, great player.
But the way they ran their offense pretty much said, hey,
we've got a quarterback. We don't want to ask him

(52:51):
to do too much. But because Wilson is a very
good thrower and a terrific deep ball thrower by the way, Yes,
so there were a lot of big shot plays where
they max protected with six and seven, particularly when they
lined up with six offensive lineman, and he's a great
deep ball thrower. But the overall philosophy of their offense
was more about Russell is a piece, not the guy.

(53:13):
But is that Pete Carroll's identity where Pete like Saban,
don't lose it for me offensively? Maybe when it defensively.
I mean he is a defensive coach. And certainly in
Russell's first what was it three years, Yeah, I can't
remember when Marshawn laughed, but certainly in the first three
years or so with Russell there, the offense ran through
Marshaun and last year it essentially ran through Chris Carson.

(53:35):
I mean, I think they ran the ball. And I
know there's some of Russell's runs in this, but I
think they ran the ball either first or second most
attempts in the league. Last year. They were a running
football team in terms of volume and in terms of
structure with the quarterback under center. Yeah, I'm not opposed
to that. I don't want my quarterback throwing forty two
times a game. I don't think anybody does. I want

(53:57):
twenty eight, and I want you to go twenty one
to twenty eight. That's what I would want, you know,
it's hard to protect. I mean, you look at the
duy defensive players now have become so athletic and look
offensive lineman. Yes, have they become more athletic. But the
reality is you could still make the argument Colin that
the biggest mismatch in the NFL is pass rushers versus

(54:18):
offensive lineman. Athletically, that's a question. So you do not
want your offensive line to have to pass protect forty
five times a game. Now, it's one thing on first
and ten. Now, a lot of teams do a lot
of things on first down or normal down in distant
situations with quick game stuff where the ball gets out.
But you certainly don't want to ask your quarterback to
have five and seven step drops too often because it's

(54:40):
just too much of a burden on your pass protection.
All right, Greg Cosell coming back. We'll talk Baker, We'll
talk Darnald, We'll talk Lamar, We'll talk Drew Brees, who
I thought really looked old at the end of last year,
which tells me Drew's not taking peeds and he's aging naturally.
That's why I can tell that he's on the up
and up. That's coming up with Greg co Sell, listen.
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(56:04):
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
All Right, Greg Koseell, welcome back. Just love this stuff.
All right, let's get into stuff. My job as a
sports opinion is to have opinions beyond the film You
primarily overwhelmingly well you do the film stuff. So Baker

(56:24):
Mayfield's whizzing the ball, the planting flags, gravins, chunk police video.
So I've been very critical at Johnny Man's l Jamis Winston,
Baker Mayfield coming into the NFL with their off field garbage. Now,
one of those guys is a bust. One of those
guys is close to done. And Baker's yet to me
to prove he's a great player. A lot of people disagree.
He's only played one year, but he had a very
good season. Okay, He's one and five against playoff teams.

(56:44):
He has a rookie quarterback. I mean, I hear. All
I'm doing is looking at his particular skill set, and
I think his skill set is very, very good. And
I think you got to see him throw it live.
He's got a really good arm, he snaps it. He's compact,
he's twitchy, he's accurate, he can make plays outside of
the pocket. Short. Yeah, but I think because he's so

(57:06):
quick in everything he does that that's not a big factor.
I mean, I think he's he's a quicker, more compact
thrower than Russell Wilson, who tends to drop the ball
down to his waist when he throws the ball. But
I think Baker Mayfield has very good traits to be
a really good quarterback. I'm not a guy who, you know,
annoints guys after one year in the league. I think

(57:27):
that's ridiculous. The guy's played one year, He's played very well.
I like the player on tape about Sam Darnold, what
do you think of him? I think he's terrific. I
think Darnold is in a good situation with Adam Gaze.
I think Donald's a fascinating guy. Darnald is actually very
good movement wise outside of the pocket. But there's an
interesting dichotomy there Colin because he almost has heavy feet

(57:49):
in the pocket, and I know they're working with him
on that. It's why he throws a lot of balls
seemingly off balance because his footwork in the pocket. He
has a tough time moving his with his eyes, but
he does have a knack of making off balance throws
that are accurate, and he does throw a very good
deep ball. I like Sam Darnel, I like where he's going.

(58:10):
I thought he was very inconsistent last year, but I
think there's talent there and I really like what Adam
Gase does offensively. Okay, so let's explain that. Because I
think Gays and by the way, Lavon Bell as a
pass catching and running back. I also think and Jamison
crowd or a slot receiver. I do think Sam inherited
mostly inferior support O line back receiver talent I thought

(58:31):
was kind of weak. I think their O line might
be a little better than you think. I think obviously
they've got a back in Bell. Bell. In his last
year in the league, he caught a lot of balls,
but he wasn't really used much as an intermedia type receiver.
It was a lot of checkdowns and a lot of screens.
Adam Gase, I guarantee will use Bell in a more
diverse way as a receiver, and I think they're really

(58:52):
excited about that. They feel Bell can add that they're
going to miss Chris Herndon the tight end, who they
absolutely love. He's a guy who can would at why
he'll miss the first four games. They've got Robbie Anderson,
who's clearly a vertical dimension, but they don't have great receivers.
But I think they'll be an interesting team as the
year progresses, when they get herned in back. And I
think Adam Gas does a really nice job with his

(59:14):
route concepts. He's really good at attacking defenses, understanding what
defenses are playing, and designing routes that beat coverage. I
say Mitch Trubisky and Lamar Jackson are similar to me.
I think they have ceilings that are fairly lowest throwers.
They're both athletic, and they need on their rookie deals
a lot of support to win when you eventually have

(59:35):
to pay them. I don't think they're as good, say
as Dak, who gets a lot of criticism. Right, Dak's
better than both. I think Trubisky Lamar are limited. So
Joy and I were talking about this yesterday. Baltimore has
gone all in on Lamar's running, and they're like, we
gotta run him twenty times. We've got to. It's part
of me that Joy and I are like, that doesn't
work in this league long term. But as he's growing
as a quarterback. Could I not argue for a year

(59:57):
that's what Seattle did with Russell. Make plays into figure
out that. Yeah, but Russell was a better thrower. Look,
Lamar did not throw the ball well last year. He
actually threw it better his last year at Louisville than
he did last year in the NFL. Now, they have
Greg Roman as their offensive coordinator, and as you may recall,
Greg Roman was the offensive coordinator for Colin Kaepernick in
the first couple of years Kaepernick played well, and they're

(01:00:17):
going to run a lot of that stuff. It'll be
a lot of multiple tight ends. It'll be run game.
The quarterback will be a part of that. The thing is,
I think the league defense is that better now than
they did when Kaepernick started doing it, because it was
kind of new to the NFL. At some point, Lamar
is going to have to throw the ball from the pocket.
You have to do that in a league. What they
want to do, obviously, is try to create situations in

(01:00:39):
which they can get predictable fronts, predictable coverages, and then
have Lamar versus those where everything is defined for him. Now,
obviously he can run and he can create problems for
defenses with his running. The question is how much can
you do that on a week to week basis? Yeah,
And I think when you get to the playoffs and
you face better defenses and better coach is in better coordinators.

(01:01:01):
That's where I think Trubisky and Lamar Trubisky was frustrating
for Matt Nagie last year in the playoffs. There are
players he couldn't make and Naggie does a really nice
job as well scheming throws, but Trubisky, And again, it
doesn't mean Trubisky can't be successful. And I made this
point a couple of weeks ago to someone, and I
took a lot of grief for it. Trubisky is not
a natural thrower of the football. He's not. He's got

(01:01:21):
kind of a funky delivery. He's a little bit of
a pusher. He lifts his back leg off the ground
before he delivers the ball, which means he locks his
front leg, which makes it difficult for him to really
drive the football. So he's got some limitations as a passer.
But again, now you're getting into scheme. Naggie's scheme can
really help, but it doesn't mean he can't throw twenty

(01:01:41):
six touchdowns and be at least a quality NFL quarterback.
It's I'm not suggesting he's going to throw four touchdowns
and thirty picks, but I think there are some limitations
to his throwing ability. So the only question you never
answer on my shell, and it makes me laugh, is
and I agree with you. When people, okay, when people
suggest that Nick Foles is better than Carson went Well,

(01:02:04):
that's ridiculous. You just won't answer the question. It's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous, Thank you. It is ridiculous. It's not even
worth a conversation exactly. You and I could have a
cocktail be looking for conversation and would not. By the way,
I love Nick Foles, you know, and he's a terrific guy.
I've met him, been around him, you know. I think
he's a really professional NFL quarterback. You can line up
and win with Nick Foles. I mean, look, he won

(01:02:25):
a Super Bowl, but I'm talking about over the course
of sixteen games, as you're starting quarterback. You can line
up and win with Nick Foles. But if you're just
talking about level of talent, Carson Wentz talent wise is
probably top five, top six in the league. You would
never talk about Nick Foles like that. By the way,
So you were at Eagles camp. I was at Eagles
camp on Saturday. People say Wentz is thinned out, he

(01:02:45):
looks great. Yeah. And also they've got some weapons this year.
I mean, Deshan Jackson gives them the vertical weapon. There's
a nice rapport developing there. They've got two really good
tight ends. I think they're two tight end sets are
going to be really difficult for teams because Dallas Goddard
is very, very athletic. He's more athletic than Arts. Hurts
is a better route runner obviously at this point, but
Goddard's a really intriguing player. I think Philadelphia, there's three

(01:03:09):
teams to four teams in the n of five teams
in the NFL that I really feel our favorites to
win it all. Philly, Rams, Patriots, Chiefs, Colts. Colts are interesting.
I mean, their offense was very good a year ago.
Andrew Luck is very good. Frank Wreich did a great job. Yeah, yeah,

(01:03:29):
explain their offense because Luck actually had his best year. Well,
Luck had his best year for a couple of reasons.
A Number one, what Reich did is design and offense
in which there were many more three step and five
step drops, so the design of the play forced Luck
to get the ball out, so Luck ran less, was
less of a reckless player, did not put his body
in harm's way. Plus I think he understands that he
can't do that. But they were much more designed throws

(01:03:52):
in which the ball came out quicker. Plus they did
a lot of multiple tight end stuff. Multiple tight end
stuff can be very tough on defenses, especially if those
tight ends can line up outside the formation and be
detached like an Eric Ebron, because what happens is his
teams normally play their bass personnel to that, and you
can often get mismatches with athletic tight ends six seven
tight end runs. Nobody Abron has almost big wide receiver

(01:04:16):
movement ability, so it becomes very difficult. And then, of course,
you know, even without great whiteouts. They did not have
great whiteouts a year ago. Although I think t Y
Hillton's a lot better than people think, but you know,
it's just he's not six two to twenty. But they
did a great job schematically to set up throws four locks,
so the ball came out And I'm anxious to see
Marlon Mack this year in the context of that offense.

(01:04:38):
By the way, before we let you go, Greg, and
Greg's on tomorrow for another twenty minutes, we give almost
nobody twenty minutes. I'm not sure if Howard Stern walked in,
i'd give me. I appreciate that. Okay, so you're gonna
give our fans there's a college quarterback that nobody watching
this show has seen play in a state Idearly Love
tell me the quarterback in college to keep everybody keep

(01:05:00):
your eyes on this kid if they're on TV this year.
Jordan Love Utah State would not surprise me if he
stays healthy, if he's viewed as a top ten, top
five quarterback in next year's draft. Okay, by the way,
you can hold me to that. I beg but I
think I don't think I will be Okay. Carson Wentz
came out of nowhere. Josh Allen, myoming came out of nowhere.
We've had and rather way. We talked about Josh Allen

(01:05:20):
two years ago, and I told you about him. You did.
So this kid is Jordan Love Utah State. Okay, we're
writing that down, Goulay, Why don't you do something for
a change, Write that down for him. Okay, would you say,
would you say? Gulay six four two twenty five. He's
got Carson Wentz Bill and he throws it really nicely.
He's an over the top thrower and you don't see

(01:05:42):
that very often anymore. Good, great scene you will see tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to it. Joy the news, No, no,
turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well,
bad news for the Bengals. Aj Green's timetable to return
to the field might be longer than initially predict did.
He had ankle surgery yesterday and he's expected to miss

(01:06:03):
regular season games, and Zach Taylor confirmed that yesterday. Oh boy,
there's a good chance he's gonna miss a couple of games.
We're hopeful he's back at the beginning of the season.
So a little more extensive than nichal I thought, but
we're thankful that it wasn't a lot worse and he'll
get a chance to still show all the things that
he was setting out to do the season and he's
a fighter. Where they feel lost as a franchise right now. Yeah,

(01:06:25):
I mean, this is this is bad news for them.
He's expected to the miss six to eight weeks. He
had torn ligaments ligaments in his left ankle. I mean,
in the last three years they've gone six and ten,
seven and nine, six and nine. I didn't like their draft.
I thought their draft was weird. I thought they reached
on people. There were one of the few teams I
didn't like their draft at all. And he missed seven

(01:06:46):
games in twenty eighteen two the right toe injury. Such
a great player, it would be amazing to see him
in a different situation. Right he feels like one of
those players that just is a standout player for an
organization that can't get the right piece around him. There's
no question there's been those my entire life in the NFL.
You see these players and you're like, God, I wish
they would have been given a break and have played

(01:07:06):
with the like they shine in the situation where no
one does. Yeah, and it's it's crazy to imagine what
he would be with someone like Deshaun Watson. I mean,
can you imagine, Well, just look look at DeAndre Hopkins situation.
MAYJ is really good. He's really a pro, hard worker, quiet,
no nonsense, just a just a kid. Now that's a
receiver I would pay for, right he break I get

(01:07:28):
no nonsense. The only downside to him is he's been
banged up. Some of that's just they've relied on him
for seventy years exactly. I mean, he's he's the guy
they go to. So speaking of being banged up, Todd
Gurley recently told reporters to stop putting bad energy on
his knee, and that has not stopped the questions. There's
more energy going towards that knee, and Sean McBay seems
to be over all the questions of girls knee. Also,

(01:07:52):
he's feeling good and he's right on track with where
we want him to be. I do. And you know
what a player of his caliber that's as specialist he
is to be expected. But he's in a good place
and we feel good about Codd right now. Negative vibe. Listen,
it's the Rams address this though. I'll give the Rams credit.
They went out and drafted a very good running back
from Memphis in the third round, so they're not they

(01:08:14):
don't have their head in the sand here. They're like,
they're not ignoring it, Nope. And then they're they're Gurley
is going to be a sixteen carry guy, not a
twenty four. So they got to pay him, So let's
make this puppy work. But the thing about the paying
him is this football, right, This is a risk you
take anytime you pay any football player, no matter what
the position is. Todd Gurley was the best or top

(01:08:35):
three running back in the league when he got paid,
like he's the highest paid running back in the league.
For a reason. He back to back eighteen hundred yards seasons.
But we're looking at it now and what happened in
the Super Bowl? Ten carry thirty five yards and you're
wondering what happens, like, how does that? How does that
drop off happen? And of course that's why all this
bad energy is going towards the knee. It's not because

(01:08:55):
people want him to continue to fail. They want to
know what happened and is he going to get back
to where he was now. The good news is Jared
Goffe's a year older like Dak. I think quarterbacks tend
to get better. Not gonna have to rely on him
as much. Cooper cop is back, so they have a
great wide receiving cord, they have good tight ends, solid
but aging offensive line. They have a very good head coach.

(01:09:17):
They drafted or running back, so The good news is
they really needed Todd Gurley two years ago to carry
this offense. Now they just need Todd Gurley at times
to be the work. And that's fine. That's fine. I
don't think that any team should ever get caught up.
And you know, we talked about this a lot with
des Brian and Dak. He shouldn't get caught up. And
you pay this guy this much, or this guy is

(01:09:37):
the superstar, so let's force everything to him to make
this contract worth it. The contract is the contract, it
is what it is. Don't get caught up in the
money of it, and do what's best for the team,
which drafting and running back would prove that. So he
doesn't need to be the every down guy. He needs
to be able to do what he's best at in
spurts like he's at. Hopefully his knee holds up. Finally,
Khalil Mack feels a sense of urgency to push towards

(01:09:58):
a Super Bowl title while he still performing at an
elite level. Talked to reporters yesterday and recalled conversations with
his former teammates Charles Woodson and Justin Tuck about players
limited time frames, running out of time. Man it's not
that much time all these older dudes because they kind
of let us know. Man, at an early point in
my career, he's like, man, we ain't got no time

(01:10:19):
to waste. Man, We're trying to win. Absolutely, you gotta win.
You gotta win now. I'll tell you they're defensive personnel,
that they have a good roster. The Bears were dysfunctional.
They were the Lions. I mean, if you take out
that brief time with Jim McMahon, they've been a lot
like the Lions for the last twenty years. You alos
feel like owner GM. The only difference with the Bears

(01:10:40):
is Chicago is such a sports city. Yes that it
never really felt like it was that's bad. And you know,
they had er Lacker like they had some they had
some stars in and out there. But I don't I
don't know what to make of the Bears. Like, I
think they have a really talented team and obviously they
made the playoffs. Sear their twelve and four Mitch Trubisky show.

(01:11:01):
It's some promise, but I don't I don't think Mitch
Trubisky is ready to win a Super Bowl. I don't
know if he's I don't know if Mitch Trubisky can
win a road playoff game. I think it's Soldier field.
He could win one bad weather, they run the hell
out of it. They play defense. If you send him
down to a warmer weather in January and said, go
carry us in a firework show. But by I'll tell

(01:11:21):
you what. I love their coach. I love their young
gm that they have. They have big time players everywhere else,
and they don't have bad odds to win the Super Bowl?
Are what about fifteen to one? They are, Well, the
Patriots are our favorite obviously at plus seven hundred. Bears
down there at plus nine hundreds, so that's a little high.
But they're in the Cleveland Brown category, yeah, which right now?

(01:11:44):
So well, and I think the Bears have a better coach. Well,
I mean, yeah, we have no idea what Freddie Kitchens is,
so you have to feel better about their their personnel
in that regard. But I just I think they're going
to be what they were last year. I just don't.
I don't know that Trubisky like good but a lower
sea Yeah, I don't think he's there yet. Joy with
the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping

(01:12:06):
by the Herdline news. You know Rob Parker, it just
comes and just lights a big fire on the set.
He's got all sorts of opinions and it just they
just drive people crazy. And Rob Parker's right around the corner.
I'm so much fun, Greg co Sell, I know that
whole meat sandwich thing. It's just I feel like I'm
just eating a huge burger and it just got so much.

(01:12:29):
And now now Rob Parker's gonna come and spoil it,
and he's just gonna throw matches in gasoline on the
set and he's coming up. Just got a luminum carry
on from Away Luggage. It's incredible luggage. Every feature of
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(01:12:52):
slash Colin twenty bucks off when you end of the
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The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week. Within the iHeart Radio app, search Herd to
listen live or on demand whenever you like. Tonight, some

(01:13:13):
of soccer's biggest names, including Wayne Rooney's lots on Ibrahimovich
and Joseph Martinez joined forces to battle at Letico Madrid
and the MLS All Star Game. Catch the action at
seven thirty Eastern on FS one and the Fox Sports App.
By the way, Wayne Rooney's had a good year. I
at the MLS does a good job of taking aging
European stars, bring them over, let them starve for a team.
Wayne Roundy has like ten or eleven goals, top five

(01:13:35):
in the MLS. Slaton has a sixteen goals, third in
the MLS. A very very smart business move. We're gonna
bring over aging stars for a growing sport, fledgling sport
in America, growing league, and we're gonna let it. We're
gonna insert a David Beckham, Awayne Rudy and it works.
They're they're not they're very good players. You know who
did that before? Remember the New York Cosmos would pay
Lay and Georgie l Canajo, Canalium, Franz Beckenbattle, all great

(01:13:59):
stars who came and played. I went to a game
at Giant Stadium. Cosmos were great, were great and Baal
for the equalizer. That very nice. So I you were
doing baseball. I was falling in love with soccer I
remember that very vividly. Okay, so you are you do
not like Dak Prescott what. I'm just going by the numbers.
It's not a personal thing. Seven and one, last eight games.

(01:14:22):
He's a real leader, he's a real grown up. There's
no nonsense, there's no grabbing your stuff. He's a real
grown up. I get all that, but don't kid yourself.
Ezekiel Elliott is the reason why the Cowboys are on
the level where people think they have a chance to
win a super Bowl. We've seen it without when Ezekiel's
not there. Dak is not that same quarterback. We just

(01:14:44):
had the Athletic poll with fifty five NFL front office
and coaches, right, and where did he rank? Third tier quarterback?
That's a fair rating. He can't win you a game
by itself. Okay. Cam Newton was also in the third tier.
Why do we support Camin always banging on Dad because
I think Dak isn't even in his prime yet. I
think Cam's coming out of his prime. Yeah, but the

(01:15:06):
difference is you saw Kim put on that unbelievable MVP season.
He got his team to the super Bowl. They were
fifteen and one, So you gotta give him some credit
for that. We've seen him. Know, he did have a
great year. I've watched NBA basketball. There are guys that
have great years baseball. Brady Anderson out of the blue,
hits fifty Jack, remember that. Yeah, there are guys who

(01:15:28):
have great ears. But Cam over time, I think it's
underachieved expectations. I think Dak's overachieved and I still think
he's getting better. But I think Dak everything has to
be perfect, and that's the thing. You gotta have the defense,
gotta have the offensive line, gotta have the running back,
and then you can cover up some things when you
ask him to be that guy. You can't tell me
right now, game on the line, forty five seconds ago

(01:15:52):
and you've given the ball to Dak Prescott to win
the game. I can name you ten o the guys
I would rather have the football. But if he's eleven,
who else is out there? Well, But I'm just saying
I'm not paying a third tier quarterback thirty million. Those
other ten guys I can't sign. And here's the other thing.
If Jerry Jones does not sign Ezekiel Elliott, given with

(01:16:14):
all the stuff on the table, he's trying to win.
It'll be his second worst decision since him and Jimmy
Johnson parted back in nineteen ninety five. Back you know,
that was the last time Jerry Jones and the Cowboys
have won three or four playoff games since then, Barry
Switzer came in and won, but that was Jimmy Johnson's
team and all that, you know it, and they have

(01:16:36):
him won since Jerry. I can't believe that he's gonna
fumble this away by being cheap and playing around with
a guy who matters this much. Jerry Jones stopped playing
a game you're not gonna win with Dak Prescott. Only
do not do it. You remember he did it last
time with Emmett. They didn't pay him. He set out

(01:16:58):
the first two games the Cowboys were two. I'm telling
you the Cowboys can't give up any games, and Colin
is not just two games safe. He held out and
he didn't pay him after the first two games. Then
it might take him game three four to get back
into shape. Well, Zeke is a guy that can put
on weight pretty quickly. He's saying, yeah, it might. That

(01:17:18):
might wind up being costing you four games until he's
back to football shape. I will say this, Philadelphia is
the most talented team maybe in the league. It's not
a division to screw around. And the NFC, whereas the
AFC is the Conference of Brady, the NFC is the
Conference of parody. There's a bunch of good teams. And
imagine if you mess around and don't have your running

(01:17:39):
back and you lose to the Giants, a team you
should beat, that would be one of those games you
look back and go, we gave that up. Why don't
we give that up and go and play the Giants
when we weren't at full strength. By the way, I
do believe Michael Thomas is a good contract because I
think Drew Brees at the end of last year was
not the same quarterback. And this proves Drew Brees is

(01:18:00):
on the up and up. He's aging like you should
age as a forty year old quarterback. His arm at
the end of last year, they weren't throwing the ball vertically.
He can you say wet noodle? I mean really it
was so. I think every year in the NFL a
good team pulls down. I think it's the Saints, Max
Unger gone Ingram gone, Breeze aging Frankly I think Atlanta
and Carolina bounce back. I think New Orleans comes back

(01:18:24):
to a five hundred team, and Colin not only that,
this obsession with the play that cost him a chance
at the Super Bowl. Let it go, New Orleans. I
just what are you doing? They got a court case
and somebody else they want the NFL to come down
there and talk about it. They've been bad calls in
the history of sports. Let it go. If they don't

(01:18:45):
let it go to people of New Orleans, I might
have to make up a voodoo doll and cost them
and say that they never win another Super Bowl. You know,
it's funny about it. After that bad no call, they
kicked the field goal, took a lead at home, still
couldn't win. That's what thank you that right? It was
almost like the Cubs with the Bartman Bartman. Do you
know that they still could have won that series? Everybody

(01:19:07):
thinks that that was the end of the series. It wasn't, right. Um,
So you know it's interesting. As a guy from Detroit,
you should not like Aaron Rodgers, but you tend to
defend him. You you're very tough on Detroit's quarterback Matt Stafford,
who you call stat Padford, he's pad Stats. But Aaron Rodgers,
who owns Detroit, you love him even despite there's there's

(01:19:29):
some arrogance. He's increasingly been hurt. He can be. I
think it's fair to say more challenging the coach than
some quarterbacks. Certainly not all. Jay Cutler was a handful.
But you still defend Aaron Rodgers to the hilt, no
doubt about it, because the numbers bear it out. And
Bucky Brooks, you know how buddy Bucky Brooks love Bucky

(01:19:50):
a man of common sense. You know what Bucky Brooks
swung and miss big time when he said Aaron Rodgers
was overrated. There's no way you can call him. You
might say, he he's been down the last couple of years.
He's got to show me something this year. He's got
to prove stay hell. I'll buy all that, okay, But
to say a guy who owns six NFL quarterback records,

(01:20:12):
who set a record last year with four hundred and
two consecutive completions, who has the all time quarterback rating
in the history of the league, not the last ten years,
the history of anybody who's ever played quarterback, who has
the greatest touchdown the interception ratio of anybody, He's four
point two to one. Tom Brady, who's a pretty doing

(01:20:33):
good quarterback, is two and a half to one. That's
how big the gap is. To call him over rated
is ridiculous. I nominate Bucky Brooks for a job with
the NF and with the XFL as a general manager.
That's where you belong with the XFL, because you're football analysis.
When you're talking about Aaron Brooks, Aaron Rodgers, Rogers, I mean, Bucky,

(01:20:58):
what are you doing? Listen? I think Buckie is a
man of common sense and integrity, and I think Aaron
Aaron Rodgers hates me because I was the first and
I stay on. This quarterback is about a lot of stuff.
Michael Vick had a great could we have that Michael
Vick bite. Michael Vick talked about this yesterday. Quarterbacks different

(01:21:19):
and Michael Vick walked into the league and he was
probably the best athlete in the Atlanta Falcons. And Michael
Vick never really understood first two years in the league,
it doesn't matter, you're not one of the guys. Vick
said this yesterday on the show. I remember my second year,
Dan Reeves you know, before the game started, I was,

(01:21:39):
you know, jumping around with the guys in super hype,
and he pulled me to decide and say, oh, hold
hold on, you're a quarterback. You got to be different
because quarterback is about leadership. Is it fair to say
about Aaron? I've got family members, players, teammates, coaches. I've
had enough leak saying he's difficult that in the leadership thing.

(01:22:00):
Sometimes he's a little stubborn and a little condescending and
doesn't have a Montana or Brady or Russell Wilson ability
to kind of galvanize players simultaneous. He's not great always
in that fair Okay, that's fair, But I think that
you would not be having this conversation if the tight
end when they had Seattle Beat didn't block the ball

(01:22:23):
from Jordy Nelson on an onside kick, where they would
have won and gone to the Super Bowl. He's had
to play, and I'm not making excuses for him. It's
just fact his defense in big playoff games have given
up forty plus points at least three times. I might
be missing one. It's almost impossible to win an NFL
playoff game where your defense gives up Aaron Rodgers has

(01:22:48):
put them in position. The only reason year after year
they've been in position to even be included in the
talk is because of his ability. That's how good he is.
You know. The criticism of the Packers front office giving
him a defense is absolutely just and fair. But I
do think the last two years they've drafted and they've
gone after defensive help. So I think they finally took
him six years to figure it out. They've kind of

(01:23:10):
finally figured out we got to have it. By the way,
Andrew Lux first GM couldn't figure out he needed an
offensive line in a running game. Sometimes the organizations don't
give star quarterback support. Aaron, I do think we'll have
defensive support all right. Before we let Rob Parker go
Fox Softball League, we got some video tape. Rob, explain
what happens at the Fox Softball League. You're a Baseball

(01:23:31):
Hall of Fame voter, Yes, you know, I love it.
We got the video. I don't care about that. I
want to see right here we go. This is me
at the batka in the last inning, and there it
is a walkoff RBI single. Thought it was a home run,
Now it was a single. I'll take that. But we
won the game. There's a walk off for it was
a walk off. Look, I was excited. My teammates were excited.

(01:23:52):
You have an orange shirt. Well, we don't have any uniforms.
Well Fox has purchased uniforms. You see, I'm just excited.
Everybody's excited. Look at that sway. It's kind of bad sway.
You don't generate a ton of power lunge. You ain't.
Mike Trout always say sports as a short menu, wins

(01:24:13):
and losses. We got the w remember that. Thank you.
Congrats Rob, Rob Parker, the instigator at FS one, Jane
Slater around the corner. Latest on the Cowboys, it's the Herd.
Thanks buddy, thank you. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd week dayson noon Easter nine a Empacific
on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.

(01:24:36):
Jane Slater was on last week. Liked her so much,
we said let's do it again. Now you cover not
only the Cowboys. We'll get to the Zeke stuff. There's
some information you just got on a text. I love
when reporters are getting text as they're on the set.
You also cover the Saints. They were Newsworthy today in
terms of making Michael Thomas one of the highest paid
offensive guys ever, that's not a quarterback. Not a shock, right,

(01:25:00):
Like this was Drew's getting older. They pay their offensive
line a ton. This this was always going to happen, right.
Shout out to my girlfriend Diana Rusinia at ESPN. She
was the one that broke the summer that they wanted
to make him the highest paid receiver. And the number
I was told that Michael was stuck on was this
twenty million dollar price tag, and that's what he got.

(01:25:22):
What they realize is that Drew Brees is better when
you've got Michael Thomas and Michael Thomas getting double teams
last year and so much attention. They went out and
got tight in Jared Cook. So they're excited about what
they've got on the outside. Now Max Unger is gone
from this team. Now, I do think their division will
be better. I think Carolina Atlanta bounced back. This is
a tough division where you got Cam Newton, you're playing

(01:25:44):
him twice, Matt Ryan, you're playing him twice. Jameis Winston
now has the offensive withered Bruce Arians. I don't think
they're they're quite the team. What do you make of
the Max Unger and again fans don't care about centers
at feels like a loss to me. It is, and
it's one we're not talking about enough. I mean, Unger
was so reliable as a starter for you there. But

(01:26:06):
they went out and they got Eric McCoy. He's the
kid from A and M. They Cameron Tom is a
guy that's been getting some reps there. But the first
he must told don't read into that too much though.
And then they've got the kid that they brought over
from the Vikings Easton, So we'll see how that flesh
is out. But I do think it's a storyline we're
not talking enough about. But why do you think that
the Saints are going to have a little bit of

(01:26:27):
a falloff. Well, I think there's the emotional stigma of
the loss of the Rams are still talking about it, Unger,
mark ingram Gone. I think Drew Brees at the end
of last year. You know, listen, this is why I
know he's not taking steroids. He and Brady didn't have
great decembers. They're aging like men do it forty athletically.
He didn't throw the ball down the field. He looked tired.
Tom did not play well in the Super Bowl, did

(01:26:48):
not play well in the AFC Championship. Tom and December's
numbers last several years haven't been as good. It's the
reality of That's why I know these guys are clean, right,
They're not hitting fifty eight homers at thirty eight years old.
And I also think there's a reality to it is
that Carolina, this is a huge year for Ron Rivera
and cam It'll be a very modied Carolina team. They

(01:27:09):
got jobs on the line. I think dan Quinn he's
got to win this year. Arthur Blank is fairly impatient.
So I think I think this is a tougher than
you think division. I think Jamis plays better with Bruce.
It's not that New Orleans is not great. I just think,
you know, outside, you know, the Patriots have this big advantage.
They generally faced three dysfunctional teams. This division, the NFC South,

(01:27:33):
is kind of a coin flip. That's why it's always
so fun to cover this one. But with that being said,
everyone had the exact same line of thinking after the
miracle in Minnesota and then look what New Orleans was
able to do last year. Now to your point they
don't have mark Ingram. I do believe that that was
far more of an emotional loss for them than even
that Rams game. I mean it hurts the players. Cameron Jordan,

(01:27:56):
I know has been on your show. Yeah, he's talked
to me about it. I know that Alvin Kamara I
hated seeing the Boom and Zoom duo broken up, but
they are confident what they're seeing from Latavius Marie and
I think we're still going to see Taysom Hill utilized
in ways that we haven't seen yet, the fact that
he is able to play so many positions. I also
know that that loss got in Sean Payton's cross space,

(01:28:18):
and if there's any guy you don't want to count out,
especially when it comes to bulletin board material, it's Sean Payton.
I'm not betting against that guy, especially when I saw
how they were able to overcome a devastating loss on
the road out to Minnesota a year that they really
should have been able to make a push for it,
and even last year, I thought had all all of

(01:28:39):
the pieces in place to really make a run at
the super Bowl, And how much better would the super
Bowl have been had we seen the Patriots in the Saints. Yeah,
let's go to Zeke. Watch all right, Joy, you said
earlier Josina Anderson said they were getting close. Said they
were getting close. Okay, so you cover the Cowboys. You've
made calls, Jane, what do you here? I'm hearing differently
on that. I reached out this morning and the text

(01:29:00):
back I got on was close Nope, And I said,
what is the sticking point? Then? Are we talking guarantees?
Are we talking extensions? Joy? The pushback I got was everything. Now.
My follow up question was, Okay, well, do we anticipate
we're going to see him show up in Oxnard on
August six? This arbitrary deadline. We've been hearing about how

(01:29:21):
it affects him being restricted free agent after this year.
The response was, we don't know. And when I was
on your show last week, I was confident that Ezekiel
Elliott was going to be at camp. Jerry Jones and
Stephen Jones were confident he was going to be at camp.
Stephen Jones said it on the podium last Saturday. It
was unexpected. And then you throw in the optics of
this training and Cobbo thing. Now, look, he came back

(01:29:43):
from suspension looking better than ever, and he might very
well be training on the golf courses he did last time,
staying at Diamante, which is what his agent, Rocky Arsenal,
owns a place there. But the optics of it is
this ongoing issue with Ezekiel Elliott and Dallas. It's always
optics these incidents in the offseason. Or do they rise
to the criminal level, No, but it's the optics that

(01:30:06):
they find themselves constantly waiting in. Rocky should have done
is take Ezekie Elliott and go to Wyoming and train
post videos of him being a beast in the gym.
But I think this is frustrating and I know that
the Cowboys aren't pleased about it. Well. I mean, if
Zeke wasn't a football player, if there was a young
man and you're like, we really like him, but the
optics always look bad, you'd say, oh, he makes poorer decisions.

(01:30:27):
I think that's what Zeke does. He makes poorer decisions.
He's not a poor person, he's not a bad guy,
but there are immaturity issues and I think Dez had
him early and they moved on him. Zeke's a more
impactful player than Dez. You know Jerry. Jerry's funny. We
view Jerry as pro player? Is that overstated? He is

(01:30:47):
pro player? But I think what shouldn't get lost in
this either. Did you guys watch the All or Nothing
special that was on Watch two episodes? Yeah? Okay. One
of my favorite scenes from that, I think that spoke
volumes was Jerry Jones coming from across his desk. You know,
when you've got a boss. I'm sure you guys have
all had him. They're not talking to you from across
the desk. He's sitting right next to you, and he

(01:31:09):
pats Zeke on the leg and he says, I went
to bat for you. I was there for you. So
I think that that shouldn't get lost in all of this,
in the sense that I think his management team needs
to be careful here. What I respect about the Cowboys
in that locker room and the way they operate is
this is not like a Pittsburgh situation. They're not throwing
Zeke under the bus. They get that this is a

(01:31:30):
business decision. They want him to get paid. The Cowboys
want him to be paid. I've told they feel good
about the offer they put on the table right ahead
of training camp, and the good news is too. I
think the encouraging news for fans is I'm told the
lines of communication of stayed open. They're in constant contact
with Ezekiel Eliot and his team, So it's not like
they've walked away from this and said we're disgusted by

(01:31:51):
the offer, this is appalling, this is lowball. I haven't
heard anything along those lines, so the conversations continue. I
think the other question we have to ask, and I
don't know the answer to, is how broke is Ezekiel Elliott.
Can he afford to miss game checks? I've got to
think that he missed six game checks during the suspension.
He probably doesn't want to miss game checks this year
because players are paid only during the season, so that

(01:32:13):
means they have long off seasons of no income. That's interesting,
by the way. I think that's something we have to
think about, and I think that that is why I
believe this deal gets done. Doesn't mean that he's at
camp next week. Does that mean that we see him
in the preseason? No, But people are not worried about
Ezekiel Elliott. I mean he's missed practice and preseasons before
and still gone on to be a rushing champion, So

(01:32:34):
they're not concerned about that, and I don't anticipate that
this thing is going to get ugly. When I look
back at the DeMarcus Lawrence conversations, there was a lot
of wisdom that maybe he may not be back. They
went out and got Robert Quinn on the defensive line
just in case, and then they ended up having what
David Canter, DeMarcus Lawrence's agent, described as a come to
Jesus meeting and they got the deal done. You know,
it's interesting, Zeke to some degree is cutting in line.

(01:32:57):
You know at the bank, he's kind of cutting in line.
Would there be any chance they signed Zeke and then
in three months they signed Dak during the season or
is Dak and Amar end of the year negotiation? I
was told they were optimistic they get Dak done during
training camp. But when we pressed Stephen Jones on this
over the weekend, he brought it up in the sense

(01:33:19):
that they've made offers, they feel good about all three guys,
well they have now they have all three guys have
had They've got offers on the table. But he also
said it takes two people to get a deal done.
So I think a Maury Cooper's agents, who I've said
have been the one thing I can say about a
Mariy Cooper his team as well as a Maray Cooper.
They haven't been talking to the press a lot on this.
You haven't heard a lot about a Maury Cooper's deal.

(01:33:39):
He always placed chess in the locker room. I think
he's been playing chess with the Cowboys on this waiting
to see what that Michael Thomas deal. Baird and I
think that's where they start some discussions. It's exciting. So
when you go to the Cowboys camp, did this year
feel different? A couple of years ago it felt like
there's a lot of tension with a Zeke stuff. How's
camp feel this year? I think a better compared person

(01:34:00):
is this year's camp compared to last year. Last year's
camp was so flat without Dez Bryant, without Jason Witten,
this idea that they were going to go to a
running back by committee, a tightened by committee. The fans
felt like they fell off a little bit. This year,
Jason Witten was back. There is an excitement. The fans
are genuinely excited about Dak Prescott, A Maury Cooper and

(01:34:21):
there's this optimism around this offense and what we're seeing
from Dak He's looked so consistent at practice and a
Maury Cooper. We had Michael Irvin out there yesterday and
he could just kept talking about how Chris the route
running is. You know, they didn't have a Mariray Cooper
tild midway through the season. So there feels like there's
this optimism around the team. Not to mention that you

(01:34:41):
finally have got complimentary football. I mean it looks like
they figured it out on defense finally as well. So yeah,
I felt like there was more optimism around this camp
than there was last year. The year before that with
the Zeke suspension, that was just so that ended up
being a surprise. It was my understanding. Jerry was under
the impression there will be no suspension, so when six

(01:35:02):
games came down, there's a lot that caught him in
his group will off guard. Yeah, they're listening to me.
There's three or four camps this year. There's a lot
of optimism. San Francisco with Garoppolo, there's a lot of optimism,
the Jets with Adam gaze Levin, and the Cowboys. If
I felt like that's what it was going to be
and I think it to me though, the Zeke thing,
I don't think it's a distraction until about two weeks

(01:35:26):
from now, because here's what I worry about Zeke. I
think now it's fine. I think now it's fine. I
think when you go to week three of the pregame
of the preseason, that's the when starters play. Zeke and
I could be reaching on this. He can get heavy.
If he didn't sign it until week four the preseason,
that primans he doesn't play for two weeks. Is there

(01:35:47):
any concern in Cowboy camp? Zeke is not one of
these guys. He's a big kid. He can put on weight.
Is there concern that he's working out not working out?
I always try to temper the emotions of the fans
by going to the people that are the decision makers,
that are the coaches, that are the players, and people
talk to me freely having covered that team. I try

(01:36:09):
to be fair when I put a narrative out there.
I've talked to Jason Garrett about this point blank. He's
not concerned. Okay, there literally is not a sense of
panic or concerned that this deal ends up becoming a
hold out or they're not gonna have Ezekie Elliott. Now
I was on your show. I said, Zeke's going to
be on the plane. Not worried about it. I could
be wrong here, but my sense, having being at having

(01:36:30):
been at camp, talking to staff members, talking to players,
there's not panic right now. So I'm trying to manage
that narrative just based on my sources and the people
that I talk with, and this being my seventh year
covering the Cowboys, it does not feel like they're overly
concerned about this right now. Good stuff, Jane Slater. And

(01:36:50):
so how long has camp go? We still got I mean,
we're going to be in camp for a while. Now
do they when do they leave California? So they break
after Hawaii when they play the Rams in Hawai, and
then they come back and then they'll do camp in Dallas.
All right, Good stuff continue, Jane. Good seeing you guys
come back. You bet joy with the news. This is
the herd Line news. Oh the Miami Dolphins, Well they

(01:37:13):
have a quarterback situation, not when they thought they would have,
but apparently they do. Yesterday Brian Florence Flora's announced that
Ryan Fitzpatrick has a leg up on Josh Rosen, you know,
it's pretty clear to me that Ryan Fitzpatrick is is
is leading away. Um, I think he's done that in
a lot of areas, from you know, leadership to production

(01:37:35):
on the field, we've been more productive at the end
of the day. That's where it comes down to. He
runs the offense very efficiently. He has great rapport with
the entire team. He has a lot of leadership ability.
We need that to continue, We need him to grow
in that role. You know, this is an ongoing competition,
but you know, right now, I think I'd say he's
leading away. By the way, they've had one winning year
in a decade, playoffs twice in eighteen years. Can I

(01:37:59):
Can I say? I always feel like they're kind of rudderless.
They fired an offensive line coach yesterday. They did fire
an offensive line coach. Now there their replacement offensive line
coach actually has a bit of experience. He was with
the Dolphins before, he was with the Patriots in twenty
fifteen when they won the Super Bowl, and he's with
the Colts last year, which made a drastic improvement to
their offensive line. So that may not be as dramatic

(01:38:21):
as it sounds. Obviously, firing coach and training campus and
that idea. I can't get my arms art, I can't
get my arms around Miami. Ever. Why is that because?
One because they have not had a franchise quarterback truly
since Dan Marino. So that's one part of it. I
mean there's been guys that have been there, they've had
a little bit of success, but there's never been a
point since then that you've been able to sit back

(01:38:43):
and say, Yeah, that's the Dolphins, that's their quarterback. It's
always a rotating thing. There's a couple of years while
you have someone. Nobody really ever felt like Tannehill was
a guy except for the Dolphins organization. I mean, he
had some moments, but did you ever really feel like
they were in good hands with Tannah Hill. I know,
knock on Ryan, but I I just never thought that
he was the guy, right. I thought he was the

(01:39:04):
current guy, not the guy exactly. And now you're in
a situation with a new head coach that everyone's excited about.
You trade for Josh Rosen and you're giving a wild
endorsement to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Of course, Ryan's awesome in camp.
He's in his fifteenth season. If he's terrible in camp
and he shouldn't be there. Yeah, he's away, by the way,
he's always he'll be great one Sunday. I mean we

(01:39:25):
kind of know his game, which is he's wildly hot
and cold. But he does have good Sundays where you're
that's why the calm fits magic. Yeah, he'll give you
two or three great games and you think, oh my god,
where's the skype in hiding? And then the next week
he'll oh, that's where he's been hiding because he's a
backup quarterback and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's
who he is. Of Course he's gonna be awesome in camp.
Of Course he's gonna be a great teammate. He's in

(01:39:45):
his fifteenth season. Of course everyone's gonna love him. Yeah.
I hope that Dolphins fans don't fall for this razzle
dazzle because it's nonsense. Josh Rosen should be starting, just
like Baker Mayfield should have been starting. It's great to
have a good, solid veteran quarterback there. Of course, it's
this comfortable. It's like a it's like a warm bowl
of soup. But you really need to start eating your
salads and protein Okay, like, put Josh Rosen in, let

(01:40:07):
him make mistakes. You're not getting fired this year. Find
out if he's the guy, and if not, then you
guys will be terrible and draft a quarterback next year.
I just want to see Rosen play. Frankly, yes, me too.
And by the way, Arizona's ole line now he gets
Miami's atrocious ole line. I do feel bad Like Deshaun Watson,
some of these kids come into really nice situations like
Josh Rosen. Josh Rosen has gotten a bad deal a

(01:40:30):
little bit in college, certainly his first year in the NFL,
and now it's looking like what was going to be
a promising positive situation is already trending towards We're gonna
give it to Ryan Fitzpatrick and be eight and eight awesome.
So Julio Jones periods to be taking your advice, Colin.
He said that people listen right tell reporters that he
won't play during the pre preseason. Totally agree with it.

(01:40:53):
Here's why, No, I'm not playing preseason for me. It's
more so I'm a Vegian. I've been doing this, you know,
I don't. I don't need a preseason to get ready. Um,
it's a mentality thing. As long as I get my
rips and practice, I practice the way I play, So
once I get my rips in and things like that,
I'd be ready to go. Totally agree. I don't get

(01:41:14):
the preseas. It's my listen. I love the NFL, but
I can also say there's things I don't like about it.
I don't like guys playing stars. By the way, Julio's
had Matt for several years. They don't need preseason games.
There's no we don't have a new offensive system, we
don't have a new division. We don't I don't want
to see these two. I don't want to see Matt
and Julio in the preseason. I don't want to see

(01:41:35):
a snap of it. That and they have five preseason
games because they're Fame game against the Broncos tomorrow. Yeah,
the NFL figure this out well, Normally most teams don't
have that many. They're playing in the Hall of Fame game, Yes,
but I mean nobody's gonna play that game. It's gonna
be all like half a college season. Yeah, it's a lot.

(01:41:55):
Julio had a bunyon and removed from his foot in January,
So he spent most of the training in camp rehabbing
on a side field anyway, but he was number one
in the NFL and receiving yards last year. Bunyon. Yeah,
isn't that what old ladies get. I mean, you got
to take care of your feet like it's honestly, it's
kind of like how we joke with pictures and like
they'll lose a fingernail and they can't throw. Like, I mean,

(01:42:16):
a receiver, you can't have anything wrong with your feet,
but toe ingrown toenail, Bunyan, I mean at all Julio
Jones's speed Rams wouldn't play any of their starters, their
top starters in the preseason. They made the Super Bowl
kind of. I mean it's like you said, this is
not a new system for him. He's now with a
new team. He's not a new quarterback, not a new
offensive coordinator. Like just he knows what he's doing. He

(01:42:37):
doesn't need preseason games. Training camp is enough to get
him in shape. Finally, Zion believes his new teammate Lonzo
Ball is going to become the best point guard in
the MBA. Zion told Macklin Stern of Complex that it's
in his future, and he added why he said, I'm
expecting Lonzo to come into his own now he's in
the scenario where he can truly be himself. We're about
to play a super fast paced game. I think we

(01:42:58):
all trust him with the ball and him to make
the right read. You've seen it, I've seen it. He's
a playmaker. He makes the right plays. Best point guard
in AMBI. That's a little heady, well, he said, he's
going to eventually become that. That's a lot if he can,
you know, Joy, My thing is can he stay healthy?
Can he stay healthy? Yes? I do think this is
a much better situation for Lonzo. I agree, than the Lakers.
I don't think the Lakers were. I think there's too

(01:43:20):
much pressure on him with the Lakers, which sounds silly
because it's you know, it's the NBA. There's pressure on everyone.
But it always felt like he wasn't really getting the
opportunity to develop. His numbers were being held up to
ridiculous standards, not only for his style of play, but
for a rookie and second year guy. And he did
have injuries. I mean average ten points six boards and
six point four assists, and obviously the shooting was something

(01:43:41):
that people were questioning a lot. But I think the
style of play, like Zion said in New Orleans, is
going to be completely different and better there. With a
young team, they're all going to get to develop together.
And he's an incredible passer and runs the floor perfectly,
so he's gonna have a great opportunity to point. And
his body is changed a lot, so hopefully, like he said,

(01:44:02):
he'll stay healthy. A good stuff. Joy with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by. Coming
up next, we call it the presser cooker. I pretend
I'm the GM. I'm hosting the press conference because we
have every week two or three press conferences, and I
don't like what's coming out of the mouth of the GM.

(01:44:22):
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sure to catch live editions of The Herd week days
and noon Easter nine am Pacific. Okay, it is great
to have you in today's So you know how we
have we have like little different mechanisms we use during
the week, like Collins right, Collins wrong, We do that right.

(01:45:47):
And we have we have some little things we do
Blazing five. We bet our NFL games. So we're we're
we have found ourselves joy in the last I would
say last year. We play a game occasionally where a
team will hold a press conference or say something and
I just don't like how it lands. And because you

(01:46:07):
and I are in the media, there are times that
the media is pretty good at knowing how to hold
a press conference and what to say and how it lands.
These are general managers, these are owners. Sometimes they say
stuff like John Gruden today about Nathan Peterman that he
probably shouldn't say and probably doesn't land great in the room.

(01:46:27):
So we're gonna play. We're gonna play pressor cooker. So
this is a new game where it's it's a intense
press conference. Do we have an open or do we
just we just we don't have an open. We have
a low budget right now, So Joy, let's go. We're
gonna play. You tell me who I am. We'll have
a press conference and start with a team pressor cooker. Okay,

(01:46:48):
there we go. We Well, you are the Cowboys GM.
Okay with the Cowboys. Okay for a radio audience, I'm
putting on a Cowboys hat. All right, Okay, I'm a
Cowboys general manager right now. Steven Jones, all right with
Ezekiel Elliott down in Cabo what do you think of
the way he is handling his holdouts? Well, I think
Oxnard is a beautiful place. Of course, we'd love to

(01:47:08):
have Zeke here. He's a good player, but running backs
are not needed. We all know this. Emmett Smith was
the first superstar running back that really let a team
do a championship, and even then we had Troy Aikman.
We love Zeke, but this is a super Bowl bound team.
We'd like to wrap this thing up. He's a good
young man. He's been a very productive player, but we're

(01:47:30):
we're not gonna We're not gonna start the trend to
pay guys massive money and letting them dictate terms. This
is not the NBA. We love Zeke, but we have
great players. We got a lot of mouse to feed here,
and I'm gonna make sure we can keep all these
great players. We're gonna keep Amari, We're gonna keep Dak,
We're gonna keep Byron Jones. And to do that, we
have a hard salary cap in this league. So I
love Zeke, I love my kids. I don't know who's

(01:47:52):
give them what they want. That's really got into character there.
All right, let's let's go down to Miami. Put on
your Dolphins hats. You're the Dolphins GM. Can I spray
myself with water? Yes, before you go outside so you
don't sweat it off? All right? Your head coach Brian
Flores just said, journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is winning the
quarterback battle versus Josh Rosen. Who do you want to

(01:48:16):
see get the job? Well as the Dolphins general manager. Okay,
we're trying to find a quarterback, not win a beard
growing contest. If I was trying to win the beard
growing contest out of name, John Gooley or Ryan Fitzpatrick
must start in quarterback. You know, the reality is with
Ryan Fitzpatrick, he is a veteran and a tremendous asset
to any organization. He has been in this league fifteen years.

(01:48:36):
We really like Ryan Fitzpatrick, but he is a substitute
teacher and Josh is the teacher. And like a young teacher,
we're going to accept some mistakes as a school district.
We know Josh is not a refined finished product yet,
but we are not a refined finished product as an organization.
So we're gonna start Josh have the very capable, smart,

(01:48:58):
capable veteran backup and Fitzpatrick. But I think we owe
our fans, our offensive line, our coach, and our organization start.
Now what are we waiting for? Josh has been in
this league. Remember he went to college three years. He's
already played a year. These are no more baby steps.
If Josh can't elevate players, now, why am I to

(01:49:18):
believe he can do it in five years? Pressures on Josh, Pressure,
by the ways, on me as a GM of the Dolphins.
We're all having to win games. So if I'm gonna
ask Josh, I'm gonna ask him the same thing I
ask of myself. We have to win now and we
have to deliver now. I'm gonna ask Josh the same
thing I asked in my coach and myself. Get to
work early, work hard, and win games. Well said, all right, Colin,

(01:49:41):
put on your Raiders hat because you are now the
Raiders head coach John Gruden, So now you're the head
coach coach. Yesterday you said X Bill's quarterback Nathan Peterman
is starting to grow on you, even though he's had
some rough games in his career. Was this is shot
at your current quarterback Derek Carr? Listen? I was a
broadcaster for ten years, A very good one. That former company,

(01:50:04):
Colin Caward, you used to work out, pay me a
lot of money to be a television star, and I was,
I think a little too much TV star yesterday. Nathan
Peterson's a good kid. I like Nathan Peterman. He never
gonna start for us. That's not a shot at him.
He's a backup in this league, maybe a third teamer,
maybe goes to the XFL. He's a fine young man.
I like Nate Peterman. Derek Carr is exceptional. Okay, Derek

(01:50:24):
Carr's a bat quarterback right now. My job is to
make him an eight quarterback. That's my responsibility. We have
not done a good job in Oakland for Derek Carr.
We've had upheaval on the roster. We've had bad offensive lines.
We had to we thought, financially move on from Amari
Cooper and Cleo Mack. That is not on Derek Carr.
I am responsible for taking gret Derek Carter the next level.

(01:50:46):
So far, he's been a very solid B plus quarterback.
I'm gonna make him an eight quarterback. I'm gonna support
my quarterback. I like Derek Carr. I like him a lot.
I like Derek Car a lot. I don't want this
to be misinterpreted. I like him a lot. Nate Peterman's
a good kid, Okay, Derek Carr's good quarterback. My job's Bata,
that's my responsibility. He's gonna be the car that drives
us to the super Bowl, even if we don't know

(01:51:07):
where we're playing right now, strong words from the quarterback whisperer.
I like that line too, Always good for a line.
All right, we are heading down to Cabo San Lucas.
Love Cabo, and you are now Ezekiel Elliott's agents. Gotta
keep the sun off the face there? Are you getting comfortable?
All right? It's it's kind of a controversial move that

(01:51:28):
you guys went down to Cabo. How do you respond
to the criticism that your client is making a bad
move by training down to Mexico? It's place beats Oxnard?
Hey that right now? Listen, we have everything we need
to get Zeke ready for the NFL, Jim's trainers and
guava smoothies. My client is less of a distraction here

(01:51:50):
than he would be at training camp. Okay, I don't
want him getting in all the news and being interviewed
up in Oxnard. I got a house down here. It
is beautifu volts right behind me. We got trainers and
guava smoothies, and he's down here. By the way, we're
closer to the equator than Oxnard. It's ninety seven degrees today.

(01:52:11):
It's a tremendous work environment. And the only route Zeke
needs to know his bank routing number. Okay, we're gonna
get this done. I love the Cowboys. I think I'm
doing the Cowboys a favor right now. Hold on rum
is delicious in August. I think I'm doing the Cowboys
a favor right now. I'm keeping him in Mexico, away

(01:52:34):
from TMZ, away from Los Angeles, away from the Cowboys,
away from the Dallas Morning News, away from Fox Sports,
away from distractions. We train, we run on the beach,
well Max two guava smoothies a day. We are doing

(01:52:57):
them a favor, and we're gonna get this done. That's
how I would handle these press conferences. It's the smoothies. Huh.
You know what, I gonna be honest with you. I
look pretty cool when I'm in Mexico. I'm not gonna lie.
I'm pretty good. There's some sunglasses. So that's our pressor cooker.
And what we're insinuating is sometimes I think if just

(01:53:19):
like politics, I think the more honest you are with people,
the easier it is. I think the more honest you are,
I think everybody is lying to everybody. Politicians, you don't
trust him, and your bosses in America, nobody trust their
boss and their mayor and their politician and their co workers.
And you can't trust them. Media and the Congress has

(01:53:41):
like a fifteen percent approval rate. And when you can
go out and just cut to the chase, be authentic.
I mean, we got a guy in the White House
is to a lot of people, the reason he's there
is a big chunk of America thinks he's more authentic.
I may not be one of them, but the point
being is if you give off the sense that you

(01:54:01):
are cutting through the nonsense, cutting through the red tape,
cutting through opinions held for PC reasons, it's very powerful.
And I think a lot of times with these press conferences,
I also I think John Gruden, I will say this,
John traded Khalil, traded Amari and hasn't shown Derek Carney love.

(01:54:25):
John's getting to the point now, it's almost like he's
anti star. You gotta have about six of those guys
to win championships. Put your arms, John, put your arms
around me. I feel like he's the only star there. Yeah,
I'm kind of feeling that too. It's the Herd, one
more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd

(01:54:47):
to listen live or on demand whenever you like