The Dan Patrick ShowDan talks to JJ Watt about broadcasting his brother's game this upcoming weekend. College football broadcaster Rece Davis discusses why he doesn't think Ohio State HC Ryan Day's seat should be so hot. Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner shares his perspective on the Kirk Cousins situation with the Falcons. And legendary broadcaster Al Michael shares how long he expects to keep working.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
JJ Watt, future Hall of Famer, works with the NFL today on CBS, and he's working Christmas Day Chief Steelers game on Netflix one Eastern with Iron Eagle handling play by play color duties there. So, how many times? How many games have you done as an analyst at a game?
I've been called an actual game broadcasting wise live obviously I've done the studio and everything, and we practice together.
But first one very much looking forward to.
Okay, what advice have you been given?
I think mostly it's it's be yourself, it's share your experiences, but also don't overdo it. For me personally, I've just this year watched games much closer, and I've just seen what I like when I don't like, And for me personally, I love it when the announcer watches the game like a fan and talks like a fan, but then subtly interjects here and there the knowledge and experience they have. But I don't want to be overly technical. I don't want to lose people with football jargon. I want to kind of enjoy the game the same way the fan does.
That's great, advice and you're not asking for it, but I'll give it to you anyways, get those fifteen second moments where you analyze something and then get out of the way. For Iron Eagle, because it's really the most important thing is he's able to do the play by play. Your color commentary is needed, but you still have to give him that time to bring it back and say, you know, third and ten, you know for the Texans or whatever it might be. But being able to compartmentalize something, say what you want to say for fifteen seconds and then get out of the way, that's an art.
And absolutely, yeah, he's the best. I love.
I'm very very much looking forward to We have Nate Berlissa in the booth two, so it's it's going to be a lot of fun.
I've I went and watched the.
Cardinals game with Ian and Charles, so I got to sit there and just watch them work and see how they work together. And we've been we've been buddies for a while, so it's been great.
When's the last time you gave advice to your brother? Yesterday about.
We were talking about his ankle and we were talking about, uh, just the recovery and all that we talk every single day, So we talk about the game, we talk about life, we talk about injuries, everything he's playing.
Yes, what advice do you give him a playing through a high ankle spring.
I mean, it's much more about the preparation everything during the week and getting yourself to game day than it is on game day.
On game day you kind of let the adrenaline take over.
I mean, there may be a couple of things here and there you can do differently, but once the game starts.
If you're thinking about your ankle, you're not going to have a good day.
So I'd rather him not think about it than be out there trying to think, Okay, if I do this move, it's not good for me.
That's no good.
The difference between pain and an injury.
I mean, especially with an ankle like things like this. I mean, a sprain is literally an injury. It's just been it's painful. But there's just different levels that you can play through. I agree with you, and I know the old school thing, like there's guys that can play through pain and then there's legitimate injuries that you can't play through. But there is a degree of difference. And I also think that depending on the team, and depending on where you are on the standings, and if you're in the playoff hunt or not. I think the willingness to play through either one is different for every guy.
Well just look at the lines with David Montgomery and Aiden Hutchinson. They're like, hey, we're Montgomery's going to hold off surgery just in case, you know, they go far in the playoffs. I mean that mentality and these games mean something too, so that you know the extra motivation.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I mean I think there's that old school mentality as well, that like, let's just figure it out. I mean there's been plenty of times in my career where they're giving you a decision. They're like, you can get this fixed now and you're going to be out, or you can hold off until the offseason, or maybe it gets better over time. But most of the time competitors are pushing it off until whenever. Maybe I should have not pushed it off a few more times.
Well, I was wondering. You know, you look back on that you played through a lot of gruesome injuries there. If you had to do it again, could you have done it differently?
Yeah, it's more about the recovery from the injuries than it was the actual injuries. I think twenty twenty fifteen was the year that I was by far the most banged up and just crazy amount of stuff. So after the season we had to fix a lot. But it's the recovery process that I wish I would have done differently. I always wanted to be the fastest back from recovery. I always wanted to be back on the field quickly. I want to show my teammates, the fans, everybody. I'm doing whatever.
I can to get back out there.
And there's probably a few times that I didn't let the whole process play out before going back out there, which I should.
Playing in snow how much of an.
Hurdle for a pass rusher.
Yeah, not fun for a pass rusher at all, because that's your whole advantage is edges, corners turning grip, and you just literally lose all of that.
So very very frustrating.
Okay, how does an advantage How does an offensive lineman take advantage of that? Or a quarterback take advantage of you trying to rush in the snow?
Yeah, I mean, in theory, you should have significantly more time. Now the same issue plays out with his receivers. They can't cut the same they can't make the same breaks. So he's going to have a tougher time there. But in theory it should be more difficult. You're probably going to get some more bull rushes because the guy is going to try and run through you as opposed to speed rushing around an edge. Yes you can change your cleats, Yes you can wear seven studs, you can put longer, but it's hard.
We're talking to JJ Watt and he'll be on the call Christmas Day. It's Chiefs and the Steelers that'll be on Netflix at one Eastern. How will you be in critiquing, analyzing your brother doing again, I'm.
Going to be.
I mean, listen, people are like, oh, he's going to be so biased for his brother. The same thing was on the other side. The Chiefs are the Chiefs, Like, I'm going to be talking good about Patrick Mahomes news flash. So people are gonna say he's biased for the Chiefs. I'm not going to deny the fact that he's my brother during the broadcast. He is still my brother. I am still We're still blood related. But I have no problem saying what I'm seeing I mean, if I'm seeing that he's you know, he's getting caught on a certain pass rusher it's not working. Or if a run comes his way and it goes through that gap, like that's that's real.
I'm not.
I do want to be a good announcer, so I Am going to do my best there. But he also on the flip side of that, he's also one of the best players in the entire world. So if he makes a good plan and I get excited about it, news flash.
That's what you do when great players make great plays.
How was your approach to Mahomes.
For the game, for calling the game, or for playing against.
Playing against him?
Sadly didn't have much success there because with the quarterback, what you do is you look for their drop spot. What yardage do they drop to because as a pass rusher, that's where you want to go, So most guys are somewhere in the seven and a half to eight and a half yard range. The problem with Pat is you rush to that point, and he knows he has the arm strength to throw the ball from anywhere on the field. So if you rush to that point, his first look is always going to be that big gap. He loves to rush up in the B gap, which is between the guard and tackle. So if he can get away in there, he's going to take it. But if that's closed off by a d tackle, he's just going to drop back paying fifteen twenty yards and he knows he can make that throw from there. So you can't just rush to a spot with Pat because he's not going to be at that spot whereas some other guys can't do that because they don't have the arm strength. Him and Josh Allen are two of the best at that, and it's extremely frustrating. So the number one thing in my opinion, you have to have against Pat is obviously a good edge rusher.
But then you need that inside push because.
If you can take away that B gap and get those guys up in his face as well, at least now I know as an edge rusher, I can rush a little higher, so I can also take away that deep drop back.
Were there certain quarterbacks that you knew or thought that maybe they were going to get preferential treatment so you had to maybe modify how you were going to hit them.
Hitting the quarterback is an art, and it is an art that I was very proud to have a high degree because there are certainly ways to do it that you you can are still allowed to hit them and not get fined and not get penalized. It took me a lot of fines and penalties to figure out where that line was, but I got it, and it really is a skill, and I think that you have to be able to utilize that skill because laying hits on a quarterback also does affect the game, even if it's not a sack. So knowing that you have that step step and a half and using it is huge, I do think, and I'm not naive to the fact that I may have gotten a little preferential treatment myself in the fact that I built up repertoire and the refs understood that I knew the rules and so I was going to stay within them, but I was always going to push it. But yeah, I mean you can. It's extremely hard, and I get frustrated with some of these reugh in the passers, but you absolutely can find ways to hit the quarterback legally.
I always thought that a quarterback hurry was an underrated stat that we do get focused on sacks. But I still like when I watch Max Crosby. He may not get there, but you know that he's there.
So I like a quarterback hit over a pressure or a hurry because that means that, like, first of all, it's a literal thing that you can quantify. You can see the hit and he hit him, and you know what it is. Pressures and hurries I get real iffy about because I don't understand how these people are saying, what's a pressure, what's a hurry? What happens if it's a screen and they let you through. Is this a distance to the quarterback before he throws the ball?
What are those?
So I'm a big fan of quarterback hit because that means you were within a step of him because you didn't get a penalty and you hit him. Either he threw it or he didn't. But I agree with you there, you can affect the play without sacks. But I will also say pressures and hurries are like saying would have scored a touchdown, like the receiver was open, the quarterback just didn't throw it to him. Well, it's a results driven business. Either scored a touchdown or you didn't score a touchdown. Either one game and you didn't. We need to get sacks. That's the goal.
Best team in the AMC is who.
I mean, you can't you can't say anybody but the Chiefs until they're proven otherwise. I mean, it's the it's the debate right now, like are they doing what the Chiefs do and figuring it out as the year goes on and they're just they have the clutch geam and they're going to keep it going. It's tough to say their defense is so good, but I mean the Bills are just Bills are rolling right now. It's just their defense that scares you because they are giving up a ton of points that offenses.
I mean, Josh Allen's playing superhuman right now.
I'm calling the game in five days, so I'm gonna go to the Chiefs.
One great game.
What's it like to tackle Josh Allen?
I think I so I played against him more earlier in his career, so it was probably maybe a little bit easier then because he wasn't as settling and comfortable. So I've had some fun tackling Josh, but it's not fun chasing him around. He's big, he's fast, he's mobile.
Uh and he also has a great arm. But had a good one on him in the playoffs down there in Houston. I really enjoyed that.
I was amazed when I saw Cam Newton in person.
Cam is one of the only times that I really you know, we've we've collided and you get up and like.
That was a collision.
We both like it was a stunt and I wrapped around in the middle and he started to scramble right up the middle and we just neither of us kind of saw each other, and at the last second we did it. And it was one of those where we both went down right where we were, neither gave round and you just look at nice.
But you know, do you want those matchups there or would you rather, you know, try to chase Kyler Murray?
No, I don't. I don't like chasing anybody.
Damn.
I'm gonna be honest with you. I prefer if they just stood there in the pocket. But then you have the guys that do that Brady who gets the ball out in one point four seconds, and you're like, all right, I can't I can't even get there. Peyton was nice, I like, I like, you know, you know, uh, it was good, But I mean he also tortured us. I think he threw his fifty fifth touchdown pass against US, So I can't I can't even say anything there.
Luck was Luck was another good one. I like chasing Luck around.
We had some good battles, uh, Me and Andrew Luck and then he was obviously always very cordial afterwards.
Did you give your teammates Christmas gifts?
Yes? The D line generally what what did you give him? There's a there's a different level.
So like actually early in my career, my first Defense Player of the Year, I gave the whole defense custom iPads. That was early and then as it went on, it was there's a lot of a lot of beverages over the years, very nice beverages. There was, you know, backpacks, designer and backpacks, things like that. Never never pick up trucks. That's a new one for me. There's a lot of I saw Ryan Fitzpatrick tweet it today, but he was right. There's a lot of questions I have about that from a tax standpoint, from registration standpoint, from an insurance standpoint. Uh, we'd love to see the logistics behind that.
Is, Uh, you ready for Christmas at home that you're gonna be on Like how tough is that?
Like?
You've got to go Christmas Day. How big is your son?
Uh?
He is too, and he's large as you would expect. So it's it is tough. That's there's no question.
That's tough.
But I'm leaving. Uh So I'm going to see him Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm just going to be gone, literally for the game. So we're gonna We're gonna do our own little Christmas here.
He's he loves the Grinch. He is all in on the Grench.
So he tried to steal our Christmas tree the other day and I said, what are you doing? He goes, I'm taking it up the chimney. He said, no, No, that's not the hero part.
Is he already as tall as Kyler Murray?
Oh Dan, that's not fair, that's not fair.
Merry Christmas to you have fun and you've got a great thought process going into that game of what we the audience wants to hear.
Stick to it.
And the iron Eagle is his giving as any announcer that you'll work with, and that's really important. He will make you better.
Yes, that's my whole goal in life, Dan, is to let everybody around me make me look good because they're all better than I am, so I'm here for it just like you. I appreciate you. And I got to give a shout out to Fritzy. We've been trying to make this happen for a very long time. I think I might have more text messages in my phone from Fritzy than I do for my wife.
But I appreciate it. I'm glad we could finally make.
It work for no no hold on. Remember we kind of have an over under of how many text messages before you have to take this little space between messages.
But he knows I actually wanted to do it, like that's I'm I'm with it. We just literally it's been it's been chaos over here.
It was always very, very genuine and kind with his responses. I not one time did I get a hint that it's like you're being a pain. And then you know what, And he found time to do it on the last show of the twenty twenty four years. So that's very.
Awesome that he did that.
Okay, I have a good broadcast, my friend.
Have you ever gotten a mean one back? Fritzi?
Has anybody ever said like to stop or just the big capital stop, like the infomercial.
Derek Thomas came over to me back in the day at the ESPN Zone or in Disney World, and he's like, Fritzy, I got your first message, I got your third message, and I got your eighth message.
I knew where to be.
You got to relax a little bit with the messages.
Well, we had a problem with Bill Murray that Fritzy. Bill Murray reached out to me and said, hey, tell Fritzie to stop. And so I said to Fritzie stopped, Bill Murray will come on the show. You must stop. And then Fritzi goes, should I text him to tell him that I got it? I go, no, don't texting to tell him that you got the message? To stop texting him? But he always gets his man.
I mean, well, I don't mean to be a pay the but.
You want No, you're the best. You're the best.
Thank you.
Guys are great. I love I love it every time I'm here.
Thank you, buddy. That's jj what.
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That's Covino and Rich Reese Davis, host of College Game Day, will join us. Is Reese in South Bend because the game is coming up tonight? Todd, do we know where Reese is?
I believe he's in South Bend by now for the game, Tame, you believe he's College Game Day's doing back to back action Friday and Sally South Bend then Columbus.
All right, well, why don't we find out where Reyese Davis is ESPN College Game Day host live. They will be at Notre Dame from well three thirty until eight on the mother Ship. Then they go to Columbus for a second show. Are they paying you for both of these College Game Days? Reese?
I'm not an extra, Dan. I think they took the original hour and a half show and made it four and a half hours. You know how that works at ESPN. Yeah, but I'm actually I'm actually thrilled by it. I can't I can't think of a better place to be to start this playoff than on campus at Notre Dame. I was even advocating before we knew the pairings that we needed to be at Notre Dame Saturday morning, regardless of when the game was. But I think it's even better that they're playing the first one and we're here on Friday afternoon into Friday night.
Can you open up the curtains, look outside and give me a weather forecast.
Yeah, I mean it might look terrible, but I'm right on campus at the beautiful Morrison. Let's see if we can see a little snow out there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's it's nice and it's nice and chilly. We're just a few steps away here from from the Golden Dome and will be beneath the Word of Life mural. I like to be official. People sometimes call it touchdown Jesus Dan, but it's the Word of Life mural giving the gospel and good news to teams like Indiana who've made the playoff.
I guess the pressure on Notre Dame when you're facing Indiana. So this is in state and Indiana never gets this opportunity and now you have it. How much pressure you just gave Marcus Freeman a contract extension as well. Vegas loves Notre Dame this year in the playoffs, so how much pressure you know?
I think if the game gets close, there might be some game pressure. But right now, both these teams are really similar and you know, someone asked earlier this week what the rivalry situation was, and I said, there is no rivalry. I said, historically, the only thing that's consequential about Indiana to Notre Dame football is that they're in the same state. I mean this, Indiana's lost more games than anybody in the history of the sport, and Notre Dame has the greatest tradition in terms of being a story tradition of any So it's you know, they're two hundred miles apart, that's separated by worlds, you know, historically, So if it gets tight late, I would imagine Notre Dame could start could start feeling feeling some of that pressure.
Somebody's going to lose. There's a home team that it feels like is going to lose this weekend. It just the odds are somebody's going to lose. Who do you think that would be?
I think, even though I think they're going to win, and I might be overly influenced by spending time there earlier this week, but I think if a home team is going to lose, it would be Ohio State because I think that they are facing the best team in Tennessee and they also are facing a team with a particular strength that is opposed by a particular weakness of Ohio State, meaning the defensive front. We saw what Michigan's defensive front did to Ohio State's revamped offensive line because of injuries. In Tennessee's defensive front.
Is just as good.
It's a little bit different, but there it's deeper and maybe a little better on the edges. But they have a particular strength that could give Ohio State trouble. So I think that is the most likely one. If if a home team is to lose.
Why is it open season on Ryan Day?
I don't know. I mean, I mean, I understand rivalry, I understand the importance of it. Dan, It's kind of ridiculous. I mean, really, this loss to Michigan is the only one that was a bad one. It's not your birthright to beat Michigan every year, and you know this was a bad loss. There's no way around this. They played tight, they played poorly, and they should have won the game. The previous three Michigan had better teams than they did, you know, so it's they're They're the winningest program in the history of the sport, and this small faction, I think generally of Ohio State fans that act as if it's their birthright, that they have some type of that they're entitled to beat Michigan every Year's preposterous. The guys sixty six and ten. You know, I think he's I think this is this fourth playoff appearance. It's really preposterous. Guys, good football coach, and you know, you got to be careful what you wish for. You know, if they're trying to push them out, they better be careful what they wish for.
What tweaks would you suggest for the format next year?
Man, the first one, They've got to do away with this only conference champions getting the buy. The reward for winning your conference champion is inclusion into the field. Didn't just see the tournament because and that's what it is. They have taken the team that's been best all season, Oregon and created a more difficult path for Oregon than they did for Penn State, which lost to both Ohio State and to Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. I mean, all these teams are good and capable, but Oregon's got to play the winner of Ohio State, Tennessee, Penn State starts at home against SMU, good team. If they win, they you know, they get Boise eight. Would you take that, you know to get to the semifinals? And think you would, So they have to change that immediately. Dan, I think that they did it this way because they want to value conference championships, and it was a mechanism to get it done, to get the other conferences to agree, well, you're not going to go backwards now, so just see the tournament. Whoever, if it's four Big ten teams that get to buy, still be it.
So the way it goes.
Talking to Reees Davis, ESPN College Game Day host and he will be working tonight this afternoon three thirty until eight on the mother Ship at Notre Dame and then goes Saturday morning nine am until noon with the matchup with the Buckeyes and Tennessee. Yeah, I'm you know, if I'm Oregon, you probably wish you would have lost the game to Penn State because you would gladly I think change exchange places with them.
You know.
I like the way I agree with you, and I think in all practicality it's an easier path than and dealing with one or the other two. But I do like the way Dan Lanning has approached it. He's like, you know, we're just we're just going to try to win the games that are in front of us. We're good and we think we can beat anybody. So I think he's handled it just the right way. But the unintended consequence of seating the field like this is a problem, and really the whole bottom half of the bracket. Now Georgia is where it deserves to be, but if they're playing a backup quarterback, then you have, you know, you have that part of the bracket with Boys's three ced George of the two seed with the backup quarterback, and you know some of that luck of the draw. I understand injuries part of it and are going to happen, but the bracket is imbalanced top and bottom, more power teams including Texas at the top than at the bottom.
If there was an MVP vote for College Game Day, who.
Is how about how about how about about co MVPs or how about you.
Think you really want to get me with this?
I thought I was saved.
Save and Max, Me and Herb Street all co MVPs, Desmond also co MVP. I'm just out there trying to, you know, help him get a first time.
Look at you, look at you, and and you know better than that. I was trying. I was trying. And it looks like you're channeling Jim Harbaugh with your look.
I've been I've been mistaken for him at times. I'm a big harball guy. We have a we have one of our one of our runners on college game that has been with us for a couple of years, a woman called Ruby Dreyer, who is married to a former Ole Miss player who played for Jim with the Chargers. And when she came back this year, I told Ruby, I said, the part of your contract, if you've read the fine print, is that you owe me one Harball story every week. So so she would, she would bring in these odd Harball stories. But now hej her husband is playing for the Seahawks. So I'm I'm we've we've run to the end of the Harball stories. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm a fan of Jim. See he cracks me up. I think he said it best. If you like football, you probably like Jim, so and I do.
Georgia seems vulnerable, you know, as you mentioned. Now with Carson back done, for the rest of the season here, you know, losing Lad McConkie and Brock Bowers. I mean that's had a really big impact on Carson Beck and that offense here. So what is this team or who is this team?
Now?
They're still really good on defense and they're going that defense should keep you in every game. Now, are they as good as they were a couple of years ago?
They are not.
Their team that struggles to run the ball a little bit at times, and you know, I've had some issues on the offensive line. They've certainly had issues of you as you've alluded to, with playmakers on the outside. But they still are probably one of the two or three most talented rosters in this field. So I think, you know, Gunner Stockton plays effectively if they can they can run it well enough, and he you know, he's able to make make enough throws that George is still as a chance to win it all because they've got as many good players as anybody, as many elite players in most positions as anyone in this field.
Give me, if there is a juxtaposition the environment at South Bend tonight and what you think you'll get in Columbus tomorrow.
Pure electricity here. I mean I walked in. I'm staying at this place on campus called the Morris and I walked in yesterday and there was a guy playing bagpipes in here. I grabbed dinner with Richard Digger Phelps last night.
You could just.
Feel the buzz around town. They're so exciting. They moved finals dan to this week it typically finished a week earlier, and anticipation and hoping that they might have a home game and they do, so everybody is like all in the same direction, pulling Columbus based on being there Sunday, I think there will be excitement that is that is just waiting for something to go wrong, and then there will be angs. No, the first time they don't convert a third down, the first time Tennessee completes a fifteen yard pass or something, or Dylan Sampson, you know, gets loose for a twenty yard run, there'll be anxiety in that building. And I think how Day and the players respond to that internally will be really really important. Saturday night, it's more of an angsty, like there's still the pall hanging over and they're just wondering if something's going to happen, and if the shoe is going to drop in here. It's all seashells and balloons for right now and Notre Dame. They're excited.
Good to talk to you. Have fun tonight. We'll be watching all right, buddy, Thanks a lot. That's Rhees Davis.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAPP.
He's Kurt Warner, he's got a couple of MVPs, and he's a Hall of Famer. He's joining joining us courtesy of NFL Network's Game Day Morning this Sunday, and he's calling the Cardinals rams for NFL Network next Saturday, December twenty eighth, at eight eastern. Where are the MVPs?
I don't know, to tell you the truth. Sometimes they're behind me. Sometimes they're in my outside office.
I don't know.
Dan Wait, Steve Young said the same thing, he didn't know where his MVPs are.
I mean, it's about the memories more than it's about the trophies day, and so sometimes my wife will put them up, you know, to kind of decorate the office a little bit and look cool.
But Yeah, I'm with Steve.
I don't know more about thinking back to those great memories than it is, you know, looking at the trophies.
Well, Steve said, if I walked in his house, I'd never know what he did for a living. Is that the same in your house?
Yeah, you wouldn't know unless you came into this office.
My rings are back behind me somewhere, obviously, some football helmets, and there's a Super Bowl MVP trophy I guess is up there on the top. So outside of this office, you would have no idea. My wife is not a football fan at all, so I don't have I don't have different pictures or anything displayed anywhere.
No, does that help if your wife is not into football?
You know, I think it helps when you're playing, because it's nice to be able to get.
Away from it. Now that I cover the sports, I wish she'd.
Liked football more so she would sit down with me on Sunday afternoons or whatever and watch football, because now you know, I've got to kind of watch it and cover it all the different days of the week that it's on. And you know, she could care less. She doesn't want to be around it. She doesn't want it to be on TV. So it's a little bit harder now that I cover it. But it was nice when I was playing. Whether it was the kids or my wife, none of them were really football junkies. So you came home and you could just be dad.
If you were Kirk Cousins, what would you think about your future?
Well, I was Kirk Cousins a couple of times in my career. You found myself in that situation. Yeah, I think if I'm Kirk Cousins in Atlanta, you probably think your career in Atlanta is over for short. And I think when I went through it a couple of times, so you know, leave the Rams, go to the Giants, and you know, then be benched.
When I was, you.
Know, with the Giants nine games in, you know, my mindset was I still felt I could play, but I didn't know if anybody else would.
Give me a shot right now.
Now this is two organizations that have kind of you know, moved on from me, so to speak. And that was my you know, that was the secondary thought in my mind was, Man, is anybody going to give me a shot after you know, this season, because obviously my year with the Giants was completely different brand of football than we played in Saint Louis. So if you just looked at stats, you know, numbers, whatever it was, you'd be like, oh my gosh, this guy's a shell of it himself in New York from what he was in Saint Louis. So he's probably not a starter anymore. And I think you could say the same thing about Kirk Cousins. With this last stretch that he's had there, I'm sure there's a lot of people wondering are his best years behind him? Can he ever get back to the form that he had, you know, prior to this season. So I'm sure you know part of that is going through his mind is what is the future? Is there a future for me as a starter in the National Football League?
Yeah?
But what's that like to play at a peak, peak level with the Rams and then you get benched with a Giant?
Like?
How does how do you go from that hide that low and then go back to that high with Arizona and go to the Super Bowl?
The bottom line, Dan is you've got to be realistic with your situation and you've got to take ownership of the stuff that's yours. And then you also know that there's a lot of stuff going on around you that isn't always on you, although it looks like it's on you, right. I mean, I broke down Kirk's you know, the interceptions when he had that four interception game, and there was a couple of plays where I felt like his receivers, you know, kind of duped him a little bit and he ends up throwing an interception. And so to me as a quarterback, you've got to go back and look at those things and go, you know what, you know that wasn't on me, And those kinds of things help you to hold your confidence even when the stats may not say you're playing really, really good football. You hang on to what you know about yourself. You learn from those moments like, yeah, that was a dumb decision, what you know, what am I thinking in that situation? But you don't just like all of us on the outside are looking at Kirk Cousins and just going, oh my gosh, he's terrible. He can't play anymore. And when you watch the film, I don't think that's the case. I don't think he was ever comfortable in Atlanta. I don't think he's ever been comfortable in this offense. I think there's a lot of you know, continuity issues between the guys around him and himself, and it's led to a lot of this stuff that hasn't played into his strengths. And if I'm Kirk Cousins, I'm thinking, Okay, that's not who I am.
This offense didn't fit me. I need to find an offense.
That fits me because I believe I can still play at a high level. And that's how you hold onto that confidence even when you're going through moments like this or you find yourself being benched.
We're talking to Kurt Warner, the Hall of Famer. You can catch him on NFL Networks Game Day Morning, rich Ies in your host on Sunday, and he's calling the Cardinals Rams for NFL Network. Now, did they have you for this because these are two of your former teams.
I don't know.
I mean, it works out beautifully for a lot of different reasons. Because we're gonna be in LA on Sunday morning, so we don't have to travel far after the game. Obviously, you know, we joke around that it's the Kurt Warner Bowl when these two teams play, because they play a couple of times a year, and obviously it's a big game. You know that NFC West is going to come down to the end. So I'm not sure why, but I like it. I like all those different factors, and I think it's gonna be a really good football game. It's going to mean something, so I'm excited about it.
Would you play met Patrick Mahomes this weekend?
You know, I am a firm believer that if a player is healthy enough to play, then you play them. And I understand all the different things. Oh, you know, if we can save him for this game, and that's just what we do. Dan like if we get injured, but it's not so bad that it stops us from playing. We want to be out there playing, and that's what you do in every other scenario. Right we're trying to look at this down the stretch, but in every other scenario you do the same thing. If you're in Week four and you know your guy tells you, hey, I can play, I'm good, I can practice all week and I can play, You play that guy, you don't, You know, That's just the nature of what this business is all about. Is we want our best out there, and our guys want to compete every chance they get, and you don't hold that competitiveness from them in any situation unless you see the guy and you go, Okay, that's not our guy. That guy can't protect himself, or that guy can't play at the level you know we need him to play.
Other than that. If he says he can go and he's out there practicing, he goes.
Why did the Steelers have Lamar Jackson's number?
That's a great question, and I don't really know the answer to him. But I think what we all know is.
That there are certain teams that just get into our mind that we would struggle against. When I played it was a Tampa bay Bucks defense, is that I just knew how.
Good they were.
I knew what they were going to do. It wasn't a surprise, you know, they didn't fool me. They were just really, really good at what they did, and they matched up really well against us.
And that's another thing I don't think.
We consider enough is matchups and how important matchups are. Then in the course of things like we just want to look at thee, well, this team's better than that team, but matchups become so critical and inside divisions, you know, certain teams are built to stop other teams. And I just feel like the Steelers have a real good gauge on what the Ravens want to do how Lamar Jackson plays football because they've played against him and they've watched.
Him so much, and they just match up very, very well.
And like I said, you know, as a quarterback, there's times you have teams where you're just like, man, I just know, I've got to be perfect in this game if I'm going to have success, and going out and trying to play perfect usually leads in the other direction, you know, instead of just going in free and believe in ay doesn't matter. You know, we're going to take this team. I love the matchup we got and we're going to go out and sling it around. You sometimes can get a little bit tighter, hesitate a little bit more, and against good teams, that's all it takes.
Explain to me, And you said this before years ago to me that you loved when somebody blitched, that somebody was open, but you got to take that hit sometimes, like you you may like it's the risk and the reward with that, but what's that how do you process that of that guy's coming And I'm probably gonna get hit, but it does open up this route for you know, Isaac Bruce.
Yeah, yeah.
All I can say Dan is that the hits never hurt as much when you complete that. And so you know when that's coming and you know there's a guy open and you're gonna hit him, and it's going to be some kind of play that adrenaline or whatever it is. Most of the time you don't even feel the hit, like it's just like, ah, I got you, and you're thinking of it from that perspective, not oh my gosh, this guy is going to hit me. I'm thinking to myself, well, I just won. You can come and hit me all you want, but I just won because there's an opening there and I'm getting into one of these guys that's going to make a big play against you. And so I just I loved that aspect of things. And you know, the other challenge too, Dan, was I'm gonna try to get the ball out before you can even hit me. Like that was to me one of the fun parts of it is how fast can I see it and beat you? So you think you're gonna get a free hit on me, Dan, and then the ball's out and you got to stop, and you're just thinking that was awful because you know, you know, these guys are licking their chops as soon as they see the tackle, step down this defensive end and is coming right at you, and then boo, all of a sudden, the ball's out and they've got to stop. There is no better feeling when I played than that aspect, is that when a team thought they had you with the blitz and they had an overload and somebody's coming free and you just flip the ball out and you get a big play, and you just know the frustration that they're feeling.
These rookie quarterbacks rank the performances so far, not who you would take in the future, just what you've seen this year from all of these guys who have played.
Jayden Daniels is number one for me. Been the most consistent from day one to now. You know, there's so many big plays. I love the way he plays in control as boys. I put him at number one. I would put both Nicks at number two. You know, not as good early, but I think he's played some really, really good football. He's been helped by Sean Payton, who does a great job of dialing up some easy things and giving him some opportunities. But I think he's played really, really well and what we saw in college has really translated to the NFL. I would go Drake May three, and he's probably the biggest surprise for me of all.
Of these guys. A lot of ups and downs of last.
Year in college and a lot of footwork stuff, and I didn't think he saw it really quickly in college. I have been overly impressed since he got in there, especially with the situation and they don't have a lot of pieces. He's not surrounded by, you know what some of these other guys have, and he has seen the field extremely well. He's played fast, He's made a lot of plays and made them competitive.
So I would put him at three, and then I would put Caleb at four, even.
Though we've seen glimpses, you know, there's just there's a long way to go in terms of speeding up the processing, getting the ball out, being more consistent playing the game. And so yeah, that's how I would rank him at this point.
Is Caleb the problem or the Bears the problem? If you were going to pick one or the other.
Man.
If I was going to pick one or the other.
I would probably pick the scheme as being the problem for the young quarterback that I think Caleb's got some issues. He's got to get better at he's got to see it and process faster. But then I've talked a lot about you know, some of these teams run these pure progression type systems, and what that does is it forces a quarterback to have to look and read a play the exact same way, no matter what the defense is. And I think that hurts quarterbacks because just because they're looking at a receiver, they don't get to see the entirety of the field. And so as he tries to work back across some of that stuff, he's completely lost to what's going on on the backside because he wasn't really worried about it to begin with, Like, Oh, I'm not worried about what's going on over there.
I'm going to read over here first.
And I just see that hurting him over and over and over again. And I believe that can be a problem across the league. You know, some teams do it better than others, But I believe that scheme has really caused Caleb Williams to play slower and play more deliberate. Where I think he's been at his best is when he's been free and he's looking doesn't have it. He reacts and he plays just like he did in college, and I think that system has really hindered him from doing that. So young quarterback room to grow. But I wish they were giving him some different opportunities in terms of the scheme that they ran or they run, because I think.
That's hurting my best of the family. Happy holidays and thanks for joining us as always.
You got it. Happy Holidays to you as well.
It's Kurt Warner.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Al Michaels was on the call last night with Kirk kurb Street Bronco's Chargers Prime Video. How are you feeling?
I feel great. Kirk just sent me a video. He is in South Bend for game day. Yeah, and he's doing the Ohio State game. Snowing like crazy.
I know.
So I am going surfing today. It's eighty degrees out here or will be. He is going snowboarding.
Do you bet? Do you bet on college games?
I don't, you know, Dan, I don't bet. People laugh because you know I'm the points spread, you know, announcing king and have been for years, and I was doing it when you aren't supposed to be doing it. But I know that the more you know, the less you know. And I know a lot about the National Football League, probably no more than ninety nine percent of the people. But if I had to bet on football, I would not be living where I'm living right now. I'd be under a freeway overpast. You can't win, you cannot win. It's fun, it's fun to play, and I would hope that people only play with money that's disposable. But you know, you can get into a lot of trouble with it. So I know what, I don't know which is the most important thing.
But going into it, you know, like Brent Musburger gave us, you are looking live and that was his way of saying to gamblers back in the seventies, whether may or may not play a role here, but you're trying to covert throw it in there where you probably have bosses who say or the commissioner who says, hey, don't be overt in making this about a point spread.
Well, they did years ago, but now everybody's in bed with DraftKings and Fan Duel and all of the other entities at MGM. So I had a lot of fun, you know, being the rascal. But and don't forget, I did the Super Bowl back in ninety four, San Francisco against San Diego was an eighteen point spread, and they asked me the one time I bossed Andiswonson at that point said, you know, the league is very sensitive to this. So I stayed away from it until the end when the forty nine ers were leading by twenty three and the last play of the game is a Stan Humphrey's passion to the end zone, which would have covered. So I couldn't hold it back at that particular time. But you know, I had a lot of fun. And you know, you know, for years I would say, you know, when the score was forty one, nothing, I said, it's not quite over. So it was, it was, it was. It was fun to do it at that point, but now it's it's just overt.
What's it like to talk to Harball, Jim Harball in those production meetings?
Fun?
Uh, And I've known look, I've known Jim really well for thirty years and knew him as a as a quarterback of the National Football League. New him who was in San Francisco. He's interesting, He's got a good turn of phrase. Uh, he's a lot of fun. His brother is one of my favorites of all time. John John is great in those meetings.
Uh.
There are so many coaches who are so good now, Uh like Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin is as good as anybody I've ever known in all of these years covering the NFL, not for thirty nine years. What Mike will do is he will answer your questions before you ask the question, which is so good you know, he'll get out and we'll go, Okay, here's the rundown, and he he will go to all the places that you want to go without you having to waste time asking him of the questions He's from. Sean McVay is phenomenal. Most of these guys are are terrific, and Harboy certainly fits into that category. Both both Harboys.
All right.
If I said Sean McVay or Mike Tomlin as an analyst.
Take your pick man, either one they be. Each of those guys will be at some point if they want to do it tremendous, tremendous because not only are they, you know, football savvy obviously, I mean that's that's a given, but they know how to put words together. Tomlin, through the years, you know, there are no cliches. And I said, even last night, at one point, you know, everybody would say running back by committee. It became such a banal kind of phrase. But Mike, you know, says distribution of labor. It's just got a different way of saying things. And I always felt that if I had a debate team, Mike Tomlin would be my captain.
Okay, but what advice do you give those who want to be an analyst?
I would say, understand you read the room where you don't go too deep into the weeds. Make the complicated more simple. You're not doing this game for people who know what a three technique tackle is, because one percent of the population will understand what that means. Explain what that means, but do it coachingly, have a little bit of a sense of humor. Don't overtalk. I mean, nobody ever got into trouble for shutting up. It's as simple as that. It's so that would be my advice I've talked to a few people through the years about this, but the important thing is just kind of you know, don't you know, take your time. The replace is not going to go anywhere, So don't jump in, don't you know, don't go wall to wall and inject some humor. And the guys we're talking about, Tom Lennon mcsay, will east be fantastic when they decide to do it.
He is Al Michael's the Hall of Famer. On the call last night with Herbie with the Broncos and the Chargers, that was a game that I thought the Chargers would normally lose because I thought the Broncos had him, and then all of a sudden, you have that kick, that free kick at the end of the first town. Were you up on the rule when it happened.
It's funny because I had a game with the Cowboys a number of years ago, and they have tried that through the years a couple of times. In fact, Harbaugh tried like a seventy one yarder when he was with the forty nine Ers. So I hadn't thought about that rule in a long time. But once it happened and I saw that everybody was talking to each other on the field and the officials were getting together. I said, yeah, I remember this now, and then you know it's a good thing. Terry McCauley obviously is our guy. I went to Terry and then he could explain it. But you don't look. It has happened since nineteen seventy six. And I don't know if you were watching last night, but Dan Fouts actually called our truck and talked to Steve Hurt, our information guru, and said, in nineteen seventy six, when Ray Wershing made that kick for San Diego, Fous had to tell the coach Tommy prothrow that that was the rule. And so that's what happened forty eight years ago.
You have a photographic memory, yes, but it's kind of crazy. When we were at the Olympics and I remember talking to you about Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the World Series and you were giving me the day and the weather. Where does that come from?
Well, the Baltimore Pittsburgh World Series was nineteen seventy nine, the weather was The weather was easy to remember because Howard Cosell came on the air in I think Game three in Pittsburgh when after two games in Baltimore with snow flurries, and Howard's opening line was welcome to the Winter Olympics. So that was an easy one to remember. I don't know, I'm somehow able to in my mind kind of go back and put my brain and my body in the in a physical presence at that point. You know, it's funny like a lot of people, you know that at this particular point and in life, where I probably have a better memory of stuff that happened in the seventies and eighties and nineties than you know what I had for breakfast yesterday.
Weird?
But are you like Joe Paterno? You know some of these coaches that coach until they die, Like do you want to broadcast until you die? I mean, not to be morbid, but this is what you know. I remember this being told to like Belichick is going to coach probably till he dies.
No, that's not important to me. What's important to me is enjoying it. I think anybody in any line of work who's passed the regular what we considered to be a retirement age, I think if you have a passion for what you do, keep going. And I do, and you know, my health is good enough right now. And I really I love what I do. I love it. I love going to the games. I love broadcasting the games. I worked with some phenomenal people. I can't believe it's been three years now on Prime Video, and they put together a fantastic group. And I love being with him and we have fun, Like we gathered last night after the game. You know, it's like nine o'clock, so, you know, West Coast game, and we're all together having them, just having a blast afterwards. So Dan, as long as I have the passion for it, I'll continue. But I'm not sitting here going moh, I've got to.
Do this, so I die.
I got it's just some kind of a broadcasting record.
No, not at all, because like Hubie Brown, I mean, Hube's in his nineties right, and I think he's just retiring.
Well, you know, Ulie was a partner of mine. I did the NBA for two years. So the first year, three oh four season, I did it with Doc Rivers and then Doc went back to coaching in Boston and I got Uie the next year. He was He was a lot of fun, a lot of fun, and God blessed that man. I mean, he's just he was a wonderful partner and I guess he's going to retire this year, but god, I could listen to him forever.
What's it like calling a game in you know, when weather plays such a role that it might impede your ability to call a game.
Well, it's funny because we did. Look, we did Pittsburgh Cleveland when it started to snow in the second half, so I really can't see what's going on, but we can enhance it the television picture. I mean, I've got to call the game off the TV picture. He's looking at it live. You can't see any of the yard lines, but we can superimpose or whatever the phrase would be, the yard line. So that's how you call that game. But people love that and a snow game. That's one of the games, one of the few games that through the years. The rating actually I think went a little bit up in the second half. He's normally, you know, in the East Coast, a lot of people going to bed at halftime, it's ten thirty whatever it is going to at that particular moment time. But that particular game, I think people would tune in and go, Wow, this is pretty terrific and they watched all the way through it. It's a great game that went all the way.
To the end.
Can the NFL give us too much? NFL?
I would have thought so, but here we go. I mean it's you know, I'm not certain that Tuesday morning football at three am wouldn't work. I mean, people just can't seem to get enough of it. When you look at what one hundred shows that are rated by Nielsen West year in ninety three or ninety four of the National Football League, I don't know what's enough. If you go down to the eighty seven of one hundred, maybe you know you're slipping a little bit. But Dan, you know as well as I do. I mean, Netflix two games Christmas Day, there's always a game, it seems a game on television, and people they love it. I understand it because it is the most dramatic thing on television, unscripted, fantastic and the National Football League, you know, is just full of drama. You don't know what's going to happen, and that's I think why we love it so much.
We do.
Now, I don't know. I don't know when you reach the breaking point, but you would think by now we've gotten there, and we haven't.
If the NBA reached out, if Commissioner Silver reached out and said, Wow, what do you think of our product and what would you do moving forward?
I think he understands what's going on right now. I think everybody's talking about you know, it's a three point game, a three point shooting game and all that stuff. I don't know what the answer is, but every sport has this issue too. Baseball has its issues, obviously, the NBA has its issues right now. Hockey kind of tweaks things. The NFL has been able to tweak a few things. I don't have the answer. I mean, that's why, you know, Goodell and Silver and Betman and Manfred get the you know, the money they get or that's their job. Their job is to figure this thing out. But on balance, you know, people still love it. So I know the NBA ratings have leaked a little bit. I think part of it has to has to do probably with the fact that you know, maybe they want people want to see more basketball the way it was played. I'm not sure they do, though, I don't know, Dan, I don't know if they if I had the answer of it, let you know, but I mean to me, you don't need any tremendous new iteration of it or involvement of something. A tweak here and there is, but I'm not quite sure.
What it is.
Can you see load management coming to the NFL?
No, because I think, you know, I think I think that would be a very bad thing. Guys are hurt it. I mean, look, there there are enough injuries. Guys are playing through injuries to begin with.
No.
I think, you know, somebody wants to go to a game. They want to see the team that they are buying tickets to see, and not some sort of you know, uh, small small sample, small part of what it is that their team is supposed to be providing. I don't see it even if you go to a team games. I think, look, I think there's load management within the games these days too. A coach, you know, if a running back needs to have a little bit more time to get fully healed, maybe he won't carry twenty times, maybe he will carry seven or eight. So there's load management right now, I think within the game.
Great to talk to you as always, thanks for joining us.
I wish you i'd sing all lang zign to you, but I forgot the words can telegraphic memory, but I forgot the words of all length time?
Can you sing?
Can I sing?
Hell? No?
Okay?
One Dano dogs will be streaming in the in the distances. If I say, nice to see my picture up behind your right shoulder. There it is. That's that's a movable feast up there, isn't it?
Yes, yes it is. It's enterprise spot now. I love it right tomorrow, but I an eagle could be up there, you know next week. It's great man, Thank you, al that's Albino.
Hall of Famer.
