The Herd with Colin CowherdColin hates to admit Tom Brady might finally be slipping at this point in his career after the Buccaneers lost their third game in a row. He praises Lamar Jackson for another stellar performance silencing the doubters who think he's not good enough to be paid like a franchise QB. He gives you his Blazing 5 picks for week 8 of the NFL season. Plus, 3-time Pro Bowler Donte Whitner joins the show to give his thoughts on how Christian McCaffrey will fit into the 49ers offense and what he's seen from Lamar Jackson at this point in his career.
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio live from Los Angeles. Welcome in. It's the Herd on a Friday, wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio f S one one hour from now are Blazing five, which has been indeed blazing. It is great to have you in. Jason McIntyre is joining us today. It is official. You and I both like the Ravens going into that game and beat the stories out. Tom Brady has been going through this for a year. The people who follow celebrity marriages and divorces, Brady and Gizella had a really rough year to a year and a half. It is final this morning. They are divorced. They both said they grew apart. Give them privacy, so I have no I no interest prying into that. Um it has been going on for a long time. I'm somebody that's divorced. It's it's when you when you read it in the paper, that's the that's the day you take a deep breath and say, I'm starting my life over a little bit. Um. But uh, I would say, Tom last night looked um a little dude, baby, a little exhausted. We've noticed this. You had been on the show now for a couple of months. We said this eight weeks ago. He looks thin, he looks gaunt, he looks tired, and boy Lamar Jackson looks good. Yeah, marriage is hard, as everybody knows. But this Tampa Bay team has bigger problems than Tom Brady right now. Yeah, they cannot stop the run Colin two hundred and thirty one yards. Wow. Well, um so again, best wishes to Tom and Giselle. It is divorce is brutal, but right now, let's be honest about it. Lamar and Jackson's a lot better than Tom Brady, and it's not particularly close. Passing first downs Lamar more, third down efficiency, Lamar was better yards per play, Lamar, red zone Lamar possession Lamar and that was on the road missing his top receiver and top tight end for big chunks of the game. It's not close. Lamar is much better to be great in the NFL in twenty twenty two. You gotta give me some horsepower, Mahomes, Matt Stafford, Justin Herbert, big Arms, Lamar, Josh Allen, Kyler, Murray, Athleticism once experience is your secret weapon, and that's Brady's. You're old and in twenty twenty two, I need some Lamborghini. I need some Ferrari in the biggest matchups. I mean, you can win a lot of regular season games and a lot of games with Ryan Tannehill and Tua and Kirk Cousins. I'm not saying that I picked Minnesota to win their division last year. Tennessee was a number one seat. But when you get into these big battles, Brady Lamar Jackson in the key moments last night, it's not close. That second half of that football game, when you get off the script and your athleticism, your arm talent really comes to the forefront. No more scripted plays. It's not close. And yes, Lamar can make all the throws. Last night he completed more throws, significantly more throws than Tom Brady with far fewer attempts and with far less talent around him. He lost his star tight end and his number one receiver and he was on the road. Brady looked old, distracted. He wanted power in New England. Now he has it. He looks lost. He's never been mobile, he looks like a quarterback with absolute limits. And after the game he had no answers. Again, as this team just continues to spiral. You know, I think we struggle pretty much at everything. You know, we're just struggling. Red area, strugging, third down, strugging, a run game, two point plays, short yardage, backed up start first quarter, started the third quarter, not very good offense football. Again, I don't think anyone feels good. You know, we're lost four or five, so not where we want to be. But you know, we haven't earned it, and you know, we gotta go. We gotta go earn it. By the way, again, we wish Tom the very best in Gizelle. It has been a daunting last year for Tom privately and especially the last couple of weeks, and we wish him the best. But I'd like to change the focus to Lamar Jackson. By the way, when he came out of college. I had real doubts because I called executives in the league. I've been doing this thirty years, like people doing this thirty years. You know, I have connections around and they said I got my doubts, So I did. But I'm not stubborn. A lot of people are. When you go to a gym, and you should go to a gym, you should work out at home, a gym, walk on a trail. Of the people that go to a gym will never be mister Universe, and they know it. They don't even want abs. But it's a better life. You feel better, things, digest better. You'll be better in life later. You drive to work feeling a little healthier. You know, when you go to the gym. You don't have to be mister Universe, but it's better, less chance of having a chaotic physical issue later in life. For the Lamar Jackson critics who say this, he's not this, he's not that he'll never win a Super Bowl, that's my favorite. Sure, all right, I didn't know you could see into the future. A lot of great ones. Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl, Aaron's only got one and he ain't close now. So I'm gonna hold off on saying Lamar's not going to win a super Bowl. If that's your big punch, you don't have you don't have much of a punch. But like regularly working out, when Lamar Jackson's your quarterback, you're in better shape. You're gonna avoid a lot of crisis. It's going to be better driving to work as a coach and a general manager and a scout and a wide receiver. Lamar Jackson is forty one and fifteen in the regular season. That's the sixth highest winning percentage of all time. By the way, his passer rating for those who say he can't throw, is higher than Peyton Manning, Steve Young's, Dan Marino's, Joe Montana's, Oh you want current ones, Josh Allen and Kyler Murray. Like working out, Maybe he doesn't win the Super Bowl and you'll never be mister Universe. But that's just part of it, right, a small part of it that's really sometimes random. Would you have guessed two years ago, I said, Matt Staffords going a Super Bowl? Well, he wasn't Endroit and he went to LA and he's probably gonna get one, and that's it. But what you don't want to be is one of these fifteen, sixteen, seventeen eighteen teams where you're driving to practice, You're going into a season knowing in the biggest matchups with the Mahomes or a Josh Allen or a Burrough you are completely utterly, physically outclassed and you never are, ever, ever, ever, ever with Lamar Jackson. Get over it. Forty one and fifteen. That's unbelievable. That's the sixth highest winning percentage ever. Well, he may not win the Super Bowl. Let's say he doesn't. Let's just say right now he doesn't. Dan Marino didn't. Did he not make many people rich, many people happy. He made the owner happy, the coach a legend, players around him a legend. Let's say he doesn't win a super Let's say Charles Barkley never gonna win a title. Yeah, it's crushed him. There's never gonna be another Brady. There's no more six seven super Bowl Guys. You gotta sign Lamar Jackson. I think he was gonna be this good, but I'm not stubborn. Nobody in the NFL thought Justin Herbert was as good as he was his first two years in the league. Are you then gonna say he's no good. Everybody's wrong. That's not anonymous, right, like everybody's wrong. Just don't be stubborn when you're wrong. Lamar is a franchise quarterback, and the second half of that game last night, he had world class winning plays, long drives with his feet, making great throws multiple times. You listen, you can make mistakes in life. Don't double down. Second half last night, Lamar Jackson was eight for eight with two touchdowns. I mean, I'm not sure I think the word is perfect. Here's Lamar after I feel like we're very close nor will be right there, but still room for improvement. Let him with making that down. We changed those and I flights. I've said before with Baltimore. I said this yesterday multiple times on the show. I bet Baltimore almost every week and I lose. They can drive you crazy, but I said yesterday I think their problems are solvable. And their big problem before last night was God, they're bad in the fourth quarter. Well they weren't last night, and they weren't because Lamar Jackson, who I had my doubts on, is I'm all in now. I'm completely, absolutely all in. There's just in twenty twenty two. You gotta have some special He's got it. And by the way, it's funny when he misses a thrower dirts it. The Internet explodes. Brady missed a wide open Mike Evans touchdown last night. The Internet apologizes for Tom the bad body language last night it was Tom frustrating Tom sitting by himself. Tom. That team likes Lamar Jackson. They like him a lot, and he wants a contract. I would give it to him, like going to the gym. You don't have to be mister Universe, but it's just a better life and you'll be better for it. Trust me. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. It is very easy sometimes to confuse wrong with just the wrong approach. A lot of people are right, they just take the wrong approach. Lebron James went to his IG yesterday. He's unhappy with the Lakers. What he's said in his IG, he's not wrong. I think it's the wrong approach. He basically, instead of being confrontational with Westbrook like Kobe would be or Michael Jordan would be or Magic would be and they were in their careers. He goes to IG and he basically says, how long can I be taken for granted? Well, Lebron's not confrontational. I've talked about this many times in twenty years in the NBA. He's never been in a single fight. He avoids them, he doesn't like them, he doesn't like conflict. He'll say nice things about people that he'll rush to his IG or whatever social platform he has, or he'll do an interview at the shop and send out messages. It's a little Aaron Rodgers. Aaron's not always wrong. Lebron is not wrong here. The Lakers are taking advantage and quite literally don't appear to know what they're doing with their roster. They don't have any shooters, they haven't had any elite shooters, multiple elite shooters in like eight years, been a shooting league for twelve. So Lebron's frustrated as hell. But he'll say nice things about Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook ad though already has back you shoes four games in and Russell Westbrook is completely imploding. Kobe Bryant would challenge Russell Westbrook at practice every day. He would go right after him at practice. He would just every day every day in his ear until Russell Westbrook would change and stop shooting. That's not what Lebron does in Miami. He acknowledged he does not like to get his hands dirty. He does not like to be a villain. He does not like to wear that hat. But Lebron is telling you he sees the truth. He sees exactly the truth. This is a bad roster. But I think sometimes to be a real leader, a strong leader, It's been my knock on erin my knock here on Lebron, you gotta get your hands dirty, running to social media, passively aggressive, aggressively dropping something. We all know what you're saying. Fix the roster, make a trade, preferably Westbrook. But when asked about this, probably today or tomorrow, Lebron will take the high road. That's what he does. But no know what he really thinks. He's sending out the nice imaging and the branding and not being caught confrontational. But this is one of those times Lebron should be confrontational. Lebron needs to tell a d work harder in the off season, come into season in shape. He needs to tell Westbrook stop shooting threes. Don't ever, again, it's not what you do. You can't rely on Darvin Ham to do all the work here, right. You can't rely on a rookie coach to have all the answers and do all the work. Lebron's been doing this for twenty years, highest level on Earth for twenty years. I again, I don't think he's wrong. In my opinion, it's the wrong approach. There's a big difference there. Aaron's often not wrong about his young receivers or Lafloor, just don't love his approach to it. If Lebron goes in there pounding the table, get me a shooter, Rob Rob Blinka will look him in the eye and said, Bro, you told me to bring Westbrook in here. Okay, how's that working out? But that's confrontation. That's what Kobe had with Phil and with Shack and with the buses. Kobe's like, I'm going to Chicago fix it, and Jerry Westman a deal and fixed it. I'm okay with that. That's why That's why I didn't love what Draymond Green did at practice. It was you know, it's that's not what you should do. But this stuff happens a lot. You just don't get TMZ video. Confrontation happens all the times in sports. I'm four arguments and like, if it's a screaming match, it's a screaming match. By the way, I know this. This is sourced Kerr and Draymond Green years ago. I mean they have barked at each other, screamed at each other behind the locker room in the middle of finals. There was a game against Okase in the regular season where the sideliner porter came out and said I was outside the locker room and Green and Kerr were yelling at He's like a shouting match. They ended up winning that game on a Steph Curry three. If you never hear about Lebron being in one of those her errands, so you think he should be. I think Lebron should be completely confrontational. My gut tells me he feels like he has no leverage here given how poorly the Westbrook move has turned out for him. Is Lebron in the last twenty years not had leverage again? Yeah, definitely in Cleveland in Miami, but this Westbrook thing has been such a disaster, and you can't point the finger at anybody but Lebron. Okay, I'm not the nine, Nap, I am not the nine. That it was a whiff. Oklahoma hired the wrong football coach. So what do you do? Double down in it? No, you gotta pivot off mistakes. I mean, the bottom line is this stuff's hard. Five quarterbacks get drafted in round one. Lamar Jackson was the last guy drafted in that in that first round class. Did you watch him last night? That's from professionals. Pay to watch Phil wall Day. You know movie critics, there used to be a Ciskel and Niebert. Remember cisk Niebert? Okay, they were these legendary movie critics. They were I watched them, I was forever. Jeane Ciskel thought Silence of the Lambs was a bad movie. Literally he was like, now it doesn't work, And I'm like, no, Jane, you're too smart for that. Watch it again. People make mistakes, don't double down on it. Yes, the Westbrook was Lebron's idea swinging a miss. Let's move off it. Yeah, can't just sit there and doubless. Just not really on this show, I mean, outside of this show. People make everybody. Yeah, calling right, calling wrong every week. I'm taking big swings. It's okay. But the problem is when people get stubborn with a political candidate or stubborn with an idea or a business move, that's when you're in big trouble. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and noon Easter not a Empacific. You've got a bit of a crisis in Denver. Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett. The coach, George Payton is the GM and he's been talking now he's he's making some appearances as as they're getting clawbered. They're in London this week, so it's a stand another standalone national game. He's asked about the Russell Wilson contract and here it is. You know, we know what Russ is capable of and it's our job to get the best out of Russ and on our entire offense. I'm not concerned. You know, we're we're in it for the long hau with Russ, not the first seven games. We believe, you know, we believe in Russ. I believe in Russ. We just need to play better on offense and the timing and the rhythm, and we need an identity. You know, we really don't have an identity and offense, and I think that comes with time and again and hopefully it comes in. So Russell Wilson, this morning there was a report he will play, he will start for Denver in that game. So that's what I had heard this morning. So listen, you cannot feel good about this contract. So the first two years of it aren't that punitive. Twenty two million, thirty five million. Remember he signed an extension with Denver. Then it gets awful fifty five, fifty eight, fifty three, fifty four. Now league revenues are going up, they're not going up that fast. The only way this general manager is being honest. The only way you can feel good about that is if you get him an elite offensive head coach. When Brady went to Tampa, it's pretty interesting, isn't It looks like Bruce arians was a pretty good coach. How's Tom without him? And by the way, when Stafford went the ram Sean McVay overcoming a lot of his reckless play with a Super Bowl. Nathaniel Hackett's not average. We're looking at a potential disaster here. So this contract for Russell and I love him. Is the worst in the NFL. Perhaps ever, they are trapped. My guess is what I would do? What do I know? But I would go hire Seattle's offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's second year in Seattle completely rebuilt Geno Smith, completely rebuilt him. He was a McVeagh guy. McVeagh guys have done okay in the league, like Zach Taylor, the kid in Minnesota. The coaching tree for Sean mcvay's pretty impressive. I would go hire him. He's well liked, super bright, very much. You know the guy in Minnesota they called the tall Sean McVay. He's paid off Minnesota now, Kirk Cousins. They're winning all of those close games they lost last year with Mike Zimmer. But listen, if you buy a really expensive house and you find out you got two major problems. Plumbing is a disaster and you got a crazy name. Okay, you may not be able to fix the crazy neighbor. You can fix the plumbing, get it fixed. The plumbing is Nathaniel Hackett. You can fix that. Now. The crazy neighbor could be Russell Wilson's career. You may not be able to elevate. Maybe he is sixty eight seventy two percent of what he was, and maybe you can't solve that, But you can solve the coaching issue. That's an easy one. If Russell Wilson was way more washed than I thought. There's not much of a precedent for it. At thirty three years old for a quarterback to be really, really good and then awful, I don't really see that. I don't know a precedent for it. Some say Peyton Manning, but he was like four neck surgeries in he was thirty nine. He was not. He was a shadow of himself his last year. You could see it physically. He wasn't. He wasn't the guy. But um, yeah, you this contract is it literally could cripple that franchise for like a decade. You got to fix the plumbing. You can fix that. The crazy neighbor sometimes you can. You hope they move. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sportspod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This week's Blazing five. Let's blaze it up, Fired Up. It's Collins Blazing five Cardinals in fight. I like the by Kings not this week. They'll all take Arizona plus three and a half. Listen. They have issues offensively, but they don't give the ball away. Only the Eagles have fewer giveaways. Kyler Murray is now running more and DeAndre Hopkins is back, and the Cardinals have been a bizarrely good road team since twenty twenty one. Don't ask me, but DeAndre Hopkins insertion back into the offense and Murray's legs now he's willing to run make a difference. The Vikings are good, but they've been out gained by two hundred and seventy yards. All their games are close, and they give up six yards a play. This is an explosive Arizona team. They go to Minnesota, they upset the Vikings twenty eight to twenty seven. Raiders at Saints. I like the Saints here plus one and a half. They're coming off extra rest. I always love that. And the Raiders, let's be honest. Their wins have been against the Broncos that are awful in the Texans and they needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Texans. The Raiders defense is atrocious. They have the worst passer rating defense in the league. Opposing quarterbacks average a one oh five passer rating. And those games they won last year, all the close ones. They're owing four and close games and oh and three on the road. The Raiders. I like their offensive talent. There's some smoking mirrors here, very close game. I'll take the points and the Saints to win. Twenty four twenty three Dolphins said Lions. Love the Lions plus three and a half. Love, Love, Love Detroit. Listen at home. They're a different team. Jared Goff at home this year. Look at their offense and is eleven home starts. He has a one or two passer rating. At home, they get thirty eight points seven yards of play, and they're getting healthy. They're getting DeAndre Swift has practiced Wednesday and Thursday. T J. Hawkins and their excellent young tight end is gonna play, so they get several weapons back and the Dolphins, they're one of four teams in the league with a winning record and a negative point differential. There is a ceiling once they get off scripted plays what they can do and they are beat up, as Jamack told you, a little beat up in some of their units defensively. I like Detroit to win this game in an upset third to twenty seven. Patriots, said Chet. I'm gonna take the favored Patriots minus two and a half. They're coming off a humiliating loss. My rule, when great players are humiliated or great hulk coaches are humiliated, they come back the next week. Listen, Belichick has feasted off average quarterbacks, especially average young quarterbacks, and that's what Zach Wilson is. Zach has less than two hundred passing yards in back to back games. They're missing Bruce Hall, Corey Davis, Elijah Vera Tucker. This is a bad spot for a quarterback that needs protection and a running game. He loses his best protector and running back. New England wins this game twenty seven to twenty and covers the spread. Bengal said, Browns, I'm gonna take the underdog Brownies at home on Monday, Monday Night, Browns plus three and a half. Listen. For some reason, Cleveland's given Cincinnati issues. Kevin staff Vansky's four oh against the Bengals. All right, and the five games have been decided by three or fewer points for the Browns this year. They're five games, so they get into some close games. Their offense this season, you think it's terrible, but they're running the heck out of the football in Cleveland. That's not a surprise. Nick Chubb leads the NFL in rushing yards and rushing TVs with eight and the Bengals listen, Jamar chases out. That's a big deal. Monday Night in Cleveland. Browns don't get a lot of money night football games at home. This is gonna be like Marti Graw and Joe Burrows still getting sacked a lot. With Miles Garrett, I get great corners for Cleveland, Miles Garrett, without Jamar Chase. I think it goes down to the last minute. I'll give Cincinnati a win. It goes either way. Twenty eight, twenty seven, but I'm absolutely strongly believe in Cleveland and the points there. You go. A lot of dogs, A slight favorite the Patriots, one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Dante Whitner, eleven years, multiple time pro bowler, now slides over to the broadcast booth of the Niners and he's fantastic. Played in three straight NFC Championship games. So I defended the Niners with the McCaffrey move. I said, if you want something, get something. If you want a Tesla, go buy it. You're not going to get it on sale. This kid's good. He's a good piece. But there's a lot of people Dante that think, man, they gave up a lot. How do you think it plays in the locker room. There's a lot of injuries. He's been injured before. To you, does he fit? Does it play in the locker room? I think he fits like a glove. Think about what he can do in the torment that he causes. Defensive coordinators. For example, when you go twenty one personnel, you have one back in the game, a full back, a tidy end and two receivers. Now you have him, Deebo Samuel, you have use Check, you have George Kid, who are all interchangeable. How do you match that? Do you match it with bigger guys or do you match it with smaller guys. If you match it with smaller guys, they're gonna run the ball down your throat because they're all welling blockers. If you match it with bigger guys, they're gonna spread you out and they're gonna throw the ball. Once he's fully implemented into this system, you're gonna see the Christian McCaffrey effect. It's gonna take this offense to another level. How long do you think it takes? Because this weekend the rams with extra rests, you give mcvagh extra time, they are limited offensively, But how long does stuff like this take McCaffrey. Listen, McCaffrey's a Stanford guy. He's got to be fairly bright, right, he'd been in the league for years, so I mean it shouldn't take for I was surprised how much work he got last week. How long before he becomes a major part of the offense. Well, he's not an All Pro mainly because of his physical abilities and attributes. It takes a phenomenal intelligence to be an all pro. You have to know different levels of the offense that other players just can't comprehend. You have to understan and your role in the passing game. You have to understand passing concepts. You have to understand route depths, you have to understand cutback lanes, and we saw that last week. I thought that when he touched the ball he had an opportunity to break it for a big one each time, and he was one tackle away. I think being a Stanford guy, being in the season where you're game planning, you don't have a million plays, you don't have the playbook that you're used to going into training camp with. They have select plays that they want him to run. The zone stretch scheme is not that complicated, and you're gonna get him in the ball, in open space and in the screen game. So the word out of San Francisco right now is that Christian McCaffrey is caught up on this week's game plan and we should see a lot of them. So you played for the Bills, Browns, Niners, Washington, you had a lot of coaches you had head coaches, you had position coaches, you had coordinators. And I've said this before, first round draft picks thirty percent don't make it. It's hard. Is you interview people? Nathaniel Hackett apparently was a great interview. It's not working. I'm one of those believers that we all make mistakes, pivot off them quickly, don't double down. Did you ever have a coach you don't have to mention the name, or a position coach or a coordinator, and Dante you knew really quickly, man, this isn't working. This guy's over his skis. Yes, and it was defensive coordinator. I'm not I'm okay with saying the name. It was Perry Fuel. And I'll give you an example, and it came from, you know, a game that we had against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night football. We have six turnovers on defense, two defensive scores. We should have beat Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys that night, but at the end of the game, we didn't play a universal defensive call, which is called sideline, where you have two defenders to ten twenty thirty two deep guys. They have zero time miles. All we have to do is make them throw the ball in the middle of field, tackle them. We win the game. He calls covered two two consecutive times. They do a good job of influence our corner. At the time number twenty four terrens. He jumps down and get a seven route for twenty. Then he called covered two again. They get a seven route for fifteen, kick a field goal. We go into overtime and they beat us in a game that we should have won if he would have made the proper cause. So since that day, I realize that sometimes it's the coaching that you know that really fails the team. And when you think of Nathaniel Hackett, he might be over his head. Yeah. I think that some guys are good at coaching the side of the ball. They're good at coaching offense, these wide receivers, whatever it is. But when you have to be the leader of men, you have to delegate different roles to different people on the team. You have to be the person that disciplines your team, make sure that things aren't swept under the rug. It's very difficult for some of those guys. It's very difficult to deal with NFL players who aren't just gonna take it. They're gonna snap back sometime, and if you're not strong enough to handle that, then you can quickly lose the team. And that's why a lot of the coordinators that transition to the head coach role a lot of times that don't I don't work out. Yeah, you know I said about Lamar Jackson. I had huge doubts out of college, like and he's sit in the pocket on third and throw, and then about a year and a half into it, I'm like, Wow, this dude just wins games. And I do believe the way I look at quarterbacks in this league in twenty twenty two is you gotta have horsepower. You can win a lot of games with Tannehill cousins too. I'm not saying you can't win games. Hell, you can win a division when you get into these Mahomes matchups, you get into these big boy matchups with Burrow Josh Allen. I need horsepower. Lamar Jackson's got horsepower, and I thought it was totally on display last night. Are you surprised or how surprised that Baltimore is sort of waiting on the contractor or are you not as big a fan. I'm a huge fan of Lamar Jackson and being a defender X defender in the NFL. I know how difficult it is to stop guys with the type of talent and attributes that he bring to the game. And he's moving at a from speed than a lot of offensive players and defensive players out there. And when you can add that dynamic, when it's just like, Okay, we might have it blocked up perfectly on defense, we might get the right penetration, but his unorthodox cunts and his skills and just the moves that he can make, it can beat you at any time. You can't teach the things that he provides. Yeah, it's just like unteachable. You can't go and teach a kid say hey, I'm gonna teach you everything that Lamar Jackson does. We're going to practice. This is impossible. So it is surprising that Baltimore hasn't pulled, hasn't really signed him up for a long term contract. I think that he has zero weapons around him. Yeah, when you're tight, end is your number one weapon when you have to go out and get de Sean Jackson, who's thirty six years old about to be thirty seven, to be a deep threat. That shows you that you didn't do anything in the offense to really provide weapons around Lamar Jackson, and then the defense they're not playing at their usual level. So I think that with Lamar Jackson truly believed they can win a Super Bowl if they put the weapons around him and make it comfortable for him to go out there and play his game. Once he gets the contract, he really doesn't have a reason not to run around defenses. Right now, he's been a little cause. Yeah, no, I mean I get it. You know. I said this obviously as Tom Brady's divorce is finalized today. Obviously, off field drama affects work. Tom looks gaunt, He looks exhausted. Is it possible to you and maybe in your career of eleven years, you had a personal drama and you just, you know, you had a two or three game stretched Dante where you weren't locked in. I've had that in my life. I have no question it's affect me. Do you think, Tom, you know it's finalized this morning the papers, do you think it's possible that this thing really A lot of the Tampa stuff is just Tom's the leader and he has been completely meetings personal life. Do you think maybe it's possible he gets a bounce a little more football or did you watch last night and think, hey, that's he's not the same guy. Well, when I see him and I watched his physical attributes, I think that there's no degregation in his skill set. I see the footwork, I see the accuracy, I see the understanding of defenses. Yeah, there's a lack in some of the consistency and decision making, but I think the offensive line is protecting them. Well, they're top five in the NFL and sacks per game with one point six sacks per game, so that's not an excuse. I think sometimes it boils down to the concepts that they're running on offense, and I think that a lot of times the playmakers aren't making plays for him. It's not really just Tom Brady throwing the ball over the field. Is getting the ball to the playmakers and allowing them to make plays. There were some phenomenal balls that he threw last week. He threw one to Evans around the money where he was jogging in the ball just popped out. Yeah, there's some balls times where he's throwing it outside the numbers and he looked like he's twenty one years old. So I don't know if I don't see a degregation in his skill set. Now as far as his mental yes, there's been times where I, you know, it wasn't even my wife, it was a girlfriend. We broke up, and I'm checking my phone during meetings, right, you want to see if she takes back. Yeah, if you're going to get a chance to make up. Yeah, it affects you. And a lot of times people don't remember that. Athletes, whether there's any pro sport, you're human and a lot of things that go on at home can seep into your work life. And I think that that's something that's going on with Tom Brady. Is a very difficult situation. But if anybody you can depend on to get yourself out of a phone, to get this team out of a phone, it's Tom Brady because he doesn't have any again, any degregation in the skill set. A couple more players make out there and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers canna be right back where they are. So best to luck for him with everything that he's going through. First round pick out of Ohio State, Well, you're good at this TV thing, You're Dante Whitner, You are good at this man, You got you got a million things going on. Happy for you, love having you on. May have to bring you, you know in Michigan Beach, Ohio State this year. I'll bring you on the day after. Just kidding, just kidding, Dante, great scene. I don't think that's going to happen this year. Man. I think that we're on a mission. We're gonna get it done. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Alan Lazar, green Bay receiver quote, I heard a snap crackling pop in my shoulder. Probably won't play against Buffalo. I'm not sure there's ever been a potential game in the NFL that could be awful, and I cannot wait to watch it. So um. You know, I have been at times critical of Aaron Rodgers. It should be noted duly that I've been right. But if they do get rolled, and I think Green Bay will be very competitive early in this game. They're very good on the script, but they don't have the playmakers after halftime when the game gets you know, like Baltimore last night. Let's see the juice, Let's see the horsepower. Baltimore has it with Lamar Aaron and the Packers don't. But if they get rolled, who will get blamed? We are on a little bit of a trend here where Aaron is blaming people. So the magic wheel of blame, the wheel of misfortune for the Green Bay Packers. Will it be Matt Lafleur, young, teammates, media, whether himself or inflation. One of those will get the blame. We have a very small percentage of it will be Aaron. But Greg Cosell yesterday said the Packers have a myriad of issues, including their star quarterback. There's never one single answer. You know, their old line has been in a state of flux this year. Their run game has been very inconsistent. Rogers has also missed some throws that we normally expect him to make. They've been very poor on third down. In their last three games, They've only converted twenty five percent on third down. So this offense stops itself a lot, and they have long yardage third downplays. They're not in third and three and third and four very often at all. My guess is in the NFL that rookie receivers do tend to make mistakes. Oh, I think that you have to work through that and you have to play. And that includes Aaron Rodgers, who I would say, based purely on tape study, is not playing up to his standards either. Very predictable. We said, you don't hang out with the rookie receivers in the off season. You go out and do your stuff. You're gonna have trouble in the regular season because now in preseason football, Aaron's not going to play, so you get no ota, you get no preseason shock that guys that played at Reno and FCS schools aren't ready to step up and contribute before Thanksgiving. I do think it'll get better over time. It should, right, but these are rookie receivers. It was all predictable. Aaron and Brady tend to like veteran guys that can trust. Nothing wrong with that, but this is your team in reality. Figure it out, mentor be a good teammate. Don't slice him up publicly. Here's the thing Aaron said this week. Sometimes the truth hurts. But what happens if Matt Lafleur came out, if they get rolled and ripped Aaron. If the truth hurts and some people can't handle it, I asked Peter Schreger, then can Lafleur rip Aaron if he stings? I think Rogers is feeling not only the responsibility of having to do this all by himself out there, with the lack of talent at the skill positions and the receivers and the and whatever else you have at the offensive line not holding up. I also feel like there's he's trying every trick in the book to motivate these guys, and us on the outside are like, that doesn't work. I'm not sure there's enough motivational tactics that are gonna work with with the talent around him. If they lose by twenty to Buffalo and Rogers teas off again on the coach, at some point you think Laflour has got to answer back publicly. But if you lose Rogers, goodbye. And that's the thing. Aaron says the truth hurts, but everybody knows you can't rip Aaron publicly because it just doesn't go well. See that's my criticism of Aaron. He's not wrong saying the truth hurts, but MI or mir on the wall. You're not playing well, so what if somebody rips you? Is that cool too? Because that truth would really hurt
