Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be 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. Here we go live in LA. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and FS one. There is all sorts of stuff happening in the sports world. Conjecture, rumors, gossip. We are here to sort it all out today on a midweek Wednesday. So fired up. Looking over all the NFL games this weekend, six games. I like, four dogs and two favorites. Two is not going to play. It looks like against the Bills that's going to Gallugley. Well, you're just starting to show with an sat vocabulary word. Goodness, I almost needed my dictionary. I have some trepidation going into the weekend regarding the gambling lines in the NFL's all right, great, it's jamac of course. I want to start with this, and this is just a quality it makes. It's a good quality people have, but it can also get you in trouble. Psychologists call it. Are you a saver? That you like to save people? Now? It's a really great human quality. There's some ego involved, there's some empathy involved. Are you as saver? Jerry Jones has a little bit of that. I'll get to that in a second. But the big question this weekend, he's never beaten Brady Brady's what six and oh seven to o against the Dallas Cowboys. I like Dallas this weekend. I tend to like capable quarterbacks off ugly losses, So I think Dallas buttons it up, super focused, getting ripped all week he can. Dallas, by the media, comes out, plays a great football game and beats an anemic offense with the Buccaneers, which is good, you know, and when the hurry up offense, they're not bad. The rest of the game they're awful. So but what if Dallas loses? Oh last year, Oh that's seventeen seconds, middle of the field, dak slide season over. McCarthy's a bomb. Jerry says, no win or lose. Mike McCarthy's my guy. No, that's it. I don't need to go into all the plus seas for minuses. But I've got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy owned than this playoff game. I can't tell you how much confidence I've got in Mike and our coaching staff of being on top of where we are with his team right now. So Jerry, for a change, is ending the drama, He's not starting it. The Cowboys are teetering a little that was really bad against Washington. Thing is kind of teetering, and Jerry says no, No, Mike McCarthy's coming back. But Mike McCarthy, if you do a deep dive on Jerry and his DNA is perfect. Mike McCarthy wins enough about sixty percent of his games. Mike McCarthy doesn't want personnel power. Mike McCarthy would rather be behind the scenes, not in front of the mic. He's not terribly comfortable at the podium. But most of all, Mike needed Jerry. He needed to be saved. Remember that silly narrative. He was down in his basement watching all the plays. He later admitted he lied. Jerry fired the very powerful Tom Landry, a man of religious conviction that didn't need anybody. It ended poorly for Parcels and Jimmy Johnson. They didn't need saving either. Alpha's Jerry Owns likes to be necessary. It's a really important thing. Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy. That's why he struggled to get rid of Jason Garrett. Jason Garrett got fired. He didn't have a lot of job offers. He needed Jerry. Mike McCarthy in his basement working on analytics needed Jerry, and Jerry likes that. And I don't think Dallas, if they do lose, is gonna get rolled or humiliated. Tampa can't run the football. Brady's gonna have to throw forty five times. Outside of that game against I think it was Carolina and Carolina was using backup corners and Mike Evans exploded. It just can't. They can't move the ball consistently, and Dallas has a good defense. I think it's pretty low scoring in Dallas wins, But if they lose, it'll be close, not humiliating. They won't get drubbed, I don't think. But this season's really actually been more about Dak. Dak has struggled. My staff looked it up this morning. If you go to Dak's career pre Amari Cooper wide Receiver and post Amari Cooper. This year, Dak's passer rating is ninety two. He's average with Amari Cooper, it's in the hundreds. So what did Dak need this year as he struggled? Ask yourself? What has Dak needed this year as he struggled the support of Jerry. Dak needs Jerry's support. McCarthy need Jerry, Jason Garrett needs Jerry right. Jerry likes to save, and Jerry likes to discover. He found Tony Romo, he found Dak in the fourth round. Jerry likes that. Jerry likes to be necessary and needed and save and protect. And you know who doesn't need protection, Sean Payton. That's why I've never thought he fits here. He didn't need to be saved. Bill Parcells doesn't need to be saved. Jimmy Johnson doesn't need to be protected. Nobody discovered Jimmy John's and maybe Jerry thought he was discovering Jimmy Johnson, but he got tired of it because Jimmy didn't need Jerry to have a great life and a great career. So when McCarthy loses in the playoffs, and I imagine he will eventually, though I don't think it's this week, he's safe. Jerry is necessary for Mike McCarthy, and Jerry likes that role. It's who he is. So this one's interesting. We live in Los Angeles, although it feels like Seattle this week, and the rumors among the big trees, among the agents, among the players and their representatives. I'm among among the people that are in that elite upper class. They hang out in games, at sweets and drink champagne. They think Sean mcvay's out. They actually think Matt Stafford may be out in LA. But Stafford a couple days ago said I'm in regardless of what happens to Sean McVay. So the Sean McVay story is very interesting. Very rarely do we find a coach in his mid thirties who's crushing it and says, yes, too much stress for me. I want to step back and have a life. You chose coaching. You want a life, and you chose coaching. Yeah, broadcasting's a nice life, but it's boring, doesn't pay half as much. I think McVeigh Lebron has done this his career. I think McVeigh feels at times a little underappreciated, and frankly he maybe he basically energized the franchise so they move from Saint Louis to Los Angeles. Jeff Fisher's teams were bad and boring. Jared Goff was a bust that a twelve year playoff drought, and they were unwatchable. And McVeagh wins a Super Bowl, has gotten him to two with two different quarterbacks, saved the entire business. Remember the stage adium was a cost overrun. They gotta make money on this thing. That stadium cost double what they wanted it to. They gotta fill that stadium and sell beer and get parking. That thing cost eight billion. They thought it cost four, or maybe it was seven and three and a half. I forget the numbers. It was a way big cost overrun. And they need exciting football and winning football, and they were a boring, ugly, unwatchable mess. And McVay saved him in LA a distracted and jammed market and now the fourth biggest economy in the world just surpassed Germany. Californias had a lot of money here. When you win, baby, you win big here. You win in Cincinnati, Congrats, free chili. You went in Los Angeles, everybody gets uber rich. California has distanced itself from the country's economy. And McVay saved the most popular sport. He saved the quarterback, he saved the franchise. It was a boring, unwatchable mess. And I think he wants a little more power, a little more saying personnel. He looks at Kyle Shanahan's roster and says, come on, man, they got They got nine of the best fifteen players. If we played tomorrow, maybe nine to twelve. Aaron Donald's getting old, Cooper Cup has hurt, Stafford's banged up, and McVeigh also their stories out today he has told his staff go looking for work. What does that tell you? He wants to make changes on the staff, but he didn't want to fire anybody. So if you're on a if you're on a roster or a team or a staff, it could be this show, it could be a team, it could be a political office. Everybody knows who's tight with the boss, and everybody knows who's not. So when McVeigh tells his staff you can look for work. What he's basically saying is to the three and four coaches he would fire get another job. He didn't want to fire him. So I tend to think there's always a story behind the story, you know. I tell the story years years ago. When I was a little kid, my dad took me to watch the Harlem Globetrotters. But I lived in a small town and we didn't really get the Harlem Globetrotters. We got like the Beer c Team. And so my dad had this big Buick Riviera and we showed up late and there was no parking. It was in a town called Hoquiam, Washington, and we pulled into a weird parking spot and we had to walk through an alley. And when we walked through the alley, there were the Harlem Globetrotters smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. And from that moment on in my broadcasting life, I wasn't interested in the story you saw. I was interested in the story behind the story. As we walked into that gym, it was full and everybody cheered the team I just saw knocking down a Miller light, smoking cancer rockets. So to me, I look at this, and I think to myself, come on, man, stories, never this simple thirty five year old, thirty six year old Sean mcvagh is burnt out. He chose coaching. This guy's one of the smartest football coaches on the planet. He can name his job in America and Sean Payton just sitting waiting in the wings to take it. I mean, people can say what they want, but if you leave, you'd rather the team hire somebody less talented than you, and Peyton not a lot of people more talented than him. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe mcvay's burned out. Maybe he wants to broadcast. Sean trust me on this, It's not as much fun as coaching. Coaching. Coaching coaching's being a rock star in sports. Everybody wants the mic and to be in front. Mcvay's and Iconi's smart, he's but I think sometimes we've got to realize in Los Angeles stadium's a cost overrun. They're playing at the Coliseum, goff subbust, team's unwatchable. I remember that first game, Remember that first game Dak ever played at the Coliseum. It was Rams and it was Cowboys, and that crowd was about ninety percent Cowboy fans. Okay, the Chargers are still struggling trying to get their fans in the building. NFL was gone for twenty years. In this marketer or more mcvays saved it. You go Fisher to another miss. You're reeling a little more, Say a little more power, a little more personnel. Say I think he's frustrated, doesn't want to fire coaches, wants big changes, wants more. Say that is my gut feeling. That's all I'm saying. That is my gut feeling this morning. Because a lot of people in the big offices are saying mcvay's gone. Staffords with him, they're rebuilding. I don't believe it to be true. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. In the nineties, there were two if you really like sports cars and cool cars, And I've never been a car guy, but there was Porsche and Jaguar. Jaguar was like what cool rich old dudes drove. They broke down all the time, terrible service record, but they were cool. You see guys silver hair and a Jaguar. That guy's cool as that's cool, but they's always broken down and so Ford our domestic you know, Juggernaut. Ford bought Jaguar, overspent for it a few billion bucks. It's like nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety nine that Ford bought Jaguar, and Ford's boring, right, Ford just a but cars need to be dependable, right. It's great if they're spectacular, but you know you can sometimes people love to buy a convertible. In most of the country outside of Florida, in California, you can't have the top down nine months a year. So Jaguar was not dependable. Ford made them more dependable. Again, probably overpaid for it, but I feel that way sometimes with a young quarterbacks that we fall in love with the spectacular. We did this with Zach Wilson. Go look at his college highlights. He gives you spectacular, but his footwork, his accuracy, he gives you nine and ten. He's bad one through six. And most of quarterback play is the mundane and the repetition and the footwork and the accuracy and the layoups. That's seventy five to eighty percent of this stuff. You only have to be spectacular, Josh Allen about three times a game. The other stuff is choreographed, built and practiced and repetition. Get the layoups right. And so the Chicago Bears now have the number one pick, and they have Justin Fields, and would they it's making the rounds on the interweb, would they draft another quarterback? I would not because I think Justin Fields, much like Bryce Young, is not good enough to overcome chaos, but if you surround him with the right pieces and protection, he could grow into a good player. Justin Fields is also bigger and stronger. I like that. I like my quarterback top ten, top fifteen picks, big strong guys. So then GM of the Bears, Ryan Poles, and we don't know yet. We really don't know yet, says I don't think I'm drafting a quarterback. We're gonna do the same as we've always done. We're going to evaluate the draft class. And I would say this, I'd have to be absolutely blown away to make that type of decision. I'm excited for the direction he's going and as I've mentioned before, he knows where he has to improve. I think he mentioned that the other day. So we're excited about his development and where he goes next. Here's where I am with Justin Field sixty forty. I think it's gonna work, but he trade lance. Zach Wilson. I don't think they're gifted enough to overcome nonsense. Mac Jones the minute he didn't have the right coach regresses badly. He's not gifted enough to overcome a bad coordinator. My concern with Justin Field, and I see this more and more. Maybe it's because of social media. Everybody's got a highlight, everybody's sports center, everybody can give you highlights. We're falling in love with the spectacular and the highlights. That is a small part of quarterback play. You get about two of those game. We did this with Cam Newton for years. His footwork never got better, his mechanics regressed, but like twice a game, Cam Newton would do something you couldn't take your eyes off of. Folks. A lot of movie trailers are amazing. There's sixty seconds. Very rarely is a movie amazing. That's two hours and ten minutes. I've seen it was Zach Wilson. I've seen people go to the combine and make froze. This is what they're struggling with with Trey Lands and San Francisco accuracy, It's what they're really struggling with. It's what they struggle with. Was Zach Wilson. They know he's got a good arm, they know he can move. But if you watch Zach Wilson plays, he'll have a guy seven yards out in a flat and short hoop him. He'll dirt it like. You can't do that. You gotta get the layups right. You couldn't have a take. Daniel Jones almost never spectacular. He's in the playoffs. Why completion percentage ticked up, turnovers career low. He just doesn't make the mistakes anymore. He's no more spectacular. Now they're using his legs a little more. But but with an average A line and bad receivers, he's in the playoffs. We don't look at We don't look at Daniel Jones highlights. We don't go on Sunday and go, oh, you see Daniel Jones. It's not what he does. His completion percentage highest of his career, his turnovers lowest of his career. So I think Justin Fields is gonna work, But I don't know if it's social media. I don't know why this is. We used to all wait for Sports Center when I was a kid growing up. Howard co Sell in the seventies gave you highlights of the games that time of Monday night football. And then ESPN created Sports Center, so you got highlights at Sunday night. And now we have our phones, we all have Sports Center. It makes Sports Center less relevant. You don't have to wait until Monday to new games, and so we all have our own little sports centers and we sit there watching the highlights over and over and over, and we fall in love with highlights. That is like five percent of quarterback play is justin fields gonna audible you out of trouble. You can keep blaming the online in the receivers, but is he gonna audible you out of trouble? Is he gonna audible you in the yards? Is his footwork getting better reading the field? Or is mechanics stabilized? And the answer maybe yes to all of these. I'm sixty forty. I think it will work. But I do notice this. I think it's the big mistake with Zach Wilson, who I never bought into him. I didn't like his footwork. I didn't like his size. I thought he was on disciple blend. I thought he was a cowboy. He was doing eight nine pretty well. One through six. I didn't buy at all. So that's where we are today. I would still still they got some draft picks here, I'd still support him. I want to see seventeen more games. From the beginning, I've said it's going to take more time with him. I don't trust the organization. They can't build a develop offense. I think they need to move down, get more picks and current players mostly on offense. Give him seventeen more games, and then make a decision. I wouldn't draft a quarterback. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific with Lamar Jackson. I've always said, if you win seventy five percent of your games, I'll sign you. You win seventy five percent of his games in a good division. But it's interesting watching college football wrap up. Give me a few minutes here, so college football. I can tell you right now who's gonna be great next year. George is gonna be great, Ohio State, Michigan, Bama. There'll be four of the top six teams I can tell you right now, men's tennis, women's tennis, international soccer, we usually know who's great and Madrick Bay just look at the look at this salaries. I can tell you eight teams now that can't compete. NBA, I can tell you right now in the Eastern Conference, it's gonna be Milwaukee and Boston if they're healthy, those are the two best teams. Warriors, they can't find themselves. My guess is they'll figure it out. But Warrior, Celtics, Bucks will be the three best teams in the league. I still like the Clippers if Kawhi plays, but there's a lot of predictability and all this stuff. And then there's the NFL. Half the teams that made the playoffs last year didn't make them this year. Eight coaches will be fired because of the regulated level of violence. Careers get cut short, runs get cut short. We thought that Seahawk dynasty lasts forever. After about two years, boom done. Stuff doesn't know back to back champs in eighteen nineteen years. In the NFL, each year feels different, even inside of a year. Jet starts seven and four, Cascade Down the Hill two was a pro bowler early, can't stay healthy. Even within this season, it feels like two seasons. The difference has always been though one constant in the NFL, gotta have a great quarterback. But even that now is becoming fluid. So if I said, let's have a top ten list this morning, based on intangibles, momentum, productivity, health, age, talent, the top ten quarterbacks in the league. My top five would be Patrick Mahomes has separated from everybody else. I would put Joe Burrow to me because of his accuracy, his situational greatness, no turnovers. Josh Allen's third, He's the tyson. He'll knock you out, but still can be a bit sloppy. Number four Justin Herbert has to put up some playoff wins. But six five and a half, two forty he set every record for a player in his first three years, even beat Mahomes. And then number five a kid I loved in high school, Trevor Lawrence. He is now nobody's taking a phone call on Trevor Lawrence. So let's go to number six. Oh oh, I don't know. No. Number six Lamar Jackson contract issue, hurt at the end of this year, hurt at the end of last year and his playoff numbers are horrible. He completes fifty six percentis throws in the playoffs. Jalen Hurts probably my six, but historically a little small Hurt again runs more than I'm comfortable with. Is he just having one great year is hard? And that's what's interesting. I mean I would have had Kyler Murray at five or six. Now he's got drama, injuries, can't get along with people. What about Matt Stafford? What about him? He had three different injuries this year. What about Aaron Rodgers? Green Bay may move off him. He's thirty nine, Brady Old. You get to six, it's almost like it it's almost like social media where you got your Big five. You got your Facebook, you have your Instagram, you got your TikTok, you got your Twitter, you got your YouTube, and buy six. Don't tell me Parlor. Okay, don't give me parlor. I don't want to hear about Parlor. But you get to six in this league and you're like, I got questions. I think it's Dalen Hurts. But that's my thing with Lamar Jackson. I got injuries, I got contract stuff. Now he can't stay healthy this league changes inside of a season, inside of it. The Jets and two are a great example. So I don't know what you'd do. I would resign Lamar Jackson, but I saw a story this morning. He's tried to do some work in his injured knee. It hasn't felt right to this point. He's yet to practice at all since getting hurt. Now would a new contract make it hurt less? I don't know. It's just speculation, but I find this He's an enigma. I like him. I'd sign him. What in the world is going on? You get to the number six quarterback in this league? I make phone calls. That's why I think Jason when he speculated Lamar to Miami, there's a lot of speculation about Stafford moving out of the Rams. Colin, could you argue that this was a weird year with the injuries because too what was tracking extremely well? Matt Stafford was out, Lamar injured, Dak kind of injured, struggled a little bit like maybe this was a weird year. No, because Dak's never been an elite thrower. Kyler Murray was always smaller than you'd like. We all think Jalen Hurts is very good but historically he is smaller than a career average. He runs a little bit more than most of us would love. I think he's six, but I thought Lamar Jackson was five nine months ago. So it's I mean, I was the biggest Tyler Murray fan, Like, I didn't think he'd work in the PROS second game. I'm like, Okay, that's unbelievable. So it's the Lamar stuff to me is his stuff is harder than you think. I was never a big too a guy, so I didn't buy into the Pro Bowl to a stuff. I thought it was about the coach and the weapons of left tackle Tyreek Hill. All right, this is Jay Glazer. And you may know me for the world of football or fighting or even shows like HBO's Ballers. Well you don't know is for my entire life. I have lived in something I referred to as the gray depression, anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer where each week, well we talk about mental health. I hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's bring in Mark ten years in the NFL, Baby Fox Sports call the Seahawks Rams. Last week, Rams was actually entertaining. Well, that was a great game. I will trying to leave and join myself. God listen to it. He's already staff in Arizona. Come on, you want to be strength and conditioning? Ah sweet Burn. Okay, what do we got. Let's start. You had Rams, Seahawks, let and you know Pete Carroll, So let's just let's just start with the Pacific Northwest. Um, I'm sure you were asked this in your career with those good Jet teams, can you be the team a third time? I think it's really hard, really hard. I do think San Francisco has so much built in institutional intelligence with their players, They're not going to be too hyped. If they were all good young stars, you get a little fall in love with yourself. But is there a formula law that Seattle could give them trouble? Having watched the Sattles, Here's part of the issue is there's two times in the league. In my experience, and I think a lot of players would agree. But where guys are really thumping, where they really hits playoffs, wild Car weekend and like the first day of the season, because you've had the pads on, you're tired, you're ready to hit another color uniform. So it's gonna go in San Francisco Levi Stadium is gonna be rocking. All the juice you need is going to be right in that stadium, and it's gonna be awesome. That is like that play so well into Coach Carroll's hands because regardless of how it happened, right he mentioned the Baker Mayfield pick, the penalties, the running into the punter, was it a penalty? Was not? It doesn't matter anymore. Boys weren't in the tournament. Who cares? And right now Seattle, in my opinion, is playing with house money. Yeah, they could have controlled their own destiny earlier in the year. And Pete, even when we were talking to him during the week leading up to the Rams game last week, was ticked about it. He was kicking himself for like, man, we should really be driving the ship here and in control of our own destiny, not waiting on a you know, Detroit watch party. But here we are. So the third time you play a team, I mean, you got plenty of tape to coach from sure. I mean, they gotta keep it close. They're gonna have to have some sort of special teams play. It's got to be an onside kick. It's got to be a fake punt that gives him a free set of downs. And I mean, once again, you're just playing with house money. Those six rookies that are starting for Seattle. Can you imagine the experience they're gonna get. Yeah, this year against potentially the super Bowl champion in the wild card round, Like, who cares? Man, Cut it loose. You got literally, you got nothing to lose because we're not even supposed to be here. So cut it loose, have fun, take care of the football, geno. We can't have any silly ones. But lock it. You know what to do. DK, go be yourself. Boys, hold up as a because you can't upfront because that's a heck of a d line. And let's see where we go, and let's see what rock Birdie does. Put some of the pressure on him. Yeah, just get him into a couple of third and lungs. Hey, dude, good luck. Let's see what happens. You know, you never know, and that's why you got to play it out on paper. Oh god, first PLAFF game, do you remember your We're on the road at Cincinnati. I remember Drew Weatherford, our punter, had like heart palpitate, like something crazy happened to him and he couldn't punt. So Nick Folk or somebody had to like kick for him or Feely maybe, but like so we started freaking out, like what do we do if we have to punt? Like I don't know. There were just all these conversations going on and you're trying to focus. I remember Thomas Jones almost, you know, choke slamming on the field because he wanted me to hand them the ball on the goal line and I try to throw it to Jericho Cattry. Really I wanted to throw a touchdown pass in the playoff game. I thought that'd be cool, but Thomas Jones would have had to walk in like laugher touchdown and he was pissed. Really yeah, he almost fought me in the huddle. He's like, don't ever do that again. I was like, yes, sir, you got it. That's funny. So let me ask you. You were around McVeigh he was coaching his butt off. Oh yeah, I mean I said this two weeks ago, he didn't look like a guy that's hanging it up. He yo, I hear all these rumors. I don't know, Mark listen. I think if he does decide to do it, they have a guy on staff who's already been with offensive staffs, defensive staffs, been a defensive coordinator, been high up with the offense, been a head coach in Tampa before. It's Rheem Morris. I think it'd be a slam dunk. Yeah, but you know if he comes back, he comes back and hopefully he's re energized and ready to go and ready to give it, give it up for the team. And I think that's part of it, is like, am I gonna be my full self? Am I going to be completely Not that he's not committed, but like, am I fully there? Can I handle and weather these storms as we move forward? Or is it better for both sides to kind of take a break here? And if it is, I don't think anybody's gonna fall to him. It's just, hey, you know, that's a that's a that's a grind, what he's what he's been through, and take a step away, reevaluate come back better than ever. So I want you to go to your playoff experiences. So here's Philadelphia early in the year, healthy, no turnovers, now banged up turnovers. You know Miami was great early, they're falling apart, Seattle hot early. Does momentum matter? You know, it's funny, you know March madness. We all love March matters. I saw stat years ago that literally, momentum means nothing. You can literally play awful basketball, but once you get into the tournament, it's almost like it doesn't matter. You think the hottest teams win the tournament. It doesn't work out that way. But NFL is different. There's a lot of physicality, violence. Health is a big deal in your history in the league. Are you concerned that Philadelphia is not Philadelphia of seven weeks ago? That Seattle sputtering? That doesn't matter for you? Did it matter that you were buttoned up? Or? Sometimes? Can you use poor play late? Dallas was awful Sunday and used out to go fellas, we gotta be more focused. We were disaster last week. I think it's hard when your starters go out and play poorly in that last matchup and you know you're gonna yeah, So for them, it's you know, we need a quick little reset here. Let's have this come to Jesus meeting. We're good, nobody take this personal, but we got a job to do here. Let's let's tighten up the teams that I were was on. We were it was playoff mode before the playoffs. Okay, you know, so those last couple of games we had to win to get in to secure a spot, and uh, you know, thankfully the Colts sat their players one of the years. The next year we had to win to get in. I think, or no, actually we sat. We sat the last week of the season. Brunell went out and played against the Bills and balled out, But we a couple of the guys played for like a half or a quarter or whatever, almost like a preseason mentality. But I think for the NFL the most important thing going into the to the playoffs. And I'd never had to buy week, I never had a home game, So I don't know what Philadelphia is feeling that way. I just know playoffs in general, you just want to be getting healthy. You want to be getting like you want to see on the injury report, like, hey, you know so and so is practicing today. He's good and like, yeah, you see him in warmups and it's not just warm ups, and then they go back in the training room. You know, you're out there and it's real and it's like, oh, dude, did you see you know whatever? Yeah, whatever, it is like, oh, did you see him in easy? He looks good, He looks good in warm ups. Let's see how he does in the first rack of plays and practice. You look good and third down, I like it, Let's go big, Mike, you know, like that's the way the players kind of see it, you know. So I think health is the biggest thing. And then for the guys that aren't healthy, like I mean, it's like, tape it on and let's go give us everything you got, you know, because sometimes the illusion of that guy playing is, you know, better than nothing. One of the reasons that you and the Jets had success, you beat Brady and Manning, is that I believe by the end of an NFL season, do you have an identity? Your teams? No doubt, run a defense maybe, yeah. So it's always been my knock a little bit on the Chargers. Herbert's great, what's their identity? The Giants are fascinating, So I think there's limitations, total identity, no, exactly what they are. I think they're a matchup problem for the Vikings. That was I mean, that was one of the best games of the year earlier in the season, and it was only a couple of weeks ago. So and you look at teams the way, almost like I would liken it to Detroit. When teams played Detroit, even if they beat them early in the year, that next week it was like that team that played against Detroit, the next game they had to play, they were like a shell of themselves and sometimes they got blown off the map the next week after Detroit because they played them so physical. That's the way the Giants are. They played Green Bay in London, whoever they played during the year, they'd leave you battered and Bruce, you might have stolen a w from the Giants, but they kind of kicked your ass, you know what I mean. Like they they're tough, they're gonna show up, they're gonna thump, they're gonna hit, they're gonna leave it all out there. Third and you know third and medium to third and short. Daniel Jones is an extra runner now and that dude's going for it like he's got a lot on the line. Se Quon's got it all on the line, and they showed up to play this year. Those guys are I was. I was so just fired up to see those guys playing the way they played with all that pressure in that market. But I mean they they did all right. They got to figure out a way to cover Justin Jefferson or just limit his productivity because he went off last game. Yeah, you know, I know it was. It was a long day for Fabian Moreau, one of the cornerbacks. But he's also expecting help over the top, and so a lot of the stuff they did underneath it's like a catch and boom, here comes the help. But he caught the ball already, you know what I mean, He's already doing what he does. So it was that was tough. The other thing I'll say is, you know, you play against Martindale and it's just the rolodex of coverages and pressures in front and oh hell yeah. When he was in Baltimore, I mean, you never see the same thing. We'd call it a grab bag of coverages, and so you're basically it limits what you can do on offense in some ways because you want stuff where you know where every everybody's final destination and spot is essentially, so think of like the number five on a die, like when you play dice. You want guys in specific spots exactly so you know, just because they're gonna throw out so much stuff at you that you're not necessarily prepared for and bring out blitz is from two three years ago that you haven't seen, just to try and get a free runner, and as soon as they get one, you better block it up or they're gonna keep bringing it. So it's just it'll be a cat and mouse game between O'Connell Martindale back and forth and how his cousin's gonna handle it? Does he do it? Chuck and duck? Where you gotta you know, you got a guy coming to your face. You just you have to get out of the way and boom, chuck one over the top and there goes a cheap one for the giants. Free en. Let's see what happened. So they barely lost by three points on a sixty one yarder, so it's not like the Giants didn't give them a run. They're right in it. One more herd. The herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. It's a crazy world out there when you're a young quarterback, unless maybe you're Andrew Lucke, John Elway, Trevor Lawrence, so generationally gifted you can overcome some nonsense. By and large, these young people need help, right, they need help, and so Chicago Justin Field's first two years, oh lines, bad, no weapons, a franchise with a history of struggling, a little bit like the Jets with the offensive side of the ball post Nameth right, the defense made a lot of great defensive players. You're making your guy, but it's there is something to be said. Chicago struggles with offense. It's a tough town. They love their linebackers, their sack artists. They can't figure out wide receiver and quarterback, so you're thought, so they have the number one pick. I think Justin Fields is as good or better than these three guys. Now, Caleb Williams next year, that's a different ballgame. I think he's at Trevor Lawrence Andrew luck type. Take me to you're right, Like, what's Justin Field? You've been in this space. Yeah. So the biggest issue there is Justin's the franchise guy for Ryan Pace. Ryan Pace isn't there anymore, That's right, Polls is the GM. Now that's an issue. That's a bigger issue than Justin developing. I think Justin's on the right path. I think he's on the right trajectory. He's improved passing wise. We still need to get him a little better in the pocket, Yeah, but he makes up for that with his ability to scramble and create plays and run the way he ran. The problem is, I mean, this is a very similar situation. When I was with the Jets, Mike Tannebaum drafted me. When Tannebaum got fired and IDSI comes in, I remember sitting in the guy's office and I'm like, Hey, what are we doing in the drift? Like, I'm assuming you guys owe me eight and a half eight million dollars guaranteed, no matter what whether I play it down or not. Like we're already past that date. So I'm assuming since we've drafted defense like the last five years in a row, like, can we get a wide out, can we get a tight end? Can we get what are we doing here? And you know, we had this conversation back and forth and he said, you know, there's you just spoken very general terms. Hey, we got to find some talent and we want to win and blah blah blah. It's okay. Well, I'm committed to winning here. I'd love to be here as long as I can. Obviously, this is my one year to prove it and try and do it. Well. We end up drafting Genosi and no slight on Gino, it had nothing to do with it. Yeah, I was like, what are we doing? And in my opinion, if I'm the GM, it doesn't help the GM. Think about it. If you're paying me anyway, you could buy yourself a year. If Sanchez goes out and sucks, great. I just bought myself a year. I picked up a player in the draft that can help our next quarterback who we're gonna draft. So you almost like call the year a wash if you're the GM and extend your career. Yeah. But instead, and we still didn't have anybody to throw too or anything. We're like, what are we doing? Right? So it was that's that's a tough situation for Justin and unfortunately that's when he cannot control yeah. They I do mock drafts all day on a piece of paper. Here, I think the Bears need to. My takeaway is they're gonna go edge rush or early. I don't think they have as much leverage as they think, because I don't think these quarterbacks are worth trading four picks to go up and get. I think the Colts will take one, the Raiders will take one. I think there's a lot of teams that would take one if they could give up a second round pick, right, Caleb Williams, I give up four numbers. I see. I don't know. And and this this is a solid class, right, three solid guys. I just don't know if they're like generational. Hey, mom, and I hope they proved me wrong. I just Mark, you just don't get that buzz from the way you did with Andrew Luck the way he did with Trevor. Next year, yeah, next year, there's a couple right yeah, North Carolina kid, so Drake May and Caleb. So my takeaway is I wouldn't move up, but I could see Houston going. Well if we stunk again, there's two A plus plus guys next year, all right, So I'm gonna throw these games that yeah, we got we got two minutes left. Tell me the dog that's barking. Seattle's a dog, Jacksonville's a dog, Miami's a dog. Giant a dog, Ravens a dog, Buccaneers a dog. Any one of those. You kind of like, bucks are scary, Giants are scary. I think Jacksonville's a dog at home. Really. Well, see the last time they played, remember that's right, Jacksonville rolled. Um. I think Alan was down or one of the white outs was down. Alan was down. They were in the you know, in the tank there where everybody's calling for Staley's head and you know this is horrible, the Chargers, and then he brought him right back out of it. So I think i'd take I'd take maybe the giant god dog. Kevin O'Connell's going to kill me. I want him to be a groomsman in my wedding, and I'm picking the giants. Holy smokes. Um as journalism right there, folks, I guess that's the way it goes about live television journalism. Hey, hey, by the way, let me throw one more question. A minute left you face Brady before Oh god, the playoffs, dude, what's it like the face. Brady the player, mean, he's a different animal. I just remember him wearing out officials really, oh god, that first quarter of our divisional game, he's just wearing it. I want to say it was Sterator McCaulay, whoever it was, Are you kidding me? This? That and the other? Oh you're ruining this game. It's right in front of your face, you know. So later on in the game I kind of chirped it. It was either I want to say it was Gean. I can't remember which white hat it was, but I kind of said something quick to hey, what the hell was that? You know, he goes, hey, chill out, Brady. Oh dude, put me in my place so fast. I was just yes, sir, you know, like the Brady's a barker. Oh it was so funn I mean, he's just that relentless competitor, and and he just wants every call, He wants every he wants it all and and you've got to respect it. It's it's uh, it's tough to play against you beat it, but it's fun to watch you beat him. In Foxborough. Yeah, that was a wild one. That was a wild one. You know what I'd have done had gone over and said, goat, no baby, goat baby, goat baby goats not to go. Yeah, that's what you should have done. Dude's a baller. That's gonna be a tough one. Dallas is in for it. It's a money night er. Two. I love it. Well, that's a big spot. But he goes to bed at like seven forty five. Now true, true, Here we go. It's true. He was on Matt Kintyre was on that a year early on. We got a draft to figure out he's coming with me. Guys going to bed early. Old guys get into routines, and Brady has struggled the last two years in late games. It's thinking in the playoffs, he'll be fine, It'll be fine. Yeah, wouldn't that be great? Like a Cinderella after midnight deal like he was? By the way, does this impact Brady go in to Vegas? Here we go? Brady in Vegas? Is that going to be a problem at the West Coast hours? He's gonna have to change his whole routine? Can we get through Wildcard first? I gotta go? All right, he gotta go. He's got him on toast. This nonsense of a show is just going down the toilet