The Herd with Colin CowherdColin points out the biggest issue the Cowboys have as their disappointing season looks to get back on track in a crowded NFC playoff race. He talks to 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady about what makes the Chiefs and Lions clear Super Bowl favorites through 9 weeks. Plus, Super Bowl champion and Rams head coach Sean McVay joins the show to discuss their young defensive stars
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Here we go. It is a It is a Wednesday. Tom Brady is stopping by Wednesday live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, and however you may be listening or watching, or whatever mood you may be in. Thanks for making us part of your day. Tom Brady. In one hour from now, Sean McVay, the RAMS is stopping Buyer Show. Jim Harbaugh was here earlier and listen. This is always the strangest day of the year to host. Every four years, I host a show after an election, and half of my audience is having the time of their lives, and half of my audience is depressed and somber and miserable. It's always the strangest day to host a show. And you know, I texted my son this morning. Take a deep breath, you know, hang around people that make you smile. I felt like mister Rogers, you know, it's just like, you know, take a deep breath. I root for the country is what I always root for. I think one hundred percent of our audience is excited because we got Brady on the show today. Come on, don Brady, there you go. We can get better than that that. You sound like jim'llood By McVeigh like, come on. So I thought this was something so for years and years, speaking of debates and political the Cowboys quarterback Dack Prescott. He's one of those players. And I don't know why, because he's got a little bit of a melt tost personality. He's not polarizing, he's not really outspoken. He seems like a nice guy. He's just not a controversial figure. I mean, he just controversy finds him, mostly because he's a Dallas Cowboy quarterback. And you know, Tony Romo is another guy. Tony Romo laughs a lot on TV. I think Tony Romo's funny. I don't see Tony Romo as controversial. Oh but being a Dallas Cowboy quarterback, it was Tony Romo was debated constantly by the way.
I think Tony Romo was underrated.
I've always felt Vax a little bit overrated, but I mean he's mostly he's a B plus quarterback. But I thought this was interesting. So Vic Fangio is the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles, one of the sharpest guys in the NFL. He's seen every quarterback. He's older, he's been around the league forever. And they asked him this week, what will it be like facing Cooper Rush, the backup quarterback instead of Dak Prescott. And his answer was, Eh, won't change anything. Excuse me, I beg your jargon. What Hello, it won't change anything. I mean, if Patrick Mahomes was out, Carson Wentz was in, I think the Chiefs would look to say, I mean, if Lamar Jackson was out and Josh Johnson was in, you think the Ravens would be the same offense, even B to B plus quarterbacks. If Baker Mayfield's out and Kyle Trask is in Tampa can't score you, you think Kyle Trask is taking the Chiefs to overtime on Monday Night. You think Kyle Trask is doing that Baker Mayfield did. He's a BB plus quarterback.
Tua.
We don't even love Tua. You don't even love Tua. He was out the backup. They couldn't score. Miami with a brilliant offensive coach, with Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddell could running backs couldn't score. Yet when Dak Leaves and Cooper Rush comes in, undrafted twenty seventeen, undrafted two to three star athlete, Central Michigan quarterback, not Michigan, not Michigan State, Central Michigan directional school, same offense, and you'll wonder why there's those of us that say, what are you doing paying Dack Like Patrick Mahomes. Cooper Rush has had six starts in Dallas. He had a stinker once against Philadelphia. So let's go to the five games of the six, the five games that he won, because everybody has stinkers. Mahomes has bad games in the five of six games, the five games he won, his passer rating ninety six, touchdown to interception five to one.
Those are Dax numbers.
He's the backup, and there's no market for Cooper Rush. It's not like he's this hidden gem that the trade deadline people are seeking Cooper Rush.
He's a backup quarterback.
So this goes and really proves at the core the film doesn't lie that Dak is living off the affinity Jerry Jones has for him, and he's living off an early reputation based on weapons when he wasn't paid very much. Dez and Amari Cooper and Zeke in his prime and the Cowboys top offensive line in the league for about a five year run. He's living off that. I mean, Sean McVay moved off Goff. Goff's than Dak. Alex Smith was in Kansas City and he Reid moved off him. He's certainly as good as Dak, and Jerry Jones just keeps filling up that bag for Dak Prescott. But ultimately Vic Fangio, who's seen every quarterback in this league for fifteen years, is like Dak Cooper Rush.
It's the same offense.
So when quarterbacks are young, and this is a cautionary tale for another team in the NFL, when quarterbacks are young, they're cheap, and when they're cheap, you can stockpile talent in their roster and then once you pay them, you have to get rid of those weapons. Even a great quarterback like Joe Burrow can't do it alone. Cincinnati doesn't have a good enough players. But keep your eye on San franciscoing Brock pretty. It's a prime example. San Francisco going Brock pretty. Brock makes nothing. The roster is loaded. So San Francisco take a look at Dallas. Is that Dak is living off Jerry's affinity for him, He's living off those early weapons and reputation. Defensive coordinator who's seen every quarterback in this league for over a decade, Cooper Russian Deck, it'll.
Be the same offense. And it will.
By the way, so last night it was the first one Tom Brady again in fifty minutes. It was the first college football rankings came out. And so it's you know, college football is really become mostly with a college Football playoff, it's going to become a two conference sport SEC and the Big Ten. It's gonna look much more like because this is what the TV partners want. It's gonna it's gonna look like the NFL, AFC, NFC. I mean, you'll have the Big twelve, the ACC, the Pac twelve's already dissolved, but it's gonna be Big twelve, Big ten and the SEC. And there is this thing. It's I would call it the illusion of inclusion. So everybody feels great. Last night the rankings come out for the twelve team playoff.
Everything look at Indiana awesome?
That is oh byu the little guys awesome. If Boise State, I love it, Boise State, you really think Boise State or Indiana today? Indiana would have to open up at Tennessee and then play neutral field games against Ohio State, Georgia, Texas. We really think Indiana is gonna run through that. But the one thing I looked at, and I don't care what the rankings say, Oregon's the best team I've seen in the country. And every time I see Oregon, the more impressed I am with him.
But I thought it was interesting that I've watched the same games the committee has and are they trying to be PC or whatever their analytics say? Ohio State two, Georgia three. If they played tomorrow, who would you take? I would take Georgia all day long over Ohio State. Better coach, better quarterback, better defense, better conference, and Georgia's quarterbacks not even plan well. But he'll get drafted. So, I mean, I looked at that thing yesterday. Penn State is six. You really think they can play for the Natty? So you can create a thirty team playoff. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that Indiana is nine to zero and BYU is eight, and oh they don't have enough NFL bodies And football is different than basketball, and even because there's so much violence that you get guys hurt every game. So if an Indiana or a BYU or a Boise State has to play three or four games in a row against these high end teams, it's fall apart physically. Even in basketball, where you don't have that level of violence, if you have one great player. I remember covering David Robinson when he played at Navy, like one great player. Even in college basketball, it always ends up down to the elite eight one seeds, two seeds, three seeds, four seeds, and maybe one you know, eleven or twelve dark horse seed. So I see Miami here. Everybody's excited about Miami. Miami is a vote for cam Ward and nostalgia. You're thinking Miami, Michael Irvan Miami. That's not what they are. You take cam Ward off this team They're a five six win team. They almost lost a cal The four teams at the top of this Georgia, Oregon, Texas, Ohio State. Those were the preseason one, two, three four. I forget the order, but preseason won two, three four. So but I would say this when I looked at this, my first take is, who would really trust Ohio State over Georgia if they played tomorrow? How could you Georgia wins those big games? Ohio State? Then what's the biggest game this year for Georgia? The Texas game? Backed against the wall on the road, humiliated Texas. You think Ohio State's going to Austin and humiliating Texas, No they're not. You think Georgia's going to Oregon and giving up thirty five points? I don't so remember half of Ohio State's fans want the coach fired, Their quarterbacks arguably the weakest of the four biggest programs right now, top four in the country, and they end up short in all these big games. So as I watched that, I thought, I don't know who could watch Georgia beat Texas? How could you watch that game? I understand Oregon's undefeated, but of all the one loss teams. How could you watch that game and have Georgia below Ohio State. It feels, you know, the committee is trying to make sure analytics watch the games. Ohio State's not going to Austin and doing that to Texas that it's I mean, they went to Penn State and struggle with the Penn State team that's average at quarterback, below average at wide receiver, and didn't play particularly well. I mean that you had fans at Penn State yelled at the coach, James Franklin. He had to confront one of them. All right, Jay Mac, we got some stuff today. You know, I haven't talked to Tom Brady in about six weeks, six seven and maybe eight weeks. Didn't he come on right before the season. He came on right before the season. He was great, by the way.
In ten weeks.
So Tom's gonna make another another visit, and I'm interested to ask him about Kansas City because Kansas City is eight their first time they've ever been eight to no. But it still feels like they're kind of trying to figure out what the heck they are. And Tom was on a couple of great teams and you think, yeah, a couple. But you think when you're eight, no, you think you got your act together. But I don't think. I think Kansas City is till really trying to figure out what to do with Xavier Worthy. They got backup running backs, They're a little dinged up on defense. I don't think Kansas City knows what they are yet.
Remember when the Brady Moss team was undefeated and everybody thought, oh, they could use a loss before the playoffs, and they didn't have a loss. I wonder if that applies to the Chiefs Bills game in two weeks. Yes, because if the Bills don't knock them off, you look at the schedule and Kansas City's probably gonna be fourteen to know.
I will say this, if you look at how the Chargers play, you can make an argument they are they are kind of built. They're a little Kansas City where they're a light at wide receiver, great defense, great head coach, excellent quarterback, and can.
Run the ball.
I think the Chargers feel like they're already they're model. It would have been weird to say this a year ago with Brandon Staley, but if you look at the Chargers today, they are the Chiefs. The strength is the head, coach, the quarterback, maybe one weapon you love, great pass rush, excellent defensive personnel.
A lot of it.
Young.
So there are poor Man's Chiefs. But I don't think they're that poor. I think, I know, I think they're pretty darn close.
They go to Arrowhead and win, I mean, quite the same.
Tampa Bay went to Arrowhead this week without Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and there were moments in that game I thought Tampa, I mean, was Tampa's last drive with Baker, You're like, you got a champce going for two and win this game.
If Bulls goes for two and they get it, we're not even talking about this.
He's being unefeated. Yes, right.
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Tom Brady twenty three years best quarterback to ever played the game. So I was thinking about this tom as I'm watching Kansas City. I still feel like I said, they're they're like an electric vehicle that's only charged about fifty percent.
They're not.
They're kind of trying to figure out what they are. Back up running back. They don't know what to do with Xavier Worthy. They just kind of go back your Randy Moss team Boom. You knew very early at special But did you ever have a team that won a Super Bowl but in the middle of a season you didn't quite know what the offensive identity was, Because that's what I watched when I watched the Chiefs.
I actually think they do have a great offensive identity. I think they look the game's about winning. We talk about points, you talk about you know, yards, and and you talk about penalties and defensive stops. To me, at the end of the game, do you have more points than the other team. That's the maturity of a great team and a great organization.
I played on a lot of teams.
Some were a lot of offensive strengths, some had a lot of defensive strengths.
Some years we were kind of.
Middle of the packet both, but we played well situationally, third down, red area, two minute every year. That's the best part about the NFL is the constant transition, the constant change. Now you see they add DeAndre Hopkins at the trade deadline, so.
It's like.
In the end when you have Patrick Mahomes and it's a one score game. Everyone's always betting on the Chiefs. Now, can someone get away from the Chiefs. I don't know, because that defense plays so well. But I don't think Patrick Mahomes is a lesser player because he doesn't have twenty five touchdowns at this point. It's just he's not playing with guys that can produce that from the receiver position. So that naturally Patrick's job is to and I covered him a few weeks ago when I said the job of the quarterback is to manage all the variables of the game, game and the season, injuries, whether the rhythm of the offense, and then ultimately go out there and make the plays that puts you in a position to win. And that's what winners do, and certainly Patrick is that. And then he's got Andy Reid there, who's as great of a coach you know, in NFL history. He's on the kind of the Mount rushmore of coaches. So you have this consistency of this organization from owner, general, manager, coach, quarterback, and then to me a defensive coordinator in Spags that the way that defense plays puts them in a position to win every single week. So it's obviously they can be beat. There's probably games where they could have been beat this year, but every game is decided by a few plays, and the reality of the Chiefs team is they always find a way to make the plays when it matters.
You know, I remember when Randy Moss played with you, when you guys brought a new player in and you had talked at the time. You're like, you know Belichick and you were like, he's just smart and he knows football. So obviously DeAndre h. Hopkins doesn't know the entire playbook yet. But I'm watching them and I'm like, especially that play in the back of the end zone, I'm like, God, you'd think they've had fifty practices. What is it about certain receivers with you? Like Moss or or DeAndre Hopkins? They don't have to know the playbook? But yet I felt like had I just landed on the planet and watched it, I would have never guessed he just showed up at the facility. What was it with Moss? What is it with a veteran receiver that a young receiver just couldn't do?
And that's a great question.
So the reality is, is a great receiver, well, any receiver that's a veteran knows what a knows what a practice weeks looks like. If they know how to run all the routes in the offense, now they may not know exactly where to line up because everyone has their variations of words and descriptive words they use to get people aligned, to get the protections organized, and them to call routes. Some people use number systems people use, some people use word that people have to memorize. Some people use a one term word that tells everybody what to do. Kansas City does it kind of a myriad of different ways. And then once DeAndre can really comprehend that, he's going to say, oh, okay, that's what I used to call this outcut in Tennessee was like this, or in Houston it was like smith. But in Case it's like this. But I still know how to run the route. So you have these veteran players that have the experience to run the routes, to know the offenses. It's not like, you know, when he played for Tennessee, the field was a different size. You know, it's the same rules, it's the same routes. It's ultimately just how you call him. So once he gets out there and he's confident in what he has, you know, he's going to look like DeAndre Hopkins always has, which is you know, he's got good quickness, he's got great catch radius, he's got this ability and the situational place to make catches like that, and certainly as a rhetoric target.
And I just think if you look.
At the Chiefs and their injuries, at the receipt for position to add someone like DeAndre who has that veteran presence and.
No game is going to be too big for him.
He's playing a lot of big games, so that always gives a quarterback a lot of confidence. I remember playing with certain rookie receivers literally it was like the first day of OTAs and I'd call like, hey, run a slant and he looked at me like a slant, okay, And that's kind of the most generic route look since we're running those in in in parking lots, you know, with your friends. And there was a few guys I play with that would they they'd start the route slow, then they'd speed up into the break, then they'd slow down coming out of the break, and then they'd look for the ball and I'd look at him and be like.
What the hell was that?
You know, like, there's such a there's such a learning curve that needs to happen from a rookie player, Whereas when you get someone like DeAndre, you go, Heyjndre, run a slant and it looks like a slant.
It looks great, it's fluid, it's smooth, you can play it. So with a rookie, there's such arning curve.
There's so many things to learn that you're never going to get that type of production in a short period of time of the rookie that you can get with a veteran unless that's just a very special rookie. And I've had some of those. Those guys, to me, are more anomalies than kind of what the norm is.
I know you probably haven't sat and watched too many Denver games or Bears games, but when with the young quarterbacks, obviously they grew up in a different environment than you seven on seven camps, way more snaps by the time they're fifteen than you had. But go back to your career. I remember you doing an interview with Jay Laser once and you're like, I've seen everything.
Dude, you could throw anything at me.
When was the time in your career? You're pretty a learned guy, You're very committed. How long did it take? You know they always talk about things slow down a little. How long Mahomes said it was year three? What was it for you?
The answer is it progressively gets more and more. And I would say maybe at year one it's fifty percent of the way that you want it, and then year two it's sixty percent, and ultimately you're trying to get to one hundred percent. But even I think for Patrick, if I look at his situation and his development, he was very lucky to sit behind and Patrick, let me get us out of the way.
He is a phenomenal player. To me, is you know he lamar Josh Allen.
You're talking about the upper echelon, as we all know, and Patrick is going to go down as one of the greats ever for a number of reasons. But if I look at him, he went to college at Texas Tech.
He had Cliff.
Kingsbury there with him for three years, an NFL caliber coach, running a lot of NFL caliber type calls and methodologies by what he's doing, so he three years of that, then he goes to the Chiefs and he's got Alex Smith as the guy that's ahead of him, who's a phenomenal player, great leader, does everything the right way. And then he's got Andy Reid at his as his play caller. So it's like there's a reason why it all works, and there's this development that happens and why Patrick has been able to ascend so quickly, and he would have found a way to ascend at some point anyway.
I'm just saying I could never have reached.
This area of growth that I needed to, whether that was your one or three or five. It was accelerated because of all the things that I had in place when I was in college. I ran a pro style offense. YEA, I got drafted, I had Bill Belichick teach me, I got to sit behind Drew bledsoe. I worked really hard to learn all those things and embrace the challenge. And I think when you're a young quarterback, ultimately that's what you're trying to do. Be in a situation where you can learn, grow develop. It's all about mentorship. It's all about the people that come in your life. I see Bo Nicks from Denver. He's got Sean Payton there as a phenomenal coach. He's going to get great coaching, They're going to have great scheme. A lot of times the first reads for him are going to be open because he's got a great play caller that knows how to design things. So then you go on the other side of it. You know, I've seen a lot of quarterbacks that don't make it. Maybe they wouldn't have made it anyway, but I'm just saying there's a potential that they could look at Sam Darnold. Now he's playing really well in Minnesota. He's got a good he's got a good coach, he's got a good scheme, he's got some good receivers.
He's playing well.
You know, when he was at the Jets, he didn't have all those things quite in place. So we always have to look at I think the physical makeup of these young players. What are they capable of? Ay, do they have good arms? Do they have great arms? You know, are they athletic? Can they get out of the pocket? Can they And then to me, there's a mental element that always comes into quarterback play. And I said in this last game against Green Bay, was watching Green Bay Lions this last weekend. I said, there's no way for me to really see sustained success in the NFL at the quarterback position if you don't have total control of.
What's being done out on the field.
If you're expecting your coach to call a play from the sideline and that play is going to come into your helmet, you're gonna call it, You're gonna walk to the line of scrimmage, and that play is gonna be successful, regardless of the defense of Look, you're out of your mind. That's not the way it works. The defense calls plays to stop you, and they have their own tendency. So it's up to the quarterback ultimately to decide, Okay, I got a play called, I see what the defense is doing. Is this play gonna work or not. If it's gonna work, you run it. If it's not, what do I need to do to survive the down or what do I need to do to put us in a position to be really successful? That, to me, is the operational control the quarterback's need. And the problem is with the development of height of college programs. Now they're not getting developed in the same way. Now they get to a pro program and a lot of the NFL programs there, there's so much money going around, you know. The need to develop is guys can sign one or two contracts and not develop and still make a great living. So I would love to see the quarterback play continue in you to evolve and grow. It's only going to come from more time on task, more time with your coaches, more understanding of what your roles and responsibility are. You're supposed to develop a tool kit as a quarterback to deal with what you see on the game every single day. I've seen Jared Goff again covering him this last game. It was awesome to watch in La. He had a great system, he had McVeigh to learn under. He brought that. He comes to a phenomenal program in Detroit right now, where to me, they're doing a lot of things the right way. Their offensive coordinator Ben Johnson says, all Righted, we're going to put more and more on your plate. We're going to give you a great opportunity to succeed. And you have to have the ability to process a lot of information, which is one of jared strengths, to actually implement all those things and when you do it well, to me, that's what gets you to. That's what gives you a great chance to win every single week in the NFL.
So Bill Belichick's had a couple of weeks ago when asked about Detroit, He's like, they've got everything offensively. You hope they make a mistake. And you just called the game and green Bay's got a good team. It looked like older brother, younger brother, let me teach you how to play football. Go back, I mean Detroit O line, tackles, run game, tight end, quarterback. Go back to your career, because I felt like green Bay very quickly was like, we're a little out of our elements here. This is a really really yeah, So go back to your career. Was there ever a team you played and you may not have said this to your teammates, but you thought to yourself, I'm not sure they have a weakness like that.
That is Pro bowlers everywhere.
I watched Detroit's offense, Tom, I don't know what the weakness is, deep ball, slants, slots. Did you ever face a team like that when you looked at the personnel and thought it's almost a perfect offense.
I would say the only I would say the early Colts offenses we faced. They had Saturday. They had turned Glenn tight End. They had Pollard, they had at times Dallas Clark. They had Marvin, they had Reggie, they had Stokeley, they had Edgrin. They they were so good and I'm lucky I didn't have to go against them. I mean, to me, it was great. Belichick would say, guys, listen, this would be a Wednesday meeting. Understand this. They are gonna move the ball on us. They're too good. They got so many guys, they're gonna go up and down. We need to play good red area defense, and we're gonna work on red area defense on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, because that's gonna decide the game. They're gonna get the ball down there. Which is a great humility from a coach who's a defensive coach, who's essentially the coordinator, to say, these guys are so good, we're not gonna just, you know, pull the wold Over eyes and think that we're gonna keep these guys the two hundred and forty yards offense they're gonna have. They're gonna have yards. What we need to do is keep the points down. If we can keep the points down and offensively, we can control the game, we can run the ball, and then we can score points. We're going to give ourselves a best chance to win. That to me is complimentary football.
Right. So when you.
Play the Lions, the only way to beat them is to play a style where the offense compliments the defense and then the kicking game does their job. Sometimes when you punt, you play great field position. Okay, offensively, the best defense against the Lions offense, to me is the meet is possessed the football. You don't want to make it a track meet against a team that can run it. They throw it to their tight end, they throw it to their receivers. When they get Jamison William back, they have the explosive receiver. So there's so many and they go for anun fourth downs so often they you got to stop them for four downs, not just three, which is a really hard thing to do. So there's a lot of challenges that the Lions are presenting. And look the one game they did lose this year, they were one of six in the red area.
That's right against the Bucks, yep.
So so to me, they got a they got a great offense, they and they got a lot of humility, they got a great culture to me, they're doing so many things the right way in the NFL right now.
So you're calling the San Francisco game this weekend, when when you know, and I think Brock's a good player, but I also think and the and the you're a great example of this. Executives miss all the time on players Antonio Gates and Tony Romo weren't drafted. There's players all over. I watched a kid for the Rams this weekend. Some undrafted safety had his fourth pick. There's talent everywhere. What was the thing when the first the first time you saw Brock Purty. Obviously you weren't wowed by his size. His arm strength is good enough. What was the first thing that you saw I wouldn't see this. You would see this and you thought that guy's pretty good. Like, is there something that you see because you played the position a tell like in poker, that you were like, yeah, that this kid's gonna work.
Sure, So I think it's poise and composure. It's calm under chaos. That's what the quarterback needs to do. And he walks into that huddle, he needs ten other guys looking at him. Go all right, man, you're you're totally under control. And whatever you say we're going to do to our best league is because we know you're going to deliver. And they all have that confidence in Brock is a player, and you're right, Brock's not the biggest. His arm strength isn't like Aaron Rodgers. But if he can play with anticipation in this offense, to me, even studying in the last few days, is a lot different than the one that they had last year and the year before. They had so many weapons. The last couple of years. You know, Brock essentially was a point guard out there just delivering balls to halfbacks and flip it out.
There to de bone gain yards.
And then he's got iuke, you know, catching in cuts and running for lodges. Oh you forgot about kittle boom, We're gonna throw over the top of you there. This offense has been in and out of a lot of their great players, and I think getting McCaffrey back is so important for this offense because he provides that passing threat out of the backfield that they just haven't had this year. So now the defense has to come up closer to the line of scrimmage to defend the run with Christian as well as the pass, and that to me opens up more of the intermediate and deeper parts of the field for Bruck where they've kind of been throwing more of these intermediate type targets on the field, which I don't think is necessarily the strength of that offense. So if they can get back, if they can get Christian back playing well with Mason and.
McCaffrey, wow, that's a great group.
Then at receiver, obviously lousen Ayuk is a brutal loss, but they drafted Pears in the first round.
He's going to get his legs underneath him.
You still got Jennings, who to me is one of the most underrated receivers in the NFL. To perform so well in the Super Bowl, they have a ton of confidence in him and then debo his versatility.
You still got yu Chek who's a.
Ridiculous chess piece for Kyle, and then you have Kittle, who can turn up from time to time and go, Holy the Cat. We almost forgot about him, and then not to mention a phenomenal offensive line. So they still have all the pieces in place. Now they've kind of always seemed to turn around their season around the bye week.
This is when they need to do it. They just had their bye week.
We'll see, you know, if they get green Law back on defense, that would be a huge boost. Unfortunately, what they really missed on defense they lost Hardgrave. They lost this interior rusher. So now it's really kind of a one man show with Bosa on the perimeter. But if they can get green Law back and get him playing close to the way that he was playing in there with Warner, you have one of the best handems in the league, if not the best, at linebacker. They rush the quarterback a little better, and then that's safe that secondary unit, which has always got a lot of tight coverage, they can capitalize on offensive mistakes. So I would never count out the forty nine ers. I think they're so well coached. They got a great system in place, a great culture of guys that know how to win. You know, those are all the things you look for with the Niners.
Seven Rings.
Tom Brady Fox Sports taking time first today. Tom, I appreciate it, man, Thank.
You, thanks calling. Great talking to you, partner. All right, I'm here for you anytime, you know that.
All right, Thanks Tom, I appreciate that.
One more heard. 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.
Well, he's been an NFL Coach of the Year in a Super Bowl winning coach. His coaching tree is already magnificent. Sean McVay rams head coaches Jordan airry Is, there's Sean McVay.
Hey, how you doing.
How are we doing?
I'm doing great, I'm doing good.
So you complain, we're just getting ready for Monday night. Now.
Yeah, So I have to ask you a question. This is my big question.
So I and I don't know the answer to this, and I'm fascinated by this question. And I want you to take my audience a little behind the scenes. You play Seattle, it's a rough first half. You're struggling to run the ball. It just it's road, it's loud, it's tough, and nothing's quite. You don't get your footing under you, so it takes you about two minutes to get into the locker room, helmet off, guys, get something, and you have about seven eight minutes to get it right. And then you come out in the second half you're inspired, you make defensive plays, you're getting your footing, you're running the ball. What did you say or what did you adjust? Because you look like a different team, Sean, how much can you do it? Whatever you did worked, what can you do and what did you do against Seattle?
Yeah?
I think you know when you look at it, Colin, it's a tremendous credit to our players. Obviously, we put ourselves in that situation by a lot of uncharacteristic errors, jumping off sides giving them opportunities for free plays.
Losing our pois where we lose one of our best players.
And there were some things structurally that they were doing defensively that we weren't really putting our players in favorable spots.
So you just.
Address the truth. You say, here's what's going on. We're not going to beat ourselves. We get the possession coming out of the half, continue to do the things that are in alignment with playing quality football, and our offense goes right down the field, makes it a thirteen to ten game. Defense gets a stop, we would have loved to have punched it in for a touchdown, but three series later, it's thirteen to thirteen with two offensive possessions and one defensive possession. And you know, we did some things that were uncharacteristic. But I do think this is a resilient group. They're mentally tough, they stay in the fight, and in eight weeks we've had a lot of different experiences that are reflective of that.
Listen, everybody misses on draft picks, but you guys have done. I mean, I'm watching your safeties. Your third round pick has a pick six, a couple pick. The kid from Tennessee's undrafted. You guys have hit on a lot of Poka Nikua. Fifth round. We all know Stafford's good. There's certain guys you can see like how long does it take you? I mean, Jared Verse, I watched them at college. I watched them the first game. I'm like, that guy is going to be a problem. That guy's I can figure that one out. But like Poka Nikua or McCullough the safety, how many practice as Sean, do you need to turn the less snead and go, oh boy.
We got baller here? If we may have found a gem here.
Yeah, you know what, I think it's the way these guys carry themselves. And then obviously there's the evaluation on the field, but he gets also having a vision, you know, less in his group and working in collaboration with our coaching staff. I think there's a vision when you on board these guys, whether it be draft picks or even some of these undrafted free agents. But you know, you talk about a guy like Jalen McColl that has.
Four interceptions as an undrafted free.
Agent out of Tennessee, he just had a demeanor about himself where he was a man.
There was a prototype in some of these guys that we wanted to onboard. We had a real vision for Puka.
Now if you said that I know he would be that good, we would have used a lot earlier pick on him.
But there was a vision. And then there's a mental and there's a physical toughness, and there's.
Just a competitiveness that these guys have in the most important moments, and that's what we want to continue to do. I think when you look at the you know just what a cyclical league.
This is.
Tough people last in this league, tough players and just tough people in general, and those are the kinds of guys we want on board.
Now, you're a very young defense. It's obvious. You and less sat down a couple of years. You knew Aaron Donald. It was getting close to the end, so you started using a lot of your top picks defense. You haven't missed on any They're all good. They're just levels of very good. When you have a young defense, they're gonna make more mistakes. They're kids, they're twenty three, twenty four years old. As a coach, do you bake that in? Are there things you won't ask a young defense to do? Do you coach twenty four year old defensive players different than you coaching Aaron Donald? Or when you go get a Von Miller? How does it affect your coach? Because your defense it leads the league in sacks by all the you know, rookies and young players, but they're all kids, they're getting better every week.
How do you coach them differently?
Yeah?
I think you want to understand what can they handle?
And really, regardless of whether that's pros that have been planned for a while, whether that's these rookies set year players, you know what's their capacity?
What can they handle? And then in a lot of instances, it's a race to maturity.
And I think a lot of these guys are meeting that and you continue to learn sometimes trial by air. I do think that we've done a great job. You know, Chris Shula deserves a ton of credit Collin for the identity that I think we're starting to play with. We're not perfect by any stretch, but I think there's a confidence and these guys just keep swinging, you know, and a lot of instances what I've been really impressed with when we've been on a three game win streak, there's been some instances where the defenses had to get stops and offensively we're trying to get things going. But I never since any sort of frustration from those guys. They just go out, they make sudden change stops. They just continue to play. They make the offense nap it one more time. And I love working with this group.
You know.
I had Pete Carroll on once and I said he totally disagreed. I said, Pete, I want aggressive quarterbacks. If a guy's throwing thirty two times and I get a pick every week, if he's taken shots down the field, I'm okay with it. Now. Pete to defensive coach, he seals the world differently. But one of the things I like about Stafford and Matt's brilliant. But Matt, I don't think it's reckless. I just think Mac takes risks and he's comfortable with them, but you have to be comfortable with them. Matt is very unique in that he forgets his interceptions, He has a short memory, doesn't seem to care much.
It's very Andrew luck had that.
Are there ever any times with Matt you have a lead, you have something and you say, hey, this we may we may bring it back down, or you just trust him implicitly at any point in the game.
Oh, there's total trust, you know, but there's a great rapport that exists.
I think one of the best things you mentioned is if the mistake occurs, which is an inevitable play in the quarterback position, he's got a no flinch mindset and he's ready to come back and be aggressive but smart. But there's opportunities and I think he understands based on the intent of.
The play calls.
You know, when we got that ball back in overtime, you know, we go play action, we go keeper, run keeper, and he could feel the aggressiveness and really it's like, hey, man.
Go this game. Let's go in this.
Let's have that mindset of mentality, and this guy is that. That's one of his best traits. But there is a flow to the field of games.
You know.
You look at the Raiders a couple of weeks ago, our defense had control, their offense was turning it over.
We were a little bit.
More conservative, and so I thought he had a good feel for that. But that's what you love if you have to be able to reign it back based on how we want to be able to play the game and ultimately.
Come away with the win.
But that aggressive nature, that fearlessness, that ability to be able to move on from one play to the next, that's one of the things I think that separates the greats, and he certainly is one of them.
You know.
You know, we had an election yesterday and I always think about this. You have so much diversity in your locker room. There may not be bosses in America to have a more diverse workforce than NFL coaches young, old, black, white. It doesn't matter, Simon, and you have so many different people, Sean, We've gone through things culturally. We see stuff after a night like last night, do you address it not? I mean, you have grown ups in your locker room. Some of these guys have never lived in California, They're from Florida. Stuff's happening. You've navigated crisis injuries, cultural changes. Do you address it? Do you address it privately publicly? How does a guy like you, who is really the face of the franchise in these big moments, with all these unique personalities, do you address it or do you just let it play out?
I think you want to have a pulse of what the reactions are and if there's guys that want to be able to talk about it, you want to give guys a voice. I think being able to listen and then be able to react accordingly. You know you don't want to be unequipped to handling different situations, but I know that it's about.
Listening, learning, and then you're able to lead.
And so I think you always want to be able to understand whatever it is that you're navigating through.
Try to really see it through an empathetic lens.
And if it is something that guys want to be able to discuss, I'd like to think there's an open forum. But having a temperature and a pulse for the vibe of your building, whether that be players, coaches, staff, whatever it might be. If there is something, I think you got to be able to meet the truth head on. You can't be afraid of some of those conversations where you need to be able to have honesty but also the ability for guys to be able to get things off their chest.
And that'll never change.
Regardless of whatever that is that we're navigating or whatever's going on in the real world that's outside of the framework of just focusing on football.
You have really unique relationships, Sean McVay for our radio audience, you have very unique relationships with coaches. Your coaching tree. I'm looking at it today, it's like half of these guys are my favorite guys in the league. I think Kevin O'Connell's brilliant, Lafleur's terrific, and they're all different personalities, but I like all Raheem Morris I thought was a great pick by Atlanta. I think he's a defensive coach who has an offensive sensibility. Is it's weird you kind of got to people know the Sean McVay secrets when they coach under you. Is it weird to coach against guys that know your playbook. They know your personality, they know your risk tolerance. Do you like facing former assistance or do you just think all week this is the worst?
Yeah, I think I think it's a blessing.
I think we've had a lot of guys that have come through here that have influenced me and our building in a positive way and then gone on to do great things, whether that's as coordinators or head coaches, and so it's a challenge, you know, being able to kind of onboard as many different people, but you attract quality people. I don't know that you really think about it that way as much as when you're in the right mindset, you're saying, what.
A cool thing this is to be able to see.
People you love and care about that have positively influenced you go do their thing elsewhere, and all those guys you mentioned really happy for them. You know, we've happened to play a couple of those guys. We don't play the Falcons this year, but it is strange, but you know, once the game's kicked off, it's about focusing on our team verst their team, and trying to see if we can come away with the result.
We're hunting up finally you have a great energy and it's a long season.
I mean it's it is all you're it's just moving long. It is so long. Do you ever get up? This will be the final question.
Is there ever a moment with your new family they ever wanted to call Less up and say Less, I just need to take Wednesday off?
We got or do you ever do this? Do you ever go? Guys? You go to Stafford, you go to Cooper Cup? Do you ever just go? Guys?
I feel it this team's tired. How do you measure that? I mean, the NFL adds another week. I mean it just it just feels like it's a lot. How do you address that? When you sense a fatima?
I think being able to ask questions? You know Reggie Scott are are you know?
I lean on him heavily?
Who you know oversees our sports performance department? You ask the players questions. Shoot, I know I'm feeling it a lot, you know these these games, but but you do you know? The important thing is I think I have gotten better and we've gotten better collectively. As the staff is saying, okay, you know, working all these hours, if you're not sharp, if you're not fresh, if you don't have the right vibe and energy for the players, then you're wasting your time and so and more attention to get in your rest and understanding the things when you're like, all right, man, I'm irritable.
I'm not the most fun guy to be around.
Let's go get a workout in, or let's make sure you get some rest tonight and get out of the office a little bit earlier. I think I've improved by no means have I arrived in that arena. But it is a long grind. But you always want to remember, like my man Andrew Whitworth said, it's always a blessing, never a burden.
Yeah, well, I love him.
Rams, host of Dolphins, just loved having you on the show. Haven't had you on yet. I just you know, I'm such an admirer. I really appreciate you taking ten to twenty minutes for us today.
Coach, Well, feelings are mutual. I appreciate you having me on.
Colin all right, Sean McVay really really brilliant young coach of the LA Rams
