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 cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go in a busy Friday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be in however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and FS one Qatar in a little over an hour. Blazing five one hour from now. I love my picks. I like making picks, even if they're trash. I love making football picks. I've got my Blazing. It's a bounce back week. I'm feeling very good about it, very very good about it. J Max is joining us. So I sat there last night, I'll watched every second of that game, and I honestly very off the first drive, the Titans methodical first drive. I'm like, oh, they just they got on a plane. They were gonna come up here. This was a work trip, and they are gonna push Green Bay around, fly home and first drive of the game by Tennessee You're like, oh, yeah, we know how this game is gonna Look, I felt that ten minute into the game coaching mismatch verybel and company. Just that's what they do as underdogs, pushed around Rogers and the floor. It's over for Green Bay. Hunt. Yeah, seasons over for the Packers. Well, the Titans, we don't talk about them much, especially leading a show. I think they're the most resourceful team in the NFL. They don't have a lot of weapons, a rookie wide receiver who's growing into it, Robert Woods runs nice routes, blocks are running back, Bay Love and one tight end. But nobody gets more out of their roster, which is constantly plagued by injuries. Because they are so physical. Nobody gets more. The Titans play like Mike Vrabel looks tough, loyal, physical, and the Titans play like Mike Vrabel played, smart, resilient, resourceful. He didn't have a great vertical shuttle time speed. Nobody got more out of their talent than Mike Vrabel, and no team in this league gets more out of their talent. This is a team that forced Kansas City to overtime at Arrowhead Stadium and didn't get a first down in the second half. They squeeze that orange for every bit of juice. Then there's the Packers hipster quarterback, young, good looking, cool coach, zero tenacity, zero resilience. I'm not sure they trust each other. I mean, can you imagine Aaron Rodgers coming up to Mike Vrabel on the sidelines, condescending, barking at him. Nah, but Aaron knows he can get away with it. Deep down, Matt Lafleur has been walking on eggshells trying to balance Aaron's ego and temperament and the front office of the Packers that sometimes quietly resents him. Aaron's at the stage of his life. I get it. He's rich, he's getting older, He's at the stage of his life. I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. You're not gonna tell me what I'm gonna do all the time. So much of what Green Bay is about is superficial, surface level nonsense. There's no Foxhole guys there, especially not Aaron Rodgers. There's no real belief system. They don't do anything particularly well. What are their values? What is their core. Who are they? I don't know. Once again, the special teams, the defense underperformed. I mean, the offense has young wide receivers. We predicted it would be rough early. It wouldn't have been as rough had Aaron committed to the offseason. But I mean, what are they? I know exactly what the Titans are and there may be limitations when they play Kansas City or a Cincinnati, but God, you're gonna get everything they have. They're always gonna come out prepared. They're gonna punch your right in the forehead. That team got in a flight, headed up to Wisconsin to kick some ass, getting a plank come home, and that's exactly what they did. And green Bay looked cold. With the hipster quarterback and the really cool coach. I'll ask the question again, what do they do well? Oh, I forgot beat the Lions and the Bears the last two years. Every time green Bay is in crisis, is in a tough spot, they curl up tamp in the playoffs last year San Francisco in the playoffs. Season on the line last night, that's the performance. Season on the line. That's the performance Tennessee. If their season was on the line, and green Bay flew down in Nashville, and green Bay was better. I guarantee you this win or lose, green Bay would go home with a bloody lip. Tennessee would fight and scratch and claw and give you everything they had. Now Aaron has pivoted to the I can live without football. Hey, I'm disappear a little bit in the summer. Has that right. Absolutely earned the right to have a life beyond football. But man, when you put those two teams on the field, the fact that this was the season for green Bay and that was the effort, that thing was over. First drive, first drive, Tennessee seven yards, six yards, eight yards, burkes up the field seven yards, eight yards, touchdown, Thanks for Flying United. Matt Laflew obviously extremely disappointed right now to put on a performance like that. I just I don't even know what to say. There was there was nothing like a few days ago. Um, And that's why you're only as good as your last game. And you gotta every time you step out on that field, you gotta go out and do it. We're not in a very good position right now, that's for sure. Um. Like I told the guys, like there's there's no margin for a period. Well, there was no margin for air before the game. Now the season's over. That speech should have happened before the game because it's over. Um So during the game while it was being broadcast on one of them streaming services, looked very cold. By the way, didn't seem to bother the Titans. Lebron James had an alternate streaming show. It's called The Shop, and I think he was trying to be clever. Lebron was trying a little passive aggressive. Lebron was just throwing this idea out there during his Shop show with Maverick Carter. He threw this out there about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. You gotta transcend it franchise player like Aaron a quarterback. Obviously we know the quarterback position in the NFL, you know. Besides, if you had like a monster deepens end, you know what I'm saying, or a d tackle like obviously Aaron Donald, that's the one that's the most important position in the NFL. So well when you surround that, when you got the pits, so to maximize what he can do. I wish stop talking football, we're talking basketball. I just want to make sure you wasn't talking. I mean, it definitely translates it basically saying if you got a guy like Aaron, you should give him all the support he can. He can have Lebron. There there is no real move to be made because Lebron, as much as I like you, you chose Westbrook. Front office didn't want it. You knew Westbrook was a terrible player off the ball. You're too smart not to know that. You chose Anthony Davis although he could never stay healthy and was considered around the league by executives I trust before he became a Laker as soft. You chose a poorly run franchise for a decade in the Lakers, you chose a weak young roster, and you chose business over basketball. For the record, your business is crushing. Everything you touch in business is crushing. The production company, the pizza chain, all that stuff crushes. But you you when you came to Los Angeles, Lebron, you chose wealth, money, and business, and you have crushed in all of those. You just got to own it. Now, you got to own that. Lebron's not good at owning stuff. He can be a little bit of a passive, aggressive finger pointer. Michael Jordan chose wealth and power with the Wizards. How to end? Kobe wanted to be the highest paid player in the NBA with his last contract with the Lakers. How good was the team? Aaron Rodgers wants to be the highest paid quarterback in the league. Yeah, they could sure use a few more good players. All choices we all make in life have a ripple effect. Lebron had multiple suitors outside of Cleveland at the times. Houston wanted him, Sixers wanted him. There was a lot of teams with a lot of good players that wanted him, and he chose the Laker brand, wealth, power, and money. And he's crushed it. He's gonna be a billionaire, if not already. I mean, he has crushed it everything he touches him. But the basketball parts embarrassing. It's a bad front office. No reason to take a cheap shot on ownership, but it's not a great front office. It's a bad roster. There's no bench, they don't have really versatile wing defenders, not a lot of shooters. Other than that is wonderful, But what you choose, we'll have a ripple effect. And your basketball career right now is largely frankly irrelevant. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. So there is good news for the Packers. Their offensive line I thought held up pretty well last night and gave Aaron Rodgers a lot of time to throw. He did not play particularly well, and I also thought they stopped Derek Henry from any of the big runs he usually delivers. So it wasn't as though there weren't moments and glimmers, But Aaron Rodgers did not play particularly well. He looked cold, He missed some easy throws for Aaron Rodgers. He was outplayed by Ryan Tannehill. On being as honest as I can. He was outplayed by Ryan Tannehill, and there were some boo birds. Aaron Rodgers was asked about that after the game. It's nothing, you get fooled. It's like hearing those first group interesting. It's best I can give you, very vague, as he is with his retirement in his summer plans, very vague. Nobody knows where they stand. There are teams that struggle, and I see light at the end of the tunnel. Let me give you three. When the Bengals struggled early this year, I said, hold on, Barrel's gonna get healthy, good second half against the Cowboys. They're gonna be fine. When the Vikings struggled last year, I said, just they're gonna get an offensive coach. There's light at the end of the tunnel. The Vikings will be fine with Kirk Cousins. When Miami pivoted to Mike McDaniel, I said, two is gonna have a good year. You're gonna have a new dilemma. Now, how much do you pay to so teams can be losing or struggling? And I can see Bengals already this year, Vikings last year, Miami pivoting to an offensive coach, thinking, oh, there's two of things gonna work a little bit now with the Packers, I don't see a ton of light at the end of the time. The division's getting much better. Minnesota and Chicago are better teams today than yesterday, better teams today than last year, and they both have what appears to be an excellent young coach, Aaron Rodgers. Cap hit is incredibly punitive limits the flexibility the franchise going forward. Green Bay is still obviously not a real hot free agent market. A lot of dudes don't want to play there. And frankly, Matt Lafleur, I think is an average head coach. I do, and I've been saying it for years. Aaron's talented, but he's thirty eight, about to be thirty nine. He's quirkier than he's ever been, less committed in the offseason than he's ever been, and he's more expensive than he's ever been. What Green Bay needed this year with all these young receivers was Aaron Rodgers MVP level and he has just been Okay, you get out of your career, whatever it is, what you put into it. It was always my knock on Big Ben. He was super talented, marginally committed in the off season, marginally committed to an elite audible system, and he left a lot of wins on the table. And Aaron Rodgers in the last couple of years is just not as committed in the off season, not as committed when it comes to his long range plans. After last night, what do you think about getting booed? Interesting? Everything with him is vague. You don't get concrete answers. Are you playing next year? What are you doing in the summer? Can we trust you to work with the cap and your contract? What do you think about the reaction? It's always like an interesting I don't know, maybe psychedelic to anyone. You gotta give people answers. It's why Davante Adams left. He didn't know what Aaron's plans were. Concrete, feed on the ground, give us an answer. There's a real argument to be made, and I would make it this morning that it is time to bench Aaron. Keep him healthy. His thumb's been bothering him all year. Let's get him healthy. Let's figure out if Jordan Love can play. If Jordan Love and you lose games, what do you care? You're not winning, You're not one of the division. How many games are you back already? You got a better draft pick. I mean green Bay needs an infusion of talent and cheap talent because Aaron's probably not going to be taking a pay cut. But they also need from Aaron a commitment. How long you plan? Can we work with your contract? Do we have to bring Randall Cobb back because you like him? You gotta give people answers or you leave them guessing, like Davante Adams who left and now you don't have a number one receiver. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun Eastern a Empacific. So reporter Albert Breer, who's on our show from time to time, basically spoke on early edition. Is that a podcast or something? He was saying, Mac Jones sophomore season, the quarterback sophomore season. He said he talked to multiple executives in the league and they said, quote, they have their doubts about we about Mac Jones. So we do have the sound here is Albert Brewer. I feel like there's some doubts about the quarterback now too. And it's interesting because I, you know, I wrote this thing yesterday about Justin Fields and where he's at, and so last night I asked around. I texted a half dozen exacts and said, who would be the second quarterback to go in the twenty twenty one draft? You redrafted him? Now? Four of them said Fields. One of them said he's stick to his guns on Trey Lance because he hadn't seen him yet enough, and then another one said Wilson. None of them said Mac, So let's go back. I mean, I think what I'm about to say, we all know it's close to correct. I think the league has changed in the last six to seven years. It's just more offensive. The rules have all changed. It's really become quarterback centric. So let's go back seven draft classes for all the first round quarterbacks, all of them there. They are from twenty sixteen. Now, there's a handful of quarterbacks who I would call hyper athletic, and that would be Carson Wentz. These guys are hyper athletic, Wentz, Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Josh Allen, Lamar Kyler, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields. A lot of success stories, not all, but a lot of success stories. These guys are more athletic than the history of football generally gives us. The second group would be people that are certainly capable of mobility, some more than others. Trubisky, Darnold, Daniel Jones, Burrow to a Herbert Trevor, Lawrence, Kenny Pickett, Zach Wilson that they're they're not quite the previous group, but these guys can move. And in that seven years, in the first round, there have been four pure pocket guys, Goff, Rosen, Haskins and Mac Jones, it seems that the league is changing, and what a shock. Defensive minded Bill Belichick defensive leaning New England is not ahead of the curve, there behind it. If I can figure that out in a ninety minute morning prep, New England couldn't before they drafted Mac Jones. Folks, it's not hard to figure out. Having a quarterback that is at least mobile is a second playbook. It's a second playbook. The hyper athletic guys are crushing and many of the very mobile guys are crushing. None of the pocket all they got guys and ain't working. The league has changed, and so this is what I've said about Belichick. This organization has no feel for offense. The minute Josh McDaniels left, They've got a defensive coordinator as an offensive coordinator. They cannot draft and develop wide receiver talent. And instead of moving up in the draft like Kansas City did to get the Holmes or like many teams have done to get their star quarterback, not New England. They stayed steady and took the kind of quarterback in the last seven years that can't take you to the next level, especially with a defensive mindset in the room. I said before, certain people adapt and evolve. New England does not have any feel for offense BALLI Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Of course, you know us as the host of the number one rated Bali and Tony Fusco show the world right now. We all know you sick and tired of these stupid sports shows with a host say stupid things like Tom Brady's the goat, or Lebron James is good at basketball, which he is clearly not. See. We give you smart takes, and we also bring on so called famous guests from across the sports world and show them why we know much more than they build. Show. Listen to the Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the IHOT Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Commanders at the Texans, I'm gonna take the Texans plus three. It's actually an easy pick. Davis Mills the quarterback at home. It's been really good nineteen touchdown, six picks, one hundred passer rating, and Damian Pierce has been a fined at running back, leads the NFL in broken tackles and leads all rookies in rushing yards. They could control the line of scrimmage. The Commanders are off a highly emotional win on a short week. Now travel eighty one plays for the Commanders. Their offense this season is a BB gun Taylor Heineke, I know y'all love him on third and fourth down, completes fifty nine percent of his throws. I think the Texans win straight out. Take the three point Texans win twenty eight to twenty four. Raiders said Broncos. I love the Raiders plus three. Listen Derek Carr and Davante Adams. The last two weeks they are working. Okay, it's working, that's not the issue. Last two weeks their first in targets, receptions and touchdown receptions. They're tied for second. The Broncos offense is terrible. It's the worst in the league. It's the second worst on third down. Now Jerry Judy is out. This reminds me of those Arizona Seattle games where Seattle was the better team and Vegas gave them points. The Raiders are losing close. The Broncos are awful. I'm gonna take the Raiders plush three to win straight out twenty four to seventeen. Vegas Cowboys like it. I love it. Favorite pick of the week. I'll take the Cowboys. Their offense in back to back games, four hundred plus total yards. Tony Pollard, now averaging six yards a carry leads all running backs in the NFL. Yes, we know their defense is great, but this is a big game. Kirk Cousins against the Cowboys has been terrible. Two and eight. They're a team Minnesota. Each of their last seven wins have come by one possession. That is incredibly random. If you keep winning one possession games, eventually you lose them. Love the Cowboys to win straight out. Thirty to twenty seven. Bengals at Steelers. The hook scares people, not me. I'm gonna take the Bengals despite minus three and a half. They're coming off a bye. The number one NFL scoring offense since Week six. Burrow, in fact, since Week two, has been number two in the league in completions, passer rating, and touchdown to interception dealers. Meanwhile, Kenny Pickett, let's be honest, this year two touchdowns and eight picks. Last week he looked better because he came off a bye. This week, the better quarterback gets the bye. Kenny Pickett doesn't have the prep time Minca Fitzpatrick may not play. I think this could get ugly. It is a complete mismatch quarterbacks here. Bengals win and cover twenty eight to twenty three. Chiefs said Chargers. I don't trust the Chargers much, but I'm gonna take the Chargers plus five. The Chiefs are falling apart. Justin Herbert and the Chargers have played very well in this matchup, and they're finally getting healthy. Keenan Allen Mike Williams Herbert against the Chiefs in his career thirteen touchdowns, only three picks. The Chiefs defense second worst on the back end in the league, and they are falling apart. Juju Smith, Schuster, Micole Hardman out. They say Valdi's scanning will play. He's not one hundred percent. So I get a healthy team at home that is desperate playing with ultimate urgency. Meanwhile, you got the Chiefs here. Denver's a mess, Chargers aren't playing well. Raiders are a bit of a mess. I like the Chargers. This goes down to the last play where I'll take my homes. But I think it's thirty one thirty. I'm absolutely taking the points and the Chargers here, so I like my underdogs this week, although I would say the favored Cowboys is my favorite pick Dallas minus one and a half. And as Jason mentioned earlier, the Giants are winning, the Eagles are winning, and Washington must win for Dallas. Not as much urgency for the Vikings, who are at home but come off a wildly emotional win over the Bills. They pull back a little. Dallas beats the Vikings one more. 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 a game. I don't have in my picks because I think the line's about right. I think New England's gonna win, you know, maybe by a field goal. That's kind of the line. It's the classic Belichick against the kid quarterback. And the last time they faced it was some mistakes by Zach Wilson. So you know Zach Wilson. Now we are midway through year two. So far he's been hurt a couple of times, he's been erratic, He's been exactly I got this one right what I thought, which is talented, big arm, a little too much hero ball, lacks discipline, plays cocky, a little loose for my taste, but all sorts of talent. So Zach Wilson talking about the critics and his performance and what the critics know. I thought there are good emotions. I mean, I was frustrated, and you know, I still believe nobody outside of this building knows what they're talking about, not necessarily to feel like I got to prove anything of You know what, last gaming a great I gotta do something different this time. Now his coach, and he should do this. I love when a defensive coach because a lot of times they don't understand Rex Ryan was awful at this. But Robert sala is here to protect his young quarterback and make him feel right, and this is important. You got to baby these guys. Remember there are six wide receivers. Seven wide receivers. You got one quarterback taking snaps at practice. Okay, And so Salo was on the volume with Mike Silver, respected veteran NFL reporter, and said, Salah said, this kid's getting better. The critics are idiots. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge the fact that he is light years ahead of where he was a year ago isn't really watching football, not paying attention. And anyone who doesn't think he'll be light years from where he is now next year from where he is now, doesn't you know you don't have faith in him. We have faith that he's going to continue to get better. Okay, so let's just go to some hard numbers. Okay, I'm a doubter. Sala's defending him. Zach says, we don't know anything. Completion percentage thirty third in the league, touchdowns the interceptions thirty third in the league, passer rating thirty fourth. That's among thirty five quality qualified quarterbacks. Now, the good news is he's had the same coach in the same system for a couple of years. Look at Trevor Lawrence, who had to reboot playbook, reboot roster, reboot staff. If you look at Trevor Lawrence's numbers this year, they're what you should see if a quarterback is a franchise guy in year two. He's completing sixty five percent of his throws this year, ninety passer rating, thirteen TD, six picks. And that's a new coach, a new playbook, a new coordinator, new wide receivers, all sorts of movement in Jacksonville, and he didn't have the Jets defense. So whether we're right or whether we're wrong, when I watch the Jets play, what I see is a team that sort of manages their quarterback. I don't see that with the Bears in justin Field or the Jags with Trevor. They kind of let their guy go and they let their guy make mistakes because the ceiling is so high. I mean, I've seen Trevor Lawrence so throw some terrible picks this year in the red zone, but they're letting him do it. They trust him. And justin Fields, they're letting him do some stuff. They're letting him just go. I kind of feel with the Jets they're kind of managing Zach Wilson, So Jmac it could be one of his key picks. I just the numbers, as they say, don't lie. Right now, I see an erratic quarterback who's not disciplined enough, who has really bad moments in key spots. Who I do worry he's a smaller athlete fields his huge Trevor's huge, Trey Lance is big. Zach's kind of small. I do worry if he runs around is he going to be his own worst enemy. So there are two sets of numbers here. Number one, Colin under pressure, he is unequivocally the worst quarterback in the league. He gets rattled, he makes quick, bad mistakes when he has time to throw. Pro Football Focus grates him out clean pocket, above average quarterback. Okay, so there, it's can you protect him the offensive lines falling apart as we know right that they're on like their second string everything basically, And is Belichick going to just pressure the kid from the jump and he's gonna fall apart and it's over. Or can he have a clean pocket that can the run game work? Listen, I know you're probably over the Jets at this point, but Colin, they've been a phenomenal story so far this season. There's a difference between a good team and a good story. They've been a great story story, great story. So New York Giants great story or good team, great story. Okay, so they're in the same bucket, Yeah, they have. The Jets have a great d line and a coach with a ton of passion. The Giants have a great offensive minded coach who's getting the most out of a limited old line and a limited receiving corps. Experienced quarterback Daniel Jones. I mean he's like four years versus that, But I mean I feel in both. I feel like the best unit on either team is the Jets defensive front. If you took the New York teams, the Jets defensive fronts the best unit for all of them. I think they both have really good gms. I don't think either has the quarterback of the future, but both may have the coach of the future. I was a huge doubter on Sala first year, but there is no question. You can watch the Jets play and see his influence. That's my knock. H Nathaniel Hackett and Matt Lafleur, where's your influence. I gotta see your influence with a team. Day Boles and Daniel Jones, My god, that's why you should be coach of the Year. I can see Pete Carroll's influence, Kyle Shanahan's you don't have to win all your games. I can see the influence Salah has on the passion and the discipline defensively, and you can see it, and you can see day Bles. So I think the coaches may be right, the gms could be right. That's a terrific place to start. Can Zach Wilson be Jimmy Garoppolo, a guy who, by the way, I know you're gonna scoff Jimmy Rovolo. I think the stat is they're like ten and two. When he doesn't throw a touchdown pass or something insane, can he be don't screw it up? Hand it off. We got our defense because that's what Salah came from in San Francisco. The offensive coordinator was in San Francisco. Like, if they could just get him to beat Jimmy Garoppolo. It's not his personality because he has a huge arm and he has mobility. Garoppolo doesn't do some things because he can't do it. Zach can do all that stuff. It's very hard. If if God gave you a singing voice, you're gonna sing in the car, You're gonna sing in the shower. Like God gave Zach Wilson an arm and legs and mobility, you gonna tell him not to use it for eight years. Like Garoppolo doesn't move and doesn't have a big arm, like Alex Smith didn't have a big arm, so he didn't try to make dangerous throats Zach. Zach's got zip. It's very hard to tell. Josh Allen, Hey, rain it in, Terry Bradshaw Akman far rain it in. It's easy to tell. Phil Simms, rain it in. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio Now. Mark Sanchez top of our number three, the former USC great ten years in the NFL six playoff games four and two. By the way, be paid Manning beat Brady. J Mack is here. Listen, Sanchez resume and j Mack did not mean it to. Land has four more playoff wins than Derek Carting. Your guy, Okay, we're not doing that well playoffs. This is the fun Friday. Let's not ask people exactly. Let's be glasshow positive? Yeah? Glass half full? Guy, Jets twenty one, Patriot seventeen. Oh this weekend? Okay positive? Okay? I like it? Yeah, positively insane? I like it. So let's start with this. I was saying it last night. I will say just saying it off. I can tell I don't have to have the play sheet. I can tell like, oh, I know what they want to do. I know what they want to establish. I said this couple weeks ago, and I believe this. I think Rabel's the most underrated coach in pro sports in America. All that dude does the fact that he took the Chiefs to overtime and did not get a first down in the second half. So I watched that first drive last night and I'm like, and then mister tough guy comes out with a trick play. I loved it. I mean, just talk about first of all, that's not as easy as people think. It's not as easy as people think. And neither is short week in Lambeau. It's snowing on a Thursday night. You know, that crowd is just rocket. That is a tough place to go, just an absolute hornet's nest. And to go in there and kind of push those guys around a little bit. Even the way the defense closed it in the fourth quarter, like Green Bay's trying to come back, I think, you know, Tannehill had the one slip up on the throw late in the game, but the defense is kind of went back and forth a little in that fourth quarter and the Times just shut him down. But that jump pass, I mean, that's so much harder than people think, because you've got to get people. You've got to get the old line to sell it up front and get enough sell for him for the running back to hold the ball for a couple of seconds right there, just to let Hooper leak out. Hooper's gonna block down and then leak out. I mean, those guys up front are basically playing Red Rover with three hundred pound guys. Like, there's nowhere to go. You're on the goal line. You've reached your max you know, point of forward movement right like, you can't do anything and you can't engage them too early. You can't block him, you can't drive block him past the line of scrimmage because then you got guys down field, just like on the screens. So that's not easy to handle. Plus you factor in their first drive of the game where they just ripped down the field. Todd Downey had those guys just dialed in. I love that game plan. That's a tough out for anybody. If when Tennessee kind of runs a table like that, I know the knock is, okay, they can't win a playoff game. Whatever, Okay, fine, they slipped up last year. I had a rough day at the office. Everybody does. Yeah, but they're gonna have to overcome those things, exercise those demons and go ball the way they did in that game. That's gonna be a tough deal. That Titans team's got a Jets team field to it. It really does defense. Running game always travel when you're a team that you know you're not as explosive. Go back to your Jets career like Tennessee last night. It kind of simplifies things, doesn't it. You just essentially you know you're gonna get a loaded box and your throws on the outside are going to be one on one matchups potentially, So then it's your Braylon Edward, Santonio Holmes, you know, you get a one on one with Dustin Keller or whatever. But for the Jets, I mean, I'd love to see him do some on the stuff. I know we're going to talk about justin fields, but even the design quarterback run that we see Josh Allen do, that we've seen Daniel Jones do. Tannehill's done it can do it. But essentially it's this numbers game, right, So the same way they get Tannehill to fake like he's doing an audible and they snap it directly to Henry, moving the quarterback outside. Hopefully you draw one defender away and now you have perfectly even numbers inside either eight on eight or nine on nine. But when the quarterbacks in the backfield and hands the all off, there's essentially somebody in on the defensive backfield assigned to the quarterback more or less, but he doesn't block anybody. So now you have one more then the offense has. Right. So it's just simple maths stuff. Right, So anytime you just hike it to the back or hike it to the quarterback and let him run and the running back blocks, now we're completely even across the board advantage offense because we know where we're going. We got a little momentum. Whatever. I love it when teams are doing that. Baltimore does it plenty. I mean the teams that let the quarterbacks run a little bit. I could see the Jets doing that. Yeah. And bottom line for this game against Belichick and the Patriots again, like their offense isn't some explosive offense up in New England that you got to worry about them scoring thirty five points? Right? Like that's not really their blueprint. They're trying to figure it out still and the Jets defense is just locked down. That Sauce Gardners, I mean, so the Verdius Cole says changed his name from Sauce to Gravy because I want gravy on everything. Back's getting heat. There's a story breaking today that a lot of people are out on him. And do you want to defend him or what do you make of the criticism? Here's the problem, Like, I feel like Brian Hoyer might as well just call plays for them. He's probably the most qualified offensively interesting. I'm dead serious. This is no knock on Joe Judge. But he's a special teams guy, right, Like if you had to label him, he's more of a special teams guy. Patricia is more of a defensive guy. Coach Belichick defensive guy. He could probably call it if he wanted to, Bill, But like, who has the most offensive experience? Zappi's a rookie, Like you want for your second year quarterback to have a special teams guy, defensive guy like calling plays for you. Not that they can't do it, but calling plays is not like riding a bike. I take you outside right now in the parking lot of calling I hope to god you guys can just get on a bike and start riding around play calling. Play calling is rhythm and timing, sequencing, eliminating mistakes, thinking in advance of your quarterback, knowing when you're gonna go for it on fourth down. Like I know play callers that can look at their sheet on third and short knowing it's a fourth down call, and they're not even watching the play. They're just ready to go for the fourth down call. My thumbs on the call boom. Somebody told me in the headset if we got it, we got it. Okay, good, I got my next play. Let's roll. We didn't get it all right, We're dialed up on the fourth down right away, so the quarterback's not looking back, like are we going for it? What are we doing? That takes so many revs and so much experience. You're asking a defensive coordinator. Listen. I'm not saying that they couldn't be the best play caller of all time. They could, but it takes so long to do it. And if you've got two guys who haven't done it consistently over and over, it just makes it tough on a second year guy. So that's the toughest part. Now, if they're calling plays for Tom Brady, it's a little different, right. I mean, that guy has experience. He could probably call it himself, right, But I don't know. That's just that's a really tough spot for Mac and they're still trying to figure it out. So I was fooled on Darld and Wentz very talented, reckless. Zach Wilson has some of that really talent to reckless. So this league likes you to be aggressive as a quarterback, Joe Burrow aggressive, they punish you for reckless. So right now, Zach Wilson straddling this line? Sure right, roping across Niagara Falls. He is, He's straddling And it's more often been reckless than just aggressive. Can you coach it? I always had this argument, can you coach out reckless? I think you can. And my you know, personal philosophy. Everybody's got their own take on this. But I'd rather say woe to the quarterback than pull the reins back than sick them right, And I mentioned that on the show before, but it's true. I want him to have that stinger. I want him to have the awareness. More importantly, the awareness of when to pull out the stinger and you know, step on someone's throat and end the game, end the game, or no, when the game is in flux, and this is the last possible opportunity, we're gonna have to fit it a camel in a matchbox. I mean the tightest window you might have. Okay, fine, you got no separation. Boom, jump ball Justin Jefferson, end of the game, the one hand and catch. Kirk knew what was going on, right, he knew the game is on the line. I can afford to cut this ball loose right now. Right. If anything, they're trying to teach Kirk Cousins, Hey, when Justin Jefferson's covered, he ain't covered. Right, if he's doubled, he ain't covered. Throw him the ball. So they've had to retrain his mind because he's so you know, a little more analog than digital that way. Just boom, boom, boom. I'm gonna roll through my progressions. Well, Zach's the opposite, and now it's coaching out the two bad interceptions. I'm okay, the one he missed on the tight end. They on the wrong page. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago on a shallow cross route, Fine, a miss communication, I'm good with that. But if you're gonna roll outside the pocket, slam on the brakes, in the dead man zone, outside the numbers, and stand there and try and throw a ball on a defensive teammate in no way literally throw it out of bounds, flick it out of bounds, kick it out of bounds, fall down, anything at that. And if you can coach that out of him, the kid is absolutely deadly because when it's time to use the stinger, that boy's got it, Like there's no question when it's time to go and take him off the leach and let him run, go, he can do it. So last week you did Lions Bears. Bears had control of the game. Oh my gosh, I thought this was game of the year other than the Buffalo game. It was great. Like in the same window, I was like, great, thanks, what is the thing? Give me some stuff on justin field where you're seeing growth, where he's got a growl. What did you see? Well? I loved, I really do love what gets he's doing. He's making the most of what he has right, and good coordinators you install an entire playbook. But then you major and what your guys can really go with. Adding a big receiver in Claypool, I think is huge. I think they could still use help in the receiver department to help him out. But making sure you know Herbert, I think Herbert just went down. But Herbert and and their other running back, Montgomery, like those guys are going to take the bulk of the load. But don't forget the QB can run. Now. He's six to four and a half maybe six five, and he can really fly on third downs. He has the most rushing yards and first downs than any quarterback like in history. He's got more rushing yards than anybody in the league. I mean he ripped off like a seventy eight yard touchdown run after a crucial interception. So then on the interceptions, it's on screen passes, same thing with similar talking about Zach Wilson right dialing these guys back, he looked like a rookie on that play. Justin fields, he looked like a rookie because the screen got sniffed out by Hutchinson. It was a little tight end screen. Hutchinson gets in the way of the throw. Now, if there's a defender in front of you, on that throw. If let's start here, on all screens, if you have a clear line of sight to the receiver, it's a dart. You throw it right at him fastest, you know, fastest way possible get it to him. If there's a defender in front of you or any color in front of you, you want to give him more of a free throw. Yeah, but justin kind of double clutched and then tried to throw the free throw, and he threw it way too far. So it's dart free throw or dirt the sucker because you're down in your own territory. You got the lead, you got everything. And then he throws it to a Kuda boom pick six, boomerang ball touchdown other way, then he rips off the seventy eight or a touchdown and kind of negates it. But if you eliminate that one mistake, I mean, the kid is just so special. You can't tackle the guy. I mean, if you put us here's what they're trying to do. They nickel pressured him to his throwing hand side to force him to get out to his left just so they can cut the field and half for the defensive back. So they know when these plays the second part of the play. They know that the receiver's only going to go one way and follow the quarterback to the left side of the field and shut down half the field. They're trying to do something like they that's just admitting on the defensive side, like, hey, we're not going to be able to corral this guy. We're gonna at least try and better our chances. But it's so hard with guys like that. Yeah, so there's a story. Um, it's been suggested with Aaron Rodgers that oh boy, it's been suggested that we were being positive. Well, it's been it's been suggested that Okay, Minnesota's on fire, Green Bay seasons over with the NFC. If the Giants win this week, Dallas, you're not making the playoffs. Seattle's on fire, surprising San Francisco, it very unlikely that the wild card team is going to come out of that division. Could you go to Aaron and say, I want to protect you. We need a better draft pick. We got to see if Jordan can play, because if we can take it and we can trade him, we got to see if he can play. Can you go to him and say you want to take it? No, say Aaron. We're saying we don't want to hurt. You're gonna be thirty nine in a week and play Jordan Love. Yeah, Oh dude, I don't know about that. You don't think so. I don't know. I mean they're still in all these games. It's not like they're just getting wiped out. Okay, they play Philadelphia. Now they get boat raced and Aaron gets sacked four times with a bad thumb. Can you go to them and say, bro, we do not want you hurt. You're thirty nine. I mean Philly's coming off a loss two there, they looked a little more vulnerable. You don't buy it at all. I mean, sitting Aaron Rodgers, I don't know if that's the answer. If they're gonna make the playoffs, as as grim as it may look right now, if you're still trying to make the playoffs, you can't sit the guy. You just can't put twelve on them. But they're not a playoff team though. I don't know. I mean, this NFC looks a lot like it did for us in the AFC in two thousand and nine, where we went to bed one night thinking we're out of it. We lost to Atlanta and then some like three other teams lost two weeks before the season was over, and oh my god, we're playing We're playing the Bengals at home with a chance to get in the playoffs and play the Bengals again. Let's say you lose to Philadelphia, then you're four and eight, four and nine. You're gonna play in those last four or five weeks. Don't think it's then we'd maybe talk, okay, and we maybe talk about it. But that's not going to be easy. That's all. That's the worst life. It's not easy. Well, here's another one. Here's another great one. Let's just talk forty nine ers. This seems loaded Garoppolo. Let's say they come back win the division. They already beat Seattle once, beat him again. They win the division. They're not a number one seed, but this team travels well defense one game and they end up in the NFC Championship again. This team loves Jimmy. They love him. The hell do you do with Trey Lance? What you by the way? Trade? You know this traineeds reps. You don't play enough football. We can talk Jimmy three years. Yeah, No, it's just I think it's I think it's a situation where there is value in just saying he wins and my guys love him. I think San Francisco is in a weird spot. I don't think Green Bay is in a weird spot. Yeah, but San fran has I feel like, better problems than Green Bay. You're gonna have to like move only from this Hall of Fame player, and that's always weird and could send you into this spiral if you don't. If let's say they miss on the next three quarterbacks, chances are you do right. Chances are the quarterback doesn't pan out right, So now what you know? So I think Green Bay is in a different place. I think San Francisco's living in the moment the way they're built to win right this second, right, and they're going to ride that sucker out and almost like we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Sure it's gonna be awkward, but boys, let's just leave that elephant exit, you know, that elephant right out of the room. Keep them in the circustent. We'll handle it at the end of the year. Okay. So maybe the most interesting game of the week is Dallas going to Minnesota. So I want you to go back to your career. So Minnesota comes off the game of the year wildly. Yeah, Okay, then you come home and it's not an urgent game because green Bay lost. The division is yours. So go back to your career. There are those games one or two a year. They're glorious wins. But you had like eighty four snaps. Yeah, and I could see Minnesota coming back home and a desperate Dallas team. I think they're going to knock him off. Go back to your Sometimes we think sometimes we think all wins are good, but that game was so electric for Minnesota. No, I think I think it gave them so much confidence that they're going to be riding so high. I think because of the games you're talking about in my career. The guy who was a part of that was Kevin O'Connell. He's now the head coach. He was in our quarterback room, so he knew. After we went down on Monday night, Dustin Keller catches a huge past, Braylon Edwards catches the game winner up the sideline. The Dolphins are in their orange unis Chad Henny's playing. We're going back and forth and we end up winning this emotional game and everybody's just kind of spent, you know, like, whoa, what just happened? But you're feeling good about what just happened. It was just exhausting, and the coaches kind of take care of you. But they really put the emphasis on the mental reps that week. Maybe a couple more walkthroughs. Maybe instead of twelve play racks of plays in a period for offense and then a period for defense, cut them down to ten or twelve or ten or eight, and then the last four walk through plays. You adjust the tempo and speed of practice. You really emphasize, hey, I'm going to give you an extra hour of sleep, don't blow this and go out the night before. Let's just be smart about it and stay on our track. I think Kevin O'Connell is so cognizant of that. He's so aware. So listen. There are plenty of distractions though, right. The gloves and the sleeve from Justin Jefferson are now on display in the Pro Football Hall of Fame just from that one test, you know what I mean? Stuff like that where it's just is it everything? No? Is it something? Yes? As you always mentioned, right, it's something, And there's a lot of extra something Kevin taking a shot at at twelve minute on the field, but he did his little press content. I'm still trying to come up with plays that beat twelve defenders. He's like, we'll do our best with that. I was like, okay, Keck, tuck your smack boy. Okay, you got by the way before we let him go. You have Panthers ravens Lamar Jacksons may not play. Yeah, a little shaky today. It sounded like they're they're saying illness, but it sounds like he's, uh, he's gonna be good to go. We're supposed to talk to him hopefully tomorrow, which means you know, it'd be an interesting matchup. But USC U c LA I'm gonna take I'm gonna take U c l A, I am gonna take USC close. I have fears um that USC could end up watching a lot of the game. The offense from the sideline is uh, Chip Kelly dials up. They know exactly what they want to do against USC. Keep Caleb off the field and run the ball, which they do. I mean, you know exactly what this game is gonna look like. When UCLA has the football, I think it'll be a high scoring affair. I think I have so much respect for Chip. Gotta go with the alma mater, of course, But what are these games like, Well, it's I just love that we're both wearing the home jersey's burning a time out, you know. And at the Rose Bowl that was one of my favorite moments is we get down near the goal line and Sark calls me over because we obviously don't have coach the quarterback, but we have a wristband. He goes, hey, I'm getting ready for wristband, you know, read thirty four whatever. He goes, you're ready to throw your thirtieth touchdown pass. I said, hell yeah. He goes, tell the boys, there's blood in the water. Man, let's go. So I ran back in the huddle. It's all right, guys, don't laugh. But Sark showed a whole shark video, like a Shark Week video the night before. Yeah, when there's blood in the water, sharks know what to do. So he said, we got him on the ropes, we got him on their heels. It's blood in the water. Go tell the boys. So the guys in the huddle we're kind of laughing. I'm like, hey man, I'm just relaying the message, but let's go score, Damian, you're ready to catch this touchdown? And he goes, hell, yeah, let's go and he did. So we threw a touchdown on the very next play. But those were like, you know, things you dream about growing up? Was it the biggest regular season game? Was awesome? That Rose was such a que venue. San Gabriel Mountains behind it. It's gonna be pretty weather and it's awesome, and the crowd's all split up. It's perfect. It is perfect. It is so startling. Power is beautiful. It's unbelievable. I'm gonna go of You know, everybody's predicting but trying to be. My guess is it's ninety six. It's a it's a thirty seven, thirty seven, thirty four range kind of a last team with the ball wins. It's gonna look a lot like the Utah game. I feel like I feel the exact same way. Hopefully we just end up with the ball. Ask Yeah, good, senior man, great, Thank you guys,