Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, it is a what is it Thursday? Wednesday? I lose track of days? Another like your loss. Another day on the air. It's Wednesday. Welcome and it's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. J Mac is joining me Peter Schrager in an hour. By the way, some some updates on some coaching moves, some big things brewing and rather quickly in NFL circles, including our Sean Payton. We'll get to that. You know, you watch the first half last night of that Clipper Lakers. Clippers had seventy seven points in the first half. If you took Lebron out of the game, the next seven to eight best players were all Clippers, all of them. I don't want to start too hot. Column, But it's time to trade Russell Westbrook. Let's get him out of here. Let's bring in Zach Levine, Buddy Heeled, Milester, whoever you can do, bring him in, because you can't play Russ against these really good teams. You just can't. You can't. So Lebron had forty six. It was one of Lebron's best shooting nights. Perhaps ever, he's going to be the scoring champ of the entire league's history. In about six games, he's one hundred and seventy eight point shy of Kareem Abdul Jabbar. So the next two weeks it's the purse suit. But I thought last night was it perfectly represented what his mogul stage, what Los Angeles, his Laker career has represented. Lebron gets the headline forty six points, Lakers lose, and he's not to blame for any of it. It's been great for his brand here, he got a title, he's become a billionaire. He's going to be the scoring king. None of it's his fault. Oh yeah, I did inherit. Luke Walton and all those young guys that couldn't play. Not his fault. Frank Vogel more of a defensive coach, Not his fault. Anthony Davis hurt again, not his fault. Front office not respected ownership, the kids of the late great Jerry Buss, not his fault. This has been perfect. If you look at Peyton Manning's ending, he fell apart, physically, shack, Michael Jordan, mess even Tom Brady this year personal professional clunky. This has been ideal because Lebron's criteria has changed, and it's not his fault. It used to be a guaranteed trip to the finals. Now it's guaranteed excellence on a nightly basis. He still remains on any given night as good as any player in this league not named honest. So there's always been three stages for superstars in professional basketball. The first stage Lebron got an A plus was the show off stage. Michael Jordan's scoring sixty, Kobe's scoring eighty, the early stages of that career. Look how great I am Lebron chasing people down the floor, blocking the shot off the backboard. Remember I used to do that all the time. It's a show off stage. The second stage is I'm on a good team. I want to be on a great team and win championship. Sometimes you sacrifice something. Lebron moves a plus for that got to the heat to the finals four straight years, one, two, and the third stage, and almost all of them do this. It's the Mogul stage for NBA stars, which is I've got to monetize my brand. Michael Jordan gonna go to Washington, want to own a team. It's not about winning. If you win, it's great, but it's really about monetizing your brand. He's done a plus all three stages endings for superstars, either you're getting the blame, or you're falling apart, or it's sad. This is elegant. It's going to be the all time scoring champ. He's not getting hurt. Actually, Anthony Davis's injury sort of helps him. He was averaging twenty six a night with a d Ad gets hurt, He's up to thirty five a night. He's had to carry him more of the load. I mean, if you're watching that game last night, take Lebron off the floor. The next seven best players in uniform all Clippers. Ad not his fault. By the way, you can say, well, what about Westbrook. Lebron wanted Westbrook, while the GM pulled a trigger and Westbrook because of his style of play. Nobody's blaming Lebron for Westbrook. Lebron's the best player on the floor last night. Westbrook's been for years a bad half court player. Take out transition. That's why he struggles in the playoffs. You take out cheap buckets Westbrook. In the half court set, where you've got to be efficient, good handles, shoot, defend, that's not what he does. So if you look at the endings, for most athletes, it is really clunky. Not Lebron great season has his health, losing, takes none of the hits. Everybody else takes play. So the LA move um has actually been just about ideal because the criteria has changed. Right once you get this expensive, Lebron's not going to bounce around the Country's got places in Beverly Hills. You're not bouncing around at Houston or philadel It's not what he's doing. At this point. The criteria has changed. They lose Lebron's great, the brand rises, monetizes it and takes none of the hit. Here's Lebron after I don't know. We'll see when we get there. We see when we get there, we'll see what will they hit me? Um. You know, just over the last few years, the last couple of years since we won a championship, just a lot of accomplishment has been happening, losing effort, you know. So it's been very kind of difficult to kind of even digest some of some of my own accomplishments because now I want to celebrate on losses. All right. So in about six seven games, he's averaging about twenty eight to thirty Here, six or seven games, he's the all time scoring champ. It's fascinating. Maybe tomorrow we'll look at that. When you look at the top ten list of all time scores, each one is sort of unique. You have power forwards, you have the sky Hook, you have the relentless score MJ. You've got the Swiss Army knife. Lebron who's aging. Well, it's a lot of different games in the top ten scoring list, and Lebron has certainly earned it, all right. So Aaron Rodgers, this is what I like. Aaron doesn't have the rancor or bitterness that Brett Farve had in the end in Green Bay. So it is now officially being acknowledged by Aaron and others. He is in the fifty fifty they may trade me category. But again, unlike Farve, he's not bitter, he's not resentful, he's not angry. I like how that lands. He had a quote yesterday or the day before in the Pat McAfee show on YouTube where he said, listen, I get it if they want to move. I love the organization. I'd have no animosity. I love this city, I love the region. I'm a minority owner of the Bucks. I'm going to be part of the region long after I'm done. Plan. Got a lot of love for what's going on in Green Bay. I'd love to finish there. I would. I might have finished there. Who knows what's interesting about this? And I think it's a fifty fifty proposition. But usually when you have a divorce between team and star, one side has an advantage. And I think a lot of people would view this ash Green Bay would be in real trouble. This speaks to how well the Packers are run. They're in a very unique situation. The head coach is set, he's an offensive coach. The quarterback is in the building, knows the offense ready to play, and the rosters mostly set. Here's a couple of other advantages for green Bay. They had a rare bad season at eight to nine, so they have a good draft spot fifteenth. That's uniquely good for green Bay. They're usually drafting at the bottom a round one, which if you talk to executives in this league, it's no man's land. The twenty third, the twenty eighth, those are second round players. You're paying first round money too. The fifteenth pick is just on the edge of the last two or three really elite first round bodies. Most NFL executives i've talked to think the first round has sixteen to eighteen first round players, and then the next thirty to forty feel like second rounders. They'll play chance of being a star early or less. But here's the other thing is that if they just made a deal and just got one first round pick for Aaron, my guess is they'd get two first round picks, maybe a first, two seconds a third. But let's say they just got one first round pick. He is old, he's not committed in the offseason, and let's say it's a first and a third. But let's just concentrate on one first round pick. This year let's say it's Tennessee, then they'd have the eleventh pick and the fifteenth pick. Well, if you look at two of the three primary needs four green Bay, go to your mock drafts. They're all over the internet. Every network's doing them, including this one. What they need. Two of their first three needs are a tight end, another tight end, and another receiver, And the eleventh pick would get them the first or second best receiver Jordan Addison, and the fifteenth pick would probably get them the best tight end, a starter Day one Michael Mayer from Notre Dame. And then they have multiple picks beyond that to go find an edge rusher and another tackle. And Green Bay has a history of never drafting offensive lineman in the first round and yet year after year having really good offensive lines. We thought it was going to be a down year for green Bay's O. It wasn't. So it's a very unique situation. You've got your offensive coach, you've got your quarterback in the building. The divisions still kind of wonky. Minnesota is not winning eleven straight one score games. That's not happening. You can take five of those away. Last year they lost them all. This year they win them all somewhere in the middle. They'll regress. The mean Chicago is still a disaster, and I like Detroit, but they're a better story than a team. They couldn't make the playoffs in the NFC. In the NFC, so I think they're in a very very unique situation. Add this to Green Bay, they didn't make the playoffs. You don't have to bring the band back together. There's not like you're breaking up the bulls here right with Jordan there's animosity, Oh my god, we gotta run this back, not really just got to get another tight end, another receiver, another edge rusher. That's what you need. So I listen. If you can get Dan Old Jones in a better division to the playoffs, you can't get in a rebuilding roster. You can't get Jordan Love if they had a receiver, a tight end, and an edge rusher. Green Bay's uniquely in a good space. They really are. Is that if they just got a singular first round pick, and they don't whiff on a lot of their first round picks. Now, we haven't seen Jordan Love play, and they usually go defense with those picks. But if they've ever wanted to rip the band aid off. It's pretty good. It's a pretty good time. I don't think this would be the classic quarterback leaves crushes and your left holding the bag. I don't think that's the space for green Bay. And the good news is Aaron's not bitter. Far certainly was be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iheartrad. Former NFL executive A Mike Tannenbaum, not a fan of Mike McCarthy, said yesterday on an ESPN program they should fire Mike McCarthy. So once again Dallas is blaming the wrong person. Mike McCarthy won twelve games this year in twelve games last year, and Dak's been hurt for some of it. Dallas's issue is they pay Dak Prescott like Patrick Mahomes and he's much closer to Kirk Cousins. They pay Zeke like a superstar, and he is now nothing more than a short yardage back. So Mike McCarthy either inherited these bad contracts or had no control over these bad contracts. They are trapped on those two deals. At least Dak can be productive. Zeke no longer is. So there are holes and bad contracts on the rosters and they're not much he can do about it. And the Niners and the Eagles in the NFC because they're not paying their quarterback anything, yet those guys are running it back. That Niner roster is not changing. At Eagles roster is not changing. You know, Kansas City had to get rid of Tyreek Hill and Ward the Corner because they paid Mahomes Hurts not making any money, Brock Purty not making any money. So that those are those are two you know, walls they're not getting through in the time being. So once again they're blaming the wrong guy. Mike McCarthy's to me is not an elite coach, but he's capable and he is an offensive coach. He won with Cooper Rush. So what's interesting about that is in this story I'm reading this morning, Sean Payton's name is up for a lot of jobs, and the Dallas job. People view the Dallas job because Sean has a house there as something he'd been interested in. Number one is I was talking to Matt Moseley, a reporter in Dallas. Jerry doesn't generally pay the coach big boy money. He doesn't love to do that. Also, Sean Payton doesn't need the Cowboys brand to be elevated. He's considered the best coach on the market by a mile. He's like horriball. He doesn't need his brand elevated. He has a sustained brand. The other thing is, you know, Stephen Jones and Jerry Jones want to control personnel. I'm not really sure that that interest Sean Payton at all. And also again, you walk in the Zeke contract, the Dak contract and there's holes on the roster that need filling, you may have to get a tight end because your productive tight end could be walking out as an un restricted free agent. So Diana Russini is a reporter for ESPN. She used to work in the DC market. She has very very good contacts with the commander's people. She breaks a lot of stories there. So she had a tweet yesterday which is very interesting. She said there's an unnamed team quote waiting in the wings and could get ducks in a row, potentially landing Sean Payton. Now, when she says that a lot of people are like, oh, it could be the Cowboys. Let me throw out a team Diana Russini has connections to Washington. Throw out Washington, Why no bad contracts? They can cut Carson Wentz tomorrow. They have several several great young players at key positions. Egg rusher, receiver, left tackle, running back, key positions. They've got them. They need to upgrade the offensive line a little. They need a quarterback, car Garoppolo on the market. Taylor Heineke and Sean Payton, I mean Ron Rivera and Taylor Heineke were competitive. What do you think he'd do with an offensive coach and all those young players getting better? So remember March. When Diana Rassini says Ducks in a row? Does that mean my interpretation is Ducks in a row is Washington by March getting their new owners. This is a city thirty years ago may have been the most rabid fan base in the league. Washington thirty forty years ago, the waiting list for tickets was you know, remember watching Pat Summer all and years ago talk about it was like thousand, tens of thousands of people waiting list. Now you can't fill the stadium, so waiting in the wings, Ducks in a row, I don't think that's Dallas. I think you got to keep your eye on Washington new owners. I've been told they're interested in Sean Payton. For the record, everybody's interested in Sean Payton. He's number one on everybody's list, and he's going through this process. But I think Carolina and Dallas are viewed. Keep your eye on Washington. No awful contracts need an offensive coach waiting in the wings. Ducks in a row. What does that mean to me? It's new ownership by March. That's what it feels like to me. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekday said noun Easter nine am Pacific. Let's do it today here on Wednesday for the Chiefs and the Bengals, here were tag number ten. I'm gonna say Joe Mixon last two postseasons over four hundred yards, blows every other running back, playoff, running back away. He's the highest graded running back on either team. I said this yesterday. I think during the break he reminds me a little bit of a poor man's Adrian Peterson. He can run over you, he can run past you. He's terrific. You get he's got one hundred and eighty four more rushing yards than any other player in the postseason last two years, so he's a home run threat. Joe Mixon ten. Number nine Joe Tuney. The guard are arguably the best guard in the NFL. The number one PF rated pass blocking guard. He's allowed one or fewer sacks in four of the last five years. Pro Bowler All Pro. This season he's about the best. He had the best season for any guard this year in the NFL. Joe Tuney. Number eight Trey hendrickson rush and for the Bengals. He's the highest graded edge rusher on either team Chiefs or Bengals according to PFF last two years twenty five and a half as he was just a good get for them, and again, to beat Mahomes, you got to rush Mahomes. He'll be incredibly valuable in this spot. Number seven Te Higgins back to back thousand yard seasons. He's a tough matchup. He's six four, two twenty. He's just big. He's probably not as gifted as Jamar Chase, but he's a matchup nightmare. Remember when Chase got hurt, t became their number one and was highly highly successful. Think about this too. Joe Burrows passer rating when targeting T. Higgins is one hundred and thirteen higher than Burrow targeting Jamar Chase, So he and T. I think a lot of it's that catching radius. He is such an easy completion with his size. Number six, Creed Humphrey probably the second or first best center in football, highest credit center. His first two years, him and Kelsey for the Eagles did not allow a sack in over eight hundred snaps. He was good. The second he got to the NFL, he was well. I think he was a late first round pick out of Oklahoma and he was great his first snap in the NFL. He's number six. Number five Jamar Chase more of a home run threat than T Higgins nine touchdowns in his last nine games, including the playoffs. He also led the NFL in catches of fifty plus yards. So he is the big home run threat in this game. And I think when you play at Kansas City, there's a big chance you're gonna fall behind. Can you get quick touchdowns? He's the guy in the field that can get him. Number four Chris Jones, defensive tackle, Kansas City. Highest credited player on either team. He is an interior lineman, but last four years, four time pro bowler, and if there's injuries on the Bengals O line interior, then Jones he'll have a good game regardless, could be dominating. He's at four. Number three, I would give Travis Kelsey three because he actually gets his hands on the ball, defensive tackles, owned eight time pro bowler. Only Jerry Rice in league history has more playoff catches than Travis Kelsey. Isn't that incredible? One hundred and twenty and again gets his hand last week. It was insane. I think he had fourteen catches. It was I mean it was tight. Ends never used to have fourteen targets in the playoffs. He had fourteen catches last week. Number two. You'll think it's crazy. It's Mahomes. He's not playing in one hundred percent. So if he's eighty to eighty five percent, yes, he's got the highest passer rating in league history. My guess is though he's not going to have the ability quite the ability to extend play forget scrambling for yards, play extension, probably not not at his best. Number one, so I give it to Burrow, who, by the way, is three three and oh against Mahomes three and oz road playoff record, Joe is healthy, highest completion percentage in league history. Situationally, he's as good as Mahomes, and he's healthier. So Mahomes and Burrow are obviously the best players in this game and the most important. I do not believe you can have a high ankle sprain and be one hundred percent. I just I think Mahomes will gut it out. But I don't. I think you'll see fairly early in this game Mahomes doesn't move quite as well. If he was one hundred percent. I'd go Mahomes one and Burrow a close second. But that's where I see it right now. Peter Schreger, Fox Sports Reporter The Season with Peter Schreger. It's a great podcast. Would you make it that list? First of all Shreigs, You'll like any of it. You just like anything. There's a couple of guys out there, Nick Bolton, Von Bell, Logan Wilson who would make an argument and say, hey, we we played defense too, you know in this league. Yeah. No, Bill has been a good guet for them. He really has been m all right Denver Coaching Search. I was told this week listen, they've interviewed Sean Payton twice, and they like Sean Payton. But there's things to consider here. Draft capital, Russell Wilson's really expensive old lines, a bit of a rebuild. What are you hearing on the Denver coaching search? Yeah, the Denver deal is interesting because they were first out of the gates and everyone thought that, okay, new ownership, they're gonna make some plays. They're gonna go and do this thing. There taking their sweet time. The name that emerged this week was David Shaw from Stanford. Let me explain Greg Penner, the new owner of the Denver Broncos. The Stanford MBA Kondolieza Rice, who is the former Secretary of State obviously is involved in this new Denver ownership group. She also is a Stanford. David Shaw would be a steady hand. I've also been told back up a second, this thing might take a bit, and there are no slam dunks. The Shaw thing makes a lot of sense when you connect the dots like a Russell Crow and button. Beautiful mind, but this is by no means David Shaw's job to lose at this point, they're taking their time. Shawn Peyton is still in the mix. The Mico Ryan's is still in the mix, dan Quinn is still in the mix, David Shaw is still in the mix. But I would be surprised if Denver was the first one out of the gate out of these five coaching vacancies which still have not been filled. Aaron Rodgers, I feel like there were years in this relationship where Green Bay was desperate. I don't think they are now what are you hearing? It's interesting because when you're coming off two MVP Awards in a row, and you've got all the leverage and you've got the contract up in the balance, you're at a different point than when your team misses the playoffs and there's seven other teams in the NFC, and there's taught that maybe Rogers could be a movable piece. Now look at the end of the day, he's gonna have a huge saying that, And I look at the other teams and the teams that keep popping up. Are you know you see the Vegas connection with Davante Adams and how they might have a void at quarterback, the Jets, how they have all that young talent, and even Rogers was on mac of and he was listing some of those names The truth the matter is the Green Bay Packers did miss the playoffs with Aaron Rodgers, and his salary is a huge suck on this team. Whether he's on the squad or not, I to this day would be very surprised if by week one we're talking about a different quarterback one for the Green Bay Packers. But I do think there's a lot more validity to it this year than there was a year ago. Mike McCarthy, you know Jerry. I was talking to Matt Moseley yesterday and he said Jerry can kind of disappear for about two to three weeks after a season to let everybody that you know, Dak can take a beating a little bit, McCarthy can take a beating. Jerry's not going to defend him. He wouldn't go on his radio show any chance he could be replaced. Jerry's come out every single step of the way and has given Mike McCarthy a vote of confidence. And you know, they've won twelve games the last two years. They've advanced from the wildcard round to the divisional round. The interesting thing is those two coordinators who are very highly respected around the league. You know, Dan Quinn is interviewing for head coaching jobs. He's in Arizona today and he's up for that gig. He's also up for several others. Then Kellen Moore interviewed for the Carolina job yesterday. So you have these two coordinators who are viewed as rising stars, and Mike McCarthy is sort of the CEO. The only way I could see Jerry at this point pulling the plug on McCarthy, as if there was some sort of decision at the top to say we gotta keep dan Quinn and the only way to keep dan Quinn is to make him the headman Collins. From everything I hear, Mike McCarthy is safe. They're not looking to make a trade for Sean Payton with the Saints at the moment, and it looks like it's going to be McCarthy and potentially another coordinator next year if dan quinn gets one of these jobs. But there's a good chance that I have the only five seats available that dan Quinn and Kellen Moore all right back, and so is Dac, and hey, let's try to get to our first NFC championship game in twenty eight years next season. So I thought it was interesting that from respected reporters. There is Mike Silver that brought Purdy's the guy next year, And I mean, I think you had heard this and reported that there were just concerns about accuracy, Trey Lance, scarcity of games he'd play. He was really a prospect and a you know, rough around the edges prospect. You just hadn't played much football. So the story comes out, you know, kind of brought Purdy's the guy. Yesterday, Jamac brought up something that was interesting. He said, what if you come back with Purdy and garoppolo it when you're paying nothing, when you're getting kind of an injury discount. What do you make of the Purty situation? Is it surprising? What's what's being said behind the walls? Well, it's fascinating because right now everyone in San Francisco and Silver's got his sources and they're great. Everyone talking to me is like, we're not there yet, We're not even going there yet. Why would you dare go that way. Let's just focus on one week at a time, And it's a nice thing to live in the present and live in that pocket because everything's going great. Purty seven and oh as a starter, Purdy can't miss pretty even on that play at the end of the first half where he threw out a bounds like one second room and it was almost like the gods were working with him to make sure that that wasn't a rookie mistake. But this is gonna be a really interesting decision in the offseason. Now Jimmy's a pure free agent. You know that's gonna be one deal. Trey Lance is going into year number three as a quarterback. He's on his rookie deal, and Purdie's gonna be year two at a salary that is that is the smallest salary of any quarterback in the NFL who's going to be a QB one. So they have the luxury they can keep Lance and Purdie and if they want, they can even bring in a veteran third string if they wanted to have that veteran guy that's there. I would imagine it's going to be a true, true battle and training campaign. I say that in quotes. But if Purdie keeps on winning, man this, hey, look, I'll say this. The Patriots, they were paying Drew Bledsoe the most money in the NFL in the early two thousands, Brady won them a Super Bowl bloodso was on the bench. Sometimes it's just, hey, the salaries you have to throw out the door. And in this case, Trey Lance, he's still on his rookie deal. It's not like he's making a one hundred million dollars right. All right, let's talk Bengals chiefs to you, what's the secret sauce to Cincinnati's success. I mean, obviously Burrows a special player, but what's the secret sauce. The secret sauce is that defensive coordinator lou and Rumo. I feel like I've become a flag bearer for certain assistant coaches during these postseason runs. There are five vacancies for head coaching jobs, and they are over twenty five different men who've interviewed for them. Lou Anna Rumo, who has been the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati the past two years, has gotten zero zero head coaching interviews this entire season. And it's one of those deals where they all just lean into it. They're like, yeah, he's disrespected, just like the rest of us. You go around this team, whether it's Trey Hendrickson not getting a deal from the Saints, that's equal to what the Bengals offered or Eli Apple discarded by multiple teams, von Bell discarded by a team. These are a bunch of guys who feel on defense that they have been disrespected and dismissed, and their defensive coordinator is one of these masterminds. It's three d against Mahomes, he's one and all against Josh Allen. And when you come out a halftime, you don't score on the Cincinnati Bank goals. It's just not what happened. Those didn't do it. The Chiefs haven't done it. And I think they're the best in the league and adjustments defensively, So let Burrow, Chase and Higgins get all the headlines. Let them do all that stuff. They have a salty, they have a tough and they've got an East Coast at defensive cornator. Lou Colin. I know you're a West Coast guy, Seattle, whole deal. This guy's from Staten Island, New York. A different breed of dude. I like Staten Island, tough people from Staten Island, mass around on Staten Island. You know that j Mack. Finally, I said, Mahomes at eighty percent is the second best player this weekend, because I think one of his many great qualities play extension is he's really in a unique all time class. I'm just extending. It's not even scrambling, it's just extending a play and eye is down field. He really doesn't run that much. Where are we at his injury? What's the latest? Okay, so Andy Reid, as we're on this, Andy Reid had a press conference, say, Mahomes is gonna practice. So I'm not a Vegas guy by trade, but let me tell you something. That line started off with the Chiefs being favored. Then when the ankle injury became more evident, the Bengals were a three point favorite. With the mere news that Mahomes is able to practice, I would imagine the Chiefs would be favored again by tomorrow morning. That's how much the ankle plays into things. Now. Truth the matter is, Mahomes in eighty percent is better than ninety nine percent of the quarterbacks. But Burrow at one hundred percent is pretty scary too. Let's see how he practices, Let's see how he moves around in the facility. In recent years, the white Freeney's ankle, gronks ankle, These have been really important storylines going into big games. I don't think there's a bigger storyline on Sunday than Patrick Mahomes's ankle and what version we get Chad. Henny will be ready, he always is. But if you can have Mahomes out there and him better than seventy percent, well then watch out here we go. Yeah, Peter Schreger. By the way, a new weekly podcast, The Season with Peter Schreger. He's got a new microphone there he's cranking. Can we get you on, Colin? Is that allowed? Can I have you as my guest? Yeah? I'd love to be a guest. Absolutely. That whole podcast industry something these days. Good Senior, Buddy, Peter Schreiker, you're the all right New York Times best seller out of the blue Book on the Giants. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino, Enrich, Cavino and Mitch. Thanks, Buddy, that's right, Cavino Rich Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino and Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rockin' dude. The show features our unique take on sports, injected with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino Enrich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich give here. Hell Yeah. Dante Whitner was on our show earlier this week, former Niner, and he was talking. There was a quote here he thinks brock pretty could be the second coming to Tom Brady. I strongly disagree, and here's why. So Brady six four and a half to twenty five drafted by a Major League baseball team, always a very strong arm, big prototype body, and when he was coming out of high school going to college in the mid nineties, ninety six ish, I think it's about the time USC and Michigan were both on him. Brock Purty is six one two fifteen to two twenty, smaller than you'd like in a very average arm. So I think they're totally different prospects. And remember Brady falls in the draft, but the league was not twenty five years ago, not nearly as quarterback centric. The league is now completely driven by quarterbacks. Belichick can't get in the playoffs without a great quarterback. There are no hidden secrets. Everybody's dying to find a quarterback. You can argue they're overdrafted now overdrafted, and so they're totally different prospects. Brock Purty is twitch, he's competitive, and he's got to be somewhat smart because that offense is complex, and he's a rookie and he's playing real well. But let me put brock Purty. Let's let's be honest here. His left tackle, Trent Williams, Hall of Famer, George Kittle, Hall of Famer, Shanahan, probably a Hall of Famer, running back McCaffrey gonna get a lot of votes. And he had no touchdown passes against Dallas in an eighty seven passer rating. He's just not wrecking the Mercedes. Okay, don't conflate that. He is blowing away expectations, and that's really powerful in any industry, but don't conflate that with these He's an elite talent. He's a six one two and eighteen pound guy with an average arm. That's what he is. He's twitchier than Garoppolo, but he doesn't have the power arm of Trey Lance that the top general managers, all of them in the league passed on him six times, and all but one passed on him a seventh time. And again, I'll go back to the quarterback position now is overdrafted. We're drafting guys too often and too early. There's like Zach Wilson number two pick in the draft. Trey Lant had barely played college football. We are overdrafting the position. I mean, Baker Mayfield number one, really small enough out athletic average arm number one. So you know, I said this the other day, I do top ten most talented players in the games this weekend. So we did the Niners and the Eagles yesterday, and it's a who's who. It's a loaded team. So Brock Purdy was nowhere near the top ten. And when we did it and we had all the guys up here, we had Nick Bosa one. He's gonna be the defensive player of the year. Trent William's best left tackling football Jason Kelsey, Jalen Hurts, A. J. Brown. For our radio audience that can't see the graphic. Lane Johnson's probably the best right tackling football. Fred Warner's the best linebacker. Seven, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittled, Darius Slay. If I did the next six, I would do Debot probably eleven, Hassan Reddick, twelve, Hafunga the safety, thirteen, Ward the corner, fourteen, DeVante Smith the receiver, fifteen. I think James Bradbury the corner from the Giants, probably sixteen. And then then I think Perti's in a group of about seven players, So let's not go crazy here. He is blowing away expectations, and that's very powerful. But Brady six four and a half two twenty. Michigan and USC in the mid nineties were after him. Baseball draft catcher, big arm, Brady's always head. I said this for years, I thought Brady. Now Josh Allen surpassed this. I thought Brady had the best cold weather arm because of his hip rotation, his ball just cut through bad weather. For years, I thought he had as good a cold weather arm as the league had. Now, Josh Allen's arm now cuts through everything sold as Mahome, so does Herbert. Kids are bigger and stronger. But I think Curdie's a great story he's not a great quarterback. I do think he's twitchier than Garoppolo, more accurate than Trey Lance. So if you if you, I don't think he's an a at anything, but I think you know his accuracy. I was thinking about this the other day. It's never been talked about, but like for instance, you would think instinctively the Niners would be better with Josh Allen at quarterback. But what's interesting if you look at the quarterbacks that there was always a story that Shanahan like Kirk Cousins better than RG three because RG three would run out of plays. If you look at the quarterback, it's very strange, counterintuitive to what the league is most even Andy Reid, just give me talent and I'll figure it out. Shanahan's different. He's very much tied to his offense, his blocking schemes, and his script is that he wanted Kirk Cousins. That was reported, he wanted Mac Jones of all the quarterbacks most accurate. He had success with Matt Shob Matt Ryan. So the Niners are whereas Nick Serriani loves compares him to Jordan, the athleticism of Jalen hurts the Bills love it, Andy Reid does. Shanahan's a unique There's an argument that he would rather just have somebody who follows his script, that can move a little a little. That's why he probably accepted Trey Lance. He likes somebody that can move the pot a little, but he doesn't want a playmaker at quarterback. It doesn't work for his offense. He's not looking for that. So it's just funny when you look at Shanahan's quarterbacks that he's worked with. There were stories very early that he and his dad were more into cousins than RG three after the first year, because they have this legendary offense. Pretty I mean, you watch some of this video. He delivers strikes, predesign plays to high end talent. I think Shanahan likes that. Didn't want his guy running around, doesn't want his guy complete and fifty nine percent like Josh Allen and can't can't live up to his playbook. Now you say to yourself, would he take Josh Allen, you know, Overbrock Purty Well Eddie GM would of course, you'd figure it out. But it is interesting if you look at Shanahan's history, it's a lot of Brock Purties, it's a lot of Kirk Cousins. Fourth rounder Mac Jones was not considered as talented as justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance, or Zach Wilson, and that was the one reportedly Shanahan wanted the least talented, lowest ceiling, most accurate. So there is an argument that pretty is a cheap, cheaper version of what he kind of wants. He probably wishes he was six to three. He probably wishes he had more of a power arm. But Shanahan's offense, it's history. This is what it looks like.

Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, it is a what is it Thursday? Wednesday? I lose track of days? Another like your loss. Another day on the air. It's Wednesday. Welcome and it's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. J Mac is joining me Peter Schrager in an hour. By the way, some some updates on some coaching moves, some big things brewing and rather quickly in NFL circles, including our Sean Payton. We'll get to that. You know, you watch the first half last night of that Clipper Lakers. Clippers had seventy seven points in the first half. If you took Lebron out of the game, the next seven to eight best players were all Clippers, all of them. I don't want to start too hot. Column, But it's time to trade Russell Westbrook. Let's get him out of here. Let's bring in Zach Levine, Buddy Heeled, Milester, whoever you can do, bring him in, because you can't play Russ against these really good teams. You just can't. You can't. So Lebron had forty six. It was one of Lebron's best shooting nights. Perhaps ever, he's going to be the scoring champ of the entire league's history. In about six games, he's one hundred and seventy eight point shy of Kareem Abdul Jabbar. So the next two weeks it's the purse suit. But I thought last night was it perfectly represented what his mogul stage, what Los Angeles, his Laker career has represented. Lebron gets the headline forty six points, Lakers lose, and he's not to blame for any of it. It's been great for his brand here, he got a title, he's become a billionaire. He's going to be the scoring king. None of it's his fault. Oh yeah, I did inherit. Luke Walton and all those young guys that couldn't play. Not his fault. Frank Vogel more of a defensive coach, Not his fault. Anthony Davis hurt again, not his fault. Front office not respected ownership, the kids of the late great Jerry Buss, not his fault. This has been perfect. If you look at Peyton Manning's ending, he fell apart, physically, shack, Michael Jordan, mess even Tom Brady this year personal professional clunky. This has been ideal because Lebron's criteria has changed, and it's not his fault. It used to be a guaranteed trip to the finals. Now it's guaranteed excellence on a nightly basis. He still remains on any given night as good as any player in this league not named honest. So there's always been three stages for superstars in professional basketball. The first stage Lebron got an A plus was the show off stage. Michael Jordan's scoring sixty, Kobe's scoring eighty, the early stages of that career. Look how great I am Lebron chasing people down the floor, blocking the shot off the backboard. Remember I used to do that all the time. It's a show off stage. The second stage is I'm on a good team. I want to be on a great team and win championship. Sometimes you sacrifice something. Lebron moves a plus for that got to the heat to the finals four straight years, one, two, and the third stage, and almost all of them do this. It's the Mogul stage for NBA stars, which is I've got to monetize my brand. Michael Jordan gonna go to Washington, want to own a team. It's not about winning. If you win, it's great, but it's really about monetizing your brand. He's done a plus all three stages endings for superstars, either you're getting the blame, or you're falling apart, or it's sad. This is elegant. It's going to be the all time scoring champ. He's not getting hurt. Actually, Anthony Davis's injury sort of helps him. He was averaging twenty six a night with a d Ad gets hurt, He's up to thirty five a night. He's had to carry him more of the load. I mean, if you're watching that game last night, take Lebron off the floor. The next seven best players in uniform all Clippers. Ad not his fault. By the way, you can say, well, what about Westbrook. Lebron wanted Westbrook, while the GM pulled a trigger and Westbrook because of his style of play. Nobody's blaming Lebron for Westbrook. Lebron's the best player on the floor last night. Westbrook's been for years a bad half court player. Take out transition. That's why he struggles in the playoffs. You take out cheap buckets Westbrook. In the half court set, where you've got to be efficient, good handles, shoot, defend, that's not what he does. So if you look at the endings, for most athletes, it is really clunky. Not Lebron great season has his health, losing, takes none of the hits. Everybody else takes play. So the LA move um has actually been just about ideal because the criteria has changed. Right once you get this expensive, Lebron's not going to bounce around the Country's got places in Beverly Hills. You're not bouncing around at Houston or philadel It's not what he's doing. At this point. The criteria has changed. They lose Lebron's great, the brand rises, monetizes it and takes none of the hit. Here's Lebron after I don't know. We'll see when we get there. We see when we get there, we'll see what will they hit me? Um. You know, just over the last few years, the last couple of years since we won a championship, just a lot of accomplishment has been happening, losing effort, you know. So it's been very kind of difficult to kind of even digest some of some of my own accomplishments because now I want to celebrate on losses. All right. So in about six seven games, he's averaging about twenty eight to thirty Here, six or seven games, he's the all time scoring champ. It's fascinating. Maybe tomorrow we'll look at that. When you look at the top ten list of all time scores, each one is sort of unique. You have power forwards, you have the sky Hook, you have the relentless score MJ. You've got the Swiss Army knife. Lebron who's aging. Well, it's a lot of different games in the top ten scoring list, and Lebron has certainly earned it, all right. So Aaron Rodgers, this is what I like. Aaron doesn't have the rancor or bitterness that Brett Farve had in the end in Green Bay. So it is now officially being acknowledged by Aaron and others. He is in the fifty fifty they may trade me category. But again, unlike Farve, he's not bitter, he's not resentful, he's not angry. I like how that lands. He had a quote yesterday or the day before in the Pat McAfee show on YouTube where he said, listen, I get it if they want to move. I love the organization. I'd have no animosity. I love this city, I love the region. I'm a minority owner of the Bucks. I'm going to be part of the region long after I'm done. Plan. Got a lot of love for what's going on in Green Bay. I'd love to finish there. I would. I might have finished there. Who knows what's interesting about this? And I think it's a fifty fifty proposition. But usually when you have a divorce between team and star, one side has an advantage. And I think a lot of people would view this ash Green Bay would be in real trouble. This speaks to how well the Packers are run. They're in a very unique situation. The head coach is set, he's an offensive coach. The quarterback is in the building, knows the offense ready to play, and the rosters mostly set. Here's a couple of other advantages for green Bay. They had a rare bad season at eight to nine, so they have a good draft spot fifteenth. That's uniquely good for green Bay. They're usually drafting at the bottom a round one, which if you talk to executives in this league, it's no man's land. The twenty third, the twenty eighth, those are second round players. You're paying first round money too. The fifteenth pick is just on the edge of the last two or three really elite first round bodies. Most NFL executives i've talked to think the first round has sixteen to eighteen first round players, and then the next thirty to forty feel like second rounders. They'll play chance of being a star early or less. But here's the other thing is that if they just made a deal and just got one first round pick for Aaron, my guess is they'd get two first round picks, maybe a first, two seconds a third. But let's say they just got one first round pick. He is old, he's not committed in the offseason, and let's say it's a first and a third. But let's just concentrate on one first round pick. This year let's say it's Tennessee, then they'd have the eleventh pick and the fifteenth pick. Well, if you look at two of the three primary needs four green Bay, go to your mock drafts. They're all over the internet. Every network's doing them, including this one. What they need. Two of their first three needs are a tight end, another tight end, and another receiver, And the eleventh pick would get them the first or second best receiver Jordan Addison, and the fifteenth pick would probably get them the best tight end, a starter Day one Michael Mayer from Notre Dame. And then they have multiple picks beyond that to go find an edge rusher and another tackle. And Green Bay has a history of never drafting offensive lineman in the first round and yet year after year having really good offensive lines. We thought it was going to be a down year for green Bay's O. It wasn't. So it's a very unique situation. You've got your offensive coach, you've got your quarterback in the building. The divisions still kind of wonky. Minnesota is not winning eleven straight one score games. That's not happening. You can take five of those away. Last year they lost them all. This year they win them all somewhere in the middle. They'll regress. The mean Chicago is still a disaster, and I like Detroit, but they're a better story than a team. They couldn't make the playoffs in the NFC. In the NFC, so I think they're in a very very unique situation. Add this to Green Bay, they didn't make the playoffs. You don't have to bring the band back together. There's not like you're breaking up the bulls here right with Jordan there's animosity, Oh my god, we gotta run this back, not really just got to get another tight end, another receiver, another edge rusher. That's what you need. So I listen. If you can get Dan Old Jones in a better division to the playoffs, you can't get in a rebuilding roster. You can't get Jordan Love if they had a receiver, a tight end, and an edge rusher. Green Bay's uniquely in a good space. They really are. Is that if they just got a singular first round pick, and they don't whiff on a lot of their first round picks. Now, we haven't seen Jordan Love play, and they usually go defense with those picks. But if they've ever wanted to rip the band aid off. It's pretty good. It's a pretty good time. I don't think this would be the classic quarterback leaves crushes and your left holding the bag. I don't think that's the space for green Bay. And the good news is Aaron's not bitter. Far certainly was be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iheartrad. Former NFL executive A Mike Tannenbaum, not a fan of Mike McCarthy, said yesterday on an ESPN program they should fire Mike McCarthy. So once again Dallas is blaming the wrong person. Mike McCarthy won twelve games this year in twelve games last year, and Dak's been hurt for some of it. Dallas's issue is they pay Dak Prescott like Patrick Mahomes and he's much closer to Kirk Cousins. They pay Zeke like a superstar, and he is now nothing more than a short yardage back. So Mike McCarthy either inherited these bad contracts or had no control over these bad contracts. They are trapped on those two deals. At least Dak can be productive. Zeke no longer is. So there are holes and bad contracts on the rosters and they're not much he can do about it. And the Niners and the Eagles in the NFC because they're not paying their quarterback anything, yet those guys are running it back. That Niner roster is not changing. At Eagles roster is not changing. You know, Kansas City had to get rid of Tyreek Hill and Ward the Corner because they paid Mahomes Hurts not making any money, Brock Purty not making any money. So that those are those are two you know, walls they're not getting through in the time being. So once again they're blaming the wrong guy. Mike McCarthy's to me is not an elite coach, but he's capable and he is an offensive coach. He won with Cooper Rush. So what's interesting about that is in this story I'm reading this morning, Sean Payton's name is up for a lot of jobs, and the Dallas job. People view the Dallas job because Sean has a house there as something he'd been interested in. Number one is I was talking to Matt Moseley, a reporter in Dallas. Jerry doesn't generally pay the coach big boy money. He doesn't love to do that. Also, Sean Payton doesn't need the Cowboys brand to be elevated. He's considered the best coach on the market by a mile. He's like horriball. He doesn't need his brand elevated. He has a sustained brand. The other thing is, you know, Stephen Jones and Jerry Jones want to control personnel. I'm not really sure that that interest Sean Payton at all. And also again, you walk in the Zeke contract, the Dak contract and there's holes on the roster that need filling, you may have to get a tight end because your productive tight end could be walking out as an un restricted free agent. So Diana Russini is a reporter for ESPN. She used to work in the DC market. She has very very good contacts with the commander's people. She breaks a lot of stories there. So she had a tweet yesterday which is very interesting. She said there's an unnamed team quote waiting in the wings and could get ducks in a row, potentially landing Sean Payton. Now, when she says that a lot of people are like, oh, it could be the Cowboys. Let me throw out a team Diana Russini has connections to Washington. Throw out Washington, Why no bad contracts? They can cut Carson Wentz tomorrow. They have several several great young players at key positions. Egg rusher, receiver, left tackle, running back, key positions. They've got them. They need to upgrade the offensive line a little. They need a quarterback, car Garoppolo on the market. Taylor Heineke and Sean Payton, I mean Ron Rivera and Taylor Heineke were competitive. What do you think he'd do with an offensive coach and all those young players getting better? So remember March. When Diana Rassini says Ducks in a row? Does that mean my interpretation is Ducks in a row is Washington by March getting their new owners. This is a city thirty years ago may have been the most rabid fan base in the league. Washington thirty forty years ago, the waiting list for tickets was you know, remember watching Pat Summer all and years ago talk about it was like thousand, tens of thousands of people waiting list. Now you can't fill the stadium, so waiting in the wings, Ducks in a row, I don't think that's Dallas. I think you got to keep your eye on Washington new owners. I've been told they're interested in Sean Payton. For the record, everybody's interested in Sean Payton. He's number one on everybody's list, and he's going through this process. But I think Carolina and Dallas are viewed. Keep your eye on Washington. No awful contracts need an offensive coach waiting in the wings. Ducks in a row. What does that mean to me? It's new ownership by March. That's what it feels like to me. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekday said noun Easter nine am Pacific. Let's do it today here on Wednesday for the Chiefs and the Bengals, here were tag number ten. I'm gonna say Joe Mixon last two postseasons over four hundred yards, blows every other running back, playoff, running back away. He's the highest graded running back on either team. I said this yesterday. I think during the break he reminds me a little bit of a poor man's Adrian Peterson. He can run over you, he can run past you. He's terrific. You get he's got one hundred and eighty four more rushing yards than any other player in the postseason last two years, so he's a home run threat. Joe Mixon ten. Number nine Joe Tuney. The guard are arguably the best guard in the NFL. The number one PF rated pass blocking guard. He's allowed one or fewer sacks in four of the last five years. Pro Bowler All Pro. This season he's about the best. He had the best season for any guard this year in the NFL. Joe Tuney. Number eight Trey hendrickson rush and for the Bengals. He's the highest graded edge rusher on either team Chiefs or Bengals according to PFF last two years twenty five and a half as he was just a good get for them, and again, to beat Mahomes, you got to rush Mahomes. He'll be incredibly valuable in this spot. Number seven Te Higgins back to back thousand yard seasons. He's a tough matchup. He's six four, two twenty. He's just big. He's probably not as gifted as Jamar Chase, but he's a matchup nightmare. Remember when Chase got hurt, t became their number one and was highly highly successful. Think about this too. Joe Burrows passer rating when targeting T. Higgins is one hundred and thirteen higher than Burrow targeting Jamar Chase, So he and T. I think a lot of it's that catching radius. He is such an easy completion with his size. Number six, Creed Humphrey probably the second or first best center in football, highest credit center. His first two years, him and Kelsey for the Eagles did not allow a sack in over eight hundred snaps. He was good. The second he got to the NFL, he was well. I think he was a late first round pick out of Oklahoma and he was great his first snap in the NFL. He's number six. Number five Jamar Chase more of a home run threat than T Higgins nine touchdowns in his last nine games, including the playoffs. He also led the NFL in catches of fifty plus yards. So he is the big home run threat in this game. And I think when you play at Kansas City, there's a big chance you're gonna fall behind. Can you get quick touchdowns? He's the guy in the field that can get him. Number four Chris Jones, defensive tackle, Kansas City. Highest credited player on either team. He is an interior lineman, but last four years, four time pro bowler, and if there's injuries on the Bengals O line interior, then Jones he'll have a good game regardless, could be dominating. He's at four. Number three, I would give Travis Kelsey three because he actually gets his hands on the ball, defensive tackles, owned eight time pro bowler. Only Jerry Rice in league history has more playoff catches than Travis Kelsey. Isn't that incredible? One hundred and twenty and again gets his hand last week. It was insane. I think he had fourteen catches. It was I mean it was tight. Ends never used to have fourteen targets in the playoffs. He had fourteen catches last week. Number two. You'll think it's crazy. It's Mahomes. He's not playing in one hundred percent. So if he's eighty to eighty five percent, yes, he's got the highest passer rating in league history. My guess is though he's not going to have the ability quite the ability to extend play forget scrambling for yards, play extension, probably not not at his best. Number one, so I give it to Burrow, who, by the way, is three three and oh against Mahomes three and oz road playoff record, Joe is healthy, highest completion percentage in league history. Situationally, he's as good as Mahomes, and he's healthier. So Mahomes and Burrow are obviously the best players in this game and the most important. I do not believe you can have a high ankle sprain and be one hundred percent. I just I think Mahomes will gut it out. But I don't. I think you'll see fairly early in this game Mahomes doesn't move quite as well. If he was one hundred percent. I'd go Mahomes one and Burrow a close second. But that's where I see it right now. Peter Schreger, Fox Sports Reporter The Season with Peter Schreger. It's a great podcast. Would you make it that list? First of all Shreigs, You'll like any of it. You just like anything. There's a couple of guys out there, Nick Bolton, Von Bell, Logan Wilson who would make an argument and say, hey, we we played defense too, you know in this league. Yeah. No, Bill has been a good guet for them. He really has been m all right Denver Coaching Search. I was told this week listen, they've interviewed Sean Payton twice, and they like Sean Payton. But there's things to consider here. Draft capital, Russell Wilson's really expensive old lines, a bit of a rebuild. What are you hearing on the Denver coaching search? Yeah, the Denver deal is interesting because they were first out of the gates and everyone thought that, okay, new ownership, they're gonna make some plays. They're gonna go and do this thing. There taking their sweet time. The name that emerged this week was David Shaw from Stanford. Let me explain Greg Penner, the new owner of the Denver Broncos. The Stanford MBA Kondolieza Rice, who is the former Secretary of State obviously is involved in this new Denver ownership group. She also is a Stanford. David Shaw would be a steady hand. I've also been told back up a second, this thing might take a bit, and there are no slam dunks. The Shaw thing makes a lot of sense when you connect the dots like a Russell Crow and button. Beautiful mind, but this is by no means David Shaw's job to lose at this point, they're taking their time. Shawn Peyton is still in the mix. The Mico Ryan's is still in the mix, dan Quinn is still in the mix, David Shaw is still in the mix. But I would be surprised if Denver was the first one out of the gate out of these five coaching vacancies which still have not been filled. Aaron Rodgers, I feel like there were years in this relationship where Green Bay was desperate. I don't think they are now what are you hearing? It's interesting because when you're coming off two MVP Awards in a row, and you've got all the leverage and you've got the contract up in the balance, you're at a different point than when your team misses the playoffs and there's seven other teams in the NFC, and there's taught that maybe Rogers could be a movable piece. Now look at the end of the day, he's gonna have a huge saying that, And I look at the other teams and the teams that keep popping up. Are you know you see the Vegas connection with Davante Adams and how they might have a void at quarterback, the Jets, how they have all that young talent, and even Rogers was on mac of and he was listing some of those names The truth the matter is the Green Bay Packers did miss the playoffs with Aaron Rodgers, and his salary is a huge suck on this team. Whether he's on the squad or not, I to this day would be very surprised if by week one we're talking about a different quarterback one for the Green Bay Packers. But I do think there's a lot more validity to it this year than there was a year ago. Mike McCarthy, you know Jerry. I was talking to Matt Moseley yesterday and he said Jerry can kind of disappear for about two to three weeks after a season to let everybody that you know, Dak can take a beating a little bit, McCarthy can take a beating. Jerry's not going to defend him. He wouldn't go on his radio show any chance he could be replaced. Jerry's come out every single step of the way and has given Mike McCarthy a vote of confidence. And you know, they've won twelve games the last two years. They've advanced from the wildcard round to the divisional round. The interesting thing is those two coordinators who are very highly respected around the league. You know, Dan Quinn is interviewing for head coaching jobs. He's in Arizona today and he's up for that gig. He's also up for several others. Then Kellen Moore interviewed for the Carolina job yesterday. So you have these two coordinators who are viewed as rising stars, and Mike McCarthy is sort of the CEO. The only way I could see Jerry at this point pulling the plug on McCarthy, as if there was some sort of decision at the top to say we gotta keep dan Quinn and the only way to keep dan Quinn is to make him the headman Collins. From everything I hear, Mike McCarthy is safe. They're not looking to make a trade for Sean Payton with the Saints at the moment, and it looks like it's going to be McCarthy and potentially another coordinator next year if dan quinn gets one of these jobs. But there's a good chance that I have the only five seats available that dan Quinn and Kellen Moore all right back, and so is Dac, and hey, let's try to get to our first NFC championship game in twenty eight years next season. So I thought it was interesting that from respected reporters. There is Mike Silver that brought Purdy's the guy next year, And I mean, I think you had heard this and reported that there were just concerns about accuracy, Trey Lance, scarcity of games he'd play. He was really a prospect and a you know, rough around the edges prospect. You just hadn't played much football. So the story comes out, you know, kind of brought Purdy's the guy. Yesterday, Jamac brought up something that was interesting. He said, what if you come back with Purdy and garoppolo it when you're paying nothing, when you're getting kind of an injury discount. What do you make of the Purty situation? Is it surprising? What's what's being said behind the walls? Well, it's fascinating because right now everyone in San Francisco and Silver's got his sources and they're great. Everyone talking to me is like, we're not there yet, We're not even going there yet. Why would you dare go that way. Let's just focus on one week at a time, And it's a nice thing to live in the present and live in that pocket because everything's going great. Purty seven and oh as a starter, Purdy can't miss pretty even on that play at the end of the first half where he threw out a bounds like one second room and it was almost like the gods were working with him to make sure that that wasn't a rookie mistake. But this is gonna be a really interesting decision in the offseason. Now Jimmy's a pure free agent. You know that's gonna be one deal. Trey Lance is going into year number three as a quarterback. He's on his rookie deal, and Purdie's gonna be year two at a salary that is that is the smallest salary of any quarterback in the NFL who's going to be a QB one. So they have the luxury they can keep Lance and Purdie and if they want, they can even bring in a veteran third string if they wanted to have that veteran guy that's there. I would imagine it's going to be a true, true battle and training campaign. I say that in quotes. But if Purdie keeps on winning, man this, hey, look, I'll say this. The Patriots, they were paying Drew Bledsoe the most money in the NFL in the early two thousands, Brady won them a Super Bowl bloodso was on the bench. Sometimes it's just, hey, the salaries you have to throw out the door. And in this case, Trey Lance, he's still on his rookie deal. It's not like he's making a one hundred million dollars right. All right, let's talk Bengals chiefs to you, what's the secret sauce to Cincinnati's success. I mean, obviously Burrows a special player, but what's the secret sauce. The secret sauce is that defensive coordinator lou and Rumo. I feel like I've become a flag bearer for certain assistant coaches during these postseason runs. There are five vacancies for head coaching jobs, and they are over twenty five different men who've interviewed for them. Lou Anna Rumo, who has been the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati the past two years, has gotten zero zero head coaching interviews this entire season. And it's one of those deals where they all just lean into it. They're like, yeah, he's disrespected, just like the rest of us. You go around this team, whether it's Trey Hendrickson not getting a deal from the Saints, that's equal to what the Bengals offered or Eli Apple discarded by multiple teams, von Bell discarded by a team. These are a bunch of guys who feel on defense that they have been disrespected and dismissed, and their defensive coordinator is one of these masterminds. It's three d against Mahomes, he's one and all against Josh Allen. And when you come out a halftime, you don't score on the Cincinnati Bank goals. It's just not what happened. Those didn't do it. The Chiefs haven't done it. And I think they're the best in the league and adjustments defensively, So let Burrow, Chase and Higgins get all the headlines. Let them do all that stuff. They have a salty, they have a tough and they've got an East Coast at defensive cornator. Lou Colin. I know you're a West Coast guy, Seattle, whole deal. This guy's from Staten Island, New York. A different breed of dude. I like Staten Island, tough people from Staten Island, mass around on Staten Island. You know that j Mack. Finally, I said, Mahomes at eighty percent is the second best player this weekend, because I think one of his many great qualities play extension is he's really in a unique all time class. I'm just extending. It's not even scrambling, it's just extending a play and eye is down field. He really doesn't run that much. Where are we at his injury? What's the latest? Okay, so Andy Reid, as we're on this, Andy Reid had a press conference, say, Mahomes is gonna practice. So I'm not a Vegas guy by trade, but let me tell you something. That line started off with the Chiefs being favored. Then when the ankle injury became more evident, the Bengals were a three point favorite. With the mere news that Mahomes is able to practice, I would imagine the Chiefs would be favored again by tomorrow morning. That's how much the ankle plays into things. Now. Truth the matter is, Mahomes in eighty percent is better than ninety nine percent of the quarterbacks. But Burrow at one hundred percent is pretty scary too. Let's see how he practices, Let's see how he moves around in the facility. In recent years, the white Freeney's ankle, gronks ankle, These have been really important storylines going into big games. I don't think there's a bigger storyline on Sunday than Patrick Mahomes's ankle and what version we get Chad. Henny will be ready, he always is. But if you can have Mahomes out there and him better than seventy percent, well then watch out here we go. Yeah, Peter Schreger. By the way, a new weekly podcast, The Season with Peter Schreger. He's got a new microphone there he's cranking. Can we get you on, Colin? Is that allowed? Can I have you as my guest? Yeah? I'd love to be a guest. Absolutely. That whole podcast industry something these days. Good Senior, Buddy, Peter Schreiker, you're the all right New York Times best seller out of the blue Book on the Giants. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino, Enrich, Cavino and Mitch. Thanks, Buddy, that's right, Cavino Rich Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino and Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rockin' dude. The show features our unique take on sports, injected with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino Enrich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich give here. Hell Yeah. Dante Whitner was on our show earlier this week, former Niner, and he was talking. There was a quote here he thinks brock pretty could be the second coming to Tom Brady. I strongly disagree, and here's why. So Brady six four and a half to twenty five drafted by a Major League baseball team, always a very strong arm, big prototype body, and when he was coming out of high school going to college in the mid nineties, ninety six ish, I think it's about the time USC and Michigan were both on him. Brock Purty is six one two fifteen to two twenty, smaller than you'd like in a very average arm. So I think they're totally different prospects. And remember Brady falls in the draft, but the league was not twenty five years ago, not nearly as quarterback centric. The league is now completely driven by quarterbacks. Belichick can't get in the playoffs without a great quarterback. There are no hidden secrets. Everybody's dying to find a quarterback. You can argue they're overdrafted now overdrafted, and so they're totally different prospects. Brock Purty is twitch, he's competitive, and he's got to be somewhat smart because that offense is complex, and he's a rookie and he's playing real well. But let me put brock Purty. Let's let's be honest here. His left tackle, Trent Williams, Hall of Famer, George Kittle, Hall of Famer, Shanahan, probably a Hall of Famer, running back McCaffrey gonna get a lot of votes. And he had no touchdown passes against Dallas in an eighty seven passer rating. He's just not wrecking the Mercedes. Okay, don't conflate that. He is blowing away expectations, and that's really powerful in any industry, but don't conflate that with these He's an elite talent. He's a six one two and eighteen pound guy with an average arm. That's what he is. He's twitchier than Garoppolo, but he doesn't have the power arm of Trey Lance that the top general managers, all of them in the league passed on him six times, and all but one passed on him a seventh time. And again, I'll go back to the quarterback position now is overdrafted. We're drafting guys too often and too early. There's like Zach Wilson number two pick in the draft. Trey Lant had barely played college football. We are overdrafting the position. I mean, Baker Mayfield number one, really small enough out athletic average arm number one. So you know, I said this the other day, I do top ten most talented players in the games this weekend. So we did the Niners and the Eagles yesterday, and it's a who's who. It's a loaded team. So Brock Purdy was nowhere near the top ten. And when we did it and we had all the guys up here, we had Nick Bosa one. He's gonna be the defensive player of the year. Trent William's best left tackling football Jason Kelsey, Jalen Hurts, A. J. Brown. For our radio audience that can't see the graphic. Lane Johnson's probably the best right tackling football. Fred Warner's the best linebacker. Seven, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittled, Darius Slay. If I did the next six, I would do Debot probably eleven, Hassan Reddick, twelve, Hafunga the safety, thirteen, Ward the corner, fourteen, DeVante Smith the receiver, fifteen. I think James Bradbury the corner from the Giants, probably sixteen. And then then I think Perti's in a group of about seven players, So let's not go crazy here. He is blowing away expectations, and that's very powerful. But Brady six four and a half two twenty. Michigan and USC in the mid nineties were after him. Baseball draft catcher, big arm, Brady's always head. I said this for years, I thought Brady. Now Josh Allen surpassed this. I thought Brady had the best cold weather arm because of his hip rotation, his ball just cut through bad weather. For years, I thought he had as good a cold weather arm as the league had. Now, Josh Allen's arm now cuts through everything sold as Mahome, so does Herbert. Kids are bigger and stronger. But I think Curdie's a great story he's not a great quarterback. I do think he's twitchier than Garoppolo, more accurate than Trey Lance. So if you if you, I don't think he's an a at anything, but I think you know his accuracy. I was thinking about this the other day. It's never been talked about, but like for instance, you would think instinctively the Niners would be better with Josh Allen at quarterback. But what's interesting if you look at the quarterbacks that there was always a story that Shanahan like Kirk Cousins better than RG three because RG three would run out of plays. If you look at the quarterback, it's very strange, counterintuitive to what the league is most even Andy Reid, just give me talent and I'll figure it out. Shanahan's different. He's very much tied to his offense, his blocking schemes, and his script is that he wanted Kirk Cousins. That was reported, he wanted Mac Jones of all the quarterbacks most accurate. He had success with Matt Shob Matt Ryan. So the Niners are whereas Nick Serriani loves compares him to Jordan, the athleticism of Jalen hurts the Bills love it, Andy Reid does. Shanahan's a unique There's an argument that he would rather just have somebody who follows his script, that can move a little a little. That's why he probably accepted Trey Lance. He likes somebody that can move the pot a little, but he doesn't want a playmaker at quarterback. It doesn't work for his offense. He's not looking for that. So it's just funny when you look at Shanahan's quarterbacks that he's worked with. There were stories very early that he and his dad were more into cousins than RG three after the first year, because they have this legendary offense. Pretty I mean, you watch some of this video. He delivers strikes, predesign plays to high end talent. I think Shanahan likes that. Didn't want his guy running around, doesn't want his guy complete and fifty nine percent like Josh Allen and can't can't live up to his playbook. Now you say to yourself, would he take Josh Allen, you know, Overbrock Purty Well Eddie GM would of course, you'd figure it out. But it is interesting if you look at Shanahan's history, it's a lot of Brock Purties, it's a lot of Kirk Cousins. Fourth rounder Mac Jones was not considered as talented as justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance, or Zach Wilson, and that was the one reportedly Shanahan wanted the least talented, lowest ceiling, most accurate. So there is an argument that pretty is a cheap, cheaper version of what he kind of wants. He probably wishes he was six to three. He probably wishes he had more of a power arm. But Shanahan's offense, it's history. This is what it looks like.