Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Oh here we go, Oh ho my. On a Tuesday, A busy Tuesday, A phenomenal Tuesday, live in LA. It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening. These days are getting crazy. They're sneaking up on us. If you thought Jason McIntyre was a Jets fan before today, wait until Aaron Rodgers signs. You know, fun and interesting that would be for our show. I don't worried about it. For this shit, It's gonna become the Aaron Rodgers Jets Happy Hour. We're gonna throw the Power Hour into the Happy Hour. And obviously you have the big Friday announcement to me. Yes, yeah, all right, we'll get to that. But oh all right, so let's start with this Mike Silver, who's a friend of mine. I have my little company, the Volume. He's my NFL guy. He doesn't make stuff up. He is now reporting they're exhausted. Green Bay wants to move off Aaron Rodgers. They believe he quote checked out after he signed the contract last March. He just checked out. He did not have a good season. He has worst season in a long time. So Mike Silver said they want him out. Trey Wingo haven't heard that name in a while, reports Aaron and the Jets had conversations yesterday. Nothing is imminent, but Rogers is open to the idea of the Jets, and Tyler Dunn had him on the show before. Excellent Jets Reporter. Excellent Packers reporter said, remember the pas must be given quarterback permission to speak with the Jets, otherwise it'll be tampering. So things are happening. Green Bay is now according to Tyler Dunn, Trey Wingo, and Mike Silver, No, all three trust all three on this stuff. It's percolating. It's happening. So let's just start with this. Here's two things I know if it happens, and two things I don't know. Here's the things I know. The Jets would obviously be better with Aaron Rodgers. They were a mess offensively last year. Okay, I know that. The second thing I know is green Bay and Aaron Rodgers have become the couple that's staying together for the kids. Couples stay together for the kids all the time. They sleep in separate rooms. They're no longer intimate. They flirt with other people. That's where Aaron and green Bay are apt. They'll play nice at the podium, a press release, at dinner, they'll smile, there'll be cordial, But privately, green Bay is over it. We've talked about this. There's a diva, there's an arrogance, there's you know, semi committed there over in privately and Aaron Rodgers privately. Oh wait, nothing's private with Aaron. He wants attention, so he tells us everything from his vaccines to his doctors to what he's thinking his feet. So I know that the Jets are going to be better and this thing is now living together for the kids. Here's the two things I don't know. Can Jordan love play? I watched him. He didn't look spectacular. He looked capable. I mean again, it was it was kind of a brock purty thing. He can make the basic plays. You know, He's not gonna pull something out of his hat like a burrow of Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert him Holmes. Can he play? I don't know. We joke it's like the Lockness Monster. You get a piece of video about, you know, once every four years. I don't know. And the second thing is, I'm still not sure the Jets, even with Aaron Rodgers, would be the best team in their own division. Buffalo's roster is stacked, and Josh Allen this morning is better than Aaron Rodgers. And I watched Mike McDaniel and two average thirty two points a game, and Belichick with Mac Jones got to the playoffs last time they had a legitimate offensive coordinator. I don't know how good they'd be the Jets old line. Yeah, the Jets coach is a defensive coach. He's eleven and twenty three. They have some nice weapons, but they're all kids. Aaron's not into the kids. He doesn't like babysitting. And Aaron's drive an ambition. It's not the same Mike Silver saying the Packers believe he checked out in March when he got the bag. So you look at Herbert AFC, Trevor Lawrence AFC, Alan AFC, Lamar AFC, Burrow AFC, all the great young quarterbacks outside of Jalen Hirtcher all in the AFC. They're all assent, they're all hungry, they're all totally committed, and Aaron is sort of semi committed older, had injuries and got the bag. He doesn't appear to have the hunger. He had a really bad year. And that's with a good old line and a star back and an emerging receiver and good tight ends and an offensive coach in a wonkey division. So you know, I don't know if Jordan Love can play, and I think the Jets will be better, but I don't know how much better. But this is now officially living together for the kids. Albert Breer on yesterday's show, The consensus is the things run its course the last two years. If you look at it, it was doing everything to accommodate Aaron Rodgers return and trying to facilitate extra years of development for Jordan Love. Who I think, if they were being honest with you a year ago, we're a little worried about where Jordan Love was. Now they want a decision from him, and now they want the decision now, and they want to be able to plan ford on who's going to be their quarterback. And that doesn't mean they're kicking Aaron Rodgers out, but they're less all in on the idea of Aaron Rodgers being in their quarterback in twenty twenty three than they weren't twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two. A couple of reasons for that. Number one, I think there's fatigue over the way that this has gone in the last couple of years. And then number two, they're pretty excited about where Jordan Love came, how far Jordan Love came over the last year. All Right, So now now let's pivot to the worst kept secret in the National Football League. Tom Brady's retired but is looking at the Niners. So two times last week I talked about this story that I had heard from Mike Silver and others. I had somebody two weeks ago not in this building say I'm not sure he's going to be a Fox broadcaster. In a year, he may still be playing. So Richising yesterday reported Brady may not stay retired. So it's a very poorly kept secret. By the way, the team that I thought Aaron could go to, the Dolphins, are another team reportedly in the Brady sites. So here's where we're at, and here's why I believe the rumors. Then there's no reason for Rich Eysing to make any thing up. So Rich as well connected. I'm sure he's got some sourcing on this. Trust him. Trust that report. San Francisco, Brock purties having surgery Friday for the torn ucl and they tried to do the surgery earlier but he had swelling. It's not going well, and the expectation is he could be out minimum eight months translation middle of the season. So I think they want to go with brock Purty. But you can't go into a season with no idea if a guy's not going to be around till Thanksgiving. Secondly, as I reported six months ago, and nobody in San Francisco wanted to hear it, there's real concerns in the organization. If Trey Lance is the guy, he's a good athlete, he's a good kid. But this offense by Kyle Shanahan is built for distribution. That's why he preferred Mac Jones though he's not a great athlete. That's why he wanted Kirk Cousins, It's why he liked Matt Ryan. This is a quarterback friendly offense, not quarterback centric. They don't need your running out of plays. They don't need Aaron Rodgers, they don't need Josh Allen. What they need is a distributor or Chris Paul, not a Steph Curry. And there are real concerns inside the building if Trey Lance can do that. He does everything well except throw the ball accurately. This offense wants one thing, throw the ball accurately. Also today, another reason why buy into these Brady stories. If Aaron goes to the Jets, and if the Eagles lose two or three players to retirement or free agency, and I think it's going to be more than that. The Niners with Tom Brady would absolutely be the overwhelming favorite in the NFC, not even a debate Philly's second. But they could lose their center, they could lose two or three free agents defensively. So somebody I trust outside of this building at Fox told me a couple of weeks ago. They said, I don't think Brady's gonna be a broadcaster anytime soon. I think he wants to play. And so Brady set records last year, a couple of different records. I think it was attempts and completions at forty five years old. So a lot of people limped to the end. Elway didn't, Roger Staubuck didn't, Derek Jeter didn't. Kobe scored sixty one in his last game as a Laker. Brady can still sling it. He's not as good as he was. But remember the San Francisco offense is built. Are you smart? Can you distribute the ball accurately? Can we pay you a good salary but not break the bank? We want to keep these weapons. I think you gotta buy into this. Remember when I asked Tom Brady, are you retired? I showed this clip last week kind of a nebulous, fuzzy, not concrete answer. He didn't land He didn't stick the landing, and people that day after the interview said, oh, I love the Brady interview, but he kind of give you a fuzzy answer on the retiring thing. I went back and watched it and thought, yeah, it was kind of fuzzy. So we got multiple people that I Mike Silver, Rich Eyes and Trey Wingo, Tyler Dunne. You know these people are sourced. Aaron Jets sounds like it's gonna happen. Brady Niners still on the table. I love this job. It's crazy, It's absolutely crazy. I mean, and what's fun. This isn't the old NFL. It used to be Baseball had the Hot Stove League. And I can remember working at ESPN when I first started there. I mean, you'd spend a month talking about stuff, and then the NBA they started making a bunch of moves and kind of over took the baseball as the offseason sport of choice. Now the NFL's blown past both of them because it's star quarterbacks that are constantly moving. Brady's moving, Stafford's moving, Lamar wants to move, Aaron wants to move. So when you take the America's most popular sport, this would be like an England. If you know, MESSI was leaving every two or three years, you got the biggest start. By the way that happens. So it it's crazy, it's it's wonderful. It's crazy, and I buy into the stories. I don't have any sourcing. I got good stuff on Brady. I don't have Aaron connections, so I I lean into others. But the others this morning, and Trey Wingle has been doing this for a long time. Mike Silver has been doing this a long time and covers the Niners for the San Francisco Chronicle. Jason McIntyre is beside himself. This should be one of the happiest days in your life, Aaron Rodgers to the Jets. Well, you know days in my life. I got married at as a sports fan. He makes you better immediately. That's that's not even up for dispute. But Colin, you know this, when we talk about who's reporting, what about Oh this guy may go here, doesn't it never work out? There is so much smoke here that it's almost like I won or if there's something is could Rogers go somewhere else other than the Jets. It feels too obvious. Just like with gambling. If ninety percent of the people are betting one side, what do you do, Colin? You take the other side. The public's never right. Listen. It feels a little suss. Yeah, because Stafford did catch us off guard, braided a Tampa caught usoft guard. Rustle to Denver. In fairness, you were right. All of those caught usoft guard. This is a little telegraphed. It feels telegraphed, and I you know, I'm loath to bring in politics and stuff. Derrett Carter, the Saints caught usoft guard. Indeed, I mean we thought that was like the fourth choice. Panthers were in the mix. Jets were supposed to be the way about the politics, Well, Rogers has gone a certain way in the last couple of years, going on Joe Rogan's podcast, and that's fine. He's now going to go in one of the most liberal cities in America. Does that feel like a cultural fit to you? Colin just doesn't past the smell test to me. I don't know. I think there's a lot of modern written conservatives in New York, La Chicago. I think the media is not. New York's full of guys for the guys that want their pizza, their beer, and their team and they're gonna vote for the Santis. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers is going to do battle with those media guys every single day. Something smells fishy. It's almost all right. Listen, you and I have been on the fifty one percent Aaron's going to Green Bay. But again new information when I have respected people who I know were sourced. All right, sounds like I'm wrong on this. My guest has always been green Bail figured out. But you are officially in that we're living together for the kids stage. This stuff is getting leaked. It's getting leaked by the packers. I'll say this, they wanted out. If the Jets can get away with not giving up a first round pick, I could be on board with it. Give away a second. Packers have no leverage here? Do they? Do they have any? Oh, you take them back and figure out your Jordan Loves You're going to get a first round pick for Aaron Rodgers. By the way, all they need then, seriously, is a left packle is? It Isn't Dwayne Brown gonna play one more year? He's like thirty seven, thirty year he's still played. Wentworth played until he was forty and was very good. Dwayne Brown can play. He's good enough to be a playoff team with Duwayne Brown at left tackle. He's good enough. He's fine. It's been a great pro. He'll get a Hall of Fame votes. He's been an excellent he won't he may not get in, but he'd be great. Pro So Rogers plus Jets equals eleven or twelve wins? Which one I don't know. I don't know that AFC's loaded. Don't forget what we saw from two win Mike McDaniel until Thanksgiving Right to Wall led the NFL and Pro Bowl votes. He was lighting the league up, So that's not going away. I don't know. I know what's Miami? Who's the Miami starting quarterback? Week one next year? Colin too? Are you sure how much confidence on that? Lamar Jackson boy? That ruined your day, wouldn't it? Lamar to the salt, Lamar that the Dolphins would ruin your way? The Jets would not have the worst quarterback of the division like they've had for since Mark since he has left. Basically, 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. Okay, so this story happened. Geno Smith, not usually a topic on this show and a surprisingly effective quarterback last year, signed one hundred and five million dollars three year contract with Seattle, so expect a lot of the money to be up front, so it's essentially a two year contract Seattle could wiggle out of in the third year. That's my guests. He gets fifty sixty million up front first year two, so they're two years. In third year they could be in or they could move off him. That's my guest. And that would lead me to believe Seattle, with two first round picks, including the fifth, would take a quarterback. So right now, here's the top of the draft board, top five picks as of March seventh today. This would be my guest. I don't really do mock drafts. I play with them all day, but they're impossible. I think the Bags need an edge. They would take Will Anderson. This is if they can't move down. Houston takes Bryce Young That's who I would take. Jalen Carter is the third best player. The guy's a game wrecker. He's the best defensive line prospect in some time. I think Arizona doesn't care about the bad pr If he's available, they'd take him. I think Indianapolis get CJ. Stroud played in the Midwest. Looks like to me the little Justin Herbert very capable. Then Seattle, and this is where it gets really interesting to me. I'd make a prediction here, Will Levis or Anthony Richardson again, they've signed Gino. It'll be frontloaded. It's a two year deal. They can move off on, is what I would guess. So they want to get somebody in and let him sit. So here's what I know about Pete Carroll. He hates interceptions. He is very old school. Hates him. Will Levis can get sloppy, big arm, big brain, Mom went to Yale, grandfather Ivy League makes it's a little casual. Pete hates that. That's why I never got Drew Locke to the Seahawks. Drew Locke's got a big arm. He's really way too casual with a football. Will Levis, who I think is really talented, could be turn off. Anthony Richardson, though, is so Pete Carroll you can taste it. Why Pete Carroll when he was at USC and when he's with the Seahawks, he loves projects and big unique bodies. DK Metcalf was plummeting and Pete Carroll's like nah, and nobody built like that in the NFL wide receiver. I'll fix him. He did. Cam Chancellor was this six three, two hundred and thirty pounds safety, really big. Pete's like, I'll take him. Unique size. Percy Harvin years ago, who had migrains, couldn't stay on the field. Pete's like, nobody runs like him. Fastest guy in the league. He was Tyreek Kill before Tyreek Hill. Will take him. He rarely played, but he was unique. Richard Sherman, a lanky, unusually long corner out of Stanford. Pete's like, he's a project. I'll take him. Pete loves if you give unique size, you have unique speed, and you need a teacher. Pete's a great teacher. I know several people who have been in that locker room. He is one of the NFL's best teachers. And Pete likes Tomoljia. You know, they've said for years and years, Pete's better with young players than he is with veterans because he's got the same kind of stories over and over. You know, he's you know, he's an older coach, right, He's got a lot of old stories, and after about five or six years, some of the old guys kind of wear out. But Pete is amazing. That's why he was such a great college coach. He's amazing with guys first four or five years in the league or projects like Geno Smith, who, by the way, six three and a half two twenty two, twenty five, kind of a big guy. Pete bought into him. Drew Locke has more arm talent. Drew Locke's smaller, he doesn't play with a great deal of urgency. Geno Smith is coachable, bigger, So Pete's really into that. He likes unique size, unique speed, hill mold him. Anthony Richards into me feels so much like a Pete Carroll pick, especially with a frontloaded Gino Smith contract where you can learn for two years and they can just put you on some red zone packages play occasionally be an absolute backup, but used used to fortify Seattle's offense in third and short red zone situations. Gino can move, but he's not a great runner. So Pete Carroll talking about that number five pick, he's absolutely looking at quarterback in the position we're in. We we are totally connected to the quarterbacks that are coming out. This is a really huge opportunity for us. It's a rare opportunity. You know, we've been drafting in the low twenties for such a long time. You just don't get the chance of these guests. So we're deeply involved with all that. Also, Seattle hits six home runs. Their first six picks last year all hit, meaning they got two first round picks, they got two second round picks, they have two fourth round picks. They can take some gambles here. Seattle doesn't have to hit on every draft pick. They hit on their first six last year. They got two tackles, a star running back, two corners, they got an edge rusher. Everything worked for them, so they got two firsts. Roll the dice with an unbelievable maybe the best athlete in the draft. Roll the dice on them. Boy, that feels like what Seattle is going to do. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine Empacific. Trey Wingo reporting Aaron and the Jets had conversations. Aaron is willing to go to New York. He's willing to listen to New York. Tyler Dunn, who's covered the Packers for years, said, remember, the Packers must have given the quarterback permission to speak to the Jets, otherwise it's tampering. So things are happening. Here's what's fascinating. I'm not sure what universe we live in or what the universe is telling us. Even though one is from the South and one is from California, look at the similarities as of this morning. If Aaron goes to the Jets, between Aaron and Brett Farve, so they both fell in the draft. Far there were rumors he was a party guy. Aaron people thought he was kind of mechanical. So let's start with that. Both fell in the draft. Okay. Secondly, neither was great the first year they were allowed to be a starter. They were good, they were talented. They weren't great. They became unbelievable, and for about ten to eleven years in their prime were some of the two of the greatest quarterbacks ever, not just Packer quarterbacks. Then you know, year twelve thirteen in Green Bay they start talking about retirement a lot, annoying the front office. Both were known as having great regular season success multiple MVPs, often doing it without multiple great receivers, but not a ton of playoff success, rather disappointing for both getting one Super Bowl win each. Farv leaves after year fifteen. Aaron this morning could leave after year sixteen as a starter, and both go to the desperate Jets and it doesn't end there. Both the Jets with Farv and the Jets potentially with Aaron had a defensive coach Manginie and Robert Sala coming off an awful end of the season. What universe are we in? This only means one thing that Aaron Rodgers will be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in twenty twenty four. That is all this can mean. But I go back to something I call the Green Bay quarterback syndrome. Because there's no owner, you essentially run the franchise. You have a stable front office Farvan Aaron Rodgers, but you can kind of push him around because you become so iconic. It's a friendly, small town media. There's no owner. Everybody feels like they're a shareholder, and you become almost a messiah. And you don't when you're given too much power, whether it's a college basketball coach or a star quarterback, you get very comfortable and want to do things your way. And Aaron now is demanding I want Randall Cobb, and Farv demanded I'm not changing to a new offensive coordinator or a new offense. So it's a little bit of the Green Bay quarterback system. You don't always get your way. Tom Brady was the goat. He didn't know us get his way with Belichick, he didn't they drafted Garoppolo. He didn't know us get his way. Peyton Manning an indie, he didn't go as get his way in Denver. Elway made him take a pay cut. Peyton Manning didn't know us get his way. I mean, Mahomes signed a team friendly contract and they let Tyreek Hill go. Mahomes doesn't always get his way. Far of an Aaron always get their way. So you know, you get very content. You have a lot of power, you have a lot of leverage. Both are getting grumpy as they get older. And so the stories this morning is that Aaron was given permission to talk to the Jets and would be willing to go to the New York Jets. It'd make them better. How much better, I'm not sure. Defensive coach losing record, they don't have a very good offensive line. The skilled players for the Jets are kids. Aaron's not a babysitter. He's not a babysitter. That is not his personality. And I can respect that. Aaron's like, you know, it's like the Warriors with Steph Curry. Steph Curry's got no injuries playing with Comingo Wiseman or Moses Moody unless they're ready to win a championship. I get it. Lebron James doesn't like playing with young guys. It's like, I'm not playing with rookies. He could have played with Andrew Wiggins as a rookie. He said, give me Kevin Love. He goes, give me j R. Smith, give me Kyrie Irving. I'm not gonna play with rookies. Brady didn't love playing with rookies. Lebron doesn't. I can't just beat up on Aaron Rodgers because he doesn't want to play with kids. I got to be fair about this. Aaron doesn't like to play with kids. He doesn't want to be a babysitter. You know what else he doesn't like to do is talk to the kids. Colin, he spent more time on podcasts last year, okay, talking to former punters than he did talking to his own young wide receivers. They said as much, Romeo Dobbs, we've never hung out outside the facility. Christian Watson refused to work with him. You want that, jets Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, with mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show could hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will? We chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Listen to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. And we've talked about how the best five young quarterbacks in the NFL, the top five or six outside of Jalen Hurts, he may be one of the six, they're all in the AFC. So if you're Tom Brady, are you sitting there going If Aaron goes to the AFC, I've got to play for San Francisco. You've got to come back. So we got talking this morning, who are of the sixteen teams in the NFC, who are the top ten quarterbacks? So Colin we break a lot of new ground on the show. Yeah, almost weekly. I feel like this is the saddest list of any list we've had since I joined the show and said, this is really embarrassing thing when you do the best quarterbacks in the AFC, it's the best quarterbacks in the league. Mahomes, Burrow, Alan, Herbert Lamar, Trevor Lawrence, like, it's this just shows of the state if Aaron goes to the Jets. This is why Brady has to go to the nine. Let's remind people there's sixteen teams all right in the NFC. All right, here we go. Matt Stafford, number one high school quarterback, number one college quarterback at Georgia, number one draft pick the year they won the Super Boy through for six thousand yards in fifty touch downs. He's an illeite talent. He's getting older, He's been banged up, but nobody doubts the no look. Throws big time, a plus plus arm. When the Rams gave him predection, he was a machine out dual Joe Burrow in the Super Bowl. He's number one, number two. I'd like to see him without a stacked team, but Jalen Hurts shows me a lot the Super Bowl performance was otherworldly. Sixteen and two. I mean, that's that Super Bowl for any doubter out there was a wow, jaw dropping performance, leadership, maturity, I get everything I want. A grown up, an adult, focused, ascending, good dude. I'd like it if he was two inches taller, a bigger arm. I get everything else. Jalen Hurts two. Laugh all you want. Jared Goff's been to a super Bowl, by the way, first seven years in the NFL, it's a Pro Bowl or three times. Oh, by the way, led the Lions of their first winning season since twenty seventeen. He's pretty good. Ninety plus passer Ray in five of the last six years. He's not mobile, He's Matt Ryan with better arm talent. Matt Ryan won an MVP. Jared Goff three. Kyler Murray a bit of a head case. Have questions about his size and durability, but he's a first player in league history that had seventy touchdown passes and twenty rushing touchdowns in his first three years in the league. Not even Josh Allen did that. Lamar didn't do that. Mahomes didn't do that. He is a unique, unique global football quarterback. Town. He's got to get his mentals ride or whatever's upstairs and the video game stuff. But he can play daw It gets real close. Dak Prescott. You know, his completion percentage is top ten all time at sixty seven percent, so his passer rating is good. Now, first several years in the league, he had the best running back in the best offensive line. He's come back down to earth as the team is needed Dak to carry them more than Dak's being carried by the team. But I put him at five, maybe an inch above Derek Carr, who I would put at six. Derek's a four time Pro Bowler. Derek's a better fourth quarter of quarterback. Derek has never had close to the support of Dak Prescott. So Derek carrs had horrible defenses six different coaches instability his entire career, and he leads the NFL with thirty three game winning drive since he entered the league. He is one of the best come from behind fourth quarter quarterbacks in the NFL. With a mess, he's a life preserver for a rickety wobbly Raider franchise. Now he's a Saint seven Kirk Cousins. You know, he and I mean, I don't get any mobility. I don't get a big army shrinks in big games. Ayman, what do you want me to say? But he does give you four thousand yards passing almost every year, seven of eight years. He get four thousand yards passing. Now, unlike Derek Carr, he's when you need him in the fourth quarter. I can trust Derek. I never trust Kirk. And unlike Dak Prescott, Dak can move around a little bit with his feet. Kirk can. So I put him at seven, number eight, Geno Smith. Look at the numbers. He had decent protection. Last year. He completed sixty nine percent of his throws, almost seventy thirty touchdowns, eleven picks. He's grown up. I get sighs six three and a half, two twenty. He's a big kid, hard worker. I think he's limited. I don't think he's gonna make a ton of plays off script. I think a lot of his success last year was the run game. But I would put him at number eight. I can't do it nine, and I can't do it him. I can't do it. Don't even ask me to put Daniel Jones or brought thirty on it. So half the NFC has just unviable quarterbacks for the list, right, that's what you're saying, Well, who you want me to Who would you have me put at nine? There's no way, Brock. He gotta give me a break. I can't seven games. I will push back on Kirk Cousins. You just said you don't trust him in the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins led the NFL this season in game winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks with eight. He I know it was a miracle season and all that. I think you got to make the case Kirk Cousins could be as high as three on this Oh good hell, that's a one year outline. It was Jared Goff is continuing greatness. Kyler Murray had one good season. Jared Goff has gone on the road, one big playoff. They come on, dude, j McVay. Did you watch what he did with the Lions this year? They're offense, they were excellent. Ben Johnson was outstanding. And oh, by the way, they missed the playoffs. I forgot that's right, Well, I mean so so winning record in Detroit. He was good. Goff. I can't put him ahead of Kirk Cousins if I told you Colin, non primetime game one pm start tomorrow, timeout time out. If you told me non primetime game, yeah, so the super Bowl, would you could well or Thursday or Monday or Fox Game of the way. That was a joke. But Kirk Cousins or Jared Goff to start a big game tomorrow, You're taking Goff? This is no sense, of course, I'm taking Golf. I saw his last big game at lambo Is the outplayed Aaron Rodger. He did one more. Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like Nick Wright, who's been on vacation again Brazil. Did he mix inn Aca Poco Madrid? I mean, look at him, Honestly, I've never seen any look at the tan. How long were you off, by the way, I don't know long enough that evidently Kyler Murray had three great seasons that I missed. You got him at him in dak Prescott and I mean, what are you talking about? The guys smaller than your son and injured and nobody likes him? Yeah, what are you doing there? Then I can ride with you on golf. I understand a lot of what you did. I'd had jail and ahead of Stafford, but that's picking knits. But Kyler Murray should be of those eight quarterbacks, the last one listed. He just has to be. He has every red flag. Colin Best I can tell Larry Fitzgerald had the choice of play with him or quit the sport. And quit the sport. They don't think he's studies and he's hurt all the time. I don't know the Kyler thing. I disagree with. Otherwise, good list, all right, so I gotta start with this. And your pictures with your beautiful wife were amazing and I'm very happy for you. So I said this. Everybody was selling their warrior stock, and I said, in my lifetime, if you go back even to the tough guy, pistons a lot of intellectual basketball capital. Dumars became a GM Isaiah GM Lambiera coach, Mahorne coach. I think the intellectual capital in the building, Bob Meyer, Steve Kirs, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins. I buy this team. I think when Steph's been gone, it's allowed them deepen. Genzo's playing Jordan pool step out. I think their backcourt depth is insane. Sure, but why are they so awful on the road and grade at home? They're terrible on the road. Yeah, they're not very good team, Colin. While Bill william Beer was a tough guy, he didn't punch his teammates. He saved that for Larry Birden, Michael Jordan. So I think I think you started off the season poorly, and Colin, And this is what at some congrats to the Warriors for winning that title last year. I did not see it coming. I did not expect it, and I deep down still think of Chris Middleton stays healthy, they don't win that title. But that's neither here nor there. That banner will fly forever. But Colin, twenty games in, this team was ten and ten forty games in, they were twenty and twenty sixty games in, they were thirty and thirty and they currently have more road victories than the Spurs and the Rockets. And that is the list. Oh, Nick, but but STEP's been out. They are twenty and nineteen when Steph plays, and fourteen and twelve when he doesn't. No matter how you slice it, this is an average team that as great as Steph is, he can't. He can't save this team. So I know that you were buying up that warrior's stock that those other people were selling. I sold most of mine, but I held a few shares. But I'll sell it to you right now, my friend, because this team is drawing dead to win a title. They just they I think they It was such an emotional relief and such an emotional investment to winning it last year that this year when it starts off poorly and they deal with injuries and the young guys don't come around the way they'd hoped, it's just too much of an askue in my opinion. So it's interesting. I covered Arvidas Samonis in Portland for several years. Yokich reminds me a little of him. Him a big, durable body, tremendous passer. You can move him away from the basket, automatic near the basket, He's gonna win another MVP. It bothers you though, now the stats, the data. He's highly productive, uniquely gifted as a sort of center point center. Sabonus had the ability to literally run the offense through him behind the back passes. Why does it drive you nuts that he's gonna win another MVP. Well, I just I think there is, and I wonder if you agree with me on this column. I think there is a new arrogance of the media that is polluting a lot of our sports coverage. And the reason I say that here is the entirety it would seem of NBA MVP voters, or at least the vast majority, are convinced they have this award right, and all of history must have had it wrong, because all Nick, it's just a regular season award. What you've done in the postseason does not matter, and how many you have won does not matter. Then why does no one ever win three straight? Then why does everyone in the history of this award who has gotten a third, much less three straight, had been to at least one, most usually two. And for everyone but two guys had won a championship, been to a finals, or been to two finals, I should say, and for everyone but two guys won a championship. So what you're telling me is the voters in the past who decided, all right, Magic's won two in a row, we're not giving him a third in a row. Michael's won two in a row, We're not giving him a third in a row. Steph, Jannis Lebron. Those guys had it wrong and you have it right. Well, Nick, he's the one seed. Were amazing numbers. Well that can't matter though, because those same voters last year told me he should win as the sixth seed. The reason I care, Colin is because I think NBA MVP is one of the only awards we have left that has true historical relevance. You want to tell a story of the eras, go look at the damn MVPs. In the sixties, Wilton Russell won them all. Gets who the players were Wilton Russell. In the seventies, Kream won six. In the eighties Michael Bird and Magic one. Let me do the math quickly in my head. In the eighties Michael only one one, so they won nine of them and in the nineties it's Jordan with oh a kem they was an important player. Then we have Duncan, we have Shack, we have Lebron. It tells the story of the league right, And in sixty years folks will be like, oh man, how many titles Yoki twins? Like? Oh none did he get unlucky? Nope? Nobody actually even expected him to win the title. They were the one seed. People know, the same voters who are demanding if you don't vote Yokis, you don't understand the sport. Ask them who they got winning the West much less than title, and you know who. They'll say, teams who have players who are better than Yokis, but they're not actually better than Yokis, but they play defensive, then get a bucket better. But if you've seen Yokis vorp, he's a great player. And if he hadn't won the previous two, which he shouldn't have, I would be fining them winning this one. But now he's gonna win them all. And I'm just I'm just asking this question. If he wins again this year and then they lose in round two again last year was actually round one. Are well he can win next year though, right, because it's not about the playoffs. It's it's about he just let him win all the awards. Not that I'm passionate about it, just bothers me. Colin. We used to have standards in this country. Well, oh boy, well, you know I think your argument, your historical argument is generally we give it to the guy who we feel like is the greatest player, and we've gotten a little um. I agree with you on this. I tend to be I think the regular season in the postseason, though, are two different seasons that it's officiated differently, home course, but it does. But let me just ask this. That's true. But Yannis won two in a row, right, and flamed out in the playoffs, and you know what they said, you can't win the next year. Nash one two in a row and then had his best season and they didn't make the finals, and so they didn't let him win the next year. That's true. Why are we changing? What they are arguing is those voters got it wrong, right, But with the Yannis thing, it's the same voters. They just don't I don't understand it. Yeah. No, he still reminds me of R V. Tous Sabonis a little bit. Okay, finally, maybe not finally. Um I there's a lot of things. I have very flawed, vulnerable friends, and that's why I love them. They're all a little off. I do have one thing, though, that is a non starter. Can't be high maintenance. I'm busy, I'm married, I got kids, I got businesses. You can't be high maintenance. So I know if I ran the Packers, I'd be like, dude, I can't do it. I love you, I can't deal with the constant nobody loves me. So I get green Bay despite Aaron's talent, as I've said before, as the GM Baker Mayfield by the way, undraftable to me. I'll tell I'll take Kirk Cousins, less drama. What do you make? What would you do if you're Green Bay? I'd rather play love. I'd be done with it. The juice is no longer worth the squeeze, not for the money and for the drama. And there was a point in time where it was. But now now people, we are asking Aaron Rodgers in a season where he will turn forty to get better at the level of player he was last year. He's not worth the contract and the headache. And why would we expect him to reverse the aging curve because Tom Brady did. Brady and Lebron Colin are going to have a long tail of making teams make bad decisions, because teams are going to see their aging stars and say, well, Brady had a whole other chapter left and Lebron had five more years left. Those guys are the outlier, not the rule, and so when you add to it that he is and it is his right, and I understand it, but a you know, a seven month player instead of a ten month player the way the rest of the quarterbacks in this top quarterbacks in this league are. I'd move on now. I said they should have played Love the final month of the season. Yeah, and everybody killed me for it. But now I bet they wish they had because then at least they would know if they turn it over to Love. Are we screwed or not? Do we need to find a new quarterback? Now? They're gonna be flying blind? But they can't. He's not good enough anymore to allow to have total control over the team. At least that's the way I see it. Okay, Now you are going to do this for a long time. I've been doing it for a long time. I am. We tend to bury people at the end of their careers. And my takeaway is, if somebody's good in having fun and making good money, keep doing it. How is it gonna land for you? If Aaron goes to the Jets and Brady comes back and plays for the Niners, what do you make of that because it's gonna happen. Oh listen, I think that's you say it's gonna. I think it's I just hear it's gonna. I really think it's. It's fifty fifty people I trust. Mike Silver told me two weeks ago. He goes, it's just too obvious. Purdy's not going to be ready till Thanksgiving off the surgery. It's too good of a roster to just say we're gonna put Trey Lanton across our fingers. Too good of a roster. All right, Well, listen, I'm not writing off Trey Lance. However, before Brady retired, I assumed that was definitely where he was going. Miami or San Francisco. You need a ready made roster. San Francisco is as ready made as it gets. It makes all the sense in the world. And I Colin, I'll tell you this much. I actually I've come around on this. I'd be fine with it because my guy Patrick Mahomes is gonna win all to get all the records when all the Super Bowls have all these things. However, as it stands, there is one box he will never be able to check. Beat Tom Brady in the playoffs. But if Tom Brady comes back to San Francisco, oh, we know how that game would go. Now, all of a sudden, we get Mahomes Brady in a championship with Mahomes completely you know that would probably be for Mahomes's attempt to go twenty and oh forget back to back. I mean pretend you know. I don't know if you've looked up the down the Chiefs depth chart, but I don't find I don't see a lot of holes and I don't see a lot of losses on the upcoming schedule. So how great would that be? How great would that be? Tom Brady goes back to San Francisco that Mahomes has three career playoff losses, two of them are to that guy, and if he gets him to complete a second straight Super Bowl, maybe an undefeated season, Oh my goodness gracious. So yeah, I hope Brady comes back. I hope he comes back to the NFC and Mahomes will see him at the top of the mountain. All right, I'm on to see how that would land for you. Well, he's tanned. I'm fine with it. Yeah. How at Brazil was nice? I've never gone There was a nice well, let it was. It was the most like it's as far as landscape, the most beautiful places I've ever been. It was absolutely amazing. I appreciate that the listeners don't care about that, so we can move on. You also look quite listen, Colin. That means to sell America some real quick, Colin does Colin. We all get time off and on vacation. Yeah, and some of us go sunny places, and Colin then it's like, oh, look at these tanned people. Mean pretending he's just been grinding. He goes to his ski shif where, yeah, he doesn't get tanned because he's wearing goggles, but he's sure as he'll seem to be be having a good time and acts like we're living the good life. Give me a break. You're breaking up. I can't hear you, Nick right, First things first, after our show, good to seeing you. I do wear ski goggles. I like to ski