Best Of The Herd

Published Dec 28, 2022, 8:45 PM

Joy Taylor is filling in for Colin Cowherd and explains why Russell Wilson has to be fixable at this point after the investment Denver made, everyone needs to simmer down over the Dallas Cowboys win over the Eagles, and Tua Tagovailoa may want to think about retiring to protect his health after yet another head injury. Plus, Joy gives you her NFL Power Rankings!Guest: LeSean McCoy

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. What's Up, Welcome to the Herd. I'm Joey Taylor. I'm back, We're back. We're back. Myself and Alex Curry filling in for Colin Cowherd and Jason McIntire today and tomorrow to join us this week, and then of course you'll stick around for the rest of our shows. Nick Wright Nigang on First things First, and myself and Speak right after that, and it's a Speak at Invasions, a takeover on the Herd this week. We'll have Emmanuel Acho and Lashawan McCoy on the show later today, while also talks to Josina Anderson later on in this hour. But al how is your holiday? Holiday is great? And I love this week. I like to call it the in between or the upside down, the week between Christmas and New Year's where if you don't work in sports, you really don't know what time it is, what day of the week it is, and you're just hanging and drinking with family unless you're us and we're in herited and we're entertaining and talk about sports. Yes, and we don't mind being here. This is this is a great time of the year. Relax, enjoy yourself. I apologize if you were traveling at any points. I know there are a lot of people that are still stranded, so hopefully you're at least somewhere cozy while you're stranded. I didn't I didn't deal with too much of it. I went to the East Coast as well, and I only had a delay on the way back, which I felt like, you know, I gotta I gotta pay my due, like I'm gonna if I'm gonna travel during the holidays this weekend, I'm going to have something go wrong, especially when there was so much that went on with everyone traveling. So I had a three hour delay. My flight was late, so I got in very very early in the morning to Los Angeles three in the morning. Oh and then straight to work Monday. Yeah, I mean I got to sleep. I got to sleep. It's I'm not complaining. It's okay. He did better than Colin. Colin missed the show exactly, Yeah, exactly, you were doing great. It could have been a lot worse. So I'm very grateful when I got to see family. So I hope that you all had a great holiday, a safe holiday, and that you're enjoying the in between, the upside down, whatever this is. So we have a fun show today. There's there's actually a whole lot going on. We just saw that Tua is going to be out for the game this weekends, a game that they need to win. We'll definitely talk about that today. I have obviously some strong opinions about what's going on with Tuah, the Dolphins, and lots of other stuff. Luca had a historic performance last night. I want to get that dance down. We've got to name it and even tweet it's like, we gotta name I mean, that was that was just pure unbridled excitement. Yeah, we'll talk about that later in the show as well. But let's get started with what's going on in Denver. The Broncos think that Russell Wilson is fixable. I don't know that I agree that he is fixable. I'm hopeful that he's fixed. But if I had an eighty two million dollar cap hit or I gotta fix him, I'm gonna say that he's fixable. I'm going to speak that into existence. I'm gonna give that side of the story some life. Look, I don't know what happened with Russell Wilson this year. I don't have an explanation. I don't have the answers. I'm not surprised that Nathaniel Hackett was fired. I don't think any of us are. I don't know what other choice you have when you invest what you did in Russell Wilson, not just monetarily, but obviously also with the draft picks, you have no choice. You've got to make Russell Wilson work. And obviously, now that Nathaniel Hackett has been let go, along with several other coaches on the staff, the Broncos brass is trying to realign the messaging. And you put out the plan for next year and moving forward with Russell Wilson. Let's take a listen to what they have to say about where they are right now. He'll be the first one to tell you he didn't play up to his standard, didn't play up to our standard. He needs to be better. Don't think we made a coaching move based on Russ. You know, that wasn't what it's all about. That's not why we're getting a new coach to turn around Russ. It's about the entire organization. It's not whether Russ is fixable or not. We do believe he is. We do. Like I said, if it's between Russ being fixable or an eighty two million dollars capit, I'm gonna go with Russ is fixable. And when you invest in something like that, you're like, Eh, let's try and figure it out. Let's do everything we can to make this work. And they should, and they have no choice. I can't imagine a world where Russell Wilson is actually this bad. But I also don't believe that Nathaniel Hackett is completely to blame for what's happened there. I mean, if you look at the hire of Nathaniel Hackett, it is a completely reasonable hire. It wasn't some outrageous move like Jeff Saturday. It wasn't some edgy decision. He had thirteen years of NFL coaching experience. He was with Aaron Rodgers for back to back MVP years, amongst many other accomplishments on the offensive side of the ball. It was a completely reasonable hire. Maybe Russell Wilson is washed, I don't know, but you got to do everything that you can to fix the situation. If you're the Denver Broncos. The expectations were probably outrageous, but I think reasonable considering the fact that Tom Brady left a dynasty and immediately won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Next year, Matthew Stafford leaves the Lions immediately wins a Super Bowl with the La Rams. So not that I expected Russell Wilson to win a Super Bowl, but I didn't expect him to be amongst the worst quarterbacks in the NFL this year. Nobody did. So it's fair to have those expectations, and it's fair to be this disappointed, and it's fair to question if Russell Wilson is ever going to be that great again. But do you need him to be that great again or do you need him to just be what he was before he left Seattle, which was a player that missed a few games with injury and was still pretty much at the top of his game, so you got to hire a coach. This is what you should not do if you're the Denver Broncos in my opinion, in my humble opinion, it's not time for another first time head coach. Which you can't do is spend any time figuring out how to do this job. Because it wasn't just that Russell Wilson fell apart at the end of this situation with Nathaniel Hackett. The entire team was fighting. You had incidents on the sideline outside of Russell Wilson, Russell Wilson's getting streamed at my players, these coming off the field. Everything was falling apart. You can have a bad situation and everyone not believe in what you're doing, or you can have a bad situation and every want to understand that it's a bad situation, but still play hard and still have some sort of energy and culture that's non existent in Denver, which is surprising because Denver is a well run organization. They are a winning organization. They have a great fan base. They're not an organization I consider to be habitually dysfunctional, even though they've had issues at the quarterback position. Who hasn't, so I really, really strongly believe that they should bring in a head coach that has had significant head coaching experience and has been proven in the sense of being able to work with big names. These are my suggestions, and obviously everyone's going to go to Sean Payton. Gotta be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if Sean Payton took this job. And obviously we've seen Sean Payton work at the highest level with a quarterback similar to Russell Wilson. But Sean has options. Sean is chilling. Do you want to sign up for a project that you don't know the truly if you can fix now. I'm sure Sean Bayton believes he can, and I say there's anyone on any lists. Everyone's going to Sean Bayton, and I would give him the grace that he could. But I don't know that this is the best situation. It's new ownership, which doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. It's just an unknown. We don't know if Russ is washed or if this was just a coaching situation. Everyone's talking about how great the defense is. You're probably gonna have to move some of those defensive pieces to shore up the offense for Russell Wilson, because at this point everything you do has to be about fixing Russell Wilson. So don't get too attached to that Denver defense. Obviously, Sean Payton's at the top of the list. Now I'm gonna throw two names out there. One is already very high up. I think it has the top odds on Fox Beet right now to be hired. And there might be some pushback from Indie fans, which out at this point, I mean, come on, Frank Reich should definitely be considered for this position. Don't don't pay attention to the fact that he was fired in Indie. Pay attention to what happened in Indy after he was fired. What have they done outside of beating the Raiders, which was apparently their Super Bowl this year. He has an incredible resume. He's capable of working with big names. He doesn't need to learn how to be a head coach. He's a Super Bowl champion as the Eagles offensive coordinator in twenty seventeen. He's coached under other big names. He has qualified for this job, and he will be able to come in and study this ship. Another name I'm gonna throw out there is Jim Caldwell. Jim Caldwell does not get enough credit for what he did in Detroit and what he did with Peyton Manning. Those two names are names that should be considered. If Sean Payton is not open to this position. I don't think they should get another first time guy. They had a very qualified guy in Nathaniel Hackett and he couldn't get it done. Now, maybe that's just Nathaniel Hackett, but you're in a very desperate situation. Keep in minds Russ is thirty four years old, so next November he's going to be thirty five. If by next November you have a new head coach who still hasn't been able to get this together, now you've got another year and another year older with Russell Wilson. So this hire has to be very, very intentional, and in my opinion, it should be a very experienced coach on the offensive side of the ball. And again, don't get too attached to the defense over there. All right, the Dallas Cowboys they played tomorrow night, and everyone is reacting to this Eagles game. I actually like I'm wearing the perfect color. I'm contrasting. As I'm talking about the Eagles and Cowboys, it's perfect. Yeah, I didn't plan that the Dallas Cowboys are not better than the Philadelphia Eagles. I know Cowboys Nation thinks that I'm just habitually hating on them. My mother is a Cowboys fan. We extensive conversations about the Cowboys all the time. She's actually a reasonable Cowboys fan, which I only believe exists because she's my mother, so I've experienced it. It was a nice win for the Cowboys. It was a good win for the Cowboys, just like earlier in the season when the Eagles beat the Cowboys with Cooper Rushes the quarterback. It was a good win for the Eagles because any division win is a good win no matter how you get it done. The two teams know each other, you play twice a year. There's a lot of experience, there's edginess because this is a rivalry. It's a good win. Yes, Jalen Hurts wasn't out there, which is why it's not a complete win. Everyone keeps pointing to what happens with the Dallas defense, who has been great all season long, and how great Dak played. Can we pay attention to Gardner Minshew, who, for some reason, everyone keeps saying he played a good game. I don't understand. How do you play a good game if you turn the ball over three times? Three times? Yes, less defense made a great play on two of those turnovers, but you had to put them in the position to make the great play. He threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball. That's three turnovers. They had four turnovers on the day. Guys, that's an outrageous amount of turnovers. That's outrageous. And I did visional matchup. Stop saying they had a good offensive day. They did not. Now that that doesn't mean that the Cowboys shouldn't be happy about this win, that it wasn't a good win for the Cowboys, but just let's just simmer down. We really can't learn a lot from the two matchups this year with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, which is wildly unfortunate because these are two great teams and we missed out on head to head matchups with them this year because of the quarterback injuries. It's unfortunate, but we can't take too much away from it. I mean, four Cowboys fans are losing their minds. This sentiment is not mine alone. It'd be your own people. I mean, can we get the quote? Can we get the quote? I'm not making this up that this wasn't a great Eagles before and Dad did everything that he was supposed to do, and the Dallas defense did everything that they were supposed to do, but the Eagles turned the ball over four times. Calling the Eagles the better isn't an insult or a clickbait. Philadelphia owns the NFL's best record, so saying they remained the better team even after a Dallas victory should not be viewed as blasphemy. That is from the Dallas Morning News. I didn't write it. I didn't make it up. I'm not saying you shouldn't be happy about at Cowboys fans. You should. You got a big division win at the right time in the season. You're trending up lots of good things to be excited about. But let's not rewrite the narrative, just like we shouldn't have rewritten the narrative after the Eagles beat the Cowboys earlier in the season with Cooper Rush. Be excited about it. It's a good win. Dak played great only turned the ball over once. That's improvements. But let's not get let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The Eagles have been the most consistent team all season long, and it's okay to say we got a good win, but we didn't beat them at full strength. I can't. I like, please, please, sports gods, give us this matchup in the postseason. Please let it happen. We deserve it. We missed out on it twice this year. I don't have anyone in the fight. I just want to watch great football. But I can't walk away from that from that game thinking that the Eagles played their best with a backup quarterback and the Dallas Cowboys stomped them out. That is just simply not what happened. All three turnovers occurred past the eagles forty yard line, three turnovers from Gardner Minshew and one fumble. Let's just let's just simmer down. It's a nice when Cowboys feel good about it. It doesn't catapult you pass the Eagles. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Tuah is out this weekends against the Patriots with another firms concussion. Mike McDaniel spoke with reporters today, so he is he has ruled out for the week seventeen matchup against the Patriots. And here's Mike McDaniel talking about to his status in regardless to Tah it's a very UM. I've been advised by UM medical professionals that it's critical that that uh to A worries only about UM. The day that he's currently in and nothing else is a private time for him to focus on his health. UM, and that's all I really want to get into. It's unfortunate, of course that he is dealing with this again. He obviously missed parts of three games two solid weeks to a concussion to a concussion earlier this year, as we all remember. And this is his third head injury, second confirmed concussion in the last three months. His first one which like obviously he hurt his head in the game against Buffalo, because then he got a concussion the week after and the doctor got fired. So call it what you want. He's had three head injuries and two confirmed concussions in the last three months, from September twenty fifth to December twenty fifth, and now he is not playing this weekends and is safe to say indefinitely with another head injury. Now. We spoke about this yesterday and the day before when the news came out that he had self reported his symptoms to add to the doctors. We spoke about this on Speak and Lashawn McCoy was the first to go there. And I don't think it's a crazy notion that two us should consider possibly retiring now. I don't think that he should play again this season. And again, none of us are doctors, even if you got your online degree over the last two years. We're not medical doctors. We're not euroscientists, we're not too as doctor, and we are not too as family. But I'll speak speak for myself. If this was my brother, one of my brothers, one of my nephews, someone that I know that plays football, and Tah who I don't know personally, I don't think that you should consider coming back this year. At the very least. This is not a hip injury, which too has had. This is not multiple knee injuries or toe injuries or an elbow. You can get those things replaced. You can live without toes. You only get one head, and I think it's very convenient for all of us to sit here and talk about player safety and get outraged when we see two get carded off the field. And I'm not saying that you weren't genuinely outraged or that you didn't feel awful for him seeing him in that space, because I'm sure you did. But now's the time to put up. Now's the time to really back up all those things that we're posting on social media and that we say that make us feel good that we're backing the players up. Maybe he doesn't need to retire. Maybe he just needs to sit out for the rest of the year, and that's obviously unfortunate for Dolphins fans and whatever. This is a human being who only gets one brain and one life, and your quality of life can be damaged from all those other injuries that I mentioned. Did you watch the interview with Deon Sanders and Shannon Sharpe. Did you see what was going on with his leg and his foot. That's his quality of life from playing football, and he can still coach, he can still live his life because he has his brain in a healthy space. Now the rest of his body's banged up and that hurts his quality of life. But he's still deon Sanders. This is a very serious situation. When we talk about two, we say, Okay, he's had three head injuries in a year. It's not been a year, it's been a three month span. It's not even been an entire NFL season. The season is not even over, and he has missed parts of three games due to head injuries and has had two confirmed concussions. I don't I don't think it's an outrageous thing to suggest, and I don't think it's not outrageous thing to suggest for any player that's dealing with this. It's not what I want. I'm devastated for him. I can't imagine my career something that happens to me that's completely out of my control, and people coming to me and saying, you can't do what you've worked for your entire life, You can't keep doing what you dream of doing every single day for something that's completely out of your control. But Mike McDaniel just said it. We can't encourage him or ask him or say anything to him. Just get better. That's what this is right now. So I think it's very convenient when we talk about player safety, when we talk about protecting players, when we talk about being pro player and defending them and sticking up for them, and then when something like this is suggested, it's like, oh, hold on a second, or so, I'll watch football here. You can't regulate the brutality and the collisions and head impact out of football. That is the game. You can't expect every time someone's head is hit for them to pull a player out of a game, that's unrealistic. And what's scary is Tua has been in games with a concussion. After everything that happened this year, earlier this year, the outrage, the firing, him going into the protocol, him being carted off the field, and they still can't sell this is terrifying. It's genuinely scary. None of us want to even imagine the worst that this could the scale that this could get on the bat ends, So why don't we be safe rather than sorry? Obviously he's out this weekend. I don't know how he sees a field again this year. I don't know how you justify that. I don't know how you sign off on that. It certainly makes me uncomfortable and I don't care if I'm being like a little snowflake about this is a serious thing. I think you need to make as a team and as a league an executive decision at this point, especially since the world saw it. The world saw his last three head injuries. We've been talking about it. It's been top news. The positive side, as he reported it, he went to the team and he told them that he was having concussion like symptoms and put them in that protocol. That's the positive. But now you look at it, as you mentioned, three months, it's not a year. Whatever the exact other two we know there was for sure one concussion. The other two head injuries, whatever they may be. The second confirmed concussion, there you go. If you want to argue about the other head injury, have at it. So he's had two concussions in three months. This is bigger than the game. This is his life you're talking about. This is your brain, your head, and it's scary. Of course, someone who's worked their entire life to get to this moment and to be playing at the highest level and accomplishing your dream, they're gonna want to be on the field. If you if you say and you give them an inch, yes, okay, I got cleared, I'm gonna go. I think there should be an executive decision made to sit him for the rest of the year. Well, I mean, he's certainly not going to play this weekends obviously with the concussion, and I would imagine he doesn't play for the rest of the regular season. And obviously the Dolphins still have to clinch a playoff spots, so that will determine if he's going to come back for the playoffs, if they even make the playoffs. But I think it's a bigger conversation that needs to be had about it. And you know, obviously he has a family, and I'm with you. I'm glad he self reported it so that he's taking you know, his health seriously as well. But you know, I think it's very easy for us to talk about player safety and then when it really comes, when the rubber meets the road, where where do you stand? Because I thought this would be a consensus conversation and they're still pushback. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd week dayson noun Easter not a Empacific. Hey, this is Jason mc. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon eastern a Empacific. I am going to do my Power rankings all right. I don't know that they're really that controversial, but people like to get mad at everything I say, so I'm sure they'll find a problem with it. But let's start with number ten. Number ten, the Baltimore Ravens. Look, you got to be in the power rankings if you clinch the playoffer, which they did. They've won three of their last four games. I know Lamar Jackson is hurt, but you're in the playoffs now, so you can just wait until he's healthy. Now, hopefully he does get healthy, and he is going to be healthy for the playoffs. You have two divisional games. Ends the season against the Steelers and then at the Bengals, So not the easiest way to finish the season, but it doesn't matter because you're already in the playoffs, so you might as well just get Lamar healthy and then try and make a run. The Ravens have completely turned it around from last season, which was a disaster, mostly due to injury, which I can get them a pass on and we get to see Lamar Jackson hopefully in the playoffs. So they are number ten, number nine Jacksonville. Look at scrabby little Jacksonville. No, I don't like to get too excited about Jacksonville because I gotta I gotta see enough to believe in them. But look, they've moved ahead of the tight ends for first place in the AFC South. They were last place in the ancy South for the last four seasons, so this is a massive improvement. They're on a three game winning shriek and the most exciting part of the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I apologize, I don't know how to say jaguars, so you just have to deal with how I say it. What are you how you supposed to know? People tell me, I say it weird Jaguars. Jaguars Jaguars? Is it Jaggie Wire? I say Jaguar? Am I saying weird Jaguar? I don't know. If you don't like it, tell you that's I say it. They have the Texans and the Titans to finish the season. But Trevor Lawrence is the most exciting part of this. Trevor Lawrence was an unbelievable college player. We were talking about him being an NFL player when he was a freshman in college. And now we are getting to see the emergence of Trevor Lawrence, which is very, very exciting. He has at the largest increase in passer rating in the NFL this season. So I'm going to put the Jacksonville Jaguars at nine. It's number at number eight. Chargers all right now, I'm gonna say nice things about the Los Angeles Chargers because the Chargers fans think I hate them. I don't know why. All I ever said was the two was better, and at that point in the season he was. And I said that Patrick Mahomes is a better all time quarterback than Justin Herbert, which apparently is controversial. Whatever I stand on that, not on the two apart, but definitely on Patrick Mahomes part. Regardless they clinched, they clinched a playoff earth Justin Herbert is going to play in the playoffs, which is very exciting for all of us as NFL fans. We get to see a young emerging star in the postseason and games that matter. They have improved every single year, which is also exciting. They have held opponents under twenty points in three straight games. That's important. We know Justin Herbert is great, we know the potential that he has, but can the defense compliment and help them out? And now they are. You have Brandon Saley as a defensive coach and he is finally getting them into gear. They're getting healthy at the right time, trending into the playoffs. They've got two easy games to finish Rams and then at the Broncos, who are a complete disaster. So congrat so the Chargers going to the playoffs and they are at number eight, number seven. Vikings all right, At one point in the season, Vikings fans were also mad at me. Look everyone's always mad at me. It's fine, they're a weird team, but look, I kind of got to respect what they're doing. And part of the reason why I am very, very afraid of the Minnesota Vikings is they got that dude. That dude right there, that is him. Justin Jefferson is him. I think we wore that out, but I'm still going to say it for this particular purpose. He is so bleeping unbelievable. He's unbelievable. He is indescribable to me to watch. He is so good, and the fact that he is on the field will compliment everything else is going on. He is. He's just incredible. I have to take them seriously. They have an eight and one record at home this season. The only losses came to the Eagles, Cowboys, and Lions, which are all good teams. They're weird. They have a plus two point differential, like it's the worst point differential with any team with twelve plus wins through Week sixteen. It's it's it's really strange, plus five not plus two. It's strange. They're weird, but they win. Kirk Cousins this reputation of blowing games, and then he comes back in the greatest come back in history, and they've got Justin Jefferson, So I gotta I gotta respect him. Number six, Number six Cowboys. All right, Cowboys, Cowboys are a good team. Still, the Cowboys were still in the middle of the cycle. You don't know about the cycle, explaining the cycle to you off here we're in the weed en Boys part of the cycle moving into the playoffs now, number one scoring offense and stack returned from injury defense is unbelievable. I think they have the defensive player of the year in Michael Parsons. They've been consistent all season long. Their defense has They're five and one against teams with a winning record, that's the best in the NFL this season. They just had a nice win against the division rivals in the Eagles. If Dak doesn't turn the ball over at a high rate, they're in every single game. And the way that they can run the ball, they are extremely, extremely dangerous. The defense is gonna get takeaways, and they're a team you have to take seriously in the regular season. I don't know, We'll see how it goes in the postseason. Dallas, I need to be convinced. I'm sorry, I've watched this for twenty six years. I need to be convinced. Whatever, I'll be last to the bam. Megan but they are number six. They are a great team this year. And and and put some respect on Mike McCarthy's name. I've been on this Mike McCarthy thing for a while. He's not great situationally, But you can't talk about how good the Cowboys have been and not give the head coach some credit. It doesn't work that way. He's done a really nice job with this team. He has put together a great staff. They're playing well. Give him some credit. Number five the Cincinnati Bengals. We don't know what they were going to be at the beginning of the season. They look terrible, bad, bad, as Shady would say, bad bad, But they are in a seven game winning streak. That dude right there, Joe Burrow, that man, Mama, there goes that man. Second leading passer in the NFL this season, over four thousand yards, behind only Mahomes. He's in the MVP conversation. They have him playing some unbelievable football as of lates. And they were in the Super Bowl last year. So here we go again. Number four the Bills, six game winning streak, number one seed in the AFC. They have clinched their third consecutive AFC East Division title, only twenty four giveaways. In the offense, they don't turn the ball over. They are a very strong team. Josh Allen is, of course very talented. They are on pace and chugging away. They had a little little clunkiness early in the season, but they've gone back on track. The offense isn't quite firing the way you would want them to, but like I said, they don't turn the ball over. They have the Bengals and the Patriots to finish the season. Number three, the Chiefs have won eight of their last nine games. They have that man, Patrick Mahomes. He's pretty good, pretty good player, Patrick Mahomes. They have Travis Kelsey, they have Andy Reid. Third team in NFL history with five consecutive seasons with twelve plus wins. We kind of have gotten board of the Chiefs. They're still really awesome. We don't know what they were gonna be without Tyreek Hill. They're still really awesome. And it's because of Patrick Mahomes, who will probably win the MVP this year and it's deserved. He's have an unbelievable season and they are great. Number two San Francisco forty nine ers with mister Irrelevant Rock Purdy, who has completely shed that title. By the way, had a birthday the other day, Rock Purty growing up before our eyes. He has been unbelievably impressive. Kyle Shanahan just it doesn't matter who you put in there, they're gonna win games. Their defense is generational, it's terrifying. They are firing on a level that they make other teams look like they're playing a different sport. The forty nine ers are so good, they are so terrifying, and it I wasn't sure I could buy into the story that the last pick in the NFL Draft, the seventh round rookie, could possibly take this team all the way. But I'm bought in now. And man, that is gonna be a great movie one day. That's gonna that's just gonna have all of us in our seats watching when they pull that off. And number one is the Number one is the Eagles. Let's bring in la Shawn Shady McCoy, I speak, my co host on Speak on FS one to talk about the Eagles. What do you think of my power ranking? Shady Shady? What's up? Yeah? Two times? Love it? I love It's for you. We make a cozy around here. Lashawn Shady McCoy, two Super Bowls, six time Pro Bowler, two time All Pro, Eagles leading rusher, and franchise history. You still feel like the Eagles are the best team in the league. I do. I truly believe that. I think is I got some good news right. Lane will not need surgery to after But that's always great if you know the record. When Lane doesn't play, I won't tell you because it's not good. And then Jalen hurts our MVP. We get him back. Um, I heard that things are going good for him. My stuff will be playing in the regular seasons anymore, but I know the playoffs will be get ready to go. We get to get the buye week. We're a dangerous team, even losing to the Cowboys. You see how dangerous we really are, Like that's thinking about it. Won't we ever have four turnovers in one game? Right? The best thing about the Eagles were we don't turn the ball over. So you look at the game we lost against the Cowboys. They played an excellent game that really he showed. He showed off right the defense forty points A forty burger would like extra cheese, extra Come on, that won't happen again to get against the Birds third and thirty, right, come on, So I just think that I'm happy with with the Birds. Um, it's hard to go this far with winning so many games, right, I think the playoffs will be ready to roll, will be ready to roll so well. I mean, if Jalen Hurts doesn't finish the season out, he's not gonna win the MVP. Patrick Mahomes will win the MVP, which he will, you know, which he deserves. Well, yea, he's had an MVP level season. Yes, I think that Jalen Hurts has also had an MVP level season, but I don't think he should win the MVP if he doesn't finish the season out. Do you do you feel comfortable with him sitting for the rest of the season. Is it is it like a health thing or you just want to make sure that he's one hundred percent healthy going into the postseas know it's hard to get one hundred percent and this late in the season, right, But I think it's great if you can get there, right, And we're talking about our best player right at least playing, So yeah, I think I'm not against sitting him for the whole year and then having a first starting the playoffs. Um, they'll be practicing, they'll be getting the time in together. I mean he and he runs the ball enough where he takes hits. So I think it's better for him the rest, rest that body, at rest that arm up, especially the right arm, and get back to winning games and scoring touchdowns. We're dragging the shady mccau my co host on Speak on FS one for thirty pm Eastern just a little while from now. I'll be on there later. We'll be arguing about something, or we actually agree a lot. We agree on a lot. It's the other guy. It's the other guy. David and emanuelatch your weab Emmanuel later on the show today, Joy Taylor and for calling Cowherd. So we talked at the beginning of the season about Jalen Hurts, and you guys weren't so sure because you and Emmanuel obviously have have Eagles ties if they were going to commit to him after the season. You think he's done enough that he's going to be the guy moving forward. I think so. I think in the beginning of the year, I didn't know. I'm just gonna be honest, I didn't know the Jalen Hurts that I've seen last year right to this year. It's a totally different person. Like if they had two different numbers out there, there's two different people. And that just shows you the dedication of hard work that he put in on an all season right. And then I think Coachanni, like, I give him a lot of credit and also Howie for putting the team together and also getting some help. A lot of times with these coaches, they get so arrogant. I draft you, You're gonna fit into my scheme. It's not that no, you drafted me. So what they did is they put him right in the scheme that fits him. Whatever you want to do, Jalen, let's do it. So yeah, I think he's our franchise guy. I mean think about that though. If Jalen Hurts leaves Philadelphia, like I mean, I don't know Philadelphia the way that you do, I feel like it would be outrageous. Listen, when we want to our first super Bowl, they destroyed Broad Street was a big party for everybody. Right, if they let Jalen Hurts go, it was gonna be the same thing. But they're not gonna be happy. They're gonna be pissed off. They're gonna be burning everything. You cannot let Jayalen Hurts leave. He's our franchise guy for the future. That's an easy one right there. I agree, sign him up. No Philly fans or something else. I gotta give you that experience it for the first time during the World Series in Philly. Saw them climbing the poles, going crazy in the street. That's a crazy companion. Normally loves Santa Claus right like as a kid girl, I could love Santa are playing the game a TV TV time out. Man, the boys we we you know, it's kind of cold. Were like, damn's cold. You know. We look over they beating up Santa Claus because he had a Santa outflaw and with the Cowboy had Yeah, you know, so Philadelphia is not to play with. Philadelphia has a reputation and some of it has earned. But I think Philly fans are great, better passionate. So speaking of the Cowboys, let's let's talk about the Cowboys. That you where you and I have disagreed this week is I don't think that that was as great of a game. It was a nice win for the Cowboys. Anytime you beat the Eagles. It's a good win. Dak played great, the defense played amazing forced four turnovers, but also the Eagles had four turnovers and they didn't have Jalen Hurts, and similar to the seat to the game early in the season when they didn't have Dak and it was Cooper Rush. We just kind of got robbed of this matchup this year. But you made everyone a little upset last week when you were talking about Tech Prescott, and that's your opinion of how he plays. I think Dak is an above average quarterback. I think he gets criticized more than he probably should just because he's the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. I think, give he was a quarterback of most other teams, we would think he's actually doing a really good job considering the fact that he is a fourth round draft pick, right, But that's not what it is, and he's the Cowboys quarterback and that's what it is, and there's benefits to that and there's negatives to that. That's how it getting the curse. Yes, do you think Dak is a confetti guy? Like can you see Dak Prescott? I don't want to say taking because Dallas Cowboys have a good team they have a great defense, and they have some they have some pieces on offense that don't they they don't get enough credit for. So can you see Dak Prescott being a super Bowl winning quarters You can so answer your question and I would say, yes, this is the reason why. So so like, Okay, I got excited the Eagles first Cowboys, right, and I should have said that he's playing, you know a certain way what he was. I mean, the numbers can't lie. He's thrown picks everywhere. He is learning a lot of people that games Eagles that first, Oh my god, it has happened again, and he turns it on. So yes, I do think that Dak's above average quarterback, right, and you can win with him. I think if he has to be more consistent, right, he can't turn the ball over. But not only just about Dak. If you look at that team, that team is capable of winning the super Bowl. Let's think about it that that's let's have a good defense to get after the quarterback. Right. They got an MVP slash Deepest Player of the Year Michael Parsons from harrisburg Ron from shout out to the Parsons. But he's a dog, right, he mixing the Marcus Lawrence with the other defense like a players they have in the back end, and they had some injuries, but they played well as a defense and then they run the ball. So in the playoffs it gets cold, that's what happens. It's coal in the playoffs. You gotta be able to play defense and run the ball. You got a Pro Bowl running back and Tony Poler and then his backup Zeke Like that's a form of winning football. So yes, I think if Dak Prescott can can play that level. We've played against the Eagles, which was top notch, like crazy work everywhere. Um, he protects the ball a lot better. They run the ball, they played defense staff it's a chance to win a Super Bowl. I think they do too. Cowboys fans are mad at me right now. I don't know why. They always mad it somebody. But the thing is the only thing about them winning that championship as Philadelphia is an NFC and if you go to the Super Bowl, you gotta beat them. Man, I don't know if that's possible. Yeah, I mean I would pick the Eagles too, yes. Uh. Also they need to focus on winning a game, and I know Dak has won several I know, I know he's wont in the postseason before U. Well, another team that's made the postseason that is also mad at me is the Chargers. And you are always you were always on Justin Herbert. Yeah, I don't even want to say that I'm not on Justin Herbert. I think Justin Herbert is great. I don't hold you will not give him his love like he deserves. No, no, no, no no, no no no no. First of all, we can't be linked together because because because people are lumping me into to Emmanuel's opinion of Justin Herbert, which I don't necessarily disagree with, but I didn't say one. I think Justin Herbert is great, right. I think he will have a great career. I think he is extremely talented and athletic. I think he's smart. I think he's a great franchise quarterback. He does all the right things, says all the right things, puts fires out, seems like he's a good teammate. Love all of it. I don't have any problem with Justin Herbert at all. I think he's great. In fact, I was sitting right over there when Colin and I were talking about how great Justin Herbert was going to be and everyone was like, no, I wanted an organ it's not that good. Like, no, I watched him in the Rose Bowl. He's pretty awesome. He's gonna be great if he gets into the right situation. Okay, so I've actually never slanted Justin Herbert. Ok But I don't like it's a conversation around Justin Herbert because everyone gets excited. No, no, no, no, he deserves the hype. But don't get so hyped on something that you disregard what we just watched. Like, don't don't elevate people past other people who have done as much but accomplished more like, how does he get how does he get above Justin Herbert? I mean I mean Patrick Holmes? Oh, I mean like how did he come? How did Patrick? Wouldn't? I mean I can't put anybody over Patrick Mahons. Like, listen, that sounds crazy. Listen, I know it sounds crazy. I did not think this was an outrageous opinion. Patty gets busy. Yes, and look, if you want to argue about Joe Burrow talent wise or whatever, you can do that too. I'm not gonna put he just played in a super Bowl earlier. We got one week left twenty twenty two and twenty twenty two Joe Burrow was in the Super Bowl. That's a great argument though, like like, and that's gonna go down for years, justin Herbert Joe Burrow, right, and then like, that's that's what the NFL has made on it made the NFL has made on quarterbacks. You paid so much, and they try to find the comparisons, right, it was, but it's a great comparison. They're in the same draft class. I just think that, like, if I had to go and pick a quarterback and that draft class right, um, they're speaking like right now now, I think my boy, Jill Hurts is gonna catch them guys. So if you redrafted right now, you redrafted that class of Burrow to uh Herbert and Jalen Hurts, what order would you do? So now, this is my argument with people, And if I'm doing if I'm redrafting and I'm drafting my franchise for twenty years, these quarterback should be playing for twenty years. That's no, no, no no, no, that's a new standard. Now, the new standards, Like, no, you doing standards. Okay, So let's say fifteen Okay, fifteen sixteen, right, I mean, okay, let's do fifteen eighteen and start to look a little different. But I mean, but even at like Rogers, he's not playing well this year, but he just want an MVP back to back twice, right, So let's do fifteen years. Okay, so fifteen So if I'm picking this quarterback for fifteen years, let me put my GM hat on. Let me put my my Howie Roseman hat. All right, Howie McCoy. Okay, anyway, so I would take for my fifteen years, I'm gonna take Herbert. I'm gonna take him. I mean, I think it's it's hard, like you have to go on Matt and right the video game and like draw it up sixteen What team are you drafting him too? Too? The whole new No, no, no no, no, I see where you're going, because I'm like, is he ends up on a different then I'm going with uh, Jalen Hurts, right, Jalen Hurst out of all the quarters, he'd do everything. He runs the ball like a running back, he throws about like a quarterback. So it's it's all how you want to build your team, right, But then that's that changes the colation even Burrow right, because they love to argue to Burrow thing. But I would love to put Justin Herbert with them boys that that offensive stable. God, you want Herbert. I'm saying the Herbert with the Bengals like some boys and some boys. Some boys they can play. Of course Tyler boy, they would say that the third best. He's a beast. So we might actually have this argument on our hard today we're talking to Shady McCoy. I I hear you, but you don't feel me. No, no, no, I don't. I don't like, I don't if I disagree. It's not like it's splitting hairs. It's a hard argument that it is hard. Hard. I think that Joe Burrow went to a worse situation initially then Justin Herbert. Now, obviously they got him Jamar Chase and then obviously we know what they were wide receiving corps looks like now, but they when there was first year and what happens. His offensive line was terrible and he got injured because his offensive line was terrible. Like I think he's overcome and very quickly a bad organization to the Super Bowl. So like this is where did the Justin Herbert Burrow argument starts to split because you feel like the statistics, oh yeah with with Herbert matter more than the results do with justin with Joe Burrow. And that's where I differ. I think that if you can take an organization like the Cincinnati Bengals through the AFC, beat Patrick Mahomes on the way there and Super Bowl and be competitive in the Super Bowl, is they got blown out? I mean, but I see that that that sounds good, right, And so you really look at the team. The defense was solid defense then and then the office was lights out. You had a thousand yards running back in the backfield. Joe mixings as a dog. Yes, it's right, He's not just some regular plays a dolt. I think you look at all three of wide receivers, they each had a thousand am I correct, But Joe Burrow was was throwing them the ball. Yeah, but he also though on Jamar Chase eight year passes, he taken it for sixty eight yards Like he's what I'm saying. So all that says it's a hard argument, and I think Joe, Joe deserves his credit. Joe Burrow as a beast. Yeah, this argument is is hard it's not just like a I think it's a matter, it's a matter of of preference. I think it's splitting hairs. Are two great players, and I'm with you. I think I think Jalen's gonna catch both of them. I mean, he's having a level season this year as well. And I'm sure we'll talk more about this as the postseason goes on. We're talking to Lashawn Shady McCoy on the HERD. Uh So this was you were chilling right, Yeah, relax to her Speak table to speak to you, Uh, not to end on a down note before I get you out of here. I don't know if you saw the news that too h is going to be out for this weekend. Now he asked a concussion. We talked about it on our show Speak and you were the first ones to suggest it that you know, perhaps he should consider retiring. It's very serious. So now you can fully say he's had two concussions in three months and three months, three head injuries. Two concussions. If you don't want to consider the first one, which we all know was a head injury in the Buffalo Bills game, with a matter of three months, not a year, not even a full football season in three months and he is now just recovering, you know, not even talking about when he's going to be back. I mean, you played, I'm sure you've had concussions two two in twelve years. Right, Yeah, that's a that's a big span. Not great, but still a long time. I would not want my brothers going back out there, certainly this season, no matter how this plays out for the Dolphins, and it would have to be a real conversation about whether you played again, because it's not something that you can replace. Yeah. See, this is my thing. Like when I watched Too, I think Too was an excellent player. Right, He's a lot better when thought giving the stance of having like good players, a good coach that believe in them. Right, so you build his confidence on he's playing well, then he starts getting these head injuries. So my thing was like, typically in football, you're gonna get injured, that's the five works. But sometimes like an ankle hair, it's a shoulder hair, it's a it's a it's a you know, a sore knee. You know with tourist case, it's like continue, it's always just headed and you could you could you know, ankles they you can break them getting back or the et cetera, knees, whatever it is, but you can't you get one head. And it's like, man, when I heard the news that he, you know, he was feeling like he had a concussion. And then for a player to go to the doctors like, hey, doc, I'm not feeling good. You know, most players we try to, you know, hide it to keep playing. He must have really been messed up to tell him that. So then when you fast forward it and then now it's out there that hey, he had a concussion, it's like it's two concussions in three months, you know, So that's tough. We love the game. I love the game, like they pay you good. It's funnyet your true brothers. As a kid who dreamed to play on this level. But now it's like you think about your health after football. I just retired at with thirty three or something like that. You have so much years to live. I don't know if he has children. You know, we actually live in the same development, so I seen him jogging around sometimes and I don't know. Yeah he's married, and it's like, yeah, you have a whole family to worry about, So let's just let's say that you know, he doesn't play this year, then the first concussion he has next year, now you put the NFL on alert because the NFL. I love NFL, but they're they're worried about that shield and how would they look if a quarterback. I mean, I hate to say this, but that's the most important position. That's why I get paid like that. So a quarterback having another had injury, concussion, what happens now? So I'll just I'm worried for him because it's like it hurts because when you see a player out there, we have to be from the same team, like it's we're a brotherhood. And I feel bad for him, and so hopefully he really thinks about his career because your health is everything. Yeah, and it's it's devastating because it's not something that he can control, you know, Like it's if you're playing so well shape and you're you know, not taking care of your body and you pull something or whatever that leads to an injury, like some some people don't take care of their bodies. This is nothing that you can control, which makes it even all the more devastating and and serious. Well, thanks for jumping on with a shady appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got bills to bay fun huh manu on later. We're gonna have Davon tomorrow. So I'll let you know if you if you need to talking about some Eagles cowboys, like, call me up. Are you gonna sneak on? You should just sneak onto him he gets carried away. Steal, just steal his appearance. I might just like get an eagle, like I don't know, bag and let's put over for it

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through th 
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