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. Here we go on a Friday, live in Los Angeles, now the home of Baker may Feel. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio f S one one hour from now. Back to back winning weeks, My blazing five good picks, its weeks, some favorites too. J Mac joining us, Well, you went to watch Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock and Anaheim. We guy. What we thought was going to be a comedy show last night ended up being serious football and a remarkable evening of drama. Baker Mayfield turned into Tom Brady right before our eyes. Colin, it was I can't wait for the show today. I know you're fired up. I am. Two things I've always felt about Baker Mayfield and I still feel them this morning. I wouldn't build my franchise around him long term deal. A little too much cowboy for me, a little bit too much ego, lack of discipline. But I've also said from the beginning he is one of the thirty two best people on the planet if you give him decent protection, put him in the pocket and throw a football. Absolutely one of the best people on the planet to do that. In a strange way, last night was perfect for Baker Mayfield. It felt ad libbed plays in the dirt. Baker has struggled with structure and rules and hierarchy and being told what he has to do. That wasn't last night. There was a little chaos. You needed an edge, you needed adrenaline, big emotion. Hell, with those rules, I kind of want to do it my way with a limited number of plays. That is Baker Mayfield, Manning, Brady and most not all great quarterbacks. Manning and Brady are intense and they're specific, and it's prep and it's film day and night. Baker is far light. He's a gun slinger. Hell, with those rules last night would have crushed Kirk Cousins, who's a man of structure. Kirk Cousins would have been absolutely awful last night. But I built my franchise more around Kirk Cousins. Last night was built for Baker Mayfield. I needed confidence, the lego, little cowboy, little edge, little adrenaline. That's always been Baker at his best. He even struggled with the structure of the weekly podium chat with the media. Too many rules. I want to say what I want to say. Sometimes you have to fall on the sword, Eli Manning, Russell Wilson say what people want to hear. Two things from last night. I felt it was Baker Mayfield's greatest moment as a pro. I know, I know he won a playoff game with Cleveland. That team was loaded, That offensive line was unbelievable, tight ends, Nick Chubb, wide receivers just don't crash the Mercedes last night. The Rams are a mess, folks, They're a mess. I'm not blaming anybody, but Ben Scronic was his go to guy. On the other side of the field. It was Davante Adams, Derek Carr team in a winning streak. This team was a mess. I thought that was Baker Mayfield's greatest moment as a pro. And the second thing I feel, and this is pretty cool, I thought last night got him one more shot to be a starting quarterback in this league. Absolutely, this league replaces a quarter of its coaches every year and a quarter of its quarterbacks. They're looking for teams, Teams are looking for players. Baker Mayfield has often been his own worst enemy. Nobody can deny that, even Baker's fans. And let's not go crazy here. Backups, and that's what he is now in the league. He went on waivers and nobody claimed him. But the Rams he's viewed as a backup. Backups win all the time. Cooper Rush won four straight games. Taylor Heinek, he's won five or six. But last night was wonderful drama. If you didn't root for Baker Mayfield last night, you don't have a soul. Come on, come on, look at the locker. Who after I'm gonna be able to recognize all right, Taylor Ralf closing it out, so many big dun stops defensively, Van Jefferson, Betts, Coroni, Baking plays all right. But to be able to come in here ten minutes ago and help please this go three See you guys on Monday, Baker Ben That is fantastic. Baker has always been more of a craps player than a professor accounting cards. And last night felt like Vegas. Where to go Baker? Um, Okay, let's talk. I'm gonna get back to Baker several times. I do want to talk about the Raiders. So UM, I have been very pro Raiders this season. Um, I see a team playing with heart and passion. But last night, Baker Mayfield, who'd been in town forty eight hours, behind a bad old line with no number one or two or three receiver, through the ball thirty five times. Sean McVay had the confidence in Baker Mayfield to throw the ball thirty five times. Josh McDaniel only allowed Derek Carr to throw the ball twenty times. It was a bizarrely conservative game plan. I mean, last night proved how great Sean McVay is. God Matt Rule had Baker Mayfield for fourteen weeks, didn't do squat. Sean McVay had him for forty eight hours, and that's as good as Baker can play. But Josh, I understand a formula. So Josh McDaniels comes from New England, and New England had this sort of formula. That's why like Alabama at their peak with Saban was the most boring dynasty ever. Get a lead, eat o'clock, run the ball, don't turn it over twenty three seventeen, Bye bye, Off to the next w It's boring. But the Raiders can't use that formula because outside of Max Crosme, they don't really have elite defensive players, nor do they have Bill Belichick on staff. So when you take a thirteen to three lead, even with Baker Mayfield just flying into town a couple of days earlier, you got to adjust. And the formula for the Raiders during this winning streak three game winning streak, has been pretty clear. I looked it up this morning. Josh Jacobs twenty four carries win, Josh Jacobs thirty three carries win, Josh Jacobs twenty six carries, all wins. But last night he started struggling, getting only three and a half yards, and DeVante Adams was on fire early yet didn't have a catch in the second half. Look at the series last night. In the second half of the Raiders, it was the classic. You've got to a US punt punt, field goal, punt interception. What are we doing here? You had to veer off your formula. You know, my wife, her family was in the culinary business. Bakers follow directions. If you're making cookies and don't put it enough butter, it ruins the cookies. Chefs are different. Chefs are a little salt, little butter, little bacon, grease, little tweak. Taste the soup as you go. I mean, there's a recipe to make the soup, but you're constantly tweaking. That's really what an NFL head coach is. You want a recipe, but you were watching the game. You're watching it live. Sometimes you get conservative. Sometimes the run game is working, you don't need to pass. Last night was a classic. Josh McDaniels was a baker and they needed a chef. Dude, get the ball to Davante Adams. The Raiders are five and oh when Davante Adams has a big night, it's not complicated. We went and looked it up this morning. It's real clear. When Davante Adams has five or more catches, the Raiders win, and when he doesn't, they don't. So you should get him the ball in the second half. Get him the ball and get him a ball a lot. And by the way, he burned Jalen Ramsey on the first big pass of the game. Jalen Ramsey's good. Davante Adams, in my opinion, probably the best wide receiver in football has his college quarterback. That was a classic example of the Raiders needed a chef as a coach, and Josh McDaniel followed the formula a Baker and they lost two. Baker just made that up in the flying right there. Afterwards, the coach talked about it, this is an offensive defense or a special teams thing. It's a team thing. We got to be able to, you know, extend the lead if we have one, and keep competing, not let her foot off the gas, no relaxing, and you know, and try to play the same way we were playing when we had the you know, when the game starts, you know. And so just obviously I haven't done a good enough job of being able to get us to do that. The Raiders averaged seven yards a pass play. Rams only average about five, and yet the Raiders only had six passing first downs, half of what Baker Mayfield had. The Rams played with energy, took risks, took swings, played to win. The Raiders played not to lose. And that's what happens in twenty twenty two. You can't use that formula. Belichick's trying to use that formula. It's a different game, it's a different league that one's on the coach. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Something that sounds crazy, but as the NFL has become a bigger business, global wealth has increased. You know, all these owners now are billionaires, so they get more impulsive, they get more in dad demanding, and it's easier to fire a coach. Now you're seeing coaches run out after a year. Team owns them thirty million dollars, that's what the owner owes them. That's a rounding air. Forty million dollars for a billionaire, it's a rounding air. Then used to be that way, you got two years, three years. Owners hated when their net worth was six hundred million dollars to write that forty million dollars check. Now there were two point nine billion, seven point eight billion. They just fire people. But that means there's more pressure, and so some of these standalone games have been really bad and I've thought about why are there's so many bad football games this year. There's been some great ones, but there's a lot of bad ones, and I think a lot of it is coaches get fired faster, coordinators get fired faster, we rush quarterbacks to plan they're not ready. There's some bad football out there. And that was a bad football game last night. The only reason it was watchable Baker Mayfield. So as I was watching Baker come in, I'm thinking to myself, listen, it's really impressive because this team's a mess, and he obviously throws a beautiful football. With time to throw, he throws a much better ball than Taylor Heineke or Davis Mills or Daniel Jones or Matt Ryan or Marcus Mariota or Andy Dalton. Absolutely, here's something important to remember. Baker's gonna get four more starts. I would imagine what do the Rams need. They desperately need draft capital and draft picks. I think they're gonna trade Jalen Ramsey to get a one. If Baker leaves, they get a compensatory pick. Many of the games remaining, if you look at the schedule for the Rams, are standalone primetime games. So the league is going to get a look at Baker Mayfield. Now, Denver's defense will not be a good day for Baker, the Rams offense, but Green Bay's defense, the Chargers defense, the Seahawks defense, those are bad fences. You can move the ball and score points on those. So I think the Rams are going to use Baker to sell some tickets, have some fun, and make their games interesting. And I think Baker's going to use the Rams to get a starting job in this league. Life is all about opportunities, and you got to take advantage when you get opportunities, and Baker got one last night and absolutely hit it out of the park. He did have an advantage as that sort of the offensive line language last night that he used was the same he used with Bill Callahan in Cleveland. So Baker said after the game that eased up the onslaught of homework and learning I had to do. But nonetheless, you could not wipe the smile off Baker Mayfield's face after the game. I don't know if you can write it any better than that. Obviously, we'd like to be a little bit more stress free, but it's a pretty damn good story. I'll be honest with you Sean's protection scheme is similar to Bill Callahan's who had in Cleveland. So terminology with that that knocks out a big chunk of the learning curve. There was still definitely looks like some rookie errors with formations and motions. Obviously it hurt us late, but you know it worked out. You could tell on some of the timing patterns on the outside Baker's timing was off. He never worked with these receivers more than a practice, but on the stuff where he could stand in the pocket, plant his feet, throw it downfield. I think he's almost down a beautiful ball. He can be a little scatter shot, a little impulsive, lack discipline. Give him a little interior protection. Throw the ball down the field. Guy's got a nice arm. It's not Josh Allen, but it's a nice arm. He does it a lot better than sixty five percent of the guys in this league when he just wants to let it rip. And by the way, I think somebody's going to offer him a franchise job, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad team. The Pittsburgh Steelers offered Mitch Trubisky a starting job. Mitch Trubisky's not as good as Baker Mayfield. He didn't throw a ball nearly as good as Baker Mayfield. So I think Baker's gonna get another shot. I think it'll be mostly desperate teams. But again, Steelers went and got Trubisky. You could do worse than getting picked up by Mike Tomlin, t J Watt. That structure, that ownership, just a really really fun story last night. And if you have any heart at all, I didn't know if he was throwing up there on the bench. I'm watching this for TV. I thought he was throwing up because of all the nerves. I mean, you know, I mean that's a lot last night. That was a lot, and I thought, oh, that kid going over to the bench to throw up, and I think he was saying a prayer, doing something kind of gathering himself. But we were all winners last night. Baker wasn't the only winners. Everybody that watched that game, you came away from that thinking that was fun. That's why we watched this sport. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and nun Easter nine a Empacific. Baker deserves a ton of credit. Last night. Obviously he's the trigger man, but it shows you how good Sean McVeigh is. I said this earlier. Matt Rule had fourteen weeks of Baker Mayfield, he looked lost. Sean McVay had him for forty eight hours. He looked fantastic. Circumstantially, I thought he looked fantastic. You know, Baker missed on a lot of timing stuff that's obvious. But what you saw on display last night was also coaching, and we've seen it. This is something I've been on a lot, and I know it's obnoxious. Mike McDaniel with Tua, Kyle Shanahan with Brock Purty last week, McVay with Baker Mayfield. Three super smart offensive guys in the moment. Not only have to give these young quarterbacks confidence and jet fuel, they play a precision position. So you are that is you. What you watched last night was world class coaching. But what you also saw is something that we're not seeing from defensive coaches. Do you believe last night Baker Mayfield could have shown up in that game with a defensive head coach and pulled that off. Hell No, Sean McVeagh called a friend to his and some offensive coordinated There was something that he handed the reins and said, get Baker up to speed on the terminology. Why because mcvay's friends in the game, mcvay's associates, the people McVeigh trusts, their offensive guys like that was a display last night. Look at Mike McDaniel overnight for Tuah. Brian Flores didn't even like Tah saw him's a liability. This is a great example. Puts your arms around young people. Tua finally got somebody to put their arms around him. Sean McVay a lot of confidence, puts his arms around Baker Mayfield, Brock Purty, Kyle Shannon puts his arms around. I think Mike's immers a really good coach. He literally could not get along with Kirk Cousins. What did Kirk Cousins do last year in one score football games? Look it up, had a losing record. Do you know what Kirk Cousins is in one score games this year? Nine and zo with an offensive coach, you've got define the good in young people and young talent and pull it out of them. That was a remarkable display of coaching last night. And I'm not taking anything away from Baker. He's the trigger man. He has to make those throws. The Baker's always been able to make some big throws, but that is to be able to do that on the fly. I guarantee you McVeagh is leaning on friends, leaning on his offensive buddies. He's making calls to guys. Anybody know Baker. They sat next to each other on a plan years ago. Guess what they talk terminology, offensive philosophy. I mean that that is why guys are hiring offensive coaches. That's why they're doing it. Look at what Nick Serriani has done for Jalen Hurts. Look what Brian Dable did as a coordinator for not only Josh Allen, but the first six or seven weeks with Daniel Jones. So I just I watched that game last night night and Baker gets all the credit. I get it. But boy, Sean McVay, that is what the That's why I would hire offensive guys. That is why I would hire him. I thought that thing last night was it's very difficult. You're trying to build two us confidence up, build Baker up. Baker walks into town. I got forty eight hours. He's like, brother, we're gonna win this game. I'm gonna give you this guy. I'm gonna give you this sheet. Get the terminology. I'm running the team like that's that's what you need. You're not winning that game of the defensive coach last night. You are not winning that game. All right, We've got a lot of stuff. I got brock hewed, I got my blazing five picks. Here was Baker by the way, praising Sean McVay after the game. I loves football. I mean it just he's ball ball ball all the time. And just you can tell he's so much a relationship guy too. We just got to know each other a little bit and just philosophy wise and on a personal level as well. Yeah, that was you know, it is interesting to if I look at Baker Mayfield's career, there are you know, it's the old saying date and mary. Some people are just funny. To go out in a date with marriage is a long time commitment. Do you get loyalty? Do you get an adult Sometimes there's party friends. We all have a party friend. It's to going to Vegas friend. And then you have friends you call when you get a divorce or you have a medical emergency. You know, We've all got different layers of friends and bosses. You know, Baker, Bakers, Let's go to Vegas for the weekend. Let's go golf, play craps. Let's go to Vegas for the weekend. Doesn't necessarily mean in other situations I would call Baker. But it's the same thing. In the NFL. What makes Brady and Manning is precision and maturity and falling on the sword at the press conference. Long term, that's what you'll want, that stability. But in a moment with a lot of energy, I need an edge. I need a guy that's like almost more confident than he should be. Baker Mayfield is pretty good, pretty good. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino Enriched Cavino and Rich. Thanks buddy, that's right, Caveno Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rocking dude. The show features our unique take on sports injected with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino Enrich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich, give me the hell Yeah. Rock Heward played in the NFL for six years, great college football player, now Fox Sports football analyst. So you know, it's just basically, I'm just we're all reading stuff here on the fly about the OC for the Rams last night. Who was in college came to the Rams, you know, going back to Kentucky. Somebody just told me in my ear and basically they just it was a crash course for Baker Mayfield, Like, Okay, here's the terminology. We're gonna ramp you up. As I watched it, I was like, this is a remarkable athletic achievement. If he would have completed twelve passes, you tell me in a crash course? Was that a fairly remarkable achievement? Well, I'll tell you this, Colin. When I went to the Indianapolis Colts from the Seattle Seahawks, I got traded there after my third year, and I my first day at mini camp with the Colts that night, I called my wife, I said I, this is bad, this is really bad. I thought I knew football. I thought I knew the West Coast, and if I knew the West Coast offense, I knew everything there was to know, right Bill, Bill Walsh, you know my Homegron, I know the system. I get there to Indie and I ate the biggest slice of humble pie. I couldn't communicate a thing. There was no language carry over. It was a foreign language. I was learning German. And then everything Peyton did right PhD in it because he's been in it for years and years and years. I literally called Molly and I said, I can't. I'm not gonna make it here. There is no way my mind can do what Peyton is capable of doing. Fast forward to your question about Baker last night, As I watched that he has helped by terminology. He knows some of the language obviously to do what he did, YEA. Otherwise, there's no way if he'd gone into a system that he had no background, no familiarity, you couldn't have done what he did last night. But he goes in no system where there is at least a baseline language. And then I was thinking about this column, who do you think are the best QB whisperers in the game, college and pro? Who were the guys that if you were to be thrown in that situation, you had forty eight hours to say, Hey, who would Colin Cowherd If you could pick three, I've got three, Lincoln Riley, Sean mcvag Boom, Shanahan. I mean, I don't know who's a third Andy Reid, Andy Reid, because those three guys, whoever they have touched, have turned to gold. For Andy Reid. It was McNabb, it was Alex Smith, It's Patrick Mahomes, is Michael Vick coming out of prison. No matter who Andy Reid has worked with, it has been gold. And Lincoln Riley time and again. He's gonna win the Heisman likely tomorrow. And Kela Williams, he's gonna join Kyler Murray, he's gonna join Jalen Hurts, he's gonna join Baker Mayfield. Yeah. And I think Sean McVay and what Sean did with Jared Goff getting him to a Super Bowl, what he did with John Wolfer last week against the Seahawks, and has even the playoff game with that guy in that skill set and so I think Baker, it's why he bought that plane ticket before he even knew he was going to LA. Smart good QBS anticipate, he anticipated, He bought his plane ticket, landed in LA and he went to work with one of the three best on the planet to accelerate him to get to the point he could play last. Yeah, let me the guy's name is Leon Cohen cause I read it quickly. So Liam Cohen was with the Rams twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, then he went to Kentucky for a year. Then he's back to the Rams. He's reportedly going back to Kentucky. And the story I read this morning right before I walked on the set. MC facead Liam Crash course go, and it's like, you know, here's this guy that's been with the Rams Kentucky, back to the Rams, going back to Kentucky. So it's just it's a wonderful story. And I you know, speaking of stories. So Gino Smith, there's no precedent for it. I said yesterday in your show, You're very popular show in Seattle. I said, very rarely does an average player have a great year then they come back down to earth. I look at Gino and I think, Okay, I've seen this occasionally. He's not great, he's playing great. How do I mean? I think Seattle has to probably go get a quarterback on the draft. But he has the second best passer rating in the league, and that sounds ridiculous, like we need to get a new quarterback. What would you do if you were Seattle with Gino? Is this going to be a three or four or five? Is this the new Geno? Well, there's a there's a bunch to unpack here. Number one, You've got five great data points. You've got five games left and there's some You got to take care of Carolina this week, which will be a tough, hard fought game San Francisco on national television on a Thursday night against brock Purty. What one week or six days from right now, you're gonna go two arrowhead and play Mahomes. You're gonna have a Jets team in the playoff hunt, and then you'll end with Baker in the ramps. So five great data points that are going to allow you, I think, more knowledge in making that decision. I would never have imagined in September that we would be having this conversation today, not in our wildest dreams. Nobody on this planet believe that Geno Smith would be a thirty three million dollar franchise take kind of quarterback. But his numbers are You did say on the Old Brock Consult show yesterday that you had met Gino before, that you had watched him when he was drafted, and you know you've seen him in person. He's a big guy. He's got Pringles fingers, right, he can stick his hand into the bottom of a Pringles cup and he can rip that football and he can rip it, as Ryan Fitzmagic said a couple weeks ago. So those skills have been there. Now, the cultures there now, the confidence is there, now, the belief is there. And say what you will about coach Carroll, I think the track record for now, two decades in two different spots is abundantly clear. He gets the best and believes the best in his people. And that culture is back to what it was back in the day in twelve and thirteen where they built it up Colin. So if he goes around and goes three and two and they make it to the playoffs, he is going to be asking and wanting the franchise tag. And I think every number of metrics going to say he's worth it. And oh, by the way, you get the Broncos pick, so you get more than likely two picks in the top thirty five on top of your first and second round pick wherever they end up. So if you do like a QB and you do want somebody, and you do think like John Schneider thought Patrick Mahomes was the real deal, John Schneider thought Josh Allen was the real deal. Had they been on the board in the first round, even with Russell there, he would have taken him. So if he feels that way about Vice Young or one of these guys, it wouldn't shock me at all if he would get drank the numbers like they did in Green Bay, like Andy Reid is done in Kansas City and other places, that wouldn't shock me at all. Column, you know, I want to go back to the Baker thing. So I've always said he is one of the thirty two best players on the planet throwing a football from the pocket with time to throw. But he's too cowboy for me. He wouldn't be my franchise quarterback. But as you well know, life's about opportunities. He crushed it standalone game. Everybody's watching it, and there's like eight teams that are desperate. I wouldn't give him a five year deal. But this morning, if you said Daniel Jones or Baker Mayfield two years, because I think Baker's moved himself into another chance to be a franchise guy potentially. But it's a two year deal with team options. The team has the power. I'll tell you. Let me ask you, Daniel Jones, Baker, Marcus Mariota. I would take Baker too. I would take Baker. Oh, let me give you another one. Let me let me think Sir Andy Dalton and New Orleans or Baker. I would take Baker. So you say life's about opportunities, I would had a little asterisk to that, and I would say the NFL life is about fit. It's about fit. Look at two a tongue of Iloa and again, something you reference on our show yesterday morning, the year before that staff was done, like move on. Mike McDaniel says, Nope, you need speed around you. You need what you had in Alabama. You need speed and space and we need to create those windows so you can do what you can do with your dynamic release in army. Look at fit Russell Wilson for ten years in Seattle, right, perfect fit, run, play, action, defense, be smart with the football, be a difference maker when it matters. Now, I'll go play in the shotgun every down and not a fit Geno Smith right, for four different organizations, you couldn't play that. You find this fit in this culture, with this good old line and some pieces around you, and an excellent coordinator in Shane Waldron who will be more than likely mark my words here, Colin on some short lists of that next offensive minded head coach with what he has done in Seattle this year. So fit? Where is a fit? Baker could not have landed as you see him on his knees right there, praying, saying thank you Lord for the fit here in La. And that guy he just hugged, Matthew Stafford's like, oh crud, Right, I love you, Baker, but don't like the place on fire and don't win four in a row and don't do that right because I kind of like my life here in La. It is about fit, and Baker's in the right spot right now. Two minutes left, Russell Wilson, you currently live in Denver. I suggested Frank Reich yesterday, no more taking a chance. I thought he did a great job in the one year with luck. I thought Philip Rivers had a fantastic year. Even WinCE had the right side of touchdown passes and picks. Is Frank Reich? I mean, I think you have to go with a proven guy. That's my take on this mess in Denver. Totally great, somebody with a spine, somebody with a backbone, somebody with a strong conviction about how they do it. You could probably put Frank Reich to your point on that little QB whisperer list, because I think he was also the coordinator with Nick Foles, was he not? And he knows how to hire a staff and put people around him. And yeah, everybody in Bronco country is thinking Sean Payton, trade for Sean Payton. Oh you had a first round pick, you had a trade for Sean Payton. I don't think Sean Payton is coming to this situation. I think if Sean Payton has a pick of places, he's going to go to where you believe right there in that city that you make home and reside with a Justin Herbert who probably fits from a scheme, standpoint between the tackle standpoint of what Sean Payton wants to do. But it's a new owner. I mean, you've got a billion You've got the wealthiest ownership group that has come into the NFL, and they have said Colin on the record, we want to be a global brand. The Walmart brand pretty significant brand. They know how to build it. They want Broncos to be a global brand. So that tells me they will do whatever it takes, spend whatever it takes to get it right. And I'm with you. A Frank Reich, I think from a personality standpoint would fit with us. They've got an ideology background together and he has been creative with the different guys that he's had to work with to get the most out of them. But inevitably there's gonna be changed and those owners are going to spend and spend big to do it. Brock Huard, it's great seeing you Fox Sports Azzo as one of our smarter people here at the network. My man and now his Huskies are winning, His Seahawks are winning. You moved to Denver and the team got bad. You left Seattle teams are in the playoffs. Never been better at Seattle Sports calling good seeing you man, see your Powell one more Herd. 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. Let's blaze it off, fired Up, It's Collins blazing fuck. Vikings said life. I'm gonna start with a favorite. I'm gonna take Detroit at home minus two. They've won four of their last five games. Jared Goff longest stretch of his career without an interception four games, Amron Saint Brown, Jamal Williams. They are playing well and they're very good at home. The Vikings. Meanwhile, the defense since Week ten has gone into the tank. It's awful everywhere. And Kirk Cousins on the road this year not the same guy. Seven tds and seven picks. That's it. Lions win, Lions cover twenty eight, twenty four. Detroit Ravens as Steelers. I'll take another small favorite. Pittsburgh minus two is the side coming off back to back wins first time in the season. They're four and one. When t J. Watt plays. They have not had a giveaway in a month four games. That's big for Kenny Pickett. The Ravens, meanwhile, are broken offensively. You go since twenty twenty when Lamar doesn't play, they're one and five. He is the edge they need. They've also become very turnover prone. Five giveaways in the last three games. I'm gonna take the Steelers and Kenny Pickett to not throw a picket and win twenty four to twenty. Brown said Bengals now Dogs. I like Cleveland plus five and a half. Kevin Stefanski is five and oh against Cincinnati, and this team is running the football. Five back to back games with one hundred seventy plus rushing yards, eight games this year with a hundred seventy plus rushing yards, most in the NFL, and their offense this season when it comes to big plays in rushing, they're surprisingly good. Believe it or not, Cleveland is Joe Burrows oh and four against the Browns. It's a divisional game. Te Higgins is hurt. These divisional games always feel closer. I think Cincinnati wins twenty eight twenty seven, but I'm gonna take the points divisional game with Cleveland. Panthersaid, Seahawks upset Baby Panthers plus four and a half like it. I love it. They're coming off of buy and their defense is healthy and playing well. They've held opponents to fifteen points or fewer in three straight games. If you go since Week ten and look at the Seahawks defense, it's bad getting worse. Carolinas is good getting better. The Seahawks have lost two of three. Lucky to beat the Rams and Kenneth Walker is out DJ Dallas. His backup is hurt. They will not be able to control the line of scrimmage. They'll need Geno to throw without a run game. Panthers upset the Seahawks twenty four to twenty three. Patriot said, Cardinals, I'll take Arizona Monday Night football at home plus two coming off of bye. Kyler Murray's getting healthier. DeAndre Hopkins and Hollywood Brown will play in just their second game together. By the way, the Patriots offense was limited. It's been a BB gun since Week seven. They're o and six this year when scoring twenty points this year twenty plus points the Patriots offense it's Week seven, averaging four point nine yards of play. Since Week seven, they have seven touchdowns. That is it and Mac Jones in the last five games, has been sacked twenty times, so they don't have weapons on the outside. The offensive line has regressed. Mac Jones has lost confidence. Arizona at home. I'm gonna take Arizona. I think they're gonna beat him twenty seven to twenty. This New England team's not good. Maybe they need Baker Mayfield. There you go. There's my picks. Two favorites Lion, Steelers small favorites both at home and then taking um some dogs. Brown's cover Panthers win, Cardinals at home win. 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. By the way I saw this, two leads the Full Ball voting, laughing at that. So TA leads the Pro Bowl voting narrowly over Justin Jefferson, over Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelsey. A He's easy to root for. Be Dolphins offense is fun, but you know, like like centers generally don't sell shoes in the NBA, Steph Curry does smaller and more relatable. I think to his story is more relatable. It's also a ringing endorsement on what support can do, so Kirk Cousins. Last year I talked about this Ordier six and eight in one score games with a defensive coach Kirk Cousins, this year with an offensive head coach, nine and zero in one score games. Jared Goff remember his last year with McVay, when McVay was done with him, like they were really struggling. His last year with mcveay, twenty touchdowns, ninety passer rating, Goff very average. This year through twelve games with Detroit, They've put their arms around him, got him at tackle, got him receivers already nineteen touchdown passes and a ninety six rating. Do do I think those guys in Detroit are way better than Sean McVay. No, but it's a great example. Miami has gone all in on two. I saw a quote yesterday so to A really struggled last week. First thing Mike McDaniel does, comes out and says everything that went wrong was not a direct result of TUAH. Last year, before Mike McDaniels got there, Brian Flores was the coach. He was asked criticism from coaches and fans last year, TA said he would stand in front of the mirror, and I'm quoting here and ask himself, do I suck like? Listen man, when you it's hard enough to make it in this league. Jared Goffield supported in Detroit his last year. I mean I saw him beat Mahomes when McVay believed in him and he felt support ordered that last year he couldn't get out of Alet when they traded him, I felt like he felt relieved. Detroit put their arms around him. Jared Goss been pretty good. He's been great at home. He's been pretty good with a bunch of young teammates.

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. Here we go on a Friday, live in Los Angeles, now the home of Baker may Feel. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio f S one one hour from now. Back to back winning weeks, My blazing five good picks, its weeks, some favorites too. J Mac joining us, Well, you went to watch Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock and Anaheim. We guy. What we thought was going to be a comedy show last night ended up being serious football and a remarkable evening of drama. Baker Mayfield turned into Tom Brady right before our eyes. Colin, it was I can't wait for the show today. I know you're fired up. I am. Two things I've always felt about Baker Mayfield and I still feel them this morning. I wouldn't build my franchise around him long term deal. A little too much cowboy for me, a little bit too much ego, lack of discipline. But I've also said from the beginning he is one of the thirty two best people on the planet if you give him decent protection, put him in the pocket and throw a football. Absolutely one of the best people on the planet to do that. In a strange way, last night was perfect for Baker Mayfield. It felt ad libbed plays in the dirt. Baker has struggled with structure and rules and hierarchy and being told what he has to do. That wasn't last night. There was a little chaos. You needed an edge, you needed adrenaline, big emotion. Hell, with those rules, I kind of want to do it my way with a limited number of plays. That is Baker Mayfield, Manning, Brady and most not all great quarterbacks. Manning and Brady are intense and they're specific, and it's prep and it's film day and night. Baker is far light. He's a gun slinger. Hell, with those rules last night would have crushed Kirk Cousins, who's a man of structure. Kirk Cousins would have been absolutely awful last night. But I built my franchise more around Kirk Cousins. Last night was built for Baker Mayfield. I needed confidence, the lego, little cowboy, little edge, little adrenaline. That's always been Baker at his best. He even struggled with the structure of the weekly podium chat with the media. Too many rules. I want to say what I want to say. Sometimes you have to fall on the sword, Eli Manning, Russell Wilson say what people want to hear. Two things from last night. I felt it was Baker Mayfield's greatest moment as a pro. I know, I know he won a playoff game with Cleveland. That team was loaded, That offensive line was unbelievable, tight ends, Nick Chubb, wide receivers just don't crash the Mercedes last night. The Rams are a mess, folks, They're a mess. I'm not blaming anybody, but Ben Scronic was his go to guy. On the other side of the field. It was Davante Adams, Derek Carr team in a winning streak. This team was a mess. I thought that was Baker Mayfield's greatest moment as a pro. And the second thing I feel, and this is pretty cool, I thought last night got him one more shot to be a starting quarterback in this league. Absolutely, this league replaces a quarter of its coaches every year and a quarter of its quarterbacks. They're looking for teams, Teams are looking for players. Baker Mayfield has often been his own worst enemy. Nobody can deny that, even Baker's fans. And let's not go crazy here. Backups, and that's what he is now in the league. He went on waivers and nobody claimed him. But the Rams he's viewed as a backup. Backups win all the time. Cooper Rush won four straight games. Taylor Heinek, he's won five or six. But last night was wonderful drama. If you didn't root for Baker Mayfield last night, you don't have a soul. Come on, come on, look at the locker. Who after I'm gonna be able to recognize all right, Taylor Ralf closing it out, so many big dun stops defensively, Van Jefferson, Betts, Coroni, Baking plays all right. But to be able to come in here ten minutes ago and help please this go three See you guys on Monday, Baker Ben That is fantastic. Baker has always been more of a craps player than a professor accounting cards. And last night felt like Vegas. Where to go Baker? Um, Okay, let's talk. I'm gonna get back to Baker several times. I do want to talk about the Raiders. So UM, I have been very pro Raiders this season. Um, I see a team playing with heart and passion. But last night, Baker Mayfield, who'd been in town forty eight hours, behind a bad old line with no number one or two or three receiver, through the ball thirty five times. Sean McVay had the confidence in Baker Mayfield to throw the ball thirty five times. Josh McDaniel only allowed Derek Carr to throw the ball twenty times. It was a bizarrely conservative game plan. I mean, last night proved how great Sean McVay is. God Matt Rule had Baker Mayfield for fourteen weeks, didn't do squat. Sean McVay had him for forty eight hours, and that's as good as Baker can play. But Josh, I understand a formula. So Josh McDaniels comes from New England, and New England had this sort of formula. That's why like Alabama at their peak with Saban was the most boring dynasty ever. Get a lead, eat o'clock, run the ball, don't turn it over twenty three seventeen, Bye bye, Off to the next w It's boring. But the Raiders can't use that formula because outside of Max Crosme, they don't really have elite defensive players, nor do they have Bill Belichick on staff. So when you take a thirteen to three lead, even with Baker Mayfield just flying into town a couple of days earlier, you got to adjust. And the formula for the Raiders during this winning streak three game winning streak, has been pretty clear. I looked it up this morning. Josh Jacobs twenty four carries win, Josh Jacobs thirty three carries win, Josh Jacobs twenty six carries, all wins. But last night he started struggling, getting only three and a half yards, and DeVante Adams was on fire early yet didn't have a catch in the second half. Look at the series last night. In the second half of the Raiders, it was the classic. You've got to a US punt punt, field goal, punt interception. What are we doing here? You had to veer off your formula. You know, my wife, her family was in the culinary business. Bakers follow directions. If you're making cookies and don't put it enough butter, it ruins the cookies. Chefs are different. Chefs are a little salt, little butter, little bacon, grease, little tweak. Taste the soup as you go. I mean, there's a recipe to make the soup, but you're constantly tweaking. That's really what an NFL head coach is. You want a recipe, but you were watching the game. You're watching it live. Sometimes you get conservative. Sometimes the run game is working, you don't need to pass. Last night was a classic. Josh McDaniels was a baker and they needed a chef. Dude, get the ball to Davante Adams. The Raiders are five and oh when Davante Adams has a big night, it's not complicated. We went and looked it up this morning. It's real clear. When Davante Adams has five or more catches, the Raiders win, and when he doesn't, they don't. So you should get him the ball in the second half. Get him the ball and get him a ball a lot. And by the way, he burned Jalen Ramsey on the first big pass of the game. Jalen Ramsey's good. Davante Adams, in my opinion, probably the best wide receiver in football has his college quarterback. That was a classic example of the Raiders needed a chef as a coach, and Josh McDaniel followed the formula a Baker and they lost two. Baker just made that up in the flying right there. Afterwards, the coach talked about it, this is an offensive defense or a special teams thing. It's a team thing. We got to be able to, you know, extend the lead if we have one, and keep competing, not let her foot off the gas, no relaxing, and you know, and try to play the same way we were playing when we had the you know, when the game starts, you know. And so just obviously I haven't done a good enough job of being able to get us to do that. The Raiders averaged seven yards a pass play. Rams only average about five, and yet the Raiders only had six passing first downs, half of what Baker Mayfield had. The Rams played with energy, took risks, took swings, played to win. The Raiders played not to lose. And that's what happens in twenty twenty two. You can't use that formula. Belichick's trying to use that formula. It's a different game, it's a different league that one's on the coach. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Something that sounds crazy, but as the NFL has become a bigger business, global wealth has increased. You know, all these owners now are billionaires, so they get more impulsive, they get more in dad demanding, and it's easier to fire a coach. Now you're seeing coaches run out after a year. Team owns them thirty million dollars, that's what the owner owes them. That's a rounding air. Forty million dollars for a billionaire, it's a rounding air. Then used to be that way, you got two years, three years. Owners hated when their net worth was six hundred million dollars to write that forty million dollars check. Now there were two point nine billion, seven point eight billion. They just fire people. But that means there's more pressure, and so some of these standalone games have been really bad and I've thought about why are there's so many bad football games this year. There's been some great ones, but there's a lot of bad ones, and I think a lot of it is coaches get fired faster, coordinators get fired faster, we rush quarterbacks to plan they're not ready. There's some bad football out there. And that was a bad football game last night. The only reason it was watchable Baker Mayfield. So as I was watching Baker come in, I'm thinking to myself, listen, it's really impressive because this team's a mess, and he obviously throws a beautiful football. With time to throw, he throws a much better ball than Taylor Heineke or Davis Mills or Daniel Jones or Matt Ryan or Marcus Mariota or Andy Dalton. Absolutely, here's something important to remember. Baker's gonna get four more starts. I would imagine what do the Rams need. They desperately need draft capital and draft picks. I think they're gonna trade Jalen Ramsey to get a one. If Baker leaves, they get a compensatory pick. Many of the games remaining, if you look at the schedule for the Rams, are standalone primetime games. So the league is going to get a look at Baker Mayfield. Now, Denver's defense will not be a good day for Baker, the Rams offense, but Green Bay's defense, the Chargers defense, the Seahawks defense, those are bad fences. You can move the ball and score points on those. So I think the Rams are going to use Baker to sell some tickets, have some fun, and make their games interesting. And I think Baker's going to use the Rams to get a starting job in this league. Life is all about opportunities, and you got to take advantage when you get opportunities, and Baker got one last night and absolutely hit it out of the park. He did have an advantage as that sort of the offensive line language last night that he used was the same he used with Bill Callahan in Cleveland. So Baker said after the game that eased up the onslaught of homework and learning I had to do. But nonetheless, you could not wipe the smile off Baker Mayfield's face after the game. I don't know if you can write it any better than that. Obviously, we'd like to be a little bit more stress free, but it's a pretty damn good story. I'll be honest with you Sean's protection scheme is similar to Bill Callahan's who had in Cleveland. So terminology with that that knocks out a big chunk of the learning curve. There was still definitely looks like some rookie errors with formations and motions. Obviously it hurt us late, but you know it worked out. You could tell on some of the timing patterns on the outside Baker's timing was off. He never worked with these receivers more than a practice, but on the stuff where he could stand in the pocket, plant his feet, throw it downfield. I think he's almost down a beautiful ball. He can be a little scatter shot, a little impulsive, lack discipline. Give him a little interior protection. Throw the ball down the field. Guy's got a nice arm. It's not Josh Allen, but it's a nice arm. He does it a lot better than sixty five percent of the guys in this league when he just wants to let it rip. And by the way, I think somebody's going to offer him a franchise job, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad team. The Pittsburgh Steelers offered Mitch Trubisky a starting job. Mitch Trubisky's not as good as Baker Mayfield. He didn't throw a ball nearly as good as Baker Mayfield. So I think Baker's gonna get another shot. I think it'll be mostly desperate teams. But again, Steelers went and got Trubisky. You could do worse than getting picked up by Mike Tomlin, t J Watt. That structure, that ownership, just a really really fun story last night. And if you have any heart at all, I didn't know if he was throwing up there on the bench. I'm watching this for TV. I thought he was throwing up because of all the nerves. I mean, you know, I mean that's a lot last night. That was a lot, and I thought, oh, that kid going over to the bench to throw up, and I think he was saying a prayer, doing something kind of gathering himself. But we were all winners last night. Baker wasn't the only winners. Everybody that watched that game, you came away from that thinking that was fun. That's why we watched this sport. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and nun Easter nine a Empacific. Baker deserves a ton of credit. Last night. Obviously he's the trigger man, but it shows you how good Sean McVeigh is. I said this earlier. Matt Rule had fourteen weeks of Baker Mayfield, he looked lost. Sean McVay had him for forty eight hours. He looked fantastic. Circumstantially, I thought he looked fantastic. You know, Baker missed on a lot of timing stuff that's obvious. But what you saw on display last night was also coaching, and we've seen it. This is something I've been on a lot, and I know it's obnoxious. Mike McDaniel with Tua, Kyle Shanahan with Brock Purty last week, McVay with Baker Mayfield. Three super smart offensive guys in the moment. Not only have to give these young quarterbacks confidence and jet fuel, they play a precision position. So you are that is you. What you watched last night was world class coaching. But what you also saw is something that we're not seeing from defensive coaches. Do you believe last night Baker Mayfield could have shown up in that game with a defensive head coach and pulled that off. Hell No, Sean McVeagh called a friend to his and some offensive coordinated There was something that he handed the reins and said, get Baker up to speed on the terminology. Why because mcvay's friends in the game, mcvay's associates, the people McVeigh trusts, their offensive guys like that was a display last night. Look at Mike McDaniel overnight for Tuah. Brian Flores didn't even like Tah saw him's a liability. This is a great example. Puts your arms around young people. Tua finally got somebody to put their arms around him. Sean McVay a lot of confidence, puts his arms around Baker Mayfield, Brock Purty, Kyle Shannon puts his arms around. I think Mike's immers a really good coach. He literally could not get along with Kirk Cousins. What did Kirk Cousins do last year in one score football games? Look it up, had a losing record. Do you know what Kirk Cousins is in one score games this year? Nine and zo with an offensive coach, you've got define the good in young people and young talent and pull it out of them. That was a remarkable display of coaching last night. And I'm not taking anything away from Baker. He's the trigger man. He has to make those throws. The Baker's always been able to make some big throws, but that is to be able to do that on the fly. I guarantee you McVeagh is leaning on friends, leaning on his offensive buddies. He's making calls to guys. Anybody know Baker. They sat next to each other on a plan years ago. Guess what they talk terminology, offensive philosophy. I mean that that is why guys are hiring offensive coaches. That's why they're doing it. Look at what Nick Serriani has done for Jalen Hurts. Look what Brian Dable did as a coordinator for not only Josh Allen, but the first six or seven weeks with Daniel Jones. So I just I watched that game last night night and Baker gets all the credit. I get it. But boy, Sean McVay, that is what the That's why I would hire offensive guys. That is why I would hire him. I thought that thing last night was it's very difficult. You're trying to build two us confidence up, build Baker up. Baker walks into town. I got forty eight hours. He's like, brother, we're gonna win this game. I'm gonna give you this guy. I'm gonna give you this sheet. Get the terminology. I'm running the team like that's that's what you need. You're not winning that game of the defensive coach last night. You are not winning that game. All right, We've got a lot of stuff. I got brock hewed, I got my blazing five picks. Here was Baker by the way, praising Sean McVay after the game. I loves football. I mean it just he's ball ball ball all the time. And just you can tell he's so much a relationship guy too. We just got to know each other a little bit and just philosophy wise and on a personal level as well. Yeah, that was you know, it is interesting to if I look at Baker Mayfield's career, there are you know, it's the old saying date and mary. Some people are just funny. To go out in a date with marriage is a long time commitment. Do you get loyalty? Do you get an adult Sometimes there's party friends. We all have a party friend. It's to going to Vegas friend. And then you have friends you call when you get a divorce or you have a medical emergency. You know, We've all got different layers of friends and bosses. You know, Baker, Bakers, Let's go to Vegas for the weekend. Let's go golf, play craps. Let's go to Vegas for the weekend. Doesn't necessarily mean in other situations I would call Baker. But it's the same thing. In the NFL. What makes Brady and Manning is precision and maturity and falling on the sword at the press conference. Long term, that's what you'll want, that stability. But in a moment with a lot of energy, I need an edge. I need a guy that's like almost more confident than he should be. Baker Mayfield is pretty good, pretty good. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino Enriched Cavino and Rich. Thanks buddy, that's right, Caveno Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rocking dude. The show features our unique take on sports injected with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino Enrich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich, give me the hell Yeah. Rock Heward played in the NFL for six years, great college football player, now Fox Sports football analyst. So you know, it's just basically, I'm just we're all reading stuff here on the fly about the OC for the Rams last night. Who was in college came to the Rams, you know, going back to Kentucky. Somebody just told me in my ear and basically they just it was a crash course for Baker Mayfield, Like, Okay, here's the terminology. We're gonna ramp you up. As I watched it, I was like, this is a remarkable athletic achievement. If he would have completed twelve passes, you tell me in a crash course? Was that a fairly remarkable achievement? Well, I'll tell you this, Colin. When I went to the Indianapolis Colts from the Seattle Seahawks, I got traded there after my third year, and I my first day at mini camp with the Colts that night, I called my wife, I said I, this is bad, this is really bad. I thought I knew football. I thought I knew the West Coast, and if I knew the West Coast offense, I knew everything there was to know, right Bill, Bill Walsh, you know my Homegron, I know the system. I get there to Indie and I ate the biggest slice of humble pie. I couldn't communicate a thing. There was no language carry over. It was a foreign language. I was learning German. And then everything Peyton did right PhD in it because he's been in it for years and years and years. I literally called Molly and I said, I can't. I'm not gonna make it here. There is no way my mind can do what Peyton is capable of doing. Fast forward to your question about Baker last night, As I watched that he has helped by terminology. He knows some of the language obviously to do what he did, YEA. Otherwise, there's no way if he'd gone into a system that he had no background, no familiarity, you couldn't have done what he did last night. But he goes in no system where there is at least a baseline language. And then I was thinking about this column, who do you think are the best QB whisperers in the game, college and pro? Who were the guys that if you were to be thrown in that situation, you had forty eight hours to say, Hey, who would Colin Cowherd If you could pick three, I've got three, Lincoln Riley, Sean mcvag Boom, Shanahan. I mean, I don't know who's a third Andy Reid, Andy Reid, because those three guys, whoever they have touched, have turned to gold. For Andy Reid. It was McNabb, it was Alex Smith, It's Patrick Mahomes, is Michael Vick coming out of prison. No matter who Andy Reid has worked with, it has been gold. And Lincoln Riley time and again. He's gonna win the Heisman likely tomorrow. And Kela Williams, he's gonna join Kyler Murray, he's gonna join Jalen Hurts, he's gonna join Baker Mayfield. Yeah. And I think Sean McVay and what Sean did with Jared Goff getting him to a Super Bowl, what he did with John Wolfer last week against the Seahawks, and has even the playoff game with that guy in that skill set and so I think Baker, it's why he bought that plane ticket before he even knew he was going to LA. Smart good QBS anticipate, he anticipated, He bought his plane ticket, landed in LA and he went to work with one of the three best on the planet to accelerate him to get to the point he could play last. Yeah, let me the guy's name is Leon Cohen cause I read it quickly. So Liam Cohen was with the Rams twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, then he went to Kentucky for a year. Then he's back to the Rams. He's reportedly going back to Kentucky. And the story I read this morning right before I walked on the set. MC facead Liam Crash course go, and it's like, you know, here's this guy that's been with the Rams Kentucky, back to the Rams, going back to Kentucky. So it's just it's a wonderful story. And I you know, speaking of stories. So Gino Smith, there's no precedent for it. I said yesterday in your show, You're very popular show in Seattle. I said, very rarely does an average player have a great year then they come back down to earth. I look at Gino and I think, Okay, I've seen this occasionally. He's not great, he's playing great. How do I mean? I think Seattle has to probably go get a quarterback on the draft. But he has the second best passer rating in the league, and that sounds ridiculous, like we need to get a new quarterback. What would you do if you were Seattle with Gino? Is this going to be a three or four or five? Is this the new Geno? Well, there's a there's a bunch to unpack here. Number one, You've got five great data points. You've got five games left and there's some You got to take care of Carolina this week, which will be a tough, hard fought game San Francisco on national television on a Thursday night against brock Purty. What one week or six days from right now, you're gonna go two arrowhead and play Mahomes. You're gonna have a Jets team in the playoff hunt, and then you'll end with Baker in the ramps. So five great data points that are going to allow you, I think, more knowledge in making that decision. I would never have imagined in September that we would be having this conversation today, not in our wildest dreams. Nobody on this planet believe that Geno Smith would be a thirty three million dollar franchise take kind of quarterback. But his numbers are You did say on the Old Brock Consult show yesterday that you had met Gino before, that you had watched him when he was drafted, and you know you've seen him in person. He's a big guy. He's got Pringles fingers, right, he can stick his hand into the bottom of a Pringles cup and he can rip that football and he can rip it, as Ryan Fitzmagic said a couple weeks ago. So those skills have been there. Now, the cultures there now, the confidence is there, now, the belief is there. And say what you will about coach Carroll, I think the track record for now, two decades in two different spots is abundantly clear. He gets the best and believes the best in his people. And that culture is back to what it was back in the day in twelve and thirteen where they built it up Colin. So if he goes around and goes three and two and they make it to the playoffs, he is going to be asking and wanting the franchise tag. And I think every number of metrics going to say he's worth it. And oh, by the way, you get the Broncos pick, so you get more than likely two picks in the top thirty five on top of your first and second round pick wherever they end up. So if you do like a QB and you do want somebody, and you do think like John Schneider thought Patrick Mahomes was the real deal, John Schneider thought Josh Allen was the real deal. Had they been on the board in the first round, even with Russell there, he would have taken him. So if he feels that way about Vice Young or one of these guys, it wouldn't shock me at all if he would get drank the numbers like they did in Green Bay, like Andy Reid is done in Kansas City and other places, that wouldn't shock me at all. Column, you know, I want to go back to the Baker thing. So I've always said he is one of the thirty two best players on the planet throwing a football from the pocket with time to throw. But he's too cowboy for me. He wouldn't be my franchise quarterback. But as you well know, life's about opportunities. He crushed it standalone game. Everybody's watching it, and there's like eight teams that are desperate. I wouldn't give him a five year deal. But this morning, if you said Daniel Jones or Baker Mayfield two years, because I think Baker's moved himself into another chance to be a franchise guy potentially. But it's a two year deal with team options. The team has the power. I'll tell you. Let me ask you, Daniel Jones, Baker, Marcus Mariota. I would take Baker too. I would take Baker. Oh, let me give you another one. Let me let me think Sir Andy Dalton and New Orleans or Baker. I would take Baker. So you say life's about opportunities, I would had a little asterisk to that, and I would say the NFL life is about fit. It's about fit. Look at two a tongue of Iloa and again, something you reference on our show yesterday morning, the year before that staff was done, like move on. Mike McDaniel says, Nope, you need speed around you. You need what you had in Alabama. You need speed and space and we need to create those windows so you can do what you can do with your dynamic release in army. Look at fit Russell Wilson for ten years in Seattle, right, perfect fit, run, play, action, defense, be smart with the football, be a difference maker when it matters. Now, I'll go play in the shotgun every down and not a fit Geno Smith right, for four different organizations, you couldn't play that. You find this fit in this culture, with this good old line and some pieces around you, and an excellent coordinator in Shane Waldron who will be more than likely mark my words here, Colin on some short lists of that next offensive minded head coach with what he has done in Seattle this year. So fit? Where is a fit? Baker could not have landed as you see him on his knees right there, praying, saying thank you Lord for the fit here in La. And that guy he just hugged, Matthew Stafford's like, oh crud, Right, I love you, Baker, but don't like the place on fire and don't win four in a row and don't do that right because I kind of like my life here in La. It is about fit, and Baker's in the right spot right now. Two minutes left, Russell Wilson, you currently live in Denver. I suggested Frank Reich yesterday, no more taking a chance. I thought he did a great job in the one year with luck. I thought Philip Rivers had a fantastic year. Even WinCE had the right side of touchdown passes and picks. Is Frank Reich? I mean, I think you have to go with a proven guy. That's my take on this mess in Denver. Totally great, somebody with a spine, somebody with a backbone, somebody with a strong conviction about how they do it. You could probably put Frank Reich to your point on that little QB whisperer list, because I think he was also the coordinator with Nick Foles, was he not? And he knows how to hire a staff and put people around him. And yeah, everybody in Bronco country is thinking Sean Payton, trade for Sean Payton. Oh you had a first round pick, you had a trade for Sean Payton. I don't think Sean Payton is coming to this situation. I think if Sean Payton has a pick of places, he's going to go to where you believe right there in that city that you make home and reside with a Justin Herbert who probably fits from a scheme, standpoint between the tackle standpoint of what Sean Payton wants to do. But it's a new owner. I mean, you've got a billion You've got the wealthiest ownership group that has come into the NFL, and they have said Colin on the record, we want to be a global brand. The Walmart brand pretty significant brand. They know how to build it. They want Broncos to be a global brand. So that tells me they will do whatever it takes, spend whatever it takes to get it right. And I'm with you. A Frank Reich, I think from a personality standpoint would fit with us. They've got an ideology background together and he has been creative with the different guys that he's had to work with to get the most out of them. But inevitably there's gonna be changed and those owners are going to spend and spend big to do it. Brock Huard, it's great seeing you Fox Sports Azzo as one of our smarter people here at the network. My man and now his Huskies are winning, His Seahawks are winning. You moved to Denver and the team got bad. You left Seattle teams are in the playoffs. Never been better at Seattle Sports calling good seeing you man, see your Powell one more Herd. 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. Let's blaze it off, fired Up, It's Collins blazing fuck. Vikings said life. I'm gonna start with a favorite. I'm gonna take Detroit at home minus two. They've won four of their last five games. Jared Goff longest stretch of his career without an interception four games, Amron Saint Brown, Jamal Williams. They are playing well and they're very good at home. The Vikings. Meanwhile, the defense since Week ten has gone into the tank. It's awful everywhere. And Kirk Cousins on the road this year not the same guy. Seven tds and seven picks. That's it. Lions win, Lions cover twenty eight, twenty four. Detroit Ravens as Steelers. I'll take another small favorite. Pittsburgh minus two is the side coming off back to back wins first time in the season. They're four and one. When t J. Watt plays. They have not had a giveaway in a month four games. That's big for Kenny Pickett. The Ravens, meanwhile, are broken offensively. You go since twenty twenty when Lamar doesn't play, they're one and five. He is the edge they need. They've also become very turnover prone. Five giveaways in the last three games. I'm gonna take the Steelers and Kenny Pickett to not throw a picket and win twenty four to twenty. Brown said Bengals now Dogs. I like Cleveland plus five and a half. Kevin Stefanski is five and oh against Cincinnati, and this team is running the football. Five back to back games with one hundred seventy plus rushing yards, eight games this year with a hundred seventy plus rushing yards, most in the NFL, and their offense this season when it comes to big plays in rushing, they're surprisingly good. Believe it or not, Cleveland is Joe Burrows oh and four against the Browns. It's a divisional game. Te Higgins is hurt. These divisional games always feel closer. I think Cincinnati wins twenty eight twenty seven, but I'm gonna take the points divisional game with Cleveland. Panthersaid, Seahawks upset Baby Panthers plus four and a half like it. I love it. They're coming off of buy and their defense is healthy and playing well. They've held opponents to fifteen points or fewer in three straight games. If you go since Week ten and look at the Seahawks defense, it's bad getting worse. Carolinas is good getting better. The Seahawks have lost two of three. Lucky to beat the Rams and Kenneth Walker is out DJ Dallas. His backup is hurt. They will not be able to control the line of scrimmage. They'll need Geno to throw without a run game. Panthers upset the Seahawks twenty four to twenty three. Patriot said, Cardinals, I'll take Arizona Monday Night football at home plus two coming off of bye. Kyler Murray's getting healthier. DeAndre Hopkins and Hollywood Brown will play in just their second game together. By the way, the Patriots offense was limited. It's been a BB gun since Week seven. They're o and six this year when scoring twenty points this year twenty plus points the Patriots offense it's Week seven, averaging four point nine yards of play. Since Week seven, they have seven touchdowns. That is it and Mac Jones in the last five games, has been sacked twenty times, so they don't have weapons on the outside. The offensive line has regressed. Mac Jones has lost confidence. Arizona at home. I'm gonna take Arizona. I think they're gonna beat him twenty seven to twenty. This New England team's not good. Maybe they need Baker Mayfield. There you go. There's my picks. Two favorites Lion, Steelers small favorites both at home and then taking um some dogs. Brown's cover Panthers win, Cardinals at home win. 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. By the way I saw this, two leads the Full Ball voting, laughing at that. So TA leads the Pro Bowl voting narrowly over Justin Jefferson, over Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelsey. A He's easy to root for. Be Dolphins offense is fun, but you know, like like centers generally don't sell shoes in the NBA, Steph Curry does smaller and more relatable. I think to his story is more relatable. It's also a ringing endorsement on what support can do, so Kirk Cousins. Last year I talked about this Ordier six and eight in one score games with a defensive coach Kirk Cousins, this year with an offensive head coach, nine and zero in one score games. Jared Goff remember his last year with McVay, when McVay was done with him, like they were really struggling. His last year with mcveay, twenty touchdowns, ninety passer rating, Goff very average. This year through twelve games with Detroit, They've put their arms around him, got him at tackle, got him receivers already nineteen touchdown passes and a ninety six rating. Do do I think those guys in Detroit are way better than Sean McVay. No, but it's a great example. Miami has gone all in on two. I saw a quote yesterday so to A really struggled last week. First thing Mike McDaniel does, comes out and says everything that went wrong was not a direct result of TUAH. Last year, before Mike McDaniels got there, Brian Flores was the coach. He was asked criticism from coaches and fans last year, TA said he would stand in front of the mirror, and I'm quoting here and ask himself, do I suck like? Listen man, when you it's hard enough to make it in this league. Jared Goffield supported in Detroit his last year. I mean I saw him beat Mahomes when McVay believed in him and he felt support ordered that last year he couldn't get out of Alet when they traded him, I felt like he felt relieved. Detroit put their arms around him. Jared Goss been pretty good. He's been great at home. He's been pretty good with a bunch of young teammates.