Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for the Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday, Happy Halloween. Everybody live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and FS one one hour from now, plenty of both. Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. The Halloween festivities began this morning when I walked into the studio, jamac joining me. We go all in on Halloween FS one. You'd love to see it, Colin, Halloween a great should be an actual holiday, right? We should have no in school tomorrow for the kids. It's gonna be a late night, a trick or treating view right. You know when you were a kid, if you got seven or eight candy bars, that felt like felt like a great night. Kids come back with bags of candy. You have to pull it off them say no, put that in the freezer, or you get one piece to night. Oh geez, give me a break. Well, so Buffalo, let's start with Buffalo and green Bay. So Buffalo won the game. Buffalo's really talented and deep, and everybody's really excited about where Buffalo is. But you know, I'm watching Buffalo last night in the second half, and for years I called it low sports self esteem. When you never have a ring, you never want anything, really and then you get good, maybe even really good, like Buffalo, and you're already already getting Super Bowl tattoos, and you've got nothing to show for it. You're already building Super Bowl shelves for the trophies. The players are in Buffalo. You got nothing to show for it. What if you want one? See the trash talk last night. For Buffalo. Green Bay is rebuilding. It's a makeshift offensive line. They came into the game without their top receiver. They lost three starters during the game. And yet when you look at the box score this morning, green Bay had more first downs, was better on third down, had the longer time of possession, had fewer turnovers, more yards are rush more total yards. Buffalo was rested, Buffalo was at home. Buffalo sat there and prepped for green Bay. Green Bay is falling apart physically, barely has a functional passing game, and they outscored Buffalo the last two and a half quarters. Yeah, Buffalo is better. They had a twenty four seven lead. But what worries you about Buffalo is they let you back in. Remember you thought you had Kansas City dead to rights, right right. Buffalo last year beat Kansas City, feeling themselves lost the night week. Buffalo last game beat Kansas City last night, second half, trash talking, feeling themselves led twenty four to seven, and then we're outscored by a franchise in Green Bay, missing multiple starters. I've never seen their offensive line this bad, yet it pushed Buffalo all over the field for the last two hours. The Buffalo Bills, with all that talent, scored three points at home in the second half against the Green Bay defense that was not only depleted, but that has really underachieved all year. If I'm Green Bay, I come out of that game with a little bit of an identity. We need to run the ball more. That Green Bay team is interesting and it's not too late. But this Buffalo team, it's the old lull sports self esteem. Cleveland had it a few years ago. Now this team's way better than Cleveland. The superstar at quarterback. Cleveland got really cocky because they may the playoffs. What are they now? A mess? And Buffalo last night wasted so many opportunities in the second half. Jess came out of Kansas City win. Fans are all jumping on tables and getting those bills winning the Super Bowl tattoos. This team is sloppy and unlike Philadelphia in the NFC, Philadelphia will take a lead on you and then the Eagles will run it down your throat, push you around, eat the clock, and you wake up and you lost by three touchdowns. Buffalo is different. Buffalo gets a lead and they bail on their run game. Is there any team in the league that's good and bails on a competent run game? Singletary having a good night, they bail on it suddenly Josh Allen's the run game. Josh Allen is an amazing talent, but they are so Josh Allen reliant. They are so seduced by his talent. Instead of just running that thing for two hours, ending it and getting out of town with a twenty four seven lead. They let green Bay back into the thing, and none of us thought green Bay was gonna win it. This thing shouldn't have been close. But when you don't run the ball in the second half and you got Josh Allen around the goal line throwing passes and it gets intercepted, that's letting people off the hook. Buffalo, your standard now is different. Winning games over a depleted Green Bay team with extra rest when they're falling apart is not impressive. Sorry, that's the downside of success, which you've had very little. Love that once you're really good. Yeah, we tax the rich guy more, We judge the rich guy differently. Right, we do the same with sports teams. Buffalo, you haven't won anything yet, and the standards and the stakes are now high. Josh Allen, to his credit, owns it. Green Bay out played Buffalo for two and a half quarters. Had no business when that game started in the first quarter. Didn't it look like a forty one thirteen game It should have been, and instead twenty seven seventeen Buffalo tons of mistakes, didn't put the foot down, just like Kansas City last year, thought they had it. Here's Josh Allen after they all count the same. Obviously, that second half, which we had a few things back, got a little out of groove and just did some uncharacteristic things. You know, can't make those decisions, can't play our team in a situation where you know the only way that team gets back in it is by turning the ball over. And two stupid ones that really had no business throwing. Second one was just really trying to dirt it and just didn't didn't dirt it. It's not just about winning for Buffalo anymore. That's not it. It's winning close details matter. It's beating teams soundly when they're down. The fact that Green Bay with a refigured makeshift oh line, no Alan Lazard depending on rookie receivers that Aaron doesn't really truly want to throw too, and they made it competitive. I'm Green Bay, I'm like, I think I found an identity, and if I'm Buffalo, I think I do have an identity. I should have more hardware for all this talent. We'll wait and see. Speaking of talent, San Francisco, you know, therapists will tell you it's a happier life if you live in the moment. If you live in the moment forward and you don't, you know, get paralyzed by the past, you'll be happier. Live in the moment. There is no team in the NFL that may have issues. Telln the line that are big, lack of first round draft picks, don't know who their quarterback is. But San Francisco is happy now. They are living in the moment, and the moment is Christian McCaffrey. Last year, they really found themselves when they said we're going all in on Debo. A debo wasn't there yesterday. They have decided now we're going all in on Christian McCaffrey. We're not going to worry about draft picks. Christian McCaffrey is the right piece at the right time, for the right roster. Right now. It is a big swing. A lot of draft picks will be realized by Carolina, and I don't think they care because deep down, when I watched San Francisco play, I mean, the Rams won the Super Bowl and they've got talent. They were completely physically outclass by San Francisco. The Rams have some star players. The Niners have a star in every unit. Secondary linebacker, defensive line, offensive line, tight end, wide receivers, running back. And yet Jimmy Garoppolo, you know, he's won seventy two percent of his game and he owns he owns the Super Bowl champion LA Rams. Yesterday he was virtually flawless. He's not Mahomes, He's not Josh Allen. But I'll say this, if you look at the numbers, when Jimmy Garoppolo plays clean, and yesterday he was nearly perfect. I don't think anybody in the league can beat this team, including Buffalo. I think the roster is just adding pieces. People are getting healthier. They've got stars in every unit, and unlike the Bills, they've been in a Super Bowl. Kansas City's the only team I'd worry about. Philadelphia. Dallas really Kyle Shanahan, Mike McCarthy, home field of San Francisco. Potentially, I'm not taking Dallas. Philadelphia is good, really good. Adding Robert Quinn helps a pass rush to get Jimmy g But Nick Serrianni and Jalen Hurts, what have they done in the playoffs. I thought yesterday you gotta look at the happiest way to live in the NFL. Live in the moment, Christian McCaffrey caught a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, passed for a touchdown. They're not worried about draft picks. They're not worried about Trey Lance. They're not worried about tomorrow right now, right piece, Kyle Shanahan. After I remember Thursday night we were doing the red zone, me yelling down off of the rooms. Does anyone who answer as does anyone know if Christian can throw? And then U Brian Flurry emailed or sent through text a video of him tewing like a fifty three yard or a few years ago. So when I saw that, I felt he could throw, and and we wrapped in practice the next day and he did throw good then and throw great today. That is a really really good football team. It's it's interesting. Buffalo is really good, but they let you back into the game. Kansas City is really good now they're just really good. And San Francisco is really good, but can Jimmy play clean? And can they be healthy? And Philadelphia is really good but untested. The only thing I would worry about if I was San Francisco. Did I look at and I think I don't know if we can match him. Is Kansas City everything else? I take the Niners. And by the way, if you were at Sofi Stadium yesterday, it appeared to be a home Niners game. It was the San Francisco forty nine ers. They've been great since John Brody, So they have a massive fan base. They won with Brody, and they want with Steve Young, and they won with Joe Montana. They won a lot of games with Kaepernick. They're winning a lot of games now with Jimmy Garoppolo. The fan base out west for the San Francisco forty nine Ers. If you didn't know how substantial it was, you should have been at so Far yesterday. 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. So there are stories that we can all predict. Green Bay wasn't going to be as good without DeVante. You could predict that. There are stories Kansas City's really good again. You could predict that. Then there's the Seahawks. Pete Carroll, the GM, John Snyder, the Seahawk receivers. They're fans. They are feeling it today. Pete Carroll's always had a reputation college and pro, but mostly pro. He's great with young players. Young players are less cynical, they don't have as much money, and they buy into Pete's relentless energy. And Pete's also great with young players. And when he's the star, we don't look at Pete like Andy Reid. This offensive Svengali even defensively. Is the schematic genius of Bill Belichick. Probably not, but he teaches, he motivates, he builds cultures, and he brings this incredible energy, and the young players in the NFL feed off it. And Russell Wilson he wanted to cook, he wanted to star, he wanted to lead. And I thought Pete Carroll was nuts to have a backup planet quarterback called Gino Smith and Drew Locke. Well, I got the Drew lock part right. Gino Smith looks great, big strong kid. Now New York they're not good enough to overcome special team blunders, So the Giants to the Seahawks and real favors in this game. But needless to say, what's Seattle and Pete Carroll what he is creating is what it's a formula. It's what he does. Go back to the first version of this. They found a star running back, Marshawn Lynch. Now it's Kenneth Walker. You know, they had these young active linebackers in corners you'd never heard of, Richard Sherman. Later rounds. Now they've got a guy from University of Texas San Antonio, fifth round. He's a star. It was a defense that was long and fast and athletic, and they're running around and Pete's got the energy and the guys are buying into it, and it kind of looks like and feels like it sounds like they had a quarterback with a chip on his shoulder in the third round, Russell Wilson. This team has a quarterback with his chip on his shoulder, Gino Smith. We all buried him, myself included. But Pete creates this self belief and this swagger and this attitude. It's what he did the first time. It's what he did. Now, how long can it go? What's the ceiling? I don't have any idea, but I'll give Pete credit. He took a swing. He didn't care what anybody said. He's been saying, this team's better than people think we are. Not tanking. We can win games, we can win a division. I didn't buy it, but it's a formula. A lot of the pieces of the previous formula. You can see them now working. And while it's working, and Russ isn't necessarily cooking, Tyler Lockett in the entire organization wants you to know why it's working. It's amazing when we can accomplish when nobody cares who gets the credit. You know, my high school coach us to always talk about that basketball coach, and when you look at this team that we have, I mean we have a bunch of guys that are willing to buy in. We always talk about building a foundation and just being able to lay lay different bricks, like you know, brick by brick. It might not always be the best outcome, but sometimes you can learn from the bad things as well. And so I think we're doing a great job man, just trying to take one week at a time getting better, not getting comfortable, and it's starting to show. Yeah, that was a message to somebody, Russell Wilson, who did win in London. Most people didn't see it, but Russ did cook a little. Okay, it was late fourth quarter couple drives. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine a m. Pacific Bys. Think you know you don't want to for organizations like the Miami Dolphins that have not won a lot, all right, they get very defensive. If they win, they want you to just shower them with praise. But before the season, I said, here's what's going to happen. By getting Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Hill together, these are this is the fastest receiving combo of all time. They're gonna have a lot of yards. And the dilemma is going to be created is that Miami's gonna win games and get into the playoffs. I predicted this, and everybody's gonna be like, we got our franchise quarterback. And two it is small with an average arm. And what's going to happen right now? Miami? This Miami team is built to win September and October. They're built to win in a dome. They're built went in warm weather. But the AFC, they're gonna have to go on the road in the playoffs to Buffalo, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, and it's cold and it's windy in January, and you know how it's going to end. Miami yesterday once again in a dome two has got weapons as really, smart head coach, you bring that surfboard though to the Rocky mountains, You'll see how limited you are. And I watch Miami and I'm like, I know how this is going to end. This is exactly what we predicted. Smart Head Coach spent a lot of money on weapons, the fastest wide receiving combo I've ever seen in my life, and proof of concept with what I'm saying is going to be December eighteenth. This team at Buffalo, it's going to be seven degrees in raining in Windy's hideways January first, Miami at New England is not all teams. Years and years ago, there was a team, the Phoenix Suns. They had Steve Nashi won the MVP. They were so built for the regular season, and then they would get into the postseason and they didn't have much interior defense, and you know, they relied on a lot of fast break points where in the regular season people don't get back. And in the end, that Phoenix team that was so much fun to watch, scoring one hundred and twenty a game anddn't do anything, and go up against San Antonio and Tim Duncan, they wouldn't do anything. And when I watched Miami and they're all gonna get defensive, we predicted this. They're built for domes, they're built for warm weather. But eventually in the AFC, you're gonna have to go to Cincinnati, or to Baltimore, or to Kansas City and to Buffalo, and it's gonna be thirty mile an hour wins. And this small quarterback with an average arm and all these fast weapons are going to be reduced to sitting on the sidelines and watching the big, strong quarterbacks do their thing. It's not that it's not fun, but it is predictable. And you got to be careful about being seduced now, because that we said what's going to happen was gonna win a lot of games. You can get a lot of yards, and that's exactly what is happening. And I watched them yesterday in Detroit's up and down the field on him, and then eventually Detroit's defense is awful and Detroit's pretty bad, and here comes Miami flying back one hundred miles an hour and they I will say this so much fun to watch. I mean that that team is just blazing. But that is a team. That's the Phoenix Suns. They are built for September, October and early November football. It's gonna be really interesting to watch how this puppy plays out. I want to see him in Buffalo. I want to see him in New England. I want to see him if they go to the playoff, because they're not winning this division, so it's a wild card story. And this is a team, you know, some team. We've said this about Kyler Murrin in Arizona. They're not built to go north right right like in divisions matter for years and years. The reason the Bears want to Jay Cutler's strong arm cold weather, the reason Aaron Rodgers or Joe Flacco or Big Ben are great in northern divisions. It's windy, it's cold. Kyler Murray's great in the Dome. Kyler Murray is great down south. But if you put Kyler Murray in Baltimore, you put him in Chicago, maybe doesn't look the same or play the same. So yeah, I'm not anti Miami, but I feel I feel like watching this team. I can see how it's gonna end, but congrats for the numbers. They're impressive. Hey it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the biggest names the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the eyecast, we've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Where Colin was right, I love the Christian McCaffrey trade. He threw for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown. Draft picks, ah yeah, I wouldn't have liked to give up as many. But the re ay is this is a live in the moment team and McCaffrey's a star. We said it. How did the Rams react when they learned of the trade. They went crap. Our rival got Christian McCaffrey because reportedly the Rams wanted him to. We told you it would work. We told you it was a piece and it would work quickly, and it did. Where Colin was wrong, Derek Carr, and I have no explanation. Did not get his team pass midfield when he was on the field. His passer rating is now in the mid eighties. His completion percentage has eroded. This is with adding offensive pieces. Is it Josh McDaniel, Is it too much too soon? Is it the offensive line? I mean they the Saints defense gave up forty four points to Arizona. Derek Carr couldn't get his team pass midfield. I wish I had answers. I did like the Saints to win. But what's happened to Derek Carr is a mystery. Where Colin was right. I didn't like Zach Wilson at a college at BYU. I thought he was small on disciplined. He was Johnny Manziel with an arm. And he's bad right now, like bad at everything. Completion percentage, passer rating, three touchdowns, five picks. Now again he's It's early. The offensive line lost Austin Vera Tucker, so let's not label this forever. But the early indications are that the Jets coaches, when you watch them, do not trust Zach Wilson. And early indications are he is what I project that he would be in the NFL where Colin was raw boy. I defended Kyler Murray. You gotta pay him. What are you without him? Well, what are you with him? Arizona's three and five. The trend is regressing. His numbers are going down. Yesterday situationally, was not good football by Arizona. The talent is odds. He and DeAndre Hopkins clearly have a connection. But as much as I love Kyler Murray, right now, Arizona between head coach and quarterback relationship situationally, him regressing. Arizona is a mess. Where Colin was right, I told you, if you can move Anthony Davis, move him. He's marginally committed and already five six games into the season. The Lakers forward is hurt. He missed Friday's game. He has back spasms last night. He couldn't after the game stand when he was doing the interview. Anthony Davis peaked at twenty four. He was then good in the bubble at twenty six. He's not the same player. He is a brittle body. He maybe twenty nine. He looks thirty six, and let's be honest, over the last several years he has regressed away from the basket badly. They should have moved him before this season. You cross your fingers he can stay healthy to the trade deadline. But there's a reason Lebron went to his Instagram last week get me help, saying move people. Where Colin was right, Well, it's our best prediction of the year. We said the Vikings are going to win their division going away and all those close losses will become wins. Right now, they're six and one yesterday. As a classic example, they have a lower ceiling situationally coaching Kirk Cousins. The bottom line is they were my number one most improved team, and they've been exactly that. This was a nice run by Kirk Cousins down the right sideline, by the way. Good for him and good for the Vikings. I do think their ceilings low, but what they're doing is what they're capable of doing, winning these close games. They lost all of them last year where Colin was row. The Atlanta Falcons are in first place. Don't ask me. I thought they could be the worst team in the league. I thought they were football tanking when they bailed on Matt Ryan. But now Matt Ryan's bench and Marcus Mariota has had three straight games over one hundred plus passer rating. All I know about Atlanta was I thought they were gonna be kind of a football tanking team. They bring it every week. They run, they run some more, they run some more. After that, I wish Buffalo did more of Atlanta. They are totally committed to the run and it's working. Where Colin was right, I told you with the Dolphins, they're gonna make the playoffs. They're gonna fool you. They're the fastest wide receiving combo ever, and then you're gonna start thinking to a long term in a dome, warm weather. Early in the season, they put on a firework show. Both Tyree Hill and Jalen Waddle are in the top ten yards after a catch. The dilemma is gonna be what do you have with tua? Because football is a December, January, and February sport that is where legends are made, and a warm weather, small quarterback heading north in the postseason will eventually not pan out. Where Colin was right, I said last year I would trade Kyrie Irving for rotational players, and I couldn't recall ever saying that he is a selfish nightmare. He is a culture killer. Every week there's a new drama. Now he's in trouble again, whether it's Alex Jones, whether it's vaccine. Kyrie Irving is about Kyrie Irving and nobody else. I said it years ago. Trading in Steph Currie for Kyrie Irving is a professional career blunder that even the great Kevin Durant will not be able to overcome. And this week and this weekend, once again, Kyrie Irving has created drama around the Brooklyn Nets. Some guys are just not winning players. Kyrie Irving's talented, He's not committed to any culture outside of his own, not committed to any of it. It's like Ben Simmons, He's talented, but Steph Curry's talented and committed to being part of a collective. Janni's talented, wants to be part of a collective. Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown. There's plenty of guys like that. Jimmy Butler said, Hey, bring me in all be part of it, all work card both ends. Most of the stars in the NBA are the guys that killed cultures. Are the guys that they're their own culture. The real scary thing on Kyrie when he was at the podium Saturday night, like mouthing off. He's like, I've got a whole army of people behind me. You know what he's talking about is social media followers. You know, a bunch of anonymous keyboard warriors on the internet. Who oh, Kyrie, You're always right about everything, Kyle. It's a little scary where he's headed right now. I don't know if he's gonna finish the season with the Nets. Something is gonna Something's gonna happen there. Kevin Durant now is trapped. But one of the three best, one of the all time great players in league history is trapped. What a bummer? I feel, So do I? So do I. He's too good to be involved in this. But it's his own making. You know, he wanted to be whatever he wanted. He said, he goes, I want to play with my friend. That's what all the reporters said. He wanted to play with a friend. It's like, I don't know, Steph Curry's may not maybe not your friend. It's a good teammate, great culture and gold State, right, I don't necessarily want to work with my friends. I like being around him. Can I get along with my You know, I like you? What? What the heck is that colared Goodness? Shots fired ed Sean Payton's around the corner. If you've been keeping up with the news lately, you know we are living in challenging economic times. Americans are suffering supply chain problems, soaring grocery prices, high inflation. Gas. I filled up this weekend over six bucks. Yeah, it's expensive, believe me. All these economic turmoil times means increased volatility in the stock market that, of course, can impact your retirement investments. Legacy Precious Metals you want to invest in gold gold iras they're the place a gold ira has the same tax advantages of a traditional ira while giving you protection by owning physical gold. Legacy Precious Metals call them at eight six six six seven four Herd. You can also download their comprehensive Gold guide at buy Legacy goold dot com. They'll advise you on how to invest should gold become part of your retirement account, or should physical metals be shipped to you directly buy Legacy goold dot com. 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. Fox NFL kickoff a Super Bowl champ, one of the smartest guy offensively the league's had, and just a wealth of information. Sean Payton is joining us in studio on Halloween now, being a New Orleans person, that's a big Halloween city. It's it's h Yeah, the tradition there and you got Marty Gras right, but that's the second biggest thing. And when they have a home game like they did yesterday, like you could only get half of it with the cameras panned in the audience, it's they're looking for a reason to celebrate and look fortunately for them, they want a game yesterday too, and so I'm sure that there were a lot of people enjoying the French quarter after. Yeah, you know, I you know, when you buy cigarettes it says on the side warning warning. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers is smart. When you signed for fifty million, you know the caveat M tour, it's gonna be hard. You can't afford people. So when people say it's not Aaron's fault, what's happening, I say, well, he demanded Randall Cobb. He took the money and he didn't work out in the offseason with the young kids. I'm not blaming him, but he knew the reality, did he. Yeah, it's it's a little bit like your budget at home. And if if the old man decides he wants all the channels, then you get the whole TV bundle. But you got to keep the temperature at seventy two degrees and it gets a little warm and it's not pleasant. Look, we were talking before we came on here. Um. Historically in our league, it's been hard for a team once that quarterback has signed a mega deal to enjoy the same success or win a Super Bowl. It's happened, you know. When Tom was in New England, although his number was a little reduced, everyone knew that. Yes, absolutely, and he knew it and he talked about it. So when a chunk of the pie, that big a chunk goes to one player, I think the pressure falls then on obviously the front office, the rest of the players on the team and are other players willing to you know, I thought at the beginning of the year, the biggest transaction that surprised me was not Aaron's signing, but when all of a sudden they lost DeVante to the Raiders, I was I just assumed that that would get done, because you know Aaron's returning. These two were quite arguably one of the better quarterback receiver combinations in the last twenty years, really, and so when that happened, I just thought, Wow, I didn't anticipate that. I didn't see that, right, I said, with Buffalo, they're obviously great, but the margins in this league are tight, and last night it's a great example. It's twenty four to seven. Packers have a makeshift oh line, they're on the road. Buffalo's healthier, got much better personnel in the last two hours. I'm like Green Bay's making them fight for every yard. And sometimes you get seduced by talent. Josh Allen is so good. You saw this with Ben sometimes that you want to let him be Josh Allen. But Josh makes mistakes. He did in college. It's who he is. It's the greatness of the artist. He spilled some paint And I look at Buffalo. Should I be concerned watching them and thinking, boy, they leave a lot on the floor. Yeah, I quite honestly, I'd like him to spill some paint for my team anyway, I'd be comfortable with that. I do think this though. We say this in our league a lot. Sometimes it's not who you play, it's when you play him. And I know Green Bay didn't win that game, but boy did they have like a finger right in the middle of their chest all week. Ye. And you have to always respect the professional athlete on either side of the ball, and we saw that a little bit from Green Bay. You came away like, man, there was some fight there, and I mean man, the early catch for a touchdown by Romeo Dobbs. Dobbs was unbelievable, and so you kind of anticipated when when someone gets pushed back into the corner that they're going to come out fighting. And so look, the greatest thing for Sean McDermott is to, you know, get a win like that, a big win, another win, right, Well, we'll forget about this win in three weeks. It'll just be a win, right and then man, coach hard off of it, right. You always say that man is nothing better than a win with with little issues with issues. Yeah, yeah, So you know, every coach, probably at some point every talk show host has a formula. Pete's formula hit. The rumor on Pete Carroll's always been I mean, I know guys who will played with him, so it's not a rumor. Great with young players storytelling Pete. He builds a culture. I don't look at him as a schematic genius like maybe a Belichick defensively or you or Andy offensively. But he's a culture setter. He's a relentless energy guy, and young guys who are less nicole, aren't compensated yet totally buy in. Did it? That's why it was so great at college? Yeah, and I watched the Seahawk team and Sean they look a lot like that one four years ago where they have a chip on the shoulder quarterback, a starback. They are fast, young and long, athletic. I don't know what their ceiling is. What do you make of Well, look, I hope I hope any of any of us that that coach, or in my case, if I were to return and coach, that I can have as much fun as he's having right now. It you know, sometimes why does it anger you? Sometimes? Like you just look at him and you're like, he can't have that much fun. You're coaching, you're supposed to be stressed out right now. He's chewing his gum, he's smiling, he's you know, that's been his formula and it's worked for him when you faced him. What did you think when you faced him? We knew and we knew we were going to get a very disciplined, well coached team, and it started with their defense, of course, but Pete will be patient with the running game. Whether you whether he won ten to seven or thirty seven to thirty, you knew you were getting a well coached team. I think this his energy at his age and the challenge, the challenge where the franchise quarterback left the building you're playing, you know, there's a little bit of that house money, and he relished that challenge, I think. And I think conversely, you see the locker room the same way, with a chip on their shoulders, as you said, and you see that they're having fun. I kind of felt I saw that when for them yesterday versus New York. I didn't see the Jet game going uh, maybe as easily to New England as it did, but I felt like Seattle would play well in that spot. Gino has been amazing, though, and I that's the when you looked at his career and they even showed the teams he was on, and and you thought his career was over, well you forgot where he was at. So sometimes all of us in life, we have a belief and then something happens and it confirms our belief. So I didn't love Zach Wilson out of college. I thought, I said, he's got too much Johnny Manzie, little hero ball, pretty arm, but you're stepping up in class. I don't think you can get away with this stuff like like like people, there are comps in this league, and I thought, man, there's a lot of I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do. And I'm like a little Drew Locke to me, and I'm like, no, that's not the way the league works. That's b YU, Mountain West or whatever independent can do that. So now I watch him and here's my question. He's been heard a couple of times, when do you, as a coach and the staff, once you get how many games in with a young quarterback, do you sit down collectively and go, we have to consider maybe looking at that position again. Look, it's a great question. I would say this. We're always evaluating, right, weekly, we're grading the tape, we're grading the players. Generally speaking, at that position, you have well, let me say this, generally speaking, with every position, you have that first impression. In other words, you've drafted the player, he's come to the building, you've had your first rookie mini camp, and I can still recall great first impression. Like the best first impression after we drafted a player when I was at New York with the Giants was Jeremy Shocky's first three days. It was like better than we could have ever really it was. It was immediate um. And then conversely, you you've been a part of maybe early round picks that took time, and so when they arrived it was like a given time, you know what's going to work out. Well of times it comes with a receiver position. They don't pick up things right away. It takes a little bit, It takes a little bit of time. Robert Meacham became a very good player for us on a Super Bowl team, but in year one there was a big transition relative to what he had done at Tennessee coming to the Saints. So back to your question regarding Zach, I think, look, they've got a feel right now, they've got enough in their tank. From an evaluation standpoint, the Jets dude to at least know kind of who they have. Then it's like, all right, what are the things that that we feel like he does well. The challenge in our league oftentimes is boy, when you get one of those high selected players, it's hard organizationally to say, hey, we missed well. And I found it interesting yesterday that I'm jumping ship here to the Cowboy game and the minute that Jerry was talking to the media, and man, it was a great win for them, right yeah, And right away it went back to Zeke And but why is that? Because he because he was selected before we even sat down, right, and because he got paid, and so I get all that, But the moment at that time wasn't about Zeke. It was about another player, um who looked really good by the way. Yes, and every once in a while we play an opponent and we said, don't hurt the starter because we don't want to see the two um. But I think I think in the Jets case, I think we're still going to see look as the talent around him and improves, hopefully, and I'm sure they think this way. Hopefully we see the more consistent and improved play by him. And look, it's always a tough spot when you go to play a Belichick coach team. Um the week prior, we saw Fields completely unravel a new offense, though that that was the first we saw a package from Chicago that really suited Fields. All of us looked and said, what are we watching? And you know they had studied Ravens film. To their credit, Matt and their staff, they had a little midstream adjustin said hey, what do we what can we do effectively to win games? I think I'm sure the Jets will will be looking at it the same way. I didn't have a chance to see that game, so yeah, no, but you can see there their self identity is defense and run game. They lose Breeze, their best old aligneman. Now they need Zact to make plays, and I don't think he's quite capable. I want to shift into the Cowboys. The runner. The loss of the runner, it's huge, Yeah, that's like, that's a big loss. It's amazing how good a quarterback gets throwing on second and four and third and one. Yeah I want those, And it's amazing how good a play caller you become because on those down and distances in your earpiece, you're on a line with maybe six other coaches. Three on the sidelines, are on that line, offensive coaches, three in the press box, and everyone has an idea on second and four, but when it's third and fourteen, it's like crickets. You don't hear a thing, not a thing. Nobody's got to suggestion. You don't hear a breath. Okay, so tell me this. So I think it's pretty obvious that Tony Pollard Zeke's deals up right, So Tony Pollard's the guy. Tell me what it's like you have a I think this is always one of these things that we don't talk about in the media, but is a real dance for coaches. Is that Tony Pollard has the juice. It's very obvious. And Zeke's been paid, but he is a leader in that locker room. Reportedly, the players really like Zeke. Tony Pollard's a better player. He's the home run hitter. What's the dance like as a coach to make that work? Yeah, my experience, UM would say the less dancing the better in the in the more open dialogue, and this is this is what we see? Um, now we we uh in New Orleans when I coach there, believe Eve didn depth at running back and having I could go back in year one it was Deuce and Reggie. Um. You know it's at some point Darren Sprowles came on board. People wouldn't know Mike Bell was our Super Bowl winning team running primary back with Peter Thomas and and Reggie Bush. So we've had two or three. Um, what's the vision? I think the number one question that has to be answered always in the off season, not with just the new players coming in, but with your current roster. What's the vision going to next year? What's our vision? What's our vision for Pollard? What's our vision? Uh for for z? And if the vision fits where the money's at and where you uh, where you are as a team, and it's crystal clear, then great. If the vision's blurry, then then you run into a little I think you regret things. What do you make of Dallas? It looks like they kind of know what they are like, they lean into defense. They dan Quinn is a heck of a job. He's he does half that's a great job. I like them. There's two teams that uh. And I'm not talking about Philadelphia right that they continue to win in in in uh, in defining ways Minnesota. I had a chance to listen briefly to the end of that segment, but I can't help but coming away, and I felt this way even before yesterday because we have a tendency to move a little bit here. But San Francisco and Dallas to me are those next two teams that playmakers. Yeah, and and man, there's there's there's nothing like a good defense and what it can do for your team when you get into certain games. And I know the weather gets colder, but it just travels well. And there's a saying it travels well and it's true. And so for me, uh, I think Dallas is a team that has a chance to what was your Super Bowl? Your best defense, Um, it was one of our better defenses. It was our number one defense. In takeaways, we had thirty seven or thirty high. We took the ball away at a very high rate. And that's what Dallas does. What Dallas does, It's what Dallas did a year ago. So when you could take the ball away like that, Philadelphia has taken the ball away at a high rate, right, now that can cover a lot of other issues that you might have as a team. You can play an average game and take the ball away you know, two one or three zero in that margin and win by more than twenty points. But I do feel like watching the forty nine ers and watching the Cowboys. If if, if, if I was looking at rounding out the NFC, and honestly, by the time we get to when the NFC plays the AFC in that Super Bowl, I think we'll have a team that can compete possibly with the AFC champion. Well, it's interesting, Um, I thought McCaffrey would work. I would have made the deal. Um, I think you have to live in the moment. With Garofolo's health, you don't know, Um, there are certain I think San Francisco's old left tackle Trent Williams garoppolo health, this team, this collection, this is a super Bowl team. Let's go for it. Let's live in the moment that That was my takeaway on it. Yeah, And they didn't have a they didn't my understanding. Look, when when you bundled the picks that were used to acquire McCaffrey, they equated to a late first round pick, And so I mean that. You know, now when you announce it as a two here, a two here, we begin to look at that like a huge package. But I think it amounted to uh numerically on the on the like our value charts as a late one. Um, what's it like to face McCaffrey. Well, he does so many things. Well, Um, so I'm sitting on the set yesterday and watching that game live. He throws a touchdown pass off the toss sweep and I'm like, holy cow, right handed, I said, he's done it all. Now, I said, has he ever thrown touchdown pass in the NFL? And so right away everyone just within eight minutes, they come back with the last The only time he's thrown a touchdown pass was fourth and one against you at the fifty yard line, and I remembered it like it was like a flashback, but it was a it was a short yardage fourth and we're gonna win this game. We had the better team. So it was one of those games where they played kind of like risk free, let's go handed it off to him and it was a you know, a pulling guard and then he jumped up in the air like tebow and threw the ball to the tight end who just was completely wide open for a touchdown. Yeah, he does a lot of things. Well, here's why I like to move more than anything. For the player McCaffrey, and for the team. He doesn't have to take sixty snaps a game there, And I think one of the challenges with a player like Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara or any of these they they they want the ball, but I think keeping them healthy for the long haul is important, and I think he has a chance to do that when he's in San Francisco. No, he said that he doesn't feel like Hill. He's not a volume player for them. He is a chess piece for a really smart offensive. Yeah, and he comes in and you just listen to him post game. He's he's got tremendous football makeup, right. I mean, he's the son of a players brothers play, and he's unselfish and he can catch the ball extremely well. The catchy made in the end zone was was, oh my god, it was unbelieved. It's pretty good. Right. Um, he's a very good route runner. So you can put him out and empty and he can you can get some matchups and he's a he's a good running back, you know when you when when, and those guys We've said this on this show a number of times. Schematically, those guys do as good a job is most in our league at running the football. And then when you give a good runner a good scheme with good personnel, that usually I mean when when uh, the tight end and the fullback are both healthy, they hit your edges better than anyone. Finally, Monday night football games Cleveland. This is a big game for Cleveland. The city of Cleveland doesn't get a lot of standalone NFL games, So when you would coach a Monday night football game. Cincinnati, to me is has kind of last three weeks has kind of found themselves the old line. It was new with Burrow. So but this is a division game, So talk about you've had a few of these division game you're on the road or somebody goes it's Monday night football. Do they have a playoff field to them? Do they feel different? Yeah? I think Monday night football does? I mean, is it is it odd that both of these teams are orange and we're sitting here. Do you think that had anything to do with that that' I have no idea, But anyway, Uh yeah, when you play on primetime. Although there are more primetime games, you know, it used to be when you played Monday Night that was the your peers are all watching. That was that was the we got the halftime. We didn't get any halftime highlights on Sunday when we were kids. You got everything in that halftime segment on Monday Night football, right, all right, we have Sunday and night football, we have Thursday Night football. I think it means a lot though, when you play Monday Night football, and I think when you're playing a night game on national TV, um, yeah, I think, uh look, and I would say this, you have a team that's kind of on a role and you have another team that's that's backs up against you know, they're there, they've got it. This is a big spot for Cleveland. They got this is a big yeah because uh so I think you know, I expect to see them play well, yeah, so do I. The um it is interesting about the desperation. Sometimes those are the worst teams to play, there's no question. And and you can see it. Look, I don't pay attention to how they do spreads or whatever, but you can see it in in the lines. You know, They factor in a lot of different things home and away injury, but when you play someone in our business is uh, is very important. Yeah, Sean Payton, it's great to see you as all. Happy Halloween. Halloween, We'll see plenty of orange tonight. Huh. It's a big Halloween town where New Orleans is. Yeah. Absolutely not New Orleans where you're hanging around. Now. Oh really, I've got to go get candy and and just make I'm not going to be the one that turns the light off and and and just you know, acts like I'm not home and in the basement of the house is watching Monday Night Football. Perfect seat gained. Good seeing you guys. Thanks for having me on