Colin believes the Buccaneers are overhauling their coaching staff for one obvious reason: to convince Tom Brady to return next season. He explains why Sean Payton could be the right fit to resurrect Russell Wilson after a brutal first season with the Broncos. He proposes a debate between Aaron Rodgers and Eli Manning, who had the better pro career? Plus, Greg Cosell from NFL Films joins the show to preview the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
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. Oh, it is a Thursday, A joyful Thursday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be and how whever you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio f as one one hour from now. If you love the NFL, Fantasy football, betting it, Getting smarter, Greg Coo sell our NFL Meet Sandwich fifteen millions of get it fifteen minutes of getting smarter about football. Greg Coo sells joining us an hour from now. A lot of rumors. You know what's interesting, j Mac, of course, alongside is that it feels like fifteen twenty years ago the best offseason was baseball. It's called the Hot Stove League. The problem, of course, is the Yankee separated financially from everybody, and at the time the Red Sox did, so they just go buy the best players. Now it feels like the Dodgers, the Astros, the Braves, the Yankees, the Mats, they've separated. So baseball, if there's a great player out there, it feels like there's four or five teams to have a shot. Then there was the NBA. You know this so for the off season was often better than the season. But the truth is, although we did have sort of a tunnel of mobility, it does feel like a lot of the great players like Jannis, they just Damon Lillard. They want to stay home. Yeah, the NFL has become the hot stove plus the NBA, plus young GM's star quarterbacks. There's a lot of stuff going on now. Very exciting time, Colin, listen, there are some coaching rumors. You're gonna get too shortly. There's kind of stunning to me, what's going on around the league. That's just stunning. I don't want to talk about the Jets this early in the show. I don't want to get down with this, all right, the search for the OC I don't want to talk about. Okay, this is a guy, trust Rick Stroud, No, Rick Well worked in Tampa. The Bucks have fired Byron Leftwich, their offensive coordinator, and five offensive assistants, two on defenses. They're gonna get let go all right? What does that mean? That is Tampa's public plead to Tom Brady to stay in Tampa. So Tampa right now is selling Tom Brady on number one. Gazelle lives with the kids in Miami. You want to go play with the Niners and Raiders thirty two hundred miles away. Miami's keeping two. According to the reports from Adam Schefter. By the way, Ryan Jensen comes back at center, Tristan Worthshack Mason. Three of our five guys are Pro bowlers on the old line. We just had bad injuries. So I was told a week ago from somebody close to Brady that the lack of details on the coaching staff, the offensive coaching staff, drove Brady nuts too sloppy, too often. So now the Buccaneers go public, go public, leak it. This is them saying Tom, we hear you and we want you back. Remember remember this. The AFC now is so deep at quarterback. It's Mahomes, it's Burrow, it's Lamar, Deshaun Watson's going to be back. Josh Allen does Brady really want to go over to the Raiders? Herbert, there's Tampa now is selling Tom on. We have a lot, a lot to offer. We'll clean up the coaching mess. For the record, in twenty three years in the league, it is the first time an offensive coordinator of Tom Brady has been fired. So this is sort of twenty three years, This is a first. This is a drastic measure. Brady's also forty six years old. The division is awful. It's virtually guaranteed to be a home field player off game with a chance if you play well to get a buy. So there's no guarantees in the AFC. The Bucks are in dire need of a running game. You can do that in the draft. You can find great running backs in the fifth, sixth, seventh round. So what Brady basically is now, he's the oldest kid at summer camp and he just needs some new counselors, people who know how to set up the archery range. You know where the kayak paddles are. Like, he just needs some help with counselors. He'll probably live with Todd Bowles. But I believe this is the word is out. They want Tom to see it. Will fire left, which will fire the staff. We'll get you somebody else. Here comes Ryan Jensen, Tristan, we're shack Mason. The O line's good. This is a plea to get Tom Brady back. That is my guest this morning. And I was told a week ago by somebody close to Tom the coaching, their lack of details, sloppiness drove him nuts. He probably will get first choice on coordinator. All right now. The second story, speaking of stars, a report by a Denver reporter that Mike Cliss Sean Payton was impressed with the Bronchos during his interview Monday. I can confirm that I went to dinner with Sean. He was and the Bronchos he is their number one candidate. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about this. There's a lot of things that we know make Denver a good job. First of all, the defense is good, so he didn't have to clean up both sides of the ball. They've got a lot of talent on defense, a lot of talent, some of it young. They're not even paying yet, so they've drafted. Well, we know that to be true. That's good. We also know that the Bradley Chub trade got them a first round pickback, which they may have to give up to the Saints to get Sean Payton, but in the building in Denver, that's viewed as a steal. They got a first round pick for Chub who is no longer productive. So that we know the defense is good. Also, the number one unit you have to clean up. Everybody agrees with offensive line. They have a good left tackle, one guard is okay. They got to go in free agency in the draft and they haven't clean it up. The other thing we know that's good. They have a star running back that got hurt. He returns, So you've got a good defense. You have a very clear area you have to clean up. The Chargers cleaned up their old line in one year. Free agency and draft. You can clean it up. They have a star running back that returns and excellent weapons on the outside. There's a lot of good to this job. Here's one of the things that isn't being talked about. So Sean Payton came to Fox, to New Television, and he really likes it and he's really good at it. Have you ever noticed this with Fox? I'll just use Fox as an example. Look at the people at Fox do in the NFL. Michael Strahand where did he play? New York Giants? Blue Blood Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh Steelers, Jimmy Johnson coach the Dallas Cowboys when Troy Aikman was here, Dallas Cowboys. You don't want to go coach in Carolina and disappear, right. You want to stay prominent. The Denver Broncos. I don't think people out east quite get this. It's a huge brand after the forty nine Ers, after the forty nine Ers, the most popular NFL team Denver West is the Broncos. And if you coach the Broncos, you got Patrick Mahomes television games Sunday Night Football, CBS, Primetime, Fox, Thursday Night Football. You get two games with Mahomes a year and two games with Herbert. And the Raiders still have, despite their lack of success, a very strong brand domestically, the very strong brand, especially Midwest West. And so Peyton's not going to disappear. He's going to be in big games. They have a clear issue that everybody agrees with O line. They have an excellent defense, and they have accumulated a first round pick they'll give back to New Orleans to get Sean. So anytime you take over a business, they've got problems, they've got a clear issue, a line. Now let's get to the Russell Wilson piece. And this is substantial, is that? And I talked to Sean about this, and some of this i'll convey, some I won't. But the reality with Russell Wilson, most people understand the problem with Russell right now. He's too isolated. He's got you know, he's got this chiropractor and this throwing coach in his own office. And though it doesn't bother me, there is a sense, and it's well reported and well documented now that Russell's a little isolated from a lot of the young players, young receivers on the team. And they're gonna get younger because they're gonna have to pay some of these defensive guys in Denver, right, they're good, They're gonna have to pay him. So the defense over the next four years is going to be expensive and older. They're gonna fix the offense by drafting it. So this is going to be a very young offense. And Russell's aging as a player, and he's getting a little cringey and lack self awareness, and they've got to get him out of this isolation tunnel with him in cr They've got to be part of the group. Tom Brady for years and years did this. He from music to technology. Tom's stayed young in the building and connectable and relatable. So they believe in Denver. Sean can fix it. Sean I know can fix it. And Russell Wilson has contacted Sean legally by the way, you know, through channels. He wants Sean Payton. He needs fixing. He knows he needs fixing. So when I look at this situation, it's fairly clear. Great defense, right richest owners in the league, both impressed with each other, solve the offensive line, free agency in the draft, and can Sean fix russ I believe the answers yes. And the thing that's not talked about is that Denver's very attractive because Sean is good at TV. He likes it. So if he coaches for six to seven years and decides to pivot back to football, you're not in Carolina. You disappear. Look who the networks put on every week. Pack They want the Steelers to be good, the Cowboys, the Packers, the Niners. This network is dying for the Bears to be relevant. You know how happy people are at Fox? Now we've got the Niners, the Cowboys, the Eagles, and the Giants. Do you know how happy we are at Fox? We had huge concerns this year, and I talked about him on the air. You start ended up with small market teams and teams like your Carolinas that disappear not good for us. We like the Niners, we like back in the Cowboys, we like the Eagles, we like the Giants. So you don't disappear in Denver when you're facing Mahomes twice a year, the Raiders twice a year, Herbert twice a year. It's a big job. Elway one of the most popular players in league history there for fifteen years. Denver's big. It's a big brand. It's a big job. It's Mahomes, it's Herbert. You're in television games. Very exciting potential. I am rooting for Sean not to take it because I like him on my show. Selfishly, I hope he doesn't go. But but the Russell component's interesting. Some of this stuff I'm not going to get into because I don't want to break any trust here. But there's it is a solvable piece Russell has and this has all been reported by multiple people. Russ now feels isolated from some of the younger players, and Denver's gonna get younger because this defense. They're not giving up Patrick's or ten. They're not giving up guys like that. They got four or five guys on defense. They're paying them and they're giving them long contracts. So the defense is going to be older and more expensive over time, and the offense is going to be young. You gotta relate to the young guys. And right now, Russell's got a little bit of problem there. That's a little barrier he's got. He's got to kind of not beat the mansion all the time with a beautiful wife, the Bentley, you know, the personal doctors. You gotta get out of that space and connect with people. At this point, if they get Sean Payton, the Broncos go in that bucket with the Lions and Steelers as buy offseason teams. No. Three arrow pointing up. Well, every year in this league, seven new playoff teams, and there's always a team. I picked U this year. I think you picked the Jags. I picked the Vikings as the as the teams that come closest to doubling their wins. So we were both right. You were more right. So your team, like I think, did double their wins, but both had to do with good coaches. Right. You upgraded Minnesota Doug Peterson's massive up Jacksonville offensive coaches. So it would have been it would have been ridiculous a year ago to say Minnesota is gonna win the division going away. They did. Jacksonville will wait because after Urban it was a mess. Offensive coaches fixed the culture immediately. So Denver one, how many games this year? Five? Five? They had a double digit win total in Vegas of the season, so they won five games. Raise your hand if you think getting that running back back Sean Payton five becomes ten. Denver's your Jacksonville, Denver is your Minnesota. That's the easiest. I mean, if you and I can go two for two on this, there's a reason you can see signs brilliant offensive coach, You've already got some components, a talented quarterback who had a coach that didn't kind of know what he was doing. And be honest, it Urbans a college coach, not a pro coach. Mike Zimmer defensive coach, not an offensive coach. It's an offensive league. So this Denver stuff is very interesting. Let's stress though, they must get this head coaching thing right because as you outlined this Russell Wilson, it's issue, not a fracture, but the issues in that locker room they could bubble up even bigger if they don't land a veteran coach like Sean Payton and smooth things over. Yeah. I remember when I used to work at the other place. I thought this was fascinating. ESPN. You were assigned offices unlike the fourth and the fifth floor, and it was based on your longevity at the company in your title. And I always thought that's kind of weird. Like the corner office. People, that's the best because you get you get the corner office, the two windows, fourth and fifth floor. You gotta look at the trees. It's beautiful. And the reason they do that is because not to fight, not to create these little skirmishes on who gets the good office. It's based on title. Your's the company, and so you think it's silly that you know, Russell Wilson's got his own office. Who cares? People care like I wouldn't. But that kind of stuff. You bring your own doctor, you've got your own massage person, you got your corner office. It creates resentment, especially when it's all over the news that you have the biggest house in Denver and you're driving a Bentley and you got this this sport. I mean, what do we talk about with Aaron Rodgers. Embrace the young receivers, go out with them, hang with them, golf with them. Davante Adams left. He didn't feel there was a connection. So Russell's got he's got to start connecting with his young teammates. There you go. So Sean Payton likes them, according to these journalists, and they like Sean. I can confirm, I can confirm one of those. Yeah, he's interested, he likes them. 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. This is pretty predictable. So the Niners play the Cowboys Divisional Playoffs, favored by over a field goal. The kid they gave up a bunch of first round picks for some picks for Trey Lance posted a cryptic Instagram message immediately after Tennessee hired their general manager from the Niners organizational Ran Carthon, and Trey Lance went to Instagram and he's got his fingers crossed as if insinuating that Tennessee that could use a more athletic young quarterback would consider going and getting Trey Lance. So this stuff is predictable. Four things have happened in the NFL in the last decade. More and more rule have been built for offense. What does that mean? Quarterbacks and offensive coaches have become in gold bars incredibly valuable. I mean, look at the AFC Shock Mahomes, Burrow, Alan, Trevor Lawrence in their prime. You know, top ten picks get used to that for a decade. The third thing is general managers now know to win and keep their job, they've got to get the offensive coach, and they've got to get a quarterback. And four people are reaching for guys that really aren't first round quarterbacks just in the last few years. Trey Lance, the guy only had a handful of college games. Zach Wilson, tiny from BYU Baker Mayfield, was not that athletic and not very big Number one pick to reach. Josh Rosen Duwayne Haskins. Mitch Trubisky was a complete reach. Daniel Jones at six. I know everybody loves the Viking performance. It's a reach. Kenny Pikett was viewed as a third round pick when I talked to a Super Bowl winning general manager. Late second, early third. He dropped to late first and they played pretty good at the end of the year. It's not viewed as a first round talent. Sam Darneld, you could argue, although Darneld was athletic and big and wasn't already viewed as a reach, it didn't work. But you're getting a lot of these guys. They're smaller, they're not that athletic, they weren't that great in college. They didn't have it. They had scarcity of games, and everybody's reaching on quarterbacks now. The key in this league is admitting when you're wrong and moving off. Philadelphia is the great example. So they took Carson Wentz from an FCS school, big strong kid, but didn't play against great competition, and they traded up to get him, and then his backup won a Super Bowl, and the locker room the rumors are people like Nick Foles more than Carson. So then they paid him, and then they quickly bailed on him and got Jalen Hurts. And right now the Eagles are the number one seed in the NFC. Why because they admit they made a mistake and they moved off it. It's okay, Trey Lance is good enough to play in this league somewhere, maybe be a starter, but this offense and this coach, he doesn't fit. It's why the rumors that he wanted Mac Jones Kyle Shanahan didn't make sense. They do make sense because Max, the distributor of the football, will not run out of the play. And it all makes sense. So they need Chris Paul more than Steph Curry. They don't need a shopmaker at quarterback. This get the ball to the right people. And also, if you think of what you gave up, they're all sunken costs. It's already been used. Pick, it's been used. All you got left is that a first round pick that Denver now has, but you're kind of pasted it. And the other thing is brock Purty because he's a seventh round pick. The last guy taken is free for three more years. So you say, oh, we got burned on Trey Lance. Yes, but you're getting the most value of any NFL team from your other quarterback. Nobody's gonna pay less for a quarterback in the National Football League for the next three years in the Stanford's forty nine ers, and you're not paying Tray much. Just gave up sunken costs, So just move off Trey Lance. It's okay. Ship him somewhere, try to get a third or fourth round pick. You'll get it. You'll get some draft capital back. The mistake in this league is as it's become more offensive, quarterbacks are more valuable. There's more reaches and more whiffs, and a lot of bad whiffs. Guys that don't even look close to a first round pick, like Zach Wilson, and for most of his career Baker Mayfield. You watch Burrow and Mahomes and Alan, you watch Baker. He didn't look like a first round pick. I'm big enough, not strong enough, doesn't have any arm. They don't have athletic ability. So it's okay, move on sunken costs. You're getting a freebee out of brock Purty, who, by the way, is better athletically than the Niners thought. So the whole thing up, but we love treys athletic trays. A power runner and a power arm not the right fit. It's okay, got about fifteen of these in the last five years. Kind of misses on quarterbacks. It's okay, move off it, get another one. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon Easter nine am Pacific. So apparently I don't follow it, but there's some website that tracks how often I talk packers and negatively about Aaron Rodgers. So this is day thirty nine in a row. So Aaron had a quote on a YouTube show with Pat McAfee, this is classic. I don't know if I want to come back. You know, it's about the guys that I rely on, like Mercedes Lewis. By the way, front of the show, nobody throws shade at Mercedes Lewis on this show. He goes, I want to I want to still play with Randall Cobbs of the world, Alan Lazard, Bobby Tanyan, David Baktri. Yet the problem is that's half of your offense, and your offense was twenty fourth in the red zone and seventeenth in scoring. Your offense is weak and outside of baktri Those are not considered elite players, but they are like unrestricted free agents, meaning somebody could get an offer outside of the building and you'd have to overpay for Alan Lazard. So Aaron's becoming Lebron without you know the titles. There's a reason to movie Studio gives a multitude of concessions to Tom Cruise. He wants this. This this because because Top Gun made one point four billion dollars. There is a reason that even the Great pat Riley gave concessions to Lebron James. They got the four straight finals one two. Concessions are for the greats of the great A movie studio gives you, you know, they give you a car points on the back end. You're Tom Cruise, the last remaining true superstar movie star. Maybe Hanks get it, maybe Denzel gets it, Ryan Goslink. Not a lot, but you get something for the concession. The Green Bay offense was the third most dynamic in their own division. What am I getting for the concessions? Okay, where's the payoff? This is why I'd moved to Jordan Love. I've said this, you can finish second or third in a division with Jordan Love and I can get draft capital. So remember years ago, Aaron was really really upset when Green Bay let go of Jake Kumero at wide receiver. Oh, Aaron through a tizzy thing. That guy's got seven catches in three years. Aaron doesn't know personnel. Aaron should stay out of personnel. It's not Green Bay's job to make Aaron comfortable. He's become like he's become meet the parents, old and crusty and doesn't let anybody in his circle of trust. He's telling the package, you gotta keep this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, meaning he'll proably have to overpay for him. Meaning they're half the offense, and outside of Bactieri, they're not elite. And I love Mercedes Lewis as a blocking tight end. I like Alan Lazard four maybe a three. But Aaron wants these concessions. In my takeaways, what do I get for it? You're twenty fourth in the red zone. That's with Aaron Jones with a powerback with the fourth highest rated O line. You're twenty fourth in the red zone. Dallas has won your seventeenth in scoring. What do I get for the concessions? It's crazy town? So yesterday I was reading something I thought it was interesting on the interweb and we were talking about this. Ryan glass Spiegel is a media critic for the New York Post. He's very active on Twitter, very relatable guy. And he brought up the point and I didn't see what the result was, but it's an interesting question. Wouldn't you rather have this morning Aaron's career or Eli Mannings? Now my immediate reaction is Baseball's about stats, Basketball's about flair. Football is about winning championships. So I'd rather have Eli Manning's career. He's got two super Bowls over Brady and Belichick to the most iconic Froze ever, Mario Manningham and David Tyree. Now he's a five hundred quarterback. But there's a lot of guys that have won a singular Super Bowl, Trent Dilford, Brad Johnson, Bob Greasy. When I was a kid, there's a lot of guys that have won Super Bowls. They're not great. You get to two super Bowls. Peyton Brady, Montana, Ben Stabach, Eli Manning, I'm sure I missed somebody. Farve's got one. Elway, I think he always got two. The class of two super Bowls. That is a that is the ultimate VIP club in the most important position in America's most popular sport is the two plus super Bowl club. Aaron's not close to one, he's got one, He's not even close to two. And now he's demanding I want my C plus tight end, my number three receiver, my number four receiver, my blocking tight end. I gotta have those guys back. What do I get for the concessions, because I'll tell you right now, offensively, you're not as good as Minnesota or Detroit next year. And Detroit's got I think two first and two seconds and a better role line going forward, inexpensive and great. So it's not a shot at Aaron. But if you want can and I get concessions. Tom Cruise gets some Lebron and his prime gets them. There's no question I would give Yannis concessions right now. There's there's about three guys in every mahomes. I'll make concessions. You know, Joe Burrow and Alan very close to a lot of concessions. I'm willing to do that. Tom Cruise, Denzel Gosling, you know, whoever, whoever's moving the needle. I get it. You're twenty fourth in the red zone. Your offense is third best in your division, you're seventeenth in scoring. What am I getting? That's why, By the way, the Lakers won't give up picks to get Lebron helped. Their takeaway is okay, your body now does not give us eighty two games a year. You're having a stupendous season. But are we going to give up our future when you may not be part of it because of your age. We're gonna need those picks because in three years you're gone. We're not gonna give up all those picks. If Lebron was nine years younger, you give up those draft picks today for the Lakers. But the Lakers are saying, we're not good now, you're gonna leave in three years. How do we build for later? We need draft capital and where even if you trade those picks and got a couple of guys, Lakers, aren't I mean in a half court playoffs setting Westbrook's complete liability as a half court player. Ad can't stay healthy. And the truth is Lebron's playing out of his mind. But there's a chance he'll miss games by the end of the season because he has the last three years. He's an older player. Okay, can I bring up a point against Eli Manning? So Aaron's in his late thirties. Yeah, you know what Eli was doing in his late thirties. Absolutely nothing when he was thirty six. They went three and twelve when he was thirty seven, five and eleven when he was thirty eight. He got pulled after a few games or injured whatever. Played four games when he was thirty eight years old. Aaron Rodgers got an MVP award last year. In his late thirties. Aaron Rodgers had a better career unequivocally than Eli Manning. Not a better career. What would you want? I want to be in the two rings club? There's like seven eight guys in the history of the sport. A lot of guys have won a Super Bowl. Okay, so let me take it a step further. Well, go Eli Manning or Dan Marino? Who has no rings? Eli Manning? Is that a difficult one. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fousco. Yo. As you all know, we're the host of the number one rated show in all of sports talk, The Folly and Tony Fusco Shop, Numero No yeah, and we know why millions of people tune in every week. They want to hear US talk sports, not our idiot guests who think they know more about sports than we go. He listened to these dummies. You don't know crap about This is the worst thing the shop. You don't know bad. If you want to hear how sports talk should be done, yet, listen to the Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the I Hot radio app, Apple Podcasts or ever you get your podcasts. Greg co Sell forty three years NFL films. I know he thinks I'm crazy. I don't care with it. I'm okay with it. I don't have any plaques columns, so I'm okay with it. You're not a plodcast. You know what. You're very good in big spots. That's why we love you. You're there, you go, there, you go. Okay, let's go. Trevor Lawrence now has his hands full going to Kansas City with Mahomes. We know the first half was awful. We all saw it right Go to the second half, Trevor Lawrence, What did you see that he did? Because I thought he was pretty darn good. You know a couple of things really struck me when I watched the tape of that second half, because you know, when you watch the game on TV. I don't know how you watch games, but I'm not sitting there taking notes and studying XS and os. I'm just getting caught up and watching the game. So when I watched the tape, I was really kind of surprised, but yet really impressed by what Doug Peterson did. He did not come out to try to score three touchdowns in five minutes. They played very, very methodically. They got a lot of zone coverage, There was a lot of quick passing game. They got Trevor into a rhythm and then I thought the play and we just saw it a moment ago. That was all Trevor Lawrence was the long thirty nine yard touchdown to Zay Jones because that was no huddle tempo, so he had to make that call at the line of scrimmage, and he recognized the defense based on film study because Brandon Staley comes from the VIC Fangio school and that was a specific VIC Fan Joe kind of defense, and he knew what he was getting and he made that play call and hit Say Jones for thirty nine yards and a touchdown. But I thought the way in which they played allowed Lawrence to get into a really comfortable rhythm, get his confidence back, and then he made a couple of really big throws. But there were also a lot of pick and catch throws based on the way the Chargers chose to play defense a ton of zone with a big lead. Now Mahomes carved up the Jags and their first meeting. What does the film say, how is he able to do it? And that's a little bit of an issue in this game. I mean, obviously Mahomes is an issue for any defense in any game, but the Jaguars and a lot of people might not be aware of this because of the focus on Trevor Lawrence and how we played in the last half of the season and the game last week. But the Jaguars are one of the worst third down defenses in the NFL and the Chiefs are one of the best third down offenses. The only team with a higher conversion rate on third down than the Chiefs through the regular season is the Bills. So the Chiefs are really good on third down for many reasons. Scheme mahomes ability to make throws from the pocket, his ability to get out of the pocket and make throws outside of structure, which breaks down the discipline of your defense. And I think that third down is going to be critical because if he cannot get the Chiefs off the field, and we know what happens when the Chiefs get in the red zone. There's no more creative or red zone play car and designer than Andy Reid. It's going to be very difficult for the Jaguars. Their defense is going to have to play at a very high level on this game. So listen, if you if you look at what Brian Dable did, he basically saved Daniel Jones. We talked about it yesterday. It was like your your kid was flunking out. You hired the best tutor and got him to a C plus. It's not like Daniel's an A plus. He carved up the vikings twice. But you basically saved his career. What does the film say, are there things they have done? Obviously he's running more, but are there things they've done to make it an easier offense for Daniel because he is playing. I think this is indisputable. He looks more confident. I mean, he looks like his body language bigger, more aggressive, Like, what are they doing well? I think again, if a couple of things we don't know. They played Minnesota twice and they allowed Daniel Jones to drop back significantly in both those games, playing against a bad pass defense. But I think they've subtly made a change in the idea that Daniel Jones can line up and can make throws. And what they've done there's a lot of boot action. He's very good getting outside the pocket because he gives you a run game element to that as well. They're very good with the play action pass game. They're very good with the quick game where throws are more quickly defined. These are things that Daniel Jones has executed really, really well. The key for them is to stay in games because if they get behind big which they were not in many games this year at all, then they have to be a drop back passing team, and that's where I think Jones is not quite as good, and that's where some of their old line weaknesses show up as well. That's the other thing people have to keep in mind. If they have to get into a drop back passing a situation, the right tackle the rookie Neil has struggled in one on one pass protection. The interior of that old line is not very good. So they have to be in a situation where the games are close and they can be proactive with how they choose to utilize and deploy their passing game. And that's where Jones has really shined the last number of weeks. He looks tall in the pocket, he's efficient, the ball's coming out, he's not getting stuck in the pocket. We used to see him get stuck in the pocket a lot. Yeah, So what will Jalen Hurts? We know, we know Dexter Lawrence is great, There's no disputing he's a total disruptor. Leonard Williams pretty good. What will what will Jalen Hurts see? What is predictable the Giants do weekend in week out. Well, just one quick point in researching that game, you know what stats speaking of stats, after your baseball ran, Dexter Lawrence has played seventy seven percent of the Giants defensive snaps that three hundred and forty pounds. I just found that afterlutely remarket. But anyway, you know, the big question here is Jalen Hurts. I know he's not on the injury report. But the question is will the Eagles be able to run their entire offense, which includes Hurts as a runner as a significant factor in what they do. But one thing that's really stood out on tape over the last month is the Giants have made a very dramatic change and how they've played defense. Everybody thinks of Martindale correctly so as being heavy pressure, heavy man to man coverage will over the last month they are playing heavy zone with a lot of split safety and they're not blitzing much at all. So they've almost changed three hundred and sixty degrees. And one thing I've noticed watching the Eagles, they are very good attacking coverages. When they feel they have a strong probability tendency as to what they're going to get, they create a lot of good throws by NFL standards, relatively easy throws for Hurts with what they do and how they go about attacking defenses. So I think their coaching staff it's a really, really good job. But when you play Wink Martindale, you're still not sure what you're going to get, So that to me is a really intriguing aspect of that side of the ball. All right, Cincinnati Buffalo. Yeah, it's fascinating. Let's say Buffalo loses, It's like, what are they? I still don't love the offensive line. They're too Josh Allen centric. Now, they're making too many internovers. I don't like what they are now. Yeah, I said this the other day. I covered early Mike Tyson. He moved well, he had a jab he had great corner people. I covered the older Mike Tyson. He stopped jabbing. He wasn't in great shape, his movement wasn't as good, but he could still knock you out. Buffalo feels like they're not aging. Well, I'm I'm I don't like what I see. What does the tape say? Yeah, you know, and I've spoken about this now for quite a while, and I think, and you know, you have to watch the tape to understand what they are there. You're right about their O line. Their O line is probably average at best, maybe below average. They don't really run the ball with any real commitment, and their run game and their pass game does not sync up. Sometimes I watch them and I feel like they say, well, it's time for a run, so they hand it all. And you know, I don't feel like there is really a synchronicity between their run game and their pass game. As far as receivers, as far as who you can count on every single week, you really have digs. Everybody else is week to week you're not sure. So they're Josh Allen centric, as you said, and it's hard to play that way, you know. So he makes. The thing about Josh Allen is he makes throws that when you're watching on TV probably look pretty routine, but they're not. He's really a special player. I mean, in terms of pure physical gifts along with his size, he's the most physically gifted quarterback in the league. Now, if he has a great game and he's look, you go back to last year's two playoff games. Obviously we know they lost to the Chiefs in that wonderful game. But if he plays like that, they can score forty and beat anybody anytime. You know. But because they're so Josh Allen centric, and because he has such an aggressive mindset in mentality, there's always going to be throws he makes that you scratch your head. You hope that they don't turn out to be turnovers. And by the way, it's not as if he threw twenty five interceptions. He only threw one or two more interceptions than Mahomes. People just get caught up because of the way in which he plays. There's at times a reckless, undisciplined nature to the way in which he plays. Sometimes that leads to an unbelievable play, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, and you know, this interception was a great example that we're looking at. John Brown is a clear out player on that route concept. The ball never should have been thrown to John Brown. But sometimes Josh Allen can't help himself. But their offense is Josh Allen not that talented on offense. Yeah, there you go. They're not that talented on offense. One more Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Okay, Joe Burrow against the Ravens. Pretty conservative stuff. The tape look like. Yeah, the last two weeks now division opponent could be a function of that. They also now have offensive line issues. They're going to start three backups. By the way, the Bill's pass rush is not great either. By the way, that's another area that can be a concern for them depending on the opponent. But so what they've done the last couple of weeks has been a lot of quick rhythm throws get the ball out of Borrow's hands. His longest pass play last week was nineteen yards. I think he only took one vertical shot in the entire game. Normally he takes vertical shots outside the numbers when he gets one on one. So it'll be interesting to see how they go about playing this week given their offensive line shoes with the three backups. But you're right this the last two weeks, this offense has had much more of a conservative feel to it than sort of the aggressive mentality that we've seen with Burrow. Because Barrow, really, when I watched the tape for ninety percent of this season, I always think of a guy that is aggressive that when he sees one on ones he's going to throw it. Yeah. Okay, let's talk Niners cowboys. So I was talking to somebody the other day and John Lynch pointed this out earlier in our show. Brought Purdies a lot more athletic than they thought. Now. Herbert in college was restricted, and then the Rolls Bowl came out and people went, oh, justin Herbert actually can run. CJ. Stroud restricted at Ohio State that it never a good backup against Georgia. He runs and everybody goes, oh, I didn't know CJ. Stroud was that player. So Niners John Lynch said, we knew he was. He could move, we didn't know he was nearly this athletic. And I think to myself, if you want to be hyper aggressive like Dallas can be defensively, you could really get burned here if he extends plays. I think purty. I mean, what's the film say. I think his athleticism is better than I thought, and better than the Niners thought. Well, and it's added to their offense because one of the things I've spoken about for a number of weeks now is he's added two things to their offense column that Garoppolo couldn't give them The play action boot game because he's got light feet and can get outside the pocket, and the second reaction Movement game he makes plays outside of structure. And we didn't see either of those two things from Garoppolo. So he's given them two dimensions to their offense that Garoppolo could not. So that's a factor. But It's funny you talk about Dallas. They like to be in aggressive defense, but what do the Niners do. The Niners lineup in base personnel what we call twenty one personnel more than forty percent of their snaps, two backs with use check, and one tight end. And it's very difficult to be really aggressive when you're in your base defense. Because the Cowboys base defense is what we call big nickel. They play with three safeties, they never play with three linebackers, and they're not really aggressive from that personnel package. And the thing about the forty nine ers, they have five eligible receivers in that twenty one personnel package that can line up anywhere in the formation, and that makes it really hard for a defense and easier for Purdy because it gives him far more pre snap information based on what the defense shows him before the snap of the ball. Okay, Dak Prescott, that's as good as I've said that, the best I've ever seen him playing a big game. Now you got the film you had, you had to have been impressed. His movement I thought was already good. Yeah, I thought that it was in the second quarter, the final drive of the second quarter, where you could really see Prescott settle in and be sort of the Prescott that we've kind of seen from much of his career. He started the game still playing fast, kind of a continuation of the week prior against the Commanders. He still wasn't see things with clarity, and then all of a sudden he settled in and you could just see that everything kind of came together. He saw the field. His vision was expanded and not condensed and limited. He moved better when he threw that touchdown his Schultz the movement touchdown, you could see he was moving with purpose. He was not playing fast. It was almost the old John Wooden line, be quick, but don't hurry, you know. He was moving with a purpose, and I thought that it all kind of clicked in for him, and I think that's the way we expect Prescott to play. That's the way he's played a good part of his career. Okay, so your big play of the week to a player that got dinged up early. It took him about Thanksgiving. The Dalton Schultz, I think's a really good player. This year was a little uneven for him early, but he's back to being really really important for this offense. And I'm glad you said it that way, because no one would say Dalton Schultz, as you know, George Kittle or Travis Kelcey or Andrews or those guys. But he's really important to them and that's all that matters. So let's go to the play. This was the first touchdown to Shultz. It was the seam ball that he hit, and you know it was wide open, and so how did he get wide open, particularly in the red zone like that. So here we know that he caught the seamball. So let's walk through this and see how this all happened. So the Bucks are in cover three. It's a single high safety defense. Now you need to control two defenders to make this throw. You need to control the post safety and you need to control the corner to the boundary. So what they do is they run double seam. Okay, one player can't play two seam routes. That's really hard and cover three and then they take the corner and they have ceedee lamb run a stutter go because you don't want the corner overlapping the seam by Schultz. So now there's an element of Prescott here as well. He looks left on his drop back because he also must control the post safety. So you have the post safety control, you have Lamb stutter Go controlling the outside corner. So now the seam is wide open because the two players on defense who needed to be controlled were controlled by the routes and by Dak Prescott looking to his left. So this was beautifully designed against cover of three and beautifully done. Good stuff. You know, I just thought I got I'm gonna argue more about this, Eli Manning. Let me ask you this, the Eli man So both Aaron Rodgers and Eli are rich, commercially viable, they'll be Hall of famers, They're iconic. That's not the question. That's not the question. ELI was also a better high school college quarterback and a better quarterback for first four years because Aaron didn't play for three. Now the ELI has ended, you know, he ran out. Aaron's better late. But if you go to the heart of their primes six year primes, Eli's got two super Bowls, Aaron's got one. The heart of that is closer than you think. Aaron's got some hardware in the last couple of years MVPs. ELI was better early, Aaron is better late. If you go to the heart of it, boy Eli for about six years in the middle there. And by the way, is the best Giants quarterback of all time? Isn't he? Ya? Teddl and Eli? Are they the two best? I guess you'd have to think, but probably Okay, yeah, I know the Giants for a long stretch didn't have what would be considered great. Well though, Phil Simms, you know he obviously played great for a couple of years as well and had a phenomenal Super Bowl. How about this one. You could argue bart Starr got more rings and far was more talented for a lot of people, old timers. Aaron's third, am I not. I'm gonna ask you this very quickly. It comes down to the question about super Bowls versus other things. You know, if you just want to look at super bowls and you can say that, hey, you can just look at the at a math equation and say a guy's great because he won super Bowls. Well, it's not just that he won super Bowls. He beat Brady and Belichick twice, had two of the most iconic throws. And there's nothing in America like being a New York legend. Nah, he's a legend. He's Joe Torre, he's Derek Jeter, he's Eli. There's like, there's like seven to be a fascinating conversation, Colin, with coaches. You know, you mentioned Philip Rivers. I have spoken to coaches who some who feel that Philip Rivers was a better quarterback than Eli Manning. You know. Now, again there's not speaking about it from a numbers or a hardware perspective, But so that would be a fascinating conversation to have with coaches. Maybe I'll maybe I'll have dinner with Sean Payton again next week. There you go, There you go, Greg, great seeing you, Thank you, Thanks Colin, appreciate it.