Colin discusses how Fred Warner's big new extension will affect the 49ers cap going forward and why the NBA is the only sports league left with parity as we get set for the Western Conference Finals to kick off. Colin addresses the reports that the USC / Notre Dame rivalry could soon be ending. He also talks to Super Bowl Champion Drew Bledsoe about the young QBs around the NFL and Bill Belichick's upcoming season at North Carolina
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This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver on Fox Sports Radio.
Here we go. It is a Tuesday. We are live. This is the Herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. Jmax, you know, I was thinking about this if we didn't have a game last night. We have a game tonight, Western Conference Finals. The well rested Timberwolves take on OKC OKC.
Home court advantage.
I don't think the rest matters a ton to OKC because they're the deepest roster in the NBA. I think they'll mitigate that. They'll be fine. And I'm gonna get to that in a couple of minutes. About Adam Silver's new NBA. But I talked yesterday about Brock pretty signed a new contract, and I was and I always said, Jay Mac is that I think brock Purty is Tua of the NFC, a little smaller than I like, not as good in bad weather, mobile enough, but like they need a Shanahan or a Mike McDaniels.
That's the secret.
Sauce left with a defensive coach, Tua was overwhelmed. If you gave brock Purty a defensive coach Matt EBERFLUSI I think he would be overwhelmed. But Tua and McDaniel have the right coach, the right system. And you know, one guy had Waddle and Tyreek Hill, one has Kittle, had Debo Christian McAfee, so it works to some level. Don't love either, but I like both. But when you start circumstantially paying too much for Tua, now he's got a week O line and he's just not good enough and gets exposed. That's what I think will eventually overtime happened to Brock. So I was talking to somebody yesterday about this. So the Niners signed Fred Warner yesterday to a huge contract. So the Niners are now paying three positions, positions you'd prefer to get value out of positions. The rival Rams don't pay anything to they're now paying Christian McCaffrey a running back, second most for a running back in the league, George Kittle first most for a tight end, and Fred Warner first most for a linebacker. And they're doing this because they have to, because they've missed on so many picks. John Lynch, in my opinion, has not been a great drafter, and I think Shanahan has the power in the building. San Francisco also gave up three first round picks for Trey Lance. So now what you have to do is you get forced to sign positional players where you'd really like value. I mean right now, the Rams don't pay anything for linebackers. The Rams don't pay anything for corner, they don't pay anything for safety.
They don't even.
Pay a ton for a left tackle. And so I've said with Tua and pretty it's situational. I'd like him at thirty eight million, I'd like him at forty two. I don't like him in the fifties. And here's an example what I'm talking about. If you go look at the Niners. I took their last five drafts, in their last eighteen picks in twenty three and twenty two drafts.
The Niners have one hit rock pretty one.
I'll give you a Jake Moody, but I don't think anybody loves a kicker in the third round, and he's been disappointing. And I'll all count Ricky Pearsall as a semi hit, but I thought he was overdrafted. They have back to back drafts in twenty two and twenty three.
They didn't get anybody.
The Dallas Cowboys, like the Niners, overpaid for a quarterback. Therefore, the offensive line is weaker than you'd like and the team is top heavy. One injury and all the dominoes come tumbling down. Look at the cowboy the Cowboys last two drafts. I like Demarvin overshown, but he's never healthy. Tyler Geiden, I'm not sure he's a hit. I'll give it to you, but I would argue in their last two drafts they don't have one absolute hit. Conversely, the Lions had a three draft stretch twenty one, twenty two, twenty three where they had.
Twelve hits in three drafts.
So the Jared Goff contract, and Jared's better in my opinion as a natural talent than Turty. Year two, it's not as putitive because they can let go of veterans they hit on draft picks. Similarly, the Philadelphia Eagles the Jalen Hurts contract, they can pay Sakwon Barkley because they never miss on their first or second round picks. I mean, they've gone four years where they've hit on all of them, and they got Jalen Hurts for free for years because he was a second round pick. So last seas and was an example of what I think the Niners are going to face over the next two to three years. Last year, Christian McCaffrey got hurt, Trent Williams got hurt. Oh, Brandon I you got hurt, Bosa got dinged, and they have no depth. So this is not me just simply not liking Rock Party.
It's just like.
Tua if you don't or Dak if you don't get the right number one or two injuries and it all comes crumbling down. The best thing the Niners have going for him is a really smart head coach with a good system and the NFL's weakest schedule in ten years. Okay, so tonight is the start of the Western Conference Finals, and.
Uh, people say they want a lot of things.
They say they want to work out and they say they're going to put money away, and you know they they say they want parody in sports, and the NFL does a great job to make you think they've got parody. But Mahomes and Brady have made ten of the last fifteen Super Bowls from the AFC, and Philadelphia is favored again in the NFC. We'll see what Jaden Daniels can do to disrupt that. But the truth is what you're seeing in sports right now. The last seven NBA champions Raptors, Lakers, Bucks, Warriors, Nugget, Celtics. That's the last six. The seventh this year will make seven new champs in seven years. So for years you have been telling me this is exactly what you want. But the truth is, I'm watching TV ratings for sporting events and there's no parody outside the NBA, and the numbers are going up. And I have said this on occasion that I think parody is unrealistic. People are not even There are all sorts of gaps in ambition and intelligence and willfulness. I was just reading a Barry Diller book. Some people just stay at work until the job's done right to go home early. That's the reality. The OKCGM, Sam Presty is better than yours. So is Brad Stevens of Boston or Tim Connery of Minnesota.
They're not even.
And historically in all employment, a's higher, a's b's higher, c's so weaker gms build weaker staffs. And I know you could say to yourself, well, Colin, life's about opportunities.
Not really, it's not.
It's wilfulness, it's ambition, it's intelligent. You can give two people the same opportunity, somebody's going to leap ahead. Well, call in the American capitalistic system. It must be better in Europe.
No, not really.
If you go to the English Premier League, last eight years Liverpool or Man City has won their biggest league there NFL.
Go to France.
Oh, those liberal frenchmen, I bet you they don't have an ugly capitalistic system. Let's go to their sports. PSG's won ten of the last twelve league titles. Oh isn't that funny? How about Barcelona Real Madrid in Spain They've won ten of eleven.
Yeah, it doesn't matter. Cross the pond.
Here people aren't even ambitions, not even money's not even even in the socialistic countries are sports, men's and women's tennis. Scottie Scheffler's pulling away. It's the same five or six golfers for the men Olympics. We know host cities, especially the United States, do well Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics. It's the same basic countries. World Cup. Yeah, it bounces a little, but go look at the top six or seven teams right now. They've been the top six or seven teams most of the last fifteen years. It is the reality of where we're at. In fact, the only parody is the NBA. You get Minnesota, you Oklaoma City, you get Indiana. Only one real major market, New York, and their parody as well because they've stunk most of the last twenty five years.
So this is, to me, the NBA that.
Adam Silver wanted, and it's taken years to present it unravel. Some cbas wait for contracts to end. This is his NBA, and Adam Silver has talked about this before publicly.
I see my goal as helping the league I called from for Shorthand to become more NFL like. And if you asked a casual NFL fan are you going to watch the Super Bowl? They'd hardly ever, say only if the Giants are in it.
It's a national holiday.
And I think part of my job is to take people who are fans of the game back to where we started. In addition to whoever their hometown fan is or wherever their personal interest is. Players and teams should think, I'm a fan of the game. This is the best basketball being played by definition, because this teams going to the conference finals.
So is he an idealist or a realist? David Stern had no problem. David Stern loved the Bulls and New York and the Lakers. Because David Stern took over an NBA that had all this parody in the seventies.
And nobody was watching it.
So David Stern's like, let's get in Nike, let's get in Adidas, let's get in Converse La New York. He didn't have a problem with it. He made the league more richer. Owners had an advantage, and big cities tend to, at least in the time, have more money and more game day nightly revenue and bigger local TV deals as well radio deals. So David Stern was a pragmatist. He was a realist, but he inherited a league where everybody was winning, different teams every year, Seattle, Portland, Golden State, Philadelphia, and it wasn't doing well. So Adam Silver inherits a league where it's like three to four teams at the top, five or six teams that are semi interesting and a massive bottom, a too top heavy, and Adam Silver is like, I don't like it. So now you can't stack rosters. It's roster construction. And what we're seeing is the four best players in these you know conference final teams.
Are all guards.
It is guards who elevate the players because you can't stack a players anymore. So we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it. But it is a new NBA, more physical, more parody. Can't stack rosters.
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So I saw this story this morning.
You know Bill Belichick goes to Carolina when when Dion Sanders went to Colorado, the first thing that was inarguable is he sold the stadium ount and Colorado was a sputtering program.
There wasn't any interest.
Boulder's sort of a you know, it's sort of a wild, fun place go to have a good time. Very infrequently have they had a lot of interest or a lot of success in football. And even with Dion, they weren't super successful, but they got on TV a lot. They were interesting. I thought he did a pretty good job to get him on television. They don't win a ton of games, even though they are in the Big Twelve, which is one of the weaker conferences. Not acc week, but kind of week. But Dion has made them relevant and in college football hit. The recruiting at Colorado now is relevant and that's what matters now. I do think Carolina historically is a better football program than Colorado, and there's more money in it, especially for football.
But this is interesting.
Carolina has sold out their season tickets before they have played a game under Bill Belichick. So it's the Deon effect. And I think what is fascinating about Belichick. So I think if you put Belichick in the SEC or the Big Ten, he'd get rolled. Because I've all has had this theory is that the key to NFL coaching is just raw intelligence. Mostly smarter coaches win because you pick the players and you can practice much longer. College football is different. You need to be able to recruit. You got to have great energy. Intelligence to some degree can be muted. Now we know Nick Saban is really smart, but Nick was also relentless on a recruiting trail, tons of energy, always a smile, great brand, and you know, again relentless when it came to getting players. He was pre nil the best recruiter I think I've ever seen so and so. I always thought John Gruden would be a great college coach. Smart enough, but great recruiter, great energy. Pete Carroll is not known as a schematic whiz. Great college coach. Jim Harbaugh simple themes, repetitive in his theme, great energy and recruiter. Yet Bill Walsh at Stanford his last two years, he was seven, fourteen and one combined, arguably the smartest coach in league history. Bill Walsh was smart, players not that successful at Stanford. Jim Harbaugh much more successful. Harbaugh could recruit. Harbaugh had greater energy. Harbaugh had very simple themes. Belichick smart. I think the one thing that saves Belichick is the acc is terrible. I looked at Joel Klatz preseason top fifteen. There is one ACC team in it, and that is Clemson. Now, Clemson has a I think the second or third best quarterback in college football, and they returned most of their really good players they didn't transfer. But they're not really an NIL story. I don't think they're a national championship contender, but I think they have a good coach, they have a first round quarterback and a lot of good players returned and didn't transfer. But there's no other ACC teams there. You got BYU and Arizona State and South Carolina Illinois all above the next ACC team. So my take is Belichick's little grumpy Belichick is Energy is meth. Belichick's a socio recruiter, and his messaging, let's be honest, kind of complex. Now, I think he Charlie Weiss was another guy who was a really smart guy. He kind of bragged about his schematic advantage. He had a big brand, notre name Energy recruiting very average, and so I do think what saves Bill is the ACC. If you look at their schedule outside of the Clemson game, they can match up with anybody. I mean, there's just w's everywhere in this thing. But like Dion Sanders, and this is why I've supported Bill Belichick and Jordan Hudson. Caroline's a basketball school, Colorado is a nothing school. Social currency, attention is your stock market. And I think North Carolina and Belichick, I've got him as my third story today, I don't have the Carolina Tar Heels basketball program as my third story. So for some of these programs like Colorado and Carolina selling out the stadium, getting on television raising nil money, Trump's getting to the playoffs.
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Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Why should you listen to Cavino and Rich.
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world.
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss.
And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something right.
So check us out.
We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls, chop it up.
As they say, I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe.
The most interactive show on planetar.
Be sure to check out Cavino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you miss any of the live show, just search Kovino and Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media.
That's Covino and Rich.
USC football is listening to me. The stories are they may move out of the Notre Dame game and coming up next.
It's really interesting. So it's I'm listening.
To radio today this whole Caleb Williams, Seth Wickersham our interview this week. It's getting a lot of play. And I've said I think Ben Johnson and Caleb are going to work. But here is something that we can no longer argue. You're gonna know very quickly if it works or if it doesn't. And I think you'll be surprised when you go back and look at how early young great quarterbacks. Give us a tell, let us know they're going to be great. We'll talk about that next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern nn am Pacific.
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together We're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world.
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss.
And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together.
I mean that says something right. So check us out.
We like to get you involved too, Take your phone calls, chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the.
Most interactive show on planetar.
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you miss any of the live show, just search Kobe known Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media that's Cavino and Rich.
In just six days, it's the biggest day in motorsports, as the greatest spectacle in racing, the one hundred and ninth Indy five hundred comes to Fox for the first time ever with Joseph Neugarten going for a historic rept coverge begins at ten am Eastern.
Sunday on Fox. We are so pumped for this race.
We got an authentic Indie five hundred driver helmet and an Indy five hundred milk jug. Of course, the winner on Sunday Will continued the tradition of drinking milk in Victory Lane.
Speaking to Indianapolis, you see that Caitlin Clark fever TV rating, the biggest TV rating twenty five years for the WNBA.
Nothing against Angel Reevees, but.
They're going to get every single Caitlin Clark game on television and they should Magic and burn. Many thinks saved the NBA. I don't I love the seventies NBA. I was a huge doctor J fan. I love those Sonics teams, Elvin Hayes and the Bullets in West Son So I really like seventies NBA, the Knicks in the early seventies.
I don't remember the next teams.
I didn't really start watching sports until like seventy two, seventy three, but the Knicks one in like seventy one, Lakers one I think in seventy two, and then it was.
You know, it was.
It was like now, a bunch of different teams. But and it's not the Caitlin Clark saved the WNBA, but there is no disputing it now matters.
I mean the sport. Let's be honest.
They were moving into smaller arenas subsidized by the NBA. You know, the very insular. There was a small niche group of WNBA fans. Magic and Bird made the NBA. They didn't save it. They made it relevant and Michael made it global and Lebron made it mobile. Everybody can play anywhere. Clark, it's closer to saving the WNBA. It was getting better, but it still wasn't making any money. And I mean that's that's incredible. Twenty five years a season opener. It saysn't a Christmas game. It's not a playoff game. It's just Caitlin Clark on a team that was awful last year, highest rating twenty five years. So one of the things Caleb Williams, the Bears quarterback, spending a lot of time in Chicago, Like it's you turn on the radio and they're talking Cubs are Kayleb Williams, Like that's the topic, And he's gotten some pushbacked.
I think a lot of it is unfair. He's young.
I thought during the season he handled himself, you know, like a like an adult at the podium.
That matters to me. He was a grownup.
But and I've also said that I'm not going to wait forever. You're going to tell pretty quickly how good he is as long as you have a competent coach. I mean, you don't need a great one. Is Dan Quinn great? Is Zach Taylor great? At he's competent. I think Ben Johnson bottom the floor is he's certainly competent. I took five quarterbacks that none of us would argue they were stars, Andrew Luck, Jayden Daniels, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, CJ.
Stroud. I want to put a Herbert in many of you think he's overrated.
I'm not going to put a two in because I don't think he's a star those five guys, and I'm not going to use Mahomes because he has Andy.
Reid arguably the best coach.
Ever, how long did it take to figure out Andrew Luck was good? Well, he had the worst roster in the NFL, that's why they had the number one pick, and weeks seven through ten Andrew Luck had a four game winning streak and through four in that four game winning streak, twelve hundred yards and it was less.
Of a passing league.
Then how about Jaden Daniels of Washington in weeks two, three, and four. He went twenty three at twenty nine twenty one to twenty three twenty six. So by September we have ourselves a superstar quarterback Joe Burrow now with an atrocious offensive line, good receiver, atrocious o line. Week two sixty one throws three touchdowns over three hundred yards. Week three duplicated it three hundred plus yards, again with an atrocious on line and a coach nobody liked.
Lamar Jackson.
Six of his first seven starts he won, and he was clearly the most electric runner at the position since Michael Vick and then CJ. Stroud I mean, con the dude said an NFL record he didn't have an interception in his first five weeks, which is its NFL history. So my point being, I think you can argue that Caleb Williams roster, now that he has at least a confident coach, it's better than Andrew lux roster, better than Jade and Daniels. I'm not sure better than Lamar Jackson's, but it's better than c J. Strouds, and outside of Jamar Chase, it's better than Joe Burrows. So at worst he would have the second best roster because Baltimore's is Oh was pretty good.
And so I looked this morning.
I thought, Caleb Williams has to be good in September, and if he's not, then the critics and I know scouts who don't love his accuracy, don't like his footwork, and feel he plays too much hero ball. I think he's got to go three in one of the first four games because the Raiders and the Cowboys are on that schedule and he's hosting Minnesota in perfect weather at Detroit I'll give you an l but I think going into the bye in week five, I don't think it's unrealistic. I don't think it's hyperbolic. I don't think it's a hot take. If we don't see it through those first four games, he's probably not it if he's struggling, and you know, I think we've talked about this before that you can on music. You can tell this with music like Member Simon call American Idol. You can see lousy and great Carrie Underwood, you know eight seconds in Yeah that works, or if somebody butchers it, that doesn't good, pretty good may take time, great awful. You can see it instantly, so it will know and pretty good then Caleb Williams will be disappointing, will know very quickly because music and quarterback play it doesn't take long. Didn't take long with Burrow, Luck Jaden, C J. Stroud, it just didn't take long. It took like two weeks. So I said this a year ago and it got a little pushback. I said, college football is amazing, but it's all about the playoff. Just get into the playoff. That's what it's all about. It's not about tradition and even USC fans like, what are you talking about When I said get the Notre Dame game off the schedule, What do you plan Notre Dame for?
So the two football blue bloods have played.
Ninety five times since nineteen twenty four, but USC, according to a story today, is very reluctant to extend it long term. And I agree with USC. So people are clinging to tradition. Let me tell you about tradition and college football. It's entered the portal, all right, this is a sport where you can now buy high school players. That was a death penalty four years ago. The highest rated game last year of the season was Georgia and Texas. It wasn't Texas and Oklahoma. So if you look at USC's schedule, and this is what I've argued, as they move into a conference now where they're at a little bit of a weather disadvantage, it's a warm weather program. Prime example is September seventh, September twenty seventh through November one at Illinois, Michigan at Notre Dame at Nebraska was a home game.
That's a much better schedule.
And because their payout now in the Big Ten is minimum seventy five million dollars, which is over two and a half times the Pack twelve payment. They don't need the money. Now it's different. Remember Notre Dame used to play Michigan years ago. They don't. The sport is fine. So Notre Dame, realizing there's a nutrition, has entered into a twelve year contract with Clemson. So I didn't grow up ever pining for Notre Dame. In Clemson, USC is like, we don't need you and we're not interested playing cold weather games in November if you want to maintain this. And USC has all the leverage because of the Big Ten money, they don't need Notre Dame. Notre Dame needs big games, so that's why they signed the Clemson deal. They need big games. They lost Michigan, they can't lose USC. So it's just I think it's very interesting is that the Big Ten allows USC to play a week out of conference schedule and still have Oregon Washington, which is generally ranked when they're in a bit of a rebuild.
They'll be better this year.
Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska.
I think with Matt rule will be pretty good.
Illinois this year will be good so I mean, listen, when the reason USC was the first out of the pac twelve, why number one, money, number two, stability. So right now, for USC, it's about the playoffs.
It's not about Notre Dame. It's not about tradition, traditions. Enter the portal.
Texas, Georgia's going to get your biggest rating, not Texas Oklahoma. So it's I think people are just grabbing on to something. When I was growing up as a kid, I remember Nebraska, Oklahoma, Barry Switzer, Tom Osborne. They got replaced by Texas, Oklahoma. Okay, Michigan. Notre Dame used to be great. They don't play. I'm okay with it. It's fine. It's all about the playoff. It's all about December. So very interesting, USC wavering on the Notre Dames.
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You know.
The stuff that gets all the headlines is Jordan Hudson and Belichick's relationship. I'm actually fascinated how he does. I think the ACC is so weak that Bill's just going to win some games. But I've never prescribed to the theory that all NFL greats work in college. Bill Walsh had very modest success at Stanford because Bill was an academic and you get seventeen hours a week and you're talking to kids, even if they're Stanford kids. I always thought John Gruden would be a great college coach. I thought Rex Ryan, big personality, big smile, a line of BS.
I thought Rex Ryan would be a great college coach.
I never thought like Parcels or Belichick, a little like Charlie Weiss, sort of the academic, little grumpy. That guy doesn't work in college to me, because the players select you. Drew bledschel is now joining US live fourteen years, four time pro bowler, Patriots Hall of Fame, joining US former number one overall pick yeah, forget, forget all the Bill personal stuff. Is that college football is a lot. It's like the movie poster. What's the movie? Pete Carroll big energy, Bill Walsh lower energy, academic.
How do you think he'll do as a coach.
It's going to be interesting to watch Colin, you know, and I think if nothing else, it's going to get eyeballs right. So I mean, if that's what you're looking for, you know, people are gonna be watching, you know, North Carolina football. But you know, you're right, you do have to you have to simplify things. You only get a certain amount of time. And then you know, now coaching in college is so much different too, because not only do you recruit guys coming in, you have to keep recruiting recruiting that the entire time you're there. And you know, Bill has always been so focused, you know, just one dimensional on the football.
It's going to be really interesting.
You know, to see, you know, how he does dealing with all the other stuff that is involved in coaching college.
Now.
Yeah, the.
You know, nil makes it maybe a little easier because you can just go buy guys, but you know he didn't necessarily always work well with young players. You know, the college football thing is interesting. I can remember your college career very well. I look, we talked about this this morning, USC Notre Dame, and USC is like time out. We got to go to Michigan, Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State.
We don't want to go to South Bend in November.
Where are my take his tradition entered the portal, Get over it, like where are you on?
Like a USC Notre Dame, we would you give that up?
Because now the big ten page of seventy five eight million dollars a year, you don't need the revenue.
Yeah, I'm with you.
College.
I love the tradition.
I love these these old rivalries and maybe, you know, maybe we're just old, you know, maybe we just don't get it. But man, it kind of breaks my heart a little bit. You know, my dad played for the Washington Husky, so he was Pack eight Pac ten, and I was, you know, in the in the Pac ten. My son played for the Kougs in the Pac twelve. And so now you got like three generations of our family history that's kind of thrown out the door. So it's it's it bugs me. I don't like the lack of or some of these you know, traditions that have been broken down with the realignment.
So in your day you played eight nine high school games. It was slower growth. These days, I'm much tougher on quarterbacks, seven on seven camps. You have your personal coaches.
I need.
By Thanksgiving of year two, I'm going to raise my hand. I'm going to be in a room and I know if you can player, you can't play. I'm giving you about twenty five games. You are in a front world where you got three full years and then you looked at Eli and said, okay, it works. I look at Caleb Williams. I looked at how good Burrow was quickly, Jayden Daniels was quickly, Andrew luck was quickly. Lamar Jackson was When will you watch Caleb with now kind of a stacked roster?
When will you have.
Strong opinions on Caleb Williams for the Bears next year?
Yeah?
You know, I think this year is going to be pretty telling column because you know, you come in one of the one of the curses of being you know, the top draft picks. You're generally going to a team that's not very good unless there's some kind of crazy trade or something, you know, and so now they're putting a roster around him. The guys you know, remarkably talented, there's no questioning that. But this year it's it's going to be interesting to watch his progression.
You know.
It's also you know, one of one thing for young quarterbacks is who they're working with on a daily basis, you know, and what kind of coaching are they getting. You know, you see certain coaches, you know, Sean Payton comes to mind. Andy Reid is a guy that that's that's always been that guy. You know, quarterbacks have success when they're with these guys, you know, and so you know it'll be interesting to watch his his continued development. You know, this year, you know, he probably gets this year to progress and then next year, you know that third year it's kind of well, are you going to are you going to re up on this guy or.
Is he going to move on someplace else.
I found people last year had really strong opinions on his footwork hero ball. If if you just watched him, what was your general impression. I'm not saying things were built for him to succeed, but what was there a general uneasiness sometimes when you watch him.
Yeah, you know it's it's again, it's sometimes that remarkable talent can be a little bit of a curse. You know, I had a big arm, and that got me into some trouble from time to time, because you know, you tend to think you can make every throw, you can fit the ball into the tightest spot, and sometimes you know, as a quarterback, you just have to take the easy play.
You got to take the checkdown, you got to you got.
To take five yards you don't have to make the wild play every single time, especially you know when that you know, when you're risking, you know, losing a game because you're trying to force something to happen. You know, you watch you know, like I you know, Pat Mahomes is probably the best guy playing right now, best guy's played for quite a while. You watch him, especially like this last year, in the last couple of years, there was not a lot of wow stuff in the first three quarters or first three and a half quarters, right, and then when he and then when he had to boom, you know, he can make that WildPlay. But but you know, he really seems to understand that quarterback thing where you first do no harm. It's kind of like you're a doctor, right, you know, the hippocratic oath. First you do no harm. And that's that's one thing that a guy like Caleb has to understand, is like, look, you know, the wild plays once in a while, yeah, you have to, But but the rest of the game, you really need to be able to manage the game and keep it close and keep your team in the game and not lose the game before you have a chance to win it.
You know, you're tied to Robert Kraft in New England and the Patriots Hall of Fame. It's there's not a lot of players, former players that go on to be great coaches. Okay, Belichick wasn't, Andy Reid wasn't. McVeigh was an athlete, but wasn't. Kyle Shanahan wasn't. Rabel was a good player, but he's a hell of a coach. And Dan Campbell again was solid. But it really works. What is your insight on what is it about Rabel that? Because I think he's really good and most guys who played at the high level, they're too busy being players to worry about to worry about Nybille What is his secret sauce?
Yeah, you know, I only played with Mike for one year, and we were close enough friends that felt like we played together for like five or six years. But Mike had then and I think still to this day, has just tireless energy. You know, he would he would go to practice and run all of the defensive steps. Then he would play scout team and then for you know, just burn off some energy. He would go run down on scout team kickoff, like just tireless energy.
And so you start there.
You know that's something that you see with Dan Campbell too, just like his energy is infectious, and then Brage is incredibly smart. You know, he's a brilliant, brilliant guy. But I also think there is Colin there's something about, you know, being a player that gives you some credibility with your team. I know it hasn't always hasn't always translated, but you know, I remember watching Danny Campbell in training camp telling his guys like, guys, I don't want to put you in pads, but if I knew there was another way to get you ready to play, we wouldn't do this, I promise.
And they know he means it because he was there.
He was one of them.
He was you know, he went through he went through two A days. He knows how much it sucks, and uh, you know. So I do think that if you have the you know, the energy of the intelligence, if you combine that with the credibility that goes with having actually been there and done that and knowing how it feels, I think that's really meaningful to players.
Go back to all your quarterback coaches and your coordinators, who was the best former player that you had as a coach? In your career, you know, I had, I had eight different offensive coordinators and probably nine different quarterback coaches. Wow, the one that the one that I that I really wish I only got to work with him for one year.
I really wish I could have worked for Sean Payton more. You know, he was he was an artist when it came to calling plays. You know, he really understood the game. He he you know, and his the great coordinators and quarterback coaches and it's really important. It was still important to me and I was in my you know, thirteenth year or whatever. But they make things more simple for you. You know, they don't give you, they don't overload you with too much information, and they're able to take, you know, really complex things and make them make them simple for you. And that's you know what I hope that is going to happen for Drake May in New England, you know with the the other Josh McDaniels or our wine maker is Josh McDaniels, but it's not the same guy. So we always so we always so well, we we always tell him the other Josh McDaniels, but the other Josh McDaniels working with Drake may you know, I really believe that he'll have the ability to to, you know, help Drake simplify things, you know, going into this next season, and then to kind of bring him along slowly as he as he continues to progress and can process more.
But I'm really excited to watch that happen.
And finally, I think Chadur will be fine. I think he was underdrafted, but there aren't a lot of traits.
He doesn't spin it like you. He's not as tall as you.
He didn't move like Lamari that you know, he doesn't have a lot you go wow. But I do think he didn't have a good old line or a run game, and he played really well against much better teams, and I think there's value in playing well. Where do you when you watch him and you watch them a little bit of Colorado? If you'd never heard any other analysts talk about Shador Sanders when you watched him play as a former NFL pick, what did you see that you liked or didn't? Did you think he was a first round player?
Yeah?
I did. I did, Colin, I thought of you, I thought he was first round talent. I don't know.
I don't know the guy I still it's sort of a mystery to me why he fell as far as he did.
Uh.
But when I watch him, he's accurate. He throws with anticipation. You know, there's a uh, there's a quarterback thing that I always look for if I'm watching quarterbacks, you know, the ones that are successful, you can almost see the future, right.
You have to be to anticipate. You have to throw guys open.
If you wait to see a guy open, especially as you rise at the NFL level, then you're behind and you're just not going to be successful. And I've watched that happen with some quarterbacks that really big arm talent, but they had to wait to see somebody open before they throw the ball. Sdar seems to be able to anticipate well. I liked watching him playing college. Again, he didn't have a ton you know of you know, help up front. He was getting hit. It's another thing that I look for. You know, I'm always kind of suspicious when you see some of these not always, but some of these quarterbacks that come out of the great programs at Ohio States and Alabama's of the world, because you know they're out there there there, guy are better than the other guys. They're not getting hit, they're throwing to open guys. You know, most guys should be able to do that. But when you watch a guy that's getting hit repeatedly and still popping up and making the place for you, you know, that's something that that is a quality that's hard to learn if you can learn it. And he got his ass knocked off in college and still continued to battle and then play and play and play well. So you know, so I believe he's going to have some success, you know, at some point, whether it's this year, next year, whenever that happens.
Yeah, I will tell you when I watched Jared goff at Cal never got hurt and he got blistered for three or four years, and I was like, I don't know if he's any good, but that skinny kid never gets hurt. Some guys just bounce back. Eli Manning never got hurt. You know, it's just the way it works.
Yeah.
No, the best ability is availability, right, That's what the old saying. And then you know, and it's not just the durability piece, but it's the mental toughness of being knowing that you're knowing that you're going to get hit. The next play, but still standing in there and delivering the ball and doing that over and over again. You know, that's a that's a hard thing to learn. You know, it really is a hard thing to learn. I don't know you can learn it.
Uh.
And she seems to.
Have that ability to uh to take take his take his hits and then and keep batt on.
Okay, Double Back Winery. Check it out, Double Back Winery. Was it a good year?
As they ask in your industry.
It's a great vintage colin, great vintage Mother Nature is very very kind to us. The critics have been really kind to us as well, which is good. You know, critics. I've always viewed wine critics kind of like sports writers. I want to put a lot of them in a bag and being able to stick. But but but but but every once in a while they're nice to us.
You know, they give us.
You know, we've got a couple, we've got a couple of hundred point scores recently, so you know, now, I know, I love the critics because they're they're giving us some nice ratings on the lines.
Look it up, Double Back Winery. Drew brud So it's great to see as always, Drew