Thanks for listening to The 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. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go our number two on a Friday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be in however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, f S one. Been on a little bit of a hot streak in the NFL four and one, three and two love my picks this week. I've been going with a lot underdogs. Dogs are barkings scorings down. That means points are more valuable in the NFL. So I've got three dogs for four dogs. We four four underdone. Jets are an underdone, so the Jets could be in there. Okay, interesting, Well you left you dissed him in the hurd hierarchy. I had him like eleventh. The world is waiting. We both liked Baltimore last night, and so Baltimore. You know there are teams in this league San Francisco's not right yet, but I think they'll solve their issues. They're solvable issues. Baltimore wasn't quite right last night. They solved their second half issues. There's teams that don't have solvable issues, like I think Tampa Tom's Brady's divorce was finalized. It's been a really really hard year for Tom reportedly, but really tough in the last six to eight weeks. And you've seen it on the field. And I was asked this the year day by somebody. I said, they said, do you think his off field stuff is affecting him? I'm like, of course it is. If you're going through a crisis at home, of course it affects you at work. I mean, he's been on with divorce attorneys all week, your kids, there's crying there. You can see Tom's weight loss. It's obvious affecting him. So does he get a rebound potentially, you know, But so some of the we're about week seven and eight, you kind of know what everybody is. Remember Cincinnati early had some issues. I said, these are totally solvable issues. Arizona, I think some of those issues are solvable, but there are issues that aren't. So let's do it. This week's Blazing five. Let's blaze it off, fired up, It's Collins Blazing five. Cardinals. I like the Vikings not this week. They'll all take Arizona plus three and a half. Listen. They have issues offensively, but they don't give the ball away. Only the Eagles have fewer giveaways. Kyler Murray is now running more and DeAndre Hopkins is back, and the Cardinals have been a bizarrely good road team since twenty twenty one. Don't ask me, but DeAndre Hopkins insertion back into the offense and Murray's legs now he's willing to run make a difference. The Vikings are good, but they've been out gained by two hundred and seventy yards. All their games are close and they give up six yards a play. This is an explosive Arizona team. They go two Minnesota, they upset the Vikings twenty eight to twenty seven. Raiders at Saints. I like the Saints here plus one and a half. They're coming off extra rest. I always love that. And the Raiders, let's be honest, their wins have been against the Broncos that are awful in the Texans and they needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Texans. The Raiders defense is atrocious. They have the worst passer raiding defense in the league. Opposing quarterbacks average a one oh five passer rating. And those games they won last year, all the close ones. They're owen four and close games and owen three on the road the Raiders. I like their offensive talent. There's some smoke and mirrors here. Very close game. I'll take the points and the Saints to win. Twenty four twenty three. Dolphins said Lions Love the Lions plus three and a half. Love Love, Love Detroit. Listen at home. They're a different team. Jared Goff at home this year. Look at their offense and is eleven home starts. He has a one or two passer rating. At home, they get thirty eight points seven yards of play, and they're getting healthy. They're getting DeAndre Swift has practiced Wednesday and Thursday. T J. Hawkins and their excellent young tight end is gonna play, so they get several weapons back. And the Dolphins, they're one of four teams in the league with a winning record and a negative point differential. There is a ceiling once they get off scripted plays what they can do, and they are beat up, as Jamack told you, a little beat up in some of their units defensively. I like Detroit to win this game in an upset thirty to twenty seven. Patriot said, Yes, I'm gonna take the favored Patriots minus two and a half. They're coming off a humiliating loss. My rule, when great players are humiliated or a great hope co are humiliated, they come back the next week. Listen. Belichick has feasted off average quarterbacks, especially average young quarterbacks, and that's what Zach Wilson is. Zach has less than two hundred passing yards in back to back games. They're missing Bruce Hall, Corey Davis, Elijah Vera Tucker. This is a bad spot for a quarterback that needs protection and a running game. He loses his best protector and running back. New England wins this game twenty seven to twenty and covers the spread. Bengals and Browns. I'm gonna take the underdog Brownies at home on Monday Monday Night, Browns plus three and a half. Listen. For some reason, Cleveland's given Cincinnati issues. Kevin Stefanski's four no against the Bengals all right, and the five games have been decided by three or fewer points for the Browns. This year, they're five games, so they get into some close games. Their offense this season, you think it's terrible, but they're running the heck out of the football in Cleveland. That's not a surprise. Nick Chubb leads the NFL in rushing yards and rushing tds with eight and the Bengals listen, Jamar chases out. That's a big deal. Monday night in Cleveland. Browns don't get a lot of money night football games at home. This is gonna be like Mardi Gras and Joe Burrows still getting sacked a lot. With Miles Garrett, I get great corners for Cleveland, Miles Garrett without Jamar Chase. I think it goes down to the last minute. I'll give Cincinnati a win. It goes either way, twenty eight, twenty seven. But I'm absolutely strongly believe in Cleveland and the points there. You go a lot of dogs, A slight favorite the Patriots. Cleveland's a weird team. I agree with almost all of them. I can't agree with the Jets. I'm just dreaming last night as I'm trying to fall asleep, Like what offensive place can the that's dial up to move the football? Because I don't have a running quarterback like Justin Fields. I just this could be a problem. I will try to hold off texting you during the game because you know Sundays we text and then Calhert checks in with a call later. But this is gonna be an exciting Sunday in the McIntire household. Dante Whitner eleven years, multiple time pro bowler now slides over to the broadcast booth to the Niners, and he's fantastic. Played in three straight NFC championship games. So I defended the Niners with the McCaffrey move. I said, if you want something, get something. If you want to Tesla, go buy it. You're not going to get it on sale. This kid's good. He's a good piece. But there's a lot of people, Dante that think, man, they gave up a lot. How do you think it plays in the locker room. There's a lot of injuries. He's been injured before. To you, does he fit? Does it play in the locker room? I think he faced like a glove. Think about what he can do in the torment that he caused his defensive coordinators. For example, when you go twenty one person there, you have one back in the game, a full back, a tidy end, and two receivers. Now you have him Deebo Samuel, you have Use Check, you have George Kittle, who are all interchangeable. How do you match that? Do you match it with bigger guys or do you match it with smaller guys. If you match it with smaller guys, they're gonna run the ball down your throat because they're all welling blockers. If you match it with bigger guys, they're gonna spread you out and they're gonna throw the ball. Once he's fully implemented into this system, you're gonna see the Christian McCaffrey effect. It's gonna take this offense to another level. How long do you think it takes? Because this weekend the Rams with extra rest, You give mcvagh extra time, they are limited offensively, But how long does stuff like this take McCaffrey. Listen, McCaffrey's a Stanford guy. He's got to be fairly bright, right, he'd been in the league for years, so I mean it shouldn't take for I was surprised how much work he got last week. How long before he becomes a major part of the offense. Well, he's not an All Pro mainly because of his physical abilities and attributes. Takes a phenomenal intelligence to be an all pro. You have to know different levels of the offense that other players just can't comprehend. You have to understand your role in the passing game. You have to understand passing concepts. You have to understand route depths, you have to understand cutback lanes, and we saw that last week. I thought that when he touched the ball he had an opportunity to break it for a big one each time, and he was one tackle away. I think being a Stanford guy, being in the season where you're game planning, you don't have a million plays, you don't have the playbook that you're used to going into training camp with. They have select plays that they want him to run. The zone stretch scheme is not that complicated, and you're gonna get him in the ball, in open space and in the screen game. So the word out of San Francisco right now is that Christian McCaffrey is caught up on this week's game plan and we should see a lot of them. So you played for the Bills, Browns, Niners, Washington. You had a lot of coaches. You had head coaches, you had position coaches, you had coordinators. And I've said this before, first round draft picks thirty percent don't make it. It's hard you interview people. Nathaniel Hackett apparently was a great interview. It's not working. I'm one of those believers that we all make mistakes, pivot off them quickly, don't double down. Did you ever have a coach you don't have to mention the name, or a position coach or a coordinator, and Dante, you knew really quickly, man, this isn't working. This guy's over a skis. Yes, and it was defensive coordinator. I'm not I'm okay with Santa name. It was Perry Fuel And I'll give you an example, and it came from, you know, a game that we had against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night football. We have six turnovers on defense, two defensive scores. We should have beat Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys that night, but at the end of the game, we didn't play a universal defensive call which is called sideline, where you have two defenders to ten twenty thirty two deep guys. They have zero to time out. So all we have to do is make him throw the ball in the middle of field, tackle him. We win the game. He calls covered two two consecutive times. They do a good job of influence our corner. At the time number twenty four terrens. He jumps down and get a seven route for twenty. Then he called covered two again. They get a seven route for fifteen, kick a field goal. We go into overtime and they beat us in a game that we should have won if he would have made the proper calls. So since that day, I realized that sometimes it's the coaching that you know that really fails the team. And when you think of Nathaniel Hackett, he might be over his head. Yeah. I think that some guys are good at coaching the side of the ball. They're good at coaching offense, these wide receivers, whatever it is. But when you have to be the leader of men, you have to delegate different roles to different people on the team. You have to be the person that disciplines your team, make sure that things aren't swept under the rug. It's very difficult for some of those guys. It's very difficult to deal with NFL players who aren't just going to take it. They're going to snap back sometime, and if you're not strong enough to handle that, then you can quickly lose the team. And that's why a lot of the coordinators that transition to the head coach role a lot of times don't it don't work out. Yeah, you know, I said about Lamar Jackson. I had huge doubts out of college, like and he's sit in the pocket on third and throw, and then about a year and a half into it, I'm like, Wow, this dude just wins games. And I do believe the way I look at quarterbacks in this league in twenty twenty two is you gotta have horsepower. You can win a lot of games with Tannehill cousins to it. I'm not saying you can't win games. Hell, you can win a division. When you get into these Mahomes matchups, you get into these big boy matchups with Burrow Josh Allen. I need horsepower. Lamar Jackson's got horsepower, and I thought it was totally on display last night. Are you surprised or how surprised that Baltimore is sort of waiting on the contractor or are you not as big a fan. I'm a huge fan of Lamar's Jackson and being a defender X defender in the NFL, I know how difficult it is to stop guys with the type of talent and attributes that he bring to the game. And he's moving at a different speed than a lot of offensive players and defensive players out there. And when you can add that dynamic, when it's just like, Okay, we might have it blocked up perfectly on defense, we might get the right penetration, but his unorthodox cuts and his skills and just the moves that he can make, it can beat you at any time. You can't teach the things that he provides. Yeah, it's just like unteachable. You can't go and teach a kid, say hey, I'm gonna teach you everything that Lamar Jackson does. We're going to practice. This is impossible. So it is surprising that Baltimore hasn't pulled, hasn't really signed him up for a long term contract. I think that he has zero weapons around him. Yeah, when you're tight end as your number one weapon, when you have to go out and get de Sean Jackson, who's thirty six years old about to be thirty seven, to be a deep threat. That shows you that you didn't do anything in the offense to really provide weapons around Lamar Jackson, and then a defense they're not playing at their usual level. So I think that with Lamar Jackson, I truly believe they can win a Super Bowl if they put the weapons around him and make it comfortable for him to go out there and play his game. Once he gets the contract, he really doesn't have a reason not to run around defenses right now. He's been a little cause. Yeah, no, I mean I get it. You know. I said this obviously as Tom Brady's divorce is finalized today. Obviously, off field drama affects work. Tom looks gaunt, He looks exhausted. Is it possible to you and maybe in your career of eleven years you had a personal drama and you just you know, you had a two or three game stretch Dante where you weren't locked in. I've had that in my life. I have no question it's affect me. Um do you think Tom, you know it's finalized this morning the papers, do you think it's possible that this thing really a lot of the Tampa stuff is just Tom's the leader and he has been completely meetings personal life. Do you think maybe it's possible he gets a bounce a little more football or did you watch last night and think, hey, that's he's not the same guy. Well, when I see him and I watched his physical attributes, I think that there's no degregation in his skill set. I see the footwork, I see the accuracy, I see the understanding of defenses. Yeah, there's a lack in some of the consistency and decision making, but I think the offensive line is protecting them. Well, they're top five in the NFL and sacks per game with one point six sacks per game, so that's not an excuse. I think sometimes it boils down to the concepts that they're running on offense, and I think that a lot of times the playmakers aren't making plays for him. It's not really just Tom Brady throwing the ball over the field. Is getting the ball to the playmakers and allowing them to make plays. There were some phenomenal balls that he threw last week. He threw one to Evans around the money where he was jogging in the ball just popped out. There's some balls times where he's throwing it outside the numbers and he looked like he's twenty one years old. So I don't know if it's I don't see a degregation in his skill set. Now. As far as it's mental, yes, there's been times where I know it wasn't even my wife, it was a girlfriend. We broke up and I'm checking my phone during meetings, right you want to see if she takes back, if you're going to get a chance to make up. Yeah, it affects you, and a lot of times people don't remember that athletes, whether there's any pro sport, you're human and a lot of the things that go on at home can seep into your work life, and I think that that's something that's going on with Tom Brady. It's very difficult situation. But if anybody you can depend on to get yourself out of a phone, to get this team out of a phone, it's Tom Brady because he doesn't have any again, any degregation in the skill set. A couple more players make out there and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be right back where they are, So best to luck for him whatever, everything that he's going through. First round pick out of Ohio State. Well, you're good at this TV thing. You're Dante Whitner. You are good at this man. You got you got a million things going on, and happy for you. Love having you on. May have to bring you, you know, when Michigan beach Ohio State this year, I'll bring you on the day after. Just kidding, just kidding, Dante, great seeing man. I don't I don't think that's going to happen this year. Man. I think that we're on a mission. We're gonna get it done. But yeah, I'll be doing uh Saint Jose State in Nevada game tomorrow night, CBS, guys, check it out, all right, thanks man, all right, thanks for having me, Colin. You bet Dante Whitner he's really good, Isn't he really sees the game? Yeah, sees the game. My wife was texting me during that interview, a lot of questions about our Halloween outfits this weekend. So Colin, I'm a little nervous about the picks coming up later this hour. I hope, I hope I'll be able to give it my best. Okay. I wish you the very the very best. It's a tough time right now. The Halloween is is very difficult. Sometimes we have a house on our street. It is crazy fun. Yeah, I love Alloway. There's a block party. They get truck. It's gonna be off the Hook, Off the Hook, 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. The two twenty two World Series begins tonight as Bryce Harper and the Phillies looking to continue their storybook postseason run against an Astro's team, making their fourth trip to the Fall Classic in the last six seasons. Coverage begins at seventy third fourth Pacific only on Fox and the Fox Sports Apple. Alan Lazard, Green Bay receiver quote, I heard a snap crackling pop in my shoulder. Probably won't play against Buffalo. I'm not sure there's ever been a potential game in the NFL that could be awful, and I cannot wait to watch it. So you know, I have been at times critical of Aaron Rodgers. It should be noted duly that I've been right. But if they do get rolled, and I think green Bay will be very competitive early in this game. They're very good on the script, but they don't have the playmakers after halftime when the game gets you know, like Baltimore last night, Let's see the juice, let's see the horsepower. Baltimore has it with Lamar Aaron and the Packers don't. But if they get rolled, who will get blamed? We are on a little bit of a trend here where Aaron is blaming people. So the magic wheel of blame, the wheel of misfortune for the green Bay Packers? Will it be Matt Lafleur, young, teammates, media, whether himself or inflation. One of those will get the blame. We have a very small percentage of it will be Aaron. But Greg Cosell yesterday said the Packers have a myriad of issues, including their star quarterback. There's never one single answer. You know, their old line has been in a state of flux this year. Their run game has been very inconsistent. Rodgers has also missed some throws that we normally expect him to make. They've been very poor on third down. In their last three games, They've only converted twenty five percent on third down. So this offense stops itself a lot, and they have long yardage third down plays. They're not in third and three and third and four very often at all. My guess is in the NFL that rookie receivers do tend to make mistakes. So I think that you have to work through that and you have to play. And that includes Aaron Rodgers, who I would say, based purely on tape study, is not playing up to his standards either. Very predictable. We said, you don't hang out with the rookie receivers in the off season. You go out and do your stuff. You're gonna have trouble in the regular season because now in preseason football, Aaron's not going to play, so you get no ota, you get no preseason shock that guys that played at Reno in FCS schools aren't ready to step up and contribute before Thanksgiving. I do think it'll get better over time. It should, right, but these are rookie receivers. It was all predictable. Aaron and Brady tend to like veteran guys they can trust. Nothing wrong with that, but this is your team in reality. Figure it out mentor be a good teammate. Don't slice him up publicly. Here's the thing Aaron said this week. Sometimes the truth hurts. But what happens if Matt Lafleur came out, if they get rolled and ripped Aaron. If the truth hurts and some people can't handle it, I asked Peter Schreger, then can Lafleur rip Aaron if he stings? I think Rogers is feeling not only the responsibility of having to do this all by himself out there, with the lack of talent at the skill positions, and the receivers and the and whatever else you have at the offensive line not holding up. I also feel like there's he's trying every trick in the book to motivate these guys, and us on the outside are like, that doesn't work. I'm not sure there's enough motivational tactics that are gonna work with the talent around him. If they lose by twenty to Buffalo and Rogers teas off again on the coach, at some point, you think Lafloor's got to answer back publicly. But if you lose Rogers, goodbye. And that's the thing, Aaron says, The truth hurts, but everybody knows you can't rip Aaron publicly because it just doesn't go well. See that. That's my criticism of Aaron. He's not wrong saying the truth hurts, but mir or mirror on the wall, you're not playing well. So what if somebody rips you? Is that cool too? Because that truth would really hurt. J Mack with the news. No, no, this is the herd line news. We should have had some Lizzo music playing in the background. The truth hurts? You know that song? Right? No? Should? I should? I know that kind of a big deal. Yeah, Lizzo, Come on, you know who she is, right, I've heard of Lizzo. I know whom I know? Um, you know your daughter the one who's on TikTok is going to text you during the break? Like Colin, step up? What's the what's the young artist? I really like? Adele? No? What Del's talented? Swift? Siarra Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, t Sizzle. Yeah, can you get her on the show, By the way, I would love to. I'm a fan. Taylor Swift is terrific, extremely talented. Yeah, you big fan. You go back to sports or just talk pop pop culture. Tampa Bay Bucks third straight lost, last weeks. Offense struggling all season, Todd Bowles is open to changes on the offense. He was asked last night if there would be any changes to the staff ahead of their Week nine matchup with the Rams. Here's what he had to say, Hodd, you guys some time off now, kind of a mini buy if you will. Ten days before he mis gaging, would you consider any changes to your coaching staff or play calling or any of that. We're gonna talk about everything this weekend. You know, when you're not playing well, everything's on the table for us, and we'll discuss that as a staff. Leonard Fournette and he's probably watch his back chatter about him losing his starting job. Listen this Tampa Bay team golf. This is seven win tea. How about how about this? How about the special team's gaff early when the Buccaneers ran into each other. I didn't put anything on Twitter. I'm watching and I'm thinking that's like a high school mistake. Like at the college level, you don't see that. That's a high school mistake. Remember, Bruce arians was like, I want to hand Todd Bowles a good team and got like this, it is a good team. Thought well, I think they've got a lot of good players that usually constitute a good team. Devin White, you look up his pro football focus. Great, this guy's falling off a cliff and he got embarrassed last night to the center for the Ravens. The young kid out of Iowa, random ten yards down the field, just pancaked him. No, that center for Iowa. He's also out standing Ravens. They draft pretty well. Decent job there company in Baltimore, all right. Next up, Christian McCaffrey c MAC entering his first full week with the Niners following the trade last week. Although he's excited to return to that Bay Area, he admitted to trade has given him extra motivation based on the fact that Panthers were ready to let him go. Yeah. Understand, this is a business, but anytime somebody gets rid of you or something happens, you take it personally. Sure, I'm so happy to be here, but yeah, absolutely, it's part of the league. It happens to coaches, happens to players, just more would in the fire. I want to win for these guys, and I want to win for the whole Bay Area because they give up a lot to get me and I know that, so it's not extra pressure, but there's definitely a sense of urgency on my plate that I want to win. I always think it is weird, what if we were traded? How sensitive would we be? Like, I don't think fans ever think about this. Well, they make a lot of money when a team gets rid of you. Can you imagine Fox trading me somewhere? I'd be like, you don't like me. I think it's hard on players, I really do. I think I think it's unless you hate this situation. Well yeah, yeah, no, I'm not saying he's not going to a better situation. But I think sometimes we don't understand. You know, a lot of these players you end up becoming. You feel like you're a chess piece for the GM. So I think it's hard. I always thought if I was a GM, you gotta be you gotta be. You gotta really communicate with your players, like, hey, listen, man, we love you, but we gotta movie you. And here's why I think it can really be damaging to a player's psyche. Colin we're talking about the face of the franchise. You go to the store in the in Carolina Stadium, whatever it's called, and there's Christian McCaffrey. Jersey's everywhere. All that stuff is over. Who is the face of the Carolina Panthers. Ryan Burns's good, he's on the they're talking about trading game. I like him. DJ Moore Really it's a good player. Yeah, good game last week. I mean he could use a quarterback. Brian Burne's a great player, very talented. Brown the interior d lineman for mother. They have some players good. You could be in the grocery store in Carolina and one of these guys walks through, and you're like, I didn't know that was a I think I know Brian Burns. Like two, I didn't know Taylor Swift's name. So maybe you talk to Taylor Swift. I know somebody who knows her associate fame. You hear her to play on my daughter's birthday part I got. She sent a pick to my daughter. I framed it. So that's that's my that's my connection. That's the person. Your daughter sent a pick a Taylor Swift autograph picture with one of her pick from a concert. How's that's that's a famous That's not bad. That's the most famous person I know, and I don't know that's saying, you know, Taylor, stop it all right, let's go to the NBA real quick. Damian Lillard left Wednesday's game against the Heat and the third quarter due to a sort calf you know, calf injuries very risky in basketball. After the MRI said he's diagnosed with a grade one calf strain out up to two weeks, the Portland started super hot. This is crummy news. You don't mess around with the calf strains, asked Kevin Durant. So this probably lingers a little longer than two weeks. Here's what Dame had to say. The last shot that I made when I rose up real quick, I just I just feart to get real tight and went back on defense, just to see like it how it would feel. It fell fine running up the court, and then next time I did another move, I tried to stop and I just thought how tight it was, and it wasn't like if something happened. It was just like hers, let me just get it off the court and see what's going on. But it was there wasn't nothing at Ilse's like over thet I don knew it would if I didn't makes sense to trying to push through it in it put the Fifth Family the season. At least let's get to the back of the season game. That'll be fine. I think he and Steph Curry are my favorite players in the league. In the league, like Curry's definitely number one, Luca Dante, bro No feisty. I like Yannis now a lot. I like Yannis, I like Lebron, I like Dame, I like staff A, Draymond. Draymond's my guy. Did you see somebody on inner on Twitter cut up video of Anthony Davis slow to get back on defense getting against Denver? I mean a d you know your trade of him? I'll be honest, I thought that was a little insane. Yeah, And the more I talk to Lakers fans, They're like, we gotta get a d out of here. Wow, everybody's bailing on Anthony Davis. I'm bailing, you're moving him, bailing. You're saying it's time to have a transition in your live and ours. Yeah, I'm sure Lebron love that. The O and four Lakers. I don't know who they have next, but they're probably playing this weekend and it's muscle all right. Jayack with the news, Well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News. So, uh, you know, it's funny, no matter how great of a coach you are, at some point you'll have a quarterback controversy in this league. Bill Walsh, you know, had the Joe Montana Steve Young thing. Jimmy Johnson went to Miami and eventually he got an old Dan Marino. It's just you know, Pete Carroll had the Russell Wilson thing. It's the reality of coaching in the NFL. But m Belichick he had a little drama early with Bledsoe and Brady and then he was very, very lucky. He went twenty years and didn't have quarterback drama. That is unheard of in the NFL. That is that is like, that's like being a parent and not having kid drama. That's not a real life. For twenty years, not having kid drama in the NFL. Twenty years, Tommy was the perfect student, got good grades, had a local job, showed up every day, never in trouble, never pulled a fire extinguisher at school, never was a bully. He literally out of perfect life. But now the reality of the NFL, he's got a quarterback mess with Bailey's Appy and Mac Jones. They faced the Jets this week a real defense. It's a real defense. It should be a very competitive game. And Belichick here was built putting an end to the quarterback controversy. We started the game the way we wanted to start it last week, and and and we talked about the way it ended up. So this week's a different weeks, different situation. That could be a quarterback like we're we are today, we're practicing for the Jets' is a Thursday getting ready for the Jets. Like that's where we are. So if anything that happens beyond that, I mean, it's not current. How can I get into it as hopeful as I can be? I mean, come on, I'm putting it into it. I do like New England in this game, but it's it's one of those things like this league. It's like Andy Reid. Even with Mahomes, who's perfect about every year, he goes off into the weeds mechanically for about a month and and he's got a coach him back and kind of bring him back. Thank god. Mahomes is a smart kid, he's coachable, he's likable, But you know, the bigger and more important. Quarterbacks are the uglier and more inflamed. These dramas are because the league is so quarterback driven. Bill's got a little mess on his hands, but I think they turn it into a w this week. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sportspod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're packed last hour. We're moving him up one hour. We do it every Friday, usually last ten minutes of the show. But we're going to the World Series which starts tonight then, so Jason McIntyre shows up the former newspaper guy makes his NFL picks and he predicts the headlines with stunning accuracy. He has had a great season. Four in one last week, yep, four in one last losing week all season yep. Let's see if we can keep it going. Tomorrow's headlines today vikings off of by headline for Cardinals in Minnesota. You kind of stold my thunder earlier this hour because we're on the same side. The headline will be Minnesota begins manhunt for cold blooded Kyler. He's a new quarterback, Kyler Murray, and the Cardinals win outright in Minnesota. He's a different quarterback with DeAndre Hopkins. So we saw last week fourteen targets against the Saints, but Colin. The other interesting thing was they didn't just line him up outside, which is what Kingsbury had done last year. They moved him into the slot. A lot creativity. I love to see that. And remember Cliff Kingsbury away from home, He's won eight straight road games as an underdog outright. I mean, this guy is really playing well, and just keep an eye on this. Krik Cousins against the Blitz has not been great this year. We've seen some Minnesota miracles late comebacks against the Saints and the Bears. This Vikings defensive shaky. I like Arizona to win out right. Tomorrow's headlines today, what a messy matchup Panthers Falcons for sole possession of first place? What say you? This is your corner TV game. You're not gonna watch this. It's ugly. The headline will be Scarrolina Falcons leave droppings on field. I'm going with PJ. Walker, and I know you don't want to take them the week after they pull that huge upset, but you get You got to look at the Atlanta team cluster injuries in the second area. Within the last hour, they ruled out their second best cornerback, AJ Terrell, their top corner Casey Haywards on ir colin. PJ. Walker, I can't believe I'm saying this could have some success with your guy DJ Moore through the air. And remember Atlanta only wants to run the football. Even when they were down to the Bengals last week, they kept handing it off because they don't trust Mariota fully. And guess what, Carolina's run defense is good. And there's a couple of players on that team who may be looking to get moved. Derek Brown, Brian Burns playing well, I'm gonna showcase myself, come get me out of this mess. I like Carolina to win. That's very sharp. By the way, tomorrow's headlines today Giants won four in a row in Seattle. I cannot wait to watch this game. Only matchup of two winning teams this week, which is insane. The headline will be Sequan carves as Gino turns into a pumpkin. Sorry Seattle fans, listen, this feels like a boomer bus pick. I like the Giants to win this out right. They could get blown out. This is a bad travel spot for them. Remember they went to London, then they came back against a Raven's tough fourth quarter, comeback down to Jacksonville. Now to Seattle. They have the bye week next week. They're a little beat up on the offensive line. We talked about. However, however, I think the Seattle team without DK Metcalf is gonna look kind of ordinary. Wink Martindale, We've seen him dial up the blitz, that's what he does lead the league. Blitz is I think Geno Smith, who struggled against the blitz against Arizona a couple weeks ago. I think the Giants keep this close, and I like, say Quon Barkley to put in the hammer and come out victorious. Colin I can't believe this. I think the Giants moved to seven and one. Wow, that would be crazy. That's the story of the season. I believe Giants going to seven. And what Brian Dables done it With Daniel Jones. I mean, he's you know, he's not carving the world up, but he's like, he looks like a somewhat like a franchise quarterback. Tomorrow's headlines Today, Let's go to Dallas. Dak second start off an injury Bears cowboy. You talk about it all the time. You don't like to take teams off of bad losses or big wins. Listen, Dallas Cowboys against the Bears. The headline will be Dak slashes Bears in Texas chainsaw massacre. You like the Halloween theme, obviously, Listen his Bears team. They got a little lucky against the Patriots. This slow defense didn't spy justin fields. Listen, Dan Quinn has seen running quarterbacks, Daniel Jones, Jalen Hurts. They're very familiar with it. They've got a fast defense, a good point. I think the Cowboys are ready, and this is a Bears team. I'm curious how that locker room reacts. Right, Robert, you get that big win, all right, we're not dead Packer stink, and then you trade Robert Quinn, Like, wa, what do we tank? What are we doing? I mean this. I know it went the other way in Carolina, but they hadn't won when they traded McCaffrey. I just think this Bears team is still one of the worst teams in the league. And I think Dallas I don't like big spreads, but if you can get this under ten, I think Dallas puts it on him. This could be like a thirty seven ten the Bears stink kind of game. All right. Tomorrow's headlines today Titans Texans. What do you like about fish Man? This goes against everything I like to do. I don't like these divisional matchups. I got two to end it. The headline will be, Oh, Henry Derek is sweet as candy. Derrick Henry dominates the Texans. This line's coming down. There's some questionable stuff with Ryan Tannehill. He's got that injured ankle. He's shown up at practice. Yes, listen, If this goes to Malik Willis as a starter, I'm gonna regret it. But Derrick Henry missed two games against the Texas last year. The last three games that he's played against them over two hundred yards rushing. He just obliterates him. Did you see Josh Jacobs last week against this team, just dancing around? I think he had one hundred and sixty yards. Houston dead last in the league stopping the run. I don't love Tennessee, but Bud dupree sneaky return from injury comes back. Remember the Pittsburgh Star comes back last week. It was really effective in that Colts game, causing problems for Matt Henry. Matt Ryan. Sorry, I think Tennessee beats up on Davis Mills, and I would not be surprised to see a couple of Texans Brandon Cooks, maybe Laramie Tunsil gets shipped before the trade deadline as the Texans go for that number one pick in the draft. Very interesting now, a game that's not getting a lot of press because the teams are banged up, But Niners and Rams Tomorrow's headlines today McVay, Shanahans Stafford, Jimmy g What say all anybody says is Shanahan owns mcveagh's won seven straight in the regular season, did lose the NFC Championship game. Tables turn in this one, Colin, The headline will be so cal exorcist, Rams have Niners heads spinning. Unscary movie if you want to watch it with the kids. Just kidding, that's not appropriate at all. I think the Rams off the bye are kind of ready for this one. And this is a cell of the Niners injuries. I like the Niners. I think they can still get to the Super Bowl. Colin, this Deebo Samuel injury is gonna be the biggest one we're tracking today. He's killed the Rams on these big yacht plays. Remember in the NFC Championship game, in the game earlier the season. If he doesn't go and you've check their fullback, who's key blocking wheel routes. Yeah, he's huge. And if you look at the defense Armstead, they're best run stopper, the linebacker Greenlaw. A lot of injuries. Niners have the buy next week to Shanahan say, okay, we already have one win in the bag against the Rams. Let's dial it back a little bit. Save these guys. We may lose the battle, but we're gonna win the war, you know the long term prospects. So I think the Rams bounce back. I would not be surprised to see McVeagh during the bye week dial up some interesting stuff here. Vance Jefferson, your guy expected to return. Brian Allen, expect he's in practice this week at center. That's a huge helps. To ban Allen at center is a big deal from the Troy Hill, their quarterback. I saw him pop back up at practice, so they're getting a little healthier. Everybody's out on the Rams and they have not looked good at all. I think if they don't look good this week at so far, by the way, low scoring game so far unders for the Rams. I saw stat seventeen of their twenty two games at so far under the under the total. So I think there's a low scoring Rams win, maybe like a seventeen fourteen Rams triumph, which would be big for McVeagh. He needs a win here. Well, listen, will you do a really good job on this um, Brian Allen. Centers in this league are the most underrated position. Now you saw Baltimore center last night. The rookie from Iowa. How important he was. Chargers lost their center for a while. Old line survived without their left tackle for a few weeks. Was a mess without their starting center. That's the game against was it Denver? Remember they had the third string center Justin Herbert had nothing. One final note on the Rams Colin. This Van Jefferson return could be you have been hyping it for a while because he can stretch the field. And then you have Alan Robinson, Higbee and Cooper Cup. Yeah, that's a lot of problems for San Francisco Phillies Astros World Series Game one Discover card key matchup. You can talk about how complicated other banks make it to redeem credit card rewards not at Discover. Learn more at discover dot com. Slash redeem rewards terms apply. You can redeem your rewards in cash, any amount, anytime. How amazing is that our number three Packers bills. That's one we'll talk about. Can't wait for that our three in La next

Thanks for listening to The 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. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go our number two on a Friday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be in however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, f S one. Been on a little bit of a hot streak in the NFL four and one, three and two love my picks this week. I've been going with a lot underdogs. Dogs are barkings scorings down. That means points are more valuable in the NFL. So I've got three dogs for four dogs. We four four underdone. Jets are an underdone, so the Jets could be in there. Okay, interesting, Well you left you dissed him in the hurd hierarchy. I had him like eleventh. The world is waiting. We both liked Baltimore last night, and so Baltimore. You know there are teams in this league San Francisco's not right yet, but I think they'll solve their issues. They're solvable issues. Baltimore wasn't quite right last night. They solved their second half issues. There's teams that don't have solvable issues, like I think Tampa Tom's Brady's divorce was finalized. It's been a really really hard year for Tom reportedly, but really tough in the last six to eight weeks. And you've seen it on the field. And I was asked this the year day by somebody. I said, they said, do you think his off field stuff is affecting him? I'm like, of course it is. If you're going through a crisis at home, of course it affects you at work. I mean, he's been on with divorce attorneys all week, your kids, there's crying there. You can see Tom's weight loss. It's obvious affecting him. So does he get a rebound potentially, you know, But so some of the we're about week seven and eight, you kind of know what everybody is. Remember Cincinnati early had some issues. I said, these are totally solvable issues. Arizona, I think some of those issues are solvable, but there are issues that aren't. So let's do it. This week's Blazing five. Let's blaze it off, fired up, It's Collins Blazing five. Cardinals. I like the Vikings not this week. They'll all take Arizona plus three and a half. Listen. They have issues offensively, but they don't give the ball away. Only the Eagles have fewer giveaways. Kyler Murray is now running more and DeAndre Hopkins is back, and the Cardinals have been a bizarrely good road team since twenty twenty one. Don't ask me, but DeAndre Hopkins insertion back into the offense and Murray's legs now he's willing to run make a difference. The Vikings are good, but they've been out gained by two hundred and seventy yards. All their games are close and they give up six yards a play. This is an explosive Arizona team. They go two Minnesota, they upset the Vikings twenty eight to twenty seven. Raiders at Saints. I like the Saints here plus one and a half. They're coming off extra rest. I always love that. And the Raiders, let's be honest, their wins have been against the Broncos that are awful in the Texans and they needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Texans. The Raiders defense is atrocious. They have the worst passer raiding defense in the league. Opposing quarterbacks average a one oh five passer rating. And those games they won last year, all the close ones. They're owen four and close games and owen three on the road the Raiders. I like their offensive talent. There's some smoke and mirrors here. Very close game. I'll take the points and the Saints to win. Twenty four twenty three. Dolphins said Lions Love the Lions plus three and a half. Love Love, Love Detroit. Listen at home. They're a different team. Jared Goff at home this year. Look at their offense and is eleven home starts. He has a one or two passer rating. At home, they get thirty eight points seven yards of play, and they're getting healthy. They're getting DeAndre Swift has practiced Wednesday and Thursday. T J. Hawkins and their excellent young tight end is gonna play, so they get several weapons back. And the Dolphins, they're one of four teams in the league with a winning record and a negative point differential. There is a ceiling once they get off scripted plays what they can do, and they are beat up, as Jamack told you, a little beat up in some of their units defensively. I like Detroit to win this game in an upset thirty to twenty seven. Patriot said, Yes, I'm gonna take the favored Patriots minus two and a half. They're coming off a humiliating loss. My rule, when great players are humiliated or a great hope co are humiliated, they come back the next week. Listen. Belichick has feasted off average quarterbacks, especially average young quarterbacks, and that's what Zach Wilson is. Zach has less than two hundred passing yards in back to back games. They're missing Bruce Hall, Corey Davis, Elijah Vera Tucker. This is a bad spot for a quarterback that needs protection and a running game. He loses his best protector and running back. New England wins this game twenty seven to twenty and covers the spread. Bengals and Browns. I'm gonna take the underdog Brownies at home on Monday Monday Night, Browns plus three and a half. Listen. For some reason, Cleveland's given Cincinnati issues. Kevin Stefanski's four no against the Bengals all right, and the five games have been decided by three or fewer points for the Browns. This year, they're five games, so they get into some close games. Their offense this season, you think it's terrible, but they're running the heck out of the football in Cleveland. That's not a surprise. Nick Chubb leads the NFL in rushing yards and rushing tds with eight and the Bengals listen, Jamar chases out. That's a big deal. Monday night in Cleveland. Browns don't get a lot of money night football games at home. This is gonna be like Mardi Gras and Joe Burrows still getting sacked a lot. With Miles Garrett, I get great corners for Cleveland, Miles Garrett without Jamar Chase. I think it goes down to the last minute. I'll give Cincinnati a win. It goes either way, twenty eight, twenty seven. But I'm absolutely strongly believe in Cleveland and the points there. You go a lot of dogs, A slight favorite the Patriots. Cleveland's a weird team. I agree with almost all of them. I can't agree with the Jets. I'm just dreaming last night as I'm trying to fall asleep, Like what offensive place can the that's dial up to move the football? Because I don't have a running quarterback like Justin Fields. I just this could be a problem. I will try to hold off texting you during the game because you know Sundays we text and then Calhert checks in with a call later. But this is gonna be an exciting Sunday in the McIntire household. Dante Whitner eleven years, multiple time pro bowler now slides over to the broadcast booth to the Niners, and he's fantastic. Played in three straight NFC championship games. So I defended the Niners with the McCaffrey move. I said, if you want something, get something. If you want to Tesla, go buy it. You're not going to get it on sale. This kid's good. He's a good piece. But there's a lot of people, Dante that think, man, they gave up a lot. How do you think it plays in the locker room. There's a lot of injuries. He's been injured before. To you, does he fit? Does it play in the locker room? I think he faced like a glove. Think about what he can do in the torment that he caused his defensive coordinators. For example, when you go twenty one person there, you have one back in the game, a full back, a tidy end, and two receivers. Now you have him Deebo Samuel, you have Use Check, you have George Kittle, who are all interchangeable. How do you match that? Do you match it with bigger guys or do you match it with smaller guys. If you match it with smaller guys, they're gonna run the ball down your throat because they're all welling blockers. If you match it with bigger guys, they're gonna spread you out and they're gonna throw the ball. Once he's fully implemented into this system, you're gonna see the Christian McCaffrey effect. It's gonna take this offense to another level. How long do you think it takes? Because this weekend the Rams with extra rest, You give mcvagh extra time, they are limited offensively, But how long does stuff like this take McCaffrey. Listen, McCaffrey's a Stanford guy. He's got to be fairly bright, right, he'd been in the league for years, so I mean it shouldn't take for I was surprised how much work he got last week. How long before he becomes a major part of the offense. Well, he's not an All Pro mainly because of his physical abilities and attributes. Takes a phenomenal intelligence to be an all pro. You have to know different levels of the offense that other players just can't comprehend. You have to understand your role in the passing game. You have to understand passing concepts. You have to understand route depths, you have to understand cutback lanes, and we saw that last week. I thought that when he touched the ball he had an opportunity to break it for a big one each time, and he was one tackle away. I think being a Stanford guy, being in the season where you're game planning, you don't have a million plays, you don't have the playbook that you're used to going into training camp with. They have select plays that they want him to run. The zone stretch scheme is not that complicated, and you're gonna get him in the ball, in open space and in the screen game. So the word out of San Francisco right now is that Christian McCaffrey is caught up on this week's game plan and we should see a lot of them. So you played for the Bills, Browns, Niners, Washington. You had a lot of coaches. You had head coaches, you had position coaches, you had coordinators. And I've said this before, first round draft picks thirty percent don't make it. It's hard you interview people. Nathaniel Hackett apparently was a great interview. It's not working. I'm one of those believers that we all make mistakes, pivot off them quickly, don't double down. Did you ever have a coach you don't have to mention the name, or a position coach or a coordinator, and Dante, you knew really quickly, man, this isn't working. This guy's over a skis. Yes, and it was defensive coordinator. I'm not I'm okay with Santa name. It was Perry Fuel And I'll give you an example, and it came from, you know, a game that we had against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night football. We have six turnovers on defense, two defensive scores. We should have beat Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys that night, but at the end of the game, we didn't play a universal defensive call which is called sideline, where you have two defenders to ten twenty thirty two deep guys. They have zero to time out. So all we have to do is make him throw the ball in the middle of field, tackle him. We win the game. He calls covered two two consecutive times. They do a good job of influence our corner. At the time number twenty four terrens. He jumps down and get a seven route for twenty. Then he called covered two again. They get a seven route for fifteen, kick a field goal. We go into overtime and they beat us in a game that we should have won if he would have made the proper calls. So since that day, I realized that sometimes it's the coaching that you know that really fails the team. And when you think of Nathaniel Hackett, he might be over his head. Yeah. I think that some guys are good at coaching the side of the ball. They're good at coaching offense, these wide receivers, whatever it is. But when you have to be the leader of men, you have to delegate different roles to different people on the team. You have to be the person that disciplines your team, make sure that things aren't swept under the rug. It's very difficult for some of those guys. It's very difficult to deal with NFL players who aren't just going to take it. They're going to snap back sometime, and if you're not strong enough to handle that, then you can quickly lose the team. And that's why a lot of the coordinators that transition to the head coach role a lot of times don't it don't work out. Yeah, you know, I said about Lamar Jackson. I had huge doubts out of college, like and he's sit in the pocket on third and throw, and then about a year and a half into it, I'm like, Wow, this dude just wins games. And I do believe the way I look at quarterbacks in this league in twenty twenty two is you gotta have horsepower. You can win a lot of games with Tannehill cousins to it. I'm not saying you can't win games. Hell, you can win a division. When you get into these Mahomes matchups, you get into these big boy matchups with Burrow Josh Allen. I need horsepower. Lamar Jackson's got horsepower, and I thought it was totally on display last night. Are you surprised or how surprised that Baltimore is sort of waiting on the contractor or are you not as big a fan. I'm a huge fan of Lamar's Jackson and being a defender X defender in the NFL, I know how difficult it is to stop guys with the type of talent and attributes that he bring to the game. And he's moving at a different speed than a lot of offensive players and defensive players out there. And when you can add that dynamic, when it's just like, Okay, we might have it blocked up perfectly on defense, we might get the right penetration, but his unorthodox cuts and his skills and just the moves that he can make, it can beat you at any time. You can't teach the things that he provides. Yeah, it's just like unteachable. You can't go and teach a kid, say hey, I'm gonna teach you everything that Lamar Jackson does. We're going to practice. This is impossible. So it is surprising that Baltimore hasn't pulled, hasn't really signed him up for a long term contract. I think that he has zero weapons around him. Yeah, when you're tight end as your number one weapon, when you have to go out and get de Sean Jackson, who's thirty six years old about to be thirty seven, to be a deep threat. That shows you that you didn't do anything in the offense to really provide weapons around Lamar Jackson, and then a defense they're not playing at their usual level. So I think that with Lamar Jackson, I truly believe they can win a Super Bowl if they put the weapons around him and make it comfortable for him to go out there and play his game. Once he gets the contract, he really doesn't have a reason not to run around defenses right now. He's been a little cause. Yeah, no, I mean I get it. You know. I said this obviously as Tom Brady's divorce is finalized today. Obviously, off field drama affects work. Tom looks gaunt, He looks exhausted. Is it possible to you and maybe in your career of eleven years you had a personal drama and you just you know, you had a two or three game stretch Dante where you weren't locked in. I've had that in my life. I have no question it's affect me. Um do you think Tom, you know it's finalized this morning the papers, do you think it's possible that this thing really a lot of the Tampa stuff is just Tom's the leader and he has been completely meetings personal life. Do you think maybe it's possible he gets a bounce a little more football or did you watch last night and think, hey, that's he's not the same guy. Well, when I see him and I watched his physical attributes, I think that there's no degregation in his skill set. I see the footwork, I see the accuracy, I see the understanding of defenses. Yeah, there's a lack in some of the consistency and decision making, but I think the offensive line is protecting them. Well, they're top five in the NFL and sacks per game with one point six sacks per game, so that's not an excuse. I think sometimes it boils down to the concepts that they're running on offense, and I think that a lot of times the playmakers aren't making plays for him. It's not really just Tom Brady throwing the ball over the field. Is getting the ball to the playmakers and allowing them to make plays. There were some phenomenal balls that he threw last week. He threw one to Evans around the money where he was jogging in the ball just popped out. There's some balls times where he's throwing it outside the numbers and he looked like he's twenty one years old. So I don't know if it's I don't see a degregation in his skill set. Now. As far as it's mental, yes, there's been times where I know it wasn't even my wife, it was a girlfriend. We broke up and I'm checking my phone during meetings, right you want to see if she takes back, if you're going to get a chance to make up. Yeah, it affects you, and a lot of times people don't remember that athletes, whether there's any pro sport, you're human and a lot of the things that go on at home can seep into your work life, and I think that that's something that's going on with Tom Brady. It's very difficult situation. But if anybody you can depend on to get yourself out of a phone, to get this team out of a phone, it's Tom Brady because he doesn't have any again, any degregation in the skill set. A couple more players make out there and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be right back where they are, So best to luck for him whatever, everything that he's going through. First round pick out of Ohio State. Well, you're good at this TV thing. You're Dante Whitner. You are good at this man. You got you got a million things going on, and happy for you. Love having you on. May have to bring you, you know, when Michigan beach Ohio State this year, I'll bring you on the day after. Just kidding, just kidding, Dante, great seeing man. I don't I don't think that's going to happen this year. Man. I think that we're on a mission. We're gonna get it done. But yeah, I'll be doing uh Saint Jose State in Nevada game tomorrow night, CBS, guys, check it out, all right, thanks man, all right, thanks for having me, Colin. You bet Dante Whitner he's really good, Isn't he really sees the game? Yeah, sees the game. My wife was texting me during that interview, a lot of questions about our Halloween outfits this weekend. So Colin, I'm a little nervous about the picks coming up later this hour. I hope, I hope I'll be able to give it my best. Okay. I wish you the very the very best. It's a tough time right now. The Halloween is is very difficult. Sometimes we have a house on our street. It is crazy fun. Yeah, I love Alloway. There's a block party. They get truck. It's gonna be off the Hook, Off the Hook, 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. The two twenty two World Series begins tonight as Bryce Harper and the Phillies looking to continue their storybook postseason run against an Astro's team, making their fourth trip to the Fall Classic in the last six seasons. Coverage begins at seventy third fourth Pacific only on Fox and the Fox Sports Apple. Alan Lazard, Green Bay receiver quote, I heard a snap crackling pop in my shoulder. Probably won't play against Buffalo. I'm not sure there's ever been a potential game in the NFL that could be awful, and I cannot wait to watch it. So you know, I have been at times critical of Aaron Rodgers. It should be noted duly that I've been right. But if they do get rolled, and I think green Bay will be very competitive early in this game. They're very good on the script, but they don't have the playmakers after halftime when the game gets you know, like Baltimore last night, Let's see the juice, let's see the horsepower. Baltimore has it with Lamar Aaron and the Packers don't. But if they get rolled, who will get blamed? We are on a little bit of a trend here where Aaron is blaming people. So the magic wheel of blame, the wheel of misfortune for the green Bay Packers? Will it be Matt Lafleur, young, teammates, media, whether himself or inflation. One of those will get the blame. We have a very small percentage of it will be Aaron. But Greg Cosell yesterday said the Packers have a myriad of issues, including their star quarterback. There's never one single answer. You know, their old line has been in a state of flux this year. Their run game has been very inconsistent. Rodgers has also missed some throws that we normally expect him to make. They've been very poor on third down. In their last three games, They've only converted twenty five percent on third down. So this offense stops itself a lot, and they have long yardage third down plays. They're not in third and three and third and four very often at all. My guess is in the NFL that rookie receivers do tend to make mistakes. So I think that you have to work through that and you have to play. And that includes Aaron Rodgers, who I would say, based purely on tape study, is not playing up to his standards either. Very predictable. We said, you don't hang out with the rookie receivers in the off season. You go out and do your stuff. You're gonna have trouble in the regular season because now in preseason football, Aaron's not going to play, so you get no ota, you get no preseason shock that guys that played at Reno in FCS schools aren't ready to step up and contribute before Thanksgiving. I do think it'll get better over time. It should, right, but these are rookie receivers. It was all predictable. Aaron and Brady tend to like veteran guys they can trust. Nothing wrong with that, but this is your team in reality. Figure it out mentor be a good teammate. Don't slice him up publicly. Here's the thing Aaron said this week. Sometimes the truth hurts. But what happens if Matt Lafleur came out, if they get rolled and ripped Aaron. If the truth hurts and some people can't handle it, I asked Peter Schreger, then can Lafleur rip Aaron if he stings? I think Rogers is feeling not only the responsibility of having to do this all by himself out there, with the lack of talent at the skill positions, and the receivers and the and whatever else you have at the offensive line not holding up. I also feel like there's he's trying every trick in the book to motivate these guys, and us on the outside are like, that doesn't work. I'm not sure there's enough motivational tactics that are gonna work with the talent around him. If they lose by twenty to Buffalo and Rogers teas off again on the coach, at some point, you think Lafloor's got to answer back publicly. But if you lose Rogers, goodbye. And that's the thing, Aaron says, The truth hurts, but everybody knows you can't rip Aaron publicly because it just doesn't go well. See that. That's my criticism of Aaron. He's not wrong saying the truth hurts, but mir or mirror on the wall, you're not playing well. So what if somebody rips you? Is that cool too? Because that truth would really hurt. J Mack with the news. No, no, this is the herd line news. We should have had some Lizzo music playing in the background. The truth hurts? You know that song? Right? No? Should? I should? I know that kind of a big deal. Yeah, Lizzo, Come on, you know who she is, right, I've heard of Lizzo. I know whom I know? Um, you know your daughter the one who's on TikTok is going to text you during the break? Like Colin, step up? What's the what's the young artist? I really like? Adele? No? What Del's talented? Swift? Siarra Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, t Sizzle. Yeah, can you get her on the show, By the way, I would love to. I'm a fan. Taylor Swift is terrific, extremely talented. Yeah, you big fan. You go back to sports or just talk pop pop culture. Tampa Bay Bucks third straight lost, last weeks. Offense struggling all season, Todd Bowles is open to changes on the offense. He was asked last night if there would be any changes to the staff ahead of their Week nine matchup with the Rams. Here's what he had to say, Hodd, you guys some time off now, kind of a mini buy if you will. Ten days before he mis gaging, would you consider any changes to your coaching staff or play calling or any of that. We're gonna talk about everything this weekend. You know, when you're not playing well, everything's on the table for us, and we'll discuss that as a staff. Leonard Fournette and he's probably watch his back chatter about him losing his starting job. Listen this Tampa Bay team golf. This is seven win tea. How about how about this? How about the special team's gaff early when the Buccaneers ran into each other. I didn't put anything on Twitter. I'm watching and I'm thinking that's like a high school mistake. Like at the college level, you don't see that. That's a high school mistake. Remember, Bruce arians was like, I want to hand Todd Bowles a good team and got like this, it is a good team. Thought well, I think they've got a lot of good players that usually constitute a good team. Devin White, you look up his pro football focus. Great, this guy's falling off a cliff and he got embarrassed last night to the center for the Ravens. The young kid out of Iowa, random ten yards down the field, just pancaked him. No, that center for Iowa. He's also out standing Ravens. They draft pretty well. Decent job there company in Baltimore, all right. Next up, Christian McCaffrey c MAC entering his first full week with the Niners following the trade last week. Although he's excited to return to that Bay Area, he admitted to trade has given him extra motivation based on the fact that Panthers were ready to let him go. Yeah. Understand, this is a business, but anytime somebody gets rid of you or something happens, you take it personally. Sure, I'm so happy to be here, but yeah, absolutely, it's part of the league. It happens to coaches, happens to players, just more would in the fire. I want to win for these guys, and I want to win for the whole Bay Area because they give up a lot to get me and I know that, so it's not extra pressure, but there's definitely a sense of urgency on my plate that I want to win. I always think it is weird, what if we were traded? How sensitive would we be? Like, I don't think fans ever think about this. Well, they make a lot of money when a team gets rid of you. Can you imagine Fox trading me somewhere? I'd be like, you don't like me. I think it's hard on players, I really do. I think I think it's unless you hate this situation. Well yeah, yeah, no, I'm not saying he's not going to a better situation. But I think sometimes we don't understand. You know, a lot of these players you end up becoming. You feel like you're a chess piece for the GM. So I think it's hard. I always thought if I was a GM, you gotta be you gotta be. You gotta really communicate with your players, like, hey, listen, man, we love you, but we gotta movie you. And here's why I think it can really be damaging to a player's psyche. Colin we're talking about the face of the franchise. You go to the store in the in Carolina Stadium, whatever it's called, and there's Christian McCaffrey. Jersey's everywhere. All that stuff is over. Who is the face of the Carolina Panthers. Ryan Burns's good, he's on the they're talking about trading game. I like him. DJ Moore Really it's a good player. Yeah, good game last week. I mean he could use a quarterback. Brian Burne's a great player, very talented. Brown the interior d lineman for mother. They have some players good. You could be in the grocery store in Carolina and one of these guys walks through, and you're like, I didn't know that was a I think I know Brian Burns. Like two, I didn't know Taylor Swift's name. So maybe you talk to Taylor Swift. I know somebody who knows her associate fame. You hear her to play on my daughter's birthday part I got. She sent a pick to my daughter. I framed it. So that's that's my that's my connection. That's the person. Your daughter sent a pick a Taylor Swift autograph picture with one of her pick from a concert. How's that's that's a famous That's not bad. That's the most famous person I know, and I don't know that's saying, you know, Taylor, stop it all right, let's go to the NBA real quick. Damian Lillard left Wednesday's game against the Heat and the third quarter due to a sort calf you know, calf injuries very risky in basketball. After the MRI said he's diagnosed with a grade one calf strain out up to two weeks, the Portland started super hot. This is crummy news. You don't mess around with the calf strains, asked Kevin Durant. So this probably lingers a little longer than two weeks. Here's what Dame had to say. The last shot that I made when I rose up real quick, I just I just feart to get real tight and went back on defense, just to see like it how it would feel. It fell fine running up the court, and then next time I did another move, I tried to stop and I just thought how tight it was, and it wasn't like if something happened. It was just like hers, let me just get it off the court and see what's going on. But it was there wasn't nothing at Ilse's like over thet I don knew it would if I didn't makes sense to trying to push through it in it put the Fifth Family the season. At least let's get to the back of the season game. That'll be fine. I think he and Steph Curry are my favorite players in the league. In the league, like Curry's definitely number one, Luca Dante, bro No feisty. I like Yannis now a lot. I like Yannis, I like Lebron, I like Dame, I like staff A, Draymond. Draymond's my guy. Did you see somebody on inner on Twitter cut up video of Anthony Davis slow to get back on defense getting against Denver? I mean a d you know your trade of him? I'll be honest, I thought that was a little insane. Yeah, And the more I talk to Lakers fans, They're like, we gotta get a d out of here. Wow, everybody's bailing on Anthony Davis. I'm bailing, you're moving him, bailing. You're saying it's time to have a transition in your live and ours. Yeah, I'm sure Lebron love that. The O and four Lakers. I don't know who they have next, but they're probably playing this weekend and it's muscle all right. Jayack with the news, Well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News. So, uh, you know, it's funny, no matter how great of a coach you are, at some point you'll have a quarterback controversy in this league. Bill Walsh, you know, had the Joe Montana Steve Young thing. Jimmy Johnson went to Miami and eventually he got an old Dan Marino. It's just you know, Pete Carroll had the Russell Wilson thing. It's the reality of coaching in the NFL. But m Belichick he had a little drama early with Bledsoe and Brady and then he was very, very lucky. He went twenty years and didn't have quarterback drama. That is unheard of in the NFL. That is that is like, that's like being a parent and not having kid drama. That's not a real life. For twenty years, not having kid drama in the NFL. Twenty years, Tommy was the perfect student, got good grades, had a local job, showed up every day, never in trouble, never pulled a fire extinguisher at school, never was a bully. He literally out of perfect life. But now the reality of the NFL, he's got a quarterback mess with Bailey's Appy and Mac Jones. They faced the Jets this week a real defense. It's a real defense. It should be a very competitive game. And Belichick here was built putting an end to the quarterback controversy. We started the game the way we wanted to start it last week, and and and we talked about the way it ended up. So this week's a different weeks, different situation. That could be a quarterback like we're we are today, we're practicing for the Jets' is a Thursday getting ready for the Jets. Like that's where we are. So if anything that happens beyond that, I mean, it's not current. How can I get into it as hopeful as I can be? I mean, come on, I'm putting it into it. I do like New England in this game, but it's it's one of those things like this league. It's like Andy Reid. Even with Mahomes, who's perfect about every year, he goes off into the weeds mechanically for about a month and and he's got a coach him back and kind of bring him back. Thank god. Mahomes is a smart kid, he's coachable, he's likable, But you know, the bigger and more important. Quarterbacks are the uglier and more inflamed. These dramas are because the league is so quarterback driven. Bill's got a little mess on his hands, but I think they turn it into a w this week. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sportspod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're packed last hour. We're moving him up one hour. We do it every Friday, usually last ten minutes of the show. But we're going to the World Series which starts tonight then, so Jason McIntyre shows up the former newspaper guy makes his NFL picks and he predicts the headlines with stunning accuracy. He has had a great season. Four in one last week, yep, four in one last losing week all season yep. Let's see if we can keep it going. Tomorrow's headlines today vikings off of by headline for Cardinals in Minnesota. You kind of stold my thunder earlier this hour because we're on the same side. The headline will be Minnesota begins manhunt for cold blooded Kyler. He's a new quarterback, Kyler Murray, and the Cardinals win outright in Minnesota. He's a different quarterback with DeAndre Hopkins. So we saw last week fourteen targets against the Saints, but Colin. The other interesting thing was they didn't just line him up outside, which is what Kingsbury had done last year. They moved him into the slot. A lot creativity. I love to see that. And remember Cliff Kingsbury away from home, He's won eight straight road games as an underdog outright. I mean, this guy is really playing well, and just keep an eye on this. Krik Cousins against the Blitz has not been great this year. We've seen some Minnesota miracles late comebacks against the Saints and the Bears. This Vikings defensive shaky. I like Arizona to win out right. Tomorrow's headlines today, what a messy matchup Panthers Falcons for sole possession of first place? What say you? This is your corner TV game. You're not gonna watch this. It's ugly. The headline will be Scarrolina Falcons leave droppings on field. I'm going with PJ. Walker, and I know you don't want to take them the week after they pull that huge upset, but you get You got to look at the Atlanta team cluster injuries in the second area. Within the last hour, they ruled out their second best cornerback, AJ Terrell, their top corner Casey Haywards on ir colin. PJ. Walker, I can't believe I'm saying this could have some success with your guy DJ Moore through the air. And remember Atlanta only wants to run the football. Even when they were down to the Bengals last week, they kept handing it off because they don't trust Mariota fully. And guess what, Carolina's run defense is good. And there's a couple of players on that team who may be looking to get moved. Derek Brown, Brian Burns playing well, I'm gonna showcase myself, come get me out of this mess. I like Carolina to win. That's very sharp. By the way, tomorrow's headlines today Giants won four in a row in Seattle. I cannot wait to watch this game. Only matchup of two winning teams this week, which is insane. The headline will be Sequan carves as Gino turns into a pumpkin. Sorry Seattle fans, listen, this feels like a boomer bus pick. I like the Giants to win this out right. They could get blown out. This is a bad travel spot for them. Remember they went to London, then they came back against a Raven's tough fourth quarter, comeback down to Jacksonville. Now to Seattle. They have the bye week next week. They're a little beat up on the offensive line. We talked about. However, however, I think the Seattle team without DK Metcalf is gonna look kind of ordinary. Wink Martindale, We've seen him dial up the blitz, that's what he does lead the league. Blitz is I think Geno Smith, who struggled against the blitz against Arizona a couple weeks ago. I think the Giants keep this close, and I like, say Quon Barkley to put in the hammer and come out victorious. Colin I can't believe this. I think the Giants moved to seven and one. Wow, that would be crazy. That's the story of the season. I believe Giants going to seven. And what Brian Dables done it With Daniel Jones. I mean, he's you know, he's not carving the world up, but he's like, he looks like a somewhat like a franchise quarterback. Tomorrow's headlines Today, Let's go to Dallas. Dak second start off an injury Bears cowboy. You talk about it all the time. You don't like to take teams off of bad losses or big wins. Listen, Dallas Cowboys against the Bears. The headline will be Dak slashes Bears in Texas chainsaw massacre. You like the Halloween theme, obviously, Listen his Bears team. They got a little lucky against the Patriots. This slow defense didn't spy justin fields. Listen, Dan Quinn has seen running quarterbacks, Daniel Jones, Jalen Hurts. They're very familiar with it. They've got a fast defense, a good point. I think the Cowboys are ready, and this is a Bears team. I'm curious how that locker room reacts. Right, Robert, you get that big win, all right, we're not dead Packer stink, and then you trade Robert Quinn, Like, wa, what do we tank? What are we doing? I mean this. I know it went the other way in Carolina, but they hadn't won when they traded McCaffrey. I just think this Bears team is still one of the worst teams in the league. And I think Dallas I don't like big spreads, but if you can get this under ten, I think Dallas puts it on him. This could be like a thirty seven ten the Bears stink kind of game. All right. Tomorrow's headlines today Titans Texans. What do you like about fish Man? This goes against everything I like to do. I don't like these divisional matchups. I got two to end it. The headline will be, Oh, Henry Derek is sweet as candy. Derrick Henry dominates the Texans. This line's coming down. There's some questionable stuff with Ryan Tannehill. He's got that injured ankle. He's shown up at practice. Yes, listen, If this goes to Malik Willis as a starter, I'm gonna regret it. But Derrick Henry missed two games against the Texas last year. The last three games that he's played against them over two hundred yards rushing. He just obliterates him. Did you see Josh Jacobs last week against this team, just dancing around? I think he had one hundred and sixty yards. Houston dead last in the league stopping the run. I don't love Tennessee, but Bud dupree sneaky return from injury comes back. Remember the Pittsburgh Star comes back last week. It was really effective in that Colts game, causing problems for Matt Henry. Matt Ryan. Sorry, I think Tennessee beats up on Davis Mills, and I would not be surprised to see a couple of Texans Brandon Cooks, maybe Laramie Tunsil gets shipped before the trade deadline as the Texans go for that number one pick in the draft. Very interesting now, a game that's not getting a lot of press because the teams are banged up, But Niners and Rams Tomorrow's headlines today McVay, Shanahans Stafford, Jimmy g What say all anybody says is Shanahan owns mcveagh's won seven straight in the regular season, did lose the NFC Championship game. Tables turn in this one, Colin, The headline will be so cal exorcist, Rams have Niners heads spinning. Unscary movie if you want to watch it with the kids. Just kidding, that's not appropriate at all. I think the Rams off the bye are kind of ready for this one. And this is a cell of the Niners injuries. I like the Niners. I think they can still get to the Super Bowl. Colin, this Deebo Samuel injury is gonna be the biggest one we're tracking today. He's killed the Rams on these big yacht plays. Remember in the NFC Championship game, in the game earlier the season. If he doesn't go and you've check their fullback, who's key blocking wheel routes. Yeah, he's huge. And if you look at the defense Armstead, they're best run stopper, the linebacker Greenlaw. A lot of injuries. Niners have the buy next week to Shanahan say, okay, we already have one win in the bag against the Rams. Let's dial it back a little bit. Save these guys. We may lose the battle, but we're gonna win the war, you know the long term prospects. So I think the Rams bounce back. I would not be surprised to see McVeagh during the bye week dial up some interesting stuff here. Vance Jefferson, your guy expected to return. Brian Allen, expect he's in practice this week at center. That's a huge helps. To ban Allen at center is a big deal from the Troy Hill, their quarterback. I saw him pop back up at practice, so they're getting a little healthier. Everybody's out on the Rams and they have not looked good at all. I think if they don't look good this week at so far, by the way, low scoring game so far unders for the Rams. I saw stat seventeen of their twenty two games at so far under the under the total. So I think there's a low scoring Rams win, maybe like a seventeen fourteen Rams triumph, which would be big for McVeagh. He needs a win here. Well, listen, will you do a really good job on this um, Brian Allen. Centers in this league are the most underrated position. Now you saw Baltimore center last night. The rookie from Iowa. How important he was. Chargers lost their center for a while. Old line survived without their left tackle for a few weeks. Was a mess without their starting center. That's the game against was it Denver? Remember they had the third string center Justin Herbert had nothing. One final note on the Rams Colin. This Van Jefferson return could be you have been hyping it for a while because he can stretch the field. And then you have Alan Robinson, Higbee and Cooper Cup. Yeah, that's a lot of problems for San Francisco Phillies Astros World Series Game one Discover card key matchup. You can talk about how complicated other banks make it to redeem credit card rewards not at Discover. Learn more at discover dot com. Slash redeem rewards terms apply. You can redeem your rewards in cash, any amount, anytime. How amazing is that our number three Packers bills. That's one we'll talk about. Can't wait for that our three in La next