Hour 2 - Can the Eagles return to form?

Published Dec 14, 2023, 9:10 PM

Greg Cosell from NFL Films joins the show to breakdown the issues the Eagles are having this season as they try to return to the Super Bowl

Thoughts on the story about this being Bill Belichick's last season with the Patriots

Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. 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 Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It's hour two, Top of the Hour, live in Los Angeles. It's the Hurt wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. Thanks to Jmax Alex Curry yesterday filling in brand a lot to do, you know, a lot going on, big things happening. Had a crazy day yesterday, some of it not appropriate for anything other than a podcast. Really, yeah, between getting in some trouble, No, I didn't get in trouble. I saw trouble. Really, I'm not talking about the Draymond things.

We saw trouble.

I'm just trying to get my backfield after that championship.

You know, we love a basketball title. And I'm all banged up now.

If I didn't see anything, I'm on my back all day's trying to stretch it out.

Have you ever had a back problem.

I'm in my fifties. Everything's broken. It's rough fifty five at all breaks, and you got to put it back together with Scotch tape.

At least I got another twenty years.

So yeah, well I got about four, all right, Greg co Sell in five minutes. So the NFL officiating this year has not been very good, and there's a lack of trust in America increasingly. I think with powerful entities FBI, our government, media, big tech, a lot of it's driven by conspiracy wackos, and a lot of it's driven by more transparency. And we have more cameras than ever and you can see every mistake by every official. Combine that with legalized gambling and all the cameras and conspiracy wackos abound, and it's a little bit of a hornet's nest. I do not think officials change the outcome of Super Bowls. If you get screwed by an official one week, you get to break the next. Every fan's absolutely sure their team is better than it is. That's why Vegas makes a lot of money on future bets. Everybody bets the over on wins, and about sixty five percent it's the under fans are suckers. It's always the ref's fault. That being said, I do feel this year it's been a tipping point. The sport is being over officiated. Can't tell you how many times I've been watching a game an official goes over and picks up a flag and says, there was no foul. Why'd you call it? Are you guessing? Are you predicting? Or you calling what you see? Roger Goodell talked about the current state of NFL officiating.

We understand that that's not new. You know, you get that, and you know it's frustrating. We know how hard those players are playing, we know how hard the coaches are coaching, We know how much the fans into it passionately. So we want to get it right every time. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be able to hit that bar, but we're going to sure work our ass off to do it.

Yeah. I made this prediction a couple years ago, and I'll double down on it. Legalized gambling is a part of this. More people are gambling, they lose bets because fans often bet favorites. Fans are suckers. Sometimes they take the Star quarterbacks and they often win. But if you lose a bet, oh it must be And the average BET's only four dollars. So sports gambling is a lot of fun. I love it. But with legalized sports gambling, you're going to get more conspiracy theories. And I've never seen in my life super Bowls. To get to a super Bowl, you've got to be a good team. The league isn't trying to make the Chicago Bears lose. They lose all but themselves. The league doesn't have it out for Carolina or Arizona or Washington. They really don't. Those teams lose all by themselves. It's all gonna be okay. But I do think it's been a poorly officiated season. He's worked at NFL Films for forty four years. If you like fantasy football, betting on football, just want to get smarter in football. We call it our NFL meat Sandwich, fifteen minutes of smart football. Greg Cosels joining us. So we said this last week it was about as good a loss as you can have when the Rams lost to the Ravens, and I watched Seattle in Detroit. NFC teams go into that early window and get destroyed by Baltimore, and I felt the Rams were the better team for most of the game. That's what I thought. And I thought Stafford was at times sensational. What did the film say?

Yeah, I like watching Stafford Colin. I'm sure you do as well. The Rams who are a fun offense to watch because they do a couple of things that are really difficult to defend and really help Stafford. And that's reduced splits with their wide receivers much closer to the formation. And they use a ton of motion, both same side motion and across the formation. I mean, they have the second most snaps of motion in the past game of any team in the NFL, behind the Dolphins. And you know what they do a lot is they change the defense the strength of the offense. They'll go from two by two to receivers on each side to three by one. And when they do that, the defense has to react. If it's same side motion, then it changes the numbers. Who's receiver number one, who's receiver number two, who's receiver number three. All this presents communication issues for a defense, and that's what they're counting on. And that's why you get I mean, Nikoua had I think a thirty plus yard completion last week where he was wide open on a crosser and it was just with a little shift, a little motion, and you could see that the Ravens were confused.

I gotta tell you, these offense coaches deserve credit when they can take up backup somebody on the couch like Joe Flacco and Cleveland Kevin Stefanski, and he is highly effective. He made some throws the last two weeks and I'm like, I just shocked how effective he is. What Stefanski and Flacco, what are they doing.

Well? Flacco is a professional quarterback who knows exactly what he's looking at. And you know, and that's a really critical thing. I mean, obviously playing quarterback, you know, he's the kind of guy. I'm sure when he's eighty years old, Colin, he could probably roll off the couch and throw a football. But you know, now you're giving yourself a three dimensional passing game because he can attack vertically, he can get the ball down the field, He sees safety rotation instantly, he sees how the defense responds, and he knows where to go with the football. I mean, so much of playing quarterback, we get caught up and we all do. We get caught up in arm strength and the trades, but so much as understanding where to go with the football within the timing and structure of the offense. And Flacco knows that he's not going to be surprised by anything that he sees. And that's so critical because sometimes a seven yard play is a great play and you just take the seven yards and you move on.

So Miami really struggled with Tennessee and they should have won the game. But again it's a physical team giving Miami problems. Is that what the tape is saying is they're more a finesse team and physicality disrupts their offense.

Well, I thought that Shane Bowen, their decoordinator, did a masterful job of playing Miami tactically exactly how you have to play them. When you play Miami, you actually start on the back end, not the front end, because what you need to do is you need to create doubt Intua so that when he hits his back foot, he doesn't have that first window throw between the numbers. That is absolutely critical. So you start on the back end with a lot of late rotation, a lot of creative looks after the ball snap and you prevent to it from hitting his back foot and delivering the football, then your pass rush becomes a factor, and it has to be a four man pass rush. So they approached it exactly the right way, and they executed it at a really high level. And for those watching the game, they probably saw that too. It did not have a lot of those timing rhythm throws that were used to seeing when they're playing well because they took them away on the back end. So you remember, Colin, those quick drops. Pass rushers are going to get there if that works. So that's why you start on the back end when you play the Dolphins, not with your pass rush.

All right, let's get to the good team. Sore Brock pretty you know, I saw a stat this week. San Francisco throws the ball fewer times than anybody in the league, but his third and total passing yards, Well, that tell that screams efficiency. That screams That's what it screams to me. So sometimes Perty makes throws and I'm like, man, those guys are wide open. Well he didn't make them wide open. Sometimes you can throw a guy by open. So are you impressed with his performance? Against Seattle, or are you impressed with a scheme and the coaching of it.

Well, I think all those things go together. I mean, we've seen a lot of talking this week about oh, well he's got good players. You know, that is such a ridiculous argument. If you want to take that argument, then I guess we should pull out all these quarterbacks from the Hall of Fame. I mean, that's a ridiculo. Every coach or rather have good players than not. But their offense is so well schemed, their use of motion, the way they create adjustments for the defense or shrink the defensive menu because of all the motion, because defenses don't want to get caught trying to communicate and over communicate, and then they know exactly what they're getting based on the motion and the use of personnel and formation, and that creates defined throws for the quarterback. And as we've discussed over the last month or so, Purdy's natural sense of anticipation is really really high level and his ability to recognize coverage. I mean that fIF four yard touchdown he threw to Samuel. Samuel was not the primary receiver. Jennings was the primary receiver, and he just happened to see. As he took the snap and took his first step, he happened to see Jamal Adams flat footed, and he said, you know what, I'm gonna have Samuel over the top because Adams is not going to be in position to turn and run. These are the kinds of things he does at a really, really high level.

Let's do a deep dive on Philadelphia and their problems. I think I downplayed them defensively. They're not very good, but let's concentrate on Jalen Hurts and the offense. They lost Shane Steichen. They have excellent receivers, good tight ends, a good old line, but it's not the same. I couldn't say the last game. I watched their offense and they put four good quarters together. It is choppy, it's inconsistent. What does the film say about Jalen and this offense.

Well, first of all, they use motion the least of any team in the league, and I think today's NFL you have to use motion to some extent. They're in the gun, and they're not the only team like this, Colin, but they're in the gun on almost every single snap, and it is much harder to marry your run game and your pass game out of the gun. They've lived last year really well on a couple of things. Number One, Hurts as a runner, as a design runner, that was always the starting foundation and the great equalizer. Defenses are not responding this year the same way they responded a year ago. They had an offseason to study this. You cannot build your offense around Hurts's legs. You must find more schematic ways to maximize the overall talent on the offensive side of the ball. So they need to figure that out. But the other thing we saw last year which is not happening this year because they're not easy throws. How many times last year did we see Hurts throw beautiful deep balls outside the numbers? Okay, it seemed like every single week he had two or three of those that were just really really pretty well. This year, those who are not happening. Those are not routine easy throws. So they've got to figure some things out about how they want to play outfense. But I would really love to see them use some more emotion. I think DeVonta Smith would be a great motion receiver.

Is are there defensive issues in Philadelphia simply personnel based or is it scheme. What's the film say.

Ah, it's probably a combination. But look, if I told you before this season, coming off a year in which they led the NFL in sacks and had the most third down sacks in the league by far, if I told you going into this season that they would not be able to rush the quarterback, you would have probably thought I was crazy. They have not been able to rush the quarterback. They've got the fewest third down sacks of any team in the NFL, and that is why their third down defense is the worst in the NFL. They have the absolute This is not a profound statement, but it's a true statement. They have the worst a nation you could have on defense right now. They can't rush the quarterback and they don't cover very well because they're having issues in the secondary. We'll see if they make changes. I mean, the last two weeks have been difficult and as they head down the scratch. Yes, the schedule is favorable, but this team is not worried about beating the Giants or the Cardinals. This team he's worried about getting back to the super Bowl. So it's very possible we could be some changes in personnel and in how they approach playing defense.

I want to focus on Josh Allen and the Cowboy defense because they play this week, and my feeling is Dallas is feeling themselves a little now. It's Buffalo. Buffalo's in an urgent setting. They have to win these games, a real fight on their hands. Yeah, and there's an opening now because Miami gagged against Tennessee. So I think Buffalo could seize this right. And how Josh Allen about against the Cowboys defenses. I think if they can create mistakes by Josh, Dallas wins because Dak's not making a lot of mistakes and we've talked about him at nauseum. But against the Cowboys defense, what do you project happens.

Yeah, Well, normally the Cowboys are a heavy man to man defense, and so you have to whip out your man beater concepts if you're the Bills. But the flip side of that for the Cowboys is you have to have eyes on Josh Allen. You've got to account for him. So the question is will they play less man or will they still play man and spy him because somewhere along the line you need eyes on Josh Allen. But the Cowboys are a high percentage. I believe they play the highest percentage of man coverage in the National Football League. That's their bread and butter, and they certainly play it on third down. It'll be interesting with how the Bills go about it because Iran Bland is a beatable corner and you've got to go after him. So that's we know that the Bills have run the ball better, but at their core, it's a Josh Allen based offense, and Josh Allen's going to have to play well and they're going to have to help him with their approach and their schematics.

You know, It's fun every time I watch the Ravens. I swear to God, every big game has been at home this year, and it just feels like and every time they're playing a Seahawks, a Lion's a Ram, it's at home and they're gonna have some tough road games coming up. But I really do I've said this before, is most great quarterbacks there's a juice, there's an it that it's hard to describe. And I think that Lamar was such a firework show initially that we've never given him credit for the improvement in the pocket. Now he may not be Stafford or whatever. But there are times he sit in to the pocket. This past week against the Rams, one time he rolled to the left and he had ability to run and he didn't, and he sat there and he looked and he looked, and I thought that's growth because he had some space. And he's always going to beat a linebacker one on one right most of the time. So I think I think he flies a little under the radar because he was so dynamic early that we don't give him credit for some of the passing stuff. And I do see a more patient quarterback. But does a film say that, you.

Know, it's funny because I think he's had a very good year, and I would say based on the film from this week, this was not one of his better games. But he made a couple of key throws. But this week he missed some throws that you have to make. His ball placement wasn't quite as good even when the receivers were open. I mean, he threw a touchdown to Odell Beckham, which was a bad throw, and it just happened. Beckham was so wide open on the slugo the slant and go concept that he was able to adjust and catch it. But for the most part, this was truly not one of his better games. Here's the touchdown to Beckham, but it was just not one of his better games. But he made some good throws when he had to. And I think he's trying to be more patient in the pocket just because the system I think is better from a passing element. But I have to tell you, when you get into specific situations two minutes, end of games, end of first half, red zone, certain specific situations, he is difficult to defend because of the legs. I mean, you have to account for that, and it's hard.

Let's go to the big play of the week against the Rams and what was a wildly entertaining game.

It sure was, and the big play was that touchdown late that actually put them ahead. The Rams came back, of course to tie it. But let's go to that play right now. This was a touchdown to his a Flowers and I love the whole concept of this play, the schematics of this play. That's what always interests me, the schematics of plays. And they had gotten a lot of too high coverage from the Rams. That's what they do, and they knew how to attack it. So here's Lamar. He's going to be in the gun here, and you're going to see what we call four by one set becoming very common in the league now, four receivers to one side. Okay, that's very difficult to deal with in zone coverage. And here you see the two high safety coverage. It's essentially going to be what we call quarters. And the two receivers you want to look at are agal Are inside and then Flowers just next to him, and they're both going run kind of crossers are overs okay. And because of the coverage and because of the four by one set, both these routes are going to be run by wide receivers versus safeties, and you'll take that every day of the week. So here you have Agalar, he's going to attack that safety, okay, So he's going to remove that safety. So now what do you get. You get Flowers working against Fuller, good player, but you'll take a wide receiver on a safety every snap of the ball. So now you get him running away from him, you get Lamar seeing it, and you get a good throw. This was one of his better throws of the game, and you get the touchdown late. So this is really well schemed based on what they had gotten in all game Todd Monkin and his staff had seen it. Lamar knew what he had and this was a really good throw.

A moved left set up, made a good throw moving to his left. Greg is always great stuff.

Appreciate it, Thanks, Colin, Appreciate it.

Yeah, Philadelphia is a little bit of a quandary, and you're not quite sure what's going on. They've got some personnel issues. Into Greg's point, they're not covering people on the back end as much. But the bigger issue perhaps is if they were scoring more, they'd be fine, but they're just not hitting on big plays over the top like last year. What is it? Why is it again? I think Shane Steichen's a superstark offensive coordinator and appears to be an excellent coach, and I just don't think there's a lot of excellence. And when you lose a Shanahan in Atlanta as a coordinator, if the Cowboys lost Dan Quinn is their defensive coordinator, that defense isn't as good next year. Dan Quinn's excellent. So it's some of that in Philadelphia is they lost two coordinators, both good, one great, and they're feeling the effects of it.

So it feels like to me, how much of it do you think is Jalen hurts rushing less? They gave him the big contract. We don't want to put him in harm's way. We're ten and.

What are ten and three?

Let's not force anything. Let's save him for the playoffs. Almost he's a little banged up. You know, he hasn't been one hundred percent running. Without him running, they can you know, defense is can adjustin. They're not like fearful of him.

Just I think there's more truth to that. I do believe in a seventeen game schedule that you coach differently. And if you're Philadelphia and you look around the NFC and you think, well, the two teams that we have to be ready for are Dallas and San Francisco. We think we can beat everybody in the NFC by doing it this way. And if you look at the teams they've had trouble with, it's Dallas and San Francisco. So their takeaway, you know, I talked about this with San Francisco. I don't think this is crazy that last game of the year, San Francisco and the Rams. Shanahan and McVay are close. I could see Shanahan, not not that he would do just to do it for McVeigh. But if you have a playoff spot guaranteed you won the division, but you're let's say you're not going to get the number one seed last week, I wouldn't play Christian McCaffrey or Debo. I would use Sam Darnold. I would sit Trent Williams. I would not because this team does not lose when McCaffrey, Debo, Pertty, Trent play. I'd said all of them.

I remember, those guys also have incentives in their contracts. They want to hit for bonuses. And now you get the MVP of wards. I'm largely with you. So I looked up Hurts's rushing numbers. He's down in attempts per game, yards per game, touchdowns, basically a yards per carry everything Hurts. His running numbers are way down, and he made that offense go last year.

You know it.

It was more than the brotherly shove. It's a lot of the quarterback keepers.

And I think in the NFC, because there's not the depth of good teams. I mean, it's really, in my opinion, it's San Francisco Dallas and Philadelphia, although they've got a hiccup and then I feel like Detroit. I think you got to keep your eye on the Rams a little bit. They're interesting. In the AFC, it feels like there's a bunch of really, really good teams, and Baltimore's at the top of the class, but there's a lot of talent. Buffalo Miami has a lot of talent, and I think Philip I think there is this gamesmanship San Francisco at the end of the year if they don't think they're going to get the one seed, they but they want to go in healthy. I would absolutely rest players, and I can see Philadelphia to your point saying, listen, we just got to be healthy when we play the Niners in Dallas, and so there's no reason to take big risks. Run with Jalen Hurts, I don't think that's crazy. I think you have to manage weeks ahead, not just manage the week of the game.

But how much do you value the home field advantage in the playoffs? Not much, really, you don't think there's a huge difference or indoor Dallas.

Home field advantage. The odds makers, the wise guys, the sharps, think now it's a point to a point and a half a game. It used to be three to three and a half. Because of the technology in the helmet, you can talk to your quarterback in the helmet. Secondly, teams now travel with teams of therapists nutritionists, so road games they make those feel like home games, so the three point difference home and away does not exist. Now. Dallas plays better at home, clear.

Averaging twenty points per game more at home, but.

They've also played a lot of crappy teams there. But at home they just Arrowhead Stadiums, one of the loudest stadiums in the country. I just watch Kansas City lose again at Arrowhead. That's what Andy Reid and Mahomes. I've watched them lose to Cincinnati. I've watched them lose to Buffalo. I've watched them lose to the Chargers, and that's Arrowhead. That's also the bye week.

As the number one seed, only one team gets that buy that extra week of rest.

But I'd argue this that matters to the Niners or Philadelphia older teams. There is no proof that in football, a hot football team is better with rest. Okay, if you go to every New England Super Bowl with two weeks rest for the Super Bowl. They never scored touchdowns in the first quarter. Brady Tom Brady couldn't get first quarter touchdowns. Time off is great in for instance, NBA, for an older roster, those games are a drag, but in football, you get one game a week. There's no proof. If I take green Bay, green Bay is a young, twitchy, fast team, I do not want time off. If green Bay wins weeks, look at green Bay schedule, they could go I want a three or four game heater. I do not want to They're not gonna get a buy I don't want to buy. I'll get my young guys out there. If I'm Philadelphia and Kelsey's beat up or Kansas City with Travis Kelsey, I would take the buye. But not all wins, or teams or cultures are created the same. And I think there's a handful like Detroit's pretty young. I want them playing I want green Bay. I want them playing Jacksonville. If you're hot, keeping playing Indy. If they got Houston, if they got to the playoffs like the Houston Texans, that's a young team. I do not want time off. Now they're not gonna get a seed. But I think the time off thing is great for an older team that has a kelsey on it. Right Outside of that, I don't I don't think the buying the bye is overstated. But you watch these Bowl games, we have a month off. They're a lot of times the best part of the games the second half when a team is up to speed. Those first couple drives are choppy. I have a great parla hey for you this weekend thanks to DraftKings Sportsbook. New users use the code herd ager D when you download the app. Here's my parlay picks. People will sell their packer stock because they lost to an average Giants team, but they're at home. All give up the three and a half. I think they beat the Bucks handily. Brown's minus three and a half hosting the Bears Chicago look great, but Cleveland's defense at home will be a different matter entirely. Brown's by a touchdown and the Bills minus to at home. Yeah, I like all three favorites. All take them over the Cowboys coming off a highly emotional thrashing of the Eagles. You want to take the Herd parlay. Check out DraftKings Sportsbook New users code is heard hr D when you download the app. It's easy. It's simple.

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All right, welcome back. Good to have you in. All sorts of stuff going on today. Jordan Schultz next hour, some NFL stories, updates on the Bears and their coach and their quarterback. And Mike Tomlin. Is he in trouble with the Steelers? J Mack with the news.

No, No, turn on the news.

This is the Herdline News.

Boy, we got some we got some stuff cooking here. Calart. Let's start with these floundering Eagles. They've got a thirty three.

Points in each of their last three games. They're not creating turnovers, ranking twenty first in the NFL. Defensive coordinator Sean Decid is confident in a turnaround.

We've been in opportunity.

We have not been able to get off the field when we need to get off the field, you know, and yeah, you know in third down and situational football, we gotta be better third down, red zone and and those are been our buggaboos. And I ain't gonna lie to you guys that that's that's been kind of our achilles heel. Right now, we're not where we want to be h and we're still growing there to get to where we want to be. And we feel good about doing that and working together to achieve our goals.

Too.

Very interesting.

It's weird people don't seem that concern with this team.

I'm just telling you. This defense is bad. The offense is struggling. This game against Seattle is no layup collent. It says three and a half on the screen.

Look at these defensive numbers.

Man. Yeah, but you think Seattle can take advantage of it.

I don't know.

Seattle push Dallas pretty damn hard in Dallas Thursday night game. I know Seattle was plucky against the Niners last week with dre Drew Locke. They got receivers. This should be a forty five pass game for Gino Smith. Get the BALTI metcalf, go to lock it, go to lhatt and the point. I didn't say all that, but you're telling me a home team getting over a field goal on Monday Night football.

I know. We just watched the Giants with Tommy de Viido Beta. Pretty interesting markers.

Both favorites got smoke Monday and the Monday before we locked on the Jags. Remember favored at home against the the Bengals. Yeah, so I gotta be careful. Eagles lose this one and Dallas somehow beats Buffalo.

We don't think that happens.

Now you're talking Cowboys, NFC East champs and maybe number one seed.

We'll see next up.

Sean McVeigh, Boy, he's got my vote for coach of the Year.

He's done so well.

Even though they're only six and seven, they're in the mix for a playoff.

First.

Andrew Whitworth, the former Rams offensive lineman, recently broke down what sets McVeigh apart from his peers.

I think it really starts with his ability to communicate. You know, people talk about at his intelligence level. They talked about, oh man, you know, his genius play caller and inventing all these things he did, and really what he's done schematically across the league. I think the most impressive thing I've ever seen eleven years in the league. I move over to Los Angeles. Rams his first four weeks of OTAs as a thirty year old, youngest head coach in NFL history, we spent the first hour or so of team meetings. For the first four weeks, he had the job explaining what football character look like.

He's had a great year of coaching, excellent. I mean, it's again, if it's a quarterback coaches league. I never bought into the the they're gonna win five games. They're an older version of the Super Bowl champion Chiefs last year. Now, Rams are't gonna win the super Bowl, but that they have the right positions quarterback star weapon.

Well, nobody knew they'd hit on Puka Nikua right like he was a revelation for them. You know.

They also they hit on the they you know what I mean, They.

Ernest what's his face?

They have young the rush In was a third rounder, Kobe Turner a third round er. They they though, both those guys are very good players. So they draft. Well, their issue is they give up first round picks a lot. So they've given up so they I mean, they missed like everybody else too. To at Well was viewed as a bust. He's had a little bit of a comeback year. I just don't think their personnel is as bad as people think. I think they don't have a lot of great players in their but they have a lot of great players. I mean, Aaron Donald is still double teamed on every snap, and Stafford still throws the ball on any given throw as well as anybody in the league.

Horse has been very good with the defense.

And they did hit Pokinakua. The fifth round is a steal in the draft.

Oh no, it's tremendous. Uh you see that line there six and a half.

It's a stay away game for me. I like the Rams to win, but that's a lot of points.

Well, I took the over, the overs climbing.

I think it's like fifty to fifty one. Commander's off a bye.

The Commanders could score, they could throw it. Howell's not gonna stop chucking. But I think the big story here is Rams.

They're close to the playoffs.

Color.

I just they're dangerous right now.

I mean, if you look at it, a Rams Lions first round games, Falcons.

Oh, they beat the Saints like a drum. I will tell you this When you watch the Rams, you can see the coaching a situational football. You can see the coaching, you can see the audibleling. They They're one of the smartest teams in the league. And the advantage with that is Cup's a veteran. Stafford's a veteran. They've got you know that the center's been around, the right tackle has been around, their tight end's been around. Like they're a high functioning offense. McVeigh is super bright, so you can watch them manipulate situational red zone football plays like they're betterman, they're grown up.

Mcvaver's Dennis Allen, Oh my goods, that's a bodybag game, Rams big all right, final story, this is just breaking right now, but it sounds like Zach Levine has played his last game for the Chicago Bulls. He has injured, hasn't been back, and guess who his agents want him to play for. Clutch Sports represents Zach Levine. Guess where they want him? Colin the Los Angeles Lakers, and according to a report in the Chicago Sun Times, the Bulls have been linked to the Lakers mostly also the Raptors, and zach Levine's Clutch representation wants him with the Lakers. Now here's where it gets interesting. The Lakers can't do a deal until January fifteenth because of some you know whatever signings they had. But it sounds like di'angelo Russell.

Oh yeah, I we don't know if they're getting him out of town.

I'm for the Ruey Hatchi Mora, who had his moments, he struggled a bit this season. Rookie Jalen Hood Schaffino, I think he's from Indiana. And then some you know, draft picks for Zach Levine. Okay, hold both desperately want to get off Levine right and he's got a big contract.

So here's my I've never been a huge fan. I don't think he's a winning player, but I will say this is that Lebron tends to get the best out of highly athletic guys who need to be sort of not chaperone, but kind of managed. I think Zach shot selection that times need to be need to be managed. He does give them a younger vertical component they don't have. Austin Reeves isn't highly vertical. So what you're saying Austin Reves a good player, He's not Tomahawk Duncan down.

Reeves is sick.

So the bottom line is you have Lebron A d Levine your three, in Austin's your four, and that is a conference finals team. I don't love Levine, but if you can get D'Angelo Russell's silliness out, Ruey's a nice player, not going to change any playoff series. It's not a bad move for the Laker.

Okay, So the big thing here, Zach Levine has always been a number one or a number two to one any team, even through a three with the Lakers.

Are you kidding me? That's amazing as perfect for the Lakers.

Well, again, this works because of Lebron. Yeah, yeah, Zach's not a one.

But you said it, well, Lebron gets the best out of anyone who.

Comes to play with him.

Uh. Who was the guy last year, Ronnie Walker coming in taking over games?

There was a guy before that.

Now this year, Cam Reddish, who's bounced from like three or fourteens.

Kim Rettish is.

Playing incredible defense, hustling his butt off.

I'm just telling you, Zach Levine to the Lakers actually works, especially and I think they signed D'Angelo Russell for this moment. You can use him as a piece to get somebody else. D'Angelo Russell is a Lebron doesn't trust him in late game situations at all.

By the way, I know it's granular.

Last night against the Spurs, Lakers blow like a twenty five point leading a lead up late and they have Did'angelo Russell throwing the ball in.

Like a moron. He throws it into the backcourt. The Spurs nearly get the steal. I'm i just darvin him.

What do you do?

That's a basic one on one You don't have your low not to be me, lowest IQ player on the court throwing it inbounds back towards your basket. Get him out of there. Get my guy Levin. And I'm just telling you, Levina is a human highlight reel.

Yeah, I know.

Lebron will get him to play defense.

It's gonna needs to be. He needs to be managed effectively, and then Zach can be a very good player. Once he's not a one. He's not a one, Lakers will have more talent. No, I mean nuggets, a vertical athletic piece that they could use. Absolutely, So I'm I'm I'm for it, though I'm not a huge fan. Uh, I don't think he's necessarily Now I should say this, he's not a winning player as a one. Could he be helpful as a winning player? Andrew Wiggins is a three, was a winning player as a one. He'd score twenty four and you didn't remember a single basket. He wasn't a winning player. So landing spots matter, fit matters. J mcklanows, well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the.

Herd Line News.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and Noone Easter nine em Pacific.

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Saturday on Fox Printime, Moot, The Big easton SEC Collide as Alabama Battles Hate ran at seven thirty Eastern only on Fox and the Fox Sports Acute.

So Tom, current NBC reporter in Boston who I trust, had a story this week about the future of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and here it is.

When they came out of Germany, conversations I had that week made it very clear that a decision was made and they were going to play out the string and at the end of the year there would be a parting of the ways for variety of reasons, the main one being no fire Bill Belichick during the season. It's just not going to happen.

So listen, the owner of the Patriots is going to protect his brand, and right now the brand is the Patriots are being flexed out of Monday night football. They're inept offensively, they're boring. Rarely do employees get their way with billionaires and bosses. All right, all good things come to an end, and employees don't control it also Belichick's a rigid personality. Bobby Knight, the late Bobby Knight, Tony LaRussa Belichick, You're seeing it with Popovich. This is generally the way it ends. It's not pretty. I think Bill is completely out of sync with the current NFL, and in fact, I think if you look at his assistance, they've mostly been disasters. As head coaches, Patricia Josh McDaniel, they've been Joe Judge utter disasters. Because this style of coaching, this highly punitive, very rigid. My way or the highway, take less. It's not working. The mcveag way, the Shanahan way, the Mike McDaniels way, more pro player, more ingenuity, less power from the top down, pushing down. I just don't think it works in today's NFL. I don't think free agents want to go play there. I don't think young coaches want to go coach there. And I think Bill's out of sync. I think it's a collaborative world we live in. I think those are the tech companies that are working. I think those are the media companies that are working. I think those are the football teams that are working. Collaboration. Not a single powerful figure at the top, suppressing people, and so I think they're out of touch. I mean, here's Bill Belichick's latest press conference. This this, it's like a cartoon, like this is who he is.

Now, do you have an under city that Robert will not ask you to be back next year?

Yeah, I'm getting right for Kansas City. That's what I'm doing.

Do you watch coaching with the SATs in the big one of the team.

Yeah, I'm gett right for Kansas City.

And Robert your future being the CEA getting ready.

For Kansas City.

Essentially, this is Tom Landry, although Tom was nicer. You have an elite defensive coach coach, elite defensive coach coach the New York Giants as a coordinator, They win a championship. Then he goes on struggles in his first season as a head coach, right like Belichick was eleven, you know with the Browns, he struggled, and then Landry apparently was seven and seven for six year with a Cowboys. The struggle. Then they get a great quarterback, Bill got Brady and Tom Landry got Roger Staubach, and then they go on this twenty year historic run and then it ends ugly when that quarterback kind of leaves Landry at the end went seven to nine, seven and eight, three and thirteen and got fired. And Bill Belichick, whether it's called firing or not, there was a report earlier this year that he signed an extension. I thought that was true. I would not extend him. I think. I think when cultures change, a lot of older employees get out of sync. It's why it's very important. My wife Poa says this, to stay current, stay current with technology, stay current with cultural trends. Bill hasn't, so he's still grumpy. He's tonedaf he can't draft and develop. It's time, you know. And I also think, and I said this last year in the year before, they're boring, they're being flexed off television. And Robert Kraft, believe it or not, has more influence over the TV deals than any other owner. He's often the owner that deals with TV networks. He's the kind of I don't know if you called a go between them, but there's goodell, well, there's craft they call the networks. They tell you what you're gonna pay, So it matters to Bill and when you get to Robert Kraft that when you're getting flexed off Monday Night football. As an owner, it's embarrassing. Owners don't like to be embarrassed. Billionaires don't like to be embarrassed. So yeah, it's I think it's I think it's time, and you know it does. I will say this for players like Michael Jordan, the Wizard years do not affect to me his legacy. Brett Farr the Jets year does not really affect his legacy. You know, if you go look at Patrick Ewing or a Chema lajo On and they bounce around shack at the end, it's never to me affected a player's legacy if it's choppy at the end. However, I will say this on Belichick. It does make me think differently about Belichick. Not successful in Cleveland, not successful without Brady in New England. It does change how I view him. I mean, he's the most productive coach. But if this is football going forward, for the health and safety of players to be more of an offensively protective league, protect quarterbacks, protect offensive stars. If this is the next thirty year of football while I live, I don't view Belichick the same. I do view Michael Jordan the same. Despite two or three years with the Wizards, it had no effect, but it does with coaches if you don't age well. The late Bobby Knight, you know, like it was just, you know, he won some games, but it didn't feel as strong as Mike Krzyzewski at the end of his career. And it does influence how I think. If a coach can't evolve,

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