Colin tells you why he was right about LeBron James but wrong about James Harden.
Plus, he talks to 3-time Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck about the expectations for Caleb Williams in year 2 and why his leadership needs to improve significantly
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It's our two hour one flew by. We got so much stuff today live. We're in Chicago. It's The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day, So j Mac, it was interesting the I'm interested to talk to Matt Hasselting about this. Danny parkins, I'll play it later in the show from Chicago. Big Bears fan works on FS one the morning Breakfastball, and he talked about it this week about he just wants to see, you know, Caleb Williams go from twenty touchdowns to thirty, from thirty five hundred yards to four thousand, and I'm interested to talk to Matt Hasselback. I don't care about any of that. To me, it's all about the sacks with a bat old line in New York. Aaron Rodgers got sacked like forty times. Caleb got sacked almost seventy. If you told me the sacks went from sixty eight to thirty four, I don't care about the wins. I don't care about the touchdowns. Sacks mess with a young quarterback's body and their psychology.
Do you think it's a structure thing.
Just play in structure, don't do the backyard footballing to run into sacks.
I think it's a delicate balance. But everybody's talking about stats. For Caleb Williams, all I care about. All I care about is the sack number is in the mid to low thirties. If that's the answer, it will have been a successful season. Because if we have another year where he's fifty plus sacks, you start messing with the young guy's confidence. You mess with their timing, rhythm, their game, their physicality. So I'm gonna get to him in just a few minutes. But first, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, Where Colin was right, we Lebron opted in. I had said this was it two to three months ago. When Lebron hinted it retirement, I said, oh my god, are we going to do this again. It's four years in a row. It's like the Brett Farb Tour. Lebron's not retiring. He's too good. He plays joyfully. Los Angeles is good for him. He's got Luca Dantag. Yes he'll opt in, Yes he's gonna play.
It's nonsense, and we were right where Colin was wrong.
Well, a week ago, goalie Matt Freeze I said, look too anxious over his head, nervous, Probably not our answer for the United States men's national team in goal. And then yesterday, during PK's three saves, got his hand on two others. He rose to the moment. In my opinions, her he's secured the goalie job for Team USA. Where Colin was right. Kaylin Clark isn't just the best young player in the WNBA.
She's Tiger Woods.
Yesterday sold out her shoe in ten minutes, according to reports, ten minutes. She's getting the most votes on the All Star Game. She's driving half of the league's television ratings. I said a year ago she is Taylor Swift with a jumper. She is not just helping the league. She literally got a teammate's jersey sold out in fifteen minutes. Sophia Cunningham just by proxy, a player that had been in the league seven years, just a teammate. She's getting stuff sold out. She is bigger than either even the WNBA, which has finally come around acknowledges where Colin was right. Former Pittsburgh Steeler James Harrerson last week admitted what we've been on for years. Mike Tomlin's strength, he's a players coach. Mike Tomlin's weakness, he's a players coach. Yes, many players can handle that, but increasingly guys like Jalen Ramsey, who's only but as good as the structure. He's been supported by the Rams. It doesn't work. So this is what I've said about the Steelers for years. I'm not saying Mike Tomlin can't coach, but he's loose and details win in December, January and February, and James Harrison admitting the organization is to.
Player friendly where Colin was wrong. James Harden signed.
Another deal two years, forty plus million a year. Listen, I last year he shot forty one percent from the field. He doesn't defend, he never shows up in the playoffs. I am not denying his greatness. I am not denying his Hall of Fame stature. I'm not denying offensive leads. One of the great guards of all time. But if Steve Balmer cares about winning and culture and how do you win in the playoffs? Who is the best defensive team in the league? Oksee who won? OKC, That's not the way to do it. Where Colin was right, Sean Payton ranked number two coaching in the NFL by PFF. Andy Reid number one. I just saw this weekend. He took a bad offensive line. The old line is now ranked number two. He took over a shaky defense. They led the NFL in sacks. They upgraded it safety and linebacker on players that were just niners a year ago. He inherited a horrible culture, a mess at quarterback, moved off Russell Wilson, dead cap money, and in a division with Andy Reid and Jim Harbaugh, took a rookie quarterback to the playoffs. This is what I've been saying about Sean Payton. He is direct, he is kurt, He can turn people off. He is brilliant.
Where Colin was right, I said last.
Week, there's seven athletes in America that are untradeable. Aaron Judge Is absolutely won yesterday to homers four RBIs leads baseball at three point fifty six second in home runs. He's not just a great Yankee. He went on a brief hitting slump. The Yankees got shut out. He is literally the centerpiece, as good as Otawny is if he takes a day off. I got Mokie Betts, I got Maximunsei, I got Freddie Freeman. He is the centerpiece of East Coast baseball.
Where Colin was robbed.
Austin Reeves declined ninety million from the Lakers. Why his representation believes open market or the Lakers. In a year he's going to get closer to one hundred and fifty million. I'd trade him tomorrow for Derek White. I think he's a really good b player. They are nights. He has an a offense night, but he's not dynamic vertically. He's a good shooter, not elite. But I'm wrong because apparently often in his reps CNA player where Colin was right.
What do you know?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers extended Jason light the GM. Do you realize the team with the longest active playoffs streak in the NFC is the box, not the Eagles or the Ravens or the Rams. Excuse me, Ravens refc. Jason Light one of the best scouts ever been on this for years. Tampa Bay for years had excellent rosters. They couldn't get the quarterback right. Jason got Baker when a lot of people were doubting him. He was one of only two GMS that aggressively pursued Tom Brady. Tampa will remain talent rich as long as Jason Light is the GM. And with that, Matt Hasselbeck is joining us and he's joining us live. Okay, So I want to get into the Caleb Williams thing before I get into the Jalen Ramsey thing. Is that I've always felt this, even with my kids, when I had six different kids, if they were struggling, little unstable stuffs in their head, number one rule was just stabilize them. I'm not worried about growth. I'm just let's stabilize. And I tend to believe that with quarterbacks. With a young quarterback, I'm not looking for growth. With Caleb Williams, it was such a mess last year. Just cut the sacks in half. I don't care about anything else, So I maybe I'm being a little over the top. But when people suggest they want him to go to thirty touchdowns and four thousand yards, I'm like, I don't care. The sacks are everything to me. How does that land for you?
Well, it's certainly number one. You got to walk before you can run, is how I would say it. But I like to give quarterbacks usually two or three things to really focus in on and improve on from one year to the next. Think that's what helped me the most. Sacks would definitely be at the top of the list. Sacks hurt your team, They hurt your offensive line, they hurt morale, they hurt your own personal like your physic.
Out, your body.
But it's also very bad on the defense, that field positioning game. So it's a you know, this idea of protect the team. Sacks are an absolute killer. I thought, if you know, if we were assigning blame to what why so many sacks last year in Chicago, The majority of the sacks were not the fault of the offensive line. They were the fault of the young quarterback. It's very common. It's not special to Caleb. We've all lived it and that's an area that he needs to improve on, and I think he probably will, but it needs to be pretty significant.
You know, when you say he's got to get better, is that is that pre snap? Is that holding the ball? Some guys could. There's people open, they just don't.
They want to.
They're seeking a bigger play. When you watched him, what did you see? Why was he inducing sacks? Well?
I think early on, you know, early on, his eyes were in the wrong place. He didn't look like it didn't look like he had a clear grasp of the protection schemes.
I think that was a big part of it.
Now, they made the head coaching change, and they made the offensive coordinator change. His position coach, you know, was in the room with him calling plays. The offensive coordinator knew, and I think they simplified it and they brought it down. But I think what got him into trouble in the second part of the year was he trusted his in his athleticism so much like you saw these things where he got away with it at USC, You're not going to get away with it in the NFL. And I think that's one of the hard things for quarterbacks who have great mobility.
It's it's it's I would say.
It's great mobility in college, and it's just kind of like good mobility in the NFL.
And there's a fine line there.
But I think he needs to play on time more than he did and uh, maybe a little bit less of the playground stuff save that for when you absolutely need it.
Yeah, you know.
It reminds me of a mat a little of golf, where everybody wants to buy a new driver, and it's like, if you're putting improves, your score improves. The driver is not going to win your strokes. It's all around the greens, right, So I think, yeah, with Caleb, I don't worry about his driving. You got to make the pots in the red zone.
Well, it's putt, it's what is it putt for dough drive? For show?
You know, I would say, I would say in a similar way somewhere on that list, I think number two for me would just probably be overall leadership, like we're looking at you. I mentioned body language like that bothers me. That really bothered me how he handled that last year. But then also like you know, you can't miss the layups, you can't miss.
The free throws.
He is he's gonna have splash plays, but he's also going to miss some wide open guys or he did last year. And I think that's another area, probably that third area that I think he needs to improve on.
All Right, So been on this for a while. The Rams, the Eagles, and the Chiefs spent all their money on offense. The league ten years ago, after that CTE check they wrote moved to benefiting the offense. So there's limits even a great defense. Couple of years ago the Niners had a great defense. They faced Mahomes, he ate them alive. There's just limitations on what a great defense can do because of rule changes. So the Steelers this morning said we're gonna spend even more money on defense. We'll move off MinC and get Ramseys. Like, guys, how about just move off MinC go get more offense.
So what do you make of the Jalen Ramsey move to the Steelers?
Now, listen, the Steelers are just gonna do what the Steelers do. They do not care about the rest of the league. They don't care about what anybody else does. They say, Hey, we're the Steelers, this is how we operate. So I don't think that's going to change but I do think this. It looks like they're building a team to stop the Cincinnati Bengals. Like when I look at them, I really feel like they're coming up with, like what is our identity going to be? It's almost like they have confidence in what they have, like what we have can take care of the Baltimore Ravens, like.
We're good, but like, man, I don't know how we're going to stop the Cincinnati Bengals.
Like I do believe that there's a fear there of like personnel wise, we don't match up well with them. And the Steelers and some other teams that have always been like thirty four defenses, three down linemen, four linebackers, they're playing more of this four to two, five four down linemen, two inside or four rushers, two inside backers.
And five dbs.
And I think what kind of dbs is where they've you know.
They now have some flexibility.
They basically have three corners to go to go up and fight, kind of like that Joe Burrow three wide receiver set. So I think that's a trend league wide. Certainly the Steelers look like they feel pretty good about that trend as well. Yeah, Okay, well listen, if I'm going to give you some confidence about it, I do think that there's a play here for the offense. You know, like Arthur smith identity. Last year you saw he went with a lot of twelve personnel. Thirteen personnel meaning two tight ends in the game or three tight ends in the game.
I think they just.
Want to get a little more talented at that spot.
Three different guys.
They've got Friar Move, They've got Darnell Washington, who's a joy to watch in the running game.
I mean, he's a monster.
And then they go get John new Smith, a player that I think is more wide receiver than his tight end.
Arthur Smith's been with him a few times, loves him.
I know that as this as the league goes to kind of what I was talking about, five dbs on the field more, the Steelers and Arthur Smith look like they're saying, Okay, you want to get cute with five DB's, we're going to smash it down your throat. We're gonna have a bruising, bruising running game, and we can still throw it with these guys. Shifts, motions, all that kind of stuff. It's identity for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, we don't care what the rest of the league is doing. We're doing what we're doing. And I think having a clear identity is very helpful, you know.
I think over obviously, people have been hiring offensive coaches more than defensive coaches.
Whenever there's a big.
Opening, you always see four offensive guys for a defensive guy. And that's not to say guys like Demiko Ryan can't work on the other side. But I was also thinking about something the other day, is that I there's a lot of people Mike McDaniel came from the Niners. Shanahan may do a lot of motion, but he's really like his dad. He's all about physical run games. Mcveigh's a culture guy. Shannan's a culture guy. Rabel's a culture guy. Dan Campbell's a culture guy. The Harbawser culture guys. Pete Carroll's got more of a culture guy. Is that I look at Miami and Mike McDaniel and it's like he took the Niners. He went to Miami with a similar quarterback, a smaller guy, not a huge arm, moves a little accurate. But I don't think he's built a culture. I think it's all sizzle and no steak and Miami to me this year, when I hear about coaches in the hot seat, I'm like, I look at Miami and all I hear the media love Mike McDaniel, but there's no there there, And I think we're moving into a time in the end, culture beyond just schematics matters and that Mike McDaniel may be clever, but the physical culture and component of that Niners offense, he didn't bring it to Miami and I don't buy them and I think they probably finished fourth and two years ago they were the.
Talk of the league. Where are you on.
Miami, McDaniel the motion to the sizzle because it's not working and it's going backwards.
Are you saying fourth in the AFC East? Is that what you're saying?
Yes, Wow, that's bold.
I'd put him third. Listen. Culture matters one hundred percent.
I think it matters more than next as and o's most of the time, especially in football, especially when you're in a city like Miami with all the distractions that are down there.
You're not in Green Bay, Wisconsin or something like that, so the.
Distractions are real. That's a real thing. I kind of believe in Mike McDaniel is. I kind of believe in him as a coach. I even believe that he can be the right culture guy. But no, it's it's listen. They're swimming upstream just a little bit. Even in their division, the Buffalo Bills, like everyone thinks that, hey, that's going to be the winner in that division.
The Patriots are vastly improved this year.
They clearly have an identity. You know, you just look at the teams last year that had double digit wins.
The AFC is tough. Seven teams are going to get in.
An explosive team like the Cincinnati Bengals didn't even make the playoffs last year. The Steelers clearly got better. The AFC West is talented.
If you don't win in.
Miami, a team with a great fan base that expects to win and they've got fireworks, Yeah, people are going to be calling for your for your job.
That's going to be the nature of it.
But the creativity and the the identity of what they can be offensively, it clearly is there. Like it's it's the potential is there. It's an interesting thing that you bring up. I don't know that I would say fourth at the end of the day. I feel like he was hired though, to get to back on track.
He did a pretty darn good job of that.
I think they just need to take a next step, and sometimes it's just tough late in the year. Those warm weather teams, they don't perform at the end of the year the way that they did at the beginning of the year because they got to go on the road and play somewhere like Buffalo or New England.
That'll be the test for them this year.
Matt Hasselbeck, it is a Monday. He's ad an undisclosed, very nice location which I'll be close to in a couple of days. It is great seeing my man.
It's nan Tucket. Just say it now. I just outed you on your vacation, all right.
Matt Hasselbeck, who's been a joint since he came to the show.
I appreciate it.
No, I was thinking about this j Mac is that sometimes like the media, and we know this.
The media likes the media.
And Mike McDaniel was seen as sort of you know, he's a small guy physically, but he's smart. He was kind of funny at the podium. The NFL is a sport of big men, big men. They were in high school, they're big in college. They're big, physical men and they respond to other big men. And if you look at what's happening in the NFL McVeigh, you say, well, mcveigh's not big. McVeigh is an athlete, he's culture, he's smart, he owns a room.
I mean, it's not debatable.
Like there's an argument that McVeigh is probably the best guy at the podium in the league. And I think Miami, it's squirrely, it's fun, it's smart.
I am three years into this Mike McDaniel thing.
What are they I'd think it's less about him because he's smart, articulate, really cuts through to the players you see behind the scenes. It's less about how the team is built. And honestly, I don't think they've done a good job.
I'm sure you saw.
Tyreek Hill just chimed in on the trade with the Will Smith meme from Fresh Prince of bel Air, like it's over, there's nobody here. Tyreek Hill has been chirping about getting.
Him out of there for like two years, dealing with Jalen Ramsey.
To me, this Dolphins move, they're rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.
They're going down.
Everybody knows it, and they're just trying some last ditch effort here.
It's not gonna matter. But it's not on McDaniel though, well.
It ultimately has to be on the coach. You can blame anybody in New England bella chick got fired at the end. You're paying the coach fifteen million. It's on the coach. You can't blame the GM because you're not winning.
Get employed for what like a week?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't believe Mike McDaniel gets a second nod. What don't I don't, I don't. It's got a Pro Bowl quarterback. They've gone backwards for three years, and why would I get.
Bold quarterbacks out their garbage.
That's on McDaniel. That's on quarterback for getting hurt all the time. Okay with the offensive line.
My point being, you tell me the market that's going to buy a coach and that in his first job. Remember Miami won I think it was nineteen games the two years before we got there. They won twenty with him in the first two years. One more spending big time money and getting stars and then went backwards last year.
Okay, I would definitely disagree. I think Dad almost instantly for another head coach based on what he's an offensive mastermind. It's not his fault. The defense got stopping nosebleed and the offensive lines of train wreck. The GM in the front office in Miami has been the downfall McDaniel.
Again, I would not blame him, Colin. I think he's excellent.
I mean, at some point in this league, the best coaches keep winning. Andy Reid wins regardless of quarterback. Even in Philly he was getting ANFC championships.
He had Donovan McNabb.
Come on, who's a not a top fifty quarterback ever, not even close.
He's not. That's not disputable.
But Donny donald McNabb was a good quarterback. They had a great defense in Philly. Yeah, reads a good coach. Come on, No, no, you're not listening. I'm not denying he is. You're saying McDaniels is. I'm saying, where's the proof. Where's the proof?
Well, they got into the playoffs.
Has any team been humiliated more by Buffalo in the league than Miami. They get humiliated by them. They can't compete in their own division with the best. Forget the rest of the AFC. I mean again, I go back to what's the market for You tell me I'm an owner. Hey, we've got a job opening. Let's hire a guy that young. His first job he failed at in a market that free agents love to play, no state tax awqua water.
So who's the equivalent of the NFC? Would you say it's the floor? Because he's not some big imposing figure. He got delt Aaron Rodgers won a lot. Now Rodgers is gone, and what are we seeing from the floor?
Playoffs? The Dolphins got to the playoffs under Green Bay has no owner. Free agents won't play there. The division is there are no bad teams in that division.
Okay.
And by the way, you're dealing with the quarterback Jordan Love, who is not who sat for three years. We still don't know how good he is. Toua was a first round pick who's already made a Pro Bowl. I mean, I'm not a huge to a fan, but he's made Pro Bowls. He's His comp was Drew Brees, who was Jordan Love's comp. Who would you rather have Jordan Love or to a well, I'd rather have Jordan Love because he's bigger with a better arm. Today, I would three years ago, I wouldn't. When McDaniel took the job, I would have rather had two of than Jordan Love. Now going into this year, I would take Jordan Law.
Okay, so Zach Taylor or Mike McDaniel, wh would you rather have his head coach?
I wouldn't hire either.
I mean if I was an owner and there was an opening and they were on the market, those would not be choices.
So now Brian Dabele probably would be my choice over McDaniel.
But yes, what has Brian Dabel done as a head coach?
Colin got Daniel Jones to the playoffs and won a playoff game.
Mine he got to the playoffs.
They just said that they didn't win a playoff game. And now Dabel's backsliding badly.
But you're telling me got a market. My take is.
What top tier team is like, not even average team. Well what listen, the Dolphins weren't good before him, They're getting worse.
Now.
How's this if Jonathan Gannet I would argue this in area. But people may criticize Brian Flores. Brian Floor is a better head coach. He didn't get along with Tua. Brian Flores took the Dolphins over in eight weeks eight weeks. We're going into year four with McDaniel. In eight weeks the Dolphins were an elite defense and had elite special teams. In eight weeks eight we're on year four for McDaniel. Nobody's got the Dolphins being elite this year. You got culture problems. Tyreek Hilling, Jalen Ramsey. Neither one either wants to play there. One's gone. One could be that.
On McDaniel though, so by the way, they went nine to eight playoffs eleven and six playoffs lost to the Chiefs.
No harm in that.
And in their first year they had Skyler what's his face at quarterback as Tour was hurt and then last year eight and nine, three years, he's twenty eight and twenty three with two playoff trips.
I mean, are you zero and two? Laflour's got three playoffs?
Where's one for you? Are you ready?
Dan Campbell or Mike McDaniel. Dan Campbell he can build a culture. Their culture is one of the best in the NFL. Dan Campbell in the Lions culture. Whether you like Dan or not, And I was not a huge fan Initially. Their culture is out of this world. The Lion's culture is we said there's three years ago. Nobody in the league plays harder than Detroit. They've had major personnel issues on the defensive side when Hutchison got hurt. They have no defense their culture. I mean, think about this.
Matt Lafleur won two games last year with Malik Willis at quarterback, who who Tennessee drafted an hour later said yeah, that's.
Not gonna work.
I mean it was like a second round pick. They were like, yeah, I think you got to forget what round he was drafted in. But they literally bailed on him before he was like halfway through his contract. Lafleur won two games with him. That was And if I recall he got Malik Willis, he wasn't even on the roster like a month earlier. Yes, with a third round pick. He wasn't on the like the off season roster. I think they brought him in due to an injury, and boom, they brought him in August twenty six.
This is interesting.
You win though, and he wins two games in September.
I did not know you were this anti Mike McDaniel.
I'm not anti. It's the numbers zero and two in the playoffs.
I mean he walked to the playoffs and Josh Allen in Buffalo and Patrick Mahomes and KC. Where's the Hartt? That one of them his backup quarterback?
What are we doing?
The Jets would take him in a heartbeat, a heartbeat so they could have an offense.
They've not an offense in a decade.
Colin, the Jets just hired another coach. I have to wait a while. One more. Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of it. Ben Mather Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will? We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and more every week explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller or the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
Daniel in Miami is My feeling has always been the longer somebody is employed, the more the truth comes out. You can be employed, have kind of a rocky six months, but if you're there in six years, the truth will come out that you're a very good employee.
And I think you know it doesn't matter.
You can have a bad year, but eventually, over time you will see. The longer an employee is part of any company, everybody has bad days, everybody needs a mulligan. But Mike McDaniel, now I got three full years. Miami's no better than they were when he took over, and in fact, the culture's worse. So I don't want to hear about personnel. And by the way, Kyle Shanahan has had bad years, but over the course of time he ends up in Super Bowls. McVeigh a couple of years ago, had you know, a rebuild season. The following year they're in the playoffs in his second rebuild year. The longer any employee is at any company, the truth comes out. I've said this with real estate agents. If they work for ten years, take out their worst year and their best year. What is their average the remaining eight Everybody has good years in business, the market moves up. You know, you sell a great home because of a friendship through the family, and everybody has a bad year. COVID hits. Nobody's buying homes over the course of ten years. Take everybody's worst year out. Nobody had a good year during COVID. Take out everybody's best year at their work. What are the remaining eight years? Even when I think about Hall of Fames, Matt Ryan, take out his best year, the MVP year, take out his worst year, then.
Is he a Hall of Famer?
Probably not so, Whereas with Philip Rivers, I got more consistency in high production, best year or worst year. Now he may not make the Hall of Fame either. But even if you take out Eli Manning's best year, his second best year, he still beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl and had one of the most iconic throws. So quality over time, the truth will come out for all of us over the course of our resumes or our lives. And I'm just sitting there in Miami three years into it. I'm like I got a bowl of nothing. I got nothing here. The culture's average, the roster's okay to it is fine. I thought Brian Flores in eight weeks changed the culture the defense and special teams. You didn't have to like Brian. You could think Brian was too harsh and Brian didn't make the quarterback feel good about himself. All fair eight weeks in defense, special teams culture, you didn't want to face the Dolphins.
I remember Baltimore beat him.
I swear to god dropped seventy autumn and it was like five weeks later You're like, yeah, nobody wants to play Miami. That to me, the longer Brian Flores was there, then he goes to Minnesota. The longer reas in Minnesota. Now the defense gets better. Jmack with a.
News no, no, turn on the news. This is the Herdline news.
All right, Colin, Let's go to the NFL. We've had some interesting debates. This one could get ugly. The New England Patriots a team you love this season. You know Mike Rabel's and his head coach.
They have a.
Lot of cap space and guess what they are closely monitoring two contract disputes. Terry McLaurin in Washington and Micah Parsons in Dallas.
Now this is smart business for New England. Hey, we are open for business. We've got money McLaurin, and you're unhappy Washington.
We would gladly take him or Michael Parsons. I would guess both of the chances of these happening are very low, but it is a new era in New England, that's for sure.
Terry McLaurin would be a perfect wide receiver for.
Drake May in New England.
No ego grinder, productive, I mean you cannot. That is, if you could pick a wide receiver for a young quarterback, mclaurin's like top to Amaran Saint Brown. Terry McLaurin would be my first two picks. Now, they're both super talented. I'm not saying they're the most talented, but you're getting an adult, uncompromised route tree, grown up, work hard, great teammate. I have loved you and I have both loved McLaurin. This guy is exactly what everybody wants. To get a productive receiver. You got to get baggage with a lot of them. This guy is a total pro.
But everything you just said is like Washington.
Why would you let him leave Jaden Daniels when Jaden Daniels was.
Rookie of the Year. Unbelievable and McLaurin.
Had his best years of bro Like, you get your quarterback.
On the rookie deals, sign him. I don't know really what's.
Going on because Washington signed Debo to a big deal. So do you want to pay two receivers? Charge money?
Your quarterbacks make me nothing?
Generally in the NFL? I mean some teams do DeVante Adams? Well, no, they moved off Cooper. You don't want to pay two receivers. You want to pay one receiver and then hopefully draft the position. Well, it gets difficult because you don't want to have two hyper expensive guys in one unit, right, Like that's the problem with Cincinnati. It's like, Okay, we'll pay Jamar, but can we pay Jamar and Burrow and Ti Higgins? So I think I think it's harder than you did. Once they acquire Debo. You have to sit down and you've got to try to get the best deal you can from McLaurin because you don't want to be putting all that money into just one.
Unit in Let's move on to the Raiders Colin, they obviously have Pete Carroll as their new head coach.
Chip Kelly is the OC.
Speaking at something called the Sack Summit, Max Crosby discuss how the Raiders e vamped and said the OKAC Thunder are something of a bootprint as they went from one of the worst teams in the league to the title winners. Crosby added that the Raiders has a lot of work to do. Cowin, do you think there's any kind of comparison here? Okay, see did go from you know, the outhouse to the penthouse in about four years?
Well the division, let's agree on this. Has there ever been a better coach division in football? Read Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll. So it's like I was thinking about It's ironic. I was thinking about this yesterday. I was watching cost Rika USA and just you know, kind of browsing and looking at stuff, and I thought, is it possible? I looked at the Raiders schedule that Chargers, Broncos, Chiefs all make the playoffs, and if you look at the Raiders schedule, I'm like, I counted eight or nine winnable games. Now, I mean, look at their schedule. Now, there's some tough ones like at Philadelphia, at Houston late in the season, Kansas City, those are tough games. But you start looking at the schedule. Jacksonville off of bye, Tennessee Colts, we don't know what the Bears are, Dallas, Cleveland.
There's some doubleu's here for the Raiders.
Okay, so let's start at week one. If they lose that game, then they have to play a Charge of the Division, very tough game. Then they play at Washington. So, by the way, if you're tracking, that's a trip to New England.
Then back to.
The Desert, then back to the East Coast again.
Colin they could easily start zero to three. Easily.
I'm not denying that. But anytime I see the Colts, Titans, and Bears early in the season in a row, those are winnable games. By then hosting Jacksonville, I mean, Dallas and Cleveland. Back back Schottenheimer could be on the ropes by week eleven. I'm just saying, if you told me this team won eight games, and by the way, Kansas City last week, how do we know they're not resting starters for the playoffs?
Oh?
Please, they're gonna be trying to get in the playoffs, but eight or nine wins sounds about right.
The final story comes to the.
NBA where big news DeAndre Ayton, the center in Portland is being bought out. The report adds that Ayton was looking to play in a winning situation and wouldn't you know it, the Lakers are in need of a center. Now. I'm not the biggest DeAndre Ayton guy. His end in Phoenix was very bad and ugly. He got lazy, didn't want to work, he was unhappy.
With the touches.
I don't see how he really works with Luca and Lebron. He kind of clogs the lane. But you know, there are a lot of Laker fans out there who are like, oh yeah, bring on eight.
And he's a fifteen to ten guy. I don't know that I see it.
He's not the flexible, rim running, swatting big that like is Derek Lively or even Nick Claxton.
He's a little more ground bound and likes to hang in the paint.
I would love to see our guys, Ryan, what is he ranked offensively as a center? So Aighton's very athletic, super athletic. I mean again, you we showed you the highlights. My question is what the Lakers are looking for because at this point, Lebron's not an elite defender, Luca's definitely not, and Austin Reeves is okay you need That's why Jackson Hayes doesn't work, because he's not really a rim defenders. He's a pogo stick. He gets you some alleued dunks. I don't know if Ayton I don't know.
I don't.
I don't think of it as an elite defensive center. Is he?
I don't think of it.
Never made an All Star Game and last year he had a one one block per game.
Yeah he And that's for a guy that Scott that that's athletic.
So he moved six percent on free throws.
No thanks, Yeah, I just I don't. I don't listen. I think he's been a disappointment and I still think he's really talented. I think there are fits in the league for him, But I think what the Lakers are looking for he doesn't provide.
In my opinion, Yeah, I don't necessarily see it. Now.
You know, if you say, hey, let's put Luke on the let's put Lebron on the bench for five minutes have DeAndre Aidon and Luca run pick and roll. Maybe there's something there, but honestly, Dorian Finney Smith to me is way more important than DeAndre eight. Okay, I like a stretch for a big hookn shoot threes eight AND's not that guy.
He's not that guy.
So he's got he's a little old school. I mean he's got like an old school big feel.
Some twenty five years ago, DeAndre Ayton would have a lot of suitors, you know, right, Yeah, J Mack with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The Herd Line News.
I saw Bill Belichick quote this weekend that was really thoughtful. I guess it happened a couple of weeks ago, and I'll tell you how it's tied to Kayleb Williams of the Bears.
Next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
So we were talking about Kayleb Williams earlier. It just I just saw recently on the Pivot It's a it's a posts sports podcast, and they sat Bill Belichick down and they started asking him about Brady. And you know, those two had a marriage for twenty years, so they know the ins and outs, the strengths, the weaknesses, and you know Brady didn't have a lot of weaknesses. But it's funny about when you ask Belichick. Now, Belichick is a defensive coach, so he's not somebody that falls in love with creativity. He falls in love with efficiency. But he was asked about the single greatest strength for twenty years of Tom Brady, and this is what he mentioned.
Tom did such a great job of not allowing negative plays to happen to our offense. No pre snap penalties, no sacks. He kept us out of negative plays and kept us out of long yardage. So second and ten the worst we're going to face this, you know, third and ten, but usually second and ten became third and five and then you got a chance to pick it up.
That's the sport Bill Parcells years ago. It's a field position game. You don't want to be pinned deep in your territory punting from your end zone. And so, and I know you see this as a sports fan, how often last year are the Bears, despite all the talent Romadunze and Dj Moore and Caleb Williams and Cole Comet. It's second down in twenty one and you're punting from the eight. You're losing the field possession game. And that to me, I don't care about anything with Caleb Williams next year, Seriously. I don't care about his yardage. I don't care about his touchdown passes. If the sixty eight sacks become thirty, I'm good. Everything is going to be okay. Here's Matt hasselback.
Earlier on that early on, his eyes were in the wrong place. It didn't look didn't look like he had.
A clear grasp of the protection schemes.
I think that was a big part of it.
What got him into trouble in the second part of the was he trusted his in his athleticism so much like you saw these things that he got away with it at USC, You're not going to get away with it in the NFL. And I think that's one of the hard things for quarterbacks who have great mobility. It's it's it's I would say it's great mobility in college.
And it's just kind of like good mobility in the NFL.
And there's a fine line there.
Yeah, it's you know, we're always looking for the fireworks show, but somebody's got to clean it up right and running around. Caleb did have moments when he would run backwards. That is a no. No works in high school sometimes in college, doesn't.
Work in the NFL. It just can't.
I remember when Fran Tarkins and used to do it. In the seventies, athletes, the best athletes were on offense. Now they're on defense. Like the great athletes. Now you get a lot of them on that defensive front. You can't go backwards, cannot go backwards. You can run laterally. But I to me, it's all sacks, all sacks.
Clean that up. They'll be fine.
It is The team in this division that's the mystery to me is Green Bay and they have dominated Chicago because I just they won eleven games last year and yet we're one in five in division.
So my I guess now.
I was talking to my buddy John Middlkoff, who filled in last week. He's like, if you win eleven games and your one and five in division and your quarterback got hurt, green Bay is gonna win eleven or twelve games.
That's what they do. I can't argue out of that.
But the one thing about green Bay, here's what green Bay rarely allows sixty eight sacks. Green Bay may not be flashy, they may not be the most vertical team. Green Bay doesn't beat themselves. Green Bay's not punting from the end zone. I mean, they just don't get into those bad field positions. Swings in Chicago, that's all they were. Just keep it in front of you. It's like investing for your retirement. It's amazing how far hitting doubles can go. You don't need a lot of home runs. Just avoid the strikeouts, just avoid the big missus hit a bunch of doubles. All right, Last hour Alexiles.
Is coming up.
You know, Jay Mackie's one of my favorite guests. The United States men's national team. They found a goalie. They're moving to the semis.
Remember how nervous you were ten days ago about this. I talked you off the legs, cowhard. Another victory for macintyle.
The hour three coming up,