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. Well. Sean Payton fifteen years in the league, Super Bowl Champ, Coach of the Year, one of the one of the smart offensive guys this league has ever had. He's on Sunday's kickoff. He's at an undisclosed location in one of my favorite cities in America. I'm not gonna tell you where, but it's a great place in America. And he'll be back in LA in a couple of days. So I want to talk about um, all you offensive coaches, you Andy Reid, McVay, Shanahan. You all got a little secret sauce Shanahan's ability to run the football. You know, it's kind of a it's amazing to me, what I mean when you watch it. Do you ever watch their film and think I gotta borrow that, I gotta steal that, Like it feels like that's his secret sauce. Yeah, we do all the time. I would say a couple of things. Typically we'll have certain teams on a study reel that every week we're cutting up their film and making sure that we're looking at what's up to speed, what's up to date, not just in the runner pass game. It might be red zone, it might be third down. But I think one of the things with Kyle when you watch their offense, they do such a good job of stretching the D gap. They really they really forced the ball to the perimeter and force your defense to move horizontally and then find the find the creases once everyone's moving east and west, them find the north south creases. They do that as well as anyone you know. I watched Garoppolo. There are limitations, but Sean sometimes like Kyler Murray, wouldn't work in this offense. Sometimes you want a quarterback to deliver the ball. Like to me, Drew Brees was perfect for your offense. Most people don't like Garoppolo. I see some value in him. If you had Garoo, I mean, do you see value in him. I like Jimmy Garoppolo, and I've seen a quarterback that obviously Um, we're we're spoiled because the night before, you know, we all get a chance to watch Mahomes and Brady. Well, you know, not everyone has Patrick and not everyone has Tom Brady. But when you start looking at the players you're playing with and you start building your system around who you have, I think those guys have done a great job with that, Particularly to Jimmy Garoppolo's strength. I think the challenge for them when the season started was their their draft pick that they had at quarterback and how he fit in their formula for winning. Because make no mistake, they've won a lot of games. They've been in the Super Bowl, they've been in a championship game, and uh, and so when you move up like they did in the first round to make a selection at quarterback, then man, there's there's that pressure and sense of urgency to get him up to speed. And I think we never want to see a guy get injured like that. But I think Jimmy in that system is what I feel like is most dangerous for opponents. Yeah, so you know, you and Andy reid Um are really the elder statesman of offense as many of the great coaches all timer defense. I feel like your ability to develop things in Andy Reid's I think you're just different. And I watched Andy the other day snap it to a tight end, and I thought it's a little cutesie. But do you ever watch that and go, oh Andy, oh Andy, what do you make of it? Well? I kind of feel like Andy stole that from us. See if this makes sense though, When you're in short yardage goal line situations and you're in the shotgun, the defensive lineman will align themselves with a little bit more with and certainly defend the run, but be able to rush the passer. When you're in short yardage or goal line situations and the quarterback is under stenner and the quarterback sneak is a threat to give up a half a yard or a yard, you take those tackles and you put them in those a gaps tight to kind of fill those gaps. So the uniqueness of that play is to get the illusion of the shotgun and get the width that you want with your defensive tackles and then quickly slide somebody up under the center and try to run a quarterback sneak with them playing shotgun formation. How many times season ago? Yeah, how many times you do that at sean would you do that thirty times at practice before you did it in Again, if you have a trick play, how many times do you do it at practice? That'd show up maybe twice in a season, and we'd work on it five times during the during the week. It was easier for us because we had Taysom Hill, and Taysom was a quarterback, so he was much more comfortable or familiar with putting his hands under center. You know, you weren't starting over if you will Steelers with a tight end. We had somebody that had a lot of practice at that. Yeah. And then in New England last year, in a very close short yardage situation breezing the gun that wasn't Drew excuse me, it was Jas in the gun, and we snuck case him under center with a hard count to draw him off sides and we were able to do that. So you're the focus the night before in the meeting is simply short yard at your goal line, and then you begin to look at all the tape and then you look for four or five thoughts that'll get you a yard. So Kenny Pickett, you know, first game out, three picks, whatever, what are realistic expectations. If if you ever had a situation with a quarterback and you think to yourself, listen, I got the second best quarterback on the field. We've got a temper expectations. I want to be optimistic and positive, but I mean, do you, like I think Mike Tomlin, like you a veteran coach, there's things he can't do with the line of scrimmage right now. He just can't. How do you what do you do going into a game with a Kenny Pickett? Well, look not. I think that's the essence of teaching and coaching is looking at his strengths, his weakness and then developing those. I'm quite sure from the evaluation process, and I remember what I heard about Kenny is he's someone that's going to be able to handle some line of scrimmage play checks. Now, he's not going to have the whole library. But but I think that whenever there's a change, and we've seen already three or four changes at quarterback, whether it's been injury related or in this case, performance related, I think immediately that onus falls on us as the coaches, to say, hey, he does these things really well. He's comfortable moving the pocket. He's comfortable with the three step drop. Let's get him and then really begin to develop the things that he does well. And then I'd take it one step further. And I think they've done this in Dallas. I challenge everyone else that's around him now to understand how they've got to perform and up their level. You know, Superman's not walking in the building. He's there. And this rookie quarterback is going to play for Pittsburgh and I think Mike Tomlin will do a great job. But I think it falls on the defense to play better, on the offensive line to play better. It falls on the coaching staff to work on the things that he does well. It doesn't fall on this quarterback. It falls on everyone else that's involved in getting him ready to play and those that are playing around him. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in New Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Right now, Denver's offense is indecisive and a little broken. Trent Dilford came on the other day, and he's a high school coach in Tennessee, said he goes I would put in some movement, he goes. I think over the course of two or three weeks, I would put in some place six eight plays move him, he goes. It's foundation is strong, he goes, But it's not clever. It doesn't make the defense think or pause. If you add denver and you thought to yourself, listen, I like our foundation, but we got to add some wiggle to this stuff. Is that a one week process, sean a two week, a three week? How do you correct flaws? Well, you correct flaws immediately and then we don't worry about how long the process is going to take. In other words, I'd want to cut up today. I'd want to cut up of all Russells past plays of thirty or more yards from the field, and I'd want to see are there some schemes that he felt very comfortable with? Like I know that they did a great job in Seattle of bringing him off of a naked boot and then pulling up and we all call that like throwback to lock it across the field where the ball traveled sixty yards in the air. Then I'd want to look at another film of his red zone touchdown passes inside the twenty and so what I'm asking for from assistance is I'm asking for some of his greatest hits and to make sure that we have those song lyrics available and let's put them in. Yeah, you know, I'm watching McVay last night and listen, Um, they drafted a kid too two at Well, it's not working Alan Robinson so far as not working. Van Jefferson's hurt. It's basically Cooper Cup Tyler Higbee and that's the offense. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, you can do the smoking mirror stuff only so long before people figure you out. And like like like Allan Robinson right now, he's just not separating. Are there tricks? What do you do when you you're in a season, you don't have a ton of draft capital, you're up against the cap, you're in a tough division. You gotta make Allen Robinson work. It's a three year deal. Is it jet sweeps? Or do you come to the conclusion that, hey, we just it's not gonna work. What do you do as a coach to make that thing work? Well, we're not. We're not coming to the conclusion it's not gonna work. He's ours, he's in the building. We're paying him, and we're gonna work some release patterns. Sean knows this tighten is tightened. The alignments help him maybe with some stack releases. And then also, and I don't want to, I also want to go back and look at some Chicago stuff and incorporate maybe some of those routes he ran from the slot. You know, he was a guy that ran the spears, the sales, and some of those second level routes pretty well. I don't know that anyone ever saw him as a real great transitional player like Cup. The reason Cup gets open is not just because he can run fast, but he can stop fast, and that's how he creates separation. And so with Alan, let's let's put together a few reels of things that we've seen him do well. I know Mac can throw some of those throws. And then, you know, you said it best when when the opponent begins to feel like all you have are a couple of guns left in the in the fortress, they begin to create closer and closer. We've got to find a way to the back of them all. Yeah, finally, as an offensive guy, I mean, the Wildcat took this league by storm for about twelve games. I watched Philadelphia and I'm like, I don't know what it is, but it works. It's productive. It's hard to duplicate when you prepare for him and the offensive line is getting a great push. Sean, I look at Philadelphia and I think that offense is a handful. What do you make of it? Yeah, and I would agree one hundred percent. You know, we our last two times where we played Philadelphia, I don't know that we stopped him. Yet they do such a good job. They gain they gain a half a man in their blocking scheme because the quarterback can be a part of the run scheme, and so whenever you watch them run the ball, and you know, if we were the alignment on that team, you and I we'd be happy because we'd love our angles because you'd say, oh, we get to double team down on this three tech. Yeah, we liked that block. So you get good leverage because of the scheme. You have good players that have good leverage because of the scheme, and then you have a quarterback that I really think has come into his zone in the last three weeks. Yeah. I mean, ultimately you're gonna have to throw it some and he's proven, you know, I think two weeks ago when we saw him on Monday Night Football or Sunday Night Football. It was a huge night in a game for him where we saw we saw him take a step on the field and went with that. You knew the confidence was growing. And so they're very well coached on offense and I think they're probably if you were to pull thirty two defensive coordinators, just off the record, who would you like to see? Least Philly would be at the top. Yeah, and that offensive line is a handful. All right. I'm not telling you where he's at. It's just a great food city, a great city, and he's going into a Hall of Fame there. It's Sean Payton. We love seeing him and a coach as always, we got smarter. Thank you, hey, thank you very much. All right, we'll see you guys. All right. Like he said, if you pulled thirty two defensive coordinators, I think Philadelphia the line, the leverage some teams. It was almost like when Lamar came in the league that first couple of years, like how do you prepare form at practice? Do you use a wide receiver at quarterback in practice to simon simulate what they're doing Philadelphia is a lot. For the record, I've never been more wrong in a coach. Nick Serriani leaves the Colts. All they're Clever's gone. All They're Clever's gone. He goes to Philadelphia, one of the hardest offense offenses to solve, Like Nick Serriani, there is something there. I completely whipped on that. I was absolutely sure that was the worst press conference I ever saw that team, totally eyes into him, completely Jack with the news, no nodes coached by his press conference my whole career. If I didn't like getting the press conference, you saw McVeigh at the press conference, are like boom, Well that's big in college, right, you can lose boosters at the press conference, like right out of the gate. All right, let's get started with a bad team in the NFL though, Washington Commanders sitting at the bottom of the NFC East, one in three colin, worst point differential in the league, last in yards per play. But hey, Ron Rivera is telling fans be patient the team, We're going to figure this out. I understand everybody's frustration, especially how proud this organization is. This organization's got five championships. You're kidding me, I get it. I understand how important it is to win, Okay, but I gotta be realistic with what we have and what we're trying to do. Now. Some of it we can improve on as coaches and get better at, and we have to. There is a sense of urgency that these things have to happen. They're not going to happen until everything's in place and it's ready to happen. Okay, how many years you've given Rod to get things in place, It's been there a few years. The defensive coaches that Pittsburgh's offense, Washington's offense, Chicago's offense, Buffalo is great, but can't develop a run game. By the way, look at Miami. Switch from defensive coach who we liked offensive coach. It's a totally different sensibility with two one. Washington hosts Tennessee this week. Tennessee's winning Washington better and I'll lose that game or somebody's getting fired offense. Defense, somebody's getting canned after that game. All right. Next up, we've got the Denver Broncos. It's official running back to Vante Williams out for the year. Torn Acl sounds like it's a it's a pretty bad knee. There's some other stuff going on there. Without him, Colin, it's gonna be the Melvin Gordon show. And he is a fumble machine. He's had a bad year, fumbling four fumbles in four games. M Nathaniel Hackett, though Nathaniel Hackets still got confidence in him. Hacket said Gordon, it's harder on himself than anybody else, and that is a great opportunity for him to prove he can be better. I think the third string guy's named Boone, Mike Boone. Maybe you drop the key pass laid against the Raiders. Oh he did drop that pass and somebody waiting for the cover. It was a fourth down pass. It's like, jeez, what is it gonna be? Judy and Sutton. We're gonna get a tight end appearance, Like what is Russell Wilson going to do well again? Sean Payton said this with two different quarterbacks, find what he's comfortable at doing well and do more of it. I don't know, it's just such a vanilla scheme. I mean, it really looks like a first time coordinator. I mean it's just no wiggle to it. There's nothing clever, nothing. I mean, it's just vanilla offense. They don't roll the pocket a lot. It's it's relying on, you know, Russell to hit stuff over the top, where Judy and Hammler are interesting. Court and Sutton. I like their receivers. But there's just you can see clever football when you watch the forty nine Ers last night. They're doing all this interesting stuff, a lot of prestap motion. You watch the Chiefs against the Bucks, it's the most creative. That's a different sport. That's a prime example. Mahomes and Garoppolo big gap in talent. But when you watch the Niners and the Chiefs, you as a consumer can see smartly coach clever football. Denver is vanilla. There's no wiggle. I mean when McVay came into the league all of a sudden, the jet sweeps like it was like, well, what what caught the league off guard? Nothing Denver does you haven't seen before. It is completely pedestrian. I'm not fired the coach after a month, guy, But Nathaniel Hackett Thursday night football against the Colts, and the Colts sounds like, no, Jonathan Taylor, you better not lose to Matt Ryan and whatever else. The Colts have, which is not much. That's a big game for Hackett. And final story, Collin Trevor Lawrence, you know, a really bad game on Sunday, career high, five turnovers, it was, it was raining, four fumbles, un characteristic date for the second year quarterback. Doug Peterson expects Lawrence to quickly put that rocky performance behind him. Let's hope it's a blip, you know. Yeah, I don't think it's a setback. I think I just think it's a blip. I just think it's it's um you know, you just hate to say it, but maybe it's one of those games during the season where just nothing really goes right, you know, and it happens. But you know, I'll never make excuses. You know. We have to do a better job of hanging on the football. He knows that that's the prized possession out there. You know, if we make the plays that were left on the field, it might be a different outcome today. Yeah. Interesting, Jacksonville. You saw on the screen they play Houston this week. What's the number they're favored by? Seven. I'm gonna give you a crazy number because I'm researching this right now. Houston's won eighth straight against Jacksonville. They beat him twice last year by more than two touchdowns in each game. Like, what the hell, Trevor Lawrence. I'm not gonna reference the coach on Jacksonville last year, but they're laying a touchdown Jacksonville. Where's the game at in Jacksonville? I don't know. I don't know what a lot of big spreads this week. Last weekend everything was closed. This week, there's like five games a touchdown or I don't like that. I like underdogs. Do you have your favorite beat of the week yet? I think it's probably the Saints. It's early, but it's probably says might be Tampa. I was just looking at Atlanta Cordurell Patterson. Do you see that on the ir He's like a valuable member. Cordarell Patterson is the Swiss Army nine for the league. There you go. They got like guy running backs I've never heard of. Kyle Pitts is like on a milk carton right now. Atlanta though four o against the spread, only team in the league to cover every game. Probably some regression coming for them, right all right? Jay Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The Herd, I should do a gambling show. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Eastern a Empacific. I'm George Reister, host of the Reister or Wrong podcast. This is the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture meet the truth absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Fridays, facts solely. Make sure you check your feelings at the door, because nobis is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This is where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are Wrong podcasts on the iHeartRadio appum Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're gonna play conclusion or Illusion. We look at the NFL standings. Will start in the AFCJ Jason and I will and can we make a conclusive argument like that's what it'll end up as or is it an illusion? And it will change drastically? Yeah? Right, you want to start? I think I understand this good stuff. We'll start with the AFC East, mostly because the Jets are in there, so you see Dolphins atop the AFC East, followed by the Bills Jets, and then the last place Patriots. Colin conclusion or illusion. Well, the Bills and Dolphins I think will flip, but I do think they're absolutely the best two teams in the division. Never forget this, dating back to last season, Miami's eleven and two in their last thirteen regular season games. Miami's a good team and they got better. And so I do think the Jets can finish ahead of the Patriots. I do because of their offensive firepower. But but if the Dolphins in the Bills, if you flip them, that is not an outrageous take. That is closer to conclusion than illusion. Okay, all right, Let's move to the AFC North, which currently sees the Browns, Ravens, and Bengals at two and two, and the Steelers are going nowhere. That's an illusion. Steelers are a last place team. Cleveland is not going to be around. First of all, Cincinnati after Week one in their last ten quarters, Joe Burrow has been a pro bowler, and I do think the Ravens, even though they're now suddenly awful at home, I just don't think Cleveland in first place. In fact, there's an argument to be made of eventually an injury or two in the wrong spot. They're a fourth place team. Deshaun Watson comes back, I believe December. Yeah, they can hang around long enough or no. No, And he's not going to come back and be Razor sharp anyway. He's been out of the facility, all right. Next up, AFC South the worst division in football without question. Now, I think this is completely conclusive. I mean, the Jaguars are the best scoring offense and the best scoring defense in the division. They're the most dynamic team. The Titans are probably the best coach team. The Colts are better than the Texans simply because they can consistently, you know, produce decent efforts. I mean, they did beat the Chiefs. That's what the division's gonna look like. Colts are done. I just don't think they have the firepower. There's a story out today that Ballard is in trouble the GM and Frank reichis so now they've got the pressure from the owner or say he's kind of Dan Snyder vibes, you know. Yeah, all right, Next up we'll go AFC West Kansas City Chiefs, followed by Chargers, Broncos, and then the Raiders pulling up the rear. Sadly, it's closer to a conclusion than an illusion now not sadly right. Well, here's the thing about the Chargers, only team averaging in the league over three hundred yards passing in their division, I should say, And they did lose to Kansas City and a pretty good Jacksonville team when they lost their left tackle in the middle of the game. They're beat up. But if we subscribe to the fact, the Chiefs will win their seventh straight division title, which it's fair to say, Denver is not a playoff team today. Denver is a fourth place team in the NFL. Based on what I've seen. Their personnel is second in this division. But from what I've seen with the offense and the coaching, they're a third to a fourth place team. As a whiff by me, let's go to the NFC. We'll go in the NFC East, the Eagles a top, followed by Cowboys, Giants and the Commandos. Commanders, sir, this is done. This division is done. First of all, Philadelphia schedule, as you pointed out, easiest in the league, so it's been harder early than it will be now. And Dallas doesn't lose a division. They're eight no in their last eight NFC East games. The Giants are better as you predicted. You you're the one. This is, by the way, this is the order I predicted. I had the Giants fourth. You convinced me they'd have a life. You were right, and the Commanders I moved from second to third to fourth. I think right now the Eagles, Cowboys, Giants have offensive coaches and they're getting the most out of their personnel. I think Washington's a fourth place. Okay, let's go to your favorite division, the NFC North. Where who's the Vikings. Yeah, Vikings and Packers three and one Bears two and two Lions. Well, no Lions will finish ahead of the Bears. Okay, I would agree with that. Okay, what about up top? That's what I predicted, Vikings, Packers. So the Vikings have a great advantage. They already beat Green Bay. Yeah, so if they beat them a second time. Now it's I'm not sure when it is on the schedule. But if I look at the Vikings, I mean, the Bears have the worst passing offense in the league. What you have there, the Vikings offense and the Lions offense really capable. Green Bay's offense is okay, could be better. The Bears offense, they can't score. They have one way to win and so in the end, Detroit's the most entertaining average team in the league, but they can put up big points. Any concerns with the Vikings, they have this habit of playing with their food against the Lions against They can't people away, Well, there's a reason they're not. They're not explosive enough to put people away. They're the opposite of Buffalo. They'll beat you, but always close. Buffalo rarely wins close. When they beat you, they pummel you. So there, they just don't have And that's all based on quarterback play. Alan is a superstar and Kirk is what is Yeah, NFC South conclusion or illusion? This is pretty set, except the Saints are one and three and I like them more in the preseason. Dude about you, well, I mean Buck's winning is a conclusion. Yeah, I think the Saints fourth. See I'm not defensive coach. Look at Jamis Winston's numbers since Sean Payton left. You've watched the Falcons. I mean, so Carolina has got a coach and a quarterback issue, and the Saints I think have a coach and quarterback issue. Atlanta with an offensive coach and Mariota. They're in games. Okay, they're in I don't think that's crazy. It's so I thought they'd be the worst team in the league. I've watched them, and I'm like, they're in every game. They give the Rams fits late, they gave Seattle problems. Atlanta's interesting. I would like to buy some Saints stock. I'm gonna call my stockbroker and get liked it. But you liked it really banged up for the London game, Sanchez said they were missing like offensive line receivers. Kamara like, once they get healthy, this team has talent and that defense is nasty. It's by low for me. Finally, NFC West, look at this. Look at the parody there, two and two all around. We think it's days like this if Garoppolo stays healthy. I had the Rams winning in the Niners. Second. I didn't think the Rams offensive line would dissolve into this, and I thought Alan Robinson can play. But my conclusion after watching last night is the Rams can't stretch the field. And so if you're if you're gonna play San Francisco, you've got to make them be honest because those linebackers are I mean they're front seven's the best in football Buffalo and San Francisco's front seven. If they don't think you can beat him over the top, they totally play down The Buffalo Ram game in the Niner Ram game looked a lot to me, like the same game. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't respect the Rams ability to go over the top. So we're just gonna play downhill. And what about Listen, if you look at this Rams team, Colin, they're one injury away, like if Cooper Cup happens to miss, they we're talking about like a four or five win team. That that's how bad the rest of the roster is. Because they're so top heavy with they only wait, they're gonna get their excellent center and Van Jefferson back in a month. Can they tread water for four to five weeks because those guys are it will be a different looking offense with those times. Sorry, Van Jefferson to me, sounds like the new Kendrick Nunn. We're just waiting for Kendrick Nunn to save the Lakers last season. We're waiting for Van Jefferson to show up help. I'm just saying he'll help. Alan Robinson needs so wake up dude, he is stealing money right now. I mean it is bad that he's running. He's like half I can't say that word, but he's half butting it out there for the rent. It's not looking good. No, it's it looks like a bad signing. And it's a three year deal. The numbers don't lie. Last decade, over four million peeps have chosen Simply Save Home Security. Go to Simply Savecolin dot com Free indoor security camera, yes, and twenty percent off with interactive monitoring. First things First. Is around the corner on a Tuesday in La See you tomorrow. It's the herd

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. Well. Sean Payton fifteen years in the league, Super Bowl Champ, Coach of the Year, one of the one of the smart offensive guys this league has ever had. He's on Sunday's kickoff. He's at an undisclosed location in one of my favorite cities in America. I'm not gonna tell you where, but it's a great place in America. And he'll be back in LA in a couple of days. So I want to talk about um, all you offensive coaches, you Andy Reid, McVay, Shanahan. You all got a little secret sauce Shanahan's ability to run the football. You know, it's kind of a it's amazing to me, what I mean when you watch it. Do you ever watch their film and think I gotta borrow that, I gotta steal that, Like it feels like that's his secret sauce. Yeah, we do all the time. I would say a couple of things. Typically we'll have certain teams on a study reel that every week we're cutting up their film and making sure that we're looking at what's up to speed, what's up to date, not just in the runner pass game. It might be red zone, it might be third down. But I think one of the things with Kyle when you watch their offense, they do such a good job of stretching the D gap. They really they really forced the ball to the perimeter and force your defense to move horizontally and then find the find the creases once everyone's moving east and west, them find the north south creases. They do that as well as anyone you know. I watched Garoppolo. There are limitations, but Sean sometimes like Kyler Murray, wouldn't work in this offense. Sometimes you want a quarterback to deliver the ball. Like to me, Drew Brees was perfect for your offense. Most people don't like Garoppolo. I see some value in him. If you had Garoo, I mean, do you see value in him. I like Jimmy Garoppolo, and I've seen a quarterback that obviously Um, we're we're spoiled because the night before, you know, we all get a chance to watch Mahomes and Brady. Well, you know, not everyone has Patrick and not everyone has Tom Brady. But when you start looking at the players you're playing with and you start building your system around who you have, I think those guys have done a great job with that, Particularly to Jimmy Garoppolo's strength. I think the challenge for them when the season started was their their draft pick that they had at quarterback and how he fit in their formula for winning. Because make no mistake, they've won a lot of games. They've been in the Super Bowl, they've been in a championship game, and uh, and so when you move up like they did in the first round to make a selection at quarterback, then man, there's there's that pressure and sense of urgency to get him up to speed. And I think we never want to see a guy get injured like that. But I think Jimmy in that system is what I feel like is most dangerous for opponents. Yeah, so you know, you and Andy reid Um are really the elder statesman of offense as many of the great coaches all timer defense. I feel like your ability to develop things in Andy Reid's I think you're just different. And I watched Andy the other day snap it to a tight end, and I thought it's a little cutesie. But do you ever watch that and go, oh Andy, oh Andy, what do you make of it? Well? I kind of feel like Andy stole that from us. See if this makes sense though, When you're in short yardage goal line situations and you're in the shotgun, the defensive lineman will align themselves with a little bit more with and certainly defend the run, but be able to rush the passer. When you're in short yardage or goal line situations and the quarterback is under stenner and the quarterback sneak is a threat to give up a half a yard or a yard, you take those tackles and you put them in those a gaps tight to kind of fill those gaps. So the uniqueness of that play is to get the illusion of the shotgun and get the width that you want with your defensive tackles and then quickly slide somebody up under the center and try to run a quarterback sneak with them playing shotgun formation. How many times season ago? Yeah, how many times you do that at sean would you do that thirty times at practice before you did it in Again, if you have a trick play, how many times do you do it at practice? That'd show up maybe twice in a season, and we'd work on it five times during the during the week. It was easier for us because we had Taysom Hill, and Taysom was a quarterback, so he was much more comfortable or familiar with putting his hands under center. You know, you weren't starting over if you will Steelers with a tight end. We had somebody that had a lot of practice at that. Yeah. And then in New England last year, in a very close short yardage situation breezing the gun that wasn't Drew excuse me, it was Jas in the gun, and we snuck case him under center with a hard count to draw him off sides and we were able to do that. So you're the focus the night before in the meeting is simply short yard at your goal line, and then you begin to look at all the tape and then you look for four or five thoughts that'll get you a yard. So Kenny Pickett, you know, first game out, three picks, whatever, what are realistic expectations. If if you ever had a situation with a quarterback and you think to yourself, listen, I got the second best quarterback on the field. We've got a temper expectations. I want to be optimistic and positive, but I mean, do you, like I think Mike Tomlin, like you a veteran coach, there's things he can't do with the line of scrimmage right now. He just can't. How do you what do you do going into a game with a Kenny Pickett? Well, look not. I think that's the essence of teaching and coaching is looking at his strengths, his weakness and then developing those. I'm quite sure from the evaluation process, and I remember what I heard about Kenny is he's someone that's going to be able to handle some line of scrimmage play checks. Now, he's not going to have the whole library. But but I think that whenever there's a change, and we've seen already three or four changes at quarterback, whether it's been injury related or in this case, performance related, I think immediately that onus falls on us as the coaches, to say, hey, he does these things really well. He's comfortable moving the pocket. He's comfortable with the three step drop. Let's get him and then really begin to develop the things that he does well. And then I'd take it one step further. And I think they've done this in Dallas. I challenge everyone else that's around him now to understand how they've got to perform and up their level. You know, Superman's not walking in the building. He's there. And this rookie quarterback is going to play for Pittsburgh and I think Mike Tomlin will do a great job. But I think it falls on the defense to play better, on the offensive line to play better. It falls on the coaching staff to work on the things that he does well. It doesn't fall on this quarterback. It falls on everyone else that's involved in getting him ready to play and those that are playing around him. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in New Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Right now, Denver's offense is indecisive and a little broken. Trent Dilford came on the other day, and he's a high school coach in Tennessee, said he goes I would put in some movement, he goes. I think over the course of two or three weeks, I would put in some place six eight plays move him, he goes. It's foundation is strong, he goes, But it's not clever. It doesn't make the defense think or pause. If you add denver and you thought to yourself, listen, I like our foundation, but we got to add some wiggle to this stuff. Is that a one week process, sean a two week, a three week? How do you correct flaws? Well, you correct flaws immediately and then we don't worry about how long the process is going to take. In other words, I'd want to cut up today. I'd want to cut up of all Russells past plays of thirty or more yards from the field, and I'd want to see are there some schemes that he felt very comfortable with? Like I know that they did a great job in Seattle of bringing him off of a naked boot and then pulling up and we all call that like throwback to lock it across the field where the ball traveled sixty yards in the air. Then I'd want to look at another film of his red zone touchdown passes inside the twenty and so what I'm asking for from assistance is I'm asking for some of his greatest hits and to make sure that we have those song lyrics available and let's put them in. Yeah, you know, I'm watching McVay last night and listen, Um, they drafted a kid too two at Well, it's not working Alan Robinson so far as not working. Van Jefferson's hurt. It's basically Cooper Cup Tyler Higbee and that's the offense. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, you can do the smoking mirror stuff only so long before people figure you out. And like like like Allan Robinson right now, he's just not separating. Are there tricks? What do you do when you you're in a season, you don't have a ton of draft capital, you're up against the cap, you're in a tough division. You gotta make Allen Robinson work. It's a three year deal. Is it jet sweeps? Or do you come to the conclusion that, hey, we just it's not gonna work. What do you do as a coach to make that thing work? Well, we're not. We're not coming to the conclusion it's not gonna work. He's ours, he's in the building. We're paying him, and we're gonna work some release patterns. Sean knows this tighten is tightened. The alignments help him maybe with some stack releases. And then also, and I don't want to, I also want to go back and look at some Chicago stuff and incorporate maybe some of those routes he ran from the slot. You know, he was a guy that ran the spears, the sales, and some of those second level routes pretty well. I don't know that anyone ever saw him as a real great transitional player like Cup. The reason Cup gets open is not just because he can run fast, but he can stop fast, and that's how he creates separation. And so with Alan, let's let's put together a few reels of things that we've seen him do well. I know Mac can throw some of those throws. And then, you know, you said it best when when the opponent begins to feel like all you have are a couple of guns left in the in the fortress, they begin to create closer and closer. We've got to find a way to the back of them all. Yeah, finally, as an offensive guy, I mean, the Wildcat took this league by storm for about twelve games. I watched Philadelphia and I'm like, I don't know what it is, but it works. It's productive. It's hard to duplicate when you prepare for him and the offensive line is getting a great push. Sean, I look at Philadelphia and I think that offense is a handful. What do you make of it? Yeah, and I would agree one hundred percent. You know, we our last two times where we played Philadelphia, I don't know that we stopped him. Yet they do such a good job. They gain they gain a half a man in their blocking scheme because the quarterback can be a part of the run scheme, and so whenever you watch them run the ball, and you know, if we were the alignment on that team, you and I we'd be happy because we'd love our angles because you'd say, oh, we get to double team down on this three tech. Yeah, we liked that block. So you get good leverage because of the scheme. You have good players that have good leverage because of the scheme, and then you have a quarterback that I really think has come into his zone in the last three weeks. Yeah. I mean, ultimately you're gonna have to throw it some and he's proven, you know, I think two weeks ago when we saw him on Monday Night Football or Sunday Night Football. It was a huge night in a game for him where we saw we saw him take a step on the field and went with that. You knew the confidence was growing. And so they're very well coached on offense and I think they're probably if you were to pull thirty two defensive coordinators, just off the record, who would you like to see? Least Philly would be at the top. Yeah, and that offensive line is a handful. All right. I'm not telling you where he's at. It's just a great food city, a great city, and he's going into a Hall of Fame there. It's Sean Payton. We love seeing him and a coach as always, we got smarter. Thank you, hey, thank you very much. All right, we'll see you guys. All right. Like he said, if you pulled thirty two defensive coordinators, I think Philadelphia the line, the leverage some teams. It was almost like when Lamar came in the league that first couple of years, like how do you prepare form at practice? Do you use a wide receiver at quarterback in practice to simon simulate what they're doing Philadelphia is a lot. For the record, I've never been more wrong in a coach. Nick Serriani leaves the Colts. All they're Clever's gone. All They're Clever's gone. He goes to Philadelphia, one of the hardest offense offenses to solve, Like Nick Serriani, there is something there. I completely whipped on that. I was absolutely sure that was the worst press conference I ever saw that team, totally eyes into him, completely Jack with the news, no nodes coached by his press conference my whole career. If I didn't like getting the press conference, you saw McVeigh at the press conference, are like boom, Well that's big in college, right, you can lose boosters at the press conference, like right out of the gate. All right, let's get started with a bad team in the NFL though, Washington Commanders sitting at the bottom of the NFC East, one in three colin, worst point differential in the league, last in yards per play. But hey, Ron Rivera is telling fans be patient the team, We're going to figure this out. I understand everybody's frustration, especially how proud this organization is. This organization's got five championships. You're kidding me, I get it. I understand how important it is to win, Okay, but I gotta be realistic with what we have and what we're trying to do. Now. Some of it we can improve on as coaches and get better at, and we have to. There is a sense of urgency that these things have to happen. They're not going to happen until everything's in place and it's ready to happen. Okay, how many years you've given Rod to get things in place, It's been there a few years. The defensive coaches that Pittsburgh's offense, Washington's offense, Chicago's offense, Buffalo is great, but can't develop a run game. By the way, look at Miami. Switch from defensive coach who we liked offensive coach. It's a totally different sensibility with two one. Washington hosts Tennessee this week. Tennessee's winning Washington better and I'll lose that game or somebody's getting fired offense. Defense, somebody's getting canned after that game. All right. Next up, we've got the Denver Broncos. It's official running back to Vante Williams out for the year. Torn Acl sounds like it's a it's a pretty bad knee. There's some other stuff going on there. Without him, Colin, it's gonna be the Melvin Gordon show. And he is a fumble machine. He's had a bad year, fumbling four fumbles in four games. M Nathaniel Hackett, though Nathaniel Hackets still got confidence in him. Hacket said Gordon, it's harder on himself than anybody else, and that is a great opportunity for him to prove he can be better. I think the third string guy's named Boone, Mike Boone. Maybe you drop the key pass laid against the Raiders. Oh he did drop that pass and somebody waiting for the cover. It was a fourth down pass. It's like, jeez, what is it gonna be? Judy and Sutton. We're gonna get a tight end appearance, Like what is Russell Wilson going to do well again? Sean Payton said this with two different quarterbacks, find what he's comfortable at doing well and do more of it. I don't know, it's just such a vanilla scheme. I mean, it really looks like a first time coordinator. I mean it's just no wiggle to it. There's nothing clever, nothing. I mean, it's just vanilla offense. They don't roll the pocket a lot. It's it's relying on, you know, Russell to hit stuff over the top, where Judy and Hammler are interesting. Court and Sutton. I like their receivers. But there's just you can see clever football when you watch the forty nine Ers last night. They're doing all this interesting stuff, a lot of prestap motion. You watch the Chiefs against the Bucks, it's the most creative. That's a different sport. That's a prime example. Mahomes and Garoppolo big gap in talent. But when you watch the Niners and the Chiefs, you as a consumer can see smartly coach clever football. Denver is vanilla. There's no wiggle. I mean when McVay came into the league all of a sudden, the jet sweeps like it was like, well, what what caught the league off guard? Nothing Denver does you haven't seen before. It is completely pedestrian. I'm not fired the coach after a month, guy, But Nathaniel Hackett Thursday night football against the Colts, and the Colts sounds like, no, Jonathan Taylor, you better not lose to Matt Ryan and whatever else. The Colts have, which is not much. That's a big game for Hackett. And final story, Collin Trevor Lawrence, you know, a really bad game on Sunday, career high, five turnovers, it was, it was raining, four fumbles, un characteristic date for the second year quarterback. Doug Peterson expects Lawrence to quickly put that rocky performance behind him. Let's hope it's a blip, you know. Yeah, I don't think it's a setback. I think I just think it's a blip. I just think it's it's um you know, you just hate to say it, but maybe it's one of those games during the season where just nothing really goes right, you know, and it happens. But you know, I'll never make excuses. You know. We have to do a better job of hanging on the football. He knows that that's the prized possession out there. You know, if we make the plays that were left on the field, it might be a different outcome today. Yeah. Interesting, Jacksonville. You saw on the screen they play Houston this week. What's the number they're favored by? Seven. I'm gonna give you a crazy number because I'm researching this right now. Houston's won eighth straight against Jacksonville. They beat him twice last year by more than two touchdowns in each game. Like, what the hell, Trevor Lawrence. I'm not gonna reference the coach on Jacksonville last year, but they're laying a touchdown Jacksonville. Where's the game at in Jacksonville? I don't know. I don't know what a lot of big spreads this week. Last weekend everything was closed. This week, there's like five games a touchdown or I don't like that. I like underdogs. Do you have your favorite beat of the week yet? I think it's probably the Saints. It's early, but it's probably says might be Tampa. I was just looking at Atlanta Cordurell Patterson. Do you see that on the ir He's like a valuable member. Cordarell Patterson is the Swiss Army nine for the league. There you go. They got like guy running backs I've never heard of. Kyle Pitts is like on a milk carton right now. Atlanta though four o against the spread, only team in the league to cover every game. Probably some regression coming for them, right all right? Jay Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The Herd, I should do a gambling show. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Eastern a Empacific. I'm George Reister, host of the Reister or Wrong podcast. This is the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture meet the truth absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Fridays, facts solely. Make sure you check your feelings at the door, because nobis is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This is where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are Wrong podcasts on the iHeartRadio appum Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're gonna play conclusion or Illusion. We look at the NFL standings. Will start in the AFCJ Jason and I will and can we make a conclusive argument like that's what it'll end up as or is it an illusion? And it will change drastically? Yeah? Right, you want to start? I think I understand this good stuff. We'll start with the AFC East, mostly because the Jets are in there, so you see Dolphins atop the AFC East, followed by the Bills Jets, and then the last place Patriots. Colin conclusion or illusion. Well, the Bills and Dolphins I think will flip, but I do think they're absolutely the best two teams in the division. Never forget this, dating back to last season, Miami's eleven and two in their last thirteen regular season games. Miami's a good team and they got better. And so I do think the Jets can finish ahead of the Patriots. I do because of their offensive firepower. But but if the Dolphins in the Bills, if you flip them, that is not an outrageous take. That is closer to conclusion than illusion. Okay, all right, Let's move to the AFC North, which currently sees the Browns, Ravens, and Bengals at two and two, and the Steelers are going nowhere. That's an illusion. Steelers are a last place team. Cleveland is not going to be around. First of all, Cincinnati after Week one in their last ten quarters, Joe Burrow has been a pro bowler, and I do think the Ravens, even though they're now suddenly awful at home, I just don't think Cleveland in first place. In fact, there's an argument to be made of eventually an injury or two in the wrong spot. They're a fourth place team. Deshaun Watson comes back, I believe December. Yeah, they can hang around long enough or no. No, And he's not going to come back and be Razor sharp anyway. He's been out of the facility, all right. Next up, AFC South the worst division in football without question. Now, I think this is completely conclusive. I mean, the Jaguars are the best scoring offense and the best scoring defense in the division. They're the most dynamic team. The Titans are probably the best coach team. The Colts are better than the Texans simply because they can consistently, you know, produce decent efforts. I mean, they did beat the Chiefs. That's what the division's gonna look like. Colts are done. I just don't think they have the firepower. There's a story out today that Ballard is in trouble the GM and Frank reichis so now they've got the pressure from the owner or say he's kind of Dan Snyder vibes, you know. Yeah, all right, Next up we'll go AFC West Kansas City Chiefs, followed by Chargers, Broncos, and then the Raiders pulling up the rear. Sadly, it's closer to a conclusion than an illusion now not sadly right. Well, here's the thing about the Chargers, only team averaging in the league over three hundred yards passing in their division, I should say, And they did lose to Kansas City and a pretty good Jacksonville team when they lost their left tackle in the middle of the game. They're beat up. But if we subscribe to the fact, the Chiefs will win their seventh straight division title, which it's fair to say, Denver is not a playoff team today. Denver is a fourth place team in the NFL. Based on what I've seen. Their personnel is second in this division. But from what I've seen with the offense and the coaching, they're a third to a fourth place team. As a whiff by me, let's go to the NFC. We'll go in the NFC East, the Eagles a top, followed by Cowboys, Giants and the Commandos. Commanders, sir, this is done. This division is done. First of all, Philadelphia schedule, as you pointed out, easiest in the league, so it's been harder early than it will be now. And Dallas doesn't lose a division. They're eight no in their last eight NFC East games. The Giants are better as you predicted. You you're the one. This is, by the way, this is the order I predicted. I had the Giants fourth. You convinced me they'd have a life. You were right, and the Commanders I moved from second to third to fourth. I think right now the Eagles, Cowboys, Giants have offensive coaches and they're getting the most out of their personnel. I think Washington's a fourth place. Okay, let's go to your favorite division, the NFC North. Where who's the Vikings. Yeah, Vikings and Packers three and one Bears two and two Lions. Well, no Lions will finish ahead of the Bears. Okay, I would agree with that. Okay, what about up top? That's what I predicted, Vikings, Packers. So the Vikings have a great advantage. They already beat Green Bay. Yeah, so if they beat them a second time. Now it's I'm not sure when it is on the schedule. But if I look at the Vikings, I mean, the Bears have the worst passing offense in the league. What you have there, the Vikings offense and the Lions offense really capable. Green Bay's offense is okay, could be better. The Bears offense, they can't score. They have one way to win and so in the end, Detroit's the most entertaining average team in the league, but they can put up big points. Any concerns with the Vikings, they have this habit of playing with their food against the Lions against They can't people away, Well, there's a reason they're not. They're not explosive enough to put people away. They're the opposite of Buffalo. They'll beat you, but always close. Buffalo rarely wins close. When they beat you, they pummel you. So there, they just don't have And that's all based on quarterback play. Alan is a superstar and Kirk is what is Yeah, NFC South conclusion or illusion? This is pretty set, except the Saints are one and three and I like them more in the preseason. Dude about you, well, I mean Buck's winning is a conclusion. Yeah, I think the Saints fourth. See I'm not defensive coach. Look at Jamis Winston's numbers since Sean Payton left. You've watched the Falcons. I mean, so Carolina has got a coach and a quarterback issue, and the Saints I think have a coach and quarterback issue. Atlanta with an offensive coach and Mariota. They're in games. Okay, they're in I don't think that's crazy. It's so I thought they'd be the worst team in the league. I've watched them, and I'm like, they're in every game. They give the Rams fits late, they gave Seattle problems. Atlanta's interesting. I would like to buy some Saints stock. I'm gonna call my stockbroker and get liked it. But you liked it really banged up for the London game, Sanchez said they were missing like offensive line receivers. Kamara like, once they get healthy, this team has talent and that defense is nasty. It's by low for me. Finally, NFC West, look at this. Look at the parody there, two and two all around. We think it's days like this if Garoppolo stays healthy. I had the Rams winning in the Niners. Second. I didn't think the Rams offensive line would dissolve into this, and I thought Alan Robinson can play. But my conclusion after watching last night is the Rams can't stretch the field. And so if you're if you're gonna play San Francisco, you've got to make them be honest because those linebackers are I mean they're front seven's the best in football Buffalo and San Francisco's front seven. If they don't think you can beat him over the top, they totally play down The Buffalo Ram game in the Niner Ram game looked a lot to me, like the same game. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't respect the Rams ability to go over the top. So we're just gonna play downhill. And what about Listen, if you look at this Rams team, Colin, they're one injury away, like if Cooper Cup happens to miss, they we're talking about like a four or five win team. That that's how bad the rest of the roster is. Because they're so top heavy with they only wait, they're gonna get their excellent center and Van Jefferson back in a month. Can they tread water for four to five weeks because those guys are it will be a different looking offense with those times. Sorry, Van Jefferson to me, sounds like the new Kendrick Nunn. We're just waiting for Kendrick Nunn to save the Lakers last season. We're waiting for Van Jefferson to show up help. I'm just saying he'll help. Alan Robinson needs so wake up dude, he is stealing money right now. I mean it is bad that he's running. He's like half I can't say that word, but he's half butting it out there for the rent. It's not looking good. No, it's it looks like a bad signing. And it's a three year deal. The numbers don't lie. Last decade, over four million peeps have chosen Simply Save Home Security. Go to Simply Savecolin dot com Free indoor security camera, yes, and twenty percent off with interactive monitoring. First things First. Is around the corner on a Tuesday in La See you tomorrow. It's the herd