The Herd with Colin CowherdWhat to take from Caleb Williams regressing this season
More on the Lions and Chiefs winning over the weekend even though they played poorly
It looks like the Giants are moving off of Daniel Jones
Guest: Albert Breer
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How do you recognize elegant design? It's in the details twenty twenty five Genesis GD seventy athletic lines coop like profile, suv prowess. So here's the Bears coach Matt Eberflu just an hour ago discussing the mess in Chicago.
I think that's the most important thing that we do, that we have some steadiness here but also make the necessary adjustments and changes that we need to make. What's best for the Bear's going forward. And everything's on the table, and it's important that we look at everything and the time to get that done.
Now.
You can make a change of quarterback.
No, Caleb is our starter with that, Albert Breer joining us live on a Monday, Monday morning quarterback all right, So Ryan Paul said he's safe for the year and maybe next year. Where are we this morning? What are you hearing?
Yeah?
I mean I think you look at their offensive staff and maybe there's some shuffling that happens there. I think the primary problem here, Colin, if you look at the makeup of the staff, they really don't have anyone who has experienced working with a rookie quarterback before it goes right on down the line. You know, Sean Walder did a great job with Gino Smith, but when he got him in Seattle, he was already a veteran, worked with Jared Goff in Los Angeles, had Russell Wilson for a little while.
There in Seattle.
You know, then you look, Thomas Brown is the is the pass game coordinator there?
Does he have that experience? Know, he was with veteran quarterbacks with the Rams.
Carrie Joseph is there a quarterbacks coach?
You know?
He is another one who doesn't have doesn't have any experience working with rookie quarterbacks. So yeah, I think a big piece of this, and a big question a lot of people around the League of asked, is like, why aren't there more people on that staff When they decided they were going to offload justin fields and go to a rookie quarterback. Why aren't there more people on that staff who have experienced working with a rookie and working from the ground up with a rookie.
And yeah, I.
Think that's part of the whole right now and where they're at the alarming thing to me.
And I don't know how much of that game you watched yesterday.
There was there were I mean, he took nine sacks and the offensive line wasn't great, but there were also plays where you could tell that the wheels were turning in his head and he's standing in the pocket thinking, and I think that caused some of.
The hits he took too.
Yeah, that's what Matt Hasselbeck said an hour ago on our show. Some of this is on him. I don't think there's been an ability to scheme up some easy layups, which young quarterbacks want. Drake May has gotten better in three weeks than Caleb has a whole season. I want to go to this. So I was wrong on this. I thought the Steeters were tone deaf offensively last three years. They couldn't get the on line right, the run game right, the coordinator right. I'm like, I'm out. They just can't get the offense. Right, I could give Russell Wilson all the credit, but I'll give Mike Tomlin some. Justin Fields was four and two and he moved off him and most defensive coaches they don't want, you know, And and he nailed Arthur Smith. How much of this is Russ How much is Tomlin? How much is Arthur Smith? Because the deep ball Albert it is back in Pittsburgh, run game, deep ball, this is their history.
All of them deserve credit, all of them, you know, I'll start with Tomlin. There were a lot of people in that building, in the locker room, in the front office, on the coaching staff who wanted.
To stick with Justin when they were fourign two.
Yep.
Mike Tomlin had the instincts to know that if I go to Russell Wilson, now I'm giving myself two shots at it rather than one. If you stick with Justin Fields too, that's probably it for us, right. Instead, you roll the dice to the guys won a Super Bowl before, and if it doesn't work out, you can always go back to Justin. I also, you know, believe that Tomlin thought it would open up a part of the game, you know, with George peck Pickens is the deep threat that they didn't have as much under justin Field.
So that's happened as well.
And then I think, you know, Arthur Smith and Russell Wilson both deserve credit for the way that marriage has come together. And what I mean is, you know, Arthur Smith being able to retro fit the offense for Russell Wilson, but just as much as Russell Wilson accepting the reality of who he is as a player and what they've done there, the movement concepts, the run concepts of past game. They're marrying all that stuff together the same way they did in Seattle when Russell was at his best. And it's easy for a coach to do that. It's not as easy to get Russell to accept that. I think there was a period in Russell's career when he was in Denver when he wanted to be something different than that, and he's come off of it. And I think that's a huge credit to Russell that I'm willing now to go back to what I was in Seattle. I'm willing to really embrace playing the way that I was playing in Seattle. It's it's basically having the humility to say I was wrong, you know, and there maybe the coaches in Seattle who deployed me a certain way were right. And so I think that those things have come together too. So I think Tomlin gets credit for having to go against what a lot of people in his building wanted. I think Arthur Smith gets the credit for fitting the offense to what Russell's best at based on studying his entire career. And I think Russell deserves a lot of credit for having the humility to implicitly say I was wrong in Denver, and maybe the people that I worked with in Seattle were right all along.
Yeah, So listen, Rams Dolphins tonight. We're looking ahead, but I do want to look back to the first game in Daniel Jones. Listen, it's not working this. This is the two bad teams in the league. I think Dallas is awful. Carolina. Carolina has got a little bit of a positive vibe right now. And if you watch Carolina Giants Carolina, I would feel pretty good. Bryce Young looked like he was comfortable last couple of weeks. He's got a star receiver, a rookie receiver from the South. He's really good player. Daniel Jones they are now they're moving off him right like it's official they will draft a quarterback.
Yeah, well so, so right now they're in this place where they're not making the playoffs. I think we can agree on that. Right two an eight, it's not happening. So they're effectively playing out the string now. And the way his contract sets up this is similar to Russell Wilson last year in Denver. He has injury guarantees for next year and so there's there's a twenty three million dollar injury guarantee, which means if he can't pass the physical next September, then the Giants run the hook for that number. But more urgently, if he can't pass a physical in March, than twelve million of that twenty three million in vest is fully guaranteed. So we're talking about, you know, at least an eight figure decision that they got to make here on whether or not they're going to keep rolling Daniel Jones out there. Oh, by the way, without his starting left tackle Andrew Thomas is down for the year, So you know, at this point, I think the decision sort of has to be made where they're going into their by coming out of it. Drew lock should be their starting quarterback. Daniel Jones probably should be on the bench.
Yep.
And you're not supposed to make decisions based on these things, but yeah.
The reality of it is, everybody knows what the score is.
He's not going to be their quarterback in twenty twenty five, so they have to make the move to put him on the bench and put them on ice for the rest of the year.
And you know, then the Giants.
Are going right back into that quarterbacking wilderness, and they're doing it in a year that I don't think is going to be a great one to get one out of the draft.
Yeah, so it's I said this, there's a couple of issues with the Niners. Now here's the good news. Detroit, Kansas City and San Francisco played poorly in one. These are good teams, that's I mean. Listen, Baltimore's defense was awful last Thursday, played poorly and they won. So they're a half. We all know that they're a have not, a have not. Jets played poorly, couldn't compete. Dallas played poorly, couldn't compete halves have nots. The Havelves can play poorly and win. San Francisco special teams were a mess. I'm gonna throw something else at you. Though. A big chunk of this league is using variations of this offense. It's been ripped off.
Yeah.
Right, when I watched San Francisco, I thought brock Perty was fine. Yesterday late fine. It doesn't feel like the Debo jet sweeps catch anybody off guard. I mean, Kittle had a couple of great moments. They feel like they're getting old. The league is using variations, so everybody knows this offense, they're seeing it in practice. I feel like, I don't know. I feel like there's a big move coming here albert I don't feel they're a trophy team. I don't think they can handle it a pull up a trophy this year.
Yeah.
Well, actually, what you're talking about is why they drafted Trey Lance in the first place. Was Kyle Shanahan looking at it and saying, half the league runs my offense, So Halet is practicing against my offense every day, and so do When he was making the decision between Mac Jones and Trey Lance in twenty twenty one, it was well, I can have Mac Jones come in and run my offense, or I can bring in Trey Lance and then grow my offense and expand my offense and turn my offense into something else, and obviously that didn't work out. And then I think they get, you know, a different version of mac Jones.
I'd say, a.
Souped up version, a more athletic version of mac Jones and brock Purty, or at least at how they saw mac Jones back in twenty twenty one. Yeah, so they are running, you know, a variation of what they've always done. Now, Kyle's always been really good at moving the ball forward, but you know, like you said, like if half the league is seeing the offense in practice every day, well a lot of the concepts you're going to throw at them.
Isn't aren't going to be foreign anymore.
And that's sort of where it's at with that, And I know Kyle's aware of it and has really aggressively tried to move to doing different things, like, you know, more gap scheme runs instead of just puizone running. There are a lot of things that they've done to try to combat that, but it's it's definitely a factor.
I would say this though. All right, they're five and four right now, do you know what the record was after nine games, it was six and three. The yem before that, after nine games they were five and four. The Ever before that, after nine games they were four and five.
Yeah, so they're right where they've been the last three years after nine games. So I spaced on the talent there, and obviously the coaching staff, I wouldn't rule out the idea that they could go on.
And run here.
So Philadelphia, a month ago, we were lining up the life preservers for Nick Siriani. I mean it was man overboard, and four games later, they've put certain boundaries around Jalen Hurts. He's throwing like twenty times a game. They're young, young defensive players now, Dean Carter, the Toledo corner, Mitchell, They're all emerging as really really good players. Something happened is is Sirianni get credit for it? Or was it the team getting healthy, the coordinators getting developed? What happened to Philadelphia? Because a month ago they couldn't handle.
Live minutes ago?
It feels like we were talking about like Belichick, right right, Yeah. I think it's it's interesting. I think I made this point to when I was out there calling that the NFC East is like the sec or the expectations are ridiculous and coaches are always in the hot seat, you know, and that exists in Philly, no question.
I mean, this is a.
Guy who inherited what was it, a four to twelve and one team, right, and in twenty twenty one went to the playoffs. His first year, went to the Super Bowl, his second year, lost both of his coordinators. Going into his third year, backslid a little bit, but still made the playoffs in his third year. So that's playoffs three straight years and goes into year four and his seat is scorching hot. Yeah, I mean it's crazy if you really kind of like look at it. And so I'm not sure in that environment that they live in that there was enough respect given to the amount of change there was in that building. Okay, you have a completely new offense coming in with Kellen Moore, you have a completely new defense coming in with Vic Fangio, and you've lost a serious chunk of your leadership infrastructure with the retirements of Jason Kelcey on offense and Fletcher Cox on defense.
That's a lot to replace.
And I think if you look at it, like if we're just taking a sober look at it. Take the scheme part out of it. This is still a really talented team, right, This is still a team that's got a lot of good players on it. Aj Brown, DeVante Smith, you know, Dallas Goddard, they bring in Saquon Barkley. The lines of scrimmage are still really good. And if you know, a couple of things fall into place, like the young defensive backs start playing really well, then you can get yourself to a place where you look at this and say this might be the most talented team in the NFC. So I think with Philly it's just a weird thing. And maybe it's the NFC East in general or our perspective on that team in particular. It is just a little bit different. And I think maybe all that leadership, scheme infrastructure going out the door and all the change happening led to some bumps early on that have been smoothed out.
Now.
Yeah, they looked the part. They played poorly for half that game and blew out Dallas. Albert Breer Monday Morning Quarterback, great senior as always, my man.
All right, thanks going be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern non a em Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Yeah, it's I think right now, the most impressive team in terms of talent is Philadelphia Detroit. Not quite as athletic defensively is second San Francisco. U Healthy's really I don't know if there's a third. I really like the Eagles. You know, it's funny we had this three year stretch when the NFC was down and Mahomes Lamar, Herbert Josh Allen had emerged in the AFC, and NFC's top was way better than the NFC's top. Now what's interesting is I think there's a bottom to the AFC, and I mean there's the top still great. The second layer is like Pittsburgh and Houston, the Chargers. You start looking at the NFC now like Washington's a real team. They're not ready to hoist a trophy, but it's a real team. Don't forget about Green Bay. They had to buy their real team. Philadelphia Detroit I think have the two best rosters in the NFL. There's an argument San Francisco is third, and they're all NFC teams. And what's interesting about that. I said this going into this year I said, the worrying part, the concerning part for the Cowboys was in the last couple of years, green Bay was too young, Detroit wasn't ready. San Francisco was obviously great, but Aaron left, the conference went. You had this moment for Dallas last couple of years where they were beating up on the middle and the bottom of the NFC. The middle and the bottom were pretty damn week And now the middle of the NFC is Arizona. The middle of the NFC is the rebuilt Ram defense. Like, the middle of the NFC was really soft for a couple of years, and the Cowboys did word it well. In the regular season, they were beating the Washingtons and the New York Giants and the Carolinas. They were beating it up. Now the Giants in Carolina aren't much. But the middle of the NFC now Washington, I mean, Atlanta, Rams, Arizona, Minnesota. Dallas isn't as good as those teams. Those are the middle NFC teams. So you got you have to take advantage of your opportunities. You know, It's like when Phil Mickelson. If Tiger took a tournament off, go play the tournament. Take advantage of it. If Nadal took a tournament off, you know what I mean, Like, there's just opportunities here. When you're in this tunnel. In pro sports, you get, you get breaks. Giannis gets hurt in the playoff. Okay, the Eastern Conference is easier, but uh, I mean, look at this. I'm for our radio audience. I apologize the NFC playoff picture. Some of these teams were awful years ago. Look at the middle of the NFC now, San Francisco Rams, Washington, Minnesota. That's kind of the middle. We know Philadelphia's talent, Detroit's tandle that's the top of it. But man, there's a thick middle now. You know, Dallas thought coming into the season they would be middle up their bottom looking up at both classes the very best, which is small in the middle.
I just wonder, are you overreacting a little bit to the results this week because I think Washington's an upper echelon team in the NFC.
You sink there, Okay, so if they are, well, no, let's look at Washington. So they've lost to the Ravens, They've lost to the Steelers, and they lost to the healthy Buccaneers. The three best teams they've played, they've lost.
Town for the first game was Jayden Daniels.
Well and the Bucks were totally healthy with Baker.
There's a good faced Todd Bowles out of the gate. I don't read much into the Tampa result.
I think Detroit and Philly looked a part. I think Detroit and Philly those are elite rosters.
So Washington, you're right. They lost to Baltimore thirty to twenty three.
And they lost to Pittsburgh twenty eight twenty seven. Again, they probably should have won yesterday. I what listen, I know they had their.
Most they didn't.
They didn't do certainly, there was some struggles in the first half. Step up in class against Tomlin who owns.
Me, and they got they got. Let's be honest about Washington. We love the story. They got the fake punt gift and a fumble at the one yard that could have been Pittsburgh taken a knee with four minutes left. They could have easily killed the clock on that s.
Your takeaway from that game is Pittsburgh's definitely a superior team to Washington.
Absolutely on the road gave him a gift special teams, a fumble at.
The one.
Goal.
Look at the stats they averaged like double.
Yard for Washington's best performance is clear, well.
It's funny, it's flay. They didn't play well against Baltimore Pittsburgh.
It was awful.
Bye.
I mean you started running back Brian Robinson, who's so good?
The three of teams they've faced, they're all in.
Three Cincinnati, aren't they good? Arizonae Cincinnati's worst, worst defense in the league.
They led the Raiders by double digits twice in the second half and lost both games. Also Arizona, they went to the desert and.
Beat And I think Arizona is closer to the top of the NFC than the middle.
You would have Arizona ahead of Washington.
Oh, yes, absolutely, I'm just gonna remind you this score was Washington forty two, Arizona fourteen.
Arizona's gotten their young guys, right. I think the top of the NFC is Philadelphia, Detroit, Yes, and then I think the middle is is Arizona, San Francisco, La Rams, Washington, Green Bay, Green Bay. I think is Green Bay and Arizona are really close to the top of the NFC. But because of injuries to Jordan Love or a couple of sputters early. I don't know.
I'm just gonna remind everybody that the last three wins for Arizona are twenty eight twenty seven over Miami in two his return, Miami's a dumpster fire Chicago which chas players quitting and the coach is about to get run.
And the lowly Jets. They don't need to know what introduction.
Blowing out a couple of those dominating all. I'm gonna say this, j mac Oways qualify stuff. It's the NFL. Yeah, if you watched Arizona and the Jets play, Jets got players. Don't tell me the Jets don't have talent. That game was not competitive. It was a blowout blowout going to Miami. When two was back, I saw Miami go to Buffalo and have them beat. They went to Arizona, went to Miami down ten, came roaring back on the road and won.
Arizona's had some weird comebacks, right.
They had to come back against the Niners, which was total luck, and then they had to come back against Miami. I just don't know the lucky ending against the Church. The word luck a lot, well, Chiefs are lucky a lot.
Game show me right now. To be honestly, guys in the back, show me the field goal atep by Denver to win the game. Show me this you're calling that luck? That is the special teams coach for the Chiefs saying, guys, bring your heat. And we know athletes aren't motivated on every play of the game. Look at the utter domination by Kansas City. Seven guys got watched this. Holy crap, seven guys got through.
But here's my favorite.
Pieves slap walk through the look of this thing. I've never seen anything like that.
So if I read a couple of quotes from the Chiefs players, and I guess they ties on film from Denver's blockers, and it's it's awful. But I guarantee you if you look at how many kicks inside forty yards were blocked in the last five years, it's got to be like under four.
I mean, it never happens.
All I am saying is, isn't it ironic how Kansas City's always the best team in the league when it matters on big plays. If not you use luck, luck doesn't even exist.
I thought I saw Andy Reid walk into the locker room and pull a horseshoe out of his pants and just like we got lucky once again.
Here's the radio call in Kansas City on the not luck but preparation scheme. Block Buck's waiting for the snare.
Placeman is down.
Let's just take us block.
That's Bolet's block.
They're gonna stay undefeated.
The Kansas City chase blocked on thirty five yark field goal attent.
I mean.
Yeah, now hey, and you know what they're gonna beat The Bills probably goes seventeen or oh in the regular season.
Love it? I yeah, yeah. Luck is if Denver's kicker on a dry field comes in and slips, twists an ankle, shanks it left. That's luck. That ain't luck.
MOOKI take Moody unlucky.
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern am Let's back.
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Without further ado. Jmack with a news.
Turns, this is the Herdline news. Your guys.
Sam Darnold and the Vikings got their seventh win yesterday, but it was pretty sloppy. Three interceptions, almost a fourth that was negated by penalty. Kevin O'Connell's still confident in his quarterback.
We're still confident Sam.
It'd be craziness not to be. In fact, I was looking at it as a great opportunity to see growth.
And continue to move the team.
So because we're gonna we're gonna check back in.
On this moment and use it the right way, and then Sam's gonna be better off for it.
I truly do believe that. Yeah, I thought he got a little conservative with a play calling, playing not to lose very uh protective. I didn't like it.
The schedules just cupcake City for the Vikings.
I keep trying to think, like, oh, they're gonna miss the playoffs. But Colin Tennessee considerable favorites. Chicago flaming dumpster fire, Arizona's a loss, Atlanta, I don't know what Atlanta is all of a sudden, like they're they're touch and go, and it's like Chicago. I think the Vikings probably still get in the playoffs. But Donald's got to tighten it up significantly.
Right, Yeah, I mean he you're getting the best of Sam Donald, but he is Sam Donald, It's Carson Wentz. There's a lot of talent. It's in this disputable. He's racked.
I don't think he's Baker.
Maybe Baker isn't as strong or athletic as Sam. Sam can make plays that Baker can't. Baker throws a better ball, a more accurate football.
Next up, Drake May outdual Caleb Williams.
Yesterday.
May didn't have a big day statistically through for a buck eighty four in a touchdown, but his leadership is standing out.
To Gerardmeo, Drake has addressed the offense numerous times. I think this is it goes back to now he's starting to really take control of the offense and the team. I mean, when you go out there and you perform at a high level. That's the first step. The next step is to bring others with you, and I think he's on his way to doing that.
Yeah, I think you have to feel pretty good as a Patriot fan. This is the worst roster that Drake will ever have. And I don't know if the coach is right, but when you watch Drake May, he is now looking like his comp which was an unrefined, unpolished Justin Herbert. Big move well, nice arm, had bad feet, his mechanics and his feet were all messed up in college. But if I was a Patriot fan, I'd watched this and thank god. If we get him a top tight end and we upgrade the offensive line, there's something definitely there.
I like him a little more than you I think Herbert. If he turns into anything close to Justin Herbert, that's a massive win. Final story is quickly Dolphins DRAMs tonight. There's still no word on Tyreek Hill, who's dealing with a wrist injury. McDaniel said he's doing everything he can to play tonight, but the line is going toward the Rams there and now two and a half point favorites. This was like pick a minus one all week that Tyreek Hill numbers in four games at SOFI are unbelievable on that turf indoor.
See, I mean, he just cooks.
If he plays, it's gonna be a great game. If he doesn't, I would definitely I like the Rams here.
Well, the Rams are still not healthy on the interior of their all line. They're playing a rookie center, they don't want to. They're playing pretty marginal left guard, so it's still not a great line. Wilkins planned the d tackle for the Dolphins.
They're not going to do inactives until little Okay.
So I mean that I think the Rams can have a little problem running the ball tonight through the interior. But this is the healthiest the Rams have been in a while. They're there, and their defenses we've talked about is young and young defenses. We've seen this with Kansas City. If they do get hurt, they get healthier faster. Oh look at this. Okay, So the Rams have officially activated Steve a Vila and Jonah Jackson for to night's game with the Dolphins. They're gonna eat. I'll love. I officially love the Rams total there.
Now.
They're finally the first time all year the Rams are officially the Rams tonight. So Pookah's in Cooper Cup.
Now this no.
Excuse it, this is the beat. Now. They don't have Tyler higgsby the tight end, but they went and got Seattle. No, no, no, no, this is big news. So Steva Vila, Jonah Jackson healthy, the old line is finally one hundred percent healthy.
Dolphins defenses largely crap boy AFC East.
Outside of the Bills, you've got the Jets stink Pulpins are a tire fire. Patriots are three wins.
Gosh, that Jets thing didn't work out for it.
Can we just make it an agreement that we're not gonna talk Jets anymore for like.
Oh, you believe me, I'm done, Like yesterday was like, I'm done. I think the only question is does Aaron retire?
I'm that's it.
That's what I asked, hassl Well.
I asked Woody Johnson, Aaron, sorry, we're cutting you, or you can retire.
Take the dead cap. In a great quarterback draft class, you could do that in this class. I mean, who's available? Sam Darnold's Rogers.
You're not winning?
Do you want this toxic nonsense throughout the season next year.
Jmack with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd line.
I don't know if it's toxic. It's just not good.
Every time Rogers talks, we're talking about him. That's toxic to me.
Well, he makes news, he's a newsmaker. All right, we'll see you tomorrow. Alive in Los Angeles. It's the hurt.
