Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and f S one. One hour from now, Where Colin was right? Where Colin was wrong? Sean Payton stops by for thirty minutes live in studio. Next hour, j Mac alongside Today as usual. Well that was a weekend. Um Man. Mahomes is different, pretty good quarterback right. At one point in the fourth quarter, one of the key targets because of injuries was Marcus Kemp, who's got more career tackles than catchings. When anybody complains about their quarterback, well he needs this and he needs that. Just look at Patrick Mahomes yesterday on a bum wheel making all the big plays. Just such a clutch quarterback. I like your Mahomes take to start the show. So let's start with this. I've been a sportscaster for over thirty years, and I don't remember in thirty years a team losing a close playoff game and not blaming the refs. Oh boy, So Kansas City's better than Cincinnati, and I thought Cincinnati would win. But Kansas City's quarterback played better than the other team. Kansas City dominated the first half, Kansas City made fewer mistakes, Kansas City protected their quarterback better than Cincinnati did. In ninety nine point nine percent of the time, the team that does those four or five things wins the game. Mahomes is different. He played on one leg, had no run support, was missing at one point three of his top wide receivers, and put up a line that is you know, I'm a Homesian line that's now his league average. A couple of TDS, passer rating at one five, completion percentage sixty seven percent. The great ones overcome, and both those quarterbacks are great, but one is greater. Five years, five AFC championships, all at home, MVPs trophies. He didn't have him stacked like Brady, but Bill Russell won almost twice as many titles as MJ and was a better defensive player, in fact, maybe the greatest of all time. We didn't wait to call MJ the goat. What are we waiting for? His instincts faster, better than Brady, He moves better than Brady, armed better than Brady, winning more early over Brady, not relying on defense like Brady. It's the best quarterback I've ever seen. You can blame the refs, but the Chiefs had more yards, more first downs, were better on third down, more yards per play, fewer turnovers, dominate time of possession, and their quarterback had two touchdowns, no picks, and Joe Burrow had two picks, one really really bad. And I love Joe Burrow. It wasn't the refs. Keep blaming them. You've got to get better. Everybody does in the world. By the way, pain tolerance is also a skill. He's a plus plus at that wincing more than once running around. I had said last week, I think we're overstating the injury. I've seen Mahomes playing a high ankle sprain a couple of years ago and he had four hundred forty yards. Now it was the Raiders, but it was still something to see. Every other quarterback had something they worked around. Brady's not very physically mobile, Manning could get rigid. Fard made too many mistakes. Maybe Montana wasn't big enough. Mahomes checks every box and his instincts are bizarre. His ability to see an open player and get the ball out of his hands quickly. Marino was close, but Dan's not this. I've literally never seen a quarterback without a hole. Every couple of years he goes off the reservation a bit with his mechanics and Andy has to reel him back in. But with no run game. Every quarterback's good with a lead. Every quarterback's great with a run game. Every quarterback's great with time. Mahomes went sixty seven percent one hundred five point four passer rating, two tds, no picks, three twenty six, throwing the backups, throwing the guys in the fourth quarter who have more career tackles than catches. In those numbers I just gave you, there is per game average. He doesn't dip in the playoffs when sky More and Bengal fans don't want to talk about this return that punt at the end of the game. For twenty seven yards to midfield. I literally thought, OK, it's over. I'm go par cocktail. I never feel like that with any other player on the planet. Game's over. By the way, that return you're watching now got about twice as many yards as the late hit penalty, which Bengal fans apparently have amnesia on the punt return. But the ability of Mahomes is like nothing I've ever seen, and it creates great clarity. You're complaining in New York that Daniel Jones doesn't have this, or your quarterback doesn't have that. No run game one leg facing a great defense using backups. That Bengals defense is as good as any in the league in the fourth quarter. By the way, Burrow had two fourth quarter drives a picking a punt, and I love Burrow, but what you're watching here is different. It is just different. And when you can juxtapos and put him side by side, you see the difference. And Mahomes, seriously, I think he's getting better. I honestly think he's getting better. I don't know how it's possible. But Andy Reid obviously one of the smartest offensive guys ever. When he talks about him after games, he just smiles. Our players, our team coaches were all lucky to have him in that position, in the mindset, that whole mindset, so it carries over to everybody. For Pat to do what he did and then to have that run at the end. I can't say enough. He is the MVP of my eyes. Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback talent I've ever seen. And I don't know why I gotta keep waiting. He's not probably going to get this trophy or that trophy or this or that. If we're just talking about stacking things, then Michael Jordan's not the best basketball player ever. You have to contextualize stuff. But when I watch Mahomes play, arm, instincts, mobility, pain, tolerance, intelligence, I've never seen anything like it, never seen anything like it. I don't want to hear about your crappy quarterbacks, average oeline. I don't want to hear about your crappier average quarterbacks, lacker receivers. Who was he throwing to yesterday? Guys that Aaron Rodgers couldn't make viable? He makes viable in NAVC Championship. Gabe absolutely an insane talent and we're lucky to have him. And he's also a great guy and a great teammate. All right, now to the next game. You know, i'd set you know, circumstances change opinions, and like Tom Brady with his kids in Florida playing for the Niners, I'm thinking to myself, I just said, that's just a lot, even though his parents are there. But I'm sitting watching that game and I'm thinking, Kyle Shanahan went through Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoolo brock Purty, Josh Johnson, and they're hiking a ball to Christian McCaffrey, and I'm thinking to myself, I could see Brady texting him saying, you know, I don't get hurt, and the Niners going. Debo's getting older, McCaffrey's taking hits, Trent Williams getting older, Kittle's taken hits. These guys aren't gonna last forever. I could see the Niners after this weekend going. Brock Purty is a little small, he is a seventh rounder. Maybe we got to go big because the Niners are loaded. But Philadelphia is a remarkable story. You know, I lived out East for about ten years and out west. If we want a new building, we blow stuff up. We don't have a lot of old churches. We don't care much about that. For an old Eastern city that's proud of its tradition, you really got to hand it to Philadelphia. Multiple quarterbacks, multiple coaches, second super Bowl in seven years, four different coaches in twenty three years, three or four have been to the Super Bowl, all winning records, have all gotten to the playoffs. I really appreciate the way Philadelphia is willing to evolve. I don't even like all the moves. I thought Sarianni was a week higher. I couldn't understand firing Doug Peterson, moving off Carson Wentz. But for an old, established Eastern city which has great pride in tradition, they will change direction in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat, they're Amazon. You think they're one thing, the many you do, they're another. It's remarkable. It is a completely stacked roster. And what's remarkable is their two playoff games were blowouts. And Jalen Hurts is not right. That dude needs to get healthy. He had no touch on deep balls. His stuff underneath was short. I don't know if Jalen Hurts his seventy percent. You know, we talked about Mahomes injury. I think Jalen Hurts is really hurt. I don't think he's right at all. But this roster may be gifted enough. It's got much more depth of talent. In Kansas City. You could argue almost every unit Philadelphia is deeper and more talented. It may be close in some, but they may be deeper and more talented in every single unit. It's really what I love about Philadelphia is what has confused me about Philadelphia. When I lived out East, people were in the prep schools and tradition and churches, and sometimes I look at it and think, you know, it's why are you so beholden to tradition? It is hard to move off at Grandpa went to this church, Dad went to this church. You go to this church. Your kids will go to this church. You went to this summer camp. Your dad went to this summer camp. The East is very much about tradition. And then there's Philadelphia and they're like, yeah, yeah, we coach was great. We want to want to Super Bowl with Nick Foles. We gotta move off that coach. What we'll gotta move off Andy Reid, What we'll gotta move up? Even Chip Kelly out a winning record, and here they are. Nick Seriani is pumped to be going to the super Bowl. It's something you dream about your whole life. And uh, like I said to the guys, whether you we've all been dreaming about it, whether you were dreaming about it when you were two, ten, fourteen, eighteen, or when you got in the NFL, this is something we all dream about and we get to do it because you know, we did it better than anybody else in the NFC this year. Different coaches, different quarterbacks, disagree with a lot of the moves, and here they are, two blowout playoff wins. People say, well, they had one of the easiest routes of all time. Potentialite. I remember when USC was dominating college football. The Pac twelfth had never been worse. They were still better than everybody, still better than everybody. Just because you have an easier route doesn't mean you're not the best team. And the Eagles are absolutely stacked. And it's because they've taken chance after chance. They've moved off winning coaches and winning quarterbacks. It's something to behold. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app Welcome Back. So there was a lot of arguing Laker, Celtics, Friday, Niners, Eagles early, Chiefs, Bengals late. There was a lot of complaining about officiating. Adrian Amos was on Twitter saying, not saying it's a terrible call because he was out, but I just don't like it. You think running full speed, no one, he's had a bounds. It's not easy. No, it's not easy. It's not Joseph Asia. I feel bad for him. It's not easy. But the you can't call that crowd is silly. First of all, regardless of clock, an official has to call what he sees. That was by definition a late hit pushing a quarterback into a bench. The Bengals player after the game was crying saying I've got to be better. He wasn't saying the ref had to be better. All players and refs outside of Mahomes could be better. There are moments for situational officiating. One of them is a hail Mary pass. I've said this for years. They don't call pass interference on hail Mary's. Otherwise people would do it all the time because you would get like a forty and a fifty yard penalty, but by definition, that is a late hit, pushing the best quarterback in the universe into a bench on a bad leg. It's twenty twenty three. You got to know the temperature in the room. You don't do it in that moment. What's interesting was almost double the yards for that penalty was created by sky More on a punt return. Nobody's talking about that this morning. Why did the Bengals punt it to the middle of the field. What are you doing? Twenty seven yards got it to midfield and at that moment all of us went, oh, game over. Let me ask a Bengal fan a little nervous when he got to the fifty with Mahomes in forty one seconds left, you should be he took the ball down the field in thirteen against Buffalo, that was the game, by the way, we could go moments earlier, previous drive. Why did Cincinnati call a time out on second and eight that gave the Chiefs more time late in the game. It is easy to blame the officials in the Lakers Celtics game, go ahead, blame the refs. It was a bad call, but the Lakers had twelve turnovers nine they win the game. Westbrook himself had five. What was he doing in there? Late Niners? Yeah? I didn't like that DeVante Smith no catch, but the Niners coaches didn't ask for a review, didn't challenge it. All right, that's your job. And in this instance, why are you punting to the middle of the field and sky more, why did you call a time out on second and night. You don't have to love the call, but a referee almost always is gonna call what he sees. He's not supposed to categorize them well. And I was a play about six minutes ago that wasn't called. Let me think about that. You call what you see. It's twenty twenty three pushing a quarterback into a bench. Of course it's a flag. Here's the coach and the player after. I gotta learn from experience, and I got to know to get close to that quarterback, the news close to that silent if there's anything that could possibly cause the penalty in the dire situation like that, I got to do better understanding. It's never one play, but obviously the late hit put them in field goal range. Again, when you're trying to communicate things to players, especially once involved in that play, How do you do it? We're not gonna make it about one play. You know, there's plenty of plays that we left on the field today that could have put us into better position. Fans want perfect officials, you don't have perfect coaches. I didn't like Cincinnati's time out. I didn't like the coaching decision to punt the ball to sky More in the middle of the field. There's a lot of things that didn't go Cincinnati's way, But the general rule is if there's two quarterbacks and the home quarterback plays better than the road quarterback dominates the first half, gets better protection, he'll win. In Kansas City, did J Mack with the news? No, No, this is the herd Line News. Hello Colin, Hello Jay Ma, are you doing after the ski injury? Going to bring that up? One ar row five? I'm you know what, I'm gonna start playing um crossword puzzles, backgammon ball, yeah, pickle ball. Yeah. I gotta stop going down hills forty miles an hour. That's not great. Try to tell you you did move on to the Niners. Colin tough hand against the Eagles when Brock Purty got hurt. I was. I was kind of upset with this. This entire game, the first quarter game was kind of ruined. You know, listen he had to go back in. Purdy did after Josh John saying the fourth stringer gets knocked unconscious. Well, I don't know if he's unconscious, but can custum It was limited. Purdie couldn't throw the ball down the field. Here's George Kittle after the game talking about just a crappy quarterback situation. How's that feel to lose in ANTR Champion game because I don't have a quarterback pre be honest, I mean, losing sucks regardless. Uh you know, last year, I mean to fight to just get into the playoffs, upsets and teams, and this year, you know, we had all the momentum, played well in the first round, played well in the second round, and uh, I mean you didn't really get to see all the forty nine football that we wanted to put out there on tape. But you know, life kind of just punches in the face sometimes and it is what it is. I don't want to go on a referee. Rant I saved that for the podcast. I will say this, Colin every play is reviewable. Okay. In Bengals verse, Patrick Mahomes knee went down as he was unloading and the rest did not initially notice it. Bengals try to challenge the rest were like, no, no, no, we're gonna look at it. Okay, his knee was down, you know, sack the rests. Every play is reviewable. Why didn't they do the same thing with the DeVante Smith fourth down catch, which very clearly was not a catch. Why did the rests let that slide? Well, first of all, I initially thought it was a catch, and I think the officials did too. Secondly, or the fluidity of a game. Referees in the NBA don't call a fowl on Lebron every time down the floor they could, nor do you want to review everything. So what you're trying to do, and it's a balance, You're trying to keep the flow of the game up, keep it to three and a half hours, make it a good product, and make all the big calls you can. I was shocked, and usually I'm pretty good at guessing catch no catch. I was shocked it wasn't a catch. The Niners thought it was a catch apparently, and give the Eagles credit they flew back to the line and got a playoff. Javonte Smith did this sign to the bench, which they quickly knew let's go. But you gotta Shah and his crew not seen well again. We've gotta give credit to well run organizations. Philadelphia quickly got to the line and the Niners, in the frenzy of it, like the rest of us, thought as a hell of a catch. And I bring this up because you know, they let it slide. They get a touchdown and six plays later, Purdy's elbow gets wrecked and at that point you instantly had to live bet the Eagles. You knew it was over. I texted you about this. I'm like Purty's elbow, forget this game now, I know. Josh Johnson handed off a bunch and McCaffrey had a great test. It's one of those games you wish you could just kind of press the reset button, you know on the Nintendo's just started over because it was it was garbage. There was you're probably you may remember this, but we went through about a decade long run and it may have been shorter longer where the Super Bowls were awful. It was just like Dallas, Buffalo blow up, blow blow. We went through a long run of dreadful Super Bowls. We've been very lucky. Most of the last ten have been exhilarating, have been fantastic. Many of the Brady Super Bowls outside the Rams game our last play of the game, last series of the game. So generally speaking, the big games deliver something. I mean, I thought most of the playoff game. Obviously Eagles blew out a Giant's team. But I mean, I feel like the NFL generally the games live up to what you think they will be, and this is just one of those. In injuries derail, yeah, I do. We talked about Mahomes as a warrior, right, I mean, out there cutting it out on one leg, just tough and great. Was it a little disappointing to see Purty in the game handing off and throwing screen passes but not even trying to throw downfield? Well, Terry Bradshaw at halftime said he will get the feeling back in his elbow. He doesn't have it now, so you know, I'm left to believe that he just couldn't. I don't know, I mean, I have no idea. It's just odd down twenty one seven that they were still handing the ball off, like I would rather see McCaffrey or Deebo Samuel just throwing the football. At least that's fun. This was just not well, I don't think they're thinking about fun. Oh okay, Well, if handing the ball off, you're not getting a chance to win the game, came yeah, I mean the Niners run the ball. Well. I don't know what to say about Purty. You know, I saw Josh Allen go through a similar thing and his elbow was fine. Purdie did want to play. I mean, you wouldn't pull yourself out of a game. So my guess is he just couldn't feel. He probably Bradshaw said at half you just can't feel. You can't. There's numbness, So I mean pretty obviously would play. You don't prep all with this the biggest moment of his life. We'll save our longer takes on Purty for the future. Next up, big news is the Cowboys dumped Kellen Moore on Sunday Today. This morning, the Chargers have zeroed in on Kellen Moore to be their next offensive coordinator. Colin what an upgrade. You know, sometimes in life you feel like in the moment. This sucks is the worst thing ever. Oh my gosh, I hate it. Twenty four hours later, Kellen Moore got an upgrade. Absolutely. Also, it wasn't that Joe Lombardi, the former offensive coordinator, didn't create offense. They were very poor post half. They didn't adjust. It was a bad adjusting offense. So Frank Reich got, I think poorly fired, and Carolina benefited, and Kellen Moore shouldn't have been fired, and now the Chargers benefit. Sometimes it's rare, but good people get let go all the time, and your job is to find him. If you look at the numbers under Kellen Moore, and that's I mean that there's some Cooper Rush games in there. There's some Andy Dalton stuff in there. Colin pretty good to me. These Cowboys fans are They're like, oh, we can't do anything in the playoffs. You faced the Niners twice. Elite defense. Did you see what the Niners did to the Eagles yesterday? I know the Eagles one thirty one seven, they didn't really had two hundred and seventy yards of offense. I know this under defense is elite. Yeah, this bagging on Kellen Moore like he was the problem. Good Luck Dallas final story Colin oh Well, spicy. So Jim Harbaugh earlier this month said he's staying in Michigan. Remember that. Yeah, well there was a report that the Broncos. Broncos never stopped their pursuit of him, with team owner Greg Penner flying to Ann Arbor last week to meet with Harbaugh in person. Now no offer was made, but you have to wonder if Denver now realizes boy looks like Dan Quinn staying in Dallas, Damiko Ryan sounds like he's headed towards Houston. Sean Payton, who maybe we'll talk about it doesn't sound like he's going to Denver. And now you've you got nothing and they maybe you're trying to hail Mary to Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, I think the two things that worry everybody are no cat flexibility for years, potentially the GM now doesn't really have any power, and you have a quarterback situation that your land locked into and nobody's quite sure how to change it. So I said this a while back, Peyton, Sean Payton's always been the best candidate Harbaugh's career act. He matches up perfectly with this team. You can make an argument that hardball would be a better fit for Denver. His history is building up offensive lines and mobile quarterbacks. That's his history. Andrew Luck, Colin Kaepernick, Alex Smith. If you look at what Jim's done, he goes into Michigan and he makes them a power run team eventually, That's kind of what he does. And I think that's how you escape this Russell Wilson contract. Defense a little bit like Tennessee. Look like Tennessee. Tennessee was a number one seed last year in the FC. So hardball his history, his resume is this kind of is what he does. People forget how bad the Niners were, how hopeless they looked, and he turned them around the first year. Aren't people missing this? Like Denver has a lot of talent coming. This dude was double digit projection for wins. Even if they go nine and eight next year. Let's say go the hardball goes there, they go nine and eight and miss the playoffs, Well, they're not touching hardball, they're not dumping Russ. The GM will get fired. That's your move. So I think Denver is an undervalued job right now. And hey, how about this. We love the draft? Why don't you go take a chance in the fourth round on Stetmill, not Stetson Benett right now, But you know, pick a guy a Max Duggan. Yeah, in the event that, hey, it's not working with Russ, we cut loose, take the dead cap hit, and we got a cheap quarterback generally center generally. So a year ago, if I would have told you take away this year for Denver, the minute Russell Wilson arrives, I would have told you, Hey, the Bronco coach Hackett won't work, would you want the job? You would say, yeah, I get Russell Wilson in that defense. So you have to be careful of not completely overreacting to what appeared to be a head coach who was completely over as skis. So I will say this, Russell played a little better down the stretch in the last couple of games. Did they sort of the further Hackett got away? Did Russell kind of go back to Russell moving more? But to your point, this is not the Texans. There are are Pro bowlers, the receivers, the secondary, the linebackers, like there's real player left tackles go. They have a star running back, the star's safety. They that Houston's a better job than Denver, Colin. I mean, Houston, you're not sniffing the playoffs for at least two years, right, You're not better than Jacksonville in that division. No, you have no quarterback. I couldn't tell you that. Like the top five players on the Houston Texans right now, I mean could you. I can't name a defender who's an impact guy. Stanley wasn't even good. I'm surprised tomko Ryan's if he does pick Houston, would go Houston over Denver. Agree Jamack with the News, Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News. I do think off what j Max said. The San Francisco forty nine ers situation is really really interesting. So you have this roster with very physical players, Christian McCaffrey, deebo Kittle. They're not gonna last forever. They're just not the way they play. They if I said, any of those guys in two years have retired have moved on, are not the same player. Trent Williams left tackle up there in age. They've got some great players, but the physicality means you may have like a year and a half window a two year window. Now Philadelphia's window appears longer, and even they have some age on the old line in D line. But the San Francisco team, which has battled injuries for the last two or three years, I figured, if Pretty played well, even if he lost against Philly, I think I said last week, if he plays well twenty seven, twenty four. But I was sitting there thinking to myself, Mahomes is running around on one leg. Josh Allen's getting you know what kicked out of him, so is Joe Burrow, and their playing and Pretty something hits his elbow, He's out. And I thought to myself, I could see the Niners saying, Trey Lance, Garoppolo, Purty, Josh Johnson. Are they sitting flying back from Philadelphia saying we just need a guy that doesn't get hurt, and Brady texting him and saying, guys, I'll take a small salary, let's go. I can see having that discussion, and you could say to yourself, well, Colin, it was I mean, it's kumstance, it's I know, absolutely, but size is an ideal for Purdy. He's a gamer, he's twitchy, he's athletic, he's competitive, but it's it's a really They're in a really fascinating situation as a franchise where a lot of their key players you may have a year to two years in this window to hit it, and I am fascinated to see what they do, not like the Jets. The Jets almost all their players are good or young. You got you got a broad window. If you can get a quarterback, you can take some time. You can't be too patient with this organization. That's why I would tray Lance. You know, there were there was consternation and issues in the camp. It's like he's just not good enough to win now, and we got to win now. And so you know, as I watch pretty, you know, his elbow gets hit and he's like, I can't play, and I'm thinking, I've seen Josh Allen get knocked blank over tea kettle and stay in size matters in this sport. Some of the smaller quarterbacks get banged up. I don't know what they're gonna do with Purtty. I don't know what they're gonna do. But I could see Brady. I didn't last week. I thought, you're not going to move that far away from your kids. That doesn't make any sense. But I'm sitting there watching that game, and Brady is watching all those players and saying, hey, man, I will play for almost nothing. And I could see I could see Kyle looking at that text talking to John Lynch, and it's like, dude, can you just give me a guy? Can you just give me a guy that can play? The Other thing about Purties lightning in a bottle run is we have to be totally honest about this. He beat two last place teams. He beat the Raiders with Jarrett Stidham. His division went into the tank when he finally played a really good defense Dallas. He's pretty average with all those weapons Philadelphia. I don't know how he would have played, but they weren't moving the ball much, so, you know, I think this is one of the things about sports is to have these moments. I've said this, Jalen Hurts gets banged up, Kyler gets banged up. Suddenly there GM Lamar has hurt their gyms around the league because of those injuries. Thinking, we've gotta be careful about mobile quarterbacks. Circumstances change everything. The brock Purty situation is fastening. Did you get lucky and hit lightning in a bottle. You just got lucky. Never forget that the magical run isn't necessarily the magical quarterback. Nick Foles was a magical run. Where was he the next year he was on the bench. You can't you can't fall in love with I mean, you played a bunch of bad teams, your division went into the tank. If what if the Rams in Seattle next year are really good and Brock Purdy doesn't feel like an automatic w with this roster, So I think it's fascinating. I don't know where they're going, but watching him sit it out and watching them hiking the ball to Christian McCaffrey, I can see Kyle Shanahan sitting down with John Lynch over an ice tea at lunch saying, just get me a seventeen game starter. Get me a guy who's six three who's accurate. It could be Derek Carr, however big he is. It could be Brady, but it's a They were the most fascinating team in the league. They may well be the most fascinating team in the league next year because this roster, the two rosters in the league that don't even look like everybody else Eagles, Niners, they don't even look like other teams. I mean, Philadelphia is better than Kansas City and virtually every every unit. I mean, I love the chief sould line. Phillies is better. I just looked at the Niners roster Colin. They have two guys on the entire defense who are impact players, who are over thirty. This is a young defense with a lot of upside. And to push their offensive guys McCaffrey, Kittle and Deebo. Those guys get dinged up a lot. They do they do to push back. McCaffrey joined the team midseason. Brock Purty was a seventh round rookie, So you could say, listen, we're just scratching the surface with these two guys in the offense. Next year they could be a lot better. Who needs Tom Brady. I'm saying, go ahead and get me a offensive lineman to maybe block us Reddick. Okay, right, no, no, no, that was my gut feeling. But I do think you can make the argument that Shanahan is just over it. How many years can Shanahan sit there and not have a healthy quarterback. You gonna be the most patient guy with your kids, But after the third kid screws up doing you know what I mean, Like, at some point we've all got limits. Is Kyle Shanahan flying back from Philly. He's hit his limit on plucky overachievers who can't stay healthy. I'm just it's a it's a it's a thought balloon, but it is something. Yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific. Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right into the NBA grape fight, all happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the new NBA podcast with me Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein, join us as we team up to expound on everything we're covering, hearing, and chasing. Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Sunday, buckle up because one of NASCAR's most thrilling events is returning to the LA Coliseum Under the Lights NASCAR's Bush Light Class at the Coliseum Sunday at eight pm Eastern, five pm Pacific, only on Fox. All Right, I got two takes in the NBA. Great game Saturday Night Lakers Celtics was absolutely phenomenal television, and the Celtics won in overtime, and there was a play at the end of the game. People freaked out. Now is officiating worse? Well, First of all, the cameras are better than ever, so we now see the bad calls in SloMo at a granular level. Secondly, in the NBA, it's a global game. The athletes have never been longer, faster. The game's going a thousand miles an hour. I don't think officials suddenly got bad. I think it's a harder game to officiate. And Lebron, like Shack, is fouled on almost every play. He's impossible even in year twenty to stay in front of. But they don't call a foul on all those plays, nor should they, Otherwise everybody would foul out and the game would take six hours. Everybody watching this show or listening goes over the speed limit. You may notice it's called speed limit limit, yet you go over it every day, and so do I, and cops don't pull you over. Why the same reasoning fluidity of traffic. You don't want to be driving to work in Chicago New York, LA, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, Denver, big cities, and the commute is three hours because cops have pulled everybody over. You allow for some speeding if the flow of traffic is good and safe, you don't want to foul everybody out. Shack was impossible to defend. Lebron is fouled on virtually every play, but for fluidity and quality of broadcast, you don't call all of them. Now, was that a miscall? Yes? Should it be reviewable yes? And it isn't. That's zany and frustrating, But I will say this. The Lakers are one and three against the Clippers and one and three against Sacramento. The Lakers have lost to the Pacers. The Lakers have lost to the Hornets. One of the reasons that Lebron has been complaining all year about officiating is because the team is so beholden to Lebron Late to get fouled. Because even as good as they've played against Milwaukee and Boston in one offs, they still need more shooters, more people to help Lebron. The team is overwhelmingly dependent on Lebron Late, and therefore he's got the ball in his hands and Lebron wants every call. And just like the speed limit, not everybody's getting pulled over. Not every time Lebron's fouled, it's getting called. That's the way sports work. Never forget who pays all the salaries. It's not you, it's the TV networks. They're paying for everything. Now. They want the games to move. They want the games to be under two and a half hours. They get slow as it is with replays constantly in the NBA, the last two minutes can last twenty five minutes. It's tedious. So the Lakers had twelve turnovers, they win the game. If they had eight, the game went to overtime. Make more shots. They still need to make a deal at the trade deadline. I hope they do. It's hard to sell prospects and draft picks in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas. People have things to do. They don't care about the future. They're taking their family to a game tomorrow. It costs six hundred bucks. They want a team. Now here's Lebron. After the loss in Boston. I mean, you guys seen some of the games that we've lost this year with late game miscalls. We had an opportunity to literally, you know, win the game. I don't understand what we're doing. And I watched basketball every single day. I watch these games every single day, and I don't see it happening to nobody else. Is just this is weird. The other story that's interesting this weekend is there's a lot of stuff surfacing now on Aaron. Rodgers and the Packers, from legitimate reporters are templating a trade. We've been on this. We think it's the time to rip the band aid off. It's not a shot at Aaron. We think Green Bay I do is uniquely ready to move off him if they can get a one number one pick this year and a two next year. They don't have a lot of holes in their roster. They need another tight end, they need another receiver. They could use an edge Rosher. Packers have a really good top eight nine roster in the NFL. They're really, really good. It is interesting, though, you know Aaron at some point, because Aaron has already talked so much about retiring that Aaron has to be sent somewhere where he's all in, And if he's not, why would you make the move. I'm not giving up two three, first round picks for Aaron Rodgers if he doesn't want to be here. There's a lot of talk about the Jets. I still it's a weird situation. The Jets have a lot of young players and a defensive coach who's not really proven, whereas Nashville the Titans Tennessee has a veteran coach who's proven and a lot of older players, and a run game and a defense which Aaron has had very few great defenses in his career. That one both AFC. That one feels more like the perfect landing spot for him. I still think you know Aaron going playing with young Jets players. He's got young Packer players. And by the way, the Packers on line is significantly better than the Jet Zoe line. The Packers on line is significantly better than the Titans on line. If I'm a quarterback and I'm getting thirty nine years old, do I get protection? What was the first thing Brady wanted? Get me gronk and get me a right tackle, like I want to be protected, Brady? This year, offensive line injuries, not much of a run game not as effective. So the eron thing is interesting. But in the bigger picture, we don't know where he's gonna go. I don't have any insight on this. But the more interesting thing is the fact that it's getting out is telling you. In my opinion, the Packers are letting it out to soften the market. So when it happened, people don't freak out. The Packers are letting it out slowly, somebody in the organization or an agent somewhere to soften the market up get ready. People talk about it. It doesn't shock anybody. I think it's time to rip the band aid off. I do not think it's a shot at Aaron wherever he goes. I just think Green Bay in that division, Minnesota's not going eleven and oh in one score games, they're not. Chicago is still Chicago, and Detroit was a great story, but they missed the playoffs in the NFC for a reason. They weren't a great team. So I think it's time. I think we're close. I know you're a Jets fan. I have no insight where he's gonna go, But I've said this for years. Why does stories get out? It's not what gets out? Why did they get out? This is getting out because somebody wants it out. Didn't we have this last year right around this time with the Denver Broncos after they hired a Hackett. I remember Mark Schleres went on the radio in Denver and was like, yeah, is Aaron Rodgers things real? This is probably gonna happen, And everybody reported Aaron Rodgers Denver and I never materialize. I don't see it happening. Why on earth would the Jets do this? I know Woody Johnson loves stars. He's the one. If next time we have man GINI on, you can ask how badly Woody Johnson demanded Brett Farve because you want to start a cell tickets in New York and when the back page, because Woody Johnson does that nineteen nineties crap where he plays to the media. That doesn't work when you're building a football team. Yeah, I would think if you were Aaron thirty nine years old, had a couple of surgeries close to retirement Wooden, offensive line and coaching matter just a little bit. Yeah to me, Vrabel's more proven. Both old lines are bad Jets Titans, but I have a proven home run hitter running back. I don't know. When I look at the whole situation, Green Bay does one thing I was talking to somebody yesterday. The Steelers draft and developed wide receivers as well as any buddy in the sport. They've been doing it for twenty years. The Packers draft and develop offensive linemen. They don't take old linemen in the first round. They've always got a great old line. The grass is not always greener. You get really good protection, a starback, emerging star receivers. How about this from a content perspective, Aaron Rodgers versus the New York media five days a week would be fun. It would be great for the show. Right, Oh yeah, I mean we root for tire fires and we route my jets. Would be we root for drama alright, hour or two. Colin right, Colin wrong, next,

Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and f S one. One hour from now, Where Colin was right? Where Colin was wrong? Sean Payton stops by for thirty minutes live in studio. Next hour, j Mac alongside Today as usual. Well that was a weekend. Um Man. Mahomes is different, pretty good quarterback right. At one point in the fourth quarter, one of the key targets because of injuries was Marcus Kemp, who's got more career tackles than catchings. When anybody complains about their quarterback, well he needs this and he needs that. Just look at Patrick Mahomes yesterday on a bum wheel making all the big plays. Just such a clutch quarterback. I like your Mahomes take to start the show. So let's start with this. I've been a sportscaster for over thirty years, and I don't remember in thirty years a team losing a close playoff game and not blaming the refs. Oh boy, So Kansas City's better than Cincinnati, and I thought Cincinnati would win. But Kansas City's quarterback played better than the other team. Kansas City dominated the first half, Kansas City made fewer mistakes, Kansas City protected their quarterback better than Cincinnati did. In ninety nine point nine percent of the time, the team that does those four or five things wins the game. Mahomes is different. He played on one leg, had no run support, was missing at one point three of his top wide receivers, and put up a line that is you know, I'm a Homesian line that's now his league average. A couple of TDS, passer rating at one five, completion percentage sixty seven percent. The great ones overcome, and both those quarterbacks are great, but one is greater. Five years, five AFC championships, all at home, MVPs trophies. He didn't have him stacked like Brady, but Bill Russell won almost twice as many titles as MJ and was a better defensive player, in fact, maybe the greatest of all time. We didn't wait to call MJ the goat. What are we waiting for? His instincts faster, better than Brady, He moves better than Brady, armed better than Brady, winning more early over Brady, not relying on defense like Brady. It's the best quarterback I've ever seen. You can blame the refs, but the Chiefs had more yards, more first downs, were better on third down, more yards per play, fewer turnovers, dominate time of possession, and their quarterback had two touchdowns, no picks, and Joe Burrow had two picks, one really really bad. And I love Joe Burrow. It wasn't the refs. Keep blaming them. You've got to get better. Everybody does in the world. By the way, pain tolerance is also a skill. He's a plus plus at that wincing more than once running around. I had said last week, I think we're overstating the injury. I've seen Mahomes playing a high ankle sprain a couple of years ago and he had four hundred forty yards. Now it was the Raiders, but it was still something to see. Every other quarterback had something they worked around. Brady's not very physically mobile, Manning could get rigid. Fard made too many mistakes. Maybe Montana wasn't big enough. Mahomes checks every box and his instincts are bizarre. His ability to see an open player and get the ball out of his hands quickly. Marino was close, but Dan's not this. I've literally never seen a quarterback without a hole. Every couple of years he goes off the reservation a bit with his mechanics and Andy has to reel him back in. But with no run game. Every quarterback's good with a lead. Every quarterback's great with a run game. Every quarterback's great with time. Mahomes went sixty seven percent one hundred five point four passer rating, two tds, no picks, three twenty six, throwing the backups, throwing the guys in the fourth quarter who have more career tackles than catches. In those numbers I just gave you, there is per game average. He doesn't dip in the playoffs when sky More and Bengal fans don't want to talk about this return that punt at the end of the game. For twenty seven yards to midfield. I literally thought, OK, it's over. I'm go par cocktail. I never feel like that with any other player on the planet. Game's over. By the way, that return you're watching now got about twice as many yards as the late hit penalty, which Bengal fans apparently have amnesia on the punt return. But the ability of Mahomes is like nothing I've ever seen, and it creates great clarity. You're complaining in New York that Daniel Jones doesn't have this, or your quarterback doesn't have that. No run game one leg facing a great defense using backups. That Bengals defense is as good as any in the league in the fourth quarter. By the way, Burrow had two fourth quarter drives a picking a punt, and I love Burrow, but what you're watching here is different. It is just different. And when you can juxtapos and put him side by side, you see the difference. And Mahomes, seriously, I think he's getting better. I honestly think he's getting better. I don't know how it's possible. But Andy Reid obviously one of the smartest offensive guys ever. When he talks about him after games, he just smiles. Our players, our team coaches were all lucky to have him in that position, in the mindset, that whole mindset, so it carries over to everybody. For Pat to do what he did and then to have that run at the end. I can't say enough. He is the MVP of my eyes. Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback talent I've ever seen. And I don't know why I gotta keep waiting. He's not probably going to get this trophy or that trophy or this or that. If we're just talking about stacking things, then Michael Jordan's not the best basketball player ever. You have to contextualize stuff. But when I watch Mahomes play, arm, instincts, mobility, pain, tolerance, intelligence, I've never seen anything like it, never seen anything like it. I don't want to hear about your crappy quarterbacks, average oeline. I don't want to hear about your crappier average quarterbacks, lacker receivers. Who was he throwing to yesterday? Guys that Aaron Rodgers couldn't make viable? He makes viable in NAVC Championship. Gabe absolutely an insane talent and we're lucky to have him. And he's also a great guy and a great teammate. All right, now to the next game. You know, i'd set you know, circumstances change opinions, and like Tom Brady with his kids in Florida playing for the Niners, I'm thinking to myself, I just said, that's just a lot, even though his parents are there. But I'm sitting watching that game and I'm thinking, Kyle Shanahan went through Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoolo brock Purty, Josh Johnson, and they're hiking a ball to Christian McCaffrey, and I'm thinking to myself, I could see Brady texting him saying, you know, I don't get hurt, and the Niners going. Debo's getting older, McCaffrey's taking hits, Trent Williams getting older, Kittle's taken hits. These guys aren't gonna last forever. I could see the Niners after this weekend going. Brock Purty is a little small, he is a seventh rounder. Maybe we got to go big because the Niners are loaded. But Philadelphia is a remarkable story. You know, I lived out East for about ten years and out west. If we want a new building, we blow stuff up. We don't have a lot of old churches. We don't care much about that. For an old Eastern city that's proud of its tradition, you really got to hand it to Philadelphia. Multiple quarterbacks, multiple coaches, second super Bowl in seven years, four different coaches in twenty three years, three or four have been to the Super Bowl, all winning records, have all gotten to the playoffs. I really appreciate the way Philadelphia is willing to evolve. I don't even like all the moves. I thought Sarianni was a week higher. I couldn't understand firing Doug Peterson, moving off Carson Wentz. But for an old, established Eastern city which has great pride in tradition, they will change direction in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat, they're Amazon. You think they're one thing, the many you do, they're another. It's remarkable. It is a completely stacked roster. And what's remarkable is their two playoff games were blowouts. And Jalen Hurts is not right. That dude needs to get healthy. He had no touch on deep balls. His stuff underneath was short. I don't know if Jalen Hurts his seventy percent. You know, we talked about Mahomes injury. I think Jalen Hurts is really hurt. I don't think he's right at all. But this roster may be gifted enough. It's got much more depth of talent. In Kansas City. You could argue almost every unit Philadelphia is deeper and more talented. It may be close in some, but they may be deeper and more talented in every single unit. It's really what I love about Philadelphia is what has confused me about Philadelphia. When I lived out East, people were in the prep schools and tradition and churches, and sometimes I look at it and think, you know, it's why are you so beholden to tradition? It is hard to move off at Grandpa went to this church, Dad went to this church. You go to this church. Your kids will go to this church. You went to this summer camp. Your dad went to this summer camp. The East is very much about tradition. And then there's Philadelphia and they're like, yeah, yeah, we coach was great. We want to want to Super Bowl with Nick Foles. We gotta move off that coach. What we'll gotta move off Andy Reid, What we'll gotta move up? Even Chip Kelly out a winning record, and here they are. Nick Seriani is pumped to be going to the super Bowl. It's something you dream about your whole life. And uh, like I said to the guys, whether you we've all been dreaming about it, whether you were dreaming about it when you were two, ten, fourteen, eighteen, or when you got in the NFL, this is something we all dream about and we get to do it because you know, we did it better than anybody else in the NFC this year. Different coaches, different quarterbacks, disagree with a lot of the moves, and here they are, two blowout playoff wins. People say, well, they had one of the easiest routes of all time. Potentialite. I remember when USC was dominating college football. The Pac twelfth had never been worse. They were still better than everybody, still better than everybody. Just because you have an easier route doesn't mean you're not the best team. And the Eagles are absolutely stacked. And it's because they've taken chance after chance. They've moved off winning coaches and winning quarterbacks. It's something to behold. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app Welcome Back. So there was a lot of arguing Laker, Celtics, Friday, Niners, Eagles early, Chiefs, Bengals late. There was a lot of complaining about officiating. Adrian Amos was on Twitter saying, not saying it's a terrible call because he was out, but I just don't like it. You think running full speed, no one, he's had a bounds. It's not easy. No, it's not easy. It's not Joseph Asia. I feel bad for him. It's not easy. But the you can't call that crowd is silly. First of all, regardless of clock, an official has to call what he sees. That was by definition a late hit pushing a quarterback into a bench. The Bengals player after the game was crying saying I've got to be better. He wasn't saying the ref had to be better. All players and refs outside of Mahomes could be better. There are moments for situational officiating. One of them is a hail Mary pass. I've said this for years. They don't call pass interference on hail Mary's. Otherwise people would do it all the time because you would get like a forty and a fifty yard penalty, but by definition, that is a late hit, pushing the best quarterback in the universe into a bench on a bad leg. It's twenty twenty three. You got to know the temperature in the room. You don't do it in that moment. What's interesting was almost double the yards for that penalty was created by sky More on a punt return. Nobody's talking about that this morning. Why did the Bengals punt it to the middle of the field. What are you doing? Twenty seven yards got it to midfield and at that moment all of us went, oh, game over. Let me ask a Bengal fan a little nervous when he got to the fifty with Mahomes in forty one seconds left, you should be he took the ball down the field in thirteen against Buffalo, that was the game, by the way, we could go moments earlier, previous drive. Why did Cincinnati call a time out on second and eight that gave the Chiefs more time late in the game. It is easy to blame the officials in the Lakers Celtics game, go ahead, blame the refs. It was a bad call, but the Lakers had twelve turnovers nine they win the game. Westbrook himself had five. What was he doing in there? Late Niners? Yeah? I didn't like that DeVante Smith no catch, but the Niners coaches didn't ask for a review, didn't challenge it. All right, that's your job. And in this instance, why are you punting to the middle of the field and sky more, why did you call a time out on second and night. You don't have to love the call, but a referee almost always is gonna call what he sees. He's not supposed to categorize them well. And I was a play about six minutes ago that wasn't called. Let me think about that. You call what you see. It's twenty twenty three pushing a quarterback into a bench. Of course it's a flag. Here's the coach and the player after. I gotta learn from experience, and I got to know to get close to that quarterback, the news close to that silent if there's anything that could possibly cause the penalty in the dire situation like that, I got to do better understanding. It's never one play, but obviously the late hit put them in field goal range. Again, when you're trying to communicate things to players, especially once involved in that play, How do you do it? We're not gonna make it about one play. You know, there's plenty of plays that we left on the field today that could have put us into better position. Fans want perfect officials, you don't have perfect coaches. I didn't like Cincinnati's time out. I didn't like the coaching decision to punt the ball to sky More in the middle of the field. There's a lot of things that didn't go Cincinnati's way, But the general rule is if there's two quarterbacks and the home quarterback plays better than the road quarterback dominates the first half, gets better protection, he'll win. In Kansas City, did J Mack with the news? No, No, this is the herd Line News. Hello Colin, Hello Jay Ma, are you doing after the ski injury? Going to bring that up? One ar row five? I'm you know what, I'm gonna start playing um crossword puzzles, backgammon ball, yeah, pickle ball. Yeah. I gotta stop going down hills forty miles an hour. That's not great. Try to tell you you did move on to the Niners. Colin tough hand against the Eagles when Brock Purty got hurt. I was. I was kind of upset with this. This entire game, the first quarter game was kind of ruined. You know, listen he had to go back in. Purdy did after Josh John saying the fourth stringer gets knocked unconscious. Well, I don't know if he's unconscious, but can custum It was limited. Purdie couldn't throw the ball down the field. Here's George Kittle after the game talking about just a crappy quarterback situation. How's that feel to lose in ANTR Champion game because I don't have a quarterback pre be honest, I mean, losing sucks regardless. Uh you know, last year, I mean to fight to just get into the playoffs, upsets and teams, and this year, you know, we had all the momentum, played well in the first round, played well in the second round, and uh, I mean you didn't really get to see all the forty nine football that we wanted to put out there on tape. But you know, life kind of just punches in the face sometimes and it is what it is. I don't want to go on a referee. Rant I saved that for the podcast. I will say this, Colin every play is reviewable. Okay. In Bengals verse, Patrick Mahomes knee went down as he was unloading and the rest did not initially notice it. Bengals try to challenge the rest were like, no, no, no, we're gonna look at it. Okay, his knee was down, you know, sack the rests. Every play is reviewable. Why didn't they do the same thing with the DeVante Smith fourth down catch, which very clearly was not a catch. Why did the rests let that slide? Well, first of all, I initially thought it was a catch, and I think the officials did too. Secondly, or the fluidity of a game. Referees in the NBA don't call a fowl on Lebron every time down the floor they could, nor do you want to review everything. So what you're trying to do, and it's a balance, You're trying to keep the flow of the game up, keep it to three and a half hours, make it a good product, and make all the big calls you can. I was shocked, and usually I'm pretty good at guessing catch no catch. I was shocked it wasn't a catch. The Niners thought it was a catch apparently, and give the Eagles credit they flew back to the line and got a playoff. Javonte Smith did this sign to the bench, which they quickly knew let's go. But you gotta Shah and his crew not seen well again. We've gotta give credit to well run organizations. Philadelphia quickly got to the line and the Niners, in the frenzy of it, like the rest of us, thought as a hell of a catch. And I bring this up because you know, they let it slide. They get a touchdown and six plays later, Purdy's elbow gets wrecked and at that point you instantly had to live bet the Eagles. You knew it was over. I texted you about this. I'm like Purty's elbow, forget this game now, I know. Josh Johnson handed off a bunch and McCaffrey had a great test. It's one of those games you wish you could just kind of press the reset button, you know on the Nintendo's just started over because it was it was garbage. There was you're probably you may remember this, but we went through about a decade long run and it may have been shorter longer where the Super Bowls were awful. It was just like Dallas, Buffalo blow up, blow blow. We went through a long run of dreadful Super Bowls. We've been very lucky. Most of the last ten have been exhilarating, have been fantastic. Many of the Brady Super Bowls outside the Rams game our last play of the game, last series of the game. So generally speaking, the big games deliver something. I mean, I thought most of the playoff game. Obviously Eagles blew out a Giant's team. But I mean, I feel like the NFL generally the games live up to what you think they will be, and this is just one of those. In injuries derail, yeah, I do. We talked about Mahomes as a warrior, right, I mean, out there cutting it out on one leg, just tough and great. Was it a little disappointing to see Purty in the game handing off and throwing screen passes but not even trying to throw downfield? Well, Terry Bradshaw at halftime said he will get the feeling back in his elbow. He doesn't have it now, so you know, I'm left to believe that he just couldn't. I don't know, I mean, I have no idea. It's just odd down twenty one seven that they were still handing the ball off, like I would rather see McCaffrey or Deebo Samuel just throwing the football. At least that's fun. This was just not well, I don't think they're thinking about fun. Oh okay, Well, if handing the ball off, you're not getting a chance to win the game, came yeah, I mean the Niners run the ball. Well. I don't know what to say about Purty. You know, I saw Josh Allen go through a similar thing and his elbow was fine. Purdie did want to play. I mean, you wouldn't pull yourself out of a game. So my guess is he just couldn't feel. He probably Bradshaw said at half you just can't feel. You can't. There's numbness, So I mean pretty obviously would play. You don't prep all with this the biggest moment of his life. We'll save our longer takes on Purty for the future. Next up, big news is the Cowboys dumped Kellen Moore on Sunday Today. This morning, the Chargers have zeroed in on Kellen Moore to be their next offensive coordinator. Colin what an upgrade. You know, sometimes in life you feel like in the moment. This sucks is the worst thing ever. Oh my gosh, I hate it. Twenty four hours later, Kellen Moore got an upgrade. Absolutely. Also, it wasn't that Joe Lombardi, the former offensive coordinator, didn't create offense. They were very poor post half. They didn't adjust. It was a bad adjusting offense. So Frank Reich got, I think poorly fired, and Carolina benefited, and Kellen Moore shouldn't have been fired, and now the Chargers benefit. Sometimes it's rare, but good people get let go all the time, and your job is to find him. If you look at the numbers under Kellen Moore, and that's I mean that there's some Cooper Rush games in there. There's some Andy Dalton stuff in there. Colin pretty good to me. These Cowboys fans are They're like, oh, we can't do anything in the playoffs. You faced the Niners twice. Elite defense. Did you see what the Niners did to the Eagles yesterday? I know the Eagles one thirty one seven, they didn't really had two hundred and seventy yards of offense. I know this under defense is elite. Yeah, this bagging on Kellen Moore like he was the problem. Good Luck Dallas final story Colin oh Well, spicy. So Jim Harbaugh earlier this month said he's staying in Michigan. Remember that. Yeah, well there was a report that the Broncos. Broncos never stopped their pursuit of him, with team owner Greg Penner flying to Ann Arbor last week to meet with Harbaugh in person. Now no offer was made, but you have to wonder if Denver now realizes boy looks like Dan Quinn staying in Dallas, Damiko Ryan sounds like he's headed towards Houston. Sean Payton, who maybe we'll talk about it doesn't sound like he's going to Denver. And now you've you got nothing and they maybe you're trying to hail Mary to Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, I think the two things that worry everybody are no cat flexibility for years, potentially the GM now doesn't really have any power, and you have a quarterback situation that your land locked into and nobody's quite sure how to change it. So I said this a while back, Peyton, Sean Payton's always been the best candidate Harbaugh's career act. He matches up perfectly with this team. You can make an argument that hardball would be a better fit for Denver. His history is building up offensive lines and mobile quarterbacks. That's his history. Andrew Luck, Colin Kaepernick, Alex Smith. If you look at what Jim's done, he goes into Michigan and he makes them a power run team eventually, That's kind of what he does. And I think that's how you escape this Russell Wilson contract. Defense a little bit like Tennessee. Look like Tennessee. Tennessee was a number one seed last year in the FC. So hardball his history, his resume is this kind of is what he does. People forget how bad the Niners were, how hopeless they looked, and he turned them around the first year. Aren't people missing this? Like Denver has a lot of talent coming. This dude was double digit projection for wins. Even if they go nine and eight next year. Let's say go the hardball goes there, they go nine and eight and miss the playoffs, Well, they're not touching hardball, they're not dumping Russ. The GM will get fired. That's your move. So I think Denver is an undervalued job right now. And hey, how about this. We love the draft? Why don't you go take a chance in the fourth round on Stetmill, not Stetson Benett right now, But you know, pick a guy a Max Duggan. Yeah, in the event that, hey, it's not working with Russ, we cut loose, take the dead cap hit, and we got a cheap quarterback generally center generally. So a year ago, if I would have told you take away this year for Denver, the minute Russell Wilson arrives, I would have told you, Hey, the Bronco coach Hackett won't work, would you want the job? You would say, yeah, I get Russell Wilson in that defense. So you have to be careful of not completely overreacting to what appeared to be a head coach who was completely over as skis. So I will say this, Russell played a little better down the stretch in the last couple of games. Did they sort of the further Hackett got away? Did Russell kind of go back to Russell moving more? But to your point, this is not the Texans. There are are Pro bowlers, the receivers, the secondary, the linebackers, like there's real player left tackles go. They have a star running back, the star's safety. They that Houston's a better job than Denver, Colin. I mean, Houston, you're not sniffing the playoffs for at least two years, right, You're not better than Jacksonville in that division. No, you have no quarterback. I couldn't tell you that. Like the top five players on the Houston Texans right now, I mean could you. I can't name a defender who's an impact guy. Stanley wasn't even good. I'm surprised tomko Ryan's if he does pick Houston, would go Houston over Denver. Agree Jamack with the News, Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News. I do think off what j Max said. The San Francisco forty nine ers situation is really really interesting. So you have this roster with very physical players, Christian McCaffrey, deebo Kittle. They're not gonna last forever. They're just not the way they play. They if I said, any of those guys in two years have retired have moved on, are not the same player. Trent Williams left tackle up there in age. They've got some great players, but the physicality means you may have like a year and a half window a two year window. Now Philadelphia's window appears longer, and even they have some age on the old line in D line. But the San Francisco team, which has battled injuries for the last two or three years, I figured, if Pretty played well, even if he lost against Philly, I think I said last week, if he plays well twenty seven, twenty four. But I was sitting there thinking to myself, Mahomes is running around on one leg. Josh Allen's getting you know what kicked out of him, so is Joe Burrow, and their playing and Pretty something hits his elbow, He's out. And I thought to myself, I could see the Niners saying, Trey Lance, Garoppolo, Purty, Josh Johnson. Are they sitting flying back from Philadelphia saying we just need a guy that doesn't get hurt, and Brady texting him and saying, guys, I'll take a small salary, let's go. I can see having that discussion, and you could say to yourself, well, Colin, it was I mean, it's kumstance, it's I know, absolutely, but size is an ideal for Purdy. He's a gamer, he's twitchy, he's athletic, he's competitive, but it's it's a really They're in a really fascinating situation as a franchise where a lot of their key players you may have a year to two years in this window to hit it, and I am fascinated to see what they do, not like the Jets. The Jets almost all their players are good or young. You got you got a broad window. If you can get a quarterback, you can take some time. You can't be too patient with this organization. That's why I would tray Lance. You know, there were there was consternation and issues in the camp. It's like he's just not good enough to win now, and we got to win now. And so you know, as I watch pretty, you know, his elbow gets hit and he's like, I can't play, and I'm thinking, I've seen Josh Allen get knocked blank over tea kettle and stay in size matters in this sport. Some of the smaller quarterbacks get banged up. I don't know what they're gonna do with Purtty. I don't know what they're gonna do. But I could see Brady. I didn't last week. I thought, you're not going to move that far away from your kids. That doesn't make any sense. But I'm sitting there watching that game, and Brady is watching all those players and saying, hey, man, I will play for almost nothing. And I could see I could see Kyle looking at that text talking to John Lynch, and it's like, dude, can you just give me a guy? Can you just give me a guy that can play? The Other thing about Purties lightning in a bottle run is we have to be totally honest about this. He beat two last place teams. He beat the Raiders with Jarrett Stidham. His division went into the tank when he finally played a really good defense Dallas. He's pretty average with all those weapons Philadelphia. I don't know how he would have played, but they weren't moving the ball much, so, you know, I think this is one of the things about sports is to have these moments. I've said this, Jalen Hurts gets banged up, Kyler gets banged up. Suddenly there GM Lamar has hurt their gyms around the league because of those injuries. Thinking, we've gotta be careful about mobile quarterbacks. Circumstances change everything. The brock Purty situation is fastening. Did you get lucky and hit lightning in a bottle. You just got lucky. Never forget that the magical run isn't necessarily the magical quarterback. Nick Foles was a magical run. Where was he the next year he was on the bench. You can't you can't fall in love with I mean, you played a bunch of bad teams, your division went into the tank. If what if the Rams in Seattle next year are really good and Brock Purdy doesn't feel like an automatic w with this roster, So I think it's fascinating. I don't know where they're going, but watching him sit it out and watching them hiking the ball to Christian McCaffrey, I can see Kyle Shanahan sitting down with John Lynch over an ice tea at lunch saying, just get me a seventeen game starter. Get me a guy who's six three who's accurate. It could be Derek Carr, however big he is. It could be Brady, but it's a They were the most fascinating team in the league. They may well be the most fascinating team in the league next year because this roster, the two rosters in the league that don't even look like everybody else Eagles, Niners, they don't even look like other teams. I mean, Philadelphia is better than Kansas City and virtually every every unit. I mean, I love the chief sould line. Phillies is better. I just looked at the Niners roster Colin. They have two guys on the entire defense who are impact players, who are over thirty. This is a young defense with a lot of upside. And to push their offensive guys McCaffrey, Kittle and Deebo. Those guys get dinged up a lot. They do they do to push back. McCaffrey joined the team midseason. Brock Purty was a seventh round rookie, So you could say, listen, we're just scratching the surface with these two guys in the offense. Next year they could be a lot better. Who needs Tom Brady. I'm saying, go ahead and get me a offensive lineman to maybe block us Reddick. Okay, right, no, no, no, that was my gut feeling. But I do think you can make the argument that Shanahan is just over it. How many years can Shanahan sit there and not have a healthy quarterback. You gonna be the most patient guy with your kids, But after the third kid screws up doing you know what I mean, Like, at some point we've all got limits. Is Kyle Shanahan flying back from Philly. He's hit his limit on plucky overachievers who can't stay healthy. I'm just it's a it's a it's a thought balloon, but it is something. Yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific. Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right into the NBA grape fight, all happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the new NBA podcast with me Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein, join us as we team up to expound on everything we're covering, hearing, and chasing. Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Sunday, buckle up because one of NASCAR's most thrilling events is returning to the LA Coliseum Under the Lights NASCAR's Bush Light Class at the Coliseum Sunday at eight pm Eastern, five pm Pacific, only on Fox. All Right, I got two takes in the NBA. Great game Saturday Night Lakers Celtics was absolutely phenomenal television, and the Celtics won in overtime, and there was a play at the end of the game. People freaked out. Now is officiating worse? Well, First of all, the cameras are better than ever, so we now see the bad calls in SloMo at a granular level. Secondly, in the NBA, it's a global game. The athletes have never been longer, faster. The game's going a thousand miles an hour. I don't think officials suddenly got bad. I think it's a harder game to officiate. And Lebron, like Shack, is fouled on almost every play. He's impossible even in year twenty to stay in front of. But they don't call a foul on all those plays, nor should they, Otherwise everybody would foul out and the game would take six hours. Everybody watching this show or listening goes over the speed limit. You may notice it's called speed limit limit, yet you go over it every day, and so do I, and cops don't pull you over. Why the same reasoning fluidity of traffic. You don't want to be driving to work in Chicago New York, LA, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, Denver, big cities, and the commute is three hours because cops have pulled everybody over. You allow for some speeding if the flow of traffic is good and safe, you don't want to foul everybody out. Shack was impossible to defend. Lebron is fouled on virtually every play, but for fluidity and quality of broadcast, you don't call all of them. Now, was that a miscall? Yes? Should it be reviewable yes? And it isn't. That's zany and frustrating, But I will say this. The Lakers are one and three against the Clippers and one and three against Sacramento. The Lakers have lost to the Pacers. The Lakers have lost to the Hornets. One of the reasons that Lebron has been complaining all year about officiating is because the team is so beholden to Lebron Late to get fouled. Because even as good as they've played against Milwaukee and Boston in one offs, they still need more shooters, more people to help Lebron. The team is overwhelmingly dependent on Lebron Late, and therefore he's got the ball in his hands and Lebron wants every call. And just like the speed limit, not everybody's getting pulled over. Not every time Lebron's fouled, it's getting called. That's the way sports work. Never forget who pays all the salaries. It's not you, it's the TV networks. They're paying for everything. Now. They want the games to move. They want the games to be under two and a half hours. They get slow as it is with replays constantly in the NBA, the last two minutes can last twenty five minutes. It's tedious. So the Lakers had twelve turnovers, they win the game. If they had eight, the game went to overtime. Make more shots. They still need to make a deal at the trade deadline. I hope they do. It's hard to sell prospects and draft picks in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas. People have things to do. They don't care about the future. They're taking their family to a game tomorrow. It costs six hundred bucks. They want a team. Now here's Lebron. After the loss in Boston. I mean, you guys seen some of the games that we've lost this year with late game miscalls. We had an opportunity to literally, you know, win the game. I don't understand what we're doing. And I watched basketball every single day. I watch these games every single day, and I don't see it happening to nobody else. Is just this is weird. The other story that's interesting this weekend is there's a lot of stuff surfacing now on Aaron. Rodgers and the Packers, from legitimate reporters are templating a trade. We've been on this. We think it's the time to rip the band aid off. It's not a shot at Aaron. We think Green Bay I do is uniquely ready to move off him if they can get a one number one pick this year and a two next year. They don't have a lot of holes in their roster. They need another tight end, they need another receiver. They could use an edge Rosher. Packers have a really good top eight nine roster in the NFL. They're really, really good. It is interesting, though, you know Aaron at some point, because Aaron has already talked so much about retiring that Aaron has to be sent somewhere where he's all in, And if he's not, why would you make the move. I'm not giving up two three, first round picks for Aaron Rodgers if he doesn't want to be here. There's a lot of talk about the Jets. I still it's a weird situation. The Jets have a lot of young players and a defensive coach who's not really proven, whereas Nashville the Titans Tennessee has a veteran coach who's proven and a lot of older players, and a run game and a defense which Aaron has had very few great defenses in his career. That one both AFC. That one feels more like the perfect landing spot for him. I still think you know Aaron going playing with young Jets players. He's got young Packer players. And by the way, the Packers on line is significantly better than the Jet Zoe line. The Packers on line is significantly better than the Titans on line. If I'm a quarterback and I'm getting thirty nine years old, do I get protection? What was the first thing Brady wanted? Get me gronk and get me a right tackle, like I want to be protected, Brady? This year, offensive line injuries, not much of a run game not as effective. So the eron thing is interesting. But in the bigger picture, we don't know where he's gonna go. I don't have any insight on this. But the more interesting thing is the fact that it's getting out is telling you. In my opinion, the Packers are letting it out to soften the market. So when it happened, people don't freak out. The Packers are letting it out slowly, somebody in the organization or an agent somewhere to soften the market up get ready. People talk about it. It doesn't shock anybody. I think it's time to rip the band aid off. I do not think it's a shot at Aaron wherever he goes. I just think Green Bay in that division, Minnesota's not going eleven and oh in one score games, they're not. Chicago is still Chicago, and Detroit was a great story, but they missed the playoffs in the NFC for a reason. They weren't a great team. So I think it's time. I think we're close. I know you're a Jets fan. I have no insight where he's gonna go, But I've said this for years. Why does stories get out? It's not what gets out? Why did they get out? This is getting out because somebody wants it out. Didn't we have this last year right around this time with the Denver Broncos after they hired a Hackett. I remember Mark Schleres went on the radio in Denver and was like, yeah, is Aaron Rodgers things real? This is probably gonna happen, And everybody reported Aaron Rodgers Denver and I never materialize. I don't see it happening. Why on earth would the Jets do this? I know Woody Johnson loves stars. He's the one. If next time we have man GINI on, you can ask how badly Woody Johnson demanded Brett Farve because you want to start a cell tickets in New York and when the back page, because Woody Johnson does that nineteen nineties crap where he plays to the media. That doesn't work when you're building a football team. Yeah, I would think if you were Aaron thirty nine years old, had a couple of surgeries close to retirement Wooden, offensive line and coaching matter just a little bit. Yeah to me, Vrabel's more proven. Both old lines are bad Jets Titans, but I have a proven home run hitter running back. I don't know. When I look at the whole situation, Green Bay does one thing I was talking to somebody yesterday. The Steelers draft and developed wide receivers as well as any buddy in the sport. They've been doing it for twenty years. The Packers draft and develop offensive linemen. They don't take old linemen in the first round. They've always got a great old line. The grass is not always greener. You get really good protection, a starback, emerging star receivers. How about this from a content perspective, Aaron Rodgers versus the New York media five days a week would be fun. It would be great for the show. Right, Oh yeah, I mean we root for tire fires and we route my jets. Would be we root for drama alright, hour or two. Colin right, Colin wrong, next,