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, it's our two. We are live in Los Angeles. It's The Herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening or viewing. We're on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. Jason McIntyre joining me today on a very solemn day, Somber day, because of the current status of Damar Hamlin, who is in critical condition in a hospital. I've tried to lean on people in the medical profession. I thought Peter King brought the story of the young man who played lacrosse. This is what I've been told that sometimes you can get an irregular heart rhythm if there is acute or intense pressure or activity the wrong time and the wrong spot by the heart. And that may have happened last night kind of a freak accident. I saw some really significant collisions at the college level earlier in the day. This kind of was your typical NFL hit, but you know, strange things happen. It's a sport with regulated violence. I do want to say this is that if you think about what pro football does, tailgating, for instance, is a huge part of football. People get socially lubricated. There's beer ads everywhere, and people take great pride in it. And last night was probably as big a game in Cincinnati, Ohio that they've had in ten years, and there will probably be passed around, right. I thought the Cincinnati fans showed such class last night, biggest game of the year, biggest game in Cincinnati in years, and the stadium went silent. Nobody left. Cincinnati fans were unbelievably supportive of the Buffalo players and the Buffalo unit. Everybody players. I mean, you bring like you know, you got fifty five players, you got coaches, you got trainers. But there was a lot of emotion in that stadium. I mean, that game was the game on the schedule that you know that's a get your stuff done. Early in the day, we're watching that football game. These two could play for the AFC championship and biggest game in a long time unbelievable sports. Football is very tribal. We just love our football teams. We watch it, we bet it, we consume it, we go, we tailgate. And I thought Cincinnati fans so much class because like the rest of us, you just don't know what's happening. But tip of the cap to the people of Ohio and Cincinnati really impressed Nick Wright. First things first is joining us. You know, I was saying earlier, you're a good friend with Bemani Jones, and he said something. My thought, um, I was really smart this morning on CNN. I don't know if Bannie you're really good friends with him? And he somebody asked him on the CNN set, they said, can you can football be safe? And he said, it's like making a safe cigarette, that there are limitations to what you can do. And I do think the league is so much safer. I can remember years ago them selling takes of violent hits. They're they're changing everything. It's there's just limited, there's regulated levels of violence. Do you think this, I asked Peter King this Do you think sometime times it takes tipping points and moments and we make changes in lots of industries. Do you think this is a sit down. You know what, Let's get rid of the preseason. Let's let's not do Thursday night after the Amazon contract or do you think that's a bridge too far. I don't know. It's I don't know, because this, to me, Colin was such a singularly unique incident. Yeah, and I you said it right before I came on. This was not a crazy hit. Nobody thought anything of it as it happened. And I obviously neither one of us are medical experts, but it seems like you and I have read a lot of the same you know articles this morning, or watch the same interviews with medical experts that talk about what they think happened. Here is almost the definition of a fluke incident, just the you know, the exact wrong hit at the exact wrong time, and I don't There is the hit the I mean again, it was the I guess the T Higgins that delivered the hit. If you will, you can't play football without those types of rights happening. I I what I There's a couple of things I would like to say about it. One is it would appear that the timely nature of the first responders on the field is why this at the moment, Damar Hamlin is in critical condition and not in worse condition. I think what they did was remarkable. Yeah, I mean the the what the medical experts are saying is this young man's heart stopped and they gave him CPR and the defib relation live on the field, which is what is giving him a chance, as his family said, to fight right now. It's it's a remarkable job by them. And then I think what we saw in the aftermath was kind of the best and the worst of us societally, which is like the best of us was people were so sad and so distraught and wanted to do something that they have now given more than three million dollars to DeMar's Charity of Choice. Yes, that is the best of us. That is the hopeless. We all feel hopeless. What can we do? Let's do something And that's the best. And then when I say the worst, I feel like we have a bad tendency Colin, when something tragic happens, we want to find a boogeyman. Yeah, and sometimes it's just terrible things happen. Like the volume of people that were like the NFL wanted them to play shame on the NFL did not want them to play five minutes later. What I'm certain is true is that somewhere written on a piece of paper is hey, if there's a horrific injury, you can give the player is up to five minutes. And they were just going down the list, you know what I mean. I guess that's what we're doing. But there's there was no chance. Roger Goodell or Troy Vincent were like, yeah, get them back out there, and the players vetoed it. That didn't But people wanted someone to be mad at. They wanted to be mad at a tweet, or they wanted to be mad at the league, or Charlatan's wanted to be mad at vaccines. Because it's hard for us to reconcile that sometimes horrible things happen and there's nothing anyone could have done about it, and so I, you know, it's a hard thing to deal with and I and I think the people involved did the best they possibly could in a brutal situation. You know, I was saying this earlier, Nick is that you know, let's let's um like like a natural disaster, the president calls a governor, who calls the mayor, who calls the National Guard who talks to the men and women on the ground, and it takes a long time. There's there's miscommunication. To your point, is you're you're right. I mean, Roger Goodell's greatest fear is last night, the idea that it's easy to have seven different phone calls, and then eventually we see the Buffalo trainers coming out and wrapping up all their stuff. To your point, let's let's just be sympathetic and less judgmental. I don't think they were ever playing. I don't think there was. The football players have been an athletes, but football players in particular have been conditioned that if someone suffers a football injury, you have to compartmentalize and move on. And we have seen guys, you know, be carted off and it's good news that they have movement in their toes and the game goes on. We as fans, players, everyone acknowledges that is part of playing this game. This was so clearly different. As soon as I heard Joe Bucks say the word CPR, I felt like everyone knew, Okay, this is unprecedented territory for everyone. No one in the NFL has dealt with this, and because of that, it was. I thought it was unfortunate that folks that have previously always wanted to use you know, the NFL is a punching bag at times, said ah, look another instance they don't care about. That's not what this was. This was moment by moment, scary is situation for everyone, and I don't think there was ever a plan to have that game resumed once it was clear this young man's life was in danger. Nick Wright joining us. First things first, I suggested this this morning out of respect for the family. It's a tie. You don't replay the game. It's a tie. Whatever the seed is. The reality is I've heard this from a couple of coaches. Since technology has improved, the ability for a quarterback to hear a coach on the road home field just doesn't mean what it used to four or five years ago. And you know, if the Chiefs gets the one seed, I don't think anybody argued this is a tie. Let the chips fall where they may. Cincinnati played road games to the Super Bowl last year. My takeaway is, don't play this thing. If they meet later, that's great. What do you do, although it's obviously secondary today, what do you do with the game what do we do? What do we do with it? I think that I don't think it's something that can be decreed. I think it has to be a discussion, and I think the Bills get to take lead on it. I think that the Bills get to, you know, have the loudest voice in the room. Do you want this it obviously can't be a loss for either team? That would be an absurdity. Do you guys want it to be a tie? Or do you want to try to play it recognizing it's going to be condensed weeks going into the most important, you know, the playoff part of your season. I think you're right that I think what they will do is call this a tie, and I don't know, there is no fair way to go about this. I think that would be the fairest way if that is what Buffalo wants to do. And I yeah, I mean I don't. You're right. That is obviously not the focal point today, but that is something that the NFL is going to have to decide upon at some point and probably some point relatively soon. And I would let the Bills coaches and players have the loudest voice in that room in deciding that you know, it's interesting we both love NFL and NBA, and it's it's always been sort of understood in the NBA you need about three guys. It used to be if you had two great players you could get to a championship. It feels like the game is so global and so talented and so gifted, and there's so many great players you need three. Now it's Milwaukee may just not if Middleton's not one hundred percent, they just don't have enough good players. The NFL has changed a lot of this is analytics. The NFL doesn't have the global personnel that basketball or baseball do, especially basket or soccer. But um, what they've done is they've made the sport, for safety reasons and television reasons very offensive. And so if you don't have a great quarterback, you have no chance to win. And as I watched, and I do think the game is safer. Um, you're in a good spot as somebody from Kansas City. You have Patrick Mahomes. When when you look around this league right now, um, I always think with Mahomes and you're you're you're a fan, and you don't hide that at all. Where is Mahomes now? Because this I can argue the next three great quarterbacks in the sport, actually four are all in the AFC. Par right, when you look at your team and this team, they're just he's such a good kid. I don't know how well you know, Patrick, He's such a wonderful ambassador for the sport. What is realistic? Because I'm last night, I'm watching that game mostly because it's Burrow and Allen the quarterbacks. Yep, Well, if it's backup time, I think your point correct. I think your point. I'll get to the Chiefs in a moment. I think that that we're in a weird spot where you have all of these great young quarterbacks, but ninety percent of them are concentrated in one conference. Yeah. So you mentioned if you don't have a great quarterback, you can't win. Yeah, except for the fact that the Niners very well might be the Super Bowl favorites in the NFC to spite their quarterback. And I think that's up and down that conference, particularly with Jalen banged up. I think that the specter of the quarterbacks in the AFC are one of the reasons that a guy like Zach Wilson doesn't get even two full years is one of the reasons that you see the Raiders just say, Derek Carr, you're the thirteenth best quarterback in the league, but unfortunately that makes you the ninth best quarterback in the AFC. We gotta move on like and so I ain't that the Obviously the Chiefs, the two teams we saw last night, are positioned incredibly well. I think the Chargers and Jaguars are both potentially positioned very well. And by the way, Colin, your buddy Bryce Young is probably going to the AFC as well. Yeah, via Houston with the number one pick of the draft, And so there is if you are in the NFC, I think you might be able to patch it together with a great roster, you know what I mean, and substandard quarterback play in the AFC. I feel like if you don't have a guy that you think can be a league MVP one day, you're going to continue to be searching because there are so many guys right now that can be League MVPs one day already playing that position in that conference. First things first is the show. He is the host. It's Nick Wright on a somber day. We appreciate your insights, buddy. Thanks Colin. Thank you, They're it's lucky to have you today. Thanks brother, all right, thank you. Yeah. You know when you talk about like today is not a day we want to talk, you know a ton about what you do with the game. And it's a tie, and people can say it's unfair, But I was, I was thinking about this this morning because obviously the safety in the health of Damar Hamlin's number one, we all that goes without saying, and then over the course of the next four or five days we probably move into what do you do with that game? Is that I don't have a problem with a tie because sports are inherently unfair. If you look at college football, there's just more great high school football players in the South. They continue to dominate the sport, all right. In the NBA, there are glamor markets where players want to play and don't want to play. Okay, in baseball, there's no real salary cap. The New York Mets will have a greater payroll I think than the bottom six teams in the sport combined. All Right. You know, with that money comes expectations, and the Mets may crumble down the stretch because there's so much heat on them, and the expectations are so high. So and you know football's not always fair either. You know, Stan Cronky is very well healed and can write checks in the offseason that certain organizations or owners can't. So I don't worry too much. As long as there's basic rules. Officials in all sports, you have to follow the rules. I'm good with it, but calling it a tie and go down the tiebreakers. I think Nick's suggestion that ultimately Buffalo gets the loudest voice in the room on what to do with this game. I don't know if there's room in the schedule, but that's kind of where we're at today. I'm not going to do a highly produced Herd hierarchy today, but I will give you who I believe in order are the ten best teams in the National Football League. We do it every twenty weeks, twenty five weeks a year. We do it every Tuesday at this time. So I pushed it back a little bit today for Damar Hamlin. Here are my top ten teams I believe in the NFL right now, out of respect to winning all these close games. They're eleven in o in one possession games, which doesn't make sense. I would put the Vikings at ten. They are an atrocious defensive team. I would put the Packers ahead of them at nine. Now, green Bay obviously blew them out, but there are sundays that teams just you get blowouts. I'd put Green Bay at number nine. Do you guys want to put it up? I would put the Chargers at eight. They're getting healthy, Joey Bosa's returning, and their defense now they've got fourteen sacks in three games. J Mac was on this early. They were banged up. The last three weeks. They've gotten healthy. The Chargers are really, really talented. I'd put the Jaguars on a four game winning streak at number seven. Trevor Lawrence since week nine is the best quarterback in the NFL. That includes Joe Burrow, that includes Patrick Mahomes. They got a decent pass rush at times, and Trevor Lawrence is what we expected he would be. I would put Philadelphia at six. They're o and two without Jalen Hurts, so that shows you his importance. They run a different offense with Jalen Hurts. They're getting, though banged up on the D line, a little banged up. I believe at tight end, so I'll put them at six. Dallas is eight and two. I would put them at five. They're eight and two since Dak returned. I always feel like the Cowboys, there's a certain way they have to play. Dak has to be complimentary, the running game has to be humming, and I do question Mike McCarthy situationally in big spots, but I have them at five. The Buffalo Bills I would put at four. They make mistakes in the red zone. I've often compared them to Mike Tyson the Fighter, not much of a jab knockout power. On any given Sunday or Monday or Thursday, they can overpower the best teams in this league. Kansas City at three. They're the number one scoring offense. It does feel like they're still kind of figuring out the receiving game and the offense. Sometimes I feel like they're playing backyard football. It just happens to be televised. They're so easy offensively. San Francisco with Brock Purtious number two, they're just overpowering. I don't think anybody would disagree here. If you watch the Niners play visually, they look like the team with the most great players and Cincinnati at number one. Not only are they winning, they're great against the spread because we still don't respect them as much as we should. I think largely because they don't have a lot of big name defensive players. It is a tremendous defensive team. They're right tackle while Collins is out, but the offensive line is significantly better than it was a year or two ago. They've had the same starting offensive lineman. We're one of two teams in the first fifteen games of the season before Collins got hurt. They don't have a lot of chaos up front. That's a position group offensive line that is often riddled with injuries, and they've been mostly very healthy. So those are my top ten teams right now in the NFL in order. I think it's weird that a team would be eleven and oh in one possession games and yet I put Minnesota at ten. But in two of their biggest spots of the year, and that's what the playoffs are, their pressure ized spots, they have been absolutely unwatchably bad. Kirk Cousins has just not been able to deal with some injuries. Things have to be set up perfectly for them. So that's where we are. Now let's take a break live and La adds the Herd one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. All right, welcome back. We'll keep you updated on Damar Hamlin. In fact, here's Jason McIntyre with the news. No, no turn on the news. This is the Herdline news. So as we discussed pretty much all show in Cincinnati last night, Yeah, Buffalo Bill's safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field. Later determined that he went into cardiac arrest. The latest is that he's in critical condition at one of the top trauma centers in the country. Here's a statement from the Hamlin family on behalf of our family. We want to express the sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time. We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words, and donations from fans around the country. Your generosity and compassion means the world to us. Please keep Damar in your prayers. Who will release updates as soon as we have them, and obviously from this show, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Hamlin family. He had a I believe a toy drive that had garnered about three hundred thousand dollars in donations. It was I believe last check overmillion this morning. Many of those people obviously from Cincinnati and Buffalo. Buffalo has a very unique spot in the NFL, Green Bay and Buffalo where they're smaller markets and people are not distracted. The Bills are a huge part of Buffalo and they're not going to apologize college football vibe. Absolutely. And you know I've said this before. My wife used to be in sort of human resources built of the business, in the restaurant business, and she had to travel to Cleveland's, Pittsburgh's, a lot of those northern cities. She told me multiple times, the nicest people that she has ever met. We're from Buffalo, just a It's a remarkable city full of wonderful people, and we have Is that story breaking right now? I'm gonna I'm gonna bring this up. Tom Pella Sero, excellent reporter NFL network Roger Goodell has informed the Bills on the Bengals the game will not be resumed this week, and I was expected, Yeah, I would imagine no decision. I'm reading this live bulk. No decision yet on a later date, I still suggest, Yeah, it won't be this week. It won't be this week. I mean, there's really no way you can wedge the game in Wednesday or Thursday. We don't know what's going on with Hamlin. Yeah, so likely result is a tie and we'll just figure out everything else later. Yeah, it's secondary. Next story here. Ron Rivera and the Commanders, Now, they had a tough loss with the playoffs on the line. He made the mistake of putting in Carson Wentz for Taylor Heineke. Didn't seem to go over too well in the locker room. Wentz three picks in a twenty four ten loss to the Browns. Ron Rivera was asked yesterday if you regretted making the change at quarterback. Here's what he had to say to me. It was always about winning that that it was in our hands. I mean, we control our destiny basically, and that's the truth of the matter. Being O two and one of the last three games was probably the thing that really pushed me more than anything else. And that's what I looked at and as I said, coming off of the off of the last quarter of the forty nine er game. I was, I was relatively optimistic in terms of feeling what Carson could do. I don't know. That's a rough one for Rivera. It's going to be a tumultuous offseason in Washington. Likely. We know Dan Snyder, well, if Bibe selling a team, Yeah, big picture, they have to get somebody to engineer this offense, and currently they don't have them in the building. Yeah, when they wonder about what does Carson Wentz go from here, I don't. I don't know that there's a spot for him. He's also not cheap, so you're spending money on somebody that's just right now, He's he's I think it's over. If you're looking for a team that could get into Derek Carr sweepstakes. Washington has a very good fleet of receivers, but car has a no trade clause. Derek Carr can control where he goes. So I don't I know David Carr m David said yesterday, stability is going to be key. So you're not going to Washington, You're not going to Houston. Indianapolis feels no. Indianapolis to me was always a great job, and then in the last six months to a year it's gotten very impulsive. So Indianapolis now has kind of joined a group of teams i'd stay away from because I think the owners making all the calls, or most of them. So in the Washington I think you can write off did you say Houston? And I want to get them off. Mcnie Smith is doing some things this week, So I think the Jets ownership is sub optimal to me. But I love the GM, I like the coach. I think the roster is really close. That one feels right. Also, Derek's been you know, the Raiders are a big brand. Derek's been in big games for a long time. He's not going to be overwhelmed with New York and the media. That's you know, he's He's been around the league a long time. Yeah, well, we'll see the final story. Titans and Jags. Saturday night, they released the schedule for this week and Titans and Jaguars are in primetime. Colin a bit of a curveball here, Yeah. Mike Vrabel, coach of the Titans, who you like a lot, announced yesterday that Joshua Dobbs, who had only attempted seventeen career passes before last Thursday. He's getting to start over rookie Malik Willis. Obviously, Dobbs has been in the league for a minute. He was at Pittsburgh. Listen, the guy's thrown passes, Malik Willis. It's not completing pass Also something that has to be noted, he is a four point chemical engineer major in college. So the kid is functioning at a really high level, which is not all rattled against Dallas at all. No. I thought he looked really good. They don't have anybody to throw too. So when I heard that, I'm like, oh, well, that's who knows. This isn't an indictment of Malik Willis. He's just not ready for a win. And in player played at Liberty. This kid played in the Sea. Remember the Malik Willis game against Kansas City. I think it was Sunday night football. I don't like four passes or four completions. It was like, you know you're not going to succeed doing that. Yeah, the Jags are considerable favorites. I think it's a touchdown Joshua Dobbs Is, I'm interested to watch that. I'll just say this. The Titans rested almost everyone relevant last week against the Cowboys. They will be very fresh for this game. I don't think it's a slam dunk at the Jags win this one. It's going to be close. I don't know the Titans are winning, but it's going to be close. J Max with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herdline with the Damar Hamlin situation, critical condition in a hospital in Cincinnati. You know, I'm trying to kind of weave this through the show today as appropriately as I can. Athletes want to play, and you often have to talk them out of playing. I saw this quote this morning from Tom Brady who said it would bother him to sit out of a meaningless Week eighteen finale. This is a forty five year old quarterback with seven trophies. Here's Tom. It's always up a coach. But yeah, that would bother me. I've missed the game other than my ACL and uh yeah, and the twenty sixteen I missed the first four games, so other than that, played them all. We had Ryan Shay's ear on this show. He was terrific. About two months ago or a month ago, had to retire injured severely. It was a life altering injury similar to this, very scary kind of a gutting, difficult to watch, made you nervous. That's how I felt last night. I'm sure that's how many of you felt and I and I remember asking this question and I didn't know if I should ask it, but he was just so open, and I just asked him. You know, if you look at the injury in your career, if you could do it all over again, knowing where you're at today, would you change anything? If you could do it all over again with the knowledge you have, would you play again? I wouldn't even if I came right now, if I just I was able to stop what I was doing, I mean not stop what I was going to wake up tomorrow and it's like, hey, Ryan, you're one hundred person healthy. I will call coach Tomlin and I'm like, hey, I know I won't be able to play this week versus the Ravens, but hey, let me figure out if I can, you know, work my way back to being on a team. Not everybody thinks like you or me. There are people that I grew up in a small rural town on the coast of Washington state. None of you have heard of it. Grayland, Washington aptly named Grayland, Washington gray a lot. And there's a show, I'm not sure if it's still on the air. It's called Deadliest Catch Commercial fishing in Alaska. And a football teammate, the toughest guy in my high school, Wade Henley, middle linebacker. Great, great guy. He was on that show. And I watched that show, and I think it's terrifying. Water coming over the boat. If you get your leg caught in the rope the crab nets, you're overboard. It's over. But there's an adrenaline to it, and those guys take great pride in it. You couldn't get me on a boat like that. Oil Derek's football players UFC fires. When I was a local sportscaster, I once did a piece on a race car driver and I got in the car. Terrifying. Absolutely I should have been talked out of it. And so for Ryan Shazier to say that is that not everybody is built like me. Not everybody. There are people that run into buildings to save people during fires and shootouts, and those people are so valuable. And that's why when a player gets hurt. You can't go to the player first, you have to go to the doctors. Sometimes players have to be kind of safe from themselves. Football is a very unique sport, and sometimes I just wonder if you have to be wired a little differently to do certain adrenaline heavy jobs in America. But that Ryan Shazier moment kind of took me back. I thought about that drive at home that day. I'm like, he's just different, He's built differently. More on tomorrow, Hamlin more updates Live in La, It's the Hurd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Hey it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would meet a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show. Could hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will? A world will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more. Every week Explorer, some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Let into the fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Congratulations by the way to two Lane. They scored sixteen points in four minutes to upset USC in the Cotton Bowl. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. Brian Kelly also ten wins. They blew out Perdue. So Brian Kelly can be at times a little cringe e certainly on social media, but he can win. He wins everywhere. He's very much like Harbaugh, awkward, sometimes off putting, other times, very intense personality, kind of does it his way. But Jim Harbon, Brian Kelly win football games a lot, really fast. So LSU is just an unbelievable football program. Also, Derek Carr looks like he'll be moving. His brother David Carr defended him greatly yesterday on the NFL Network. They're very close. The Jets does feel like the good piece. Derek Carr has something that actually in the NFL very few players have. Russell Wilson had it. A no trade clause now doesn't always help the player. For instance, Russell Wilson fought for that negotiations and then went to Denver and got a coach who was really not a head coach. So you know, a no trade clause gives the player more power. And according to the story this Morning, Derek he wants teams that have stable situations. Well, let's be honest, a lot of teams with really stable situations don't need a quarterback. Kansas City's very stable right now as a football team. Buffalo is stable, and Cincinnati is, and the Philadelphia is. Many of the stable situations have quarterbacks. So what creates instability is not necessarily just a bad GM if you don't get the quarterback right. It's amazing to watch the New York Giants this year, where we have looked at them for a decade, is just a really unraveling mess, and suddenly they get the right coach. We still don't love the quarterback, but the coach elevates the quarterback and kind of look around at the Giant Daniel Lee as a playoff team. So so much of this sport really comes down to is the quarterback good? Derek Carr is and does he have the right coach. I've thought about this before. You know, when you do free agency, you think about a lot of different things, and some athletes, most pro athletes NFL never have a no trade clause. They just go where they go, which would just be an awful thing to have to move to a bad organization. So if I was Derek Carr, I would I would look at it, and increasingly the bad organizations to me, the Owner medals Indianapolis has gone from very stable to chaotic. Washington, they medal Houston. They appear to be sort of lost at sea. They're just kind of bouncing around. There's there's the Raiders. I will say this, Josh McDaniels. I think I defended him this year. I would if he lasts four years. You don't know if the Raiders don't become stable, because it does look like they have an offensive coach, they've got offensive weapons. Their divisions very hard. So we'll see. It's it's just it's easier said than done. Hey, I'm gonna go find a stable organization. Then just look at the owner. Detroit. Now Detroit's pretty good. That's unstable. Chicago can't get offense right. Miami for years and years they've they've been docked draft picks for things the owner's done. There's not a lot of great in the league. At quarterback, at owner, at GM, at coach. There's about six great everything in the NFL, and most of those teams have their quarterback. For a team that just made a curious decision, they've got a young quarterback, they're not going to play him. They're throwing Josh Dobbs into their biggest game of the season with Tannehill hurt. If you're Mike Rabel and you look at this team and say, look, I had these guys in first place for almost the entire season. What if we had Derek Carr. Should they make a play for Derek Carr? Yeah. I think what's really interesting is because you have to sort of look at your environment where you're at. If you are an AFC team Tennessee, it's different. Burrow beat you last year at home, Alan Mahomes. Here comes Lamar Jackson in your own division, Trevor Lawrence Herbert. You've got five or six all timers. They're all in your division. So I've said this, if I was Tennessee, maybe maybe they I mean Green Bay would take a call in Aaron Rodgers. Of course they would. I would call Aaron Rodgers. You can't go into these games. They had a better defense than Cincinnati. They had home field advantage in a bye and they couldn't beat Joe Burrow. So I think Tennessee and also athletes love Nashville. They it's a great city. It's easy to get free agents there if you have the right quarterback who can get on the phone with a wide receiver or a tight end or a running back and say, hey, man, come down to Nashville. It's a good time. And remember they just jettison their GM who did not want to pay a J. Brown. So there's going to be a different outlook on free agents moving forward in Tennessee. The other team that jumps out Colin Carolina Panthers. I'm just pointing out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not be a good team next year. Brady will not be there. We know that division is very winnable. If you're Derek Carr, you go from the loaded AFC, Well, geez, the NFC, I can make the playoffs. In Carolina, they were down to a week sixteen with Sam Darnold a third swinger. Yeah, it's interesting. The other one that's out there today and it's a real story, is that Jim Harbaugh will accept the Denver Broncos job, according to people like Bruce Feldman, if it is offered. So that in my lifetime, I grew up with Craig Morton and John Elway. So Denver's always been a really, really, really good football operation and I still think they are. They just took a big swing at quarterback, gave up a lot of draft capital, and it hasn't worked. They missed on the head coach, you do. I mean, listen, everybody gets a bad coach. Everybody's had a miss. It just happens. And so he will take the job if offered. I'm I'm not sure if this is public. I've kind of stayed off social media last twenty four hours. I've been told it's twenty million dollars. I've been told for Sean Payton it would go to twenty five million. So you start looking at those numbers. You have to consider. Remember, Jim took a pay cut at Michigan. That's almost unprecedented. A star coach and the star program takes a pay cut. I think it was a forced pay cut. He couldn't beat Ohio State right then he bounces back and did not get a pay raise last year. He was not happy, so what did he do, Colin? He goes to interviews with the Minnesota Vikings. Remember that. Yeah, So it should be noted Jim was super successful in the NFL. If I went and looked at his record this morning, I have it on a piece of paper here somewhere. I think it was forty four nineteen and one. So Jim was a home run. Jim's never failed anywhere. It took him a little longer. Well, he won ten games first year at Michigan, so but to play for the National Championshipper in the playoff took him longer. So that's a real story here, and it's a tipping point the Walton family. That's old money. If they're gonna pay twenty to twenty five million for a coach, that's going to reset the market. And so I thought this morning, if I was Sean Payton, I'd let I'd let somebody else have the Denver job, let the market get reset. Carolina and maybe well the problem with Carolina is you don't have a quote. That's why you go get one. So you know they I've said this, sports go through analytical changes. So for instance, baseball, you used to not want to strike out, Now you don't want a groundball, and so the game is now almost duly home run strikeouts. That's it. It makes the game more boring. Basketball, the analytics that got very Matthey, you got to shoot threes, so it's eliminated the classic back to the basket center. Right in the middle of Dwight Howard's career, he was useless. He couldn't hit a three, couldn't hit a jumper. And you start looking at all the analytics and sports. Football has become, because of safety, very offensive, and if you look, you start looking at the AFC. Now best quarterback leads every division, and often it's the best quarterback with an offensive coach. Joe Burrow, Zach Taylor, Trevor Lawrence, Doug Peterson, Mahomes, Andy Reid. Of course, every single coach in the AFC, well three out of four coaches in the AFC East are defensive coaches. So but you look at the NFC, I think it was last year seven to seven teams that made the playoffs. Last year in the NFC, I think it was last year. We're all offensive coaches, all of them. So that's where we're at in this sport. I don't know about the analytics of football. I think more coaches go forward on fourth down. But what has happened that is clear is that for safety reasons and television and commerce reasons, they have leaned heavy offense. If you don't have a quarterback, you have no shot. So Peter King talked about this earlier. The Denver situation comes down to this, how do you fix Russell Wilson. That's a bad job. If you can't fix Russell Wilson, it's a bad job. It's also an oil and water mix with Harbaugh and Wilson, Right, Harball can be gruff. You've talked at length about the interview you guys, did we know he's rubbed teams the wrong way after like three or four years and takes off Russell Wilson's the antithesis of that. Colin He is, you know, mister buttoned up and super nice guy. I wonder how those two would work in Denver. It would be a fascinating experiment. We saw he did not mesh well with McDaniels Derek Carr, and when you get those two opposite personalities sometimes it can go kind of a rye. Yeah, coaches make more money, they have more power, They have a system. They have a formula and if you don't buy into it. Belichick and Brady and Tom was very amenable to lower money. Brady was worn out by Belichick. So you see mac Jones and Belichick. So I think we would agree. Though, you spend four point six billion on a team, Colin, spending twenty million on a coach is nothing well for them. Yeah, when you spend that much on a team, Yeah, no, that argument. This is a big investment. You need to enhance your investment. You gotta spend money. Yeah, all right. Mark Schlaris will join us next hour, speaking of that Denver situation in Hardball. We'll keep you update updated throughout the day. On tomorrow, Hamlin Hour three's coming up to Herd

Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go, it's our two. We are live in Los Angeles. It's The Herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening or viewing. We're on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. Jason McIntyre joining me today on a very solemn day, Somber day, because of the current status of Damar Hamlin, who is in critical condition in a hospital. I've tried to lean on people in the medical profession. I thought Peter King brought the story of the young man who played lacrosse. This is what I've been told that sometimes you can get an irregular heart rhythm if there is acute or intense pressure or activity the wrong time and the wrong spot by the heart. And that may have happened last night kind of a freak accident. I saw some really significant collisions at the college level earlier in the day. This kind of was your typical NFL hit, but you know, strange things happen. It's a sport with regulated violence. I do want to say this is that if you think about what pro football does, tailgating, for instance, is a huge part of football. People get socially lubricated. There's beer ads everywhere, and people take great pride in it. And last night was probably as big a game in Cincinnati, Ohio that they've had in ten years, and there will probably be passed around, right. I thought the Cincinnati fans showed such class last night, biggest game of the year, biggest game in Cincinnati in years, and the stadium went silent. Nobody left. Cincinnati fans were unbelievably supportive of the Buffalo players and the Buffalo unit. Everybody players. I mean, you bring like you know, you got fifty five players, you got coaches, you got trainers. But there was a lot of emotion in that stadium. I mean, that game was the game on the schedule that you know that's a get your stuff done. Early in the day, we're watching that football game. These two could play for the AFC championship and biggest game in a long time unbelievable sports. Football is very tribal. We just love our football teams. We watch it, we bet it, we consume it, we go, we tailgate. And I thought Cincinnati fans so much class because like the rest of us, you just don't know what's happening. But tip of the cap to the people of Ohio and Cincinnati really impressed Nick Wright. First things first is joining us. You know, I was saying earlier, you're a good friend with Bemani Jones, and he said something. My thought, um, I was really smart this morning on CNN. I don't know if Bannie you're really good friends with him? And he somebody asked him on the CNN set, they said, can you can football be safe? And he said, it's like making a safe cigarette, that there are limitations to what you can do. And I do think the league is so much safer. I can remember years ago them selling takes of violent hits. They're they're changing everything. It's there's just limited, there's regulated levels of violence. Do you think this, I asked Peter King this Do you think sometime times it takes tipping points and moments and we make changes in lots of industries. Do you think this is a sit down. You know what, Let's get rid of the preseason. Let's let's not do Thursday night after the Amazon contract or do you think that's a bridge too far. I don't know. It's I don't know, because this, to me, Colin was such a singularly unique incident. Yeah, and I you said it right before I came on. This was not a crazy hit. Nobody thought anything of it as it happened. And I obviously neither one of us are medical experts, but it seems like you and I have read a lot of the same you know articles this morning, or watch the same interviews with medical experts that talk about what they think happened. Here is almost the definition of a fluke incident, just the you know, the exact wrong hit at the exact wrong time, and I don't There is the hit the I mean again, it was the I guess the T Higgins that delivered the hit. If you will, you can't play football without those types of rights happening. I I what I There's a couple of things I would like to say about it. One is it would appear that the timely nature of the first responders on the field is why this at the moment, Damar Hamlin is in critical condition and not in worse condition. I think what they did was remarkable. Yeah, I mean the the what the medical experts are saying is this young man's heart stopped and they gave him CPR and the defib relation live on the field, which is what is giving him a chance, as his family said, to fight right now. It's it's a remarkable job by them. And then I think what we saw in the aftermath was kind of the best and the worst of us societally, which is like the best of us was people were so sad and so distraught and wanted to do something that they have now given more than three million dollars to DeMar's Charity of Choice. Yes, that is the best of us. That is the hopeless. We all feel hopeless. What can we do? Let's do something And that's the best. And then when I say the worst, I feel like we have a bad tendency Colin, when something tragic happens, we want to find a boogeyman. Yeah, and sometimes it's just terrible things happen. Like the volume of people that were like the NFL wanted them to play shame on the NFL did not want them to play five minutes later. What I'm certain is true is that somewhere written on a piece of paper is hey, if there's a horrific injury, you can give the player is up to five minutes. And they were just going down the list, you know what I mean. I guess that's what we're doing. But there's there was no chance. Roger Goodell or Troy Vincent were like, yeah, get them back out there, and the players vetoed it. That didn't But people wanted someone to be mad at. They wanted to be mad at a tweet, or they wanted to be mad at the league, or Charlatan's wanted to be mad at vaccines. Because it's hard for us to reconcile that sometimes horrible things happen and there's nothing anyone could have done about it, and so I, you know, it's a hard thing to deal with and I and I think the people involved did the best they possibly could in a brutal situation. You know, I was saying this earlier, Nick is that you know, let's let's um like like a natural disaster, the president calls a governor, who calls the mayor, who calls the National Guard who talks to the men and women on the ground, and it takes a long time. There's there's miscommunication. To your point, is you're you're right. I mean, Roger Goodell's greatest fear is last night, the idea that it's easy to have seven different phone calls, and then eventually we see the Buffalo trainers coming out and wrapping up all their stuff. To your point, let's let's just be sympathetic and less judgmental. I don't think they were ever playing. I don't think there was. The football players have been an athletes, but football players in particular have been conditioned that if someone suffers a football injury, you have to compartmentalize and move on. And we have seen guys, you know, be carted off and it's good news that they have movement in their toes and the game goes on. We as fans, players, everyone acknowledges that is part of playing this game. This was so clearly different. As soon as I heard Joe Bucks say the word CPR, I felt like everyone knew, Okay, this is unprecedented territory for everyone. No one in the NFL has dealt with this, and because of that, it was. I thought it was unfortunate that folks that have previously always wanted to use you know, the NFL is a punching bag at times, said ah, look another instance they don't care about. That's not what this was. This was moment by moment, scary is situation for everyone, and I don't think there was ever a plan to have that game resumed once it was clear this young man's life was in danger. Nick Wright joining us. First things first, I suggested this this morning out of respect for the family. It's a tie. You don't replay the game. It's a tie. Whatever the seed is. The reality is I've heard this from a couple of coaches. Since technology has improved, the ability for a quarterback to hear a coach on the road home field just doesn't mean what it used to four or five years ago. And you know, if the Chiefs gets the one seed, I don't think anybody argued this is a tie. Let the chips fall where they may. Cincinnati played road games to the Super Bowl last year. My takeaway is, don't play this thing. If they meet later, that's great. What do you do, although it's obviously secondary today, what do you do with the game what do we do? What do we do with it? I think that I don't think it's something that can be decreed. I think it has to be a discussion, and I think the Bills get to take lead on it. I think that the Bills get to, you know, have the loudest voice in the room. Do you want this it obviously can't be a loss for either team? That would be an absurdity. Do you guys want it to be a tie? Or do you want to try to play it recognizing it's going to be condensed weeks going into the most important, you know, the playoff part of your season. I think you're right that I think what they will do is call this a tie, and I don't know, there is no fair way to go about this. I think that would be the fairest way if that is what Buffalo wants to do. And I yeah, I mean I don't. You're right. That is obviously not the focal point today, but that is something that the NFL is going to have to decide upon at some point and probably some point relatively soon. And I would let the Bills coaches and players have the loudest voice in that room in deciding that you know, it's interesting we both love NFL and NBA, and it's it's always been sort of understood in the NBA you need about three guys. It used to be if you had two great players you could get to a championship. It feels like the game is so global and so talented and so gifted, and there's so many great players you need three. Now it's Milwaukee may just not if Middleton's not one hundred percent, they just don't have enough good players. The NFL has changed a lot of this is analytics. The NFL doesn't have the global personnel that basketball or baseball do, especially basket or soccer. But um, what they've done is they've made the sport, for safety reasons and television reasons very offensive. And so if you don't have a great quarterback, you have no chance to win. And as I watched, and I do think the game is safer. Um, you're in a good spot as somebody from Kansas City. You have Patrick Mahomes. When when you look around this league right now, um, I always think with Mahomes and you're you're you're a fan, and you don't hide that at all. Where is Mahomes now? Because this I can argue the next three great quarterbacks in the sport, actually four are all in the AFC. Par right, when you look at your team and this team, they're just he's such a good kid. I don't know how well you know, Patrick, He's such a wonderful ambassador for the sport. What is realistic? Because I'm last night, I'm watching that game mostly because it's Burrow and Allen the quarterbacks. Yep, Well, if it's backup time, I think your point correct. I think your point. I'll get to the Chiefs in a moment. I think that that we're in a weird spot where you have all of these great young quarterbacks, but ninety percent of them are concentrated in one conference. Yeah. So you mentioned if you don't have a great quarterback, you can't win. Yeah, except for the fact that the Niners very well might be the Super Bowl favorites in the NFC to spite their quarterback. And I think that's up and down that conference, particularly with Jalen banged up. I think that the specter of the quarterbacks in the AFC are one of the reasons that a guy like Zach Wilson doesn't get even two full years is one of the reasons that you see the Raiders just say, Derek Carr, you're the thirteenth best quarterback in the league, but unfortunately that makes you the ninth best quarterback in the AFC. We gotta move on like and so I ain't that the Obviously the Chiefs, the two teams we saw last night, are positioned incredibly well. I think the Chargers and Jaguars are both potentially positioned very well. And by the way, Colin, your buddy Bryce Young is probably going to the AFC as well. Yeah, via Houston with the number one pick of the draft, And so there is if you are in the NFC, I think you might be able to patch it together with a great roster, you know what I mean, and substandard quarterback play in the AFC. I feel like if you don't have a guy that you think can be a league MVP one day, you're going to continue to be searching because there are so many guys right now that can be League MVPs one day already playing that position in that conference. First things first is the show. He is the host. It's Nick Wright on a somber day. We appreciate your insights, buddy. Thanks Colin. Thank you, They're it's lucky to have you today. Thanks brother, all right, thank you. Yeah. You know when you talk about like today is not a day we want to talk, you know a ton about what you do with the game. And it's a tie, and people can say it's unfair, But I was, I was thinking about this this morning because obviously the safety in the health of Damar Hamlin's number one, we all that goes without saying, and then over the course of the next four or five days we probably move into what do you do with that game? Is that I don't have a problem with a tie because sports are inherently unfair. If you look at college football, there's just more great high school football players in the South. They continue to dominate the sport, all right. In the NBA, there are glamor markets where players want to play and don't want to play. Okay, in baseball, there's no real salary cap. The New York Mets will have a greater payroll I think than the bottom six teams in the sport combined. All Right. You know, with that money comes expectations, and the Mets may crumble down the stretch because there's so much heat on them, and the expectations are so high. So and you know football's not always fair either. You know, Stan Cronky is very well healed and can write checks in the offseason that certain organizations or owners can't. So I don't worry too much. As long as there's basic rules. Officials in all sports, you have to follow the rules. I'm good with it, but calling it a tie and go down the tiebreakers. I think Nick's suggestion that ultimately Buffalo gets the loudest voice in the room on what to do with this game. I don't know if there's room in the schedule, but that's kind of where we're at today. I'm not going to do a highly produced Herd hierarchy today, but I will give you who I believe in order are the ten best teams in the National Football League. We do it every twenty weeks, twenty five weeks a year. We do it every Tuesday at this time. So I pushed it back a little bit today for Damar Hamlin. Here are my top ten teams I believe in the NFL right now, out of respect to winning all these close games. They're eleven in o in one possession games, which doesn't make sense. I would put the Vikings at ten. They are an atrocious defensive team. I would put the Packers ahead of them at nine. Now, green Bay obviously blew them out, but there are sundays that teams just you get blowouts. I'd put Green Bay at number nine. Do you guys want to put it up? I would put the Chargers at eight. They're getting healthy, Joey Bosa's returning, and their defense now they've got fourteen sacks in three games. J Mac was on this early. They were banged up. The last three weeks. They've gotten healthy. The Chargers are really, really talented. I'd put the Jaguars on a four game winning streak at number seven. Trevor Lawrence since week nine is the best quarterback in the NFL. That includes Joe Burrow, that includes Patrick Mahomes. They got a decent pass rush at times, and Trevor Lawrence is what we expected he would be. I would put Philadelphia at six. They're o and two without Jalen Hurts, so that shows you his importance. They run a different offense with Jalen Hurts. They're getting, though banged up on the D line, a little banged up. I believe at tight end, so I'll put them at six. Dallas is eight and two. I would put them at five. They're eight and two since Dak returned. I always feel like the Cowboys, there's a certain way they have to play. Dak has to be complimentary, the running game has to be humming, and I do question Mike McCarthy situationally in big spots, but I have them at five. The Buffalo Bills I would put at four. They make mistakes in the red zone. I've often compared them to Mike Tyson the Fighter, not much of a jab knockout power. On any given Sunday or Monday or Thursday, they can overpower the best teams in this league. Kansas City at three. They're the number one scoring offense. It does feel like they're still kind of figuring out the receiving game and the offense. Sometimes I feel like they're playing backyard football. It just happens to be televised. They're so easy offensively. San Francisco with Brock Purtious number two, they're just overpowering. I don't think anybody would disagree here. If you watch the Niners play visually, they look like the team with the most great players and Cincinnati at number one. Not only are they winning, they're great against the spread because we still don't respect them as much as we should. I think largely because they don't have a lot of big name defensive players. It is a tremendous defensive team. They're right tackle while Collins is out, but the offensive line is significantly better than it was a year or two ago. They've had the same starting offensive lineman. We're one of two teams in the first fifteen games of the season before Collins got hurt. They don't have a lot of chaos up front. That's a position group offensive line that is often riddled with injuries, and they've been mostly very healthy. So those are my top ten teams right now in the NFL in order. I think it's weird that a team would be eleven and oh in one possession games and yet I put Minnesota at ten. But in two of their biggest spots of the year, and that's what the playoffs are, their pressure ized spots, they have been absolutely unwatchably bad. Kirk Cousins has just not been able to deal with some injuries. Things have to be set up perfectly for them. So that's where we are. Now let's take a break live and La adds the Herd one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. All right, welcome back. We'll keep you updated on Damar Hamlin. In fact, here's Jason McIntyre with the news. No, no turn on the news. This is the Herdline news. So as we discussed pretty much all show in Cincinnati last night, Yeah, Buffalo Bill's safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field. Later determined that he went into cardiac arrest. The latest is that he's in critical condition at one of the top trauma centers in the country. Here's a statement from the Hamlin family on behalf of our family. We want to express the sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time. We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words, and donations from fans around the country. Your generosity and compassion means the world to us. Please keep Damar in your prayers. Who will release updates as soon as we have them, and obviously from this show, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Hamlin family. He had a I believe a toy drive that had garnered about three hundred thousand dollars in donations. It was I believe last check overmillion this morning. Many of those people obviously from Cincinnati and Buffalo. Buffalo has a very unique spot in the NFL, Green Bay and Buffalo where they're smaller markets and people are not distracted. The Bills are a huge part of Buffalo and they're not going to apologize college football vibe. Absolutely. And you know I've said this before. My wife used to be in sort of human resources built of the business, in the restaurant business, and she had to travel to Cleveland's, Pittsburgh's, a lot of those northern cities. She told me multiple times, the nicest people that she has ever met. We're from Buffalo, just a It's a remarkable city full of wonderful people, and we have Is that story breaking right now? I'm gonna I'm gonna bring this up. Tom Pella Sero, excellent reporter NFL network Roger Goodell has informed the Bills on the Bengals the game will not be resumed this week, and I was expected, Yeah, I would imagine no decision. I'm reading this live bulk. No decision yet on a later date, I still suggest, Yeah, it won't be this week. It won't be this week. I mean, there's really no way you can wedge the game in Wednesday or Thursday. We don't know what's going on with Hamlin. Yeah, so likely result is a tie and we'll just figure out everything else later. Yeah, it's secondary. Next story here. Ron Rivera and the Commanders, Now, they had a tough loss with the playoffs on the line. He made the mistake of putting in Carson Wentz for Taylor Heineke. Didn't seem to go over too well in the locker room. Wentz three picks in a twenty four ten loss to the Browns. Ron Rivera was asked yesterday if you regretted making the change at quarterback. Here's what he had to say to me. It was always about winning that that it was in our hands. I mean, we control our destiny basically, and that's the truth of the matter. Being O two and one of the last three games was probably the thing that really pushed me more than anything else. And that's what I looked at and as I said, coming off of the off of the last quarter of the forty nine er game. I was, I was relatively optimistic in terms of feeling what Carson could do. I don't know. That's a rough one for Rivera. It's going to be a tumultuous offseason in Washington. Likely. We know Dan Snyder, well, if Bibe selling a team, Yeah, big picture, they have to get somebody to engineer this offense, and currently they don't have them in the building. Yeah, when they wonder about what does Carson Wentz go from here, I don't. I don't know that there's a spot for him. He's also not cheap, so you're spending money on somebody that's just right now, He's he's I think it's over. If you're looking for a team that could get into Derek Carr sweepstakes. Washington has a very good fleet of receivers, but car has a no trade clause. Derek Carr can control where he goes. So I don't I know David Carr m David said yesterday, stability is going to be key. So you're not going to Washington, You're not going to Houston. Indianapolis feels no. Indianapolis to me was always a great job, and then in the last six months to a year it's gotten very impulsive. So Indianapolis now has kind of joined a group of teams i'd stay away from because I think the owners making all the calls, or most of them. So in the Washington I think you can write off did you say Houston? And I want to get them off. Mcnie Smith is doing some things this week, So I think the Jets ownership is sub optimal to me. But I love the GM, I like the coach. I think the roster is really close. That one feels right. Also, Derek's been you know, the Raiders are a big brand. Derek's been in big games for a long time. He's not going to be overwhelmed with New York and the media. That's you know, he's He's been around the league a long time. Yeah, well, we'll see the final story. Titans and Jags. Saturday night, they released the schedule for this week and Titans and Jaguars are in primetime. Colin a bit of a curveball here, Yeah. Mike Vrabel, coach of the Titans, who you like a lot, announced yesterday that Joshua Dobbs, who had only attempted seventeen career passes before last Thursday. He's getting to start over rookie Malik Willis. Obviously, Dobbs has been in the league for a minute. He was at Pittsburgh. Listen, the guy's thrown passes, Malik Willis. It's not completing pass Also something that has to be noted, he is a four point chemical engineer major in college. So the kid is functioning at a really high level, which is not all rattled against Dallas at all. No. I thought he looked really good. They don't have anybody to throw too. So when I heard that, I'm like, oh, well, that's who knows. This isn't an indictment of Malik Willis. He's just not ready for a win. And in player played at Liberty. This kid played in the Sea. Remember the Malik Willis game against Kansas City. I think it was Sunday night football. I don't like four passes or four completions. It was like, you know you're not going to succeed doing that. Yeah, the Jags are considerable favorites. I think it's a touchdown Joshua Dobbs Is, I'm interested to watch that. I'll just say this. The Titans rested almost everyone relevant last week against the Cowboys. They will be very fresh for this game. I don't think it's a slam dunk at the Jags win this one. It's going to be close. I don't know the Titans are winning, but it's going to be close. J Max with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herdline with the Damar Hamlin situation, critical condition in a hospital in Cincinnati. You know, I'm trying to kind of weave this through the show today as appropriately as I can. Athletes want to play, and you often have to talk them out of playing. I saw this quote this morning from Tom Brady who said it would bother him to sit out of a meaningless Week eighteen finale. This is a forty five year old quarterback with seven trophies. Here's Tom. It's always up a coach. But yeah, that would bother me. I've missed the game other than my ACL and uh yeah, and the twenty sixteen I missed the first four games, so other than that, played them all. We had Ryan Shay's ear on this show. He was terrific. About two months ago or a month ago, had to retire injured severely. It was a life altering injury similar to this, very scary kind of a gutting, difficult to watch, made you nervous. That's how I felt last night. I'm sure that's how many of you felt and I and I remember asking this question and I didn't know if I should ask it, but he was just so open, and I just asked him. You know, if you look at the injury in your career, if you could do it all over again, knowing where you're at today, would you change anything? If you could do it all over again with the knowledge you have, would you play again? I wouldn't even if I came right now, if I just I was able to stop what I was doing, I mean not stop what I was going to wake up tomorrow and it's like, hey, Ryan, you're one hundred person healthy. I will call coach Tomlin and I'm like, hey, I know I won't be able to play this week versus the Ravens, but hey, let me figure out if I can, you know, work my way back to being on a team. Not everybody thinks like you or me. There are people that I grew up in a small rural town on the coast of Washington state. None of you have heard of it. Grayland, Washington aptly named Grayland, Washington gray a lot. And there's a show, I'm not sure if it's still on the air. It's called Deadliest Catch Commercial fishing in Alaska. And a football teammate, the toughest guy in my high school, Wade Henley, middle linebacker. Great, great guy. He was on that show. And I watched that show, and I think it's terrifying. Water coming over the boat. If you get your leg caught in the rope the crab nets, you're overboard. It's over. But there's an adrenaline to it, and those guys take great pride in it. You couldn't get me on a boat like that. Oil Derek's football players UFC fires. When I was a local sportscaster, I once did a piece on a race car driver and I got in the car. Terrifying. Absolutely I should have been talked out of it. And so for Ryan Shazier to say that is that not everybody is built like me. Not everybody. There are people that run into buildings to save people during fires and shootouts, and those people are so valuable. And that's why when a player gets hurt. You can't go to the player first, you have to go to the doctors. Sometimes players have to be kind of safe from themselves. Football is a very unique sport, and sometimes I just wonder if you have to be wired a little differently to do certain adrenaline heavy jobs in America. But that Ryan Shazier moment kind of took me back. I thought about that drive at home that day. I'm like, he's just different, He's built differently. More on tomorrow, Hamlin more updates Live in La, It's the Hurd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. Hey it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would meet a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show. Could hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will? A world will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more. Every week Explorer, some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Let into the fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Congratulations by the way to two Lane. They scored sixteen points in four minutes to upset USC in the Cotton Bowl. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. Brian Kelly also ten wins. They blew out Perdue. So Brian Kelly can be at times a little cringe e certainly on social media, but he can win. He wins everywhere. He's very much like Harbaugh, awkward, sometimes off putting, other times, very intense personality, kind of does it his way. But Jim Harbon, Brian Kelly win football games a lot, really fast. So LSU is just an unbelievable football program. Also, Derek Carr looks like he'll be moving. His brother David Carr defended him greatly yesterday on the NFL Network. They're very close. The Jets does feel like the good piece. Derek Carr has something that actually in the NFL very few players have. Russell Wilson had it. A no trade clause now doesn't always help the player. For instance, Russell Wilson fought for that negotiations and then went to Denver and got a coach who was really not a head coach. So you know, a no trade clause gives the player more power. And according to the story this Morning, Derek he wants teams that have stable situations. Well, let's be honest, a lot of teams with really stable situations don't need a quarterback. Kansas City's very stable right now as a football team. Buffalo is stable, and Cincinnati is, and the Philadelphia is. Many of the stable situations have quarterbacks. So what creates instability is not necessarily just a bad GM if you don't get the quarterback right. It's amazing to watch the New York Giants this year, where we have looked at them for a decade, is just a really unraveling mess, and suddenly they get the right coach. We still don't love the quarterback, but the coach elevates the quarterback and kind of look around at the Giant Daniel Lee as a playoff team. So so much of this sport really comes down to is the quarterback good? Derek Carr is and does he have the right coach. I've thought about this before. You know, when you do free agency, you think about a lot of different things, and some athletes, most pro athletes NFL never have a no trade clause. They just go where they go, which would just be an awful thing to have to move to a bad organization. So if I was Derek Carr, I would I would look at it, and increasingly the bad organizations to me, the Owner medals Indianapolis has gone from very stable to chaotic. Washington, they medal Houston. They appear to be sort of lost at sea. They're just kind of bouncing around. There's there's the Raiders. I will say this, Josh McDaniels. I think I defended him this year. I would if he lasts four years. You don't know if the Raiders don't become stable, because it does look like they have an offensive coach, they've got offensive weapons. Their divisions very hard. So we'll see. It's it's just it's easier said than done. Hey, I'm gonna go find a stable organization. Then just look at the owner. Detroit. Now Detroit's pretty good. That's unstable. Chicago can't get offense right. Miami for years and years they've they've been docked draft picks for things the owner's done. There's not a lot of great in the league. At quarterback, at owner, at GM, at coach. There's about six great everything in the NFL, and most of those teams have their quarterback. For a team that just made a curious decision, they've got a young quarterback, they're not going to play him. They're throwing Josh Dobbs into their biggest game of the season with Tannehill hurt. If you're Mike Rabel and you look at this team and say, look, I had these guys in first place for almost the entire season. What if we had Derek Carr. Should they make a play for Derek Carr? Yeah. I think what's really interesting is because you have to sort of look at your environment where you're at. If you are an AFC team Tennessee, it's different. Burrow beat you last year at home, Alan Mahomes. Here comes Lamar Jackson in your own division, Trevor Lawrence Herbert. You've got five or six all timers. They're all in your division. So I've said this, if I was Tennessee, maybe maybe they I mean Green Bay would take a call in Aaron Rodgers. Of course they would. I would call Aaron Rodgers. You can't go into these games. They had a better defense than Cincinnati. They had home field advantage in a bye and they couldn't beat Joe Burrow. So I think Tennessee and also athletes love Nashville. They it's a great city. It's easy to get free agents there if you have the right quarterback who can get on the phone with a wide receiver or a tight end or a running back and say, hey, man, come down to Nashville. It's a good time. And remember they just jettison their GM who did not want to pay a J. Brown. So there's going to be a different outlook on free agents moving forward in Tennessee. The other team that jumps out Colin Carolina Panthers. I'm just pointing out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not be a good team next year. Brady will not be there. We know that division is very winnable. If you're Derek Carr, you go from the loaded AFC, Well, geez, the NFC, I can make the playoffs. In Carolina, they were down to a week sixteen with Sam Darnold a third swinger. Yeah, it's interesting. The other one that's out there today and it's a real story, is that Jim Harbaugh will accept the Denver Broncos job, according to people like Bruce Feldman, if it is offered. So that in my lifetime, I grew up with Craig Morton and John Elway. So Denver's always been a really, really, really good football operation and I still think they are. They just took a big swing at quarterback, gave up a lot of draft capital, and it hasn't worked. They missed on the head coach, you do. I mean, listen, everybody gets a bad coach. Everybody's had a miss. It just happens. And so he will take the job if offered. I'm I'm not sure if this is public. I've kind of stayed off social media last twenty four hours. I've been told it's twenty million dollars. I've been told for Sean Payton it would go to twenty five million. So you start looking at those numbers. You have to consider. Remember, Jim took a pay cut at Michigan. That's almost unprecedented. A star coach and the star program takes a pay cut. I think it was a forced pay cut. He couldn't beat Ohio State right then he bounces back and did not get a pay raise last year. He was not happy, so what did he do, Colin? He goes to interviews with the Minnesota Vikings. Remember that. Yeah, So it should be noted Jim was super successful in the NFL. If I went and looked at his record this morning, I have it on a piece of paper here somewhere. I think it was forty four nineteen and one. So Jim was a home run. Jim's never failed anywhere. It took him a little longer. Well, he won ten games first year at Michigan, so but to play for the National Championshipper in the playoff took him longer. So that's a real story here, and it's a tipping point the Walton family. That's old money. If they're gonna pay twenty to twenty five million for a coach, that's going to reset the market. And so I thought this morning, if I was Sean Payton, I'd let I'd let somebody else have the Denver job, let the market get reset. Carolina and maybe well the problem with Carolina is you don't have a quote. That's why you go get one. So you know they I've said this, sports go through analytical changes. So for instance, baseball, you used to not want to strike out, Now you don't want a groundball, and so the game is now almost duly home run strikeouts. That's it. It makes the game more boring. Basketball, the analytics that got very Matthey, you got to shoot threes, so it's eliminated the classic back to the basket center. Right in the middle of Dwight Howard's career, he was useless. He couldn't hit a three, couldn't hit a jumper. And you start looking at all the analytics and sports. Football has become, because of safety, very offensive, and if you look, you start looking at the AFC. Now best quarterback leads every division, and often it's the best quarterback with an offensive coach. Joe Burrow, Zach Taylor, Trevor Lawrence, Doug Peterson, Mahomes, Andy Reid. Of course, every single coach in the AFC, well three out of four coaches in the AFC East are defensive coaches. So but you look at the NFC, I think it was last year seven to seven teams that made the playoffs. Last year in the NFC, I think it was last year. We're all offensive coaches, all of them. So that's where we're at in this sport. I don't know about the analytics of football. I think more coaches go forward on fourth down. But what has happened that is clear is that for safety reasons and television and commerce reasons, they have leaned heavy offense. If you don't have a quarterback, you have no shot. So Peter King talked about this earlier. The Denver situation comes down to this, how do you fix Russell Wilson. That's a bad job. If you can't fix Russell Wilson, it's a bad job. It's also an oil and water mix with Harbaugh and Wilson, Right, Harball can be gruff. You've talked at length about the interview you guys, did we know he's rubbed teams the wrong way after like three or four years and takes off Russell Wilson's the antithesis of that. Colin He is, you know, mister buttoned up and super nice guy. I wonder how those two would work in Denver. It would be a fascinating experiment. We saw he did not mesh well with McDaniels Derek Carr, and when you get those two opposite personalities sometimes it can go kind of a rye. Yeah, coaches make more money, they have more power, They have a system. They have a formula and if you don't buy into it. Belichick and Brady and Tom was very amenable to lower money. Brady was worn out by Belichick. So you see mac Jones and Belichick. So I think we would agree. Though, you spend four point six billion on a team, Colin, spending twenty million on a coach is nothing well for them. Yeah, when you spend that much on a team, Yeah, no, that argument. This is a big investment. You need to enhance your investment. You gotta spend money. Yeah, all right. Mark Schlaris will join us next hour, speaking of that Denver situation in Hardball. We'll keep you update updated throughout the day. On tomorrow, Hamlin Hour three's coming up to Herd