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. Property crimes, Burglary, packaged staff, Spike, over the Winner, Strangely, Secure your home simply safecolin dot com twenty percent off right now, no safe legs, simply safe. Played for eleven years, a multiple time Pro bowler, a Super Bowl appearance, and the former San Francisco forty nine er and Bill Dante Whitner is now joining US live doing a lot of local media now in the Bay Area and doing a great job. So you know, we have a we have a history. You know this. Half the guys in the league are undrafted. Antonio Gates Hall of Famer, undrafted, Tony Romo, undrafted, Kurt Warner, undrafted. You look at the Niners Jennings receiver six round pick Kittle five. You know this. There's play years everywhere in this sport. They're maybe they're undersized, they don't go to a big program, they get overlooked. They're not in an Alabama. So when I watch brock Purty, Dante might take aways, I don't know, looks like his twitchy he's got I mean, I don't know. You tell me you played in this decade. Is this a guy you could build a franchise around? Do you buy into this lightning in the bottle stuff or what do you make of him? Well, when you look at brock Purty and what he provides for this forty nine or offense is the reason why you're sending Since the week fourteen, his ability to create plays when defensive coordinators kisch Kyle Shanahan in certain concepts, the ability to run the ball to play action game, but not only that, his calm and composure in the pocket. When you turn the film on on his young quarterback, it's not that he's just throwing into where Kyle Shanahan is telling him to throw it. He's creating throwing lanes with his mannerisms, his eyes and the understanding of who the free players are in the defense and how to attack them. And then he has to gusta to try to fit the ball in in tight coverage. I will say that Rock Curtie is a combination of Trailands with the athletic ability but more twitch and the precision and quick releasing Jimmy Garoppolo. He's Kyle Shanahan's perfect quarterback match. Now does Dallas create issues? Dallas, to me is a pretty easy figure. If Dak throws thirty five or less and he can be complimentary to a run game, they're a tough out. You're asking Dak to throw forty four times, which they've done this year, or you get into that number, you're asking too much of him. He's more complimentary though. When he is complimentary, like against Tampa the run game, he's a handful. So is there any matchup though on either side that you look at and think that's problematic for the Niners. Well, when I look at what Ceedee Lamb can do for that offense and how to move him around, primarily at that number three position near the tight end, he's attacking the field. He'll sit down at five yards, he'll run through the defense, he'll run deep overs. He makes you declare what defense you're playing, and if you try to take him away, this is when they attack you on the outside with Noah Brown and Michael Gallop. But I think that they have to worry about Tony Pollard creating explosives in the running game and receiving the ball out of the backfield. You know that they're going to run some screens. Being at the forty nine ers defensive line can sometimes get overly aggressive. And then I think another guy who a lot of people not really thinking about, who have a huge game last week is Dalton show Us. He is starting up awaken in this offense, he can attack you vertically. He's a number one threat in the red zone for the forty nine Ers. They're gonna have a lot to worry about. But it also going to come down to stop in the run, set the edge, getting the Cowboys into third and meet him and longs, but then executing the defense when you get into those predicaments. Third down is one of the Cowboys strands. You know, you look around Sean Payton rumor is the Denver thing, and I know Sean pretty well. Ownership matters a lot to him. They got new owners, they got a lot of money. Quarterback matters a lot, and it's an interesting thing. It's been well documented now publicized that Russell can lack some self awareness. The Bentley, the mansion. Well, Denver's offense is a bunch of kids and know by Tom BRADYO has made a point, Dante to connect with the young guys, the music, the tech. He's forty, these guys are twenty two years old. Is Russell Wilson the personality stuff solvable? Did you ever as you age did you see players disconnecting from the young guys. Because I was Dante, I was saying this, Denver's defense is good, and they're gonna pay some of these guys. The defense is going to get older. And because a Russell's contract, the offense has to be fairly inexpensive around him. They gonna build that on line, so that offense is gonna have a lot of kids on it. Do you think it's solvable for Russell to come back down to the kids and relate or maybe that's just not who he is. I think it's definitely solvable. But let's look at it from this point of view. That Russell Wilson goes out and wins ten to twelve games this year. Are we talking about his marriage to Sierra, or his mansion or his Bentley. I've seen multiple players on a lot of these different games in the locker room, and we've gone through losing and we've gone through winning. But as the quarterback, you're going to take the hit of it all. Playing against Russell Wilson for many years and many big games, I know that he has all the tools and the capabilities to be a top tier quarterback. I don't think he just fell off a cliff after last year. When you go to a new team and you're implementing yourself into a new organization, of course you have to win that locker room. But you have to know that ends and out in the intricacies of your offensive package. And it takes a lot more than one year to learn that. And when you think about what Russell Wilson did for the Seattle Seahawks, he had Marshan Lansh around him, he had all these weapons on the outside. He had to lead you to boom. All he had to do was play his role. Now he's been thrust it into a role. Wh didn't want him to drop back, throw the ball thirty five forty times a game and be a top tier quarterback. That's just slicing up defenses. I never thought that's who Russell Wilson was. So yeah, I think it's totally solvable. I know that Russell Wilson is going to go to work this offseason. And if you can pair him with a guy like Sean Payton, who I put up there, or even hiring and shine Sean, I mean in coach Shanahan, I think that they can do some special things playing against that offense and that offensive philosophies for many years. He's gonna get Russell Wilson to where he can, you know, finish his career on the right track. So you were a Buck guy, so you know Michigan football well, and you've seen the ascension with hardball. He wanted both the pro and college level. You know Jim well because you were with him in the Niners, And I said, I think he's more important Dante for college football, and I love college He's really important for the sport. These Northern Division teams, outside of the Buckeyes, they feel like for years they fell behind the South. Jim gives you another Northern power and I love the Big Ten and I love that kind of football. But he also won at the NFL level. You tell me it is in the current NFL players have more power. I know it was only five or six years ago. Do you think he made the right call. I don't know if you necessarily made your right call. And you see, he keeps wanting to scratch that edge. Ultimate gold and football at any level was to win the Lombardi. And when we came so close to winning Lombardi in the Super Bowl and we lost it, I know that he still had that eagerness and that first to capture the ultimate goal. This year he made it to the final four. Yeah, he almost had a chance to win a national title in college, but it's nothing like the taste of victory at the NFL level. So yeah, I know that coach Harball, with you know, his track record, with his philosophies, with the way that he plays certain mind games with the front office, the players, his coaches, his colleagues, the team, he has all the ability to get to the NFL and capture the ultimate goal, and that's to win a Lombardi. So yeah, I know he went back to Michigan, but I do see at some point coach Harball going to the NFL. Yeah, I mean, they're just nothing like winning a Super Bowl there there isn't. It's just it's you are completely defined as a player as a coach. Okay, by the way, guy, about thirty seconds left. I like the Niners in a fairly low scoring game twenty seven twenty is your thoughts? What do you think what transpires? I don't think it's gonna be a low scoring game. When you look at the deficiencies from the Dallas Cowboys defense, it's all about stopping the run. Christian McCaffrey having the ability to get devot the ball in space to attack the edges of his defense on the side. Yeah, they get some interceptions, but they do a lot against it. Kyle Shanahan having those extra thirty six hours to really break down this defense is going to go wonders. I'm giving the forty Niners a three touchdown advantage in this. Wow. Dante Wittner, great scene. You man is always appreciate it. Great seeing you, guys. I hope we talked to all right, So he liked Niners in a route. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app oo. J Mack with the News, No, no turn on the news. This is the herd line News. Wouldn't be surprised by Niners in a rout at all given this defense and Brock Purdy Dallas these turnovers. Doesn't if they don't create turnovers, I don't really think they have a chance in this one. I'm still surprised. Miami gave Buffalo fits last weekend. You real they sat Josh Allen seven times. That's Miami. No, it's a bad old line. It's a bad old line. Yeah, five years, Sean McDermott, what if Buffalo loses? What are you? What are you do you? You don't want to put McDermott on the hot sea because they're good, but they came into the season as Super Bowl favorite. They have not solved their run game or their own line with the defensive coach in five years. They still the greatest example of this is what great co sell. The tape tells you, Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs are great. They're not that talented on offense. Why it's a defensive culture. They have all sorts of talent every level of defense. Can I give you a prop bet I'm working at this week, Josh Allen over rushing yards. McDermott, a defensive guy is not going to let his quarterback be flinging it and lose the game. Remember all the red zone turnovers Josh Allen in the high big time games, he runs the football a lot. This is like a seventy yard rushing game for Josh Allen at least, that's my read. First up, Jags feeling good after the comeback against the Chargers. Now they have to go to Ksey to continue their playoff run. Trevor Lawrence spoke about the environment he expects to face at Arrowhead on Saturday. The environment and the atmosphere we're going to play in is one other, if not the best in the NFL. I mean, I can't imagine it'll be much louder than our fans were here on Saturday, honestly, but that was when we were on defense, not often so we played there earlier in the year. But this is a little bit different. You know, it's a playoff game, divisional round, so the stakes are higher, so I expect them to be even crazier and more packed stadium. But I mean, at the end of the day, you just gotta you gotta go play and you gotta make sure you communicate. That's the one thing we gotta get in and out the huddle. We gotta get the line of scrimmage so we have time to communicate because everything naturally takes a little longer when it's loud. Yeah, everybody got worked up over that. By the way, Pere Jacksonville to Arrowhead, Well, Herbert's beaten Mahomes twice. An Arrowhead Fangles beat him there last year in the AC Championship. Josh Allen has Let's not pretend Kansas City fans are amazing home fields about a point and a half they're doing they Washington Post had a great article on this. Home fields no longer three and a half four. It's the game has changed. Players now are basically treated almost better on the road, between the stretching and the heat therapy, whatever they do. I mean, I was reading the article in the Washington Post. I'm like, they set up basically, you know, like a camp inside of a hotel on the road. These these players are treated like royalty. The planes are bigger, they're they're hydrated better than ever before. Roads not that big of a deal. Remember when the Vikings had a huge home field advantage. It was all big. Remember that the dome, it gets loud, it's rock us. Daniel Jones went in there, won the game like no problems. Daniel Jones tore up Minnesota there twice twice. Daniel Jones. Yeah, it's just home fields. It's great. Probably worth a point, I would I would rather have it than not. Oh yeah, certainly. If you go to the history of the Giants, I always feel like they're a better road playoff team than home. The numbers probably don't back that up. Eli. I mean ELI wasn't one year ELI had to go and I remember with plaques had to go to Lambeau. They had great they had to go. I think they had three roadies. So yeah, the road games I have. I have some numbers on some interesting road games. I'll save him for tomorrow for the Gamblers out there. Next up Pittsburgh Steelers. Kenny Pickett nut sure he's thrilled about this, but OC Matt Canada he will be back next season. He's been the OC for the last two years. The offense, well, Colin, it's not been good. They ranked near the bottom of the league in points, yards, big plays with Matt Canada calling the shots, he loves Matt Canada loves nothing more than a first intend dive into the line of scrimmage. J Harris up. Then other defensive coach can't figure out the old line? Yeah, here, here are the numbers. Is this inspiring now? Now with a defensive coach. So McDermott and Tomlin can't figure out the old lines and the consistent run games. They also, however, don't sense the urgency with it. Well, Pittsburgh had a great offensive line they aged out. Remember everybody got old. Kay's been four years they've been trying to rebuild. They had lost that great offensive line. Coach, I'm spacing on his name now, but Pittsburgh has to figure that out. They got a quarterback on a rookie deal. This is a summer to spend, right. Do you think it's a coincidence that many of the worst all lines in the league. Let's think about it right now, Chicago defensive coach, Pittsburgh struggling, Buffalo struggling, Houston struggling. Now, I can't blame Lovey. He just got there an hour ago and got fired. But it is for the record, when Mike McDaniel got the Miami job, Now they had some injuries this year, once one of the first things he wanted the offensive coaches. Now, the Rams had a battle line this year due to injuries. But I'm concerned about the lack of urgency by Pittsburgh. They're okay with this. It's four years now. By the way, you see how quickly Andy Reid rebuilt that offensive line year super Bowl year one year. Buffalo is on year four, Pittsburgh year five. We're at the point in the draft where you've just got to gobble up lineman. I mean, hell, if the Chargers had to any offensive line depth, they might have been a better team this year. Next up, Oh boy, Lebron continued his hot streak thirty two points last night. Great performance, but it wasn't enough to get over the Sacramento Kings. Lakers lost their third game in the past week by combined ten points. Yeah, they lose Clothe. Well, they don't have any shooters, and their half court offense, if Westbrook's on the floor, is not closing lineup includes like Troy Brown. Yeah, and uh, Brian I saw running the floor you got in the NFL. We always talk about it. It's like baseball. You gotta have some home run power on your offense. You gotta gab. Not everything can be a seven double three single rally. You need guys that can Aaron Judge can jacket right. You need power in football. Not every New England, not every touchdown drive can be thirteen plays. You need cheap touchdowns. NBA Lakers just don't have any spot up shooters. They got to work so hard for points. There is something to be said about like Warriors can get to one twenty six and not play well. Yeah, so Lebron still unhappy as he should be given this roster that they're trotting out there. Here's what he said after the loss. We're definitely a ball club that has we have zero room air and h tonight. Although we played a pretty good game. I mean we only had once a game. We had seven turnovers as nine turnovers in two games. That is amazing, But we don't have much room for air. You know, we are limited with bodies we're playing. We played pretty much you know, almost everybody tonight just you know, just getting ready, why a look and and so you know until some of our big guys, our key guys get back and you know, it's been a problem for us this year with Adi and Uh, with Ad and Aar and Lonnie, guys who are huge in our rotation. You know, we have to continue to play how we played the last couple of games, trying to play mistake free basketball, get no free best, no spot up shooters. Telling Max Christie played twenty seven minutes last night. Now he was solid, but they picked up Patrick Beverley in the offseason and he has been a train wreck, an abject failure. Minus sixteen last night. Defense is his calling card and he's getting lit up. He can't shoot. We know he's on our offensive threat. Front office gave you Westbrook and Patrick Well Lebron allegedly leading the charge for I'm a journalist. I need proof of that. Despite being twenty and twenty five. Let me just remind everybody who's so down on the Lakers. Just reminding everybody currently they are a whopping two and a half games out of the sixth seed. That's it, two and a half out. They're gonna be fine. Oh, by the way, he's coming back. Hey, Hey, he's coming back. Lonnie Walker, Austin Reeves. Walker's not terrible. Good. Yeah, I thought he was the third best player. But I just want to remind people Phoenix Suns are cratery. I know we're not talking about it, but Chris Paul's falling off a cliff, Devin Booker's hurt. Like there's stuff happening in the West. You know what they are? The Sons are the Remember that Sacramento Kings team that had about it, Rick Adelman coach. They had about three year window Webber Bibby and then was a lot of devouts on that team that might have been I don't know. So for about three years we thought they were gonna unseede Shack and close. Well they came close, and there was some bad officiated game and then in Game seven they got beat, but their window closed, like it felt like overnight. I feel like the Suns had this two to three year window and now all of a sudden eight and then the coach and Chris Paul's aging and it's just closed. And now like Denver's just Denver's better. I'll just read off the top three teams in the West right now, Colin, let me guess Denver, Memphis Pelicans. Pelicans are tied with Sacramento. So Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, New Orleans are the top four teams in the West. Now, if you are an NBA TV partner, you might be a little goverments you think the Warriors are gonna win this thing. The top three favorites, those are a bunch of kids in the East. But that's a mistake. Philadelphia is not winning anything at gonna do anything in the playoffs. That team is not built for the playoffs. When you play a seven game series and you can find a weakness and just burrow into it, attack. Kyrie put Simmons at the line and forced Durant to defend every time down the floor, and Durant's amazing. That team is built for the regular season. But when Boston or a Milwaukee faces Brooklyn, they're gonna go after Kyrie. They're gonna force Durant to defend, and they're gonna put Ben Simmons on the line. It's over. That team's gonna get beat fast by the Sixers, the Celtics, the bo It's funny you mentioned Memphis. You know who their second best player is after John Morant. That's a tough part. Desmond Baine is their second best player. He played in the Big twelve twenty one points a game, great shooter, but like, that's how obscure Memphis is like Sandstown. It's gonna be a tough, tough NBA playoffs. Sell if that's the top of the West. And I love the NBA as do you. Yeah, I love watching it. Um Jay mckelanus. Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by The Herd Line. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon eastern ninety Empacific. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yo. As you all know, we're the host of the number one rated show in all of sports talk, The Folly and Tony Fusco Shop numero oh no, yeah, and we know why millions of people tune in every week. Yeah, they want to hear us talk sports, not our idiot guests who think they know more about sports than we go. He listened to these dummies. You don't know crap about This is the worst thing. He's still on the way off the shop. You don't know bad the ball. If you want to hear how sports talk should be done, yea, listen to The Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Giants and Eagles play on Saturday for a chance to keep their Super Bowl Hoots to Live and Fox. That Super six is giving everyone a chance to take home one hundred thousand dollars that Terry Bradshaw's money. Download the app and enter your picks. Now, I don't know who. This is a tough one, Collin. Everything to me points to Eagles as they've gotten healthier. Yeah, but Brian Dable in rematches this year, pooro against the spread. He makes great adjustments and that kind of dovetails to do what we may talk about now, I don't know what we were talking about. You know, we often, you know, you do lists and you rank, so there's eight coaches left, so seven or offensive coaches. So if you said who ranked the eight coaches left? Andy reads one after that, it gets very tough. Well, I think Kyle Shanahan. I think the greatest compliment you can give a coach is when he creates a system. Bill Walsh West Coast offense. Shanahan has his own system. If you if you talk to coaches like Sean Payton will tell you this. Shannahon does an amazing job to find extra blockers on every play like they're plays. You can watch them as a viewer. They look beautifully scripted, like certain teams just dial up plays like the Niners. You can see the fluidity of the blocking and the extra blockers. You're like, so I would go Shanahan too. It's funny about this. So we do this, somebody gets a reputation. So people would go, Brian Dable, what do we do with Doug Peterson? Okay, he does have a super Bowl win with Nick Foles. Yeah, out coached Belichick in one year, turned a losing franchise into a playoff winning franchise. Doug Peterson's a great example. So he was an assistant longer. He wasn't one of these hot shot guys. So middle Age gets the Philadelphia job, wins with Nick Foles, then struggles with the owner in the GM and they fire him. So the okay, sits on the beach for like two years. You're like, weird, goes to Jacksonville, a complete cultural mess, and turns it round in eight weeks. Okay, so I would put him third. Doug Peter, I guess I don't hate that. But what about McCarthy Yesterday? You did though McCarthy next to all these other legendary coaches. Dallas back to back double did you win seasons like? He's been incredible. No, he's got no argument from me, So I go Peterson three, McCarthy four. Then day Bles only got one year on the resume. It's been excellent. It's been amazing, and as an offensive coordinator he was outstanding. So I don't have a ton to work with, so I would do day Ball five. Bengals fans are like, wait a minute, where is our god? Well again, Sean McDermot, Zach Taylor, Nick Sirianni. I go back on Sean McDermott. I've seen this exact thing four years in a row. The mistakes are worse. Old line can't get solved, run game, they bail on it. It's eight. No, I think I don't have enough on Sirianni yet, So I think Zach and nicko, we'll don't have enough on Sirianni. They went from like we don't know what we're doing a quarterback with Carson Wentz to the playoffs last year to number one seed this year and you don't have enough on him. I think he's got to be above mister Taylor and Cincinnati. Who went to the super Bowl last year? But was that Taylor or Burrow? It's both? Well, he has no both he has some credit. Which coach? Do you hear more about Taylor or the defensive coordinator all season in Cincinnati? Yeah, that gets no credit. SI gets all of them to one very difficult good show today, made the most of it. To the hurt

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. Property crimes, Burglary, packaged staff, Spike, over the Winner, Strangely, Secure your home simply safecolin dot com twenty percent off right now, no safe legs, simply safe. Played for eleven years, a multiple time Pro bowler, a Super Bowl appearance, and the former San Francisco forty nine er and Bill Dante Whitner is now joining US live doing a lot of local media now in the Bay Area and doing a great job. So you know, we have a we have a history. You know this. Half the guys in the league are undrafted. Antonio Gates Hall of Famer, undrafted, Tony Romo, undrafted, Kurt Warner, undrafted. You look at the Niners Jennings receiver six round pick Kittle five. You know this. There's play years everywhere in this sport. They're maybe they're undersized, they don't go to a big program, they get overlooked. They're not in an Alabama. So when I watch brock Purty, Dante might take aways, I don't know, looks like his twitchy he's got I mean, I don't know. You tell me you played in this decade. Is this a guy you could build a franchise around? Do you buy into this lightning in the bottle stuff or what do you make of him? Well, when you look at brock Purty and what he provides for this forty nine or offense is the reason why you're sending Since the week fourteen, his ability to create plays when defensive coordinators kisch Kyle Shanahan in certain concepts, the ability to run the ball to play action game, but not only that, his calm and composure in the pocket. When you turn the film on on his young quarterback, it's not that he's just throwing into where Kyle Shanahan is telling him to throw it. He's creating throwing lanes with his mannerisms, his eyes and the understanding of who the free players are in the defense and how to attack them. And then he has to gusta to try to fit the ball in in tight coverage. I will say that Rock Curtie is a combination of Trailands with the athletic ability but more twitch and the precision and quick releasing Jimmy Garoppolo. He's Kyle Shanahan's perfect quarterback match. Now does Dallas create issues? Dallas, to me is a pretty easy figure. If Dak throws thirty five or less and he can be complimentary to a run game, they're a tough out. You're asking Dak to throw forty four times, which they've done this year, or you get into that number, you're asking too much of him. He's more complimentary though. When he is complimentary, like against Tampa the run game, he's a handful. So is there any matchup though on either side that you look at and think that's problematic for the Niners. Well, when I look at what Ceedee Lamb can do for that offense and how to move him around, primarily at that number three position near the tight end, he's attacking the field. He'll sit down at five yards, he'll run through the defense, he'll run deep overs. He makes you declare what defense you're playing, and if you try to take him away, this is when they attack you on the outside with Noah Brown and Michael Gallop. But I think that they have to worry about Tony Pollard creating explosives in the running game and receiving the ball out of the backfield. You know that they're going to run some screens. Being at the forty nine ers defensive line can sometimes get overly aggressive. And then I think another guy who a lot of people not really thinking about, who have a huge game last week is Dalton show Us. He is starting up awaken in this offense, he can attack you vertically. He's a number one threat in the red zone for the forty nine Ers. They're gonna have a lot to worry about. But it also going to come down to stop in the run, set the edge, getting the Cowboys into third and meet him and longs, but then executing the defense when you get into those predicaments. Third down is one of the Cowboys strands. You know, you look around Sean Payton rumor is the Denver thing, and I know Sean pretty well. Ownership matters a lot to him. They got new owners, they got a lot of money. Quarterback matters a lot, and it's an interesting thing. It's been well documented now publicized that Russell can lack some self awareness. The Bentley, the mansion. Well, Denver's offense is a bunch of kids and know by Tom BRADYO has made a point, Dante to connect with the young guys, the music, the tech. He's forty, these guys are twenty two years old. Is Russell Wilson the personality stuff solvable? Did you ever as you age did you see players disconnecting from the young guys. Because I was Dante, I was saying this, Denver's defense is good, and they're gonna pay some of these guys. The defense is going to get older. And because a Russell's contract, the offense has to be fairly inexpensive around him. They gonna build that on line, so that offense is gonna have a lot of kids on it. Do you think it's solvable for Russell to come back down to the kids and relate or maybe that's just not who he is. I think it's definitely solvable. But let's look at it from this point of view. That Russell Wilson goes out and wins ten to twelve games this year. Are we talking about his marriage to Sierra, or his mansion or his Bentley. I've seen multiple players on a lot of these different games in the locker room, and we've gone through losing and we've gone through winning. But as the quarterback, you're going to take the hit of it all. Playing against Russell Wilson for many years and many big games, I know that he has all the tools and the capabilities to be a top tier quarterback. I don't think he just fell off a cliff after last year. When you go to a new team and you're implementing yourself into a new organization, of course you have to win that locker room. But you have to know that ends and out in the intricacies of your offensive package. And it takes a lot more than one year to learn that. And when you think about what Russell Wilson did for the Seattle Seahawks, he had Marshan Lansh around him, he had all these weapons on the outside. He had to lead you to boom. All he had to do was play his role. Now he's been thrust it into a role. Wh didn't want him to drop back, throw the ball thirty five forty times a game and be a top tier quarterback. That's just slicing up defenses. I never thought that's who Russell Wilson was. So yeah, I think it's totally solvable. I know that Russell Wilson is going to go to work this offseason. And if you can pair him with a guy like Sean Payton, who I put up there, or even hiring and shine Sean, I mean in coach Shanahan, I think that they can do some special things playing against that offense and that offensive philosophies for many years. He's gonna get Russell Wilson to where he can, you know, finish his career on the right track. So you were a Buck guy, so you know Michigan football well, and you've seen the ascension with hardball. He wanted both the pro and college level. You know Jim well because you were with him in the Niners, And I said, I think he's more important Dante for college football, and I love college He's really important for the sport. These Northern Division teams, outside of the Buckeyes, they feel like for years they fell behind the South. Jim gives you another Northern power and I love the Big Ten and I love that kind of football. But he also won at the NFL level. You tell me it is in the current NFL players have more power. I know it was only five or six years ago. Do you think he made the right call. I don't know if you necessarily made your right call. And you see, he keeps wanting to scratch that edge. Ultimate gold and football at any level was to win the Lombardi. And when we came so close to winning Lombardi in the Super Bowl and we lost it, I know that he still had that eagerness and that first to capture the ultimate goal. This year he made it to the final four. Yeah, he almost had a chance to win a national title in college, but it's nothing like the taste of victory at the NFL level. So yeah, I know that coach Harball, with you know, his track record, with his philosophies, with the way that he plays certain mind games with the front office, the players, his coaches, his colleagues, the team, he has all the ability to get to the NFL and capture the ultimate goal, and that's to win a Lombardi. So yeah, I know he went back to Michigan, but I do see at some point coach Harball going to the NFL. Yeah, I mean, they're just nothing like winning a Super Bowl there there isn't. It's just it's you are completely defined as a player as a coach. Okay, by the way, guy, about thirty seconds left. I like the Niners in a fairly low scoring game twenty seven twenty is your thoughts? What do you think what transpires? I don't think it's gonna be a low scoring game. When you look at the deficiencies from the Dallas Cowboys defense, it's all about stopping the run. Christian McCaffrey having the ability to get devot the ball in space to attack the edges of his defense on the side. Yeah, they get some interceptions, but they do a lot against it. Kyle Shanahan having those extra thirty six hours to really break down this defense is going to go wonders. I'm giving the forty Niners a three touchdown advantage in this. Wow. Dante Wittner, great scene. You man is always appreciate it. Great seeing you, guys. I hope we talked to all right, So he liked Niners in a route. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app oo. J Mack with the News, No, no turn on the news. This is the herd line News. Wouldn't be surprised by Niners in a rout at all given this defense and Brock Purdy Dallas these turnovers. Doesn't if they don't create turnovers, I don't really think they have a chance in this one. I'm still surprised. Miami gave Buffalo fits last weekend. You real they sat Josh Allen seven times. That's Miami. No, it's a bad old line. It's a bad old line. Yeah, five years, Sean McDermott, what if Buffalo loses? What are you? What are you do you? You don't want to put McDermott on the hot sea because they're good, but they came into the season as Super Bowl favorite. They have not solved their run game or their own line with the defensive coach in five years. They still the greatest example of this is what great co sell. The tape tells you, Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs are great. They're not that talented on offense. Why it's a defensive culture. They have all sorts of talent every level of defense. Can I give you a prop bet I'm working at this week, Josh Allen over rushing yards. McDermott, a defensive guy is not going to let his quarterback be flinging it and lose the game. Remember all the red zone turnovers Josh Allen in the high big time games, he runs the football a lot. This is like a seventy yard rushing game for Josh Allen at least, that's my read. First up, Jags feeling good after the comeback against the Chargers. Now they have to go to Ksey to continue their playoff run. Trevor Lawrence spoke about the environment he expects to face at Arrowhead on Saturday. The environment and the atmosphere we're going to play in is one other, if not the best in the NFL. I mean, I can't imagine it'll be much louder than our fans were here on Saturday, honestly, but that was when we were on defense, not often so we played there earlier in the year. But this is a little bit different. You know, it's a playoff game, divisional round, so the stakes are higher, so I expect them to be even crazier and more packed stadium. But I mean, at the end of the day, you just gotta you gotta go play and you gotta make sure you communicate. That's the one thing we gotta get in and out the huddle. We gotta get the line of scrimmage so we have time to communicate because everything naturally takes a little longer when it's loud. Yeah, everybody got worked up over that. By the way, Pere Jacksonville to Arrowhead, Well, Herbert's beaten Mahomes twice. An Arrowhead Fangles beat him there last year in the AC Championship. Josh Allen has Let's not pretend Kansas City fans are amazing home fields about a point and a half they're doing they Washington Post had a great article on this. Home fields no longer three and a half four. It's the game has changed. Players now are basically treated almost better on the road, between the stretching and the heat therapy, whatever they do. I mean, I was reading the article in the Washington Post. I'm like, they set up basically, you know, like a camp inside of a hotel on the road. These these players are treated like royalty. The planes are bigger, they're they're hydrated better than ever before. Roads not that big of a deal. Remember when the Vikings had a huge home field advantage. It was all big. Remember that the dome, it gets loud, it's rock us. Daniel Jones went in there, won the game like no problems. Daniel Jones tore up Minnesota there twice twice. Daniel Jones. Yeah, it's just home fields. It's great. Probably worth a point, I would I would rather have it than not. Oh yeah, certainly. If you go to the history of the Giants, I always feel like they're a better road playoff team than home. The numbers probably don't back that up. Eli. I mean ELI wasn't one year ELI had to go and I remember with plaques had to go to Lambeau. They had great they had to go. I think they had three roadies. So yeah, the road games I have. I have some numbers on some interesting road games. I'll save him for tomorrow for the Gamblers out there. Next up Pittsburgh Steelers. Kenny Pickett nut sure he's thrilled about this, but OC Matt Canada he will be back next season. He's been the OC for the last two years. The offense, well, Colin, it's not been good. They ranked near the bottom of the league in points, yards, big plays with Matt Canada calling the shots, he loves Matt Canada loves nothing more than a first intend dive into the line of scrimmage. J Harris up. Then other defensive coach can't figure out the old line? Yeah, here, here are the numbers. Is this inspiring now? Now with a defensive coach. So McDermott and Tomlin can't figure out the old lines and the consistent run games. They also, however, don't sense the urgency with it. Well, Pittsburgh had a great offensive line they aged out. Remember everybody got old. Kay's been four years they've been trying to rebuild. They had lost that great offensive line. Coach, I'm spacing on his name now, but Pittsburgh has to figure that out. They got a quarterback on a rookie deal. This is a summer to spend, right. Do you think it's a coincidence that many of the worst all lines in the league. Let's think about it right now, Chicago defensive coach, Pittsburgh struggling, Buffalo struggling, Houston struggling. Now, I can't blame Lovey. He just got there an hour ago and got fired. But it is for the record, when Mike McDaniel got the Miami job, Now they had some injuries this year, once one of the first things he wanted the offensive coaches. Now, the Rams had a battle line this year due to injuries. But I'm concerned about the lack of urgency by Pittsburgh. They're okay with this. It's four years now. By the way, you see how quickly Andy Reid rebuilt that offensive line year super Bowl year one year. Buffalo is on year four, Pittsburgh year five. We're at the point in the draft where you've just got to gobble up lineman. I mean, hell, if the Chargers had to any offensive line depth, they might have been a better team this year. Next up, Oh boy, Lebron continued his hot streak thirty two points last night. Great performance, but it wasn't enough to get over the Sacramento Kings. Lakers lost their third game in the past week by combined ten points. Yeah, they lose Clothe. Well, they don't have any shooters, and their half court offense, if Westbrook's on the floor, is not closing lineup includes like Troy Brown. Yeah, and uh, Brian I saw running the floor you got in the NFL. We always talk about it. It's like baseball. You gotta have some home run power on your offense. You gotta gab. Not everything can be a seven double three single rally. You need guys that can Aaron Judge can jacket right. You need power in football. Not every New England, not every touchdown drive can be thirteen plays. You need cheap touchdowns. NBA Lakers just don't have any spot up shooters. They got to work so hard for points. There is something to be said about like Warriors can get to one twenty six and not play well. Yeah, so Lebron still unhappy as he should be given this roster that they're trotting out there. Here's what he said after the loss. We're definitely a ball club that has we have zero room air and h tonight. Although we played a pretty good game. I mean we only had once a game. We had seven turnovers as nine turnovers in two games. That is amazing, But we don't have much room for air. You know, we are limited with bodies we're playing. We played pretty much you know, almost everybody tonight just you know, just getting ready, why a look and and so you know until some of our big guys, our key guys get back and you know, it's been a problem for us this year with Adi and Uh, with Ad and Aar and Lonnie, guys who are huge in our rotation. You know, we have to continue to play how we played the last couple of games, trying to play mistake free basketball, get no free best, no spot up shooters. Telling Max Christie played twenty seven minutes last night. Now he was solid, but they picked up Patrick Beverley in the offseason and he has been a train wreck, an abject failure. Minus sixteen last night. Defense is his calling card and he's getting lit up. He can't shoot. We know he's on our offensive threat. Front office gave you Westbrook and Patrick Well Lebron allegedly leading the charge for I'm a journalist. I need proof of that. Despite being twenty and twenty five. Let me just remind everybody who's so down on the Lakers. Just reminding everybody currently they are a whopping two and a half games out of the sixth seed. That's it, two and a half out. They're gonna be fine. Oh, by the way, he's coming back. Hey, Hey, he's coming back. Lonnie Walker, Austin Reeves. Walker's not terrible. Good. Yeah, I thought he was the third best player. But I just want to remind people Phoenix Suns are cratery. I know we're not talking about it, but Chris Paul's falling off a cliff, Devin Booker's hurt. Like there's stuff happening in the West. You know what they are? The Sons are the Remember that Sacramento Kings team that had about it, Rick Adelman coach. They had about three year window Webber Bibby and then was a lot of devouts on that team that might have been I don't know. So for about three years we thought they were gonna unseede Shack and close. Well they came close, and there was some bad officiated game and then in Game seven they got beat, but their window closed, like it felt like overnight. I feel like the Suns had this two to three year window and now all of a sudden eight and then the coach and Chris Paul's aging and it's just closed. And now like Denver's just Denver's better. I'll just read off the top three teams in the West right now, Colin, let me guess Denver, Memphis Pelicans. Pelicans are tied with Sacramento. So Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, New Orleans are the top four teams in the West. Now, if you are an NBA TV partner, you might be a little goverments you think the Warriors are gonna win this thing. The top three favorites, those are a bunch of kids in the East. But that's a mistake. Philadelphia is not winning anything at gonna do anything in the playoffs. That team is not built for the playoffs. When you play a seven game series and you can find a weakness and just burrow into it, attack. Kyrie put Simmons at the line and forced Durant to defend every time down the floor, and Durant's amazing. That team is built for the regular season. But when Boston or a Milwaukee faces Brooklyn, they're gonna go after Kyrie. They're gonna force Durant to defend, and they're gonna put Ben Simmons on the line. It's over. That team's gonna get beat fast by the Sixers, the Celtics, the bo It's funny you mentioned Memphis. You know who their second best player is after John Morant. That's a tough part. Desmond Baine is their second best player. He played in the Big twelve twenty one points a game, great shooter, but like, that's how obscure Memphis is like Sandstown. It's gonna be a tough, tough NBA playoffs. Sell if that's the top of the West. And I love the NBA as do you. Yeah, I love watching it. Um Jay mckelanus. Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by The Herd Line. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon eastern ninety Empacific. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yo. As you all know, we're the host of the number one rated show in all of sports talk, The Folly and Tony Fusco Shop numero oh no, yeah, and we know why millions of people tune in every week. Yeah, they want to hear us talk sports, not our idiot guests who think they know more about sports than we go. He listened to these dummies. You don't know crap about This is the worst thing. He's still on the way off the shop. You don't know bad the ball. If you want to hear how sports talk should be done, yea, listen to The Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Giants and Eagles play on Saturday for a chance to keep their Super Bowl Hoots to Live and Fox. That Super six is giving everyone a chance to take home one hundred thousand dollars that Terry Bradshaw's money. Download the app and enter your picks. Now, I don't know who. This is a tough one, Collin. Everything to me points to Eagles as they've gotten healthier. Yeah, but Brian Dable in rematches this year, pooro against the spread. He makes great adjustments and that kind of dovetails to do what we may talk about now, I don't know what we were talking about. You know, we often, you know, you do lists and you rank, so there's eight coaches left, so seven or offensive coaches. So if you said who ranked the eight coaches left? Andy reads one after that, it gets very tough. Well, I think Kyle Shanahan. I think the greatest compliment you can give a coach is when he creates a system. Bill Walsh West Coast offense. Shanahan has his own system. If you if you talk to coaches like Sean Payton will tell you this. Shannahon does an amazing job to find extra blockers on every play like they're plays. You can watch them as a viewer. They look beautifully scripted, like certain teams just dial up plays like the Niners. You can see the fluidity of the blocking and the extra blockers. You're like, so I would go Shanahan too. It's funny about this. So we do this, somebody gets a reputation. So people would go, Brian Dable, what do we do with Doug Peterson? Okay, he does have a super Bowl win with Nick Foles. Yeah, out coached Belichick in one year, turned a losing franchise into a playoff winning franchise. Doug Peterson's a great example. So he was an assistant longer. He wasn't one of these hot shot guys. So middle Age gets the Philadelphia job, wins with Nick Foles, then struggles with the owner in the GM and they fire him. So the okay, sits on the beach for like two years. You're like, weird, goes to Jacksonville, a complete cultural mess, and turns it round in eight weeks. Okay, so I would put him third. Doug Peter, I guess I don't hate that. But what about McCarthy Yesterday? You did though McCarthy next to all these other legendary coaches. Dallas back to back double did you win seasons like? He's been incredible. No, he's got no argument from me, So I go Peterson three, McCarthy four. Then day Bles only got one year on the resume. It's been excellent. It's been amazing, and as an offensive coordinator he was outstanding. So I don't have a ton to work with, so I would do day Ball five. Bengals fans are like, wait a minute, where is our god? Well again, Sean McDermot, Zach Taylor, Nick Sirianni. I go back on Sean McDermott. I've seen this exact thing four years in a row. The mistakes are worse. Old line can't get solved, run game, they bail on it. It's eight. No, I think I don't have enough on Sirianni yet, So I think Zach and nicko, we'll don't have enough on Sirianni. They went from like we don't know what we're doing a quarterback with Carson Wentz to the playoffs last year to number one seed this year and you don't have enough on him. I think he's got to be above mister Taylor and Cincinnati. Who went to the super Bowl last year? But was that Taylor or Burrow? It's both? Well, he has no both he has some credit. Which coach? Do you hear more about Taylor or the defensive coordinator all season in Cincinnati? Yeah, that gets no credit. SI gets all of them to one very difficult good show today, made the most of it. To the hurt