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. Willie was in three Super Bowls with the Patriots, now is with the Chargers, briefly with the Dolphins and Lions. Kyle Van Noi, a two time Super Bowl champion, is joining us in studio. So there you go, baby, there we go. Now you're a free agent. You are a guy that knows the game, you think the game, ton of experience. I can see a team bringing you on with young linebackers and saying, let's bring a grown up in. Are there are there teams that you're looking at? Do you have a feel where you're going? You know, I haven't thought about it too much because of the last two years of being in free agency didn't go how I thought that would. I thought I would still be on those teams. So I'm honestly just sitting back and enjoining it. I'm here with you. Right now talking ball. I'm not really worried about my future. I'm just enjoying the present right now. I know a team will want me of how I finish the season, and I'll be grateful to go wherever I need to go. I'm confident in who I am as a player, and I'm excited to continue my success in the NFL. So you've played with Mac Jones, with Tua and Justin Herbert. Oh, hey, I like it. Let's get into it. You're the first time with Herbert that you're at a practice and you dropped back in coverage. How long did it take to go? Okay, that's different. I'll tell you a good quick story. It actually happened to be in seven on seven. It was third down drill and I was actually playing off the ball during fall camp. So I was kind of talking trash to him, you know, for one for two, and then he whips one right by my ear and he's like one for two, two for two, three for two. You know. Then he started going on this clinic and then after the the series was over, after the period that we call it, he comes up and he was like, how is that? And I was like, Okay, now that was like my introduction to him, and yeah, good friends with him. Love the kid. He's gonna be phenomenal. Can't wait to see for his future, the way he works and his growth, and I know everybody wants him to speak more and he'll get there. I'm confident in that he loves football and he loves personalities behind the scenes, and I respect that. Yeah, you know when you were part of the greatest dynasty in league history. Yes, I'm proud of that. By the way, you should be. Yeah, I talk trash about it too well. It was also I never felt New England always had the most talented team. They were talented. I thought they were the smartest teams. And Damian Woody's a friend of mine. He used to tell stories. He was saying, you know, we would practice a play for seventeen weeks and then we'd use it on a weird third down and they just it was different. That's not a knock on Brian Flores briefly or Brandon Staley, but was to kind of take your time on this. The intensity of Belichick and that culture for those years. We could be here all three hours of this. The intensity of Bill is nothing that I've ever seen because he just wants to win every day. Like he's not talking about the next day or the week. He's talking about that day. The most important time is that practice, right, everything practice is the most important thing. So he's literally all his mind, mind, everything, his focus, energy is on that one practice and that type of energy that you have to just process and just hone in and not worry about anything else. No distractions. You know, you have all sorts of stuff. He's the GM, he's the coach. All those distractions, he does not care. He is mainly focused on that one practice, and I think that's what separates him apart, because he's just trying to win that one day and he knows if I can win this one day and stack that and stack that and stack that, my guys are gonna be ready to go for the game. Were you ever late to a practice? No, But I'll tell you the one time I was late. It was actually I'll never forget this. It was my son newborn, and it was a rough night at the house. Right wife, he did her thing, she took care of him, and I was up. He was crying. I'm gonna blame him, right, And I didn't sleep very well and I woke up late. Oh man, your heart drop, Yes, my heart dropped, and I have a I have a missed call from Bill. I get to I get to the facilities, like, come on, Kyle, we can't do that, you know. And he find me, of course, he finds everybody that's late. But I was pretty nervous when I was late approaching New England's stadium. It was a long drive that day. I was driving fast, but it was long mentally for sure. Um Brady obviously is as good as anybody that's done it. He was very much in line with Bill, and I think I always said this. You know, Shaq and Kobe uh were the two best closers arguably at the same time in the league. They wore each other out. Did you ever sense bits and pieces of little tiny fissures after all those years? It's it would make, it would make. It's like it's like a marriage after twenty years, argue a case. I mean, I think it's with anything. It's it's with me and other coaches that have been together. So I mean you could see some some things, but nothing to the the effect of like, oh this is this is crazy? Right? It was normal conversations there was never a heated argument. But you know, I think when I'm done and I'm not playing football and don't want to make headlines right now, I'll be able to discuss this a little bit more, write my own book and tell my side of the story. But I didn't see to anything crazy off the top of my head. Yeah, So when you look at the league right now, it's pretty obvious that the league for safety reasons has pivoted offense. It used to be when you broke into this league. So about a decade ago, the middle of the field was transitioning from the defenses to the offenses. Now it's the offenses. Oh yeah, you can't hit anybody. I mean Nick Saban admitted this five years ago in college. I can't stop the best offenses. Take me to your rookie year in the NFL and to now that you've noticed structurally rules, what's made it harder for linebackers who I think. I don't want to just put myself. I just want to have everybody envisioned. Just the receiving yards you know, are crazy through the roof right now, right observed numbers, So I think just going over the middle receivers aren't scared like they used to, you know, like take the dreight the digs catch of Kittle the other day, he would have been literally what he would have been holding his ribs. He would have been heard, you know. And there was another play in the Vikings versus Patriots game where Justin Jefferson's flying down the sideline and Devin mccordy comes in gets a good hit on him. But back in the day, I mean, he's holding his ribs again, talking about you know, we gotta call somebody over. That's not happening anymore. Guys are happy to go across the middle catch the ball with two hands because they know they're not gonna get hit anywhere. Essentially, it's kind of like you get pushed down to the ground. I would say that's the biggest thing that I've seen over my course of the last decade, is just receivers being a little bit more like just catching the ball over the middle and not being scared. So you faced Patrick Mahomes, I believe five times, and I've asked people for years when you face Peyton Manning what it's like and Peyton's looking at j In Barking and omahan, I'm not sure if Mahomes does that, But you can go to the first time you faced him the last time. Did you know instantly, Kyle, instantly this cats different. No, I'm not gonna say instantly. It probably wasn't until the next time I played him the first time time was I want to believe in two thousand and seventeen, off the Super Bowl year of sixteen, him and Kareem Hunt came in the stadium and blew the roof off. They beat our they beat our ass. And you know, so I gave a lot of credit to Kareem Hunt because at that time he was the best running back in the league as rookie. I mean, he could run you over ju Q stiff arm you. I mean he only had to touch the ball twelve times a game to get one hundred yards. He was incredible. And then what Mahomes has done, from what I've seen from him, as he's turning into a more pure pocket passer, he doesn't have to do, I mean, what makes him specialists getting outside the pocket? You know Madden, you know, run around like you would be playing Madden, running around behind the scene for five minutes and then finding somebody open and throwing it he's doing that in real life. That separates him. But his pocket passing, ability of reading coverages, understanding schemes, and Andy Reid just calling dialing it up for him. I mean, I think this year he proved to be the MVP. He didn't have a true number one receiver, even though I think Travis Kelsey's a receiver. I just think he's the MVP of this year. So let's talk you. You've had to go, You've had to defend Travis Kelsey and practice, you defended Gronk. Oh, yeah, it is. It is interesting. So let's let's talk about the individual matchups. So when you face Gronk, who's really known as a red zone, he can block it. Was there a trick to defending Gronk? I mean, and it was practice, But was there a little edge you felt you could do with Gronk? I love. I loved guarding Gronk and practice because we would be laughing the whole time. Yeah, we'd be lined up and it would set Hike and he'll tell you we've both hit each other and start laughing at each other. And it was just a fun competitive But the thing that always to me separated Ronk was his catch radius and his strength like anywhere the ball was he could go up and get it drop and yes, and he's holding that so like you could be slapping at it trying to get a PBu and he's like kind of like dunking on you a little bit, and sometimes you would get him. And for me, it was always trying to be more physical with him. He obviously liked that back, and I think it was just fun competing with him at that level. It's just fun. He came here to work at Fox. He is contagious. Oh yeah, he's literally in the building. He is one of the most likable people I've been around. Now. Kelsey's a different matchup. Oh yeah. I don't know how he grades as a blocker, but not good. He knows he's not good at that. Okay, it's okay, but he's really good at receiving, like unbelievable and like Gronk, a big personality when you match up with him. Is he a trash talker or what is it? He's a little trash talker, but he deserves it. I mean he backs it up on the field. He makes game changing plays. I mean pisses me off that this last year they got to walk off on us at our own stadium. Now it's kind of embarrassing, but I gotta give credit when credit is due. He's a really dynamic player. He's really changed the game and paved the way for tight ends. I know, yes, And I know he gave credit to Antonio Gates because he was the other day, I want to say on his podcast him and his brother are doing a really good job of that. Gave Antonio Gates paving the way from him, and I think now he's paved the way for everybody after to get that type of deal with what you're saying, receiver money of um, I've asked guys like you that occasionally come off the edge and and uh, you know, was there ever an offensive alignment Ray Lewis years ago? You know, the great Ray Lewis. Ray is really funny and if you get Ray but off the mic, he is hysterical. And I asked him years ago about and it was a Kansas City offensive lineman. It may have been Willie Rowe for something. And he's like, oh, I just he's like calling, I'm a physical guy. I got no interest hitting him. Is that when you look back at the guys we were just talking about Trent Williams earlier today Michael Parsons disappeared. Were there guys, were there teams maybe it's Baltimore's culture, or were there linemen that if they're coming around the corner and it's a run block or you have to come in, who do you? Was almost a perfect offensive lineman in all year year It could be a pulling guard. Oh Man played so many over the years. Now, I really I really like Tyran Smith when I was young, when I was younger, phenomenal player. Yeah, no, fat, he's a specimen. I mean he's still playing good. He was still playing good the other day. He's just definitely not what he was. If he gets his hands on you, he's just strong. Um ah Man, there's so many us. Travis Kelsey's brother, Jason Kelsey very fast. Alex Mack at the center was very fast, just climbing to the second level. I wouldn't say they were like they're overly strong, but they just discard go to the next guy. Yes, Dominic Raola, he doesn't get enough credit either. I played with him when I was rookie in Detroit. He was another center. He would he would he was grimy though I loved it, like he just, you know, do little Nixon knax that veterans do. He's from that older age type of deal, like play through anything and just you know, wrap it up, tape it up and go. So Kyle Shanahan's offense, We've said this, I love watching the Niners play. It is nineteen eighty eight football. They always figure out a way to throw an additional blocker on any run. I don't know where they come from, but they'll bring another guard they've got, you know, obviously Kyle just checked the Pro Bowl fullback. When you defend a Niner's offense with Kyle Shanahan as a viewer, it looks different than other offenses. Yes, when you're defending it. Why is it so successful? He's done, He's had six round running backs, Elijah Mitchell, everybody succeeds in it. What's the secret sauce to Kyle's offense. He's got about a thousand run plays. I mean, you just saw it in the Cowboys game. The Cowboys game, they did a really good job stop in the zone stretch and I want to say they gained about twenty seven yards in the first half. Flip it to the second half, they come out in gap scheme where they're down block, you know, Trent Williams coming down onto double team climbing and then you got two pollers that are coming and they had eight i want to say, eighty six yards in the second half, and you're like, they stopped him in the first half. And then it's because he switched his whole playbook. His offensive adjustments in the game are I mean, right now, I think he's the best OC in the game right now. They do they mask them, can you tell. I mean, just brought Curtis a kid and he's figured it out. And I want to say, that's what they do so well is they make everything one thing look the same, like they run that The biggest thing right now is that tight end coming across fast motion, whether you put a tackle there. You saw Trent Williams the year before against Green Bay smack and buddy out of the club. Now they're doing a tight end doing it, use check does it and then they have a boot off of it sometimes, So now you have the linebackers and safety's all flowing like, oh here it comes, you know, and then the pass rush is a little slow and then they're out on the perimeter. Brock Purty, easy throw, easy read, keep the chains move, so they keep you think yes constantly. Oh yeah. They put a lot of pressure on everybody because motion someone and that usually affects four to five guys. They're assignments and so they could be every play. You gotta be sharp. They put pressure every single play. 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 heard you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Okay, your organization of the Chargers. So Brandon Staley retains his job. I think he's smart. I think players like him. I do worry about the adjustments. I tend to think young coaches. I criticized Matt Lafleur years ago. I thought he was very good in the film room, very good in the first half. I thought Matt Lafleur's first couple of years he wasn't a great adjuster. Kyle Shanahan is Belichick, is Pete Carroll, is Mike tomlin Is Is it a fair criticism to say that part of his game needs to get better the halftime adjustments. I mean, I think that's my guy. I really like Brandon State. I think he's a phenomenal coach. But I mean, just like anyone, when you don't win the Super Bowl, you can always get better, right. Um. I think for him, he's gonna go back and look at the film on where he can get better, where he can make adjustments better. Um. I don't want to just put it on him. I think it's a collective group. I think players need to do their part in it as well. Um. I'm excited to see him because he took the challenge last year and with the amount of injuries that we sustained this year from Pro Bowl all Pro players defensively, three lost three d linemen. I mean, I could go on and I'm not making an excuse, but to stay in the hunt and be in the hunt at the end of the season. I was very impressed with the composure he had, and you know, I know he's gonna make better ustments. I know he's gonna make the right things, uh to win, because that's what he's all about He's all about winning and he's gonna get it done. Did you you had Mac Jones for a year? I did. Now they call him McEnroe Jones. Apparently he gets pissy. Did you notice that? Uh? Yeah, I always I always give Mac a hard time about that because I think what people don't understand, um, is these guys are still human, you know. I know they're leading uh billion dollar companies and that's a huge task. And everybody wants every all these quarterbacks to act a certain way. You know. It's just like Lamar Jackson. I love. I think Lamar deserves his money, deserves it all. He doesn't do what everyone else does, right and um, I mean you could go justin. He doesn't do what everyone else does. He does he does his own thing. Tom the same way, he does his thing his own way. Joe Burrow, I mean, most sad quarterback in the league right now, Joe Schey. They call him King of the North, they call him, I mean, Buddy's got. I love Patrick Mahomes. He's vocal, he talks, talks openly about everything. You know. I just love all these different quarterbacks doing different things. Now, you know, back to Mac with the original question, you know, Mac's gonna do a good job. I just saw Billy O's coming back. That's his guy. I think it's gonna work out great. You know. I'm excited for him and I'm excited for him to continue to mature. He's gonna do it. He's done it already. I'll tell you a quick story about Mac is when I knew he was he was going to be the guys. When Cam Newton was not there during practice, I think it was like I believe COVID situation miss practice during fall camp and he came in against the giants and kind of was cussing people out, get your ass, so, you know, directing people and you know, and he was slicing up our defense and then sliced up the giants and it was like, Oh, this dude's taking that step. And so I envisioned him that he's going to continue to do that with his maturation. Is that the right word? Yeah, and continue to get better and everything he needs. And I think Billy Oh is going to be able to get him there finally, Brady, what do you think he does? Tommy boy? Love that man. He's a good man. He was shown his kids to a private school in Miami. If he would you be shocked his dad said he'll never retire. Would you be shocked if he said, I've had great run. I mean, I was shocked what he did last year. I just felt like it was off and it wasn't the right way. He exits, and you know, I'm gonna. I'm so happy for him and his career, you know, just battling with the things he's done off the field and continue to go through. And he played with the greatest football player ever. Yeah, he's unbelievable and he I think he's the goat. He's definitely the best ever cush out. Yes, he's cussed at me. I will say this. One thing that I loved about him is when we ended up playing him when he was at Tampa in that game and after the game he said something, He's like, it's not fun playing your friends and me, and he took him knee and came and it was high high Tower, Dante high Tower. Myself went up to give him some love and he's like, that wasn't as fun as I thought it was, And I was like, yeah, it wasn't. It was really weird, like playing your older brother and like it was fun competing, but it was. It was just a weird dynamic. Yeah, yeah, all right, Kyle van Noy, I had no idea. He was my neighbor. We'll end it there. We won't tell you where. What a pleasure to meet you. Finally, Yes, good luck to you. Congratulations on your success. Thank you, Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on you. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd week days and newon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino Enriched Cavino MS. Thanks buddy, that's right. Cavino Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino en Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rockin' dude. The show features our unique take on sports, inject you with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino en Rich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich give me here. Hell yeah, new Year, new wireless plans, switch to consumer cellular dot com, slash the herd twenty five dollars off, change your phone number. Nope, don't have to change your phone. Don't have dude, no activation fee. Let's say big on savings. Consume jamack with the news. No, no, turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. Derek Carr Colin Gon'll be on the move shortly. He was with the Raiders for nine seasons. You would think after this messy divorce he would jump at the chance to air his dirty laundry. Maybe take a jab or two a McDaniel's phone, you know, come on, Derek, Car's taking the high road. Here's what he wrote. Thank you to all the people reaching out trying to give me their platform to tell my side of what happened. It's the hardest thing in the world to not jump on every interview and tell the truth. Thank you. But I'm choosing to move on and give our next city our best maturity. I kind of like this. You know, every reporter out there's like, hey, come tell your side of the story. Come, come, come, come, give me the exclusive. You don't have to show me what you had for lunch on Twitter, nor resolve every issue on social media. Really I thought you had to. You also have to air all your family's dirty laundry on social media. No, you can just do things behind the scenes. Not everything has to be public. Yeah, with class and dignity, somebody's gonna get a really good quarterback. How heard mentioning class and dignity. I'll tell you what. You put him at Miami. He never gets hurt. So al was available every Sunday. You got him that wet tyree kill, Jalen Waddle, good left tackle, run game, nice secondary. It is he an upgrade from two When TWA was at his best, he was an MP beginning. Yes, he's better than two, I would agree. I was just trying to catch in her trap. Next Next up, Arizona Cardinals. I'm so off this team. Colin train Wreck of A season four and thirteen in the seller. In the NFC West, Kyler Murray obviously the tourn acl They fired Cliff Kingsbury, which is still mind boggling to me. One of the biggest issues, though, was Kyler's stagnant development. Following the contract extension he got Mike Sando spoke with an anonymous NFL executive who said, I don't know how much better Kyler can be. He might have hit his ceiling and will always be limited by his size and unwillingness to stand in there and get hit. I was told by a Pro Bowl pass rusher during his rookie year told me off the record, he said that guy didn't like to get hit. He's a baseball player. And I think increasingly I don't think this is necessarily wrong. I don't know if it's right, but Kyler doesn't like to get hit. He does not like to get hit. And this player told me, he said, that's not gonna last. And this is a This is not only a really smart guy's a great player, multiple Pro Bowls pass rusher who hit him the Cardinals. The Cardinals have to know this. They knew he didn't want to get hit. The inter thing is the media is so funny. Yes, size matters. When people like me came out and said he's tiny, it doesn't course it matter. Tua acknowledged last year. Sometimes I can't see over the offensive line. We've fallen into this trap because of Russell Wilson's decade of excellence that size doesn't matter. Manzelle was too small. Kyler looks too small too. It gets beat up Baker. I think Baker for a while had some of the most batted down passes to the line of scriminals. Ideally you want six three to six three and a half ideally now now Caleb Williams for USC six two, Aaron Rodgers six two, very all world talent. The problem with Kyler is how do you salvage this colin? And they screwed up by giving him all the money last year. He has all the money, all the power, and if you push him, he'll just say, you know what, I'm out of here. I got by guaranteed money. I'll go play baseball. I'll go ride buses in Triple A for a year or two. Right, it's just ugly. Arizona is a disaster. They're definitely a cell. Yeah, final story, let's go ooh. Despite brock Purty's success since Jimmy g went down, Kyle Shanahan getting questions still about Garoppolo's availability heading into Sunday's NSC Championship game on Fox. Previously Shanahan had said Jimmy g had an outside chance of being ready, but is now saying he'd be very surprised if Garoppolo was out there this week, adding there'd be a better chance if the forty nine ers managed to the super Bowl come out. That's kind of interesting. Well, let's say he's available with the super Bowl. That means Brock Purtty got you to the super Bowl. You're not starting Garppolo. I do think it could allow you. Kyle could say we can move pretty a little more in the pocket if we had to do more rollouts. We do have a backout plan because I think I think the one thing about Pretty that is coming out that's pretty clear. He's a lot twitchier and more athletic than people think, like Dak moves. Well, I never think he's twitchy. He's good at avoiding getting He's right really quick. He's really quick in limited space. So you go to a super Bowl think to yourself, listen, I've got I've got a very capable former Super Bowl quarterback in my Mitsch. Can we take a few more RPO chances run around a little more with Purdy if you got there, I mean, listen, even against Philadelphia. Well they're they're not gonna blitz a lot. Their DNA is we're getting to you with four and we're gonna confuse you with the exotic coverage is nothing. You're not beating us deep no, No, Brandon Ayuk over the top, and Purdie's just gonna have to pray a cerebral game where he's picking his spots. And I think Kittle and Deebo and McCaffrey, I give them the edge over this Philadelphia defense column in space. I mean, it's not like the Eagles linebackers are what the Niners linebackers are. Like. I just don't see this Eagles offense steamrolling the way they just boat race the Giants. They're not doing that to these Niners. Well, we know they're not going to beat them thirty eighties. I mean, we saw plays where Warner and green Law are dropping into coverage against Ceedee Lamb okay, like I'm sorry they're I don't think they're worried. Worried about Davante Smith and Dallas Goddard. When you have those linebackers, it feels like a low scoring game like seventeen sixteen. Whoever has the ball last you trust Robbie Gould in a big spot. Yes, absolutely, do you I do. That's why I say yeah, yeah, Yeah, he's great. Yeah, it's gonna be a good game. I'm excited for it, so am I. You know it's on Fox. No, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh that's awesome. Hey, when's your big announcement? We'll do it right after this. I guess, Well you want to do it? Close out the show with it? Yeah, save it for the end for the hardcore listeners. Well the show is over. Oh, so we'll do it. I didn't know that. And what we could do it? We may have a big in that. Well you mean you there tomorrow or no? Yeah, why wouldn't we be? Oh okay, just thinking, sir J Mack with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd line. Eight distinctive models of SUVs at Mercedes Benz mbusa dot com or go to a Mercedes dealer. Okay, Kyle van noyen Nick, Right, that's a good show. A load of meat in that sandwich. That was fantastic. First things versus Around the Corner boys are all wrapped up today Live in Los Angeles, seat tomorrow what's the herd

Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Willie was in three Super Bowls with the Patriots, now is with the Chargers, briefly with the Dolphins and Lions. Kyle Van Noi, a two time Super Bowl champion, is joining us in studio. So there you go, baby, there we go. Now you're a free agent. You are a guy that knows the game, you think the game, ton of experience. I can see a team bringing you on with young linebackers and saying, let's bring a grown up in. Are there are there teams that you're looking at? Do you have a feel where you're going? You know, I haven't thought about it too much because of the last two years of being in free agency didn't go how I thought that would. I thought I would still be on those teams. So I'm honestly just sitting back and enjoining it. I'm here with you. Right now talking ball. I'm not really worried about my future. I'm just enjoying the present right now. I know a team will want me of how I finish the season, and I'll be grateful to go wherever I need to go. I'm confident in who I am as a player, and I'm excited to continue my success in the NFL. So you've played with Mac Jones, with Tua and Justin Herbert. Oh, hey, I like it. Let's get into it. You're the first time with Herbert that you're at a practice and you dropped back in coverage. How long did it take to go? Okay, that's different. I'll tell you a good quick story. It actually happened to be in seven on seven. It was third down drill and I was actually playing off the ball during fall camp. So I was kind of talking trash to him, you know, for one for two, and then he whips one right by my ear and he's like one for two, two for two, three for two. You know. Then he started going on this clinic and then after the the series was over, after the period that we call it, he comes up and he was like, how is that? And I was like, Okay, now that was like my introduction to him, and yeah, good friends with him. Love the kid. He's gonna be phenomenal. Can't wait to see for his future, the way he works and his growth, and I know everybody wants him to speak more and he'll get there. I'm confident in that he loves football and he loves personalities behind the scenes, and I respect that. Yeah, you know when you were part of the greatest dynasty in league history. Yes, I'm proud of that. By the way, you should be. Yeah, I talk trash about it too well. It was also I never felt New England always had the most talented team. They were talented. I thought they were the smartest teams. And Damian Woody's a friend of mine. He used to tell stories. He was saying, you know, we would practice a play for seventeen weeks and then we'd use it on a weird third down and they just it was different. That's not a knock on Brian Flores briefly or Brandon Staley, but was to kind of take your time on this. The intensity of Belichick and that culture for those years. We could be here all three hours of this. The intensity of Bill is nothing that I've ever seen because he just wants to win every day. Like he's not talking about the next day or the week. He's talking about that day. The most important time is that practice, right, everything practice is the most important thing. So he's literally all his mind, mind, everything, his focus, energy is on that one practice and that type of energy that you have to just process and just hone in and not worry about anything else. No distractions. You know, you have all sorts of stuff. He's the GM, he's the coach. All those distractions, he does not care. He is mainly focused on that one practice, and I think that's what separates him apart, because he's just trying to win that one day and he knows if I can win this one day and stack that and stack that and stack that, my guys are gonna be ready to go for the game. Were you ever late to a practice? No, But I'll tell you the one time I was late. It was actually I'll never forget this. It was my son newborn, and it was a rough night at the house. Right wife, he did her thing, she took care of him, and I was up. He was crying. I'm gonna blame him, right, And I didn't sleep very well and I woke up late. Oh man, your heart drop, Yes, my heart dropped, and I have a I have a missed call from Bill. I get to I get to the facilities, like, come on, Kyle, we can't do that, you know. And he find me, of course, he finds everybody that's late. But I was pretty nervous when I was late approaching New England's stadium. It was a long drive that day. I was driving fast, but it was long mentally for sure. Um Brady obviously is as good as anybody that's done it. He was very much in line with Bill, and I think I always said this. You know, Shaq and Kobe uh were the two best closers arguably at the same time in the league. They wore each other out. Did you ever sense bits and pieces of little tiny fissures after all those years? It's it would make, it would make. It's like it's like a marriage after twenty years, argue a case. I mean, I think it's with anything. It's it's with me and other coaches that have been together. So I mean you could see some some things, but nothing to the the effect of like, oh this is this is crazy? Right? It was normal conversations there was never a heated argument. But you know, I think when I'm done and I'm not playing football and don't want to make headlines right now, I'll be able to discuss this a little bit more, write my own book and tell my side of the story. But I didn't see to anything crazy off the top of my head. Yeah, So when you look at the league right now, it's pretty obvious that the league for safety reasons has pivoted offense. It used to be when you broke into this league. So about a decade ago, the middle of the field was transitioning from the defenses to the offenses. Now it's the offenses. Oh yeah, you can't hit anybody. I mean Nick Saban admitted this five years ago in college. I can't stop the best offenses. Take me to your rookie year in the NFL and to now that you've noticed structurally rules, what's made it harder for linebackers who I think. I don't want to just put myself. I just want to have everybody envisioned. Just the receiving yards you know, are crazy through the roof right now, right observed numbers, So I think just going over the middle receivers aren't scared like they used to, you know, like take the dreight the digs catch of Kittle the other day, he would have been literally what he would have been holding his ribs. He would have been heard, you know. And there was another play in the Vikings versus Patriots game where Justin Jefferson's flying down the sideline and Devin mccordy comes in gets a good hit on him. But back in the day, I mean, he's holding his ribs again, talking about you know, we gotta call somebody over. That's not happening anymore. Guys are happy to go across the middle catch the ball with two hands because they know they're not gonna get hit anywhere. Essentially, it's kind of like you get pushed down to the ground. I would say that's the biggest thing that I've seen over my course of the last decade, is just receivers being a little bit more like just catching the ball over the middle and not being scared. So you faced Patrick Mahomes, I believe five times, and I've asked people for years when you face Peyton Manning what it's like and Peyton's looking at j In Barking and omahan, I'm not sure if Mahomes does that, But you can go to the first time you faced him the last time. Did you know instantly, Kyle, instantly this cats different. No, I'm not gonna say instantly. It probably wasn't until the next time I played him the first time time was I want to believe in two thousand and seventeen, off the Super Bowl year of sixteen, him and Kareem Hunt came in the stadium and blew the roof off. They beat our they beat our ass. And you know, so I gave a lot of credit to Kareem Hunt because at that time he was the best running back in the league as rookie. I mean, he could run you over ju Q stiff arm you. I mean he only had to touch the ball twelve times a game to get one hundred yards. He was incredible. And then what Mahomes has done, from what I've seen from him, as he's turning into a more pure pocket passer, he doesn't have to do, I mean, what makes him specialists getting outside the pocket? You know Madden, you know, run around like you would be playing Madden, running around behind the scene for five minutes and then finding somebody open and throwing it he's doing that in real life. That separates him. But his pocket passing, ability of reading coverages, understanding schemes, and Andy Reid just calling dialing it up for him. I mean, I think this year he proved to be the MVP. He didn't have a true number one receiver, even though I think Travis Kelsey's a receiver. I just think he's the MVP of this year. So let's talk you. You've had to go, You've had to defend Travis Kelsey and practice, you defended Gronk. Oh, yeah, it is. It is interesting. So let's let's talk about the individual matchups. So when you face Gronk, who's really known as a red zone, he can block it. Was there a trick to defending Gronk? I mean, and it was practice, But was there a little edge you felt you could do with Gronk? I love. I loved guarding Gronk and practice because we would be laughing the whole time. Yeah, we'd be lined up and it would set Hike and he'll tell you we've both hit each other and start laughing at each other. And it was just a fun competitive But the thing that always to me separated Ronk was his catch radius and his strength like anywhere the ball was he could go up and get it drop and yes, and he's holding that so like you could be slapping at it trying to get a PBu and he's like kind of like dunking on you a little bit, and sometimes you would get him. And for me, it was always trying to be more physical with him. He obviously liked that back, and I think it was just fun competing with him at that level. It's just fun. He came here to work at Fox. He is contagious. Oh yeah, he's literally in the building. He is one of the most likable people I've been around. Now. Kelsey's a different matchup. Oh yeah. I don't know how he grades as a blocker, but not good. He knows he's not good at that. Okay, it's okay, but he's really good at receiving, like unbelievable and like Gronk, a big personality when you match up with him. Is he a trash talker or what is it? He's a little trash talker, but he deserves it. I mean he backs it up on the field. He makes game changing plays. I mean pisses me off that this last year they got to walk off on us at our own stadium. Now it's kind of embarrassing, but I gotta give credit when credit is due. He's a really dynamic player. He's really changed the game and paved the way for tight ends. I know, yes, And I know he gave credit to Antonio Gates because he was the other day, I want to say on his podcast him and his brother are doing a really good job of that. Gave Antonio Gates paving the way from him, and I think now he's paved the way for everybody after to get that type of deal with what you're saying, receiver money of um, I've asked guys like you that occasionally come off the edge and and uh, you know, was there ever an offensive alignment Ray Lewis years ago? You know, the great Ray Lewis. Ray is really funny and if you get Ray but off the mic, he is hysterical. And I asked him years ago about and it was a Kansas City offensive lineman. It may have been Willie Rowe for something. And he's like, oh, I just he's like calling, I'm a physical guy. I got no interest hitting him. Is that when you look back at the guys we were just talking about Trent Williams earlier today Michael Parsons disappeared. Were there guys, were there teams maybe it's Baltimore's culture, or were there linemen that if they're coming around the corner and it's a run block or you have to come in, who do you? Was almost a perfect offensive lineman in all year year It could be a pulling guard. Oh Man played so many over the years. Now, I really I really like Tyran Smith when I was young, when I was younger, phenomenal player. Yeah, no, fat, he's a specimen. I mean he's still playing good. He was still playing good the other day. He's just definitely not what he was. If he gets his hands on you, he's just strong. Um ah Man, there's so many us. Travis Kelsey's brother, Jason Kelsey very fast. Alex Mack at the center was very fast, just climbing to the second level. I wouldn't say they were like they're overly strong, but they just discard go to the next guy. Yes, Dominic Raola, he doesn't get enough credit either. I played with him when I was rookie in Detroit. He was another center. He would he would he was grimy though I loved it, like he just, you know, do little Nixon knax that veterans do. He's from that older age type of deal, like play through anything and just you know, wrap it up, tape it up and go. So Kyle Shanahan's offense, We've said this, I love watching the Niners play. It is nineteen eighty eight football. They always figure out a way to throw an additional blocker on any run. I don't know where they come from, but they'll bring another guard they've got, you know, obviously Kyle just checked the Pro Bowl fullback. When you defend a Niner's offense with Kyle Shanahan as a viewer, it looks different than other offenses. Yes, when you're defending it. Why is it so successful? He's done, He's had six round running backs, Elijah Mitchell, everybody succeeds in it. What's the secret sauce to Kyle's offense. He's got about a thousand run plays. I mean, you just saw it in the Cowboys game. The Cowboys game, they did a really good job stop in the zone stretch and I want to say they gained about twenty seven yards in the first half. Flip it to the second half, they come out in gap scheme where they're down block, you know, Trent Williams coming down onto double team climbing and then you got two pollers that are coming and they had eight i want to say, eighty six yards in the second half, and you're like, they stopped him in the first half. And then it's because he switched his whole playbook. His offensive adjustments in the game are I mean, right now, I think he's the best OC in the game right now. They do they mask them, can you tell. I mean, just brought Curtis a kid and he's figured it out. And I want to say, that's what they do so well is they make everything one thing look the same, like they run that The biggest thing right now is that tight end coming across fast motion, whether you put a tackle there. You saw Trent Williams the year before against Green Bay smack and buddy out of the club. Now they're doing a tight end doing it, use check does it and then they have a boot off of it sometimes, So now you have the linebackers and safety's all flowing like, oh here it comes, you know, and then the pass rush is a little slow and then they're out on the perimeter. Brock Purty, easy throw, easy read, keep the chains move, so they keep you think yes constantly. Oh yeah. They put a lot of pressure on everybody because motion someone and that usually affects four to five guys. They're assignments and so they could be every play. You gotta be sharp. They put pressure every single play. 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 heard you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Okay, your organization of the Chargers. So Brandon Staley retains his job. I think he's smart. I think players like him. I do worry about the adjustments. I tend to think young coaches. I criticized Matt Lafleur years ago. I thought he was very good in the film room, very good in the first half. I thought Matt Lafleur's first couple of years he wasn't a great adjuster. Kyle Shanahan is Belichick, is Pete Carroll, is Mike tomlin Is Is it a fair criticism to say that part of his game needs to get better the halftime adjustments. I mean, I think that's my guy. I really like Brandon State. I think he's a phenomenal coach. But I mean, just like anyone, when you don't win the Super Bowl, you can always get better, right. Um. I think for him, he's gonna go back and look at the film on where he can get better, where he can make adjustments better. Um. I don't want to just put it on him. I think it's a collective group. I think players need to do their part in it as well. Um. I'm excited to see him because he took the challenge last year and with the amount of injuries that we sustained this year from Pro Bowl all Pro players defensively, three lost three d linemen. I mean, I could go on and I'm not making an excuse, but to stay in the hunt and be in the hunt at the end of the season. I was very impressed with the composure he had, and you know, I know he's gonna make better ustments. I know he's gonna make the right things, uh to win, because that's what he's all about He's all about winning and he's gonna get it done. Did you you had Mac Jones for a year? I did. Now they call him McEnroe Jones. Apparently he gets pissy. Did you notice that? Uh? Yeah, I always I always give Mac a hard time about that because I think what people don't understand, um, is these guys are still human, you know. I know they're leading uh billion dollar companies and that's a huge task. And everybody wants every all these quarterbacks to act a certain way. You know. It's just like Lamar Jackson. I love. I think Lamar deserves his money, deserves it all. He doesn't do what everyone else does, right and um, I mean you could go justin. He doesn't do what everyone else does. He does he does his own thing. Tom the same way, he does his thing his own way. Joe Burrow, I mean, most sad quarterback in the league right now, Joe Schey. They call him King of the North, they call him, I mean, Buddy's got. I love Patrick Mahomes. He's vocal, he talks, talks openly about everything. You know. I just love all these different quarterbacks doing different things. Now, you know, back to Mac with the original question, you know, Mac's gonna do a good job. I just saw Billy O's coming back. That's his guy. I think it's gonna work out great. You know. I'm excited for him and I'm excited for him to continue to mature. He's gonna do it. He's done it already. I'll tell you a quick story about Mac is when I knew he was he was going to be the guys. When Cam Newton was not there during practice, I think it was like I believe COVID situation miss practice during fall camp and he came in against the giants and kind of was cussing people out, get your ass, so, you know, directing people and you know, and he was slicing up our defense and then sliced up the giants and it was like, Oh, this dude's taking that step. And so I envisioned him that he's going to continue to do that with his maturation. Is that the right word? Yeah, and continue to get better and everything he needs. And I think Billy Oh is going to be able to get him there finally, Brady, what do you think he does? Tommy boy? Love that man. He's a good man. He was shown his kids to a private school in Miami. If he would you be shocked his dad said he'll never retire. Would you be shocked if he said, I've had great run. I mean, I was shocked what he did last year. I just felt like it was off and it wasn't the right way. He exits, and you know, I'm gonna. I'm so happy for him and his career, you know, just battling with the things he's done off the field and continue to go through. And he played with the greatest football player ever. Yeah, he's unbelievable and he I think he's the goat. He's definitely the best ever cush out. Yes, he's cussed at me. I will say this. One thing that I loved about him is when we ended up playing him when he was at Tampa in that game and after the game he said something, He's like, it's not fun playing your friends and me, and he took him knee and came and it was high high Tower, Dante high Tower. Myself went up to give him some love and he's like, that wasn't as fun as I thought it was, And I was like, yeah, it wasn't. It was really weird, like playing your older brother and like it was fun competing, but it was. It was just a weird dynamic. Yeah, yeah, all right, Kyle van Noy, I had no idea. He was my neighbor. We'll end it there. We won't tell you where. What a pleasure to meet you. Finally, Yes, good luck to you. Congratulations on your success. Thank you, Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on you. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd week days and newon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino Enriched Cavino MS. Thanks buddy, that's right. Cavino Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino en Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rockin' dude. The show features our unique take on sports, inject you with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino en Rich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino en Rich give me here. Hell yeah, new Year, new wireless plans, switch to consumer cellular dot com, slash the herd twenty five dollars off, change your phone number. Nope, don't have to change your phone. Don't have dude, no activation fee. Let's say big on savings. Consume jamack with the news. No, no, turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. Derek Carr Colin Gon'll be on the move shortly. He was with the Raiders for nine seasons. You would think after this messy divorce he would jump at the chance to air his dirty laundry. Maybe take a jab or two a McDaniel's phone, you know, come on, Derek, Car's taking the high road. Here's what he wrote. Thank you to all the people reaching out trying to give me their platform to tell my side of what happened. It's the hardest thing in the world to not jump on every interview and tell the truth. Thank you. But I'm choosing to move on and give our next city our best maturity. I kind of like this. You know, every reporter out there's like, hey, come tell your side of the story. Come, come, come, come, give me the exclusive. You don't have to show me what you had for lunch on Twitter, nor resolve every issue on social media. Really I thought you had to. You also have to air all your family's dirty laundry on social media. No, you can just do things behind the scenes. Not everything has to be public. Yeah, with class and dignity, somebody's gonna get a really good quarterback. How heard mentioning class and dignity. I'll tell you what. You put him at Miami. He never gets hurt. So al was available every Sunday. You got him that wet tyree kill, Jalen Waddle, good left tackle, run game, nice secondary. It is he an upgrade from two When TWA was at his best, he was an MP beginning. Yes, he's better than two, I would agree. I was just trying to catch in her trap. Next Next up, Arizona Cardinals. I'm so off this team. Colin train Wreck of A season four and thirteen in the seller. In the NFC West, Kyler Murray obviously the tourn acl They fired Cliff Kingsbury, which is still mind boggling to me. One of the biggest issues, though, was Kyler's stagnant development. Following the contract extension he got Mike Sando spoke with an anonymous NFL executive who said, I don't know how much better Kyler can be. He might have hit his ceiling and will always be limited by his size and unwillingness to stand in there and get hit. I was told by a Pro Bowl pass rusher during his rookie year told me off the record, he said that guy didn't like to get hit. He's a baseball player. And I think increasingly I don't think this is necessarily wrong. I don't know if it's right, but Kyler doesn't like to get hit. He does not like to get hit. And this player told me, he said, that's not gonna last. And this is a This is not only a really smart guy's a great player, multiple Pro Bowls pass rusher who hit him the Cardinals. The Cardinals have to know this. They knew he didn't want to get hit. The inter thing is the media is so funny. Yes, size matters. When people like me came out and said he's tiny, it doesn't course it matter. Tua acknowledged last year. Sometimes I can't see over the offensive line. We've fallen into this trap because of Russell Wilson's decade of excellence that size doesn't matter. Manzelle was too small. Kyler looks too small too. It gets beat up Baker. I think Baker for a while had some of the most batted down passes to the line of scriminals. Ideally you want six three to six three and a half ideally now now Caleb Williams for USC six two, Aaron Rodgers six two, very all world talent. The problem with Kyler is how do you salvage this colin? And they screwed up by giving him all the money last year. He has all the money, all the power, and if you push him, he'll just say, you know what, I'm out of here. I got by guaranteed money. I'll go play baseball. I'll go ride buses in Triple A for a year or two. Right, it's just ugly. Arizona is a disaster. They're definitely a cell. Yeah, final story, let's go ooh. Despite brock Purty's success since Jimmy g went down, Kyle Shanahan getting questions still about Garoppolo's availability heading into Sunday's NSC Championship game on Fox. Previously Shanahan had said Jimmy g had an outside chance of being ready, but is now saying he'd be very surprised if Garoppolo was out there this week, adding there'd be a better chance if the forty nine ers managed to the super Bowl come out. That's kind of interesting. Well, let's say he's available with the super Bowl. That means Brock Purtty got you to the super Bowl. You're not starting Garppolo. I do think it could allow you. Kyle could say we can move pretty a little more in the pocket if we had to do more rollouts. We do have a backout plan because I think I think the one thing about Pretty that is coming out that's pretty clear. He's a lot twitchier and more athletic than people think, like Dak moves. Well, I never think he's twitchy. He's good at avoiding getting He's right really quick. He's really quick in limited space. So you go to a super Bowl think to yourself, listen, I've got I've got a very capable former Super Bowl quarterback in my Mitsch. Can we take a few more RPO chances run around a little more with Purdy if you got there, I mean, listen, even against Philadelphia. Well they're they're not gonna blitz a lot. Their DNA is we're getting to you with four and we're gonna confuse you with the exotic coverage is nothing. You're not beating us deep no, No, Brandon Ayuk over the top, and Purdie's just gonna have to pray a cerebral game where he's picking his spots. And I think Kittle and Deebo and McCaffrey, I give them the edge over this Philadelphia defense column in space. I mean, it's not like the Eagles linebackers are what the Niners linebackers are. Like. I just don't see this Eagles offense steamrolling the way they just boat race the Giants. They're not doing that to these Niners. Well, we know they're not going to beat them thirty eighties. I mean, we saw plays where Warner and green Law are dropping into coverage against Ceedee Lamb okay, like I'm sorry they're I don't think they're worried. Worried about Davante Smith and Dallas Goddard. When you have those linebackers, it feels like a low scoring game like seventeen sixteen. Whoever has the ball last you trust Robbie Gould in a big spot. Yes, absolutely, do you I do. That's why I say yeah, yeah, Yeah, he's great. Yeah, it's gonna be a good game. I'm excited for it, so am I. You know it's on Fox. No, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh that's awesome. Hey, when's your big announcement? We'll do it right after this. I guess, Well you want to do it? Close out the show with it? Yeah, save it for the end for the hardcore listeners. Well the show is over. Oh, so we'll do it. I didn't know that. And what we could do it? We may have a big in that. Well you mean you there tomorrow or no? Yeah, why wouldn't we be? Oh okay, just thinking, sir J Mack with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd line. Eight distinctive models of SUVs at Mercedes Benz mbusa dot com or go to a Mercedes dealer. Okay, Kyle van noyen Nick, Right, that's a good show. A load of meat in that sandwich. That was fantastic. First things versus Around the Corner boys are all wrapped up today Live in Los Angeles, seat tomorrow what's the herd