Kirk Herbstreit Discusses His Impressions of Aaron Rodgers and the 2024 Jets (9/18)

Published Sep 18, 2024, 11:00 AM
Host Eric Allen is joined by Amazon Prime's Kirk Herbstreit for a discussion about the 2024 Jets. Herbstreit offers his thoughts about the Green & White to start the season and discusses Aaron Rodgers' impact on the team.

Kirk, what is the fall like for you balance in the National Football League and all your college responsibilities.

It is it's almost like I brace for it. When I get to July fourth, it's it's like, Okay, the summer is over, and I kind of probably like players and coaches, you know, they look at that weekend as a great weekend, but it's kind of the end of the summer, and then you get into August and it's and it's go time. I mean, I love what I do, but it's basically three jobs in one season. You know. Doing the Thursday night game is my first kind of bucket that I try to stay focused on throughout the early part of the week. And then I have a three hour college Game Day show where we do all the teams and all the games all over the country, and then I call game later on Saturday. That's usually a high profile game on ABC. And so yeah, it's very as a prep guy, it's very important for me to just try to keep everything on its own legal pad, you know. So I have the Thursday Night group, that I have a college game Day, and then the game that I call. But trying to keep everything organized is quite a challenge.

But what's your weekly prep Like, after you get done with that game Saturday night, maybe you get home Sunday.

Can you take us through the week? Yeah?

Yeah, I mean so I do usually do a Saturday night game. I get home usually about two in the morning on Sunday, and then I'm a dad. I have four boys, three of them are out of the house now, but you know, they like to come back home on Sundays and which is great, you know, and we like to watch football together like normal families. And you know, I used to use Sunday as a dad day or like a try to sleep kind of day, and now I use an example this past Sunday, I have Patriots and Jets, so you know, I'm dialed into the Patriots and what they're doing. You know, I'm watching the Jets, you know, as I get down at Tennessee, and I'm kind of plugged into that now. I watch it when you watch it when you get ready to call game, you watch it very differently. And if it's just on and someone's talking to you, like I'm watching it like locked in kind of thing. And then I go back, obviously and watch it more before the game. But Monday is a combination of college game Day. You know, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, all these guys are on the zoom at nine thirty on a Monday, So I do that for about an hour and a half. Tuesday, you know, I have a Saturday night call with my producer for that broadcast. All along Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is all about you know, I've already got my board right here for my Thursday night game. Before I hopped on with you, I just did a call with PFF, just kind of dialing in. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is really locked in on Thursday, but juggling game day, juggling this Saturday. And then once I call a game Thursday night, I get on the plane to fly to wherever I'm going. I get there usually about two in the morning, it's like, okay, that one's gone. That I flip into game day mode. So really all day Friday is game Day and also the game that I'm about to call. And then I finish game Day at noon Eastern and then I got six more hours to really dial in on a lot of my notes and things that I've tried to gather throughout the week for the game I'm about to call that night, so I try to use every minute I can after game Day getting ready for my seven point thirty pm game on ABC that night. So yeah, man, my whole career I've always kind of approached my career is I'm going to be the most prepared guy when I go on air. Gives me a lot of confidence. And the challenging part of my job is not the execution on air. It's my stressful part is like you're talking to me right now, I'm a little bit stressed because I got to get a hold of coordinators and I can get all my prep done. Man, the job, the game, it is so much fun. I love calling Thursday night without and it's just a matter of getting to that point where I get all my people that I need to talk to, my film that I need to watch, all that work. It just kind of makes me just relax. And then on air, you know, it's just having fun because you have a lot of information, kind of like you're loading your gun and you're ready to go, ready to go to in the war. That's kind of how I feel when I go into a broadcast if I've done my prep.

What was your initial reaction when Amazon came calling a couple of years ago with this opportunity and said, hey, listen, we want you to be up in the booth with Al Michaels.

You know, my career I started years ago, you know, back in the late nineties with Mike Turrico, and he and I kind of came up together, and we worked about probably eight years together calling games on Thursday night, and he went to Monday Night football, and then I went to work for Brent Musburger on Saturday Night. So I worked with Brent, another guy like Al that I always watched and admired and looked up to. And Brent and I worked on the Saturday ABC package for a number of years, calling the biggest college football games, national championships and all that, and that was quite a thrill. And then Chris Fawler, who I worked Game Day with initially, he came into the booth. So I've worked with Turco and then Musburger, and then Chris Fowler, who I still work with, and then to have an opportunity to work without Michaels. I mean, those are the four guys that I've worked with in my career. Clearly. I mean I was a kid, you know when the Olympics started, you know, going back to nineteen eighty do you believe in miracles type of thing? And you know, all the way through his career, the Super Bowls, the Olympics, everything that he's done. So needless to say, it was quite a thrill when they asked me to do the games because I'm a big NFL fan. And then to be able to work with Al and Freddie Gadelli who is our producer now he's our executive producer. Yeah, I mean I couldn't have been more honored and humbled to be able to be asked to join the crew.

What's the difference for you being in a booth for an NFL game as opposed to being in a booth for a college game. Ball is ball, But obviously the rosters are very different in terms of size. But can you talk about, you know, maybe some of the similarities when you get up there, but also listen to National Football League it's a different animal.

So true, if you go back, if we went back ten years ago when we were doing if they would ask me to do this, I feel like the NFL and the college game were so different. You know, it's the college game is Obviously, if you watch it, it's a lot of up tempo offenses. It's the quarterback looking over and he'll see signs, you know whereas and I think it just creates a very, very almost hectic offense. And you're talking about eighty five ninety snaps. You know, these guys in college are trying to go, go, go, go go, and in the pros, you know, ten years ago, it was very different. You know now, I think andros pro coaches and coordinators will tell you. I think Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid really changed how the NFL offensive coordinators approached things. I think Andy Reid was one of the first guys to really have success saying, you know what, instead of asking these guys who since high school have been running a certain style of offense, why don't I adjust my sophisticated West Coast off to his skill set? And obviously we've seen the success of that. And I think it really Lamar Jackson and what Baltimore has done over the years adjusting to his skill set. Instead of saying, we're in the National Football League, you adjust to what we are. I think it's gone the other way. I think the offenses in the NFL are adjusting now to these college quarterbacks, and I think the ones that find that kind of that secret sauce because everyone's different. You know, JJ McCarthy, who's injured now in Minnesota, is different than what Bo Nicks and what Sean Payton are trying to figure out in Denver, Bryce Young Carolina. You can go around and round. Nobody has the answer, you know, and it's probably the most confusing thing. I mean, think about the amount of money general managers, owners, head coaches, scouts, everyone's looking at college quarterbacks trying to figure out, you know, Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers that the traditional guy that sits in the pocket, step drop and distributes the ball. That's kind of a dying breed, you know. Now it's Mahomes type of Guy's Caleb Williams with the Bears. You know, that's what's coming out of college. And so for my job, it's not as different as you would think because of the similarities of the NFL coordinators coming down to college to talk to Lincoln Riley, to talk to Ryan Day who's the head coach at Ohio State, and try to figure out help me to understand these college quarterbacks to understand how I can put an offense together. So I think it's more similar now than it ever has been. And I think right now, I personally feel the NFL is at a crossroads where I think Tom Brady on a podcast recently talked about how these quarterbacks aren't really prepared to come into the NFL and deal with the complexity of the defenses. To deal with the complexity I'm just calling a play in the NFL, forget about execution, just calling it and knowing that in a huddle, no one huddles hardly in college, So just that, I think is very challenging. And I think we're really at kind of an interesting time where you notice the numbers are down in the NFL. Scoring is down, offensive production is down, and I think it's because defensive coordinators are saying, Okay, let's put a shell on our defense up top, Let's put two safeties. Let's make these college quarterbacks who are in their first, second, third year, Let's make them be patient. Let's make them be willing to run the football and hit the underneath pass, and make them be efficient for twelve plays without having a turnover penalty. Whatever, it might be and make them execute in the red zone. And right now that's working. You know. I think they had seventy three field goals in Week two of the NFL seventy three. I mean, it's over four field goals per game. And I think it just speaks volumes of where we are right now or the offensive numbers are down, and I think the defense has figured out how to mess with the minds of a lot of young quarterbacks right now in the league.

That is a perfect transition.

Because Aaron Rodgers was talking about in talking about in the locker room this week, Kirk about umbrella coverages you rarely see single high anymore, and he was directed, He's asked directly, Hey, what's the counter on that? He said, you got to run the football? Are the Jets in a good position long term here in twenty twenty four because they do have Rogers at quarterback.

And he has seen all these things.

And with that being said, what's the evolution of the Jets pass offense going to be as time progresses?

You kind of have a cheat code with Aaron Rodgers. You know, you have something that no one else has, and that's the ability you essentially have an offensive coordinator at forty years old, Who's who has the chalk last? You know when they say the chalk last. If you have two guys who really know the game, one's an offensive guy, one's a defensive guy, and they're at a board and it's like, well, I'm going to do that. Well, if you do that, I'm going to do this. Well you do that, no problem. And Aaron's that guy in that argument with the chalk. The defense can only do so much from the sideline. Some point that that radio goes off at fifteen seconds, the green dot closes down, and now it's Aaron Rodgers' game, just like it used to be Peyton Manning's game. And that's such an advantage. And just talking to we talked to him yesterday for about an hour and we were talking about this, and you know, he loves the process of trying to figure out the weakness of a defense. And on the fly, you see so many teams running a run pass option, but I feel like Aaron does it differently, or he'll, you know, he'll rely on a guy like Garrett Wilson or whoever it is to be able to make a play where most quarterbacks they don't think about trying to attack a defense in a certain way. Aaron Rodgers will do that, and I think it's it's exciting to think about where the Jets, I think are just starting to kind of scratch the surface. Let's not forget he was hurt in the fourth play of the twenty three season. He lost the entire year. He's still even as good as he is, he's still kind of settling in with the pieces around him. You know, he's human, you know. And it takes a few weeks for the offensive line three new faces up there. If you throw in Vera Tucker who's out most of the year, there's kind of four new pieces. All these guys are kind of gelling together. And as that gets better and better, they're going to continue to run the ball with Breis Hall and Braylan Allen going to continue to find ways to attack defenses out in the perimeter. So I'm really excited starting Thursday to see where this thing's going with Aaron Rodgers in charge of it and what the potential of it is. It's very fascinating to me. You know. I know we don't have Bill Belichick over there, but you still have his scheme and to watch that cat and mouse game between Aaron Rodgers. Now Juan Bentley, who is kind of the Aaron Rodgers of their defense is out. He's out for the year. So what does that do to New England's defense? How's that handcuff them in that battle that's going to be going on. But I'm excited. I mean where they go after Aaron steps down. I mean, you know that's going to be a discussion for another time, But for where we are in twenty twenty four, I think this offense has real potential, especially with the guys that they have out out on the perimeter led by Garrett Wilson.

You play the game, how much do you appreciate watching Rogers what he does? Not only throwing the football, because a lot of people would make the argument that nobody has ever thrown it better than Aaron, but everything he does pre snap to get his players in the proper play, because we're seeing it early on here in his Jets tenure, just so much audibly he does, or changing the plays at the last second to get the Jets in a favorable spot.

Yeah, I mean that's as a guy who played quarterback, I sit there. I think we all do you marveled. I talked to Peyton Manning about it. Peyton used to do it in a different way. Aaron will do it with almost like he's you know, he's a I said, a coach, but he'll do certain little hand signals and things to try to make sure tell you you better, you better know the game if you're playing around it, because he's relying on you to make adjustments on the fly with him, so you know, there's a certain level of expectation of knowledge of the defense and knowledge of what he wants to be able to do. I loved his story and I know he shared it with you guys about Breis Hall. Came over to him and say, Hey, if that linebacker walks out there with me, I can take him. And I think that's what at forty years old, that's what Aaron Rodgers loves that. What that wasn't in the play design throughout the week with Nathaniel Hackett, like hey, we're gonna move bris Hall out and get him. That happened in the game. That was like an endgame thing. And I think that the game of that the XO aspect of on the fly figuring out an answer, how can we win today? Against what we're seeing, and the fact that a young guy like Brishall came up to him and said, hey, he loved that. He loved that Bristol's taking ownership and trying to like be part of what are the answers instead of just Anon Rodgers kind of standing on top of a mountaintop saying here are all the answers. He could do that, but he wants Garrett Wilson to come up to him on the sideline and communicate with what he's seeing. He wants brits Hall to come up to him. So he's kind of using that as an illustration and an example of kind of where they are now and where they're going to continue to head. But I thought that was really cool to hear a young guy that's that's really excited to be playing with him coming up to him saying basically, hey, coach, I think I can beat this linebacker in there, and saying let's do it. And then they did it, you know, and I think that I think that's pretty cool to watch.

You and l are calling twelve divisional games this year out of the seventeen. Your first game was actually inside the AFC East. You were calling the Jets and the Patriots. Of course, Thursday night at MetLife Stadium. Before you take a look at these two teams in person, what's your thoughts globally on the AFC.

East Well after last week's game and calling it, I think all of us kind of looked at Miami with Mike McDaniel and the speed and Tua coming off the year that he had last year. I think a lot of people were excited to see him. Maybe still could be excited to see what Miami can do. But when I called the game, when I left that stadium, imember stand down our way out of there. Something's going on with Buffalo. You know, they lose Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, and I think a lot of people just thought, Okay, well they've got the tight ends and they're trying to figure out who can be their next good receiver. I'm telling you in tangibles are a big part of the game, you know. I think part of the reason the Jets are so good on defense isn't just scheme. It's that they love each other. They care about each other, they want to have each other's back. Buffalo. I feel like right now, it's only week two we're heading into week three. I get it a long way to go, but they just showed me something where it's always kind of been Josh Allen's team dot dot there's Stefan Diggs, you know, like, I feel like, now, without a doubt, it is Josh Allen's team. And I think they're rallying around Josh Allen in a very similar way that Jets are going to rally around this year of Aaron Rodgers. But I think it's the style of play that Josh Allen has. You know, he's running for first downs, he's hurtling people. I think that the guy his teammates really look at him and you know they they'll headbut him and they'll chest bump him, and it just there's there's a different feel there of togetherness that makes me feel like Buffalo is going to be a really tough out. I've also been impressed with what we've seen from the Patriots. They were kind of like, Okay, Bill Belichick's no longer there. They've got so many new faces that Drake may is not ready. And yet I went to the game when they I live in Cincinnati. I went to the game where they played Cincinnati. I thought you know, Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase is back, no problem. Cincinnati went and I was like, they're playing old fashioned New England football. They're they're winning the line of scrimmage, they're running the ball, they're making it tough on the quarterback by disguising a lot. They're kind of doing the little things. They get to the fourth quarter, they kind of look up at the scoreboard. We're within three, let's find a way to win, or we're up three, find let's hold onto this. It worked against Cincinnati into overtime against a really good Seattle team, So I think it's interesting to see where they are. So I think Buffalo as we sit here at week three, maybe the team to beat. I can't wait to see Aaron Rodgers in this offense from from New York continue to grow, and the defenses, even with the injuries, we'll see how good you know they can. They can't withstand too many more injuries. But I'm I think the division is going to be fascinating to see how it unfolds. And bottom line is, whoever can stay healthy, I think is going to be the team that at the end of the day ends up winning the division.

And you've got some intriguing matchups coming up because you guys are going to be back at MetLife on Halloween. It's the Jets in the Houston Texans. I know a lot of people have high hopes for the Texans this year, and that's one of the more talented young football teams out there.

So it's gonna be intriguing as well. We know you gotta go.

Thank you so much for taking time today. Our fans gonna be able to see Ben at Mett Life.

Yeah, yeah, I'm hoping he's He's been getting credential every stadium that I go to college and pro, so he actually was able to come last year when we when we were around, I think it was in Cleveland. So I'm hoping to be able to have a chance when when the Jets came to Cleveland. I think Aaron had a chance to meet Ben that game when he was just traveling with the team. I'm hoping the Jets will green light him. If so, I'd love to bring him in. He'll he'll be with me, so I love to bring him into the stadium pregame and sometimes he hangs out up in the booths when we call the game. So it's it's been a lot of fun. He's doing great well.

We'll be sure to say hello.

Continue success, have fun up there in the booth with L And then Saturday night, I think you are in Norman, Oklahoma for Tennessee and oh you that should mean an interesting one as well.

Thanks Kirk,