Colin Cowherd (3:14)
Okay, everywhere, everywhere. People were nice to me yesterday, so thank you very much. And we move on in life. Okay, so I look at the Bears list for reported interview requests for the Chicago Bears for their job, head coaching job. I mean, I follow this league. There's a couple of guys. I mean, there's not this many great candidates. Why are you wasting your time? I mean, Anthony Weaver, Dolphins defensive coordinator. Did you watch the Dolphins at any point this year? And go, man, that defense is something else. Drew Petzing, offensive coordinator, Arizona. Folks, this is not American Idol. I'm not here for the fun tryouts. The hell you doing, Amir? You're wasting time on second, third tier candidates. Somebody else is hiring. Mike Vrabel. What are you doing here? I mean, the Chargers, last year in late November, in the building, we're talking about two candidates, Harbaugh and Vrabel. It was late November, early December, and they narrowed it down in the office to two guys they really wanted. One is great now, and one. Mike Vrabel's the best candidate this year. So, you know, what's the Bears path? This is just too broad of a list. It's unserious. You can't have 13 people. Let's be honest about this year's candidates. There's one a candidate, Mike Vrabel. That's it. I do think Pete Carroll and Brian Flores are worth a zoom call, but they're not a candidates. Flores, too intense, didn't work in Miami, though. I like him and think he deserves a second chance. And Pete Carroll, again, tends to be too loyal to average assistants. I think he's worth the zoom call. I am not hiring a coordinator for the Bears job. And I think Aaron Glenn is great. Ben Johnson, likewise. This is too big of a job, too big of a list. And coordinator candidates are like half a candidate. You don't know if it's going to work. You know, Mike Frable is going to work. So I look at this Bears list When you're hiring a head coach, it's a little bit like house hunting. In a really competitive market, you don't have time to waste. If you qualify for a $5 million house, skip the fixer uppers. Don't even stop off at the condos. Get to the big boy houses. Don't waste your time. It's a competitive market. So it, it's. I mean, this list is a who's who of who's he. What are we doing here? No, no. Waste of time for the Chicago Bears. And, you know, it's, it's. This is too big of a job for 90% of the guys on this list. And you should have it narrowed down. I mean, you got rid of Matt Eberfluss the day after Thanksgiving, and it's what, January 7th? If you fire a coach the day after Thanksgiving and it's the day that is officially too late to say Happy New Year's to people in the office, you're wasting your time. Get to it. It's the prom. Either ask the girl out or she's dancing with somebody else. But this list is just, it's unserious. This is an unserious list. I've said before, it is too complicated, too political, too big, historically, too wonky for a coordinator. Even a great one. Even a great one. And you could say, well, look at what Sean McVeigh did. Stan Kroenke is one of the richest, smartest owners in the NFL. Jeff Fisher sort of felt a little outdated offensively. McVeigh knocked everybody's socks off. But you had Stan Kroenke. You had, you know, a number one picket quarterback and some good players on the roster. You needed a. You needed a left tackle and a head coach. But there was stuff working there. An organization that had had some success. Chicago, is it. This is an 800 pound lift. I mean, this is a big lift. Albert Breer yesterday, I mean, this, this list I'm looking at now has got unserious candidates. Here's Albert Brewer yesterday on the Bears job. They haven't won a playoff game in 14 years. And I think if they look in the mirror, that's what, what they'll find is, is that there are issues there that go deeper than just one coach or how just one player is developed. If they do bring in a guy who's a leader of men who works on the defensive side, that person's going to have to come in with a very clear, concise plan for the quarterback and not just for the next year or two. But going forward, if you lose an offensive coach, how do you replace them? All that stuff, there's, you know, one of the things that it's. It's hard to say it out loud, but it's sort of true. In every business I've ever been in, there's a really small, finite number of candidates qualified for most jobs. And you look at the resume and you make a couple calls and the list gets whittled down very quickly. The Chargers figured it out after hiring, like, Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley. Dean Spanos figured out, I need a culture changer. We are lost as a franchise. We are, we are on fire. I got to bring in the number one captain. I got to bring in the fire captain in the big truck. And they went, Vrabel interviewed him and Jim Harbaugh and Vrabel, by the way, they, they called Vrabel after they decided on Harbaugh and they said you were amazing and if Jim Harbaugh is not in the market, you are amazing. I heard this from like six different people in the Chargers building. They loved Vrabel. They thought they were going to hire Vrabel. They loved him. And so, I mean, they, they got down very quickly to the two candidates. You talking jets and Bears. You can't have 13 people up for a job. Not 13 people on the planet that can turn around the jets and the Bears. Okay, I saw this story and I have heard something similar. We've discussed it this week. I think J. Mac said this. The Minnesota Vikings are a fascinating team. This off season, they got this brilliant offensive coach. They have Sam Darnold, a reclamation project, who until Sunday was in the MVP race. And then they brought in Daniel Jones in November. And then they drafted J.J. mcCarthy. Well, according to Jeff Howe of the Athletic, J.J. mcCarthy would rank over Shadour Sanders and Cam Ward by several executives and coaches. That is what I have heard. That is what I have heard from people I've asked that. That J.J. mcCarthy would be higher ranked than the two quarterbacks doesn't mean everybody's right or my sources are right. But that's what you're hearing. And that's why this game for Sam Darnold against the Rams is fascinating. And there are times I get nervous for young athletes because I know so much is on the line. Think about Sam Darnold, Southern California kid when he plays The Rams in LA. It's a hundred million dollar football game. Kevin O'Connell could lose it. So what? McVeigh could lose it. So what? Stafford could lose it. If Sam Darnold loses, plays poorly. I mean that people are going to make a decision that it's just all Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. And in the end, the elite competition, Big St. Couldn't handle it. The market dries up. I don't even know, I don't even know if, if the Vikings keep him. But if Sam crushes, he's either getting franchised for a year in Minnesota, I would guess maybe they sign him to a contract franchise or he goes to the market and you got teams like the Raiders now that don't have a great draft pick. They may spend a fortune on him. And I wouldn't doubt it. So it's $100 million game. And here's the thing that is cruel and unfair in sports, but it is a fact. Sam Darnold was one kind of quarterback for six years. Super athletic, big arm, but reckless big. Too many mistakes in big spots. That's what he was. And that's where my brain goes and your brain goes and general managers brains go. When we see the Detroit game, yeah, too much juice, can't make the play. Missing open wide receivers, that's where our brains go. And it's like, it's almost like if you miss a big free throw in the NBA Finals as a young player. Nick Anderson did this for Orlando against Houston. You have to hit so many big free throws for me to forget about that free throw you missed in the finals and Nick Anderson didn't. And that's what I remember him for. And he was a good guy and a good player, but that's what I remember him for. And so if Sam Darnold beats the Rams, wins a playoff game, then Detroit's a one off. It was Detroit. It was the biggest game in 50 years. The Lions have better players. I forget all about it, but it's, it's almost like Sam Darnold has been typecast. It's like Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter. He has got to be in so many movies for me not to see Harry Potter. Every time I look at him, you put him in a crime drama, I'm like, oh, is he gonna cast a spell on somebody? I mean, I'm sorry, that's what I see. I mean he gotta be in so many movies. And so this game for Darnold is making me nervous. I, I, I try not to pick winners on this. I just want Darnold to play well. And J. Max over here got the Rams rolling in this game. He's got me all freaking out. It's My birthday week. I need some symmetry. I need. I need calm. And this in the Darnold situation is if I see something for six years and then all of a sudden you're really good and I'm starting to forget about it and oh, biggest game, that's where my brain goes. And that's where GM's brains go. So. The Vikings are a fascinating team and I don't think they have the answers yet. I think they're waiting for this Rams game and they want to see it. And I don't think they were going to be Detroit anyway. I don't think it was a winnable game. I said it last week. Take the Lions. This is going to be a crazy standal, once in a generation game for the Lions. Good luck, Sam Darnold. But it's cruel. I still think Nick Anderson, I think missed free throw in the Finals because he didn't go back and hit 13 big free throws in the finals to make me forget. Michael Jordan missed free throws in the Finals. LeBron has missed dozens of big free throws, but he's hit enough that I forgot about it. I mean, Chris Weber, the goal, the guy that called timeout. If Chris Weber would have gone on to win four titles in the NBA, that barely makes his resume, but his NBA career was a little sideways and wonky and underachieving. So that's what I think of. And it's just, it's unfair, but that's where my brain goes. And J. Mac, the whole time here has got a very confident smirk looking at it. You love the Rams in this game. You see the line, you see the screen. It was two and a half yesterday. Now it's one and a half. Obviously, you know, just one point.
