Colin Cowherd (0:00)

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Virgin Voyages is where luxury meets travel. Book it and see what you've been missing. Learn more@virginvoyages.com or contact your travel advisor with Amex. There's always a new experience to explore, from curating the perfect vacation and chilling in the Centurion Lounge before you get there trying out that new trendy restaurant thanks to priority notify with global dining access by Resy and getting straight to the action at the big game with Card member entrances at select venues with AMEX Platinum, you can experience it all. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Access to the card member entrance not limited to the American Express Platinum card. Learn more@americanexpress.com withamex what's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs, mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports radio at noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd@foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now, let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It is a Thursday. More NFL stuff trickling in. Celtics lose. What to make of the world. Live in Los Angeles, it's the Herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. J. Mac. Paul Pierce stops by our show today. You know, it's a good time. We've had. We've had a very, very fun week. There's still the Aaron Rodgers situation. We'll get into Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins. So there it now, what I'm excited about. For the first time this year, here's what I do. I am dropping my NFC predictions. You gotta have four new teams between the AFC and the NFC today. I'll do the Fox Conference. I'll do nfc. I've got three new playoff teams. I will do the AFC tomorrow at the top of the second hour. You know, I take a lot of time on that. I came in with my notes in my pocket this morning. So I've looked at schedules. I've looked at free agency. I've looked at coaching moves most of the free agency has done except old quarterbacks. Did you look at the Bears schedule closely? I'm hearing top five, toughest schedule in the league. Sure. Yeah. I think you'll like it one hour from now. Let's start with this. Celtics lost to okc. What do I make of it? A lot of people, myself included, think that's very likely. That is the NBA championship preview. What do I make of it? Boston is a team that can often be weird at home. They're just a weird home team. They're better on the road this year. And number two is really good, really deep teams without a title yet. Okc. Remember the old Bulls teams with Derrick Rose? They play their butt off in the regular season. So the regular season's about depth and intensity. If you have a lot of bodies and you play hard every night, home and away, and you have one great player and SGA is certainly that you're going to win a lot of games. Plus, Boston couldn't shoot last night, so. But we all know this. I never overreact to this. I said it about Cleveland last year. I'll say it about OKC this year. I said it about the Derrick Rose Bulls forever. Playoff basketball and regular season basketball are two different things. Think about it this way. Regular season basketball is babysitting. Playoff basketball is parenting. Same kids every night, couple of weeks, no days off, always discomfort. That's playoff basketball. You're not just waltzing into town. You're more rested. You throw a bunch of bodies at them. You play your arse off. The Celtics have a trophy. The Celtics have the better team. And I mean, you can't fool the players. I saw this Brian Windhorst, who does a great job, says NBA players don't respect the Thunder as contenders this year. That's what players think because they understand it. You can't fool them. The Celtics don't really have a weakness. OKC has several. The average age is 24 and a half. Those teams don't win the title. Their arguably second best player, Chet Holmgren, gets hurt a lot. And number three is they. They play like 10 guys. You play like seven to eight in the playoffs. So one of their real strengths, which is depth, you're not going to have that in the playoffs. And the other thing I throw out there is young teams tend to be great at home and not very good on the road in the playoffs, and that is okc. So, you know, in the regular season, I would suspect last night, you know, OKC wanted to make an imprint. They're also trying to win their star in mvp. Celtics don't care about that crap. Take the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs experiment in the regular season. You know who doesn't? The Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens. They are great in the regular season, but who's usually great in the AFC in the postseason? We know the answer is Kansas City. So Jalen Brown, you got to give him credit, but this doesn't mean much to me. That boy good, you know what I mean? That boy is good, you know, big fan of his game, you know, shifty, crafty around the basket, knows how to use his body well, draws fouls. And he's been hitting the three ball well, too, you know, tough. Definitely a guy that, you know, you watch and you study to be better. If we end up playing him down the line, but no, he's a tough cover. He's been playing some good basketball. And you got to tip your cap. Absolutely. That's what you do. That's what you did with the Derrick Rose Bulls. You tip their cap. They had a bunch of dudes that could play. They had a rock star. They. They're trying to win him mvp. They're playing their butt off. Everybody freaks out. But I didn't trust him in the postseason. LeBron came in, squashed their dreams. OKC, Luca, LeBron, Austin, Reeves, Rui Jackson Hayes more experience, be a better road team than Oklahoma City is in the playoffs. Take a deep breath. I still have Boston winning it all. Okay, so this is interesting. So a former NFL GM Doug Whaley was talking on a Pittsburgh podcast and he says basically Aaron Rodgers is holding the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants hostage. There was a picture of Aaron Rodgers that made the Internet in Malibu and he's got earphones in and a blanket over his shoulder. It says. It is unclear if he was listening to music, a podcast, or perhaps taking a call from his agents concerning his next team. Sources tell me he was listening to the Herd. Damn right he was. Absolutely. And his takeaway is that show is fresh. And who knew Colin took magnesium. So let me defend Aaron Rodgers here. The Steelers and the Giants have backed themselves into a corner because the Giants have been reaching on quarterbacks and the Steelers have been ignoring the position until it's, you know, late free agency for a long time. These two teams, the Giants and the Steelers are being willingly detained is the way I'd put it. And you know, Giants have made too many bad choices upstairs and the Steelers don't take quarterback seriously enough. So. And as for Aaron Rodgers, I would be walking on a beach looking very Sad if at 41 years old, the Giants and the Steelers were my last two options. There's a report out there, it could be Minnesota, but I just going to defend Aaron here. It's, it's March 13th and he was just officially released by the jets yesterday. Okay, so he's gone from darkness retreat to Egypt in the summer to walking on the beach in Malibu. I see that as personal growth. I think he's actually getting somewhere and I just, I'll tell you, and I, I don't feel bad for teams who can't get their act together. The Giants front office is bad and the Steelers lack of urgency at quarterback and tone deaf sensibility to offense is their problem. So I mean to me, Aaron Rodgers has earned a walk on the beach to contemplate. He got officially released yesterday. He's hard guy to figure out. There's a story out there about the Minnesota Vikings. I said this yesterday and I am totally in the minority. I would take the New York Giants over the Steelers. I get an offensive coach, I get a great left tackle, I've got an excellent receiving weapon who doesn't appear to be as needy as Pittsburgh's two and the things they. And I've got some, actually some pretty decent defensive personnel. Also, the Steelers spend too much money on defense. Where it does feel like the Giants would rather spend money on offense. So I like the Giants, by the way. Both divisions are tough, so, yeah, you're going to have to face the Eagles and yeah, you're going to have to face the Ravens. Yeah, you're going to have to face Jaden Daniels. Yeah, you're going to have to face Joe Burrow. It's the NFL. Not everything can be the NFC South. Okay, so my take is I'll take the offensive coach who's worked with Josh Allen. I'll take the left tackle. I'll take neighbors. I'll take, you know, the Giants need a running back and a tight end. By the way, it's a very good draft for running back and tight end. I like the Giants situation here. Was Albert Breer yesterday on Aaron Rodgers, Pittsburgh saying, like, we just need somebody to put us over the top of the position. So I do wonder if that's going to be a factor in his decision making. Again, only he knows and he's very private about these things. And I don't know what the timeline is. It could happen in 10 minutes, it could happen in 10 days. But, you know, I do think, you know, we're all a product of our own experiences. And I, and I look at this like Pittsburgh offers him as something that's a little bit different than. Than what he went through with the jets, where I, I think the Giants would be asking him to do something similar to what the jets were asking him to do a couple of years ago. And to that, I would say he's right. The Giants would need him a little bit as a savior. But I'm going to make the argument Mike Tomlin and the Steelers need saving, too. Two receivers who are demanding the ball on offense, can't get the O line right. Just lost their left tackle, just lost their number one running back. Okay, so you've added drama at wide receiver, less talented at left tackle, less talented at the backfield. Pittsburgh shown no ability to get the offensive line right. We look at the Giants, we look at the New York Giants as a mess. Who they need saving. I'm here to argue offensively, the Pittsburgh Steelers need saving. That's the difference here. We view the Steeler, isn't it? The last three or four playoff games the Steelers have been in, they've been behind by at least 21 points on each of them. They're not a viable AFC championship team at all. And the Giants aren't a viable team in the NFC for a championship. The difference is I get an offensive Coach, a great left tackle, a good weapon, and a team willing to spend money on the right side of the ball. So I would take the Giants. I don't think that's where he's going to end up. I think he's going to go to the Steelers, but I would go with the Giants. And I know it doesn't mean anything, but I got my house, I got my left tackle, I got my coach, I got my weapon. And I do think the Giants at least understand they got to spend some money on offense because their defensive personnel actually is pretty good. Steelers defensive personnel is better. Giants isn't terrible. So there you go, J. Mac. I'm feeling it with ar. That walk on the beach in Malibu, that pensive look. I like usage of pensive. Did you do magnesium last night or No? I did and I slept so well the night before. It didn't have the same effectiveness, but it still worked. It made me groggy enough to fall asleep. Okay. All right. I don't know. I'm just glad two, two folks right now are going to be irrelevant next year. The Dallas Cowboys and Aaron Rodgers. Neither of them are going to matter in the NFL. Well, I think it's, it's going to be an awesome season and we don't even need those two guys. Well, that's true. That's the power. This is not baseball or the NBA. Yeah, you need certain brands. That is true. He's out for the playoffs. It's like I thought the Steelers been are. I, I think the Steelers have been irrelevant, frankly, the last several years. I think the Cowboys were irrelevant last year. When you make the playoffs, you're relevant. But like in terms of title contending Steelers. By the way, offensive line issues. I, I, I don't love that. I don't love their R. People think the Giants are a wreck offensively. So are the Steelers. Yeah, so are the Steelers. At least the Giants have a offensive coach and a great left tackle. At least I get that. But I mean, if you look at the Steelers and the Giants offensive ratings, it's, you know, they're both bad. They're in jets territory. That's, that's what that is right there on the screen. Yeah, they're both awful. Yeah. Rocket Mortgage helps you use your rent payments to get closer to home ownership. This is cool. Called Rent Rewards. To learn how you can save up to five grand off the cost of your home just by paying rent, go to Rocket.com. check it out. Rocket Mortgage LLC. Licensed in all 50 states. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app. It's the last game of the season and with amex, you can save time with card member entrances at select venues and go straight to the action so you can catch every moment. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Turn to Fly. Learn more@americanexpress.com withamic we live in a divided country. I am a lifelong Republican with all kinds of different people. You know, I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother. That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation. Anna, I'm calling from Las Vegas. Each week we bring together an all star panel. Mark Cuban, so great to have you on the Middle. Thanks for having me, Jeremy. Neil Degrasse Tyson, welcome to the Middle. Thanks for having me. And hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country on the most important issues. Hi, my name is Venkat. I'm calling you from Atlanta, Georgia. And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news. We should be examining what our government spends its money on and are these jobs necessary and what are we doing here? But that doesn't seem to be what we're doing and this situation. Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back. I saw this story. The Niners very, very interesting last couple days for San Francisco, moving off six, seven really good players in free agency. So the Niners gave Brock Purdy extra competition. They have signed Mac Jones to a two year deal. So this single move is why drafting quarterbacks in the NFL is so hard. So Brock Purdy played with Iowa State guys. Mac Jones played with great Bama guys. And it fooled every single NFL gm. Not a single one had Brock Purdy, who is absolutely a much better quarterback than Mac Jones. No NFL GM thought that. Mac Jones, 77% completion percentage in the SEC, 41 touchdowns, 13 games. But we discovered when Mac Jones doesn't get his way, when it's not an easy ride, when he has to play from behind without a great offensive line, he folded. Not a lot of inner toughness, bit of a temper, bit immature, not liked in the locker room. We found that Brock Purdy is a pretty darn good athlete. Actually came in as the number three quarterback to San Francisco and fought like hell to become number one. So they don't have a lot in common. But what a Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Brock Purdy have in common. They didn't come from traditional powers they had to overcome. They had to create their own college offense. They didn't throw to five star receivers. They often took a beating. They often lacked a run game. And this is precisely why I like Shador sanders in the NFL Draft more than NFL GMs. No run game, worst in Power 5 football last two years. No offensive line. But Shador Sanders had to initiate his own offense and was pretty productive. And so did Brock Purdy. Did Brock Purdy have a great arm? Because I hear Shadow Sanders didn't have a great arm. Does Brock Purdy. I hear Shador Sanders. Well, I know that athletic. He's at least as athletic as Brock Purdy. They both process well. They're both accurate. This is what I say about Shador Sanders. Watch what he played with, not just who he played against. Not a lot of NFL O linemen or running backs at Colorado. So his college experience. For Shador Sanders, it looks just like a lot of the Iowa State stuff. In fact, I'd argue Iowa State had better players than Colorado in some instances. So this is why drafting quarterbacks is tough. Outside of anonymous trolls, everybody makes mistakes. J. Mac with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. I love it, love it when you go after anonymous trolls, Colin. But let's start with the Detroit Lions and Ben Johnson. He leaves the Lions, goes to the Bears and oh my gosh, what an off season. Your Bears. We got to call him your Bears, right? Well, in 45 minutes we'll find out what I think about the Bears. They've been one of the biggest winners in free agents. The biggest winner. Joe Tuney, Jonah Jackson and Drew Dahlman will fortify the offensive line. Here's Johnson yesterday talking about the addition. We want some tough, some gritty, some. Some dirty individuals. And we feel pretty good about the two guys we got. Smart is is a word that comes to mind, particularly with the interior players. We need guys that we love to have some versatility to our scheme, some multiplicity, if you will. I'm really, really excited to get these guys in the room. Combined with the coaches, coaches that we've already put together for that room, I feel really good about the style of play we'll have this year. Those are really good pickups. Close to the football guys, smart guys. I saw that they had the 24th rated offensive line last season. Caleb Williams was sacked 68 times. Now, by the way, they have a good right tackle, young guy who looks like he's the right guy. So between these three guys in the right tackle, that will be a top 8o line this year, maybe. By the way, that's what Sean Payton did in Denver. Remember? Bad to like seventh. Watch the, watch the Bears online. And if the O line's good and they get genty, watch out, baby. Super bowl, here we come. But let's be real. One of the issues they had was Caleb Williams just holding the ball forever. Remember the backyard football that he did at usc? Maybe because it was the offensive line wasn't great in Chicago. He just held the ball forever. Yeah. And like, young guys can do it. I don't think that's going to automatically, like, click just because the offensive line is better. This might be a slow ish start and then it builds up. But Colin, I mentioned the schedule. Have you looked at the opponents that the Bears have to face this season? It is brutal. Oh, okay. Yeah. You're undaunted. I looked at the Charger schedule last year. It was brutal. They made the playoffs. Yeah, they did. They did. They got smashed in the first Washington schedule was brutal. They, they made the NFC championship. Detroit schedule was brutal. So just I, I, my takeaway is just think of the coaching Caleb Williams had to endure last year. Now watch the coaching it gets with Ben Johnson. If you don't think coaching matters for a young quarterback. I mean, you think Bo Nicks was aided a little bit by coaching A little bit. Do you think Sam Darnold this past year was aided a little bit by coaching Caleb Williams? Weren't they on like a quarterback passing coordinator as the head coach, something like that? Yeah. I mean, that was the jets and the Bears. You're dealing with guys who shouldn't even be coordinators running the show. All right, so we, so we're booking tickets for the Bears. Well, I'm going to be there already. Maybe you can stop by. NFC championship at the Soldier Field hosting it. Speaking of free agency, next story, is Russell Wilson still available? And there's a lot of uncertainty where he'll land. The Steelers haven't ruled out bringing Russ back, but they're not really talking about him. Remember, there was the Justin Field stuff. Well, Russ is taking meetings with the Browns today. Cleveland Browns, who just got Kenny Pickett and are drafting second. That's bizarre to me. And the New York Giants tomorrow. Russ, of course, went On Instagram and posted one of these cool things. There's a couple. It's a lot of. A lot of swearing with this. He's fired up. He's fired up. I don't like all that swearing that nobody wants. There's a reason you go to a hotel, they got a Bible in the drawer. Trying to clean your act up on the road. Clean it up, Russ. Clean it up a little bit there. Either of these. Does that do anything for you? Russ to the Cleveland Browns. Does it do anything for me? I. The Cleveland Browns rarely do anything for me. I like the coach. Coach I like a lot. What about Russ with Malik, Neighbors and the Giants? It doesn't do much for me. The Giants, regardless of the quarterback or not, unless they get Shador Sanders, that. That excites. Yeah. On some level, you have to wonder what Russ is thinking. Like, hey, man, Justin Fields was fine. I came on. We were what, 10, 11? You know what's weird? I was thinking about this and, like, nobody wants me. So the biggest cities in the country are New York and la. And LA is always thinking about star power. I mean, Dean Spanos would tell you Harbaugh was going to be. We needed big and the Lakers had AD and like, no. Then we want to upgrade to Luka. And the Rams had golf, and they're like, no, we want to. We want a upgrade. The Giants are like a Midwest football team. Like, you're New York. If you can get Shadour Sanders, that's exciting. Aaron, Russ, Cousins, I mean, if the Giants were in Los Angeles, I can tell you what the LA football team would do. They would draft Deion Sanders, kid, because he's pretty good. So it's weird. When I look at the Giants, it's a great question by you. Does any of this do anything for you? The New York Giants are boring and they're in New York. I mean, that's what George Steinbrenner always understood. He'd fire Billy Martin. Higher, fire high. The bottom line, be interesting. It matters in New York. There's too many things to do for people in the summer for baseball, People get in their car, they head to the Hamptons, they head wherever they go. It's like, I look at the Giants and that's a great question. Like, in Pittsburgh, everybody's going to watch regardless. In Cleveland, people watch regardless. New York, Chicago, Louisiana. Man, you got to make an effort to be interesting and great and remember, like, Thanksgiving, the holidays, Christmas in New York is so exciting and fun. Nobody wants to go to a Giants game when they're terrible. Like, I, I, I just don't see anything there. Listen, I, I'm hammering them a little too hard. The jets, they're not going to be great, but let's wrap up the first hour with a good New York team. And that's my Knicks. What a finish last night. Look at Mikhail Bridges. Three in overtime. Knicks win by one. Clutch stuff from the Villanova star. Watch the crowd in Portland. Watch this. Well, it's weird. There were a lot of Knicks fans around. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of. Let me see. Look at that. It was loud. If you watch the video and listen, he's got the cool celebration. New Yorkers everywhere. However, Colin, the biggest story about the win came after the game because Bridges told coach Tom Thibodeau the starters need to play fewer minutes. He's right. He's 100% right. I've been saying this for months. Bridges said that Thibodeau received a message and he's not arguing about it. I don't know what that means. The Knicks lead the NBA in minutes played by starters. There's no, look at this, minutes per game. The knicks have brutal three of the top six. This, yes. And by the way, is 18. And by the way, I like Tibbs, but nothing drives me crazier than multiple time fired coach who can't move off his system. Tibbs, take four to six minutes a night off all those players. You're going to make the playoffs, you're going to lose some games. The seating doesn't matter. There's enough veterans on the Knicks, they can win road playoff games. They're not. Okay, it doesn't matter. You want to get at least one home playoff series, reward the fans, right? Get home court, win a series at home. The Knicks are built. I mean, Brunson's been around. Cat's been around this. Mikhail Bridges. These are veteran players that can win road games. Like you and I know this. If OKC played the Lakers, I can guarantee it. LeBron and Luke are built to win road games. They're older players. So to me, it just. When I see this, whenever I see a coach that's been fired three times, like I get when you get fired once. I mean, in most pro sports and I even get. If you went to a second place and were there forever, you can get fired. But when you start being like, you start getting to it, you've been fired twice, you move to a place and you're still doing the thing that people complained about on the way out that I don't get. I mean, the Knicks fans are like, oh no, we're falling. We're not going to be third in the East. It's the same nonsense with Laker fans. They're like, oh my gosh, Lakers, they're going to be fourth or fifth, it doesn't matter. You need your stars healthy. You need Brunson, you need bridges, you need LeBron. And I think these coaches are just. It's frustrating, especially with Thibodeau. Yeah. J. Mac with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by the herd lie news. It's really interesting. So I think the Bears, in my opinion, New England and the Bears had in Washington had very good free agent week. And Washington, some of it was just resigning. You know, Zach Ertz, Bobby Wagner, some of it was that. Some of it was getting Debo and and Laramie Tunzel. But I really like where Chicago really concentrated. Guard, center, guard. That's where we're going to get better. And I mean, they got two stars. Drew Dahlman and Joe Tuney are stars. Two of the best interior o linemen in the league. And then Jonah Jackson will start. So it wasn't like it was scatter shot. It was like Bears are like, we're getting better right up front. And so it's interesting, one of the players for the Lions, Omaron St. Brown, was on a podcast this week talking about all the money Chicago has. I feel like the Bears have unlimited money. This crazy. Every time. They're just signing new for like 40. Hey. Yeah. They're trying to make sure. Boom. Jonah Jackson. Bang. Drew Dahlman. Bang. Dayo, go ahead. Last name? No, go give it a try. Another I saw, yeah, a crazy amount of money. Grady, Jared, Bang. Like they're just breaking everybody off. They're trying to get a whole line for Caleb Limited money. What the is this? I mean, their cat face is probably. They probably have high cat space. I mean, hot B Ben just making moves left and right. So it, it's. I first of all, he's just great. His podcast is great. He's a great player. Omaron St. Brown, impossible not to like. So he even dyed his hair the team color. I mean, come on, you got to like the guy. So. But it's interesting about Detroit. I've got family in Detroit, my wife's family. So huge lion fans everywhere. The Lions are entering. It's really interesting here. They're pivoting to a different phase where they're now the hunted. They've won back to back division titles. They're Hunted. They now draft their draft picks that they hit on like Panay Sewell, Omaron St. Brown. Now they got pay them big money. So they've moved into employee retention phase. Now their coordinators are getting poached. And go ask the Philadelphia Eagles when you get elite coordinators poached and you miss on the next coordinators, things go sideways fast. And that's for Philadelphia. Also. You're not picking at the top to get Panay Sewell or Aiden Hutchison. No, you're picking at the bottom of the first, second and third round. By the way, last year they went and got a cornerback from Bama. He ranked 67th in the NFL at corner because he was bottom of the first round, which is like a graveyard. There are more misses in the first round from like the 23rd pick to the 31st. Well, that's where the. That's what the Lions are going to be picking from this point forward. So San Francisco was stacked for six years. No rings. They're in a semi rebuild. The window closes quickly. I say this all the time. I thought Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman, I thought that thing was going to be a four, six year dynasty. Two trips, one ring. See you later. San Francisco, couple of trips, no rings. See you later. So Philadelphia, because they have the best GM in the league and I love the Lions front office. But it is interesting now. It's. You start looking around and the Giants just changed their entire O line and. And last year it was receivers. Now, by the way, and I'll say it again, Caleb Williams gets elite coaching like Jaden Daniels got last year with coaching or what Bo Nicks got last year with coaching. Okay, so it's a different ball game. And in Detroit and again I have Detroit in 35 minutes. We'll see where I pick them. But they do remind me a little bit of, you know, Philadelphia. Now Philadelphia got it, but they moved off coordinators and it went sideways within like eight games. So. And I did not love Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson are. I mean there was an argument. The two best coordinators in football last year, Detroit had both. What are the chances that you hire two coordinators and they're better than those guys? The chances are zero. One of your new coordinators will not hit it. They won't. One may. May. One won't let. Can we be totally frank here? The new offensive coordinator, I'm going to say it right now. Probably not as good as Ben Johnson. Probably not going to be that good. By the way, the Eagles found out we're going to hire a guy. Yeah, probably not as good as Shane Steichen. And dealing with quarterbacks, it's tough. All right, top of the hour. My NFC predictions. Very excited. I've got three new playoff teams. It was this time last year when I said Washington will make the playoffs, you laughed at me. It was hurtful. Things worked out pretty good for the podcaster who Aaron Rodgers listened to yesterday on the beach. That's all I'm gonna say. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. Hey, it's Steve Covino. And I'm Rich Davis. And together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You can catch us weekdays from 5 to 7pm Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific, on Fox Sports Radio. And of course, the iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich? We talk about everything, life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world. We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that, well, other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends for the last 20 years and still work together, I mean, that says something, right? So check us out. We like to get you involved, too. Take your phone calls, chop it up, as they say. I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planet Earth. Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports radio and the iHeartradio app from 5 to 7pm Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific. And if you miss any of the live show, just search KO Vino and Rich wherever you get your podcast. And of course, on social media, that's Covino and Rich. It's the last game of the season and with amex, you can save time with card member entrances at select venues and go straight to the action so you can catch every moment. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more@americanexpress.com withamx we live in a divided country. I am a lifelong Republican with all kinds of different people. You know, I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother. That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the very vast middle into the national conversation. Anna, I'm calling from Las Vegas. Each week we bring together an all star panel. Mark Cuban, so great to have you on the Middle. Thanks for having me, Jeremy. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, welcome to the Middle. Thanks for having me. And hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country on the most important issues. Hi, my name is Venkat. I'm calling you from Atlanta, Georgia. And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news. We should be examining what our government spends its money on and are these jobs necessary and what are we doing here? But that doesn't seem to be what we're doing in this situation. Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. East tournament quarterfinals took off on FS1. First at 6:30 Eastern, DePaul takes on Creighton. Then at 9:30, Villanova battles Yukon. I watched a lot of college basketball in NBA this weekend. I did. Michigan State can't score, but in college basketball, a lot of times the offense is basically just dump it down to the big guy. That's Michigan and Michigan State. Michigan State can't shoot and will be like one of the top seeds. So it's, it's, you know, in college basketball, there are very few teams that have offensive depth. You, you, you, you win with coaching and defense. And sometimes you can have one great offensive player. Michigan State does not. So we may get Tom Izzo on before the tournament. Mark Few Agonzaga. Now, that team generally has really good offense. So Josh Allen, that new contract he signed, one of the reasons I liked it, and I've always said this with great superstar players, pay him early. Everybody else, be patient. I have no problem signing Josh Allen to another big deal. By the way, he did not break the bank. And what does that tell you? That outside of all his unbelievable physical traits, he's also got an emotional one and an intelligence. He gets the big picture. That's why winning matters the most. That's why Tom Brady signed a massive deal with Fox when he left the NFL. The winning thing, Because Kirk Cousins made more money playing football than Tom Brady. Tom Brady was the winning thing. And I've thought about this before. Michael Jordan and Iverson were iconic, huge in pop culture. One six rings, one none. Why are businesses still throwing money at mj? It's the winning. If Michael Jordan, as great as he was, was 2 and 4 in finals, it wouldn't feel the same. So individual success in pro sports makes people like you. Individual success with team success makes you a legend. And that's the difference. Dan Marino, maybe the most talented quarterback to ever get into Pads is talked about less than Eli Manning, who was a completely mediocre regular season quarterback. So Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce, not the Jacksonville Jaguars tight end. There's a reason winning makes you more attractive to everybody. Broadcast networks, advertisers, teammates, iconic status. A lot of guys have that. A lot of guys are popular, a lot of guys are rich. And NBA, NFL baseball, they're all rich. You know, scoring titles is not what people talk about 20 years later. Karl Malone was like third all time in scoring two years ago. Nobody talks about him, Nobody talks about Dan Marino. Not blaming him. Rory McElroy was talking to Golf Digest last year and he said, I'm in way better financial position now than I was a decade ago and my life is no different. Same three or four rooms in my house. So congratulations on the ninth car for all pro athletes. But Josh Allen sums it up. I didn't want to bankrupt my team. When you start getting these fairly big numbers throughout the entire league, you know, it's weird to say this, but what's, what's five more going to do for my life that I can't already do right now? I wasn't looking to absolutely kill them at every, every chance that I could. And I told my agent that I was like, hey, if this, this has any impact on the pack or impact on the cap, I should say let's figure out a way to, to not do that, you know. And by the way, the game day revenue for Buffalo is not as good as like Los Angeles or Philadelphia or, you know, so the truth of the matter is so much in this NFL, Buffalo is not a big free agent market. It doesn't have massive game day revenue. They don't charge those prices. So, you know, they, that bank account may not be as big as Jeffrey Lorries of Philadelphia. So there's a lot of things to consider when you play in Buffalo or Green Bay. Like, what's the house cost in Buffalo? What's it, what, what are the taxes in Buffalo compared to like in la? So I, you know, to me, like, Matt Stafford could have gone and made more money. You're in Los Angeles, you have Sean McVay, you have Pukinakua, you have one of the richest owners. So I look at Buffalo and I'm like, the front office appears to be capable, really solid ownership, really solid B plus coach, great left tackle, so you get protected. They've got a great running back. So, and I, and I said this for years and years about Dwyane Wade Dwayne Wade's an all time great player. I love, everybody loved Dwyane Wade, but you have to think about this stuff. So Dwayne Wade gets drafted out of Marquette, grows up in cold weather and ends up in Miami. Great owner Mickey Harrison, best GM in the league. Pat Riley ends up getting Eric Spoelstra top three coach, no state tax. The NBA is a winter league. The best winter weather in America. Like there's gotta. I mean if you're not considering that stuff, you're nuts. I've moved four times across country. I consider everything. So like Aaron Rodgers and the Giants and the Steelers, I don't have to sell my house. I have an offensive coach. I have a great weapon, I have a great left tackle. That stuff matters not just well, Pittsburgh's got a better roster. Pittsburgh's offense is no better with Aaron Rodgers than New York's would be. It's, it's a bunch of high maintenance wide receivers and they can't get their own line right and they put draft capital into it. So it, it's, to me it's about winning, it's about keeping the band together. And I mean I, I don't even need to mention certain quarterbacks in this league. They want to make every penny. Congrats. How many cars in houses do you want to win games? That's what it comes down Now. Now I will say this. When Brady was taking pay cuts forever, I would have had a problem because I think Buffalo drafts pretty well. I think Buffalo. So I'll give up some money. Are you spending it wisely? I think they have, they've tried to get him wide receivers. Amari Cooper, Stefan Diggs. So Buffalo has tried to use the money to help him. Kincaid, the tight end. First round pick, James Cook. Excellent. They paid Dion Dawkins. So Buffalo, what used to drive me crazy for Brady and I said this when I worked at the other place, he was taking pay cuts as the league's best quarterback. What do they have to show for it? They never drafted a good receiver. They wouldn't, they wouldn't spend any big money on a wide receiver. So now Brady won. But at the end Tom left New England. Not because of the weather in Belichick. He left because New England had no skill people. So they were taking money from Tom forever and he didn't see the benefit of it. I don't have a problem if I give back a little bit to my company. If I feel I'm getting value. Is my staff good? Do I have good support, marketing, promotion. I can Give it up, Brady. At the end, I was like, just go to Tampa. I mean, I've said it on the air. Like, Tampa's got Chris Godwin. Take Gronk with you. Mike Evans, Bruce Arians, go to Tampa. Great gm. You'll have a bunch of good players. But I do feel in Buffalo, giving it back is they go out and they try to get players to help you. It seems to me they've drafted pretty well. Maybe not as good as Philadelphia, but they're a top 10 drafting team. I'm okay with that. I've said this for years about Green Bay. Brett Favaron, Rodgers, Jordan, Love. I would take less to play for the Packers. They always have a good offensive line. Always. When's the last time the packers had a terrible offensive line? They always have a smart offensive coach. They don't get as many free agents. But what do you have to spend for a house? I mean, you're spending a million and a half dollars for a house. You're paying 28 million for house in Westchester County. If you play for the jets or Giants or in Los Angeles on the beach, you're paying a million and a half. In Green Bay, you got less taxes. Always a good old line, always an offensive coach. And by the way, the media in Buffalo and Green Bay is not this relentless attack dog that matters as well. I. My wife used to work in the corporate world. She contends Buffalo as the nicest people in the world. She's like, everybody bangs on Buffalo in the weather. She's like, I love going to Buffalo. The nicest people in the world. And there's value in that. So that is one of the things about the NFL that's great is that you can argue the three places in the league that treat the players the best are Green Bay, Buffalo and Kansas City, like three of the smallest markets. So I would just take less to be a Packer. I would currently take less in Buffalo. I feel the value additive by, you know, I mean, good God, if it snows 12ft one day, your neighbors come in with blowers and clear the driveway. They're not doing that. They're not necessarily doing that. In Philadelphia if you're on two game losing streak. All right, J. Mac In Philadelphia, you're winning Super Bowls. In Buffalo, you're not getting. That being said, Buffalo's my Super bowl pick for this coming season. I think I got them coming. It's early. Let's see the order of the school. And I'm serious about this. There are places in the NFL that I would take less. Green Bay is at the top. So much matters, Colin, where you are in your career. You know, are you potentially a free agent? Who the quarterback is like, there's. There's a lot. I wouldn't. I wouldn't take a penny less to play for the jets because I know the ownership's impulsive. I got to deal with the kids in the locker room. I want every penny out of the jets, every pen. And I'm getting taxed to death. I'm. I'm taking every penny with the Jets. I. If I was a star quarterback, but I. I. Buffalo, Kansas City. I mean, if I got Andy Reid or Sean McVeigh or Matt LaFleur, I'm taking. I'm gonna say. And I said this about D. Wade. I love D. Wade. You're hitting the lottery. When you get Spoelster at Riley, you're in a winter league. It's aqua water, no state tax. And I don't know what D. Wade's financial situation was, but he moved up to Chicago for a couple years, remember? Or a year. He's like, I'm going back to the aqua water. Me. I get it. By the way, so you mentioned Chicago. I'm looking at this. Bears opponents for next season. Oh, come on, Colin. It is they. I. I don't know if they're going to win one game on the road. Oh, it is brutal. You want me to rattle them off? Yeah. Give me, give me, give me. Okay, so the division folks we know, Detroit, Green Bay, and Minnesota. Okay. By the way, those teams also have to go to Chicago. Non divisional matchups. At Baltimore, at Cincinnati. Oh, scary. At Philadelphia, that's a loss. At Washington, win. At San Francisco, win. And then at the Raiders, when maybe Washington's a loss. Stop, by the way, if you can win again. That's a. That's brutal. You have to admit, that is probably the toughest road schedule. I don't have them winning 13 games. You have them winning 10. Yes. Okay. By the way, when it gets cold and I've got the best interior offensive line in football, hand the ball off to that Boise State genty kid. Six yards of carry. Scary. Oh, it's funny. We never lose at home. Let's file this away, folks, for when there's six. I am. I am moving to Chicago at a perfect time, hosting NFC championship games for the next decade. Very excited. Paul Pierce, too, today. This is Nikki Glaser from the Nikki Glazer Podcast. On a more serious note, I'm still thinking about that commercial with Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg hating on each other. Because when you listen to the reasons for hating someone or something, you realize just how stupid they really are. There is too much hate in this country and it's gotta stop. So join us at iheart and Standing Up To It. If you see hate, speak up, call it out and you can learn more by following. Hat's upwithhate what's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you, with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We live in a divided country, and our media couldn't be more polarizing. That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation. Each week we hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country. And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news. Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everyone? Julius Rippinks here, along with former NHL player Nate Thompson. We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go. The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb. Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right? Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us. Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe. Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.