Colin Cowherd (43:08)
Urban Meyer last hour. You know, I say this all the time, either to my kids or in my business. I own nobody solves anything. There's never been a problem solved pointing a finger. You just got to own it, right? Like you got to own your stuff. And sometimes, you know, I watch fans always want to point fingers. I saw, you know, liberals do it after they lost the election. It's finger pointing at you dumb voters who did you look in the mirror, solve problems by inspecting your decisions and looking in the mirror. That's how you solve political issues, business issues. So everybody wants to blame officials. This week, this past weekend, we saw something. The officials are absolutely worried about the Trevor Lawrence slide, where he slides, I thought he slid late and he got whacked. And I was with Tom Brady, who came on the show. I think there is some responsibility to Trevor Lawrence and quarterbacks. He slides late. And defensive players feel trapped. They don't know what to do. But you saw the league not only throw a flag but kick the player out for almost a month. That's what they're worried about. They're not, they're not, you know, they're not losing sleep. They don't want head slaps to Jordan Love. That's not what they want. But the NFL, because of the style of play and the regulated level of violence, they could throw a flag every play. They want to keep the game going. But that that on Trevor Lawrence, where I think the quarterback slid late, they kicked the guy out for almost a month. Tom Brady talked about that incident. Defensive players have to be aggressive. That's Their nature. I was trying to be aggressive on offense. We tried to block aggressively and at the same time the defense tries to tackle aggressively. So I don't know. There's an aspect to me that I think the quarterback and the certainly the quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves. The aspect, again, for a play caller. There's more design runs for quarterbacks ever now than in the history of the NFL. So are we really trying to protect quarterbacks? Because if you are trying to do it through the rules, then why are the offensive coordinators not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping them in the pocket? And maybe they fine or penalize a quarterback for sliding late, you know, and say, look, we, if we don't want these hits to take place, we've got to penalize the offense and the defense. Yeah. And I don't. I kind of sided with Tom here and Drew Brees came on two days later and also said, you know, there's a responsibility by the offensive player. What you're asking an offensive player to do, think about what you're asking him to do. Choreography. You can't even move your right finger or it's illegal. You can have illegal motion. You're lining up wrong. Everything about offense, it's kind of brain power, lining up multiple audibles, total, absolute choreography. Well, that's, that's not what defense is. Defensive guys can move whatever they want to do before the snap. They don't have to be lined up. They can move anywhere they want to move. Their job is to blow stuff up, create chaos. So the mindset of an offensive player is efficiency and choreography and playing fast and alert. The mindset of a defensive player is I'm going to mess this thing up. I'm going to blow this play up. So you've got a different mindset playing it. So you're asking a Houston Texan who's a very aggressive player, he's running full speed at Trevor Lawrence and then Lawrence slides a foot late and he's already leaning in. So I mean, look at, look when he slides. Do it again really quickly here. So freeze it. When he starts to slide, Boom. Okay, the defensive player is already getting down. He's already low. He is already in the process. His knee hasn't hit yet. Trevor Lawrence is not officially downed. His knee is not touched. The defensive player, if you look, he is already with Trevor Lawrence already going down. He's lower than Trevor Lawrence. He is moving in for the shot. And now let it go. Bang, bang from there to the hit. Less than half a second so just think what you just saw. The freeze frame. Boom. That is. That is three tenths of a second. And you are looking for the perfect hit. When you freeze that slide, his knee is not down and that defensive player is already below him. That means he has a. He is a missile. That missile has been fired to the player. Now if Trevor 2 1/2 to 3ft earlier slides, then it's like, okay, that takes. But I don't view it as a complete cheap shot. I view it as a late hit. But I'm, I'm, I'm with Brady on this thing. I think it's much closer. And you have to remember, you know, it's like you're a little bit of a fighter pilot on defense. There's risk. It takes a certain level of courage. You know that. Not football players aren't all the same. Some positions, quarterback are very much about mechanics and rhythm. Some cornerback, for instance, like a sauce garden corner, it's about confidence because you're going to get beat. Every corner in this league. Patrick certain against Cleveland got beat badly and he's the best corner in football. But you can't lose your confidence. So for a defensive player, a corner, it's all about confidence. You can't lose it when you get beat because you're going to get beat. The best in the business get beat. The best left tackles in football don't get beat that much. So that's a technical position. Offensive lines tend to be brute strength and technical cohesion. That's not. Secondaries can be cohesion, playing well together in space. But every football player has a different task, a different assignment and a different mindset. And these defensive guys now, they don't make as much money. They don't want to pay safeties. You mean, even when you get to be like Jadarius Sneed Kansas City and you're a great corner, they move officer, you send him to a bad team. I mean, that's the reality. NFL teams now want to pay one defensive player. Go look at Kansas City, they'll pay Chris Jones. Then they'll just keep their defense young and keep drafting. They're spending money. Quarterback, tight end, guard, right tackle, left tackle. Teams will spend money. Now look at the Rams. They're not paying anybody on defense, they're not. They let Jalen Ramsey go. I mean, they, they're only paying off. Tight end makes money. Cooper cup makes money. Matt Stafford makes money. Rob Havenstein, right tackle, makes money. Rams are paying four or five offensive guys. They're paying nobody on defense. They just keep drafting and keeping it cheap. They had Ernest Jones. J. Mac used to make funny. Rams had this great interior linebacker. Ernest Jones, excellent player, second, third best player, let him go. So defensive guys now can't get paid. Ernest Jones comes in from like Texas A&M, third round guy overachieves, he's a great player. They let him go. Go Tyler Higsby, a good tight end. They sign him. So these defensive guys now are thinking, man, none of us get paid unless you're like Max Crosby or your Chris Jones. You know, if you're an elite pass rusher, a bosa, you're getting paid. Everybody else, you gotta make an impression. J. Mac doesn't like this.
