THE HERD - Hour 3 - Tom Brady Talks Eagles vs. Chiefs, JJ McCarthy, and Coaching QBs

Summary

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The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode: THE HERD - Hour 3 - Tom Brady Talks Eagles vs. Chiefs, JJ McCarthy, and Coaching QBs
Date: September 11, 2025
Host: Colin Cowherd
Guest: Tom Brady
Network: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume

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Episode Overview

In this hour of “The Herd,” Colin Cowherd dives deep into the biggest NFL storylines of the week: the high-octane Eagles-Chiefs showdown, the early trajectories of quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy and Caleb Williams, and the nuances of coaching and developing NFL QBs. Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady joins the show for a candid, insightful discussion about QB development, the importance of offensive lines, emotional and mental aspects of quarterbacking, and what separates good from great at football’s most demanding position.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Eagles vs. Chiefs Rematch: Offensive Lines and Leadership

[02:55 - 05:08, 11:17 - 12:41]

• Chiefs' O-Line Struggles: Colin and his co-hosts dissect the consistent issues Kansas City faces at tackle, highlighting poor PFF grades for both Josh Simmons and Jawaan Taylor.

  • Colin predicts another tough outing for Mahomes against a dominant Eagles front:

    “I think this could get ugly. I think Philadelphia rolls.” (03:49, Colin Cowherd)

• Philadelphia’s Loaded Roster: Colin asserts that the Eagles boast nearly all of the top talent in the game, questioning the Chiefs’ ability to hang in the trenches.

  • Roster depth and O-line control as keys to victory:

    “Right now Philadelphia's roster... there's not a lot of holes.” (11:17, Colin Cowherd)

• Tom Brady on Offensive Line Importance:

  “I always say you control the line of scrimmage, you control the game... It takes someone like Patrick Mahomes to have that Mahomes magic and pull the rabbit out of his hat.” (26:21, Tom Brady)

  • Brady recounts how poor O-line play unsettled him in key games, and details Mahomes’ unique challenge in having to navigate frequent changes up front.

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2. J.J. McCarthy, Caleb Williams & Rookie QB Development

[03:54 - 06:02, 12:41 - 14:35, 23:06 - 25:14]

• J.J. McCarthy's Emotional Edge:

  • Tom Brady sees J.J. McCarthy’s fourth-quarter surge as evidence of elite emotional engagement, drawing comparisons with Baker Mayfield’s on-field fire:

    “I absolutely love it when I see that type of emotion... When you're electrified as a player, you play with the most focus, the most anticipation...” (23:58, Tom Brady)

• On-Script vs. Off-Script QB Play:

  • Caleb Williams excels on script, but struggles when forced outside the structure; J.J. McCarthy stands out for late-game, off-script heroics.

    “My general takeaway is Caleb Williams was at his best on script. JJ McCarthy was at his best the last three drives, mostly off script.” (14:35, Colin Cowherd)

  • Caleb Williams’ concerning stats:

    “He leads the NFL the last 18 games in overthrows... Footwork, pre snap penalties—leads the league... The operations are a problem pre snap.” (13:12, Colin Cowherd)

• Greg Cosell on Rookie QBs:

  • Regarding Caleb Williams:

    “He's got things that need to be clearly worked on... But that's not the way you can live in the NFL as you know, week to week.” (12:42, Greg Cosell)

  • On J.J. McCarthy’s development:

    “JJ McCarthy will reap the benefits of Kevin O'Connell being one of the best in the league at being able to do this.” (14:12, Greg Cosell)

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3. The Realities & Nuances of QB Coaching and Development

[28:15 - 38:00]

• Coaching Quality Makes or Breaks QBs:

  • Brady points out the wild variance in the NFL when it comes to coaching quality and development environments:

    “You're assuming that everybody knows how to develop a quarterback. I'm telling you, there's a lot of people who have no idea what they're doing...” (32:52, Tom Brady)

  • What does genuine development look like? Brady describes Bill Belichick’s hands-on education in defensive coverages during his early years, contrasting it with the lack of such support for many of today’s rookies:

    “I had a defensive coach, the best one of all time, teach me how to read defenses.” (34:05, Tom Brady)

• Mental and Emotional Processing > Physical Talent:

  • Brady credits his success to mental and emotional capacities, not elite physical gifts:

    “What I lacked for maybe in a bit of physical development, I far exceeded a lot of other people in mental, emotional development. And that's a hard thing to evaluate.” (36:03, Tom Brady)

  • On the challenges for new QBs:

    “If you're sitting in the meeting room and learning, I actually think that's the best way to learn... because you can learn and practice by making a lot of good decisions, bad decisions, without necessarily being critiqued from the outside world and losing your confidence.” (29:30, Tom Brady)

• The Dangers of Fast-Tracking Rookie QBs:

  • Colin argues that by Thanksgiving of year 2, a QB’s future should be clear—Brady pushes back, highlighting that poor situations and coaching can doom talented prospects before they have a chance to bloom.

    “After Thanksgiving, your second year, they're going, 'Man, this guy just can't play anymore. He stinks.'... Did you teach him anything? Did you groom him?” (34:41, Tom Brady)

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4. The Nature of Poise, Confidence, and Off-the-Charts QB Traits

[38:00 - 41:17]

• Innate Poise in Big Moments:

  • Colin and Brady debate whether ultimate calm under pressure is innate or can be developed.

    “I believe the one thing you can't teach... is you are either calm in crisis or you're not. If you're anxious in a teeth clencher, it never goes away.” (39:15, Colin Cowherd)

  • Brady agrees, suggesting that the greats play “with no fear of failure,” enabling great focus:

    “There's poise and composure in big moments that I do think separates kind of elite performers... Probably a high sense of self-confidence in big situations... There are certain people who have, no fear of failure. And that frees you up to go out and be your best.” (39:23, Tom Brady)

• Naming Names: Stafford, Mahomes, and True Pre-Snap Masters:

  • Brady highlights Matthew Stafford’s “elite” level of pre-snap processing, singling out his use of no-look passes and deep defensive understanding. He also credits Mahomes, but laments the lack of mental/emotional development in most young QBs.

    “Matt Stafford just jumps to the top of my mind... That is an elite level of play and his ability to recognize defenses and then make those type of throws. So he's the one.” (28:59, Tom Brady)

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Notable Quotes (w/ Timestamps & Attribution)

• On Emotional Energy in QBs

  “When you're electrified as a player, you play with the most focus, the most anticipation, everything ends up being at the highest sense of alertness.”
  (23:58, Tom Brady)

• On O-Line Importance

  “I always say you control the line of scrimmage, you control the game.”
  (26:21, Tom Brady)

• On Rookie QB Development

  “You're assuming that everybody knows how to develop a quarterback. There’s a lot of people who have no idea what they're doing when they're tasked with coaching a quarterback.”
  (32:52, Tom Brady)

• On Mental/Emotional Edge Over Physical Skills

  “What I lacked for maybe in a bit of physical development, I far exceeded a lot of other people in mental, emotional development.”
  (36:03, Tom Brady)

• On Unteachable Poise

  “There are certain people who have, I would say, no fear of failure. And that allows you... to go out and be your best.”
  (39:23, Tom Brady)

• On Stafford as a Pre-Snap Elite QB

  “Matt Stafford just jumps to the top of my mind... That's an elite level of play and his ability to recognize defenses and then make those type of throws.”
  (28:59, Tom Brady)

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Memorable Moments

• Brady vividly describes the lack of development for QBs in some NFL organizations, even distinguishing between the “32nd ranked offensive coordinator” and the top ones (32:52 - 36:40).
• The in-depth comparison and critique of Caleb Williams versus JJ McCarthy in their rookie seasons, breaking down "on script" vs "off script" play (14:12 - 14:35, 13:12 - 14:12).
• Brady’s anecdotes about Belichick personally tutoring him on NFL defensive concepts, demonstrating how rare it is for today’s QBs to get such mentorship (34:05 - 34:40).
• The mutual admiration between Colin and Brady about the art of staying composed in high-pressure moments, referencing Mahomes and Tiger Woods (39:23 - 41:17).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Eagles vs. Chiefs preview (news & analysis): 02:55 – 05:08, 11:17 – 12:41
• JJ McCarthy & emotional quarterbacking: 03:54 – 04:47, 23:06 – 25:14
• Caleb Williams critique & on/off script play: 13:12 – 14:35
• Tom Brady on O-lines and Mahomes: 26:21 – 28:15
• Elite pre-snap quarterbacking (Brady on Stafford/Mahomes): 28:59
• QB coaching & development pitfalls: 32:52 – 36:40
• Innate poise under pressure: 39:15 – 41:17

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Episode Takeaways

• Elite QBs aren’t made by talent alone: They need developmental support, emotional stability, and high football IQ to thrive.
• NFL organizations often fail QBs more than QBs fail themselves: Especially when coaching, structure, or O-line talent is lacking.
• The gap between average and elite quarterbacking is as much about what happens before and between snaps (mental, emotional, leadership), as physical talents.
• The Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch will likely hinge on O-line play and whether Mahomes can conjure magic against a superior roster.
• No one in sports media (or football) quite breaks down the intricacies of QB play and development like Tom Brady.

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Transcript

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[Colin Cowherd]

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[Colin Cowherd]

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[Colin Cowherd]

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[Tom Brady]

No, no, no, no.

[Colin Cowherd]

Turn on the news. This is the Herdline news.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

It's the game of the week on Fox Collins. Sunday, Eagles, Chiefs, super bowl rematch. The Kansas City Chiefs reeling, looking to avoid an 02 start. Mahomes was terrible, rotten, awful in the Super Bowl. Got roughed up. Philly blew him out. Mahomes is now discussing how the Eagles were able to slow him down back in February.

[Patrick Mahomes (quoted)]

To progress and to be better next time, you have to watch and learn from it. And so I don't know the exact amount of times, but you watch it and then you watch it in the off season with the team and with the coaches, and then you watch it obviously this week as well. And so they did. They had a great game plan, they played hard and did a great job of disrupting my timing. And so I have to, I have to learn from that, find ways to get the ball out of my hand and then when the opportunities are there. I think that's something I did miss early in the game is there was opportunities to make plays and you got to make those plays. If you don't, they're not going to allow those opportunities again.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, I think this could get ugly. I think Philadelphia, I think Philadelphia rolls well.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

You remember one of us called the super bowl accurately. And oh, by the way, in case you're curious, audience, Pro Football Focus graded out the tackles of the Chiefs. And this is just from week one against the Chargers, who had Khalil Mack and a mediocre pass rush. Josh Simmons, the rookie, 56th out of 65 tackles. And Juwan Taylor, who's terrible, graded out as 57th, both not very good. That was the problem in the Super Bowl. I think the Eagles get after him again. And I'm with you. I like Philip Del to go into Arrowhead. Send the Chiefs your Chiefs. Sorry. Knicks. Chiefs to 02. Next. Next story. Colin is J.J. mcCarthy. Boy, what a comeback on Monday Night Football. Went off in the fourth quarter. Three touchdowns. Big comeback. During his press conference yesterday, McCarthy talked about how his Persona changes when he steps on the field.

[Colin Cowherd]

Care how I roll?

[Tom Brady]

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it is real when, you know, I'm ready to go to war on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays and, you know, somet Saturdays and third and Wednesdays. Yeah, but yeah, it's really just like a flip that switched and, you know, the rest takes care of itself from there.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

Yeah, pretty kind of like us when we walk into the studio, it's like a different J. Mac. It's like, oh, he's locked in. He's ready to go. I like what I saw from McCarthy Collins. Final story Travis Hunter. He made his NFL debut in Week 1, didn't have a huge impact, did catch six passes for 33 yards and defensively, Hunter made a tackle. He ended up playing 42 offensive snaps, just six on defense. But head coach Liam Cohen said he's going to be playing a little more defense this weekend against the Bungles.

[Colin Cowherd]

Going into Week one, it was okay.

[IBM Advertiser]

We're probably we know that it's not.

[Tom Brady]

Going to be a ton on defense. The goal is to increase and continue to increase. It just so happens that we're playing Cincinnati with two good wideouts this week.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, I like Cincinnati. Definitely. I get the better quarterback at home.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

Yeah, a bit of a cop out. Give me the over in this one. I think we're going to see points and offense, the Bengals defense. I mean, Joe Flacco moved the ball at will.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, yeah, agreed. Flaco wasn't bad at all. No J. Mac with the news. Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by the Herd LIE news. Tom Brady is going to be joining us on the other side. Good day today. Greg Cosell, Diana Rossini and Tom Brady around the corner. That's next. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am.

[Tom Brady]

Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app.

[Colin Cowherd]

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[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

Saquon leads the defending champion Eagles against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. America's game of the week, Sunday, 4 Eastern on Fox.

[Colin Cowherd]

I mean I had a lot of big stars in that game. Unfortunately right now if you listed the top 10 to 12 players, I think it would be eight. I mean obviously Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes would be in there, but I just think there's a preponderance and a dominance the Philadelphia's roster. I mean do top of your head 10 best players in that game. I mean you could take three offensive line with the Eagles alone, Jalen Carter would be in there. Saquon Barkley's in there. Jalen Hurts is probably in there. I mean it's, it's right now Philadelphia's roster there, there's not a lot of holes. Jalen Carter returned. So the Cowboys had some, some success running the ball. I doubt they have as much success as the Cowboys had with Jalen Carter returning. But and I also think this week we've had really good standalone games in the NFL. So the, the Bears and the Vikings. The more it gets examined by people I respect, the more disheartening it is for Chicago. And Tom Brady's talked about this before. So much of being a quarterback in the NFL is pre snap. So much is operations. So I mean it's, it's, it really is, it's the foundation of the house. Forget about the snazzy kitchen. You gotta get the foundation right. And Greg Cosell earlier today did not mince words on what the film said about Caleb's week one performance.

[Greg Cosell]

He's got things that need to be clearly worked on. I'm sure they're working on them, there's too many, what we call turn downs, throws that are there that he does not make. And in any given week, Collin, and you know this, can he make special plays because he has a great arm and throws a beautiful ball, although he missed a lot of throws with poor accuracy in this game. But he has a beautiful arm and he's obviously very mobile and can make plays outside of structure. But that's not the way you can live in the NFL as you know, week to week.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, if you take off the first 10 passes, he was 10 for 10. That's on script and that's impressive right against Brian Flores. But if you take away the first 10 passes and offensive coaches love to script those first 10, 12, 15 plays, it was pretty meager, it was pretty bad. And then the issues for Caleb seem harder to correct. Footwork pre snap penalties leads the league last 18 games by 48% on balls overthrown. JJ McCarthy's issues were in game much easier to correct which were kind of lack confidence, you know, just they were. It was a pretty protective game plan. And so when Greg Cosell looked at J.J. mcCarthy on his performance, here's what he saw.

[Greg Cosell]

When a coordinator calls a play and the primary receiver is open and the play breaks down the defense the way you anticipate when you make the play call and the quarterback executes it, which is what you want by the way, that's what every coordinator wants. Where do we give the credit? JJ McCarthy will reap the benefits of Kevin O' Connell being one of the best in the league at being able to do this.

[Colin Cowherd]

And I think my, my general takeaway is Caleb Williams was at his best on script. JJ McCarthy was at his best the last three drives. Mostly off script. Right. So like that, that the further you get away from leaning on coaching, it being a little bit of a crutch because I don't know what the percentages are, but I wouldn't be surprised if the highest percentage of scoring in the NFL is on first drives. I mean that's the stuff because 65% of winners in the NFL the first team to score. So you know your coaches, you want to take an early lead. On average 60, 65% of winners in the NFL lead a game. So that first drive is, you know, it's really important to trail going into a fourth quarter as a road team and then to win convincingly just doesn't happen a lot. And it usually takes a pretty special level of quarterback play. And I was talking to Jake Butt, former Michigan tight end before the show started today. He works at the Big Ten network and I just bumped into him in the hallway here and he said, you know, that's, that is the thing with J.J. mcCarthy because Jake went to Michigan, McCarthy a Wolverine, is that he always sort of had that confidence, is that he was just always a guy that believed in himself and Harbaugh believed in him. And his reputation was he was a gamer. Like he played his best when he had to play his best and that's what he did. So so much of quarterback play is how do you plan the road, how do you play trailing, how do you play? Now he did have the advantage of a pretty substantial run effort of the Vikings. So that's some of it. But I mean, listen, it's, it's, it is not how you start in this league. It is how you finish. That's what we remember. And so my gut feeling is JJ McCarthy will look much more like the fourth quarter JJ than the first quarter. I mean, that's what I'm going to go off of. You know, any good quarterback can go on script, but the special guys are good off script. And so that's what's disturbing about Caleb Williams. He leads the NFL the last 1818 games and overthrows. The operations are a problem pre snap. He's, he completed 65% of his throws or slightly less on the layups, on the stuff six yards and under. So you're like, what is he good at? The layups, overthrows. So he's got, you know, he's got a ton of horsepower. But I mean there's, listen, the more you start breaking down the stats on Caleb Williams, the more discouraging it is. It is not a lot. It really reminded me of a less refined Cam Newton. Cam had his M.O. i never felt like I never, I didn't love Cam's mechanics and he was always a bit distracted. But Cam could get on heaters with accuracy. Cam could have, you know, he could have a four game stretch where Cam was really humming, really feeling it. I would just like to see, you know, I would like to see a half off script of Caleb Williams performing at a high level. That's what I'd like, that's what I'd like to see. And so listen, it is like I'll give you an example, like Bryce Young. Last year at the end of the year, Bryce Young played pretty, pretty well. Now it doesn't mean he was winning. In week one, Bryce Young got beat by Jacksonville. But if you went to the PFF rankings, Bryce Young's were pretty decent PFFs. Like no, he grades higher than the result. The problem is off script. Caleb grades worse than your gut feeling. Your hunch. When you go look at all the it's, it's worse. So there's, there's, there's not a lot there. You know this, this league. If you go look at the greatest plays by Brady and Peyton Manning and Breeze, they are not highlight plays. They're really not. They're mostly timing routes. I mean now Tom had a couple over the top throws one against the jets through Andy Moss. But most of Tom, Manning and Breeze, most of their great moments were timing stuff. A perfectly thrown ball in the seam to beat the safety by a half step. That's where the highlights are. So now Mahomes is a little bit of the same. He's got some of that and he's got some great plays. But it's, there's, there's not a lot to wrap your arms around. Usually as a coach you're look, you're looking for stuff to wrap your arm around and say, okay, here's what we do. Well, there's not a lot. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people so when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals and that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry role, company seniority, skills, company revenue, all the professionals you need to reach in one place. Stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. Start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com cowherd that's LinkedIn.com cowherd Terms and conditions apply.

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[Veeve Healthcare Advertiser]

It is unknown if Dovato is safe and effective if you have HIV and hepatitis B if you have Hep B. Don't stop Dovato without talking to your doctor as it may get worse or harder to treat. Don't take Dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide due to serious or life threatening side effects. If you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop Devato and get medical help right away. Other serious or life threatening side effects include severe liver problems and lactic acid buildup. If you're female or obese, you may be more at risk. Tell your doctor about your medicines or supplements, medical conditions, liver or kidney problems, pregnancy, breastfeeding or planned pregnancy.

[Veeve Healthcare Advertiser (continuation)]

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[Colin Cowherd]

And with that, 23 years seven time Super bowl champ Tom Brady is now Joining us live. Tom, as always, it's great to see you. How are things?

[Tom Brady]

What's up, Colin? NFL season, week two. Let's go.

[Colin Cowherd]

You know, I was saying about J.J. mcCarthy. Let's start. You're a Michigan guy. Is that he's got a little. Baker Mayfield. I thought you were a guy. Like when I think emotional players, Baker's a guy that when Baker gets into a run, his chest puffs out, his velocity increases, his accuracy increases, he wears his emotions on his sleeve. I don't feel that with you. I didn't feel that. I don't think Michael Penix is that. But when I watched jj, Fourth quarter hits, Justin Jefferson on the sideline, Tom, it was like I gave him a B12 shot, he puffed out three. And it's take me through that about how emotion affected you, positively or negative? Because I think JJ is an emotional player.

[Tom Brady]

I absolutely love it when I see that type of emotion. I think it brings you to kind of higher level of focus. Stands in there, takes a hit, makes a great throw. And that game is all about emotional being at kind of a feverish, feverish pitch, but also controlled. And I could get there emotionally in a way that probably didn't look like it on my face. I think JJ just expresses that a little bit more. I always think, like, I watch golf a lot and I see these golfers hit these holding ones and they like tip their cap and they're like. And I'm like, man, I'd be going crazy. And I love Ryder cup style golf where guys are fist bumping. And I just think that emotion, when you're electrified as a player, you play with the most focus, the most anticipation, everything ends up being at the highest sense of kind of the alertness. So I love that aspect of his game. You know, he's just got to keep that going for a long time. That I believe is part of your conditioning and that ability to elevate your teammates as well in those big moments. And I love seeing that from a Michigan man.

[Colin Cowherd]

So we all know during your dynasty there were some things we could bank on. Belichick's defensive coaching, your efficiency. You guys always had a better than average run game. The lost in a lot of your success. The two winningest teams the last 25 years have been Green Bay and your teams. Why? Well, why is that? And I would argue this offensive line play. The packers almost never have a bad online and because of Dante Scarneckia. You didn't. So Mahomes now is in a different situation. He has now, been blown out twice in Super Bowls, once by you because of deterioration of O line play. So their tackles, Tom in week one graded incredibly poorly. So you didn't have a lot of that deterioration. But go to games in which I remember that Giant super bowl, the first play of the game, I was with a friend and the Giants rushed through and I said, I said, tom's in trouble. They lost all four battles up front. When the offensive line is deteriorating, go to your career. What does it do for a great quarterback?

[Tom Brady]

Well, I always say you control the line of scrimmage, you control the game. So when you control both sides of the line of scrimmage, you have a huge opportunity for success. And it takes someone like Patrick Mahomes to kind of have that Mahomes magic and pull the rabbit out of his hat in order to keep his team in the game. And he's had a lot of unique offensive line combinations. Patrick has. They've been trying to find a left tackle at that position for a long time in that offense. And it's a challenge because it affects the way the quarterback feels like, can I really sit back there and do I trust my teammates up front to be able to protect me long enough so that I could see down the field to read the coverage and then make a very decisive, accurate throw? So he's got to find a way to overcome that. And he has in so many ways. I mean, Patrick had. Even though despite his stats being down a little bit last year, I still think he had an incredible season. They won 15 games. And you know, you see that throw on this, on the run right there. There's only a few guys that could make that throw. Patrick's one of them, and he is so poised back there. And I think they're actually with, you know, thinking about that offensive line with the rookie Simmons, with Sue Matai who's in there as a second round pick from last year, Creed Humphrey there and Trey Smith at right guard. They're. They're set up to have a pretty good offensive line as they gel and grow together. So that will be great for Patrick to feel like he has some confidence to stand back there because the super bowl look so much of that game ended up being can we block the Eagles defensive front. And that Eagles defensive front played their tail off that game. And really the Chiefs had no chance when they were rushing that well.

[Colin Cowherd]

I remember years ago. I've referenced this several times. You were talking to Jay Glazer and it was, I think it was after a practice because everybody else was clear. And you said you were still in New England. You said, you know, Jay, I've seen every coverage. You can beat me, but you're not going to fool me. I've seen every one. And you've been very vocal about the pre snap operational side has deteriorated. Is there a quarterback though right now in the league that you look at pre snap and you're like, yeah, you can see it. I can see he's operating at a different level. Is there one or two guys and I would imagine they're older that you look and you can tell from head movement. You can tell from the directions that you can tell pre snap are elite.

[Tom Brady]

Well, Matt Stafford just jumps to the top of my mind and I'll tell you why. When you see someone do these no look passes like he did last week, he knows where the defense is going to be aligned. So he knows, okay, he sees a certain coverage, he knows the high, low combination that's going to work against that coverage. So he stares at the low defender, draws the coverage to the low defender, stares at the low defender and then throws it to the higher receiver in the combination. So that is an elite level of play and his ability to recognize defenses and then make those type of throws. So he's the one. And again, he's a veteran quarterback, he's played a lot of football. I think Patrick really understands the games and combinations like that as well. But you're right, there's just not a lot, there's a lot more, I would say physical development happening, happening at a younger age, but less, I would say mental, emotional development from quarterbacks. And you know, I had a chance to talk to Andy Reid about that, had a chance to talk to Patrick Mahomes about that this week. No, one of the, they, they said, look, Patrick flat out said, I, I can't thank Alex Smith enough for everything that he did for me. All I did was ask him questions in the meeting room my first year and I look at my first year, that's all I did with Drew Bledsoe. Aaron Rodgers had three years to sit behind Brett Favre. Eli Manning sat behind Kurt Warner. There's a lot of guys and I would say a lot of successful players that weren't kind of thrown into the fire. Because what happens is you can lose your confidence so fast because when the, when, when the real games are happening, the blitzes are coming and you don't understand protection and you don't understand coverage and you start taking hits and you start throwing interceptions, you begin to lose confidence. That Hey, I don't even know how to play football. I don't know how to go down and lead our team to score points. I can't even make and complete a pass. So if you're sitting in the meeting room and learning, I actually think that's the best way to learn because you can understand it on the board, you can understand it on the video screen, you can go out to a walkthrough and then you can learn and practice by making a lot of, you know, good decisions, bad decisions without necessarily being critiqued from the outside world and losing. You know, look, you got pff. Grading you every week like you were just referencing there before I came on. They're grading you. And now you go as a first year quarterback you barely know, and now everyone's telling you you suck. And it takes a while to regain your confidence. You lose your whole fan base and it's, it's, it's really unfortunate. But that's, that's very much the state of the league. And I think we've dumbed down the game in so many ways to allow for a lesser caliber, developed player to get in there and lead an organization.

[Colin Cowherd]

So, you know, I always had this theory that quarterbacking should be easier. Now you have personal coaching, seven on seven camps. I mean, guys like you and Drew Bledsoe and Troy Aikman have told me, like, I literally had like, you know, eight high school games a year. You know, you're like, I had 40 starts, including high school. Well, guys now have 10,000 snaps by the time they're 14 years old. So I've always said as a sports commentator, I used to give guys three years. My argument now is Thanksgiving year two, the gm, the coach, the coordinator need to go upstairs in a room privately raise their hands yes or no. And I don't care where you drafted him. I would give Caleb 11 more weeks. Caleb Williams, let's go upstairs. Is that fair? I know it sounds kind of harsh, but Thanksgiving year two, I believe quarterbacks, if they're, if they, the operations aren't there, he's not the guy. Is that too soon?

[Tom Brady]

Yeah, but I would argue this. You're assuming that everybody knows how to develop a quarterback. You're assuming that you're going into a program. I mean, I'm telling you, this is not. There's a lot of people who have no idea what they're doing when they're tasked with coaching a quarterback or calling an offense. So are you saying, I mean, just like we'd rank quarterbacks one to 32. Do you rank offensive coordinators one to 32? Do you rank quarterback coaches one to 32? Well, what if you had the 32nd ranked coordinator in someone's mind, the 32nd ranked quarterback coach? How is he getting a level of development that the guy who's first is getting? When I got to the Patriots, I sat behind Drew, who was a franchise quarterback right in my second year. It's training camp, and we had a very good quarterback coach named Dick Rabine. And God rest his soul, unfortunately, he passed away in training camp and of a heart attack. And it was a very difficult loss for our team. And the way that we found a way to continue on that season is Bill Belichick became more of a quarterback coach than we ever imagined him being a quarterback coach. He was a defensive. He was obviously a head coach, very involved in defensive game planning, but he decided to come in every week and talk to the quarterbacks about coverage. All right, guys. And he would do these big write ups. And I still have mall because I kept everything. Tom, this is cover one. This is how they play it. This is who is responsible for who. Okay, if we line up in a bunch formation, this is how they're going to handle the bunch formation. This is why they do that. This is the weakness of that. Why they do that. You shouldn't do this if that's just how they cover this, okay, this is cover two. This is how they cover. This is. They play two variations of COVID 2. When they're in this variation, this is what they're trying to stop. When they're in this various. This is what they're trying to stop. Okay, this is cover four. This is how this team uniquely plays Cover four. We shouldn't line up in this formation to try to run this concept for one year. I had for actually more years beyond that. That's how I developed and learned. Oh, defense calls a certain play. This is how we can. We can put them in this formation and they can back the coverage. And I'll have a short throw underneath. Oh, great. I love that. Let's do that. Nobody's getting that type of development. So I learned from an offensive standpoint, watching Drew and having very good offensive coaches. Then I had a defensive coach, the best one of all time, teach me how to read defenses. You know, then I would go out and meet with player personnel, people, you know, who are very talented. Okay? We go through the entire defensive lineup. Okay, These are all the things that this defense does. This is what this player does well. This player does well. This player does well, that's development. You're giving people knowledge and information that you could take to the field so that you could play with confidence and anticipation, and that would free you up to play a very aggressive style of football. So I'm saying, what if you're a quarterback and you go to a system and they don't teach you coverage? They don't teach you cover one, they don't teach you cover two, they don't teach you cover four, they don't have personnel meetings, they give you an offensive game plan, and they go, all right, bud, here you go. Figure it out. And after Thanksgiving, your second year, they're going, man, this guy just can't play anymore. He stinks. He, you know, he can't recover. It's like, dude, what, what, what? Did you teach him anything? Did you groom him? Did you spend time after practice? Did you work on the physical parts of his game? Did you work on his throwing mechanics? Did you work on his drops? Did you work on the mental parts of a game? Did you understand how to help him study film better? So all these aspects. Physical part about football, the physical part is one aspect I got was 199th pick in the draft because so many people were focused on a physical skill. Tom Brady, too weak, couldn't stand in the pocket, you know, is if he gets hit, he's gonna go down. You know, lacks are really strong arm. That was kind of bull. But what I. What I really understood, the mental, emotional part, I could bring a consistent, competitive, winning attitude to gain to the. To the game every day or to practice and the games every single week. Mentally, I could absorb information you could give me, just like Belichick did, pages of notes, and I could process those things and then take them to the field and play with anticipation. So what I lacked for, maybe in a bit of physical development, I far exceeded a lot of other people in mental, emotional development. And that's a hard thing to evaluate. But I'd also say there's not many people who even know what to do. You know, it's not like they're CEOs of businesses a lot of times. They're football coaches, with all due respect, they're not running large corporations.

[Colin Cowherd]

Right.

[Tom Brady]

You know, as. As Bill Parcell said, you know, they're PE Coaches a lot of times that get elevated to, you know, coaching positions.

[Colin Cowherd]

You know, it's. It's funny, I. I said the. I thought Jaden Daniels last year, not because he can move or he has a nice arm. It was the best Rookie quarterback I'd ever seen in terms of poise. 2 minute drill that had to play. Now, Mahomes was great, but he got to sit behind, you know, Alex Smith, who's the great, the great teacher. But I mean, drafted play now, go. And I was thinking about this and the thing that blew me away with him and Kingsbury was saying this in camp and I remember being on air saying, cliff, slow down. You're raising the button cliffs. Like, I can't believe this kid. And I'm like, guys, he's a rookie. Bring it down. His poise. And you know what I think about this is crazy. You had this at a very early age, your first year starting, right, replacing Drew. Is it parenting? Like, I think it's innate that some kids have, right? Like, and I watched Jaden Daniels. I'm gonna look at his parents up. What did his parents do? He was so cool and calm. I don't think you can teach that. I'm watching him in week three. There's a buck 20 on the clock, no facial expression. I'm like, okay, that's not, that's from home. That's from something. I believe the one thing you can't teach, nobody can teach it, is you are either calm in crisis or you're not that. If you're anxious in a teeth clencher, it never goes away, no matter how good you can, you can get explain that you had it. Jaden had it. Did you learn it? Did you have it when you were 12?

[Tom Brady]

Yeah. There's poise and composure in big moments that I do think separates kind of elite performers. And I would say it's, it's probably a high sense of self confidence in big situations. You see that with Patrick Mahomes. I think he's probably one of my favorite ones in the NFL, Right. For a lot of reasons. But you see his face in big moments and it just, just doesn't seem. It's a big moment for everybody else except him. And the difference is he actually looks more focused and more urgent and more ready to go. And you know, you, you, you know, you just, he's just so laser focused. And there's some guys that play like that and there's others that look a little bit frenetic. I mean, Tiger was like, Tiger woods look like that in golf. The bigger the moment, you know, the more determined he looked. That's probably the right word. And there are certain people who have, I would say, no fear of failure. And that allows you, that frees you up to go out and be Your best. Because people that fear failure, well, then that means they're trying to control it. And when you feel that lack of control or lack of confidence, well, people can see it on your face. A lot of times you could see it in the eyes of the quarterback. So, yeah, you know, Jaden is very impressive in everything that he's done. Certainly his last year was one of the great rookie seasons of. Of any young quarterback. And again, you know, we had him last had commander shining like I'm always looking for. Okay, that's great. What's the next step in development? And then the next step and the next step and the next step. And, you know, from the time that you start to the time you finish, there just continues. There needs to be an upward trajectory every single year based on all the things that you experience. And it's a lot of things that happen physically, mentally, emotionally over the course of a career, life on the field, off the field, that you need to be able to grow with as you get a little bit older and you continue to develop.

[Colin Cowherd]

All right, big game this weekend. Ratings are up. Tom, you sounded great. You sounded comfortable, and congratulations and all that stuff.

[Tom Brady]

Hey, good start for everybody. You know what it is? I got the best team in the world. I got the best partner. Kevin Burkhart next to me. Aaron and Tom on the field. Z and Ruth down in the. Down in the truck along with everybody else. And I love my team at Fox. I know we're just going to keep getting better. We're going to stay humble, we're going to stay hungry. We're just going to keep working as hard as we can to show up for one another and try to provide the viewer with the best possible experience. And this week, America's game of the week. 425. Sunday. Eagles at Chiefs. Couldn't get a better game. Super bowl rematch. I am fired up and it's Thursday afternoon.

[Colin Cowherd]

Let's go, Tom Brady lfg. Let's go. I'll leave the F out the F. Let's go. All right. Thanks, buddy.

[Tom Brady]

That's right.

[Colin Cowherd]

All right. Tom Brady. He's all fired up. That was Tom Brady. You got a little Tom Brady as if he was in the huddle. I love that. Chiefs are a home dog for the second time ever with Patrick Mahomes as a starting quarterback. What would be the first? Was it when Brady went there and beat him in the possibly or Buffalo? Maybe the Buffalo. Was it when Buffalo. They beat Buffalo? The 13 second game? Was Buffalo favored in that one?

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

So, Colin, I think I'VE been here is this year three. I don't know, whatever it is, three or four on this show. I think that may be the single greatest interview. I'm, like, taking notes. Like, he said some unbelievable stuff, specifically about quarterbacks that I think you and I should be talking about out there. I love that.

[Colin Cowherd]

Tom.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

That was amazing.

[Colin Cowherd]

I mean, that was incredible stuff. The only other instance it was, oh, okay, it was week six in 2022. It was not the playoff game. It was week six. Bills have had success against Kansas City, just not in January. So it was Week 6. They beat him. And over the last four seasons, the Eagles and the Chiefs are tied for the best record in the NFL. I like Philadelphia by a touchdown or more. I think Philadelphia, if you. If you lined up 12 best player in the game, I, I think nine are Eagles now. I get Andy Reid, I get Arrowhead, and I also get a Chiefs team off a loss. So they're going to be salty. So that it's. It's going to be somewhat close. But in terms of roster composition, if Xavier Worthy can play, that helps.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

There's a report now that Worthy may be at practice today with his teammates.

[Colin Cowherd]

Okay, that's good.

[Tom Brady]

That.

[Fox Sports Analyst (possibly a co-host or commentator)]

That's literally just emerging right now. But I can't expect him to play. Come on, it's a. It's a long game. You don't want him to play in week two.

[Colin Cowherd]

Come on, Tom Brady. Nobody else like him. Even on our show. What's up, everyone? We're Angel Diego and Jason, and we're a gusto about podcast. Sien porciento regional mexicano. Uno quyotro chisme, pero todo con respeto.

[Tom Brady]

We've never pretended to be anything but ourselves.

[Colin Cowherd]

Now we're the number one Mexican regional podcast. We hustled, kept our eyes on the price, locked in, and Flo frio like sprite. Laneta nun ca faltan el estudio. Cut through the rest con una sprite. Sprite. Obey your thirst.

[Tom Brady]

Hey, this is Matt Jones and I'm.

[Colin Cowherd]

Drew Franklin, and this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL, NFL perspective a little bit different.

[Tom Brady]

Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game.

[Colin Cowherd]

What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're gonna get. Listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Tom Brady]

All right.

[Colin Cowherd]

West West Prop here from Hood Politics with Prop podcast. You know I get down. You come from the urban areas, politics more than you giving credit for. Between Jerry out here mandering all over the place. Hop out, boys. Snatching up family members and two wars that was supposed to be done in 24 hours. Not to mention Epstein. We had to reach out to the homie Jamil Hill because she gonna keep it a century in America.

[Podcast Advertiser/Host]

What sells in politics are narratives and storylines.

[Colin Cowherd]

It's like we treat politics like we treat sports, which is part of the reason why we're in the situation we're in right now. Listen to the Hood Politics with Prop podcast on the iHeartRadio app app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Tom Brady]

Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here and I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game. From breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Advertiser/Host]

This is an iHeart podcast.