BEST OF THE HERD - BREAKING NEWS: BEARS MAKE A HUGE TRADE!

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This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio.

Oh, what was a mundane Thursday is now show of the week potential. It is Thursday. It's the herd. We're live. Congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers. We'll get to that. We start our show today with a massive trade deadline is two weeks. The smart teams, the Seahawks and the Niners in the NFC, went and got a great O-lineman, a great defensive tackle, and now the third best team in the NFC, and that could be the NFL, Chicago. They got the best roster in Chicago since the 85 Bears.

They just went and got... The closest thing to Reggie White and Aaron Donald in the NFL in a long time. Jeffrey Simmons, number one in everything at defensive tackle. And we know defensive tackles are the ones quarterbacks struggle with because they get to your feet. Tom Brady didn't have trouble with edge rushers. He didn't want anybody screwing with his feet. Now, the Bears give up two first-round picks and a fourth. Slow down, chill out. The Bears now draft near the bottom of rounds. End of the first round, nobody wants those picks. Honestly, nobody. Because you have a second-round talent, and you've got to pay a first-round price.

The Bears drafted 25th last year. That's the first year with Ben and Caleb. So you better load up on the great players now, because you're going to be drafting at the end of rounds. Bears don't make this move unless they think they can win the Super Bowl. So Simmons is under contract for a couple of years. It's not one of those situations where you've got to bring up the Brinks truck. He is number one at everything. Sacks, hits, fumbles caused, pressures. He is dominant. He is Aaron Donald.

He is what you rarely see on defense. He is what they call a force multiplier. So he gets more double teams than anybody in the league. It's very Aaron Donald, and that allows everybody else to eat, everybody else to flourish. And what's great for the Bears, they're bringing back Montez Sweat this week, and they add Jeffrey Simmons. So they may go find an edge rusher, but this team now has 10 to 12 elite players, and the best player they have right now may not be the quarterback. It may be Jeffrey Simmons. He's that dominant. So Ryan Pold, this Bears defense this year is interesting. Statistically, it's not bad, right?

But it's a lot of smoke and mirrors. They're young in the secondary. They're injured in the secondary. So they get pressure with creativity and schemes from Dennis Allen. Failed as a head coach, great defensive coordinator. So they are fourth right now in the NFL, the Bears are, in blitz rate, meaning they got to take big swings and big risks on the back end to get pressure. Don't have to do that anymore. So I like their young secondary guys. I really do. But they take big risks to get pressures. And you leave yourself vulnerable on that.

Now you don't have to do it. So this is one of these moves. I've been on this for years. I like my GMs to be aggressive. Jeffrey Simmons in the last two years is number one in every one of these categories. Sacks, quarterback hits, pressures, forced fumbles, tackles, and he's over the last two years, he has been double-teamed more than any defensive tackle. Second most double-teamed player in the NFL this season. So you don't watch the Titan games. Everybody knows he's good. He's better than you think.

And again, within 10 minutes of this trade happening, think about this. For a defensive player, within 10 minutes of this deal being done, the Bears' Super Bowl odds catapulted. They're now tied with Seattle. So I did my Super Bowl bubble slash Super Bowl cauldron yesterday where I had San Francisco and Seattle in the middle. Closest to the middle are Super Bowl teams. We put the Bears, who are playing Seattle... Next to him. Here's Albert Breer actually yesterday on the Bears being in the defensive tackle market.

There's a little bit of a crowded market for D tackles. And like you said, they could add an edge as well. Montez Sweat, they get him back off of the suspended list this week. They're able to win two games without him. They've forever been looking for somebody to put opposite him.

This is a real game changer. This is a because you got to be careful about stats defensively. For instance, the Bears run the ball very well. So their defense is usually rested. That helps. There's some good defense in the NFL with bad offenses. You know, sometimes you get offenses that score quickly in the defense on the field and gets fatigued. So now you've got the run game of the bears, which helps the defense. You're bringing back two defensive tackles, including the best by a long shot.

We've only had four or five defensive tackles, you know, in my lifetime, like Reggie white, uh, Aaron Donald, uh, Chris Jones had a couple of years where you could move him around. Jeffrey Simmons, they change odds. They, they force you to change your offensive game plan and, So this is massive. By the way, Tennessee, it's the right move.

Tennessee getting first round picks. It doesn't matter. They'll have theirs. Then later, Tennessee's got a rebuild. They're one of those rare NFL teams you look at and go like Arizona. Oh, they need like seven players. Raiders are like that. You look at the Raiders. You're like, Ooh, they're pretty good, but they need another seven players. If you want to compete with Seattle and the bears and the Niners, the top teams, big, big, big stuff.

All right.

The easiest team, my wife texted me last night, are you happy the Brewers won the World Series? I said, yeah, they're easy to root for. Grateful and humble and fun and young. It's like watching a college World Series game in terms of their youth and their appearance and the dugout. So Milwaukee is 28th in home runs, 19th in payroll, only two All-Stars. Like the New York Knicks, analytics did not think they would win. And they rolled like the Knicks.

Everybody hit. Remember the Dodgers series? None of the Dodgers could hit. Everybody hit. All their young stars. Jackson Turio hit. 458. Cooper Pratt is hitting. 421. Jacob Mizorowski last night, five and two-thirds scoreless. I mean, everybody hit. And it's very rare in sports when you're easily the best team and the hottest team, and yet you're kind of viewed as a pressureless underdog. Nobody talked about Milwaukee. I mean, people talk more about the Cubs, the closest major league baseball team to Milwaukee. Nobody talked about them. So you have none of the pressure and all of the talent and you're on fire. It has a little Indiana Hoosiers 16 and 0 last year for the national championship. We're all

paying attention to Ohio State, paying attention to Miami, paying attention to Indiana is really good. And so you play a much more freestyle athletically when you don't have that pressure. And talk about hot. They've won 26 of 31 games the Brewers did. Think about that. They won 26 of their last 31 games, mostly against playoff teams. And the Rays are good. I mean, the Rays are the only team statistically close this year to Milwaukee. And I'm watching that game yesterday in like the fifth, sixth, seventh inning, and I'm like, Tampa looks completely overwhelmed. They looked completely overwhelmed.

And so much of what the Brewers did, it's not surprising their manager is a former college baseball coach. So much of what they did was fundamentals. It was an easy team to root for because they did what we were all told in Little League to do. Don't swing for the fence. Move the runner over. Bunt. Steal a baseball.

A defined bullpen. I mean, they were the only team in baseball this year with more stolen bases than home runs. And then you get to the World Series, and they had nine stolen bases and three home runs. That's who they are. It's not a shtick. It's not a weird trend. That's what they are. Bunt, steal bases, get on base.

And I got to tell you something. A lot of baseball teams, these big market teams like the Yankees, you get trapped with a bad contract, like Giancarlo Stanton for the Bombers. These guys don't have anything resembling a bad contract. everybody's yet to go into their prime, just entering their prime. Mizoroski next year is going to make 800 grand. Do the Yankees pay their bad boys that? I mean, 800 grand.

It's unbelievable. And they have the number one farm system. So like the Seahawks at Draftwell, you don't have to worry about going on the market and overpaying. And isn't it nice to have a baseball team that's not defined by WIPP? and exit velocity, and launch angle. I don't watch sports for math. I want young, energy, fun, humble, grateful, relentless.

Launch angle, exit velocity, I'm not interested. Yeah, I couldn't get out of math class fast enough. And I think it's interesting. They steamrolled, they bulldozed the Dodgers, but they do remind me of an LA fast food chain, In-N-Out. Burgers, cheeseburgers, fries. This is what we do. And what they do is fundamental.

A lot of these analytically driven teams have a formula. The Brewers have a foundation. Great farm system. Humble roster. No bad contracts. Completely selfless. The easiest World Series champ to root for in a long, long time. And here's Pat Murphy after the win.

When you talk about this team, you've got to talk about people who care about each other. They're not worried about their own stats. No one cares about that. They care about coming together and winning tonight.

And that's what we did.

Win tonight.

About 112 times. I can't be more grateful for this group of guys right here.

Really, really special.

You know, there's nothing better in this business. An hour before the show, you get a big breaking news trade. So the Chicago Bears have landed Jeffrey Simmons for a couple of firsts and a later pick. Again, this is an organization now that's going to draft near the bottom of rounds, which is no man's land. And the other thing is with these young GMs, I think Ryan Poles looked at this. He's a young GM. Everybody for the GM, everybody for the Bears is young. The coach, the GM, the quarterback, the roster. It's a very young organization. And I think he looked at this, and they're playing Seattle in the game of the week. And what did Seattle do?

Seattle just added the best guard in the league. And Montez Sweat's coming back. They're like, we're going to add the best defensive tackle. I think sometimes when you get to the top of any business, you're really not competing against very many people. You're competing against, if you're the Bears today, the Niners and the Seahawks. That's what you're competing against. You're not competing against the Packers. Packers roster isn't close to this. Minnesota's got a five, nine and a half quarterback. They're not going to make the NFC championship.

So I, I, to me, this is once you get really, really good, you start competing against a very finite number of teams. And I think Seattle and San Francisco, smart, aggressive GMs make a move. And Ryan pulls like, I'm not sitting here. I got a, I got Caleb Williams and, I mean, you never know the health of quarterbacks. You never know the health of your team. J-Mac says this often.

There's a saying, strike when the iron's hot. Like, this is the time right now for the Bears to go for it. And you may not watch the Titans. Simmons is unblockable. and he's like aaron donald unblockable you have to double team him and there'll be times you double him and have a chip so it really is a force multiplier he forces you to change your your offensive your audibles your blocking schemes and there's just not many defensive guys um jalen carter can do that with philadelphia at times uh max crosby if you know uh At times, it just creates, you have to think about a chip block.

So it's a big day in Chicago. Huge. How are you feeling?

You ready to come back out here for the Super Bowl in February at SoFi, obviously? Listen, Colin, this is a guy you have to come into a playoff game game planning for.

Oh, no question.

And I think the moves that we've seen made, everybody loves wide receivers and running backs and tight ends.

Colin, what were the three big moves this week? Two defensive tackles. And a guard.

That's what the smart teams are doing. They prioritize the trenches first.

You build ball out.

Yeah.

Not sideline in.

Listen, man, this is and I think this Bears Seahawks game on Monday night is a massive.

You should just stay on the West Coast.

We parachute into your former hometown and watch that one.

That's going to be a great game. So after adding Simmons, the Bears now have five players with seven-plus pressures this season. Only the Seahawks have more. So again, Ryan Poles looks at it and thinks, who am I competing against? It's not the NFC North. Lions can't stop anybody. Packers don't have this personnel. Minnesota doesn't have an offense. They're not competing against the NFC North. They are looking west to the Niners and the Seahawks. The greater you get, the fewer people you compete against. And right now, Chicago's at the top of this league.

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Now entering the No Bull Zone, sponsored by Credible. Great rates, none of the bull. Anytime you have a scarcity of something, it becomes more valuable and often more expensive. There is a scarcity of, at any one time in my life, of great defensive tackles in the NFL. The NFL draft gives you, on average, a great defensive tackle every other year.

A great quarterback every year. So there's even more scarcity at defensive tackle than there is quarterback there's a lot of edge rushers the draft gives you five or six a year that can play so the bears getting jeffrey simmons there's just not a lot of jeffrey simmons out there i mean it's like jeffrey simmons jalen carter aaron donald chris jones there's a reason all of you can name the best defensive tackles in the league the last five years you know quinn and williams there's not many of them there's a 10 15 really good edge rushers this next draft has four more you'll like So the other thing that Ryan Poles, my belief with Ryan Poles, is something we talk about a lot. There's a reason they're cliches. They're true. Strike when the iron's hot. We

thought the Rams were going to be great. They're 3-4, lots of injuries. Miles Garrett's not even practicing. Strike when the iron's hot. The Lions, good. Not as good as I thought. Defense, still don't trust it. Vikings, worst offense in the league. I don't care about their record. San Francisco, excellent.

But the injuries are piling up, and we're not even close to Thanksgiving yet. And the NFC East... has fallen apart outside of the giants and they're on their third quarterback and the nfc south nobody can take seriously so you're sitting there thinking what's in our way an old san francisco team and the seahawks and we're going to size them up because we play them monday so i i it's not just that jeffrey simmons is great there's a lot of great players in this league But you can argue the Rams are going to overpay for Miles Garrett, who's not healthy. I mean, they had a decent edge rusher, Jared Versch, when they let him go. There is no other Jeffrey Simmons right now in the league. There's nothing

else like it. Jalen Carter is probably the closest thing. And so I think that's part of you say, oh, two first round picks. I like what I'm seeing in the NFL right now. Stop throwing the money at wide receivers. The draft gives you 15 new ones a year. It doesn't give you defensive tackles. It doesn't give you great guards.

That's not what it gives you. And statistically, quarterbacks go talk to Brady or Manning or any of these guys. They'll all tell you they don't mind great edge rushers. You can step up. Brady, Manning, they don't worry about a Bosa. What they worry about is Jeffrey Simmons at your feet. That stuff's tough. The last seven Super Bowl champs, 7-4-7 elite defensive tackle play. So sometimes you have to do it with two or three players. With Jeffrey Simmons, you can do it with one. But it is, you know, I mean, I said my favorite moves by any team this offseason is It was, oh, I love the Giants getting picks, but more I love the Bengals getting Dexter Lawrence.

And it has changed the Bengals' defense. Old Dexter Lawrence, he's good. He's not Jeffrey Simmons. But that was the one move I said, and I don't love the Bengals a lot outside of Borough. I'm like, that's the way to do it. So big, big day in the NFL. Jeffrey Simmons, two, and the Titans, they need players. They don't need one great player. They need seven new players.

I have no problem with them making this move. I think it's smart, actually. Every team's on a different timeline, has a different window. Bears are in the Super Bowl window. Titans are in the rebuild window. Nice move by them to get multiple first-round picks.

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Hour number two. We are live in Lawson. Angeles, which is the home of the Super Bowl, and the Chicago Bears made an aggressive move a couple of hours ago to try to help ensure they can get there. Jeffrey Simmons, a dominant defensive tackle. now joins the Chicago Bears. They give up two first-rounders. Again, these are late-round picks. It's different.

And just to give you a sense, we talked about this last hour. So the Bears get pressure on opposing quarterbacks, but they have the fourth-highest blitz rate. So Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator, he and Brian Flores, they bring heat, they put eight in the box, high blitz rate. The problem with that is the Bears defense has the third highest explosive plays allowed rate. So Chicago, you can ding the Bears for big plays on the back end with their young secondary, but they'll also get sacks. Well, with Jeffrey Simmons and Montez Sweat coming back, you don't have to take those risks. It's going to speed everything up for opposing quarterbacks. So their defense for the Bears, if you watch them, and I live in Chicago, so I'm

watching every snap, is they create pressure, but they sacrifice everything. the back end to do it, and they give up a lot of big splash plays. Now you don't have to take as big of swings. And with that, 47 years at NFL Films, our friend Greg Cosell is now joining us live. Listen, you're somebody that watches interior O and D line play. So, you know, you watch Quentin Nelson and Jeffrey Simmons battle a couple weeks ago. By the way, Simmons had his way in that one. But when you watch Jeffrey Simmons, I've said– that everybody knows it's hard to find great quarterbacks. There's a scarcity, right?

There's like one per draft. Defensive tackle may be the only position, a great one. There's a reason we can all name the great ones. Aaron Donald, Reggie White, Jeffrey Simmons, they're hard to find. So to me, edge rushers feel easier to find. I like the move by both teams. Titans need more players. I think it does change the Bears' defense a little, does it not? What's the film say?

It does.

Jeffrey Simmons is the best defensive tackle in the game, Colin, and I had no problem saying that. I see the film every single week, and you made a great point in your lead-in. Dennis Allen is really, really good with pressure schemes, and he's been doing such a great job with that, and he's been manufacturing pressure. We've seen what he's done the last number of weeks with Kyler Gordon coming off the edge. As you said, you live in Chicago.

You see all this. But now, when you pressure, it's a numbers game. Pro football is a numbers game. The more people you send at the quarterback, the fewer you have in coverage. So sometimes you can compromise your coverage the more people you send. So ideally, you don't have to blitz quite as much because Jeffrey Simmons.

as the best.

D-tackle in the game, now gives you an interior pass rush.

And just one final point.

In speaking to a lot of coaches at the Combine this past year and over the summer, there's a lot of people who now believe that the importance of the D-tackle position has been greatly enhanced. because so many more teams play out of a too-deep shell. So now you don't have that extra safety in the box in the run game, so the de-tackle position in the minds of many has vastly increased in importance.

Okay, let's talk Chicago at Seattle. These are really good teams. So Caleb Williams is going to be facing a Seattle team that may have the best tackling corner and best tackling safety. So they can, you know, they can play nickel and not get exposed because it's really an interesting defense. Seattle.

What will Caleb deal with that? He may not deal with on a weekly basis.

Well, Seattle plays a high percentage of too high safety structure. They don't play a lot of single high because they can stop the run as they did versus Kenneth Walker a week ago. They can stop the run basically with seven in the box. And we all know that Nick Imanwari is a special player. But because they play too high, they play a lot of zone coverage. So now you have Caleb Williams, who... I love watching Caleb Williams, Colin.

He's got arm arrogance. He is willing to turn it loose.

Into tight windows.

We saw that a week ago against the Patriots. So now that to me is a major matchup here because Seattle plays their zone coverage really well. Julian Love is one of the best safeties in the game, smart, savvy. Even Ty Okada is a really good player, the other safety. And we know about Jones, the linebacker, how good he is and underneath his own coverage. So there's going to be a lot of tight windows. But Caleb Williams has shown that he is willing to make the kinds of throws that the NFL demands. And he makes them. I mean, he's really a fun player to watch. He's just growing and growing as a quarterback.

Are you surprised he's become this accurate with tight window throws?

You know, I've always believed, and this is maybe my personal interpretation of watching tape, that the quarterbacks that do that, that that's.

Kind of innate. Because you have to see those throws, Colin, as viable.

And not every quarterback sees those throws as viable, right? And in the NFL, those are throws that have to be made at some point. Maybe not in every game. Every game is its own weekly entity. But there are games where that is demanded. I mean, you look back to what Caleb Williams did on that third and ninth throw to Adunze, where he hit him on the back shoulder.

That's where that ball had to be.

A lot of quarterbacks in that situation, deep in your own territory, on third and nine with a six-point lead, would not have made that throw.

They wouldn't even have attempted that throw.

Yeah.

All right.

There's some really good matchups. Bills, Ravens, Bills off a bye. I'm sure you've done a deep dive on this. I, because I talk a lot of quarterbacks, you know, everybody knows the quarterback. When I look at the D offense for Buffalo, I think it all starts with Josh. But you look at film. Is that necessarily true?

I would say it's not necessarily true.

Keep in mind, and this was true a year ago, and it's absolutely true this year because the numbers bear it out. James Cook has the most first down rushes and the most first down rushing yards in the league. Their offense really starts with James Cook. Now, because their defense hasn't been very good, Colin, what we find out as we get into the third and fourth quarters of games is and the score is high and it's close, and then Josh Allen becomes a major factor.

He's a great player.

But they don't really go into a game with the idea of let's have Josh toss it around the yard. This is a run-first football team, and they have two staple runs. They run duo, which is an inside run, and then they run kind of mid to outside zone, which obviously attacks the perimeter more. So they're kind of a run-first starting offense, and then because their defense gives up a lot of points, Then it becomes a Josh Allen game. The more the game progresses and the more Joe Brady sees what has to get done.

So I'm watching Joe Burrow. Basically, it looked like one of those high school seven on seven camps in the summer when and I always think this with Burrow. It can't just be his talent. He's got to be good pre-snap. He has to be when you watch the film. Can you establish very quickly with all your expertise, oh, that was a pre-SNAP success story, not just post-SNAP?

Sure.

Sure, and he's a master at both, by the way, pre-snap and post-snap, and there's not many quarterbacks like that. But pre-snap is critical. You have to research the defense and innately have a feel for what it looks like. Now, it might change, but you have to have a feel pre-snap. And there is no quarterback in this league who is more aggressive throwing the ball outside the numbers than Joe Burrow. Now, yes, he has Chase and he has Higgins, no question. great receivers but if you're showing him that outside the numbers it's man coverage whether it's a zone call or a man call it's outside the numbers corners have to match up he is going to throw the ball and we saw that last week see the thing is a team

like like the Ravens they line up with Wiggins at left corner Humphrey at right corner you know who you're working against So in the second half, he just worked outside the numbers so effectively, but he does that every single week. He works outside the numbers with more confidence and more assertiveness and decisiveness than maybe any quarterback in the game.

Another interesting matchup, Detroit, Minnesota. Now, Brian Flores can unravel young quarterbacks, but the Lions O-line is better. Goff's been around. Goff doesn't throw a lot of picks. So I look at this, and I think it's a close divisional game, but do the tricks Brian Flores does, do they work against Goff in a solid O-line?

Well, Goff's had success at home against the Vikings, and that's where this game is. But there's always going to be negative plays against Minnesota because what they essentially do is they'll put six, seven, sometimes eight players on the first level of the defense in pressure fronts. And you have to account for people, whether it's your protection or the quarterback. You have to account for people. because you can't make assumptions about who's coming and who's not. So what they do is they force you to play your protections a certain way. They often force the running back to be part of it. They'll force the tight end to be part of it. And then it's a numbers game, Colin, because then if they drop people out, you're only sending

out three receivers as primary route runners, and if they drop people out, they might be playing with seven in coverage, and you're only sending out three primary receivers, Because you had to account initially for the six or seven or eight man front. So that makes it difficult. Now, they play a ton of zone behind this. They're not a man heavy team. So there are voids. And that's why once in a while they will give up big plays.

If you can protect, you can make big plays against that defense at times.

And as you said, Gossett.

Veteran and they'll have some some plays against this defense.

So uh everybody keeps waiting for the browns balloon to pop and my take is andrew barry the gm has had three straight drafts where he has hit Faneuil can play. Boston can play. Concepcion can play. Judkins can play. Fannin, the tight end, they're all excellent players. You're not paying him. So that even helps with the Deshaun Watson salary cap issues.

You can mitigate some of that when you draft particularly well. And I just, when I watch that... I see explosive perimeter players. When I see the Browns' defense, I'm like, I'm not sure the balloon's going to pop. They're fast. They're a fast. Maybe not Seattle fast, but do they match up with the Steelers, that defense?

Well, they played week four, and they gave Aaron Rodgers and then offensive problems, and they beat them, as I'm sure you recall.

Yes, they are a fast defense.

I don't necessarily compare, but their two linebackers, Schlesinger and Williams, are as fast a duo as there is in the league.

And there's no mystery to how they play, Colin.

They play the highest percentage of single high safety in the league. They play the highest percentage of cover one in the league. And they stunt an awful lot up front with multiple stunt concepts.

So there's not a lot of mystery to them.

But, man, they are fast, and they've got a lot of good players that people may not be aware of.

So it's a really great weekend. Kansas City, and Denver. So there are times, I said this, there are times when you throw the tape away, and you go to Seattle, Seattle's desperate, and Kansas City's not as desperate, and you could just, it was a wave of blue, there's no run game. I mean, it was just one of those games, and you may, as a good team, You may have one a year, and it feels like to me, let's not go crazy criticizing the Chiefs. I mean, how do they tweak their offense? Because it's not like Denver is passive defensively.

No, Denver's a different defense than Seattle. Seattle is able to stop the run playing out of a too-high shell. They did not have to bring a safety down into the box to stop Kenneth Walker.

And I hear people talk about blueprint.

People can't do what Seattle does because of the quality of players.

And the way in which they play.

So that's not a blueprint for stopping Kenneth Walker. The Broncos' defense is different, but they're very, very good. And Vance Joseph, as you know, this is not his first rodeo. So they're a pressure defense. Yeah, they bring a lot of people from different spots. He's another one of those defensive coordinators that does a lot of movement pre-snap to post-snap.

In fact, I know you remember the Sam Darnold interception in overtime, which was a really cool way that they got to cover two.

It was totally unconventional, and Darnold did not pick it up.

And it made it look like a really bad interception, which at the time obviously it was.

But the Broncos are very, very good at that.

And now that they have Jonathan Cooper back with Benito on the edge and Cooper on the edge, They're a very difficult defense to play against, and we'll see. I mean, the Chiefs have not been a great offense. They've been a splashy offense, but not a great offense for the last couple of years.

Yeah, I think they're going to go get a receiver at the trade deadline. I just don't think you can trust. Worthy's a gadget guy. Rice, I don't trust. Travis is old. I think, listen, we kind of knew the Bears were looking at D linemen. We kind of know the Chiefs are looking at wide receivers. It could be downs from the Colts. We don't know, but it feels like they need another guy in the room. Okay, so let's talk the other side of this game, Bo Nix. Now, they had more chunk plays last week. They sure did. Historically, you can't play from behind every week and win. Denver does for two years. So I give up trying to rationalize it. They just do. Bo Nix, though, I thought last week, and maybe it's the competition, what did the

film say? He looked more comfortable and a bit more aggressive to me.

He sure did.

And I thought that Sean Payton made a statement with the first play of the game. He put him in empty, and he demanded basically that he make a tight window throw in the middle of the field. And on the very first play of the game, he hit Courtland Sutton for 21 yards on a difficult throw between people. Tight window versus zone coverage. And I thought Knicks looked far more comfortable last week. They threw the ball down the field more. They still need to do more of it, in my view, but they clearly did it. And I think that, you know, look, Knicks has had two really good seasons. Obviously, there were more issues with this team through the first part of the season than just Bo Nix.

But Bo Nix played much, much better last week. And I thought that the play we're going to get to, which actually came, I think, early in the fourth quarter, was just very reflective.

Of how they played.

They lined him up in empty a couple of times. And we can go to that play now. They lined him up in empty a couple of times, and he actually had really good success. Because empty really odds the quarterback to see things differently.

You know, you can see what the defense is doing. So here's the play. Nix is in an.

Empty set, as I said. But the cool thing is they have 21 personnel. That's two backs and a tight end. So now they take both wide receivers and they're inside the formation. So now what you're going to get, and this is what Nix is looking at, he's going to get a two high structure line. And you can see how expanded those safeties are. So the middle is open and they're going to run a basic concept, what we call four verts, all go, four vertical routes.

The player obviously you want to keep an eye on here is Jalen Waddell.

Now because these safeties are so expanded, his seam route has to be carried by the linebacker. And this is where Nix does a great job because he sees the linebacker.

And this is what quarterbacks are taught.

You see the back of a linebacker who's running with a seam route. You throw the ball. But it's all about ball placement. You cannot throw it inside. You have to throw a back shoulder ball. And he does that here. And it's a beautiful throw.

It's 27 yards.

And you're going to see it again, and you really can see exactly where he placed the ball here. And this was, as I said, in the fourth quarter, and you nailed it, Colin. He was much more comfortable last week. And again, he's a good player. He's been a good player. He's not all of a sudden going to be a bad player. You know, they just had to work through some things, which was really a part of their whole offense and not just him.

Greg Cosell, NFL Films for almost five decades. Great segment here on a Thursday. Appreciate it.

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