BEST OF THE HERD – LeBron and Lakers both won the divorce I Caleb Williams vs Drake Maye I Rays vs Brewers

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

Here we go. It is a Thursday. Bears hosting the Patriots tonight in Chicago. We are live. It is the Herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day.

All right.

So, sometimes... Businesses, teams, people get a divorce, and one side wins. I really honestly believe LeBron and the Lakers divorce, they both win. Lakers opened their season last night at home against the nostalgia tour known as the Warriors, which I don't find that interesting anymore, but I think the Lakers are interesting. going to be a leader, not just a scorer. Walker Kessler, finally a legitimate rim runner and rim protector. J.J. Redick, an ascending young coach that Luka loves.

Switchable wing defenders to protect Luka and Reeves, who are not good defenders. The LeBron divorce was necessary. LeBron needed people that could protect his weakness, defense, young players. defensive-minded guys like a Jalen Brown, Vijay Edgeco. He needed them to protect his weakness, and he needed new young people because LeBron's old. He doesn't give you that juice and energy, although he's great. And by the way, Luka needed a reboot.

I love LeBron, but he takes the oxygen out of the room. You're watching Luka and LeBron on the floor. You're like, who's the leader? Who gets the final shot? Well, it should be Luka. Well, he's not 100%. And LeBron's always in great shape. And Luka's not in great shape. And now it's Luka's team. And that's what they needed.

And the hard part of the NBA is finding your go-to superstar, check Luka, and finding a young coach who the player likes, a young ascending coach, J.J. Redick, check. Now, the third piece of that that the Lakers landed is Walker Kessler. In the Wemby era, he's our Kareem. You gotta have... a rim protector, you got to have a legit big. And this kid's going to benefit. I mean, he averages nine a game in his career. Walker Kessler was 12 to 12 last night. He's the biggest winner, all this stuff. Now the Lakers will add size over the next two years. You can't beat Wemby with one center.

Look what OKC is doing. They're stockpiling bigs. You got to throw waves and waves and waves and waves. So the Knicks did. Here we got Kat. We got Mitchell Robinson. You got to throw waves at Wemby. So Walker Kessler's a start. But the hardest thing in this league superstar offensively ascending young coach. And now a big we're in the Kareem Wemby era. Like you got to have multiple bigs.

People say they overpaid for Kessler. I don't know. Do you think he was overpaid last night? He was 12 for 12. Do you think Walker Kessler, I kept arguing all offseason, well, he's been injured. Well, so was Austin Reeves. So was Luka. Yes, that's a very big question. That is a very big question. Can we get 70 games each?

But the idea that Walker Kessler's overpaid, my take was always, well, I'm sure back in the Lawrence Taylor era, left tackles were overpaid. You know, the Tom Brady era, everybody in his division would overpay an overdrafted edge rushers, right? So you've got to have bigs. And that's why the Knicks beat the Spurs. They had multiple talented bigs. That's why Oklahoma City can beat the Spurs on any given night.

Multiple waves of bigs. So Walker Kessler's a start. I think they need to add more size. But what I felt watching the Lakers last night, we have a plan. It's not just a bunch of who's leading, Luka or LeBron. Old guy, nobody's a great defender. I see a legitimate rim protector, a rim runner, length, catch and shoot guys.

It's not a winning championship roster. They need more size probably. But you watch the Lakers the last several years and you're like, well, I don't know exactly who should have the ball. Who's the leader? Who's protecting the rim? they've checked a lot of boxes. I mean, I watched it last night. I'm like, oh, that's encouraging. I can see the plan. And we always talk about this. We always talk about the plan, not just getting a guy. What do you do once you have the guy? What do you protect him with? If you have Luka as your star, there's a way to build around him. It didn't matter with LeBron in his prime. Just give him four starters.

He'll figure it out. It didn't matter to Michael Jordan much in his prime. He'd figure it out or Kareem or Magic in their prime. But when you have Luka, a dominant offensive player, A play initiator needs the ball. There are things you need around him. A legitimate guy to protect the rim, guys on the wing, switchable wing defenders, catch and shoot guys. They may get the ball late in the clock. So this works. This is a real NBA team. I don't think it's OKC right now or Philly or New York or whoever, San Antonio. But a lot of being a sports fan is connecting the dots and saying, oh, I see where we're going. Sports is not that complicated. Do we have the things you need to be able to compete against great teams? Last couple

years with Luka and LeBron's been complete fool's gold. I've rolled my eyes. Laker fans hate me. You don't like.

No, no, no.

It was just a bunch of nonsense. It was three guys that can't defend. No rim protector. No switchable wing defenders. This is a real team. It's not a great team yet, but it's going to be fun to watch. Cross your fingers on Lucas Health, Reeves Health, and Walker Kessler. I pushed back day one. Everybody said they're overpaying for Walker Kessler.

I don't buy that at all. There is no overpaying for a legitimate shot blocker to protect Luka and engage with Wemby. You can't overpay for that. There's just a limited number of bigs. I mean, that's why OKC went and got Mara. Did you watch Mara? Even a few minutes, you're like, oh, yeah, that works. That's what you got to have. And if you're the Lakers, you're looking at Wemby and OKC. How do we match up with that? Well, OKC's got a wave of bigs, and San Antonio's got Wemby.

You can't overpay for Walker Kessler. So I thought it was really, really encouraging, and I think Luka– Now, can we get to Dallas, Luca? It's your team. Take the responsibility. Be in great shape. That's very hard to do with LeBron, and that's not a criticism. But the Sixers got what they needed. Maturity, distribution, championship pedigree. They got that. That's what the Sixers needed. They didn't need another young guy who could score. That's not, they needed championship. The Lakers needed some oxygen back into the room and they got it.

It's Lucas team with JJ Redick. And here, here's Luke.

After this is the Lakers.

You know, it's one of the biggest organizations in the world, if not the biggest, uh, some very, it's a very, uh, a lot of honor, uh, just to be the, the face of the franchise.

And, you know, I hope I can stay here long and, It doesn't feel, I mean, not different.

But like I said, it's very much an honor and just enjoy this moment.

Okay, so tonight, Bears hosting the Patriots. And I just use the word plan. NFL teams that don't really know what they're doing think once you get the star quarterback, we are home free. The Bears and the Patriots understood getting the star quarterback, Caleb and Drake May, is step one. Step two, don't go cheap. Get an elite coach, Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel. Ben doubled the win total first year. Vrabel tripled it. That's only the second part of the plan.

The third part's really important is protective. The Colts got Andrew Luck, thought they had the right coach, never had a good offensive line. The Cincinnati Bengals have screwed up Burrow. He can't even make the playoffs.

Why?

Because they got the quarterback, but they went discount on the coach. Yeah, they got a receiver, but they never had a good offensive line. That's why Joe Burrow can't even make the playoffs. For years, the Jags have screwed up Trevor Lawrence until they finally got the hottest offensive coach on the market, Liam Cohen. What do you know?

They win virtually every week. It's not just get the quarterback. So many of these organizations, the Bengals or the Colts or Jacksonville, then they go discount on the coach. It really is a three-step plan. Get the coach. or the quarterback first, right? Let's just say you got to find the quarterback in the draft, find the star. This is what the Bears did. And this is what the Patriots did.

They got the quarterback in the draft. And then within a year, let's get the hottest coach on the market. Vrabel was the hot veteran commodity. Ben was the hot young commodity. And then both attack the offensive line. Vrabel drafts a left tackle. Ben Johnson spends money on the interior O-line. Ryan Poles figured it out. He's a former offensive lineman. Bears GM. If you're going to buy the Maserati, you got to have the insurance policy. And that is the O-line. It's not just get weapons. You can find armor on St. Brown in the fourth round. I mean, look at Matt Stafford. He had Calvin Johnson. They could never figure out great O-lines. And then when the Lions finally get Jared Goff and have a legitimate big-time GM,

what do they do? Panay Sewell. They draft tackles, right? You can find Jameer Gibbs, Omer on St. Brown. You can find those guys. Find the quarterback, spend big money on a legitimate red-hot coaching hire, and protect him. And that's what they've done. Both these quarterbacks have helpful run games. Both have workable tight ends. A Hunter Henry, a Colston Loveland, a Cole Komet. Wide receivers are hard to find. Some pan out, some don't. That's always no first-round position. Bust more than wide receiver. But Patriots' back-to-back seasons, first round, they go to the offensive line. That's a plan. It's not just, uh, it's Vrabel, figure the O-line out. We'll get the weapons later. That's what Ben Johnson did. First thing,

Ben Johnson's like, figure the O-line out. Some of the weapons hit. Some of them don't. But I think what you're watching is like real plans. And Caleb's going to get a lot of attention. Chicago's a big sports town, middle of the country. Caleb's game's very dynamic. But Ben Johnson talked about this week what he sees with Drake Mays.

It's a dangerous combination of a guy that's an elite deep ball thrower along with he can crush you with his legs also. And I think that combination is deadly. And it's really picked up steam over these last three games. You can see that their offense is putting up points in bunches right now. Three-game winning streak and a ton of explosive plays throughout.

And it sounds easy, get the quarterback. But I think Cincinnati has never spent big money on a coach and they can't figure out the O-line. And even Joe Burrow can't make it. Andrew Luck retired early. Trevor Lawrence, a great talent. Bouncing around, can't get anything to really work. Oh, then they find Liam Cohen's absolutely red hot. Let's go spend money on him. I can give you a million examples of had the Carson Palmer Cincinnati. You had your 20-year guy. Couldn't get it right. So credit... to the Bears' front office and the Bears' ownership and the Patriots' front office and the Patriots' ownership, it is not just the quarterback.

I can give you 10 where they butchered it. Spend money on your Shanahan. Go spend money. What did McVay do when he got to the Rams? The hottest coach, Andrew Whitworth, left tackle, stole him from the Bengals. Bengals, yeah, you could have one of the best left tackles. Go ahead and take him.

So.

By the way, the Patriots' first-round draft pick staff just told me that Caleb Lomu did not give up a pressure or a sack last week. And he was going up against David Bailey of the Jets, who's having a remarkable rookie season for the Jets. Didn't give up a sack or a pressure. First two years, Vrabel, O-line, O-line, up front. That's the plan.

All right.

I know J-Mac is feeling it with Luka. He's already got him penciled into the number three spot in the West.

I tried to tell you guys yesterday and the day before, keep an eye on Luka and Walker Kessler, who basically is, what, the new Jabbar, the new Wilt?

I mean, he didn't miss a shot.

He had like 10 dunks. He is.

Yeah, there was a lot of pushback on what they paid him. And, you know, it's like when you were young in your 20s, I know I was. I had a car that caught on fire. I'm not joking. It was an AMC Pacer. It was 1987. So when you're young and you can't consistently get to work or get things, you can't pay enough for good transportation. Spend the extra money, either buy a really high-end used car or a nice car.

You can't spend enough. When you've had trouble getting to work, you spend what you got to spend on transportation. We have the next Kareem. His name is Wemby. Look at what Sam Presti's doing in OKC. We can't have enough waves of big people. And so like like Walker Kessler is a necessity. He is a left tackle and you're in a division with Lawrence Taylor rushing the quarterback. You can't pay enough for your left tackle. Just do it.

And so I will defend what the Lakers, you know, I will defend that signing.

By the way, we're going to spend like three months trying to figure out where to let Steph Curry lands because we cannot continue this. This Warriors team is horrible. I don't want to see Curry go out like this.

I don't.

Get him onto a contender and let's see him play in the playoffs.

That second half last night was unwatchable. The Warriors are horrible, Colin.

And they're such a bad matchup to these Lakers.

Jimmy Butler's not coming back until February or something like that.

Okay. Ant was pretty interesting last night. By the way, Brian Kelly and our Brady Quinn, both pushback, not on Arch Manning, on Sark. That's very rare when a former coach is willing to criticize a current high-profile coach. All that coming up live in Chicago.

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Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, and comment away. You're now entering the no bull zone sponsored by Credible. Great rate. None of the bull. So listen, there are certain things NFL GMs, all of them talk about as the Seahawks host the Chiefs this week. I think it's as good as any NFL game so far this season.

And.

Brett Veach is a great GM, and all GMs know you do not sign running backs to massive deals, second deals, especially if they've had a few injuries or they're heavy carry guys. But you can't be rigid in this league. The Chiefs, and I'm looking at all the numbers from 2018 to 25, they were a terrible run team. And as Mahomes was coming off an ACL surgery and would be less mobile, presumably, they They're like, it's supposed to be a buy low, sell high league. And the Chiefs were like, well, we're going to buy high because we have a massive hole. You can't be terrible at anything in the NFL. A lot of people pay attention to Seattle letting them go. The bigger story is Brett Veach really paid a lot for a guy with a lot

of carries who'd been dinged up a little bit from Michigan State on. He was a great player. But remember, in Seattle, he split carries. He wasn't even their goal line back in Seattle. He was between the 20 back. Charbonnet was the goal line back. He was the one scoring the touchdowns. And Seattle had to make a big-time decision.

And there's an understanding in the NFL, everybody likes to play based on results. Everybody knew Kansas City was getting a really good player. But even you were surprised he was this good, right? And probably Seattle is, and Kansas City maybe a little. But what Kansas City did is not recommended. And I'll give you an example. Saquon Barkley. Oh, pay him whatever he wants. Yeah, he got you a Super Bowl last two years. Production dips. Production dips worse.

So there's an understanding in the league. You just don't pay second big contracts to running backs with a lot of carries, especially if they've been dinged up. Saquon Barkley. OK, you got the ring, but I mean, now you're kind of in a spot where there's rumors they may move him. And Kenneth Walker looks fantastic. Cross your fingers on health.

But when you say, well, Seattle basically signed Rashid Shahid. Well, was he pretty valuable last year for the Seahawks, the special teams? Why did they beat the Rams? One of the primary reasons, Seahawks had great special teams. Rams had terrible special teams. Shahid was giving Seattle better field position.

And the other thing is, if DeJarian Price, the rookie running back from Notre Dame that Seattle drafted into the first round, let's be honest about this. If he was healthy and didn't get hurt, Seattle would be very good. Because Sam Darnold, like Patrick Mahomes, is way better with an elite run game. Last year on play action, Darnold was over 115 or 100. Let me see. What was his pass? Oh, his passer rating was 123 play action.

What is Darnold's passer rating on play action this year? 52. Because his top two backs are out. So I think it's one of those situations where it is easy to say, well, I mean, look. I mean, how do you let him go? You got a lot of mouths to feed when you win a Super Bowl and you had to pay JSN and you had to spend money on Devin Witherspoon. Those guys set market leading contracts. They didn't get well paid.

They are top of the market deals. And I would have paid both. You cannot let JSN go best receiver on any Sunday in this sport. And Witherspoon on any Sunday is the best corner. You gotta pay that. I don't gotta pay Kenneth Walker. I'd like to, but we don't have a second receiver that scares anybody. So, Rashid Shahid's like, well, he's a burner. You can use him in jet sweeps. You can put him in the backfield.

He has world-class speed. He gives us better field position. These are all tough decisions. But you have to pay Witherspoon. You have to pay JSN. And that's what this sport is. You're trying to ideally buy low, draft guys not paying anything, and then the minute they're good players, not great, let somebody else pay for them. Kansas City got into a situation for five, six years. They were atrocious at running back.

So they're like, we're going to pay top of the market, whatever. We're going to pay for it. And it was the right decision. But Shahid averaged 41.8 yards per return last year in the postseason. Number one by a mile. A big part of why Seattle won the Super Bowl. Darnold, no turnovers. And the field position on kicks was unbelievable.

And if Jadarian Price doesn't get hurt, Darnold has a play-action game. And we saw last year, he's elite when he's got a run game. So I think we're looking at the results. We're looking at injuries. It's early in the year. All you have to do is go back to the end of last season when Seattle made that move to get that Saints guy that nobody knew much about.

He was huge in the postseason.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

World Series start tomorrow. Brewers raise. Hour number two. Greg Cosell in a couple of minutes. You know, it's interesting. A lot of people are saying, well, the Brewers and the Rays, will anybody watch at small markets? Well, small markets can be fascinating. Favre and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, Josh Allen in Buffalo, the Utah Jazz, Stockton Malone. The Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls got huge ratings, and everybody predicted it would be a disaster. Everybody told me that the Subway World Series Mets and Yankees would be huge ratings. It was really bad. When the Cubs won the World Series and the ratings were great, when the Cubs won, it wasn't because of Chicago's market size. It was because it was a great losing history, the lovable

loser Cubs. So I think market size can be really, really overrated. Hell, the last time the Celtics got into the finals, the ratings weren't very good. And part of it is Tatum doesn't have much of a personality. It was just kind of a... three-point shooting roster tatum's kind of quiet it wasn't a fascinating team the warriors with steph and draymond are fascinating kobe and shack were fascinating michael jordan's glamour and greatness is fascinating people like the utah jazz small market stockton malone feisty gave mj some individual game troubles so i don't you know indie films make a lot of money Back room, obsession, parasite. There's all sorts of stories in Hollywood where you don't get big money, but it's great storytelling. I do think the Brewers,

think about this, the Brewers faced the Dodgers. It was a sweep. It was a non-competitive series. It was the highest rated NLCS in a decade. Why? That's not just the Dodgers. The Brewers are a lot of hits, a lot of bases, stealing bases. A lot of confidence. They'll bunt it. Doubles, singles, bases, moving. They're a fun watch.

So I remember when Toronto faced the Dodgers a year ago and everybody said it was going to be bad for Fox because Toronto is a Canadian city and Canadian cities don't count on our ratings. It ended up doing great. Toronto outplayed them. Toronto had power. Toronto had swagger. Toronto out hit them. Toronto should have won. And the Dodgers pulled all these wacky levers in game seven. It ended up being an incredibly fascinating series. It was one of the best World Series I have seen since Red Sox Reds in the 70s. It was unbelievable. And Canada... usually is bad news for TV networks. So, I mean, my take is, I don't know what it'll do. I Tampa doesn't even have a brand. I'm not even sure Tampa's

popular in Tampa. Um, but I, I think Milwaukee is a good watch and America thinks that because that Dodger getting swept non-competitive series, even the final game, a lot of people watched it. So I, I, I don't know. I think Neither of these teams has won a World Series. Brewers got there in 82. Rays have been there. It's going to be one of these cities' first World Series titles.

I would say I think the National League is much better. I think the Brewers are better. I think it's a six-game series. I'll take Milwaukee. But I don't know what the ratings will be. You know, I think any time in baseball you get Yankees, Dodgers, or Giants, or Braves, there are these, you know, Phillies feel big to me.

But a lot of times nobody thought Jordan facing the Jazz was going to do anything, and it ended up being hugely popular. So the Subway Series was a clunker. Everybody thought Mets, Yankees was fascinating. Well, it was if you lived east of the Hudson. For the rest of us, it wasn't. And with that, Greg Cosell, 47 years, NFL Films, now joining us live. All right, tonight, Drake May, Caleb Williams, Bears, Patriots.

So I will say, coming back from injury, I said on the air, I said, I just don't know if Caleb's going to be rusty. I mean, they'd been using Case Keenum, Bajent, and I'm like, and then I watched the first half, and I'm like, that's as good as he's played. I mean, in terms of completion, what did the film say on Caleb's, you know, 31-7 lead? What did the film say on him?

Yeah, and I think too, Colin, that's a case where the coach, Ben Johnson, helped tremendously because early on in that game, you just saw a lot of quick game throws, rhythm throws, get him comfortable right away, get completions, easy completions by NFL standards. And then he settles into the game and he's comfortable. I believe he was 12 for his first 12. And not many of those throws were difficult throws by NFL standards. But when you do watch him, the one thing that really stands out, and I've always been a believer in this, and I think you have to play like that in the NFL. He clearly has arm arrogance. He is willing to turn it loose when it's there. And he can sit on his back foot and drive the ball at the intermediate and intermediate and

deeper levels. That ability that he has to do that, that's special. It almost looks like he doesn't even need any core torque or weight transfer.

He can drive the ball with velocity.

And that's something that not a lot of quarterbacks can do.

Drake Mays has been on a three-game heater. Everybody sold their stock, and we kept saying, folks, slow down. He's young. Give a kid a chance. I said that was C.J. Stroud. He's good. You've got to get protection. You've got to get guys healthy. How do you view the Bears? Is there a way to attack Drake Mays? Is there things that give him trouble as a young quarterback?

Well, I think when you look at a Dennis Allen defense, he is very good with his pressure concepts. And now, as the league is, you see so many teams with pressure fronts, meaning six, seven on the ball, because you have to count for those people in protection. And Dennis Allen is very good at that, and he does so many things off of that.

The big concern, which, of.

Course, is much different than it was a week ago versus Michael Penix, Colin, is that Drake May has legs, and Drake May can make plays with his legs effectively. And actually, over the last couple of weeks, that's become a little more part of his game, which, of course, we know it was a year ago when.

He had the sensational season.

So that's just something that Dennis Allen has to factor into how he chooses tactically to approach it. But he's very, very good with his pressure schemes. And it'll be interesting because I think I don't know if Morgan Moses, the right tackle, is going to play this week. So you're going to have a rookie Caleb Lomu. And once you have rookies and the cohesion is not quite the same, And it just becomes different from a quarterback's perspective, too, because he's aware that there could be issues.

OK, I think this is as good as any game this week. I also think Seattle, Kansas City is fascinating. So Kansas City schedule gets a little tough now. So let's talk Kenneth Walker. You know, I defended Seattle saying, listen, they pay JSN. They pay Devin Witherspoon. Those are top of the market guys. Kenneth Walker had been there. He wasn't even their goal line back. You win a Super Bowl.

Everybody wants to eat. You have to make these tough decisions. He's been a great fit for Kansas City, who was desperate at running back to the last four or five years. They had no run game. So I understand what both teams did. Is Kansas City, have they changed concepts? Is it play calling? This offense feels more physical. Not just, I mean, just feels like a different, like almost Andy said, okay, this is what I've done. Now this is what I'm going to do. Are you surprised by their, I mean, are you surprised by how good Walker has fit? And he kind of runs the offense.

Well, they've clearly they're a physical running team. I mean, they predominantly.

Run zone, mid zone, outside zone, and they predominantly run to the strong side where the tight end is.

And they like to run to the left.

And what that does is if you run zone to the left side, this might sound crazy, but you need your right guard to be able to execute backside cutoff blocks. And they've got one of the best right guards in the league in Trey Smith. and he is so critical to what they do. But this is a.

First-down running team. Colin, when will we have said that about.

Andy Reid, that they're a first-down running team, and they are phenomenal running the ball on first down? I mean, I think Walker's averaging over six yards a carry on first down. With a meaningful number of first-down rushes, this is not one of those things where, oh, let's give it to Walker once in a while. He's become the foundation of how they approach offense on first down, and we were never have thought that about an Andy Reid offense.

That's so good. So good. I've defended Sam Darnold saying last year he had 120 passer rating on play action. This year it's 52. When they lost Charbonnet and Price. he's he's now on kind of bounce around the league guys third fourth team guys and sam doesn't have a play action game like last year and he now tends to in a in a one receiver offense he forces it and he makes mistakes that's what i see does the film say it's not about the lack of run prowess it's just darnold's bad decision making what's the film say.

Well, no, no, no. I think, look, obviously, look what happened last week.

And this has sort of been symptomatic a bit as this year has progressed. He was asked to drop back over 50 times, Colin, in a close game. They did not run the ball. So what happened was, I forget the number of dropbacks. It might have been 55. Only six of those were play action. That is not who they are. Last year, they were absolutely one of the best and most voluminous play-action passing teams in the league.

And if I'm not mistaken, Darnold had the highest yards per attempt in the play-action pass game. That's the way they got their big plays. So they're out of balance now. They're a little out of whack in how they're just approaching offense. And again, they're coming off a bye, I believe. And they need they need to sort of not a bye.

I guess they played on Thursday. They need to resettle.

They need to kind of get back to and they have a new coordinator, obviously. But he is a run guy because he came from the Niners. So they need to sort of settle back and run the ball. Now, granted, they don't have a great back, but you can still run the ball meaningfully. Doesn't mean you have to run for 180 yards, but they need to get back to that balance. So and have the play action pass game be foundationally balanced.

How they approach the pass game.

You just validated all I've said all week defending Darnold, so I pat myself on the back. This is what I've been saying for a week.

Look, he did make a very bad decision, obviously, on the final interception, but when you ask a quarterback to drop back that many times, Colin, not every decision is going to be perfect.

Okay, so San Francisco's got one of those games that you may think, okay, Niners going to go to Atlanta, beat the Falcons, that's good. And it's like, watch out, B. John Robinson. You know, I saw a few of those older Niners limping off the field. This is a tough spot. Is there a way? to stop Bijan Robinson, or is it one of those, listen, we're not going to let him run for 220, but he's going to get 115, and that's just the reality of it. How do you defend him? Because right now, on any Sunday, he's the best back in the league, sometimes by a stretch.

Well, I think with Robinson, when you play that team, the starting point, and of course, they were not able to do it last week because the score got out of hand way too quickly.

But you have to defend the outside zone run game.

Outside zone is the foundation of what they do. Robinson is probably the best outside zone runner in the league. And you have to start there because if you cannot defend that, then you're in for a long day. Now, obviously, Penix is not a quarterback that's.

Going to move around. You know where he's going to be.

And the 49ers, Colin, and I'm sure you've noticed, their defense has been very good this year with a lot of players who may not, beyond Fred Warner, and obviously Bosa's been out, but beyond Fred Warner, there are not a lot of household names on that defense, but they are playing really, really well. Their safeties are playing really well.

And that's a position in this league. I remember a number of years ago, people would say, oh, you can get safeties anywhere. That is not true anymore.

You have to have good safeties to play defense in this league the way the game has evolved.

And they have Jair Brown, who's played at a high level.

Malik Mustaf is kind of an old school missile safety, made a couple of really big plays in important critical situations in their last game. So they are a very good defense and they've been able to rush the quarterback from the interior.

And that's a big deal.

So the Dallas-Green Bay game was pretty instructive. I said, it's one thing to say you support Brian Schottenheimer as an owner. It's another after that game flying with Stephen Jones on your private jet saying, what do we got here? So Dallas had extra time to prepare. Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Packers missing, three top defenders, and Dallas had five first downs with an offensive coach in the first half.

That's not good enough. I mean, Greg, I don't like, you know, I'm not here to rip coaches. That was a energy-less, I didn't think it was very intentional. I mean, I said, I just said, that's got to be on coaching at some time. Dak Prescott's proven he can move the chains. What did you see on film with Dallas' offense?

Here's what I'll tell you about the Cowboys, and think about this, and it gets back, you know, you've spoken about the run game with the Seahawks and other teams, but think of it this way. Last year on first down, Javante Williams had over 150 rushes. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry on first down because I did a deep dive this week. I was trying to figure out the Dallas offense. You know what it is this year? He has over 50 carries on first down this year. He's averaging 3.5. That's a 1.6 yard per difference on first down.

You know what that does to your offense? It changes the entire game. Dak Prescott has had the most dropbacks of any quarterback.

In the league this year. It's too many. It's too many.

So their offense, again, another offense that's out of whack. It's easy to sit here and say, That, oh, they have great receivers, but you can't throw the ball that much.

And the thing is, is they don't get light boxes.

You know, I mean, they get light boxes all the time and they can't run because teams are playing on the back end. They want their two safeties deep to help on the outside with Lamb and Pickens. and they still can't run the ball effectively. So that is a big deal for them, and it's changing the game because now you can't control the pace and tempo of the game.

So now you put way too much pressure on your defense, and we know about their defense. So there's a domino effect to everything if you can't run the ball and you can't control the game in any meaningful way.

So Green Bay's defense, even without Micah Parsons, they lost Jeff Halfley, a great D coordinator to the Dolphins. I worried about Green Bay's defense. Is it a symptom of who they've played? Because now it's Detroit. That's a different ballgame. Goff doesn't throw picks. Starr running back. Detroit's a handful.

So do you look at Green Bay on film and go, oh, there's some pressure packages here? Or do you just say, well, it's a symptom of who they've played. The defense is still average.

I'll tell you, look, they could go into Detroit. You know Detroit with Goff and those receivers at home. They could put up 30 against anybody. So this week's game I don't think is going to tell the story of their season. But I think that Jonathan Gannon has done a really good job.

You watch them.

He's pressured this year more than he ever has. And he does such a good job with how he goes about it. Because what you want to do when you pressure, obviously there's five offensive linemen.

You want to make sure that somebody else has to be in protection. Usually it's a back.

And what he does so well is by his front looks, he engages and triggers the back to have to be part of the protection. And then he works off that absolutely beautifully. He's getting more free hitters at the quarterback, which, by the way, is a big trend in the league this year. Too many free hitters at quarterbacks with all these teams with pressure fronts. But they have done a great job with that. And think about this. They played six games. They've only allowed nine completions of 20 or more yards. So they are not allowing big plays in the passing game. And that is one of sort of the three tenets of defensive coaching in this league. It's red zone. It's don't allow big plays. And it's third down.

And they've done really, really well in those areas.

Okay, I've got to give the Raiders. The Raiders aren't winning games, but I do think I watched them play Buffalo, and there's something. You don't have to win 12 games for me to be impressed. This has been a circle-the-drain franchise. I like Spytek. I think Clint Kubiak's done a good job. They're not even having to play their number one pick yet.

I thought when they attacked the Bills with a tight end play, I thought, again, very intentional. It looked well coached. I feel like they're a draft away from about six more players. But I think Kirk Cousins, I mean, we both like Kirk Cousins. He's a pro. He's an adult.

He's played great.

Let's talk a little bit about the Raiders. They're not winning games, but it does feel different to me.

Without question, they only had the one really bad game against New England, but they played the Chiefs well, the Bills well. Think about this. Bowers came back week three. Since week three, when he came.

Back, 83%, 83%, Colin, of their offensive snaps have had two or three tight ends on the field. That is totally... an anomaly in the National Football League. But they've become a little predictable in this way. When Bowers is on the field, it's 72% pass. When he's off the field, it's only 46% pass. So they need to do a little self-scouting. But this is not a team that features wide receivers. So they feature tight ends because Bowers is essentially a wide receiver and they've.

Done a really, really good job with that.

And you can, people can say what they want, but Kirk Cousins is throwing the ball exceptionally well.

He's playing good football there. The problem they're having is they don't really have a run game right now.

And I personally watching tape, I think Mike Washington deserves more snaps.

Yes.

I said it. I thought he was the best player drafted arguably in the fourth round. I think he's really, really good. Okay.

Yeah.

The best game last weekend was actually Houston-Jacksonville. Wildly entertaining. Excellent quarterback play. Travis Hunter and Parker Washington are just tremendous athletes. and lost in all of it lost in all of it is how good cj stroud has been this year a lot of people sold all their stock i tell you when he's got now he's got marvin harrison jr when he's got athletes that can get a little space i mean you saw the film what did you make a cj stroud Yeah, I think.

He's played well this year.

One of the issues I thought he had over the last couple of years, and he's done a much better job this year, was he's essentially a pocket quarterback. So he has to be very good when there's bodies around him. And he tended to be what I would call a pressure perceiver. and then he'd play fast. I think this year, he slowed down a little bit, and he's got a very good arm, and he throws a beautiful ball. And this year, I think he's playing as well as he's played since his rookie season. And if they can do that, then now with Marvin Harrison, and the good thing for Marvin Harrison, is he doesn't have to be their boundary X.

They've got a great boundary X in Nico Collins.

That single receiver to the short side of the field, Collins is one of the blueprints for it. So they can move Harrison around. Because, you know, Harrison's a little more smooth and fluid than Sutton, and he might work better as kind of a movement receiver than a true boundary X. But Sutton, and he might work better as kind of a movement receiver than a true boundary X.

But Stroud is making big-time throws under duress. And that's really the play I wanted to show from that game last Sunday when he hit Noel. 50 yards. I mean, this was a big time throw. So let's go to it because you're going to see the pressure too. He gets hit the second he throws this and this is not an easy throw. So let's just break this down because this was really well schemed based.

On what they thought they were going to get defensively.

So you see Stroud in the gun, it's trips to the left and the two receivers we want to deal with are right there. And you're going to see the coverage here. It's going to be what we call quarters. So it's basically a four across coverage. And quarters is a very interesting coverage. And we'll see how it plays out.

But what you're going to get from a route standpoint is you're going to get Keyshawn Booty. He's going to run the crosser. And you're going to get Jalen Knoll running the post. It's a combination that every team has. And this is really what it does is it really breaks down quarters coverage. Because what you're going to get here now is you're going to get you know, as we go in motion, the safety to that side in quarters, he's responsible for number two vertical, and that's Booty.

He's number two.

So now he has eyes, as you can see, on Booty, but the backside safety has to be aware of that as well, because Booty's going to run across or right into him.

So Booty's route eats up both safeties. So now you're going to get Knoll running.

To the post and against an outside leverage corner who now has no help whatsoever from a safety. So this is exactly what you want against this coverage. So you go to the post, and as I said, this is just an absolutely beautiful throw, and you'll get a clearer picture just of it when you see it right here, and certainly with Knoll, the corner has outside leverage.

You can't play this. There's no one there in the middle of the field.

But the key to me on that play, too, was the fact that we couldn't see it there, but the pressure. He got hit the second he threw that, and that's what he's done such a better job of this year, Colin.

Yeah, and Tank Dell. Harrison now just acquired. Tank Dell is playing for the first time. in a couple of years since 2024. So it's all of a sudden you got the weapons with CJ Stroud. I know everybody wants to bail on these young quarterbacks, the Drake Mays and the CJ Strouds, but if you see greatness early, it can return. It's a lot of time, the pieces, the coaching, the complimentary assets around them. Greg Cosell, 47 years, makes us smarter every Thursday. Thanks, Greg.

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