THE HERD - Hour 2 - The early top 10 teams for 2026, NFL draft prospects, Greg Cosell

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Here we go. It's our two. It is a Wednesday. We're live in Chicago. It is the herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening or watching. Thanks for making us part of your day. Greg Kosell is going to show up in about four or five minutes. So I was thinking about this. I know it's really, really early, but the NFL season is over. And once an NFL season ends, there are three ways to improve your team. Number one is the coaching and staff hires. Number two is free agency, and number three is the draft. Those are the primary ways. I think the drafts worth about 15%. I think free agencies worth about 15%. And I think Ben Johnson and Mike Vrable are proof the coaching is about 70%. Now, most rosters don't radically change. And if they do like New England, change this year. Well, it's up to Mike Vrable, the coach. Okay, good. So to me, the coaching thing really matters. So if you look at the teams that have made big jumps in a year, Ben Johnson, Mike Vrable, Jim Harboh, Liam Cohen, Sean Payton, it's not all players. It's mostly the coach. And if they do change the roster, the coach has big say in that. The coach making 18 million a year has a lot of say in even the draft and free agency. So I mean, the Titans and Giants had a lot of money last year that didn't have the right coaches. Okay, New England had a lot of money last year in free agency. They had the right coach. I mean, Jackson, Darden, Drake, Mayor, both talented. It's the coach. So in Seattle, Ace the draft. So it's not the draft. Seattle, Ace the draft. They had two guys, a guard and a safety out of the draft class. They had an impact. Two of 22 starters. And that's not counting special teams. And their special teams in Seattle were impactful. So I do believe you can look after all the coaching hires. I'm going to do a top 10 after the coaching hires after free agency and after the draft. And I would say here we go number 10. I think the chiefs. I'd put them at number 10 right now. They've got three really good picks. Three of the top 75 picks. They need to get a rush and an offensive tackle. Probably a running back. If they get that Notre Dame running back in the first round, I don't think they will. But if they do absolute home run, I have them at 10. Number nine would be Buffalo. Okay, Buffalo didn't have a lot of cap space. And they don't have a pro-boulder on defense right now. Joe Brady. Is he an upgrade over Sean McDermott? I don't necessarily think so. I'm going to wait and see. Their schedule is brutal. Rams, Texans, AFC West, NFC North. Brutal, Barudal, Schedule. Number six to Patriots. Number eight to Patriots. I like New England. But Drake May was sacked 68 times this year. The O-line doesn't need a tweak. It mostly outside of guard needs an overhaul. Three straight playoff games with eight plus points. At one point the Super Bowl, eight drives, eight ponds and seven completons. They also played an incredibly weak schedule. Next year, I think it's a top six most difficult schedule. They'll be a very good team. I don't think in the AFC they'll represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Number seven, I would say the Detroit Lions. I really like their O-C higher out of Arizona. I was surprised how good the Cardinals' offense was at times this year, which is Kobe Bersat. I think they've got their star players all signed. And they've got star players at key positions, pass rusher, tackle, weapon, quarterback. I have the Lions at seven. Number six, Liam Cohen, year one. What a turnaround by the Jaguars. Top ten in offense and defense. They're only going to get better. I mean, listen, first coach to ever, when 13 plus games take it over a team with four fewer wins, only first year head coach. That's pretty good. That's pretty good team. And I think they didn't have Travis Hunter playing much. He should play a role going forward, Jags at six. I think the Chargers are going to feel like a Super Bowl team in September. Upgraded O-C, bolster tackles back, tons of cap space. And I think they're going to spend it on offense to protect Justin Herbert as they should. The defense may not be as good without Jesse Mentor. It'll be fine, but I think they're going to look like a different team offensively next year. I'd put the Bears at four. I know you think it's high. The Rams had to play a perfect game and beat him in overtime in the playoffs. Last four losses, all came in one score games. Teams, by the way, went two in 14 and one after they played the Bears. I don't know what that means, but it's something they did not take the ball away in the playoffs. Like they did in the regular season, I think they have to spend almost their entire draft capital on defensive players. Number three, the Denver Broncos. Not only were they missing Bonaix, but JK Dobbins and two of their top three receivers in a playoff game. They should have been the Super Bowl team. They matched up with Seattle much better. I think Seattle would have won, but Denver kind of felt like between the Blizzard and their injuries, they got bad breaks. Fewest sacks allowed, tied from the fewest sacks allowed, and the most sacks on defense. I'm sorry, I like the coats, the roster and the quarterback. Number two, and maybe they should be number one, I'd put the Rams outgained opponents, even in their five losses this year. High-esquited offense, high-esquited defense, according to PFF. Played the toughest schedule by any playoff team, I worry about Matt Stafford's age. But there's an argument, they'll be the best team in the league next year. Number one, Seattle. Between Mike McDonald, John Snyder, his drafting record, Sam Darnold. It's like watching a little bit like watching OKC last year, the Spurs this year. They have so much upside, and they're already really, really good. Seattle just doesn't miss, and they've last four years, they have hit on their top two picks, and I mean stars. The last four years in the draft, top two picks, so they're not even paying those guys yet. That would be my top 10 right now, I don't have green Bay, but they put a number seven seed in the playoffs. Haven't they? This year there were seven seed, with their seven seed the year before. Jay Mac, you have a, you're just puzzled by this. Listen, I know, I know we have a guest usually here. I got a lot to say about this one, so maybe we should wait a little bit. Wait, wait, wait, wait, it's kind of wild here, coward. Really? I don't know. So no Eagles anywhere to be found, no Joe Burrow, no Lamar Jackson. I mean, were you the one who yesterday telling me they had nine Jubilee Lamar Jackson, that new contract he's going to get? That the rabid to have to move off people. Where are the Houston Texans? Is there 11 or something like? Aren't you the guy that kept complaining that CJ Stroud was regressing? I think he's, he's not a very good quarterback. So I think it's a very good quarterback. How are you better than my homes and Josh Allen and Drake, man, Jared Goff? The defense is elite and we just saw it's not about quarterbacks. It's about defense at this point. I'm surprised he had Lena Falcons. Okay, I'm just, that's just a joke. But yeah, this is three from the AFC West. Two from the NFC West, no Niners. Hey, you know how I like Mendoza? Raiders may be 11 by September. Oh, damn, stop it. All right, let's bring in Greco, Cell, 46 years NFL films. There's so much to talk with. But you know I love Sam Donald. You know I've always loved Sam Donald. I know that. I know that. He had a little hitch in his, you know, delivery and he came into the league at 20. So he wasn't quite ready. I argued yesterday, people say, you know, everybody loves to get credit. And I said, the NFC was the better conference this year. By the end of the year, my homes is beat up and all that. And I said, to go through a playoff and Mike Raible's defense without a turnover, Breeze did that once, Ackman did it once, like that is same because that Rams defense can create turnovers. But you tell me when you watch the Super Bowl and even the playoffs, how much credit does Sam deserve? Well, you know, it's funny you say that because normally we talk about the quarterback as being the key to everything. Now, I thought what Donald did in that game is he played that game the way it was demanded to be played. Given the way their defense played, now I was actually surprised. I was there in the stadium watching the game and then of course I watched the tape yesterday. I was truly surprised when I saw that he had 40 dropbacks because the game didn't really play out that way because they ran the ball really well. They ran a lot of plays. They controlled the ball for 33 minutes, even though they weren't great on third down. They still controlled the ball. And I thought Donald played that game the way it was demanded to be played. He missed a few columns, you know, when he just missed and that would have probably made it even more of a route if he hit those throws. But there were times where he clearly felt it wasn't clean, it was muddy and he checked it down. He obviously had that scramble on the, I think it was the first third quarter drive. He played really a fishing football. I think it might have been Matt Hasselbeck, I can't remember. But the term as opposed to game manager, which has a negative pejorative term. And I think the term that Matt used was game commander, which I think is such a better way to talk about a quarterback that, you know, and Tom Brady talks about this all the time. You play the game the way the game demands that you play it. It's not about putting up the big stats. He played that game the right way. Yeah, Drake may set an NFL Super Bowl record for passing yards in a quarter. So that's all you need to know because he was throwing the ball in the fourth quarter nonstop. Yeah, you got to get out of the stat. Now I got to ask you about Kenneth Walker. He's got such a unique style. I think we both like him. I like him in Michigan state. He's a guy that breaks a lot of tackles. He is so thick. The idea of a corner coming up and bringing him down by themselves. You know, maybe his own teammate, Devon, with a spoon could do it. Most corners couldn't. What do you make of his effectiveness? Yeah, well, you know what surprised me? We talked about this last week, leading up to the game. And I was surprised that he was able to get to the edge as much as he did against that Patriots defense. They are really good running out of multiple tight end personnel. That's really their foundation. 21 of his 27 carries came out of either 12 or 13 personnel meeting two tight ends or three tight ends. But I was truly surprised with him getting to the edge. I thought with a Mike Vrable defense and certainly Vrable being coached by Bellicek where setting the edge was really a constant theme. That's something truly that surprised me. But I thought that Walker in this game ran with sort of calculated patience. I mean, when you run with patience, what you do is you manipulate second level defenders. And I thought he did a really good job of that. And then of course, he certainly has the burst when he saw the hole. There were times watching the tape where I thought of Levy on Bell with how patient he was. You know, you don't normally see that. And certainly not from Kenneth Walker, who always looks to get to the perimeter. Yeah. The New England did a pretty good job until they got tired and they're tackling regressed. New England did a pretty good job to slow down Seattle's offense for a while. What was their secret sauce or was it just personnel? Yeah, no, I think that that's an overlooked element of the game. I thought that the defense for the Patriots actually played exceptionally well. Yeah. I mean, obviously Walker had that 30 yard run in 29 yard run back to back. But for the most part, you know, I thought the Patriots defense played well. Now, as I said, Donald missed a few and that would have changed the whole feel about the game. You know, obviously he just under threw a she heed on a vertical, right? Yeah. Post drought that Gonzales was able to get his hands on. He threw, he had Smith and Jigba on that sort of bang eight. That would have been a touchdown if he laid it out in front of him. Yeah, the right right now has to come. He threw all behind him. Yeah. Yeah. So that would have changed our conversation. But for the most part, they played well. I thought the safety, the rookie safety would send. I thought he was all over the tape. He played a really, really good game. But, you know, it was a close game, obviously. When it got to be 19-7 and New England got the ball, I'm not saying you thought they were going to win. But for a moment there, you're thinking, oh, we might have a ball game here. Chris Collins were set at halftime. He and Tarekko, when they came back for the start of the second half. You know, Collins were just laid it out. He goes, yeah, Drake's not, he's not ready. Like this is, this right now feels too big for him. Now, some of that's the past protection. But what he did look, you know, what happens when you speed up young quarterbacks. That's what happens. Yeah. Was it just a matter of he just didn't want to get it? Well, I was trying to get rid of the ball. No, being in the stadium, the first thing I noticed, okay, was the pressure packages that Seattle started the game with. They are not a high percentage blitz defense. In fact, they were one of the lower percentage blitz defenses. But they started the game on third downs with pressure. Now, then they backed off the pressure because they only rushed five or more on eight of May's 53 dropbacks. It might have seemed like more watching the game because they started with pressure. And what they did a phenomenal job of Collins is you can dictate past protection by how you align your defensive front. And they did such a good job of that. They lined up with a lot of five man fronts, six man fronts. That dictates how you have to pass protect. And then once you know how they have to protect, then you can bring some of them back to you. Then you can bring someone and it was witherspoon who is not accounted for. So they did such a really good job with that early in the game. And they got Drake May sort of playing fast. You know, we've talked about this before with quarterbacks that all of a sudden they start to play fast. And everything gets speeded up. The mental process gets speeded up. The physical process gets speeded up. And then they mistroze that they normally would make with no problem at all. The only guarantee I made on the Friday before the Super Bowl. I said on the air, New England will not run the ball. They will absolutely that's the one. And I said, that's why I ended up picking Seattle. I said, that means Drake May is going to have to throw 35 times plus. He's one in seven. That's not what you want a 23 year old dude into Super Bowl. They will not run the ball. So it was obvious to me, which means it was probably really obvious to you. And it was to me, it was just felt like Seattle athletically in the box has better players forget scheme for a second. They're just twitchy, fast, long. And I felt like New England's online was overwhelmed right out of the gate. They were overmatched. And the secret sauce for Seattle all year quite frankly has been, and this is a trend in the league. If you can do it, you know, it depends on your players, is they're able to stop the run playing out of a two high safety structure, playing out of a two deep shell, which they played a lot of in this game because of the quality of their upfront players. I did not think New England would be able to run the ball well in this game. Certainly not inside with Stevenson because Murphy Leonard Williams, Jaron Reed, their tackle rotation is as good as any in the league. We know what they have on the outside with Lawrence, a terrific player who had a great year. And they just overmatched a New England offensive line, particularly on the left side with playing the two rookies. They were just overmatched. But that's one of the secret sauces is they're able to stop the run without having to allocate a safety. And I'm not talking about him in worry because he's essentially a Sam Linebacker in their defense. I'm talking about allocating a safety either Julian Love or Kobe Bryant. They don't have to allocate them as part of the run defense so they can keep them in a two deep shell. I said before the Super Bowl, there are parts of New England I like a lot. I don't love their old line and I think they're planning another tight end. I was disappointed they didn't use Hunter Henry Moore. I think you can get the Seahawks at tight end. That's why the Rams are so effective against Seattle. They go right at the tight end. Obviously Pukas great, but New England receivers are fine. The old line though, to me, is a really a priority in the off season. You got to draft it. You got to spend some money on it. What did the tape say? Well, obviously what happened in the game is Seattle in addition to those pressures early in the game that set the tone, then settled into playing a lot. I don't want to say basic defense, but they created one-on-one matchups because they lined up a lot in what we call loaded fronts, meaning there were three defensive linemen to one side of the center and then they put Ernest Jones on the ball. So it was essentially a five-man front and almost always that dictates what we call five-o protection, meaning that the five offensive linemen are responsible for one-on-one blocks. Seattle just can... they won those blocks too many times. They physically were better than the Patriots offensive line. In addition to the times when they did pressure and they were able to beat them because they understood their protections and had to attack it with an unaccounted for a rusher. So it was sometimes Colin Football is just match-up football and the Seahawks were just better up front and they won a lot of one-on-one matchups. Yeah, no. I mean, that's what the good coaches do. All this raw, raw stuff. The bottom line is you have to say when you look at film, guys, we are insufficient athletically here. We have to protect that. The one thing you could see that even I could see was Seattle's defensive front. You've got elite players and Will Campbell, and we said this before the game, it's probably a guard. He came out of a bad draft class. He'd probably be a very good guard. He doesn't feel like right now a left tackle. Let's wrap it up with this. We talked about on this week on the show, Greg, is that offense is eye candy. You watch Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay. You watch Kyle Shanahan, Ben Johnson. It's easy to see the motion and the creativity. But great defensive coaches, Mike McDonnell, Brian Flores, maybe Domeco Ryan's, that's where Greg Cosell can come in and say, okay, here's what's happening. Because offense, we can all watch the dolphins with Mike McDaniel. Sure, see all of them and go, well, that's their club. What's Mike McDonnell do that you 46 years doing this go, wow, that is something. The play that I'd love to show is a perfect example of that. It was third and 15 on the second possession. Because early in the game, they came out and they pressured. Now they did that early. So if we could take a look at this play because this to me, you talk about eye candy for someone like myself watching tape, this is just unbelievably good. I love when I see this. As I said, it was third and 15. You see Drake, may he's in the gun. Now what you're going to see here is a six man front. So now you have to count for six potential pass rushers. And what they did is they put Jones up there inside and MNWari on the outside. Now there's only, of course, five offensive linemen. So now what do you have to do? You've got to figure out a way to deal with the six man front. But with the five offensive linemen, you get what we call five-o protection. So they match up and that includes Jones. Because he's on the ball, mugged up on the ball, as we say. Now the right tackle is going to be responsible. I think that was Lawrence on the outside. Now what you have to do here is then you have Stevenson in the back field. He's got to account for MNWari. So ultimately you can match up to those six people on the ball. So what you're going to get is you're going to get one player now that cannot be accounted for. Okay, and that is going to be, of course, witherspoon. Witherspoon is going to come from depth. And this is the beauty of it. This is where the schematics, the tactics work so well. So we've just mapped out the protection. But now no one can account based on the protection call. No one can account for witherspoon. And as we flip this and look at it from the end zone, you'll see. The right tackle is responsible for Lawrence. So he actually, even though he got help from Hunter Henry, he's still responsible for him, the right tackle. So no one here now is responsible for witherspoon coming from depth and distance. So this is just beautiful design. And you see the speed. You see the athleticism. And he just sacks me. And this happens fast. And when you're a quarterback, Colin, you feel this. You see it. It's just all of a sudden there's a guy coming right at you in your vision. And everything just happens too fast. So this is how they started the game. They did this multiple times on the first couple of possessions. And this is what got Drake May just playing fast throughout the game. Everything changed with those first couple of possessions. Great co-sell. As always, this is just so much fun. Great seeing you. We'll talk for agency draft. We'll keep bringing you back. For sure. Great stuff, Greg. Thank you. Thanks, Colin. Really appreciate it. It's interesting, Jay Mack, when you watch that, when you show it in slow motion, you don't see it. And then you roll the tape fast and you're like, Devon Witherspoon is there. 1,000, 1,000 boom is there. It's like, whoa, whoa. So Drake May in the first couple of series is like, okay, I got no time. So you start speeding him up. So you get into his young head. You speed him up. And now he's, he's speeding up when he doesn't have to speed up. But they're only bringing four. So, um, man, there's good stuff. I haven't even gotten to some of the gems today. I don't even know if I will. Maybe I'll just save it. Colin Nick Wright, tell him to give us an hour, Jay Mack. You know, Jay Mack's been very quiet today because his Lakers have gotten rolled. And he's just not in the mood to talk about it. It's been a long time. But I will tell you, and I feel strongly about it. Well, I'll talk about it. I'm going to talk about it on the other side. Wait, wait, just for the record. You think I don't want to talk Lakers? I mean, there's 15 layers to that team right now. I mean, yeah, go ahead. Go off on the, I like when you go off on the Lakers. It's fun. I'm not going off. I am contextualizing what my eyes see. One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the I Heart Radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Stick out here. I have a podcast empire. It continues to grow. And I have brought it here to Idle. I'm also doing a live radio show from three to five PM Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me out of the house. It's called Stagotsie Company Live, which is available in podcast form right when the show finishes every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports. A lot of phone calls. I love you guys, Michelle. It's one of my favorites. A lot of interaction. Guys not taking themselves too seriously. Those are just some of the things that you can expect from Stagotsie Company and Stagotsie Company Live. So listen to Stagotsie Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review. Stagotsie Company and God Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it. Do it today. And you can check all of those out on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcast 4, wherever you get your podcast. By the way, in about 15 to 20 minutes, you've heard of Steven Spielberg's DreamWork Studios. Well, I have spent over the last 48 hours. I have a new business venture. It's called Darnold Works Studios. I'm naming it after Sam Darnold. So Spielberg has DreamWorks. I've created a new venture called Darnold Works Studios. And we've got some exciting new movie productions. 15 minutes out. Very excited to introduce them to you in 15 minutes. First though, Jay Mack with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. Alright, Colin. But before you get started with this whole Darnold situation, I know you got a whole movie studio. You're going to pop up. I just want to caution you. There is news in Seattle. So they have lost Clint Cooby, act to the Raiders. Okay, we talked about this. He left as the OC. He was very good with Sam Darnold. Who is going to replace him? Colin, we just saw this play out in Detroit last year with Ben Johnson. They went to a guy in house. All reports right now indicate Seattle is going to stay in house for this OC job. And it's going to either go to a quarterback coach named Andrew Genoco or the passing game coordinator Jake Peetz. Those are the leaders to be the OC play caller for Mike McDonald and Sam Darnold. Don't love it. I have to be totally up front. Don't love it or hate it immensely. I don't like promoting from within with very few exceptions. I don't like doing it. The number, we had a graph. We put on the screen a month ago on this. Overwhelmingly does not work in football, right? In basketball and other fields, it works fine. But in football, historically, it has not worked at all. That's the best candidate when a legend leaves when Steve Spurrier left Florida. You know, when you have an urban Meyer Leaves Ohio State, when you got to go and have a wide search, I've always had a theory. The greater the person you're replacing, the wider the search has to be for them. Detroit, Los Ben Johnson, the best OC in the league for two or three years. I have nothing against anybody in that lion's building. You got to go bigger and broader. When Michigan lost Jim Harball, you don't just elevate the assistant everybody likes. You've got to make a national... That's why I said about Alabama when they lost Sabin. You can say what you want. Every AD in the country knows, Kaelin DeBor is a great hire. Now, Alabama's not as good when Sabin was because they don't have the NIL money. Sabin knew I'm getting the hell out of here once NIL got revved up. Alabama didn't have that kind of money in state. So you can blame Kaelin DeBor. That roster is not close to Sabin's roster five years ago, but DeBor was a great hire. You usually don't go legend to like next potential legend. That would ideally be the way to do it, but so I don't love this. But the best businesses often have that next legend. They've identified them and they got them on staff and they're already working with the coach. A lot of the best ones. I mean, I have examples for you when we talk about this next week, because you know, it's the off season. We got a lot to talk about. All right, Colin, let's move on to the next one. And that's the Kansas City Chiefs, the mediocre chiefs this past season, hell, you could say below average. A lot of nerves about what's going to happen with them this off season. Patrick Mahon's obviously has the tour in ACL and LCL. Well, the Super Bowl odds are out for next season. And wouldn't you know it? These are, this is the chiefs worst odds since Mahombs became the starter. They are currently plus 1500 to win the Super Bowl. That is extremely low for Mahombs' read lead. Well, I see. They don't have any cap space. That's their biggest dilemma. They, there are three needs, like they need an edd russure. It's a very good edd russure draft. They need a running back. Well, they may nail one with their first pick. So I think a lot of this draft for Kansas City, if they could get love in the first round, the running back from Notre Dame, that solves an issue. They need a defensive end. They probably need an offensive tackle. Again, the things they need, edgent tackle and running back. They could get all three because they have three of the top 75 picks. So I want to watch their draft before I have any great proclamations. They do need an infusion on the edge defensively in the back field and on the whole line. And they don't have the money to go get it. So if they draft it, they don't have a ton of, you know, they have to nail these picks. Come on, their secondary is total garbage. They have no players. I'm just telling you, you said may need a tackle. I mean, listen, I know they like the potential of Simmons. I mean, games that he missed last year. I mean, you can't have a rookie missing a bunch of games. And then the right side's terrible. There's just no room for error on the offensive line. There's nowhere you can start the chiefs other than third place in the division right now. Maybe that goes up at the draft and free agency. That's fair. But they're definitely behind the Broncos in charge of it. No, I am the chargers winning the division next year, Denver second, Kansas, any third today I do. Yeah. And then listen, chiefs fans, it'd be optimistic. You can go up. But I'm telling you right now, Jeremiah love ain't fixing that offense. If you go with him at 9th, it's not fixing it. Maybe Kelsey comes back. I mean, listen, I'm not taking glee in the demise of the chiefs. Sounds like it. But I mean, listen, there's just a lot of teams better than them. If you, you know how they do the roster offseason, like, oh, this guy, they got Blue Chip Tellin' here and there. I'm just telling chiefs are not in the top 10, maybe top 12 for rosters. Yes, they have my homes and read, but the talent, it's just not there. Well, they don't have the depth of talent like Philly, Detroit, Seattle, Rams. And after this draft and cap space, chargers, Denver, they don't have Denver. Denver's got their quite or Denver's out. I mean, Houston has a better roster than the Kansas City Chiefs. Jacksonville, are they close? They got as many defenders that are good. Let me try to understand. Now Joe, Jags roster is good. It is. Yeah. All right, final story, Kyle. Let's go to the NBA. This is an interesting one because Jason Tatum off the Achilles injury suffered 39 weeks ago. He is now working out with their G league affiliate, took part in his first 5-on-5 scrimmage yesterday. Tatum said he was feeling good, but added that this doesn't point to him returning the season or not. He's just following a step-by-step plan. Now, Colin, this is an interesting one because we recently saw Jembal Murray suffer an ACL. He started practicing with the G league team for Denver and everybody got excited a couple of years ago and they said, no, we're not bringing you back. We're not going to rush it. They waited. It worked out. We saw Clay Thompson come back. Remember, he had the Achilles and ACL back-to-back years. I know he was a little older than Tatum. Tell him, you know, I love me some Jason Tatum. I would preach extreme caution if I'm in the Boston Celtics. And I agree with you and here's one of the reasons I agree with you. What is the NBA today compared to, let's say, 10 to 12 years ago? The pace is much faster. So you're getting a lot of these soft tissue tears. LeBron's talked about this. Now I don't think that's primarily, I don't think that's overwhelmingly the reason guys don't play. They make too much money. The season's long. They look at their baseball and football counterparts and the money and the NBA's got some regular season issues that go a mile deep. And I don't, the tanking is, I'm sorry, it doesn't work. People tank when they want to. You got too many stars that just don't feel like playing. So but I do think where LeBron is right, the pace of the league. It's a pace in space. Three, you know, that's what it is right now. And more guys are getting little tears and dinged up. So Jason Tatum, it's like he would merge back onto the freeway. It'd be the Autobahn. It's not just the 405. It's the Autobahn. The pace of the league is too fast. I think if you're Boston, I don't think you bring him back. I just, I think the pace is too fast and you could tweak and give, and let's face it. Tatum's in impeccable shape. Boston's very well run. They have a very solid roster. They've got six more years with this group to win titles. There is no rush. There is absolutely no rush. Totally agree with you. I know one of your better takes. I will say the Celtics started out slow this season. Obviously, I mean, they lost like four or five guys in the rotation. However, they're currently second in the East Cullen, five and a half behind the pistons. Joe Mozilla, we got to give it up. I know your guy Bill Simmons bashing Joe Mozilla, calling him what second row Joe for a couple of years. Hey, Joe Mozilla, kind of knows what he's doing with basketball. Moose Peyton, Pritchard to the bench, they move off Simon's. This is a damn good team. And they will contend in the East, right? Top five in offensive and defensive efficiency. Mozilla's done a hell of a job. I know Coach of the year is going to whoever Detroit or OK, see one of those guys. But Mozilla needs some props from you and your cadre. I don't know if I can see that. I said his first year, I said he's not a top five coach and they have a top five roster. So it's uneven. But you know, you have a right in America to learn on the job. Not everybody that takes a job in a tech company is Zuckerberg. They want like it's OK. In the NBA, if you're a young coach and your first year, you're situationally, you're not, you know, the really good coaches like in college basketball, they're scoring six points a game like Tom is oh, calling time out, having an inbound play. I mean, is oh is the master at calling a time out inbound play and scoring like that, that's that second third level stuff. Some of these young coaches, they have great relationships with players. I mean, Denver had a young coach first year. Is he is good as the guy he replaces? Probably not situationally, but it's OK. I mean Brad Stevens moved up to the front office. Every guy he plugs in at center is working for the Celtics. They lost whorford and they lost two other centers. I'm spacing on them now. Any guy they put in there is like crushing it. I mean, the Celtics are doing a damn good job and you know, I don't like any Boston teams that be in a New York guy. Why? Because I'm a New York guy. We don't like Boston. Come on. We're going to every game and every season with a clean slate. There's no reason to have agendas. Boston Celtics are. I like me some Tatum. You know, my Celtics are a one of the top three best run teams in the league. Yeah. OK, see Celtics first last 10, 15 years. Yeah, well, Ron can't really dispute that. I will say there's a mantra about Jason Tatum. Laker, you know, he's has a Kobe Bryant tattoo. People call him future Laker, Jason Tatum. So I am a Jason Tatum guy. Maybe he's coming to LA at some point. I don't know. Jay Mackle news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly news. Starting a new venture, you've heard of Dreamworks. It's Darnal's works. And I'm very excited next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Hurd weekdays in New Nester 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I Heart Radio app. The great American race returns with its back-to-back champion William Byron. Look at for a historic 3P. It doesn't get any bigger than this. The 68th running of the Daytona 500, Sunday at 230 Eastern, with pre-race coverage starting at 1230, only on Fox. Well, the coaching carousel has come to a stop until next January. And so we thought we'd present coming coaching attractions with all the new hires in the NFL. And so, the dreamwork studio that Spielberg has, and I just ripped it off, I came up with my Darnal's work studio. And these are some of my new ventures. They're in production right now, and I just want to give you a heads up and give you a little taste of what's about to come. You remember once upon a time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino. I mean, who can forget that? What an all-time classic. Well, my new feature is a gritty reboot where the defense gets top billing in once upon a time in Solid Wood. And this time, the fairy tale ends with a goal line standing. Not bad, right? Well, one of the great actors in recent, I mean, in our lives, is John Malkovich. Like everybody knows, John Malkovich is unbelievable. Well, being John Malkovich, check out Mind The Sike of a Championship Coach with a young quarterback in the new film, being John Harbaugh, bitch. It turns out, playoff and light, meant to require special teams meetings at dawn. Very excited for this. OK, now, now I know you loved Dave Chappelle. And remember, he did a very, very funny comedy half-bait. Very fun. Everything's Chappelle touches. Well, now, my venture, Miami wants all the smoke, but the expectations are as high as the vibes in Half-Lie-Bate. Time to see if these new buds can plant a sea. I see what you did there, OK? Half-Lie-Bate. All right, I mean, now this may not be in your wheelhouse. Dolly Parton, the Southern Classic Steel Magnolyus. Yes. That was a great all-time movie. In a town built on toughness, sometimes the story gets a little soft, a familiar face returns to the AFC North to renew a bond as strong as Steeler Magnolyus. Old relationships at a new offensive wrinkle. And they got Aaron Rodgers in there, huh? Mike McCarthy, Tammy, or Steeler Magnolyus. Well, is there a bigger fan? Probably is, but Mission Impossible, J-Mac, you know. I mean, you and I both, this gets me to it, not a lot gets me to a theater. But the mission with my new venture is changed. Your mission should you choose to accept it. Fix the quarterback, modernize the offense, survive the AFC North. People taught assemble the elite team he needs in Monkan Impossible. The game tape will self-destruct if the protection doesn't hold. Monkan Impossible. Wow, no miles, Garrett, but Shedore and Dionysia. That is impossible. Oh my gosh. And finally, it's a lot of work. I mean, I hope this studio works, or I'll be working, you know, a second job here. You and I love Jim Carey, the classic comedy, Dum and Dum. Well in my reboot, he's the quirky offensive genius, and he's the quirky offensive genius. One wears khaki's the other wears at leisure. Together, they're trying to prove that in the AFC brain-powered travels, presenting smart and smarter. With Jim Harbaugh, just when I thought the chargers couldn't get me smarter, they redeem themselves. Jim Harbaugh might make Daniel and smart and smarter. You know, J-Mac, there's still room for investors in the Donald works. Yeah. What kind of, are you looking for five-figure investments? Six lies. Some seed motor, look at what you're doing. Real emotional support is all I really need. I'm just curious, do you think that everyone else in the country is as high on the chargers as you and I? Because when you look at these hires and what teams have, it seems like a no-brainer that the chargers were the biggest winners so far in the AFC. If you watch the chargers this year, the feeling was it's a defensive coaching story and you're just hoping the offense can generate 20 points. This year it's going to be a coaching and offensive story. So the defense, I mean, they won 11 games last year in a division with Peyton and Andy Reed. So to me, improvement with the chargers will not just be standings-improved. They will feel to me in September, we'll all be saying, oh, that's a super bowl team. That's why for the record, this is why I've said it's so important, the Joe Brady hire. Because the chargers now just took an offensive step up. They also have a ton of cap space. So like if you're a charger doubter, they haven't had a lot of money. Now they have it and they're getting their tackles back and they've upgraded OC. So like to me and also we all know Kansas City's not going six and 11. We all know Baltimore should be better in New England now has more cap space and everybody year three for Drake May. So this was the year to get right. At the end of the year in the AFC championship, Bo Nick's wasn't available. JK Dobbins wasn't available. They were down to receivers. This was kind of that gap year in the AFC. It's like in Buffalo didn't get it. AFC I can make a guarantee AFC is going to be better next year. At the top it's going to be my Liam Cohen in year two. You know, Peyton gets now Bo Nick's another off season. So chargers last year, seven and a when they just got the 25 points. 10 and one. They just yeah, they were 10 and one when they just got over 20 points. So like is it realistic to say they will average six more points of game next year? That's not that's what maybe I would but Daniel with their tackles with their cap space. I think that's very realistic. Albert Brear drew Breeze last hour on a Wednesday. It's the herd. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.