This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Thanks for listening to the Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at foxsportradi.com or stream us live every day on the I Heart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. You guys can laugh at me all you want. This is the herd. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The herd. With Colin Cowherd. I'm setting the tone. This is the one radio. This is the herd. Broadcasting live from Los Angeles. The herd with Colin Cowherd starts now. Here we go on a Monday. Don't tell me it was boring. It's the greatest football game I've ever seen to the very last snap. I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a dream last night. Sam Darnold making a speech in Canton, Ohio. It was so lifelike, so much more lifelike than it was 24 hours earlier. Welcome in. We're in Los Angeles. It's the herd wherever you may be. However you may be listening. Thank you for making us part of your day. Yeah, I'm feeling good today. It's a good one for me. I get one occasionally. The scary part about Seattle is sixth most cap space in the league next year. Their coach is 38, moving into his coaching prime. Sam Darnold, two more years of a team friendly deal, and they may have seven or eight players who are ascending. Young guys only getting better. And go ahead, say it wasn't about Sam Darnold. Go ahead and say that, but it was in the post season against the superior NFC and eventually Vrabel's defense. No turnovers for Sam. Smart enough, mature enough, and coachable enough to know what was needed. And against New England, he knew what was needed. A couple of big throws make the right decision. Since 1990, four quarterbacks have won a Super Bowl with no turnovers. Maybe you've heard of them. Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Drew Brees, and Sam Darnold. They all had great coaches and they all had stacked rosters. They knew what the assignment was. That's all this playoff run was about for Sam Darnold. Against the Rams, he needed to be a game changer. Darnold had to make big throws because Matt Stafford, three different times, ate the Seahawks secondary. Aik and Darnold needed big throws. He was a game changer when the game called for it. But with Kenneth Walker running, finding space regularly, Sam only had to make a couple of big ones. Here's one of them on the screen. He had to be a manager. He had to be understanding of what was needed. I'll give you an example. Tom Brady's first Super Bowl win and Tom Brady's last Super Bowl win. I'm not sure if you know this. He threw for you or yards. Then Darnold did last night. That's what makes Tom great. All quarterbacks. I'd like to repeat this slowly. All quarterbacks are game managers. But it's part of the maturity that Sam lacked when he was 20 and 21 and 22 in New York. He developed it. He's a good listener. Gratitude and humility. Great parenting probably adds a lot. 22-year-old Sam screws that game up last night because the New England Patriots were jumping routes. Mike Vrable knew looking at the film, he had the second best roster. And Mike Vrable knew the way to beat Seattle was make it fast and frenetic and make the old Sam Darnold appear. He didn't. In fact, he didn't in the entire playoff run. I'll like to repeat, against the superior NFC in New England, Seattle, the Seahawks are the first team ever to win a Super Bowl with no turnovers against the Rams defense, the Patriots defense. See the Patriots defense against a C.J. Stroud, what they did to him. You see what they did to New England's O-line? Or excuse me, the Chargers O-line and Justin Herbert. That New England defense is rough, really well coached. And yes, the Seahawks roster, like the Eagles, who won the Super Bowl last year is stacked. That's usually the way it works. Go ahead, say it's not Sam, but no turnovers? Playing the Rams, playing Robert Salas, playing Mike Vrable's. I mean, Drake May is really talented. Look at his postseason. What do you have, seven fumbles? Donald didn't have a turnover. IQ, maturity, listening, 186 offensive snaps against the Rams. He had to be a game changer. Against the Patriots and everybody in Seattle's locker room knew it. The assignment was different. Stay ahead of the change as much as you possibly can and don't make the big mistake. Here's Mike McDonald, a great young coach, the defensive version of Sean McVeigh on defending Donald. It's become a regular habit in the Pacific Northwest. Sam doesn't care about the obstacle. Like everyone's made a narrative of this guy. Of like everyone is, they have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person, who he is a quarterback. He does not care. Always done since he's walked in the doors. He's just been a tremendous player on our football team and a tremendous leader who is the same guy every day. And that's who he is. And that's how we need to talk about him moving forward. Let's talk Drake May in New England. I preached last week. Stafford should be the MVP over Drake May. And I said the reason is every time Stafford walks to the line, every time Matt Stafford walks to the line, he understands the why. Drake May is still trying to figure out, as I said last week, the what. What am I seeing? What is this? He didn't have the answers against Seattle. Stafford against Seattle tore him apart three times. Drake May overwhelmed. Chris Collinsworth appropriately said at halftime, May is not ready for this moment. Mike Vrable at halftime seemed resigned to the fact his young quarterback was over his skis. He was nervous and he was racking. And he was rattled. And that's why I said, stop vomiting statistics and spewing analytics. Quarterback is about the why. Can you walk to the line like a Brady and a Manning and a Mahomes and a Stafford and you have the answers to the test? I mean, I'm watching Stafford against this Seahawks defense and he looks like Lewis Hamilton. Drake May yesterday looked like a student driver. He was completely overwhelmed. And New England's good. They're going to get better. It was almost understandable. But Stafford and May are just different quarterbacks and different human beings. Let's be honest, if bow nicks was healthy, New England's probably not here. So yes, Seattle had more talent. We did our top 10 rankings of the players last week. The top four players were all Seattle, including Darnold. But this was more than just, well, I mean, Stafford's got puka Nakua. New England's tight ends and receivers are way above average. And yes, Will Campbell is not ready for this moment. He's probably going to get moved inside. He was the best tackle in a weak draft class. He's probably a really good guard. And the future is great for May. The coaching around him is outstanding. But at one point in the third quarter, Drake May, eight drives, eight punts, seven completions. That's not about puka Nakua. That's about not being able to see the why and struggling with the what. This postseason, any face good defenses, Drake May completed 58% of his throws. Was sacked 21 times, passer rating of 82. Matt Stafford tore the Seahawks up three times. Seattle's a very good defense. It is a defense you can have success against. But not yesterday, not this kid, not in this moment. Here's Drake May after. This hurt. No, no doubt. It definitely hurts. It's been a long ride. They played better than us tonight. They deserve it with that game. And speaking for the whole team and myself, it's just what a journey it's been for us. I love this team. Love those guys in that locker room. And we'll leave it all in the field. And I know a lot of guys do that tonight. And just came up short, didn't play our best. And that's what happens. Listen, Drake May reportedly had a shot before the game. So he was not 100%. And again, Will Campbell left tackle. He got overwhelmed. And we all knew you knew it. I mean, there's a reason overwhelmingly the bets were all on Seattle's side. Tip of the cap to Jay Mac, who had said during the week multiple times, he didn't know if New England could score. And if you look at the box score, crinkled it up and throw it away. It's garbage times numbers for New England. They were not competitive. At one point, it's what, 19-0 to 19-7. Drake made some garbage time stats. But a lot of these sacks and a lot of these fumbles, that's what happens when you're young. You don't know where they're coming from. You're not prepared for them. So it was beyond that. He was rattled. He was nervous. He wasn't 100%. New England's going to be fine. I mean, Josh Allen's in their division. Jets are still a circus. My guess is they're going to be a wild card or a division winning team for the next 10 years. They're going to be back here. Didn't we say all week long, we kept saying, didn't it feel weird that New England still feels like they were a draft away? Well, in the AFC, Mahomes didn't make it. Burrow didn't make it. We didn't really know. Right? Like you're like, they feel like they're a draft away. When you saw him against Seattle, it was official. They're a draft away. So J-Mac, congratulations. You had Seattle on a route. And I had Kenneth Walker MVP on Friday. Remember Kenneth Walker? Oh, you did. A pretty damn good game. Yeah. Headlines was very good. I don't know. You seem bullish on the Patriots being fine. This postseason Drake may have was so bad. I just wonder if they got bigger issues. I mean, remember Burrow is going to come back. Mahomes is going to come back. Lamar is going to come back. Chargers are going to be really good. Lamar is going to come back. Jaguar is probably not going anywhere. AFC is loaded. I saw some troubling signs from Drake May throughout all this postseason. Yeah. How many fumbles did he have? Seven? Interceptions galore? 58% completions? That's fair. I can't end by, for the record, we know he's getting great coaching. Because when you play a terrible schedule, it's tough to judge. You know, they're playing six rookie quarterbacks. They go six and oh. Yeah. New England faced 11 teams that fired their coach. So when you play real teams in the playoffs, Drake, they look like a mediocre quarterback. Be a good college basketball. Watch you pick up the tab is what I was talking about. Colin right, Colin wrong. 50 minutes away. Be sure to catch live editions of The Heard weekdays in New Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I Heart Radio app. Stugats here. I have a podcast empire. It continues to grow and I have brought it here to I Heart. I'm also doing a live radio show from three to five p.m. Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me out of the house. It's called Stugats and 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. Your show is 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 Stugats and Company and Stugats and Company Live. So listen to Stugats and Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate and review. Stugats and 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 or wherever you get your podcast. You know, my big takeaway yesterday is the NFC West, Seattle, Los Angeles and the Niners are playing a different level of football than everybody else. They're like the SEC, Bammon, Georgia six or seven years ago. And then there's other good teams. That's what they look like. Houston's good. New England's good. Denver's good. There's Seattle, the Rams in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan and I appreciated him. He basically said, NBC did a really nice job. Turico, Collinsworth. I did, you know, the game for a lot of people. I thought it was the best game in the history of football. A lot of people thought it was boring. I thought they did a great job and Shanahan in the pregame show kind of told you Seattle only needs part of their team to win. There's not much secrets to being in a talented, very sound team. I mean, I think there's two Super Bowl defenses this year and it was Seattle and it's Houston. And when I say that, it means they're capable of winning totally on their own. If the other side of the ball, special teams and offense don't mess it up. And when you attack these guys, all right, if you want to do it and unlock them, you better be able to run the ball. If you can't run the ball, they're going to keep their two safeties very deep. They're going to give up no explosives. I've looked for two years and he knows. There's one team in the NFL and they did it twice this year. There's really shut Kyle Shanahan's offense down in all the years he's been in San Francisco, Seattle, and they did it twice against the 49ers and Kyle Shanahan knew that defense. And boy, did he call it. I'll say this. Seattle and the Rams were a combined 11-0 against the AFC. Yeah. With an average double digit margin. I mean, so I, you know, I don't know what to tell you. They're playing a different game. The story of the AFC playoffs was about who didn't get in. Burrow, Lamar Jackson Mahomes, the story of the NFC playoffs. Man, these rosters are loaded. Man, the coaching is unbelievable. Man, the coaching is unbelievable. So the AFC has more star quarterbacks, but the NFC has got the better rosters. Chicago, Green Bay, Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles. I mean, Seattle doesn't have a hole. Even their special teams are stacked. So, and then that's why I say with Sam Darnold, you know, Tom Brady's first and last super balls, he had fewer yards passing than Darnold did yesterday and Shanahan talked about that. Yeah, Sam's a stud and you know, us having for a year, I think we get a little too much credit for what we did. We didn't do anything for him. We just gave him a platform to where we could take the pressure off him for a year. And I think him watching that, Sam's always let it rip. But when you let it rip all the time and you're always trying to win the game, a lot of times you keep both teams in the game. And I think that's really what's changed with him. He picks and chooses better. He's got a really good team. When you have a really good team, you don't always have to try to win it. When you have a really good team, Akeman, Breeze, Steve Young, Sam Darnold, winning a super bowl with no turnovers. When you got a great coach and you got a great team, the assignment changes. Okay. Before the game, they were talking. Drake may needs to play great to win. Darnold needed to not make the big mistake to win. I just thought Shanahan was so good on the pregame. He told you at one point he said, listen, if Seattle doesn't turn it over, this could be a route. You don't get analysts saying that before games very often to just put it out there. This could get ugly. Jay Mac with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News. All right. You talk dominant, Colin. Kenneth Walker was dominant last night. An unbelievable effort, 135 yards on the ground. How would you like to be a cornerback trying to tackle them? Dude, he's so thick and strong. Like that guy is tough. Look at him just bolt down the sideline monster game, first running back in the Super Bowl since Terrell Davis to be named game MVP. Interestingly, Kenneth Walker said to be a free agent after the season. I saw a stat, Colin, last 650-ish carries for him, zero fumbles. Well, he's not a blocker. No. And he's a very mediocre pass receiver. So he is not that he's a one trick pony because his running style is a variation of many things. But because Seattle is drafted so well and they don't pay any of their other running backs, I imagine they'll keep it. I think I don't know if it's a great running back draft, but he's Seattle's an offense that eventually will have a series of running backs because he's not great on a third and long. He's not the back you want on the field usually. Agreed. But coming off a Super Bowl MVP, does he say, you know, I want to test the market, running backs, we don't have a long shelf life. I'm 25-ish. I want to get as big a contract and, you know, the some Arizona Cardinals, whoever offers him big money and he jumps at that. Could that happen? Well, I remember years ago, Larry Brown played, I think, for the Cowboys. He had a big Super Bowl and he was kind of a, if I recall, he wasn't a great lockdown guy. He was kind of a tweener, but he had a big Super Bowl. And I think the Raiders or somebody came in and paid him a fortune. You see this all the time where NBA teams overdraft somebody because they had a good March Madness tournament. So I think Walker's a really good player. He's been dinged up somewhat in his career. He got healthy here. And again, not, not a guy I want blocking for Donald. And I think Seattle does need to address the offensive line even more on the interior part of it. But if he Tesla waters and leaves running backs are, well, you need to now, and they had Sharpen and Walker all season, which was a good combo. They have Hulani Hulani. Yeah. Um, it's an interesting one, but three, I would, if I'm out there and I'm a, you know, a contender, I'm at least throwing some kind of off or sheet Walker's way just to see what he says. If I had a young quarterback and I, because I think this is a real thing. If you have a young quarterback, you can spend that extra money on a third corner or a running back that gives your quarterback some time to breathe. So look around. Yeah, I could see like Sean Peyton going, okay, I got Harvey and Walker is a one, two punch. Harvey's a better receiver. Walker's the better power runner with Bo Nix. I could see Denver going after him. And then you could get Walker over in the AFC. And we'll see what the draft is like for running backs. Maybe Seattle says, Hey, we're not paying him $12 million a year, whatever the numbers. Seattle also has three guys in the secondary who are free agents. So we'll see. It should be an interesting off season, but congrats to Kenneth Walker who had the game of his career on 27 carries. All right, let's move on to George Pickens. We talked about this Friday. He's going to be a free agent and the Cowboys, it sounds like a franchise tag is coming. According to multiple reporters, it sounds like they're going to be franchise tagging him. Jerry Jones spoke about keeping Pickens at Dallas during NFL honors last week. I'm talking to George all the time about virtue of my excitement for him. And he's better than as far as what he contributed to our team, showing him the potential that he could contribute. And so I'm looking forward to getting things worked out. Ask yourself this. When you watch New England, because we can beat up on New England all day, but New England's defense is good. They don't have the depth up front of Seattle, but they got good frontline players. Axe Christian Gonzalez is unbelievable. When you watch New England's defense and Seattle's defense, how many Cowboys outside of Quinn and Williams could play forget start, could play for those two defenses? I'm not talking starting overshown. Maybe I think overshown would absolutely play. I think Quinn and Williams would play. Just think about your guy Kenny Clark. Again, he would be wrote. He's not as good as Leonard Williams. So I mean, that just watch those two defense because we can, we can bury them all we want in the first half. I mean, New England's defense was on the field because it was punk, punk, punk, three and out, three and out, three and out. You just wore down that New England. If New England would have had one 12th play drive in the first half and their defense got a break, their defense would have remained. If you notice in the second half, New England's defense, did you notice this? The tackling wasn't very good. They were just a beat slower. Why? Because they were on the field. Yeah. I need to ask you about Pickens. Like let's say the Cowboys are like, we're going to let you go. What's the market like for this guy? Just remember how he ended a lot of pouting and how it ended in Pittsburgh. Are you wanting to get in bed with a guy like Pickens? I think Pickens is a very productive player. I think Dallas gave away like a third round pick and maybe a fifth, so they don't want to give them away for nothing. So they've convinced themselves, they convinced themselves when they made the deal, he was going to be a cowboy for a while. Okay. And I do think if you're going to pay players, pay on the offensive side, keep your defense young and hungry. Wait a minute. We just see two Super Bowl teams now. Eagles defense, Seahawks defense dominate. So I almost wonder, are we seeing a new changing of the guard here in the NFL? Now you, hey, don't come to the playoffs unless you got a defense. Well, yeah, I mean, highest paid wide receivers, we're putting a list up for our TV audience. Find me the playoff wins. There you go. We just watched two great defensive lines. We just watched two great secondaries play. I didn't see a lot. I mean, JSN was shut down. Four catches on like 10 targets. And they still dominated. And that in JSN and Stefan Diggs didn't do anything. So how valuable in the playoffs is the star receiver? It's about line play. And that Pickens tag, they're estimating it to be 28.8 million, which would slot him about 11th with T Higgins. And I don't think Pickens is going to be happy with that, given that he performed like at a top five level for much of the season. All right. Final story. Let's go to the Eagles because A.J. Brown went on the Micah Parsons podcast and was talking about the change from Eagles OC Kevin Petulo to the new guy, Sean Mannion. Here's A.J. Brown on Change in Philly. I'm always excited. You know, sometimes change is not a bad thing. I have the utmost respect for KP. To me, he did a tremendous job and he has a great heart. And but I'm excited for the season. I'm excited for West to come. Hmm. He has a great heart. Boy, offensive coordinator. He's got a great heart. What is that telling you? That's not a resounding vote of confidence on the guy that they got fired. Listen, some jobs look like they're great jobs. They always joke that being an NBA head coach is the worst great job in sports. You have no real power. You know, if the player turns on you, you're done. But you do make a bunch of money and you are in sports. I think Philadelphia coordinator can be difficult because there's a ton of pressure and you get about you get till Thanksgiving to prove your worth. Yeah, this will be an interesting one. This A.J. Brown saga. We just saw Super Bowl week, right? So the receiver on Seattle Bobo broke his hand in the NFC championship game. We heard nothing about that until the day of the Super Bowl. And then we had Drake May getting shot up. I'm just saying the reporters are good, obviously. Colin, there's a lot of stuff we don't know. And I would suspect that A.J. Brown's name is going to be on the training block all summer. And I think he's probably going to get shipped. I don't see him lasting until the end. I thought they should have got rid of him two years ago. I don't know what the market's like. Hey, good player. But listen, do you want that in your locker room? He's going after the quarterback after season. Not great. Jay Mackle, the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurt Line News. Just a reminder. And I don't want to be too obnoxious today. But in the 2018 draft when Donald and Baker came out, I said I preferred Donald over Baker. He was bigger. He's got, he's more athletic. And I liked his maturity. Sam's Donald, Sam Donald's personality, in my opinion, is about belief in himself. Baker Mayfield's personality, and he wears it on his sleeve, is driven by perceived slights. And that is powerful. Playing angry, playing pest, chipping the shoulder. That's Baker. Perceived slights. Donald, his personality is belief in himself. It's grounded in that. Baker's the opposite. Baker is still taking shots at Stefansky a couple of weeks ago. Sam Donald's beyond that. Baker needs to prove people wrong. Whereas Donald only needs to prove himself right. And that's the difference. After winning the Super Bowl last night, Donald could have taken shots at the Jets for almost screwing up his career, or Carolina for being chaotic, or the Vikings letting him go, or the Niners not letting him go into a camp and compete with Brock Purdy. He could have taken a shot at Cleveland for choosing Baker over him. And Sam Donald instead goes on stage and says this. I told my dad I was, you know, and my mom, but you know, just I was, I was, I'm here because of their belief in me. Some people called me called me crazy throughout my career for believing in myself so much and having so much confidence. But you know, it was because of my parents, because of the way that they believe in me throughout my entire career. And it allowed me to go out there and play free and have a ton of confidence. Humble in victory, gracious in defeat. This was precisely why I like Donald over Baker. Baker is trying to prove people wrong, perceive slights, and that does work, and it is powerful. But in the end, it's about proving yourself right and believing in yourself. There is a joy and a humility to the way Sam Donald plays. I still like Baker. I think it's highly entertaining, all the chips on the shoulders. Baker has balance in his life. He has a chip on both shoulders. And that is the kind of jet fuel that has driven many great athletes. There is nothing wrong with it. Donald just different. And that's why I liked him. It wasn't just that he was bigger, just that he was a better athlete. In college, Donald was not well coached, often had to play hero ball and carry the team, and even in losses, and he had a few humble and victory, gracious in defeat. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in New Neistat 9 a.m. Pacific. Saturday, the ACC and Big Ten collide in prime time for the inaugural Nashville Hoops Showdown, as number 18 Virginia takes on Bruce Thornton and Ohio State. It all begins Saturday, 8 Eastern on Fox. OK, so Clint Kubiak and everybody in the world knew it. He's going to be named the head coach of the Raiders. Probably in an hour, he was Seattle's offensive coordinator. Do I worry? I mean, CJ Stroud, Jalen Hertz have been quarterbacks that feel a little dependent on who's their offensive coordinator. Do I worry about that with Sam Darnold losing his? No, for three reasons. Smart people in life, on average, make better choices than less smart people. Number one, Mike McDonald, the head coach, 38 years old. He's the McVeigh of defense. Last year, they won 10 games and he fired his OC. So that tells me the head coach has incredibly high standards. Standards are what killed Pete Carroll's career in Seattle and Las Vegas. He had people on the staff that weren't good enough to be on the staff. Mike McDonald fired an offensive coordinator when they were winning 10 games. So he's got really high, good is not good enough. Number two, John Snyder is the GM. Snyder doesn't miss on anything. He hires the right coaches, drafting, trades, free agency. So the two smart guys at the top, really high standards and a hit rate that's very high. Number three is Sam Darnold. It's only 28 years old and because of his futility in New York and his struggles, he's very grateful. I think he'll always take reasonably team friendly deals. When you've been crapped on in life, when you had a tough start in your life, you are so grateful to be surrounded by excellent people. Sam's not about the money. Sam is about staying on the field and surrounded by really good people. And that matters. A lot of these, you know, Darnold now, you could say, well, he's got the legacy. He's got, Darnold got, had such a bad first four years. I think he is so grateful to be surrounded by maybe the best defensive coach and football, top five coach and the best GM arguably. So I don't think he's going to go and bang on the Brinks truck. And so for those three reasons, GM and a coach that don't settle in a quarterback that is not just going to look for money, I think that guarantees. I think Seattle is going to be excellent. They have cap space. And if you, it's really amazing that people kept saying, uh, Gino Smith is good. Gino Smith never graduated to the next level of football. Jay Mack and I were talking about this during the break. And the next level of football is often not losing games. Jimmy Johnson always talks about this. You lose way more games than you win. Troy Aikman knew, I got a really good football team. I'm going to, I'm going to hit Michael Irvin twice on big plays. Alvin Harper once. That's, that's what I need to do. So Darnold's not a guy. He's not a money guy. I've met his family, ocean side kid. That's not what drives him. He doesn't need validation of another, you know, material item. That's not who he is. Here's Darnold on his role going forward with the Seattle offense. I've taken it day by day, you know, throughout my entire career. And it's gotten me to this point. My job is to take care of the football. And I knew that coming into the game. And, you know, I did that. And, you know, I took the open guy when they were there. And, you know, if I had to take sacks, if I had to throw the ball away, I was able to do it. But I just played that kind of game. And I feel like, you know, we ended up coming on, being on top because of it. By the way, he's from San Clemente, not ocean side, my bad. It's kind of south on the coast in California. You know, the other thing is, one of the things Mike Vrabel sells at New England, it's this team isn't about one guy. It's a unit. He's the guy at the end of games in the tunnel thanking everybody. And it's easy to beat up on Drake May, who I just don't think wasn't healthy, wasn't there. I didn't like, and I think Josh McDaniels is good. I didn't understand not attacking Hunter Henry. If you look at the Rams success against Seattle, the Rams have excellent tight ends, and they use them against the Seahawks very effectively. I thought the game plan was going to center around three step drops, a lot of tight ends, some bubble screens, a short passing game. Do not get Drake May, five step drops, Will Campbell left tackle, who has overwhelmed the entire AFC playoffs. I did not love the game plan. Listen, in the first quarter, neither quarterback could do much. I mean, it wasn't until the second quarter where you felt like Seattle was starting to put a few things together. So I did not love New England's offensive game plan. And again, when you can't block on the left tackle spot, it blows up a lot of stuff. But here is Mike Vrabel on the L. May we can sit here and try to put it on one guy. He'll be disappointed because that'll never happen. It starts with us as coaching staff and making sure that we're doing our part. And then obviously we have to be able to execute. We've got to be able to protect. When we do protect, we have to be able to progress through and throw the ball. The guy is open and help the quarterback, and then he's got to be better. Like that's just how it goes. So that's never going to change. Should be noted, John Elway got crushed in Super Bowls. And then he got better help. And then John Elway was winning Super Bowls. We went through a stretch, and I don't remember the exact years where Super Bowls were awful. Like they were worse than yesterday. Like Super Bowls were blowouts for years. And then we've gotten into a space until yesterday where they, we've had some really good ones. Now, last couple of years have been ugly, but it goes back and forth on this. Last year, Kansas City was beat up in this year. We kept saying about New England, and I thought it would be low scoring and close. I didn't think either team was going to get into the high 20s. I thought it had a chance to be 17, you know, 16, 24, 20 was my call Seattle. But I think all of us sort of acknowledged it. Even New England fans, if they're honest, this team still felt like a draft away. I said it all year. They were my double the win total team in the NFL. Before the season, I picked one team that doubles their win total. It was New England. I thought they'd be in the 9-10 win spot. I didn't think they were getting to the Super Bowl. And so I thought it was pretty obvious by middle of the second quarter, you start listening to the commentary. You can tell if you listen to the announcers, Mike Vrable at half, Kyle Shanahan before the game, Collins worth during the game. You know, these guys are sitting in a stadium or on the sidelines. Vrable at halftime, it was almost discouraged. Like he knew there was a reality setting in. The other thing that's interesting about yesterday, let me ask you a question. Do you believe 30 starts for a quarterback, 30, that you can make a fairly definitive judgment on a quarterback after 30 starts? That's two years. Well, if you want and say yes, that 30 starts, you can have a strong opinion. Sam Darnold's 25 and five with two teams, passer rating 98 and a half, 250 yards a game, and two touchdowns throwing for every interception. And by the way, if you take the Rams out, just the Rams, those numbers are spectacular. Those are A minus. They're A plus if you just take the Rams out. And again, Seattle and the Rams just hammered AFC teams this year. So, you know, I think you start looking at the NFL. Jalen Hertz, you guys have all for the last couple of years have been trying to tell me Brock Purdy and Jalen Hertz are top 10 quarterbacks. So is Sam Darnold now a top 10 quarterback? He's bigger than both. He's got a bigger arm than both. I would say he's as athletic as Jalen Hertz, much better in the pocket, bigger athlete, throws over the middle of the field better. So all you want in Jalen Hertz and Brock Purdy in the top 10, CJ Stroud is regressed. I mean, I love Justin Herbert. He'd never had a playoff run like this. So what do you do with Darnold? Well, the general manager, okay, we're going to have excuses. I mean, at some point you take the snap and you make stuff happen. Pre snap, post snap. So my take is what do you do with Sam Darnold now? I feel like there's four or five guys, Burrow, Mahomes, Allen. There's a handful. I mean, and then you start getting into this next group of Caleb Williams, Jordan Love, Darnold, ask yourself this. Right now, look in the NFC. Forget the AFC. Go to the NFC. Stafford and Goff are not mobile. That matters. What quarterback in the NFC tomorrow if you're building a franchise? Darnold's only 28 tomorrow in the NFC. What quarterback do you take over Sam Darnold? Nobody's taken Brock Purdy. Injuries, smaller, gets no, but not a GM in the leagues taken Brock Purdy. Not a single GM. Shanahan will tell you, Brock gets banged up. Brock is smaller. Brock's not this athletic. Brock's not this big. I mean, Brock, I mean, Brock, a playoff run with no turnovers, hoisting a trophy. Nobody's taken Jalen Hertz over Sam Darnold. Nobody. Darnold is loved in the locker room. I have a source that tells me, and this is now like public, Jalen Hertz is not. He doesn't galvanize a locker room. So ask yourself, in the NFC, who would you take? I'm not talking Burrow, Mahomes, Allen. I'm not talking that side. As J-Max said, the NFC at the top quarterback's unbelievable. It's like seven of the top eight quarterbacks, but Stafford's old. Goff doesn't move. Jordan loves inconsistent. Jalen Hertz and Purdy, not a GM in the league, has taken them over Darnold. So who's the guy? Well, we know GM's with on quarterbacks a lot. Yes. So I don't know that I'd agree with that part, but I'm sorry. I can't rock with you on this. Yes, I agree. Darnold's had a great run 25 and 5 last two seasons. He is 28, older than Jaden Daniels, who I know got hurt last year. Jaden Daniels can't stay healthy. I agree. But if we did this a year ago, he had just been in the NFC championship and people were crowning him like top seven quarterback in the league. So he did get injured. But we have new information. I think I said Caleb at an awesome season. I think Caleb Williams is... Jordan Love, for sure. Very inconsistent. I would personally go Hertz and Purdy. I know you disagree and several GMs probably agree. Every GM disagrees. It's interesting. We'll see what he does without Kubeyak next year. We'll see. How do you do it without Kevin O'Connell? He did good with Kubeyak. Justin Jefferson, Kevin O'Connell. Seattle's got a defensive coach. I don't know. I just watched yesterday's game. Yeah. JSN did nothing and they were fine. Yeah, we'll see. Oh, boy. He's just so excited. You can hear the cackle in his voice. Dude, whatever you guys dream about, I was just darnled at a podium wearing a gold jacket. He was in Canton, Ohio. It was very emotional. I don't know what he was talking about, but it was very clear. Out of tune.
