Will Steelers & Aaron Rodgers contend? + Colin Cowherd’s backwards hat RANT | THE HERD NFL

Will Steelers & Aaron Rodgers contend? + Colin Cowherd’s backwards hat RANT | THE HERD NFL

So, um, here I got to I I’m just going to, you know, all I do is journalism here. Just journalism. I’m just reading a story from a very respected reporter at the Athletic on the Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rogers camp. It’s getting a lot of hype. Latroe, PA, another day, another dominant performance from the defense. Seven shots in the last practice. Six to one defense. Aaron Rogers 0 for three. Steelers ended practice. Another goal line drill didn’t go any better for the offense. And so he listed the reporter the four problems with the offense. Stop me if you’ve heard these before from the New York Jets. Number one, they can’t run the football. Jets were 31st last year. Couldn’t run the football. Apparently the Steelers in practice can’t run the football. Number two, their vertical passing game in Pittsburgh’s not in sync. So Aaron is dumping stuff off for short quick passes. That was the Jets last year. Um wide receiver two not dependable. Oh, sort of like Allen Lazard not living up to his contract in New York. Number four is the young offensive tackles are t taking their lumps. The O line is unsteady. All the Steelers are for Aaron Rodgers is a more organized Jets defensive coach, defensive culture. Um Aaron doesn’t trust the O line. A lot of stuff is quick. You’ve got a number one receiver, but can’t really depend on a two despite draft capital and spending money on it. The Jets did, too. Remember, they drafted the old lineman from Penn State. They spent money on a right tackle. and yet their O line finished 17th. The Steelers keep drafting offensive linemen and spending money on it. It’s not any good. So this this idea that they’re all in in Pittsburgh. Go read this story by Mike DeFabbo on the Steelers. It’s just the Jet. It’s like McDonald’s and Burger King. McDonald’s is just more buttoned up than Burger King. It’s still fast food. Okay, you’re not going to convince me it’s anything more. It’s good fast food. But my point is, we’re dressing this up. Aaron, like a lot of older quarterbacks, if he doesn’t have a run game and he doesn’t have a number two receiver and he doesn’t trust the O line, he not taking hits, he not taking one for the team. Aaron’s getting rid of that puppy. Matt Stafford’s the only old guy at quarterback in this league that will stand in the pocket and get drilled over and over. And that’s why Matt in his late 30s is kind of falling apart. So th this story is, you know, it’s this it’s the Jets number two receiver doesn’t trust the O line. Can’t run it. Defensive coach, defensive culture. Aaron’s getting ready rid of the ball quickly in practice. Defense dominates offense. Here’s Mike DeFabo. People are getting impatient. um they want success and they haven’t had it, you know, and I just look at the fact that there have been in the history of the NFL in the Super Bowl era, quarterbacks over 40 have won a combined 12 games in the playoffs. Tom Brady has 10. Every other quarterback has two combined. And here the Steelers are throwing their face behind a soon to be 42y old Aaron Rogers to try to snap that skid. And this is why I said I thought Aaron would retire and not go to Pittsburgh. O line issues, defensive culture, lost Naji Harris and their left tackle. Th this story reads like it’s the Jets, just a more organized version. And if you look at the Steelers schedule starting October 16th on, it’s a lot of Lamar Jackson’s and Joe Burroughs and Justin Herbert and Josh Allens and that Detroit offense. That’s schedule. They got some time early to make hay. But when you have a lot of new people and Aaron’s not going to play in the preseason, it’s reasonable to think the Steelers won’t be great in September. Well, they better be cuz October 16th on, they’re facing Burrow and Lamar and Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, they’re facing a lot of good offenses. So, it I I tend to think the noisier you are in the off season, it can be detrimental in the regular season. Um, so much of the NFL is kind of covert. We’re on the same page. Uh, on to Cincinnati and it’s very, very effective. Now, I has Kansas City had some off the- field nonsense they’ve had to deal with. Yes. And it’s such a well-run organization, they can overcome it. But Miami, the Dolphins are not a well-run organization. And Tyreek Hill and Mike McDaniel, it’s just interesting to me who the media coveretss favor to. Like there are times that that the media just decides we like that guy and we’re we’re going to defend that guy. And I’ve argued that Mike McDaniel in Miami looks like a sports writer. He’s kind of snarky and quirky and kind and like they they just decided we like that guy and Nick Serriani is kind of obnoxious. He had a bad opening press conference and I admit I was like this guy looks like he’s over his skis but I’ve come full circle on Siri. It works. Players like him. Matt Hasselbach yells at me. He’s good. McDaniel’s been a funny guy because Miami is is noisy. The Tyreek Hill situation is anybody like Do you think Bellich would put up with that? Belich would have moved off that guy. I mean, Andy Reid did move off that guy. And yet Mike McDaniel, and this was always my thing. Is he a culture builder? Yeah, he’s smart. A lot of smart people aren’t great football coaches. So, I feel the Tyreek Hill situation couple days ago, it’s like, hey, you got to show up. You got to show up every day. Be on time. And then he wasn’t on time. And he’s never really punished. And I just think the best coaches in this league set a certain standard and but nobody calls Mike McDaniel out. It’s it’s it’s it’s that he’s got this incredible football acumen. Here’s the thing. The two years before he got there and the media did not like Brian Flores cuz Brian Flores is disagreeable disagreeable. He’s rough. He’s lousy at a press conference. He’s an unbelievable coach. I think he’s the best defensive coordinator in the league. Brian Flores of Minnesota. In fact, I was reading the other day The Athletic ranked all the coaching staffs in the NFL. They put Minnesota number one. I don’t disagree. I think San Francisco is up there. The Rams are up there. But it’s like I didn’t disagree with that. Like I Flores is unbelievable, but he’s not somebody that’s going to curry favor with the people who cover him. He’s rough on people. He’s rough on players. McDaniel, I think Flores is a better coach than Mike McDaniel. Okay. Eight games into his Miami stay, Brian Flores had established elite special teams and elite defense. I I’m what am I? Three, four years into Mike McDaniel. What are they? I looked it up this morning. The two years before he got there, Miami was 10-6 and 9 and 8. The last three years with Mike McDaniel are 28-23. They have a lower win percentage. I don’t get it. But he’s gotten such favorable press. There have been 14 different head coaches that have made the playoffs since he arrived in Miami. He’s not one of them. And so I always feel this with Miami. So much of it is is image instead of actual structure. What are the Dolphins? Do you like their line play? No, they got rid of Wilkins and I don’t like their offensive line. Do you like their drafting? It’s very hit and miss. They’ve overpaid for wide receivers. And I’ve been saying this for years. They’re the speedboat of the NFL. They’re the convertible of the NFL. Speedboats and convertibles are not built to be driving around even in Miami in January. And that’s when it matters in the NFL. If you start looking at the AFC in my lifetime, it’s been controlled mostly by the Pittsburgh Steelers in bad weather. Or Baltimore, New England, Kansas City. Now Buffalo’s great again. Baltimore is great again. Can you play outside inclement weather? So Miami is flash and fun and it it it you know it looks like Gucci, but closer inspection, it’s sus. And that’s what I think Miami is. I would move off Tyreek. I I think if they struggle this year, and I think they will. What do you do with Mike McDaniel? I just I’ve been sold on how smart and revolutionary this offense is. They’re 28 and 23. And that should be the last couple years. Two automatics over the awful Patriots and two automatics over the awful Jets. I mean, say what you want about Mike Tomlin. When he had Big Ben in his prime, he was 2-0 against the Bengals and two against the Browns. He may split with the Ravens, but he was beating the teams he should beat. So, Miami is not even beating the teams they should beat. So, I I I here’s Tyreek Hill on on missing some uh a stretching session with the team. I think whenever I’m I’m uh whenever guys, you know, are able to see me come out here and scretch with them, um you know, it just keeps the engine rolling, you know what I’m saying? With the whole team. So, it is important. The one day I did miss though, I was just dropping the kids off to the pool. So, I mean, besides that, I’m out here every day, dog. All right, that’s fine. But but I guess my point being is the media often decides we like this candidate politically. Well, why? Oh, we we like this candidate. We like this coach. We like why. And people people have made decisions. I was supposed to not like um you know, Brian Flores. Like I I was supposed to not like that guy. I know he’s rough. That dude can coach. That guy can coach. Remember that when he got to Miami, they were using Ryan Fitzpatrick and beating people. They they were they got blown out by 50 by the Ravens early. They were bad. And then like week eight, nine, you’re like, whoa. They may have had the best special teams in the league. The defense was unbelievable. I got three years now with Mike McDaniel. I don’t know what Miami is. They run a lot of sets. They got a lot of motion. And and don’t tell me, well, the quarterback Tua is upper half. He’s 15 or up. He’s somewhere in there. He may be 15th, but he’s 15th or up. He’s a very effective, accurate quarterback. He’s an adult. He shows up. He’s a good teammate. He’s a good kid. Last year, he was healthier. So, you can’t blame the quarterback. It’s like Cincinnati’s owner saying, “We do everything right here. You can’t have Joe Burrow and not make the playoffs.” Well, if you if you if you’re in a division the last three years with rebuilding Jets and rebuilding Patriots and you’re five games above 500, what are you? I don’t know the answer. I’d even take a bad answer. What are they? I’d move off Tyreek Hill. Once again, he’s late. There’s no punishment. Blah blah blah. Another reason not to love the Cowboys this year. I just got a picture. Look at this chick of Brian Shottnimer, the coach. You know, I don’t like backward hats. What’s worse is a backward visor. That’s a two- win team. I’m taking away four wins. That’s awful. That’s so bad. If you see a guy wearing a backwards visor, you think one word, it’s inappropriate for TV. But like, could you hang with like if I rolled up to play golf with you and I had a backwards visor on, would you just pretend like you don’t know me, Colin? I would just say, and I know everybody gets mad at this, I only really care like for instance, Bank of America is behind him. It’s a big sponsor. And so I I do think if you’re the head coach or the quarterback of an organization and you do press conferences, you’re not only representing yourself, that’s very selfish and narcissistic. You are representing the Dallas Cowboys and you’re representing Bank of America. That’s probably a huge team sponsor. they probably paid 8 million bucks or something like that, 7 million bucks to the Cowboys or, you know, some, you know, big money deal. So, I tend to think here’s what men do very poorly. Um, men often don’t think of others in social situations. It’s how do I look and how I think women tend to be um a little more self-aware, a little less narcissism. So when you sit in front of a podium, you’re representing the Cowboys. You’re representing Bank of America. You’re representing a 12 billion dollar corporation. I think you got to do better as a head coach than a visor backwards. He He looks my take. He looks like a dad trying way too hard at like the neighborhood cookout to impress like his teenage son’s friends. Yo, what’s up, fellas? You know, he’s got the backward hat. And and by the way, I don’t mind players do like a practice is over and listen I in the summer where I go um where’s that in Rhode Island there’s a lot of people with their hats on backwards. But you don’t do it at the really nice restaurant in town because it just it’s just like it’s like it it’s a really classy restaurant. So you just wouldn’t do it there. The the the like there there an area in this hotel I go to occasionally that has a membership area. you have to wear a jacket or you’re not allowed in. Like there are there are dress codes. There isn’t a dress code in the NFL. But I do think when you are in front of the team logo and the big bank sponsor, which everybody has on Wednesday and you’re a quarterback, I I don’t really care about any other position. I really don’t. But there is something there are certain to to say that it never matters. If you’re walking the red carpet, you’re a director of a a you’re you’re the lead actor in a Disney film with Stephen Spielberg. Well, you’re representing Stephen Spielberg and Disney, not just you. You wanna You want to look the part. You You want to You know, you’re you’re representing a staff, a corporation, a a legendary director. That stuff. I don’t want to look like a guy that’s here to move my couch. Like, I want you to do better than that. Let me ask you, Sal, and I’ll never forget this. You know, we got married way back in the day, and this dude who came with a girl who was friends with my wife. He wore a short sleeve white shirt, no tie. I was I raped when I saw this guy. I’m like, “Look, you’re at a wedding. You don’t even know me or And you showed up without a tie and a and a white shirt that was short sleeves.” And I to this day haven’t forgotten this clown. And I’m just curious like it it’s similar to this. Like you’re in front of the Bank of America sign representing the Cowboys and you’re wearing a backwards visor. It just screams like what are you doing? Listen, again, I know I’m in the minority, but I’m also I also know based on what people talk about in the summer that I don’t care about a lot of things people care about. Like I don’t care. I’ve never bought People magazine. A lot of Americans care about that stuff. I don’t I don’t watch certain movies. I don’t watch certain things. So, I’m not saying I’m aligned with the country. I’m just saying in my opinion is I I’ll give you an example. When I go out and people take a picture with me because I work at Fox, I put the drink down. It doesn’t hurt me at all. I know people, but if I’m if I’m doing a picture, I’ve always put the drink down or I put it out of the picture because I’m representing the Murdoch family and I don’t need to. I wouldn’t be fined. I wouldn’t get in trouble. Nobody would. But that’s just my default. And I think a lot of it’s my I can hear my dad talking about certain things like you know like like I remember when I was going to college or I’m going to dress up or I meet somebody and my dad would you know wear a collared shirt. And so again this is how I I guess I was raised but there’s a reason that country clubs and private clubs you have to wear collared shirts and jackets. There’s a reason for that. Like there’s a standard. So I and I don’t think it matters. I mean, if you got if you want to clean your garage or you’re out with buddies at a public golf course and not or you’re in a you’re at a sports bar, I’m not talking about that. I just I do think head coaches feel different than, you know, quarterbacks and head coaches feel. That’s just my opinion. So So you’re saying if somebody comes up to me to take a photo and I’m double fisting alcoholic beverages, maybe put those down. It’s not It’s not a good I’m not saying you have to. I and and I’m sure there’s probably a picture where I’m not, but I I just always if I’m out at a place and somebody wants a selfie, which happens four times a day. It happened 10 times yesterday cuz I was at a place that was public. That’s fine. But I’m going to make sure I’m not holding a big can of sch slits just, you know, it’s just it’s and it’s not an elitist thing. It’s a I’m representing more than myself. Boy, boy what? Just a flex and a half there. People want to take my photo. I’m going to clubs or you have to wear a jacket. No way. It’s not It’s not a flex. It’s the bottom line. You could be a politician. You could be a local news anchor. Everybody wants a selfie these days. That’s just the reality of the country we live in. It just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t That’s just the way the world we live in. I mean, people are taking pictures of their food all day. Yes. Occasionally, public figures have people wanting I mean, seriously, if you go to a restaurant, anybody under 30 is taking pictures of their food. I don’t get it. But yeah, whatever. I do that sometimes. Yeah. Okay. Well, I Yeah. All right. Um, so earlier today, Matt Hasselbeck showed up and, uh, you know, the Micah Parson situation. One of the things I’ve always felt Diana Rousini touched on this, if you’re a Dallas Cowboy like Dak Prescott, if you take out Patrick Mahomes in the entire league right now, I bet you not just on salary, but on endorsements, I would guess Dak Prescott has made more money than everybody but Patrick Mahomes in this league, including Joe Burrow, including Josh Allen. And why do I believe that? Because if you’re the Dallas Cowboys, if you’re a quarterback or a star player for the Dallas Cowboys, you’re just discuss more. You’re going to get podcast offers, production company offers, you’re going to get commercials. So, I I I I do think about that. I I always said this with Dwayne Wade. You got Pat Riley, Spolstra, Mickey Harrison, no state tax, Aqua Water in a Winter League. Like, there are benefits to playing for the Miami Heat. If you have to play, if you have to play on the Eastern Seaboard, you can do a lot worse than the Miami Heat. Great organization, great fans, unbelievable support. And my take on the hold out is, you know, you’ve been fairly compensated. You’re you’re going to get paid. I wouldn’t make it pissy. I wouldn’t make it public. I just wouldn’t do that. I I Terry McLaren, it’s a totally different situation. I totally have his back. Here’s Hasselbeck earlier on the Michael Michael Parson situation. Jerry Jones seems to like be fine with this kind of conflict, fine with this kind of drama, but he also doesn’t seem like the kind of owner that wants to get like pushed around publicly. So, you know, there’s a part of me that says, “Hey, this is Micah Parsons. Figure it out. Close the door. Include the include the agent.” Uh, then there’s another part of me that says, “Hey, why don’t you just punt on this year anyway? go out and get like the most amazing um draft package for next year and really start focusing this team on next year because I really don’t know that you can compete with Philly and that you can compete really with Washington and then the rest of the NFC. Yeah, it’s a for the record uh the only quarterback that made more money off the field last year than Dak was Patrick Mahomes. So that that’s why I always say with Dak, I’m not telling guys to take pay cuts, but it’s like, dude, you’ve made like 300 million bucks off the field or some astronomical number. You need more good players around you. Now maybe Dak could argue, well, I don’t I don’t trust what the Cowboys would do with the money. But I mean, Breeze, Brady, Momes have taken team friendly deals and they got a lot of rings. I’m just looking for Dak to win back-to-back playoff games. So I don’t know. I I do think there are advantages playing with the Dallas Cowboys that you don’t get other places. And by the way, Texas has no state tax. Dallas a beautiful place to live for a young single athlete, young married athletes. You know, Dallas a wonderful place to live. Um it’s just there are advantages and and and I’m not going to mess with the guy’s money, but I I don’t like the way Micah is handling his business. I I don’t love it. Terry McLaren is a totally different situation. He’s wildly outperformed his contract. He has been the shining light until last year of a messy franchise. He’s been a quality human being, a great adult, a great leader, a great player, an unbelievable playoff performer. Terry McLaren, I would pay today. I’d overpay Terry McLaren. And he’s on the offensive side of the ball. That matters a lot to me, too. Not all holdouts are the same. Yes, Ryan, I’ll give you a selfie later. Yeah, even my my own staff. This is the reality of it. We’ll see you tomorrow. It’s the

Colin Cowherd discusses the latest in the NFL preseason and camp rumors. He starts with whether the Pittsburgh Steelers will be Super Bowl contenders with Aaron Rodgers as quarterback. Next he moves to why the Miami Dolphins should move off Tyreek Hill. Finally Colin Cowherds drops his latest anti-backwards-hat rant.

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