Caleb Williams to blame for Chicago Bears 0-2 start? | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd & Nick Wright

Caleb Williams to blame for Chicago Bears 0-2 start? | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd & Nick Wright

Welcome to the Herds official YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Coward podcast, all of our NFL instant reactions, and more football content. My friend Nick Wright joining us live. Um, he probably doesn’t like that Colts pick. Probably doesn’t love Colts. You mean I mean, you know, I mean, you’re right, Colin. I don’t like I don’t like when you do bad things. I have so much respect for you that Yeah, you’re right. I saw that. You know what it reminded me of and you talking about their roster and Daniel Jones herd hierarchy 2024 week three. Have you seen the Saints and Derek Carr start 2 and 0 Alvin Kamar looks like young Alvin Kamara soft division. Look out for New Orleans. I don’t know if they’ve won a game since then. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen to the Colts, but it feels very Saints have the best open uh open to a season in franchise history-ish. I do want but I and listen, the Chiefs right now don’t deserve if it’s based purely on this season, leave them out of the top 10. That’s fine. And I think it’s what you’re Yeah. Right. And I think what you’re saying is correct, which is they if this were a team’s most likely to win the Super Bowl ranking, they would be firmly in the top 10, but it’s where they are right now. So, I’m fine with that. I would like, if I may, to spend a moment on the ners. Yeah. Because for you and I, it’s really been a fun last 15 months watching the NerS. Because you, you know, folks like you and I were like, “Hey, Jimmy Garopppolo’s fine. Probably not the bus driver there.” And folks are like, “Look at his winning percentage.” And then he leaves there and he’s a career backup. And then Brock Party comes in and we’re like, “Yeah, Brock Party’s fine, but he’s not really the lead actor of the movie.” Like, he left the Super Bowl field with a lead. What do you give the man his respect? He deserves his 50 million. And then you and I are like, “Well, maybe if he didn’t have all his weapons, we wouldn’t be quite as good.” And then last year, he doesn’t and they win five games. And then this year it’s like what if you replace Brock Pury with a guy everyone agrees can’t play. How would that guy look and that guy has the best game he’s played in three years? And now those same people are staring down the barrel of am I going to have to make the argument that M. Jones actually is great or am I going to have to fold my hand? And you know what they are looking at? M. Jones rookie year Pro Bowler 10 wins. Maybe it’s just a, you know, it took a while to ripen. So, I think the NerS Shanahan deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done thus far this season. Um, I do have, can I ask you one Charger question and then I’ll give you a showback? Yeah. I am the thing I’ve liked the least about the Chiefs start to their year is how much Patrick is running. He saves that for the playoffs. He gets and now he’s get I don’t love that he feels like he has to. Man, I feel like they are putting Herbert in jeopardy early and often and I don’t love that. And late last night when the game is wrapped up, they call a quarterback designed run. Like I think he is playing the best ball of his life without question. I don’t love them spending a first round pick on a running back and Justin Herbert’s leading him in rushing. I don’t love that. No. And I think they’ve felt a receiver shy for three, four, five years. And Keenan Allen has been, but you know, Keenan’s not going to play 17 weeks. He won’t. He’ll get banged up. So I I I just said this before in last hour. I don’t know what Naji Harris and Hampton become, but it’s got to be better than this. If you want to win the AFC, it’s got to be better than this. I I would say this. I started my show saying this is years ago, a couple years ago, I offered Baker to podcast at the volume and he said, “No, but Colin and I are fremies. We’re all good. And so much of what I see with Ben Johnson and Caleb, which is two talented people that don’t fit, Baker is perfect in Tampa because Cleveland was all Hugh Jackson and Greg Williams and the bitter Cleveland media. And he goes to sleepy Tampa. And right now there is no argument. He’s a top 789 quarterback in the league. And I think Tampa is a it’s the perfect marriage, right? like it just they no pressure, the media is helpful, they’re not bitter. What do you make of what you’re watching? All right, so a few things. One is maybe take another run at Baker with the pod now that I’m part of the volume team. Unlike you guys, Baker and I aren’t fremies. We’re just actual friends. I’d even maybe be willing to do an extra pod a week if Bake Show’s doing it with me. So, we should talk about that. Um, as far as your top seven or eight over the last two years, Colin, well, a year and two weeks since the beginning of last season, he is top three or four in the NFL in everything in yards, in touchdowns, in rating, and completion percentage. right now, Colin, if you were to do an MVP list, he, Justin Herbert, and Lamar in some order or another are probably the top three. And I think Tampa has a real shot at, and listen, I picked Tampa to go to the Super Bowl in large part because I thought they could have the number one seed. I think Philly and Green Bay’s divisions are so much tougher than what Baker’s going to be dealing with. I think they could have an extraordinary season and starting the year, two games on the road, two games trailing late, two games game-winning drives, that’s pretty special. Now, to your point about Cleveland, I think Cleveland could have been perfect for him. And the fact like Cleveland, his ruggedness and trash talking and all of it should have fit Cleveland, but the Browns in their infinite wisdom saw a player they drafted number one overall win a playoff game for the Cleveland Browns in year three, then almost upset the Chiefs in Arrowhead to go to the AFC title game. Yeah. And a year later, because Odell’s dad put out a mixtape of missed throws, they were like, “We can do better.” It’s one of the biggest missteps any team has made at the most important position in decades. You drafted the kid number one overall. He sets the rookie record for touchdown passes after you had gone one and 31 the two years before he got there. Year three, he’s winning a playoff game against Pittsburgh. and you’re done with him. It was bananas what happened and I’m so glad he is now establishing himself and now staring at this coming off season one of those $55 million a year contracts because at the moment he’s one of the two best bargains in all in the whole sport. Yeah. now is saying this morning there’s 10 2 and 0 teams and 10 0 and2 teams and most of the 0 and2 teams are the teams that every April lead the draft take the Chiefs out they’ll make the playoffs they’re going to be fine I think they’re fine and I also think Houston’s okay they just can’t run block and CJ Strad’s running for his life so they Colts look better blah blah blah but I do think there’s a a truth about the NFL uh with a hard cap that ownership matters GMs matter and I look at the Chicago Bears. And I said this yesterday, wonderful people get divorced and find their perfect mate. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people, but fit is important. And Ben Johnson is a timing structure coach. And Caleb is terrific in opening drives and then he starts freelancing and it doesn’t look like it fits. It doesn’t mean Caleb couldn’t work with Andy Reid, but I watch this Chicago thing and I’m like, “Guys, it’s not the coaching cuz on script the two opening drives have been remarkable, but Caleb is just too talented. There’s too much horsepower, you know, to put him in a box. Nick, I don’t think it works. I don’t think Ben and Caleb works.” So, I here is my push back on that. one is even and I saw your really great and I say that sincerely really great spot with Tom Brady last week um when you you mentioned that your new kind of line of demarcation is Thanksgiving year two and that you’ve sped it up from where you were previously even by that kind of expedited process. We’re not there yet with Caleb. We’re certainly not there yet with Caleb and Ben who have two games together. My other push back to it would be Ben Johnson picked the Bears because of Caleb. So he must think that he I mean he obviously watched Caleb, knew who he was as a player and said yes, that’s where I want to go. So I think you are being a little hasty in that regard that this won’t work. I do think work in progress is correct. I also must tell you I feel personally a little silly dissecting Caleb Williams when right above his name on the bar it says the Bears allowed 52 points to the Lions. I do think that probably was the bigger problem on Sunday than Caleb freelancing a little bit. Um I I said this um is that if uh I used an an example of a young attorney goes to a law firm in your hometown in Kansas City. He’s Ivy League. He’s sharp. But it’s an old law firm with established partners and after about three years he’s like, “Guys, I’m not getting any cases. I’m going to go to another law firm.” Everybody in the law firm would be like, “Totally get it.” Even the partners totally get it. When Jaylen Brunson leaves the Mavericks, he likes I need the ball in my hands, guys. I need shots. Everybody’s like, “Yeah, of course he does. Luca is the better player.” But AJ Brown plays Tennessee, the most run-entric team. Philad, even more run centric. He’s a top three receiver, arguably. He’s an NBA player that can’t get any shots. But yet in the NFL, which is all about the shield and unity and fun of the coach, it’s like a guy can’t ask for a trade. I would totally support AJ Brown if he just said, “Guys, I love you. I got five catches for 30 yards. This is a terrible fit. Go throw to Devonte. Am I wrong on this? No. And I So, a couple things. One is, and you should I I’ll email it to um if if you want because if you this I hadn’t heard you make this point. AJ Brown told us as much days after the Super Bowl, he posted an Instagram photo talking about how and then he wrote in the caption uh and I’m paraphrasing but about how the satisfaction of the Super Bowl lasted two days. And then he said, and again I’m paraphrasing, but it’s almost a direct quote. where I get my love for the game is what demoralizing a defensive back is showing my excellence. He told us that’s who he is and that’s part of the reason he’s become so great. That while winning is fun, what he plays for is, you know, dominating his matchup. And I happen to think that if CD Lamb catches a ball and if Travis Kelce catches a ball and the Eagles instead of being 2 and 0 are either 0 and2 or even 1 and one, this is already a huge story in Philadelphia because the fact of the matter is their passing game which remember last year when they were on already on a ninegame winning streak AJ Brown after the Carolina game said, “We need to improve on passing.” That then led to, you know, the Jaylen’s big game against the Steelers, AJ Reeden on the sideline, all of it, the whole thing. They were in the midst of, they hadn’t lost in months. He was frustrated. Now he’s getting less targets, less opportunity any point in his career because they haven’t lost. I think it is at, you know, a simmer. It will absolutely be at a full boil if they play this style on Sunday and the Rams beat them. And what I do think is noteworthy is unlike last year when Squan was in route to 2,000 yards and they were blowing people out, the Eagles deserve credit for getting those wins. But it’s not as if if AJ said, “Hey, we can be better on offense.” He would be wrong. Their offense had their best offensive play has been uh Jaylen Herd scrambles and the tush push where the entire team lines up off sides and the guards false start but the NFL allows it like they have not been prolific right now and I don’t wouldn’t frust I wouldn’t mind if AJ or blame AJ if you were frustrated. Yeah. Finally, I said this yesterday, Joe Burrow gets hurt a lot and you can blame the ownership in the O line, but Justin Fields gets hurt a lot and Justin Fields puts himself in harm way. Now, Josh Allen can get away with it, but I watched Big Ben and Cam Newton, huge men, 6’5, 260. I watched them age overnight. Why? They took shots. And I watched Joe Burrow. It’s like, Joe, you’re you’ve got a normal frame. It’s a 62 and a halfish 225 man. I’m I’m just saying it is also incumbent. I watched Eli Manning literally drop throw it away pre- snap reads get out of hits isn’t% correct on Burrow. Yeah. So this is tricky because listen it it’s primarily on the Bengals. That offensive line’s been bad for five years. It’s there’s the but Burrow is so I’m so it’s so interesting you said Big Ben because I evoked him in this same discussion yesterday but for a slightly different reason last year right take the Chiefs with Patrick the offensive line is a mess and Patrick begrudgingly is like okay I guess it’s going to be bang bang bang out dink and dunk and you know I’m going to get rid of the ball. Yeah, Burrow is so intent and so excellent at what I called yesterday big game hunting that he is in in week one and in week two before the injury, he was getting the snot kicked out of him, Colin. And it wasn’t like immediate pressure. It was he could have checked it down. He could have thrown it away. He’s trying to hunt the big play which, you know, he had 5,000 yards. Unbelievable year last year. you know, got MVP votes despite missing the playoffs. So, he was rewarded for it, but it wasn’t shocking to me. He got hurt. It was sad. It makes you worried about him, but sometimes you have to protect yourself in different ways. And I The reason I mentioned Big Ben is in the pocket, Colin, he plays a lot like Ben did, which is there might be people at my feet. I’m staying there. I’m going to shake you off. But Big Ben was called Big Ben because he was 6’5 and a half, huge, and impossible to bring down. Burrow playing this style is just risky. Yeah. And it’s it I again it it feels almost like victim blamy, but your point is correct. Some your if you’re Joe Burrow, you know, if I get hurt, the team is absolutely ruined. If we don’t hit this third and eight, we can recover from it. And it’s a shame that he now, this is where I’ll leave it, Colin, he is likely going to hold a record that no one else will ever come close to and that no one else wants, which is next year he likely becomes the NFL’s first ever threetime comeback player of the year winner. And you don’t want that. And it’s a shame for Joe because he’s such a great player. Yeah, he’s like a $10 million chandelier in an empty mansion. They have no run game, so he’s always throwing on third and long. They don’t protect him. They got They don’t spend money on defense, so he’s only able to win shootouts. You know, Momes can win lowscoring games. games. I mean, they’re tied with the Eagles 10-10 at half, but it there is something to be said about and again, it’s I’m not saying maybe it’s 8020 on the Bengals, but when guys getting hurt over Yeah. And I’m going to give your producers one other job real quick. You just said $10 million chandelier. There’s a great meme that describes that. It’s a Lamborghini parked in front of a trap house. Throw that on the screen for Colin at some point. He’ll like it because that’s what the Bengals built. They they’re Burrow Chase Higgins is as nice of a trio as you get. Everything else has, you know, leaky faucets and cracked foundations. It’s no good. Good to see you, brother. All right, Nick. Wright. Great stuff.

Colin Cowherd is joined by Host of ‘First Things First’ Nick Wright to react to the NFL’s Week 2. They start with Nick attacking Colin’s Herd Hierarchy. Next they discuss whether Jim Harbaugh has elevated the Los Angeles Chargers, how far Baker Mayfield can take the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the real reason Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears lost to the Detroit Lions, whether the Philadelphia Eagles should move off of A.J. Brown, and the expectations for the Cincinnati Bengals without Joe Burrow.

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