Colin Cowherd’s QB Pyramid: Seahawks’ Sam Darnold BEST in NFL? + Stafford & Rams, Mahomes | THE HERD

Colin Cowherd’s QB Pyramid: Seahawks’ Sam Darnold BEST in NFL? + Stafford & Rams, Mahomes | THE HERD

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. So, you see this sometimes where a great actor uh has a role, you know, Tom Hanks does the terminal. He makes a bad choice. You you see great regress. Marlon Brando had bombs. You see a Zaget uh Michelin star restaurant, a chef leaves. It’s good, but it’s not special. You see great slowly sometimes kind of regress into good. You very rarely see hot dog on a stick become zagot rated. You don’t see, you know, atrocious become exceptional. Like it just doesn’t happen, especially in sports. So Sam Darnold was so bad in New York. I was like, I I don’t know what happened. I thought he was going to be sort of a little bit of Andrew Luck his last two years. He is now with all analytics the best quarterback in the NFL. No, I mean and they just added Rasheed Shahed, a deep threat. So now he’s got a deep threat. JSN that rookie from Colorado State, the O line’s better. He’s literally gone from unplayable to best guy in the league. And I was saying if you just count quarterbacks that have played, you know, every game this year, you can’t you can’t count Lamar Jackson in this. What is the quarterback pyramid based just on this year alone for quarterback play? What does it look like? And this is what it looks like. Sorry for the radio audience. We have a little Collins quarterback performance period. Darnold’s number one. Allen and Stafford right below him. Drake May, Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Mahomes, Jones, Prescott, and Goff. Now, that’s not necessarily that far from reality. Now, if you’re you’re talking careers, Mahomes would be at the top. But if you’re talking today, this second, Sam Darnold is the best quarterback in the NFL. It is unbelievable. You just don’t see that ever. You could say, “Well, what about Baker?” Baker and Cleveland won a playoff game. And the year he did, his quarterback rating was I think it was 96 or 98. I I I think it was 96. Sam’s pass rating in New York was not even good for a backup. He had more turnovers than touchdowns. Like, forget the winning. Wasn’t productive. It was awful. And we know now that everybody’s awful with the Jets, but what he is doing is incredibly rare. So, um, Bill Bich was on a podcast yesterday, and I’ve said this multiple times on the show. The hottest quarterback in the league outside of Sam Darnold is probably Matt Stafford. And I’ve said before, um, where you land in the NFL matters a lot. If Stafford would have landed in Green Bay and Aaron Rogers, who can be Moody, would have landed in Detroit, uh, we would look at Stafford differently. Stafford was better than Aaron Rogers in high school, in college, and he’s better now by a long shot. Uh, and he was better in the first three or four years in the NFL than Rogers, but Aaron had that 10, 11 year run in Green Bay because he had a really good organization. And it’s going to be fascinating to see what if Matt Stafford wins this year’s Super Bowl. And right now I think they’re the best team or second best team in the league. Like what happens? Bill Bichc was on a recent podcast talking about this Matt Stafford. I don’t want to put him in a class with Tom, but I mean it’s reminiscent of Brady where it just keeps getting better and better and better. I remember when we practiced against him and played him several years ago. Gotten smarter. He understands more. He knows how to use weapons maybe just a split second quicker. He’s a little harder to fool and something you might have got him with a couple years ago, you’re not going to get him with now. What’s really cruel about quarterback is by the time you master it, you’re usually like 33, 34, 35. That’s when Brady started saying things to like Jay Glazer like I’ve seen everything. You can’t fool me. Brady talked about a Super Bowl against Patrick Mahomes. He’s like, I knew what the Chiefs defense was going to do better than the Chiefs defense knew what they were going to do. And so, but Brady had a great advantage. He had the best offensive line coach probably ever, Dante Scarnia. So Brady just didn’t get hit for most of his career. So Brady at 44 had a 34y old body. That’s not the case with Stafford who got the you know what beat out of him for 12 years in Detroit. So he’s 37 and he looks 37 with a really bad back. But I’ve asked the question before, if he wins a Super Bowl this year, I mean, he’s already all time completions eighth, yards ninth, passing touchdowns ninth, game-winning drives fifth, and wins. He’s moving up fast. So, there’s just not many quarterbacks in the history of the league that have two Super Bowls and an MVP. It’s Momes, Brady, Manning, Elway, Montana, Bradshaw, and Bart Star. So, there’s only one quarterback in this league that can go from really, really great to historic. This is it. Quarterbacks with two Super Bowl wins and an MVP, at least one. It’s all the legends. Momes, Payton, Tom, Elway, Montana, Bradshaw, Bart, Star. Stafford can get into that group. And so, his last five games, 16 touchdowns, no picks. Uh, he is just on an absolute heater. the question and he’s done this what’s amazing is no training camp he learned on the fly with Devonte Adams so what’s really impressive you know an undrafted left tackle learned on the fly with Devonte Adams did not participate to any extent in preeason and proving once again what Shawn McVey always felt is the exhibition season is a lot of nonsense it doesn’t really matter but uh I I I you and I Jmack you’ve actually been on this forever. Where you land in the NFL is about 75% of your success as a quarterback. I mean, a great example is Caleb Williams with that outfit last year. Everybody bailed on him. This year, the Bears lead the NFL in big plays. So, the gap in coaching, obviously, McVey is better than anybody Detroit had. But here here was um Max Crosby of the Raiders recently talking about Stafford as a potential MVP for some reason just because they their team wasn’t the best. Like he didn’t get that love until he went to the Rams. Now people are like see I’m like bro he’s been doing that for 10 years in Detroit. It would be dope to see Stafford win MVP cuz people are like well is he a Hall of Famer? I’m like he’s been top five for 15 years. I don’t give a what anyone says. Can we have this conversation? I don’t give a what anyone says. Oh, that that’s absolutely true. I mean, think about this. Think how much trust that Shawn McVey had to have to not only trade away a Super Bowl quarterback in golf, but be willing to pay for Stafford and golf simultaneously. So, Shawn McVey knows more football than you or me. Shawn McVeyy’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to move off Goff.” Who, by the way, has been a top 12 quarterback for most of his career. He’s like, “I’ll move off him. I’ll take an old staffer that’s never won a playoff game and I’ll pay for both that is having pe there are certain people in baseball is like this a lot where you go ask baseball players who’s really good who’s a bit of a fraud and they’ll be like oh no this guy’s actually great everybody understands it you go ask pro football players about Matt Stafford they’re all like Matt Crosby they’re like bro that guy’s been a top five quarterback for 15 years he just about crappy Detroit. So, um it it’s um it’s it’s and he the great thing about him, he is a filmm junkie. His wife makes more news than he does. He’s never in the news. He he mo he’s kind of a regular guy. You know, you’ll see him golfing occasionally in town at one of the country clubs, but he really is lowkey, very chill, but he’s the only quarterback in the league that can can join a very go from great to historic this year. Yeah. I I mean I would say he’s certainly in the MVP discussion now. Getting Devonte Adams clearly helps. A major upgrade. I mean they Cooper Cup was like one of their core guys. He was beloved out here. They moved off him pretty easily. Yeah. What has he done in Seattle, Colin? Like next to nothing. And they upgrade. Well, he’s our four now in Seattle. Yeah. Yeah. They had young receivers Snyder said, “We’ll bring an old veteran possession guy in.” But I’ll say if Cooper Cups are four, that’s not a bad receiving. But McVey McVeyy’s done a great job with Sneeed and company just constantly retooling the team. Yeah. All right. Today’s show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. They’re a great partner. There’s always something to bet on. If you haven’t tried your first bet on Hard Rock Bet yet, there’s still time for you to get $150 bucks in bonus bets. If you win, just place a $5 bet. That’s it. Five bucks. If it hits, you not only get your winnings, but you get $150 in extra bonus bets. The NBA is back, which means it’s time to shoot your shot on Hard Rock Bet. Your home for all the hoops action. all season long. If you need a little help with your first bet, check out the streaks heating up inside the Hard Rock Bet Stats Hub. You can find live odds to bet on all of these streaks right in the Hard Rock Bet app. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today and make your first deposit. Um, Greg Kosell, 46 years, NFL films, is joining us live. So, you know, it’s interesting if you look at Patrick Mahomes career, his kryptonite when they really, really look bad. It’s not that the running game’s not available. He’s won Super Bowls with below average suboptimal receiving cores. Travis Kelce’s had bad games. He’s still won. He won Super Bowls with mediocre defenses. When he’s getting hit and does not trust his protection, that offense does not look the same. So, was this just about scheme by Buffalo’s defense or was it Bosa and personnel? Why did they get to Momes for three and a half hours? I think it’s a combination, Colin, because what Shawn McDermott did, and just so I say right up front, I’m not a blueprint guy. I don’t think Mahomes has had obviously great success in this league and he’s a great player. So, it’s not as if, oh, just do what the Bills did and everybody’s going to stop Patrick Mahomes. But in this particular game, what the Bills did was they ran a lot of what we call hybrid coverages where there were zone parts of it, there were man parts of it, and all you’re trying to do is you’re trying to slow down the processing for Patrick Mahomes. And that’s when the pressure becomes a factor. And he did not really get out of the pocket very much. They did a good job of m maintaining him, keeping him in the pocket. So in this given game, I thought it was very schematic in what they did on the back end with their hybrid looks and therefore he couldn’t really get a sense of rhythm and he’s not purely a rhythm player except when he’s throwing the ball short. So it just slowed everything down for him and then he took way too many hits. I mean there was one in particular on the sideline. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him hit like that. Yeah. You know, Josh Allen came into this league with so much horsepower and now he’s become so incredibly efficient and and we always sort of have baked it in, Greg, that if you have a big arm, if you’re Big Ben, if you’re Cam Newton, we don’t need you to be Kirk Cousins. You go do your magic, we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll give you a little on the efficiency scale. Yet with Allen, I get both. He can give me a 22 for a 25 and I get the horsepower. Why has he become so efficient? Um, well, I’m sure a lot of it has to do with him in the off season. We know I’m sure you know Jordan Palmer. He’s worked with him for years. And I think that he’s he’s what they call a rotational thrower. So, when you’re rotational thrower, I think you have to really work on that as opposed to being a linear thrower where everything is lined up exactly straight. When you’re rotational, you can throw the ball from different angles, different ways. And I think you have to really become good at that. So now I think they also understood and this is where I think Joe Brady did a very good job when he became the coordinator is I think schematically they’ve tried to rein him in to a certain degree to to allow him to play with a much more defined sense of timing and rhythm rather than just hey you know you hear so many people say things about certain quarterbacks well let this guy be this guy let Josh be Josh that’s all well and good but at some point you’ve got to play the game within structure and you can argue that the Bills defensively and they do score a lot of points, Colin, that offensively they’re one of the most structured teams in the NFL with the combination of their run game and their pass game and their pass game at times actually sometimes I feel like there could could be more to it. But if you’re going to score 30 points a game, I guess that’s a tough argument to make. So Green Bay is the youngest team in the league. Seattle’s offense, Seattle’s second. So Darnold when he leaves Minnesota, there were a lot of people that thought, “Okay, it’s gonna come down. He’s not gonna look like that.” Well, right now, analytics tells you he’s as good as any quarterback in the league. Are you surprised that how successful he’s been in Seattle? We didn’t even know if JSN was a number one receiver. Like, are you surprised by what you’re seeing? Uh, yes and no. By the way, JSN 80% of his routes this year of his snaps have been as an outside receiver. And if you recall, a lot of people said when they signed Cooper Cub, what are they doing? They have two slot receivers. Well, they obviously knew JSN could line up outside, which he’s done, as I said, on 80% of his snaps. But I’m not surprised with Darnold for this reason. He’s really gifted, as you know. You know Darnold well, but he’s a certain kind of player. You know, he’s not necessarily a sit back in the pocket, read it, scan it, see it all. So, what Clint Kubiaak, and Clint Kubak is the one who wanted him, he sort of comes a bit from that that Shanahan Kubiaak tree of play action, playaction boot, define the reads and the throws, push it down the field off the the run action looks. And that’s where Darnold is really, really good. And he does throw the ball very well on the run. So, it’s a classic case of matching what a quarterback does really well because he does have some things he doesn’t do well of matching what he does really well with the scheme. And you see how successful there’s a perfect example on that play action boot worked perfectly that got the long touchdown to Cody White. By the way, Rasheed Sahed is a burner. How does that how I mean that that feels like to me that plays into Darnold. What do you project there? Yes. Well, first of all, there’s very few guys in the league, Colum, that have what I call terrifying speed, and he’s one of them. And now they’re a team that plays a lot with two tight ends, 12 personnel, as we call it, two tight ends. So, what happens a lot when you play that way is you get a defense that sees the formation, the personnel, the formations, and they think run. So, they play a lot with a single high safety. So now you’re going to get an opportunity to really work the intermediate and vertical route concepts off shot plays off run action and you have to account for Shahed and now on the other side you’re going to have JSN. This is a real that trade to me maybe it was overlooked by some people because Shahed’s not a star in the way we think of stars but that may have been one of the most impactful trades that were made on Tuesday. So JJ McCarthy and we see this we saw it with Caleb early in the year very good on script and then the last three quarters not good at all. Uh I said when I watch him play with Minnesota I see a lot of Michigan JJ McCarthy where Michigan I love the coach Harbaugh um I I love some of the weapons Justin Jefferson or Coloulston Lovelin um and I love the defense and I thought the defense against Detroit was sensational and he makes about one to two big throws a game JJ McCarthy overall I don’t see him somebody carrying a franchise guys. But I, you know, again, I liked Michigan’s supporting cast. I like Kevin O’Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, the left tackle, Brian Flores. What did the film say on JJ McCarthy? Yeah, McCarthy to me has something that in some ways it reminds me of Alex Smith and and what I’m about to say and and this concerns me as he develops. He’s what we call Colin, I’m going to give you a little tutorial here on quarterback mechanics. He’s what we call a locked front leg thrower. So when he steps in, he locks his front leg. So what happens when you lock your front leg? It’s like running into a wall. You you can’t really transfer your weight. You don’t get any core torque torque. So if you watch him throw, you’ll notice that it looks like he’s working hard to throw the ball. Now, I don’t think his arm just as an arm is bad, but it limits your ability to drive the football because you can’t really bring your core into your throw. And there’s a there’s been quarterbacks throughout the years like that. Alex Smith, as I said, is a great example. And based on what you said, you might think he’s very much like an Alex Smith in the way he’s going to have to play. And by the way, Alex Smith on teams he was on won a lot of football games, right? So you can you can win, but I think it’ll be interesting to see how his career progresses. But you’re right, Bri, and by the way, Brian Flores did an unbelievable job in that game against the Lions. And you know what stood out watching that tape? The pressure in the A gap. And you know why the pressure in the A gap was so important? Because you know what that did? It made Jir Gibbs have to stay in to pass protect. And that may not seem like a big deal when you’re watching the game, but therefore he’s not getting out in space and killing them as a receiver. I don’t know how many times, I didn’t count it. I don’t know how many times Jir Gibbs had a pass protect because of a gap pressure. It had to be definitely more than 10. And that really handicapped the Lions pass game. So I I I just went on a rant about the Jets. And when a workplace environment’s lousy and then you go to a good work environment, the same employee can be a different employee. S Gardner with Robert Salah was excellent in the last couple years. He’s bad. Well, he didn’t get he didn’t lose length speed. He didn’t lose intelligence. He didn’t lose any of those qualities. It’s just a bad work environment. Sauce Gardner to the Colts. Chris Baler told me years ago we were texting. He said, “There’s a cornerback shortage in the league.” He goes, “Everybody can find a third or a fourth great receiver. Nobody can find a second good corner. It’s hard. They’re not out there.” So, I like the move by the Colts. What do you make of it? Yeah. And that’s why I think it’s hard to look at what Garner’s done the last year, year and a half because there are not many guys at 63, 210bs that move like he does. You know, there’s not a ton of those guys. So, again, we’re not in New York. you know, we don’t know the environment, but obviously it has to wear on you after a certain amount a certain amount of time, but you know, he’ll obviously step right in and and start and play. I guess they play overseas this weekend, but the Colts are a team that plays a lot of different coverage schemes. So, it’s not as if foundationally they do one thing. And I think he’s got the ability to pretty much play any coverage scheme that you want him to play. They actually have a very good defense, Colin. I mean, everybody’s been talking for the most part about Daniel Jones and Taylor and the offense, and deservedly so. Uh, and by the way, I didn’t think Daniel Jones was as bad as maybe a lot of people thought this past week. But just talking about their defense, they’ve got a lot of good players at all three levels of their defense. This is this is going to be a real interesting team to watch. I want to talk if I if I could about um Dak and Arizona on on Monday night. Forget Arizona. Jacobe Brousett’s a a a pro. He, you know, the Dallas defense isn’t good. When When Dak struggles like that, is it pressure? Is it coaching? I didn’t think it was a good night for Dallas’s coaching staff. And and by the way, great coaches have bad nights. What did you make of Dallas’s offense? Yeah, I thought it was it was a tough watch watching their offense and and you know, Dak, we’ve talked about this over the years. You know, Dak is a good player, no question. But at this point in his career, he doesn’t have the same movement that he once had. He’s essentially at his core now a pocket player. So, he’s a ball distributor. He’s an executor of an offense. It needs to be in rhythm. It needs to be in timing. If it’s not clear to him for whatever reason, the defense takes it away, he feels a little pressure, then he’s not going to play quite as well. It’s just the way it is. But there are some games where he’s really very, very good. He certainly is a veteran who sees things. But every once in a while, you know, I remember years ago Ron Jorski telling me that there’s two games a year where you just don’t see it the right way. And I got that impression watching the tape of him the other night. It just it just didn’t seem comfortable. He didn’t seem like a comfortable player. And and that can happen. And by the way, Arizona does have a defense that does a lot of things that can make it difficult for quarterbacks. Yeah. All right. There’s two games this weekend getting a lot of attention. One of them, Philadelphia at Green Bay. Yeah. So, you you you got to be careful. Green Bay has lost to Cleveland, uh, Carolina, but they can play with the best teams in the league. Does Green Bay match up with Philly’s personnel? You mean overall like the Rockets? Yes. I mean, when you when you look at what you’ve seen on film from Green Bay, I Here’s what I’ve said about Green Bay, Greg. They’re a team with talent, but I don’t know what they are. What is your identity? I think they want to run and they’re not terribly effective at it. They haven’t been this year and and Matt Laflur always wants to run because he comes from the Shanahan school. So, he definitely wants the run game to be a strong foundation. Last week was an odd game for them, Colin. They had eight possessions. They never punted and they scored 13 points. That’s a very odd game. Now, they they had a fumble in the red zone, but the run game this year has not been what it’s been the last couple of years with Jacobs. Um, and it’s hard to know why. Uh, but it just hasn’t been the same. Um, and I look, I think Love’s a really good player. He had a really reckless interception last week, which he doesn’t do very much, but it was a very odd game. If you look at Love’s game on tape and then his numbers, they were fine. It wasn’t as if he had a bad game. That’s the interception. that was just reckless and undisiplined. But, you know, they’re starting to lose receivers. We have always said, boy, they’ve got a ton of receivers, but now they’re starting to lose receivers to injury. Tucker Craft is out for the season. I’m really anxious to see from your old neck of the woods in the Pacific Northwest, Musgrave, because when Musgrave came out, he was hurt his last year at Oregon, but he was considered a really big-time prospect. I did his tape. He’s faster than Craft, you know. Now, I’m not saying he’s as good, not as good. We don’t know that because he wasn’t used as their number one tight end. He will be now, but he’s got a lot of juice to him. So, I’m very curious to see how that fits into their offense. Uh, also another game, the Rams and the NerS. Now, the Ners are plagued with injuries. I’m kind I’ve always been f I’m fascinated when you can go get a puka who I watched at Washington and BYU and then he goes to McVey and from the very first training camp, Stafford was telling people this kid, this Puka kid is unbelievable. He’s not the fastest guy. I do think he’s physically strong. When you watch this Rams offense, how crucial is Puka now over in London, he didn’t play and they use four tight ends. And Devonte Adams now is a growing relationship with Stafford. Stafford had no camp. How important is Puka in this offense? And why does he succeed to the level he does? Well, there’s a couple of things going on here. First of all, the last two games they played, they’ve played a lot with three tight ends on the field, which is crazy. Last week they had 35 snaps with three tight ends on the field. But I think McVey understands exactly what Puka is. He’s not what we call a true boundary X where he lines up as the isolated or single receiver to one side of the field and you let him just win one-on-one. He’s not that guy. In fact, only two of his 198 uh routes uh this year have been where he’s been an isolated receiver. That’s why they went out and got Devonte Adams because he is that guy. That’s how they use him. But McVey understands what Nakua is. They use him as a movement guy. They use him as part of two and three route combinations. They get him off the line cleanly. Uh he runs a lot of inbreaking routes and that’s where he’s so good because he’s so physically strong. Yes. And he’s a great player within the context of how he’s used and what Shawn McVey understands his strengths to be. I’m not sure, no matter what his numbers are, Colin, and you I would think you would agree. I’m not sure anybody would say just as a physical talent that you’re going to put him in the Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase category, but he’s a great player within the context of that offense. Yeah, fit matters in life and in sports. Um, let’s let’s let’s do some Caleb Williams. We’ll end our segment on a Thursday here in the herd. Uh, first of all, um, what did the tape say? Let’s just simplify here. What did the tape say with Caleb against the Bengals? I thought, and again, we know the Bengals are a bad defense, but that’s not what I’m looking at. I thought this was a game, maybe the first one this year, where I thought the combination of looking at what Ben Johnson did offensively and and I said to myself, “Oh, this is a Ben Johnson offense. This is what we want to see from Ben Johnson.” This reminded me of the Lions offense, seeing the same concepts. And it was a game where I thought that Caleb really started to get a feel for those concepts. Now, he’s there’s still throws where he’s a beat late. There’s still times where there’s just a little too much feticism in the pocket and he gets out of there and it just looks random. That’s what he has to continue to develop. But I got to tell you, Colin, and you know this, I mean, this kid, particularly on the move, he’s got a power hose now. Oh, it’s incredible. He throws he throws as pretty a ball as you’ll see in the league. And but there’s still work to do. But it just started. There were some plays in this game where I just felt like, oh yeah, this is the way Ben Johnson wants it to look. Greg Kosell on a Thursday as always. Great stuff. Appreciate it. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it. Yeah, the um I know you were all worked up on all the gifts that the Jets got, but even you would have to acknowledge is if you look at this league of teams that have had two first round picks, it’s a lot of Raiders. It’s a lot of Panthers. It’s a lot of Cleveland. And that’s my take is it’s giving it’s like giving somebody with no financial literacy a small power ball win. They’ll screw it up. I mean, the the I I knew the Jets were broken when they fired Salah as he was going to Buffalo with a chance to be tied for first and Salah was the best coach on the staff, right? And it’s like guys, you got to ident you have to self scout. You have to identify in in any business who are the best employees, who are the weak spots. Solo was your best coach and you let him go. And to me at that since that point on, I’ve looked at the Jets. It’s like they just can’t get out of their own way. They can’t even identify their own best employees. Yeah, that was a flub for sure. But listen, the Jets have crushed the draft before. I mean, a few years ago, Garrett Wilson, Germaine Johnson, Bree Hall, like they had an awesome draft. They just didn’t have a quarterback. Aaron Rogers let them down. He got hurt. Um, well, I I don’t know what could you could do about that. So just because you failed in the past a different regime, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be taking more shots in the future. Come on. What was it? What’s a Michael Jordan quote? I missed more shots than I missed more game-winning shots than I to made or something like that. I don’t think that’s it. Oh, you know, I’m close. I’m in the ballpark. Bottom line is you got to keep shooting. Keep firing. Don’t give up just because you’ve failed at draft picks in the past. Come on. You got six months to identify a quarterback. Less than that. Probably like five to identify a quarterback if you want. Or Hold on, Colin. You could go the Giants route. Take a defensive player in the top three and take your quarterback at the end of the first round if you don’t think there’s one there. I think uh Mendoza at Indiana is going to win it. Coming up to him, huh? Well, no. Everybody now again, you don’t know. You have to watch everybody. I think what’s happening is Dante Moore people like he may go back to Oregon. Uh Mendoza is the play. It’s Mendoza or Simpson right now. We’ll see. I think Mendoza is a bigger, stronger athlete. Smart. Have you checked his LinkedIn page recently? No, he’s the kid. He updates that. He’s a genius. Yeah, the kid’s really smart. So, I when Ben Johnson got hired, people may forget this. Ben Johnson was offered another job. He was offered a job and mid-flight decided to turn the plane around. I’m not going to take the job. And a lot of us, myself included, were like, “Are you going to go back to Detroit? Can you top what you’re doing in Detroit?” So, Ben Johnson eventually takes a job in Chicago. And he took it for a large degree. Not because they were particularly well-run, but he knew the division and Caleb Williams was super talented. And he thought to himself, well, I’ve got all this production with Jared Goff. This kid in Chicago’s got more talent than Jared Goff. And so when he was with the Lions, Ben Johnson’s offense was third in big plays with Jared Goff. Now it’s number one in the league in big plays. and and Greg Kosell uh came on 40 minutes ago to talk about Ben Johnson’s impact with this Bears offense. I thought this was a game, maybe the first one this year where I thought the combination of looking at what Ben Johnson did offensively and and I said to myself, “Oh, this is a Ben Johnson offense. This is what we want to see from Ben Johnson.” There’s still times where there’s just a little too much feticism in the pocket and he gets out of there and it just looks random. That’s what he has to continue to develop. But I got to tell you, Colin, and you know this, I mean, this kid, particularly on the move, he’s got a power hose now. Also, the Bears are second in the NFL in rushing. I think Buffalo’s first. So there we always think there’s a gap in quarterback play, but you know there’s a big gap in coaching in this league. There’s a big gap in coordinators, in owners, in general managers. And I I everybody that I’ve talked to texted in the league, they all think Ben Johnson is next level. Kevin Oonnell, McVey, Shanahan level, just a next level coordinator. And it takes time. But when you when you watch the Bears play, they’ve just got they got a lot of they got a lot of jet fuel. They’ve got a lot the ability to make big plays at any part on the field. Uh and it’s again he was the hot commodity in coaching and he has delivered on it. Usually you get seven openings a year in the NFL, there’s always one guy that gets a job and you you kind of know it’s going to work. Like either it’s a good organization like Mike Vrabel this year was obviously going to work. Jim Harbaugh last year to the Chargers was obviously going to work. Shawn Payeyton two years to go to Denver. Yeah, that was a no-brainer. They had dead cap hell with Russell Wilson’s contract. Coaches matter. you you’ve got to pay 10 million plus. So, there’s a lot of things you can go cheap on in business uh or in life. You can’t on the coach. I I it’s amazing to me. I’m I’m trying to think of the best coach available right now. I That’s why I keep saying keep your eye on Lane Kein. If I was the New York Jet to the New York Giants, I would consider Lane Kein. Um Jackson Dart loved him at Old Miss. Reunite those two. Uh, it feels like Lane Keifin, who coached in the NFL, but it was an older Al Davis. Highly flammable, highly dysfunctional. Al Davis loved Jammarcus Russell. Lane Kein warned him it’s not going to work in the NFL, and it didn’t. Lane was right. So, Lane’s grown. I’m not sure if there is a great candidate. Some have suggested Bill Bich from from Carolina, but I I do think, and this isn’t a shot at Bill, I think um Bill’s best days are over. Um I I don’t think he has the energy and I think he you know Bill is a little like Jerry Jones right now. Bill Bichc is that they’re they’re only willing to do there are stipulations to their performance. Bellich only wants to coach certain players. You you can’t have stipulations. You just have to get the best players. Uh Jerry Jones, I’ll hire a coach, but I want control. Well, you’re not going to get control with Jim Harbaugh or Shawn Payeyton. So, the best the best coaches right now that the best candidates to me, Mike McCarthy, who’s a good B+ candidate, Jesse Mentor, defensive coordinator, who’s got kind of a Mike McDonald Seahawks feel, and Lane Keifin. So, one’s a great college coach, one’s won a Super Bowl, and one’s a coordinator. I But with the Jets, you you’ve done the coordinator multiple times. It’s not working. If I if I was the Jets, I would go get Mike McCarthy. I would go get a proven B+ coach, give him Mendoza out of Indiana, and use those picks. I think the Jets have to go head coach. Um, you know, the other openings in the league, I I wouldn’t have a problem with Jesse Mentor. So, it’s I’m not saying coordinators can’t work, but in the Jets case, it’s time to go spend some money, spend 10 million bucks, and get a get a pro. Couldn’t you argue that Glenn, who was in Detroit with Dan Campbell, Dan Campbell struggled when he was hired by Detroit. Remember, they started like one and seven that one year before turning it around. You got to give Glenn a little more time. How many coaches have the Jets had in the last like six years. Can’t keep cycling through. You got to give them another year at least. You’ve seen nothing. They fought hard enough. He’s not good handling the media. He’s not good situationally. I don’t see a lot I like. I mean, offensively just doesn’t feel like he’s got any say any that’s something to consider. I I I’d like a head coach.

Colin Cowherd reacts to the latest in the NFL, lays out his QB Pyramid for the 2025 season, and explains why Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold is the best in the league. Then, he looks at Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford’s career and talks about his place in history among the all-time greats. Next, Colin is joined by Greg Cosell to break down game tape from the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Finally, he discusses how Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson’s vision is finally coming together with Caleb Williams.

0:00 Sam Darnold/QB Pyramid
2:37 Matthew Stafford
9:43 Greg Cosell QB Breakdowns
29:19 Ben Johnson & Chicago Bears

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