- 6 weeks ago
Willard and Dibs react to Colin Cowherd rank Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy as the 10th-best head coach-quarterback duo in the NFL. That's far too low, right?
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00:00Colin Cowherd did this on his show this morning.
00:02You're very big on coach-quarterback combo.
00:05Oh, yeah.
00:06Please explain.
00:06Well, a quarterback and a coach, they have to be in sync.
00:11And so you can have a great quarterback who has a terrible coordinator
00:14or a great coordinator who has a terrible quarterback,
00:17and it doesn't really add up to much.
00:19And I think about the Alex Smith early days where every year he had a different coordinator
00:24and a lot of times he had a different head coach.
00:26And so he was unable to really get that syncopation with the same coordinator.
00:31And I look at Shanahan and Purdy, and if Purdy didn't have Shanahan,
00:35he wouldn't be as good as he is with Shanahan.
00:38And I think that's no disrespect to Brock.
00:41It's Kyle Shanahan's that good.
00:43Okay, so Cowherd, clearly listening to a lot of Dan Dibley content lately.
00:49Smart, Colin.
00:50Decided to put together his rankings for head coach-quarterback combo.
00:56Where do you think Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan landed?
01:00Here it is.
01:01Here are my 10 best quarterback coaching combos.
01:04I would say 10.
01:05And a little bit of this is because Brock Purdy's been banged up.
01:08Again, last year he got hurt.
01:09I put Shanahan and Purdy.
01:11They averaged 28 a game together.
01:13But again, no Christian McCaffrey.
01:16I think Purdy is largely driven by Shanahan's play calling and McCaffrey's greatness.
01:21But he deserves credit.
01:23When he came back off his injury, Brock was excellent.
01:26So I would put them at 10.
01:29Okay.
01:30I mean, they're at 10.
01:33And I would love to hear the other nine.
01:37You don't have to play them.
01:39But to me, I don't have them.
01:41Right.
01:41If they're at 10.
01:42Maybe I don't have the sound of them.
01:44I have them.
01:44Yeah.
01:45And I'm interested to know who the other nine are.
01:48Okay.
01:49Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.
01:51All right.
01:51I'll give you that one.
01:52Sure.
01:53McVay and Stafford.
01:54Go ahead and put that one on the board as well.
01:56I think was number one.
01:57Was it not?
01:58Yeah.
01:59I have them here for you if you need them.
02:00Fire away.
02:01Number one, Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford.
02:04Number two is Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.
02:06Number three, Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert.
02:09Niners opponent tonight.
02:10File that.
02:11Number four, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.
02:14Number five, Mike McDonald and Sam Darnold.
02:17That's funny.
02:18Number six, we got the Patriots, Vrabel and Drake May.
02:24Pause.
02:25That's number six, according to Cowherd.
02:27Okay.
02:28Should I keep going?
02:29Please do.
02:29I want you to keep going, but I need that to sink in for a second.
02:33Pause.
02:34Pause.
02:34Pause.
02:34I need number six to be a combo of a guy who's played one full season in the National Football
02:43League.
02:43I know he played the year before that, too.
02:45But, okay.
02:47Drake May last year goes to the Super Bowl, and the combo is the head coach that dragged
02:54the organization through national embarrassment through the entire offseason.
02:58Keep going.
02:59All right.
02:59Number seven, Dan Campbell and Jared Goff in Detroit.
03:04Okay, kneecap.
03:06Go ahead.
03:06Number eight, Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love up in the frozen tundra of Lambeau.
03:12Okay.
03:13Number nine, we have a rookie head coach, Joe Brady and Josh Allen in Buffalo, and then
03:19Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy at number 10.
03:21I get where we're going with that.
03:23I mean, the fact that Josh Allen is number nine is, like, that's him saying, I don't
03:29even know who the hell the head coach is, but it's Josh Allen.
03:31And so you could almost put that as it.
03:34Number nine, it's Josh Allen along with whoever the hell showed up yesterday.
03:38Who are you?
03:39Yeah, like, I'm almost less offended by that than some of the others, to be honest with
03:44you.
03:45I mean, look, they're all good.
03:48All 10 of those have things that they offer.
03:52So I'm not here, I'm not here to criticize anybody on that list.
03:56We're going to buy the kneecap off?
03:57I think he probably actually did a good job of figuring out who the top 10 were.
04:01There's just a few that are out of order.
04:04And there's some in there that I think belong in the top 10 that weren't, like...
04:09Go ahead.
04:09I mean, you got Lamar Jackson, certainly, is a guy in Baltimore.
04:13Right.
04:14And, you know, you go to Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow in Cincinnati.
04:17And Lamar's coach is first year.
04:20I mean, as is Josh Allen's.
04:22Right.
04:23So I think that, obviously, if you're a first-year head coach, you got massively dinged on this
04:27list.
04:28Bo-Nick, Sean Payton.
04:29Bo-Nick, Sean Payton is a fair combo to add to the conversation.
04:36For me, it's Burrow and Zach Taylor.
04:39Like, no love for Zach Taylor.
04:42Joe Burrow is a guy who everyone says is top four, top five quarterback in the league.
04:46You have love for Zach Taylor?
04:47More so than, you know, Brady, who is a first-time head coach.
04:51See, I actually agree with that one.
04:53You got Joe Burrow as your quarterback, and you can't even make the playoffs.
04:57Like, they are just missing the playoffs.
04:59I know he's been hurt.
05:01Always.
05:01And they have no defense.
05:02Like, yeah.
05:03That thing is...
05:04I don't believe the Bengals are like...
05:06I don't look at that and think, wow, they're well-coached.
05:08I think Joe Burrow's awesome.
05:10But I don't think that that organization is in the greatest space.
05:13I also think that Colin did himself and his list a bit of a disservice because if you want
05:20to really get into this and roll up your sleeves, it's about the play caller and the quarterback.
05:25And this is where, you know, Shanahan and McVay, they're the head coach.
05:29They're also ostensibly the play callers.
05:31And so, Dan Campbell, he's not calling the offense for Jared Goff.
05:35That's a very fair point, but I don't think it necessarily discounts the idea of a head coach-quarterback combo.
05:42Like, you don't have to draw the through line of they work together on each play.
05:47I think he's just saying, like, if we combine these, they are, would you agree, the two most important figures
05:54in an organization?
05:55The quarterback and the head coach?
05:57Yeah.
05:57Most likely, yeah.
05:58Yes, to me, I get what you're saying, but I get where he's kind of coming from on that.
06:02And no love for Sirianni and Jalen Hurts?
06:04That's the one I was going to ask you about.
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06:17Look, I'm not going to blow sunshine up your wahoo.
06:20I'm not even here to say that Shanahan and Brock Purdy should be top three.
06:25I don't even know exactly where I would have them ranked.
06:29I just know that when I hear things get said,
06:34and basically what you're saying is, would you trade your pair,
06:40would you trade Shanahan and Purdy for said other pair?
06:46Dan Campbell and Jared Goff, you have got to be kidding me.
06:53There is no planet, no way, no how, that anybody who's thinking right
07:00would trade Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy for Dan Campbell and Jared Goff.
07:06Doesn't matter if you have one ass cheek and three toes, I will beat your ass.
07:09Now there's where he does well.
07:11He's very, very funny in front of the microphone.
07:14Funnier than Kyle, I'll give him that.
07:16But other than that, we've got a culture changer.
07:20And you had one playoff run that I would argue you single-handedly screwed up
07:27when you had a 24-7 lead at halftime here at Levi's Stadium.
07:31The Kyle Shanahan-Dan Campbell conversation, that is a blowout.
07:36That's not even close in terms of who you would rather have as your coach.
07:39And again, for me, it comes down to what each coach provides for their team.
07:44And Dan Campbell is not somebody who's out there, you know,
07:48designing and devising all of the offensive schemes.
07:50He's much more of an old school, like we're going to bite a kneecap
07:53and a motivational force for that team.
07:56And so it becomes more nuanced about what do you do as a head coach?
08:01What do you provide specifically to your team?
08:03And Kyle provides the specific thing of laminated play sheet, offensive guru,
08:09and somebody who works with the quarterback very well.
08:11I mean, listen, I've got compliments for every single buddy on that list.
08:16Every coach is a good coach and every quarterback is a good quarterback.
08:20But that's the only way I can look at it.
08:22As a 49er fan, are you basically saying,
08:27would I give up the two that we've got for the two that said other team has got?
08:35And Dan Campbell, Jared Goff, stop it.
08:39Mike Vrabel and Drake May.
08:41Hell no.
08:42Yeah, it's a no.
08:42Hell no.
08:43Jordan Love and LeFleur.
08:45And that becomes, I think, a discussion point.
08:47I'd say no.
08:49It's a conversation, though.
08:50Like, I'm not going to poo-poo it entirely, but I would say no.
08:58Who else did he have on that list in the top 10?
09:03He had...
09:04Oh, Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson.
09:07That's another interesting one.
09:09I think Ben Johnson's a wonderful play caller.
09:12Caleb Williams has cemented himself as a good prospect.
09:17Now, this came off of an embarrassing rookie year for Caleb Williams.
09:20Then he had a very good year, too.
09:22And he worked well with Ben Johnson.
09:25But that means both of them.
09:27Caleb Williams has played two years, but only one of them was good.
09:31Ben Johnson has only coached one year.
09:33Like, no.
09:34A little early.
09:35No.
09:36Way too early.
09:36I like the way they're trending.
09:37Me too.
09:38And everybody is, like, so high on Caleb Williams this year.
09:41They're kind of everyone's boutique picked pop this year.
09:45And so, you know, you're always a big fan of zagging when everyone's trying to zig.
09:50And...
09:50Bears ain't winning that division, brother.
09:52You know, interesting to see.
09:54I've been going through a lot of the deep dive, the Warren Sharp rest advantage, disadvantage.
10:01And they do have the single best net rest edge in football this year.
10:07They also have a first-place schedule.
10:09And I would argue, and I'm going to get you on my side on this one, the Chicago Bears are
10:15this year's Kansas City Chiefs.
10:18I'm not telling you they're only going to win six games.
10:20But go back to last year and look at the way and how and the score of the Bears' victories.
10:27Bananas.
10:29Bananas.
10:29Bananas.
10:30I'm sorry, Ben, but this play you called where Caleb snaps the ball and then runs the other way 26
10:35yards,
10:36closes his eyes, hucks the ball up into the snow, and it lands into a receiver's hand.
10:40I'm sorry.
10:41Did you call that?
10:42Like, come on.
10:44Come on.
10:45Almost all of their wins were by one score.
10:48It was miraculous comeback after miraculous comeback.
10:52Unless this defense is way better and their big free agent signing is already out for the year.
10:57Unless that defense is way better, you're asking too much of Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson, quite frankly.
11:04You can't win football games that way.
11:06Not consistently.
11:08It's difficult.
11:08You look at their schedule.
11:10They do square off with the NFC South, which definitely helps you open up at Carolina.
11:16And I think the other crossover you have is with the, yeah, the AFC East.
11:22AFC East, right.
11:22So you've got Miami out there and the Jets.
11:25Those are two very winnable games.
11:27I was going through my season total over-unders this morning, trying to figure out, on Cal sheet, trade on
11:34anything, promo code DIBS, D-I-B-S.
11:36Or Willard.
11:37I was trying to find which ones I really liked the most.
11:41And one of them I was liking early is Chicago over nine and a half wins for the year.
11:47And you and I talked about how prime they are for a regression because of the first-place schedule, the
11:53turnover differential, which was bananas, and the fact that they won all these single-score games.
12:00But I look at their schedule and the opponents they have and the rest advantage.
12:04I think those two things balance out.
12:06I'm not saying that they win the NFC North, but I'm liking over nine and a half wins for the
12:11Bears.
12:11We might need a side wager or pizza bet or something on that.
12:14But I would lean under, and it's not because I don't like the Bears, but I think every game that
12:19they play in the division is hard, number one.
12:22And, you know, you highlight that they get to play the Jets and the Dolphins.
12:25I'll highlight that they get to play the Patriots and the Bills.
12:28And they've also got Philadelphia on the schedule.
12:31They've got Jacksonville on the schedule.
12:33It's really difficult late.
12:35There's a stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas that goes Lions, Jags.
12:40Then there's the Dolphins, but then at Buffalo, Green Bay, Detroit, they finish at Minnesota.
12:47This is, yeah, this is going to be hard.
12:50This is going to be hard, especially, again, if they play the same style that they played last year.
12:56But anyway, that's enough Chicago Bears breakdown for me.
13:00You know, the ones with which I have no issue with, and it's just another list.
13:05I mean, so sports media, great.
13:06It's a list.
13:07Not going to get all bent out of shape about it.
13:09But if you want McVay and Stafford, if you want Reed and Mahomes, if you want Herbert and Harbaugh,
13:16I do think Shanahan's a better coach than Jim Harbaugh.
13:18They're very good coaches, but I understand that.
13:21Justin Herbert is a special quarterback.
13:24I know he hasn't won any playoff games, but I don't really put that on Justin.
13:29I've always thought Justin Herbert is sort of this decade's Matt Stafford with the Lions.
13:34That's how I view him.
13:35If you put Justin Herbert on a better organization, I think things would go a lot better for Herbert.
13:43The McDonald and Darnold one is interesting to me.
13:46It just feels a little flavor of the month-ish.
13:50I think that, you know, look, Darnold is solid.
13:52Mike McDonald deserves all his flowers for last year.
13:55But just because they won the Super Bowl, am I now going to vault the two of them over Kyle
14:02Shanahan and Brock Purdy?
14:03No.
14:04No.
14:05I think the Niners have the better coach and the better quarterback when it comes to that one.
14:09And why did Seattle win the Super Bowl?
14:11It was because of their ferocious defense, and they were able to run the ball.
14:15It wasn't really a Sam Darnold one-man show of throwing the ball all over the park to Jackson Smith
14:21and Jigba and the rest of them.
14:23They did it with a great defense, a very deep and diverse defense, and a great running game.
14:28No disrespect to the coach or the quarterback because they won the Lombardi, and you get all the credit for
14:33that.
14:33But just in the sake of this list, I would not put them ahead of Shanahan and Purdy either.
14:39Yeah, and I almost think, I mean, to your point, what's too low on the list are the quarterbacks who
14:46have an unproven coach.
14:48I think most fans would still take that anyway.
14:52If I offered the Niners, Josh Allen and Joe Brady for Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy, what do you think
14:57most Niner fans would say?
14:58They would take it.
14:59They would take it.
15:00Sam Wright, they would.
15:01Oh, I don't know if it makes the Super Bowl more likely, by the way.
15:04He's never been to one.
15:05Right.
15:06He's never been to one.
15:07No, he's been to one conference championship game, right?
15:10Yeah.
15:10Josh Allen.
15:11Yeah, played his ass off, too.
15:12Yeah, no doubt.
15:13I was doing some dives for higher or lower, which comes back tomorrow, and something that continues to strike me,
15:21Josh Allen has 70 career rushing touchdowns.
15:26Oh, dude, yeah.
15:27He's their goal line running back.
15:28But he has 70.
15:30Yeah.
15:30Like, he's their goal line running back.
15:32We got a lot of touchdowns to watch together.
15:36I'm trying.
15:37I'm trying so hard.
15:39They emailed me back yesterday.
15:41They're like, yeah, we're going to try to stop by.
15:47What do you mean try to stop by?
15:50What do you mean try to stop by?
15:52You're going to lock it in.
15:54I mean, we're here 20 hours a week.
15:56Like, stop on by.
15:5720 hours.
16:01He's got 79 rushing touchdowns.
16:04I apologize.
16:05I thought you said 70.
16:06I was wrong.
16:07Higher.
16:07He is 23rd all time.
16:10He has more rushing.
16:12He's about to pass Frank Gore.
16:14Oh, my God.
16:15Rushing touchdowns.
16:15Like, seriously.
16:17That's funny.
16:17It's bananas.
16:18Jeez.
16:20So, yeah.
16:21I like all those guys.
16:22But, yeah.
16:23Joe Burrell, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen are probably also a little too low on the list.
16:29Yep.
16:29And I do think that Colin puts the 9-er combo at 10 because that's what he does.
16:36And we talk about it.
16:37Yes, he knows.
16:38He knows that that moves the needle.
16:40It's the same thing of, you know, Stephen Ruiz of The Ringer who had Brock Purdy ranked number 18 or
16:45some cockamamie thing.
16:46And that way, you know, you get people to react.
16:49Mr. Irrelevant.
16:50Mr. Irrelevant.