Talking Lions in Germany as they face the Patriots

What is up? Welcome to another edition of the Sports Office. It is great to have you here with us tonight. Boys are here. Woody in the house. Oh, yeah. Blueman's in the house. Happy Veterans Day. Thank you very much. To my brothers and sisters out there in arms, happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. We appreciate you. A great special that just aired here on Fox 2. Yes, we put a lot of time and effort into it. It's the right thing to do, and we're proud to bring it to people at home. Way to go, Rich. We're proud to call you one of us here at Fox 2. We appreciate you. Hey, a lot of ways you can get involved in the show here. You can text. Here's the phone number right there. Just text the show Give us your name. Give us your topic. Shout it out. Something we're talking about or something we're not talking about. It'll pop up on the board. We'd love to hear from you on tonight's show. Also, we'd love to see you. You can zoom in and then your face would be right there and you could join the show. We'd love to hear what you have to say. We always ask you to get involved in the sports office. So, we got a lot going on. We're going to talk some NFL. It's obviously been a busy NFL week. Lions getting ready to go to Germany. Let's bring in my friend, Bruce Murray from Sirius XM NFL Radio. Hi, Bruce. Yeah, Bruce. Hi. Guys, I am so happy to be here. I've been a guest on your show a number of times, and yet I'm still waiting for an invite to be on the couch. Oh, the truth. Send it to him, Dan. Give him the invite. It is open. You can come take an Alliance game, spend Friday or Thursday on the couch. We would love to have you. You're always welcome. It's, hey, look, trade deadline. You are talking NFL every single day, and I know you got fans tweeting at you and telling you what is right and what is wrong with the world. So here's my question. How many fan bases do you think are actually happy with what their teams did, and how many of the fan bases do you think are saying, why in the world didn't we do X? Well, Dan, you know as well as I do, even in the fan bases where there are some happy people, there are going to be unhappy people. In Jacksonville, where I've heard from a lot of people, they love the fact that they're sending us all a message. And then there are others that say, boy, we really gave it back to Jordan Davis? And you and I were talking before the show about when guys get traded, now all the analytics come out. And in understanding, Jordan Davis is a big name, but there's limitations to his game. So the Jaguars got a stalwart in the middle. They lost a key piece on defense. In Hamilton, so now they bring in Davis, but they gave up a lot. If they don't win this year, those fans that seem to be happy right now are going to be looking at the draft board and go, oh yeah, we no longer have that. first round pick So you know as well as I do, there are fans in San Francisco, They got Buckner, but why didn't we do more? Because we still have some injuries. We got Keenan Allen. Why didn't we do more? You're never going to satisfy anybody. But I would say, as you asked, the happy fans come from, Jacksonville. There are thrilled fans in Minnesota. I know there's not going to be fans in Detroit that are all that happy because they weren't very busy prior to the trading deadline. But I think you have a lot on both sides of this one. Yeah, it's interesting for sure. And when you look at it, I don't know if anybody's had a trade deadline. Can you remember a team being as active as Jacksonville going out, getting a Davis, getting a Bates, getting a Godshaw? I can't remember in the NFL a team doing something like that. I can't either. Now, you know, Dan, the trading deadline was moved back pretty recently. So this flurry of activity that we've grown accustomed to, I think 18 deals were made, not on the deadline day, but in the time leading up to the deadline. This is all relatively new. So, no, there's no way a team was that active as Jacksonville. And listen, when they got Gottschalk, I don't think it was well-loved in New Orleans. You're talking about a fan base that was willing to roll out the red carpet to get a guy out of town. That would be Gottschalk, but he's a big body in the middle. Jesse Bates is obviously a good acquisition, but then they had Davis, and I'm thinking, this was a team that had a pretty good defense a couple months ago, and now they get three players to that side of the football. So no, I can't remember a team, and they really haven't been not as much as they have. I know these guys want to jump in, but I just want to say one thing. Here's the best part, and I know you get this too, Bruce. When a guy gets traded someplace, the team that gets him is usually like, this is great, and then oftentimes the team that traded him, the fans are like, Good luck. That guy stinks. That's fair. What's exactly going on? The Eagles fans right now are good with the door, David. Gottschalk is good reason by the Saints fans. And listen, you've seen sometimes a change of scenery does change what these guys can do. But sometimes coaching changes what these guys can do. We'll see what they do when they're in Jacksonville. Hey, Bruce, I got one. Kirk Cousins, he played with Terry Bradshaw, it seems, 50 years ago. What do you think about Kirk Cousins going back to Minnesota? Well, first of all, I assume you all watched Monday night. Oh, that was so bad. Oh, boy. If you're a football fan, your eyes hurt. I mean, they really did. It was hard to watch what went on. And talking with Rich Gannon today, he goes, I can't remember a veteran. This is not a young quarterback. You cannot remember a veteran quarterback put in that situation that played so poorly. And I saw Kevin O'Connell today say that it wasn't a reaction to Monday night. I'm still sure he's being gentle. I mean, that was difficult to watch. We know what Kyle O'Connor and the other teams have played. I know Kirk Cousins is old. But it's got to put a little fear in my mind because I'm on a mission right now. But think of what Kirk Cousins did in Las Vegas without the weapons he has in Minnesota with an offensive line. That's OK, but couldn't run block at all. A running game that was a bit of business. And he was still at the top of the league in most of the offensive categories. I don't think it's going to take him long to get up and running with Minnesota. And I know Kevin O'Connell was very coy today about will he play Sunday in Green Bay. I'd be shocked if he's not starting Sunday at 3, but I'd be shocked if he's not available. I'd be shocked if one of you guys is starting at 3. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It brings up the question that I have asked, and now we've seen two quarterbacks do it with consistency. How can you overthrow Justin Jefferson? The man can jump 12 feet into the air, and he's getting overthrown by a mile by Kyler Murray and by Wentz. It's been insane. It's been impossible to watch. I can't explain it. You know, Justin Jefferson, people will talk about the top receivers in the league and his name doesn't come up anymore. He's as good as he was three years ago. He's just got bad quarterback play. And when you see guys like, I can run off a list of names that are ahead of him receiving. Justin Jefferson is one of the happiest guys in that building. And I know you're going to say, isn't he the happiest? Let me throw out a couple of other guys that are happy. Dallas Turner. Andrew Van Ginkel and Brian Murphy are happy because they'll be able to get a third down conversion now. I'm sorry. Dan's looking at me. I do have a question, but it goes back to what Bruce was saying before about all the flurry of activity on the trade deadline day. What must have the – what did the war room in Jacksonville look like? I mean, were they sitting there saying, hey, look, you know what? Let's take our roster and let's just start crossing off guys like left and right. They're saying blank them picks. I mean, how could you do that in one day? I'm like, whoa. You know where James Gladstone comes from, right? He's a protege of Les Snead out in Los Angeles. So, well, we got that FM picks mentality. Of course, he said it's not about that. It's about measuring what we're bringing in versus what we're giving up in the future. I'm with you. I mean, look, Tony Fuselli is part of the brain trust down there. Obviously, Liam Cohn played a big role. But how you pull all the deals off, you have to have relationships with other general managers, number one. And I think that Howie Roseman has a relationship with... James Gladstone down there, but you also have to be willing to, as you said, tell some guys in the building that, you know what, we may not have room for you anymore when you bring in three new players. They got some, you know, Murray was banged up in the secondary, Bates comes in. Hamilton banged up on the defensive line, but they did replace those guys with other guys that were on the roster, but that was a flurry of activity, and there are some guys that aren't going to be happy, much as... Kyler Murray is not that happy in Minnesota right now. Yeah, but Bruce, you know what? It felt like if you're playing poker and you say, I need four cards. You know what I mean? It's like, whoa, you got nothing. Hey. Yeah, it sounds like you need four cards and you're looking for four aces. And you know what? They didn't bring in four aces. They probably brought in maybe a king, a jack, and who knows, maybe a six of diamonds. I don't know. But if you're one of these teams, it's an arm race. And they're already really good. I mean, Jacksonville looks legit. And I think you're just trying to say, okay, if we can add Jordan Davis and we can add Bates and we can add Godshaw to what we've got already, you feel pretty good about that. And they're they're looking at at, you know, Buffalo is the team that they've got to figure out. And if you're going to beat Buffalo, you better figure out something to do with Josh Allen. And I think they're thinking maybe they've done some of that. Right, so I think two things. You're not looking at adding players because you're trying to win your division. And I think Houston still has a chance. There's a little sneaky. But Jacksonville's going to win this division. So you're taking stock of what everybody else does. And I think you bring up a great point with Josh Allen. Maybe you could argue with Joe Burrow. What do those guys struggle with? Pressure up the middle. I mean, those guys on the outside, Jacksonville needs to get better play out of Travis Etienne. They need to get better play out of Walker. But you want to get those guys that can get that push up the middle to make those guys a little uncomfortable, get them off their spot. That's what they're looking at in Jacksonville. Won't surprise you, Bruce, that from the Motor City Casino Hotel Live line, we're getting Lions fans that are saying they're frustrated that the Lions didn't make a move. I get it. You see a lot of other teams making moves. The one thing I would say about this, though, is outside of Joey Porter Jr., whom they were in on, they didn't get, we didn't see corners traded during this period. And that's really what they needed. Maybe a linebacker as well. A lot of people are pointing to Dalen who went to Denver as a guy. But look, man, it just is not, whether you agree with it or not, it has not been Brad Holmes' M.O. to make a move at the deadline, other than Zadarius Smith a couple years ago. Right. Right. I mean, listen, first of all, You know this as well as I do, Dan. It's almost like fantasy football. You always value your personnel or your draft capital more than you value the other player. And the other team goes, wait, this guy's worth a lot more than that. It takes two to tango. It hasn't been in their personality. And there's no question they could have used players to upgrade their secondary. Not arguing that. But the Green Bay Packers aren't very active. Now, what you'd say is, but they're going to get Michael Parsons back. You guys are going to get Kirby Joseph back. That, to me, is almost like an acquisition. And I don't know that there was somebody out there, Porter was already in Dallas, that was going to be a game-changing player for you. So there were some subtle moves, as you pointed out, with guys in the secondary moving on. I mean, listen, Amari Hooker's a safety, obviously, not a corner, which is where you have more help. He goes on to Buffalo. But I don't know what deals were out to be made. I don't know what was being asked for. And you know as well as I do, nobody does because they weren't made. And they probably made a lot of phone calls. And if they could have gotten something at the right price, it would have been done. But Joseph is your addition. Parsons is the addition in Green Bay. Joseph's going to be the addition. Yeah, they're certainly hoping. It's not going to be this week. We know that already from Dan Campbell. I think they're looking at Tampa, assuming that there's no setbacks between now and then for Kirby Joseph. Listen, we're going to take a break. We're going to come right back. Bruce Murray, Sirius XM NFL Radio. Get an NFL question. Send it in. Guys on the couch, I'm here. Bruce is here. You're here. More when we come back right after this. Woo-hoo! All right, welcome back. Sports Office, Bruce Murray, Sirius XM, NFL Radio is with us. I'm not going to do this. Questions from the Motor City Hotel Casino Live Line. Get on it! What is the chest injury to golf? Could it be a factor in Sunday's game? That's from Bob in Shelby Township. I don't think it's significant. I think he'll be just fine. Hi, Dan, will you be at Fan Fest this weekend in Munich? That's from Stephen McComb. Yes, I will be. Oh, look at you! You will be! Jeff Holloway, who's our photographer I'm working with, is a big drinker. He's a big drinker, so they have beer there. I plan on seeing what this Stein thing is all about. I don't think I'd be doing my job if I didn't do that. Okay, Bruce, I have a high-level, intricate football question for you. Is Justin Herbert any good? That's good. That's high level. I'm humble. How much time do we have? Ha, ha, ha, ha. The floor is yours. Let me be fair. I'm not the one to ask that question, but I posed that exact question to Rich Gannon on Monday because it's hard to ignore what we have seen from him. And the answer is this. Yes, he's a really good football player. You can't argue with what he's accomplished in this league leading up to this. He was on a Hall of Fame track. He was doing things in this league that hadn't been done before statistically. But he had some rough times in some big games. There's no question about it. I'm not going to argue that. Oh, by the way, so did the guy that's now going to be quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. But he is a high-level quarterback. He is a very good quarterback. He is in a terrible situation right now with an offensive coordinator that, for some reason, doesn't really mix. And, oh, by the way, people may not want to admit this. The head coach right now is not in a position to fix things. He's not the guy that goes in there and calls plays. He's not the guy that goes in there and says, this is what we need to do. He's also, my understanding of him, he's a little conflict avoidant. And so he doesn't want to get in Mike McDaniel's way right now. But I think he's got a quarterback that has lost all confidence that needs to, I would argue, needs to sit down. And stop hearing the noise of he's going to be the greatest quarterback of all time. Maybe take a break. I don't think the Chargers will do that because he's without a doubt the best player on the roster. And by the way, I don't think Herbert wants to sit. But he needs a break. And I think this offseason is going to give him that. But I would expect him to come back next year and once again be able to play at a high level. That's a long answer to a very simple question. No, but I think it's a question we're asking because their season has been unthinkably bad. And I would just throw this out, too. Do you know how many people were so angry that the Lions didn't hire Mike McDaniel? And granted, people didn't know anything about Drew Petzing for the most part, and he came from Arizona, and you're thinking, Arizona? Who is this guy? There was a lot of that, yeah. I mean, this has been brutal for Mike McDaniel. And when he stands up at the podium, it only gets worse. No, listen, I remember meeting Mike McDaniel for the first time at the Combine when he was hired to be the head coach of Miami, And my first instinct was... Well, this guy's a little off. I don't know if this is going to work out. Yeah. And then we saw him, his offense in Miami, which really played well. He is very good with the running game. They haven't gotten that. I can't explain why. I'm with you. I would have been upset if my team didn't get him. Now, I knew Drew Petzick from visiting the Cardinals many training camps, and I thought he was a good hire. But listen, put me in that category of people that thought, This was going to be the right fit in Los Angeles. I am shocked at how bad it's been. Yeah, really shocked because Herbert came with a ton of promise. And with Harbaugh going there, he had a ton of juice behind him after leaving Michigan and all that. Hey, we're in the NFL now. It's going to be great. He was terrific in San Francisco. It's not great. Not in San Diego. I'm swell. I still think of the Chargers, right? Yeah. But, yeah, it's not good. Just going back to Herbert for a second. His first two years in the league, he's been for almost 10,000 yards. And about 90 touchdowns. That just doesn't come accidentally. I don't care who you are. You can't do that accidentally. I am shocked by what we're seeing out there. What do you think the disconnect is? I think if I knew, I think if anybody knew they were trying to fix it, they've had no answers. I mean, are we going to sit here and say the Titans are a better football team than them, the Dolphins are a better football team than them? No. They've both got to win, and the Chargers still can't get out of their own way. If I knew that, trust me, I wouldn't be sitting here with Dan. Well, both those teams would trade what they've got for Justin Herbert. Oh, no doubt. They'd trade what they've got for him in a second. And you know what? But and that's why I'm sure teams called the Chargers about him, and the Chargers probably said, no way. Because, I mean, I'm assuming Jim Harbaugh probably doesn't survive this because this is just unthinkably horrible. And it's going to be, if that job comes open, You're going to have a lot of people that want to go there just because you've got him in place. 100%. 100%. 100%. I mean, most guys lose their jobs because they don't have a quarterback. And then you start rebuilding their organization, a coach comes in, you've got to draft one and get a little lucky. I think you'd be, I mean, and we had an offseason this year where we saw that a little differently, but this is like being Liam Coen down in Jacksonville, I think, where you inherit Trevor Lawrence. And you don't have to wait to rebuild things. You're ready to hit the ground running. And we saw the effects of that last year. Bruce, what are you hearing in Baltimore? You know, the status, Lamar Jackson. What's going to happen in Baltimore? What are people telling you? I think, you know, it's been really quiet on the Baltimore front, which is interesting. I think at the beginning they went out and got Cam Jurgens, and I think the message was we need to kind of shore things up up front because we can be competitive. And now Lamar's been in and out of the lineup. They've got some other injury problems as well. I think they're looking at a division where Pittsburgh is. They may not have a lot of sex appeal, even though they have Aaron Rodgers, but they're 6-2, and McCarthy's done a good job. Right now, we're seeing what's going on in Cincinnati. Interestingly enough, like, Baltimore's one of those teams that we've talked to people there, and I've talked to a couple of guys that cover the team, and neither of them had any real answers. I think they're hoping that they're holding out hope that at some point Jackson will return. I don't think they're going to play themselves back into it, but... Jesse Minter wants to win football games there, and I don't have a great explanation for what their plan is going forward. It's the Jacoby Brissett era from here on out. Oh, boy. That'll move the needle. You don't want it. I don't know if they had another quarterback that could walk upright at this point. They were all hurt. That's terrible. Well, I mean, look, Joe Foniano. Or Panano, or whatever the guy's name was earlier this week. Oh, that was bad. Yeah, Joe Foniano, who was a walk-on at Maine. And then made his way to Connecticut, was probably not ready to play under the biggest lights. And what does it tell you that Arizona, who started the season with Jacoby Brissett, went from first to third string and they wanted him out of it. I like Jacoby, by the way. He's a good guy and he's a professional quarterback. He won't kill you on Sundays, but I think you know what you're going to get. And let's face it, even with a backup quarterback in Huntley, who was closer to Lamar Jackson and maybe the equivalent of Brissett, Derrick Henry's a different guy when Jackson doesn't play. So that offense, there's no simple solutions there when Lamar Jackson's sidelined. Yeah, they're going to have a lot of problems with Baltimore, especially with Henry getting a little bit older now. And who are they going to get in there? It's like, whoa. I got one for you. Now, we're looking down the road, of course, but what about that Thanksgiving Day game, Chicago Lions? I mean, that could be a huge game. Well, Bruce, we were talking beforehand. The North is insane right now. Yeah, it's must-see TV, the North. Bears, Lions, Vikings, two losses, Packers with three losses, and they play the Vikings this week in Green Bay. So, we were talking about this before we got on the air. First of all, we know this. The NFC East is sending one. And right now, it looks like it could be the Giants. I haven't written off Dallas yet. I don't know if you heard this. It happened while we were on the air. But the NFC South has lost its charter order. They've been relegated? Regulated, right, yeah. Yeah. They're like a fraternity that did something wrong. They're going to be kicked out of the league. But you look out west, and you've got two teams with four losses. The Rams are dealing with injuries, and I don't even think they're playing great right now. The Seahawks have four losses. I know there's games that are going to be played in the NFC North where teams will beat each other up. But I think we could be looking at all four of those. I said it on my show today. It would not shock me if all four were good enough to go to the postseason. And I think they win a lot of their games outside the division. Love it. It's crazy. It's going to be real interesting. That's interesting, and Packers... Big game for them at home this week. That was a bad loss in week one. They were up, and then Minnesota ran right by them. They've got to try to figure that thing out, and they don't want to be four losses in that division right now because that can be difficult. Packers don't seem to need a run game at all. No. We'll see what happens. That was really good what they did to the Patriots. Bruce, good stuff, brother. We appreciate you. Woo-hoo! Love seeing you guys, and the next time it will be on the couch. There you go. You got an opening invitation, my friend. Bruce Murray, Sirius XM, NFL Radio. Join us right there. We will take a break, close this show out when we come back. Boys on the couch are going to stick around. I hope you do too. We'll be right back. You can't go in a certain direction without getting a certain reaction. Jim Harbaugh can't win if he doesn't cheat. Oh, yeah, always. That's the Motor City Casino Hotel live line. Uh, look. Look back, all Detroit teams have problems making move at the trade deadlines. Look, we haven't seen a lot of it. I mean, the last team that was really active at a trade deadline, probably Tigers. Wings back in the day used to be active. Yeah, used to be. But recently we haven't seen, you know, our team swing big deals and be big buyers at the trade deadline. I mean, obviously a couple years ago the Lions got Z'Darrius Smith. Right, that was really the last. They had to have him. Right, but that was really the last big one that we've seen in really anything, right? Yeah. First round. Well, that's true for the Wings, yeah. That was a decent-sized deal, no doubt about that. But something needs to happen. I want to see one of these teams just maybe pull a Jacksonville, like where you all of a sudden get rid of like 18 guys in one day and just bring in 20 more. See what the Pistons do. I mean, let's see where they are at the trade deadline and whether or not they feel – I'm not into it. No, I don't want any – I don't need a 38-year-old. Player coming in here or anything like that, but look, I like where they are. But I think we've still felt like, you know, one more scorer, one more guy that can create a little bit would certainly help out. But let's see where they are. I mean, the East is going to be interesting this year to see what we've got. Especially when Jalen Duren comes back. I mean, he's been out for what, two weeks now counting money? Yeah, he's been holding the fort without him. He's been pretty good. Played very well. P. Reid has stepped up in his absence. That's Paul Paul. It's been not bad. All right, that's going to do it for this edition. Thank you so much for being here in the sports office tonight. Woody, thank you. You got it. Thank you again. Happy Veterans Day, my man. Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother. That's going to do it for tonight. Have a great night, everybody. We'll see you back here again tomorrow night on the Sports Office.