Things got HEATED with Stephen A Smith and Jay talks about it

Let's talk quarterbacks, the two Super Bowl quarterbacks with Steve Logan, former head coach at East Carolina, former offensive coordinator at Boston College, worked with NFL Europe for a while, has been in a lot of plays. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he's been everywhere. San Francisco 49ers, as a matter of fact, my wife, who's a big 49ers fan, has a San Francisco 49ers jacket given to her by Steve Logan. And he knows more about quarterbacks than anyone I know.

Once again, coming up in a little bit, for you parents who don't like it when your kids play too many video games, I'll let you know when to turn the radio off, because we're going to completely destroy what your notion is of time not well spent. Until then, we do have a Super Bowl at the end of the week. When I think of the quarterback contrast that we have at the Super Bowl, the only person I could think of to call to talk about it, because we do have two very, very different quarterbacks in Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes. Steve Logan, former East Carolina coach, former radio partner in crime.

First of all, thank you so much for doing this. So let's start with Mahomes, since he's always, it seems, in the Super Bowl, and he is probably going to win the MVP this year. Hurts might be second. So let's start with Mahomes.

And when you watch him, what sticks out to you the most? Well, I'll tell you what I would do, you know, this conversation about these two quarterbacks and the NFL and all this other stuff, Adam. Bill Parcells, once upon a time, said this, we can only coach what they send us. Well, think back when the air raid system became the du jour of college football back when Mike Leach was at Texas Tech and that thing began to take root.

I was in NFL Europe at the time and Graham Harold, David Klingler is that the name? Those guys were coming out and they would come into the NFL and fail miserably over and over and over. And they would be sent to NFL Europe. They couldn't even compete in NFL Europe. And the point I'm making about this is that, you know, when you know, when the Patrick Mahomes is sent to the NFL, well, the NFL has slowly bent in the direction of these air raid type collegiate offenses.

Why? Because you got to coach what they send you eventually. And that's really profound when you think about it. And Parcells said that years and years ago. And so, you know, the West Coast five step drop, seven step drop a middle field triangle generation that I was raised in.

It almost doesn't exist. The elements are always be there, but suddenly you've got two quarterbacks and two offenses and really to the credit of both coaches that have received what was sent to them and molded a quarterback friendly idea for both these young men to prosper and become great. But it's just, you know, I think that that has to be mentioned before you even start the discussion about the two quarterbacks.

It's good coaching that has received what was sent and bent to that direction rather than just, you know, 15 years ago going, you know, you guys are not you're not what we want. You're not what we need when in fact, you know, if you bend their direction, you can actually create a great quarterback in terms of the numbers. And we're talking with Steve Logan here on the Adam Gold Show in terms of the numbers. Mahomes in terms of, you know, all of the measurables is trending to be the greatest we've ever seen.

Now, it's obvious that Andy Reid's offense and their pass heavy lean lends itself to all of that. But he's got something about him that is just different than just about everybody else. What is different about Mahomes, maybe in the way he uses his mobility?

Well, he's he's the gold standard that you're searching for. If you go all the way back again, go back to Michael Vick and the impact that he had on the league and his impact was with his feet. Right. And we all know there was a tremendous frustration with his ability to throw the football from the pocket.

And I would fast forward to what who everybody knows around. Here's Cam Newton. He had the same kind of skill set. Well, you get, you know, you move forward and, you know, let's don't forget that Aaron Rodgers, when he was young, could run with anybody.

Yep. And Steve Young could run with anybody. But both those young, both those men, Rodgers and Steve Young, back in the day were molded by the NFL to behave in a West Coast way and not run around and go crazy. But and they learn to beat you from the pocket.

Well, you know, I would remind everybody to, you know, when you talk about the numbers, I'll just give a quick illustration. Back in the day, a quarterback would come under center and we would have a run play called. Well, if the box was stacked, there were too many defenders to block. We would audible to a pass play.

Well, the invention or the, you know, the evolution of what we now call an RPO, that's not necessary anymore. You just snap the football and you count the box on the run, so to speak, either hand it off or you throw the ball out to the wide receiver. Therefore, these passing game numbers now have become really convoluted because, you know, half of these throws were initially a run and you're satisfied now to throw in the ball out to wide receiver. He gains 234. Maybe he, maybe he escapes a tackle and goes 80, but you can see what's happening to the passing game.

It's, it's evolved into a whole nother set of numbers. I should say. Steve Logan is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. How do you teach or do you? The improvisation of Mahomes and what separates him from a lot of other quarterbacks. Not just that, you know, he thinks about these things, but he releases the ball in from different angles. Sometimes it's underhanded, it's backhanded.

I think I saw him throw a left-handed pass, sort of like a pitch forward in a, in a recent game. Do you teach those? Do you work on those things? You do.

You do work on the arm angles. Even as far back into the early 90s, when I'll describe a football play for you, the quarterback goes to his left, fakes the ball to the running back and comes back to his right. We call that a naked bootleg where you don't pull a guard in front of the quarterback. It's a common play even to this day in the NFL. On that play, I can remember vividly coaching Jeff Blake at East Carolina.

Okay. I want you to come out on this thing. There's going to be an unblocked defensive end. I want you to pump fake up high and throw a sidearm pass underneath his shoulder pads, underneath, you know, underneath the armpit of the rushing defender. So, you know, those things were taught routinely by everybody in the industry and that that's nothing new.

It's become, um, very attractive to talk about. Like it, it's never happened, but all the great quarterbacks can manipulate their arm angle to get the ball through a throwing lane or, and all you got to do is watch Aaron Rodgers. Oh, I mean, he's got six different arm angles and always has, you know, the great ones do it.

Do you teach it? Yeah, some, but, uh, a lot of them will, like I say, they'll overcome the coaching and just do it for you. Steve Logan is here with us on the Adam Gold show. Jalen Hurts. He was drafted probably not to be a starting quarterback. Um, but there's something about Hurts, whether it's leadership or coachability that has gotten him all the way to this point where, uh, Jeff Lurie, the owner of the Eagles, basically said he's, uh, you know, he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He's not traditional.

It's more of a runner at times and a passer. When you look at Jalen Hurts, what do you see? Well, um, I would tell you this, that I have a very, very, very close friend that works at Alabama. And I would talk to him and it wasn't more than a month or so ago when we saw, or I saw at least that, Hey, you know what? The Eagles are probably going to go to the Super Bowl with this kid.

And I called my friend and I said, in all honesty, could you have called this? And he said to me, he said, Steve, for, I think they had him at Alabama three years, maybe four with a red shirt. And then he goes to Oklahoma and the rest is history. But he said, Steve, the entire time we had him in every box that you wanted to check the intellect, the drive, the competitive, the teammate, the locker room, everything on that young man was checked with a five star.

The only thing was we'd go out to practice. And as you can tell on any slow motion video, kind of like Peyton Manning, I don't think Jalen Hurts has ever thrown a spiral. You know, he just doesn't, but it's accurate. It's timely. It's, it's, it's catchable. And so, you know, those things that coaches look for and I'm guilty of it. You know, you'd like to see a nice firm spin on ball, uh, those kinds of things. And you're watching this ball wobble all over the field, but it connects accurately.

It connects on time. And then like you say, and again, this gets back to the coaching, the head coach of the Eagles could only coach what was given to him. Right. And he has done a great job of molding a friendly offense for Jalen hurts to display his skill set. So there you go again, you know, coaching matters, players matter, but, but it's a symbiotic relationship.

You cannot have a great player without a good coach and you cannot have a good coach without a great player. It just doesn't work. Yeah. We have these debates about who's at Brady or Belicheck and blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, come on. It's both. It's always, it's always been both, but, um, sometimes a great quarterback can overcome a bad coach. Um, but I don't think it can happen the other way. It's really hard for a great coach. You can overcome it. You can overcome it in moments, but you can't sustain it.

Right. The coaching matters in the long run. And so does the player in the long run.

I've, I've had fabulous moments with some not real good quarterbacks, but then eventually they break your heart. They can't sustain it. And the same thing is true with the coaching. All right.

I got about 60 seconds left. I want to real, really quick touch on Jalen hurts ability to run the football. You always involved this in your offenses. It's more than just being involved in the offense.

It's a feature. Uh, Jalen hurts has over 1500 yards rushing in the last two years combined. He was among the leaders in the NFL in rushing touchdowns this year and last year. Is that sustainable for Hertz overtime?

No, it is not. And that's, you know, that's Cam Newton. Um, that is, uh, Michael Vick eventually. Um, you know, the, the Andy Reed grabbed a hold of Michael Vick and, and molded him to be a relatively okay pocket passer, never great, but he had to do that because Michael, what he loses a step and guess what? And he's hurt. And that is the inevitable inevitable end to somebody that's running the football first.

You can, again, cam Newton was what 17 and one MVP player of the year and all that stuff doesn't win a super bowl, but that kind of crested at that point. Here come the injuries. Here comes the NFL once again, telling you, we're going to make you win from the pocket eventually. And that'll be the fate of Jalen Hertz. And so you say, well, what about Patrick Mahomes? Well, Patrick Mahomes is more capable of reducing the number of scrambles and crazy runs and manipulating the game from the pocket. And that's just a matter of fact.

And when, when that's, when that shows up and proves me wrong, I'll be the first to admit it for the homes to reduce those. He might have to be on meds, but, uh, cause he is, he is a freak all over the field. Steve Logan, I appreciate your time as always. You're the best. Good luck in tennis today, man.

Thanks a lot. Steve Logan is playing tennis this afternoon. So it looks pretty outside. It is a very nice day, uh, for tennis.