Herm Edwards, ESPN Football Analyst

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Find it wherever you buy laundry products. Let's welcome in Herm Edwards right now, who's kind enough to join us on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, I know it's been a while. Appreciate the time, as always. How you been?

I'm good. Trying to study all these games this weekend, obviously. Every time you think you've figured that team out, they play and then you go, who are those guys? Somebody else is wearing their uniforms? I don't know.

Can't figure it out. Yeah, and we saw that last week with the Raiders. They get rid of Josh McDaniel's and Antonio Pierce injected some life in that team. You were with Antonio when you were coaching at Arizona State, and he was on your staff. Just what do you think he brings to a football team now in the NFL?

Well, obviously, you can see his energy. He has a wealth of knowledge. Good playing in the league, obviously. Former player, played on the Super Bowl team, played for Coach Coughlin. I know he learned a lot from him. I think right away, when you make a change like that and you hire AP, the thing you realize is that players can connect with him because he's a former player. Now, that doesn't mean every former player is a good coach or you have to be a player to be a coach, but I just think in that situation, the transition from one personality to another made a difference last week.

Now, you got week two, so now they're kind of all settled in. When you become a new head coach and you've been on that staff, it's not like you can implement a lot of things because you can't change the offense, you can't change the defense, but what you can do, you can simplify some things on both sides of the ball and say, this is the things that we need to get done for us to win this week. When it comes to maybe getting that interim tag removed and becoming the permanent coach, I know it's early, but just a few years ago, Rich Basaccia takes over, did an incredible job, leads that team to the playoffs, and then he didn't get the job and they ended up hiring Josh McDaniels. Do you think he has a legitimate chance Antonio Pierce to become the full-time head coach or is it, hey, we just saw something similar a few years ago and they'll probably hire somebody else? Well, I don't know that. They did that after you just mentioned Basaccia, get them to the playoffs.

That's pretty good, by the way, last time I checked. To take a team to the playoffs, don't look at it lightly, don't act like it's easy to do because it's very difficult, but I just think, you know, he'll get weighed on what he does during the season, how competitive they are. They've got what, eight games left.

I mean, obviously if you can make a little run, that would be a good thing, but not only for the team, but for the league. When the Raiders are relevant, the league is better, to be quite honest. And I'll go back to the history of when I played, and I know I'm one of the old guys. I did have a face mask.

I had a helmet. I ain't that old, but you know, in that era in the 70s and even before I got in the league in the 60s and even into the 80s, the Raiders were relevant, and when they're relevant, the league is better. It just is, and so hopefully they can string some wins here together and get that base, that fan base of the Raiders excited.

That would be a good thing. You know, you brought up your age, and you mentioned you're from a different era, Herm Edwards. I'm just wondering, when people run into you today on the streets, do they bring up more so, hello, you play to win the game, or do they bring up Miracle at the Meadowlands? According to who the person is, right? If you're somebody my age, around my age, you get both.

If you're the young person, you just get the other one, right? Miracle at the Meadowlands, they go, what was it? Was that even in color?

Did they even have color? Tell them you played, right? Let me get to, well, actually one more on the Raiders, and then I'll get to your other former, you know, a former team of yours in the Jets. If Mark Davis called you and said, I'm thinking about hiring Antonio Pierce full time to be the head coach, what would you tell him?

I would say do it. And hopefully, you know, by him, these next eight, he'll demonstrate the fact that he's the right guy for this team right now. And then that's what you got to look at. And I think there's a reason they hired him, right? I mean, they could have hired anyone on the staff, they chose him.

So there's a reason for that. They're giving him an opportunity, obviously, with nine real games or eight real games, really nine games to really autograph his performance. It is a, it's a look at, okay, if you were to coach, what are you going to do? And he's put in a tough spot, you know, he's put in a tough spot. He can't hire anybody, he's with the guys he's with. He can't put in a new offense, as I said before, a new defense, he has to find a way to make these guys play with more energy and believe.

And I think anytime you win, that always helps you. Talking to the coach, Herm Edwards right now on CBS Sports Radio, the Jets with Robert Salah right now in a tough spot has a really good defense. But offensively, we all know Zach Wilson isn't the answer. I know their options are only Tim Boyle and Trevor Simeon right now. But have you seen enough?

And would you make a change? Well, I think look, as we know, Wilson won last week. And so I think that's the formula. Now, if he starts throwing the ball to the opponent, then you got a problem. If he starts holding the ball and turn the ball over, then you're going to have to make a change. I think this team understands his destiny.

His destiny is real simple. You got to make games ugly. You can't get this thing out to score lead by the opponent where it forces you to go back and throw the football. Because that would be bad.

We know that, right? Because this team is not built to do that. Due to some injuries with the offensive line, what it is able to do, though, it can keep the score down. You methodically move the ball, get some good field position, and your special teams play. And just, you know, you can win with field goals. Because that's how good this defense is. You just can't give the defense a short field. That's how you got to play.

I mean, you got to play with this in mind. Hey, look, punting is good. If we make this guy go on a long field, that helps our defense. We can't give our defense short fields defense.

And if you can do that, you'll be in a lot of these games. When we get to CJ shroud, he was remarkable last week. He's been remarkable all season. But that was some performance, the 490 yards and leads the drive right at the end of the game to cap off his fifth touchdown has the bangles this week. So a tough opponent, but what had been your impression so far in CJ shroud? No, he's by far. He's a rookie of the year.

Going right now. I mean, you could give it to him. I don't think his play is going to diminish. I think he's going to continue to play well. You know, this is a young football team. If you'd have told me these guys would be four and four with a with a first year head coach, and I think the head coaches done a great job.

And you look at them, you know, you look at the numbers. The first thing that's odd is that you have a rookie quarterback. They're 27th running the ball. And they're fourth passing the ball.

And it's like that didn't even make sense. You got a rookie quarterback, your run game is okay. But you're leading on this young quarterback to really get you through and he's doing it and you got to give that office team a lot of credit.

They protect him pretty good. He doesn't throw the ball to the opponent, which is very difficult for young quarterbacks. And you think about one of the greatest quarterbacks ever play in our game was Peyton Manning. He threw 28 of them this first year. He threw 28 people fail to realize that right. And I just think the way he's playing one interception 14 touchdowns.

That's pretty impressive. And also he has leadership and you have a head coach who knows the area very well and knows the organization and was a leader and like an extra coach on the field and D'Amico Ryans and it just shows you, you get the right coach, you get the right quarterback and you have a positive mentality. Things could change rather quickly in the NFL.

Yeah, they can. And I think this ownership is very fortunate to have both of them to have this quarterback and D'Amico Ryans because this has been an ownership and a team that has kind of been one of those you look at from afar and go, what are they doing? And so I think this is a plus for them.

It's a plus for their fan base and it's good for the league as well. When we get to the Browns and Ravens this weekend, I can't wait for this game. We know the defenses are incredible. A lot of pressure on Deshaun Watson to start earning that contract and we haven't seen him on the field the last few years.

What type of performance do you think we see from Deshaun Watson this weekend against Baltimore? Well, I think the thing that he has to understand is that these are two of the better defenses in the National Football League. You're talking about the number one defense involved in the Browns and the number two defense in the Ravens. They can both get after the quarterback. The Ravens have, what, 35 sacks. Only given up, what, 13 points.

The Browns given up about 17. So this is a game where I think Deshaun Watson can't get into the mode of I got to try to out-compete, obviously, Lamar Jackson. I think both quarterbacks have the ability to extend the play. Lamar is extending the play now, but he's extending the play to throw, which is kind of fun to watch.

I mean, he's starting to get familiar with this offense. They're in the same division, which makes it very interesting because all of a sudden, this division that these guys playing, AFC, I mean, can four teams get into the playoffs? That would be the first time in the history that a division team, division teams in one division all get in. I'm not saying it can happen, but you know what?

The likelihood of it, it ain't that far-fetched. But they play each other, so that'll be interesting. But this is a game that I just think turnovers will play a major factor. What you do on first down will play a big role offensively because of the fact that both these teams can rush the quarterback. They have good secondary players. They have good rushers. Miles Garrett is, right now, his numbers, when you look at him, he's the front-runner to be the defensive player of the year. He can wreck the game. We know Baltimore has a bunch of guys that can wreck the game. And this is the scary part, that if the Baltimore Ravens have the most wins and get home field advantage in the playoffs, who's going in there to beat them? I don't think that's going to happen. It's not even Kansas City? Not in Baltimore.

I don't know. Not happening. You can say that I said it on the station. Not happening. You go into Baltimore, you go into Baltimore, forget about it. We have to get you into that Kansas City locker room and then say you play to win the game. No one's giving us a chance. You know, I love the cheese.

I think Mahone is the best quarterback on the planet, but you have to go into Baltimore to play those guys in the playoffs? No, no. Good luck.

Good luck to you. That's hard. That's a hard one now because they're rolling right now. They are flat playing really good. The Chiefs are good. We should expect so much out of them. And that's why when they're kind of like, what's wrong with them?

There's nothing wrong with them. They're like the Eagles, right? We expect so much out of the Eagles. The Eagles are sitting here 8-1 and everybody's going, what's wrong with them? I get it, I get it, but they're 8-1.

I mean, you know, it's an ugly 8-1, but they're still 8-1. Herm, always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for jumping on board with us today. You have a great weekend. My pleasure, my friend. Thank you. There he is. Coach Herm Edwards joining us on CBS Sports Radio.