Transcript

Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd

From The Herd with Colin Cowherd · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 30 min · 5,938 words · 54 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd", an episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd published January 15, 2026 (30 min, about 5,938 words). It mentions 7 people, works and ideas, including Eagles, Kawhi Leonard, Devin Witherspoon, Colin Cowherd, Houston Texans.

What this episode is about

In a discussion highlighting key NFL matchups, Tom Brady analyzes the pressure on quarterbacks in high-stakes games, specifically focusing on Sam Darnold's struggles with interceptions and the importance of fundamentals in crucial moments. He draws parallels between the intense anticipation surrounding the 49ers-Seahawks game and his experiences covering boxing, emphasizing the narrow margin for error in pivotal matchups against strong opponents.

Key takeaways

  • In the NFL, big moments demand precision; a small error can flip a game on its head.
  • Sam Darnold's struggle with interceptions highlights the razor-thin margins in playoff performance.
  • The 49ers' strength lies in their defense, but can they match Seattle's emotional intensity?
  • Playing as an underdog forces a team to embrace risk; cautious play often leads to missed opportunities.
  • Tom Brady's presence is a reminder: experience can elevate the stakes in already high-pressure situations.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Eagles
  2. – 10:00: Devin Witherspoon
  3. – 15:00: Eagles
  4. – 25:00: Hard Rock Bet, Hard Rock Bet
  5. – 30:00: Eagles

Notable quotes from "Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd"

  • Very hard to overcome turnovers in the NFL. Last week, I think was very much an anomaly for the 49ers. They lost the turnover battle to the Eagles and still won the game. The…
    about Eagles · at
  • Sideline to sideline. They'll strip the ball. And I do feel Seattle has that cuz Witherspoon is so aggressive and so strong. The way to beat I'm wondering if the way to beat…
    about Devin Witherspoon · at
  • Today's show brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet. Now with Miami making the national championship, you know Hard Rock Stadium is going to be absolutely fire. If.
    about Hard Rock Bet · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Kawhi Leonard — Person · Mentioned as a player whose absence affects the 49 · 1 mention
    His injury impacts the team's performance and strategy
    The loss of KD last week hurts, but everyone's been kind of writing the Niners off all year. They've won, I think, eight of nine, which is ridiculous considering all their.
  • Devin Witherspoon — Person · 2 mentions · first at
  • Colin Cowherd — Person · 2 mentions

Companies & orgs

  • Eagles — Company · Referenced team · 3 mentions · first at
    NFL team mentioned in the context of their game against the 49ers.
  • Houston Texans — Company · 2 mentions

Sponsors

  • Hard Rock Bet — Company · Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at
    Presenting sponsor of the show, promoting betting services for sports events.
  • Hard Rock Bet — Sponsor · Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at
    Presenting sponsor of the podcast episode, promoting betting on sports events.
    Today's show brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet. Now with Miami making the national championship, you know Hard Rock Stadium is going to be absolutely fire. If.

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to the Herd's 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. Well, the uh I'm telling you, Tom Brady's getting good games this year. 49ers at the Seahawks is I remember when I got out of college, I got a job in Vegas, and I had never covered boxing before. And you'd get these fights and I was watching Mike Tyson in his early 20s and it's the only thing I've ever covered that I was nervous. I was nervous for the fighters that had to face Mike Tyson and the the Seahawks Niners game. I was thinking about it this morning and there's so much pressure on Sam Darnold to get that first, you know, big playoff, but I'm like nervous for him. It's Thursday. It just this game feels so big. Division rivals Shanahan and and Mike McDonald.

And with that, Tom Brady's going to be there. 49ers Seahawks for Fox. This is uh I mean this is honestly this game is I I mean I feel I feel it like I It's Thursday and I can feel it. What do you make because I've I've defended quarterbacks who throw picks. Stafford's had seven in seven games. I've defended Andrew Luck for years. You were an outlier. You didn't throw a lot of them. Pretty does. Darnold does. How do you explain Darnold's struggles with interceptions in in mostly big games? How do you explain it?

Well, it's it's certainly a problem. I think when you get to these big moments in big games, whether that's, you know, certainly playoffs or some of these games that have happened at the end of the year determining whether you're going to get in or not, the margin of error when you play good teams is just very small. So, that's where the fundamentals come into play. You have to, you know, in order to throw the ball accurate, okay? And if you throw it accurately, make good decisions, you're not going to throw a lot of interceptions. So like, you know, Aaron Rogers is a great example of that.

If your mechanics are a little off or you're not, you know, that accurate and you get late in the season, there's a little wet conditions, a little windy conditions, you're playing against a defense that's got a good rush and a good coverage scheme, so you're a little unsure where you're throwing, that's where all the problems come into play. So, it's over time you need to refine your techniques so that when you get in these big moments, you're as accurate as you can possibly be because you have the least margin of error.

Yeah. And then you need coaches that are stressing you in practice all the time so that you learn to deal with the stress emotion that you feel when you need to perform at a high level. So, this is not a game where, you know, it's very hard to overcome turnovers in the NFL. Last week, I think was very much an anomaly for the 49ers. They lost the turnover battle to the Eagles and still won the game. The Eagles played very poorly. We covered that game. The 49ers are going to have to play a great game against Seattle. This defense is entirely different than, you know, the ones that they faced. And you saw what happened in the week 18 game with the Niners and the Seahawks. Niners just couldn't break any tackles. There wasn't much action in the pass game. I'm really interested to see how coach Shanahan kind of devises a game plan that gives his guys the best opportunity possible.

The loss of KD last week hurts, but everyone's been kind of writing the Niners off all year. They've won, I think, eight of nine, which is ridiculous considering all their injuries. But, um, I'm really excited to go up there and check this game out in Seattle. It's going to be so loud. This place is going to be rocking. This is going to be one of the great games of the weekend.

You know, it's funny. They're going to go in as an underdog. Tom, you did not go in as an underdog very often, but I said earlier this week, I can see Seattle, and this is what you went into games knowing you were the better team and and being cautious. In fact, if you go look at your Super Bowl history, not a lot of first quarter scoring. You had a quarterback advantage. You quarterback, you had a coaching advantage. You often were at least as good, generally the better team. So my take is if I'm Seattle, I my thing is Seattle's going to play kind of cautiously thinking we got the deeper better roster. We're at home. How do the NerS and again you weren't in this position a lot. They're not as deep as Seattle and they're on the road and they come out of a physically exhausting game against Philadelphia.

Yeah. When you were the rare underdog, does it change the game plan, the mindset of how you attack it early? I think there's a part of the game where you realize this is playoff football. There's nothing tomorrow that's guaranteed. There's 60 to 70 plays left in this game. Look, with Seattle's defense, last time the Niners played them, they had like less than 50 plays. I think it was like 43 plays or something in the game. They lost the time of possession almost two to one. So, it's really interesting to see this game because how challenging it's going to be for these 49ers to go in there as the underdog coming off last week's game and then still having to emotionally get up for an environment that is really hostile to the to the opposing team. The Niners can do it. They've been there before. They've played the Seahawks a lot. It's not like there's going to be some intimidation. It's just do they

have enough firepower? Do they have enough? Can they just find a way through complimentary football through what they've done defensively? I thought defensively last week they were just awesome. They play so hard. They have such a great play style. The Niners defense. If they can play that way again and buy enough time, the 49ers have shown a little magic late in the season that they can figure out how to come back and win a lot of these games even if it's really close.

I remember you and Pton Manning both faced that great Seattle defense. Uh, it got bad for Payton really fast. But I do remember I I remember how you attacked it

and yeah, you made sure when your receivers caught the ball, move forward. Don't go sideline to sideline. They'll strip the ball. And I do feel Seattle has that cuz Witherspoon is so aggressive and so strong. The way to beat I'm wondering if the way to beat this Seattle is a little like the way you beat them which is guys five yards four yards at a pop is fine. Don't try to get I mean I think this Seattle defense looks a little like the one you face which is hyperaggressive seeking turnovers super fast. Do you see any similarities?

They close space as well as any defensive league. As soon as the ball's caught boom there's guys on them. There's linebackers hitting you. Ernest Jones been phenomenal. Reek Woolen's got tremendous speed. He covers up so much ground. Witherspoon's phenomenal. Iman Worry, the the rookie is insane. They've got this kind of swarming defense. Wherever the ball goes, it's like there's these like Scud missiles that are just flying in to hit the ball carrier. It's it's a fascinating defense. And then they got one of the most underrated defensive lines in the league. I think the interior defensive line is phenomenal. They've got four edge guys they rotate in that are all kind of unique. They have different traits. They really challenge the tackles. There's a reason why they're the top scoring defense in the league.

They just have really suffocated these offenses by taking the space and just making the field feel like it's so much smaller.

So, they haven't allowed like a hundred yard rusher in, you know, a season and a half or something like that. It's been insane.

Their tackling's good. Their pass defense is elite. Their coverage schemes are really tricky for the quarterback. you need a very kind of diversified set of weapons on offense in order to move the ball and they don't give up a ton of big plays. So, they're going to have to drive the ball down the field. The Niners are going to have to keep it a lowscoring game. Look at the week 18 game. It was 13-3 at one point and then the ball got intercepted when Perie threw it to McAffrey. Ball got batted up in the air. Could have been 13-10. Could have been very tight game.

Instead, one little mistake like that, one little batted ball and the game is over. So um Matt Stafford, Texas, then he goes to Georgia, then he goes to a dome, now he's in LA. It's not exactly the harshest environments in his life. And now he goes, "And I've told you this before. I thought you were the best cold weather thrower I've ever seen in my life."

Uh, but Stafford's whole career has been domes and warm weather and it's sofi. Um, and it Sunday is supposed to be feel like minus 9 for you. you you know Michigan, New England, but I I've told you before I've I've see pregame shots of guys you faced in Foxboro and I'd be like, "Oh, Tom's won. It's an hour before the game. Tom's won." How do you psychologically How do you psychologically when the environment's not ideal? How do you get out of that space and not think about it, not let it affect you?

Yeah, it's it's a great question, Colin. And it's it's almost there. Yeah, there can be a mental part to it. A lot of it is there's a physical element to dealing with the cold. It's not just mental toughness. It's also the team that has the advantage is the one that practices practices in it all the time. And when we were in Foxboro, we practice outdoor. We had like a nice indoor facility. We used to look at it all the time and be like, "Man, why don't we ever go in there? It's kind of nice to actually maybe go in." and Bill would be like, "We're outside." You know, and it just your body acclimated over the course of a long season to, you know, the warm weather in the summer as it dropped through the fall and then into the winter, you had to deal with 20°ree weather, 15 15 degree weather with 20 mph winds. And over time, you just learned how to deal with I knew exactly how many layers of clothes to

put on per the per the temperature. And I was always going, "Okay, you don't want to be like Ralphie from Toy Story where you got so much damn clothes on you can't move the ball." So, you've got to be still have just enough layers on to keep you warm, but not too much where you feel restricted in any way.

You know, the big linemen, they got so much insulation. You know, they got a lot of body fat, so they're not going to be the ones that are cold. It's kind of the skill players that have, you know, got to use their hands and the gloves and all kind of the fine motor skills you need in the really cold weather. And Matt did play in Detroit for a long time. And in that division, you did go outside to Chicago in Green Bay, it's not like he hasn't played in it. But I will say when I went to Tampa after my time in New England, it didn't take me very long to get very soft to to the cold weather. And we ended up going to Green Bay in the NFC Championship game my first year. And very fortunately, the game wasn't that cold. It was like 32 34 degrees at kickoff. It wasn't minus 9.

That is really cold. And that's a big advantage for Chicago because Chicago has played in these conditions now for the last six weeks. It's been terrible weather in the Midwest. They played against Cleveland in the freezing cold. Caleb looked like it was just like he was playing at the Coliseum in LA. He was firing that ball over the field. He's a really unique player. They've got a really unique team. Um, if there's a team that can figure it out, and I've loved the Rams all year with their kind of their diversification of what they do in offense, tight ends, receivers, run game, everyone touches it. Matt's the moving target. Sean keeps everyone off balance. This is going to be another terrific matchup. I'm so excited to see the winner of this game.

Oh, same here. So Josh Allen, you know, you can do I remember an Eli team uh that went on the road and kept winning road games. Burrow got to a Super Bowl with a bunch of road. It's hard. So, you know, Jo Buffalo's already jammed up in the Northeast, then they go down to Florida, then they're home. Now they go out to Mile High. And I'm thinking to myself, man, that that and now Josh is not 100%. They're down to three active wide receivers. And then part of me thinks, oh, that that's that's what Superman needs. Now's the phone booth. Go to your career. Was there a game where you're down two receivers? It's a second straight roadie. You mostly had homes.

And that you really felt, man, we are this thing is holding on by a thread. I've got a slot receiver from Boyisee State. I'm crossing my fingers. James Cook's ankle doesn't go. Did you ever have a moment like that? And what did it play into it emotionally and physically how it turned out?

Yeah, interesting. We 2013 we had kind of a rash of injuries in that season. Grank got injured. Um we were down we went to Denver in the championship game. We lost all our backs. We brought in Stephen Jackson to play. It was just a hard year losing backs, losing tight ends, kind of offensive line in and out. Um we're dealing with rookie receivers on the road in the championship game and we still made it a game. It was really close. I mean, we really could have made some plays early in the game to kind of give us a little momentum, but because we didn't play very well early. I I I remember I missed a pass to Julian across the field on kind of that would have gave us a lot of momentum. You just get behind and when you get behind and you don't have all your weapons, it's really hard to dig yourself out of a hole. Like even the Niner game against the Eagles last week, the Niners have been very, you know, obviously so many

injuries. They've been beaten up all year long. They go into the Eagles and they got off to a good start. They went down the field and scored right away and I was like, "Holy cow, we this is awesome." You know, we I wasn't expecting that against that kind of great Eagles defense. But that just injects a lot of life into, you know, the visiting team and it also deflates the crowd of the of the home team because they're like, "Oh god." So right away you shut them up. So that's what I think Buffalo needs to do. I know they're depleted. Their pass game has been a little volatile this year. They do have an incredible run game, a very good run blocking offensive line, and they've got a really challenging Broncos defense. They're going against another defense that's very similar to Seattle, really unique structure of defense, really well coached. They're always on the details, the nuances.

And then, you know, Josh has got a great opportunity to, you know, this is this is the game for him. I mean, there's a lot of career defining games for quarterbacks. And when you're a veteran quarterback and you're not dealing with Patrick Mahomes anymore and that's been kind of a bit of a kryptonite for the Bills over the years, they're looking at like, okay, this is this is a time for, you know, who they feel Josh, one of the best quarterbacks in the AC to go out there and have his year. He won the MVP last year. He's got a great chance to go on the road. I know he's a little bit underman, but you know, that happens.

And Denver may not have everybody or Denver could lose somebody in the first quarter of the game. You don't know how it's going to play out, but it's hard to it's hard to not love the Buffalo Bills and this story. And, you know, I think it would be just incredible for their fan base who have been, you know, so uh enthusiastic about this team to finally get over the hump and then make it to, you know, a championship game. It's going to be a tough battle, but it's a just again another great game.

Your former dynasty, the Patriots and the Texans. Um, I think I'd feel better about it for Drake May if it was year seven. Uh, famously you had talked to Jake Glazer at one point. It was in camp and and you said, uh, you know, I think I've seen everything. I've got the answers to the test. You don't have that. Drake May doesn't have the answers to all the the the test questions. And Houston's defense, maybe it's not the Ray Lewis Ravens. Tom, you can turn the sound down. It just looks longer, faster, and stronger than everybody in the league. It's it is Justin Herbert looked out overwhelmed.

Do you worry that Drake just hasn't faced anything close to this this year? Well, it is interesting. I think the Patriots, you know, they haven't had, you know, I would say when you look at their schedule, the quality of competition hasn't been, you know, what some other teams may have had. Now, that doesn't matter because that's not the Patriots fault. you know, you play who's on the schedule and however those teams are playing, you know, they line you up and you got to go out there and beat who you're going to beat. You're now into the final eight. These are the best eight teams in football. They've earned it. The teams that got the buy had the best seasons in their conferences. The teams, the other three teams that are playing per conference have already won a playoff game. They're riding high on confidence. They feel like, hey, we can hang with anybody. And I thought the Patriots played awesome last week, too.

when the Patriots had a had a great game. I mean, this is going to be, you know, I'm not Drake is a really poised, composed kid.

The Patriot organization knows how to deal with these type of atmospheres. The fan base, they are, they've been waiting for this since I left. It's going to be rocking. Foxboro, it's a tough place to play. It's going to be cold, but this defense of Houston is ridiculous, and they could put a lot of pressure on you. So,

I'm excited. I'm excited about how what does Josh do to try to keep some of the risk, you know, mitigated from from what Drake's done this year. And Drake's played phenomenal. I mean, he's thrown the ball so well, so accurate downfield throws are awesome. His escape ability, his ability to move in the pocket, his relatability with his teammates. There's so much to love about him as a player and and that's why the Patriots are in this position. So, they they're very high expectations in Foxboro. I mean, they're not, believe me, they don't think that um, you know, they're thinking one thing, that they're going to go in there and and kick some butt, but Houston's going to have a lot to say about that, too. Finally. Um, I remember um, and I think it's hard because you were so good to the very end, two years after you retired, you would have still been a top six quarterback. Aaron, I thought, had a really good year all

things considered, uh, that he lost DK Metaf. The O line was a work in progress, not a consistent run game, more of a defensive culture. And I remember your retirement video. It was emotional. You were on the beach. You were sitting down by yourself. Did you And so Aaron's in that space now. Did you have an epiphany? Was it a drive around the block? Did you wake up? Was it a dream? What got you to the Yeah, I can still play and I could still win a lot of games and I can still make the playoffs.

I'm going to call it a career. Do you remember the moment? Because I think Aaron could have a moment like that in the next three weeks. Yeah, I was, you know, my last season was tough. I was going through, I had a lot of, you know, just a personal, you know, uh, a family issue and it was a challenge and it was a very, you know, it just took a lot out of me in terms of, um, you know, my ability to continue to to play and I, you know, it's I had 23 years of it. So, I didn't feel like I was missing anything retiring. I felt like, okay, this is time. I always had a goal, 45, I was 45 years old. I wanted to spend time with my kids. I felt like, okay, you know, now it's time for me to be at all my kids games. You know, they've been enough to their dad of their dad's games. And and Aaron's got his own decisions he's got to make. He doesn't have kids. You know, he's trying to navigate what he wants to do post

career. It's hard to give up football, too. It's a it's something that we're really good at. It's something you love to do. You love being out there with your teammates. And I mean I I told a friend the other day when I got older I almost enjoyed practice more than playing because playing it was almost like it was a relief to win and everyone was out there. I was like what's another win going to do for people you know it's never satisfying even for me you know sometimes winning and not winning like you would expect. So I understood at that point I probably in my last season like okay this is this is going to be my last time. I tried to put as much as I could into it. I felt like I owed it to my teammates and coaches to give them everything I had. Um I wish it could have been a little bit better at the end. Um but it was just a unique situation, a unique year for me. And Aeron's got that too. I mean, Aeron's

got his own ways that he deals with, you know, trying to find solutions. And um you know, I know it's it's he's done some different things in the past. I'm sure he's trying to figure out because football is like a marathon. the season. Everyone loves to run the first four miles of the marathon and everyone loves to run the last two miles of the marathon,

right? But it's those middle it's those middle 20 miles that are hard because kind of the shine wears off after about a month and now you got to dig deep into your preparation into your, you know, into your body work, your treatments, your, you know, you got to dig deep with your teammates and over because it's such a long season, you need to work really hard over the course of the off season to kind of callous your body for what it takes to be an NFL player. So, to me, it's do you want to make the commitment year round? Because if you don't, well, then it's never going to turn out well when the season happens.

In order to be a great NFL player, you've got to commit and be fully in. And that's the only way your team's going to have a chance to win, especially when you're a starting quarterback. And only Aaron can decide that for himself.

Well, uh, NerS at the Seahawks, the Pacific Northwest. I mean, honestly, it's just you can see the game, you can see the environment. You've had a great year at Fox and uh the world will be watching, my friend. Uh great job today and I can't wait to watch.

I can't wait to watch. I got the best team on the field, our team at Fox, our whole crew. We love being up there. We love working together. We love kind of bringing our love of the game to the fans. and uh and where you're going to see us Sunday afternoon or excuse me, Saturday night. It's going to be awesome. I'm bringing my earplugs. It's going to be loud. That environment is so cool. I mean, my ears are still ringing from the last time I played at that stadium. And uh and it's going to be rocking on Saturday night.

All right, Tom Brady, seven trophies. Great seeing you, bud. See you, bud. I'll see you hopefully next week.

All right. Um that was really good stuff there. There's just a ton of good stuff there. Um,

yeah. I mean, Aaron's now married. I mean, it just there's a lot of different things that go into play. I don't know. But it's um Tom at the end when he retired was still a top 7A quarterback. Like that's that it's one thing if you're falling apart, but Brady didn't have a lot of injuries. You know, you just make decisions and it's life happens. Uh man, that that 49er Seahawk game that is one for the ages. Uh we how lucky did we get last week? I mean the games were incredible uh in Chicago. It's the herd.

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Download the Hard Rock Bet app. Make your first deposit today. Here we go. Hour two. It's a Thursday. Joel Clad around the corner. Tom Brady just stopped by. Greg Kosell next hour. We are live. We're in Chicago. It's the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. So, I was It was funny. I was on Seattle radio this morning and they asked me, "What's your trust level for Sam Darnold?" And it's like, well, he won in Carolina, didn't start a lot, but he had a winning record, and he won in Minnesota, and he won in Seattle. And no, nobody works with the Jets. He's not going to get shorter, less athletic, less committed, less focused against the 49ers. Um, I've always been a Sam fan. It's never wavered. I thought he was too talented, uh, too good of an arm, too athletic, too strong, too committed, too coachable, not to be successful at some

level. Uh, 28-6 the last two years, which is the best record in football. Um, but the thing is he had really re, you know, first impressions are powerful. Kevin Hart apparently bombed early in his career and was booed off the stage. Nobody saw it, right? Nobody watched it. Uh, Sam Darnold was against Bellich, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, most popular sport in the country playing in New York. We all saw it. But I mean, that's the reality. Nobody remembers because the first impressions with Jordan were so great.

Nobody remembers the Wizard years. the first impressions with Aaron Rogers who sat for three years. Nobody remembers nobody thinks about the fact that in his last 33 games he's 15 and 18 had like uh one 300yard game uh no playoff wins in five or six years because there's such strong identification of those early great years that it washes over everything. It's like an actor if you're good you go good early nobody cares about late. Bill Murray has had so many hits early, nobody cares what he's doing now, right? It doesn't matter. But with Sam, it's the opposite. But in the last two years, he's been better than Mahomes. He's won more games. He's got more passing yards.

His completion percentage is higher. He's got a better record. He's got more touchdowns. Last two years, he's better than Patrick Mahomes. So, and that, you know, so do I doubt Sam Darnold? No, I I don't. Does Sam sometimes play a little frenetic under pressure? Absolutely. But the ners don't have a Bosa. And if he does face the Texans, which could speed him up, um, you know, it it would be in the Super Bowl. So, the Chris Schula Rams defense has given him real trouble. But remember, Sam's 28 years old. He is younger than Lamar Jackson. And you think Brock Purie's a kid and Sam's a veteran. Pertie's 26. Sam's 28. He's just now moving in to his prime years.

He probably moved into his prime last year. Quarterback primes about seven years. Probably about 27ish. I mean, really, when the light goes on, 26, 27ish to 33ish. So, um, I always thought he'd be really good. Here's the amazing thing about Sam. Backto back, first quarterback ever, ever. all time back-to back seasons with 14 wins and 4,000 yards. It's even more impressive. He did it with two different teams. Now, Momes has done it, but not in back-to-back years. 14 wins and 4,000 yards. It's just incredibly rare. Well, he had this and he had that. Seattle's the second youngest team in the league.

Now, Minnesota is good. They don't have the Eagles roster. So, he's a very unique talent. But in big games like this one, you face better coaching. And Tom Brady talked about that last hour. When you get to these big moments in big games, whether that's, you know, certainly playoffs or some of these games that happen at the end of the year determining whether you're going to get in or not, the margin of error when you play good teams is just very small. So, that's where the fundamentals come into play. you have to, you know, in order to throw the ball accurately, okay? And if you throw it accurately and make good decisions, you're not going to throw a lot of interceptions. It's over time you need to refine your techniques so that when you get in these big moments, you're as accurate as you can possibly be because you have the least margin of error.

So, Robert Salah is a great coordinator. Sam's problems have usually been and he doesn't have a great O line. the left side of it cross sable's pretty good. Uh, center overs, okay, not great, okay. When you can rush Sam, he gets frenetic. He gets into He's like a He's like a shooter that gets into a bad streak, takes bad shots, and misses them badly. He can get into that. But I'll say this, uh, Stafford, seven picks in seven games. Brock Pur's had bad picks his whole career. But I would say Stafford, Pertie, and Darnold also have a gift, which is a short memory. It It doesn't affect their next throw. So, I mean, if you go to the look at the last two years for Sam Darnold, Colin, do you trust him against San Francisco? He's not getting shorter, slower, less of an arm, less dynamic. I mean, he is top three in virtually everything over the last couple years. So, I mean, he was successful at USC, winning record

Carolina, great Minnesota, great Seahawks. Yeah, it was a mess for the Jets, but he was 20 years old when Dante Moore elected to go back to Oregon yesterday and not the NFL where he would have gone to the Jets. One of the first things you thought about and I thought about was, "Oh, it'll be like Sam Darnold. He's a West Coast quarterback with a really good team. He's really, really talented, but he's really young going to New York." Sam Darnold showed up in New York at 20. Dante Moore would show up in New York at 20. And that that's that's why I kept when I looked at Dante Moore and I don't know his comp with Darnold. Who's the better prospect?

I have no idea. They're both very good, but they're not good enough to overcome the Jets. It'd be again it'd be different if the Jets hired John Harbaugh and and instead of the Giant, I'd feel different. I mean, Mike Brael and Gerrod Mayo, the Patriots are a different team.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd"?

Colin Cowherd (Host), Tom Brady (Guest).

What is "Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd" about?

In a discussion highlighting key NFL matchups, Tom Brady analyzes the pressure on quarterbacks in high-stakes games, specifically focusing on Sam Darnold's struggles with interceptions and the importance of fundamentals in crucial moments. He draws parallels between the intense anticipation surrounding the 49ers-Seahawks game and his experiences covering boxing, emphasizing the narrow margin for…

What is mentioned in this The Herd with Colin Cowherd episode?

7 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Eagles, Kawhi Leonard, Devin Witherspoon, Colin Cowherd, Houston Texans. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Tom Brady on 49ers-Seahawks, Texans-Patriots, Bears-Rams, Bills | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd"?

The episode runs 30 min; the transcript is about 5,938 words in 54 timestamped sections.

More from The Herd with Colin Cowherd

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.