Best of The Herd

It’s a Thursday with Greg Cosell an hour out, Jesse Minter dropping by, and a lot cooking, but I’m starting with the Belichick Hall of Fame snub; the best reporting says it was driven mostly by Spygate, not a lifetime ban, just a one-year ding for two separate violations that cost New England premium picks and huge fines.

They filmed from an off-limits spot for years even after multiple league warnings, which created a lasting sense among rivals that the league looked the other way for Belichick and Kraft.

“Everybody does it” doesn’t fly with a cop, the IRS, or Hall voters; when a franchise loses major draft capital and pays seven-figure penalties, it’s reasonable to pause a year, even if he’s still getting in.

On quarterbacks, outside of Josh Allen’s outlier traits, this league is wildly contextual; that’s why a steady, healthy Sam Darnold in the right ecosystem can ride coaching, scheme, and roster into real January wins.

He doesn’t have to press anymore; with a strong defense and better structure, he can be patient, live on checkdowns, and pick his spots for deep shots without the turnovers that buried him in Carolina.

If he hoists a trophy in a week and a half, you have to revisit your top ten; his teams look ordinary before he arrives, explosive while he’s there, and then drift back when he’s gone.

Philadelphia’s OC search is a warning label; with Howie Roseman’s speed on the trigger and a tough market, families are wary of a short leash, and there’s real doubt about whether Nick Sirianni can coach the offense out of this funk, especially with Jalen Hurts’ middle-of-the-field vision concerns.

I’ll oversee everything, and I did step in more on offense late because that’s what the team needed; my best role is being the head coach.

Fair, but the offense clicked when Shane Steichen and then Kellen Moore called it, which makes the Eagles unusually dependent on coordinators for an offensive head coach.

Ian O’Connor is here; if voters want to “tax” Spygate, how far should that go when the post-2007 résumé is massive?

Discuss Spygate, sure, but it should be brief; from that point on he reached six Super Bowls and won three, so the body of work overwhelms the violation and makes him a first-ballot no-brainer in my view.

Others waited and some legends weren’t first-ballot either; with the Brady split, the non-Brady record, and two Spygates, isn’t a one-year pause defensible?

I still put him straight in; the Hall also needs fixes—don’t force senior players to compete with coaches and contributors in the same narrow slot, and consider lowering the threshold to avoid a growing backlog.

On Eli Manning, I wouldn’t make him a first-ballot guy, but I’d have voted him in this year; you can’t tell the league’s story without the two runs that beat peak Belichick and Brady and produced two iconic Super Bowl catches.

Agreed on the tie-breakers—regular season was middling, but those postseasons and that stage matter; he gets in, even if it isn’t first ballot.

Could Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy make it work for a year in Pittsburgh if the Steelers go that way?

Yes; their relationship is better now, McCarthy helped unlock Rodgers’ style early, and the ceiling feels like an 11-win team that can steal a playoff game, with the caveat that if it sags, Will Howard has to be considered.

Some assume the media punished Bill for being prickly; voters are human, but did that actually matter?

I don’t think so; more likely it was a one-year penalty for Spygate, ballot math that favored seniors, and people assuming he was a lock, which cost just enough votes.

And the Robert Kraft angle—did he prefer not to go in the same year and nudge people behind the scenes?

It’s possible; that relationship cooled, and Kraft would love to be enshrined first, which his track record supports.

Ian, great stuff as always; appreciate you, and congrats on the work.