After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

While I was away, I missed you a little bit, but I am definitely enjoying a lighter workload in August. So last week was insane, not just for me, but for my poor dog. Penny did not know what was going on last week and her routine was completely thrown into flux because I worked a couple of day times and then worked a night time and then Saturday unexpectedly was gone a lot longer than I thought. So very thankful for the friends who helped me out with my dog when I have to be gone a little longer. So kind of worried about her with her insulin shots being a little off schedule, but she's a trooper and we managed to survive.

And so back to the norm, my norm, your norm this week here on After Hours, though there is more abnormal to come. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, got some photos up from my weekend excursion rafting on the Delaware River. It was amazing. I loved it. Group of people I didn't even know, I decided to be bold and join them. And it turned out that I made a couple of new friends. And so I really, I'm really glad that I did it, that I got outside of my comfort zone. That's all of last week. I was outside of my comfort zone the whole freaking week. But it was good for me.

It was a good challenge for me both personally and professionally. Plus a little more family time first with my nieces going back almost a year, which is the longest I've ever gone without seeing them. And that family time so valuable to me.

In fact, I'd even call it priceless before football season gets busy and takes over my life. I still have about five days, I think it's five, five and a half days. So not quite a week, but a vacation coming up when I'm going to visit mom in Houston.

And we've already started talking about what we're going to do. Baking is definitely on the list, even though when I was there at Christmas, and I wanted to bake and we did we baked for four consecutive days because it's what makes me happy. And I had some recipes to try. She bitched and complained about it the entire time. And now she wants to bake when I get there.

Oh, okay, I see how you are. She made it miserable for me for a good portion of Christmas when we were baking, and kept telling me how much she hated it. And now it's because I've got a new recipe for oatmeal apricot bars. And they're delicious. And she loves apricot. So she wants to me to make those when I get there. And also, the oatmeal caramel chewy bars that have now become famous that I make.

She also loves those and wants to make those as well. So we'll do some baking and some other fun stuff while I'm there around Labor Day weekend. So even though this week is back to quote unquote normal for me, next week will not be. And I will be returning right before the NFL season kicks off with its opener on that Thursday night following Labor Day. It's coming peeps.

It is coming. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

When you need an expert to help navigate the home loan process, Rocket can. So photos up on Twitter while I was away from you and an actual post on Facebook with three photos entitled, While I was away from you, with the emoji of the big smiley and the hearts for eyes because I was mesmerized by what I was seeing, especially over the weekend. Have to tell you this really funny story.

You're going to die. I still don't know what to make of this conversation with a five year old, but you know what happens when you have conversations with five year olds. Very often they say some pretty intuitive things, but then you're left wondering, wait, what? My rafting partner and I, the two of us, we managed to snag a raft by ourselves. It was actually genius because we had a lot more fun and moved a lot faster than some of the other rafts in our group that were loaded down. And there were a couple of grumpy old men.

Oh my gosh, they could not do anything. They were like the Men in Cocoon. Do you guys remember that movie? That's an older movie, but also grumpy old men.

I mean that kind of works too. We managed to get away from that raft because there would have been no peace in that raft. Anyway, so we kind of got ahead of the groups, the other groups, because we were in a lighter raft.

Excuse me. We, I might have to take a swig of water while I'm talking to you. We finished earlier and we were kind of hanging out, just relaxing at the takeout point down by the water.

This other group is a big family, a flotilla, if you will, not part of our group, but they come in to the takeout point as well. And while they're pulling their rafts out of the water and deflating them, I don't know why I'm dying. All of a sudden I come back just to die on the air while they're deflating them. Oh my goodness. I really am. Hold on. I don't fear sudden death.

I don't either. I blame this on Jay. He just gave me honey roasted peanuts and now I can't talk without dying. I told you they're my least favorite kind of peanut for this exact reason. This is why you gave them to me? No. Hey, I was between fruit snacks or the peanuts and I was leaning towards the peanuts.

I will say that I was happy you made that executive call, but this is why we usually stick to cashews or to normal ones where the honey roasted, they have that extra layer on them that just causes this to happen. You're going to watch me die on the air and you're going to explain it away as you were about to go with fruit snacks. Sweet.

Okay. So anyway, back to my conversation with the five-year-old. If I die, I die.

At least I die doing what I love. So we're sitting there, we're conversing with this five-year-old. Her dad tried to get her out of the water in the mud, but she said, mommy said I could sit here. So we're talking to her. Her name's Mia.

She's very conversational. And at some point, I don't know exactly how we get on the conversation or this particular bent, but she was telling us what her daddy did for work. So I said, oh, that's interesting.

Do you know what I do for work? And she said, what? And I said, I talk on the radio. There's a big pause. What's a radio?

I'm not kidding. The little girl asked me what a radio is. You think she was serious as in she has no idea? I guess if a lot of people now, or if you're younger, you listen to the radio, maybe you do it on your phone. So she's not even sure what a radio is. How would you answer that question?

Just out of curiosity, how would you answer it? What is the radio? I would say it's a, I don't know. I guess the place, a place, if I was telling a kid, I'd say it's a place where you could hear voices of people telling them. It's a place?

You can't say it's a place. If I'm talking to like a five-year-old, I don't really know. I don't, you know, you can get real technical about it, but you say, yeah, it's a, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a airwave.

No way. So I teach elementary school kids on Sundays and some of the youngest are six years old. And so I've become really skilled at breaking it down in a way that it's extremely simple. So my response to her was it's what you listen to in the car. That would be a very good answer. That'll do it. As simple as that. Anyway, she was so cute.

Just like very precocious. What's a radio? So that was funny.

And also I stopped to consider it for a second. Are radios becoming obsolete? They're actually not because many people still listen to the radio when they commute.

But as Jay points out, you can also do it on your phone. I just know that our show continues to gain momentum and that as we head into football season, radio becomes ever more valuable, especially our show here overnight, starting on Sundays. People say to me a lot, it's one of the frequently asked questions of Amy Lawrence here at After Hours. Don't you want to work prime time? Don't you want to change time slots? Don't you want to work in the day?

The answer is F no. And do you want to know why? The number one reason why I do not want to switch time slots, the number one reason why I have turned down multiple opportunities to change time slots is because I don't want to give up Sunday nights. I love Sunday nights during the fall especially, but I love Sunday nights all the time. And I love being off for the weekend on Friday morning when the rest of the world has to wait until Friday afternoon or Friday evening. Sunday nights during the NFL season float my raft down the Delaware River and then some. I love working Sunday nights. I love being the first national voice when it comes to an NFL Sunday. And here I am counting down the weeks. This time in three weeks, we will be going through everything that happened week one, except for Monday Night Football of course. And you know what else? I'll be telling you to tap the brakes, baby.

Tap the brakes. So that's one major reason why I will, at least for now, why I will not be moving, changing, why I don't have any interest in changing time slots, because I dig Sunday nights. Ever since I started talking about the NFL, and this goes back now 14, 15 years on the network level, I knew the NFL drove the bus before that, but I dig Sunday nights. I dig Sunday programming.

Sunday Monday is so much fun. And to that end, Jay and I spent a couple hours doing some football season prep and planning, and we were brainstorming ideas and trying to figure out what we can manage during football season with just the two of us. And one of the reasons why I really wanted to pick his brain is because this time last year, we were just starting to work together.

It's been a full year, one year, which is pretty amazing that it's gone that fast, but also that we've survived because it is just the two of us. And it's been a pretty nutty stretch for many corporations, many industries, definitely radio and TV, the sports broadcasting industry. Even now, for those of you who pay any attention, our own parent company is about to make sweeping layoffs.

So another 5% of the workforce is about to be cut in the next couple of weeks though, or months, though it's not going to affect us because you can't cut anything else. I'm not running my own board. I did that when I was younger. I refuse to do it again. It's already obscene that we're doing a network radio show that's heard on 300 affiliates around the country, as well as the website and the app and internationally, and that we only have one person behind the double pane glass. That's insane. It's absolutely insane. But it's becoming more and more common, not just here at CBS Sports Radio, but also at other networks, my previous network included.

It's sad that when people leave, what's happening in the industry and many industries is those people are not being replaced and those jobs are just getting eliminated. So Jay is still here after a year, which I think is saying something, but we're just marking one year of working together. And I can't believe that we threw you into the deep end. Last year, three weeks before the NFL season kicked off, I could imagine it was a major blur, even now looking back at it. Yeah, it was. I'm not dying anymore, by the way. So too bad.

So sad. Right into it at a little that one week training session. And yeah, we were off from that one week, three days. Yeah, about three days. I came back from my family vacation on a Tuesday night and you started that Tuesday night.

It was August 15th, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night. And then boom, you were on your own. And then we were Dave was gone.

That was it. Yeah, he was a little checked out at the time too. So, you know, it was a couple of days of training, but it was. And then you had worked on the show a little bit to the point where I knew that I was ready to put you behind the board.

But football season is a different animal and you just had to, you almost went in cold Turkey. I guess that was the way to do it, right? Just kind of throw me into the deep end. So you're not letting you know what you're in for.

Not like figure out. Well, I guess, except that the show could have been largely damaged if you sucked at it. Thankfully, you did not. Well, now you did more than float. You navigated the rapids extremely well. Uh, yeah, you kept your legs from being broken off on some rocks underneath. So what was your favorite part of the last year? It could be sports.

It could be. Otherwise you could say playing catch in the hallway. If you want to be, that was totally fine. Pretty good.

That's been pretty good. She's a little ticked at me because we were supposed to play catch tonight during a break and I left my glove in the car. Sorry about that.

You did it to me last week, though. I did. I remember to bring my in. It was in my room, not where it normally was. I went out of my way to bring it here.

When I get it tomorrow. What is your favorite thing about the last year? I mean, there's a ton of good things.

There's a ton of good, awesome moments. I would say the end of the Super Bowl week, which we did, which, you know, setting all that up was really cool experience then that. But that week after it where it was over and was kind of like that accomplished feeling of, wow, that was like football season's over. Not that it was happy that it was over, but it was because I think we did a pretty good job with it. Oh, I was happy it was over. I'm always happy when it's over. Of course I was. It was a little ton to relax for a second, but that's not like the main reason. I feel like it was like a proud.

It was like, oh, that was cool. That was a good Super Bowl week. That was a good football season time to like we could now we could, you know, focus on other things. And we had we did a lot that March. Oh, man, the spring was insane.

Yeah, I don't. The March is almost easier than the football season. March, April, May.

It never stopped. NBA, NHL, not to mention the golf and the live golf and the fact that those storylines came out every single day. Plus Major League Baseball coming out of its lockout and launching into its season.

And then obviously the football offseason and everything that transpired even as the teams or teams were reforming their rosters. So, yeah, it wasn't an unbelievable spring coming right on the heels of what may have been the best NFL postseason that most people can remember. So so Super Bowl week then. Well, to that end, even as we launch forward into year number two, we're already making plans to take after hours on the road to Phoenix because the Super Bowl is in Glendale, Arizona State Farm Stadium, which is where Sunday Night Football was located. Preseason, of course, but last night. And so we will definitely be there come next February. We'll do a kind of first month or I guess you could call it first regular season radio row in September just because we have some guests that we'd like to get on the show and they won't be available to us unless we talk to them during the daytime. And also, week number two, Sunday night, week number two, I will be at Lambeau Field for Bears Packers.

I'm not sure I have ever seen anything like what I will see at Lambeau Field under the lights come week two. And there's not just to work reasons that I'll be in Wisconsin. I'll be in Wisconsin as well to honor my grandmother and to spend some time with family and to see her caretakers and thank them. So that was the earliest that I could get back to Wisconsin.

So it's a bit of a trip. First half is family. Second half is football. And I'll be doing a couple of shows from Green Bay. I wanted to make those up to our program director, Jimmy, at our Green Bay station.

So it's going to be a really busy four days, but I am looking forward to weekend week two and Bears and Packers and then shows from Green Bay. That'll be a lot of fun. Something else that Jay and I were doing or are doing, excuse me, were planning to do as a bit of a twist to year two of working together here on After Hours is, are you going to tell them the name? It's essentially going to be a podcast, not coming out every day or week.

We have one of those. This will be something special on top of what we already do. And it will be a collaboration and it will be really different than the radio show. The theme or the idea behind it, the working idea is what you won't hear on After Hours. But would you like to tell them the title of our future podcast that will be exclusive to YouTube?

You're not going to be able to hear it anywhere else. Jay loves YouTube. And I asked him what he wanted to do in year number two on YouTube. So we've made a lot of progress. We've seen a lot of new subscribers, tons of likes. Our Stairway to Seven series, we've got some new ideas for that. Our video versions of Ask Amy.

I mean, even our Wordle video, we've seen so much traffic to our YouTube channel, but Jay wants to increase it in year number two. And so he came, well, we kind of came up with the idea together, but the title. The name is you.

Right. Okay. Well, the name is me because I'm really good at this kind of stuff.

I'm a wordsmith if you will. But would you like to tell people what the name of our loosey goosey podcast will be? What you won't hear on After Hours.

So we're going to go with the After Hours after show podcast or after party podcast. Excuse me. I can't believe you just ruined it. You completely ruined it. I gave you the opportunity to like deliver the line and tell people and you just after a party podcast. No, no, no. It's the after hours after party. That's it. Just the after party podcast.

But okay. No, I don't want to party pod. Do you have any podcasts there are in this world? You say we're not going to be on like Apple podcast. No, you say podcast and instantly people come up with this idea in their heads. We already have a podcast.

It's just going to be the after hours after party on YouTube. There it is. Okay, there it is. I should have just said it myself.

I didn't ask for that. Not only can Jane not keep a secret on the air, you ever want him to ruin anything? He can do that so easily. I tell him not to spill the beans and instantly he tells you exactly what I told him not to tell you. Check back to the Wednesday show we did when you were here last week and we had we do it a tease and it was like a solid like I was here. Oh, Wednesday, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning where we I forgot exactly what it was.

I think it was our latest YouTube thing or video and we talked about it for like two minutes maybe a minute 32 minutes and I did not give it away and I actually can I think I think it contributed to the tease. So it's time for everything. Well, I didn't hear any maybe I'm going to reconsider year number two.

Lower my expectation. Okay. All right, so year number two, we are off and running. My thank you to those of you who are very supportive. I know in the last year, but hours after party, the after hours after party and producer Jay has been an incredible addition, his creativity and his energy and his humor. Definitely a good compliment to me when I get stressed and I uber focused and hyped.

And so I'm glad to have him and I'm looking forward to another another year. But after that, I don't know all bets are off because he has put a time limit on the amount of time that he'll spend here on the show. So the hourglass maybe running. That's all. Yes, you did to you liar. Do you not remember the conversation we had a couple months ago? Not what? Oh, you don't. It didn't happen.

What you're talking of course, completely oblivious. All right, so find us on Twitter after our CBS if you would too would like to send your your deep gratitude to producer Jay because I know you all love him way more than you love me or on our Facebook page too. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on YouTube where you will soon find the after hours after party what you won't hear here on the show. What you will hear on the show next though is my reaction to the Deshaun Watson settlement and the retraction of his apology. I guess it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. The gun split back first and go with the five Deshaun takes the snap stepping right pumping stepping left Watson floats under the end zone. It's caught touchdown Kiki QT. Watson improvised and fast QT for six as the Texans get on the board.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence man alive. That was a long time ago. Mark Vandermeer on Texans radio 19 months in between his last appearance for the Texans, which was a Pro Bowl season in 2020 and then his first preseason appearance and last appearance for quite a while with the Cleveland Browns. That was week one of the preseason.

He did not play over the weekend. In fact, we didn't see Jacoby Brissette either who's now QB one for the Browns. We'll get to the latest in QB news coming up, but the NFL and the NFL PA finally came to a settlement avoiding the decision by the appeals officer in Deshaun Watson's case. All the allegations of sexual misconduct, the 30 lawsuit settled by the Texans 23 settled by Deshaun Watson. The apology in which he was attempting to show remorse last week ultimately resulted in 11 game suspension and a $5 million fine. Plus the Browns quarterback has to undergo counseling and treatment. If he does not, then he will not be reinstated. He has to comply with all of the various treatment and counseling and evaluation that the NFL has lined up in this settlement or they could keep him off the field for longer.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm not exactly sure why the NFL settled. Maybe because the league wanted to get it off the table for the regular season kicked off. Maybe because the league was worried that the appeals officer would not side with them and their desire to have Watson off the NFL landscape and out of mind for a full season.

I'm not sure why, but it ultimately comes down to 11 games and a record fine of $5 million. When reporters caught up with Deshaun Watson, they asked him whether or not he felt like this settlement was fair. I can't speak on the fairness.

I only can really control what I can control and that's, you know, do throughout this process. You know, the NFL did what they had to do and the NFL PA, you know, communicated with the legal side. Like I said before, I focused on, you know, being out here, being the best teammate and football player and quarterback I can for the Cleveland Browns and I let the legal side. You must have an opinion on whether it was fair or not. Of course everyone has their own opinion, but I think, you know, for my piece and my say, I'm gonna keep my opinion to myself. He's going to keep his opinion about whether or not the settlement is fair to himself, but not his opinion about anything else.

And as it turned out, and some of you may have seen me hosting for Maggie and Perloff, I was filling in for them early last week, Monday and Tuesday, and the producer posted a clip online and I shared it. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if Deshaun Watson's apology was sincere because his money is guaranteed and the Browns don't care. General manager Andrew Berry was asked in the wake of the settlement whether or not the Browns would still make the same trade and would they still do the same thing with Deshaun Watson knowing what they know now? Yes, we would. And we mentioned at the time that our process was thorough. We felt like we made an informed decision, understand why others may not have made the same decision that we did. But we do believe that Deshaun has strong positive qualities. And we do think that he's done everything in his power to integrate himself with our team, done everything that we've asked. We're aware that the transaction has elicited a number of strong emotions.

It's created a tension within the overall fan base. At the same time, I don't think anyone necessarily wants their life or their career to be defined by the mistakes that they've made. And our view with Deshaun is we see someone who's been committed and will continue to be committed to a very long process of personal growth.

And that's something that we believe that we can support him in. Does personal growth include apologizing and then essentially taking it back? Or apologizing if I hurt anyone but I didn't do anything wrong? That's the kind of sham apology that my mom never let me get away with. That's the kind of sham apology that is done with an ulterior motive. You can believe that he's guilty as sin. You can believe that he's innocent.

But how about this? Don't apologize when you don't mean it. Don't apologize just so you can pretend like you're remorseful when you didn't mean Jack.

Yeah, this has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence. But that apology that he gave before his first appearance in 19 months on a football field before the Browns first preseason game, we now know was meaningless. But I want you to hear it again. As he was meeting with reporters over the past couple of months, he swears that he apologized long before that preseason game.

Reporters wanted to hear him say it one more time. I apologized beforehand. I think the second time I spoke to you guys, I actually apologized.

But I think for some people, it didn't maybe register as I was apologizing. But I just want to clarify, I was apologizing to all women and people that was offended about this situation because it's definitely a tough situation. It's a tough situation. How? How is it a tough situation?

And my least favorite word in all of this, I keep hearing it over and over again. I've yelled about it. I've tried to make light of it. Why apologize if you didn't do anything wrong?

Because he still maintains that he is innocent of everything he's accused of. For everyone that was affected about this situation, there was a lot of people that was triggered. But not the women that accused you of this. I've apologized to all women. So anybody that was affected, even yourself, everything. So I'm apologizing to everyone that was affected about this whole situation. Everyone that was triggered. Although I guess I can't really blame Deshaun for using that word. It's offensive. It really puts the onus on the people who are listening to him, reading about him, hearing him.

It's not him. It absolves him of any responsibility. No, the onus is on all those people who might've been triggered. I apologize to all women.

What the bleep does that mean? I apologize to all women and you too, if you were also triggered by it. But again, I can't blame him solely because the Haslam's used that same word in their statement when his initial suspension was unveiled. So just to clarify, Deshaun, after apologizing and now backtracking, what's the real story? I've always stood on my innocence and always said that I've never assaulted anyone or disrespected anyone and I'm continuing to stand on that. But at the same time, I have to continue to push forward my life and my career.

And for us to be able to move forward, I have to be able to take steps and put pride to the side and I'm gonna continue to stand on my innocence and keep pushing forward. Yep, easy to do when there's a big old settlement. 11 games, $5 million fine, which is chump change to Deshaun Watson with a $230 million contract fully guaranteed. It was just a matter of time. It didn't even take two weeks before he retracted the apology. All it took was a settlement and he's back to proclaiming how innocent he is. If nothing else, the apology was a complete and total sham. And you can decide whether or not you think he's guilty or innocent. But when he says he's sorry, know that that was a total lie.

If that affects his credibility at all. We've got other QB news guys that will actually be on the field come week number one. That's straight ahead after hours on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the after hours podcast. Welcome back to pass throws into the end zone.

Yeah. Pretty soon this QB news will be in season. Pete's we are weeks away. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio and looking at some of the major storylines to come out of the preseason. The weekend week number two. There weren't a ton of starters who played in the games on Sunday. However, Daniel Jones was actually out there for a good portion of the first half and played very well.

Fourteen of sixteen, two hundred four yards and two touchdown passes. So the Giants offense and here is the prove it or lose it season for Daniel Jones. We meet at this time with Brian Day ball as his new head coach to process and we're constantly learning and improving day to day. You know, but I felt like we've had a good camp and we've done that in the first few weeks. So we've got to keep doing that. You know, I think that's what's most important is what we do from this point on. He's picking up our offense.

You know, look, he's only a few months into it, but he's done a good job of really tireless worker. You know, even on, you know, we'll be on the phone and he's up there every morning with Kafka and we're trying to, you know, formulate what we're good at right now. So that's one of the teams in the NFC East changing. Well, not changing quarterbacks, but changing offenses. As for the Washington commanders, they change names.

They also change starters. Carson Wentz gets yet another opportunity. Ron Rivera. How's he look so far? I was satisfied with it for the most part. But again, once we you know, we get inside the 40, we got to put points on the board and that was disappointing. You know, again, I thought Carson moved the ball effectively for us. Got us to midfield a couple of times into the 40 a couple of times, but we got to put points on the board. Ron Rivera speaking in the wake of the commanders game against the Chiefs at Arrowhead over the weekend. And Patrick Mahomes certainly looks like he is in mid-season form.

12 of 19, 162 yards, a couple of touchdowns for him and no sacks. The offensive line played tremendous today. That's the first thing I talked about when I came to the sideline after that second drive is those guys, they blocked that.

That's a really good defensive line. They blocked and gave me a ton of time. And I mean, even there was times where I was scrambling. I don't want to scramble because there wasn't stuff open downfield.

I mean, the pockets were amazing. I was patented two or three times and I mean, if they block like that, it's gonna be, we're gonna be a hard offensive stop because I mean, you have that much time in the pocket. Usually good things happen. They're getting an idea of how he, how he plays, you know, if something's not there, how he's moving.

We've, we have these scramble rules that we, we spent a bunch of time on and you go over them and go back and look at the execution of those all the way around. But a guy's got to open for him. So where he was moving, it's a bunch of new weapons and targets around Patrick Mahomes. Not entirely new. Of course, even though Tyree Kil is gone, you still got Travis Kelce. But every single drive that Mahomes has led in the preseason has ended with a touchdown. First drive against the commanders, 12 plays, 87 yards, five and a half minutes and a five yard TD pass. So yes, Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, still a formidable combination.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, shifting back to the quarterback competition with the Carolina, well, Carolina, Carolina Panthers. But they this weekend had other QB news that really took the focus off Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnell. And that's the loss of their third round draft pick, the rookie Matt Corral. Matt Corral tore his Liz Frank ligament. So they're exploring the possibilities right now and the options with one of the best doctors across the country. But it should be a significant injury. I really don't have anything else of note other than that. I would assume it would be a while.

The doctors have to say it, but I'm assuming it's going to be a significant amount of time. I don't know what exactly that is, though. Head coach Matt Ruhl and the Panthers, meanwhile, still have these two guys that are competing. And Ruhl has indicated that he's not ready to name a starter.

I will say this. I'm pretty confident that if Corral had come along and made progressions as a rookie, if he was smart and showed signs that he could take over the team next year, they probably would have cut both Darnold and Mayfield loose, not paid them and instead handed the ball to their second year guy Matt Corral next season for a much cheaper rate. Except that's probably not going to happen now if he misses the entire season and can't get those reps and can't get that practice time. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio QB news staying in the NFC South. Tom Brady is about to return, says his head coach Todd Bowles. Like I said a week and a half ago, I said he'll be back this week.

So, you know, that hasn't changed. We expect him back this week. Do you know yet which day it's going to be? It'll be this week early. Todd Bowles is back and better than ever taking over for Bruce Arians. A lot of people were freaking out that this could be an emergency situation for Brady away from the team.

I say it was all preplanned and he had time with his family right up until the last second, maybe even planned when he was in his 40 days of retirement. Speaking of retirement, that's what Ben Roethlisberger is enjoying these days. So who will be the starting quarterback in Pittsburgh post Big Ben? I'm telling you, Kenny Pickett, the rookie, has taken over at some point this season.

In his first performance of the preseason with the ones, he goes six of seven, 76 yards and a touchdown against the Jags. I just wanted to execute at a high level. I felt like, you know, we were able to do that. Definitely want to be a lot cleaner and kind of, you know, erase some of those penalties. That just goes back to, you know, have a good communication and know, you know, each spot every guy's in.

So definitely want to get those cleaned up. I'm telling you it's coming. If Mitch Trubisky was the starter, then we would hear that by now. And he's is QB one. Mason Rudolph's not the answer.

Kenny Pickett is gaining ground and gaining ground fast. In Jacksonville, it's not a new quarterback, but it's a new head coach who used to be an NFL QB. And Doug Peterson wants more from Trevor Lawrence. We just got to get him to kind of calm down early in the football game and settle in. There were some throws that were missed that I know he would want back. And we've seen him make those throws in practice. So we know he's capable of doing it.

It's just a matter of just kind of taking a deep breath as he starts the game and settle in. But those are all things that we continue to work on. You know, we got a couple of weeks left here in camp and and we try to get better. I think I left a few plays out there.

Got a little bit antsy with my feet at times. So there's some things, you know, individually to work on and to watch. And then I think as a unit, though, we did. There was more good things than bad, especially in that first half with with our crew that was out there.

I felt felt good about the things we did. Obviously, the obvious is to score more touchdowns, but there'll be more to learn from for sure. Trevor Lawrence is already on record as saying he and Doug Peterson speak the same language. The fact that Doug was an NFL quarterback, that it's his perspective that he brings to the table as a head coach. And you can tell the team has already changed culture and focused on rebuilding from the ashes left by Urban Meyer. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. New head coach elsewhere in Florida as well.

That's in Miami. Mike McDaniel finally put to a tank of Aloha on the field in this past weekend of preseason action to series for Tua. And what did he think? I'm really happy with Tua because you know, he's been having such a good camp just in his development and ownership of the offense. And I was very hopeful that he would be the same guy on game day. It was my first opportunity with him and he executed the the really everything that we asked him to do. Felt good. I enjoyed being out there with the guys.

I enjoyed the atmosphere that was that was out there tonight with the fans. I know as an offense, you always want to go down and accomplish every drive ending in a score. Our job as an offense is to go down and try to put points up on the board. So Tua Tygovoloa goes six of eight for 58 yards and initially a little bit of a rougher start. But it was good to see him out there shake off some of the rust. It is really fascinating to me how different teams handle their veteran QBs in the preseason.

Mahomes is unafraid. He played week one. He played more in week number two and he doesn't need to. But you know who does need him to his group of receivers, new guys coming in, new expectations, wanting to get comfortable with those guys. But then you have to play with the most accurate quarterback in the NFL. Then you have other guys like Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, who will not see the field in this preseason. Kyler has been wearing a headset actually over the course of the preseason. He's been helping Kliff Kingsbury, helping Kliff Kingsbury to call plays. And so that's what we saw in Glendale on Sunday night in a game that was broadcast on Fox, the NFL on Fox debut.

Lamar Jackson, he was in street clothes. Not that there's any one right way to navigate the preseason, but I always think it's interesting to watch how different coaches and veteran quarterbacks or just veterans in general handle the preseason minutes. Most important thing is to get through without any major injuries. And we've already seen there have been some. The Buccaneers will get Brady back, but they lose one of their starting guards to a torn ACL. So that happened on Saturday night. And then just in general, guys limping off the field rookies here. Veterans there. You're always holding your breath and hoping that it's not going to be something that takes them out for a season. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.