After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

When do the Steelers have their bye? Because that'll be a sad week for us here on After Hours. What is the After Hours TD of the week?

Or what should we single out as the After Hours TD of the week? You can find the poll. We've given you multiple candidates, but you can also write in your own vote. It's that time of the year. It's nearly election day. Actually, two weeks from Tuesday is election day, so this fits right in.

On Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And as always, you can weigh in on the various topics that we're chewing over. We're chewing over the fat here on a Monday night into a Tuesday morning. It's still October and there's never a dull moment, so people say to me, What about this?

What about that? Yeah, we can't possibly get to it all, but we do like to communicate with you for the most part on social. And that's a place where you all can go back and forth. It's not just sports on my Twitter, though, I warn you. Sometimes people get on me for that. Like, whatever, dude. Do your own thing on your own social media. I can do my own thing on my social media.

We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Did I already do this? No, I didn't, right? Are you giving me a thumbs up? What are you doing in there? Are you going to get cold?

I think so. It's the pressure change out here. Kill me. I love that you didn't warn me before I was in the same space as you.

What if I get a cold now? If I go down? No, that's a negative, Ghost Rider. Oh, speaking of that, Top Gun was on during Monday Night Football, and I heard the negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.

OK, let me try again. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there for home loan solutions that fit your life.

Rockets can. It's been a busy two hours. It's going to be a busy two hours moving forward. Right in the middle of the show, we got a lot of QB news to get to. So again, find us on Twitter or Facebook. You can always catch our podcast if you miss our interviews or any of the very witty and intelligent remarks that I make over the course of a show.

It's just it's your friend after hours, Amy Lawrence dot com. Back to throw, looking, firing deep for Chase in the end zone. He's got it! Touchdown!

Joe Burrow in the bagels. The Holmes fires for the end zone, caught. Touchdown, Kansas City. Off the back door again.

No, Herbert keeps it in. Touchdown, Chargers. Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Josh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone. Touchdown, Buffalo! Josh Allen, nine yard touchdown run. The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB news on After Hours.

That's plenty of QB news just coming out of Monday Night Football. Raise your hand if you have no idea what Bill Belichick is doing or raise your hand if you think you know what Bill Belichick is doing, but you're willing to admit you will probably end up getting it wrong. I appreciate the question. I really do.

I know that you do. And we have many questions. So I guess it's that time of the week again. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Mac Jones and the Patriots offense go three and out, three and out. And then he throws an interception on his third drive of the game. Bill Belichick promptly trots out Bailey Zappi. The crowd goes wild.

That's not just a phrase. The crowd did actually go wild. Zappi guides the Pats to a pair of touchdown drives before the end of the first half. And then the wheels come off after that. The Bears take over.

They score on five straight possessions. Zappi ends up fumbling at the end of the first half and then throwing two interceptions to wrap up the game. We never see Mac Jones again except for patrolling the sidelines like he's lost his favorite stuffed animal.

He was very forlorn. So now what? Oh, I'm so glad that you asked. Hey, Bill Belichick, who is the starting quarterback now? Can we just throw in some Bill just because it's so informative? We just finished the game.

Oh, I threw Jay for a loop and now he's all confused and everything's gone so horribly wrong. You want to try it again? Let's do a different Bill Belichick just for fun. Let's get it directly from the horse's mouth.

You tell me when you're ready. Don't give me the thumbs up because you need both your hands in there. Bill Belichick was Mac Jones benched. That's not what it was, but you can write whatever you want to write.

That's not what it was. Jay, it's not my fault Bill Belichick gets five word answers. If that.

Five second answers. If that. Let's cover it.

See what I mean? That's not my fault. It's not.

It's not my fault. Essentially what he said is that both Mac and Bailey knew they were going to play. He thought about putting Mac back in the game. The intent was to put Mac Jones back on the field, but when the game got out of hand, he didn't think that was fair. So both quarterbacks were going to play.

All right. Mac Jones certainly didn't look like he was on board with the plan when he was on the sidelines. In fact, if you're watching Peyton and Eli, they had comedian Bill Burr on the show and he said, Why do they keep showing sad Mac Jones on the sidelines? It was really kind of it was very I was bummed for him. He couldn't even sit down just wandering around. Like I said, he lost his favorite stuffed animal. So after the game, Mac Jones microphones in his face.

Oh, no. We had a good plan, as always, just to go throughout the week and figure out what we want to do for the game. And Coach Belichick was very good about communication and felt like I was good to play.

And we had a good plan there and just obviously didn't play well enough there. Definitely wanted to play better. And I just got to do better at my job. And that's all it comes down to. And that's all I can control.

And honestly, you know, we got a good chance here to go against the Jets. And that's kind of what I'm already focused on. So, like I said, I'm going to do my best to put my best foot forward. And I've been in this situation before and I'm just going to try and help the team.

And whatever my role is, I'll be ready and I'll give it 100 percent. How can this actually help the team? The fact that the Patriots have fallen below 500. That they lose a game at home to the Bears, who essentially dominate them from about the second quarter on. That between Mac and Bailey Zappi, they have four turnovers.

What can you take away from it, Mac? We have a lot of good players on this team. And obviously tonight we didn't play our best. And there's always a chance to turn around. I think you look in the past and really good teams, they don't just climb all the way up to the top. There's a little bit of a mountain that you have to go up. And you might have to stop or go down to get some air. But you better be able to shoot back up. And that's my plan and that's our plan.

And I know we're going to be able to do it. You got to get better. Can't fall off like I did. I got to make some throws.

Got to make better decisions on certain things. And it's a good thing about having another week, get back at it tomorrow, watch film tomorrow, get ready for next week. Again, Bill Belichick noted after the game, I suppose he could be lying, but he did note after the game that both Mac and Bailey knew the plan, knew they were both going to play. And that he intended to put Mac back in the game. Now that certainly sounds like platooning at quarterback. But he also said afterwards he does not anticipate a situation where he's platooning his two QBs. Maybe this was more about Mac not being fully healthy yet. But considering when he pulled Mac Jones, it certainly did seem like he was benched. The offense was ineffective for most of the game, except for those two drives in the second quarter.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. As for Justin Fields, he was the leading rusher for the Bears. I don't love that when the quarterback is the leading rusher, but 82 yards and a touchdown. He also threw for a touchdown, so was about two 60-ish yards in total. And I think most importantly, just had the one turnover, just had the one interception that he threw in the first half. My main goal right now is just to continue to improve each and every day, each and every game. So again, just going to look at tomorrow with the film, really tonight on what can I get better at, and what I can improve on as an individual, and what we can improve on as a team.

So we're just focused on getting better each and every day. You know, something that you saw if you watched the game, the Bears actually fumbled five times, but recovered all five of them. You want to talk about slippery little sucker, it definitely was that, the football. It was rainy, it was misty, it was foggy, and so the Bears kept fumbling the ball around. But every time they recovered, in fact, Justin himself fumbled the ball four times.

Justin didn't lose any of them, so there could have been some turnovers there. Patriots just weren't able to get to those loose balls. Can they stop showing sad Matt Jones on the sideline? We get it, he got taken out of the game, my God. That's comedian Bill Burr along with Peyton and Eli. I mean, quarterbacks are open game, right?

It's open season on the Monday Night Manings. Bears score on five straight possessions, their defense has four takeaways. It was domination at Foxborough, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio, the Colts make a quarterback change. We talked about this last hour with our Colts insider. Why, though, is Frank Reich benching Matt Ryan for the unproven quarterback Sam Ellinger? Our poor production on offense is not on one person, it's not on Matt Ryan. But we also know, as Matt and I talked it through, hey, as head coach and quarterback, as head coach, ultimately it doesn't matter, I'm judged on wins and losses.

Quarterbacks judged on points and production and turnovers. We understand that's how it is in this league, and so Matt will be a pro. Matt will be a pro, he will be expected to coach and work with Sam.

And also, he's got to be ready. Think about the whole Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky situation. Mitch loses the starting job but got called on when Kenny was knocked out and put in concussion protocol a week and a half ago.

So it's important because the backup QB, which will soon be Matt Ryan when he's healthy, right now he's not healthy, he could be called on at any point if something would happen to Sam. But moving forward, as the Colts take on the commanders in week eight, Ron Rivera has to prepare for a brand new quarterback that he's not seen. We're going to have to try and figure out what he does best. We'll have to look at some of the stuff from some of his other games and kind of decide that this is how they're going to use them, what they're going to try to do.

So this is how we're going to need to attack it. Sometimes that can be an advantage when you have really no film at the NFL level on a particular QB. Sam is well known from his days at Texas, but to not have any actual game film on him, the only thing you've got is pre-season, could be an advantage if he plays well. As for the commanders, they've got their own quarterback situation. They won with Taylor Heineke as the starter against the Packers on Sunday. They've won back-to-back games now against Arizona and Green Bay. Carson Wentz, though, not healthy. The fact that they've invested in him, that they traded away draft picks to get him, will that affect Rivera's decision when he's healthy versus Taylor Heineke? Not necessarily. I think this is about playing one game at a time, focusing on one game at a time, and when we get to that position, then I'll deal with it.

All right, short and sweet. I don't know that there's any quick, short, sweet fix to the Buccaneers' issues. It's a lot of problems for them. There were drops by Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on Sunday. They're not able to run the ball really effectively. The offensive line is not playing well, and Brady's off. He doesn't look like the Tom Brady that we've expected over the past 20-something years.

But I will give him credit. He always shows up on his Let's Go podcast Mondays with Jim Gray, even though there hasn't been a whole lot of winning to talk about recently. And he says the team is working at it. It's back to the drawing board at practice. It obviously doesn't feel very good to lose, and we've been in this situation for the last five weeks. So we're trying to figure out some corrections and at the same time think about Thursday night. So it's pretty jam-packed, but we're going to go out there and we're going to fight as hard as we can, like we've always done.

I was actually listening to him along with Jim Gray on Sirius XM NFL Radio, and I shared a couple of quotes on my Twitter, ALawRadio. This one I really liked. You don't run from it. You own it. If you don't own it and you don't have awareness of it, then it'll never get better. You have to understand that what we're doing just is not good enough.

And that was him talking about the Bucs' brutal play through the first seven weeks. You've got to own it, otherwise you're never going to figure it out. Everyone starts individually.

That's always the best place to start. When you're in a team sport, there's really never one play. It's a culmination of a lot of things that haven't gone right.

We just have not left ourself much margin of error, and we haven't executed the way that we're capable of. So it's been an interesting year in the NFL. There's a couple teams that are playing at a really high level, and there's a lot of teams that are 4-3, 3-4.

The whole season's ahead of us. Didn't he call it bad football just a couple weeks ago? Well, the Buccaneers certainly fit into that category right now in terms of their passing yardage. They're actually top six in the NFL. But their last, no joke, last in the NFL in rushing yards per game.

Would you have thought that? That is a direct correlation to the offensive line. 64.4 rushing yards per game is all they've managed dead freaking last in the NFL. I think there's a lot of bad football from what I watch. See what I mean?

I wonder if he's referring to his own O-line and running game. So how do you take your past failures and turn them into positives moving forward? You have to learn from the mistakes, and we've made plenty over the last seven weeks. This gives us an opportunity on a short week to go play a really good football team, where we match up, and then you get a little bit of a break afterward to really hone in on some of the things that we need to do moving forward.

So that process starts every week, and every Monday you think about all the things you need to do differently. And you're right. We have not played to our level in what we're capable of. That's just our reality, and we have to own it. And that's part of being a great professional. Everyone always wants to take the credit when we do well. The reality is you should always give the credit when you do well and take the blame when you don't do well.

We have a lot of guys in the locker room who do just that. One other quote that I heard from him that I felt was worth putting out there on Twitter. I believe so much in my teammates, and we're going to show up. We're going to give everything we've got to make sure the outcomes are different going forward. Tom Brady on his Let's Go podcast with Jim Gray on Sirius XM NFL radio.

By the way, our poll just ended. 50% of you pointed to the Bucks as the team that should be most miserable and mortified on Monday. They did not score a touchdown in losing in their division to the Carolina Panthers with P.J. Walker as the starting QB for interim head coach Steve Wilks. Is he where I'm going here? Coach Wilks, though, he's got a plan. His plan is to dance with the one who got him the win. I'm leaning towards already going with P.J. this week.

Number one, you don't know where these guys are from a medical standpoint. And then two, based off his performance on Sunday, I want to continue to go with P.J. How about that? P.J. 's earned himself another start, regardless of what Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold show in terms of their medical tests and whether or not they might be ready. You want to talk about some crazy quarterback situations.

That one definitely fits the bill. They are four quarterbacks deep. Matt Corral certainly would have been starting by now if he were healthy. Yeah, you're so not telling the truth.

I mean, it's just one of the stranger situations there. And honestly, think about the number of QBs that changed teams in the offseason. The fact that Russell Wilson is a flop in Denver so far. Matt Ryan's been benched in Indianapolis. Baker Mayfield's hurt and wasn't doing anything when he was the starting quarterback. So yeah, Jacoby Rissette is still starting for the Browns because they're waiting on Deshaun Watson. Marcus Mariota is probably one of the most stable QBs who got traded in the offseason and then Geno Smith. You want to talk about stable. That is the Seahawks right now.

They are stable as stable and steady can be. NFL makes no sense. Hey, I'm sure a bunch of fans expected that we would see Malik Willis for longer than a snap on Sunday. It certainly looked like Ryan Tannehill was hurt, was going to be out for a bit. Malik Willis started warming up. As it turned out, Tannehill missed only one snap. He got taped.

He was right back on the field against the Colts. But Mike Brabel believes the time is coming for his rookie. I think he's continued to improve. He's taken the ownership of the show team and that's where every backup quarterback gets their reps. But he's still understanding the game plan and still being ready to go.

So I kind of like where that's been. The show team and if Malik Willis is called on, Brabel is confident that he will be ready. The Titans started out 0-2 and they've won four in a row.

It's partly a product of their division but also a product of they just know their identity. Run the freaking ball. You have Derrick Henry. We do not need to reinvent the wheel with Derrick Henry. And a quarterback who's not flashy but does deliver the ball accurately.

Derrick Henry. Which is why I don't get the Colts. You have a now healthy Jonathan Taylor and you're limiting his reps. I don't get the Browns. Why are you not giving, and actually I heard Kareem Hunt is on the trade block. Why are you not giving Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt at least 30 carries per game between the two of them?

At least. I'm clearly not cut out to be an NFL head coach because I do not understand what's happening in many places around the league. Alright that's your QB news up to date as we morph into a Tuesday morning post week 7 in the NFL. This is so completely off the beaten path but turns out Serena Williams may not actually be retired. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I mean you never know. I always say, I've just been saying that you know I think Tom Brady started a really cool trend. Retire, retire and retire again.

Yeah so you know and the way he did it like a few weeks. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Maybe we should have paid more attention to Serena making jokes on Good Morning America on ABC. Now this is going back to the summertime and her farewell we thought at the US Open.

There sure were a lot of tears. There was a doubles match with her sister that garnered a lot of attention. And think about the matches that she played. She got into the third round at the US Open and they were televised of course. They were on center court. Not only was the atmosphere inside Arthur Ashe Stadium electric but the ratings bumps for those matches on TV were enormous. So then what does she mean when she tells us that that was actually not her swan song?

I mean what about all the tributes? Although she says they're on Good Morning America, Tom Brady started a really cool trend. Sure his wife feels the same. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So this caught my eye on the CBS Sports website. She was attending the TechCrunch Disrupt to promote her investment company. And while she was doing that, she did an interview.

Okay so this is a recent appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. And she was doing an interview and she apparently is taking back the R word. There's a reason that you use the word evolution and not retirement. I don't like the word retirement either.

You never use it. I'm telling you right now. I'm not retired. No don't. I'm telling you I don't want you to ever retire from anything.

But it sounded like you were on the fence a little bit at the U.S. Open. And I know you haven't thought about it much in the last four weeks being so busy. But what are the chances that we get to see you play again?

I'm going to cry asking. Well the chances are very high. You come to my house. I got a court. We have a thousand witnesses to you saying that.

I'm definitely cashing in on that. This was her first public appearance since the U.S. Open and everything that surrounded what was supposed to be her last major. Her last high profile tennis tournament.

I could see her doing exhibitions here and there. But this was a send off. This was a farewell.

This was a love fest in New York. Quote I am not retired. Now she does joke then. The chances of me returning are very high. I'm still playing tennis. I'm not retired. You can come to my house and see I have a court.

I'm playing on my court. So she invites the TechCrunch editor Jordan Cook who is the one asking her the questions. But it's in front of a packed audience and she very clearly states I am not retired. All right. Let's hear it one more time. So kind of getting the lay of the land here. She's doing a Q&A in her first public appearance since the U.S. Open.

This is in San Francisco. And Jordan says something along the lines of I hate that R word. There's a reason that you use the word evolution. And not retirement. I don't like the word retirement either.

You never use it. I'm telling you right now. I'm not retired. I'm telling you I don't want you to ever retire from anything.

But it sounded like you were on the fence a little bit at the U.S. Open. I know you haven't thought about it much in the last four weeks being so busy. But what are the chances that we get to see you play again?

I'm going to cry asking. Well the chances are very high. You come to my house. I got a court. I got you. We have a thousand witnesses to you saying that. Very cryptic.

I'm definitely cashing in on that. Now this is a great example of click bait because the way that this interview was summarized and headlined on CBS Sports is about Serena saying the chances of me returning are very high. But that's not what she said. She told Jordan Cook the chances of you seeing me play tennis are very high because you can come to my house and see that I have a court. This is why you always need to read actual transcripts or listen to actual interviews. She did go on to say though, I went on the court the other day and realized for the first time in my life I'm not playing for a competition and that felt very weird. It was like the first day of the rest of my life and so far I am enjoying it, but I'm still trying to find that balance.

I'm still super young. She started this company, right? And so she's jumped right into that. She's got other business ventures that really matter to her. Her husband is the co-founder of Reddit.

They've indicated that they want to have another child. So there's a lot going on in Serena's life. She did say I'm not retired, but maybe she wasn't referring specifically to tennis. She was referring to the fact that she's still very active in her life.

It's just different business ventures. As Jordan Cook referenced, she uses the word evolution. She's evolved into different areas of business, different areas and phases of her life. Now that sounds a lot like the Serena that we heard from this summer before the US Open. Remember she played in Toronto. She kind of cried on the court there and then she was in New York and she did talk about having other things in her life that she wanted to do. So maybe in that sense, she's not retired.

I don't know that from this particular interview you can take any concrete indication that she's going to play professional tennis again. Right? So clickbait. It's amazing how often the headlines can give you the wrong impression, right? Read the transcripts. Listen to the actual interviews. That means you, those of you who just read the headlines on the interviews that we post and you don't actually listen. Jay, this is hysterical.

I don't know if I told you this or not. Remember last week we had a conversation with Bryant McFadden, former Steelers DB, two-time Super Bowl champion. And I asked him about the way that Steelers fans turn on Mike Tomlin every single time they go through a bit of a swoon. They're calling for his head. Now McFadden played for Tomlin, loves Mike Tomlin and says it's a blessing and a curse.

When your expectations are so high, instantly fans want blood if things are not going well. So in the tease, I won't go back and look at it on our Facebook page, but in the tease I mentioned Mike Tomlin getting fired. So it was one of the things that I talked about with Bryant McFadden, right? I said, you know, actually I probably should go back and look at it really quick just because that way you can kind of get the gist. And of course we do it on purpose, right? Here we go.

To shoot a hostage if you will. This is how I set up the interview with McFadden on our Facebook page. The perfect prep for week seven. NFL vet and two-time Super Bowl champion Bryant McFadden joins us for analysis, breakdowns and laughs. Remember he was talking about babies and bassinets being like quarterbacks in the NFL. From the Steelers QBs, because we talked about Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett, and the AFC North to firing Mike Tomlin to roughing the passer.

So that was kind of the progression, right? I see. Some lady, I'll read you her post verbatim, some lady, without bothering to listen, writes in the comment section on the post, Tomlin was fired?

Question mark, question mark, question mark. That's my point, is that if you don't pay any attention, all you read is headlines, you are so woefully uninformed. But is that not our society?

Oh that's it in a nutshell, it's everything. That's why I say all the time, social media is the opposite of social, and it's not media. You should have just responded yes, and then she'd go around telling her friends all that Mike Tomlin got fired. The fact that people will take what they see in a headline, two or three words, and just start passing it off like they know everything. Oh yeah, no it's definitely scary, but if you are in a business where social media is something that you use to promote or to expand your platform, how often does it happen that people get sucked in by these clickbait headlines and it turns out it's nothing like what actually was said or what actually was meant or written or described? I mean the sick part, not in a good way, is that it's encouraged almost nowadays, where the clickbaity headlines are the ones that get the most clicks obviously, but that's, I don't know, I'm just not a fan of that form of, that style of getting views.

Tomlin was fired? It's not right, I mean come on. I didn't even bother to respond to her. No but you didn't say anything wrong, like just fire, that wasn't, I don't think that was bait-y, I don't know. Was it? No it was meant to get people to listen to the interview, but in some cases people don't bother.

Right. Right, so back to the Serena Williams situation or the Serena Williams interview and the headline that was done on Serena Williams. So here's the headline from CBS Sports, everybody's guilty of it right? Serena Williams reveals she's not retired, says chances of a return are very high, but that's not what she said. What she said to the woman who was interviewing her was that, if you come to my house, the chances of you seeing me play tennis are very high. So yeah that's what Jordan said, Jordan said what are the chances I see you play tennis again or we see you play tennis again? And she said they're very high.

I have a court, you can come to my house and watch me. That's not the chances of a return, so whoever wrote this headline either didn't listen to the entire exchange or just decided, you know what, we're going to purposely mislead people. Yeah.

That's it. And guess what, we played the audio. Right, so that's not at all what Serena said. I mean she was playing coy and she's definitely not retired, but she never said the chances of her returning to the professional tennis are very high. That is not what she said. It's a good thing you have us. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You can vote for TD of the Week on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or on our Facebook page where we try not to purposely mislead you. Though I'm not above a good tease and a good hook to getting you to listen to an interview. Totally different. A good tease is different than like what just happened with this, with a totally different meeting, something completely different than what happened. A tease is a tease.

One's just misleading. Speaking of teases, it's a huge tease for New York Yankees fans now that their season is over, swept at the hands of the Astros, when Aaron Judge says he's a free agent but he would love to continue in pinstripes. Is that actually the most likely outcome though? A little bit of debate on Judge's future because once the World Theories is done, that becomes the biggest story like Freddie Freeman last year. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. The 2022 American League champions, Houston Astros.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Robert Ford and Steve Sparks on Astros Radio, they're preparing for the World Series and will be home in Houston for the first two games because the Astros with their 106 wins will host the opener against the Phillies coming up on Friday night. Four World Series appearances in six years for the Astros, including back to back.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I thought it was poetic, definitely ironic, that the Yankees season ends with Aaron Judge in the batter's box. Aaron Judge had a phenomenal season, an historic season, more home runs than any other American leaguer has ever hit in a single campaign. And for a while, including the last couple weeks of the regular season, he was competing for the Triple Crown, meaning best batting average, most RBI, most home runs. And he did lead in both the RBI and home run categories. So Aaron Judge had a great regular season.

Obviously not a postseason that he wanted or that the Yankees needed, especially not in a sweep in the ALCS. Does that take money out of his pocket? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Excuse me. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. This is the biggest question for the Yankees moving forward. How much are they willing to pay him?

That's been the question now for over a year. In fact, GM Brian Cashman even referred to the pot of gold that the Yankees have to offer Aaron Judge. The hang up has been Judge wanted more years than what the Yankees were willing to offer him because he turns 31 right after they open the 23 season. Is he going to make more than 300 million? Heck yeah. Do the Yankees want to pay him for a 10 year contract?

No. But I say you give him whatever he wants. Now, if he will accept fewer years, say eight years, but 40 million per year. Then you're talking about $320 million. And honestly, I don't think that's too much based on what Aaron Judge means to the Yankees and the amount of money that he has earned them. The number of butts that have been put in the seat simply because of Aaron Judge. There's absolutely no way to replace him.

None. It doesn't matter who you would bring into New York and put in the pit stripes. You cannot replace Aaron Judge. The numbers?

Yes, that's part of it. But it's more about his impact on the clubhouse, on the fans, on the fan base. It's the star power that the Yankees need and that fits so well in New York and his personality fits so well in New York. So I don't think there's any replacing him. But this will be obviously a question because he intends to try his hand at free agency. Now, Aaron hasn't really wanted to talk about it. He was asked after the game on Sunday whether or not he considered that this could be his last home game as a Yankee. No, not at all.

Not at all. I tried to go out there and do my job and help this team win and I really didn't think it would be my last game here. What about after it was over? It happened so quick.

You don't really have time to soak much in it. As for Aaron Boone, the manager, I mean, he was really emotional after the loss anyway. But he was asked about Aaron Judge and this is a I think there's a real connection between them. It's a solid relationship that we saw on display all year. But it's also important for Aaron Boone in terms of his job security and whether or not the Yankees are anywhere near as good next year. Just an incredible season and, you know, someone that I've grown close with and just admire and respect. And, you know, hopefully we'll see him in pinstripes for a long time.

I don't even want to think about the alternative right now. But, you know, he means a lot to a lot of us in that room. Yeah, the impact goes far beyond the home runs, far beyond the RBI. The questions about him being healthy, those were answered all year and then some. The Astros definitely got the best of the Yankees and got the best of Aaron Judge in this particular series.

Was he one for 16, I think, in the ALCS? But the problems are far bigger than Judge. There's a major gap still between Houston and New York. And so the Astros are the best team in the American League, bar none.

They have been now for a few years and no, they're not still cheating. It was one hell of a year. It's so impressive. That Judge turned down job security, turned down a massive contract that would have secured his future, and instead decided I'm worth more than that and I'm going to prove it to you. And boy, did he. Likely the MVP of the American League, a phenomenal season. The Yankees offered him a seven year contract worth $213.5 million. They wanted it to run through 2029. He turned that down.

If you can get him for eight years, maybe even nine years, but I say eight years and up the average annual value to close to $40 million, that to me feels like a real good sweet spot for Aaron Judge. It's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio.