8-4-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Listen on your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll be glad you did. Do you feel different on this Friday morning? Not just because it's the first summer August weekend.

No, but it is that. Not just because it is a Friday and you're nearly free, a free for all Friday, a freedom Friday, a free Friday. Maybe it's her payday too, if you're on the same rotation as we are here at CBS Sports Radio. But no, I'm referring to the fact that it's actually a bit of a football Friday. Now it's a fake football Friday, but does it feel different? Do you feel different waking up knowing that football is back, baby? Football is back. It wasn't exciting.

It really wasn't. However, the pomp and circumstance around the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, is a lot of fun. Complete with the technical issues, because of course they can't get through a game in Canton without technical issues. There's a, what do you call it, a darkness retreat maybe for Aaron Rodgers at the stage between the third and fourth quarters. The lights go out in Canton. They have about a 15 minute-ish delay.

I'm going to my darkness retreat. And then that same electrical issue that caused the lights to go out also causes the showers to not work. Now I wasn't there, so I'm just going on what was reported, but apparently the showers didn't work either. And so the Browns, some of the Browns were taking ice baths after the game instead of actually showering. Well, that's fun because I guess they wouldn't have hotels, right? They're not staying overnight. They would have come directly from Cleveland on a bus. They bus over and then they're going to bus back unless they're going to find their own transportation home. But they didn't have the shower capability and so that's fun. I bet that bus smelled ripe.

But yeah, electrical issue caused the lights to go out and the showers to be non-functional. Welcome to Canton. Welcome back football.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Glad to have you with us. Thanks so much for hanging out on what is now a Friday morning.

Your weekend is on the horizon, so keep going, keep pressing, keep pushing. Fun to see the Browns fans show up in droves, not only because Cleveland and Canton are within driving distance, but because Joe Thomas, one of the most iconic athletes in Cleveland history, is getting inducted this weekend. So yeah, Kevin Stefanski loved the atmosphere there in Canton because it felt like a home game. It was awesome. The atmosphere was incredible.

A ton of Brownies fans, as we all knew, made the drive down. You know, we're so fortunate to get to play in this game. It being in our backyard, the Hall of Fame is incredible. So fortunate to be able to honor Joe Thomas and what he's meant to this team, this city, this community. So it was just a great night. Our guys love playing in this stadium under the lights.

It takes you back to Friday night lights. So I thought the guys really enjoyed their time. The quality of the football may have been about like Friday night lights.

OK, I'm just kidding. It wasn't that bad. But there weren't starters that were out there.

Really, position battles even weren't on display. But it did sound like football. We had Mike Tirico and Chris Collinsworth mispronouncing a name. I mean, I do it all the time, so I'm not coming down on him, just pointing out that he's in midseason form on NBC. And then, yes, the Browns fans and the Hall of Fame interviews, which I absolutely love. Joe Thomas being the one who is career Brown, Brown through and through with a number that every respecting Cleveland sports fan knows. Ten thousand three hundred and sixty three consecutive snaps for Joe Thomas.

He never played in the postseason, but he wouldn't trade it because of what it meant to him to go out there. Snap after snap after snap for years means resiliency. It means to me everything that I wanted to be as a player was just a great teammate that you could always count on me. That's what I always said. You can count on me when things get hard, when it's snowing and sleeting and it's minus 10 degrees on the shores of Lake Erie. Count on me. I'll be there. I'll be there and I'll be at my best if it's 90 degrees and we're in Tampa, Florida in September, I'll be there. And so for me, when I look up in the stadium at Cleveland Brown Stadium, I see that number. To me, that's the thing I'm the most proud of because that's me being the best teammate because I was there for other people serving my teammates in my city.

He reminds me of the U.S. Postal Service or what it used to be. I go days at a time without getting mail and I know that we don't see our letter carriers in the neighborhood for days at a time. I'm not sure what type of schedule they're on these days, but it used to be that neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor dark of night nor tempestuous downpours.

When it's snowing and sleeting and it's minus 10 degrees on the shores of Lake Erie. He's the actual U.S. Postal Service. He always delivered. Joe Thomas. And as I say, my favorite thing about him is that he identifies with Cleveland.

He didn't want to be anything else. He could have gone to the Denver Broncos late in his career if he had forced to trade. Oh, isn't that so NBA-like? Actually, it's kind of NFL-like now, too, but he was a Cleveland Brown through and through.

For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, richer and poorer, till death do us part or till a tricep injury do us part. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, that interview, courtesy of NBC and Melissa Stark. All right, so we'll get back to some football. We actually had a chance to catch up with Jonathan Petterlin, who does the evening show for our affiliate in Cleveland, 92-3. And I did drop the phrase on the shores of Lake Erie because I love Northeast Ohio.

It's a part of me and my upbringing. And so we'll bring back part of Jonathan. But one of the things that he said that caught my ear is that the AFC North is the toughest division in football. Do you agree?

Do you disagree? Do you have a different division? We're asking you on Twitter, ALawRadio or After HoursCBS, and then our Facebook page, too. So good to talk with Jonathan. And the entire interview is on our podcast.

The link will be posted first thing when the show is done on both our social media sites or you can find it on the Odyssey app, the Odyssey website. We're going to pivot a bit, though, because we had some pitchers making their debuts with new teams last night. Post trade deadline or in the case of Justin Verlander, just he's back in an Astros uniform. It's his encore, if you will, expected to pitch this weekend. Oh, the Yankees fans are thrilled that he is back in the American League and back staring the Yankees down from the mound in the Bronx.

So we'll get to that coming up. But first, Jack Flaherty dazzling in his Orioles debut. Goes six innings, allows a single run on four hits, couple of walks in there as well, but eight strikeouts. And he's thrilled to be part of the Orioles, a team now two up in the AL East. Complete team.

And, you know, you kind of knew that coming in and then you kind of get around them and see what they're about. Guys go about their business and they work and they're their complete team, offense, defense, pitching, do it all. Great breaking ball, two breaking balls and a cutter.

A lot of swing and misses. Going up to ninety six there in that sixth inning also. So he kept his velocity. Sold out crowd here, tough environment and just love the way he pitched. That was amazing.

I mean, he he showed he looked really good and had all the stuff working and really needed them there. And then he came in and did his job and it was a lot of fun to watch. OK, I got to ask, because producer Jay and I made the face at the same time across the double pane glass looking at each other. He shoved. Is that something the kids say these days?

That was amazing. I mean, he he showed he he shoved what he shoved. He shoveled. He shoved it where the sun don't shine.

Maybe that's what I'm taking out. He shoved. Can you Google it, please?

Because you Google everything else. He shoved slang, shoved something along those lines, because I bet there's some type of a definition. Maybe it's in the urban dictionary. It says there's a pitching term in baseball. It is shoved or shoving, depending on how you use it.

The term is a way of describing a dominant performance by a pitcher, normally one that includes a high number of strikeouts. Well, I'm not sure if I'd go high number of strikeouts, but he shoved. He shoved.

I would love to know the origin of that particular verb used in. I mean, because shoving is really against the rules in baseball. We get bases clearing conversations if you shove someone else. Yeah. I mean, when I think he shoved in baseball, I think Alex Rodriguez and Jason Veritek going back to was it 2004? Yeah. When they got into the shoving match at home plate and the uppercut to A-Rod's chin.

He shoved. All right. Trying to find the origin of where who started that search. Interesting. I have to go to.

Yeah, I go to the urban dictionary, but still learn something new. Thank you, Ryan Mountcastle. The first baseman for the Orioles who goes four for four in Flaherty's first win with the O's. Well, Max Scherzer didn't start out like a house on fire. In fact, he was getting burned up by the White Sox. They got three runs on him in the first inning of his debut with the Rangers, but he did settle in and shook off that tough start. So he had fifty five pitches in the first couple innings, finished with one hundred and five, but managed to go through six. He had nine strikeouts. And yeah, he had to he had to fix his mental.

Take care of his mental after that opening frame. I was in the dugout saying, don't panic. Don't panic.

You're OK. They're not they're not blasting hitting home runs. It's not the execution of pitches.

You know, there's finding holes right now. And so just continue to execute pitches, get back in the zone, you know, find a way to get some quick outs, you know, and let's just pitch and compete. And so, you know, it's great when that happens.

You're able to get some zeros going up. And then obviously our offense was able to get going and hit some good home runs. And so that's that's what's fun is when the whole team has kind of a hand in it. Everybody kind of did their job today and we won as a team. He couldn't had worse luck there early.

You know, everybody had found holes. I think he gave up seven hits and six of them found holes there. But this shows you how tough he is. What a great competitor he is. Like a lot of pitches that first inning. But, you know, regroup, reset, went out there and gave us six solid innings.

Got to win. It was fun to watch him compete. I love it when Mad Max gets chatty. He did. He definitely did get chatty.

So, yeah, he settled in. He only gave up those runs in the first inning. I had seven hits, couple of walks, managed to get through the six innings. So moves to ten and four on the season, much to the chagrin of Mets fans who likely wanted to see him get shelled. Admit it, Producer J, you did want to see him get blown up. And after the first inning, you thought this is exactly why we had to get rid of him.

Well, it didn't not like the first inning. I mean, it was, you know, it was kind of like, okay, this is why they got rid of him. At least he's not going over there and dominating for them. His face, too. His face. He's so full of expression.

He's expressionful. I could do without those postgame comments. Like, the wheeze, the hours, this team is great. Like, we're in the, I can't believe I'm on a playoff run now. Let's hear it.

Because, you know, he is now a Texas Ranger. First time being in the stadium, you know, and so, you know, it's great. You know, to be able to break in here and get a feel for what the mound is, the slope of the mound. And just get with these guys and go out there and compete. You know, we're in a pennant race now, so this is what's fun is this type of year. You need to win almost every single ball game. That's the mentality it takes to be able to be great. And, you know, that we, you know, we took care of business in the series.

OMG, you're right. He drops a series of wheeze. It's a little bit like Baker Mayfield being with the Los Angeles Rams for all of five minutes. Leads them on a couple of late drives to pull the victory out of the jaws of defeat. And then, it's good to be home, he says in the locker room. Yo, man, that's the way to fight. Hey, I'm happy to be home, man. Rams on three.

One, two, three. I mean, he was not even in the building for two days. And he's already calling it home in LA. That was short lived.

Speaking of Baker, we'll hear from him. But yeah, Max Scherzer dropping some whee whee wheeze all the way home. Jay's face. It's a good thing this is not a visual medium right now.

It's just those comments really bothered me. Like, we're in a pennant race, this is what it takes to win. You just got traded from a team that had World Series aspirations because you were terrible. And now you're going to go there and say, oh, this is what it takes to be in a pennant race, now I'm good. You're the reason the Mets were out of it because of the season you're having. I mean, the Mets theoretically could have won the NL East last season had he not spit the bit in his final regular season start. And potentially, it would have been them instead of the Phillies in the World Series. Or at least the NLCS had he not been blown up in the wild card game. Am I remembering anything inaccurately?

I believe it's very accurate. Well, so Mad Max gets a win with the Rangers on the same day that Justin Verlander is reintroduced? Hey, he's back. They throw a party for his return.

It's his encore. You know, he had to wave his no trade clause to end up with the Astros again. I would like the opportunity to go to a team that was going to fight for a championship this year and next. And clearly with the trading of Robertson and Max, the picture for this year and next year was kind of shifting quickly.

I don't think anybody saw this coming. You know, you commit to a team and you commit to trying to win a championship there. And that's your vision, right?

You're all in. And then a few months later, you know, you're back with the team you were with the last season. I feel like I was just really starting to get settled in the city and my apartment and my family was really getting used to things here. You know, you start building a life off the field. You try to build a life in the city that you're in and you start getting comfortable and you make friends. And so that part is really difficult.

It's a lot on the family. He genuinely sounds torn. This was clearly not his plan to end up in Houston, though Justin Verlander did say this was the only place that I would have considered going.

He said there's no other place he wanted to be if he wasn't going to be in New York and was going to uproot his family and kind of start. I don't want to say fresh, but start again, hit the reset button with the Astros. And yeah, there is a lot of familiarity with the entire organization, including his teammates. Through the baseball lens, it's super exciting, you know, to join my friends again and a team that's fighting for a championship and in a really intense run coming down the stretch. I mean, that's what you play a game for.

And when I sit down and talk with my wife about things, that's, you know, that's why we're here. And, you know, you play this game to win and win championships. He did not, at least in those cuts that I heard and in the part of the press conference that I heard, use the term we about the Astros. So producer Jay will take that from a met for I mean, he was a met for all of four months or something like that. He has the Mets money. He's cashing the Mets paychecks, but he was never really, truly a met.

No, no, he really wasn't. But I mean, but he seems gracious of, you know, like you said, he started with no one expected to go this way. I came in there to try to win.

My family likes it there. So it's just a more graceful way to exit than the way that Max Scherzer did it. Who couldn't wait to spill all the details about his meeting with Steve Cohen and how the team's not winning. And I don't know. Verlander use words like a whirlwind.

It's a really odd feeling, hard to explain. But if the Mets explain it this way, they're willing to spend what, 50 million dollars. Give that to the Astros to take Justin Verlander off their hands. I saw a number yesterday roughly about it was the Mets are paying. I think it was 121 million or 101 million, something like that to players who aren't on the roster right now because of those trades. And those are just minor leaguers that they paid for. That's more than team's payroll. I mean, I guess if Steve doesn't mind signing the checks, that's insane, though. I mean, it's like burning money, throwing it into a barrel and just lighting it on fire. Kind of. I mean, they got the prospects. Well, if they work out, they work out.

If they don't, then yeah, you're literally just burning the money. That makes my stomach hurt. All right, one more from Major League Baseball because it was good news and bad news with Shohei Ohtani. C.J. Crome base hit. He swings at this one, drives the ball deep out there into right field and that one is out of here. Ohtani just did what everyone came out to the ballpark to see. It's a home run, number 40 of the season. Angels add on.

It's 3-1 and it's showtime. So his 40th home run leads the majors, Terry Smith on Angels radio. But another finger issue for Shohei Ohtani.

So this time it's cramps in his finger and he couldn't straighten it out. So he pulled himself from the game after four innings. And later, not that he would have been in the game still in the ninth inning, but later the Mariners rally with a Cade Marlowe grand slam in the ninth that stuns the Angels.

So the roller coaster is now on the downturn. They've dropped three in a row and have lost some ground after being buyers at the trade deadline. But relying a whole lot on Ohtani, they really need to get Mike Trout back. And Ohtani does his job at the plate, but they've got to put more pressure on opposing pitchers. And if they don't have the pitchers themselves, I mean Lucas Giolito got blown up in his first start by the Braves. If they can't get strong pitching, then they're going to need to score more runs to make a viable push for the wild card. Also, if you're a Phillies fan, Michael Lorenzen, he was dazzling in his debut or continuing the theme of pitchers in new places.

New faces in new places. Season high eight innings and the Phillies double up the Marlins. So I don't think any of the teams in the NL East have a chance to catch the Braves. I mean, you're saying there's a chance.

There's always a sliver of hope. But for the most part, these teams are now competing for wild cards. All right. On Twitter, A Law Radio asking you what is the toughest division in the NFL? Because our guest earlier on the show says AFC North hands down.

I'm actually going a different direction, but we'll look for your answers. Retweeting them after hours. CBS and then on our Facebook page, too. Good to have you with us.

Happy Friday morning. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jim Donovan on Browns radio. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. We are heading up toward the top of the hour, handing off to the rest of the network hosts.

It'll be D.A. here on on our network. And we're going to go blissfully off into the weekend and hand off the heavy lifting to somebody else.

See you wouldn't want to be. It's after I already said it's after hours. It's about to be not after hours, but primetime hours, primetime weekend football's back, baby. It was sort of fake football, but it was fun to talk about with Jonathan Petterlin. Now, we didn't get any Cleveland Browns battles. We got a bunch of guys on the sidelines at Deshaun Watson in a beanie or as I call a knit hat, a winter hat.

We think it was a fashion statement, but regardless. It sounded like football and it signals the start of the twenty twenty three campaign. Didn't get a lot of questions answered, but I did ask Peter Lynn, who joined us following his show on our Cleveland affiliate ninety two three, the fan. What are the major question marks for the Browns as we head into the season? I mean, Deshaun's got to be the number one. Everything really revolves around that because everything revolves around the quarterback. But I wonder about this wide receiver and core.

I really do. By Clay's power rankings, putting the Browns twenty first, I thought were wrong. But it has me it has me a little messed up because I think Amari Cooper is good for thirteen twelve hundred yards somewhere in that range.

More like eleven fifty to twelve hundred and eight nine touchdowns. And after that, it's Donovan People's Jones. And then what can you do with Elijah Moore?

Right. Can they turn Elijah Moore? Can they turn turn the Jets trash into their own treasure? And that's got to be one of the big storylines and try to figure this all out because we know they got one of the best offensive line. We know the Browns have one of the best running games in football. They now have a revamped defense like there's a lot going on for the Browns. But the way the NFL is going, Amy, it just it looks like it's how good are your quarterbacks and wide receivers right now? Like if Deshaun Watson's a top ten quarterback, like if we if I could we assume everything goes great and he is that. Well, how do you keep up with the Joneses that are the Bengals? You know, how do you keep up with Chase Higgins Boyd? And that's got to be one of the questions the Browns have.

OK, well, I'm going to follow up on that then. How likely is it that Deshaun Watson is still a top ten quarterback? What have you seen or heard coming out of Browns camp and even mini camp and OTAs? So I'm hesitant on this one, even though I want to and I tell people nightly, I'm like, it's OK to believe in Deshaun Watson. It's all right.

Jump, you know, head first if you want to. Last year, Amy, when he went to training camp. And I think what I'm hanging on is the idea that he had to wait 10 weeks then to go play at the Texans. But last year I went and watched him play because we did shows from them.

You know, the way you do radio shows from training camp, it's the thing we do. And I went and watched him and I saw him next to Jacoby Brissett. Jacoby Brissett had a good year last year.

At one point, they were top five in offensive rating like he was good last year. And he looked like a high school kid next to Deshaun Watson. The throws were incredible that Deshaun could pull off.

And it just it was night and day. But then we watched him get on the field. He completed 58 percent of his passes. The Texans game, he had a bunch of warm burners throwing balls in the dirt like it wasn't just wasn't pretty. So there's a part of me that even though we've seen a lot of really good stuff from the minicamps and then the brief amount we have seen him here in Berea, because they were out in the Greenbrier in West Virginia for a week prior. But the brief amount we've seen, like he looks really, really sharp. But then again, he looked really sharp last year, too. If you can, what does Joe Thomas mean to the Browns organization?

I mean, he's just the epitome of class. You know, he just represents everything you'd want in a football player. There's I mean, not only just what he did on the field, which you can debate. And for a while, some fans did debate whether or not they should have traded him at the end of Denver to try to get some value and try to get some something out of him as far as what the future would then hold. But ultimately, the fact that he goes in as a brown, only a brown, no other team can claim him. I think in retrospect, I'm happy the Browns didn't trade him to Denver, even though it would have been sweet for Joe to win a ring.

I'm happy they didn't do that. Ultimately, he just everything he does. He's always in the community. He's always down talking to people on the radio station, for instance. He's always there. He's available to people. He's available to Northeast Ohio. And he's just kept it a part of himself in a way that I don't think many athletes these days tend to do.

He doesn't have to do the things that he does, but he constantly does. Joe is the epitome of class. There's no other way to put it.

Jonathan Peterland is with us from the shores of Lake Erie here on CBS Sports Radio. What do you think of the AFC North? The Bengals right now, the team to beat, of course, because of what they've done the last couple years. But after the Bengals, or even in competition with the Bengals, how does it shake out?

It's really tough. If you told me, you know, you ever see on TikTok the little dogs that do the, they kick the balloons, the balls into the little baskets at the bottom of the stairs? That dog might have a better chance than I would right now, telling you guys which direction it would go for the AFC North. You start with the Bengals at the top and then you try to work your way down. But it wouldn't even really surprise me, as good as the Bengals are. And we're like this close to renaming it the Joe Burrow Patrick Mahomes Invitational for the AFC title game.

Like one year away from it. But it wouldn't surprise me if the Ravens won the division. Wouldn't surprise me if the Browns won the division. Wouldn't surprise me if any of those teams, maybe the Steelers, maybe the Steelers, I'd turn around and be like, wow, Kenny Pickett really got it together.

But with Tomlin, who's ever to say that you got to count them out either? For my money, it's the toughest division in sports right now. And I don't know that there'd be many, toughest division in NFL, let me clarify it that way, in NFL.

And I don't know that many people would go back on that. AFC North, the toughest division in football. We're asking you to respond to Jonathan Petterlin on Twitter after our CBS, or my Twitter of course.

And then our Facebook page. And it's interesting because right now, most of the answers are coming out of the AFC. But not all of them. My answer does not come out of the AFC, I don't think. And if it was, it might go west. The east is enticing. Now I'm going a different direction.

So you can find us on social and we'll debate, sort of. Coming back following the update, also a little bit of QB news. Because I still, sometimes, I'll admit, I think Baker Mayfield when I think Cleveland Browns.

It'll probably stick with me for another year and then I'll get over it. But he's locked, he's locked in a quarterback competition with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On the day that Todd Bowles says happy birthday to Tom Brady.

Like six degrees of separation. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. And now Kansas City. No, Herbert keeps it in, so 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. It's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Good to have you with us.

We are about to hand you off into your Freaky Friday and say go get them peeps. On our last show we had a discussion about who would be the subjects. Who would be featured in the second season of Quarterback. Produced by Peyton Manning on Netflix or Peyton Manning's part of it. Josh Allen actually reveals that he is still considering the possibility.

I haven't watched it yet. I know I talked to Pat a little bit about it. And I think it's a really cool concept. I think that to have everything documented especially as a quarterback is very cool.

I mean you look at some of the documenters that have come out in the past. You talk about the Jordan documentary. But just to have that documented especially if you can win and win at a high level. And continue to be a successful quarterback in this league.

To have that documented I think is super special. But at the same time I don't want any outside distractions. I don't want any unnecessary distractions for myself or this team. I'm not saying that would be.

I'm a little undecided on whether I would want to do it or not. I go back and forth sometimes in my mind. But as of right now I'm just trying to be the best quarterback for this team. Being the best quarterback means sometimes he takes off with that football.

It's a constant theme with the Bills. How much should Josh Allen run? How much should he handle the football out of the backfield? He says you know what a little contact is not a bad thing. I could get dirty every now and then.

It's football when we're out here. I like getting hit sometimes too. It makes me feel alive.

That could be some Hall of Flame material right there. I love it. It makes me feel alive when I get crushed on the football field. Too bad he's wearing that red jersey. Does he dare take it off during training camp? It makes me feel alive. No one is crushing Aaron Rodgers right now.

In fact he is all smiles maybe because he hasn't been hit yet. Now he's thrilled to have this fresh start in New York and in the AFC East along with the Bills. I love our team. I love the guys we got.

I love the men and women that work for the organization. It's a really fun environment. I think that's what you've got to do when there's just a big time change in your life.

You can resist it or you can just jump in and surrender to the process and all the newness of it. Just the excitement. It's been a lot of fun just being around these young guys and being around a team that's really hungry. Aaron Rodgers on NBC. So a lot of you are telling me that it's the AFC East, the toughest division in football. The Bills, now the Jets with the future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. Of course some other young star talent.

Last year the Dolphins made the playoffs in Mike McDaniel's first year even though they did not have a steady hand at quarterback. Tua, by the way, he's back and he's bulky. Have you noticed? Yeah, he's put on a lot of muscle and his coach is talking about his teammates like Raheem Mostert talking about it. I feel like he's been able to utilize his legs a little bit more and not in the running aspect but settling down, getting his foot, you know, his five-step and three-step timing right. People ask that just because I've been in his offense, I like to watch every little asset as possible. But he seems like he's finding his way in regards to the time management, how to work his feet and his lower body and his rhythm and his hips. It's got to be one of the major question marks about the AFC as a whole is can the Dolphins count on Tua through the course of the season and can he remain concussion-free?

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. So Jay says on Twitter the AFC West is the toughest division in football. I think a close second is the AFC East. No one right now is pointing to the AFC South.

I haven't seen even one vote for the South. It's because there's a lot of turnover there. That includes with the Colts going with what is their fourth starting quarterback in four years. I guess if you go back to Andrew Lux last season, it's just a nonstop revolving door there. And they've got a new head coach in Shane Steichen.

Remember, they took Anthony Richardson in the NFL draft, and they're looking at him as the face of the future. I think just command of the huddle, getting out and being comfortable with the system, calling out plays, getting guys lined up. We're in the second week of training camp, and we've got a lot to go.

Everyone does, and that's where we're at in the process. I think with anything, you're running your teammates more and more. You get to know your personality, and I think your guys are adapting to them well. I've been really impressed with him and the way he's coming to the building every day. Just his work ethic and his poise in the huddle for a rookie has impressed me a lot. The growth I've seen from OTAs until now, you could tell that in the offseason time, he was at home, he was studying, he was working on calling the plays and the huddle and stuff. I'm really happy with where he's at right now and the growth he's having.

Gardner has been doing a great job of being a great teammate, so I appreciate him too. Rookie quarterbacks giveth and they take it away, though, so that could be a wild ride in Shane Steichen's first year with the Colts. Now, in the NFC East, that's my choice for toughest division in football. Three playoff teams last year, we called it the NFC Beast, and I believe that there's some new life, some new energy around the Washington commanders, maybe going back to Redskins, actually, with Ron Rivera and the new ownership. So I'm going NFC East.

I'm fired up about that. I am. Jalen Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl last year, so how does this year feel different? It's my fourth year.

I never had a fourth year before. So it's just a change in time, but the standard is a standard. I said that goals may change, aesthetic of things may change, but standards don't. He's always philosophical. He never can answer a question without giving us some type of a life lesson. I appreciate that from Jalen Hurts, his perspective. All right, in the NFC East is where we find the Cowboys and a highly publicized, would you call it an altercation, would you call it a conversation?

Trevon Diggs using some choice words toward his quarterback, Dak Prescott. I feel like it makes practice fun, you know, just coming out here competing, you know, I didn't ask my brother, you know, I love Dak to death. You know, there's nothing behind it. It's just competitiveness, it's just football, it's just how we play. So, you know, it's just some, you know, it's just practice, you know, that's just what we do. We talk trash here and there, just keep it pushing, you know. I mean, I really feel bad for some people that haven't been in those moments and haven't competed and haven't or I guess you can say are hurt by the words or do take things the wrong way. I'm somebody that are put in a position and obviously, as I said, being a little brother, have competed and grown up like that, understood not to take anything to heart, but obviously, playing for this organization in the position that I do, people are always talking that. I guess you can say I've been more hardened by what I've been through. Words are just words, you know what I mean?

And there's ways, I guess, to cut deep, but what was said in that video or what's said at practice or what's said in the locker room between the guys, that's, as I heard Mike say, that's actually a sign of a healthy relationship. Ah, I do use my words. I tend to over communicate, so yes, I guess trash talking. Sarcasm is my love language.

I would definitely be able to use that and did actually when I played. But I feel sorry for those of us who've never gotten into a trash talking altercation. It's after our CBS Sports Radio. Really quickly, on our Facebook page, Steven says toss up between the AFC East and NFC East.

Both are packed with great teams. All right, no one's pointing to the NFC South either. The ugly red-headed stepchild of the NFC, Baker Mayfield.

Is he back and better than ever? He's facing a quarterback competition in Tampa. I had to win the job at Texas Tech as a walk-on. When I got to Oklahoma, I sat out here and still had to compete for the job. When I got drafted, Tarod Taylor was still the starting quarterback, so I've had to compete my whole life.

This is nothing new to me. But competing with Kyle Trask is. So what about the quarterback competition?

By all accounts, you're neck and neck. It's great for everybody, to be honest with you. When the quarterback room is having success, it shows what this offense can be capable of. We're distributors within this system. Just getting the ball out, it's not like we're trying to hone in on one guy. Yeah, there will be specific plays where we want to get a guy open, but for right now, take what the defense is giving you. The past few days, Kyle and John have had great practices of just doing that. Going through the system, getting the ball out, and making the read. I think people are starting to see what we're going to be capable of.

Obviously, we get used to the pads more and more. The run game will get going as well. It's just slowly coming together. Slowly.

Slowly being the key. I can't even imagine if he loses the job to Kyle Trask. What does that say about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are the reigning division champion in the south? Yet, nobody's picking the south. Absolutely nobody.

But I would say the Jacksonville Jaguars are an up-and-coming team, along with the Lions in the NFC North. If you missed it earlier, we have to share some Dan Campbell with you again, because it's so fantastic. He tries to tell us he's not a lunatic. He swears to God he's not a lunatic. But we're accumulating what we're calling Campbellisms.

Not cannibalism, but Campbellisms from the head coach of the Detroit Lions. He is fired up about practice. I can't wait for the Giants next week. Jackson's going to be great, too.

That's going to be honest and hard. I love it, because from an offensive standpoint, Martindale's going to give us everything we can handle. We're going to get every look you can possibly imagine. It's going to be chaotic.

Their heads are going to be spinning, which is our job to calm them down. It's just going to be unbelievable. And it's different talent.

It's a different look at different talent that they haven't seen. They've been going against their own guys. Man, it's going to be unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Heads spinning. Not heads rolling, let's hope, but heads spinning over joint practices with the Giants. It's going to be chaotic.

Guys are going to be, their heads are going to be spinning. I love him. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. It is Hall of Fame weekend, so congratulations to Rondé Barber. Actually, our longtime colleague here on CBS Sports Radio, his twin brother Tiki, will be introducing him in Canton this weekend, which is really cool.

Don Coryell, Chuck Howley, Joe Kleko, Darryl Rivas, Ken Riley, Zach Thomas, and Joe Thomas all being inducted this weekend to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Demarcus Ware as well, and if you missed it, he sang the national anthem before the Hall of Fame game. And he says he did it because his former teammate Demarius Thomas, who passed away in the last year, they used to sing the national anthem together. Actually, the reason why I ended up doing it was because me and Demarius, we would be on the sidelines singing the national anthem. He's not here right now, and I knew he was going to be there with me out there when I was singing. And so it meant so much, not just singing the national anthem, but that moment that I feel like I needed, especially for this speech.

On NBC, and good for Demarcus Ware. That takes boldness. It takes courage.

It certainly takes a lot of practice and kind of choking down your fear with all those people staring at you. The national anthem is not an easy song to sing, but I love the tribute to his former teammate. So yeah, coming up on Saturday, you've got the enshrinement ceremony, noon Eastern time. That's noon Canton, Ohio time, and we're off and running. It is kind of a football Friday, kind of. But also big time, major league baseball weekend. I'm just excited to go see John Williams. And the actual John Williams conduct his own concert of his own music. So I'll have a report on Sunday night, it's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. Boom!