NFL insider with the latest scoop

We have an opportunity to bring in Jonathan Jones, CBS Sports NFL insider.

Last time I saw Jonathan, he was on TV looking sharp. This has been a busy time. We have the Super Bowl coming up, I'm sure you know that, in a couple of weeks. But Tom Brady, on a beach somewhere, decides to announce his retirement. So, let's start here. Which team was the most disappointed that he decided to retire? Yeah, Adam, first of all, great to be doing radio with you again.

Second of all, that's a great question. I would say the Las Vegas Raiders were the most disappointed. They really were interested in Tom Brady. Mark Davis, the owner, extremely interested in Tom Brady. They are going to have to trade or cut Derek Carr in about two weeks, and so they're not going to be paying him.

They don't have a quarterback. They like Jared Stidham, but they really thought they had a shot at Brady. And so, you know, look, I never really believed that the 49ers were truly in play. Maybe the Dolphins would have been in play, perhaps. And then, you know, Tampa felt decent about their chances of getting Brady to come back. But the Raiders, I believe, had the most confidence that they would secure Brady's services for 2023, and obviously, they have to go to Plan B.

All right. I have so many questions about all of this, because I still don't know why. I mean, Derek Carr didn't have a great year, but Derek Carr had been pretty good for them. I don't think Derek Carr is an elite quarterback, but I certainly think he's a top half of the NFL starting quarterback. So, I didn't understand what all went on there, especially since his friend, Devante Adams, came out there to play with him. But let me ask you about Tua. Tua's emergence, concussions aside, and I know he's still in protocol, didn't Tua's emergence as at least a good NFL quarterback derail everything about who was going to go there?

Well, perhaps on one hand, yes. On the other hand, like what has gone on with Jimmy Garoppolo for several years, it's about availability. Unfortunately for Tua, we go back to his college days and he had several injuries.

We know that he's smaller than most NFL starting quarterbacks. And then, unfortunately, he's had the concussion issues. And I'm not going to sit here and say whether he is or is not more or less susceptible than the average NFL player or quarterback to concussions. But, you know, he's had three serious hits to the head and two confirmed concussions.

So, in this past year. So, you know, if you're the dolphins, as much as you may like Tua, as much as you may hope and believe that he can be the franchise quarterback, they are absolutely going to be getting a quarterback who, of course, is not going to be Tom Brady. But they're going to spend money on a backup who, you know, for one to five games next season will probably have to play if they are playing the odds.

Jonathan Jones at J. Jones, nine on Twitter, CBS Sports, NFL Insider to San Francisco. I think Tom Brady didn't want to go there because all of San Francisco's quarterbacks ultimately get hurt. The rash of quarterback injuries there. It's not just this past year. This is like four years running where their quarterbacks get hurt. I'm curious with Brock Purdy probably having Tommy John surgery. Maybe he can pitch for the Giants.

I don't know. Trey Lance had a broken ankle. Jimmy Garoppolo had surgery. I think Kyle Shanahan wants to move on from Jimmy G. What are they going to do? Well, I think whether he wants to or not, I think it's more the fact that they know they're not going to be able to afford Jimmy Garoppolo as an unrestricted free agent.

I think at some point the Niners have to look at themselves and say, how many resources, how many real resources are we going to devote to the quarterback position? You have Trey Lance, but you traded to future first in order to trade up and use a first to get him. Some people say they traded three first to get him. They didn't. They traded two first to use the first pick to get him. Right.

And then, okay, you got fortunate with Brock Purdy. There's no question about that. Hopefully it's going to be six months rather than a full year. You know, I think that we're going to find out in a couple of months from now exactly how long that's going to take.

But then what are you going to do? Are you going to spend 25, 30 million dollars this year in order to get another quarterback? Because this is a team top to bottom, you could argue is the best roster in the NFL. Now you have a coach who's, you know, arguably the best second best play caller offensively in the NFL.

And so you have a number of pieces there. How much money do you actually have to throw at the quarterback position when you've already sunk so much other capital into it, when you already have to, you know, you've already paid a number of guys. And now that bill is going to come to even more, you know, a year separated from so many of those deals like Devo, Samuel and George Kittle among many others. So I think they're going to hope that Brock Purdy is going to be okay. I think they have to hope that Trey Lance is going to look a whole lot better this off season and preseason than he did last off season and preseason. And then if they have to go out there and get a veteran at 10, 12 million dollars, then sure. Go ahead and do that, but they can't go get the big ticket item because they already tried that so many times over.

Yeah. And the truth is, is that I think the way Brock Purdy played over the last, however, was seven or seven or so weeks since the Garoppolo injury that they proved that they could be dynamic with just a good quarterback. Look, I don't even know what Brock Purdy's ceiling is. I mean, I think from my perspective, and I'm certainly not the trained eye, it looked to me like he might have broken the whole draft process. If you can get a quarterback who's that good with the last pick in the draft, what's the point in even using a first round pick at a quarterback? Look, and, and a lot of quarterbacks, you know, lesser quarterbacks in terms of physical traits and attributes have succeeded in Kyle Shanahan system, right? Nick Mullen, DJ Bethard. And you know, all of those guys got picked up and were on other teams as a second or third quarterbacks.

And so they could become available. You know, if you believe that Brock Purdy is the next Tom Brady, then yeah, you don't care if he has to take six months or a year, you're going to stick by your man on that one. But I do think that there is certainly something to Kyle Shanahan and the system that he runs that we have seen time and again with the injuries to Jimmy Garoppolo, that this team that, or at least this offense has not just fallen on its face immediately after the starting quarterback has gone down. That speaks volumes to what the head coach does.

And then of course, to their scouting department that they can go out and find capable enough quarterbacks in that specific system to be successful. Let me ask you about Frank Reich and the Carolina Panthers. You almost can't have this conversation without mentioning the fact that Steve Wilks did a great job, really earned the head coaching job, didn't get it. But I think Frank Reich ultimately is a good hire. What is your what are your thoughts on how this played out and Frank Reich as the head coach? Yeah, I think I would agree exactly with what you said.

And I don't think that they're mutually exclusive. I think that Steve Wilks did enough to, uh, to earn that Carolina Panthers job. And I think that Frank Reich is a good enough coach who got a raw enough deal in Indianapolis, certainly in the post Andrew luck years that he deserves a second shot. He can't get a second shot in Carolina and Steve Wilks can't get the Carolina job. Right.

Right. So, um, I think how this played out was David Tepper always had his eyes on an offensive minded head coach and we heard him after, um, in the press conference where he said, Hey, I don't want that CEO type coach. I don't know if Steve Wilks, who was a defensive minded head coach that has had defensive coordinators, Al Holcomb, uh, before, and he's not calling plays. Wilks is not, I don't know if he's a CEO type coach, if he would necessarily agree with that, but it would seem that pepper viewed him a little bit like that.

And I know it became a pejorative because he called Matt rules essentially. Uh, but, but he Tepper wanted an offensive minded head coach. He went into this process and the Panthers went into this process believing that the young up and comer, like Ben Johnson, the lion's offensive coordinator could be that guy because he sees where the NFL is going.

And he says, well, I don't want to have to keep replenishing at often coordinator, uh, every year, every two years. So getting Frank, right. Uh, I think he went through the process and understood, Hey, I really liked the experience and the leadership that Steve Wilks brought to this group. I think once Ben Johnson pulled out that really shone a light a little bit more on what's truly important, but at the end of it, pepper still had his pillars and his main pillar was I have to get an offensive minded coach. And he melted the two and got Frank, right? Do, uh, do you think Steve Wilks is going to get a head coaching gig?

Cause again, I certainly proved that he can be a good head coach. 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later. 92% because of a bike, not just spikes. We also make treadmills and rowers. Oh, let me guess for elite athletes only, right? Nope. It doesn't matter if you're an avid exerciser or new to working out, Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals.

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See additional terms at one peloton.com slash home dash trial. Yeah. I mean, I'd be surprised if it happens this year, right? The only two jobs that are left open are his former team, the Arizona Cardinals. I'm going to break some news here and tell you they're not hiring Steve Wilks and the Indianapolis Colts who just, uh, they are bringing in their eighth person for their second round of interviews. So they may wrap this up by the time free agency gets started in mid March. Um, I think that Steve Wilks has shown, uh, via those 12 games that he has, what it takes to be a head coach in the NFL.

I think the players who were coached by him and I've been coached by many others who espouse his many attributes would, would echo that sentiment. However, he does have the matter of the lawsuit against the NFL, against the Arizona Cardinals that, uh, while I don't think it should play a role, Adam, I'm going to speak for you. I don't think you think it should play a role in this future potential employment.

Uh, we all live in the real world and know that it very well may and probably does. So, uh, I, I believe that, you know, maybe he can get an defensive coordinator spot. Let's call it on the San Francisco.

That's interested right now. We know that that role has turned a couple of guys, Robert Sala, now the Nico Ryan's into head coaches. And so if he can get in that role and be successful as we all expect him to, then yeah, maybe he will be a head coach sooner rather than later. Jonathan Jones, before we let you go, um, first of all, I think Matt rule was a mailroom head coach more than a CEO head coach.

That's just, uh, my view of it. Um, who, which team needs a plug and play quarterback the most that could actually take a, you know, a, a ready-made guy and actually become a serious contender. Well, that's a question Adam, where you, you just want me to say to jets, right? No, I don't care. I'm not a jet. I'm a recovering jets fan. I really don't care about them.

I swear. I don't, um, like I would have to say, truth be told, I'd have to say the jets though. I know that we're joking about it, but I mean, it's a, it's a team with a fantastic young defense. Uh, it's a team with some really good wide receivers.

They're going to get brief haul back. Uh, they, they already have Michael Carter back there, uh, that, that your listeners know about obviously. And so now you just get competent quarterback play, right? Because I think we can all just sort of imagine what it was like if they could have scored 20 points a game, similar to the Denver Broncos last year, right? Just give me average quarterback play and there'll be sniffing the wild card there, uh, the last couple of weeks of the season. So, uh, I think they are a plug and play, uh, player away from actually making some noise, maybe winning a wild card game. Yeah.

I mean, I don't disagree there. The defense is too good. Uh, who wins Carolina or Duke on Saturday? Of course, the Tar Heels. I must say I have, uh, watched all about two UNC games, about half of one Duke game.

And, uh, I gotta say Carolina really stands out to me. There you go. Jonathan Jones. You're the man. I appreciate your time at J Jones nine, CBS sports, NFL inside.

You see him on TV and nice, nice sport coats. Thank you, man. Appreciate it.

You got it. Jonathan Jones here on the Adam gold show, 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later, 92% because of a bike, not just spikes. We also make treadmills and rowers. Oh, let me guess for elite athletes only, right? Nope. It doesn't matter if you're an avid exerciser or new to working out, Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals. 92% stick with it. So can you try Peloton bikes tread or row risk free with a 30 day home trial, new members only not available in remote locations. See additional terms at one peloton.com slash home dash trial.