Lamar Needs An Agent (Hour 2)

Alrighty, Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio. So, I gave my take on this entire Lamar Jackson situation right now. Where there's a guy that Lamar is denying is working on his behalf to talk to these teams to negotiate a nine figure deal. Well, the NFLPA informed the NFL that there's been contact and this guy is reaching out or maybe reaching out to NFL teams. And the NFL sent out a statement today reminding teams that you can't talk to and negotiate a contract on someone's behalf that is being represented by a non-certified NFLPA agent. So, I just said it about ten minutes ago that I think this is Lamar being stubborn. I think this is ego taking over. I'm a huge fan of Lamar Jackson.

Always have, always will. But he's lost me here in terms of if the end goal is to get a new contract, whether that is with the Ravens or if that's with another team, you need to have conversations if that's the end goal. And if all that's happening right now is there's really been no legal conversations and you're not going to be able to take this offer or there's going to be a punishment that comes with it.

Whatever it is, it doesn't seem as if these teams are going to talk to whoever this Francis guy is that is trying to represent Lamar Jackson. So at this point, I know you've not had an agent other than your mom help represent you. It's so clear and abundantly clear that there is no harm. There's no embarrassment.

It's not like, oh, you lose. Who cares what people say on social media? Oh, haha, you had to hire an agent?

Who gives a crap? You need to hire an agent right now because so far, you've been pretty much allowed to talk to teams for about a week, a little over a week. And there's been no conversations that have been allowed to be had. You don't have a firm offer where you can accept it, be happy with it, and then it's up to the Ravens to see if they're going to match it and then you're back in Baltimore or if they're going to not match it.

And then the Ravens get two first round picks for you. So it's one thing for me to say. I know Hickey agreed with it. It's a sloppy process right now. It's an ugly process right now. It makes no sense.

It just gives me a headache reading all these things. Former NFL player, Ike Reese, just tweeted me. He chimed in. Does a great job on sports rated 94 WIP. Afternoon drive with Johnny Marks. They kick ass. They take names in Philadelphia. And it's a player side of it. Like maybe a player feels empowered and says, oh, I actually think it's cool that Lamar is representing himself on his own and be patient with it and go through it.

Well, Ike Reese says, definitely need to hire an actual certified agent. This is becoming embarrassing. That's from a former NFL player. He's saying this is becoming embarrassing. Absolutely it is. Like this Ron Francis guy.

It's just ugly. And it's a guy from Florida. And what is he doing, Hickey, like selling home products or something like that? Him and Lamar in business together selling home fitness equipment. Home fitness equipment? Yes. So maybe like a Bowflex or, you know, a bench press for your garage. Hey, Ron, I need a new elliptical.

Can you help me out? Oh, yeah. What's your day job, by the way, Ron? It's this, right? No, no, no. I'm I'm doing some work on the side, actually, for you may have heard of him. Lamar Jackson. Oh, yeah. What are you doing?

I'm trying to get him a new 250 million dollar contract fully guaranteed. Like what? What world do we live in? And usually, like, I wouldn't give a rat's ass about this. I wouldn't care.

Whatever. It's negotiations are usually boring anyway. But we're talking about wanting to have an outcome here in the Lamar Jackson situation. I'm on the side. I feel like he's done with Baltimore. I feel like he doesn't want to play with the Ravens again.

Well, if that's the case, well, that's true or not. I want an outcome here. And that outcome should happen this season because this is now the third off season in a row. Well, the first one I understood why it didn't happen last year.

I did it. And this year it makes no sense. But if they don't agree to terms this year at this rate, if you're the Ravens, like you could run the more back for this year, but then you're trading him at the end of next year because you can't run the risk of just letting him walk for a compensatory third round pick. So hire an agent that can have these conversations, can actually legally represent you in NFL circles.

And then get an offer sheet like it's insanity to me, Hickey, if Lamar is not able to get an offer sheet this off season. This dude is a tremendous talent. If you have worries about him staying healthy, fine. If you don't think he could win in the playoffs, OK, you're allowed to say that. But the guy's one of unanimous MVP. The guy's an electrifying player. If this stubbornness and this Francis guy keeps on trying to contact teams and teams can't negotiate with him.

Eventually, what happens? Enough time passes where this is a wasted off season. So stop wasting the off season. And also, if you do get a new deal done with a new team, you got to learn the playbook. You got to develop chemistry with teammates. So how long are you going to drag your feet on this?

Going out and simply hire an agent who's certified. It's that simple. So we could work and expedite the process in getting this deal done or at least getting an offer sheet that you agreed to.

I can take back to the Ravens and the Ravens get to determine if they're going to match it or not. It's so stupid. What I don't understand is this whole I don't know if it's pride or whatever. You mentioned a few times of like he has an agent. Oh, he doesn't have an agent.

And if he gets one, it's kind of like, oh, like, look at you. You got to get an agent like there's no like nobody cares. Nobody cares if you have an agent or not. No one cares if you sign a two hundred and forty million dollar deal with an agent. But even in the player, who cares? Richard Sherman, I know has talked about it before.

But seriously, who gives a rat's ass? Get the deal. Do whatever it takes to get the best deal possible.

That means hiring an agent. Do what you got to do. You don't get any extra bonus points. You don't get extra fan love because you were able to negotiate this deal on your own. All people care about is you winning and getting the deal and either signing and staying in Baltimore or going somewhere else.

No one cares how it's done, where it's done or done by whom by you or someone else. So just do put yourself in a situation that helps get the best offer and how he's going about it. This offseason and the last two seasons has been the exact opposite of what he should be doing. Wow. Did you see the latest Lamar Jackson tweet?

No, I did not. Lamar put out a video. Oh, there's a few tweets here, but. I sort of make sure that this is real. Yeah, this is Lamar's account.

My business, my business partner, Ken and I will be dropping the entire gym this summer. And he has a video with this fitness equipment. This is 20 minutes ago.

Thank you. Like this a real tweet. Do you see this? This is this may be a marketing ploy and timing wise, it could.

It is working out to perfection, right? If it's a marketing ploy, that's genius. But is this well, well, here's the for the business product I'm talking about. But it's like also now you're potentially risking your next contract to get a few extra sales and a few extra bucks on your home fitness equipment. Whatever you make it here isn't close to two hundred thirty, two hundred thirty, two hundred fifty million dollars over five years. However, many of that's guaranteed. You're not going to make that much money on this fitness skier. I can guarantee you that. Like if you really had this almost be a ploy where you had this guy, Ken, who you have side business with, try to negotiate a deal just to get this memo sent out, just to get the attention going, just to then drop this video. Basically, hey, this summer is our brand new line of at home fitness equipment by now. You're even bigger than I thought.

Yeah, that's honestly as foolish as you possibly could be trying to mess with your future and mess with the actual legitimate dollars in order to get a quick boost on some sales for some gym equipment. That's pathetic. You know what Lamar is doing right now?

Lamar thinks he's he's playing checkers while everyone else is playing chess. That's the only thing I can say on this one. But at the end of the day, you're nowhere closer to getting a deal done. And that to me, you want to have side projects? Fine. I respect that.

But the number one importance this offseason is getting a long term deal done. This is just weird, Hickey. That's what this is. And before that tweet about the video of hyping up your summer release for some brand new, I think, what is it, a fitness speaker or workout routine, whatever this thing is. He also posted a meme of the Ben Affleck meme when he's the picture of him outside his house smoking a cigarette, looking like all the stress in the world is on his shoulders. And he put a number eight jersey in the Ravens to basically make it seem like this is who I know how I'm feeling. He did it. He's done it to himself. Lamar is no one to blame but himself. Every single situation we're talking about, whether him not coming to the negotiating table, him not getting the deal he wants, or now having this this uncertified agent reportedly, whether he wanted to on purpose or not, try to get teams interested in trying to make an offer for him. Everything Lamar has done has backfired and everything Lamar has done has been his own doing. I don't feel any sympathy for him.

It's a shame but I really don't because he's putting himself in this situation. For example, let's just go through the three years. The first year of these negotiations three years ago, I got why a deal wasn't getting done. It made no sense for Lamar Jackson to get a deal done when we were waiting to see if Baker was going to get a deal or what Josh Allen was going to get.

Let me be clear. I think Josh Allen's a better quarterback than Lamar Jackson. But at the time, Lamar the unanimous MVP, Josh Allen didn't. So let Josh Allen reset the market and then you get more than that. Last offseason, it was so sloppy because you didn't know who to believe. Because you were the first person to say actually, maybe the Ravens are low balling him.

I remember you saying that on this show. And the idea was that it was Lamar who was messing this up last offseason and then Lamar shows up to camp after the Ravens basically told you all offseason long. We can't beg Lamar to get to the negotiating tables, negotiations. And Lamar says, I'm ready to go and this idea that I need to put all my focus in winning a Super Bowl and I can't negotiate is nonsense. And then a deal doesn't get done, whether it's because of a hiccup with the Watson guaranteed money or if it was Kyler Murray's contract getting done very late. So whatever you want to chalk it up to, last year was the first year where we saw it was sloppy, but we didn't know who was right and who was in the wrong. Now, you still don't know if the Ravens are trying to screw him over, but what you do know is that Lamar is not helping himself.

And that's a problem. Like the Ravens maybe don't want to pay him. The Ravens may be giving him a crappy contract. But he has no control of the conversation because he's not getting the benefit of the doubt right now because it's been just a crazy process. And everywhere you turn, you see vague tweets or you see a memo getting sent out saying whoever this guy is trying to negotiate for Lamar, you're not allowed to negotiate with him. And now it's at like a point where I just wonder, and maybe the Ravens already there where they're like, we're done with this. Even though he's a unanimous MVP and he's this great player, we're just done with all this nonsense. This should not have taken three years and the Ravens may be at fault. But Lamar does not make himself look good here because you don't have someone handling all this other nonsense. And that's what this stuff is.

It's nonsense right now. Absolutely. We've seen plenty of other players get deals done by themselves. Roquan Smith, the latest with the Ravens, mind you.

We've seen DeAndre Hopkins in the past do deals by himself. This is a quarterback. It's different.

It is. But also those guys, I would agree, also are able to handle their own business and keep everything internal and not have it just be a complete circus and get out of control. And even Roquan Smith was traded. And you lose any leverage.

You are not in control of the narrative. And Hopkins now has an agent, by the way. Yes. Yes. This is a tornado right now. And it's not Adam Pac-Man Jones just before. And Lamar Jackson has started and he cannot control it. It is.

That's what it is. Now, I did see DeAndre Hopkins talking about him. He was on the Pat McAfee show today. And I guess they had him on a week or two ago. And Adam Pac-Man Jones is close with DeAndre Hopkins and actually got him to FaceTime into the show. So Pat basically said a sore sis when talking about basically saying this is what DeAndre Hopkins sold Adam Pac-Man Jones.

That there's been five destinations and this may pick up. It's the Falcons. It's the Bills. It's the Patriots. It's the Ravens if Lamar gets a deal done and then the Raiders.

I think we could cross off one of those destinations, Hickey. And that's the Ravens because when are we going to... Why do we have reason to believe that this deal is ever going to be close to getting done? And also, I don't see how the Raiders make any sense right now.

I know they just got rid of Darren Waller and maybe they end up trading Hunter Renfro. But right now you have Devante Adams. You just paid, I know it's only $11 million a year, Jacoby Myers.

And you have one year left, maybe more of Josh Jacobs. I don't think financially they can make the Raiders work. Well, one thing Pac-Man said was that he's into winning. He's not into the money. So it sounded like unofficially he would absolutely take a pay cut and do whatever it takes to be cap compliant. So I don't think salary would be an issue if he for whatever reason wants to go to the Raiders.

I would agree you're not winning there. I think salary is always an issue. Raiders, I definitely want to go there. No doubt about it. I'll do whatever it takes to be a Raider.

God bless. They'll make it work financially. Out of those three options, the Bills is the best one.

Also, I'll believe the whole financial thing that money doesn't matter when actually we ever see someone say money doesn't matter and that it always does matter. But out of those three teams, the Falcons are never close to winning. If you're going there, you're just trying to be the number one wide receiver, even though they just drafted Drake London. But you have clout in this league.

Drake London doesn't yet. The Patriots, they would use you as the number one wide receiver. Maybe Belichick still has that shine with all the winning that he's done where you could talk yourself into making it a winning situation. But right now that's not a winning situation.

Those five options are legit options. Your best place to go is Buffalo. You team up with Staphon Diggs. Maybe they trade Gabe Davis or you keep Gabe Davis and you have those three guys and you try to go into Super Bowl in Buffalo. That's the way I look at it. Those five options, you would go to Buffalo, right? Absolutely.

It's not even really, honestly, a debate or even close. And you don't like Buffalo. You've been clear on that. I don't hate Buffalo. You're very anti-Sean McDermott. You're very anti-Josh Allen.

Everyone is so quick to cry on them. I have not been that fast and so far I've been right. I can't say you've been right. Everyone picked the Bills last year in the Super Bowl.

Did not. I picked the Ravens. I wasn't right on that. I'm not saying you, but I'm saying 95% of the people last year were all on the Bills. But two years ago you were saying you had to have Frank Reich and Carson Wentz over Josh Allen and Sean McDermott. You can't be claiming you were right on that.

The Josh Allen part I was absolutely wrong about and the next day I'm pretty sure. And the Sean McDermott you're wrong about. I don't think Sean McDermott is as great of a coach as you're making it seem to be. The Bills didn't make the playoffs in like 20 years. Sean McDermott goes there. All they do is make the playoffs. He made the playoffs with Daron Taylor. He's gotten to a really good point. Is he a coach that could win him a Super Bowl? We'll see.

Right now the question's out. He's still been a lot more impressive than Frank Reich who the last two years was an absolute embarrassment with the Indianapolis Colts. No, a quarterback, but sure. Two years ago he got the guy that he wanted in Carson Wentz. And what happened? He's unfixable. But he was the one that wanted him.

And it didn't work out. Come on. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll do a little QB Carousel next. We're going to give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The Cleveland Browns. All right, so we go from the Lamar Jackson conversation and we'll stay in the AFC North and talk a little brownies with Anthony Lyman.

He does a great job along with Ken Karman, morning drive on Cleveland's 92-3 the fan. Anthony, what's going on? Hey, did you calibrate that wheel? It seems a little bit off. It wasn't supposed to be me today. Oh, was it? My bad. I apologize. Total shock. Total shock.

I come ill-prepared. Oh, okay. I think we were trying to get Karman on anyway and we had to settle for you. He's way better.

He's way better. The good news is he didn't have to apologize to any national figures today, so that's good. What happened there? I missed that. Oh, no. There was a story out of Boston that kind of caught fire today. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I definitely did see that one. So anytime you have to start off a show with an apology, you know that you did something wrong and that's never a good thing. By the way, I have a bone to pick with you, actually.

Perfect. So sources tell me that you've been invited to come out to Long Island and relax with the great Stu Finer, who I know well and I love Stu. But I hear you're being the pain in the ass in why Ken Karman and Anthony Lima may not be coming to the Finer residence. Look, this is what happens when you have a new baby, a new marriage, a new house, really a new life. And I swear I'm not like undercover or anything. This all happened to me in the last three years. Yeah, I was going to say, I thought you were like the badass, like the badass bachelor of radio is what I always thought of Anthony Lima. But now I'm washed and it's all downhill.

But if I can get out to Long Island, if I can get to the fortress, the compound of Stu Finer, then I got to find a way to take advantage of it. So you have one child, right? That is it. Yes, seven months. Okay.

Well, first off, congratulations. Doesn't Ken have like a football team of children? He can get away, but you can't? He has three. And unlike everybody else during March Madness, he has not gotten any kind of a surgery to put an end to this once and for all. So it could be more on the way. Who knows? Anthony Lima here with us. Alrighty, so where's your confidence?

I know you're one, right? He had the suspension with Deshaun Watson. It was an ugly situation, came back, did not look all that well because he basically didn't play in two years. What do you expect out of Deshaun this year? I think you're underselling how poorly he played. It was an abomination. I mean, I've watched and been a huge fan on the field of Deshaun Watson.

I want to make that clear. And even when the Browns went to the playoffs in 2020 with Baker Mayfield, I was the one guy in town saying, hey, if you had a chance to get a disgruntled quarterback like Deshaun Watson, you've got to do everything you can to get them. Obviously, circumstances changed, became very polarizing. A guy that was such an unbelievable quarterback and considered a great guy in the community in Houston. Well, things changed, but that was not in any way, shape, or form for Deshaun Watson in those six games that I saw that I had yearned for and that I had told Cleveland about how much I wanted him. I don't know what that was.

You would expect there to be certainly some rust, but that was more than rust. I mean, he looked like one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL in those six games. And also, when I was watching him, we know how great Nick Chubb is as a running back. I know you just paid Watson $230 million fully guaranteed, but it seemed like they were trying to put a lot on his plate instead of just keeping it simple by giving the ball to Nick Chubb more. Yeah, so the confusion is what exactly was the offense last year with Kevin Stefanski? Somebody who had built pretty good offenses with limited quarterbacks, so the thought was, hey, all of a sudden you can expand the playbook.

I know he wasn't in the building until October, couldn't practice with the team until December, but it felt like they really didn't make any inroads at all. And so the hope is, at least from Brown's fans' perspective, is that they are starting the new this offseason, that he's going to build up his chemistry and training camp and even before that if he gets the opportunity with the players, and that his mechanics in terms of all of a sudden he became the most inaccurate quarterback he's ever been in his career, that those come back and that it's not mental or anything like that. We know the Bengals are the class of this division right now.

Who knows what's going to happen with Lamar Jackson? I'm optimistic about Kenny Pickett and the Steelers, but they're not ready to win. And the Browns, it's all about Deshaun Watson.

Who would you say right now is the second best team in the AFC North just wondering? Well, so obviously the Baltimore thing is totally a question mark. And I don't even know if Baltimore is going to be able to recover even if they somehow reunite and get things mended with Lamar Jackson and whoever the hell is representing him, regardless of what the NFL offices are saying. I mean, that was a bad look for Lamar to not even be with his playoff team and his teammates in the playoffs. That's stuff that some guys don't get over. I mean, you battle all year, you try to get to the postseason, and all of a sudden your quarterback is banged up and doesn't make the trip to support you during the playoffs.

I don't know that that is going to work its way out. Plus, you know, Lamar has regressed the last three years. I don't think there's any question about that, plus injury prone. So even if he did come back, I think the Browns are going to be ahead of them. The Steelers looked at the Browns, got totally embarrassed in the final week of the season against the Steelers. And that was a game where, yeah, you could say, all right, nothing to play for, for the Browns or for Pittsburgh. But that's a rivalry game. And fans had not seen Deschel Watson play all that well. And he ended up being under fire. I think he got sacked seven times in that game. It could have been 15 times. And Pickett made some huge third down throws in the second half of that game.

And then it became the same old story where the Browns end their season in humiliating fashion against Pittsburgh. I am thinking with some of the moves they made in the off-season, none of them were splash moves. None of them were the sexy, huge name moves. But I think they were the kind of moves, given their cap limitations that they built because they're paying so many guys.

I think they do make sense. And I think they have very pragmatic off-season. I know some fans want to want to go Super Bowl, Super Browns on those moves.

I'm not there quite yet, but I do think that the Browns should be able to finish second in this division. And I thought the Amare Cooper move a year ago was a heck of a move. And then Elijah Moore the other day, that's a solid move as well.

Yeah, solid move. He wasn't the receiver fans wanted. I mean, they wanted either DeAndre Hopkins. There was talk of, you know, Cooks or Hardman.

And in the end, they end up getting a guy who was a malcontent in New York. But certainly when he was actually thrown the football, he made plays. Now, I don't love the fact that during a three-game winning streak, he starts spouting off to the media, cryptic tweets, and then telling his offensive coordinator in no uncertain terms that they're not friendly. I don't love that because the Browns have not handled players like that. Well, traditionally, and especially in the Stefanski era, you know, we have had issues with guys like Judevian Clowney and obviously Odell Beckham Jr. So this is a bit of a risk, but if Deshaun Watson can get back to who he is, distribute the ball, get everybody involved and make everybody happy, which is a lot of ifs, but he certainly has the talent as you know, so that could be a very, very good formula. Where's the relationship at Anthony Lima between Watson and Stefanski?

You know, it's hard to tell. Stefanski doesn't do a lot in the way of opening up. Now, after the season, I think he felt a little bit under fire and he's going to come out next year when those odds come out of coaches on the hot seat. He's going to be right up there with Josh McDaniel's and some of the others, but he all of a sudden started getting out of his shell. He started doing in-studio radio interviews, started going on, you know, national comedy podcasts.

I mean, so he was clearly trying to get out a little bit more. He's been very guarded on as far as Sean Watson. We haven't really seen or heard from him since the season ended.

So there's not a lot there in terms of that relationship being public. The big story was, you know, a year ago when the Haslam's, the owners of the Browns and Kevin Stefanski went down to talk to Deshaun Watson in Georgia, that they really hit it off, that he really showed them the offense that they're capable of running and utilizing his talents. And that was a big sales job.

At least that's the story, even though we all know the real story was a lot of money. By the way, Anthony Lima, are you good with the network? I remember last time we had you on, you said that you were upset that you basically got like not asked back like three or four times. And then we had to hear Ken Carmen again over the weekend, which was just a despicable, despicable act.

I mean, how far down on the pecking order? How many guys called in sick? Did COVID make its triumphant return over there in New York?

I don't know. But Kenny was back maybe one day, maybe one day. Maybe they'll use me for my NBA takes inside. I don't get to talk much NBA up here in Cleveland. Well, by the way, some people are comparing you to Lamar Jackson because they're saying the refusal to not hire an agent is why you're not back on CBS Sports Radio. That could be an issue. You know, it's always a negotiation.

So always willing to listen. Hopefully my representative doesn't get blackballed by CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, I got some weird requests today about some guy trying to sell fitness and then all this fitness gear and all of a sudden say, Oh, Anthony Lima also wants back in on CBS Sports Radio. That was weird. Hey, listen, it's a lot of talented people there. There's a lot of like great opportunity for growth.

Just not necessarily for me. I love the quarterback coach answer from Anthony Lima. Anthony, great to talk to you. Appreciate it. Hey, pleasure to do a great job.

Thanks for having me. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Two games going on. We got two more to tip off. FAU Tennessee at 9 p.m. Eastern. And then at 945 p.m. Eastern, Gonzaga, UCLA. Coming up, by the way, 20 minutes from now, Tobin Anderson is going to join us. The former coach at Fairleigh Dickinson, who just last week, a week from tomorrow, did take down Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA tournament to become the second ever coach to have a 16 seed beat.

A one. And now he's replacing Rick Pitino with the Gales over at Iona. So we got a lot of NCAA tournament talk still to get to. But right now in these two games, Kansas State, Michigan State, phenomenal first half, first 20 minutes in the books at Madison Square.

Garden Houser with 12 for the Sparty party. But Keontae Johnson just continues to be the best story, I would say, in college basketball. We all remember, unfortunately, a few years ago in 2020 when he was with Florida. And unfortunately, did collapse during a game and eventually did transfer to Kansas State.

And this year with Jerome Tang, he's been sensational. In the first half, he did have 14 points leading the way for Kansas State. And at halftime, a team that was projected to finish last in the Big 12 is now 20 minutes away from punching their ticket to the Elite 8 if they could find a way to hold on here up 43 to 38 at the half up against Michigan State. And it's very early still. But in this matchup between UConn and Arkansas, it is 31 to 17 in favor of the Huskies.

You always know there's going to be a counterpunch here for Musselman's squad that they'll eventually get back in the game. But folks, and this game is still a long ways from over, you still have a half and you still have obviously more than a half of basketball left when you look at this game only sitting there with 821 left in the first half. But you see this UConn team, we knew they were dangerous heading into the tourney.

I thought they just had to get a little bit of a monkey off their back. And they were able to do that in that first game up against Iona to be down at the half, which they were by one I believe it was, to then being a final outcome of 87 to 63. They just ran through Iona in that second half and then they just beat St. Mary 70 to 55. They have this ability and maybe they could do it throughout 40 minutes, but you know that they're just going to hit you in the mouth for at least a solid 10 minutes, maybe an entire half.

And when they do that, it is just an avalanche and you could just never recover. So you would think Arkansas eventually gets back into this game, but when do you stop the bleeding? Because right now this is 34 to 17 right now, and this UConn team, let me remind you, they will get the winner of Gonzaga UCLA. And a lot of people thought that maybe it would be UConn, Kansas in this round, and that's where Kansas would go down, but Kansas went down last weekend in the round of 32 to Arkansas, where Eric Musselman found the way to get a one-point victory.

UConn wins this game, and let's just say if they cruise the victory, which it's early still, but they're up 34 to 17, you then get the winner of Gonzaga UCLA, who won't be easy, because we know the experience that both those teams have with UCLA, with Hocquez, and you also have Tiger Campbell, they just have winners. And for Gonzaga, you have Drew Temmie, who has only been at Gonzaga playing for four years, and he still has another year of eligibility, and it seems like he's been there for 10 years. I saw Armando Bacot from UNC announce he's coming back for another year, and I know that Taro's winning the tourney last year, and Bacot, the injury was a big story, and he found the way to fight through it, but then he came back this year, and UNC just didn't make the tourney.

Armando Bacot put up the Perry Ellis picture today, announcing that he was coming back, which I thought was funny. If Drew Temmie comes back to Gonzaga, he may as well do the same thing, but you expect Gonzaga UCLA to be a war tonight, and then to be able to have to turn around, and I know that's the nature of this NCAA tournament, both those teams could do it, but if UConn is able to cruise to a victory, and then they end up playing next on Saturday, and you get Gonzaga UCLA maybe going to an overtime, or coming right down to a wire, that may be a little bit of an advantageous spot for UConn, because, Hickey, that may be one of the biggest takeaways so far from the tourney for me, is that UConn, even when they have to sweat a little bit, they end up at the end of the game, just looking like a dominant team with Coach Hurley, and the team that he has. We talked about it on Monday, one of the takeaways was this was a team that looked like it could be a Final Four team, with how well they're playing on offense right now, defensively they're getting it done, they put Arkansas on a blender, doubling them up, it's been over four minutes right now since, because Arkansas scored a basket, so they're really struggling on offense, and obviously we know what UConn can do, they can score and score in bunches, so right now everything is clicking, and again, you look at the Huskies, and really in March, playing your best basketball at the right time, Eric Musselman talked after the game, after beating Kansas, he felt like his team was only getting better, and now you see they're running to an absolute buzz, so right now in UConn, the Huskies, man, watch out, they're legit.

And that's the biggest part of this, too. Arkansas, and I know when you get to a Sweet 16 you're going to feel good about yourself, but Musselman's been accustomed to getting here, Arkansas has felt good about themselves. So it's not as if, like, okay, you're struggling, you don't feel good about yourself, you only have the best of ends to a season, but they have felt really good with the team that they're starting to show, and the way that they're starting to play, and just to get hit in the mouth like this, and I know there's still seven minutes left in the first half, but so far, they just had no answer to what UConn is able to do, and you've got to find a way in the final three minutes or so, and Arkansas just called a timeout, you've got to find a way to start going on a run here, and just stop the bleeding. And if you go into halftime, at this rate, down by ten points or fewer, you would sign up for that right now.

So we'll see how they navigate these final seven minutes and twenty-six seconds now, and they just hit a bucket coming out of this timeout, so now it's thirty-four to nineteen, and we do have the second half underway between Kansas State and Michigan State, where Kansas State is up forty-five to thirty-eight, eighteen-thirty to go, left in regulation of this one. Okay, got to make one quick NFL point here. So we talked about the potential destinations for DeAndre Hopkins, and Adam Pac-Man Jones did throw out today. When we get to Ezekiel Elliott, who was released by the Dallas Cowboys, according to Adam Schefter, Ezekiel Elliott has narrowed down his options about where to play, and it's the Eagles, Jets, and Bengals, and he would like to make his decision about where to sign by the end of next week per sources. So let's talk about what Ezekiel Elliott is at this point. Zeke is someone who's been declining the last two years.

I don't know how much gas he has left in the tank. We know running backs are not as lucrative as they once were, and their contracts are always bizarre. He's already made a ton of money already. I got to think, Kiki, that this is a one-year deal for Ezekiel Elliott, and if I'm a team looking to bring him in, could you give him a second year, but it be heavily incentivized okay? I would think, though, if there is a second year, it's basically going to have no dead money attached to it. It'll be very easy to get out of this contract. So whenever you want to formulate that contract, that's fine, but let's be real.

I would imagine with whatever guarantees there are, this will pretty much be looked at. If it's not just an outright one-year deal, whatever the way that they structure this contract, you got to think that most of the money is going to be up front, whatever money that will be, and it'll be very easy to get out of it if it is multiple years. I would expect it to be a one-year deal, though. It has to be a one-year deal, because at least if he's only interested in signing the three teams he listed, Jets, Bengals, and Eagles, all three of those teams, ones of Jets, Gators, and Rogers, are Super Bowl or Bus mentality, and if it doesn't happen this year, you need to give yourself flexibility next year to add whatever piece you think you may be missing, and you cannot be hamstrung by what is going to be a backup running back into Zico Elliott on the roster next year.

Even if it's minimal money, you've got to give yourself as much flexibility as possible. Zeke is now worth it more than one year. I like how you worded that, Super Bowl or Bus mentality, because if you would have said Super Bowl contender, I would say, do I really think the Jets are going to win a Super Bowl? No, but the Jets do have a Super Bowl or Bus mentality. We know the Eagles, it is Super Bowl or Bus.

They are a Super Bowl contender. Same for the Cincinnati Bengals as well, and you look at the Eagles, they just lost Miles Sanders. You look at the Bengals, I know they have Mixon, but there's been problems off the field, and you don't know if they start to look to move him with his contract, knowing they're going to have to pay Burrow, T. Higgins, and Jamar Chase, but they also use a lot of Samaje Pirain, and they just lost Samaje Pirain as well, so I could see an RB2 role for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Jets, it would be an RB2 role as well, even though Priest Hall hasn't done much in this league.

You know, as long as he's healthy, he is their number one back. The Eagles, he could actually be asked to do a little bit more than probably what was expected out of him in Dallas when you had the complimentary back of Tony Pollard there, who was a better back than him, because you just look at the Eagles, what's in that running back room? I know they run the ball a ton with Jalen Hurts, but you just got rid of Miles Sanders, you have Rashad Penny, you got Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainewell is there, so it would be, yes, more of a running back by committee, but if you're looking for the most reps and the most touches, Philadelphia is probably the place to go. Selfishly, I would like to see him go to Philadelphia, not that I think Zeke has a ton left in the tank.

Can he do okay in a backup running back role and limited carries? Yeah, he could still be a productive back, but I just think adding another extra bit of drama to that Eagles-Cowboys rivalry would be fun if you see Zeke going from the Dallas Cowboys to the Philadelphia Eagles, so I'm hoping he goes to Philadelphia if it's probably by, if I'm saying what's best for Zeke, I don't think he'd go wrong with the Eagles, I don't think he'd go wrong with the Jets, but I think what may be asked of him in a more of a limited role in Cincinnati would probably benefit him the best at this stage of his career. I would probably argue the three, I think probably the Eagles would be the best fit, I mean, just because it's a running offense, and now, again, they also rotate a ton of bodies, so I don't think he'll even get the most carries for some of the three teams there just because they rotate so heavily, and now if you're going to have four running backs, Zeke's going to get 12 carries a game? Like, it's not going to be a ton, they didn't use Miles Sanders to run him into the ground, but it's just, I mean, you look around, like, I mean, look, those are the three teams he listed all, again, championship mentality. I could easily argue all three teams could say thanks or no thanks.

I don't want you. Well, you got to think, and who knows the actual extent of these conversations, but if the way this is worded, and it is, he's narrowed down his options about where to play with the Eagles, Jets, and Bengals, I would think that means that those teams have some interest in him, and he knows at least what they're offering to him, and that's where you're making this decision. But the fact that it also says he has to make a decision by where he wants to sign by the end of next week, is he trying to get another team involved into the mix? But at least I think he knows right now what he's getting offered from the Eagles, Jets, and Bengals.

I got to imagine by just the wording of this report, what decision are you making if you don't know what contract you're getting? I guess, I mean, I just don't know why any of those three teams would be interested at this point, to be honest with you. They got running back rooms that are filled. I don't think Zeke has much left in terms of what he's trying to bring. But to the Bengals, really, outside of Joe Mixon, is there anyone else that stands out to you in that running back room? I mean, is he going to go and sit behind Joe Mixon and take 10 carries a game?

He was pretty close to doing that pretty much this year with Tony Pollard. Did he like it? Didn't seem like it?

I don't know. Did he sign it up for it? I don't think that... I still think he thinks he... I'm not going to say he didn't like it. I'm not saying anyone loves when their carries get cut, but it seemed like he was happy in Dallas.

It just... The contract, he wasn't going to restructure it because he was expecting to get more money. That, I think, is also a mistake, too. I don't think Zeke realized that his value wasn't going to be as strong as what he thought because I thought you could have restructured this deal with Dallas, and it seemed like that was on the table. You know how much Jerry Jones loves him, but clearly he wasn't willing to take that much of a cut. I would think the Bengals, after losing P. Rhine, and how much they do use P. Rhine as well, I would think are the best destination for him. But once again, you can't go wrong. If you go to the Jets, a bunch of people are lining up to go to the Jets because they're getting Rogers, and you look at Philadelphia, they have the best offensive line in football, and you have an approach on offense where even though Jalen Hurts can sling it, he showed that in the Super Bowl, he showed that this year, they do like to run the ball a lot.

So we'll see what happens. All right, Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio, we'll take a break. When we come on back, I would say he's the star of the NCAA tournament right now. He's not even coaching still, and he already has a new team, but Tobin Anderson had a huge moment in the NCAA tournament with a 16 taking down a 1 for the second time ever, and he's now the new head coach at Iona, and he'll join us on the other side to talk about what happened last week and also the new gig with the Gales.