NFL Draft Preview (Hour 2)

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$10 minimum per order. Additional terms apply. On CBS Sports Radio, the NFL Draft in Kansas City is right around the corner as the first round does commence next week on Thursday. And now joining us, I see this guy's content everywhere. And I keep on reading the takes and hearing the takes and watching the takes.

I'm like, it's really good information. And that, of course, is Emery Hunt, who does a great job for CBS Sports HQ, and he joins us right now to chat a little NFL Draft. Emery, appreciate the time. How are you? I'm doing fine, Zach, man. I appreciate you having me on.

Well, thanks so much. So everyone feels right now that Bryce Young is going to be the number one overall pick. The big question is, at number two, how much do you believe that the Texans are actually going to pass up on a quarterback, assuming Bryce Young goes number one overall? They can go out there with a Davis Mills-led offense if they want to in 2023 and watch what happens. They'll have a capacity crowd of six people in that stands watching these guys out there play. They better take the quarterback at two.

I'm not buying it. And would that be CJ Stroud for you? Yeah, I think if Bryce Young goes one, CJ Stroud to me has to go two. But I would rather Bryce Young go to Houston, because in my opinion, Bryce Young gives Houston a little bit of that dynamic ability, that magic that they had with Deshaun Watson. I feel like it's a better fit for Bryce Young. And that's not a bad roster to be constructed out there in Houston. They've done a good job in free agency.

They got some pieces, so I feel like a steadier hand. That guy has played in some big games, so that's why I'm not upset that they can either be Stroud or Young. I just feel like either one of those guys would be a good fit for Houston specifically. Do you, though, believe that Young will go number one overall to the Panthers?

I don't know, man. It's tough because when you think about the guys in that room, you're talking about Frank Wright, you're talking about Josh McCown, Jim Caldwell. They've coached guys like CJ Stroud more than they've coached guys like Bryce Young. And I feel like, stylistically, they would probably want a CJ Stroud. But again, I wouldn't argue if they wanted Bryce Young, but CJ Stroud would be a better fit in Carolina as opposed to Houston.

But I can see either argument because both guys are excellent quarterbacks. Emory Hunt here with us. Personally, I like Bryce Young better over CJ Stroud, but it is compelling to me that right when the Panthers moved up to one, before anyone could digest the trade, you had that report from Joe Person that it was going to be CJ Stroud. I know you go through your process, but when you're giving up that much to move into the number one spot, you would think you would know who you want. And I just wonder what really changed when now everyone's thinking Bryce Young is going to be the number one overall pick. That's the thing, because we had this whole situation last year where we thought it was going to be one player, and then next thing you know, Trayvon Walker goes number one and everybody's like, yo, what the heck is this? And so, I feel like that's the situation where we may not know, but that's why the NFL Draft is the best version of reality TV that we have in this world.

Emory Hunt here with us from CBS Sports HQ. When we get to three, the Cardinals, we'll see if it's two quarterbacks, one, two, if it's just one, and then the Texans take a defensive player or trade the pick. I think that's like the one safe thing that we could assume right now is that the Cardinals are going to trade back probably in this NFL Draft.

Would you agree with that? I wouldn't agree, because if I'm the Cardinals, unless you move back one spot, but at the end of the day, if you know who you're going to take, maybe yeah, you could probably get a little bit more juice out of the Colts to trade one spot ahead, like San Francisco did with Chicago when they took Trubisky. I understand it, but man, just sit pat and just take Will Anderson and go on about your Mary Wade.

That's what I would do. I hope they don't try to game the draft and find out the Colts, usurp them, and next thing you know, the Colts give that pick to somebody else, and they take Will Anderson. So, I just feel like, hey man, we're at three, we're good, let's take the top pass within the class, and let's go play some good defense next season. The quarterbacks, that's what everyone wants to talk about. Who are your five best quarterbacks in order, Emory Hunt, for this draft? I have three, this quarterback class is just like my 2017 grade.

You know, I feel like the three guys at the top have the same grade, they're really good quarterbacks. That year I had Watson Mahomes and Deshaun Kaiser as my one, two, and three. This year I have Anthony Richardson, Bryshon C.J.

Stroud as my one, two, three, all with the same grade. At four, I'll make a kid out of James Madison at Todd Centeo, I think he's a fantastic player. Played at Temple, played at Colorado State, played at JMU, and at number five, I feel like when you think about someone like a, you know, Jaron Hall, he's just a solid quarterback, he's a little bit older, and I would have him to the hooker at six. And both guys to me are, because they are older and have some injury concerns, that's why I have those guys at five and six, but you know, for me, the top three, you can't go wrong with any one of those guys, and I feel like this is a lot like 2017, where my fifth quarterback in 2017 was P.J. Walker. Now he had to go to the XFL, win the XFL MVP for people to realize he could play, but that's how high I was on that class, I feel like it's a really good class, and it compares favorably in my opinion to 2017.

Well I'm at Temple, Alice, you mentioned P.J. Walker and Todd Centeo, even though for some reason Temple couldn't find a way to make Todd Centeo work at Temple, I'm all ears for that, but something I noticed there, Noel Levis, why aren't you high on Noel Levis? Well, you know, he's been doing already, so what you see is what you're going to get, and to me, that's someone that's on that Daniel Jones, Carson Wentz trajectory, where, you know, there's things that you like, but there's a lot of inconsistencies, and you don't know if you can iron that out, so you can't really trust him over the full course of a 17 game season. And people say, go check his 2021 tape, well it looked just like this past season. You know, he just had Waddell Robinson catching cut passes, and it looked, and he scored a lot more points, but I feel like his lower body mechanics leave a lot to be desired, his placement is a little bit off on a consistent basis, which explains the interceptions, and he's a reckless runner, so he's not running to slide or get down, he's trying to bowl over defenders, and he ends up banking himself up in the process, so I just feel like he's more of a day 2 guy than a top 10 guy that everybody's trying to force him to be. Like you said Emory Hunt, you personally don't see a lot of separation with those 3 quarterbacks, Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, and then Anthony Richardson, Richardson, he has 10 people, 5 think he's going to be great, 5 think he won't reach his potential, what makes you optimistic that Richardson's going to be the quarterback that some people think he could be? Because I feel like people are looking at just statistics, and they're not looking at the game, when you watch the game, obviously you talk about the 4-4 speed and the ability to be a plus on the run game, that's a given, but when you watch him throw the football, you're like man this guy has great pocket mobility, has a beautiful deep ball, arguably the best deep ball in the class, has the ability to hit every quadrant of the field with the passing game, and he showed last year at Florida, where when they asked him to throw more, like the Texas A&M game, or like the Tennessee game, or like the game against Georgia, like man they really can move the ball down the field, it's unfortunate they didn't have any receiving options outside of Ricky Pearsall who was phenomenal and caught virtually every touchdown pass he threw and with how well he was finding him in stride.

And I always point people back to 2021 LSU, he didn't start that game, he came in for Emory Jones, threw a horrible interception, I want to say on his first and second pass of the game, it was a pick six, but then after that, he caught fire, was leading this team down the field, getting touchdowns, had a big lead, LSU came back, and then on the last drive, he's driving down the field, and he got hit as he threw, he made the right read, it would have been a 50 something yard touchdown pass to win the game, but the ball ended up hanging up and it was an interception, so it shows you, not only was he making the right read and was going to be the right throw, but he was able to fight through adversity in that game, which gave me confidence in July to say, this is my number one quarterback, and I'm glad to see it play out that way, in my opinion, this past season. Bijan Robinson, where do you think he ends up going in this draft next week? Oh man, there's like five spots I would love to see him go, but I feel like Dallas is going to make a way to get Bijan Robinson, not just for the football, that's just evident, but this is, you got to think, this is Jerry Jones, this is about marketing too.

You get the Texas prospect to play in Big D, I think we'll see them try to move up to get Bijan Robinson, Philly could be in play, I know people talk about Philly at 10, people talk about Atlanta at 8, but I feel like Philly is trying to focus on the point of attack, and maybe at pick 30, they'll get a Jamere Gibbs, but I feel like Dallas will make a point to grab Bijan Robinson, somehow, someway in this play. Emory Hunt here with us right now from CBS Sports HQ, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Where do you think Jalen Carter ends up going pick wise? If Emory Hunt was in charge, he wouldn't fall past Seattle, because I'm like, listen man, I don't care what you're telling me, nothing you're telling me right now is better than this Oregon tape that I'm watching currently. So keep talking to me while I'm watching this Oregon tape when he's dominating these guys up front, and Seattle has all kinds of gaps on their defensive front, Carter would help them immediately day one. I think he's a plug and play guy, and it's fascinating because the conspiracy theorist in me believes that when we were at the combine and we were interviewing Will Anderson, and before we sat down, the D line was getting up on the podium to speak, and everyone looked down at their phones, and that's when the news broke about Jalen Carter's issue down in Georgia.

So obviously they pulled him off, he had to fly back down to Athens. And in my head I'm like, wait a minute, this kind of happened last year with the Nicole B Dean injury news, and guess who ended up with Nicole B Dean? Why I feel like this was Howie Roseman going back to the playbook and trying to get Jalen Carter.

So it wouldn't surprise me to see him fall to ten, but I think five is his floor. I feel like he is still one of the best top three defensive players in the entire draft, and I would be hard pressed for a team like Seattle just to let him fall by the wayside. Who are some players that we really aren't talking about right now, Emery Hunt, that you think we should be talking about that you think are going to go on to have really good careers? Darius Rush out of South Carolina. You know, he's 6'2", 200 pounds, he played opposite of Cam Smith, and everyone talks about Cam Smith. But Darius Rush was a former wide receiver at South Carolina, turned to the other side of the football, and has the length, the press skills, the fluidity, he understands defense from an offensive perspective, and has ball skills. So you start to see Richard Sherman type skill set and think, okay, this guy has the trajectory. Then he jumped out the gym at the combine, ran fast, but when you go to the Senior Bowl, I've said this before, he had the best week of work as a cornerback that I've ever seen. I've been going to the Senior Bowl for a decade, and no one was out there doing what he did and did it at a high level. Another guy is Deion Henley, the linebacker out of Washington State.

He reminds me so much of Fred Werner and how he plays a game. Again, former wide receiver, turned linebacker, so he understands that position from an offensive perspective, has great ball skills, was able to lock up one-on-one versus a running back, and you go back and watch his game against Wisconsin, he was all over the run game. He shows you he can play physical, he can play downhill, but has the coverage chops to make things happen. Will Jackson Smith and Jigba definitely be the first wide receiver off the board?

You know, that's a great question because we've seen the last couple of years, it usually goes to a guy that's the most explosive or fastest. So I would probably say Zay Flowers will surprise some folks to be the first receiver drafted, and Jackson Smith and Jigba would be number two because he's a versatile guy, can play inside or out. Same with Zay Flowers, but he gives you that bigger catch-and-run threat. He's almost like a bigger Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas is a big guy but primarily plays on the outside, but he's not really a catch-and-run guy. So you get the size of a Michael Thomas with the ability to run after the catch, and that's Jackson Smith and Jigba. You know, coming from the program, he's a fantastic route runner, so I think he can be someone that can be a plug-and-play guy right away, but I feel like this NFL, everybody wants explosives. Everybody sees what Miami is doing with Watto and Tyreek Hill. Zay Flowers is of that same caliber.

He's super explosive in all directions. How early could we see a receiver go? Because I think we've gone accustomed to seeing receivers go early, and I just don't know how early a receiver is going to go this year. Listen, at two places, eight at Atlanta, because again, you could pair up with Jackson Smith and Jigba or Zay Flowers with Drake Muddon and Kyle Pitt, and now you can really foster that growth and know what you're getting at Desmond Ritter right away. Or pick 12 with Houston. You get your quarterback at two, and you get him a receiving option right there at 12. So for me, when you look at their roster, their depth chart for Houston, you lose Brandon Cook, you have an opportunity to replace another, one of these game-breaking options, like I mentioned, just like either Zay Flowers or someone like Jackson Smith and Jigba. So I would say eight or 12 would be the ideal spots we'll see a receiver go. Emory Hunt, last thing I'll ask you before we let you run, five years from now, we're talking once again, who are the five best players from this draft class, the five players right now that you feel the most safe about? Anthony Richardson, Brian Bracy, Will Anderson, Jalen Carter, and Christian Gonzalez. I think those five will look back and be like, yeah, they nailed those picks right there. I feel like those five players, to me, their talent supersedes system, so it doesn't matter where they go. And I also feel like these are the guys that are entering with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, because everyone has questions, but they feel like they have the most questions coming in about their game. But the football talent is just undeniable, and I think those guys will prove to be the best of the best.

Let me just follow up with one last one. Tyree Wilson, a lot of people have him going really early, some have him being the first defensive player off the board. Tyree Wilson's ceiling is what for you?

I compared him to Marcus Davenport when he was coming out of UTSA. When you feel like you're looking on paper and he checks all the athletic trait boxes, but when you watch the game, you see he's still raw from a football player standpoint. And so for me, if he can play five technique, I think he could step in right away and be dominant. But if you're asking him to be a stand-up edge rusher or seven technique when he rushes on the outside, he doesn't have the nuance yet, and you're going to have to put him in a spot where he's going to get coast up and be able to grow into that role. But we know how the pressure is of being the top five pick. You better step in right now and get double-digit sacks, but I don't think that's his game just yet.

So his situation really could depend on how high his ceiling is or how low his floor is. Emory, we appreciate the time. Thanks so much. Great stuff. Appreciate you, man.

Thanks a lot. There you go. Emory Hunt joining us from CBS Sports HQ. I think the biggest takeaway from that is not only the optimism on Anthony Richardson, and there's one thing to say that you really believe in Anthony Richardson, but then at the end you double down and say he's one of your top five safest picks in this upcoming draft.

We'll react to that on the other side. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports. Get some damn sleep. Go get Asserta, people, America's most recognized brand of mattress, American-made, Michigan-made, and always the highest quality. Check out the entire lineup of mattresses at over 150 retailers in the metro area. Close out the iComfort series in the closeout event. Go to Asserta.com to find a retailer near you. Buy today. Get delivery within a week. No waiting around or sold-out nonsense. Get some rest.

Get Asserta. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. It's dream come true time as Gervonta Tank Davis and King Ryan Garcia go toe-to-toe in a battle for undefeated supremacy this Saturday, April 22nd. On Showtime pay-per-view, go to Showtime.com slash PPV and snag a front row seat. Coming up at the top of the hour, Justin Termini from Sirius XM MBA radio will join us, and coming up at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific, a friend of the program who we're hoping continues to rise in stardom in the UFC in Matt Fravola, the steamroller, will join us in studio. Last time we talked to Matt Fravola was off his knockout victory at Madison Square Garden back in November at a UFC event. Now he is on the main card for a fight in two weeks, and we'll see how he does fair, but looking forward to our conversation with the steamroller in studio at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.

Real quickly, I know we just had him on, but I want to have a conversation about this. Emory Hunt just joined us, does a great job for CBS Sports HQ. If you just heard him for the last 15 minutes, he is extensive when it comes to covering college football. He gives you names that you're like, oh, he's in the top five, maybe you're not familiar with that name.

He did a really good job. But there's been a big conversation here about Anthony Richardson, who everyone knows at Florida, got off to a really good start. And then after that start up against Utah, you didn't see a lot of moments this year where it was like, wow, Anthony Richardson was going to be a top five pick in the NFL draft. It was Chris Trapasso who was one of the first people to say he'll go to the combine and then he'll be in everyone's top five of a mock draft. And as we get ready for the NFL draft next week, I do feel confident in saying Bryce Young is going to go one. But then after that, we don't know who's going to be the second quarterback off the board. I personally think it should be CJ Stroud, but we don't know where Anthony Richardson is going to go.

Like, Hickey, I think he'll go in the top 10. I guess it depends if the Texans are actually going to pass on a quarterback if he'll go top five. But even the Texans do pass up on a quarterback at two. You could see the Colts take a quarterback and it may be Richardson at four or someone trade in to the top five that isn't currently there if they really do love Anthony Richardson. Or if you do get to five and Richardson still available, like if you're Seattle who you have a really good organization and you have a quarterback right now that you just inked to a three year extension, Gino Smith. And it's kind of similar to to the way that we talked about the Raiders to like you just have Jimmy Garoppolo who you just signed as well. If everyone's telling you that Anthony Richardson is a project in the upside could be so great. Now, the Raiders are picking there because they were inept. The Seahawks aren't. But if you're a team like Seattle that look what they just did for Gino Smith, who was like, I know he's in the league, but he was practically out of the league because no one was ever talking about him.

And he just inked a lucrative contract extension. I think you'd be OK for telling Anthony Richardson you could go sit for at least a year, maybe two, and we'll play Gino Smith. And let's be real with Seattle.

It's not like you're picking at five because you stink. It's because you had the extra draft capital in the in the Broncos trade with Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos were horrible. Like Seattle's actual pick is at 20.

So you could still go address another area of need at 20. And also with the other draft capital that you have, if you want to move up from 20 to go get someone else, it could work where you end up getting a player for the future and then a player that could go help you address an immediate need right now. So I do think, Hickey, that Richardson will go in the top five.

I'm not telling you I love him, but I look at that team like Seattle. If Richardson is still there, which means the Panthers, the Texans, no one trades with the Cardinals and the Colts don't take Anthony Richardson. I do believe that's the farthest that Richardson is going to fall. I agree. I feel at this point it's a lock.

You've been the top five. The only way I would argue it is if let's just say Jalen Carter, Will Anderson is still available at five. Now, I don't think Will Anderson will be there, but there is a chance we did this in the mock draft exercise the other night. And I know Richardson wasn't available at that time because of a trade that we made. But if Jalen Carter is available at five, that's a very interesting decision.

How Seattle will do that. Will they go with Jalen Carter? Do they go with Anthony Richardson?

And I'll just say this. Like you look at the Lions who who a few years ago they were they were picking at three. They went to CUDA and you knew that Stafford wasn't going to be hanging around that much longer. Eventually, Stafford would want out. They could have drafted Justin Herbert or maybe to a tongue of Aloha. But they did not draft a quarterback. They passed on a quarterback a year later. They get rid of a quarterback in Stafford. Now, they ended up getting golf who's been fine.

But no one thinks I don't think golf is a long term answer. And it's like, OK, you went a CUDA over like potentially Justin Herbert. That does not look all that good these years later. Imagine the Lions had Justin Herbert. Well, maybe Justin Herbert would be suspended because maybe he would be gambling on games or gambling on college football games from inside the facility. But put the jackass Zach Hill comment out the window. If you're Seattle, that decision, if Richardson and Carter are both there. Carter, who could be the best player in the draft, some people say. And then you look at Anthony Richardson. I wonder which way they would go.

It is tough. I would agree. So you definitely see Peacock go on the defensive line now. Also, the question, too, is will both even be there? Because if the what the Texans, you know, that's why I ask that question.

Right. Like what the Cardinals, if they want to stay or someone else like the Raiders, if the Titans are aggressive and moving on up. It's going to be fascinating to see, like, you know, what teams are actually going to be aggressive. I do think we'll see a team outside the top 10 try to get into the top three.

And you know, it makes this fun. And each and every year we try to hype up these prospects. I don't think this is a great draft this year, but the storylines are great because right now. OK, all we know is Bryce Young is going to go one.

Like after that, I think this is mayhem because I do think there's a lot of uncertainty with a lot of these players. And even a guy like Jalen Carter, everyone thinks is going to be a stud. There's questions about his off the field. And Will Anderson, I just think it's prospect fatigue. And every year there's like Kayvon Thibodeau. And I don't think anything's make anyone's making up anything about Will Anderson. It's like you talk about him so much and then people just knock him down and then you get to the draft. Oh, well, Anderson actually went two or three where he's expected to go.

No crap. But a guy like Kayvon Thibodeau, we talked about for two years. I know he battled some injuries. But then there was all this thought about, oh, Kayvon Thibodeau doesn't actually love ball and he's trying to be a star more off the field and on the field. It's like we had Kayvon Thibodeau at the Super Bowl back in L.A. and I was like, this bunch of B.S. You talk to this guy.

It's clear within five seconds, you know, if someone's B.S.ing you or not. Through that 10 minute interview that we had with Kayvon Thibodeau two years ago, it was obvious that all that stuff was a bunch of hogwash. I'm still surprised that Trayvon Walker ended up going number one last year because I was a lot higher on Aiden Hutchinson and then also Kayvon Thibodeau.

But anyway, I just want to replay you this answer. This is Emory Hunt. He's a big believer, as you just heard, in Anthony Richardson. I think a lot of people it's like 50-50. I said to him, five people love him.

Five people tell you he's going to be a bus. This is why Emory Hunt is really believing in Anthony Richardson. Because I feel like people are looking at just statistics and they're not looking at the game. When you watch the game, obviously you talk about the 4-4 speed and ability to be a plus on the run game.

That's a given. But when you watch him throw the football, you're like, man, this guy has great pocket mobility, has a beautiful deep ball, arguably the best deep ball in the class, has the ability to hit every quadrant of the field with the passing game. And he showed last year at Florida where, when they asked him to throw more, like the Texas A&M game, or like the Tennessee game, or like the game against Georgia, like, man, they really can move the ball down the field. Just unfortunate they didn't have any receiving options outside of Ricky Pearsall, who was phenomenal and caught virtually every touchdown pass he threw and with how well he was finding him in stride.

So, and I always point people back to 2021 LSU. He didn't start that game. He came in for Emory Jones, threw a horrible interception. I want to say on his first and second pass of the game, it was a pick-six. But then after that, he caught fire, was leading this team down the field, getting touchdowns, had a big lead, LSU came back, and then on the last drive, he's driving down the field. And he got hit as he threw. He made the right read. It would have been a 50-something yard touchdown pass to win the game. But the ball ended up hanging up, and it was an interception. So it shows you not only was he making the right read and was going to be the right throw, but he was able to fight through adversity in that game, which gave me confidence in July to say, this is my number one quarterback, and I'm glad to see it play out that way, in my opinion, this past season.

Hickey, let me just ask you this. When I ask you about confidence, 1 through 10, I'm going to give you a quarterback. You tell me, confidence 1 through 10, 10 being they're going to be a Hall of Famer, Super Bowl winner stud, and 1 being that they're going to be like a bust like a Jamarcus Russell, or apologies to your dear friend Ryan Leaf. You tell me what your numbers are for these quarterbacks 1 through 10. Bryce Young?

Nine. That's pretty high for Bryce Young. I'm very high on Bryce Young. But we all know that.

I know, I know, I know. You were the guy, you know me, I don't like to call you an idiot and a moron and a dope, but you were the guy that was so convinced that the Colts are going to get Bryce Young, and I told you it's unlikely they get him because they're going to have to fight with a lot of other teams to move up into that number one spot. You weren't willing to listen, but it is clear that you have a crush on Bryce Young.

You go 9, I'm going to go 8, and I almost went 7.5. It's not that I don't believe in Bryce Young, I do think he's the best quarterback in this draft class, but when you see players like Mahomes, when you see players like Burrow, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, some of the top five quarterbacks in the league, I just don't even know Bryce Young at his best if he's going to be on the same level as those guys, but I was really impressed with Bryce Young this year, and why I think he will be bare minimum a very good quarterback in this league, and I'm still going to 8, which is a pretty big number, is because of the fact that this year he didn't have a lot of talent around him, which is weird to say in Alabama, and he was still able to be not the reason why they lost games this past year. Alright, CJ Stroud, where's the number for you?

6.5? I think he's going to be really solid, I just don't know how high that ceiling is going to be where he can be better than a Jared Goff-esque quarterback. I think he'll be better than Jared Goff, I don't think CJ Stroud will ever bottom out, I just don't know if he'll ever get to that elite level of play. I'm like, I don't want to just say a 7, I'm more like a 7.2, where I think he'll be good, I don't think he'll be great. The thing that I really like, but also I'm concerned about CJ Stroud, and we've talked about this a bunch, is that he said at the Heisman that he's more athletic than what people give him credit for, and he's looking to put that on display real soon, and he did that up against Georgia.

My question is, why did it take that long, especially when you had the most offensive talent to throw to this past year in college football? Alright, now let's get to the two, or actually let's go, I'll give you three more. What about Anthony Richardson? 4. Ooh, so you're really low on Anthony Richardson.

There's, to me, a lot of question marks. He can put it all together and be elite. I just think that it's a major, major gamble, far from a guarantee like Emery believes. It's tough to argue with you on that one. I'm going to go 4.5.

I do think it is close to a 50-50, but I'm more of a non-believer than I am a believer. What about Will Levis? 2. Ooh, that low.

2.5. I think he's Mitch Trubisky 2.0. Dentional playoffs one year. Didn't Mitch Trubisky make the Pro Bowl two times? And he won the Nickelodeon MVP. I think absolutely Will Levis would win one of those Fagezzi awards. I could absolutely see it. But he's someone that, outside of maybe a year, could sparkle and dazzle.

I don't think he's anything in terms of longevity-wise consistent. Let's go ahead and have Emery hunt, by the way. Will Levis is a top-6 quarterback in the draft class. I know.

I know. Oh, please. Indianapolis, please take Will Levis. This would be great to see you in the draft. Chris Ballard, I hope he's not that dumb.

I really hope not. Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you clip the part of you saying Will Levis 2.5 just in case I ever have to use that weapon moving forward into the future?

Well, it's cold to take him this time next week. All of a sudden, I'll put that at 10. You'll be at 10. You'll be at 20. I'll 10. Lock it up. Put 7 in the rafters already. You are such a homer.

There is no doubt about it. I'll go 3. I'll go 3 for Will Levis. I don't expect him to be all that good. And then finally, I think this is a difficult prospect. He's older, but people wonder if it was a system.

Also, the injury maybe pushes him out of mind a little bit, but I do think there's a chance that he'll go in the first round. What about Hendon Hooker? 5. I'd say Dak Prescott. Solid.

Pro. Maybe not as good as Dak in terms of winning 12 games a year. Dak is better than a 5. I don't think Dak is this great quarterback, but I think 5 is...

I would say Dak is more of a 6.5. Could you do better? Absolutely.

Could you do worse? Absolutely. Hendon Hooker is tough, man. I think it's a 5. I really do think it's 50-50. I do.

I think it's a 5. I think he'll be solid. If I asked you, do you feel better about Hendon Hooker? Do you feel better about Anthony Richardson?

I guess by your number, right? Didn't you... You had him as a 5, right? Hendon Hooker? I think he's more likely to have some success, yeah.

Richardson's ceiling is way higher, but again, to me there's just a lot there for him to put together to be a consistent quarterback in the NFL that leads to success. It is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a timeout. We'll come on back. We'll update you on the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We call that segment The News Brief. O'Reilly Auto Parts for your car care and needs get guaranteed low, low, low, low, low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's hear from Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors. They got a game in this series last night. It's now Sacramento 2, Golden State 1, so the Warriors, the defending champs are on the board and Steve Kerr is proud of the players who filled in for Draymond Green. That Moses really got us going in that first half with those two 3's and JK after a slow start gave us some good minutes in the second half, so it's good to see the young guys come through.

You know what I love the most about last night, Hickey? It is that the Warriors won without Draymond Green because the antics of Draymond Green, I know they've resulted in four championships. I'm not saying he wasn't imperative to what they did, but at this point, it does seem like the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore for how many bad situations have happened. Even if you don't think he should have been suspended for last night, the facts are they won last night without Draymond Green. And I know you could say, oh, well, in game two, he got ejected with seven minutes left, but he played in the first three quarters. And in game number one, they lost as well with Draymond Green on the court. So I do dig that the Warriors, and I find it hysterical that they won last night without Draymond Green. Yet all they talk about after the game is how they won for Draymond Green. He was their inspiration. It's amazing how everyone's afraid of Draymond Green in that organization.

It's really baffling to me. I know what he's accomplished. I know what he's won. But this guy punched another grown man that's one of your teammates in the face. Different if you do it to someone else. Different team. But he punched one of your own in the face, and it's like everyone was afraid to say something negative about Draymond Green. Let's go to Steph Curry. He says the Warriors are still a dangerous team. We've shown that despite our self-inflicted wounds with turnovers and giving up offensive rebounds, that we're capable of beating that team any night. It's just nice to have something to show for it now.

Oh, let's be real. This series will be decided in game number four. If the Kings win, if they go up 3-1, turn out the lights, the party's over. But if this gets to 2-2, hoo, Hickey, this would be something that I didn't see coming. Because you have the best road team in the Western Conference and the Kings going to Golden State dropping both games, and then it's 2-2 and it's a best of three against the defending champs. Then maybe someone earlier in the week who said this series was over. Who was that national radio host that said that? Oh yeah, that was me.

Would maybe have a little bit of a different tune. But I still think Sacramento's going to win the series because I expected Golden State to win last night. And I think when game four does roll around that the Sacramento Kings will say we're just better than you. Let's keep it moving. Ty Lue on why the Clippers played well despite no Kawhi Leonard.

We've been here before. As crazy as it may sound, we have a great roster and a deep team. And so other guys get an opportunity to step up and play well. I thought a lot of guys did that tonight. And so you hate to see PG and Kawhi go down, but we want to control what we can control. That's all we can do. Let's hear Ty Lue saying losing Kawhi Leonard for game three was absolutely devastating.

It's very deflating. I think more so for Kawhi because you have a guy who's coming off ACL and hasn't missed a rehab session. Eats right, eats clean, does everything he can for his body, works extremely hard to get to this point. And then you have something like this happen. So it's tough for him for all the work that he puts in. So I feel bad for him. We know Ty Lue has won a championship before as a head coach, but you could just tell. This is eating at him because he knows that they could be winning this series because the Suns haven't been at all impressive. And you don't have Paul George.

That's one thing. And then you play really well, but you don't win the game because you don't have Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. This has to be so frustrating if you're Ty Lue, who was a player and now coach and is one of the ultimate competitors, because you know what you have when everyone's healthy. The problem is with the Los Angeles Clippers, they're never healthy.

And it makes you feel helpless because there's nothing you could do. Because look at what happened last night with the effort that we saw from Los Angeles Clippers. And when you don't have Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. We've seen this team play really well and play great and win when it's only one of the guys on the court. When you're missing both, it's an impossible situation to come out there and win.

Especially when you at least tell yourself you're Ty Lue. The load management days for Kawhi and Paul George, it's worth it in the regular season because now for the postseason, that's when they're going to be at their best. And then it's like as soon as you get there, Paul George out for the first series and Kawhi Leonard misses game 3 and who knows. At this point, there's no guarantee he's going to play game 4 or no guarantee he'll play again this season with just how much of a mystery it is.

And it's got to be just devastating. Like I said, you should be winning this series easily. You should be winning even without Kawhi and Paul George and you're still sitting here down 1-2. Kawhi Leonard is one of the greatest sports enigmas ever. Like this guy is so great and I don't want to say came out of nowhere, but he became one of those playoff killers against Miami. We saw what he did up against Golden State. You know, Golden State was dealing with injuries. And then there's just so much like, wow, it stinks too. It's either, it's unbelievable or it's just horrific.

And there's always some drama around it and always some mystique and mystery when things aren't going well. Let's go to James Harden. He says he shouldn't have been ejected last night. And let me be clear, I would 100% agree with James Harden. And B should have been ejected.

Even a Sixers fan will tell you that. When he tried to kick Nick Claxton in the Cajones and ends up hitting his thigh area. But then James Harden accidentally hits someone in the Cajones and he gets tossed. I thought that was ridiculous.

It made no sense to me. But this is James Harden. I didn't hit him in a private area. Somebody's draped on you like that defensively. It's just a natural basketball reaction. And I didn't hit him hard enough for him to fall down like that. But for a flagrant too, it's unacceptable. Like this is a playoff game we've seen around the league. Things that are much more worse than what that play was. Honestly, I don't even think it was a foul on me. But yeah, that's unacceptable. That can't happen. Did you get an explanation at all? I didn't get an explanation. But that's unacceptable.

Do you even think it was a possibility when they went down? No, Chad. I didn't even think it was a foul on me. You know what I mean? Somebody draped on me. Natural reaction was just use your off arm and get him off a little bit and that was it. It wasn't like no wind up, elbow, none of that. I didn't hit him in the private area or none of that.

So that can't happen. How great would it have been if James Harden said, you've seen worse things. Just look at what Joel Embiid did earlier in the game. I think he caught himself. It sounded like he was very close and he's like, oh, I can't do that. Let's hear Doc Rivers saying James Harden shouldn't have been ejected as well. I didn't think he didn't wear anything, but they called him and, you know, listen, I told our guys you could see it early on.

There's a lot of extracurricular activity going on our way. But you're up 2-0. You know, what do you expect? So that's Doc Rivers saying the fix was in. You're up 2-0. You expect them to favor the other team.

Okay. I haven't really heard a coach usually say that there, Hickey. I don't think it was that.

I think it was the chippiness that the Nets came out with, more like you should expect them to... Play that for me again? ...push you around. Because I took it the other way. I didn't think he didn't wear anything, but they called him and, you know, listen, I told our guys you could see it early on. There's a lot of extracurricular activity going on our way.

But you're up 2-0. You know, what do you expect? I think that could be interpreted the way I did and also that you did.

That was a little vague for me. LeBron James says he's done talking about Dylan Brooks after Dylan Brooks said, Bron has to drop 40 for Dylan Brooks, of all people. Like, who cares what he has to say to respect LeBron James? I don't want to talk too much for him. Tomorrow's going to be a great game. I'm not here for him. I'm ready to play and that's it.

I appreciate it. Hickey, for tomorrow night, how many points does LeBron James drop? He better drop at least 35. How many do you think?

I don't care what you say he better drop. I'll say 31. Oh, do they win or lose the game? I think the Grizzlies win tomorrow. Okay, I think the Lakers win and I hope LeBron James drops a 50 burger. I don't even want to hear 40. I want 50.

In reality, I think we'll get 48. We'll be two points shy, but the Lakers are going to win and LeBron is going to score 48 points. And they are going to clown and whoop that trick in L.A. The Memphis Grizzlies. Go, LeBron. Go, Lakers. I want him to embarrass Dylan Brooks coming up tomorrow night. Justin Termini will join us next from Sirius XM MBA radio.

This is that guilt show right here on CBS Sports Radio. A classic style you can wear every day, even in a winter wonderland. And it's fully machine washable construction makes it easy to keep your shoes looking like new. Allbirds shows off the Woolrunner's carbon footprint right on the shoes so you can see the difference for yourself. On top of that, they actually offset that carbon footprint to zero, making the Woolrunner completely carbon neutral so you can stay cozy and tread lighter on the planet. This holiday season, give tidings for comfort and coziness with the Allbirds Woolrunner. Discover your perfect pair at Allbirds.com. That's A L L B I R D S dot com.