Dethroning The Chief (Hour 2)

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BirdDogs off. We promise you. That's an interesting response there by the Cincinnati Bengals and by Jamar Chase. So I don't have a problem, hickey, in Jamar Chase saying that he believes Joe Burrow is the best quarterback in the NFL because that's your quarterback, that's your guy.

You know him all the way going back to your time together with the connection that you've had at LSU. And it's not – like I do think Mahomes is the best quarterback in football, but if Joe Burrow would have won that AFC Championship game and then defeated Mahomes four times in a row, and that would have been two of those times it happening in the postseason, the AFC title game, and then also the AFC title game again in back-to-back years, people would have had that conversation. There were some talks about it leading up to that game. But with Cincinnati poking the bear leading into that matchup with Mike Hilton calling it Burrowhead before they did go to Arrowhead, I don't know if you want to poke that bear again if you're the Cincinnati Bengals in – and I know it's kind of ingested.

It's fun when you're saying Pat who? Did you have any problem with that, hickey, or do you just think that's no big deal whatsoever? Not a big deal.

I like it a lot because, again, I think it's different when a receiver is talking. That's his guy and Joe Burrow who's defending. Compared to a DB? Right. I think you want to defend your quarterback.

And, again, if you're Jamar Chase, you are 3-1 against the Chiefs. I don't think – I have no problem with him not bowing down to Mahomes and having his guys back. Now, I'm not saying I have no problem with him saying, as I just said, with him saying that Burrow's the best quarterback in the league, but to do the Pat, Pat who part of it, do you have a problem with that? I don't think that's smart. Yeah, I mean, semantics I guess.

I think it's more of a little tough guy act more than anything else, but overall I'm not going to go crazy. Also, it doesn't really make sense when we play this audio when Joe Burrow was asked who's the best QB in the league. So it's like when your quarterback says that, then they run to Jamar Chase to go get his answer. When your quarterback already just said that it was Pat Mahomes, I'm not saying that you shouldn't go say that it's your guy, but then to do the Pat, Pat who part, I don't think that's the best look in the world when you guys just lost at Arrowhead to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. And they also went to the Super Bowl and won the Super Bowl. Yeah, you beat them the year prior at the end of the regular season and in the AFC title game, but your group didn't go out there and win a Super Bowl and Mahomes is sitting there polishing two Super Bowl MVP trophies and also two Super Bowl rings as well. I go OK, you want to get upset about the Pat who think this is what I'll say about it. I think you need that arrogance, that confidence like I think that's what you need to beat him like you look at the bills.

Personally, I think one of the issues of the bills that they genuflect too much of the Chiefs. They're obsessed with them. They want to beat them, but I think they also know how great they are.

I do think you need the kind of screw them like they put their pants on the same way as we do. They could talk about Pat Mahomes or we're just as good if not better than them. I think you need that sort of arrogance.

Yeah, but I'll push back on that a little bit. I'm not saying that you don't need arrogance. You don't need confidence to go out there and win, but it's not like Buffalo hasn't defeated Kansas City. They beat them twice in the regular season. I know that they were not able to beat them twice in the postseason when they did play, but it's not as if they haven't had a good game and they've won two games of the regular season pretty lopsided up against Kansas City.

If memory do serves serves me right there, and if their defense just didn't have a brain fart in the final 12 seconds, they would have slammed the door shut. I don't think that's because they lack the confidence to go out there and beat the Kansas City Chiefs. If you look at the Bengals, they've won three out of four.

They've won in the Arrowhead in the playoffs. They're not afraid of them, and I think you do need that sort of attitude in order to win a Super Bowl. But you think Buffalo is afraid of Kansas City based off of what?

No, not afraid. I'm saying they just genuflect them too much. It's almost like you're in awe of Kansas City more than, alright, let's go beat them. I'd rather have a disrespectful team than a team that's like, oh wow, they're so great. They do this well. They do that well.

That's just me. Yeah, I'm okay with having confidence, but you do the Pat Who part. I know it's probably set in a joking tone, but when your team with context also just talked a ton of smack and then lost the game, I wouldn't go back to the well of talking smack even before a game was played for this upcoming season. But give me a little NFL music right here because we're going to do a draft. The topic today is who are the quarterbacks for the next five years that has the best chance to dethrone Patrick Mahomes?

And let me just throw one name out there, Hickey. Just because I know that people hear this, they go, oh, well, why didn't they pick him? I'm not considering Aaron Rodgers just because I don't know how much longer Aaron Rodgers is going to play.

This is for the long term, not just as soon as possible. Because there's one thing to beat as we've seen the Cincinnati Bengals, you beat Mahomes one year and then the next year you're not able to get the job done. And he's walking away laughing with the Lombardi Trophy. So let me just ask this before we start the draft. Are you considering Aaron Rodgers? Because I was not considering him.

No, too old. Gotcha. Heads or tails, my friend? Tails.

Gotcha. It is heads. You can look right there just so you can see.

Make sure that I'm not lying or anything. I mean, I'll be honest, I'm 20 feet away through two panes of glass and it's a dime. No, it's not. It's a quarter. That's a quarter.

It looks very small. I cannot see heads or tails. So I'm not saying you're lying.

I think I believe it. But you're asking me to verify my eyes. I do have good vision, but not that great vision. You're wearing glasses.

Blue lights. They're protecting the eyes. Oh, those aren't prescription? Not prescription.

Maybe they're not protecting those eyes well enough. Hey, just went to the DMV. Well, I'm not DMV, but I went to go get an eye test to renew my license. Oh, are you serious? All good. Yeah. So frustrating. Yeah. So annoying.

I kid you not. So ridiculous. Someone was looking at my license and they're like, you know, your ID expires coming up in August.

And I go, I did not know that. And then I had to call my my local eyeglass place that also does the test for you. And they said to me, your last exam was in March of 2021 when I got a new pair of sunglasses. Actually, in March of 2022.

It's got to be within 12 months. So now I have to go back to the eye doctor, get the test done so they could go verify. Do you think they actually call the DMV? You think that the people that are issuing the license, they actually call to verify when you put the date down that, oh, this was your test. You think they call the place?

Really in the weeds because they just did this. When you go, they fill out the form, they put a stamp and you have to they write some sort of doctor code and some sort of whatever place you go to, some sort of code. You have to enter both of those codes. That's how they verify. They're not calling the place saying, hey, does that go go visit you? I think they put the code in and computers. They verify he was here. Pass the test. Gotcha. Yeah, because they did give me some doctor code and then I was filling out.

It was like God has to be within 12 months. And I was like, oh, can I just fudge this a little bit? And then I go, I don't want to get caught up in the hot water with the DMV.

And you got to go to a DMV approved. I don't know. I forget what they call an eye doctor. Not an is an optometrist.

I forget the name of what you call an eye doctor, but you got to go to tissue. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Well, you got to go to that place that's approved by the DMV. So it's a whole thing. But yeah. So my eyes anyway, my eyes are good, but not good enough to see the quarter 20 yards away from where I'm standing if it's heads or tails. So you did win the toss. There's no Jerome Bettis. Oh, I said tails. Just kidding.

Optometrist. You're right. There we go. Boom. Look at that. Just want to make sure that we're right.

OK. All righty. My first pick. Pat who? Joe Burrow has the best chance to throw in one Patrick bones. This honestly is really tough. Well, it's going to get it's not tough right out of the gate. Once you get through two picks, I think it then gets tough and we got to make five.

I don't know. I think I go a bunch of different ways with this next one right here. I will go with a quarterback with right now. I think the best team in terms of knocking him off. I'll go the Eagles and Jalen hurts. Wow. I'm surprised by that one. Now, that's who I would have picked. But just coming from you, you're like, you hate Philadelphia. So I'm kind of surprised that you picked Jalen hurts. I do.

I like the silly Philadelphia and their teams. Absolutely not. Show them the respect that they deserve.

And they, I think, will be around for a while. Okay. Next pick here. I kind of stay away from anyone else in the NFC.

Not going guy. Jared Goff. Daniel Jones. Dak.

Yeah, you're a good comedian. Sam Hell. Well, I chose Sam Hell some respect. Okay. And you can make them as your next pick because I'm not picking.

Let's see how tough you are, Mr. Tough guy. I don't know if this guy is a better quarterback than the other guy I'm thinking about, but his division stinks. And we saw him take a big stride in really your number one, but it was considered your number two. I will go Trevor Lawrence there. That was going to be my pick. That was going to be my pick for sure. I will then take. I will take Josh Allen. And hope that they can get over the Chiefs hump and get to the Super Bowl sooner rather than later. So I think a lot of people would be surprised when I didn't take Josh Allen there. That's a great pick by you. I just I wonder here.

Like Liget doosable brought it up yesterday. How much longer is their window? And then it digs isn't happy and you got to go get another ride receiver. Sure, you could do it, but that defense has not played as well as they should be. I just wonder what the next version of the Buffalo Bills do look like. Next up, I will go a man that plays in the division of Patrick Mahomes.

Justin Herbert. Hmm, OK, now this is where it gets tricky. Man. I have three options here for the next five years. Five to ten we could go could expand that window. I am between two. All right, I'm going to do it.

I'm just going to hope that things work out. Injury wise, I'll go to a team is really good. I like the offense. I don't trust. He's got to say hello, Jackson.

Yes, I like there. I like Miami's offense better right now than Baltimore's. Both have injury concerns. I'm going to hope and bank that to a can say healthy, but don't feel great about it. Do not feel great about it at all. I'm debating if I want to be creative here, if I want to use my creativity coming up in my next answer. And I'm going to assume that he's going to be pedestrian and not creative. And you know what happens when I assume I make an asset to you and me. And I may have just gave away my hand and I may just showed you my cards.

But let's see if you could pick up on those hints that I just gave you. So since you left him available for me, I will scoop him up. Lamar Jackson.

So, so far. Best chance to throw Patrick Mahomes. My selections. Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson.

Hickey's made three picks so far. Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Tua, Tungo Vailoa. This hurts because I think there's I'm about to say a name.

And I think maybe I'm leaving one out here that in terms of that could truly dethrone, but I'm not going to do it. I'll take Bryce Young. I knew you're going to go Bryce. Ten years. He's three.

He's legit. I think he'll come in right away and play well. NFC is open.

Division stinks. I will go Bryce Young. OK, I'm going to get creative here. I don't know what team is going to be on, but I think he's going to be the number one pick in the draft next year. Caleb Williams.

Supposed to be transcendent. I'm going to take Caleb Williams there over who? Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, Jordan Love, Anthony Richardson, CJ Stroud, Geno Smith. Like these are the other guys that that we're talking about. You know, Kenny Pickett, Deshaun Watson still available, who's a great quarterback, but you're in Cleveland.

You're going to win in Cleveland. Russell Wilson. Can't tell you I have a ton of confidence in him. So I'll go Caleb Williams. That was my creativity right there.

I think you'll like it, too. Feels a little cheap, like he's not in the league. I get it. Ten years. Probably should have seen that foresight coming. Maybe then I should have taken Arch Manning.

If you want to really just blow it up and get nuts here. But. All right.

Let's see Arch actually play at Texas first. Got Quinn Ewers in the way right now. That's right. That's right.

We'll see how maybe. Maybe Quinn Ewers is the man that we're not looking at right now in five years is two rings under his belt. And I just want to be clear, his name is Arch Manning, because if you listen to an update here at CBS Sports Radio, you may think his name is Arch Manning. Is that saving the animals? Isn't that? Oh, I did. You know what? My apologies. I circled one instead of crossing it off because I cross yours off and I accidentally circled it. My apologies. You know what, then? Fine.

I actually get kind of double dip here. I'm going to double down on what I said. I don't think it's going to happen if it does happen. Absolutely. In this conversation, Anthony Richardson has the tools. I just said I don't think it's going to happen.

But if he puts it all together physically, how is he not going to have a lot of success? And he's going to do everything Holmes can do. Absolutely.

I think that that's that's an opportunity to do. I'm not sure. That's not a whole more thing. A lot of people say that about Trey Lance.

A lot of boy. Yeah, he had the physical tools. He could put it together. And I just said, I don't think this is going to happen. But I will take it.

You know, if you want to get creative and get crazy here. I bank on Anthony Richardson more than more than Kirk Cousins or Dak. What about your guy, Deshaun Watson? You love Watson. I like Deshaun Watson a lot. I do think it's going to be tough for him in terms of right now in a tough division, let alone a tough AFC. And I do want to see him play a little bit more, you know, play better before I kind of go there.

Gotcha. But then you take the guy, Anthony Richardson, who's never shown what people are trying to tell you he can't be. It's my last pick. Pick number five.

And if you want to kind of just take a value pick here in terms of knocking off Patrick Holmes, which is not exactly an easy thing to do. You know what this also shows me? I'll go crazy. Shows me you don't actually believe in the Broncos. Mister, you're doubling down on the Broncos this year. You love Russell Wilson. Well, you just said they're going to make the playoffs.

I said they're going to win a Super Bowl. And Russell is what, 35? Like, again, he's closer to Aaron Rodgers.

I think he might be 34, 35. So it's not exactly like he has a ton of prime years left. You know, if he wins one Super Bowl, I think that's a success in Denver. He ain't winning a Super Bowl in Denver. But I don't think he's going to be winning two or three and dethroning Mahomes as being the best quarterback in the league. So best chances to dethrone Mahomes. Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Caleb Williams are my picks. He goes with Jalen Hurst, Josh Allen, Tuatunga Vailoa, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson. Tommy Curran will join us next.

Expect from the ultimate electric driving machine. Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. DeAndre Hopkins set to visit the Patriots tomorrow. We'll see what comes of that.

So let's head out to the guest line right now. Welcome to the Patriots Insider for NBC Sports Boston. And that, of course, is Tom Curran. Tom, how you been? Outstanding. How are you, Zach? Well, I'm doing fantastic. And it's been a tough last three years.

And now I know what it's like to be an average football fan instead of living in the penthouse. But for the first time in a long time, I'm excited because I do think DeAndre Hopkins is going to be a Patriot. Where's your confidence level on that one? It'll be interesting to really try and pinpoint what DeAndre Hopkins wants. Does he want to be with a team before the end of June and spend an entire training camp? Or does he want to kind of try and pull what so many veterans do and play it out, play it out, play it out? So I think there's a hope and an expectation here in New England that the Patriots are going to get DeAndre Hopkins sewn up.

But it's going to be dependent upon him. I really think the Patriots are very much interested and actually, too, Zach, very much in need of DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah, they need a number one wide receiver. They improved the receiving core this offseason. But it's tough for me to evaluate what Mac Jones can be if JuJu Smith-Schuster is your best wide receiver.

Yeah, and to me, I looked at this team on paper so often and said, you know what, they have enough. They have Hunter Henry, they have Jusicki, they have pass catchers with Parker and Bourne and Taequann Thornton and Schuster. But just watching this week during OTAs, Taequann Thornton, who's still on prove in second round pick from last year, he was out with injury. So he's not out there.

No JuJu. So they're down to Parker and Bourne at the wideout positions and then a variety of guys who kind of just be able to get off the street or have been kicking around the bottom of the roster. So if you are on notice, which Bill Belichick, believe it or not, kind of is, and you have a quarterback and an offensive coordinator you feel you should be able to get a better season out of, you have to have somebody at their disposal to make these sets of sweat.

And he would help do that. On a scale of one to ten, you said Belichick is on notice. In terms of how hot his seat is, where do you kind of put that number right now, ten being the hottest?

I'd say five. And that's, you know, understanding everything he's done and everything he's been all about. You know, when you talk about what have you done for me lately, since Tom Brady left in 2020 and the Patriots said, yeah, we're not going to pay him, and he went and won a Super Bowl elsewhere, that felt like a miscalculation. And I think the team itself looked at it as a miscalculation. After a positive season for Mac Jones in 2021, they went totally off the board last year. And in doing so, Bill Belichick choosing to do so, they retreated.

They did the backstroke. So it's not a conventional, hey, this is the letdown after Tom Brady leaves. It's actively pissing away 2022 that kind of puts them in a position where like, OK, you've kind of made this bet.

How are you going to fix it? I think we all remember how it ended for DeAndre Hopkins in Houston when Bill O'Brien was the coach and basically the general manager as well. Is that relationship something that they have to smooth over? Because I see some things, hey, it's a concern than others.

It's no problem. DeAndre Hopkins would be more than happy to go to New England. I haven't spoken to O'Brien directly from the intubations I've gotten. It's not a problem as far as he's concerned. I saw Diana Rossini from ESPN earlier today, who I think is very reliable, say that she doesn't see it as being an issue for either side. So I trust her reporting on that.

So excuse me, that should be not an issue. Tom Kern, right now, where are your expectations for the Patriots and if they get DeAndre Hopkins, how does that change it? I'm high, but they're a 10 or 11 win team. Really?

Yeah. I mean, they were a 10 win team in 2021 in Mac Jones rookie year. They've added an offensive coordinator who knows what he's doing. Mac is two years better and built some resilience last year. They've added players at some of the skill positions who are better. They have a very, very good defense to begin with. And they added the kind of corner who should, even though he's 20, develop into a player that can be that shutdown type of corner and increasing the dollars in the first round.

So they have the pieces in place. They also have a very difficult schedule and division in which to compete, however. But I still see them, I mean, Vegas has them at seven and a half.

I think that's nuts. So we know Tommy Curran's going to be hammering the over on that one. Just to go back to that, Tom Curran, the AFC got better. The AFC East got better.

You say 10 or 11 wins. How do you view the Patriots in the pecking order of the AFC East? Who's in front of them?

Who's behind them? I think Buffalo still is ahead of them. But I think they're right there with Miami. I know Miami, you know, was a much improved team, but I'm still not a full buyer on Tuatung to Violoa in terms of durability or in terms of just overall, is he that good a quarterback? I don't think he's a top 15 guy. I think he's right there, Mac Jones.

Certainly I think he's a better player, although certainly he did not show that last year. And I think it's going to take a while in New York. I mean, they scored 28 offensive touchdowns last year. And I'm sure that Aaron Rodgers should be expected to throw 28 touchdown passes on his own, at least.

But it will take some time there. So I think that New England, Miami, and the Jets are three teams that can throw a blanket over and say, they're all right there next to each other. Tom Curran, you've covered a lot of drama throughout the years in the NFL. What did you make about the last 24 to 48 hours about whatever's going on in Buffalo with Staphon Diggs and the Bills? It feels like relationships.

It really does. I mean, he needed some time and space. I mean, that's what February, March, April, and May are supposed to be for. So however they got sideways this week, I would imagine that was whatever led to that. And you can't have the head coach say he's very concerned and then pretend he's not concerned at all the next day.

So to me, there's something afoot. And the way they closed the season last year was not encouraging if you're a Buffalo Bills fan. They went through a lot of adversity and they closed the season poorly in the playoffs.

So I think there are things that they're going to have to iron out early in the season. Last thing I'll ask you, Tom Curran, just when we get to Trent Brown, I've read so much about this. If you could sum it up, what's going on with Trent Brown right now? Every other year, he's pretty good. And in the off year, he's really bad. Last year, it wasn't very good when he was out there.

And I'm looking like he's trying to go back to back with bad years. Because he did not show up on time for minicamp. Really the only guy to do so. Although Lawrence Guy is holding out, but Brown blamed a hailstorm. And that's the kind of thing that in past years, he was like, well, why are you taking the last flight out? But he showed up late. Then he was on the field just for one drill on Tuesday.

And kind of had to tap out after about 15 minutes. And head to a lower field for apparently conditioning work. So that's your left tackle spot. That's your best tackle. And if you don't have protection on the backside for a pocket passer, that's not what you're looking for. That's something that has to be resolved in the next month or so for the Patriots.

Because you'd hate to see a position like that hold a team hostage. Tom Curran does a great job covering the Patriots for a long time. NBC Sports Boston. Tom, always appreciate the time. Thank you. Alright. Thanks, Zach. See ya.

There you go. Tommy Curran joining us right there on CBS Sports Radio. Now me even being a Patriot fan, I am shocked by that answer that Tommy Curran just gave us, Hickey. That he could see the Patriots being a 10 or 11 win team.

Tom Curran's not just this homer. He'll tell you how it is. So if you've ever heard of Tom or if you're just like, oh, he had the Boston Patriot reporter on. They're doing the Patriot reporter on. Of course he's going to speak positively.

Tom will tell you how it is. I'm very surprised that he was saying 10 or 11 wins even without the potential acquisition of DeAndre Hopkins. I don't see 10 or 11 wins on this football team right now.

Same. Yeah. I know they did well and made the playoffs in 2021. But the division has gotten better.

I don't think these skill weapons have gotten that much better. I'm not even sold that Mac Jones is that much better from where he was as a rookie. I know he's saying that now he's in year number three. So like last year was a wash. It's kind of like it's a wash in one sense.

Yes. But also you kind of have to undo all of the bad coaching, bad juju that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge put on Mac Jones. So it's not like just like you're going right back to, OK, forget about 2022.

2021 Mac Jones is here. We're just going to move on from that. I do think it's going to take some time to undo all the bad that happened last year.

Yeah. So you're partially right then. I'll say you're partially wrong because here's why I think it could be a quicker fix just in terms of getting Mac Jones back to an OK form. You go from Patricia and Judge running your offense to Bill O'Brien. I'm not telling you Bill O'Brien is one of the greatest offensive minds of all time. But Mac Jones must be in love right now because you actually have someone that knows what he's doing on the offensive side of the ball.

So I think it helps get the best out of Mac Jones this year because it's just the difference of night and day from where they were a year ago. Here's our poll question, which you can find at that Galbat CBS Sports Radio. Who wins the AFC East this year? Now, right out of the gate, 61.2 percent of the vote is going with the Buffalo Bills. Do you think that's low hickey, 61.2 percent of the vote right now when you look at it?

No, I do not. If anything, it might be a little say a little high. But I mean, this is a tough division. So how would you rank them right now, one through four on where you think they're going to finish?

Who would you go with right now? I would go I would still put the Bills one. I will say the Dolphins two, Jets three, Pats four. Sealope one through four in the AFC East. Bills, Jets, Dolphins, Pats. I have to factor into his injury history.

Sorry. You're not wrong on that. I just, you know, he's got to he's got to play a significant amount of games for me to feel a little bit better about them. No offense to Mike White, who's now the backup there. Now, I think my answer is going to surprise a lot of people, because even though the Patriots have been pro Buffalo the last few years and just loving what they've been doing, when you look at it objectively, maybe I'm caught up in all the nonsense of this week.

I'm going Miami one now. I know what everyone's going to say. But you just said right there. Health of two is low hanging fruit.

Yeah. I feel like when everyone talks about one thing, I know this is different. This is not like a leg injury or a shoulder injury or rib injury. Guys been injured a lot. We've gone back to Alabama and hip injury and ankle injury and all that stuff. It's a concussion. And he's had multiple of them. So if he suffers another one, you kind of feels football fan that you don't even want it to play. It could be the end. Yeah. But I feel as if everyone's saying he's not going to be able to get through a season healthy.

He's not going to be able to get through a season healthy. There's a lot of merit to that. But I feel a lot of times whenever everyone says that the opposite ends up happening.

Yeah. I'm not like guaranteeing he's not going to. It's just if I'm making a season long projection, I've got to look at his history.

Oh, it's a big factor. So that's that's the way I say that's why I say it that way. I'm going Dolphins one, Bills two, Jets three and then my Patriots four. I think a lot of people be surprisingly putting the Dolphins one because there's no coach in the NFL right now that creeps me out more than Mike McDaniel. I you know, he's a good coach.

Did wonders last year. Almost did go to Buffalo that wildcard round with a third string quarterback in Skyler Thompson. That dude, though. And we talked about this before. He creeps me out. Or I feel like everyone's in on the inside joke with Mike McDaniel. But me, because every time I listen, I'm like, people love this guy. He's different. That's why he's bizarre. You don't get you don't get that from NFL head coaches often.

No, you don't. So I think that's that's part of the draw right now. And when your team's performing well or exceeding expectations, it's it's it's endearing. But that can, as we know, turn on a dime. Yeah, it could go south very quickly.

So even though I just said that I like the Dolphins win the AFC East right now in my June 14th prediction, I wouldn't be that upset, though. Things do go quickly south very quickly there, because that act of Mike McDaniel can get old in the matter of one game when he says something to the media. Vaping on the sidelines at a playoff game or the interview he gave to was a Peter Schrager coming out of the half of that game where you like legitimate. You know what?

I better be careful. I don't make accusations, but could you imagine seemed a little off 10 years ago if you were able to get on the radio and say, yeah, like a coach vaping on the sideline. Now all you do is you hear commercials for pot and gambling. Yeah, that's all you hear now. New world we're living in. Five years ago, Scott Farrell was like the devil for talking about that stuff. Shake him up. Scotty Farrell.

Farrell on the bench. CBS Sports Radio. I saw a story today in the New York Post. Teachers getting frustrated with 11 year old kids go to school in a diaper. Wait, what? Yeah. Wait, wait, explain. It's not like a bladder problem or anything.

No, no. This 11 year old just shows up to class. Not one 11 year old. Like, this is a thing.

Multiple 11 year olds? Yeah. And it's not like they have some issue? I think the issue is they're suggesting they have like nerves or anxiety or they're worrying about it.

Things and things are potentially coming out. So, yeah. Yeah.

Like I said, it's a different world we're living in. When I when this is an you said 11 years old. Yeah. So what are you, middle school then? I think.

No, I think. Well, yeah. If you're middle school includes six, you could talk in like fifth, sixth grade depending on which month you're born in. Yeah. If I was in fifth or sixth grade showing up to school in a diaper, I would expect to be made fun of. Well, when we were in school, that's the way it was.

Yeah. And I'm not that old. Now I sound like, I'm back in my day. I would never wear a diaper to school, but that's the road that we're kind of going on.

A lot has changed in these last few years. There is no doubt about it. Hickey, you have a little anxiety coming to work? You start wearing a diaper tomorrow? Just in case.

That'd be fun. No, thankfully I am all good. I can control my body. I guess I've made the best way to put it. You know what?

There is a member of CBS Sports Radio in Meraz who pooped himself on the air once. May not be the worst thing in the world that we have, you know, whereas having a diaper. And here's an example of me misinterpreting the headline. It said worrying trend. So I was thinking like, OK, these kids are like having their worries or, you know, the trend of diapers is what's worrying. That's what the teachers say.

There's a trend of diapers? Here. Oh, OK. This is in Switzerland. See?

Oh, it's in Switzerland. Yeah. Gotcha.

Students wearing diapers in class because they don't know how to use the toilet. And you know what? Let's just put this to bed now. Gotcha.

We're going to cancel Chris starting to trend on social media. No, it's just it's a little off base, a little off topic. OK.

Anyway. Hickey, I thought you had some zany ideas and some zany conversation talking points. Cielo comes in here swinging. He's ready to throw me out of here.

I agree. Last hour shower down the toilet. What are you doing?

Making more work for yourself. I'm a kid. But I mean, 11 years old changing our diaper.

Cielo's face went white as a ghost as he was reading through the actual article. Yeah, that's a bad one. That's that's the lesson. Read the full story. By the way, you can train your kids. Wow. That goes without saying. That should be common sense. Send me that article.

I want to read what was actually. I just figured maybe then I was like, maybe they're just lazy. I don't feel like I'm going to the bathroom. You can think early on about your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts. People at O'Reilly Auto Parts will come on back.

We'll talk a little bit about Kittle and his love for Mr. Brock Purdy. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder. A generation of all electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7 and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW 100 percent electric.

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So George Kittle did a car wash tour yesterday, went on a bunch of different outlets and one that really did catch my attention. A lot of it was similar, but I thought this was good questioning by Robin Lundberg, who used to work here at CBS Sports Radio. Now does a kick ass job for Sports Illustrated.

Let's hear this exchange with Kittle and Lundberg. Trey Lance, starter or backup? Trey is a starter in the NFL. He will be, get that guy some reps and he has an incredibly high ceiling. Brock Brody won eight straight games, got hurt. It's just Brock's job to lose at that point.

I think that Trey is definitely a starting quarterback. Like I said, he just needs, he just needs reps. That's all it is. It's kind of funny to me. I get what he's saying, that he believes that he could be a starter in the NFL. And once again, he uses the words that I hate the most, has such a high ceiling. I hate that conversation for guys that we've never seen put it together. You just keep on telling me, oh, if he puts it all together, he has a high ceiling. It's just weird to me, Hickey, where I understand what George Kittle is saying in terms of, Brock Brody comes in, you win the seven, eight games in a row.

It's like, he's going to be your guy. I don't even know if the 49ers believe anymore that George Kittle, I'm talking about John Lynch, definitely Kyle Shanahan, if this guy's a starting quarterback in the NFL anymore, because what's the ceiling for Brock Purdy? Like if we go into that dumb ceiling conversation, and I know Brock Purdy may have looked like he was the best quarterback that's been in San Francisco in the last four or five years with what he was able to do in that small sample size, if you really truly did believe still in Trey Lance, it's not as if Trey Lance has done anything that we could see in terms of why you would lose that belief in him. In year one, it was Jimmy G's team, and then in year two, he was the starter, and then unfortunately he just got hurt. But it keeps on sounding like, no matter what they say, just with the way that they've been approaching this, that I don't think they really believe in Trey Lance anymore long-term. I think the tough part here is, and it's going to sound stupid when you say tough part, and then what I'm about to say, but I think it's true, the 49ers are so good, well-built outside of the quarterback, that it doesn't really matter.

It does matter, though. And so it's like, you asked, what's the ceiling of Brock Purdy? The ceiling is winning a Super Bowl. Is he going to be the best quarterback in the league?

No. But he doesn't have to be. And that's the thing, you can be, as a short sample size, Brock Purdy's what, the 10th, 12th best player in that small sample size he played in last year? You don't need to have a top one, top five quarterback to win a Super Bowl. And so if you're looking at it, Trey Lance, I think to me is more talented, and I would agree with George Kittle would have a higher ceiling than Brock Purdy, which is what he can do with his athletic ability.

But if you're the 49ers, you look at, well, right now, we're trying to win right now. And if Trey Lance is going to take a year or two to develop and get reps, we don't have a year or two, I'm not going to say a waste, but we don't have a year or two for him to learn because we have a guy in Brock Purdy who is less athletically sure. Trey Lance should be ready by now.

We need him to play at a high level in order to win games. Trey Lance should be ready by now. If the guy's healthy, he should be ready. You've been in an NFL locker room for two years.

You should be ready to go out on a football field and play. If you're getting selected with the third overall pick in the draft, and a team gave all those first-round picks to get you, I don't think it's, he needs more time. He just needs the opportunity now, and then we'll see if he could find a way to swim or if he's going to sink. That's what it is. Right.

No, I agree. But I'm saying he's played five, what, five games in three years, something like that, something very small, minuscule. So it's like he's barely played. And if you're the 49ers, again, if he plays and you've got to figure it out, well, that's going to insinuate that there's some ups and some downs, where Brock Purdy is more steady. That's, I think, part of the reason why they are just leaning towards Brock Purdy.

I don't think they think he's overall the better quarterback, but he's the better quarterback right now. You think the coach believes in Trey Lance, though? Because I don't think the coach believes in Trey Lance from the start, and he was talked into Trey Lance, as we've talked about before. I'm still not sold about the whole not wanting Trey Lance at the draft, but I'll say definitely today. Well, before the draft. Right, before, I still think he was in on Trey Lance, but definitely today with how he's acted, with how John Lynch has acted and talked.

No, they don't believe in Trey Lance. And I do think the quarterback still matters in San Francisco. We've seen them with just rotating kind of quarterbacks, like when I go to Baskin-Robbins, where I just rotate flavors. I'm usually happy when I leave, but I never usually get the same ice cream flavor, and I try to rotate and try all the flavors and go through multiple flavors.

You can still have really good ice cream, but are you going to get great ice cream? Because right now, you look at the San Francisco 49ers, they've been a wonderful team. They've been to a Super Bowl. They've been to multiple NFC title games. But if you don't figure out clarity on your quarterback, I don't think you win a Super Bowl in this league.

I don't. I know people are going to say, oh, what about Nick Foles? And what about Jeff Hostetler and other guys? You look at the quarterbacks for the most part of the last 25 years that have won, most of them are great quarterbacks. Now, you don't need a great quarterback to win.

You can just get good quarterback play. But I don't think the 49ers even know what they want because one moment it's Jimmy G. And then it's okay, let's try to go get Kirk Cousins. And then it's back to Jimmy G. And then it's all right, Jimmy G took us to Super Bowl, played really well in the first three quarters, got out, played in the fourth quarter. Now we got to go get Trey Lance. Okay, Trey Lance is here.

He's going to be the guy. Up now, Jimmy G comes back in. Then Jimmy G gets hurt. Then Brock Purdy plays.

Now it's going to be Brock Purdy. It's confusing. It's like me in earth science class when I'm going back to high school. I'm confused. I have no clue what the heck is going on. But you need to figure it out because until you figure out your quarterback and you have a guy that you can look at and say, okay, we think this is the guy not only for the now, but the foreseeable future. I don't think this spin a wheel.

And then every different month, it's a new guy that you're bringing up to, to come claim a prize is going to get you the ultimate prize. And that's a Lombardi Trophy. To their credit, if you want to say that word, credit, they have basically backed Brock Purdy this entire offseason. They have not really talked about Trey Lance as being the starter. They have not talked about Sam Darnold as a guy that's going to lead them to a Super Bowl. Anytime they've talked about the starting quarter acquisition, it's been either Brock Purdy or if Brock Purdy's healthy, his health is going to determine that.

That's the other part of it. Now, Kittle did say, I saw in the Dan Patrick show, that he expects Brock Purdy to be ready for week one. The first few games of the season, they play the Steelers, the Rams, the Giants, and the Cardinals.

I kind of wish they had Murderers Row coming out of the gate. Because as a fan, it would be intriguing to me if, let's say they start off two and two and Brock Purdy doesn't play well. They started off one and three and Brock Purdy plays well. How long of a leash does Brock Purdy have off the small but impressive? I'll give Brock Purdy credit. He was pretty awesome last year, but I just wonder how long the leash is for Brock Purdy this year. And the thing I'll say is Kyle Shannon's never really benched a quarterback. Yeah, it's all been because of injuries for the most part. So it's not like he's shuffling the chairs because they stink every week. Trey Lance gets hurt.

Jimmy G gets hurt. So it's almost like he has no other choice. And what saved them is they still have won a ton of games.

It's kind of crazy when you look at it. It's not like John Lynch is on the hot seat. But in a usual situation when you use the pick this early on, and then you went with someone else and you traded all those draft picks to get it, there would be pressure from the GM to go get the guy that you drafted on the field. But I'll give them credit. Not that they haven't won a Super Bowl, but they've won a lot of games. They've advanced far into the playoffs, so they get the benefit of the doubt. But I'll keep on pounding that drum, and I'll keep on saying it until they figure out their QB position. I don't care how great of a roster you have. You are not winning in this league. And I think quarterback roulette is very dangerous, but we'll see if they'll walk out of that casino with a lot of money. News Brief next.