LIVing Past This Season? (Hour 2)

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BirdDogs off. We promise you. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is playing now. Do you care to watch a documentary or docu-series from Marcus Mario to get it all upset and quit it on the Falcons last year? Or Patrick Mahomes winning a Super Bowl a year ago?

Or Kirk Cousins having a really good regular season but in the postseason choking it up? I feel as if it's too late to release this when everyone's off last season and you're gearing up for this upcoming football season, but that's just my thought. How about yours?

Well, I guess I'll ask you this. Did you like Full Swing when Netflix did? I thought Full Swing was fine. I thought it was okay. It was funny. My dad, I'm at my parents' place tonight here on Long Island. They just moved into a brand new place and I came to come check it out and then I have the Bob's Bar event tomorrow, so I wanted to sleep over here to not make the commute from my place in New York City. And my dad just started to watch Full Swing and I watched the first episode with him, even though I've seen them all, but he keeps on hearing about it so he wanted to watch it today.

I think he knew how to do it on his own, but for some reason he wanted me to show him where Full Swing was. And he kind of after the first episode was like, alright, that was okay. And that was my reaction too. It was okay. I don't think it was the greatest thing in the world. I thought the Brooks Koepka stuff was good, but it wasn't as if I said, oh my goodness gracious, it's the greatest thing I've ever seen. Alright, well bring that up because that was obviously all in the past when it was released and it was obviously you knew the results of who won the games and who, in this case for golf, who won the tournaments and such like that.

So I liked it personally. I thought it was kind of cool to get an inside look, even though you already know the results of how a lot of these tournaments go. But just real quickly, just to interrupt you, I do think it's different with golf than it is the NFL. There's so many more eyeballs in terms of our audience that watch the NFL week in and week out for golf. I'm sure there's a lot of these tournaments that people didn't even know who ended up winning and it was okay, something done to highlight golf even more. I'll watch it where with the NFL, you know every single thing for the most part about these athletes with how big of a spotlight they do have in the public spotlight. Right, but you would assume, and I know it's dangerous to assume, but you would assume with this docu-series that even though we know a lot of the results of obviously all the games, I don't think we know the full story. And we should be able to see a lot of behind the scenes details of whether it's Patrick Mahomes' ankle rehab in the playoffs or the lead up to the Super Bowl or maybe what the mood was like in the Vikings locker room as they're down to the Bills before they make that epic comeback or even the bigger comeback they had against the Colts when they're down 33-0.

Is any of that really that exciting and that juicy? Kirk Cousins, boring. Patrick Mahomes, star. Unbelievable.

Phenomenal. Unless we're going to get some info on what the heck is going on with his brother, there's nothing really juicy and scandalous there. Ironically, the guy that I give the least amount of you know what about, Marcus Mariota, probably is the most interesting here because I want to know what the heck was the truth why he stormed out of the facility last season. If you're looking from a TMZ angle, I would agree. Yeah, all three guys are not exactly giving you those salacious headlines maybe you're looking for, but I think in terms of, I mean, we know the quarterbacks in terms of how they play, but we don't really know how they go throughout the week. I don't think it's from a TMZ standpoint. I just think it's from an entertainment standpoint. I think people care about how they go about their jobs. You see how they go through each week.

I mean, we don't really, we all get their own practice. Is that really entertaining? I'm intrigued. I'm excited to see, yeah. I think a lot of football fans would be intrigued to kind of see how the sausage is made.

Maybe you have a lower bar than I do. And I would imagine, because I would assume here, that these players are getting paid a nice penny to do this, so they'll probably give them some unprecedented access. I don't see anything entertaining with Kirk Cousins other than him throwing on a bunch of chains and drinking some beers on a flight back after a victory. From Holmes, as entertaining as he is on the field, and this is good to have with the quarterback. Brady had this as well.

It's kind of very boring off the field for the most part. And the Marcus Mariota was once a star, was once thought to be that he could be a star, but outside of him just quitting on the team last year, and what was the truth there, I don't really find this entertaining at all. But are they going to do this again, or is this just a one-time deal? Have they picked three other quarterbacks that they've inked to contracts for the future? Has there been anything on there, just wondering?

Not that I've seen, no. Well let's do that right now, because I guess we have two different minds on this, because you find this to be entertaining. On the surface right now, I don't find it entertaining at all. If we were at Netflix, let's just say, and we had the authority to pick three quarterbacks right now in the NFL that we would want to follow for this upcoming season, give me one quarterback, then I'll give you one quarterback, and we'll end up doing that three times through. You want TMZ, you want entertainment, this guy will give it to you, Aaron Rodgers.

Absolutely. He was on my list, so I won't give you then Aaron again. We'll do this a little bit draft-style. So you take Aaron Rodgers, I will then go... I'll go Russell Wilson. He was insufferable last season, and the teammates had an issue with him, and now all of a sudden teammates are telling you, Oh, Russell Wilson is great, Garrett Bowles, he's going to shut everybody up this year, blah blah blah blah blah. I want to see what's really going on through Russ's head. And I also want to see what's the truth with the teammates, and how much chaos and dysfunction is there that he has to smooth over, and you bring in Sean Payton, I would be intrigued by Russell Wilson. I like Russ, Mr.

Unlimited, hopefully that character is not broken out. Second guy I'll go with, all about the swag, I think he would be boring, but I think his arrogance is attractive to a lot of people, Joe Burrow. Okay, I'm not going to crush you on that one. You're probably right in saying that he would be boring, but the two days I got to spend with Joe Burrow, when he was a finalist for the Heisman, and when he won the Heisman Trophy, getting some access when I was working over at Sirius XM, I found Joe Burrow to just be a very cool guy. I thought he just had this swagger that it wasn't arrogant, but it was just very cool when I was able to interact with him. The next guy I would go with, is You Went With Rogers, I'll go with Jordan Love. Because I want to see what the guys in the locker room, not only think of Jordan Love, but if maybe Aaron Rodgers out of there, Aaron Rodgers, even though he won two MVPs the last three seasons, put that group through a lot of crap from a drama standpoint. I want to see if maybe we get Aaron Rodgers away from that team, if maybe people start speaking and speaking against one Aaron Rodgers. So I'd be intrigued by Jordan Love. Man, imagine Jordan Love just trashing him. That would be great. This guy, he has me come on in, and I basically say nothing after they drafted me, and yeah, I said that he was treating me all that well, but in reality he was just a massive jerk.

Massive douche. That would be fun. That would be great. I'm going to go on a limb here and say Jordan Love is not going to do that, but that would just be gold. No, and I will say this, I do think Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers as what we would perceive that to be as a cold relationship, I actually think they had a good relationship considering the circumstance. Aaron Rodgers, to his credit, I think does realize it's not the kids' fault, it's the organization's fault, I would agree there. My last one, I'm going to go in the similar vein of what Netflix is doing when you bring in Marcus Mariota. Not a guy that's in terms of good talent-wise, but I'm intrigued by his personality. I think he's a guy that will bring a little fire to the TV set.

Baker Mayfield. He's going to start in Tampa. A lot of people are down on him. If he's down, I'm intrigued by how he reacts. If he's up, you know he's going to let everybody know about it. He has a good bravado, a vocal bravado, that I think would cut through on Netflix.

I think that's definitely a guy that, if we're talking about remaking this year especially, that's a guy you have to feature. Two things I'm really surprised about. Number one, that when you look at the selection of Baker Mayfield, that you're once again buying into Baker Mayfield and you believe Baker Mayfield is going to have a good season. But then when you also look at the selection of Tampa Bay and Baker Mayfield, is that story played out a little bit too much? Just because we saw how it ended in Cleveland.

He was a disaster last year in Carolina. I'm just asking. I'm not disagreeing with you. But outside of you, do you think a lot of people expect Baker Mayfield to have a good year this year?

Because I don't. He's one of those guys that I don't think many people have even thought of, which probably means that there's not high expectations. But I still think that he's entertaining as a person.

And I think how this season goes, good or bad, I think still would be entertaining for this series specifically. Because again, he is someone that wears his emotions on his sleeve. When it's going good, it works well for him.

When it does not go so well, I think it works for us, the audience. What is this love affair that you have with Baker Mayfield? I'm not anti-Baker, to be clear. But last year you thought he was a top 5 quarterback in the NFC. You thought he was going to make the playoffs last year. And now all of a sudden, when you go to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, that roster has changed in a big way. I know they still have Mike Evans and they still have Chris Godwin. I don't love that offensive line. And the defense lost a lot of names and it got old very quickly. And the coach is a disaster in Todd Bowles.

What makes you hot take kicky specifically? Was there something in your life that happened because of Baker Mayfield where you became this Baker Mayfield Stan, as the kids say? No, I've liked Baker at Oklahoma. And you look at 2020, he had a strong finish to the season.

I forget the exact number. It was like 16 touchdowns, 2 picks the last 8 games of the year. He played well.

They won a playoff game. He played well in Pittsburgh. And so I had high hopes for him going into week 1 of 2021. And unfortunately, he hurts his shoulder.

I think it was week 2, if I'm not mistaken. After playing pretty well in Kansas City to open the season. So I just thought from there, a lot of his poor play was the shoulder base, not him just being a bad quarterback. Obviously, then they go after and trade for Deshaun Watson.

So I get that. It's not like I was sitting here saying, oh, keep Baker over Deshaun Watson. Deshaun's a lot better, way better of a quarterback.

But then you look at Carolina. He gets there late. Is it the best situation for him?

No. I just think he's a guy that, I don't think he's ever going to be a great quarterback. I think he could be in the Dak Prescott mold of near the bottom of the top 10. Not going to be the reason why he won a Super Bowl, but still is absolutely good enough to get to the playoffs consistently. And I like the fact that he is now two good receivers around him. And he's on a team where he's able to build chemistry for more than just 3 weeks before the season starts.

So from my understanding of this Netflix thing, it's exclusive access. You get followed, I believe it's all throughout the season. We're going to see how it actually plays out from last year when they release it in a few weeks when you had Kirk Cousins, Patrick Mahomes, and then also Marcus Mariota be talked about. If we're going through following through the entire season, I'm going with Kyler Murray too for my final pick. I know he's hurt. I know we don't know if he's going to play.

But I think the rehab would be interesting to watch. And then also, when he gets back in that locker room, two things. Where are his relationships at with his teammates? Because I know there's been a lot of changes there. But a lot of those teammates have come on out and they've taken shots at his work ethic, his leadership as well.

How do you smooth that over? And how does he interact with teammates? I want to see when he goes home at night. Is he studying at all and looking at film? Or is he just going out there and playing Call of Duty or whatever video game he plays?

And then also, just his interaction and the way that the organization treats him. Because we both have said this. That you look at the Cardinals, they have two first round picks next year. They're going to be a disaster. The Texans probably aren't going to be any good. There's a good chance that Caleb Williams could be their quarterback next year. So I would find there to be a level of entertainment, even if he doesn't play, just seeing how Kyler Murray handles all this. I'd love to see him off the field and I'd love to see even his rehab now.

Is he at the house? A lot of video games. How much is Call of Duty on the screen and how much is the Week 5 game plan on the screen? By the way, I also did see, since we're on the topic of conversation of TV, that we told you this a few weeks ago. I think it was from our pal that just joined us, Ari Mirov, that there's four teams that could be forced to do hard knocks. And that's right now the Jets, the Saints, the Commanders, and the Bears. I guess the NFL right now is not trying to force anybody to do it. I don't ever remember, though, this late.

And it's only, what, 15 days into June? I don't ever remember this late on the calendar not knowing who the hard knocks team is. And I think they want it to be the Jets. The Jets have opposed it. Robert Salas said it's maybe good for other teams.

It will not be good for us. Which is just weird when you actually hear that because if you go through the history of hard knocks, sure, everyone will remember the early 2000 Ravens when they were on it. But one of the best versions I've ever seen was when the New York Jets were on it with Rex Ryan, let's go eat a GD snack, and all those other things. So I would actually like to see the Jets on hard knocks, but since the Jets are putting up a fight, I know they could force them. I think the NFL should just have some cojones and then end up forcing them to do it, but then it could screw up the production of the show because these teams have a lot of control of the actual content.

And I did read today that hard knocks was actually interested in running it back and they wanted to run it back with the Detroit Lions. I was in the minority here. I thought hard knocks last year was good on social media when you watched all the episodes and the entire thing.

I did not think the entire thing was all that good. And don't get me wrong, the Lions were fun, but I don't need to see them hickey in back to back years. I don't think there's really much more you could get to where we know a lot about this team and now it's okay, they had a good year last year, can they take that next step? The Lions are a compelling team heading into this season, but after just seeing them on hard knocks a year ago, I don't need to see them again on hard knocks.

And it doesn't look like that's going to happen. The NFL just has to man up here and they have to tell the Jets, you're going to give us good access, let's go, it's your turn to do this again. But if they don't and they want to go force another team, they only have three other teams that they can potentially force in the Saints, Commanders, and the Bears. So I would like to see the Jets, I do not want to see though the Lions in back to back years.

I would agree. What I don't get is the NFL is not shy in basically telling everyone what to do. Why is this the one situation where they're like, oh you don't want to do it?

Okay, no problem, we'll go ask someone else. I don't understand why they're not just putting the foot down and saying, you're right, everyone wants to see Aaron Rodgers of the Jets, everyone wants to see the Jets on hard knocks, make it happen. You know what, Hickey, you have a very condescending good baby voice right there. That was pretty damn good what you just did. I know naturally you have a high pitched voice, but when you were trying to talk to the Jets as if they were a toddler, that was spot on, that could be 10 out of 10 how you should talk condescendingly to a child when you're trying to be the big bad adult. I like that, that was good.

Good to know I have one skill in this life. How about that? You want to babysit my sister's child?

You want to do that? I'm okay, I'm okay. I don't think the kids are probably fans of hot day Hickey, if I'm going to be honest here.

Why not? I get along great with everybody. I know, but I feel like kids, they're like dogs, right? They understand when people are timid around them, and if there's any nervousness they feel as if they sense that very quickly and the kid starts crying and running the other direction. I feel like if anything I have the energy to match kids, and so they're running around and I'm running around. Yeah, but I feel like there's a lot of skepticism with you and you hesitate before you act and actually show how fun you could actually be.

That's just the way that I interpreted it. But to answer your question on the Jets, the way that it was explained to me, and this is just from my interaction with Hugh Jackson, when I kind of was pressing him about the whole situation with Todd Haley, and this was after the fact, the teens have a lot of control. So if you don't have a willing participant, you may not be able to put on a great show if the team is not giving you all this great access, which makes it even funnier now that the Browns and Hugh Jackson allowed that very cringe-worthy scene between Hugh and Todd Haley to reach the airwaves. But from the way that it was explained to me, I really do believe, and I like Todd Haley, that whatever, I forget if they were talking about practice time or something like that with injured players, I think that was a conversation that wasn't, it was the first time we were seeing it, but I think behind the scenes it wasn't the first time that conversation did go down and Hugh was a little bit fed up. So maybe that's why, Hickey, that yes, you could force the Jets to do it, but then they're not as friendly of a team to film with because they don't want to do it to begin with, and then if you force them to do something, are you really going to get that great of a product? I guess what I'll say is, outside of the Hugh Jackson, like you just mentioned, that little kerfuffle there, I'm trying to think, there's not been a lot of memorable moments in general.

Oh yeah, there's one. Behind the curtain look of turmoil, what does that mean? Joe Philbin with Chad Ochocinco when he had to release Chad Ochocinco. I think if memory serves me right, there was some arrest, and then Joe Philbin felt so uncomfortable with having the cameras in there when he had to cut Chad Ochocinco. But for the most part, you're right, when all this stuff was going down with Antonio Brown and the Raiders, they left a lot of it out. And so it's like, not a lot that's good anyway makes it so, I guess what I would say if you're the NFL is I just don't know how much the Jets can withhold and really make it that much different than what we've seen, especially in recent years.

It's really, there's not a lot of great stuff on there anyway. Well you know what that tells me? Maybe Aaron's bringing the ayahuasca in the locker room. Maybe they don't want the NFL to see that, or maybe they don't want, since betting's been a big problem in the NFL, the NFL to see all these Jets players betting. Maybe those are the two things that they don't want the cameras to pick up. Or he has a smoking celebration with sauce guard and maybe he's smoking on the field. Maybe it's actually real.

Yeah. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio, we'll get to what Dustin Johnson said about the future of live golf next. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show.

Alright, welcome back in, it is the Zach Gelb Show right here on CBS Sports Radio. So, fun day number one at the Los Angeles Country Club, the site of the 2023 U.S. Open. Ricky Fowler, who by the way was not wearing any funky pants, he was just wearing white pants, so boring from Ricky, but his golf play was extremely exciting because for a while he had the, he tied a record for the lowest score in a round in major history. And that of course was him shooting a 62, he was 8-under par at the Los Angeles Country Club, and then right after that, Xander Schauffele did post the same exact score of a 62, and now he is 8-under as well. So those are your leaders right now with round one still technically in progress, but right now you have Ricky Fowler, Xander Schauffele, and then right after that, Roy McElroy is 5-under as well. So the separation right now is three strokes at Los Angeles Country Club, the site of the U.S. Open, and Brian Harnman also 5-under, and some other notable names, Bryson DeChambeau 3-under, Scottie Scheffler 3-under near the top of the leaderboard, Max Homa, minus two he's 2-under, Dustin Johnson 2-under, Tony Finau 2-under, Victor Hovland, who's done a good job recently, 1-under, Jon Rahm, who did win the Masters, he is 1-under.

Phil Mickelson, Neiman, Furby Boy as he calls himself 1-under, and Cameron Smith 1-under as well, and that's where we'll kind of draw the line in the sand, and I don't need to sit here and tell you how everyone's faring in the U.S. Open, but let's hear from Dustin Johnson. So I remember it was Alan Shipnock who last week, he had the article that people think Liv Golf is just going to die, people associated with Liv have given the completely opposite stance, and a big misconception here, and no one knows what is actually going to happen, but this thought that has been agreed upon going back to last week, the word merger I think confuses a lot of people, because they hear merger and all of a sudden they go, alright PGA, the world tour, and then also Liv Golf, they're all going to be under one umbrella and they're going to be playing by the same rules. That's what a lot of us thought, but it's just the private investment fund is going to be funding all three of those tours, so PGA, the PGA tour may be on its own, the world tour may be on its own, Liv Golf may be on its own. Now, eventually, maybe you do see Liv Golf go away, but that right now does not appear to be the plan, and I know you have to take everything that Greg Norman says with a grain of salt, but going back to the Alan Shipnock article, he was talking about how Greg Norman says everything from an operational standpoint is not only going to continue this year, but also, I think it was for 2024, and it may have been, I may be wrong on this, may have been 2025 as well. So we don't know what direction this is going to, and heading to, all we know is that there was a financial agreement, a financial merger, I guess Hickey would be the best way to explain this, we'll get to what DJ said in just a second, but this is just something that, it's tough to talk about because it's still a giant question mark, where you get told this massive news, and everyone thinks it's one thing, then it's another thing, and now we really don't know what the end result's going to be. And now with senators and the government getting involved as well, trying to shut it down, it's not even a guarantee that it's going to go through, so this possibly, possibly, all may be a giant waste of air, where it ends up getting rejected, can't go through, and then we're kind of back to where we were at square one, two weeks ago at this point, it feels like forever ago, but even just two weeks ago, so it is very complicated, it feels like it's obviously going, every day something else is changing or new details emerge, it's definitely kind of a fly-by-night sort of situation, but it's very fluid right now.

And we'll see what ends up happening. Do you have, I don't think we'll ever find out clarity for a while, like I think this is going to take a long time to figure out what the heck is going on, and you're going to kind of just be operating status quo until we get that next announcement, because you know that it's not going to happen this year, but next year, a lot of these guys that joined Live Golf, they're going to want to go get their PGA Tour card back, and I know Jay Monahan and we wish him nothing but the best of health, there's some issue there, but Monahan has basically told the players that there's going to be some penalty, but if you have the private investment fund helping out the PGA Tour financially, and the way that it was explained to us last week, the PGA Tour needed this help financially, even though it's unlimited money, a lot more than what people were thinking, that I kind of feel as if, Hickey, what this is going to turn out to is that you'll get your PGA Tour card back, and you can kind of bounce around between the tours is the way that I would think that this probably goes down. And that makes the most sense, you want to keep both tours around, live in the PGA Tour to keep, like you said, allow some PGA Tour players to play mostly PGA events, and then whether it's an off week or whether you build into the schedule, some live events overseas, kind of get them their shine, feels like that's the way it's going if it does go this way, but again, it's been anything right now but concrete. I feel as if what should happen here is Yasser, who runs golf now, and the private investment fund, he's the governor, they should just get rid of live golf and just, he'll run all of the PGA Tour along with Jay Monahan, but really Jay Monahan will be working for Yasser, and that would be the tour, and you get everyone operating there under the PGA Tour rules, and you get all the live guys back, you know, basically free of charge, and you go back to operating how it once was. So that's what I would do, but once again, I'm not in charge of all that money, and I'm not associated, obviously with the people that Yasser is associated with. Ain't that the truth?

Yes, that would be with great certainty. Now I'll tell you this, if they want to offer me money to go broadcast, I take the money. I know people are saying, Oh, how do you take the money? How do you take the money?

Since everyone took the money ended up winning, I would take the money in an absolute second. Dustin Johnson, this is what Dustin Johnson has been told about the schedule moving forward for live golf. Have you been given any assurances as a team captain that live is going to continue into next year? Yeah, as far as I know, live will go into 2024, and you know, they're doing the schedule now. So as far as I know, that's the plan. But yeah, I can't answer it really any further than that.

I've talked to the guys, but yeah, as far as I know, it's going, you know, 2024 is going to be, we'll have a full schedule just like we did this year. That came from Yasser? He told you that? Yes.

So that came from Yasser. Okay, obviously the most powerful voice, but Dustin Johnson, I don't think even he seems convinced that just because Yasser says that that he even has a full understanding about what the heck is going to happen moving forward just by the wording from from his understanding. I don't know that did not provide all that clarity for me. Also, if you can go back to the PGA Tour, then you know, sure the live maybe still could exist. But if you can, if you're a DJ, you want to go back, for the most part, you know, full time on the PGA Tour, and you're able to do that, then maybe, you know, live is kind of one of those on the back burner, you know, in your mind anyway. I don't know, but then a lot of these guys go to live, not only because of the money, but then the easier work schedule as well. What what a lot of them said, Right, but obviously we'll see what you know what's going to change moving forward here. Less tournaments, more money. I mean, I'm sure you can, in a way, make your own schedule too, so.

Yeah, and you already got the bag too. So I guess it's kind of irrelevant at this point, assuming that these guys did get paid and how much they actually did get paid, because I know the numbers are reported. Who knows if they've even seen all that money yet or not, as well. This is Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. Come on back.

Some interesting news to pass along. I just saw our pal Ari Mirov was tweeting out that JK Dobbins, yes, he was at the facility for mandatory minicamp, but he did not participate on the field in practice. It was kind of one of those like hold in situations because you get fined if you don't show up, but then you get there and then you, I don't know, say like your back's hurting, your hamstring's hurting or something.

So you don't have to actually go on the field. And JK Dobbins, who's entering the final year of his contract, is, I guess, looking for a new contract here. And Hickey, I know a lot of people are going to look at this and go, what has he really done in the NFL to, I don't want to say hold out because it's not a holdout, he's actually there, but to demand a new contract with the way that the running back position has been and the way that these guys get cut all the time or they don't get paid what old running backs would used to get paid. I know that he's only been in the league since 2020 and he missed all of 2021 with the injury and he's not a first round pick, so this is the fourth and final year of his deal. It's not one of those situations where he was a fifth round pick, I mean a first round pick and you have a fifth year option. I don't blame JK Dobbins that he's looking for some financial security because let's just say if he gets hurt again this year and has to miss either the entire season, the majority of the year, then it's okay, 2020, he was able to play pretty much a full season, 2021 missed the entire season last year, got back late and didn't play in the entirety of the season. So I don't fault him, especially with how much the Ravens are going to use him and how much they rely on him for him trying to go out there and get his right now.

Now if you're asking for top running back money, you're just a fool, but I would want some financial security at least on, put it this way, if it's not an extension, I at least want my salary to jump significantly this year, but I would probably be looking to here Hickey at a three year deal with some guaranteed money associated with it, which you give the guaranteed money, it's not the full amount of the contract, you get yours to some extent and then if you do end up getting hurt, it would be easy for the team to move on from you. I get why Dobbins trying to hold out and get his money now, the tricky part is what leverage does he have? He has none.

That's his issue. The only leverage that he has is you look at that running back room, if he's not there, what else do you got? I mean you could argue that basically they've done it for the last two years without him and he has 92 carries in two years. So it's not like they haven't been used to running an offense without JK Dobbins, if anything, unfortunately, they've been more used to it than not. But he's supposed to play a big role for them. And you're going into a year now where you finally committed to the wide receiving room, where you drafted Zay Flowers in the first round, you have Odell Beckham Jr., you have Marc Andrews, I'm not saying that he has a tremendous amount of leverage, but if I'm him, I don't think he sits out or anything like that. I don't think it's any harm in putting up this fight right now. And in all likelihood, if the Ravens tell him, no, we're not giving you an extension, he's going to play this season because he can't afford to sit out another year.

So you're not wrong. I'm not saying there's tremendous leverage here for JK Dobbins, but I still think they view him as a very productive football player and a guy that they're going to rely on a lot in a running back room that is not all that desirable. And they're going to, if he's on the field, they're going to use them a ton because once again, you look at the quarterback, I know they just paid the quarterback, but the quarterback hasn't been all that healthy either.

Well, it's interesting with that part too, by using them a lot. I mean, obviously we'll see it once the game happens, but the way the Ravens are talking, the way Todd Munkins talk, the way Lamar Jackson's talk, they're going to throw the ball a lot. From what they are saying publicly and the moves they have made to bolster their wide receiver room, this feels like they have like gone to the days of the Ravens that are going to run the ball like 600 times in a season. I know that's a very high number. I get it, but being a little bit more dramatic there, but you get the point, like they were a top five rushing team, basically, hyperbole is what you were looking for. Well, yeah, that's another word absolutely too. That is, you know, they've led the league or been in top five in rushing yards and attempts every year Lamar's been there.

From the way they're talking, it seems like those days are dead. And so again, if you're the Ravens and you're looking at JK Dobbins, who's having his hold in, if you plan on passing the ball anyway, not that there's a lot of leverage on JK Dobbins' side to begin with, and they're like, well, we're going to use you less, the incentive and motivation to get a deal done only just goes down that much more. And let me preface these comments by saying, I do believe that Lamar Jackson is a lot better passer than what people give him credit for. I know he is so lethal running the ball, but people talk about like he's this trash passing quarterback.

I don't find that to be true whatsoever. But if they're trying to for a guy that what the most passing yards he's had in a career is what like thirty two hundred in a single season, thirty three hundred, something like that. If they're going to significantly throw the football more, he's never getting to the six thousand that he was talking about.

That was just jackassery. But if that's if they're trying to make him look like a four thousand yard passer this year, I think you're taking away what makes Lamar Jackson so lethal, where you're going to be just trying to throw the ball so much. I don't think what you're trying to do is going to be worth the reward because then it's going to significantly impact in theory how many times you're going to run the football. Now, you could argue, even though Lamar doesn't take a lot of hits with how much he runs, he doesn't really put his his body out there once he gets out on the pocket available where he's been suffering the injuries. And he doesn't take a lot of big hits.

Something wrong. He gets hit. But there haven't been a lot of big hits when you go back and you watch Lamar Jackson play the position. He's been very smart and no one went to go down or no one to run out of bounds, things along those lines. But if they're going to make this such an emphasis to pass the football more that you're going to take away from that lethal running threat as well. I think that's a mistake.

Now, the only way that it could really benefit them. Hickey is and this is once again, you do think for an entire season, you change it up in the postseason. That gets a little bit tricky is if they're just doing that to try to keep him and give him a better chance to keep him upright for the season.

And then down the stretch and in the playoffs, if they're there, then they kind of go and revert back to more of their older ways where you run the football more with Lamar. I mean, my issue is the two times it's the last year she's gotten hurt. He hasn't got hurt as a runner.

Yeah, exactly. He's gotten hurt. So it's not like one of those things where you see him always just run at the middle, getting crushed.

But now we're going to take that, you know, run the middle away because we're not going to have it. You know, that many more design quarterback runs. He was in the pocket being a normal quarterback, doing what normal even pocket quarterbacks do.

And he got hurt. So it wasn't like the system itself got him hurt. Yes.

Is he susceptible to more hits than others? Absolutely. But that was not the real like he did not get hurt because it was a design quarterback run that most other quarterbacks wouldn't have to worry about and you pay the guy.

Right. And there's no guarantee or you don't you can't right now say we think Lamar Jackson can win when he throws the ball 40 times a game. You can't we haven't seen it.

So you can't sit there definitively and say, oh, we know he can he can we can win in this style. You paid him all this money and now you're going to go to a system in which in the NFL, at least he's never been asked to do before. I can't wait to see what we're saying about the AFC North at the end of the year, because I think that could be the best division in football. It's either them or the AFC East.

We've had that conversation before. And I feel great about Cincinnati making the playoffs. I know Baltimore has been so good throughout the years, but this makes you kind of scratch your head a little bit this approach. The Steelers, I love their defense, and I do think that they're going to be better on offense this year. Cleveland, they have a lot of talent, but I got to see where that relationship is at between Kevin Stefanski and Deshaun Watson and what Deshaun Watson looks like as a quarterback.

You go back to that guy that was looking like an easy top six, seven quarterback in the NFL before he left Houston and then everything he was accused of off the field, which was absolutely disgraceful. But right now, like I'm just looking at the AFC. Bills, I think, will make the playoffs. Dolphins, I think, will make the playoffs. Jets, I think, will make the playoffs. Bengals, I think, will make the playoffs. Jacksonville will make the playoffs.

Kansas City will make the playoffs. And I would also, right now, probably have to say the Chargers have to make the playoffs. So right there, that's seven teams. Those are your playoff teams.

Now, if I'm wrong, I'm one of them. Let's say Tua gets her and it's not the Dolphins. But also, you could have the Ravens be on the same level as the Dolphins.

They can be if Lamar Jackson is healthy. It's weird to say it because when we elected to see the NFL, and I wasn't a big fan of this and I still am not, when they did go to that extra playoff team to increase it from the two wildcard spots to three, I thought a lot of times that seventh team, and we've seen it at times in the NFC, but I thought there was a lot of times going to be that seventh team was going to be watered down and not be a team that should be in. You look at the AFC, the chase to seven this year, the four division winners and then your three wildcard teams. This could be one of the best years of the AFC that we've ever seen because I just went through seven teams that all could make the playoffs. Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Bengals, Jaguars, Chiefs, Chargers.

That means no Russell Wilson, the Broncos. That means no Pittsburgh in the postseason, no Cleveland in the postseason, no Ravens in the postseason, no Patriots in the postseason. And if I'm wrong on one of those, then someone else goes into the playoffs and one of those teams that I expect to make the postseason don't end up going to the postseason, it's like, wow, a pretty damn good team didn't make the playoffs.

I'm just curious to see what the win total's going to be for the seventh seed this year in the AFC. And I know we've done this before a few years ago, oh, the NFC West, you can have four playoff teams, and the AFC West last year, oh, you can have four playoff teams. It's tough to get three playoff teams in from a division, let alone four, and right there I just had Buffalo, Miami, and the Jets, three from the AFC East getting in.

So, Hickster, this is going to be one fun race this year, and as a football fan, I really am excited to see who the seven teams are going to be. Because there's going to be good teams that are probably better than the bottom of the NFC in terms of the top seven that are going to be on the outside looking in from the AFC and sitting on their ass come playoff time. I'm glad you brought up last year, I know it's a little bit of a different conversation because last year we were talking about the AFC West and it's just one division versus now we're talking about the AFC and its entire conference.

And you mushed the Broncos too, yeah. I just really hope that this is the hype that we're going into the AFC with this year is not, you know, just basically saying it doesn't happen to the AFC West last year where it's just all of a sudden the Broncos flop, the Raiders stink, and then it's like a two team race and it's kind of obvious and the big bad AFC West folds. I hope that, like I said, we're sitting here December 1st and there's legitimately nine teams in the AFC fighting for seven spots. I hope it doesn't, you know, injuries or poor play and next thing you know we're like limping to the finish to find a seventh instead of racing the finish with three teams fighting for one or two spots. And right now, through the way that it's played out the last few years and it's not meant to be disrespectful to Buffalo, it's just reality, it's Kansas City and also the Cincinnati Bengals, those are the top two teams and it's going to be who could creep into the three, four, and five spots.

And will those teams in the three, four, and five spots be legit contenders or will they just be in the post season and that will determine before you even get to spot six and seven how fun the AFC could actually be this year. It is Zach Gilp's show right here on CBS Sports Radio coming on back with a little Onside's Offside.