Does D-Hop Really Want Buffalo? (Hour 3)

All righty. Hour number three of our radio program.

That's right. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So let's get into the latest with DeAndre Hopkins. Still nothing on Dalvin Cook in terms of knowing where he's going and still nothing on DeAndre Hopkins as well. The training camps getting closer and closer. We'll see if that intensifies throughout this week or maybe at some point next week.

But you did have earlier today, I believe, or this may have been from yesterday. You did have Jeff Darlington, who's an NFL insider, made an appearance on the Rich Eisen show. And Jeff Darlington said that the bills aren't out on DeAndre Hopkins. And Darlington said he still believes Hopkins has the spot in Buffalo if he wants it. Darlington did go on to say, quote, my understanding with the bills is, yeah, they love DeAndre Hopkins and he'd be a great addition, but they're not going to pay him, Darlington said.

This is via SI. If he wants the ring chase, there's a spot for him. So most of the conversation has been Tennessee and New England.

Now, it's not just because those are the teams that have been thrown out there. It's because DeAndre Hopkins' first visit was in Tennessee. His second visit was with the Patriots. So when you look at all these other teams that we're talking about, if it's a Buffalo, if it's Kansas City, if you're actually interested in DeAndre Hopkins, aren't you going to bring him in for a visit or is the play here make DeAndre Hopkins' camp reach out to you? Because the longer DeAndre Hopkins waits, it just shows you that he doesn't want to go to Tennessee. He doesn't want to go and play for the Patriots. He wants to go somewhere else, but at what price? And that's the big thing here. Because as I said earlier, DeAndre Hopkins has three priorities.

And I'm not saying these are in the order of the priorities. He wants to win. He wants to be the number one wide receiver and he wants to get paid. You go to the Patriots or the Titans, he'll be the number one wide receiver.

You'll get paid. But are you going to win? Right now, New England, in terms of winning in my destination, the Super Bowl, does not fit that definition. And when you look at Tennessee, they're not a Super Bowl team either. So does DeAndre Hopkins say to himself, I prioritize winning and I prioritize being the number one wide receiver over winning? And I think he will because I think he'll talk himself into saying, Tennessee last year was what, like 7-3 and then they didn't win another game down the stretch.

But the last few years, they consistently been in the playoffs. And for New England, I think you'll say, oh, it's playing with the great Bill Belichick. I have a lot of admiration for Bill Belichick.

You say you care about winning, but do you actually care about winning? And I think for DeAndre Hopkins, he would love to go to Kansas City. He would love to go to Buffalo. And in Kansas City, he'd be the number one wide receiver. I know the number one option is Travis Kelce. But from a receiving standpoint, he's the number one wide receiver. And you look at Buffalo, Staphon Diggs is referred to as the number one wide receiver there. But they have a need in Buffalo because outside of him and Gabe Davis, they don't have much in that wide receiving room. Now, you could use Dawson Knox in the pass catching game.

They just drafted Dalton Kincaid, who I liked a lot, out of Utah when he was coming out of college a few months ago. So I wonder how much longer is this going to take for DeAndre Hopkins? And probably the smart play here for DeAndre Hopkins is to wait because you don't need to go to training camp. You'll learn the playbook enough. You'll know the route tree enough.

You'll get in there in enough time. And maybe your market goes for more than just two teams because right now the market's only two teams. The only teams you know that visit him, you know, that he went for a visit on is Tennessee and New England.

That's it. So we can talk about Buffalo. We can talk about the Kansas City Chiefs. Until they bring him in, I shouldn't expect that he's going to go there. But what happens first day of training camp, receiver goes down with an injury from Kansas City or receiver goes down from Buffalo.

Then the need for DeAndre Hopkins even more. Like I go back to, I really don't like training camp. Like it's fun that football's back, but I have covered, this is where I'm going to bitch about getting paid to cover something. That is something where yes, seventh grade Zach Gelb is coming to the studio tonight to kick my ass when I leave this studio at 10 PM Eastern.

He may bring some friends over from San Francisco though, from what I heard as well after the whole Deebo Samuel incident. But the point that I was about to make was I have gone to training camp and I've covered training camps. For the most part, outside of the joint practices, those are actually fun. Training camp OTAs, mini camps, they're monotonous.

It's a whole lot of fuss about a whole lot of nothing. So one thing though that I do take from my time though covering that was when the Teddy Bridgewater injury happened. And when the Teddy Bridgewater injury did happen, the Eagles going to Philadelphia had Sam Bradford and Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz was drafted second overall, as you all know, but he wasn't supposed to start year one. I remember Doug Peterson before the Teddy Bridgewater injury was saying, yeah, Carson Wentz may not even be active on game day.

He may be the third quarterback in holding a clipboard and learning. And then boom, the Teddy Bridgewater injury happened. Minnesota said, oh, we could still be a contending team. We got to go give up a first round pick, we'll panic and go trade for Sam Bradford.

I'm not saying that will necessarily happen, and this would be terrible, obviously. It's the Fon Diggs, I know there's been problems with him in the bills this off season. How many times do you see a freak injury happen in training camp or in preseason even?

And let's say he has an ACL injury, which would be terrible. Their desire for DeAndre Hopkins, which they're a win now team right now, is going to go from, yeah, we want them to discount to we'll do whatever it takes. We'll move the money around to get DeAndre Hopkins. So he doesn't love New England.

He doesn't love Tennessee. He may eventually said that's where he wanted to be from the start, but how many times do you have a press conference and someone sits down, they go, yeah, this is where I want it to be all from the start. Like, remember Carlos Beltran, when he landed with the Mets, his agent was calling the Yankees, please, please, please take, take this offer.

We want to go to the Yankees, like right before the press conference. And that happens all the time, right? Nick Saban, he gets up in front of a reporter to coach the Dolphins. I will not be the coach of Alabama. And then he's the coach of Alabama. So just because a player, just because a coach says something doesn't mean that it's actually true. But for DeAndre Hopkins, there's really no rush, even though the season is close, about two months away from the start of the season for him to pick a spot now.

But let's be real here. Money EJ is going to win out because we could all talk about, yeah, I want to win. Yeah, I want to win. You'd rather be a number one wide receiver and you'd rather get the most targets possible for DeAndre Hopkins. That's what I think has been made clear here, where he's trying to get the best of all three, but Buffalo hasn't given him an offer that he wants.

And the chief said, hey, we're in the penthouse right now until you come down to our demands. We don't need you. We just won a Super Bowl after losing Tyree Kill and still no one was able to figure us out. And I think it'd be different if you were talking about two teams that didn't have great options for us pass catchers. If the Bills were a team where they were a good team, but they didn't have a number one or even a good number two, they would probably be the teams, okay, we'll maybe bend a little bit to what Hop wants to get them here. If you didn't have Travis Kelce over in Kansas City and the Chiefs essentially win a Super Bowl without having this big time number one wide receiver, maybe they would say, okay, you know what? This is a piece we really need. Those teams have succeeded without having a DeAndre Hopkins.

So for them, it's more of a luxury rather than the necessity of having a guy like that. So I'm trying to do some, oh, okay. I understand the emoji analysis of this now. You know, sometimes when you see an emoji pop up and it doesn't load right away and you're like, oh yeah, what animal is that?

You get that weird question mark sometimes. Yeah. So I just saw a post via ML Football and it was Bleacher Report who put out, right, DeAndre Hopkins. And Bleacher Report said, Bill's open to signing DeHop if he's willing to ring chase via Jeff Darlington. So what we were just talking about, DeAndre Hopkins has commented on it. He put two emojis of a bowl and then two emojis of poop. Oh, there you go. So bowl bleep.

Well done by DeAndre Hopkins. Now part of me just wants to make sure that this gotta be real. I mean, I feel like we're in the Lamar Jackson negotiation again. Remember when he was posting, you know, emojis during the whole thing. And I remember there was an episode of Maggie and Pearl off and Maggie's like, what's the blue cap mean? I'm like, oh, he's trying to say that's a lie. Yeah.

No cap. Come on, Maggie. So yeah, I feel like we're in this situation again with now DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah. You know what the problem is with all these sites? Like you go to Bleacher Report's Instagram, they post 3000 posts a day.

How the heck am I actually going to find this DeAndre Hopkins photo? It's all about that engagement, baby. Yeah.

That's wild. Yeah. I'm not going to touch that one because some people thought my interview with Debo Samuel was only about the engagement. No, I was genuinely curious about how he actually thought that Debo Samuel, if they had Brock Purdy, that they would have blown out the Philadelphia Eagles. Like that was the whole crazy part to me with that exchange.

The only reason I asked about that and then asked about it several times is, you know, in different ways and just listening and having a conversation with someone, that's how you do an interview. That's why I call them conversations really more so than interviews is with the whole Debo Samuel situation. When I heard him talk to Adam Schein, he's like, oh, we would have blown him out. We would have won by double digits. I go, I understand having confidence in your team and thinking you're going to win, but how disrespectful is that to the Eagles to then say, oh, we're going to win by double digits.

The Eagles only had like three losses last year or something like that. So that's why I thought the comment was ridiculous. And then he said, you know, that to the past, I said, okay, do you not still believe it? And then he said something along the lines of, yeah, but I'm not going to keep on talking about it. And then I went to the future, you know, advance the conversation, go to the future.

How about the matchup this upcoming year? So that's just kind of my thoughts. And to be honest, like, I know you talk about the engagement thing, like it's Debo Samuel.

Like, do people really think that, oh, I'm going to get like, you know, the top headline and all of sports media tomorrow by this Debo Samuel interview? I mean, come on, you know what I've learned from this and we've had clips blow up before people think I'm a whole lot like people think I am a genius. I am not a smart man. All right. I did not go to Princeton. All right.

I would not go to school after four years and try to go get a master's degree. If you guys think I have this plan, oh, I'm going to concoct this theory up. I'm going to go out of my way to get Debo.

His people reached out to us. There's no parameters. They said 15 minutes, you haven't just make sure you get a little plugin for the Panini company. That was it. And then you talk a bunch of football or whatever's on your mind. If you think I went into that interview saying, all right, I'm going to do X, I'm going to do Y, I'm going to do Z, and then we're going to get this viral clip and we're going to put it out there and it's going to do a million views today. You guys are giving me a lot more credit than I actually deserve. The comments that people give me on that is crazy to me. I know, but they do that with a lot of media folks, though.

They think we're all like, you know, conniving, you know, evil, you know, swiveling the hands together, being like, wait till we do this. Let me tell you, I make a good living. But if I was this big genius, I would figure out a way to get out of this industry, make a killing, never have to work again and golf seven days a week. And then every day at 5 PM, sit outside with my feet up at a tropical island at a pool.

You know, I'm not a big cigar smoker, but screw it for this case, smoking a cigar and drinking, you know, some tequila on the rocks. Come on folks. If I was that intelligent and I knew that this was going to happen, give me a break.

The guy just didn't want to answer any questions. It's amazing though. People give me too much credit. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Apparently there's a statute of limitations on when you could talk about the Eagles.

Like three months ago, all fair game, three months later. No, can't talk about the Eagles anymore. But here's where I'll give you the DeAndre Hopkins bull bleep emoji. Deebo Samuel has kept on talking about this. And also what I'll say, you would assume many 49ers fans are also Warriors fans. If let's just say Warriors fans had an opportunity to sit down with Bob Meyers, who I know has since left the organization, even though the Jordan pool situation happened like a year ago, almost, you're not going to ask Bob Meyers about that. You know, we still don't know what actually happened there. So even though it's an apples to apples, it is similar where just cause something happened a long time ago, if you don't really ever get an answer, like we haven't really got an answer, what the heck happened with, with the golden state warriors and why they didn't give an actual punishment to Draymond Green.

You're not going to ask about it in this case. It wasn't like Deebo just said it. If he just would have said this in January or February and didn't respond since then I probably would've forgot about it, but it popped up all throughout the off season about only that, but other things, it wasn't that long ago.

I think it was like a month and a half ago where he said the Eagles, the most hated his most hated team. So when someone finally asked you a few questions about it and isn't one of these sycophants that, Oh, I covered Deebo Samuel. He's the greatest thing ever.

I got to ask him everything. And it's only going to be positive. Oh yeah. That's great. That's how you want to do media.

Go ahead. And shout out to the player outlets where they have, you know, I am athlete, you know, but like those guys would have asked Deebo Samuel that he would have kicked back, relaxed and gave them five, 10 minutes on the Eagles. It's always about, those guys love those platforms and I think they feel like they're safe, but they ended up making headlines on those things too. Like I think he was on I am athlete during the Super Bowl week when he said something about the Eagles or that same situation, or he's talking about the cornerbacks.

He's talking about how James Bradbury was trash and the sleigh wasn't that good. Like when they go with those guys, they're totally fine with saying whatever. But then when you get asked a question by a media person that's not a quote unquote player, all of a sudden they get all in their feelings.

And here's the thing. There's a lot of athletes that I have really good relationships with that come on this show and are as honest as honest could be. You know, and some guys like I had no relationship with Justin Jefferson the first time he came on the show and we had a viral clip with Justin Jefferson because, you know, I'm not saying Deebo Samuel is a bad dude. I'm not saying that by any stretch, but Justin Jefferson comes on and he's like, he'll answer anything. And there's some good with that.

There's some bad with that. But, you know, I asked him something very similar at the time, you know, four or five receivers went in front of you. What do you have to say? And he's like, those receivers and those teams are all going to pay and I'm going to be better than every one of them. And he was right.

So, you know, with Deebo, you could just tell from the start where people only see the two minute clip that was put out there. But from the start, I asked him about the treadmill and we had like a laugh and then like you follow up and he started giving you nothing. You know, outside to his credit, him talking about his last season, which he's already said those things. He didn't give, he didn't give you anything. And that's fine. If you want to just get the paycheck from the company that's paying you to promote their product and then not give the person interviewing you anything or not have, want to have a, he didn't want to have a conversation. It's not giving me something.

He didn't want to have a conversation. And that's the thing. So if that's how you want to do it, go ahead. I have a job to do. You have a job to do. I'll do my job the way I did. I did my job great. You have your job to do. So the whole thing and just all the commentary on it, it just gets to a point where it does get stupid, but people are entitled to feel the way they do. It's the passion that, you know, is what makes sports fun. You know, 50 people will tell me I'm the greatest thing ever.

50 people will tell me that I'm a moron. But just to get back to your point, you know, I'll tell you, I've become friendly throughout the years with Channing Crowder and I've been on the show a bunch. The interviews that he does with the pivot are awesome. Absolutely awesome.

Yep. And we have a lot of great interviews on this show, too, with a lot of athletes that are currently in the NFL. But you look at it two times, I've had a guest hang up on me or a PR person step in the Aaron Donald situation. And people got on me when I asked Aaron Donald about swinging helmets at practice.

What am I not supposed to ask the guy that? It's one of the biggest stories. And for Deebo Samuel, he has made a lot of news about the Eagles. I didn't ask him to make that news. He has made a lot of news about the Eagles. So as someone that asks questions that I think listeners want to hear, I thought that was something that was interesting.

And there was a bunch of other stuff, too, with Brock Purdy in that conversation and Trey Lance as well. So, you know, you're never going to please everybody. And to the people that tell me they love me, thank you.

People tell me that that hate me. Fine with me. Thanks for listening.

So I'll show you some love as well. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So what do you think DeAndre Hopkins ends up going to try to get back to the way that we started this conversation before? I don't even know how we ended up getting back into the Deebo Samuel. Yeah, I mean, I think he ends up in New England. I think that that's I think he's going to sell himself on playing under Bill Belichick and playing, you know, it's not going to be an easy road that AFC East is an absolute beast. But I think that's what he's going to sell himself on. He can go to the AFC South and play for the Titans. It's not a great division, but like, yeah, it just feels like you're going to NFL Siberia right now if you play for the Tennessee Titans at this point. I think that he wants to be in the spotlight to some degree and going to New England, regardless of how good they are, is that he'll get his targets, he'll get his money, like you said.

And I don't know, I just I just feel like these teams, they really wanted them, these contenders, they would be a lot hotter on him than they are right now. So here's the difference, though. I do agree.

I think he's going to wind up in New England. I've said that now for a while. But Buffalo and the Chiefs can't have the same mentality. The Chiefs deserve to say, OK, come join us and ring Chase. Right.

And if you don't want to meet our price, goodbye. We just won a Super Bowl without Tyreek Hill. We have Mahomes. We have Kelsey.

We'll be fine. Buffalo has been close. But last year, Buffalo got embarrassed with Super Bowl or bus expectations.

They got embarrassed in the second round of the playoffs. Yes, you have Stephon Diggs. Yes, you have Gabe Davis. You just drafted Dalton Kincaid.

You got some weapons there. We'll see if James Cook could take the next step. We all know how great Josh Allen is, the quarterback. Buffalo shouldn't leave any stone unturned. If I'm Buffalo and I know you only have so much cap space, but how many times you see teams move around contracts to open up cap space? I think Buffalo has to go get him because right now there's a difference in the pecking order in the AFC where there is some separation where it's Kansas City and the Bengals are at the top. And then the Bills right now are still the third team, but they were locked in to one of those top three spots. The Bills, even though there's still a third spot right now in the AFC, they're not locked in. Yes, like there was a tear when they thought that you want that you thought they were on the same tier as those other two teams. Now those other two teams have cleared them. They're their own tier and now the Bills are with the rest of the AFC. And the AFC only got better and the AFC East only got better. Like if you told me the Jets win the division this year, I wouldn't say that, but it's not crazy.

If you told me the Dolphins would win the division, those are things that I kind of have given some hints on this show that I may pick the Dolphins to win this division. But here's the thing that why I would push back on the fact that they should go after Hopp. The one thing about receivers is if they're not getting their targets and they're not getting the ball, even if you're winning, they can cause headaches. And they've had that already with their number one guy. They've already had it with Staphon Diggs. So they're having this with their number one guy. So imagine Hopp, if he comes in and he's the number two, or if he's kind of 2A with him and Gabe Davis and maybe they're winning games, but his numbers are not what they're supposed to be.

Like then that maybe becomes his own headache. But I thought Staphon Diggs was all about bringing in an Odell or all about bringing in DeAndre Hopkins. Another time where sometimes an athlete says something just to say something and it's not actually true.

It is the Zach Yelp show on CBS Sports Radio. Real quickly, cause I know we're up against it. I did see that Dennis Dodd released his yearly hot seat rankings and he has a scale where if it's five for college football, the coach needs the winner be fired. Four, you better start improving now. Three, pressure is mounting. Two, all good for now. One, safe and secure.

And zero, untouchable. Some notable names here. The two guys that got fives that I thought were notable. Tom Allen at Indiana. Now remember, it wasn't that long ago there was some excitement with Indiana and people were talking about how good of a job that he's done. But you look at it now, Michael Penix, who was never able to stay healthy at that program is now off at Washington and year one with Kalen DeBoer, he was healthy and he had a Heisman-like type of season. And there's a lot of people that are picking Washington as kind of one of those surprise teams to go make the college football playoff this year. West Virginia, I know they have their own problems with Bob Huggins where you thought he was out and then he said he never resigned after he was just completely embarrassing not once but twice in the span of a month. But for their football team, you bring back Neil Brown, you have a new administration come on in. You know that Neil Brown is a dead man walking. Yeah, I'd be shocked if Neil Brown is back next year for West Virginia. Four, Dino Babers. Ack, it wasn't that long ago. People were really positively talking about Dino Babers with Syracuse.

What have you done for me lately? Yeah, that's the type of world that we live in. Jimbo Fisher in F4, I was actually surprised here that Jimbo Fisher is in a five. Now, here's the confusing part with Jimbo Fisher. Are you gonna pay him?

You're gonna pay him to walk away and that's the thing. But he has so much talent last year, they were embarrassing. He has so much talent this year where you could argue from a talent standpoint, they have the third or fourth most talented roster in the SEC. You look at Georgia and Alabama and LSU, probably the top three in some order. But then right there at four is A&M and you're bringing Bobby Petrino.

You gotta go find a way to have more than just a respectable season this year. But earlier in the week, I kind of compared Jimbo Fisher to Jon Gruden where he won something all those years ago and then ever since, he's not been the same coach. Can I read you quickly his buyout numbers, Jimbo Fisher? Yeah, go ahead.

This is the money that they owe him. Now, let me just remind you, EJ. Yes. We're talking about SEC football people. Okay. People pay buyouts all the time, but go ahead.

This, as they say, is different. 2023, he's fired this year. 76 million. 2024, 67 million. 2025, 58 million. 2026, 48 million. 2027, 39 million. 2028, 29 million. 2029, 18 million. And 2030, 9.9 million. That's a whole lot of dough.

That's a whole lot of money. I mean, if you fire him this year, you gotta pay him $76 million. Now, you look back at Jimbo Fisher, so far at A&M, 9-4, 8-5. 9-1 was the big year in 2020.

8-4 and 5-7. So, just pulling up the Texas A&M football schedule this year, because I think a lot of people are like, oh, he has to go to this record in order to come on back. I don't think, he's not winning the SEC this year. I don't even think he'll get to an SEC championship game, because I just don't trust Jimbo Fisher. But the schedule this year for the Aggies of A&M, you have New Mexico, that should be one.

Then you're at Miami, and that's a big year for Mario Cristobal, even in year number two, and that's right, the dream job and all he's meant to that institution. But you should be able to start the year off 2-0. Then you play Louisiana Monroe, you should be able to start the year off 3-0. Then you get into SEC play, you go up against Auburn, we'll see what they could be, and you're number one with Hugh Freeze. You got Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee. I like the job that Shane Beamer has done at South Carolina.

You get Spencer Rattler back. You got Ole Miss, Mississippi State. You get the Cupcake Game in there November 18th against Abilene Christian, and then you get LSU. So New Mexico's a win. Miami's not locked of a win, but it should be a win. If you lose to Louisiana Monroe, goodbye.

And then you have Abilene Christian. Just on the surface right there, those are four games, and I know A&M last year lost to Appalachian State. So you never know, but just there gets you to four.

You have Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU. You got to at least, at least win four games there and have eight wins on the season. But anything short of that, then it's really embarrassing for Jimbo Fisher. And then I even wonder if you just get to eight, is that going to be enough to keep your job? And then you talk about the money component of it as well, EJ.

Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I feel like they may have a better season than last year, but the fans will still be angry because they had the best recruiting class ever last season. Not all the best recruiting class in our school history or best recruiting class in the last 10 years, ever, according to some of these recruiting websites. And that's the team they put out on the field last year that won five games. Now, those guys in another year in the pro, and you would think, okay, these guys should be able to come and be impact players. If in your second year, you only win eight games. I mean, I think people are going to be calling for Jimbo's head.

And then the question will be, will they be able to stave off those people saying, Hey, I know eight wins isn't what you wanted, but it's not terrible. And we can't pay him $76 million. So what do you want us to do?

And you want to talk about money as well? Mel Tucker, who got a 10 year, $95 million deal. We know what he did in year number one, and then your number two dropped off in a big time way, but Mel Tucker right now has a three rating act talks about how quickly, right?

What have you done for me now? That is the definition of, of Mel Tucker. When you just go one year, you're the talk of it. And then the next year you're, you're kind of fighting for your job now. You kind of forget that 2020 did happen, but yeah, he's been at Michigan state now for three years, but he had that big year back in 2021, where they did go 11 and two, but that's, that's when really melt Tucker because the 2020 year, you can kind of throw it out. But for 2021, that was like, wow, unbelievable year. And then last year you go five and seven. Yeah. And Michigan coming back now looking like Michigan again, last year, particularly, I think that puts even more of a concern.

He said, okay, maybe Jimbo would aid in Hutchinson and a Joe ball like me. That's one year and we were able to beat them. So like, you know, we'll be fine. And last year you see Michigan.

Okay. Now they're a dominant force again, and Michigan state falls off as much as they did. And there's gotta be some concern comes to some concern, but whether or not they can stay at that level, I will say it's not necessarily a knock on Dennis, but those are really only names that stand out. You know, you never know what happens throughout the course of a season, but heading into this year, like really outside of Jimbo Fisher, not a lot of names that really resonate in terms of the hots. We had a lot of changeover last year, Florida, Miami LSU, like a lot of big schools fired guys. So these guys are in year one, year two. Now, some of these guys may still be on the hot seat, but that Oklahoma, Oklahoma, a big, big change. So like, I think some of these places where you're looking for the big name coaches, a lot of those people are bringing in new guys. We're trying to build programs, take a time out.

We come on back. We look at another CBS list. This is AFC QBs under the most pressure entering this season, Zach Yelp shows CBS Sports Radio. So I was reading a list today by CBS Sports and it's the five quarterbacks of the AFC under the most pressure going into this 2023 season. EJ, I don't know if you, have you seen this list yet? Just wondering.

I have not. Okay. Can you try to guess who the five quarterbacks are only in the AFC under the most pressure this year? Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson is definitely on that list. On the most pressure, Ryan Tannehill.

Hold on. Russell Wilson is on that list. He's number one. You said Ryan Tannehill? He might not ever be a starter if he doesn't play well this year. Yeah, but does anyone actually care what happens with Ryan Tannehill? I mean, so I took under most pressure given I'm talking about those guys individually. Now, if the list is more about just overall in terms of like how people are paying attention, then I understand.

But Ryan Tannehill is playing for his career this year. That's unarguable. Let me say this. Four out of these five names are big names. Okay. Somewhat big names. Like three are like really big names. You got one of them in Russell Wilson. Okay. So then I'll throw Aaron Rodgers in there. That would be correct. Aaron Rodgers, number two.

Wow. So you got Russell Wilson one, Aaron Rodgers two. You got the first two right out of the gate. Who do you think is in there at number three? AFC only. I'm thinking three. Mack Jones. Mack Jones is on the list, but he's number four.

Four. Okay. Interesting. And by the way, Mack Jones is the name that's not really a big name. Right. And it's funny because I was wondering, I was like, he may not be the biggest name, but he was a first round pick. So, you know, big in my eyes. And had a great year at Alabama.

He did. So you got two more here. One's a big, big name. One's a big name. Lamar? Nope.

Not Lamar Jackson. You want me to give the other two? Let me get one more guess. Okay. Let me do Tua. Tua is on the list.

That's a big name, but not the big, big name. That was at number five. Still on the list. Still on the board. Oh, you were, you were in a similar ballpark earlier. That's all I'll say.

Okay. Similar ballpark earlier. So I'm thinking I was talking a lot of old guys. Josh Allen?

Nope. Similar ballpark as Russell Wilson. So I'm thinking an old guy who? Not necessarily two totally different people, but a similar ballpark. That's interesting. The AFC?

I'm trying to run these quarterbacks now. That was a big hint. Two totally different people.

I'm talking off the field, but in the same ballpark. Who am I missing? Who gives it to me? Who is it? Deshaun Watson.

Oh, okay. Where Russell Wilson got traded for a King ransom underwhelming year. Deshaun Watson got traded for a King ransom. Now he was suspended, but comes back in the final six games of the season.

Didn't really do anything. He was number three, I guess. He was number three.

So you look at this list. Russ is number one. I'm more than fine with that ranking because if Russ then has back to back really bad years, I know you got to look at the money and see how you can move on, but that conversation is going to start where maybe one more year for Russell Wilson and then Sean Payton looks to go get his next quarterback with the Denver Broncos. Rogers at two, totally understand it. Rogers actually entering this NFL season, I would say is the biggest storyline in the sport because for the last two years it's, is Rogers going to leave? That was the last three years.

And then now we finally got that answer. I'm not telling you I think Rogers won a Super Bowl this year, but I don't know what to expect here. Like the Jets should make the playoffs, but outside of that, if you told me they just missed the playoffs this year, would I be stunned? I'm not telling you I think they will, but I wouldn't be stunned because the AFC is so loaded. So I just kind of want to see how this ends up going on out with Aaron Rogers.

And then you continue to move through this list. Does Sean Watson in at number three? Yeah. See, here's the thing with Watson. Watson still has a scapegoat and it's Kevin Stefanski.

Russ had his scapegoat last year where, don't get me wrong, Russ was horrible, but people just crushed that Daniel Hackett and deservedly so. Does Sean Watson, yes, only six games last year. Now it's his first full season back.

If he's not what he once was, then Kevin Stefanski is going to be out of a job this year. For Mac Jones, now this is how you determine pressure because in all likelihood, regardless of what happens this year, Russ, Rogers and Watson are all back on the team the following season. But for Mac Jones, there's pressure on him to play well because then that's your number three. If you then go into your number four and the team still doesn't know about you, you get into fifth year option time and you wonder how the Patriots are going to approach that. You would think, most teams, you would anticipate them picking up the fifth year option, but you never know because look at what happened with the Giants and Daniel Jones.

And he also starts to wonder about what they do in the draft because at that point, now you're thinking, are they taking a quarterback in the first round next year, a quarterback draft next year? Next year is going to have maybe three, four, five guys get taken in the first round. Yeah, definitely you will have Caleb Williams and Drake May and there's going to be, I think next year is a five quarterback first round draft. If you already have two guys without a doubt a lock to go one and two potentially, you got to think it ends up being five. And this past year, it ended up only being three because you had Bryce Young go one, you had CJ Stroud go two, then Anthony Richardson go four. And then if Hendon Hooker didn't get hurt, he probably would have been a first round pick and somehow Will Levis, even though I don't think he's all that, everyone thought Will Levis was going to be a first round pick.

And then a number five to, you know, it's weird because I'm a Patriot fan. I actually want Tua to do well this year because this past year, that was scary. It was frightening what happened with Tua Tungavailoa. And I've said this, I think like every, once a week for the last four or five weeks, I don't know about you EJ, but, and it's so tough to predict, is someone going to get a concussion or not? Like predicting injuries, you just can't do it. But every single person, because of how scary it was last year, does not think Tua Tungavailoa, and I get it, is not going to get through a season healthy. And isn't that just, I'm kind of programmed wherever everybody says one thing is definitely going to happen and they're adamant about it, that the opposite ends up happening. Right. Yeah.

It's a weird thing. It makes me wonder, like Kurt Warner, people forget that he had concussion issues. And there was a point in his career where it looked like he could never stay healthy for a season. And then he went to Arizona, Matt Leiner becomes a boss. And then he... Is in the Super Bowl.

He's in the Super Bowl. He plays two healthy seasons, two or three healthy seasons before he eventually retires. So you wonder if the offense changes, or maybe not changes, but maybe they try to protect him more. Like the one thing about Kurt Warner in Arizona, with Ken Wisenhunt, it was about get the ball quick out of his hands, quick release, like accentuate his strengths.

Like if Tua can't be a guy who's taking five, seven step drops, where defensive linemen are teeing off on him, like I wonder if the Dolphins change their offense a little bit to protect him, to keep him healthy. I actually really like this list. I think this is a solid list that was put out there by CBS Sports where it's... And you could debate the order a little bit, but then you're nitpicking.

Russell Wilson won, Rogers too, Deshaun Watson three, Mac Jones four, and Tua Tonga, Vailoa five AFC quarterbacks under the most pressure. It's just the pressure thing again, it's almost like it's a super subjective way to look at it. Because again, like I mean to me, Ryan Tanho is playing for his career. Like, I don't know how you could say he's under less pressure than Rogers. Like who's playing for, essentially for his legacy, for like adding on to a legacy that's already been written.

So you look at pressure, there's multiple ways to look at pressure, you're not wrong. You're looking at pressures, who's in danger of losing their job. Right, like to me, that's why Russell Wilson makes sense, why Mac Jones makes sense, that's why Tua makes sense, because now there's a health thing where he may not be allowed to play. At a certain point, like with, you know, and Deshaun Watson maybe a little bit, you know, because they're, even though he, they can't get rid of him really with the contract, but like, because of all the issues that happened, I understand that one. But Aaron, like him being two, actually, I was a little surprised by it, because to me, that's purely like, you know, it's purely like, you know, what's the word? Media hype?

Yeah, it's just totally like outside voices, it's not anything inside. Yeah, but the thing is, when you're, we all know Rogers going to the Hall of Fame, right? First ballot, but when you get into the Hall of Fame, there's different sectors, right? In terms of the way that we look at it, with the top five quarterbacks of all time. Rings are a big tiebreaker. If Rogers only goes to the Hall of Fame with one ring, I know this sounds crazy for Hall of Fame and a top 10, you know, top 10 quarterback of all time, it does seem underwhelming that he only got to one Super Bowl, only won one Super Bowl.

Oh, definitely, I mean, I've killed Aaron Rogers for his postseason blunders and the way he's played. Now, in the end, I don't know what it is with that chair. Whoever sits in that chair, they have to hype up a quarterback in the AFC or look at a quarterback in the AFC and fall in love with the team that's in the AFC South. Hickey tells you every Colts quarterback is going to be great, and then you're bringing up Ryan Tannehill. I don't think anyone else would have brought up Ryan Tannehill under pressure this year.

You don't think so? I mean, they drafted another quarterback after last season drafting a quarterback. And neither of them were a first round pick, which is crazy. Right. And Willis or Will Levis. Right. And it just feels to me like they're trying to find his replacement.

Yeah, well, that ship has already sailed for me. Like, he's a good quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. He's solid. I wouldn't say he's good. He's a solid quarterback. You could win games with Ryan Tannehill, but in reality, he's an above average game manager.

That's the way that I would kind of describe it. You're not going to win a Super Bowl with him. We'll take a break. We come back. We talk about this new Wilt Chamberlain docuseries with one of the directors and Chris Dillon.