Is LSU Better Than Alabama? (Hour 1)

Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10 floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We'll talk some SEC football, Alabama football with Mike Johnson coming up at 7 20 p.m Eastern, 4 20 p.m Pacific, and then we'll do a little first and goal featuring the Denver Broncos today.

And man that has won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and did make a All-Pro team. Alfred Williams, Big Al, will be stopping by at 8 20 p.m Eastern, 5 20 p.m Pacific. But first up producing the extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Kiki. Hot Take Kiki. Kiki, do you actually know what today is? I know it's tough to keep track of everything but there is a national day today regarding food and I was not privy of this information until I got a text asking to come on a radio show on one of our affiliates 560 WQAM with Mark Hochman, Channing Crowder, and Alejandro Solana to help them out in this department. Do you have any idea what food item national day it is today? I don't. I'll take one guess here because it was brought up at Nick Saban's press conference today.

He was asked about it so maybe this is pertinent. Cake. Is it national cake day? Oh I like national cake day. I don't know when national cake day is and we'll get to Nick Saban's crazy opinion that what do you say carrot cake was the best cake in the preeminent cake. What a joke that is and I'm not against carrot cake but it being the best cake that is just an outlandish statement but no it is not national cake day. Today is national hot dog day and I wonder if it is actually national hot dog day because I always thought that was right around July 4th of the hot dog eating contest and then when you google it it lists like three or four days in July but I have seen other people today once it was brought to my attention say that today is national hot dog day so I don't know if that is actually true or not but I did go on a radio show today Hochman and Crowder on 560 WQAM and because New York City has a bunch of hot dogs right the New York City water dogs they wanted me to go get a hot dog and I may have lied to them when I said it was a New York City water dog I went to the local diner but I told them I got it right off a street cart vendor I didn't want them to think less of me but I went right across the street to a diner ordered a a hot dog to go I had a large black iced coffee as well and I sat down to do this radio segment in my apartment and for some reason my microphone wasn't working but my camera was on so I had to do one of those awkward things Hickey when you get on zoom and you hold the cell phone up and I ate a hot dog over the span of a 20-minute radio segment today on 560 WQAM so that's what I did this afternoon don't worry I went to the gym I got some physical activity took some care of some things going on my landlord and all that because there's a bunch of construction going on outside my building they want me to re-up on a lease and I'm trying to negotiate things like that but today as I got ready for the show a lot of my prep work had to do with eating a hot dog and then making a bunch of uh really juvenile jokes did you wash the hot dog down with iced coffee no no no no no no no that was out of order so I ordered a large black iced coffee and then I got a hot dog and it was actually a pretty good hot dog I was surprised how big the hot dog was and it was on a very good uh bun as well so I was going on there like 2 25 p.m eastern so I didn't want to be late I always get paranoid when I'm I'm doing hits or something like that or if I like to be on time so I didn't want to be late so I called down to the diner and ordered the coffee and the hot dog at like two o'clock got there at 2 5 drank the iced coffee and then about 15 minutes later ate the hot dog and if people are asking I put ketchup and mustard on the hot dog because I didn't want to offend anybody because I know if you just do ketchup then people freak out oh you gotta have mustard if you just do mustard people freak out and and you and you you know say oh well like how do you not uh put ketchup on the hot dog so I made sure I double dipped on the hot dog with ketchup and mustard and it was very tasty it was a good hot dog and had a good chat with those guys and I thought it was funny that I was the guy that they thought of oh we need someone to eat a hot dog or go get a hot dog and eat it on the show because I guess it's national hot dog day and somehow some way they thought okay we'll bring on Zach Galb so that was the way that my uh Wednesday afternoon got started before I slept over here to our New York City studios I'd agree with them by the way anytime I hear Zach Galb I immediately think hot dog wiener that's the first thing that pops in my brain that was a little bit weird the way that you just said that well there's there's a bunch of nicknames frankfurter and we can just go all down and down the list some say you're an l7 weenie if we're being uh transparent I would disagree put stuff those people in a locker well let me ask you this because hochman started getting into this conversation he is a mount rushmore of hot dogs and he had the mini hot dog wrapped in a pretzel on it but he didn't have a pig in a blanket I think the pig in the in the blanket is my favorite type of hot dog um I know that could be controversial right it's not like your traditional ballpark dog things like that and that would probably be the answer but I love the pig in the blanket as my favorite hot dog if I'm being serious with you are there four different types of hot dog you can even make a list for I mean like he had a whole list I can't tell you that I could recite each and every one and I'll try to find it real quickly but my twitter mentions are just absolutely absurd the last few days oh here they go um I let me go to his twitter here is the mount rushmore of hot dogs according to Mark Hochman the Annie Anne's mini pretzel hot dog the cheddar dog at Michael's in Highland Park Illinois any hot dog eaten at a ballpark while watching a baseball game and then the old dollar hot dogs at some place that I can't pronounce on Wednesday nights okay so it's like a little bit that's not like different ways to prepare the hot dog it's just more different places and different okay when you go to a ballpark do you always get a hot dog you always have to go get a glizzy you don't get a glizzy never you're not a glizzy goblin no so what do you do when you go to a ballpark burger guy oh a burger at a ballpark chicken fingers kind of guy I'm on board with the chicken fingers chicken fingers and then some nathan fries are very good I think there's a steak sandwich at city field yeah look at hickey being bougie I like this getting the filet mignon uh cheesesteak sandwich at uh city field look at hickey so last week vacationed in montauk for an entire week getting all bougie and then when he goes to city field he gets the 22 dollar filet mignon cheese I will say I went to the game on saturday my dinner was a giant pretzel so I really I cheaped out you know what sometimes you just gotta play it up you gotta play it up for the audience I'm honest I I am I will not hide or or try to put up this persona of you know uppity nature and mr rich over here when I don't live up to it so I will own my I don't have a mistake but I will own who I am so you won't be like me I'm Hochman and Crowder today when I when I was making oh there is a hot dog stand a block from my apartment but it was also a little bit rainy earlier today in the afternoon so I wasn't going over there to wait in line for the hot dog at the dirty water dog stand I just wanted to call into the to the diner but I told them I got it from the the uh wasn't committed to the bit hopefully they're not listening so we don't you know just have all of the last few hours of radio undone because they were duped oh let's be where you got the dog from let's be real when I go on and I've been a frequent guest on that station it is very entertaining radio I have never heard the two of those guys laugh more than they laughed in the 20 minutes of radio that I delivered to them today so you're eating the dog during the interview yeah and they're asking you I guess questions about what dogs ask me about Deebo Samuel they were asking me about Austin Eckler they were asking me about how you uh how I like to eat my hot dog like what do you like to put in the hot dog and then bunch of other sports stuff as well you know good uh good guy radio talk if if you know what I'm saying just men talking sports eating wieners yeah nothing wrong with that Hochman comes from that Dan Lebatard kind of uh lineage so he used to work with Lebatard for all those years so it's more of a laid-back kind of show and you got to get the show and they liked me because I've known Channing for years um because he used to work with Sid Rosenberg and I know Sid very well but I get their show and that's another thing like when I go on another radio show when I go on um Mac and Bone on WFNZ when I go on Hochman and Crowder I try to listen to a little bit before I go on so I kind of get the the uh the vibe of the show and then you you get in all the inside jokes and become friends with people and then you get on you're just busting balls and and eating hot dogs there so that's the way maybe it's Deebo listen to any part of the Zach Elb show before he came on on Monday maybe he would have not hung up the phone maybe he would have understood the show I don't I don't think there was anything he needed to understand here's what a lot of people have misunderstood about the Deebo Samuel interview it's because you only hear the two minutes that gets pumped out on social media if you go back and listen to the five six minutes outside of Deebo laughing at the one joke that I made to him about how impressive it was him running at the treadmill like 19 miles per hour the guy just didn't want to answer anything the guy wasn't interested and sometimes you get guys that get on the air and they agree to do an interview and they're just not interested in doing the interview so I could have asked Deebo Samuel anything and it would have been a crappy interview if we're being honest in terms of of him delivering it was actually better that he hung up the phone because then at least he gave us something because his answer stunk and I was pretty much done with that so at least you get some reaction from Deebo if I'm just being transparent you get something from Deebo where he was just so annoyed and it was kind of laughable that he was annoyed that's still one of those things and they said this to me today when I was on the show and Channing is an ex-football player and he said this the the other week that it was a football you were talking to a football player about football about things about football that he said so I really like I get I'm gonna steal a line from Philly I get the 40 whiners fans just getting all upset and they're gonna go defend their guy but anyone that's actually in the media like people that aren't just paid to be sycophants for ex-athletes or to basically just genuflect anything the 49ers say if you know how to do radio and if you know how to cover things in the media if you think I did anything wrong you're just a moron and that's the the best way and the and the most polite way that I could say it so I'm kind of done talking about the uh the whole Deebo Samuel thing and I find it funny all like the random messages that I still get in the aftermath of that like if you missed that a week ago don't come back like a week later and be like oh what the heck are you doing I'm not gonna engage in conversation with you on this stuff anyway this is that Gilb show on CBS Sports Radio I want to play something back that we uh had last night from a conversation with former Georgia quarterback and college football analyst Hudson Mason so we all know Georgia is the best team on paper or the the team in college football right now that everyone is chasing heading into this season until someone knocks off Georgia it's their national championship to lose when even though they've had a lot of changing pieces the last two years they won back-to-back national titles and Kirby Smart is still going strong at Georgia with the Bulldogs so when we were previewing the SEC yesterday I did bring up the Hudson Mason how this year it feels different for LSU where a year ago everyone's clowning Brian Kelly Brian Kelly last year then gets to the SEC championship game before losing to Georgia editing heading into this year LSU has arguably the best offensive and defensive player in the SEC and then you look at Alabama there's a lot of unknown with Alabama because they lost Bryce Young they lost Will Anderson they missed the college football playoff last year they still have the great Nick Saban but we don't even know who's going to be lining up under center for for the Crimson Tide come week one so here is Hudson Mason talking about how he views LSU as a better team than Alabama right now there's a ton of hype and I think rightfully so I think they're going to be the pick from the media to win the west and they're going to be my pick they got the best offensive player in the conference and Jayden Daniels that quarterback they got the best defensive player in the conference and Harold Perkins maybe the best defensive player in the country at the end of the year they got one of the best receivers in the country so and I thought it was interesting let's see Monday it was LSU's day and at SEC media days and you know Brian Kelly said that they are close to cutting the gap between their roster and Georgia's roster he did not say Alabama he said Georgia and I think that caught a lot of people by surprise because I think there's a lot of people that are wondering especially with some of the question marks regarding Alabama coming in this year at quarterback is LSU tracking down Alabama so here's what I'll say to this if you tell me that the end of the college football season Alabama will be in the college football playoff and they'll be in the national championship game and they win the national championship I wouldn't be shocked because Nick Saban we know what he's done for so many years with the six national championships at Alabama and then the one at LSU but I'll give credit to Hickey because Hickey this must have been two months ago and I remember that you said something along the lines of you don't really and I know that sometimes you're an SEC hater and sometimes you're a little bit overly critical of Alabama so I kind of take most of what you say with the giant grain of salt when it comes to Alabama but I'll give you credit where you said when you looked at the Alabama roster and this is why I say all the time even though you're not always right you were probably the most knowledgeable person on the network producer or host when it comes to talking college football with just how much you watch it now you say some zany things like Penn State's going to college football playoff or there's some years where like last year where every team you picked to get to the college football playoff it was basically the Hickey hex and you cast a spell on them but you made this point about two months ago that a lot of people in even a year for college football that once you get past Georgia and you know the town of Michigan this is pretty open when we're getting to a chase of the four teams and you got a lot of people still going to pick Alabama but when you evaluate that roster sure Alabama's always going to be in it we know right last year even when they had a down year they only had two losses but you're not even that impressed with this Alabama roster and it's underwhelming from Alabama rosters that we've seen in the past especially right like last year the wide receiver room took a hit I know they still had Jamir Gibbs I know they still have Bryce Young and Will Anderson and you lose those three players and right now there's a lot of uncertainty for the first time in a while where a lot of times when people question Alabama it's a big fat joke but now there's some questions around Alabama on if they could even make the college football playoff this year I'll never put it past Nick Saban but I don't think that this is just one of those things in the summer gearing up for the season about a month away where there's always one jackass that says oh Alabama's not going to make the college football playoff or something I do think there is some merit to that this year and I'll give you credit because you were the first one that really brought it up on the national airwaves and to my attention two months ago I can't say I know exactly each and every year going in how I remember predicting Alabama looking at them but I could probably say pretty confidently this is the first time since probably Saban won the title in 09 where there's legitimate questions and there's a legitimate reason why you can look at another team in the SEC west going into the season as being the better team this is it's rare but that's where we are this year I think so let's do this we'll take a time out here on CBS sports radio I wasn't expecting to lead the show talking about national hot dog day which it may or may not be and if it isn't then you could blame Mark Hochman and Channing Crowder on 560 wqam but I'm gonna go through the five tiers of college football teams that are contending for one of those four spots in the college football playoff this upcoming year I'll give you my list and then we'll get hickey's list as well and we'll compare and contrast that this is Zach Gelb show off and running on a very busy Wednesday edition on CBS sports radio in America there's always been the promise of a better future the land of opportunity hope since the ua's founding we've overcome big challenges together we fought to secure our freedom to organize our freedom to collectively bargain our freedom to work at fair wages in today's world it's easy to be cynical about politics but under this president the ua has secured more victories than at any other time president biden's new laws to rebuild america are creating 114 million ua work hours union workers are going to transform america it's about making things here in america again about good jobs and it's about damn time we're doing it joe biden has delivered on ua infrastructure he's protected our pensions and our gold standard ua apprenticeships that's why the ua is backing joe biden for president for our freedoms for our members for america joe biden for president you're listening to the Zach Gelb show all righty so this is that Gelb show on CBS sports radio we're going to give you our five tiers of college football teams entering this upcoming season and we're just viewing the teams that are a contender to make the college football playoff hickey i was surprised how generous i was here because when i started out this exercise i did not think i would get into the teams because i'm very strict in terms of viewing someone as good and then viewing someone is great and you also know like when we talk about the nfl like heading into the season i think it was about a month ago i said i only view there to be five or six teams that i actually believe can go out there and win a super bowl now this is just to get into one of the four spots in the college football playoff the last year will be four teams and i had 13 teams from uh spread out through my five tiers how many did you end up having i have 13 as well um i feel like i was a little generous today maybe gave a few teams i shouldn't have the benefit of the doubt but in contention doesn't mean i think they'll make it just in the conversation in november i'll go 13. i wonder if we have the same 13 teams i guess we're about to find out okay so tier one how many teams you have in tier one one so do i you want to say it on three ready one two three ten state all right let's go so both of us obviously have georgia correct yeah window georgia bulldogs okay now tier two how many teams do you have i have two so do i i think we'll have the same two teams is one of those teams michigan yes and michigan all right you have mccarthy back you got donovan edwards back you got blake quorum coming on back we saw after two years ago losing a jabo and hutchinson the defense came back and was awesome last year so they've been able to kind of rotate through new defensive players and offensively this is as good of an offense that they're going to have in the last three years when they've made this run if you factor in this season as well so michigan is one of those teams in tier two and the big question for michigan is can they take that next step where they've crushed ohio state the last two years they've won the big 10 championship the last two years can you get into a national championship game though and uh hoist the college football playoff trophy and the other team i have is actually lsu where i don't know if i would have been this optimistic on lsu a few weeks ago and i probably would put bama in front of lsu but when you go through the lsu roster on paper i think it's better than alabama and i'm buying into brian kelly which i have ever since the higher really outside of the whole family stuff and the cringy recruiting videos but i said at the end of last college football season if i'm looking at the next five years or so of college football the three coaches that i'll trust the most are kirby smart nick saben and brian kelly so my tier two teams are michigan and lsu do we have the same tier two teams we do not oh okay so you have michigan as one of your tier two teams who's the other tier two team usc going with caleb williams i'm going lincoln riley look the defense is bad this is bad but will it be any worse than last year i'm gonna say no where they did not win a pac-12 championship and blew two games against utah i'm not making any excuses i'm more but you're about facts in that pac-12 title game caleb williams and usc was driving down the field he gets hurt pulls a hamstring not the same afterwards is the game outcome different maybe not because again i don't think defense could not stop a nosebleed but that drastically changed the game and the i think changed the momentum in the game going forward here or wasn't like yes usc defense is bad they also literally knocked on the door of the cultural playoff last year i think their defense will be better this year okay i'll tell you this i don't have usc in my tier three as we advanced to tier three in my tier three i have bama and ohio state we know bama has been the standard for a long time and georgia has now overtaken that ohio state they were dominant in the big 10 the last two years have lost their way up against michigan but we know both of those teams have been there forever they're starting to get questioned if they're losing ground but if either of those teams end up winning the sec or the big 10 this year it shouldn't shock anyone for one second just with what i'm saving is built at alabama and with ryan day he's only lost like six games as the coach just two of them happened to be in michigan which they never lost to michigan so that's why people are souring on ryan day so my tier three i only have two teams and it's alabama and ohio state how many tier three teams you have i have six wow okay six tier three teams which if you look at the math we each have three teams in the top uh top two tiers so really we're talking about who could compete right now for the fourth and final spots i think it's i think it is wide open so in no order no order i do have from the big 10 penn state and ohio state from the sec you're putting penn state on the same level as ohio state when james franklin has not been able to to win a big game for the most part during his tenure uh what is he like three and 15 against the top 10 okay i am i have no trust in kyle mccorder now for ohio state to say the least um so those two from the big 10 so you have ohio state and penn state ohio state and penn state lsu as well i got clemson in there and going out west to the pac-12 uw washington and oregon okay so my tier four no utah there you said oregon not utah just just to hear that right washington and oregon in tier three no utah so you know what's funny i was thinking about do i put oregon on this list because i was looking at tier four and i didn't for tier four i elected to go with clemson where the acc is not strong dabo has to adjust and now you have kate clubnick for a full season but then i also group clemson as a team where i just look at them as they could get to the college football playoff but i don't think they're gonna go win a national championship this year and that's why i elected to group clemson in tier four with also the pac-12 teams and the three pack 12 teams i selected usc washington and then utah as well because i think all three of those teams in the pac-12 if they get in you know sure can caleb williams go win a game in the college football playoff yes but i don't expect those teams to get to a national championship game i love michael penix we'll see what the defense is going to be like with washington and utah assuming that if cam rising come back healthy uh cam rising is a very underrated and an outside dark horse kind of guy for the heisman trophy but i put those three pac-12 teams together with clemson where i think they could get to the college football playoff but i don't think they're gonna do much damage once they get into uh the final four teams for the cfp my tier four has two teams alabama and utah wait wait wait wait wait i just realized this you put penn state and who else in front of alabama penn state ohio state lsu clemson washington oregon i know that people are sour i know that people are sour in alabama i don't know if you could sour in alabama that much so and then tier five how many did you have for tier five i wasn't keeping track of the math okay for tier five i have penn state i have florida state i have texas and then i have notre dame and the way i will say this why i put them in tier five all four of those teams that i just mentioned have a lot of talent all four of those teams can go on to get to the college football playoff they could be really good but i gotta see it we've been hearing about james franklin trying to win a big game for a while florida state mike norvell did a good job last year does it carry over into this season in a conference that isn't that strong texas uh they're supposed to be back this year but how many years have we been saying that and then when you look at notre dame marcus freeman survived a slow start finished strong and you have sam hartman coming over uh to be their quarterback from wake forest so all four of those teams big brands big names big talent pools but we got to see if they can put it together i probably could have eliminated tier five to be honest with you but again we'll play the game and be generous here to your point of hey it could happen notre dame florida state tier five for me noted oh so you didn't have so the one school that we disagreed on i put texas in tier five and then you put oregon and you had oregon in what tier four oregon in tier three oh tier three who texas is like the cowboys they gotta i will never believe in them ever again until they actually prove something but no benefit that out the cowboys do win a lot of regular season games we're gonna get a good read on what texas is gonna be early on in the season when they play alabama that is and that was a game that if quinn you you want to talk about injuries if quinn ewers doesn't get hurt last year i think they win that game i really do and texas opens up the season against rice sark if you can't beat rice i i will drive you to the airport i'm not even a longhorn fan but then you get your season really started up against alabama but if you survive that you have wyoming baylor who i don't have a good read on kansas i know people like light pulled venables he's talking smack about everybody else he better have a good year you got houston byu kansas state you know climbing's done a good job tcu they're going to regress this year how about iowa state remember matt campbell is getting talked about for nfl jobs and where i where i soured a matt campbell was the year they were supposed to win the big 12 and he was like at the end of the season i never said that those weren't our expectations he ran from that and ever since i've not been a big fan of his and then they got joey mcguire texas tech i know the big 12 will kind of be like the pack 12 with all beat up on on one another um but in the pack so i think the the teams are stronger heading into this season but if texas gets through alabama you think the hype is big around texas football you will have a lot of people hickey that will start to proclaim that the longhorns horn up not horn down are back baby that b word is going to be thrown around obnoxiously and i'll tell you the other thing that i'm really curious about with the longhorns and you never want to see someone get injured but if quinn ewers gets injured again we've now had two analysts that cover the big 12 in texas ari tempkin for big 12 radio and then fosy whitaker who played for longhorns both say that if quinn ewers either struggles or if he gets hurt right now malik murphy is listed as number two on that depth chart and i just want to see if sark has the stones it's one thing to put arch manning third in the depth chart right now and we know what malik murphy can be but i want to see if sark really has the stones where if quinn ewers has to miss a few games or has to just miss one start because of an injury or you're thinking about making a change if he stays true to that depth chart because you know how the texas fan will quickly sour on someone and you know what the hype will be if you were if you were stinks out of the gate or if he gets hurt those fans are going to want to see arch manning and the and the college football world and the football world is going to want to see arch manning hickey he's in a no-win situation there so his best scenario is quinn ewers plays well and that's not a competition or a conversation i should say because you're right that would be some stones move there to say arch stay on the bench buddy and watch malik murphy ball out watch him ball out and then arch manning transfers at the end the transfer portal that would that would assume nick saber maybe give him a call hey real quickly so i did see that you put out a new shower no cap video the other day you got ripped this morning i heard um on the morning show here on the on the da show on cbs sports radio maybe i'll grab that audio and play it for you later but they were ripping you left and right and i actually kind of thought it was funny with what they were saying but you put what a bar of soap in your hand and you were comparing the running back position to to a bar of soap is that right that's right running back to our bar of soap are they the sexiest position no but are they necessary yes okay if that's a take fine at least you used a prop you finally listened there have you had any luck going to get any guests in the shower with you you know have some in studio or in shower guests with you send a lot of flyers out anyone want to in studio i guess really in shower guest um so far a lot of no answers and or no you should reach out to texas so what why is that see if they'll give you arch manning in the shower i'm sure that guy would love to rip his shirt off and join you in the shower he's ripped you see how ripped he was he's right he's no payton he's no eli yeah no dad buds for uh for arch manning no that's for sure you know what if i could be one college athlete right now i think i want to be arch manning you don't get to play this year and you could just run around that campus and have a good time and i'm sure there's a lot of people that want to accompany arch manning on that campus well hopefully he can keep his id in check seeing that he lost his id like three times a student id i mean do you think on that key security do you think it's gonna lead to problems on the field he needs a student id or anything everyone knows who he is how much do you think you could sell that for you find an arch manning student id on the ground who cares i would try to sell that well i think people would value it's a student id it's arch manning's who cares i mean you see people selling you know russell wilson's towel after he tossed it off after a loss people buy crazy obscure things i bet you that have a decent market yeah no so maybe you know maybe we'll go down to texas look on campus try to find an id and maybe i'll retire offer that geez yeah you won't retire off that but i think you know what i'll keep it for three years he's the number one pick i'll start i guarantee you this you make more here a week than what you would get for an arch manning id card i could guarantee you that off a one-time sale that thing's not worth more than 100 bucks right now if that at all gotta let it you know appreciate in value you make at least 100 bucks a week all right gotta count the pennies maybe i hope so it is the zack kelp show on cbs sports radio we will take a break when we come on back we'll talk about the dallas cowboys how about them cowboys some more drama with the drama dallas choking cowboys you're listening to the zack kelp show all righty this is zack kelp show on cbs sports radio so zack martin of the dallas cowboys is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in 2025 so he has this year and then i believe yes the year after that on his contract now i read today from adam shefter that cowboy six-time all-pro guard and team captain zack martin is considering not reporting to training camp due to his unhappiness with his contract and the team's lack of interest in restructuring it per sources martin is believes that he is woefully underpaid relative to the market he's scheduled to make about seven million dollars less this season in the nfl's top paid guards so when you see something like this hickey because it's the cowboys and then also because right now you're in this time period where players are getting ready to report for training camp whenever you have a contract that's in the news people always make it out to be a big deal like for example the saquon barkley stuff the josh jacob stuff as well i know the running backs are a hot topic i don't think it really makes much sense for barkley nor uh josh jacobs to sit out like i would say okay sure right now don't show up to training camp but when week one gets there report that week and go get your 10.1 million dollars or whatever it is for zack martin though who is who is under contract so if he holds out and he does a report then he's gonna get fined and it's not one and it's not one of those hold-ins and maybe it turns out to be from the terminology of it and maybe that does change but i think a lot of people today look at this report and they're like it's a big deal i don't really think it's that big of a deal because you have time to restructure the contract now you could talk about why didn't this happen before and i'm sure this isn't the first time that this is brought up but does anyone think that zack martin who doesn't really need training camp who doesn't need to be there for the off-season workouts and all that stuff does anyone think that he's not going to show up for week one for the dallas cowboys because if he doesn't then it's a different conversation for right now i think it's something we try to make a big deal but in reality the large scheme of things it's not really that big of a deal i think you hit on the new cba basically makes it impossible to hold out or hold in i would be surprised like yes he's going to be there week one without a doubt and i'm sure that they'll find the way to restart that's like here's the thing with the cowboys too find me an off season or find me like right around this time each and every year where we don't talk about someone on the cowboys being disgruntled with their contract and something playing on out contractually where jerry jones always finds a way even if it takes longer than expected to get the deal done and remember the dak contract oh this is one of my favorite videos of all time where he's talking to the team website i don't know i don't remember if you were with me yet you may have been because the dak contract thing took so long to get done that was a multiple year conversation but he did an interview with the team website and he was talking about how some people have a bachelor's degree and then you get your master's degree and he was making this point that if he was in a forest and got his hand cut to stitch back up the hand it's not necessarily what you learned in your master's degree which is more current it's more so what you got from your your bachelor's degree and we were all sitting there saying is jerry okay like what the bleep is is this dude talking about but this goes on every year with the cowboys but usually hickey they find the way to get the job done and when you have a player like zack martin who is getting older but it's still extremely valuable to that team i would be surprised whether it's incentives or you bump up the salary a little bit if they don't find the way to get this deal done especially with how important this year is right with so much pressure as always riding on the cowboys and jerry jones being very open about how bad he wants to win one more super bowl and this feels like this would be the biggest one of his career even though he has a few already i would be surprised like i said if there's anything that leads to one of the best players in the nfl not being on the field for week number one and not only that i think the way that we look at the cowboys and the way that we talked about the cowboys the last few years something needs to change in this conversation because you talked about the importance of zack for a long time if we said who has the best offensive line in the nfl immediately without hesitation people be like up it's the dallas cowboys the last few seasons that offensive line has not only changed but it's regressed as well if you look at their offensive line it's no longer an offensive line that people fear it's no longer an offensive line that people consider good like you have some you have a good player like two good players on that offensive line but it's not as if this offensive line is that great as we once thought out to be and you kind of look i don't want to say this new era of dallas cowboys but zeke now no longer in the picture unless they find the way to get him to come back and at that point what do you really expect that if ezekie elliott he's a number two running back on that team if he does come back but that offensive line has some problems and i think that may get highlighted a little bit more this year and we'll see what turns out with zack martin now you get rid of zack martin and that offensive line goes from average to just below average and then it's going to be putrid but you look at that team this year we all talk about dak we all talk about right uh tony pollard and his emergence cd lamb they bring in uh brands and cooks you got michael gallop still there the defense has played really well that offensive line this year just because we're programmed to say the cowboys offensive line is great it has not been great for the last year or two in the nfl and i think this will be a year where they could put up enough wins in the regular season so maybe it does cover it but i do think some people are going to start to realize wow this offensive line isn't what it used to be i still think they're pretty good but what adds to the anxiety of winning sooner is that they're older so like that's also an issue too i still think they can play at a high level but for how much longer the window is rapidly closing where it was not only a good offense line but still a young offense line where you can have it for the future now we're looking at an aging offensive line that again now those guys you got a few years ago are starting to creep up to late 20s early 30s toron smith's 32 and then you have that problems who's 32 as well so two of your better guys again are up there so that only just ups you know the um the angst if you will to get it done sooner either later because you have to turn that entire offense line over relatively soon and i know that we always fall into the trap about talking about the cowboys because they are the drama dallas choking cowboys i feel though as if we shouldn't take the bait anymore because we all know how this season's gonna end i'll have a good regular season you know a challenge for the division i don't think they're gonna win the division i think it's gonna be philly they'll have double digit wins and then come playoff time they'll come up short where i have confidence that their defense will play well but offensively i don't believe in the cowboys offense i don't think the cowboys are gonna win a championship with this offense right now because i don't think the quarterback is great we got to see how how how long it takes tony pollard coming off that nasty injury you know cd lamb is really good brandon cooks is solid we all know that but that offensive line and the tight end room it's not a lot to to write home about and it's not as if you have this great quarterback you have a good quarterback not a great quarterback so last year they improved because they won a playoff game and i know you could laugh at that but they did especially with the opponent it's up against tampa bay was eight and nine but i have a tough time even in a week nfc seeing the cowboys get to an nfc championship game and just for starters if they don't find the way to make the championship game for the first time since the 1995 season then this season is a disaster i don't care what you do in the regular season zach yelp shows cbs sports radio let's try some super bowl contenders we'll do that next