NFL Coaching Questions (Hour 2)

How we doing? Hour number two of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll do a little first and goal preview of the Bears coming up an hour twenty from now with Clay Harbor. But I was on a podcast through our friends over at 1250 The Fan the other day with Steve Sparky Pfeiffer and also Ryan Horvat.

And I was a guest on their podcast, I think it's called Curtin Long, which I thought was a very good creative podcast name. And I thought that was a very interesting question, because correct me if I'm wrong here, Hickey. My first thought was, I don't think the seat is all that warm for Matt Leflore. Like, don't get me wrong, there is some pressure on him now because he doesn't have the safety blanket of Aaron Rodgers anymore. And he has to make sure that Jordan Love looks competent here after a few years of getting to learn right offense, not only under Aaron Rodgers, but also getting coached up by Matt Leflore. But also, I do think that Matt Leflore is safe this year, regardless of what happens, because Brian Gudekunz, and I know it's not a traditional ownership structure in Green Bay. But if Gudekunz after one year without Brett Favre says, or without Aaron Rodgers says, okay, Matt Leflore is gone, then all the pressure goes to Brian Gudekunz, and he's the next one to see his ass walk out the door. So I don't think the seat in terms of the intensity of pressure and how warm the hot seat is for Matt Leflore, I think it's at best.

I'm not going to say it's frigid, but it's very cool right now, Hickey. I'm with you because I just can't think of what he would do this year alone that would warrant him getting fired. Like, if it's a disaster, and they're 3-14, you'd probably assume Jordan Love's not playing good, and they would move off of him before they move off of the head coach or the GM.

And then they would give Leflore one more chance in the new quarterback to see if it's the quarterback or it's him, but I can't envision. It's impossible for this team to get three wins this year. They have too much talent with guys like Aaron Jones, with what we've seen from the second half, with Christian Watson in the second half of the season, some of the names of the defensive side of the ball with Kenny Clark and Jair Alexander. And also, you play in the NFC, not the AFC, and also, Chicago's still in your division, you should be able to beat Chicago bare minimum once. I don't think the Vikings and the Lions are both going to sweep you, but let's look at this from the worst case scenario. Let's just say they only get one win against the Vikings twice and the Lions twice.

There's two wins right there if you beat Chicago one time. You play the Raiders this year. You also have Tampa Bay.

You have Carolina. You play New Orleans and Atlanta. You go up against the worst division in football in the NFC South. So I think it would be impossible for this team.

I don't care how bad Jordan Love is. And also, you know how it is week to week in the NFL. How many times have we seen Green Bay be this great team and the team stinks and walks in and ends up beating you? I really do believe if all things, if Bleep hits the fan with the Green Bay Packers this year, six wins for them. If everything goes wrong for them, they would be a six-win football team. And I'm saying if things go even worse than that, and we're a little sitting here, a three and 14 team, I still don't think it's enough in one year for them to say, all right, LaFleur, see you later.

Here would be the fascinating part of that. Now, Jordan Love, I think they fixed this contract, but they did not add on to it years-wise. Right. It's like a basically two-year deal. I forget the total money, like 22 million or something like that. So he gets a little bit more money up front, but it's very easy for the Packers to move off of him if he does not play well this year or does not play well next year. Oh, so he did get an extension, but it's a brief extension for Jordan Love. Well, he just basically replaces the fifth-year option.

I think they didn't want to give him that without knowing a lot. So instead of giving him that tag, because it's pretty high for a quarterback, it basically, they kind of met in the middle for a compromise of here's more money than you normally would get. I don't want to give you the fifth-year option, but he's a little bit more security basically for you going forward. So it's a deal that kind of works truly for both sides here. Gotcha. And he'll be an unrestricted free agent in 2025. Right. Yes, two years. So if that's the case, even if they wanted to move on, I'm reading this right now in Spotrack, even if they wanted to move on from Jordan Love after this season, it's 12.5 million in dead cap. And if you're as bad as what you're saying, potentially, which I don't think you are saying, but you're just saying if all things go poorly, what could lead to the floor getting fired?

Even a three and 14 year, I don't think would be enough. Not only do you have your own first round pick, but you have other draft capital from the Aaron Rodgers deal where if let's say you're outside the top three, you could find a way to trade up into the top three. If let's say one of those teams looking for Caleb Williams, looking for a Drake May somehow has a quarterback and they just the quarterback got hurt that year, then the whole team kind of crapped the bed. There's a possibility if they were that bad and all likelihood they would do this, they would draft one of those quarterbacks because that means that Jordan Love wasn't anywhere remotely close and being the answer. And I know this, we've talked about this before, where when a new coach comes in, I know Lafleur is not a new coach, but it does feel like a new coach is coming in because there's two different versions of Matt Lafleur. One with Aaron Rodgers and one without Aaron Rodgers.

And this is how I answer the question. When a new coach comes in and if a team's not ready to win now, and what I mean by that is go win a Super Bowl now. Because there's some teams, right, they make the playoffs, they fail in the playoffs, they fire their coach, and that coach is brought in to go get that team over the hump. That's not Green Bay. I know Green Bay, two out of the last three years have made the playoffs, they've done some, you know, they've been division round, they've been in the NFC title game, but this past year, Green Bay missed the playoffs. So I do think it's on a scale of what a new coach would be, and I'm not telling you where my normal scale would be. First year coach coming in, year one's a wash, year two improve, year three go make the playoffs.

I really think year one, it's don't let the ship capsize, like don't let it totally sink. And I don't think, even though I don't love Matt Lafleur, and I think Matt Lafleur has a lot to prove, I don't think this is going to be a sinking ship this year. And I'm not even saying you judge this season based off wins and losses, because I don't with the Packers. You really judge this year for the Packers, at the end of the year, how do you feel about Jordan Love?

And do you feel like Jordan Love can be your guy moving forward? And if, let's just say they have, they're seven and ten, and Jordan Love gives you some really good games, you feel good about him, you see enough signs, even though the Packers fans aren't going to be jumping for joy over seven and ten, because you know what the standard is in Green Bay, I think you could walk away feeling like it's successful. So usually, I would tell you for a new head coach, it's year one, right as I just told you, wash, year two improve, year three make the playoffs. I kind of feel like for the Packers, the new scale for Matt Lafleur is, I don't want to call year one a wash, but just don't let this year be a disaster. And then if it's not a disaster this year, then next year in a week NFC, the expectation should be to go make the playoffs. And we also don't know what's going to happen with this division too. I don't know who's playing quarterback for the Vikings next year, I know a lot of people like Detroit this year, but are they going to take that next step?

And we'll see what happens in the development of Justin Fields. So I really don't think the Packers are that far away, but we have a lot of questions about the quarterback. I also think there's a lot of questions about the coach because fair or not, we don't know what Matt Lafleur is without Aaron Rodgers.

And this is time to prove that and he's going to get, as long as it's not a bleep show, you would think bare minimum two years to prove that. Even though we both disagree, it's impossible for him to get fired this year, basically. Would you say or do you think Matt Lafleur compared to Jordan Love has still more to lose this year? No, because if Jordan Love stinks this year, then they're going to look to replace him right away. And there's a chance that they could have a new quarterback next year. Where Matt Lafleur, even if Matt Lafleur stinks this year, I do think Matt Lafleur will be back because even though both, right, Gudekunz has, it turns the pressure on Gudekunz, I think it would be tougher for Gudekunz to spin fire in the coach than it would be if you could go get a quarterback that's on the trade market or if you fall into because your team was so bad, a top three draft pick and you could draft a young quarterback.

Even though Gudekunz's big move was Jordan Love, I think a lot more pressure would be thrown on him if after one year he gets rid of Matt Lafleur. Where for Jordan Love, I don't know how many people actually expect this thing to work. And I think you're convincing people to believe in Jordan Love because when the draft pick happened, a lot of people were shocked for many reasons. Part of it being Rodgers on your roster. But the other part of it, no one really thought that Jordan Love was actually going to be a first round pick.

And right, remember that Schefter report where it was the Colts, where that rumored team that were maybe going to move up and then that's been debunked throughout the years. So you asked me who has more to lose. I would say that it's Jordan Love because I think both will be back next year. But if you told me right now one won't be back next year, I would say it's more likely Jordan Love than it would be Matt Lafleur. I actually would say Matt Lafleur, even though he's not getting fired, if Jordan Love stinks and they move on from him. Like you said, it's not like there is, people right now don't know what Jordan Love is.

There's not these high expectations or this thought that it's a guarantee the Packers are going to make the playoffs. And if Jordan Love stinks, sure, I bet some people call him a bust, but it's not one of those things where it's a consensus. Everyone thought, oh, this is the next Camus prospect where if he stinks, kind of goes the route of a lot of their quarterbacks where I at least do feel right now Matt Lafleur is still viewed in a pretty high standard by most of the league. And obviously he's done a lot of winning.

I think they have a bad year. I would say a lot more people now look at Lafleur, even though he's not going to get fired and probably Jordan Love will get moved on from him if Love himself struggles. It's almost kind of like now unveiling the curtain and really seeing, oh wow, is it actually more Aaron Rodgers than Lafleur and loses, in retrospect, more credit than maybe he got before. Now, I'm not telling you that Matt Lafleur is this great coach. I don't know, and we'll find out how good of a coach he could be. But you look at if Matt Lafleur got fired after this year, I would think that he's going to get a job again as an NFL head coach in this league. We've seen some guys be a whole lot worse than Matt Lafleur that get fired and end up getting another job rather quickly. For Gudekunz, though, you're in a no-win situation either way, because Matt Lafleur, he was brought in, right, not only to get Rodgers that second Super Bowl, but also to eventually coach the replacement for Aaron Rodgers. If Gudekunz gets rid of that guy, then you know that's going to be an admission that Jordan Love didn't work, or you maybe keep Jordan Love for one more year and you try someone else to fix him.

But at the end of the day, you messed up on both of those. So Lafleur and Love have to work for Gudekunz to survive, and we're going to see if that's going to be the case. And I just wonder how long it takes for Packers fans to grow impatient, because I think Packers fans, for the most part, are pretty reasonable. And that's tough to be, especially when you have a fan base that's seen back-to-back Hall of Fame quarterbacks, back-to-back quarterbacks that have won a Super Bowl. But I think for the most part, Packer fans are reasonable, and if you go through this and both of those guys just can't cut it, I wonder how long, from what you just had, Hickey, which was a great quarterback, how long does it take for Packers fans to lose patience?

And I kind of feel as if you're going to get one year, and then it would be next year where, okay, you got to finally start to really show me something, that you're on that championship trajectory, even if you don't get a championship in year two. I think right now what you're seeing with your guy in New England, Bill Belichick, kind of shows one year fans will maybe use the grace period. There's always a small minority that's an idiotic, and they'll fire the coach after losing the first game of the season. But for the most part, I think one year fans are, for the most part, rationally, accepting and or understanding. I don't think, though, patience is going to carry over in a year or two, where now all of a sudden if it's 2023 and 2024, talking about struggling, missing the playoffs, offense not looking good, I think at that point you're talking about coach probably getting fired.

Well, and you used the Patriots as an example, and Belichick had six championships with Brady, and they couldn't get along at the end, and Brady then leaves because he wasn't getting the contract that he wanted. If you look at Bill Belichick, it really took until entering year three without Brady for fans to get frustrated. And year one, all right, they missed the playoffs.

Year two, they make the playoffs. And going into that year, there was some optimism, even though I thought there was going to be regression. But what frustrated a lot of people was the dumb approach on offense with Patricia and Judge running the offense, and it didn't take that long for Patriot fans to then turn on Bill for that. But I do wonder still where the public support is for Bill Belichick, because I think it's different when you have Robert Kraft saying vague things and you have, right, reporters reporting things that, like, I don't even know how factually true are. I don't know if he's totally lost the fan base, but it's I would say it's more 50-50 right now, because I can only speak for me that what happened for 20 years, it's really tough for me to lay into and really land base Belichick. And I've been critical going back to last year because it was just nonsensical in the approach. But I don't know how many people are saying fire Bill Belichick, other than like some crazy person that calls into a sports talk radio show that's looking to entertain.

But more my point of bringing Bill up specifically was this. We're talking about a guy, like you said, six titles, nine Super Bowl appearances in basically two decades. And yes, it's three years. But now we're talking about a guy that is, most people will say, the best coach ever. And it's like, I'll fire him right now.

And there's still now feels like growing, even just the conversation. Should he be fired on? It's happening.

Feels ridiculous. Now you look at Matt Leflore, it's two playoff games he's lost at home, both in grueling fashion. Couldn't even get to the playoffs last year.

Again, you can point the finger at Aaron Rodgers, but he is, his resume is nowhere close to Bill Belichick. So he's not even going to get, like Bill got three years of, we'll say, quote unquote, grace. I would say Leflore gets one and then all of a sudden 2024, you repeat that or don't improve too much.

Pitchforks are coming out. Yeah, but let's just say Jordan Love shows you signs this year and they go eight and nine. Do you think the fan base is really going to be against Matt Leflore heading into that year? No.

I know. So what does it take then? What I'm asking is what does it take for the fan base to basically be done with him after one year? Jordan Love struggles. And especially I think probably what expedites is they move off of Jordan Love and bring another quarterback. And then you see two quarterbacks in two years struggle. Then you could start to point the finger at, oh, maybe it's not the quarterback. It's the coach. And outside of them finishing in the bottom five.

Right. The first five picks of the draft, which I don't think is going to happen this year. I would be absolutely shocked if Gudekunz decides to get rid of Leflore or Jordan Love.

Because then once again, it's going to start to point the finger at him. If Gudekunz wants to continue here as the Packers GM, he's got to make sure that Matt Leflore is the right coach. And Jordan Love ends up being a good quarterback in this league. I'm not saying it's the Hall of Famer. I'm not saying it has to be a Super Bowl champion, even though that's a standard. You at least have to be good in the NFL to give your shot to continue to survive if you're the GM of the Packers and Brian Gudekunz.

We'll take a time out. When we come on back, though, let's expand this conversation a little bit further as we're talking about Matt Leflore. Who are some coaches? Because I'm curious how we're going to be talking about him at the end of the year. Who are some other coaches in the NFL that you're just curious about how we're going to be talking about them at the end of the season?

I got a few more names. We'll throw them at you when the Zach Gelb show continues in five minutes. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. All right, Zach Gelb Show CBS Sports Radio.

So right before the break, we were discussing Matt Leflore and I was wondering how we're going to be talking about Matt Leflore at the end of the season. So let's go division by division now. And let's see who's the coach in the division that we're most curious about how we're going to be talking about them at the end of the year. But first, let me tell you, think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Hickey, I'll start off in the AFC East. This may be the most intriguing division in football. It is the best division in football. But you have three coaches that in some way are on the hot seat entering the season.

I don't know how warm their seats are, but Robert Sala, a lot of pressure. Bill Belichick, even though he's won six Super Bowls, there's pressure on him this year. And Sean McDermott as well. McDermott has been wonderful in Buffalo. But now people are starting to wonder, yes, he built this team up. Yes, he's done a wonderful job in Buffalo.

Is he the right guy, though, to get this team over the hump? And I don't think Mike McDaniel is in danger of losing his job, especially after what he did last year. But I will say, I could see the public quickly turning on Mike McDaniel if the Dolphins significantly regress.

Because what a lot of people think is funny at the podium right now and lovable with Mike McDaniel, you know that that stuff will not fly if this team is just dropping and being a team that is not meeting their potential for this upcoming year. But for you, Hickey, who's the coach in the AFC East that you're most curious about how we're talking about them at the end of the year? I'm going to go with Sean McDermott because the Bills every year obviously have big expectations. And I think Sean McDermott is a coach that is really, really, really good.

I don't think he's a coach that can get you over the top. And if you're the Bills, for the most part, they have stayed status quo. They added Von Miller, but for the most part, they have kind of kept their core the same.

And I just wonder at this point if we're talking about another postseason exit, especially if it's early like in the first round or even the second round. I mean if you're Buffalo, at this point you're talking about the definition of insanity. In running it back, you're not going to get rid of the quarterback and you're not going to get rid of the GM. You guys go to the head coach.

And also you do have a job that is very attractive. Where if you look at kind of the Sean Payton guy from last year that he could pick whatever job he wanted. You know he wanted the Chargers job, but the Chargers weren't getting rid of Brandon Staley.

I can't think of a job that would be more attractive on the market. Even if the Jets are looking for a new coach this upcoming year, you have a younger quarterback in Josh Allen compared to Aaron Rodgers. And especially because last year's a problem or a question, play calling ever since Brian Debo left, creativity. You want to kind of spice that up and maybe move off of Ken Dorsey if he doesn't learn from last year. And you can get a lot of young attractive minds in the NFL.

Like I said, look at that job and going hard for it. I could see Mr. McVay even with his contract extension saying, yeah, you know, I want to get traded to Buffalo. We haven't had a good trade in a while.

What do you mean? Head coach trade that is. You said Sean Payton got traded. He got traded. I know he did, but that doesn't, he was out for a year. He got traded though.

I know, I know, I know. But I think leaving the sport for a year changed the way Sean McVay got traded. I think that's a huge, huge story. Whereas with Payton leaving and all of us kind of assuming he's not going back to the Saints, it lessened the drama. So I'm surprised by your answer. I'm not saying it's the wrong answer, but you've said that you don't believe that Bill Belichick is going to be back next year. So I think that to me is fascinating because from a historical standpoint, and I don't think the Patriots are going to get rid of Bill Belichick after this year. But if if you're right on that, that would be the most interesting thing to me at the end of the year when it comes to coaches, if Bill's actually going to be back. And I'm surprised that you, even though you've already said Bill's going to get fired, you didn't put the Patriots there at number one. So I just look at that team, I'm not jazzed by their offense. I just don't have high expectations for the Patriots. I don't think the Bills are going to the Super Bowl either, but I think it's a lot more intriguing just because the stakes are, I think, right now higher in Buffalo than they are in New England. Or if they bring Bill Belichick back for 2024, I mean at that point we all agree they're probably just letting him get the record and going out.

Which, I mean, do what you want, but it's not like they're a Super Bowl contender wasting years of their quarterbacks prime because they want to get a record. On a scale from 0 to 100, where are you at in terms of confidence? 0 being no confidence at all, 100% being the most confident you've ever been that the Patriots won't make the playoffs this year. Won't make the playoffs 85%. Okay, that's the first time this offseason actually felt good about my football team.

Because that right there is the hickey-hex. No, no, no, no. Matt Jones is going to start looking like an all-pro player in the league. Kendrick Bourne is going to be back. Calvin Johnson 2.0. You're going to get Scott Zolock. Bourne's back, baby!

Yeah! AFC North, Stefanski for me. That's a coach I'm most curious to see how we're talking about him at the end of the year. Because he's someone that's coaching for his job and Deshaun Watson makes me sick. Did you see how he was blaming the media over the weekend for the way that his case was reported with all the lawsuits that were against him? That was so weak.

It was so gutless. But it was expected because Deshaun Watson takes no accountability. And he should be kissing the floor that the Cleveland Browns gave him a fully guaranteed contract. But you know this, if the Browns stink this year, Deshaun Watson's not going anywhere because this contract's guaranteed. And Kevin's the fans he would be showing the door.

So I'm curious to see what happens there. A team with a lot of talent, but whenever the Browns have a lot of talent, I feel as if they don't meet where they're supposed to go. Stefanski for AFC North is obviously the answer.

One coach I guess I'm curious about, the conversation at least, is Zach Taylor. If the Bengals, I guess, fall anything short of an AFC title game. Just because, I mean, you look at their offense. Their offense is loaded.

And with bigger contracts getting out, this could be the last big chance with this current core. He's never, when he's had expectations, so, right, the year they go to the Super Bowl, no one expected that. And that was, I think, his third year in the NFL at that point as a head coach. And then the year after that, they go to the AFC title game. So if they lose in the divisional round, are people really going to turn on Zach Taylor?

I don't know, that's why I'm curious. I don't think so, but this is just intrigue of how they're being talked about. Again, I'm more just saying that as, not to just repeat what you said about Kevin Stefanski. Because Stefanski is the answer in the division. But I'm just, I am curious, like, there's a lot of talent on the Bengals. And there's very, you know, it's like, you're not going to blame the quarterback.

You're not going to say there's not enough weapons around them. If they fall short of expectations, one of the first fingers going around is going to be the head coach. So I don't think that Harbaugh's going to lose his job. But I'd be curious after Lamar Jackson got everything he wanted this offseason. Right, they're going to throw the football more.

Bringing in Munkin, they give the contract. I just want things with the relationship of Lamar Jackson and Harbaugh. If the Ravens miss the playoffs this year, and people start to point the finger at Lamar. Just what happens with that relationship between Lamar and Harbaugh, where there was some friction towards the end of last season. I'd just be curious how that's handled, because Lamar is going to have the most say in that organization. With the way that the contract is, even with what Harbaugh's done as a coach and won before. Lamar even got there, but I wonder where their relationship is.

That's what I'd be curious about if I had to give you another one outside of Stefanski. AFC South, it's actually new coaches. Because Rabel, he's been really good for so long. I don't think most people expect Tennessee to be anything. I'm a big fan of Doug Peterson, and Peterson's won a Super Bowl. And he miraculously turned around the Jaguars his first year there. I'm curious about Shane Steichen, because D'Amico Ryans is kind of perceived as that next young up-and-coming coach. I'm not saying it was a shock that Shane Steichen got the job, but I have no clue what he would be as a head coach. I don't think there's incredibly high expectations, but I'll be curious how we're talking about Shane Steichen, your guy at the end of the year.

This could also be positive, right? Because I think that's one where he could really impress, and I think knock a lot of people's socks off going into year two. If Richardson develops, if this coach's offense is better than expected and just is more competent, we've seen people are not afraid already after one year to kind of go all in on a coach or a team.

I think that could be a guy where he could really boost his stock more than anything with an impressive 2023. If I have to have these videos on X now on Twitter, where Hickey's like, Shane Steichen, let's go, yeah! I'm going to need a trash can to bomb him in. Bill Belichick, don't get too comfortable. We're coming for those six, baby. Actually, we're going for seven. How does second place sound? You would trade two first-round picks right now for Bill Belichick in a heartbeat to go coach the Indianapolis Colts, and you'll say no, but you absolutely would.

1000%. I trust Shane Steichen to get the most out of my quarterback, especially after what I look at, how Bill has not helped his guy, your guy. Yeah, did nothing for Tom Brady's career. Let's just forget about the greatest quarterback of all time.

I'm talking about Mac Jones. AFC West. This one's also intriguing because we're going to see what Sean does in year one with Russell Wilson. Josh McDaniel's got to be on the hot seat unless Mark Davis is just like the ultimate cheap guy, but the answer is Brandon Staley because you have a team that is super talented. If you can't find a way to do some damage in the postseason this year, I don't get like last you could justify it because they made the playoffs, even though I thought they should have brought in Sean Payton. But if he can't find a way to do some damage in the postseason, you could say goodbye to one of the better jobs in the league right now. Not in terms of the team or the fan base, you know, like the actual name of the team or the fan base, but just with the talent on this roster.

I mean, yeah, I can't argue with you. It's Brandon Staley by a mile. NFC East, it's got to be McCarthy with the Cowboys, but I'm just curious to see how we're going to be talking about him at the end of the year. Dave Ball was awesome last year, even if there's some aggression, he'll get the benefit of the doubt to see what happens in year three. Rivera could be out because you have new ownership, but Ron Rivera is one of the more well-respected human beings in the league, and Sirianni just went to the Super Bowl.

As long as that team wins double-digit games, I don't think anyone's going to sour on Sirianni. Look at the Cowboys. They got talent. They have a great defense.

The offense keeps on failing in the postseason. No more Kellen Moore there with the Cowboys, so I think it's going to be very fascinating to see how we're talking about McCarthy at the end of the year. I would agree, and I'm also fascinated to see for Jerry, someone who's very patient, not afraid to give some people he likes the long leash. I mean, Jason Garrett was there five years too long.

The clapper. I would love to see Jerry spin this if it's another disappointing, or I should say when it's another disappointing season. You know, I'll have some slumber party. Why he's bringing Mike McCarthy back in 2024.

I can't wait for it. McCarthy makes a mean s'more, that's why he'll be back for some more. Hey, you know what?

If I was an owner and he was bribing me with s'mores, I hate to say it, I could be bought. NFC North. This one's actually good. O'Connell after Great Year One. Leflore, let's see what he is without Rodgers.

Big year two for Matt Eberfluse. Whoever thought that would be a sentence, but it's for me, Dan Campbell. A lot of people like Dan Campbell right now.

I know a lot of people like Dan Campbell. It's the first time in a while the Lions actually have expectations. Even if you lose the division in a crappy NFC, you have to find a way to make the playoffs.

And the luster will rub off this year on Dan Campbell if they don't make the playoffs this year. And for the first time in a long time, we can say this, the Lions, if that job opens up, I think would be attractive. We talked about the bills before. It's nowhere near the bills level. Let's get that correct. But for a while, it's ripping teeth to get people to interview for the Lions' job. Where now, again, it'd probably drag off, take a step back if they don't make the playoffs.

But there's a lot of young talent there to work with. By the way, anything worse than going to the dentist? I was in the dentist today for an hour and a half. I had two appointments in the same dentist's office.

I had to do some work. That is just one of the most torturous things to end up going to as the dentist. I thought one appointment was bad, too. Yeah, I had a chipped tooth, so you had to make a different appointment for the chipped tooth. And then I had to do my yearly cleaning, so you had to do two different appointments back to back. At least you got it, I guess, both in one shot instead of going in like a week later and having to go back and thinking about it.

But wow, that's kind of two hours of hell. NFC South, who's the coach that you're most curious to see ever talk about at the end of the year? I'm going to say Arthur Smith. I'm fascinated. There's a lot of young talent on the offense. I feel like now the Falcons are starting to become like a dark horse pick where people are starting to kind of get on the Atlanta Falcons train. Me?

That you are absolutely one of them. I'm interested to see for a very smart offensive mind that had a lot of success in Tennessee, now when you go to Atlanta with a lot of young talent, how can you kind of capitalize on that? So I don't think there's any great answers here because it's a very boring division. I'll go Frank Reich, though, because a lot of people love Frank Reich in the NFL. The last two years, his teams were horribly prepared when he was with Indianapolis, where last year in Indy, he never won a first half. And then Jeff Saturday comes in and he wins his first first half of his coaching tenure up against the Raiders.

And then after that, it was an absolute disaster. But I'll just be curious with the development with Bryce Young, a reason to believe long term potentially in the Panthers, just how we're talking about Frank Reich at the end of the year. And finally, NFC West, I actually think the answer here is McVeigh, because if the Rams are bad again, I just wonder, even with the extension, how committed Sean McVeigh is actually going to be. I'm going to go Kyle Shanahan. For a while, you've basically been betting on himself that his brains will make whatever quarterback is playing great.

If you go do that again and it's Brock Purdy or Sam Darnold or Trey Lance or the three of them playing at the same time, who the hell knows? And we're talking about another either early postseason exit or failing to win the big game with all this talent. Clock's ticking. Well, you have a loaded roster and they've been so close, but yet so far. I just wonder, even though they keep on getting to the NFC title game of the Super Bowl, it feels like if you give up on Trey Lance and then Brock Purdy comes back down to earth and then Trey Lance stinks, it's like you're missing that window to go win with the roster that we all know is capable of winning, but you failed to fix the quarterback position for this, quote, unquote, genius of an offensive mind in the NFL.

All right. Zach Gilb shows CBS Sports Radio. Is there at all any curiosity with Mr. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom in Jonathan Gannon this year or not so much just because this roster stinks?

And I don't even know when his quarterback's going to be back. I think that's it. They're just so bad that I would be shocked if they're not in the top three. So my sound effects were horrible. Can you try your best Jonathan Gannon impression? Pew, pew, pew, pew, pow, explosions. Ack, are you at all good at making noises like that? No, definitely not. If I was, I don't think I'd even volunteer, though.

If you were, maybe be head coach of the NFL. There you go. We take that Gannon paycheck in a second.

We get a lot of slices of Junior's cheesecake, I'll tell you that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You're listening to the Zach Gilb Show.

All right. This is Zach Gilb Show on CBS Sports Radio. Clay Harbor going to join us coming up at 8.20 p.m. Eastern, 5.20 p.m. Pacific, as we will do a little first and goal previewing the Bears. But I did see our guy Austin Eckler, who made some big news on the show last week, just kind of going off on the state of the running back position and how a lot of these running backs aren't getting paid and there hasn't been a new contract since the Nick Chubb extension that happened back in 2021. But I did hear that Austin Eckler gathered a lot of the big running backs in the NFL on Zoom and they had a meeting, kind of discussed a bunch of things that's going on right now at the running back position. And here's what I don't get, Hickey, and I'll play you some audio from Nick Chubb in just a second.

But what are you going to accomplish? And that's the thing. You just agreed on a new CBA. Nothing's going to change because not as if owners are going to say, oh, I feel bad for the running backs. So all of a sudden we're just going to start paying running backs more. It's not a great strategy to draft running backs in the first round as we see so many running backs go second round or later and turn out to be stars in the NFL. And unfortunately for running backs, when you look at the last 10 Super Bowl champions, the only great running back in the regular season was Marshawn Lynch. And I'm not saying you don't need a run game because that would be foolish.

That would be idiotic. You need a run game, but we've seen that the better strategies kind of go running back by committee and what you would pay one star running back, you could divide that up and build a really serviceable running back room in a league where, let's be real, it's predicated more on passing the football now. So I don't get here, Hickey, even though it's nice to see the running backs come together and meet and blast the NFL and all that stuff.

What is actually going to get accomplished? And that's why when this stuff first did emanate, I kind of just said I understand the frustration from the running backs. I'd be frustrated, too.

If I'm putting up these big numbers, I would expect to get paid at a certain standard and not have it be, as you would say, pulling teeth when a contract extension is up or a new contract's in order. But on the other hand, I kind of understand what the owners are doing as well. There's only one thing for the running backs they can do. Hope the game goes back to 1970. Which would not happen. If it throws back and now all of a sudden it's a bruising, three yards and a cloud of dust kind of league, all of a sudden they are going to get paid.

If it stays and goes in the direction that we think it's going in right now, pass happening, wide receivers, quarterbacks get big money, they are SOL. The reason I'm laughing is not because of anything Hickey just said. It's more so what he just did. So Hickey is playing hurt and he had a splint on his hand. But I guess during the break he... Oh, that was the splint that just went flying across the room?

That makes it even funnier. I thought you had a tougher time gripping the pen that you were holding and you were speaking with your hands because Hickey speaks with his hands all the time. If you ever see one of his videos online, kind of your hands overtake the entire video with how much you speak right into the camera and move your hands. And I thought Hickey just had trouble gripping the pen that he was holding and the pen went right across the room but that was your splint that you just ended up losing.

I'm half Italian, love to speak with my hands. I loosen this splint up because my finger is a little swollen. Forget about it. From dislocating it and loosening it up had it launch across the room. So I've tightened it now, I've got it back on, I'm protected, don't worry I'm safe. My finger is all good but yes, it is unfortunately a casualty. And once again, in 30 seconds or less here, explain this lame injury that you suffered, how you dislocated your finger. In the pool, trying to swim as fast as I can, did not open my eyes because it's chlorine, did not have goggles on, I did not realize how close it was to the wall. My hand was, I was swimming freestyle, slammed it down on the edge of the pool because I was at the wall, not realizing it, dislocated the top part of my middle finger. In the pool, popped it right back in, no big deal.

And now, just a little, I would say, preventative slash precautionary. Splint on for the next week to make sure that I don't make it any worse. And I can have it healed faster than normal if, you know, I just had no splint and no protection. What is up with people that root for the Colts or used to play for the Colts with these freak injuries? I remember Carson Wentz was the quarterback and he had a foot injury and then Quentin Nelson suffered a foot injury as well. And over the weekend, not only does Hickey suffer an injury, but former Colts running back Naeem Hines, did he get, what was the story, he got hit by a jet ski? He got hit by a jet ski, he was stationary on the jet ski and some guy must have been out of control, hopefully not under the influence, which is 30 times worse. But either way, Hines was sitting still and he got rammed into by a fellow jet ski rider, hurt his knee and now out for the year.

Very sad. I had a jet ski accident once, actually. I was on a cruise when I was in high school and my mother and I, we were sharing the same jet ski and they show you how to brake on it. And my mother thought we were going like too fast and she slammed both brakes and the jet ski flipped over.

So they brought the jet ski and they like had another boat that they pick you up on. And the boat was rather slippery and I was annoyed because I am a high school kid, I just want to jet ski and my mother like flipped the boat over. So I quickly like jumped up on the boat, but the floor of the boat was really wet and I fell. And my head hit right back and like my eyes kind of rolled in the back of my head, but then I ended up being fine like eight seconds later and I was OK. So you out? Were you knocked out?

I don't think I was knocked out, but I think I was like a little woozy for a little bit. Wow. Yeah. You didn't see me, though, the next day, like coming in with like a bandage over my head, as you have on your finger after your little finger got hurt.

Well, I mean, I didn't do this for myself. The doctor gave it to me. Doctor's orders. Yeah. Well, what do you want to say? No, Doc, I know better with my zero MD degrees.

I don't know. You always think you're a lot more intelligent than everybody else. No, that's not true. That is not true. When it comes to sports, for some certain subjects, maybe.

When it comes to medical advice, no, I'll listen to the doctor. OK. How do we start off this segment, by the way? Running backs and their future.

So if we go back to 1970 before my splint flew off, they'd be better getting paid. Here's Nick Chubb saying his biggest takeaway from the running back zoom call is that the running backs are powerless. Well, I mean, right now it's just talking. There's really nothing we can do. We're kind of we're kind of handcuffed with the situation.

I mean, I thought what I took from it, McCaffrey and Derek Henry and say going out a lot of good points. But the biggest thing is that we're on position that our production hurts us the most. You know, if we go out there and run two thousand yards with so many carries, the next year, they're going to say, you know, you're probably worn down. That's the biggest thing that I took from it. It's just it's tough. You know, we it hurts us just to go out to go out there and do good. It hurts us at the end of the day.

So I appreciate how honest Nick Chubb was. But after hearing that, any of these other words are rather empty. You know, you could wrap it up and kind of just go home when it comes to this conversation. And it's not even worth wasting any more air time on it because. It's one thing to fight something, but if you have no chance of winning, like what's the cause of fighting right now when you're talking about running backs getting paid in the NFL? Because as Hickey said, this is not going to go back where there's a lot of bell cowbacks in the league as if this is 1970 or 1980. You're going to continue to move further and further away from bell cowbacks and going more so running back by committees. We've seen with the last 10 Super Bowl champions for the most part outside of the Seattle Seahawks.