Eagles Expectations? (Hour 4)

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Get 45% off selected products right now at blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. And I did see this clip floating around X or Twitter or whatever people call it.

And I didn't listen to it, but I was able to understand most of it just seeing some of the tweets and I know this is going to annoy me. So DK Metcalf shares his diet. I'm a candy type person.

Oh, what? I eat one meal a day, drink one coffee, and eat like three, four bags of candy. So yesterday I woke up, worked out, worked out again, came home, showered. I'm hungry. Run a Starbucks, get a quick coffee. That's going to hold me to like 4, 5 o'clock.

This 12. That's going to hold me like four hours. Around 4.30, I ordered some candy and a water. So I got the Skittles gummies.

Then I got the Lifesaver Creations. They're the same size bag. So I just mix them. Eat that. That's going to hold me to like 8 o'clock when I'm having dinner at 8, 9. And then I eat dinner, go to sleep.

Yeah, that annoys me. Because that sounds awesome, even though I don't think it's enough food. But I do think that's awesome that you could be in that great of shape where you look like a Greek god and you eat like complete crap.

Where you have one meal, you have a cup of coffee and then three bags of candy. That's crazy, Hickey. But you're kind of like that too. It's amazing to me how all you do is eat pasta. And you're in pretty good shape as well. Nah, you're not as good of shape as DK Metcalf, clearly. Which I think I got on my diet here.

I'm listening to DK. Listen, he looks like that. Why can't we both look like that doing the same thing? Well, you don't work out as much as he does.

I can start. Two workouts, one coffee, three bags of candy, dinner. That to me sounds like the recipe for a six pack in no time. I would just be very careful if I was you.

Because DK Metcalf is tough. And for you, you had a little finger injury over the weekend because you were swimming in the pool and now you have a splint on your hand. I mean, let's just call a spade a spade here. I dislocated my finger. I put it back in myself. That's not tough. And then did not go to the doctor until a day and a half later.

How many people are doing that? I'm not going to say a lot. I am in the minority of tough guys that fix their own injuries, don't complain about it. I barely told anyone it happened. All I did was move on, get a little ice, wrap it up, no big deal. The game kept going. I didn't stop. I'm a tough guy.

If DK Metcalf is in the tough guy club, I am in that same club. Stop. No, you're not.

I am in there. Just stop. Stop. You just sound like an idiot from hearing what you just said on the radio.

It's actually embarrassing that you had that take. The 200 great affiliates. Sirius XM Channel 158. If they are airing us tonight, you never know. There could be a few baseball games on.

And that free Odyssey app. And I'm looking at Hickey and he's flexing. And this is not an inspiration for you? No, but I think the image that you think you are is totally different than what people actually see. It's just tough for me to hear you say that you're a tough guy when you sound as if you're like a 14-year-old boy when you speak. Well, you're making me sound like a wimp.

So if anything, again, I think my actions and what I did signify the total opposite of that. Who... What's the... For some reason, I can't get your injury correctly even though you said it 9,000 times. Dislocated finger. That's no joke.

My brain isn't working today and I also just unplugged my headphones because I was trying to not hear this stupidity anymore. But you had a dislocated finger. Dislocated finger. Okay.

That's serious. Who suffers a dislocated finger swimming a lap in a pool? People that are swimming really fast, they don't realize the wall is right there. Stop. So I was not only tough, I was also swimming as fast as Michael Phelps. Okay.

You weren't even close to swimming as Michael Phelps does. I gotta find the video. I think it's out there. Oh my goodness gracious. I might release it.

If I can find it. This is all my fault because I challenge you to go out of your comfort zone and now all of a sudden this is just blowing up in my face because you think you're this absolute stud and you try to be bombastic on the radio. Just absolutely crazy. So if you could do the DK Metcalf die, what would your three bags of candy be? Sweetest fish. Hmm. Peanut butter M&M's. Like the peanut butter, not the peanut M&M's.

Peanut butter M&M's. Yeah. In the yellow bag?

In the red bag. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, I've had those. Peanut M&M's.

Nope. That's in the yellow bag. I've had those with the peanut butter filling in it. Delicious. Peanut butter M&M's in the red bag.

Fire. When I had my Aaron Rodgers died, if you know what I'm saying, I was looking for a little munchies at the 7-Eleven, I had those peanut butter M&M's. Delicious in the red bag. Phenomenal. And you know what's good?

I don't know exactly. I forget what they're called, but like those, not the peach rings. I guess you have peach rings.

I do. Peach rings are gas. I'm more of a chocolate guy. I would say a bag of M&M's, definitely.

Reese's peanut butter cups. A hundred percent. And then, can I ask a dumb question here? Sure. Would trail mix be considered candy? No. The M&M's are candy inside the trail mix, but trail mix is not candy.

I don't know why I was trying to go healthy there. Another bag of candy. Twizzlers, like mini Twizzlers. Oh, yeah. Give me some Twizzlers. Okay. I like that.

Santa had some Twizzlers in the studio a few days ago, and I was just taking a bunch of his Twizzlers and he's wondering where the heck they all did go. How many days could you do the diet consistently? Like, four years ago? Before you quit. Four years ago, and I did not care about the way that my body looked.

I could easily do that. You can't get fat, though. It's not a lot of food. No, but now, it's like I have one good meal and my body, like, internally just says to me, you can't eat the way that you used to eat anymore. If you started today, could you make it a Friday, eating just what DK Makeup does? No. Three bags of candy, one coffee, and one meal.

No, I drive myself mentally insane. Okay. Let's go to Andy Rhee.

He says he's not concerned about Chris Jones losing $50,000 a day for holding out, as he wants a new contract and he wants at least $30 million. There had been communication. We'll see where it goes from here, and, you know, we'll take it. If you're not here, we just keep moving, and that's how we roll. We don't worry a lot about that.

We let it take care of itself, and we've got great people working on that, so I'm not worried about that. That is the difference from Andy Rhee and Sean McDermott. Sean McDermott, when the whole Stefan Diggs situation happened, where they had some sort of kerfuffle behind the scenes, and then either he was sent home, or he just went home and said, I'm not going to the meeting, whatever happened. I know that Josh Almoni did speak, said that it was more so he was sent home talking about Stefan Diggs, and who knows if that's true. But then, Sean McDermott gets in front of the podium and goes, yeah, I'm overly concerned that he's not here. Andy Rhee goes, the wheel keeps on spinning.

When you want to join, okay, we'll figure it out, and then you eliminate pretty much, for the most part, all distractions. Let's go to Nick Chubb. This was right after all the running backs had a Zoom call, and he said it was nice to talk, but we kind of realized that we're powerless right now. Well, I mean, right now, it's just talking. There's really nothing we can do. We're kind of handcuffed with the situation, but, I mean, what I took from it, McCaffrey and Derek Henry, the NSA coordinator had a lot of good points, but the biggest thing is that we're the only position that our production hurts us the most, you know. If we go out there and run 2,000 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 tough, you know, it hurts us just to go out there and do good, it hurts us at the end of the day. So I understand both sides of this argument, Hickster. I feel bad for running backs because clearly you know that you only have a certain amount of years in the NFL, especially at that position, and the shelf life is pretty short, and you're going out and you're dominating, you're expecting these big numbers because of what running backs got in the past, but the game has totally changed. The NFL does not value bell cow backs anymore. They value running backs by committee, and I understand the owner side of it and the general manager side of it was like, okay, we'll take, well, we would pay one great running back and just build a committee of running backs and use that salary when we're more focused on throwing the ball and paying wide receivers as well to then allocate and spread out amongst two to three players at the running back position where everyone knows you need a run game, but you don't need a bell cow back and you could make the case the last great running back to win a Super Bowl was Marshawn Lynch. Last 10 Super Bowl champions, not a lot of these running backs were actually memorable. It's pretty depressing when he accurately says that basically the better they do, the more questions that are out there.

It doesn't matter how good we are, and he's right. Too many hits, right? Josh Jacobs, right? Like 1,600 yards led the NFL, and it's, well, it's a lot of carries on his body. Can he survive the wear and tear for the next year where any other position is, you ball out and lead the league in passing or receiving yards. It's, oh, please, we're dying to give you as much money as you can to sign here, and running backs, it's actually, oh, you did really well, congrats. Actually, never going to go the other way.

That's less of a reason why we don't want to sign you. So I really liked Reggie Bush, what was it, big noon kickoff on Fox? Big noon.

I was going to call it high noon, like the drink. They should probably sponsor that. But now they're getting rid of Reggie Bush. Mark Ingram is going to be replacing Reggie Bush, and Mark Ingram was talking to Yahoo Sports, and he says he won't actually allow his son to play running back moving forward. You almost tell the kid to play a different position. If you're a running back in high school, if you're a running back in middle school, my son will not be playing running back. He will be backpedaling, he will be running routes, or he will be throwing a football because those are the positions that are getting paid.

If he's big enough, hopefully he'll be a pass rush at the end, you know what I mean? So it's just highly unfortunate what's happening to the running back. Can I ask you a serious question here? Did you just injure yourself again? I saw you were trying to backpedal when Mark Ingram was saying backpedal, then you started grabbing your back. You're a brittle mess today. I did not injure myself again. This is another injury that I'm nourishing from the weekend.

My vibe is in shambles. I jammed my right third toe on a rock. I was bleeding for like ten minutes.

I don't know what happened. I mean, we played a lot of bottle bash, which is the Frisbee game where you throw the Frisbee out of basically a ski pole and a bottle on the beach. I played that for like three hours, so maybe it was just the hundreds of Frisbee throws I had that I'm not used to it. So my lower left back is hurting bad. My right middle finger is dislocated. My underarm is also a little sore as well, probably also from the Frisbee throws. So yeah, I am kind of beat up from the weekend. Yeah, but you're a tough guy. You're swimming in the pool, you dislocate your finger, you stub your toe, and you play too much Frisbee and your back and arm hurts.

That's the definition of tough guy. I am gutting it out right now. I'm not complaining. I am here doing my job, and I'm not telling you I'm hurt. By the way, you had to like, I didn't tell you about the splint. You had to look at it. I didn't tell you about the back injury. I tried to just mimic what Mark Pinger was doing.

But you saw it because I didn't make it obvious or I didn't tell you. I just unfortunately moved and felt a little back spasm. But being tough also is not telling everyone you're hurt. It's just pushing through, putting your head down, and working, and not to brag for the last five hours. That's what I've been doing.

Okay, I don't think you realize this. Your body is breaking down very quickly. You're closing in on 30 years old. Well, easier closing in. You're closing in. You're a year away. Eleven months. You're past your prime. That's what we're learning.

Eleven months from today, but who's counting? You peaked in high school. It's never good to peak in high school. But I think you peaked in high school. I didn't peak in high school.

Yeah, you did. That was your apex. That was your apex of your athletic achievement. I think I'm still peaking.

No, you're done. I'm only 50 years old, still thinking like I'm 15, being an athlete. I can't help it. And you're going to be walking around with one shoulder on the ground. Oh, I was playing pickleball, and I had an Achilles injury. And then I was swimming, and I dislocated my finger again. And I stubbed my toe for the tenth time this week on a rock.

Geez, Louise. Dan Campbell says the biggest enemy for the Lions this season are the expectations. I think it's always the thing that's going to worry you is the hype train. I mean, as with most coaches, you know, this thing is just taking off, and it's out of control right now. And that's fine as long as we stay focused on the job at hand and the work.

I just keep going back to that. We've got to put the work in and earn it. You guys should embrace the expectations. I'm not saying he's not, but their only enemy are the expectations. You guys aren't a slam dunk to win this division. And the Vikings are not slouches.

Packers, I don't think you're going to be horrible. So let's see if you guys could all put it together and do something the Lions haven't done in a long time. Terry McLaurin and Jonathan Allen from last week discussed their excitement for new ownership. Say goodbye to Daniel Snyder, that pig, and hello to Josh Harris. It's courtesy of the We Are Commanders social media. It's Terry McLaurin.

Jonathan Allen. Yes, sir. We're here at the owner's press conference welcoming our new owners. We're excited to enter this new day. Looking forward for a new season, man. There's been a lot of things going on. So to have this new ownership group come in and just really give us some fresh feeling in the city is huge. So we're looking forward to seeing you guys at training camp and at the first preseason game. He said it all, man. We appreciate your support. The best is yet to come. Let's go. Let's go, man.

So I was thinking about this over the weekend, Hickey, and I didn't hear this audio until just now. Do you think the players really care? I know that Daniel Snyder is an absolute disgrace and he brings so much bad publicity and just does so many disgusting things to an organization. But a guy like Jonathan Allen got paid, a guy like Terry McLaurin got paid. Do you think they really are that excited about a change in ownership here? I would think so, because I think at this point you want to win as well.

And I think if you've seen just him and being heavily involved in decision making, notably bringing Carson Wentz in last year, I think that's going to be the answer. Not going well. I think that you are excited of, OK, maybe now we can get back on the winning track. We're a monetary, like you said, there was never an issue of them getting paid. But now you feel like you can win more than you could before. Here's my players who care. I actually think you'll have some fans showing up this year.

And there will actually be some excitement and you'll be able to be proud, even though you get paid OK, it's great. But there was so much apathy with that fan base because Daniel Snyder was such just a jackass. And now you actually have Commander's fans who are excited to go maybe to attend games actually this year, instead of that just being a road game each and every time. I mean, I've never heard of an outside of the Raiders team tarping off and enclosing their stadium and lessening the capacity because no one is going. Jaguars have done that before.

They cut off certain sections and things like that to avoid blackouts and things along those lines. I guess. Colts have to pump in some fake crowd noise.

Well, the point is the commanders at one point had the biggest stadium and they said, actually, we have no one here to make it look better. Let's just start taking rows off the top. Brian Harmon. He wins the open championship and this is how he'll celebrate the victory. I had a nice week a couple of weeks ago and I bought a new tractor for my hunting place. So I'll get home and I'll be on the tractor mowing grass in the next week. I'll be very excited about that. So that's going to be your reward. You're going to ride your tractor. Yeah, I might take a whole day and just just put my phone away and go get my tractor. I'm a little bit lost because I've never known an open champion celebrate by mowing grass on the tractor. I got a lot of layers, man.

I'm like onion. It's a hundred and five horse Kubota tractor and it's it's going to be a pretty one. I haven't told my wife how much I spent on it. That's awesome. I don't think that tops the Waffle House visit by Trevor Lawrence after winning that playoff game. But it's pretty boss move where you win and all you want to do is just go on your tractor and enjoy life for Brian Harmon. I like that. As a fellow lawn enthusiast, I agree it's very cathartic to just have a nice, clean cut grass. I don't know if I'm cutting you the trust you to cut my grass, if I'm being honest. I do a really good job.

My dad was very strict growing up, so I learned the lines. But with all these injuries I'm saying, I think you're a liability now. I have in my twenty nine years of life never hurt myself cutting the grass. Can I see that finger that you dislocated?

That was from swimming, not grass cutting. Next week, vroom, vroom. No, come on. I know what I'm doing. I thought you knew how to swim before this.

I am not going to win though, just in case. You're a little bit nervous, let's be real there. Alright, let's go to David in Buffalo, wants to chime in on Brian Harmon and the Open Championship victory. David, what do you got?

Hey Zach, I appreciate you taking my call tonight, man. You know, I look at this in a couple ways. First off, I couldn't believe those knowledgeable English golf fans were booing him on the first tee. I thought that was totally classless and disrespectful.

This is not an NFL game or an NBA game. To me, I just couldn't believe they were doing that. It just seemed kind of out of line, if you ask me. What heckler said to him after I think he bogeyed that he didn't have the stones he revealed after the match to win. I was a little bit surprised by that with usually the culture around golf.

Yeah, I was too, man. In the Ryder Cup, maybe I could see that, but not at a major. It just seemed surprising. The other thing too was, to me, it just shows how deep the game of golf is. I mean, you think about all these guys who took the blood money from the Saudis that were the big name guys that obviously didn't play great in this tournament. You look at the depth of the PGA Tour and just golf in general. To me, how many people last week are the experts? The Brando, Chambliss, all these guys had Harmon in there as a favorite to win.

Nobody had him. This guy has kept his tour card all these years and he's not a bomber off the tee. So a really impressive win for him. To me, the reality was he played a lot like Tiger did years ago with this course, except he hit a driver off the tee and Tiger used irons because the conditions were a little different. Appreciate the time, man, and you have a good night.

Yeah, appreciate it. So I actually, I do agree, sort of, with David where you did not expect some of the booing to participate and happen at an Open Championship. But Hickey, I think for the sport of golf, that's not the worst thing in the world. As long as it's respectful, like it's not going on during the backswing or when you're lining up to hit a putt, something like that. But I don't mind having a little personality and having some people who are maybe not that liked by certain golf fans.

And I know this is the completely different setting. I was at Waste Management this year, but I think having a little bit more personality from the fans isn't the worst thing in the world. Now you don't want it to be over the top because it's part, right, there's still a certain respect level with golf, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Because the guy's American, you're going to boo him, I thought that was stupid by a lot of those fans. Look, I think villains in sports are good.

Not bad, yeah. So you want to roofie whatever golf you want to win, obviously you're watching for that. But I think also another reason people watching fans have an interest is because you don't want to see someone else win. And so usually that brings out some nice passion and we always revel in the crowds at any other sporting event, how good it is here. I did appreciate the fact that, again, if you don't want Brian Harman to win, I don't think you should be faking it like they do a lot in golf and a lot in tennis. Where you're cheering for both guys and anytime they make a shot even on top of the guy you want to win, you're still cheering. I kind of like, like I said, as long as on the backswing you're not actually disrupting the golfer in a way that you're not supposed to.

I had no problem with a little jeering, a little booing. Like when Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau before they found a way to become friends again or friendly again, I thought that rivalry was good for golf. And at the time I thought, even though Live Golf was criticized in a pretty big way, I thought maybe you would have some rivalries between the Live Golf guys and the PGA Tour guys when they meet up at major championships. But that kind of lasted for two or three majors at most and then we all know what happened with the PGA Tour taking the Saudi money as well.

But it's impossible. It's the toughest sport to predict. Who had Brian Harmon shoot in a 65 on the second day of the tournament?

It's the toughest thing to predict. Rory's been really close to winning another major championship this year and has been able to get over the hump. I felt good for Cameron Young. At one point I saw he was up at second on the leaderboard and he revealed some stuff to us.

And I could root for a guy like Cameron Young. But I picked some winners outright. I divide up $100 each and every tournament. Every major tournament I should say. So four times a year and I picked three golfers to win.

And I've had some success recently. I got Colin Morakawa on his first major. Matthew Fitzpatrick on his first major as well, that major championship victory.

But my three picks this time, and they weren't bad picks. Victor Hovland was tied for 13th. Hideki Matsuyama was tied for 13th as well. And then I had Scottie Scheffler who had a rough tournament and he ended up finishing even for the tournament. But it just shows that a guy like Scottie Scheffler, everyone thought he would have got at least one major this year with how hot he's been and being the world number one golfer. And he didn't win a major championship this year. And finished tied second at the PGA and came close, but he didn't get the job done this year. So it's the toughest thing to predict and anyone can get hot and anyone can go up and have a remarkable run. Like look at a few years ago.

Who would have thought Phil Mickelson a few years ago would have added another major championship? That's the sport though. Look at Tiger. One of the more improbable comebacks ever.

All self-inflicted, but look what Tiger was able to do. So it's the toughest sport to predict. There's no doubt about it.

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New Dove Love Your Hair. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. So someone that used to work here also worked for Pro Football Focus when they worked here.

And I like this person so we'll keep him nameless. I remember there was once I was doing a Weekend Overnight here when I hosted the Weekend Overnight show for about like almost two years. And there was some Pro Football Focus list that was out. And I kind of forgot that this person also worked for Pro Football Focus.

And I remember saying just in passing, I think it was to my old producer for the Weekend Overnights and Ben Horowitz. You know this Pro Football Focus stuff, they give you some good content, some bad content. I think you have to take everything that they say, though, with the grain of salt because of how much it's data driven. So the reason I say that is because they come out with the top 50 players in the NFL list. And I think most of the time people forget what lists are from a lot of like publications. Lists are made to get a reaction out of you. And sometimes people, if they're not trusted, make a list just to make a headline.

But it's always tough to decipher if that's being done. So when I see this Pro Football Focus article, and I don't know how they came up with the rankings, but when I see that Jalen Hurts isn't considered a top 50 player by Pro Football Focus, that makes no sense to me. Because the player that was one on your list is Patrick Mahomes, I would not disagree with that for a second.

But Jalen Hurts in the Super Bowl outplayed Patrick Mahomes, even though the Chiefs won. So I don't see how you could say there are 50 players better than Jalen Hurts. Now, Joe Burrow is listed as the 10th best player, second best quarterback. I think he should be higher up on the list. Josh Allen was ranked as the 12th best player. If you want to tell me after those three names that you can find one more quarterback, all right, you want to tell me Rogers, fine. But the fact that they say that there are six quarterbacks in the top 50 and Jalen Hurts isn't one of them, that doesn't make sense to me. So for the quarterbacks, then when Mahomes won, Burrow 10, Allen 12, Justin Herbert 35, Lamar Jackson 41, and Aaron Rodgers 45. I love Lamar.

I don't think there's been more of a support on national radio for Lamar Jackson than me. Guys have been healthy last two years. Justin Herbert has done squat in the postseason. And Rodgers, I don't think he should be at 45, even though he didn't have a great year last year. But the two years before that, he won two MVPs. And I mentioned three names earlier.

And I know it's always tough because you have to look at all positions. Andrew Thomas had a kick-ass year last year. He's in the top 50, though, the offensive lineman for the Giants, and Jalen Hurts isn't. Deebo Samuel, if you want to tell me, and the reason why I brought up Deebo earlier, it's not because he hung up on us. And I was trying to get a jab in at Deebo.

I don't care about that. Deebo had one great year. And last year, then fell off, and he would even admit it, he did in our interview, that he was horrible. So if you're just going to tell me that Jalen Hurts doesn't belong because he just had one great year, well, Deebo's on this list, and he just had one great year. And the quarterback position is more important. And then Jonathan Allen's been on the show before, really good player for the commanders, but he's a top 50 player in the league, and Jalen Hurts isn't. So the reason that I brought up the previous story, but I have to take everything with a grain of salt when it comes to Pro Football Focus, is, Hickey, I don't know what data they use, but I'm assuming with what Pro Football Focus is about, that this is a data-driven list. I don't know how they get to the data that suggests that Jalen Hurts isn't a top 50 player in the NFL, but I think a lot of people will say this list was made to get a reaction out of people, and this list was made where they went into it saying, oh, we won't put Jalen Hurts in it, and Eagles fans will go crazy. I just think it more so shows their data, or how many times on a Sunday. And I'm not saying Pro Football Focus is bad. There's some things that we really like of theirs.

But why I'm not going to get bent out of shape with this is because you look at a lot of the things that they do. How many times on a Sunday you watch a player, you're like, wow, that guy was great. He wasn't even in their top 10 rankings at the position. Or you see a guy that was horrible and choked the game away, and they try to tell you statistically he was the top 10 player this past week.

So I'm going to assume that this was mainly data-driven, and it's just so ambiguous what the data is and how you determine based on the data who's a top 50 player in the NFL. Well, I think obviously we're seeing right now, Pro Football Focus' biggest issue is that they are box score-driven, where it's just numbers. And we know, especially in the game, sometimes it doesn't matter what numbers you put up, it matters when you put them up.

So even if you have a game of four catches and 50 yards, you could go catchless, yardless the entire game, but you have four catches on the last drive of the game-winning drive, 50 yards in the game-winning touchdown. We view you a lot differently than probably the computer does. And so that's also a big issue is that they just strictly look at the box score, and that's why guys like Kirk Cousins, not to pick on him, but he's a guy who does look pretty in the box score, but then you watch the game and you realize a lot of those numbers are hollow.

We've seen computers are not watching any games. They can't judge hollow stats. They can't judge clutch and, you know, stats kind of when you need a drive or need a play to be made, which guy is doing it and who isn't, that's probably one of the biggest reasons why there's such a big disconnect in terms of who we value and who we think is good versus what pro football focus spits out. And I know that you just can't win the argument this way because the NFC talent pool is not that deep when it comes to quarterback, but he's the best quarterback in the NFC. You would think if you're the best quarterback in the NFC, you'd be a top 50 player in the NFL. And once again, I'm not telling you he has to be your third best quarterback in the NFL.

Mahomesboro, it's one, two, no doubt. Josh Allen, the season that he had last year, it's up for debate now if he's three. I would still say he's three. And then I would put Jalen Hurts, four. But if you wanted to tell me that Rodgers should be four and Hurts should be five, okay, I could live with that.

But I don't get how you tell me that there are six quarterbacks in the league right now that are better than Jalen Hurts, and he's not even a top 50 player. So whatever data they have, I would love to know how you determine that, actually. But I would say go shove the data somewhere in not a nice spot because it just doesn't make sense to me. And I understand there's going to be a vocal amount of people that go, oh, this was just to get a reaction out of people. I really do believe that Pro Football Focus believes everything that they put out. I really do. But in this case, this one, I would love to hear a further explanation of it. But then I think that would drive me insane because it's just stupid. Like, it's not even a thought.

But when I saw the headline, I go, oh, this must be a fake tweet or something like that. I don't get how you say that this guy isn't a top 50 player in the NFL. The only negative right now for him is that he's not done it long enough.

Like, that's literally it. You can point out flaws of Justin Herbert, you can point out flaws of Lamar Jackson. With Jalen Hurts, it's literally two years as a starter. Playoffs for a team that was on the rise and a Super Bowl appearance, second in the MVP voting. I think that played really good for the most part in the Super Bowl.

There's not a lot of flaws outside of just legitimate experience or legitimate reps. You could say he's not one of, right now, the best quarterbacks, let alone best players going into this season. And I don't think there's a lot of national disrespect for Jalen Hurts, but maybe I'm wrong after this list as we were talking about earlier. And everyone's saying the Eagles are that team and see the Eagles are 49ers this year in the NFC.

Here's my question. How do you think right now, Hickey, and I'll go around the room on this, I'll bring Marco on this as well. At the end of the year, how do you think we're talking about Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles based off what you think they're going to do this year? Coming off of this year, I think really good. Best quarterback in the NFC. Probably another top, I would definitely say top 5. Maybe top 3 MVP getter. I think he's going to pick up where he left off.

Marco? Yeah, I think the only thing is do the Eagles get back to the Super Bowl. That's the only question. And that'll be how we view it.

Because that's part of what we just talked about with the way we look at stuff, not just numbers. If the Eagles fall short and get upset in a divisional round or drop in the NFC title game, we'll put as a knock on Hurts and the Eagles. But his actual play on the field, it's not going to drop. Yeah, I think the world of Hurts in terms of his mentality, and I think it's very tough, even though you're in an advantage when you're a quarterback, to be the leader in the locker room. But you have a team that has some players that have won Super Bowls in a city that never won a Super Bowl before. You had a guy like Brandon Graham be a Super Bowl hero, a guy like Lane Johnson just be an absolute force for a while now. Jason Kelce, who's a legendary player for the Eagles. And Jalen Hurts, being in that locker room before, they follow his lead. And I know it's easier when you're a quarterback, but so when you're young and you have guys that are more accomplished that have won, it's not the easiest thing to do. And I remember when he won the NFC championship game, I said to him, Jalen Hurts, you're going to the Super Bowl.

What processes and what goes through your mind on that one? And he goes, we did our job. It was as if they didn't even get. I was like, that's it? But that's who he is. He comes from that Nick Saban school of until the job is done to the Kobe school as well, when he had two wins in NBA finals, job's not done yet. And I respect that from a quarterback.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't his dad a coach? Yeah, I think that's where it comes from as much as we want to look. And it's not to knock some of the coaches that he's had and the Saban's and all that. I feel like this is something that's in that's in him. That's that's who he is. That's the person that he is, because leadership, as much as we talk about it, it it's something where you have to see it.

It's hard to describe until you actually look at it. It's organic with Jalen Hurts. And I think it comes from his father. I think it comes from his upbringing. I think it comes from who he is.

And guys see it and they gravitate towards it. I don't think any of that. Sometimes you see they all know what the right thing to say and they get PR'd really well. I don't think that's the case with Hurts.

I think that's him. And also, I thought the way that he handled the whole Tua situation, right, get him polled and then staying there and then helping them out in the SEC title game when Tua gets hurt a year later. And then going to Oklahoma and being a finalist for the Heisman, but still not getting the praise because people never thought you'd be a great NFL quarterback.

Then you get drafted in the second round. Oh, way too early. And Carson Wentz is the guy. Oh, yeah. All those things, even though he was so accomplished, he never really got the praise. And I think that's a mentality he feeds off. That's a mentality. That's that's an inner confidence. That's he's not worried about whether or not you give him the credit. He knows what he wants to accomplish and he's going he's going to get to where he needs to get to. And none of that other noise, none of that other nonsense is going to bother him because he knows where he needs to go.

And it's not a concern of his whether or not he gets praise from you or him or anybody else. He knows where he needs to be. Bare minimum, I think as long as Hurts is healthy, this team's going to an NFC title game this year. The line is still phenomenal and they've gotten younger through the draft. You have AJ Brown and Devante Smith. Dallas Goddard is criminally underrated and defensively, yes, they lost some pieces, but you still have Hassan Reddick coming off the edge. You got Darius Slay in the secondary. If this team is in the NFC title game, I know anything can happen, right?

How many years? There are some times where Brady would have a bye and they would lose in the in the you know, after the bye in the in the second round. It happens at a single. Who's healthy in what spot? I mean, yeah, you run into a bad matchup. Those are the things that the Eagles that's the bumps on the road for them getting back to the Super Bowl or the NFC title game. Whatever minimum point that you want to point, they're good enough on paper. They're good enough anywhere to be able to make another run. It's just a question of getting through the season and who's healthy and and what your road leads to. And put it this way, if at the end of the year, we're saying Jalen Hurts is a one hit wonder, I'd be really surprised.

No, that's what I mean. Look, they could get knocked off. Anything can happen. They get knocked off in the in the divisional round and we look at. Hey, you know what? This is a problem.

You know, you have bad day, whatever it is. I don't believe the play of hurts all season long is going to show you that he's not what we think he is. The second half of the baseball season is here and each game means a little little bit more. We're talking pennant races and wildcard chases with each pitch bringing us closer to the playoffs. The free Odyssey app lets you listen to live play by play of your local team. So no matter what you're up to, you'll never have to miss another game.

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Odyssey. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down.

Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell. Only on the Zach Gelb Show. So I think we're aligned on this, Hickey, where soccer is not a sport that you really care for outside of the World Cup, I would say. Is that correct?

That is right. So when the Lionel Messi news comes out that he's joining the Major League Soccer team in Florida, did you really care for it when you saw that release? I felt as if I was the. The kid that wasn't at the cool table at lunch in high school, because everyone's talking about this and I go, OK, I understand it's messy and how big of a deal it is, but it doesn't do anything for me.

I'm not going to pretend to be excited or, you know, pretend to watch a sport in a league that I have, again, outside of once every four years, no real interest in. I was a big Freddie ado fan back in the day. 15 year olds.

I was not really 15. Something like that. No, no.

That's Danny Almonte. I thought Freddie ado's age was lied about, too. I don't think so. If I'm wrong on that, we will fact check that. You said you were 29 earlier. Is that an actual age? So double check that.

I don't think that's the case, but who knows? But anyway, Messi over the weekend in his first game, he had all the stars out. He had a bronze there. He probably predicted this for being real. And he has a free kick and he ends up hitting it for the winner. And it was just awesome watching this on social media.

I wasn't watching it live on Apple TV, but this is how it sounded. Listen up. Here it is. Messi!

Put it up in, and the other way! Magnificent! It was great. And you have to watch it, too.

Just because all the different camera angles was awesome. But give a stock up to Messi for the big goal. I was talking to Stuart Kovacs. I was like, does this team have any shot at making the playoffs?

They're like, they stink. So let's hope for the Major League Soccer case, they end up making a big push and making the playoffs. Brian Harmon ends up winning the Open Championship, the final major of the year. And just tremendous with what he was able to do in round two of the tournament.

That's where he won the tournament, but you could fall off after that and he didn't do so. So give a stock up to Brian Harmon. And finally, Naeem Hinds. I feel horrible for him.

And this just is, this absolutely stinks. So he was just sitting there on a jet ski and a jet ski hit him. Hickey, and now he's expected to miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury. Is that the right story there?

That's right. Man, just what a terrible luck for Naeem Hinds. That just stinks.

So give a stock down to Naeem Hinds. Alrighty, that's the quick version of the closing bell today. This is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thank you to Jake Delorme for joining us earlier previewing the season first in goal style for the Carolina Panthers.

And talking about his expectations for Bryce Young. If you missed any of that, you could just use the rewind function on the Odyssey app or you could go to X or Twitter. Probably should have given a stock down to Elon Musk because I don't know what the heck he's doing. Making Twitter now called X and changing the logo and all that stuff.

It's all confusing. But you could also go to my Twitter page if we're still calling it that. You'll find a link in the bio and you can find all of our segments for our podcast. Make sure you go rate, subscribe, do all that stuff.

Follow me on the good old cesspool of Twitter as well, at Zach Gelb. And big thank you to Clay Harbor as well. We'll be back tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. It's Eagles Day tomorrow on first in goal as we continue to preview each and every team in the National Football League. Big thanks to each and every one of you. Hecky as well. We out. Bye bye. Peace!