Jetting Up The Expectations? (Hour 1)

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That's Stamps.com code PROGRAM. Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 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 can 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. Rick Trowell going to join us coming up 20 minutes from now. We will preview the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a little first and goal style. Safety for the Ravens, Marcus Williams, as we'll do another first and goal today. We'll double dip in those waters previewing the Baltimore Ravens at 7 20 p.m Eastern, 4 20 p.m Pacific, and then if you are a fantasy football fan, welcome in fantasy football expert, Jamie Eisenberg, who helped me win my league a few years ago telling me to go pick up Jeff Wilson Jr. and then he had a big, big, big weekend.

Jamie Eisenberg will join us as we prep for your fantasy football draft. But first up, producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than hot take kicky. I don't know about that hot take kicky. So hard knocks debuted last night. The Jets who didn't want to do hard knocks are on the show this year. And I have very low expectations for hard knocks because when a team doesn't want to do it and the teams have control of what gets out there, I don't expect it to be juicy. The last time hard knocks was really good was for me when the Cleveland Browns were on it. You had Hugh Jackson fighting with Todd Haley. You had Bob Wiley talking about stretching and how he can't stand it. And with his gut saying, you had those things which are fun and even like a fake outrage and a speech by who was the player?

Jarvis Landry was the player, which you could tell was very contrived, was the word that I was looking for. Like last year, and maybe it's just because of how we kind of are wired now, I thought hard knocks was good on social media and the clips that were put out there were good. But when you watch the actual hour long episode, even with good personalities that the Lions have, I was bored at times last year. And last night, this is the best way that I would describe the Jets on hard knocks last night. If I was a Jet fan, which I'm not, I'm sure Jets fans eat it all up because it was very positive and the Jets fan has not had many things to be positive about in a long time. And you're just like walking on water right now.

And you're hopping around that you have an extra pep in your step because nothing could go wrong for now with your football team because you have Aaron Rogers. I'm sure that you probably thought it was better than what it actually was. But Hickey, here's the best way that I would describe hard knocks from last night. We all love hard knocks because it gets you closer to football season.

I didn't have to sit there and have it be on my television and it be the only thing that I'm focused on because it wasn't that captivating. Last night's version of hard knocks was perfect background noise, where if you have to go do the dishes, you fire up hard knocks, you do some dishes, you sit down, maybe you go to the pantry, you keep on having it being played, you'll get some trail mix, a snack, some popcorn, you go back down, then you have to go back to the bathroom, and then you get back to your couch. I didn't have to sit there through the hour of hard knocks last night and be plugged in sitting there with like a pen and paper jotting down notes for the show because I was going to learn some crazy things about the Jets.

So hard knocks for me last night, Hickey, was good background noise. It was something that you're not going to be like, oh it's horrible, oh it's awful, I don't want to listen to, but I don't need to be in the zone watching hard knocks. It was predictable. The word I use is predictable because right now it's been an infomercial for these teams.

It's basically a free promo for the season. Everything is positive. Everything is all great.

Everything is dandy. They could easily dress up the Arizona Cardinals and have you believing after episode one. This team's going to go 15 and 2.

They only highlight the positive. They always spin it to where there's a chance or you can now start believing, huh, maybe this team is better than we thought. And you see on Twitter yesterday, a lot of people are talking about it today, Jets, Super Bowl. But there's a reason to believe in the Jets.

And I'm not saying that they're going to go to a Super Bowl, but they're a top five team on paper in the AFC. So there's a reason to believe in the Jets with their defense. You have the reigning offensive and defensive rookie of the year. You got Quinnen Williams up front. You have Aaron Rodgers.

There's a reason to believe the Jets could be a really good team. But if you put the Arizona Cardinals on hard knocks, what is there to believe in? You're not going to get me fired up for Colt McCoy. I don't look at anyone on that wide receiving room being a number one wide receiver with DeAndre Hopkins not there.

I know Buddha Baker is at least there with the whole trade demand this off season and all that. But there's nothing with the Arizona Cardinals that would make me say, oh wow, now I actually believe in them. And also their coach creeps me out, Jonathan Gannon.

With that introductory video, with all the sound effects, when he was talking to one of the wide receivers and he was like, and he sounded like he was a video game, he creeps me out. I'll tell you, that was the one negative thing I thought last night. I don't want my football coach to be happy go lucky, Mr.

Positive. I know Robert Salah can tear into a player and Robert Salah, I'm sure it can be tough behind the scenes. I thought Robert Salah last night was almost as if he was just like appreciative to be there. And it's like, oh, we have Aaron Rodgers and this is the greatest thing in the world.

Aaron Rodgers runs that team. We all know that, but it just comes off to me as Robert Salah, who doesn't look like he would be the definition or the stereotypical definition of a very positive person, right? He's jacked, he looks intimidating and all that stuff. And he looks like a man's man, but I thought he was too positive last night, but that's kind of his coaching style. And that's how a lot of coaches now operate in 2023, where it's, you gotta be positive about everything and be a player friendly coach.

I mean, he was in awe. That's a good word to use. And I really hope that, yeah, they, you know, it's kind of one of those things. It's like, you don't want to really meet your heroes in part because either you're starstruck or whatever.

Sometimes they don't really appear as they seem on TV or whatever. It really felt like a lot of the jets and maybe it's cause also their youth. A lot of these guys are rookie second, third year in the league growing up watching Aaron Rodgers. It's like, wow, I can't believe I'm playing with Aaron Rodgers instead of let's go in a Super Bowl. Cause now we've got one of the quarterbacks to help us get there. You really hope that it's not just like all season.

This is so cool. And you lose track of actually what you're there to do, which is win. You know what it reminded me of the Salah Rodgers relationship last night. Remember before the Patriot Rams Super Bowl where we, we saw this afterwards when they do the mic'd up version of the Super Bowl. I think it's through NFL films and you had Sean McVay before the game go up to Bill Belichick in the Sean McVay, like high pitch voice where he kind of sounds like John Gruden on Helium, where he goes, Bill, it's just such an honor man to coach up against you. Like right before the biggest game of your life at that point, you don't need to be fanboying over Bill Belichick. And you saw the year prior, Doug Peterson had a totally different interaction with Bill Belichick where you had a conversation, but you could see that look in Doug Peterson's eyes that it was like, I want to just absolutely defeat you tonight and I'm going to do everything in my power. And Hey, we'll talk at some point after the season or after this game, which was the final game of the season in the Super Bowl. That's, that's I think the way the perfect way to equate the way that I felt in terms of the Salah Rodgers relationship.

It was very similar to McVay fanboying over Bill Belichick in that Super Bowl. And I'll tell you, everything is going perfectly for Aaron Rodgers now as it should. And I give Rodgers credit. Rodgers has embraced the Jets. He's embraced his younger teammates. He is now happy because he wasn't happy the last few years in Green Bay.

He was working to prove a point to Brian Gudekunz and Matt Lafleur that they made an enormous mistake in drafting his replacement. And now he goes to a place where he feels like he's wanted and they're going to do everything that Aaron Rodgers wants and everyone's genuflecting to Aaron Rodgers. So you look at Rodgers on hard knocks, you saw that last night, like we're talking about, which could be a negative and a positive. How many times I thought it was actually cool, but I thought it was just too much, which shows you that really have no content where the guy that does the voiceover for hard knocks, like it was cool to see who that was. And Rodgers, you know, have an obsession and kind of fanboy over him, but it felt like they did like 15 minutes on that.

So they probably didn't have a lot of content, but you know what one of my biggest takeaways was last night? And maybe it's because we've seen him play for a few years and he's been horrible. How the heck did Zach Wilson ever become the second overall pick in the draft hickey? Like you look at him and I know you can't just define someone based off looks, but even the coaching staff was like talking about how Jack Zach Wilson looked like. I know he's listed at 6-2. He does not look like he's 6-2. If you would have just showed me a picture of Zach Wilson, I would say he's probably a GQ model.

That's what I would say. I would have never predicted that Zach Wilson is a quarterback in the NFL. And watching him last night on the show, he just doesn't even look like a quarterback. And because people thought he could be like what, 50 or 65% of Patrick Mahomes with the mobility.

And he had that really nice draw. I remember watching it to Dax Milne when he was playing at BYU. This guy ended up being the second overall pick in the draft. So I'm watching it last night and maybe it's easier because we've already had the answer that this guy is not a successful quarterback in the league.

So maybe that's why it becomes so eye-popping, but I'm watching that. I'm going, man, this guy just doesn't even look like a quarterback. Well, I mean, he's by far, you talk about going back to that COVID year, there was no one that benefited more than Zach Wilson because that schedule at BYU played was atrocious. He had a lot of national games. He looked good in them because they're beating the crap out of all these pathetic teams that are playing because they couldn't get anyone else. And he benefited going up to number two.

Now I will say yesterday, Zach Wilson did go up a notch in my books for one reason and one reason only. And he didn't have a mustache, I don't think. He did not have a mustache and that would not be the reason. And you're a big mustache guy.

So what's the reason here? The reason is, I don't know if you caught it at halftime. Was he talking to a mom? He was crushing and uncrustable. That's your halftime snack. I got your back.

I got your back all day, every day. Looked to me like grape jelly as well, which is absolutely the move to go. Good on Zach Wilson eating the only proper halftime snack you showed in the NFL. What was that exactly? Uncrustable. What is that? You don't know what uncrustable is? Did I just ask you what that was? What is that?

Wow, I am shocked. Uncrustable is literally exactly what it sounds like. It is a little bread with the crust cut off, peanut butter jelly smacked together, sold by Smuckers in stores everywhere.

I've seen this before now. Yeah, I think I've had that once. It's like a little pie, right? Wow, you're missing out on life.

You yell at me for my food takes. That right there, you are missing out on some of the greatest joys in life. Yet uncrustable one time, they are so good. They are truly the perfect snack you can have.

I wish I had more than I do. But good on Zach Wilson, even though he can't play. That's separate, but at least he knows how to eat. There you go.

So Hickey's a big uncrustable guy. And you know what? If Aaron Rogers eating them at halftime, I may change my pick to have the Jets win the Super Bowl. You would?

No, but I'm just, you know, get me closer to that. The things you notice, I'm actually proud of you. You have, in the last year, you have really taken a big step in noticing little things that I don't think you would have noticed a year ago. So Hickey, your big take all off season long, which Jets fans should be jumping for joy that this is your take, that the Jets won't make the playoffs. I know the AFC is loaded and their own division is loaded. I would be very surprised as long as Rogers is healthy that they would miss the playoffs. Like I don't see, and I don't feel that this, and this is not a hard knocks take, I would say this all off season. I don't feel as if they're going to miss the playoffs, but bare minimum for this year to be a success, they need to be in the AFC Championship game. Because you have a two to three year window here with Aaron Rogers. And I think we'll be probably three if I had to pick between two and three. And this is a year where he needs to go in there and take that next step for this organization and make them believe that they could go win a Super Bowl. And if you go and get to an AFC title game this year and have a good showing in that AFC title game, with him taking $35 million less on the way that he did this contract, then you could go really gear up with the full off season and get those missing pieces. But I don't think the Jets are going to an AFC title game this year.

So we have a poll question today. Will Aaron Rogers be playing an AFC Championship game this season? Yes, will lose in the wildcard or divisional round is another option or won't make the playoffs? Hickey, if you take a guess right now, what do you think one, two, and three most likely to least likely the way our listening audience is responding right now?

Especially after last night, I think without a doubt, number one, most people are going to say in the AFC title game, yes. You're actually wrong on that. Wow. That's the fewest response.

Wow. 12.6%. When I asked, will Aaron Rogers be playing an AFC title game this year? 12.6% say yes. Now we'll lose in the wildcard slash division around or won't make the playoffs.

What do you think is the higher calculated poll response? Lose in the wildcard, I think is the league leader. So I was saying second place will be miss the playoffs.

Yep. So losing the wildcard or division arounds at 51.5% and won't make the playoffs 35.9%. So the way that I would order this one, we'll lose in the wildcard or division around the 51.5%. And then I will go because of that defense and bringing in a stable quarterback, getting to the AFC title game. And then the last one won't make the playoffs.

I think that they have a chance to win this division right now. I would go Miami Buffalo and the jets are definitely two wildcard teams. Then I do think all three, you know, three out of those four AFC East teams will make it the Patriots won't.

And then that final spot it's going to be between the Ravens, the Browns. You could throw the Steelers in the mix, the chargers. I don't believe in the Broncos this year, but if you want to throw them in the mix as well, okay. And I do think your final wildcard team will be the chargers. So I go through those divisions AFC East right now, I'm picking the dolphins North. I'm going to the Bengals.

I'm not concerned about this borough injury. It's August, it's not September, the South, the Jaguars, the West, the chiefs. And then for my wildcard teams in the water jets, the bills, and then also the Los Angeles chargers.

So those are my seven playoff teams in the AFC. And I do think the jets are going to be a really good team this year, but not a great team that goes to a Superbowl. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. First and gold coming up next is Baker Mayfield not going to win this job in Tampa? I don't think so, but we'll go to Rick Stroud because right now the Buccaneers on their depth chart for QB one, it's Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future.

It's time now for first and gold on the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, time to preview the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll talk about this team a lot differently than the last few years because Tom Brady is no longer there as he has finally walked away from the NFL and is retired. Let's go down to Tampa though, and we will talk to a man who covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a long time.

You can always check him out in the Tampa Bay Times and that of course is Rick Stroud. Rick, appreciate you doing this. How are you? I'm doing well Zach, what's up?

So I appreciate you coming on, doing well. Everyone's reacting to this depth chart by Todd Bowles where it's Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask is the starter. We know Baker will start the first preseason game. Kyle will then start the second.

What do you make of the or designation on the depth chart? I mean that's, you know, what really Dave Canales said from the first day he got the job was, you know, he was going to have a quarterback competition. They did this in Seattle with Geno Smith and Drew Locke, so I mean this is what he's promised and it's kind of what they're delivering.

And you know, I give Kyle Trask a lot of credit. I think he's improved. A lot was stacked against him. He worked in one offense for two years. They took that away, took his quarterback coach away. It's not really an offense that, you know, is one for a guy who's more of a pocket passer, but he's improved his feet and he's being competitive. But at the end of the day, and I've said this even to Dave, it's like okay so whoever wins this job, and I think, you know, it's sort of the etiquette of football.

You have to earn it, right? Like competition is good and all that, but whoever takes that field in Minnesota will have had half the reps in training camp in preseason. So if that helps you prepare to win games, so be it. But, you know, I've said all along I think it's going to be Baker Mayfield and until something changes, I'm going to stick with that. Right, like I would be shocked and I know Baker's stock is not in a wonderful position. Heck, you got to compete to go get this job, but I would be shocked if it's not Baker week one.

Well, I would too and really it's not so much about Kyle Trask. Like I said, he's come a long way and the best case scenario for the Bucks is that, you know, they've had a, you know, sort of a diamond in the rough the whole time and, you know, this is what Kyle has done his whole career. He didn't start in high school.

He sat behind Felipe Franks in college at Florida and then when he got his shot, man, he ripped it, you know, and he did really, really well. If that happens in the NFL, that's the best scenario, right? Then they got their quarterback for the future, but he has been here two years and they still went and got Baker Mayfield and if they were that convinced that he was that dude, then I don't think there would be a competition necessarily. But, you know, look Baker is somebody that Todd Bowles is familiar with. He scouted him when he came out of the draft. Bowles was in with the Jets, thought he may last to number three. He didn't.

He likes him a lot. This is Baker's fourth team though, you know, in the last calendar year since last July. So he's trying to reset and, you know, we'll see where it goes, but it's going to be interesting to start a guy that has nine snaps in the NFL over somebody that is, you know, that has played five years and done some good things in this league. When you look at Tom Brady, no longer there clearly. He retired. A lot of people, and we've even talked about this before, Rick Stroud, said that last year was going to be his final season in Tampa, but we all assumed he'd go somewhere else.

When we found out that Brady retired, what was that initial reaction by you? You mean the second time when we found out? Yeah, good point.

I don't know if there'll be a third, so we'll see. You know, again, I guess if you say it once, you say it twice and you don't come to camp anywhere you believe it. Now, you know, he has this minority ownership agreement, you know, with Mark Davis, with the Raiders. I haven't seen that accepted or even debated necessarily by NFL owners to get approval.

I don't know where that stands. Right now, he's a free agent like any other quarterback that's not playing currently. So where that goes, I have no idea, but, you know, look, at some point during the year, a contending team is going to lose their quarterback and the first guy they're going to call is Tom Brady, if in fact he's still available and doesn't require ownership approval.

So we'll see. I know he's enjoying his life. He should, and he's got three great kids that he spends a lot of time with.

So it's a transition period for him, but he did take a year, that gap year, if you will, before he's supposed to start calling games, I guess, for Fox. It seems like you're not going to say that you would be shocked if he ended up coming back at some point this season with another team. Well, I mean, look, he's addicted to football and he has said that it's not because he can't play. He's choosing not to and that other things are more important. But if you got into late in the season and you needed, you know, the guy in San Francisco and again, assuming he was still completely free and not beholding to the Raiders or any other team for ownership reasons, what would think that Tom Brady, you know, couldn't roll out of bed and no more than than the other guy the next Sunday in terms of preparation, if it was the right offense, the right system?

You know, I don't know. We've seen we've seen that before. I'm not necessarily think that that's the way Brady would ever want to approach playing. You know, he always wants to be at his best. There's always been a process he goes through. But look, you know, look what happened in San Francisco a year ago. You know, if that occurs to a division leader late late in the year, I just know the phone calls are always going to come.

He's always going to get opportunities that even he doesn't anticipate. Let's get to the next down. Talking to Rick Stroud, where's this offensive line at entering this season? I know we're moved over the left side, but how about the rest of the unit?

Well, I think they got a lot of question marks. And you know, a lot of those guys are back, but they're in different positions. I mean, if you just look at it, we haven't seen Ryan Jensen take a snap even in practice. Yeah, he was out all last year. He tore three knee ligaments. He had no surgery. He did play against Dallas in the wildcard game.

No, he did not play well. And since then, it's been over a year since since his injury. He hasn't really competed in playing football.

And Todd Bowles told me the other day, he doesn't know when he will. So that's daunting in and of itself, but they've got Robert Haines. You started last year, Nick leverage competing there. You know, you take Tristan worse is an all pro at right tackle. You move in the left tackle. And he's talked about the mental strain of trying to maintain his standard on the other side.

But that's, that's a work in progress. I think he'll be fine. Most people do, you know, Cody mock is a rookie that they're very high on. He's going to start at right guard.

They're moving. Luke get accused struggled as a guard, but he's always played right tackle in college. Now he's going to be their right tackle. So, you know, Matt filer comes over from the charges.

He's a veteran player. So they got, they got guys. I think the biggest change is going to be the scheme, right?

Um, Dave canals is going to come in here and run a lot of outside zone runs. Uh, that should seem to suit some of the personnel they have. These guys can, can be mobile. They can move. Um, and, and, you know, maybe that, that helps protect the quarterback a little bit with all the bootlegs and the waggles and things. Um, but, uh, I don't, I don't know what they have.

Um, they've got pieces. They have not played together and, uh, we're just going to have to see like a lot of things with this buck team for a while. Byron left, which is being talked about to be an NFL head coach.

He gets fired, uh, this off season and canals. Now is the new offensive coordinator. I haven't seen left which land that any NFL staff is that surprising to you? Well, it is.

And it's disappointing. Um, I think the timing of it was bad. Um, I know that, that BA's intent when he, when Bruce Jones retired was so that staff could remain together. Now it was March 30th when Todd Bowles got the job a year ago. He didn't and wasn't able to hire anyone else.

Um, you know, he wasn't happy. We made a lot of changes. I think nine assistants were changed and, and Byron, um, did not get a look. And I think that's unfortunate because what happened to Byron was, uh, when they were successful before Tom Brady, it was Bruce Arians. It was the reason it was his offense, even though he didn't call a play and he didn't game plan. And yeah, Jamis Winston through 30, 30 interceptions, but he also threw 5,000 yards and they had a top offense. One of the top offenses in the league, then Tom Brady shows up. And then it was all because Tom Brady was the quarterback when they won the super bowl and it was still Bruce Arians offense.

So Byron has been sort of the victim of, uh, and the recipient of guys around him. Um, and I don't know, you know, how he interviews. I know it felt like he was very close to getting the Jaguars job a year ago.

It didn't happen for whatever reason. Um, I hope he gets another opportunity if he wants it to coach. Cause I think he's a good communicator. I know he knows football and there's not many NFL quarterbacks that have seen the game, uh, actually from the quarterback position that can go out there and coach.

So, um, don't have an answer for you, but, uh, it's unfortunate. Let's get to the next down talking to Rick Stroud. What do you think the ceiling is this year for the defense? Well, I think they can be pretty good now.

They're not deep, but I like some of the young players, um, that they've brought on board. And I think, you know, he's injured right now, uh, with a calf injury, but really that starts with Elijah. Can't see, I mean, they're going a little different, you know, they've been used to putting, um, you know, another 350 pound guy next to the 360 pound beat available. Um, and, and I think their defense, especially the interior line was getting a little old and a little slow.

Uh, so you had a guy like Elijah, can't see who was not Aaron Donald, but played at the same school and reminds people of them. Uh, it's an unfair comparison, but he's going to bring a lot of speed to go with the power they already have. They got to have Logan hall step up. Um, you know, Joe Tron Schwinke has plateaued at four and a half sacks a year.

He's got to get better. You don't know what you're going to get, uh, from Shaquille Barrett, who's coming off an Achilles injury. Um, but look, uh, they got enough guys from that Superbowl defense that are still viable players. The Devin whites, they've resigned to melt Dean, Carlton Davis, Antoine Winfield Jr. Uh, Ryan Neil's a great addition at safety for them. Um, I think that this is going to be, is an underrated defense right now. They're going to have to drive the car a little bit here until that offense is able to, uh, to assimilate into, into what, you know, um, their, their coordinator wants them to do. But, um, I, I still think they could play pretty good defense and I like Yahya Diabi.

I like, um, you know, some of the guys they've added with Shabazzi and Dennis and different guys like that. So I'm anxious to see how they play. Let's get to the final down on the way out with Rick shroud for the Tampa Bay times, uh, for Todd balls, we know the seats warm bare minimum.

What do you think he has to do this year for him to be back next season? Well, you know, the record wasn't good because they, they were only going to win nine games at maximum, but they clinched the division with eight. They didn't play their starters against Atlanta. Um, when they were in there, they were leading the game. So whether you want to say eight or nine wins, um, they still managed to win the NFC South. No, it wasn't a great division, but that's only the seventh title in franchise history. So you can credit him for that or, or discredit him for not having a winning record, which he's only done one time in five seasons as a head coach. So this is a very big year for any head coach, much less Todd bowls.

Um, they're, but they're trying to thread a needle here. You know, they're, they're trying to keep enough pieces from their super bowl team and a weak division and try to go back to back to back and win this division. I think there'll be really competitive. I think the division, uh, depending on what New Orleans does, they would be the favorites, but you might win it with nine or 10 games again. Um, we'll just have to see, but, um, he's going to need to win.

Uh, if not the division to try to get back in the playoffs, have a winning record, show progress, those kinds of things, but it's going to be awfully difficult without the goat in there. Trust me, Rick shroud. We appreciate the time as always enjoyed the season. Thanks for doing this. You bet.

Take care. There you go. Rick shroud joining us at the Zach Geld show on CBS sports radio for a little first and gold previewing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll take a break. We'll come on back. We'll update you to some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio with the news brief.

You're listening to the Zach Geld show. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports in like one of the weakest stories ever yesterday, Ron Rivera is doing his press conference and he was asked about it.

So I guess word was getting out, but it was just so unnecessary. There's some players on the commanders who had a dreadful offense last year. Now you have a new offensive coordinator, Eric, the enemy has been around my homes, right? They've won all those Superbowls together. And some of the players are saying the coaching is too hard by Eric B enemy right now.

So that became a big story. I think it's ridiculous. I have no problem with Eric B enemy.

I think those players should not need to be a drill Sergeant all the time, but they should listen to be enemy. Not that he's the end all be all, but he's been around really good offensive play. And not that he deserves all the credit, but he deserves some credit for the success in Kansas city. Well, here's Ron Rivera today apologizing for sending the wrong message when talking about Eric B enemy yesterday. You know, I realized my comments yesterday took on a different life than I intended yesterday.

Nestle me for not being as clear as I needed to be alone that do the day. We know that we're trying to build here and we're all aligned. As I've said many times since I've hired Eric, I love the overall message that he gave to the team his first day. And that was basically, we all learn to be comfortable when we're uncomfortable. So it's a tough sell when yesterday you have players that are concerned by Eric B enemy's intensity.

And then today you go, nothing to see here, folks. We're all aligned. Like Kiki, you already said what you said. If you're on Rivera, you already let the cat out of the bag or enough people did where I guess one member of the media knew about this and now it became a story. You can't tell me today that you're all aligned because clearly there's some players that right now have their concerns about Eric B enemy.

And speaking of alignment, I was actually thinking about this a lot today. And now listen at Ron Rivera's comments as well. Whose side is Ron Rivera on? Like yesterday, he did say, go talk to the players, but it's not like he offered yesterday, any sort of defending of Eric B enemy. And so far through one clip, it is apologizing that this more became a story compared to Eric B is a great coach. Why aren't people listening to him? It seems like, if I had to answer that question, it seems like he's on the side of the players. Now, with that being said, that's a bad job by Ron Rivera because Ron Rivera, you've brought in Eric B enemy to be the head coach of your offense.

You believed in him and there's a reason to believe in him. You can't be jumping off that ship that quickly. And then also, I think what happened here is Ron really does regret what happened yesterday, but you're the head football coach and you are a seasoned head football coach. And the last two years we've seen Ron make a bigger deal out of something that it needed to be like last year, storming off after the wind stuff. And then this year we haven't even got to the start of the season. Things are actually being positive about the commanders because you don't have that POS. Let me say that correctly and Daniel Snyder there anymore. And now it's like all that positive momentum.

Not that it lets the air the entire balloon, but it's like an unnecessary distraction here. I mean, we haven't even played a preseason game yet. And it's like, there's like a thought of like, if Ron Rivera is like either questioning the hire or question the coaching practices and not coming to the defense of the guy he hired now, Ron, Ron doesn't come off to me as someone that's insecure. He does it. And he is a professional and I love Ron Rivera. He's always great when he comes on this show, but do you think he's starting to get a little bit insecure?

Cause people are floating out there. Ron's on the hot seat. You have a new owner coming in and Josh Harris, maybe the first hire will be if the enemy has a solid season that they'll make him the head coach. If they feel like they need to make a change at the head coaching position, is some of that maybe get in the head of Ron Rivera? I'm going to say no, because in order for Ron Rivera to keep his job, he needs the offensive to play well, right? Like if, if the offense stinks, what happens to the offense is good in the defense, which is supposed to be good, but wasn't good last year, ends up being a problem. And he's probably fired. Like, so if you're on a variant in order to keep your job, you bare minimum need the offense to play well, right?

You're not just firing air PM. And then you're going to get a choice of another offense coordinator. If the offense is like 20th, again, like it's been in past years.

Yeah. They got to make the playoffs this year. Robin Rivera says the team has improved on offense drastically during training camp. Change is hard and I've always encouraged our players to have great dialogue and build relationships with our staff. Since those conversations took place with Eric and the players, I've seen the improvements. And I can honestly say that the last couple of practices probably have been the best of training camp, which I think is great. To me, that displays a team is beginning to embrace the message and approach to how he does things and how we want things done.

So I'm not naive here. Like when you bring in a new coach, the coach has to trust the players and the players has to trust the coach. And there's sometimes arguments or questions that get asked, but they don't get out there publicly. The players wanted this out there publicly. So with the fact that it got out there and Ron Rivera also wanted it out there, it's tough to keep on saying that you actually believe in the enemy when this got out there. Because, Hey, can we say this all the time? There's a lot that doesn't get out and there's a lot that we don't know about in the NFL.

And usually things only get out when people want them to get out. And again, going back to what he said initially yesterday, he specifically highlighted younger players and mentioned college football, meaning like these are got a lot of new guys in the NFL getting adjusted to it. Again, you're really going to take the side of newbies or still early in their career guys. And you're going to say, you know what? You're right.

Coach is too hard. Again, I'm going to ask the same question as two minutes ago. What are we doing here? It's August 9th. We have not played one game.

How can this already be happening? I'm laughing because I haven't really heard the word newbies in a while. It kind of like you wanted to say L7 weenies instead.

That's where I was thinking you were going. Squares, you know, greenies, green horns, I think is the word. That's it from Deadly's catch. Green horns. Yeah. That that's above my pay grade. If I'm, if I'm being honest.

Deadly's catch guy. I haven't seen it ever. Good. Great show.

Okay. Let's hear Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC. This is on the Paul Finebaum show. Actually shouldn't we call him Paul Finebaum after his ridiculous comments about Nick Saban, how his legacy could be on the line this year and he can't afford to miss the college football playoff and his legacy could take a hit.

Just ridiculous from Paul. But here is the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey saying changes to the college football playoff format need to be considered. Remember they're going to 12 next year. And here in the SEC, we wanted college football to be strong nationally, and we've not seen a West of the Rockies participant in the playoff since I believe 2016. And so the expansion was about making sure we brought in Western football. Well, now what's happened is Western football has come into other conferences.

The net of that is circumstances of change. And I think it's wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the format might look like given these circumstances. So my understanding of this format that's going to happen next year, which I'm opposed to going to 12 teams, but I already lost that battle, is that you get the five power five conference champions, a guaranteed spot, and then the best non power five conference champ also gets it. And then it's everybody else Hickey that could find a way to clinch one of those 12 spots. That is correct.

Six automatic qualifiers, six at large bids. You're good on the math there. Six plus six equals 12.

Well, I forgot what to call the other guys. I don't think I have to go to my college basketball because when I used to talk about this at college football, I got to go to my college basketball vernacular. That's why we're in radio because we're not best at math. And anytime we have to do math, even if it's the easiest mental math ever, we always get concerned. I always tell the story how I once said when Loyola Chicago was on a run, there was a 60 30 chance that they could win. And then a listener said, what about the other 10%?

And I said, yeah, that's for Sister Jean or it was like 4 30 in the morning. So things like that happen. Well, yeah, you got to change the format because the PAC 12 is either going to go away or they're going to add the Mountain West with the remaining four PAC 12 schools. And that shouldn't get an automatic qualifying spot. So they're going to have to change something. I don't think, Hickey, that they're going to go off the number 12 and reduce the amount of teams that they're going to allow into the college football playoff. I would like that because I was against expansion to begin with.

But you're going to have to find the way to get what is it now? The core four, I guess the real power four conferences will get automatic bids and then the one non power four spot and then it will be whatever wildcard spots end up getting in. That seems like the easiest way to do it here. Automatically who qualifies absolutely has to change. But in terms of the number I would, I think you need 12 now more than ever.

How do you negotiate it though? In terms of like, if let's say the PAC 12 merges with another conference like the Mountain West and they still go by the name of the PAC 12, does the PAC 12 any like to stand on in terms of negotiations here? No, no, it is now the power four.

The power fives no longer will exist after 2023. So you go to the power four, big 12 ACC still stays. I don't think isn't this negotiated where I mean the Mountain West, I mean the Mountain West is more team so they would absorb the four teams remain. I don't think what happens if they all join, what happens to those teams say, Hey, we're going to go join the PAC 12 and take the PAC 12 name because of the brands and the spot in the college football playoff.

Well, I don't think that's going to exist and they could try for, I would be, that's not going to happen in terms of getting the automatic bid. I would agree, but you never know. Like we all thought the big 12 is going to go away and that didn't happen. And finally, Zach Taylor provides an update on Joe burrow with the cat stream. Well, I mean, the timeline is several weeks from when I said several weeks, so we'll just remain, we'll let that play out.

So if it was several weeks and now it's several weeks later, is it several weeks, weeks more? I do think this is overblown. Like if he's not a hundred percent, I would not play him against the Browns. But if you put a gun to my head right now, I would say that Joe burrow is on the field week one, even if Jamar chase doesn't want that to be the case that didn't mean to rhyme there, but Hey, I did. So, all right, I'm a poet. I don't, I didn't even know it. Zach Yelp show CBS sports radio five coaches under the most pressure. Next.