Taylor's Time Ticking (Hour 3)

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Automate your shipping with ShipStation. Go to ShipStation.com slash audio for a free 60-day trial. That's ShipStation.com slash audio. Alrighty, hour number three of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Earlier in the show, in hour number one, we had Deion Sanders, the new head football coach, the legendary Pro Football Hall of Famer, and as the new head football coach at Colorado stopped by. We'll replay that conversation with Coach Prime coming up at 9.40 p.m. Eastern, 6.40 p.m. Pacific, in case you missed that.

We will replay that for you coming up in the final segment of the show. Pete Bursich will join us at 8.40 p.m. Eastern, 5.40 p.m. Pacific, as we have to preview the Minnesota Vikings today, a little first and goal styles. We continue to cross off all 32 teams around the NFL. But now I want to get into two running backs, one a former running back, one is a current running back. Let's start with Jonathan Taylor and we'll circle back in on Reggie Bush. So Jonathan Taylor has requested a trade, you know that. Jim Irsay originally said we're not trading him.

Not before the season, not during the season. We are not getting rid of Jonathan Taylor. And then the other day, the tune has kind of changed, where the Colts are now letting Jonathan Taylor seek permission to go try to figure out a deal with another team contractually, and then the Colts and that team would figure out the compensation that the Colts would need to get back for Jonathan Taylor. You could say that's the Colts saying we are good with getting rid of Jonathan Taylor if we get the right stuff back. Or you could say that's the Colts daring Jonathan Taylor to go find a contract with another team, or at least parameters of a deal. Even though Jim Irsay has not offered him a contract yet and the Colts haven't offered him a contract yet from all reports, at least go see what you could maybe go get elsewhere. And maybe the market will then play itself out where either the Colts match that or the Colts say we're not going to pay it and let you go. Or a team's just not willing to give Jonathan Taylor an extension because the fact is we have not seen a long-term contract extension for a running back, you know, a big-time contract extension.

You've seen guys get deals, but not a big-time deal get done with the running back since 2021 when Nick Chubb signed his big extension at big multi-year extension with the Cleveland Browns. So Hickey has been on record, Mr. Big Indianapolis Colts fan, that there is a 0.0% chance that the Colts trade Jonathan Taylor. I think it's more likely that he'll be on the team than it is that he won't. I'm not ready to go 0%.

I think there's a legit percentage of chance. I would say it's 60% that he's staying, 40% that he's going. It's difficult because not only you have to get something back for him that the Colts are okay with, but then that new team would have to give him a brand new deal or else it's kind of like, are you just trying to lead the Colts because you're annoyed with Jim Irsay? And then you'll play the contract game at a later date and you just want out of Indianapolis. I would assume that it's more so he wants out of Indianapolis, but he also wants to get paid. So here's the latest with the Jonathan Taylor situation. According to Stephen Holder, who says it's impossible to predict that he's definitely going to get traded or not, but he's leaning more that he's going to get dealt that he won't get dealt. He tweeted that out the other day.

But the actual reporting here from Stephen Holder, who covers the Colts for ESPN, I believe, is that six NFL teams have called the Colts about trading for running back Jonathan Taylor and two of them have made trade offers. Now, that doesn't mean he's getting traded. I fully acknowledge that. But, Hickey, you know, you kind of developed this reputation on this show where you say something and then you get very stubborn until you're proven to be wrong. I'm not saying you're wrong here and naturally you're allowed to change, right?

And I think we all do that where you say something one day and then as the week goes on or more information comes out, you're like, hmm, what I said may not be right. Zero point zero percent chance that he gets traded. You're still saying that there is no shot.

No way. Not even willing to go to like 10 or 15 percent. You're still at zero. Oh, still at zero. This timeline and deadline only again, I can't go anything below zero because it's you go negative if you want negative 100. All right, where we are redefining the odds. See, I am at I was at zero yesterday or two days ago.

I'm at negative 100 now, tripling down. Can you do me a favor just for inquiring minds here? Can you say that again, just in case if we maybe have to use it as a later date? I don't know why anyone would do that. Where you say negative 100, negative 300, negative infinity that Jonathan Taylor won't get traded for the Indianapolis Colts.

Can you just appease me there and do that again? This is Ryan Hickey of the Zach Galb Show. The date is August 23rd, 2023. It is 804 p.m. Eastern Time on this Wednesday show. There is a negative 100 percent chance Jonathan Taylor in a week from now will be on any team not named the Indianapolis Colts. He is not getting traded to Paul Charles Barkley guaranteed. I had to lock it up.

I had to shut my microphone off there because I was laughing so much because if we ever have to somewhat use that audio again, I didn't want me cackling in the background. I'll see what happens here, but a Tuesday deadline, that's interesting that they put a Tuesday deadline on this. Now sometimes deadlines make deals, but what's the reasoning here on the Tuesday deadline, Hicks? Because they got to get Jonathan Taylor off PUP.

Tuesday is the cut down date. It's also the PUP deadline to where if you are not off the list, you are missing the first month of the season. I think either way he needs to be off the list because even if he's not traded, the best thing for him is to play on the field and earn a contract with the Colts or someone else next season. So for him, again, either way, it still is in his best interest to playing, but also for the Colts, you have a rookie quarterback. You don't need or want these trade demands hanging over your head the first eight games of the season.

The trade deadlines are Halloween, October 31st. You don't need this carrying into week six, week seven, week eight where the question is, oh, not how Anthony Richards is progressing. Well, Jonathan Taylor is going to get traded this week.

He got 10 carries last week. Does that mean they're going to trade him? Are they going to run him into the ground because now they don't want to trade him? You get this over. You set the deadline.

Call it what the Chargers did. Let him go out there. See what's out there. We're not waiting all day. Come back in a week.

You got nothing? Okay, you're playing this year and let's figure it out after next year. And the Colts are clearly okay with moving on from him. When you let him go seek a trade, you're okay with maybe another team willing to give him more than you're willing to give and them also willing to give up the resources. And you can still say no, but you got to be somewhat okay with moving on from Jonathan Taylor if you go let him seek permission to get a deal done elsewhere. The thing that I will just say about that is I'm okay with throwing out the Tuesday deadline, but he could still come off the public and then they could find a way to get this deal done maybe a week later. I'm with you that it should be either you trade him or you come on back and then we'll see where he wants to pivot and where he wants to go from there in terms of how he's going to handle how many games he's going to play this season. But I don't know Tuesday to me that they're trying to treat it like it's a hard deadline, but it wouldn't shock me if maybe a few days later than something does get done because he could come off the public. And if he does, then it's like, okay, well, how bad I know we got surgery on the ankle back in January, but then how bad was it really?

And how much was it? You just trying to force your way out or stick it to the team because they didn't pay you. I mean, either way, if he's actually hurt or trying to hold in the Colts in a sense would still win because he would then be on the field week one. But so at the end of the day, it's been ugly if he does play. In fact, week one, you never know. Maybe the back acts up or maybe the ankle starts to act up again.

You know what I know? It's not wise for him to now all of a sudden have random injuries, quote unquote, pop up and all of a sudden my back hurts. Okay, I'll remember that in February when he come back to the table for contract negotiations. Remember that the Colts will.

But if like, let's just say I'll just start a random team here. The Bears, the Bears say, we'll give you a 14 million dollars a year and we'll give you four years and let's say like twenty eight million guaranteed. But then the Colts go, the Bears weren't willing to give us enough. Well, then next year, couldn't the Bears kind of understand the situation and say, okay, we'll still give you that deal.

And he doesn't want to be there in Indianapolis. And then he very well will probably get franchise tagged. And then maybe the Colts will say, okay, we got to lower our expectations of what we're going to get back for him.

And then you find a way to get a deal done. I mean, if he plays well, if anything, if you're the Colts, you can only raise your price. Well, here's the thing, too. The Colts haven't made him an offer yet.

No, they have not. And that to me, that's the part of this actually, Hickey, I don't know. And you're so plugged in on this because this is your team and Jonathan Taylor, right, is your guy. That's the part to me that's crazy. They haven't even made him an offer like they haven't even low balled him yet. They haven't made him an offer as he's entering the final year of his contract.

That's why I would be so annoyed if I'm Jonathan Taylor and why he is so annoyed. You don't even know what they're willing to offer you and how far apart you actually are. And that's crazy to me. I know that it's not the trend to give a running back a big time deal now, but each situation is different.

And once again, like it's almost as if teams don't realize this because you brought this up before. The guaranteed money, and I know they realize this, that's what it's all about. You could dress up before your deal, $14 million a year, and you figure out the dead cap after that. But it's all about what the guarantee is. Because if let's just say, and I think 28 would be high guaranteed because look at what just happened with Saquon.

It was like at 22 what he wanted or 23, 24, something like that. If you have 28 million in fully guaranteed money and let's say Jonathan Taylor turns out to just be injury prone. You divide that up over two years, it basically gave him a two year contract for $14 million then you get out of it after that. So that's the part, I don't know if that annoys you, but that's what really doesn't make sense to me is that they haven't even given him a contract extension offer yet.

Yeah, I've been on record and they still stand by. They should have given him a contract. They should have bare minimum got into contract negotiations. I get why Jonathan Taylor is upset and I'm on his side in terms of paying the man. You're not paying anyone else. You're not paying any other skilled players on offense that have done anything whatsoever. So it doesn't make any sense why they're having this hardline stance or basically telling Jonathan Taylor who had a really good first two years, hey prove it before we even think about paying you when you have $20 million in cap space.

And again, no one of high value on offense. I don't like the philosophy. I think it's flawed and wrong, but yeah.

You know what this is? Let's just call it what it is. Jim Irsay and also Chris Ballard just don't want Jonathan Taylor on this team. They don't want him on the team. I think Shane Steichen wants him on the team. I think Anthony Richardson wants him on the team. I think there's a lot of guys in the locker room that wants him on the team. But they don't see him being a long term cold.

They don't. And maybe that changes a year from now where I know it's got a little bit ugly between Jonathan Taylor and Jonathan Taylor's agent and Jim Irsay. And the whole RV thing was a mess. And then the tweet that Jim Irsay should have never sent and then the response by the agent, all that. I'm not saying a new GM just wipes this away. But if the Colts are hiring a new GM next year, maybe he does value Jonathan Taylor. But I don't think Chris Ballard nor Jim Irsay value Jonathan Taylor because if they did, bare minimum, they would have at least made a contract offer, which they still have not done. I don't know if they don't value him because they've definitely talked about revisiting in the offseason.

So he has a big year like he did in 2021. I think they would definitely lock him up again. I think they want to see him prove it. I think that to me, he's already proven enough.

But I mean, I will say this is what I'll say. I'm not defending it, but this is the logic they're looking at. Guys coming off an injury at a position that's devalued and you have a new offense led by a new head coach. I think Jonathan Taylor is going to work just fine in this offense. But you did hire a guy, Nick Sirian and Shane Sykin, who I get had better players, but also ran a running back by committee in both L.A. and in Philly. So he, maybe it's Shane Sykin saying, look, I can do this more about running back by committee. I don't need a $20 million or $15 million running back.

I can instead do it three different guys. Let's put this money towards receivers or tight ends in a year from now. Again, I think it's flawed logic personally with where the Colts are right now. I'm trying to develop a rookie quarterback.

But that's the philosophy they have is wait and see. See how he fits in the offense. See how he is health wise for making one of the highest paid running backs. Now you sign a contract, you sign a contract. We know in sports contracts, both ways don't always get valued. So it's not the first time someone's asking for a new deal before their current deal expires. But let's just say here at CBS Sports Radio, you were up for a new contract. And you thought you were deserving of keeping your position on CBS Sports Radio as the executive producer of the Zach Gelb show.

And also saying to yourself, OK, you get some filling shifts and you have your own show Friday into Saturday. And let's say you had about eight months, nine months left on your contract and you go to management and you say, hey, let's get a deal done. Let's try to get something worth. And they say to you, we want to see you prove yourself once again after you've already proven yourself. We want you to see yourself. We want you to prove yourself again before we even offer you something.

We will offer you something until your deal expires. You'd be annoyed. You'd feel unwanted and you would feel as if management does not respect you here at CBS Sports Radio, because if they did, they try to get that deal done before the deal expires.

They wouldn't say you have to prove anything. And that's why I feel as if Jonathan Taylor is that right now. He feels as if the Colts don't respect him. The Colts don't want him there. And he and a violent sport and a lethal sport. He doesn't want to give it his all this year and put his body on the line when he's not even sure if next year they'll give him a long term extension.

Yeah, well, yeah, that's right. He just he feels upset if they now again, you give him a new contract. This happened this year, unfortunately, but you give him a new contract at the end of the year, I would say always forgive him without a doubt. He'll be a cult for long term.

All hard feelings are gone. It is idiotic that the Colts haven't offered him a contract yet, even if it's not what he would want. You got to at least offer him a deal.

Man, I hope he gets traded. Oh, it'd be so fun. If we're here Tuesday next week, and we get an alert right there in the middle of the show.

Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport, Tom Pellicero, the Colts have traded Jonathan Taylor to the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chicago Bears. Oh, we may need a camera on you at all times there, Hickey. We may need like a Jonathan Taylor instant reaction cam all throughout the show on Tuesday to see how you would handle that. I've used my one curse for the year so I could be in big trouble. We're in big trouble.

You better get your deal done now. Management before Tuesday rolls around. I hope the FCC just maybe takes Tuesday off.

You may have to put your finger permanently on the dump button for the rest of this week and then also up until Tuesday of next week. As Eminem would say, FCC don't mess with me. Who are you now? The jet player in Hard Knocks who thought he was Eminem the other night with the rap, the 8 mile rap? Jeremy Capp, 100%. That was one of the best things we've seen so far. He crushed it.

He crushed it. I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. It was funny.

It wasn't like, oh my goodness gracious, this is the funniest thing ever and this is the greatest thing ever. I picked him up on waivers. Did you really? No, I did not. Fantasy Football Star incoming.

You heard it here first. Just from the one 8 mile rendition. It doesn't take much for you to be won over. That's true. They're going to cut that guy, right?

I would probably assume so. They have a very deep receiver room. Man. But hey, he got his name out there. That's going to look bad in Hard Knocks. Danny Amendola got cut by the Cowboys in the Hard Knocks and he got his name out there and got a job. There's really no one that they've made you fall in love with. The running back they just drafted unfortunately got hurt.

Is he a Benekonda? Yeah, I wasn't going to try to... From Pitt. I feel like they're trying to make you fall in love with him a little bit but usually each and every year there's a guy they make you try to fall in love with in Hard Knocks and that person ends up getting cut.

I saw on Twitter, so of all places, but I think it was a good point. It's hard to have you fall in love with a player that's kind of on the borderline when you're not going to show a player that's getting cut. That's a great point.

So it's like if you don't know the end or you see him, basically the screen goes to black and is he Benekonda got cut. It's different than if you're actually in the room seeing the message and hey, thanks for the hard work. Hope you make it.

It ruins it a little bit. We'll always talk positively about you. Hopefully you land in the practice squad, but we think you'll probably wind up somewhere else. Yeah, we really hope you make it in the practice squad. Love that. Also, the Jets, for how much they said they didn't want to do Hard Knocks? Robert Salas seems to really be enjoying it.

Aaron Rodgers does as well. Oh yeah. You're not surprised?

No, not whatsoever. And they control everything. You know who does not enjoy it though? You know who's probably behind all this? Joe Douglas. I have not seen Joe Douglas a second on Hard Knocks. Well, I mean Aaron Rodgers is too busy hamming it up. First second of the show, Aaron Rodgers all offseason. I don't want to do it. First second.

Don't worry, I got some good stuff for you guys today. Yeah, he starts slobbering over the big voiceover guy. So, not a surprise whatsoever that he is taking up most of the time. That's what it was. It was all Joe Douglas who didn't want to do it.

I know. It was not Robert Salas. It was not Aaron Rodgers. It was definitely Joe Douglas saying we should not do this. Man, I guess he's getting his wish by not being seen so far. If you want to call Ike. Also, look, it's a GM.

What are you going to really say? But he is responsible for getting a lot of these players in. And also, a GM in New York does not usually last that long with the Jets organization.

He's done a nice job. And they didn't even tell you how half the players got there. And Aaron Rodgers, all of a sudden you wake up and oh, he's a Jet. We didn't miss the entire mission of him getting there.

Yeah, take some ayahuasca and then poof. Aaron Rodgers right there. Gosh, glossed over it. Zach Gelb Show CBS Sports Radio. It is time to give Reggie Bush his Heisman Trophy back. It is time.

We'll get to that conversation next. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. This portion of the show is sponsored by the United States Postal Service, introducing USPS, Ground Advantage, reliable and affordable two to five day package shipping.

The United States Postal Service. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. So Reggie Bush had a little press conference today. He's upset with the NCAA for ruining his reputation, and he's filing a defamation suit because his whole kind of gist is that the NCAA said this is a pay for play situation with Reggie Bush.

And he goes, no, not so fast, because if you go through the entire report and what actually happened and a lot of it has been misreported throughout the years and other things have been said. So a marketing manager, an agent was trying to get Reggie Bush. He said, we'll give you pretty much all this money, allegedly, and then we just want you to sign with us when you go to the NFL. He was already at USC, from my understanding, when you read through the article today and you revisit this situation from all those years ago. So I guess that's the technicality where Reggie Bush, he's not denying that he didn't get money.

And we know, right, his parents got things as well. But it wasn't to attend USC. It was just so that Reggie would sign with this agency and this guy and eventually he didn't do so.

And then all this did come out. So if you want to go back to the whole Reggie Bush situation, he voluntarily, and I say that in air quotes, gave up his Heisman Trophy. He knew it was going to get taken away from him. And the NCAA, I know they have the college football world and USC has now welcomed him back after not being allowed to associate with him for 10 years. And he's no longer on Fox, but the NCAA still tries to make it like he's never existed, where they have his records and his stats taken away in the record books. And the Heisman Trophy trust has said if he's not reinstated by the NCAA and he's not acknowledged by the NCAA, we can't give him his Heisman Trophy back. If the NCAA said that he existed, we'll give him the Heisman Trophy back. So I look at this entire thing, it's so stupid, and it once again just shows you, and it just doubles down on my hatred for the NCAA, where they love making noise when they should just shut up. That's what the NCAA does.

They love to be petty, they love to be stupid, and they just love to be a bunch of morons. Everyone knows what happened with Reggie Bush. And for the NCAA to try to make it as if he still doesn't exist, and you can't acknowledge his records, and you can't give him back his Heisman Trophy, it's some of the dumbest, and I mean the dumbest thing that I've ever seen.

Especially now, I know it's a different era, but now every player is allowed to get paid with their name, image, and likeness. So you're really gonna be this petulant, and this petty, and you still wanna make it seem as if he's never existed? To prove what point? And that's the other thing.

What point are you proving? Still with Reggie Bush in the year of 2023. So bleep the NCAA, acknowledge Reggie Bush, and give the man his Heisman Trophy back. This is nonsense. This is amateur hour by the NCAA, but it's the same damn thing over and over and over again with the incompetent buffoons that run the NCAA. Thank you for the public service announcement that I just gave.

Hickey, your thoughts on this? Yeah, I mean, totally agree. I think everyone, this is, again, when you are in the minority and truly in a world that is divided, it is a 100% everyone believes Reggie Bush should get his Heisman Trophy back. There's not one person who truly believes that what he did was, if you're gonna go right or wrong, just actually impacted his play in the field, and or should not get recognized for it, and let's just pretend to erase our minds of what happened 15, 20 years ago. No one believes that the NCAA is in the right here. So again, if everyone is on one side, and the NCAA is the only ones on the other, that's when you probably know, ah, we screwed up and we screwed up badly. The other thing I don't understand is, with Reggie Bush, and now we're seeing him with Jim Harbaugh too with this suspension and going after him for recruiting violations.

Not even the infraction. It's the fact that they, for whatever reason now, love pushing the greatest people in their sport out. Reggie Bush is one of the greatest, I would probably argue, the greatest player I've ever seen in my lifetime, and being a college football fan for 30 years.

He was electric, he was unbelievable, he was unstoppable, he's truly a video game in real life. Jim Harbaugh is one of the most charismatic, interesting, quirky head coaches you have in college football right now in Michigan. And you can't stand Harbaugh!

That is correct. But now with this suspension and the three games, and is he going to get suspended in 2024, all the NCAA is doing is basically trying to push Jim Harbaugh out the door and basically trying to force him to go back to the NFL. Not associating yourself with Reggie Bush, one of the greatest players ever, and now kind of almost in a way kicking one of the, I think again a head coach that not only has one of your blue blood programs now back on top for the first time in a long time, but also is a character, is interesting, brings positivity and eyeballs to the sport. Why they're pushing both of those guys away, it makes no sense. I don't understand it whatsoever.

And there's no point that you're trying to prove here. Like let's just say, if NIL wasn't a thing right now, I wouldn't agree with it, but you could at least talk me into it because I've always been for paying the athletes. Where Reggie Bush was such an enormous star in the sport, you still have to prove a point that you can't pay players. But since they embrace players now benefiting off their name, image and likeness, what good is it to push Reggie Bush away and make him seem as if he never existed? And also, once again, this is what I hate about the NCAA.

When something goes wrong, they try to act as if it never happened. And we have to erase every part of the existence from the record books. We've seen the championships, we've seen the performances, we've seen the individual accolades. Don't treat us like we're a bunch of morons.

Don't treat us like we're a bunch of idiots and try to say, you're getting sleepy. When I snap my fingers, you'll never remember Reggie Bush. It's the definition of insanity, but that's the NCAA. Also, gotta love a good vacated win.

Vacate USC's win with Reggie Bush. I think every big time school has had wins vacated, but we're gonna pretend we didn't see national championships won. We're just gonna pretend, oh yeah, that's right, that year didn't exist. Louisville winning the national title that year in college basketball. Never happened. Was it 2014, I think? 2012, whatever it was?

Never happened, we didn't see it. I'm actually four vacating wins because I think it made Temple the sixth winningest program ever in basketball history in the NCAA to the fifth. And it took some wins away from my BFF, Big Baby Jim Boeheim. So I'm all four vacating wins now. You're one of those guys who likes to step on people in order to move on up. Hear that, Jim?

Let me just, use your back as I jump up here, pole vault to number five. And I can't stand Boeheim, but that's not a dude that should lose any wins. You may not like him, I don't like him. You may not like some of the things that he does clearly, but he still won the games. You could be like, I'm not saying Jim Boeheim's the worst human being on the face of the earth, that's not true.

But you could be the worst human being on the face of the earth and do despicable things. I'm not saying we have to honor you and throw a parade, but you still have to acknowledge that person's existence and not just try to pretend as if you were Florida in the docu-series that they just put out that Aaron Hernandez never really ever existed. That to me, good and bad, trying to wipe away someone's existence and say, I know that you probably shouldn't have brought up the Aaron Hernandez thing there, but just to make myself clear here, we all know Aaron Hernandez is human trash and was human trash.

And he's a disgusting POS, so I don't get fired here and don't have to use the dump button and annoy the FCC. We all know what Aaron Hernandez was, but you can still acknowledge that he played in the NFL, you can still acknowledge that he played college football, but just tell the truth. And that's the thing with the NCAA, just tell the truth. Reggie Bush, if you were annoyed that he took money from a marketing guy when he was already at USC, so be it.

Don't try to say he never existed in the sport. All right, we'll take a break from the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio will preview the Minnesota Vikings next with Pete Bursich, who will be stopping by. 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 goal on the Zach Gelb show. Time to preview the Minnesota Vikings will do so with the man that played for the franchise from 1994 to 2000 and spent a bunch of years on the coaching staff now for a long time in the broadcast booth.

And that, of course, is Pete Bursich. Pete, always appreciate the time. How you been? I've been great. Thanks for having me on.

I appreciate it. So I've been defending the Minnesota Vikings this summer, where I agree that they're going to regress from where they were a year ago with 13 wins. But a lot of people make it out to be like the Vikings are going to be this awful football team, and I just don't see it.

What's been the vibe around this team this summer where a lot of people are doubting them? Well, I think if you look at last year, you know, you win, you break a record and win the most amount of one-score games in a season. And then if you look at the overall season, we were out-scored. So, you know, you look at the defense.

They were somewhere around 31st overall. You got some movement there that can happen. In fact, it takes some heat off the offense, get a little more balance in that respect. And I think the Vikings can very much compete for an NFC North title this year. It's just how much better is that defense going to get.

And it's a great point that you bring up, but the other thing that just rubs me the wrong way. And I could easily root for the Detroit Lions, right? Their likable story because of how bad they've been. But how everyone's already anointing them and crowning them NFC North champions. Like, that's a little bit premature. Can they go win some more games first? Yeah, they're going to have to do it and do it consistently. I mean, they got hot at the end of the year.

But that's what we do, right? We project last year onto this year, and then there's always a flyer. They're the ones that had the more first-round draft picks. And they've added a lot more talent than anybody else. And so that's what you do in the offseason, right? You just go with the roster and look at what they've added and what they've lost.

And kind of go from there. But Detroit's going to have to learn to, I think, just play and have more faith in their defense. Their defense is pretty good.

You don't need to be going 4 on 4 down all the time and taking risks that way. They had us against the ropes in that first game when they were in Minnesota. They decided to go 4 on 4 down. We got a good stop. And our offense went on and scored and took the lead. So just being a little less in a way of risk and being a little bit more conservative from a coaching standpoint and have some faith in the defense.

Let's get to the next down. Pete Bursich here with us, previewing the Minnesota Vikings. No more Dalvin Cook. Alexander Madison, when given opportunities, has been a solid back.

Now getting a lot more on his plate. What do you expect from the Vikings running back? Well, I think that sums up this team is that there's just a lot of question marks.

We got a lot of question marks at corner. Running back is definitely the same thing. Addison's a very, very good running back. He's been kind of a short yardage kind of a guy.

But we don't know. He hasn't been the starter for 14, 15 games. He hasn't had the amount of carries that you would expect a starting running back to have. So we know what he can do on the field.

It's just a matter of can he continue to do that? And then the other question is, who's the backup? And we've seen some veteran running backs come in and visit. But behind him, I mean, you're looking at Ty Chandler, who's going into a second season. A lot of potential there. I think he could be a very good. But you're going to hear me saying that a lot with this team, could be.

And that's what we're kind of dependent on. But Ty Chandler, Kanae Wanwu has not been healthy. He's not been healthy all during camp. So we haven't seen any of him in the preseason, but he's a guy. And then Dwayne McBride is kind of falling, I think, a little bit out of favor. But it's a big step for him to come from where he came from and absorb. He caught two passes last year.

He rushed for over 1,700 yards and caught two passes. So he's got to learn the passing game. He's got to learn the protection game. He's got to learn. There's a lot of stuff for him to learn.

And I think his youth is kind of showing right now. When you look at Jonathan Taylor, he's unhappy with the Colts. I guess there's been six teams that have expressed interest in Jonathan Taylor.

There's a Tuesday deadline maybe to get this deal done that the Colts have put out there. I'd be surprised if Minnesota Explorers, because he just got rid of Dalvin Cook, could you see them maybe kicking the tires on a potential Jonathan Taylor trade? Again, you're in the market for another veteran running back. And Jonathan Taylor is probably the best established running back available.

That's a question of what they want for it. Does that align with what Quasi Dofamensa has for the team? This is the one where the fans love to play GM. So I come around draft day, right? You just, well, we'll do this and do this and trade down and pick this guy and do that. I'm sure they would love to have Jonathan Taylor with the Minnesota Vikings.

The question is, is the price going to be too high? And when you're looking at having to re-sign Justin Jefferson, you're not 100% sure what you're going to do with the quarterback situation down the road. TJ Hockinson, you've got a lot of contracts that you need to take care of.

So for them to take on that kind of debt level would be, I would assume the price would be too high. Do you think it was a mistake getting rid of Dalvin Cook? Here's what I can say, is that they didn't get rid of Dalvin Cook because of what he was or was not on the field. Dalvin Cook was the leader, right? Dalvin Cook, he's got a little bit of you-know-what in his neck, meaning he's going to battle, he's going to fight. He was definitely an emotional leader for this offense, and that's what I worry about with Z'Darius Smith's departure to Cleveland.

He was the guy that brought a lot of attitude on defense, so we're going to have to find a way to replace that as well, but Dalvin Cook definitely was the heart and soul of this offense. So you're losing, I think, a little bit more than just the numbers. You're losing a little bit more than just being explosive, and that's the main thing. Whatever fact that we have, they have to be explosive because the teams are going to want to keep too safe and deep for Justin Jefferson and Addison and KJ Osborne and Hockinson. And they give you the opportunity to run. You can't just get three, four yards and move the chains. You've got to get explosive on them, and that's what Dalvin could do. And that's what we need out of Madison this year.

Let's get to the next down. Pete Bursich here with us previewing the Vikings. I said this the other week that I don't think the Vikings intend to bring Kirk Cousins back next year, but I think he'll have a good enough season where he'll get another contract extension. Do you agree with that analysis? Kirk is a pocket passer. He is very accurate, good strong arm. You've got to keep a close eye as he gets older, is that arm strength and that accuracy. Because if those start to go away, he's not going to be able to make things happen with his feet. That's not his game. That's not what he does.

So you have to keep a close eye on that. And I think if other teams see that his arm strength is still good toward the end of the season, I don't think they'll have a problem doing some type of short-term deal with him, whatever that may look like. His completion percentage this first year here was in the 70s. I think it was 71, 70 around there. And every year it's been 69, 68, 67.

Last year it was 66. So keep an eye on that completion percentage. First year on offense, I get it.

But hopefully that completion percentage will be somewhere closer to 70 than 68. I'll play a little GM here. Trey Lance is now third on the depth chart for the 49ers. Fifth round pick, sixth round pick. I would give it up to have him be the backup quarterback and maybe a guy that they could develop. If you can get that done, fifth round pick, sixth round pick, then yeah, I think that that's something that they'd have to explore because of the potential.

Purely potential. And that's again why you get drafted so highly. I don't know if we had a chance to see him on film, but that's why you have a whole staff full of pro personnel guys, right? You get a lot of eyes on him. Get a guy out there maybe to watch some practices in San Francisco and just make sure you know what you're doing before you make that commitment.

But that's definitely a possibility. Let's get to the final down. Pete Bursich here with us.

You start off the conversation discussing the defense. They're bringing Brian Flores to be the defensive coordinator. This unit was one of the worst in the league last year. They don't need to be great to make the playoffs.

The question is, can they just be serviceable? Can they be a top 20 unit with the changes that they made going into this season? That's yet to be seen. This is the first year that Daniel Hunter has been able to just train in the offseason and not rehab. So I'm looking forward to seeing him, see if he embraces the outside linebacker position because it's a very physical position. When you play 3-4 and you're an outside linebacker, you've got to have the height, weight, and speed, but you've got to be physical. Now Marcus Davenport, who he signed from New Orleans, I think he looks better at an outside linebacker position than he does as a D lineman.

Because when he was a D lineman, he was even in a 4-3, he was in a 2-point stance half the time anyway. Certain guys in the league, they'll call him stiff. They'll say they're stiff.

They don't bend real well. But those are also some of the guys that can hit the hardest. He's very, very strong on the outside. So that's what Zadarius Smith brought and hopefully he will. We also have a rookie on draft, a tree agent in Calvin Pace who's looking that he's either going to start or get a lot of playing time. He's going to help us in the run game too.

He's going to have to learn the passing game. But I think we're going to be a little bit more physical. Linebackers are going to be a little bit more downhill.

So hopefully defending the run better. But we're just real young in the secondary. Andrew Boots going into his second year. Caleb Evans is going into his second year. Both those guys had problems staying healthy. So outside of Murphy, we're going to... Jowon Williams might be another option as well.

But again, it's a lot of question marks. And that's kind of the theme, I think, to this year's team. We need a lot of guys to step up. Pete Bursich, always appreciate the time. Enjoy the season. Thank you. All right, man. Thank you. Pete Bursich joining us on the Zach Geld show.

The other thing I was going to bring up, but we're just running out of time. Justin Jefferson. What else is there to say about Justin Jefferson? I actually wonder how much better this guy could get.

And it's scary to think about that. His first year, 1,400 yards. 7 touchdowns. Second year goes from 88 receptions to 108 receptions. 1,616 yards, 10 touchdowns. Last year, $1.28 in terms of receptions. Over 1,800 yards.

1,809 to be exact. And 8 touchdowns. Mike, is anyone going to be shocked this year if he gets 2,000 yards?

I wouldn't. I like KJ Osborne. You got Addison out of USC.

And also Pitt. But you look at Justin Jefferson, he's everything you want a football player. Superstar, conducts himself the right way, and is just a straight-up dog on that football field. And he's a hard worker. And I think he's only going to keep on getting better, which is scary to say that with what he's done the first three years. In the National Football League.