Steve Young, Pro Football Hall of Fame Quarterback

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Vroom.com. Alrighty, welcome back in. It is the Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. We'll head out to the guest line right now and welcome in the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and that is the legendary Steve Young. Steve, great to see you.

How you been? You know, big summer, kids, family. It's over. School started. The summer's dead.

It's time to play some football. No doubt about that. I heard that you had a little trip to Europe recently. Always a good time to go over there, right? We loved it. We loved being together. It was Northern Europe. My wife has a great friend in Oslo, Norway.

We went to see her and traveled through the fjords and new cultures and new people. It was awesome. So the big news yesterday, Trey Lance, of course, with the 49ers. He's going to be the third string quarterback.

Sam Darnold will be second. We know Brock Purdy is going to be the starter. How did you react when you saw that Trey was going to be the third string QB for them? You knew at the beginning of camp. They talked about an honest, you know, competition between the two of them, Sam and Trey for the backup spot.

I think that was real. I think you also knew that Trey had not grabbed the hearts, and I don't know how to say this, of the team where, like, it's not necessarily an emotional thing. It's more like how he performed and how he needs to be to kind of claim not the hearts.

It's to put a stake in the ground or, you know, on the top of Everest. Like, you know, this is my space. He had yet to do that, and I think that's what he needed to do to get that backup job was to perform in a way that gave him the confidence. Like, he was missing some easy routes, and you could feel him kind of get down on himself.

And the team responds to that, and that's not what they're looking for. So he was growing. I give Trey a lot of credit. In the offseason, he went and got better at the things that he wasn't good at. He is improving, and you feel like after this last preseason game, there's really something there, and somebody's going to find it. That's what you kind of feel like, but unfortunately, Sam came in and gave Kyle what he craved. Kyle may not be the, his highest and best use is not developing quarterbacks.

His highest and best use is taking a developed quarterback or a quarterback full of guile and the ability to kind of decipher and call plays and have them be trusted. And so Sam became that guy, and Trey was more of a development project. So I feel bad for Trey.

I think that he honestly lost the competition, and you just have to, you know, we all get in a competitive spot. You lose it. Now what? And I think that hopefully the 49ers, if I was Trey, if I wasn't positive that I was, you know, there's maybe a handful to 10 good places for quarterbacks in the league that I would want to go to. If you're not going to go to a place of one of those spots that can take care of the quarterback and teach him and prepare them to be great, I might hang around even though I'm going to get, you know, kind of third, you know, scout team stuff because this is one of them. This is one of the 10 where if you're going to play quarterback, this is where you want to be. And you don't know how it's going to go down. Maybe a year of it, maybe you can put up with it.

I don't know. But I don't, if he was ever going to send him some random team that doesn't take care of the quarterback, I don't know that I would want that for Trey. And they may need him at some point this year. I know Brock Purdy was awesome last year in the eight games that he started and Sam Darnold, there's question marks about him.

But we've seen the Niners the last few years go through a lot of quarterbacks. I don't think that will be by design, but maybe there's an opportunity for Trey Lance later in the season. You never know, right?

You never know. But Trey needs to get on the field. He's ready to get on the field and do more of what he did in the last preseason game, which will essentially, there's going to be mistakes.

There's going to be some haywire stuff. But in the big picture, it seems like he gets warmed up and gets going. And then he can compete with the big boys, with the big comebacks, with the big late fourth quarter touchdown passes. So to me, I want to see more of Trey. I didn't leave preseason saying, I don't know that I want to see more. I want to see more of Trey.

And I want him to find a place where he can go find out the full measure himself. I don't know that third string is the place for him, but I do know that if he goes to a place that doesn't take care of the quarterback, it's not going to get him to where he wants to be. And that's the crazy part of this situation is the Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is here with us. This is a guy that people now will say he's a bust, but he's really never got the opportunity. He's been a starter for four games.

One was in a monsoon up against the Bears and the other one, he got hurt. So it's one of the situations people say he's a bust, but then we never really seen the guy play. Right. And I think that that fed on itself, right? Because you've been here for two years, like you've been here months and months without having the chance to go prove it. So you keep trying to prove it, but you don't have the environment to go prove it.

So it kind of feeds back into your own insecurity. I noticed Trey during the summer camp where I could feel like every throw he made was a referendum on whether he was good or not. Like that throw, he's good or that throw. Oh, he's terrible. Like nobody wants one throw or a practice to define whether you're good or not, but because you don't have any money in the bank for all the college and pro stuff you just talked about that he doesn't have it.

So all we have is this practice and we're like, yeah, it was a bad practice. Only he's a bad player. Like no one wants to be in that spot. It's a tough spot for Trey to be until he gets enough time to either prove it or not.

Once and for all, I think we can't, don't call him anything yet. We have to give him the space to go be a bust or be a success or be, we just haven't given him that yet. And that's why I hate covering training camps because we track practice.

The goal of practice is to get better. Touchdown, like, it's like my kids in the home. I get my kids at home, high schoolers, and I'm like, I'm not sure they're really great. You know, they behave and they talk back and they're like, and then I go out to their friend's house and I talk to the parents like, gosh, she's the most wonderful person. He is such a great kid. He helps with the dishes.

He's amazing. And it's like, the truth is, kids work out stuff at home and you work out stuff in practice. That's what you do.

You work it out. So you don't want to be judged. You want to be judged for the games. You want to be judged for practice. When you work stuff out, will you try things you wouldn't try in a game? Will you take a risk that you wouldn't take in the game necessarily? And so if I'm going to, oh, he was 11 of 15 with two picks, like, yeah, it's practice. Like that's, I'm making throws that I wouldn't make in a game because I want to find out. I want to see what the full range of what I can do. Anyone can just drop it off in seven on seven.

You can go 100% in seven on seven if you want, or you can try stuff. So anyway, Zach, I can't agree with you more. Where's your belief level in Brock Purdy? Because we know what the goal is for the Niners this year. It's to win a Super Bowl. There is no question, and it has been for three years now, the best roster in football. The best talent, the best deployment of that talent by a coach, an offensive mind, second or first tied with Andy Reid. And so you need a quarterback and they should win multiple Super Bowls or be in the mix. And they have been in the mix for multiple Super Bowls. So, yes, this team is Super Bowl. No question.

Super Bowl or bust. And so Brock brings, I don't know, there's a I can I smell it from the team. They feel like they got a guy like he's my guy now. He's smaller than we thought. He's not as big as the other guys.

He's not as fast. Like there's things that made him the last pick in the draft. But all the other elements that pro players are looking for from their quarterback that want to smell it. Like, you know, it's a smell test or I call it the force in Star Wars.

You know, like you can't you don't know how to explain it, but they have the force. That's that's that's Brock. And and I think that what the full measure of that.

We don't like seven games, you know, coming from third string. You know, I don't know exactly how that's going to go, but the smell test has already happened. That the force people have feeling like, does he have the force? He has it. Now, how far can he take it? When we get to Aaron Rodgers, Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is here with us.

You're one in New York. Rodgers now happy basically running that organization. What do you kind of think the end result will be for the Jets? I'm loving the summer of Aaron Rodgers.

I'm loving and I'm a little bit jealous, to be honest with you. Because when you're around someplace for a long time, like he was in Green Bay for good or bad, a lot of success. You just build up long term relationships that have a lot of scar tissue and a lot of, you know, ill feelings and remembered slights and and you could smell that at the end of his reign in Green Bay where he was. He was kind of crotchety, you know, and it was like it wasn't really. I don't know that he was necessarily overly happy with everything and you couldn't tell whether it was him or whether it was the team or the head coach or what was going on. And now he gets a completely new start at 40 years old. So you're the most senior guy in the league. You've been MVPs and Super Bowls. You know everything about the game and now you get to define yourself in a way that's completely like a canvas.

That's just you get to paint on however you want. And how he's decided to paint on the summer is I am going to and everyone in the building, the Jets are like, he's the Messiah. He's the greatest.

He's the guy. And you feel all this love and all this acceptance and you feel like you're going to make all the difference. And now you come into that space and you pay it back with humility. You pay it back with mentorship. You pay it back with being one of the guys.

You pay it back. It's like he's done all of those things that makes football players love their quarterback. Like I'll kill for that. I'll do anything for this guy. He's done that in three, four, five short months. He's created that environment that every player in the world wants to have their team feel for their quarterback. And I think it's super fun.

And I think Hard Knocks has only exacerbated or, you know, multiplied that effect to how, you know. So people say, what about Super Bowl? Yes, even in the AFC. Yes, young talent, fully deployed, fully flowered with a quarterback that can take care of the football. They can get it back from the defense a bunch of times.

How do you beat the Jets if Aaron Rodgers plays as well as he is feeling? Like as well as he's, you know, he's excited. He's energized.

I talked to him briefly this summer. I'm like, you know, in those big games, end of season, whether it's the Chiefs or the Bills or the Bengals or the Eagles or the 49ers, whatever it is at the end of the season, you know that you're going to have to spit out 30, 40, even 50 yards on your, you know, you get on your horse and go. Because they're there.

They make the difference in the game. He goes, you're right. I'm going to get on my, I'm going to be. So he's a guy that's not just going to sit around.

He's going to get on his horse and go make things happen like he was when he was 25 years old. So a long answer, but you can see I'm pretty excited and a little jealous of the opportunity that Aaron gets at the end of his career. It's kind of cool. It's a great answer. The Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Yelling here with us. So you know what it's like to replace a legend on the flip side.

Here you go. Jordan Love having to replace Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. What advice would you give him? Well, the number one advice is that you can't be Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers. Don't try. Everyone will try to compare you and they want you to be those guys. You just got to say, no, I reject it. I'm not, I'm not going to try. And they say, and the comparisons are inevitable.

Get used to it. Aaron Rodgers never threw an incomplete pass. Aaron Rodgers never threw an interception. Aaron Rodgers never lost a game. Like you have to.

I remember when I replaced Joe Montana, there were times when I wanted to go to even my own teammates and go, you know, Joe threw an interception. Like he did. But you know, no, he didn't. He's human.

It was perfect. So there's all of that. It's like a huge mountain that you have to climb that you need to say to yourself, I'm not climbing it. I'm going to leave that mountain alone. I got another mountain over here that I have to go play great football and help this football team win and do good. This mountain, I'm not going to try to climb. And I think that's what happens if people try to replace others and try to compare themselves. They start to climb a mountain that you can't, you're never going to get up. Don't go there.

Just leave it behind. And the comparisons and all the pain and anguish and the disparity and how unfair it is, like, accept it all. It's going to be unfair. They're not going to remember anything bad from Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre. You're going to be unfairly judged. Like, accept it all.

That's all part of that mountain. Like, just leave it and come over here and just play a great football and take the game to game and take what your coaches say and try to isolate away from the inevitable, incredible mountain of noise that you're going to get. Two more with the Pro Football Hall of Famer, Steve Young. Are you concerned what you're seeing with the Bills, where right at mandatory minicamp, you had the Stephon Diggs situation, the coach said he was concerned that Stephon wasn't there.

And then the next day it was nothing to see here, folks, even though there was clearly something to see. My biggest concern with the Bills is that Josh Allen has been asked to be Superman. These Bills are talented, but he doesn't have the help that Patrick Mahomes has or even Joe Burrow has.

And I don't think they have the offensive ingenuity that these other teams have that I think he lacks. And so as he goes out to be Superman, he actually says, oh, you asked me to be Superman? I will be Superman, literally. I'll go diving over people. I'll go running around.

I'll put my body at risk. And it reminds me a little bit of Andrew Luck and how he was with the Colts where they asked him to do so much and he could do it. So he would give them the Superman performance as he took batterings and beatings and over time it just doesn't work and you don't actually get to the Super Bowl. Josh Allen needs to be, Patrick Mahomes is Superman because they don't ask him to be it every week. He can play just quarterback, drop it off, put it in people's hands, watch them run, ingenuity and offense, nice protection. And then all of a sudden he does Superman-like things when it's not required. Does that make sense?

Where from Josh it's required. And so I think anything that happens with the Bills like Stephon Diggs and what you just mentioned reminds me that the Bills aren't put together the way that I see that Patrick Mahomes is put together. They're both Superman types of quarterbacks.

They're in different spots and I wish that Josh had a little bit more help. Last thing I'll ask you of Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young here with us on CBS Sports Radio. The Dallas Cowboys last year, they had a championship performance defensively up against the 49ers and offensively Dak just didn't have it during that day. Is Dak good enough to win a Super Bowl in this league knowing what it takes? Dak is good enough. There's 10 quarterbacks that are good enough, maybe more, put in a situation where they have access to deploy. You need to help.

He has the help. What I'm concerned about, especially last year when I watched the offenses, was that the game has changed dramatically over the last four or five years. Defenses cannot patrol like they used to by launching their body and missiles into all the areas of the defense. That's the way we played it. That doesn't happen anymore.

Because of that, there's now holes of space. That's why the game's become more college-like. That's why you can throw the slip screen and do all the kind of things that college was only able to do in the past. So because of that, the most innovative minds like in Kansas City and San Francisco and Miami and Philadelphia, they are figuring out ways to deploy the assets, not in an I-formation handoff and plow it in there, but to get the ball out into space and attack because that's where all the yards are. And so my fear is that the Cowboys offense doesn't, Dak doesn't get to deploy it the way I see Patrick be able to deploy it or even Josh be able to deploy it or what Jalen's doing. Like I want an offense that deploys in a way that takes all the newfound space that Dak could go eat up. So I put that onus on coaches.

I know they made a change. So we'll see what this looks like. We'll see what the Cowboy offense looks like. But if it doesn't look to you like as innovative of what's happening in those cities that I just said, then I feel like Zach's playing uphill. I lied. I'm going to ask you one more question here, Steve Young.

That sometimes happens in this business. You know that. Daniel Jones, his career looked like there was no future. Last year plays well with nothing really around him. They go get down wall of this offseason. Saquon comes back.

Are you a believer in Daniel Jones or is it I got to see him do it another season and take it to a next level? I think what happened is that a coach came in with a plan that said, Daniel Jones, you've been asked to do too much. We're going to simplify it. You're smart enough to do more. I'm not saying it's an intellectual issue with you, but because we've asked you do so much and you try to answer all the time, you're not ready. So we're going to pare it down and ask you to do instead of 15 things, do four things and ask those four things. And we're not going to ask more. And calm down and we're going to have other people do other things. Play great defense. Hang in there.

You don't make as many mistakes. And all of a sudden, we're winning games in the fourth quarter. And it worked throughout the season.

I thought it was very good. And Daniel, because he was, instead of 15 things to do, he got asked four things to do. He got calmed down. He wasn't running around. The ball's not spinning out in all the crazy places. He's not throwing balls where you're like, what are you doing? And I think he got to be a better player being asked to do less. Less is more in this situation.

And so the season to me about Daniel Jones was the fact that they have honed that down. Now, as you come into the next season, you say to yourself, okay, you did really well when he asked you four things. Let's go to six. Let's go to eight. Let's build off of it. And now we've got more weapons. Let's ask you to do a little more, not get crazy and see if we can build out of what you did last season and see if we can't, over time, get you a place where you're one of the big boys.

Which would be awesome, which Daniel has the ability to become. But I think they've got to be careful here. They don't go back to say, okay, you handled four. Let's go back to 15. And then he starts to spin. The ball starts to fly out, falls crazy.

And like, we don't want that. As long as they hang with how they did it last year and built a little bit off it, I give that coaching, coach's credit last year. That's why coach is this. You need to be even better to make sure that they maintain that level of simplicity for Daniel.

I think they got a real chance to get better. He's the legendary Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, Steve Young. Steve, always great to have you on. Really appreciate it. Take care, buddy.

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