Trey Lance Trade A Smart One? (Hour 4)

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 one of the better teams in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers, and we do so with the man that's covered the team for a long time, NBC Sports Bay Area, Matt Myoko here with us. Matt, appreciate the time as always. How you been? I've been well. The last week has been pretty crazy, but it seems like I'm conditioned to that, covering the 49ers and their quarterback situation over the last, whatever, handful of years. Yeah, no doubt about it.

So let's start with, obviously, the big topic of conversation the last few days. That's Trey Lance. I was operating of the mindset that they shouldn't trade him, but probably would. I did not expect it to be for a fourth round pick with him going to Dallas, but when you saw that news come across, how'd you kind of react to it?

Well, it took you by the shock, I think a little bit, just because, not that that wasn't a possibility. He wasn't going to be the starter. We knew that from early in the offseason, if not at the end of last season, just as a matter of Brock Purdy being healthy. And then it wasn't a surprise after watching training camp practices that he was the number three, but he did look better than he ever has.

But Sam Darnold just beat him out. I guess the surprising thing to me was just, when you take a deep breath and you kind of step back and you realize that he was the number three overall pick in the draft, 49ers traded up to get him. They spent a lot of draft capital to get him. He's still only 23 years old and he's halfway through his initial contract. So having seen where the 49ers were last year, where the number three guy to start the season ended up being the starter at the end of the year and then winning the starting job for the foreseeable future, you just kind of thought, at least I did, that maybe the 49ers would just hold on to him as long as they could just to make sure that thing runs its course before moving on from him. It's not like a fourth round pick.

It's a staggering level of compensation to get for a guy, especially when you gave up what you did to get him. But I guess it just came to the point where they felt it was in their best interest, but also Trey Lance's best interest to move on from him at that point. That's why I think it's a mistake, Matt, because I know Brock Purdy played well last year, but it's still a small sample size, hasn't done it over a course of entire season. And I know they're trying to hype up Sam Darnold, but I can't buy into that hype where for the most part of his career, unfortunately, he's been remembered as someone that had mono with the Jets and someone that was seeing ghosts. Yeah, I guess the difference would be that there is a level of kind of, I don't know what the right word is, maybe cockiness, I guess, that the 49ers look at that and they go, okay, he was with the Jets, not great coaching, horrible supporting cast, goes to the Carolina Panthers, not great coaching, horrible supporting cast, or at least maybe a step up from the Jets at that point.

And so the idea here is everything is defined. The guy has tremendous talent. There's no question about it. Watching him throw the football, you can see the talent. But now it's a matter of if he's ever called on to play, seeing it and reacting, knowing where to go with the football. It's all black and white at the 49ers offense. And so he doesn't have to put the team on his shoulders and will the team to victory. He just has to, as any quarterback does here, and this is the same, how Brock Purdy was able to succeed last year, you got to be able to use the guys around you. First off, 49ers have a good defense. Last year, arguably the best defense in the league, at least staff say it was the best defense in the league. But as a quarterback of this team, you're handing the ball off to Christian McCaffrey, you're dumping the ball off to Christian McCaffrey. You're finding George Kittle, you're finding Deebo Samuel, you're finding Brandon Iuke.

Those are some top notch weapons right there. And so you don't have to be shooting 27-footers. You're a point guard and all you have to do is distribute to the open guy.

And usually that open guy is very open in this offense. Just one more last thing on Trey Lance, you know, I cover it from afar. You're there every day, Matt Myoko, you know, it seems like Kyle Shanahan didn't love Trey Lance at first. And then through the scouting process was talked through it through drafting him only four starts with all that they gave up. Once again, it's just wild that this is the end result that he gets traded for a fourth round pick after only starting four games and one of them he got hurt.

The other was in a monsoon up against Chicago. Why did Shanahan, just the way that it feels, give up on this kid so quickly? Well, I think because he was still an unknown. You know, they didn't know what he could be. They like a lot about him. They definitely like a lot about Trey Lance.

But think about this. This is final high school game. He has only attempted 420 passes in game action. So he basically, you know, was up at the university or North Dakota state university for three seasons. He only played in one of those seasons. You know, he was a backup one year and then the, the last year, uh, it was wiped out when, yeah, because of COVID and then the middle year, he tore it up, you know, 28 touchdown passes, no interceptions, ran the ball, you know, won the, the, um, Jerry Rice award and the Walter Payton award.

I mean, he won every award at that level. So the 49ers knew coming in that he was still needed experience. And you know, the first year they had planned on doing some stuff, but he injured his finger and really couldn't throw the football very well. He was going to kind of mix in with Jimmy Garoppolo a little bit so they could use his running abilities on occasion. Well, that plan kind of fell through, but he was going to be the starter. You know, if we'd be talking a year ago today, we'd be talking about his first start coming up against the Chicago bear.

And so the idea was they knew there were going to be some rough patches. They knew there were going to be some ups and downs, but they figured if he played the whole season, he'd be a heck of a lot better week, week, you know, 10, 12, 11, you know, 10, 12, 14, 15, whatever. Then he was when he started the year, the problem is he got injured in the first quarter of week two.

And so that development that everybody assumed would happen and everybody would have a good idea about him and he'd be able to work through some things that development year never happened. And then Brock Purdy gets in and he's the one who tears it up with a quarterback rating of one Oh seven or whatever the heck it was. And the 49ers win two playoff games with him and people here still like, boy, I wonder what could have happened if Brock Purdy had been healthy in that NFC championship game.

So basically the, the, the locomotive that is the NFL jets kept right on moving. Brock Purdy jumped on and proved that he belonged and Trey Lance never got the opportunity to show that he belonged. And therefore just based on what they saw on the field, Brock Purdy started this season, you know, once he got cleared, he was the quarterback. There's no question about it because now the 49ers find themselves in a position where they can't wait around, you know, they can't like live through the ups and downs of a young quarterback such as Trey Lance who doesn't have much experience. So what they saw from Brock Purdy was enough to make everybody. And when I say everybody, I mean the coaching staff, the front office, but even probably more importantly, the locker room know that he was going to be the guy.

Let's get to the next down. Matt Mayoko here with us, NBC sports Bay area. So as you just so eloquently said, the hype, the buzz, the confidence with Brock Purdy is high fans, people inside the organization for you covering this team. And it was impressive what he did last year. And like you said, point guard role with a tremendous cast of characters around him. Where's the confidence that Brock's going to be able to do that over the entirety of a full 17 game regular season. Yeah, he's in a really good position and he's got a really good mindset.

You know, the question that I would have this year is just how that arm going to hold up and he looks pretty good right now. But that's a very significant injury that he has. But all he doesn't have to do much, you know, I mean, he has to do a lot, I guess. But based on what he showed, it doesn't look like he ever has to break character.

He just has to, you know, he doesn't have to be a world leader. He just has to be smart, passive, accurate, and know this system inside and out. And those are the qualities that he showed last year. I've asked that question numerous times, you know, to Kyle Shanahan and to John Lynch as basically, what makes you think that what he showed is sustainable? And you know, they can go through it and just the way he sees the game, it's the way he reacts with poise. It's the confidence his teammates have in him. It's his level of consistency. It's his coach ability.

You know, if he makes one mistake, he doesn't make the same mistake again. And so it really showed when he stepped into that game against the Dolphins after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured, you could tell that this was a guy who's played a lot of football. And he played four years at Iowa State. He went through ups and downs at Iowa State. And so he's already gone through, you know, the adversity part of it. A lot of experiences, I think a lot of times when guys have too much success at the college level, you know, playing in Alabama or playing in Ohio State or wherever, once they get to the pros, things get really difficult for them. And then it's a matter of how do you adjust?

How do you bounce back after mistakes? Brock Purdy, in a lot of ways, maybe it was almost easier for him going to the NFL because of the support supporting cast he has with the 49ers. And the fact that he won some big games, but he also lost plenty of big games. He had to go back out on the field after throwing an interception at Iowa State. And so he's already gone through a lot of those travails that, you know, some quarterbacks come to the NFL without ever experiencing in college. This may be a weird question just because Shanahan is so successful.

It seems like every year the Niners are in the NFC title game. You know that if he was available, another team would scoop him up in a second. But with how great this team is on paper and still the uncertainties around the quarterback position, does that put Shanahan on the hot seat at all a little bit?

Well, I would look at it this way. The move to trade Trey Lance was clearly a move made by a general manager and a head coach who aren't on the hot seat. In other words, if they were concerned or there was reason for them to be concerned, I think they would have held on to Trey Lance and kind of pump the brakes on making any decision and maybe just kind of delaying the whole Trey Lance isn't working out here narrative. But by doing what they did, ripping the Band-Aid off, it was pretty clear to me that this is a couple of decision makers who just feel like they need to do the right thing and they're not about making themselves look good.

Because frankly, it doesn't make them look good. It makes them look bad that you can have what would probably and arguably be the worst draft move in 49ers history and certainly one of the worst in probably NFL history. But at the same time, they are the ones who brought in Brock Burdie. And so if it were Trey Lance doing the thing that Burdie did at the end of last season, and if it were Trey Lance in the spot where the 49ers feel like they are right now, nobody would be talking about it.

So I guess it doesn't matter how you get your players as long as you got your players. And right now, with so much star power on that team, the 49ers have their players. Matt Mayoko here with us.

Let's get to the next down. When we get to Nick Bosa, what's the latest on that contract dispute to hold out? And do you think he's in jeopardy of missing week one? Yeah, I do think he's in jeopardy of missing week one. The 49ers have maintained that they're confident that this thing will happen, and we'll see, but we're getting closer and closer to that date.

And both sides haven't been talking a whole lot publicly, so there's not a lot of information out there. But it seems pretty clear to me that Nick Bosa's camp wants to make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, and the 49ers are probably pushing back a lot about having him surpass what Aaron Donald did a couple years ago coming off that Super Bowl season when there was rumblings that he might retire, and so it's a shorter-term deal. But yeah, I think there is reason for concern for the 49ers about this deal getting done, at least in the time frame that it's looking like. Because even if he comes in today, that means he would have missed all of training camp, and it's a limited window. The clock is ticking before the start of the regular season, and there's no replacing the practice time and the fully-padded work that he would have got or missed out on in training camp. So I do think it's a concern, and I'd be shocked if it doesn't get done.

I think it'll be really close whether it comes up and it impacts the 49ers week one or not. When you get to the new defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks has been around the block for a long time. We've seen this organization because they have a very successful defense, have to lose their defensive coordinator, whether it's Robert Salo or D'Amico Ryans both getting head coaching jobs. What's the early return, Matt Mayoko, on Steve Wilks so far? Yeah, he's an impressive guy. He's really bonded with many of the younger players in the defensive backfield.

That's kind of where his forte is. You go out to practice and you watch him working with the corners in particular on peak technique stuff. I think what he's going to do, and you'll probably see a lot of this as long as Bosa's not on the field, is the past several years with Robert Salo, with D'Amico Ryans, the 49ers didn't do a whole lot of blitzing. They didn't bring a lot of pressure. It was generally a four-man pass rush. I think that what they're going to do now with Steve Wilks is look for those opportunities to bring more guys. Without Bosa, they might have to generate more of a pass rush. I think this defense is going to be selectively more aggressive than they've been in the past. That would be what I would look for from Steve Wilks, who comes in not bringing his defense per se, but adapting to what's already here with the pre-existing coaching staff around him, and then making very slight tweaks to put his own thumbprints on this defense. Let's get to the final down.

On the way out with Matt Mayoka, NBC Sports Bay Area. Going back to the offense and not talking quarterback just for a second, which is the favorite thing to do when you bring up the 49ers. Look at their two best skill position players. I think Christian McCaffrey is going to win Offensive Player of the Year this season in the NFL.

When we get to my best friend Deebo Samuel, two years ago he was awesome. Last year took a big step back. I know he had the injury as well. Where is the confidence level that Deebo Samuel is going to look more like the player two years ago than last season? He does.

I can assure you. Watching him last year, you could see it, but maybe it's a little bit unspoken. He did not look the same. He looked heavier. When he goes back after the season and watches film, what he said was he saw somebody who looked sluggish. I think where it showed was the yards per catch.

His average went down about 7 yards from 18 yards to 11 yards per catch. He definitely looks better, more of a force with the ball in his hands. When you said the two best offensive players, and you mentioned McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, there are two other guys who I think probably are in that conversation too. That's George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk. Brandon Aiyuk is probably a better wide receiver than Deebo Samuel, but Deebo Samuel brings so many other things where they can hit you with the jet sweep or he can just freaking line up in the backfield and run between the tackles too. And then with all those other guys you mentioned, the one guy that really took off when Brock Purdy took over as quarterback was George Kittle. He got in the end zone more than he ever had last year.

Those four guys right there are probably, I can't think of another four players on offensive playmakers on any team that bring to the table what McCaffrey, Samuel, Kittle and Aiyuk bring to the 49ers. Matt Mayoka, NBC Sports Bay Area. Matt, I always appreciate the time. Thank you. All right. My pleasure. Thank you. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Final poll calculation time at Zach Gelb on Twitter where you could always give me a follow. Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B.

You can also pop over to Instagram to give me a follow there as well. Was it a mistake by the 49ers to trade Trey Lance? Hickey, I'm actually surprised by this one. 58.9% say no. 41.1% say yes. Now, I would imagine a lot of people in the know are saying, well, they don't want him as their quarterback. So get something back and you got a fourth round pick. And that's more than what anyone probably thought when we were having this conversation last week.

So I understand that side of the argument, but here's the part that it's kind of crazy to me, Hickey. And I know that Brock Purdy played really good football last year. Five regular season games and two postseason games.

The last one, he got hurt so early, so you don't even count it. But for an organization the last four or five years that just rotates quarterbacks and anoints someone the guy, then it's somebody else. Then you're back to someone that you didn't believe in.

Then it's back to someone that's new. Like with how this has just been a merry-go-round of quarterback after quarterback after quarterback, you look at Brock Purdy. Yeah, he could be the guy this year.

You know, I tell him Matt Mayoka said it was perfect. They're looking for him to be the point guard. They just need a point guard. When you have Ayuk and Debo and McCaffrey, the line, Kittle, you're just looking for someone to be the steady point guard. And maybe that is Brock Purdy against all odds. But until I see more of it from Brock Purdy, I don't know if this was just Cinderella and we're all waiting for the clock to strike midnight.

Like that could be it. And if that's the case, your insurance policy goes to Sam Darnold. And Sam Darnold is someone that yes, he's in the best environment he's ever been in. But I've seen enough of Sam Darnold where I would rather hitch my wagon for my insurance policy, which is a hope and a prayer, to a guy that we've only seen start four games and that your organization, even if Shanahan wasn't all in, believed enough in Trey Lance to push all the poker chips to the center of the table and give up three first round draft picks to him. And if you ask me, would I rather have Trey Lance as a backup option in some order or a fourth round pick?

I take Trey Lance 10 times out of 10 over a fourth round pick, which if this year Brock Purdy, even if he doesn't play poorly, let's say he gets hurt. You're banking on Sam Darnold. And maybe Kyle Shanahan is a genius and he's more intelligent than all of us. And he knows football and he knows offensive football better than anybody, right?

Now, maybe all that's true. But to me, to give up on Trey Lance in a year where it's Super Bowl or bust, and at least I don't know what Trey Lance could be. I know what Sam Darnold is, and I don't know what Brock Purdy is going to be. And if he can make it through this entire season, that to me is why I think this is a mistake by the 49ers, especially when this is an organization that in for the last six years has needed at least three quarterbacks to play in a season. So again, pure math would say you're more likely to play multiple QBs this year than have Brock Purdy start week one and end the season whenever it ends playoffs, Super Bowl, you name it, and just have him be the continuous starter for an entire year. It's been a trend and Kyle Shanahan has been the head coach the last six years.

He's seen in person how often unfortunately quarterbacks have gotten hurt. Now, Jimmy Grappler is a brittle player, so you think, okay, Brock Purdy should be an upgrade in terms of durability. But again, it's a risk where I just don't think if you are a Super Bowl or bust team, it's a risk where you could say, you know what, I'll take the draft pick now and I'll trade a player that we could need possibly late in the year to help us out. I'm not gonna worry about that.

I think that's a mistake. So let's just say if Brock Purdy doesn't pan out this year and then they go to Sam Darnold that he doesn't show that he should be a starting quarterback in this league next year. You know who we may be talking about for the 49ers? Kirk Cousins.

Yep. Who, you know, for years Kyle Shanahan, or at least there's been stories for years, Kyle Shanahan's been trying to get him to the Bay area. And if you're Kirk Cousins with all these weapons and right, he's going to have to take less money. But if you're Kirk Cousins, you could shut everybody up because if Kirk Cousins goes to the 49ers, that's enough of an environment where Kirk Cousins, who the 49ers just seem to be like asking for a game manager, where we know Kirk Cousins is more than a game manager. Kirk Cousins, even though, right, most of us have said the guy will never win a Super Bowl in this league. He'd go to San Francisco and win a Super Bowl. There is no doubt about that in my mind. Kooky parts is going to mean, can he fit the salary cap?

Like honestly. He's got to take less money. Would he be willing to take a lesser deal to go into a place that should put him in the best position to break through for the first time in his career?

And another point on this, and you know that this guy is willing to take less. Did you see right before the preseason game, I think it was Raiders and Cowboys. Yeah, cause Brady had a little back and forth with Micah Parsons. Brady was in the locker room with the Raiders. I know there's been all that talk that he's going to be a minority owner, but then you heard there was a hiccup in the deal. We haven't heard anything final that looks like that's dead, right? If Brady's there, that's gotta be pretty damn close to being fine on it.

They still gotta officially vote him in and take care of all that stuff. But if that's the case that takes Brady off the market, if he is going to be a minority owner for the Raiders, I'm talking about at some point this season where if you do get through the, to the QB carousel, you know, Brady's wanted to play for the 49ers for awhile. Shanahan said no a few years ago, if Brock Purdy's not rocking out with his Brock out of let's say Sam Darnold stinks.

And then Trey Lance is no longer with the 49ers and he's with the Dallas Cowboys. They couldn't even make a call for Tom Brady to save their ass at like week 10 or week 11. Mattie Ice, Phillip Rivers, plenty of veteran QBs out there. Let me just say one thing, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, we could say his playing days are over. Big Ben has now been retired for two years and Phillip Rivers, they went to that well last year.

They tried to, right? There was that story that, you know, if they would have made it to the Super Bowl, he, he could have been on that team and they had this contingency plan in place. If you're out of the league for a year and then you sit out to start the second year, I think it's very tough for you to come back. Imagine if Phillip Rivers got his Super Bowl victory last year, comes in, starts one game, wins the Super Bowl. Against the Chiefs. Against the Chiefs. He would go down to be a legend. That game would have came down to the final two minutes.

I know it did this year, but the actual Super Bowl, but that doesn't have all the making in the world. Phillip Rivers, how many times towards the end of his career did the game come down to the final two minutes when he was with the Chargers and he didn't step up and deliver? Hey, Mattie Ice, MVP under, Kyle Shanahan looking to still play, staying in shape while being on CBS. He's ready for the call. He's ready to heed the call. And if Brandon Allen goes down and we're talking about a fourth string quarterback in week 15, you know who to call. The question is just does Matt Ryan pick up the phone call? I think he would.

Well, yeah, there's a little bit more to that. I've been trying to get Matt Ryan on. He's come on this show before. I've called him, texted him.

Nothing, huh? Your boys ghosted me. I'm starting to wonder if he saw the 28 to 3 cult shirt that I made up.

You know, I'm sure you've maybe heard one or two jokes. And said, bleep that guy. Maybe that's what it is. But I thought we had a bond over Della Sandra's cheese steaks.

That's it. He came on the show. We were talking about Della Sandro's. We were bashing Tobias Harris for putting a male on the cheese steak. I thought there was a genuine bond between Mattie Ice and I. I guess the cheese steaks couldn't, you know, undo the burning of the bridge from all the 20 to three jokes. And he's got to be immune to the 28 to three jokes. You would think heard him probably enough, you know, for a few lifetimes, unfortunately for him. And cost him a spot, maybe the Hall of Fame. Like, I don't think he's a Hall of Fame quarterback, but if he had a Super Bowl, it's a little bit more compelling of a conversation with the league MVP too. Would help. I would agree with you that he's not.

Make it a little easier to obviously argue. So the summer's been crazy, by the way. Heck, he's on a ton of vacation. I go on a ton of vacation. Marco and his beautiful wife had another kid.

So he's been in and out. Marco actually now gets vacation with the full time job. So I always find it funny when Marco tells me he's he's taken off for Thanksgiving after working like 20 something Thanksgivings in a row. And his his family's like, you're not to behave yourself.

You could be good at this Thanksgiving. And then I'm sure they'll even like when you be like, I kind of like it better when dad was working. I'm sure they're more happy when I'm gone. And now, like Marco, whenever you tell me that you take a vacation, I think it's awesome.

I don't even know if you guys like went away did something. But it's just awesome to me because for so many years, I know Marco would just show up each and every weekend, would work those crazy hours, work seven other jobs. So I actually get happy for like, I'm never rooting for people not to get their vacation. I'm not saying that, but I'm really happy when Marco takes a vacation because I've never worked with you when you've actually got to take a full vacation. I appreciate it. Now, hopefully one of these days you'll work with me when I take a real one and actually do something and go away or maybe actually vacation. It was not only that, it sucked is basically what it came down to.

What do you call a mayor to cost a gallon to work this Friday? I mean, one stupid thing after another, it just got all messed up between all different kinds of things. So staycation was cool. The first couple of days were great.

Got a chance to go to the zoo, took the kids to the park one day like those were great. And then all of a sudden, come Wednesday, everything went right downhill. So that's right.

I'm happy to be back. Let's put it that way. Well, I think family time is precious, but you have, what, a four month old now? Three. Three month old. A nine year old and a three year old. A nine year old and a three year old. And again, look, that's part of the reason why.

And a wife who just gave birth. Well, yeah, it's also, I mean. You're playing a little fire there.

No, no, no. I get it. And I wasn't expecting to go anywhere.

And I haven't done that a long time. We'll do that at some point, assuming I still have this, that I can actually take vacation and do this. But we knew we weren't going to do that this week. We had a lot of things, at least in my head, planned and everything just kind of fell apart come Wednesday. And by the end of it, it was like, just get me back to work. And once it was spelled out, there was no way to pick it back up.

No, no. It was one thing after another. It was one thing after another.

And there was just so much stuff that it got to the point where it was like, just get me out of here. So I'm going to play some audio here. All right.

I don't know if this is going to cheer you up or if it's going to set you off. Great. So we've all hosted shows and, you know, like sometimes like last week we had Deion Sanders and Steve Young. If they want to take over the show, God bless. I'm happy.

Talk as long as you want. But one of our buddies, Dexter Henry, was interviewing Jack Stern, of all people, on this New York Post, the SNY kind of joint show. And this is you just got to listen to this. Jack Stern is the guest here as a CBS Sports Radio columnist, which I find funny because I don't even think our website works anymore. Once Tony Miele left, they were like, screw the website.

We don't need it. Odyssey will just post things. So Jack Stern is on as a CBS Sports Radio columnist. And what are they talking about in the beginning? Jack's correct prediction that the Cardinals are tanking this 2023 season, which is a Big Bowl take that you don't need a Ph.D. in football to figure this out. But just listen.

This is just Dexter Henry being nice, right? Inviting Jack on and saying like, hey, how are you? And listen how long Jack Stern rambles for. Following their preseason finale, the Arizona Cardinals still have yet to name a starting quarterback as Kyler Murray works his way back from a torn ACL. So what direction will the cards go when it comes to QB? Well, I know somebody who's had some thoughts on this and his name is Jack Stern.

He's a columnist, anchor and associate producer for CBS Sports Radio. Jack joins me now to discuss. Jack, how's it going, man?

I'm doing fantastic, Dexter. College football is finally back. We had a full slate of week zero games yesterday, but I feel kind of like I went to a five star restaurant and they tried to fill me up with bread and butter. You know, all of the games that week are significantly better. I was able to satisfy my craving, but the matchups next Saturday are going to be really good. So I'm really excited. And then we're finally done with the NFL preseason as well.

Talking about being filled up. Those games were fun to watch. We finally got to see our teams back on the gridiron.

But enough of this glorified practice. You know what I mean? I want to see regular season action and we're going to get that two week or three weeks from today. So I'm really excited.

So there's a lot of things that I find funny there. First off, it's like forty five seconds until he sends it back to Dexter. They're having you on, though, to talk about the Cardinals. And he starts off with college football and he rambled for like 20 seconds before talking about the preseason.

It's very simple. Like once again, that's Deion Sanders on the show. That's Steve Young on the show. Hey, how are you? They want to speak for three minutes. God bless you when you Jack Stern of all bleeping people and Jack Stern's going on for a minute about things that Dexter doesn't even want to talk to. Shut the bleep up. That's my reaction.

Any thoughts, Mark? As Christopher Mad Dog Grusin would say, say something funny. I just.

How hard is it to just say good. Thanks for having me, because that's the only answer. That's literally the only answer.

And this is not just all because it's in radio. That's the only answer in life. I mean, that's truncated. Yeah.

I mean, you know, how's it going to say my favorite blue? I had scrambled eggs today. Well done, bacon and a piece of rye toast. Yeah, there's a whole lot there. Oh, my goodness gracious. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite part about this is Mark goes like, I'm trying to be a good guy.

Yeah, I know. I'm honestly, I'm almost searching for it. He's one of the few people that I can say this that almost leaves me speechless. I'm I'm stunned sometimes at just what were you thinking? Because that's what it feels like. It almost feels like we will sit down and you're like, all right, just let's start with this. Like, what were you thinking? Explain it to me that way. And then we can move forward, because normally I can see it like I get this part, I get that part. I see what you were trying to do. I see what this is. You just kind of what?

What were you thinking? And that's the part that I just don't. He leaves me speechless. I don't connect. I don't get it. I don't understand at all. And when you leave Marco Belletti speechless, you know, there's a big. All right.

I didn't know we needed PR to like class to be able to look good. Thanks for having me. How are you doing? Great.

It's an honor to be on your show, Dexter. That's it. That's all. That's all you got to do.

Not a whole lot there. I saw you walking around the news room like, I think Marco needs a little pick. I wanted to play that for you. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS radio.

Marco sounds like Kobe, right? Right now. Wow. Wow. Wow.

That's crazy. We'll get to the closing bell. But standing by first, our captain, I'll cap you Todd. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Marco Belletti. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb show. Notre Dame fighting Irish. 1-0.

Not the reason why they're getting a stock up. You should be able to defeat Navy, but they won 42-3 and look at their new quarterback coming over from Wake Forest. Someone that I believe in a lot in Sam Hartman. 19 of 23, 251 yards through the air and four passing touchdowns give a stock up to Sam Hartman in a successful debut for the Notre Dame fighting Irish. Picking up right where he left off from a year ago, the Heisman Trophy winner in Caleb Williams up against the San Jose State Spartans. He was 18-25, 278 yards and four passing touchdowns give a stock up to Caleb Williams. Josh Jacobs. So the holdout is now over even though it's not technically a holdout because he didn't have a contract because of the franchise tag, but he can now get a deal worth up to $12 million.

I know that it's not that far off. He's going to get more guaranteed his way than Saquon Barkley, but Saquon Barkley had to go to all the training camp. Josh Jacobs made a savvy move because he waited, he waited, he waited.

You knew he was going to show up. There wasn't a lot of leverage. He got a little bit more money, but I liked that approach from Josh Jacobs because not that this is old school two a days and the craziness of training camp. For the most part, really not a lot goes on in training camp these days in the year of 2023, but Josh Jacobs had to avoid all that.

And even if that's a little wear and tear that adds up, you now could be a little bit fresher heading into the season. So give a stock up for the job well done there in a crappy situation for Josh Jacobs. I want to play a little audio here. Just, just throw this at you. Hickey. This is Kelly Stafford as Kelly Stafford has her own podcast. The morning after with Kelly Stafford podcasts and Kelly Stafford emits that Matthew, her husband and also quarterback and Superbowl champion for the LA Rams can't connect with his young teammates.

They have a lot of rookies on their team this year. They're very young, but he's like, I feel like I can't connect in the old days. You would come out of practice. People would be playing cards. People would be interacting. He said, now they get done with practice and they go straight to their phones. Like no one looks up from their phone. So Matthew was like, I don't even know how to like, am I the dad? Do I take the phones?

Like what do I do here? So you have conversations with your wife and I can't fault Matthew Stafford for that. I'm sure Matthew Stafford either knew there was a chance that this was going to get out or wanted this to get out. I guess.

I don't know why he would, but either way, like I can't crush the guy for having a conversation with his wife. Just unfortunate that now this is going to be a story and it's going to be a bad look for Matthew Stafford when you are supposed to be the leader of that franchise. You're supposed to be the head honcho as the quarterback and you admit, I don't know how to connect with these younger guys because they're always attached to their phones. And this is now only going to kind of add more little ammunition here because you look at the Rams, if they had an easy start to the season and they were winning games, this goes away. It's an on story, but you have a roster that doesn't have a lot of talent. You have offensive line issues outside of Cooper cup, who is injured. You don't have much on the offensive side of the ball outside of Stafford. Stafford's coming off an injury. Defensively, you really only have Aaron Donald. So there's a lot of talent deficiencies with this team. Plus right out of the gate, you get Seattle, San Francisco, the Bengals forget about the Colts, but then you play the Eagles. That's first five games of the season. If you get two wins and you're two and three after five, that's an enormous victory. But if you're going to be as bad as we think you're going to be and you have a tough schedule and there's issues on the field, people are going to look back at this quote from Kelly Stafford and say, man, I know there's not a lot of talent here, but is Matthew Stafford not connecting with these young players?

Oh, he already admitted that he's not. So that's just a mess before the season even starts. So give a stock down to the LA Rams, the USC defense. We praise the offense, Kayla Williams, what he did up against the San Jose state Spartans, but they allowed San Jose state defensively for the Trojans.

We'll talk about without trench knowing to be the defensive coordinator to score 28 points. I'm not saying that you could wipe away the questions about the defense off one performance, but you at least got to be showing a pulse up against San Jose state. And in that game at halftime, it was 21 to 14.

And at one point it was 35 to 21. This USC defense is going to be the reason why they don't accomplish what they should accomplish this year. So an unfortunate start defensively for USC, we give them a stock down. And unfortunate news, Ryan Jensen, who missed most of the last season, was able to return for the playoff game. Well, he wasn't fully recovered from the injury that he had last year.

And now there's thoughts that he may be have played his final snap with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or final snap in the NFL. And the Bucks are a major question mark. They only eight wins last year.

That was with Tom Brady. They're going to take a big step back this year, my opinion, but now they're going to be without their star center once again. Unfortunate give a stock down to the health of Ryan Jensen. And that is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thanks to Spencer Rattler for joining us.

Also, Carrington Harrison and Matt Mayoko as well. Big thanks to each and every one of you for calling, listening and tweeting. Could always give me a follow on Twitter and Instagram at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Big thanks to my producer extraordinaire, Ryan Hot Take Hickey. And we'll do it all again tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. And Diablos, the head coach of the Boise State Broncos, going to be stopping by to preview their big matchup against Washington tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern. You don't want to miss it. We out. But by having it, everybody put.