CFB Quarterback Pressure (Hour 4)

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That's BODi with an I dot com. All righty, we will talk about some new quarterbacks this season, football that have the most pressure. One of those quarterbacks is actually Drew Aller of Hickey's Penn State Nittany Lions who played sparingly last year is the perfect way to say it. We all thought that eventually Sean Clifford would lose the job, but he didn't do that and somehow Clifford gets drafted. All right, like one thing if you tell me, Hickster, that Sean Clifford gets drafted like the seventh round, even you being the most optimistic Penn State fan and homer Penn State fan in the world could have never predicted that Sam Clifford would have been a fifth round pick of the Green Bay Packers. And pushing Jordan Love for the starting spot. Oh, shut up. Sean Clifford was lighting it up in preseason.

Lighting it up. Arguably, maybe you could say preseason MVP. So I know that's very sarcastic. I know he played well in the preseason.

He did. I'm being sort of serious, but kind of kidding. You think there's a chance that Sean Clifford this year can replace Jordan Love and get starts over Jordan Love? Packers fans say it with me. Favre to Rogers to Clifford. It was right off the top. Can you stop being a jackass for a second and answer my question, please? Do I actually think he can play this year?

No, I do not. But he played honestly better even than he did at Penn State. So he's hitting his groove now at 35 years old. He's not. He's like, what, 25? He's probably 24, 25, which for a rookie is very old.

Yeah, no, it is. 70 years old. Did he get his degree from Penn State?

Unlike Stetson-Bennet at Georgia. I think he probably got three or four degrees when you're there that long. Got a master's?

I mean, he got there almost as soon as I left. And so, yeah, he's a doctor now at this point. Dr. Clifford, you can start calling him.

Dr. Clifford. I don't think there's a quarterback that you couldn't stand more than Sean Clifford, which is crazy because all you do is gas up that Rose Bowl victory last year where Sean Clifford was your starting quarterback. I mean, it's just frustrating because he's good enough to beat the bad teams and the in-between teams, but he's not good enough to beat the elite teams.

And every once in a while, he's a stinker. So even you drop the teams that you should be anyway. So yeah, it's infuriating when you watch up and down play and you have a guy in the wings ready to save the program. That's a young, inexperienced team where last year there's not a lot expected. Could have played him last year, no problem.

And he would have kind of, you know, hopefully matured and developed faster than he would now. So going off of that, let me ask you this. Would you agree that most people entering this college football season say Penn State's a really good football team has potential to make the college football playoff, but the biggest question for the Penn State Nittany Lions is will James Franklin actually show a pulse in these games up against top 10 teams and top five teams where his record has been absolutely atrocious? Do you think that's a fair analysis and a fair representation of the way that people are talking about the Penn State program? I would say it's more question of Drew Aller playing up to the level than it is James Franklin. Okay.

I vehemently disagree, but it leads to my question. And that was actually going to be my follow up question. I don't feel like a lot of people are talking about Drew Aller with questions around him where they're kind of pointing him out to be the saver, right? The Messiah, the guy that's going to take Penn State back to the promised land, all that stuff. That's what I feel like the conversation is about Drew Aller.

And that's a concern that I have to kind of go back into your last point about why you were so annoyed. And I know we're having some fun at your expense about Sean Clifford last year. I thought it would have been beneficial in a year where sure Penn State go in a Rose ball, but in the big scheme of things, what does that mean coming off of last college football season? Sure.

You rather do that than not. And it was a nice season for Penn State. And I know that James Franklin had this incredible loyalty to Sean Clifford as we've seen, but I just, I do wonder with all the hype around Drew Aller, if him not getting more reps last year is going to come back to bite him with a team that people have expectations to go to a college football playoff this year.

I hope not. I mean, the good news is they're not having him be the savior. That's the, you know, the saving grace in the sense that they have a great running game, really good offensive line, great defense. So if anything, kind of like, I mean, not to the extreme, but kind of like the forty-niners where you're not going to need your quarterback to come in and throw for 300 yards and four touchdowns in order if you win every single game, you should really not be asked to do that much, especially early on.

I would agree. I wish he played last year. Part of the reason why I wanted him to play last year is kind of get those freshmen jitters and bumps out of the way. Now you can come in more polished in 2023, but played well when he was asked in the small time he's had. We've seen freshmen come in right away and tear it up.

So I'm still, my expectation is still very high. So you are more concerned about Aller than you are James Franklin. Explain that because James Franklin is what, two and 15, I think, or three and 15 after the Rose ball victory against top 10 teams. The thing with James Franklin is what is he actually doing on game day? Like what's he doing?

Messing it up. Remember a few years ago against Ohio state, Ricky Ronnie messed that old thing up. He's responsible for him with all those timeouts. But the thing is like, he's not calling plays. He's not like, he's a head coach, but he's not like, like, it's like, he's like choking away at the, you know, at the play sheet here, getting all conservative.

I just think at this point for like, for game day, honestly, I think it's for the most part out of his hands. Now you have a quarterback that again, you never really had before talent wise that showed again, be a big alleviator. When you look at his record against top teams, most of them are against Ohio state. Only one victory. You know, you unfortunately outside of really maybe one year, but even then, I don't know, never had a quarterback advantage. This should be the first year you go into almost every single game with bare minimum equal quarterback talent. If not more, you look at new quarterback play for this upcoming season, you have Drew Aller at Penn state, Alabama secret business on who's going to be their quarterback. They say they have three quarterbacks.

That means you don't have a quarterback. Georgia is ushering in the Carson Beck era. They're looking to go back to back to back as national champs. It's Joe, I know he played a little bit at the end of the year because he ended hooker injury and he also was at Michigan before that, but now you have the Joe Milton era at Tennessee. We talked about right Notre Dame.

We had, they're running back on earlier and he was discussing Sam Hartman and how you look at what Ardric Estime said about Sam Hartman. It feels like he's been at Notre Dame already for five years. You officially get underway the Cade Klubnick era after it was successful end of the season a year ago. Florida, you're bringing in Graham Mertz who, right, has been kind of someone that has been really disappointing, but last year, what are we talking about Oregon and Washington? Like, oh, you're bringing Bo Nix.

Oh, you're bringing Michael Penix Jr. What the heck are those guys going to do? And Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. at time look like Heisman Trophy candidates. You have Chandler Morris who was originally started quarterback last year at TCU, then gets hurt.

Now he's going to be the guy again after the marvelous season of Max Duggan. A lot of hype around Chidor Sanders at Colorado. Wisconsin, you have Tanner coming in to be their quarterback. Iowa, Cade McNamara probably fits right in where there's not going to be a lot of points with the Iowa Hawkeyes. So, you go through all these new quarterbacks and as you just said, Ohio State today, not having the quarterback advantage problem. They go up against Penn State with Kyle McCord being their guy. When I look at all these new quarterbacks, Hickey, I actually think the one that's under the most pressure for this upcoming season in college football is Ohio State's quarterback. Because you look at all those teams that I just mentioned and you look at the expectations. We know what the standard has been for Alabama. And if they get to college football playoff though this year, I think that's a successful season.

But I don't think it's, we're going to look at the success of this year's football team based off the quarterback, which is rare. Penn State, expectations to go to a playoff. Georgia, if you don't go back to back to back, are people going to be crushing you?

No. Tennessee, like you could say maybe at best, what two to three losses this year. People aren't picking them though to win the SEC. Notre Dame, it's how they get a fair up against Clemson and Ohio State and USC. Florida, not a lot of expectations. TCU just went to a national championship game.

People know you're going to regress. I think there's excitement around Colorado, but just because you have excitement doesn't mean it translates into wins. Wisconsin, they should be in the Big Ten championship game, but they're not going to win the Big Ten championship game. And for Iowa, it's going to be the storyline of can the coach's son keep his job as offensive coordinator? But you look at Ohio State, Hickey, this is why I picked them because we know the talent that they have outside of the quarterback position on the offensive side of the ball. And now you have a fan base and you could call it fair if you want, or you could say it's a spoiled fan base that has such a high standard and you get addicted to winning and you get addicted to the way that things were operating the last two years, even the last year they got back to the college football playoff and they almost got to the national championship game and if they would have got there, they would have won it. But the last two years, as coaches always say, the standard has gone drastically different for Ohio State where the standard every year is that only beat Michigan, but just slay Michigan. And the last two years, Michigan has slayed Ohio State. And now you have all these weapons at wide receiver once again, because Ohio State has basically become wide receiver U and it's, is the quarterback going to be good enough?

And we just played to the audio in the last segment. Yeah, they're starting Kyle McCord, but Ryan Day goes, Devin Brown will play as well up against Indiana. Now is that mean they're going to alternate?

They're going to go with the hot hand or they just expect to blow out Indiana, which it probably will. And then McCord will eventually get some bench and then you'll go over to Devin Brown. And you know, coaches get so crazy with the quarterbacks where like last year, we all know JJ McCarthy was going to be the guy at Michigan and they still felt like they had to play Cade McNamara in the first few games of the season before handing it over to JJ McCarthy. So coaches get cute, especially when you're going up against cupcake teams. But here's why I think there's an enormous amount of pressure on Kyle McCord because Kyle McCord is a reflection of Ryan Day.

Where Ryan Day, right, is this offensive mastermind. He was an offensive college coach, an offensive coach in the NFL as well. And the last few years you've had talented quarterbacks, you've had talented wide receivers, you've had talented offenses, and you look at the team the last two years and he's only a guy that's lost six games.

So that's why I think it's like crazy to talk about, but it's a legit conversation. But the last two years, the way we've talked about Ohio State football has been different where that Michigan game was always, all right, Ohio State's going to beat Michigan. The only question is just by how many points are they going to beat them? And some years you had really close games and other years you've had blowouts, right? One year you had that controversial play on fourth down. Another year, right, when that Michigan defense was getting gassed up the revenge tour and they got shredded by Ohio State. So it's always been Ohio State in recent memory beating Michigan. It's just how close of a game is it? And the last two years, Michigan has dominated them in the trenches and it's dragged them up and down the field in the last two games.

And even though a lot of it, the heat that they don't win this year is going to be on Ryan Day. You look at Kyle McCord, we've seen how many great quarterbacks have been at Ohio State the last few years in college. That always translate to the best pro quarterbacks, but in college, the great quarterbacks that they've had. And now not only do you have to live up to that standard, but you have to now recreate the standard of showing Michigan that Ohio State's the real boss in this rivalry in the last two years. We're just a big blip, but ended up being a small blip in this history. So that's why I kind of put the most pressure out of all these new quarterbacks this year in college football on Kyle McCord.

You? For new QBs, I'm gonna go with a three-headed monster at Alabama because unlike Kyle McCord at Ohio State and unlike a lot of these guys you named before, most of these new teams breaking in new quarterbacks at least have some talent on the offense. I don't really know a lot of talent right now. Alabama has offensive. We saw last year's a Bryce Young show and Jamir Gibbs. Well, the only really two offensive weapons Alabama had last year. Both are now in the NFL and you saw how they were able to go into the transfer portal. Why did it go in the transfer portal after the spring game to go get Tyler Buckner from Notre Dame, which kind of shows you Nick Saban did not like the quarterbacks that he had there all throughout the springtime.

They had to go outside the program and get someone else in to bring some extra competition. And again, you look at the running back room, the tight end room where the receivers are, even the defense itself. There's a lot of questions for Alabama outside just quarterback for this team that we have not had about this program in probably 15 years since 2009 when Saban broke through and got his first title at Alabama. So this is like a different Alabama team that arguably could be their worst team they've had since 09, which again is still a high level but almost going to put even more pressure down the quarterback because there's no three or four wide receivers that are going to go in the first round and bail you out. No stud on the offensive line that's going to block and give you all the time in the world. No defense is going to be top three in the country getting 10 turnovers a game and needing you to only score 13 points to win a game. A lot of pressures on the quarterbacks and not a lot of help around them.

Here's the thing. I don't really know how to evaluate the Alabama offense heading into this year. I don't know how to evaluate the Alabama team outside. If you have Nick Saban, you're always going to be in the mix. I think there's a lot of guys that there's potential and there's a lot of people that we have question marks on.

I don't think they're all going to be bad. Like this is still going to be at worst case, a two loss football team, which is a horrible season for Alabama. But I look at that quarterback room.

Is there anyone that you could actually believe in? And that to me, it's like, that's why it's tough for me to say that they're, you know, I don't want to say that there isn't pressure because there's always pressure when you discuss Alabama. Cause it's either when the national championship or the season's a failure, but do you have any expectations for, for any of those three guys? Don't you have some expectations for there to be pressure when you're talking about those three quarterbacks?

I don't, there's a lot of people in Nashville that do. If you watch college game day, all three of those guys, you know, Kirk, curb street, pretty, I would say plugged in, in tune, respected name, picked Alabama and won the sec. Doesn't Howard pick them to win the national title. Like there are legit expectations.

I mean, the priest is number four. So it's like people still expecting a lot from Alabama. Desmond Howard had last year in his college football playoffs.

That was like a meme that we all laughed at for months. And you can, listen, I'm not, I don't really think doesn't Howard is the best in terms of when it comes to picking. Anyway, that's coming a lot from you. I know, I know it's going to pick off, but Desmond Howard and Nikki, the point is like his expectations, like people are expecting a lot and you even yelled that you yelled to me two weeks ago and I said, they're going to finish out to the top 15. You said that was ridiculous.

That's stupid. So you're still, but that also shows your expectations. Maybe not cultural playoff, but top 10 team, which is still very high, very high. Look at their schedule. You play Texas, which are middle Tennessee. I know middle Tennessee beat, right. But they beat Miami last year. They did. They did.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Middle Tennessee ain't going to win that game on Saturday up against Alabama. Big game against Texas. They'll beat South Florida. Ole Miss could put up some points, but can they play any defense? Mississippi state doesn't scare you. A&M, they have talent. I know they won a few years ago, but I don't trust Jimbo Fisher up against Nick Saban. Arkansas, okay. They can run the ball.

And I like KJ Jefferson. Tennessee has talent. LSU, I think is one of the better teams in the country. Kentucky, I don't think they're all that good this year. Chattanooga and then Auburn.

It's a big statement for Hugh Freeze. So it's the SEC. You don't have slouches on your schedule, but if you're outside of the top 15, that means they're going to have four losses. Like if they have three losses, I guarantee you, they will be a top 15 team if they only have three losses. And that's a horrible season for Alabama. And I'd be pretty stunned if we're sitting here talking about them with four losses. So we'll see what they develop into for this season. But you know how this works. Whenever somebody doubts Nick Saban, he ends up giving the middle finger to us all.

All right. A team that is going to be bad this year. Maybe the worst team in the league. It's the Arizona Cardinals. We preview them next. What a tease that is.

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That's 20% off at American-Giant.com with promo code WA23. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders?

We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Gold on the Zach Gelb Show. Let's preview the Arizona Cardinals right now with a long time sports radio host, the 98.7 in Phoenix, Arizona sports.

That of course is John Gambadoro, kind enough to join us on CBS Sports Radio with the Zach Gelb Show. John, appreciate the time. How you been? Always, Zach. How are you, my friend?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. So the word tanking to me is always interesting because people say teams are tanking all the time. I don't believe players tank, but clearly owners and general managers do.

This is a tank job in Arizona, correct Amundo? No, I disagree. I mean, I know a lot of people are saying that. The roster was garbage. The roster was good.

It was an awful roster. What they're doing is that they're being responsible. They're building a roster responsible.

You're right. Players play to win, coaches coach to win. Nobody's trying to lose a football game, but it would have been irresponsible for them to have Colt McCoy as the starting quarterback when he can't throw the ball five yards down the field. It would have been irresponsible to go get a bunch of veteran players.

Lynn, I've been in this for a long time, man. I'm telling you, they're not tanking. They're going to lose a lot of football games and they'll probably end up with the first overall pick, but they're trying to build with young players. They went out and got Parrish Johnson. He's going to be a great tackle and they're trying to get the right people and he had to build over time.

It's not going to happen overnight. So that's why people are going to say that they're going to tank. I know that they'll never admit it publicly, but you don't think like Michael Bidwell and also Monty Asenforth aren't thinking themselves, all right, let's go get the number one pick this year because it's Caleb Williams?

No, Zach, I'm telling you, man. I know it sounds right, but they're just not. Monty Asenforth is not trying to lose football games. Now, do they want to win seven games? No, they got to build this the right way. They got to be responsible.

So they're trying to build it responsibly. And yeah, that's going to mean that they lose some games this year, a lot of games, but what they're not doing, they're not avoiding good talent. If they can go get good talented young players like they did in the draft and draft assets, they're going to do that. They're also getting rid of players that didn't fit. Isaiah Simmons, Josh Jones, Colt McCoy, to name a few. But do I think that Monty Asenforth is sitting there saying, hey, I'm going to put a roster together that's going to go all with 17?

No, man, Zach, I'm telling you, I truly don't believe that at all. It's also tough to be impressed by a first year general manager before a game is played, but without having a pick that they really want at the top of the draft to go get the Texans pick for next year is absolutely enormous for this franchise. Because even if they aren't horrible enough to get the number one overall pick, which I think they will be, they basically have two enormous chips at the poker table to try to go win some money. Yeah, I mean the Houston pick could be a top five pick. The Cardinals pick will very likely be a top five pick, probably number one overall.

And then you've got to make this decision. Do you keep Kyler or do you move on from Kyler and take Caleb Williams? Everybody here thinks they'll take Caleb Williams if he really is a generational Patrick Mahomes type talent. But you think about if they get two, three, four, five, I mean, you know, maybe if they get two, they could trade the pick and that could end up being Drake May and somebody will trade a lot for that.

Or you take Barbin Harrison or you take an edge rusher. They'll be in a really good spot, but he got a bad roster. Monty got a bad roster and there was no quick fixes. There was no, you know, we're going to go from being one of the worst teams in the NFL to being in a playoffs next year. That wasn't going to happen with this roster. So I think I'm telling you, I'm calling it responsible building, building responsibly.

That's what they're trying to do. Let's get to the next down. John Gamadora here with us. I know Kyler Murray's on the pup list to start off the season. Do you think we'll at least see him on the field at some point this year?

Absolutely. They, they need to see Kyler Murray. I'd be really surprised if he does not, if he does not suit up all year long.

They need to know. They need to know what they have in him. New system, new offensive coordinator. Can he play in this system? Do you want to keep him and trade the number one pick if you get it and get the biggest hole ever? Or does he play well enough to where you may be able to trade him?

I think right now there'd be at least five teams that would trade for Kyler Murray. That's my opinion. I believe that he's better than a lot of the quarterbacks in this league, but he's probably not good enough to lead this team to a Super Bowl. But I think you got to see, how does he play with a new offensive coordinator and a new offensive system? Can he excel? Is he just average?

But you got to know. So I do expect that he's going to play. So right now he's not eligible to play currently. We'll see when he ends up getting back on the football field. But the biggest knock in Kyler Murray so far is the lack of leadership skills, the study skills as well. Is there anything he could do when he's not on the field to kind of smooth over those relationships in the locker room? Yeah, I think that he was in all the meetings. He attended all the OTAs.

He was working his butt off in the weight room. I think, you know, I had Kelvin Beecham on my show. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, it became a big national story. And I said, hey, what does Kyler Murray have to do? He says, grow up. He's got to grow up. Oh man, that became national headlines. It was a big story. You know, better than offensive lineman helps Kyler Murray to grow up. So I think he did. I think he took more responsibility with being, you know, being around the team, being around the, even when he was rehabbing.

Instead of rehabbing in Texas, he did a lot of rehabbing here in Arizona. That's all great, but none of it really matters if you can't play. So they got to find out, like he can do all the great, all the community things in the world, but, and be around, if he can't play, he can't play. And they've got to find out whether he's good. Now this kid's been a rookie of the year. He won, one year they won 11 games.

They went to the playoffs with Kingsbury. So like there's talent there, Zach. There's talent. But the question is, is he Jay Cutler? Is he Ryan Tannehill? Is he Kirk Cousins? Or is he a guy, is he a Joe Burrow? Is he a Patrick Mahomes?

Is he a guy that can lead this team through a Super Ball? There's a lot of, a lot of questions about that right now. This thing was buzzing, like you were saying, where I know that they didn't play well in the second half of the season, but when they had that wild card game two years ago, when the Rams won the Super Ball, that's when it really started to unravel. How did it get to this point when you look back and dissect that relationship between Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray? I do think it got to that way because look, there's iPads that all these players have and these teams know whether you're studying on that iPad or not. Every team knows when they give you an iPad, how much effort you're putting into, you know, research and looking at the film. And it was very apparent to the Steve Keim led organization at that time, Kyler wasn't putting in much work with that thing.

So that's where the clause came in from Michael Bidwell, the homework clause, and it totally backfired. I mean, you know, because it just made him look bad, it made the organization look bad. But, you know, I think, look, the thing for Kyler is he's got to be able to read a defense and that's his struggles right now. If you want to break it down, he's got all the talent in the world, he can throw the ball far, he can throw it accurately, he can run as good as anybody we've ever seen in this game. But can he go through reads and progressions? Because mainly he looks at one side of the field and if something's not there, he bails. I got one or two reads, I'm looking on the left side of the field, if that's not open, I'm going to get out, I'm going to improvise, I'm going to try to create time. He doesn't have the ability to look at the left and, you know, then progressively go through three or four reads in a short amount of time and deliver the football to the right guy.

So he misses a lot of open plays because he just doesn't stick in there long enough to make those reads. And his first, you know, his first thought is that my first one or two guys aren't open, I'm not going to sit here and get hit. I'm going to get out of the pocket and try to create something.

Let's get to the next down. Talking a long time, Arizona talk show host John Gambadora here with us previewing the Cardinals. What was your reaction to the Jonathan Gannon hire? I, a young, uh, innovative guy and, you know, I think that a lot of people thought they might go after Sean Payton.

I did not think that was the case with the compensation you'd have to give up or the salary that Payton got. They were looking for somebody young, innovative, but could hold the players accountable. They were the last team to hire a coach. I don't know a lot about him, he was only a coordinator before, but I sat down with him.

I was at camp, he came up and did interviews with us and, you know, I was impressed by him. He's done a good job of holding the players accountable and having discipline, which they didn't have under Cliff Kingsbury. Cliff didn't have a lot of accountability.

Cliff wasn't a disciplinarian. Gannon's come in and he's kind of changed that. He seems to be a real player's coach, so only time will tell. The only time will tell if he's blown out in two years or if he could last three or four. We don't know, but I've been impressed with the guy so far. With how bad this team's supposed to be.

I know they're also still paying Keim and Kingsbury. Is there any shot this is a one and done scenario for Gannon? None.

Zero. Zero chance. I know they blew out Wilks after one year and they probably shouldn't have done that. They should have given him more time instead of being stuck with, you know, Josh Rosen and Sam Bradford. So I do think they made a mistake getting rid of Wilks so quickly. They should have given him another year to see what he could do.

There's no way. When you're paying Cliff Kingsbury over the next four years, Steve Keim over the next four years, there's no way they're going to get rid of Jonathan Gannon after just one year. I mean, even if they only win one or two or three games, I think they understand. I think they all understand that this roster is going to take a lot of time to rebuild. It's not going to happen overnight in a year.

So I think they'll give him every opportunity to go through the growing pains. But I think most importantly, I know it's important to me Zach, be competitive. You're not going to win a lot of football games. Be competitive. Try to be in some one score games. Give yourself a chance in the fourth quarter.

Even if you don't win, just try to be more competitive than people think you're going to be. Yeah, I think the goal is, and I don't, if I'm a Cardinals fan, I would want them to get the number one overall pick, but kind of be like the Dolphins from a few years ago, where everyone thought they could be the number one overall pick and they won some games that no one probably thought they were going to, and they ended up picking fifth in the draft. Like if that's the case in the Cardinals this year, yeah, I could screw you in the Caleb Williams watch, but that would be good for this coaching, Seth.

Listen, I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you should want them to lose every game. I mean, if this kid, Caleb Williams really is the next Patrick, but home go get him or at least have the ability to trade the pick for four first round. Like if they do trade the number one overall pick, it will be the biggest hall that anybody has ever gotten for a number one overall pick. It'll, it'll be the top trade ever made for a number one overall pick. So put yourself in a position. I mean, I hope that, you know, I hope they lose every game.

Um, you know, because you know, you put yourself in that position to get better right away. Let's get to the final down. When the trade deadline is done with, you think Buddha Baker's still on this team?

Yes, yes I do. I don't know about Zach Ertz or James Carter, but you gotta have, you gotta have a guy that leads by example, that players want to follow, that teaches the younger players how to prepare for a practice, how to prepare for a game, how to conduct an interview with the media, how to hold yourself accountable when you make mistakes, you know, how to deal with, with, with rehabbing an injury. Like you need a leader. You can't have none in the locker room.

Booters, the epitome of a leader. He's as good a leader as there is in the league. So I think you've got to have a guy like that to set the right examples for the younger players. You know, we talked so much doom and gloom about this team outside of Kyler, who's like the one player you're really excited to see this year. Paris Johnson, first overall pick, offensive line in Ohio state. If they nailed this pick, they'll have a great tackle for 10 years.

If they didn't, you know, you'll move on. But to me, Paris Johnson, because finally, finally they addressed the offensive line instead of drafting all these linebackers that never worked out. You know, they already got rid of Isaiah Simmons. He was the eighth overall pick a couple of years ago. So offensive line, man is, you know, DJ Humphreys was a good pick, but that was, you know, what, 10 years ago, go in and get Paris Johnson to me. That's the guy everybody should be focused on.

Can he be a great tackle in this league? John Gambadore 98, seven and Phoenix. Appreciate the time as always.

Okay, doc, you got to take care of my friend. There you go. John Gambadore here with us.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS sports radio. Okay. We will take a break. When we come on back.

I got no one here to throw onto the bus today to Marco Baletti. So I wish I had sure. And we made the rounds this morning. I think DA and company where we're playing our audio and they enjoyed our, our little back and forth. Pete, the body Baladi told me, by the way, I was, I was talking with him today and people were telling me Pete's facial expressions were priceless.

Now you can't see that on the radio, but they have the stream on YouTube. So I did go back to watch Pete's facial expressions. I didn't even need to hear what I said, or you said, or what anyone else was saying, just watching Pete, Pete looked like he was, which is funny because he is involved in management here in some capacity.

Pete looked as if we were his favorite students. Let's just say that with that, with our breakdown yesterday over Jack Stern and his ridiculous back and forth with Dexter Henry. I still, if you haven't heard it, basically here's to sum it up.

What were you thinking? That's it. It's as simple as that.

And they did love your line, Marco. You were basically just saying in life, all you have to do. And someone asks you, how are you just saying I'm doing great and keep it moving. It's really like, didn't you learn that when we figured that out third grade, fourth grade?

You know, I really think what age did you just know? Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. Just yeah, good. I always say to people, go, how are you doing? Great. And if I had any problems, you wouldn't want to hear them anyway.

Nobody does. I mean, honestly, if you ever ask somebody like, how's it going? And they start going into all kinds of problems. The first thing you do is look at it and go like, I don't want to know. Are you kidding me? Like, I asked you to be nice. I don't want to hear anything. Be smart. Just say good enough. Fine. Now we move on. I think you may have to take a Jack under, under your wing here and kind of show them how to, how to be an adult. Hard pass. Wow.

And you're El Capitan. If the captain doesn't want to help the guy out. No, no, no, no, no. You got to, you got to want to help yourself first. I'm not doing, I'm not doing lost causes and I'm not doing something where you don't want help. I got enough children at home.

Let me deal with that. By the way, talking about children. So my cousin has a two year old baby just turned two. We celebrate his birthday last week on Friday. Grandma is in town from Boca. So she's staying about like 15 miles from here.

Okay. So I said to everyone today, it would be nice if we go get lunch before grandma goes back tomorrow. So my cousin lives in the city. My other cousin's visiting for Florida as well. We get in the car with the baby, 15 miles.

Let me remind you. So it was 14, 15 miles away. It took us, we left at 11 AM. It took us two hours. You talk about city driving.

Oh, that makes sense. City driving to like Great Neck is pretty much that area a little closer than Great Neck. 15 miles took us two hours. We are 10 minutes away. You will somewhat enjoy this story because it'd be like, okay, no one's going to be laughing at you.

They're going to be laughing at me. We are 10 minutes away. My cousin Ryan is driving. I'm in the passenger seat, baby right behind me in the car seat. Mom, Amanda is sitting next to baby. Baby gets car sick.

Guess had an apple or something before. Projectiles right into the seat. And I'm sitting there saying, please just, no, this is not my kid. No vomit on me. The vomit didn't get on me, but we are 10 minutes away and I did not have anything to eat today. So I'm starving at that point. And it's like 2.10 in the afternoon at this point or something like that.

Or 1.10. I forgot what the time was. And my grandma's like, well, you guys have been waiting here forever. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Baby pull over to the side of the road, change of clothes, diaper, you know, everything. So my cousin puts all the vomit like paper towels in a bag and goes, do you mind throwing that out?

So I didn't do the most nice thing in the world for the environment. I just kicked the bag under the car. And my cousin goes, what are you doing?

He goes, everyone's going to notice this. Some lady rolls down the window and goes, clean up after that, baby. I go, you're right.

Go into the car, grab the bag and throw the bag in the trash. But what an experience that was. Uh, yeah. I mean, look, no one likes vomit. The one good thing is that little kids vomit is different than regular vomit. So it's not quite as bad.

You don't want to do it, but you can't just leave that stuff on the road. You know, better than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in a moment of, come on, man. I get the traffic. Come on now.

May or may not said to my other cousin, this is why you pull out. Which in a moment of a levity was, was, was much needed. Yeah. I can't comment.

If you thought Marco gave us a big grin last night, you should see the one he's given us right now. I can't comment. I'm just here.

So I don't get fined. I'm not the one to be commenting on this. I know I'm the one with a three month old at, you know, pushing 45 years old.

I'm not the one to comment on this. And then it's awesome because baby throws up, baby crying the whole car ride for two hours, walks right in. Great grandma, great grandma. And is awesome. Intelligent kid, though.

Knows all the ABCs, knows all the animals, colors, everything. I've never seen a kid, though, eat like this kid. And when they want to be cute, it's great.

And when they don't want to be, you're like, geez. Yep. There you go. Still rather hang out though with the vomiting baby Grayson in our family than, than asking Jack Stern how he's doing. I feel like he would have a better answer for how's it going a little bit quicker.

I think he would. I don't think we take 45 minutes. We'll get to the closing on the other side. 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. The defensive play of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union who proudly serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at navyfederal.org. Pirates Pitrion out of veto through his first complete game of his career on Monday night tossing nine innings of two at ball in Pittsburgh's five nothing win over the Royals. Oviedo struck out five hitters while tossing a career high 112 pitches.

Give him a stock up. Let's hear from Spencer Rattler with us last night discussing where his confidence is at with this upcoming season of South Carolina football and his individual play. I'm confident as ever right now. You know, it comes from our coaching staff, what they've been doing with us this offseason. You know, how we're looking at the group. You know, I'm confident not just me, but our whole group.

You know, I want us to be one of the most explosive offenses in the country. So that's going to be our plan moving forward this year. At the end of the year Spencer, how do you hope we're talking about you and the program? You know, everything will take care of itself. I like to say, you know, if we all succeed as a team, everybody will have their own personal success. So I think that's what's so special about, you know, this program is we care about winning number one overall and turning this program around like we've been doing.

And if we take care of that, everybody's personal goals will fall in line. Give Spencer Rattler a stock up. Justin Ross, who's had to suffer some unfortunate and serious injuries is now healthy and made the Kansas City Chiefs roster.

Give him a stock up. Also, we all know what happened to DeMar Hamlin. Awful. The recovery has been remarkable. It's amazing that he's even able to step foot on a football field and be there for all of training camp. And he has made the 53-man roster for the Buffalo Bills. So give a stock up to DeMar Hamlin. The Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, you get to keep Jonathan Taylor for now, but he's not happy. And I don't think this is going to end with the happy solution for the Colts where they get to keep Jonathan Taylor past maybe next year, the franchise tag. I would have traded him when you probably could have got the most back for him. And they didn't do that.

So I give a stock down to the Indianapolis Colts. Did you see the Rocky security last night? So two fans went up to Ronald Acuna and it took forever for these security guards to go over there. And once they finally got one of the guys, the guy put up a good fight against like three or four security guards.

What's going on with the security guards out there in Colorado? Give them a stock down. Ron Rivera.

Less is more. Don't admit publicly that you had no clue into the final game of the season what Sam Howell was like as a quarterback. Just a bad look for Ron Rivera.

Give him a stock down. And finally, the thing I maybe hate the most about sports. Tribute videos when a player doesn't deserve it. The Mets giving Max Scherzer a tribute video last night was a complete and utter disgrace because he was awful against the Braves last year.

It was awful in the playoff game up against the Padres. He did not need a tribute video, but that's like the participation trophy society. Everybody gets a tribute video. So give him a stock down.

And one more quickie. The Angels. I understand they were trying to go for it with Ohtani, but now they're waving everybody that they traded for to try to save money. What a disgrace. Give a stock down to the Angels.

Ohtani should leave that to you. Big thanks to Andy Avalos for joining us. Big thanks to Audrey Guesdeme from Notre Dame's football team, Tyler Medekevich, John Gambadora. We will do it all again tomorrow. Big thanks to each and every one of you for calling, listening, and tweeting. Also, hot ticket for producing the extravaganza. Phil Simms joins us tomorrow. We out. Bye-bye. Peace.