Out of Juice (Hour 2)

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One-year upgrade requires financing, qualifying, device and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. Alright, the hour number two of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio coming up on Saturday, October 7th.

Make sure you check it out. It's lights out, extreme fighting and of course the man that runs the league is Sean Merriman, former All-Pro linebacker, kind enough to join us once again in studio. Sean, always great to see you.

Thanks for coming in. How are you? I'm doing well, my man. How about yourself?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. So, I saw the video that you put out right after the Aaron Rodgers injury and your career towards the end of it, you had an Achilles injury as well. I can't even imagine the pain that that is when you have the Achilles injury and it was almost as if when you saw Rodgers, he was in a state of shock. He stands up, tries to walk, knows he can't, just goes down and he knew that was it.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing with the injury, especially with the Achilles, people don't know how important it is until you tear it, right? You think of this little ligament that's back there, you're not thinking about it and then the next thing you know when you do tear it, your foot drops. And so when he stood up the first time, he didn't know. It literally feels like someone MMA kicked you in the back of your calf. And when he stood up, I'm sure he looked around to find out who kicked him because it's a pain like someone kicked you.

And when he tried to take that first step is when he went back down to the ground. That's when you know you officially tear it. Even Kobe Bryant, when he tore his, he still got to the foul line and shot a couple free throws. So it's not as bad as a quarterback tearing is.

It's worse for a defensive guy or a guy that has to change direction and explode. I think Aaron Rodgers will be fine and come back from it, but it is the worst injury, in my opinion, to come back from. No one wants their career to end on an injury, but when you get up there in age, like the competitor says, I got to get back on the field, but then also probably the human side of you go, do I really want to go through all this crazy rehab to get myself back in game shape? What was that process for you when you were going through recovering from the injury? Because you still have to recover even if you're going to play football or not. Well, the physical part of it is not so bad.

You know, it's long, it's grueling. A lot of getting the tissue out, getting that strong again, and feeling normal. The hardest part of that injury is the mental aspect when you come back. Because what caused you to tear it and pop it as he did, or anybody to pop their Achilles, now that's in the back of your head, if I push off of this thing again, is it going to pop again?

That's the hardest thing. So when I came back, I actually was fine physically. I felt normal. Now, when I say normal, you're never going to have that explosion back as you were. The Achilles is one of the ones you don't bounce back from as the same. I don't care who you are.

No one does. It was a mental part of it that going out, pushing, turning, having an offensive lineman that's 330-plus pounds, pushing it on you at the same time as you're bursting. So in your head, you're thinking the whole time that if I do something wrong here, push the wrong way, is this thing going to pop on me again? He's going to have a mental battle to get back on the field first before the physical kick-in. And it's a great point that you bring up, because I always say it with quarterbacks. I know it's a different injury, but whenever it's ACL, the quarterback comes back, and he's like good when he comes back from the ACL injury. But you don't see him get back to that great level until a full year after it, because that mental side of it is what people really don't understand and figure out.

Oh, yeah. You try not to go out and think about it, but especially how he tore his, with someone behind him, jumping on his back, and him fully extending his leg. Now, when you pop your Achilles, most of the time it pops from your heel bone. It detaches. That's when it rolls back up into your calf, it pops. And so you're going to be thinking, hey, the next time someone jumps on my back, is that thing going to go?

So the mental aspect is what he's really going to have to work on to get himself back going again. Sean Merriman here with Dustin Studio. We'll, of course, talk about the new card they have coming up for lights out, extreme fighting. So we were sitting here watching some highlights on NFL Network, and the Packers come up.

We're at a bunch of stations right now in Wisconsin. You go, I've been really impressed with that kid in Jordan Love. What has stood out to you so far? That I was wrong.

You know, that I was wrong because this is my opinion of Jordan Love. And I know the season, we just started a couple of games in and we've got the season to play on to see how they do for that season. But I always thought that if they didn't find a way to get him on the field that second or third year, then he probably wasn't good enough. They saw something that we didn't see in order to put him on the field. Because when you draft a guy in the first round, I don't care who's in front of him. You want him on the field as fast as possible or else you go get a wide receiver, a big defensive player, offensive lineman, right, to build up around Aaron Rodgers.

I always thought the reason why that happened is because they didn't believe in him. I was wrong. You know, he's come out. He's firing on all cylinders. It seems like the team is rallying behind him.

He's making some passes that I didn't think that he had in him to make. So, you know, I'm going to be wrong once in a while. Trust me, I'm wrong like six or seven times a week. Don't worry.

No one's going to bat a thousand here. Sean Merriman is here with us. The team part of it, though, is a big component. And you talk about how the locker room loves him.

I also watched two other guys. And like Brock Purdy, right, as Steve Young told me over the summer, he just has like the force there and the team really believes in him. But I've been impressed as well with Baker Mayfield where his career was basically over, down, and out.

And we just had Lavonte David on it a few moments ago, as you know. And it's like that locker room is really believing in Baker Mayfield right now. And I don't think that's easy to quickly go into a locker room with all these things that people say about you and win over the locker room that easily. Well, the biggest thing with Baker Mayfield, he has the intangibles, right? A team leader, attitude, leader.

He knows how to be a leader. That's what got him drafted. That's how in a playoff game? Yeah, that's what got him drafted as high as he did because of those intangibles. I think there's been a combination of a couple things in Baker Mayfield's career is that playing on a bad team, maybe a bad front office, bad coordinator, not put him in great positions, and also not living up to the expectation of being the number one pick. You know, if Baker Mayfield was a late first round, early second, no one would be complaining. But when you go that number one pick and that high in the drive, the expectations for you are unreal. It's almost that you can't reach him no matter how good you play when you're that number one pick. You can't throw in the interceptions. You can't turn a ball over.

You got to be this superstar. And if you're not that, you're a failure. If Baker Mayfield went anything less, he would be considered a success in the NFL.

But the fact is he went so high, he's never going to be able to live up to that expectation of where he got drafted to. I'll tell you, the team that I'm most disappointed with through the first two weeks of the season are your Chargers. Two close games and they don't find a way to win one of those games. I just, I hate to put it all on the coach because it's not all on the coach, but it seems like he's a dead man walking with the Los Angeles Chargers, Brandon Staley. It's not, it's not good right now. And you know, I'm Chargers doing through.

Those are my guys for life. They need to make it, they need to answer quick and they need to fix what's going on right now. And because with this team that I'll give Tom Tolesco credit for, I think he assembled a great team. If you look on paper and every position with these guys, they got an all pro or pro bowl or something in every single position. For them to be playing the way they are right now is unacceptable.

It's unexplainable, actually. And I was at the game against Miami and on defense, they just looked like they were lost. They couldn't line up calling too many switches last second before the play. It's almost like they had a check for a check, right? The offense do something.

We checked two, three times and then they're not out playing fast. I was, I was fortunate because I came into the NFL with Marty Schonheim as a head coach and Wade Phillips as the defensive coordinator. I had John Pagano, Greg Monowski, all were linebacker coaches.

I had great coaches. Sometimes when you have a Derwin James, a Joey Bosa, a Khalil Mack, a J.C. Jackson, Kendricks, all those. You need to let them play football. Let those guys go out there and line up and play football. You can't have a check for a check having those guys out there thinking they're not playing fast.

Wade Phillips' idea was, hey, you're going to do 80 percent of what you're great at and 20 percent of what you're not. We want to keep you out of every position where you can go out and make a play. Right now, it just seems that they're lost and they're not lining up correctly. They're slow getting off the ball and they're just thinking too much instead of going out playing football. Your team is too good.

You have too many good players not to let them go out and play football. Right now, I can't put a finger on what's going on because if your offense can score 30-plus points a game, you should win 80 percent of your games. If they're going out and putting up 30-plus points a game, you should win.

The fact is, even in the shootout, if a score was 34-28, 34-31, you can't lose those games if your offense is giving you 30-plus points. I know Justin Herbert is going to take the brunt of... He's the quarterback. He's the quarterback. Big contract.

He's the guy. But ultimately, they're giving you 30-plus points a game. The defense has to step up and make things happen. I look at it, and we were talking about this yesterday, and there's still a lot of the season left. I don't think they're going to make a change in season. And it's two offensive guys, but these were the two guys...

Listen, I don't see it that way. Oh, you think they could fire Scaly in season? I think they could.

Interesting. I think they could. Because, look, at the end of the day, this is a performance-based business, and this is from top down. This is from the head coach, front office. If Tom Telesco wasn't doing what he was supposed to do, they will find a way to move him.

This is a performance-based business. If anyone believes that they're going to sit back and let what's happening right now continue to happen, and no one's job is going to be on the line, they're wrong. I absolutely believe if this keeps up, they have to make a decision. And I don't know what that decision's going to be, who's going to go, who's going to stay.

But at the end of the day, when you have this type of team with this group, this talented group, they got to win or they got to make a decision. And the two names that I thought of, and it would be after the season, where you would look for the full-time replacement. It was Jim Harbaugh, if he wants to leave Michigan. And then also, whatever the enemy's doing right now with the commanders, how many more years is that guy going to go without getting a head coaching job in this league? Well, I don't think, look, Eric Bienemie, he is making changes right now. We're seeing the full effects of Eric Bienemie's, what he brought to that team. Regardless of what the team said, he's being too hard on them, he's too harsh. But they could use that, this discharges team. Stanley's too much of a player's coach.

Too much. Well, there's nothing wrong with having a player's coach, but you have to perform, right? And so when you have a player's coach and they're, I'm not going to say they're not respecting him, but in people's eyes, he's too friendly with them, he's too close. That's fine when you're winning games. If that's not working, then something needs to change. And, you know, they got too many veterans on here.

And by the way, I want to just say this. Some of the greatest teams I played on, the players, we ran a team, right? If a guy wasn't doing what he's supposed to do to play it, we fixed that. If I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do, you had a Sean Phillips, a LaDania Thomason, Lorenzo Neal. They came over and said, hey, you can't miss that tackle. So the players have to be accountable first. And now the coach has just got to sit back and coach. Talking to Sean Merriman right now in the studio, I'm just wondering.

You watch a ton of games each and every weekend. There's so many great defensive players in this league, even though the league tries to prevent defense from actually being played. Who's like the one guy that you go, man, that's the best defensive player that you see in the NFL right now? I think between, listen, Micah Parsons. He's a stud. Nick Bosa, I love Nick Bosa. TJ Watt, the display he did. I mean, these are great players and beyond great. They're excellent players. Micah Parsons, we haven't seen nothing like that in 15 plus years.

We haven't seen, maybe ever. He has a combination of, because he's a little shorter, he has this leverage, the speed of a running back, the strength of a big defensive end. I think we was on the last year when he humped the San Francisco 49ers tackle, this 300 plus pounds, like your 12-year-old kid.

It was like a ragdoll, yeah. And so, and then to the final, what makes Micah Parsons so great is you can line him up anywhere. He doesn't have to come from the left or right side. He can work down the middle of your guard or your center. And when that happens, you can't key on guys like that because you can fan protect, slide protect, put two guys on him, but you don't know where he's going to line up. So the reason why that defense is playing so well is because he's causing so much havoc that the rest of those guys are doing well. And then Stephon Gilmore and Diggs, like they don't have, all offenses don't have a lot of time to throw the ball. This is, as a pass rusher, defensive player, this is the funnest defense to play in because you know as a cornerback, they got to get rid of the ball in less than three seconds. He's going to be sacked. As a pass rusher, you got two great cornerbacks that's going to get after you that they can't, they're going to hold the ball, pump, and you're going to have some covered sacks.

Right now, especially on defense, maybe even on offense, Dallas Cowboys are one of the scariest teams in the NFL right now. Talking to Sean Merriman right now, we'll talk about lights out extreme fighting in just a bit. I got to ask you about Coach Prime. I love what he's doing at Colorado. It's been so fun.

It's been must watch, right? He made the game up against Colorado State where everyone in the world wants to be there or is tuning in. If you were a recruit right now, would you be like, man, I really want to get recruited by Colorado and join that place? I said this when he was at Jackson State. If Deion Sanders, Deion Prime Time Sanders, as a high school kid comes to sit on your living room couch. Wow. You're going there.

You're going there. I mean, even myself as a kid, I did a Deion Sanders dance in the backyard and, you know, this is Deion Sanders. And he did that at Jackson State. What's going to happen at Colorado now? You're going to see some like five star guys that would have gone to Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, somewhere.

That's going to be going to Colorado because they see the eyeballs that he's getting, the viewership, the content that he's posting on social media, the sold out stadiums. They see that. Now you got Prime Time Deion Sanders sitting on your living room couch talking to your mom, your dad and you saying, hey, we want to get behind you because now he's going to have probably about four or five guys that go to win the top three rounds on that team in the next year or two, at least.

And here's the thing for me. Everyone talks about, right, the new era with NIL and the transfer portal and he aces all that stuff. But I think what gets lost here is this is like an old school football coach and he'll be the first person to tell that.

I think it's in the year of 2023, the mix of both worlds where there's still some old school traditional values, but then he understands what really pops on social media. Yeah, no doubt about it. And he's smart because one of the one of the biggest reasons why I went to the University of Maryland was Mike Locksley, who's the head coach there. He was a running back coach when I got there. Myself, E.J. Henderson, Dequayle Jackson, Oliver, we went there because for the most part because of Mike Locksley.

Now from Maryland, I grew up 20, 25 minutes from the school and that's home. But what a large part of that was because Mike Locksley, we can all relate to him. He's from the Washington, D.C. area, very relatable to what we know. Deion Sanders is going to be able to relate because he has kids, younger kids, his kids play there.

So he can relate to those new kids that's coming in there, know what to say, know how to act, but also can draw the line and boundaries and say, I'm the coach and have that respect. So he has this combination of having his son junior to run all the social media. The content is very, very, I mean, they have the problem. It's so entertaining. They have the best, in my opinion, they have the best content in college football right now because they really put some money behind it and put a lot of thought in it. So the combination is going to have Deion Sanders winning there for a long time.

And here's the interesting part. He said it the other day that he doesn't think he would go coach in the NFL. But like if I'm a college kid and he brings up a good point, Deion is one of the great motivators of all time. If I'm 18, 19 years old and you hear the messages and the personal stuff that that Deion brings up Coach Prime.

It's like you run through a wall for that guy when you're 18, 19 years old. Yeah. And he said it right, because it wouldn't work in the NFL. Yeah, it just wouldn't. And there's nothing, by the way, there's nothing wrong with that.

No. Some guys are meant for college football. There's nothing wrong with that because I think that because of who Deion Sanders is. And he's the greatest, you know, one of the greatest players of all time. But if you bring that into an NFL locker room and kind of stand toe to toe with a guy that's making 15, 20 plus million a year. He has a wife and kids he has.

And then you kind of step to him. These these adults are not going to look at Deion Sanders as the best football player of all time with a coach. They're going to feel threatened. And so that's why they're not.

It wouldn't work on NFL level. But as college, you're trying. He's trying to mold them into young men and put them on the right path. He there's nobody better when it comes to that side of it, because he can talk NFL level.

He can talk college level and how the process in order to get there. All right. Before we let you run, the floor is yours, my friend. Lights out, extreme fighting. Another big card coming up Saturday, October 7th, going in Long Beach, California.

What do you got cooking? Yeah, we got a huge fight. Probably not probably our big. It is our biggest card. A lot of big local fighters in so-called former USC's got USC guys. Albert Morales and Musa Toliver. Albert fought in the UFC for some time, but we're loaded.

Man was these next up and coming superstars. So anybody in the Long Beach area, Southern California area. Get your tickets at lights out, except that common. If you can't make it there, watch it on football, football, TV, football, sports.

If you don't have football, get it. This this one you don't want to miss. When when you look back at this, like, I don't know if you ever were you ever nervous before a game? Oh, yeah, every game, every game, every game.

How about when you're running the show here and you're walking into arena and you have everything's out of your control once once everyone steps in and all the chaos? I'm nervous before every fight. You know, in fact, I have to work out. Oh, yeah, I work.

I work out to kind of drop some of the nerves because you run in the arena steps. Oh, look, I was this close to sparring in the case when they first said that they didn't have it done yet. But I think, you know, for me, when you when you love something that much and you got this much invested in it. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about your time and everything, because I believe in growing these next up and coming superstars and getting them seen. You know, we just crossed over like top five, top 10 most watched in football sports ever.

And that's behind international soccer. So for me, that's I've always listened to the fans and listen to people. And they're telling us that we're putting out good fights. We're putting out good product. They love what we're doing. And they they keep watching. We're up 75 percent viewership from one fight to the next.

Well, hey, the numbers speak for themselves. Congratulations. We always appreciate you coming on in. And good luck the rest of the way. Thanks for having me. There is Sean Merriman. Come on back.

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All right. It is a Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Awesome show so far. Lavonte David joined us in hour number one. We just had Sean Merriman in studio coming up at eight twenty p.m. Eastern, five twenty p.m. Pacific. Star defensive player and projected to be a top five, top ten pick in the draft. Jared versus going to stop by and then in the final hour of the show will be joined by the Oregon State quarterback and D.J.

Uwe Young go away. Got to give a quick shout out here to my man, the chief, who I always visit and have some great tailgates with before some Patriot games whenever I make my way up to one Patriot place. He's listening to us right now. The chief is actually on some vacation there, Hickey.

North Port, Florida. And he said he's picking us up on one of our fine affiliates. So we appreciate him listening to us. And the chief has a brother. He's a former fire chief and he has a brother who owns a bunch of Italian places, Hickey, in Boston. And when we go in tailgate, they bring wings all homemade, you know, meatballs, a bunch of pizzas as well. And some of the best booze that you'll ever have. And they'll do the charcuterie, shrimp, all that stuff. It is a A plus plus plus plus tailgate with the chief in the Sisson family. So I always do appreciate when they listen to the show and also get me fed as well there, Hickey.

Good nickname. Good food set up. It's an elite tailgate. They got the tent in freezing Foxborough. We got the heater underneath the tent.

It's it's really an insane setup. Now, I will say this, though. This weekend, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do because we have a massive college football slate this weekend. Like college football is actually back this weekend and I'm figuring out what I'm going to do. Now, I got to go home Sunday evening after ION football.

And I have to, you know, for Yom Kippur and observance of the Jewish holiday. But I'm kind of thinking to myself, maybe my parents only live like an hour away. Maybe I go home Saturday morning and then do some Long Island eats potentially for all the games and then just get up early Sunday morning, drive back into the city and then drive back right afterwards. It's a lot of driving, I know, but I feel as if I need to be on a couch on Long Island with just access to whatever kind of food that I want. So what, mom can make some food and you don't have to?

Well, no, I don't even think that. Mom is going to a wedding on Saturday night. Oh, wow. But I'm feeling a big Italian vibe this weekend. Oh, you know, some good Italian spots.

So it's like you go, you know, old reliable here. I see. Little buffalo calamari, get a little rigatoni ala vodka, maybe some gnocchi with sausage. There's a few things that are up to sleep for this weekend. Smart, because there's really no break in terms of window you can get out and afford to be away from the TV for even like an hour. Twelve's loaded, 3.30 Eastern loaded, 7.30 Eastern loaded, like it's one of those where it's bing, bang, boom. You know, like, oh, let me go for dinner and an hour or two here.

It is truly sun up to, I guess, high noon to sundown and really high noon to midnight locked in. Because I know this, if I stay in the city, I'm going to get dragged somewhere that I don't want to go to. And it's going to impact the way that I watch the games. So I think if I just go out isolated on Long Island and, you know, call the local Italian joint 30 minutes before I want to eat, make the 10 minute drive there, 10 minute drive back, maybe dial up the radio a little bit and hear the games while I'm driving. That will be fun. You could have like a, like at halftime of maybe one of the bigger window of games, end up doing that. So that's what I'm thinking for this weekend. But big weekend of college football.

It's awesome. You have Ohio State, Notre Dame. You got Oregon State, Washington State. You have also clearly Clemson going up against Florida State, which is a massive game. These games this weekend, Hickey, this is the first true weekend of college football for us.

There is six or I think it's seven. Utah, UCLA. Ranked on ranked matchups, Oregon State and Washington State. It's going to be one where there's a lot.

And hold on. Colorado, Oregon. Colorado, Oregon, Penn State, Iowa. Ole Miss, Alabama. Look at you. Penn State, Iowa. You just throw it in there. Am I wrong?

Ranked versus ranked? If you guys can't outscore Iowa, I know their offensive coordinator who has the clause in his contract that he has to score 25 points a game this year or they're going to get fired. Did you hear his audio, by the way? Do we have that audio clip handy, by the way, Hickey? Not at the moment, no.

We can go grab it here soon. Oh, is Brian Ferentz right? Brian Ferentz, son of head coach Kirk Ferentz. Yeah. Oh, come on.

He's basically just going after the media and say to leave him alone after what? This was the first game I think this year where they had 25 points, over 25 points. Utah State, they scored 24. Iowa State, they scored 20.

And I don't even know if any of these were defensive scores, too. And then against Western Michigan, you get to go run your mouth because you put up 41 points against them, Hickey. Like, you know, he's just setting himself up to fail when they have a 14-point performance this weekend with McNamara up against my guy Manny Diaz and those Penn State Nittany Lions. It's going to be loud, wide out, CBS, place is going to be rocking, defense is going to be swarming. I hope Brian Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes are ready. It's going to be a madhouse. Huh.

Can I be real? Out of all these good games this weekend, that's the worst game. Iowa, Penn State. I kind of hope that Iowa makes this a game and Hickey has to sweat it out here, if I'm being honest. But Hickey deserves it. Yeah, he does. Well, we'll get to your football team in just a second, Dexter Henry.

But real quickly. No, no, no. Which one? Not the college or the pro? Oh, college, college. Oh, yeah.

We don't need something like that. College team, man. They didn't even show up to the backyard brawl. And how about, I don't know who said it, but the West Virginia player that basically, did you hear what he said about Phil Jokovic, the quarterback? No, I did not hear that. Oh, he was like, yeah, we knew that guy was a bad quarterback anyway. Just openly said it.

I said, I have not seen honesty like that in quite some time. But you go through the slate this week in Ohio State, Notre Dame, you have Oregon State, Washington State, you got even Arkansas, LSU, you have Ole Miss, Alabama, UCLA, Utah, the Buffaloes of Colorado up against Oregon, Florida State and Clemson. And there is Iowa and Penn State.

Hickey, you know only bad things can happen for you on this game. You know, you go win the game actually 40 to 3, it would be very impressive. But I remember, oh no, that was Illinois a few years ago when it was the nine overtime craziness. And they extracted their revenge.

But yes, that's right. But if this is a sloppy low scoring game that you have to grind it out, and I think Penn State's a really good team this year, I think they're better than Ohio State, I don't think they're better than Michigan, then this turns out to be one of those games that yeah, even if you win, it kind of feels like an L unless you end up blowing them out. You should blow out Iowa. Yeah, I hope they do.

I expect they do. I don't want a close game. I don't want the whiteout crowd to be in full effect in the fourth quarter when half them in the parking lot are already going home.

No game. Let's go keep rolling. And let's bring on Northwestern next weekend. All right, let me ask you about your alma mater, Dexter Henry, UNC Pitt.

I know Pitt ended up not having a good showing in the backyard brawl. Hickey, I told you about the Hickey Hex. Hickey is talking all positive about Pitt headed into the year.

He's kissing your ass. You guys are rubbing elbows. Here's Hickey. Pitt's going to be the most underrated team in the ACC. Watch out for Pitt.

And they are one and two to start off the season. Hickey did give Pitt love. I do remember that. And I appreciated that for him. Well, you should. Quarterback stinks.

You got to follow the rules here. Nine times out of ten when Hickey gives your team love. That's a bad sign. Oh, I expect them to be historically bad this year. And I like Pat Narduzzi over there, the longtime coach over at Pitt. But this weekend, you're going up against Drake May. Wouldn't this be kind of typical Pitt? I do think UNC is going to win the game.

I see where you're going. But you lose these last two games. You look at the spread. All right. UNC is minus seven and a half.

I know Drake May is unbelievable. I'm not going to place money on this game. But if I was, I may sprinkle some something there on plus seven and a half. Where's that game? That game is at UNC? No, it's at Pitt. Acresure Stadium, which everyone remembers that name, of course.

I still call it Heinz Field. As you should. I kind of like this red, man. You do. It's a little tantalized.

But you know what? The quarterback looks so bad. I can't do it. Can't do it. Yeah, especially when Drake May is going to be like the second or third quarterback taken in the draft.

Can't do it. By the way, Hickey, what did you think of Sean Merriman, who was just in with us, who was always awesome when he joins us? I was not ex- I knew he was going to be down on the Chargers, but I really don't believe Dean Spanos in season, and the Spanos family in season is going to fire Brandon Staley. I do believe that Brandon Staley is a dead man walking, but I think they'll wait until after the season to fire him.

But he basically said, don't be surprised if it happens in season. I hope Sean's right, because I want to see what Kellen Moore is, the head coach. Not a good play caller.

Not very good in LA so far, but I'm interested to see at least what it- there's been a lot of hype, a lot of buzz. No wonder Kellen Moore- because Jerry Jones loved him for a while at least until he kind of let him go out the door, but at least even for three or four games, what is Kellen Moore's head coach? Now I'm not giving the offense a pass, but Sean is not wrong. When this defense, which has all this talent, they've been god awful through the first two games of the season.

It's kind of crazy when you have all this talent, why the defense has been this anemic so far, because he's not wrong with the amount of points that they scored, Hickey. You would think, I'm not even saying they need to be 2-0, but you would think that they would be able to win one of these games out of the gate, and they ended up losing both. And that's a problem with the Los Angeles Chargers.

They're unclutched. I think that's the biggest problem is they cannot make the big play when they need last week. They could not get a stop on Tua. Down, you know, down late they go score the touchdown, and then okay, at least the offense have been having a day, moving to go four and out.

Right away, sack, intentional grounding, game over. This week, the defense lets Ryan Tanel and Co. march right down the field. Now to their credit, at least they got a field goal to tie the game, but you get the ball in overtime to start, three and out, boom, they march down field goal, game over.

Two games, both the offense and defense had clutch opportunities to step up, neither did. And they have a new defensive coordinator, too. I know he was on the staff last year, but you start to wonder if you're going to blame someone and the defense isn't playing well, and you're not going to get rid of the head coach in season, then maybe they end up firing the brand new defensive coordinator after a few games. As the defensive minded head coach gets a pass. Yeah, right.

Makes sense. You're not wrong in terms of it doesn't make sense, but when did the Chargers ever actually make sense? That's part of the reason why logic would say Brandon Taylor should get fired in season, but like if I was to bet on it, I'm with you, I don't think he would get fired. Like you have a brand new offensive coordinator, brand new defensive coordinator. So if there's a problem on one side of the ball to start the year, the coach should be the head coach should be the one that goes when you've already went to the change in coordinators. Now, Anthony Lynn didn't get fired in season, but I remember I was working for Sirius XM NFL radio. They did make a coordinator change in season.

They got rid of the OC and that's when Shane Steichen got elevated to the offense coordinator of the Chargers. So, you know, I don't think Staley will get fired in season, but the more and more that you talk about it, it's like, what other choice do they have? Like if this gets really bad, they lose to the Vikings. Let's just say on Sunday, which we talked about that yesterday, that game feels like it should be a tie. And for being fair, cause both those teams can't get out of their own way. But after that, it's not as if the schedule really gets a nice land. Like you play the Raiders.

All right, the Raiders aren't great, but they beat the Broncos. You then play the Cowboys and then you play the Chiefs. That could get these next four games, it could get really ugly for a team that has a ton of talent.

Yeah, it could. And we talked about the season ending this weekend in Minnesota, if they lose, even if they win in their one and two, like I said, those next few games, like we're talking about two and five. You got to get to two and two. You have to get to two and two. You have to beat the Vikings. You have to beat the Raiders. And then you get the Cowboys and Chiefs. I, yeah, I feel like they're always close against Kansas City and never win. And the way the Cowboys are looking right now, I don't feel all that confident about that. But if they don't get to two and two, it's going to get real ugly real quick. And you split against the Vikings and Raiders. Now you're one and three. Yeah, I'm not great at math, but quick math, you would be right on those two games afterwards out winning one and five. I mean, good night.

All right. Let me get the state of the Steelers here with Dexter Henry, because he is a Steelers fan. Week one, you know, show at home up against a great team. Week two, both offenses were insulting to offenses in the year of twenty twenty three. But I'll tell you, I love Alex Highsmith.

I love the story of him. And we all know how great TJ Watt is the Steelers this year at the end of the season will be what? Probably nine and eight again. Wouldn't shock me outside looking in the playoffs. Yeah, I would say because his vision is tough. I still think they'll fit. I think the offense will get better.

I'm also not tripping over Kenny Pickett in the offense. It looks terrible. Matt Canada. He's got to go. Everyone agrees. Matt Canada's got to go.

He's got to go say that. I do think you have to give some credit and say, look, they played the Browns. It was good defense. We know what the Niners are.

They're fantastic. I wasn't tripping over the Niners game. I felt very confident to win last night. I thought they'd look a little better offensively.

They didn't. They've got to get the offense sorted out. So Matt Canada, there's no imagination to the offense. It's it's it's bad. And you have a bad offense, a bad defense that you're playing this week.

Yes. So they should take care of if they can't put up points against the Raiders. Man, if they can. If they did that, if they don't put up points against the Raiders, they should be packing that Canada's bags right now.

OK, they should be doing that. This is that guilt show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll come on back. When you need to know what's happening, it's it's it's it's time to get hit in the huddle.

Nobody's picking the Colts to win the Super Bowl. So let's just go learn. Right. Well, this is always going to happen.

Jim Mercy is calling all the shots there and the hunky top man didn't draft this kid where they drafted this kid to have him look great in practice and look awesome running the scout team. You know what I mean? But yeah, let's play this Minshew cat or whatever on Sunday. So listen and subscribe to in the huddle available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Selling your car to Carvana is as easy as easy as pie. Sure. All you have to do is enter your license plate or been as easy as a stroll in the park.

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Visit Carvana dot com or download the app to get an instant offer today. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio looking at all the 0 and 2 teams in the NFL. Let's separate them AFC compared to the the NFC, the AFC. The Patriots are 0 and 2.

They're going nowhere. I'm sick and tired of people saying, oh, at least they were competitive up against the Eagles. Oh, at least they were competitive up against the Dolphins and got back in the game towards the end. This offense has no talent.

Let's just call it. This offense does not have enough talent to win enough games in the year of 2023 to be a force. And it's not it's not even the quarterback. Who's he throwing the football to? And then Pop Davis has some explosiveness.

He fumbles the ball once and you don't play in the rest of the game. So the Patriots are going nowhere. The Chargers at 0 and 2. It's not looking bright.

We know they have the talent. Let's see, though, where they are after this Sunday before you write their obituary. The Broncos at 0 and 2.

Ryan, care to comment on the state of the Denver Broncos right now? Not dead yet. Oh, no, they're dead.

They are dead. You think they're beating the Dolphins this weekend? No, but I'll give Sean Payne the respect maybe for one more one more week to hold that hope. I'm drowning right now. I'm swallowing water. Am I ready to call it a call to quit? Not yet. If they lose this weekend, their season's over in terms of making the playoffs. 0 and 3.

I would wave the white flag. And you know what? I'm not even saying it's a lock that they lose this weekend. You know, everyone's going to pick the Dolphins, and it's a home game for Miami. So weather could be a factor here for Denver.

1 p.m. Eastern Time start going from Mountain Time all the way to the East Coast. You know, weather could be a factor here. There's no doubt about it. But the Dolphins, their offense has been really damn good. I'll say that.

And that's the thing. You look at, it may be similar to the way the Patriot game played out, where you will see the difference between what offense looks like in 2023 with a team that gets it and then a team that doesn't. I do think the Dolphins will win, but I think the game could be closer than what people anticipate it to be. The Bengals at 0 and 2. Here's what I don't like about the Bengals. They have very quickly become too cocky and too overconfident.

And I wonder if their hubris will lead to their demise. I'm not panicking about the Bengals because they were 0 and 2 last year. But those players on the defensive side of the ball ran their mouths before the AFC Championship game and then didn't back it up. And Jamar Chase, who I like, is starting to become insufferable with the ridiculous smack talking that he did leading into the Browns game and then didn't back it up.

And I don't know what he said before the Ravens game, but Ravens players went out of their way to basically make it known that the Bengals offense did not respect their defense heading into this one. The Bengals are a team. I think they'll be fine. I think they're still going to make the playoffs.

I would still pick them today to win that division because I just don't believe that the Ravens are able to stay healthy, but the Ravens weren't healthy this past weekend and look what happened. They still beat the Bengals, but the Bengals are a team where I just wonder, I'm not saying you shouldn't have confidence, you need confidence in this league. But if their confidence, Ryan, is starting to become a detriment. I think the word hubris is right because I don't know if their confidence will ever wane or they won't believe how good they are, especially since they kind of dug out of a similar deficit from last year. But the execution and the sense of urgency, too, has to improve because you can almost lull yourself into a false sense of security if like, oh, last year we were 0-2, so we figure it out. Of course this year we'll figure it out. That level of desperation last year to get out of the 0-2 hole has to be magnified times ten this year, especially with the third game being on Monday Night Football.

Everyone's watching. And you do that where you start to harp on last year, OK, 0-2, no problem. Do you have that hunger to really not find a way to overlook some things where last year it was so driven where this year if you're just resting on what you did a year ago and all your bounce back, it's in how serious you're going to take it for for this upcoming week. Texans at 0-2, they're not going anywhere.

We know that. The 0-2 teams in the NFC Cardinals, I'll tell you, they may be the best 0-2 team that I'm most impressed by. Like, they're not going to win a lot of games.

They stink. They don't have a lot of talent, but at least that they've been competitive. I know they choked against the Giants, you know, had a lead up against the commanders, but neither of those games should have been close and both those teams had to sweat it out. The commanders and the New York Giants, they're not laying down.

That is for sure. They are not tanking. You know that bears are screwed and they'll be picking a new quarterback next year. And then you look at the Carolina Panthers. I hope they just don't ruin Bryce Young because I believe Bryce Young could be a really talented quarterback in this league. But that line stinks right now.

And I'm afraid they're going to get him killed. I believe Miles Sanders is an overrated running back in these wide receivers. What wide receivers are he throwing to that really sparked some fear in the opposition in the year of 2023 in the NFL. It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio news brief coming up next on teach on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio and still to come at 8.20 p.m. Eastern 5.20 p.m. Pacific. Jared first star defensive lineman from the Florida State football team projected to go in the top 10 top five of the draft and still to come at 9.40 p.m. Eastern 6.40 p.m. Pacific one of my favorite names to ever say D.J. we on the lay the quarterback at Oregon State formerly the quarterback at Clemson so whole lot more college football to do ton of NFL as well overreaction proper reaction comes your way at 9 p.m. Eastern 6 p.m. Pacific as well. rees will be next.