Rodgers Roaring back in 2024? (Hour 1)

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That's what I'm talking about. Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS is the number to jump on in. 855-212-4227.

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He's a dumb producer. Hot Take Kiki. So we know Aaron Rodgers, done for the season with the Achilles injury, and now the question becomes will Aaron Rodgers be back with the New York Jets next season? He's under contract, but when you're closing it on 40, it's tough to recover from an Achilles injury. Now, let me be abundantly clear. I'm doubling down on what I said yesterday. One hundred percent, Aaron Rodgers is back as the Jets quarterback next year, and he will give it a go. And number two, I do believe Aaron Rodgers is winning comeback player of the year next season in the NFL.

So let me just set the stage that way. But we have now heard from Woody Johnson, Robert Sala, and just as of five minutes ago on Instagram, a very dramatic and thoughtful and thankful post from the now number eight Aaron Rodgers, which reads, thank you to every person that has reached out, called, texted, DM'd, connected through a friend, etc. It has meant a ton to me and I'll try and get back to all of you soon.

Remember, the Wi-Fi is not great in the Rodgers household with all the receptionists, all those problems there. So I'm completely heartbroken and moving through all the emotions, but deeply touched and humbled by the support and love. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I begin the healing process today. And there's a bunch of prayer symbols, crying face emojis, and also hearts in this statement. And then the last thing he says, the night is darkest before the actually got to go kind of dramatic voice when you say this. Let me read you this. The night is darkest before the dawn and I shall rise yet again. Proud of my guys. Want to know with the jet emoji.

So there you go right there. Hickey, that says to me, the night is darkest before the dawn and I shall rise yet again. That sounds like to me and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the immediate reaction is Aaron Rodgers fully intends to play next season if he's going to throw out there.

The night is darkest before the dawn and I shall rise yet again. Your thoughts? Yeah, like I said, yes, I think he's definitely going to give it a go. I'm still skeptical at a guy going on 41 next year. Coming off a Achilles tear is going to be either at top flight performance or even be able to get back on the field. But right now, seems like he's getting surgery soon. And at least right now he's in the spirit of the mindset of I'm coming back, which is, again, not surprising.

I think the right mindset to have. Can I get down to the bottom of this here? Why have you been so anti Aaron Rodgers and so anti New York Jet all throughout the off season? And even now, like where you go, yeah, I'm still going to remain skeptical.

He'll give it a go. It's almost as if you're rooting against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. I'm just trying to find where the root is of the disdain for the Jets at Aaron Rodgers.

And this is coming from someone today that let me remind you, I'm a Patriot fan wearing a Troy Brown, Teddy Brewski, Vince Wolfwork and Tom Brady T-shirt. And you would think if you listen to this show, I would be sounding like a Jet fan recently. But you've just been such a Debbie Downer in every twist and turn when it comes to Aaron Rodgers. It's frankly been recently he's been a pathological liar. And when the big moment is there, he does not play well. And so you can't have both ways. You can't be criticizing teammates in the regular season, then come postseason time and even the big game, whether in last year's in the regular season week 18, you choke, you fall short, you play bad.

Enough. But even when he was doing everything the right way this offseason, it was doom and gloom from Hickey. Oh, it's all going to go in a bad direction.

It's all going to unravel here. You got to give him some credit for the way that he just handled himself and conducted himself when he got, let's just say, new life. And he found his way to New York and he got away from Brian Gudekun so he couldn't stand his guts.

I guess for me, the thing is, like, I just don't see how this could have gone any other way. Like, it's impossible that this would have went bad in the offseason. He went to a new team. The entire team was kissing his feet. The entire team, the entire fan base, the entire coaching staff viewed him as the savior, which is exactly what Aaron Rodgers wants. But he showed up for all training camp. That was something you didn't think was going to happen. I think it's a little easier to do that again when everyone is kissing your feet and calling you basically Jesus Christ 2.0. But you didn't think that was going to happen.

I didn't. And he went to a few OTA sessions I didn't think he was going to do. Again, this offseason went exactly how I thought it was going to go.

It's impossible in the honeymoon phase or really anything to go badly. You expected him to take Sauce Gardner to Carbone in the Knicks game. You accepted him to go the extra mile with Michael Carter, a third-string running back, and go to the Kentucky Derby. That's bonding. That's being a good teammate. That's being one of the guys. Like, I'm not going to, like, he went to cool events with teammates. I'm supposed to give him credit and think that's going to translate on the field?

I'm not. According to Romeo Dobbs of Maggie and Perloff last year, they never hung out. I saw Aaron Rodgers at Bucks games, right? Him and David Bakhtieri chugging beers on the big screen. He goes to events. He's a minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. And that's a long-time teammate.

I think I'm going to give the Jets an extra win because he's going to the Kentucky Derby with Michael Carter. I'm not going to do it. But your words were that he would not connect with the younger teammates.

That's right. And every step in the offseason, he went out of his way and then some to connect with those younger teammates. Did you hear Garrett Wilson, for crying out loud? He sounded like someone just died in his life with the Aaron Rodgers injury where how emotional that conversation was. It was as if someone was on, like, Rodgers on his deathbed and it was the last conversation that you were going to have with someone in hospice when he was relaying the conversation. This was a genuine bond that they've made between some of these younger players and Aaron Rodgers.

And I don't think it really hurts you. Just go out of your way and say he exceeded what you thought he was going to do with these younger teammates. Well, part of my frustration was where it was really going to show was actually when the game started and where adversity hits, how are you going to react? And we've seen Aaron Rodgers, and I've been in Rodgers' defender, by the way, multiple years where I thought the Packers screwed him. They didn't get him a second receiver. They should have listened to his demands in 2020, even 2021, in terms of getting a real team around him to go win a Super Bowl and go all-in, and they did not do that. But we have also seen him, when things go bad and losses start piling up, him point the finger at everyone else but himself. And that's where my real skepticism sat and was waiting for it to appear was when, again, not in the offseason when you go into a Knicks game with sauce Gardner, it's week six, you lose, you're two and four, things are not going well, how do you respond? And he has not responded well in previous history, and I had no reason to think he's going to all of a sudden now do a 180 character-wise.

But here's what you're not getting. Every time he was in Green Bay, there was an excuse where he felt like the organization didn't put around a good enough defense for him to go win a championship, where they wouldn't go get another weapon, and they always would release afterwards, oh, we would leak to a reporter, whether it was Schefter or Rappaport or Pelissero, whoever it was, that we were in on this guy, we tried to go get this guy, and it never happened. This was his organization. He was the president. He was the GM. He was the head coach.

He is the face of the franchise. He is the star quarterback in New York, and I think he was cognizant of the fact that he was getting everything that he wanted. And all of these calls is what he was begging for in Green Bay. Remember when he had that terrible press conference where he's just going on and on and on and on?

It was like, enough already. When he's talking about all these guys that they got rid of and treated poorly, which a lot of those guys ended up doing nothing once they left Green Bay, but Aaron Rodgers basically wanted to be the GM. And even though he'll give Joe Douglas credit, he'll give Robert Salah credit, and on and on and on and on, he's the guy that was running the show. So even if it got bad, I think he would have had the awareness, and I understand with athletes, there's big time egos, and they could be pretentious, totally understand that, but Aaron Rodgers realizes that everything this year was on him, and that's why I don't think he was going to be a jerk or be someone that we've seen in the past like the way that you've been describing him with not taking accountability. Well, the first year in part, we'll never know, at least this season. It comes back next year, I guess we'll see, but that's, again, part of the non-answers we'll get. It's great in the offseason, but we'll never actually know when real adversity hits how he would respond, so maybe, hopefully we'll find out next year.

Let's go to Robert Salah. Robert Salah makes it clear he doesn't anticipate Aaron Rodgers retiring after the season. I'd be shocked if this is the way he's going to go out, but at the same time, for him, he's got, he's working through a whole lot of head space, things that he needs to deal with, and that will be the last thing I talk to him about. And then the owner of the team, Woody Johnson, today released this great video from the other night, Rodgers running out to the field, a 9-11 with the American flag, really cool camera shots, going past all the fans and players and whatnot before going to midfield, and he wrote, Woody Johnson, this story is not over, come back strong, Aaron Rodgers, which I first took that, and that was the first thing I did see today about the future of Aaron Rodgers, is okay, that's Woody Johnson begging Aaron Rodgers to come back, but once Aaron Rodgers releases this statement today, Hickey talking about how the night is darkest before the dawn and I shall rise yet again, that's him definitely saying that, that he's coming on back. Yeah, maybe some darkness caves, there's no doubt about it, there could be some retreats this year, a lot of ayahuasca to get through the rehab, I'm sure he'll be heading up Joe Rogan for all the therapy plans and all that, there's going to be some craziness this offseason, there's no doubt about it.

But week one, next year, Aaron Rodgers on the field in the NFL, quarterbacking the Jets, you can lock it up, there's no doubt about it in my mind. I hope you're right, it's going to be tough, it's going to be very tough, first time in his career he's suffered a season ending injury like this long, where it is lonely, a lot of players talk about how rehab is, you're on your own, and he's going to be on his own for a while, and it's tough. It's undermining the Achilles injury, but it's not as if this is a wide receiver, or a cornerback, or let's say even a middle linebacker or something. Dr. David Chow said it with us, because that was my first thing I thought, when this happened the other night, this could be his career. And I said to Dr. David Chow, he's going to be 40 in December, and he goes the good thing is the position that he plays here.

And I do think it makes it a little bit easier. The biggest concern I have here is how many times did we talk about Achilles and ACLs, where you're back physically and you're okay, but mentally it takes you like a full year to get back, and you do have limited time here. So I'm not going to say Rodgers is going to go play for two more years, but it would stink if he comes back, plays next year, shows you what he could be, and just says, and this could happen, that he's just mentally fried from the whole thing, but there is a mental part of it where the injury takes a toll on you in a big way once you're recovered in your cabeza with every step you make on a football field, and when you take hits and things like that, because I see people are blaming Nathaniel Hackett, they're blaming the offensive line.

This is just a freak injury. If you are blaming Nathaniel Hackett, if you're blaming the offensive line for this one, you're a loser, and you just don't know football for being honest. Well, I mean, the O-line could have given him another second. He held on to the ball too long. I mean, if you watch Drain Browning going for the cut block, I will say, this is what I'll say, in terms of that people blaming. No offense, I'm not really trusting you breaking down the big thumbs up.

No, I'm repeating what people have said. Aaron Rodgers himself said he does not like the cut block blocking scheme. That's exactly what that was. Dwayne Brown tried to cut down, now I'm blanking on the play, I forget who the Buffalo Bills end was, tried to cut him down, didn't work, and he got a free shot at him. That's where I think the bad look comes in, where the one blocking scheme Aaron Rodgers said I don't like and we should get rid of ended up costing him. Now, I'm going to sound very hypocritical, because I just said Rodgers needs to take all accountability for everything that happened.

He is the one running the football team. If he didn't like that, and the only reason why Nathaniel Hackett is with the Jets was because they wanted Nathaniel Hackett in to go get Aaron Rodgers, don't you think Aaron Rodgers could have made sure that that wasn't going to be the case with his best friend that owes everything to him and Nathaniel Hackett? Or was that Rodgers just being too good of a teammate and trying to be a team-friendly guy? Whatever it was. Unfortunately, it happened, and it happened, unfortunately, way too early. I don't think there's anything else that could have been done on that play. It's just an unfortunate situation.

And I did think Rodgers held on to the ball way too long. Who wins the AFC East this season? That's the poll question today. You can find it. We'll retweet it at CBS Sports Radio.

You can also find it on my Twitter page, at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. What do you think the results here? 1-2-3-4 hickey on who wins the AFC East after this crazy week one that we just saw. Dolphins 1, Bills 2, Jets 3, Patriots 4.

You are correct. Dolphins at 62%, Bills 24.1%, Jets at 8.9%, and the New England Patriots in at 5.1%. After one week of football, and I probably shouldn't even ask you this question because I know you.

You are stubborn. You'll drag your feet and you're not going to change your prediction until the Buffalo Bills are mathematically eliminated from winning the AFC East. And you give me a little smile right there. I see that bleeping grin on your face because I know you specifically like to root against Sean McDermott and Josh Allen. It's going to pain you to keep on propping up that team all throughout the season. But right now, if I could make it a clean slate here and wipe the slate clean, would you still go with the Buffalo Bills? I'm laughing because I'm actually going to do something that you think I'll never do. I'm going to wave the white flag on the Bills prediction.

Are you serious? I'm dead. I mean, I was confident in the Bills. Holy smokes! After one game? And the Dolphins had them as my first Wild Card team, but I can't trust Josh Allen right now.

I just cannot. I mean, you see that performance. Look, I know the Jets are a great defense, arguably the best in the NFL. Wow! But you have, Aaron, you have the balloon pop of every Jets fan, every Jets player with their savior.

Spicy! Going out after four plays and you manage to put up that performance out. Out on Buffalo. Oh, no. They'll be a playoff team. But now I'm on the Dolphins bandwagon. No!

This is really bad! On the Dolphins train to win the division. I've always been on the Dolphins playoff train. Except you here. I said before the other Dolphins are winning the AFC East. Now your bad luck is going to just sink our ship.

We're screwed. I mean, I will say most of the teams that I backed one week won that you laughed at. For the most part. For the most part. How about the Broncos?

That's the one where I said the most part. The Rams look good. My Bucks look good. Do you have my hot take sounder for you, by the way? Because I really need to hear my hot take sounder for you when you already say that the Bills season is over. Oh, no! No!

Oh, f**k! Hot take hickey is at it again. We have a hot take alert.

So I'm really surprised by this. And this is why. Because you said you can't trust Josh Allen. Why can you trust Tua Tungavailoa then to stay healthy? Because that's the biggest concern that I have, even with my Dolphins prediction, is that Tua stays healthy. They are a better team than the Bills on paper, and they showed that last year, if they are healthy.

But why would you then be so adamant that Tua stays healthy, I'm wondering? What I liked from the Dolphins on Sunday was the big number zero. Number zero of number times Tua sacked. Even without Toronto Arms said that offense Allen took a step forward, blocked really well against one of the best edge rushers in Joey Bosa.

Chargers do have a good D-line. They protected well. So Tua is beefed up. He said his neck muscles are stronger than ever. The jiu-jitsu.

The jiu-jitsu as well. He's done everything to try to keep his head healthy, I hope. I'll take a blind leap if that is true. And I'll trust Tua's health right now more than I'll trust Josh Allen's decision making against good defenses. I think I'm more shocked today about you changing your prediction so quickly than I was when you cursed on the radio.

Well, we'll say, look, all I'm doing is flip-flopping the Dolphins from being a wildcard team to division winner and the Bills from division winner to wildcard team. But you never do this. You're right. You're right.

I don't. There's been times where you even looked at me and you said, I know I'm going to be wrong here, but until I am proven to be wrong, I'm not going to say it. That's why I'm shocked here.

Like, my jaw right now, if people could see me, is on the desk that is sitting in front of me and my hands are, like, thrown out across the table. I can't believe this. That should scream vibes at what I think of Josh Allen, play calling, this offense at times, this run game, this defense at times. Man, this is a stunning day.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break. Massive week coming up for two popular teams.

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Zach Gelb Show CBS Sports Radio. I was really discouraged over the weekend by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not that they lost the game, but it's the way that they lost the game. They didn't even show up at home. I know they're going up against a great football team in the San Francisco 49ers, but that game was over by halftime.

And then I was really disappointed. And this is the team I was most disappointed in from this weekend in the Seattle Seahawks. When the Seattle Seahawks play in the Rams, you're in your own building at 12th Man Country. The Rams don't have Cooper Cup and you let Puka Nakua and Tutu Atwell, which I love saying those names. We either have to add those names in, Hickey, to that rejoin that I do where I say, Oh, I love saying Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tuatunga Vailoa. And who was the other player?

Oh, Halepulivati Vaitai, Puka Nakua and Tutu Atwell together. Those are some of my favorite names in sports. But when you let those two guys go off, it shows me that there's big concerns now with the Seattle Seahawks defense, where the one bright spot of this defense was the back end in the secondary. And I thought Steve Largent also made up a great point yesterday because we could all look at the secondary. But where was the pass rush? And you have Matthew Stafford coming off an injury. Matthew Stafford going into the regular season telling his wife and the wife repeats it on the podcast, Kelly Stafford, that Matthew has trouble connecting with the younger players.

You don't cause any confusion for him. You don't make him be under duress where you couldn't get to the quarterback one time and sack him one time in the game. So I look at the Seahawks right now as a team that was very confident about going into the season. But now I'm monitoring them and you look at their matchup this week. It doesn't get any easier because Seattle's now going to have these words that I'm about to say, Hickey, a tough environment and going up against a tough team in the Detroit Lions. And that's not going to be an easy game. The Seahawks are not expected to win that game, especially when I tell you that they have injuries across the offensive line. One of their tackles is already out.

The other one could be as well. And they just signed Jason Peters, who Jason Peters is 41 years old. Jason Peters, I feel like now he's been four or five years. Is he going to come back or is he going to retire?

Then he gets signed by some team. And I'll set the over under this week of three and a half, Hickey. Do you have any clue what that over under for three and a half is going to be for Jason Peters? Because there's a signature thing with Jason Peters that in the last four or five years, something always happens with Jason Peters where I could put an over under to it of three and a half games. Games he misses?

No. Times he leaves the field saying that he's injured and then makes his triumphant return, then gets injured again, goes back to the sideline and makes another triumphant return. I'll put that number at three and a half right now on Jason Peters. But you look at the Seahawks offense and I think Geno Smith will be fine this year. You have two running backs that at times this offseason were injured. You have three wide receivers that I like a lot in DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett.

And you have Jackson Smith and Jigba coming off the surgery. But this is a big moment for Seattle. And this is what I want to see from Seattle. You know, like everyone's going to pick the Lions this week. The Lions are going to be the sexy pick, the fun team, the team that was the lovable loser. Now they're going to be winners. Here come the Lions.

Bite off some kneecaps. Drink a bunch of coffee and let's go Lions, right? This is a game that everyone's going to say the Lions can't lose. The Lions are a lock. But that's pretty much what we said all last week about the Seattle Seahawks going up against the Rams. I want to see if the Seattle Seahawks could do what the Rams did to them last week. Instead this time around up against the Detroit Lions.

That's something, Hickey, that I'm monitoring for this weekend. Because if Seattle starts off the year 0-2, your season isn't over. And I don't want to say it totally wipes away all the positive momentum from a year ago. But it does make you feel as if maybe that was more luck last year than this team actually being really damn good. And you know how optimistic I was on the Seattle Seahawks entering this season. You were Mr. Seahawks, basically.

Third best team in the NFC. You were all in on Geno continuing what he did last year. And that's the big question mark, right?

That a lot of, at least for me, my doubt came because I don't think Geno Smith can replicate 2022 again in 2023. Now other questions, like I said, injury-wise, defensively too, are now starting to pop up. Again, it's week one, right? We see a lot of dramatic improvement from week one to week two. Seattle can easily go into Detroit, lay a 35 spot, win the game.

And all of a sudden now all the panic and all the concern is now wiped away going into week number three. But I think you're right where it's a big spot where a lot of people were high on the Seahawks. A lot of people going into the season were picking them to make the playoffs, if not content for the division. Especially with the start of that schedule, which was fairly easy, Rams coming off a horrible season. Okay, Lions could be a tough game. Panthers, they have Bryce Young and that's basically it on the offensive side of the ball. And then you play the Giants, which kind of, I don't want to say evenly matched teams because I do believe the Seahawks are better than the Giants. But similar spot where they overachieved last year and you wonder how much regression there's going to be. If you would have told me for this audit season, I would have said three and one on that schedule.

Now I don't know what that's going to be. Entering an early bye week, which is in week five. And like I said, then you still got the 49ers looming as well. It's tough.

It's tough for them. You definitely, look, Bengals last year 0-2 went to the AFC title game. So it's not like you lose on Sunday, the season is over. But they're not the Bengals. I was just going to say the margin for error is a lot smaller for Seattle right now than it is for Cincinnati. And I will also say this, I know last year they were horrible to start off the season. I forget exactly what it was with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they had a dreadful record. Because I made a bet with Brian McFadden that he would owe me a steak dinner if the Pittsburgh Steelers did not make the playoffs. And they didn't. But towards the end of the season, like midway through the season, I was jumping up and down. This is a lock.

Even Brian said, oh, looks like I'm going to owe you that steak dinner. Which he eventually did pay off in Arizona at the Super Bowl. But at the end of the year, they had a legit shot to go make the playoffs. So the Steelers are a team that have started slow before.

And it feels like they started slow a bunch the last few years. But last week, to not even have a pulse up against the Niners. And I know how great the Niners are when you're at home at, what's the name of that new stadium, Acresher Stadium? Acresher Stadium. Yeah, I just want to call that Heinz Field.

I don't think I will ever call it Acresher Stadium without saying, what the heck is that stupid stadium's name? But now, this week, you go up against the Browns. Which, going into the year, I know the Browns have a more talented roster. But those teams were in similar spots where a lot of people thought, okay, the ceiling was the second spot in the division.

You know, probably they're going to be fighting it out with third and fourth place. But this is a Browns team that, defensively, they're really good. Offensively, I did not like what the Browns did last week. That game was not as lopsided as the way that it did appear.

It was sloppy, it was low-scoring for a while before the final score was 24-3. But this is now a big test for the Steelers where the Browns are being a team that are being talked about a lot with the optimism of the Browns after being 1-0, beating up on the Bengals. And here we come again, it's a Monday Night Football game, Steelers at home. Steelers have a defense that is good, offensively. Deontay Johnson out playing this week.

We'll see what Pickens does. You have Najee Harris who has been up and down even though he's had back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. This is a big week for Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Steelers offense going up against the Cleveland Browns that has one of the most intimidating players in football on the defensive side of the ball, Miles Garrett. And just a very good defense that I will say is underrated when we talk about some of the better defenses in the NFL. Especially when you look at week 1, what gave them problems. That 49ers defense, that front 4 was just, I mean, they were all over Pickett. They didn't really run the ball a lot but they absolutely controlled the run game. They pushed that offensive line around. And like I said, you go from the 49ers, which again, arguably the best defense in the NFL, to a Browns team that, like I said, no slouches whatsoever.

Miles Garrett's a beast on the outside. It's for now, the entire nation is C2. Good luck. I have not looked at the gambling lines yet for these two games, so that could sway my opinion on this. Because it could be some sucker bets that are brewing when you do have some letdowns here from week 1 to week 2. If you had to take a guess, Hickey, Browns and Steelers, who do you think the favorite is and by how many points? In Pittsburgh, right? I will say Browns minus 4.5.

Ooh, that would be really high. Browns are a 2.5 point favorite right now. Now the other game, Seattle and Detroit. Lions home. How many points do you think the Lions are a favorite by? Detroit minus 3. Detroit minus 5.5.

You know what? I'd plus the 5.5 this weekend on Seattle. And I'd also explore the money line, but plus the 2.5 on the Pittsburgh Steelers. I did not think going into this segment I was going to be that...

I was going to go that way. I'd probably say one of those teams that lost last week could win and one would lose. But I kind of get a feel in that that line of Browns only being a 2 point favorite seems fishy. And the Lions could still win the game, but that has a field goal type of game written all over it where it's high scoring. I don't want to say it's going to be 37 to 34, but maybe like a 34-31 game, a 28 to 27-28 to maybe even like a 25 type of game, something in that realm. I think that game is going to be close where it's going to come down to a late field goal between the Seahawks and the Lions. Maybe even 31 to 30.

Those could be some scores that you look at. I would go over and the Seahawks plus the 5.5 points this week and I'd probably go... I don't know what the over under is, but whatever it is, I'd probably go under in the Browns-Steelers game. That's usually like a slop fest and I would plus the 2.5 with the Steelers.

Where are you going on these picks by the way? I like the Browns a lot. I like the Browns a lot on Monday night. Blow them out, control the game, not even close for the most part there in Pittsburgh. I would take the Lions at home minus the 5.5.

I do think they're going to put up some points and I don't think Gino, kind of like last week, should be able to keep up. Have you improved on your barking skills by the way? I have not.

I'll be honest, I have not practiced since, what was that, Friday? Well, let's try it here. Ready? I'll go first. Here we go, Brownies. Here we go.

What do you got? Can I just do the barking? I don't really want to go through the whole... Ah, you got to do the whole thing. Come on. Okay, here we go.

3, 2, 1. Here we go, Brownies. Here we go. A little bit better. A little bit better. My ears are now ringing after your... Try to speak through my gut there.

You kind of sound like a mixture of an owl and a chihuahua, is what I would say. Now, can I hear one coach that has that dog in him? The Alabama A&M head coach, Connell Manor. He was fired up for Saturday's big game, I guess you could say, against Southern U, this courtesy of Fox 54. Listen up. Man, I'm very excited, man. We're Bulldogs, and we're ready to bite. You see, I'm excited, man.

I'm ready to go. It's game week. It's conference week, and this is going to rub off on my team. What did you think of the coach there, Hickster? I like it. I've not heard a lot of coaches bark before.

Agreed. The only other one was, I think, Coastal Carolina, where he was almost making fun of his team. He said, we need a bunch of dogs, and then he said...

He was like, meowing, because he goes, oh, we got a bunch of cats. Like, that was more sarcasm. I mean, this coach is ready to go here. Honestly, you know what, player coach, we might see it on Saturday.

We might put a helmet on. If everyone was still coaching, I would expect him to bark. There's not a lot of coaches. Like, Sam Pittman I could see barking.

But a lot of coaches that you see, they're butting up, they look like CEOs. I wouldn't imagine them to just be barking like that so easily. You're saying Nick Saban's not going to get in the locker room before Texas? No. Start barking like a dog? So McAfee's doing a weekly with him this year?

Yes. And they were at Tuscaloosa's campus last week and they were announcing it. And you know McAfee, how energetic he is, exuberant and fired up.

And he basically sounds like he could be a WWE great hype man and a heel. He's pumping up with Saban on set that he's going to be on every week. And Nick Saban's like, man, it's going to be fun. It's going to be an honor. It's going to be great. Like, you could tell he goes, why the heck did I agree to do this, a weekly interview?

And I have not heard the conversation yet this week. I don't know when they're going to do it, but coming off a loss, I think you could get preacher Nick this week where he starts to really go after his team and uses all the rat poison lines and how they weren't able to live up to the moment up against Hook'em with Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns. Honestly, I think we'll see nurturing Saban. I think he's going to coddle the team. Say it's not all bad.

Everyone's making it out to be worse than you are. We're fine. Kick the crap out of USF and let's get back on track here.

So you know what I would do if I'm McAfee? If I'm Pat McAfee, when you have Nick Saban on coming off a bad loss, it's a weekly interview. I think you try to loosen him up a little bit and maybe you just start him off with a curveball that has nothing to do with Alabama football. You want to know a question I would ask him?

Let's hear it. You have no connection to Travis Kelce. But there's rumors, Coach Saban, that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are hanging out. Now, I'm not going to ask you to comment on the maybe relationship, but Nick Saban, what are your thoughts on Taylor Swift? Are you a Swiftie?

Your good friend Bill Belichick admired her toughness at the show at Foxborough when she was playing three, four hours in the rain. Is Nick Saban a Swiftie? And I would love to just hear his answer on Taylor Swift. You know, you get a little bit of the Kelce and also the Taylor Swift rumors. Throw that out there. He won't touch that. Then you ask if he's a Swiftie. And then maybe you get a little bit more of an enjoyable conversation there. I would be shocked just because I feel like Nick is ball, ball, ball, ball, ball.

That's what I would do, though. Little Debbie, you know, oatmeal cakes, Miss Terry, the lake, that's it. What was the pie that he liked? Did we remember the cake? Little Debbie, oatmeal.

No, no, no. Or moon pie, I think a moon pie. You know, there were some, was it carrot cake that he was pumping up?

Yes, that's his favorite cake, carrot cake. Yeah, that's what he was really advocating for this offseason. What did you think of Taylor Swift? Good job by Travis Kelce, by the way. If that's true, he was trying to give her a friendship bracelet at the show.

Threw that out there. And I guess Taylor Swift or Taylor Swift's people were like, yeah, we got to make this happen maybe. I cannot wait in two or three years from now to hear a breakup song about Travis Kelce. So that's low-hanging fruit.

That is fair. But recently you see the mustache on Travis Kelce. I don't know Taylor Swift's dating history, but is she a big mustache person? Is that why he's grown the mustache? Might be, because I'll say this. I don't, if she wasn't, I don't think he would have it.

Is that why you had a little mustache a few weeks ago? You're trying to be a Swiftie and get Taylor's heart? She, this is going to sound stupid, but this is true. She's too popular for me. Oh, okay.

Did you see the scene at her when she was down the Jersey Shore? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't be around someone where anywhere you go, like the entire world stops and you can't even enjoy like a nice Friday night on the town because there's a lot of security there keeping thousands of people away.

Not for me. So you're telling me if Taylor Swift called you up and let's just say you were single. I know you're not right now. And Taylor Swift goes, Ryan, I listened to the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

I'm a big fan of hot take hickey. I want to go out with you. You would say, Taylor, thanks, but no thanks. You have too much of a following and too many people harassing you whenever you go out. That's what you would say?

I would go on a date or two to say I went on a date with Taylor Swift, but like in terms of a real relationship, that's too much for me. Too much. Are you serious? I'm being dead serious. So, not only on this show have you said that Jessica Alba is past her prime. You don't think she's as attractive as what most of us sane people like me think she is. And then you are now saying you don't want to go on a date or multiple dates or end up dating Taylor Swift. End of dating.

I would go on a few dates. Because there's too many people following her. That's right. She's too popular. You, my friend, I love you. And I mean this- Look, I'm being serious.

You can't live a normal life. With the utmost respect. But stop.

It's Taylor Swift. Wherever she wants to go, how many people want to follow her, I don't care. I propose in a second.

I would propose on the first date if we're being honest. You're living in a fishbowl and basically in jail. Can't go anywhere. Who cares? It's Taylor Swift.

Hello. What are we doing? Look, maybe all these breakups are her fault. Maybe she's not as good as, you know, people make her out to be. I would not go down that rabbit hole. I'm just saying.

The last thing I need is my name- A lot of breakups for a reason. Associated with you and the Swifties coming after this show. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. The views of Hot Take Kiki do not reflect the views of the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Three college football takes next. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get hit in the huddle. And 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 Irsay's calling all the shots there.

And the hunky-tonk 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. No way. Listen and subscribe to In the Huddle, available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Alright, time for three college football takes right here on the Zach Gelb show.

Take one. Texas, huge win this weekend. This past weekend up against Alabama. We all know going back to the opening week of the college football season, Florida State did slay LSU.

People are wondering, are those programs back? I'm not ready to say that, but I did have Texas winning the Big 12 before the start of the season. I had Florida State winning the ACC. Now the expectation for both of those programs should be to make the college football playoff because I do think they're the two best teams in their conference. Texas is going to be challenged by Oklahoma, there's no doubt about that. Florida State to me is easily the best team in the ACC. Now if they don't make the college football playoff with how impressive they were to start out the year, I would think it would start to be a disappointing season for both those programs.

That's the standard now. On the other side, this is the worst Alabama team Nick Saban's had since 07. First year he got there, 7 and 6. His team is not a top 10 team. They're not a college role playoff team. The quarterback is not very good. Readjust your expectations, folks. They are not your typical Alabama.

Next take. We all know the biggest story right now in college football is coach prime Deion Sanders. They are 2-0. They have been sensational. They have been so fun to watch with Chadore Sanders, with Travis Hunter.

This has just been a joy to see it all unfold. They beat TCU 45-42. They beat Nebraska 36-14. The next three games, Colorado State, that will be a win. And then you have Oregon and USC currently ranked 13th and 5th in the country. Oregon plays defense, I think Colorado will lose that game.

But then on September 30th, where tickets right now are going, at the cheapest price of $329, that's a home game for Colorado. I think that's going to be one of the best college football games of the season. And I'll predict an upset right now. Colorado's going to beat USC on September 30th by a score of 41-38 in a shootout. I like Colorado to pull off a big upset against USC at the end of the month. Notre Dame legit college role play contender. Ohio State, USC clumps on the schedule. I thought at best they'd win one of those three. Now they should win at least two of the three. And I think the first victory up against those three teams and the first opportunities at Ohio State, I do believe that Notre Dame will beat Ohio State in a few weeks. But going off of that with those big opponents and those big spots plus your Notre Dame, I think Sam Hartman's going to have a good enough season to earn himself a trip to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist. Not going to win the award but be a Heisman Trophy finalist. Bo Nix finally clutch. Big drive to help seal the win in Texas Tech.

Up and down, back and forth game usually. It's oh no Bo, he's good then bad. He's been clutched so far for the Ducks, big drive there in week two. And that was a guy that we were both very critical of with good reason when he was at Auburn. And I did find it funny that the Alabama fan was booing Bo Nix whenever they brought up Bo Nix on game day the other day from Bo Nix's time with Auburn. But man oh man, talk about a guy that really changed the conversation about him.

That's been Bo Nix. Alrighty, that is three college football takes quickly right here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, it's such a weird year for the Pac-12 but it's also a great year. And they are loaded at the quarterback position.

We'll discuss the Pac-12 next at Gelb show but where else CBS Sports Radio. And then you cry. And cry some more.

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