Bears Going 0-17? (Hour 2)

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You're supposed to be joined by Drew Bletso coming up in about 20 minutes from now. So we have two undefeated teams remaining in the NFL and then two teams that are still looking for their first win. Let's start with the two undefeated teams in the Eagles and the 49ers. And this could be a premature conversation, but when you're four weeks into a season and you're sitting there at 4-0 and there's only two teams that are remaining that are undefeated, the natural conversation of is there any chance that these teams are going to go undefeated in the regular season? And let me be clear, I think the world of the Eagles and the 49ers, to me, they're the two best teams in the NFL and they're on this collision course where they should be in the NFC Championship game. But with all that being said, neither of these teams are going undefeated.

And it's very simply this. It's not, oh, I don't think either of these teams are as great as they're playing because I do believe the Eagles could play better. And San Francisco, right, you haven't even seen a full season yet of Brock Purdy. And look what they're doing right now. But just look at their schedules.

And you could have tough opponents and still find the way to beat them, but it matters when you're playing those opponents. And you look at the stretch for the Eagles. In November, they play Dallas. They then hit the bye week. They have Kansas City at Arrowhead on November 20th. They play Buffalo. They play San Francisco. Then they're in Dallas and they're at Seattle.

So that's a stretch of one, two, three, four, five, six straight games where those are all playoff teams. And besides the Seahawks, potentially Super Bowl teams, the Eagles are going to lose one of those games. Now the Eagles could be undefeated until then where they could beat the Rams. They could beat the Jets. They could beat the Dolphins.

They could beat the commanders. And they could be sitting there with eight wins. But you're not going to walk out of Dallas, Kansas City, Buffalo, San Francisco, Dallas, and Seattle and still be undefeated.

I just don't see it. Now for San Francisco, big test this week up against Dallas. But for them, they have a tough three game stretch where it's at Seattle on Thursday night, November 23rd.

Then they're at Philadelphia on December 3rd. And then they once again play a divisional team in Seattle for the second time in the span of three weeks on Sunday, December 10th. I got to think that the 49ers are going to drop one of those games. You know, if I had to predict one team to be undefeated against the other, it would actually be San Francisco, even though I do believe the Eagles are a better team, because it's just the way that the schedule breaks up for them. Like, you could tell me that they could be undefeated going into that Seattle game. You play Dallas big game this Sunday night.

That's not a guaranteed victory. You should beat Cleveland. You should beat Minnesota. Who knows where the Bengals are going to be at after that.

Then you get a bye week. Jaguars are a good team. Tampa Bay's a solid team.

But you're only asking them to then go survive Seattle, Philadelphia, Seattle. And then after that, if you get through that undefeated, then it's Arizona, Ravens, Washington, and the Rams. So really that's one game there that really makes you shaking your boots in the Ravens. Like the Cardinals aren't great.

The commanders are solid and, you know, we'll still see it. The Rams are solid. So it's a better percentage of chance, in my opinion, that the Niners would go undefeated, but I don't think they're going to go undefeated because that is a tough three game stretch. Seattle, Philadelphia, Seattle, compared to when you look at Philadelphia, it's like, that's a gauntlet of six straight games with Dallas, Kansas City, Buffalo, San Francisco, Dallas, and then you're at Seattle.

They're definitely going to lose one of those games because if you could win all six of those games, man, that's going to be really impressive, but I just don't see it. So probably both of those teams at the end of the year are going to be looking at what two, three losses and home field advantage. It's going to be enormous for both those teams. We know how crazy Eagles fans are. We know how crazy San Francisco 49ers fans are. And you're on this collision course where yes, I know the Dallas Cowboys fans are going to want to send a message on Sunday night, but I still view the Cowboys as more of a pretender than a contender when you view them compared to Philadelphia and San Francisco, but maybe home field advantage will determine who ends up advancing to the Superbowl this year and going to Vegas to represent the NFC in the Superbowl. Now, when you get to the two teams that don't have a win yet, the Chicago Bears are the Thursday night matchup tonight as they go to FedEx field, which is maybe the worst stadium in sports right now. It's the worst stadium in the NFL.

It's an absolute dump. And you have the Bears and the commanders. This game, you know, a friend of mine said to me, we're going out for dinner after the show. And I said, I got to get to dinner by seven because I got to get in front of a TV by eight, eight 15 to watch the game.

He goes, you really have to launch this game between the Bears and the commanders. And I go, yes, I do a national radio show. I got to watch the games. I'm not a talk show host that just likes to pontificate and lecture you about sports and not actually watch the games. I pride myself on watching the games.

It's something simple, but something that's important. But I think of Al Michaels and I don't want to say I feel bad for Al Michaels because, right, legendary broadcaster, creme de la creme broadcaster and is getting paid a ton of money like broadcaster problems aren't real world problems, but for Al Michaels with the horrible slate that he had last year on Thursday Night Football, you're now in the fifth week of the season and you have to call this game tonight between the Bears and the commanders. Like, let's be real. The only way that this game can be entertaining, there's maybe two ways is if it's so bad that it actually becomes comical or you have a little skin in the game in the betting world when when you have the commanders and the Bears and the commanders are solid football team. Now I like Eric B enemy. I think you should be a head coach in this league. Ron Rivera. I think he's coming to the end of his road as a head coach. I really do. I don't like how he handled the quarterback situation last year. I don't like what he said about Eric B enemy this this offseason right right before the start of the season. Then also you take a look last week.

Your name is Riverboat Ron. How are you not aggressive? How are you not gambling? How are you not going for the win in Philadelphia when you get a last second touchdown?

You have a chance to go win the game right there and go for a two point conversion. I think Rivera, who's been a very good coach in this league. We know what he did with the Panthers when they went to the Super Bowl and only had one loss. And, you know, they took the commanders to the playoffs the first year, even though they were below 500. And this team can go to the playoffs again this year. I just don't think he's a really good coach anymore, and he's taken a step back. And this commander's team will see what how it could be.

You take a glance at the situation he's in. I like Jahan Dotson. I love the scary Terry and Terry Mclaurin. You got a good running back and Brian Robinson Jr, who's easy to root for with the horrible things that he had to go through last year. And you have a defense that on paper has a really good front seven.

But you you look at the appeal of this game. The Bears are a disaster. The commander ceiling is just being a good team this year, not a great team, like maybe the final wild card spot for the commanders.

There's not a lot of reasons to watch this game. So when you get to the conversation of the Bears and the Panthers, the two teams that don't have a win, who has the better chance of not getting a win the entire season? It's actually the Carolina Panthers. Now, either way, the fact that this is a conversation for the Bears is a good thing because we know the Bears are going nowhere this year and they have their own number one pick. And they do have another first round pick because of the trade back in the draft with the Carolina Panthers. So they have the Panthers pick. So the fact that this is a conversation, even though right now it doesn't appear to be a win for the Bears because you don't want to have your season already over on the fifth day of October.

But it is a win because you're going to have two top five draft picks in 2024 and you could have the number one and number two pick in the draft. But the reason why I think it's more likely that the Panthers don't get a win this season compared to the Bears, because even though Justin Fields is not all that, you know, at least you have something exciting on offense with DJ Moore. I look at the Panthers, you have a bad offensive line that started to look good last year.

And now they've regressed. You have an overpaid running back in Miles Sanders, who I don't think is all that good. And I thought he was more of a product of a system last year in Philadelphia. And he's been more disappointing than someone that I think of.

Oh, he's someone that I need to go extoll and give many words of praise to. And then at the wide receiver position, you don't have a number one wide receiver. DJ Chark, Adam Thielen, like this was Adam Thielen four or five years ago.

Sure. But we keep on hearing the Panthers are linked to wide receivers. I read something today that they're trying to get Marquise Hollywood Brown, who is more of a two in this league than a number one wide receiver. So I just don't see enough firepower and pop with the Panthers where, sure, I got to believe with the division that the Panthers play and they're going to get a win. And the Bears will find a way to win two games, three games, whatever it is. And that's been a clown show and that's been a circus. But the Panthers have nothing on offense that makes me jump up and down right now.

Like I'm a fat kid in a candy store or really makes me want to watch him. The only thing they have is their quarterback, Bryce Young. And yes, Bryce Young last year at Alabama, he showed you he could win with less, but it's a totally different ball game when you go to the NFL and you have nothing. And my biggest fear with what Bryce Young is at right now in Carolina, and I think Bryce Young could be a really good quarterback in this league. I'm a fan of Bryce Young, but Bryce Young is in a bad situation right now where Frank Reich, he's a nice guy. He did some good things with the Indianapolis Colts, but I can't overlook the last two years.

I really can't. His teams last year got outscored every game in the first half. He never went into the locker room last year with a lead.

And then Jeff Saturday, who only won one game, comes off the set at ESPN and he had a lead up against the Raiders. And you look at the way the team did not respond to him in Jacksonville two years ago, the quarterback decision, trusting Carson Wentz, Frank Reich is just someone to me that he could be a good head coach. I don't think he's a great head coach.

I think he's better suited as an offensive coordinator in this league. But I look at what the Panthers did this off season. You know, Steve Wilks, what he was doing was working. And if you told me that they got a can't miss hire, and I know now we look a little bit differently at Sean Payton, but if they got Sean, yeah, I understand why you don't bring Steve Wilks back. If they got Jim Harbaugh to come over from Michigan, I understand why you bring Steve Wilks back. But I thought the hire, and I said this at the time of Frank Reich, was like underwhelming. I don't need Frank Reich as the head football coach. And I would have rather have gone with Steve Wilks over Frank Reich because Steve Wilks in the interim showed what he was doing was responding in the locker room. And the Panthers now have not carried out a lot of the work that the Panthers now have not carried over to where they were from a year ago.

And they look lost, and they look like they're a pathetic football team. And it's not as if you could at least latch on to the hope of, oh, you have this great draft pick coming in next year to assist Bryce Young because you traded away that first round pick to go get Bryce Young in the draft. And I just hope that I think from afar, people look at it, they go, oh, Caroline is a fine situation because you have Frank Reich there, and he's not going to mess up Bryce Young. With what I saw the last two years, I don't feel all that confident in Frank Reich. And this situation in Carolina, it's really bad. And I don't think people are talking about it enough because the Bears have been a circus where you know Fields is going to be gone after this year.

Eberflus could be gone by this weekend. Ryan Poll's probably not going to be the general manager next year. And you had the whole issue with the defensive coordinator that's still ambiguous and we don't really know what's going on.

And then you have Fields walking into his own mess with what he said about the coaching staff. So that's got a more national play and national pop because it's something we've seen the last few years where the Panthers are more new with Frank Reich in year one and Bryce Young in year one. But I just really hope that the Panthers with their offensive line being in an abysmal state, no number one weapons to throw the football to and a running back room led by Miles Sanders who's overrated, I just hope they don't mess up Bryce Young in his first few years where then in three, four years from now it's like up the Panthers are back to picking a new quarterback because Bryce Young got killed because he's undersized. So I don't think the Eagles are going undefeated. I don't think the Niners are going undefeated. I got to think Carolina or Chicago is going to find a way to win a game this year. But if you ask me right now, who's the better or this is a weird way to word it, but who's the team out of the Bears and the Panthers that have a better chance of having no wins? I would say it's Carolina compared to the Bears. And in terms of the Eagles and 49ers, even though I think the Eagles are a better team with the way that the schedule breaks down and slightly a better team than the 49ers, I do believe the 49ers have a better chance because I do think they have a more favorable schedule in terms of the timing of their tough slate. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. We'll take a break here on the Zach Gilp show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, we got to chat a little bit about the quarterback position in the NFL. Drew Bledsoe played for the Patriots. There's questions about Mac Jones.

I don't think he's the guy. The Cowboys have a big game coming up on Sunday night. Does Drew Bledsoe think his old team and the Cowboys have their guy in Dak Prescott? And also, Drew Bledsoe, who also played for the Buffalo Bills, was at the Bills Dolphins game. So we'll get his reaction on Buffalo's big statement victory in their blowout performance at home in Orchard Park up against the Miami Dolphins.

So a whole lot to do off and running here until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. And when we come on back, Drew Bledsoe will join us, former Pro Bowl quarterback in the NFL. It is the Zach Gilp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. We're rating on Drew Bledsoe, the former Pro Bowl quarterback, to join us. I want to play you, though, a few cuts here from Jonathan Taylor, who did address reporters today as he's back practicing with the Indianapolis Colts coming off the public.

This is Jonathan Taylor and all the back and forth this offseason. Number one, the whole time, the main goal was to be healthy. Everyone in this whole thing, the main goal was to be healthy, to go out there, to be able to do what I love, which is play football. So just going through that journey throughout this whole time, been a lot of things said and done. But at the end of the day, the number one overall goal for everybody was for me to get healthy.

And I think everybody was on the same page with that one. And my just biggest question here was, if he got rewarded with the big deal this offseason, would he have thought he was healthy enough to get back on the field? Because it was a long recovery time from when he got the surgery to where we are now. Here's one more from Jonathan Taylor on if he is committed to the Colts. I don't think it matters on if I'm saying I'm committed or not because I'm here. I mean, if somebody wasn't committed, they wouldn't be here. And right now I'm here and my number one goal is to really attack this first practice.

When you're not doing what you love, you're going to notice it. And that's the big thing. Now he's back in the building. He's practicing with the team. You expect him to play in their next game. But without having the contract, how all out is Jonathan Taylor going to go? And that's going to be something to monitor as the Colts have been off to a surprising start. And I like what I'm seeing so far from Anthony Richardson when he's on the field.

Alrighty, let's go out to the guest line right now. Welcome in a former Pro Bowl quarterback, played with the Patriots, the Bills and the Dallas Cowboys. And that, of course, is Drew Bledsoe, always kind enough to join us right here on CBS Sports Radio.

Drew, appreciate the time. How you been? I'm doing great, man.

I'm actually out in Boston currently and hanging out out here. Obviously, interesting time for the Pats out here. But, you know, hopefully they'll bounce back and figure some stuff out.

Yeah. So you know me, I'm a Patriot fan and I've now lost confidence in Mac Jones. I don't think he's been put in a good situation, but it feels like this marriage is just never going to work between Mac Jones and Bill Belichick.

Well, it's tough. It's tough for Mac because they're not giving him a ton of help right now. And you know, when you're, you know, when you're playing that position and things aren't, things aren't great around you. I mean, they were set up to be a team that was going to run the ball and play defense. And now it's looking like they're going to have to score some points. And I'm not sure that they're, I'm not sure that they're quite set up to, you know, to be that high flying offense that they apparently need to be right now. And last year, right, the Patricia Judge experiment, if you want to call it that, was a disaster.

This year you get Bill O'Brien, but don't have a number one wide receiver for Mac. It just feels like Bill has failed him. When you look at that, do you see just Belichick continuously failing him?

Well, you know, I don't know if it's that. I just, I'm just not sure that they're, you know, they were, they were set up this season to try to just play great defense, run the football and, you know, win low scoring, low scoring games. And, and, you know, now, especially with, with Judon Hurt and their young, you know, superstar corner from Oregon Hurt, you know, I think it's going to be really hard for them to, to lock teams down. And, you know, with the, with the offensive pieces they have in place right now, I'm not sure that they're set up to win some high scoring games, you know. And you know what the standard was in New England, and fans now aren't used to this with the run of excellence that they had for 20 years.

So it's going to be fascinating to see how they navigate this. Drew Bledsoe here with us. What advice would you maybe give to Mac Jones right now? Well, he's got to persevere, you know, it's, you know, playing quarterback in the NFL is, is, you know, it's, it's hard, you know, and when things are good, it's a hard job.

And when things aren't good, it gets really, really difficult. And what you have to be able to do is just show up, go to work, do your job and continue to push to improve every single week. And so he's got to be able to do that. And hopefully he can do that without losing his confidence. And hopefully he can, you know, rise above. I don't know. I don't know what, what's, what's in front of them for the rest of the year.

I think it's going to be a tough one, but hopefully he can make it through with his confidence still intact so that he can continue to be a good player in the future. Everyone's wondering how warm of the seat it is for Bill Belichick. Do you think there's a chance Kraft moves on from him at the end of the year?

You know, I don't know. They've had such an amazing relationship now for, I think, 24 years. This is the 24th season they've been together. You know, nothing lasts forever. But, you know, Bill's still one of the greatest of all time. And I think it's, you know, it's pretty hard to move on unless you can find somebody else that has, you know, that has his resume and there's no other resume like his.

So I don't know what the future holds for him. But I know that this year has been tough for the last couple of years have been tough on everybody, you know, Kraft and the entire organization is used to being on top. And I know Bill's in the same boat.

You know, he's used to being on top as well for them to not have their level of success. I think it's been really, really, you know, stressful for everybody. Talking to Drew Bledsoe. I saw last week you were at the Bill's Game, Bill's Dolphins, and the night before you had a pretty cool dinner with Dan Marino and Jim Kelly. What could you tell us about the dinner?

That looked awesome. You know, it's funny, man, because I'm 51 years old. But those guys were my heroes growing up, you know. And, you know, I had posters of those guys on my wall. They were drafted when I was 11 years old.

So the funny thing is that, you know, I go do that and I just turn into a 12-year-old fanboy again and get to hang out with my heroes. Those guys have always been incredibly gracious, you know, to me and to everybody else around them. But, yeah, getting to sit down and have dinner with them and tell some old war stories is really, really fun.

And they're just great dudes. Plus, we drank some good wine, so that worked out well. Yeah, how's the wine business going these days for you?

Wine business is great, man. We're having a ton of fun with it. And, you know, we've got a, you talk about teams, we've got a championship team at the winery, man. We've got just a great team all the way from the Vineyard, you know, through the whole process. It's making that one a lot of fun, you know, because we just continue to try to get better every week, you know. It's pretty fun. So, you know, it kind of goes back to football speak. I think our team gets tired of me talking about it, you know, giving them a football terminology. But they're kicking ass and taking the engine.

We're having a lot of fun. Talking to Drew Bledsoe right now, what an impressive performance that was, Drew, from the Bills. Going into the season, people were wondering if they're still a Super Bowl contender, they have that bad performance against the Jets in week one, the Dolphins red hot, and you just once again see how great of a quarterback Josh Allen is and how lethal of a wide receiver Stephon Diggs is. No, Josh is very special.

I mean, he's at the very, very top of the game, probably an MVP candidate. But the thing that makes me excited about what I saw from the Bills from the standpoint of the Bills fans out there is that they are now have to put everything on Josh's shoulders. You know, they're bringing the ball more effectively. Their defensive front looks exceptional. You know, they were able to get a lot of pressure on Tua without having to blitz a bunch. And when you can do that, man, that's a recipe to be really successful, you know, for the rest of the season.

But we all know your history. And unfortunately, you went through a horrible injury with the Mo Lewis hit. When you look at Tua, his concussion problems were well documented last year.

Tua is lighted up on the field. But mentally, I wonder the toll that takes on a quarterback, just not that it was a similar situation, but what you went through, just what kind of advice do you give to Tua maybe? You know, it's when you're in the middle of it, you know, you're just focused on what's in front of you. You know, you don't really think about your mortality when you're young and in the middle of it. You know, my deal put me in the hospital for, you know, five and I was out for six weeks before I could do anything. But all I was thinking about was getting back on the field. So, you know, it's something that, you know, you look back on it as an older person, you're like, oh, man, that was a pretty crazy situation.

But when you're in the middle of it, you know, you're just focused on the next one. And, you know, you're still 10 foot tall and bulletproof. And I know that's where Tua is right now. You know, he thinks he's bulletproof and he'll just continue to play. But hopefully they have the people around him that are going to make sure, you know, that was the scary thing last year was they allowed him to go back into that game when he was obviously not in great shape.

So hopefully they have people around there now and all of these teams that are keeping guys from going back out there when they're in harm's way. And let me ask you about the quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, for a team that you wrapped your career up with in the Dallas Cowboys. Dak Prescott, big game this Sunday night on NBC in Santa Clara up against the San Francisco 49ers. When you view Dak Prescott, do you think he's someone that is capable of winning a Super Bowl in this league?

Yeah, you know, I really do. And, you know, he's a talented football player. He can throw it, he can run it. But the thing that I appreciate the most about Dak is, you know, you watch the way that he leads his team and you watch the way that guys react to him. He's a guy that is a natural leader that guys really want to play hard for. And there's, you know, that's one of those intangibles that is rare, you know, where you were not only are you a good player, but you make the guys around you play better and play harder. And I think that's something that really separates Dak. You know, when he got hurt a couple of years ago, you saw the outpouring of support from his entire team.

And that just lets you know how well respected he is. And so I think, you know, and they've got, you talk about a team that's playing great defense, man, they're getting after it. Micah Parsons is just unstoppable. And, you know, I think that they're going to be in the mix. But this is a heavyweight fight, you know, between them and the Niners.

You know, that's strength on strength. That's going to be a great one to watch. And when we get to the other quarterback, Brock Purdy, the big debate right now, is he a product of the system or is he really that good in a franchise quarterback? Where do you lie on that in the small sample size so far?

It's both. You know, they're a very, very good team around him. He's, you know, he's got another MVP candidate in the backfield with him. And that makes life easy for a quarterback.

They're playing great defense. That makes life easy for a quarterback. But he's doing the best that you could ask for, you know, within that system. You know, now, is he going to go turn into Patrick Mahomes and carry a franchise? He's probably never going to be that guy. But in their system, he's very, very effective. He's very efficient, doesn't make mistakes, doesn't do any of the things that are going to hurt your team.

So you start there first. But I just think it's a really, really cool success story. One of those underdog stories that, you know, that we all fall in love with, you know, kid was, was he Mr.

Irrelevant? I think he was the last pick, wasn't he? You know, so you see a guy that was at the very, very end of the draft, you know, looking to be a journeyman and hopefully hang on for a few years. And now it looks like he's going to be a starting quarterback in the league for the years to come. So it's just exciting to see that underdog story.

Last thing I'll ask you is your blood. So I have to go into the college world and talk about your Washington State football team. You want to talk about a great story, Cam Ward. We had him on last week, no star recruit, FCS school to start and now dominating with Washington State and looking like a dark horse for the Heisman.

What is impressed you the most with Cam Ward? You know, man, he throws it different, man. The guy has got a big arm.

He's really accurate. He's mobile. He can move around. But when he's moving around, he's still looking to get the ball downfield.

He's got his eyes up. And, you know, I think that that team really has a chip on its shoulder right now, you know, getting left out of, you know, everybody else in the Pac-12 except Oregon State has failed. And so I think they really feel slighted as they should. And so, you know, the entire team out there right now is playing is playing great football. And they're a bunch of you know, there's a there's a lot of guys on that team that are like Cam Ward, where they were under recruited, overlooked by by, you know, other programs, and they're playing with a chip on their shoulder. And I think they're going to be they're going to be a force to be reckoned with the rest of the season. You also have to love all the quarterback play in the Pac-12 because the Pac-12 was disrespected going into the year because everyone was leaving.

And you have Caleb Williams, Shadore Sanders, Bo Nix, Michael Pennix, we talked about Cam, DJ Ungolais, go on and on and on with these quarterbacks. It's incredible to just see the depth of quarterback play in this conference. It's really exciting. And it also makes it all the more sad, you know, that Pac-12 is the most relevant it's been in probably at least a decade. And it's the final year, you know, so that just makes it sad, man, that, you know, the the Pac-12 is so exciting to watch right now.

And it's the last year of its existence, at least in this form. But it's really fun to watch this year and we're gonna enjoy the heck out of it while we can. Well, Drew, always appreciate the time.

Thanks so much for doing this. You be well. Right on.

Take it easy. There you go, Drew Bledsoe joining us right here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in with the act man, Rich Ackerman. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial.

Stuck in a timeshare and want out, contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at WesleyFinancialGroup.com. At Zach Gelb at CBS Sports Radio is the poll question where you can find today. Do you view Brock Purdy right now as more of a system QB or franchise QB? We've done a complete 180 because last time I read this system QB was at upwards of 70 something percent, 53 percent now at franchise QB, 47 percent at system QB. I also believe what Drew Bledsoe just said, even though it's not one or the other, could be the best answer.

That it is like a little bit of both. Because you look at him right now, he's in a great system. Shanahan's a phenomenal offensive line. They have a great offensive line.

You have Deebo Samuel, you have Brandon Iuke, you have an MVP candidate in Christian McCaffrey, and you have a great tight end in Kittle. You know, if Brock Purdy is on the Patriots or if Brock Purdy is playing football right now at the Carolina Panthers, he's not putting up these numbers. But it doesn't mean that Brock Purdy isn't deserving credit.

And I was very careful with how I said it earlier. Like if I had to pick, I go more system than franchise just because it's not a large sample size. And also by design, Kyle Shanahan believes his system is more important than who the quarterback is. And maybe one day Brock Purdy can turn into the franchise guy.

If you win a Super Bowl this year, you know, give the middle finger to the question, who gives a rat's ass as long as you win. But right now, I would say that it's more the system than it is Brock Purdy. But there is something to be said that Brock Purdy has looked like the best quarterback compared to the other guys that they've trotted out there, whether it's Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, wherever else they had starting for the San Francisco 49ers.

So the best way to say this is right now I would lean more system than franchise. But we've seen a lot of quarterbacks that have come out of nowhere and have had these good starts to their career. They age, no pun intended here with Drew Blexill coming on talking about wine, but they age like fine wine and they get better with age. And look at Tom Brady. Brady, when he first got in the league, he was game manager. And that's coming from the biggest Brady fan there is. And then as his career developed, as he moved on, he became the system.

He became more than a game manager and clearly becoming one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. But there is parting with the Niners. You know how good they are. You know how great they are. And just the one question you have is, is Brock Purdy the real deal over 17 games? And so far, he's been the real deal to the first four games of the season. And it's going to be fun if we go on this collision course where it's Eagles and 49ers meeting the NFC Championship game to see how that's going to play on out.

Because we know how ugly, how messy and how contentious it's become with those fan bases. Real quickly, guys, let me ask you on the other side of the glass. You can jump on the conversation as well.

855-212-4TBS, 855-212-4227. I do believe Drew Blexill probably had the best answer that I've heard about this where it's a mixture of both. But if you had to pick right now on the poll question, do you go that Brock Purdy is more of a system quarterback or a franchise quarterback? I'll start things off with Stu.

Stu, go ahead. I think he's more of a franchise quarterback. I think going into the season, I probably thought, OK, it's Shanahan.

It's the system. It's everything around him, all the talent. But just watching these past few weeks, I think he's kind of picked up a gear. And I think he's someone that if he went to a different team, he could still be successful, maybe not as successful in terms of wins and losses, but someone who can be a competent top 15, let's say, top 12, 15 NFL quarterback. And I'll also say this. I talked to Steve Young and I said this before, but I talked to Steve Young before the start of the season.

And he said Brock Purdy has the force where he goes, you know he has it. You don't know what it turns out to be. You know it's moving in the right direction.

Now there's different levels of it. And we'll see how great he can become. And ultimately we'll see the first step of that this year and then into future years. It is crazy, though, even though I'm more so on the system side here, after all this moving that the 49ers have done, that it was the last pick in the draft and where they found their guy. Like you look at Shanahan, you look at Lynch, any other GM or coach in the league goes on and takes a quarterback third overall and moves mountains and risk other years of draft capital to get him.

Any other coach in GM would get fired. But the fact that they bare minimum feels like they wake up each and every year in the NFC title game and found the guy that has the fan base believing is their guy. It saved them from really any backlash and any severe criticism in Trey Lance and that being a failure because any other team that moved mountains to go get Trey Lance and then barely didn't even give him a shot. Like the guy barely got on the field like two, three games.

We would be crucifying the GM and the coach, but because they found the way to somewhat get it right or make people believe that they got it right with the quarterback that they could win a Super Bowl this year, it really exonerates Shanahan and John Lynch from the humiliation of swinging and missing and moving up to go get a guy that clearly Shanahan didn't really believe that it was more of a Lynch traffic. And the thing about Lance is we don't know necessarily if they swung and missed. They wouldn't have traded and given up on Lance if they didn't believe so heavily on Purdy.

So yes, they got lucky that they got this guy Mr. Irrelevant in the seventh round, but had Purdy not been there, had Purdy not stepped in because of injuries and shown out the way he did last year, Trey Lance would be their quarterback right now. And who knows Trey Lance might be 4-0 also. They might still be the best team in the NFC or one of the best teams and a Super Bowl contender with Trey Lance.

We don't know. So I don't look at Trey Lance as a failure. I look at it as they've stumbled upon a guy who just happened to be better than Lance. And so therefore they had the luxury of getting rid of Lance. It's not like the Jets who drafted Zach Wilson who sucks and now they're screwed. They had to go out and trade for Aaron Rodgers. Like the Rodney Harrison coming studio.

I didn't know we were having Rodney Harrison today as an in-studio guest. Well listen, you heard me rip the Giants. I'm just as harsh on my former team, the Jets. But you ask if you think if I think that Purdy is a franchise or a system quarterback, I look at Purdy and listen, I'm not comparing them, but like the way Brady and Montana are called quote unquote system quarterbacks because they succeeded under certain coaches, Bill Wallace, Bill Belichick. Just because they succeeded with great coaches and great systems doesn't mean they were just a system quarterback.

They were great in that system, but they would have been great anywhere else. Just like Montana was good in KC and just like Brady was great and won a title in Tampa. Brock is great in Shanahan's system.

So he's a system quarterback by definition. However, I'm very confident from what I've seen from Brock Purdy. If you put him on most any other team, as long as they're not a dumpster fire like maybe the Bears, he's going to succeed. So I'm not ready to go all in with Brock Purdy yet. I do think it's heading in the right direction and that's a big point of mine where it almost is if people think like I'm trashing Brock Purdy when I say this or a system quarterback because it does have a negative connotation where you're trying to take some credit away. But I'm not ready to say that if he went to New England or if he went to Carolina or, you know, even, you know, like the Washington commanders that are like a decent situation that we'd be talking about him as a franchise quarterback. He shows signs of it. He has not lost a game yet. And I just want to see the longevity wise if he will play himself into being a franchise quarterback.

And that's my biggest point here is that I just need to see more. And I'm not crushing the guy. I think the guy is a good quarterback.

I'm not ready to say he's a top ten quarterback. But ultimately, the conversation becomes irrelevant if you win this year because right people say this in a different conversation. Oh, I don't like the way how this team traded for this player and signed this guy in free agency. Oh, put an asterisk on the championship like with the Golden State Warriors.

You think any Warriors fan is at the parade saying, man, Kevin Durant joining us. And even though it made it so unfair. Oh, you know what, this championship is not genuine.

If you win, all the fodder after that becomes irrelevant and it goes in one ear and out the other. But just to circle back to your point on Trey Lance, because I think it's a good point that you bring up, Samter, and I just want to be clear about this. Trey Lance in San Francisco was a failure in terms of they drafted him to be the guy to kind of be the the Mahomes that he was in Kansas City, where you had Alex Smith and you had Jimmy Garoppolo.

And those guys can win you games, get you in the playoffs, take you far, but you're never going to win a Super Bowl with. And then they drafted Mahomes to be that next guy to elevate them. That's what Trey Lance was drafted to do.

That failed in San Francisco. But when I talk about Trey Lance individually, it doesn't mean he's a bus yet, because you go back to that draft class. Trevor Lawrence looks like he's well on his way.

Zach Wilson we know is a bus. Justin Fields and Mac Jones are both trending in the wrong direction. And I do think they're going to be on new teams soon.

And then they'll kind of be thrown in that Sam Darnold category. Was it more of the bad teams that they were on? Or was it more of the lack of individual play?

And ultimately, time will tell what the answer is on that. But when you go to Trey Lance, it's the craziest part is we barely seen the guy play. Because when he was supposed to be the guy last year, the first game was a monsoon in Chicago.

And then the second game, he got hurt. So now we'll see if he ever gets that opportunity. And there was a thought before the season, oh, if Dak struggles with the Dallas Cowboys, and the uncertainty there with the contract in Dallas, maybe they'll go to Trey Lance, and maybe they'll give Trey Lance a burn. Or if Dak gets hurt, they'll throw Trey Lance onto the field. Most likely, Trey Lance is going to be starting a lot of games, if any games at all, for the Dallas Cowboys. And I just wonder, when does Trey Lance get another opportunity? Because it's one of those situations where like, I remember Josh Rosen, Josh Rosen was on like 8000 teams, but he was never going to start once it didn't work out in Miami. And I wonder for Trey Lance, do we get to a point where he ever becomes that starting quarterback consistently again, where he's given that opportunity?

Because the facts are Trey Lance had won monster season at North Dakota State. Most of us didn't see him play. Then his final year at North Dakota State, it got wiped out because of COVID. I believe he played in one game. In year one, he wasn't designed to start in the NFL. In year two, he was designed to start. Then he got hurt. And now he's on year three, and he's not going to start games this year unless Dak gets hurt.

And even if Dak does get hurt, they may go to Cooper Rush because Cooper Rush won a bunch of games last year for the Dallas Cowboys. So I just wonder, because even though he hasn't been out of sight, because we talked about him a lot, but we haven't physically seen him play if almost a career of Trey Lance is already over, where the guy's just going to jump around, be a backup quarterback, and be on a practice squad and never gets that opportunity to start again. And it's a great unknown, and it's a great question of what Trey Lance could be because I can't say that he individually is a failure yet in the NFL. The experiment in San Francisco clearly failed, but we never got to see him play at all for a long sustained amount of time.

And it's going to be one of those things where I just wonder if we're ever going to be able to really see him be a starter for like a four, five, six game stretch. And then you could evaluate and make your decisions based off that. So it's just one of those situations where he, and this is maybe the drafting flaw that we have right now. We know the NFL is a copycat league. And every year there's a guy in the draft that draws comparisons to Mahomes, if not multiple, where they're not saying they can be Patrick Mahomes, but like a Zach Wilson or a Trey Lance, this guy could be 65, 60% of Patrick Mahomes. And usually when you play that game, it's all based off potential and potential means you haven't done it yet. And you're setting the bar so high.

It's almost as if you're setting up these players to fail when you're saying they could be 65, 60% of a Patrick Mahomes. Zach Gelb here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break. I got five bounce back teams coming up in week five. We'll get to that next. Don't go anywhere. Zach Gelb here with you on CBS Sports Radio.