Rookie Roundup (Hour 2)

All right, you have a number two on our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show, Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. Coming up 20 minutes from now, Jay Glazer will join us.

And then in the final hour of the show at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. Former Green Bay Packer and Raider wide receiver, Jordy Nelson will join us. Always enjoy when we get a few minutes to chat it up with Jordy Nelson. He once gave me some free beer actually at a Super Bowl.

He gave me like an entire 36 rack of beer. It was great. Had a fun time in Miami. That was right before the world ended or what we thought was coming to a close. That was right before COVID hit us in March of 2020. I remember I was in that convention center. You were there too, Samter.

And it was February of 2020. And I had a nice 36 rack of beer. Basically had a few friends. We were driving. We were in an Uber.

Let me clarify that. Driving around Miami. We went to a party and then had some beer there. With 36 beers from Jordy Nelson. So I appreciate him. I thought when you said he got you a beer that he bought you a beer at a bar, not a 36 rack of whatever it was.

I'll never forget it. He sat down. He goes, I have one more 36 rack to give away. And he said to me, he goes, if you do a good interview, I'll give you the 36 rack of beer. And he said, I love the interview. And then just gave me the beer. And that was it. Well, then he must be deaf. I mean, for him to think that whatever you did was a good interview.

Yeah. I did this interview with this little guy there at CBS Sports Radio. He was like a producer or something like that. And he just wasn't a nice guy.

And I wanted to dump a beer on him. But I can't remember. That name's escaping me of who that guy could potentially be.

So I told Jordy Nelson. I don't know what he's talking about and who the guy was. Yeah. No, no. I mean, if he was potentially referring to me, then I am a jerk. So he wasn't wrong about that.

At least you admit it. It's time to ask the pros where you, the listeners, get to ask us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B, using the hashtag Ask the Pros.

Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O-O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Let's update you some of the biggest stories in the world of sports. And with some audio, we get to the news brief. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alrighty, let's start off with Aaron Rodgers on the Pat McAfee show yesterday. No, we're not going to play the audio of Aaron Rodgers trying to start a war with Travis Kelce over Travis Kelce endorsing the vaccine with Pfizer.

But here is Aaron Rodgers, the former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, commenting on Jordan Love's bad game that Stuart Kovacs thoroughly enjoyed as the Raiders somehow, some way found a way to get a victory on Monday Night Football courtesy of the Pat McAfee show. Listen, there's going to be growing pains. I had growing pains my rookie year.

We all go through it. He's going to be just fine. Like I said, he's a great kid. They got a young team.

I would just say to the Packer fans, just take some deep breaths. You know, just trust, you know, trust this kid. He's a great kid.

He cares about it. He's going to be around for a while and they're going to get it fixed. Yeah, I can't sit here and tell you that he's a long term quarterback and he's going to be the stud. But I do believe that anyone after five games of an NFL career saying he isn't the answer. And this guy stinks because you can forget all the other years he barely played. This is first true time being the guy in Green Bay and he doesn't have Aaron Rodgers there anymore. But you know what the standard is in Green Bay.

Like just the last 20, 25 years and they have a great franchise. We know that going back to Bart Starr, what he was able to do on a football field. But they went from Brett Favre, Super Bowl champion, Hall of Fame quarterback to another Super Bowl champion, an eventual Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers.

So you're always getting compared to those two guys. And Steve Young told me this in the offseason where when he was taking over from Montana, he almost reminded his teammates, you know Joe Montana through an interception. You know Joe Montana made mistakes just because when you have a quarterback that's in that kind of elite category, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, like Favre is, like Rodgers is and to the different level Joe Montana is.

Those quarterbacks walked on water. Those quarterbacks you could never find anyone that says a bad word to say about those quarterbacks from the fans that watch them just if it's on the field talking football. And even though you could make the case and it's clear the way that people talk about Favre and Rodgers and Montana is at this ridiculous level because they were ridiculous players, it doesn't mean that they were always perfect. There were years where the Packers didn't win a Super Bowl. There were years where the 49ers didn't win a Super Bowl and the quarterbacks made mistakes. So it is tough to get out of that shadow of Rodgers and also Favre, but for Jordan Love the way you do it is you play really good football.

Now there's been inconsistencies. In week one he was awesome against the Bears. In week two the team choked against Atlanta. In week three they had that great comeback. In the fourth quarter where they scored 18 and answered after going down 17-0.

Love runs for the touchdown and then you had I believe it was Romeo Dobbs made that sick catch in the back right of the end zone. And they didn't show up against Detroit. They didn't show up against the Raiders. So what you're seeing so far is a little good and then a lot of bad at the end of the year. I don't want to say you have to even that out, but there has to be slightly more good than there is bad where you give the fan base enough where you can walk away saying, okay if I'm a Packer fan there's a reason for me to put my cheese head on and say I can actually believe with these 5-10 tangible moments that Jordan Love is the guy. Here's Jair Alexander of the Packers on the importance for the defense to step up right now. Yeah I think at this point it's pretty obvious that the defense has to not give up any touchdown. I think that's the part of being self-critical of our defense because the offense is pretty young and they're still figuring out their mojo. So the defense we got to be the ones to score and stop and respond.

And I know we're in an offensive league first, but for the Packers Jair Alexander is not wrong. With the way that they're built right now they need to be a dominant defensive team. And the problem with the Packers, they show signs of being a dominant defensive team, but they're more so of a good defense, not a very good defense, not a great defense. They have some great players, but when your offense is such a question mark and you've been dealt a bad hand of injuries too, with David Bakhtiari being out for the season, Aaron Jones being in and out of the lineup, AJ Dillon not being as good as what people thought he could be, Watson out for the first few games of the season, and implementing pretty much a new quarterback, there's going to be a lot of growing pains for the Packers on the offensive side of the ball.

And you need your defense to consistently be dominant. And they've been inconsistent that defense this year for the Green Bay Packers where they crumbled against Atlanta. They played well against the Saints. Then everyone didn't show up against Detroit. And the Packers defense was fine up against the Raiders. It was actually pretty damn good up against the Raiders, but their offense couldn't carry the baton enough times into the end zone. Here's Robert Sala, the coach of the Jets.

Jets play the Eagles this weekend. And Robert Sala was asked about the mobility of Jalen Hurts with the tush-push, and then also the way that he runs the football. They're really good at it. It feels like the quarterback is wearing a bulletproof vest when you look at him. He's got all that padding on, but you know, whether they get it, we're going to do our best to try to stop it. But if the quarterback carries the ball, we've got to give him 11 kisses.

11 kisses. That's a really nice word of basically saying, we're going to beat up the quarterback and you have to go after him. And you have to hit him hard. And you know what, Santer?

Isn't it crazy? When you say 11 kisses, everyone knows what he means. But you could basically say, no, like, 11 love taps. Like, everyone's going to be smoochy-smoochy. It's going to be wonderful with Jalen Hurts. But imagine if he came out and said, we've got to knock the living crap out of him. And we've got to have 11 guys that are going to be punching him and tackling him and going after him. Oh, Robert Salah would be getting dragged today, but that's a guy where the one thing he knows what to do is how to talk to the media and kind of dress up a quote where you know what the intention is from Robert Salah there. But he didn't cross the line in saying that, especially in the year of 2023. If he came out there and said, yeah, we've got to go take out Jalen Hurts and we've got to make sure we hit him hard with all 11 guys. People would be like, whoa, wait a second, coach.

What the heck are you saying? But when you do go after the 11 kisses part, that's a nice job and something I've never heard a head football coach say before. At first I thought he said, loving kisses, but 11 kisses makes more sense.

Yeah, maybe they're having smoochy-smoochy time. Let's go to Bill Belichick. So I have not heard this, but I see the question is, is Mac Jones the starting quarterback? I'm going to assume that Belichick said, yeah, Mac's going to start this week.

I don't know why anyone's asking me this question. Mac's our guy. Let's listen up to Bill. Will Mac Jones be starting this week? Yeah, we're not making any changes.

Yeah, we're not making any changes. As if it's crazy to ask that question after the way that Mac Jones played, but the Patriots have nothing else at quarterback. I know Bailey Zappi was a be happy for Zappi, played two good games last year. They originally cut him before bringing him back.

What happened to the Cunningham kid? I think he's still on their practice squad, but he looked pretty damn good to Louisville quarterback in preseason. I don't think they're there yet in benching Mac and not starting him the next week. But they got to be getting pretty close.

But then what are you going to? And it's clear they don't believe in any other quarterback on the roster. And how could you expect any of these other quarterbacks to have success?

That's why I would think maybe Cunningham because he just is mobile and you can have him run all over the field. Let's go to the Penguins fans. That horn. Go, pens, go is so obnoxious. I was watching this game last night. You get Crosby up against Bedard, the debut for Bedard. The Blackhawks had a nice victory, come from behind.

And Bedard did get an assist in the game. Here are the Penguins fans. They're opening up the season. And they're talking about their football team and their dreadful offensive coordinator in Mac Canada. Fire Canada. So even the Penguins fans, when you're there to start your hockey season, the most exciting part, because the Penguins, right, they're a fringe playoff team.

I don't think they're a real threat to do damage. But if they make the playoffs, it wouldn't surprise anybody, especially when you still have Sidney Crosby. I love how the Steelers fans go to that game. Coming off a win, too, where the offense is putrid. And you did have the one picket to pickens play. Those fans are chanting, Fire Canada.

I kind of actually love it. That's great. Here is Dylan Brooks on the ejection of himself in the game in the first preseason game.

Try to navigate a screen. I might have tapped him below the waist, but he got right back up. I don't know. It's just weird that every time it happens to me, I get picked on. So I guess this is a part of my reputation. So he had a little kerfuffle with the other grown man where he was setting a screen and he hit him in the cajones.

Yeah. I mean, it looked very intentional to everybody who's watching it and especially knowing his reputation. But apparently everyone's out to get Dylan Brooks. He's not dirty. He's just the victim of a bad reputation. You know how you get a bad reputation?

By being dirty. Yeah. Well, I call him Bum Brooks, Dylan Brooks. And I know he's now on the Houston Rockets, but last year it was crazy. Oh, the media's out to get me. Well, you were the one that went after LeBron James.

It wasn't the media. You put your own foot in your mouth and then you weren't able to back it up. You know, Draymond does this a lot, too. And Draymond has that reputation for some of his dirty plays. And then Draymond's like, oh, I get I get officiated differently.

Well, yeah. When you consistently do stupid things, there's a heightened awareness about your style of play. So you don't get away with other things that other people do because there's not a track record of it.

That's like in any walk of life. Like, for example, if like Samter developed this reputation around here and like let's say Stu did something. I think people would view Samter differently than Stu because it's held to a different standard piece. People are used to you and people are used to some of the things that you do.

Not that Samter would ever develop a reputation about being a jerk around here and would maybe throw dirty elbows at people in the newsroom or anything like that. Just ask anybody in the chat. Ask any of the Gelbos or Weedos, Purple Drankers or the Gelbinos.

That sounds really lame. They know me. They know Samter.

They know what I'm about. And then finally, let's go to Darvin Ham, the coach of Stu's Lakers. And Darvin Ham wants AD to change his game. I requested six three-point attempts a game.

Three per half at least. I wouldn't put that on him if I didn't think he was more than capable. And I just think once he calibrates his mind to have that focus, he'll do it. So Stu, I guess your team wants Anthony Davis to turn into Brook Lopez where he's a lethal three-point shooter. That's what Darvin Ham is pretty much saying right there. Yeah, one of the better inside players in the game. He needs to shoot a bunch of jump shots now. It sounds like a great plan for success.

And I'm not saying don't have that in your repertoire. I don't think it's awful to be able to shoot the three-point rock a little bit. But I don't need a demand and a quota of I need six three-point attempts a game and three per half from Anthony Davis. Where's your confidence level, by the way, on the Lakers entering this season?

I feel as if just because you're a beaten-down, suffering sports fan, you're just naturally negative because Stu is more realistic. I'm going to imagine that you're not all that optimistic with the Lakers entering this year. I think they're the third best team in the West.

I don't think they're a title contender. I think they're a little bit behind the Suns. The Suns, I think, are a very talented team.

Nuggets too. And the Nuggets, they got there last year. I think they're third behind those teams. The Nuggets, to me, are the best team in the West. Then it's the Suns.

Then after that, I think that third spot is up for debate. The Lakers are in that conversation. The Warriors are in that conversation. The Sacramento Kings, no one talks about them. But they're a heck of a team as well.

There's a few other teams that are in that conversation. We'll see if Memphis can get things figured out with Ja Morant when he comes back from the suspension. But I look at the Lakers as health still being the biggest problem. And this is something LeBron's never had to deal with. Ever since going to LA, LeBron has been hurt and his body is breaking down, but he still puts up these great numbers. And Anthony Davis is always hurt as well.

If they're healthy at the same time, you see what can happen. You just got to be healthy in the big dance, and then you could go to a Western Conference Finals. But I just don't trust that team to be healthy. So I think the Lakers, and maybe this has been the definition of the show so far, they're a good team. They're not a great team entering this season. I don't expect them to be holding up that Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the year.

Alrighty, that's the News Brief. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll come on back. Jay Glazer is going to join us. Is there a chance that Kirk Cousins is going to wind up with the New York Jets? And is Bill Belichick on the hot seat?

And is there a chance that Robert Kraft will say buh-bye to his legendary coach after this season? Coming on back with NFL Insider for Fox Sports, Jay Glazer, right here on the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, we continue. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

Let's head out to the guest line right now. Welcome in our buddy from Fox Sports, legendary NFL Insider in Jay Glazer. Jay, appreciate the time as always. How you been, my man? Good, brother. How you doing, man? Well, I'm doing fantastic. So I know you're here today.

We'll talk some football in a bit. But you want to discuss your diagnosis and your journey with dealing with ADHD. Just tell me a little bit more about your story throughout the years. I think anybody who's seen me over the years going, yeah, well, that's a shocker. He has ADHD, but it's ADHD Awareness Month. So I've teamed up here with Kelbury, which is for the first time I've had a medication that's helped me.

And it's a non-stimulant. But look, I got diagnosed in 1989 with ADHD. And obviously I've written a book now on my mental health struggles.

I got ADHD and depression and anxiety, throw some bipolar in. I got diagnosed in 89 before anybody knew what it was. And I got kicked out of my first college.

People don't know this. I got kicked out of my first college because when I started going to classes, they had like three-hour lectures. I wasn't able to handle that with my ADHD.

So I got kicked out with a whopping 0.00 GPA. And in my second school, that's when I was diagnosed. And the teacher there, the psychiatrist who was helping me said, all right, we need you to explain to your teachers, go take a break when it's happening, go outside, put some cold water on your face and take this pill also at the time. And when I was trying to explain it to my teachers, they thought I was like, you know, Matthew Broderick from Ferris Bueller's Day off that I was trying to pull the wool over their eyes. And they're like, you have what? I'm like, ADHD.

They're like, what is that? So I used to have to explain it to them. And, you know, over time, too, again, those pills that I was taking were not great for the depression side of my life.

So I haven't been dealing with this for a long time. Pharmaceuticals for the first time with with Calgary, I found something that actually works. I take it at night, so not during the day. It's a non-stimulant. It helps me be able to calm down the roommates in my head at night, focus a little bit more, because I used to just sit up all night and think of plot and plan and think of plot and plan. It just, man, it doesn't stop and you got bad sleep and then you wake up frenetically the next day. So now at least I wake up more focused the next day also. So listen, I've tried over 30 meds for depression, anxiety, and none of them have worked. And I'm going to continue to try new ones whenever they come out. I've just been resistant to them. And then these other ADHD drugs haven't worked.

Calgary is the first thing that's worked for me in a long time. So I'm like, I'd love to go talk about it. Jay, so clearly everyone knows your job. A lot of people depend on you for NFL information. You move a thousand miles an hour and you really value relationships. But sometimes when you're working on your craft and becoming the person you are, you lose focus on yourself. How tough was that for you to find that balance of, OK, I love my job, but I also have to take care of myself because I've been ignoring that for so many years?

I never did until this year. And really until I came out with all my struggles. And it did get to the point, you know, look, this is something that I deal with every day of my life.

And I didn't sign up for it. I know people look at you, will look at me and go, oh, come on, Quiet Glaze, your life is great. My life is great.

But between my ears sucks. And like I said, I didn't sign up to wake up every day in this gray and thinking the sky's falling and the world's against me. And sometimes it's worse than other days. But I never really gave myself grace and compassion or learned how to deal with it. I just went, went, went, went, went. I was just relentless, relentless, relentless, whether it's after the scoop or after different jobs or after my career. But eventually you've got to be able to do some self-care. That wasn't in my repertoire until now. And thank God I started before it was too late.

But there were times in the last couple of years I'm like, it's starting to feel like it's going to be too late. So now because I've opened up and I've talked to people, being able to give mental health issues words, that was important for me. God blessed me with the ability to communicate. I wanted to tell people what depression feels like and anxiety feels like and ADHD feels like so they could start talking to other people. And if you could have the words, you can open up. And for me, by opening up, I built my team a lot stronger and I've been able to be of service to people better, by giving a word so they could have a talk with their husband or wife or kids.

I've had grandmas tell me thank you for the first time in 80 years. I could describe to my husband and kids and grandkids what I struggle with. That's pretty damn powerful and nothing I ever thought my darkness, the type of light my darkness would ever lead to. Were you ever close to saying, I need to give up my job, I need to get out of the spotlight to really focus on yourself? No, but I've been close to a lot of times I've said, man, I hope tomorrow doesn't come.

So it's been bleaker than that. And, you know, I made the choice a long time ago, I'd never commit suicide. I would never do that. Wouldn't be an option because I don't want to leave that crater of what happens to my son or my girl, Rosie, or my fiance, Rosie, or my friends or anything like that.

So I'll take on that pain. So I never wanted to leave my career because, quite frankly, my career, the chaos of the career, I've been great in chaos. Whether it's in a cage or whether it's on TV, I'm great in that. I just suck in calm. And, you know, I've tried to seek out calm more in my life now and realize, man, it's an uncomfortable place for me. But the only way I'm going to exist, I've got to find out ways to value those calm moments more and exhale and be able to exhale. But I love the chaos of it. No, I love it. Jay Glaser here with us.

All right, let's get to some trivial matters with what we were just talking about. The National Football League, NFL insider for Fox Sports, Jay Glaser here with us on the Zach Gelb show. The big topic today is Kirk Cousins and his future. Everyone's throwing out the Jets. How likely do you think it is that a deal gets done where Kirk goes to the New York Jets in season? Why are they throwing out the Jets today?

Well, they've been throwing them out for the last few weeks, but now the Justin Jefferson injury, it's like, oh, maybe this thing actually happens. Well, first of all, I think Aaron Rodgers plays there next year. So it doesn't really make a lot of sense for them to go trade for Kirk Cousins. Kirk also has no trade clause.

Yeah. You see why he's going to sit there and go, oh, yeah, let me go to the Jets right now. I just don't see it happening. How about Bill Belichick?

How warm is the seed in New England right now? Yeah, I think Bill, I think everybody thought he just had carte blanche forever. I don't think that's the case. That's an interesting relationship there, I think, with him and Bob Graff. Bob wants to win. And, you know, some sometimes places just get it's time for a change of scenery somewhere for something. And I don't know if that's if this is the year for him or not.

But, you know, whatever's happening isn't working there right now. But I, I still think you got to give it's Bill Belichick. You still got to give him some grace what he's done and his whole body work.

I'm a Patriot fan. And this year is like the first year I'm legitimately annoyed at him because last year I knew it made no sense with Patricia and Judge. But you thought he would fix it this year. Sure, you bring in Bill O'Brien. But the biggest problem is they have no talent on this offensive side of the ball right now.

Yeah, certainly. I think you look at it and somebody asked me today, well, what if they bring in a GM? You're not going to have a GM over Bill Belichick. It's not going to work. He won't allow that. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not going to happen. So I, you know, again, whether they decide to do that and I don't know what the future holds. You know, like when I answer questions, I like to be right.

I don't know the answer to the question yet. But the only thing I know is it's the first time we have legitimate questions. There's been times in the past people have said to me, oh, is this the end of Bill Belichick? I'm like, you out of your mind? No, it's not the end of Bill Belichick. No, absolutely not.

It's you know, the guy. He is a football genius. But people got so finicky and I think spoiled with their winning in the past when things happened.

They looked at like, oh, it's time to go. No, let's be careful what you wish for. They do that with Mike Tomlin all the time in Pittsburgh. Dudes never had a losing season. Ever. Not one.

And, you know, just kind of, you know, be careful what you wish for and change sometimes. How about what the Texans are building right now? Because they've impressed a lot of people through the first five weeks, Jay.

I think it's D'Amico Ryan's band. I mean, it's great. I think, look, players or coaches like D'Amico Ryan, Dan Campbell, man, a Sean McVay, guys that are so authentic. I think they resonate more now with players than ever before. And what I mean by that is players nowadays, nothing's real in their life.

Right. They look on these things. They look on these phones and you're looking at social media and you're seeing things that are just fake.

It's filtered. It's it's a highlight of someone's day. It's not real. Or on Twitter, a bunch of bots are hating on you. Right. So you have so much fake stuff in your life. If you can get people who are real and make you feel real, it's going to resonate with you. And because they're getting so much hate, I think the old world way of just beating guys down isn't it. It's not effective as effective as it used to be.

It's almost like it's you got to kind of almost tell guys instead of telling what you don't want now over and over and over, you got to coach them up what you want. You mentioned Dan Campbell and the NFC. We know the Eagles and 49ers are Super Bowl contenders. How many other Super Bowl contenders do you kind of look at with what you've seen so far and say, OK, those are the contending teams and just the NFC? Look, I think those two teams you're talking about are head and shoulders right now above everybody else. Dallas, I still think you when they're when they're clicking, you could see what they do.

But Detroit, Detroit just keeps growing and they keep growing and keep growing. So look, it's so we don't know who it's going to be usually till week 14. Yeah.

See whoever's healthiest. Right. And look, the 49ers last year, you wouldn't have thrown them in this mix. And all of a sudden, you know, everybody gets hurt. He goes in there and he's as efficient as really anybody we've ever seen.

If you look at his stats, he's the most efficient quarterback we've ever seen. And that just you wouldn't even think about putting them in this conversation. So so many things can happen between now and then.

And I know it's not the sexy answer, but it's the true answer. You got to see whoever gets hot and healthy. The latest is who you got to worry about. Do you think, Jay Glaser, that Kyler Murray is going to be on a different team this time next year? I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. And then what?

Man, I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know. I get a look at that contract again.

I don't know how tradable it is and what has to happen. There's so many questions, though, because it's, you know, you when you come back from an injury like that, it's not just, oh, can you run and drop back? It's, hey, can you be as effective as you were beforehand? And also, is he going to vibe with the new head coach?

They don't know the answer to that at all. Last thing I'll ask you, Matt Lafleur as a head coach. We saw him with Rogers. Now he's five games without Aaron Rodgers. What do you think Matt is as a head coach in this league? I think Matt's a good head coach. I mean, look also like when he was with Tennessee, he went from being a passing guy to let's just get the ball to Derrick Henry.

Right. So I think a lot of coaches, a lot of offensive coaches always want to you think they just want to be this high flying offense. When I see a guy kind of check that ego and say, no, we're just going to run the ball.

That shows me a lot about them. I just don't think overall, I don't think the personnel is good in Green Bay. That offensive line has been a mess. They're running back is hurt in Aaron Jones, you know, receiving wise. I just I don't think they're there.

I don't think their weapons over there are very good. So I think it's hard to tell how good a guy is. And yes, you look way better with an Aaron Rodgers. But by the way, again, this is the Packers are different team where their GM says, hey, here's the recipe. Here's the ingredients. You cook it, you deal with it.

It's not a partnership there like a lot of other teams have. Jay Glaser, appreciate you sharing your story. Thanks so much.

Also talking football as well. You be well, my friend. Thank you, brother. There you go. Jay Glaser joining us right here.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break. We'll come on back. We're going to chat about these three rookie quarterbacks, some unfortunate health news with Anthony Richardson. Let's evaluate with what we've seen so far through the first five games of the season.

We'll do that on the other side. But first up with the latest CBS Sports Radio update. Here's the Ackman, Rich Ackerman.

All right. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Looking at the three rookie quarterbacks that are actually playing, I guess you could say for now in the NFL. C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson is about to miss four to eight weeks going to IR with the injury. And then also Bryce Young. Let's just see what we've learned about those five so far.

I'll start with the one that I'm most impressed by. And this is C.J. Stroud.

When C.J. Stroud was coming out of college out of the Ohio State, I wondered, was he just a good quarterback or could he be a great quarterback? And I also wondered how much was he a product of the system at Ohio State with just the crazy amount of great wide receivers as they become wide receiver you in the NFL. Here's the two things that I'm most impressed about with C.J. Stroud so far.

It's the trust early on that the organization has in him. If you recall in Joe Burrows rookie season before he tore his ACL, there was a game. I think it was a Thursday night football game. It was week two, where it was the Bengals playing the Browns. And in that game, the Bengals threw the ball with Joe Burrow 60 or 62 times.

And that was in his second career start. That showed early on, even though you're saying to yourself, man, that's not the right way to handle a quarterback, how much they trusted a young quarterback to throw the football that much in an actual game two starts into his career. Because a lot of times organizations, they're afraid when they're handling their young quarterback, and they almost put floaties on the young quarterback or they handle them with kid gloves, and they don't let the quarterback allow him to be put in a position to expose him to that many potential mistakes when you're throwing the football 60, 62 times as the Bengals did in week two for Joe Burrow in his rookie year. And in the first two games of the season, against the Ravens and Colts that have solid defenses, they threw the ball 44 and 47 times with C.J.

Stroud. The fewest amount of passing attempts that C.J. Stroud has had through his first five games in his NFL career were 30 against the Jaguars and the Steelers, both ended up being wins. But they've thrown the ball 44, 47, 30, 30, and 35 times for C.J. Stroud in his first five games.

The other thing is, you ask a quarterback in his career when he's young, and you know that there's going to be mistakes, to just not keep on continuously shooting yourself in the foot and know when to throw the ball away, know when to slide, know when to give up on a play, and sometime the best plays you make are the throws you don't make. Through five games, C.J. Stroud has no interceptions. That's actually the most impressive thing I've seen out of C.J.

Stroud, because it's one thing to see the big numbers here, right, seven passing touchdowns through five games, nearly 1,500 yards of passing, the Texans sitting there with a 2-3 record, and no one really thought they'd be sitting with a 2-3 record when the season did start, and providing hope and optimism. But when you have a quarterback in his first five games, and they have him throwing the ball in the frequency as much as they do, to have no interceptions so far. When I looked at the stat, I said, oh, that can't be true. Someone had to miss something.

Someone had to type something out the wrong way. And you go through those five games, he hasn't had an interception yet. And also, it's big on the offensive line, too.

Maybe that's some of the line. Maybe it's also some of him getting the ball out quickly. But his first two starts, he got sacked five times and six times. After that, no sacks. The last three weeks, no sacks by C.J.

Shroud. So you see those three things the trusting organization has in him. Him protecting the football, and then the offensive line, and him working together really well through the first three weeks. I know it's only five games, but C.J. Shroud has been showing you early on that he could be a great quarterback in this league. Because the Texans aren't even built to win right now.

You look at that team, yeah, Niko Collins is a solid player, but Niko Collins is the number one wide receiver. But you see the way that this program has said we're going to finally take a step forward. And it's one thing to say we're finally going to take the step forward. You also have to have the horses.

You have to have the pieces, too. And the last two years, it was, we've got to figure out how to trade Deshaun Watson. We have to also start to do things internally our way. But you didn't have leaders there outside of Nick Casario, who was the general manager, that the rest of the team and the organization of the fans were going to believe in. So when you hire David Coley, everyone knew David Coley was just a placeholder. And then when you fire David Coley after one year, and remember that crazy search that they went on, where I thought they wanted to hire McCown and the Flores situation happened.

All right, you're not going to hire McCown. And then they were interviewing Brian Flores as well. People thought maybe Jonathan Gannon would be the head coach. And then out of nowhere, it was Lovey Smith. Like Lovey Smith was a really good coach in this league. When he was the coach of the Chicago Bears and took him to a Super Bowl where they lost with Rex Grossman, going up against Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts in the lone Super Bowl for the Indianapolis Colts with Tony Dungy and also Peyton Manning. But after that, Lovey Smith was at Illinois. Lovey Smith was in Tampa Bay. When Lovey Smith took over as the head coach of the Houston Texans, you knew Lovey Smith was not going to be lasting along there and was another placeholder. So this offseason they said, OK, we're going to go for it. Nick Casario knew time was running out.

You can't keep on delaying, delaying, delaying. Because then eventually the owner and Cal McNair is going to say, yeah, we got to do something else. So you had Nick Casario pick his guy in D'Amico Ryan's, which was strategic. Not only was there a reason to justify hiring D'Amico Ryan's because D'Amico Ryan's was a heck of a defensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers.

But D'Amico Ryan's also one of the the own of the Houston Texans where he played the majority of his career with the Houston Texans. So you had a very popular hire. You had a very exuberant coach and a very smart coach that energized his fan base.

And if you just brought in the coach, it wouldn't have done much. And then at the draft, they go, OK, second overall pick, CJ Stroud still available. We're taking CJ Stroud and we're not going to stop there. We're going to give away our future first round pick, even though that could be risky and we could be a bad team this year. And we're going to go draft maybe a guy that was perceived to be the best defensive player or and the best player period in the draft. And Will Anderson Jr. coming out of Alabama. So even if that pick doesn't work out and I don't know if it will, but they said we're stop in the waiting period and we're going to go for it. And we're going to start to try to move this thing forward and we're going to start to finally give fans the reason to believe. And through the first five games, you definitely have a reason to believe in your young quarterback and also in your head football coach in D'Amico Ryan's. The Anthony Richardson stuff is just so unfortunate because Anthony Richardson, when he's been on the field, has been so electrifying.

And he's been a video game type of player. And the big thing Colts fans were looking forward to is you have Anthony Richardson getting in the same backfield with Jonathan Taylor. And you had the nonsense of the Jonathan Taylor contract situation, which I don't know if you guys saw this, by the way. Totally random different thought, just because I brought up Jonathan Taylor. Did you see Jonathan Taylor's agent clap back at all the media that was saying that the agent was handling this thing the wrong way?

Did you see this at all, Samter? The clap back video of Jonathan Taylor's agent? No, but that agent has been talking a lot throughout the offseason and maybe it's time for them to stop talking.

Well, no, they got it right. The agent ended up getting it right. He got the deal for Jonathan Taylor. So I don't fault the agent at all for clapping back. The agent actually, though, reference yours truly in the clip.

Twenty five seconds in, he posts the video of the Zach Gelb show interviewing Dwight Frini, where Dwight Frini is destroying the agent and is destroying Jonathan Taylor for basically demanding a new contract. So the agent ended up getting Jonathan Taylor the deal. And I commend the agent, but I put that more in the Colts that I threw out a tweet where I said this should be 14 million dollars a year.

You do it for three, four years. You guaranteed twenty six to twenty eight million. And that's basically what it ended up being just on a three year deal. And the guaranteed money was pretty much spot on.

I think he had like twenty six and a half or twenty seven. This was so avoidable, but the Colts were never really willing to negotiate. The Colts never made him an offer before the start of the season. And that's why Jonathan Taylor was annoyed. But if you're a Colts fan, you finally were about to get Richardson and Taylor on the field at the same time. And then you have another Anthony Richardson injury. And now he's expected to be out anywhere from four to eight weeks. He'll definitely miss four because he's going on.

I are. So you're wiped out for four games. But that report I saw from Ian Rappaport earlier this morning suggested that he could be out anywhere from four to eight weeks. And when you kind of hear that, you just automatically think that he'll be out six weeks. Right.

You kind of just think you'll be somewhere right in the middle and cut it right there in the middle. And if he comes back a little bit sooner than that, that's great. There's no need to rush Anthony Richardson back. But when he's healthy, you play him because this experience in year one is important.

There was a lot of questions with Anthony Richardson. And now the biggest question is, can this guy stay healthy? Because whether it's a shoulder or concussions, we've seen in a small sample size in a game he had to you already had to miss one full game. We've seen him be hurt a lot.

And that's just so unfortunate because you never want to see injuries. And I'm not saying we're there yet, but injuries derail a young person's career. And then finally, Bryce Young. I'm concerned about Bryce Young. And it's because I'm concerned about the environment Bryce Young is in. Frank Reich. He wanted C.J.

Stroud. David Tepper, the owner of the team usurped the coach. And he said, we're drafting Bryce Young. And when you have a coaching staff who will treat you the right way, but they believed in somebody else and now C.J. Stroud is dominating and your quarterback is struggling, I think that's problematic.

And also, I don't trust David Tepper to run a football team the right way because just because you own the team doesn't mean you know how to make the proper football decisions. And I'm really concerned that the Carolina Panthers are going to ruin the young career of Bryce Young because the offensive line stinks right now. You have no number one wide receivers to throw the football to.

And Miles Sanders is severely overrated and was more of a product of the Eagles offensive line and Jalen Hurts being his quarterback. I don't like the way that the Panthers are handling right now Bryce Young. And for a guy that I had big hopes for and big aspirations for in the NFL, they could really ruin this youngster's career.

I hope that doesn't happen. But the Panthers are scaring the living crap out of me so far with the lack of care and the lack of attention that they are paying detail to in the development of their young quarterback. And that looks like just a messy and I mean a messy situation. So that's kind of where we're at right now with these three quarterbacks. Richardson unfortunately got hurt, showed some some promise.

C.J. Shroud has been sensational. And now you look at the Carolina Panthers. It's are you going to be able to get your quarterback through some rough times before you have good times?

Or is just too much damage going to be done to this young quarterback with maybe Frank Reich being overrated and then David Tepper having his hand too much in the cookie jar consistently. OK. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio one more hour to play on a very busy Wednesday coming up in the final hour of our show. In about 20, 25 minutes from now, former Packers wide receiver, Raider wide receiver to Jordi Nelson is going to stop by. We'll get his thoughts on the Packers and the Raiders. And also coming up in five minutes, it's a take five Wednesday. I'll give you my top five teams in the NFL and college football as well. 60 minutes to play.

We're rocking and rolling. You listen to the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Sirius XM Channel 158, the free Odyssey app. And of course, streaming live on YouTube.