The Two Sides of Russell Wilson (Hour 1)

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 Thursday edition of the Zach Gilb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming on YouTube. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227.

You could always get out. At me on the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, X, at Zach Gilb, also on Instagram where I'm always straight flexing, at Zach Gilb. That is Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Whole lot to do today. Coming up, joining us in studio 20 minutes from now from the NFL Network has been anchoring Good Morning Football all throughout the week. Colleen Wolf will stop by in studio, and then at 4.20 PM Eastern Time today, 1.20 PM Pacific Ryan Harris, former Notre Dame and Denver Bronco offensive lineman, will stop by. We have to kick off week six that comes your way later on tonight, and it features a matchup that is like, eh, do we really have to watch this game? Where it's the Kansas City Chiefs going up against the Denver Broncos.

The reports are that Taylor Swift will be in the building, so that's something to monitor. Will the Kansas City Chiefs score more points on offense tonight compared to the amount of times that Amazon, who is probably jumping up and down like fat kids in a candy store, is going to show Taylor Swift as she's cheering on her mans in Travis Kelce. But when you go through this game, we all know the Chiefs are going to win. The question just becomes by how many points the Chiefs are going to win by. I think the fascinating thing is to see here, can the Denver Broncos give us a game?

And what I mean by that, can they play a 60-minute football game even if they don't win, but when they're in the game throughout the entirety of it? Because you look at the Broncos, especially their quarterback in Russell Wilson, who this has just been a disaster for him, where he had a really good career and a really great career going in Seattle. Won a Super Bowl, lost another Super Bowl, and he wasn't polarizing from what we could see from afar, and he seemed like a good guy, seemed like a guy that was well on his way to making the Hall of Fame. And he had a falling out with Pete Carroll. He was done with the Seattle Seahawks organization. Personally, I think he prioritized the brand of Russell Wilson and the stardom of Russell Wilson more than the football player of Russell Wilson. And he wanted out of Seattle.

He knew it was going to take some time after two to three years of bitching and complaining. He finds his way out of Seattle, and he goes to Denver, and you look at that Denver Broncos situation, and it's like, okay, you got a solid defense, but on offense, the line is problematic. You got some young running backs. You know, Javonte Williams was drafted, but wide receivers, sure, guys like Cortland Sutton and Tim Patrick haven't been able to stay healthy, but when your best wide receiver is Jerry Judy in the year of 2022 and 2023 in the NFL, and Jerry Judy may be traded from now until the deadline, depending on what reports that you see today, it's like, what were you actually thinking when you were going from the NFC that had an identity problem in terms of there's not a lot of good teams and a lot of teams you could trust, and you go right into the gauntlet of not only the AFC where they are loaded with a bunch of teams, but you also go directly into the monster that is the AFC West when you're going up against Patrick Mahomes, who is Superman right now in the sport, and everyone's tugging at his cape. And we don't need to rehash all of this, but I said it at the time, I know everyone crushed Seattle, and I was someone that was crushing Seattle as well because I didn't think they would find a way to make it work, but I remember saying the situation that he had in Seattle with Pete Carroll as his coach, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett as his two best wide receivers was better than the situation that he was going to in Denver. But just because you're going to a worse situation, if you felt like that was a move that was necessary for you because you just didn't think it was a good environment for whatever Russell Wilson was trying to accomplish in Seattle, OK, maybe you go to a home that you're trying to rebuild back up, and you have to purchase not the best foundation.

You have a lot of land, but there's not an actual home built, and you're going to build it. Well, Russell Wilson went in there, and I understand he had the office and all that stuff, and it didn't look good, but if they were winning games, no one would have talked about the office. But he did not immerse himself into being a leader of that team, and there were a lot of guys that were seeing the rest of the league clown him, and really guys that didn't have a leg to stand on inside that locker room, but when you're seeing the guy that's supposed to be your leader, the guy that just got paid a lot of money, and also the guy that the organization just gave up a bunch of draft picks to go get, and he's become a laughingstock, they're not going to respect him inside that locker room. And that's why at the end of last season, once you got rid of Hackett, and you had the interim coach come in, I thought it was so contrived when you had players out of nowhere who didn't say anything, absolutely anything, through the first 13, 14 weeks of the season, start popping up to defend Russell Wilson. I thought it was contrived. I thought it was disingenuous, and this year is a big year for Russell Wilson, and so far, I understand that people could tell me, oh, he's playing better.

Well, yeah, no crap. You've got to be playing better than what you were last year. Last year, you saw a guy who was a Hall of Fame quarterback get embarrassed and get dragged around by the media, by other players, and also people that used to be very close to him, former teammates of the Seattle Seahawks. So this is a big year for Russ, and what you've seen so far is a common trend. In the first half, he plays really well, but in the second half, he doesn't put it together. And it's crazy the disparity, and I saw this on NFL Live the other day, between the first half stats to the second half stats of Russell Wilson through the first five weeks of the season. In the first half, he's number one in completion percentage.

He's ranked fourth in total QBR and fourth in yards per dropback. So if you just look at the first half numbers, people are like, wow, Russ is elite. Russ is great.

Russ is sensational. And that does make his stats look actually better than what they are because it only tells half the story. Like if I get on this show and let's say each and every day I do 10 out of 10 radio for the first hour and a half. Yeah, people are going to look at some of the numbers and they're like, oh, it's inflated. But then if the in the final hour and a half, I just dog it and I become like the worst talk show host ever.

You're not going to walk away saying, wow, that was a really good show. And I'm not saying it needs to be at this elite top five level throughout the entirety of 60 minutes. But Russ hasn't been able to find that middle ground where when you look at the first half, as I said, one in completion percentage, fourth in total QBR, fourth in yards per dropback. And then he gets into the second half. I almost had to do a double take here on the numbers, 31st in completion percentage, dead last in total QBR and then 25th in yards per dropback. So I don't want to hear from people, oh, Russ isn't the problem in Denver and Russ is playing really good football. You can't tell me that right now because the guy is playing really good football for a half.

He's not playing an entirety of a good game. And tonight I just want to see. And this is how low the bar is for the Denver Broncos.

This is how low the bar is for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton. Can you guys show up for 60 minutes? Can you guys match the intensity from half one to half two? Can you give me a game tonight where it's 28-24 and you have the ball late with three and a half, four minutes to go and you're driving at Arrowhead where you could smell all that great barbecue smoke.

Can you do that tonight? That's how low my standards are now for the Denver Broncos. And that's how low my standards are now for Russell Wilson.

And there's no doubt about it in my mind. Russell Wilson, by the end of 2024, he's going to be gone as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. He may get one more year, but he's only getting one more year at the absolute latest because, you know, people are starting to point the finger and wave that finger to Sean Payton. And they're starting to say, Sean, you were brought in to fix this. And Sean and Russ have been able to fix it for half. But the last time I checked, we don't pay quarterbacks, we don't pay coaches to only excel for 30 minutes. We pay coaches, we pay quarterbacks to be elite and to be great for 60 minutes of football. That's why you see everyone in the fourth quarter, they raised the four fingers up and it's go time and you hear everyone say, as cliche as it is, play 60 minutes, play 60 minutes. The Broncos haven't played 60 minutes all season. So this Broncos team, can you just give us a game tonight?

That's all I ask. You know, I'm not asking put me at a restaurant right now that's five star where I'm getting the best food in the world and I'm getting the best service and I'm going to have the best desserts. You know, I'll settle for the two star meal tonight. I'll settle for the three star meal tonight. Just give me an appetizer that's edible.

Just give me a main course that's decent and give me a dessert that goes. Yeah, that was pretty decent. That's all I want tonight. Because if this is a game where it turns into what that Chiefs Bears game where it was just absolutely one sided and all it turns out to be is just the Taylor Swift PR tour. Where she's sitting next to Mama Kelsey or Brittany Mahomes and she's smiling and she's looking great and she's enjoying herself. If we have to just look forward to Al Michaels breaking down Taylor Swift being in the building and Kirk Herb Street as well in the third and fourth quarter. It's like, what are we doing for Thursday Night Football? But I have zero confidence that Russ is going to be able to make it a game tonight because he doesn't play a complete game anymore. And I just never seen this. Right? Like if a guy was 38, 39, 40, it's different.

You get up there and age. And maybe with what guys have like Brady and Big Ben and Rogers, how late they played, we kind of take it for granted. But Russ is only 34 right now. And his decline really started last year where it was a massive fall from grace. And with the criticism that Sean Payton is already starting to get and inevitably it's going to be more, he's going to say we've got to make a move. And it looks like we've seen it all throughout the year that they're blowing this thing up.

It's going to continue. And this is the tear it down year. The question is, you have a big expensive couch in Russell Wilson. And when you're building the doors of your house, you didn't think, oh, we have to move that couch out because the couch doesn't work in the house anymore. Now you're just wondering, when do you ultimately determine, all right, we're going to open up the windows, right? And we're going to get construction people in there to take that couch out because at this point, Russ is an old expensive couch. It's still like, yeah, it looks nice.

But when you sit down on it, it isn't comfortable. And you know, you got to go get a newer couch and they'll get rid of Russell Wilson. It's just how much longer does Sean Payton want to wait? Because the moment you get rid of Russell Wilson right now, it's like 50-50 or even 60-40 because Sean just got there where people are pointing the finger at Russ.

They're pointing the finger at Sean. Once you get rid of Russ, all the eyeballs, all the attention goes on Sean. And I do think Russ also contractually, from a financial standpoint, will be there next year. But if the Broncos are as bad as they look, that process may get expedited if they have a great first round draft pick to go get Caleb Williams or go draft to Shadore Sanders or whoever that next quarterback could be if it's a Drake May. And Sean will find his next quarterback, not through free agency, not through a trade. It's going to be through the draft. Because remember, they give up a lot of capital to go get Russell Wilson.

They survived from it in terms of the capital they gave up. It's already done. And they gave up a lot of capital to go get this head football coach in Sean Payton. So now, whether it works or not with Russ, and I don't see how anyone can say it's going to work with Russ.

Sean's going to get then two years once they move on from Russ to make it work with the next guy or else everyone's going to be calling for his job. And then people are going to start to look at the career of Sean Payton a little bit differently, where it's like, yeah, what he did in New Orleans was awesome. It was so special. It was so unique.

It was so great. But then you go to a different home and you don't have Drew Brees, right? We just we've seen it with Belichick who won six. Once Brady leaves up, what happens to Bill?

And then people are going to really start to examine and crush the legacy of Sean Payton as a head coach in the NFL. So all I ask for tonight, not a lot. I'm not asking for the PS5 on Christmas. I'm not asking for the big fancy gift. I'm not. All I want the Canada Goose jacket.

That's a snobby popular jacket that people have these days. All I'm asking for is just give us somewhat of a game. We're like five, six minutes left in the fourth quarter. I could be entertained, but I have zero confidence.

So that's going to be the case. It feels like the Chiefs are going to win tonight and not only win, but they're going to win big. 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Is there any optimism for the Broncos and the expect the game tonight between the Chiefs and Denver Broncos?

We'll take a break when we come on back. Colleen Wolf, the fantastic NFL Network reporter, will join us in studio. Why not schedule a pick up or drop off and Carvana will pay you that amount right on the spot as easy as playing guitar. Actually, I find that kind of difficult, but selling your car to Carvana is as easy as can be. Visit Carvana dot com or download the app to get an instant offer today. You can stream the NFL and Westwood One for free. Sponsored by AutoZone all season long. You can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL Live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on the Odyssey app. Get in the Zone AutoZone. The free AutoZone fix finder service can help you find a fix for free. Get in the Zone AutoZone.

Restrictions apply. This is Zach Gelb's show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Now joining us from the NFL Network is the very talented Colleen Wolf in studio. Colleen, thanks so much for coming in. How are you? I feel like I'm in the zone.

I'm ready to rock. This is great. Thanks for having me. And Colleen and I share something in common. Whenever Angelo Cataldi was on the radio for so many years, it's weird to now say that he's no longer on the air. After a great career at Sports Radio WIP, he would always say, my best two interns were Colleen Wolf and Zach Gelb. And I'm like, I'm in the class of Colleen Wolf? Like, come on. I can't believe I'm in the class of Zach Gelb. Well, that's nice of you to say. Look at us now.

This is great. Yeah, I take your job over to the one that I have right now and probably the paycheck too. Oh, kidding aside. So this has been a crazy time for you. L.A. to London. You've been hosting Good Morning Football in New York. I appreciate you coming in with all the crazy travel. Oh, no.

I mean, listen, no problem. I'm in New York. I love New York.

If I had the opportunity to come here more when the weather was like this, I'd live here year round. But I'm operating on a very strange schedule right now. I have no idea truly what time it is or what time zone I'm in. And I feel a little dead inside, but I'm ready to rock. Well, you have some good food options here. You can get the New York slice. You could go to Katz's Deli and get a pastrami sandwich.

You know what I did? Have you been eating well? Oh, oh, right in fine dine. One of my favorite sandwich spots. Oh, I had no idea that this thing was like a barbell. It was so heavy when I and I added all of this extra stuff, not knowing how large the sandwich would be.

And the seated roll that it comes on. Oh, my God. Incredible. There was like, I added salami, arugula, tomatoes, mozzarella. It was everything.

It was great. And you have a meal for three days. Like, I'm a large human being.

My my friends think I could eat like everything. I had pasillos for Bruce Springsteen last time when he was playing in MetLife a few weeks ago. And I said to my friends, I go, we need to bring a car for having pasillos because there's going to be leftovers. And it was to die for. I'll think of that sandwich actively for years. I'll never forget it.

It puts you in a food coma. Also, I'll say this. When the pandemic first hit and we were watching NFL Network, the Thursday night crew that you guys had with Michael Irvin and Steve Smith. I was always wondering what was really going on behind the scenes then, because it would be like the craziest things I'd ever heard on TV. I know.

I know. We had such a great time on the road. Those shows were fantastic. And then once the pandemic hit and we were all separated into our well, the guys stayed at home. And so they were having trouble, I think, sometimes staying awake because these games were not always the greatest. And then I was alone in this massive studio, like a cavernous space. So it was just a weird time like it was for everyone. But I definitely miss being on the road because, man, that atmosphere.

It was the craziest thing I've ever done in my career. Colleen Wolf here with us from the NFL Network. So tonight's game, I can't really talk it up that it's going to be this great football game.

And then sometimes it ends up being a great football game when you least expect it. But the biggest storyline for me going into this game is that Taylor Swift is reportedly going to be in the building. What do you make of all the TV coverage surrounding Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift and whatever their relationship is? I have massive Taylor Swift fatigue and I'm so sorry to report that.

I had it immediately almost. I don't like when things are forced upon me and I feel like it's being forced upon everyone. I like to see who she's sitting in the box with and then I'm good. Then I'm done. Like I don't I don't really need to know if they like what this relationship is about.

It's fun, but like it feels kind of like a lot at this point. However, I guess like, you know, we'll see tonight how it goes on Thursday Night Football because we haven't seen Taylor Swift on an Amazon Prime game yet. And I feel like they do things a little bit differently. So maybe they'll change my mind. So what I just gathered is Colleen Wolf is not a Swifty. That's brave. You're going to have all the Swifties come after you now. It's not that I'm not a Swifty. It's just that I listen to a lot of other I listen to a lot of music.

And she's, I think, a very talented musician, but not I don't really know a lot of her songs. Do you feel like it's a genuine relationship? Some people just believe they have the theory that this is for publicity for Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift with the great tour she's on right now. Well, if it is for publicity, it's working. They are nailing the strategy.

Everything seems to be coming up. The Kelsey's at this point, their Netflix doc, the 400 percent sales increase on his jersey. It seems like, though, it could be a little manufactured, but who knows? Honestly, who cares?

Like if they're happy, that's great. But it is sort of I can't believe the storyline that it is, but I guess they're two massive stars. So it's nice talking to Colleen Wolf. Get into that game tonight. It's kind of crazy because I opened up the show talking about Russell Wilson.

And now I go into this game just saying, can we just get a game in the fourth quarter? It's wild to me how far Russ has fallen ever since going to Denver. You know, I when you take his play in the first half of game, he's great. He's really, really good.

And he is really for me, not a problem right now. It's the defense that is really killing them. And they really have to to clean up so many different things. But Russell Wilson, it seems like he like from last year, I feel like he's really come a long way. And I would love for them to get better in so many different areas. The run defense needs help. Like Sean Payton kind of walked into the situation thinking that he just being Sean Payton, I think was going to be the solution. And he's experiencing a lot of the same problems that Nathaniel Hackett had last year. And after he said everything that he did during training camp about it being one of the worst coaching jobs he's ever seen in his life.

It really is, I think, a tough pill for him to swallow to experience all of this and kind of go through the same thing and not be able to fix it. Nick, I thought he looked like a fool last week, like cutting it nicely when you talk all this smack and then the Jets don't even have one thing to get destroyed and have Aaron Rodgers. But now they have Zach Wilson and the guy that you went after was the offensive coordinator that was a part of exposing your team. The nice thing, though, for the Broncos is that they'll get Javonte Williams back and Jaleel McLaughlin looked great. That was the silver lining for them last week.

So I'm interested to see how the touches are distributed. But that's a nice part of their game that they have that running game. And on the other side, Kansas City scares the crap out of me because everyone's talking about everybody else in the AFC. And we haven't even seen this Chiefs offense really get going yet this season.

No, we haven't, especially week one. You're missing Travis Kelce. He's questionable tonight, but they're expected.

He's expected to go and play. But even when he's not 100 percent, he's still so much better than everyone at 100 percent. So we saw it last week when he came back from the ankle injury and he basically willed that entire touchdown drive. Like he made that whole thing happen. The vice grip third down catch that he had and then the touchdown itself.

He's so talented. We saw that first week when he was not out there against the Lions. They just couldn't get anything going with the receivers that they had. And it was such a struggle.

There were so many drops. They haven't gotten what they've needed out of Kadarius Toney. And they it's always twas ever thus with the wide receivers, do they need a number one wide receiver? Is that going to be their Achilles heel? But like, you know, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have proven before that they don't need that wide receiver to win a Super Bowl.

But they really do need to maximize the window that they're in right now to get it done. I love that they're using Isaiah Pacheco the way that they are. And Andy Reid, it's always seems that you're at least me. I'm always yelling for him to run the ball.

The Philly girl. Exactly. But that and then I would love for their right tackle to, you know, maybe clean up the penalties.

He leads the league in penalties. So we would like to not see that. And by we, I mean all of the Chiefs fans. So the Chiefs are still the team to me as Colin Wolf joins us right now in studio from the NFL Network that are the best team in the AFC.

After that, who do you trust the most when you look at all the other AFC teams, if it's not Kansas City? It's funny because during training camp and when the season was approaching, it was like the AFC is so stacked, like it has so much talent. And the NFC is just like, you know, you have the Niners and the Eagles and everybody thought the Cowboys.

Well, that is not the case anymore. But hey, the Niners and the Eagles, they've lived up to the expectations. They're both undefeated at this point.

But in the AFC, the Dolphins, I think have been a team that have been really, really fun to watch. Mike McDaniel, I think, is just revolutionizing offenses with all of the motion and press conferences. Oh, my God. And aviators.

One one pair of sunglasses at a time. This guy gets it. I love it. He's funny. He's entertaining. And he's a brilliant game planner, like an amazing play caller.

The things that he schemes up, the pre snap motion, all of it. And I just think that that team, the speed that they have, it just really does kill. And it's so entertaining to watch them. They have five of the fastest ball carriers in the NFL on the team. And Tyreek Hill is just one of the most explosive players I've ever watched. So the Dolphins, they're up there. The Bills, I have questions about at this point. And the whole Diggs relationships just seems off to me with what happened in the offseason. But we've seen that before from him. And we've seen it from wide receivers in general before who they want the ball.

They want to make something happen. The Bills just kind of came into that game in London and they looked jet lagged. They look how I feel right now. Do you think that was a real thing, though, because they traveled so late in the week? Well, I know that so much is made of when these teams travel, but they did look sluggish.

They did look tired. I think the main reason that they lost the game and had so many issues is because of all the defenders that were injured in that game. And then prior to that game, because coming in, they didn't have Tredavious White gone for the season.

Gregory Rousseau, he was not playing it out there. And then you lose Matt Milano, who is the best at his position. He is like the heart of that defense. And it was just really hard, I think, to overcome all of the injuries. Daquan Jones, like it was just I think it really tough for them. And not only that, both of their tight ends now on the offensive side, they're banged up, too. So right now, it's just a tough point in the season, but it is still so early. Like it's week six we're going into. So for the guys that aren't coming back, that's a tough blow, but they did get Von Miller back for the first time.

He had his season debut in London, and hopefully they can find some solutions along the way. The Bengals to me are also fascinating because the next three weeks, it's a monster schedule. They've already dug themselves at a deep hole at two and three. You have Seattle, you got the bye week, then you got the 49ers and the Bills. It's like, can they win two out of those three? And then, I don't, Burrow says he's feeling better right now, but I don't know how to really judge it after one game against the Cardinals.

Yeah, and it's almost like, well, are the Cardinals an elixir here for like, you know, that's exactly what they needed. And maybe it is because I think he did look a little bit better, Joe Burrow. And he certainly played that way. It seemed like he had a little bit more mobility in the pocket when he was moving around. It didn't seem he was as hindered as before. And clearly that connection with Jamar Chase is still there. We saw it in the game. But the Bengals started the season so slow. They did the same thing last year, though, too.

So maybe they're just kind of warming up. So I got thrown into this 49ers-Eagles debate. Everyone thinks I'm an Eagles fan just because I went to school at Temple and then lived in Philly three years after graduating. Tell the truth. I'm a Patriot fan.

That's the truth. Yeah, I grew up as a Patriot fan. Andre Tippett is like family friends with my uncle and he's from Framingham, Massachusetts.

My dad worked on Sundays. I may or may not have done Eagles postgame on 97-5 the night when the Eagles won the Super Bowl as a Patriot fan. No, you did not.

Oh, my gosh. Are you OK? How are you feeling?

They've been outscored 72 to 3 the last two weeks. I was in the penthouse. I had like 9,000 Priscilla sandwiches for 3,000 years. And now they're like, all right, go eat some crappy ham sandwich or something and tell me that it's going to be really good.

So it's weird because it's tough for me to get really annoyed with all the success that I had. But when you had the two bozos and Judge and Patricia last year running the offense. Oh, my gosh. And now you have an actual offensive coordinator in Bill O'Brien but no wide receivers.

It's the first time I say, Bill, what are we doing here? And I could start to envision life without Bill Belichick at one Patriot. Wow. I just I never thought I would see the day. It seemed absolutely impossible.

Yeah. Like the fact that they haven't gone back to the playoffs since. They made it once after Brady. That was Mac Jones rookie year.

I was at that game in Buffalo when it was negative two degrees and Josh Allen every time he had the ball they scored. Oh, my gosh. So they they just they've really struggled clearly and I just think that maybe maybe it is time maybe it's time for like a reset refresh. But it just seems wild to even think about the Patriots without Bill Belichick because Bill Belichick is the Patriots and their schedule coming up is bad too. Yeah. The season's already over.

I'm already sitting Shiva for the Patriots season. It was over before it even started. So before we let you run, I was saying how I got involved in this Eagles 49ers whole thing because Deebo Samuel didn't like some of the questions I asked him about. Oh, yeah. You started that.

He hung up on me. Oh, yeah, that was me. That was right here on this show. And what a moment. It was it was funny because it's kind of like your time zone differences.

When the video first went out, it was all Eagles fans. I love this guy. He's awesome. And then when the West Coast started to see it hours later, it was like bleep this guy. He's the worst human being in the world.

He should have never been born. Like, oh, I got the worst things in my life. Yeah. So anyway, I can't wait for that game.

Yes. But also, I think it's inevitable they're going to meet up in the playoffs. You being a Philly person, we know who you're rooting for. What's your message to 49ers fans? I mean, or excuse me, 40 whiners fans.

Oh, wow. So I am not stepping into that because right now I think the 49ers are the better team. Better than the Eagles.

Right this minute. Yes, because I don't think that the Eagles have completely reached where they can go with the offense. Like they just haven't hit that next level yet. And I think as the season goes on, the offensive line, the defensive line for Philadelphia is so strong. And it will, as attrition hits these other teams, if they could stay healthy, which I think they will, that strength will really show and really pay off.

And that's why Howie Roseman, the GM, has sunk so many resources into the lines of scrimmage there. But I just think, you know, the 49ers, they're so good right now. And will they sustain this?

I don't know. I mean, they did. They seemed to last year and then they hit some bumps along the way right at the wrong time. And it just so happened that it worked out for the Eagles. But right here, right now, I think that the Niners are the better team than the Eagles.

But in the long run, I think the Eagles will leapfrog them. I'm going to say, you cleaned that answer up nicely. I was going to say they won't let you get any more cheesesteaks like Alessandro's or Mama's. What am I tap dancing around here? Last thing I'll ask you, Collie Wolfe with us, NFL Network, Baker Mayfield with the Bucks.

How legit are they? Wow, I did not see this coming. It's just, I think, one of the biggest surprises of the year.

And I love this surprise because the surprises that are negative are just a bummer. And this is nice that this team is so successful right now with Baker Mayfield. Imagine filling the shoes of Tom Brady.

Mac Jones is sort of doing that right now and it's not working out great. But Baker Mayfield having experienced what he did leaving Cleveland, leaving Carolina, and now going to Tampa Bay with the, it's like an omnipresent chip on his shoulder. It's working really well and now they are first in the division. They're coming off the bye, which I kind of hate the early bye. I hate the early bye for any team. But I think that they have a really nice shot of going on a run here. And if they can continue at this pace, it's really only just the beginning because this is his first season there.

So they'll kind of get some stuff going even more as the season progresses. She's the very talented Collie Wolfe from the NFL Network. Colleen, appreciate you coming on and doing this. Thanks so much for having me.

Go Angelo Cattoli at WIP. Collie Wolfe with us. Alrighty, we'll take a break. We'll come on back. We'll do a little MLB baseball next with some craziness in the playoffs. I know Colleen's probably rooting crazy for Philadelphia Phillies who are one win away from going back to the NLCS. But first up, standing by with the latest CBS Sports Radio update is the Ackman, Rich Ackerman.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I sometimes think the conversation in the moment becomes comical. But I do find it funny when I saw a tweet today from Sports Center that the teams with the five best record in the MLB regular season are one in twelve in this postseason.

And whenever you have some of these big seeds go down, all of a sudden people go, why is this happening? Do we need to change the postseason format? I wasn't for this new format to begin with. I don't like adding teams to any playoff format.

I thought for the last ten years, you know hockey was one, I think hockey what they've done has been okay. It's still been though eight in the east, eight in the west. It's just changed though with the seeding and how you play in division two, three, two, three.

And then you have one play eight and two play seven. But when you look at postseason baseball, I thought the format before this new one was great. Where you have the three divisional teams in from each league, American and National League. And then you would have that one wild card game. And that one wild card game between the two teams in that one game, I thought was wonderful for baseball. Because you play one hundred and sixty two games of the regular season.

I don't need to, I guess you could say reward losing and reward not being elite by adding in more teams. Now with that being said, even with the format changing, I don't want to hear from the Oriole fan or the Dodger fan. Or if the Braves go down, the Braves fan.

Oh, us having to wait that long was unfair where you had to wait a week. Go look at what the Astros did. The Astros did the same damn thing. They had to wait where the Twins beat the Blue Jays and beat them two games to none. And then they got the Twins and they took care of business three games to one. The Astros are a consistent winner. The Atlanta Braves are a consistent winner in the regular season, but they only have one championship in the postseason with this group. Same with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the one year they won it was COVID. Those two franchises are wonderful, Atlanta and L.A. So I was more of a fan of the old format.

If you want to say it's the old format just because of how many changes there's been throughout the years. But I think it's really weak and I think it's really gutless when it doesn't go your way to now say, oh, we have to change the Major League Baseball postseason format. Ultimately, money wins out. Major League Baseball does not care that, oh, the teams like the Orioles and the Astros and the Dodgers and the Braves had to wait a little extra longer.

They don't care. The more teams they get in. Right.

And the more money you make, that's all the sport gives a rat's ass about. But it is wild to me this postseason. And we've seen it all kind of sports.

Right. We've seen last seeds like the Packers get into the playoffs, win a Super Bowl. We've seen in the NBA just this year, the Miami Heat were in the second playing game down with three or four minutes to go. The next thing you know, they're in the NBA finals. There was that one year in hockey where you had a Canadians and Flyers Eastern Conference semifinal and they were eight and seven. When you had the Eastern Conference final, they received eight and seven.

So we've seen seeds that aren't at the top end up going on runs. But the biggest takeaway I have so far from this postseason is just how quickly it's really moving. Well, I know it's a certain a lot amount of time for the playoffs, but in the opening round, you had all sweeps. Three game series, 2-0 by the Twins, 2-0 by the Rangers, 2-0 by the Phillies, 2-0 by the Diamondbacks. And now in this next round, you've already had the Astros and Rangers both advance to the ALCS with the Astros taking care of the Twins three games to one.

You have the Rangers upsetting the Orioles 3-0. And, you know, Brian, our buddy in the chat, is now taken. He informed me.

He sent me a tweet, Santer. You know, Brian, he sent me a message and he said, I love the show, but I am not listening to any sports talk for an entire week once his Orioles did go down. So Brian's been out on the show ever since the Orioles did go down to the Rangers just because he just can't take it. And unfortunately for Brian, he's a Panthers fan.

I get his message like, oh, maybe I'll listen again when the Panthers when I said, buddy, we may never see from you again with the way that the Carolina Panthers are going. But you look across the postseason, ALCS, it's already there. And in the NL, the Diamondbacks surprisingly swept the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Phillies could wrap this thing up tonight. They're up 2-1 against the Atlanta Braves. And that series has been crazy because in Game 1, Phillies take a statement to the Braves and make a statement to the Braves. And remember, the Phillies beat the Braves last year and sent them home early. And then in Game 2, it looked like the Phillies were cruising. You had the crazy catch by Harris, doubles off Bryce Harper. And then that series shifts back to Philadelphia last night and Bryce Harper hits two home runs and he was sensational in the game. I think the Phillies had six home runs in the game and the game was a blowout.

It was an absolute blowout. And now you go into this game tonight where it's like, this could be it for the Atlanta Braves. And you can look at your final four teams here. If you would have told me two months ago, not going into playoffs, but two months ago, it was the Astros, it was the Rangers, and let's just say the Phillies get there, it was the Phillies. And you didn't know who that fourth team was going to be coming from the NL. Like, you'd be like, yeah, you know, I could see the Astros get in there. I said this at the at the All-Star break, until someone takes down the Astros, they're my pick to get to the World Series and win it. Because you know the NL's going to beat up on one another and now we could have an NLCS where we all thought the two best teams were the Dodgers and Braves and we were all cognizant of how good the Phillies were and the run that they went on from a year ago. But there's a good chance that we don't have either of those teams in the NLCS. But you have the Astros and the Rangers going to be a phenomenal series. I thought with the Rangers getting hurt, that would catch up to them. That's why I wasn't believing in them heading into the postseason. But they're so far 5-0 to start this postseason, taking down Tampa Bay, taking down the Orioles. And now you get this fun team in the Diamondbacks, who I talked to Christian Walker, who's their longtime first baseman.

And I talked to him, this must have been in June. Yeah, it was before the MLB All-Star break. And I said to him, I go, do you feel like you guys have the pieces there? Because they have a young, talented team mixed with some good veterans to go make a World Series run.

He says, I don't see why not. But then these months later, to have them in a position where they are four wins away from going to the World Series is crazy. So I do think Philly's going to take care of Atlanta. If you're the Phillies, I'm not saying that you got to win tonight because you could go into Atlanta and win a pivotal and decide in Game 5. But anything then goes if you get into a deciding game, the momentum is on your side. You could see the body of the Atlanta Braves, and it's starting to get weak.

Put the nail in the coffin tonight. But if we have our final four teams of Phillies and Diamondbacks and Astros and Rangers, there may not be a lot of appeal nationally. But my reaction isn't, oh, we have to change the format.

And now all of a sudden this format isn't right. Talent should win out. And in this case, the Dodgers didn't play up to their level. The Braves haven't played up to their level. The Orioles haven't played up to their level. But a team like Houston, who was in the same spot as the Dodgers were on the other side of the bracket, they took care of business.

So I don't want to hear this nonsense just because they didn't go your way for your team and then you have a fan base start complaining, oh, everything has to change. It's baseball. That's why John Sterling always says you can't predict baseball, Susan.

You really can't. And look at last year. Who would have thought we'd had a Phillies Padres NLCS? So baseball is such an exciting postseason. And I have no problem with this format because you knew what the rules were going in. I preferred the old one. But I'm not all of a sudden going to say we have to change this and we have to do away with this just because some of the top seeds did go down.