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Willie Colon, SNY / FOX NFL Analyst and Former NFL Offensive Lineman

Zach Gelb Show / Zach Gelb
The Truth Network Radio
October 13, 2023 6:08 pm

Willie Colon, SNY / FOX NFL Analyst and Former NFL Offensive Lineman

Zach Gelb Show / Zach Gelb

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October 13, 2023 6:08 pm

SNY / FOX NFL Analyst joins Zach to talk Thursday Night Football action and preview week 6.

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All right, we continue this exact Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio.

Let's go out to the guest line right now. Welcome in a man that is now an analyst at Fox, also SNY, played with the Steelers and the Jets, and that's former NFL offensive lineman and Willie Colon. You know, it's weird to say he's an analyst at Fox because he's the co-host with Craig Carter and used to work inside this building. And Willie, I know working with Craig for so many years, that means Craig just makes you eat a whole lot more than you probably want to with the amount of food connections he has. Oh man, yeah, I can't blame, you know, Craig on my weight gain.

That's all me. I'm a foodie at heart, man. Craig just happens to match my energy when it comes to food and enjoying having a good time, man. I love him. It's been an absolute gem of an experience.

He's, you know, I get to witness the magic of Craig Carton every day and I'm blessed for it. So I'm watching the game last night and when I'm seeing just the incompetence of the Broncos and all the boneheaded decisions by Sean Payton, I say to myself, this looks like they're tanking to go get Caleb Williams. Your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the easy narrative to have. The problem is, you know, Sean Payton was brought in that building to be the difference maker, you know, all I've ever heard out of Sean Payton thus far is a bunch of complaints and problems and no solutions. A valid Russell Wilson isn't even a problem. A valid, he didn't have a good game last night with only one touchdown and two interceptions.

But overall, this is a bad outfit from, from top to bottom. And Sean Payton was supposed to be the guy, so to speak, to come in and clean things up, get Russell Wilson on track, let this offense come alive and Vance Joseph, the defense is just atrocious. You're talking about Randy Gregory leaving in the 90s and 90s, talking about the secondary, hasn't been able to perform up to standard and they're not able to get after their quarterback with their pass rush. So they have a lot of, they have a lot of deficiencies on both sides of the ball and Sean Payton right now, he has to figure out what's the future for the Denver Broncos.

And I don't think he has an answer right now. And you go to the next team, the Kansas City Chiefs, they were playing last night. We all know how great they can be. And their offense still hasn't been in sync yet. And we all look at the AFC and talk about how it's open. I'd be kind of surprised that the Chiefs don't find the way to get this thing figured out on offense and wind up in the Superbowl again. You know, as of right now, I don't see them winning the Superbowl flat out. You talk about last night, having four out of five red zone trips only come away with one touchdown. That's, that's not the Kansas City Chiefs that we've known to grow in love, so to speak. Patrick Mahomes is always going to be a difference maker, but right now he has only one threat and that's Travis Kelsey.

Everybody else is just out there. A valid Rashid Rice, the rookie, he's playing better. He had seven catches yesterday, but overall, this is an offense you expect to average at least 30 points a game.

They have yet to do that. So obviously they had that one, you know, game against the Bears where they have 41 points, but out of that, if that game doesn't happen, they're in the bottom half of this league and scoring and that's, that's, that's not Chiefs football. If you would, that's not Andy Reid football as we know to love. So there's a lot of issues right now. I think when the trade deadline comes, if they can somehow make a push to get Devante Adams out of Las Vegas and get Patrick Mahomes a number one, two number one receiver, things will turn around. But right now he's still, he's still trying to figure out what he has on that officer side of ball outside of Travis Kelsey. Talking to Willie Colon right now.

All right. Let's talk about some of your former teams. We'll start with the jets. The popular thing is to throw out maybe a Kirk Cousins trade to New York. I just don't think that is likely.

Where do you stand on that? And do you just feel as if it's going to be Zach Wilson's team for the rest of the season? I think it's going to be Zach Wilson's team in reference to Kirk Cousins.

His contract is up in March. You know, if I'm Kirk Cousins and you're looking for a new deal in a new outfit, once you just pad the stats, they're not going to the playoffs. Justin Jefferson is out, but he's still playing high octane football.

Now, you know, the Minnesota Vikings have 12 turnovers. They need to be better in that category, but Kirk Cousins is still throwing the football at a great rate. He's still making plays. He's explosive.

So if I'm him, stay put, pad the stats, and then realize when March is over, you're going to have a great opportunity to play for somebody, hopefully a playoff contender. You know how passionate that sealer fan base is right now. Everyone wants the offensive coordinator Matt Canada out. What are you seeing right now with the Steelers offense?

You know, I'm seeing, I'm seeing a ball club that just lacks identity. Obviously their defense is always going to be top tier because of TJ Watt. Some of the, some of the pass rushers they have, but the loss of Cameron, Cameron Haywood has hurt them.

You know, I know Cam personally, he was my little brother when I was a Steeler. And he's, he embodies the Steeler culture through and through, but nevertheless, man, from the offensive side, you know, Kenny Pickett isn't as advertised. We thought the preseason, we thought he was going to be one of these guys who say, Oh wow, here he comes.

He has arrived. That has yet to happen. Pickett, you know, you talk about Allen Robinson, George Pickens, you talk about all these other weapons that we assume we're going to be a legit threat for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Has it come to fruition? I think Jalen Warren is probably the one bright spot on that office that you said, Hmm, you got something there, but overall, they just need to score. They haven't been able to score. And his defense has really been able to kind of pull out some wins with the Steelers right now. It's just a matter of going back to the brand of football that we know them to have, being able to run the ball and play behind their defense and win games. They've done that half of the part. Now, if you go back to that Baltimore game, Baltimore just fumbled back.

So you have as many drops as they had in a fashion in which they had it. You're going to lose ball games. And when you go against a scrappy outfit in the Pittsburgh Steelers, they're going to find a way to win. And they did, but overall, man, they're going to have to figure out what's going on with Kenny Pickett. How can they get this office coming live?

You won't count your blessings. And one thing Mike Tom is going to figure it out. That's what he does.

Well, he adjusts as well. He's going to figure out how to get this team to be what they need to be, especially as we get longer into the season. But the Steelers are, you know, they're just kind of in limbo right now. They're kind of going through it. What would you say to Steelers fans that are starting to lose faith in Mike Tomlin?

Cause you just said it, he's going to find the way to figure it out. But for the first time in a while, there's a lot of more vocal Steelers fans saying maybe he's no longer the guy in Pittsburgh. Well, because I think they're starting to question the standard, right? And the standard has always been Superbowl bus bottom line. We've never played for division titles. We never played to make the playoffs every season that has been a given thus far.

We haven't been back to the Superbowl since 2010 or 2011 when I was on the team. And so right now you're looking at a fan base who's used to excellence, right? It's no different how the Yankees fans expect the Yankees to go to the world series every year.

You know, there's just come, it comes with it. Like when you talk about particular ball clubs, you don't talk about playoffs and division titles. It's either championships or we're not talking at all. So they're growing weary, but Preston believe Mike Tom is always going to keep this outfit ready. And if they're not ready, he's going to figure it out. You talk about prior to the Baltimore game, you know, they, they, they put on the pads and they kept the pads on for majority of the week because he understands one thing that Pittsburgh Steelers do. They played physical football. And I felt like against the Texans, they weren't asked because they got beat up a little bit. Um, and you talk about losing to a rookie quarterback and CJ Stroud, that can't happen when you have that type of talent on that type of team and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So I think my time is still trying to work with this group. Um, but they're going to get it. One thing about the Pittsburgh Steelers, they kind of sneak up on you, especially late in the season when everybody's beat up, they start getting better because they're built for the grind. And so I'm not really worried about the Pittsburgh Steelers. I did just need Kenny pick and just needs to pick it up and they got to start scores and touchdowns. Do you think this is it for Belicheck in new England or we'll be back as the head coach next year? Will he come on?

I think this is it. Um, to be honest, Robert Kraft has been vocal about, you know, this team not winning playoff games or making it to the playoffs, which they haven't been in a while. It's about Superbowls. And I think right now, Bill Belicheck is probably one of the best coaches of all time. You put it right up there next to Vince Labarte and Don Shuler.

Sure. The problem is what my, uh, excuse me, Bill Belicheck is that a lot of the answers we thought were the answers hasn't happened, right? When you let go of Joshua, Dan, you said, all right, bring him bill O'Brien. He's going to connect with Mac Jones.

The office is going to be better. Um, and that hasn't happened. Once Matt Jones lost to Colby Myers, he didn't have a security blanket anymore. Uh, you're talking about Matt Jones starting the season. He's trailed in every game he's played in and he's only gotten worse. This defense, you talk about losing Christian Gonzalez at the cornerback position, a rookie who was playing extremely well. He's going with ACL.

You're talking about Judon getting hurt with a bicep. Um, they just don't look like the new England Patriots. And one thing you know about Bill Belicheck, or at least what we assumed is now I don't know if you know him, but he's an authoritarian, but he also knows how to adjust.

He's the biggest brain in the building. And we haven't seen that type of action or that type of progress happened yet with the new England Patriots. And so for me, watching Mac Jones and watching this outfit all together, man, they just like they're playing high octane, bad football across the board.

There's nothing on tape that makes you say that there's a bright spot. And you're watching a struggle in Matt Jones who seems like he wants, he wants out of new England. He doesn't want to be there anymore. So that's, that's troubling because since he's considering, he's such a young quarterback, but I think Bill right now it's two things. If he steps aside and it just focuses on being a coach and not the GM, or he, him and Robin crafts say, Hey man, it's been fun.

Best of luck to you in the future. And they part with it. And it's so mystifying because everything you just laid out with Belicheck, it was like last year.

Okay. You're trusting a special teams guy and a defensive guy to run your offense. And then this year you're bringing bill O'Brien wonderful, but you could only go so far. If you just have an offensive coordinator and there's no talent, there's not a single Patriot wide receiver right now that if I was a defender, I'm like, Oh, we got to stay up late at night to prepare for this guy on the Patriot offense. A hundred percent. And the thing about bill Belicheck, he's always had a developmental system, right? You you've always kind of had to say whatever guy he brought into building rather than they had a name or not, there was always something you had to trust in him because you trust bill Belicheck in his eye. But you can do that when Brady's your quarterback, when you don't have Brady, you can't just have developmental people.

A hundred percent. But now all that's kind of unraveling. So now you're starting to question was bill it always Brady it right. And now that those answers are starting to, you don't have to look around no more.

You say, Oh, there's a problem here, right? Bill, I mean, bill maybe not have been the guys because Tom Brady masked all the deficiency this team was lacking at the time. So I'm looking at, I'm looking at this Patriots team moving forward, man. Bill looks like a guy who's over his skis for the first time in his career.

And I think we're witnessing it. And I think I say this, man, is that, you know, sports for a lot of you, this younger generation, they only know Brady. They only know, they only know Tom, but their grandfathers, their uncles, their fathers, patients, when they were got off, right? My uncle was one of them. And from Framingham, Massachusetts, they have four tickets.

They get 15 people into the games, right? So now you have a lot of people that say, Hey, you know what? You know what? You know what? You know what?

Right? So now you have, you have the old head, so to speak, saying, I told you talking to the, to the, the young heads in the family saying, man, we were, we were, I'm going to picture is shocked when they were God awful. Now you get these first, but we, we, we're experienced. We experienced most of our lives.

So it's, it's trouble in New England. I think the best way to go about it is saying, bill, stadium will put you in the rank of honor, obviously your hall of Famer, but it's time to go fishing. And we see you down the road, maybe on a sports desk as an analyst.

That would be, you know, we're going to look at this play here and we're going to analyze this and we'll sit back and we'll talk more with Willie cologne at another date, but Willie, great stuff. Keep up the great work with Fox and SMY. Always appreciate you would jump on board with us. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. God bless. There he is Willie cologne joining us right here on CBS sports radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-10-19 23:10:01 / 2023-10-19 23:16:24 / 6

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