Time Running Out for Justin Fields (Hour 2)

Alrighty, hour number two of our radio program.

That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show. Welcome on in on this Tuesday right here on CBS Sports Radio. The Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields is running out of time. And it's unfortunate because if you ask me, do I believe Justin Fields could play in the NFL and be a good quarterback? I do think he can be one day a good quarterback in the NFL.

But you look at two things. Right now in the current, he has an injury, a dislocated thumb. It's expected he's going to miss this weekend up against Stu's Raiders. So maybe the Raiders are actually going to be four and three, which would be crazy after seven weeks of the season.

And he could potentially miss more games than that, than just that one game. When you also see the environment, the Bears, I believe, have failed Justin Fields more so than Justin Fields has failed the Bears. Now that doesn't mean Justin Fields doesn't have room to improve and Justin Fields just gets a free pass for some of the shortcomings. But the Bears are where quarterbacks go to just like die, it feels like. The Bears quarterback situation historically has been dreadful. Where if you look back to the summer, remember when Justin Fields said, I'm going to become the first 4,000 yard passer in the history of the Chicago Bears and it's going to happen this season. And while I admire that confidence and I respect him saying that because to uplift an entire organization, an entire franchise, and an entire city, you've got to have somebody lead.

You've got to have somebody that has confidence and that shows up to work with an exuberant attitude and kind of a bold and cocky attitude as well. Because this is a league of alphas, right? This is a league of lions when you look in the NFL. And for Justin Fields, I thought this going into the season that he was being set up to fail this year.

Because there were some people on ESPN saying, oh, he's a dark horse candidate. I think it was Greenie to be MVP. And I'm like, what the heck is Greenie smoking?

I know Greenie's a jet fan. Is he doing some ayahuasca with Aaron Rodgers? And then you had the Fields comments himself where I go, even though 4,000 yards seems pretty easy now in the year of 2023 in the NFL, it's not easy if you're the quarterback of the Chicago Bears. And also, when you look at the way that Justin Fields plays, there's a lot of running that goes into his game where if he's throwing the ball to get 4,000 yards passing to hit that threshold, you're then taking away a good amount of times that you could be running. And while long term, that may be the best thing for Justin Fields, it was never going to be the case in the short term. Because Justin Fields running the football, elite, really strong, throwing the football, there's some good moments.

And then there's a lot of moments where you go, he has work to do. But you see the Bears, they've had a dreadful offensive line in a short tenure with the franchise. They now have DJ Moore, and I'll give him credit, two out of the last three weeks, they've looked good as an offense, and it's unfortunate timing with the injury. But they were starting to get going in that Broncos game that they choked, and then the commanders game was a big statement for them in an isolated window in that Thursday night Amazon Prime spot, and then last week it was ugly. So I look at the Bears, and I look at Justin Fields, if he was given a few more years, and if they invested in that offensive line, if they got him another weapon outside of DJ Moore, if they got the right head coach, if they got the right general manager, then yeah, I do believe that it could eventually work.

But you know what happens? Organizations change, and there's a constant cycle here, and most likely at the end of the year, we are trending in the direction that probably Ryan Polz is going to be out of a job as the general manager after two years, and Matt Eberfluss after two years is going to be out of a job as the head coach, because you look at where the Bears are positioned, they still have a long ways to go, and I mean a long ways to go. But their draft picks are going to be excellent draft capital and excellent draft positioning, because they have their own first round pick, which just for starters is going to be in the top five. And then you have the Carolina Panthers pick, which after six weeks of football, it is as clear as clear it could be with how many bad teams there are, like the Giants and like the Patriots and like the Broncos and like the Chicago Bears. There is no worse team, and there is not a team in football now that is more uninspiring than the Carolina Panthers. And that's with the Panthers putting up 14 points, getting right out of the gate to a 14 up and start up against the lethal Miami Dolphins and then allowing 35 points unanswered, and you end up getting your doors blown off in that game. But the Panthers stink. The Panthers are a garbage football team. The Panthers are painful to watch.

I do a weekly interview every Friday. I jump on one of our affiliates, WFNZ in Charlotte, on Mac and Bone show, and every Friday they kind of apologize to me. They say, Zach, we appreciate you doing the hit every week, but the football season, and they said this in September, it wasn't even the end of September, and they were already saying the season's over. And they're not wrong, because you look at the Panthers right now, and we'll talk about the Panthers a little bit later in the show, but their line stinks. Adam Thielen's still solid, but he's not a number one wide receiver in the NFL anymore, even though he's having a solid year, and there's no players on the offensive side of the ball that make you go, ooh, look at the Carolina Panthers.

They can at least have some hope for the future. And Bryce Young, I believe, can be a good quarterback, but I do believe he's going to get messed up by the Carolina Panthers. So the Bears have the Panthers picked from the Bryce Young trade in the draft. So the Bears right now are positioned to be one and two in the draft.

Now, I don't know if that's going to be the way at the end of the year. The Panthers will definitely get them the number one overall pick. Maybe the Bears win another game or two, and that pushes them down to like three, four, or five, but the Bears are a lock to have two picks in the top five. And if you have two picks in the top five, and let's just for argument's sake say you don't get number one.

Let's say, I don't know, I'll give some team a bone. It won't be your team, Stu, because you guys have too many wins, but I want to try to pump up Stu a little bit and give Stu some hope, because Stu looks down in the dumps, even with his football team being three and three, and maybe on their way to being four and three. So maybe this is teasing Stu, and this is backfiring. This isn't a good thing, because then I'm allowing Stu to envision life with Caleb Williams. But let's just say we live in this fake world where you have Caleb Williams to the Raiders, and that's how it ends up happening. Maybe Josh McDaniels does something crazy at the draft, and he trades up to the number one overall pick, and you do not have these Chicago Bears in a spot to draft Caleb Williams. You're telling me through a scouting process where Ryan Polis didn't draft, well, he won't even be the GM next year, but even if he was, or whatever you bring in, you go through an entire scouting process for someone that didn't draft Justin Fields, and you're telling me they're not going to fall in love with one of these other quarterbacks?

If it's a Michael Penix Jr., if it's a Drake May, Shador Sanders, if he does not go back to Colorado, whoever that guy may be. Of course, you're going to go through the process and say the rookie quarterback contract of Justin Fields is coming to an end soon. I don't feel comfortable paying him elite quarterback money, and he doesn't deserve that right now, and you're going to reset the time clock of the organization. You're going to, with a new coach most likely and a new GM coming in, do a restart, and then latch on to some of the pieces that they have in the organization right now, one of them being DJ Moore, and then also having those two draft picks. So Justin Fields, he'll have another chapter, he'll have another era, but it's going to be somewhere else, because time is running out for him in Chicago, and it's unfortunate, right when he finally starts to play well, and there starts to be moments where you're like, okay, I could actually tune into the Bears. I could actually watch the Bears and see if there's some development, see if there's some growth from Justin Fields.

He now has this injury, and he's expected to miss at least one week, if not more than that. So for Fields' future, because it makes sense for the Bears, use your two first round picks, get a quarterback, get another talented player, get a new coach, get a new GM, have them build to the future with DJ Moore as well, and then also get back some capital for Justin Fields, because there's going to be another offensive coordinator, another head coach in this league, that looks at Justin Fields and says, wow, the Bears messed up, it happens all the time. Josh Rosen, that one year when he was in Arizona, and then the Cardinals said they had to go get Kyler Murray, the Dolphins said, yeah, we'll give up a second round pick to go get Josh Rosen, we could fix him. The Carolina Panthers with Sam Darnold, they said, oh, we could go fix Sam Darnold with the Jets. What may be, and I don't want to say that Justin Fields is garbage because he's not, but what may be one team's trash could be another team's potential goal, and there will be teams in a quarterback-starved league that say, I could fix Justin Fields, because there's logical reasons to think you could fix Justin Fields, and also the easiest slam-dunk argument of them all is that every quarterback the Bears take, they end up ruining, or they don't end up having success with. So you could look at the Bears and say, man, it was more of what they did rather than what Justin Fields did. So here are some teams, and I'll start off with one of them being inside their own division in the North. If Kirk Cousins is done so at the end of this year with the Minnesota Vikings, now I don't know if the new Bears regime is going to want to trade him in division, but imagine just from a speed perspective, Justin Jefferson and Addison with Justin Fields. That seems like Madden.

That seems like a lot of fun. I don't know if it will work, but it's a better landing spot for Justin Fields in Minnesota than where he's currently at in Chicago. However, that's probably unlikely because there has to be a scale if you're Chicago where you don't want to get Burns where Fields ends up being this next great quarterback, and you gave him away for only a second round pick. So whatever a team like the next team I'll bring up is the Falcons offer, I don't know if it has to be double, but it has to be more than what a team that isn't in your division would offer.

And Atlanta would be a good destination, too. And I've said this before on this show, Desmond Ritter right now is probably trending in the direction of not being the guy for the Atlanta Falcons. Arthur Smith thinks this guy is like the greatest quarterback of all time, though, because the coaching over the weekend by Arthur Smith, how many times are you going to allow your young quarterback to throw the ball when you should be a run first team of Bijan Robinson and Tyler Algier? And Ritter did a bad job managing the game.

You've got to take a time out there on third and goal to two, but the coach has to take a time out as well. So the Falcons roster has a lot of talent with Bijan Robinson, Tyler Algier, Kyle Pitts, and then also Drake London. You need a quarterback. And if you're a Falcons fan, you may say, I don't know if I want Fields because you just went with another young quarterback. Maybe you want someone that's more solidified, but no one actually thinks Desmond Ritter has the ceiling to be a great quarterback in this league. It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about Justin Fields having that ceiling of being a really damn talented quarterback in the NFL. I also don't think it would hurt the Broncos to take a flyer on Justin Fields.

Now, I do believe that Sean Payton's preference would be to draft a quarterback. But if you only have to give up, let's say, like a second or third round pick for Justin Fields, I think it's worth it because Sean knows Russell Wilson is no longer the answer. And whether there needs to be a guy to bridge the gap until you get your next answer, I believe Fields has enough upside where maybe Fields turns out to be like Jared Goff, where when the Lions make that move, I know there was more pieces to it because they got two first round draft picks and they traded Stafford to the Rams, and there was a lot more complexities with that deal. But no one in Detroit thought Jared Goff was going to be the guy, and now Jared Goff is the guy. So you look at the Broncos, they may not look at Justin Fields as if he will definitely be their guy, and maybe Sean doesn't have the time as he thought he did to kick the tires on a potential project. But if you don't have to give up a ton of big draft capital, and we know that organization has given a ton of draft capital up anyway, and they've been able to survive where the Sean pick is coming to an end this year and the Russell deal has already been completed and what the return was for it, I don't believe the Broncos are a bad spot. A few more teams here that could land Justin Fields, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I'm not ready to say Kenny Pickett isn't that dude yet, but I haven't seen enough from Kenny Pickett to make me say he is absolutely that guy. And it's very young, you're a year and a few games in, and he didn't even start from the beginning last year because the Steelers did that idiotic thing starting Mitch Trubusky for the first few games of the season. But you see the Steelers, they have some talent with Pickens, and I look at a team like the Steelers, if you walk away from this season and say, yeah, I'm like in the middle on Kenny Pickett, I don't know if he could succeed, I do believe that a guy like Fields has a higher upside than Kenny Pickett. And then the final two teams that I'll give you, Tennessee is going to need a quarterback after this year because Ryan Tannehill isn't it, and his time is coming to an end, and now he just suffered an injury back to back seasons in Tennessee. I don't know what direction that team is moving because Tennessee keeps on trying to make it as if they could still contend, but the last two, three years you don't go into the season saying, oh wow, I expect Tennessee to be a lethal team, but then they're aggressive getting DeAndre Hopkins, not trading away, Derrick Henry, they made that stupid decision which they really weighed the white flag on that team's chances of potentially ever getting back to a Super Bowl by trading A.J.

Brown and restarting it with Traylon Burks, which was a dumb decision at the time, but they're going to need a new quarterback, and you cannot be trying out Ryan Tannehill next year. I don't think Will Levis is the guy, I don't think Malik Willis is the guy as well, and Justin Fields would instantly become the best quarterback on that roster, and here's just like a curveball that I'll throw at you. Where I think this player is a solid player, he's a good player, no one would have thought we'd ever be talking about him starting a few years ago in 2023 and getting rewarded with the contract, but if we continue to see up and down play from Geno Smith, where they're like once again a 9-8 team, and Geno Smith was a comeback player of the year last year, a lot of people wrote him off, but he did not write back and he told everyone about that, but if you see Geno regress and Geno looks more like the Geno we got to see up against a good defense with Luanna Rumo's Cincinnati Bengals, I know they just paid him, and I know they also have Drew Locke on the roster, and like the one that likes Drew Locke is Pete Carroll, but if Fields is going to like a backup role, and I do think he could land in a spot where he could start, I don't think it's the end of the world if you're Seattle to give up like a second round pick to go get the services of Justin Fields, because he could be your next guy in a team that's loaded with offensive talent, when you have DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and you just drafted, I know it's been a super success so far, but you just drafted Jackson Smith and Jigba, who I had high expectations coming out of the Ohio State, plus the two running backs in Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbedet. So Fields' time is coming to a close. It's unfortunate in Chicago, but the timing is right, where they're going to move on this season. I give you a few teams, the Vikings, the Falcons, the Broncos, Steelers, Tennessee, and Seattle.

Who's the team that you could see landing the services this offseason of Justin Fields? 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. We'll take a break. When we come on back, we'll update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We call that segment The News Brief. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial, stuck at a timeshare and want out.

Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com. Time to get to a news brief. Extra, extra real about it.

Extra, extra real about it. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Let's go to Billy O'Brien who was asked about his quarterback for now, Mac Jones.

Bill, sorry if you were asked this earlier, but is it your expectation that Mac will start this weekend? Yeah, yes. Hmm. That was short. That was really short. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That wasn't really that believable, though. Like, Samter, if I ask you, is your expectation that we're going to hang out this weekend?

And you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not really convincing, is what I'm saying. I believe Mac will be the starter this weekend for the Patriots, but I do think we are inching to the territory, and he's been pulled two times this year, where eventually they're going to go to somebody else. And it's all about the timing of the schedule, too. This weekend, they play the Bills. That's a 40 to 13 game if I've ever seen one coming. And that game is at one Patriot place, too. And the following week, they play the Miami Dolphins. And the Patriots actually played the Dolphins somewhat tight, at least for the first 30 minutes the last time those two teams went up in Week 2. That's going to be another game where they lose, like, 45 to 13.

After that week, they then play the Commanders. They're not going to Bailey Zappe. I know the fans were happy for Zappe last year, but the team at one point waived him this offseason, right as they were trimming down the roster to 53 names. Malik Cunningham gave you some explosive moments in the preseason, and you also need a quarterback that can make plays that can be mobile. I do think by the end of the year, we will see one game of Malik Cunningham, if not multiple games, where he's at least given the opportunity to start.

We go to Robert Sala. He was on Good Morning Football earlier this AM on the NFL Network. And Robert Sala was asked about Aaron Rodgers' rehab and his comeback from the Achilles injury. What he's doing, according to them, is absolutely ridiculous. For him to be walking already, I wouldn't put anything past him. He is willing himself to return faster than what you're supposed to be. I think he's fueled by doubt. I don't think I know he's fueled by doubt. The more you doubt him, the more fuel he has, and he's on a mission. There's one thing I've learned about him, is that when he has something on his mind and he wants to prove something, he's going to prove it.

So a lot of people can doubt him. I'm not doubting him. We're leaving the door open for him, but it's amazing to see how hard he's been working and the intent at which he's been doing it.

So I appreciate the hard work of Aaron Rodgers. I appreciate him wanting to come back this year. But you could believe and you could think and you could speak it into the universe that you're going to come back, and then it's also going to be, is your body physically ready to return?

And if you return too soon, can you do further damage to your body that could impact next season? And I know that people have talked about the special surgery that he got and the quick road to recovery. We're talking about a guy that got hurt 30-something days ago, though, still.

He's still very, very early in this process. It's remarkable to see him walking around. It's remarkable to see him on the field before the game, throwing the football and not using crutches on the field.

But what is the pain like after you do those small things, and what is it like behind the scenes? I'm still going to sit here, and I'm not going out on a limb when I say this. I'm going to sit here and say we don't see Rodgers again this year. If we do see Rodgers again, is he actually ready? Or is this Aaron Rodgers saying, I'm the great Aaron Rodgers, bleep you.

I have positive thoughts right now, and I'm not going to listen to some doctors and what people have done in the past, and I'm going to show everyone that they're wrong and that I could just do this just for the sake of doing it. And that may not be the right thing. It's his body. God bless him.

Do what you want. But until I see him back on the field taking a hit, yeah, I'm still going to believe that we won't see Rodgers until 2024, and I don't mean like January of 2024. I mean next year at the start of the 2024 regular season. Here is Aaron Rodgers being on the headset during the Eagles game when he was on the sideline for the Jets courtesy of the Pat McAfee Show. I like helping out. I was on the headset every game in the preseason. I think the coaches appreciate it. Listen, I don't think I had a major impact on the game, maybe calm some people's nerves, maybe a couple thoughts I threw out might have gotten taken into account and made their way into the call.

But for me, again, it was all the parts of feeling a little bit more normal, feeling like I was a part of it, feeling like I was back. So I like how Rodgers is there, and I like how Rodgers is contributing to however he contributes to the team considering the injury. But when he said calming some nerves, who was that directed to? Is that to the head coach, Robert Sala, who's like jacked up all the time? Is that to his BFF, Nathaniel Hackett, or is that to Zach Wilson? Sam, if you had to take a guess, you used to be a Jet fan, now you're like, oh, go Chiefs, and you're doing all that lame crap. If you had to get into the cabeza of Aaron Rodgers when he says he's trying to calm somebody's nerves, is that Sala, is that Hackett, or is that Zach Wilson when he's on the headset?

I think it's all of it. Later on in the interview, he discussed how while he was on the headset, there's a lot of voices all talking to Hackett and to Wilson throughout the game, and so he kind of serves as that calming voice for the process. So I don't think he's specifically talking about Wilson or Hackett, I think he's just saying the process sometimes gets out of control, and he's the calming voice to bring it all down. So basically what you're saying is he's like the binky to a baby in this role, where you have Hackett, you have Sala, you have Zach Wilson, they may all be crying or they may be all at a different level of energy, and you have a young child now, right? Nine or ten months old daughter, correct?

Ten month old daughter. And sometimes you're like, oh, we need the child to be a little bit quiet, to calm down, so you get the binky out, Rodgers is basically the binky to Sala, to Hackett, and to Zach Wilson. I think that's his new nickname, Aaron the Binky Rodgers. I don't think he would like that all that much.

Let's get a little check around the room. Stu, yes or no? You a fan of Dan Campbell? Big fan of Dan Campbell.

Sampter, you ready to bite off some kneecaps for Dan Campbell? I always liked Dan Campbell, but I didn't think that his brand and his style would ever actually work. I thought he'd be fun for a little bit.

The fact that it's actually turned around a franchise, I've always liked his personality and liked his approach, but now seeing that it's actually working is shocking to me. But yes, huge fan. He was an acquired taste for me.

I'll admit it. When I first heard Dan Campbell, I was similar to Sampter, where it's not like I would bleep Dan Campbell, I don't like this guy. I thought his shtick would eventually get old very soon, and he just gave me major college coaches vibes, where I thought he'd be this great rah-rah coach inside the Big Ten, never in the NFL. But Dan Campbell has shut everybody up. Dan Campbell now has a dominant football team. Dan Campbell now has a team that could be playing in the Super Bowl this year, and I don't think that's far-fetched, where you look at this Lions team.

There's not a lot of flaws outside of just not having that experience. The offensive line is good, led by Penay Sewell. They've got to get healthy at the running back spot with Montgomery and Gibbs. Jared Gossman better than anyone thought he could ever be in Detroit. You've got two good wide receivers in a rah-rah Sam Brown, and Jameson Williams will develop into one. Sam Laporte is a really good young tight end in this league, and defensively, you're led by Aiden Hutchinson and Alex Anzalone. They've got a damn good football team, and they've got a confident football team as well. So I give a lot of credit to Dan Campbell.

With that being said, though, we go around the room. Stu likes Dan Campbell. Samter now loves Dan Campbell. I now am a big fan of Dan Campbell as well.

Aaron Rodgers, to no surprise, because whenever everyone's on one side, there's always got to be one contrarian. Aaron Rodgers loves to play that role in the Pat McAfee show, and he admits he's not the biggest fan of Dan Campbell. Yeah, I have some mixed thoughts over the years. He followed one of my all-time favorite coaches in Miami, Joe Philbin, and there were some things said during that time, which I felt like were not the classiest stuff. I think there's a way of following coaches where you don't have to slam the previous guy in order to make yourself feel better. So from all accounts, Joe Philbin seems like a really good man. But just because you're a really good man doesn't mean that you're a phenomenal head coach. And Joe Philbin, when he was with the Miami Dolphins, his highlights were being 8-8.

That's not good. So when you're taking over for someone and Philbin was fired right after Week 4, you've got to change things up a bit. Now, I don't know if Campbell slammed him publicly. I don't know if he pulled a Sean Payton to Nathaniel Hackett. If that was the case, then there's some wrong in that. But it's almost as if... I know that Philbin is a favorite of Rodgers, and Rodgers loves him, but it doesn't mean that what Dan Campbell was saying in the moment was necessarily wrong, because you never know what opportunities you're going to get.

And when you get an interim opportunity, you've got to take that baton and run with it, because it could be a job audition right there in the moment, or years later when people think you're ready to become a head coach in this league. Here is Dak Prescott on the failed tush push in the game last night. I didn't push my tush enough. No, just didn't get it, honestly.

Just didn't get it, which we did, obviously. That would turn into more points, but yeah. Let's get a new name for that. Stu, do you think they should ban the tush push, just wondering? I do not. I think teams will adjust eventually, and it'll be a play that teams use, but it won't be a play that is so successful like it is for the Eagles. Samter, are you anti-tush push here? Are you anti-tush push? No, I love it.

Here's the thing. I'm not against the tush push, but I do find it funny that you have so many people that look at the Eagles and go, this thing should be banned. But then all these other teams run it, and it seems like they can't replicate the success that the Eagles have. So there has to be some skill to the tush push, and we all know the Eagles have this dominant offensive line, but we're just talking about pushing your quarterback for a yard, and Jalen Hurts is a really strong guy, so that has to play a role into it as well.

But it's amazing. All these other teams run it, and they don't have nearly as close to the success as the Philadelphia Eagles have. Here is Teddy Bruschi on his hopes for Bill Belichick.

This was courtesy of ESPN. I want him to coach his ass off this season and get, how would it, six, seven wins, all right? Have them playing respectable by the end of the season and walk away. That's what I want my former coach to do. Shula doesn't matter. You've got multiple Super Bowls over Shula.

You're a better coach. So I heard that whole thing, and Teddy Bruschi did go on to say, at this point, Bill's just coaching for himself, right, with the Shula record. He knows the Bill Belichick that he knew was all about winning championships and the success of the team.

I have no problem, and I think that record means a lot to Bill, but at what cost? Because the legacy talk is ridiculous. People that get on shows today and go, Bill Belichick is nothing without Tom Brady. Bill Belichick is a terrible coach.

You're an idiot. Because for 20 years, and I'm a Patriot fan, how many times did I hear people say, oh, it's all Belichick, and Brady's just a product of the system? So now it's just the flavor, because Bill has been bad, to just slam Bill and make it worse than what it actually is on his legacy. Bill needed Brady. Brady needed Bill to get to six titles. Do I believe Bill could have gone somewhere and won in his own? Yes. Do I think Brady could have gone somewhere and won in his own?

Yes, we've seen that. But to get to a dynasty, to get to 20 years of greatness, to get to six championships, they both needed each other. I don't think that's a bad take by Teddy Bruschi, but I would take it one step further. Not retire. Go somewhere else. If I'm Bill Belichick, do what Brady did a few years ago. Go identify a team that needs you. Go identify a team that has a head start with a lot of talent. Brady identified the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It resulted in a Super Bowl. Go look at the Los Angeles Chargers.

Brandon Staley, not ready. Kellen Moore, not a good offensive coordinator right now. If I'm Belichick, I'm saying, Kraft, trade me to the Chargers or fire me, whatever.

Just get me out of this deal and go to the Chargers and see if you go get one final Super Bowl before you hang them up. Let's go to Warren Sapp on the rumors that Jon Gruden could be joining Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh if they fire Matt Canada and make Gruden the offensive coordinator. I can't even say what Jon said. No, Mike T said, I don't know who writes this stuff, Warren.

I said, yeah, all right, boom. He's going to watch his kid play football down at Ivy League school. So Jon and me are scheduling a golf outing this weekend, so it's creamsicle week in Tampa, so trust me. No, he's not going. Now, not that Warren Sapp is the end-all be-all, but clearly they had a conversation, Warren Sapp and Jon Gruden.

I always had a tough time in this room. I always had a tough time when this report came out two weeks ago, seeing Jon Gruden back on an NFL sideline and being an offensive coordinator on a head coach. I don't think he should be a head coach again in the NFL. I don't think he will be a head coach again in the NFL.

But you have to check your ego if you want to be an OC, and I don't think Gruden would be able to do that even though he is addicted to the game of football. Let's hear a Notre Dame fan running on the field after Notre Dame beat USC, and a Notre Dame fan went right to Caleb Williams to get the social media moment. Ah! Ah! We did it! Let me see those nails down, bro!

Let me see those nails down, bro! Come on! Ah! We did it! We did it! We did it! We did it!

We did it! You know, two things here. It's kind of crazy, and I'm not against storming the field, but it's crazy how quickly the fan can get to the player now. There should be some buffer period where it's like, USC, don't shake hands with Notre Dame. Just quickly get you off the field, and then we'll allow the fans to storm the field. Now, I know the universities will never allow the fans to storm the field because they get fined, but I don't think I would have the cojones if I was a fan at that age as a student to run up to the player and be like, ah, you paint your nails! Ah! And you know what? If the player, and I know we saw this a few weeks ago, ended up punching the fan back, you kind of get what you deserve.

Alrighty, let me play one more. Here is Trevor May, who announced his retirement. I think this is on a Twitch stream, his own Twitch stream, and then he rips the A's owner in his retirement speech. To the A's organization and every single person part of it, I love all of you, except for one guy.

We all know who that guy is. Sell the team, dude. Sell it, man. Let someone who actually takes pride in the things they own, own something.

There's actually people who give a s*** about the game. Let them do it. Pick mommy and daddy's money somewhere else. It is what it is.

Reality is you got handed everything you have, and now you're too soft to sit and stand in front or take any responsibility for anything you're doing. Good job there by Trevor May. Now I always say this about Jon Fisher. I understand why you would want to move the team from Oakland to Vegas. I get that.

But just because I understand why you would want to do that doesn't mean that other people have to like it. And I do like how Trevor May didn't even mention the owner by name. He's just like, oh, that guy that made all of his money from his mommy and his daddy and got handed everything. That's a good rip job there by Trevor May. All right, well, come on back. This is the Zach Gilm Show on CBS Sports Radio.

Update time first. Here he is, the act man, Rich Ackerman. Well, that was quick in Carolina. Thomas Brown is now going to be the offensive play caller as Frank Reich has given up those duties.

And that makes me say one thing. Why was Frank Reich hired to be the head football coach of this team? And Frank Reich is a well-respected name in the NFL. Frank Reich, I think, is starting to show you that he was more of a good offensive coordinator and a guy that wasn't a disaster as a head coach. But he's not someone that I need to hire as a head football coach in the year of 2023.

And this is not revisionist history. This is not, oh, let me dance on a grown man's grave when things aren't going well and they're winless through the first six weeks of the season. I never understood the Frank Reich hire when the Panthers brought him in during the offseason. I know usually when teams make hires and when it was so bad in the previous tenure of the coach that they try to go the complete opposite. They go from a college coach to a guy that's been an NFL lifer and a guy that is considered to be, right, like a grown adult in the NFL and a well-respected name in the NFL.

But a lot of times the guys that are well-respected in the NFL and that everyone likes don't always turn out to be and pan out to be these great head coaches. And the last two years in Carolina, or the last two years in Indianapolis, I saw a Frank Reich team that was constantly unprepared, a Frank Reich team that in their strongest positional group on the offensive line regress, a Frank Reich team that could never go into Jacksonville and get the job done, and a Frank Reich team that got owned by the Tennessee Titans. And last year, this is the most damaging stat, Frank Reich, where if you don't have a good team, you would think, okay, a head coach could script some plays and could get a team to show up in the first 30 minutes. He was outscored last year in Indianapolis, 118-42, in just the first 30 minutes of football games.

He never had a lead at halftime before he got fired in season by the Indianapolis Colts. And the Panthers, with their dopey owner in David Tepper, says, yeah, I need the guy that couldn't win in Jacksonville, that had just terrible performances up against Tennessee, and the last two years constantly never had his team prepared for games. That's who they hired.

And it's like, okay, if you hire him, you're hiring him because you have the number one overall pick, and I know they eventually moved up, but you were looking to go get your long-term quarterback, and you think he's the quarterback whisperer, he's the offensive guru, and after six games you say, yeah, we got to change the play calling. So it's like, what is Frank Reich there to do? What is Frank Reich doing really well? What is going to be the things at the end of the year where if you're David Tepper, you say, I need to see more of Frank Reich.

Like, we know what Frank Reich is. He's a good guy. He's a really good offensive coordinator when he doesn't have head coaching duties. As a head coach, he's mediocre.

He's not someone that I need to have. Like, he's not a disaster, but he's never going to be great. I do think Frank Reich is going to be back as the head coach next year for the Carolina Panthers, but I think he's on the hot seat, and I would be stunned if they turned it around enough where after the 2024 season wraps up that David Tepper, who has so many problems that are led by his own incompetence, says, oh, yeah, I got to bring Frank Reich back for another season, and I got to bring him back for a third year.

I have a tough time believing that. And you know the Panthers will be aggressive this offseason. You know they're going to go get more talent for Bryce Young because they got to go save Bryce Young right now. But a few years into a tenure, a few years into a job, you're already given up play calling duties. I go back to it, and I said this at the time when they hired Frank Reich. I said, it's a very underwhelming hire. And if they couldn't go get a big name, a name that would be inspiring, a name that would make me believe, they should have just kept what was working. And they should have ripped the interim tag off of Steve Wilkes because Steve Wilkes did a heck of a job for the Panthers down the stretch last year, gave them a shot to go win that terrible division, and they should have just continued to rock and roll with something that was working in Steve Wilkes.

But instead, you didn't get a big name, you didn't get the right coach, and now you're bringing Frank Reich that's a big name in NFL circles and is a nice guy and a guy that a lot of people like, but he's never been this super-duper successful head coach, and that's what the Panthers need. 8-5-5, 2-1-2-4, CBS 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. Let's go to Jay in Nashville next up on CBS Sports Radio.

Jay, what's happening? Hey, I recall me and you in Pirloff, it was the day Maggie had to take off, and you had a feeling for Maggie. It was like right before the draft, I was walking around Costco, and we were talking about this, and I remember you guys putting me on the spot. I was trying to argue, like, no, they need to take Bryce.

And I remember you were particularly right. Look, you know what type of quarterback Frank Reich likes. Who do you think, like, just after everything you just said, who do you think is the most logical decision here? I had to say C.J. Stroud, which he was, and it looked like that C.J. Stroud would have been the better option in this situation.

And you know what, Jay? That's the best defense people could have of Frank Reich if you want to talk about his tenure so far, because to Frank Reich's credit from what a lot of people have said, including Adam Schefter, he wanted C.J. Stroud, and it was the dopey owner that wanted Bryce Young. And personally, to be fair, I like Bryce Young better than C.J. Stroud, but so far through the tenure it hasn't even been close. C.J. Stroud's been the better quarterback.

It's not that he's not better than C.J. Stroud. Look, I watched the play. The only time I've seen Bryce play this year, I watched the play where he barely got, like, one of the defensive linemen.

Already it was double teamed. All he did was reach a handout and just slap him in the back. It was almost like a horse collar, but it was just from that heavy hand, it made Bryce fold up like a pretzel.

And when I saw that, I was like, oh, my God. And it's like, if that's barely, if a hand swipe or a club to the back of the neck is taking them down like that, they need to send them for the rest of the year until they get somebody or get a lot, because I was saying that when we were talking, like, dude, I wouldn't draft them if you can't protect them. Hey, Jay, I got to let you run because we're up against them and appreciate the phone call.

Good stuff, always great to hear from you. That's the one defense of Frank Reich, is that he wanted C.J. Stroud, but the owner stepped in. It shows you how much a disaster David Tepper is. I use this analogy last week. David Tepper is the guy that never cooked a meal in his life, owns a restaurant and tells the chef of 20 years, yeah, I'm going to cook the chicken parm tonight. Not going to be good chicken parm.