Thursday Night Snooze Fest (Hour 1)

Live from the police 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 football Friday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming on YouTube.

I'm Chris Doering, the former Florida wide receiver, not as a great job as an SEC Network analyst, who's going to stop by to preview this weekend of games and college football, 20 minutes from now, and then at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific, we'll do our weekly podcast. We'll be right back. Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. So at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, to 2.20 p.m. Pacific, we'll do our weekly betting spot with bed MGM tonight's very own Ryan Horvat. Let's start with the game last night.

So my reaction is blah. That's the game. Between the Buffalo Bills and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Orchard Park. There was never a moment, even after the interception by Josh Allen and the Buccaneers end up getting the ball in the end zone to tie it up at 10-10, there was never a moment in the game where I legitimately thought Buffalo was going to lose the game, but it's not a performance where I walk away and I say to myself, wow, I'm now all of a sudden back in on the Buffalo Bills bandwagon.

The Bills game last night just shows you they are a superior team up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And I don't know what the heck the Bucks were doing in that game, especially on their second to last drive where it was just dinking and dunking and they were doing an excellent job in killing the clock for the Buffalo Bills and it took them forever to get the ball down the field and into the end zone. And really last night's game was summed up in two plays where how much of a struggle it was to score, even when a team like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a touchdown and then a two-point conversion. In all my years of watching football, I have never seen on back-to-back plays, right?

Baker Mayfield throws the football to Mike Evans. It goes off a Bills defender's helmet and then off the carrom into the hands of Mike Evans. And you get that happens and you get a fortuitous bounce. But then the next play, which was the two-point conversion, is a deflection that the Buffalo Bills get a hand on the football.

It pops up into the air and then once again off another fortuitous bounce, it goes into the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end and you get a two-point conversion. That was the game last night in a nutshell, even when a team elected to score. It took every effort and every lucky bounce and it was such a boring game. That game last night almost put me to sleep.

That's how boring it was. And the Bills in the second half really did nothing outside of marching the ball down the field right out of halftime. And that was a sloppy, lethargic, ugly, and just a football game that you kind of expected it to be that way, but there's no big takeaway really from either team with that game last night.

Because the way that we thought about both of those teams going into the game, it's still the same thing today after the game. Like the Bills are a good team. We know the Bills are still trying to figure out their defense, slowly implementing Von Miller back into the fold and you got to get him going and he was getting to the quarterback late. But it is apparent that the Bills really miss their heartbeat and maybe the pulse of their team in Matt Milano on the defensive side of the ball and then also a really good quarterback in Tredavious White.

And those are adjustments that they're going to have to make. Because those guys, you know, Milano's not coming back this year. So that's a team and neither is Tredavious White. So that's a team that on defense, they should be playing a whole lot better. And on offense, it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions with the Buffalo Bills. Where there's times Josh Allen is spreading the ball out and he's really firing it to multiple different guys throughout the course of the game, but there's always that one play during the game where you go, how the heck did that just happen? And that was the interception right before the end of the half for Josh Allen and lucky for the Buffalo Bills in a large scheme of things, it didn't come back to haunt them. It didn't come back to prevent them from getting the W. But Buffalo is a team that if I had to give you one positive from the game last night, even in a win, it's that the last two weeks, Dalton Kincaid has really got going. And I was very optimistic on Dalton Kincaid going into the draft.

There was debates. Who's the best tight end? Is it Michael Mayer from Notre Dame?

Is it Dalton Kincaid from Utah? And I know that Kincaid went in the 20s, in the mid 20s towards the back end of the first round. I thought if he didn't get injured, Dalton Kincaid with his athleticism and just his big frame and the way that we value tight ends now, I thought for sure he could have been a top 15 pick. And to start the season, it was very slow for Dalton Kincaid in a Buffalo Bills uniform.

But the last two weeks, he's got going. And I think it's a point of emphasis to get him the football because we're still trying to figure out who's going to be that number two piece in Buffalo. I think a lot of us assume it's Gabe Davis and Gabe Davis right last night as nine receptions gets in the end zone, has 87 yards.

Khalil Shakir gets six receptions for 92 yards in the game. But I really do believe that if the Bills are going to turn this thing around, they're going to need Kincaid to be a freak down the stretch and into the postseason because we've seen games, right, where Gabe Davis, what, against the Chiefs a few years ago had three or four touchdowns and ultimately it didn't lead to a victory. Like you'll take that performance from Gabe Davis, but Gabe Davis is a solid number two wide receiver.

I do think, though, you need more than just Staphon Diggs, who's a top 10 wide receiver in the sport, top five wide receiver, and then Gabe Davis, who's a solid player, who at times looks like he could be a good player. And that pop of Dalton Kincaid is going to be essential because I am past the point where I'm expecting the Bills to ever really figure out the run game outside of relying on Josh Allen. And you saw that last night where at times, yes, they'll make James Cook a big part of the offense earlier in the season. But last night they ran the ball seven times with Josh Allen for 41 yards. And when this team has been back and forth, we'll hand the ball off to Josh. We won't hand the ball off to Josh. You know, when the tough times get going and you get later into the year and you get into more uncomfortable times of the football season, they're going to revert to the offense that they've run the last few years where it's all on the shoulder and it's all on the legs of Josh Allen. That's just going to be the way that it goes.

And this is coming from the same person that yesterday sat here and said the Bills should trade for Saquon Barkley, the Bills should trade for Derrick Henry. I stand by that. That still makes sense. I'm coming from a logical standpoint.

But how many times do you keep on going back to the well and asking a team to do something and then when they fail to do it, keep on expecting them to do so? And there's a difference there. Like what I say the Bills should do isn't necessarily what the Bills will do. So it's a positive that the Bills got a win last night because they needed a win.

They're sitting there now at five and three. But this Buffalo team, they're still missing something. They're still missing that it factor and that belief and that conviction that you had with this football team from a few years ago. And I don't anticipate through the rest of the season that all of a sudden, especially without Matt Milano and Tredavious White, that this team's going to get that spark back and everything's going to keep on clicking for the Buffalo Bills. And they have moments to prove that they're a different team because right now they're just stuck on being a good team.

And I don't believe that they're going to be a great team at the end of the season. But next week, isolated window, Sunday Night Football on NBC, you have the Cincinnati Bengals. A few weeks from now, you play one of the best teams in the NFL. Thanksgiving weekend, you're in Philadelphia up against the Eagles.

The week after that, 4.25 p.m. Eastern game on CBS, you have the Kansas City Chiefs. So you go up against some of the better teams in the NFL in the next three, four, five weeks. The Bills have a statement to be made. And it's kind of crazy because when the regular season started, I remember saying on this network, the Bills kind of remind me of the Milwaukee Bucks from 2021, where off their playoff shortcomings and seeing Giannis Antetokounmpo rise to elite status and win MVPs. There was really nothing that the Bucks could do in the regular season that would make me say, wow, this is really a force. It was all, OK, we've seen you be a force before in the regular season. But when you get to the postseason, can you take that next step? And for Milwaukee, they were able to do that. It's the same thing in the NFL now with the Buffalo Bills.

We've seen Josh Allen immerse himself as one of the better quarterbacks in the game. We've seen this team consistently be there at times in the regular season look like they're elite when they beat Kansas City twice. But in the playoffs, there's always something missing.

There's always something that goes wrong. The 13 second game up against Kansas City last year, getting blown out by the Cincinnati Bengals. And so far, this bill season has really resembled their offense, where when it's humming, yeah, they look like the force.

But there's also a lot of moments where it's, ugh, that looks really ugly. And we've seen that this year, losing to the Jets, then beating the Raiders and the commanders, making a big statement up against the Miami Dolphins. But since then, they lost to the Jaguars. They barely survived against the Giants.

They lost to the Patriots. And then last night, they won, where they were the better team, but you don't emerge from that game saying, wow, let me go jump through a table. The Buffalo Bills make you want to shout, and the Buffalo Bills are this great team. So that's kind of the thought on Buffalo. And they'll have some opportunities in the next month or two to go show that they're a little bit better than what people think they are. And right now, I don't think this team is a team that I expect to be playing in February in the Super Bowl. They could win a playoff game. They could maybe win two playoff games.

But I just think this team is too inconsistent. And maybe having some hiccups and maybe not being that team in the regular season will go on to help them in the postseason. But until I see it from them in the playoffs, it's always like, yeah, but, with the Buffalo Bills. Like, yeah, they're a good team, but I don't believe they're going to go out there and represent the AFC in the Super Bowl or win the Super Bowl. Now, as for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they have started to show their true colors the last three weeks, where earlier in the year, it was like, oh, look at this Tampa Bay defense.

Oh, Baker Mayfield's got things going. Oh, look at Mike Evans. They have no run game. They have no run game.

They can't realize this. Their defense is the worst third-down defense in the league, especially with a defense that is known as a pretty damn good defense, but they kept on showing that statistic throughout the game last night. But Tampa Bay is 3-4, and they're still alive in the NFC South. But it's not because of a product of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being really that good.

It's because the division stinks. The Panthers are the worst team in the league at 0-6. The Saints are 3-4. You know Derek Carr and company are always going to find a way to mess it up. And then you have Atlanta, who I do think is the best team in the NFC South, but Atlanta doesn't give me a ton of trust, even though I like them to win the division when it comes to their head coach and their quarterback, because the head coach is trying to make their quarterback Desmond Ritter be something that he isn't.

So I'll still go Atlanta to win this division, to get to nine wins, be 9-8, and win the division. Tampa Bay's not done yet, but we thought this Tampa Bay offense, after a few weeks into the season, was good and can do enough to go win the division. Last night it showed you how much of a struggle their offense is, even when they get into the end zone.

They need two lucky bounces to get a touchdown and then a two-point conversion. So that pretty much sums up the thoughts on the game last night. It was a snooze fest. It wasn't pretty. It was ugly. It was Thursday Night Football. Al Michaels sound miserable. Kirk Kirkridge tried to make it a bigger deal than what it actually was at the end of the game, and you walk away from the game feeling the same as you did before you got to the game, where the Bills are solid, the Bills are good, but I don't know, and I don't think they're elite, I don't think they're great, and the Bucks are still alive, but they're not a team that anyone's going to fear this year.

They probably shouldn't win the division, but you don't have a damn clue outside the Carolina Panthers, right, with them definitely not being the team that's going to win this division between the Falcons, Bucks, and Saints, what they're going to prove in the next 9-10 weeks of the football season that we do have remaining in the regular calendar year. Alrighty, this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break. Some big college football this weekend. Oregon-Utah matchup a lot of people do like. You do have Georgia and Florida as well, and we will see Malik Murphy replacing Quinn Ewers as Quinn Ewers is out with the injury for Texas up against BYU. And you will see Eddie Arch Manning will get into all that with former Florida wide receiver does a tremendous job now on the SEC Network, Chris Doering, when Zach Gelb show returns after these short messages. A big weekend of college football. Chris, always appreciate the time.

Thanks for it. How you been? Hey, I'm good, man. Good to be back with you, brother.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. Let's start you off with the rivalry you know well, the world's largest cocktail party. I'll start you off on the Georgia side of it. Like all year, we've said, all right, George is a little vulnerable, but they're still undefeated. The schedule isn't great. How do you kind of view the Bulldogs heading into this one this weekend? Yeah, I think I view the Bulldogs a lot like I view Michigan two teams that we know based upon the eye test are really good teams.

The way they're built. The fact that they haven't played really any true competition yet leaves you a little bit skeptical about who they are this season. As it relates to Georgia, I do think there's a little drop off from where they were last year and the year before. A lot of that has to do with the defense that's now playing in the NFL and largely for the Philadelphia Eagles. But I do think there are some vulnerabilities that exist that may not have existed there before as it related to being able to run the football a little bit more on them and to be able to take advantage of the quarterback Carson Beck, a young player still in a starting career going back to his hometown in Jacksonville.

You know how sometimes you go back in front of the friends and family and you want to press a little harder. So I do think Austin Armstrong has the ability to kind of disrupt him and force him into some errors. The good thing for Georgia, the running game seems to be getting back on track. Kendall Milton and Dijon Edwards are both more healthy now than they've been. And that offensive line certainly is one of the best in the conference. They're always going to miss Brock Bowers. But is this a week where they really miss Brock Bowers to come back to bite them?

Yeah, I mean, I never want to kind of disparage Brock Bowers by saying it doesn't matter. But I think there's a ton of really good players that they've recruited on the offensive side. The receivers are a much more talented, deep group of players than they have been in years past.

So I think that helps to compensate. And a lot of people say, yeah, Oscar Delp and Lucky, the freshman, those two guys can pick up some of the slack, which is true. But instead of playing more too tight in formations like they typically have, I think they maybe spread it out a little bit more and utilize now that Ladd McConkie is back fully healthy, you know, have him as the focal point of the passing game. I think Rosemary Jackson has done a great job this year as well. So they've got some really good homegrown talent as well as what they brought into the transfer portal with Rah Rah Thomas and Dominic Lovett. Talking to Chris Doering right now. This Florida team in a big game up against Kentucky didn't show up and they got run right through like a hot knife through butter.

Few weeks ago. Right. They were able to beat Tennessee. That's a solid win, even though Tennessee is not as great of a program as they were a year ago. What is this Florida team is now they get ready for their biggest game of the season, their biggest test against number one, Georgia.

Yeah, I think that's a big question. And Florida certainly has had its ups and downs this year. They have not handled success very well, as you mentioned, winning against Tennessee and then going on the road and getting blown out of by Kentucky.

I think it'll be important to see how they handled the success from two weeks ago in Columbia. This is a game that, excuse me, a team that we're celebrating as Florida fans as being maybe turning the corner. But in reality, it was a last minute comeback. You're down by 10 in the final five minutes against a two win football team in South Carolina.

So how much credibility can we really give that win? The thing I liked about it was the offensive explosion, throwing the football down the field, a little more vertical passing threat. And certainly the energy, the energy from the open kickoff on the sideline, it looked like the team had a greater sense of urgency, more fight in it. So I do think in the days to come, as we look back on this year, I think that that win at South Carolina can look as maybe the turning point for where this team got it together and started hitting the upward trajectory.

And you know that Florida used to be this dominant program, and they're trying to get back to those days. And everyone kind of asked those questions, whether it's with Texas or Miami, you know, how far away is Florida from being back on a scale of one to 10? One being no confidence, 10 being all the confidence in the roof, through the roof. Where's your confidence with this head football coach and Billy Napier? Yeah, my confidence is high.

I'd say it's an eight right now. Certainly the win in Columbia was they took off a little bit of the pressure after losing to Utah in the opener after losing to Kentucky and Lexington. The struggles on the road were very well noted.

I think he was one in eight or one in seven in the previous road game. So getting that win was huge. But I think part of the optimism comes in at looking at the signing class for 2024. They're in the top three nationally right now. Billy Napier's done a great job of creating relationships and some excitement amongst the high school recruits. And I think that's what people really, the season, you know, seeing them play more competitively, seeing them win some games is important.

But I think the most important thing is continuing to build the foundation, which they've done well through the transfer portal and the signing class last year, I think like 45 new players on the roster this year. And then that group coming in next year, led by DJ Lagway, who's one of the top quarterbacks in the country. Chris Doering, I thought Alabama was done last week going into halftime and they came out with a bang to start the third quarter. When you look at the Crimson Tide, even after that early season loss to Texas, what do they starting to shape it up to be for Nick Saban and company? Yeah, I'm with you, man. I thought Alabama was dead multiple times.

And every time I'm throwing dirt on their grave, they come back like the Undertaker here. So I think, you know, heading into the season, I had them going nine and three. I was worried about their offensive line. I was worried about the receivers who haven't really stepped up. The quarterback position was a huge question mark after that Texas game. And they got exposed a little bit and the struggles in the following week against South Florida. I think these guys will be lucky to get the nine wins.

And all of a sudden, here we are, what are they six, seven and one, whatever it is right now. I think Nick Saban is deserving of being in the coach of the year conversation at the SEC. And we usually don't include him in that. But looking how this team has developed throughout the season, where they came from with all those questions before the season, when they came from after that loss to Texas, I think he's done a great job. They're one of the best defenses in the SEC. That front seven is filled with really talented young players. You look at what they've done at the quarterback position, Jalen Milrose still gives you some mistakes here and there. But the downfield passing has been tremendous and his running ability is unquestioned. And then Jermaine Burton seems to have started stepping up along with Isaiah Bond and some of those other receivers.

So I do feel like the team is making some strides and next week and at home against LSU has a chance to be a huge football game that could very well put them back in Atlanta for another SEC Championship game. Wrapping up with Chris Doering, when I get to BYU in Texas this weekend, we know Quinn yours is out. Malik Murphy is going to start for the Longhorns, but everyone's wondering, are we going to see Arch Manning? Will Arch Manning get into the game of Murphy's struggles? How do you think Sark's going to continue to handle that at Texas where there's going to be a lot of public pressure to play Arch Manning if things don't go well with Malik Murphy? Yeah, he doesn't seem to be affected by public pressure.

I don't think Sark really cares much about that. He's one of the best offensive minds in college football right now. I give him a lot of credit for what he's had to come back from, the way that he proved himself at Tuscaloosa with Alabama and the coaching staff there. I trust what his evaluation is of quarterbacks and how he puts those guys in positions to be successful. I think Malik Murphy, it's going to be a stressful game when you make your first start like that. It certainly creates some anxiety, but I think this coaching staff understands there's going to be some growing pains and we just have to be patient with them.

Clearly, you and I don't get to see all of the practices and the hours put forth behind the scenes. There's a reason why Arch Manning isn't in that number two spot heading into the season. I think the best thing you can do for a guy that has the Manning last name is not put more pressure on him by throwing him in there before he's ready.

I think this actually does him a great service in terms of allowing him to continue to get better until it's his opportunity. Oregon and Utah, another big game this weekend, maybe the biggest game this weekend, depending on who you ask. I heard Urban Meyer earlier in the week say Kyle Whittingham is the best coach in the country. Do you agree with that? And if not, how many coaches do you put in front of Kyle Whittingham?

Well, I don't think he's better than Nick Saban, but I think Kyle Whittingham is certainly up there amongst the top three or four in the country. And the thing that I love about him, a couple of different things. The dude never has any excuses, hadn't had his starting quarterback or starting tight in all year long. Doesn't make that be something that he even focuses on too.

He's done. I like the contrarian point of view. He's coaching out there in the Pac-12 instead of trying to build the team like everybody else has. He built it really strong and physically on the offensive defensive lines.

And that's why you go back and look at the way they've owned USC the last couple of years. That physicality is a difference maker. And you see Dan Lanning kind of doing the same thing at Oregon, the way he's kind of built that team after where he was in Athens at Georgia. So I'm really impressed with Kyle Whittingham. I think he's one of the guys, you know, you're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. That's the guy you want to lead you out of there. He looks like he's tough, hardcore and unfazed by any sort of adversity.

I like Lanning a lot. And I say this in a kind way. He's kind of got a little psycho to him in those pregame speeches where he's like, talk with your helmet, talk with your helmet. I love that stuff from a college football coach.

Yeah, he's got a lot of Kirby smart in him, right? I mean, you listen to Dan Lanning. It sounds exactly like something you'd hear from the Georgia locker room, too.

So I love it as well. I don't think he's long for the Pac-12. You know, the next big job that opens up in the SEC, I plan to see Dan Lanning coaching that.

I could be wrong about that. But his style, obviously his background, what he loves in terms of physical football, being a defensive coordinator in this past, I think fits perfectly here in the SEC. Does that move to the Big Ten at all change that? Just wondering, like, is the Big Ten big enough for him where even with what you're saying about the SEC, he'll go, okay, I'll pass up on an SEC job? I mean, maybe you're right, maybe, you know, wanting to test the waters there. Maybe the opportunity to build some more depth outside of just Oregon, excuse me, out of Ohio State and Michigan in that conference. But I do think still, even though the pre-conference schedule was not favorable for the SEC, I think everybody wants to test their wares in the conference and see just how they're able to compete at the highest level.

Last thing I'll ask you, Chris Doran, before we let you run, everyone's had a reaction to it. What is your perspective of everything going on with Michigan right now in this sign-stealing scheme scandal? Well, you know, I think there's different levels of sign-stealing. I've never been pissed off at a guy on second base for stealing the catcher's signs because it's right in his plain view. I do have a problem with the Astros videoing it from the outfield and hitting trash cans to pass that information along to the batter, and I think that's kind of the same thing we're dealing with here. If you're in the middle of a game, everybody's stealing signs. Everybody's trying to get a look at what the signalers from the sideline are putting in. That's part of the game. But when you're going through such a well-thought-out plan to buy tickets, sit across from the crowd or the team you're looking at and using phones and other reporting devices, that to me has gone too far. And I do think there needs to be further look into figuring out exactly what happened.

And then some appropriate punishment being levied. He is Chris Doran. Chris, appreciate the time as always. Thanks so much for doing this.

Yeah. Thanks for having me back, man. It's time to ask the pros where you, the listener, gets to ask us a question, and it's brought to you by our good friends at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B, using the hashtag Ask the Pros, and be listening later in the show when we might answer your question.

Think O'Reilly Auto Parts, what are your car care needs, and get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts, O-O-O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Let's get to a news brief. Time for your daily news brief.

We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. The Buffalo Bills get a victory. At the end of the game, I do find it funny, though, how you could maul everybody on a Hail Mary, and if that occurred three or four plays prior, we'd all be like, where's the flag?

You gotta throw a flag. But because it happens at the end of the game and the final play of the game, no one says anything, and we just kind of have grown accustomed to it. If the Bills would have lost that game, though, last night at the end, and it was very close, Godwin turns around and looks the other way, he's probably catching that football. That would have been one of the worst loss that I've ever seen.

That's how bad that would have been. But the Bills survived, and during the game, there was a lot of funky audibles from Josh Allen. He said Taylor Swift. He also said J.R. Smith. Here is Josh Allen. Oh, we just have the actual audible there. I thought that was him afterwards at Amazon Prime talking about the audible. That is the question of whether or not it's J.R. Smith or Taylor Swift.

Play it for me again. Let me hear. It's easily J.R. Smith. He's not saying Taylor Swift at all. Now, the question is, are we hearing Taylor Swift because we want to hear Taylor Swift? No, I don't hear Taylor Swift at all. I think that's just because the NFL has been shoving Taylor Swift down everyone's throats. I heard Taylor Swift. How the heck do you hear Taylor Swift there? This is like, is the dress really blue from a few years ago? Stu, you're an astute observer.

What is it? Definitely J.R. Smith. Yeah, I don't think Josh Allen's getting up there and screaming Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, especially when Taylor Swift is taken by someone. Well actually, I don't know if you read some of the things that happened in Buffalo this offseason. I don't know if that prevents Josh Allen from doing anything, but anyway, we'll move forward on that one. Let's go to Rayshaun Jenkins of the Jaguars.

He calls out George Pickens. I mean, I think our corners do a good job with any matchups. I know that the receiver we have come in this week, number 14, he has a high yards per catch, but I mean, respectfully, he hasn't played our corners yet, so I'm just going to say that.

You know what's funny? The Jaguars and Steelers produce great sound bites, and this is not just from this season. Remember a few years back when the Jaguars got to the AFC title game? That must have been 2017 or 2018, one of those years, and the Jaguars beat the Steelers in the regular season, and then the Steelers were talking about the rematch that they were going to have in the AFC title game up against the Patriots, and they looked right through Jacksonville, Leonard Fournette had that big game with Blake Bortles and all that stuff, and what was a fun game between the Jaguars and the Steelers, and then Ramsey flies back from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville after the game, and he's like, we're going to go win this, you know what, when talking about the AFC title game, which they didn't do. But there's been some bad blood, even though the players have changed, and these are new players now, in a rivalry that you would never think would be a rivalry, we never talk about Seals and Jaguars as a rivalry, but I distinctly remember three or four games here between these two teams, and some good sound bites coming in. So that's from Rayshawn Jenkins, now let's hear George Pickens, who throws some shade to the Jaguars' corners. They depend on their D-line a lot, with their team having a lot of the first round guys on that D-line, that's what they depend on a lot, and they kind of hope the guys hold up long enough, hope, it's kind of a hope defense for sure. Kind of a hope defense.

You know what, I don't actually think he's that wrong. When I look at the Jacksonville defense, we're hoping Trevon Walker's going to turn into something, Aiden Hutchinson should have been the pick, Josh Allen's really good, he's had two games where he's had three sacks in each game, the Secondaries made some plays, even going back to the end of last year, I remember that great game Rayshawn Jenkins had up against the Dallas Cowboys. It's weird, I don't think we would have went into this week, Samter, saying, oh, Jaguars and Steelers, let's get excited, even though they're two solid teams, but with the crap talk and going back and forth between Rayshawn Jenkins and George Pickens, get your popcorn ready. Especially with how they're going to see each other on the field, sometimes you get trash talk where it's a quarterback going up against a quarterback, or a wide receiver going up against a wide receiver, they don't literally play up against one another, even if their teams are going at it, you'll see Rayshawn Jenkins going up against George Pickens this weekend, and I like a little extra flavor, a little extra sizzle to a game like this. Wait, wait, wait, Jerry Jones is giving his thoughts on the Rangers making the World Series, does he just give his thoughts on everything? I get it, it's in the state of Texas, all that jazz, and Jerry Jones makes himself available 9,000 times throughout a week, but do I really need to hear Jerry Jones on the Rangers making the World Series?

I guess so, let's play. It's great, I'm elated, but I'm envious, I'll assure my fans I have all the right feelings when I come out there and are successful. Yeah that's him saying, good for them, good for any Cowboys fans that are also Rangers fans, but I haven't been to a Super Bowl or even an NFC title game since the 1995 season. Let's go to disgruntled Jets running back Dalvin Cook on the lack of touches he's been receiving.

Of course it's frustrating, I'm an honest person man, I want to play, that's just anybody, and yeah it's frustrating because it's new for me, I come from getting the ball 20 times a game, I don't have a million times, I come from that, but yeah of course it's frustrating and it's something that I've been adapting to. It's an adjustment period for Dalvin Cook, the Vikings said we don't need you anymore, we'll get rid of you, and then you had that big offseason push where it was really your camp putting a lot of drama to it, and we all know that you wanted to go home to Miami and that didn't happen, and the Jets sign you, but going to the Jets wasn't what you thought it was going to be because Rodgers gets hurt four plays into the season, and Breece Hall had an expedited recovery from the injury, and he got back sooner than what we thought, and Breece Hall right now is just a better running back than Dalvin Cook in the year of 2023, because his legs are fresh where Cook's been in the league for a while, and I also wonder, because a lot of air got sucked out of the balloon once Rodgers goes down, if Cook's a little bit more motivated, if he felt like he'd go win a Super Bowl, if Rodgers is still there, there's probably a lot of players in the locker room that went there to go play on the same team as Aaron Rodgers, and now it's like okay we're dealing with Zach Wilson. This was after the game from last week, this is Austin Eckler, after another Chargers loss when he was talking about Brandon Staley, his coach. Listen up. Is there faith still in what Brandon Staley is? We have no choice, right?

I mean you have no choice. Yeah, we have faith. Okay. Yeah. This is our team. This is who we're riding with. It's all the way to the end. You know? Good or bad, ugly.

All the way to the end. It's not really convincing, and I like Austin a lot. Yeah, we have no choice.

Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure. We have faith all the way until the end, until Team Spandos finally does the right thing and fires the head football coach. So Eckler clarified this a few days later.

He says, I think the clip got taken out of context. It doesn't matter how I feel. Like what matters is I have to go out and do my job. It's my job to go play well, and then that will in tune make Staley look even better. I don't give a damn about how I feel.

It's like, how do you feel about Staley? I don't have an opinion about that because I got to make sure I do my job first. I think there's two things here. One, Eckler understands the business side of it, where he's saying, I got to do my job.

I got to do my part. And he's focused more so on getting his next contract, which I can't blame him. And he's kind of saying, regardless of what the coach is doing, I'm still going to be judged by my individual performance, and I have to make the coach look better. And the other part is I believe that's a little truth from Austin Eckler getting revealed, where now after a few years of Brandon Staley, it was more so, wow, the players have been so positive. And I've talked to Austin Eckler before about Brandon Staley, and he's been very positive about him.

But now you're starting to feel a few layers get kind of unpeeled here, where it's how many times you keep on going back to the well and knowing he's not the right coach and eventually players just get frustrated and show their true emotions. Here is Jonathan Gannon removing the injury designation from Kyler Murray. He's a full go and a full participant. Not having an injury designation yesterday changed the way he practices today in terms of ones, twos? No.

Practice same all week, Wednesday, Thursday, and today. Will he be active on Sunday? We'll see. We'll enter the decision to not give him the designation. He's fully healthy. Man, he's a real drip, Jonathan Gannon. So much for the boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Now to that.

Bellacheck 2.0? Honestly, I think Bill has more personality than that, and that's saying something. If he's a full participant in practice, I know it's difficult coming off the injury he is, and there's different of just being eligible to play and then actually being healthy enough, fully healthy enough to play, especially with the financials here. I would think he plays this weekend up against the Ravens, and I hope he does. Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson would be a lot more intriguing to watch than Josh Dobbs going up against Lamar Jackson. Does it feel like Kyler Murray just auditioning for other teams right now, though?

Yes and no. I don't think you're wrong in saying that, but if they don't get a top five pick and there's not a quarterback they fall in love with, he could be their quarterback next year, because they may not be as bad as we thought they were. Now they still only have one win, and the pick that they got from the Texans looks like it's not going to be top five either. Let's go to Brian Dabble, the coach of the Giants, on if Daniel Jones can miss the rest of the season. Daniel Jones out this weekend up against the Jets.

Terod Taylor will get his third straight start. He's getting better. We'll see where he is next week. I don't have a crystal ball with injuries, but he is getting better. See where he is next week. That is a little less clarative than what you were previously.

Yep. That's him saying it's not progressing, I guess, as they thought it was. I also then wonder how much is it, because not that Terod Taylor's been great, but the offense at least has looked somewhat competent with him as the quarterback. Here is LeBron James on criticism of Anthony Davis' courtesy of the NBA on TNT. Lakers bounce back after losing opening night to Denver, and they've got a win up against the Suns, 100 to 95. Anthony Davis didn't have a point in the second half, had 30 points in the contest last night in the Lakers' first win.

Yeah, when you say you don't care and you don't give a bleep 9,000 times, maybe Anthony Davis doesn't care because we didn't hear it from him, but it seems like LeBron James does care, and Anthony Davis has been up and down, and ultimately he needs to be healthy, and he needs to be a dominant force for them to have a chance to go to championship. Here's quickly Steve Kerr on Charles Barkley saying the Warriors are cooked just on 95-7 the game. Well, I used to work with Charles, and his predictions are about 90% off, that's probably his hit rate. His hit rate is probably 5 to 7%, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. I love when you get to a level of Steve Kerr where every championship after how many you've won is just an added bonus at that stage of his career, where no one's going to crush the Warriors or they don't win the title, but he's not wrong. It feels like every time Charles Barkley says, I guarantee, whatever he guarantees ends up being wrong. Kind of hot take hickey-less if you remember from the good old days of the Zach Geldt Show right here on CBS Sports Radio.