Ohio State Not Impressive (Hour 2)

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It's the true story about a fake story about a real life. Magnificent Jerk is an Apple Original Podcast produced by Pineapple Street Studios. All episodes are available now. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts. And away we go, our number two of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Coming up 25 minutes from now, we will chat with Jay Gruden, the former NFL head coach, with the commanders and was an offensive coordinator with the Cincinnati Bengals. We'll get his thoughts around the NFL from another busy week eight that will wrap up tonight with Stu's Las Vegas Raiders visiting the Detroit Lions. And we'll see if the Lions could bounce back from a pathetic performance where they got blown out and didn't even show up against a really good football team in the Baltimore Ravens.

Jimmy G will play tonight. There was a big meeting during this last week with the Raiders, and they had an airing of grievance. And you had Davante Adams and Josh Jacobs and Max Crosby say some things about the coaching philosophy of Josh McDaniels. And now the Raiders are supposedly singing Kumbaya with one another and they're holding hands and they're walking together. And everything's going to be wonderful for the Las Vegas Raiders. Stu, this probably means your football team just gets absolutely destroyed tonight when you have an airing of grievances. And the next thing you know, the reports are that everything's supposed to be all positive. And now the Raiders are all seeing eye to eye. Just don't by that one meeting fix all the problems with the Raiders. Yeah, I would not be shocked if they was by three or four touchdowns. Yeah, wouldn't shock me whatsoever. I do love Davante Adams tonight, though, to get into the end zone because he's been complaining.

So that means they're going to force feed him the ball. And I saw that his odds earlier today were at plus 150 for an anytime touchdown. Anyway, let's get to three college football takes from the weekend that was in college football.

Take number one. We need a Washington, Oregon Pac-12 championship game. The best game I saw this year in college football so far was Washington and Oregon three weeks ago, where it was back and forth between Heisman Hopeful Michael Penix Jr. and also another Heisman Hopeful in Bo Nix.

That was a heavyweight fight between two younger coaches getting both their first big time head coaching jobs with Kalen DeBoer with the Washington Huskies and then Dan Lanning with the Oregon Ducks. If you recall, the way that that game ended, it looked like we were right on the precipice of seeing overtime. All Oregon had to do was hit a chip shot field goal. They missed the field goal and Kalen DeBoer, Michael Penix Jr. embraced that midfield and they end up winning the game on that missed kick right at the horn.

And Washington gets a big win and asserts themselves as the favorite in the Pac-12 and hopefully the team that represents the Pac-12 in the college football playoff from that victory. But since then, and I don't want to crush Washington, but they've looked vulnerable. They just survived up against Arizona State, 15 to 7. They had to grind one out against Stanford, 42 to 33. I know Stanford a few weeks ago in Colorado was taking a hit, but Stanford was down, I think it was like 29 to nothing or whatever the score was, and Colorado came back.

So Stanford with a new coach, work in progress. I'm not going to sit here and tell you Washington all of a sudden stinks when they're 8-0, but you go from a big emotional victory up against Oregon and when you get a win like that with how much that game was hyped up to be. And you got to remember both Washington and Oregon were coming off buys, so it was an extra week of hype leading up to that matchup between Oregon and Washington. Yeah, I think it's safe to say the last two weeks, Washington has exhaled.

Now, just because you exhale doesn't mean you're going to drop games, but you have a possibility of dropping games when you take your foot off the gas pedal. Now, timing wise for Washington, even though USC has not been good and USC has dropped two games and they almost dropped the third in a row this weekend, but they found a way to pull it out. For Washington, I believe Caleb Williams coming in now and you have a matchup against USC and Lincoln Riley just with the pedigree and the way that we view USC going into this season.

Washington survived their little scare the last two weeks, now I think they're going to drink their coffee and they're going to show and wake up and start being that team that we saw through the first six weeks of the season when they were 6-0 and really didn't have any bad performances like the way that we saw up against Arizona State and Stanford the last two weeks. But this is what makes the Pac-12 so fun is because you look at the Washington schedule their last four games, you play USC a top 25 team, you play Utah a top 25 team, you play Oregon State a top 25 team, and then Washington State is not a bad team. So the Pac-12 is going to be so tough. And if you drop one, OK, you could if you're Washington survive to drop one as long as you go on to the Pac-12 championship game and win the Pac-12 championship game. But the moment you drop one in college football, you make yourself vulnerable, because the only thing that I could say was certainty and feel really good about is that Georgia is going to go to the college football playoff this year and the winner of the Big Ten is going to go to the college football playoff this year. And I'm going to assume until proven otherwise that Michigan's going to the college football playoff out of the Big Ten. But the remaining teams there, when whoever wins the ACC, it's only going to be probably Florida State because UNC has taken a step back. Duke has fallen off to Florida State can't afford to drop one because the ACC is not this strong conference. The last two years with the fall of Clemson, you look at the Big 12, we'll get to Oklahoma in just a second. But Oklahoma beat Texas and now Oklahoma the last two weeks look human and they exhaled and it came back to bite them this past week up against Kansas. So if it's a one loss Pac-12 champ, they should be good, especially since the Pac-12 has been the best conference in football. But you don't want to leave it up to the college football committee. But getting back to the take of I want to see a Washington-Oregon Pac-12 championship game, because there's one thing to see the game played.

And that game was back and forth so close and you just had a kick that didn't go in that would have extended the game and got the game to overtime. Oregon since losing that game and they lose 36 to 33 to Washington, they beat Washington State 38 to 24. And then this past weekend, they go into Utah, where Utah like never loses. And we all know the respect that we all have for Kyle Whittingham as a coach. And he is a top six, top seven coach in college football, the winner of the Pac-12 championship the last two years and got off to a six and one start without Cam Rising. Well, Oregon walks into Utah this past weekend and they beat the crap out of them.

That wasn't even a game. That was my favorite bet of the college football slate this weekend, because so many people and I love Utah, I love Kyle Whittingham, but so many people, all they did was just talk Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah. And it was like, well, Oregon's a more well-rounded team. And Oregon is elite on both sides of the ball in all three phases, you would think, of the game on paper. And Oregon walked right in.

And even though I put a nice wager on the Ducks minus six and a half, I didn't think it would be that easy. So now, after that matchup with Washington showing that they're human and they're vulnerable, even though they have been winning the last two weeks, I look at Oregon and the juggernaut that they are with California, USC, Arizona State, Oregon State. You know, Oregon should win out and Oregon should be in the Pac-12 championship game and they go up against Washington. And imagine if that happens with the committee where Washington has no losses, let's say Washington survives and they have no losses going into the Pac-12 championship game, and they lose to Oregon by, let's say, a field goal who they beat earlier in the season by a field goal. It would stink, but it would be all about the timing. And most likely, Washington would be left out because you're only going to get one team in from the Pac-12.

Maybe you get two, depending how it shakes out. Last year, right? We saw two Big Ten teams get in. We've seen two SEC teams get in before. But in all likelihood, only one team from the best conference this year in college football in the Pac-12 is going to get in.

Fair or not. And it would be crazy if they don't get blown out in the Pac-12 championship game Washington. And let's say they lose by three points to Oregon. They'd be SOL and they'd be out of the college football playoff. Either way, that was the best game this season. And I want to see it again in the Pac-12 championship game between Washington and Oregon, just because Oregon the last two weeks has really took it to a different level after losing that game by a field goal to Washington. I talked to you about Oklahoma, where two weeks ago, after that big win against Texas, they almost lost to UCF.

They survived. And then they go to Kansas and they lose to Lance Leipold. I take you back to 2020, Les Miles' final year as the coach of the Jayhawks. They were 0-9.

Lance Leipold comes in. He goes 2-10. Last year, they had a really good season. They were 6-7. And this year, they're 6-2. Lance Leipold, according to 24-7 Sports, some numbers from this game, Kansas' win over No.

6 Oklahoma. That was Kansas' first win over Oklahoma since 1997. That was Kansas' first top 10 win since 2007. And that was Kansas' second top 25 win since 2010. Four years ago, this program had no wins.

They go two wins, six wins, and now the season isn't over and they're already at six wins for the Jayhawks. The take here, and you're not going to like this if you're a Kansas football fan, Lance Leipold needs a better job. Lance Leipold needs a bigger job because that dude is one of the great builders in college football right now.

And he built very quickly. So you look at Michigan State, right, who got rid of Mel Tucker. Michigan State should be genuflecting to Lance Leipold and praying that Lance takes that job if they want to compete again in the Big Ten. And another job, A&M, I've seen enough of Jimbo Fisher. Jimbo Fisher has all the resources, all the talent. And the last two years, those teams should be playing a whole lot better. Now, the only reason why Jimbo Fisher still has a job as a head coach at Texas A&M is because of his buyout. But I'm OK, boosters gathering together and giving him his 60, 70 million dollars that you owe him and saying goodbye at the end of the season. Don't let the door hit you with a good Lord split you. And look what Lance Leipold is doing at Kansas.

What could he do at A&M with those resources? So you've got to be careful. You don't just leave your job right now because you're always going to be for the next two, three years, a hot commodity. You've got to take the right job.

But it's clear that Lance Leipold is going to be one of the hottest names on the market. And it's not like you're Kalen DeBoer right now where you have a really good job in Washington or you're Dan Lanning where you have a really good job in Oregon. We're sure you could leave Washington and Oregon. But how many better jobs are going to be available and how many better jobs you're willing to take?

For Lance Leipold, there's a lot of better jobs. And ultimately, I don't want to say this in a bad way, but it's just the truth. You use Kansas as a stepping stone, but you've left it significantly better than where you found it.

And ultimately, you'll go somewhere else. And finally, I know Ohio State beat Wisconsin. But I walked away from that game saying Luke Fickel is the right coach for the Badgers. And Luke Fickel, look, he took Cincinnati to the college football playoff.

Now he has the resources of Wisconsin. But really, it's another game where Ohio State, yes, they've won, but they haven't impressed me. I know Ohio State's undefeated. I know Ohio State, that season's coming down to that game, the game Thanksgiving weekend up against the Wolverines in the big house, the game that I'll be in attendance for. Ohio State, the only impressive part about that team this year, the two impressive parts.

We all know Marvin Harrison Jr. He's great. He's their offense. But their defense has taken a step in the right direction.

But offensively, in their two biggest games of the season, they have not played well. Where Notre Dame, they were lucky to win and that offense did not play well up against Notre Dame. And then even up against Penn State, that game was kind of like Jets-Giants a little bit, where it set football back a while with Kyle McCord and Drew Allard both not having good games. So when I look at the Buckeyes and they're on the road in a tough environment, you're going to Wisconsin territory, Camp Randall, jumping around, all that stuff, that offense and Kyle McCord doesn't click for me. And it doesn't register that this team is going to find a way to beat Michigan this year. So the more I look at Ohio State, the more and more I say, and maybe McCord puts it together in the biggest test of the season, but I ultimately believe their quarterback is going to hold them back.

And you could legitimately argue. And I know the AP poll doesn't reflect this and we'll see when the college football rankings come out tomorrow where they are. And they'll be in the top four, I think, of the college football playoff poll.

And there are three right now in the AP. But I can make the case that there's six teams that I trust more or five teams that I trust more than Ohio State this year. I trust Georgia more. I trust Michigan more. Florida State more.

Washington and Oregon more. So if I was doing the rankings, I would put Ohio State right now as the sixth best team in the country. That defense is really good. Marvin Harrison Jr. is great. He's going to be the first non quarterback taken in this upcoming draft in April when the draft goes to Detroit. But that quarterback better make big progress in two, three weeks or else they'll lose to Michigan once again. So those are my three college football takes. Not impressed by Ohio State's offense this year. Lance Leipold is going to get a bigger job and needs a bigger job. And also we need a Washington, Oregon Pac-12 championship game.

All right. We'll take a break here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll come on back. We'll go around the NFL with former NFL head coach Jay Gruden. You can stream the NFL on Westwood One for free. Sponsored by AutoZone all season long.

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All righty. We will get to Jay Gruden coming up momentarily on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio as we'll connect with the former NFL head coach. What a busy eighth Sunday it was in the NFL yesterday. And we'll wrap up tonight with the Las Vegas Raiders and the Detroit Lions. So looking forward to that match up and hopefully there's a lot of points in that game to send us off into week nine.

And we do have a monster week nine schedule coming up next week. But let's go out to the guest line right now and welcome in the former NFL head coach. And that, of course, is Jay Gruden kind enough to join us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, always great to hear your voice.

Thanks for the time. How you been? I've been good.

Thanks for having me on. Playing a little bit of golf. How's your golf game these days, just wondering? You know, same.

Can't putt, but I like to hit it around. So if you had Jay Gruden going up against John Gruden in a match, 18 holes, who wins? You? Jay. Jay. Jay always wins. Not even close. He's getting a lot better now that he's had some time off, too.

But he's getting closer, but I think I could take him. All right. Let me start you off in a somber note. One of your former players, Kirk Cousins, done for the season with the torn Achilles.

When you saw that news yesterday, just how did you react to it? Devastated. You know, he's been so durable throughout his career. He's always available. And this is a very unique thing for Kirk Cousins. I can count on my hand as many times he's been on the injury report with me. He never was injured.

He's always played through any issues he ever had. And this is a tough deal for the Minnesota Vikings, but especially tough for Kirk because he's having a heck of a year. At 35 years old, now suffering a major injury, contract up at the end of the year, what do you think the NFL future is for Kirk Cousins?

The future's bright still. Kirk will come back and rehab like a stud, like he always does. He'll work extremely hard.

He'll get himself ready. His arm has not lost any zip whatsoever. He's never been a very mobile quarterback anyway. Doesn't do a lot of off-schedule plays.

He's more of a timing rhythm. Dissect the defense and get the ball out. He'll still be able to do that at a high level.

Yeah, I'll be curious what the market looks like. Now, it's still really early in the season. I know the Niners have lost three in a row. When I'm watching that yesterday, knowing Kirk's 35 contracts up with the Vikings, I'm thinking to myself, if things don't go well for the 49ers, wouldn't surprise me if he reunites with Kyle Shanahan next year.

Would not surprise me one bit. I know Brock Purdy's a heck of a quarterback and had a heck of a start to his season for a young guy. But Kirk's got a little bit more experience and they have a track record. The track record with Shanahan and Kirk would not surprise me. But Purdy's pretty dang good. When you look at the 49ers, is it just as simple as the last few weeks the injuries have caught up to them and that's why you've seen this team lose three games in a row?

No. No injuries on defense. I'm surprised that the defense has taken a major step back last three weeks in my opinion. They're not rushing the passer with the same vigor as they had the first few weeks. I think 49ers have to play with the lead so they can get their pass rush uncorked and their play actions and their running game offensively can be effective. They're not a very good come from behind team, so they need to start fast, play with the lead and let Brock Purdy hand the ball off and do his play actions, which he's really good at.

Talking to Jay Gruden right now on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I look at Kansas City. It's tough to be concerned with them and they only have two losses on the season. We know as long as 15 and 87 are healthy, they're going to be a tough team to beat in January. But that offense, when I watch it this year, they don't look like they've been clicking with the way that we've seen Kansas City the last few seasons.

When you watch the Chiefs, what are you seeing from your coaching view? Well, I think somebody has to step up other than 87. Like you said, Kelsey's obviously a heck of a player. There's no doubt about it, but there's only so many balls that he can catch. I mean, he'd catch eight or nine, somebody else has to step up.

And right now nobody's doing that. Last year it was Jerick McKinnon out of the backfield. They got to get Pacheco going in the running game, but Sky Moore, one of these receivers has got to step up and be a solid number two or number three option for Patrick moving forward because teams will be smart enough to try to do the best they can to take away Travis. They're going to have to find some other way to get the ball down the field to somebody else. When you evaluate the AFC, do you still view them as the best team in the AFC or do you go somewhere else?

I always go with the best quarterback in the AFC and that's Mahomes and I go the best defense and that's Kansas City. So right now with the defense playing the way they're playing and obviously Patrick and Kelsey, I still give it to them, but there is a small, there is a team that's creeping up the ladder with Joe Burrow getting healthy. They're starting to click.

You can see it. Joe's confidence. He had two scrambles last week for about 25, 30 yards. When he can move in the pocket like that and then utilize all his weapons and Joe Mixon gets going and the defense is playing extremely well, they're going to be a tough out as well. And it's amazing how quickly we change in the NFL.

They go off to that one and three start J and now they're sitting there four and three. They just walked into Santa Clara and the Bengals easily took care of the San Francisco 49ers. Kind of crazy now where a few weeks ago, people were writing the obituary for the Bengals and now we're talking about them right back into Super Bowl form.

Yeah, I was one of them too. I didn't like anything they were doing on offense whatsoever and their defense was playing okay, but offensively you throw for 80 yards week one with Joe Burrow and the cast that they have. Yeah, I mean there's some questions in the answer, but you also have to talk about Baltimore for sure. Baltimore's defense is playing an extreme high level.

Lamar Jackson has taken this offense at like, it's like he's been playing in it forever and Todd Munkin's done a heck of a job and Eric also going to be a force. It can be fun to watch the AFC, how it turns out in Buffalo, of course, Miami. So there's the AFC is loaded. It's going to be an exciting playoff series, but it seems like from your answer, right? Chiefs and Bengals would be your two best teams in the AFC.

Who would be that? That other team? I know you just listed a few, but who would be the team that you gravitate towards to make the top three teams in the AFC? Well, the way Miami's playing, you have to look at Miami, the speed of Tyree kill, you know, when it gets colder, maybe harder to throw the ball. Maybe that'll be an issue for them moving forward, but their defense is playing better. They got Jalen Ramsey back. Nick Fangio does a very good job playing as different coverage zones and Jalen Ramsey picks, fits that system perfectly. So their defense is going to get stronger.

I just worry about it. Maybe possibly playing in cold weather places like Buffalo or whatever in the playoffs or Kansas city, or even Cincinnati, but they're, they're obviously a tough team to beat as well. And it's amazing. 94 days ago, you have the meniscus injury with Ramsey. He comes back quicker than anyone could have expected. Like you said, Jay Gruden had the interception in their win over new England, looking at their offense though, it starts with Tyree kill. I know Tua has been sensational, but we're eight games into the season. Tyree kill already has over a thousand yards. I thought he was a little bit crazy before the start of the season coach, when he was talking about 2000 yards, just cause there's so many mouths to feed in Miami. But right now I think he's the MVP of the NFL. I know that the awards usually a quarterback award, but I think there's a big case to be made for Tyree kill to win the MVP.

I agree. I think AJ Brown's in that mix too. I think you could flip a coin with those two guys. AJ Brown's had over 120 yards, six games in a row, something insane like that, but those two guys dominate the game and, and, you know, they're going to get the ball and they still get it.

You still can't take it away. You try to play in and out and you try to play over the top. They split coverage.

They run over the top of things. They're both amazing players. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Tyree or AJ Brown got MVP. I know you, you coaches, you never liked your teams to get too high. The Eagles are seven and one, but I think the best thing for Nick Sirianni is I don't even think they played their best brand of football and even saw it yesterday. They could play better and it was still good enough to find the way to beat the commanders. Yeah. They scored 38 points.

I believe it was. And they fumbled twice inside the five yard line. That's pretty impressive. That doesn't happen very often. I mean, their offense is clicking and Jalen didn't even use his legs.

He only had six yards rushing. So for him to be able to beat you like that with his arm only is impressive for a defense is moving forward to try to defend Philadelphia. It's a problem. And defensively, they got to pick it up. They got to get their secondary stable stabilized. They've had like six or seven different, uh, rotations, uh, moving in the last seven weeks.

So they got to get it stabilized, but they'll be fine. Their pass rush will get going and Philadelphia is by far, not by far, but I think one of the top two teams in the NFC and with the way that the commanders on the flip side, aren't performing well, new ownership coming in. I think we're all expecting Ron Rivera at the end of the season to unfortunately lose his job and name I've been throwing out there has been Jim Harbaugh, especially what's going on, uh, with Michigan right now and possible sanctions coming. Who knows if the NFL would, would punish him as well.

There's one report over the weekend. Could you see Harbaugh jumping back to the NFL and do you think the commanders would be a good fit? I just see him jumping back in the NFL, but I don't know if he'd be a good fit or not. I think, uh, they need to go elsewhere personally, but you know, I think Ron still got a lot of season left. They have a very young quarterback, Eric, the enemy of Sam Howell working a little bit better. They had a much better outing this week than they did last week against a giant. So as long as they keep showing progress, Jack Del Rio has got to get that defense playing better. If they can make a run here late in the season, you know, my second year I was about to get fired.

We were three and five. I think it was, we won six or seven games in a row and made it to the playoffs. So there's still a lot of football left, uh, but they do have to perform better as far as the replacement, who knows. And you know what it's like to be in a toxic situation and have all the people talking about your future and then maybe problems going on in the locker room as well. Uh, let me ask you about the Raiders. There was a report last week that they had this team meeting and they had some airing of grievances, not an easy matchup tonight for the Raiders going up against the lions, but what do you look for, uh, from the Raiders tonight was so much going on inside that locker room where it seems like there's a lot of frustration with a lot of players in the coach, Josh McDaniels. That's usually the case when your team's not winning. I think if you just go pull every team that's losing right now with the losing record, there's frustration. You saw Jonathan Allen with Washington last week, and there's a lot of things like that.

You know, it's good to get it off your chest and air out your issues, but you got to come out and play. Each unit has to do their job. It's going to be good that they get Jimmy G back. That'll be a huge help for them. I wouldn't, it wouldn't surprise me if they come out and play very hard, but they have a long way to go defensively. They struggled mightily against the bears last week. They couldn't tackle. They weren't running to the ball, but you know, this is a different week.

The NFL knows it's a one week league, one day at a time league, and you never know what Raider teams are going to show up. Wrapping up with coach Jay Gruden right now in the Zach Gelb show. I love what I saw yesterday from Will Leviss, and it was impossible to not feel great for him, especially getting embarrassed on draft night in the green room, falling out of the first round, eventually lands 33rd overall with Tennessee, but to throw four touchdown passes yesterday.

Yeah, sure. It helps when you have Deandre Hopkins with someone still got to deliver the football. That was pretty impressive by the Tennessee quarterback. Incredible for your first game to come out and just air it out like that. And that's kind of been his M.O.

He's always, everybody knows he's got that big strong arm can move around a little bit, but to see him do it and have the success in his first game out, it's impressive. Now he's got to go out and do it again next week because you know how the NFL is. You go out next week and have a horrible game. They're going to get on you. No doubt about it. Since you were with the Rams last year as a consultant, that team has not bounced back this season. There was concerns of how good they could be.

Pukunakua is having a great season. Now Stafford's dealing with that thumb injury. Where's the confidence level, someone that you know very well and Sean McVay to eventually get this ship moving back in the right direction with the LA Rams? Well, they have to obviously have some drafts and get some players in the draft. They haven't had a good draft pick in a while.

That hurts your team. They, you know, they went out and traded for Stafford. They went out and traded for Jalen Ramsey, who they had to get rid of. And Aaron Donald's got a huge contract, obviously Cooper Cup. They have to get some more players around Matthew Stafford, Cooper Cup, and obviously Aaron Donald. Right now, they just don't have the bodies, the pro-NFL caliber bodies across the board right now.

It'll come. It'll take a couple years, get some young guys a little bit more experience. Hopefully, Stafford gets help and get Cooper back to his 100%.

Puka is a great addition for them, but they have some holes that they need to fill and fill them fast. Last thing I want to ask you, just because I read this story a few weeks ago, there's been speculation about the Steelers offensive coordinator and one writer suggested that maybe your brother would take over if Mike Tomlin fired Mac Canada. Could you see your brother making a return to the NFL and being an offensive coordinator? Because when I saw that a few weeks ago, Jay, I'm like, I can't see John Gruden not being a head coach. Yeah, no, I think that's pretty much speculation right there.

That's one of those reporters who wanted to get more Twitter followers or something. That's not going to happen right now. John's doing his own thing right now. He's got his own personal issues he's dealing with right now at the league. And I'm sure once they get taken care of, he'll come and come in smoking somewhere. But I would seriously doubt it'd be offensive coordinator.

And then one more quickie here. When you get to Derek Carr, who he's worked with, still works with and knows very well, Saints have been up and down, but now they're 500. Do you think they'll find a way to win the NFC South? Or do you look at another team to emerge from that division? Wide open, right?

I mean, who else is there? Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Carolina. I mean, it's wide open. I think the NFC South should go through New Orleans because of Derek Carr's experience and presence. Once he gets the young receivers doing what they're supposed to do, he gets on the same page with Michael Thomas, getting Alvin Kamara back, a more consistent basis will help a lot. And they do have a good defense.

So I definitely think New Orleans Saints wins that division come the end of the year. Well, Jay, hit him straight. Always appreciate it when you jump on board with us. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

There you go. Coach Jay Gruden with us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Alrighty, it's the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Before we get to on-side, off-side, we got confirmation from Eagles coach Nick Sirianni via Elliott Shore Parks.

I don't know if you guys saw this yesterday, Sam Turstu, and I'm bringing this up on the fly. So Kenneth Gainwell and the Eagles, they had some fumbling problems yesterday. And Gainwell, I saw this going viral during the game, but I go, oh, maybe it's photoshopped.

You can't believe everything that you read, especially on Twitter these days. And it was a DM between a fan and Kenneth Gainwell. And the fan wrote to the Eagles running back, hold on to the football, you bleep and bum. And then at halftime, the photo was of Gainwell responding, little boy don't text me. And then the fan responded, get off your phone, just use some glue. I'm trying to win it all.

Keep grinding though. And there was no response from Kenneth Gainwell after that. Two things. I don't love fans messaging players like, oh, you bleep and stink, blah, blah, blah. I think that's just petulant. But it's amazing to me that not only did Kenneth Gainwell respond, but he responded at halftime of the game.

I thought for sure that this was a fake news story, that this was photoshopped, edited. But according to Elliott Shore Parks, Nick Sirianni said the Eagles spoke to Kenneth Gainwell about his interaction with the fan at halftime of the commanders game. So that's wild that an NFL player, and I know how much younger people, you know, I'm in that bracket. We're addicted to our phones. And we grew up in this social media era, all at different levels. But to go to a game, play in the game, and at halftime, and what the 15 minutes that you have, you go to your phone and you go on Instagram, and this has to be in your message requests, and you go to the requests and you respond to a fan.

Like I guess if you needed some motivation, you want to read what some whatever is responding to you and posting to you. But to then respond to them was inconceivable to me, Santer. It's really wild that this story ended up being true. And like, imagine if this happened at halftime of a Super Bowl or something. Like it's one thing what happens in week eight, but if this happened later on in the year, I think this would be a much bigger deal.

But I still cannot believe that this story ended up being true. I guess my question is, maybe I just don't know well enough, like what happens at halftime. Is halftime like 10 minutes of just like grinding it out.

Here's how we're going to adjust and prepare for the second half. Or are guys kind of like unwinding for a second kind of, all right, let me go to the bathroom. Let me like, let me just kind of get a breath here first. Grab a snack. Sometimes it happens.

Let me get a snack. Or it's like halftime, like where you're supposed to like dial in and focus and prepare for the second half. I don't know what the mindset is. I don't think it's okay.

And obviously, you know, if it's true, he'll get fined and all these things. But like, I don't know, to look at your phone and write something back to a fan in like 10 seconds, your mom or your dad messaging you. This is a fan, a guy that's looking for a reaction and you gave him that reaction.

Sure. And listen, it's not the smartest thing to do, but like, I don't, I mean, whether he does it at halftime or he does it when he's sitting on his couch on a Tuesday afternoon. Totally different.

Well, what's the difference? I mean, you're responding to a fan in the middle of the game. Your focus should be on the game, not on what some jackass is saying on Instagram. Yeah, but maybe he uses it as motivation. Maybe that's what he uses to help pump himself up the second half. He sees a fan talking smack. He's like chipping my shoulder. Let me go out there and score a touchdown. If that's the case, if you need motivation from whoever this fan was on Twitter or Instagram, then I don't want you on my team.

Guys get motivation from all sorts of places. Your quarterback for two decades, the goat of all quarterbacks to this day talks about the receipts that he kept from all the people, Tom Brady, all the people who doubted him and doubted him and doubted him. Say it again. Most of those people are people in the NFL that were doubting him, not X two, three, nine, six, seven, egg face to the third power on Twitter. We don't know how fans and commentary impacted Tom Brady. I mean, we obviously get Kevin Duran, all these other guys who get impacted by fans who respond to fans.

Tom Brady is not getting on Instagram during a game and responding to a fan on Instagram, Katie, maybe, but not Tom Brady. All right, let's get, uh, we got some questions. I'll give you some answers right now. We do this segment every Monday and Friday on the Zach Galb show on CBS sports radio. We get to onsite off sides to hit it. Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? Offside defense number 69. It's onsides offsides with Zach Galb on CBS sports radio. I think we should just have sampter moving forward, message players around the league, just hateful things to see if they'll respond to him at half times of games.

That's what you could do on your son. Most of my hate towards Zach Wilson. All right, let's go.

What do you got? The Broncos won their second straight stunning the chiefs 24 nine in Denver yesterday, improvement to three and five on the season. Today, Sean Payton said, quote, we are not openly or even remotely shopping at anyone ahead of tomorrow's trade deadline. So onsite offside, the Broncos should be sellers at the deadline.

Yeah, that is a onsides for me. They should definitely be sellers of the deadline. I don't think you have to sell everyone like I'm not entertaining trading a future star and a guy that's a star right now in in Patrick Sertan, who's 23 years old. But you're telling me Jerry Judy is overrated. You could go trade Portland sudden and get something back for significant value.

I would consider that. But just because you got a back to back wins and now you're three and five on the season, that does not make me say, oh, wow, the Broncos are these big time contenders and they could go make the playoffs this year. This is a bad football team. And if you get draft capital to help you out for the future, especially with how much draft capital you had to give up the last few years to get Russell Wilson and Sean Payton.

Yeah, I would still be sellers. One game doesn't change it onsides. So the Seahawks completed a come from behind win over the Browns and now lead the NFC West at five and two during the game. Social media was ablaze as Seattle wore their 90s throwback unis with the silver helmets. You're even talking about this. Oh, yeah. To me, it's the coolest thing.

I absolutely loved it. I mean, listen, the Eagles have their Kelly Green and all the teams have some throwbacks, right? The Titans are going to go with their Oilers throwbacks. But something about the Seahawks and I was never a huge fan of the Seahawks back in the day, but something about those uniforms yesterday just really got me going. So the Patriots have the really good red jerseys, too. Yeah.

And they have Patriot pad, right? It's kind of a cool helmet. You got the creamsicle buccaneers.

Those are ugly. But there is something about the Seahawks that just really kind of moved me yesterday. So onside offside, this question is probably more for me than anybody else. The Seahawks should wear these unis full time.

No, because I think you should do it here and there. And I think it makes those jerseys more valuable. And also the Seahawks current jerseys are pretty damn cool as well. So I would say offside on that one. Now, Bryce Young won the battle against CJ Stroud as the Panthers earned their first win of the season as predicted.

Yeah. Young had a very nice call on your part. Young had nearly twice as many passing guards as Stroud, passing for one touchdown compared to Stroud zero. So onside also, despite how the start of the season has been for both these two rookie quarterbacks, you believe Bryce Young could still be better than CJ Stroud.

So I'm going to go on side, but on a major, major, major caveat. David Tepper stays out of the kitchen. And I don't know if that's going to happen, but this off season, they need to get more talent around Bryce Young because the line stinks right now in the year of 2023, Adam Thielen should not be your preeminent wide receiver. Bryce Young, I thought heading into the draft was a better quarterback slightly than CJ Stroud, but they need to improve that environment around him.

So I don't trust David Tepper, but if he starts to learn how to get out of his own way, yes, Bryce Young could be a better quarterback than CJ Stroud. As more allegations rolled in against Michigan, reports surfaced that the school rescinded a contract extension offer from Jim Harbaugh after it learned of the allegation. Today, Harbaugh denied that report.

Jim, there was a report last night that you had a contract offer rescinded. Can you say if that's accurate or not? I wouldn't say that's accurate, no. University has a policy. I think they made a statement right there. Yes. Of a policy on contracts and publicly talking about them.

They don't comment about them until after they're done. So onside, offside, Michigan should give Harbaugh the extension now. So if you give the extension to him now, you could either make sure he's your coach for the long term, or if you give him that extension, you could really annoy the NCAA even more because it's a big middle finger to the NCAA. With that being said, the objective for Michigan should still be in this story that I'm not saying it's not important.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be some punishment, but I think it's getting a little bit blown out of proportion here, just a little bit. But the goal should be to still keep Jim Harbaugh. And what better sign of support if you are Jim Harbaugh than it would be your AD and the president of the university giving you a new extension and then they show your loyalties to you so therefore you don't even contemplate ever going back to the NFL again.

So yeah, if the goal is to keep Jim Harbaugh, which it should be, I would give him the extension right now onsides. So Texas stayed at number seven in the AP poll despite a convincing 35-6 win over BYU with backup QB Malik Murphy behind center. Arch Manning did not make his anticipated debut despite Murphy throwing for just 170 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. So onside offsides, if Ewers can't play this week against number 25 Kansas State, Arch should get the start over Murphy. So selfishly, I would love to see Arch Manning, but Malik Murphy played well enough to get another start. So when you ask me if Ewers can't play this week against number 25 Kansas State, Arch should get the start over Murphy, I would go offside.

That was quick. The D-backs and Rangers are tied 1-1 after an epic game one that the Rangers won in extras and a blowout D-backs win in game two. Now tonight, your boy former Met Max Scherzer takes the man in game three despite giving up seven runs and six and two thirds innings over two starts so far this postseason. So onside offside that you expect Scherzer to get lit up tonight. Well, just like the Panthers, everyone expected the Texans to win and I went the other way.

Usually I would say when everyone's saying one thing, you take the opposite side because that's usually how it works in the sports world, but I can't root for Max Scherzer. So yeah, with how bad he's been in a big spot the last two years, I expect him to get lit up like a Christmas tree tonight onsides. All right, last one, the James Harden drama isn't over in Philly as reports say Harden took part in walkthroughs yesterday and is expected to practice tomorrow as the team hopes to ramp up his conditioning. So onside offside, James Harden will remain on the Sixers all year and actually play for them. I hope not and you know he's going to get the fat suit. You know he's going to become a distraction even more and he'll find a way to continue to be a malcontent and a lazy player and a losing player and he'll force his way off the team.

I don't know where he's going to go. The Clippers were rumored and then that seems like it's lost momentum. A lot of other teams are smart because they realize James Harden even though he's going to be a hall of fame player, he's not worth the headache right now. But something eventually tells me that James Harden will kick and scream and put the fat suit on and get his way. So when you say James Harden will remain on the Sixers all year and play for them, I will go offside. And even if he does remain on the team, I still don't think he's getting back on the basketball court because he called Dowell Maury as a liar and he'll never play for Dowell Maury again. So enough of James Harden. All right, he's Zach Gilchos, CBS Sports Radio. Should we be concerned about the Kansas City Chiefs? We discuss next.