Are 49ers In Panic Mode? (Hour 1)

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Visit felixcatinsurance.com slash terms for all terms and limitations. Ew, gotta get rid of this old Backstreet Boys t-shirt. Tell me why. Because it stinks, boys. Tell me what. I've washed it so many times, but the odor won't come out.

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Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got Moist Mike on the other side of the glass along with Stuart Kovacs. We had a very nice show bonding moment and chemistry building moment right before the show. Well, I guess partially.

Stu was kind of like the odd man left out because he has other obligations before the start of the show. But right before the show, I was face-timing with Samtor's beautiful baby girl. And let me tell you, she eats well. There was some pizza, there was some pasta, there was some vegetables as well.

I may have to move in Samtor. I may need a little couch space or the spare bedroom because if that's what the baby's eating, all I had today was like a protein bar and a protein shake and a little salad. I think the baby's eating better than me. All I get is leftovers. Whatever the baby doesn't eat is what goes onto my plate. So, I think you won't be eating nearly as well as you think you will be. Okay.

Oh, that's a little bit deflating. But I don't want to ruin a good moment. So, I'll continue to move forward. Bobby Carpenter will join us coming up at about an hour 20 from now as we'll go around the college football landscape. And then at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, one of my all-time favorites from CBS, Westwood One, and of course Turner Sports, Kevin Harlan will stop by. But we got to start off with the San Francisco 49ers because the San Francisco 49ers are making a move. And they are taking Steve Wilks from the coaching box upstairs and they're moving him down onto the field. And that's their big adjustment that they made after the bye week. Also, they did go out there and they acquired Chase Young as well. So, you get a little bit more of some ammunition for this defense, which a few weeks ago was a dominant defense look like they were going to kick the crap out of anyone that they were going to play.

And really the last few weeks they've started to look human. And that defense did an awful job up against one of the better quarterbacks in football in Joe Burrow. So, the San Francisco 49ers now sit at five and three. And the question is being asked, where is your concern level with the San Francisco 49ers? And are the 49ers more so the team that we saw the first five weeks of the season when they were 5-0, where they kicked the crap out of Pittsburgh, beat the Rams, the Giants, the Cardinals, and the Cowboys? Or are they more the team that we've seen the last three weeks where it came right down to the wire against Cleveland, they lose.

Comes right down to the wire against Minnesota, they lose. And then you did have the Cincinnati Bengals show and assert that they were the better team for the majority of that game. And this is why, and I think the source is going to be ironic here since it's coming from me, I'm not worried about the San Francisco 49ers. Now there's different degrees that you could take that statement.

You go, well, Zach, what does worried mean on your scale? I still believe the San Francisco 49ers are playoff team, no crap. I still believe the San Francisco 49ers are going to win the NFC West. I said going into this season, they're one of the better teams in football.

I still believe at the end of the year, they'll be one of the better teams in football. But before the season commenced, I did not pick them to represent the NFC in the Superbowl because I believe that the Philadelphia Eagles are a better team. And through the first nine weeks of the season, not that any championship trophies are handed out, the Philadelphia Eagles are eight and one, the San Francisco 49ers are five and three, and the 49ers go from a team that we thought was going to have home field advantage or be in the race for home field advantage to a team now that is really going to be competing for either the second or third seed in the NFC. And I understand 49ers fans, you still play the Eagles and the Eagles have a tough stretch coming up, but so do you guys. Like the next four or five games for the 49ers, you play Jacksonville, no pushover. You play Tampa, a team you should beat, and then you go in a three week stretch where you're at Seattle on Thanksgiving Eve, on Thanksgiving night. Then you're in Philadelphia and then you have another game up against the Seattle Seahawks. And oh yeah, by the way, you still have the Baltimore Ravens on your schedule. So to think when you already have a slim margin and making up ground to get the number one seed and have home field advantage run through Santa Clara to get to Las Vegas for the Superbowl, you almost can't make a mistake. Even if the Eagles fall, it's not as automatically as you jump up and take their spot because as you both go into week 10, I know the Eagles are on the bye and you guys have a game up against the Jaguars, you're sitting there at five and three and the Eagles are eight and one.

But I think previous history matters. And I was just talking to Shannon Crowder, former NFL linebacker, and does a great job inside the NFL and on the Pivot Podcast. Let me just say this right out of the gate.

The Zach Gelb show is with Shannon Crowder over Brandon Marshall in this big dispute and feud that's been going on through the last two years. But with all that being said, Shannon Crowder just asked me and he does a local radio show in Miami, Zach, why are you out on the Miami Dolphins? But when other teams fall, you're still in on them. And I said, when I'm out of the Miami Dolphins, I still believe they'll win the AFC East. I still believe that they could win a playoff game, but expectations change when the Dolphins get off to this hot start. And I went from thinking the Dolphins were a Super Bowl contender to when you lose to Buffalo, you lose to the Eagles and you lose to the Chiefs.

I think your limitations this year are just going to be a good team, not a great team. And he goes, well, the Eagles lost to the Jets and the Chiefs, right? They've lost to the Broncos. The 49ers have lost three in a row. Why don't you change your expectations for those teams?

And I said to him, because previous history matters. And there's some teams that have the benefit of the doubt. The Eagles, when they lose to the Jets and Jalen Hurts throws a bad interception at the end of the game, it's their first loss of the year.

And there's no question. If the Eagles could get to the Super Bowl, we just saw them do it a year ago for Kansas city. It was the same song and dance last year. Oh, what's the offense going to look like without Tyree kill? Oh, can the chiefs get down in a big game and come on back like they've been notoriously known for. And then in the Super Bowl last year, Kansas City's down 10 and a half time and they ended up winning the game. You look at the 49ers, the same point resonates here where it does feel like in the last five years, the 49ers wake up each and every year, regardless of what happens in the regular season and they are in the NFC title game. So let's just look in a small sample size, just the last two seasons where this team was after nine weeks heading into week 10. Back in 2021, this team was three and five, three and five after nine weeks of the season, they ended the year 10 and seven. They won two playoff games against Dallas, of course, against the Green Bay Packers. And then they lost in the fourth quarter in an NFC title game.

You then take a glance in just last season after nine weeks, they were four and four. The 49ers finish 13 and four and they made it to the NFC title game where they lost Brock Purdy and they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 31 to 17. So I guess when people say, what's the true 49ers team?

I will believe that it's more so the 49ers, even if it won't be that dominant, that we saw the first five weeks of the season, rather than the 49ers that we've seen on display from week six through eight, because they get the benefit of the doubt. But with that being said, that isn't good enough to just get to the NFC title game this year, because we've seen this team now get to the NFC title games on more than a few occasions. We saw them get to it in 2019. They made it to the Super Bowl. We saw them get it in 2021. They lost to the Rams.

We saw them get there in 2022. They lost to the Eagles. So if this is where it's heading again, up and down in the first half of the season, then they get hot late and they only get to an NFC title game. You are missing taking advantage of the window that you have in front of you, because just like the Buffalo Bills, where I guess you could draw some similarities with the Bills and the 49ers, those have been two teams, even though the 49ers have had more success and have gone farther, both of those two teams have been in it the last three, four or five years. And neither of those teams found the way to walk away with the Lombardi Trophy.

And now it appears that the Bills window is on extremely shaky grounds and looks like it's just about to get slammed shut or needs to be retooled. And for the 49ers, I still think they could get to an NFC championship game, but I don't believe it's going to be as easy as it appeared four or five weeks ago, because now losing three games, you're probably not going to get the one seed. And can this team go on the road?

Absolutely. But if they have to go to an NFC championship game right now, it's looking like it will be in either Philadelphia, which is a tough environment to play in. Or even if you have to go the divisional round in the second round of the playoffs, you may have to go to Detroit because I know Detroit has two losses, but they have an easy peasy schedule the rest of the way, besides like the final three weeks of the season and the Detroit Lions. If you're telling me they have a home divisional round game coming off a home wildcard victory and they have an opportunity to go to the NFC title game and Jared Goff doesn't have to go on the road, that game becomes a whole lot more intriguing than probably what we thought it would be three, four weeks ago. And that this is my biggest problem with the 49ers. And I understand we started the topic off with the defense and how the defense has to get better and how they make the change with Steve Wolf, your healer from Kyle Shanahan in just a second. But I did say this before the start of the season with the 49ers. The one thing that gave me pause about the 49ers before the start of the season, even though you acknowledge they have one of, if not the best rosters in the NFL, they have treated the quarterback position even with all the success the last four or five years, like how I play roulette. That's what they do.

They just spin it around and hope that the ball falls on their number. And that's what they've done with the quarterback position. And going into this year, I was intrigued by what Brock Purdy did a year ago down the stretch. But with that being said, I don't know what Brock Purdy is going to look like over the full regular season. And we've seen some good Brock. We've seen some bad Brock. But the most important thing for Brock Purdy, who I call right now, more of a system quarterback than someone that's a franchise quarterback and people are up in arms and all the 49ers fans are like, screw this Zach Gelb guy.

He's just a hater. Deebo Samuel hung up the phone on him. Good for Deebo. Gelb sucks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The reason I said that was because look at the environment he's in. You don't need him to be great.

You don't. And the last few weeks you've seen Deebo go out. Trent Williams get hurt, even though McCaffrey keeps on getting into the end zone.

He's not a hundred percent. And then to no surprise, Brock Purdy looks human. So that's another reason why you should believe in the 49ers, at least to get back to a divisional round or an NFC title game. And then we'll see if they could slay the Eagles, who as long as Jalen Hurts stays healthy, I think the Eagles will be in the NFC title game.

And I do believe the Eagles will be in the Superbowl, but with the 49ers getting healthier, you would anticipate that Brock Purdy is going to play better because he has his weapons back. So let's hear from Kyle Shanahan. This was Kyle Shanahan the other day. I'm why Steve Wilks is moving down to the field coming out of the bye week. We're going to put him on the field this week.

So we've talked about for a little bit. There's pluses to it and minuses to it, but we'll see what we like about this week. I kind of wanted him to be down and be near our players a little bit. They've had that more just with the linebacker communication in the past. And I want him to be down there so he can talk to guys a little bit more.

So that's the reasoning for it. I think when you have a defense that everyone acknowledges is great, they start to stub their toe. I don't believe that having some adjustments or changing the way that you used to do things is the worst thing in the world that I really believe there's no harm in this move, but they're scheduled the rest of the way. Let's just do a quick win loss here. Jaguars. I think they go to Jacksonville and win. I think they go to Tampa and win.

I think they beat Seattle in Seattle and they win three in a row. I think they lose in Philadelphia. Then I do believe that they will split the Seahawks. So I'll give the Seahawks a loss the second time around or the 49ers a loss. I think they'll beat Arizona right now. I would say the Ravens is a toss up. I'll say that they lose to the Baltimore Ravens. They beat the commanders and they beat the Rams. So that would put them with six losses on the season.

That probably is the three seed. The lines would probably be the two and then the Eagles would be the one. And if you tell me that the 49ers are the three seed, it's not that they can't go into these road environments and win, but you just made the road a little bit tougher because you much rather have the game at Santa Clara. But as long as this team is healthy, you're not going to be jumping for joy saying all the 49ers are coming into your house for a playoff game because they have experience and they have a heck of a team.

And even if they do go out, they're going to be a tough out because they're sometimes right. You see in the postseason, you don't get a buy, but then who your opponent is, you're like, oh, that's an easy game. I remember like years ago, the Patriots played the Broncos with Tim Tebow coming into town.

You knew you had a buy week or whatever. The Patriots would play Tennessee in the playoffs outside of Brady's final game in a Patriot uniform going back years and years ago. There's some games that appear to be a buy in the playoffs, even if you have to play them. The 49ers will never be considered by another opponent. Oh, this is a team that we're just going to take easy and they're coming into town, or we have to go there and this is going to be an easy victory for us. It is Zach Yelp show on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

I will say this though. I smell a little bit of a fraud alert though, even though I just defended the 49ers. Don't you think it's funny, Santa, that Ryan in a Santa Barbara was so passionate and called so much and in great frequency, the first four, five, even six weeks of the season. But ever since that Minnesota loss, ever since that Cincinnati Bengals loss, where now it's a three game losing streak and maybe he went away because he thinks he's a part of the team. Maybe he went away on the bye week, but I've not heard from Ryan. And I wonder when Ryan reappears, will it be now when there are tough times or will he only pop up and kind of be like a drama Dallas choking Cowboys fan where you only are present when the team is doing well.

And then you have to slap your face on a milk carton when the team is doing poorly. If I had to say in the next two weeks, do you think we hear from Ryan in Santa Barbara? Do you think we will hear from him the next two weeks? I'm looking at the phone right now.

He's going to call in the next 20 minutes. You think so? Oh yeah. We sent the bat signal out. Yeah.

So Ryan I know is not one of those guys who shies away when his team is struggling, but also he answers the bell when his name is called. We'll say, I don't know. I'm a little bit worried about him. We haven't heard from him in the final in the last two weeks. I'm a little concerned.

Here's another random question. Were they maybe a little bit too quick on the Trey Lance trade? Did they jump into the Brock Purdy all in basket a little bit too quickly and then just gave up on Trey Lance?

So I do think you're onto something. I don't believe there was any harm in keeping Trey Lance on the roster. And when you have a team that has a legit Superbowl opportunity and he was supposed to be your starting quarterback and was your starting quarterback at the beginning of last season before the injury, with all that you gave up for him, I don't believe there was any harm on keeping Trey Lance on the roster, but this goes into the ego and the QB roulette that Kyle Shanahan plays. Kyle Shanahan originally did not want Trey Lance on the team.

I don't care what anybody says. He was talked into drafting Trey Lance. And once things just minorly started to go the wrong way for Trey Lance, Kyle Shanahan gave up on him.

So I don't know. I'm not saying that Kyle Shanahan viewed Trey Lance as a distraction, but maybe you could make the case that he did, because if you're asking that question removed from the situation, Santa, you know, the 49ers media members would be asking the same questions the moment Brock Purdy has struggled. I don't think Brock has played poor enough. Let me be clear to suggest that there would be a benching, but if Brock gets hurt or if Brock plays three, four bad games in a row, which he has not done yet, then those calls for Trey Lance would have grown louder and louder.

So maybe it was Shanahan thinking, I don't believe in this kid. Let's just get him out of the building so we could fully show our support to Brock Purdy and we'll have to wait and see. And if Brock Purdy does not succeed, you bet your ass that Kirk Cousins, you like that, you like that will be the QB for the 49ers next season.

Take a break. When we come on back, the Raiders outlook the rest of the way. Smoking victory cigars after a win against the lowly, pathetic New York Giants. Now the Raiders have the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football this week in Las Vegas. Is there some optimism for the Raiders?

Is the Rich Passaccia effect from a few years ago maybe happening now with Antonio Pierce? We'll discuss on the Zach Yelp show on CBS Sports Radio when we return in five minutes. Man, you could stream the NFL and Westwood One for free sponsored by AutoZone all season long. You can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL Live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on the Odyssey app. Get in the Zone AutoZone.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the Zone AutoZone restrictions apply. Alrighty, let's hear a little bit from Devante Adams right now as Devante Adams responds to some of the backlash that I guess the Raiders have received from their victory cigar celebration after taking care of the New York Football Giants last week. Well, I don't look at what the cigars thing is, something that's not as corporate. I mean, it's definitely different in the middle of the season, but at the end of the day, anybody has dealt with the type of adversity that we have this year and just ups and downs and all the negative attention and a lot of drama and stuff. You know, they'll never understand why we had that feeling and why it led to cigars being, you know, lit in the locker room. Obviously, not everybody agrees with it, but you know, we, you can't, you won't last in this league if you care too much about what other people think and how they feel about what you do.

Now we just got to make it, make it normal. That way we don't have to light cigars in the locker room after, you know, regular season wins. So let's go to our Raider fan here, Stu. I think that was more so, not necessarily a victory cigar. Because when you think of a victory cigar, it's alrighty, a team wins a national championship or a team wins a Superbowl or like a big win. That Raiders win up against the Giants was not a big win. If you can't beat the Giants, there's more problems than just Josh McDaniel's that I know by that point, Josh McDaniel's was fired. That was a cigar to dance on the grave and give a bleep you to Josh McDaniel's and to kind of drag his body around the locker room and really show the dislike that this Raiders team had for their former head coach.

A hundred percent. It was a, thank God Josh McDaniel's is gone. Ding dong, the witch is dead.

He's out of here. We have a new life, whether that means one win or two wins or how many wins it means for the rest of the year. It means it's a, you know, it's like a new start for them. And you know, it's not a huge win, but at the same time, it's different McDaniel.

So it's different. And I don't know what you'll think of this opinion. And I'm happy that the Raiders fan base and the Raiders players don't have to deal with the wrath of Josh McDaniel's anymore. He is clearly just a really good offensive coordinator. But when you ask him to be a leader of men, when you ask him to be the head honcho, the head coach of the football team, he's just incapable of leading the entire team and setting the right tone in a locker room.

And he has this Bella check approach of my way or the highway and write the Bella check way, the Patriot way. But as you see with what's going on in new England right now, to some extent, when you're not winning, people like to expose that way. And also when you were Josh McDaniel's and you don't have the clout of Bill Bella check, cause you've won nothing as a head coach to go in to a locker room and say, you have to do this. You have to do that and have no discourse, especially in the year of 2023, when you see personalities that are more player friendly, like Mike McDaniel and Dan Campbell as well, Nick Sirianni, where I'm not saying those teams don't work hard and it's just a country club lifestyle, but those coaches know how to relate to their players. And I do sometimes believe when you have someone that's a nice guy, or you have someone that has good relationships with players, when that coach then raises his voice or tries to set a stern tone in the locker room in a moment of adversity when it's needed, sometimes it's more effective because you're close with that coach. You believe in that coach and you go, Oh, he usually treats us this way and that way.

Now he's getting annoyed. So we need to pick up our crap and do our job. Like I was once a counselor at a sleepaway camp. I was a division leader. So I was in charge of 50 to 60 seventh and eighth grade boys.

And also about like 12 to 15 staff members. And for the most part, I think everyone liked me and everyone's like, Oh, this is a friendly guy, but I was also a leader. But with that being said, when there was moments when there were problems and I raised my voice or I said, you need to do something this way. They were more receptive because the people enjoyed me. The people liked me and they respected me. It's clear in the Raiders locker room, no one respected or very few people respected Josh McDaniels. So when you're not winning and even in Devante Adams case, when they did get a win and he was annoyed with his targets, Devante Adams knows what winning looks like. And he knows what being around the winning culture is. And even though Josh McDaniels comes from winning, that's being an OC with Belichick and also with Tom Brady.

So when you're trying to swing your, you know what around and saying, I'm the big man on campus, I'm the dude, I'm the guy. And you're treating like everyone in the locker room poorly, and you're not winning games, the little things, even maybe in a win are going to set you off because it's personal now. And you want to go after the football coach with all that being said, and let me preface it once again, I'm happy that Josh Jacobs doesn't have to deal with Josh McDaniels anymore and Devante Adams and all those players and Antonio Pierce is now the interim coach.

And he's already a better leader of men than Josh McDaniels was. But I will say in the last week, the Raiders, I don't want to say they've become obnoxious and insufferable because that wouldn't be right. But like the Raiders now thinking that everything is cured and that they're going to get hot.

And that they're going to go on this win streak. And now people are asking on national shows like, are the Raiders back? Are the Raiders for real? Are the Raiders going to go and get hot? Like they did a few years ago under Rich Passaccia.

That conversation just makes the hair on my neck like stand up because it's okay. You beat the Giants. Your wins this year are the Broncos. They stink. Green Bay, they stink. New England, they stink.

The Giants, they stink. So like, I understand the smell of McDaniels and the horror of McDaniels is gone. But at four and five, I don't think there's much new life with the Raiders in terms of them going on a run. In terms of locker room chemistry, that only takes you so far.

You got to have talent. And the Raiders have talent. Max Crosby is one of the best defensive players in the sport. Josh Jacobs, he'll be awesome down the stretch. Devonta Adams is happier.

We all know he's one of the top wide receivers in the league, but what else do the Raiders have? And you look at their schedule the rest of the way. Yeah, you should be able to beat the Jets this weekend, but that's not a lock. You then play Miami. That's a loss. You play the Chiefs. That's a loss. You then play the Vikings.

They have life. That's a toss up. You play the Chargers, a toss up. You play the Chiefs again, a loss. Indianapolis, great team, but it's a toss up. And then you should be able to beat Denver again, even though Denver, right, is I guess starting to get back into a better spot, even though I don't believe in it. So I just went through that entire schedule.

I'm not saying they're going to lose all these games, but there's no game that you look at on that schedule and go, that's 100% a win. And I don't know what Aiden O'Connell is. I think it's a better option right now than Jimmy Garoppolo. Outside of Max Crosby, what else does his defense have? The offensive line is problematic too. So the Raiders continue to have like star power in Crosby and Adams and Jacobs, and it's good that McDaniels is out there, but what else do you really have? So Stu, just entertain me here for a second, because you're the Raider fan, but I think you're a realistic Raider fan. But if anyone's going to give the Raiders the benefit of the doubt, I'm not saying that's you, but just with the options that I have here, you may spin a little bit more positive when going on a win-loss schedule. If a game's like 50-50, you may lean Raiders over the other team. So I want to get the pulse of the Raider fan base right now. And we go to the great Stuart Kovacs, who is like a normal human being, and you wouldn't expect him to be a Raider fan. And I don't think Stu dresses up like, uh, whatever Raider fans dress up as. I don't even know how to how to call that, but we've been to all the events and you see all the the gear that the Raider fans wear. You're not dressed in all these costumes, right? No, no, never have. Why not?

I don't know. I see if I go to a Raider game, I just wear a jersey. I don't wear like, you know, I don't pay my face, silver.

I don't dress up like that gorilla guy. All the spikes on the shoulder pads, all that. Yeah. Imagine bringing a kid like an eight-year-old to your first ever Raiders game and you just see the collection of people that are walking around.

Could be a scary sight. Yeah, definitely. So here we go. Jets this weekend. Win or loss? Win.

Okay. At Miami the following week? Loss.

Kansas City? Loss. Bye week? Okay. They have a bye week then.

It's good. I'm just saying the Raiders can't, if there's one team that could lose a bye week, it's the Raiders. The Minnesota Vikings? That's like you said, it's a toss up. I'll say coming off the bye win.

Ooh. Chargers. Short week Thursday night football. Yeah, loss. Okay, wow.

That was quick. At the Chiefs. Loss. And we have at the Colts.

Win. And then the Broncos. I think they lose actually because they beat them already. I feel like they'll split with the Broncos this year.

So they'll win three more games. That was three more games. That was the Jets. That was the Vikings. And that was the Colts.

Yeah. And the Vikings I'm very like 51-49 on. And let's just... So let's say you're right. That's seven wins. Let's say if you get a game wrong and it should have been a win, this at best is going to be an 8-9 team. Yeah, like the Bears.

They lost to the Bears who I thought they'd win. And 8-9, going 8-9 and winning four more games this season would be impressive and would make a case for Antonio Pierce to keep his job. But to just get to nine wins is going to be a stretch where you're going to have to win five more games this season and you have the Jets, the Dolphins, the Chiefs, the Vikings, the Chargers, the Chiefs, the Colts, and then Denver. So there's only eight games left in this season.

It's tough for me to say that this team's going to go five and three in their final eight games. And I was talking very slowly there because I am not good at mental math. I think I got those numbers right.

I know Dr. Raymond Coughlin at Temple University who used to be friends with the real Rudy and come and speak to us at campus once. I know he's very proud with all those math skills. I took one math class in college because that was the requirement. Got a C in boys and girls, children of all ages. I know we do a Zach Gelb show PSA on this Thursday. This is not the PSA, but sometimes Cs get degrees.

And that was my philosophy when I was in college. All right, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Where's your belief level in the Raiders? Come on back. We'll update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. But first up, standing by with the latest CBS Sports Radio update.

Here he is, Rich Ackerman. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. All right, yesterday we played Mike Vrabel announcing that Will Leviss is his starter for the rest of the season. Let's go to the man that's getting replaced by Will Leviss, and that's Ryan Tannehill. Oh, it hits hard. I mean, never been in this situation before, so, you know, it hits hard. Never a situation that anyone wants to be in, but it's a situation I'm in, so got to walk through it. You know, we've seen before Ryan Tannehill replaced someone, right, in Tennessee, where he replaced Marcus Mariota, and now someone is replacing him.

So it stinks. You're still getting paid. Now, as a competitor, you want to be out there on the field, but this is not a wrong decision, and I never said that Ryan Tannehill said that, but this is not a wrong decision by the Tennessee Titans because they're not going anywhere this year. Ryan Tannehill is not the long-term answer. He did a nice job in Tennessee. He did a good job.

You know, give him credit for that. We'll see where he lands next year, but now you need the new arrow to start, and you should usher that in with the way that he's played the last two weeks with Will Leviss. Let's go to Troy Aikman. This was on Monday Night Football this past week.

Jetson Chargers. Listen up to how Troy Aikman commented about Quinnen Williams. Quinnen Williams, he keeps telling Robert Sala and Jeff Albrecht.

They got to come up with some ways to give him some single opportunities so he can get some sacks. He says he's the highest paid decoy in football. So let me just ask a question here, guys. Do you think that's Troy Aikman saying, I talked to Quinnen Williams, and Quinnen Williams says he's the biggest decoy in football, or was that, hey, Robert Sala and Jeff Albrecht was the person I was talking to, and they said that about Quinnen Williams? Because that's the part to me, before we get to Quinnen Williams' response, that I thought was ambiguous.

It's definitely ambiguous from a grammatical standpoint. We can talk about pronouns and what subject the pronoun is referencing. It is technically that he's referring to Quinnen Williams. But when you listen to the whole clip, I guess you can infer, especially based off of what we're going to hear next from Quinnen Williams, you can infer that maybe he was talking to Sala or one of the coaches who was the one who said it. But in the clip itself, when he says it from a grammatical standpoint, the sound refers to Quinnen Williams.

And I listen to the full clip, and sometimes when you're speaking for a long period, you say something and you think the way that you're trying to say it is coming out the right way, but you're speaking for so long, and you're in the middle of a sentence, and you go back to something that you were saying, and then you try to continue the thought. I do lean more with you than it does sound like to most that Quinnen Williams said to him, hey, I'm the biggest decoy in football. But when I heard the full clip, I'm like, hmm, he may be talking about Sala and Olbrich said that, but then why would Sala and Olbrich saying that knowing Quinnen Williams importance to the team?

Now, maybe the point was Quinnen Williams allows so many other players to benefit off the force that he puts on offense alignment and other guys eat, and it is a great job to expose or to get the best out of those other players. Maybe it's something like that in the word decoy was said, but like Troy Aikman's a guy that is a professional. I don't think Troy Aikman is someone that usually makes stuff up, and there's no need for him to get clicks.

Look at the contract that he gets, and, you know, he's just a game analyst right now and a legendary quarterback. So this is Quinnen Williams on Aikman's decoy comments. He took issue with them. So to hear him say that I said that is kind of like upsetting that he would lie on me like that or say that I said that. So that's kind of kind of weird to me. Yeah, for sure.

It was definitely misleading. I've talked to Quinnen Williams before. I think he's a really good person. He's a heck of a football player, and I think there's like an innocence to Quinnen Williams, too, with some of the moments that he's had in the media as well. So I give Quinnen Williams the benefit of the doubt, and I'm going to trust Quinnen Williams when he says he hasn't talked to Troy Aikman. And to get back to our previous conversation, I think this was Troy kind of fumbling his words a little bit, and he meant that the comment was more so from Salah and Ulbricht rather than a direct conversation with Quinnen Williams.

Let's go to Justin Jefferson. This 21 day window has opened for him to return coming off IR. Now the big question is, Jay Jettis, when will you get back on the field? The guys and the rest of the coaching staff in this building know my worth on the field, and they want me 100 percent, as I do as well. I don't want to go out there 80, 90 percent and have the chance of hurting it again.

So it's just, you know, day to day, just like I said. And I remember when he first went down, it was like, oh, the Vikings are going nowhere. You're waiting for a new contract. Maybe you just don't come back this year.

Now at five and four, even if they lose this week to the Saints and they go to five and five, which is a winnable game, if you're at five and five and you can get Justin Jefferson back from week 11 and on, that would be an absolute steal for the Minnesota Vikings. Here is Ryan Day, as if you had the over of 49 minutes on when we would first address Ryan Day, Ohio State, Michigan today, you have won because it's currently 3.50 p.m. Eastern. Here is Ryan Day on reports that Ohio State collaborated with Rutgers against Michigan. Nobody here did any of that. So, you know, we went through and made sure we went and, you know, asked all the questions and, you know, got our compliance people involved.

And, you know, none of that came back at all. So, you know, I could answer very strongly that that did not happen. Well, as a head coach, I got to think, you know, what's going on.

So then you have all these compliance people that basically launch an investigation internally and quickly. Everyone says, no, that's not the case. It's, come on. Even if it is true, are you going to have the proof of it?

And are you going to admit it when there's no reason for you to admit it right now? And there's all this kind of gamesmanship that goes on in the sport. And sometimes it does go too far. The latest in the whole Michigan scandal is from Adam Rittenberg, the ESPN. While we wait, although the Big Ten is considered a suspension for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, it is considering a range of possibilities, including a significant fine. Sources told College Football Heather, which is Heather Dinich and me, public reprimands and fines are common penalties under the Big Ten sportsmanship policy. That may actually be the best thing for the Big Ten to do right now. I think a lot of people roll their eyes and go, oh, it's only a fine.

We wanted more, blah, blah, blah. The Big Ten should do nothing right now in terms of a suspension. Eventually, pump this down the road and let the NCAA handle this.

But if you want to fine him, go ahead. It's really no harm when you look at the bank account of Jim Harbaugh. Here is Urban Meyer, who has high praise for Jayla Milro after his performance up against LSU. Urban's take with Tim May. The Reggie Bush, Percy Harbin of college football is playing quarterback in Alabama. Yeah.

And they're running them. He had a hundred, I want to say 130 yards rushing, 20 some carries, 25 carries. And there's a couple of clips on that videotape that he is, uh, he's, he's other than Marvin Harrison, he's the best athlete in college football.

He's touching the ball every snap relevant. That's some serious praise right there from Urban Meyer, who say what you want about Urban Meyer. He does know what he's talking about when it comes to college football and Jayla Milro in the game up against LSU at 20 carries for 155 yards and four touchdowns. And through the air, he had 219 yards. He, I'm not saying you need four touchdowns every week at 155 yards rushing every week, but if you have that balance and you get that production somewhere close to that, even if it's a notch or two below from Jayla Milro with the defense Alabama has, Alabama goes from a team that we thought was on the ropes and now becoming a really dominant team.

And here is Nick Saban on Jayla Milro, this via the Pat McAfee show. In certain cases, you know, his running ability is going to be a factor for us and we want to utilize that the best we can. And in other cases, you know, the skilled guys that we have in the arm talent that he has is something that we can take advantage of.

So it's kind of a combination of both, you know, moving forward. And Alabama right now is rolling and I think they're destined to go to the SEC title game and have that match up against Georgia with Kentucky Chattanooga and Auburn remaining. Here is Victor Wambunyama on a bad loss in his first game at Madison Square Garden.

Such a great arena. And yeah, we did have a rough start collectively. And yeah, but we're young, you know, the youngest team in the league, so we're learning.

Mike Breen made a great point after the game. We all get obsessed with a rookie like Victor Wambunyama, especially where the hype is. And everyone expects greatness every night they watch him.

That's just not realistic. And there's going to be some nights like we saw a little while ago where Victor Wambunyama has 38 points and is lethal and looks like he's everything that he's hyped up to be. And then there's going to be some poor performances like the one that you saw last night for the Spurs. It's just unfortunate with his first game at Madison Square Garden. A lot of people watching. A big reason to tune in that he didn't perform all that well. But there's going to be some good moments and bad moments at the end of the year. I do believe we'll be talking about Victor Wambunyama in a sensational way. One writer would not vote J.J. McCarthy for the Heisman. We discuss it next.