Qadry Ismail, Ravens Pregame Host for WJZ

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Offer valid for a limited time, $10 minimum per order, additional term supply. Alrighty, rocking and rolling, this is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Let's welcome in a Super Bowl champion, former Ravens wide receiver, Kadre Ismail, and right now you can check him out as the co-host of Purple pregame and postgame on WJZ-TV in Baltimore. Q, always appreciate the time. How you been, my friend? Happy holidays. Happy holidays. I'm doing well, bro. Well, let me start you off with your Ravens last night. What a wonderful performance that is.

You know what I'm the happiest for and who I'm happiest for? It's actually Lamar Jackson. Because today is one of those days where no one could actually say anything negative about Lamar Jackson.

And if they do, they're just simply a hater, Q. You're right. I think when you look at the circumstances, the way in which you had the 49ers, their defense, as dominant as it has been, the other side of the football with Brock Purdy and all his weapons around him and the talk of Brock Purdy being an MVP candidate who's a head of Lamar Jackson. The way in which Lamar Jackson just overall had to deal with the loss of Keaton Mitchell, a very explosive dynamic threat at running back, no longer going to be at his side. Then you also couple in the fact that you had Mark Andrews, his go-to tight end. He was going to be put on IR, is put on IR, I should say, because of a hip drop tackle in the Bengals game. It just came about where, yes, he needed to play his absolute best.

And I think he did that. And I think he showed many a person that haven't really been following the Ravens that Lamar Jackson is the real deal. Let's just say this offseason, some team offered him a ridiculous contract and they went to the Ravens and they had that opportunity to match it or not. If they didn't match it, the Ravens would get two first round picks. Do you think there would have been a number where the Ravens, when push came to shove, would have been out on Lamar Jackson as their quarterback?

That's a big one. I think it would have had to have been that Herschel Walker going way back in the day, kind of a deal where the Ravens would have given up, you know, a lot of it would have given up Lamar Jackson to gain back a lot of draft capital, a lot of first rounders, a lot of opportunity for them to see that they can grow and then somehow convince the fan base that that was the right thing to do. I know Steve Basati would have been tossing and turning to allow EDC to make that decision happen, but we can sit back and talk the conjecture. I think for other teams, general managers, I don't think they quite had the balls to do it because they wanted to play it safe and get drafts their own players or stick with their own free agent guys. But ultimately, as we are now seeing it play out, kudos for the Ravens to getting the deal done and for those other general managers who didn't really see the vision or didn't really understand the full talented nature of Lamar Jackson.

Well, they're going to be sitting there on a hot seat wondering if they're going to have a job come this offseason. Why does Lamar Jackson get so much hate like I felt even before the draft? I've been on this island where he should get a chance to play quarterback. We all know what Bill Polian said that he wins a unanimous MVP and people still question him. I know he was hurt the last two years, but it always comes back to it feels like you people go. He hasn't won the Super Bowl. He hasn't won the Super Bowl and I've seen so many players in this league quarterbacks that go on to win it who struggled early on in their careers in the postseason. Yeah, I mean, what the heck you could look at, you know, one of the all-time greats and Pete Manning my former teammate who, you know, his first few years. He really struggled but you know, the belief in him from an organizational standpoint helped him kind of push through all that and obviously the game slowed down for him and he had a phenomenal Hall of Fame career. I think with Lamar I just think that he is such an outlier and because of his because of his skill set and what he brings to the table.

You have to have a good vision. You have to have a vision of understanding how to coach him a vision of understanding how to put the guys around him to allow him to blossom to allow him to flourish and there have been other teams that have done that with guys that were similar to him. You know, you had a team like a Philadelphia Eagles squad with the Randall Cunningham era. You had a team in the Atlanta Falcons who, you know, saw something in a special dynamic player in Michael Vick. You saw that with the 49ers when Bill Walsh felt like, hey, I want to bring on a Steve Young to my team and I think with all those, you know, mobile quarterbacks that have a lot of athleticism but could sling it around. You just got to put them in the right position you got to allow them to be them.

Well, at the same time, getting them to to as Steve Young had previously previously said on a podcast. Look, when you are a dynamic runner like Lamar Yeah, you sure have the entire field at your at your disposal. But at the same time if you can enhance your play by allowing the play itself to enhance and go through your reads and projections of where to go with the football then I think that's where you become even more dangerous and that's where you're going to have a more lasting impact on the league and and can have that Hall of Fame type career that that obviously Steve Young has had but that is where I think for Lamar Jackson, if you don't have that vision, then yeah, you're just going to be short sighted. But if you have that vision and I think you're going to you're going to love some Lamar Jackson and watch him do his thing.

country smile here with us going into this one the other night. There was a lot of people saying Brock Purdy or Christian McCaffrey should win the MVP. Now we know the take today is that Lamar Jackson should win it. There's been a big push this year for Tyree kill the Ravens play the Dolphins coming up Sunday at one o'clock in Baltimore. Do you think this MVP conversation is over with like you would be shocked if Lamar doesn't end up winning the award at the end of the year.

Correct. I think if you look at what you know, he has obviously the Dolphins and you know, he does what he does. He's going to have a great game. They're going to see why he's such a tremendous player, tremendous athlete, tremendous quarterback, tremendous leader, you know, he is that guy and at the same time when you look at what they have Steelers at the end of the year, so I think it's just icing on the cake right now. You'd have to be a fool to turn the other way and not give him the MVP. When we rank Lamar Jackson, like how many quarterbacks in the NFL queue just wondering that just come to you right off the top of the head that you would rather have than Lamar Jackson.

Why is it always what I would rather have like there is somebody better. All he does is win. You know, I think for the the the the talent that has been around him.

Let me put it to you this way. Can I trade out other quarterbacks put them on the team that he's had and have them be as successful as Lamar Jackson has been with the talent that has been around him and I would argue know you can even look at the struggles of Patrick Mahomes when he doesn't have a fully talented arsenal at his disposal and you can look at with Josh Allen and you can see how he has had to do an awful lot but has come up short as well so you know the mindset of who is better you know you're I get you know our dialogue our back and forth but man you know yeah maybe I do have the purple kool aid that I'm drinking but I like that number eight. I like what he does and I think he's more than proving himself as a winner.

Wrapping up with cadre a smile. Let me get to someone that you know well and some of that had a lot of success in Baltimore. Joe Flacco now dominating with the Cleveland Browns. How far do you think the Browns can go this year because it's wild with all their injuries.

They have 10 wins and they're still two weeks left in the regular season. Yeah, and last I check I mean, you know, Miles Garrett and company on that defensive front has just been playing phenomenal I think that's something that is really grossly overlooked, you know, they, they allow for the offense to just function and flourish. And I think that's something that is really just been tremendous for Joe Flacco and if you look at his resume, and when he won the Super Bowl with the Ravens and I was a part of that ride as part of the team's broadcast. The one thing I will say is that, you know, he has a very competent run game and he has a dominant receiver in a Mark Cooper very similar to what he had with Antoine Bolden so there are some pieces there and Joe is one of those type of quarterbacks where he knows where to go with the football and very talented quarterback indeed. Yeah, it's amazing when you look at Amari Cooper. I still feel as if he's underappreciated and everywhere he's gone he's had success. He's got to be one of the more underappreciated wide receivers in football.

Absolutely. I mean, from day one, I think, you know, I've been a Mark Cooper fan. He just shows up, I mean I you know that's that's what you want, you know, you just want your guy to show up and what does that mean, third down everybody in the building you know you're gonna throw it don't matter if it's off coverage press coverage cloud coverage, you know, whatever kind of coverage you want to cover.

I'm about to just blow it up, get open, make the catch and make you pay. That's all he does. He just shows up and I think it's a tremendous credit to his talent. Do you think those are the two best teams in the NFL, by the way, cadre a smile, what we saw last night the Ravens and the 49ers that you think that's what we're going to see in a few weeks in the Super Bowl. Well, I mean, there's a lot of football left. I do know that the 49ers have been balling, and they've, they've, they've gone on a road that played well at home they've, you know, mud stomped some NFC opponents. There's a reason why Lamar Jackson is 21 versus the NFC, I think it's just simply, you know, teams don't know what to expect when they see him whereas an AFC yet teams are kind of somewhat familiar with what Lamar is all about. Let's just take care of as I'm doing my, my Lamar Jackson impression. Let's take care of this portion of the season, and when we get into January and February and it's playoff time then then we'll go ahead and start worrying about it I absolutely can see a lot of football teams, you know, making it to the Super Bowl but we also recognize that second season that playoff season.

Mother of Pearl I mean it's a razor thin line between advancing and going home. It does a great job pre and post on WJZ in Baltimore he is the Super Bowl champion NFL wide receiver cadre a smile, Q appreciate the time as always thanks so much be well. Let's face it, most people aren't making massive turkey feast on the regular, and after 364 days of not thinking about it, it can be hard to get that bird just right. That's where instacart the holiday rescue app comes in from getting all the ingredients to prep a full seasonal spread to getting last minute swaps and a turkey emergency instacart has everything a holiday host needs to save face and save dinner, and right now if you download instacart you'll get free delivery on your first three orders and delivery and as fast as one hour offer valid for a limited time $10 minimum per order additional term supply.