What’s next for Russell? (Hour 3)

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Additional terms apply. Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. Brandon Stokely, of course, the former wide receiver with the Ravens, the Colts, the Broncos, the Seahawks, the Giants as well.

1-2 Super Bowls. And now does a talk show in Denver is on the line with us right now. The big news today, Russell Wilson benched and Jared Stidham is going to start the next game for the Denver Broncos and the plan is to go with Stidham for the final two games of the season.

So let's react to it as it looks like this is the end of the Russell Wilson era in Denver. Brandon Stokely is with us right now on CBS Sports Radio. Brandon, appreciate the time. How are you? I'm doing great.

Thanks, Zach. So when this news came down today, your initial reaction was what? I was really surprised. I just didn't think it was going to happen. I just thought they got this far. We've been talking about playoffs for the last four, five, six weeks and it's been fun. And, you know, we had talked about this rough situation earlier in the year when they were playing really bad, but we got away from that.

We got off of that. They didn't make any trades at the thread trade deadline. It just seemed like they were all in with this group and they went this far and they were probably going to continue with Russ here the last couple games. So I didn't see them pulling the rug out from underneath Russ with two games left. Especially with the way that they were on that winning streak. And now, yeah, they're pretty much done with the playoffs, but I was definitely surprised to get the news today. Russ has been solid this year.

He's been improved. I would still say he's very far away from being great or being elite anywhere in that category. But let's just say you're a player in that locker room.

Would you be annoyed? Because they're still alive. I know they only have seven wins, but they're still in this with two games left in the season. And now you hear Jared Stidham is going to be the quarterback. Yeah, you know, I think it depends on how you view Russ. You know, he's played well, but there might be some guys in that locker room that think that Stidham might be a little bit of an upgrade that might give them a boost in the passing game. Russ has been fine this year, but he is a tough guy to block for if you're an offensive lineman and playing wide receiver position for him. Broncos really don't have a tight end or slot receiver. So just an outside wide receiver. It's hard.

He's not on time on rhythm with hardly anything that he does in the passing game. So it makes it very difficult as a wide receiver and it makes it very difficult as an offensive lineman. So some of those guys in the locker room might be looking at this as a breath of fresh air, honestly. I know that you said that you were surprised by this.

Do you think this is the right move with all that you just said, Brandon Stokely? Well, you know, I'm surprised that it happened now. And we've talked a lot about this throughout the year. There's things that have happened since game one that I knew was going to drive Sean Payton crazy with Russell Wilson. And it's continued throughout this season. And so I just thought they got this far down the road that they would just continue with Russ the last two games. So that's why I'm surprised this late in the process.

I thought it had a chance to happen, but once they went on the win streak, I thought they were going to just finish this thing out. It's a business decision. Obviously, they're looking at the future.

They're going to be turning the page on this, so they don't want to be stuck on the hook with this contract for any longer. You know, I know Sean is addicted to coaching, and he was out for a year. He was working with Fox.

It's probably a more enjoyable, stress-free lifestyle. But that's not made for every other coach. When he took the Broncos job, we all knew he wanted the Chargers job. It just wasn't open. Do you ever think that this was a marriage that was set up to succeed with Sean and the Denver Broncos?

Well, that's a tough one. You know, I think Russ needs a certain coach. I think Russ, you know, his better days are behind him. He's not as mobile as he used to be. He still can play quarterback.

He still can make plays, probably not at an elite level anymore. And you thought maybe the marriage between the two, Sean could get the best out of him. And he's done a good job.

He's done a really good job. But just some of the things that Russ does, you can tell just drives Sean crazy. And it started from game one, and it's happened throughout the season. And there's nothing that's on time on rhythm in the passing game. You know, sometimes the plays were getting slow, getting out, you know, from the quarterback and some of the timeouts. We all saw the one play where Sean was ripping the referees and he started ripping Russell Wilson after that. And so I think they just gave it just you knew it was going to end. And so you just don't want to be stuck with that contract. Now, does Sean have regrets about taking the job?

I don't think so. I think he knew it was going to be a challenge. And now you're going to start all over. You got to find a quarterback though.

Ultimately, that's what it boils down to. It seemed like their last good moment together for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton was right when they got put together and they went to that dinner. Like after that, I don't think Sean really has ever liked Russ as a quarterback.

They're not, their personalities are totally different. You know, Russ is that everything is great. Everything is awesome. I love all my teammates.

They're the best. And Sean's just like, keep it real, man. And he told Russ, he's like, he said this to the media. He said, you know, no more of this kissing baby stuff. You know, that needs to stop.

And I'm paraphrasing to a certain degree there. But so their personalities are so different. They never vibe.

They never connected. And now when you're winning football games and, you know, everything from the outside, a lot of the national media, they look at the stats and they're not grinding week in and week out, play in and play out. And when you're getting three, four or five turnovers, when they like, like they were doing on their winning streak and Russ was getting those extra possessions, it seemed like he was playing like a, you know, an all pro.

In reality, he needed a lot of help. And and I think Sean just got fed up with holding his quarterback's hand that's making, you know, thirty five, forty, fifty million dollars a year every single week and trying to babysit Russell Wilson. Talking to Brandon Stokely right now. So they make this move. I don't know what the expectation is going to be for Jared said him in the final two games, but I think hit the nail right on the head, Brandon, that this was more of a financial move because I thought a few weeks ago, hey, this is clearly going to a divorce, but Russell be back next year. And then you hear about the twenty twenty five guaranteed salary if he can't pass a physical in March. You know, I guess they just realized that this wasn't going to work. So you got to eat the money now and there's just nothing that you could do about it.

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly right. You know, you might as well rip the Band-Aid off, right? Don't play games here and be stuck with a contract that you don't want to be stuck with. And then, you know, you tripling down on a bad mistake. They've already done that once they traded for Ross. They gave him all they gave away a lot of assets, a lot of draft picks players, and then they gave him a contract a couple of months later before he even played a game.

So you've already, you know, doubled down on a bad deal and you don't want to triple down on it, make it worse. So they're ripping the Band-Aid off. I don't think Jared's did them the answer.

I don't think that they think that he is now. I will say this. Now, he was Sean Payton went out early and free agency and over for Jared.

Yeah. And over, let me overpaid for him. I mean, you look at the other contracts that were that were being signed by quarterbacks.

If he overpaid for Jared, said I went off there early and got him. I don't think he's the answer. I don't know what they're going to do. You know, is it a trade for Justin Fields?

Is it going to be something like that? They don't have a high draft pick. So they're a little bit of, you know, they're not in a great position looking for that next quarterback.

So they got to be creative. They got to find the guy and maybe it's a trade. Maybe it's, you know, the draft. We'll see what happens.

But obviously it's not a good situation. You're going to be paying the price for that awful Russell Wilson deal for a couple more years. So Sean wins this one. Now, all the attention will go towards him. How hot is his seat entering next season? Just wondering. No, I don't think it's hot at all.

You know, I looked, I mean, he's coming here. I mean, they were they were seven and seven football team. It hadn't gone good the last couple of weeks, but man, they have this football team is so overachieved.

I mean, it's it's not a very talented team, honestly. Now, they've been fortunate offensive lines been healthy the whole year. They've been fortunate with some injuries that they seem like they had a lot the last few years this year. They haven't really had a hardly any at all.

And so that certainly helped. But it's, you know, I think Sean has done a really good job with this roster. Now, the key is, you know, I don't know if the general manager is going to be back or not. But what does it look like moving forward with the personnel decisions? They've got to find a tight end. They've got to find a slot receiver. You know, we talk a lot about Russ and very critical Russ, but there is no tight end on this roster. They haven't had one in years. They haven't had a slot receiver in years. So it's like then you drafted Jerry Judy 15th overall.

He's far underachieved. So they're like the weapons around the quarterback position or non existent. So they got it. They got to help whatever quarterback decision they decide to make. They're going to have to help that quarterback out a lot more than they helped Russ out. Now, the crazy part to me, too, going back to why he took this job. You know, when he was with Drew Brees in New Orleans. Right. It was a rock star relationship.

They won a Super Bowl and then he dealt with life without Drew Brees. And it's whether he wants to say it's a retirement or not. That's the reason why he walked away. And now it's like to go to Denver and this relationship to go south so quickly. I just once again go back to why the heck outside of money did he take this job with Denver.

When you also talk about the weapons and all the lack of them. Whole lot of money, right? They paid him a lot of money.

They gave him a lot of power. And I think they probably gave him assurances that if Russ didn't work out, that they would move on from Russ that, you know, like ownership would write the big check and they would be able to. They would definitely move on.

There would be no hesitation there. And then also Zach, like, hey, ego, man, we all have a little bit of ego. You don't think Sean looked at the situation and said, I'll fix Russ. I'll get him back to playing like he did three, four, five years ago.

I saw what hack. It's a bad coach. That's what he told us during training camp. And so I think his ego played a little part in it also. And he wanted to get back into coaching.

There wasn't that many jobs. And there wasn't that many owners that wanted to pay him, you know, 15, 16, 18, whatever. He's making a ton of money that we're going to pay him that much money and give him that much power.

So I think it all kind of connected. And that's why he chose Denver. Where do you think Russ goes next if you had to take your best educated guess?

Wow, that's a good one. I think it's hard to say right now. You know, it's a quarterback set carousel. You got to wait and see what it looks like in the offseason. I'll throw out two.

I'll throw out two to you, Brendan Stokely. I think if he was in Pittsburgh or Atlanta this year, and I'm not saying Russ is great. I think he's a competent quarterback.

I think he's serviceable, but he's the farthest thing from a great quarterback anymore. I think both those teams would be in the playoffs with Russell Wilson as their quarterback this year, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. I like that. I'd go Atlanta. I'd go Atlanta. You know, I don't know, you know, Pittsburgh, I don't follow them every week.

You probably follow them more closely than I do. I don't know if they're going to go another year here with Pickett or not. So I think the Atlanta situation is probably the one that makes the most sense right now.

And so it's going to be interesting to see, though, what happens there with Russ. A few more quick hitters just going around that AFC West. Antonio Pierce, should he get that job full-time with the Raiders?

A hundred percent. You know, I can't stand the Raiders. But you've got to tip your cap to them. After that, there to Minnesota, the last couple weeks, man, they have played hard. They've played well. He's got them believing.

So, like, you know, I say yes. I mean, they might have made a bad call there a couple years ago when they hired McDaniel. They didn't keep the special teams.

And he did a good job. So, yeah, I think he does get it. The Chargers, you think Bella checks on that sideline next year? No. I say no. I think Bill wants too much money, possibly.

So I say no in that situation. But I don't think he's back in New England. It's going to be interesting to see what happens there. And then finally, when you look at Kansas City, they've been struggling. They could probably use you at wide receiver, even though you haven't played since 2013. They just don't have anyone that could catch the football. They just don't look like they're going to find a way to turn this around, even though they have the great Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid this season.

What an absolute disaster. You know, they pissed me off so bad this past week. I actually picked them. I was alive in two survivor pools and I still had Kansas City. I still had Kansas City. I knew they were a fraud.

That's why I waited so long to pick them and they screwed me. I'm so pissed off at Kansas City. How do you lose at home to the Raiders?

I just can't even fathom that. Yeah, they're toast. They're done this year. They're an absolute disaster mess.

Kelsey doesn't look the same. They don't have any weapons around him to help him out. Mahomes is trying too hard.

It's a complete disaster there. Now watch them go on and go to the Super Bowl and make my take look even more embarrassing. So that's where I'm at with the Chiefs, Zach. Sorry.

Alrighty. Last thing I'll ask you, Brandon. Just going back to Russ. If you had to get a pulse of the Denver fan today, are they fine with this move or are they starting to question Sean Payton as a head coach? No, they're fine with it.

That's just my overall thought. They're ready to move on from Russ. They've scored from last year. It's better this year, but they know that this thing isn't sustainable. And it's just time to look for that next quarterback and turn the page on the Russell Wilson era.

So I think the majority of Broncos country is fine with it. Brandon Stokely. Sorry about your survivor pool. We appreciate you joining us here on CBS Sports Radio. Appreciate it, buddy.

Thanks a lot. There you go. Brandon Stokely joining us on the show for a second there. It's rare where you have a former NFL player sound like a sports talk radio caller. But I thought we just had a caller jump into the conversation when he's ranting and raving about his survivor pool going down last week.

But that just shows even though he was a really good NFL player and right one, two Super Bowls that made a lot of big catches. At the end of the day, once you're playing, days are over. You're one of us. Brandon, you are just one of us. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio will take a time out.

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Ten dollar minimum per order. Additional terms apply. All right. It is a Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I guess Jordan Schultz's account is no longer hacked. I don't know if you guys are following this.

The Bleacher Report NFL insider. He's been like offering MacBooks every day for like the last two days. I keep on seeing he's got 10 MacBooks.

I'll sell them to you for five hundred bucks. And there's nine MacBooks and then eight and so on and so on and so on. And clearly he got hacked. So I guess he has regained his account.

And if not, this is just an insane job by the hacker because this is not laptop related. This is actual NFL news. Jordan Schultz says that the Broncos threatened to bench Russell Wilson weeks ago if he didn't remove his injury guarantees. Russell Wilson's benching by the Broncos today is solely financial related and has been in the works for weeks. The Broncos approached Wilson two days after their October 29th upset win over Kansas City and told him he would be made an active for the rest of the season. If he did not adjust his contract and defer the injury guaranteed trigger date that he has for 2025, the threat however shocked him. And the two sides got into a major dispute on how to proceed when the threat was made by the Broncos. The team Wilson's camp, the NFLPA and an other unknown party were involved in negotiations that ended with no change in Wilson's contract. And then it all came crashing down today when Sean Payton and other top level members of Denver's organization decided to go ahead with the plan they've had for weeks. And that's the reporting by Jordan Schultz and transcribed by Dove Kleinman. And that's kind of wild.

Let me just pop up their schedule here real quickly. So that was after the Kansas City game. So that was on October 29th. It's when they get to three and five.

So they weren't humming yet. Like they went back to back games where they defeated Green Bay. They defeated Kansas City. And the Kansas City one was an enormous victory for them. Then they go into the bye week. And after that game, according to this report, that's when they said, we want you to eliminate the injury guarantees. So that was coming off of a win. Think about that.

You're one and five. You finally win back to back games. You beat Green Bay and you beat Kansas City. Russ, we want to take out your injury guarantees on an extension. They even haven't got into the extension yet because you're on the final two years of your old contract. Then Russ goes, we'll beat Buffalo, even though Sean McDermott messed up that game and bailed out Sean Payton when Sean was running on his kicker after taking a kneel.

It was very stupid. And then Sean McDermott had too many guys on the field. Then you beat Minnesota and you beat Cleveland.

So it's like there's this fight going on if this report is true. And Russ, whether it's because of him or not, and Russ improved this year. He was solid, but he was nowhere near being great. And you start winning, winning, winning, and people start talking about you as a playoff team. Like, I remember I did a Sports Minute when they won five in a row. And I said, I'm not in on the Denver Broncos yet. And I said, they beat Houston, who, even though they have a better quarterback in C.J. Shroud, right? And D'Amico Ryans at the time was coaching better than Sean Payton, even though Sean has done a lot more, and obviously Russ has done a lot more in this league than C.J. Shroud. But just based off experience, when you have a Hall of Fame coach, or an eventual Hall of Fame coach, and then a quarterback that at one time was perceived to be a really damn good quarterback, you should be able to beat the rookie head coach and the rookie quarterback.

And Russ played horribly in that game, and they lost that game 22-17. And it was like, ah, all that was for nothing. It's actually remarkable, like, if that's true, Samter. Like, think about this. The company comes to you, and they say, Mike, you just had a nice ratings book, right, producing the show, everything's good.

You have a clause in your contract that we have an issue with that's not going to give you security moving forward if something happens to you on the job. And then Samter goes on this remarkable run where they start winning all these games to get him back into, like, a good shape. And then it's, oh, we're going to do this to you while you're still winning games. Like, it's crazy that they, like, if this report's true, that they came to him after the Kansas City game, and then they still won three games after that, not that it's all because of Russ, but they were still able to win it when your head coach and quarterback are feuding, and they want him to take out an injury guarantee, I'm kind of surprised that this team has seven wins now from where that was. That's just because Sean Payton is such a good coach.

Yeah, I also just think he's douchey, too. Like, that's his contract. You guys agree?

I know that this was before SP, right? This was before he got there. But that is his contract. And in a sport that injuries happen a lot, even though they protect these quarterbacks like no other, we still see, look how many injuries seem to quarterbacks, you want the injury guaranteed out of the contract. I don't fault Russell Wilson and his camp for telling Sean Payton to go take a hike.

They should never agree to that. And if that's actually true, I would not want to play for Sean. I wouldn't trust him. Like, the guy is a remarkable head coach. He is. But I don't think he looks good in all this. And I don't think he's looked good in all of this throughout the entire year. I know you could say, well, in the win-loss record, right, they got the seven wins. You probably didn't think they were going to have seven wins before the start of the season.

I get that. And I've had zero reason to defend Russell Wilson. But through this entire season, you just know that Sean doesn't like Russ. And I once again, I said this to Brandon Stokely 3,000 times and I'll say it here. Why did he take this job outside of money? He left the Saints and he retired from the Saints because he didn't have a quarterback. And he's like, oh, look what life is like when you don't have Drew Brees. And even at the tail end of Drew Brees' career, Drew was not great because he had no arm life. And then you're one of the Chargers' job. The Chargers don't fire their dopey coach in Brandon Staley last year after choking that playoff game in a 27-point lead. Everyone in America knew.

Everyone said last year after they choked that game, heck, I put out a video on my Twitter on it. Don't be stupid. The Spanos family will be stupid. They won't hire Sean Payton, but they should hire him. Everyone was arguing that.

It was the easiest radio ever. Every Tom, Dick and Harry got on the air and they said Sean should be the next head coach of the Chargers. And then he wasn't because they didn't fire Staley. So you go from that to then taking over a team where like, did you talk yourself into Russ? Because there's no way he could actually like Russ and think Russ was going to go on to have success when you left the job with the Saints because you didn't have a quarterback anymore. And now where you could have had the pick of whatever job you wanted, you go to Denver where you give up on the quarterback not even a full year in. Because if you eliminate the injury guarantees, that's we want to play you. But if you get hurt, we don't want to pay you and give you the fully guaranteed money in 2025.

You can't pass a physical in March of 2024. So he really gave up on the quarterback somewhere in October. And I don't think that was the first, that's the first time he may have publicly did an action. But did he give up on him as soon as they lost 70 to 20 to Miami? I mean, it'd be hard not to give up on a quarterback after that, although that wasn't all about Russ.

Well, his defense sucked too. Yeah, that wasn't all about Russ. Listen, at the end of the day, it sounds to me like the issue with Russ and Peyton is as much personality as it is on the field.

I mean, we just have Brandon Stokely on. He's talking about holding his hand and kissing babies and Russ's personality and talking to teammates. We didn't hear anything about the scheme didn't work for Russ. We didn't hear that Russ couldn't perform the duties that Sean Payton needed as the quarterback. If you look at all the issues that the Broncos had this year, Russell Wilson is like down the list as far as on field issues. He's like the 13th worst player, you know, biggest reason why they haven't been great. But he's the easy scapegoat.

For sure. But I guess the issue for me is it sounds to me like from what Brandon said, from what we're hearing, is that it was a personality thing. And I think a lot of people are turned off by Russ, even Pete Carroll.

Right. A lot of those Legion of Boom guys. They can't stand Bennett and Sherman. They always talk junk about about Pete Carroll and Russ Wilson.

Well, look at it this way. Last year, you saw the Seahawks players that won with Russ not only celebrate his bad season. They danced on the grave. They did the worm on the grave of Russell Wilson last year. So my question is, like, is he just annoying and phony and pain in the ass?

Or is he legitimately a dislikeable person? So I think it was two things. And let me address the Seattle part first. There were a lot of egos on that Seattle team. And the team knew that their greatest strength was the defense.

And Pete would hold that defense to a high standard and would hold them accountable in the slight margin of errors. And there was a long time there was a perception in Seattle that Pete was holding the hand of Russell Wilson. And I think when Russ wouldn't play well, Pete wouldn't criticize him like he would criticize the Legion of Boom.

And I think the egos of those guys in the Legion of Boom got annoyed by that. Now, where Russ lost his way is this. Remember when Russ did that interview with Dan Patrick that started this whole thing? How he's at the Super Bowl.

It was 2020. And this started the demise in Seattle. And he said, I'm watching the Super Bowl as a guest.

I'm sick and tired of being there. I want to go down as one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks ever. And I want to go win multiple rings.

So it's one thing to say that, but then your actions need to match it. And where I think Russ went wrong is Russ was more concerned about being the superstar and being the icon rather than being the great football player. And that's always a balancing game because when you become a really successful quarterback, there's a lot of things that come with that. And for Russ, it appeared like he cared more about being an icon than being a quarterback. And that's where I think Russell Wilson lost his way.

And you saw it last year, where at the end of the season, it was a last-ditch effort by teammates to go show their support for Russ. And I'm not saying he's beloved in that locker room, but to your point, this year he's not the problem, but he's also not the solution. And Sean Payton knew that this wasn't his guy, and he's the easy guy to scapegoat because of how bad last year was. And I think most Broncos fans will tell you, even though he was not the biggest issue this year, he wasn't going to be the guy for Denver for the foreseeable future. And at least you have Sean, who, even though he could be a pain in the ass, and even though I think he has been insufferable this year, that team and that roster is not good. And he's got the most out of this roster, which is seven wins.

The thing, though, that would sit poorly, though, with me, and maybe he's not liked in that locker room, and maybe that's what makes this easier, or maybe there's enough people that don't like him where you're not going to lose the entire locker room. Like, this team, they still have a chance. Like, they beat the Chargers, they beat the Raiders.

I don't know how this is going to shake out. That would put them at nine and eight on the season. It's a tough sell, though, for me, when we're just saying he's not the biggest problem this year, to then go to Jared Stidham.

Which, you know, and I know it. Jared Stidham's going to have four touchdowns this weekend, 400 yards. Now, the Broncos may turn into the best bet because I do think there's going to be a good contingent of people that do believe that Russ kind of got the raw end of this deal and the short end of this stick with how it played out in these final two weeks of the season. I think for me, though, if I'm Sean Payton, I'm 60 years old, we're almost 60, he's 59, do you have a better chance of winning quickly by getting rid of your potentially Hall of Fame on the downward slope of his career quarterback, and just completely rebuilding this team? I mean, they basically have to blow it up, start all over and maybe draft a quarterback or maybe get lucky in free agency or a trade this offseason.

Or just kind of hope that you can get lightning in a bottle. I mean, you're 60, what are you expecting over the next three years from the Broncos? They're going to be a train wreck, the Broncos are going to be terrible. Jared Stidham, who are they going to get as their quarterback for next year? Are they bringing in Desmond Ritter or Kenny Pickett? Mitch Trubisky?

Desmond, why did you just mention garbage after garbage after garbage at the quarterback position? Stokely said Fields, you know, Fields becomes available, I don't think it's a terrible situation, but this roster isn't good. Like the only piece that I look at on this roster, the only piece that I look at on this roster and say I have to have moving forward is Patrick Sertan.

I really like Justin Simmons as well, but he's not a spring chicken either anymore, he's 30. So Patrick Sertan is the only guy I say I must have moving forward on this roster. But look at the Texans, you have one good draft, you get one game-changing player, you could turn this around rather quickly in the NFL. Like the Colts after Peyton Manning, they had two wins that year, whatever it was, the roster stunk, they get Andrew Luck, and they go on this great run, you know, that next season. You could turn it around rather quickly, and also, like, look at Pete Carroll. Now this dude's coaching, he's 70-something years old right now, like Sean could coach for another 10 years, if not then some, but you gotta eventually win. So I don't, I think when he took this job, he knew he was going to have the financial security, they were going to pay him a ton of money. And they knew they were going to have patience with him. And he knew he had an easy out to rebuild because that's recovering from one of the worst trades in NFL history. But this thing, the Broncos haven't had a quarterback since number 18 left.

They haven't. Go through all the names that they had at quarterback, right? Kay Skeenum, Paxton Lynch, you go on and on and on. Trevor Simeon. Hey, that's my quarterback, or that was my former team's quarterback. Yes, because you're now a Fugazi Chiefs fan when you're really a Jets fan. But like, Jerry Judy thinks he's a star in this league. Jerry Judy's been a colossal disappointment. So yeah, now they're going back into the rebuild category.

That's, that's where they're going right now. But I don't like the way that Sean has handled Russ this year. I'm okay with saying that Russ isn't the guy and that Russ isn't good because I don't believe Russ is a really good quarterback anymore. But it seems as if he took this job and he never believed in the quarterback from the jump. And then I would argue, since you left the Saints that way, why would you then take this job? And you know what?

I'll give you a, what does Perloff do, those against the Grains takes? I'll give you a little take here. Now, it probably never happened because it's in division. Maybe Sean Payton goes a little NBA on us this offseason and demands a trade to Los Angeles Chargers. Because that's where we all know he wants to go. He wanted to go there last offseason. Now he knows he's in a bad situation in Denver. Imagine him becoming the ultimate villain in the NFL, going from Denver to Los Angeles and demand a trade there this offseason.

It would never happen, but you know that's what he would want. He didn't want me to coach the Broncos. He wanted me to coach the Chargers. He wanted to coach Justin Herbert.

And I just go back to why the heck did you take this job? You could have just waited a year. Everyone in America knew that Brandon Stelly was going to flop this year and he was going to fail.

And you could have walked right into Los Angeles, riding it on a horse this offseason, and there you go to save the day. That's all you needed. Alrighty, Zach Gilp Show CBS Sports Radio will come on back with a news brief update time. Here is Pat Boyle. Hey, this is Howie. And this is Nick. And you're listening to the Zach Gilp Show on CBS Sports Radio.

And guess what? Zach is back. Alright. He's live. He's nationwide on CBS Sports Radio.

This is the Zach Gilp Show. Alrighty, it's time to answer Ask the Pros question of the day. And it's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Jake in South Carolina says, Zach, where do you think Russell Wilson will be playing football next year? You can submit a question by tweeting at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gilp using the hashtag Ask the Pros. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs.

And get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Well, that's actually our poll question today. And I'll give you the final calculations there. Russell Wilson's next team will be the Commanders, Raiders, Falcons, Steelers.

Those are the answers that you could vote on. And the returns are at last place. The Steelers at twenty one point two percent at twenty one point eight percent. The Raiders. Twenty seven point five percent. The Atlanta Falcons.

And then at twenty nine point five percent. The Washington commanders. I actually think Russ next year is playing on the Atlanta Falcons. That was the first team that I thought of is that he would be playing in Atlanta. They need a quarterback. If Arthur Smith is back, which I don't know if he will.

You're going to need a placeholder. You know, could they maybe get Jayden Daniels in the draft? I don't know where he's going to go. If he goes in the top five, the top 10, you're probably not going to be able to get him. But I do believe it would be a good year or two option because you have a roster that has two good running backs and Bijan Robbins and Tyler Algier. You have a tight end who's been underachieving, but I don't think he's been used the right way in Kyle Pitts. And you have a wide receiver in Drake London who is really damn good. You need better quarterback play. And if Russ, who is serviceable, not good, not great, but he's serviceable.

If he was on Atlanta, they would have won the NFC South this year. Alrighty. Let's update you to some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio and the show out in style with the news brief. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports.

So let's get to the biggest story of the day. Russell Wilson on the bench as Sean Paden has made that decision. It's more so a financial decision, in my opinion, than it's because of performance.

But they'll sell it as performance. Sean just addressed reporters a few moments ago. Sampthors, since we just got this in here, do we know what the question was? Just wondering? Yeah. From the outside, it kind of looks like the Broncos are trying to make Russell Wilson the fall guy.

How do the optics look for that, Mr. Paden? Okay. Let's listen up. I can't replace the entire offensive line. I can't bring in five new receivers.

And if it continues over a period of time, then there'll be another guy here talking to you as well. This is something that, you know, these are difficult decisions. And obviously, there's more attention when it's the quarterback who's under contract, but different than maybe, you know, earlier decisions we've made with maybe last year's prior starters. He basically just said the entire offense sucks. And it's just replacing one guy compared to if you had to replace other units, right? It's an entire offense line to an entire running back room.

It's an entire wide receiving room. And there's a lot of big egos on that team. And there's a lot of guys that haven't had a lot of success in the NFL. I'm telling you, this is not going to end pretty.

This is going to be a disaster. I don't think we're looking back on this two, three years from now, saying Sean did this incredible job with the Denver Broncos. Let's go to my BFF, Deebo Samuel, who hung up the phone on me this past summer. I guess now he's getting into it with Cam Newton and also Micah Parsons. I saw Cam called Brock Purdy, a system quarterback, and then Micah Parsons said something on the lines a few weeks ago that he could quarterback the 49ers.

This was Deebo on the Up and Atoms show with Kay Adams. First of all, Cam Newton stopped taking my phone, bro. He was a fan two weeks ago.

That's mad crazy. You wanted me on your podcast after talking about my quarterback, which is funny to me. But anyway, back to this Micah Parsons story. Bro, we beat you 42 to whatever the score may be.

A long time ago. I don't get why he's so bothered by what we got going on over here, whatever the case may be. It is weird how much Micah Parsons does talk about the 49ers. The Cam part, though, just because Cam was a much bigger star than Deebo was. Deebo has to show some more consistency. He's a heck of a football player. But just because Cam likes your game and wants you on his show doesn't mean that he can't be critical of your quarterback. But I guess Deebo took that personally.

And as I learned this summer, it doesn't take much for Deebo to take things personally. So this Jair Alexander story, it actually could be the most bizarre but my favorite story of the NFL season. So I guess he's from Charlotte and he thought he should have been out there for the coin toss before the game. And I guess his teammates said, OK, you could go out there with them, right? The other captains. And then he makes the coin toss.

He's not just out there. He makes the call. And they asked him, you won the toss. What do you want to have happen? And he goes, oh, we want the defense on the field first.

You got to say you got to defer. The officials helped him out. Well, today, Jair Alexander got suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. This was Jair Alexander after the win up against the Panthers 33-30 on the entire coin toss incident before the game.

There's only two of them. I don't think Coach knew I was from Charlotte. So you just did that on your own. I mean, you know, I mean, it was like, you know, the guys backed me up. Did you realize you almost made a big mistake on the call, though?

What did I do? You said we want to go on defense. Yeah, I said I want our defense to be out there. And they all looked at me like I was crazy. I'm like, I mean, it's pretty simple what I said.

I want the defense to be out there. They're like, you mean defer? I'm like, yeah, I guess. Everybody was laughing. I'm like, what are y'all laughing at? It's pretty obvious what I'm asking for.

So did anyone say anything to you when you got back to the sideline? Why would they? Jair Alexander is a really good player. Really good player. They need him on Sunday up against Minnesota when you're going up against Justin Jefferson. They're seven and eight. They play the Vikings and the Bears.

They go in both those games and get into the playoffs. I think this is too severe if it's just on the coin toss situation. Now, I'm not an idiot. I'm not a moron.

I'm not a dope. And I follow these things. There is no way that this is just because of the coin toss. You've heard speculation about the Packers maybe moving on from Jair Alexander this offseason. There's something else that is going on here because he is a good enough player where he could survive that coin toss incident when all he did was win the coin toss.

And they still ended up getting to have happened what they wanted to have happen. That means there's something more because you don't bench a player like this over something that happened in a win before the game up against Carolina, especially where, you know, primetime spot Sunday Night Football at eight twenty p.m. Eastern Time going up against the Minnesota Vikings. All right. That is a news brief. This is at Yelp show on CBS Sports Radio fun show today. I'd like to thank Flash Jared Gordon. Remarkable him sharing his story from shooting heroin in Penn Station to then a little over a month ago, knocking out a fighter to win a fight in Madison Square Garden.

And he's eight years sober today. So congratulations to him. Also, I'd like to thank David Huard for stopping by and Brandon Stokely as well.

Big thanks to each and every one of you for calling, listening, tweeting to the show. We'll be back tomorrow on a Thursday. We've got to get a day closer and closer to the college football playoff semifinals. Also, we do start week 17 tomorrow with a lovely NFL game. The Cleveland Browns, the Joe Flacco sensation going up against the New York Jets. So we'll see Joe Flacco, the Jets.

I can't even give you anything positive on them. Big thanks to Moist Mike, Carlos with a K, Carlos Ortiz. Each and every one of you will be back. Manana, everybody at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific.

I'm Zach Elby out. Bye bye. Peace. OK, what's the number one reason you should try Instacart? Shopping over one point five million unique products from over one thousand retailers and get everything delivered right to your door and as fast as one hour, all in one app.

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