Brock Purdy a Top 5 QB? (Hour 1)

Live from the play show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio.

You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B, got Moist Mike and Stuart Kovacs rockin' and rollin' with me all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Former Lions cornerback, Glover Quinn, gonna stop by in the final hour of the show at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. We got a lot of potential news brewing in the sports world. We know the Bucks just fired their coach, and this is his first year on the job, Adrian Griffin, and Doc Rivers, according to Shams Sharania, has emerged as a serious candidate to potentially become the next coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. I don't know how much sense that makes, and I'll just say it right out of the gate, I would disagree with the hire of Doc Rivers, because Doc Rivers, ever since winning that championship in Boston, which was, what, back in 2008, has turned into a coach whose teams choke in the postseason, or underachieve in the postseason. I know it wasn't that long ago when the Milwaukee Bucks won a world championship, but the two years since then, they have been underachieving in the postseason, and we saw last year them have the number one overall seed and lose to the Miami Heat, who were the eighth seed, even though the Heat ended up making their way back to another NBA Finals.

So this is what just happens, really, in basketball and hockey. It's amazing how many coaches are retreads, and they just land like five, six, seven jobs, where, when you look at it in the NFL, you get one shot, maybe potentially two shots at most, but rarely, unless you are this phenomenal, great coach, and you walked away on your own terms. Do you see a coach become a head coach for a third or fourth or a fifth time in their career, and when you look at Doc Rivers, and you look at some of these other coaches, it's amazing how many different stops that they end up traveling to, and how many other opportunities they end up getting. So nothing is set in stone yet, but according to Shon Sharanya, Doc Rivers has emerged as a serious candidate to become the next coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, and as for Adrian Griffin, it's like you could look at their record in Milwaukee, and sometimes we just say stats are for losers, but then you also are what your record says you are. This team is 30 and 13, but it seems like something's been off with their coach, Adrian Griffin, the entirety of the year, whether it hasn't been great defensive play or even, right, you bring Terry Stotts in, and Terry Stotts doesn't even make it into the season as an assistant head coach.

I would imagine, and this is just me in the moment giving you a take, giving you a reaction with no sourcing, but this is just how I got to think about this. No decision is made in that Bucks organization. I have great respect for the people that run the Bucks, and Peter Fagan, and John Horst as well, their president and general manager. You would have to think that no decision is made without keeping Giannis in the loop in some capacity. So did Adrian Griffin not have a good relationship with Giannis?

And if you can't have a good relationship with Giannis, what does that say about you? But it is kind of wild that a team is 30 and 13, and you look at their record, they are the second best team in the Eastern Conference, and they have the second best record in the NBA because the Celtics are 34 and 10, and then it's the Bucks and the Timberwolves who are both 30 and 13, and now you are moving on from your coach. So the bottom line is, to do this, not even a full season in, this is a move that Milwaukee clearly thought was a necessity, and there's probably a lot of problems and a lot of inner fighting going down behind the scenes.

And you got to think that Griffin wasn't able to create a relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo, and everything that we see from Giannis is usually so positive, so why was that relationship never able to get off the ground? But to bring in Doc Rivers, who doesn't have the best record in handling superstars, but I guess in this case, I don't ever think there's an effort issue, like there's been effort issues with the players that Doc has coached in the past, with Kawhi Leonard, with Paul George, James Harden as well. I'm not encouraged by bringing in Doc, I don't think bringing in Doc would be smart, but with that being said, that's the first name that we've seen floated out there, and it's actually funny, when we got this news that did come down that Adrian Griffin was going to be fired, I said it in a joking way to Samter, I go watch, they'll bring in Doc Rivers, because that's what the NBA does, and then within, I don't know, a minute or two of me saying that it was boom, Shams is reporting that they're going to seriously consider Doc Rivers. That's some NBA breaking news right out of the gate, the Bucs have fired Adrian Griffin, and they are going to seriously consider Doc Rivers as their next coach, and it was really a crazy last 24 hours in the association, where I don't know what's more impressive, where you have Joel Embiid scoring 70 points in a victory, and only making one three point shot, and only attempting two in a 70 point effort, or Karl Anthony Towns last night scoring 62, but his team loss. So you have those two storylines, and then you have the Milwaukee Bucs news as well. The also thing that we're going to monitor and keep an eye on is the Los Angeles Chargers, as Mike Garofalo thinks it's closing time for the Chargers and Jim Harbaugh, so we are waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting to see if the Los Angeles Chargers will pull the trigger and get the deal done with Jim Harbaugh. He is going out there for his second interview, and he's bringing his family with him, so I would imagine that it's now just crossing the T's and dotting the I's with Jim Harbaugh, but Harbaugh, as much as I love him, he's a peculiar guy, he is a unique guy, and if everything doesn't go in line the way that he wants it, he doesn't have to take his job, but it would make a ton of sense that Jim Harbaugh lands with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Alrighty, so that's some of the breaking stuff, that's some of the things that we will continue to monitor to see what happens in the next 24 to 48 hours. Will Doc Rivers land with the Milwaukee Bucs, what a sentence and a statement that is, and will Jim Harbaugh land with the Los Angeles Chargers, but let's start the show with one of the teams participating in one of the conference championship games this weekend, and that's the San Francisco 49ers, and let's get into their quarterback in Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy is a solid quarterback, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Brock Purdy is an elite quarterback, and all the reasons why the 49ers are winning are because of Brock Purdy, but that's not me crapping on Brock Purdy, that's not me failing to acknowledge that Brock Purdy has had a really good season, but I never believed the idea that Brock Purdy was going to win the MVP this year when it was a hot three or four weeks where people are trying to make that claim, and when I look at Brock Purdy, all that matters is that Brock Purdy is working for the San Francisco 49ers.

It has not worked yet to where they have won a Super Bowl, but that's not kind of fair to hold him to that standard because he's only had two years, last year he got hurt in the NFC title game, and this year is not over yet, and it very well could end in a Super Bowl championship. I do believe that Brock Purdy is a better option than Jimmy Garoppolo was, but until Brock Purdy wins a Super Bowl, there will be kind of like a Jimmy G feel to Brock Purdy, except it's a Jimmy G feel to Brock Purdy with Brock Purdy being on steroids kind of, because I do look at, and I don't actually mean being on steroids, but you get the point there in terms of that I do believe that Brock Purdy is a better quarterback and has a higher ceiling than Jimmy Garoppolo, and you look at the numbers for Purdy, 4,280 passing yards, that was fifth in the league this year, he had 31 passing touchdowns, that was third, his QB yard was one. So there are numbers that suggest he's an elite quarterback, but I don't think any defender, when they're getting ready to go up against Brock Purdy, is saying, wow, he's the first three names that I'm most concerned about with the San Francisco 49ers offense, and that's not a slight to Brock Purdy, it's just the masterful offensive roster that the 49ers have assembled. Like when I look at the 49ers, the first name I think about when you're trying to slow them down and you're trying to contain them is Christian McCaffrey, and then after Christian McCaffrey, it is Deebo Samuel, and then after Deebo Samuel, it's Trent Williams. Those are the three names that I'm most concerned about and intimidate me the most with the San Francisco 49ers. But when you have this conversation, it's amazing how you can't really have a level-headed conversation about this, and maybe it's just the current state of the format and the current way that we talk about things as you either have to be all in on one side or all out on the other side. But to hear the conversations about Brock Purdy, Brock Purdy in a weird way has become polarizing, and he really shouldn't be polarizing because it's a tremendous story, right?

Mr. Irrelevant, last pick in the draft, seventh round, out of Iowa State, no one thought he would be much. He gets thrown into this because of injury in San Francisco. Trey Lance, Jimmy G, both going down, and then boom, Brock Purdy goes on this run where he didn't lose a game last year. And then this year, really the only stretcher the 49ers looked vulnerable was when they were without Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams, and they lost three games in a row. But last week, I don't want to overreact to one game, but it just does reaffirm the people that aren't all in rocking out with their Brock out and saying Brock Purdy looks pretty awesome each and every week when you didn't have good weather conditions and you were going up against an inferior team. And it looked like for about three, three and a half quarters that the San Francisco 49ers were in danger and were going to go down to the Green Bay Packers. And a big part of that was Brock Purdy up until he had to at the end when he was backed into a corner, his back was up against the wall.

He did not play well in that game. Brock Purdy had a bad game for three and a half quarters, and then when he needed to at the end, he found a way to get the job done. And that's the only thing that matters for the San Francisco 49ers. Can Brock Purdy continue to find a way to get the job done? Like you want to call him a great quarterback, you want to call him a good quarterback, you want to call him an average quarterback, you want to call him a game manager. It doesn't matter how we classify, it doesn't matter how we talk about Brock Purdy, the only thing that matters is that he keeps on winning. And for the San Francisco 49ers, they've had one of the best teams in football for the last four or five years, and they haven't been able to get the job done because the quarterback hasn't been good enough. And then this year you've seen outstanding statistical performances by Brock Purdy, and deservedly so, there is still a question of can Brock Purdy get the job done? Because Brock Purdy, regardless of what he had to do in the regular season, would show that last year wasn't just a hot five or six games.

And for the majority of this past regular season, he displayed that what happened last year was not just a little blip. And the 49ers have something. The 49ers have something at the quarterback position that they could win with. But ultimately now, these next two games, assuming that the Niners beat the Lions, is going to be the ultimate answer to the test of how much better the 49ers are with Brock Purdy than when the 49ers were with Jimmy Garoppolo. Because under Jimmy Garoppolo, we saw the 49ers win the NFC.

We saw the 49ers have a 10-point lead with 7.30 to play in a Super Bowl, and then Garoppolo broke down in the final seven and a half minutes. And I do believe that this locker room believes in Brock Purdy. And Steve Young said to me before the start of the season, he just has the force.

And those guys, they believe in who Brock is as a person and as a player. But we are also now in this world where it's quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. And you could think that Brock Purdy is a good quarterback, but you could also acknowledge that he's not a top three offensive player on the San Francisco 49ers. McCaffery's more dangerous. Deebo, and we'll see if he's able to go this week 50-50 with the shoulder, he's more dangerous. Trent Williams is one of the greatest left tackles that this game has ever seen.

He is more dangerous. But it doesn't matter if you want to call Brock Purdy a game manager or say he's a really good quarterback, because so far he's displayed in what they have asked of him that he is good enough for the 49ers. But now it's the ultimate test where the games get bigger and the Niners have been in these spots before. Can Brock elevate this team and not mess it up in an NFC title game or the final step of trying to put the cherry on top of the Sunday when you look at Super Bowl Sunday coming up in two, three weeks? So how do you view Brock Purdy? 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. I think Brock is a solid quarterback. I think Brock is a good quarterback. But he's not the number one reason why the San Francisco 49ers are in this spot playing in the NFC title game up against the Detroit Lions.

So give me a call. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. The Tennessee Titans have made their next choice at head coach. So we now have three jobs down, which are Rod Mayo going to New England or staying in New England, Antonio Pierce staying with the Raiders. And then you did have Brian Callahan last night getting announced as the new head football coach of the Tennessee Titans.

Without everybody else with the jobs that are still up for grabs, we will continue that conversation on the other side. Alrighty, this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We know that Antonio Pierce is the next head coach of the Raiders. Gerard Mayo staying in New England. And we did find out yesterday that Brian Callahan is landing with the Tennessee Titans.

We will continue the other jobs in just a bit, but we open up the show. How do you view Brock Purdy as a quarterback? 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. Let's start things off with Jerome in Vegas. He's first up on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Jerome, good afternoon. What's happening?

Good afternoon. I thought about, I'm a big Brock Purdy fan, big Niner fan. I don't like it when everyone calls him a system quarterback because every quarterback is a system quarterback to a certain extent. Name a quarterback that isn't. And also he gets criticism because of the surrounding players around him. I mean, every great quarterback, heck, every great football player has help.

Everybody's surrounded by talent. You need a team to win, but you don't think Brock Purdy is on the same level as a quarterback as Mahomes, a Josh Allen, a Joe Burrow, a Lamar Jackson? Mahomes is probably a top five quarterback of all time. He's not on that level, but I will say I think Purdy had a better year than Burrow who was hurt. And I think he had a better year this year than Josh Allen. Not saying he's better than Josh Allen, I think he had a better season than Josh Allen. And like I said, every athlete, successful athlete has help around him.

I mean, heck, Babe Ruth had Lou Gehrig hidden behind him. That was help. So everybody does.

Yeah, no, appreciate the phone call, Jerome. You're not wrong, but here's the thing. Like Brock Purdy, you swap him with Josh Allen. I think we talk about the 49ers a lot differently.

Like, I think the 49ers, who right now a lot of people Super Bowl pick, would be unanimously like everybody's Super Bowl pick. Imagine you put Lamar Jackson on the 49ers, where the Ravens beat the 49ers this year, blew him out. Like, this Raven, that 49ers, he may not have lost a game this year. So here's the thing with Brock Purdy. When you call him a system quarterback, it does seem like it's a slap in the face, but why does it matter?

Why does it matter? And ultimately through time, we'll find out if he's more than a system quarterback, if he's able to stay with the 49ers, and not only stay with the 49ers, but eventually there will be a time where Deebo Samuel breaks down and Kittle breaks down and McCaffrey breaks down as well. And you're going to have to bring in new guys to build that team back up. Like Trent Williams isn't going to play forever.

So yeah, no crap. You need a lot of good players to win. But let's just say you put Patrick Mahomes on, I don't know, a bad team like the Jets. Or Josh Allen on a bad team like the Jets. Or Lamar Jackson on a bad team like the Jets. I think those guys will be able to succeed in any environment.

And when I say succeed, I'm not saying win a Super Bowl, but make that a playoff caliber team. Brock Purdy's on the Jets this year? They're not competing for a playoff spot.

They're not. You think if Brock Purdy was on the Jets this year, Samter, with Garrett Wilson and Bries Hall are two good players in that crappy offensive line, Brock Purdy's able to make that team a playoff caliber team? I mean they won six games with Zach Wilson and Trevor Simeon and Tim Boyle. So yeah, do I think that Brock Purdy is a good enough quarterback with a top ten level wide receiver, a top five running back, and a top five defense that he could make them a playoff contender?

Absolutely, yes. Based off what though? Off the fact that I think Brock Purdy is a... Let me ask you this. I think Brock Purdy is a top ten quarterback in the NFL, top twelve. Okay, you say top ten, top twelve.

How high are you willing to go? Because even if he wins a Super Bowl this year, and I don't think Niners fans should give a rat's ass, like you win, who cares what we call him? It's like Golden State Warriors fans. They got so annoyed with how Kevin Durant landed in Golden State.

You win, give the middle finger to everybody. Who cares what everybody else thinks? But I don't see any way how Brock Purdy enters next year as a top seven or eight quarterback in the NFL.

I don't agree with that. Because, I mean, you look at all the other teams. Listen, we talked about the top four. There's like a pretty set top four. Burrow, Mahomes, Lamar, and Allen.

That's the top four. Everyone else after that... You rather have CJ Stroud or Brock Purdy? I don't know yet. Oh, come on. CJ Stroud...

I don't know yet. Hold on. Imagine if CJ Stroud was on the 49ers with Deebo and McCaffrey. I'm not making that definitive statement right now at all. CJ Stroud turned the Texans from picking two in the draft to be in the second round of the playoffs. Brock Purdy's not doing that in Houston.

No chance. I love CJ Stroud. I think most likely CJ Stroud has a better future than Brock Purdy.

I'm not making that definitive statement yet. Brock Purdy, all he's done in his year and a half as an NFL quarterback is basically turn a team that needed a quarterback into the best team in the NFL. They've been one of the best teams in the NFL and they're not the best team in the NFL this year. That's the Ravens. Right now they're the second best team and up until that game against the Ravens they were the best team. And if they're not the best team they're like...

But they've been stuck in the same spot for the last four years. Either way Brock Purdy stabilized that position for a team that needed a good quarterback. Am I going to say that he's better than Dak? Maybe. Is he better than Hurt?

Maybe. Hold on. Stabilized them so much that Kyle Shanahan wanted to go to somebody else this past offseason. Tom Brady. You know what?

Wait but hold on. When Jimmy G was there and Tom Brady was begging to go there did Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch pass on Tom Brady back in 2020? Yeah they did.

I don't remember exactly the story. That's why it happened. But I can promise you if in a vacuum you had your choice between Jimmy G and Tom Brady you're going Tom Brady every time. The 49ers went Jimmy G. They've talked about this.

I'm sure there were other circumstances that we don't know that computed them. They didn't love Brady on tape coming up that final year in New England. That's the way that it happened. They like Brock Purdy enough to get rid of Jimmy G and their number 3 overall pick who they traded up to get in Trey Lance. That's how much they like Brock Purdy their 7th round pick. Shanahan never liked Trey Lance to begin with. He was talked into drafting Trey Lance.

It doesn't matter. They traded up to get the number 3 quarterback and they basically went with Mr. Irrelevant over him anyway. Because this is what Shanahan does. It's the flavor of the month with them.

We can go flavor of the month all we want. We're talking about Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy if you want to go down the list of quarterbacks in the NFL is certainly a top 10 quarterback.

We don't know how good really he is but it's safe to say he's a top 10 quarterback. You look at the Jets. You're bringing the Jets. The Jets won 7 games.

I'm sorry I said 6. That's what happens when you stop becoming a fan of a team. They won 7 games with Trevor Simeon, Tim Boyle, and Zach Wilson.

You who are at the bottom 30, 31, 32, 37. You think they're going 10 and 7 with Brock Purdy? So you're talking about a 3 game swing with a top 10 quarterback versus Zach Wilson who's probably the 38th best quarterback in the NFL? Brock Purdy probably doesn't even make it healthy throughout the season with the Jets. Aaron Rodgers couldn't make it healthy throughout the season. We can talk about health but we don't know.

Maybe he makes it healthy. You know who didn't get hurt? Zach Wilson didn't get hurt. Tim Boyle didn't get hurt. They got concussed.

What are you talking about? He got concussed Zach Wilson. So here's the thing. Did he get concussed? We don't really know. Well now you're going to question that? We questioned it at the time too.

I didn't. I will never question a concussion. So maybe he missed a game or two. But what I'm saying is like the quarterbacks outside of Aaron Rodgers as bad as the Jets offensive line was. The quarterbacks for the most part lasted the season. Brock Purdy probably could have lasted the season. Could he have gotten hurt? Sure.

There's no way to really know. Let me do this. Let me do this.

Brock Purdy could have absolutely turned the Jets around 3 wins. I got your point. Let me do this.

And this is how you know we've reached a new low on this show. I want to bring in an unbiased, sane voice to the program. I just want a yes or no. And when I think unbiased and sane person here at CBS Sports Radio, the person I think about is Pat Boyle. Oh thank you Zach.

Who's doing updates today. So just give me a yes or I'm going to give you a quarterback. You tell me would you rather have that quarterback or Brock Purdy.

Okay. Josh Allen or Brock Purdy. Josh Allen.

Okay there's one. Tua Tonga Vailoa or Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy. Would you rather have Aaron Rodgers or Brock Purdy for one season? Assuming Aaron Rodgers is 100% healthy next year, Aaron Rodgers. Patrick Mahomes or Brock Purdy. Mahomes.

We can forget the Raiders. You can forget the... Russell Wilson or Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy. I would agree. Justin Herbert or Brock Purdy. That's a tough one. As big as Herbert's arm looks, he's been a.500 quarterback his whole career so far. Throw out the coach.

Throw out the weapons he has. I'm taking Purdy. Really?

Okay. I would disagree with that one but this is your list. Lamar Jackson or Brock Purdy. Lamar. Deshaun Watson or Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy. Would you rather, I forget, Kenny Pickett, Joe Burrow or Brock Purdy.

Burrow. CJ Stroud or Brock Purdy. As great as CJ Stroud left in his rookie season, Brock Purdy.

That's crazy to me. He's had one season. Brock Purdy has had two years.

He's in the NFC Championship both times. You can only project CJ Stroud to be better but we don't know yet. You can't, off of a year and a half of Purdy and a year of CJ Stroud, you can't make a definitive statement. They're even in my eyes.

I can see them even. So you think Brock Purdy goes to Houston and takes him to the second round of the playoffs? It's tough to do that. It's tough to say to see you put CJ Stroud in with the 49ers is he as good.

Here's the thing that I do know. Brock Purdy was Mr. Relevant. Was never really given a chance and he's come in in two years and he's won what? He's 18 and 5? I forget his record off the top of my head.

But in two years, he's in two NFC Championship games. So you're taking right now Purdy over Stroud? Yes.

Okay, so you're still at 5. I know how you're going to answer this one. Trevor Lawrence or Brock Purdy? Brock Purdy. Alright, the Colts you can forget about.

Tennessee you can forget about. Dak Prescott or Brock Purdy? After seeing the latest playoff collapse, Brock Purdy over Dak. Jalen Hurts or Brock Purdy? Jalen Hurts.

Okay, so that's 6 right there. Giants you can forget. Well, I know you're a buddy-buddy with Daniel Jones.

I would take Brock Purdy over Daniel Jones. People forget. Somehow, someway.

Pat Boyle broke the Daniel Jones contract story. I don't know how. I just think they're buddy-buddy.

I don't know if they're actually friends. That was just me just saying that to say that. Nobody paid attention to it either.

One time I actually had something. You can forget the commanders. Matthew Stafford or Brock Purdy? I would say, and again, I don't- How is this even a question? Hold on, I try to answer everything regardless of are we projecting future career, is it to start a new franchise? Just for next year.

Just for next year? Brock Purdy. Wow.

That's crazy to me. Stafford has no mobility. He won a Super Bowl though.

Yes. And Brock Purdy's a game away from a Super Bowl in his second season. I just think- Tyler Murray or Brock Purdy? Purdy. I think the argument with this all the time is, okay, do we just think Brock Purdy, can any other guy do the job with the 49ers?

I don't think that's the case because Trey Lance couldn't. Jared Goff or Brock Purdy? Goff. Kirk Cousins or Brock Purdy? Purdy. Jordan Love or Brock Purdy?

Purdy. And we could cut it there because that's where everyone is in the AFC. I would say right now I'd probably only take eight or nine quarterbacks over Brock Purdy. So the highest I would put him would be the eighth best quarterback in football. Personally, I have to have, just going down the list, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, C.J.

Stroud. Just those seven in the AFC. You could debate Trevor Lawrence, but I'm down on Trevor Lawrence after last year.

And Jalen Hurts in the NFC, Stafford in the NFC as well. Just those nine I think you have to put in front of Brock Purdy. Now, that's not me saying Brock Purdy is terrible. That's not me saying Brock Purdy is trash. Brock Purdy has had a really good season. But I think if you put any of those eight or nine guys into Kyle Shanahan's system with those players around him. They would be better than Brock Purdy and they would be more feared than Brock Purdy is.

But ultimately, it doesn't matter how you win as long as you do win. And through time, like for a while, people said Brady was a system quarterback. And then through time, Brady showed when you go throughout the years that he was the system. Ultimately, as long as he stays healthy and keeps on being productive, Brock Purdy can show that. But when I look at the Niners, the first three names I think about on offense, like if I was a defensive player who I'm most concerned about. And this is in a quarterback league. It's McCaffrey, it's Deebo, my BFF, and then also Trent Williams.

Those are just the first three guys that I think of. Can I ask Boyle one question? Yes. But are you interrogating him? No, no, no.

I want to see where Boyle stands on this. Zach said I was crazy to think that Brock Purdy could turn the Jets into a playoff team. The Jets were 7-10. Do you think with Brock Purdy on the team for all 18 games, we don't know about injury, maybe he misses a game or two, but assuming he's their starting quarterback, does he turn the 7-10 Jets into a playoff team? The Jets probably win at least two more games if Brock Purdy's the quarterback.

9-8 or 10-7, I'd say they would have had a shot. There you go. And he's miles better than Simeon, my cousin Timmy Boyle, and Zach Wilson. He's better than Zach Wilson?

You sure about that one? That's a hot take. No, for the first time in history, me and Boyle are on the same page.

Yeah, I once had a boss, by the way. Very nice guy, he's a radio legend. He is like the Tom Brady of programming. He once said, you know, don't put the producers and the update anchors on the air. I think we just found out why in the last ten minutes.

What are you talking about? I say that in jest, I'm joking around, we're having a little fun, we're like a locker room here. You guys are so sensitive, Boyle's crying right now. I'm sorry, so if Purdy doesn't win, in all seriousness, is anything good enough for Purdy unless he wins the Super Bowl? Or is he going to be cast out as the same argument that we're having if they don't win the Super Bowl? He has to win the Super Bowl because Jimmy G, who I'm not a fan of, I never liked Jimmy G. When people are saying, oh Zach, reunion with the Patriots and Jimmy G, go get the job. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, Jimmy G at best is an above average quarterback.

I think Brock Purdy can be better than Jimmy G. I think he has a higher ceiling. But Jimmy G got that team to a Super Bowl, whether it was him or not, he had a ten point lead with seven and a half to go. And in that Super Bowl, up until the final seven minutes, was out playing Mahomes in the Super Bowl.

And he didn't get the job done. So yes, it's not always Super Bowl or bust for every team, and it's not always fair to hold the quarterback. You've got to win the Super Bowl or not. But in the case of Brock Purdy, the only way this season is a success for him is if they win the Super Bowl. Because the past history of this organization does matter. We'll take a break, Zach, help show CBS Sports Radio, we'll do some head coaching, future vacancies when we return, update time. Here is Pat Boyle. The defensive player of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the armed forces, DoD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at NavyFederal.org. This week's player is 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw. In San Francisco's 24-21 win over the Packers on Saturday, Greenlaw had eight total tackles and two interceptions, including the game ceiling one with 52 seconds left. And his coach was happy but also annoyed with him during that play because he didn't go down right away. Could you imagine if Dre Greenlaw ended up fumbling that ball and it gave a little extra life to the Packers and they ended up getting into field goal range, recovering the fumble off the pick, and they kicked the field goal to get into overtime and then they ended up beating San Francisco? Oh, that would be brutal.

Would have been brutal. Kind of reminds me of the Patriots and the Chargers back in 2006 when Troy Brown popped out that football after it was intercepted with the pass thrown by Tom Brady and ended up recovering and winning the game. Anyway, talking about the Chargers, their old GM, Tom Tolesco, is reportedly going to be landing with the Las Vegas Raiders. According to Adam Schefter, Raiders are working to hire former Chargers general manager Tom Tolesco as their new general manager per league sources. I usually don't like to praise teams too much in the offseason, especially when we haven't had the draft yet, especially when we haven't had free agency and the season actually isn't over even though it's been over for the Raiders. But I like both these hires for the Raiders, assuming this goes down.

Antonio Pierce was the right move. It's going to keep Max Crosby happy. It's going to keep Devante Adams happy as well.

We'll make sure that those guys stay. And then Tom Tolesco is a good GM as long as you don't make him pick the coach because he has built really good rosters in Los Angeles where it has all of us buzzing before the start of the year, you know, and a bunch of times, oh, watch out for the Chargers, watch out for the Chargers. He just hasn't picked the right head coach. So I like this kind of model that the Raiders are doing where you're keeping things that you know that works. Like you know that Antonio Pierce has worked so far.

That's good for the locker room. And then once you hire Pierce and you remove the interim tag off of the made in the full time head coach, then you work to get the GM. I don't always usually like that when you have a coach and then the general manager. But in this case, and maybe the Raiders need to do things backwards that actually finally have some success to go get the coach and keep the coach and then find the general manager with the Raiders, especially the GM that you're bringing in who knows how to build rosters.

He just doesn't know how to get the right coach. I think that the Raiders are in a better situation now than they've been in for a while. Now, ultimately, still got to go get the quarterback and they got to figure out who their next quarterback is going to be. But I like what the Raiders have done in terms of who they kept as their coach and then also who they're reportedly bringing in as their general manager. So yesterday, and we already predicted that Antonio Pierce is going to go to the Raiders and Jerome Mayo, right, was going to stay in New England and replace Bill Belichick. I also had that Brian Callahan was going to end up with Tennessee.

I kind of have two reactions here. And my first reaction is this is not a better coach than Mike Vrabel. But it doesn't mean that this is a bad hire.

Like I do believe a lot of people today are going to sit back and say, man, they didn't really improve. They didn't really upgrade their head coaching position. But I also don't think Mike Vrabel wanted to be in Tennessee anymore.

So that plays a factor in it. And also, Tennessee, to do this right, was going to have to go through a rebuild. I don't know if Mike Vrabel was going to have to put up with two more years, three more years of losing football to eventually see the good days and the hopeful good days for Tennessee moving forward.

Callahan's deserving of an opportunity. He's been in the league for a while, right, comes from a football family, has done a good job with the Cincinnati Bengals as of late. But just because you're a good coordinator doesn't mean that you're going to turn out to be a phenomenal head coach. We've seen guys been tabbed as that guy, that dude is the next head coach, and all their wonderful offensive defensive coordinators, they've been disasters as head football coaches. So I can't say this is a bad hire. It's not an upgrade from Vrabel, but if Vrabel didn't want to be there and you're looking for someone to rebuild, it does make sense to bring in an offensive-minded coach to see if he could get the most out of Will Levis, who was more good than bad a year ago in the small opportunity that he got as a quarterback.

Now, in terms of the remaining jobs, let's listen up to Mike Garofalo. This was him on the NFL Network earlier this morning talking about how the Los Angeles Chargers are closing in on Jim Harbaugh as their next head coach. And this feels like we're now in the zone where something could happen between the Chargers and Jim Harbaugh in the near future.

My understanding is this is an extremely strong offer that they have made to him financially. They're now in the point where they're going to discuss staffing when it comes to general manager and obviously the coaching staff who's going to work alongside Harbaugh as well. So this feels like advancing to the point where if everybody's comfortable with a lot of the principal factors at play, that this team could move on Jim Harbaugh and try to get him under contract here in the near future.

That feels like where we are. That feels like Harbaugh is not just toying with the NFL to try to get Michigan to agree to something, to jump back to college. Judy, this has felt like Harbaugh, has his eyes locked on the NFL, and this could be the move in the near future.

And this is the guy that they seem who they want. Like this seems like their number one choice to be the next head coach. You know that Pete Carroll wanted to try to get that job, I believe. Samter, was that Snoop Dogg who revealed that information?

Samter's giving me the head nod. So yeah, Snoop Dogg revealed the information that Pete Carroll wanted the Chargers' job. You look at Bill Belichick, that would have made sense to the Chargers, but it doesn't seem like the Chargers ever had any interest in Bill Belichick. So Jim Harbaugh is a younger coach, has won in the NFL, has won in college, and he's a phenomenal leader and a phenomenal head coach.

Like this should happen. And I also do think the perception about the Spanos family with them being cheap, them not doing the right thing, them cutting corners, played a factor here where you're going to swing for one of, if not the biggest names on the market, and now you've got to find a way with this ball, what, presumably on the three-yard line, to get the last run in and don't pull a Pete Carroll and throw the football and get it intercepted with Russell Wilson and find a way to get the ball in the end zone. But I'd be surprised if the Chargers don't wind up landing Jim Harbaugh. I'm going to still say for the other jobs the Falcons get Bill Belichick because I think Arthur Blank wants Bill Belichick, but I do believe people in that organization are going to oppose it because then they don't know how safe their job will be after one year because I think at first it will be, oh, it's a smooth relationship, Bill's going to work with Terry Fontenot, Bill's going to work with the other people in the organization, but then once Bill is there for a year, does Bill try to go back to its, hey, it's my way or the highway, I take control of everything, but I do believe Arthur Blank has his eyes set on Bill Belichick and it will eventually get done.

As in terms of the other jobs, I'd be shocked if the commanders don't land Ben Johnson. They got one of the hottest GM candidates in there in Adam Peters. I think they're going for the younger, inexperienced name to build back up that franchise and the hottest coordinator name in the league right now in Ben Johnson. And then for the other two, I'm fascinated to see what happens with the Seahawks and the Panthers. I think the Seahawks are the biggest question mark because that is an attractive job.

It should be Mike Vrabel, but I don't know if it will be Mike Vrabel. And then for the Panthers, I think what we saw with their hiring of their GM and Dan Morgan, they stayed in house. Now it's what relationships that can you use from Dan Morgan because of the toxicity in that organization with David Tepper, where Dan can convince a friend to find a way to take the Carolina Panthers job. And I originally predicted Frank Smith to be the next Panthers coach, he's the OC for the Dolphins. That could still happen, but you've now seen that Dave Canales, the offensive coordinator for the Bucs, he is getting a second interview with Carolina. And remember, their new GM, Dan Morgan, has a relationship with Canales, going back to their days together in Seattle. So maybe it ends up being Dave Canales as the next head coach of the Carolina Panthers. So these are my predictions from January 18th. Raiders Antonio Pierce, that's already hit. Commanders Ben Johnson, Falcons Bill Belichick, Chargers Jim Harbaugh, Tennessee, I had Brian Callahan going there, Seahawks Mike Vrabel, Panthers Frank Smith. I'll change the Panthers to Dave Canales, but the Seahawks one is the most intrigue because I think there's not going to be a name that's announced that really surprises you because there's been no feel, there's been no understanding of what direction the Seahawks are going to go in. Bill Wright is going to join us coming up in 20, 25 minutes. When we come on back, we'll get into this whole stupid Brady Mahomes to me.