College Football's Major Problem (Hour 3)

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A Peanut Butter M&M's Production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Alrighty, this is the Zach Gelb Show, coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. You know, we're about to talk about the state of Wisconsin and the Green Bay Packers hiring a new defensive coordinator, Jeff Halfley, the head coach of Boston College, who did a nice job at BC, but he is bolting being a college head coach to being a defensive coordinator with the Green Bay Packers. We'll get to that in just a second and the bigger part of the conversation, how we kind of now control NIL and the transfer portal, and how a lot of these coaches are complaining about it, but is their merit to their complaints were for so many years, the players would be the odd person out of legally getting any of the pie, now they're starting to get the pie, and the coaches are the ones where they're not necessarily saying it's wrong that the players are getting money, but how much chaos and headaches it creates for them, and you see a lot of legendary coaches in college basketball hanging it up.

In college football, right, a guy like Chris Peterson retires and he was on with us a few weeks ago, has no interest of ever really coaching again, it seems like, because of the new era of college football, Nick Saban walks away, that has to factor into the new landscape of college football with the transfer portal on the NIL, and how you're basically recruiting players to come to your university and then recruiting them every day to stay at your university, and sometimes the player may leave and it may not be for the best reason. So, I'll get back to that in just a second, but as I mentioned, the state of Wisconsin, there is a loyal listener that we've had, back to, I think the weekend overnights, his name is Jameson in Milwaukee. Now, this dude, Jameson, is a chef, he has a cookie company, and then he also then posts the most delicious photos of food, and it's actually obnoxious, but I appreciate what he does. It's obnoxious that he tweets me all these food items, and I'd be upset if he didn't, but the reason why it's obnoxious is because they all look so good, and they all look so gourmet.

He just randomly tweeted me at 4.53 p.m. Eastern, fried chicken tacos are the best, and his fried chicken tacos, because he could be a chef at a restaurant and he has this company, they look so bleepin' good, and it just triggered this thought. He once sent Hickey and I like a batch of cookies, and you know, like now, like you have a chocolate chip cookie, all right, there's good chocolate chip cookies, but you know when you then get those mega chocolate chip cookies that I wouldn't even call them just cookies, it's almost as if they're gourmet dessert on steroid cookies. So he sent us an entire batch once, and it was like a s'more cookie, and there was fudge in the cookie, it was just so bleepin' good. So I'm gonna do something I usually don't do on the radio, I'm begging Jameson to send us more cookies, because I have Moist Mike, I have Stuart Kovacs who have never been able to experience how tasty and how dank these cookies are, these cookies. It could be the best cookie that I've ever had, that's how good they were, and they were shipped from Milwaukee. So they went through the mailing process, sent here, multiple day shipping process, you know, getting rattled around in the container, you know, breaking off, and those cookies were just A++++. So our buddy Jameson, who's tweeting and listening in Milwaukee, we welcome all your food photos, but we also hate your food photos because then my mouth is just watering for the duration of the show. Anywho, let's get to Jeff Haffley.

So as I just said, leaving Boston College as a head coach, had NFL experience before, and he is going to be the Packers defensive coordinator. And Pete Thamel, Sparky, Steve Sparky Pfeiffer who runs the fan in Milwaukee, he said, the red velvet cookies that Jameson makes are the absolute best. They were just every, I don't, he sent us like four or five different cookies. I had no clue what I was eating. He could have poisoned me and that could have been, because I usually do not do listener food, but these were so good, he could have poisoned me and I would have been fine if that was my last dessert. You have trust issues, I mean, when Ryan and Santa Barbara sent us ice cream, you also wondered if that was going to be poisoned and we ended up being okay. You got a lot of trust issues about this, about our listeners here. Ryan and Santa Barbara.

Have some faith in our people. Now, I'm shocked Ryan and Santa Barbara hasn't called this week. Shocked. He's not called all week.

The Niners are going to the Super Bowl. Does, like Jameson is a sane human being. Ryan and Santa Barbara, I don't know how sane Ryan and Santa Barbara is. Like, I'm not going to get shocked if we land at the airport and Ryan and Santa Barbara is there pretending to be one of the chauffeur guys with the signs and then he's going to like kidnap us and we won't even make it to Radio Row. I'm Mr. Kruszowiewski.

You mean Coach Kruszewski? Yes, I am. Luckily, your name is easy to pronounce so we won't get that wrong. You never know.

I get into an Uber now. No one gets my name right. Hi, I'm Mr. Gilb. You mean Zach Gilb? That's basically how Shep says it anyway.

He goes Gilb, Gilb, Gilb. Hey guys. Alright, I didn't know Mickey Mouse was joining the show.

That was your Halloween costume. See? But anyway, Pete Thamel says Jeff Halfley wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football. That's what a source told Pete Thamel at ESPN. College coaching has become fundraising, NIL, and recruiting your own team and transfers. There's no time to coach football anymore. So, I'm kind of conflicted on this. And the reason why I'm conflicted on this is part of me wants to tell these coaches that make millions and millions and millions of dollars tough luck that your job got a little bit harder and a lot harder because of the fact that now the players are getting money and they have the freedom to transfer now with this whole legal matter I guess as many times as they want. So, I almost want to say after years of the players getting screwed, suck it up. But then on the other part of it, I do understand how much goes into recruiting. And could you imagine spending three years on a kid to recruit them to come to your college?

You get them to commit and then maybe it's not best that they get on the field right away and you tell them they have to sit for a year or they get sparing playing time on the field and then they go up, bleep this coaching staff, I'm out. Like, I get it. It's part of life. But the part that I struggle with here is I wish there were guidelines.

I wish there were rules. Like, you see what's going on with Florida State. You know, you see what's going on with Tennessee, like all this stuff. It's the wild west right now and I do believe the NCAA and the infraction committee is very selective. And they are very selective in what they tend to pursue and what they tend to just kick down the road for many years. And it makes no sense to me why the colleges and the college coaches legally can't facilitate these NIL conversations.

And the entire thing, I don't want to say it seems slimy, but even when this was supposed to prevent rule breaking, there's going to be many rules that eventually do get broken because you opened up Pandora's box. But it is clear from a lot of coaches and I think there's a difference from older coaches to younger coaches and then coaches that could go one way or another in terms of, okay, they're not that old, but they're not that young. Like Jay Wright got up and walked away. He had things rolling at Villanova, made Villanova Blue Blood a national brand, and you can't tell me it wasn't NIL and the transfer portal why he elected to go. Mike Cieszewski and Roy Williams, yeah, they were at retirement age, but they retired because of the NIL and the transfer portal. Nick Saban, we thought this guy would go coach another five, ten years, he retired because of the transfer portal and NIL.

Chris Peterson's not coming back because of the transfer portal and NIL. So yes, in one breath I say, let me play my small violin for these coaches that complain about NIL and the transfer portal. But on the other end, when there's no laws and there's no way to control what's going on, you then wonder if these kids are making the right decisions or are they just following the cash. And if you want to follow the cash, you could do that. I think we've all got into a place of life where people follow the cash and you find out that it's not the best decision for you. But why are you leaving the school if you're leaving the school?

What's the motives? And football requires regiment, it requires training, and it requires hard coaching. And I do think it's tough to coach now when you constantly have to be focused on NIL and the transfer portal and there's limitations on what you could actually do. Like we really do need a commissioner of college football. That's like an actual commissioner that could actually set rules with NIL and the transfer portals. But I don't think we're anywhere close to that happening.

And I have no answer to how we would get that to happen and how you would be able to relegate, I guess would be the word, this stuff. But Jeff Halfley, this one's like the real eye-opener. But don't get me wrong, Jeff can't hold to anywhere from a legacy standpoint what Saban and Roy Williams and Coach K and Jay Wright have done for their schools and their institutions. But being the head coach of Boston College is like a fine job.

You know, he was six and five, six and six, three and nine, seven and six. Like it's a fine job, but you go from being a head coach to a defensive coordinator. And we've seen times before people leave a head coaching job in college football at a smaller stage of college football to go to an offensive coordinating job at a higher level in the power five.

But Boston College, even though it's not the strength of the power five, it is a power five job in college football. And this guy's 44 years old and he's saying, I'm good with being the head coach. I just basically want to get back to coaching football. And maybe he looks at this and maybe his aspiration is to be an NFL head coach. And he's been a defensive back coach. I saw Richard Sherman had a lot of praise for him when he was with the 49ers. You know, he's been the defensive coordinator at Ohio State.

He had years in the NFL with Cleveland and and Tampa Bay. Like he's been all over the place and maybe just naturally he's not liking the shift in college football. He doesn't like the direction of college football and he understands how difficult it is. And maybe he's saying to himself, I'll go to Green Bay.

Where they didn't like their old defensive coordinator, they couldn't stand him. If I have success in Green Bay under a good coach, a Matt Lafleur, then maybe when I get to my 50s or my late 40s, I will get my opportunity to be an NFL head coach. Because even though I have conflicting emotions with how when coaches complain about NIL and the transfer portal, I would wholeheartedly agree it's easier to coach in the NFL now than it is in college football.

And that wasn't always the case. Because in college football, right, you are the CEO. You could be a my way or a highway type of guy in college football. But now, even in free agency and salary cap and all that stuff, and you have to deal with grown men that could be making more money than you, it's easier to do that than constantly day in and day out grind of recruiting and figuring out this NIL stuff. So I think a lot of people will look at Jeff Halfley's decision and they'll say, what the heck are you doing?

Why are you taking a demotion? But it's going to make his personal life easier. And if he has great success as a DC with the Green Bay Packers, he could be an NFL head coach in two to three years from now. And that is a better lifestyle and an easier job to be an NFL head coach than it is to be a college coach. Now, we know that Jim Harbaugh is just got introduced about an hour ago as the new head football coach of the Chargers.

He had NFL experience, though, before, right, as a head coach, three NFC title games and a Super Bowl appearance in four years with the San Francisco 49ers. But you now start to think, because some people go, oh, well, a lot more college guys are just going to jump to the NFL. I don't know if they're going to be welcomed. Like, you want to be an OC or a DC?

Yeah, you could be welcome. Right. You've seen Jimmy Lake, you've seen Jeff Halfley. Like, you could be welcome jumping from college to the NFL. But a lot of times when the college head coach goes to an NFL head coach, it doesn't end up working well. And we've seen it from a young up and coming coach that was a rebuilder, Matt Rule recently. And then we saw it from a legendary head coach in Urban Meyer, and he didn't even make it through a full season. And I'm just trying to think, like, who are the coaches out there in college right now that could be NFL head coaches one day?

Inevitably, Deion Sanders' name will always be brought up. But Coach Prime has even said he doesn't want to be an NFL head coach. He doesn't think he would fit as an NFL head coach. You could say Lincoln Riley, but I think Lincoln Riley so far, the last two years at USC, he hasn't met those standards.

And he had Caleb Williams. I guess if Kirby Smart wanted to be a head coach in the NFL, someone would hire him. But Kirby Smart doesn't feel like an NFL head coach to me. Dabo, his shtick would not work in the NFL. Brian Kelly, his shtick would not work in the NFL as well. I think, you know what?

I think this guy is a fake tough guy, and I do think people would see right through him. But if, if, if, if Crying Day can turn Ohio State around and turn around his misfortunes at Ohio State, he does have NFL experience. He was with Chip Kelly in Philly. He was with Chip Kelly with the 49ers.

And there's been rumors for years about Ryan Day making the jump. But you can't turn around Ohio State or get Ohio State back to where they were before you took over. No one's going to really be blowing up your phone to be an NFL head coach. Like, Santer and Stew, there's not a name that really resonates with me right now that's in college right now that you could see, OK, I could see them being an NFL head coach one day.

And I know a lot of people are going to say it's an easier lifestyle, but you also need to be wanted by the NFL. And I'm not saying all these head coaches are going to go the Jeff Haffley route, but if you're at a smaller, let's say, Power Five school and you do have NFL aspirations, maybe you take the pay cut and maybe take the demotion and not running the show to then go have a good two, three year run. And I do think Jeff Haffley, like, let's say Jeff Haffley wants to be an NFL head coach. I don't think he's getting hired from Boston College to be an NFL head coach.

I don't. But him going to the NFL and let's say he has success in Green Bay three years from now, I don't think people are going to be like, oh, that was a college head coach. They're going to say, oh, he was a kick ass defensive coordinator, and that's why they're hiring him to be a head coach in the NFL. So that's just the way that I think about it.

A couple of names that stand out. Listen, your point is 100 percent accurate, right? We're seeing in the college basketball, college football like this. And I also it's changing and it's I love the idea of guys getting paid. I love the idea of players being able to move freely because they're college students. If I want to transfer from one school to another, I could transfer and I wouldn't have to sit out a year before I can enter my algebra classes or whatever class I would be taking history classes. So I like them being able to transfer.

I like them being able to make money. I like that, but it is really making it too difficult for coaches to sustainably do what they have to do to build winning programs. But a couple of names that do stand out to me. We talk about maybe being able to make that jump. We've talked for a couple of years about maybe Lincoln Riley.

I know his star is down a little bit. I could see Lincoln Riley in the NFL. Dabo Sweeney, a guy who's not embracing NIL's transfer portal. I could see him moving to NFL more because he's not embracing that that style of the of the new college football system. But he's a preacher. Preachers don't work in the NFL.

They don't. He's a my way or highway guy. I think the first speech... But Pete Carroll was kind of viewed similarly when he when he made the jump too. I think Dabo is, but Pete had NFL head coaching experience before. I think Pete is more comparable.

I mean, excuse me. I think Dabo would be more like Urban Meyer. I think it would be a disaster that quickly compared to having success like Pete Carroll.

But there's that like there used to be we used to do this segment three, four years ago. And we had plenty of names like there were names of guys with speculation. Pat Fitzgerald, remember, was coveted for years. Even with the Green Bay Packers to maybe be an NFL coach, like there used to be a lot of names.

Yeah, I could see why there's an appeal to leave college to go to the NFL, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of candidates. Lane Kiffin making his return, maybe. But he's trying to give Stu a heart attack.

Seriously, you're trying to kill Stu? You know, he's not going to come back with the Raiders. We damn well know that after he burnt, burnt some bridges on the way out.

But listen, you're not wrong. You know, maybe Jimbo Fisher makes his return to the NFL. You know, guys, let me tell you, we run this play, we can do this.

James Franklin. I can see that. I'm just trying to get into your skin.

I'm just pushing buttons, pushing buttons. You know what? Penn State's going to go nine and three and make the playoffs, by the way. Let me let me throw one out there. I'll throw one out there. What about Saban?

Seventy one. I know it was not good in Miami. Never had his quarterback and went right back to Alabama. Saban went to Alabama. Saban just walked away. You tell me there's not an owner or two next year that at least call Nick Saban and say, hey, do you want to try to give that head coaching in the NFL one more chance?

Because that's the only thing. That Nick Saban hasn't done well in his illustrious career. And I don't know if that like if you get the right owner like shot Khan, who was hell bent on getting Urban Meyer there.

If you get an owner like that, that is hell bent to get Nick Saban. I don't think he would say no. You know what?

My initial reaction was no. You talk about it. He still wants to coach. If he still enjoys coaching and, you know, maybe like a year or two away being on the air and he's like, still the itch. I can get into the NFL because some team's going to want him and not have to deal with the B.S. that I was dealing with towards the end of my tenure there.

And I can still just coach. You know what? I could see it. Yeah.

I could see it. The best line was Jalen Miller reacted to the retirement of Nick Saban. He's like, well, he's 28 years from 100. So we got to let him go enjoy his life. And I don't think I need to see Saban in the NFL. It would be fun to talk about.

It'd be fun to cover. But at this point, when you're 72 and you've you've brought this much joy to so many people. I want you to just enjoy your life, like enjoy the rest of your life and enjoy retirement, enjoy your family. That's what I would say to Nick Saban. So I did see some videos of him trying to boogie board a few years back. His daughter posted some videos of him having fun on vacation.

Really? And it was him trying to boogie board. And basically it was him getting on a boogie board and a wave just knocking him over and tossing him into the water. Nick Saban?

Yeah. I've never seen this video. The only video I've seen where Nick Saban was having a good time is when he was dancing and doing I think it was the electric slide. I want to say or the Cupid shuffle with some recruits and their family, which is just awesome.

Anyway, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Your fever is high and the pressure to log in at work is, too. But when you finally decide to take care of you, there's Instacart. Just because that one perfect coworker of yours is attending all meetings, camera on while she's sneezing, coughing and aching doesn't mean you have to do the same. Take it from us. Trying to stay on top of things will only get you further behind.

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Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

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Get in the zone Auto Zone restrictions apply. The commanders have made their underwhelming hire of Dan Quinn. I know a lot of people will think that's a very negative thing that I just said. I don't call it negativity. I would just say that I think it's a fine hire like you think that's negative. That's pretty I mean, it's underwhelming. You called it a C plus. That's pretty negative. I don't know what you did in school, but a C plus is pretty good to me.

Now, if I got a C plus, I was getting a lashing. But like seriously, though, we were told Ben Johnson and then Ben Johnson bows out. You have Vrabel available. You want to tell me you didn't want Belichick because Bill Belichick is a my way or the highway and he would never work with Adam Peters and wouldn't care for Josh Harris.

All right. I could live with that. But when Vrabel is available and everyone said you were going to get Ben Johnson and then you don't get Ben Johnson. Is Dan Quinn really the best that you could do? Like solid coach, fine coach. You know, coach a team to a Super Bowl, hired the right offensive coordinator to get the most out of Matt Ryan and Matt Ryan was an MVP under his tutelage. But Dan Quinn, I think what his agent tried to tell you he was he wasn't because the last two, three years, his name has been attached to every job.

And let's just call it what it is. Dan didn't get offered those jobs. He presented it like, oh, I want to go back to Dallas and I'm not ready to leave Dallas right now. But there were what, eight jobs available this cycle.

And finally it took the last team when they got rejected by Ben Johnson to say, OK, we'll hire you. I said it earlier. Say it again. What's what's a gift that like someone wants? You got a gift that that you want me to get you, Samter?

Yeah, it's called a McLaren F1. OK, so let's say I told you that I was going to get you that. And then I go, happy holidays.

Thanks for doing some great work. Here is a very nice button down like you look good in it. Yeah, it's nice button down. It's expensive. But when you ask for something all the way up here and you get something in the middle, it doesn't mean the middle is bad. It doesn't mean that the hire was a wrong one. Like I'm not trashing the hire. But when I'm told it was going to be exciting, I'm told there was palpable buzz. Oh, the commanders know what they're doing. They got the hotshot Young GM and Adam Peters. They have a new owner in Josh Harris.

You got that POS in in in Daniel Snyder out of the organization. Like when that's all the stuff I was being told and you're going to make the big splash. This isn't a big splash. This is like medium sized waves.

That's what it is. There's no big splash here. And that's out of all these teams that had job openings. I thought the commanders were going to make a big splash because this is the first time for Josh Harris to kind of make his mark in the NFL. GM was successful.

Very much praise. You know, in the draft, he's going to take a quarterback at two. But it's a three step process. GM coach and quarterback. GM hire was met with two thumbs up.

We'll see if it ends up working. The coach hire was like, eh, it's not bad, but it's not great. Well, the other part for me also, and we I'm sure you talked about this while I was gone. The guys they interviewed. Right. They weren't they didn't even interview Vrabel. They didn't even interview Belichick. So let's say like after Ben Johnson says no to them, Raheem Morris was a guy that they wanted. He went to the Falcons. Mike McDonald went to the Seahawks. Bobby Slow decided to stay with the Texans.

Right. They interviewed the enemy who was there, who's been up for coaching job for years. I'm surprised that he wasn't given more of a serious opportunity.

However, let me just say this. I don't believe Eric B enemy is ever going to be in the NFL at this point. If you can't get it by being the Chiefs OC and then your own team where he was fine in the beginning of the year, middle of the year.

And then at the end of the year, they just didn't have enough. And don't get me wrong. I'm an anti Eric B enemy. I would love to see Eric B enemy as a head coach. But after years and years and years of his stock being high and he didn't get a job, eventually your stock, your stock falls. And now it's like, OK, he's a good coach. But I think him being the hot name in the hiring cycle is clearly phased out by now, especially judging by this last hiring cycle.

So at the end of the day, you look at these guys. McDonald chose the Seahawks over the commanders. Raheem Morris chose the Falcons over the commanders. Ben Johnson decide not to leave.

Slow decide not to leave. They were interested in Aaron Glenn. How many teams who have a potential franchise caliber quarterback waiting in the wings with that number two pick, whether it's Caleb Williams, Drake May or Jayden Daniels, whoever you think it might be. You have the potential to build your franchise with a brand new number two over pick starting quarterback. A guy who, like Drake May, who's been slotted number two for a year and a half. People have been talking about him being the guy right behind Caleb Williams.

It's an attractive job. So the fact that they all said no to them makes me wonder something else is going on. But the fact that they didn't interview Belichick or Rabel at all, because once all their big names were off the list, once Morris and Johnson, McDonald were off the list, they were left with Glenn, Anthony Weaver, Quinn or Bienemy. They didn't even have that unless they went back to the conference.

None of those are elite names. Right. Why didn't they even bring Rabel in just to test the waters, bring Belichick in to test the waters. And if you decide afterwards, like, all right, like the Falcons did, this isn't going to work, so be it.

But at least you had that interview under your belt and you're done and you can move on to the next step. If they decided, you know what, let's bring in Rabel now, because our top three guys all went somewhere else or decided not to come to us. To start that process with Rabel, it would take weeks before they can hire him. Why not bring Rabel and Belichick in before?

That's where they screwed up. Not by interviewing these list of great assistant names, but by not interviewing Belichick and Rabel, they put themselves in a position to have this underwhelming hire of Quinn as their best option left. So the only one thing that I'll just say, just because this came out today with Diana Rossini, during the hiring process in Washington, Bill Belichick was considered for the job, per sources. The commander spoke with him and he had support from decision makers. In the end, Dan Quinn is their choice.

Now that comes out after the fact. Diana Rossini, though, is a great reporter, so I'll believe what she says. So I guess they talked to him, but that's not an official interview.

But I don't, the one that bugs me here, and as Emmitt Smith would say, makes me hot. It makes me hot is that they didn't even interview Mike Rabel. Like, you can't tell me Dan Quinn. You'd rather have Dan Quinn in the year of 2024 than Mike Rabel. Now, maybe Rabel just wasn't interested. Maybe they tried and he just had no interest.

But I just look at this and I keep on going back to the word underwhelming. And really, in the NFC East right now, and I'll circle back to this poll question that we had, that's Zach Elbat, CBS Sports Radio. The commanders hired Dan Quinn. So which NFC East coach do you have the most confidence in? McCarthy with the Cowboys, Sirianni with the Eagles, Quinn with the commanders, Brian Deball with the Giants.

Before I get to the results, let's just go around the room here. Stu, who's the coach of the NFC East that you have the most confidence in now? It's McCarthy. I think it is McCarthy.

Samter? Coach of the NFC East that you have the most confidence in? I think it's Sirianni. I still think it's Sirianni. Boyle? Sirianni.

Whoa! As much as I don't like Nick Sirianni, I think he's the best head coach. Boyle just said something positive about Philadelphia. Remember where you are, folks. This is a historic day on CBS Sports Radio. It's the first day of February in the year of 2024, and Pat Boyle finally uttered a positive word about someone in Philadelphia. Yeah, I saw my shadow. I saw my shadow.

I've come out into the light here. Let me rephrase. Not that I think he's the best coach. I think with the roster they have, the success they had last year, I think the, you know, kicking the coordinators out of the building and kind of starting fresh I think is going to work for the Eagles.

I think they bounce back next year, so I think they'll be the best team. So I'm going McCarthy, and it's not a ringing endorsement for McCarthy. Dan Quinn I think is a 9-8, 10-7 coach at best. Brian Daball, great first year, some people skills, behind the scenes that are problematic, and they just don't have talent.

I don't see other Giants or any good next year. Sirianni, what does he do? Like McCarthy calls the place.

They literally asked him that at his press conference. Yeah, because they basically said, I'm Howie Roseman. I hold the left string of the puppet. I am Jeffrey Lurie.

I hold the right string of the puppet. And the puppet is Nick Sirianni. And Nick Sirianni has a new offensive coordinator who is Kellen Moore, who is I think one of the more overrated offensive minds in the league. And then you bring in Vic Fangio, who would have been the DC last year if Gannon didn't screw them. But Fangio's calling the plays, Moore's on the offense, and now the one thing Sirianni has to do is not cause chaos in the locker room.

And this past year, the Eagles locker room was so chaotic. So I can't even trust him to not be a doormat and at least rally the troops together. You want to delegate? I'm fine with delegating. Don't get me wrong.

But you got to do something. And there's McCarthy, who I know is going to win 11, 12 games next year. And then in the postseason at most, they'll go as the divisional round. So I do go McCarthy.

But I hope I hold my nose when I say that. And I don't like any of these coaches. I don't love any of these coaches. I think at best, all these coaches. I know Sirianni got to a Super Bowl, but if they get to an NFC title game, I think that's great success for all four. Well, forget about Quinton.

Forget about Dayball. But for the Cowboys and the Eagles, I don't believe in McCarthy or Sirianni to get the job done in those spots to win a Super Bowl. Now, I mean, again, don't you think, though, that Nick Sirianni as a head coach, as a leader, don't you think that at their worst, which was they lost, what, six out of their final seven games?

Yeah, they were ten in one and then one game. And then got blasted in the wild card game. Don't you think he's somewhere in between that and a coach that's in the Super Bowl?

Which at worst is, you know, this is better than McCarthy. I underrated the departure, but I think Shane Steichen was a big reason for that. So if Kellen Moore could be that guy, but Kellen Moore was supposed to be a head coach. And then he had to go run away from Dallas. And then that got all the success this past year. They did nothing with the Chargers.

And now this guy is supposed to be the Savior in Philadelphia. I don't usually advocate for a coach to get fired when three years it's been three playoffs and they were in a Super Bowl a year ago. But in the Sirianni case, I do that team has the most upside. They have the best roster. They got the best team.

But I don't think they have the right leader of men to get the job done. And when you walk in with your your players uniforms and you act like a player, then the players treat you like a player. And I'm not saying you can't be a player's coach, but you've got to be more like a D'Amico Ryans. You've got to be more like a Dan Campbell where you're not getting walked over by your players.

But I think the players took a lot of advantage over Nick Sirianni this past year. Alrighty, here are the results so far. 21% say Mike, let me do this in order. Dan Quinn at 20%. Mike McCarthy at 21%. Brian Daybal at 24%.

And then 35% say Boyle's best friend, Nick Sirianni. Commander sire Dan Quinn, so which NFC East coach do you have the most confidence in? 855-212-4CBS. 855-212-4227.

You could always get in on the poll question. Anzac Elbat CBS Sports Radio we come on back the top five destinations for Mike Vrabel to coach next year since he won't be coaching as head coach in the NFL this year update time. Here he is, Patty Boyle. Make this Valentine's Day one she'll remember forever with an engagement ring from JamesAllen.com. James Allen knows each love story is unique. That's why they make it easy to custom design engagement rings at up to half the price of a traditional jeweler. Choose from tons of conflict-free diamonds, both natural and lab-grown.

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That's stamps.com code PROGRAM. Alrighty, wrapping up shop, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. You know, what's the most surprising thing that has happened this NFL offseason in terms of coaching? Is it Belichick not getting a job? Is it Vrabel not getting a job?

Or if it's Pete Carroll not getting a job? And the way that I would order that, and you guys kind of be checks and balances here, tell me if you disagree. I disagree. Man, you producers around here.

No, I'm just kidding. I would say number one would be Vrabel because he's young. I'm not saying he's a better head coach than Belichick, but he's younger. And a lot of people thought he was going to go to New England, but then New England had this deal with Gerard Mayo. But I thought someone else, like at least the commanders or the Seahawks, one of them would have hired him.

Maybe he just didn't want a job this cycle. But I would say Vrabel would be one, Belichick would be two, and Carroll would be three. I think Carroll not getting a job is the least surprising. He still wanted to coach, but I think he wants to go about this the right way, which I don't know if there's a right way, where he just wants his contract, I guess, to run out with the Seahawks.

And then he'll just take a job somewhere else next year or try to get a job somewhere else next year in whatever advisory role that they created for him. So I'm least surprised that Carroll is not coaching. But I would say I'm most surprised by Vrabel and then second most surprised by Belichick.

I would agree on Carroll. I would probably close swap Vrabel and Belichick, only because Vrabel was ten games under.500 the last two years. I understand there have been injuries and there were issues in the quarterback stuff, but it wasn't like his Titans teams were gangbusters. They had a couple years, 11 wins, 12 wins. They had that nice run to the surprising run. So it wasn't like they were this dominant team.

And they followed up with a one seed. Correct. So he had two good years.

Yes, I get it. He had three really good years, I would say. So he was 9-7, 9-7, 11-5, 12-5, 7-10, 6-11. So he had like two really good years. But then nine win years when he got to the AFC Championship game, I'm pretty sure.

Right. So at the end of the day, I'm surprised by it, but it's Bill Belichick. And so I was more surprised that Belichick parted ways with the Pats.

I thought they'd be able to work it out. But once he parted ways... Well, he didn't part ways with the Pats. The Pats parted ways with him. I thought they would be able to figure it out and work it out and just be like, it's freaking Bill Belichick. At the end of the day, once he was gone from New England, I thought it was a shoo-in that any of the seven or eight teams that were looking for a coach was going to take him. Especially when Florio mid-season was saying commanders want to trade for him, that the Falcons had interviewed him multiple times, that he really liked the Chargers job also.

It seemed inevitable he was going to go somewhere. So two things. Harbaugh, I had no problem with the Chargers hiring him.

I think it's a home run hire. So that takes the Chargers out of it. The thing with Belichick, though, his biggest downfall is his hubris, right?

Overconfidence that leads to someone's downfall. He put all of his eggs in the basket of the Falcons because Arthur Blank wanted him. But then other people in that organization said, I don't know if we should bring him, Bill. Because they knew then they would be out of the organization within a year because Bill's going to do his thing his way. And I don't think Bill's going to adapt. They don't think Bill will coach again. But Bill is going to have to give the presence that he's changed and adapt. And I think that's very tough for someone as accomplished as Bill Belichick, where he's been able to do whatever he wanted for 20 years to be able to present that.

But ultimately, again on TV, he'll smile like one time and he'll get a job next year. Now for Vrabel, these are my five destinations for him next year. I'll throw the Steelers out there in at number five.

He played for the Steelers. I don't believe the Steelers will move on from Mike Tomlin, but if Tomlin wants to move on from them, right? You've had Knoll, you've had Kauer, and then you've had Tomlin. I could see maybe Tomlin saying, OK, I'm more out than the Steelers getting me moving on from me.

And maybe it's a Tomlin decision to reset. And if that's the case a year from now, Vrabel would be right at the top of their list. Number four, I think it's the Chicago Bears. They're going to have the number one overall pick.

That's going to be an attractive destination. Vrabel got to an AFC title game and also had a one seed with Ryan Tannehill as his quarterback. And you could be working with Caleb Williams with the number one overall pick. Eberflus doesn't have success this year.

Polls, even though he's made a nice foundation, they don't have success this year. Maybe they're moving on from a GM and a head coach this time next year. Then you get to the fun teams. Like, I think the Steelers are a wild card. I think the Bears are a wild card.

The Buffalo Bills in at number three. I don't believe the Bills want to move on from Sean McDermott. Sean McDermott has done some really good things in Buffalo. I do believe the Bills are afraid to see what life is like without Sean McDermott because of how long the playoff drought was before he got there, like nearly two decades. And then all they do now is make the playoffs. And then let's just say this Bills team underachieves once again, or they're disappointing the playoffs once again. Is that the final straw that breaks the camel's back where you go, OK, now we have to move on from Sean McDermott.

So I would monitor the Bills. Number two, it's the Dallas Cowboys. The reason why the Cowboys aren't one is because I ultimately do think Bill Belichick is coaching them next year.

But for Dallas, McCarthy disappoints in the postseason again. Jerry Jones looking for maybe an older coach, a younger, more energetic coach. Mike Vrabel checks off a lot of boxes.

And the Cowboys have a lot of resources, a lot of good players already on that roster. And the number one, man, I think Philadelphia, you want a coach that really embodies the city? Mike Vrabel is that dude. Mike Vrabel would be that guy for the Philadelphia Eagles. And I have a tough time thinking that Sirianni, a year from now, is back as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. But also then you get into, well, how we Roseman be able to coexist with Mike Vrabel.

And maybe that's the underrated part of this story. Maybe because we all like Vrabel and Vrabel is like that. He's a player's coach, but he's not a doormat. And we had Chad Brown on the other day who, a former teammate, said he's the smartest guy in the room.

And sometimes that does scare off people, especially when you have these brainiacs as the GM. So I would say the five destinations of Vrabel that I look for, Steelers 5, Bears 4, Bills 3, Cowboys 2, Eagles 1. I'm surprised you're not leaving in the Buckeyes as an option to go back to his home college to play after crying days. Going to lose again to an undermanned Michigan team with all the transfers and all the recruits they got there in Columbus. And if they lose again, days gone and Vrabel's coming in.

Can I make an early admission in February that you could subject a change on this? The Buckeyes will beat Michigan this year? Well, I don't want to say that. That wasn't what I was going to say.

You want to say, but you're not going to. As much as I despise Ryan Day, and I think he is a fake tough guy and a fraud. And I think he's a loser head coach, even though he's only lost like eight or nine games in his career. But what Ohio State was isn't anything what it was close to be under Urban Meyer. I actually do believe in the Buckeyes this year. Early, early, early offseason take. I actually think the Buckeyes are, they'll probably end up choking in the college football playoff. But I think they're going to make a lot of noise in the regular season. That schedule is soft.

It is soft serve ice cream this year, their schedule. So anyway, that's the Zach Gilb Show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll be back tomorrow on a busy, busy, busy Friday. Do we call tomorrow Football Friday?

I don't think so. But the Pro Bowl and a week away from the Super Bowl. We'll talk a lot of football. I'm just not calling it Football Friday. It's the Pro Bowl Games. It's not even the Pro Bowl anymore.

Nah, it's Fugazi. Stu, thank you. Santer, welcome on back. Thank you to each one of you for listening to the show.

We'll talk manana at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific. We out. Bye bye. Peace.

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing. One retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

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