Jay Gruden - Former NFL Head Coach

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Just use Instacart, Brian. 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. All righty, recap in the Super Bowl. Day after the game, we're back from Las Vegas. Got on the red-eye right after the game last night. Quickly got back to our New York City headquarters. And away we go all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific on CBS Sports Radio.

It's the Zach Gelb show. And now joining us to recap the big game from last night is former NFL head coach in Jay Gruden, kind enough to join us once again on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, first and foremost, thank you for doing this. How you been? Been good. Thanks. Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, anytime. So what's so impressive to me about this Kansas City championship is that I don't even think they played their best brand of football in this postseason. It looked vulnerable at times and it was still better to outlast everybody else. How about what Kansas City did last night to secure another championship?

Well, not just last night. Going to Buffalo, playing the hottest team in football at that time was impressive to beat Josh Allen there. And then going to Baltimore, who was the hottest team in the league, and beating them handily at Baltimore was quite a feat. And obviously to play San Francisco, who at one time throughout the season was by far the best team in a national football league.

So those are three heavyweight championship fights they won and they won in different ways. They won defensively in Buffalo. They played great. Patrick Mahomes did his thing. They ran the ball extremely well in all three games with, well, good balance. But I think the story really obviously is Patrick Mahomes, but defensively, Kansas City just played really well.

Really sound tackling and played big in big-time situations, especially on third down and in the red zone. And you know, when you go up against Mahomes and you have an opportunity to take them out of the game, you got to pounce. It felt like for a good portion of that game, the Niners were the better team, but they were just never able to really pull away that much further on the scoreboard. There was a lot of missed opportunities by the Niners.

Yeah, for sure. It was 10 to nothing. It felt like it was 24 to nothing, but at the end of the day, they cut it to 10 to three at the end of the half and they had the ball coming out and you just kind of had a feeling that you just can't let Patrick Mahomes hang around.

And that's what happened. Then they got the big turnover on the punt, took the lead, but Sam Frant fought back and then obviously went to overtime and things happened the way they happened. But you got to credit Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes and that entire offense for hanging with the plant because they weren't very good early in the game. Sam Frant did a great job defensively. I think there's a lot to crush Shanahan about in this game, but I hear a lot of people killing him today for taking the ball first in overtime. I didn't have a problem with it though, personally.

How about yourself? Yeah, I think the thing that I had a problem with and not really a problem, but I would second guess is if you're going to take it first there, I think you go forward on fourth down there in the red zone and try to back up Kansas City and force them to play smart football and not give them that extra down. But when you kick the field goal and you go up three, you're giving Patrick Mahomes four downs to get first downs and keep drives going. Whereas if you go for it, even if you don't get it, you got them backed up and you have a chance to get the ball back and then win it on the third possession.

That's what Kyle's goal was. I just think they should have gone for it that deep in Kansas City's territory. When you look back at the Niners' defense, for the first three quarters, I thought they were really solid.

You're right. That punt return changed the entire complexion of the game. And then in the fourth quarter, it turned into a shootout. Did you see anything differently with the Niners' defense in the fourth quarter in overtime? Were they just gassed or was it just inevitable that eventually Mahomes is going to stand up and just kick ass and take names? Well, I think Kansas City played their style of football. They got Kelcey back involved.

He only had one catch for one yard in the first half, ended up with nine for 90, I believe it was. Rasheed Rice came in and made some plays as well on some shallow crosses. They got some of the concepts, got to some of the concepts that they've been good at all year, some of the shallow crosses and things of that nature. So I just think early on in the game, they were getting a pretty good pass rush.

They had pretty good coverage on Patrick and Patrick struggled a little bit, but then once they settled down and got their playmakers the ball, that's when they started to be more effective. Talking to Jay Gruden right now, how much longer do you think the window is open for the 49ers because they've been there for a bunch of years. They've come up short, you know, the mental and physical grind of this game.

What was this really their last opportunity last night? Or do you still think they could find a way to eventually get over the hump and hoist the Lombardi Trophy with this group? I think they can. I think the NFC is kind of not in a great spot right now. There's not a lot of powerhouses in the NFC. I think, you know, you look at Green Bay and Jordan Love emerging a little bit. You look at the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott. The Rams will probably get a little bit better when they get some more help at added their way. Chicago, if they get Caleb Williams, they might be a threat.

Who knows? But I think with Brock Purdy and the team that they have, if they can keep the majority of those guys, they'll be okay. Cause Purdy, Deebo, Samuel, Brandon, I, you could have a heck of a year a kiddel. Obviously the defense is still pretty sound. If they can keep their playmakers in tact, then they'll be there again. And you talk about the playmakers.

It was alarming to me. I know they were both dealing with some injuries, but Deebo Samuel and George Kittle with how explosive they are and how important they are to what the Niners do. Both had a underwhelming games in the Superbowl.

Yeah. I don't know if Deebo hurt his hamstring or what, but you're right. You know, you would think that they would have found out more creative ways to get Deebo the ball because he is that explosive when he has the ball in his hands.

That's what his strength is catching the screens and, and running the reverses or the arounds or the bubble screens or what have you. They just didn't get them involved too much. I don't know if it's because he was hurt or not. And then obviously Kittle, I thought he'd have a big day because spags played a lot of two-shelf early downs.

And I thought that would open it up for Kittle, but just didn't happen that way. Credit Kansas City's defense for targeting their best players, not letting them beat them. Talking to Jay Gruden, do you think the 49ers, I know McCaffrey statistically had a great game outside of the fumble. Do you think they could have used them a little bit more though, especially on the ground in the second half? I think second half, they got away from them a little bit. And I think that's probably if Kyle has a regret, probably be that they didn't get them the ball more in the second half when it was crunch time. I think they threw seven out of eight passes at one point and ended up kicking a field goal there at the end. But I think you have such a dynamic player like Christian and, and sometimes as a play caller, you want to try to be a little creative and get the ball down a field and show some cool pass concepts. I just think their bread and butter was running and running left, especially behind Trent Williams. I know a lot of people refer to Kyle Shanahan as a great coach.

I know people use the word great very easily these days. I call him a good coach, a very good coach. He keeps on getting close, but they keep on choking away these games where they have 10 point leads. Your evaluation of Shanahan as a head coach, Jay Gruden is what? Well, he's been very solid, obviously, even as a coordinator, he's got his teams and positions to be successful and have the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl three different times. It's pretty impressive.

It's not easy to do. I just think he's struggled on third down in key situations in these big games. And that's something they're going to have to look at in the off season. How can they be better on third down and crunch time? Because first second down, there's nobody better than Kyle.

You know, and Matt LaFleur, these guys that do the running game and the play actions on first down, second down, they're effective as hell, but third down is what their issue has been. And that's why they haven't won the big game. Wrap it up with Jay Gruden from a historical standpoint, and we know how much you love offense in the NFL.

To see what Mahomes has done his first six years as a starting quarterback to go to four Super Bowls, to win three of them, all the legendary comebacks that he's had. What is the thought of one Jay Gruden when you look at it from a historical context of Pat Mahomes? Well, first off, Kansas City did the greatest move in NFL history in trading up to get that guy.

And you know, nobody really understood it. Nobody really knew who Patrick Mahomes was out of Texas Tech. And now what he's done in his first six or seven years is legendary stuff, man. He's been MVP of the Super Bowl three times. He's already won three Super Bowls. He's been MVP of the league twice. This is the greatest talent we've seen at this position for a very long time.

You know, Tom Brady did it for a lot longer time. So you got to give him his credit, but I've never seen a quarterback take the league over like this and make plays in critical situations and big games as consistently as Patrick Mahomes has. And he's the best.

He's the best I've ever seen. How would you rank the three greatest quarterbacks of all time? Because now it feels like it's a conversation of Brady, Montana and Patrick Mahomes.

So what would your top three be then in that order? Well, I said that if they're all 22 years old right now, I take Mahomes just because his ability to make plays off script, off schedule. Tom Brady obviously right now is number one because of longevity and consistency to do it that many times, that many years in a row is impressive. You can't take that from him.

So he's the best of all time. And then Patrick's right there at number two, then I'd go Montana and whoever else after that Manning and been some great ones, but Brady's at the top of the list right now, but Mahomes is catching them fast. Wrap it up with Jay Gruden right now.

You know, when we talk about Kansas City, it's always obviously about the quarterback, Andy Reid and Travis Kelce. I know we touched a little bit on Steve Spagnola, but to see what he did up against Lamar and the Ravens and then also when it looked like that game could have been getting away his defense, they found the way to make stops and force the Niners to field goals. I know his head coaching career did not go well with the Rams, but to see what he's been able to do with the Giants, now the Chiefs as a defensive coordinator, it's just unbelievable to see what Spags is doing in this last chapter in Kansas City.

They're exactly right. And they have some really good players over there, but you got to credit Spags. He does a great job of keeping offenses off balance. He blitzes you. He'll play coverage.

They play man to man. They can do everything defenses have to do to be successful. They buy into a scheme and they go out there at Kansas City, credit their GM too for getting guys that are tough physical players, especially up front. And then in the secondary guys that can really tackle and they pursue to the football extremely well and they don't give up big plays.

Holding teams under 17 points the entire season in Kansas City with all the offenses they played in the AFC is impressive and Spags deserves a ton of credit. Jay, always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for jumping on board to us today and enjoy the off season. All right. Thanks, Zach.

There you go. Jay Gruden joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Really good breakdown of the game from last night. We know about the greatness of Patrick Mahomes and then the underappreciated part of Steve Spagnola as well. And I think he hit the nail right on the head with Shanahan. He probably does regret not utilizing Christian McCaffrey more in the run game in the second half.

You know, I understand. I guess what he's saying with the overtime situation. I still feel like it was not the wrong decision to take the ball first because you were playing for that third possession. But yes, we all get spooked out by Mahomes. We know how great Mahomes is as an NFL player and he's already a top three quarterback of all time.

You could rank him however you want and you probably won't get a big complaint out of anybody. But in that case, the Niners, their defense, they got to make a play and they had to hold him to a field goal and they weren't able to do that. And there was other times in the game they were able to. But when the game was on the line in that overtime, you saw the Niners get a field goal and the Chiefs got a touchdown. You don't need a PhD in football to know that that was the difference and that's what won Kansas City the game. And it was a lack of being able to pull away by the 49ers when they had opportunities to do so. And when you give Mahomes opportunities, when you give Mahomes chances to stay alive and feel like he could find a way to get control back of the ship and make it sailing in his direction, he's going to find a way to do that.

Nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine times out of ten. And this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break when we come on back. Santer, I got a very, very, very disappointing text from Santer after the game.

You know, the energy of this show, the bond of this show was at an all time high during Super Bowl week. And just when Santer not, you know, it's not going to sound right. Just when he finally won me over. And I don't think that's like the right way to put it. It sounds wrong when I say that. So don't take that offensively. But right when I was like, Santer's a 10 out of 10.

Right. He's awesome. He's unbelievable. He can't disappoint.

I've had a lot of producers that have done some questionable things that I really like. Santer was like a 10 out of 10 week. And then he may have just ruined it all on late Sunday evening. I could not believe the text that I got regarding the game Sunday evening from Santer. Like when Santer realized Dan, it was Todd Bowles not taking the time out in the Bucks Lions game.

That was a great call. A great moment. Santer was on an island, an island recognizing something that no one else recognized. That was like a championship moment.

I'm a Holmes moment by Santer. But then the text I got from Santer last night, it was like a Rex Grossman moment. Or actually, I'll take it a step even further below because this guy I saw him all throughout the week. He's a friend and he was actually on my flight last night. Santer what happened to him in the Super Bowl was like Dan Orlovsky running out of the back of the end zone and not realizing it. Santa's got some explaining to do. We'll find out what his infraction was and what the punishment is going to be on the other side. But first, we send it to the man to my left. And that, of course, is the act man Rich Ackerman with the latest CBS Sports.

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. Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available H track all wheel drive and three row seating.

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