Justin Pugh, New York Giants Offensive Lineman

Hey Mel, Bri here. Gotta work from home today because the whole family caught a nasty- Daddy! Hey, Mikey!

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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. 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 Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton. Man, he had back-to-back incredible Super Bowls. But in Sunday's Super Bowl victory, Bolton had 13 tackles and played a part in the Chiefs holding the 49ers to just three of 12 on third down conversions. Bolton also led all players in tackles during the playoffs with 40. And now joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio spent part of this season with the New York Giants.

We know he started his career in the Big Apple with Big Blue and then had a stop with the Arizona Cardinals. That, of course, is Justin Pugh, kind enough to join us right now. Justin, thanks for the time. As always, how you been? I'm doing well, Zach. How are you?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. So when we get to the Super Bowl, the first thing everyone's talking about is overtime. And it was crazy to me how the Niners did not know pretty much their players a minute after the game, how the overtime worked. Were you all caught up to date?

Just wondering, I know your team wasn't in the playoffs this year, but how these overtime rules in the playoffs have changed in the last few years? Yeah. Knowing they, knowing they change obviously is a, is a paramount part of being in the game itself. And the chief's players came out and said, Andy Reid talked about it in the preseason. He had been harping on this. So you know, I'm a huge fan of, of Kyle Shanahan. I think he's an unbelievable coach for him not to cover that scenario.

At the very least, he should have some analytics guy that's giving him the rules before going into overtime, where he can quickly at least help Fred Warner his captain, what they want to do and what the strategy should be. So that was an epic failure on San Francisco's part. It's not rules that we have talked about. I played in NFL when you still could, you still have the ties and if you just get any points, you, you win. So guys were even trying to figure out that you could tie in regular season. So once that got squared away, I think goes to show that coaches need to do a better job of keeping the player up to date, especially with the rules changing every year.

Like we'll have the reps come in and give us a basic breakdown, but you're not doing a deep dive in the strategy and the percentages like, like we should be. The other thing too is everyone's talking about the decision to take the ball first. Personally, when it happened, I didn't have a problem with it.

So I'm not going to slam Shanahan two days later. My problem is more so his guys just not knowing the rule. What did you make of his decision to take the ball first?

Well, I was sitting there with a few friends and a buddy of mine. He's more of an analytics guy than I am. And he's like, that was such a stupid move. Why would the 49ers not take it? I mean, Patrick Mahomes had just drove down the field at a lengthy drive. San Francisco defense was tired in my head.

I'm like, I'm San Francisco. And I know what type of offense I'm going to run, run screen, chew up the clock, exactly what they did. I liked the decision for San Francisco to give their defensive break, let their offense go onto the field. But when you look at the scenarios and look at the statistics, I guess now looking back on it, maybe San Francisco should have, you know, kicked off, played defense first, but you know, you keep questioning if San Francisco scores and then gets an interception.

We're not talking about it. If you win the game, all those things are forgiven. So I think we're harping on it because they lost the game.

Yeah. And I feel like now since it's such an offensive league, people just assume you get the ball first, you're going to get a touchdown and you kick the extra point. Then the other team gets the ball back.

They marched down the field, they get a touchdown and they get a two point conversion. So if that's how most people think it's going to play out, I know it didn't in the Superbowl. I kind of like the old overtime playoff rules better where you get the ball first, you score a touchdown, you win. If you don't, then the other team gets a, gets a chance to answer. I thought the old overtime rules in the postseason were better.

Yeah, I agree with you. I like those rules, but you know, there's, there's more to it than just football is what I found out. I started my own podcast called net worth with Justin Pugh and dollars drive the league. So you go to it and having the teams, having equitable shares of the ball and equitable chances to score, it plays well into, I think a lot of things that are involved in our league that weren't previously like gambling or fantasy or things of that nature.

The game is being pushed in that direction. Talking to Justin Pugh right now. So I know you have the podcast. We've talked about it before.

I know you could now podcasts and also play clearly. You were in the news this year when you came off the couch and you went right into that giant's locker room. Is your intention to, to play football this upcoming season or was that it for you in the NFL this past year? You know, I left the door open. I talked to Joe Shane. We had some great conversations at the end of the season. I held up my end of the bargain.

And so did he, I came in and did exactly what I said I was going to do. Provide veteran leadership, help deal with the media. When you're having a season like we were having, you know, it's tough dealing with the media. I came in and handled that instead of great foundation going forward of like how an offensive line and how veterans and how to be a pro.

So I think I did all the things that I said, obviously we came up a little bit short. We did fight, fight through there throughout the middle of the season and actually had a chance to make the playoffs. And it was something that I really enjoyed, had a lot of fun being around the guys.

I was 10 years older than most of them, but I still feel young. I still feel that I can play. I still feel like I can get a full off season under my belt and come into the seat and more physically ready to play football.

I got thrown into the fire a little bit this last year. So the Giants overachieved in year one with Brian Daybell, and then this past year they regressed. We don't know if Saquon will be back. Daniel Jones appears to be their guy, at least for one more season. A lot of people are going to question and call this a make or break year for Brian Daybell.

You being in that building, do you sense Justin Pugh that that team is moving in the right direction? They could find a way to regroup and get back to what the first year looked like rather than what last year just looked like. Yeah, I think they definitely can get back to that. And if you look at the two years side by side of how many close victories they had in that year, one starting from the first game of the season, I remember them playing the Tennessee Titans going for, I think they went for it on second on a two point conversion. They won so many one possession games, last minute drives. And this last year we lost those games. We lost the game to the Bills. We should have won the Jets. I think we were, you know, at the end of the game should have won that one. You look at, you know, the Rams game and all these games down the road where we had a chance to pull it off at the end. We win those games. We sneak into the playoffs like the Green Bay Packers and no one's talking about, oh, how, you know, this is a regressed year or things of that nature.

So quickly the NFL can show you that you win and lose those close games. That's going to be a determining factor on the success of the season. So the Giants can definitely make a few moves this off season and get right back into the playoff hunt, obviously starting with Saquon Barkley and his contract situation.

Do you think it would be a mistake for the Giants not to get this deal done and a long-term deal done with Saquon? Which hat do I have on right now? A friend hat, a fan hat, a Joe Sean and Joe Shannon, a GM hat.

Which hat am I wearing? Put the GM hat on since you're big on the finances these days with the podcast. I'm big into the business of football. So obviously I think the Giants should approach him with a contract that they feel is fair, that gets the job done. Saquon feels otherwise he'll voice that and say, Hey, I'm not going to sign this deal.

And then there's one thing that's beautiful about our country and our league. It's a free market. So I think if the deal isn't equitable on Saquon's behalf and he says, Hey, if we do another tag, we're going to have some issues. The one thing you don't want to have is an unhappy player. So I almost for Saquon's benefit, go test the market, see what else is out there.

If you have the ability to make more, go somewhere and make more money. This is a business. Saquon, you can only play this position for a short amount of time.

As a fan now, knowing that Saquon's been the heart and soul of the team, seeing it firsthand and as a friend, I think the Giants should get the deal done. But I realized the business has to come first and I realized that's a major component. So I understand what the back and forth and it's honestly gets me excited. I love it.

Justin Pugh here with us. So you got to see it from two different perspectives. I know that you grew up in the Philadelphia area. So you had a lot of friends growing up that were Eagles fans. I remember the whole draft story when you got drafted by the Giants to see the Eagles beat 10 and one, and then you saw them twice down the stretch.

You played them well the first time, then you beat them going away the second time. How just kind of startling and alarming was it to see the Eagles go from 10 and one that only one went down the stretch and bounced out of the post season in the wildcard weekend? The little team was different this year.

I also played them last year when they went on their Super Bowl run and they were just dominant. Their teams weren't hanging close. They were blowing them out. Even though they were 10 and one, there was, there were signs that things weren't going the way that they might've thought.

And I suspect to the new England game, the first one of the season, I was on the couch on my love sack and obviously I didn't get to, you know, how to, how to plug it in there. But so I got to watch a little bit more football the first five weeks of the season and the Eagles weren't blowing teams out. They were letting teams hang around and then they're starting things come out in the media and defensive coordinator changing. And there was this, it was a weird dynamic with the Eagles. They clearly weren't the same team. And then when we played them, you felt that they weren't the same team. They weren't as confident in one another. They, you know, offense and defense were kind of arguing at times. And I think the way you look at what the Eagles did this off season, and they're a great team and they have great infrastructure in place, but Sirianni had to make some moves moving on from the defensive and offensive coordinator shows you that things weren't right from within. I still think they have one of, if not the best offensive line coaches and Jeff Stoutland. I'm confident the Eagles will be able to make a, make a run, but even, even so you see a guy like Hassan Radek who I play with in Arizona, I think he just requested a trade.

So that starts to show you there's some things internally going on that we might not know about. Let me ask you about the Cardinals real quickly. And Justin Pugh is here with us today on behalf of Lovesack and to also make sure you check out his podcast as well called Net Worth with Justin Pugh where he talks sports business, real estate investing and finance. Your confidence level with Kyler Murray this past year came back. Gannon did a good job in your number one with not a lot of talent around, you know, everyone in that building.

What do you kind of make of Kyler Murray as a quarterback? You know, no one wants to talk about tanking. It's like a taboo word to be thrown around in the NFL and you're not tanking it to go out there and spend the amount of money you have to spend. But the Cardinals did the bare minimum.

So I don't know if you want to call that tanking or what we want to say. They did exactly what they needed to do this year. They went out and proved that they have fight and the coaches are great and the players they have are the guys you want to have moving forward. But there is some positions where you have to admit that the Cardinals didn't load up with the talent that they would if say they were the Kansas City Chiefs trying to make a run for the Super Bowl. They didn't go all out this year. They held back a little bit. They traded, had some picks.

I think the Arizona Cardinals continue to turn around. I think Gannon's the right man for the job. He has energy.

I didn't get to play for him, but I met him a few times being out here in Arizona. I think there are a few pieces away on defense going out and loading up on some pass rushers and D linemen. I think that's a move they can make. Obviously, they they hit on Perrick Johnson. He looks great at right tackle. Unfortunately, left tackle DJ Humphreys for his ACL. So Kelvin Beacham will step up into that role. And I think you go get a guy like Marvin Harrison Jr. And things really start to shake out. James Connor, the monster, Trey McBride came onto the scene.

He looks great. It's getting some more interior D linemen and some pass rushers. Maybe Hassan Redick. There could be a move there.

Cardinals go and use some of that draft capital and bring Hassan and let him do what he should have done from the beginning in Arizona because he's an all pro type of guy. Once again, Justin Pugh is a podcast called Network with Justin Pugh, where he talks sports, business, real estate and investing and finance. You can follow him on Instagram.

Justin Pugh, 68 Twitter at Justin Pugh. And make sure to find your perfect love sack or locate a showroom near you. Visit lovesack.com.

That's L O V E S A c.com. Justin, appreciate the time. As always, thanks so much. Be well. Thanks a lot, Zach.

I'll talk to you soon. A peanut butter M and 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 return. 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 and 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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