Running Back on the Menu?

Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall, featuring guests from across the entertainment industry. We decided to do a spinoff called Superfly, and it's fun. It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture, catching up, impressions. Joe, Trump's trying to be a dictator. Yeah, he says, you know, bump on the tater tots.

Joe, no. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. 855-212-4CBS, the number to jump on in.

855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Geld, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We have a full house on the other side of the glass. Carlos Ortiz, Stuart Kovacs, and Ryan Bottcher as well. They'll be riding along with me all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific today. Ben Lieber, the former Vikings linebacker, now a part of their radio broadcast team, is going to join us at the top of the hour, and then the final hour of the show, Clay Harber, former NFL tight end, will join us at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. I am so happy that today we get to talk about football, football, football, and guess what? More football.

We'll sprinkle in a basketball topic or two. And I love baseball, but I'm already sick of spring training. The fact that I log on to Twitter today, and I just did so a few moments ago, and one of the first things I see is from a buddy of mine, Rocco DeSangro, who covers Baltimore sports, does a very good job on their TV coverage. So I'm about to rip him, is pretty much the way that I'm setting this up, because I say he does a very good job, which he does. And Rocco's a college buddy of mine, going back to our days at Temple University, really nice guy, saw him at the AFC Championship game, where he showed up in the press box, the Ravens didn't show up on the field, going up against the Kansas City Chiefs, and that stopped Rocco from getting a trip to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. But the first tweet that I see is from Rocco saying, James McCann comes up with a big two-run double in the fifth to give the Orioles a 4-2 lead, hashtag Birdland.

Is this what we're doing now? Do I need live spring training updates? I can't stand spring training. I can't stand preseason.

I hate preseason football. I hate, despise spring training baseball. The only time I liked spring training baseball was when I was a kid, all right? You get to go down to Florida, you get to meet some of the players, you get some autographs. Like, I remember when I was a kid, I got an autograph from Albert Pujols, and I thought that was the coolest thing going to Jupiter, Florida, and then we made a spring training stop in Port St. Lucie, and I was told there was a young 16-year-old prospect by the name of Fernando Martinez, and he was supposed to be the next great Met, and the guy never ended up amounting to anything because that's the Mets. But I understand people have jobs to do, and everyone has to make a living, but I think I could speak for all of us, we could live without the play-by-play nonsense from spring training. The only time maybe I'll allow it, if it's a younger player looking to make the team, and maybe these at-bats actually matter, but when you have an older catcher, a veteran in James McCann, I don't need to hear about his big two-run double in the fifth inning.

First off, it's an oxymoron. There's no such thing as a big hit in spring training, but it drives me nuts, and it's not just Rocco. I'm getting live updates about the Mets in spring training and all this nonsense. Just stop. If you need to live tweet out and live post about spring training, I actually feel sorry for you. I do.

And I said this before. Out of all the jobs in sports media, the one job that I would want to do the least is the baseball beat writer. You have to go to 162 regular season games. Even if the team is good, who wants to watch 162 major league baseball games? I love baseball. I don't have the attention span to watch 162 games, and when you're covering the team, you need to sit there and log every pitch, every at-bat. That's why I think a lot of times baseball beat writers often get portrayed on social media as miserable people because that's probably a miserable existence.

It sounds great from afar. Oh, you get to cover major league baseball for a living? You get to go to all these games? Can you imagine how many flights you have to go on? I just got back from a trip to Orlando.

I then get on another plane. I know, small violin. I'm going to Puerto Rico on Thursday. So that's actually something you should be jealous about.

I see Ryan Botcher is playing the small violin with his fingers right now. But just going on two flights, I've been on three flights, three trips in just a month of February. I don't want to go to another airport. Like, flying can be miserable, especially when there's delays and complications and all the stress and anxiety that flying does present. But could you imagine, basically in baseball, every three or four days, you have to travel somewhere?

Whether it's going to the road or coming back home or you maybe get a week, then you're going back out to the road. It's just terrible. And I've always said this about major league baseball. The problem is there's too much access to athletes. Like, people go, oh, major league baseball, they do a terrible job marketing their players. You're not wrong. That's our Manfred problem. We all know that.

He's just a buffoon and we're counting down the days until his retirement. But there's also, when you're a beat writer, do we really need to speak to the players before the game and then after, like, after the game? I get it. But the before the game availability, and I've been in some of those scrums, I've been in some of those clubhouses, it's just too much access. So no crap when baseball players have to talk to you twice a day for 162 games, no wonder why they all seem like they're a bunch of snobs or they're a bunch of arrogant you-know-whats. Because there's too many times to be talking to these baseball beat writers. So happy spring training to all. And can't wait for the baseball season when it starts at the end of March. Not now with spring training. And I get why companies want to go to spring training because it's a vacation. People actually covering the sport, they don't give a rat's ass about spring training outside of the fact that you get to go to nice weather. Like, if you live in Arizona or if you live in Florida, and you're not traveling for spring training, but if you live in, like, Texas, a warm weather place, are you really getting fired up to go to spring training?

No. But if you're like us miserable people here in the Northeast where it's freezing, and you get to go to Florida or Arizona, yeah, that's why you like to go to spring training. You don't actually enjoy seeing people stretch. You don't actually enjoy seeing people participate in split-squad games or whatever it's called. No one gives a crap about that. So stop pretending like you do. And I have friends, and some of my friends are baseball nerds. Oh, this number, oh, this analytics, this and that. And they shut this crap down your throat in spring training?

Really? Spring training? That's what we're doing? So enough with this nonsense of the daily updates and the second-by-second updates of spring training.

No one actually gives a rat's ass. Stu, you are enormous. And I mean an enormous baseball fan.

You're like one of those crazy people. How many baseball games you go to a year? You go to a lot. Yeah, there was a couple years ago I went to, like, 40 Yankee games. 40 home games? Yeah, home games, yeah. Wow. I went to a lot. That's because I lived in the city, though, so it was pretty easy to get to. You were single then, I'm assuming?

Yes. Yeah, now you're not going to 40-something games. You'll be broken up in about three seconds.

Maybe I'll go to 40 the rest of my life. Do you care for spring training? I like the idea of spring training. I'm actually going down to Tampa in March for, like, three or four days. Is it a guys' trip or are you going with the Misses?

Yes, I'm going with a buddy. Okay, that's different. That's fun. See, I see a few games. But, yeah, I'm not someone who's going to sit there and watch every single Yankees and Mets spring training game.

That would feel kind of insane. So this may be, I'm going to put my gloves on here because I want to be very sensitive addressing this crowd because this is going to come off as a very douchey comment and, like, me being above this crowd, but I do not mean it that way. Like, when I was a kid, I loved wrestling. I loved WWE. Carlos Ortiz just stand up, and he looks like he's the Undertaker rising from the dead, and he also looks like he wants to kick my ass right now or be Randy Orton in RKO me.

See, I got some references. I could Batista bomb you. 619 with Rey Mysterio, whatever it is. The John Cena, you can't see me. I loved, loved wrestling when I was a kid. But then I eventually outgrew wrestling. Like, now, I understand a lot of people here at this company, they love wrestling.

EJ Stewart was with them at the Super Bowl, loves wrestling. Maggie Gray loves wrestling. Pete The Body Baladi loves wrestling. I can't remember the last time I watched a wrestling match because eventually I loved it as a kid, and then sometimes you love things as a kid that you loved throughout your whole life.

Other times, not the case. That was me with wrestling. As a kid, it was awesome. Then when I started to get, like, 14 or 15 years old, I started to develop other interests where I was like, I don't need to stay in on a Friday night to watch Friday night SmackDown, okay? So I gave up my love for wrestling. That's how I am with spring training baseball. When I was a kid, loved it. Dad, let's go to spring training.

Let's go with this family and that family. Let's go meet the players, all that stuff. Loved spring training. But then when you get older and you only have so much time and you have other responsibilities, you can't have time for spring training, and you can't care about games that don't matter. And it's incredible how many, like, how often people lose their mind over spring training baseball and also preseason football. There is always a superstar that's only a superstar in spring training or only a superstar in preseason football that end up amounting to nothing. So I'm not going to lose my mind here, which I basically just did for 10 minutes, but I mean in a positive way over spring training baseball, and I guess that's my TED Talk today. I do not need spring training baseball in my life. I do not need preseason football in my life as well.

Just get me to the regular season when the games actually start to matter. All righty. Here's what we wanted to get to actually to start the show.

That was impromptu. I just got triggered, like, right before we got on the air. There is not going to be an NFL running back that's going to be franchise tagged. That means Derrick Henry, free agent. Saquon Barkley, free agent. Tony Pollard, free agent. Josh Jacobs, free agent. Austin Eckler, free agent.

I think it's clear as clear could be that Derrick Henry's done in Tennessee. Saquon Barkley will play what Joe Shane had to say in a second. Regardless what the general manager of the Giants had to say, I believe Saquon Barkley will be playing on a team that is not named the Giants next year.

Tony Pollard and Austin Eckler. They both could return to the Cowboys and the Chargers, but I don't think it's going to be designed by the Dallas Cowboys organization or the Los Angeles Chargers organization or their preference to bring them back. Like, if they bring them back, it's because of the state of the market being so cheap and there's familiarity, and those guys didn't get what they wanted, and they ended up coming back to the Cowboys or the Chargers and taking a cheaper deal to stay with where they've been. I actually think Josh Jacobs is really intriguing because if you recall Antonio Pierce when he was the interim head coach, before he got the head coaching job on a full-time basis, he was like, I'm going to build the identity of my team on offense with Josh Jacobs, and then on defense it was Roberts Belane, like not Max Crosby.

That's always the name that jumps out to me, and I always find that funny because whenever I say it, Stu just gives me like a bleep-eating grin, and he's basically saying to himself, yep, that was an actual quote. So if you're saying a few months ago that Josh Jacobs is going to be the identity of your offense, you kind of pigeonhole yourself into making sure that he ends up coming back. But I would say out of all these running backs, Derrick Henry, Saquon, Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs, and Austin Eckler, that Josh Jacobs is probably the most likely to re-sign with their current team because I think it is a priority of theirs, and I do think Josh Jacobs has a desire to stay with the Raiders, but he's going to be taken care of financially, especially with what Antonio Pierce did have to say. So let's go to the new GM of the Las Vegas Raiders. That is the old general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers in Tom Tolesco, and he was asked, with everyone basically being made available today at the NFL Combine, if the team wants to bring back Josh Jacobs. We want to establish a philosophy with the Raiders that we like to re-sign our own. It doesn't bother me that I didn't draft him. He's a Raider, and he was drafted by the Raiders, so he's a high-level player. So, yeah, we're going to explore it pretty hard to see if we can bring him back here and kind of go from there, but he's, as far as a player, that running game, pass game, pass protection can really help you win games.

And let's go to Josh Jacobs if he wants to stay with the Raiders. I'm not stressing it at all, man. You don't see me putting out nothing crazy, nothing like that. I trust in God's plan. Obviously, this is home for me.

Regardless of how I play out, this is still somewhere I will forever keep a house and things like that, I will forever call home. So, obviously, this is where I want to be, and however it makes sense, I'm on board. You could sense, because sometimes people say they want to stay somewhere, or an organization says they want to keep a player and you don't think it's genuine. But I think it's a priority of the Raiders to keep Josh Jacobs, and I also think Josh Jacobs wants to stay with the Raiders. And a lot of times with these running back contracts, it's now, how do you dress up the contract? Because you could give Josh Jacobs a four-year deal, $15 million a year, but it's not actually going to be all $15 million a year guaranteed.

So, let's just say, you know, I have to whip out my calculator real quickly because I am not good at mental math, even though this should be pretty easy. Yeah, 15 times four is $60 million. Like, you could give Josh Jacobs a four-year, $60 million deal, but only guarantee $28 million. So that basically becomes a two-year deal worth $14 million a year if you do 28 divided by two. That's what I think could be in play for someone like Josh Jacobs, and 15 may be too high.

I may be too benevolent. Like, it could be 12 and a half, let's say, million dollars a year, times four, which is $50 million guaranteed, and still be anywhere in that $25 to $28 million a year range. I think for a running back like Josh Jacobs and also Saquon Barkley, that's the best that you're going to be able to do. So I do expect Jacobs to be back with the Raiders. Pollard and Eckler, I think it's only going to be if they don't like what they hear from other teams on the market.

I don't believe the Cowboys nor the Chargers will prioritize Pollard and Eckler. For Derrick Henry, he already said goodbye to the team. Here is the general manager, though, of Tennessee, the Tennessee Titans, in Ram Carthon, on if Derrick Henry's going to be back and what his status is with the team as he gets set for free agency in a few weeks.

He knows where we are, and we know where he is. I think you guys that have been around, you know, you know that we don't really talk about, you know, players' contract status in public, but we'll be well positioned to do whatever we need to do. You know, however, when those conversations that need to be had will happen with Derrick and his team. Oh, they're rebuilding. So it doesn't make sense to bring back a battering ram running back, a bell cow back, who has a lot of wear and tear on his legs. And when, let's say he has two more really great years left, do I think Tennessee is going to be able to refix their roster that quickly? The odds are stacked against them. Whenever you start off by saying, he knows where we stand and all that stuff, and also Derrick Henry, they know what he wants, I think it's pretty clear when you go through that BS that he's going to be gone from the organization.

That was a goodbye in Week 18. In all likelihood, probably Derrick Henry's going to land with either the Baltimore Ravens, who tried to get him before the trade deadline, or I could see the Dallas Cowboys making a play at Derrick Henry. How about Saquon Barkley?

This is an intriguing name on the market because he has so much talent, but he isn't someone that always stays healthy. Here is the Giants' General Manager Joe Shane on if they want to bring Saquon Barkley back. We have Saquon Barkley, which we're going to talk to his representatives. This week, there's nothing new on that front. The conversation, the plan all along was to meet here in Indy and have those discussions about how we're going to move forward with him.

He's a guy we'd like to have back. So those conversations will take this week and will take place this week, and we'll see if we can get something done. There's a lot of history here, and there's been a lot of offers exchanged. I don't think much changes from last year to this year with Saquon. I have a tough time believing that they're going to agree to a number, and it's going to take Saquon to come down from his asking price to get this deal done. I think the Giants have made it pretty clear to Saquon what they're willing to go, and they won't exceed that.

The problem for Joe Shane and Brian Deball, you don't have that many playmakers on the offensive side of the ball, and this is a make-or-break year for you. So if you don't get a deal done with Saquon, which is probably not in the best interest of the team long-term, then maybe you're both on the streets next year looking for a job with Joe Shane and Brian Deball because I don't expect the Giants to have a good year this upcoming season. I do think there will be an active enough market, once again, dressing up a contract for Saquon Barkley, like teams like the Texans, the Cowboys, the Ravens, and the Bears, where maybe they'll be able to give them a little bit more guaranteed money than what the Giants are going to be able to. And for Saquon, it's going to come down to, do you just go to somewhere else out of principle if all the money is the same, or do you want to stay with the New York Giants? So I think Henry's gone, I think Saquon's gone, and I think Josh Jacobs will stay with the Raiders. Pollard and Eckler, I do think it is a genuine coin flip. I don't think either team is going to prefer to bring them back. Pollard, I think you need a stronger running back there.

He's not a three-down back. And for Austin Eckler, does anyone not understand how this is going to go? I love Austin Eckler.

He comes on the show all the time. But I'm pretty sure Jim Harbaugh is going to do whatever it takes to draft Blake Corum, starting as early as the second round in the NFL Draft, and that will replace Austin Eckler. What do you make of the running backs that are available? Who would you want your team to go after? 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. D.J. Moore has made it clear that he wants more of Justin Fields. What happens to D.J.

Moore, though, if the Bears do what most of us think they will do and they trade Justin Fields and draft Caleb Williams? We'll talk about that on the other side, off and running on a very busy Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show right here. But where else? Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. So I was reading this story yesterday about Damon Arnett, and this is via JPA football. Police say that former Raiders quarterback Damon Arnett attempted to hide a pill filled with meth in his sock on the night he was arrested in Texas, per TMZ Sports. You may remember Damon Arnett, first round pick. I want to say he was out of Ohio State, and that was one of the reaches by Mike Mayock. And wasn't Damon Arnett, Stu, didn't he get released from the team because he kept on going on like Instagram Live and like posting videos with guns and things like that? Yeah, I was going to say there was a gun video situation, and I think that combined with his poor performance made it kind of an easy choice.

Yeah, he should have never been a first round pick. I remember, I think it was Jeff Acuda, who was like, I can't believe all these casuals are surprised that Damon Arnett ended up being a first round pick. So you had this story yesterday, and you know that Damon Arnett clearly has some problems, that he was arrested and had a pill filled with meth. So I was waiting to see how his attorneys did spin the story, or what the response would be from the Damon Arnett camp. Most of the times I wouldn't bring up this story because I just, quite frankly, just couldn't be genuine. I don't think our listening audience really cares about Damon Arnett anymore.

But a story like this is juicy, and you get more legs to the story when you give this weak, pathetic excuse that they gave. So this is via TMZ Sports, and it was aggregated by JPA Football. Officers located a white and orange capsule with no markings inside Arnett's left sock, which the football player claimed was Adderall, an ADHD medicine that had been prescribed by a doctor. Officers researched Adderall and concluded Arnett's pill was consistent with the look of the actual medication. Cops popped open the pill and observed a white crystal-like substance which they tested at the scene. The results were that it was crystal meth. So, like, I'm just going to assume here, based off the allegations and the reporting, this is the dog eat my homework, right? Oh, I don't want to admit that I have meth, crystal meth, so I'm going to say that this is my ADHD medication.

Like, huh? You just happen to be traveling with that in your sock? In your left sock?

So here's the first red flag. Forget the crystal meth part. Who carries Adderall in their left sock? I've never heard of Adderall, ADHD medication, being carried in their left sock. If you're trying to hide actual drugs, like, I don't know, crystal meth, uh, yeah, hello?

You'd be hiding that in your left sock. So that's the first of many red flags with this story with Damon Arnett. So, wish him nothing but the best. Hopefully he gets his life in order. Definitely a sad story of what could have been, and his career obviously is long and over with by now, and that's crazy to say, because what? This guy, he was drafted in what, 2020?

I want to say. Yeah, I think he was a part of that Justin Jefferson draft class, because I remember I was on the air. It was the COVID year. Yeah, it was 2020, and I was on the air in a basement, in my basement, doing the draft show with JR, and when he got drafted, he had 19th pick in the 2020 draft out of Ohio State. We were like, he's a first-round pick, really? And in most of our notes that CBS sends us for the NFL draft, they were like projecting him late second, early third round. But, Stu, that was just the drafting masterpieces, right?

By your guy and Mike Maia. Yeah, and they've had a lot of bad ones. Honestly, the Arnett one might be the worst when you consider how bad he was on the field combined with the off-the-field stuff.

Not good. Well, yeah, I would argue Henry Ruggs was worse, right? That was bad, too. Because that was actually supposed to be a guy that was expected to go in the first round. I didn't think he was the best wide receiver in that draft class. Didn't they have, was that the year that they had the three first-round picks? Because Arnett and Ruggs did go in that draft. Was the safety also in that draft, or was that a different year? No, the year they had the three first-round picks. That was the Cleland Farrell year? Cleland Farrell was taken in like the top five. And Josh Jacobs was the other first-round pick. Jacobs, and then the safety, who I'm blanking on his name. Abrams or something like that? Yes, Abrams, Jonathan Abrams, yes.

Who could have pronounced salmon on hard knocks? Yes, and he was also not a very good player. Yeah. There's a trend here.

Look at that. We just went through five first-round picks and two drafts, not five drafts, two drafts for the Raiders. Henry Ruggs, disgrace of a human being. Damon Arnett, disgrace. Cleland Farrell was just a bust.

He should have never been selected that high. Is he still in the league? I want to say maybe, was he with the Chargers or something like that? Or the Broncos, something like that? I forget who.

Maybe we just looked that up. Josh Jacobs. 49ers. Oh, okay.

49ers, gotcha. Josh Jacobs was good. And Abrams, I don't even know. Where the heck is he? Jonathan Abrams, I think was his name, right? I'm pretty sure it was the safety. I would be surprised if he's still in the league. I haven't heard any. Jonathan Abram.

Let's see. He was with the Saints this past year. Man, imagine having five, five first-round picks in two drafts, and there's only one player that was worth the damn.

And you could argue that it's the position in the league that is the least valued position in the NFL. If nothing, just kind of describes what the Raiders have been for the last, I'll be nice here, four or five years? Longer than that?

That's really nice. Probably the last 20? Really, the demise of that organization was the Tuck Rule game.

Really? They've never consistently got their act together since the Tuck Rule game, which was the 2001 NFL season, but it was in January of 2002. They've made the playoffs here and there, but nothing ever... Made the Super Bowl, but, you know... Oh, yeah, that was after that. That was the season after.

You're right. But really, after that, it was a disaster. After that, where you had Callahan coaching the team and Gruden went to the Buccaneers, and Tim Brown thinks that it was a sabotage job, and Rich Gannon can't stand him for that, and Rich Gannon had all those interceptions, unfortunately, you are correct. That was the demise of the Raiders. It wasn't the Tuck Rule, because they did get to a Super Bowl and didn't like the center goal missing before the Super Bowl.

Yeah, Barrett Robbins went AWOL like 24 hours before the game. Terrible story. Yeah, horrible. Just a terrible story, but after that Super Bowl, that was pretty much the death of the Raiders of just being a respectable, good franchise. Yeah, two playoff appearances since then. That's an 0-2 in the playoffs, so pretty bad. Here's what I'll say, though, and I mean this in a genuine way, because I don't always love to talk about negative storylines.

It's sometimes what we do, because that's what people find entertaining. I hope for people like Stu, who is a diehard Raiders fan, or who's the guy, the gorilla guy, that dresses up as a gorilla at each and every game, or the other. There's two, like, it's weird to say legendary fans, but there are two legendary fans for the Raiders. Violator, Wayne Marby, and then Gorilla Rilla. Those are like two great Raiders fans, where if you see them dressed up, you're like, oh, those are the Raiders fans, and then we'll throw Stu in there as well.

Which one doesn't belong? You could be the judge on that. I hope for Raiders fans like that that have been through a lot of crap, that Telesco and Antonio Pierce start to move this organization back in a consistent direction. Like, you're not playing for first place as long as Patrick Mahomes is in that division. Mahomes is going to be the favorite each and every year. But can you consistently be the second best team in that division?

And can you just be a wild-card contending team year in and year out? Because the Raiders fans deserve it. That new stadium is awesome in Las Vegas. Have you been, Stu, by the way, have you been to the new stadium?

I have not. I went to Vegas for the first time this past summer, but I haven't been able to go into the stadium yet, unfortunately. You know what? Maybe we do a show trip this year.

Ooh. Maybe we do a show trip where we do a weekend and we pick a football game location and we go. I think I could score us three tickets to the Raiders. OK. Now I got to see what the heck I'm doing on Sundays this year with eye on football and all that stuff. But, you know, even if I do eye on football this year, I'll tell management, hey, I need a weekend off. OK? And I think management will, even if they may not like it, they'll give me the weekend off and we'll do a football trip this year.

I would think we got to go to the Raiders, right? You're not going to get an argument out of me from that. Yes.

But I really do genuinely hope. Now, where are you at with the quarterback? So that's the thing.

I don't think O'Connell's the answer. Hot take. You disagree with Max Crosby when he joins us at the Super Bowl? I just think they've got to address the quarterback, whether it's signing someone or drafting someone with the pick or maybe if they trade up, that would probably be the ideal scenario. Because they're like 13th, right? They're 13th overall, yeah. So you got to trade up to get, like, if you draft McCarthy 13th overall. No, they can't do that.

No. Or Michael Penix Jr. I don't think that's going to be well received. Maybe you could move up to three? Like, going from 13th to three isn't impossible. But then you're getting the third quarterback of the draft, let's just say.

But who knows what the way that we evaluate quarterbacks? Fields would be great for them. I agree. Even with the coordinator, I think Fields would be... Oh, yeah, Getzi. Yeah, that's a little weird. I thought before the Getzi hire, that would have been the home run trade or acquisition. But even with him, I think it could still work.

But it's a little weird now, I think. Yeah, you're not wrong on that. Fields would be priority number one, I would say. If not... I take Russ. You would take Russ.

I would take Russ. On a one-year deal. On a team friendly one-year deal, yes. And then you punt the quarterback another year. Yes.

I think that's not a bad option. If he's good, somehow, then maybe they have a quarterback for two or three years. But, yeah. Would you give Kirk Cousins, let's say, three-year deal, let's go $115 million, fully guaranteed. So that is $38 million a year. It's a lot. But that's a good price for a quarterback.

It is. $38 million a year. I'm a little wary about the Achilles, you know, coming off Achilles. He's a little older now. I kind of think it's kind of like a lateral move with Derek Carr. You're kind of going from Carr to him. I think he's better than Carr. So that's probably unfair to Cousins, but it's still in the same... Yeah, Cousins is better than Carr.

It's still in the same ballpark where... He'll at least get you to the big game. Yeah.

He'll get to the playoffs, but I don't know how much further than that. I wouldn't be totally opposed. Look, it's better than O'Connell.

But here's the problem. So they made it clear that Devonta Adams isn't going to trade, right? They made that clear. The Vikings today made it clear that Justin Jefferson isn't getting traded as well. Now, you got to maximize this window, assuming you bring back Jacobs, you have Devonta Adams, because if you wait two years to find your quarterback or someone that just can't be serviceable, then eventually Adams will go somewhere else and Jacobs will go somewhere else, because if you keep on punting on the quarterback, this regime will end up getting fired within two to three years.

I know things are a little bit positive right now with the Raiders, even though we just trashed them for about the last 10 minutes, but I do think there is a positive outlook for the first time in a while with this organization, and that's why I'm okay with a flyer, no contract extension with Justin Fields, or you take a flyer on Russ for a cheap one-year deal. Raiders home schedule, by the way, this year. Obviously, divisional games, Broncos, Chiefs, Chargers, the non-divisional games at home, the Browns, Steelers, Falcons, Panthers, and Jaguars. I don't know if any of those are international games as well.

Any of those really? Maybe the Falcons. I kind of like them. Well, Falcons, Raiders, an opportunity you could win, maybe, if we go out to Vegas, and also I do like the speed that the Falcons do have on offense.

I would like that. I think that might be, yeah, that's a pretty winnable game unless they get one of these quarterbacks. Because you don't want to go when they play the Steelers. That will be a home game, I feel like. It will be a home game for the Steelers like it was this past year.

Yeah. And they'll probably get smoked by, you know, the Chargers, Chiefs. You know, it's a good winner idea that we just brought up, potentially going to a Raiders game this year. Let's see what happens when the actual schedule does come out and where the placement of these games are, because that's very important as well. All right, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

We'll take a break when we come on back. You will hear from Ryan Polz, the general manager of the Chicago Bears. You will also hear from D.J. Moore.

And I'm just going to ask a simple question. D.J. Moore has made it clear he wants to stay with the Bears and have Justin Fields as his quarterback. Two years left on D.J. Moore's current deal. What happens after basically hitching his wagon to Justin Fields if Justin Fields isn't the quarterback like we all expect for the Bears next year?

We'll get to that on the other side. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in with the act man, Rich Ackerman. 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 on the mission.

Learn more at navyfederal.org. This week's player is Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama. Friday versus the Lakers, he had 27 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, and 5 blocks, also known as the rare 5-by-5.

Wembanyama's 5-by-5 is just the fifth since 2006 and the first since Jusuf Nurkic in 2019 is the second first year player to hit the 5-by-5. Is that like a big stat, Stu? I've never, I've never really heard in one of these reads the 5-on-5 get a lot of play.

Like am I just really off by that? Like it's impressive, don't get me wrong. Cause usually we kind of go with triple-doubles. And now the triple-double I feel like doesn't have the same meaning as it once has. Like there used to be a time you get a triple-double, it's like oh wow that's a big deal. Now it's like oh okay whatever you got a triple-double.

So now we are looking for at least 5 points. Well that wouldn't be impressive. 5 rebounds, that wouldn't be impressive. 5 assists, that wouldn't be impressive. You have to get like almost close to the triple-double on that.

Which one Benyama did in points, rebounds, didn't do an assist. And then you add in 5 steals in 5 blocks, yeah that's pretty damn impressive. I didn't know that was a big thing that was tracked though. I think it's just like not common. Since he does a few things that aren't common, it's interesting.

It's one of those obscure stats. Didn't Maggie and Perloff make some bet with when Benyama? Is this Perloff who is going against the grain if I remember this correct? He does not think when Benyama was going to be Rookie of the Year? Yes, he thought it would be either Scoot Henderson or Miller. I think he even more thought of it as Scoot Henderson. So he said there's no way when Benyama is going to win the Rookie of the Year.

And I think he thought he would be injured a lot, which I guess is a lot of the criticism of when Benyama. But yeah that's a tough bet to lose because he's probably going to have to drive all the way to San Antonio. Oh he has to drive to San Antonio? He has to drive to San Antonio, that's the bet.

And back. How many days is that? Let's see, New York, let's do 345 Hudson Street.

Drive to San Antonio, Texas. Let's see, 27 hours. So you have to do that well over two days.

I know it's 24 hours a day but you've got to stop. Perloff's a little bit of a prima donna too so he's got to get his sleep in, got to get his food in and all that stuff. That seems miserable. And he's going to drive to San Antonio once this award's announced that Victor and Benyama is the Rookie of the Year?

Yeah and I think he has to go to a game and bring a sign that basically says apologizing to Wembe for doubting him, if you will. So actually one of my good childhood friends, his dad moved to San Antonio, his dad and his mom. And they have like a catering business, a food business down there and they have season tickets to the San Antonio Spurs. So I wouldn't be interested in driving because I could not sit in a car for that long. But I would maybe fly down, you know, be a good pal and go meet Perloff in San Antonio and then fly back. But I'm not driving that long. You can't drive. There's no way. No.

That's just the definition of insanity. We're going to see how he weasels out of that bet. Like Maggie wants in and she weasel out of a bet. I forget what that was.

There was something that she weaseled her way out of. It was like the Chiefs Bill spread. Oh yeah. It was Eagles. Eagles, Bills. Bill spread and it was.

Yeah. They did the spread. Because the Eagles won. I was at the game. The Eagles won the game in overtime.

Yeah. The Eagles won the game in overtime. But Maggie was like, oh, it was a spread bet. And I guess that the Bills still covered or something like that.

Like the Eagles didn't cover the spread. So no one had to do it. They did though.

Well, no. Everyone dressed up. Spike mandated that E.J. had to wear a Matthew Slater jersey. And Perloff had to wear a Bills whatever. And then Maggie had to wear Eagles, Eagles garb as well.

Which was ridiculous. Maggie lost the bet. She should have just.

The Bills lost the game in overtime. She should have just dressed up. So now since Maggie weaseled her way out of a bet, I guess Perloff has to weasel his way out of this bet. There's no way he's driving 27 hours of San Antonio.

There's no way. It'd be good show content. You know what? Maybe I would hitch my wagon to that bet. You know, get in some of those headlines as well. I mean, nah, I'm not sitting. For a few clicks on awful announcing in Barrett Sports Media.

No thank you. I am not sitting 27 hours in the car. Let's hear from Ryan Polls on what the team will do with their quarterback for now in Justin Field.

It just depends on what opportunities pop up. I will say this. I think you guys know me well enough now. I do.

If we go down that road, I want to do right by Justin as well. No one wants to live in gray. I know that's uncomfortable.

I wouldn't want to be in that situation either. So we'll gather the information. We'll move as quickly as possible. We're not going to be in a rush and see what presents itself and what's best for the organization.

Let's also go to Ryan Polls. He was asked if there's any concern about Caleb Williams not wanting to play in Chicago. No, no, no concerns about that at all.

I would love to know why, if that was the case. Like I said, I think as a young quarterback and I've been around it, the infrastructure is important. And I think we've made really good progress in terms of having really good infrastructure for whoever were to come in or if Justin were to stay here as well.

I get it. A lot of quarterbacks have been ruined or failed in Chicago. But this is actually not a bad destination now because you have DJ Moore there. But here's the problem. DJ Moore has made it as clear as clear could be on this show and other shows.

And then I guess we could say quadruple down. Probably more than that at this point on the NFL Network yesterday, here is DJ Moore on Justin Fields. I still don't think they compare to Justin right now. The relationship gelled real well from the beginning. Since I got traded, he was in contact and then we started throwing together.

So it made the transition into games and everything easy. I've always said this, DJ Moore is an incredibly underrated wide receiver. He is easily a top 10 wide receiver in the sport. But without adamant he's been on keeping Justin Fields, I just raise this question. What happens to DJ Moore if they trade Justin Fields and do what most of us expect and that is select Caleb Williams at number one? And I just wonder when you have two years left on the contract and you start to say things like Justin Fields is better than the current draft prospects, how sensitive maybe Caleb Williams is when he gets to Chicago. And yes, Caleb Williams could realize that DJ Moore is a great talent and DJ Moore is great.

And I don't use that word very easily and very freely and often. But when you have a wide receiver who's been so clear who he wants as the quarterback and then you bring in somebody else, it feels like that relationship would get off to a rocky start. And it wouldn't surprise me then with two years left on the deal, you suck it up, you play this year, and then maybe with one year left on the contract, DJ Moore tries to force a trade out of Chicago. I do think though that selecting Caleb Williams at this point is probably the best decision for the Chicago Bears and the most likely decision.

But I do understand the other side of the argument. I've made it before where I don't think Fields is a franchise quarterback, but he can be a good quarterback. You get DJ Moore, you keep him there and you make him happy and then you find a way to still get Marvin Harrison Jr., like you trade down to two and the commanders come up to one. Man, that puts the Bears in a really good spot. But then if Caleb Williams goes on to be that transcendent talent, like some people expect him to be, I don't believe that Justin Fields is a higher ceiling than Caleb Williams.

And then you ultimately end up regretting it. So that's something to monitor how DJ Moore is going to handle this if it goes the way that we expect it to go with Caleb Williams being his next quarterback. Because when you said all this and you've been a good teammate and you showed your loyalty to Justin Fields, you throw all your support about him, well, you may not get what you want and that could create one awkward situation with most likely Caleb Williams and DJ Moore that ultimately, and it would stink for this to happen, could lead to a future trade down the road of DJ Moore with the Chicago Bears going somewhere else. Zach Galb Show CBS Sports Radio Ben Lieber will join us next. on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.