Free Agent Winners and Losers (Hour 2)

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That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Alrighty, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio Hour number two of our radio program. Aman Green going to join us. Former Packers running back coming up 20 minutes from now. We'll get his thoughts on Aaron Jones getting cut.

Going to the Minnesota Vikings and also you know that'll happen because the Green Bay Packers landed the services of Josh Jacobs. And you look at the guaranteed money in that contract. Because yesterday we were talking about you saw the total money of the deal and the guaranteed money seemed to be really low. It's basically a year to year contract, even though it's over the span of four years. When you do look back at the deal for Josh Jacobs, I think a lot of people at first said, wow, what an overpay at $48 million.

But when you further go through the breakdown, it's really not one of those deals that he's probably ever going to see. And I like Josh Jacobs a lot and he's still young at the age of 26, but it's probably not one of those deals where he's going to see all $48 million. According to Albert Breer, it is $14.8 million in 2023.

It's then $12.5 to sign. It's $23 million over two years and then $34.5 million over three years. So they could take it year to year as the only guaranteed money is in that signing bonus, which is $12.5 million.

So that was reported accurately yesterday. I know when we first saw it, a lot of us are like, hmm, that doesn't really make much sense. $48 million is the total money. But then the guaranteed was only $12.5 million. It just once again shows you that the running back market, it could get dressed up like it's this great market, but it's really not a great market anymore.

And Santa, that was a surprising part to me. I thought we were going to have to wait on these running backs. But you get Tony Pollard, who winds up in Tennessee. Saquon goes to Philadelphia. Aaron Jones gets cut. He quickly lands on a $7 million deal in Minnesota. Josh Jacobs goes to the Green Bay Packers. Derrick Henry now goes to the Baltimore Ravens. Austin Eckler lands with the Washington commanders. And I know there's a few more that did transpire. Joe Mixon was in a trade.

Zach Boss lands in Cincinnati. Then Joe Mixon gets traded to the Houston Texans. I was not anticipating kind of where the market has been for the running backs the last two years for the running backs to just fly off the shelf.

But that's what happened in these first two days of the legal tampering window. And I guess it's going to be two things. One, I think that maybe these running backs had a little bit of fatigue and they go, OK, we know what we're going to get. Just take what we could get. And the longer you wait, the offer is not going to get that much better. And the other part is I just kind of think that the teams, they they could put out big money, but they're even realizing it's basically just what the guarantee is.

From the reporting, it didn't seem like the Packers intended to go pursue Josh Jacobs. But then when you hear the price and you do your due diligence and you get a player who's 26 and you get rid of Aaron Jones, who was a consummate professional and he is a stud. But Aaron Jones is hovering right there around 30. And you could get a four year, 48 million dollar deal.

And you could say that in air quotes. And really, all you have to guarantee is twelve point five million for you compare that to to that situation. Or Aaron Jones, who was in the final year of his deal.

Yeah. I know a lot of people looked at that sideways and said, why can't you keep both? But once Jones, I don't blame him, didn't restructure. This entire situation, the way that it played out for the Packers, I think they got better at the running back position, not like drastically better, but slightly better. So I think the running backs are starting to understand the market more.

But then also it could also factor in that, man, after going through this for some of these guys for two, three years, it's like just take what you could get. And in Saquon's case and you had Tony Pollard. Right. That's another guy with Tony Pollard.

He lands in Tennessee. It's just like with some of these guys, they went through the franchise tag a year ago. And maybe this is the new formula for running backs like Saquon Barkley got ten million dollars last year.

Right. Tony Pollard got his franchise tag money. Josh Jacobs got his franchise tag money. You get that guaranteed money up front. And then the following year, because that number is always going to be rich and beneficial to you.

And in the following year, that's when you go get your additional guaranteed money. And for someone like Saquon, it was more than he was getting in New York. I think the last contract offer in New York, it was like twenty three million. And in this one in Philadelphia, it's twenty six million. And for Josh Jacobs, even though it's twelve point five million to sign and only that. And I got to think Josh Jacobs is going to be on the Packers for the next two years. So end up getting twenty three million.

If you could see three years, then it's thirty four and a half million. So there is some understanding, I believe, Santa from the running backs. But then also it's probably a little fatigue as well, because it does get tiring for the last two years. Having this conversation about how the running backs are not getting valued as they once were.

I agree. I think it's probably a combination of what you're saying, along with the fact that it was just such a saturated market with so many starting running backs out there. But I think the main thing you look at these deals that they got right. Saquon was the only guy who got really a big deal. Josh Jacobs, a little bit to three years, thirty seven for Saquon, four years, forty eight. That's twelve million per for those guys.

Right. So like back in the day, these guys were asking for eighteen, nineteen, twenty. That's what they were hoping for. They were trying to get to that point that some of these top wide receivers are getting to.

And I think they've just kind of gotten fatigued and they've gotten realistic about their opportunities. And so three years, thirty seven is fine. That's what running backs were making ten years ago. Ten million a year, twelve million a year. So you look at Derrick Henry, two years, sixteen million. Tony Powell, three years, twenty million. That's eight million a year.

So I think the reason partly was saturated market. And also these guys are just like. And they're coming up to tag most of these guys. Give me eight to twelve million and I'll be fine.

I don't need that eighteen, nineteen. And that's the other thing. The longer you wait, like once you get off the franchise tag, if they just signed a one year prove it deal, then that's another year where a team could just run you into the ground. And that's the position in the NFL that everyone says that's the shortest lifespan for an NFL career is the NFL running back.

And also, it doesn't help from a leverage standpoint when a lot of these teams that have won Super Bowls, like you look at the last 10 Super Bowl champions. There's there's not a bell cow back. You know, the one that you could argue was a bell cow back was Marshawn Lynch.

But that's not even the first person you think of. That wasn't the identity of their team. But outside of that, it's like, OK, the Patriots, I give you about 30 running backs that they've had. The Eagles had three running backs that year with Jay Ajayi, LeGarrette Blount and Corey Clement, the Chiefs. Heck, I even who was in their first Super Bowl, Williams or something like that. And then that guy landed in Jacksonville.

I forget his name. And then recently it was Isaiah Pacheco. So you could rotate the running backs in this league and still win. And also on the offense side of the ball, you only have so much money. I'm not a big salary cap money guy, but the quarterback kid gets paid a king's ransom. The wide receivers now get paid a king's ransom and the offense alignment get paid a king's ransom, too. So I think it's a little bit of both, like we're saying fatigue and then also having a better understanding of what the market is.

Alrighty. Here is the confusing one. Justin Fields. When we get into quarterbacks, we went through this yesterday and we tried to figure out where is Justin Fields going to land?

What has changed from last night? Well, Sam Darnold gets a 10 million dollar contract with the Minnesota Vikings and now there is a growing belief. And it was going to be tough either way because it's in division and quarterback trades usually don't happen in division.

You got to go back years ago. McNabb going from Philly to D.C. Drew Bledsoe going from the Patriots to the Buffalo Bills. But quarterback trades in division don't usually happen.

So Minnesota was always a long shot. But now a lot of people believe it's going to be a mixture of Sam and then whatever rookie quarterback they could get at eleven. Or they may be trade up because the Vikings were linked to being rumored to trading up in the draft last year. So now I go through a lot of these destinations and a lot of them are already filling up because Kirk, he signs with Atlanta. Russ goes to Seattle.

That takes away two destinations for Justin Fields. The Patriots were talking about them potentially being a rumored destination yesterday. Well, they go out and they signed Jacoby Brissett. So I think that's the perfect bridge quarterback and they'll probably take a quarterback at three.

You already had Sam Howell with the commanders. You know, they were moving on from him, but now they just brought in Marcus Mariota. So I don't think they're going to bring in Justin Fields and then draft a quarterback at two. I still think the Raiders are in play, even though they did sign Gartner Minshew the other day. But outside of the Raiders, there's really not a great fit for Justin Fields. So I'll just throw one more name into the conversation and one more team where he could start. Because there's now a growing belief, it feels like, that Justin Fields may have to be quarterback two somewhere next year.

Or we'll get into one other theory in just a bit. But I did see today, not that he was starting. I know he had that one game up against Philly. But that Drew Locke is leaving Seattle. He's a free agent and he's signing with the New York Giants. Take the Giants out of the mix, too, because now you have Daniel Jones and Drew Locke on the roster and a possibility of adding a quarterback in at six. So what about the Seahawks? Like Geno Smith, I think this is the last year of him having guaranteed money on his contract. So Geno Smith is now the lone quarterback on the roster. Now, you could argue maybe the Seahawks are going to get a quarterback in the draft.

They're sitting there at pick 16. So you'd probably have to trade up or maybe a McCarthy falls. Maybe Michael Penix Jr. does fall. Maybe Drake May starts to fall.

Then you feel like you're in range. And I've said this before. Whoever is the next quarterback in Seattle is walking into a good situation. And that was even with me having the belief that Tyler Lockett was going to get traded this offseason with two years left on the deal and the log jam that they had that wide receiver.

But I just saw right before the legal tampering window did open that he restructured his contract. So they obviously prefer to keep him. And you already have DK Metcalf.

You have Jackson Smith and Jigba, who I think when he gets more reps, he's going to live up to that first round pick. And you saw a little bit of it down the stretch. So I think Seattle is a very attractive destination for quarterbacks. So I look at it, Justin Fields. And all the extra capital that Seattle's received from the rust field, too.

And now that's kind of run its course. I would have no problem trading. You don't have to trade a second round pick anymore. Like, I think right now you caught the Bears tomorrow and give them a third round pick.

I think they're doing it. So I don't I think Geno's fine. He's solid. But I do think Geno's one of those quarterbacks where at some point throughout the year you're going to say, hmm, I could do better. Or, man, I'm kind of tired of the Geno Smith experience. Where he said once it was a great line that people wrote me off, but I didn't write back. There's going to be a moment in the season where people are going to start to write back and say, Geno, you're back to what we thought you were. And you could have Justin Fields there waiting in the wings for a third round pick.

And, you know, you don't extend them. I would take that flyer from the Seattle Seahawks. I take a risk on Justin Fields. But you could then argue maybe Seattle wants to move up in the draft to do so. And maybe they want McCarthy. Maybe they want to Michael Pettis Jr. keep him in the state of Washington.

So I would suggest and it's slim pickings here. I think the Raiders are an option. And I would say maybe the Seahawks are a team that we should monitor. But really, if it's not one of those two teams, we're talking about QB two for Justin Fields. We're talking about maybe Philadelphia.

We're talking about. Well, you could throw Cleveland out of the mix today because they just got Jamis Winston. And I know Mike White is with the Dolphins. But what happens if two has an injury? Justin Fields could could then be in play there. Anthony Richardson, his backups, Gardner Minshew. Now, Gardner Minshew is off to the Raiders. Maybe Justin Fields wants to go to the Colts in case you have another Anthony Richardson injury. Forty-niners just lost Sam Darnold.

They traded away last year. Trey Lance, they could use a backup quarterback. What about Justin Fields going to the forty-niners where maybe Brock Purdy is not as good as what he was last year, or maybe he gets hurt.

And then that raises the other point here, Samter. If it gets to that point where no team wants to trade for him to be the starter and it's just a backup. You think there's any way Chicago could keep Justin Fields as their backup?

And yes, Caleb Williams would be the day one starter. But you do kind of the Sam Bradford, Carson Wentz situation from a few years ago where you just wait for someone naturally to get hurt. And then the market for Justin Fields pops back up because what the market is telling you right now, what the teams are telling you right now. They trust the players in the draft more than Justin Fields or the way that we as fans view Justin Fields is not as attractive as the way that the teams view Justin Fields. Like, I look back when Justin Fields was playing well and I'm like, oh, they should keep Justin Fields and trade it.

And even RG3 started with us the other day. Now it's like, well, the rest of the league is telling you this guy isn't as good as what we thought he could be. So now you have to take Caleb Williams.

But that's the fascinating part to me. If it came to a scenario where it's QB2 on another team or QB2 on your own team. Can you find a way to actually keep him and store him on your roster as QB2 when you know he's not going to be happy with the situation?

I mean, I don't think it matters if he's happy or not. He's on your roster and he's going to have to just deal with it because if no one else wants him, that's just the way it's going to be. I guess my only concern is how would it impact Caleb Williams?

Would it be a positive influence? Like, hey, I got this guy who's a former superstar quarterback who's nipping at my heels. Superstar quarterback in college. Not in the NFL. Sure, but a guy that has a name, a guy who could be a starting quarterback, if I slack off or if I'm not studying the playbook enough, maybe he... No, but here's why.

The only way fields would get on the field is because of injury. When you take Caleb Williams and Caleb Williams has drawn comparisons in the draft process to Patrick Mahomes and you have a city that's never really had a quarterback in Chicago, there's no way you're pulling the plug at any point in year one, even if it gets to Bryce Young level of incompetence in year one. You're not taking Williams off the field. No, and I don't think it's necessarily about taking Williams off. It's more just having somebody to push him.

I could be wrong. Caleb Williams is a superstar talent, but there's something about maybe some of the smoke and the noise that's come out about Caleb Williams over the past year, year and a half, that just makes me wonder about how dedicated he is, maybe his mental fortitude about being focused game in and game out. So maybe having Justin Fields on the practice field in the quarterback room is just a little bit of a fire under his ass who doesn't become complacent. Now, I don't know this for sure, but there's been a lot of smoke around the Caleb Williams camp. Because it's prospect fatigue and people just see him jump into his mom's eyes, his mom's arms after a game and cry and people lose their mind over that. There's really not much to question Caleb Williams about.

He's one of the finest prospects that we've ever seen. On the field, I think the questions have been about his off the field locker room in his mind, in his head kind of stuff. His own teammates, they never have an issue with him. The teammates at USC, we talked to Jerry Rice's son, they absolutely adore him. I just think it's once again, this has been a guy that we tabbed as the guy.

And then when you tab someone as the guy, you try to find ways not to select him. He's going to be the number one pick. It's not going to be close. He's the future of the franchise. And I don't see a way that you could roll into the season with Justin Fields on the roster along with Caleb Williams. It's not fair to Justin Fields. And also, it's like I don't think Caleb Williams would ever be intimidated by Justin Fields. I don't think he needs Justin Fields to light a fire under his ass. If he does, then I don't think he should be the number one pick. And I've been around Caleb Williams once. Something he does not lack is confidence. That is for sure.

All right, Iman Green is going to join us on the other side at his Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. All of our award-winning Hyundai models, like the tech-filled Tucson and Kona, as well as the spacious Palisade. Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance.

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Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at WesleyFinancialGroup.com. Should have Iman Green coming up momentarily on the show. But first, 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. Let's go to Venlo in Connecticut. He's next up on the Zach Gelb show. Venlo, what's happening? Hey, what's going on? Zach, how are you, man? Doing fantastic. What do you got cooking for me today? Fantastic. First and foremost, thanks for taking my call.

Yep, you got it. And I just want to weigh in real quick on the tiki, which side? Tiki or Saquon? And I'm on the side of Saquon, man, because we as a, I'm a real giant fan. I go all the way back to Hugh McElhenney, Tucker Fredrickson, YA, all the way back, never left.

I live in Connecticut, but I'm from Amityville, grew up in Amityville and then lived in Huntington before moving to Connecticut. So I think Saquon, I think we all should be happy for Saquon. The only reason that I would have an issue, my issue still would not be with Saquon because he's basically, he's a Jersey cat. He went, he just went, got closer to home. What it is, Venlo, is he got money from Philadelphia that the Giants weren't willing to give him. He gave the Giants every opportunity and the Giants didn't want to give him a deal that exceeded 23 million guaranteed from their last contract offer. But the point that I was making with Tiki is you read the Tiki quote and you go, oh, that's bad.

But then when you listen to it, it's clearly tongue in cheek. And everyone's just so sensitive now. Tiki did nothing wrong yesterday. He's hosted a radio show just like I'm hosting a radio show and he gave a reaction that related to the opinion probably of many Giants fans.

All right. A lot of movement on the running back market. We got Saquon Barkley going to Philadelphia. We have Josh Jacobs landing with the Green Bay Packers and then Aaron Jones getting released and winding up in Minnesota.

Derek Henry is going to the Baltimore Ravens to team up with Lamar Jackson. Let's go out to the guest line right now. Welcome in an excellent former running back and that, of course, is Iman Green, kind enough to join us right now once again on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Iman, always great to talk to you.

Thanks so much for doing this. How you been? I'm being good.

Same here. Always good to talk to you. Talk some football. And now we talk in my neck of the woods, some running backs and how they've been, I say, treated and what they got paid this year. Yeah. Well, here's the fascinating part of it.

We were talking about a little bit before you popped on the last segment. I'm surprised how many running backs have already agreed to deals. Is this the running back starting to understand the market more and what they're actually going to get? Or is it just a little bit of fatigue from these guys that they've now seen this song and dance the last two years where they're not getting the contracts that they're used to getting? I believe it's a mixture of both. I think right now they know they got a strike right.

Iron's hot. So if they get a good offer and it makes sense and they could talk to their agents or they could just look around the league. It's just a just a mathematical problem addition here.

Who has less who has more of the artist than me and what they're getting paid going on that scale. Once you see that, it is not rocket science to figure it out. And then you get all this drama right behind you and right away. Then you get into the rest of your offseason going back to your wherever you train in offseason and get and get, I say, 100 percent into that. Then you're ready to get with your team and learn the playbook and learn your players, the new coaches and everything.

Yeah. I also think sometimes players don't like getting slapped with the franchise tag. But now we've seen Tony Pollard get it last year. You saw Saquon get it last year.

Josh Jacobs as well. You go get that 10 million dollars guaranteed and then it's just the next season. OK, take what I could go get on the open market, right?

Yeah. I mean, you got to look at it as this. Look, you're going to be on one one year contract and then you're back into negotiating a deal. And that is a good place because then it's new money and then it could be with the team that you already had.

And that would be great. But if not, this is the part of the offseason where I tell fans all the time. Hey, this is the business part of professional sports. Players, coaches understand it. The agents also, this is their world. This is the time where they get up and do their conversation and kind of shine for the players so they have better agents. They understand what they're going to get out of the deal. Talking to him on green.

So how did you react to it in the last 24 to 48 hours? Josh Jacobs winds up with the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Jones release. And now we know he's found a new home in division with the Minnesota Vikings.

Oh, man, I was like, wow. So they trade one good running back for another. This is a slightly better running back.

But other than size, like durability, I think that's it. That's the biggest point I've seen for my good friend Aaron Jones. The health factor was a thing for him over the last several years.

But for a business standpoint, that is going to reek in the mind. That's going to be a reminder, you know, to any GM or head coach, you know, your durability. And so he was a little beat up this season. He came back, finished greatly in the last three games for the Packers, including the playoffs.

But still, it lingered in guy's head. So is the durability factor? So bringing in Josh Staker, who is a little bit more built like a tank, he's 510, he's 223. He can run catch. He could do everything that Aaron Jones could do.

He just has the durability factor. So having Jordan Love in his second year, a guy, as we know, has been 100 percent proven what he can do as a starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. So now having him into a set of young wide receivers that they already have that proved their point as well to get that team to the playoffs. So this offense for the NFC North is going to be a problem for every other team that they face in 2024. You know, it's kind of crazy where we were before this season, the last two years of the Aaron Rodgers drama, then they finally trade Aaron Rodgers.

Love gets his opportunity down the stretch. We saw Green Bay get better. They had the big playoff performance up against the Dallas Cowboys and they couldn't get the job done at the end in a game that they probably should have won. Looking back at it up against the Niners, like a full year later, you know, a lot of people are very confident with this Packers team moving forward. Yeah. I mean, I said from day one, support this guy.

I do a couple of podcasts myself. And what I said in that, just like when Aaron came in and I say, go back 30, 40, almost 40 years now when Brett came in, give him the support as any other quarterback. Don't doubt him.

Give him that little margin of error because you're going to have that sitting on a shelf for four years. Watching Aaron Rodgers, learning from him, how he plays. And we saw, we already knew in the first couple of throws and first couple of games that he took some of Aaron's kind of, I said, game stuff where he has that back, back foot throw where it kind of just seeks over right over the defender's hand for either touchdown or completion for a first down. So he paid attention, took some good stat, good, I say good things off of Aaron and was able to mold it into his game. And then the confidence just grew game by game.

And I saw it, like I said, that last stretch, not only Aaron Jones, but Jordan Love just picked it up a notch, you know, having over 4,000 yards, having over 20 touchdowns in his first year as a starter. You know, I was thinking that was going to be year two. I figured year one was going to be little bumps and bruises, but no, year one ended on a high end. So for year two, you know, hopefully we'll see how it goes. You know, maybe no sophomore slump, but somewhere you become a super sophomore along with now, like you said, Josh Jacobs on the roster.

I'm on green here with us. We were always sold about the potential with Jordan Love. What do you that end ceiling is for Jordan Love as a quarterback in this league? It's so early enough.

I think that ceiling is still at a high mark. We're going to see. We just saw a scratch of what he can do, you know, plan a full season and then getting it because it wasn't till probably, I would say, middle of November where it's like, okay, I got this. He had a couple mistakes early in the year where I remember he had a fourth down situation. He's under center and he, you know, he flinches.

He he gets the all size flag. So little stuff like that. He matured game by game. So now he's at a point where all that is now learning experience. He could go back and watch film, correct those mistakes with Matt Leflore and the rest of his offense and the rest of the players around him and come into the season full bearing. I say the only thing we just got away for as we know because it's football is injuries for everybody across the board.

Hopefully everybody stays healthy and then we got a I say we're going to have a Packer offense that's going to push Detroit Lions like they did this past year and it's going to be interesting NFC North. Yeah. Do you think that gap between those two teams is pretty damn close? Is that what you're saying? It's getting close.

Yes. I mean right now it's the leader in that division is the Detroit Lions. They have a defense. They have an offense even though they made some changes to offensively, but it's going to be a nice little game when that came game comes around in the fall.

I'm on green here with us. Let me get some of your reaction to some of the other running back moves. Saquon Barkley landed in Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts, man.

I don't even know how you're going to defend that when you get inside the red zone and you're 20 yards away from from a touchdown. Well, I so for us defensive coordinator is going to sleep unwell and lost some of the linebackers around there as well. But for Surayani and that offense, you know, having losing pieces like Kelsey gone, you know, Hall of Fame center. And then this is going to, you know, bring in somebody like him and whoever replaces Kelsey to take over the leadership in the offensive line.

They should be feeling pretty good because they are. We already got the kid hurts that we know can run and throw. And then now we got this other kid to come in and run the ball, catch the ball, help us with pass protection and a threat down the field.

Either way, you know, running about our catches. So then another leader on that roster. So it will fill in holes and gaps and just see how it fits in with what they already have at wide receiver with AJ Brown and some of the other receivers. So it's just going to be interesting in that NFC East where, as we know, it's kind of it was a little bit on the down on stroke in terms of overall competition with the commanders down and Cowboys.

Just get into the playoffs again, but then falling short again, not playing up there up to their par as usual. You talk about the fit with Saquon and Jalen hurts. How about the fit in the AFC with Derek Henry landing with one Lamar Jackson?

All I say is problem. That's a problem for a lot of defenders where, you know, you got to deal with Lamar's legs and his arms. But now you got a guy that when he gets the ball, he's going to make defensive backs, mostly a few linebackers think about how they come in to tackle him. And then that's another layer of what the Baltimore Ravens offense already has.

They already are a Smash Mountain football team. They like to run the ball, mix it in with the RPO. And then every now and then try to beat you over top when the back end is beat up because they have to deal with the run game. So it fits perfect into what Harbaugh calls and what Lamar Jackson likes to do with his play calling to execute the play.

So this is going to get guys, I say this is going to put everybody else on notice in the AFC North right there from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to know. We got another hammer coming down and this is going to be interesting how we're going to try to figure out how to stop this crew. And it's two totally different approaches for defenders. I wonder if they kind of bottle up Henry a little bit and then they just unleash him in the fourth quarter because it takes such a toll on defenders to try to defend Lamar Jackson. Then you get a bruising back like Henry in the fourth quarter and everybody's gas. Man, that's a recipe for disasters for defenses. Yeah.

He's a four quarter horse, man. I mean, that was something I was able to do during my time on the football field. And I paid attention to the body mechanics or I say the body language of defenders come fourth quarter. When I saw guys kind of holding their hips and taking heavy, deep breaths, I'm like, I got him.

Let's go. And so that's I've seen Derek Henry play games like that. Not not necessarily the way I thought of it, but he's and he's probably got me by 50 pounds. So now, you know, he's a guy along with the run game that Lamar can bring to the game and all the other weapons they have in terms of receivers and then how stout their defense are. They can definitely slow that clock down offensively and then make it make it hard for guys to try to score because it won't be much time on the clock once they get the ball back. We're going against that Baltimore Ravens defense.

Let me just end you with this. I know you started your career with the Seattle Seahawks, but most remember you for your time in Green Bay. We're trying to figure out where Justin Fields is going to land. They know he's with the Bears now, but they're going to draft Caleb Williams. You know, I see today that Drew Locke winds up with the Giants.

Gino Smith, he's fine. He's under contract. But I don't think anyone believes he's the franchise quarterback. Should Seattle maybe place a call to the Bears and give up a third round pick or whatever it costs to go land Justin Fields in the trade? I mean, that that would be that is an interesting option right there for the Seahawks and I say for Justin. I mean, for me, I look I've been looking at this Justin Fields saga since he got in the NFL. And for me, it's just an unfortunate situation because it has been fondled by the coaches. And then now the GM, because they're going to push off a guy that I that has all the talent in the world, in my opinion, to be a quarterback in NFL.

You just got to make sure you talk to him. And when you set up the game plan, starting an offseason now, coaches start devising their game plan for the regular season and ask Justin those questions like what run plays do you like to run? What pass plays do you like to throw? And here's are the adjustments on certain passes. You got to learn how to throw this deep pass like this with, you know, in search of where you got to ask them that. And then he'll give you the feedback and then you got to go from and that is a coach making the better plays for your player. You know, you probably put your players in the best situation. And I didn't see that over the next few years of last past few years for for Justin and Ivar Foos and the coaching staff.

They figured it out, you know, when they didn't have to when it didn't make sense. So now, unfortunately, he's in the market. And so any team, especially Seattle, that has the defense, that has players around him still in terms of run game and pass, you know, in terms of receivers, he's going to flourish. I think he's ready for the kind of go out there and let this let his wing spread so he could get out there and show what he did at Ohio State. He was a passing quarterback, very accurate. And then now he's got to have some semblance of basically tranquility. And because it's always been turbulent around him from the past was coming out him and then not knowing communication amongst coaches, as we saw a lot earlier last year.

So hopefully he gets somewhere where it's just a cool common collective. Here's the playbook. This is what you need to know. And here's your outlets. Here's your throws. And this is your audibles and make it real easy for him because he's a guy that I think he did.

I say, if anything, he deserves that type of situation to be the athlete so he could show his talent that is out there. He is Iman Green. Iman, always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for doing this. You be well. Hey, no problem, Zach. Thanks for having me. There you go. Iman Green, Packer legend joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio to kind of take a look at the running back market that's been going crazy the last few days, where the numbers may not be where the players want it on a contract perspective, but a lot of running backs landing in new homes and Aaron Jones away from Green Bay now in Minnesota. And as we know, Josh Jacobs is going to replace him in Green Bay. All right. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update with the Ackman.

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That's better help. H e l p dot com slash grow. Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall.

We decided to spin off called Superfly. And it's fun. It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture. When I looked up the flight, when that door flew off, these people were dead silent. Everyone just quiet. I don't think I could contain it. I think that's free rein to wail on your call. But in that situation, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong. Hey, I don't want to be a pest.

Was there a door when I got up? Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here. Podcast. National champion from Michigan, Cornelius Johnson, going to join us coming up 15 minutes from now. He gets set to prepare for the NFL draft that comes your way at the end of April. But before we get to that, let's just do a few winners and losers from the offseason cycle so far with the legal tampering window underway since yesterday at noon Eastern.

And the new league year will start tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern, where all these deals that are agreed upon to will then become official. I'm going to give you my winners right out of the gate. I have three of them. And then I have three losers. The three winners I think are the Baltimore Ravens, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons. Let me start with the Ravens and the Eagles. Both of those teams had miserable ends to their season. The Ravens were just dismantling every team that they played like they crushed the San Francisco 49ers in the regular season. But then come playoff time, had a very pedestrian first half up against the Texans, then played a solid 30 minutes of football. And their offense was a complete and utter no show up against the Kansas City Chiefs in that AFC Championship game in your backyard in Baltimore. Today, the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, they lost Gino Stone. Yes, they lost Patrick Queen as Stone goes to the Bengals and Queen winds up with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But on offense, they bring in Derek Henry.

And you heard it from Amman Green a little bit earlier. I think the way that they implement Derek Henry into the game plan with Lamar Jackson as your quarterback is just going to wear down defenses. I still don't think Baltimore wins a Super Bowl or gets to a Super Bowl with this duo, but this offense now has a more intimidating identity than it had last year.

And now you're going to get Zay Flowers going from year one to year two. Mark Andrews, you hope he could stay healthy. He's one of the better tight ends in the league. And then you have an explosive quarterback who right now is a top five quarterback in the sport. I have him as the fourth best quarterback in the sport. Mahomes one, Burrow two, Allen three, then Lamar Jackson four. And you add in Derek Henry, who even if you could say, oh, well, how much longer is be able to go at this rate?

I kind of think bare minimum, Derek Henry still giving you two more really solid seasons. So I love what the Ravens did. The Eagles on defense, you get a guy that got 10 plus sacks last year and Bryce Huff, you will increase his workload. But then on offense, you gave something that I think has finally galvanized this fan base where for ever since December 1st, this has been a very negative Eagles fan base.

And deservedly so. The team had one of the worst collapses you'll ever see. And then you lose Fletcher Cox to retirement. You lose Jason Kelce to retirement.

It was like, oh, are they going to be able to ever right this ship again? And you bring in Saquon and other giants are down and out. But you take him from a divisional rival. You have Howie Roseman being aggressive and you just look at offense. This is still going to be a top five offensive line in football. Hertz is going to get better from what he was a year ago in the second half of the season. You got A.J.

Brown. You got Devante Smith. And now the running back room has got better by adding in Saquon Barkley with Dallas guard it then to as your tight end. So this Eagles team, it's finally moving forward and moving on from what was just a giant cluster.

You know what? From the end of last season, I think Saquon starts to move this thing forward. And finally, they go to the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons realized last year. That going with Desmond Ritter and then having that coach in Arthur Smith, who tried to make in this franchise quarterback, was a massive mistake. So at the Super Bowl, we kind of got the sense from Arthur Smith that you want a veteran quarterback and then ultimately you look for the long term plan. Now, they give a four year deal to Kirk Cousins.

One hundred eighty million dollars, one hundred million guaranteed. Kirk's in his mid 30s coming off the Achilles injury. But you got to look at where the Falcons are. The Falcons just have average quarterback play last year.

They easily win that division. They have a good young secondary anchored by Jesse Bates. And you have A.J. Terrell. You then on offense have Bijan Algier.

You have Drake London. I think Kyle Pitts is going to do a massive 180 from the last two years. And now you get Kirk Cousins, who is a good quarterback, but not a great quarterback. I think the Falcons right now are 10 and 17 next year. I think the Falcons win that division next year. And I like what this front office did going out there and getting their quarterback and getting a known commodity for the next, let's say, two years, because you don't know how someone's body's going to end up aging on out when you look at the four years of this contract. But I'm fine with that risk at one hundred million dollars guaranteed. So those are my winners, Ravens, Eagles and Falcons.

I asked for my losers. I got to start with the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones made one of the more fraudulent statements that you'll ever hear because Jerry Jones is a salesman now.

That's what he is. Jerry Jones puts more of a priority on creating headlines and being the person that leads the drama and stirs the drama in Dallas rather than trying to go out and actually win a Super Bowl. We all laughed when he said that the Cowboys are going to be all in like one of the Cowboys then been for the last 20 years. The Cowboys, they always put together a good team, but they don't put together a great team. And I look at this Dallas team. You can't have your owner say we're going to be all in.

And then the first two day of free agency happens and you basically just sit on your hands and do Jack. It's a bad look for the Dallas Cowboys. And you have the Eagles, who is your direct rival in that division, your direct competition, because the Giants don't have their act together.

The commanders are still years away. The Eagles got better on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball this offseason. I'm going to say the Saints are a loser. The Saints had Deborah Carr last year. They had the most talent in the NFC sale.

They didn't win the division. And then this offseason, you've seen the Falcons get better in the direct competition in that division. And also Baker Mayfield back in Tampa Bay, Mike Evans back in Tampa Bay. And the Saints just have a team that they keep on telling you if we could stay healthy.

I feel like that's been the story of the M.O. for the Saints the last two years and they don't end up staying healthy. And then finally, it's the Minnesota Vikings. You lose Kirk Cousins. You bring in Sam Darnold. You still don't have a deal done with Justin Jefferson, which just makes me hot because you should have got this deal done last year. And it's really malpractice to the franchise to not get the deal done last year because you run the risk of the unknown.

And you run that risk of Justin Jefferson getting upset and maybe he starts to say, OK, I don't want to be here anymore. Now, he doesn't hasn't given any indication that he does want to be in Minnesota. I think he loves playing with the Vikings. He's everything that a franchise dreams about for a wide receiver. You know, he does everything the right way. All he does is produce.

He puts up mega numbers. Like this deal should have already got done, but it hasn't yet. And now you take away Kirk Cousins. And sure, you could have this plan in the draft at 11 to take a quarterback and to move up.

And then you eventually have the guy and maybe Sam Darnold's a bridge guy for a few weeks. But I look at Minnesota right now. Two years ago, they had an 11 win team. And I had 11, 12 win team. And now they don't have Kirk Cousins.

They're going to lose to Neil Hunter. Team missed the playoffs last year. OK, you had the injuries to Jefferson and Kirk Cousins. You got Addison.

Yeah, sure. You brought in Aaron Jones. I like that move.

It hasn't been all miserable for the Minnesota Vikings. But you have weapons on offense. You have Hockinson. You got Jefferson.

You got Addison. But who's throwing the football? And until I know who's throwing the football and you don't have the Jefferson deal done.

And now we're going a year plus of this nonsense. I can't say that you've been a winner of this offseason, even though I do love the move, bringing in Aaron Jones. So those are my three winners and my three losers right now with the new league year starting to get underway tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern, a legal tampering period already underway.

Ravens, Eagles, Falcons, winners, Cowboys, Saints, Vikings are the losers. 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. This is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. You could always interact with us on Twitter and on Instagram at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B.

We'll take a time out when we come on back. We're going to be joined by a man that won a national championship at Michigan this past year. He's preparing for the NFL draft. He participated in the combine a few weeks ago. That is Michigan wide receiver Cornelius Johnson.

What does he think J.J. McCarthy will be in the NFL as the J.J. McCarthy stock keeps on rising? Coming on back. For the past 20 years, you've enjoyed the refreshing tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast. So in celebration of this milestone, we're bringing Baja Blast in stores nationwide. And for a limited time with every purchase of Baja Blast, you can collect coins for a chance to get Baja Gear or a Taco Bell deal. 2024 is the year of Baja Blast. In stores now, no purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 18 plus. Subject to official rules at BajaBlast.com and 6.15.24.

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