Nobody Is Beating Denver (Hour 1)

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Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Live from the play show, yet not overly ostentatious studios of the Infinity Sports Network. This is a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We got a whole lot to do today. And coming up in about 40 minutes, Dan Mullen, the former college football coach, now does a great job as a college football analyst for ESPN. He's going to stop by.

We're going to get you set. Preview some of the players that will hear their name called in two days from now on Thursday for the first round of the NFL Draft. And we'll do a little college football fix at 4 20 p.m. Eastern, 1 20 p.m. Pacific with Toledo head coach Jason Kandle. A whole lot to do today, but we do got to start off with what happened last night in the association. I know there were three games, but there were two games that everyone was buzzing about. And I know that both of these games were game twos, but because of how epic and how much of a catastrophic collapse we did see by the Philadelphia one, two, three, four, five sixers, 10, nine, eight 76ers, and then Stu's, Los Angeles Lakers. That is really the moment where you feel like, okay, the playoffs are back. We always know the Stanley cup playoffs and hockey deliver.

I was at game one for the Rangers over the weekend. And then we got to see the postseason in the NBA really start to shine last night where you had the Knicks who looked like it was going to be one, one going down the turnpike to South Philadelphia, where New York was down by five points with 30 seconds to go and the Sixers choke it away. And we know their coach was bitching and complaining last night, trying to tell us that he was trying to call a timeout. When you further review it didn't look like he was emphatically trying to call that time out.

He looked, he was very indecisive on if he was going to call the time out or not. And then the next game that followed, and we'll get into the Knicks and the Sixers coming up 20 minutes from now, but we have to start with the game that followed that one, which was the Lakers and the Nuggets. And if you listen to me since 2020, since the bubble, there has been no person that has been a bigger proponent of this Denver Nuggets team on national radio than yours truly. I did a sports minute back in 2020 when it was really started to see that how good the Nuggets could be. It was that jazz nugget series with Donovan Mitchell going up against Jamal Murray and the two of them are going off.

And I said, this is the start of something really special. They're not going to win a championship this year, but watch out in future years. And then in 2022, where they did lose to the Warriors Denver and they did not have Jamal Murray. They did not have Michael Porter Jr. A lot of you people were being doofuses and you guys were saying, Denver's not that good up. Nicole Jokic just wins MVPs. They're never going to win a championship.

But I'm like, hold on. We are now in an era of dynamic duos and the Robin to the Batman was injured. And now people were going to say in 2022 that Denver wasn't going to be able to win a championship. And then in 2023, guess what happened? Even with Jamal Murray not fully having his legs back, you finally had Michael Porter Jr.

Somewhat healthy. They didn't even play their best brand of basketball. And it was still good enough to outlast everybody else because you have no answer for Nicole Jokic and the Nuggets raised the Larry O'Brien trophy last year. And it doesn't stop there. Because I said this before, when I am right, I'll tell you I'm right.

I'll be the first one to tell you. And then when I'm wrong, I'll be the first person to raise my hand and say your boy got this one wrong. But it was a week or two after the Super Bowl when we saw the great Patrick Mahomes and that Kansas City Chiefs team not even play their best, but they still found the way to win it all. And it was inevitable looking back at it, even though I doubted Kansas City, that the Chiefs were going to win a championship.

And once Kansas City won another championship and to go back to back, I remember crafting up a take here on CBS Sports Radio. Well, I'll give credit. I saw David Shepard, who was walking around the newsroom before we started our show, Shep here very, very early. But Shep said to me, I won't imitate him today. But Shep said to me, hey, Gelb, I remember when you did a take in February that what Patrick Mahomes is to the NFL is what Nicole Jokic is to the NBA.

So I appreciate David Shepard bringing up my right takes. Because you look at this series, I know the fat lady was already singing before the series did start. And no, the fat lady in this case, even though he's not a lady, was not Stu, who already said that this series was over before it started big time Laker fans, Stu is. But this series, there was never a shot that the Lakers were going to win four games against Denver. But look at the way that these two games have played on out, where Denver has still not played their best brand of basketball. The Lakers have had big leads in both these games and they don't have a victory to show for it. And last night, it's weird to say you were seeing a vintage LeBron James performance.

Cuz all these years later, he's still a dominant force. But it looked like LeBron was gonna will his team to a victory. They were up 20 points at one point in the third quarter, and then the lead vanish. But right when the lead vanish, he had two big three point shots.

And it's like, okay, maybe this is gonna be the Lakers night. And this is something that I know we have talked about it, but it still doesn't get enough play. Jamal Murray is by far and away, and we all know how good he can be. But Jamal Murray is the most underrated player in the NBA still. And maybe it's because of how much respect and shine we give Nicole Jokic. But I've said this for a while, that when you look at the value of Jamal Murray, it's so essential. Cuz can Nicole Jokic go finish a game?

Yes. But you look at a team like Philadelphia, and I know it's a little bit different now cuz they have Maxie. But Embiid's not the same player he once was just because of the injuries. He's still dominant. He could still be great. But the Sixers would love to be the Denver Nuggets in this approach where your big man is a unicorn.

Your big man is one of one. And Nicole Jokic is a better all around player than Joel Embiid. But what the Sixers are trying to find for years is what Denver has had.

The only thing is injuries got to take it away for a little bit. Cuz Jamal Murray is a finisher. And Jamal Murray, you saw it last night. And Anthony Davis, boy, where is Waldo?

Do we need to slap his face on a milk carton? Cuz he's MIA Anthony Davis. His fourth quarter, there's been atrocious fourth quarters. I don't know, for a player who's considered to be a top 75 player of all time, if I've ever seen a worse fourth quarter than when Anthony Davis put on display last night. He was O of one, no points, one rebound. One stinking rebound. And he played in nine minutes and 55 seconds.

How is that even possible? Like Anthony Davis, do you still have a pulse? I couldn't believe it. And it's one thing to not show up on the offensive end when LeBron James is trying to will you to a victory. But defensively, you talked all this smack, how the voters never give you your respect, the voters hate you. You should be defensive player of the year.

You should be a finalist every year. You're the best defensive player in the league. And what happened? You got cooked on the final play by Jamal Murray. And not only did Jamal Murray hit the game winning shot in your face, the entire team swarmed you as you had a Denver Nuggets team that there was euphoria, there was elation, and you just fell into the stands. And at least one of your former teammates, Contavious, was like, let's watch out for Anthony Davis. Let's gather around Anthony Davis. Let's protect him because that dude's always hurt as well. Think about how humiliating that is for the Lakers.

And guess what? It's very similar to the way that this series played out last year. I had tickets to go to Denver for game five. Lakers and Nuggets in the conference finals, that game four of that series was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. But this is what the Lakers do. Like if you are a true Laker fan and you are honest with yourself, you know this team doesn't have a shot to win a championship, but then they suck you back in by playing better than what you expect and they build you up just to take a sledgehammer right to your knees and have you fall down. Because that's what a 20 point lead in the third quarter. I know it's not insurmountable these days in the NBA, but you have a 20 point lead in the third quarter with LeBron James playing the way that he was and you can't win that game. But the reason why you can't win that game is because once again, Nicole Jokic is the most unstoppable player in the league. No lead is too big for Denver. Nicole Jokic, Patrick Mahomes, it's like they're the same person. Doesn't matter what the lead is, you know there's always that fear and that thought that they're coming back and both of them have an elite, an elite Robin.

Travis Kelce elite. Jamal Murray, one of the more underrated players in the league still and he's a finisher and he stomped on the grave of the Los Angeles Lakers and then he danced on it and he celebrated as you saw that series, even though it was over even though it was over before the series start, but really end last night. Because if the Lakers would have won that game, it's 1-1. You still know Denver is going to find the way to win the series, but at least there's some intrigue. At best, at best going back to LA for games three and four, the Lakers maybe will win one game. But if you listen to that Lakers team last night, they know it's over. I don't care what Anthony Davis says after the game. I don't care what LeBron James says after the game, how they try to spin it into a positive. Anthony Davis last night got humiliated in that fourth quarter and LeBron James, as much as I love LeBron, you are bitching and complaining about the replays. That's why you lost.

Don't get me wrong. It was a bad reversal. It was in the damn third quarter though. You lost that game. Your team blew a 20 point lead. Anthony Davis doesn't show up in the fourth quarter. The reversal had no impact on what happened in the fourth, but he made it out as if that's the reason why they lost the game. But that's all because LeBron knows his team doesn't have a shot up against the Denver Nuggets who are the freaking Kansas City Chiefs for crying out loud.

Let's listen up to LeBron. Oh, I was laughing because sometimes you watch a game and you forget when a replay happens. And I saw this on Twitter afterwards. I'm like, what replay is he talking about?

What is it? And then I go, oh, it was the one in the third quarter. That's hysterical. Here's LeBron calling out the replay. I don't understand what's going on in the replay center, to be honest.

D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on the drive. What the do we have a replay center? It's going to go. That doesn't it doesn't make sense to me. Makes no sense to me. It bothers me. Sorry to ask you a question, but that is like. And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers.

Nick came to what are we are we doing? Can we have some accountability, please? I'm a man of accountability. LeBron, where is the accountability? Last year, you guys got embarrassed by Denver.

Yeah, I'm thinking about retirement. No, you weren't. You just didn't want to face the music. You wanted everyone to talk about something else rather than you getting swept out of the Western Conference finals. And now this year he's already doing like pre damage control and even mentioned the Sixers next game to even mention that game. So the headline today isn't and we all know LeBron played great in the game.

He did miss a wide open three at the end. But now the headline today is LeBron slams the officials. LeBron slams the replay process like give me a break. No wonder why Denver hates the Lakers.

I don't blame them because they always find a way to beat you. And you never have this Lakers team just tip their cap and say we can't find a way to beat them. I think it was Kendrick Perkins who said he's right.

The Lakers should call the Nuggets daddy cuz they own them. It is wild. Here is Anthony Davis asked about what was going through his mind on the Jamal Murray game winning shot. Can you take us through that last play? Just what happened? What unfolded? What was?

I don't know if you were screened or what happened? Yeah, you got cooked. Jamal Murray made a shot. Slam the microphone down and go right and cry. Anthony Davis cry. Cuz that's all I heard from the Lakers and the Sixers last night. You guys blew the game and it was oh, it's the officials fault.

Oh, it's the replay. Can you give some credit to the other damn team and the other players for crying out loud? Sixers shot Lakers shot. And hey, the crazy part is Denver and the Knicks haven't even played that well.

And you know what? I felt bad for my guy Stu last night. I texted Stu with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter and I said, give me a little pulse check here. What are you thinking? Within five seconds, Stu texted me back.

They have no shot, no shot to win this game. And then when LeBron hits those two threes, I texted him. Oh, here we go. And Stu then responded back. Still no shot. And then boom, the real Los Angeles Lakers stood up. They showed up and they proved that Stu was right heading into this series. Even though Darvin Ham said Stu should go to an insane asylum for saying he'd rather lose the playing game and then try to get the eight seed to go up against the Thunder. And even though I thought Stu was wacky for saying that, I did also agree that yes, there was no way the Lakers were going to beat the Denver Nuggets, but there's a bigger point here. No one's beating the Nuggets this year. And the only team that has a shot to do so are the Boston Celtics.

But this isn't the NFL where one game you're better and then the other team season's over. You have to beat this Denver team four times. And I truly do believe the only thing that will slow down the Denver Nuggets this year is health. Because as long as the Koliokic is standing, as long as Jamal Murray is standing, as long as Michael Porter Jr. is standing, I don't see a team in the NBA that's going to beat them. And I was right in 2020, hyping up this team. I was right in 2022, right in 2023. And in February, I said it on this show, I said it in those highly listened sports minutes, that until someone takes them out, I won't believe that the Nuggets are going to be going home this year without the Larry O'Brien trophy.

855-212-4227, 855-212-4227. This is Zach Gelb's show on the Infinity Sports Network. We go from the Lakers choke job to the Sixers choke job. Because as bad as it was that the Lakers lost that game last night, it's one of those moments last night with what the Sixers did where you say, I've never seen anything like that. You're up five with 30 seconds to go.

And in like 10 seconds, poof, the lead evaporates. We will talk about the whining, complaining Sixers when we return. Because Nick Nurse, you got some explaining to do because you were a liar last night.

Coming on back. So the Sixers are emotionally shot. Like if I had to say Lakers or Sixers, who has a better chance of coming back? It's still the Sixers, but that's just because Denver is the best team in the sport. And I haven't even been that impressed with the Knicks in the first two games. But the scary part is their preeminent player, Jalen Brunson, hasn't even played his best game.

And he hasn't even played well. And the Sixers are still down 2-0 in the series. And I know, right, the old adage, a series, you're not in danger in a series until you drop one on your home court. But I got to think that the Knicks find a way to get one. And I think that the Knicks find a way to get one in Philadelphia. And last night was the night that the Sixers could have put some fear and could have rattled the New York Knicks.

They could have. And when you're up by five points with 30 seconds to go, I don't care who you're blaming after the game, the only one you should be blaming are yourselves. So Brunson hits that three, and it's a fortuitous bounce.

It cuts it down to two. And then all hell broke loose on the inbounds. We'll play Nick Nurse in a second. He kept on saying he was trying to call a timeout.

I give credit to Jerry Ferrara, Turtle from Entourage. He put out a good video, and it was clear that Nurse was thinking about the timeout. But he never actually called it until the ball was on the floor.

But here's what I'm hearing from Sixers fans today. It's almost like they don't want to face the reality where, yes, you have a right to complain about the officials, but the officiating isn't why you lost the game. Because on that inbounds pass, if you're going to say, well, Brunson mauled Maxie, well, how about a second or two earlier where Tyrese Maxie clearly pushes off on Josh Hart? So should there have been a foul called on Jalen Brunson?

Yeah, but there also then should have been a foul called on Maxie when he pushed off Hart. Regardless, once the Knicks get the ball, Dante DiVincenzo, before he made a three, missed a three. And when that ball is up in the air and I took a still image of it, I still don't know how the Sixers didn't get the rebound. How does Joel Embiid, I know he's at 100%, he may be 60, 65% if that, and he's still an incredible player. But how don't you get that rebound?

Because Hartenstein wanted it. He gets the rebound, they swing it out to DiVincenzo, boom three, other end, Hartenstein made a great play. And then with the chance at the end to jack up a three and tie it, you had Maxie not really be able to get a shot, he fired off to Embiid and then it was no good. So you want to tell me, oh, the Knicks won that game because of the officials?

I don't think that's true. Cuz I started off with the Sixers just crumbled to epic proportions last night. And all they had to do when they were in position was out hustle the Knicks and grab a rebound. And if they grab that rebound in all likelihood, they win the game, it's 1-1, you got new life going back home to a raucous atmosphere.

Come back home to a raucous atmosphere in Philadelphia. Now I believe that you see some of the hidden truths with Sixers fans in the last 20 or so hours, where they knew that this team heading into the postseason wasn't a championship team. Even though Maxie is the best two that Embiid's had, because Embiid once again is not fully healthy for a postseason. And this is early on in the series, where Embiid is already slowing down. And he's struggling to get up and down the court because in all likelihood, I appreciate him playing, but he probably shouldn't be playing. Now he could still dominate a stat sheet, but as the games go on, and as we've seen throughout the years as the series go on, Embiid gets winded because he's not healthy.

And I've seen the games and I've seen the way that things have been hitting up. I remember being in a game five in TD Garden, when Embiid turned over the basketball. I remember up against the Hawks, everyone talks about Ben Simmons passing up that shot because it was a terrible decision, and Embiid turned the ball over late there too. And Joel Embiid was a no-show last year in game seven, because he was huffing and puffing up against the Celtics.

So it's the same story each and every year. But because of how people like to question the Celtics, some of it fair, obviously, and you looked at the matchup and people, even though the Knicks have been a heck of a team this year, people are overlooking the Knicks and you have Sixers fans start to buy back in and get sucked back in. But through two games of this series, it's not as if the Knicks have been this dominant team. Brunson has not been good, but they're still up 2-0. And last night, you could complain about the officiating all you want.

And some of it does have truth, but you can't say the officials are the number one reason why they lost the game. The number one reason why the Sixers lost the game is on the first three-point attempt by DiVincenzo before he buries the second, the Knicks out hustled you and you were in position. It's kind of crazy, like Knicks fans are haunted by Reggie Miller. That was like the reverse Reggie Miller last night and went in the Knicks' favor. And the Sixers now go back to Philadelphia down 0-2 and I think they're emotionally shocked.

Here is Joel Embiid. He couldn't even look the reporters in their eyes. He was like crying after he did in that Raptor series. You may listen to this and say, oh, wow, he sounds pretty confident.

But if you see the actual video of what he was saying, he's just looking down. I know he's saying this series isn't over, but with the way that he presented himself, it was tough to believe that Embiid even believes what he was trying to sell you after the game. We're good. We're going to win this series. We're going to win this. We know what we got to fix. We did a better job today, so we going to fix it. But we're the better team and we're going to keep fighting. You heard that.

And when you just listen to that, you're like, OK, that seems pretty convincing. But when you see it, he's just looking down. You know, we fixed what we needed to fix. We're the better team. But we're going to win.

We're going to win the series. He's like looking down. It looks like he's at a funeral, for crying out loud.

He's trying to tell you that it's a it's something good to happen when you know something good did not happen. But here is Nick Nurse after the game last night. And I actually appreciate Nick Nurse's ability to B.S. in the immediate aftermath of the game. You are not clearly calling a time out until the ball was loose.

And I know there's a bunch and I know there's a bunch of screenshots, but I will fully explain this to everyone. But let's first hear from Nick Nurse. The first thing is, obviously, we we they score. We take a look at getting it in quick.

We don't get it in quick. I call time out. Referee looked right at me, ignored me, went into Tyrese. I called time out again. Then the melee started. And yeah, I mean, I guess I got to run out onto the floor or do something to make sure and get his attention. But I needed a time out there to advance.

It would have been good, but couldn't get it. So there's a truth and there's a lie. Let's start with the lie on the front end of that conversation. When the ball was getting inbounded and they were trying to inbound the ball, he thinks about calling the time out. He is about to call it is almost about to make the T signal, and then he drops his hands as if, no, I'm not even thinking about the time out. So, coach, you say maybe if they're on the court, if you were actually calling the time out, you would have been jumping up and down, freaking out that the time out wasn't called. Now, when the ball is inbounded, he is trying to call a time out. The problem was the ball was on the floor. It was loose. So don't tell me about the first part and how the officials, like, you were sitting there jumping up and down, call time out, call time out, call time out. You were indecisive about it. And that indecisiveness prevented you from getting the time out.

And in that moment, when the ball is loose, you called the time out too late. So, Nick Nurse, I know what he's doing. He's trying to get the calls going into Game 3. But I don't like to hear and bead bitching about the refs, nurse bitching about the refs after the game, when all they had to do was box out and get a rebound after the first Evincenzo shot, and they avoid all of this. And once again, if you're going to say Maxie, and I don't have a dog in the fight here, but if you're going to tell me that there should have been a foul on Brunson, okay, when he pushes Maxie.

But before that, Maxie pushes off on Josh Hart. But no sixer fan wants to say that. The Sixers, I think they say, oh, here we go again. They know they're deflated.

They know they're done. Coming on back with Coach Dan Mollum will get a step closer to the NFL draft. That's two days away on Thursday night. But first up with the latest Infinity Sports Network update. Here he is, the Ackman, Rich Ackerman. All right, this is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. We'll talk to Coach Dan Mullen right now as we get set for the NFL draft coming your way on Thursday.

And also coach is once again partnering up with the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge, as they always put on their very entertaining charity golf tournament. So we'll chat it up for a few minutes with Coach Dan Mollum. Right now, Coach, great to see you.

Thanks so much for doing this. How you been? Yeah, I've been great. I've been great. It's, you know, that exciting time of year. You got NFL draft, you got playoff hockey, playoff basketball, and it's golf season.

Yeah. How is your golf game? I got out over the weekend. I had to go to a wedding Saturday night. So I played early Saturday morning with a few of my buddies before we had to go over to the wedding.

I did not play well. I had a birdie, so it will get me to go back. But outside of that, man, it was a lot of double bogeys and triple bogeys. Yeah, you just remember the bird, especially like later in the round. It's all like, you know, finished with a flourish, and then you feel good about coming back.

So I actually had to have a knee surgery earlier this spring. So I haven't been out. So this coming weekend will be my first round of golf in quite a while. I don't think I'm getting the bonus handicap strokes for it, but it'll be my first round in a while. Will you use a golf cart? You'll be like John Daly, right?

You're not walking. Oh, I'm always I'm a golf cart guy. I'm a very I have fun golf. I enjoy it. I enjoy being out there.

So tell me a little bit about the event and obviously the great cause as well for it. Well, the Peach Bowl challenge does such a great job, you know, and I've done it for I can't even know how many years but you know, it's here Reynolds Lake Oconee. It's a great location out at the ridge. We played the Oconee course here at Reynolds, one of the six courses that they have.

They got unbelievable golf here. Day one on we go out on Monday and it's you know, the celebrity scramble you go out with all the sponsors go play. But Tuesday is basically all the coaches and you know, they have the coaches in the legends division now and this is my year two getting to be a legend. I've played a bunch of the coach and I've gotten to play as the legend.

But a great event. It's actually you know, I mean you're the money that's raised for that the the Peach Bowl does through scholarships. The coaches all play for some money that goes to their specific charities, their individual foundations to help people. And so it's it's a lot of fun and you know what's really fun is is I've done it through the years. We have people come out.

We have spectators come out. It's a great opportunity. You get to see coaches from all over the country. You know current and past coaches out there and going to play at a beautiful golf course. Talking to coach Dan Mullen. We'll get to the draft in just a second.

Let me hit you up with two college football questions. First, you've seen the good moments. You've seen the bad moments at Florida. It's a crucial year for Billy Napier.

You're just having an interesting perspective with how many years you're with that program. Just what advice would you give him to try to get this thing right at Florida moving in the right direction in year three? Well, you know one thing for Florida fans is score some points, right? That that always just at least puts a smile on their face.

I mean they want to they got to win games but when you're scoring points that keeps a smile on people's face. But you know I think you know Florida's finally caught up. You know you look they finally built a football facility. You know they're putting themselves in a position really they've been playing catch up for probably a good near 10 years in college football of being way way behind everybody else. So I think they've finally caught up and it's just going to take some patience now that they've built some facilities.

They got themselves even with other people. There's a changing landscape with NIL that you got to adjust to on top of that. So I think you know some of the patience within programs you you look at a lot of programs right now they're being successful are programs that have had some patience within within what's going on with their coaches and now they're starting to see the success. And then we get to Alabama. It's going to be a weird adjustment no longer seeing Coach Saban on the sideline but they got a heck of a coach who took Washington to a national championship and Kalen DeBoer. We know Alabama fans every year are going to say championship or bus but what are your realistic expectations for Coach DeBoer going to Tuscaloosa in year one. Well I think one thing that coach coach DeBoer knows is what the expectations are you know and he's going to have listen he took Washington to the national championship game last year. He's got really high expectations for himself for his coaching staff his program and and he's going to bring those with him even though Alabama already hasn't he's going to have them as well. I think he's an awesome fit for that that job that program you know getting getting to talk to him a little bit his demeanor you know you got to go in there and you got to go in there with being able to balance the expectations being able to balance what you're following and following Nick Saban and coming in handling all of that and I just think his demeanor he's going to go in he's going to coach ball he's got a little bit of a relaxed demeanor if you will and don't confuse that for lackadaisical don't confuse that for like for anything else. I just think his demeanor coming in being able to accept Nick's in the building he's going to you know I think the ego-wise he's going to sit there and say I have one of the greatest coaches of all time here to learn from I'm going to sit and listen to everything you have to say I think you have to be able to handle that his personality is going to be a great fit I think he's going to come in with a great offensive mind you know with some talented players and I think you're going to see some some you know continued success for the Alabama program with coach Devore at the helm. Talking to coach Dan Mullen it feels like as we're two days away from the draft Caleb Williams will go one to the Bears and Jayden Daniels will go two to the commanders does that sound right to you when you're ranking these quarterbacks in the NFL draft? Oh boy that's a tough one isn't it you know I mean there's so many different variables right and it's hard to say there's ever a perfect one right there's ever the perfect fit that's so hard to find so hard to do so I think that's about right you know Caleb Williams I'm sure there's there's question marks I watch him I have question marks I'm sure you know you hear the different things with with the question marks people have about him. But what are your question marks with him just wondering? You know I I just want to want to look and you say okay you want the most important trait of a quarterback right is leadership and winning you know it does he have that it leader hold everybody you know kind of grab the reins and and make it all go factor you know and and can he carry his team to a championship you know I mean that's what they want from from quarterbacks you know Patrick Holmes has an it factor he can carry his team to a championship. Now the talent's not the question though when you look at Caleb Williams he has the talent he has all those things that you know what and it's gonna be to see you know I mean he hasn't played in the NFL yet he hasn't seen how his game fits his leadership what he's like in the locker room and getting guys to to play right because the quarterback's job is to raise the play of everybody around him and is he going to be able to do that you know with you know with the Bears that that's that's the question will be interesting to see. Jake I'm really excited I was really excited with him at LSU I thought he took some huge strides uh last year and strides in in the pocket game which is you know something it was almost like he was training for the next level all year uh if you will you know when you watched him play we know he has the right he has the athleticism when you see him make these long runs at LSU the escape ability the ability to extend plays use his legs and the dangerousness how dangerous he is running the football uh for explosive plays but really watching him throw the ball vertically down the field stand in the pocket and make throws really interesting you know and and then you know you still throw out the Drake May some of the other guys you just I mean once you kind of hear this is who people like uh it tends to go that way but boy you never know what the NFL draft is it's always there's always going to be some surprises coming yeah and McCarthy JJ McCarthy it seems like he's rising up the draft boards now a lot of that is based off potential Michigan they would have been stupid to not run the ball as much as they did with Coram and Edwards behind those offensive lines the last few years that's always the difficult part is projecting how they'll do at the next level but with more opportunity how do you think uh JJ McCarthy will fare I think he'll do great I think one of the hardest thing for guys coming out early you know I I you look and you say okay um especially you know really JJ's won but you know I don't know depending on what they're going to do offensively you know they're going to change a little bit to put more on his shoulders say hey you're going to have to carry the team now not manage the game and and you know everybody freaks out with the game manager tournament that's like I I love game manager game manager to me is somebody that does what he needs to do for the team to win right I mean and if it is I gotta come out throw for 500 yards and seven touchdowns I'm gonna do that if I can check us into the right play and hand the ball off and man and just let the guys around me perform I'll do that you know I mean maybe maybe I just need to lead a two-minute drive to win the game get that that's what you want to see and uh you know so for a guy like JJ with more situations where he kind of has to put more on them you know they they played such great defense we're in so much control of games very rarely did he have to have the game thrown on him to go win it um during last season Drake Mays another guy really would love to see one more year of development and and you know and it's not boys stay in college or do this you think of the reps that guys get you know you're talking about a thousand live reps throwing the ball under pressure under duress and you're doing it at an at a level where you are the best guy instead of the rookie you're the veteran experience guy instead of the new guy learning uh so I think there's some there's always opportunities you would love to see these guys maybe get some more reps in development so they're ready at they're ready sooner at the next level so you know the worst thing I think and you see some of these young quarterbacks coming to the NFL if your pro organization is not ready for them yeah right where if you have you have a good old line fantastic go take a young quarterback and throw him in early let him because you know I mean like coach for example if McCarthy goes to the Vikings with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison okay I could see him having year one success he goes to New England he goes to the Giants I think it's going to be ugly different deal because you know you think just think of the old line you know I go back I was fortunate enough to coach Dak Prescott I mean you look at his career he came back played a fifth year in college got so many reps um and you know under duress he went to an organization where they had a pretty good outline and so you know you're talking about fractions a second I mean you're 0.4 seconds is a long time so now your line gives you an extra 0.4 seconds that's a long time in the NFL well that allows you to give that margin for error where you're learning how to be a better decision maker early in your career and you're not just getting smacked around all over the point um and you look at some quarterbacks younger guys that have come in and have success a lot of these guys came into some good situations you know and they're able to get on the field in a good situation and they have positive results and then they get the experience in good situations then as they get older they have that experience already so you know they're making quicker and faster decisions and all of those things and you know a lot of these quarterbacks that are super high rated that go into bad situations you're like what happened to them well they never really got the chance to develop or maximize because they didn't have the time to learn and learn to process and learn the right way no it's definitely a great point coach we're up again so we appreciate the time as always make sure you check out and help out the southern company peach bowl challenge as well we appreciate you coming on for a few minutes today coach awesome to be with you awesome to be with you enjoy the draft this weekend you got it thanks so much we'll do there he is coach dan mullen does a great job for espn now and we know he coached quite a bunch of years at florida mississippi state as well we will take a time out and i thought it was a good breakdown especially the fit the fit with the quarterbacks is everything i think katie bulliams has enough to succeed right away in chicago uh there is enough for jaden daniels to succeed with the commanders but after that those guys mccarthy may michael pedix jr i think it's more so about where they go if they're going to have a chance to succeed or not listen as selenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her 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