Impact NFL Rookies (Hour 3)

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We'll bring in a man that does a great job as an analyst for the NFL Network and also CBS Sports. And I see him rocking that Augusta pullover right now. Have you been to the Masters, Charles Davis? I wasn't anticipating that being my first question, but I see it out of the corner of my eye.

So I'm now distracted. I have to ask you that. Hey Zach, how you doing?

It's good to see you and hear you again. And I've been lucky enough to go twice to practice days. The last two years, matter of fact, I was able to hit the bucket list and then fill the bucket a little bit more, both Wednesdays beforehand. And it's probably the one event that can't be oversold. You know, everybody tells you this, this, this, then you go and you go, it wasn't quite that.

This is the one that I don't think can be oversold. Everything anyone has ever told me. I was like, yeah, yeah, they were right. And then some, so I was fortunate to be able to do it.

That's awesome. Charles Davis here with us on the Zach Gelb Show. Let me start you off with the Bears. Epic first round, right? We all knew they were getting Caleb Williams. That nine, they're able to get Roma Dunze. The Bears last year were seven and 10. I look at this team and I say, why can't they be nine and eight? Why can't they be 10 and seven this year and make the playoffs year one with Caleb Williams?

What do you say to that? I don't disagree with you, but I was thinking that headed into the whole thing. I was thinking that with Justin Fields, to be frank with you, not that I thought that getting rid of Justin Fields and draft Kevin was a bad move organization.

They had to decide who their person was. We know that. And it's hard not to buy into what you see with Caleb Williams as your true upside, because the one thing we had with the biggest question mark we have that Justin Fields coming in was how accurate would he be throwing the football and percentages in college does not mean accuracy in the pros. Because in college, your receivers are usually a lot better than the DBs are going against.

For whatever reason, your main guys are pro guys playing college kids, and that's all they're going to be like someone like me. I was a four year starter at Tennessee, but what an NFL player. So the separation kicks in, those guys make plays for you, and you're a 67% thrower, but you're not accurate, meaning is the ball in the right spot? Do you stop the receiver before he hits the post safety? Do you pick him low so he doesn't have to pick the big shot?

Do you hit the swing and he keeps running? You see where I'm going with all that is that Caleb Williams, that stuff he's done throughout his time at USC, but everything that was waiting for him. This is the unusual part for a quarterback taking it number ones that that a tight end and cold commit is waiting for him. Receivers named DJ Moore, Keenan Allen were waiting for him. Running back named DeAndre Swift was waiting for him. First round right tackle last year, Darnell Wright waiting for him.

You see where I'm going? These people were there and now they've increased it, bringing in Caleb and Roma Dunes, you know, a gadget day, the tackle from Yale Project City. Two years at Yale. He didn't play a heck of a lot. Covid was one of them injuries this past year. Potential, sure.

But what you see right now with that office is kind of what you get, and that's not so bad. And the defense last year about the last half of the year was as good as they could imagine and picking up Montez sweat. So now you've got potential play makes on defense side, a defensive line with sweat. The linebackers, I love T.J. Edwards, quietly does his job very, very well, right? Terrell Edmonds, not Terrell, but Termaine.

Thank you, brother. I should know their father, Ferrell, beat me for a touchdown in the Sun Bowl in college. I'm still trying to get over it. The airplane makers at linebacker and then the secondary, Jalen Johnson, the corner Julyne Brisker at safety and Matt Eber flew coordinating everything as a head coach. I liked where this team was headed, and I'm with you. They are in a position where they can, you know, they can but their way in if they play well. The kicker was, I'm not sure they saw Green Bay getting right as well as they did the last half of last year, too.

I don't know that anyone did. And now Green Bay is still looming out there. And of course, Detroit runs a division right now. And that division is really good because I was waiting to see what quarterback Minnesota was going to get. And I wasn't sold on J.J. McCarthy going into the draft, but I kept on saying McCarthy goes to the Vikings.

That's a landing spot where he could succeed right away. And you're saying, let me ask you this, Zach, are you saying that because of Kevin O'Connell? Are you saying it because Justin Jefferson and Addison, all the above? That's what I'm saying. You have a good offensive minded head coach.

You got those two weapons. You got Aaron Jones in the backfield. Hopkins. I know he's coming off an injury at tight end and a guy that knows how to win.

And he plays his role and he's not about ego. I think it's a match really made for one another with McCarthy and the Vikings and good building blocks in the offensive line. Brian O'Neill still your right tackle. Brad Barry's an experienced center, et cetera. It's a Christian Darrisau at left tackle. But for me, it's Kevin O'Connell because I thought that his chops as a head coach were really made, right? What did I say?

He made his bones last year to me, not the 13 and four rookie season, because Zach, you've seen teams get on a run. Okay. We've had coaches win Super Bowls that have never been heard from since. Okay. So it happens, right?

You get on a great run, you go. But I thought last year when I thought Minnesota was primed to take a pretty decent step back, you're not going to win 911 score games in a season back to back years. And they didn't take as far a step back as I thought they would, especially using four quarterbacks because of Kevin O'Connell.

I'm a huge believer in him as a head coach, not just as a quarterback creator, which he is, but as a head coach, pulling all that together. And Brian floor is doing the job on defense, but the credit has to go to the man out front who held all that together. And I'll be darned that how was Minnesota and contention as deep in the seasons they were.

They shouldn't have been, there was no rhyme or reason for that, but they hung in, they battled, they fought. I give Kevin O'Connell a ton of credit for that. Charles Davis is my guest right now, four days later, where are you at on the Michael Pennick's junior pick? I'm really wanting Atlanta to be able to yaya at all of us down the road that it worked out exactly as what sounds like is their vision, which is owner Arthur blank. I want a quarterback succession that Kirk cousins comes in and makes them the playoff team we expect him to write as a starting quarterback. And then two, three years down the road, Michael Pennick's takes over a perennial playoff team.

And the transition is nice and easy. I want all that to happen. I want that to come true. I want that to be right for Atlanta because right in front of them is yes, a playoff team because cousins has come to town because last year Zach, they were deeply disappointed. They didn't make it. And they thought it was mainly because of quarterback play. And that was the reason Arthur Smith got bounced as the head coach. Well, you added the quarterback a hundred million guaranteed. You still have Drake London. You still have Kyle pitch. You've got an offensive line with Lindstrom and Matthews and Caleb McGarry. You've got the makings of it.

Oh yeah, that's right. Bijan Robinson, and we're going to play positionless football. Here's someone else to coordinate all Zach Robinson's new coordinator, Raheem Moore is the head coach.

I like where they're going. But if you're saying what about adding some other pieces glaring need at rush end the edge rusher and no defensive players were taken yet up until that point too, they had their first bite of the apple where they wanted to go corner edge rusher. No one was taking a linebacker, but they could have done that safety.

You know what I'm saying? Or they could have loaded up an offense and they could have taken a Dunesay too. They could have done all that and they could have done any way they wanted to go, but they chose quarterbacks. I'm hoping that down the road, they're able to look at us and go, well, you guys, you just missed the whole thing. We did the playoffs.

It had our runs with cousin. He left. He took over team that and made them a playoff team. Here comes Pentax with the idea to make a playoff team. Now that's what it sounds like is the plan. I would have tried to beef up the rest of the team, myself under cousins and worried about that quarterback spot later, but this was an owner driven deal from every indicator down to Terry Fontenot, the GM, and he made it happen.

And I'm really, really hoping that Atlanta has the last laugh. And the thing that doesn't make sense to me is I could get more on board with this. There's nothing against Michael Pentax Jr. If he was raw, if he wasn't NFL ready, if he was a little bit younger, he turns 24 in a few weeks, he's ready to go right away. It seems just ridiculous to make him sit and wait probably two years and pay all that money to Kirk cousins, where if you really love the guy, just take him at eight and you should have never brought Kirk in to begin with.

Well, the other part, Zach is this, and this is just my own personal theory about things. When you draft quarterbacks in the first round, let alone in the top 10, it's really hard for them not to get on the field. It's really hard for you to sit them.

And I know everybody will come running right to me. Mahomes had his first year. That was Kansas city's plan from the word go. They had Alex Smith and they were perennial playoff team. Let's see, who else can you throw at me? Oh, that's right. Carson Palmer sat his first year with John Kitna.

Okay. Cincinnati had a plan there and they weren't that great at that time. Jordan Love had to sit a long time because Rogers was in his prime. Rogers had to sit a long time because Farve was in his prime. But overall, how many times Zach, have you seen a GM or an owner go to the podium and say, Hey, our plan is to essentially red shirt him. We want to give him time.

And game three, he's a starting quarterback. It is really difficult. If you worship Christmas, I mean, celebrate Christmas, you celebrate Hanukkah, you celebrate Kwanzaa. I don't care what you celebrate when it's time to open the gifts. Do you defer them for a year?

You don't, you open everybody tears paper and off you go, right? If that team drafts a quarterback in the top 10, at some point, the person who signs the checks is going to get antsy and they're going to want to do it. Heck Kurt Warner was in the hall of fame. Now I had to sit down with a winning record to make sure Eli Manning got on the field. It's going to happen.

So I don't know when, where, why. But it's $100 million guarantee Kirk Cousins is going to have. We'll see how this all plays out with Atlanta. So you think Michael Pennock, Jr. release start one game this year for the Falcons, it sounds like? I don't know if it's this year.

Maybe they can hold them off for a year. But it's not long. And we're taking injury out of it.

Zach, let's take me out of it. We're just talking about how it goes, but that's the thing cousins coming off the Achilles. We know physically if you're fine mentally, you start thinking about other things. You could go through a two or three bad game stretch. And you know what the fans are then going to be saying, get this guy cousins out and get the overall pick on the field and the flip side. You're hoping you're motivating it.

Aaron Rogers hated the fact Jordan love got picked, but he went on one back to back MVPs. So you're hoping that part kicks in as well, but here's the other part. What if they lose three heartbreakers early, and they start off the season two and four?

Oh, that'd be a mess. And now, and by the way, who are we kidding? Matt Ryan, my steam colleague at CBS, congratulations to him now going into the studio and what a career he's had. He won an MVP, took a team to a Superbowl.

Zach, you've been around the scene a long time. Matt Ryan plays entire career in Atlanta, looking in the stands and seeing more number seven jerseys than he saw number two jerseys. People never quit Michael Vick. Here comes another left-handed black quarterback to Atlanta. Look out.

That's all I'm saying. That city, they're going to be fired up about Michael Pennix now and rightly so he's a heck of a player, but he looks a lot closer to what they they've been pining for than a guy that they had who may very well go into the hall of fame. Will Bo Nix with Sean Payton, will that eventually be something successful? Cause I could have never seen Bo Nix going with the 12th overall pick. Yeah, I put him in my final mock in the 12th overall.

I actually had my first mock in the 12th overall for the very reason you just meant it's because of Sean Payton. If you've met Sean Payton, you've been around Sean Payton, you've watched Sean Payton. You've heard him on TV. You've heard him coaching. You've heard him, whatever. No one has a better belief in self than Sean Payton about making players better.

And it's been proven over time that it works pretty darn well. So I know that when he got breeze, it wasn't like Drew Brees played poorly in San Diego with the chargers. He had a bad injury and didn't get cleared, but he got together with Peyton and boy was that a perfect match for both of them.

It worked. You get a guy with a talent, a guy like Peyton coaching them. Look what other team in the league was going to make a move to pick up Zach Wilson. Sean Payton's like, I'll fix him.

You guys didn't know what you were doing. I'll fix him. But here comes Bo Nix who kind of plays like, like Drew Brees, a little kind of moves like Drew Brees, a little kind of does all those things. And Sean Payton believes he can build around him. That made sense at 12 because of Sean Payton and no other world does it make sense to take him at 12. Let me ask you this, Charles Davis, a lot of people, I know what you just said about Michael Pentax Jr. Maybe get on the field sooner than what people think. A lot of people believe that Drake May should sit almost the entirety of this season. When you get into how NFL ready Drake May is, what's the truth on that with your background?

Yeah, the truth is they're probably, everyone's probably right. He's a two year started in North Carolina, red shirt sophomore. And it'd be nice for him to have some time to get some habits broken and some other things that he had to break to try and win football games at North Carolina.

I was okay with his habits going crazy because he was trying to find a way to rally his team. Offensive line leaked a little bit on him. Receivers weren't quite as good as the year before. It sounds a lot like Sam Howells last year at North Carolina.

All right. So he had to make more plays with his movement, with his running, making bigger throws, and maybe he was supposed to make it a time trying to fit one in there to try and give them, give them an advantage. Because in a lot of ways, he and Caleb Williams played similar ball last year at USC. It's almost like if they didn't go out there and put six on the board, it was like a 12 point swing, right? Or 14 if you want to add the extra point because defense might very well give that up. And now you're deeper in the hole.

So there's more pressure on doing it. I'll put it to you this way though. He was taken number three. Okay. So if my theory holds up, Jacoby percent will take the snaps to begin this season, but at a certain point, they're going to be out of the playoff race. All right. Let's just, let's just roster dramatically changes between now and the seasons that this team is not going to the playoffs this year.

All right. So at a certain point, they're out of the playoff race. Are you going to keep sitting in? Are you going to try and give him some, give him some snaps to get him ready for the next season? You know, they're going to end up playing him. Oh, you know, the answer to that.

You know, you're a hundred percent right. And you know, and you know, you know, your safest place to look for it, find out when the open date comes, when the schedule comes by week or open date. And if that open date is somewhere from week seven on look for that open date for the quarterback change. Now they have the early open dates makes a little dice here, but at the same time, but at the same time, he's going to play, I said it on the, on the set with NFL network, rich eyes and asked me, Dana, Jeremiah might've been Joel clad at the time. I can't remember over the three days out of the six first round quarterback. How many of them will play this year? Not injury, not whatever.

And I said five, I really do. I think five of them are going to play. I'm trying to remember who it was that I said, wouldn't play.

That's I guess. Penix is the one I'm keeping off the field right now because Williams, your day one starter, you know, Jaden Daniels is a day one starter. Drake may probably plays like week seven or week eight. McCarthy should be your day one starter. Bo Nix is going to be your day one starter too. I'd be surprised if he isn't so panic. Some people are looking at Minnesota and thinking they very well could go Sam Darnold.

Yeah. I've got some, some good football people that believe that it may not be the pressure's not there to make him the starter right here right now, but I'm with you. He will start, I think more games than Darnold during the season. I think he will get the ball at some point. Other people are a little more now.

I think they might go down a little bit longer. I was like, I don't think so. So you and I probably are matching up with some other people. And since we don't do anything that has to do with that G word gambling, let's just do it for a friendly, Hey, let's just talk about it.

Speak for yourself, Charles. I can't my contract. So I'll just be, I'll just be in a heavy discussion with someone later and maybe I'll have to wear their team hat or something like that. Gotcha. Let me ask you two more things before we let you run about the 49ers and then the bills, the bills draft key on Coleman early in the second round, they said goodbye to Steph digs.

You have James cookie of Dalton Kincaid. Let me start you off with the bills there. This new look, Buffalo bills team. What do you think they're going to be able to do this year? I think that there'll be in contention again, because Sean McDermott, I think they're going to pump things up on defense. I think they're going to kind of follow a Kansas city model in a sense. Member Brandon being said, you don't have to have a number one receiver to be successful. And Kansas city really didn't unless you're counting Travis Kelce with number one receiver.

I'm pulling out my notes. I won't look at their draft picks again. Coleman is the right type of receiver for Buffalo, big, strong, physical meaning he can handle December and January.

All right. And a big arm quarterback who's going to throw howitzers at him. Look at what they did. Bumping up defense though, going with Cole Bishop, the safety member pop Boyer and Hyde are no longer working together in tandem. I think Boyer's in Miami.

If I'm, if I remember correctly, anyway, they've got to do that. I thought that Dwayne Carter and undersized, but highly active defensive tackle comes in, helps their rotation. But I love the pick of Ray Davis to run back from Kentucky. Why I've been saying for years, run the ball in Buffalo and finally, when Joe Brady took over, did they not run the football a heck of a lot more to James cook, not get a lot more touches. In fact, you could make a, make an argument that they ran the ball more against Kansas city.

They would have come out of that game with a win. They had them on the run and kind of got away from him a little bit. Joe Brady fits Sean McDermott as a defensive head coach. Who's calling the defenses by running the football. That's why I think Buffalo is going to continue to find a way to be contenders because you never get me to think that that big old horse player number 17 playing quarterback is going to have you out of ball games. No chance that big guy, he can start carrying people with him. This might be his Mahomes type of a time where he goes to total feature guy and everyone come along with them.

I still say Buffalo's in the thick of things. Last thing I'll ask you, Niners draft a wide receiver in the first round out of Florida, Ricky Pearsall. I know that they didn't draft a trade IU cause they didn't trade Deebo Samuel at the draft. Do you think both of those guys will still be on the roster come week one? Still hard to envision both of them on the roster. Still feels like they're going to make a decision and go, but I don't know where the trade opportunities and things come, but I do know this Zach. If there is a team that likes to keep their people and finds ways, San Francisco is one of those teams. Deebo was disgruntled two years ago and essentially he did our, our, our, you know, 2024 I'm taking my ball and going home. He scrubbed them from social media. They worked it out with him, right?

They find ways to work it out with guys they want to keep. And I, and believe me, Ricky Pearsall is not the replacement for either Deebo or Brandon IU. He doesn't play like either one of them to somewhere in between. He's more of an extra accessory than he is a replacement.

So I wouldn't be surprised if San Francisco found a way to make this whole thing work. He is Charles Davis. Does a great job always for CBS sports and just kills it for the NFL draft for the NFL network. Charles, thanks for the time. We appreciate it so much. Always great to see you, Zach. Continued success. Take care of yourself. You got it.

Thanks so much. There he is. Charles Davis with a comprehensive breakdown of all things NFL draft. We'll take a time out. We're coming on back. It is the Zach Gelb show on the infinity sports network.

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Unfrosted is rated PG 13 and premieres May 3rd only on Netflix. All right. It is the Zach Gelb show on the infinity sports network. Let me play one thing from the Pat McAfee show. I was watching this live and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So key on, excuse me, Schefter was talking about the Giants and their attempt to trade up. And they got into this conversation on who were the teams that were actually trying to trade up to three. And it was mentioned Minnesota, and it was mentioned also the Giants. Now the Patriots earlier that that's that morning, I guess when Schefter was checking in with the source at any chance trade third pick, they said zero chance, no chance. So Schefter kept on bringing up how much the Giants loved Joe all. And they were hoping and maybe it was a smokescreen that they were going to take JJ McCarthy at six. So no one tried to jump them to get Joe all. Now, ultimately, no, Joe all ended up being the pick at five to the charges.

But I find this fascinating. And I know not going for a top 30 visit isn't the make or break part, but you have the fifth overall pick in the draft. You would think one of your players on the top 30 visit would end up being one of the players you select.

Joel was on this show last week on Wednesday. And I asked him, I said, okay, a lot of people think you're going to be a Tennessee Titan. What about some other teams that are in front of them? And I mentioned the Giants and I mentioned the Chargers. And he said, nope, no Chargers. They didn't have a top 30 visit with them, but I had a great visit with the Giants. So Schefter, when talking about the potential move up to three, he actually envisioned the world where the Giants would have traded up from six to three. And they would not have taken a quarterback and they would have actually taken the big offensive tackle six nine. Joel at a Notre Dame. Listen up to Schefter.

This was earlier this a.m. on the Pat McAfee show. They talked to the Giants and the Giants. You know, I don't know that the Giants weren't for Joe Alt at three as opposed to the quarterback.

I know we talked a lot about them. Giants really wanted Joe. Sounds like it. Yeah, I think they wanted Joe. That's my suspicion based on things I've heard from people. It's unconfirmed. I want to be very clear about that. But that's what I believe is they wanted Joe Alt there.

And for the right price, if they could have gotten up there and it made sense, they could have done that. But New England never came close to dealing that pick. There's no way.

There is no way. Could you imagine being a giant fan? I'm just trying to envision Thursday night, you're sitting there, you're watching the draft. You're sitting there, you're watching the draft. All this speculation about the Giants potentially moving up three to go get Drake May. Obviously, the J.J. McCarthy stuff was a smokescreen. But there was a lot of speculation that J.J. McCarthy was going to be smokescreen. But there was a lot of speculation. The Giants trade up to three to get Drake May.

And you get the breaking news alert. Giants trade up with the Patriots. And let's say they trade a future one next year, which I said this as a Pats fan. The only team I was interested in trading back with would be with the Giants because I wanted their future one if they were going to trade the pick because the Giants should be a bad football team this year. Could you imagine, though, the Giants move up from six to three? They make you think they're taking a quarterback and then they take an offensive lineman. Now, Joel, very may well go on to be a 10 year pro. That's a Hall of Famer. I think Joel, in my opinion, was the second best player in this draft at Marvin Harrison Junior one and then Joel in at number two.

But the three and use a future one. I just don't buy it. It doesn't pass the smell test here, like the only way the Giants going to trade up from six to three would be to go take a quarterback and would be to go get Drake May. But a deal never came to fruition.

This seems like we all know Schefter is a very powerful voice. This seems like it's someone from the Giants that's trying to make publicly at least the conversation shift because the Giants gave up on Daniel Jones. They were done with Daniel Jones. They wanted to move on from Daniel Jones. But you don't just take a quarterback to take a quarterback. So by putting this story out there, they try to put out this front that they weren't really interested in. A quarterback tried to give a little confidence boost to Daniel Jones.

But I don't think that stuff really works because people aren't stupid. I don't think anyone actually believes that the Giants were trying to trade up to three for the right price to go get Joe Walt. If they were trading up from six to three, it would have been for a quarterback.

Alrighty, let me just get to this and then we'll take a break and we'll get an update with that. Five rookies will have the biggest year one impact. Let me give an honorable mention to Braden Fisk and Jared verse as the combination. The two Florida State defensive lineman and we know versus tremendous off the edge and Fisk is on the interior. The two of them, there's a lot of production to get replaced with Aaron Donald, a sack production getting replaced with Aaron Donald, no longer the building.

Just doing it. One guy was not going to work. They needed to bring in two really good defensive players.

They were able to do that. Guys that have chemistry and synergy with their one year that they did spend together with the Florida State Seminoles. But let me get to five rookies who have the biggest year one impact in a number five. I'm going J.J. McCarthy. It was all about the landing spot for J.J. McCarthy.

J.J. McCarthy landing in Minnesota is a really good match. But Kevin O'Connell, the head coach, you have Justin Jefferson, who they got to pay. You got Jordan Addison. You got Aaron Jones. You got T.J. Hockinson. If if the Vikings start Sam Darnold week one, that's just a dumb organization.

There is no point in starting Sam Darnold week one. J.J. McCarthy's NFL ready. You put him on the field. He can play the point guard role. I think J.J. McCarthy is going to have a very good rookie year for the Minnesota Vikings. And at number four, it's Keon Coleman. The Bills needed a wide receiver. I know everyone crushed him on Thursday because they made two trades and you saw a wide receiver go to Kansas City and a wide receiver go to the Panthers. They had the first pick in the second round and they got a guy who I thought was going to go in the first round. And I thought potentially Buffalo would needed to trade up for to get in Keon Coleman.

You now have a new identity in Buffalo. We all know Josh Allen still the king there. But James Cook had a really good season a year ago. You also then saw the emergence down the stretch of a very good tight end at a Utah. And he was my favorite tight end. Dalton Kincaid going back to the draft a year ago. And now you have that other wide receiver in Keon Coleman. I think the Bills a lot of people are going to sleep with them.

A lot of changes. When you look at the AFC, Buffalo, I still believe will be the AFC champion next year. And they will be a top three team in the AFC there. You know, Kansas City and Cincinnati will get the trust.

But Buffalo's window is not slammed shut because you have 17. And a number three Xavier worthy the speedster that goes to Kansas City. That's an added luxury new deal for Travis Kelsey Day. They get the money boosted up to him.

Congratulations. You need another wide receiver. There's uncertainty. What's going to happen from legal situation with Rishi Rice, who was coming on strong at the end of the year. You go get a talented wide receiver.

It's low risk, high reward. Kansas City's living in the penthouse where they prove in the last two years. They don't need a number one wide receiver. You know, Kelsey is the number one option, but you don't need a number one wide receiver. They could still go win to make that move. And also you kind of poke Buffalo a little bit and the Buffalo Bills fans are trading with the Bills.

I thought that was a very good selection. And number two, it's Marvin Harrison Jr. The Cardinals in a position where they've already paid the quarterback. The quarterback's good. He has the ceiling of being great, but you've got to put him in a position to succeed.

He's now overcome the injury. That Cardinals team is gritty last year, and now you get him a number one option. Heck, Marvin Harrison Jr. made it happen last year with a average below average quarterback. Now you get someone that has proven success in college. He's had a little bit of success in the NFL. I think Marvin Harrison Jr. and Colin Murray is going to be a really good punch.

I want to punch. And then finally, it's Caleb Williams. I know his number one overall pick.

I know it's low hanging fruit, but it's easy. Caleb Williams last year. The reason why USC did not perform where they were was not his fault. It was that the outside Notre Dame game that defense was atrocious and you had a very stubborn coach in Lincoln rally who kept his good friend and Alex Grinch way too long before I ended up firing him. Caleb Williams walks into, yes, the number one overall pick, but they weren't the number one overall pick because they stunk. It's because the Panthers stunk and they made a good trade. You have DJ Moore, you have Keenan Allen, you got Roma Dunesay, you got DeAndre Smith, you got Cole Komet, you got a good offensive lineman. You have to tackle last year out of Tennessee. There is no reason why the Bears, who were seven wins last year, shouldn't be able to get two more wins, be nine and eight, maybe three more wins, be 10 and seven, and be a playoff team this year. So those are five rookies for me who have the biggest year one impact. Honorable mention to Brandon Fisk and Jared versus a duo, but then it's JJ McCarthy, Keyon Coleman, Xavier Worthy, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Caleb Williams. Zeke is back in Dallas.

We're reacting to it next. This is Zach Gelb's show on the Infinity Sports Network. Here with the latest Infinity Sports Update is the Ackman, Rich Ackerman.

Battle Creek, Michigan. 1963 Kellogg's and post-sworn cereal rivals race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever. A wildly imaginative tale of ambition, betrayal, and menacing milkmen. Sweden's with artificial ingredients, unfrosted stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directional film debut, directorial film debut. It featured a supporting cast of comedian greats, including Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Sarah Cooper, Bill Burr, and many more. Friday, May 3rd, only on Netflix. I have no clue what that's going to be about, but it seems very interesting. I did get to see Bill Burr once in, I was at the Comedy Cellar two summers ago, I want to say.

And he just walked in as he was in route to go to Long Island and he stopped and did about like 20, 25 minutes at the Comedy Cellar, which was absolutely great. Also, let me get to our Ask the Pros question of the day. And of course the Ask the Pros question of the day is brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Jim in New Orleans says Zach, who do you like in the three NBA games tonight? You can submit a question by tweeting at INF Sportsnet or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag Ask the Pros.

You can think O'Reilly Auto Parts where all your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts, O O O O O'Reilly Auto Parts. Celtics and Heat, we know how ugly that was in game two, where Miami hit all their shots and it's Boston like, oh, here you go again. And the Celtics just took it and destroyed the Heat in game number three. I think Boston's winning this series in five.

You know, maybe at most this goes to six. I would think Boston wins tonight. They're a 10.5 point favorite. You know, no Jimmy Butler still for Miami. You know that. I just don't think that like the Celtics to me, they lose tonight.

It will show you how much of a fraud they are. You look at the East, the Bucks are about to be out. No disrespect to the Pacers.

Give them credit. But you look at Giannis now being banged up, Dame being banged up. The Knicks are a heck of a team and they're going to be a good out.

They're gonna be tough out with how tough Jalen Brunson plays. But really the Celtics don't get to the NBA finals this year. I know it's championship for Boston, but if they don't get to the NBA finals this year, it's, it's extremely and I mean extremely embarrassing. So I would think Boston has that killer instinct tonight, but whenever you think Boston's gonna have that killer instinct with this version of the Celtics, they usually disappoint, but I'll take the Celtics.

Pelicans and Thunder. I don't need to see any more of this. And the reason why I don't need to see any more of this, it's just the injury reporting design Williamson. Does anyone actually think Zion Williamson's coming back and playing in this post season? Even if they somehow came back and won and got to the next series, I know they keep on saying he's progressing.

I think that's a bunch of bulbly. So he's, he's out tonight. I know the NBA is usually like always like weird with this injury reporting, but he is out tonight. I think the Thunder role here and they're a wonderful story with Shea Gilgeous, Alexander and snow. I bury the lead over the weekend. You Lakers, they got on the board. They had a little fight.

They had a little heart. Now this goes back to Denver. You know what? I will place a wager tonight. I will place a wager tonight. I'll load up, load up on the Denver Nuggets lay in six and a half points. See those games have been close. The Lakers take big leads and they usually choke them up and, and they end up losing. So I can get burned that way, but still on a scale of zero to a hundred, where's your confidence that the Lakers actually win this game tonight?

Zero to 100, maybe like maybe like a eight to 10, eight, nine, 10, maybe I give, I get the one in 10 chance to surprise. You're that optimistic. Yeah. You know, they, they've been close in a lot of the series, but no, they're not, they're not going to win. Can I say it? You've been impressed with the Lakers considering where you thought they were going to be heading into this series.

Yes. They have exceeded your expectations, which shows you how low the expectations were when we're talking to them blowing leads left and right. They win one game. It was game four. And now we have a game five tonight. See, I needed a game five last year with Denver and the Lakers. Cause they had tickets for game five in Denver and I couldn't even get to the game five of the conference finals.

Now in round one, of course, a year later, they give you a game five. I like Denver. I like Denver big tonight, laying the six and a half points. You know, I actually did a sports minute about this with the playoffs going on and the teams that are still in it, not the teams that lost in the play and tournament, all that the three players I enjoy the most.

And I don't know how this is up for debate a lot. Like maybe you could say shake Gil just Alexander should be on this list somewhere, but the three players personally that I've enjoyed watching the most this year that have also been in the post season. I know it's a very early post season. Jalen Brunson, it just New York, especially New York basketball has needed a leader. They've needed a tough player.

And, and Leon Rose knows him better than anybody, you know, outside of his family, Leon practically his family to the Brunson family. And when they got him, a lot of people thought that was an overpay. Jalen Brunson has been a star. He had 47 points yesterday.

And do me a favor, Stu. Play me that clown, Kelly Oubre Jr. Like Jalen Brunson cooks your ass, cooks your team. And this is what Kelly Oubre Jr. said about how Jalen Brunson got to 47 points.

What do you think? 34 shots. I mean, yeah, he's a great player. Great, great, great player. I love playing against him. I love his game. You know, he has a lot of fundamentals and skill set to his game. But, you know, anybody shoots 34 shots that has skill and that's a great player. You know, they're going to be able to do well.

And especially you get screened, you know, you're getting match matches and you're trying to find the right matchups and things like that. Like he's a great player. He's going to capitalize on those things.

But yeah, I mean, it's just, it was due to happen. Obviously, you know, JB is a great player. He's been playing well, doing this all year long. So just because I say he shot 34 shots doesn't mean he's going to stop shooting them because that's what they need him to do.

Oh, what a clown. The guy cooked your team. He had 47 points, 10 assists, only turned over the ball one time. And you have to say, oh, he only took 34. He took 34 shots.

You should be able to get the points. Like, come on. He was dominant defensively. He even got injured and had to leave after a bad hit by Embiid. He dominated you in that game. Just stop.

Just give someone credit without taking a jab at them. But Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Nicole Jokic. I know it's something new with Nicole Jokic, but watching those three have been a joy this post season and Anthony everts, man, you want to talk about a mentality. It, the Curry like three that he hit the other day and then he follows it up, throwing down in your face, dude, it's, he's got a Jordan, a Michael Jordan mentality where he doesn't care who's in front of him. He doesn't care what people say about him.

He is going to cook you and Nicole Jokic. I think at this point, every time he steps on the court, I know he doesn't have a great personality, but you know that you're witnessing history and you know that he's just adding on to another chapter being one of the greatest players of all time. And ultimately it's going to come down to how many championships he wins and things like that.

But I don't know how you stop that guy. He's an assist machine. He's a rebounding machine.

We know what he could do, score in the ball. His defense is underrated. He's an NBA champion. He's an NBA finals MVP. He's already two time NBA, most valuable player, and probably gonna win MVP again this year.

I don't know how you stop him. So those are the three players I personally enjoy the most. And then, Hey, but shake, I'll just Alexander's doing as well.

It's been a very remarkable. So in terms of tonight, Stu, sorry, I like the nuggets and your season puts you out of your misery. I like the thunder.

And I also like the Boston Celtics. All right, before we go, the Cowboys said they were all in this off season. And maybe their biggest free agent signing is you can't even do the I'm coming home anymore.

So let's go Bon Jovi who says you can't go home. Ezekiel Elliott. Zeke is back. Usually Zach is back now at Zeke is back.

Maybe we'll get the backstreet boys to sing that one. But Ezekiel Elliott returning to Dallas and I'll give credit to Zeke. I thought Zeke was washed when he left the Cowboys. He got a very good season in New England, but that's the big move.

This just shows you. I'm not saying it's a bad move, but Jerry Jones just cares about making headlines. Jerry Jones is just all about the drama. They have not improved this football team this year. And instead they just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about how much they have to pay back, but they're not going to pay back this off seat. How much they have to pay CD lamb. No deal done. How much they have to pay Michael Parsons. No deal done.

It's all they do is talk. I think there is a good chance and a legit chance that the Cowboys missed the playoffs this year. I know that team has talent and I know the NFC is not a monster conference where you go nine and eight.

You should make it. But you have a coach who's a lame duck egg coach and you have a quarterback who doesn't have a contract extension. And if he wants to get to free agency, cause he's no tag clause, he gets a free agency. But the Eagles, I think are gonna be better than them. The lions will be better than them. All those NSC North teams have a chance to make the playoffs.

Doesn't mean they all will. The Falcons should make the playoffs. The Niners are a heck of a team. The Rams are the heck of a heck of a team.

Seahawks aren't a bunch of scrubs. But there's a chance that this is the year where maybe the Cowboys go nine and eight missed the postseason. They go eight and nine missed the postseason. I know the last three years have been 12 wins, 12 wins, 12 wins, and they just fail in the postseason. But I do not like the tone around the Cowboys. And there are signs when you eventually have a team go under. You know, they've been able to weather the storm last three years, impress you at times the regular season, the postseason, it has been a disaster, an absolute disaster.

And I don't like this roster, how it's currently constructed. So congratulations. The Cowboys, they get a Zika. Oh, you're bringing him back. Maybe they'll wrap presents. Maybe they'll be in hard knocks again.

They'll wrap presents. Dakin and Zeke is one of the lowlights of that terrible version of a hard knocks at the Cowboys are on. And Jerry Jones put like 9,000 shakes of the salt shaker all over that McDonald's sandwich.

That's all I remember from that hard knocks. Big thanks to Charles Davis. Big thanks to each and every one of you. Big thanks to Stu, Moist Mike as well. We'll be back, Manana, everybody at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific.

It is the Zach Guilf Show on the Infinity Sports Network. We out. Bye bye. Enjoy your night, everybody.

Peace. Hey, everyone, Boomer Esiason here. The NFL draft is behind us and your favorite team is now gearing up for week number one. The free Odyssey app puts you right in the middle of the pro football conversation with the biggest sports radio stations from across the country. The local voices who know your team the best, giving you their unfiltered takes on the current state of your squad. It's always football season right here on the free Odyssey app.