Davante Adams Landing Spots (Hour 1)

Live from the Play Show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to what is a Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and the free Odyssey app. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in.

That's 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight up. If you're a flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter X at Zach Gelb, that is Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We got a whole lot to do today. Nico, Cuda Vidas, Iamaliava, Scarlatos is on the other side of the glass.

Man, that's a lot of syllables. And also Stuart Kovacs, we are rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific time. I don't know whose idea it was to let this guy back in the building. It was mine. I also don't know how we got him as a guest.

It was because of me. But we will welcome in a friend of the Infinity Sports Network program, used to do updates here for years. I think he fills in from time to time still. But now he has become a big star at the MLB Network. Greg Caserta is going to join us, talk some postseason baseball, have some fun with him at the top of the hour.

And then in the 5 p.m. Eastern time, 2 p.m. Pacific hour, we'll kick it off the third and final hour of our extravaganza with Mike Silver, the longtime NFL columnist, now working with the San Francisco Chronicle. And he has a new book out, which I have right here. I actually am double fisting with his books. They got two books sitting in front of me. It's a thick book, by the way. And it's called The Why Is Everything. And it's a book about a story of football rivalry and revolution. And it has to deal with Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Matt Leflore, and then also Raheem Mostert. So we got a whole lot to do today.

But we start with Davante Adams. So I was off yesterday as I was celebrating the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. So Happy New Year to all that do celebrate in the Jewish religion. And by the way, oh, we had a feast last night. A matzo ball soup. My father made a brisket, which was to die for. My mom had a little homemade challah.

My sister had the rugala as well. Oh, it was some good, good, good, good, good, good, good food on Long Island last night. But I was kind of jonesing to do the show yesterday because I saw this Davante Adams news. Now, we touched on it a little bit at the end of what was Tuesday's show when the news did come down that Davante Adams wants to get traded.

Nothing is imminent, but his preference is to get traded from the Las Vegas Raiders. And we talked about the kerfuffle that's going on and played out publicly with not only Davante Adams, but his fight going up against his head football coach and Antonio Pierce. Which it's ironic because the only reason Davante Adams gave the Raiders another year and tried to give them the benefit of the doubt is because he was buying in to what Antonio Pierce was selling and how last year did end for the Las Vegas Raiders. So we got some more intel yesterday, and I don't think the first part is anything that we didn't know.

But after that, there's more to react to. And let me just preface this by saying from the jump, I do not think that Davante Adams should want to go to the Jets. Now, I understand he wants to go there, but I don't think he should be happy if he gets traded to the Jets.

I will explain why coming up momentarily. But Davante Adams wants to play for the Jets, sources say, but the All-Pro is open to landing with other teams and hasn't demanded to be traded anywhere specific. The Raiders will take the best deal. Now, in this article, when you read it from rap sheet Ian Rappaport, in fact, according to sources informed of Adams thinking, he is open to playing for several other teams. The New Orleans Saints, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens, the Buffalo Bills, the Dallas Cowboys, and perhaps the San Francisco 49ers are among teams that either have inquired about the six time Pro Bowler or places Adams would be happy landing. So let's go through those teams. Why would he want to go to the Jets?

Obvious. Aaron Rodgers is his former quarterback. Aaron Rodgers is a close friend of his.

And Aaron Rodgers has a small window to go win a Super Bowl, even though through the first four games, the Jets do not look like a Super Bowl team. But you quickly reunite with Aaron Rodgers, makes Davante Adams happy. Why would he want to go to the Saints?

Stu, it's actually crazy. Now, we all have friends, right, from college that we love and that we hang out with and that are unbelievable and awesome. And obviously, Davante Adams and Derek Carr, that connection going back to Fresno State. But why would Davante Adams want to go to the Saints where you're not winning a Super Bowl? And why would he want to reunite with Derek Carr, who, yes, there's familiarity. But Derek Carr, and this may be me being benevolent here, he's a mid quarterback. And that may be me being too generous to Derek Carr. Derek Carr is the guy for two, three games looks like he could be a top 10 quarterback. And then when you walk away at the end of the season, you're like, he's not a top 10 quarterback. So I understand since before they were stars, they knew each other very well and they were so close and you had that connection.

But eventually, when you're just relying off things in your past, you need to find a way to do what's in the best interest of yourself for the future. And you are in this mess right now in Las Vegas because you wanted to play with Derek Carr. And then Derek Carr eventually got, I think it was he got released from the Raiders, if memory serves me right.

Yeah, because he got bent, he got released and then he signed with the Saints. So why would you try to recreate what you had with the Raiders just in New Orleans? We're sure the Saints right now are a better franchise than the Raiders.

But it's not like you're going from a two star hotel to the next thing you know, you're in the four seasons or you're in the fountain blue down in Miami. So this to me, if he gets traded to the Saints now tripling down on Derek Carr, I don't get it still. Makes no sense to me when I saw this news the other day and I thought of teams obviously the Jets came to mind as well as some others that you're going to mention. But I didn't even think of the Saints. I thought the idea of playing with Carr and trying to win a Super Bowl with his buddy Derek Carr, I thought that was over.

I thought that was over and done with and he had moved on, but apparently not. The other teams, the Steelers, the Steelers would be a fascinating destination. However, when you look at the Steelers like Devante Adams, you got to ask yourself this. Why are you leaving the Raiders? Well, you're leaving the Raiders because you don't have a quarterback right now. OK, so is Russell Wilson or Justin Fields better than Aiden O'Connell and Gardner Minshew?

Sure. Most of the teams that you're asking to get traded to, they have better quarterbacks, but is your long term answer there? Like if I'm Devante Adams, I understand maybe you want a more stable organization and you want people that you could trust. But when you look at the quarterback position, there's a chance and a good chance that we know Russell Wilson's not there next year.

And who knows? I know that the Steelers get off to a good start, but I'm not ready to say that Justin Fields is the long term guy. So sure, the Steelers are habitually in the playoffs because Mike Tillman is a good coach and they never bottom out. But an organization like the Steelers, I get why the Steelers want to make the move.

Hey, they ran on Iyuk. So now you get Adams and you team him up with Pickens. You got Fryer Muth, you got Najee Harris, you got Jalen Warren, but they don't still have a quarterback. So I look at these lists, the names of these teams so far. I'll get to the Jets in just a second. The Saints, if I'm Devante Adams and I put myself in his shoes, I'm not going to the Saints.

The Steelers, I'm not going to the Steelers because I don't have a quarterback that I could trust. The other teams here that were mentioned, Baltimore, absolutely. Buffalo, absolutely. Dallas, absolutely.

And San Francisco, absolutely. Ravens, how fun would that be? Devante Adams, Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson, hello.

Buffalo, okay. Devante Adams, you're now the number one wide receiver, replacing the role of Staphon Diggs. And you get to play with maybe the second best quarterback in the sport right now in Josh Allen. Dallas, I know I'm critical in the drama, Dallas choking Cowboys, but Dak Prescott, you know he is their guy.

You have C.D. Lamb and they need more of a presence on offense too. They need another piece. And then the Niners, I don't see how the Niners can make this work. Like, Stu, I know I'm usually someone that says, oh, the salary cap isn't real in the NFL and you could find a way to maneuver and jump through the hula hoops to make the salary cap work and to get the player that you want. But you look at the Niners, they just paid Brandon Iuch. They have Deebo Samuel on the roster. I know Christian McCaffrey's not playing right now, but you're paying him too.

You're eventually going to have to pay Brock Purdy. How the heck can the San Francisco 49ers? Like, I get why the Niners would do it.

I get why Devante Adams would do it. They're a Super Bowl team even without him. So then they're like a Super Bowl team on steroids. They would have the most pressure in the league. They may have it right now to win a Super Bowl, but they would by far and away had the most pressure in the league and they'd become a Super Bowl favorite the San Francisco 49ers if they were to be able to add Devante Adams.

That's like a Pro Bowl team, for crying out loud with the names that you have. But like that kind of feels like to me, Stu, you know, when you're growing up as a kid and you ask your parents, hey, can you tell Santa Claus to get me this for Christmas? And you know the ask is ridiculous. Like, oh, I don't give me a gift that you wanted as a kid, Stu. Something that's crazy. Oh, my God. Like one of those like cars, those those toy cars that you drive around the neighborhood in.

Yeah. Let's say you get a toy car that you want to drive around the neighborhood in. But you're like one years old. Like, what are we doing here? Like, you just know it's not going to happen. So I look at the 49ers as a nice thought.

It's kind of like me saying, hey, I want to go on a date with Beyonce. It's a nice thought. You know what the upside is, but it's not going to happen. So I look at those teams. If I'm Adams, Saints, no, I want no part of it. Steelers, I just don't know who your long term quarterback is going to be. Ravens, absolutely. Bills, absolutely.

Cowboys, absolutely. And the 49ers, nice thought. I don't think it's going to happen, but I could see why Davante Adams would want to go there.

But the team that he is right now, it seems like hell bent. And what's the foregone conclusion of him going to? It's the New York Jets. And if I'm Davante Adams, here's why I wouldn't go to the Jets. You don't know how much longer Aaron Rodgers is going to play for. There's a chance you go to the Jets this year and Rodgers retires at the end of the season or at most Aaron Rodgers plays one more year. So if you're trying to win a Super Bowl, number one, I don't think the Jets are winning a Super Bowl with Davante Adams or without Davante Adams. But number two, if you want to win a Super Bowl, there's better destinations than going to the Jets. Just on this list, Ravens better, Bills better and also the San Francisco 49ers better. So there are better destinations for Davante Adams to go win a Super Bowl.

And also those teams have stability long term at the quarterback position with the Ravens having Lamar Jackson, the Bills having Josh Allen. And even though Aaron Rodgers is a better quarterback than Brock Purdy, Brock Purdy isn't going anywhere anytime soon in San Francisco. So I understand wanting to play with Aaron Rodgers again. I get how great Aaron Rodgers is.

But why are you in Las Vegas in the first place? Because the Packers didn't show you the tender loving care that you wanted. They were all caught up in Rodgers future. And you started to envision life in Green Bay with that Aaron Rodgers. And you were like, oh, I got to go hook up and join my best friend in Derek Carr with the Saints and then or with the Raiders. And then he's out of that team.

So why would you kind of go to a spot again where, yes, I get it. You had that synergy. You have that connection with Aaron Rodgers. He is awesome.

He is phenomenal. But he's also still working back from a major injury. And you don't know how much longer he's going to play. So like Davante Adams, what do you want to do?

Do you want to play with your friends or do you want to win? Because if Davante Adams wants to win, he goes to somewhere other than the Jets. And it's not the Saints. It's not even the Steelers. It's, you know, hey, I get why you want to go to the Cowboys, but the Cowboys, I don't care who you put on there. You could put the NFC Pro Bowl team. You have them coached up and run by Jerry Jones.

They're not getting to a Super Bowl just the way that it's been since 1995. But if there's legitimate interest from teams like the Ravens and the Bills, man, you got to go to one of those two destinations. And obviously, you throw the 49ers in there, but I just don't know how the 49ers end up pulling off the deal unless maybe they're trading a Deebo Samuel back and return to the Raiders. Like that's the other thing here, Stu, you being a Raiders fan, what do you want in return? Because like we could say Kansas City and right, we had that discussion the other day and the Kansas City price would be higher. Yeah, it's a first round pick if you're Kansas City, but I don't even know if the Raiders are going to get a two here with the disgruntled wide receiver.

That's what it seems like. It seems like their best hope might be like a three that could turn into a conditional three. So I think that's the best bet. I want a lot of picks. That's what I want more than anything. So I know they can convert the signing bonus to kind of help some of these teams that don't have a lot of cap room.

So if they could do that, maybe they can get a two and a five or a three and a five, something like that. But I'm looking at these teams on this list. Yeah, the Jets. Don't you got to kind of ask for Garrett Wilson? I'm not saying the Jets would do that, but I would ask for Garrett Wilson because the Jets are in a spot where Rogers is running the team. Rogers and Wilson having connected yet, I think it would be malpractice on the Jets to trade Garrett Wilson. But if Rogers really wants Devante Adams, it's like, does Garrett Wilson become expendable? Like, that's a player where I would say, oh, forget about the picks. You give me Garrett Wilson.

I don't care what picks you get. It's going to be tough to find the better player in the second or third round than what you get with Garrett Wilson, who is a first wide receiver. The Saints probably don't have a player that you're really dying to go get. The Steelers, you could say George Pickens, but I don't think they're getting rid of George Pickens.

Like, we just kind of saw that with the Brandon Aiyuk situation, even though Adams is a better player. The Ravens, you know, is there you want, say, flowers? But I think from the Ravens, it's going to end up being a pick. The Bills, probably a pick. The Cowboys, hey, that can CD Lamb. And then the Niners is the one where I look at it. I'm like, maybe Deepa, who I've talked about, maybe them trade him after the year. It's rare you get a player for player trade in the NFL, but we see it more throughout the years. Maybe the Raiders, even though it's like, I don't know how much you want, Deebo, with the state of your franchise.

But if the Raiders are going to go get an actual quarterback this offseason, imagine next year you get you get rid of Adams, but then you get Deebo. You have Brock Bowers. Jacoby Myers is still there.

You got Michael Mayer right at the tight end. How's he been doing, by the way? He's not played the last couple of weeks. Personal reasons. Oh, personal reasons.

Whatever that means. And the run game you can't really trust, but they're going running back by committee, which is fine in the NFL. So Deebo could actually, you know, maybe get a little swap there. And that's how you make it work for the 49ers. You know what my dream would be? It's not a team that you mentioned.

OK, your dream would be, let me see if I could guess it. AFC or NFC team? NFC. NFC team?

And it's not a team that I mentioned? No. Philadelphia? No. OK. Huh. Commanders?

No. By the way, that's where I would go if I was him. Like, if you go to Buffalo, if you could go to the Ravens, fine. Like, you buy stock long term in Jayden Daniels and that team could win the NFC East this year.

I don't think that's that far fetched as it was four weeks ago. But if you go get, imagine, imagine the commanders pulling off this deal, they give a pick or whatever to go get Devonta Adams. You get Devonta Adams, Terry McLaurin, Jayden Daniels and Brian Robinson Jr. That makes it to be a fun team.

Your dream team. Oh, hold on. Rams? No. Cooper Cup?

Well, he's hurt too now. All right. I have no clue. Give me a hint. Give me a hint.

I don't think they would ever do this, but. You want to give me a hint? It's a team that drafted a quarterback in the first round. Team that drafted a quarterback in the first round that's in the NFC. The Bears? No. Minnesota? Quarterback that is not playing. Minnesota?

No. The other quarterback that is not playing in the NFC. The other quarterback that's not playing.

The team that is playing tonight. Oh, you would call up the Falcons? If you're in win now mode, you want to win with Kirk Cousins. Give us the quarterback that I think the Raiders wanted with the 13th pick or whatever pick they had. So you go get Michael Pennix Jr. Yeah. And they get Devonta Adams. So they would have Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Devonta Adams, Mooney.

You would also have Bijan Robinson and Tyler Algier. That's juicy. Yeah, that's right. I didn't even think about that. Now, I don't think the Falcons do it.

I agree. Because you don't have to give up a first round pick to go get Devonta Adams. And then you'd be giving up your first round pick from this past year.

And how funky would that be? Could you imagine that roller coaster ride? We paid Kirk Cousins $180 million. Then we basically put Kirk on the clock because we drafted his replacement. And then four or five weeks after the season, we traded Kirk's replacement for Devonta Adams.

And Kirk, even though he's not 100% right now, we're now going back to the well with Kirk Cousins. Yeah, you're dreaming there. That's like when I say I want to go on a date with Beyonce again. All right. You got to settle from somebody else. You could throw out the Falcons. I haven't even considered the Falcons. But in return, you're not getting back.

Yeah, they're not getting panics for them. Yeah, if you had told me maybe drink London, okay, potentially. But Michael Penix Jr., no. No, that's just not happening. That'd be like, hey, you tell me, hey, Zach, you can't go on a date with Beyonce.

Then I go, I'll have a Carmen Electra. And that's still a no. It's not going to happen. Let's be real. All right.

This is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. Where do you think Devonta Adams should go to? Quite frankly, I would say Bills, Ravens, Commanders.

Those are the three teams that I think right away for Devonta Adams after hearing all these destinations that would really move the needle for me. Well, come on back when we do return. We have all adapted to the new Major League Baseball playoff format.

Well, maybe not Delta 9, Brian's, Baltimore Orioles. They've been struggling with it. But when we come on back, will we adapt to the new college football playoff format?

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Learn more at Depend.com. Stu, sometimes I think people have a listening problem. It's amazing. So we just did 20 minutes on Devante Adams. And sometimes I may say something, and there are times where you look back and you go, oh, the way I meant to say it, it didn't come off as the way that it did to the listening audience. Like, that happens where you think you know what you're saying, and then either you misspeak or you didn't make your point clear enough. I think I made my point pretty damn clear in the last segment that I don't believe the Saints or the Jets if I'm Devante Adams should be the two teams that I'm going to.

Like, I wasn't speaking a different language, right? You heard me say that. You know, I'm not even just going to ask Stu. I'll ask Stu and Nico.

The Saints and the Jets, I said, Devante Adams should pass on both those teams, right, Stu? That is correct. You did say that, yes. Okay, so there's one person that heard me correctly. Nico, I know you're a little bit younger, so those ears, you know, it's not like my grandfather's ears, so a little bit older.

He's 97. You can't hear as well. Your ears should hear better than Stu and also mine as well, since Stu and I are like old curmudgeons compared to Nico Cudavita's Iamaliava Scarlatos, who is running the board for us today. You heard my point pretty clearly, right? Yeah, it's pretty clear. Okay.

So Jordan NVL on Twitter, who is a Saints fan, he goes, I swear Zach Gelb is the biggest Saints hater for no reason whatsoever. LOL, you're telling me that the Jets who have looked miserable and have beaten the Titans and Patriots and got demolished by San Francisco and lost to Denver with the 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers makes more sense for Adams? Dude, I understand you criticizing me. There's a lot of reasons for people to criticize me.

I will hold my hand up and be the first one to say it. But when I just did a 20-minute segment, for crying out loud, saying, yeah, I wouldn't go to either team. Why are you making it out like I'm then saying he should go to the Jets?

The Jets are great and the Saints suck. Quite frankly, there was a radio host who's in this time slot, who's sitting in the same chair as I am right now and sounds just like me. Oh, wait, it is me, Zach Gelb, who led the show on Monday saying, as the kids would say, the Jets are mid. That was me. So I'm not making it out like if Davante Adams gets traded to the Jets, that he's going to a five-star resort and it's all warm and fuzzy and it's awesome. And it's like a happy place.

I just did a 20-minute segment. So take a Q-tip, Jordan, and maybe clean out the ears a little bit. And just understand, I'm not advocating for Davante Adams to go to Saints or the Jets. But now that I get under Jordan's skin a little bit, if he did say where should he go to and it's only between the Saints or the Jets, it's absolutely the Jets. Now, I'm not thinking that the Jets are close to winning a Super Bowl, but they're closer than the Saints this year than winning a Super Bowl. The Saints play in a crappy division and you're not even going to win that crappy division.

So it's not as if the Saints are some unbelievable team and the Saints have a better overall roster or the Jets have an overall better overall roster than the Saints. And quite frankly, who did the Saints beat this year? They beat the Panthers. They beat the Cowboys. Cowboys a good victory, but the Cowboys aren't that good.

And then you lost to Philadelphia and you lost to Atlanta. So pump the brakes a little bit before I have to hear how much about how the Saints are this great team. I love New Orleans. I love when I go to New Orleans. I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras once. I've been there for a Super Bowl. Irene's is one of my favorite restaurants. You know, I'll go down there, have some beignets, a cafe du monde.

I'll get some alligator. I love New Orleans. This is nothing anti-New Orleans, but I don't think Dennis Allen is all that great of a coach.

Sorry. I don't think Derek Carr is all that great of a quarterback. I like Galvin Kamara as a football player. You know, but outside of that, it's not like your football team has a lot to offer. So it's funny to me how you could do a 20-minute segment and literally say that the Saints nor the Jets should be on Devante Adams' wish list. And then you get some guy in New Orleans who's like, oh, Galv's making it out to be like the Jets are this great team and the Saints suck.

No. I don't think you should go to either. If I'm Devante Adams, Buffalo. If I'm Devante Adams, Baltimore. If I'm Devante Adams, you know, San Francisco, Kansas City. You know, I would rather go, as I said, to the commanders with their young quarterback in Jayden Daniels than either the Jets or the Saints because they're quarterbacks.

You don't know how long they're going to be around. Derek Carr is not a franchise quarterback. He is at best the 15th best quarterback in the league.

And that's me waking up being in a generous mood. All right. And Aaron Rodgers could be out of town at the end of the season. I think he'll play one more year.

But he's not playing past 2025. So before you get all caught up in your feelings, I know a lot of people get caught up in their feelings these days and you get so sensitive and you want to attack me on social media. But you listen better. All right. All right.

Marco Belletti is here. You don't know what you just walked into, by the way. But let me ask you this.

This new baseball playoff format that we've seen for the last few years. What are you trying to do here? Be able to get to my microphone because you put the entire thing over the little buttons that allows me to turn off.

Yes. Well, you know what? Someone I'm not usually the host that complains around here when people move things in the studio. Trust me, there are a lot of hosts that will complain when people move things in the studio. But I come in to do the show today and I'll now move the monitor down and still looked at me. He goes something smell bad in there because I was sitting there. I was like just looking around confused.

And I go, no, I go. But it looks like the studio is a cleaner and and be like a wider. And then I realized it was because the monitor was on the floor. I mean, on this desk, it was on the floor floor. So I just picked it up quickly before the show and I put it where I thought was here. I did not realize it was covering your microphone. So, yeah, I do apologize for preventing your microphone from getting turned on. Apology accepted.

Even though Nico could have just pressed some buttons for you and do his job. Well, yes, but, you know, I should be in charge of my own microphone. Yes. So let me ask you this because you're a big baseball guy. I know it's now been a few years of this new baseball playoff format. Do you like it? Has it grown on you? Do I like it personally or do I think it's good for baseball?

Because there's two different questions. All right. Do I personally like it? No. Do I think it's good for baseball? Yes, 100 percent, because I think it gets people excited and I get it gets eyeballs to watch the games. And that's what baseball needs.

Yes. So I never thought that they should have added an extra team in. Like I was fine with the old format, even though they did add an extra team in and it was that one game. Like that was fine with me. I never had an issue with that, even though baseball is series. And then it's like, OK, the biggest game of your season is a one game thing.

I never had a problem with that. Going to the extra team I didn't like because you have such a long regular season and it's like, why do we need to reward losing? It's just we have to open up another spot. But I will admit it has worked. But this is my fear, even though Major League Baseball, it's grown and I think that it's worked. I still don't know what to make of the college football playoff expansion, because that that's a minor change in Major League Baseball. I know they eventually one time added a wild card, then they added two. And now you have three wild card teams. But in college football, at least in baseball, that was a slow move. In the NFL, or excuse me, in college football, they're going from four to 12. And in most years, we didn't even really need four.

When you look at, there's a lot of mediocrity in college football. See the word need. We don't need any of this.

There's a lot of greed, though. No, we don't need any of this. I mean, when you had, whatever, two division winners or three division, you don't need to have all these extra playoff teams. But it does bring more eyeballs and it does reward mediocrity.

Now, is that good for the regular season? No, but nobody cares. Nobody cares about that stuff.

And we as a society don't care anymore. We want more games that mean more at the end. So if you're going to have four teams or 12 teams, 12 is always going to win out. Wait till it gets to be more.

Same thing for baseball. You think it's going to stop here? They're going to add more teams because you have two teams that are on a buy and nobody likes the buys. What gets rid of the buys? Well, let's add two more teams. Play more games, yeah. Add two more teams.

You don't have any buys anymore. You have to worry about being off for a week and you can have, what, you don't like three games? Let's do a five-game series.

That's what they're going to get to. We're going to get to the point where we have more and more playoff games because the regular season is not there for the casual. It's there for the diehard. And nobody cares about the diehard. Sure.

Ever. Now, I'm not disagreeing with anything you just said. But the good part about the playoff expansion in baseball, I still feel like anyone has a chance to go to the World Series. And we've seen the wildcard teams the last two years in the NL, the Phillies and the Diamondbacks, get to the World Series even though they didn't win it. In college football, like right now, just looking at the AP Top 25 poll, if I'm being as generous, as generous as possible, there's probably only six teams that I think can win a national championship this year. And we're getting double that number in the college football playoff. But at some point we will have, you're going to have 12 teams, at some point we will have a 10, 11 or 12 knock somebody off. Oh, an upset in the first round, sure. Right. But will they be able to do it then further than that?

You don't, it depends on who it is. Okay. Because how many times, I mean, a couple of years ago when Alabama had two losses and didn't make the college football playoff, anybody want to see them? Probably not. So who's to say, it depends, look, if you're looking at, is somebody like, you know. Like a big brand, you know, has a few hiccups, maybe loses two games on a field goal. Early. And then they sneak in as a tall.

And all of a sudden there you go. That's fair. So yeah, I mean, is Ole Miss going to get over the hump as an 11 or whatever it is this year? That's different.

That's difficult. Even this year, Georgia has a tough schedule. They just lost a game to Alabama. It's not crazy that Georgia loses another game or two and you still walk into the college football playoff thinking Georgia is one of the best teams in the country. Which is why that'll work and that'll be something that everybody will kind of look at. Yeah, look, they're 11 seed wanted and your reaction will be, but it's Georgia.

But it's still an 11. And if you didn't have 12 teams, they're not there this year. So there's going to be plenty of years where, whether it's Ohio State or Alabama or Georgia, one of the blue bloods, if you will, is going to wind up with one of those seeds. They're going to knock somebody off. They're going to win a national championship. You're going to go, damn, 12 seed did it.

Yeah. And baseball, I think you need to sell the sport. Football, you don't need to sell the sport.

So you don't have to do something like this, but they have us by the you know what. And football could do anything. And guess why we will all eventually adapt to this new playoff format? Because when these first round games happen and let's say you got, I don't know, Penn State against Notre Dame in Happy Valley. All those games, you're going to be like, oh, wow, it's must watch.

It's much it's must see, even though I don't think it's necessary, even though I don't think they should have done it. We'll eventually all adapted again. And it's still it's just it's eyeballs to the bigger games during the regular season.

And as much as we want to scream and yell, will it deludes it or waters it? It doesn't because then you're still going to be there watching the playoff games. We can cry and complain that we don't have the undefeated teams matching up. We don't care.

Once the playoffs start, myself included, all of us, it all goes out the window. We can complain for three months. We could say this is not what we want. This is not what we want.

This is not what we want. You get a playoff game in front of your face. You sit down watching it. My family holiday dinner, I said, we're done with all this stuff at seven thirty because we got to watch the Mets, which is why it comes back to the same thing for all of these sports. More playoff games, more teams, whether it breeds mediocrity or not, which it does. It's still good for your sport because it gets more eyeballs. We could stop, though, in the NBA. They already put enough teams in, though. They got 10 now with the play in tournament, all that in each. How much did we all hate the play in tournament idea concept?

I still hate it. But it's still the same thing. We're watching games that we wouldn't have watched before. Yeah, well, because that's more of a product of the league where the teams got lazy.

So you get some of these bigger stars that have more rest and more load management. They end up playing in those games. Notice we've cared a lot more about the Western Conference play in tournament games. The East, not so much.

Couple of 39 win teams. Let's go. And really, you sit and you go, why would I want to watch this?

And then you put it in front of you and you're like, I got to see it. Yeah, it is the Zach Gelbshaw of the Infinity Sports Network. We will come on back, we'll update you on some of the biggest storylines in the world of sports with some audio. We'll get to the news brief next. Enjoyable news brief time on the Zach Gelbshaw.

Let's start it off with Antonio Pierce. So you never know what you're going to get. Some days he'll go like something on social media that he shouldn't be liking. Other days he'll go tell players who are not giving it their all that, hey, I don't love that you're making business decisions. And then on other days, he'll give the media absolutely nothing.

So I guess it's like spin the wheel to see what Antonio Pierce you're going to get. Let's hear what he had to say about the latest with Devante Adams. Yeah, Devante's dealing with a hamstring. He's rehabbing and the rest of us are focused on Denver. He here in the building today? He's supposed to be rehabbing and me and Devante talk often. Have you talked to him since all of this?

I believe that between me and Devante. Are you concerned at all with this being a distraction? No, no, because we're focused on Denver. I have no problem with how we handle that.

You got to limit the distraction, even though it's a big distraction right now. Stu, I hate to say this about a player because you could be having a legitimate injury and also be asking to leave the team that you're on. But doesn't it seem like that hamstring just going to be fine if Devante Adams gets his way and he's going to get traded? I kind of think this is a, I don't know, bold bleep type of hamstring injury.

I would tend to agree with you. That was kind of my first thought, too. And then I was like, ah, maybe not.

And then these reports came out early in the week. I'm like, okay. I don't think the injury is necessarily 100 percent real. So where could Devante Adams wind up? Well, Mike McCarthy, how about your football team? The Dallas Cowboys trading for Devante Adams. Listen up. Personally, I have tremendous love and respect for Devante.

I had a chance to see him out there in Vegas in the preseason. So I don't really know exactly what's going on there. But once again, we do feel very confident with our receiving room. So that wasn't a no. But it wasn't a yes.

That was a pretty much no answer. I'll just talk about the guys that we have in our receiving room right now. Let's be real. It doesn't matter what Mike McCarthy says. It matters what Terry Jones says. Let's go to Rob Gronkowski. Jaguars don't have a win to start off the season. Here is Gronk on Up and Adams with Kay Adams about the possibility of the hoodie Bill Belichick going to the Jaguars. I think Coach Belichick will pick up the phone if the Jacksonville Jaguars call and they have a head coach vacancy.

No doubt about that. I mean, I believe that Coach Belichick does believe in the – does belong in the coaching world. I think he's doing a great job in the media this year in taking a year off. But I think he will be back in the NFL next year. Everyone wants to see that. I want to see that. NFL fans want to see that. I feel like, you know, he will take the call because they had Tom Kaufmann in there before who's under the same coaching tree as Bill Belichick. And, you know, that tough mentality, that old school type of football. So they understand, you know, the discipline of Coach Belichick. Here's why I think Belichick to the Jaguars would actually make sense. Now, I know there's a good relationship with Belichick and the Khan family.

That's number one. Number two, that's a small-time team. You get a big-time coach, he'll have all the power. But then also, I think what people forget with Belichick, because it ended ugly, is that those rosters, which he was running to be fair, those rosters the last three years in New England weren't good. And he made the playoffs one of those years, which was overachieving. Eight and nine the following year, even though it seemed like it was underachieving, with the talent they had, it was overachieving.

And then it bottomed out. The Jaguars have a fine roster. The Jaguars have a good, but not a great roster. So can Belichick go to Jacksonville and go win like nine, ten games?

I think he can. But if Bill wants to win a Super Bowl, there's better destinations that I think will open up than the Jacksonville Jaguars. Talking about the Jaguars, let's hear their former head coach, Urban Meyer, on his triple coverage podcast. He credits Kirby Smart for the comeback, even though they lost up against Alabama.

Kirby Smart to me. And people are going to listen and say, what is he talking about? That might be the coach of the year moment to bring that team back and get their minds right. Because you have a bunch of people right now just got obliterated, and they're not used to that. Those athletes who haven't, I mean, they got smoked in a tough environment. They come back and took the lead.

There's going to be people roll their eyes because they lost. I get that. But when you earn the stripes like Kirby Smart and his staff to get that team back, think about that.

I've never really been in that scenario. But you're in Tuscaloosa, Alabama against an elite team, and somehow you got your feet back on the ground, and they went and fought and fought, and they got back and got the lead. So coaching of the year 2024 goes to Kirby Smart. I get the point.

And let me just say this. I understand when you're getting blown out and you are that team, you could see what your team is really made out of by what they do in the second half, even if you don't win and how much competitive kind of flow and nature they do display. But to say that's a coach of the year performance, what crack are you on, Urban Meyer?

Like, what coach of the year performance? And I understand if Georgia plays Alabama again, there may be a reason to take Georgia over Alabama. And maybe that game looks different, obviously, if Georgia gets off to a better start. But last time I checked, didn't we see NIU beat Notre Dame?

Like, we've seen some crazy coaching upsets that one team actually had a victory in. Kaelin DeBoer didn't do a good job the other night. Kirby did a better job and a loss than Kaelin DeBoer did in a win, huh?

What are we doing? Sark blowing out Michigan? That's not as good as then Kirby Smart getting a comeback and then losing a game? Come on, Urban. Do you know what's surprising about that, Stu? Urban Meyer doesn't come off to you as a participation trophy kind of guy. Like, when he was at Florida, there was a standard of excellence being number one.

When he's at Ohio State, a standard of excellence being number one. That's basically like, hey, your team sucked in the first half. They showed some resiliency in the second half. They lost the game. But because of how much they fought, yeah, we'll give you a nice little pat on the behind.

But that's not even just giving a pat on the behind. That's a coach of the year performance. Coach of the year. He lost the game. Lost the game, right? Win, loss. What's the objective? To win. So can you sometimes have a good loss?

Yes. But in this case, you could be impressed by the comeback. I'm not sitting here and saying that's the best coaching performance I've seen in college football this year. That to me, Stu, if you would have told me that a coach said this and you threw Urban Meyer and three other names, I don't care who the three other names were. Never Urban.

I would have never thought it was Urban. I'm with you, too. When I heard that sound, I saw that sound this morning. I was like, wow, did he really say that?

And I'm listening to it. I'm like, yep, he did. I'm mystified by that. I really am.

I'm shocked. I think Urban's getting soft now. Never want him to coach again in college football, if that's what he's saying. I want the Urban Meyer that's a maniac making those guys train at 3 a.m. Not the Urban Meyer that's like, oh, Kirby's smart now coach of the year. What a coaching performance because he got his guys to show up and actually play what they're capable of in the second half. Well, if Kirby actually had those guys ready to go in Alabama, you know, they can match their intensity.

Maybe you wouldn't have been in such a big hole that you had to dig yourself out of. I'm not usually surprised on this show. I'm not usually stunned on this show.

I'm stunned because of that. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on the Infinity Sports Network. Hour number one in the books. We've got a whole lot more to do. Coming up in the second hour, Greg Cussert is going to join us in studio from the MLB Network. We'll do a little Take 5 Wednesday and we also get to the future of Tyreek Hill. That's what the next 60 minutes have in store for you. We'll take a five-minute break and we'll get that rolling next.