NFL Pass/Fail (Hour 2)

Alrighty, hour number two of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Now joining us in studio from the Indianapolis Colts is running back Trey Sermon. And Trey, of course, played his college football at Oklahoma, also Ohio State.

And he knows a thing or two about the man that just won the Super Bowl MVP in Jalen Hurts. Trey, it's Zach Gelb. Appreciate you coming on in. How you been? I've been great, man. Definitely glad to be out here. It's been fun. So let me start you off with why you're in New York City. You going to Fashion Week?

Is that right? I did. I went to a lot of events, had a great time. So like when you go to Fashion Week, right? Like someone like me, I don't have fashion senses to go to Fashion Week. You know, what are you wearing? Just wondering. Oh, whatever is your style? I know. I mean, this is my first Fashion Week in New York, so I definitely tried to spice it up, kind of switch up my my style a bit.

But I mean, whatever really is appealing to you now. I know that we have similar representation. So you're a Lepselter guy and Max Lepselter, right? He loves his fashion.

We know that. So how did you how did this all come about in terms of getting you here? Like what was it that made you say, oh, this is something I want to go to? Yeah, well, the past couple of years, I've been getting more and more into fashion. So I mean, I just decided to just let those guys know that, you know, I want to go to New York Fashion Week and just kind of get that whole experience. Was anyone cool that you ran into? Anyone cool that you ran into while you were there? Um, I've seen I think I was going to the Shao show and I seen Fabulous there. Oh, cool.

Like that was that was pretty dope. What kind of music you like, by the way? Just wondering.

R&B, hip hop. Now, not to put you on blast here, but it's it's very polarizing. Were you in or out of the Kendrick performance at halftime? Honestly, I really like the performance.

I mean, just the whole dynamic of it. I feel like they did a good job. I enjoyed watching it. Trey Sermon here with us in studio. So let's talk about the Colts. Then we'll talk about your pal in Jalen Hurts.

When you look back at this season with the Colts, I know it didn't go obviously the way that you wanted it to. But there's a lot of questions about the future of Anthony Richardson. You've been in that locker room, you know, and Anthony a lot better than than we do. What do you think Anthony Richardson can eventually become as an NFL quarterback? Honestly, I think he can become I mean, everything he wants to be.

I mean, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He definitely has the potential and he's grown a lot this year. I mean, he has so much to build off of. And as long as he, you know, keep doing what he's doing, being consistent. I mean, his future is very bright. Now, you've been a young player in this league.

Right. That has to deal with injuries as well. Just mentally, like how do you put yourself when things aren't going your way? You know, in a good spot because you go from big time college football, Oklahoma, Ohio State, right?

Creme de la creme football. And so far in the NFL, right? You've had to bounce around from team to team. So when you had that that little bit of adversity, how do you kind of put yourself in the best mental spot to see the rest of your career go the way that you like it to go? Really, it just comes down to your preparation and your consistency. I mean, no doubt that it's tough. I mean, it's not easy. The NFL is not easy, but I know as long as I continue to get better each and every day, just keep the right mindset.

And I feel like everything will work out. What have you been able to learn from someone like Jonathan Taylor? Because he's had his fair share of injuries, but that's one of the best running backs in the league. So you guys play in the same position. What can you learn being in the same building as him? What I learned from him, I mean, really the past past two years is really just the patience of the game. And, you know, I feel like having really good patience in this style of offense is very beneficial, especially with a lot of the RPO games. So the offensive line, they're not getting off as quick as they usually would on a regular run play.

But I mean, just having patience, letting everything develop and then just trust your eyes. Now, you've been around Shane Steichen in Philadelphia. Now, he's your head coach in Indianapolis. Sometimes when you go from offensive coordinator to head coach with how big of a jump up it is, it just doesn't work out.

Now, I don't think I could say that right now that he's not going to be a successful head coach, but I can't guarantee it. So you knowing Shane from a player perspective, what do you really like about Shane Steichen as a head coach? What I like about him the most is he really does his best to try to relate to the players. I mean, he he's a great guy. And again, he tries to relate to everybody. And, you know, he he'll challenge you to be the best player you can be and the best person you can be. So, I mean, that just comes with discipline, consistency, stuff that you don't really it's required for the football field. But, you know, as a person as well, it's good tangibles to have.

Just curious. I know Joe Flacco wasn't the full time starter this year. He got some starts when when Anthony was bench and they went back to Anthony. But having that veteran presence who's kind of seen it all in the locker room.

Wright has won a Super Bowl, won a Super Bowl MVP. But what does Joe Flacco kind of do for a locker room? What you were able to take from him last year? Man, he does a lot. He's a great team guy. He he's seen a lot of balls. So, you know, just kind of picking his brain, see how he sees the field.

I mean, it's different and it's definitely a good thing to have, especially for younger quarterbacks. So who were some of your role models like growing up? Like, was there a running back or two that you really enjoyed watching?

Yeah, definitely a couple. Lydani and Tomlinson. He was my, by far, my favorite running back growing up. And Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley, too. Todd, man, that's like one of the best what if careers possible because Todd took the league by storm. And then unfortunately, just the injuries caught up to him. But L.T., he was two great options. Right. And L.T. had the Hall of Fame career.

Unbelievable. And Todd Gurley, you know, it's crazy. I saw Todd in Nebraska because his fullback is the strength coach now when he was in college.

He's now the strength coach at Nebraska. And, you know, Todd's my age. He's he's 30. And I see him walk around. I go, you know, I thought he was at least like 35 just because he already had his whole career already already come and gone.

Yeah. So get him back to Richardson as Trey Sermon is here in studio. When that all happened with the tap out and then the right the team, they benched him.

They eventually did go back to him. Did the belief in Anthony ever waver in that locker room? Or once when he got back under center, it was like, OK, that's something we all had to move past. And now it's just full go with Anthony Richardson.

There was no waiver like we all know the type of player he is. And, you know, just the whole situation. I mean, the guy was running, scrambling around the field and like it was a long drive. So I was like, you know, we get it. But at the same time, you know, he he's a great guy, a great leader. So we never wavered from him. And, you know, once he got the nod to be the starter again, everybody still believed in him. And of course, everybody pushed him because, I mean, that's what we're teammates.

We have to push each other. So he accepted that. And, you know, he he gave his all. He continued to show improvement and get better each and every day. And there's going to be turbulent moments.

But now, as you know, we'll see what happens with everybody's future. But if, you know, they go into next season, they I think Anthony Richardson is going to be their guy. He really feels that there's a belief in that locker room, that everything's in front of him and he could still be a great quarterback. No doubt. So, hey, Jalen Hurts is also at one point questioned a lot.

Right. This is a guy that got bench at halftime in a national championship game state at Alabama, which I still don't know why he stayed in Alabama for another year, but then was needed. And the SEC championship game that year because to have got hurt wins the SEC championship game. And then you guys link up when he's at Oklahoma, when Hurts comes in to Oklahoma.

And there's so much said about him and so many people have counted him out. What do you remember about meeting Jalen Hurts and seeing what he was able to do throughout that entire season? Man, when he first got there, you know, he he's definitely more of like an old soul, more of a reserve guy, but he's still a phenomenal leader. And, you know, once he got to Oklahoma, I mean, he he didn't really hesitate to step into that role. I mean, he he knew coming in, you know, the quarterback, the tradition there. So, I mean, he took it by storm and he did a phenomenal job. And, you know, we got pretty close just in that short period of time. And, you know, I was excited to go to the Eagles to play with them again. So he's a he's a great guy, great leader. Yeah, it's kind of wild because what you said about the leadership, he's a great leader, but it feels as if it takes some time to understand his leadership style because, you know, I used to live in Philadelphia.

So I sometimes still get down there to cover games. And there's some times after he wins or I go, you know, it's like Belichick like it sounds like he he lost. It sounds like he's miserable.

I go, it's OK to smile a little bit and enjoy the victories. So how long did it kind of take you to realize, OK, this guy is is a really good leader. And you just got to kind of understand that, you know, he's he's not going to be the loudest person always in the room.

Yeah. Well, to be honest, it didn't really take me that long because we we got pretty close during our time at Oklahoma. So I kind of got to see.

I would say the more goofy side of them, too. So, I mean, it didn't really take me long to kind of see it, but I wouldn't say it's hard for him to open up just because, I mean, he's he's used to it. So he could go to Fashion Week, by the way.

He definitely could. That's that's got to be the best dressed quarterback in the NFL, especially the one hat that he wears that he wore. I think it was after the Steelers game. That's the first time I realized it. That is a I wish I could pull off that look. I think I know what you're talking about, but I don't know for sure. It's like the backwards hat. OK. Kangaroo hat. I have no clue what the heck it's called.

I don't know what it's called, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm pretty sure my dad used to wear that. Troy Sterman here with us. So what was it like?

Because you played with them in Philly for a year. You also got a chance to spend college ball with them for that one season at Oklahoma. What was it like seeing your friend Jalen Hurts now two times in a Super Bowl outplay Patrick Mahomes. But this time he ended up getting the victory.

It was awesome. You know, I'm happy for him. He deserved it.

I mean, you know, year in and year out, there's always questions about him. But all he does is ignore the outside noise and continue to get better each and every day. And that's one thing that I really respect about him. And, you know, it was as happy just as him win the Super Bowl.

It was a good feeling. Now, he kept the main thing, the main thing, and it ended up resulted in a championship, which we all know that's the main thing. But now how should we view in your opinion, Jalen Hurts as a quarterback? How do you view him? I mean, I'd be on as you know, he he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. I mean, he, again, a great leader.

I mean, franchise player. I got to ask you about Sirianni because right. We give a lot of takes here. Sometimes they're right.

More times they're wrong than right. I thought the Eagles should have fired Sirianni after last year when they they blew that that 10. They were 10 and one and one win down the stretch. I just thought they need a new voice in that locker room. And early on in the season, it looked like that was going to be right.

But then something happened with that football team where they started to reach their potential. And Sirianni now is a Super Bowl winning coach and is one of the better coaches in football. Just being around Sirianni, who is such a player's coach, which I think you need to be now, but you can't be a doormat. I don't think he was a doormat the last two, two and a half months. How did you like that one year when you were getting a play under Sirianni?

Honestly, I loved it. I mean, he he's very intense with Shane Stock and is very intense coach as well. But Sirianni, he's very intense.

I mean, he'll he'll get on you if you need it. But he's a very detailed coach. And that's one thing that I noticed.

The great teams have it starts up top with how detailed they are. And, you know, it carryovers and is I enjoyed having him as a coach. So the running back position was in kind of a rough spot headed into this year. In terms of people just thought, oh, running back by committees, you don't need a bell cow back anymore. Then Derek Henry did his thing and then Saquon Barkley really did his thing.

I know Saquon didn't have his best game of the season in the Super Bowl, but they had so much attention on him that it helped out the offense and opened things up in other places. But to see the season knowing how tough it is to play the position that Saquon Barkley had. Just kind of give me your perspective on that being a running back in this league. And being a running back is it's tough because you not only you have a lot to do.

I mean, you got to protect the quarterback. I mean, you got to be able to run efficient, got to be able to read blocks, sustain, help sustain drives. That's the biggest thing. The big players always come. But, you know, the main thing is staying on track, keeping staying ahead of the chain.

So it's definitely hard and, you know, just to see those guys just have so much success. I mean, it's a good feeling just for the running backs in general. I mean, knowing that, you know, teams actually, you know, believe that running back isn't just plug and play.

Like you actually need a good running back to more than one good running back to to help keep things rolling. All right. Well, delay.

I'm delaying it for a reason. Let's get to Ohio State. I'm a Michigan fan. Now, they beat your four straight years in a row.

I'm not one of those people that are like, oh, it doesn't mean anything. You win a national championship, you win a national championship. And even I could say I thought it was a feel good story for Ryan Day. Seeing the way that the player I was on the field after the game and seeing the way the players really embraced him was cool. Seeing what happened after losing to Michigan for the fourth straight year and then seeing them go on this dominant run in the postseason, winning the four games and, you know, outside of the Texas game, not really having that much of a close games, just, you know, playing, you know, a season there.

Like, how did you kind of process that one? Man, I was so happy just to see him get it done. And I was so happy for Coach Day because, you know, he moved into Michigan. It's I'm not even supposed to say the word Michigan, but, you know, just losing to them is it's tough and it's just not what is not the tradition there. So just having that happen and, you know, him bouncing back and winning the national championship.

I was just so happy for just the whole team and him especially. I still know a couple of those guys because they were freshmen when I was there. I think like one and two. Yeah. Well, Jack Sawyer, man, that dude, he seems like he's been there for 15 years, if I'm being honest. And then how about Jeremiah Smith? Oh, man. Unbelievable. I'm a huge fan of Marvin Harrison Jr. And this is going to sound disrespectful.

It's not meant to be disrespectfully. I loved watching him in college, even though he played for Ohio State. I'm like that. That was my favorite player coming out of college for this past draft. It's almost like you forget about him with what Smith was able to do after one year. Man is he was amazing. I mean, just coming in, having so much success early on, like it was a good thing to see. I mean, just his frame, speed, everything about him. And, you know, he again, he's only a freshman, so he has a couple more years just continue to polish his game.

And you know, I'm shocked, but I'm shocked by that. Heartline isn't a head coach yet with the amount of receivers that they've pumped out in the NFL. That guy's got to be a head coach one of these days. I feel like it'll I definitely feel like it'll come. I mean, he he's a great coach. And, you know, me just being there, seeing how detailed he is with his guys.

I mean, it'll definitely come. How was the experience, by the way, playing for Lincoln Riley? I know he's no longer at Oklahoma now at USC, but how do you look back at that? That was fun as well, man. I honestly can say I've been blessed. I mean, just with the coaches and just being around so much talent, just being under coach Riley for three years.

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, he's one of those offensive gurus. He's a genius. So, you know, just seeing how detailed he was and he was just another one of those guys that like he's a player's coach, but he'll definitely get on you if you need it. Like if the offense wasn't doing too good in practice, he'll start the whole practice over. I'm going to ask you a question.

I think I know the answer to it. But what was your favorite game in college looking back at it? Because you had so many big games and so many stops. And I want to say most people expect me to say Northwestern.

That's what I thought. You had like four yards or whatever it was. But I honestly have to say Clemson because going into that game, I was like, oh, man, I was that was probably the only game I was ever nervous for because I'm like, I just had a crazy game last week.

If I come out here this week and do nothing, then I'm just be so upset with myself. So I probably have to say the Clemson game because I definitely have more passing yards and or receiving yards. My bad. But yeah, I have to say that game. And let's be as great as your game was up against Northwestern. Like we all knew you could you're going to beat Northwestern. Yeah. If you didn't have that performance, I'd be a little bit concerned if I'm being honest with you. They had a good defense at the time, but I mean, we definitely expected to win. Yeah. If it was Michigan or Ohio State who ever used to win the Big Ten, they would go or ever win that game would go on to the Big Ten championship.

And you knew that they were going to find a way to win that game. Well, anyway, I appreciate you coming on in today. Thanks so much and enjoy the conversation. No problem. Thank you for having me. There he is.

No problem. You got a Trey Sermon right there in the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Let's do this. We'll take a time out right now when we come on back. I got to get into the antics of Dan Hurley last night.

I'll tell you why I loved it. And we'll return after these short messages. So Dan Hurley was fired up last night walking off the court after finally taking care of business up against Creighton. And the two time national championship winning coach, he is never afraid to speak his mind. And sometimes he will do things that you say, hmm, that's not how a coach should act. And now you have people condemn him and people will go, oh, he has to stop being a child. Oh, his antics are are absolutely ridiculous.

Just listen up. This is Dan Hurley walking off the court last night. And this is what he said to the Blue Jays fans of Creighton. So he said two rings this after a win, by the way, you would think this would occur after a loss, right?

If you're doing two rings, two rings. And then he said, Baldy. So you have, what, some bald guy sitting in the Creighton section as another bald guy in Dan Hurley is walking off. But he's like, I'm the more successful bald guy. Not only did I just win and finally take care of your team in this building.

I got two rings, two rings, basically suck on that Baldy. That's pretty much what Dan Hurley just said. I thought that was awesome. I saw that late last night and I go, Dan Hurley, we know he's the face of college basketball. Like some people in college football will go, oh, Kirby Smart is the face of college football. But Kirby Smart doesn't have the personality.

He's not polarizing. I don't think, you know, you hate Kirby Smart, but there are people that love Dan Hurley. Like the antics, the theatrics are like, that's that's awesome. And then there's some people that go, this guy annoys me. He acts like a baby.

I can't stand his guts. You know, I've ran into Dan Hurley three times in my life. And all three times, there's like some story with it. You know, I ran into him at a UFC event.

And then also, I ran into him, Stu, last year. This was Zach Galba acting a little unprofessional, if I'm going to be honest. Now, I wasn't working. But you're kind of always when you do this job, you're on the clock always. So I'm walking out of a Ranger playoff game last year and it was one of them that they lost.

And let's just say I was in a luxury box where there was a lot of free food and free booze. So it was safe to say Zach Galba is a little liquored up and I'm walking out of the stadium. And I usually don't get very emotional with sports in terms of my team lose. And I don't like get angry like I'll rant and rave on the radio.

That's different. This is the show. But I'm not someone that's getting into a fight because my team lost or I'm throwing things. If my team lost or I'm punching like a hole in the wall, if my team lost, that's not me. But I love Dan Hurley and I'm walking out of the garden to get to the subway. And in my drunk state, I see Dan Hurley.

He went to the game and I was very annoyed with the range lethargic effort in the postseason. And I see Dan Hurley after having several cocktails and I go, hey, Hurley, your father shouldn't be coaching the Rangers. That's a tough basketball coach. You know, your father should be behind the bench. I'm just going off how much I love his father yelling at him. You know, they need your father's toughness.

They need your toughness. And he's dying. And it was like for an entire block. He's standing there. He's looking, pointing, laughing. And I was just popping off. And then the moment I see the subway just walked right down, didn't even say goodbye to him. Didn't even introduce myself.

Nothing. And then I saw Danny and Bobby, by the way, Temple played Rhode Island. They were on the same staff. I think Danny was the head coach and Bobby was his assistant. And for whatever reason, there weren't a lot of fans at the game. You know, I don't know if it was a bad time in the game, if it was on like school vacation. There was some reason there wasn't it wasn't a normal crowd. And, you know, when I was covering Temple, your seats would basically be on the court.

So you're in an empty gym. And Fran Dunphy, who I love, is like the nicest man in the world. But Fran Dunphy is not really like an angry guy. You know, I don't you don't usually hear Fran screaming and yelling and going nuts and losing his mind. So you have Dunphy is kind of more quiet and you got Danny and Bobby Hurley, those two lunatics, just screaming and going nuts. And they're coaching the entire game. It's one of the most fascinating coaching performances.

I don't remember they won a loss, but just seeing the way that those guys act. So you may dislike Dan Hurley. You may love him.

Personally, I love him. I think he's great for the sport because college basketball nationally doesn't really resonate in the regular season. Dan Hurley is the guy that's carrying the sport right now. And we've had so many big time coaches go away, whether it was Coach K, whether it was Roy Williams, whether it was Jay Wright.

Right. All three just recently retired like Tom Izzo is a great personality coach. He hasn't won anything in a long time. You know, Calipari won the one championship like I love Calipari. But him being now at Arkansas isn't the same when it's John Calipari at Big Bad, Kentucky. So you have Dan Hurley at a respected program, a Blue Blood program in Yukon where Calhoun used to be the coach.

And I used to love the antics of Calhoun. Now, Hurley's won two national championships. And also the other thing here, Stu, is he almost went to the Lakers, right? He flirted with the Lakers close. I'm very happy he's not coaching with the Lakers because I think that style would work in the NBA. And he's always been like this.

But now he's really feeling himself because Yukon pays them what they pay him. He's got the championships. He stayed when the Lakers could have hired him. And now he knows he's the face of the sport. And now he's going out of his way to rub his success in everybody's face.

And I watched last year when they lost to Crayton. He was walking off the court after a loss. And I remember he had McDermott on after this.

But he was walking off after the game, after the loss, Hurley. And he's yelling at the fans, say what you want, but don't lean over the railing. Like, this guy's awesome. And he's great for the sport because you can either love watch him or you can hate watch him. And he's polarizing where if you want to go to college football, you know, how many polarizing coaches do we have right now? Like some of the best coaches aren't polarizing. You know, Ryan Day, I know I didn't like him because I'm a fan of Michigan, but I don't think nationally Ryan Day was polarizing. You know, Kirby Smart isn't polarizing. Steve Sarkeesian isn't polarizing. You know, even James Franklin, I can't stand his guts.

I think that he makes a lot of excuses. Is James Franklin really polarizing? You know, there's a difference of being a good coach and then a good coach is polarizing. That could be the face of the sport. And there's not a lot of polarizing coaches in college football.

So you look at it. If I had to do the three most polarizing coaches in college football. I'm just going to ask this because I was going to put this guy on my list and I'm going to take him out. Is can we say that Belichick is polarizing before even coaching a game? You know, in the NFL, Bill was polarizing. People hated Bill's guts.

Does going to college. Does it kind of feel as if it's a new start stew for Bill Belichick? Because remember a few weeks ago, we drafted the top 10 coaches in college football and it didn't even register with me that Belichick is now a college coach. Because, right, we were stumbling to get to 10.

We were like. And neither of us even picked Belichick in the top 10 because we haven't seen him coach a game in college yet. But you would assume. Right. It's always if you go from college to the NFL, that's the tougher one.

Like NFL to college. I got to imagine that Bill just in year one is bare minimum going to be able to go get seven wins. You would think so.

It's funny because we did exercise and I would never even thought of putting him in there. But it it makes sense to do it because it's Bill check. Yeah, because it's Bill. So is Bill polarizing? There's a difference in his top 10 coach. You think he's polarizing in college football right now? I think so.

You do. I still think he is just because of like we're going to sit there in late August, early September and be locked into North Carolina games just because of him. And I think it's different than Dion, but it's also similar in the sense that like he's the show, at least for now, until he builds up a team that you can recognize.

I got to see how it translates. I really do, because I think Belichick going to UNC may humanize him a little bit because it's all he got shut out of the NFL. He restored his image in terms of he's still grumpy, right? He's still going to be Mr. Mumbles when he gets up there in the press conference. If UNC loses the game, you know, we're on to Duke. We'll take care of business up against Duke.

We'll see what happens. And we'll learn a lot about our football team. And when you look at UNC, you know, coaches, they lose games and players win them.

Mike, that's what you're going to get out of Bill. Bill will go back to being coach. But this past year, doing 9,000 media job and basically being a media whore, I think Belichick kind of improved the reputation in terms of everyone just looking at him as this great coach that's a grumpy curmudgeon.

So I'll hold off on Belichick. I think the three most polarizing coaches right now in college football. You know, Dan Hurley is the most polarizing coach. He's the face of the sport in college basketball. For college football, I don't think we have the face of the sport right now. So I'm going to say Coach Prime is polarizing.

There's no doubt about that. I think 50% of the people love Coach Prime. 50% of the people can't stand his guts. I happen to like him. I happen to think he's done a really good job back Colorado.

Now it's going to be what is life going to be like for him as a coach without Chidor Sanders and Travis Hunter. I think Dan Lanning is also polarizing because I love Dan Lanning, but he's kind of a football psycho. Like he reminds me a little bit of Hurley where he may not be as loud and he may not rub his success in your face. But when he gets onto the field, like Hurley goes gets onto the court, it just almost as if they go to a different planet and they're just trapped in.

They're so focused and it's almost as if their brain and their mind just takes them to a different place. And then the last one, it's Dabo Swinney. Dabo Swinney actually may be the most polarizing coach in the sport because he's won at a high level. He got back to the college football playoff this past year, won the ACC. He keeps on winning the ACC.

They haven't been a national championship contender in a while. But Dabo is the first guy when he gets even a small one, not even a big win, to throw his resume and throw his success back in your face. And he's he could be arrogant.

He doesn't like to adapt and he could rub people the wrong way. So I do believe that Dabo Swinney is actually the most polarizing coach right now in college football. So I think the three most polarizing coaches in college football, keyword polarizing, Dabo Swinney, Deion Sanders, Coach Prime, and then also Dan Lanning. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. We got 10 teams. When we come on back, we'll do a little pass fail.

We'll have the team be read out and I'll tell you if I thought their season was a pass or was a failure. We'll get to that on the other side. Update time first. Here's Zach. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. Hot take hickey. Just saw his hair.

It's as high as ever. He's going to join us in studio coming up 17 minutes from now. Tom Pelissero, by the way, had a very good head of hair at the Super Bowl. You know, Pelissero, hickey, Evan Washburn, and there's one other guy that we were talking about. I forget who it was. Oh, Adam Schein. Thank you, Sam. Was that on the air or did you just get into my ear?

Just wondering. Oh, you're in my ear. You're still in my ear. I always say this when it comes to radio. If the producer's in your ear, like there should be a ding that goes off. So I at least know you're not on the air.

I have no clue. Like when you guys get in my ear during the show, you know, if I hear Adam Schein, you mean Adam Schein, you mean Adam Schein, you mean Adam Schein. I have no clue if you're saying that on the air if you don't. But yeah, Schein, you know, I'll have hickey rank those when he comes in studio next. We've had him ranked before. I think Schein, Washburn, and himself. I'll throw in there Tom Pelissero as well from the NFL Network, who that hair was just perfectly combed at the Super Bowl. We go from interviewing Paige Baranick on this show to talking about, you know, look at the hair on Tom Pelissero. You couldn't have two different conversations. Anywho, though, hickey joins us 15 minutes from now. Give me a little music here.

You're going to give me also the team names as well. And I will tell you if they pass or they fail on the NFL season. By the way, I don't know about you Stu, I always love the pass-fail class. Because then it didn't matter if you got an A or B. You just needed to make sure that you got the C, you got the passing grade, and you didn't really have to go all out. Whenever it was a pass-fail course, that was my kind of school. Yep, 10 out of 10 for me.

Yeah, those are always the classes that I actually passed. Alrighty, what do we got? The Cincinnati Bengals.

Oh, failure. You know, I know they could use the excuses of the injuries and all that. But the Cincinnati Bengals didn't make the postseason. They wasted another year of Joe Burrow's prime. And Joe Burrow, if they would have just made the postseason, he would have been the MVP of the league.

With how he led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns. But that defense is absolutely horrible. It's Super Bowl or bust with the Bengals, they didn't make the postseason.

That's an easy fail. The Buffalo Bills. I'm going to give them a pass. I know that they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. But heading into this season, people thought that the Bills could actually not even win the AFC East. They easily won the AFC East. They beat the Baltimore Ravens. And they lost another heartbreaker to the Kansas City Chiefs. But I thought that they exceeded expectations this year.

It just was an unfortunate ending. But I'm giving them a pass. The Baltimore Ravens.

I think people are going to be surprised by this one. Because they're similar to the Bills. But I actually think the Ravens' season is a failure.

Yeah, I get it. They won their division. Lamar Jackson played MVP quality ball. Derrick Henry was a wonderful acquisition for that team. But if they would have just lost to the Chiefs and it was the same fate as what the Buffalo Bills suffered.

Okay, maybe I give them a pass. But now they have to show that they could be Buffalo in the postseason and then also Kansas City. And Marc Andrews dropping that ball.

You got off to a slow start. To me, yes, you made the postseason. You won one playoff game.

Whoop-de-damn-doo. You got into the second round and you lost to the Bills. And now you got to slay two dragons. And now you lost to the Bills twice in the postseason. So I would go more fail than pass on that one. See, this one's tricky.

I'm going to go pass here. Because I thought they were a late, trendy Super Bowl pick. But a lot of people were out on them because Aaron Donald did retire.

They found out that they drafted two studs just in this past draft class in Jared Verse and then also Brayden Fisk. Maybe only the Eagles had a better draft because you got Quinon Mitchell and Cooper DeGene and those two guys ended up winning a Super Bowl. And Cooper DeGene ended up having a pick six in the Super Bowl. I know, yeah, by the way, the Eagles beat the Rams in the postseason. But Matthew Stafford had a solid year.

Kyron Williams continues to be a stud. And Puka Nakua went healthy as a really good wide receiver. They made the postseason. They also won a playoff round and they had to bow out in round number two, yeah, to the Eagles on divisional weekend. But I ended up giving a pass to the LA Rams. See, that's tough.

I'm going to say it's a fail. And I know people are going to say, but Zach, they really only lost two games this year because you could throw away the game to the Broncos at the end of the season. They barely played anyone. Yeah, they lost to the Bills in the regular season. They avenged that loss to the Bills in the AFC Championship game. Fair or not, though, every year out for the rest of Mahomes' career, until I say otherwise, it's Super Bowl or bust. And they didn't win the Super Bowl.

So that could be a ridiculous standard. And it's kind of crazy to say a team gets the Super Bowl fail. But that's the standard for the Kansas City Chiefs. And if they would have lost them like a field goal, a walk-off field goal, it's different.

They got blown out of the game. So I know a lot of teams would want to have their success this year. But there's not a lot of teams, like a lot of teams don't even come close to doing what the Chiefs can do.

So it's tough to compare yourself to Kansas City. But I go failure because they lost the Super Bowl. The Minnesota Vikings.

It's a pass. You know what the Vikings do? The Vikings, they took 75 percent of the test. And 75 percent of the test was immaculate.

And for some reason, they either ran out of time or they just didn't look at the bottom lower third on the back of the paper. And the Minnesota Vikings had a crappy ending. And Sam Darnold didn't live up to the hype that he created, which is unbelievable. We can even say that Sam Darnold just kind of showed up at the end of the season and not the way that you expect that to be said. But he was awesome for about the final two weeks of the season.

And then it was just a disaster. But still, the Vikings this year, they weren't even thought to be a playoff team. They make the postseason.

I know they lose Wild Card weekend to the Rams on that Monday Night Football game. But I still give them more of a pass than a fail. They just, they're lucky they aced the first three quarters of the test because the final quarter of the test was a disaster.

I wouldn't say that in middle school, by the way. I breezed through the test. The first half, completely breezed through it. And the teacher goes, oh, that was quick.

Aced the first half. Don't even think I got one question wrong. I didn't flip over the paper.

And the paper got sent back to me still. And it was just a giant question mark on the other side because I saw the front and I'm like, I failed the test? I go, how did I fail the test? I thought it was unbelievable.

Right? I was like the Kansas City Chiefs. I walked in thinking I'm going to ace the test. And then the test goes on and it was a disaster.

I didn't do the second half of the test, the backside. So that's kind of what I go with with the Minnesota Vikings. But I think they did a little bit more than just the first half of the test. All right, next team. The Detroit Lions.

See, this is the toughest one. 15-2. It's tough to say. Like if I would have told Detroit before the season started, you'd get 15 wins.

Tough to say it's a failure. I didn't even win a playoff game. And last year you set the stage where you got to an NFC championship game, you overachieved, but you blew that game. You blew that big lead. And now this was the year to get to the Super Bowl. You had the number one seed. The road to the Super Bowl goes to Detroit.

And I love Jayden Daniels, but he let the commanders just beat you up. So because of how that season ended, I walk away saying the Lions' season was actually a failure. The Green Bay Packers.

Easy fail. We thought they were going to take the next step. Now, they still made the postseason. They lost in the first round to the Eagles, so be it. But that offense was supposed to take that next step.

They didn't do so. They need a number one wide receiver. And I think they're in a good spot, but now they've got to go get a number one wide receiver, but I go failure. The Houston Texans.

Same thing. Now, I know that they won a playoff game, and they got back to the same spot, and they won their division, but the division stunk. I go failure here because we thought that was going to be a team that was going to take the next step.

C.J. Stroud, still really good quarterback, but he regressed this year. Stephon Diggs unfortunately got hurt.

Danil Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. were really awesome. But they didn't take that next step, so therefore, I'm going to say it's a failure of a season. Los Angeles Chargers. Terrible playoff performance where Justin Herbert threw, what, four interceptions up against the Texans. But before the season started, not much was expected out of Los Angeles Chargers.

They need to go get some more weapons. Lad McConkie, let me tell you what, man, that Lad McConkie, he's really damn good. But you need more around Justin Herbert, and you got to see if that defense can stay healthy. I thought this was a good way to lay the foundation for Jim Harbaugh. Now you got to go get some more talent on that team or get guys that are going to be talented that also stay healthy, because that's been a problem for the Chargers, is getting guys to stay healthy. But I ended up giving the Los Angeles Chargers a passing grade, because in year one of the Harbaugh era, they ended up making the postseason.

So there's a little pass-fail when we look back at 10 teams for this past NFL season. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show right here on the Infinity Sports Network across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates. Sirius XM, Channel 375, the free Odyssey app, and as always, streaming on YouTube. We're going to take a break here. When we come on back, we are going to have Ryan Hot Takekiki join us in studio. Earlier in this hour, we had Colts running back Trey Sermon join us in studio as well. So for some reason, we're on a big Indianapolis Colts-themed day here on the show. The Colts can't make the postseason. And I know the postseason's now over, so we're going to try to bring the Colts postseason to you, bringing in one of their running backs and then also their star superfan in Ryan Hot Takekiki. And we will get him to rank the hair of himself, Adam Schein, in addition to Evan Washburn, and then also Tom Pelissero from the NFL Network. Also, let's pull the Warren Saps down.

I forgot to say that to you earlier, Samter, because Hickey is like also Mr. Penn State. And that is Warren Sapp with us last week saying that Micah Parsons is not a good pass rusher, which is still just a stunning situation to me. And I'm blown away.

So I'm still getting people that are reaching out to me today to talk about that clip and say like the horror stories that they've had dealing with Warren Sapp. So we'll take one more break here. We've still got a whole hour to go. So 60 minutes of radio coming up for you. And we kick things off with Ryan Hot Takekiki next right here on the Zach Elk Show.