We Don't Need More CFP Expansion (Hour 1)

Live from The Police Show, you're not over the ostentatious studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor, 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to what is a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM, channel 375, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in.

That's 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We got a whole lot to get to today, we'll do a ton of football, we'll get into the latest Daniel Jeremiah mock draft, we will get into a few choices between some quarterbacks that we will have a few hypothetical scenarios out there for you.

Avante Maddox of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, he's gonna stop by and join us coming up in an hour from now, so we're looking forward to that. But I gotta start the show today with an article from Ross Dellinger, and he has sources telling him that the SEC and the Big Ten are building momentum to further expand the college football playoff. Now, we know that there is a new deal to be made by 2026, we just saw the first ever installment of a 12-team college football playoff. If I take you back to when this was originally announced, hand up, I was not a fan of expanding two 12-teams, I thought four was fine, I thought in most years when we looked at four we never at the end of it said, oh this team got screwed, that team got screwed, but if you wanted a little buffer, I was okay with going to six or eight teams at most.

I was never okay with going to 12. Now, through most of the college football season, everything kind of broke the committee's way, and also everything kind of broke college football's way, because there weren't a lot of great teams last year, and even when some of the teams at the top would start to get a big win, the following week they would fall, and then they would back it up with another loss shortly after that, so all the chaos that was out there, and all the possible chaos did ensue, and it set it up for it to be a crazy wild chase to get into the final 12 teams. Do I think that's going to happen each and every year where we're going to be sitting there and we're going to be having heavy debates on who should be teams 10, 11, 12? No, I do not, but you know because if you follow the money on this, further expansion is inevitable, because the first step was going from four to 12. That's a huge leap, and do you think that's the last time, right, these conferences and people in college football were going to expand the playoff?

And that was always my fear, is that the product would eventually get watered down. And I know, right, you could do whatever you want, tinker with football however you want, both college and the pros. We are addicted to football. Football is the greatest drug that this country has.

It doesn't matter what you do, you put football on a screen, you will have people sitting down, placing their bets, ordering their wings, ordering their nachos, right, placing their bets, and drinking their beer as they sit there and they watch passionately their football team play. That's just a matter of the fact. But we've already had the noise brewing that 12 wasn't going to be the final expansion. In this article yesterday by Ross, he talks about possibly two models, 14 teams or 16 teams.

And here's the big catch in both of them. Regardless if it goes to 14 or 16, the SEC and the Big Ten, right, the major players in college football, the two preeminent conferences in college football, and right now, the Big Ten is a slightly better conference than the SEC. And that's not Zach, oh, your aunt the SEC, I love the SEC. But the last two national champions have come from the Big Ten, Michigan and Ohio State. Entering this past year, I thought the Big Ten and the SEC were on level playing ground. Now after winning back-to-back years the national championship, yes, if you made me say who has the slightly better conference, it is the Big Ten over the SEC, and now we'll see if the SEC could snatch back that baton. Now it doesn't mean there isn't a place for ACC teams, there's not a place for Big 12 teams.

Right, there is in this landscape of college football. But college football is run through the Big Ten and through the SEC. So regardless if they agree by 2026 for this new format to go to 14 or 16, the SEC and the Big Ten is swinging their you-know-whats around. Alrighty, and they're going to get rewarded and they're going to get the preferential treatment that the two preeminent conferences deserve in college football. Where they're going to get four automatic bids to the college football playoff, four to the SEC, and four to the Big Ten. Now if we go with the 14 team format, this is how the structure would go. Four to the SEC, four to the Big Ten, two guaranteed to the ACC, two guaranteed to the Big Twelve. So that accounts for ten teams. Then you have one non-Power Five conference champion. So this past year, right, it was Boise State. And then basically another spot available, and we all know this. If Notre Dame, who's not in a conference, they have a little affiliation with the ACC, but not a full-time member of a conference.

If Notre Dame has two losses or fewer, they're going to get that other spot. So that's the way that the 14 team format would work. And in the 14 team format, there would be two buy spots. Now, if it goes to 16 teams, four SEC spots guaranteed, four Big Ten spots guaranteed, two ACC spots guaranteed, two Big Twelve spots guaranteed, one non-Power Five conference champion. And then there's three at-large spots. One of them, right, kind of feel like would be guaranteed for Notre Dame. But in the 16 team format, there would be no buys.

So if you ask me, Zach, this is like once again asking a three-year-old, what's your favorite vegetable? If you said, Zach, which one do you prefer, 14 or 16? I'm preferring 14 because I don't want to see the college football playoff expand anymore. So if you're telling me it's between 14 or 16, at least you get two buy spots. Fourteen teams is more than enough. I don't want to see this become 16 teams, and there would be no buy, by the way. So also, I think that could have taken a buyaway without trying to get some advantage during the regular season in conference championships and all that. And that could change, too.

We'll get to that in just a second. I think that it could really hurt. And when I say that, I understand nothing actually hurts college football because it will always survive. But the way that I like to consume it, the way that I like to view it, and how awesome the regular season is, I do think that would take away from the regular season. But here's the interesting part to this.

And this is another thing. This is very NBA-like, and I don't like it. You play an entire season. I don't need a play-in tournament, pretty much, to get into the college football playoff. But in this article, it's speculated that conference championship weekend could potentially significantly change. Where if the SEC and Big Ten get four spots guaranteed for those conferences in particular, you could potentially see whoever is one and two in the conference not actually play on conference championship weekend. And they would automatically be in because they're going to get four spots available. And then you could play two games that weekend, per conference, on conference championship weekend, where the third team in the conference plays the sixth team, the winner goes to the college football playoff, and the fourth team plays the fifth team in that conference, SEC or Big Ten, and the winner goes to the college football playoff.

You're doing way too much here. If you play 12 regular season games, and you can't tell me when you have four spots guaranteed, and you know that there's 14 or 16 teams that are getting in, right, and you have four spots guaranteed per SEC and Big Ten, I don't need that dog and pony show at the end of the season. And that's what makes college football so special. It's the regular season. The regular season is the best regular season that we have in sports.

So why are we going to try to take away from that? And don't tell me, oh, but we're getting more access to the playoff. You've already given enough access to the playoff. We went, when it used to be a computer decided it was one and two, to then rankings decide who's going to be the four teams, and now we already took the drastic jump to 12. So now we're going to go to 14 or 16, and after playing 12 regular season games, we're not going to have a typical conference championship weekend where one would go up against two in the SEC or the Big Ten, and we would have three play six and four play five. Like, imagine if the third team is just on par with the first and second team, and the sixth team stumbled a few times this year in the college football playoff, and the sixth team beat the third team.

They're going to go to the college football playoff? Isn't the objective to get the best 14 teams or 16 teams? I don't know if you necessarily get the best 14 or 16 teams this way, so I don't like that. Now, here's the one thing that I do potentially like, and it actually adds to the regular season. When we see the expansion to 14 or 16 teams, for years, right, people said in the SEC, well, when are you going to add a ninth SEC conference game?

Right, that's been talked about. Now, you say you're the big bad conference, the reason why they haven't done that is the SEC is usually the best conference in college football. I know it has been the last two years, and you don't want to schedule as many SEC games because you could have on any given Saturday a team in the SEC beat a top team in the SEC, and that could really significantly impact your season. But now with such a safety blanket already at 12 and it moving up and up and up by 2026 to either 14 or 16 teams, there was this nugget by Ross in the article. A ninth SEC conference game would then set in motion a scheduling agreement with the Big Ten, which itself already plays nine league games. The scheduling agreement, though, still in the discussion stages, would pit SEC and Big Ten teams against one another in annual games to be sold as a separate television package.

So there's always something here with the money. See, this is the first thing that I read that I go, OK, I'm in favor of 14 or 16 teams, two thumbs down, four automatic bids to the SEC, four automatic bids to the Big Ten. You know, I get it right. They are the preeminent conferences in college football. But just find the best 12, 14, 16 teams that are out there. We don't really need all these assurances and all these guarantees.

So two thumbs down there. You know, you look at the conference championship weekend potential, having a three play the six of the SEC and a four play a five to figure out who your final four spots. You know, your final four teams are that get automatic spots, two thumbs down. But in this case, if you tell me I could get every year SEC up against Big Ten, that's something I like. Because that means, right, you could see Texas against Ohio State, which you will see next year. But you could see those matchups. Alabama, Michigan.

Right. You could go through Oklahoma and USC, you could get and I don't know how they would structure this and how they would schedule it. But you could get big SEC programs going up against big, Big Ten programs. That's something I like. That's something with that guarantee, depending on how they structure it and how they schedule it.

That's something that adds to the regular season. But here's what I would do if I'm running college football. And I've said this before. And this is going to sound really douchey. I will admit it.

And it will sound like I have an enormous ego. And usually I would not say something like this. But in this sport in particular, I think I can't say this because there's no leadership. And we know Chris Peterson.

Right. He said on this show he wouldn't be the commissioner of college football. Nick Saban has basically poo pooed it in the past as well. No one wants to do that job. I would be more than happy to be the next commissioner of college football.

No offense. Love my job here. If they come calling, Zach, you want to be the commissioner of college football. Alrighty.

To infinity and beyond. I'm going and I'm going to run the college football landscape. That would be awesome. And then I'd probably be begging for a job within three years back at this place. And we're just being honest. But here's what I would do.

Now, I've already lost the battle. Right. Of going of not expanding from four. And if I was going to expand from four, it only be six or eight. I would stay at 12 right now. I would not go to 14.

I would not go to 16. And I would tell the SEC in the Big Ten. We aren't guaranteeing you spots outside of one. You know, if I had to budge and maybe give them two or three, I'd be willing to do that. But I would keep this format that we have right now where you get five conference champions that are guaranteed a spot. I would say just because you're guaranteed a spot, it doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get a buy because right now you're guaranteed to get a buy. I would just say that you're guaranteed to be either in a buy or you get a home playoff game. So, like, let's say you have a weak Big 12 champion.

All right. I'm not giving you one of the top four seeds, but you will be a top eight seed and you've got a home playoff game. And I would keep the format the way that we currently have it.

That's the only thing I think that needs to be tinkered with. Keep 12, but you do not need to be guaranteed a buy spot just because you win your conference championship. Because not all conferences are created equal. So that's what I would do. And I know someone would say, hey, but Zach, we should actually have the first two rounds all home games. I would agree with you. And I think if you get a buy, you should get a home game.

But I'm not stupid here. There's a money component to this. And when you stay at 12 teams, you're not going to wait to get to your big bowl games like your Rose Bowl and your Sugar Bowl. There's too many of those big bowl games into the final four spots. That's why those big bowl games are on neutral site.

And now they start in that second round. And unfortunately, right, you get rewarded right getting a buy, but you don't get a home playoff game. So that's what I would do. I would basically do nothing. Keep it at 12. Don't go to 14.

Don't go to 16. And the one small duration that I would make is if you're one of those five conference champions that get in, you're not guaranteed a buy. You're just guaranteed a top eight seed, which would at least get you a home playoff game if you don't get a buy spot. So what do you think the college football playoff should do?

Or really, what do you think the SEC and the Big Ten should do? Because one way or another, it seems like, according to Ross Dellinger, that this is going to 14 or 16 teams. And if it's a 14 team format, it'd be four spots in the SEC, four spots in the Big Ten, two in the ACC, two to the Big Twelve, one non power five and then basically Notre Dame with two buys, only two buys. And if it goes to 16, four SEC, four Big Ten, two ACC, two Big Twelve, one non power five and then three at large spots with no buys. So if you said, Zach, you need to pick one of those.

Once again, to the toddler, what's your favorite vegetable? I would begrudgingly pick 14 because 14 to me is not larger than 16, but it's better than 16 in this case because the further and further you go, I think the regular season product outside of this SEC up against Big Ten caveat continues to get watered down. What say you on the potential college football playoff expansion?

855-212-4227, 855-212-4227. A surprising development with T. Higgins. We'll get to that next.

Alrighty, welcome back in. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. I was reading yesterday because I think most of us just thought after the Bengals franchise tagged T. Higgins last year that he was going to hit the free agency market. Now, you know that they could franchise tag him twice, but you rarely do see that. Well, according to Tom Pellicero, the Bengals are focused on getting a long term deal done with wide receiver T. Higgins and hope a franchise tag won't be needed. NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero reported on Monday, Pellicero added, though, if the parties can't come to an agreement before the March 4th deadline, the Bengals are considered likely to tag Higgins for a second straight year, which would cost twenty six point two million dollars. So I thought that T. Higgins would hit the open market. It looks like that's not going to happen.

But my question becomes. Are they going to be able to get a deal done and then if they don't get a deal done and Higgins is on the tag, are they going to trade him or are they going to basically hold T. Higgins hostage for another season? And I know that could be kind of a strong remark, right?

When you say it that way, because, hey, I would love to be held hostage for twenty six point two million dollars. But you know that T. Higgins feels as if he could be a number one wide receiver in this league. In Cincinnati, he's not because Jamar Chase is still there. And that's another contract they have to get figure out.

We'll get to Jamar Chase in just a second. But I wonder how contentious of a situation this is going to be. Now, Stu, I don't know if you saw this, but I just thought that this was very interesting.

Like Larry David did, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. T. Higgins' mother tweeted last night at seven fifty six p.m. Now, this article by the NFL Network came out yesterday. Right, and there was another report from the Bengal Sports Illustrated account that came out before, right, this tweet from Mama Higgins. She just tweeted out, selfish bastards. Now you read that, Stu, and you would think that has to be something with, oh, they tagged him last year.

Now they're going to tag him again this year if they don't get a long term deal done. selfish bastards from Mama Higgins, that's what she's tweeting, her words, not mine. You would think that's because of the contract and that's her just voicing her, her disgust with what the Cincinnati Bengals are doing to her son, right?

Yeah, it has to be, has to be, 100%. So there's two comments, there's a lot of comments. But the first two comments that I see under this, someone responded, I hate when the hibachi only gives me one yum yum sauce too. She replied, right, always making me mad. And then there was another account that says, nah, please tell me this ain't about the Bengals. She responded back, it's not. So is this something about the hibachi? Did she have a bad hibachi experience? I don't know, but I'm intrigued.

And I'm really curious that I need to know the answer on this one. And another account, she responded one more thing. It said, Mama has spoken, she's pissed.

And she responded back, no, I'm not. So was that just a little bit of a coinkydink that she tweeted out selfish bastards right when there was contract news or speculation about her son that wasn't very favorable for her son? Or did something go on in Mama Higgins' life? And I kind of hope that it was the latter, because that would be very funny if T calls up his mother and goes, Mom, you're saying the organization that we're trying to get a long-term deal done so I could stay with Joe are a bunch of selfish bastards. And imagine Mama Higgins got that, and she was like, wait, what? I didn't even know about that news. I just got annoyed because I was at the hibachi place, and they didn't do the volcano tower for me. T Higgins' mother, I didn't know she had this game on social media. I did not.

But now I'm on the edge of my seat. So the Bengals also don't really have to get the T Higgins' deal done. And if they don't, there should be a few teams that should be interested in paying T Higgins whatever he wants. But if it's going to get to this point where it's a franchise tag, I think you have to at least know that you're going to be paying him long-term deal done at this point, because they've already went through a year of negotiations, right, or a year of this at least being a contract issue.

I don't know how much they're negotiating. But you would think for T Higgins, you know that if he hits the open market, he's going to get bare minimum $30 million a year, and it may be north of that. So the Bengals have to figure out how many guys that they could pay, because I like T Higgins a lot. Jamar Chase, though, is the better wide receiver. And Jamar Chase, he's now in the fifth year of his contract. So technically, if the Bengals wanted to play this game with Jamar Chase, they could, where he's on a fifth year option this year, and then you could tag him for two more years. But I don't think Jamar Chase is going to be a good soldier here and be fine with that. If Jamar Chase had a contract issue last year, I don't think you're going to be able to keep on putting off and pushing off one of the best non-quarterbacks in the NFL and one of the most explosive playmakers in the NFL in Jamar Chase. And Jamar Chase, this contract's very easy.

The T Higgins ones can be a little bit more complicated. Jamar Chase is very easy. Whatever the highest paid wide receiver in the league is, you've got to top that by at least like a half a million or a million dollars more.

It's that simple. But then you also have Trey Hendrickson, right, because the Bengals didn't make the playoffs. They had a contract dispute with T Higgins, have a contract dispute coming up with Jamar Chase. And then you also have Trey Hendrickson, who led the league in sacks this year, right? He had two years left on his deal going into this season, won a new deal, and he has two years left on this deal, now only one year left on his deal, and he just had a career season. And Trey Hendrickson, who's one of the better pass rushers in the league, he still feels underrated. You know, when we talk about Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, Max Crosby, Micah Parsons, we don't really talk about nationally Trey Hendrickson as one of the elite pass rushers in the NFL. But Trey Hendrickson, even when he was with the Saints, was a very good pass rusher. You look at his numbers from a sack perspective, and actually I said a career year.

It felt like a career year. It's back to back seasons, 17 and a half sacks. He led the league in sacks this year.

He didn't do so in 2023. But you look at his numbers since 2020, 13 and a half sacks, 14 sacks, eight sacks, 17 and a half and 17 and a half. He's 77 sacks since entering the league and the first three years of his career, two sacks, no sacks, four and a half sacks. So this has been a guy that has been an underappreciated but really good damn pass rusher for a while. So you're gonna have to pay almost not exactly number one wide receiver money, but pretty close for T. Higgins. You will definitely have to pay number one wide receiver money for Jamar Chase. And at this rate with Trey Hendrickson, who is 30 years old, it may not be a five year deal, right? But Trey Hendrickson, you gotta pay him top pass rusher money as well. And you already paid Joe Burrow.

So usually I'm a guy that says, hey, the salary cap in the NFL, it's kind of fugazi. How many times you hear this team is $200 million over the cap like the Saints for all those years, and you find a way to get the job done. But in this case, with how many top salaries there are, with Burrow already having one, Jamar Chase on the verge of getting one. T. Higgins being pretty damn close.

Trey Hendrickson, you gotta imagine either will get one or be pretty damn close. Those are a lot of resources that are allocated, and the Bengals still have a lot of work to do. The Bengals offensive line was a problem last year. You look at the defense, the defense was a problem, and a few years ago they lost a really great defensive player in Jesse Bates. And yes, Trey Hendrickson's been unbelievable the last two years in Cincinnati. However, the rest of that defense was hot garbage. Like Joe Burrow just led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns. The Bengals didn't even make the playoffs. So there's three things that I look at with the Bengals. How many contracts are they going to be able to get done with T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, and Trey Hendrickson?

One, I would imagine doesn't go the way that they think it's going to go. And I think they'll get Jamar Chase, I think that's the easiest one to do. You could slap the tag if you need to on T. Higgins. But one of Higgins or Hendrickson I feel like is going to be unhappy.

And I still circle back to it's probably going to be Higgins, because I think the Hendrickson one will be easier to do than T. Higgins. But it's clear that Joe Burrow is waving that magic wand in the Bengals organization, which is usually a cheap organization, and he already got his deal done. But he's basically saying, hey, Philly got AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. The Dolphins have Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle. Why can't we keep Jamar Chase and why can't we keep T. Higgins? And you can't tell me that it doesn't work in this league, paying big money to a quarterback and two big wide receiver money, because the Eagles who had the best team in the NFL just won the Super Bowl. They had the most deep team in the NFL. But the Bengals, you know, they usually like to pinch pennies, you know, they didn't do so with Joe Burrow.

And now you're in a situation where you can't afford to do with Hendrickson, Chase and Higgins. But then what money will you have left to improve the rest of the team? Because I don't think Lou Anna Rumo, who was for years hyped up to be a really good defensive coordinator, I don't think he forgot how to coach all of a sudden. I know he's fired there now, but he was the person that got blamed for this season. They lost a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball in Cincinnati. So yeah, you're going to have to pay these guys big and you should pay all of them.

But what type of team you're going to be able to build the rest of the way? Because here's the here's the fact the Bengals, even though it's a few years removed, they're the only team in the AFC to beat the Kansas City Chiefs when it matters. Right? I know the Patriots did it. But that was a Brady and Belichick. You know, of the last few years, the Bengals, the only team to beat the Chiefs when it matters.

And they're still a force. But the Cincinnati Bengals need to get off to better starts. They can't do this bull crap anymore, where the first few games of the season doesn't matter because then it comes back to come at the end. They got to fix that offensive line. And also, the defense has to find a way to get better. And oh yeah, by the way, you got to figure out Jamar Chase was one year left on his deal.

You got to figure out T. Higgins was probably gonna get the tag slapped on him, unless if you get a deal done by March 4th and the tag deadline or the tag, the window to open to tag people starts today in about a half hour. And then all right, even if you got Higgins and Jamar Chase taken care of, you also got to get Trey Hendrickson taken care of. So there's a lot to do with the Cincinnati Bengals. But still, if they could bring those guys back, find a way to allocate the dollars and move them around to their liking, you worry about how it catches up to you later, because you still have a window right now where you could go compete with Kansas City. And if the Bengals are in the postseason, you know, I know Buffalo's been close, right? The Ravens can't beat the Bills or the Chiefs when it matters. But the Ravens have been knocking on the door the last few years. The Bengals become a major player, maybe even the second team in the AFC if, if, if, if, if, if, if, you know, they do make the postseason and that's the big thing because the Bengals have the, you know, they don't have, I don't want to say they have the complete roster talent, but there's just something about them.

When they go up against the Chiefs, they've been the one consistent pain in the ass at one point at a three game win streak up against the Kansas City Chiefs for this team that outside of, right, the Bucks, the Patriots that one time, and then the Eagles, usually this time of the year, the Kansas City Chiefs win a lot of games. Zach Yellpe here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll take a break.

When we come on back, we'll update you. Some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We call that segment the news brief, but first up with the latest Infinity Sports Network Sports Flash. Here's the Ackman, Rich Ackerman. And the defensive player of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union who proudly serves the armed forces, DoD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at Navy federal dot org. This week's players, USA goaltender Connor Hellebock and their three one win against Canada on Saturday. Hellebock saved 25 out of 26 shots that came his way to propel the US to the championship game on Thursday where they were once again face Canada. And in the moment at the time, you didn't know if the USA was going to face Canada again.

That got solidified and and figured out yesterday. I'm a little nervous. I don't know about you still, but to beat the Canadians twice at their own game is going to be tough. Now, USA hockey is in a wonderful spot.

I saw because of of the injury that you did get Quinn Hughes get called up with McAvoy going down. But I'm now looking at this and I'm saying, all righty, I love being about beating the Canadians because we never beat the Canadians in my life. And now that they did, there was a great celebration going back to Saturday. And now it's one of those things where it's like, oh, you got to beat them twice. And now you got to see them again.

And I get it. It's in Boston. I understand that's going to be a raucous atmosphere, but it was also a raucous atmosphere in Canada when they were booing our national anthem, those Canadians.

And then we kicked their ass and we beat them on their land. But now, you know, the Bostonians are going to be booing during the Canadian national anthem on Thursday night. And I hope that they don't provide a little payback. So I am worried here, Stu, as we head into this Thursday night game. Yeah, I think beating them twice is going to be very hard to do.

But they did it once. So you never know. You know what? Great moments are born from great opportunities. And that's what you have here tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. I'm sick and tired of hearing what a great hockey team the Canadians have.

Scrum! It's your time. I won't do the rest of the speech, but one of my favorite movies ever. And we altered it a little bit before someone tweets me, it wasn't the Canadians that beat the Soviets. Yes, I'm well aware on that. Anyway, without further ado, and I'm not talking about Freddie a do, we will get to a little news brief. Extra, extra real about it!

Extra, extra real about it! Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports.

Scrum! Rob Brunkowski was on the Up It Adams show with Kay Adams, and he was discussing Travis Kelce's future. I believe he can go at least another two years. The guy has 85 plus catches this year. We're talking about his stats.

Are you down? Are you kidding me? I just looked at him. 80 plus catches this year. How are your stats down if you have 80 plus catches at 35 years old? I think I've only had 80 plus catches one time in my career, and I was 22 years old. I had 90 catches that year.

All the other years I was like 50 to 70 catches. So like that 80 plus, I mean, he's the security blanket, he gets first downs whenever they need to. And if actually you watch him run routes, he is very crisp and very smooth with them as well. He's bending when he stops.

You know, he's coming out of his brakes. It's just one of those years, the ball's just not going to be thrown to you in the end zone every single time, and they're winning games. So in 2022, Travis Kelce had 110 catches for 1,338 yards and 12 touchdowns. From 2016 to 2022, he had 1,125 yards, 1,038, 1,236, 1,229, 1,416, 1,125, 1,338. And then the last two years, he has it at 1,000, but it's not as if he wasn't in the ballpark. 93 catches for 984 and five touchdowns in 2023 and 97 for 823 and three touchdowns this past season. So have the numbers taken a dip?

Yes. Have they got to a point where it's like, oh, Travis Kelce is a bum? No, he's still really damn good, but it's kind of tricky because he's still putting up some good numbers.

The regular season really doesn't matter for the Chiefs because it's either do you win the Super Bowl or do you not? You come playoff time, they need him to be healthy. And last year, he had an unbelievable postseason after a regular season that wasn't one of his best. This year, we thought he was going to have a great postseason. Up against the Texans, he was phenomenal, but then he was pretty much a no-show up against the Bills, and he was also a no-show up against the Eagles as the whole team was a no-show up against the Eagles. So it comes down to not if he could still play, where is he at mentally? And does he want to keep on playing? Because once you do the one foot in, one foot out, that's the beginning of the end to your career, and that's when you could hurt the team.

And he sounded out to the Super Bowl, and I give him a grace period because right after a loss where they were trying to go for a three-peat and they got embarrassed, it sounded like he was one foot in, one foot out on the New Heights podcast. Let's go to Shadore Sanders on his favorite Madden team, and it's a little prediction for the draft. Listen up. I don't know who I play with. I don't even play Madden. I don't play Madden. You know who I play with. I can play with anybody though. He can only play with one team.

What team? Brown. Okay. Okay? I like how they move around, bruh.

That's the only team he needs to play with. That boy getting ready. Anybody else? It's trash. I like how they move around on there.

I like the setup. So he likes to play with the Browns. Stu, you're a big video gamer. I get it in the video game they have Nick Chubb, right? You got Deshaun Watson in the video game because he never plays on the field. You got Jerry, Judy, Elijah Moore, the defense. You got Myles Garrett. If I was getting to pick a Madden team to play with, the Browns... Here's a hot take.

Would not be in my top five. I want a quarterback like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. I want some speed guys like a Saquon Barkley, a Tyree Kill, a Justin Jefferson, a Christian McCaffrey. I'm not looking at those weapons on the Browns and being like, here we go, Brownies, here we go. And getting all excited about playing with the Cleveland Browns.

I think there's a little something more to that, Stu. This is I think Chidor Sanders realizing, and I keep on hearing whispers that Cam Ward may be going in front of me. So if Cam Ward goes to Tennessee, I kind of want to hype up the Cleveland Browns to then take me, knowing that in his back pocket he probably has the Giants where he's already playing catch on the streets of New York City with Malik Nabors.

That's what that sounded like to me. Chidor Sanders, who knows how to play the game, playing the game right there. And I'm not talking about Madden. Here is Lawrence Taylor. He was on maintaining with Tyrus on out kick on Micah Parsons. Wait, now, I don't know if this is positive or negative, but I'm curious what this is about because when we talk to someone about Micah Parsons last war and sap who's in the Hall of Fame, he walked off on us.

So I wonder if this is positive or negative when the slug line is just Lawrence Taylor on Micah Parsons. Go ahead. I don't think that anyone should be compared to you until they've been away from the game at least 20 years and still talk about that. That sounds good, too. But, you know, you know, and I've been talking about Michael Parsons and he's he's a great player. But guys, let's do more.

Let's play more football and less podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine with that. Now, it's ironic that Lawrence Taylor, who doesn't play football anymore, but is arguably the greatest offensive player of all time, is on a podcast while he's saying, let's do more football, less podcasting. But I understand that's a criticism of Micah Parsons still plays, though, at a very high level.

All right. Let's get to Emmanuel Acho on the on the facility with FS1, the Cowboys. He thinks they're close and could be kind of not that far away from the Eagles. Listen up. The Cowboys are one Eagles off season away from a Super Bowl. They are one Eagles off season. That sounds easy.

They were running. No, it's not easy. Sounds simple. It's not simple. It's not simple, though. You know how he's done. It don't matter. It's not easy at all. But that is what they are like. That's it. Now, the difference is, like Shady said, Howie Roseman is.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, keep going. The Cowboys, they have Super Bowl caliber cornerbacks. I think they have Super Bowl caliber pass rushers. I think they have a Super Bowl caliber offensive line, plus an additional addition. I think they have a Super Bowl caliber number one riser receiver in seedy land. I think they have a Super Bowl caliber tight end in Jake Ferguson. So I think they have Super Bowl caliber players, but they are a running back, a defensive tackle, healthy linebacker play, an additional offensive lineman and a number two wide receiver, I think, away from the Super Bowl. But that's an Eagles off season.

Sounds like they need to be aggressive. Yeah. Remember when I interviewed Paige Spuranic? That comment that Emmanuel Acho just made and then listing all those things that the Cowboys need would be like after I met Paige, hey, I'm a six pack away and I'm not talking about beers. I'm talking about my abs.

I'm a six pack away from Marion Paige Spuranic. Like what are we doing Emmanuel Acho? He's just a hot take hack. That's what he is.

That's ridiculous. They're an Eagles off season away. So you know what? Every team is an Eagles off season away, but their foundation with the off season they just had was much better than the foundation the Cowboys have. The Cowboys line stinks.

The Eagles offense has one of the offensive lines, one of the best in the league, not the best. And also you've had guys that have been in a Super Bowl before. There's the Super Bowl a few years ago. The Cowboys haven't been into the Super Bowl since 1995.

They haven't made an SEC championship game since 1995. You know, I'm not wasting my breath anymore on Emmanuel Acho. I'm not.

It doesn't bring me any joy anymore. I'm not wasting my breath with Emmanuel Acho. Here is Roy Williams with us yesterday. He defended Hubert Davis. I used to say this about Roy Williams, that I had more desire and more want to in my little finger, more passion than all the Court Carolina fans put together. Hubert Davis may hold up his left hand because he writes left hand, but he has more passion and more concern in his little finger than all those people put together. He's the right person for the job. This makes me cringe.

I mean, why do people talk? His first year, he played for the National Championship. His third year, he won the regular season. There's 811 teams in the ACC now.

There's something close to that. He won the regular season last year. And so we've had some tough moments this year. There's no question about that. But the season's not over.

I think we're going to make a run here. And I would love for it to turn around 180 degrees so I can look at all those other suckers and tell them, shut up. That's unbelievable. So that clip has blown up. And people are calling me a Hubert Davis apologist just because I allowed Roy Williams to say that on my show. I actually, when Hubert Davis got hired, didn't think he should have got the job at UNC, just keeping score. But that's a question you've got to ask Roy Williams if you're interviewing Roy Williams. And people go, well, what did you expect him to say? I've asked questions to coaches before that they have to answer it a certain way.

They don't have that much passion towards it. And Roy basically made that higher. And that was very passionate. He could have just said, no, I still believe in Hubert Davis and nothing would have happened. He went out of his way to make a point to kind of rub it into any of the detractors that are UNC fans that are questioning Hubert Davis.

But I don't think it's unfair to question Hubert Davis. Yeah, he went to the championship game his first year. Then he missed the postseason. Didn't make March Madness. Last year got to a Sweet 16. And then this past year, this upcoming year, he's probably going to miss the NCAA tournament again. Not definitely, but probably will. So it's fair to question it, but do I think he's going to get fired after this year?

No, I do not. All righty, Yvonne Thematics and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will join us next.