Randy Cross, CBS Sports (Hour 3)

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Maybe the biggest day of my lifetime. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, he sent out a memo today. I thought this was originally a ball sack sports article. I thought this was an Onion article.

I thought this was fake news. But Roger Goodell sent a message out. A message from the commissioner. And here was a little excerpt from it. Good afternoon.

I see some reports calling the game tonight in Kansas City. Now, hold on. Our internet sucks in here.

I'm all ready to go. All fired up to give you this message from Roger Goodell. And the next thing you know, my stupid Twitter page, it's not really the internet. I guess it's just the internet working well. The article that was up there just all of a sudden went away. Twitter refresh and then poof, there it went. So let me get this article because this is so important that I would not be doing my job if I did not get you this article back up here.

And now of course I can't find this thing. You know what, you gotta love live radio sometimes. But anyway, long story short, Roger Goodell called this a monumental day for the National Football League and a historic day for the National Football League. Now I'm thinking, why is this monumental? And why is this a historic day for the National Football League? And the reasoning was because we have the game on Amazon Prime Video. Like what's the commissioner doing?

I know now it's because of the money, you can't even say TV, the streaming money and all that. But the fact that they're referring to this as a historical day, that's a little bit too much for me. That's kind of like when you have someone say, oh we have a major announcement. And nine times out of ten, whenever you say you have a major announcement, usually not a major announcement.

It's usually some little change that isn't actually that big of a deal. Now in this case, this could just be confusing because there's gonna be a lot of people that, as much as people are just like, oh yeah everyone's got Amazon Prime and all that Prime Video. Maybe a lot of people that tune into Fox tonight or NFL Network, where these games have been on last year. If you turn on Fox right now, you got Mets, Pirates, Baseball. That's not the NFL. I guess NFL Network had their own pregame show as well. Now thankfully our boss, he forked over the big bucks to go get Amazon Prime.

I think it's like 16 bucks a month or 14 bucks a month. And now I'm currently watching their pregame show with Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who's always whining now with Tom Brady and Shake My Head. And Ryan Fitzpatrick, by the way, to take a line for the Dan Lebethardt show with that whole water slide incident. He's dressed in a shirt that a man would go to a water park in.

Which I thought was a very interesting selection of a shirt choice there. Now Tony Gonzalez is there. Do you know who the studio host is? Can we find out EJ? Since this is a monumental day and it's a historic broadcast, I'm not familiar on who the studio host is.

You easily know who Fitzpatrick is, you know who Richard Sherman is, and then Tony Gonzalez as well. But I'm not familiar with the studio host because it was reported for a while. That's Karissa Thompson?

Wow! I didn't know Karissa Thompson was doing Amazon Prime. So EJ tells me it's Karissa Thompson. I don't think that was on the air, right? You got it in my ear to try to make me look intelligent there? I tried to help you out, now I'm on the air. I'm one of those talk show hosts. I have no clue if it's in my ear or if it's over the air. Just get on the microphone when I'm asking a question and you can chime in.

That's alright. Because for a while it was going to be Kay Adams, Kay Adams, Kay Adams. And I read an interview from Andrew Marsham that Kay Adams, they just didn't get the deal done and then she's trying to get back with the NFL network in some capacity.

But I always thought that was going to be Kay Adams. So Karissa Thompson, that's a good hire for them. That's a pretty solid broadcast crew. Richard Sherman is excellent and he's great to have on right now because Monday night's a little big talking point and he can't stand Russell Wilson. Fitzpatrick, you know everyone likes Fitzpatrick even though he's crying about Tom Brady not shaking his hand. And Tony Gonzalez has done TV for years ever since retiring.

He was on CBS, FOX, he's gone all over the place. So that's a good broadcasting crew. I wonder what the numbers are going to be. I read a report today that it's still going to be Nielsen ratings but they're not going to come out for a week. But I wonder how much of an adjustment, eventually everyone's going to know how to get to it and there won't be any hiccups.

I still think it's going to do a mega number. But I do wonder what it's going to compare to a previous Thursday night game from let's just say week 2 of last year to then week 2 of this year with this new shift to Amazon Prime. And you know just the lay of the land and the sports world with all the streaming and all that.

But here was the notice from the commissioner and then I'll let you go there EJ. I see some reports calling tonight's game in Kansas City a landmark event for the sports world in the beginning of a new era. Whatever you want to call it tonight's matchup between the Chargers and Chiefs broadcast exclusively on Amazon Prime marks a historic moment in NFL history and you're all part of it.

Can I just ask a question? What dopey sycophant writer and I'm a huge NFL fan but who is basically genuflecting to the NFL and this is in quotes a landmark event for the sports world and the beginning of a new era. Unless if you're a shill for the NFL who's actually writing that? I almost feel like it must be someone who's not a like a sports writer like maybe it's someone who like is in the tech business or in the sports business. Yeah like the sports business journal or something like that.

Someone maybe kind of on that lane because otherwise. The Wall Street Journal or something like that. The Washington Post.

All these fancy publications. The IB Times something like that you know. It's streaming. We've all got now the NFL is taking it to a to an uncharted territory but for if you're a college football fan people had to deal with ESPN 3 forever.

Oh yeah. You know if you are a baseball fan we've had to watch that crappy Apple TV production this year where I would just mute the broadcasters and then just pop up the local radio feed. So it's not as if they're maybe the NFL is doing this for the first time but you know to this level on Thursday Night Football but it's not as if wow this is groundbreaking and this is the greatest thing to ever happen and no one else has ever done it before.

But I think that I think some of that though is confidence in that this Amazon presentation is pretty bomb so far. Like you just mentioned Carissa Thompson. Yeah. You got Richard Sherman.

You got Kirk Herb shooting Al Michaels. I mean this is pretty major I feel like. But put it this way. We have this on a TV screen right now. If I just walked into the studio other than seeing the Amazon logo and the Amazon Prime I'd have no clue the difference from this being Thursday night last year to the Thursday night now. So you say that but I was actually with our boss trying to get this on a TV. So I have very much an aspect of this is very different from how I normally watch football. Yes. And I'm cognizant of that. But this was done for me so I'm sitting down and I'm looking and I go what's the difference.

But the person at home is doing what me and our bosses did which was a laborious process. Wow. Big word they're using right there. It was a lot.

It wasn't nothing. So I think that that's the point. Four syllables. Yeah. That's a big word for a radio show.

But you know what. It is a monumental day. It is a historical day because Spike was here at almost 6 p.m. trying to get this thing working very rarely in radio.

Very rarely in radio. Well the boss he gets in at like five thirty in the morning. Yeah. Is he going to be here at 6 p.m. and be in the newsroom and be on the ground being a regular guy the big mop to the big boss.

And he was typing in the password the username showing you how to get it up on the screen that was in front of you. It's a nice job there by Spike. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's why it's a historical day Roger Goodell.

But come on a historical day. If you think if I Twitter search this right now and I just Twitter search Amazon Prime now let's be fair Twitter nine times out of 10 it's negative. Do you think most people that are tweeting right now are just like this is great. This is awesome or I can't find the game tweeting Fox. Where are you NFL Network.

Where are you. What do you think the sense on Twitter is. I mean Twitter is a stream for hate. So even if this thing looks pretty cool so far it's still going to be hate on Twitter. That's just what Twitter does.

Yeah I can't read some of these responses. There you go. Someone actually tweeted me that there is a twitch stream where if you don't want to pay for the game the twitch stream you could click on it and someone is free. How is that easier than Amazon.

I don't know. I mean to me that like like trying telling your 65 year old grandpa hey I know Amazon you're having trouble with it but don't worry you can get it on Twitch. How do you think that's how you think that can go because it's a direct link. Like the guy just tweeted me the link. I click on the link and then I thought it was maybe spam at first I go this is what they tell you in training. You failed a phishing email. It was it was it was on my personal computer.

Okay. And I clicked the link and it took me right to the twitch stream and it was right there which I'm not going to condone that way of using it. I may or may not once I leave first since I don't have Amazon Prime Video because even though I'm young I'm like stuck in the year of 1948 and I was never even a thought back then.

I may or may not be clicking on that link when I leave tonight and walk out of the studios where we haven't paid here for. That's always been kind of why I am surprised the NFL. I'm not surprised but I kind of always wondered. Money. You know the money. They don't care about the fan. They never care about the I know but we care about the fans. But you lose money when you have people doing these twitch streams and other streams to get outside out of the Amazon. Yeah but Amazon's paying a fortune for this right. And then they're going to pay a fortune if this goes well for probably Sunday ticket and there'll be a big bidding war for that and all that.

You know I talked about this the other day. So I on football I come in and we get all the games here but I like to have my iPad with my Sunday ticket account so I could go put the quad box on the screen and get more games. Sunday ticket their apps suck. The first half of the games is a national problem not just a Zach Elle problem. There was a message you're too close to the stadium or you're or you're in the stadium. I've seen that for for the first half I couldn't even use my iPad.

I had to rely on the TV here but then if the weather is a problem problem with direct TV then that becomes a whole issue. So I do wonder what the response is going to be tonight. But since you set it up and thank you for setting it up and spike as well when I'm looking at this right now it looks like a regular Thursday Night Football Sunday Night Football telecast. But it's like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't because if you do what Apple Apple did with MLB because that does not look like a normal baseball game.

Well here's the thing. The broadcasters on Apple TV were horrible. Like people tell me broadcasters don't matter. Was anyone clowning Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Monday Night Football.

Oh no it does matter. I'm not telling you it's the end all be all. I want to watch the game but when you have like Jason Witten and Joe Tessitore I like for college football not the NFL and you had Booger McFarland in there. That was just let's go clown those guys because it was a horrible broadcast right. If you just give me a competent level announcer it's good and then you give me a stud duo like an Aikman and a buck.

Boom. No one's going to be criticizing and critiquing the Monday Night Football broadcast this year. Now Amazon what Apple TV didn't do with baseball's Apple TV didn't make it as if this was huge and this was great. Like they said it was innovative but then the broadcasters and the style it was it was different it was bizarre especially baseball not a game that's really conducive to change as we've seen in the target audience for good and bad. And I'm not against change but for this well you just said it with Carissa Thompson Richard Sherman Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tony Gonzalez for a pregame show two thumbs up. I didn't even was even able to hear him but just the looks of this right now because we're almost in the show I can't listen to it just the looks of it right now looks solid. And then you have one of the creme de la creme announcers and Al Michaels and Kirk Herbst did some NFL but has been a star college football announcer. So it feels big and you know the production of it is going to be good like Apple TV the actual broadcast look cool right.

But then you listen to the announcers and it was like what is this a baseball game like what's going on here. So tonight you have the Chargers and the Chiefs. This is going to be a game where the way I've been talking about it it's a statement night for the Chargers and it's a reminder for Kansas City to remind the rest of the NFL just like they did last last week.

Yeah Tyree kills not there anymore but we're still a great football team. This is a heck of a matchup in the AFC West. These are the two best teams Broncos.

I know it's only one week did not look good on Monday night Raiders card through three interceptions out a chance to win Khalil Mack at three sacks and a forced fumble a week ago. But I believe these are the two best teams in this division and these games these AFC West games are absolutely massive. There's no any time a team in the AFC West plays this year it's massive.

It may be a stork monumental if you're the commissioner but when they play up against their own division those games it feels like kind of two games instead of one game just because of the importance there is with how good we believe this division is going to be. We'll talk some college football on the other side. Great analyst for CBS Sports Randy Cross going to join us next to the Zach Gelb show. It is Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. We have the Chargers and Chiefs underway on Thursday night football to kick off week two.

And also we got another big weekend of college football. Let's chat with the former offensive lineman at UCLA played his NFL ball with the San Francisco 49ers won a bunch of Super Bowls now does a great job for CBS Sports for a long time and that's Randy Cross. Randy always great to talk to you. How are you.

I'm doing well Zach. Thanks man. Well I follow you on Instagram so I always know that you're the man to go to when it comes to food. What are you cooking up this weekend because I love your Instagram account a lot of burgers.

Well I'm kind of busy I'm calling Vanderbilt Northern Illinois on on Saturday so I'm in the process of getting to beautiful DeKalb Illinois right now. So I'll be away from my trusty Kamado Joe won't be able to won't be able to do anything until Sunday. So Sunday when you get ready to pig out. What do you think is cooking for Sunday some burgers.

I'm going to go now. You know what I'm going to get a little exotic. I'm going pork belly.

Oh OK. You know we could feast together. Randy Cross there's no doubt about that. Let me start you off with Alabama. Last week game was closer than I expected. Even with the Quinn you was injury made it even more of an impressive performance by Texas. Is that concerning what you saw from Alabama. Is that just one of the games that it's going to be close and they survive.

So you move on. Yeah I'll look at it more in the latter category. You know there's two kinds of teams that Nick has had in Alabama. One has been the dominant dominant from the jump and did did nothing but get better. And the other ones that you know they've got some spots where you look at them and go well they look like they're gettable. You better get them early but they could be gettable. And they looked gettable against Texas. Now for Texas and sake I hope they don't get too overconfident about that that effort. But I know one thing Nick Saban will have his guys working all week long and they will for the next several weeks.

So they will they will improve and they'll rectify that situation. I don't take what they did as a weakness though I do I do think Georgia deserve the jump on the number one when we get to Kentucky football. I'm so impressed by Mark Stoops I've been saying it for years he's one of the more underrated coaches in the country. What a victory that was especially defensively what they were able to do against Anthony Richardson. And he looked completely different than he did the week before. He looked so confident and so dominant.

And then flip the script. It was it was it was a great effort by Kentucky Stoops has built a. On defense they're fast and they're very physical and they tackle really well they're fundamentally strong kind of all the above offensively they are nasty. I mean it's there will love us can do a lot of stuff you can throw the ball well but they have an offensive line that can go toe to toe with anybody in the FCC.

And if you go toe to toe with anybody in the FCC it sort of applies across the board nationally. People have been speculating for a little bit now for the last few years about Mark Stoops his next job. Naturally Nebraska opens up at the Scott Frost firing everyone's now talking about Mark Stoops and Matt Campbell. If I'm Stoops are you leaving for Nebraska now when you've done that good of a job at Kentucky wouldn't you wait for a little bit of a bigger job. You know I'm not sure if that's a step up to be honest with you old Nebraska was a step up. But you know old old Nebraska is a long time ago and a lot of failure ago. I think you'd be crazy to leave Kentucky I think you're going to see several coaches get contract bumps and extensions because of this availability. So you know not only did it cost Nebraska about eight million dollars to fire their head coach early it's going to cost a lot of schools a little bit extra money because they're going to have to give their coaches some extra some extra love. You know it's Nebraska is going to be a hard sell a really hard sell. You know my old guy my guy beat Brian Jones BJ he's of the opinion that a guy like Deon Sanders would be you know a good choice for Nebraska and I'm not sure if he's not right. I you know I at this point they need to go out of the box. They need something that will make a splash especially recruiting because there's nothing of the old panache the old zing when it comes to Nebraska.

They need somebody that's really going to take them back. Talking to Randy Cross. How do you look at the Jimbo Fisher tenure so far with Texas saying and they lose last week to add state they fall to 24th in the country and they have a big game this weekend up against Miami. Well results wise he's kind of a cheaper Kevin someone in the way the record the record is pretty close. I'm not sorry not cheaper even much more expensive I was going to say right. Yeah.

It's not much of a difference. And I for all the enthusiasm and you know finally a Nick Saban assistant beats him. I just it's hard to put your finger on and you know the number one recruiting class in the country blah blah blah blah blah. Well it hasn't translated and it better start translating pretty fast. That's all I know is you know for what they are for what they've paid not only the coach but only also the players in today's world.

There's going to be some people demanding a lot better results and what they're getting so far. Randy Cross here with us. When we look around the first few weeks of the college football season so far Michigan's been another one of those hot button teams. I know that they played two cupcake schools.

Now they're going to go with J.J. McCarthy. Is there a big gap there. I know they just beat Ohio State but for this year how do you kind of view Ohio State against Michigan. Not quite on a level par. I don't think you know I'm sure Harbaugh would argue with that and a lot of big blue fans would argue with that. But I you know I think Ohio State is right there toe to toe with with Alabama and Georgia and the rest of them.

And I'm not really quite sure if Michigan's in that class as we sit here. They've gotten a lot better. They really have. But you know I will see if they can do it for two years in a row.

It will be definitely worth keeping your eye on that. They're going to they're going to be a team that has to be much more consistent if they can start being consistent. You know they'll be fun to watch.

They've never really been what you would call exactly compelling to watch. Talking to Randy Cross for Georgia. Hey they look like they're the best team in the country for Stetson Bennett.

I think he's a disrespected quarterback. And you look at the defense how much did they loss. I know it's very early in the season for them to get to know annihilate Oregon the way that they did Samford.

It is what it is. Georgia's impressed me which is kind of crazy because they just won the national championship. Yeah we'll find out this weekend an awful lot because you know if you look at traditionally South Carolina has been sort of a nuisance for them. There's been years and we thought they were really good and South Carolina has either played them really really well or beat them. I think if Georgia takes them and slaps them like they've like they've played so far like they did a lot of the year last year. Then I think a lot a lot of people are going to start buying into the fact that they are clearly the number one team in the country. And I tried to tell a lot of people in the off season that that defense might be just as good if not better than it was last year and they thought I was smoking something because you know it was like they had five number one picks in the NFL draft. Well that defense is really good and all steps and Bennett didn't go out and throw for 300 yards a couple times and a bunch of touchdowns. You know his job will still be in the big games and in the games when they go against the really good schools his job is to not mess up.

He's a manager type. I don't think that's changed much but I'm glad for him he's getting some credit and he's getting some results. So last week everyone was obsessing over Florida. We know Florida lost. Everyone's talking about Kentucky when you look at that third best team in the SEC behind Georgia and also Alabama. Tennessee also had a nice win in overtime up against Pitt. How good do you think Tennessee could be this year when you look at the lay of the land in the SEC. I think with Hypo and you know hooker at quarterback and the way that they can play they're going to be dangerous or another team it's pretty good at the line of scrimmage got some really good skill players. I'm really again it's consistency.

Can you week in and week out show up and overcome sort of the mistakes and what you do to yourselves at times. Another team I put right there with Tennessee honestly is you know out of the West is Arkansas. Yeah I like KJ Jefferson. Yeah I tell you what you know Pittman he's a he's a he's a lot of fun. He really is.

And so is his team. Jefferson you know he's good. Jefferson sort of took up where Richardson left off and didn't really follow up his deal in his game. But Jefferson's he's producing he's doing something he's doing some fun stuff. And I just look back a few years ago in 2020 when Sam Pittman was hired at Arkansas.

Everyone was clowning that higher. He really was a good fit for them. Well you know what makes him so good though Zach is something that we all talk a lot about in the off season. And you know actually you know A&M was the number one class in the country in recruiting. But Sam Pittman is a master class recruiter.

And you're seeing the results. And as good as good as Georgia was at the line of scrimmage and as good as they were in general you know a lot of the credit goes to the guys that live on the road those college coaches that weren't 20 hour days because they're coaching the guys they got now and they're begging the other ones that are still in high school to come and join them and he is as good a recruiter as you're going to see anywhere in the country. And I thought it was a smart hire by by Arkansas and you're just seeing the early results. Two more for Andy Cross here with us is a great job covering college football for CBS CBS Sports for Brian Kelly. Terrible start up against Florida State. What are your expectations in your one the rest of the way for Brian Kelly at LSU. Yeah I think and they should be tempered. I'm not expecting much. You know he pretty obviously doesn't have himself a Joe Burrow does he. Yeah that's true.

Doesn't necessarily have too many Jamar chases left over. You know there's there are some stuff to address. There's some some some deals. What are they. That's what you have to think about when you've looked at them in the past. They fell off so precipitously last year and became kind of average so quickly after all those guys left. The shelves weren't stocked.

They weren't restocked. They weren't you know the next one wasn't there wasn't the next guy up. It was man who's going to who the heck are we going to play. So that's the biggest thing and I think he knows it and it's really getting hammered home to him now and LSU fans aren't going to like it but it's going to take them another year or so to get back when we get to the NFL.

You've been a forty niner. Everyone's talking about Trey Lance. You think he's going to make it the entire season as their starting quarterback. He's going to get the chance.

You know I don't know if anybody really should have been surprised. Chicago's got a pretty good day. Plus it's raining plus it's sloppy plus you know his offensive line. No one talks about how average his offensive line is and his offensive line is pretty dang average as good as Williams is a left tackle.

He can't make up for the other four guys. And you know there's a reason he ran for a minute and he ran for more yards than Mitchell. He was their leading rusher. A he can run well and B he had to run.

So yeah I think the kid's going to be OK. It's probably the best insurance policy in the NFC if not in the NFL is having him and he being Jimmy G sitting there as the backup and he's a guy the team likes. He's a guy the team knows they can get him. He can get him to a championship game or a Super Bowl level play.

What's what's the downside of that. So pressures on the kid but Shanahan and Lynch got to be right. You know they gave up a lot to get there and I think they're going to have long term patience for Randy Cross appreciate the time. Thank you.

No problem at all. There's Randy Cross joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Not a lot of drama not a lot of fireworks like we expected so far between the Chargers and Chiefs two minutes left in this first quarter. Three nothing Chargers. Chiefs had a seven play drive to start things off. They punted. Then the Chargers went 11 play drive on fourth and two at Kansas City's 13.

They like to kick the field though Kansas City goes three and out and now it's fourth and inches and Brandon Staley is going to be super duper aggressive at midfield and it pays off. So now he's not the biggest dude in the world. But then if he didn't get it how do you go for a coach on fourth and inches. I don't even know if it was inches I think it was fourth and an inch. They went to Justin Herbert.

He calls his own number. Boom. Right over his center for a first down for Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers could go up 10 nothing here and go put the ball in the end zone. That's a heck of a start for the Los Angeles Chargers. Now no lead is safe up against the great Patrick Mahomes and if you think I'm wrong go ask the Buffalo Bills who thought they were going to the AFC title game with only 13 seconds to go.

I know Tyree Kill is no longer there but they were able to go tie that game and get into overtime and you had the Kelsey walk off in that great divisional game in the last postseason. So these two teams going at it Chargers and Chiefs we thought there would have been more points. So if you did bet the over I did not make an over or under bet or go any side in this game. I just did some props in this one tonight. I went three funky prop bets and I had Mike Williams first touchdown.

Oh right on cue. I had the first player to score a touchdown Mike Williams in the game tonight. It's at plus 700 and it got right down to the 1 yard line. There's a flag on the play though.

I kind of hope this comes back. I mean we can't hear anything. I feel like it has to be on the defense. Yeah.

Yeah. The Chargers don't look like they're all that upset so far so we'll see. But now they're taking Mike Williams off the field.

Come on go. I don't advocate for goal line fades usually but in this spot let's get a goal line fade cooking. We'll see what the call is. And we got a hold on the defense. So that's going to be declined and then that's going to be right at the 1 yard line. Oh there's two penalties. It's hold and pass interference. So penalties declined. Makes sense. And then that's going to be right at the 1 yard line.

How funny how that works now. Right at the 1 yard line. Is there any chance he got in here. Let's just see. Did he get in. No he's clearly short. We hold on.

Not yet. He's he's brought down. So now you're going to get it right at the 1 yard line. And I would imagine that they're going to hand the football off the Austin Eckler. That's what I would anticipate here.

They hand it off. And that's not. Is that not a Sony Michelle. Oh that's Sony Michelle right down there.

Yeah. Who got cut and they give it to Sony Michelle and he would stop short. I'm kind of hoping that they get three runs stuff and then they go throw the football and get Mike Williams back into the game because you know Staley is going to go for it. That guy is so aggressive and he went for it on fourth and inches and ended up working. Now this is where you got to go get Austin Eckler in the game. I took a weird bet. It was Austin Eckler to have three touchdowns in the game was like absurd odds like absolutely just crazy odds that go have three touchdowns because whenever there is a prime time game I feel like Austin Eckler just balls out and has a mega evening.

Yeah. So that's what I did. So I did Austin Eckler to score three or more touchdowns. I threw a whopping four dollars on it at plus eleven hundred to win forty eight dollars. Then Mike Williams with the first touchdown score I put five bucks on it to win 40 bucks. And then this one I got sucked in on an odds boost.

That could still happen. We're only a quarter in but we don't have a touchdown in the first quarter just came to a close. Mahomes and Herbert over two and a half passing touchdowns twenty five dollars to win Buck 19. So we'll see what happens the rest of the way. But these two teams these are the two best teams in the AFC West and I've been saying this all throughout the show for the Los Angeles Chargers. This is an early statement game. You beat the Raiders in week one then you find a way to beat the Chiefs. That shows how legit you can be this year. Not that anyone hands out a trophy the second week of the season and for the Chiefs a little brief reminder.

Yeah we're still here. Now you think you guys may be the team this year. You're not the team this year when we get to these two quarterbacks though. We're to rank Herbert and Mahomes in the NFL. Now before the year is when we did this in the off season before we knew how long the Deshaun Watson suspension was but I looked it up. I had Brady at one Rogers at two Mahomes three Allen for Russell Wilson five Deshaun Watson six Joe Burrow seven Justin Herbert eight Matthew Stafford nine Lamar Jackson and at 10.

Now I could redo this list. You have to take Watson out of the conversation because Watson's out for the first 11 games. I would swap Stafford and Lamar.

I think I probably got caught up guy just won the Super Bowl Rams were just so dominant but I would swap Stafford and Lamar I'd rather have Lamar than Stafford. But when I look at Herbert and Mahomes Brady until he retires will be in my number one spot. That's just guys led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns at 44 years old and now he's 45. So Brady to me is still number one. Rogers I'm still going to put it to back to back MVP award winners and I think Mahomes he's in the top three.

You can make a case he's one you can make a case he's two and I'm not going to yell at you. But that's just right now I put him at three at the end of the year though I do wonder how far up the list Herbert's going to be because Josh Allen is clearly right at the table. Josh Allen is clearly right at the table and Josh Allen Brady Roger Mahomes Allen to me are the four best quarterbacks in football.

How you want to order them go ahead and order them whatever way you want. But for that fifth spot that fifth spot is right up there for the taking on who's going to be the top five quarterbacks at the end of the year. Russell Wilson did not have a good and you're going to get a touchdown passing touchdown by Justin Herbert to his fullback. So that's going to make it nine nothing for the Chargers. Nice job there we could have got it to Mike Williams but OK we get a fullback touchdown.

Boom that's a passing score one on the board for Justin Herbert. But when we look at the top five quarterbacks at the end of the year Brady will be in that conversation. Rogers will be in that conversation. Josh Allen will be in that conversation and Patrick Mahomes will be in that conversation. To me that's not debatable.

The question just becomes who's the fifth person to enter that conversation. Deshaun's out for the first 11 games so when he comes back I don't care how great he plays it's too small of a sample size. Russell Wilson I don't think it's going to click as great as some people thought. I think they're going to be outside looking in where you guys still a great quarterback but I don't think it's going to click to the level that people may be thought in your number one that they could be a Super Bowl team. Just like the Bucks did with Brady in your number one and just like Stafford did your number one with Los Angeles Rams.

Joe Burrow is a straight up dog. That dude has no offensive line and he almost took Cincinnati to go win a Super Bowl last year. They would have had a line and they could have just blocked an extra half second on Aaron Donald. They would have won the Super Bowl because Jamar Chase was wide open.

So Burrow could be in the running. Justin Herbert if they go win the division this year the AFC West he'll definitely be in the running. And I've mentioned this before and it was Ryan Harris who said a few weeks ago on the DA show Ryan Harris played with Peyton Manning and Ryan Harris who was not some shill for the Chargers organization like dude's a Bronco. He said Justin Herbert's the most talented quarterback he's ever seen.

He's ever seen period. It's like bonkers because the guy's only been in the league for two years. But that's how highly people think of Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert has to make the playoffs this year and I think he won't make the playoffs. And I do believe that Lamar is going to have a massive year. I think Lamar people are sleeping on the Ravens. I think people forget how good the Baltimore Ravens were last year with all those injuries.

And then you just pulled the carpet from underneath them and the rug from underneath them because you got your quarterback eventually got hurt and Hundley was fine but not Lamar Jackson. So I think at the end of the year we know Brady Rogers Mahomes Josh Allen is going to be in that list. The three guys that are going to really be in the conversation to be the fifth best quarterback in football.

It's either going to be Burrow Herbert or Lamar. And you go through that Brady NFC Rogers NFC Mahomes AFC Allen AFC and either Burrow Herbert or Lamar will be AFC. And you have those two elder statesmen in Brady and Rogers where Brady I think this is his last year and then Aaron Rodgers. I think he's only playing one more year after this.

I think he'll play this year the year after that and then he's done. So really the three faces of the NFL moving forward. It's going to be Mahomes it's going to be Josh Allen and then whoever goes into that fifth spot this year is going to kind of take that baton of those are the next three big faces of the league. So that's another storyline in this NFL season how we're going to view Lamar at the end of the year Justin Herbert at the end of the year and then also Joe Burrow. And to me it's a fascinating conversation because we can see somewhat of a finish line now on the Brady and Rogers career because those are two guys you have to have in your top five. So at the end of the year we'll say Brady Rogers Mahomes Allen and then insert Burrow Lamar or Herbert but in two three years from now there'll be some spots open in that top five because Brady and Rogers will finally be in retirement. Now I wonder that Brady deal with Fox is going to get nicks because you sell wants to spend all the Thanksgivings and all the birthdays and all the football Sundays with everyone and then this guy signs a 10 year through 75 million dollar contract to broadcast games the moment he retires that guilty of sports radio.