Jimmy G The Backup QB (Hour 1)

Live from the Polyshow yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10 floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on into a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM channel 158 and the free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS. I'm gonna jump on in 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram. Where I'm straight flexing or the good ol' cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there for home loan solutions that fit your life well. Rocket can and produces extravaganza for the next four hours. There's no other than Hot Te Kiki.

I don't know about that Hot Te Kiki. I gotta start off the show today talking about the 49ers. Originally, about 45-50 minutes ago when Hickey asked me what I was gonna talk about to lead the show with today, I said why Jimmy Garoppolo will be on the 49ers this year. Because I read a report today from Ian Rappaport, who appeared on the Pat McAfee show, that we were gonna get a resolution in the next 24 hours or so on Jimmy G's status.

And when I heard that, I'm looking through this entire situation. He hasn't been traded yet. We glance at the Browns. They don't seem inclined to make that move even though they should have. And Seattle just named Geno Smith their starting quarterback, which is laughable because both Geno Smith and Drew Locke stink.

Trading intro division gets a little bit tricky. I didn't think the 49ers and Seahawks ever were gonna be able to get a deal done for Jimmy Garoppolo unless if it was a rich price tag. And as we know, the quarterback market where it is right now, it's not conducive via trade for the guys that were out there. We saw Baker Mayfield go for a conditional fifth. You look at Jimmy G this late in the game. I never thought it was gonna go.

He was never gonna go for a lucrative price tag. So, long story short, I thought Jimmy G was going to be with the 49ers this year. Now, if you would have asked me that two months ago, three months ago, even at the start of the offseason, you said Zach, Jimmy Garoppolo is going to be on the 49ers come week one of 2022.

I probably would have called you an idiot and a moron and a dope, but then circumstances change. We know he had the injury. He was not healthy until August. Carson Wentz went for a big price early. You obviously had Deshaun Watson get traded. You then had Russell Wilson get traded. Aaron Rodgers didn't go anywhere. Baker Mayfield eventually went.

And there's always an odd guy out. Jimmy G, unfortunately for him, was the odd guy out. And as we just saw a little while ago, about a half hour ago, according to Adam Schefter, Jimmy G and the 49ers agreed to restructure a one year contract that will keep him in San Francisco this season. The contract also contains a no trade clause and a no tag clause.

So, not surprising today, I know some people were surprised by it, but I was not, that Jimmy G is going to be on the 49ers this season at least to start week one. And then who knows, maybe there's an injury and he gets traded somewhere else, but he does have the right to reject that trade if he does not want to go to that team. If he doesn't think the team that the 49ers want to trade him to puts him in the best position to restore his career, then he could tell the 49ers and John Lynch, I'm not accepting a trade to that team.

So when we get into where we go from here, there's a few options. Jimmy G could wait it out this entire season in San Francisco, then walk at the end of next year and have the freedom to choose where he's going to be playing football in 2023. He could also see if an injury is going to happen to Trey Lance, which would put him back on the field with a team that he knows very well in the playbook and a system that he's been in for the last few years. Or he could wait to see what other injuries happen around the league in the first few weeks of the season before the trade deadline that would potentially allow him to get traded to one of those teams.

Or he could just sit there, say all the right things, be a good teammate, and just wait for Trey Lance to crumble. Because even though the 49ers made a move two years ago, that was highly questionable. They traded up all those assets to get to the number three overall pick and at the time, they didn't even know who they were going to be picking. We knew Trevor Lawrence was going one. We knew Zach Wilson was going two. When you got to the third pick, and even Kyle Shanahan revealed this last week or two weeks ago, they were deciding between Mac Jones and Trey Lance, and eventually, Trey Lance won out.

So you traded up a king's ransom to get the number three overall pick. You didn't know which quarterback you were going to be taking. And right now, two years later, Jimmy G played well. Jimmy G, when he got traded to the 49ers and played a few years, you probably never thought he was going to win a Super Bowl, even though they were in a Super Bowl, they were in another NFC title game. I still don't think he's a guy that wins a Super Bowl in this league.

But that doesn't mean there's not a place for him in this league. Jimmy G's not a trash quarterback. Jimmy G's not a bad quarterback. Jimmy G is an above average good quarterback in this league. He's a guy that if you put him in the right system, he could win games.

He's like a little bit above what I would refer to as your traditional system quarterback. That's what Jimmy G is. Can he get you really close? Can he almost get you to taste the trophy?

Absolutely. But in the big spot, he crumbled. We know the overthrow to Emmanuel Sanders, he was that close to securing San Francisco's Super Bowl. And I give him credit because last year, it wasn't looking all that good, and they found a way to rebound, and they found a way to take a lead in the fourth quarter of the NFC title game and almost go to another Super Bowl. But here we are now, two years after the Trey Lance pick, and I don't know what Trey Lance is going to be. And I know at the time of the draft, everyone was raving about Trey Lance, and we've had him on the show a year before he even entered the draft. And I was blown away by the interview that Trey Lance gave, but just because you're a good interview doesn't mean you turn out to be a good quarterback. And I don't know what Trey Lance is going to be in this league. People keep on telling me, oh, his upside, his ceiling is all that.

That's fine. It's ultimately potential. Potential means you haven't done it yet. And now Trey Lance is going to be given an opportunity to show you what he could do. My question just becomes, how short of a leash is it going to be for Trey Lance? Because if the 49ers get off to a slow start, let's say they go two and four. Is Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch who have a Super Bowl mentality? They've been in this business a long time.

They've been in San Francisco together for more than a few years, and they've been close. Are they going to be able to look the other guys in the eyes in the locker room and say, we're still rolling with Trey Lance? They should, and they shouldn't go to Jimmy G. If it's based off poor play, I would not go to Jimmy G this year. Now, if Jimmy G gets on the field because of Trey Lance injury, that's different. But if it's just off performance this year, you guys made the move. You guys made your bed.

Now you have to lie in it, even if that means there's some adversity before seeing some potential success. And if I'm the 49ers, I can't make this more abundantly clear than I'm about to be. I intend and I will, as long as Trey Lance doesn't get hurt this year, start him for all 17 regular season games.

You may take a step back. You may not be a playoff team, but we have to find out what Trey Lance is over the span of an entire season. And I was an advocate of starting him last year. They did not. Now, a year later, they tell you he's their guy. They did, though, make a move today that keeps Jimmy G on the roster. And it's not necessarily an indictment on Trey Lance. I would hope they still believe fully in Trey Lance. Like, what has he been able to do in the last year, year and a half, two years to make you say we don't believe in him? He hasn't really been given that opportunity. Now it's time to give him that opportunity, and I don't look back.

But you know it and I know it. They could think, okay, Trey Lance is our guy, and I would hope they don't think it, they would know with all that they gave up. But if you quickly go back to Jimmy G or if you go back to Jimmy G at all this season, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are going to have a lot of egg on their face, as long as it's not because of injury. If it's based off performance, you should keep Trey Lance on the field, whether he succeeds or fails this year, even though that could be tough when you have a group that was so close to win the Super Bowl a few times over the last few years, and Jimmy G may be a better option for them now, but you told us two years ago by essentially drafting Trey Lance that you think you needed another quarterback to go win a Super Bowl. So I would not have a quick hook here.

Hickey, how about yourself? Because the 49ers today, I don't hate this move. I was surprised three, four months ago, once again, like how I laid it out, if you asked me if he was going to be on the roster, I would say absolutely not. But going into today, I kind of expected him to be on the roster. It's not necessarily an indictment on Trey Lance, it's just because the market never moved the way that they thought it was going to move for Jimmy G. So I kind of feel like, what are you going to do, the 49ers just cut Jimmy G? No, you wait till next year till you get a compensatory pick, and you're not just going to give him away for nothing. And who knows if there was ever even a real market for him the last week, two or three.

Well, that's it. I'm with you. Like, why should the 49ers feel compelled to feel like they have to cut Jimmy G? Like, if there's no one interested, why don't they just give away an asset, what is for free, when you could, like you said, hold onto him? And he's a good teammate. It'd be one thing if he was like a pain in the ass, chip on the shoulder type of guy. Like, if this was Baker in San Francisco, and this is not a knock on Baker, I like the mentality Baker has, but Baker's more in your face, Baker's more aggressive, the moment you diss me, I'm going to just give up on you. Jimmy Garoppolo has been knocked around a lot. There's been a lot of things that have been said about Jimmy Garoppolo, and he's answered every question the right way. What makes me think that he's going to handle this differently now, especially when he just agreed to reduce his contract? He is one of those ultimate team guys. So I think he's going to say and do all the right things. Right, and he's incentivized to do so, because if he doesn't play this year, and you hear he's mentoring Trailhead to being helpful, that's going to help his case next year? I think it's going to help entice a team. We know what he is on the field.

Well, I don't know about that. Ultimately, I think for him to really improve his stock drastically next year, one, it's just naturally through time, where next year there's going to, let's just say, three or four teams from this past season or this upcoming season, their quarterbacks are going to fail. They're not going to be able to get their guy in the draft or the guy that they sought after in free agency, and then they'll naturally just go to Jimmy G, who will become a free agent after this season. Or the way that you really restore your image for Jimmy G would be Trailhead unfortunately gets hurt, and then you get on the field.

Or I would not do this if I was 49ers. If Trailhead struggles, then you go to Jimmy G, and maybe he could be the guy, the knight in shining armor, that comes in on the horse and gets him back to the postseason. Potentially, but we've also seen enough of Jimmy G to know what he is on the field. It's not like, oh, this is a question mark. We don't really know. But you know momentum and timing.

It's everything. If Jimmy G didn't get hurt and had to get that surgery, I would have to have thought that someone would have traded for him. And they didn't have to wait until August. You're telling me the commanders would rather have Carson Wentz than Jimmy Garoppolo? I mean, both John Lynch and Kyle Shannon have basically said, yeah, he would have been traded already, and it was more of like just a win, not if.

So they already were talking about it like it was going to happen and would have happened. You're right. Do you agree with me, though? Unless you have an injury to Trey Lance. Trey Lance needs to start all 17 games. Without a doubt. You got to take your lumps, and you got to, like I said, take your medicine.

This is your guy. And playing Jimmy G, pulling the rip cord with five games left or seven games left to try to save this season is not going to help you in the long run. There's no real incentive to do so.

You have to play Trey Lance, even if it gets ugly at times. You're frustrated with some of the inconsistencies. That's what you signed up for.

That's best for your future. I want to be careful here in what I'm about to say, because this is not me telling you that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan aren't good at their jobs, because that would just be a jackassery statement. But I do feel like John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan are a little bit overrated, where people put them in the category of being a great head coach and a great general manager. I'm not saying they're bad.

They're very good. But the way that people talk about them, you would think both of them combined as a general manager and coach, forget the playing days, would have won a Super Bowl or two by now. That hasn't been the case.

They've done a beautiful job in restoring San Francisco. This entire process, though, in drafting Trey Lance, when you made the trade, you didn't know really who you were going to take. Then two years later, I don't think today is an indictment on Trey Lance, but people will interpret it that way. And ultimately, at best case scenario or the most realistic scenario right now, you're going to go get a compensatory third round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo.

When you would have thought when you made that move for Trey Lance two years ago, you would have got a little bit more. The entire handling of this just seems a little bit sloppy, right? It has been interesting, I would agree to say the least, but I still think they deserve the benefit of the doubt. They have won. I'm going to get this right.

I know we have a rejoin in the system. If they don't get this right, they're screwed in San Francisco. Absolutely.

And if they get it right, they could win multiple Super Bowls. Yeah. And it's one of those things where we got into one of those legendary debates where I just wanted to yell at you the entire show when you were telling me, oh, Trey Lance has the most upside in that draft.

There is the highest ceiling, is what you were saying. And I was just like, based off what? The fact that a lot of people just haven't seen him play football because he's playing in North Dakota State and then the COVID year, they only played that one game. I'm not telling you the guy's a bad quarterback. We identified him being a first round pick a year before he was a first round pick.

But how many quarterbacks are first round picks and then they quickly kind of go down the wrong path in this league and the team that drafted them then quickly gives up on them? And I'm just looking at San Francisco's schedule here the first few weeks of the season. Trey Lance better start off 2-0.

I get it. Young quarterback, you're playing Chicago. The Bears stink. And you're playing Seattle. They're starting Geno Smith.

Then after that, it gets a little bit tough. Denver, LA. But if you're going to be a franchise quarterback, you should be able to weather the storm the first four weeks. Then you get Carolina, Atlanta. But after Carolina and Atlanta, Ryan, this is when you get into some problems. Kansas City, the Rams, the Chargers and the Cardinals. A bye week in between the Rams and the Chargers. But that's four out of five weeks in terms of opponents for Trey Lance. And if you get off to even a two and two start and let's just say then you split Carolina and Atlanta and you're sitting three and three after the first six. And then you lose to Kansas City, the Rams, the Chargers and Arizona.

Then you go to three and seven. And that's when things you'll really start to hear the calls for Jimmy Garoppolo, if that's the case. There will be a time this year where 49ers fans ironically are going to be calling for Jimmy G. But unless you have an injury to Trey Lance, I would stick and be loyal to Trey Lance's entire season because you made that move two years ago where you said Jimmy G is not good enough to win a Super Bowl. Now you need to give a full year of opportunity as a starting quarterback for Trey Lance to show if he at least can give you enough moments where you maybe think to yourself, wow, we got this right. And then a year from now is when you ultimately will know if it was the right move because then that's the next year where Trey Lance would take that massive step. Should the 49ers rock and roll the entire season with Trey Lance?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. We come on back, should people be concerned about Tom Brady after hearing him speak this weekend? We discuss. Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio. Should Jimmy G stay or should he go? Well today he told you I'm not going anywhere.

Jordan Belfort style except you're not really running the company. You're going to be the backup quarterback for now in San Francisco but he takes the team friendly salary reduction and he is staying put in San Francisco for now. He does get a no trade clause and there will also be a no franchise tag clause at the end of the season. If I'm the 49ers, I've said it once, twice, three times already this program, I'll now say it for a fourth time, I've only been on the air for 24 minutes, now I'm just repeating myself. Unless you have an injury to Trey Lance, Trey Lance should be your starting quarterback regardless of performance for all 17 games this year. You made the big move, you gave up all the draft picks, now we got to see what he could do over a full season. And there's been times in this league for every quarterback that flames out real quickly. There has been quarterbacks in this league that they spend one year on the bench or barely getting minimal game time and then year number two when it's their first year as a starter, they break out and become superstars. We saw Lamar Jackson, unanimous MVP, first full year as a starter.

Patrick Mahomes, 50 touchdowns MVP, first full year as a starter, loss of the AFC title game in overtime. I'm not telling you that's going to happen with the 49ers. I've been saying all offseason long, when we were operating under the assumption Jimmy G wasn't even going to be on the roster, that the 49ers probably missed the playoffs this year and that'd be more likely to make the playoffs even in a weak NFC. Because even though we're getting into this feeling of a guy sits here then plays and you see Lamar, you see Mahomes, those guys are different and time will tell what type of quarterback Trey Lance will be. I just need to see enough signs at the end of this year that makes me think, okay, I've seen enough good moments that I can tangibly hold on to and now that's what gets me thinking Trey Lance is the guy for the 49ers. But if they go three and six or three and seven to start the year and then you pull the plug and you go right to Jimmy G, what are you really doing? Because you know what Jimmy G is going to do, he could get you back to the playoffs, he could get you on a winning streak. The odds of you though winning a Super Bowl with him are not great and you made this move two years ago whether you wanted to say it or not, basically saying we need someone else at the quarterback position to win that Super Bowl. 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227, let's get some reaction from you on Jimmy Garoppolo, we start things off with David in California first up on the Zach Gelb show. David what's happening?

Hey Zach, thanks for taking my call man, what a great conversation. I've been a 49er fan all my life and I'm really happy that Garoppolo is staying. I think the 49ers made the mistake of not playing the kid enough in preseason, he only got a few series, I don't think anybody really knows what they've got. Especially because of the middle of their offensive line, they had three new starters and they were getting manhandled by the Houston Texans. And they've got to get the middle of that line straightened out or Joe Montana is not going to do any good for them. Here's the thing, and you're not wrong with the offensive line, how many times you need to be Mr.

Cliche here and say you win with the battle in the trenches with the big fellas up front. But I can't put too much stock in the preseason, would you rather have him play better in the preseason? Absolutely. We don't though always get to see what happens in training camp and what happens in practices and all those things. So that's why when I look at it, I'm not going to overreact to what he hasn't done yet or what we haven't seen from him yet and that's why I keep on saying give him an entire season and let's see what he could do from game 1 to game 17. And now Ryan, we live in a society where we expect things to happen right away and maybe, not maybe, Twitter is not a reflection of the majority of society.

But we sometimes allow it to be and we're in a very big take society right now where I need to give you a take and I need to give you a yes or no right now. Most likely throughout this season, you're not going to know if Trey Lance is the guy for the future. But not everything happens overnight. If he gives you 9 or 10 good games this year, that's a good sign. Even if there are 6 or 7 games where he looks really raw and really inconsistent. And that's why you got to let him learn by experience and learn from playing. We had Daniel Jeremiah on right after the draft, this was 2 years ago. And he goes, everyone says he needs more experience so people are advocating for him to sit an entire year? The way you get experience is by playing and he'll have that opportunity to show if he could weather the storm throughout this season.

And that's the tough part about this, Ryan. Because you have a team that has a Super Bowl mentality, a team that was in a Super Bowl a few years ago and was an NFC title game last year. This has been a good organization, it's been a good team the last 4 or 5 years. And when you go to a quarterback that is this young and this unproven, can it work? Absolutely. Is it probably going to work in year 1 as a starter?

No. And that's the tricky part where your quarterback is still learning. And your quarterback is still trying to show that he has what it takes, but the rest of the team already has shown you we know that we are at a bare minimum a damn good team. But the record this year, Ryan, may not reflect on them being a damn good team if that quarterback is up and down, up and down like we expect him to.

Right, it goes back to expectations of what can you realistically expect for this season. And the good news is, at least, the 49ers have been very upfront that this is Trey Lance's team from the start. This is not a decision where it's Trey Lance's team on August 29th, he's our guy. And also it wasn't last year where, oh, I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, we could all be dead when Kyle Shanahan said that.

At least they've been definitive. Really since the season ended, this is Trey Lance's team. So even though he's staying around, it's still no doubt.

Or even though Jimmy G is staying around, it's still no doubt who's the leader and that's number 5. Well, a few things need to happen this year also for Trey Lance to have success. And this is also organizations, do you put your player in the right spot and not ruin him early? Confidence-wise, if he has a few bad games and people are calling for Jimmy G to be the starting quarterback, that should not break him.

Can it break him? Yes, but if he's the guy that you traded for with the third overall pick, and to go take him with the third overall pick, you should have been confident that he could put up with what could be a difficult transition. Now though, you need Kyle Shanahan, who everyone loves and everyone says is a phenomenal head coach, you need for him to put his young quarterback in the right position.

That means a lot of Elijah Mitchell. That means a lot of Jeff Wilson Jr. That means Deebo Samuel has the clause in the contract, run him as much as possible. And then, you need really George Kittle to stay healthy because a young quarterback, it's so key that he quickly gets the ball out.

And not just wait and wait and wait and wait and then make a mistake the longer you wait. So you look for running backs in the short game to hit the football two. You look for Deebo Samuel on a bunch of swing plays to get the football two.

But then, four or five yards off the line of scrimmage, you can just dump it off to a guy that could be a Hall of Famer one day and George Kittle. So you have the tools where, yes, it may not be a great product this year, but Ryan, it should be a serviceable product as long as Lance just doesn't fall flat on his face. But they have the pieces, I think, to help him from sinking. They have the floaties, let's just say, on Trey Lance with a good run game, an offensive line that I know what David just said in California. He didn't love what he saw from the preseason, but usually a good offensive line and a good approach to helping a young quarterback. We've seen, again, very small sample sizes of really good quarterbacks and really good teams right away. And this is the latest one where Trey Lance, you're not going to expect 50 touchdowns, but still should be more good than bad. Let's go to Steven in North Carolina next up on the Zach Gelb show. Steven, what do you got for me?

Hey Zach, appreciate you taking my call. I just want to make a quick point on this John Lynch trying to trade Jimmy G thing. I will guarantee you that he has tried as hard as he could to trade Jimmy G, and I will also say that GMs around the league have been watching film of him and know that he's physically diminished. He's had shoulder problems, he's nowhere near the passer that he was when he first came into the league, and these GMs do not want to spend $20 million a year on a modern day Chad Pennington. So I understand that, you know, Lynch was trying to trade him as hard as he could, but I also understand why GM wouldn't want to ruin their roster flexibility with Chad Pennington making $20 million.

Well, right now, and they just reduced the salary cap number, so we'll see if that just does change the trade process. I get it the reporting today is that he's going to be on the team for this season, but he does have a no trade clause. Jimmy G though, whether you love him or not, and I don't even love the guy, he has been able to win a lot of games this year. And just a year ago, he did a nice job in restoring his image, then he had to get surgery, and that's why you had a long waiting out period here because you didn't know when he was going to be able to be healthy. So when you bring in Jimmy G, you don't jump up and down like a fat kid in a candy store, but with a lot of the quarterbacks that get second and third chances in this league, they don't really have the resume that Jimmy Garoppolo has, even though I've been someone that's been critical of Jimmy G. There's no doubt about it. Shanahan tried to trade him, but what were you realistically going to take when you see Baker, who to me, Baker's not as far as accomplice to Jimmy G in this league, but Baker has more upside for the future where you're not wrong.

I don't know where his body's going to be. There's a lot of mileage though on his body for someone that has not started as many games as his age would indicate in Jimmy Garoppolo, but ultimately, we've seen the last few years the guy's been hurt, so did some GMs maybe say, I don't see the upside, there's a lot of injury history, one more injury, then who knows what's going to happen. Sure, but even with the injury past, it was still good enough last year for the 49ers to be one bad quarter.

You know, if they didn't have that bad quarter in the fourth quarter of the NFC title game, that could have been the Super Bowl last year, and maybe they would have won the whole, the entire damn thing. Who knows? Zach Gelb's show CBS Sports Radio, and when we come on back, we will get you some Tom Brady audio from over the weekend that everyone's reacting to. Ask the question early, I'll give you my answer on the other side. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

And you can think of O'Reilly Auto Parts where your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Alrighty hot take, real quickly, I didn't even tell you I was going to do this, but here we go. Win loss 49ers edition. At Chicago to start off the season with Trey Lance's QB win. Seattle, week two. Win.

Then they're in Denver, Sunday September 25th. Tough one, all goal loss. So that has them at two and one to start off the season.

Yes sir. They played football. It's a home game for them, but they play the Rams. Loss.

Two and two. That's going to be a, if you have a two and one 49ers team, for Trey Lance, there's really not a lot of takes at that point. Because you beat the Bears, you beat Seattle, and then if you lose to Denver, that should kind of be expected for a guy that's starting what, his fifth game in the league? Because he started two games this past year. You get that game isolated primetime Monday Night Football against the reigning Super Bowl champions, that's an enormous spot for a young quarterback. ESPN is saying thank you right now. And you don't even have to win the game. You just play well.

That could get a lot of pressure maybe away from you, but then the record's two and two, you lose three, four games in a row, then it's a different conversation with Jimmy Garoppolo standing on the sideline with a clipboard. So you have them two and two through the first four games at Carolina on a Sunday, October 9th. Wow.

Okay. Three and two. Three and two. At Atlanta.

When? That it's going to be four and two. Now here's where you get to the tricky part of the schedule. And if Trey Lance can be started the entire season, I think he should be, but if you want this conversation to go away, you really need to get those victories against Carolina, Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago. You can't afford to have a slip up in one of those games. Agreed. Because then the wiggle room in terms of fans saying, oh, Jimmy could have won that game.

It starts to go away a little bit. Kansas City game is in Santa Clara. That's a tough one.

How is that tough? Because the Chiefs defense is not very good. And the 49ers defense is you lose, tie or kill. I will go Kansas City.

I think it's one of those games where Trey Lance plays well. Okay. At the Rams. Loss. So then they go to four and four.

Four and four. Now, four and four coming out of a bye week. Do they go to Trey Lance? I would say no.

I mean, do they go to Jimmy G? I would say no. If you're four and four, you get the bye week, but that's just a potential topic of conversation. Even if they are, let's just say, a game under 500 at that point, would you then maybe think that conversation intensifies a little bit? No.

Okay. Chargers. Sunday, November 13th. It's a Sunday night football game. Good primetime spot.

Trey Lance, Justin Herbert. Who do you go with there? Chargers or 49ers? I know where you're going to pick this one. I'll go Chargers.

Oh, wow. A surprise. You hate the Chargers, so therefore I thought you were going to go with the 49ers. I'll show respect. For now.

Kyler Murray, Cliff Kingsbury. Monday night football. In Santa Clara. Cardinals. 49ers. Win for the 49ers. So five and five. Five and five. If he gets to that stretch through five and five.

I think I'm feeling pretty good. They shouldn't sit him. Oh, agreed.

I think there's really no reason to sit him. Even if you're two and ten. Or maybe two and ten. That's a little bit different. Fine. Didn't I say for the first point? Regardless of performance, he should be your starting quarterback the entire year.

That was under realistic scenarios. You get to two and ten. Fine. But anything else, you got to play him.

You got to play him. Okay. So Arizona was the last game. You have him at five and five. Yes. New Orleans. Win. So six and five. Miami. Win. That makes him seven and five.

Wow. Tampa. Loss.

Seven and six. At Seattle. Short week Thursday night football. Doesn't matter. Win.

Seattle doesn't get one this year? No. They stink. They stink.

Commanders. Win. Nine and six. Las Vegas.

At Las Vegas. The Raiders. Loss.

Nine and seven. And finally, Cardinals. Win. You haven't beaten the Cardinals twice.

I do. Second half. You're playing both times. It's all about timing.

I don't know. Oh, because of their problems at the end of the year? Their collapses. So you had them going ten and seven. Ten and seven. This is a playoff team. I picked them to make the playoffs.

Ten and seven. The NFC gets you the postseason. Absolutely. I'm the number one wildcard with that record. You don't give Dallas or Philly a little bit more love than ten wins?

Or right in that barometer? I'm not feeling great. No. I mean, I picked the Eagles to win the division.

What about Kirk Cousins? You like that? You like that? I like that.

At eleven and six? I never said that. Well, yeah. So you gotta do it and beat them, right? Ten and seven get the tiebreaker to go your way. Let's play divisional record tiebreakers. Conference record.

Break it down. I look at the 49ers this year, I think because of the ups and downs of the quarterback. I'm thinking eight or nine wins. And that could still make them a playoff team, but you get a little bit of holding your breath if you're eight or nine. Ten, you're a lock. Nine, Philadelphia was a nine-win team last year. They got in. The Saints had the nine wins and they were on the outside looking in. So it's gonna be fascinating to see how that's going to play out. So I just want to do that exercise real quickly.

All righty. Over the weekend, Tom Brady finally did address reporters. Remember, he had that eleven days absence. Everyone was wondering where the heck Tom Brady was. Was he the masked singer?

What was going on with him as he was reportedly away with family? This is what Tom Brady had to say when he finally got to address reporters. It's all personal. You know, everyone's got different situations they're dealing with. So we all have really unique challenges to our life and, you know, we're, I'm 45 years old, man. There's a lot of shit going on.

So, you know, you just gotta try to figure out life the best you can. You know, it's a continuous process. So I heard that audio over the weekend and I saw this outrage on Twitter and I go, what is everyone freaking out about? Because I heard the audio.

I did not see the video. Then you see the video and Brady looked really, really skinny. But everyone's freaking out overreacting to this. How do you react to this, Ryan? Because I hear that I've heard Brady do press conferences now for 20 years. People know they had never had Tom Brady sound that dejected. They never heard Tom Brady sound that upset. Kind of the same Tom Brady that I've heard from.

But maybe it's different when you actually watch the video. Yeah, this he sounds like exhausted. He sounds like there's a lot of stuff going on and he's almost like just it's worn on him. I just don't know.

Well, I do know. I don't feel comfortable, though, making that assumption, because remember a year ago, leading into that that game up against the Patriots, everyone's like, wow, he sounded awful. He sounded terrible. He just he looked bad and didn't affect him last year.

The guy led the league in passing yards and led the league in passing touchdowns was just recently ranked the number one player in the NFL Top 100. So when you say what you just said, can you explain a little bit more when you mean he sounded sounds exhausted, exhausted based off what? Well, just the way he's talking like he sounds like he is going through the ringer off the field and it's like kind of warning him now.

I don't think it's going to transit on the field personally. I think he's able to compartmentalize. But you see him in the video, like he and you hear him like he was very candid. I got a lot of stuff going on. I'm forty five years old that we can say stuff to do together. He said a word that you can't say. Right.

That's right. I said stuff. And that sounds like it just sounds like there's a lot of stuff off the field going on family wise that it's maybe not everyone's on board and maybe everyone's still not happy potentially. I'm not going to speculate on his marriage. They've told us it's not health related. My first thought a few weeks ago when I was speculating was that this was health related and maybe someone in his family, but they've denied that. I just it's bizarre to me that he walked away for 11 days. That's the part that's bizarre.

What's even more bizarre is we haven't been able to pinpoint what it is, but I don't want to make any hasty reactions or have any hasty takes on this because two things. One, Tom Brady didn't need to be there for 11 days. He'll be more than fine. There's no one in the NFL that knows how to get ready and how to prepare for a season better than Tom Brady. He's been doing it at an elite level for such a long time and he's fine when he gets better with age. The other part though with this is it is something that it's just been a bizarre offseason, retires, come back, the feud potentially with Bruce Arians. He may for the first time in his career, he may not know what he wants, but then also I have to use my intelligence cap here and just hearing Brady speak when Brady doesn't want to talk about something, he just kind of shuts down like this. So maybe Brady's just saying they had this agreement.

The Bucks and him did not do a great way in vocalizing this agreement, whether you believe that or not, that's up to you and I don't have to answer any of you. So I'm going through a lot of bleep, a lot of stuff off the field, personal things that everyone goes through, blah, blah, blah. Maybe that's it, but I don't need to explain it to you.

I'm Tom Brady, so go take a lap or something like that. But you're not wrong, there is something bizarre about this entire thing. I'm just not going to overreact to that video because it's in my mind, engraved in my mind how much people are overreacting going into that Patriot game where, oh, he looks terrible, he sounds terrible, and then I think he just said it was like the humidity or something or maybe he was a little bit under the weather leading into that game. So it's just bizarre, bottom line, month into the season, the Bucks are going to be more than fine.

Would you agree, disagree? Like the Bucks are going to be a dominant team. This is not taking away anything in my predictions off the field, on the field, just he's going through it. Yeah, I wonder what he's going through and how big of a deal it is. I don't think it's, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it's as big of a deal unless we're not being told something from a health standpoint as what everyone's been speculating the last 48 hours or so. And this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come back, we're going to do a little four words or less on college quarterbacks that transfer to new homes for this upcoming season.