Lamar Jackson or Aaron Rodgers? (Hour 1)

Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app.

855-212-4CBS, number to jump on in 855-212-4227, you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We will do a little QB carousel coming up at 6 20 p.m eastern today and also at the top of the hour, former special teams coach with the Jets and the Saints and now is getting back into the NFL being the assistant head football coach, I believe is his title with the Denver Broncos, Mike Westhoff, going to join us about 59 minutes from now. But here's where we got to start the show off today. First off, producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Kiki.

Hot Take Kiki. So we're in like an awkward waiting period right now and we're waiting to see which dominoes fall first in the chase to go get your next quarterback. And today you are allowed to franchise tag players and that window's open from now up until March 7th. One of the biggest names that we're going to talk about and it will extend past March 7th, I can guarantee you is Lamar Jackson because you know, bare minimum, the Ravens are going to franchise tag him. And then the question just becomes, are they able to get a long-term deal done? We have talked about this now really until you're blue in the face.

My stance has not changed. I said this since the draft. I don't think it looks encouraging that Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens are going to get a deal done. If they don't get a deal done this off season, then the question just becomes, will the Ravens trade Lamar before the start of this season? Or will they let him play out that franchise tag and then try to get a deal done for a fourth time next off season?

And if then they can't get that deal done, then you're looking at a trade. Could you, because you can't risk letting a player of the caliber of Lamar Jackson just go and all you get back is a compensatory third round pick. So you look at this QB market. Lamar is a highly coveted name, Aaron Rogers, highly coveted name. And then you have Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo. If I had to rank those four in terms of, if I'm looking for a quarterback, which quarterback would I pursue first? Number one has to be Lamar Jackson.

It's because of his age. I'm not saying Lamar is a better quarterback than Aaron Rogers, but if you trade for Lamar, that could be your quarterback for the next decade. If you trade for Aaron Rogers and you have to give up more to get Lamar, but if you trade for Aaron Rogers, you may just have a window of potentially year to year with how mercurial Aaron Rogers is and how ambiguous Aaron Rogers is. But you would think if you're trading for Rogers, he's going to give you at least two to three more years left in the NFL. So if I had to rank those four, Lamar would be my top preference, then Rogers, then Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo.

Here is the interesting point though. I know Jimmy G can't sign a deal yet. Derek Carr is free to do so.

His brother said that he's going to take his time and it's going to be a real patient process. You look at two teams that have been linked to Derek Carr, the Jets, and then also the Saints. I am fascinated to see how quickly those teams make their decisions because you know the Jets are interested in Aaron Rogers.

Nathaniel Hackett, their offensive coordinator, but it goes more than that. They want Aaron Rogers. But how long are you willing to wait for Aaron Rogers at the risk of losing Derek Carr? If it's up to me, and if I was a Jet fan, you'd much rather have Aaron Rogers than Derek Carr.

No crap. But you run the risk of putting all your eggs in the basket of Aaron Rogers and then Derek Carr says, oh, I thought we had a nice meeting. Even though my brother said I'm going to be patient, I want to figure out my football future. And if Rogers' process is very slow and you're also having to wait to see if the Packers, how long they're going to take as well. It's not just Rogers, he's not a free agent.

This is going to be done via trade. So how long are the Packers going to take in that process to potentially deal Aaron Rogers? And I think that's going to be the trickiest part here for teams like the Jets and the Saints. For the Saints, it's more so the Lamar Jackson conversation.

We have not heard them really linked to making a trade for Aaron Rogers. I do think if Lamar Jackson becomes available via trade, which there's a chance of that happening this off season, then every team in the NFC South is going to be interested. And you know, three teams in particular in the NFC South, the Panthers, the Saints and the Falcons were all willing to give up a king's ransom last year to go execute that trade for Deshaun Jackson. So you would imagine since Lamar has a squeaky clean record off the field, since Lamar is a unanimous MVP and a great player in this league, you would think all those teams in the NFC South now maybe add the Buccaneers in the picture because they no longer have Tom Brady would be willing to do whatever it takes to go get Lamar Jackson. But then yet again, if you're a Saints fan, what is the likelihood that you're going to still be able to get Lamar Jackson this off season? So that to me, the waiting game here is the early storyline of this off season in the NFL. And you look at two guys, Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rogers, would you want them on your team? Absolutely.

But at what cost and how long are you willing to wait? Because if you're a team like the Saints and the Jets, if you wait, wait, wait for Rogers and Jackson and then don't land either and you have Derek Carr, let's say he signed somewhere else and then Jimmy G signed somewhere else, what's your plan after that? Because outside of those four names, and I'm not even saying that Jimmy G is this like must have kind of guy, but those four names out of all the QBs that could be available and you know Carr and Jimmy G are available.

But when you look at the possibilities of guys being able to get traded this off season or signed via free agency, those four names, if you're in the QB market and taking the draft out of it, those are the four names that everyone's going to gravitate towards. And if you're a team like the Jets, let's just say, and Lamar doesn't get traded this off season, Rogers goes to the Raiders, which is very plausible via trade. Let's say Carr signs with the Saints and then Jimmy G makes a move to Tampa Bay, then what do you do if you're the Jets? And that to me is a fascinating question because at that rate, like do you start Zach Wilson next year? Do you bring back Mike White? You know, you're going to go make a move for Ryan Tannehill?

That would be just severely deflating and underwhelming if you're a fan of the Jets. So really, if I'm the Jets, the more and more I think about this, ideally you want to get Rogers. But whenever Rogers sees the light at the end of the tunnel of this darkness retreat, if you don't get clarity like a week after that, and I know you see the reports from Ty Dunn's website that the Packers are disgusted with Rogers and they're done with Rogers. And we were talking about this last week, even in that report, if Rogers is on the roster, which I don't believe this for a second, they would start Jordan Love over Aaron Rogers.

It's very simple. Rogers does. I don't think Rogers wants to be in Green Bay anymore and the Packers don't want him anymore.

So even though this trade process could be complex, it should be pretty simple. We just need that answer once Rogers comes out of whatever this darkness retreat is. Okay, Aaron, we don't really want you. You don't want us. We good to move on and we good to get divorced?

It shouldn't be that crazy. And once you get that final answer, once that's made clear and communicated with both parties, then you go to Aaron, who are the teams that you would at least play for next year? And maybe Roger stalls, maybe Rogers, because we all know him, he could be very difficult. Maybe he wants to get difficult, but it doesn't benefit him to get difficult in this situation. So kind of if you're the Jets, I think Carr's brother speaking today and I know he's employed by the NFL network, reach out to the NFL network and we tried to get David Carr on this week, but he's just not in the mood right now to do interviews.

And I get that because you don't want to say anything other than what you get paid for and upset your brother. But if you are the Jets, I think you almost have to put a time frame on it that if you don't get clarity or if you don't get a deal done with Rogers by this date, then you tell Derek Carr, you'll be the guy. And if I'm Derek Carr, I understand being patient, but I'm not being extremely patient here because I do think Derek Carr has some leverage. And I don't know about you, Hickey, if there's like a few teams interested in Derek Carr, if one of those teams isn't interested in Aaron Rodgers, Carr could go to that team and say, let's get a deal done and then maybe push the Jets hands if that's where he really wants to go.

And then the Jets have to make a complicated decision. Do you wait and hope you get Rodgers or if Rodgers wants to go elsewhere, then you could potentially lose Derek Carr. So if I'm Carr and this is what we'll really go out here right out of the gate, if I'm Carr, you want to go through your process, but I'm not waiting just for the sake of waiting. I'm going through these interviews, I'm going through these meetings and then next week or a week after that, like it's go time. And if Aaron Rodgers is sitting there and he's vacillating, do I want to get traded?

Do I don't? Or if the Packers just don't want to go to Rogers and say, we're done with you, I'm kind of forcing the hands of the Jets and just seeing how they're going to handle that, knowing that you may have a few other teams in your back pocket as well, because all these reports, it's actually nauseating. Some of the reports that come out from this meeting with Derek Carr and the Jets, how they believe he could win a championship like Derek Carr is not a championship winning quarterback.

And I don't know who's pushing that, like you would think it's the car camp, but some line of communication has to be coming from the jet camp. And if you just read the reports in the last 24, 48 hours, you think that this is a match made in heaven and Derek Carr is a solid quarterback. He's not a top 10 quarterback though. I don't think you win a Super Bowl with Derek Carr, but he's never had a defense like the Jets defense does have. So if I'm Carr, I'm not saying I'm rushing to the altar right now, waiting to get married on my next team, next team, but I'm not letting this go a month or two months. Like I'm trying to make this decision and know where my future is in the next two weeks and see how much does a team like the Jets really want you. If the Jets think there's a 25% chance of getting Aaron Rogers, see what the Jets then do.

Are they willing to risk not getting him in the 75% chance that they may not get him and then they lose me as well. So that's what I think the play is hickey for Derek Carr. You want to go through your process, but I'm not just being extremely lenient with time and just saying, oh yeah, I'll wait to see what the Jets do in this whole decision. I'd say the toughest part for Derek Carr is just like, if you identify, let's say two spots, let's say just for our critique, the Jets is one where you say, this is a place I love. The Jets are strong of just, hey, we're going to wait for Aaron Rogers and maybe we're going to wait for Lamar Jackson before we kind of circle back to you and Derek Carr is not in love with, let's say the Falcons. Maybe he doesn't like the plan in Tampa Bay.

I just don't know what else he's going to do. I think he would like the Saints. I don't really put much stock into Dennis Allen's tenure as the coach of the Raiders, but it seems like that's why he's maybe interested in going to the Saints from just things that you read from afar. Possibly, but I'm just saying, if you only have one or two teams you like, and those teams are going to say, hey, look, we're going to wait out the two best guys we think are on the market before we kind of circle back to you.

I think it's just tough for him to then all of a sudden try to force the hand or maybe then try to say, I need a decision now. So I'm going to go settle for my third option, which is, it could be the Saints. Maybe you like Saints and they're not interested in Rogers. It's just like you rather at the end of the day, I think land in the best spot for you. So that means having to wait and almost hoping that Rogers doesn't go there.

I think that's what you have to do. Let me just play this then the reverse argument. And I know we got to take a break in a few seconds, but what happens if let's just say you wait for the Jets. You really want to go to the Jets. The Jets end up getting Aaron Rogers and then your other two options, they already make moves because they're saying, we're not going to wait for the Jets to make a decision here.

Then you could be SOL. I really think Carr's got to get moving on this. And I think by two weeks, he's got to have that decision made. And ultimately I think he'll either be a Saint or I think he'll be a Jet. But it seems like the Jets and him from just what you hear early on, I know it was the first meeting, they're in love.

It's like head over heels. It was actually nauseating when you read that. So if I'm Carr, I don't think there's any harm in trying to force the Jets hand. And the Rogers thing, I think we'll get clarity earlier than Lamar Jackson, but Lamar, whoever winds up with Lamar, I think there's going to be a really drawn out process. If, if, if, if that's a big if he gets dealt this off season.

But then isn't it funny? Jimmy G, I know he's nothing can happen with Jimmy G yet. It's different than Carr. Have you heard a peep about Jimmy G? I haven't even heard a team that's interested in Jimmy G. Like Lamar Jackson isn't even available right now. We hear about teams that would be ready to go get him. Derek Carr is available, so it's different. Aaron Rogers, we think he's going to be available, but we don't know for sure. Some people thought he was going to be available the last two years, and that didn't come to fruition.

Jimmy G is clearly the fourth choice out of this group. And almost every team is making that known because no one has said or leaked out, oh yeah, we're going to be interested in the services of Jimmy Garoppolo. Alrighty, this is Zach Guilp's show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a time out. When we come on back, we'll do a little QB carousel. We'll talk about the Jets today and legendary talk show host and Jets superfan Joe Benigno, bro, will join us next.

Now I'm going to give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The New York Jets. Alrighty, JTS, Jets, Jets, Jets times. Let's welcome in the biggest Jets fan I know and an absolute legend in the radio business. That's the great Joe Benigno. Joe, how are you? Zach, we're shaking, bro. How are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic. I got to start you off with Rogers. Do you want Rogers as your quarterback? I want Rogers.

I want Rogers, but with that said, and, and you know, look, I mean, I don't know what he's doing now. I mean, maybe he's taking like a bath in the dark in his dark room. Is he still there? I mean, is he still in this? Is he still there? I think so. It's going to be like, what is he doing in this freaking dark room? Well, what a disaster. You know, you know, I, and I will get to the quarterback, but I got to say this about this dark room and my, and, and Evan, you know, I do Saturday show whatever now on the fan.

I, he brought up a good point. Let's be honest. And I want Rogers, you know, he's all famed quarterback.

I'll take my chances two years, you know, we better win, but whatever. You've got a lot of Kyrie Irving in him, you know? I think that's fair. He definitely has a lot of Kyrie. I mean, he's different. I mean, it's a different kind of insanity if you will, but it's, it's there.

Well at least he shows up and plays at least Rogers plays Kyrie not looking to get, you know, to move on to the next team, you know, every year and a half or so, or whatever it is, you know, what do you think goes on in this darkness retreat? Cause like if Joe Penango was there, I think like you show up in your tighty whities and really just retreat. There would be a few things that I would need. Number one, my wife wouldn't have to be there. Number two, I would have to have music with me without a doubt. Let's see what else would I have? Probably have to have my cats with me.

My two wonderful cats and maybe something else too that we can't really get into, but you know, I don't, I don't think that, you know, that, that would be my dark room, bro. Ayahuasca, you and Rogers? Ayahuasca, are you kidding me? You know, when I was in college, you know, we had mescaline, we had acid.

I mean, I never, I never heard of Ayahuasca. What? Come on. Oh my God. Here's my question for you.

Yes. It's the waiting game on Rogers. How long are you willing to wait at the expense of losing Carr? Not long enough to lose Derek Carr. So are you a believer in Carr?

Not long enough to lose. My top two choices are Rogers and Carr. I would be happy with either one of them. Maybe I'd be more happy with Carr because with Carr, I'm only 32. He's got at least five years left.

He basically plays all the time. You know, he might be one of those guys that, you know, you free him from where he was with the Raiders, where he basically had a new coach every year. I would, I take my shot on that.

You know, I take my shot on that. He might be the better deal for the long haul because with Rogers, I'll tell you, look, if we get Rogers, I'm going to be happy about it. Don't get me wrong. But with Rogers, we're looking at probably Zach a two year window.

That's probably it. Not much more than that. And we got to win. I mean, let's be honest. You know, if Rogers comes here and we get to the AFC title game and lose, that's not good enough. And that's my thing with Rogers. The last, outside of this year, the three years before that, 13 and three, 13 and three, 13 and three didn't even get to a Super Bowl.

Like that's a concern for me. As great as he is in the regular season, the postseason, he's a bad quarterback. Look, I mean, they, they've lost a lot of, a lot of playoff games since they won that Super Bowl back at the end of the 2010 season, a lot. And I don't think Michael, Matt LaFleur is that great a coach anyway. You know, everybody complained about McCarthy, but you know, McCarthy did win the Super Bowl with Rogers.

Nobody else has. So it's a concern. It's a concern. It's a concern that he's 38 years old. You know, as far as the flakiness, I don't think that really is going to be an issue on the field to be very honest with you. But like I said, I'll be happy with Rogers, but we got to win like now.

You know what I mean? Joe Benigno here with us. If I'm Carr, I heard today's brother come out and say that he's going to be patient in this process. I would kind of try to force the Jets hand, say I'm ready to sign with you guys and make them see if they're going to wait for Rogers and how long that's going to be. Well, he already talked to the Saints. I don't know how, you know, I don't know how, obviously they want their trade for him and that didn't, you know, he wouldn't let that happen. I guess the Saints are interested. I've heard Carolina's interested. You know, maybe there's a couple other teams out there that need quarterbacks. Tennessee needs a quarterback. You know, I don't know.

You know, I don't know. I don't know how that's going to play out. I like Rod. I like Cardo, bro. I do like him, I got to say. I got to say in a lot of ways, he's probably the better signing than Rogers is. Why do you like Carr so much? Because the way I look at Carr, Joe, anytime he's about to show he could be a top 10 quarterback in this league, he takes like three or four steps back. Yeah, but you know what he's had? He's had a coaching carousel over there with the Raiders. You know, the one year he might've been the MVP in the league. He winds up getting hurt at the end of the year.

They'll be losing that playoff game to Houston. I bet it was a Matt McGloin, the quarterback in that game, I think, I forget. You know, he's been through a ton of different coaches.

He had that insanity. I mean, let's just look at last year, the Gruden thing, the Ruggs thing, everything that went down with all of that. And you know, they wound up making a playoffs last year with Biastucci, whatever his name is, as the coach. He probably should have stayed as the coach.

And they lost a tough game to the Bengals in the playoffs. Bro, he's 32. And you know, sometimes he's, you know, a lot of quarterbacks, and I've seen it many times over the years, they don't blossom until later on in their career. And he's already been a pretty good quarterback. I mean, he's been to the Pro Bowl quarterback a number of times.

I would take a shot at him, and he plays. You know, again, I mean, to me, that's a big deal. Look, I like Jimmy Garoppolo a lot too, but Jimmy Garoppolo had never hurt all the time. You know what I mean? No, you're a hundred percent right on Jimmy G. So, I saw Diana Rossini was on ESPN earlier, and she said the Jets made it super personal when talking about Carr. We believe if you come to New York and win, you could be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Like, some of that stuff, I get you got to make your pitch, but it seems like there's a real love affair the last 24, 48 hours between the two. Well, good. I'm in. Then let's go. Then let's sign them. Bro, I told you, if they sign Carr tomorrow, I'm good. I'm in. I'm good to go. I'm not gonna cry about Rogers.

I'm good to go. This is my quarterback for probably at least the next five years, hopefully. And he's played. I know he had that one, like I said, he got injured that one year when he went to the playoffs and lost. I forget what year that was.

They lost to the Texans. But for the most part, this guy plays. And look, the best ability is availability. And I need that. I want that.

I want to see a quarterback that's gonna go out there every, you know, every 17 games a year and play, you know, where are you at with that football coach and Robert Solage opening? I don't know. I don't know where I am.

Here's what I know. Okay. My biggest concern about Sally is I think he's a much too nice a guy. I think that there's something to that. I don't know how, you know, I don't know if he's toughing off on the players. Look, Zach, he's good. He's the coach he's got this year. They got to get in the playoffs.

I mean, it really comes down to that. I think if they don't make the playoffs, he's gone. That's it. He's gone. How'd you react to the Hackett hiring at OC? That's fine. Hackett's okay.

I'm cool with that. You know, look, I mean, you know, yeah, these guys, just because he was a bad head coach and he really only got one year, but just because, not even a year, just because he's a bad head coach doesn't mean he's a bad coordinator. I mean, the laundry list is long of guys who were very good coordinators who were horrible head coaches. So I don't put any stock in that whatsoever. Douglas, are you in or out? Well, I mean, he had a pretty good draft last year.

You know, it's very interesting. The first draft was terrible. You know, Makai Beckton, you know, I'm not holding my breath, you know, waiting to see when he's going to finally play. He lost some weight though, Joe.

He's looking good. Okay. Big deal. You know, what'd he go to?

Jenny Craig? I mean, what'd he go? I mean, whatever. Golow?

I mean, who knows, but whatever. I was going to say Beckton. I mean, look, Beckton, you know, what's his name? The wide receiver that we drafted out of Baylor.

Who's been men's who Bailey plays right. That was a second round pick. Then we took, you know, Ashton Davis with the third round in the first year, that first draft wasn't, it wasn't very good.

You know, now the second year, let's be honest, he whipped on the quarterback. You know, we did get Elijah Veritaco. We did get Michael Carter, you know, there was, you know, Elijah Moore, you know, with some decent stuff there, but he basically whipped on, on the quarterback and last year was unbelievable. I mean, we, we wound up with the offensive and defensive rookies of the year. Breese Hall, God knows how good Breese Hall would have been if he hadn't been hurt. He probably would have won the offensive rookie of the year. He probably would have, man.

He was on his way. I mean, he was on his way to being like a, you know, one of the great running backs. I mean, let's be honest when running backs are, the great running backs are usually great, Zach, immediately. You know what I mean? The great ones are usually great right away. Especially, you never know how long it's going to last too at that position.

Well, you don't know. And now, I mean, you know, I mean, as great as he was, look, I mean, it took Barkley how many, a couple of years really to get back to where he was in his rookie year after the injury he had. So, you know, hopefully Breese comes back and he's healthy, but you know, the draft last year, you know, Michael Clemons, the Kid Mitchell on the offensive line, Jermaine Johnson. I mean, that's a pretty damn good draft. No, it was a very good draft. So they get Rogers or Carr. I know you say they, they got to win, but in their own division, where would you then rank them if they get Rogers or Carr?

I think they can win it. I mean, I don't think Buffalo is that. I think Buffalo is taking a step back. Okay.

I really do. I think they got to let, they got exposed. Let's be honest. The dolphins should have beat them in a playoff game.

Yeah. The dolphins should have beat them with Tyler Thompson. If that terrible coach, all the dolphin fans love McDaniel to me, he's terrible. Media darling, Mike McDaniel. That's what I call him. Oh my God. They loved it.

They think he's Don Shuler reincarnated. All you did was lose like six games in a row. And if you didn't play the crummy jets at the end of the year, they couldn't, you know, couldn't score in a brothel.

All right. Let's be honest with, with, uh, you know, Joe Flacco, a hundred year old Joe Flacco playing quarterback. You wouldn't have made the playoffs and they barely won that game as it was. So who's going to know, you know, give me a break, give me a break with Miami.

I don't buy them at all. I think Buffalo's taken a hit. I mean, it gets people for once last year, probably should have beat him the second time. You know, if, if, um, white didn't get hurt in that game, by the way, I'm still waiting for the year. Roughing the pass, a call on, uh, Matt Milano, but you know, why would that happen?

Right. But anyway, um, you know, and your team, I mean, your Patriots, I mean, I don't know, man. I mean, I don't, I don't know. I don't think your quarterback's any good. I think your defense is good. Well, here's the thing. I'm very, I'm very, um, I do not know how to, your defense scores a touchdown every game. Yeah. Especially and special teams too, up against the jets, you know, that's always a given, but well, I mean, but look, I'm still hurting from the John Franklin. My is roughing the pastor. I was at the game. I could still see Michael Carter running down the sideline and I still can't believe they threw the flag. Give me a break.

Let me tell you right now. You think if the same hit by let's say, uh, whoever for your team, uh, hits, yeah, yeah. Right. Matthew Judon.

Exactly. Let's say Matthew Judon hits, uh, Zach Wilson, just like Franklin Myers hit Jones. And it's Devin McCarty running down the sideline.

Believe me, there's no roughing the past. I would have tipped my cap to the officials that they would have called that. I always respect the officiating.

They're wonderful Joe. You heard the commissioner. It's the greatest they've ever been. It's a disgrace. And I've had it with replay. Give me a break on replay. I'm part of it.

How about the, how about the super body? How do you make that call? I know Bradbury said it was raw. He was holding game. You can't throw that flag. You can't throw that flag and decide the game. Come on. It's this super ball. It wasn't week eight. Okay.

Terrible. And how about the officiating in the, in the championship game, the Vonta Smith catch. That wasn't really a catch. How about the, uh, the do all the play with the Bengals and, and, and the chiefs over what last thing I'll ask you, Joe, is that replay too? I hate Zach Wilson on the roster next year for the jets. I think it depends who the quarterback is. I think if Derek caused the quarterback, Zach Wilson's not there. I think if, and I want Mike white to be the backup no matter what, but with that said, I think if Derek caused the quarterback, Zach Wilson isn't there.

I think if Rogers is the quarterback, he is a chance. He is gotcha. All the love Joe. You're the best Zach. God bless my best as always to, uh, your father.

Okay. God bless him. You got it.

Thanks so much. There he is. Joe joining us. Oh, that was awesome.

I had my two favorite parts of that hickey when he called it Ayahuasca. And then, uh, however, he said, I think he said, imagine Joe Beningo in, in the darkness retreat in the cave with Aaron Rogers. He shows up, bro.

You got to play for my team, bro. Like what did Joe, you can just see Joe, right? I think he shows up in his tiny white.

He's like a box of cereal. If Joe was any darkness, the truth, Aaron Rogers, I can guarantee you Aaron Rogers would not be playing for the jets in 2023. That's what they're going to get Rogers to leave whatever cave he's in right now. They'll send Beningo in, flush them out, get them out in 10 minutes.

I haven't laughed like that in a while, man. Joe was in, in rare form today. No doubt about that. All right. Well, uh, take a break. We will come on back and we'll get into a little bit about Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley's contract.

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Eat well effortlessly. tuvala.com. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. All right, it is Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. So the window to franchise tag a player is now officially open and it will shut on March 7th. Some players that are in that conversation, you know Lamar Jackson's gonna get tagged. We'll see if the Chiefs get a long-term deal done with Orlando Brown. You think probably he'll get tagged as well. I would expect Josh Jacobs of the Raiders would make a lot of sense to me if the Raiders franchise tag him just in case if they can't get a long-term deal done, at least you'll have him for next year. Maybe Daron Payne and Jordan Poirier, like those are two names that are up in the conversation with the commanders and then also the Buffalo Bills, but really I think the most fascinating one is what do the Giants do?

Because here are the reports from the last day or two. So according to Pro Football Talk, Daniel Jones wants more than New York has offered and possibly as much as $45 million per year. Then Diana Rossini said today in a tweet, it's been made clear by those involved in negotiations the Giants are planning for Daniel Jones to be their QB. He is their priority. They're working on a long-term deal. Then they will figure out Saquon.

The clock is ticking though. I don't know, Hickey, what you think about this, but I would be hesitant to give Daniel Jones a long-term deal. Like if you could get him for three or four years and four probably the most I'm willing to go, okay, if it's at the right number, I could deal with that. But if this is going to be like $45 million a year, Daniel Jones hasn't done enough in this league where I would feel comfortable giving him that deal. And I know he had a good season this year with throwing to no one at the wide receiving position, but I almost think that the Giants would be better off in just slapping the franchise tag on Jones, seeing what he's going to do for another year, get him more talent in there as well, and then getting the long-term deal done with Saquon Barkley. Because running backs, you're not going to get like a five or six year deal for Saquon Barkley. You could probably do a four year deal for Saquon Barkley and it's going to cost you obviously less just because that's the nature of the position.

The position is not as lucrative as it once was. So if I'm the Giants, I think I would use the franchise tag on Jones and then figure out Saquon Barkley in a long-term extension and go all in a long-term deal for Saquon. And I'm with the look when it comes to the Giants and when it comes to any NFL team, obviously the main priority is getting the guy a quarterback. But if you don't have that and the Giants don't, your second biggest priority then has to be maintaining flexibility in order to be able to one day acquire maybe that guy that you think can be the guy. If you're the Giants, you're right. The franchise tag gives you that flexibility where it's cheaper than a long-term deal. And if Daniel Jones flops, you don't love what you see in 2023, Scott, you're gone.

Here's the tricky part. Jones had a good year this year. You could make whatever you want out of the statistics. If you watch the Giants this year, Daniel Jones led that football team, did a great job with his legs. His arm was unbelievable up against the Vikings, though the Vikings defense stinks. But Isaiah Hodgins was a serviceable wide receiver. He made Isaiah Hodgins look good.

They did not have a lot of guys. They didn't have anyone on that team that would be a number one or like a number two wide receiver in any other team in the league. So I got to give credit to Jones. And when I watched the Giants this year, I say to myself, I do want to see Daniel Jones back with the Giants next year with more talent around him. And I know we were all critical of the selection at six for Daniel Jones with the Giants. In the first few years of his career, there was bad coaching. There was too many turnovers.

So he doesn't get to skate free, but there was a lot of excuses. And you bring in a competent coach finally in Brian Deball and you see how good Daniel Jones could potentially be. And it did leave me desiring to want to see more for Daniel Jones.

I'm not ready to tell you and don't get this construed. I'm not ready to tell you that Daniel Jones is a franchise quarterback, but I really don't know how to define Daniel Jones. Like I'm not sitting here telling you he's this great quarterback, but he's definitely not a bad quarterback. And I just want to see what he could do with more weapons around him because he was impressive this year.

Which is why the franchise tag is the perfect option because it allows you that one year sample size to see was last year. Just a one hit wonder we've seen other quarterbacks have solid one years and then fail to replicate that going forward. Can he under Brian Debo, which we've seen him do wonders with Josh Allen progression from year to year when Debo is a Buffalo, can he do the same with, uh, with Taylor Jones? And if so again, then you feel comfortable this time next year, signing down Jones or long-term deal. You can't feel that great or you can't feel confident signing Dan Jones. So $45 million a year contract right now, based off of one year of play with, they said nothing around them.

Sure. But in a year, whereas so far the best year of his four year or three year career. And also in the playoff game up against the Eagles. And, and I know that it was a blowout, but it seemed like at times, and I don't think this is true with the year that he had, but it looked like what the way they weren't forcing the ball down the field, it was almost as if they didn't trust Jones in that spot. When I go back and watch that game, it's like, and that's about your downfall, those points, like let him throw the football down the field a little bit.

Yeah. I mean that also too, I think offensive line, not being able to block the Eagles is also tough too. No time to throw, but I mean, yeah, it just also highlights the fact that there was nothing around him impressive. The giant show able to make it to playoffs in general. Well, like I said, I don't think what we've seen in 2022 is worthy of being a salary wise top five quarterback in that stratosphere next year. Well, that's always a dilemma because how many years do we sit here and say, I don't know about this guy and guys that have accomplished a lot more in this league.

And they ended up getting a lucrative deal and they end up getting a King's ransom. Like we've seen it before, like there's more upside, but Kyler Murray, I'm not, I don't love Dak Prescott as a quarterback, but Dak Prescott got $40 million a year. Is he worth it so far?

No. Kyler Murray, I know it's only one year and who knows when he's going to come back after this ACL injury, but there's questions about those guys who have done a lot more in this league. I have a tough time thinking, and it does seem like what the giants are telling everyone that they're looking to get a long-term deal done with Jones. And I guess for insurance purposes, they will slap the franchise tag on Saquon Barkley, but Jones just fired his agent. He switched agency. So who knows what's actually going on? The giants almost have to ask themselves, do you run the risk of letting Jones hit free agency?

Because I'll throw out this question. Who's the other team rushing to sign Daniel Jones? That's like another reason why I think they should slap the tag on Saquon is because there will be more teams interested in Saquon Barkley, even with the difference of position than I would think Daniel Jones. You tell me if Saquon's available this year via free agency, the bills aren't making a move at him.

I think they absolutely would. For Jones, I don't know what the market would be. Because I think there's a lot of people, Hickey, that look at Daniel Jones this year, fair or not, and they go, oh, that was because of the coaching of Brian Dabel. I mean, if you look, look, there's a lot of teams that need a quarterback. Everyone in the NFC South, we've talked about the Jets a lot.

We've talked about a team like the Raiders, the Commanders. If he's insisting on getting 40, 45 million dollars, how many then are interested in Daniel? I mean, outside of Lamar Jackson, outside of Aaron Rodgers, maybe Derek Carr.

I would say he's more attractive than Jimmy G if you're a team in need of a quarterback. As we know, it only takes one team to say, you know what, screw it. Daniel Jones, our guy, we're going to go for it and give him 40 million dollars a year. And then the Giants, you would assume that the Giants would have a chance to match that. Maybe they would probably have to exceed it if it gets to that point. But if you don't feel great about giving them 45 million dollars, you really want to risk having him kind of float out there or, you know, risk trying to negotiate with them and getting outbid.

And this is the curious part to me. I know they're in different stages of their careers, but they're both free agents or potentially free agents, depending on what happens with the tag. Guys like Geno Smith and guys like Daniel Jones. Are you honest with yourself about how much the environment matters and how much the culture of the Seahawks and the Giants matters?

Because if you go somewhere else, yeah, you'll get your cash. And if that's your priority and you want the most money possible, I can't fault you when you play this sport. But if then your play regresses, I don't think Daniel Jones nor Geno Smith should be shocked if they go elsewhere. And then all of a sudden, when you don't have Pete Carroll and I know Dayball, it's only one year, but the guy did win the coach of the year in the league. It's almost like, OK, I think, you know, down deep how important that coaching was.

And eventually got to make throws and both Geno Smith and Daniel Jones did that this year. But then you get away from an environment that was working for you. You got to redefine yourself. You got to create those new relationships and you're going to be under a ton of scrutiny because you're getting paid this ridiculous amount of money for guys that are more unknowns in this league and don't have a lot of sustained success. Then you go elsewhere. It's like, is it worth it for, I don't know, an extra five million dollars, six million dollars a year when you're talking about all this money to go somewhere else where you truly don't know if it's going to work? I think that's a dilemma. I think for both these guys in Geno and Daniel Jones, you'd be wiser to take a little bit less, stay where you are, because they could be where they had success.

It's not an accident. Those of you who are Daniel Jones, you get to work with Brian Dayball a lot more. I'd rather do that than, I don't know, go to, I mean, look, Washington is interesting, but there's obviously a lot of chaos there. Imagine in division, Falcons, New Orleans, like it's like the Panthers healthy. Like there's interesting options, but Brian Dabels obviously unlock something. I would try to continue with that if I'm down Jones. I do think both are going to go back to Seattle and New York, but if one were to leave, I think it's more likely that Jones leaves than compared to Geno Smith. We haven't heard anything on the Geno Smith front. That makes me think that Pete, John Schneider and Geno are going to find a way to get a deal done. Mike Westoff going to join us on the other side. It is the Zach Gelb show right here on CBS Sports Radio.