Carr Signs With The Saints (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 into a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb Show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliate, Sirius XM, channel 158, and that free Odyssey app, 855-212-4CBS. There's a number to jump on in, 855-212-4227.

You can always get at me on the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb, or on Instagram, I'm always straight flexing, at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We're rock and rolling all the way up until 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. Mraz is going to stop by an hour 20 from now, do a little QB Carousels.

We'll focus on his New York football giant at 9 20 p.m. Eastern, 6 20 p.m. Pacific. We will spin the QB Carousel wheel once again. I advocated that we bring Stuart Kovacs on to talk about the Raiders, but Hickey said checks and balances and ended up going with Victor Fore, who will come on the show and we'll chat a little bit about the Raiders saying goodbye to their old quarterback. He finds a new team, Derek Carr, now joining the Saints.

We'll get to that in just a bit, and where do the Raiders go from here? But first up, producing this extravaganza is no other than Hot Take Hickey. Hot Take Hickey. And I'm back in the studio after my little trip to Barcelona. I guess Hickey didn't burn down the place on Wednesday, and same with Bart Winkler on Thursday and Friday. Had a great trip.

You can see a bunch of photos that I put up on Instagram and Twitter. We'll talk about it a little bit later on in the show, but we got news to get to right out of the gate coming off a little vacation, and that is the Saints making a move that I actually predicted all the way back in early February as they have now landed their guy, their next quarterback, and that is Derek Carr. We'll see how long it lasts. The deal is technically, as Mike Florio did a good article and illustrated this on Pro Football Talk, it's a four-year, $150 million deal, but Florio goes into the specifics of the contract, being the good lawyer that he is, and he said it's at best a three-year, $100 million deal, and the fourth year is a device aimed simply at driving the average price from $33.3 million per year to $37.5 million since Carr reported he was looking for at least $35 million a year. Here's my first reaction to this. It's a solid move for the Saints, and I know every Tom, Dick, and Harry's going to get on the radio, and they're going to give you the lame take of, oh, the Saints are now the team to beat in the NFC South.

No crap. Well, we don't even know who the other quarterbacks are going to be in the NFC South. If the season started tomorrow, Kyle Trask would be starting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Matt Corral, or Jacob Eason could be suiting up for the Carolina Panthers, and for the Falcons, I think their two quarterbacks on the roster right now are Desmond Ritter and Logan Woodside. So, if Derek Carr can't find a way to win this division, if everything stays put, which it won't, because you'd have to imagine maybe the Falcons go get their quarterback of the future in the draft, maybe the Panthers trade up, who knows who's going to be playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but yeah, sure.

Right now, the Saints, even with whatever cap casualty moves that they're going to have to make, they should find a way to win this division. Doesn't mean they're a lock, and Derek Carr is a solid quarterback, and I've described Derek Carr this way 9,000 times, let's do it 9,001 times. Anytime you think Derek Carr is about to assert himself in a top 10 quarterback claim, and you put him in that category, the following year, or even maybe just the following week, he reminds you why he isn't a top 10 quarterback. Don't get me wrong, the Raiders have been a bleep show for the last decade pretty much, and Carr was admirable when they had their biggest bleep show two years ago.

But then coming off of that with all the moves that they made this offseason, this past offseason, he regressed. So anytime you start to say Derek Carr is the flavor of the month, and you start to go Derek Carr, he's looking pretty damn good as a quarterback, he takes a step back, he is inconsistent. Him going to the Saints though shouldn't surprise anybody, because I said this from the start, and then I also said this about a week ago, right before I went on vacation, if I'm Carr, I would push the hand of the Jets.

I would say to the Jets though, I'm not gonna be your second fiddle here. I get it, it's Aaron Rodgers, but I'm not gonna wait until the Rodgers domino to fall. And obviously, if it goes the way that we think it did go, the Jets must be confident they could go get Rodgers, or are willing to take the gamble. And even though he had a report two weeks ago, Derek Carr, if he wins the Super Bowl in New York, the Jets are claiming he was gonna be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Clearly they didn't think that much about him, because he's younger, and all it was going to do is gonna cost you money to go get Derek Carr.

You gotta give up picks to go get Aaron Rodgers. We know how much of a better quarterback Rodgers than Carr, and the Jets basically said, no, we're good. Now you could go inside the NFC South, and did he make the right decision by going to the Saints?

That's a fair question. I was saying last week that I thought the Panthers would actually best suit him. When you heard that the Panthers are gonna have a conversation with them at the combine, but I guess the Panthers felt like they didn't need to give him the contract that he was looking for. Or they felt like they could go address their quarterback need in other ways via a trade, via the draft. Or maybe they're gonna punt another year, and wait until next year to do that with a new coach coming in, in Frank Reich. So this move to the Saints, it's a fine move. Like if you're a Saints fan, yeah, it's better than seeing Andy Dandy Dalton, or Jamis Winston, or Taysom Hill, and the crap that they've had at quarterback the last two, three years ever since Drew Brees did walk away. But if you're a Saints fan, like what's your realistic expectation? This was an organization that was Sean Payton and Drew Brees. The standard was win a Super Bowl. I know they won one Super Bowl, and some may say only one Super Bowl, and they got close a bunch of other times where you thought they had a team that could get to the Super Bowl, and then either they got screwed by the refs, like in that game up against the Rams, or they just came up short when Drew Brees turned over the football too many times up against the Minnesota Vikings.

But this is a move that it's a fine move. The Saints are a better football team today. But I can't sit here and tell you that outside of winning a division, that I have any further or any higher expectations for the New Orleans Saints.

I can't sit here and say that. Even in an NFC, that is wide open. Like, go look at the NFC for next year. The Eagles should be really damn good. The 49ers, we're gonna see who their quarterback is, but we've seen them be really good without having stability at the quarterback spot. Outside of that, the NFC is right there for the taking. Like, the Cowboys are good, but they're not great.

The Minnesota Vikings, good but not great. Are the Lions ready to take that next step? Like, you could go through the entire NFC. Is Seattle going to continue what they were able to do last year and build off of that? You go through that entire, the Rams bounce back, probably not.

It seems like everyone is one foot in, one foot out the door with that organization. So the NFC is wide open, but I can't sit here and look at the Saints and go, yep, they have Derek Carr right now. Super Bowl contenders, line them up, let's go. Let's start the the march to Las Vegas for the New Orleans Saints.

The drive to Las Vegas, I can't do that, because this team is okay. This division stinks. So they should win the division, but after that, I can't have these big lofty goals for the Saints. We don't even know what's gonna happen with Alvin Kamara.

All right, Crystal Lavey's good. Maybe they released Michael Thomas this offseason. Defense is solid, but they're gonna have to make some changes as you try to navigate the cap.

And I still have questions about Dennis Allen, and Hickey, I don't know about you. I think this is the funniest part, but Carr and Dennis Allen were together in Oakland for lousy four games, and they have this great relationship, and Dennis Allen was a driving factor, and they are so tight. Dennis Allen and Derek Carr, that's why Derek Carr goes to the Saints?

No, it's because it's a dome, and it's an easy division, and he's smart. You go to the Jets, you're not gonna be better than Buffalo. I don't even know if you'll be better than Miami. You should make the playoffs.

They have a good roster. I'm not kicking the crap out of the Jets, and I have a better roster than the Saints. They have a better roster than the Panthers if you like to go to the Panthers, but Carr's not a dummy. Get paid, you stay indoors with the Saints, and you should be able to win the division. But outside of that, I'm not gonna tell you, oh, watch out for the Saints. The Saints are the big bad, here comes the Saints. They're going marching in. They're gonna be a big bad contender going to a Super Bowl or an NFC title game.

Nonsense. Maybe at best they win a playoff game this year, which you can't really trust Carr in a big spot. I'll say that. So, Hickey, what's your reaction right out of the gate? Carr going to the Saints. What do you kind of expect out of this football team this year?

I mean, expect, like you said before, they're gonna probably win the NFC South because the other three teams right now are just in flux, and- By the way, did they put a new microphone in there? No. Oh, wow. You sound very good today. Oh, they did adjust the levels. It's not new, but there was an adjustment made, yes, so that's why it sounds- You sound like you're in HD today. Usually when you speak- Wow, really? It sounds like an air conditioner's going off in the background or something like that. My headphones, they need to get adjusted because I really can't tell the difference between today and any other day, so good to know. Okay, we're sounding great. Maybe the tapes will be a little bit better now.

You go on vacation for a few days and look at everything around the studio. He gets changed, and now everything is A+. They said Gelb's out. We don't know if we'll let him back in. Let's fix the studio while we're at it. But they're gonna win the division, but the thing is, I don't know, if you're Derek Carr, I think the Saints out of the three teams that were interested, the Panthers, Jets, Saints, I think it was the worst decision, honestly.

That's the worst out of the three. I think Carolina's in a better spot to win. I think you would have had more success with Frank Reich and kind of the pieces you have in Carolina. Now, wins playoff-wise, probably less success in the AFC East with the Jets just because of how hard of a division and how hard of a conference it is. But you look at the Saints, you have no idea who's gonna be on the roster. You have Chris Olave, I feel like, guaranteed to be on the roster.

Alvin Kamaru, see how many games he's suspended for with his Pro Bowl altercation two years ago, now being investigated. Michael Thomas could be a cap casualty. If not, the guy's not been able to stay healthy at any point really throughout the last three years of his career. Here's the guarantee on Michael Thomas. He's guaranteed to wind up on IR at least once a season. With some leg injury, without a doubt, ankle and knee, calf, you name it, foot, always been an issue. So it's just like, if you're Derek Carr, it's okay.

I don't know. Like I said, you're pairing yourself with a head coach that I guess believed in you because he drafted you, but also lasted four games that season. And also, what was always the thing that we said with the Raiders?

It was the car apologist would always say, oh, well, he doesn't really have a lot of talent. I know it differed last year when I know Waller and also Renfro were hurt, but they went out, they got Devante Adams and Josh Jacobs had a career year. But for many years, the Raider fan that wanted to make excuses for Derek Carr, and there was a lot of excuses to be made for Derek Carr, would say, oh, the talent on the roster isn't good enough. He's had a lot more talented rosters with the Raiders than the one that he has right now with the Saints. Like outside of Olave, nothing really excites me with this Saints team. And I know people would say, oh, Kamara, Kamara, sure. But we don't even know how many games Kamara's going to be able to play this year. And with an aging roster, I know he's had a four-year deal, but your window is very short.

Again, this is a roster that we're talking about, it's gonna be in flux here. They've kicked the cap can down the street for what feels like forever now. Eventually you have to pay up for that. You can keep on doing that. But I mean, it seems like, okay, a year or two, and then all of a sudden you got to hit the reset button at some point?

But you know what this is? Isn't this a stopgap kind of move? I know it gets reported as four years, $150 million. And usually you think of a stopgap as like a guy like a Marcus Mariota or a Jameis Winston.

So this is a little bit more of a luxury kind of stopgap guy. But when you see the way that Florio pointed out the contract, and he says at best, it's really like a three or $100 million deal. We talked about this last year and it was different last year, how Carr got this big extension. It was like, oh, they could get rid of him easily.

And they did after one year. So it seems like this is a way where you could go make the playoffs. You'll keep the ship from sinking. You'll be fine.

You'll be okay. Maybe one year you go get double digit wins or two, something like that. But I don't think at the end of this deal, you're going to have Saints fans saying, oh, we need to keep Derek Carr.

I don't think that is going to be a part of this conversation. They'll eventually say, okay, he's solid. He's fine. He was good, but we could do a lot better. And it feels as if this is a stopgap until they eventually make that move and reconstruct the entire roster like you're talking about and redefine what the Saints will look like in a few years, but probably let's be real, a new football coach, like three, four or five years from now. And your Derek Carr was very emotional about his exit from Oakland slash Las Vegas to the Raiders.

At least to me, it's like he wanted to be somewhere where he was wanted. And sure, you can say the Saints want him because they're the only team that tried to trade for him back before he got cut. But again, you just mentioned whether it's a contract outline, the age of the roster. If he makes it all four years, I'd be shocked.

So it's just like, okay, you signed up for maybe a two-year plan. And now if the Saints either try to go younger, hit the reset button, do whatever, does not seem like this is going to be a very long lasting partnership. So the Carr domino has fallen. Back in early February, I predicted Carr to the Saints. I had Jimmy G going to the Jets and Aaron Rodgers going to the Las Vegas Raiders. We will revisit that on the other side, the Aaron Rodgers part of the conversation. And for the Jets and Raiders, the pressure has just only intensified with now Derek Carr being off the board more so for the Jets because the Raiders said goodbye to him. But you now have a legit bidding war via the trade circuits, assuming that Aaron Rodgers is going to get traded between the Jets and the Raiders.

And we'll see who will pay the biggest price. We will talk about Roger on the other side. And also another report that is out there according to the Packers line of thinking, which I said, that sounds like what we've been talking about for the last two months. So we'll get all into that when the Zach Gelb show continues in five minutes.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. All righty, this is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We do have some breaking news in the quarterback market. We know Derek Carr did sign today with the New Orleans Saints. The news is not Aaron Rodgers news, but it is news about an NFC quarterback and his name is not Daniel Jones. But according to Jordan Schultz, Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks are finalizing a three-year contract extension worth $105 million with the ability to earn $52 million in the first calendar year.

Sources tell the score. So the comeback player of the year and a man that did earn Pro Bowl honors after leading the NFL in completion percentage, as Jordan Schultz did point out, is staying put in a place where obviously he has resurrected his career. Hickey, if you would have told me before the start of last season that early on in the next offseason, technically the offseason hasn't even started yet because the new league year isn't underway, that you would have Geno Smith finalizing a contract agreement and the Seahawks being in a rush to extend Geno Smith to a three-year $105 million deal, I would say you are out of your bleeping mind. Remember, this was a guy that once got punched in the mouth by his own teammate when he was the quarterback of the Jets.

When they were on the west coast, he couldn't even figure out the time zone. This guy's pretty much been irrelevant for the last 10 years other than a spot start here and there, and now he has a three-year $105 million deal. I don't know all the specifics to tell you about the $52 million in the first year they could run up to. We don't know how easy it is to get out of the contract, but the fact that Geno Smith got a big fat lucrative payday, if I could have placed a bet on that before the start of the season, I don't even think I'd have to work anymore because I would be one rich, rich, rich man because no one could have seen this coming.

This is one of my favorite stories I think of all time. I was convinced the Seahawks were tanking. I thought whether it was Bryce Young, CJ Strad, they are throwing 2022 away. They are going for a quarterback here and Geno is going to be basically the sacrificial lamb.

And here we are a year later. Now I can't even kill you for that because that was the obvious thing to say is we all thought that Drew Locke was going to be the starter, not even Geno Smith. Whenever you have a quarterback competition with Pete Carroll, expect the unexpected. And Matt Flynn who had that what, three or four year contract after one start and some guy named Russell Wilson gets drafted in the fourth round. And the next thing you know, Russell Wilson started over Matt Flynn. Then Drew Locke, who they supposedly loved going back a few years ago in the draft, Drew Locke gets traded in the Denver Broncos deal where they trade Russell Wilson over to Denver. And the next thing you know, everyone's just assuming Drew Locke will be the starting quarterback, even though he stinks because Geno Smith is worse.

And not only does Geno Smith win the job, he leads the league in completion percentage and also throws to the most yards in a single season in the history of the Seattle Seahawks. So good job for Geno. A lot of people wrote him off. He didn't write back today. He's writing back with a big fat contract. What a story. I just threw my papers up in the air.

I still can't believe that. He was tremendous last year. Now, I can't sit here and tell you I have any high expectations for the Seahawks next year.

This is turning into a show. T makes a quarterback move and I just go, yeah, it's fine, but I don't have high expectations. But I'll tell you this, like I'm more intrigued about Geno Smith next year in Seattle than Derek Carr next year with the Saints because I don't know what the ceiling is for the Seattle Seahawks. For the Saints, I know what the ceiling is.

You win the division and win one playoff game at best. For the Seahawks, I thought they did a good job early on in that playoff game up against the 49ers. And once the fumble happened, that just impacted that game too much. And then that tide really did turn.

The next thing you know, the 49ers ended up winning and not only winning, they ended up winning going away. Yeah, I truly don't know because I don't expect Geno Smith to build off of 2022 or get better, maybe even maintain what he did. But like, I mean, well, he'll regress.

But the question is by how much does he regress? Right. And at least the Seahawks gave themselves a flexibility with this contract.

We don't know a lot of the details, but three years, 105. They didn't break the bank like or do what basically Geno is maybe trying to get a Dan Jones-esque deal. That's the happiest guy in the world. Joe Shane.

Yeah. Joe Shane sees this deal and I know Daniel Jones is younger and Daniel Jones doesn't have DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett to throw the football to. And Daniel Jones, I think has more leverage to negotiate here than Geno Smith, even though Geno Smith put up a much better season than Daniel Jones.

Joe Shane is jumping up and down right now because who knows the exact specifics with the contract just coming out and the little details that we're able to provide you. But if that's 105 million dollars truly over three years, that's 35 million dollars a deal a year. Like Daniel Jones looking for at one report was at least 45 million dollars. Daniel Jones, at least 45 million dollars.

My ass. Don't get me wrong. Like Jones had a solid season. I'm intrigued by Daniel Jones.

I want to see what Daniel Jones could do if you surround him with some legit weapons. And no offense, I know we met at the Super Bowl to Isaiah Hodgins or James or any of those guys, but there are I don't even want to say a number two wide receiver at best. Hodgins was off waivers. Now you go on and have a good career coming off waivers. But if I'm Joe Shane with you have to get this franchise tag done by tomorrow and they still have a window to negotiate a long term extension. But if they don't get a deal done by tomorrow, then the Giants are going to have to use their franchise tag on Daniel Jones. And then you have the possibility of Saquon Barkley not only hitting the open market, but leaving.

So Joe Shane has to be happy because as you're in the 11th hour right now, the Geno Smith domino does fall. And it's a fair contract for what Geno Smith did last year. Guy threw for over 4200 yards, nearly 4300, had 30 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and had a masterful completion percentage.

And we talked to Geno a few weeks ago. The question of is he going to chase the money or is he going to kind of maybe favor familiarity where he had success and kind of take, we'll say, a hometown discount, if you will, say, the Seahawks. And it seems like he took a little bit of a discount. I can't really imagine what his market would have been if he got to free sale. I don't know how much more he would have gotten. But regardless, Geno Smith realized this is where I fit. This is where kind of it worked best for me. Don't leave him being broke.

Don't fix it. And that's why I give a lot of credit for at least recognizing that and realizing my best place for success is going to be right here in Seattle. And I wouldn't have blamed him if he left and just took the fattest deal that he could go get. This is last big deal. I don't think anyone's saying at Geno Smith, what is he, 32 I think Geno Smith is? He may be a little bit older than that. But regardless, Geno Smith's 32.

Turns 33 in October. I don't think anyone expects Geno Smith to get another big fat payday. Like after this. I'm not saying he can't still be good. But I know that we don't like to say, I don't know in sports talk radio. I think Geno Smith will be fine next year. But I can't tell you he's going to be great for the next five, six years. But it made the most sense for Seattle, where you have draft capital, obviously, from the Russell Wilson deal. And you don't need to take a quarterback right now. But I think if Pete is being honest, and they've even talked about the options of taking a quarterback in this draft class. I think Pete looked at this and said, yeah, right now for next year, our best interest of the team is to go out and bring Geno back, but not a deal that's going to tie us down to anything too long term. And that's going to prevent us from making a move moving forward.

And Geno looked at it. I'm going to three or $105 million. Okay, sign me up.

A year ago, I didn't have any chance of getting a deal like this. And you stay in Seattle. And not only do you stay in Seattle, you stay in an environment that has fit you really well. But Hickey, I look at this, the Seahawks now have the fifth overall pick in the first round. And then they have the 20th overall pick as well, because they have two picks from the Broncos deal. I look at the Seahawks, it would not shock me. Them sitting at five, if they take a quarterback, and I know everyone's going crazy after Anthony Richardson at the combine. But if CJ Stroud is still there, I think they would be stupid to pass him up.

But maybe Seattle's a team that looks to move up. Where you could have your young quarterback sit and wait a year or two, Geno Smith plays, and then you figure it out from there. But you look at it, the Bears, we all know, they're talking about multiple first round picks.

And Ryan Paul's been on the record talking about that. We know the Texans are looking for a quarterback. The Cardinals have Kyler Murray. The Colts, they're desperate to go get a quarterback. And then Seattle's sitting there at five. They could trade up or they could do their evaluations and say, whoever we like.

Out of those, let's say they like three guys. One will probably be there at five when you look at the quarterback market, Hickey. They absolutely have to take a quarterback.

You've got to take advantage of having a gift given to you by the Broncos having an awful season. Like you said, you just have your short term answer and Geno Smith on a favorable, we think, contract for the short term here for a year, two years, whatever. And especially the two guys that we think will go three and four in some order, Anthony Richardson and Will Levis, both deemed as projects. Both guys are going to need time. So it's kind of the perfect marriage of have Geno Smith play next year. See what happens and also give Richardson and or Levis the proper time they need to develop, get used to the NFL speed and you kind of the best of both worlds. Well, if shroud or young ends up going there, it's going to be tough to really make either of them wait all that long, like more than a year.

Like you could make them wait a year and then you know how that works. The minute Geno Smith throws an interception, the Seahawks fans, as great as they are, they're going to be chanting for younger shroud. But you used a good word there, project. That's what people view Anthony Richardson as. Like they say, oh, he could be great in two years. Will Levis, he has to work on some things as well. I think Will Levis is a little bit more pro ready than Anthony Richardson is right now.

But both of those guys, for the most part, are considered projects. So like you look at the two teams sitting at five and six right now who both have two first round picks and the Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks, where the Lions are at 18, the Seahawks are at 20. And then we mentioned Detroit's at five and Seattle or excuse me, Seattle's at five, Detroit's at six. They could both, if it's sitting at five and six, maybe go quarterbacks with Levis and Richardson. And then you know that the time is ticking on Goff and Geno Smith. Or maybe if it doesn't go as we thought it would, like last year where we all said the quarterbacks aren't that great, but they just always go in the first round. If teams start to pass up on quarterbacks, they could, and this is a risky game to play, but they could take the best player that they view available at five and six and then use those back end picks in the first round of 18 and 20 to move up. If a quarterback, let's say, like remember the year Justin Fields, I think he went 11th when Justin Fields made that deal with the Giants, the Bears made a deal with the Giants going to get Fields. If there's Richardson or Levis sitting there at 11, you get best player available at five and six and use your later first round pick to potentially move up and you give out a future pick. So you're starting to see the picture shape out a little bit, but this Geno Smith news, I don't think it prevents them from taking a quarterback in the draft and Joe Shane has to be very happy because I think now he has more leverage in the whole Daniel Jones situation, but the only negative for the Giants, if they don't get a deal done by tomorrow, then I think they have to slap the franchise tag on Daniel Jones, unless they just say, we'll franchise tag Saquon Barkley Jones, go to the open market.

We like you, we don't love you. And we'll see if you're able to get a better deal than the one that we're going to be offering you. That's the only thing with Dan Jones and what he wants and versus what the market's going to dictate. Like is any team out there desperate enough to give him $45 million a year?

If someone thinks that what Brian Deball did with Tim this year, that they could replicate that and improve it. And they just blame the other years under the bad coaching and the bad general managing, you know how teams get teams. There's a lot of guys and Jones is viewed as like an okay quarterback right now that are crappy quarterbacks that end up going somewhere else.

And we're like, how the heck did that happen? I know it was via trade, but look at the year that Carson Wentz had with the Colts and then the commanders gave up pretty significant trap capital to go get a deal for Carson Wentz and bring him in when he was on the verge of getting released. So we've seen it before teams give quarterback second and third chances with his age. I don't know if it's up to 45 million, but if let's say it's 40 million and the Giants don't want to go anywhere further than 35, like I'm just throwing out those numbers. I'm sure a team would be willing to give him if they really do believe in him. Cause there's a lot of teams that need quarterbacks and you know this Hickey guys who are on the hot seat, they, they feel the pressure.

And then that's when you really have desperate things occur. I get it. It's just a lot of money to give to a guy that you have no, no idea if he's actually any good. Is it even like you mentioned too, but all the bad head coaches, he had all the offensive systems is his success even just more of a product of Brian Deball in and of itself.

He's the giant. You said, okay, you know what? We feel comfortable with whatever quarter we're going to have next year. Brian Deball is going to get the most out of them, whether it's Samuel Jones or someone else. And we're not going to be paying our quarterback, kind of like what the 49ers are kind of doing. We're not going to be paying our quarterback big money because we trust our head coach is going to be able to get the most out of any quarterback we have. So if you want 45 day on Jones, God bless you.

See you later. We'll keep safe on Barkley. We'll figure out another quarterback that can kind of be plug and play. By the way, I do think they'll franchise tag Jones.

I don't think they get a deal done by tomorrow. I don't know where you sit on that, but I think they're going to franchise tag Jones. And I really starting to feel that Saquon Barkley, when he hits the open market based off his potential and we all know how great of a player he can be, but he's just all injured too many times.

I do think that deal is going to get a little bit too expensive for the giants and then Saquon Barkley will be somewhere else. I'm with him. I think the tag is on Jones tomorrow.

Okay. So, and also talk about the running back market. Did you see the Derrick Henry stuff? And this was something that we both said at the draft. And I know you were celebrating you being the cult fan thinking your team was going to win the division, but you were like, just get Henry out of the division. He's the only one that really fears you on Tennessee. That AJ Brown deal is going to be the demise of the Tennessee Titans because AJ Brown now no longer there. I said it at the draft. The moment we found out about that trade, if I'm Derrick Henry, I would force a trade.

Now he waited a year, but it looks like Tennessee is going to be like, Oh, don't really have that great of a team. Henry's on the final year of his deal and Derrick Henry probably wants to get out of there. I do think we'll see a Henry trade. And I believe that the first two destinations that everyone will say are the Bills and the Eagles and Buffalo would be stupid to not do whatever it takes to go get Derrick Henry and take some of the load off the plate of one Josh Allen. Howie Roseman is always just a genius when it comes to those trade.

Let Miles Sanders walk. You put Derrick Henry with Jalen Hurts. I think it would be spectacular, but I'll give you another team. And I think this one would be surprising, but it's a team that loves to go for the big stars. I saw that the Cowboys today used a franchise tag on Tony Pollard. Don't be surprised if Ezekiel Elliott doesn't restructure his deal and he gets cut. And the next thing you know, Derrick Henry and Tony Pollard are together with the Dallas Cowboys.

And if you're Derrick Henry, as you get a little bit older, you have another back in there that could take some of the burden off your shoulders, instead of just being the, the workhorse that you were in the bell cow back that you were in Dallas in Tennessee, that could extend your career if you're Derrick Henry. So I rushed to the Eagles and bills right away, but don't be surprised. A lot of moving parts would have to happen, but don't be surprised if the Cowboys ended up getting involved. It's interesting. I look at two teams like the bears and the Broncos too, as the bears have a ton of cap space with Justin Fields and Broncos, him and Sean Payton.

I think it'd be a fun little combo there too. Yeah, man. I kind of hope, even though I like Derrick Henry, I kind of hope now he actually goes to Denver because then more and more excuses start to get taken away. And Russ gets more and more pieces around him. And I'm kind of hoping that Russ fails now.

I never went from liking a player more than liking him less than Russell Wilson in this past year. All right, we'll take a break. We'll come on back.

We get to deviate away from what we teased about Rogers. We'll get to that on the other side, following the big Geno Smith news. But first up with the latest, what a statement that is, by the way, still in 2023, the big Geno Smith news. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show.

All right, if we do continue, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So Derek Carr off to the Saints, Geno Smith, officially back with the Seahawks, according to Jordan Schultz, that's a $105 million deal over three years. And Hickey, I look now at a team like the Jets and the Raiders. It's going to be fascinating to see who prevails with Aaron Rodgers, assuming that Aaron Rodgers does get traded. And according to Rich Eisen, the Packers are hoping that Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to return to Green Bay, according to Rich Eisen, who said he heard it over and over again in Indianapolis.

It's so clear what's going on with the Packers and Aaron Rodgers. And we have talked about this now for three weeks, just using this analogy, like I'm getting tired even saying this analogy, but it's probably the most spot on thing that we both agreed on. This is a couple that has had like a great marriage for 15, 20 years, beautiful children. And they know that it was a great relationship, but the spark has just gone away and the love has been lost. And you just don't want to be the bad person here. You don't want to be the first person that says, yeah, I'm feeling it.

You're feeling it. We both kind of know this isn't working anymore. We'll go to couples therapy to try to salvage a relationship, but we probably know it's already fractured beyond repair.

And it's just time to move on. But the Packers don't want to be looked at as the bad guy here, and especially Brian Gudacunz, who's going to be concerned about his image because either way, he's going to be viewed as the guy that ran Aaron Rodgers out of town. But if love works, which is a major if, then who cares that Rodgers got traded this off season.

But if it doesn't work out, then Gudacunz has a lot of egg on his face. So I really do think Gudacunz, who knows he's going to trade Aaron Rodgers and wants to trade Aaron Rodgers, just wants Aaron now officially for a week, emerging out of hiding in the cave that he was in on the darkness retreat. He's just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for Rodgers to say, I want to split.

I want to divorce. So he could just justify that to some of the fan base that's not going to be happy about it. But if I'm Rodgers, I'm not saying anything. We haven't heard from Rodgers since coming out of right this darkness retreat. When I was away, he didn't talk to McAfee or anything like that. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything along those lines.

Oh, he did the one interview where he was talking about, right, his poop and how they're all two wipers that he thought in that cave because he couldn't see anything. But we haven't heard anything concrete about the future of Aaron Rodgers. So Rodgers, say what you want about him.

He isn't a dummy. And he's going to wait for the packers to say, all right, we're done. We're filing. We're writing up the divorce papers.

We're going to file for divorce. That's what's going to happen here. Look, the Packers are doing the right thing and moving off of Aaron Rodgers.

But can they just come out and say it? Like, why are we like, there's no difference. There's no difference in who, if you want to say breaks up with who makes the first move of I don't want to be here. Like you said, at the end of the day, if Aaron Rodgers comes up first and says, I want to leave, it's still going to be perceived if it doesn't work as Brian Goudacoot forced Aaron Rodgers out because all the moves he made in the past, you know, few years that I got under Aaron Rodgers's skin.

So it doesn't matter who wants to just get it over with. You welcome me to the Aaron Rodgers leaving camp after two years of saying that he wasn't going to leave. You welcome me to the fraternity a few weeks ago, or actually two months ago during when we all sort of felt that way. And I came to your side. Now I'm going to welcome you to my side because about a week and a half a week ago at the combine when Goudacoot is up there and he's like, not saying, yeah, we like Aaron, blah, blah, blah.

We want to do what's best for both parties. I was just saying enough already. Just, just go to the podium and say that it's over, say that it's done. And I think now you're even getting fed up with, with this Packers song and dance where we all know what they're trying to tell you, but they're refusing to say it. It's like stupid, even Rodgers. Remember Rodgers when he was one of those McAfee interviews that he did, he's like, oh, they already had conversations about me, like not being there. And they had talks and making decisions without me, like even kind of being in the picture. So we all know it here. And I'll, I'll say this, if I'm Rodgers, I wouldn't say anything. If you know, they don't want me, make them say first.

It is really petulant though, when you think about it. Like I sort of got it last week when you want to, you know, try to maintain the upper hand in trade talks. And if you want to, you know, get the best offer from the jets or whoever, like you want to maybe make it seem like, you know, Hey, he could stay. So it's like, we don't need your offer.

Like basically we could keep him if we want to. But if you're telling everyone behind the scenes, if Rich is out there saying, basically he heard from everyone that the Packers are basically desperate for Rodgers to come out and say, I want to leave. It's then an open secret, which means everyone in the NFL is in the know. And at that point, then there's no point in trying to pretend as if there's a chance he'll stay or you want him back. Well, the one thing that I will say going off of that, I I'm starting to question how much leverage the Packers do actually have, because I thought that he would wind up with the Raiders. I now genuinely don't know if the Raiders are even interested. Cause I saw Adam Schefter who let me just, I'll give you the context of this before saying what Schefter said, but remember when Brady and his final year in new England, it was a Monday night football game and Schefter's on ESPN.

And he goes, there's three options here. Brady either is playing somewhere else next year. He's back in new England or he's retiring. And he said the least likely option is Brady coming back to new England. Adam Schefter the other day basically did that same thing and said, it's either going to be the jets or retirement.

So I look at that and I don't think there's a shot that he's going to retire. I'm wondering Hickey, how much interest is actually there now with the Las Vegas Raiders. But if you're the Raiders, I do think you look horrible, horrible. If you wind up with Jimmy G after getting rid of Derek Carr, cause that doesn't excite me. I could argue that you maybe even regressed even though Jimmy G's won a lot of football games.

I don't think it was a major reason why they won those games. The guys hurt every other year. So if you're a Raiders fan, I would put pressure on the organization to go get Aaron Rogers. Because if you don't get Aaron Rogers, it's like, Oh, we got rid of Derek Carr is not even that great for this guy. But I do wonder how much the Raiders internally are actually interested outside of Devonta Adams, how much you're actually interested in Aaron Rogers. I would say zero. That's not happening.

I can't go zero. Every report you hear that the Raiders are not talking, they're not interested. That's like almost a no go. They're going to draft a quarterback. They're probably gonna sign Jimmy G and that's going to be the plan. Kind of basically what the Seahawks are doing.

Stop gap, young quarterback project and go from there and hope that you strike gold with Joshua Daniels and his developmental skills. And also if you're the Jets to go into that theory, if you're the Jets, you kind of probably view today. There's a reason why we didn't sign car. Cause you must be really, really, really confident that you're going to get Rogers. I mean, Jets must know they look around. Oh, no one else is here.

It's just us. Okay. Now we could start making the price. Well, they better be right on that. They better hope Roger doesn't go on an ayahuasca trip into retirement because if they wind up with Jimmy G, we talk about it beyond the Roman for the Raiders. Imagine the fun the New York media will have if the jet starting quarterback is Jimmy G. Can't be Geno Smith because now he's off the board, but that would have been fun.