Tournament Time (Hour 4)

Alrighty, our number four of our radio program, Zach Gilb shows CBS Sports Radio, the head coach of Vermont, back in the NCAA tournament. Once again, John Becker is going to stop by 20 minutes from now, as coming up this week, at the end of the week, you have Marquette going up against Vermont, so Shaq is smart up against John Becker as the coaching matchup there. We'll talk to coach 20 minutes from now. First up, five questions, five answers, we call this segment Onsides Offside, and we do this segment every Monday and Friday right here on CBS Sports Radio. Hot take, kicky, take it away, hit it!

Alright, hot take, kicky, what do you got? Let's start the little tournament, Zach. The field has been set yesterday on Selection Sunday, and the four number one seeds are Alabama, Houston, Kansas, and Purdue. Now, one of the biggest talking points of this past season has been parity throughout the sport of college basketball. Alabama does enter this tournament marred in controversy surrounding their best player, Brandon Miller. While Houston was missing their best player, Marcus Sasser, in the AAC Championship game, he suffered a groin injury. Now, Bill Self does return to the sideline after missing most of the Big 12 tournament with a heart issue, and Purdue looks to make their first Final Four since 1980. Onsides are offside, Zach, because we have questions about all four number one seeds.

At least two number one seeds will make the Final Four. The team I have the most confidence in is Brandon Miller. As a player, he's absolutely sensational. I think Seth Greenberg compares him to Durant. I've heard him say that comparison a few times.

It is ridiculous, the length and some of the shots that that guy does hit. So with Alabama, I think they'll go to the Final Four. Outside of that, I would have been all in on Houston, who has been in the Final Four before and has been knocking on the door of winning a championship the last few years. But now the unknown with the Marcus Sasser injury, with the groin injury, that concerns me a little bit. Kansas, they just won a championship.

It's so tough to get back there. And for Purdue, you love their big guy, but I didn't like how Purdue handled the press of Penn State down the stretch in that Big 10 Championship game. Right now, and I don't think this is a strong year for number one seeds.

Watch all four. We'll get to the Final Four now. I would only go with Alabama making the Final Four. So you asked me at least two number one seeds will make the Final Four.

I will go offside. But now I have a bonus question here for you. Oh, there's been a lot of reaction to you cursing last week on the air, where you dropped an F bomb when talking about Russell Westbrook. The head honcho Chris Olivero was walking past the newsroom today and I heard him say to you, did you curse yesterday at work? I also received several other texts from people behind the scenes and in management that are afraid of you cursing on the air during the NCAA tournament in all the excitement of the games where they'll be like a big shot.

And instead of being like Bill Raftery and saying, oh, onions, you'll be like, yeah, let's bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, go bleep. Yeah. And I heard a lot of people in management were also very happy of the Penn State start time being after our show is on the air at 955 p.m. on Thursday on the East Coast because they were fearful that you would curse during the game if Michael Shrewsbury does not have the best game plan and then also leaves for Notre Dame.

So I just have to ask on sides, off sides. Ryan Hickey will be able to get through the NCAA tournament on not only this show, but then your very popular overnight radio show Friday into Saturday, 2 to 6 a.m. Eastern. I'm in the same CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158 and the Free Odyssey app. Look at me being a company guy without cursing and having to press the dump on it.

Offside. I'm wildcard now. You know, I think I hate to say you've inspired me. The listeners have inspired me. I see what gets reaction. I'm now going to be like Howard Stern. Whatever's in my mind, whatever curse words come out, they come out.

Gotcha. FCC won't let me be. Spike, I do not condone this behavior if you're listening. David Mayernik, I do not condone this behavior.

Pete The Body Baladi, he's in management. I don't condone this behavior. Olivero, Jeff Sotolano, I don't condone this behavior.

What we need to do to you with DeFereau when he first got here, put a sign up, words you are not allowed to say on the radio. Big potty mouth. And if you want to see the video of Hickey cursing and my reaction to it, you could get it on Twitter and Instagram at ZachGild, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Some around here say it was an all time reaction by yours truly.

The fact how fast, I don't know why I'm even surprised, but how everybody knows is very surprising. Well, the greatest part of it is I woke up and I was going to post the audio, like have fun with it. But like the audio, I don't, I think when I got like a little reaction. But Cap slacks me and goes, dude, I was rolling on your show. I have the video. And he sent me back like 50 seconds at first. I'm like, oh, send me like two minutes on this, please.

The more the merrier here. That was just great moment. Thought it was very funny. Great moment for some regrettable for others. Some may say it's your career highlight. Well, I got something. I got a highlight.

We'll take it, you know, we'll take something to put on the reel. It's just so funny. The reason why you curse you cursed about Russell Westbrook, who you really don't give a rat's ass about. It's not like you cursing at me.

It's not, let's say you cursing about the Colts and their incompetence or you cursing about a bad Penn State loss. Like it was about Russell Westbrook. That's very worked up over Russell Westbrook. Very regrettable. Very frustrating.

I listen. You're 100% right to waste it on a player that is so insignificant to me in terms of like just emotions in terms of getting worked up. I guess he it's frustrating.

I guess he pays a lot of money to you for those rent checks that he owes in your base. I guess so. You know. All right. Next question.

All right. Let's cross your mouth of living rent free in everyone's mind. Aaron Rodgers. And we're going to quote him here. His future remains a beautiful mystery. Cords reports that Jets and Packers both have zero idea what the four time MVP wants to do for 2023.

I don't buy that. Who knows? Both sides know you think? One side knows? I think they both know. Jets know. Packers know.

I think they both know anything. Rodgers is holding them all hostage. And he's saying, no one say anything. I'm doing something right now. I don't want to deal with this full bleep. OK. All right.

So that's possibly absolutely could be the case here. Aaron Rodgers last week did meet with the Jets twice. And according to SNY's Connor Hughes, who reported this on Saturday, the trade parameters between New York and Green Bay, it's basically agreed upon. All we're waiting on is Aaron Rodgers to make a decision of will he or won't he play. Rodgers also pledged earlier this offseason that he would not hold the Packers hostage. Here we are. March 13th, 908 p.m. Eastern. No decision has still been made. Onsides or offsides, Zach?

Aaron Rodgers will not be a Jet. When there's a new pope, don't they like release when there's the decision a new pope, the smoke? White smoke is released. Is that out of the Vatican? I believe so. Don't quote me on that.

I believe so. Now I'm asking you, Mr. Religion, you were saying you're a man of faith earlier. Well, it was more like a Jewish guy around here. It was more destiny, but same thing.

But yes, yes. The white smoke is released from the Vatican. I think Rogers is going to go back into a cave. And Rogers is going to release smoke from the cave.

And that's how he's going to announce it. He's going to walk out with like a shirt that says I'm a member of the New York Jets. It's either go back to the Packers. The Packers don't want to retire or go to the Jets. I do believe he'll be starting for the JTS Jets next year. Aaron Rodgers will not be a Jet is the question.

That means I go offsides. We do have some breaking quarterback news. Rogers? No.

Okay. Breaking quarterback news to the AFC or NFC? NFC.

NFC. Did this guy play football last year? Technically, yes. Technically, yes. Yes. All right. Give me a hint.

I want to try to guess it. He is not changing teams, according to Josina Anderson. Not change. NFC quarterback is resigning with the same team he was on last year. Taylor Heinecke? No. This is a tough one, I will say.

This is not a quarterback. I feel like that's going to be on the front burner of your brain when it comes to moves. It's big enough for you to interrupt the segment here. So there has to be some comedy on this? A little bit.

It's interesting. And Brock Purdy is under contract? Trey Lance is under contract? He is not going to be the starter. Baker Mayfield?

No. And Sam Darnold already went to the Niners. Sam Darnold is right. Out of the running.

In his category. Did Josh Rosen sign with the 19th team? Josh Rosen did not sign with a 19th team yet. There's still plenty of time for that, but not this report. And he played in the NFC last year?

NFC last year. When I say you'll get it, and you'll get why I said technically, but it was for the most part out of sight, out of mind. Out of sight, out of mind. All right.

Go ahead. Jamis Winston. Back with the Saints. Really? They restructured his contract?

Interesting. He was a free agent. I thought he was under contract.

A free agent, and he is returning. Oh. Who cares? Well. He couldn't find anywhere else?

That's, I think to me that's the interesting part. He's going back to the Saints after they got Derek Carr, but he's staying where he likes. By the way, is there a better job than the backup quarterback in Miami? Mike White today signs a backup quarterback in Miami. Backup quarterback in New Orleans is pretty damn good, too, because New Orleans is a great place to live. Miami is just a little bit better.

But you get the beautiful weather, the beautiful women. You have all the money in the world, so you go to all the great restaurants in Miami. I would love to be the backup quarterback of the Dolphins. There's actually a chance you get to play with the whole Tua situation.

If you do get to play, you get Tyree Kill and, uh, and, uh, two years, $28 million for Jamis Winston. That's the contract? Yeah. Holy cow. Via Tom Pellicera. Oh, sorry. That was faked out?

No, it's from 2022. I'm telling you, I think he was under contract. The report I'm saying is finalizing a deal to return to the Saints.

I could... Yeah, that means they probably restructured it. He was under contract. I believe...

I gotta look it up. I'm pretty sure he's on the market. I am 98% sure.

And it's from JoSina Anderson. Final deal of returning to the Saints. So let's see. Jamis Winston told JoSina Anderson at CBS Sports that he was final deal with the Saints. Ian Rapp of the NFL Network reports it's a one-year deal worth up to $8 million.

Winston was due to make $12.8 million this season and word late last week that the Saints were talking to him about remaining with the team after taking a pay cut. So they restructured it. All right. Anyway. Well, that's a little less dramatic. Finalizing a deal you think you'd be afraid to... Oh, man, you just teased... You were like Schefter and, uh, and Rapp before. We have Packers news and it's not Aaron Rodgers. Nixon returning. We have NFC quarterback news and it's not Aaron Rodgers. We do have some other quarterback news from earlier today. It is not Aaron Rodgers. It is instead Jimmy Garoppolo as he signed a three-year, $72.7 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.

$34 million of that is guaranteed. Jimmy G does reunite with his former coach, Josh McDaniels, or former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels when he spent the first three years of his career back in New England. Now, Las Vegas was thought to be in the market to draft a quarterback as they currently hold the seventh overall pick in the first round.

Onsides are offside, Zach. The Raiders will not draft a quarterback in the first round of this year's draft. So your team's going to be looking for a quarterback at four. Lions, Seahawks could potentially as well.

Do the Falcons get aggressive? The Raiders are at seven, right? Raiders are at seven.

Falcons are at eight and now the Bears are at nine. I just don't know who's going to be available there. But then if you wait and you have a bad year again as McDaniels come, it seems like McDaniels has the year of Mark Davis.

And they're giving him the benefit of the doubt, which is cool. So far, if you ask me, I'm going to say they get a quarterback in a future year and Jimmy G buys them another year. And you don't have to pick someone and you could pick the right guy a year from now.

So I will say that they will not draft a quarterback in the first round onsides. Let's go back to the NCAA tournament because there's a lot of intriguing first round matchups. And recently, 15 seeds had a lot of, or have been making, I should say a lot of noise two years in a row. We have had a 15 seed take down a two seed. Last year, St. Peter's, 2021, it was Oral Roberts.

Both of those 15 seeds, by the way, won multiple games. You know, I just realized all the 15 seeds this year, we will have their coaches on by tomorrow. Colgate, Matt Langel joins us tonight. Vermont, John Becker is joining us in about 5 to 10 minutes from now. We had the UNC Asheville coach on last week and Mitch Henderson, I once set up his radio show when I was working at a low AM station in New Jersey. Princeton is a 15 seed as well. So now 15 seeds, all friends of the show.

And we've had on before, Paul Mills at Oral Roberts and Shaheen Holloway at St. Peter's when he was there. We are the 15 seed show breeder here at CBS. No one loves 15 seeds more than the Zach Galv show. Now let's see how much you do love him because since 1985, we have never had... We love 15 seeds the way that the Colts love trying to get a quarterback each and every year.

Damn Colts. Now history could be made this year. We've never had three straight tournaments in which a 15 seed has won. We just said there's been two in a row.

We are trying to make history here at a third. The teams making history possibly. Number 15 Princeton, they are taking on Arizona. Number 15 Colgate taking on Texas. 15 seed UNC Asheville take on UCLA. Number 15 seed Vermont taking on Marquette. Onsides or offsides, a 15 seed will beat a 2 this year.

Of course. John Becker is joining us in five minutes. I think Vermont is going to win. No, I'm not going to take a 15 seed this year.

Even though I love a lot of those coaches and they've been on the show before, I can't bet against Arizona, Texas, UCLA, and Marquette right now. So I will go offsides. And who actually predicts that a 15 is going to beat a 2? Come on. People will go out on a limb, you know, predict chaos, want craziness.

People that don't believe their opinions. Skip Bayless will be taking all 15 seeds. And finally Adam Shafter reported today that Chargers stud running back Austin Eckler has requested a trade away from the Chargers after contract extensions went nowhere. Now Eckler has one year left on his deal and the former undrafted free agent has scored 38 touchdowns over the past two years, which is 12 more than any other player in the NFL.

Onsides or offsides, the Chargers are making the right decision in not giving Austin Eckler a contract extension. Now I saw that you have an opinion on this. I saw your tweet today. Go ahead, share your opinion.

I do. I think it's the right move. I think you don't give running backs third contracts. And this is part of the deal when you have a stud quarterback like Justin Herbert, kind of the price you pay.

The only thing that I'll say about that is I think that's just a little misleading. Like I get what you're saying in the third contract, but it's not like he was getting used the way he is now in the earlier years of Austin Eckler in L.A. You know, you had Melvin Gordon there for a little bit as well. Like the last three or four years is when the heavy usage really did go up with Austin Eckler. And he still, I know running backs you never see when the decline is coming. But usually those running back deals are like three or four year deals. He's 27.

He turns 28 next month. I'd be okay with giving him a three or four year deal in Austin Eckler just because of how valuable he is to that team. So if you're saying in this question the Chargers are making the right decision not giving Austin Eckler a contract, I would disagree with that.

I would go offside. Alrighty, Zach Gilp shows CBS Sports Radio. John Becker, the head coach of Vermont, one of our favorite 15 seats is going to join us next.

You're listening to the Zach Gilp Show. We continue to the Zach Gilp Show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio Vermont back in the NCAA tournament. Once again, they'll have their opening round game as a 15 seat up against two-seeded Marquette on Friday at 2 45 p.m. Eastern and now joining us is the head coach of the team that won the American East and that of course is John Becker. Coach, congratulations going back to the NCAA tournament. Appreciate the time.

Hey, thanks for having me on. Well, let me start you off with the American East Player of the Year, Finn Sullivan. How have you seen his game grow, coach, from last year to this year? Yeah, I mean, he's, you know, improved a lot and his roles really changed from last year where he was, you know, his first year after transferring from San Diego and was our point guard and really was just needed to facilitate our offense. And really, his value last year was on the defensive end where he would, you know, be put on the best guard on the other team. And so this year that role changed where he had to be one of our best players and, you know, and, you know, continue to be our point guard and continue to be a great defender. And, you know, as the year went on, we struggled, you know, two and seven out of the gate and played a really hard non-conference schedule and had added some transfer. So as the year went on, we moved him off the ball, made him give him more of a scoring role where he really started to thrive. And that was basically all-the-week play and, you know, put up great numbers and was able to consistently give us production, you know, scoring-wise and, you know, and he's one of the best defenders, guard defenders I've coached, and he continued to be that.

So, yeah, so his role changed, you know, after being in the program for one, you know, just got more comfortable in the system and, like you said, he had a great year and was Player of the Year. The transferring part of the sport is just so regular these days just by design. Dylan Penn transferred over and he was your leading scorer this year.

How do you know that it's going to work, Coach, or you just got to kind of go by trial and error? Yeah, I think you got to be really careful and you got to, you know, it's like the transfer portal, that process, the transfer recruiting is kind of like speed dating, you know. It happens pretty quickly and, you know, you have to be really careful who you take and obviously those kids will count as a counter against you if they end up transferring out of your program because of, for whatever reason, it doesn't work out. So, we were fortunate and got a couple of transfers this year that really worked out and mainly Dylan. And the thing with Dylan, Robin Duncan, who's been part of our program for five years, and his family, he's had a family member of our program for the past decade, grew up with him, was childhood friends with him. So, he knew him really well and so there was some comfort knowing, you know, that he would be a good fit, you know, just because of Robin being so familiar with our program and with Dylan. So, he was really the connector. Coach John Becker here with us.

Vermont going to have their first round of the NCAA tournament coming up on Friday against Marquette. You mentioned it earlier, Coach. You guys were two and seven to start the year. At one point you were eight and ten.

You haven't lost since then. What do you kind of attribute to the turnaround of your group? Yeah, I mean, I think one big thing is that's when we moved Finn off the ball. We've become more of a scoring guard and I thought that was a huge development. We moved Dylan Penn onto the ball. He became our on-ball point guard. I think that those changes really helped unlock both players and our team in general.

But Robin Duncan has been, you know, our captain, our leader all year long. And, you know, we had seven new players come into our program last year, most of whom, you know, we expected to contribute and ended up contributing. But just learning the culture, learning the expectation, you know, took, you know, we had to go through games and go to battle with these guys. And, you know, we played the top 30 non-conference schedule, which was my bad. You know, it was probably too much for such a new group. And, you know, we wobbled out of the gate here. But, you know, as we got to January and bid through the non-conference, especially this year, you know, I thought it toughened our group up, really opened their eyes. Guys realized how hard it is to win and what we needed to do, or learning what we needed to do to win. And then we made a couple of those role changes there right in the beginning of January.

And I think kind of the confluence of all those things, you know. And we only played two home games in all of the non-conference. And we get in the league and we're playing every other game at home, I think. I think that also helped us because we, I think we logged over 10,000 miles of travel in the first two months of the season. So, it was good to just kind of get more into a routine. You've been at Vermont since 06, the head coach since 2011. This is now seven straight America East regular season titles. When you go through those moments like we're talking about, is there just a confidence that with what you guys have built there and the culture that you brought that eventually you'll find the way to turn around? Yeah.

When you're in it, you wonder if you can get out of it. But we've obviously proven we know how to win. And there was a confidence. The nice thing, there was a confidence the players had in us that we were going to help. We were going to help them figure this out, so to speak. And it just helped with, not to buy into every issue, but guys really bended in to listen.

And we're ready to do whatever we kind of ask. And so, again, I think – and my staff did an incredible job. And, yeah, we spent a lot of hours in here trying to figure out how to get this thing right. And we finally made the right adjustments.

And some time passed and guys just got more comfortable. But, yeah, we were confident we would get this under control. Coach Schonbecker, I know you always want to keep the focus on the team. But when you had that win up against Bryant this year, that moved you into the number one spot for most wins as a head coach for the Vermont program.

Just reflect them back on that. What did that mean to you? Yeah, it was incredible. I mean, you know, those things are really hard to do obviously. And at some point, you know, you can look back and reflect on some milestones like that. And I think that Vermont played, you know, over a hundred years of basketball and to be the guy with the most wins. That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool. Especially, you know, I had kind of a – not the most unique path to my position as head coach here and to reflect on all the people that have helped you and to do something as monumental as that. You know, I was really proud. I was proud about when it comes to what you guys have built since 2011.

But when you just look at the journey, it even goes before that, you being there since 2006. Yeah, I'm just really proud of the culture we have here. And I know it's a word that everyone throws around. So what is your culture? Because everyone says culture, Coach.

But describe your culture. Yeah, I mean, I just think, first of all, it's built on respect. You know, I think there's mutual respect among everyone in the program.

Character is the number – you know, biggest thing. I want to be around people I like and be around good people. And I need to – you know, I need to exhibit those qualities all the time and be that person and be around people like that.

I think the way we treat each other, love each other, from the managers all the way up to the head coach, you know, is really, really – I'm really proud of that. And then accountability, I mean, you can't have it without accountability. You've got to be able to, you know, hold guys accountable for things they do wrong and things they do right.

And so, you know, I'm very particular about that. And, you know, I have this thing where I'm always going to explain the why. I'm never going to hold a kid accountable for something we haven't – I haven't taught them. We haven't taught them.

And we haven't drilled to give them an opportunity to kind of make it muscle memory. But the things that we're coaching, the things that we're teaching, the things, you know, that we're – and I'm very forthright on what we're doing, why we're doing things, what we're trying to accomplish. Obviously, there's a bunch of different ways to skin a cat when you talk about X's and O's and tactical things you can do. So here's what I think the best way is for us to play. This is why, you know, we're going to guard a ball screen like this and not like this or whatever it may be, or why closeouts are important or why, you know, boxing out or getting a high hand to contest, whatever our things are. Let's all agree that this is the best way to do it.

And then I'm going to hold you accountable to do it. And the guys love it. You know, they love to be coached. They love to understand exactly why we're trying to do things. And so – and then the goal is that you become player-led, that the guys like Robin Duncan that have been in the program for five years, and Aaron Delone, Nick Fiorello, who's been around for a long time, they now have been hearing the same things year after year and have given themselves over to it.

It's worked. They've won. They've won championships. And then they start to be able to hold their teammates accountable and almost say the exact same things that I might say. And so once you kind of get to that point and, you know, like again this year, you know, in timeouts you hear guys, older guys talking to the new players or the younger players and saying the exact same things that I would be saying, that's when you feel really proud. Like, oh man, this is like – these guys believe this. They believe what we're telling them.

And as a coach, that's a very gratifying thing. I know it's a question that you probably always get asked, but when you've had the success that you've had and you've been in a place for so long, people always ask you, why haven't you left yet? What's your answer to that?

I don't – that's a good question. You know, I love my job here. I have a great job. And, you know, it would take a good job, another job where I had an opportunity to win. But unlike anyone, yeah, maybe, you know, we'll see. But it's kind of out of my hands.

I can't make people want to hire me or anything like that. And, you know, I'm just super fortunate. I love my job. I love this program. I love what we've built. And, you know, I'm just going to continue to push this thing, the hype that we can do it. And, you know, in the transfer portal right now, I'm trying to plan out next year and make sure that we have an opportunity to repeat as the Syracuse champions. What's your message to your team leading into this one?

Because I'm always curious. I know the last two years we've seen, Coach, two 15-seeds beat two seeds. And you just always wonder where your kids' confidence are going to be at before a game. I know as a competitor you always think you're going to win.

But how do you get your kids to buy in before Friday? Well, that's – I mean, we've been in this game for the last six years. And, you know, and we've been here a bunch. And so – and a lot of guys have played in the NCAA tournament. So, you know, we lost to Arkansas by four last year.

We lost to Florida State by eight and Purdue by ten. And so we've been, you know, pretty close. And so our expectation is to win. And so what I try to get the guys is let's keep the distractions down, get the ticket stuff all lined out, you know, with whoever's coming.

Get them all the information they need so that we can, as we start to move closer to Friday, just get into our normal routines. You know, and it's exciting around here. Our women's program is also an NCAA tournament, which is great.

So there's a lot of excitement up here in Catamount Country. And a lot of people, you know, our travel party goes from just us to everybody in the department and things like that. So just, you know, we'll do our stuff with them. And then, again, as we get into Thursday and obviously into Friday, let's just try to keep the same routines.

And there's comfort in that, you know. And so we'll just work off that and then prepare them the same way and have the same expectation, which is we're going there to win. Last thing I'll ask you, it's good to see the success that Shaka Smarts having at Marquette, what he's been able to do there in short order. They're your opponent coming up on Friday. Just what stands out to you about Shaka's team this year? Yeah, I mean, they're really good offensively.

They've really evolved there. And Tyler Kolick, who is the Player of the Year in the Big East, is a New England kid. And, you know, we recruit him a little bit out of – a lot of it out of high school. So I've seen him play quite a bit, know his family and him. And they're a great family.

He's a great kid and super proud of what he's done at Marquette. But they're, you know, they're going to offensively really space you out. They're really unselfish. They shoot it well. And so we're obviously going to have our hands full. They're the Big East champions and the Big East Tournament champions. So they're really, really good. But, you know, we just have to – and we're working on the game plan right now. So by tomorrow afternoon we'll start putting in the game plan, whatever that may end up being.

But just at first glance here, after a couple games, they're really, really good, especially offensively. Looking forward to the Vermont Catamats having battle coming up on Friday up against Marquette. He's the head coach of Vermont. And that is John Becker. Coach, good luck. Thank you.

Thanks. Appreciate John joining us. Marco Belletti is standing by right here. We'll get the CBS Sports Radio update in just a second.

But I always say that you do a good job at deciphering and reading through the BS of people. So I have to ask you, is this Rogers right now just being an attention whore? And he loves all this attention. He's going to the Jets. Or are you starting to think that Rogers won't be playing for the Jets next year? No, I think this is him still just enjoying sitting back and watching everybody scramble. I think he likes that.

Look, I would say this. If it wasn't Rogers, I would say, look, 18 years, 39 years old, going to be 40. Maybe he just doesn't know if he wants to play and he wants a little bit more time.

I could understand why I don't buy that from Rogers. He's going to play. I agree. He's not. Look, the biggest thing is, unless you tell me Tom Brady comes back today, maybe then I can believe the Rogers walk away. But the idea that the two of them are going in the whole thing together, never going to happen. Rogers would never walk. He would rather sit on the sideline for a year holding a clipboard than walk into the Hall of Fame with Tom Brady.

It just doesn't work. So he's coming back. That's why I never bought that he was retiring. So in that, I think he just wants to sit back and watch everybody scramble. And then eventually he'll when he feels like whether it's this week or next week or the week after, then say, yes, I'm coming back. And then we'll hear about the jet trade two seconds later.

It's kind of crazy, though, how this has gone on for a while now. And really, his only three options are retire, which I'm in agreement with you is not going to happen. Go back to Green Bay where his teammates may want him, but the GM and the coach and Mark Murphy do not want him or go to the Jets. Like he had this meeting with the Jets a week ago and no one else in like the 11th hour. The Raiders went with Jimmy G today, like no one else calls up the Packers and say, let's have a meeting with Rogers.

There's nowhere to go. That says a lot. And there's also I think this guy sucks.

The guy just went back to back MVPs before having a year this year. And I also think part of that, too, is that the Packers, the deal that they're getting from the Jets is probably the best deal. I'm sure that they talk to everybody else. I'm sure they went around the league.

We've had time now. They've been doing this for a while. I think they like the deal that the Jets are going to give them. And the Packers do hold that card. They can make the deal with whoever they want.

As much as Rogers can kind of, you know, twist his way to a certain spot. The Packers say, we're trading you here and that's it. And the Packers know it's going to happen. And the Jets are too afraid probably to leak anything out or they just haven't been told yet. So it's like, I think it's obvious that 99.9 percent to me says he's going to the Jets.

Again, I don't think there's a lot of options here. The retirement angle, I don't buy because I don't believe he'd actually walk away. Now, could he try to do the retirement and then come back and then see if maybe somebody else... Like a year from now?

No, no, that's the thing. He's not going to be a year from now. It would be a couple months from now. To try to avoid offseason workouts or anything like that. To try to make sure that he doesn't have to deal with certain things or maybe twist... But he'd be going to a new team.

I don't buy any of that stuff. And if he's going to a new team, then you just kind of shoot yourself because you don't have any time to work with these guys. Same thing as last year when you had all the previous experience with some of these guys and you missed out on everything. Yeah, the only thing is, I don't know if Aaron Rodgers wants to do that offseason stuff. I don't think he cares. He goes to the Jets, are they really going to be tracking him down if he misses some of these voluntary workouts?

No. I don't think... As much as you and I talk about it, we're like, hey, you've got to make sure you get with the new guys and see if you can get on the same page and you've got to work as hard as you can. I think Aaron Rodgers walks in like, yeah, I'll figure it out. I think he looks at it and he's like, you know what, I don't need to be there. I mean, seriously, what are you going to teach me? He's not going to be like Brady in the middle of a pandemic going to high school to throw a football. It's not going to happen.

That's what I mean. I think Aaron Rodgers looks at it and goes, I know what I'm doing, I'll figure it out. Send me the playbook, I'll figure it out. It's fine.

Hey, Nate, we'll run the same stuff we ran before, right? You've got guys, give me what jersey numbers they are. I don't care.

I'll figure it out. Because there's nothing that you can tell Aaron Rodgers that he doesn't already know, and that includes being on the field. And let's be fair, he's probably the smartest guy in the room when it does come to that. And also, the expectation, the jet fan, some jet fans will be like, oh, they've got to go to the Super Bowl. I think most people nationally, most rational people will be like, ah, just make the playoffs. I don't think there's high expectations for most people nationally on Rodgers if he goes to the Jets.

Yeah, I don't know if I buy that. I just don't know if Aaron Rodgers worries about what you think of him. Or anybody else.

And I don't mean that as you, I'd be like anybody. Like if you look at the pressure that comes from the outside, I don't know if any of that means anything to him. Now, he's very, very, very sensitive whenever anything is said bad about him. But he feels like everybody's going to say that regardless.

So I don't know if it really matters. He thinks he's above everyone and he has his opinion about everything and no one can really change it. And he just looks down upon a lot of people that disagree with him. Yeah. And he's going to do what he wants to do. I mean, like, you're going to convince him something? You're going to tell him something different? He's not.

He's going to do the way he wants to do it. So I wouldn't necessarily look for him in those offseason workouts. And maybe some of this is a ploy to avoid some of that stuff. I don't know. Or maybe it's just him enjoying how many times...

I think this is him. Everyone said it was going to happen by the end of the weekend or by the start of free agency. Pretty much even himself saying we're holding him hostage.

So let me just be different just to be the contrary. And how many times did he say, like, you know, nobody knows my inner circle. So maybe he's just wanting a lot of the insiders to scramble. Nobody knows what the hell's going on. Right.

Exactly. Because I didn't tell you. And if I don't tell you, nobody knows. Maybe he's enjoying this. I have no idea.

When it comes to him, you really don't know. We will go to the Hurricanes of Miami with Coach L in Jim Larranaga. But without further ado, I'm not talking about Freddie Undo. Let's end the show out in style with a little Closing Bell. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the Closing Bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb Show. Javon Hargrave, who had a monster season for the EAGLES, Eagles is now off to the Bay Area signing a four-year, $84 million deal that includes $40 million guaranteed at signing with the Niners, according to ESPN. Give a stock up to the Niners defensive line, get it even better than it already was. Maybe you should have passed on Hargrave and elected to spend some of that money on the one and only Lamar Jackson. Don't really have any quarterbacks anyone feels great about.

That's just a suggestion, but I'm not John Lynch. Mike White going to be the backup quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. That's just a great job to have. I would love to be the backup quarterback in Miami, a stock up to Mike White. Damon Stoudemire, Josh Pastner out at Georgia Tech. Damon Stoudemire goes for the Celtics assistant coach, now the head coach at Georgia Tech, and that will be his first head coaching gig.

Give Damon Stoudemire a stock up. So, Hickey, I'm going to the Ranger game on Saturday with my old man, and I figured I would make a reservation before dinner. So I called this place today by the guard, and I tried to make a reservation under the first name Zach. The guy thought I was saying back, then he said Vack, I don't know if that's a name, then Dak. And when I spelled it for him at one point, he said Kat. I thought I was like getting pranked how they would prank a radio show and they play the phone call. I then spelled out my name like Z as in zebra, A as in apple, C as in carrot, H as in Hector. Still couldn't got it. I had to get transferred to someone.

Well, it's only like 10 reservations. Anytime I'm here for Dak, I'm here for Jack. I'm here for Vack. Vack. Wild.

I told you, when I get into like Ubers now, people go ZH. I thought that was crazy. Now, this is a whole different level, so stock down to whoever that guy was.

Stock down to also the Raiders, Jimmy G, very underwhelming. Good show today. Big thanks to Danny Parkins for stopping by.

Matt Lengel and also John Becker. Hot, tick, hickey, good stuff, as always. And each and every one of you calling, listening, and tweeting can always follow us on Twitter, Instagram. That's that Gelb, Z-C-H-G-E-L-B, Monster Monster Tuesday show coming up tomorrow. We'll talk to you then at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. We out. Bye-bye. Peace.