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Esiason: Would Kubiak And Elway 'Have The Stones' To Keep Manning On The Bench?

BOSTON (CBS) -- Boomer Esiason, from The NFL Today and WFAN in New York, joined Toucher & Rich Monday morning to recap the Week 11 action around the NFL and discuss the upcoming Monday night showdown between the Patriots and Bills.

After a little bit of trash talk with Fred and after some amazement about the cult hero status of Scott Zolak, Boomer said it ought to be a fun Monday night.

"It's always going to be a fun night when Rex Ryan is in the house trying to overcome Bill Belichick once again with a good football team, not a great football team. Still question marks at quarterback, which is something that Rex Ryan has had ever since he became a head coach six years ago with the New York Jets," Esiason said.

While Tom Brady has been building a rather impressive case to be the NFL's MVP, Boomer was asked how close Cam Newton is making the race.

"I think it's really close, and I thnk a lot of people would say exactly what you just said about Cam Newton," Esiason said. "The quarterback numbers -- yesterday notwithstanding, because yesterday he was unbelievable. He was just spot-on at every specific part of the game when he needed to be. But prior to that, the numbers aren't great in terms of traditional quarterback numbers. If you watch the Carolina Panthers tape and you watch their games, you realize that without him, they have no offense. I mean, literally no offense. Everything is created off of him."

In Sunday's win, Newton went 21-for-34 for 246 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. On the season, Newton's thrown for 2,283 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions while rushing for 382 yards and six touchdowns. By comparison, in one fewer game, Brady has thrown for 3,043 yards, 24 touchdowns and three interceptions, while rushing for a pair of touchdowns -- albeit in very different fashion from the 245-pound Newton.

"I would tell you that they're one and two right now," Esiason sasid. "Now, if Tom comes out tonight and he throws up three or four touchdown passes, then he vaults back into first place, because Tom's season has been nearly flawless. Now he doesn't run with the ball like Cam does, but the way he throws it, the way he does it, and with the lack of Dion Lewis and Julian Edelman, it's even more impressive what he's doing."

Elsewhere in the world of QBs, Boomer was asked about the developing situation in Denver, where Peyton Manning has been replaced by Brock Osweiler. Esiason said that Osweiler's performance was solid, and that he said all the right things after the game.

"I want to see it again back-to-back now," Boomer said. "We're getting ahead of ourselves, because next week they do play New England on Sunday night, and maybe this would be the last regular-season time out for Peyton Manning [vs. Tom Brady]. But I still think that Peyton's going to be healthy, and I still think that he's going to force them to put him on the field, and especially in the playoffs which is going to ramp up the pressure even more on Peyton Manning.

"It really would be interesting if Osweiler continues to play the way that he did yesterday over the next two or three weeks, and let's say they somehow win these next few games and he has really good, solid numbers ... would Gary Kubiak and John Elway have the stones that Bill Belichick had back in 2001 and decide to leave the veteran on the bench? In that case it would've been Drew Bledsoe, in this case it's Peyton Manning -- that will be a fascinating decision if Brock is able to continue to do what he did yesterday."

Boomer also talked in detail about that interesting dynamic between Brady and Bledsoe back in 2001, and he also went to bat for Andy Dalton. Listen below:

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