Albert Breer: Travis Hunter Might Be the Most Interesting Prospect in 20 Years

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I can't wait to find out about all of that. Mike Mayotte will give us his two cents on the draft when he joins us in hour three. We just had Dan Orlovsky on the program. We will talk about the NBA playoffs in a bit, but I just want to discuss one particular team's draft because everybody's talking about it. Right here on hour number two kicking off in a draft review presented by Spectrum right here on the Rich Eisen show, fresh back from Wisconsin right now. And in terms of all that, I do want to just lean into the draft of the Cleveland Browns.

And in that regard, if you just take a look at the draft, if you take a look at that in retrospect, if you hermetically sealed a Cleveland Brown fan dinner time Thursday night into a room, sort of like the same room that they put the second player of Fast Money in on Family Feud. No sound in that room. No sound. Soundproof booth.

Nothing. Darkness retreat. You put a brown and darkness retreat starting at six o'clock Eastern on Thursday.

Deal. And they are allowed to come out six o'clock Eastern on Saturday. All the picks are done and you wrote down on a piece of paper or say created a graphic. Oh, and showed them the twenty twenty five draft of the Cleveland Browns. They would probably go.

All right. I mean, Mason Graham is the third highest drafted Michigan defensive player in the last 30 NFL drafts at fifth overall. The other two drafted higher are named Charles Woodson and Aidan Hutchinson and any Ohio State fan would know. You know, he's pretty good. As a matter of fact, the second second round pick and Quinn Sean Judkins can just keep running into him in the hallway the same way he did.

In a horseshoe last November and in between the first pick of the second night. I don't know if you know, Sean Mitchell of the Rich Eyes and Show staff just asked Smitsch how good Carson Swessinger is. That's all he talks about. He's really good. He was the he's basically like first round pick minus right. Second round pick. Plus, when you're thirty third overall pick in the draft. And he's pretty damn good.

You know, he's. Followed up by Judkins, as I mentioned. How about this one about Quinn Sean Judkins? The only FBS player with twelve hundred or more scrimmage yards and fifteen or more scrimmage touchdowns in each of the last three seasons.

The last one to do it was Travis Etienne. It was a first round pick. It's the first top 40 pick Cleveland's used on a running back since Nick Chubb. Worked out pretty good for that. You're very happy because that left Trevion Henderson on the board for your team.

Wow, that was pretty damn good. He really is. Hal Fennen Jr. led FBS football with one hundred and seventeen receptions and fifteen hundred fifty five receiving yards last year. Both single season records for a tight end. That's thirteen more catches than Tyler Warren had last year.

You just probably didn't see much Bowling Green football. He's the Mac player of the year. Dylan Sampson of Tennessee, he set school records with fourteen hundred ninety one rush yards and twenty two rushing touchdowns.

That's a ninety five year old record he broke. He was the FCC Offensive Player of the Year. They got him in the fourth round. And then the quarterbacks selected around him.

But again, you're hermetically sealed. You don't know. As a matter of fact, don't even put the draft number next to him. Remove the number that they were drafted. You don't know what round they were in. How about that? You'd be like, wait a minute, how did we get Chador and Mason Graham at the top of the draft?

How did that happen? Then you fill him in. Well, Joe's Dylan Gabriel in front of Chador Sanders.

And that's when the Browns fan will go, what are they doing? Oh, oh, oh, wait a minute. And we didn't get Travis Hunter, not because Tennessee didn't choose him first overall, causing us to trade out.

We willingly chose not to take Travis Hunter. Am I reading this right? Oh, but you also have to let him know. You have to let him know on top of all this that I just read you. You now also have a first round pick in next year's draft, and it belongs to Jacksonville, which, as you know, drafts in the top five, if not top ten, then you're almost every year.

Often enough. What would a Browns fans have to say about that? I just told you. I mean, it's a pretty damn good draft when you look at it. OK, because I could sit here and read you about Dylan Gabriel and Chador Sanders' resumes of what they did in their respective college careers. Yeah, I've been perusing the draft grades over the weekend in the last 24 hours and pretty much universally, Cleveland has an A for this year's draft. It's a it's a it's a really good draft. It's really good players.

And they're also, you know, been there and done that at some pretty big programs. And just the only thing is you don't see a team draft rookie quarter draft quarterbacks in a draft in the same draft very often. And it did happen last year. Your Patriots chose Drake May and then the eventual backup quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and the guy who caused you to pick out of the top three in Joe Milton. And now then it's this is rare, though, to see two rookies taken in the top five rounds of an NFL draft. The last time it happened was, in fact, RG three and Kirk Cousins chosen 100 picks apart in the first and fourth rounds of the 2012 NFL draft. First time we that's the last time we saw.

So now comes the what do you do now? What do you do now, especially since a lot of people thought somebody tapped the Browns on the shoulder and said, you're drafting Chidor Sanders. And that person, speaking of Tennessee football, Jimmy Haslam, especially since, you know, we saw them pull off applauding. And and, you know, the two time coach of the year, our friend Kevin Stefanski wasn't he was he was given a golf clap. He's given like a semi clap. And and Andrew Berry looks like Jeb Bush told him to please clap.

You know, please clap if you wanted to be somewhere else. And there was much rejoicing. What did we just do? This is what Andrew Berry had to say when Mary Kay Cabot asked him if he would term the acquisition of somebody of Chidor Sanders is a name and buzz was a blockbuster acquisition. I just said the the biggest thing for us.

You know, we we live by our board. You know, we we felt like he was a good, solid prospect at the most important position. We felt like it got to a point where he was probably mispriced, you know, relative to the relative to the draft. You know, really, the acquisition cost was was pretty light. And it's a guy that we think can now produce his draft slot. So I wouldn't say it's any more than that.

You know, Mary Kay, I think, you know, obviously Chidor has kind of grown up in the spotlight. But, you know, our expectation is for him to come in here and work and compete. Nothing's been promised.

Nothing's you know, nothing will be given. So, you know, I may hesitate to characterize it as a blockbuster. That's not necessarily how we thought of the transaction, but we are excited to work with him. He was drafted at a cut rate. Because one team, just to name one, passed on it six times.

We talked about it before. The odds of keeping all four quarterbacks are next to zero. Just slightly, just slightly, almost less than zero, to use the 1980s phrase. And the question is, Flacco is making it. Flacco is making this team. He can he can be the one to sit there and go, OK, coach, you need me to start game one, week one tomorrow.

I'm in. Pickett can basically say, oh, I can do that. And Flacco could be like, do you know the offense as well as, say, somebody who won Comeback Player of the Year in it and just about eight starts in it after sitting on the couch all year?

Can you do that? So Pickett's going to be thrown in a mosh pit with two rookies, and these two rookies are going to have to battle it out and only one of them is going to make it. I would think we had Dan Orlovsky on before.

He thinks it's possible that Flacco and two rookies make it. And that's the thing, too. Everybody thinks, hey, Chidor, everything's been handed to you. Deon gave you that silver spoon. And, you know, we're going to completely overlook the fact that you you were the quarterback at an HBCU with Deon and balled out there before going to Colorado and helping turn a one win team into what we currently see today.

But let's just to say everybody who has been saying this about Chidor is right. He's going to have to earn it because a fifth round selection will not just get in because of who they are. Period.

End of story. Certainly, if they're looking at some other position that's injury riddled and they need to have more of those on the roster. And less of you.

Certainly, if you haven't done the work, you haven't shown a work ethic now that you've been around day after day after day. He's going to have to earn it. And Dylan Gabriel, what you know, because we're all sitting here thinking, what's Chidor thinking about finally being drafted by the Browns when they could have had him second overall and 33rd overall and 36th overall and yada yada yada. What's Dylan Gabriel thinking?

You know what he's thinking? I'm not going to lose out to Chidor Sanders. I'm the one who wound up on the podium in Manhattan last year. Not him.

He was only hanging out because he was sitting in between the guy who won it all and Lil Wayne. Who, by the way, can ride a mean bicycle. You know, he's not sitting there thinking, oh, I'm just a Washington General's here to the Colorado Globetrotters. That's not happening. Good reference. So and can he pick it?

He's got to be sitting here thinking, am I a hostage again? Right. You know, I, I, I, I get acquired the Browns. That's one of the first things they did this year when it was time to start hiring other people. First thing they did was, you know, flip him in DTR and bring Kenny Pickett in.

God bless Kenny Pickett. Introduced on the same day, Russell Wilson's back in the building. He must have been thinking there is what is happening?

Can I escape this guy? And then Russ goes to the Giants. They signed Flacco so they could have at least somebody of that knows their offense and is a veteran in their back pocket and then draft two guys. I can't believe they drafted Chidoor after drafting Dylan Gabriel.

I mean, but but hey, there's a value on the board, you know, they're going to in the board they trust. So where was Chidoor on their board? Was he a fifth rounder on their board? Or was he a third rounder and they decided to go Dylan Gabriel over him because of everything that we've heard about the draft process for Chidoor and the interview process.

They said they got a taste of that themselves. We know that we know that teams talk, players talk, scouts talk, but do you think it would be better off weirdly that he he went undrafted? I was starting to think that he probably was sitting there at some point, like, let me choose it, because the last place that I think he wanted to go is a spot where there's somebody else that's already been drafted. Yeah, exactly.

You would be the lone rookie trying to duke it out with other vets. You get to a point where you kind of hope they don't simply so they can choose that spot. They were awful close to that. I think they still wanted to hear his name, man.

And not and not when it was a prank call. Yeah. So that's my two senses.

I don't know how it's going to work from here on out, but that's a Stefanski problem or first class problem for Stefanski. But the rest of it, if you just removed the storylines and the actual number of the draft choices and just put it on a list and say, here's your here's your here's your draft class of 2025 Cleveland Browns fans. Oh, and by the way, you see at the bottom, it says we got a first rounder from Jacksonville in 2026.

You'd go great. But the rest of it is like, oh, here are the Browns again. Eight, four, four, two or four rich number to dial elevate your home. And that was our draft review presented by Spectrum Elevate your home Internet with a fast and reliable connection backed by a local team that's there when you need them.

Make more things possible with Spectrum today. We come back. Albert Breer will join us right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Tell us how everything went down and why. Best we can. Coming up. OK, this is not a drill. Get ready because Mission Impossible, the final reckoning hits theaters May twenty third.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're going to talk about the elephant in the room right away. Oh, bring on Albert Brier of Sports Illustrated. How you doing, Albert? Good to see you.

Hey, what's up, everybody? The national champion Ohio State Buckeyes had 14 players drafted. That is the most by any school. It is one off of Georgia's twenty twenty two haul of the most drafted by any team coming off of a national championship game. They had the most teammates chosen in the first round of the draft.

The Ohio State had four Buckeyes when when the Chiefs made Josh Simmons the final pick of the first round draft. Congratulations, Albert. Congrats, bud. Well, no caveat. How about that? Oh, don't worry. I'm sure it's coming.

It's coming. I was waiting. No, no. Listen, when when when when Michigan had three of the first thirteen and North Dakota State had one chosen before Ohio State in the first round, I was texting I was texting it with my chest to him. And Don, we're a money manager.

The stars, you know, I texted guys, I texted two words. You keep watching. Keep watching is what you said. And I'm like, keep watching what? Like the first thirteen picks of the draft aren't going to be traded. That's like there's a challenge flag and you can overturn it, you know.

I don't know what you're talking about. But then, no, as soon as as soon as Emeka Ibuka went to Tampa, which, by the way, Baker's going to love him, you know, then, you know, then we're off and running. Albert, I'm so excited for Trevion Henderson. Let's go, baby. Oh, yeah, I bet. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be fun.

It'll be fun. I and don't forget, like much like Michigan, after last year's was a 13 players that hall. They're some of the best guys were still in school. I think you'd argue Ohio State's two best players are still in school.

Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Smith. Those are the two. Yeah. OK, very good.

And one of them is staying for money, right? Is that the is that what it is or? Oh, we're going back to that.

You guys, the freshman quarterback has never played it down. Congrats. Congrats.

It's all good. That's off the table for you now. That line is off the table. Gladly. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show with Albert Breer. By the way, I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.

Call click Granger dot com or just stop by Albert Breer. Walk me through what you know about the first trade that happened where the Jaguars go up to two. Why was Cleveland willing to not draft Travis Hunter?

Walk me through what you know about the first massive trade of this draft and the biggest. Well, I think for Cleveland, a lot of it comes back, Rich, to the Deshaun Watson trade, and I think they were finally feeling the effects of the draft pick drain over the last few years and that they were getting aging in certain spots in the roster at running back along the offensive line. And they didn't have young players coming up to replace those guys.

You could even argue at linebacker with the situation injury wise with Jeremiah Owosu-Koromoa. So, you know, I think it was just sort of the Browns taking an honest look at where they were as a team and basically conceding to themselves we're not a player away. You know, we have some work to do here, and this was a way to sort of reset and go back and build up the guts of the roster again.

And look, I think everybody on balance would say they did pretty well. You know, to only drop three spots, add a two this year, add a one next year, potentially maybe put themselves in a position to draft a quarterback next year. I'd say overall, like, you can see the Browns' strategy was pretty clear, and I think they did well to get Mason Graham at five and then early in the second round get Carson Swessinger and Quinn-Shawn Judkins. Those were all things they needed. The Jaguars are interesting to me because, you know, they did a lot of background work on Travis Hunter, but they were very disciplined about not doing the extra stuff that you'd normally do with a guy you're going to put that much investment in, right?

So, they didn't do the 30 visit because they weren't doing those. They wanted to have a level playing field for all the prospects, but they did a ton of work. And, you know, I think what's interesting here is, like, with Cleveland, I just mentioned, you know, the timeline, it's like, okay, can we build fast enough? And they just sort of determined, we got to build the guts of this roster back up.

We're not that close. You know, where with Jacksonville, I think it was almost the moves you would see a team that's on the precipice of something really big make. And I sort of wonder, does this mean they think pretty highly of what they inherited? Because this is a sort of move like the James Gladstone and Liam Cohen were part of in Los Angeles. And, you know, the difference here is the Rams had demonstrated history of winning when they were making those moves, when they went and got Jalen Ramsey, when they went and got Matthew Stafford, and the Rams did it for veteran players.

In this case, you don't have demonstrated history and you're doing it for a rookie. So, it'll be interesting to see if, you know, the Jaguars wind up being a 10-11 win team because that's the other part of it, right? It's like if you win 10 or 11 games, then, you know, next year you're giving up what? Like the 23rd pick? Whereas if you're what the Jaguars have been the last couple of years, you're giving up something in the top 10. Well, I mean, and just to revisit everything you just said, you know, that the Browns weren't just one player away, but what if that one player plays two positions and brings a significant amount of buzz that's required for a team that could use it? And Jacksonville taking that advantage, being just three away and saying, you know, we'll flip a two for them, we'll lose a one next year. But they also did improve their fourth and sixth round picks as well. So, it's not like that they did get something along with Hunter.

That said, I love their aggressiveness. What is your first blush knowledge about the plan they have in place for Travis Hunter? Yeah. Well, first and foremost, I can't wait.

And I'm sure you're the same way. I mean, this might be the most interesting. I've covered the league 20 years.

This might be the most interesting prospect I can remember, you know, in 20 years of covering the league. Well, Albert, you and I have done many a schedule release show together back in the day. I don't recall the last time I said I can't wait to see the schedule to see who Jacksonville's playing first. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, certainly this puts them on the map. And at least, you know, early in the season, we'll see how it goes.

You know how these things can be fleeting. But like at least early in the season, yeah. I mean, you know, when I have the Sunday ticket on, I'm going to be watching to see what Travis Hunter's doing.

No question. The plan for right now is actually, I think the reverse of what some teams, I did say most teams would have done. And to be fair, Cleveland was planning this way too.

If you heard Andrew Berry talk before the draft, he outwardly said it. Like, we're looking offense first. And so Jacksonville, you know, we'll look at putting them on offense first and then have him sort of minor in defense. Now, that's not the way it was at Colorado. At Colorado, he was majoring in defense. And they had him practicing and meeting on the defensive side of the ball. And the reason why I think is pretty logical, and this is the way most football people would see it, is on offense you're dictating to the opponent. On defense, you're having to react to what the offense is dictating to you.

In other words, like when you're meeting with your teammates and your coaches during the week, you're coming up with a plan on a million different contingencies and all the different things they could do to you, and you have to react on the fly. It takes a lot of study to be ready on a week-to-week basis to play defense. On offense, you can kind of draw it up the way you want, so you can do things to involve a player who might not be a full-time guy. And that's basically what Colorado did with him.

Pat Shurmur and those guys, they had packages in for him. They would signal routes in to him from the sideline when that was necessary. They were doing what they needed to do to make it work on offense because they felt like he had to spend his time on defense. And that's what's intriguing about him as an offensive player, too, by the way. He may, because he hasn't spent as much time on that side, just be scratching the surface of what he is as a receiver.

But obviously the Jags, I think, see it as we can turn him into a difference-maker right away on offense, and that will help us more right away. And then you see how fast they're going to bring him along on defense. But it will be interesting to see because, again, it's like the reverse of the way he was doing it at Colorado. Interesting, the reverse of the way he was doing it at Colorado. I just want to see him out there every snap. Honestly, let him tap his helmet and tell you when it's time.

Otherwise, just go for it. The kids, the one thing, again, I loved about him, he doesn't seem to be anything but loving the moment and living it. You know, like dancing to going out on the stage before the draft, you know, dancing to Whitney Houston cover songs, you know, and then living his life, man. I'll give you a good story about his passion for football. This was one of the things that the Jaguars were able to kind of ferret out. There's a coach, the coach at Jacksonville State, was actually close friends with Les Snead. He coached at Ufala, the high school that Les graduated from in Alabama. And he actually was an assistant coach at Colorado a couple of years ago. Now he's the Jacksonville State head coach.

And so Les put this coach in touch with James Gladstone, who of course Gladstone and Les are tied at the hip. So this coach told James Gladstone, so maybe one of the coolest things about what he was doing for us at Colorado was in between series, he was picking up on stuff while he was out there. So he was giving coaches like the full 360 view of what he was seeing out there. So he could tell them as a receiver, like here's what I'm seeing from the defense. And he could also tell them why it was happening because he could think like a corner.

And the same thing the other way around. He could go out there as a corner and say, this is what they're trying to do with us with this receiver, because he could see it through the receiver's eyes and through the offense's eyes. And you can't do that unless you're fully invested in football.

You know what I mean? Like you can't go out there and think that way and have that sort of view of the game if you aren't really engaged day to day and like just thirsty for knowledge about football. And you can't pull off what Travis Hunter pulled off in general from a conditioning standpoint, from a competitive standpoint, from a focus standpoint, from a study standpoint if he isn't fully in on football. So that's why this is like the rare, to me at least, that's why this is the rare high ceiling, high floor guy, right?

You are going to have so many cracks at getting this right. So even if it's not a full version of what you hoped, which I mean, I mean, I don't know, all pro on both sides of the ball, like you're at the very least going to have a lot of cracks and a lot of different ways of getting it right, which makes them different, again, than almost any other prospect we've ever seen. Got to be born that way, obviously, with the God-given talent, also with the heart that beats inside, the brain that is required, the smarts that is required. And then also, again, just hearing how I'm picking up on this nuance, the way that they're playing me, the way that they're standing there, the way that the scheme is, the way that this is happening, and being able to do it on both sides of the ball, left and right football brain, is exactly the influence of Deion Sanders. I've heard Deion talk all the time about when somebody winds up, somebody stands across me like this, I know that's how they're going to play me like that. I know when they're, you know, you look down and see the pressure on the balls of their feet as opposed to sitting back.

I know exactly if it's run or pass. That's what he clearly has helped create a unicorn, and I could not be more happy for Jacksonville Jaguar fans. Albert Breer here on the Rich Eisen Show. I will give you a couple of minutes here, even though we've been talking about it for days, but why did Chidor slip to fifth-round status, Albert? You're reporting on that. So he slipped out of the first round because of talent and performance.

You know, I think that really was the long and short of it. I don't think he was seen as a first-round talent by very many people, and fair or not, that was the feedback I got from a lot of people I trust. They just did not see a first-round talent. Now, again, and I think I've said this to you on the show a couple of times, doesn't mean he can't go in the first round because if you find a team that sees you differently, that sees you as a fit, I mean, Bo Nix was that way. A lot of teams didn't think Bo Nix was a first-round talent. There was a fit there for him in Denver. So I think when you're talking about why he didn't go in the first round and the second round, I think it was talent and performance.

I think after that it was everything else. And I think whether you like it or not, football coaches want their backup quarterbacks to blend in with the furniture, and they want them to be seen, not heard. And it's a huge reason of why guys who, quote-unquote, bring a lot with them, didn't have second lives to their careers, like Cam Newton, Jay Cutler. It's why guys like Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick didn't get continued shots at staying in the league.

People don't want to hear that, but it's the reality of it. First and foremost, you want your backup quarterback to be a resource to the starter. If he's young, you want it to be someone you can develop, and you want it to be someone who's going to do all of that in the shadows. And so I think once you get out of the first or second round, you're looking at depth and developmental guys, and it became hard because of everything else for teams to see Shidoor Sanders that way. And so it became, well, just give me that guy over here who I know is going to develop and who I know is not going to be a problem and who I know when the guy at his position slips up, we're not going to have to hear about, just give me that guy.

And I honestly believe that's a big part of it. And then I think the other element, too, Rich, to be honest, and I think this is where they screwed up his process a little bit, is he handled the process like he was a top 10 lock, and he never was. And so what did that mean? Well, that meant that he was narrowing down the teams he was willing to go to. He was treating this team different than that team in an interview based on where he wanted to land. And unfortunately, when you're not a top 10 pick, you can't handle the process that way because you don't know how the draft's going to fall, you have to put your best foot forward with everybody. And so did that knock off some teams that might have liked him and took him in the third round or fourth round?

I think it certainly could have narrowed the pool of teams that were willing to take him. So I think it's those things kind of in tandem, the pool of teams willing to take him because of the way that he handled the process, and then also just kind of the makeup of what teams are looking for in their backup quarterback. Albert Breer here on The Rich Eisen Show from Sports Illustrated. Now let's turn the page a little bit because Kirk Cousins is sitting there in Atlanta. And now that we're after the draft and we've seen teams get quarterbacks, and again, you know, some of them are in a quarterback draft class that has been considered lighter than usual. But what does this now look like post draft? Kirk Cousins sitting where he is, Derek Carr sitting where he is, and his situation, I'll give you the floor on what happens next here.

Sure. Well, I mean, as has been the case for the last month, I guess a lot hinges on Aaron Rodgers and what happens with him. Right. You know, I think at this point, it's fair to say the Vikings are out of it for now. And unless something goes wrong with J.J. McCarthy over the next six or seven weeks, they're probably out of it for good. You know, the trade for Sam Howell takes care of the depth part of the equation, which I think they could have considered at the right price. If the Falcons were willing to take on the money, they'd have considered bringing Kirk back. But, you know, now that they have Sam Howell in the roster, I think that's sort of off the table for them. And then you look at Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh, I think, is just sort of in that holding pattern waiting for Aaron Rodgers. We heard what Art Rooney said over the weekend that, you know, he's confident that they'll wind up landing him. And if Pittsburgh's off the table, I mean, now for Kirk, you're sort of in this, like, I mean, you're waiting for, like, someone to get hurt.

You know what I mean? Like, I think that's sort of where they are. I think the Falcons have been willing to listen. And, you know, there was some feel out there that, you know, Terry Fontenot's going to try to move him on day three of the draft. But I'm not sure that the market was out there for him at this point.

And you do wonder if the market's just passed him by. Derek Carr is, I think, way more complicated. Things aren't great between him and the team.

That's no secret. You can go chapter and verse through everything that happened in March and April. There's the shoulder issue, which, you know, the team feels like is a two-year-old issue that, you know, does it have to be handled right now? I think that's an open question. And I don't think Carr appreciated the way that some things were handled in March. So how does that thing end?

I don't know. But the fact that they already converted, you know, all but the minimum from base salary into signing most money, which means that money is gone. That money is paid for. They've already paid for Derek Carr for 2025. Tells me it's going to be really hard for anybody to get Derek Carr out of there. Well, again, if there's no landing spots jumping out at you for Kirk Cousins, there clearly wouldn't be one for Derek Carr.

And when you see Spencer Rattler in year two, Tyler Shuck now fresh to the equation. And I know not everybody's really liking each other right now. I mean, if whatever could be going on right here with his arm can get fixed, wouldn't New Orleans be the spot for Derek Carr? Wouldn't you think? Yeah, it should be.

I mean, it should be. And look, I think we've all seen these situations in the past where a new coach comes in and there's some saber rattling back and forth. Has the coach been deferential enough to the starter?

Is there a monetary issue? Does the starter believe that he deserves a reaffirmation of his status that would come through adjustments to the contract? All of that stuff is not unusual when a new coach comes in.

And I think that that can be fixed. And now that they're past the draft and they know where they're at, Derek Carr knows that Tyler Shuck is on the roster. And remember, Tyler Shuck was in college for seven years. He actually has four degrees, which is three more than I do.

And I think he is as pro-ready as any of the guys in this year's draft because of all that experience, because he's coming from Jeff Brom's offense at Louisville. You know, it does put Derek Carr in a spot where it's like, hey, bud, you know, we're not as desperate as we were a week ago. So if you want to come back, that's fine. If you want to keep playing these games, we now have an answer. So won't hold you to it, just fun. And if you're right, we'll bring it up. If you're wrong, this never happened. How does that sound, Albert, for a deal before I even ask the question?

The number of rookie starting quarterbacks in 2025? Give it to me. So you know that, like, everybody ignores these if they're right, right?

Then if you get them wrong, then everybody knows about it. I'm flipping it. I'm flipping it. I'm flipping it.

We will bring it up and say, he said this the Monday after the draft. And if you're wrong, this never happened. I promise you that. All right.

Take your shot. I'll say two. I'll say two.

I'll say Kim Ward and Tyler Schuck. All right. So then give me the one. I think eventually Dart will play.

I don't think it's going to be at the beginning of the year. Okay. But then that's three then.

You just give me a third. So what was the premise? The number of kids that just got drafted at the quarterback position in the 2025 draft that will play, everyone that's on the screen right here. Just play. They're going to start a game this year. Start a game.

Starters this year, the number. Okay. So we'll just start a game part of it. You know what? I'll have some fun with this. Do what you want. Again.

I'll give you four. Okay. I will say Kim Ward will start a game. Kim Ward will start every game as long as he stays healthy.

Right. Tyler Schuck will start a game and I think probably a good chunk of the season. I think Jackson Dart will start at some point. Okay.

And I guess this is going to get aggregated. One of the Browns rookies will start a game at some point. One of the Browns rookies. And look, I think honestly, if we're being honest about this, so I love Dylan Gabriel as a player, but I think Chidor is more talented. We can talk about the talent issue and how it was overblown with Chidor. And I don't think he was ever considered by anybody who actually studies these guys for a living. I think he was ever considered top five talent, but that also doesn't mean he's an undrafted free agent talent-wise.

You know what I mean? He does have ability. So I do think in camp, that's going to be such an interesting quarterback room with Kenny Pickett, who's playing for his career in there, Joe Flacco, who comes in as the starter, and then two rookies battling it out. I mean, it's not impossible to see a scenario where Chidor or Dylan Gabriel start a game. And gun to my head, I would think maybe as long as Chidor internalizes all of this the right way and comes out of this resolved and maybe in that Tom Brady way, like I'm going to show everybody, would it be the Chidor five instead of the Brady six then, right?

Well, the Chidor 143, actually. But how many quarterbacks? He was a six, right? Pop it up on the screen again there, Mr. Hoskins, if you don't mind. Yeah, he was. He was. Right. So you're now looking at the Chidor five. The Chidor five. There it is.

If he takes it that way, I could certainly see a way where he could get on the field and get a chance to play at some point during the year. Screw it. While you're being aggregated against your will, is it going to be Chidor or Dylan Gabriel? Chidor. Chidor.

OK. I like Gabriel too. And I honestly, I'll be completely honest when I say, I did not like the whole, I didn't like all the Dylan Gabriel hate that was out there because he's a really good college player. You know what I mean? And he's only, he's small, no question, but he's only two inches shorter than Chidor.

You know, I mean, that's like that. So like, like I like I was surprised that Dylan Gabriel went ahead ahead of Chidor, but I didn't think like it merited just crushing Dylan Gabriel. Dylan Gabriel was really good in college.

I'll tee one up for you here. He was one of only two quarterbacks to beat the national champs. Yeah.

And the other one was a walk-on. Yeah. So, OK. He was small. I know you did. Too small to beat us for sure.

No, listen Gabriel. And we met him. We had him on the show.

He was really impressive. And I totally would understand why a team would fall in love with him and say, we are willing to develop you. We're willing to work with you. We're willing to spend a third round pick on you. It was just the coming back and taking Chidor later on with trading your last pick to do it as well. When I look at Chidor, when I look at Dylan Gabriel, why can't he be Chase Daniel?

Which is a valuable player to have, right? Sure. I hear you. Albert, thanks for the time, man. Really appreciate it.

You be well. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Thanks for everybody. Check out his work. Sports Illustrated.

Must follow as well on all manners of social media. We'll take a break. Jackerman's here with a sports update right here on the Rich Isaac Show.

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Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You know, I've been at this NFL Network thing for quite some time, Josh Allen, since, to use a Warren Sapp phrase, you were knee high to a jackrabbit back in central California. And I've been doing a lot of combines. The current general manager of the Raiders was with me at the time as a broadcaster, Mike Mayock. When you were at the combine and you took a snap in one of the drills and you just, you know, lightly glided back to right around the 10 yard line and let one fly and it landed on the other 25. And I looked at Mike Mayock and he looked at me and kind of raised his eyebrows like, yep, that's the arm strength right there. What is the furthest you've ever thrown a football, Josh? The furthest was in Wyoming.

So I did get a little assistance from the elevation. Yes. But it was right around 83 yards. Right around 83.

Yeah. Are we rounding up or are we rounding down at the 83, Josh? We were probably rounding up just a little bit.

But yeah, 83 was, that was the number. So, I don't know, I'm looking up to see if you're playing in Denver at all so you can play, you can get a little bit of some altitude. Can you do that in an NFL game, you think? I mean, there was one game, I think it was my rookie year against the Dolphins. I threw a ball, staying near as hard as I can. And I, my receiver was 60, 70 yards down field and I overthrew him just by a little bit. You air-baked him.

I did. And that was just one of those, like, I didn't feel like I threw it as hard as I could. But my hip fired so hot and it just came out of my hand extremely well and it was spinning and it was a little warm in Miami, so it might have flown a little farther.

But it was just one of those that just kind of even blew me off guard. So, something I've toned down a little bit though and I feel like I've got a little more control on my ball right now. Understood.

No, accuracy is something that you definitely have improved on, as we have seen. So, let's just walk me through this. At some point during a game in your career, let's just say it could even happen this weekend against New England, where you have to throw a Hail Mary to win it. At what yardage do you say to your coach, I still got this. Give it to me. Your own what? Your own what? I know I can get the ball in the air and get it probably a good four or five yards at the end. I'm probably around the 35.

Your own 35? Yeah. Okay. Because, you know, you're probably going to have to avoid a rush a little bit, even if they're coming at you with three man, you're going to have to roll out a little bit. So, right around your own 30-something yard line, you can get it in there. You think so?

Yeah, I think so. Unbelievable. Everybody, check out the Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel, if you don't mind, and give us a follow there or a subscription, however you want to put it, youtube.com slash Rich EisenShow.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Everybody hoping their quarterback they got is the next Josh Allen. Man, no one's talking about Cam Ward.

Isn't that unbelievable? First overall picks, a quarterback, and it's like, yeah, but. Yeah, I kind of feel bad for him. No one talked about him this whole process either.

Remember, I brought that up. I didn't know anything about Cam Ward, other than what you knew about Cam Ward going into this. Well, the one thing I know about Cam Ward, the video I saw of Cam Ward more than any member was him shutting down Chador. We asked him, like, you want to make some, like, we should do some music together. And he's like, I play football. And everybody, as Chador was dropping, was like, this is why Cam was number one. He's a football guy.

And this other guy's worried about music. But there was more to those. Those guys you could tell were friends.

They were talking just like boys do, you know, talk the entire time. But that clip happened to go around. Yes. Didn't look good. In retrospect.

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Hyundai's always working to ensure the road doesn't get you. The Buffalo Bills, not many people talking about their draft, but they'll talk about what their general manager, Brandon Bean, had to say on WGR radio to those in the local area in western New York looking to see a wide receiver on their draft board and didn't see one until the Bills selected one with the 240th overall pick in the draft. Brandon Bean had this to say in response. Listen, the last few minutes of your show before I came on, waiting on here, sounds like 2018 all over with you guys. How so? Well, you guys were in 2018 about Josh Allen, you guys wanted Josh Rosen, and now you guys are that we don't have a receiver.

I don't get it. We just go, hold on, let me talk. We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games a year ago. I get you guys asking why we didn't have receivers, but I don't understand it now. You just saw us leave the league in points.

When you add all the postseason, no one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So you just saw us do it without Stephon Diggs, same group. How is this group not better than last year's group? Like, I don't, our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense.

We did that. So I get it. You got to have a show.

You got to have something to talk about. But talking about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I've heard. Damn, Brandon Bean. They went defense. OK. Five of their selections, two corners, two tackles and a defensive end. He said that with his chest, Rich. He chose he chose the first Sanders of the draft, T.J., to take South Carolina's T.J. Sanders.

Hey, Brockman, you would have made a man on that bet. He took a Sanders and a Dion. And then they went offense three of their last four picks. But Bill's needed defense and they did a good job addressing that. Well, everyone's complaining about or bitching about not having a Maryland receiver anymore. Well, he gave one very last pick. That's where... Stephon Diggs went. He's on my team now.

Can and can't. I mean, I love, hey, listen, everyone's got opinions and that's what we do here for a game. But, you know, I kind of I kind of dig Brandon Bean's track record, how to figure out how to put a team together. So there's that. And by the way, Maxwell Hairston, what a stud. Did you see him? Did you see him dap up every person that went out of the green room in front of him?

His position was the one, I think, the last one before you got to the hallway. Yeah. So he was... He showed love to everybody. He was the greener at Wal-Mart, man.

Yeah. Or saying farewell to them as they were going out to the stage and then he got named himself, the Buffalo Bills. That was amazing. I enjoyed seeing that. He was so happy for everybody.

I know. And like... I dig that too. Glad he got that moment. The walk's the best.

I dig that too. But guess what? The Bills allowed 217 first downs on an opponent's passing attempts in 2025. That's the fourth most in the NFL. They were addressing that. Kind of stopped that. They were addressing that. And remember they added Nick Bosa in free agency?

Yes, they did. Joey Bosa. Joey Bosa.

They would love to have added Nick Bosa, I'm sure. I was like, wait, when did that happen? Joey. Joey. Nick. One of those guys. Tomato. Tomato.

One of the Boses. A fan base has its opinions and Buffalo selected a defensive player with seven of their last nine first round picks. The two offensive players are named Josh Allen and Dalton Kincaid. They're all right. Yes, they are.

Yes, they are. Greg Roussel at Oliver. Jerry White, who I believe is back on the team.

Shaq Lawson, I mean, not bad. I mean, they got to, they got to, and they're, they're, they're in the mix for the Super Bowl every year. They just got to just get them, just get, just get, I mean, they drafted just get Mahomes off the field one more time. Yeah. Yeah.

One more time. That's why defense was necessary. Yeah. That's why defense was necessary. What? Get the first down.

Not controversially. I mean, I think he got it, but like, get it for real, right. Maybe play 60 minutes instead of 59 minutes and 47 seconds. That first down that they didn't get, that was like with nine minutes left in the game, there was still a lot more football to be played after that. That was a big one, obviously. You know, take care of yourself instead of, you know what, you know what they're not drafting for? To win the AFC East. No. You know? It's going to be a lot tougher than people think this year.

Stop it. I mean, the Jets? You had a great draft. The Patriots had a great draft.

I don't know why that's so funny. You deserve. It's going to be a lot closer than people think. It's not going to be a runaway against.

Yeah. They won't win it with five weeks to go. They're not going to be, you know, trying to throw the game in week 18 successfully like last year.

Their best loss of the year. Those days are over. Are they? Are you back? Are you back?

Are you back? So bad. What's the definition of back?

Yeah. You guys will see when September rolls around. What will we see when September rolls around? Just give me a vision. Give me a vision. What's the Brockman vision?

What's the Brockman vision? Somewhere between 2007. What does that mean? Not losing a game. And two years ago.

We lost almost every game. Okay. 2021. Outstanding.

This is great. Wake me up when September comes or before you go insane, you know, I'm just saying we back up. Oh, okay. We back up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Put the word out.

We upside down. He's your backup now. Let's go. NBA veteran, Jim Jackson takes you on the court. You get a chance to dig into my 14 year career in the NBA, but also get the input from the people that will be joining Charles Barkley. I'm excited to be on your podcast, man. It's an honor. Spike Lee, entrepreneur, filmmaker, Academy Award winner, Nick Stenzel, not UC, but also how sports brings life, passion, music, all of this together. The Jim Jackson show part of the rich Eisen podcast network follow and listen on your favorite platform.