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Now. On with the show. To taste some hills. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Be back with his first career touchdown.
Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Daniel Jones took title. Warren, touchdown! The Ridge Eisen Show with guest host Tom Pellicero earlier on the show NFL network insider Mike Gariful Coming up latest news and more. And now, sitting in for a rich, it's Tom.
Pellicera. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show final hour here on an eventful Monday already. As we are live, Tom Pellicero in for Rich, the news within the last few minutes. Brian Callahan out as the Tennessee Titans head coach. Just one season and six games into his tenure.
No word yet from the Titans in terms of who the interim head coach is going to be. Whoever it is. Their debut will be next Sunday. at home against Mike Vrabels New England Patriots. Brockman, you're viewing this from the other side right now.
Yeah, man. The Vrabel Patriots. They're excited to take their Patriots in Survivor this week. It's a hard thing when you know the people involved here. And Brian Callahan is a good dude who was dealt a pretty tough hand.
When you have the number one pick, though, and the offense is. this punchless when it is struggling This much. It did feel like this was a matter of time. I believe that it was going to be at least another week or two before they got to that point. Instead, it is Before the visit from Vrabel and the Patriots, a game that certainly.
You know that ownership in Tennessee had circled on the calendar for a Variety. of different Reasons. We got the phone lines open 844-204 Rich. We're still going to get to. The sound from today on Mike Tomlin talking about the Joe Flacco trade.
In the division, ahead of a Thursday night game between the Steelers and the Bengals. Bill Belichick answering questions about the flood of reports that came out while he was on. As I saw People Magazine describe it, they Romantic weekend getaway to Nantucket during the Tar Heels bye weekend. Let's go to the phone lines right now. Terzo in Iowa has been waiting for a.
Very long time to jump on here. Terzo, it's Tom and the boys. What's up? Terzo, what up, man? What up, Tommy P.
Hey, man, we talked on Friday and I was in a little bit better spirits. That Fred Warner injury. Man, that that one hurt. He's such the heart and soul of that team. and to see him go down like that, and let's lose him for the year, that's going to be big.
There's no doubt. I guess the question then would be: if you're a 49ers fan, How do you feel about the chances, Terzo, for this team to withstand another? Just absolute gutting injury after already losing Nick Bosa from that defense.
Well, so this is kind of where I sit right now. If we have a favorable schedule going forward, Um, you know, we have Atlanta this Sunday night. If we squeak past them And stay a float. I would say and suggest that we try and make a move for one of the defensive ends that we've been linked to. But if we if the wheels start to fall off and we're not really competing on the defensive side, I don't think we should be giving up any draft capital and look for the future and might have to pack it up and look for next year if it if it snowballs as well as the way I might see it going.
Anything else on your mind on a Monday morning here coming off of week six? I feel like we should give you more than 90 seconds for your two hours on hold here, Terzo. Nah. Yeah, so so but watching Baker Mayfield. As we talked last week.
Um that was a gutty performance. And right now if that team gets healthy. They're going to be a tough out in the playoffs. And at this point, They're in the driver's seat for the number one overall seed. And I think that they have a great chance of making a really long run in the playoffs.
Especially if there's issues. in Philly and I think the Lions are going to have a tough time. keeping pace with him after dropping that game last night to the Chiefs. Terjo, thank you very much for the call. Appreciate you as always here.
That was MVP caliber stuff. From Baker Mayfield yesterday. One of the plays of the year so far: the stumbling, bumbling, somehow pick up the first down run. Layout. Followed, what, two plays later by the dot to.
Undrafted Tez Johnson, seventh-round pick, whatever he was. MVP Tez. Who hadn't had a catch. Unbelievable throw, unbelievable catch as well. Yeah.
Uh, and he's doing that without. Remember, it's not just he loses to Mecca Buka in the game. Mike Evans has not been out, though Todd Bull said Evans back at practice this week, maybe can play. Chris Godwin. Not going to play again this week, dealing with another injury.
Jalen McMillan at last check was still in a neck brace.
So that's your top four wide receivers. I mean, you're throwing to the JV squad out there. Yeah, Bucky Irving out the last two games. Todd Bowl said, not going to play Monday night against Detroit. Right.
Very shorthanded and what Baker Mayfield's doing is just tremendous. What a throwdown that's going to be. Bucks, lions, two of the grittier, more physical football teams in the entire NFL. going at it on On national TV. There are those teams that we've seen so far this season that you just have that feeling when they get into January.
They're going to be They're going to be a tough out, regardless of where the game is. They're going to play you tight. There are teams that I I think we're still trying to figure out. One of them being the team favored by the gentleman in the corner here, the Dallas Cowboys. TJ, I'm curious.
They've clearly been producing offensively. Even yesterday, they scored. Mm-hmm. But putting the entire package together. Right now they are very much a Middle of the pack, they're 2-3 and 1.
What do you make of your Cowboys right now? It's so hard to really give you an answer on that. Because, like you said, the offense is clicking, seemingly, without CD in there. Dak is playing amazing. Low key or even high key, I guess, statistically speaking.
He's been great. This defense is just trash, man. It just... You know, now Dallas fans are screaming for Eberflues to be shown the door based upon some of the defensive sets that happened yesterday. Uh I mean it I try not to get overly emotional anymore.
About this team. You know what I mean? Like, these guys want me to sign this letter that gives up my fandom. I don't want to do that. But I'm also past the point in my life where, like, I'm going to let it ruin the next 48 hours of my life, which.
For decades, it did, you know, and it's just now I sit back and just watch and scratch my head sometimes. It's the Carolina Panthers, and respectfully. You should be the Carolina Panthers. Rico Dowdle called his shot. Rico is not.
Is that what you're saying? Babe Dowdle. Like, he went in there and told you what was the deal, what was going to happen. And he didn't want to be cheating. This guy went up your back, up your chest, and down your back, right?
Like. Ah, man, it was it was a tough watch and I I don't know where the relief comes from. The back end of the defense is terrible. I don't understand how you could go from Trevon Diggs and Deron Bland looking as great as they did. A few years ago, to what we see every Sunday now, man.
And it's just. Like I said, I'm trying to remove my emotions out of this without losing it, but man, it's just. Sad to see.
Well, let let's revisit here too. Warrior Daudle. Had to say in reference to going up against his former team. Rico, if your message last week was to pop a love to the Cowboys, what's your message after the game? They weren't buckled up.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Fantastic line. Fantastic. I also would have accepted. They did not stop the run.
That was the rallying cry after the stunning Micah Parsons trade. It was, I believe, the first thing that Jerry Jones said. in an hour-long press press conference. Explaining why You're trading something that every team dreams of, which is a young pass rusher in his prime who's on your team. and trading them away for Picks and Kenny Clark.
A nose tackle. And Jerry said over and over. A big part of this trip. We didn't even talk to teams that couldn't send us a nose tackle because we need to stop the run. We haven't been able to stop the run.
What happened yesterday, TJ? The run was not stopped. They did not stop the run. It was a lot of running. And by the way, Also, not a lot of pass rush.
And that's where I understand where a lot of the focus goes to Matt Eberflues in these situations. And there were questions asked after the game to Brian Schottenberg, do you have the personnel to run the system? He said, yeah. Do you do the players believe in the system? That's where he said, well, that's the question I would hope.
Yes. Whatever is happening here defensively, there is just a roller coaster ride that they're on. Eberflues. Has been a top coordinator for years. Even when he was in Chicago, people talked about how hard his defense was to go up against.
And part of that was because they were so disciplined, they played so hard, they flooded to the football. I don't see that consistently right now. for the Dallas Cowboys. And as much as Jerry has talked about, hey, We get all these picks. We might go out and do something.
We might go out and make a move to help our team. Who are you going to get, Jerry? I don't know that this is the type of team right now. that you're thinking you're one player away. for being a factor.
Now, offensively, again, I would say they have exceeded reasonable expectations. No CD Lamb. They scored, prior to yesterday, they scored, I believe, 77 points over the previous two games, and yesterday they still scored. Twenty-seven, right? Yep.
You're giving yourself a chance. Absolutely. Offensively, I get where you could talk yourself into: hey, we're getting healthy. CeeDee Lamb, I was told 50-50 to play this week. They're going to get Tyler Booker back in practice this week.
This offense. that has been producing at a high level. And again, George Pickens has made himself As much money as anybody in the early stage of this season, as a guy who. Is eligible for free agency at this point would seem like a no-brainer to franchise tag, but that's a different conversation. Um, But are you close enough?
From a programmatic perspective, do you think, you know what? We got those extra picks next year. We got an extra one next year. Let's use it now on a player that can help this team. I don't know.
Jerry turns 83 today. Happy birthday, Jerry. He got a loss to the Panthers. That's the early birthday gift. But if you're Jerry and you're looking at this 22 days out, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wants to be aggressive.
I would not be surprised at all if he sees enough. offensively, culturally, to say I think we can be competitive. The Eagles have stumbled here. The Commanders who play tonight against the Bears, they've not been perfect. The Giants are coming off the biggest win they've had in three years, but they're still a two and four football team.
Why can't we? Put this thing together and make a run. Yeah, I mean, when you put it that way, Tom, there is no one team, right, especially NFC, that's standing out like this is the team going to the Super Bowl.
So I guess in theory, yeah, right? You feel like. All right. It's still wide open, but I don't know if that's reality. Dallas has scored the third most points in the NFL, given up the second most.
The teams right now With the most wins in the NFC, as I'm just pulling this up here. All right, your top. Top teams for wins. Yeah, a lot of teams with four. The Bucs are five and one.
Yep. They've got all kinds of injuries, but they just week in and week out, they find a way. And incrementally, here, they should be getting some people back, right? in the coming weeks. You got the Packers, who are 3-1-1.
At this point, By virtue of win percentage, that's the order I'm going on here. They look like a tough team. They've had a couple, they had a couple bad defensive games before the buy. Came back, played better yesterday. The 49ers at 4-2.
Again. Your best two players on defense are out for the season. The quarterback situation remains fluid. Purdy should be back sometime in the next couple of weeks. Mac Jones is clearly.
not playing at 100%, but has found ways to keep him in games. I think you saw the limitations. Namely, from the injury pop up a little bit more in the game yesterday. The Eagles are 4-2, and we're talking about them like they're 0-6. But they're not a perfect team at this point.
The lions Last night. That sounds a weird game. TJ and I were watching when the Jared Goff touchdown got overturned. As slowly as any overturn we've ever seen. It was like five minutes after we were looking, like, wait a minute, they have three there.
What's the problem? I read the pool report, and they literally, all the officials were like, we had to piece the thing together. Because Jared Goff, according to the officials, established himself under center as the quarterback and then went in motion. If you establish yourself, then you have to stop. But Jared Goff said he and the coaches have never heard that rule.
He thought as long as you don't go under center. Then that's not supposed to be called. Because all he did was kind of he looked, he kind of gave a tap on the rear to the center and then he rolled out. Like, right.
So, what is the threshold? Putting your hands under there. How far in there do your hands need to be until you are officially a quarterback? That is going to be an interesting conversation between the Lions and the league office through the course of this week. But they're 4-2.
I think we look at them as a dangerous team. Yeah. The Rams at 4-2, they could be 6-0. They've had a couple games get away from them. Yep.
And then you got Seattle, the team that nobody talks about, but one that I don't want to see. Right now, I don't want to see the Seahawks in the playoffs. They went down to the wire with the 49ers, obviously. They had another tough loss along the way, but the Jaguars were the fun story, and the Seahawks. Took it to him a little bit on the road yesterday.
Granted Jacksville in a short week and all that. But that's a really Sound team. That Mike McDonald is coaching the heck out of. Sam Darnold has played really well, but for that one interception laid against Tampa. We're talking about Sam Dardold potentially as an MVP candidate right now, and we should.
That that's how well He's playing. If the playoffs began today and they don't, we are one-third of the way through the season. If they did, do it. The Vikings would not be in the playoffs. The commanders would not be in the playoffs.
Obviously the Cowboys would not be in the playoffs. Dang it. But I don't know with the number of Situations with those teams above you. I certainly think Jerry Jones can convince himself. That we can be buyers, not sellers.
and give ourselves A chance. 22 more days. And we shall see. Again, big news within the past hour here: the Tennessee Titans firing their head coach, Brian Callahan. We will get into that more.
Let's also, though, after this, Talk about what Mike Tomlin had to say. About the Joe Flacco trade as he gets set to take on a quarterback who was just traded within the division. Thursday night. In Cincinnati. A lot more to come as this edition of the Rich Eisen Show rolls on.
Tom Pellicero in for Rich. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. O'Reilly Auto Parts and that jingle. They're in the business of keeping your car on the road. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs.
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Sonos. They look as good as they sound. Mm. As many of you know, supporting pediatric cancer research is something I care deeply about. That's why I'm proud to share what Hyundai is doing through Hyundai Hope on Wheels.
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And it comes standard. Visit HyundaiUSA.com and search Hyundai Hope on Wheels to learn more. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show on Disney Plus, ESPN app and ESPN radio, presented by progressive Brian Callahan out as the Titans head coach. We continue to await word on exactly what the plan is from here. Uh a lot to take in, especially with Your number one pick, Cam Ward, now thrust into a chaotic type of a situation for the rest of the season.
I hate that for him. Like, And his development. We've seen that, like you mentioned, a few years. Go back even a year before Bryce Young and Frank Reich. Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer, like these.
Number one overall quarterbacks. You put all your faith in them as the franchise. They're going to turn it around for you, and then they can match up with a head coach who gets axed year one. Three years in a row. Tough spot.
Three years in a row, the head coach of the number one pick has not made it through the season. The question is now. Can it get worse? It's been pretty bad in terms of just the offensive inability to move the football. Yeah.
So We'll see. Again, we await word on that. Uh we also did get word this morning uh from Mike Tomlin. Who normally is a Tuesday talker during the week? He's coming off of a win, short week against the Bengals.
So. He was at the podium today. He was asked about. The trade of Joe Flacco to Cincinnati since they faced the Bengals on Thursday night. And Tomlin had this to say.
You know, to be honest, it was shocking to me. Um Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us. Um Because it doesn't make sense to me. Um to trade a quarterback. that you think enough of to make your opening day starter.
to a division opponent that's hurting in that area. But that's just my personal feelings. When the Bengals acquired him, knowing what you know about Zach and how he likes to run his offense, like from Cincinnati's perspective, did it make sense for them to go? It certainly made sense from Cincinnati's perspective. All right, so that's a pretty blunt, honest answer from Mike Tomlin right there.
Amazing. Literally laughing about whether it made sense for the Bengals. I mean, you don't. You don't see intra division quarterback trades hardly ever. You know, Donovan McNabb, once upon a time, when the Eagles moved on from him, sent him to Washington.
But that was also. you know, late career Donovan McNabb, and they probably felt pretty confident that This was not going to be a net positive. for the opponent. But this was not going to be something that was suddenly going to take. the Washington football team of a different name at the time.
and make them into contenders. Where it seems like the issue becomes here.
Well, there's multiple issues for Mike Tomlin, but one of them being. The Bengals were in dire straits. They called all over the NFL. We talked about this yesterday on NFL Network. They called everybody.
and tried to figure out what quarterback would be available. The one guy that they called on and they actually got traction on was Joe Flacco. In other words, if not for the Flacco trade, it might well have been Jake Browning again, and it wouldn't have mattered. Big picture yesterday because they still lose to the Packers, but the offense did look. more functional.
Now it's a short week. You have Joe Flacco. Again, coming off of what I would say was an overall encouraging performance. We know what Joe Flacco is, we know what he's not. It's not like he was going to come out and throw for 500 yards.
He's a four-year-old quarterback who is good enough to be accurate and play on time and throw the football to your best players. Jamar Chase might have the catch of the year. Joe Flacco is the one who puts that ball on him and gives him the opportunity.
So if you're the Steelers, you're going. Why would you do that? We're the team in first place here. You're hurting yourself too. Because now Flacco, if he goes and plays well.
Doesn't that kind of look like The Browns were the problem? Being totally fair to Cleveland. They don't have Jamar Chase. They don't have T. Higgins.
They have Jerry Judy, who's... Probably not a true number one. He's probably a number two receiver in the league. Bengals have two ones. That's going to help a lot of quarterbacks look better.
Both teams have offensive line issues that they continue to work through. But it does create this awkward dynamic of if you give Your starting quarterback that you began the year with that you named the starter. And you hand them over to a division rival, and that team then makes a playoff run. This doesn't reflect great. On anybody involved on that from Cleveland side.
I certainly understand. why they went to Dylan Gabriel sooner than they had anticipated. They did not go in going, you know what? We should give Dylan Gabriel his first start week five in London against Brian Flores' defense. That's going to help.
That's not the way. that you draw it up. But you're also going, we're not going to have use for Joe Flacco. At some point we need to see Shadur.
So we're going to pass over Joe and go to Shadur somewhere down the line. Uh Why wouldn't we take a higher draft pick when we are building for 2026?
So I do I do actually understand it from the Browns' perspective. But from Mike Tomlin's perspective, Hmm. If last year Yeah, let's Let's flip this on its head. If last year the Ravens had had an injury to Lamar, like the situation they've been in this year. And the Steelers, after going to Russell Wilson, said, all right, we'll trade Justin Fields.
It's different, but it's not that different. A guy who wasn't playing well enough, the offense wasn't playing well enough. To stay in the lineup. Russ was of course the QB1 till he got hurt in camp. But still, it's your number two quarterback that you're trading to a division rival that has a dire need to keep them afloat.
This might not matter. The Steelers might go into Cincinnati on a Thursday night. Got to be the first short week. Game involving two 40-something-year-old quarterbacks. Just has to.
There's no way either one of these guys, regardless of how much they got hit, no way either of these guys are going to be feeling great Thursday night, right? No way. I struggle to like lift on consecutive days.
Okay. Like. It's not you get into your 40s. Life in general hurts a little bit more. And these two guys certainly, without a full week of just rest and recovery from playing a high-level athletic event.
I would think that they'll be carrying a lot. Steelers might go in there and win on Thursday night. But if they don't We're going to be waking up on Friday and talking about the guy who was the Browns QB1 two weeks ago. He was traded. Last, what, six days ago?
It's only been six days since the Joe Flacco trade. Not long. He's the guy who gives them a chance to get back into it. And by the way, for everything that has happened to this point. A Bengals win Thursday night over the Steelers will get them one game back in the win column.
From Pittsburgh. That's how alive They remain. All right, hold on a second. At this point, I want to talk this out. Last week, right, we were all pretty shocked that the Giants beat the Eagles, yeah?
Sure. Would you be more shocked at that result or if the Bengals beat the Steelers with Joe Flacco there a week? Good question. I would say Bengals being the Steelers wouldn't shock me. Really?
Home game for Cincinnati. They're a talented team. The Giants was more surprising. Even with the Eagles' ongoing issues, it just kind of felt like one of those games: all right. This could be where the Eagles kind of get rolling again.
Should have been a get-right game, not a launching pad for the next generation of giant superstars. Rich call them Tango and Cash. Like, did you think we were going to be talking Jackson Artem and Cam Scataboo on the show on Friday morning? I'd say probably not. No, but it was awesome.
That's where we. End it up. But Flacco being there a week and then Beating Pittsburgh and having them back into the playoff, sniffing it kind of talk. That would be pretty shocking. We'll see, too, Cincinnati, whether or not they'll have Trey Hendrickson.
I don't get the sense that this is a major injury. Uh for Trey Hendrickson, but does he play on a short week? I don't know. The Bengals' offensive line has been okay at best defensively. They played better.
In that game yesterday against Green Bay, but it's still not a. You know, they've got young guys who are pretty good, but it's still not a unit that has functioned at a super high level in the early portion of. of the season here.
So no, I I wouldn't be shocked. If the Bengals win that game... They just need it to be their type of game. And they're going to have to get after Aaron Rodgers, not let him stand in the pocket and just flick the ball all over the place, make him move around, make him extend plays. That's been his bread and butter for a long time, just not at this stage in his career.
Do they have that up their sleeve? How does Al Golden approach this game? I just know this. That place, that building. It's one of the older stadiums, no frills stadiums in the league.
But it will be jumping on Thursday night. The fans will be in there. I believe it's a white-out game for them. It's your division rival coming in, it's the season. Bring up the Bengal schedule again here.
This is the season. For Cincinnati. You lose that game to Pittsburgh. You're in the spot that you were last year, where you're two and five. Mathematically, you got a chance, but it's going to be hard, man.
It's going to be hard to win enough games. You win that game. To get to 3 and 4. Then you face the Jets. who at this point you have to look at as being a team that's in cell mode.
And then the Bears... At home again. A Chicago team that's going to be thinking about, all right, what direction are we going at the trade deadline? We'll see what happens tonight against Washington. I don't see any reason that the Bengals can't put themselves back in the mix by the buy.
But you'd be hard-pressed to pull it off if you don't win this one. Thursday night. Season is not Speaking of teams on the brink, we also heard from Bill Belichick. At North Carolina. earlier today.
A flood of reports, the the unique combination. For North Carolina, of reports about the things going wrong in the football program. And gossip magazines taking photos of Belichick and his girlfriend on vacation in Nantucket. Only Yeah. Your North Carolina Tar Heels.
Have that combination. A two and three team that has not been. Even competitive against the power four schools that they have faced to this point. I didn't even know they had two wins, did you? It doesn't feel like it.
Neither one of those were over, I mean, one was over Richmond. And the other was over, I think, some directional hyphen school. Uh But neither won like a real victory. There were then reports about whether Bill Belichick was negotiating a buyout, dysfunction in the program. The general chaos of everything around Mike Lombardi and the staff that he's put together, players not being treated equally.
An assistant gets suspended because one of the things in the story was they're giving sideline passes to this guy's parents, not them.
Well, it turns out it's a violation you're given to anyone.
So he's out now. Here's what Bill Belichick had to say in his first press conference since all of that stuff came to the surface. I'll just start with, you know. Right off the bat, like just the some of the reports out last week about Uh, my looking for a buyout and trying to leave here and all that, it's categorically false. There's zero truth to any of that.
Um Glad I'm here. We're working towards our goals and the process. Had great support from Chancellor Roberts. Uh Bubba, Steve, um And so forth. You know, Mike Lombardi, it's been, you know, those people have all been great, and I appreciate all their help and everything.
And, you know, we just believe very much in the process. Kind of like Bill Walsh said, you know, the squirrel will take care of itself. And I've always believed that you just got to keep working and grinding away and that's That's exactly what we're doing. The score will take care of itself. And that was how people within the program felt or at least hoped.
would be the case When the entire offseason for essentially eight to nine months. since Bill took that job last December. All the discussion. was about the things that were weird. Not even bad, just weird.
The hard knocks program that wasn't, which is now begot the Hulu program that isn't. It was What influence the girlfriend has within the program? It was players leaving after spring practice. It was the coaching staff that he had put together. And that's just the public stuff.
There was plenty. I would just say this. Talking to people in football circles. There was plenty. Plenty.
of discussion. and rumblings about things that people heard. that just weren't great there. In terms of the coaching staff put together, in terms of the way that the entire program was running, very few of the actual critiques in all those articles that have come out in recent days were about Bill the football coach. Bill, the football coach, can still coach football.
One-on-one. Technique, scheme. Bill's still got that. But that's not even a majority of what you have to do. as a Division I football coach, particularly in 2025.
You can engender a pretty quick turnaround. We have seen it happen.
So it happened in Indiana. They got a huge win over Oregon over the weekend. And Kirk Signetti's done an unbelievable job. He had relationships with some players that he could bring along in the portal. But nobody hired Kirk Signetti and went, well.
Indiana's going to be a top five team by the middle of his second year. They're going to go to the playoffs in year one. But the opportunity is there because of the portal, because of NIL and RevShare, there are ways that you can be competitive, particularly when a big part of what you're selling is the brand of Bill Belichick. Come here. You can be coached by the best.
You can coach with the best. And yet By bringing in 70 different players. They don't appear to have a remotely competitive team. I have asked people. Around the league, scouts who have been through North Carolina.
How many NFL players are on that roster? This entire thing, we're the 33rd NFL team. That's what Michael Lombardi said. We're the 33rd team. Come in, it's give me an NFL program.
They have, by the estimations I've heard from NFL scouts who have visited, Clearly known from the Patriots 'cause they're banned. But people who have been through that program have watched them on tape. Two to three guys. Two to three guys on the whole team. Could be NFL players.
You can't have that. That doesn't work. in power four.
So the question then becomes: all right, number one. Where does this go from here? The results will take care of themselves. They face Cal. This week.
Cal is another one of the worst teams in the country in terms of the power four type of schools. It's a West Coast trip. I think sometimes there can be a benefit. Just go to the other end of the country, get away from it all, get away from all the noise, do something different. Yeah.
If you don't beat Cal, the next game is against Virginia. which pulled off a huge upset two weekends ago. They're nationally ranked. You're at Syracuse. Home against Stanford, another winnable type of game.
They got Wake Forest, they got Duke. And if you were being an optimist going into the season, I had people tell me they thought going all the way back, like, look at the schedule. a week scheduler. They could win seven, eight games. Why can't they win seven eight games in North Carolina?
You lose to Cal? I don't know whether you're winning four or five games. in the course of this season. And then, so what does Bill do? The bio thing was in a tweet.
It was, and no criticism for anybody in the media here, but I read it and it was like, that doesn't seem. Logical? Like why Bill Belichick would be in talks with the program about lowering. The buyout form? If you're gonna fire Bill, Bill's gonna get his money.
Bill also could pay $1 million and leave. And he might. And that might be where we are. I firmly believe. And in full candor, I have not talked to Bill directly about this.
But I know enough people. who are familiar with the way that his brain works. I firmly believe. Bill would love nothing more than for some NFL owner to give him a parachute. For somebody to say We just need someone to come in and build an actual program for a couple of years, coach.
Get your record. Become the wins leader. Just set us up. Maybe it's not even the coach. Maybe this is like Bill Parcells going to Miami.
And going as the front office person who can just teach an owner, this is the way that the NFL works, this is what you have to look for. Parcel's tenure in Miami didn't really Generate. the results that you were hoping for. But at least You had a professionalism and an understanding of how it worked. Bill would love nothing more than that.
He could have just stayed in the meeting. He could be Nick Sabin right now. He could be wearing a white suit on whatever the equivalent of college game day is for the NFL and sitting there and just talking and theorizing. Bill's great on TV. He won a sportsman.
He was great. Should have had him on this show. Maybe you'd have. You have that in the case. Oh, man.
Sorry. Chief Shoton? Chief Chattel. You've been nominated. That's great.
I'm just saying. Multiple times. Bill is really, really good. At talking about the game. Whatever shine you can say is taken off because the way it ended in New England, the way it's going to North Carolina, it's still Bill Belichick.
It's still one of the great coaches in NFL history, a future Hall of Famer. I don't know that there's a huge clamoring right now. To bring Bill into the media. And I don't sense that there's a great clamoring to bring him into the NFL either. But a parachute of some kind would get Bill out of this mess.
It's hard to believe, not impossible. but hard to believe for me. That Bill Belichick is the coach of North Carolina in 2026. There's just too many things that don't add up and too many reasons to believe this won't get better. James Franklin just got fired.
At Penn State. 10 months? After he was eight minutes away from going to the national title game. That's how fickle college football is. Granted, the standards are at a much higher level at Penn State for football.
than in North Carolina. But that's also part of the reason that Bill Belichick with no college football experience was attractive to UNC. Was hey, he might be able to build this thing out, do it a different way. People will come. People aren't coming now.
This is like if Field of Dreams had Kevin Costner and he built the baseball diamond, and then it was just like. Nobody came. And then You know, his his brother-in-law or whatever just Forecloses on the farm, and that's the end of the movie. That would be a very short movie, but that's what it feels like. I don't know how you can't compete competitively with the Ohio states, the world, and North Carolina.
You're not buying players over anybody else. What you had was. Bill's gonna build this.
Well. He's built something. There is something built there, and it's not all unbuilt. Michael Lombardy put together the deal. The got bill there?
He's run everything in terms of negotiations. There are a multitude of factors in why it's not working in North Carolina. And again, as much as Bill can say, all right, it's categorically false, I'm negotiating to buy out, I actually believe that. Because that doesn't make any sense. You're going to fire them.
Your bill is 20 million. Bill's also got a lot of money. Paying that $1 million to get out? Is a drop in the bucket. Giving back his salary from this year would be a drop in the bucket.
He doesn't need the 10 million. What he does need is something else to do. Because it's pretty apparent he still wants to coach. He still wants to do it. And Bill Belichick can still coach football.
We'll see what happens this week at Cal. I am. I am unconvinced that as a college program builder, That this goes any direction but worse at UNC. What happens if they lose to Cal? Then they're 2-4 and 0-4 against Power 4 teams.
then you are officially probably the worst team in Power 4. I don't know how quickly it ramps up. Again, because you don't have the booster base. At North Carolina, even though it was boosters who helped talk Bill into doing this, you don't have the people who are just going to write. Write the check and get them out.
You don't really have that. Not to mention the fact that you went down this rabbit hole with someone who had never coached colour football. You had to believe. that this was more than a one-year type of a plan. The problem is the plan appears to be so wrong.
At this point. that you're looking for some type of an out. The best thing for everybody is somebody. offers Bill a job doing something. that's not being the head football coach at North Carolina.
He might for his pride where he's confidence in himself as a football coach. Want to see this through, want to win some games? It's probably why you took the job in the first place. I just don't know how that's possible when you had as much momentum. as anybody is ever going to have, maybe short of Deion Sanders in your first year.
in terms of the hoopla, the attention, the ability to sell. We could do this. You're going to come here and be part of something special. It's special, alright. Yeah.
It looks different than anything we've ever seen in college football. None of it in a good way. Still to come. We got some injury updates. We got a double header in Monday Night Football.
Oh, Shay's here too. I'm more to come to our The Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast. This message is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union. As the holiday season rolls around, we know that you strive to do everything you can to bring cheer and joy to your loved ones.
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You were about to get into something very, very deep here. Yeah, you took my glasses off. Yeah, exactly. You did the. The CSI Miami right there is slower moving.
I just don't understand. How every time something happens with Michigan University. Mm. Richard is not here. And now, like.
I just want to know that he's okay. You know, so the boat racing at the hands of USC at the Coliseum would have been something you would have liked to be sitting in that chair and have someone with not as great a hair sitting looking back at you. It's just crazy that, like, you know, I work on Mondays now. We used to be like a Wednesday show, the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. But, like, so I'm here after what we both know was going to be a huge weekend.
You know, a lot of talking points have come from this weekend, and he's just not here to talk to me about it. You know, whether that be when... I had to host and Michigan got their slaps on the wrists. You know, the little like, oh, you gotta lose a little bit of your money. $10 million.
And then, like, now, little poor. Unranked USC. uh beat the daylights out of them. And you know, USC lost to Michigan last year and he took the high road.
So I was going to take the high road. No, no, no, no. But he's just not here, and now I'm concerned, Rich. Where you at, buddy?
So by sheer absence. By sheer absence, you've decided the high road is not for you on this particular day. It's like I have nobody to talk to about it with, so all I could talk about is 31 to 13. Mm-hmm. That's crazy.
It was. Brockman tried to convince me to go to that game, and I decided, thinking about it, two hours in the car in traffic to and from was not going to be a good use of my Saturday. Downtown. Yeah. Would have been a fun day to be there.
We could have sent photos to Rich. Yeah, man. But so, you know, Rich, wherever you are, you know, it's your boy, Shay. I just want to tell you from the bottom of my heart. Fight on.
It'll be okay. Just as long as you continue to fight on. God bless. Real quick, since we talked quite a bit about Tua today, we did get more Mike McDaniel. Responding.
Oh. to his initial response, to to his response to The apparent issues with players not attending player-only meetings? After a loss as the franchise quarterback, that's not the form to. Displace that. I think he knows that now.
I do honestly believe it was not. Um there's no ill intention, but You're you're talking about Um uh you know. I think kind of uh uh misguided repres representation of uh Player orchestrated film sessions. What I do know is that he's directly communicated with. Um uh a lot of guys uh uh started with last night and that's what team teammates do and Um you Uh You live and you learn.
So to be clear here, just to recap, we've got a public statement on something that was misrepresented to which then the quarterback had to apologize for. Seems bad. Seems bad to have to do the apology tour. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the Dolphins are not Good.
That's all I got to say. That's safest way to say it, yeah. Safest way. You know, my fantasy football roster has none of them on it, and I've been doing swimmingly. No pun intended with dolphins and such.
No, I get it. But yeah, dude, there's trouble in the waters. I'm so nautical today, bro. Very nautical today. Extremely, extremely nautical.
That was a synchronous. Oh, nice. Oh, what upper. It's hard to say about that. I play Cleveland next week.
It'll be fine. Thanks for listening to the Rich Eyes and Show podcast. You can watch and listen to the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast.
