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Now. On with the show. You're out! There is confusion on the field. Sal Freelick took away a grand slam.
The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Tom Pilisero. Today's guest. Three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlarett. Ten-year NFL veteran defensive tackle Malik Jackson. Writer and director Ron Shelton.
ESPN NFL analyst. Chase Daniel. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pellicero. Del Tufo, I know that it's a lot to ask of you. I mean, to show up.
I did not put the Alvin to your face. I'm telling you. Can we blame you for this? That was uh uh that no, this is a playback system device. That went bad.
So I am not taking full credit for the fact that I did not add the Alvin. Yeah, sorry. Yes. I just love that we were talking about this 30 minutes before the show. And then I just see that ear go up of.
Well, that doesn't sound quite right. We got a lot to do here. On the show. Let's blame it on the rain. Like they said back in the day, TJ.
Yeah. First time in all the dozens of times I've hosted this show that I have not been able to walk here because it is raining outside. I normally enjoy my 10-minute walk over from the hotel. Wait a minute, you took a Ubered over? it's it was pouring you couldn't get an umbrella do you see this hair tj do you think i'm taking any chances now sarah does a great job do you see you know finishing the job once i get here but i i gotta have a starting point i understand you know what i mean uh it is a tuesday show coming off a double header monday we'll play a little of it overreaction monday on a tuesday which apparently what was the acronym for that omr on a t yeah o-rm on a t that brain boggled me at 7 a.m we got that text message about doing that believe jackson's gonna be here in studio which is going to be a ton of fun chase daniel's gonna be here to break down a lot of things including the impact of the brian callahan firing on cam ward what that potentially is going to do ron shelton of of bulldurham fame yes will be here as well mark sclerith in just a few minutes as well.
But let's start by rewinding to last night. The what we call the staggered double header. The one game starts an hour after the other. I still am not. completely comfortable.
with like my viewing options for how to do that. Particularly when you have some storylines that are all kind of mishmashed together. You got three quarterbacks from the 2024 draft class all playing, and I'm flipping back and forth between the computer and the TV. But let's start. With the Commanders and Bears game.
There was a lot happening through the course of that game, including, by the way, Jake Booty. I don't know about you guys. I was gripping it a little tight for Jake. I wanted him to make that kick so bad just for his own mental health and well-being. I mean, good for the coaching staff having confidence, but it is a driving rainstorm.
You just saw Jaden Daniels mishandle a ball on third and one that flips the game. He got one blocked earlier. And you're going to, we're distrusting. He's three of four. One block with three of four.
We think he can hit the other one. Jake Moody delivering. It had to feel good for him. Caleb Williams. Who Basically, since I would say week one of last season.
has heard nothing but Jayden Dales is the better quarterback. Jayden Daniels should have gone number one. Mm-hmm. They had, of course, they had the commanders on the ropes last year in Washington. It wasn't a big night, though, for Caleb.
You go back, I think he completed 10 passes for 100-something yards. but he at least had him in position. And had the Bears won that game. Maybe the entire season is different. They never won another game with Matt Eberfloos as their coach.
Everybody ends up gradually being fired throughout the course of the season. We're still talking about. Jaden Daniels making the run. Bears would have been 4-2 if they had won that game last year. But they go in last night.
And you saw the most controlled Caleb Williams. That we have seen. Again, the numbers weren't off the charts, but he was efficient. Outside of one time where Maybe he should have just slid or thrown the ball out of bounds. Anything other than getting tattooed by Frankie Luvu at the sideline?
You saw him make really good decisions Through the course of that game, and you saw the raw talent. of Caleb Williams. He can be. It's all in there. The talent is in there for Caleb Williams.
And this was even a different quarterback than we saw in week one. Against the Vikings, where Caleb Williams started out, what was he, nine and nine or ten and ten pass at the start of that game. Everything was rhythm. It was the quick check downs. And then as the game went on, it was a lot of running for your life, Superman football, the exact type of stuff.
That Ben Johnson doesn't want to see him have to do on any type of regular basis. Sure, there might be two or three times where you need an above the line type of play. whether it's athletically or with your arm, but you don't want them to live there. Last night, again, in brutal weather, I was watching Caleb Williams warm up for the game. And he's just soaking wet.
Yeah, he loved it though. And he's just, but he's like walking through it. I'm like, oh man, it must be really bad there. Like, he's not even opening his eyes walking across the field. This is going to be a tough passing night.
Yet it's Jaden Daniels and the commanders that cough the ball up three times on their home turf. And Caleb Williams and the Bears get... what felt like a program type win. One of those ones that, if the Bears, and I'm not even talking about in 2025, we'll see what the rest of this season holds. It's year one for their head coach.
But if they do make strides forward in the coming years, this is one of those types of games I think we'll look back on and say. That's where you saw. What the Bears Can Be. DeAndre Swift, a player that a lot of people have forgotten about, had a monster night in that game. Looked really good.
Mm-hmm. Romadunze Gets a touchdown taken away. That could have broken the game open. That would have made it 20 to 10. I checked.
with some folks very attuned to I will just say what the league is thinking when it comes to officiating. Oh. But Paul was right on the line. Oh, they had a bad week. The analysis, though, of that Paul on the broadcast, which was.
Are we really calling that? It's an emphasis, no doubt about it. You probably don't have to call it in that moment. He had a young left-tackle, undrafted dude starting for the first time. You didn't hear his name once, except for that.
Which is amazing. for a guy who's stepping in in that spot. Except for that flag. And he saw the shot of him on the sideline, looked around, like, I don't know, man. Like, I thought I was lined up.
I thought I thought I was lined up fine. You see it every week. There's some guys who appear to be completely in the backfield. This was like a half a step. I mean, it's a 100% judgment call.
Okay, there's nobody saying that was objectively the wrong call, but it's subjective. The officials have to make that in a judgment call. Do you want them calling that there? I'll leave that up to everybody to figure out. But Caleb Williams after the game, too, I thought that his post-game interview, I believe it was with Laura Rutledge, was good.
After the game, just talking about what this meant. for the franchise, for the Bears. Yeah, that it's fun. Last year wasn't a lot of fun. for the Chicago Bears.
And again, there were a lot of things that happened through the course of that season. You fire the offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. You promote Thomas Brown. Then, like, three weeks later, you fire. Matt Eberflues.
Now Thomas Brown has to be the head coach. You go through a lot as a rookie quarterback in that spot. We've seen this three years in a row now. With the number one pick having their head coach fired during the season, it was the Panthers in 23. It was the Bears last year.
It was the Titans yesterday. And we'll certainly talk more about that. But here's a little bit of what Caleb Williams had to say after the game last night. We got something and uh I I can't say the first word but um it starts with a S and ends with a T and we say we love this. We love it.
The hard work, the effort, everything that pays off. I mean, we love it. At the end of the day, we're itching for wins, we're itching to get back out there and practice and things like that because all the hard work is paying off. And that feeling is really, really, really, really good. It feels really good that hard work does pay off, and it always does.
It always pays back. The Bears love this suit. I believe that's what he was trying to say. Probably didn't get it. TJ, thank you.
I get what is that from? Starts with an S, ends with a T. Yeah. They love this suit. Love this suit.
Okay. Brockman's still lost. It's all right. Got it. It's a relation.
It's a release. I'm happy for Caleb Williams. It's a moment for him. This guy has taken a lot of grief. You know, he's too flashy, he's too this.
The fingernails and the dancing and the phone cases and all the stupid stuff about football that doesn't really matter or have anything to really do with anything.
Well, it's also about the elevation of the franchise, right? Last year, you look at this and Jaden Daniels, along with Dan Quinn, elevated that franchise. And so the immediate reaction is, well, why isn't Caleb doing the same thing? The quarterback has a big role. It's the only position in which you can create a sea change with one guy.
Head coach, certainly, as well. But in terms of the roster, the quarterback is the one spot that can change. Everything. And because Caleb didn't have that instant impact, again, one Tyreek Stevenson waving at the crowd, Hail Mary, botch away from being four and two, and maybe things go differently. It ends up with Jaden Daniels making a run.
Everyone who had brought Caleb Williams other than the GM to Chicago getting fired. And now starting over. Which brings me to the other piece of last night. And Ben Johnson is never. gonna talk about this publicly.
He's a very, as you see for even in his halftime interviews. He is so laser locked. He is so serious. He is so committed to the task. Even after the game last night.
He's talking about we did a lot of things wrong. in that game. But I guarantee you.
Somewhere deep down inside today. And walking off that field. Ben Johnson had at least a flashback memory. to January of 2024 or going back even further than that to the fall of 2023. When everybody was reporting.
Accurately. that Ben Johnson was in the Washington Commanders sites to be their head coach. That that was their guy. I can tell you their targets were they wanted Adam Peters to be the GM. They wanted Ben Johnson to be the head coach.
And as things played out through the course of that season, It's certainly remained a possibility. The Lions are making a playoff run in January of 2024. Because of the way that the head coach interview rules are set up, Ben Johnson was able to do initial interviews, virtual interviews, but couldn't do the in-person. interview until either Super Bowl, the week before the Super Bowl. or the day after the championship game if they were to lose.
So we get there. And at this point, there were already some signs that maybe. Ben Johnson wasn't as into the commanders as they were into him. But he does a second interview with the Seahawks in person in Detroit. It has a really good conversation from everything I was told.
Went out for beers with the GM John Schneider after, but it's the day after just a gut-wrenching loss. And Ben Johnson is sitting there. Remember, he could have gotten on the plane the year before and gone to Carolina, decided to come back to Detroit. Take another shot at it. One more run.
Let's win this thing. Let's finish the job. They suffer a devastating loss in the NFC Championship game in San Francisco, fly back, and like eight hours later, he's got to be doing an interview for a head coaching job. His mind wasn't all the way there. Again, spent time with the Seahawks, had a great time with the Seahawks.
Commanders are on the plane to go see them. And Ben Johnson tells his agent, dude, I'm just... I can't do it. I can't do this right now. You know, he's, he's married.
He's got a young family. He's so Committed to what he's building there with the Lions. And you can imagine the headspace that you're in at that time.
So he tells him, hey, just let him know. I'm not ready to do it. I'm not going to be a head coach this year. Thank you for the opportunity, but I'm out. For several days after that, There were Let's say a number of reports.
All of a sudden, that we're generated of Ben Johnson was never the commander's guy. Ben Johnson, his asking price spooked people. Ben Johnson was not the hothead coaching candidate that everybody thought. And there was a sense within the league. That perhaps the commanders In a, I'm breaking up with you, you didn't break up with me way, might have been making sure.
that the idea was out there. Bit. That wasn't our guy. He blew it. He wanted too much money.
He wasn't. No, if he didn't want to do it, we don't want him. Yeah, the money thing was one of the big stories that was circulating. And Ben Johnson never made a price demand. Yeah.
His agent never said, hey, either give him this much money or he's not coming. Ben Johnson's a really thoughtful type of guy. Who lived in Detroit in a dark room in his office drawing up cool stuff. He was the rare guy who wasn't spending all of his time during the season being like, I got to engineer this for this head coaching job. I got to go here, I got to go there.
But there were a lot of things that were said and written about Ben Johnson after that. That probably didn't line up with how Ben Johnson felt. He really was like, I just can't do this right now. And I don't feel good about the situation in Washington. That's to say nothing against the commanders ending up hiring Dan Quinn.
He wasn't their first choice, but he's a great coach who at the NFC Championship game in his first year. He's been a big part of the cultural turnaround. And I understand that that fumble. It's part of the reason we're talking about this being a Bears win. and not a commander's win.
But for Ben Johnson to go in there to Washington and get the win with the other quarterback that everybody has been ripping the bears for taking over Jaden Daniels. That had to mean something. to Ben Johnson last night. I remember back before the 2024 NFL draft, and I do, we talk about it every year on this show. The breakdown of the quarterbacks, right?
I talk to coaches and scouts and GMs and allow them to speak freely. by granting them anonymity. Through the course of the process, sometimes to my own detriment, where then I have to spend several days right before the draft defending why I do that story the way that I do. But the lead quote. In the story back in 2024, it was from one longtime personnel.
And I want you to read this, okay? This is a really weird draft because there's six or seven quarterbacks I think can start in the NFL. They're all different. They're all good dudes. They're all smart enough.
It's going to be really fun to look back in five years at this class and see how it went. Hasn't been five years. It's been one year and six games. But look at. The six quarterbacks that were taken.
In the first round, in the first 12 picks of that draft. Right now You're looking at what could be a historic type of a quarterback class. This is early, okay? I understand. We're still in the small sample-size territory.
J.J. McCarthy, those are literally the only two games he started, missed his whole first year because of the knee injury. But you saw Bo Nix in the playoffs last year. You saw Jaden Daniels in the playoffs and going to the NFC Championship game last year. You're seeing Caleb Williams.
Drake May and Michael Panix. Who, with a lot on the line, that felt like a very important game for the Falcons last night. They went up and down the field with that basketball team that they've been building there with Drake London. A little bit of Kyle Pitts, a ton of Bijan Robinson. And put points on.
By the way, number seven quarterback, Spencer Radler would put that in small type down there. One and five in a really tough spot. But indeed, seven starting quarterbacks coming out of that group for what he's been working with all around him and coaching changes and everything else. Spencer Rattler has at least kept himself in the conversation, which is rare. It's a fifth-round pick.
To go into your second year, still holding on to that starting job. You've got a bunch of dudes here. The only other. NFL draft ever. Where you had six quarterbacks taken around one was 1983.
Which is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback draft of all time. That is John Elway. Jim Kelly, Dan Marino. That's three Hall of Famers. Tony Eason.
Was in that draft too. Brockman took your Patriots to a Super Bowl. It was short-lived. Ken O'Brien was in that draft class, then you had Todd Blackledge as well. It puts some respect on Todd Blackledge's name, though, bro.
Been a great broadcaster. A great Penn State quarterback. Great Penn State quarterback as well. But six quarterback, it hadn't happened since. And I'm not saying you're going to get three Hall of Famers out of that group.
You're not going to have necessarily the fourth guy taking somebody to a Super Bowl, any of that stuff.
Okay, that's it's way too soon for that. But you watched those two games last night, you watched what Caleb is doing. You watch what Jaden is doing, even on a night where he coughed it up a couple of times, still through for three touchdowns. Still was productive in really tough elements. Has done so much for that team.
And then he flipped over to Michael Pennix, the one that we didn't know. He had three starts at the end of last season. He was terrible. In week three this season. Remember, they beat the Vikings in week two.
An ugly game on Sunday night football. He did enough for the type of game it was, but it was great. Week three, they got shut out. They got shut out 30-0 in Carolina. Embarrassing.
Penix was. Terrible. He was terrible in that date. They fired an assistant coach the next day. They moved Zach Robinson from the booth to the sideline.
And Michael Peddix got in front of his teammates in that Monday meeting. When they opened the floor in the offensive meeting and said, Hey, you know, anybody wants to talk, come up and talk. Michael Pennix Jr. got in front of the room and said, My energy was down in that game. I got to be a better leader.
That was when people were starting to say, should they play Kirk Cousins? Mm-hmm. Is this a mistake? Is this not going to be the dude? Since then, he's been really good.
He'd lit it up. Last night. The throw to Drake London at the goal line. That's big time stuff. It's too soon to say where any of this goes.
But you can see where that draft class for as many questions as there were about how many of these guys will actually be good. What is Drake May really going to be? What is Bo Nick? Is Bo Nix even a first rounder? Right now, you appear to have five dudes out of that class with a TBD.
on JJ McCarthy, who just hasn't played enough at this point. For us to know. We got a ton to get to throughout the course of this show. We'll also talk about the other side of that second game, for the Falcons Bills game. I can't even remember if it was first or second.
This is what I'm saying. First track. Was it the first one? It was first. It was first.
I was going back and forth. I was flipping screens. Let's dig into what's going on with the Bills, who have stumbled a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Mark Skler, three-time Super Bowl champion. Helping us break down that.
And much more right after this. It is Tom Penalicero in for Rich on the Rich Eyes and Show. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. 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, the ESPN app and ESPN radio, presented by Progressive Insurance. Joining us now at As he does every Tuesday, though normally there's a guy who doesn't have the fantastic hair sitting in this seat, three-time Super Bowl champ Mark Slurth is with us, Mark. A lot of people want to get into you.
Coming off of last night's game. Let's start with... With the Bills. They were 4-0. They seemed to be cruising.
They were everybody's Super Bowl pick. The last couple of weeks have been a little bit bumpy. What do you make of what's going on right now in Buffalo? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of things. One, you know, you throw a couple of picks, one in the red zone last night.
Those things always come back to haunt you. They're inexcusable, but most of the time, you look at those picks that are thrown. You get under duress, there's under pressure throws that you make, and those things affect the way you play the game as well. You're everybody's target because you're the Buffalo Bills. Josh Allen won eight MVP last year.
So you're, you know, you heighten awareness of the teams you play, you're everyone's best shot. And there's always something with the Bills right now over the last two weeks that have been, you know, kind of what has cost them a game. Obviously, they couldn't stop the running game, Bijan Robinson last night.
So that was, you know, that was big. And then you feel like it gets you out of what you do. When I watch the Bills, they have become a very balanced team. They run the ball exceptionally well. They take a lot of pressure and create a lot of play action opportunities for their quarterback.
And when you're behind or things aren't going the way you want them to go, you tend to get a little pressed on the offensive side of the ball.
So there are a couple of things, but I would tell you this, Tom. I mean, offensive football. has been um Dare I say, in the AFC, so up and down, at times atrocious. And I don't know if you watched that Jets, that Jets Broncos game, but it set offensive football back into the leather helmet days. I mean, it was so bad.
So. There is a lot of that. It's endemic of the National Football League because of our failures to, you know, to make guys practice in pads to actually execute the game and work on the game because we have taken a lot of the physicality out of the game under the, you know, under the guise of, hey, we've got to keep our players safe.
So there's a lot of that that is continuing to, to me, to manifest in really poor play across the board. I've heard that so many times, Mark. And of course, you know, in your days playing, in my early days covering the league over 20 years ago, it was first day of training camp, 845 shells, three o'clock pads, however the coaches structured it. It was true two-a-day type of environment.
Now, of course, you've got the ramp up period. There are teams that fundamentally don't believe in going live at all and have a lot of unpadded days through the course of it. When you talk about the failure to develop and the failure to have that time on test, what does that mean? What is the impact that we actually see, particularly in the early? stages of the season here.
All right, how many quarterbacks are hurt right now? Too many. I mean, I had Roger. I was calling a game a year ago. Um And standing on the sideline, you know, pregame talking to Roger Goodell.
And he's like, hey, what are we going to do about all these quarterback injuries?
Well, I got an idea. Make the guys up front practice. Like I say this all the time, and I'll say it to you, Tom. The most skilled position in football is the offensive line. It's the only position in any sport.
where you're matched up. against an unlike athlete. Where the guy that's across from you is as big and as strong as you are, but he's exponentially more gifted as an athlete than you are. And you're expected to win 100 out of 100 matchups, 65 for 65. And if you give up one sack, you've had a horrible game, and that guy's going to the Pro Bowl.
And, you know, if a Six foot three point guard blows by an NBA seven-foot center. We don't go, man, that center sucks at defense. We got to get him off the court. No, you got a great matchup. You know, we don't put heavyweights against welterweights in boxing.
But that is the equivalent. Like, you have got to be, and it's five guys that have to be tied together and have to be doing the same thing and on the same, having the same communication and knowing exactly what they're getting. And they are. From an athletic standpoint, I mean, offensive line, we are the worst athletes collectively on the football field without question. And so Every step.
Every nuanced hat position, hand position, where you want to block, guys, all that stuff, all that stuff has to be developed. It has to be worked on, and it can't be worked on in a walkthrough. It doesn't work that way. And so you see it, and you see diminishing, like a diminishing skill set of that position, diminishing development of that position. And then you see the results of that are quarterbacks are injured.
That, like, you can't, you know, all these things, all these things kind of pile on. And, you know, I just, I know we're the golden goose, and I know we're Teflon and we all those things, but eventually, will it cost the NFL viewership? Right now, it doesn't look like it, but eventually, would you look at it and like, wow, this is just a really bad product. Mark Schlareth is our guest, host of the Stinkin' Truth podcast. Also, I notice right there, it says on the bottom of the screen, Mark: good luck for you.
You've got the Jets again. This week, Panthers at Jets for Fox. A two-part question. One, Is the Jets offense fixable? And two, have you ever seen an end-of-half situation manage the way that Aaron Glenn did on Sunday?
Uh no. To answer your first question is, or actually your second question: the end of the half management where the clock just ran out and you had 20 some odd seconds in. Um, it just was like at that point, it was just like it is so bad that let's just get into the lot room and have orange slices. And you know, maybe we can, I don't know what that game was so bad. Fixing the offense.
Um, That's an interesting question. Justin feels like, I think, is it fixable a gap? But you're going to have to depart. on on what you're doing right now. This is not Detroit.
You know, this is not Jared Goff. This is Justin Fields. And he is not ready for primetime when it comes to being a drop back quarterback. and basically picking a defense apart. And I know there were nine sacks, and I know that he was under a lot of duress, no question about it.
But at the same at the same You know, as I talk, same token. Um you got to get rid of the football. Got to get the ball out of your hands. And there were so many times where he is. inability to decide and him holding the football And deciding not to let it eat, and waiting for a receiver to turn around and look at him before he throws the ball.
Like, you don't have that kind of time. You have got to put him in a position of strength, which is what? It's the boot keep game. It's the waggle out the front side game. It's the quarterback design runs, the RPO, where you have actually one read.
You know, you got a one-read route. You got, like, I think you have to put him in a position where he can excel. And what you're doing right now, or at least what you did on Sunday. It's not the kind of offense that he is going to that he's going to thrive under. Other side of that game, the Broncos, who are 4-2, are at their tie at the top, the AFC West at this point.
The offense, though, so far, Mark, has been pretty up and down. That team's in your backyard. How good are the 2025 Denver Broncos? Offensively, right now, they're struggling. And You know, there's this narrative out there that they have the best offensive line in football, and that's just garbage.
They just have so many busts, inability to identify linebackers and safeties and who they're going to. That game. On Sunday was a debacle. I mean, a debacle. And there were so many mistakes.
The first three plays. Of the game, you're in an eye formation. You motion the fullback out of the backfield. The linebackers correspondingly move a little bit. And your left guard, Matt Perk, who was starting for the first time.
It's almost like the linebacker moved, and now it's all suddenly like, well, since he moved, I don't have to block him anymore. Like, I don't know. Did he have the Harry Potter cloak of invisibility on? Like, I don't understand your inability to identify. Who you've got?
And how to get to that guy was alarming. And sometimes it's a matter of, sometimes it's a matter of for Sean Payton. I know you like to be very multiple in your run game and have a big menu, but you got to small up and simple down because your guys can't handle it right now.
So the first three plays of that game, I mean, you practiced all week, you developed it all week. The first three plays of the game were like there were two busts and a fumble. Like you've got your first 15, you have coached it, you have walked through it, you have done it all, and then all of a sudden we get out there like we've never played before. Um, and that was kind of how that whole day went. And I'll tip my cap to the Jets because they set the tone, man.
They put a physical ass whooping on the Broncos across the board, from receivers to DBs, from offensive line to defensive line, from linebackers to running everybody. Like they set the tone physically, and the Broncos never actually responded.
So I'll tip my cap to the Jets for that. But there were a lot of mental mistakes across the board that is just that they're just unacceptable. I found myself looking this up last night, Mark, as the Bills were kind of having that game get away from the preseason betting odds to be the Super Bowl champion. There were three co-favorites coming into the season. It was the Bills.
It was the Ravens. And it was the Eagles. Three teams that have varying degrees right now of issues they've got to soar through. In your mind, right now, there's no undefeateds left after six weeks, which is a pretty rarity, too. Is there a favorite?
Is there one team that, above all, you say, I wouldn't want to see that team come January, February? Just last week I said it was Detroit. You know, and then all of a sudden Kansas City. looks like they figured it out but kans city look like they figured it out two weeks ago and then they go to You didn't go to Jacksonville on a Monday night and lose the game. No, there is just no, there is no dominant team.
Like, if parody was your goal in the NFL. You know, with the draft and the way you do things, and then, you know, first to worst, you know, from a scheduling standpoint and strength of schedule, if parody was your goal, you certainly have achieved it. Like, because there is no dominant team out there in the NFL right now. If you're talking about that game too and the way that it ended with the Lions and the Chiefs. There's the occasional situation, right, that plays out post-game.
There's some type of an incident. The NFL has been trying to eradicate those from the game. But I'm curious, Mark, in all your years, did you ever. Think about or actually do, you know, going and popping somebody in the face for something that happened during the game. No, no, but we did it during the game.
Like in the game, there was, you know, back in those days, there was a little bit of frontier justice. You know, like if you did something in the game that was deemed. That was deemed dirty, or was deemed like, hey, man, that's that's crossing the line, then we got to take care of it. And, you know, and it wasn't officiated to the point where, you know, everybody's getting injected or those things. Like, there was that aspect of we're going to get you within the context of these, you know, four quarters.
You're going to get yours as well. And, you know, and that's how. You know, that's how things got kind of. Rectified. And so, I don't know, maybe now without that, and everything seems to be a penalty, and you know, and physicality is fine.
I mean, yeah, it's so interesting to me. I was doing a game the other day, and you know, like, Social media went crazy because I was like, oh, come on, helmet to helmet. Like, it's not a that runner wasn't, you know, that he wasn't, he was, you know, he took three or four steps. He turned up the field. You're like, he wasn't defenseless.
It's like, come on, what are we, what are we doing? And it was helmet to helmet, and that's a 15-yard penalty. And I'm like, I could show you seven, 10, 12 other of exactly those fights. They just didn't sound as loud. Like we flagged anything that sounds loud.
Like maybe somebody could get hurt. We'll flag it. I just. I don't know. At some point, we all signed up to play the game.
We understand how violently, you know, how violent the game is. Everybody signed up. Everybody knows the consequence of playing the game. And I'm all for player safety to a degree, but they can't. You can't.
You know, you can't take physicality out of the equation. It still has to be, you can't litigate contact out of a contact sport. It just, at some point, you have to realize that we all signed up for it and we're all out here and let's just let the guys play. When the players get faster and faster, their pads get smaller and smaller. You got wide receivers who essentially have no type of padding from the waist down out there.
And yeah, depending where you get hit, there's going to be some type of an outcome. Even in the college game I was watching the other day, there was a targeting call where the defender, from everything I can see, lines him up with a shoulder. It is shoulder to shoulder. The guy's head snaps back. He's thrown out of the game.
I mean, again, to your point, player safety is extremely important, but there are times where, just from a physics standpoint, I find it hard to believe that we can avoid certain types of things that, by the letter of the law, are afoul. And, you know, intent apparently is not part of the equation. Yeah, some of those things, there's nothing you can do about it, and it's just part of the game. And, you know, like I always say, and this is offensive to a lot of people. Um There's a reason that That not everybody can play in the National Football League.
One, hand a God, you're not gifted enough to play. And two, you don't have balls enough to play. And that's just a fact. Like that, just the way it is. Like, there's some guys that can go out there and can do those things.
And there are a lot of people who can't. And look at, man, I'm not mad at the people who can't. They just understand that this is what we sign up for. And every guy as a player understands that it's not if, it's when. There's 100% likelihood that you're going to get injured.
It's just the way the game operates. And like we know the consequences now. Like it's out in the open, right? There is CTE and there is head injuries and there is trauma and there are we've seen some brutal injuries. That Tyreek Hill injury is as brutal as any injury I've ever watched.
But I understand like we're still going to line up and play because that's what we signed up for.
So I'm all for player safety, but at some point, you still have to, it still has to resemble football. And I'm not saying that it doesn't, but we just get further and further and further away under the under the whole kind of guise of, hey, man, we want to keep everybody healthy. Mark, great stuff, man. We appreciate it. Enjoy that Jets offense again on Sunday.
Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be beautiful. I appreciate that. That is Mark Schlareth. You can hear him on the.
Thanks, Mark. Stinking Truth podcast. See him calling the game on Fox this weekend. Always great stuff. From him.
Brockman, you're grinning over there. What's going on? I just love the way Mark puts things. He's very blunt. Obviously, former player, three-time champ.
He's been there, done that. And the idea of him having to grind tape on the Jets this week in preparation for that game, I kind of feel for my brother. I was just laughing because he's talking about, man, they set offensive football back, and I just see the lower third saying he's calling the Jets Panthers game this week. The Panthers, by the way, three and three. Three and three.
They had to come back the week before. They were clearly, you know, offensively the dominant team against the Cowboys.
Sorry, TJ. In this past week's game, and they're running the heck out of the football without their Pro Bowl guard Robert Hunt and without their starting running back Chuba Hubbard to the point that Dave Canalis is having to answer questions about. Is Rico Daudle now RB1? Bright of people with one or both of those guys in their fantasy team who would also like answers to those questions. A lot more to come on this edition of the Rich Eyes and Show.
Malik Jackson is going to be here in a little bit. Also, Over Action Monday on a Tuesday. Stick around. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast. Welcome back to the Rich Eyes in Show.
Tom Pilicero in for Rich on Disney Plus, the ESPN app and ESPN radio, presented by Progressive Insurance 844-204-Rich. That is the phone number you can call. Overaction Monday on a Tuesday coming up. Malik Jackson. Going to be in the studio with us right now.
Let's go to the phone. Sirvon in Washington, D.C., what's on your mind? Hey Tom, how you doing? Doing fantastic, man. I assume you're calling about that game last night.
Yeah, that was a good one. I took their stand. That was one of the craziest victories I've ever seen. But also for the bears. Because of the whole situation, and by the way, can I say hello to my boys TJ Jefferson and Chris Rockland, five and six time Super Bowl champions?
Brockman? I missed it because I was having my ears out for a second. Servant, take us off, speaker. Yeah. Sorry about that, guys.
Just a whole bunch of knuckleheads behind me. But anyway, Because the whole uh situation With the Bears. I want to do a top five of the greatest Bears victories in the Caleb Williams era. Yes, it's delusional. Yes, it's crazy, but if we're going to be able to play with the backlights, Siobhan, how many are choosing from here?
All right, just go ahead. Give me your five wins. Does he only have five wins? He's got more than five. It's not money more than five.
Packers week 18 last year. I imagine that's on your list, right? What else you got?
So number five on the list would be the first win last year against Tennessee. That's the one that whole kick-started the era. Number four being against the Los Angeles Rams. Because the Rams were predicted to win. All of a sudden, the Bears defense comes up big.
Number three being the one this year against the Raiders. Because of the whole block kick, and believe me, he thought the Bears culture was going to be bad, it just got ugly. Number two, taking down Fluce. Because he was the worst coach in Bears' history. Abe Gibron, you can rest in peace happily.
And number one, of course, being last night. I got heckled by all these Commanders fans and Lord have mercy was it good shut them up last night. Yeah. I appreciate the efficiency, Savon. Thank you very much for the call.
Top five Caleb Williams NFL wins. You think we were going to be doing that this morning? No, I mean, I could do Drake May to just give us counter programming there if you need to. He didn't put the beating the Packers at Lambeau. That didn't make the list?
That should have been number one. Why was that not on the list?
Now, granted, it was a meaningless game. But still. But they hadn't won a game since October. And they went in there with an interim coach. They hadn't wanted Lambeau Field in I can't remember how many years.
To me, that was a significant one. The Raiders game this year was big. It did feel like, all right, this is kind of, we're going to get this thing rolling here. I do see that that defense, by the way, credit to Dennis Allen last night. They've gotten so much better.
They had one big coverage bust, and Jane Daniels exploited it to Luke McCaffrey, who somehow, Brockman, you texted me. You did not sound pleased, even though I had told you to pick up Luke McCaffrey. No, no, you told me that. No, I had picked him up as Debo Insurance. I asked you if I should start him, and you, notoriously bad fantasy advice giver, said, Yeah, you should start him.
I did not. Thankfully. It wouldn't have mattered if I had started Luke or not. I was still losing because my opponent had Jane Dana. I did qualify it with, but I'm probably wrong.
Right. She went with Debo. Yeah. That was not a not a productive decision. No, right there.
He had four catches for 15 yards. And don't forget the minus one rushing yard. I don't want to shortchange Debo on that one. Right now, he's been awesome this year. I can't complain about Debo Samuel.
We can bring up that graphic again of the six quarterbacks taking in the top 12 picks from last year's draft. And I want you to be as objective as you possibly can. You want to power rank these guys? Brockman, give me your power rankings. You're starting a franchise tomorrow.
How are you ranking them? You can say I'm a homer all you want. I put Drake Man number one because he's younger than these guys. He's younger. Than Jaden Daniels, who's obviously had the most production here in the NFL going to the championship game last year.
Jayton Daniels 2. Whew man, do I go Caleb three or Bo Nix three? Caleb 3, Bonix 4, Michael Pennix 5, and a TBD on JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy is still the one. I know that there's a.
He's also very young, also. He is young. He came out, I think he was 22 when he got drafted. There's a lot of people already writing this off and claiming that he's been benched and the Vikings don't want to play him.
Well, that was a theory that he got soft-benched. Which is ridiculous. He played seven bad corners out of eight boot for a week as part of some gigantic ruse to not play him anymore. Seth Rollins sat in that chair with a brace on his knee and duped me and TJ and the rest of the wrestling world for months. That was a ruse.
I mean, this is not professional wrestling. This is the NFL. Is it? They just, they want, listen, I will give you the short version of this because we got a break. They want to make sure J.J.
McCarthy is ready to go out and play well. There's so many times where you're pushing a guy out there, and you might feel like, all right, he's just got to learn by taking the reps. They want to see the guy be 100%, which he's not. Right now, he is not 100% on that ankle still.
So they want to see his mobility this week. They want to see how he is operationally through everything. And then they'll evaluate it. If I had to guess right now. And there's only been one bonus practice this week.
We'll see the first injury report tomorrow. If I had to guess. I'd say it's Carson Wentz' revenge game against the Eagles. on Sunday, but that's not a product to them just deciding Carson Wentz is a better quarterback. Than J.J.
McCarthy. We have no clue.
Well, J.J. McCarthy is. But I personally, I find it refreshing that they're taking these stance of, okay, even if what's like, yeah, the guy's 95%. We're all about their three practices. He hasn't practiced on back-to-back days since before the week one game against the Bears.
Week two, his kid is born. He misses a Thursday practice, gets hurt in the game, hasn't played since, and he missed every rep last year.
So Find a way to get him right.
Now, Carson Wentz also has a bad left shoulder. He got banged up in the game. Oh, by the way.
So there are a lot of moving parts. when we're talking about exactly what the Vikings are going to look like at the quarterback position, even though they're getting healthier seemingly everywhere else. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
