This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody! Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck! You can find us everywhere.
Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show. We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel.
Subscribe at youtube.com slash rich eisen show and you'll never miss a moment.
Now. On with the show. Let's do this! This is the Rich Eisen Show. I feel like I try to do my best in blocking out the noise.
With guest host, Tom Pillison. When you get a hundred text messages, keep blocking out the noise. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show. Good morning, football co-host Jamie Erdahl, NFL Network Insider Ian Rappaport.
Coming up. Latest news and more. And now, it's Tom Pellicero. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Tom Pellicero in for rich for one more hour.
Before, well, not me, but two of the other members of our crew here in the studio: Chris Brockman and T.J. Jefferson, join Rich tomorrow. In London. Yeah, buddy. Which will be afternoon tomorrow, 5 p.m.
local time, kickoff of the show. 5 a.m. local time. Yeah, 5 to 8. Very solid.
And then you'll be getting dragged out of some type of a breakfast buffet around 6.30 a.m. Friday when Thursday Night Football ends. Yeah, Thursday Night Football, I think, what, kicks at 1:15 local in the morning? 3.15. 3.15.
According to Google and My Math, 3.15 a.m. No, because it's a five-hour time difference from the East Coast, and it's an 8:15 East Coast game. Can you guys do math? Yeah, eight hours after 8:15. No, eight hours from 5:15.
Come on, guys. All right.
Well, anyway, it's late. It's 1.15 in the morning. Not going to be too bad. I thought it was. Yeah, hold on.
That was my issue. I was calculating it from calculating it from LA. Fla. I have no hope. Five hours on these.
I have no chance. I'm here for you, man. To figure this out. 660 math SAT score. You know what I'm saying?
You can go home now. Oh, 660. Come on now. That's nothing. 660?
I definitely beat that. I think that was my top. Oh, yeah, 100%. Wow. I had like a 710, 730, somewhere in there.
Look at you. That was my total. You can't tell time. I was a finance major to college until I got there and was like, oh, it's a lot harder here. And then I transferred to communications, which is a phony major.
There's a bunch of classes about editing S V H S tape and making macromedia flash websites. And here I am hosting this show and not having any idea what time it is. In London, we got a lot of good games coming up this weekend, including the one that Rich is going to call Bright and Early Rams Jaguars. Sneaky, really good game. Sunday morning, Jaguars trying to bounce back.
The Rams could easily be 6-0. They let a couple of games get away from them early in the season. I'll be entertained by that one. Vikings, Eagles, perhaps at Carson Wentz. Revenge game on Sunday.
Colts Chargers, a game that nobody was circling preseason. That has, I mean, heavy playoff implications. The winner of that game could be in the number one scene as we go up on the halfway point. Of the schedule, of course, we've got Bucks Lions on Monday night, part of a doubleheader with Texan Seahawks. And then we've got.
The Patriots-Texans game. This was always going to be a sneaky one throughout the season. Mike Frabel's first trip back to the Titans, Tom. Nashville, what did I say? He said the Texans.
Patriots, Titans, on Sunday. It was always going to be. It was always going to be an interesting dynamic from a storyline perspective. Mike Frabel back for the first time since he was fired. After the 2023 season in a move that was shocking to I think a lot of people.
But when you unwound the dynamics and even being familiar with what was going on for months there. It did make more sense as much from the Titans' perspective as Mike Vrabel's perspective. There was not a lot that Mike Vrabel. was doing. over that final season that made you think.
He's all in on wanting to be the Titans' head coach as long as he can. Most memorably, of course, during the Titans' bye week. going to New England to be inducted into their ring of honor. Sitting in his Patriots Hall of Fame red jacket next to Robert Kraft in his booth. Going on the field at halftime and announcing to the crowd: enjoy this place because not everywhere is like it.
And I am only mildly paraphrasing that. And then coming back to the Titans building and remembering I was told, never addressing it. Never being like, hey, yeah, maybe that was a little much. just never brought it up. He was mad about a lot of different things.
Well, A.J. Brown getting traded without his consent probably was high on the list. The A.J. Brown trade was part of it. And then John Robinson, who had had a good relationship with Raves, they knew each other from New England.
He gets fired. Rabel wanted Ryan Cowden to be his general manager. They instead hired Rand Carthon. Again, two guys who got along fine personally, but we're not on the same page about building the team. Then they fire Vrabel, they promote RAN.
Soon after that, they fire Ran. They hire Mike Borganzi. They hire Brian Callahan to replace Mike Frabel.
Now, Callahan is gone. And this morning, Mike Frable. At the podium in New England and answering questions about the fact that his successor in Tennessee has already been let go. Of course I did. I mean I don't want to see anybody that shares a job with you, you know.
Mm-hmm. Get let go. That's not the. you know, that's a that's a that's a tough feeling, you know, with family and school and you know, whether it's in college or pro, like we're in the media every single day and There's a human element to this. And that uh I don't want to forget.
I just remember all those coaches that or people that reached out after After I was let go. And um You know. I think that that's important. Because nobody texts when you lose, they all text when you win.
So, Mike Vrabel reached out to Brian Callahan after being fired from the same job less than two years after. Frabel was fired from it. I will be interested to see. There are a lot of occasions. through the years where a team will get A very temporary bump.
from a coaching change.
Sometimes it lasts longer. The Raiders, on multiple occasions, have had it last longer. Rich Basatia took over. That was a very unique situation, went to the playoffs. Antonio Pierce took over.
From the guy who had replaced Persacea and John Gruyn, which was Josh McDaniels, they played well enough that Pierce got the full-time job. Before he was let go after one full-time season in the head coaching profession. I mean, that's how much these things move over the course of time. I was sitting in this chair, you guys remember it. When Jeff Saturday took over, or at least that week leading into the game.
With Jeff Saturday being the interim head coach, they went into the Raiders building, and what happened? They won. They won. They didn't win another game after that. But the one-week bump from Jeff Saturday coming in and just whatever he was doing, it's different now.
They went in and they beat the Raiders on that Sunday. I don't know that Mike McCoy is the same type of guy. We heard his press conference yesterday. Mike has always seemed like a genuinely good dude. After he got.
fired with the Chargers. He was out of football. Or he had a couple coordinator jobs after that, but then he spent like four years where he wasn't in the NFL. Came back a couple of years ago, was coaching with the Jaguars. Gets hired as a senior offensive assistant after everyone in Jacksonville got fired on Doug Peterson's staff.
Peterson. And now is the interim head coach. of the team. It's a nice little pay bump that comes with that. He had a long-standing relationship with Brian Callahan, so it's weird for him, too.
I'll be interested to see. Do they get that? One week bump. Vraebel, by the way, was also asked something along the lines of, you know, will the guys be fired up for you going back into Tennessee? And he said it's only Vrabel can say, we're trying to win one for the Gipper here.
In other words, for Vrabel, it's just. We're rolling. But every week is its own grind, its own challenge. We got to go in and take care of business. And I would say.
To the extent that we're talking about, like we were with Ian Rapaport in the last hour, the desirability. of the Titans job? Cam Ward has a lot of fans around the NFL. Cam Ward was the one guy who, when you talk to scouts, you talk to coaches last year going in the draft, it was the one guy that everyone was like. He's pretty good.
Yeah, are there things that are a little loose sometimes with his play style? Things off schedule? Sure. Was the background completely clean in terms of how he interacted with people when he was at Washington State and things like that? No, there were some things he had to sort through.
But as much as you know, maybe some guys are independent contractors or whatever, like in terms of him leading by example. In terms of him putting in the time, being the first one in, last one out, all those cliches, like that is Cam Ward. He wants it that bad. And I personally have been impressed, and I know I've talked to people in the league who have been impressed with like the demeanor. He could easily.
Be the guy who is coming into the huddle and doom and gloom and shoulders down. You see that all the time from young quarterbacks. He's not that guy.
Now he's frustrated because they haven't been able to score a point. Yeah. And in the three weeks since Brian Callahan. Was told he needed to give up play calling duties if he wanted to remain the head coach, they've somehow been even worse. They've been terrible.
For three weeks, you're not going to throw out the entire offense and put in a different scheme. All right, you're working within the same boundaries. Mike McCoy said, you know, it's got to be players, not plays, when he was asked about his philosophy. I guarantee. Brian Callahan wasn't sitting there going, guys, I think it should be plays, not players.
I think we shouldn't try to get the ball to Calvin Ridley. I think we should just throw it to whoever's. No, like. You're trying to build it around your players.
So there's a lot of talk that comes into it, but can they get a bounce? Can they just go and find a way to get a win? They had the ball bounce their way in Arizona. It didn't translate, and they were terrible in the first three quarters on offense in that game. But you saw glimpses of Cam Ward down the stretch.
What are they going to do now against one of the hottest teams in the NFL? A guy in Drake May who I think in a year where there is no dominant team, There is nobody who's running over everybody. The likes of Josh Allen. And Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, we talk about every year as being MVP candidates. None of them have had a completely clean start.
I think there is a path for a Drake May to go be the MVP. I'm not making a prediction here, but if he continues to play at this level, And you can't say enough about the job that Josh McDaniels and that staff have done with Drake May. There's a lot you go through. when you have upheaval like they've had. Even going back to Mac Jones, his first year when Josh was there in New England.
Mac Jones, Brockman, you watched it closer than anyone. Oh, man. Where did you think off year one with Mac Jones. Where did you think he would be? Break them in the 32 starting quarterbacks.
What type of quarterback did you think you had with Mac Jones? Oh man, you remember top 100 list that year? He was in the 80s.
So even his peers thought he was one of those players who, wow, great rookie season, year two, lookout. Player on the rise. You're thinking he's going to be in the top 12, probably. Top 10 upside. Quarterback.
Yeah, top 10 upside. Maybe get a weapon or two and see what, you know, remember his year at Alabama. He absolutely cooked. Heisman trophy finalist. And you thought you were getting that type of player.
Year one looked great. Pro Bowl playoffs. And then it was the opposite of all of that. And that's part of the reason that even before they knew for sure that they were going to get Mike Frable as the head coach, I can tell you the crafts were very interested in Josh McDaniels coming back. He'd obviously been there several times going back to when he was there with Bill.
Despite how it went in Vegas. Despite how it ended in Denver, Josh is a really smart football mind. And he has a way of tailoring the offense. to a young quarterback. He's done it at a really high level, and you're seeing that right now.
With Drake May.
So it's Drake May versus Cam Ward. That's one of the matchups you need to look forward to in week seven, coming off of week six that began with us getting a national TV look. had a bunch of those quarterbacks that went up high in the 2024. Besides Drake May. I will open this up here real quick.
We got to break in a few, but. Is there anything you guys want to throw at me? I've been here for four days now. Is there anything, football or otherwise, you really want to know here, bro? Otherwise, too.
We can go off the football ball. You can hit whatever you want. I want to go football first, and I want to stay with New England, obviously. TJ, you can get to the Cowboys in a second. I'm giving it up a lot of cowboys.
A lot of internet chatter about. trade possibilities, deadline in a few weeks. Could a wide receiver be on the move, headed to Foxborough? Are the Patriots looking at wide receivers right now, Tom? I don't view wide receivers as a spot that they're looking because Stephon Diggs has come on.
I know the production wasn't there. You know, he had the big game against Buffalo and then not so much last week. But Diggs looks like Diggs again. Kayshawn Booty is one of the undertold stories in the NFL right now. He's playing, he has played really well, and he's had some really productive games, and he's got the, you know, the height, weight, speed you look for.
And then Pop Douglas is a really fun weapon. I just, I don't personally, based on what I know, I don't believe that that's a target. Could the Patriots potentially upgrade other positions? Remember, they lost Antonio Gibson. I don't know that they can trust Ramondre Stevenson just based upon the ongoing fumble issues.
And Trayvion Henderson, for whatever reason, Just hasn't gotten going. The thinking going into the season was they would use all three of those running backs. Losing Gibson both in the return phase and in the backfield was a pretty big loss. I would just say. To me, it doesn't mean that they won't trade for a wide receiver, but all things equal, I think there's a better chance you see them trade for a running back than a wide receiver.
Really?
So they're not going to get the big, you know, A.J. Brown, Chris Olave, that type of splash deal. If something drops into your lap, you don't say no, but they are, I mean, they are paying digs towards. $20 plus million dollars right now. If you're talking about taking on a bunch of salary for another wide receiver, again, Never say never, anything's possible, but I would view running back.
I'd probably view edge. Those as being more pressing needs if the patriot's looking for an upgrade than wide receiver. You mentioned Mac Jones. He's played great with San Francisco. I think we can all agree with that.
Suffered his first loss over the weekend, but 3-1 as a starter filling in for Brock Purdy. He has a two-year contract. Are teams thinking about possibly calling the 49ers about Mac Jones being a starter next year? Or could he possibly make Purdy's seat a little warm? It's a good question on the trade front because we have seen him play at a high level.
He's heard. I mean, Mac's playing through a knee injury right now, and you see that with the brace that he's had on. If he also had an oblique. Going into the game last week, like he is laboring at times, but he's played at a high level. If I'm Kyle Shanahan, And I've got the best bargain backup in the league, not just for the rest of this season, but for 2026.
I'm going to want a Premium price, if I'm even thinking of letting that guy go, especially because the only thing that's held back Brock Purdy in his career. Is injuries. He has been banged up. He's not the biggest guy. I don't even know if I'd call him injury prone because some of these things are just total freak deals.
The elbow he had in his first year, now this toe injury that he aggravated. Once again, like history would tell you Brock might miss a little bit of time in the coming years. If there's one position you need a backup plan at, It's quarterback. And that's why they had Brock Purdy when they were going into the season with Trey Lance. That's why you had multiple quarterbacks when it was Jimmy and it was Trey.
Like you've always wanted to have multiple options at that position because once you lose somebody, if you don't have a guy you think you can win with, You're essentially punting on the season.
So possible they would get a call, especially if other quarterbacks go down. I just find it hard to believe that Kyle wants to let that guy out of the building. Yeah. They're pretty going to play this week, you think? We'll see.
They practice later on this afternoon. If he's not practicing today, I don't think that he's going to play. But the way that Mac is playing, it certainly eases some of the pressure in terms of getting Brock back onto the field, as much as I'm sure he's chomping at the bid here. It seems like he's in play. There's at least a chance.
But if he doesn't practice today, I would think that that would probably rule him out for Sunday. And George Kittle? Kittle seems like he's got a better chance. He's at least going to practice this week. Knowing George, the moment that he gets back on the field and huffs the smelling salts, he's going to think that he can go out and play 70 snaps.
So I'd say, you know, it seems like a pretty decent chance. It's going to depend how he looks in practice. But again, knowing Kittle's mentality, he's practicing. He thinks he's going to play. You know, I got a question Tom, but before, you know, you said something about players being injury prone, and I always find that funny because the whole idea of this game is for big, strong men to put on armor and put punishment on other men's bodies.
And yet we like knock people because they get hurt doing this. It's amazing to me, more people don't get hurt playing this game. But anyway, then there's players who have an injury phase, too. Those guys will be injured for three, four years all the time, and then all of a sudden they get out of it and they don't have the bad luck or they change things about their regiment. All of a sudden, they become durable.
Like, that's not an impossible thing. Just because you suffer injuries in your first few years doesn't mean you can't get healthy later. It just changes the percentages.
Now, my higher register last week was I went high register about the Bears, and I said that in something we spoke about earlier, about how the season was going well for them. Then they had that unfortunate for them, Hail Mary against Washington, and then the season for the Bears went. All the way down. And I said, if they can get past the Washington football team, this. Week, which was last week, I said, I think the Bears can go on a nice little run.
And now that they've got that W over Washington, I'm looking at the schedule. They've got the Saints, I think, seemingly still Lamarless Ravens, Cincinnati, and the Giants. Was I wrong in thinking that? The Bears could go on a nice little run here and rack up some dubs. I would say the odds toward Lamar being back are, I know they're hopeful.
John Harbaugh referenced that after the game. My understanding is they are hopeful Lamar will be back. It's a hamstring. He will have had basically four weeks to recover. It's Lamar.
Things are always a little bit different with Lamar, but it seems like it's pointing toward him being back for that game. You're right, though. I mean, the Saints. We'll see how the Bengals look after Thursday night if they lose that game tomorrow night. The calculus their whole season maybe changes a little bit here.
But yeah, the schedule seems to be set up fairly well for the Bears. I would also just point to they're winning a lot of close games. They obviously got a bounce that went their way with the fumble late against Washington. But I sat here on Tuesday morning and said, I mean, that felt like that's the best we've seen Caleb play, certainly the most under control that we have seen Caleb play. That portends a lot of good things moving forward because it appears he's buying into what Ben Johnson wants to see his quarterback do.
DeAndre Swift had a big game. Rona Dunze has been unbelievable. We'll see what the status of DJ Moore is. Ended up in the hospital with a groin injury, which you can only imagine what that might involve. I've got a decent idea of what it involves.
Not the best, but they seem like they're in. Position to at least maintain relevancy. It's still year one with Ben Johnson. I just think, and I think Brockman, you posed this on Tuesday in terms of overreaction. I still think that saying, all right, they're a playoff team now, that's probably a little much.
Again, you have to see Caleb do it week in and week out. And there are other spots on that team where they don't necessarily have everything exactly the way that Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen want it to look. But do I think they're going to be playing relevant games in December? I do, and that alone is a step forward for the Bears. All right, and this.
I don't know, this topic may be not really in our realm of what we do, but. You know, when we look at old sitcoms and old movies from back in like the 80s and 90s, right, guys, we see people and we look at them and you look at them now and you think, man, they look like they're 50s. And then you realize that, no, they were 35, they were 40 at this time. As humans evolve and get older, we're talking about quarterbacks and Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco being 41 years old and being the old guys. But as human beings evolve, Do you think that this is gonna become more normal for...
Quarterbacks to play into their 40s and to the point where it won't be such a story. Because I feel like, you know. This is going to become the norm going forward. It's still abnormal. Tom Brady normalized it to a certain degree, play until he was 45.
There's still not a lot of guys who do it, and we see the Derek Carrs of the world walk away when they're in their 30s. But for a long time, If you go back. And I remember looking at this when Brett Favre retired the first time after the 2007 season. Almost every Hall of Fame quarterback for a generation retired at either age 37 or 38. Like you could go back, they all, Elway, Montana, Steve Young, they all retired at basically the same age.
Once Brady pushed the envelope on that, It probably does have some type of a psychological effect, if nothing else, on some of the other quarterbacks. It's also, I mean, frankly, it's probably because just dudes know what they're doing with their bodies. That was my other body. Life expectancy has changed. Life expectancy smoothie bars and clean foods in every facility.
And you're paying, you know, Russell Wilson pays a million dollars a year or whatever for like his team to travel around with him and like, you know, spend time with him. I've been in a hotel gym the day before the game, and Russ is in there at 7 a.m. getting some workout in. And, you know, that's just different than dudes. There used to be a seven-week preseason or whatever it was, because guys would be, you know, working on a truck and smoking cigarettes the whole offseason.
So it took them time to get into shape. Smoking squares during halftime of the game.
So championship games. I feel like maybe in five, six, ten years, we're going to be looking at like. You're going to see a lot more quarterbacks because it just seems the way that we've been evolving. I do think that the possibilities are out there. Part of it's the want to.
And if you saw Aaron Rodgers with the Jets last year and just everything looked like it hurt, you would have said there's no way Aaron Rodgers is coming back for another run. All of a sudden, he's on a good team. This has to be. The longest Aaron has gone without being on the injury report in years. In years.
If he takes a big hit on Thursday night, and I certainly don't wish that upon him, but if he takes a big hit and he starts to feel it a little bit more, he might be rethinking whether or not it was a good idea to play at 40. Much less 41, 42, and beyond. All right, we got to take a quick break here. Brockman's MVP index coming up on the other side of this break. Tom Pellisero in for Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show, Disney Plus.
ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. 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. For over 27 years, with every Hyundai sold, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research.
Alongside over 850 dealers, they've raised more than $277 million, helping over 25,000 kids and supporting more than 1,400 research grants at 175 institutions nationwide. This year alone, they've committed another $27 million in honor of the 27th anniversary of the program. And they're proud to have national youth ambassadors like Jackson Tryn and Emmy Cole who bring hope to kids across the country by sharing their stories. Because at Hyundai, hope is our greatest feature. and it comes standard.
Visit HyundaiUSA.com and search Hyundai Hope on Wheels to learn more. Welcome back to the Rich Hodgson Show on Disney Plus ESPN app and ESPN Radio, presented by Progressive Insurance Tom Pellicero, in for Rich. And I understand that before most of the cast here departs for London to reunite with Rich. For a couple of London shows ahead of the Rams Jaguars duel Sunday morning on NFL Network. Brockman's got a little something for us.
I got Start the MVP, KMAC! Rockman's NFL MVP Index. Oh, you know it's that time of the year, boys. Is that your head on Bob Knight's body? Is that what that was?
Bill Walsh, actually. Bill Walsh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm the trust. I'm the Bill Walsh of NBB.
I can see that. Yeah. I have to a little small, I think, for that. I'm that little looks pretty good. Probably got the same sweater, but probably a little different build.
Bill Walsh was all about those big pop collars. Here's the thing: we know, TJ, you've said it. Might as well be the MVQ Award, right? We know the MVP is going to a quarterback this year, right? It would be really awesome if Baker Mayfield won.
That would be pretty sick. He's a cool guy and having a great year.
However, through six weeks of this NFL season, I am busting out the non-quarterback. MVP index. It's not just one position responsible for winning. It's everybody, Tom, as you know. It's all 53.
And the quarterback's pretty important, but I get it. The quarterback's pretty important. Go on, I don't want to ruin your premises. Non-quarterback MVP index number five. Going to Jacksonville.
Devin Lloyd. This guy has been an absolute beast. Leads the NFL in interceptions as a linebacker, and we know he had that unbelievable pick six. Against Patrick Mahomes. This guy's absolutely balling, and one of the main reasons, Jacksonville, four and two.
in the playoff mix. And a surprise team that could win their division. Like Devin Lloyd, met him the morning that he was drafted, I believe that was the Las Vegas draft. He was in the suite that we had in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, like at the breakfast buffet. I was like, oh, yeah, hey, yeah, where do you think you're going?
You know, one of those like weird moments. And then obviously his career has come. I hadn't thought a ton about Devin Lloyd since, quite honestly, until this year when obviously he begins making a ton of plays for a revamped Jacksonville defense. I mean, Anthony Campanilli deserves so much credit for the way that they've generated as a team a lot of these turnovers. I mean, he's had a fantastic year, not going to play, not making the trip to London because of the calf injury that he suffered last week.
But Devin Lloyd off to a great start. I mean, Defensive player of the year? If you were naming that right now, I think he'd probably be in that mix with, well, I don't want to ruin any of the other names you're going to say. Thank you, Tom. He would at least be in that conversation.
Well, I imagine you were about to say this person's name coming in at number four. Nick Benito? The best defense in the NFL, the Denver Broncos. Nick Benito leads the NFL in sacks. Eight of them.
I walked him right into it. I actually let him say it. Teammates. But then he gave me the opening. Teammates.
Nick Benito. Nick Benito has been awesome this year. He's been really good. Him and Brian Burns tied, I believe, or if Benito got one last week, but they're both up there at the top. Brian Burns, seven and a half sacks.
Mike Benito ate. Benito added a half sack then, since we had Brian Burns on the show on Friday. I mean, Benito is certainly, I mean, he's the straw, the stirs the drink. Bronco's got him locked up. for years to come between him and Pat Japan.
I mean, those are the two guys that kind of everything goes through there. I mean, he's yeah, he's he's been really good on a Denver team that is atop or at least tied atop the AFC West despite the fact that that offense has been a roller coaster ride so far. Number three. Also, a player not going to play this week. Let's go down to Tampa.
This dude has been absolutely unbelievable. Offensive rookie of the year is in the sights for this player, and he is number three on the non-quarterback MVP index. Got to be Amirabuka with all the injuries going on in Tampa. Ameka Buka. Did I just pull a Gronk for a second?
I thought you were doing a Gronk impression. No, yeah, that's the Eggboo Boo. That was really embarrassing. That's what you said. Gronk.
Uh It's feeling like he scored a touchdown every game. He has been everywhere for Baker Mayfield on this offense, who has suffered a witty injuries to Mike Evans and Godman coming back and Bucky Irving being out. This dude has been absolutely the real deal and looks like the best wideout in this class. He's exceeded, I think, anybody's reasonable expectations, including mine, because. one thing you heard about him, because really in talking to people around the league, The only lock first-round guy was really Tederoa McMillan.
Like, he was the one that everyone was like, all right, he's in the mix. It was just, is that the style of receiver you want? Was the tape too up and down? Matthew Golden was the next one, especially after he blazed the 40. And then after that,.
Like, I was a member going through mock drafts on NFL.com, and like, nobody had a Mecha Abuka in the first round. The thing I kept hearing, especially when I talked to coaches, was: all right, the traits. Scouts worry about traits. Coaches are just like, dude, can play football. Like, he's such a good football player and a wide receiver.
He's going to be good. What I didn't expect to see. Was that he'd be the deep threat? He'd be making the plays down the field, not just the guy who's you know a possession-type receiver, but the big play threat and the degree of difficulty absolutely has blown me away this season. MVP.
A little strong, especially because, again, that hamstring. That could be a few weeks. Hamstrings can take a little bit here. We'll see whether or not he's an IR guy by the end of the week. A lot of times those moves aren't made until Saturday.
But in terms of most impact. Rookie receivers. In recent NFL history, there's not a lot of guys who have come out of the gate. The way that this guy has. You know, Justin Jefferson, week one was down his first year.
Week two, he got a whole lot better. After that, he certainly made an instant impact on the game. Jamar Chase had a good rookie season, but I mean, this guy's unbelievable. Number two, I'm going a little off the board here. Maybe you guys aren't thinking about this player, but you really should.
Four and two for the Seattle Seahawks. I'm talking about Jackson Smith and Jigba. This guy has been absolutely unreal, top five in catches, leads the NFL with almost 700 yards. He's on pace for an absolute monster season. It seems like he gets every single target from Sam Darnold in that offense.
Sam Darnold having a great year. Seattle looks like a playoff team. It's mostly because of that guy right there, 11, number JSN. I've seen some of those photos of the Ohio State receivers on the bench. Back when these guys were all in college, because they were all together.
You're mentioning a bunch of them, along with Marvin Harrison Jr. Marvin Harrison Jr. was supposed to be the one who would make the instant impact. And while he's played better the past couple of weeks here, hasn't been, you know, that guy right out of the gate. Instead, we're talking about a bucket, and we're talking about Jackson Smith and Jigba.
You're right. I mean, I give John Schneider all the credit for the way that they have totally revamped that team. When you think about it, a year ago, and obviously Smith and Jigba was on the team, but it was very much, it was Geno Smith. Throwing the ball to DK Metcalf. That was the primary receiver.
Tyler Lockett was still there. All three of those guys are gone. They get Sam Darnold for less than what they would have, what Geno wanted, plus, get a third-round pick. Ship off DK Metcalf, which and cut Tyler Lockett, which opens up. All the floodgates for Jackson Smith the Jigma to become the high-volume receiver that he's capable of being.
He has been excellent so far through the course of the season. Lastly, number one. Probably the most surprising team in the league. Five and one Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, TJ, I'm talking about your boy Jonathan Taylor.
Leads the NFL in rushing, leads the NFL in rushing touchdowns. This guy has been an absolute monster. Looks like the offensive player of the year right now. And I know I said, you know, Bijan Robinson is the best player in the NFL last year. I mean, look, let's be honest, Jonathan Taylor is playing like that dude right now.
Gotta love JT. He's number one. Jonathan Taylor at number one, and Bijan not making your list. That's bald. Yeah.
That mic got aggregated. Make sure you post that since you run the X account progress. I mean, I've seen some of the stats. Jump the gun on the one-on-one. I've seen the stats with Jonathan Taylor.
I thought he was done.
Sorry, Tom. I thought you were done.
Sorry. I mean, he has been as effective when he's been healthy as anybody in terms of consistently producing on a week-in, week-out basis. He's a huge part of what they're doing in Indianapolis right now. I think that everybody realistically is wondering: is Daniel Jones going to be able to do this? For all 17 games?
And in the playoffs, or are we going to reach a point where those bumps in the road come?
Well, having Jonathan Taylor there, even when your wide receiver group is a little bit beat up, Alec Pierce didn't play for a couple of weeks there, having that guy and Jonathan Taylor you can count on. Definitely helps. Jonathan Taylor should be in the conversation. Hasn't been a running back winning the MVP since Adrian Peterson, 2012? Adrian Peterson.
The baby. Yeah, Jaden Peterson. You have one more. I did not know. I wasn't even done.
Jonathan Taylor is the highest running back on TV. Joe Flacco had better timing after five days on the Bengals than you've got on the sound bar. I wonder if Brockwood has one more. Jonathan Taylor is 100-1 for MVP. Thank you, yeah.
Now, I can't give gambling advice. Never ask me. But he's on pace for how many yards right now? Yeah, he's got... Let's see, I just add it up.
I think he's got, what, over 700 yards? It's in that 2,000 neighborhood right now. I don't know if it's slightly under or slightly over. He's got 600 yards in six games. He's averaging on 600 yards.
So he's, yeah, on pace for 1,700, 1,800 yards. If he's in that category and the Colts go 14-3, I. Maybe I'm wrong. I find it hard to believe Daniel Jones just kicked Apple last year and didn't even come close. But, I mean, that was in a little different situation.
Again, it's like, how much credit do you give to the singular player if it's not a quarterback? I mean, that's always been it, which is. You know, it doesn't matter how good the running back is, if the quarterback sucks, then he's not going to be able to have that level of production. He's now minus money for Offensive Player of the Year, so Bijan would have to go nuts to kind of overtake him. I mean, Bijan is.
Bijan might be, and I know we talked about this before, but he might be the best player going in the NFL right now. He's on a pace for 1,150 yards receiving. Dijon Robinson. They've done a great job. I mean, Zach Robinson, since he moved down from the booth, that offense has been as consistent as anybody.
You go back, remember, Arthur Smith was there. When they drafted Bijan and they drafted Kyle Pitts and they drafted Drake London. And the idea was: let's build a basketball team, and no one will be able to compete with our combination of size and speed. They didn't have the quarterback. Right.
They never drafted. They never used a high pick on a draft on a quarterback. They did on everybody else, offensively. Everything else. Running back, wide receiver.
Desmond Ritter in the third pick. That didn't work out, but it's a third-round pick. Yeah. And Obviously, Arthur Blank decided to move on right now. It looks like the Falcons offense is headed in the right direction.
It took a long time to get to this point. But if Michael Pennix Jr. ends up being that dude that Desmond Ritter and Marcus Mariota and even late career Matt Ryan could not be, Job one is win that division. And to do that. You got to get past the other guy you mentioned, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs, who one way or another, no matter how many people are hurt, no matter how rough the schedule is, no matter how unfortunate, they find a way year in and year out.
To hang another one. All right, we'll give it a little bit more.
Now we're gonna give you one more look at your dead 10 prize. Brian Squirrel, Mike Del Tufo on the Shamba. All right, let's go. One more. Let me get one more.
Non-QB MVP index, guys. I gotta do it. It's gotta be. It's can't scattabu. All vibes, all juice.
I don't even know what's in that juice. It's probably not legal. This guy is the whole thing. This is the guy that we want leading this. He's injected a certain Swag that was not existing on the New York Giants right now.
Two out of three wins, and it's because of this guy. He's shirtless, ripping with Fitzpatrick. Jackson Dart? Wait, he has no S in his name? Come on, look at those guys!
I now want to be clear. I want to be clear on one thing. Because you said what Cam Scatabu is putting in his drink might not be legal, and you said Cam Scatabu injected. I'm not implying anything. Those were just Cam Scatabu, all natural.
And a little bit nuts. A lot nuts. I think that if Cam Scanabu and the Giants. And last week was one game. But if they continue going this, I would be all for a new award.
That is the Cam Scataboo Award. Ooh. It would be the rookie. who most changes the vibes. Have a team.
Of a team. If Deion Dawkins can get an alignment award, why can't we get a Vibe Award? It's not the rookie of the year. It is not the best player. It's just the one who everyone's like, oh man, this is fun.
Look at this guy. The culture changes. Look at what this guy's got here is doing. This is cool. I would I would be up for the Cam Scataboo Award.
All natural and the all-natural. And the top of the trophy would be him shirtless, bumping chest with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Ripping his shirt off. Yes, ripping the shirt off. You're right.
Ripping the shirt off like Hulk Hogan. Rest in peace, TJ. Scataboo. I would date. Can we work on this?
We can make a lot of fun. John Trophy convinced Chris McDell to do the Protector Award as I wanted to. That's what I mean. The Scataboo Award. I think Scataboo was an angry run that he gets the scepter this week.
What would it be though? What's on the bottom of it? Is it the scatter bowl? The Scatterbowl and inside the bowl is Scatterboo ripping off his shirt? Scott of Bowl.
He did go to Arizona State. Um. I don't know. We'll workshop it in the break. Scatterboo.
All right.
Warrior questions, too. If anyone's got anything they want to chime in on, 844-204-RICS, that is the phone number. One more segment. Tom Pellisero in for Rich. Warrior NFL questions next.
The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show on Disney Plus, the ESPN app and ESPN radio, presented by Progressive Insurance. As you all know, Rich cares deeply about pediatric cancer research and awareness. That's why we're all proud to talk about Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 27 years, every Hyundai sold has helped fund life-saving pediatric cancer research.
Together with over 850 dealers nationwide, they've raised more than $277 million, supporting over 25,000 kids in their fight against cancer. At Hyundai, Hope isn't optional, it comes standard. Visit HyundaiUSA.com and search Hyundai Hope on Wheels. to learn more. Great cause there.
Great being in the past few days here for Rich. You're so good. Love you being here. You'll be seeing in the not-too-distant future tomorrow, London time. In the evening, 844-204-RITS, the phone lines.
If you got any final questions here, Vinny in Long Island has been waiting to weigh in here. Vinny, it's Tom Pellicero. What's up? Hey, Tom, how you doing? Doing fantastic, man.
What's on your mind?
So I'm a huge Giants fan. I'm happy the vibes are high. That's all great. But All I keep watching every week Is Daniel Jones just play out of his mind in Indianapolis? And I'm just wondering.
with your contacts around the league. What does the week think of his resurgence and just the in general and then also If he continues to play like this, Plays at a Pro Bowl level and somehow wins the AFC South to the Colts and wins a playoff game and all that great stuff. How bad does that look for Brian Dable and Joe Shane?
Well, the Giants won a playoff game with Daniel Jones and Brian Dayboll three years ago. They went into Minnesota. As a wild card and won a game there. They did see the best of Daniel Jones, and then he went through a couple of years where he was banged up and obviously got benched and. In 2024.
I mean, injuries were a factor. He never, you know, fully captured the. The draft position that he was taken in, I would say, you know, in terms of the league-wide reaction to it, number one, it might be the best free agent signing of the offseason. Daniel Jones for one year, and it was like around up to 15 million, somewhere in there. The Vikings had a similar type of an offer, but when they realized Daniel Jones.
Really didn't Necessarily want to be back in Minnesota. They pulled the offer, said good luck in Indianapolis. It's worked out certainly well for Daniel Jones and the Colts and the Vikings still, even though J.J. McCarthy's not on the field right now. They believe in the long run it's going to work out for them as well.
I think that the other part of this, in terms of the leak reaction, is just. How long is this going to go? At some point, Are we going to see the bad Daniel Jones? Because there has been the good and bad Daniel Jones through the years, which is why he was in this position. I think that the bigger picture here, Vinny.
is if Daniel Jones does the things you said. and gets the Colts into the playoffs and wins a playoff game and performs at this level. How much money is somebody paying him in March? Because he's a free agent. The Colts could franchise tag him.
That would be another option. That's a big old rock sitting on your cap. That's right. If you do that, like 40 million or so. Um, But is Daniel Jones suddenly a 50-plus million-dollar a year quarterback?
His left was four for 160, I believe, and people lost their minds about it. Yep, that was as much a leveraged thing as anything because it was him and Saquon. I appreciate the call, Vinny. Him and Saquon, they tried to get the Saquon deal done. Saquon ultimately wanted more money.
So they went, well, all right, we got to get the Daniel Jones deal done then because we want to tag Saquon. This is all coming off of that playoff season. And that's the direction that it went. All of which led us right here. Where they spent the additional resources that they had.
on the defense, getting that. All squared away while they knew they probably didn't have the long-term quarterback option. I don't think that the Daniel Jones performance necessarily reflects poorly upon the Giants. It's more so a reflection of two organizations that were at different spots. The Colts.
by all accounts, had built up a pretty darn good roster. They did not get the quarterback right. They drafted Anthony Richardson, who at this point, and thankfully it's not worse, but just suffered an orbital fracture and went on injured reserve doing band work before a game. He has had the most remarkable run of unfortunate circumstances you can imagine. But everyone's sitting there going...
Anthony Richardson hasn't done anything to justify that. Does that look bad on the Colts?
Well, it only looks as bad as what you make of it, which for them is signing Daniel Jones at a bargain rate. and allowing them to unlock, hey, the rest of this roster is. Pretty darn good. Uh been great to Being with you guys all this week. Thank you to everybody who's been listening on ESPN Radio, presented by Progressive Insurance, Rich, and the boys back tomorrow live from London.
Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen 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 Eisen Show, the podcast.
