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Now, on with the show. Check this out. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Barbara Cabots, let's hear it. Live from the Rich Eisen Studios in New York City.
Drive home safely. Atlanta wins. Earlier on the show, host of ESPN's first take, Stephen A. Smith. Coming up.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pellicero. Panthers Defensive End Derek Brown. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two, the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Tom Pelicero, my colleague from NFL Network, the NFL Media Group, is going to join us in about 20 minutes' time with all the latest on what's going on around the National Football League, who might be in, who might be out.
Obviously, coaches' hot seats are of conversation. Is Phillip Rivers going to start on Sunday? Those are all questions I will be asking none other than Tom Policero. And then in hour number three on the Rich Eisen Show, Derek Brown of the Carolina Panthers is going to be joining us. Doors wide open for the Panthers to take the NFC South now that the Falcons did them a massive favor by handing the Buccaneers another dreadful home loss in division.
A second time in five days for the Buccaneers, who are now a half game out. Of first place behind the Carolina Panthers. Derek Brown's going to join us in hour number three. I've got my top five other matchups for the rest of week 15 to get to as well. Our usual Friday fun.
We already had Stephen A. Smith on the program. YouTube.com/slash RichEison show is how you can catch up on anything that you may have missed. There's also our podcast, all three hours every day. There's also our Disney Plus page.
As soon as our show is over, you can tap on the screen and get all three hours whenever you want. We're on the ESPN app as well. We say hello as always to our ESPN radio, presented by a progressive insurance audience. Good to see you, Christopher Brockman. Hey, Rich.
TJ Jefferson is here. TJ Mikey, Diaz, and D's Nuts is here. Two or more hours of our four-day stay here in New York City. I'm already lamenting. Leaving, and then I realize how cold it is outside and how nice it is in Los Angeles.
All right, Christopher, it's your usual Friday fun. You want to get to it right away? I do. Before we get to it real quick, though, did you see the Madden account just posted this?
So they put Philip Rivers back in the game. He is. Is now in Madden right now. You can play as 44-year-old Philip Rivers. Any guess what his rating is?
You guys want to just throw something out there?
Okay, how about this? How about this? I will say it's double his age, 88. Oh, I was going to say, I was going to say 85. Good one.
No, 70. Oh, my. But that is higher than Shador Sanders, Russell Wilson, and Anthony Richardson. Wow. If you're Shadur Sanders, you got to be like, come on, man.
Disrespect. That would be something I would take into the game against the Chicago Bears. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Come on, man.
There's a point of five years in his bed and reading 70s. 70 is also his football age. It seems to me. You know what I mean? Like 44 in real years is like 70 years.
70 in football. It's like a whole dog year type thing. It's like seriously. Oh, here we go. Here we go.
And this is wow. His throwing power is an 83, throwing accuracy on short passes, 86. 88 on play action, 59 speed for Philip Rivers. 57 agility. I get it.
49 juke move. Who decides this sort of stuff? I would love it. Like, they have to have a meeting. Is it on Zooms?
Is it on Teams? Like, what are they? Or do they do it in person? I don't know. Just sitting around.
They have to be like, they got to order in food, maybe have a nice drink, and that's how they decide: hey, Phillip Rivers is back. By the way, did you also hear as well while we're on the subject? Poor Philly. Did you hear that apparently he called up Daniel Jones to ask if it's okay to get 17?
Okay, well, he had to. And Daniel Jones said, go for it. That's us. Yeah. I like that.
I mean, Jake didn't ask me about the Grand Maester title that you got. Yeah, you just took it. Yeah, but I just took it. Yeah, I'm sick. I didn't get asked, but that's cool.
But you don't do that anymore for us. You don't. I sometimes do. You do because you do it as a hobby. You're like Bo Jackson playing baseball.
It's a hobby. You know what I mean? I put a lot of my heart and soul. Tell Del Tufo because I'd be up. Exactly.
He was up all night doing that. Yeah. It's cool. I got to text me. I'm in a better spot right now.
How did you just equate yourself to Phillip Rivers? I don't understand that. The Phillip Rivers asking Daniel Jones for his uniform number. It just popped into my head. I didn't have time to think about it.
Normally it's me who makes it all about myself on that. I mean, second only to Mike Del Tufo. I don't know. I may be first. But you learn from the master.
I hold my pettiness in most of the time. That's amazing.
So let's, all right, let's have a meeting. It's at 2 o'clock. Let's get it. We've got to figure out what Philip Rivers is. We wanted to give him like a 90 in speed.
You know, there was some J Puss floating around that room, too, teaching us. It's a Friday. It's time for what's more likely. Hit it, please. What?
What's more likely? Never say never, but never. And again, that drop is from Mike Tomlin being asked about the USC job. If anybody's out there thinking, Mike T. The Michigan Wolverines.
Dope. I mean, non-stop, I'm getting people hitting. What if, though, Rick? Oh, stop it. The whole thing is just not even whatever.
No, I get it. Like, I'll just say it's not likely. Yeah, yesterday you were like, you couldn't wrap your head around. It's like, yeah, he would have to leave a job now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, yeah. His entire 19-year tenure, since you're in first place, Hall of Fame tenure of the Steelers comes to end now because he leaves the first-place Steelers with TJ Watton with a lung injury to go back to campus. But you wouldn't hate it. Stop it. What else?
Hey, what's up, guys? Great to see you. Great to see you. What's up, Keys? How you doing?
What's happening, Chris? Happy day. Who's more likely to win the NFC South, the Bucks or the Panthers? Ooh. Gotta start there, obviously, with the last stop.
I'll just go. I'll go with Carolina right now. I mean you're you're putting you're putting me to The test here, up to the fire, if you will. Why not? I'll go with the team that's playing better football in the last month plus.
That's what I'll go with. Obviously Baker is more battle-tested. in the history of the uh of their careers. He's These won playoff games. Plural.
And they have Mike Evans. And they have Bucky Irving and they've got Chris Godwin and they have the pieces, they've got Vita Vea, they've got all these pieces. But it has not been working.
So if I had to choose The Carolina Panthers. They have a game in New Orleans. It will be a tough one to win. They win that, they come home and beat the Bucs. They'll be one up with two to go, or two up with two to go.
If they do that.
So That's very likely, and I'll go with that right now, which is kind of crazy. Because I've been on that. on that pirate ship firing the cannons about how you're gonna come back healthy and look out. Aaron said that the other day. I mean, and last night, up.
Fourteen. In the fourth quarter at home, gotta finish that. Correct. Gotta finish that at home. Hey, we heard what Joe Burrow had to say earlier in the week.
Yes, sir. Kind of got me thinking. If I want to keep doing this, is the way he started up. Kind of got me wondering who's more likely to be the starting quarterback for their current team next year. Matthew Stafford or Joe Burrow?
You know what? HP and the Super Bowl and retire. I know what you're trying to do on a spot here. I will then go Joe Burrow.
Okay. That Stafford, but it's not because Stafford doesn't want to play anymore. It's just like he makes the decision that. This season ended so...
So great. Right off. You know, what better way for me to ride off into the sunset? with my beautiful family. in you know We're actually watching the sunset with a ring for the trip.
With a ring, his second ring in an MVP trophy. Yeah, okay. And then Joe Burrow is not going to go anywhere. He's not traded. Joe Burrow traded the Rams.
Okay. Bring him on. The Rams for number one. They're a quarterback, Rev. Guys, massive game in fact.
That would be insane, by the way. Yeah, we were talking about it yesterday. Bengals fans are calling me crazy, but four number ones for Joe Burrow. Who says no? Who doesn't want to be in Cincinnati?
I'm just saying. Is it more likely Drake May wins regular season MVP? Or Josh Allen wins the Super Bowl MVP this year. That's a good one. Boy, you were on something here in New York City.
It's cold. I think it's affecting my brain.
Okay. It's cold. Mm. I'll say Drake May wins the regular season ever. Rake Mai?
That's more likely. You're saying the Bills won't go to the Super Bowl? I think you have just sussed that one out. Uh-oh. No Hoskins behind you, right?
I'm aware of that, but he also is a professional, and he knows that I'm being a professional. And what is more likely is that Drake May, who is four games away from potentially winning that award. or Josh Allen, who is seven games away from winning that award. You know, you just went straight math. You know, we don't do math here.
What do you do? I mean, it's not our strong suit.
Well New York, it's cold. Bourbon. Could even be eight games if you think about it. For Josh Allen, probably will be.
So, why wouldn't I go with somebody who's already in position with four games to go and very winnable games for them at that? over somebody that would have to go on a much more strenuous run. And you don't have to make sense with this. You know that. That's what I do is I make sense of things.
I'm sensible. I mean, I just watch you on school that you know. Sensei. It's called the show's sensei. All right, Rich, let's hit on your higher register here, and I want to combine it because it's going to be very cold in Chicago.
More likely to be the larger number. Combine Shador and Caleb Williams total touchdowns degrees. He feels like temperature at kickoff. Oh, the. But it feels like temperature kickoff is going to be negative integers.
I mean, it could be word in the 12 single digits?
So you went feels like you could have, you could have gone. What's the difference?
Well, the actual temperatures are gonna be like 10 to 12, and I was thinking the feels like is probably maybe four, something like that, three, four. How can you tell the difference between four and ten, though? Great point. Love where your head's at. Cold is cold.
I'll go with the higher number feels like town. Maybe a little bit a little heat wave and get it up to six or seven at uh I'd kick off. I hope this is a shootout. I'm seeing six combined touchdowns between. That could be fun.
That would be amazing. That'd be fun. Oh, that'd be great. Shador in Chicago, Illinois, with the Cleveland Browns. Let's go.
Well What else? I think that could be pretty fun. Oh, we should have some. All right, we've been talking about it all week. We've been talking about it all league.
Let's get right to it. More likely to be the higher total snaps for Phillip Rivers on Sunday, or Colts points scored. Oh, I'll go snaps for Phillip Rivers Sunday. If he's the starter, he's going to get 60, 70 snaps. I know, but Robbie Wattard has taken full participation in practice the last couple days, so I don't know.
Maybe he starts the game. Maybe something happened. Ooh. Interesting.
So you're thinking he doesn't play at all would be the way that you're playing. Or maybe he plays second half only, maybe? I don't know. I mean, from all reports, I think maybe we're ramping Philly up to start next week. Man, I wish Pellicero was on before.
Can I put a pin in this and answer it after Pellicero comes on? Maybe you could ask Tom this exact question. We're not going to hold your answer against you, though. What's more likely? More likely, let's keep going, guys.
We've got a few more. Yeah, I don't want to rope Tom into the pseudo-gambling aspect of it.
Well, we never asked him if he was going to do it.
So it works out. More likely, road team to play AFC South Spoiler. Jets are Cardinals.
Well, the Jets have a third-string quarterback, and... I've never heard of this guy. Brady Cook, all do his choice. Jake Brisket, man, is... You know, Marvin Harrison.
That's great.
So, Michael Wilson's going to set another Larry Fitzgerald record. Who are the Arizona Cardinals playing this weekend? They're playing the Tennessee, the Houston Texans. Oh boy, good lord. Oh my word.
Really spoiler. I can't say the Jets are going into Jacksonville, which has been a terrific team with a third-string quarterback and coming up with. You got to go with Jake Briskett. Go with Jake Brisket. No risk it, no brisket.
No, no risket. Rich, it's good. Thank you. Brady Cook out of Missouri. There you go.
Put some respect on it. Thanks for putting the jet schedule up hosting. It looks so beautiful. Look at that. Look at all that red.
That's a lot of red, Rich. Did you know? Like my shirt. Did you know that Jalen hurts in that one. That one sequence where he gave the ball away twice, that the Chargers had more takeaways in that segment.
Than the Jets of all season. Yes. Is that good? Not good. Not good.
And by the way, I saw that. I called that takeaway. in London and it was that it was the Broncos just it was uh Uh, Troy Franklin just coughing it up with nobody hit him. How do they have one takeaway? I don't, dude.
What are we doing? You could almost like not even try to get more than one takeaway. I don't write your name. But you know what? I am.
Many people ask me, what am I proud of whenever I do play-by-play? I'm the voice of the Jets' takeaway. Get an enemy for that. I'm the official voice of the Jets takeaway. Yeah.
All right, three more. Let's go.
If the Jets want a takeaway, just call me. I'll provide the soundtrack. There it is. Oh. Oh.
Hey, there it is. They took one away. Go figure that. All right, I'm putting you on the spot, Rich. Is it more likely A.J.
Brown goes for 100 yards and the Eagles lose a fourth straight game? No.
Well, the Chargers end Kansas City season on Sunday. I think it's the Chargers end Kansas City season on Sunday. Dude. I don't care. He's gone three in a row and they've lost all three.
Dude, what are we talking about? A Kenny Pickett revenge game? Is that what's going to happen? Yeah, you can get a revenge game. Kenny Pickett, I'll show you for trading me away after I took the victory formation knee for you.
Come on, man. He ain't going to come out there like Gladiator. Kenny Pickett Revenge Game. He's probably thrilled the Eagles were like, because he knows he's not going to. He's not going to play over Jalen Hurts despite the number of times Siriani might be asked that question.
Get out of here. Come on, man. They are not losing at home to the Las Vegas Raiders this weekend. And if anybody's left. in their survivor pool and they haven't taken the Eagles yet.
Right? You don't know that. Come on now. I would stay so far away from the Eagles in Survivor if you're not. The Chargers winning in Kansas City is more likely than the Eagles losing this game.
With all due respect. AC is the first time. To my friend Deep Carroll and the Vegas Raiders. This is a tough one. This is a tall order.
Go Raiders. I know that's what you're saying. Yeah. Keep going. All right.
Two more likely to be the bigger number. Micah Parsons, Sachs, or Bo Nick's touchdown passes. What a great game this is, guys. It's going to be awesome. Like as got yeah, but but Nick's doesn't take sacks.
I'll go Bonex touchdown passes. I can see about two and two on this. Mack has been on one. That was a very love connection of you right there. It's been on one time.
I am TJ Willery. TJ, in terms of this, he says two and two. We'll be right back. All right. What else you got?
All right, last one. And it's been tough for Justin Jefferson. As of late, but I feel like he might heat up against this two cowboys. Wait a second. Yeah, man.
J.J. McCarthy on Sunday night football, baby. Here we go. I will be home and I will be wearing my purple, whatever, my Michigan gear. I will be all in on that one.
Look, I had to hear from Stephen A. at the beginning.
Now you're going to continue this. Yeah, I'm trying to get invited to Jerry Jones' suite. Apparently, that's the way to do it. I mean, I've been in that suite. It's pretty sweet.
Dustin Jefferson hasn't topped 100 yards in a game since Dublin. More likely to be the bigger number. Justin Jefferson receiving yards or longest Brandon Aubrey field goal. Good one, Christopher. Favorite football player, Brandon Aubrey.
There's a town in Nevada that might be calling you up for these ones.
So, Justin Jefferson, just totals in the last like few weeks, right? 47 yards, 37 yards, 61 yards, 48 yards. Yeah, I have a Brandon Aubrey field goal. Really? Yeah.
Wow. It's only a matter of time until he's asked to kick a 70 yard or something. Yeah, but it's only a matter of time before my cousin Justin Jefferson goes off. I agree. It's probably unfortunate.
It's not going to happen against my guys. But the odds are that Aubrey's going to attempt a long field goal right before the end of the first half when they're like to heck with it. Want that 70? Yeah, yeah. I think I'll do that.
But what a neat one to keep an eye on. That's a fun one. All right. Good one. Guys, great to see you.
Great to be here in New York. What do you say? I love Chris. By the way, you know who else is I just realized? We've never sat so close to each other.
Yeah. No, I've been getting comments from people as well. Like, hey, they like us at a desk like this. And I like this desk. I like it.
I'm so glad, but I'm too close to you right now. Why come close? You're just staring at me. You are staring right at me. This is kind of freaking me out.
I'm like your camera. I feel like I'm in your camera. I think he's making sure you're paying attention. Yeah, I have to. I'm looking right at him.
I can't. I can't. Back home in LA. I like that I'm. I'm far away from you.
Because he's like, I've got my distance. I'm on my desk, my own little area. But you still look at me. I'm just saying, this is kind of cool. We can like reach out to the section.
I like this. I could say I want to teach you. You got one more. What's more likely? Who's more likely to be stopped at security by trying to bring a sandwich?
This guy's bringing one. I have one. You're bringing your own sandwich. I have my own sandwich. I'll bring in a New York sandwich.
It's going two L. And that's just out of LAX. We don't know how to bring your own sandwich. What a sandwich that's going. Why?
Because I want it for tomorrow, for lunch. Tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow. Yeah.
Is it from some special place? It has to be. Yeah. It has to be. Across the street from the hotel.
It's called Pathmark. Pathmark. From Walbaum's. This guy's not eating sandwich lane. You think I could.
I don't even know. You think I could take a whole piece of Manhattan people on the plate? I think you could get a whole junkie. I could get a whole half would be fantastic. You definitely.
We didn't know what's going on. I ask you, again, before we go to break, who's more likely to be stopped at the airport for trying to bring in a food bag bag file, but be the guy to my right immediately. Uh-oh. Now here's why he says that. Because it's morning.
I brought a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant from Duncan and stuck it in my backpack and completely forgot about it. Until about five minutes before the show started. Backpack is going to go through the scanner thing, and they'll be like, excuse me, sir.
So you bought the food and forgot you bought it? I mean, we got Kimberly Martin start talking to us in the back. Yeah, it was all about the break.
Now we got to throw the break.
Now we got to take us to the booth.
Now we got to throw the break.
Oh, we got to throw it at Briggs. The way you talk like that is going to piss off Colleen Wolfe. You be careful. Hey, yo, hey, yo. Tom Pellisero is coming up.
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I gotta step in here because our radio audience has returned. Ladies and gentlemen, Guest Pen Radio presented by Progressive Insurance is back. Tom Pellisero is here. Good to see you, Tom. How's that?
Nice. Hello. Hey, Tommy. Our old boys in the studio. Disdain.
Serious subject matter, so let's all bring it in. What is going on with TJ Watt in Pittsburgh, PA? Tom, what happened?
So, the timeline, as I understand it, is that TJ Watt came into the facility on Wednesday morning and he had some pain. He went and did his workout. It was a player's day off, but he went in there to lift. He then went through his normal dry needling treatment. And then, after the treatment, he was still in pain.
They performed a bunch of different tests. At first, they were thinking based on where the pain was that maybe it was his collarbone. They ruled that out. They then did x-rays on his ribs. That came back negative.
Then they did some additional tests that revealed a you know a small hole in his lung. JJ Watt took to Twitter with similar, but not exactly the same version of the story, saying that it's a partially collapsed lung for JJ. TJ via JJ blaming the Steelers team physicians or the people giving that treatment for the injury. My understanding is that maybe a little bit more to that piece. of the story, but at any rate, not likely that TJ Watt is going to be able to play on Monday night against the Dolphins.
Sounds like this is just something where he just needs to rest based upon the procedure that he had done to repair that hole in his lung, the partially collapsed lung. Could be back as soon as the following week's game. But obviously, for a Steelers team that needs every one of these wins to hold off the Ravens in the AFC North, not great to be without one of your best players in all likelihood on Monday night. Mm. Um so what I guess the The question is, is the reporting on how this happened, right?
I mean, you mentioned JJ's. Um post. I think we have it. and where this goes from here. Um and uh after a dried needling treatment.
session at the facility. Man. That's scary. That's as scary as it comes, man. I mean, with what's going on.
So it's just rest and then maybe back back in week 16. That's what you're saying. That is what it sounds like at this point. And again, if TJ Watt wants to go down the road of a grievance through the NFLPA or punch any of those buttons, then perhaps there will be more answers forthcoming about exactly what happened again. My understanding is he came in to the facility on Wednesday with pain already.
After the dry needling session, that's when he continued to experience the pain. He went into the hospital. He had a battery of tests done. They were able to rule out a bunch of different things, including a rib issue, but he did have a puncture, a small hole in his lung. They fixed that.
Now it's just a matter of resting. Probably not a situation where he's going to be ready to play football in three days, but potentially as soon as week 16, TJ Watt should be back for a Steelers team. That even though Alex Highsmith is playing at a really high level right now, they certainly could use TJ Watt as well. All right, words that I never thought I'd be asking you, Tom, but I'm going to ask you: Is Philip Rivers playing for the Colts this Sunday? The final decision.
Rich, from what I understand, is not going to come until at least Saturday on Phillip Rivers, which makes sense. He's 44. I'm 44. I'm not attempting to play in the NFL, but anytime that I undertake any physical activity that I have not done in a while, when I go out to briefly shovel a little bit of my driveway that might not have been cleared off well enough, if I lift any boxes, if I get out of bed a certain way, I wait until the next day to see, am I going to be feeling this for a while here? Did I injure anything?
They're trying to be as deliberate as they can with Phillip Rivers. He, right away, the first practice on Wednesday, he was splitting the first team reps with Riley Leonard, who's dealing with a low-grade PCL sprain. Doesn't sound like that's going to be a big issue for him. Full participant in practice the past couple of days. I would not rule out the possibility, Rich, that we see both quarterbacks play on Sunday in Seattle.
It would make some sense. You know, Phillip has already said, and certainly people can be their own judge of what Phillip weighs at this point, what type of shape he's in. Seems like perhaps after five years away, like most people, he may. May not be quite as svelte as he used to be. Although, as he said himself, it's not like I was ever getting away from anybody.
Maybe short yardage, goal line, are there packages for Riley Leonard? Do they want to put, if Phillip Rivers indeed starts 70 snaps on him or kind of ease him into the mix? Does it even make sense to put him out there after just a few practices or hold him back for another week? Those are the final decisions that need to be made on Saturday. I would say at this point, it would be a surprise if Phillip Rivers does not play on Sunday.
Against the Seahawks. And for the Colts, you know, the sense that I got talking to people last night is whatever it looks like on the field. We know this in his workout on Monday, I was told his arm looked exactly the same. If anything, he might even have a little more velocity on it than he had back in 2020 because he hasn't had that just, you know, all the reps on his arm through the years. But body-wise, all those things, how does he rebound?
How does his arm rebound? Those are all open questions because there's really not a whole lot of precedent for this. Even if they go to Seattle with Phillip or without him and lose that game, you're still in a position where you got the next couple games at home. If you're able to win those, you got 10 wins going into Houston in week 18. That's not to say this game doesn't matter.
If somehow you can steal one from the Seahawks, that would obviously put you ahead of the game. But the 49ers and the Jaguars at home, those are two really, really big games here.
So, you know, kind of the tightrope that they got to walk here. Does it make sense to expose Phillip in the Seattle game, just get him out there, get his feet wet, let him see game speed, or do you hold him back another week? Again, I would. Would be surprised if we don't see Phillip Rivers on Sunday, but final decision is not coming until at least tomorrow. All right, 40-something Tom Pellisero giving us information and perspective at Tom Pellisero for those who might know of a good chiropractor in the Minneapolis area for Tom, right here on the Rich Eisen Show.
Knowing what you know and what you're willing to share. How'd you take Joe Burrows' comments? that started with if I want to keep doing this. talking about having fun and not having fun. talking about how there's a lot weighing on him.
personal, professional, what what can you Say About what you heard from Joe Burrow and what it means, Tom. Joe Burrow has rarely if ever had a normal season rich i think start there And anytime that a player is repeatedly dealing with injuries, It's going to weigh on them in a lot of different ways. I sat there with Joe Burrow the second week of training camp this year and talked with him, and I, you know. half jokingly said to him, you know, hey, you know, I was supposed to be here the last two or the last three years to interview you. Once you had a wrist injury and the other one, you had a, your appendix out.
He's like, oh, it's you. I'm like, no, the fact that I'm here interviewing you now proves I'm not the Jinx. But it's become part of, you know, the Joe Burrow experience, which is there's just all these bad luck things that he seems to be dealing with, you know, tearing his ACL in his first year, you know, dealing with the... you know, the wrist injury that he had, dealing with the appendix. I believe there was a calf or some other injury that he dealt with as well.
There's a lot of different things. And then this year to come out, you know, not play, they didn't play great as an offense. It wasn't on Joe. They didn't play great as an offense in week one. Then week two, you suffer a severe turf toe injury.
You work your butt off for two and a half months to beat the timeline and get back. And then in your second game out, it's the defense that lets you down and can't get a stop.
Now, he throws two, you know, back-to-back picks. One's a pick six in that game. But overall, Burrow played at a Really high level. And the Bengals, as so often has been the case, they just can't. stop anybody.
Joe Burrow got his contract a couple of years ago. He made his push last spring, you know, last January, February, that, hey, we need Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, Trey Anderson. We need all those guys back. And they did it.
They gave him all those players. The guy who's not been available has been Joe Burrow. And that's not to blame Joe for, you know, having the injuries that he's had. It's just the reality that, you know, your best, your highest paid player, your most important player hasn't been out on the field. I think it's natural, you know, for that to weigh on a guy.
Obviously, there's other factors here, like the fact that the defense has been an ongoing issue that leads to some of that frustration. But I looked at that much more about the internal piece of this for Joe Burrow. I mean, if every single year, Rich, you had an injury that took you out for five months of the show, you know, by year seven, you'd kind of be like, God, am I going to keep doing this? Like, is this worth it? I'm not enjoying this a whole lot anymore.
That's where it seems like Joe Burrow is right now. He still believes he's one of the best in his profession. I agree with him, but you'd like to think that he'd be on the field more than he has been. And it's pretty apparent that mentally, physically, emotionally, that has taken a toll on him.
Okay, so If I pick up what you're putting down. If we gave you a multiple choice of who was he referring to. Or, what was he referring to about if I want to keep doing this? Is he referring to the injury gods? Is he referring to the front office?
Is he referring to his coaching staff? You would choose injury guards? Bengals writ large. You know what I mean? Those are your four choices.
So, who is he referring to about if I want to keep doing this anymore? Because that sure sounds like something. That might have been going through Andrew Luck's temples. You know, well, and that's and that is Tom. That's the example was you know, Andrew Luck walking away when he did, which was right, you know, a stunning thing in the middle of the preseason in August.
Um, but that was years of you know, the hits adding up. And Andrew Luck played the game differently than Joe Burrow. Andrew Luck played like a linebacker, he wanted that first contact, he wanted to get hit and run people over. Joe, it's not as if he's you know exposing himself. Like they have been, you know, kind of freaky types of things.
You know, you get tackled from behind and your foot bends a certain way, you tear the ligaments in your toe, and it ends up being, you know, a two, three-month type of an injury.
So it's, it's one of those deals where Tom, I hear you, but I'm the host of a sports talk radio simulcast on Disney Plus ESPN app and ESPN Radio. When I give you a multiple choice question, you must answer it. You know what I mean? Like, I get it. Who do you think he's.
Okay. I believe it is injury gods as much as anything. Let's, all right, let's let's entertain the other options here. If we're talking, as you put it, coaches or Bengals writ large. The idea that Joe Burrow would, for instance, request a trade, and that the Bengals would actually grant that request and trade one of the top five players in the league when he's healthy.
Would be, I would categorize it as far-fetched for a variety of different reasons. Chief among them, the Bengals don't make trades. It is very, very rare. They've done it more in recent years. They traded Logan Wilson this year, they traded for running back, Khalil Herbert last year, but they've made like three trades since the 1970s.
For Joe Burrow, they weren't willing to trade, really weren't willing to trade Trey Hendrickson. Their philosophy, Mike Brown's philosophy, has long been: these are my players and you can't have them. The idea that Joe Burrow, they're just going to go, well, Joe's, you know, he's frustrated. We're just going to trade him away. There are so many steps that would have to go into that.
Are there different levers that if he is feeling that way, that he and his agent could pull? Certainly. I mean, we've seen wild things happen across the NFL, but it's not as if, oh, well, now that he said that, every team's going to call and the Bengals are going to ship him off in February. That is way, way many steps down the line before we'd even get to having a realistic discussion about that. What I took away, and I appreciate Joe's honesty when he gets rolling, you know, when he gets talking, he will say honest stuff.
And the sense that I got was there are a variety of reasons that he's frustrated right now. But, you know, how enjoyable would it be if every year, you know, a job that you love and you can't do it two-thirds of the time, that's going to wear anybody out. Tom Pellisero here on The Rich Eisen Show. All right, before I let you go, Tom. My frequent question of you is the team that Your sources, people who reach out to you, like to kibbits, like to talk.
The team that, or situation that everybody has been curious about and Tongues are wagging about behind the scenes in the National Football League entering the final four weeks. What is it?
Well, besides the Colts and dragging a 44-year-old grandfather out of retirement, which I've gotten plenty of people asking for the details on that, I would say that, you know, with really four weeks to go, we just kicked off week 15 last night, you're starting to get into just some of the speculation about in terms of, you know, what places could be in for a shake-up on some level. You look at the bottom of the standings, we've obviously already had the Titans fire their head coach. We've had the Giants fire their head coach. The Dolphins made a GM change, and we'll see what direction their search ends up going. You know, you don't have to, you know, be super embedded in this thing to come up with some of the other teams that we're looking at.
Last night, the Falcons get a big win, and Raheem Morris was fired up about it. You know, what is their plan moving into the future? By any stretch, this has been a disappointing season. You have seen James Pierce Jr. come on.
You did see Kirk Cousins and Kyle Pitts, for that matter, looking like the Kirk Cousins and Kyle Pitts you were hoping you were going to get back at the start of 2024 last night. But I would certainly anticipate. That there's going to be a top-down review of everything that's going on in that Falcons building as the season winds down. The Raiders are another one. They fired their offensive coordinator, they've fired their special teams coordinator.
The next question is: who else, if anyone, is left to fire? There's certainly going to be questions about Pete Carroll. We'll see how they play down the stretch. Doesn't sound like Geno Smith is going to play this week.
So you'll have a backup quarterback in Kenny Pickett, who made some things happen. He looked okay in limited action last week. But there's a lot of decisions that need to be made in Las Vegas. Quite frankly, some of those decisions do point back. to Tom Brady, who arrived with great fanfare as my minority owner.
Mark Davis saying that he could help us set the entire program. He can help us identify and draft and develop the quarterback. You look at the results so far. They took a big swing on Ben Johnson. They took some type of a swing on Matthew Stafford.
Didn't get either one. They ended up with Pete Carroll and Geno Smith. To this point, that has not led to a bunch of wins. They drafted two quarterbacks in the sixth round, and neither one of them made the active roster coming out of training camp.
So where are you right now as the Raiders? There is a lot that needs to be done on the roster. Nobody's sitting there saying that Pete Carroll has been playing with a full deck this year. But when you hire Pete, who's won a Super Bowl and has won consistently throughout his career, you hire Chip Kelly as the highest paid offensive coordinator in the league, making more money than like two or three guys, two or three players on your entire offense, you expect the results to be a lot better than what they are now sitting there on a couple of wins. And there's other places like Arizona.
You know, they've got young coaches. My understanding. Is Michael Bidwell's been really supportive of those guys to this point? But you lose, I think it's now nine to 10 or 10 out of 11 games. There's certainly going to be an examination of what's gone wrong.
Even Washington, for that matter, falling from the NFC championship game to being eliminated from postseason contention with a month to go. That's the big questions within the league right now, whether I'm talking to other teams, whether I'm talking to potential candidates. Everybody's trying to figure out exactly how far those dominoes are going to fall. And the honest truth is, Rich, in a lot of these cases, Even though we should not be subject to recency bias, even though a game or two should not swing massive organizational multimillion dollar decisions. The way that you play down the stretch, the way that, for instance, players are responding to Mike McDaniel right now, the way that it seems like the Falcons somehow in a short week showed up with more energy than Todd Bowles Bucks to the point that Todd went to the podium and dropped 10 F bombs in about a 10-second span there.
All these things do play into the thinking. And it's the absolute truth that a lot of the decisions we're going to see play out over the next month have not actually been finalized at this point. And then the minute I have left, you didn't mention the Browns out of all the teams. What do you think? The Browns situation is, in my mind, speaking just for myself, it's far more complicated because of their organizational structure.
Paul DiPodesta, who had been there or had been a member of the organization, he was living in San Diego, but had been on every Zoom for a decade and was overseeing the entire organization, had played a big role in building out data and analytics departments. He just left for the Colorado Rockies.
So you now have this void atop this sprawling operation that he built there on a team that, quite frankly, has not had a consistent level of success at any time in that past decade.
So is that a simple matter of Jimmy Haslam fills that job and continues to move forward the same way? Does it have to do with potentially reorganizing things, whether it's on the coaching side or the front office side? And then what do you do with the quarterback position? You got two first-round picks in 2026. Shadur Sanders, last week, that's the best that he's played.
He's shown growth. They want to see him continue to show growth over the back half of the season. You still have Deshaun Watson, who is going to be a member of your team for salary cap reasons, as much as anything, though you can make a fair argument that Deshaun at his best is still the best quarterback on the Browns roster. Dylan Gabriel is still there. And then you got those picks to go get someone.
That's what I mean when I say this is not. Checkers here. This is chess when it comes to the Browns. You've got to think about the really, really big picture. And that's what Jimmy Haslam and the people that he trusts within that organization, that's what they're going to be working through here.
I don't think that it's as linear as well. Maybe you swap out the two-time NFL head coach of the year and Kevin Stefansky, bring in a new coach and move forward the same way. There's a lot of other discussions that have to go into exactly what that entire Browns organization looks like in 2026 and beyond.
Well, speaking of playing games, my heart out on the radio is not playing them.
So thanks for the time, Tom. We've got to say goodbye. You're the man. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Phyllis.
Tommy P., everybody, there he goes. We're back from New York City in a moment. This episode is presented by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having state farms. It's like needing the protection of an offensive guard on the football field, but getting an elementary school crossing guard.
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I'm going to say something. that will be like kindling. to the fire of analytics, folks. Uh oh. Never really want to go with the analytics folks.
Yeah, baseball guys. Because you know what they have? Coaches. Numbers. Yeah.
They have numbers. They love it. They have certainties and odds and all that sort of stuff. You don't go with people with numbers. Nope.
You just don't do it. Nope. You shouldn't do it. I'm about to do it. Yeah, let's go.
As you should. Because I've got a gut. Figuratively. That's better than numbers, man. At age 56.
You know what I mean? Listen. I don't understand this going for two when you don't have to. I don't understand. The reasoning either, the way it it's been re explained to me over and over and over again.
Is you never want to go for two at the end of the game when you have to because there's no time left for you to recover from the mistake.
So you go for two as early as possible.
so you will know how many possessions you need to have.
So you're not caught. with no time left at the end of the game. You got one shot at it. And that's it. you want a second bite at the Apple, because you'll know how many possessions you need.
Unless you just kick the field goal and go into extra points and going to overtime. But you don't want to go in overtime. You want to try and go for two at the end of the game. You're trying to win it. Yeah.
Why don't you do that early?
So you know you're going to have to get that. Because you're, my answer is because you're then chasing points. You're now putting yourself in a position of Why would you want to Know how many possessions you have left. By going for two when you don't have to. when it puts you in a position of needing more possessions than you might actually have to need.
You understand what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. I do, I do. Because the Falcons needed one more possession. to get that field goal to win it.
that they might not have gotten back had the buccaneers Not thrown an interception. to give them one. or the Buccaneers had made that third down. in the way that the Falcons made the fourth down in the game-winning drive that they were lucky to kind of get. And I don't Understand it.
Kick the extra points, and if you've got that two-point play that you think is so unbeatable, then pop it out of the bag. at the end of the game and you're not taking away momentum. from your team. Because again, that's the gut feel. You push back about, well, I mean, it's deflating to your team to go for two so soon, knowing you now need extra possessions.
Some teams are going for two to see if how many possessions they need. The rest of the game with like five minutes to go in the fourth quarter when you kind of know there's not many possessions left. You can kind of guess how many possessions you have left based on how much time's left.
Now you're needing another one if you don't get the two-point conversion when you're going for it, just to find out. How many possessions you have left? And I understand. This makes no sense to an analytics person. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.
Mm-hmm.
