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Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What was that? The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host Tom Pellisero.
Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show. NFLPA Executive Director JC Treder. Coming up. U.S.
men's national team legend Demarcus Beasley. Senior writer for the athletic, John Krasinski. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pellisero. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Tom Pellisero in for Rich once again, alongside Chris Brockman, Jason Feller, T.J.
Jefferson. TJC reversed it to get it back to you. But we were ready to stop. The mic was on. All set.
Tons of news today. Lamella Ball headed to the Timberwolves. Crazy. Nas Reed to the Hornets. We will get back to that.
John Krasinski is going to join us in one hour, based in Minnesota. Great NBA writer. He'll have all the details on how exactly this came together, what the vision is moving forward. Also, one month from today, how many days is that, Brockman? Twenty-nine.
Thirty days. Thirty days. It doesn't count today. I'm not counting today. You count the day the thing is happening.
30 days, one month from today, 49ers and Rams report to training camp. How long could Matthew Stafford play? How long is that plane ride going to be? We'll talk about that in a little bit. And tonight, Tom, you ready for Lamello to be your neighbor?
You know, I moved down the block, bro. Side story. About a butterfly effect, real quick. Dante DiVicenzo was looking at the house next door to me. Nice.
Did backed out because he thought he might get traded in this offseason. He tears his Achilles, meaning he's out this year, but it will still be on the roster, meaning he could have moved in. Instead now this begets these trades Lamella ball coming in. And by the way, one of my wife's bosses moved in next door. Just a total turnaround.
Downhill racing. Distant cousin boss, you know, somebody with a higher title, but same company. USA Turkey. Turkey, Turkey Yay. Yay.
Turkey. USA Turkey. The team busted by me the other day. Whoa. The the turkey A bus?
Yeah, that the the police had the road shut down outside the studio. I got it on video, it's on my Twitter. Team Turkey, just That's the uh indigenous name, by the way. Turkey. Oh, yeah.
It changed in 1923. But they changed the English name with the United Nations like four years ago because they didn't want to be like the Thanksgiving bird. U.S. already is advanced. They'll be in the knockout stage.
U.S. We're joined right now by a U.S.
soccer legend. Only U.S. man to appear in four World Cups. Marcus Beasley joins us on the show right now. DeMarcus, thank you for being here.
A lot I want to get into, but just real quick, first docs, it's been a two-day debate. If something is happening on Sunday, it's Thursday now. How many days away is that? I'm gonna say Three. Exactly.
It's three. Brockman would argue two. No. You keep arguing you're only doing the interim days. You would say four.
No, I wouldn't. You would you're counting today. If today is the 25th and something is on the twenty-fifth of next month, that is thirty days, you keep arguing it's twenty-nine. We're struggling with math here, Demarcus. The math, though, the math is in Team USA's favor to the extent that everybody with yellow cards won't have to go tonight.
They can potentially take it easy. Big picture, let's start with this. You were on a team back in 2002 that caught the world by somewhat of a surprise. Whatever you guys felt you could do, it had been literally decades since the U.S. had advanced like that.
You end up into the quarterfinals. When you watch this U.S. national team, How if at all would you compare this team to that team?
So Um I think uh A lot of the comparison with that team in 2002 Uh it's what I've been kind of privy within the last, I would say, year as getting to know some of the players and obviously the team and Pochettino and how and his coaching style is how close-knit they are in the group. I mean, we can talk about how they're playing on the field, their performances all day, but I think that is another factor and another part of this team that a lot of people maybe don't speak about. But it's an important piece because, especially in a World Cup, in a World Cup setting, you're going to have. Players up. Play pretty much every match, but then you'll have that 20, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd player that don't really touch the field, that don't get a lot of minutes.
So, are they the right fit for the group? You know, when it's not going so well, are they still lifting it up and being positive around the locker room? That's important. And from what it seems like, in my eyes, it looks like they have that part down packed. And they're, like I said, a close-knit group.
And that's something that I can compare that to the 2002 group because that's how we were. On some of those down-the-line roster guys, we may see tonight because of the circumstances, because you have three players on yellows who there's no upside. You need to save them, make sure the reset on the cards happens prior to the first game of the knockout stage at the start of next month. We often talk in different sports: football where you have a buy in the first round of the playoffs, basketball where you sweep in four games and you have two weeks off. Is there any type of a.
Rust factor, or is the rest more important here if some of your star players don't play in this game and get the extra week off? Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think the yellow card issue is a factor. Uh, now. Say those four players that have yellow cards didn't have yellow cards, would they still play?
Maybe, not maybe not from the start, but maybe they would play more of a second half. They get a second half cameo.
So it's a bit tricky. The four players that have yellow cards, 100% is rest. You're not playing, you're not risking them that they might not be able to play in the round of 32 when it really, when the World Cup really starts.
So that's already one part of it. And then the other part of it is that you want to. Keep momentum, but at the same time, you want to get guys minutes in these matches because. Hopefully, God forbid, none of the players that have been playing the first two matches get injured. But if they do, you don't want someone coming in from the cold not having played a match in four weeks, five weeks since the last friendly, the send-off matches.
So, you want to get some guys that you think can play a big part down the road, some minutes, and get them confidence, get them in the game. I think that's important as well.
So, there's a lot of factors that Pochatino will be looking at tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing who we play and who's on the roster. You talk about the yellow cards here, and presumably you got the best players in the world. You also have the best referees in the world. For those of us who didn't play high-level soccer, there can be a randomness to it.
I can look at 10 fouls, and I have no idea which ones are yellow cards and which ones are not red cards. I can probably tell. Is it random to the players, or is it pretty apparent based on the action on the field what the correct call is supposed to be? Man, that's difficult because the refing and it's hard because I wasn't the nicest guy to referees when I played. But the thing that kills me is the inconsistency when you get into refereeing with these matches.
Some things are a yellow card booking for a foul. Other ones are, it's the same type play and one to one to.
So that for me is a bit tough. But no, there's not, it's not really black and white. I mean, every ref is different. They have a certain way that they'll look at matches. You know, when you talk about corner kicks, you know, how they kind of manage corner kicks, how much leeway do they give defenders when they're holding players so their inability to score goals?
Like, those are things that's been pretty consistent. But other things, I tell you, man, it's hit and miss. And I usually don't have nice things to say about referees, if I'll be honest, because that's not how I was as a player. I'm not going to act like I, you know, I love referees now that I'm an X player. But yeah, that's something that definitely needs to be addressed going forward.
If you had to identify one call or non-call from your playing career, all those World Cups, playing in ML, that's easy. I can stop you right there.
So I didn't mean to cut you off. I can stop you right there.
The goal that I scored against Italy that got called offsides to the potential World Cup champions in 2006. It took away my goal. I can tell you, if we had VAR back then. I'm lying. I do think it was still offsides.
But still. But still. I wish that was one card I could get back.
So, as somebody who played in the non-VAR era, do you like it? I mean, you have one of the critical goals in the last U.S. game. There's a three-minute delay. You're looking at like, was a heel just slightly there?
Do you like it or is it disruptive to the flow of the game? It's disruptive. I I I'm on the bandwagon of. I don't like VAR. That's.
Like, I does it help the game in ways where as an off-size call, you know, red cards, penalty, penalty kicks, yes. But I want I wish that the the gay would go back to just hum you know, human error. you're going to make everyone makes mistakes, and that's what that's why we all love sports, 'cause uh you you sometimes you're you're at a high, sometimes you're at a low, but that's that's sports, that's what it is. I I am not a a fan of VAR. I wish that it w It was not in our game at the moment, but that is what it is, and that's what the way the game is going.
Going forward, you know, a lot of technology and a lot of money has been put into this game.
So it's here to stay, I can tell you that, but I'm not a fan of it. I mean, do you guys enjoy it? Do you like VAR? You know, when you watch it, it's jarring. It felt.
We had Antonio Freeman on Alex Freeman's dad, and I said to him, it felt so appropriate because that was an NFL-style goal. You know, it was the play where is he have two feet down in the back of the end zone. Let's look at it from 17 different angles. You're like, I don't think he did. But then the one officiating expert is like, yeah, no, that is.
And I'm like, I don't understand it. Here's the thing. I mean, again, because I'm not a soccer expert here, Demarcus, but the idea that you could have one player clearly off sides. The other player slightly by like a couple of inches on sides, but they're both in the goalkeeper's face. One of them puts it in the net.
How is that? How is the other guy not a problem in that instance? Yeah, that's that's the game. That's the rules. Uh, you, you, you learn how to kind of maneuver and manage those situations.
But it's funny you bring that up. But yeah, you're right, man. Like, sometimes it can be confusing, sometimes it's not always fair, but you know, that is that is the game. Alex Freeman, 19 years old, gets his World Cup moment, albeit with that three-minute VAR delay there. You were 20 when you made your World Cup debut back in 2002.
When you watch those young guys, what are the memories that come back? And how challenging is that to be making your first entry in the biggest stage in your sport? Yeah, I'll tell you what. What Alex is doing right now in this World Cup is incredible. The way he's playing, the confidence that he has, the confidence that his teammates have in him.
I mean, since he, I mean, you just look at his, and I love his story. You look at his professional career, even when he was younger. You know, he goes at he's in Orlando. He's starting at MLS Next, and then he moves up a level, MLS Next Pro, and then he gets his debut with Orlando and makes his first team debut. And now, I think, what, a year and a half later, he's just are starting right back on a national team.
That is it's incredible. And the way he's playing. I mean, and Pochitino said it in an interview. He could be. He could be one of the best right backs in the world.
He has the potential to do that, to achieve that.
So, I mean, the kid, he's getting a lot of high praise. But I'll tell you, when you're young and Being in your first World Cup, you don't know what to expect.
So I can, I understand his mindset, his mentality, where he's coming from. You're a bit naive. Yes, you talk to the older veterans and they ask about how the World Cup is going to be. Is it going to be the same as club football? Is it going to be the same as friendly matches?
But you just go out there and play. Once the whistle blows, you don't know what to expect in a World Cup. You just go out there and play.
So I think he's riding that momentum right now. And like I said, he's a phenomenal player. His ceiling is, I don't even know if he has a ceiling. That's how good he is, and that's how good he's been playing. But have that much confidence As a young player, Playing in these games is, like I said, it's incredible to see, and I'm really, really happy for him.
So, I'm sure you're also consuming other matches and watching other teams from around the world here, Demarcus. Question: Just in terms of there's all kinds of matrices, right, of who the U.S. could play. How good in your mind is this U.S. team?
It's obviously the best U.S. team in quite a while in terms of at least the production so far, but within the scope of the other 31 teams that are going to advance, how good is the U.S.? They're up there. They are up there. I'm telling you.
This is not me just saying because I'm an ex-player and I'm a fan, obviously, of the U.S. team, but they're up there. You can. I could uh we could argue that they've had Some of the best performers, top two, top three performances in this whole World Cup. And I'm talking about from the France, France's, the Spain's, Germany's, Portugal, Argentina with Messi.
You look at the U.S.'s U.S. performance in the first two matches, and they're up there. They can compete. If they keep this level of performance, they can compete with anybody. I'm not saying that they're going to win the World Cup, but they're going to give themselves the best chance to do that.
And the only question is. can they do that and and keep that type of a performance three games in a row, three matches in a row. That remains to be seen. But I'll tell you, they are playing at a really high level. They got all the fan support behind them.
So they're riding that wave. And like I said, it's great to see. And they I have a sense of pride when I watch this team play, you know, because. When you watch them play, they have that grit, they have that tenacity. What our national team has always been about.
And then you sprinkle in the talented players that they have, and with Christian and Alex and McKinney and those guys. It's a great team, and they're playing incredibly well at the moment.
So I'm excited to see what they can do the rest of the way. Obviously, Christian's been banged up, didn't play in the last match, can't imagine that he's going to play tonight, even though they've said that he's available to be out there. As you look through the rest of this, and again, there's all kinds of different teams that they could play, and there's different scenarios based on how the group stage finishes here. Who are the guys, if this U.S. team makes a deep run, if they challenge to actually win this thing, who are the players you imagine are the ones who drive this thing all the way through?
Okay. The one the the guy that For me, the first one on the lit, Chris Richards. Chris Richards, the center back. He is the heart and soul of this team, and mixed with Tyler Adams as well. Those two.
They have to play at eights and nines for this team to do well. And and they have been. And that's and that's a that's a great thing. I think Christian as well as one of them. He has to be fit and healthy and one hundred percent.
Weston McKinney is another one. Those four, in my opinion, have to be the driving force of this team. And it's they're like I said, they're You can't tell me in the the last two games who's had a bad game. And that's impressive.
So, if those four can stay healthy, keep the boys going, keep the energy high, we can have a really good showing at this World Cup. A legend, Demarcus Beasley. Fantastic breakdown, man. Thanks for taking some time for us. Enjoy the rest of this tournament.
Thank you, man. You too. You too. DeMarcus Beasley. That was awesome.
Sensational, sensational stuff. That matters. All right. He can easily say, ah, this isn't 2002. You know, this isn't, this is a team that, hey, they're playing great.
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So grab a bag of Lays and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lays, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Rich Eisen here. You can always tell when something big is happening in a city.
I know what it's like when I'm traveling for big games and events. I remember being in Pittsburgh earlier this year and experiencing the beautiful architecture and passion those fans have for their home teams. That was so infectious.
Now, it was a great trip. but you know what it's like dealing with the travel. The airport is packed, hotels are booked up, restaurants all busy. And when you have that kind of influx of visitors in your city, a lot of them are searching for a place that feels a little bit more like home during their trip. That's why this can be a smart time to think about listing your own space on Airbnb.
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Just had a great conversation with Demarcus Beasley, ahead of the USA Turkey A matchup. Uh tonight at Los Angeles Stadium. Meaningless for the USA. meaningful, I would assume, on some level for Turkey A. Onto the group stage, we go Beasley very bullish on that.
You can find that full interview a little bit later on on YouTube. We are 30 days away. One month away. From the 49ers and Rams. Full squad reporting date.
July 25th. All right, July 25th. Hold on. I'm gonna count the days. Keep going.
We're on two days of you not knowing how to do the math between dates. Still thirty. Google it. I mean, Google it. Just ask any AI.
Oh, yeah. Google and AI have never been wrong. It's 30 days. 30 days away because they play the overseas Melbourne game. Listen, we we've all gotten used to international games across the NFL.
I don't think that anyone, including the players, have gotten used to a 16, 17 hour time change to play a game which is I can't remember if it's on a Thursday there and a Friday here. I think that's what it is.
So they're 49ers leaving nine days in advance. At any rate, that could end up being a highly consequential game in the NFC West race. Yes, the defending champs, the Seahawks are still there, but imagine if you get to the end of the season. And it's like, what was the what was the tiebreaker game? Oh, it was that game in Melbourne?
Back in week one? And then they came back and had to switch and Lost the day or jumped a day, or they'd lived the day twice, whatever it is. It's 30 days. See You actually, and for them, it might be 31. Because of the the rollback 'cause you're jumping around And then it's negative one day when they come back.
You live a day twice. Um That's where Matthew Stafford also will begin his, I believe, 18th NFL season. One that comes with massive expectations in LA. Miles Garrett is now there, highly talented Rams team that was right there at the end. Stafford was on the Green Light podcast with Chris Long and talked about a conversation he had recently with Drew Brees.
I think one of the things that surprised me was I was talking to Drew. Um this was before last season. Um and he was like, How old are you again? I was like, I'm thirty-seven He was like You might have your best five years of your career coming up. You know, and and I was like, huh.
You know, I never really thought about it that way. You're you're taught as a Player in this league, it's a young man's game, and the older you get, you're just kind of Doing everything he can to try to stay up to par with everybody else. And, you know, Drew saying that kind of lit a fire under me and gives you a little bit of belief that maybe an old guy can still go out there and spin it around a little bit. We saw that with Stafford last year, played at an extremely high level, was the NFL MVP for the first time. We also know, based on things that have been revealed since, that that shoulder issue he had back in training camp that they downplayed all along as rest.
Could have landed him on injured reserve. Sean McVay was ready just to say, We're stashing you. You're not going to be ready for the start of the season. That's what gets you more than anything: yes, the body can break down. Sure.
your skills can diminish to some degree. But you can still win at the quarterback position with your mind. Peyton Manning. When he won the Super Bowl after the 2015 season, they won in spite of him. Every, every, I mean, he got, he was, I mean, benched effectively, took himself out, whatever you want to call it for a month at the end of the year.
And only the ineffectiveness of Brock Osweiler down the stretch put Peyton back in. I always compare like the way that he threw passes at the end. And Peyton had never had the biggest arm, but like he could throw the ball on the line. Every Peyton man he passed at the end of the season was like you're you're shooting the t-shirt out of the cannon at a at a NBA game and just kind of going, poof. Duck hunter, man.
And then it gets there. He had to like be a second or two ahead because he couldn't throw. You know, Tom Brady was able, based on all the different things that he did and kind of changing his body through the years, he stayed healthy. But Drew Brees himself knows it was the shoulder injury that he had way back in, you know, before he got to New Orleans when he was still with the Chargers in 05 on a weird play where he was reaching out for a fumble. I mean, there were questions about is this guy ever going to play football again?
He was able to come back, again, be an MVP, break basically every passing record, win a Super Bowl. But Drew Brees, his last three, four, five years in the league, he couldn't throw the ball down the field. He couldn't throw the ball 40 yards anymore. And so health dictates a lot. With Stafford, he's had back issues.
He's had the shoulder. It really comes down to health. Yeah, if Stafford stays healthy, there's no reason to think this guy can't play into his 40s. Aaron Rodgers is playing into his 40s, but Aaron Rodgers has not played like Aaron Rodgers in five years. He wasn't at his best as last year in Green Bay, then goes to the Jets, tears his Achilles on the fourth snap, comes back the next year, still not 100% because of the Achilles.
And last year, like Aaron played pretty effectively. If you look at just the raw numbers and the context with which he was playing, he was pretty effective, but he's not himself. He's had multiple calf injuries. He can't move in and out of the pocket. He still can win with his brain.
He still can snap that thing off better than anybody in the NFL. But there are parts of his game that have diminished and that have rendered him at least a different version, if not a diminished version of what he was when he won. four MVPs.
So, to me, with Stafford, it comes down to: can he avoid those hits? Can he avoid the types of just weird, soft tissue or, I mean, back injuries. I've had back injuries. Like, you don't know when they're coming. I slipped in the shower this morning.
I was like, I hope I didn't just hurt my back. Like, those pop up over and over again. And when you're talking about a guy who's had a shoulder, those are the things that you just don't know, or an elbow, or any of those types of things to your throwing arm that can have the trickle-down effect. I know that a lot was made of the Stafford extension that he signed earlier this offseason. That in no way guarantees he plays in 2027.
It really only, effectively, what they did, in the simplest terms possible, is they tacked on a year. Gave him $5 million in upside in incentives this season, and they gave him a $5 million roster bonus next year that they kind of are wink nod counting as part of this year's compensation that if he walks after next season. you still get the extra five million. But nothing else is guaranteed. He's got rolling guarantees.
So next March, they'll have a decision to make about 2027. It's a mutual decision. And then after that season, they've got these funky fake years where if he's still on the roster in March of 2028, a $100 million salary in 2029 becomes fully guaranteed. Obviously, he's never seen that. That's just there as a dummy year.
He's got the minimum in 2028. What this did was it bought both sides time. To figure out what his future is going to be. And they can now extend that into mid-March. Under his old contract, his deal would have voided essentially right after the Super Bowl this year.
And then all of a sudden, the future cap hits all slam the Rams cap. Staffers trying to make a quick decision. You could agree to push back the vesting date or the void date and things like that. But what they do is they basically made this: okay, we're giving you a little extra money, not a ton. $5 million is a lot of money, but within the context of a guy who's made like $400 million in his career, it's not that much.
They really were buying themselves just a little bit of extra time to figure out how this goes from year to year. Stafford's got, you know, he's got a wife. He's got four daughters. They were all up there on the daughters are up there on stage with him when he accepted the MVP. He's got life stuff.
And, you know, Matthew's a, he's really, in my dealings with him, a good-hearted dude, one of the more normal quarterbacks that you're going to meet. Like, he can go into a million different things with the rest of his life tomorrow. He's not hurting for money. Sure. And so, you know, let's see what direction this goes.
I mean, you can't overstate this. And yes, every team's going for it every year. Every team's trying to win the Super Bowl. Not many teams are going for it like the Rams are. Yeah, I want to ask you, you mentioned expectations, Dustad.
What are your expectations for Matthew Stafford and the Rams? Because, you know, they trade for Miles Garrett.
Now, suddenly everyone's saying, well, this team could go 17-0 and Super Bowl or bust. What do you anticipate happening with the Rams? Almost nobody goes, well, no one has gone 17-0. Very few teams have gone 16 and 0 or 14 - 0. I mean the Patriots were 17-0 at one point.
Yeah, and the Dolphins technically were 19-0. 17-0, man. 17-0. It was 14 games at that time. At any rate.
Going undefeated doesn't happen a whole lot. I don't like to put... expectations Ahead of things again, because there's probably realistically. 12 to 15 teams that think they've got a legit chance to win it all this year. Of those, maybe six to eight really have The firepower, the stars, the depth to withstand injuries.
To be there right at the end. And injuries dictate a lot of this stuff. But just with the ways that the Rams have approached this offseason. I don't think, I'm not big on championship or bust. But if they don't win the Super Bowl, it is a disappointment.
The moves they've made in this offseason. are the types of moves you make when you think we are a piece or two away From winning this. right now. You give up Jared Virtue is a good young player. I think he's 24 years old, plus your first-round pick next year, plus two other high picks in future drafts to go get Miles Garrett.
Who is The best defensive player on the planet, coming off of a record number of sacks on a Browns team that didn't give him a whole lot of pass rush opportunities, but he's also into his early 30s. At some point, it's going to come. The drop-off is going to come for Miles Garrett at a time that Jared Verse quite possibly is ascending.
So Miles Garrett walks in there as right now. This is the time, whether it's a year, two years, three years, however much of his prime he's got left. That's your window. Stafford, again. year to year.
You're in the window. Right now. They trade one of their first-round picks to go get Trent McDuffie. Again, that is a win-now move, and they gave him a record contract on top of it. They spent big and free agency, brought in Jalen Watson, the other Chiefs' corner, to go and try to shore up what they felt was a weakness on their team.
These are all things you're doing. Because you think. This team can win it. Today, not two years from now. And the Rams have done both sides of this.
You know, the whole less need and bleep them picks and all that stuff. Like, that was true at a time. What the Rams have done as well as anybody is be cyclical about how they approach it. They were in that bleep them picks era for a while when they were going out and they were trading for the Jalen Ramseys and the Brandon Cooks of the world and they took their run at it. But the way that things work in the NFL is whether it's from any asset allocation standpoint, whether it's your salary cap or it's your draft picks, you can't just be up against it forever.
You can't do what the Timberwolves did today and trade a first-round pick seven years from now. The rules forbid it.
Now, the Rams and the Browns wanted to change that rule in this offseason. It was not related to Miles Garrett. I have spoken to people about this. It was not about that. It was both teams like the idea of having more creative ways to come up with trade.
Possibilities. Yeah, it was about Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. Bottom line, you can't, well we'll talk, it'll come up again. You can't. Trade picks more than three years out in the NFL.
And so at some point. whether it's your cash the spending overcap Or it's having all your draft picks go out the door, which that's your young cheap workforce. You have to have a recalibration.
So go back to three years ago. The Rams had one of the youngest teams, or two years ago, one of the youngest teams in the NFL. I believe they had the most rookies on their roster in the entire league. And that's when they're then drafting. Kobe Turner and Jared Verse and Braden Fisk and kind of remaking everything.
You know, they bring in their running back at that time. They bring in Puka at that time. They have some hits in those later rounds of the draft, like where they got Puka. And it all adds up to they suddenly got really young, still with a veteran quarterback in Matthew Stafford. Once you got the health of the roster and the cap back, Now you can cycle back to.
Well, now we can go after it again because we've got this young chief workforce, we've got a good young core here. Matthew Stafford, this might be it, regardless of the extension he signed. This could be it. For Stafford.
So let's leverage the assets we have and let's go out. And make a run at the biggest trade you're gonna have. And this was not the only trade that they tried to get done. They were in on pass rushers the entire offseason. There's some parallel universe where Max Crosby is a ram.
It didn't end up happening. Miles Garrett ends up being the guy instead. Miles is a little bit older. He's one of the most productive players of his generation, a multiple-time defensive player of the year. You make that move and you give up all they did.
Because you're figuring we can win this right now. And at some point Again, whether that's after this season or two years from now, or maybe Stafford does, as he told Drew Brees, told Chris Long about the conversation with Drew Brees. Maybe he could play into his early 40s. He'll be 40 after the 2027 season, or at least by March 2028, when that next option. trigger exists.
He'll be 40 years old. at that point. At some point, you're handing this thing off to Ty Simpson. And you're probably going through another cycle of, all right, now those veteran players we brought in. Let's trade those guys away.
Let's get the picks. Let's build from a young standpoint. And if Les Seed and Sean McVay are still here in 2032, and if Ty Simpson's a guy, guess what? Back to bleep and then picks. It's coming.
Do you think the Browns should have gotten more from Miles Garrett? I thought the value they got for Miles Garrett was very good. It's not, you didn't have eight different teams who were willing to be in on a trade like that. They really had one team. That was there.
And it was the Rams. The where I like the trade for the Browns, and we'll see. I mean, you're not going to be able to fully evaluate this trade out for a couple of years here. But where I like the trade for the Browns is if Jared Verse were traded in a vacuum, if you just traded Jared Verse tomorrow, he would be a one-plus player. You would have to give up a first-round pick and more because it's a 24-year-old ascending edge player, linebacker who can impact the game in a lot of ways.
He is a great culture guy. He's a really good dude. He's exactly the type of person and player you'd want to build around.
So if you count him. as let's say a first and a third. That's probably roughly what it would have cost to get Jared Verson to train.
Now if you add up the trade, it is two first drum picks. Plus two third-round picks, plus a second-round pick. And yes, in future years, you degrade those by a round, and there's all kinds of ways you can calculate. But I would argue for all the people saying it should have been three first-round picks, it kind of was. If you add it up and if you hit on these picks, it's just in a different form.
And by the way, you don't have to worry about whiffing on one of those first-round picks because that guy's Jared Burst. He's already a really good player. I don't know how much people in Cleveland watch Rams games, watch the NFC, but they're going to be introduced to a guy who is a difference maker on the field, highly entertaining, off the field, has a lot of different interests. He's going to be a great fit for what is going to be a different energy, a different vibe, even if it's basically the same scheme that they're running now in Cleveland. I think the other part of it, to bring this full circle, where we'll really be able to evaluate this trade.
Yes, from the Rams' perspective, it starts out with. Miles Garrett, does he help you win a Super Bowl this year? If he doesn't, This season is a disappointment. Make no doubt about that. But let's think ahead to, let's say, 2028.
Browns in 2025 have one of, if not the best draft class in the entire NFL. They did great from Mason Graham to Carson Schweschner being the defensive rookie of the year to bringing in Harold Fannin and bringing in Quinchon Judkins, who was really effective in his first year. They had a really, really good. Draft class. And that's a great starting point.
You got to hope this year's draft class is also good. We'll see what the quarterback. Decision ends up being. And right now, Shadur Sanders has ascended in the offseason. Deshaun Watson's played 19 games in five years.
We'll find out who comes out on top of that battle. The answer, if you were having to guess right now, I'd say. Probably neither guy. Just based on what what we know and the situation there.
So then the Browns. What if the Browns, who made this trade, of one of the greatest players of his era, Miles Garrett. Use the Rams pick in 2027, maybe combine it with their own. to go up and get their quarterback of the future. And what if then, somewhere in 28, 29, the Browns are competitive?
I know that can be tough to envision because of everything that's happened. They did go to the playoffs twice in six years under Kevin Stefanski. Try to wrap your mind around, let's say the Browns are good. And what if Ty Simpson. and the Browns quarterback.
Both emerge, we will be, those two will be in a different way intertwined for a long time. The Rams taking that shot. On Ty Simpson at number thirteen. when they could have used that pick as well to load up For this Super Bowl run, they were thinking about their future.
Now they make another trade for the right now in Miles Garrett, give up a first-round pick that could end up yielding the Browns' future quarterback. That is a fun connect all the dots, strings, and photos, and figure out who committed the crime style combination here. But let's see. It's a pretty good draft class of quarterbacks. In 2027.
Yeah, some of those guys fall off. But Arch Manning May well be in that draft. Dante Moore should be in that draft. Brennan Soursby, pending any legal action that creates a supplemental draft, should be in that 2027 draft. You can go down the rest of the list of the quarterbacks that potentially could end up being Julian Saiyan, C.J.
Carr, Lenore Sellers, if he bounces back from just kind of a disastrous season overall. There's all kinds of quarterbacks here. It's going to be really interesting to see how this entire thing plays out. Long answer to your question. The Miles-Garrett trade boils down to one thing for the Ramps.
Do you win the Super Bowl right now? If you don't. You're probably still running after it again in 2027. But Matthew Stafford is very much year to year. The Browns thinking globally, big picture.
We'll have a final verdict on this trade, but it may be a few years away. Let's take a quick break here. We'll get back to the big trade of the day: LaMelo Ball going to Minnesota a little bit with John Krasinski. Save money on your next oil change with O'Reilly Auto Parts. Get a $15 O'Reilly gift card after rebate when you buy five quarts of Mobile One Full Synthetic Motor Oil for just $35.95.
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The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. A SoFi personal loan is here to help you achieve something once thought impossible, overcoming high-interest credit card debt. Walk the tightrope of your finances with one low fixed-rate monthly payment, no fees required, and as soon as the same day, funding. That's right. Pull off your own debt-defined stunt with a SoFi personal loan.
Visit sofi.com/slash trick to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank NA member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. LaMella Ball, now a Minnesota Timberwolf.
Nasreed is a Charlotte Hornet, along with a whole bunch of picks and pick swaps. We got into a debate yesterday before this trade came down. And of course, Lamello now teaming up with fellow lottery pick Anthony Edwards from that same twenty twenty draft, number one overall pick. In the summer of COVID. Uh Now in the same back court in Minnesota.
And and the debate that arose yesterday. Was based off, I believe, Vince Goodwill coming on the show and talking about the depth of this draft. This is a generational type of talent, and saying there's basically four players. The two of you were going back and forth. About the quality of talent.
Frame the argument first, Brockman, before we get the TJ.
Okay, the argument was framed in the way I was kind of talking about the broadcast as a whole. You know, the NBA has done what the NFL has done now.
So they split it up into two nights. First round was Tuesday night, and the second round was Wednesday night.
So my point kind of was: look, instead of having four or five minutes between picks and doing the entire first round on one night, if you are intent on splitting it into two nights, just have the lottery go on night one. And you can have more time in between each pick to really discuss the pick, talk about how it impacts the new team, you know, all that situation. You got, you know, multiple people on the desks. You got two desks. Let's really bounce around.
You got Lisa with the family interviews. You can really spread that out over 10 minutes between picks, and you're doing the 14 picks, which, you know, history has shown us the lottery most impactful. They're going to be the future stars of the league and impact players. And then you can have night. To be the rest of the first round and then the second round, since I don't want to kind of poo-poo on the guys who are second-round picks, obviously a huge accomplishment.
But the list of NBA Hall of Famers who have second-round picks, you know, it's literally, I mean, not literally, that's figuratively what you're doing. Yeah, you could fit all the time. Literally, we'd have to cancel the show. Fit all the time. We'll take it off this request.
You know what I mean? That's kind of what I was saying.
So it's TJ said there's tons of talent outside the lottery. Yeah, and Chris was like, basically, no, there's not. I was like, I doubt that.
So with no further ado, TJ, all. Non-lottery team. Yeah, I just went down the list, man. I went through draft by draft by draft, and I kind of picked out. All of the Great players who were drafted after pick 14.
And I came up with, and I know this is going to be tough because if you take the first 14, you know, you're going to have your Jordans and your Kareems, your Saks, you know, your Kobe's, right? Like, some of the greatest players of all time, but I truly believe I can. Put together a squad that could compete with players who were just drafted from 15 on. And right now, my starting lineup. I've got Joker I've got Giannis.
I've got Dennis Rodman. Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker, all of these guys are drafted after the 14th pick. I mean, you got Jokic. I'm surprised, Tom, that he and Taco Bell never. Worked out some type of deal because that's all we ever talk about.
He was drafted during the Taco Bell commercial. How could Taco Bell not have tried to work something out with this man? One of the best players of all time. Let me make a counterpoint here, TJ. You got.
40 years of drafts to come up with these five guys. My question would be, can you find any one draft? Where you could even put out a starting five outside the lottery. One draft? One draft.
You could, but it wouldn't compete.
So the hit rate is sufficiently low. Oh, it's definitely low. But my thought was just to see. Like, I thought Brockman wasn't giving enough props to the players late-round draft picks, second round.
So I wanted to put something together to show, yeah, there's still talent out there. You can still find. I was probably being a little hot, obviously.
Well, yeah, that's what we do here. We overreact a little bit. It was post-show meeting. We're just kind of throwing out. I got two ideas.
I would spice up.
Well, let me finish the. Then I went to a bench. Oh, you got a bench. Like I said, there are guys. There are so many guys I've left off of here.
I just went with 10. You got Manu Ginobi, Draymond Green, Steve Nash, Jalen Brunson. I picked Bill Lambert, right? One, because Lambert had to battle all the great bigs back in the day. Weren't you arguing yesterday?
Jalen Brunson's a top five pick and he doesn't make your starting five here? Yeah.
Well, you can't argue both ways on that. Tom, you're top five player in the NBA right now, but he's not in your top, you're starting five here. He's on the squad, bro. Whoever's coaching this is going to manage the minutes. My point being, there is talent.
There is talent after that 15th pick. Brunson's going to be the Tyrese Halliburton, where he gets the gold medal and is like, yep, didn't really do anything here. Wasn't really wasn't really part of it. Jason Tatum, was that who it was? Jason Tatum didn't do much in the Olympics.
I thought Halliburton didn't even play. Am I wrong on that? Tatum really didn't play. But the point being, you're missing the point. Point is, there is great talent, there are players who can.
Have successful and maybe even great NBA careers after that lottery. And that was just something I wanted to look at to see if I could find a team, put together a squad who could compete. Obviously, Brockman, if you put together your starting five of lottery picks, looking at the greatest players. Yeah, and I was saying, hey, look, you know, if you take the history of the eighth overall pick. They would sweep your team.
Maybe not, but I was kind of being a little parable. This team is my five worst number one picks versus his Bennett. Yeah, come on, guys. Tom, the f the Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
