REShow: Mitchell Schwartz/Dalvin Cook - Hour 3

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Wow. This is The Rich Eisen Show. So you were from Dallas, Texas. You were more of a football guy than a basketball guy, Marcus Smart. Can you play quarterback? The Rich Eisen Show. I can.

I can play quarterback. Earlier on the show, NFL Network analyst Willie McGinnis, WGN Sports anchor Jared Payton, coming up, Super Bowl champion Mitchell Schwartz, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three The Rich Eisen Show on the air right here now on the Roku channel. It's our first week on our new platform with our new partners.

We love them. And we love that the fact that you can see us on all Roku devices and you can see us on Samsung smart TVs. You can see us on fire TVs. You could see us on the Roku app.

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It's a streaming world, don't you know? And we're just all living in it. Chris Brockman and Mike Del Tufo in their spots for our number three. Good to see you guys.

TJ Jefferson looking as great as always. Our number three of this show. We've already had a chat with Jared Payton, the son of Walter Payton, the subject of this week's episode of NFL icons that's on epics that I'm narrating on Saturday night at 10 Eastern Time. William McGinnis, my colleague from the NFL network, joined us an hour. Number one, if you missed it, there'll be portions of those interviews on our YouTube page, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen show. Hit us with a subscribe, please, or just stay tuned right here on the Roku channel to 10. As soon as we're done of this third hour, we we rear right away.

So hours one and two right after that, and then hour three and so on and so forth. We love that. I turn to my right and welcome in now. Finally, instead of talking to you on camera and you on the Odyssey or the Rich Eisen Show Terrestrial Radio Network, talk directly to you, sir.

We have a Super Bowl champion, a nine year veteran of the National Football League joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show, the 2012 drafty out of Cal Berkeley by the Browns, but a man who protected Patrick Mahomes so expertly for all those years for the Chiefs. Mitchell Schwartz, good to see you, sir. How are you? I'm doing well.

Thanks for having me. Well, I mean, you're framed in a way to make sure that you're centered up, but your hands are in your lap. There we go. Now that we see the two shot, you want to hold that baby up on your right hand. Yeah, that is a championship ring right there.

Look at that thing. I figured for all the Chargers fans I'm going to run into while I'm in L.A. No, is that Kyle or Richard Petty right there? Yeah, what style of Petty? That's Richard. That's the one. No, that's that's that's Tom. That's Tom.

No, Richard, the king petty list here. May I see that? Would you want to remove it off your index finger?

You gonna be able to hold that up, Rich? You can do curls with that. That's why arm length matters. It's on your index finger. Is that where it fits?

Is that what it is? Yeah, it was originally sized for the ring finger. It's slightly big for that. I also have weird webbing, so it fits better on that one. Weird webbing. I have that it just it's still on my thumb. Yeah, I could keep twirling it around. This is beautiful. Hold on a minute.

I should have my sunglasses, but I don't have them here. That's beautiful. I think we did a pretty good job with it. I was definitely not part of that process. And I tried not to like listen into little tidbits of what guys were hearing about it. The only thing I knew is that it was going to be two tone and color.

Yes. And that scared me a little bit because two tone can go awry depending on the piece of jewelry. But look at you. I had no idea. You were such a jeweler. Oh yeah. So we opened up those boxes. It was pretty special. And obviously they did as good of a job as I could have ever hoped. There they are.

World champions. It says Schwartz on the side. It's from 69 to 19. There you go. There's your number 71.

Be great. It says right there. And then inside it's the results that led all the way up to the Super Bowl. Yeah, and it's got the deficits that we came back from in each of those three games because that was the big storyline. Oh, that's the number. That's the number in the parentheses.

That was the year you were down big to Houston. 24 is the number there. 24.

Like 10 and 11 maybe. Something like that. And then Bill O'Brien went for the what?

The fake, right? What did he do? He did a fake field goal or something? It was the punt.

Dan Sorensen had the tackle. And then just kind of got that ball rolling. Yeah, because here you go. You may take it back. Sure. It's your ring. Use it how you see fit.

Make a doorstop. Yeah, man. I just remember.

Or if you want to pass it around the room. That offense got rolling. It was just impossible to stop. Tyree Kil said that Patrick Mahomes was trash in his first practice.

It needed to be said. Was he really that bad in his first practice with the Chiefs? Was he really that bad? I don't think he would have been that bad. But there is an element of coming from the offense he came from in college and learning a Coach Reed offense with the verbiage, with the formations, with the shifts.

And on the motions and all that stuff. And it did take him a while to get acclimated to that. I remember I got to play with him that Week 17 game. His first year. In Denver.

In Denver. Because you had already made the playoffs. And Alex Smith, you make sure he's going to be healthy for a playoff run. So Mahomes wet his beak a little bit in a little AFC West action.

Correct. And I remember being very impressed because you watch him in preseason. That was really the last time you see him in kind of that game action. And his ability to make all the calls.

Kind of run the huddle efficiently. The thing I always kind of pull back to is we went to Denver in Week 17. Now they were out of the playoffs too. But still it's a pretty big divisional rivalry. The fans are going crazy.

It's cold. We had no procedural penalties. And think about even this Monday night Russell Wilson going back into Seattle. Think of how late they were snapping the ball. The timeouts they had to run. Delay of games.

Things of that nature. We had none of those in his first start. And so by the time he was ready to go, he was ready to go. Everything was smooth.

It ran efficiently. I don't remember that first practice. I was probably too busy doing my own thing off to the side. You know, we don't have to catch the ball from the guy. You don't tend to remember too much about it. But early on it was those splash plays and we all obviously got really excited about it. And me being a little bit of a pessimist, it was more, all right, I mean, this is cool, but there's no repercussions. It doesn't matter if you throw a pick.

It doesn't matter if you do these crazy things. Let's see it in the game. And then he got to the preseason and he was doing it in the game. And then obviously we know the rest of the history. Yeah, because, you know, to go from Smith to Mahomes, I remember we talked to Kelsey, right? Did we talk to Travis Kelsey at the Super Bowl in Minnesota when Alex Smith got traded? And I remember him sitting there going, you know, Alex is my guy. Obviously, we got a new guy. But Alex is my guy. And was was there a moment about turning things over to the young guy where there was a question of what was going on?

No, because it happened pretty peacefully. It's not like this kind of 49ers transition. You know, Pat got drafted. It was very clear Alex was a starter. That was the backup. We ran the whole year that way. I mean, we had a really good season. I think Alex led the NFL in deep passing that year.

I think his motto was just like, screw it, let's go for it. And he started throwing the ball deep. And he was the number one downfield passer. Obviously can't do all the stuff Pat does. And then he gets traded and Pat's just the starter.

So there was a pretty peaceful transition. And Pat is very much natural leader, kind of took that role on. It wasn't like, oh, I don't really know what my role is. Should I call the team up?

Should I not say anything? Like, it just happened very efficiently. And I don't know if that's having the sports background with his dad, you know, being around locker rooms and athletes and just understanding the flow of it.

But a natural leader, and he just took the reins and ran with it. Mitchell Schwartz here on The Rich Eisen Show wearing his Super Bowl ring from the 2019 season right here on the night where week two kicks off between Mahomes and the Chiefs and also Herbert and the Chargers. The concepts that you're seeing offensively through week one, what did you see in week one that you're like, okay, everybody who's like saying Tyreek's gone and we're all screwed here, that you're like, okay, we're fine. What did you see outside of the offense?

That's an obvious statistic result. Yeah, it's more just validation for the idea that it's Coach Reed and it's Patrick Mahomes and they're still going to drive the ball down the field. They signed Baldo Scanlon, who's a speed guy.

They still have Nicole Hardman. So they've got elite top end speed, maybe not the single fastest guy in the NFL, but two of maybe the top three, four or five receivers in terms of speed. So they're still going to stretch the field vertically. And I think it was a little bit foolish for people to just assume like, oh, they can't throw deep anymore. So they're going to go back to the year that no wide receivers caught a touchdown when Alex was the quarterback and when the receiver talent wasn't what it was. It's like that offense isn't coming back. The offense is still built for speed for downfield threats.

You know, the RPO game kind of opens the field up horizontally in the run game and the speed of the receiving group opens it up vertically in the passing game. And I don't think he's ever going to go back on, you know, having guys that are able to create in both of those ways. So give me a moment where you're like, okay, Reed and the enemy and the rest of this offensive staff just thinks differently. Do you got a moment? Whether it was an install, a meeting, a film session, anything like that? Mitchell Schwartz?

There's plenty of them. To me, the coolest thing from my perspective, because as an offensive lineman, you don't always get to be in the meetings where they're talking to the quarterbacks or they're explaining this is why we're doing it or we see this one specific tell from the safety. So we're going to design the play this way. Mondays are off days. Tuesdays we were on. We watched the film from the previous week.

And then there's about a 10-minute period where they get us together, kind of give us some concepts for the upcoming week that they're still mulling over, they're thinking about. And Coach Reed would just pull guys, hey, you line up here, you line up there. And he would just kind of, you could see the gears working and like, I want you to go seven steps, stop there.

And then I want you to go over here. And he's kind of walking through the play as it's happening. And it's really the only time from my perspective, I can see kind of that genius at work and seeing him. He's written it out. He understands the spacing, but like getting on the field and seeing where the guys are and seeing how it really works.

That was one of the cooler things. And in all those meetings, I mean, Coach Banamead, he watches every single game a few times. I was going to say a million times. That's obviously not feasible, but you can go up to him and especially from the offensive line perspective, like, hey, I'm seeing this blitz.

Like, what do you think we should do? And he knows exactly the blitz, exactly the game situation. He's got an answer for it. So they're just extremely well prepared. And things can change week to week because, you know, if you're kind of static in what you do, it might not work for that specific team, that specific blitz pattern. You know, tonight Brandon Staley is going to run some crazy stuff that they might not have seen before. That's pretty intricate.

But the Chiefs are going to be as prepared as possible against that. So he's drawn the play up in his mind and then on a piece of paper, and then he walks out and he walks everyone through it. Seven steps stop here.

You go here, you go there. And so then he validates what he's done or this is where he's just saying this play's going to work. I got it. And you now need to get it.

Is that again? I'm just wondering how that works. Yeah, so I think it's more, there are coordinators who create and there are coordinators who have been part of a system and kind of understand, oh, it's cover three, so I know this play's supposed to work. And it's cover four, so this is the play we're supposed to run. But I think Coach understands defenses so well that he can manipulate them to what he wants and to the way they're playing it. So he's creating those plays for that week. It's not just, oh, well, I learned this from Mike Holmgren who learned it from Bill Walsh and it worked in the 80s, so it should work now.

It's more, oh, this is the style of defense they're running. If I run this guy here and I drag that guy, it might open up this void for me. But I have to make sure that the depths are correct. I have to make sure that the spacing's okay and what the quarterback's seeing kind of aligns together. So that is the on-the-field validation of the spacing, I think, for him.

Just one of those parts in the process. And of course, it's two or three plays. It's not a ton of them, but it is kind of the designer plays of the week. Mitchell Schwartz here on the Rich Eisen Show. You put your paparazzi hat on, you work for the 33rd team, right?

You do stuff for them, you do stuff locally. Here in Los Angeles, the Rams offensive line had a rough opener. The Bengals, newly revamped offensive line, a rough opener. What can you tell those fan bases about how offensive lines can improve throughout the year? Certainly when preseason action usually doesn't occur anymore and you just get thrown out there.

What do you see from either or both of those situations and what can you tell folks about this, Mitchell? There's a schematic help that the coaches could now start integrating. All right, maybe my guys need more help than I expected. I can formation things. I can squeeze the tight ends in, make the defensive ends feel uncomfortable.

I can run some more play actions, some more dependable protections. But the other thing is, if you go back and look last year, week one, Bills against Steelers, the Steelers got after the Bills offensive line. It was really rough and Josh Allen had a really bad game. We were all wondering like, oh, was that contract worth it?

Is he not the same guy? And obviously the Bills had a pretty awesome year last year. So week one can show you some things, but it doesn't necessarily mean the sky is falling.

There's still a ton of room for improvement and it's just the first of the stepping stones. It's probably a little bit more optimistic for Bengals fans knowing that theoretically you upgraded in personnel and the Rams theoretically downgraded in personnel. And so the Bengals can say like, okay, these guys just need time to gel. Or for the Rams, it's like, oh, well, it looks like we're missing Whitworth. It looks like we're missing a couple other guys on the inside. But again, if that means that McVeigh can't run all the dropback passes he wants and he can't do all the empty protection, maybe he just goes back to running the ball and the play action that's worked every other year.

Right. So he's got something to fall back on where Rams fans should feel pretty good. But what does gelling, walk me through, what does gelling look like for an offensive line?

Mitchell Schwartz, what does that look like? So it's seeing the game the same way. And so as a right tackle in this case, because it's easier for me to put in those terms, I'm working with the right guard the most often. And so if there's a play that the right guard is supposed to be working with the center and I'm supposed to be blocking the defensive end on my own, all of a sudden a linebacker or safety walks down. Maybe it's right at the snap and maybe we're in Pittsburgh or maybe we're in, obviously not in L.A., they had to use silent count.

But maybe we're somewhere, we can't communicate it, you don't have enough time. You both want to be seeing that at the same time and understanding, okay, we're going to react the same way. The safety is going to blitz off the edge, the defensive end is going to go inside. So as a right tackle, if I'm assuming, hey, my guard sees it the same way, I can just go block the safety, he'll have the defensive end.

Yes. But the guard's not seeing it that way and he hangs on his block with the center. And that's where there's trouble. Now the defensive end splits us and now we look really awful because it looks like we don't know what we're doing. And that's just not seeing the game the same way, that's not reacting the same way. So how does one see the game the same way?

How do you do that? I mean, you're all individuals, you know, I guess we're getting to the nitty gritty of line play here, but that is what we're talking about for so many teams. The Cowboys as well, you know, Tyrant Smith out, Tyler Smith in, and then in the middle of the game, you know, one of their linemen goes out, just like Brian Allen with the Rams. And how do you get this handled as the season begins to potentially slip away, you know? It's practice time and that's where a lot of the former players are saying, offensive line play is slipping because of reduced practice time because you don't have those opportunities to see more blitzes in practice, more interesting scenarios in practice.

And so now that the season has started, I mean, everyone is basically practicing the same amount. It's really critical that you're talking to each other. And even if it's a play that you mess up on scout team and the coaches are really frustrated with you. But maybe in the huddle, like, hey, I thought you were supposed to be here and now three plays later, you're still in the same huddle and it happens again and you fix it immediately. You don't need to go to the sidelines.

You don't need to walk through it. You don't need to rep it physically, but that constant communication where you guys are trying to talk it through. And there's also an element of maybe watching film together. Hey, what are you looking at on this one?

What am I looking at? Because as we've gotten into the iPads and the surface tablets and being able to watch film wherever we want, whenever we want, offensive lines, we used to stay at the facility and watch film together after practice on Wednesday, Thursday, whenever else. Well, now guys go home and they watch on their own time. And so you're not seeing things as collaboratively as you used to.

And that's where the older guy in the group needs to really take the onus upon himself and say, hey, we're going to stay after for 30 minutes. We're going to watch blitz together. Let's just talk things through. Let's make sure we're on the same page. So it's doing things together.

It's talking it through. And, you know, hopefully you've got a good offensive line coach who can facilitate. A few more minutes left here with Mitchell Schwartz, champion offensive lineman, recent retiree from the Kansas City Chiefs here on the Rich Eisen Show.

I have a couple favors to ask of you. First one is I chose because I liked Devante Adams' addition and Chandler Jones' addition. And I just thought, you know, six years in a row for the Chiefs, you know, I'm going to I'm going to zig while everyone's zagging or what have you.

I chose the Raiders to win the division. And Eric Stonestreet is livid with me. You know, he'll still he'll still send me some heart emojis and stuff like that. But I think deep down he is hurt and upset with me. Can you, you know, let him know that everything's fine or just either just be a go a go between?

Because I'm assuming you're still in constant contact with him. Yeah, I can be your enemy intermediary. Maybe send some brisket or, you know, some food. Yeah. He doesn't need me to do that.

I mean, but that that would be helpful. I think so. Is he still texting you in the middle of the night about brisket and stuff like that? Is he still doing that?

Yeah, we still do that. And about Chiefs, obviously. Did you bring any brisket, Mitch, by chance? I didn't bring any brisket. He's going to a wedding.

He's in town for a wedding. Assuming it traveled well, it probably wouldn't have made it to the studio. I probably would have gotten hungry and eaten it anyway. OK. Well, you look in shape. You look like you're not just, you know, hitting the buffet or anything like that. Round is a shape. I like that.

Round is a shape. You got something, TJ? I was just wondering, Mitch, did you happen to I know you're busy right now, but you happen to get any phone calls, maybe like two or three weeks from a Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth area code, just kind of inquiring about what you're up to now. Just wondering if that might have happened. No, nothing. Nothing from that area code. It's been a while since I've gotten those calls. That was more last year when I was coming back from the injury. Not now?

Not now. Dallas, actually, I think the right tackle will be OK. Terence Steele, he's penciled in there. I think that's something not to worry about. Left tackle, that's more the concern. That's where, you know, you signed Jason Peters and I think you give him a couple weeks to get into game shape. And he showed some good things last year.

So I think there's optimism for that offensive line as well. And lastly, you know, when you said you were talking about when Mahomes first got there, and even though you saw what he was doing and you believed that this could work, you were pessimistic. And I thought to myself, why is he so pessimistic? I'm like, OK, yeah, I know, because I'm pessimistic, too. We're Jewish. So, you know, we're both Hebrews.

And I think that's, did I peg it right? That your pessimism comes from your Judaism? Absolutely.

Pessimism and guilt. OK. You know, your brother Jeff has been here. I think we've got a photograph.

Do we have it? OK, there you are. Is that the bar mitzvah? Is that your bar mitzvah or is that Jeff's bar mitzvah right there? I'm guessing that's mine because I'm the one with the kippah on, so that's probably mine. OK. Well, there he is. The man in the eyes of the Lord right there.

Back in the day. Mazel tov to the whole Schwartz family. My mother, who, by the way, turns 85 today, she'll be upset. It's Evelyn Eisen's birthday today.

She might be upset that I've actually given her age away. But, you know, she she was saying to me because her first football game she went to was at the big house at Michigan when she was visiting me when I was in school there. And there was a roughing the kicker penalty.

And I had explained to her what that was. She goes, so you couldn't touch the kicker. And I'm like, no, you can't touch the kicker.

And she goes, well, I would let you kick. That's why my dad didn't play football. His mom wouldn't let him. So what about, you know, your that was never a problem.

I think we were just so genetically mutated that they thought, OK, so we could go out there and make it happen. How big is your dad, Mitch? My dad's 6'1", maybe 220. But he's I mean, thick guy. OK. Keeps himself in much better shape than I do. OK. So I think we get our thick ankles and wrists from him. OK, very good. And so in that vein, your brother has signed this book that I have. And now you'll be the first set of brothers to sign this book that I have.

Great Jews in sports. There it is. It's very thick in case anybody wants to say the joke about being a pamphlet. It's very thick. It's old. You added the extra 300 pages.

No, no, no, no, no. The introductions by Red Auerbach, who, by the way, great Jew in sports. It's been autographed.

Here it is. Your brother was the first. He added the Star of David.

You can do whatever you wish. Jeff Schwartz, Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros. By the way, fantastic Jew in sports.

Julian Edelman signed this just a few days ago. Would you mind going ahead? I would love to. This is our second Super Bowl champion.

We've had a World Series champion. This is great. Here you go. Here's the pen. You may sign it. Take the pen. This is our fourth Jew. You need six more to have a minion. Well, you're five. Don't worry. I haven't signed it. I haven't signed it.

That's the best line on Independence Day. You need ten members of the tribe to officially start any religious proceeding. It's called a minion. Oh, got it.

So that's for all you non-Jews out there. Minion in my house has a different meaning. Oh, yeah, obviously. They're little yellow creatures.

Little yellow things. It's got nothing to do with the crew, sir. It has nothing to do.

They're very evil. This has now got four Jews signing it. This is fantastic. There it is.

You've got four. Obviously you haven't had too many sports owners in the studio. I haven't had them yet. Not yet. Not yet.

Not yet. But there's more. It's more blank pages.

By the way, it is filled with names and photographs. This is a real book. When was it published?

I feel like it's in the 80s. No. Was it written by Jewish parents? Well, it's written – it's interesting.

You say that the dedication to the children, Miriam, Shimi, Adam, and Rachel, so I'll say yes. Okay. So this is – Copyright 1983. Oh, my God. 1983.

It'll be a Shonda if you steal from this is what it says. So this was the parents making their kids Wikipedia pages before Wikipedia. Yeah, man. This is when there were world books.

You had to look at world books to start researching stuff, you know? Phenomenal. Mitchell, thanks for coming in here.

Really appreciate it. What happens tonight, do you think? What happens tonight? Some good football will happen tonight. Oh, stop it. What do you think happens tonight?

You're not going to tell me your brother – you don't have to talk about it like your brother. There will be a certain number of points that beats another team by a certain number of points that some things might go over or maybe be under. No, not quite like that. I do think – I think the Chiefs will get out to a bit of a lead. I think Herbert will have to bring them back. From the Chiefs' perspective, you don't want to get down on these guys because of the pass rush because Bosa and Mack are just so devastating that the second you get down and they get to, like, truly pin their ears back, that's when you're worrying about things. But I think, you know, the coach read the legendary first 15, kind of the preparation, you know, he hasn't been preparing for just two or three days for this game.

They spent an offseason preparing for these. So I think the Chiefs will get up a little bit. Herbert will rally them back and the Chiefs hold on at the end.

There you go. That's Mitchell Schwartz's opinion of what happens tonight. What a great game tonight.

We're so excited. Thanks for coming in here. Anytime you're in town, you've got a spot here, man. Good to see you. Good luck to you.

Thank you. That is Super Bowl champion Mitchell Schwartz, l'chaim to the great couple that you're seeing a wedding for. May they – may they break the glass safely. Speaking of big moments, Monday Night Football, Dalvin Cook will be joining us from the Vikings next.

I don't believe he is Jewish. You never know, Rich. And it's a Mercedes-Benz van we're talking about here. So expect innovative safety features like crosswind assist and blind spot assist. Expect amazing performance and reliability with an MBUX voice command system, a five-star dealer network and an available gas engine. It runs like, well, a dream.

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Simply go to Geico.com to get a rate quote or contact your local agent and get started seeing how much you could save. You can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One station streams. Or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports. If it's the NFL, it's on Westwood One. Tonight's game in Kansas City is on Westwood One. Monday night's game between the Vikings and the Eagles on Westwood One. I will be hosting the pregame and halftime of that Monday night finale to the week two that kicks off tonight.

And joining us now on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line, getting set to play in that game for the 1-0 Minnesota Vikings. This friend of the program back here once again, Dalvin Cook. How are you doing Dalvin? I'm doing good Rich. I'm doing good. You are? You sound tired. Did you just come off the practice field?

You sound a little wiped out. Yeah, we just got done. We walked through this morning. You walked through? What's a walk through like? Truly a walk through pace. Truly a walk through pace.

Gotta be locked in man. Those are the little details and stuff at you. But that's pretty much it. So if anybody goes faster than a walk, do people go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? Tempo violation. Tempo violation. A tempo violation. That's right.

Write that down. Tempo violation. Oh, and is there a fine associated with a tempo violation? It depends how many times you are a center of it. Okay.

So one is just like, okay, just like, hey everybody, hold stop. We're walking through. Two or three, then it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you.

Yeah, it's going to cost you man. Okay. How was week one's game for you Dalvin Cook? Walk me through what that felt like for you with a new coach, new situation, beating the Packers.

What was that like Dalvin Cook for you guys? It felt good man. Everything about it felt right. You know, just when we got to this day and we felt the energy, we felt God was locked in the night before. So leading up to the moment until we kicked off, everything just felt like how we talked about it.

And K.O. came up to this thing and he set some boundaries and he told us how he wanted the thing to look. Leading up to number one and it looked just like how he predicted it to look. We went out there and executed it at a high level. We left a lot on the field. We just weren't in the team.

We just weren't at the clearance league for a little while. You know, I could have played better. I know a lot of guys feel the same way, but most importantly we got the win in the division game. And we could build from a win, which is most important. Walk me through what that looks like where Kevin O'Connell, your new HC, who's the old OC from the Rams, tells you this is the way it's going to look and it looks like that. You got an example specifically? Yeah, just basically stand in attack mode, man.

That's the thing around. We want to dictate how the game goes. As far as offense, defense, defensive teams, we want to dictate how the Minnesota Vikings play. Attack teams, be situationally smart, and just play good football, man. Clean football and let the refs take care of themselves. K.O.

can do the great job of putting us up to date communities. Letting us play, turning it loose, and just having fun. You know, you've seen the outcome. What's it like for you and the rest of your offensive mates to have a head coach with an offensive mindset and background?

It's fun, man. Just being around K.O., him being around us so much with these offensive coaches. Clicking his brain, seeing how he thinks. Everything that comes behind of what he do. His philosophies of how he's trying to get things done. It's just fun being around a coach like K.O. The energy he brings in every day is unmatched.

It's a privilege for me just to be around these guys that make work so special for us. Is Kirk Cousins coming across any differently? I don't mean personality-wise. I just mean, you know, a coach was specifically brought in to be the head coach with an offense to support him and make him be as comfortable as possible. I'm not saying that that wasn't always done before, but I'm talking about a head coach, period, coming from a system, the Shanahan-McVeigh system that, you know, for whom in many different ways, Kirk Cousins is the prototypical quarterback. Anything different you sense there, Dalvin Cook?

Yeah, just a sense of him being comfortable. Him and K.O. speaking the same language, you know, back to them in Washington. Just them being on the same page is always important. You know, K.O. and Wes pretty much taught the play and got things up for them. Speaking that same language and them being on the same page, you kind of see like that, that marriage of them, you know, on and off the field, just the way they communicate with each other. So I think that's probably the biggest thing that you could take away from K.O. coming in and being a head coach. And before we get to you, Dalvin Cook, Justin Jefferson appears poised to have a very, very special season.

And I might be shortchanging the number of varies to place in front of special season. And it appears he also has a chip on his shoulder, whether it's where he's ranked by his peers in the NFL 100 list or anything else. Can you tell me what his mindset is like and your conversations with him are like about this very subject matter? Dalvin? Yeah, I spent a lot of time with D.J. I think everything that came out this off-season, whether it was a list, whether it was rating or match, whatever it was, I think he got short terms on everything. You know, from the season he just had, from the two seasons he had from being here, I think he got short terms. But his mindset and the way he's working, you kind of see that chip on his shoulder every day, the way he carries himself. Him taking that next step again, being one of our leaders on the scene, him evolving into that, you see the yearly growth in D.J. And it shows on the field.

K.O. demands a lot of our receivers. Justin is one of those elite players that we demand a lot of.

He has to fulfill what we want. So were you the guy he would be reaching out to, texting, calling, or whatever, when the lists came out, Madden ratings come out? Were you a sounding board for him, Dalvin? We were a sounding board for each other. We both feel the same.

Yeah? We both feel like when some of the lists come out for position rankings, whatever it is, it's always short chains on this side, but we kind of carry that in our back pocket and just dispose of it. Come game day, it's really game day, just turn it loose and just have fun.

That's what I always tell you, just have fun. I don't know on the list or anything, you know, the two of us are fun, coming out here and just enjoying football that we get to play every day. Well, then I guess that is a perfect segue to you then, Dalvin Cook, three straight 1,100-yard rushing seasons for you. How does the Kevin O'Connell offense cater to you and suit you, Dalvin?

Different ways, man. You see that on Sunday, all-purpose, 100-yard game, just give me the ball. Just give me the ball. Everybody knows what I can do in the right game, keep the team honest, break runs, do all that. Just give me the ball as much as they can, different ways. It's fun being around this team, being around this offense.

I get to be a kid. Go out there and just try to lose, man. I always tell everybody, I'm the ground control, y'all are the air control, and I'm going to control the ground and make sure y'all do what y'all do. Do you feel like you weren't getting the ball in previous years then as much, Dalvin? I feel like I always got the ball. I feel like that was pretty much the problem. I think people kind of knew when I was in the ball. They kind of knew when I was coming downhill.

They kind of knew when I was getting the ball a lot of the time. But now it's just a variety of things. Where is he going to be?

Where is he? Just different things that Kale comes up with every day. Just to give people the ball. It's fun.

It's fun. Do you want those players to get the ball? And on the defensive side, before we just turn to Monday night and send you on to the rest of your day, Dalvin Cook. Big Z. I enjoyed when he came on my show a few months ago. That moment with him and Rodgers. He kind of shoved.

He got shoved and all that business. What has he brought energy-wise to this team, this defense for you guys? He brought that coach that we've been hiring. He brought that coach that Kale tried to bring in with him. That Kale brought in with him. He brought the coaches. Just bringing that energy to the whole defense. He was cracking us up. And we're going to get that sack. Just feeling his presence every play. You know, he's so close to getting Rodgers a lot of times. Him taking the double-team and freeing Daniil up. And all those other guys. They dialing Thomas. And all those other guys.

They can just go eat one-on-one blocks. It's just been fun. It was fun watching those guys on the sideline. He's doing his celebration. Daniil. He brings that energy. He brings a lot out of the players that they don't know that they got inside of them.

Like Daniil. You know that excitement. He's going to get his sack.

But he kind of brings the extra stuff out of them. Well, how does it feel to wear number 4 again for you, Dallin? You like it? I feel light, man. I feel great. I feel how I'm supposed to feel. I feel like Dallin, man. I feel like me. I feel perfect, man. Everything about it, man. Just going out there and just having fun, man. I feel like a kid again. I'm just having fun. Enjoying it.

And I'm just trying to get something to wear every week. So that second digit was weighing you down? Is that what you're saying?

Just single digit? You feel lighter? This is still lighter, man.

Everything about it just feels like a load off for a little kid, man. Okay. And then when you step on that field on Monday night, home of that NFC Championship game after the Minnesota Miracle put you in that spot, you're going to be thinking about that a little bit? Monday night? No. No. No. No.

Actually not, man. I just did it. I just did it, man. New theme around, man. Looking forward, man. We're just looking forward. Looking forward.

Standing the tech move. Okay. So what are you going to be thinking? As you know, Eagles' offense week one against the Lions, they were cooking too. You know, hurts to A.J.

Brown and things like that. What do you think? What are you going to be thinking? Obviously you're going to have to maybe match point for point, but you've got an Eagles defense out there that's feeling its oats too. What are you going to be thinking about when you step on that field Monday night? Go make that play, man.

That's all I'll be thinking about. Go make that play. Play come. Go make it.

I know everybody else is thinking the same way. No hesitation. Go make that play. That's how I'm going to be made.

Go make it, man. A lot of times you just leave, get caught up in, I want to play, it's going to come. You know, when it's the play, it's not going to come. You don't know when the play is, but I'll take every play.

You know, like just my last. I'm going to go make that play with my name, Carl, to help my team win the game. So I'm going to be thinking about coming Monday night. All right, Dalvin Cook, thanks for the time. T.J. Jefferson, you want to ask him a question before he goes on in his day in Minnesota? Yeah, just real quick, Dalvin, what up, man?

You know, Chris on the show here, he's a big Georgia fan. I'm a big fan of your brother, James, had a little bit of a tough debut with a fumble. I know he's going to bounce back, but there's any like big brother advice that you gave him because, you know, you're there and you're doing it.

Anything that you kind of told him to help him keep his head up and, you know, kind of let that go and just move on in a positive manner? It was a nice spectacular. One thing about my brother, he doesn't lack any confidence in his play. You know, I watched him play with him a few times. He got the most he could have did, but the defender made a great play. The ball was locked up and everything. I told him, look, keep the ball off the ground. Look, man, keep that ball off the ground, man. The ball is off the court right now, man.

But other than that, man, it was nothing but the awesome stuff. Look, they got the way in and me just telling them to have to. They will get me out of the play. Okay.

And that is the way in. Let's go make the next play. Let's be more positive right here.

If you want to talk SEC football, let's talk about Florida State knocking off LSU. How about that? Let's be more positive. Now we talking. Now we talking.

Right? I didn't think that was a negative. Now that's your Florida, that's your Florida, and by the way, T.J.'s a Florida State guy. That's why Dalvin's my guy. I know. But you're also a Pitt guy. Yeah. True. Penn State.

Penn State. Just those three, though. It's okay.

But Dalvin's been my dude. It's okay. I know that. I know that. I know that. I appreciate that. I know that. You must have been celebrating when that extra point got blocked.

I mean, that's for damn sure. What a game that was. What a game that was. All right, Dalvin, you take care of yourself. Go on with your day. Appreciate the time. We'll see you Monday night.

We'll be listening for you Monday night on Westwood One. And you be well, sir. As always.

Appreciate it, brother. As always. I'm going to ask Dalvin Cook right here on The Rich Eisen Show. That wasn't a negative question.

I mean, just like, you know. I just thought it was. I honestly thought, you know, I'm going to ask Dalvin Cook a question. I'm like, it had to be Florida State. Had to be. It had to be. Well, no, you know, it's, you know, it's the. But you went content.

You went content over fandom. And I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm sure his brother probably was down a little bit. Big brother's been there before. It kind of.

I got it. That was a good question. Good question. I'm not saying it was a bad question.

It was just not the question I thought it would be. I'm like when I did the NFL 100 all time team show and. Bill Belichick was an analyst, and he's like, I'd like to ask the first question of me, Joe Green, when he sits down, I'm like, absolutely.

Roll tape, roll tape and start taping the segment. Me and Joe Green sits down and Belichick was the only time for the entire two day shoot. He's like, I'd like to ask the first question where he said anything about run of show or anything. I'm like, of course you asked the question. I thought to myself, how to be Chuck Knoll, how to be something about the steel, the steel curtain defense had to be first question out of his mouth is like, man, that soda commercial, that Pepsi commercial or the Coke commercial. That was cool. That was unbelievable.

How many times did you have to drink a Coke? I'm like, whoa, Belichick went pop culture on me. It was like the Chris Farley show.

Remember that time when you did that Coke commercial, have a Coke and a smile, your kid catch. It had to be cool for you just to see Bill kind of put on that fan hat. It was amazing.

We see what we get at press conferences, but you got to see like the fan in him and that was great. That show was amazing by the way. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that.

Won the Emmy. All right. We'll take a break right here.

Not to say that I'm Mona Lisa Vito. Thank you very much. There you go. All right. We'll take a break right here on the Rich Eisen show and wrap up the show.

Let's talk about tonight's game because it's a big game tonight. Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection.

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You can if you'd like. What do you think, a tight defensive battle tonight? Definitely not. Or just fireworks? Definitely not. If we don't see at least six touchdowns tonight, I'm going to be very disappointed.

What does Las Vegas have to say about it? 54 tonight. Oh, so that's more than a second. That's a large number. That's the highest total so far. This year. This year. I don't know.

40, 45. Don't ask me. Seriously. Rich is like the unfrozen caveman lawyer. No, I'm not unfrozen caveman lawyer. I don't know. Honestly, I don't traffic in that stuff. It's funny, they're like, don't talk gambling, right? Who said that?

I mean, just that's the general sense. Can we talk gambling without you? No, you can talk as much gambling as you want. You can too, Rich. No, but I don't traffic in it.

I don't traffic in it. I will say this. The line did open the cheese for three and a half point favorites, now up to four and a half. Our two minute, our segment, whatever the hell, I'm blanking on it, where we put 60 seconds on the clock. No, it's basically like, well, they're going to have- It's all like such and such teams average to combine for 54 points and the over under is 54 and a half.

What do you think? It's an oddly specific numbers, our no huddle segment. I don't know, I like the Chiefs tonight. It's sneaky like the under tonight. I don't know. I do like the Chiefs to win tonight. Why do you like the under though?

It's more. I like the Chiefs to win tonight. Chargers have good defense. I mean, look, we thought the Raiders were going to score a lot of points last week and Coyle, Mack and company, Dermott, Jay, they just went out and shut them down. That's true. And I know that they're on the road, but as we pointed out, the road teams won the last four in this matchup. I just think that the Chiefs are on tilt and I think that the Chargers are going to make the mistake. I don't know. That's what I'll say.

Yeah. Well, it's early in the season though. The Chargers are going to bring it. Hey, look, it's for the first place in the AFC West after two weeks and neither of those teams will be named the Raiders. The Raiders. Chargers mistakes usually come at the end of the season though. Or the end of games.

The end of games. Herbert's played really well against the Chiefs. By the way, Herbert, Rich, this guy's arm strength. It's amazing.

It's stupid. Like he was firing balls on like, it's unbelievable. And he's like rolling to his left, falling down and still throwing darts.

He can make every single throw. It's unbelievable. Imagine, again, I know. Imagine if he played street ball.

I know. Good one. I know we're getting Herbert and Mahomes twice a year. Could you imagine if we got Herbert and Allen twice a year? If the Dolphins had taken Herbert.

Wow. Herbert and Allen twice a year. I was watching an interview with Allen and somebody asked him, like, how many times have you like thrown the ball as hard as you possibly can? And he literally said, there's been like two times his whole career. Well, he doesn't want to hurt anybody. Yeah. He was like, I've thrown it really hard.

Like twice. You get the feeling that's going to be one of the great kind of NFL what ifs. What if the Dolphins had taken Herbert? What if the Jets had taken Allen?

Hey, what if Jerry had fired Jimmy? But you're playing the result there. I don't think Allen was ever going to go in the top five. So you're kind of playing the result.

Well, the Seahawks apparently wanted to do that at very draft. Look, Hoskins don't want to hear this stuff, man. I shouldn't say that. He's counting us down to break. Hoskins has got to focus. He's got to focus, he's got to focus. He's got to focus. I'm sweating back there.

We'll chat on Friday on radio, back on Roku in a second. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson, too. All-time Hogan opponents, Macho Man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Even going back before Hulk Hogan was a baby face, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome, at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.