REShow: Dwight Freeney/Kenyan Drake - Hour 3 (11-9-2022)

It's just keep on coming. This is the rich izan show with guest host tom pelasero Tom pelasero in for rich izan day one of three for me very excited to be here along with the guys in the studio Great guests this hour Dwight Frini is gonna join us.

Hopefully in the next few minutes here Lot to react to and what's going on in the be honest. You'd never heard of parks Frasier before yesterday, right? Yeah parks free. It's a great name.

It's great right there. Ah, yes, I got the call Along with the interoperable and my response was who that who? He's 30 years old He was hired as the assistant to the head coach not assistant a coach assistant to like a stand a head coach Yes, it's a Dwight Schrute thing But I will tell you I'll find the text yesterday because a lot of people have the same reaction. Who is this guy? One text I got immediately from somebody who was on staff with them in Indianapolis was parks is an absolute stud Hope he kills it still a very tough situation to be in in other words You're dealing with a new head coach who's not coached before you have not called plays before You have a quarterback who has not played particularly well and has only started a couple of games in the NFL Well Good luck Go out and see what happens rock counting on you We're joined right now on the Mercedes-Benz van phones line by seven-time Pro Bowl pick member the NFL's all 2000s team.

He's a Super Bowl champ one of our favorites NFL legend Dwight free knee is with us Dwight Thank you very much for joining the show. Where do we find you on this this fine day? Well, I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida trying to dodge a hurricane Yeah, hopefully it goes down to a tropical storm. So we'd love to deal with that But yeah, yeah, I've been dodging a few hurricanes.

I love it done. Well, I will I'll start then by saying If you see a hurricane coming Dwight, feel free to hang up. This is a very important interview to us But for you and your safety, we don't want to lose you For the next few minutes here on this show. Let me get your thoughts up in Indianapolis franchise Do you know really well? You certainly know Jim er say they fire Frank Reich They make to the outside an extraordinary hire in Jeff Saturday to be the interim head coach What has been your reaction to everything that's been happening in your former NFL home? I think it's similar to most people where you know, you're just surprised You're like, you know when someone called me and told me, you know Frank got fired. I Was like man, that's tough because Frank's a great guy and I think he's a really good coach I think he had just a whole bunch of bad luck and situation this year where it was out of his control You know you have Jonathan Taylor that goes down and injuries in the first few weeks, you know, that's your horse All right, and then your backup running back 90 times gets hurt with the concussion.

He's gone for three to four weeks So then, you know, you have an off the line who's just in shambles So your quarterback no matter what kind of quarterback you got back there They're gonna get attacked and rushed and blitzed and and the ball is gonna be coming out all different types of ways So, you know the tough situation, I think you know Frank manages it as well as it could Um, they're on the base on the circumstances. So when I heard you got fired up at all, man, that's rough Yeah, I wonder who they're gonna you know, promote, you know in house and then I heard it was Jeff and I said, hold on second who Cuz I was just with Jeff, you know at the ring of honor for target Glenn We were talking a little football. We're talking about, you know scheme things and whatever and you know, there wasn't even a mention of any type of including of wanting to be a head coach or anything, right? And I think he actually mentioned it in his press conference that he was surprised Alright, so, you know, I it's gonna be a real tough situation. He's walking into you know there's a reason why you just promote somebody within the organization just to go up and You know salvage what you can salvage for the year Because you know what to do, you know how it's been working You know the play calls and the things that you've worked on from minicamp training camp All of the things that had progressed to this point you kind of know it so you're not kind of like, you know going in there fresh and And trying to recreate the wheel now. I don't think that Jeff is going to do that I think Jeff is gonna obviously, you know, he's a smart guy. He's a great guy He's happy for him, you know, because obviously he's had aspirations of wanting to be a head coach even though surprise to me I never knew he wanted to be one and So therefore he gets you know A great situation in a sense where you don't really have to interview for anything.

You just go out and just do it But that being said if you look too bad, maybe they people don't look at him and saying, you know He didn't took a terrible job, but you know, I guess like he said, right? He has nothing to lose in the situation We'll see but I was surprised man. I was definitely surprised So you go from the the surprise of Frank Reich being fired to the surprise of your former teammate Jeff Saturday being plucked from TV analyst job and a former high school coaching job to be the head coach How quickly then does your brain turn toward? Why didn't you mercy call me Dwight Frini to be the interim head coach? No, I would Yeah, so yeah, I I don't know man, I'd be honest with you obviously there's some type of conversation at some point You know, I think you know, Jeff is a great leader, you know He had been when he was playing for us, you know back in the day and obviously, you know they saw something in him to where as though this would be his Opportunity to be the guy forever or for as long as they would like now This isn't the one thing I'm going to say is look this is a eight week or whatever two months You know, I guess I don't even want to call it a audition because you're walking into a middle of a season and It's kind of like it's a real can't really be judged Too harshly on whatever happens here, you know, so that's what I think the upside is But it's you know, it's not a situation where they may not they may find another head coach after two months You know, they may say hey Jeff, thank you for just holding down the ship for two months And now we're gonna go through an interview process and bring some other guys I just don't know what's gonna happen because this has never happened before, you know, I've never seen anything like this I don't know if you guys ever seen like this.

So it's one of those things where you know We're all have our hands in here like all right. Well, let me know what's gonna happen What about as a player Dwight and I know you didn't experience a ton of coaching changes during your NFL career but if you're in that locker room and For one thing, I mean you've already gone through Matt Ryan gets benched Which from all local reports was a shock to a lot of players in that locker room The following week the offensive coordinator gets fired then the head coach gets fired And now you're bringing in someone who listen people I think probably know Loosely, a lot of guys might have heard Jeff Saturday's name But a lot of the players in the league on that team are 21 22 years old. They don't remember watching Jeff Saturday They know him as a guy who showed up occasionally for the the ring of honor Celebration if he's walking in front of you as great of a guy as smart of a guy as he is What's the the players reaction when he gets up there for the first time in a team meeting this morning? Well, you know They'll probably be just like how we are He's gonna be completely shocked that this is happening, you know, Indianapolis has been a pretty stable place in a sense You know, it's always been you know, Frank. He's been there for four years, right?

This is I think you're going into his fifth year. So they were used to you know, how he controlled meeting in his pulse And I'm and he was a liked guy. He wasn't you know, there's some coaches where you just can't wait for him to get fired Thank God this guy's gone, you know party, you know, let's have a party now, you know, that wasn't Frank Frank It was beloved. Everyone loved him Um, and he's just that type of guy so you feel really bad when he's gone and then Jeff He's a great stand-up guy, too But I think he's also understands he was a player he understands what those players are thinking like what's gonna happen next You know, you know, are you gonna completely change things? And I don't think he will because that would make no sense. You don't have time to do a whole 180 on your scheme and what you're gonna play call your play calls and and then who's gonna do this?

Who's gonna do that kind of have to kind of like just manage it all, you know And then get those motivational speeches or whatever get those guys minds, right? Or maybe Help with the offensive line, you know, that's the problem with the team right now quite frankly The defense has done everything they could possibly do based on the circumstances Of all these turnovers and sudden changes and in what's going on It's the offensive line who truth be told has failed this team And so maybe he's there to Don't fix that. I don't know Well a just Saturday revealed today that Jim Erce called him during the game on Sunday Dwight Not after called him during the games and what the H is wrong with the the offensive line and 24 hours later Jeff Saturday not even 24 hours later was the the head coach of the team I think that a lot of people over the past several weeks maybe casual NFL fans people who were fans of other teams Have kind of been getting immersed in the gym Erce experience between his comments about Daniel Snyder You know potentially being removed as owner of the commanders to now the press conference introducing Jeff Saturday and the unique thought process That went into it. I mean you spent a a decent amount of time around Jim through the years Like how would you how would you describe Jim Erce to someone who has never met him? Jim is something else Jim is Jim is a great guy first of all All right, and he's just one of those guys. He's just gonna do what he feels Whatever he feels whatever his gut is telling him. That's what he's going to go by Um, so I mean that's been my experience with him, you know, he's just you know, and usually his compass You know is in the right place, you know, not everybody makes all the right decisions You know, no one's perfect.

Jim is not perfect. He's gonna make bad decisions bad hires like every other owner out there You know, but this is his his ship and his team And his team and he's going to decide to do it the way he wants to do it and he follows it by his gut And he doesn't you know, he's not gonna like listen, you know, he may listen to people I don't know exactly, you know, i'm not in this inner circle So I don't know if he had any influence and making this decision But you know just knowing Jim, you know, he's a guy that you know, he had to stand your toes You know just because but but you know, he's not going to do anything crazy But he's just gonna you know do things Maybe a little you know To the left or right or whatever. However, you want to look at it that you know, it's just based on his gut So fanning out Dwight and i'm sure you still you still watch the league at this point Um as you look around obviously we've had a lot of close games this season There's been a lot of low scoring games. There's a lot of offenses. We're accustomed to seeing play well and be high powered that are very much not that are struggling in your mind when you're just Watching it as one of the the best players of your generation Do you see bad offense or good defense in the league right now?

Um, you know, it's it's it's a mixture of of both. I think I think because of so much of rule changes and um You know from You know a defensive perspective it becomes really hard and obviously I'm a little biased on this, but you know the way that they protect the quarterback um It's Turned into a little bit of a different game All right. Now, you know, this game has done everything for me and I love this game um, but you know sometimes when you You know protect the quarterback the way that they the way that they do Okay Um, it makes everyone else feel like they're pawns Like they don't really matter, you know, like this defensive guy who Has to make a play He's making a play not only for Himself, but his team And his family, you know, he has to you know, put food on the table, whatever his aspirations are You know in his career and if he's getting penalized for doing his job, right? um, which When I say that It takes people who have done um Or played the position of defensive line or what have you to understand How impossible some of these situations that they're getting flagged for You know, I get it. We want to protect the quarterback position In all positions, right? But there's a level of realistic Expectations, you know that have to be looked at this And intense has to be looked into this and replays need to be looked in, you know to be implemented Um potentially because a lot of these roughing the passer situations Are costing?

You know Please games All right. So when you have a quarterback who can sit back there And basically drink a little martini and know that no one's going to really hit him And he's going to go and he can go ahead and do the things that he does in the pocket. It changes um the aggression and different things defensively which equate to more points And and different things there which obviously I think that's where the league and the nfo will prefer because fans love the Uh, 59 57 games You know with a million touchdowns You know, but for me I see that I get nauseous and I want to throw up Like where's the defense? um So I do believe that you know the game, you know still has some tweaking to do Um, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that some of these rule changes have changed certain things to where those Points are being scored Um a lot easier from an offensive perspective Um, and defense is just a little bit harder To uh do now because you just don't know what you can do So so last question for you along those lines Dwight, I looked it up the last game you played was uh new year's eve 2017 So it's been close to five years, uh since you last suited up in the nfl Let's say, you know since Strange things are happening. Let's say jim erce calls you up this week.

It says Dwight I know you would uh, you would have hung up on me if I offered you the head coaching job, but Boy, this pass rush is really struggling here. He brings you back for eight games right now You're suiting up. So let's say, you know, that'd be 70 snaps a game But just you know situationally you're playing third downs or something eight games the rest of the season Dwight How many sacks do you have for the colts? How many sacks to my house? Oh, well based on these rules, not many You're getting there but they're getting overturned is what you're saying All thousands of that i'm gonna get there. All right, i'm gonna get there and I might get a Another I make make a few plays, you know, one of the plays is going to be called a hamstring and another place will be called roaring But within within those plays i'm gonna get some sacks and they may take them away But i'm not laying down a quarterback gently.

I just don't know how to Do I awesome stuff please stay safe and please come back to the show soon There's no problem. You guys take care of yourself NFL legend Dwight free who? Someone to argue wisely would have hung up on jim erse if he was offered that the interim head coaching job That was a fantastic answer I'm also already thinking about which quarterbacks would have what drink while standing in the pocket You put martinis on the lot of them not everybody's a martini drinker, but there's definitely a few A couple of NFL quarterbacks are chicken martinis.

I can't think just a big glass of vodka before you go out there to uh to practice Probably not a great plan. What's the fastest ball sport in the world? Not baseball not tennis It is in fact the sport of hilai spelled jai alai Originating in the basque region of spain and played professionally in the us most notably in the 1980s Hylai is making an unprecedented comeback.

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This is the story of the original influencer. This is elizabeth the first Elizabeth the first the podcast wherever you listen Tom pelissero in for rich isen who is over in munich germany going to be calling the Buccaneers seahawks game on sunday morning on nfl network talking a lot of nfl today and joined by another guest Another great guest right now He's coming off of a monster game scored a couple of touchdowns over a hundred yards from scrimmage in a win over the saints Ravens running back kenyon drake is with us kenya a lot of football stuff I want to get into with you But first off, I want to hit this event you've got going tonight you and ronnie stanley doing a meet and greet Say thank you to veterans who will be joining with pups for patriots It's tonight six to seven thirty at wegmans in owings mills, maryland. Tell me about this man Yeah, thanks for having me on tom and um Yeah, it's just the event kind of saluting the patriots and the thing that they or the veterans and I would say for what they um, you know do for us, uh, you know overseas and you know in their own way and um, You know bringing pups and patriots together Uh, especially people that suffer from ptsd Uh dogs when I have to of my own are, you know, obviously just a joy to have in your world and uh to kind of provide A service to them by you know, bringing them together with pups um, just kind of give them uh, the ability to kind of overcome whatever they may be uh, You know going through from the things that they have experienced in their life So, uh, you know, it's a great event over at wegman and uh, owings mills, maryland And i'm excited to be a part of it with uh, my fellow teammate ronnie That's phenomenal, man.

Great on you for uh for doing that. Let's talk about your team here Uh, you guys have had leads in every game this season Obviously a couple of them got away from you early, but it seems like the ravens are uh gathering some momentum here What's allowed you guys to do that? Um, we have a lot of confidence in ourselves first and foremost uh, the The losses that we had earlier in the year just kind of prepared us for you know This stretch that we want to continue to be on Um, obviously we just came from a a great win on monday night We have a ball week now so we can kind of refresh and revamp to get people back that were injured and um You know, we want to continue to hit the ground running. Uh, there was something that harp said to us at the end of the season When we were having those four quarter struggles was that you know, every great team That goes on any type of run You know, they kind of go through some type of adversity and uh, we were able to kind of overcome our adversity early in the season Um, and we're ready to kind of take that next step I don't know how much of it all you knew lamar personally before Uh, you join the ravens, but you know watching watching him up close Every week and also knowing I mean you've been in the football business for seven years, you know, you know that Contract stuff can weigh on certain people Lamarr it clearly does not he does not seem to care. He's playing it out on a final deal He may be headed for franchise tags and whatnot what what just jumps out about about him to you Not just in terms of what he does on the field, but just the person that you see on a day-to-day basis Yeah, he's a very very unique Player obviously, but even more unique person. He just he is who he is. Um, and that's what I respect about him the most like Day in and day out no matter the circumstances no matter the noise going on around him. He's going to be who he is And um, he continues to impress me more, you know off the field Like you said with you know, the contract situation that he has going on. I was in several I guess really contract situations of my own from the 2019 season when I was with the dolphin I got traded to the cardinals and The following season when I was on the one year um transition tag with the cardinals and I can tell from my own personal experience that it was definitely pressure I put pressure on myself You know and to go out there and just try to you know, perform, you know, just is what it is And with him, you know he's on a whole another Stratosphere in terms of you know, the pressure around him to go out and succeed and lead this team and he's just him And you know, I continue to be impressed by you know Like I said the clarity is but even more about a man it is that he continues to you know Just be him and go out and you know play this great brand of football that you know, we've all come to enjoy Let's role play just for a second here.

Canyon. I'm gonna be Lamar Jackson. You be your general manager. Eric Dacosta All right. We're talking about this after the season the contract talks have been on hold since back in september. All right, eric Listen, I don't know what else you want from me here Uh, the sean watson got a fully guaranteed contract five years 230 million. I've won an mvp I might have a second one by the time we're having this conversation. Uh, I want five years 300 fully guaranteed if you want to get this deal done. Otherwise you can tag me. That's fine I'll keep playing it out five years 300 million dollars fully guaranteed.

What do you think? You can have wherever you want If only we're that easy What I would say that obviously it's a business You know You know, he knows it's a business everybody, you know in this organization knows it's a business So if it was that easy, obviously it would have been done But you know, he's going to continue to do the things he needs to do. Um, everybody around is going to continue to you know Be a pivotal part to this team success and um, you know, we're just excited to continue to Uh, take that next step forward as we go to the bar. We can get ready for the next game Ravens running back.

Kenyon drake is our guest. I was thinking about this earlier today I think I interviewed you on the field for nfl network in miami. It had to have been maybe 2018 2017 or 18 somewhere in there and you've been you know Obviously all over the place since then from arizona to the raiders, uh to now the ravens and yet When you're given the opportunity in all those places you you seem to produce like what? I know it's hard when you're in the in the middle of it to kind of reflect on your career But what's this been like this journey of kind of being this this hired gun that uh, Every every fan around the country about week four goes man.

He's I got to pick him up in my fantasy leagues He's doing it again Um, i'm just i'm just me at the end of the day. Uh I feel like the things that you can't control You know you go out there and you make the most of it and the things that you can control You allow those things to kind of manifest into what you feel like you want them to be in a sense I don't know how to really explain any better. I just I understand who I am as a person as a man and I understand that at the end of the day is the business You know, I won't necessarily my skill set, you know, ironically won't necessarily fit in every single thing You know in terms of like every team's scheme and what they think of me and you know How they want me to go out and produce but uh when I get on the field, you know, even since I was Abbama, you know what I mean? Like we have so many weapons there And whenever I touch the ball, I wanted to make an impact even without the ball as well uh, and I just you know any type of opportunity I get I go out there and I make the most of it in terms of just being Who I am putting my my footprint my fingerprint on the game And I love this game, you know, I love every opportunity that I get and you know I try to show that in any and every way on another field And I just you know want to continue to do that as far as possible Your situation was a little bit unusual with the Raiders in this offseason where you had that big guarantee For this year new regime comes in that's not uncommon. They want their own guys They they decide to move on from you.

They try to trade you doesn't work out you end up getting released When you look at what's going on in las vegas right now, what do you think? Um, you know, it's hard for me to even speak on it because obviously i'm not there, you know Uh, I want everybody there to have as much success, you know as they possibly can of course They're going through whatever they're going through because of you know Whatever, you know what I mean? Like I haven't put too much merit or thought into What they have going on, you know, I talk to some of the guys over there every now and then and you know They're they're worried about you know specifically what they can do to help the team win obviously And uh, you know, I hope that they can you know continue to turn around because I have a lot of love for You know the people that are still there in that order in that organization in general Uh, but for me to even speak on it would be you know Above or you know beyond you know what I can control which like I said is Is something that I i'll try to continue to merit on or you know, run my own race in a sense So in terms of things you can control you guys are a pretty good team right now You're going into the bye It seems like now you've had some unfortunate injuries obviously with rishad bateman being out for the season jk Has been down for a while now But you guys are in a good spot at six and three When you look at the lay of the land right now in your division in the conference really in the entire league Where where do you where did the 2022 baltimore raven stack up? Man, um, it's funny.

I saw us that Where it was talking about how? We've had a double-digit lead in every game this season And of course, you know, we you know, we're able to hold on to three of those leads because we've lost those games And the other teams that have come before us that that's had that type of success has Only lost like one game I think and we lost, you know three of those games as well So it's like the skies are winning for us. Um, you know, we want to you know Like I said continue to get healthy That's first and foremost especially going into this ball week and then taking in the game at a time It's a season within a week in the NFL Uh, so you can't look past any team no matter the record, you know, it's any given sunday You know, you know, I continue just so cliches out there.

That's just what it is. Uh, I just Understand that this team works hard understand that this team Um is going to you know lay it out on the field offense defense special teams. We're three facet teams And uh as we continue to kind of press forward, we're going to take it a day at a time or a game at a time And uh, you know try to make the most of this this thing right here in 2022 Last thing for you before I let you go. Kenyon Is it is it strange looking at the college football playoff rankings and you got to scroll all the way down to number nine? to see uh, see alabama in there You know, it's it's it's pretty funny because When you look at You know that identity as a team and the games that they lost Uh, they've lost, you know two tough games on the role against top 10 opponents You know what I mean?

And sometimes that's just that's just how the cookie crumbles. Uh, it's You know, I would love for them to obviously be undefeated uh and continue to be their dominant selves, but I mean, you know, it's It's it's great and it's still fun to watch them continue to compete, you know And i'm i'm excited to see how the season kind of continues to unfold because you never know the year that I The year to be both years that we won a national championship. We lost one game And we lost one year against tekke and em against johnny mezell when he had his house and run And then the next time we won was 2015 and that was my senior year We lost early in the season against oldness both times.

We need to help You know to get to the sc championship to get to the playoffs or bcs, you know championship back in my rookie year my freshman year And you know it all happened But you know two losses are probably a little difficult to kind of overcome Especially when you are so late in this season against lsu, but um, you know, i'm excited to see how everything continues to unfold for them Kenny we really appreciate the time best of luck with the pups for patriots event tonight 6 to 7 30 wegmans in owens mills, maryland with kenya drake and ronnie stanley appreciate the time man and uh, Enjoy the buy best luck the rest of the season Yes, sir. Appreciate you having calm that is ravens running back kenya drake Who's again, like I said, he's he's bounced around keeps being on a different team every season But when called upon he's he's taking advantage of those those opportunities the ravens right now Are a really interesting team to me because you watch them early in the season and you watch the struggles on defense And yet when you look at them offensively right now, they remain one of the hardest teams to match up with there's just not a lot of quarterbacks who do the things that lamar jackson does and even when they're down a mark anders and They're down jk dobbins and they're down. We're shot bait men and they just kind of they they figure out All right, who's gonna line up a running back last year? It was let's sign latavius murray and labian bell off the street this year Remember they lost all their backs before the season even right exactly They had to do it because they lost obviously dobbins went down gus edwards went down in that practice as well So you're you're shorthand of the entire year.

They just they make it work and it all revolves around one guy. I mean I don't know how Thoroughly Kenyan thought through the answer on that but I think it was the it's the correct dynamic Which is if you're eric dacosta right now and under listen market dynamics are a different thing But you are in a position where it's like How do you not say we need to do whatever it takes to get this done? You don't want to be doing the fully guaranteed contract There's a reason that nfl teams flipped out when the browns did it with the sean watson? Obviously you face serious allegations of sexual misconduct, but also no one had ever done a deal like that It upended the entire economics of the nfl There's something called the funding rule where if you fully guarantee a contract the following january or february or whatever it is You got to put all that money in escrow if there's one thing billionaires don't like it's having money not working for them Just sitting there doing nothing And so we've seen other contracts get done since the kyla murray deal the russell wilson deal. They've not been fully guaranteed Lamar who serves as his own agent with help from his mom Wanted a fully guaranteed contract the ravens weren't willing to go there.

They let him play it out lamar His leverage is i'm willing to play it out. The sean watson's leverage was we got multiple bidders That wasn't as one person within the league told me that wasn't a trade. That was free agency What the sean watson had was four or five teams that are all bidding For him and the texans were already a spot where okay, if you want to talk to him You got to be willing to put two first round picks and additional picks three first round picks and additional picks And all those teams step up said they would then it was just about the money the browns were told they were out The very morning he agreed they're told you're out and they came back and went. All right, we'll do it We're willing to put all the money on the table right now your average player even the best quarterbacks don't have that When you're trying to do the deals early Because you don't want to franchise tag them. It's not great for your salary cap but You're also in a spot where you have the control not many guys play the whole thing out It's a short list kirk cousins did it got a fully guaranteed deal from the vikings, but he had to play on two tags If lamar does that we're talking about 2025 technically they could tag him a third time, but it's such an astronomical number They would never do that. You wouldn't think although who knows where the cap is going and everything else It just it creates a different dynamic not to mention you're negotiating directly with the player And don't forget the ravens at the trade deadline acquire roquon smith another player who represents himself And is unsigned beyond the season you have one franchise tag to use so there is going to be a lot of incentive If not pressure on the ravens to figure out a way to get one of these deals done You would think lamar is going to be the priority of those deals. And if i'm sitting back going I can either commit 50 plus million dollars a year to lamar jackson or 20 plus million dollars a year roquon smith Even though it's a bigger number.

I know what direction i'm going And it's to lamar because he impacts everyone around him. That's taking nothing nothing away from roquon smith, but it's just It's it's going to be a fascinating Thing to watch play out in the couple of months after the season january february march Yeah, or you could do the scenario where you get roquon locked up tag lamar. See how next year goes and then Go back to this all over again, but roquon wants 20 million plus per year. He wants top of the market Inside linebacker money, which was a market that did not exist at that level until the jets Got cj moseley from the ravens. The only way they did that was to offer him 17 million a year Which was way beyond what anybody was making so then bobby wagner gets the bigger deal We've seen other guys get bigger deals.

So that that number is at such a high Scale here. Are you going to pay roquon that money? You gave up a draft pick for him. So you would think yes With lamar you're incentivized to get something done, but you also have a player who you know It's going to show up on the tags. He doesn't seem to care He doesn't look at the value of it and part of that's not having an agent No agent would allow the lamar to play last year in 2021 for like three million dollars or whatever he was making He would have said we're getting the deal done or he's not showing up It's funny how the ravens always find themselves in these situations like cj moseley and matthew judon two of their best linebackers in the last Few years leave in free agency to big deals with the jets and patriots and now here they are back again with roquon smith Having to pay this guy that they just acquired well And if you're one of the best drafting teams in the league, which the ravens are You can look at it as all right We let some of those guys walk because you're right going all the way back to like rick wagner and other players They've had some of their best A day with thomas who went to the patriots. I was one of bill's first big splash Defensive free agency signings 10 12 years ago, right? They've had homegrown players who have left for big free agency deals when you do that Number one you're you're keeping cap space available because if you don't pay somebody 15 20 million dollars a year That's money you can use to potentially make up the production elsewhere and number two you get comp picks You get a third round pick out if you constantly are adding those additional draft assets That gives you a lot of flexibility to be able to to make other moves now.

They're not going to want to let Roquon smith walk much less lamar jackson, but it does create urgency here There's not a lot of teams that find themselves in those situations The giant's potential have it with daniel jones and saquon barkley I don't know that you look at daniel jones in the same category as lamar jackson at this point But if you decide he's your quarterback it still creates some pressure here because you would certainly think that they want to resign saquon who's very much the the heartbeat of that team Uh, let's take a quick break here. We have we have a response. Oh from russell wilson To wristband gate. I just saw these quotes Uh, it's awesome. I could talk wristbands all day. We'll talk about that We'll talk about uh, mike mccarthy going back To green bay as well coaching the cowboys against the packers coming up this weekend. That's next on the rich isen show Russell wilson has now responded To uh, the words of pete carol a couple of days ago regarding, uh, along the lines of The russell didn't say russell's name But just was compliment geno smith for wearing the wristband how to expedite some things and cleans up the play calling process and That there have been some pushback some resistance in the past. Here's what russell wilson had to say Today when asked about those comments You don't you don't like the we come to find out you don't like the play sheet on the wristband What do you mean? Well, there's uh, you know Pete carol said something about putting a wristband Oh, I don't know exactly what he said, but um But I think you know Won a lot of games there without one on the wrist You know and uh, I didn't know uh winning or losing mattered if you wore a wristband or not But uh, I think that uh, you know, I you know do whatever it takes to to to make sure that we're rolling and moving And everything else a few times i've definitely won wristband depending on the game plan and what we have called and all that stuff He's smiling oh my he's but you can see underneath Uh, I don't know if you really hadn't seen the comments because he kind of looks over at uh, patrick smith or whoever the pr Guy was who was there?

Uh, like what's what are they talking about? But uh Yeah, I mean that is listen the amount of shade that pete's been throwing at rust though in the last few weeks has been you know I mean it's it is entertaining And who would have thought for us? Every narrative about the russell wilson ceox divorce Was geared around they didn't do enough Pete's got to go You know, they they wasted some years with him and now he's moving on he's gonna go win in denver And I think that there's a part of pique carol. That's just kind of like I'm gonna take a victory lap right now Even though we're halfway through the season right and and russell wilson could turn around he he's not been healthy He's not been fully, you know in rhythm in the system. They're getting better.

You've seen good stretches of rust I know that it's easy to reduce it to You know the the social media videos and the high knees and the broncos country lets ride and all those things You have seen flashes. All right, the first half against the raiders He played really well and then didn't feel great in the second half didn't play well They've played decently in the first halves of games. They've got to play complete games. He is Healthier right now than he has been at any point this season. And so we'll find out but for the moment You've got geno smith Actually running shane waldrin's offense, which is not what they did last year It was a lot of the rust stuff that they had to incorporate And you know for pete to look at this and to know and him and rus talked a lot They talked a lot through the off season about what's going to happen And where rus wanted to go and all those things is this very kind of odd uncomfortable breakup But in the end you have his backup from last year geno smith now who is actually running what they're supposed to playing at a really high level and the seox have gotten back to What made them so great early in pete's tenure. They're not great on defense right now I mean that that's the big difference They have to get used to the offense picking up a lot of the slack at the point shootouts It's yeah exactly which is not how it often was with russell with in the russell wilson years a lot of it was all right Let's get to the fourth quarter.

It's 16 to 13 Right. Okay. Now rus. Can you do it?

All right, can you go and cut it loose? But then that was all part of learning to play with a young quarterback and not having to turn the ball over and as rus got older He wanted to open things up. He's a guy who's very conscious of his legacy of his public image He knows that people don't a lot of people don't give him credit for the first for the super bowl win In 2013 because well that was the legion of boom It was the defense and then the second one it was why didn't he get the ball to marsh on? Why do you have to throw it down the goal line in these you know, the crazy theories of well That was to make rus the hero No They threw the ball on the goal line Because if they ran it on second down after marsh on had gotten stuffed on first You've only got one time out and now you have to use it and you're only getting one more play Potentially if you run the ball three times, so you had to throw the ball at some point in that sequence Anyway, that's a that's a side story here.

But rus Never got an mvp vote Never felt like he got the proper respect. He wanted to go and show I can win I can win big someplace else and I can do It with me all the let rus cook stuff. That was real and rus was frustrated when he had the turnovers in 2021 or 2020 rather And pete started to scale things back a little bit and get back to the other style of football because pete said it was not sustainable Again, we're halfway through the season a lot can change But I totally get pete feeling like you know what? I took so many arrows for this guy And I heard all of it and I couldn't say things And I tried to make it work. He wanted out Another one of the first things the seahawk said they put out a statement after the trade. Yeah making clear rus wanted to change this is not on us and Pete's pete's letting people know just a little bit here and there.

It's not real direct. Uh, meanwhile one of our story We haven't gotten to mike mccarthy going back speaking of reunions to green bay. Uh, here's what he had this Oh, we don't have enough time for sound.

We'll get to it tomorrow mike mccarthy though. Very emotional. Yeah about his return um And it makes sense. Uh, you know I did the interview with him during his year away when he was doing the mccarthy project and kind of Re-engrossed himself in film and trying to you know, understand some things doing a deep self-analysis when I asked him about his children And his family what it would mean to go back.

I don't even think I invoked his family or his children It was just what why do you want to do this? And he became very emotional then too talking about his family what it would mean to them I mean, it was an uncomfortable situation. He was let go minutes after a loss in green bay And just never got that kind of, you know, the goodbye moment He had met his wife there. His kids were born there. They had a lot of questions.

They were still in school He lived in green bay after After he got uh, let go So to go back there and he's the one on top Even though everybody in the world seemed to think before the season he was going to be on the hot seat They're the ones winning. It's a fascinating dynamic. Thank you very much for tuning into the rich eisen show today We're gonna be back.

I'm gonna be back tom pelvis sero. It could be information to change your life forever Or the something you should know podcast could just be something interesting Ramit seidi talking about being rich the old definition of rich had a lot to do with how much money you Accumulated but it wasn't about how to spend it. It was more about how to get it But okay, so once you get it, what do you do with it in our culture? Everybody tells you how to save But nobody teaches you how to spend it something you should know wherever you listen