REShow: Dave Doeren/Harrison Smith - Hour 3

Just breaking now from Broncos team reporter Eric Delalla. Sounds like Russell Wilson will wear a wristband again this weekend. Nathaniel Hackett said it can help when there's crowd noise and or when they have long play calls. Also gives Hackett more time to talk in Wilson's ear before the radio shuts off, which is a big deal by the way. The speed of play calls, the fact that it cuts off at 15 seconds, the more time you can be looking at the defense as the coach and talking back and forth, even to a very experienced quarterback like Russell Wilson can help. I just, I had heard this, you know, for a while about the wristband situation and the fact that this was something Russell Wilson never wanted to do.

I did not expect it to bubble over the way that it has, but it's fairly entertaining and we shall see how long this ends up last. Thanks for joining us right now on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. It's his 10th year at NC State, coming off a big win too over Wake Forest. Coach Dave Doran is with us. Dave, thank you very much for coming on.

It's Tom Pellicero. How is everything going in Raleigh right now? Doing good, Tom.

Thanks. So, felt like a big weekend for you. It's homecoming last week. You're facing a good opponent. Take me through that game and how you guys pulled that off. We executed well.

You know, I think it was a great team win. We played complimentary football. Didn't turn the football over. Forced three turnovers on defense. We punted the ball well. We kicked the ball well. Had a lot of guys make contact catches on offense at the receiver position. And since it was one of those games, we played better than they did. I know Dave Closson said he apologized to you after the game for a couple of what he called to be cheap plays late.

In your mind, I know things happened within the game. Was that something that was necessary for him to apologize for it? Yeah, I mean, I appreciated Dave saying it. Dave's a first-class guy and he and I are friends. So, you know, it was a sportsman thing to do with his part. I think what happened in the game by that player was unnecessary and should have been flagged and wasn't. But, you know, Dave's always been a classy guy.

So, you know, I think it's a nice thing for him to do. Tell me about MJ Morris. He's the first true freshman starting since Phillip Rivers at that school.

And obviously, you had a very good quarterback who went down early in the season. What allows MJ walking in the door here to play at the level that he has so far? Well, he's got a lot of poise, first of all. I think his football IQ is high. He's well coached in high school. He was raised by two incredible parents that made him the humble, caring person that he is. He's charismatic. His teammates have definitely rallied around him. And he's got some ice in his veins, man. I mean, he goes out there and just makes plays in big moments.

That's impressive. It doesn't matter how old you are, you know, for kids to be that on this stage with that kind of pressure says a lot about the type of competitor that he is. How, if at all, can you evaluate that when you're recruiting a player?

You can look at the measurables. You can look at how he's performing, odds are against largely overmatched opponents at times. But, you know, in terms of just, like, the makeup of the player when you're talking about a 17-, 18-year-old kid, how do you evaluate that?

Yeah, it takes a lot of evaluations. You need to go see him play, you know, when possible, see him play in good competition. And in MJ's case, he's a state champion as a junior. He took a team, a different school to the playoffs, deep into the playoffs as a senior. He's a competitive baseball player.

So, you know, Coach Beck and members of our staff just did the best that we could. And seeing him play in person, I think video is great, but it doesn't give you the full story, how they're coached and how they interact with their teammates, how they respond to bad plays. So, you know, being able to get out on the road and be around him in person is a big part of it. Does Phillip Rivers get involved at all, or does he make himself available if you wanted to put a guy like MJ in touch with him at all about just, you know, being a quarterback there and obviously somebody who looks like he's got a bright future?

You know, Phillip's done a couple things with our team over the years. He's a father of nine children. He's pretty busy.

So, we try not to lean on him. I know he's a guy that loves to wolf talk, and if we asked him to do something like you referred to, he probably would, but it's not something that we ask him to do. Dave Dorn is our guest head coach at North Carolina State. Devin Leary was a player who I know a lot of people in the NFL, which is my world, were interested in in terms of evaluating him for the future as a potential guy. He goes down with that season-ending injury last month. How is he doing, and what conversations, if any of you, had with him about his future? Yeah, Devin's doing well. You know, he's in the rehab phase. He's having his pec operated on and doing a lot better now than he was, you know, two weeks ago. You know, I think it's one day at a time approach and trying to get ready to be able to throw the football again, and as far as the future, I think it's all about the recovery timeline. You know, I think he'll, if possible, it's healthy, you know, have an opportunity to leave early, and if not, he'll have a decision to make. So, try not to put that on him in this phase of the recovery.

Just want him to get as well as he can, and there's no pressure on our side. You've got Boston College up this week, and this is purely a strange coincidence, Dave, but I went to BC last week. I went to a game for the first time in 20 years. Coach Halfley invited me, so I was standing on the sideline watching them.

They're extremely young. You know, they've had a lot of injuries on the offensive line, but they got a guy in Zay Flowers whose name I know I'm going to be calling on Sundays in the not-too-distant future. When you watch him on tape, and you know they're going to feed him the ball, what do you see? Yeah, he's a great player. I mean, we offered him here as a DV and a wide receiver in high school. We thought he could start on either side of the football. He's electric, fast, tough, you know, can change direction, track the ball well. I think he's an elite football player.

He'll play a long time if he stays healthy, and having been around that many guys like that, you know, he's special. So as you look at your team here for the stretch run, and obviously a lot out there still in front of you here, what do you see the need to improve, Dave? What's the still upside that remains for your team here in 2022? Well, I think we're a team that's still getting better. I mean, we just played our most complete game of the season, and offensively we were in our really 12th day with our starting quarterback, you know?

So there's a lot of things out there still, being able to score more than 35 points in a game. These are all things that, you know, last year we did pretty routinely, and it's been a struggle, you know, this year because of the injury factor that we've had on the offensive side of the ball. So having the same quarterback here the last three weeks, hopefully, and getting most of our personnel back on the field offensively, we'd love to see that continue to grow and build on the scoreboard. So, I mean, that's really the biggest step.

I think our defense is playing really, really well, and our special games have played well. You having fun there, Dave? Ten years at one school. It's a long time, especially in the current state of college football. Are you able to enjoy these moments, getting to win, you know, at this stage in the season? Yeah, I mean, 70 years and dog years, man. That's been a long time.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I had a blast in our game against Wake Forest. It's the most fun I've had coaching probably since we beat Clemson last year. I just really liked how our guys played in that game. So to answer your question, you know, I mean, I had my times. Right now, I'm not having a lot of fun.

I'm in a Thursday, just touching on the game plan, you know. But when you win a game and you see your guys lay it on the line and play collectively the way we did, it's very rewarding as a coach. And, you know, it's just one day at a time staying here, and I love the guys I'm coaching, and we're really fortunate to live in such a great place like Raleigh, North Carolina. It's a fantastic place to live, and I've been very lucky, you know, to become the eighth tenured coach in college football right now, ten years and second in the ACC. So fortunate to be able to stay in one place this long. That's a wild stat, Dave.

Eighth longest tenured coach in all of NCAA? Yeah, yep. Well, it speaks up. It's hard to keep your job anymore for a long time, man, you know, so to be calling now, I guess, to be my tenth or eighth bowl game in ten years. It's got a lot of good here. Just trying to keep continuing to get it better. Well, thanks a lot. I know it's a busy week, Dave, so thanks for taking some time for us. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. You guys enjoy the weekend. Thanks a lot, and go pack.

Appreciate it. That is North Carolina State. Head coach Dave Doran.

He's got him off to a, I believe it's a 7-2 start. Only had two losing seasons in his entire time at NC State, which is not the easiest place to win at, so it's a credit to him. I was up at Boston College last week and talking with some of the coaches up there, and, you know, it just reinforced to me, and talking to other people around college football, it just reinforces, like, this is a hard time, man, in college football. If you're not, you know, Alabama or, you know, Texas A&M or LSU, if you're not one of the big money programs, like, think of what your life has to be like as a head football coach right now. So, you spend all your time recruiting and trying to get, you know, the best possible class, and there's NIL money that's a part of that, and it's just a completely different dynamic than it's been in the past.

You get through the first season, right? If you play any of those young players, you're promising young guys, the ones you want on the field, guess what happens? They're getting offers to go someplace else and to get paid to leave after, you know, in January or February, when that window's open. If you keep them, now you go through spring ball, guess what?

There's another window. They can transfer again. They can end up taking money to go someplace else again. So, you know, you look at, like, the recruiting rankings and things like that. I don't know how sustainable some of the historical ways that college football have worked is going to be, just because those mid-tier type of programs, where it's a BC, where it's an NC State, where, again, they're having success right now.

There's all kinds of them around the country. There's only that dozen or so teams that you know. I mean, just look at the college football, the playoff rankings right now. It's all those teams, okay? The top 10, the Clemsons, like, they're the teams that have the ability to retain their guys, because odds are they've got the ability to generate the capital to keep players. They've obviously got the advanced recruiting advantage. They've got the facilities and all that.

Everybody else is constantly fighting for your own players. Forget the initial recruiting. There's not a year that you have to sit out anymore.

You can go and transfer and play immediately. And then you get into May, and all of a sudden it might be your top two quarterbacks go, yeah, we're out. I'm going somewhere else. How do you... We're going to USC.

Right. Like, it's just, that nonstop drumbeat cannot be easy on guys. Like, you're trying to win games. You're obviously recruiting in the season, doing all these events. But then the stuff that can happen in the offseason, it's just, it's crazy to me.

I just don't know how, if you get into those spots, how do you stay? They've said he's the eighth longest tenured coach. It's not just, you know, he kind of laughed at it about hard to keep your job. It's also people don't want to keep the job. People want to move on to the next program and try to move up. Guys don't stay at those mid-tier types of programs anymore. And I really do believe you're going to see in the coming years here, some of the coaches where they've worked in the NFL or not, you may see some of those coaches coming to the pros. You may see more of them, whether it's taking a coordinator job from smaller programs, maybe it's a position coach job.

You may see guys proactively saying, you know what, the stability? The money at the highest levels in college football is now finally driving up the NFL salaries because for a long time those guys made more. Now NFL salaries, you're getting coaches regular who are making $10, $12, $15 million.

That was not always the case. Now the money's getting better in the NFL. College football has become a gigantic pain in the ass to be a part of. So do you start seeing more coaches opening their minds to the idea that, you know what, maybe I actually am better off from a lifestyle perspective going into the NFL? And I don't know how that plays out. I think that the NIL aspect of this is still new enough that we'll see, you know, exactly how that impacts college football. But this is all a moving target.

The expanded playoff may alter some of that too in a positive way, you would hope. But we'll find out. I'm trying to think of the other seven who are ahead of him. Saban, Kirk Ferentz, Dabo. Yep. Just trying to roll off the top of my head. I mean, who was there 11 years ago? I'm going through it in my head now.

I don't have it. Does Jim Harbaugh count? Is he in year 8?

No, because he got there in 2015. Yeah, same thing with Kirby. We'll find it.

Yeah, we'll find it. By the way, other bad news for the Las Vegas Raiders. Hunter Renfro also, according to multiple reports, going on a neutral reserve. So in one day, Darren Waller, Hunter Renfro, both IR, which means they're out a minimum of four games. Pick up Mack Hollins.

What do you think about that? Are you going to ask me fantasy football questions every... What else do you got? You got time for two. Give me two because we got a break then for Harrison Smith.

What else you got? Is Nico Collins going to be back this week? Unaware. I can't say that I've inquired a lot about the best receiver on one of the worst teams in the league. Should I pick up Derek Carr, roll with Russell Wilson? At this point, I would take Russ.

Really? Who do the Broncos have this week? Broncos have the Titans. Yeah, the Titans are pretty tough, defensively. Broncos off a bye.

They want to play the lowest scoring game possible. Yeah. That's a tricky one. I don't know who Derek Carr's throwing to. I mean, this... Devante Adams and Mack Hollins and Foster Murrow. Right. Yeah. And I guess, I mean, Waller hasn't really been out there. Yeah. Renfro has not been as involved.

It's still a gamble. I mean, the Colts defense has played pretty well. The offense has been the issue. Right.

So, yeah, that's a tricky one. I have no idea what to see from the Colts. I have no clue. I have literally no idea what we're going to see from them coming up this week. I got a Longest Tenured Coaches list here. Oh, you do?

What do you got? Kirk Ferentz, still there, right? This is from last year. Gary Patterson was at TCU, but he got fired, so he is no longer on the list. Kyle Whittingham from Utah. Oh, Utah.

Yep. Mike Gundy. He's still at Oklahoma State, correct?

Oh, that's true. Mike Gundy. So this would be his 17th. Well, he's a man. He's over 50 now. Yeah. Rick Stockhill, Middle Tennessee. He's 16. Never got that. Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern. Still there. Troy Calhoun.

Air Force. Then you have Sabin at eight. David Cutliffe from Duke.

And David Cutliffe is also out. So that's how Doris rises up to number eight here. So I would not have gotten to who was the Air Force coach was number seven. There is a, you know, I'm going to be honest, I'm Navy's head coach. I don't know. Ken... You got me on that one. You got that for TJ? We've never tried.

I do know for sure. I tried to circle around that one in case you weren't aware. I should have gotten Pat Fitzgerald.

That was a bad mess. But Dave Doran, number eight. Yep.

He sounds like it's taking the toll. Harrison Smith on a seven and one Vikings team. How about that?

Headed out to Buffalo against either Josh Allen or his old buddy Case Keaton. We'll talk to Harrison next. That's the fastest ball sport in the world. Not baseball. Not tennis. It is, in fact, the sport of JALAI, spelled J-A-I-A-L-A-I.

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Elizabeth the First, the podcast, wherever you listen. Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eyes and Show here. Harrison Smith, Viking Safety, supposed to join us shortly here. A big game coming up this weekend for both of these teams with the Vikings visiting the Bills here. It's so hard for me to wrap my mind around a situation going into the season. And granted, I thought, based upon the Vikings' talent, that they would have a chance to be pretty good. And that natural, it's new, it's a different coaching staff, everything feels different, that they would have a chance to start faster, which they certainly have. It's hard to wrap my mind around a world where the Vikings, unless they completely fall on their faces, have already more or less wrapped up the division. Where the Packers are this buried, where the Bears, to their credit, are playing hard. And Matt Eberflus is getting the most out of them, but you've traded away two of your best players during the course of the season, and you're trying to figure it out with a young quarterback.

Look at that. It's a four and a half game lead. It's wild. They're up five in the win, in the loss column, rather, on both the Packers and the Bears. I still believe the Lions have the opportunity to get better through the course of the season. They've once again suffered some really tough losses through this year. And they've been playing without DeAndre Swift in a full-time role for, I mean, really a month and a half, somewhere around there.

They didn't have Amman Ross, St. Brown for a stretch as well. When they had their actual core together, they were scoring. Go back to those first few games, the Lions were putting a lot of points on the board. The Vikings have not really scored. They haven't been as explosive as they have the opportunity to be on offense. We were talking about a team that's got a Justin Jefferson and got Adam Thielen. Just traded for TJ Hawkinson, who made a big impact in his first game.

Obviously, Delvin Cook and Alexander Madison in the backfield, they should be able to get better. But the thing that they're doing right now is finding ways situationally to figure out these games, which just didn't happen last season. So it's the perfect storm.

I live in Minnesota. All the friends I have who are Vikings fans just cannot get enough, not just of the Vikings winning these games, because again, it's all one score victories, six in a row now by one score. It's down to the wire every single time.

I get emails in one group thread I'm on that's just like panicking at halftime, but they find ways to pull it out. But also the joy that people in Minnesota get from the Packers not being good right now might actually exceed the excitement over the Vikings playing the way that they are. And speaking of the Vikings, we are joined right now on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line by a six-time Pro Bowl selection now in his 11th NFL season.

I think I've covered him for basically all that time. Viking safety Harrison Smith is with us. Harrison, we were just showing the NFC North standings, which can only mean so much at this time of year.

But what's it like right now being on a seven and one team that seems to week after week find ways to win all those exact type of games that you guys were letting slip away a year ago? Yeah, it's any way we can get the wins is obviously the most important thing. But I heard you talking about how the fans might get a little nervous there at halftime.

So it'd be nice to not always do that. But you know, if we're winning, we'll take it any way we can get it. I remember covering the infamous tie game in Green Bay that led to your kicker being cut the next day. And you're walking past me, it's at Lambeau Field, you're walking to that locker room because it's underneath the goalpost.

And you said something along the lines of like, what the bleep was that? And I feel like there have been a lot of those games through time of just you guys having the opportunity to win. But there's something about it, I don't know how much it is the coaching staff and the way that they're training you and Kevin O'Connell talking so much about situational masters. But you know, the past couple of weeks, even in Washington last week and watching your sideline when you're down 10, it didn't seem like there was that panic within the team, which I have to imagine says something about just the the overall mindset of your club right now.

Yeah, I mean, I think you nailed it there. We, I was actually talking about that with P2, just saying, I didn't even realize we were down. I think we were down 10 points at that moment you're talking about. And we kind of didn't even fully realize it. We just wanted to, somebody wanted to make a play. We knew we were going to make a play at some point. We didn't know who it was going to be or who it needed to be, whatever. So we just kind of have that confidence that I think starts at the top and just kind of trickles down.

And it's not fake or anything. We just, we're enjoying playing and we're having fun and we expect something to happen when we need it to really. How would you describe Kevin O'Connell as a head coach?

He is, he's definitely like wise beyond his years, he's very confident, beats well. He thinks about a lot of things schedule-wise, logistics-wise. He's always trying to gain a competitive advantage for us in any way possible. But it's, there's a trust, there's a positivity that definitely is kind of just injected throughout the building, starting with him. So this week you've got the Bills. There's a decent level of uncertainty about who they're starting to quarterback. It's either going to be Josh Allen, who you guys have seen in the past, or it's going to be a guy you know really well because he was running the scout team for a while there in Case Keenum before helping you guys on that run back in 2017. How are you preparing for two quarterbacks who, their play style, their body types in particular are certainly different, but how are you guys kind of going through the week here? Well, you definitely have to prepare for, as if Josh is playing and he's kind of an anomaly of not even just a quarterback, just like a person.

He's a freak, he's big, he can throw it probably further than the length of the football field. And then he can, you know, he's good in a run game when they need it, they can dial some stuff up for him and he's a tough tackle for any defensive guy on the field. So obviously you have to be prepared for him and we'll see how the week goes and what they end up doing there. But me personally, I have a little more familiarity with Case than other guys.

We'll always remember the Minnesota Miracle and that whole season with him running the show here. So a ton of respect for him and if he's who we're playing with, we'll be ready for that challenge as well. What type of inside knowledge do you have about Case that can help you on Sunday if you see him?

I don't have a ton. I mean, we'll watch the case we got on him. I always liked how he played personally. He'll lay it on the line for you, he'll let his guys go make some plays.

So we'll see what we got at different. With Josh, the game where he kind of became Josh Allen or at least showed it was that debacle in 2018. I think it was one of those games that kind of just went downhill real fast and it's also when he hurtled your good friend Anthony Barr in the middle of the field and Bill's fans started making t-shirts.

Did you ever let Anthony hear the end of that? Because again, at that point he was not Josh Allen, he was some rookie and he made Anthony look so small in that moment. I never really gave him a hard time because I was right behind him and I watched it and I was like, man, that's not what I expected to happen. I think everybody on the field was like, whoa, what's going on here? It was a pretty impressive play by Josh.

So it was a tough one for AB, but it happens sometimes. He's good over here and like I said, Josh, he's a bit of an anomaly. Your quarterback Kirk Cousins playing pretty well, although I think that if you added up the Kirk Cousins viral videos so far this season, there are more with him wearing chains and or with his shirt off than anything he's actually done on the field.

You've known him for what, five years, pretty close basis as a member of your team. Is this the real Kirk that's been hiding in there, forget as a player, but as a guy this whole time? I don't know if it's like the iced out Kirk O'Chains, Kirk Suggins is Zachary Rios. I've been playing against Kirk since college, since Michigan State years and I never saw the change until this year, but I think it's a good look for him and I think we're going to try to add some jewelry with every, especially with every road win we get, we got to keep something coming his way there. He really does seem, and I've talked to him only a few times, you run him every day. It does seem like he's just a little more loose for lack of a better term. He just seems relaxed and he's himself right now and obviously he's been a really productive quarterback for a long time. I think when you're on a team like this, like we talked about, the wins aren't always how you draw them up, it's not always offense or defense or teams, but somehow we're finding ways to win and that kind of builds, it kind of builds some strong trust amongst the team that kind of crosses the structure of offense, defense, special teams. So I think that's just part of it, it's having fun, it's being positive, it's mixing it up with the guys, maybe branching out beyond who we normally are as some of the older guys.

It's fun, it's a lot of fun and Kirk's enjoying it like he should. I'm glad to see you lean into that, being one of the older guys. You're 33 I believe, second oldest safety in the league right behind Devin McCourty now?

That probably sounds right. It's just funny because I think back to your rookie year and coming in and you've performed at such a high level for a long period of time, but this is the first time, I mean certainly since 2014 that you're in a new scheme. How are you guys as a group coming along just in terms of knowing how this entire thing needs to operate and getting lined up and all the adjustments you guys make? I think the mix of guys that we have has been great and the mix of coaches that have come in here and been able to maybe not always keep everything exactly the same how they had it before because they're adjusting to us as players too. It's a group effort. It's been fun too because like you said, I've been playing on the same scheme for like eight years.

I had two years actually with Leslie Frazier prior to that. So getting a new scheme, figuring out some new ways to defend things and what you can do in the secondary and up front, especially the stuff we're doing with Zadarius down there. It's just fun to learn football. So it's been enjoyable. I'm still trying to keep up.

Zadarius is kicking ass for you right now too. Yes. Yeah. I don't get to watch that during the game. I know it's happening, but when I watch the film after and I can watch those guys up front and EK and Jordan Hicks and Sully in the slot, I have so much fun just watching those guys after the game. On a serious note for a second here, Harrison, your co-defense coordinator from last year, Adam Zimmer, Mike's son, passed away recently. I believe you were at the funeral earlier this week.

It was shocking too. I think certainly for me, I didn't know him extremely well, but just in our conversations, I got so many texts from coaches around the league and asking about it, 38 years old. What's your favorite memory of Adam and what was that like being there for the funeral? He was a guy that was always kind of there with his players. He felt the win with you lose.

He felt that hurt with you. I spent enough time with the linebackers that I was around Adam quite a bit and got to know him well and enjoyed my time with him. There was a ton of moments where celebrating victories, going to dinners after the season and just talking about football and life, he'll be missed and sad to miss him, but also very fortunate to be around him.

No doubt. So another big game coming up this week against the Bills, potentially against one of your former quarterbacks. You picked off a different one last week, Taylor Heineke, who of course was with you guys for a couple of years there, and I think that was the best celebration I've seen you have, the bowling pin celebration. Jordan Hicks really sold his part. I don't know if that was part of the choreography. If you get one off case this week, what do you have up your sleeve?

I can't reveal that. Give us a hand, Terrence. I will say we were trying to figure out something to do before the game. And I think it was like, there was probably a handful of us and Coach O'Connell walked by and was like, really guys? So it was good that it worked out and we executed well and then we won.

So he didn't get too mad that we were practicing in the locker room. But we'll have something ready to go and hopefully we can time it right and execute it all well. So obviously you have a question in terms of the quarterback, but in your mind, what's the biggest key to going into a tough place to play like Buffalo and coming out with a win? Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot. There are obviously have explosive guys on offense and we talked about what Josh Allen can do and if he can go or not. You got some storylines to the game, you got Diggs, you got JJ, Harrison Phillips is a guy that came here from the Bills last year. And then on defense for them, I obviously don't watch them and prepare for them, but knowing Leslie's over there and what they got going, they've been really, really good for a bunch of years. I got a front that I can get after it, guys that can make plays on the back end. So it'll be a good game. That's really all I can expect out of it right now. You talk a little bit on the field, Diggs definitely talks on the field.

What do you anticipate that's going to be like? Man, Diggs is my guy. I kind of remember when he first started playing, he played a game out in Denver where he started tag on off and we were kind of feeding off each other. So I'll always, always remember those times with Diggs, but when we're out there, we'll be going at it. Not that I'm like mashed up as a corner on them or anything, but I'm sure we'll have our times with each other, but it'll be good to see him. Well, I know it's a busy week, Harrison.

Thanks a lot for jumping on the phone. I'm sure we'll see you soon here. Thanks, Tom. As Vikings safety, Harrison Smith, the Kirk Cousins nicknames, I didn't think we were going to get a new one.

It's really good. Kirk Thuggins. Kirk Thuggins. I'm about it, TJ. Yeah, I just tweeted that out.

From his show account, though, from his show account. That's one of the most remarkable developments, we talked about this yesterday, but his Kirk's transformation right now, it's easy when you're winning, okay? If they don't come back from 17-7 down and Harrison doesn't get that interception and there's not a penalty at the end, maybe it's a little bit different here, but leaning into Jet Star, you guys want to kind of like have some fun with me, like I'm going for it. And I mean, if I had a six pack like that, I'd probably take my shirt off, too.

Not going to do it here because I don't. Of all the surprising things of this NFL season, and there have been many, obviously, right? Kirk Cousins having visible abs and like yoked arms, I was not prepared for.

It's a lot. Yeah. I mean, he's a pro athlete, though. It's Kirk Cousins. I mean, the last photo we saw with his shirt off was when he fell asleep wearing a tank top beside the pool and he got sunburned.

Do you remember this? We only saw it from here up, and so he had his shirt off, but it was like the red red around where the tank top would be. You don't get quite the same energy from it, but Kirk Cousins has a six pack, man. He must work out.

Can't happen. Why would he not? He's extremely wealthy. He's a pro athlete. He has the best trainers, the best nutritionist, his dad, too. Yeah, but I'm sure he's also a cousin. Excuse TJ. Well, he has helped that maybe other working father. I'm sure he could afford help that a lot of working father's six pack, if not for my damn kids. So that's what you're blaming.

Oh, you leave those girls alone once you once you have them, you'll realize everything gets blamed. Oh, yes. Starting to notice that is accurate. Tom, I know that former captain nap over here now. He never naps anymore. And that's Captain Knapp is ready for bed at eight p.m. What kind of naps would you is it a short nap guy or a long night?

I used to be like hour, hour and a half naps every day, every day. I'd be like, what are you doing? I call him.

He's like, Bro, I'm sorry. I was on the nap. Having the nap. I'm like, what? I was sleeping. Just sounds awesome.

I might take one today. Nothing to do this afternoon. Right. We still have more of the show.

Well, besides. It's not over yet. We're not going to come back from break. We're going to be head down on the desk. Actually, I do have a little free time this afternoon.

All right. We'll be back on the Rich Eisen Show. Some more NFL injury updates we'll get to before this wraps up here.

Tom Pelissero in for Rich. Some news that's come across throughout the course of the show. The Raiders placing both tight end Darren Waller and wide receiver Hunter Renfro on injured reserve linebacker Blake Martinez, also of the Raiders, announcing his retirement. I actually was told that happened before practice yesterday. He told them I'm done. He was listed on the injury report as did not participate because of personal reasons.

Lot going on. So, you know, he played like 90% of the snaps last year. He had 11 tackles, which was a season high. And now, so he's gone. Waller's gone. Renfro's gone. They're going to lose to the Colts.

I'm calling it right now. I mean, we've been saying that all day for me to say anybody's tanking. But you do wonder when you're shutting down key players and when guys are leaving, what is actually going to play out here? Derek Carr has been on the injury report this week, too. He's popped up. He's been dealing with, I think, a back for a couple of weeks now. I'm not saying, not saying anyone is tanking. I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying when all of a sudden a bunch of your key players suddenly are no longer there. Can you even name the Raider backup? Oh, it's Stidham, right? Jared Stidham is there. Yes. Stiddy time.

Let's go. In other news from my NFL Network colleague, Cameron Wolfe, who, once again, I'll give another reminder. There is a game tonight. It's the Panthers and the Falcons, potentially, if the Falcons win for first place in the NFC South, if they lose, the Panthers potentially back within one game of the division lead. Cameron reports the Falcons have a key cog left tackle Jake Matthews, was taken back to Atlanta by the Falcons this morning for delivery of he slash his wife's first child.

The hope is to have Matthews back for the Thursday night game. You want to talk about stress in the delivery room. So he's on the plane, gets to Charlotte, and it's pretty close together, so it's a very short plane ride, presumably it's a flight, gets there, wife goes into labor, now flies back, and now he's at bedside wondering, well, is this going down? I don't know. Maybe the child's already been born. I can't. I don't have the blow by blow, the play by play. I just know if I was in that room with my wife, with anything on my mind about what else I need to do that day, I may as well just not come at all.

Don't tell me what time the game is, what time you need to be on the plane. Just stay here and keep your mouth shut. And I love my wife.

We have two beautiful daughters together, eight and five years old. Oh, fantastic. My primary birth, or primary, excuse me, my primary memory of the first birth of my children was waiting for my wife to have the anesthetic kick in to fall asleep so that I could go get something to eat because I was so starving and we'd been there from like whatever time in the morning. I want to say we went in the morning, they said, no, she's not ready, went home, still in it, go back.

Wow. So I made her the second time. Now it's like nine o'clock at night.

They finally give her some drugs to like knock her out. And at the hospital we were at a Minneapolis, I knew there was a McDonald's in the other side of it. And so I like had to find my way and I housed four hamburgers, like a large fry while walking back because I knew I could not enter that room with that smell of like the salty fry. So I'm literally walking through the hospital eating this thing as fast as I possibly can and then got back and just like sat there.

Like I hope I don't, I hope I'm not breathing the salty fry smell into the room here. Jake Matthews is going to be sitting in that room again, presumably he needs to eat. If he's going to play in an NFL football game, if he does not make it back, which our Cameron Wolf says that they're hopeful he will. Now you're talking about a backup left tackle, trying to slow down Brian Burns and that Panthers pass rush, which is not overly ideal in that moment.

This game is going to be, it's, it's not going to be the, probably the most, the most highly watched game, nothing against the, the Amazon prime broadcast. Of course, I'm guessing though, there's not a lot of cache to this matchup, but I'm not sure there's a quarterback in the league that we've talked less about a starting quarterback this this year than Marcus Mariota. What's the last time you heard Marcus Mariota's name, seen a highlight, nothing.

I said the start of a fantasy like two weeks ago, but that was it. That's a pickup. He's the 22nd best quarterback in your league. It was a bi-week pick ups.

You're pretty far down the line. I'm in a two quarterback fantasy league now and that has a, you start 10 league, it's a super flex and a quarterback and it blew my mind. Twenty years of starting one quarterback in every league I've ever been in and suddenly somebody in a 10 team league is starting the 20th best quarterback or on buys the 25th best quarterback and so you're trying to manage like who in the world is even being plugged in here. I did not get to Marcus Mariota. He's probably starting for somebody else within the league, but I give a lot of credit to Arthur Smith and that coaching staff. I know that there's a lot of frustration in the fantasy community about Kyle Pitts having what three touchdowns so far in his NFL career. Drake London has not had a breakout season, but what you have to remember is Arthur Smith came up as an assistant coach in Tennessee and worked under Mike Vrabel in his last several years there and if anybody in the league is going to just say, I don't care how we win, we just need to win, it's Mike Vrabel. Watch the Titans right now and what they're dealing with. He had a quote, I think it was to Ed Werder recently that was along the lines of being asked about the workload on Derrick Henry.

Is it sustainable? And his answer was more or less, well, who are we going to throw to? We don't have any receivers. Tralen Burks just got activated off injury reserve return to practice yesterday, so potentially some help there, but they haven't even tried really to throw, especially with Malik Willis play in the past couple of weeks, they've more or less said our only hope is Derrick Henry runs for 200 yards and that is what he did in Houston. He obviously ran it a lot last week against Kansas City. They have to grind it down and that's why Mike Vrabel once again is going to be in the Coach of the Year conversation along with our guy Mike McCarthy, among others.

This year is, exactly, I'm putting it on you too here TJ, striking up the band here. He has to be in the conversation because you don't look, you don't look at the Titans right now and say, there's a lot of guys on this roster who you absolutely would plug in and that guy's going to be a star on your team. Who are the receivers? Not after Tralen Burks, it's, I'm trying to remember his name, Nicholas Akine Westbrook.

I probably did not get that name right. It's a lot on those lines, but you don't have receivers. You're playing with a backup quarterback who's a rookie who's super talented in Malik Willis, but just has so far to go and made that clear to teams in the pre-draft process that coming from that simple offensive liberty, he was going to need some time here. They find ways to win. The Falcons are doing the same thing. Guess what? They win tonight. They're five and five and they are in sole possession of the NFC South lead. That is remarkable at this stage in the season. And you know what?

Again, credit to Arthur Smith for finding ways to figure it out. Thank you very much for joining us on this show. Thanks to all of our guests. We'll be back tomorrow here.

Tom Pelissero in Verizon. It could be information to change your life forever, or the Something You Should Know podcast could just be something interesting. Ramit Sethi 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. Let us know wherever you listen.