REShow: Ian Rapoport - Hour 1

This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischmann is in Trouble, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brody. This drama tells the story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann, who dives into the world of app-based dating with the kind of success he never had in his youth.

Then, his ex-wife disappears, leaving him with their two children and no hint of her return. FX's Fleischmann is in Trouble, now streaming only on Hulu. NFL Network insider Ian Rappaport, TCU head coach Sonny Dykes, TNT's Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson, plus actor and comedian Adam Ray. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yes it is, can confirm sources say, there I am. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show here on the Roku Channel. And it is free on the Roku Channel, on every Roku device there is known to man. There's a Samsung Smart TV, we're free there, we're also free on Amazon Fire TV. We are free on the Roku app, we are free on the rokuchannel.com. We're free when you listen to us, Terrestrial Radio, we're free. We're on the Odyssey app, we're on Sirius XM, we're on our podcast, free on our podcast, the Cumulus Podcast Network. Thrilled. YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show for anything that you may miss.

Not all the show's content is there, the entire show's content is available again on the Roku Channel. We say hello to all of you who were hanging on every single second of the United States taking on whales as we went off the air yesterday. What a match. And I think we were on the air when it was still 1-0. We were. And it wasn't, it's 1-0 and it's all good in our hood here on the Rich Eisen Show as we've got four guests today. Ian Rappaport, my colleague from the NFL Media Group will be here.

The fourth ranked TCU Horned Fox. Coach Sonny Dykes is on this program today. I can't wait to ask him, what were you thinking running the football?

What were you doing? I can't wait to second guess a head coach I've never spoken to when that thing actually worked out for him. But it'll be great. That's what we do in the media.

We second guess actually successful calls. He will join us on this program. Ernie Johnson is here on the show.

The guy I get most mistaken for when I walk around. He will be on this program. There's a doubleheader on TNT tonight. Your Sixers are on tonight on Turner.

No MB tonight. TJ Jefferson. They're taking on the Nets.

And Lakers versus the Suns. So pregame coverage begins tonight at 7 Eastern Time and Ernie will be here. Adam Ray, the comedian and actor. He's in the new Hulu show.

Welcome to Chippendales. Is he dancing? No, he's the emcee. He's the emcee. And so I believe he is fully clothed.

But the people around him are not. And we will not be showing a clip of him in the program. Oh, wow.

Adam Ray also plays Vince McMahon on Young Rock. Very good. Very good. So he'll be here on this program.

I heard Seattle fan. I've got a top five list for you. Fantastic. With a little special finish. That'll be coming up later on in the program. Love it. Don't it feel good? That'll be here for all of us.

Brockman. But how are we celebrating the big anniversary today, Rich? The anniversary of what? Do you really want to start the show with that?

Literally? I mean, 10's a big deal. Well, here's what we're going to do. We will table this conversation. I guess we could talk about the 49ers. Well, I mean, and there's lots to talk about.

Other, you know, current. I would call you the word that I'm thinking of, but it does involve the butt. Hey. It is the 10th anniversary of the butt fumble. You said it, not me.

Happy anniversary to you. You said it, not me. Is that why Sanchez was on the Dan Patrick show today?

I believe so. By the way, kudos to Mark for being a good sport about it. Dude, I mean, things are working out for Mark Sanchez, by the way. He's really good at what he's doing right now on Fox. At any rate.

Sorry. We started the show yesterday talking about how the Dallas Cowboys, if they played like they played in Minnesota or anything close to it, they will give Jerry Jones what he's looking for, and they will send all the Cowboys haters on planet Earth into the fetal position because Jerry Jones will be hoisting the Lombardi trophy if they play like the way that they played in Minnesota. And then just as we're still having that performance, figuratively ringing in our ears and in front of our eyes, the San Francisco 49ers put together a game that makes one think that's a Super Bowl winning team.

That's a team that if they play like that, no one can beat them. And wouldn't it be fascinating if the Cowboys and the 49ers wind up playing each other in the playoffs again? And I profit to see the Cowboys would say, bring it on, bring it on, because they feel very confident in what they can do, because they do have a two headed monster at running back, including a top notch playmaker and Tony Pollard. And they do have a quarterback that can put it all together for some wide receivers that are performing well on a top notch defense.

However, I would say the 49ers have got them beat in many of those departments because they have got themselves an offense that last night they put on display in Mexico City. And it was quite the hat dance, if you will, for this team. And Jimmy Garoppolo had a hat trick of touchdowns and then said, you know what, that's not good enough.

That's not good enough. He had two touchdown passes to Ayuk, interesting two being the operative number, because Ayuk on his second touchdown threw the ball in celebration directly at the wall and nearly hit a camera operator in the bofus. And to the point where I think it was a little bit off, a little bit off, but they were he and McCaffrey were present enough to check on the gentleman. And then George Kittle had two touchdowns in this game. It's kind of fitting that Kittle had a night, because the last time Garoppolo threw four touchdowns in a game was week 14, 2019. If you recall, it was that 40 Burger versus 40 Burger, 49ers versus Saints, Drew Brees five touchdown passes in the Superdome. And if you recall, with 30 seconds to go, Garoppolo driving the team flipped one out in the flat to George Kittle, who runs up the sideline and got a 39-yard gain with half the defense hanging on his face mask. You remember that one in 2019?

Pretty much what happened yesterday. And so that was a year that the Niners made the Super Bowl. And Jimmy Garoppolo looks like that.

And the team has full-on belief in this man. What makes me say that? You could see it with your own two eyes.

You could feel it. And then you just go to Debo's Twitter account today, and his Twitter account was very simple. He just put out the words himigwop. Instead of Jimmy G, he's himi, meaning he's him, and guap means handsome in Spanish, guapo. And they played in Mexico last night. Yes, they did. Himigwop, I think, was a very good Debo nickname.

Himigwop is pretty good. It's pretty funny. They are feeling it.

And isn't it amazing, man? That's why you can't predict any of this stuff, and we do love the NFL, and I call it the greatest narrative-generating machine in the history of sports. And it is because all offseason, I was telling you, this is Trey Lance's team, and it wound up being Trey Lance's team to the point where Jimmy Garoppolo was fourth on the depth chart because, as at the time, the head coach, Kyle Shanahan, said, it's because that's where he has to be. They created basically fourth on the depth chart because they didn't even give him a playbook. They just knew he wasn't going to be there.

Yeah, the disrespect was real. They knew he wasn't going to be there, and they were just holding on to him because they weren't going to just cut him and let him walk to say Seattle was the whole conversation because Seattle had a quarterback problem that everyone was saying. And sure enough, they kept him around because they needed him to back up Trey Lance if he was so inclined rather than being cut. And the whole idea was that he'd be sitting on the couch right now still, potentially, waiting to see if there was a quarterback situation that he could rescue middle of the season if he could get up to speed in time, a la, say, Odell Beckham sitting here right now, picking and choosing where he might go to win a championship for a team that needs him. That was the whole conversation throughout the spring and then the summer, and then Garoppolo says, you know what, it's better if I just stay. The Niners say, we are happy to have you stay just in case there's an injury, and then boom, week two, an injury. And the team that he injures himself against is Seattle, and the team that they are now tied with in the NFC West standings is, wait for it, Seattle, because Seattle doesn't have a quarterback problem. Geno Smith has been pretty damn good to the point where if Geno Smith throws 150 straight passes, I saw this today, 150 straight passes, 150 straight snaps into the stands, if he just takes 150 straight steps and throws the ball into the stands, Geno Smith would still have a higher passer rating than Zach Wilson.

So this is amazing. Now, in that week two game that Lance got carted off and Garoppolo came in, the Niners beat the Seahawks, so that's why the Niners are currently in first place with a similar record as the Seahawks. Week 15, if you want to look down the road, begins on a Thursday night with Al Michaels on the Amazon Prime video microphone where San Francisco's at Seattle.

Make a note of that. That is a huge game coming up in December. But for the moment, what the Niners look like is a Super Bowl team because the defense is out-freaking-standing too.

They can come hunt you, they can come hit you, they can come and steal your souls. And they did that to Colt McCoy last night and the rest of the Arizona Cardinals. They did it. Third straight game in which the Niners pitched a shutout in the second half. We take your second half halftime adjustments and stick them where the sun does not shine is what they're basically saying to everyone else. And three straight wins since acquiring McCaffrey who did start in that, who did play in that game against the Chiefs, we all know, but that was a very short week. They got bounced by the Chiefs and since then they've won three in a row with McCaffrey having full weeks on the team and good luck trying to game plan for them. If Jimmy G is as accurate with the football and is as stout as we saw last night, good luck to the rest of the NFC and including your Cowboys. And I think if I'm the Cowboys and I saw what I saw last night with the 49ers, able to get two touchdown passes to Ayuk and two to Kittle and then have Debo run one in the way that he did and McCaffrey basically didn't have to score and they still put five up on offense and defensively they're buzzing all over the place. I would want Odell even more.

They need him. How does that sound? If I'm seeing the way the Cowboys played and I'm seeing the way that the Niners played, Pollard, my guy deuces. Pollard, I know you hate that nickname with a passion now, TJ.

I'm sorry about that. I know hates is a very strong word for you. Brockman hates it, I don't.

No, you just dislike it intensely because you can't say the word hate because you're too good of a person. I'm just not quite on board yet. I know Pollard, to me they still don't get on the poll enough and I know what they're doing. I know what they're doing and I know they need Zeke and I know Zeke's the guy that they can batter in from the 20-yard line in the red zone and I get it, the green zone or whatever you want to call it. I think Kellen's really starting to figure out the best way to use Tony.

I think so. He's not 20 yards up the gut but he's exceptional and you held that. If I saw last night, I'm like we need more playmakers here. I was going to text you last night halfway through that game and go, I want to take back what you said about Dallas because this Niners team is... No, I don't want to take back what I said about Dallas because they've got Micah Parsons and that defense and Micah Parsons is insanely special, insanely special. They have a ton of special players. Dak is playing much better, he's getting improved.

C.D. Lamb, I just need to... I think he could use some help. I think he could use some help. And I think the Cowboys could use, if you will, Odell Beckham.

I mean everyone could use Odell Beckham. How about this, they need him. They need him. They need him to come now.

I think you're right. They need him to come right now and just say to the 49ers, I saw you got McCaffrey, we got Odell. I see you've got your defense and Nick Bosa and Fred Warner and Hufanga who is terrific and Dre Greenlaw. I mean my God, how good is this team on defense? We've got Micah, we've got Diggs, we've got Tank.

Okay, that would be an unbelievable... And of course there's Eagles fans raising their hands saying, what about us? Niners also have Altoona's own Kevin Givens playing in that D-line. I mean they really are balling out. They are balling out.

And just because I know, Chris, you pay attention to this sort of thing and you like talking about this sort of thing. With the win last night, Kyle Shannon is now one game under.500, his all-time record. He's almost there. The Niners have the Saints at home next. And then after that game, how great is this game going to be? Home for Miami. Mike McDaniel comes home with the Miami 49er running game, right? Wouldn't that be amazing if he goes over.500 in that game and then you'd have to finally give him his props? For what? Finally being a.500 coach? Very good. Let's talk about that on this program.

Coming up in a moment, we're going to take a break. Ian Rappaport joins us. Does Justin Fields have a separated non-throwing shoulder or not?

Yeah, right. Yesterday, Robert Sala did a really brassy thing, and good for him. He did a humongously brassy thing, which is not commit to Zach Wilson as his starting quarterback against the Bears, saying he needs to do evaluation.

What does that mean? Are they really going to bench Zach Wilson? And who would be second on the depth chart? That would be a fascinating story. Somehow, some way, Poland just did not get a penalty kick in the net. Mexico with the save. It's still 0-0, heading to the 59th minute in Doha, Qatar.

In that one, we're keeping an eye on that match as we move along. And so much going on also in the world of the NFL that Ian Rappaport's going to help us with. 8-4-4, 2-0 for Rich. I will talk a little bit more about what Robert Sala did with the Jets yesterday.

As you know, I had my two considerable cents on the Zach Wilson subject matter. Sonny Dykes of TCU football coming up. My top five list is the top five storylines of Thanksgiving week in the NFL. I think you're all going to love it.

The bonus is going to be particularly special. Stay tuned for that. Let's take a break. Ian Rappaport, my colleague from the NFL Media Group.

At rap sheet for those kids on Twitter. Coming up next. The World Tournament of Soccer happening in Qatar is finally here. And with all the weird kickoff times and all the other sports happening simultaneously, it can be kind of hard to keep up. So to make sure you're up to speed, be sure to listen to Qatar Kickaround for the daily wrap up of all the action from the tournament. From the group stage all the way to the final, Andy, Lars, and Peter are here for you with recaps and opinions of what happened that day in Qatar.

Everything can be found at thekickaround.com, the Cumulus Podcast channel on YouTube, or wherever you listen. Influencer. It's a word that gets tossed around a lot these days. There is a woman who went the distance. She came to the ground as the first true influencer by living a remarkable life. Her name, Elizabeth Taylor. I'm Katy Perry. This is the story of the original influencer. This is Elizabeth the First.

Elizabeth the First, the podcast, wherever you listen. NetSuite, everybody. NetSuite wants you to know your numbers.

Over 31,000 businesses know their numbers, so they have the confidence and clarity they need. And the reason why they do is because they rely on NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud financial system. 93% of customers that use NetSuite say that they improve their visibility and control when they upgrade it to NetSuite, and the reason is simple. Because everything you need is all in one place. NetSuite gives you visibility and control of your financials, inventory, HR, planning, budgeting. This is the way you can manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins. What are you waiting for? I don't mean to be so aggressive.

Yeah, wasn't it right? Right now, NetSuite. Just because I want to help people. NetSuite, it's people helping people. NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program. Head to NetSuite.com slash Rich Radio right now. NetSuite.com slash Rich Radio.

NetSuite.com slash Rich Radio. Joining me here now on the Rich Eisen Show Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. We had a nice chat during halftime of the Westwood One coverage on the radio of the final international series game. It was a game, actually, when he and I were talking.

It was just a one-score game, and then the 49ers took care of business in the second half. At any rate, Ian Rappaport joining me here now on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, sir?

I'm good. That scene looked amazing. I mean, I know Germany was awesome, and you sounded like you had a blast. And there was no country roads, which was a little bit of a downer, but that looked awesome last night. It's interesting that Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo sounded just like Tom Brady did at the end of the Munich game, which is like, this is one of the greatest experiences I've ever seen.

The energy is incredible. If I can't be in my home stadium, I'd rather be here. And I saw what I saw last night, and what I saw was a team that looked incredibly confident, a team that looked completely crisp, and they didn't even get McCaffrey in the end zone. I mean, McCaffrey's biggest contribution in the end zone was to check on the cameraman that got hit by iUke's celebratory toss, you know what I mean? That's a scary team that we saw last night, Ian. And you could see the public is sort of really on the 49ers, and I think they were, really, I guess the McCaffrey trade really kind of changed everything, and they kind of came out of it, used them a little bit the first game, and everybody was like, oh boy, they could be good. And you look at the record, and they were four and five, and you're like, okay, we'll see what happens.

I don't know what they're the favorites for, and the record is not great, but they looked really, really good, and I would hate to face them. And so I remember when the McCaffrey trade happened, everybody was talking about the value, and I know there was plenty of teams that thought that a second rounder plus was too much. Now I think it was a bargain. Right.

And I was talking just moments ago about how great the Cowboys looked as well, and Tony Pollard has been spectacular when he does get his touches, and he's getting more touches, but I still look at that, and I'm thinking to myself, if I'm the Cowboys, if I'm the Jones family, and I see what I saw last night by the Niners, boy, we could use another playmaker in Odell, Beckham Jr. What's the latest on that? Yeah, I mean, Thanksgiving is, I think, Thursday. Yes, it is. Can confirm, can confirm. Confirmed, got it. Okay, so Thursday. I had that first, by the way, but I had expected you confirmed it.

That's fine. Anyway, so he's going to meet with the Cowboys after Thanksgiving. My understanding was that was going to be the Monday or Tuesday, so not like the Friday, like he's not spending his Black Friday in Dallas.

I would assume he's shopping. He's going to be there after Thanksgiving. And, you know, I know the Giants are definitely interested.

Sounds like there's plans for a visit there as well, but I think there's a real possibility that Odell and Dallas go, you know what, this just makes a lot of sense. I think for him, the opportunity to go to one of the NFL's best brands and one of the NFL's best teams and his ACL is definitely more healthy than it was at this time last year. I know he was healthy last year, but like the first surgery did not go great. The second surgery went a lot better. So he is in a really good place right now.

This makes a lot of sense. And I think if you're Dallas rich, you're not just like, oh, yeah, you know, really happy to make the playoffs, like you're talking Super Bowl. And we saw that Odell was basically the final piece last year. Is he the final piece for Dallas this year? So do you know for certain, is he going to give the Cowboys the first shot and thus the first chance to not let him out of the building, which is always the phrase you hear when a free agent visits, that if you want him and you can make him the best offer, make sure you do it there and make sure he doesn't leave the building and think about somebody else or visit someone else? I do not know for certain that it's going to be first.

My guess would be that it is, but I don't know for sure. But I would say that Dallas has been, you know, sort of aggressively or attentively checking on his help. They have had discussions with his agent.

I don't think it's been like, you know, would you do a three-year, whatever. It's been discussions, but they have been into it for some time. My guess is Odell knows around what they would offer. I think they'd like to see the knee.

But yeah, I mean, there's definitely been a mutual love interest here. And God bless the Cowboys for leaning really hard into this and giving us something to talk about for the last three weeks. I think the world will explode if he doesn't sign with the Cowboys.

He doesn't probably expect it now, but it's going to be a fascinating couple of days. Any surprise team that you hear, could the Niners even be involved? I mean, could there be another team that we're not hearing or other teams that might have been interested in Rams, Packers, are no longer in the mix because they don't have a shot to win this year? Yeah, I would say the Chiefs would probably have some interest. What about the Bucs?

What about Tom Brady? What about the Bucs? Not to interrupt you, but what about Tampa?

What do you hear about that? I had heard Tampa as a potential destination about like three months ago. I have not heard them recently, but it's like I was joking pre-agency that if there's ever a mystery team, it's always the Bills because they're very stealth. Tampa and Tom Brady, if there's a free agent who's available, who's good, my guess is the Bucs have some sort of cursory interest. So I don't know for sure that the Bucs are involved, but if they were, I would be surprised. Ian Rappaport joining me here on the Rich Eisen Show in Mercedes-Benz phone line, at Rapsheet on Twitter.

Give them a follow if you are one of the very few that already haven't. Let's jump into Justin Fields here, who is clearly the best quarterback and the most developing quarterback out of the draft class from last year and I think is now the apple of many fantasy teams' eyes. How hurt is he right now?

What do you got for me on that front? Well, I would say he's hurt, but his status is still TD. I mean, it's a real injury.

It's something that I think was really painful. It is a left shoulder injury, so we have seen quarterbacks sustain left shoulder injuries in the past and play. Baker Mayfield has won and Trubisky has won a couple years ago. There's been some history of this, so I would say his status is PBA. The team feels optimistic on him playing, so that at least is a good sign, but you don't really know until you get through a couple days and see how he responds.

I would say this. He definitely is the most productive of those young quarterbacks. He is also being extremely well-coached. The look we get through the offensive coordinator is done. Around the time of the Patriots game, everything changed. He started taking some plays from college, started opening everyone's minds, being like, we are going to use all of Justin Fields.

I think the Chicago Bears this year, their record is obviously not very good, but it kind of feels like they are a really, really well-coached team. I think he sort of embodies all of that. So what is the latest with, again, his evaluation? I know you're not in the MRI room or what have you, but if the guy's got a separated shoulder, which is the initial word on the street, then why is there any consideration?

Are they just checking to see if it is separated or not right now? Well, I think there's pain and then there's how functional can you be. Everyone's different, and he's a little different because he's very physical. If you told me, let's say Tom Brady. Tom Brady is playing with plenty of left shoulder injuries. He can deal with it, and it's not like he's out there running. Justin Fields is going to get hit. If he's not, then he's not going to be the field that you sort of want out there.

If he's not going to be the dynamic, multi-threat weapon that he's been, then maybe it doesn't make sense to play. So I think that's what's different for him is he's going to get tackled, and how would he respond to that? Yeah, and the team that he's facing is a Jets team that comes off a six-sack performance and is one of the top defense... His defense is legit. And that has been part of the pressure cooker that keeps building on Zach Wilson is the idea that he needs to win now because the defense is ready to do that. The defense is fully baked out of the oven, I think, a lot sooner than a lot of people thought, and that adds to the whole equation of how Zach Wilson is performing, and then his performance on the field and then at the podium after the game has created, as you know, a national furor, and it's not just, again, in New York City.

It's been a conversation coast to coast. And so Robert Sala kind of surprised some people by saying, yeah, all options are on the table as to who's starting against the Bears. He's evaluating.

What's your reporting on that, Ian? Well, first of all, I would say obviously the performance was bad, and the worst thing that would happen to Zach Wilson is the team being so good around him because it's almost like if we assume he is developing, which I don't know, but if we assume that as a young quarterback that he is developing and theoretically getting better, there's no patience now because the team is good, probably better than we all thought. I mean, look at what Robert Sala and Joe Douglas have built. Except for quarterback, I think it is really, really good. I do think, Rich, that all the Jets fans watched how rough his performance was, and that was whatever it was. It was not good. But I think the performance at the press conference took it to a national level. I think that caught everyone's attention. I think it might have been a little more under their – I don't know what Robert Sala would have done otherwise, but it definitely took it from a local story to a national story when you had him get up there and just kind of go, nah, I don't really owe it to the team.

None of that was good. And any casual viewer turned to the TV quickly and was like, what? So I think that really changed the calculus for Zach Wilson.

Right, and it might have changed the calculus for Robert Sala because that's part of the evaluation. And so any idea who number two would be, who would they turn to? They got a veteran in Flacco, and they got a guy in Mike White who, you know, for a couple of games last year in place of Zach Wilson showed even before this year what the offense can do when somebody's operating at a more efficient rate. Well, I mean, that's one of the biggest issues the Jets have is they – Mike White has been the backup recently, so my assumption would be him.

But we're really, really good, and the others not so good. Mike White has had his moments where he was really, really being full of the light, and then my guess would be him just for the potential upside. But it's not as clear-cut as I think it would be for a lot of teams if they decide to go away from Zach Wilson, which we don't even know that now, and I would think solid takes the weak to the side.

Ian Rappaport here on the Rich Eisen Show. What seats are hot, or we're just assuming it is in Denver? What can you tell me entering Thanksgiving week as to which coaching seats might be hot, Ian? Well, you know, I would say Denver for sure will be evaluated at the end of the season. We'll see how they finish. You know, if you look around the league, there's not that many to use more, right?

Like, people take a look at Arizona, obviously, disappointing season. They all got extensions before the year. Like, could something happen?

Sure. Things could always happen, but they all got extensions. So, you know, if Michael Bidwell is going to do it, it is going to be extremely extreme. All right, put him back on hold there, Mikey D. The word is expensive. That's what he was saying.

You want to hop back on there, Christopher, and see if he's available here? Because, again, you know, normally you're not going to blow anybody out after you've just re-signed him. And the general manager.

I mean, that's what's going on in Arizona right now. Sitting there at four and seven, you know. So, is he back on, guys? All right, give him a call one more time there.

Just get him back on there just so he can finish his thought. Evaluated at the end of the season in Denver. Man, nobody knows how that ownership is. Nobody knows how the Walmarts want to, you know, good old, how they want to operate their franchise. I don't think anybody knows that. That's the big question mark. Are they going to operate it like a Walmart? I don't know.

There's a correlation there I didn't give any thought to. Which means you rushed the doors this coming Friday for that deal on a television set? I think Walmart's closed on Thursday. You're back there, Ian? I'm back. I was trying to speak, I promise. No, I know that.

So, what you were saying is about Arizona and then you dropped off. Yeah, I was saying, you know, if they were going to make a move, they could do it. You could always do it, but it would be very expensive.

Absence that, I'm not sure I see an obvious one. I mean, we might get a retirement. I guess that's always possible. But I think, Rich, we get to the same point every year where I'm in, you know, late November, early December. I look around and I go, man, I don't think anybody's getting fired. And then we get to December and a couple teams finish, you know, 0-3 or 0-4 and things get a lot hotter. And we'll see, but there's been so much turnover the last couple of years that it feels like it'll be a little bit of a lean year when it comes to firings. But I guess we'll sort of see.

Uh-huh. And so you're ear to the ground on what's going on in Indianapolis and the rest of the league. And any sense of, you know, Saturday's first two weeks, he's, you know, he's damn near almost 2-0.

And so, you know, the wheels have definitely not fallen off the wagon there. And they're in Pittsburgh this coming week on a Monday night. It's going to be a national conversation, obviously ESPN. One would think would have an inside track to have a sit down with their former employee. So what's the general sense that you're hearing when you're talking to folks now two games into Jeff Saturday's surprise hiring? Well, you know, I think a couple things happen. One is when you have an interim coach in a very strange way, it ends all drama.

Right? Like every week it was Frank Reich fencing the quarterback. It was firing the coordinator. It was job status.

It was Ursa being upset. We have an interim. It all goes away. And everyone stops talking about you.

Same thing in Carolina. Like, there's no questions. You just kind of be. So I think that probably helped the locker room. I think Saturday's message has probably been fine. He's very good in front of a microphone. So I would expect him to be good talking to the team. You know, it seems like the assistant coaches have done a really good job. I guess, you know, what they say is that he's delegated really well, which means the assistant coaches are doing well. No, we'll see what happens. I mean, I would still be pretty surprised if a guy who is not a coach became the head coach there. But I guess stranger things have happened. I'm just not sure I know of any.

I've never heard of such a thing. Right? I mean, it has been it has been beyond fascinating and we'll see how it all works out. Ian Rappaport, have a great Thanksgiving, brother. Let's chat again soon. I'll chat with you, I imagine, on Thursday morning, on game day morning. All right. Look forward to it. Thanks for having me.

Take care, pal. You got it. That's Ian Rappaport, NFL Network, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Sean Payton looms.

I mean, that's that's the deal here. He looms. Who wants him? Who's going to go and blow out their guy for him? Who's going to give up the compensation to the Saints for him? Who's going to be the one to pay him a king's ransom?

You know, who's going to be the one to do it? I don't know who's going to I know everybody keeps talking about the team up the road here in the 405. With the Chargers, you know that if if if Peyton wants a warm environment. Some some good climate, a lot of golf when he's not playing, when he's not coaching, I mean, and he wants a quarterback that he can hitch his wagon to for 10 plus years, 15 years. And somebody wants to unlock that kid's potential in a way that hasn't come up with enough wins.

And so the Spanos would have to pay dead money to a guy I think they like a lot. He's great with the media. He's been great when he's been on the show Brandon Staley. And, you know, you could continue to be patient with him because he's really smart.

And he's really, one would think, you know, on it. You want to blow him out, pay dead money to him. Pay whatever you need to pay to the Saints and then pay Sean Payton the amount of money that he wants. I don't know if that's the ownership group here in Los Angeles, to be very honest with you.

We'll see. And the final seven games of this season for for that team is crucial. Sitting there at five and five. And you want to talk about a fascinating game coming up on this docket this week.

The Los Angeles Chargers after that loss, their close miss. They're in Arizona. And Arizona needs that dub. They are getting desperate fast.

844-204, Rich is the number to dial. We'll take your phone calls when we come back. And the top five storylines entering Thanksgiving weekend. I've got those for you before Sonny Dykes of the fourth ranked TCU. Horn frogs coming off that big last second literal win over TCU.

I mean, over Baylor. That's coming up an hour or two as well. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, you can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on Westwood1Sports.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. All three again. Thanksgiving Day games can be heard on Westwood One radio coming up this weekend.

And coming up in about 13 minutes time, top of the hour. I've got the top five storylines for Thanksgiving weekend. There's a few that you might not be thinking of. That's why I'm here to help fill in the gaps.

Terzo and Iowa all rise. One of our favorite regulars back here on the program. New at the 49ers looking the way they did.

You'd be smoked out, sir. What's going on? That was a fun little win last night, especially when you see Trent Williams kind of getting on the outside, leading McCaffrey down the sideline, and some of those cornerbacks were making business decisions getting out of the way. They sure were, man. They sure were. And the last one by Kittle, I mean, even Aikman called out the Cardinals for those business decisions, called it embarrassing, and said that the Cardinals are a losing team, and they acted like it on that one play. Very rare to hear Aikman or any analyst call out a team like that, but you could see it.

They wanted no piece of him, certainly after Debo was coming downhill on him. Well, in that offensive line, I think like what you were saying about the defense, that offensive line, as healthy as it is now, they took the soul of that defense, and it went on both sides, and it's just fun to watch how healthy they are right now, and the potential, because when you're talking about Dallas and the Terminator that Parsons is, I think those are two teams that'll be fun to watch. It's entirely possible we're on a collision course there. Thanks for the call, Terrizo.

Have a great Thanksgiving. That would be pretty darn amazing. And I'll tell you what, man, that could be, depending on how the way the rest of the NFC East hammers out, that could be, let me say, probably not a divisional game. If Dallas winds up the five, Dallas would probably go visit Tom Brady first.

Ooh, baby. And so a rematch of week one, and then Dallas advance. No, seriously. What do you want, T.J.? That's the way I'm looking at it. What the... You know, I think that's what's at stake right now in the NFC East, is whoever wins it has a good shot at... Rich. I don't think the one seed, I mean, Dallas is a good shot at the one seed right now. Can you put up the NFC standings, if you don't mind, just to hash this out here? I mean, Dallas has got three losses. The Vikings have two, okay? The Eagles need a couple more losses for them to catch them.

They're two plus back. As we know, Cooper Rush started that game in Philadelphia. And then there is that amazing game between Dallas and Philadelphia that is coming up on Christmas weekend.

And that's huge. Dallas has got an outside shot, one would think, at the one seed, and certainly a great shot at the division, if they keep winning and the Eagles somehow get tripped up. Philly's next game is home for Green Bay. They're home for Tennessee. They're at the Giants. They played the Giants twice.

At Chicago and home for New Orleans. They're going to have to hope the Giants trip them up once. That's another big reason why this is a huge game on Thanksgiving, because Dallas would sweep the season series with the Giants.

Huge tie break, that would be. And a division record improved. Meanwhile, the Eagles are sitting here listening to this, like, wait, what?

I'm serious. The Eagles' last two weeks have not looked like the undefeated team. They lost one, and the Indianapolis Colts almost got them. I know Nick Sirianni was all chesty about, that's for Frank Reich, and we left with a win. But he almost lost to the guy that got bounced. You know, he almost lost to the team that bounced the guy for Jeff Saturday.

Yeah, but again. Look, man, I'm sitting here and thinking, the Niners don't really have a shot at the one seed right now. And they're playing like a one. They are playing like one. That offense was just unstoppable. So Dallas and San Francisco meeting each other in the playoffs could be, depending on the seeding, it could be an NFC championship game.

Maybe. Like the old school. Like the old days.

Let's go. Like the old days. And I'm sure Dallas would love a rematch with the way it all went last year, and Mike McCarthy even admitting they were jittery with the Niners coming out of their locker room all confident, and the Cowboys kind of not. We ain't doing that no more. And Micah Parsons wants no part of remembering that game. He wants to erase it.

Yeah. Got to get by Tom Brady first. You got to get by Tom Brady first, man. Why did you bring that up today, though, Rich? Because this is it. It's Thanksgiving. I'm supposed to be giving thanks, and now I can't? Because I got to think about Tom Brady ahead of us. There is less pie. Oh, yeah, man. It's Thanksgiving. That's terrible. These are all. This is all in the ether.

Can we know? And then, of course, there's the Vikings, you know, sitting there and and, you know, Justin Jefferson said they're going to flush the game. They have to flush it. Yeah, they got to. Well, actually, though, that was Cliff Kingsbury called it flushing the game, but they just got Vikings just have to turn the page and forget it. Vikings are better than that. They they are. They have been.

They were just seven days before. It's like that game that they played against Buffalo. The game of the year, right?

Maybe they just they left it all on the field, literally, and they had nothing left. Thunder in Louisiana. Let's take Thunder Thunder.

Isn't that great? You call it a game. You say, what's your name? Thunder.

What's going on? Thunder. Oh, yeah. Well, driver, listen to you guys. Speaking of the Vikings, who needs this Thanksgiving game more? New England or Minnesota?

I think New England. No question about it. I mean, look, the Minnesota Vikings aren't getting caught in their division. They're not getting caught in their division. They're going to have a home playoff game skull, you know, no matter what happens. It's not the division that worries me. It's it's the other teams.

It's the Eagles, the Cowboys, now the 49. Yeah, but you've got you've got even if you lose the Thanksgiving Day game, Thunder, that you've got a few weeks to just get up to speed. Just look at the Bengals last year, man.

They caught fire middle of December and let it let it burn and all the way almost to the podium, the victory podium. So who needs it is a team that's sitting there in a very competitive division in a very competitive wildcard race. New England wins. Needs it more. It's funny that we talk about this because as a Vikings fan, you guys all know that we have a notorious reputation for throwing the season away. So that's why it just makes me nervous about who needs this game more. Even if you guys say more. Well, I mean, maybe you as a fan need it more.

But in terms of the reality, I'm serious, brother. The Vikings are going to win their division. They will have a home playoff game. They will need to have a nice amount of momentum. One would think going into that wildcard weekend because I don't believe they're going to win the one seed that by week is kind of, you know, it looks dim since the team that they're facing, they're a game and a half behind. They've already one of their two losses is to the Eagles as it currently looks, you know, obviously it would be nice for you to win it. And I appreciate the call.

Have a happy Thanksgiving Thunder. You know, when it all comes down to it, they're winning the division. They're getting a home playoff game, which is what you go into the season saying. Win your division, home playoff game, and then we could see what we can do. You know, and if the Vikings take on who, the Giants or the Seahawks, you should be able to win that game at home in a playoff game. I mean, you know, the playoffs, you can obviously throw records out, but I mean, that's the way your things are kind of shaping out right now. I don't have a crystal ball.

Nor does Sonny Dykes, who's the coach of TCU. He's coming up an hour number two. Don't go anywhere. Still here on Roku. Adel Tufo, you were going to work on getting us a crystal ball, right?

He's working on a lot. He told me not to get it. But the one crystal ball you saw look like Bill Murray's bowling ball. Yeah, who cares? What do you mean I told you not to get it? You said don't worry about it. I said don't get that one. Mike also is still working on Chris Christie, booking him from 2015. Said he could get him, didn't get him.

From the same neighborhood, right? You're also working on swag for our guest tomorrow, NFL Network swag. I've got to go into the vault. What's the vault? You're like I'll go home and I'll take a look. And then you come at an empty end and you're like I'm still looking.

I have three spots. Mike, you're like Geraldo looking at the vault, man. There's a lot of stuff in the vault, though.

My vault, it ain't Al Capone. Is that a quarter century ago? It had to be 80s, right? It had to be 80s. By the way, our guest tomorrow in studio is Gus Johnson.

Before he heads off to the horseshoe. That was 1986. Yeah.

I was excited to see that. You know what I want to ask Gus? I want to ask Gus, what is his favorite comeback game that he's called? Was it Valpo? Is it Bryce Drew?

Is it Valpo? I wonder if Gus has a list of catchphrases in front of him. No doubt, no question he does not. That's all off the dome, man. Off the top, that's what I was thinking. Oh, Gus Johnson, that's off the dome. We'll have our chance tomorrow to talk to him about it. Can't wait. Something you should know wherever you listen.