Draft for (Hour 1)

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Goats have home lives too. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Rich Eisen. Hello, Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen. Oh, that's Susie Eisen. The Rich Eisen Show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber.

Welcome to the program. Always a delight to be in for Rich and the fellas. Fired up and feeling good on this day after Christmas.

It is an official national holiday. Do I get time and a half? Why am I even asking that question? I'm just lucky to be in the chair and we're gonna have a great time together over the next three hours. Virtually wall-to-wall football. All the fallout from what went down across the NFL the last two days. Hope you endured some lousy ball yesterday, although, don't look now, you can't kill Tom Brady. That game was virtually unwatchable. It is my job after all, and thankfully I'm here in Southern California, so I was up late by my standards to watch Brady put together another comeback coupled with a predictable collapse from the hapless Cardinals.

Brady and company get it done in overtime. So, here's how I view our time together today. As mentioned, it is a holiday. I'm not that great on figuring out which days are holidays observed, but when I flipped on CNBC to see how little money I would have heading into the new year, Wall Street is closed today. That tells you it's a real holiday.

Apparently, money does sleep. So, with that mindset, understanding that many of you actually have fulfilling relationships, meaningful connections to friends and family, and you may not have watched football the way I did all day Saturday. Yesterday was tough, I'll be candid, and I went back and forth with the NBA. We'll talk just a smidge of basketball.

Yes, there were NBA games yesterday completely overshadowed as the NFL crushes everything in its path. 1-844-204, Rich, the number to call. 1-844-204-7424, candidly, and as I've gone through the mental recap of the year, I think I've been in for Rich virtually every holiday since Memorial Day. I was here July 4th. I was here Labor Day.

I was here Thanksgiving. By now, if you're enjoying my approach, and it's only a minute in, small sample size, please don't flip away. I'm just that needy. I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich. I tend to have an old school, but not an old heavy-handed way of doing business, but I've got takes for days. So, I am more of a monologues. I want you to enjoy our audio experience, but if you don't feel like chiming in by picking up the phone, don't worry about it. I will give you strong opinions about everything going on across the NFL. If you do want to slide in and have time to collect your thoughts without me pushing back by picking up the phone, Twitter is always your best bet. That is B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs, and I do my best to give you plenty of opportunities to get interactive because only two guests are going to join me along the way.

In fact, none until hour number two was winding down. Coming up in the final segment of the second hour of the program, we'll go around the NFL at 1.40 Eastern Time with Jason Cole, long-time NFL observer. He's an insider now for outkick.com, author of a terrific biography of John Elway, and then we'll wrap up the show 2.40 Eastern Time talking just a little bit of NBA because there were five games played yesterday. Don't you know the Warriors finally showed up vastly different team at home still just trying to survive and advance in the regular season context without Steph Curry. That is all coming up. I'm going to jump in with big picture thoughts on the AFC because if you watched the games yesterday, the one with the most importance clearly was played in Miami, and I've tried to be objective when it comes to Tua-Tunga Violoa. I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but if you've been paying attention to how Miami's approached the quarterback position, they have not even hinted at us. They've screamed it from the NFL mountaintop.

They've been looking for an upgrade from Tua for a long time. They flirted with Deshaun Watson. As an aside, Cleveland's going nowhere. Watson with a terrible play at the end of the game against the Saints to officially eliminate Cleveland from their very faint playoff hopes. If you look at body of work, Jacoby Brissette was much more efficient than Watson in his small sample size. You can push back, well he hasn't played in 700 days, but you have Watson, and then pause for a moment and think about why he did not play with the 11-game suspension.

And his hideous decision-making. And oh by the way Cleveland, you're on the hook now moving forward. 230 million fully guaranteed.

But Watson was linked to Miami. Tom Brady, the NFL fount officially was so desired by Stephen Ross, a Michigan man like Rich, so I'm going to tread lightly here. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.

You can hop aboard at 1-844-204-RICH. Twitter, open for business. That's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's. Stephen Ross was so interested in getting into the Tom Brady business, there was talk that he was going to sell him a piece of the team, and the league found evidence of tampering.

So what does that tell you? Miami has had major doubts about Tua every step of the way. They bring in an offensive-minded head coach, and I just think a cool dude. And look, I'm in the opinion of business, and I'm going to talk about Bill Belichick in 20 minutes. While I respect, how can you not respect, Belichick's monumental achievements? I've never liked his act, and it is an act with the media, because you can see him. For example, Rich is still the face of NFL Network. He's been there since day one. When they had the top 100 players of all time, Belichick in a TV studio was charming, affable, congenial. He mumbles for a reason. A, he doesn't respect the media, and that's fine.

B, he figured out a long time ago, if I say nothing, and I make this as challenging as possible, I can get out of this room and save seven minutes that I can go maximize those seconds and go back and watch more tape. But if I'm just going to give you my own area of bias when it comes to the personality of coaches, and I've been around a few of them. I had my time at NFL Network as well. Mike McDaniel just seems like a cool dude, and maybe it's a younger vibe, and I'm just trying to hang on to what the cool kids are talking about.

But McDaniel was brought in with the sole purpose of coaching up to a designing an offense that would play to his strengths. They go out and they pay Tyreek Hill, and meantime Kansas City just keeps chugging along. It is spectacular what KC has done, and we'll talk about the macro overview of who do we really trust in the AFC. I'll give you a preview. I think only six teams have a legitimate chance to win it all, but I'm not going to tell you until the end of the program. Forward promoting.

I need you with me every step of the way. So here's two of them. I thought we saw vast improvement early in the season, and remember before that meltdown yesterday, not one, not two, but three consecutive picks. Miami looking good at the half.

Everything changes in the second half. Now let's not forget Raheem Mostert had a very costly fumble. He should not skate in this, but this is the Tua game, and the internet had a great time with all sorts of memes and different wordplay about Tua's penchant for turning it over, but that game was a crystallization of why Miami, in my opinion, should be very active in the offseason, looking for a better option under center because, and I don't want to overreact to just one game, but we know the limitations of Tua. He's undersized. He can't fully see over the line. That's just documented. If you're just watching the games, you don't have to be Amos Alonzo's stag to know what your eyeballs are telling you.

That's why he's much more effective on the deep ball because he has better field vision than he seems to have on the short and intermediate routes, but Tua single-handedly cost that team the game. Now, I think they're going to be just fine. Remember, and I have all the playoff scenarios in front of me, so if you don't want to spend 30 seconds Googling, I'm here for you. This is a full-service program, but for all the histrionics about Miami's meltdown yesterday, and we'll talk about the Packers momentarily, they still have a very straightforward path to the playoff. In fact, should they sweep the season series, a phrase I always have to say slowly, against the Patriots coming up at Chili-Foxboro this weekend, all the games on Sunday, that's another holiday, January 1st. If Miami wins that game, they're in as a wildcard.

Same time, you are what you consistently do. Miami's now lost four in a row, but to give you a little bit more context there, remember, they had the California road trip where they stayed on the west coast. They lost to the Niners, who I think right now, with question marks about Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia defense exposed at least for one day. I think a lot of that came down to time of possession advantage Dallas when they were able to hang 40 on Philadelphia over the weekend.

And now the report, and this is big news that happened within the last few hours, Lane Johnson, the heart and soul of the Philadelphia offensive line, big reason why Jalen Hurts can run so effectively, according to reports he's done now for the rest of the year. You put it all together, I think I have the most confidence in San Francisco, even with suddenly a very relevant Mr. Irrelevant and Brock Purdy running that offense. But if you take the step back and you wonder, where is Miami right now? You lose to the Niners, I'm not going to crush you for that.

Lose to the Chargers as much as I could do three hours on my long-term issues with the franchise. Again, we all have biases. That's what it's all about as a human being. Hopefully you admit to yourself, I don't like mayonnaise, so I'm going to do a mayonnaise rant and not be in the pro mustard lobby. You get my point though.

We all have a lens through which we filter information. And I think the Spanos family committed a football crime by stealing the soul of San Diego. That team should never have been permitted to leave at the same time.

That's not Justin Herbert's responsibility. And we'll see Herbert tonight against the Colts with Miami's loss. Big opportunity for the Chargers to take another step forward in the seedings. But as I look at Miami's circumstance, they lose both those games on the road in California.

They played very well when the snow was abated on a big word Monday, when it was not a blizzard for three quarters of the game in Buffalo, Miami hung tough. And then the Bills assert themselves because they're right there with Kansas City. In fact, as you know, they have the head-to-head win this year, redemption over the 13 seconds last year in the postseason.

Buffalo KC, I think, with separation at the top and then a step down. Cincinnati is the bridge team between Buffalo, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and then the rest of the AFC. But my largest takeaway is Miami, I think, is going to be just fine. I still like this team in the postseason.

Forget about numbers. Just again, what you see, I believe they have the ability to score at will with the most explosive offense other than Kansas City in all of football. Still, how much do you trust Tua? It's my issue with Dallas. And I'm more of a Dallas believer than many of you are, even though I know they haven't done anything for several decades in games of consequence in the postseason.

But I just have a sneaking suspicion back to you are what you consistently do. Mike McCarthy is going to make a disastrous choice, a blunder that's going to cost that team in a high leverage situation come playoff time. As much as I believe in Dak as a frontline starter, as much as I love the versatility of Tony Pollard and the intensity of that defense despite all the injuries, Micah Parsons out there limping around still playing like a version, I'm going to pump the brakes, a version of Lawrence Taylor. There's only one LT for better or for worse. Parsons is just a one-man wrecking crew coming off the edge. But that's to connect Dallas to Miami.

That's my issue with the Dolphins. I don't know how much confidence you can have in Tua, not just the takeaway from yesterday, but we've seen it throughout the early stages of his career and that's becoming a larger sample size. And if we're just going to speculate, and that's the lifeblood of sports talk radio, and I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

You can be a part of the program, 1844204rich. Twitter is bwweber, Weber with two bs. I'll scan your tweets during the upcoming break.

So if you want to sneak in now, I can give you some feedback in a few minutes. Coming up in 30 minutes, I'm going to forecast the future of the Packers and Aaron Rodgers. And you can't kill Green Bay, although they got a lot of help from Tua yesterday. If he had just been serviceable, Miami wins that game, and the plug is effectively pulled from the glimmering playoff hopes of Green Bay. But with the expanded wildcard field that kicked in a couple years ago, some lousy teams, specifically in the NFC, are going to be playing in the postseason and Green Bay could be one of them. But coming up in 30 minutes, I'm going to try to get a outlook and a jump on next year as to if Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay.

And Green Bay looks at what Seattle got in return for Russell Wilson. And I got a lot of opinions about Russ getting outplayed and embarrassed by Baker freaking Mayfield yesterday. If we're just going quarterback by quarterback undeniably, Baker was the best of the bunch yesterday. And this is a great situation for Baker. No expectations.

No pressure. Doesn't feel like Sean McVay's even running his stuff. It's Baker, go run around and do your thing. And that's when he's at his best. But if Aaron Rodgers wants out, or if it's amicable, Green Bay says, we understand you're in the twilight of your career. Because he's not going to be out there at 45 like Tom Brady's trying to do.

Although every time I bash Brady, at least he comes up with one more drive to live up to the billing as the most clutch quarterback we've ever seen. But if Rodgers wants out, and that's really a personal choice, we thought he wanted out a couple summers ago, and that turned out to be just a shakedown for a boatload of guaranteed money. But if Rodgers wants out, wouldn't Miami be the ideal destination? Write your own joke about senior citizens like my blessed mother going to the Sunshine State.

It's good for the joints, I'm told. If Rodgers wants to depart Green Bay, wouldn't Miami go all in to get him and make an offer like Seattle was able to extract from Denver? And how's that looking right now? Remember, Denver has been so abysmal, if there was a scintilla of hope, it would be at least we're going to have a high draft pick.

No, we don't. We sent that to Seattle to get Russ, and Russ has 230 million, and that's not fully guaranteed, but that's the overall number. He's got the bag, as you kids say, coming, and that deal doesn't really get unbelievably impactful when it comes to the cap until next year and the year after. That's why Denver is in a dire circumstance, and it's fair to wonder, is this just the incompetence of Nathaniel Hackett, or has Russ regressed?

Have we seen slippage? Is he not the quarterback he was as recently as two years ago? Denver, with their Walmart's ownership paying $4.5 billion, is going to do everything it takes to go find a offensive-minded head coach who actually has experience in play calling. Hackett, everyone says around the league a nice dude, but he wasn't a play caller in Green Bay. He was effectively Aaron Rodgers's bud.

Aaron Rodgers liked having him around, and he said, hey, the Hackman, you can't hack it. Where are you going? And we've seen that name was fitting when he got to Denver. So we're going to talk about Aaron Rodgers's future coming up in less than 30 minutes, but to me, Miami seems like the most logical, coherent destination, and if you're Rodgers, why are you hanging on in Green Bay? What's going to change next year? Christian Watson has emerged, literally got hurt yesterday, I just saw, but that took the better part of three quarters of a season. How about Rodgers to Las Vegas? A reunion with Devante Adams, unless Adams has told management, I came here to play with Derek Carr. Carr can be cut with no financial implications right after the Super Bowl. Does Josh McDaniels believe in a quarterback that he inherited? We'll find out in the off-season. So as we wind down the opening monologue, and Ed McMahon is giving me the rap sign here, I'm Johnny Carson, Infra Rich Eisen.

Moving forward, that's the Blueprint. Going to give you my takeaways from what we saw. Hopefully you watched enough football to get away from your family the last couple days. I'll get you set for Monday Night Football, highly significant for the Chargers. Jim Irsay has become the gift that keeps on giving as the Chargers take on the Colts. I wonder how the Colts are feeling. What happened the last time they played? Oh yeah, they squandered a 33-0 lead at the half. So we're just getting warmed up.

If you want to slide in 1-844-204 Rich, I'll check your tweets momentarily. That's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Coming up, I mentioned the Patriots. Oh my goodness, they blew another game after they had the ferocious comeback. Cincinnati went away, they fell apart, and then the Patriots had a chance to win the game, but they fumbled inside the 10 a week removed from their meltdown in Las Vegas.

Is Robert Kraft going to force Bill Belichick to make significant changes when we get to the off-season? I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich. This is it, the pot to win your tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours. But on your backswing, your hat falls over your eyes. Is this how you're running your business?

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1-844-204-RICH. Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Just me and you for the rest of this first hour.

In fact, we will not incorporate our first guest until the business end of hour number two coming up at 1-4 to Eastern time. Much more NFL, understandably. Going about 90% NFL today. Looking forward to my latest conversation with the old friend Jason Cole. He has covered the league for decades.

Now working as an NFL insider for Outkick.com. Straight ahead we're talking Patriots. What it's going to take for them to get into the postseason. What their offseason will look like potentially because even if they sneak in, remember last year they got destroyed on wild card weekend by Buffalo.

Don't think anything's going to change. And because I was like Dan Campbell, all Lions fan, I'm so sorry. You really thought this year was different, didn't you? And I have empathy for the Lions. We'll get there in a second. Lousy clock management by yours truly. I was on a roll to kick off the program. We'll be more concise here and then in 15 minutes we'll talk about Green Bay's resurgence.

Although you have to remember who they have beaten recently and all the charity they got from Tua. He was in a giving holiday mood yesterday with the three picks and then we'll spin it forward. Where's Aaron Rodgers going to play next year? Since we're talking NFL, a reminder you can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on the Auto-C app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One Station streams or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports sponsored by AutoZone.

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AutoZone. And that all applies to the Monday night game coming up this evening in primetime. Chargers on the road in Indy. Chargers looking very good for a wild card.

Miami's lost yesterday. Good news for LA as they now have moved ahead of the Dolphins and they can make sure that consequence holds up by beating a Colts team that has become a laughing stock across the NFL. And since I'm mentioning the playoff picture in the AFC, just quick overview.

Top seed is still waiting to be clinched. Bills, Chiefs, Bengals all in the mix. Likely Buffalo. Remember Buffalo has the head to head win over Kansas City. Payback for the incredible conclusion to that playoff game for the ages last year at Arrowhead where Buffalo was able to come back and win this year on the road in KC in the regular season. Bengals on their way in.

Wild card clinched by the Ravens. Still don't know when Lamar Jackson's going to play. We can have the conversation about should he play.

He will play. He's a competitor. But if we're talking strictly business, remember he was unable to come to terms with the Ravens for his deal next year. You can make an argument if he was solely interested in doing what's best for Lamar, shut it down. He's not going to. He's a football player.

But that's why the contracts are important. I know a lot of you find it tedious when we get bogged down in financial details, but just think about the future for Lamar Jackson. And all he has to do is process what happened to Kyler Murray. Tough to see Kyler go down in the midst of an awful year for Arizona, but at least, and it's not my injury to rehab, it's his torn ACL, but at least he has the peace of mind knowing he's got over 150 million fully guaranteed.

Very different for Jackson. So, Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, Ravens, Baltimore the wildcard, and then we're looking at two other wildcards in the AFC. Likely Miami. They can wrap it up with a win over the Patriots we're going to talk about momentarily. Probably the Chargers rounding out the field in the AFC. Very different outlook in the NFC.

We're going to go in depth on that conference coming up in the second hour of the program. I mentioned some bottom feeders are going to sneak in because of the added wildcard, which I don't think we need, but you know I exist. More playoff inventory means more money, my man. Cowboys, a very dangerous wildcard, presumably. I'm going to give the division to Philadelphia. And then we're looking at the Giants, the Washington football team, as I still like to call it. I think they should have gone with that full time. Plus half the time when I want to say commanders I say Commodores for some reason.

Maybe I'm thinking of the Commodores 64, the greatest Christmas gift I ever got. Seattle's in the mix. Detroit's in the mix. Green Bay's in the mix. So, pick a team there that has no business getting to the postseason and a couple are going to sneak in. New England's still mathematically alive, but do you think based not only on what we saw last year when they had a functioning play caller in Josh McDaniels and Mac Jones looked good for the first three quarters of the season, hit the rookie wall, and never bounced back. If that team could do nothing against Buffalo, what is this year's edition of the Patriots going to do? And I don't want to belabor my own issues with Bill Belichick. I'm just a guy clutching a microphone so it doesn't fall out of its moorings. And for Rich Eisen, my name is Brian Weber.

You can follow me on Twitter. It's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. My good friend Dan Schwartzman will be with you next couple days and I'm back to wrap up the week as Rich is enjoying a much deserved holiday week off. I thought he did a great job on an emotional night in Pittsburgh.

It was a good call by my former employers and they obviously had no idea of knowing the tragedy involving Franco Harris. But to have Rich in that booth with Steve Mariucci, Kurt Warner, Michael Irvin, it had a real collegial feel and the game turned out to have a dramatic ending because the Raiders only play one score games. Raiders a couple weeks ago got the gift of a century when the Patriots lost their mind, the throwback from Jacoby Myers to Chandler Jones, the stiff arm that made Mac Jones look like he was a Lilliputian, and one of the craziest finishes we've seen in the history of football.

I mean, it's right there. If we're doing the wildest conclusions in football, we'll throw in college as well, history. It's the Cal Stanford play, although as a proud Stanford grad, yes, I have squandered the education working on a holiday observed. If that play happened today, it would have been ruled dead three different times with replay, with a knee down, with a forward lateral or two. But anyway, it's still the greatest conclusion. I'm not bitter.

I wasn't there in 1982, but the greatest conclusion we have ever seen right there was the Patriots meltdown against the Raiders. What happens this weekend? Like many of you, I try to have a little bit of a life, but I'm watching all the games. It's my job.

I want to be fully prepared. And you have the red zone experience on Saturday, which I missed yesterday. And that's the trade-off when the NFL wants to maximize revenue with these standalone games.

And I know what they were thinking and the ratings are going to be huge, but I prefer all the games simultaneously. I don't get a vote. But when since he had that 22-0 lead, I went out for a walk.

I'm just trying to break even with all the holiday eating heading into a new year. You figure that game is long done. I come home, it's 22-18 and New England is driving, but the Patriot way no longer exists, or it's evolved now into coming up with a catastrophic ending in back-to-back weeks. Fumble inside the 10, Cincinnati wins. So here we are now with the Patriots, hanging around at seven and eight, still mathematically alive for a wild card.

But doesn't this organization need a reset? And one could argue that starts with Bill Belichick. Now I am not going with the lava-filled hot take that Robert Kraft is going to whack, to use the Sopranos term, because I'm rewatching the entirety of that series. He's not going to fire the most accomplished head coach with Tom Brady.

You got to throw that in there. How has Belichick looked pre-Brady in Cleveland? Yes, he won a playoff game in Cleveland, and post-Brady in New England?

Just a guy. But I do remember all those rings. Still, I find it interesting, going back to the owner's meetings in the spring, when Kraft volunteered to reporters.

He wasn't asked. He just started riffing about, he wasn't thrilled that they hadn't won a playoff game in three years at that time. Well, I'm just going to postulate. I'm going to look ahead. Even if the Patriots sneak into the postseason, they're not beating any of the higher seats. So that'll be four years now, without a postseason win. I know why Belichick's hanging on.

He just obviously is motivated by the one thing that's still out there on the horizon. He can end his career, breaking Don Shula's record, and have the most wins in NFL history, along with the most Super Bowls. And then at some point, they change the Lombardi Trophy to the Belichick Trophy.

That'll happen 20 years from now, and nobody will care, because we don't appreciate history. But if you're Robert Kraft, and you still don't like how the Brady situation played out, but you understood how it happened, your son betrayed you. I knew it was you, Fredo. The one thing you can control is your own organization. So at a minimum, don't you have to go to Belichick and say, we need a radical change on this coaching staff. And maybe that starts with, why do you have two sons now on the coaching staff? I'm Robert Kraft. I'm writing you, Bill Belichick, a check for seven, eight, nine million bucks, whatever it is. Now I'm paying two of your sons to gravy train off of me?

That's got to change. Clearly, you need somebody with a background and expertise on the offensive side of the football calling plays. That's why you've heard the Bill O'Brien murmurs and innuendo, because the tea leaves are being dropped from Foxborough. Belichick knows how to play the game. No, no, no, no.

This year was a work in progress. We'll go to Alabama. We'll bring O'Brien back into the Belichick mafia and everything's going to be fine.

Well, here's the pushback. Why in the hell did Belichick think other than blind arrogance, that throwing the keys to the offense to Matt Patricia, who not coached on that side of the ball for years, if he has any reputation, other than being the failed head coach of Lions, it was as a defensive coordinator and Joe freaking judge as the quarterback's coach, what's his reputation? Failed head coach of New York football giants and special teams. How in the world did any fair-minded person think that was going to work? And Matt Jones is limited enough.

They didn't give him a chance. There was no way this was going to work, but because Belichick has total control, if you look at that roster and wonder where the playmakers look at the hoodie, he's the de facto GM as well. So I'm not burning down the house. Rich does not have to break his vacation to come back when I'm scheduled to be here on Thursday.

I'm just saying it bears monitoring. What's going to happen to the Patriots in the off-season, but don't get it twisted. The fill-in hack is not saying Robert Kraft is going to fire Bill Belichick. The hack's name is Brian Weber. I'm in for Rich Eisen.

The phone number is 1-844-204-RICH. Twitter is always the best avenue for any dialogue. That's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. We'll get to the NBA coming up in the next hour of the program. Boston to me, clearly the team to beat. There's a hot take. They made it to the NBA Finals last year, but think about all of the chaos with the coaching change, and they looked better than last year. In fairness, Milwaukee didn't have Chris Middleton, but another impressive win by the Celtics. We'll get there coming up in hour number two.

Straight ahead, don't look down. Green Bay still has a chance to play their way into the playoffs. We'll give you those scenarios, and then we'll look ahead to next year. Where is the where is Aaron Rodgers going to be playing a year from now? That's all coming up as we wrap up the first hour with gusto.

A lot more to get to. Always a blast to be in for Rich. I'm Brian Weber. It's the Rich Eisen Show.

I'm Brian Weber. Always a honor to be in for Rich from a best not to destroy his brand that he's worked so hard to establish. It is the Rich Eisen Show. 1-8-4-4-2-0-4 Rich.

That's 1-8-4-4-7-4-2-4. Twitter is flowing. I appreciate the tweets. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two Bs. No TV today, and that is a holiday gift because at some point when we have the simulcast of what are currently audio-only extravaganzas, you will see a man, I'm trying to paint the word picture as generously as I can, you'll see a man huddled over a microphone right on top of that sweet spot, over enunciating, maybe perspiring a bit because apparently on holidays observed, the air conditioning doesn't always work, and that's fine, no complaints, and gesticulating wildly. It really is interesting how much of the theatrics of radio have become part of your true least DNA, but I'm going to have a great time with you, and if you find all of these NFL monologues to be a touch repetitive, we're going to bring in an outside voice coming up an hour from now, take you across the NFL with Jason Cole. He's covered the league for better than a quarter century, he's now the NFL insider for Outkick Final Hour, talking NBA with Curt Heelan, there were five games played yesterday, you might have missed it because you were immersed in the NFL.

Curt is the lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com. Getting back to the NFL with Aaron Rodgers's thoughts here, we'll start hour number two talking more NFC, plus it is Boxing Day, time when many gifts are returned, who's got the biggest buyer's remorse across the NFL, that's coming up in less than 15 minutes. A reminder, this NFL postseason, every Westwood One NFL broadcast streams live for free, the wildcard round, the divisional round, the AFC and NFC championship games, the Pro Bowl games, and Super Bowl 57 from Glendale, Arizona. Can the Packers get hot? Not only make it to the postseason, but make an impact come playoff time. I have doubts, still, somebody has to be that last wildcard, and the NFC is so muddled, think about where the Packers are right now, because you have that funky tie between the Giants and Washington, Giants at 8-6-1, Washington 7-7-1, Packers have won three straight to get to 7-8. Now remember, context does matter, the Packers, other than the meltdown from Tua yesterday, and I'll give Green Bay credit for road victory, you watch that game, it was Lambeau Field in the Sunshine State, there was a ton of representation, makes sense, if you're a Packer fan, you see that game on the schedule, you save up all year and say, let's weigh the pros and cons. I could be in Wisconsin, or I could be in Miami for the holiday weekend. Advantage, South Florida, but Green Bay after wins over teams they should have beaten up, like the Bears and the Rams, suddenly right back in the mix.

So let's start with the first step. Can they get there? Yes, because if you haven't looked at the schedule, and that's my job not yours, Packers coming up play a pair of home games starting this weekend with the Vikings, who I think are the most fraudulent division champions we've seen for a long time. Now your pushback will be, hey loud guy, whoever you are, do you not have access to the NFL standings?

The answer is yes. Hey dude, stop shouting at me, have you watched the Vikings play this year? Are you aware that they've set an NFL record going 11 and 0 in one score games? I am on top of all those things, and my answer to you would be, they've been damn lucky.

Now you can parse it the other way, luck is the residue of design, Branch Rickey, as we get deep on a Monday. If you watch those games, let's just start with a Buffalo game. That's a one in a hundred million chance, they're even in the hunt with the bot snap for the touchdown, they found a way. How about the Colts game? 33-nothing greatest collapse in NFL history, they won the game. Giants game, I'll give them credit. They're better than the Giants, I don't believe in the Giants either, but if I'm looking for that path for Green Bay, I think with a game at Lambeau Field, Green Bay can win that game, and then they wrap it up against the Lions, and Lions fans, I feel your pain. Because I did believe in the Lions, and it was not just pity or empathy, if you were paying attention when they got red hot prior to the Carolina beat down, which exposed this team, Jared Goff was playing like a legitimate NFL quarterback, they could run, and the worst defense statistically we had seen in league history to start the year shored themselves up. So it was all in front of the Lions, what happened? They remembered, they were the Lions, and they got abused by Carolina, the latest reminder that there's a reason why Detroit has a single playoff win since 1957.

So, since I just jumped in the hot tub time machine, now let's spin it forward. Where is Aaron Rodgers going to play next year? Option one, stay in Green Bay. The pros, he can do whatever he wants.

There's no owner. Nobody's telling him, don't go on the Pat McAfee show and air your grievances, because the charming nuance that the Packers are publicly held. If he's leaving, here's who comes to mind for me. I mentioned the Raiders. I think, though, that the Devante Adams relationship with Carr, remember they were teammates at Fresno State, has more impact than Adams and Rodgers, because Adams could have stayed in Green Bay. Green Bay offered him, depending on how the deal was structured, virtually the same amount of money, and he left because of the uncertainty surrounding Rodgers, and he wanted to play with Derek Carr.

How'd that work out? If you're Josh McDaniels, who's going to be around for the foreseeable future because Mark Davis does not have the liquidity, he's cash poor, to pay another coach with the $75 million he still owes Gruden, according to reports, or $60 or whatever the heck it is, I don't know that Carr is going to be pushed out, even though you can make the argument he should be, because you stick with the guy you know, even with his failings, rather than go to the marketplace and maybe you're left settling for something that's even worse. So I'm going to cross the Raiders off the list. How about the Jets? We're going to talk about the Jets in granular detail coming up the next hour of the program. It makes sense, but here's why it will not happen for two reasons. Favre does not have the precedent of going to the Jets that Rodgers wants to follow.

I muddled that one up. Having already seen Favre to the Jets, and this is me just playing amateur psychologist on the radio, I don't think Rodgers wants to follow in his footsteps again. He dealt with that legacy stuff enough in Green Bay and we know how poorly it worked for Favre on and off the field as he foreshadowed all the nonsense he's involved with now with the state of Mississippi based on his abhorrent behavior with the Jets. So now we're down to a couple teams. I told you the Dolphins make a great deal of sense to me, but even a better fit would be the Tennessee Titans for a variety of reasons. We're just talking lifestyle. Rodgers is a different cat.

We went through his magical mystery tour and talking about getting in touch with his inner Chi and getting the right hallucinogen to take him where he needed to go. Nashville has a good vibe to it. That's off the field. On the field, Ryan Tannehill, who was always just a guy, was the quarterback when they made it to the AFC title game just a couple years ago. You plug Rodgers onto an offense that leans heavily on Derrick Henry, although you wonder about the mileage and the wear and tear on a player who takes so many hits, coupled with a defense that has had wobbly moments this year, but I believe in big picture, and a head coach that Rodgers would have respect for, presumably, in Mike Vrabel, because I think a lot of that comes down to how Rodgers views people. If Aaron's leaving, Rodgers to Tennessee makes a whole lot of sense, but file that away. We got a lot more to discern about what the Packers do in the remaining two weeks of the regular season and then potentially a postseason vote. Hour number one is in the books. Two more hours to get to coming up in 45 minutes, and in the next upcoming hour, we'll take you around the NFL with Jason Colov. Outkick, I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich, straight ahead, we'll start the second hour talking about buyer's remorse. A lot of gifts being returned on this day after Christmas. What would NFL teams like to return?

That's on the way. Thanks for spending part of your Monday with us. I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich, it's the Rich Isenship. Even your parents can tell. Everyone can tell. So what makes you think that law enforcement officers don't know when you're driving high? Driving under the influence of marijuana can slow your response time and change how you perceive time and speed. So even if you think you're fine to drive when you're high, you're not, because the bottom line is if you feel different, you drive different, and driving high is driving under the influence. So remember, drive high, get a DUI. Paid for by NHTSA.