REShow: Hour 1

What's Right with Nick Wright is a rapidly growing podcast from the Fox Sports Podcast Network. You may know Nick Wright from co-hosting FS1's First Things First. This podcast gives Nick a chance to develop, deep dive, and defend his sharpest opinions. During the show, Nick faces off against a ticking clock, a team of producers, and even his own family to try and get his points across.

New episodes drop Monday, Thursday, and Friday wherever you get your podcasts. To be back in the captain's chair yet again filling in for Rich this holiday week. It's the best week of the year except weather-wise outside of beautiful warm weather environments, right?

Most people off from work. I get more work, obviously, and you go from Christmas slash Hanukkah slash Kwanzaa to New Year's. And in my family, this is a terrible time of year.

Why? Because my wife's birthday is the 22nd of December. My daughter turns one on the 29th of December. Just found out my father-in-law's birthday is the 28th. My brother's birthday is the 28th, which means what? Expensive time of the year for old Dan.

We got a great show coming up all day today. Laura Romo on the other side of the glass in for Art Martinez. Laura, no relation to Tony Romo, I think. Is that correct? Correct. Thank God. Do you lie about it, though, to get dates?

How does that work? No, my dad's name is actually Anthony Romo, so he loves to play with the Tony Romo because he does go by Tony. I mean, he's making $17 million a year, right? He's not a bad guy to be associated with. He could be my uncle.

I'll take it. Uncle Tony, he's nice around this time of the year, right? With throwing out those dollars, nice gifts. You know, if you're like a member of the Romo family, not Laura Romo, but Tony Romo, you know, you should expect a decent gift this time of year.

I have friends who played, obviously, through this career of mine. I've met ex-athletes and current athletes, and I had to buy a birthday present for an ex-athlete, a very good friend of mine. And you're sitting there, and I'm sitting there with the wife, and I'm saying, what do you get a guy that pretty much either has everything or can afford to buy whatever the heck he wants? Like, what do you get somebody like that, right? Like, I can't afford to buy anything I want.

I have to work. So it's like, what do you buy somebody that has everything? And so you have to wonder, so if it's Uncle Tony Romo or Uncle Troy Aikman or Uncle Tom Brady, whatever it may be, and you know they're gonna get you a pretty ridiculous gift because they can afford it, what do you get them?

Can you get away with, like, flowers? Hey, Uncle Tony, here you go. You get them a gift certificate to Amazon. Like, hey, Uncle Tony, here's 100 bucks to Amazon. That's all I got, which is a nothing. I mean, what's Tom Brady gonna buy with 100 bucks to Amazon, right?

Like, that's not much. I just wonder, what do you do in those family structures of trying to figure out what you buy the rich uncle for the holidays? Like, that's gotta be the toughest decision you have to make that year.

Not like, do I pay my bills this month or do I pay the rent, you know? It's like, what do I buy Uncle Tom Brady for Christmas? Because Uncle Tom Brady could buy whatever the heck he wants. That guy makes more money than most people. So, like, what do you buy a guy like that?

I don't know. Laura, you ever think about these things or am I just warped mentally to have these thoughts cross my mind as to what do you buy rich people for the holidays? Because this is the holiday season and people have actually had to make these decisions leading up to Christmas, right? It's like, what do you buy for the richest person in your family? So, my boyfriend's family has two lawyers and they make really good money. So, I was in that predicament, obviously, not as a high-end as an athlete, but honestly, I went with a sentimental gift and they loved it.

Which was what? So, I bought one, like, I took them to a Rams game with their grandfather and I gave them a picture of all of the kids that went with their grandpa and they don't really do things like that. So, they loved it. You see, but ladies have the ability to put thought into this, right?

That's true. My wife does that kind of stuff all the time. Like, oh, for your parents, let's take a picture of all the grandkids together, put it in a frame, they're going to love it. And sure enough, they love it.

And I go to their apartment and it's front and center. I don't think of things like that. I think like, what's the coolest gift I can give somebody, right?

Like toy trains or like a drone or something like that. It's such a difficult decision. So, I'm Jewish, so I got to do eight days of this stuff.

So, it's a little bit more difficult, I think, at times. But the holiday time's upon us. It is a fun time, especially if you're an NFL fan.

So much to get into. I mean, is there anything more bizarre in sports today than what has happened with the Denver Broncos? I have tried to wrap my fingers around the Denver Broncos and the debacle that is that team to try to figure out where it all went wrong. And you can point a finger at their now ex-coach, Nathaniel Hackett, who, by the way, was in over his head and he saw that even in the first game of the year.

I mean, the guy had no idea what he's doing. Not head coaching material. And he's not the first nor the last coordinator who's going to be a guy that failed as a head coach. But people look at Nathaniel Hackett and they're like, what did he do? I understand he did a nice job in Green Bay, but pre-Green Bay, he really did nothing. Offensively did nothing as an offensive coordinator. So you go work with Aaron Rogers and Aaron Rogers makes you look good, right? Like Tom Moore all those years of the Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning. The question was, what does Tom Moore do except ride the coattails of Peyton Manning, who's practically calling the plays at the line of scrimmage anyway? Well, good for him, right?

That's a great job. And I think the same thing happened with Nathaniel Hackett where he's riding Aaron Rogers's coattails because Aaron Rogers is improvising at the line of scrimmage. He can read a defense as good as any quarterback in history of the NFL.

He understands what he sees in front of him. So what did Nathaniel Hackett do but look good because he's riding coattails? But it got him a head coaching job and very quickly people realized, snap, he's just not very good. But you would have expected the same thing to kind of happen for Hackett in Denver.

What happened in Green Bay? Like a lot of coaches or a lot of head coaches, let's put it that way, when it comes to their specialty side of the football, okay? Like if you're more of an offensive guy, you try to get a guy who you trust to run the defense where you don't have to worry so much about the defense. You're, you know, yeah, you'll sit in on a defensive meeting but you will trust your defensive coordinator to be the head coach of the defense, okay?

That's usually how it works. And you can tinker with the offense. You might have an offensive coordinator but ultimately you probably call the plays. So you would have thought that Nathaniel Hackett would have looked good because Russell Wilson would make him look good.

And while he could ride the coattails of an Aaron Rodgers, Nathaniel Hackett could ride the coattails of Russell Wilson. Kind of like Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors, right? When you give him Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant when he was there, guys like that, they make Steve Kerr look good. But when you are missing those guys, they get blown out by the Knicks by 30 some odd points.

The next night they get blown out by the Brooklyn Nets by 30 some odd points. Steve Kerr looks like an average head coach. In the end, the talent in terms of the players wins out regardless of who the coach is. I truly believe that me or you could sit in there for Steve Kerr at the height of the Golden State Warriors dynasty and we could probably win 60 games and get him pretty far in the playoffs.

I honestly believe that. So is it Nathaniel Hackett that made Russell Wilson look bad or was it Russell Wilson that made Nathaniel Hackett look bad or, let's put it this way, exposed him for what he is which is not a very good coach? Because I don't think anybody out there, honestly hindsight's 20-20 and I get that, but you cannot possibly tell me that when the Denver Broncos pulled off a shock trade and traded a ton of draft picks and some quality players to the Seattle Seahawks for Russell Wilson, you didn't think Green Bay just shot up the boards and should now be the AFC favorite to win a Super Bowl. Of course you did because Russell Wilson had a Hall of Fame career for what 11 years in Seattle. It was a no-brainer and now you look at it this year you say to yourself what has happened?

How is Russell Wilson this bad? So I have been analyzing this question in my head for the last couple of days. I really have. If you're an NFL football fan you root for your team first, you root for the league second, right? And while I'm a jet fan, I obviously care what's happening around the league and stories like this intrigue me.

So I've been trying to wrap my fingers around it and this is what I've come up with. I think Russell Wilson is a good quarterback who looked great playing for Pete Carroll. And why do I say that? Because I respect Pete Carroll. I think Pete Carroll is a Hall of Fame head coach.

I do believe that. He's a guy that turned it around, right? He kind of had early failures with the Jets, the Patriots, things like that, turned it around as a college coach at USC, won a ton there, goes to the NFL, wins a Super Bowl, should have won a second Super Bowl, but he's had an incredible run in Seattle, probably on his way to Canton. But he has taken a guy who is nothing more than a journeyman quarterback, Geno Smith, and he legitimately turned him into a Pro Bowler this year. So if he can take Geno Smith and make him a Pro Bowl quarterback that potentially may be leading his team to the NFC playoffs, doesn't that speak volumes as to what he could do with a guy who has more talent in Russell Wilson elevating him into a superstar? So maybe this is highlighting the greatness of Pete Carroll as a head coach, his staff, the people he has surrounded himself with that obviously no quarterback play and they understand offense. To me, that's the only logical explanation that I have because there's no other logical explanation for Russell Wilson literally turning into one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL in front of our eyes in what is now considered one of the worst trades in history as of now, right?

Think about that. The Seattle Seahawks traded away Russell Wilson and got laughed at for it and yet potentially they will come out on top in a deal that will change the fortunes of that team to where they have the ability with all the draft picks they got, and pretty high draft picks because Denver's terrible, to continue to add to a roster that had an incredible draft last year with Tariq Woullen and guys like that, to where they're going to be fighting in that NFC for a chance to go to the Super Bowl for years to come. Trading your franchise quarterback may have ended up putting them in a position to have the next dynasty of the Seattle Seahawks, as crazy as that sounds. And for the Denver Broncos, they may have gone from potentially a Super Bowl, legit Super Bowl contender in the AFC with Russell Wilson, to a team stuck with Russell Wilson because his cap numbers are ungodly high, and they have no draft picks because they traded them all away to get him to where they're going to be in the toilet for years to come. That's the craziness of what we are witnessing right now. And no one saw this coming. You again cannot legitimately tell me that you saw this coming, that you would have an absolute blow-up of Russell Wilson to where I think you to where I think you even have to consider, is he truly a Hall of Fame quarterback?

Seriously. Do you look at his body of work with Denver and, or excuse me, with Seattle, and allow that to excuse what potentially could be a disastrous body of work overall with Denver? He's 34 years old. He can play another six, seven years. These guys today play a long time, right, at the quarterback position, and no question Russell Wilson was on the verge or on his way to a Hall of Fame career with the Seattle Seahawks. From 2012 to 2021, Russell Wilson was one of the best quarterbacks in football, hands down, bar none. But does say three more years of being terrible in Denver, that's if that's exactly what happens, kill his Hall of Fame chances to where you say smoking mirrors, scheme, and coaching was why Russell Wilson was so good in Seattle, and now we're seeing more the truth of what he is. Maybe that's not fair because I think the body of work in Seattle is good enough for Canton, but it does raise the eyebrows to where you say, hmm, how good was he really?

And maybe Pete Cowell is a great head coach and we haven't really looked at it that way, but it is honestly mind-boggling how bad he's been, right? 13 games this season for Russell Wilson, he has thrown 12 touchdowns, 13 games. His career low is 21 touchdown passes back in 2016, okay?

He's got 12. His completion percentage is the worst he's ever had in his career. His yardage total through 13 games, sure, he's gonna have more yards passing this year than he did his rookie year, most likely his second and third year as well, and a couple other years here and there, and even last year when he played 14 games for Seattle. But his quarterback rating far and away will be the worst of his career. His QBR is one of the worst in the NFL right now. That's how bad it's gotten for Russell Wilson, no joke.

I don't understand it. I can't wrap my brain around it, but it makes you wonder how good he truly is. Now, if you can get a Sean Payton to take over there, right?

And maybe you can. Maybe you can get Sean Payton to take that job because he looks at Russell Wilson and says superstar quarterback, terrible coaching, you put me in there, you run my scheme, that's Drew Brees part two, okay? And if that's the case and Russell Wilson comes back next year and puts up ridiculous numbers, then this conversation is moot. But I think it's a very fair conversation to have right now considering what we are watching with Russell Wilson and the self-destruction of him and that team and guys yelling at him and he needing his backup quarterback to step up to the offensive line and have an argument with them on the sideline. It's embarrassing. The Denver Broncos have legitimately become the laughing stock of football when they brought in a future Hall of Fame quarterback in their mind with a big trade this past off season.

That is absolute insanity. We're going to try to get a little bit more on this. Mike Sandow covers the NFL for the athletic will be joining us next.

We'll get his thoughts on it. Is it showing the greatness of Pete Carroll? Is this more Russell Wilson?

And can a Sean Payton straighten things out? But this is it. The putt to win the tournament, if you sink it, the championship is yours.

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NetSuite.com slash Rich Radio. A lot of NFL topics to get to next. Mike Sando covers the leak for the athletic. He's going to join us. We are underway. It is a Tuesday, I guess. Final week of the old 2022 as we look ahead to 2023.

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Paid for by NHTSA. 20 past the hour, hour one. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen, the Rich Eisen Show. The holiday week leading up to New Year's 2022, flying by, heading into 2023.

As much as I always enjoy turning the calendar, it just means we're getting older every single year. NFL, so much going on around the league. The Russell Wilson situation, the New York Jets.

What do you do with Tua Tagovailoa? Another concussion situation for him and JJ Watt retiring at the end of the season. No better person to discuss this all with. Mike Sando covers the league for the athletic. Mike, first off, happy holidays and happy New Year to you and your family.

Thank you, sure appreciate that and happy holidays to you. Thank you, Mike. I want to start off with this Russell Wilson thing.

I said on the air, it's bizarre to me, right? The Denver Broncos won the off season. They got a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

They gave up a lot to get him, but 34 years old in his prime, they're going to be Super Bowl favorites. What's happened? And you look at it now and it hasn't worked out, obviously. Mike, what in your mind, and again, this is I think all opinionated, what has gone wrong? Is it the head coach situation or is it Russell himself in your mind?

Well, it can be both. So I live in the Seattle area. My first job covering a team on the beat was the Seahawks in the late 90s through the 2000s. I stayed here, so I've watched every Russell Wilson game.

I'm still pretty, I'm still pretty tied into the organization and all of that. And he has been declining from a production standpoint for about a year and a half. It was really a weird thing. If you go back to the 2020 season, there was a game they played against Buffalo. It just hasn't been the same since then. And so in his end of Seattle, there was a lot of kind of talk internally and among people that follow the team, kind of what is it? It doesn't seem like he's as athletic. He's not scrambling as much. He's never been like a master reader of defenses. And there were some schemes, kind of those two deep safety schemes and some of that, that have given a lot of quarterbacks some issues throwing deep, have really seemed to hurt him because he's been such a home run hitter. He's never been Drew Brees, 15 play drives, just complete every ball. He's always been kind of off the run game, the play action, and then make stuff happen, can run around. He looks markedly different as an athlete than he did three or four years ago, just with his quickness.

I think that's a big part of it. And then I think he got the keys to the car there, the case of the kingdom in Denver, but he was always in a managed situation in Seattle. And that was really why he left because he felt he was being overmanaged and limited. A lot of people bought into that, but I think what we've seen is that management for him, like it is for a lot of quarterbacks, really helps. He's not Peyton Manning. He's not Tom Brady. He's not Mahomes.

He's not Rogers. He's just been a good quarterback. And so that context around him, I think is what they have to get back.

I think he also has to really pay attention to his body composition and his quickness and the athleticism. He's got to get some of that back, or I think he's a player in decline forever. Mike, we see Geno Smith is on his way to the Pro Bowl, having a fantastic year with the Seahawks. You give Pete Carroll obviously a lot of credit for that, but is watching what's happening in Denver with Russell Wilson highlight even more the greatness of Pete Carroll, the fact that he could mask the decline, the deficiencies of Russell Wilson for the last couple of years, and probably for his whole career in terms of deficiencies.

It flips that narrative so much. When you think about these, Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll, all the success they've had, let's just fast forward to 10 years. Does this help Pete Carroll get in the Hall of Fame?

No question. Does this keep Russell Wilson out? I mean, look, it's not over yet, but man, the way this has gone south so quickly, when so much expectation was built up, really affects the legacies of the people involved in profound ways.

It's just fascinating. I do think Pete Carroll, I've always thought Pete Carroll was a great coach, but if he can have a second act in Seattle without Russell Wilson, that really goes down, I think, in his ledger, in his favor. Because remember, he didn't have a bad record with the Patriots, and Robert Kraft regrets some of how he handled that situation, because they sort of tied Pete's hands from a personal standpoint. So, man, a finishing act here for Pete, I think, puts him over the top. Mike Sandow of The Athletic joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Dan Schwartzman, aim for Rich. You are a Hall of Fame selector. I don't know what you can say or what you can't say with that, Mike, but if Russell Wilson does not get better, say Sean Payton goes to Denver and this continues and, you know, he's struggling, is he a Hall of Famer in your mind, based on what his resume is in Seattle? Man, I think we'll need the five-year waiting period to let the dust settle.

You know, it feels like right now, as a voter, that's one of the things I kind of, you know, you hate to make a judgment. I'm open-minded. I think I would, you know, I should all be making the case in the room for him, because I represent the Seattle markets.

So, when that time comes, I mean, I will really lay it out, the whole thing, and there's a lot of good. I mean, they were certainly one with defense and run game, but they were seven and nine twice without him, and when they got him, he was that perfect quarterback who could win in two minutes and really made spectacular plays, showed toughness. So, you know, I don't think it's as bad as it looks now. I think it's a strong Hall of Fame case for him, but I do feel like it's severely damaged right now, and we'll need those five years to let the dust settle and really probably be able to appreciate again all he did in Seattle, which was significant. And, Mike, also, you know what, the talk of Sean Payton coming back from the broadcast booth to the sideline, Denver could be an option for him there. Let's face it, though, the last couple years of Drew Brees, I think, were a lot of the last couple years of Drew Brees's career. I think they were able to mask some of his deficiencies as age hit him with Sean Payton. So, you kind of wonder if Sean Payton goes to Denver, is he the perfect guy to maybe resurrect Russell Wilson? Because I think he kind of understands watching a quarterback to play to the strengths of what they are now compared to what they used to be.

Agreed? Yeah, absolutely, and he was really good because Brees was a shorter quarterback too, and so they had him taking deeper drops so he could see the field better. I think one of the big concerns with Russell Wilson is he doesn't see the field well from inside the pocket, and so he's really dependent on getting out and seeing things. And so I think that Payton would be very good to give it the best possible shot with Russell. Payton also always had the run game.

They always did run the ball. They would get into heavier personnel. I think they'd be under center sometimes. I think those types of things could really help Russell. The other thing I like about Sean Payton is that he's not just somebody who had success with Russell so that if he can't fix Russell, he doesn't have a leg to stand on, right? He could be your coach after Russell Wilson, which I think there's a great chance that after this next year, Russell Wilson's not the guy, right?

It just doesn't look good enough. Even if you prop him up a little bit, I think they need to have other options. So, Payton would be a good guy to come in and evaluate the next quarterback and decide what's your fallback going to be, and then go with him if it doesn't work out.

Mike, you mentioned shorter quarterback, doesn't really see the field well from the pocket, much better rolling out. That's a guy named Zach Wilson with the New York Jets. Reports coming out this week that the Jets are done with him just not even two years after drafting him second overall. Look, the cap numbers aren't ridiculous in year three and four, obviously, for the guy. Do you think it's time for the Jets to turn the page, or do you think, what the heck, if you can bring in a veteran type of guy and have Zach Wilson maybe sit and learn and gain some confidence from him, because he does have talent. Let's not pooh-pooh that. The guy obviously has talent, and the Jets weren't the only team that thought of him high enough to draft him second overall.

What do you envision for the future of Zach Wilson? Is it with the Jets or outside the Jets organization? Well, I know this. When Jay Glaser reports something, you take it to the bank and don't worry about it. It's not like Jay Glaser's throwing stuff against the wall and reports 50,000 things.

Jay Glaser reports like 20 things a year, and they're all completely gold. Remember, Odell Beckham's gone. They're going to trade him. Jay doesn't just say this stuff.

I'm with Jay. I think he's got such a track record that that's going to happen. Now, independent of that, it would have to be pretty bad internally for me to feel that way if I were the Jets. I would think they need another option, but man, he hasn't played that much. For Jay to report that, for them to feel that, tells me that it is concerning internally, and they don't think he's going to be able to do it.

They've got a good defense. You can't fool the locker room. If a locker room feels a certain way and it's gone too far, you can't prop that up. Maybe they've just seen enough bad decisions from Zach Wilson and enough with his approach. Maybe he needs to go the Geno Smith route and surface somewhere else and work on his craft. If he can survive that, maybe he has a second act, but it just doesn't feel like it's going to be with the Jets.

Let's face it, Mike. You mentioned their defense. I think one more draft class, one more free agency period for Joe Douglas. The Jets outside the quarterback position may be as good as anybody in this league. I think if they weren't this good in terms of their roster, maybe Zach Wilson does get another opportunity, but outside of the quarterback position, this is a Jets team that for the first time in a long time, Mike, you can say legitimately they have unbelievable young talent. They do. They've done a nice job with that.

It's interesting. I do a podcast every week with Randy Mueller, and Randy is a three-time GM who's made some really good moves over the year, former NFL exec of the year, and he loves Mike White and thinks that he's going to get a starting opportunity from somebody. He's a free agent after this year.

Now, obviously, the concern is he's been hurt a lot, and you have to be available, but that's an interesting... Imagine if they were to go a different route, and Mike White did well elsewhere. I think this report by Glazer that Zach Wilson's done opens the door to bring back Mike White, and maybe there's another option you can get. Maybe they draft somebody. It doesn't have to be in the first round, but maybe there's somebody they like, and they can bring them along without the pressure, without the expectation that you just have to hit a home run with the guy in year one. Chat with Mike Sandow, the athletic here on the Rich Eisen Show, Dan Schwartzman, in for Rich, staying with the quarterback position, Tua Tagovailoa, another concussion issue with him. Forget, obviously, trying to get him back for the final two games of the season, in the regular season. That's not likely at this point, but career-wise, should this be a real concern for Tua?

It should. I feel terrible for him. It's just...

I don't know what it is. It seems like he gets thrown around. If you looked at his height and weight, there's other guys who played it that way. It just seems like he gets thrown and really takes these violent slam-downs. It's a reminder of just how strong these defensive players are in defensive laminar.

With a lot of the bigger or maybe stronger quarterbacks, they brace themselves or their head doesn't slam down. It just seems like this is a pattern with him. Very concerning. I think he does have to think long and hard about it. With concussions, the doctors always say, if you've seen one concussion, you've seen one concussion.

They're not the same. They're different for everybody, but this feels like a pattern. Even outside of the medical part of it, I think they have an evaluation with him, too, in terms of just availability and consistency and what has to be going right for him to play. I think they have a quandary with a team that's been set up to be ready and two has looked great at times, but can they count on that and the consistency? I don't think so and I think he has a real decision to make. And let's face it, the NFL, I think, has a decision to make in terms of is their concussion protocols truly working because he's been allowed to continue playing in not one but two games where he obviously has taken incredible shots to the head. I mean, is this a Miami Dolphins problem from what we've seen? I don't get this. So Saturday, with it being the holidays and stuff, I was actually watching the game with my sons.

My youngest son's a senior in high school. He was on Instagram going, Dad, I think two of them might have a concussion during the game. People were talking about it.

It was posted during the game. That's just like a high school kid is like, yeah, I think he has a concussion. So people just watching the game as fans were concerned about that and you're telling me that they weren't concerned about it or didn't do tests?

It's bizarre baffling because he really did get his head slammed down. There's got to be an issue down there. Yeah, it's to me criminal, potentially, depending on what the investigation finds out because this is an ongoing issue this year at the Dolphins where you have to wonder. Other teams don't seem to be having these issues like Miami isn't.

They're putting a guy's life in danger, frankly, when it comes to Tua. And at this point, he probably shouldn't play the rest of the season, including the playoffs, because it's more about him than it is about how far a team can go. Last thing for you Mike, JJ Watt, this is his final season. He's had a heck of a comeback year. He's going to go double digits in sacks on the season. He has, what, a half a sack to go in the next three games to do so. At his height, at his greatness, one of the greatest defensive players in history, is he a no question first ballot hall of famer or the four years of greatness? Is that enough?

Oh, I think it sure is enough. We've had some people that have had some periods of greatness without as much longevity, Kenny Easley, some of these guys, Terrell Davis. I think when you're a three-time defensive player of the year, that is hard to do.

That's elite company. Now, he's also played 149 games, so I went through in anticipation of your question and went over to Pro Football Reference and I just looked. They have, of course, all the official sack data, and then they did it back to 1960 unofficially. So JJ Watt is ninth all-time for sacks through 149 games. It's Reggie White, DeMarcus Ware, Jared Allen, Bruce Smith, LT. So LT at 117 and a half, JJ's got 111 and a half. So he's within six sacks of an LT pace through 149 games.

Derek Thomas, Von Miller, Leslie O'Neill, and then it's JJ, and then it's Richard Dent. So that's pretty great credentials. I do think that he isn't going to isn't going to have a problem just based on the, you know, the elite production. And then 149 games is not 85 games, right?

Right. He played a lot. It is amazing if you think about the career. And it kind of, what's really tough for me, because I love JJ Watt, and the fact is he's having such a bounce-back season this year, right? He's going to get the double-digit sacks and it makes you say, why stop now? You know, you're back in it.

The health seems good. Go a couple more years. But, you know, he's got the young family. He's got the son. He's got the young wife.

And I think at this point, why not walk away? Yeah, it's a different world with the money. You know, I think guys used to do it because they didn't question things as much or even think about it.

And they needed the money. I was looking at Merlin Olsen. Merlin Olsen played 208 games, went to the Pro Bowl 14 straight times to start his career.

Okay. But he played till he was 36. If he had been playing nowadays with the future that he had, if young people don't remember, he did 20 years of NBC, was the number one analyst with Dick Enberg. I mean, he would have gone into that three or four years earlier. Like, why would you keep playing, right?

Because he would have had 100 million or 300 million or whatever JJ Watt's got. So, I think it's just a different calculus for anybody now with the safety, the injury. He's had a lot of rehabs. It's not fun being on Arizona right now.

It's just not fun. And he's got the young family now. He's got a child.

You saw that great picture. So, more power to him. It's probably a great decision for him. Absolutely.

Walks away, head up high, goes out on top. You can't beat what he is doing. Mike Sandow covers the NFL for the athletic. Again, Mike, happy holidays, happy new year. Appreciate the time as always. Same to you. Thanks.

Awesome stuff from Mike Sandow. Absolutely. Good for JJ Watt. You leave on your own terms. He could play another couple years, no question about it.

But why? He's a Hall of Famer. You know, unless he leaves Arizona, goes somewhere else, and tries to ride coattails to a Super Bowl win, okay, fine. But you can't put that on him. And the domination he showed for those four or five seasons, three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice, over 20 sacks in a season, no question. In my mind, at least, that JJ Watt is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. And, you know, getting to know ex-NFL football players and understanding the CTE and the concussions and the head injuries, why put yourself out there to potentially suffer a serious career-threatening injury?

It's just not worth it. And as Mike Sandow said, you know, it's not like he played 85 career games. He played 149 games. I mean, by the end of this year, he'll be over 150.

And that's pretty much ten full seasons. More power to JJ Watt. Walking away with your health, as good as the health is going to be after a lengthy NFL career.

Got the young family, millions upon millions in the bank account. Very marketable guy, right? I mean, JJ Watt, at the height of his greatness, was doing commercials, what, Subway sandwiches, things like that. You know, he's going to be in a broadcast booth if he wants. I mean, this is a guy that, if he wants to continue doing something in the NFL, he certainly will have the opportunities to do so.

Networks will line up to sign him. The money will be there for JJ Watt if he wants it. Then again, if you already have tens of millions, hundreds of millions in the bank, and I don't care if you're 32, 33 years old, you don't actually have to continue working, right? You don't have to be a working stiff.

You can just retire, enjoy life, and go travel. Boy, that sounds like an incredible future, right? But I think we haven't seen the end of JJ Watt in terms of his involvement with football in the NFL. I think he does do some broadcasting.

I think he'll probably be pretty good at it, to be honest with you. But it was kind of surprising. You know, I opened Twitter today, and I see the picture of him with his young son, Cohen, his wife, and saying, you know, my son's first NFL game.

It's my last home game. And I thought to myself, my goodness. Like, you kind of forget what JJ Watt has done in this career. I mean, he's 33 years old, came into this league at 2000, you know, back in 2011.

The greatest Houston text and alongside Andre Johnson, no question about it. I saw some interesting reports out of Houston saying, why wait to retire his number? Like, get him retired, you know, Monday.

You know, last home game for them or whatever it is. Retire his number. Put him on that wall, Ring of Honor. JJ Watt did not leave Houston on bad terms, right? It wasn't as if he wanted to get out of there, and it made it ugly. It was kind of mutual. I think people felt good for him to potentially go somewhere and have an opportunity to win something. Like Ray Bork with the Boston Bruins, you know, when he won a Stanley Cup in Colorado, people in Boston celebrated for him. He deserved it. I think for Houston, it was like, okay, JJ Watt wasn't going to win here. We love him.

He's one of the greatest in our franchise's history. I want him to go elsewhere to try to win a Super Bowl because why not? A lot more NFL talk to come. I want to get into this New York Jets and the Zach Wilson question and Mike Sandocetto and Jay Glaze reports something.

99.9% of the time, it is pretty accurate. But I want to get into that also, you know, I mean, the two attack on my lowest situation, Miami is literally to me, potentially criminal. It is bad what's happened there in terms of how they have dealt with him and what are the ramifications of it? We'll get to all that coming up next. Dan Schwartzman on a Tuesday, final week of 2022.

Final week of 2022. I am in for rich eyes and it is of course, the rich eyes and show. Dan Schwartzman in for rich eyes in the rich eyes and show on a Tuesday, lot of NFL talk. We will talk some college football coming up next out of this transfer portal stuff is just wild. Can anybody keep track of where so-and-so's going? Who's getting this guy? Who's getting that guy?

Sometimes the transfer portal is more important than the actual recruiting trail. Unbelievable. We'll get to that next hour. NBA talk coming up as well.

A lot to get into on this Tuesday, but you know, talking to Mike Sandocetto we brought the two attack on my lowest situation ends up he is back in the concussion protocol and they've now kind of identified which play they think it may have occurred on. And I'll be perfectly honest with you. Absolutely. You watch him being taken down and you say to yourself, no question, his head slams, absolutely slams the turf.

And I don't care what your helmet is. Your head is not naturally supposed to do that. And that occurred in Sunday's loss of the Packers. And after that point, after that point, he threw three interceptions in that fourth quarter. Coincidence?

I think not. So Tagovailoa is out against the Patriots coming up Sunday. Teddy Bridgewater will take the first team snaps.

As of now, head coach Mike McDaniel is not naming a starter for Sunday's game, but who else is it going to be? But you have to really investigate the Dolphins organization here. So McDaniel came out and said that Tagovailoa displayed and then said he did have concussion symptoms. This is what he said to team doctors on Monday. That's when they placed him immediately into the concussion protocol. The team claims they don't know when he first initially suffered the concussion. Again, I think that's what he said to the team doctors on Monday. The team claims they don't know when he first initially suffered the concussion. Again, I think that's ridiculous.

Everybody else on social media seems to understand when it most likely occurred. How is it that Tagovailoa displayed concussion symptoms and no one apparently saw it to where he had to self-identify this to team doctors? I thought the NFL was all about protecting players now, right? Protecting players from concussions.

Making sure that you took that decision away from the player. No player wants to be out of a game. Players will lie about their health to stay in a game or get back in a game, okay? That's a competitive nature.

And at times, by the way, it's very dangerous. You can never trust the athlete to be honest with you when it comes to their health because they will do whatever it takes to go back in a game. Mike Whited the Jets with his fractured ribs. I'm sure the pain was ungodly, and yet he continued to play and even talked his way back into the game to where at the end of the game, they took him for precautionary reasons to a hospital in Buffalo to take x-rays. And then he was going to play the next week, and then they found out, oh, he had fractured ribs. So that wasn't going to happen. He's coming back someday. But before that, he's going to play the next week.

But before that, he's missed two games. So you don't want to leave it up to the player because you're not going to get an honest answer from a player. Very rarely will a player say, hey guys, I can't play.

Take me out. Remember that situation with Nelson Aguilar, the wide receiver, and it took his fellow wide receiver to stop the play, waving his arms, saying, hey, what are we doing? Why are we lining up with a play here? He obviously is concussed. Right?

I think it was Devontae Parker, I think. I mean, unbelievable. Everybody could tell Aguilar wasn't right, and yet he lines up because he wants to keep playing. He's not going to take himself out of the game.

Guys don't want a reputation that they can't stay healthy, especially a guy like Aguilar is kind of bouncing around the league at this point. So that's why you're supposed to have these concussion spotters. You're supposed to have people whose sole job it is to watch these plays and figure out, did the guy take a pretty hard hit to the head? And should we, for precautionary reasons, take him out of the game?

With two attacking by a low, how is this missed? And if so, doesn't the NFL have to go back to the drawing board and figure this out and figure it out quickly? Like you can't wait and say, we're going to wait for the off season to figure this out.

All right? Because between the last couple of weeks of the regular season coming up and, of course, the postseason coming up, which is another month, there is plenty of opportunities for a guy to suffer a serious head injury and end their career. So the NFL has to go back to the drawing board now and figure this out. And somebody's got to call up the Miami Dolphins and say, hey guys, we're going step by step over what's happening. In fact, somebody from the league office, their medical team needs to fly down to Miami and sit down with these team doctors and these trainers and say, take me through what you guys are doing because whatever you're doing isn't working. And two things, one, you make us as a league look bad and two, you're putting your players in jeopardy here.

This is not right. If you guys can't handle this, you're out. New guys are coming in, new trainers, new team doctors. Like obviously, you know, you want to see the top guys playing, right? Like people don't really want to pay to see Teddy Bridgewater quarterback the Dolphins in a, you know, in a divisional game against the Patriots when you talk about playoffs berths, you know, playoff berths on the line.

Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, all fighting for that number seven playoff spot. You don't want to take a two attack of Aloha out when he's having a breakout season, right? 13 games for two, a 25 touchdowns, eight interceptions. And by the way, three of those interceptions came after he was clearly concussed in the last game in that fourth quarter.

So take the eight with a grain of salt. He's had a really nice season, high QBR, high quarterback rating. You know, if he could have been healthy, easily would have gone over 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns. Like a turnaround season for a guy that was much behind his first two years after being a fifth overall pick in 2020.

People talked about the lack of arm strength. He can't make any throws. Two is done. Dolphins need to find somebody else to move on.

That was the conversation. He has shut people up this year with his play. He's played well. But at this point, at the age of 24, and he's going to be 25 in March, you have to seriously question, what's his career going to look like? When guys start having multiple concussions, A, obviously it's not good for them. And two, from what I understand, they are more susceptible to getting more concussions. At what point do you say enough concussions have occurred for two attack of Aloha where you say, maybe the NFL is not for him right now. Maybe there's the injury aspect where he just cannot continue playing. I'm telling you right now, that has to be a concern and a thought, because first and foremost, the most important thing you have to deal with is the player's long-term health and his viability as a human being, as a, you know, husband, father, whatever it may be, to have a long and healthy life and not potentially have serious issues arise because of numerous concussions.

At this point, you have to start thinking, what's best long-term for two attack of Aloha and his career. Our two of the Rich Eisen Show coming up next. Do you want to get in some college football?

This transfer portal is absolutely wild. Dan Schwartz with Infra Rich on this Tuesday, the Rich Eisen Show. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings. Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. You're either growing or you're dying. I think it'd be hard to recreate the kind of growth that WCW experienced between 95 and 98. This audience should be growing. The characters should be coming more and they're not. Everybody's gradually losing audience. Other people will say, well, but the AEW is 15% ahead of where they were last year, but there's variables there. Let's see where we're at year from now. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.