REShow: Louis Riddick - Hour 1

Now, let's land here for a minute.

Coming back, Miles Sanders, Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Yes, it is. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show, where, oddly enough, just seconds before coming on the air, I've demanded a trade. It's very strange, very, very, very strange. I'm not going to say where I intend to go. Oh, interesting.

I'm going nowhere. I'm thrilled to be here on the Roku Channel, here on the Rich Eisen Show. As always, between the hours of noon Eastern and 3 o'clock Eastern time, right here on Channel 210, our home for the Rich Eisen Show. Thanks to our terrific partners at Roku and the Roku Channel Free. The Roku Channel is free of charge on all Roku devices.

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We are free on terrestrial radio, coast to coast, the Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio outfit. We say hello to our Sirius XM Odyssey audiences. What a weekend it was in college basketball. I certainly thought I would come on the air here and talk about the first Elite Eight without a one seed since seeding began in 1979. And the first Final Four since seeding began a night since 1979, where nobody, nobody is higher than the fourth seeded UConn team. Truly a remarkable run that we're seeing for underdogs and Cinderella stories, and we've got the head coach of Florida Atlantic Basketball, the nine seed to make it, only the third nine seed to make it since seeding began in 1979. Dusty Mays on this program at hour number three, and interestingly enough, at hour number two, our football guest of the day from the playing field, James Bradbury's on the program.

Who better to ask about a whistle being blown in the final seconds of a tight contest, like say what we saw between the terrific game between Creighton and San Diego State, than James Bradbury, who had a flag thrown on him in the Super Bowl. What timing. So he'll be joining us in our number two and Lewis Riddick will be joining us shortly on the program and so much to chew with him as we get to the top story in a second. After I say good morning to Chris Brockman here on the West Coast. Good to see you, sir. Also Rich, shout out Kaitlin Clark, 40 point triple-double for Iowa last night. Like man, oh man. Yeah, the best player left in the tournament.

Either one is Kaitlin Clark, who triple-doubled Iowa into the Final Four. Good to see you over there. Jason Feller, as Mike Del Tufa was somewhere doing something.

Good to see you. He requested a trade also. Oh my God. We honored that trade. TJ Jefferson, I turned to my right.

You got like cabinetry behind you? What happened? You know, we just had to switch the look up a little bit, you know. Who's we? I like it. Me being me. Yeah, I did.

You know, I always tweak stuff over here. Plus it's WrestleMania week and I got me and Stone Cold Steve Austin on a t-shirt. Oh yeah, we got Cody Rhodes coming in.

We got Cody Rhodes coming in tomorrow, I believe. Wednesday. Wednesday. Okay, very good. I should know my schedule. Well, you got a lot going on. I do. Requesting trades or then rescinding trades.

Oh no, that's called facetiousness. Is this a two for one or a four for one trade with you or how's this work for us? I don't know.

We'll just put a pin in it. We'll discuss it another time. So I came back from the Combine with a bunch of rumors that I heard and, you know, that segment caused a tizzy. Where I said that I, you know, multiple people were telling me things and I decided to give you an idea of what I was hearing at the Combine.

Give you an idea of putting yourself in my shoes of what it's like to be at the Combine. The chattiest of the cathiest of all NFL events. And, you know, that went viral because the top rumor involved Tom Brady, some couple of people saying, hey, you know, might not be done. You were just saying this is stuff you heard. You didn't make it. Right, correct.

No reporting. And number two on the list was that the pack of sure hope, Aaron Rodgers, tells them I don't want to come back. Number three on the list.

It is not pretty between Lamar and the Ravens. That was number three on the list. Came back on that Monday. Told you this is what I was hearing at the Combine. I must admit I did not hear that he had requested a trade. As he let everyone know today. And the trade came on the Thursday of the Combine.

First day of on-field drills. March 2nd is what he said in the second of a four-tweet thread that started with the words, a letter to my fans. And he just wanted to let you all to know not to believe everything you read about me. Let me personally answer your questions in regard to my future plans. As of March 2nd, I requested a trade from the Ravens organization for which the Ravens has not been interested in meeting my value. Any and everyone that's met me or been around me knows I love the game of football and my dream is to help a team win the Super Bowl.

You're all great, but I had to make a business decision that was best for my family and I. No matter how far I go or where my career takes me, I'll continue to be close to my fans at Baltimore Flock Nation in the entire state of Maryland. You'll see me again, Truz.

That's a what a 5-Z, Truz? Let's stay connected. Subscribe to my fan page. And then he threw that one out there. So this is the way it's going for Lamar Jackson. Couple of Mondays after he was allowed to talk to a whole bunch of teams, anybody with two first round picks in the next two drafts consecutively can talk to him. He is a free agent restricted, obviously, because the Ravens can match whatever offer sheet he receives.

It's called the non-exclusive franchise tag. And if the Ravens don't match whatever offer sheet he does get, they get two first round picks from the team that signs him. And that's why you need to have a first round pick in this year's draft and next year's draft just to talk to Lamar Jackson. And to my sense of things, the fact that he tweeted this out today tells me he hasn't gotten much. Since he's hit the market, able to talk to anybody with two consecutive first round picks, and of course the desire to spend a considerable amount of money, and of course maybe change around their plans for the immediate and long-term future of their franchise, and of course potentially, if necessary, change their offensive philosophy to suit his remarkable football skills. And thus, the tweet comes out today that he has demanded a trade from a team that has again the right to match whatever offer sheet he gets. And of course, if he does somehow some way come back to the Ravens, reverse whatever course he is clearly setting himself on to get himself elsewhere to be paid what he considers to be worthy of his skills and differently from the way the Ravens have put something on the table which we still don't know the exact details of.

As I dangle my participle, I just say all of this to point out that it sure looks like he hasn't gotten a single offer yet. And that the Ravens and him appear to be on the rocks, and the Ravens, as I mentioned, not only can match their offer sheet that anybody might sign Lamar to, but if Lamar, as I said, does come back, they can franchise tag him again. So, that's the situation as Lamar hit send on a tweet today, just as John Harbaugh put his behind in a seat at the NFL annual meeting today. And we are showing a photograph on the screen that I saw on Twitter of the scrum that surrounded John Harbaugh's table at the league meetings right after Lamar Jackson hit send on his tweet to say he has demanded a trade. It was a total media scrum caused, I imagine, it still would have been that busy had Lamar not hit send, assuming he used the thumb of the right hand that won an MVP award, along with the legs attached to that whole body. I assume it would have been just that crazy, but maybe some more arrived because Lamar said, Hey, I've been wanting a trade since March 2, the Thursday of the combine. This is what John Harbaugh had to say.

I haven't seen the tweet. It's an ongoing process. I'm following it very closely, just like everybody else is here, and looking forward to a resolution. I'm excited, thinking about Lamar all the time, thinking about him as our quarterback. We're building our offense around that idea, and I'm just looking forward to getting back to football and I'm confident that's going to happen. So that was John Harbaugh's initial reaction, and I'll tell you, it's completely consistent with what he has been saying publicly, and I can personally attest because, man, I had no idea this sit-down chat prior to the Week 15 game against the Browns on that Saturday middle game of the NFL Network triple header that started with the Vikings coming back on the Colts and finished up with Bills and Dolphins in the snow.

I had no idea that that game I was calling with Kurt Warner and that conversation I had with John Harbaugh would provide me with enough knowledge or background or conversation pieces to this day, final Monday of March of 2023. But, man, that's exactly what he was saying to us at the table, on the record, and then as he was walking out of the room. That's all he did was sing the praises of Lamar Jackson.

That's all he does. Even as Lamar hit send on a tweet that puts him in a very compromised position in front of the media, this was the follow-up question about, can you essentially put Humpty Dumpty back together as we in the media believe it's now broken? So you build your team. You build your team regardless. We're building our team all the time in all the different areas that you've got to build it, and I know, and that train is moving, man. That train is moving fast.

But here's the thing. When Lamar gets back on board that train, he's fully capable of jumping on full speed. Lamar can go.

So when that train's moving and he merges in with us, we're going to be rolling. As a coach, that's what I'm thinking about. So you're literally building this offense filled with the idea that Lamar is recording?

Of course, of course. You prepare for all contingencies, but you build a great offense for your players, right? I mean, that's what you do, and Lamar's under contract, and that's the guy I want to see be our quarterback. That's my guy. We made a decision to go with Lamar Jackson five years ago, right?

Why? Because we love him. We love him. We love the way he plays. We love his mindset, his charisma, his style, the way he is in the locker room. Everything about him, we love him. I love him personally. I love being the coach of the team that he's playing quarterback for. So that's what you do.

You build a team around your players, and that's what I'm excited to do. So John Harbaugh, I believe, is proving himself to be the greatest frontman since Mick Jagger. Robert Plant, keep going.

Whatever you want to do. Lennon, McCartney. You want to talk about frontmen? Freddie Mercury. Oh, sure. Bono.

What a frontman. Because the most important part of that response to Kimberly Martin, I believe, of ESPN asked him the follow-up question, so you're still planning on him being your quarterback? Of course. Let's not forget, last year Pete Carroll, two combines ago, last year was talking about how he and Russ were staying together in Seattle. It's all good. And they were well down the road already.

Done. So it's entirely possible that they are done in Baltimore, but I doubt it because the crucial part of that response from John Harbaugh was he's still under contract. And then he followed it up, I love him, and started going on about exactly why he loves him and showing Lamar through the media, despite him hitting send and putting him in a tough position, he still loves him. They love him unconditionally in Baltimore, and if that matters to Lamar at all, you know, he should take stock in that. Will he go and be loved as unconditionally wherever he goes next? I think he feels he would.

And he has every right to follow what he believes in his gut is best for him and to be paid in the manner in which he feels he should be paid. As somebody who once upon a time split up with ESPN, my first, the team that drafted me, you know, I steadfastly thought to myself that if I stay put here, I am not going to be respected. If I stay put here, I am not going to be put in a position to succeed in the manner in which I feel my talents can excel in it.

And I need to get out, even though the rest of the world was saying to me, what the hell are you thinking? And yeah, I'm the Lamar Jackson of this equation. But I am just saying that I totally understand if Lamar is putting his foot down and the rest of the world is saying, what are you thinking? And he's just going to go straight ahead. But I didn't hear from ESPN the stuff that John Harbaugh just said.

They love him unconditionally. But he also pointed out he's under contract. So at some point, Lamar is going to have to just sit down.

The rubber is going to meet the road. Unless this trade demand does shake loose somebody calling up Eric DaCosta saying, I know it's two ones to sign him. But, you know, we're not going to take him off your hands through this manner of negotiation and conversation just so you could match it. We'll take him off your hands. He doesn't want to be with you anymore.

Let's talk turkey. Give us the opportunity to talk to him. We'll talk to him. But we're not going to give you just two ones just straight up if you're just going to match it.

Let's talk what we can do here. Unless that happens, Lamar is going to be staring into the abyss of a signing this deal or going back and negotiating with the Ravens again. Whether it's with his team, whoever his team is, or he's going to have to sit there and stare into the abyss and wonder, do I just sit at home?

Do I stand on principle and at this age of my career cough up one full year? He could look at it and if he is in some sort of a, you know, tit for tat, however you want to put it. If he wants to be, if he's in some sort of a stick in your chest out and I need to be paid like Deshaun Watson. If he's in some sort of feud or what have you, where he looks at Watson and says, I'm going to look at you and say, I'm getting one more dollar than you. Well, I guess Deshaun stayed put for a year, although the circumstances were completely different as to why Watson sat out for a full year, as we all know. And he still got his deal with everything like that hanging over his head and Lamar has none of that hanging over his. He's going to be winding up staring in the abyss. Does he not play and figure out does the, you know, the entire gym that business that he has with the aforementioned Ken Francis, is that going to bring in $32 million of revenue?

I don't think so. By the way, somebody else pointed out, I forget who I stopped in my Twitter feed, somebody pointed out this week, it's interesting that he has a business partner for his private gym project, but not an official business partner. In a $200 million business known as Lamar Jackson Football Incorporated.

Man, this is this is as unique as it gets. I don't I mean, you can't make heads or tails of it, but now it's fully out in the open, although the Ravens don't admit it. The Ravens are all like, we love them. We'll take them back.

We're planning on it. And Harbaugh, I mean, again, playing that music up front on the fly. And the reason why he could say those things and had it at the ready is because that's all he's said publicly, period. He went back to the same sheet music, which is entitled We Love Lamar. And we love Lamar more than anyone else can love Lamar. We loved him the minute we drafted him, when to go get him. We loved him when we kicked our Super Bowl MVP to the curb in the middle of the season and changed everything up to start with him. We love Lamar to set him up for success for the MVP. We've loved Lamar when he hasn't finished the last two seasons. And we've loved Lamar when we had to actually love him so much to show him the door to say, you find out for yourself.

That's how much they love him. But it is not mutual. Clearly, what happens next? Great question. But I think I've mapped out the roads for you. Either some team now sees this and says the Ravens don't have the same leverage anymore.

Let's go knock on their door to talk about terms and dollars. Or Lamar's got a decision to make right around like July. Does he sit out or does he sign the tender and play ball? Because he does do that really well and could get paid thirty two million dollars to do it. And is really, really, really in love with playing football.

Which the Ravens know, too. What do you think? Eight four four two oh four rich number to dial. First up, perfect timing.

Lewis Riddick of ESPN. Love talking ball with this guy. Let's chat with him on this breaking news subject matter when we come back. Don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arm's distance from the ones you care about.

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It's a week. I don't know if there's anything quite like it in the form of entertainment. There's not. Get into the WrestleMania spirit with the podcast Heat Network. Wherever you listen. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, terrestrial radio outfit, Lewis Riddick of ESPN is here. We already started talking a couple of minutes to him, but you brought you mentioned the Deshaun Watson deal. And there's no question that's that's looming over this right now. Right. Yep. Yep. It's he is looking at that and saying, listen, I'm not responsible for negotiating that contract, no matter how much the other thirty one owners hate it, how much no matter how much the other thirty one owners want to say, that's an outlier.

Jimmy has them. That's the Browns Browning, whatever you want to call it. That's them doing their thing. He's saying, look, it's there. It's done. It's in writing. It's been executed. And this guy can't touch me.

The player. That's his opinion. And that would be many other people's opinion. And I have nothing in my background that would pose any risk to you in the way it will pose risk to them in terms of my behavior and the way I've conducted myself. So why can't I use that?

Why can't I use that as a comparable? Now, there may have been, you know, you hear rumors out there being offers about how much has been offered to him in terms of guarantee. But we don't know what kind of structure it's been. You know, we don't know what the payout is going to look like, what the cash flows. We don't know any of that. And none of that's leaking.

Why? Because there's no agent to leak it to all the people. And we know that because that's how the business works. Agents tell insiders stuff. Insiders tell us stuff. That's how we feel like we're on the inside. That's the way a business works.

And so we don't know. So Lamar is looking at this going, OK, you know what? I've done everything I can for you. I know you constructed an organization and an office around me and my skill set when I came out of school. I'm trying to evolve. You want me to evolve.

You got rid of Greg Roman, Todd Monkins in there. You want to take this office to the next level. I want to take my game to the next level.

I'd like to have some more weapons, too. So you go and get me Nelson Aguilar. That's it, huh? That's what that's what it is.

That's what that's where we're at now. Now, there's going to be some people who go, Lamar is not that good of a passer. I don't care what you put around him.

I don't care how you construct the offense. He is what he is. He's a running back playing quarterback. All that B.S. that you hear out there. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. Well, he's looking at it one way. The team clearly is going to head to their best because they're going to worry about how do we minimize risk to the club?

Given how he plays, how he has gotten injured the past couple of years, we're not comfortable with that. So we have an old fashioned standoff. You know, there's a there's a number of different things going on here. But his timing today was clearly a response to all the things that are floating out there that he's feeling as though probably aren't coming from him.

But the team may be leaking things to people and putting their side out there. Anything you don't want here. Here's my response. And I'm going to release my response right at the same time that my head coach is talking at the owner's meetings. So I'll take that. Now, I want to be now I've requested a trademark second. I want to get the hell out of here. Send me somewhere else.

This is going to get hotter and hotter and hotter as the summer moves on. Because if you listen to the people who know Lamar the best, Rich, they say he's a man of principle. And when he gets dug in on something, he's dug in and. Wow. I mean, I mean, Coach Harbaugh says, you know what? This is fluid.

This is fluid. Things can change. I have a feeling this is all going to work out, whatever. I think he said something to that effect down there at the owner's meeting. Yeah. And all I can say to that is, you know, for everything that you just said, Lewis, is that this kind of be like a chicken and the egg situation in terms of building a roster.

He's saying all you're getting me is Nelson Aguilar, huh? And the answer could be like, what? What? Like, why would Odell go there if Lamar's not there?

That's a perfect example. You know, why would DeAndre Hopkins try and maneuver his impending trade to Baltimore if Lamar's not there? So there's so many moving parts. Right. And so I don't know how that will improve the situation. The only thing that that that can improve, if you will, the situation for him is if another team feels that Eric DaCosta no longer has the leverage because Lamar has now made it public.

He has no intention of returning there. Then then maybe somebody reaches out to try and make a deal. Otherwise, the standoff will come down to Lamar saying, I refuse to play for you.

Enjoy Tyler Huntley. I'll just sit out and make no dollars and no sense. And that's it. You know, like that's the way it's going to come down to it is the way I've seen it. Right? Yes. No, you're right.

You're right. We're going to see how principled he is and how dug in he is. I wouldn't bet against him.

I wouldn't bet against his desire to prove his point and stand firm and stand on his ground. And I had a feeling last year that it was going to come down to this simply because of that contract, simply because of what DeSean got. And yeah, it's it's such a you know, I saw I just saw a tweet that JJ Watt put out.

I don't know if it was today or it was a couple of weeks ago. OK. Or he said he said, why are there so many teams so willing to be so public and loud about the fact that they're out on Lamar Jackson? Why is that?

He said, you know, a mid-twenties player, MVP, prime of his career. Why are people so willing to say that they don't want him? But why is that information getting out there? Because am I missing something? And when I read that in that context, just a few minutes before we came on air here, I was like, oh, yeah, like, why is that? Why does there seem to be this? And look, I'm not one for conspiracy theories, man.

I don't get into that crap. But why does it seem to be like this? This this weird willingness to be so open about the fact that we don't want. Lamar Jackson or he were not interested in Lamar Jackson. Why is that?

That's that's just bizarre to me. This this situation is very, very disappointing and it's unfortunate. And I think that a lot of the disappointment arises out of the fact that we don't really have a lot of the facts. I mean, we really for all intents and purposes are only getting information from one side of this. You know, through the avenues that that information comes out through the team side.

And we're not getting really his his story about it in a way that traditionally we get the player side via agents, as I talked about earlier. And we're left to kind of like try and put this whole thing together. Like, what's the gap? What's the divide?

Like where what truly is the is the situation here as to why we can't arrive at. The lack of a better word, fair value, because there is always the best the best deals in the NFL are the ones where the player feels as though he didn't necessarily get everything that he wants. But he's happy with it. He can live with it. And the team feels as though, look, we didn't necessarily get the best deal for us to, you know, to minimize our risk. But we're happy with it because we love the player and we want the players. We can't even arrive at that. Right.

We can't even arrive at that. Now the guy wants out of there. So what the hell is going on? Well, I mean, if I could answer that to the best of my ability, Lewis Riddick here on The Rich Eisen Show, is that the reason why teams were, if you will, more public than normal is because they had the entire in the same way that you were pointing out. The reason why we don't know so much about Lamar's contractual situation is he doesn't have an agent and the agents are the ones who call the terrific insiders in our business who then report to all of us what they're hearing, that all those insiders went to every single team immediately.

And so many of them were willing to respond on the spot. We're not interested in Lamar. And part of the reason why is twofold. One is that contract by Watson is so widely reviled that nobody wants to be the second one in. Certainly when that contract was given to somebody with two dozen accusations of some of the most heinous behavior.

And so they don't want to be the second one in because with this silly escrow rule, they got to cut some fat check on the spot. And then there's the other aspect that's going to, I think, count against Lamar to get somebody in on him at this stage of the season is you got to, you know, you got to change a lot of things around. And that's not because he's not equipped, right? It's because he is so equipped uniquely that you have to change things around. And you also then have to go to your team's owner and say, hey, you want to cut a $200 million check? What do you think? And I don't know if many general managers want to do that.

And you put it all together. That's the way I'm reading that, Lewis. One, when it comes to the like, the team is rich could eat very easily when people are asking them if they're interested without they don't have to say no. You could if you were hypothetically interested, but doesn't comment on it because he's not because he's not being represented by by an agent. So you can't, you know, you don't want to make any comment.

No, I know. But does it doesn't that immediately alienate whoever you've been telling for weeks where you're the guy, we can't wait to give you the opportunity, you're going to get the reps get ready. I mean, I understand Desmond Ritter is not is not a veteran who's, you know, who's you're afraid to alienate him. But I mean, but all you have to say is we're not interested.

I mean, not interested. I mean, all you have to say is can't comment on players that are under contract. We're not going to comment on players on other teams at this point. I mean, teams say it all the time. Bellacheck did today.

Bellacheck did today when Will Ammar was brought up to him and it was pointed out he's technically a free agent. There you go. Right. That's what I'm saying. I'm not going to comment on other teams players.

And that leaves you all kinds of wiggle room and you know that contract negotiators, general managers, owners want wiggle room all the time. I didn't say I wasn't interested. I didn't say I was interested. I just said I can't comment and I'm not going to comment. That's all they had to say.

You don't have to come out and say no. You know what I mean? That was my only point. As far as changing around an offense for Lamar, if you go back to his tape during his time at Louisville, some of Lamar's best football was played in a pro style of offense. A true 3-5-7 step, under center, shotgun mix, move him outside the pocket. The same kind of things that you see the Rams play, that you see the 49ers play, that you see the Jets play. He was someone who can execute that kind of offense to the point where I don't feel as though it would be a situation where they would have to make wholesale changes in order to fit him in and upset, you know, philosophically everything that they believe in at these places like in particular that could potentially be interested. Like let's just say a place like Washington.

I don't think you need to do that. I don't think it needs to be a situation where you're up at an apple cart and starting over from scratch and having to remake the roster. As a matter of fact, I think quite honestly that that's the kind of offense that Lamar would love to go into to where he doesn't have to be a guy who's a primary ball carrier and someone who doesn't have to live out there on the perimeter taking shots all the time and run the zone read over and over and over again and quarterback powers over and over again. But could run a more traditional style offense. I mean, that's why they brought Todd Monken in there in the first place into Baltimore.

They wanted to get away from that stuff. They want it because it's going to one, it's going to increase the efficiency of the offense in terms of its run and pass. Two, it's going to attract other players that want to come to this offense, especially at the wide receiver position because they're going to say, hey, look, we're going to get more targets, we're going to get more balls thrown our way. It's going to be a more traditional passing offense on first and second down, you know, in addition to third down.

So yeah, I'm more interested in coming there. And three, I think this is what Lamar wants anyway. I think this is something that he would say, look, this is going to add to my longevity and my availability in this league and going to help me get to where I ultimately want to go, which is to a Super Bowl. So I quite honestly think it's, I think that kind of reasoning would be more of an excuse for teams to throw out there to say as to why they're not interested in him. But I think it's really a reason why you would want to bring him in there because he does want to be a part of this kind of structure. And he has flourished in it during his time at Louisville in college. So I disagree with that a little.

And that's part of the reason why I love chopping it up with you, Lewis. And so I guess then my follow up to that would be if the Ravens, I mean, Harbaugh played the same music. I said he was one of the greatest frontmen since Mick Jagger, you know, what he's doing right now. Talk about they love him. And obviously, you just said that they got an offensive coordinator in that that can help everything out. And if the Ravens would love to have him back. And so maybe he realizes that. I don't know. Or he insists on getting traded.

So let me ask you these two questions to pivot off of that. First things first is which teams do you think should come out and go for it and do it and and figure out this Rubik's Cube in the manner that the Ravens couldn't, that maybe Lamar gives them an idea of what he said no to and what the Ravens were causing him to say no to. And they can figure it out. Which teams do you think should go for it? Yeah, you know, unfortunately, I believe Atlanta has already said no. But that would be absolutely freaking perfect. I mean, the system that Arthur runs down there, Arthur Smith is perfect for Lamar. Oh, my God.

It's perfect. A one centric. Now, I'm not talking quarterback run centric, a running back, one centric, 12 personnel, 13 personnel on first and second down, multiple tight ends.

I mean, I think people know what we're talking about here. Two tight ends, two wide receivers, one tight. I mean, three tight ends, one wide receiver where they love to smash the football, get the quarterback out on the perimeter off of play action. Easy throws over the middle, deep shots down the outside because you're pounding people, getting eight people in the box, getting one on one coverage.

And then when you need him to maybe say, hey, look, I need you to give us some of that magic now. So now we're going to run quarterback boob, we're going to run a keeper, and we're going to need you to take off. Now we're going to run quarterback power down here on the goal line, like Ryan Tannehill used to do when Arthur Smith was calling plays in Tennessee. And we're going to be the most deadliest offense in the red zone in the NFL with you because we add that extra component of your legs to the game plan. Are you kidding? He'd be perfect there. But they're not interested.

Washington, look at the weapons that are in Washington. No doubt. No doubt. I mean, the guy's on the perimeter. I mean, Lamar is like saying, why can't I have some of that? Why can't I have some of those guys?

Something like a Terry McLaurin. Why can't I have, you know, that kind of person to be able to, and I'm just sitting here. No, Samuel, all of them, man. Oh, yeah.

Why can't I have those kind of boots? Fast. And why can't we construct a run heavy 12, 13, 11 personnel, even regular 21 personnel type of offense to where Lamar is under center. They got Robinson Jr. Oh, yeah, Robinson Jr. and the rest of that team.

I love those ideas. It's just that you're going to need, I think, Arthur Blank to go on. We had Thomas Dimitrov following the other day, Lewis, and he's like, you know, his read of the situation was there used to be a guy there who put him in cap hell and they're just out of it, you know, referring to himself. And that they kind of, you know, dig that they're not on the hook for a gajillion dollars to a quarterback and that they're finally through that.

And he thought it was Arthur Smith saying essentially, yeah, no, let's just stick with the plan that will require Arthur Blank to come in a room and say, we're changing pace. Let's call the Ravens today, everybody, you know, right. You know, and I and I and I get that I get that business part of it, Rich.

And I'll tell you what, it's and you touched on this already. It's not so much what it makes you do from a cap standpoint, because there's some really, really smart guys that are in charge of keeping teams kept compliant that can figure out how to keep you kept compliant and still allow you to add material to your roster. There's teams that are doing it every year that we sit there and go, how the hell are they doing that? This is a cash flow issue. That's what you that's what we're talking about. We're talking about putting a large amount of money into escrow and saying, hey, look, we're good for it. We're good for this money that we're guaranteeing this young man.

And, yeah, I can totally get with the Metrolos assertion that the owners aren't really that keen on saying, hey, look, I'm going to write that check for two hundred million. Yeah, I'm good for it. I'll scratch it. Exactly. So I get that part of it. And there may be some owners who say, I don't have it. I don't have it. I'm not doing it.

I can't do it even if I wanted to do it. So, you know, it's. Yeah, this Deshaun Watson thing has truly.

Yeah, it has truly thrown a monkey wrench into everything. And I'll tell you what, too, I'm sure there are people going, well, you know what? I'm sure there are teams right now that have some franchise quarterback coming up for contract negotiations, renegotiation and expenses going. Man, I damn sure hope Baltimore doesn't cave, because can you just only imagine what the next contract will look like for Joe Burrow? Well, I mean, maybe that's what what the Ravens are waiting on, too, is Burrow go first, Herbert go first, those two guys. Let's see what contracts they accept compared to what the Browns are going to accept. And then maybe somebody can backfill with Lamar or that's that will help read the market for Lamar.

I have two minutes left. What do you think to Costa does? What's his plan?

What do you think he's doing? I think there's definitely I think there there has to be discussion about, you know, how do we move them? How could we move them? I mean, there has to be, because right now, they're trying to implement a new system, right? They're trying to change their offense around and have it be a little bit more conventional, a little bit more, you know, use of traditional personnel, have the structure of it look a lot more conventional as far as the quarterback and his responsibilities are concerned. And they need to get going with that. The longer it takes here in the off season, whether it's Lamar being a quarterback or them trying to figure out who the next guy is going to be and acquiring him, the more this puts you behind the eight ball as this kind of like lingers out there.

You have to get going on business. And I know I'm one of the people who say all the time we don't play games until September. The time is ticking. It's almost April. The draft is only a couple of weeks away. And I'll see you down there in Kansas City, by the way.

And that's time to get going. You can't have this kind of thing just hovering over this organization. So I think I think if I'm Eric Acosta, if I'm Ozzie Newsome, if I'm Steve Basciotti, if I'm Coach Harbaugh, I'm sitting there going, OK, look, man, we may need we may need to start thinking, look, this is just not going to work. Can we recoup what we deem to be fair value in terms of compensation for him? And can we move him on his way? Because they know him better than anybody.

They know if he's bluffing or if he's serious about the fact he wants to get out of there. Lewis, you're the best man. I appreciate it.

And you know why? I'm so appreciative of you being on after such a big story breaks that did dominate. I have so many other questions for you. So hope you don't mind if I ask you to come back sooner rather than later. I appreciate it. I'll be there. I'm there for you, dude. Appreciate that.

Always. You're the best. That's Lewis Riddick of ESPN right here on The Rich Eisen Show. As he mentioned, he's part of the draft coverage for ESPN. I just want to say this will throw the break and then just, you know, take stock on what he just had to say. I want to send my best to Mike Greenberg, who had a health scare last week.

I hope he's he's you know, I'm seeing the tweets that he's doing well and he's thanking everybody for the well wishes. I want to throw that in there to him as well. And that if he intends to bring his dog to the draft because he's bringing his dog everywhere to book signings and everything. I got two Goldens. OK. Not to get all competitive. Are they going with you? I don't know.

They're they're nuts. I don't think we I don't think we want that. I don't think we want Dylan and Halo on the clock. But I'm sending my best to Mike. Eight four four two oh four rich number to dial right here on The Rich Eisen Show. James Bradbury of the Eagles is coming up top of our two.

So much to discuss my word. Back here at The Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger on The Rich Eisen Show radio network with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. Yeah, we've been Lamar dominant so far today in that way for a few weeks. So who do you think is the intended target of Lamar Jackson's tweets today? Would you guess? I would say just the Ravens in general. OK. What about you, T.J. Jefferson?

What do you think? You mean team wise? Who do you think the target is? Just fill in the blank. Says the Ravens team wise. What do you say? I think his target of his tweets today were Ravens fans.

OK. I will tell you who the target audience is then in my estimation. Target audience are the 31 other owners of the National Football League gathering at the spot where Steve Bishotti is currently right now, the Ravens. And this is what gave me the idea was talking to Lewis Riddick when he said the Atlanta Falcons are a freaking perfect spot. Now, again, we had Thomas Dimitrov, the former general manager of the Falcons on yesterday last week, and I said to him, hey, you know what? What do you think is going on in Atlanta where they are not interested?

They came. They were one of the first teams to be publicly out there saying we're not in on them because I do believe Peter Schrager, my colleague from NFL Network and also Fox Sports, contacted somebody in the Falcons organization. That was one of the first tweets that I saw when Lamar got slapped with the non-exclusive franchise tag. They're not interested.

And that's one of the teams that has been put out there by a bunch of people, including J.J. Watson, saying, why are you so public about it? And Thomas Dimitrov said, hey, you know, they were in cap hell for a while. They're out of it. They're finally out of it. And this has been the plan.

Like, this is the year. They're finally out of it. They're through paying the credit card of Matt Ryan or mostly through, I don't know the exact numbers. They drafted Desmond Ritter. They're going into the year with Desmond Ritter and Taylor Heinecky. That's where they signed him.

Let's go. And they just went crazy in free agency by signing a whole bunch of people. Jesse Bates is a centerpiece in the back end of that defense. So clearly that's the plan. And he also said that Arthur Smith is making the call to essentially say where Arthur Blank's like, you're the coach, you make the call. Along with Terry Fontenot, the general manager, you make the call and they're like, no, we'll stick with what we currently have.

So this tweet today is intended to basically say to people like Arthur Blank, really? Come get me. You don't want me? Really?

Really? Because this dance that you think is going to end up with me staying with the Ravens and this whole thing that's where the Ravens are allowing me to seek my market is going to leave me with no other option than to go back to the Ravens. Or, you know, you sign me, the Ravens are going to match it. I've already told them I don't want to be there anymore. So take that one off the table.

They're not going to match it because I already told them I don't want to be there anymore. And in this day and age, when somebody as talented as I am says I don't want to be there anymore, guess what? Happened for Devante Adams, it's going to happen for me. Or it happened for, name anybody in the NFL who's said I want out and they're finally out. So. He wants out and it takes somebody like Arthur Blank, because I don't think it's coming from the general manager.

Unless that GM is so confident in his job and they go to the owner and go, hey, what do you think we just, you know, all those plans we've been talking to you about all those meetings we had in December and January and February. Let's scrap them. Let's totally change everything.

Let's go. And you've just got to scratch that huge ass check, stick it in escrow. You up for that? It's going to take someone like Arthur Blank to walk in the room and say, you know what? I'm just going to walk over to Steve Bishotti in that private room.

I have a chitchat and then I'm going to go to my guys and say, I know I delegated, I know what we talked about. Let's call the Ravens today. That's what it's going to take. And that's why I think Lamar sent a send on that tweet, because if it's not Arthur Blank, maybe it's Jim or say or whoever is going to own the commanders in two days.

Allegedly. Or it's Dan Snyder with a foot already living in London and is probably, you know, living in that beautiful mats in Belgravia, you know, and sitting there saying, you know what? As I go out the door, I'm going to be that next NFL owner and I'm going to give them all that guaranteed money, leave that flaming bag of poop on the doorstep of the rest of my now former member colleagues.

And that will also jack up how much I'm asking for the commanders. Maybe he now has more of an idea of doing that because Lamar hit the send on that tweet today. That's who he's talking to in my mind.

The 31 other individuals who can scratch that fat check and are maybe sitting there at home hearing from that grandson or granddaughter or son or daughter saying, you know what? We just love Lamar. My kids love Lamar.

I would love to see the number eight jersey grandpa in your team's job. I'm serious. Who knows? Comes from somebody at a dinner party, whatever. Think about how many times in history that's happened with sports movies.

I've heard directors and producers saying, oh, my daughter likes so-and-so. So you get put in the cast of somebody who cast Lamar Jackson is the new quarterback of fill in the blank. Now they know if the Ravens match, they know they're getting somebody back who doesn't want to be there.

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