REShow: Rob Demovsky - Hour 1 (5-2-2023)

Get a jersey yet?

I don't wear jerseys. Yeah, maybe for the kids. I don't. Which kids?

They don't. Your kids. They're not putting on a jet jersey. Today's guests, founder and CEO of On 3 Sports, Shannon Terry, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, Andrew Brandt, Washington Post, NBA writer Ben Golliver. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Dan Helle.

Hello and welcome to the Rich Eisen Show. It has been a minute. Dan Helle here with you and glad to be back. I feel like I haven't seen Brockman and Del Tufo and TJ in forever. How you guys been, TJ? Because it's been forever, man. Good to see you. I think it's been over a year since I've been here. Really good to see you on TV doing great commercials and stuff, bro.

It's good to see you. Really? So we are one minute and five seconds into the show and you're already bringing up the commercials. And it wasn't even me. I thought for sure that Brockman. I was minus odds on that.

TJ takes it. Dan, we saw each other in the fall for some college football games. Yeah, no, we did a lot of college football. He hasn't got to you yet. He was going around the world. He was saying that he didn't see us in a long time. I'm like... Well, as a group, as a unit, as one.

As a form like Voltron. I made it about me. Eyes in the miracles. You know what I mean? Like I haven't seen you guys all together before like this. It's always fun with you, bro. No, it's a blast. And I'm sure at some point we'll share with the audience exactly what TJ is referring to in terms of that commercial. Because needless to say, it has been the bane of my existence with my buddies. They've had a good time with that.

But it's also been a fun thing to be a part of. But let's talk a little basketball. The conference semi-finals in full effect. The Sixers beat your Celtics last night. James Harden ties a playoff career high with 45 points. Hits the game-winning three-point dagger late in the game without Joel Embiid, who is the eventual MVP of the NBA. Which I believe is being named soon. Today, maybe? We think he is.

Yeah, that's going to happen. Although, when you watch Jokic out there, it's hard to argue that he might be the most unstoppable force in the game. Now, I know because he's not always the prettiest and maybe the most fun to watch. Is there a more unstoppable force in the game than Jokic who went for... He went for 39-16 against the Suns.

And they're cooked. KD is not coming back from this. Devin Booker is not coming back from 0-2. They are 0-13 all-time when trailing 0-2 in seven game series. Do you know how many points their bench had last night?

Four. Four points last night. And that's been kind of the rub since the trade. They gave up all their depth to acquire Kevin Durant. And then you saw it in the series before against the Clippers. Which they handled pretty easily without Kawhi, without Paul George. But these guys were playing 40-plus minutes every night. KD, Chris Paul. And it finally caught up with Chris Paul. TJ, the injury that we all knew was coming, sadly, in the playoffs for the point god goes down. All these guys playing big minutes. You knew they didn't have the depth to run with Denver.

And we saw last night they kind of get run out of the building in the last five minutes. And you mentioned 39 for Joker. They only scored 97 points. Dude scored over 40 percent of the team's buckets involved in another. Guy's unbelievable.

You could make the case he deserves a third MVP. And you really can't get too mad about that. The only thing I can get mad at is that this guy outside waited until we started the show to start cleaning and using the blow thing out here. Behind me, I can hear this guy in my ear.

But yeah, you know, it's funny, Chris and Dan, when you say this about Joker, right? This guy is is he the least athletic player in the NBA? I mean, I don't know if my man could jump over a phone book.

Let's be honest. He can't run. He can't jump. He walks like he's 90 years old and yet unstoppable ball gets tipped and you can't do a thing to stop this guy. It is it's kind of like the Tim Duncan thing where you're just talking about someone who's just big, strong and just fundamental. He's so fundamental.

Like I said, the guy can't jump, Dan. And like you watch, he'll just tip balls to himself and get rebounds like with guys with 35, 40 inch verticals. It's it's amazing that to actually watch this guy play basketball, he's the best passing big man in the game. He's one of the best passers period in the game. He's one of the best all around basketball players in the game.

But you're right in terms of appeal, right? That's what was so appealing about watching Michael Jordan was because his game was beautiful. It was powerful. It was exciting. It was athletic. Joker's none of those things.

Not one, not a single one of those things. I mean, he makes some beautiful passes. But that's the only aspect of his game I think that is beautiful. Dude averaged a triple double this year, TJ. I know it's insane. 9.8 on the assist. So technically, you know, I always round up. But I mean, twenty five, twelve and ten every single night, every night, every single night. He may be the greatest passing big man ever.

Is that are we doing our Venus to disservice? You know, three years ago, Dan, when that argument started about being the best passing big man, I was like, well, there's a bonus. There's a bonus. There's a bonus.

Now, I think, yeah, I think it's safe to say he's kind of passive center average tennis. This is a game. Yeah, it's not something that happens in today's NBA.

And this guy makes it look so effortless. And the depth of Denver. I mean, I think. And there's the way that Boston looked last night. Why isn't Denver being talked about as the title favorite?

I think they will be soon. And I think that's the other thing, because we're going to talk about this for the next three hours. But we're going to, of course, delve deeper into the Lakers and Golden State. And that's the series that has garnered so much attention and that will continue to do so for, I don't know, the next six, possibly seven games between those two teams. But what we have forgotten about is that this is just the Western Conference semifinals. And whoever wins that series is most likely going to have to play Denver and then is going to have another series if they make it to the NBA finals. And I don't know that either one of those teams can beat Denver the way that they're playing right now if they stay healthy.

But I do know I am very much looking forward to seeing Steph and LeBron part, I don't know, five, six, four, whatever it is between those two guys. You can make the argument. I've heard this all day on sports talk radio. And so please keep me from doing this today. I don't want to get into the, hey, if LeBron wins another one, is he better than MJ? It's like, it's forever. How about this one? If the Warriors go back to back, Steph passes LeBron on the all-time list. Oh my God. Steph becomes the greatest point guard of all time.

Steph Curry's on Mount Rushmore. You ready for all those debates? Can you just punch me in the face first, please? Just get ready for all those. He's right. It's all coming, Dan. If that does happen, that stuff's all coming.

I know it's coming. And the reality is they are two of the all-time greats. They're in the top 10. There's no doubt about it.

But they've changed the game for different reasons, right? LeBron, because he's one of the best players, best athletes, most unique physical specimens to ever play the game. Steph, I remember when he was at Davidson and in back-to-back years, I saw him in the tournament when Davidson played Maryland and then when Davidson played Georgetown. This was when I was a local sports guy.

Where were you in your career at that time? I was at NBC Washington and two consecutive years, I saw him play and he could not have weighed more than 160 pounds, but he was dropping buckets on those dudes, raining from everywhere. And Maryland was good and Georgetown was very good at the time. And it's crazy when you think about the fact that, because LeBron's been in the league for so much longer, but Steph's 35 now.

Thirty-five! You know? And when he came into the league, he was shooting lights out from everywhere on the court. And I remember, obviously, the shooting, but I think what is so underappreciated, and we saw this in that 50-point game in Game 7, was the handle. Like, very few guys have the handle that Steph has. And at some point, that's going to go, right?

In some point in the very near future, that's going to go. I guess my question would be, how long can Steph play when he loses the handle? Do we get five more years of Steph being really good? Do we get two more years of Steph being great?

How long? What's the staying power for Steph Curry? Because we have LeBron at 38 now, and we've seen him, since he's been with the Lakers, break down more than he has throughout his entire career, probably put together, right? So he's 38, and LeBron takes a beating because he shoulders the load.

Little bit different system there in Golden State, but Steph still shoulders almost as much of the load, you could argue, as LeBron on any given night. You think the handle's the first thing we do? Really? Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, the quickness and handle, to me, are similar.

Okay, I can see the quickness, but... You can have the handle, but once you lose the quickness, the handle doesn't have the same effect, right? Okay, I get you. Right? I guess you're not dribbling by guys.

I feel you. Okay. So that's what I guess I'm thinking. Quickness, for sure, is going to be the first thing. I heard Reggie Miller talking about this the other day, and he thinks Steph could play essentially as long as he wants, you know, into the early 40s. Shooters shoot. Being a spot-up shooter.

Yeah. Yeah, we saw Ray Allen play for a long time. His game changed a little bit.

I don't know. Steph really doesn't take a beating driving to the hoop like, you know, some of these bigger guys do, especially LeBron. And LeBron averaged 29, 8, and 7 this year.

That's stupid. And you want to talk about playing at an elite level, Curry? I mean, two, three more years playing at a super high elite level, and then, I don't know, then he moves down to being a low 20s per game into his 40-year-old season? I don't know, why can't he play five more years? I think that's a good point. Yeah, I could see him play five more years.

For sure. And to your point, yeah, averaging 29 a game, you know, three years from now, but the way that they move the ball, the way that that system works, if they can continue to add some pieces and take a little bit, you know, I don't know if Jordan Poole is the answer. I would say they need him. They need Jordan Poole to start playing like a $30 million player.

Yeah, which he hasn't really done. Yeah, he's been awful in the playoffs. I mean, is there a bigger crapshoot in the postseason than Jordan Poole in terms of knowing what you're going to get on any given night? Like, that's what scares me with Jordan Poole.

No, I'm looking forward to that one. Tickets aren't cheap. We were just looking at that before the show. The get-in ticket in the Bay Area tonight, what, $700? You know, average of $700. Get in, you get about three. Three bills will get you in the building, but you'll be in the last row. You'll be up top with the clouds. Yeah, might be a little rich for my blood.

Lakers at Golden State tonight, we have the Heat and the Knicks. Not nearly as sexy to me, that one. I don't know why. That's just kind of a 90s throwback. Throwback, yep. You know, black and blue, bruising Van Gundy hanging on Alonzo Mourning's leg series. Low scoring, high defense, yeah. Super low scoring, you know, the under hit in Game 1.

The biggest thing is Jimmy Butler going to play tonight. You know, rolled that ankle, yeah. Pretty bad ankle roll. Josh Hart stepped on his foot, rolled pretty bad, and didn't do anything in the last five minutes.

Just basically a decoy out there. And, you know, the Knicks didn't do anything to take advantage of that. Kind of gave the game away.

I don't really think he needs to play. Miami did what they needed to do. Yeah, stole a game. They stole Game 1. They have home court now.

Maybe give Jimmy a couple days off here to rest up for games 3 and 4 at home. Yeah, supposedly his ankle swelled up to what I read the size of a baseball and, you know, so. It was really nasty. If that's the case, then you might be right. You did what you needed to do.

You went in there and you stole a game on the road. Maybe, but, you know, Jimmy Butler is a baller, man, and I can't imagine him getting word from the team that, like, hey Jimmy, we're going to sit you out tonight. I don't know how well that would go over.

Yeah, that's by a bleep no response. Yeah, I don't know in that situation if you really give him a choice because you need him to be at least, you know, what, 80, 90 percent? Yeah, don't give him a choice. Like, put him on the plane.

Like, he shouldn't even be in New York State tonight. What did you say? You just shipped him home? Yeah, like, hey Jimmy, you're going home. No, I'm not. Yes, you are.

You're going home. Like, Pat Riley just escorted him to the PJ and go back to back. Did they do the Mr. T 18 thing? They spiked his milk or they spiked his big face coffee and then got him on the plane and he woke up. That's what I meant.

You know, on Star Island somewhere. We need playoff Jimmy. We don't need 75 percent Jimmy, right?

No. So, we're also two days removed from what has been called a relatively weak NFL draft. Still a lot to chew on, so we're going to be getting into that a little bit more. Twelve quarterbacks drafted in the first five rounds. The most in the modern era. Being an SEC guy, I'm proud to say that five of those came from the SEC, which is the most ever. Three quarterbacks in the first four picks. A couple of running backs go. I think everybody expected Robinson to go early. Gibbs was somewhat of a surprise. Forty-three trades completed over the course of seven rounds.

Love that. Everybody coming out with their draft grades, which is somewhat impossible to do, I think, at this point. So, the grades are based solely on projections and where guys were drafted and who dropped and did you get a good deal. I think, for the most part, everybody can agree that the Eagles, Texans, and Seahawks did a nice job. I think the Seahawks aren't being talked about as much with potentially the best corner in Witherspoon. The best wide receiver in Jackson Smith and Jigba. And then, I think, a starting caliber running back in Zach Charbonnay out of UCLA. I had the opportunity to call their season finale against Cal. And, you know, they had some ballers on that team. DTR and Charbonnay leading the way on offense. And I think Charbonnay is going to do some nice things in Seattle there.

So, we're going to get into that a little bit. I guess you could call it big NFL news of the day coming down not that long ago. Jordan Love reaches a one-year extension with the Green Bay Packers.

Why is this a big deal? Well, because they didn't pick up his 50-year option. Instead, they give him a one-year extension for more money than the 50-year option. A couple million bucks more. But less of a guarantee, at least in terms of injury guarantee, than the 50-year option would have been. So, it's $13.5 million guaranteed. $22.5 million total for the one-year contract extension.

So, he's locked up for the next two years. Rob Damoski, who covers the Green Bay Packers for ESPN, is going to join us here in a little bit to talk about Jordan Love. And the Packers draft, which was, I thought, a little bit interesting. They went in a couple directions that maybe we didn't expect. But they also got some guys that they're very excited about. And the big question there in Green Bay is how good is Jordan Love going to be?

I don't think we know. He has one start under his belt. He's only really played in a couple of meaningful games in his career. I think the Packers fans will be quick to point to the fact that one Aaron Rodgers sat for three years before he got meaningful time backing up Brett Favre. But this whole deal just has been fascinating to me when Aaron Rodgers comes in and Favre does what he does.

And then 15 years later, you have Aaron Rodgers doing essentially the same thing, going through the same team, trying to achieve the same thing that he did. That, to me, if not the biggest storyline going into the NFL season and above the fold, to use an old newspaper phrase, headline for sure. I like the pieces the Jets have. I like the wide receivers they have. I like the running back they have. I don't know. I don't know if I'm all in on Aaron Rodgers the last year. If things go south for two or three games with the Jets, is Aaron Rodgers the guy to pull you out of the abyss? I don't know if he's that dude anymore. And I'm not talking about from a physical standpoint.

I'm talking about from a mental standpoint. Maybe. I don't know. He's been saying all the right things. He's been showing his face everywhere. He's at Madison Square Garden for Rangers and Knicks playoff games. He's certainly out there. He's enjoying kind of being a New Yorker right now. Saw him at minicamp to make some throws. I don't know.

I'm not sure. They have the six best Super Bowl odds. Which seems insane. This is probably the most hype the Jets have ever had heading into a season. Everyone said, hey they're a quarterback away.

This is a great roster. They had the offensive and defensive rookies of the year. And now you get Aaron Rodgers. But Aaron Rodgers didn't look that great last year. Was it because he was injured? Or is he just slipping?

Because he's going to turn 40 during this season. Remains to be seen. I'm hoping as a Pats fan it doesn't go well.

But I'm not sure. It's definitely more interesting with Aaron Rodgers around. The AFC East is suddenly one of the best divisions in football. Well in terms of quarterbacks it's become a much more interesting division since Tom Brady left. There's no doubt about that.

So one of many things that we'll be delving into. Rob Domofsky is going to be joining us from ESPN. Talking Jordan Love. Talking Packers. Talk a little NFL draft as well.

Dan Helle on the Rich Eisen Show. We are back after this. Men, do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarms sweating, itching or emitting an odor? Do those thoughts keep you from showing care when it counts? New and improved Dove Men Plus Care Antiperspirant with 72 hour sweat and odor protection and 1 quarter moisturizing cream. Helps you forget about your underarms so you can be present for the moments that matter. Don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arms distance from the ones you care about.

Buy new and improved Dove Men Plus Care Antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold. And believe in the Bronx. You're going to have to get some more innings out of the rotation. Just search BLEAV Podcast wherever you listen. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Dan Helle filling in for Rich who is on location doing some work with Roku today. Just doing the draft.

Doing Roku. He's all over the place. Rich is working hard as per usual and so is Rob Domofsky. Covers the Green Bay Packers for ESPN.

Had to bring him on with the big Jordan Love news today. Rob, how you doing? I'm great Dan. How are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you for coming on on a short notice. So I tried to explain what happened here in terms of them not picking up the fifth year option but signing him to a contract extension. I probably didn't do a very good job.

Can you walk me through what just went down today? Yeah, so everyone thought, myself included, that there were two options on the fifth year option. Either pick it up and he's guaranteed $20.7 million for the 2024 season.

Or don't pick it up and he's going into his last year of his deal as a first year starter. Well, there's a third option and that was a contract extension. Which is what they did and essentially really gave him the same 2024 total of $20 million, $22 million.

But they're able to do two things with it. One, they give him some money up front which says to him, Look, we believe in you. We're giving you this money.

You're going to get some of it now. And two, it allows them to split that over two years of their salary cap. Because right now, if they just had picked up the fifth year option, he would have been $2.2 million of his salary this year. And the other $20 million would be on next year's cap. So we know this team has been in cap trouble for a while.

They're in it this year. But they won't take as much of it this year because they know it is kind of a rebuilding year even though they won't use that word. Because after this year, they're free of Aaron Rodgers on the cap. $40.3 million of dead money is Aaron Rodgers' cap this year.

And next year, they're completely free. So they were able to keep Jordan Love, give him a little bit of a pat on the back and say, Don't worry about it. If things don't start great, we're not going to dump you because we got you for this year. And by doing this, we're going to be able to get a few more players next offseason because we'll have more cap space. What does a rebuilding year mean in Green Bay? Does it mean another year right around $500? Is that the expectation level from the fan base there?

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. If you go back to 2008, you know, and I'm not saying history will repeat itself. But as you know, it sort of already has with Rodgers going to the Jets and, you know, after Favre went to the Jets. When Rodgers took over, he had through 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and threw for over 4,000 yards. And everybody realized, you know, this guy's going to be pretty good. In fact, they gave him a contract extension in the middle of that 2008 season.

But what people forget is they were 6 and 10 that year. And Rodgers had an experienced group of receivers. He had, you know, he had an experienced Donald Driver. He had an experienced Greg Jennings. He had guys that would go on to be, you know, big stars with Jordy Nelson being the top. Also James Jones, a very good player.

Jordan Love doesn't have that. He's got basically two receivers that have played any meaningful football. And that was Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs last year when they were rookies. They drafted three more receivers this year. You know, so basically he's starting over with guys that just don't have a lot of experience.

Same thing in the tight end room. They drafted two tight ends. So three receivers, two tight ends. And most of those guys are probably going to play. And some of them might play a fairly significant role. Specifically their, you know, their top, well both tight ends and then the top receiver that they took.

Jaden Reed out of Michigan State in the second round. I mean he's probably going to be their number three receiver right away. So I think there's going to be some growing pains. And I think there's going to be a sense of patience with him. Where there's not going to be patience is on the defensive side of the ball where they were loaded with talent.

Still are. And underperformed last year. I mean that was, to me that was as big a reason as any that they were 8-9 last year. Rogers obviously struggled with injuries. You know maybe wasn't as mentally into it.

Not as sharp maybe in that regard as he has been in the past. But you know when they needed their defense to kind of pull through for them, they did not. And by adding another top line defensive player with Lucas Van Ness at number 13 overall. Just tells you even more that they expect this defense to help Jordan Love along the way.

We sensed from the Packer fan base that they were ready to move on from Aaron Rodgers. What I haven't gotten a sense for, is that fair to say? Is that accurate? I think that's fair.

Yeah. I think that's accurate. What I haven't gotten a sense for is the confidence level in Jordan Love at this point. What is the expectation level for him? Because to your point, I had actually forgotten that they went 6-10 in A-Rod's first year. I just remember his brilliance very early on and I think it was easy for everybody to see the potential and how good he was already the minute he stepped onto the field there. We just don't have that feeling or knowledge about Jordan Love at this point. And I'm sure he can turn heads, right? So if they go 6-10 or 7-10 and Jordan Love shows promise, the fan base is happy at that point I would imagine.

I would say so, yeah. What people don't have, people on the outside, us and the media included, we don't have what we had in 2007 when Rodgers was the third year back up and they played a game down in Dallas in late November. And Farm got hurt early, like first quarter early. And they were down big, Rodgers came in and they didn't win the game, but it was a sign. Rodgers was really, really good in that game, really productive, made some big time throws. Not that it was a full game, but it was three quarters of a game. I remember, it's easy for Mike McCarthy to say this now, but he said this many, many times over the years, that when they got on the plane leaving Dallas that night, it was a Thursday night game, he and Ted Thompson said they felt like they knew what they had and they could move on if that was the end for Brett. And they knew it.

I don't think that we have that sense. We have one start in 2021 at Kansas City and quite frankly, Jordan Love wasn't ready. Really hard situation, obviously playing a really good team on the road at Arrowhead. And if you remember, that was the week of the COVID deal with Rodgers, when that's the reason obviously Love played, was Rodgers tested positive for COVID.

And it wasn't just that, but do you remember, Dan, all the distraction and the hoopla over the immunization, vaccination thing? I mean, that was a really hard week for him. And then we saw last year in Philadelphia, almost, I guess it would have been 15 years to the day of that Dallas game, that Rodgers played and Jordan Love got to play the fourth quarter in Philadelphia. Similar situation, they were down a couple of touchdowns. Love came in, played two series, but a touchdown drive and a field goal drive. They still lost the game by double digits. It was a much, much smaller sample size. And even after the game, I asked Love, you know, what kind of defense the Eagles were playing at that point in the game. And he even admitted, he goes, look, it was soft. You know, it was not the blitzing defense that he saw in his first start in Kansas City.

So there's just, there just isn't a lot. Now, if you talk to people on the inside and even people around the league, I remember talking to some former coaches about this. But the team itself, the Packers, Matt LaFleur, Brian Gudacu, the whole organization, they have a lot more to work with on Love than what we do. We don't see practice during the regular season other than to walk into the practice facility, take attendance, and then they kick us out. You know, he didn't have preseason as rookie year because of the COVID deal. He missed the preseason game the next year because of a shoulder injury.

So they have a lot more behind the scenes information. And as, you know, one former coach told me, there's no way that they would be moving on and so willing to move on from Aaron Rodgers if they didn't at least think that Jordan Love was ready. Now, does that mean he's going to be great? No, but they must have a feeling that he has a chance to at least do that.

And the other thing, Dan, is that they need to find out, right? Like if he's sat another year, then what? You know, then he's playing his fifth year, it would be his first year as a starter.

That's just, you know, it's probably too late. It was kind of a no-brainer that you had to move on from Rodgers and see what you had in Jordan Love. I mean, there's so many different scenarios here, right?

He has a great season. They decide to pay him early like they did with Aaron Rodgers. So they don't, you know, they're not on the hook for a $250 million contract after the season. He flounders and they decide, hey, we got to go get another quarterback. I won't ask you to pick this scenario.

Certainly, there's a lot of different directions that this can go. But I am going to ask you about Aaron Rodgers in New York. And what do you think the most likely scenario is for him there in terms of success? He gets healthy. He's been rejuvenated.

He's in that. I don't know if the New York media market is as big of a deal as it once was. I totally agree with that. You know, I think that's an old, tired narrative because it was. Listen, I'm from Washington, D.C. I was a local reporter there for a long time before I went to NFL Network. And that was a tough market, but it wasn't as tough as Philly. It wasn't as tough as D.C. And it was very different than a place like Green Bay or Nashville that didn't have as many media members, right? Well, here's the thing I think is a misconception about Green Bay is that there's actually, it's the only thing here, the whole state. I mean, at every Wednesday at Aaron Rodgers' locker, there's 30-plus reporters standing around there. Like the Packers, Pete reporters have a bigger traveling core than like Chicago's group or Detroit's group.

I mean, so there is that sense. I've always been a little defensive about it because I think there is a little bit of that misconception. Now, I think the difference is that maybe the Packers market is more about football and less about like it's more the beat writer driven than it is columnist driven. You know, there's maybe not as much opinion out there.

And I also think that, again, this is my perception from the outside, so tell me if I'm wrong. Sometimes the headlines in the tabloids in New York don't necessarily match the story, right? I mean, they go for the big headline, which I think they're full of. I love, every couple of weeks I go on the daily news or the Post and just look at the covers because I think the headline writers are outstanding.

And then the other thing, too, I think it's more away from football where it's the difference. I mean, we've already seen him at, what, a Rangers game and a Knicks game and, you know, the photographs. I don't know what's on page six about him, but there, you know, I joke with, I think I joke with Rich when I was on a couple weeks ago about this. I said, look, there's no page six in the Green Bay Press Gazette. Well, actually there is a page six, but it's either the farm report or the church notices or something like that, right?

There is no paparazzi. So I think that's where the difference is to me where the rest of his life outside of football is maybe going to be a little bit more scrutinized. You know, if they lose and he's at a game the next day in Manhattan, maybe there's, you know, some funny headlines about that. But he was actually, you know, he loves to talk about football.

He's really good with answering questions about, you know, about football topics that he's interested in. And from a performance standpoint, real quick, I would expect, knowing Aaron, having covered him for his whole career, I would expect him to come out with a absolute desire to show the Packers that they were wrong to move on. You know, when they drafted Jordan Love, I remember a coach telling me, this is really going to light a fire under Rogers. And sure enough, the next two years he went to MVP ball here. I expect him to play very similar to that in the regular season. The question that I think everybody has is does he still have it when it comes to the elimination games, the playoff games? I mean, since they won the Super Bowl, I believe he's been, you have to double check this, but I'm pretty sure his playoff record is 7-9. So it's basically a season's worth of playoff games and he's 7-9, which is not good. And then you throw in last year's basically playoff game, the regular season finale against Detroit, that was, you know, they win that during the playoffs. And he was not very good in that game either. There's plenty of questions that I think the Packers organization came to the realization, look, we won 13 games three years in a row and we never got past the NFC championship game.

And not that it's all on Rogers, but there were times where he could have tilted the field like he used to and it just didn't happen. All right. Getaway question, Packers draft. You talked about Lucas Van Ness, the defensive end out of Iowa. And total Packers pick. He never started a game, right? Yeah. Midwest guy from Chicago played at Iowa, Big Ten guy, total Packers pick.

But anyway, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no. I just, I wanted to ask about that because he's the first guy to go in the first round. He's never started a game before, but it kind of, he played more than the starters did. He's, you know, the guy's built like a Greek god.

It's going to be interesting to see how he pans out. Was there anybody else in the draft that was a surprise or garnered a lot of attention there? I mean, for me, it was Sean Clifford in the fifth round, the quarterback out of Penn State, who's the guy who actually beat out Will Levis at Penn State and forced Levis to transfer, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Twice, two seasons. Look, I don't know a ton about Clifford. I knew they would take a quarterback. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if they took two when Rogers took over in 08. They drafted Brian Brab in the second, Matt Flynn in the seventh.

I obviously know how that worked out. Flynn became a better player. I just think that it was a Packers formula draft, right? Like 12 of the last 13 picks, including Van Ness' first round picks, I mean, have been on the defensive side of the ball.

The only offensive player is Love. The second round, they've always done well with receivers. They took one again, Jayden Reed. Last year, Christian Watson was in that second round, and he looks like he's going to be a player. Guys I mentioned earlier, like Jordy Nelson and Greg Jennings and even Randall Cobb were all second-round picks. So it sort of just followed the formula that this organization sort of does, and it doesn't necessarily matter who the GM is. They've changed GMs.

They've all come from the Ron Wolf scouting tree, and they just sort of operate the way they do. And there's going to be young guys that get a chance to play. Every draft pick they had last year, I believe every one of them made the team. Now, they didn't have 13 like they did this year, but they were a good team. They were coming off a 13-win season, and they kept all their draft picks because that's how they operate. They're a draft and develop type team, and they're going to need last year's draft class to play even better than it did. And then hopes that this year's draft class can sort of follow suit. But I would just say for the draft, it's like the formula. Like that's just if you look up a Packers prototypical draft, this is what it is. A defensive front seven guy in the first round, and then some skill position guys sprinkled in.

Yeah, it was a typical Packers draft. No doubt about that. I did lie.

I said that was a getaway question. I have to ask you about Matt LaFleur. I've known him since his days in Washington.

His cup of coffee in Tennessee. You know, he's been lucky enough to have peak A-Rod there to go 47 and 19 over his time there. And that record obviously is not going to be quite as good, at least for a year or so. But is there anybody who's breathing a bigger sigh of relief to be able to just kind of move on and move forward than Matt LaFleur? You know, it's interesting because he's in an interesting position, right? And he even said, and I thought this was really interesting and honest from him, you know, not that anybody in the organization was publicly trashing Rogers, but he said, look, I just want to say this about Aaron Rogers.

He made a lot of people around here a lot of money, right? Like, I mean, he might have been hard to deal with or whatever, but these guys all got contract extensions. Gudekun from Matt LaFleur because of, basically because of Rogers. And, you know, somebody joked with him at the owner's meetings in Phoenix last month. He's like, well, now we'll finally get to see the Matt LaFleur offense, right?

And he just said, like, why is everyone saying that? And we're all saying that because we know Rogers had a big influence over what they did and LaFleur maybe had to give, you know, compromise in some areas. So I just think, I think we're going to learn a lot about Matt LaFleur as a coach. He's, you know, from being in Washington, he worked with Robert Griffin III as a rookie and Cousins obviously too was there. And I talked to RGIII for a story maybe a week or two ago, it's still up on ESPN.com, just about how good Matt was with him in giving him the confidence to be like, look, if you throw an interception, as long as you made the right read, you know, we're not going to, we're going to be patient with you.

You just do things the right way. And I think Jordan Love is a quarterback who will do that, do things the right way, which meaning that's the way Matt LaFleur wants them. But I do think we're going to see, you know, a lot of what Matt LaFleur is all about because, you know, since that year in Washington, he's worked with a lot of veterans. He had Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee. He had Rogers here. He had Matt Flynn for a couple, I'm sorry, Matt Ryan for a couple of years in Atlanta. In fact, Ryan's MVP year, I believe, 2016, he was a quarterback coach. So it's been a while since he's really been the guy to work with a young quarterback. And I'm sure that's rejuvenated him a little bit. Rob, thanks so much, man.

I kept you longer than I had planned to. One of the best in the business, been covering the Packers forever, currently covering them for ESPN.com. Listen, I've said this forever. Guys that are embedded, that are in the market, that's where you go to get your information. My buddy John Keim there in Washington, Teron Davenport in Nashville, Rob Domofsky in Green Bay.

Go read them. It's great stuff. Rob, have a great rest of your week, my friend. Thanks so much for coming on. Yeah, I really appreciate it, Dan. We'll be seeing you.

All right, man. Good stuff from Rob Domofsky from ESPN.com. Jordan loves signing that contract extension. Going to be interesting times there in Green Bay. I had forgotten, and that's what's so great about having these guys that have been covering the same team for so long, that they went 6-10 in A-Rod's first year, but he showed such promise, they signed him to an early extension. And this is something, you know, I've always been fascinated by the business of sports, which is why we're going to have Andrew Brant and Shannon Terry on a little bit later. Andrew Brant, of course, was in the Packers front office for a long time, is going to be with us here in studio.

He's in L.A. Shannon Terry is the founder of multiple recruiting websites, Rivals247, currently on three, and I'm going to get into an NIL discussion with him, because NIL is the, not one of, it is the driving force in college sports today. Period. You have a big collective, a big group of donors who are going to pony up some cash. You're getting guys, maybe not Bronny James, because I don't think it's going to affect somebody like Bronny James, but you're getting big-time college football players to come to your program. Listen, my school in Tennessee has done it, right? And what happened last year?

They're good again. We won some games. Did you guys know, and as a father of a 17-year-old daughter, I can tell you this because I'm looking at all these different colleges, Tennessee's applications last year went up by 43% because of one good college football season, because of one win over Alabama, because of a highly rated nationally televised game with Georgia. You've got all these kids in California and all these kids in the cold weather flyover states.

They look, wow, that looks fun. I can't get into a school in California. Let me go try the SEC where it's a little bit easier. I know we've got to go to break, but you mentioned the Georgia stats pre-show when we were talking about the mid-range for what the guys are pulling in. That's what Back to Back National Titles does. You're right. You're right.

Suddenly you're now pulling from a different pool because kids want to go there because it looks fun. It's incredible. I could talk about this all day because I feel like it's what I do all the time, so I'll try not to do it because we have to go to commercial here. Thank you again to Rob Domofsky from ESPN.com for coming on to break down the Jordan Love situation and a whole lot more on the Packers draft. We're just getting started here on the Rich Eisen Show. You can call us at 844-204-RICH. We're back after this. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show.

Dan Helle filling in. You can call us at 844-204-RICH. That's R-I-C-H in case you were wondering. You can watch us on Roku Channel. That's Channel 210. Listen to us on Sirius. Sirius Channel 218 XM 202. Stream for free on the Odyssey app or odyssey.com.

You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at RichEisenShow, at Dan Helle on Instagram and Twitter filling in today, or subscribe to the YouTube page, youtube.com slash RichEisen. All right, good spot by Chris Brockman here a few moments ago. The schedule for the new 12-team college football playoff coming for the, what, 2025 season? 24 season.

24 season. Two years. We've got to wait two years.

Is out courtesy of Nicole Auerbach from the Athletic and Sirius XM. Walk us through, Brockman, what we can expect to see here. All right, so the 2024 season, the first round games. Remember, those are going to take place on campus of the higher seed, okay? So those are going to be a Friday, December 20th, 2024. One game on that day and then three games on Saturday, December 21st.

According to Nicole, early afternoon, late afternoon, and evening, so nice and staggered. Then the quarterfinals, much to Rich's dismay, are still going to be on New Year's Eve. So we're going to have a Tuesday, December 31st game and then a Wednesday, January 1st game. All the other games are going to be that day at the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. So just one New Year's Eve quarterfinal.

One New Year's Eve instead of two like we've been doing with the playoff in recent years. Then the semifinals are going to be a week later on Thursday, January 9th, 2025 at the Orange Bowl. And then Friday, January 10th at the Cotton Bowl. So those are your two semifinal games. So none of this is going to overrun with your NFL playoffs, okay? These are all going to be during the week. Thursday, Friday for the semifinals and then the Monday, the national championship game.

January 20th, 2025. So we've got to wait about two years for this in Atlanta. The first round, those three first round Saturday games are going to be going up against the NFL. Maybe Saturday will be up against the NFL, right? And then the semifinals on Thursday and Friday are going to avoid those NFL games. So 12-team college football playoffs have to start in 2024. Schedule is out. If you want to check it out, just go to Nicole Auerbach's Twitter.

She has an article up on The Athletic. So interesting exercise with 12 teams, right? There's always been the big debate. Who should be in the playoff? Who shouldn't be in the playoff? And you go back to last year's college football playoff ranking. With 12 teams, you got Clemson in there at 7. Utah in at 8. Kansas State in at 9. SC at 10. Penn State 11 and Washington at 12. So the cutoff was Florida State and Washington. Huskies are in. Noles are out. I cannot wait for a 12-team college football playoff.

This is going to be absolutely massive. The first four teams get a bye. So this past season it would have been Georgia, Michigan, TCU, Ohio State, all with byes.

And then 5-12 play with the higher seed getting home games in that quarter. So you're talking about Washington at Alabama. Penn State at Tennessee. USC at Clemson. Kansas State at Utah. What a college football weekend that's going to be. It's going to be incredible. And then to have starting the first round on December 20th and then you go through the national championship game on January 20th. All month. Yeah, I mean, I guess, listen, with the NIL money, which we're going to be talking about a little bit later, these are professional athletes at this point.

I think we can all admit that. They are taking some classes, but they're getting paid handsomely, a lot of them, to play football at a very high level as they should be. The Rich Eisen Show radio network sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call or click grainger.com or you can just stop by. Dan Helle filling in with Brockman, Del Tufo and T.J. You loved Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules. Now get to know her on Give Them Lala. With her assistant Jess. What you did not see is when Raquel arrives and she wants to talk to me. I made her sit in a corner. Explain. Sat in a corner booth all by herself in the dark. Waiting for to talk to you. Waiting for me to finish dancing to 50 Cent. It's my birthday. Sit in a corner. Give Them Lala wherever you listen.