REShow: Brandon Staley - Hour 2

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Zillow Home Loans, NMLS number 10287. Tom Felicero, earlier on the show. Browns head coach, Kevin Stefanski. Coming up, Chargers head coach, Brandon Staley. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Felicero. Mini camp's going around the NFL, wrapping up in many cases.

Just talked to Kevin Stefanski, they had their mini camp last week. Big year for the Cleveland Browns. Big year for the LA Chargers. Brandon Staley's going to join us in about 20 minutes right here. And we have, dare I say, breaking news in Buffalo. Breaking news. Stefan Diggs is back on the field.

In uniform, practicing. He's here, the Bills say, with no further explanation. That's it? That's all we're getting? I don't believe Sean McDermott talks today. He might talk tomorrow.

We'll see. I hope Diggs talks. I hope he talks before the end of this show.

I'm curious to hear his explanation. There's always, this is the Diggsiest of all Diggs storylines, I think, here. Bottom line, back on the field. I was going to have this on my list of pre-training camp storylines, because it's the NFL. There's always big stories. I keep a, on my whiteboard at home, I keep a list this time of year, just going down it to keep track of, okay, what are the, what are the biggest unresolved things?

Let's go through this list right now, because we don't have to update it. You got DeAndre Hopkins. Two visits this week. He's headed to visit the Patriots today and tomorrow. It is conceivable that we could have a DeAndre Hopkins landing spot by the end of the week. The Titans, from what I'm told, when he visited them Sunday, Monday, there was not an offer.

There were no negotiations. Good visit though. And they're kind of waiting right now to see how everything shakes on Hopkins end. Once he takes the second visit, as of now, I am not aware of any other visits that he has scheduled. No Cleveland on the docket? I would be very surprised if DeAndre Hopkins ends up in Cleveland. That would really surprise me. Reunite with his quarterback obviously?

Right. I don't see it. I do not see that happening. It's just the way that the Browns are going to look at this and the way that they've deployed their resources does not indicate that it's a likely landing spot for DeAndre Hopkins.

I think that they discuss it like everything. Andrew Berry always looks into everything. I don't see that being a fit. I don't think he ends up in Cleveland. Dalvin Cook. Still out there. We had Dalvin on the show yesterday.

Called in. Give us an update on his shoulder and being a free agent. Compared to being on Madden and bidding on players.

That's another one that hypothetically could get moving. But in talking to Dalvin yesterday, I certainly did not get the sense that he's in any rush. He's back up at Minnesota right now. I would guess packing up his house, seeing some people. But he's in good physical shape right now. Everything's been good.

He says doctors cut him loose. So that's important because any team that signs him to what should be a substantial contract is going to want to give him a physical. They're going to want to check out the shoulder before they make that type of a commitment to Dalvin Cook.

So everything's progressing on that front. There are beyond the, you know, the Dolphins and the Broncos, the teams everybody's talked about. There are some other contenders that I fully anticipate are going to be in the mix on Dalvin Cook. But he can fully afford to be patient. He's got $2 million guaranteed. He doesn't necessarily need to take any type of pounding early on in training camp.

Now that there's, like Safansky was just saying to us, he used to be 6.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Those days are over. There's not a lot of hitting. There's a lot of places you can go and you're not going to get tackled to the ground the entire camp. But to the extent that you really need that, especially as a running back, it wouldn't totally shock me if he takes his time into training camp. But we'll see. It's going to depend on the money.

It's going to depend on the fit. Jimmy G, still a storyline, just because at some point he's got to pass the fiscal. Yeah, exactly. Del Tufo's the quarterback. What was the team name again, Del Tufo, yesterday? Del Tufo D's nuts. That's right. You were based in, yes, North Vegas, I believe it was.

North Vegas. Listen, everything that I've been told on that front is Jimmy's in. Let's kick it over. Every time you say it, you got this big grin on your face.

Because we'd have a fun time. I get it. I know why you drafted him. You've made this abundantly clear. I got a couple good players on the team, Travis and I mean Parsons. Come on.

Jimmy G, everything that I've been told is this is progressing the way they thought it would. You go look at a lot of Patriots deals. There's plenty of players who they couldn't pass fiscal.

They don't get their signing bonus until they do. So it's an unusual situation just because it's a quarterback. That's a weird photo of Jimmy we just showed right there. Doesn't that look odd? Anybody else just see that? I missed it. Is that a natural smile?

He's a good looking man, but that looks like a Jimmy G wax statue. It's unusual because it's a big financial commitment. It's a quarterback and they had to delay a press conference. So once he passes the physical, the signing bonus gets paid. Everything's on track, but still wanted to track throughout the course of this offseason.

Then you've got, you know, the extensions. That's a big one. We'll talk with Brandon Staley about it when he joins us in a little bit here.

What's going on with Justin Herbert? But you're talking about potentially market resetting deals for multiple different players here. The Joe Burrow Bengals one will be fascinating. Just knowing what the Bengals traditional contract structure has been.

They're one on the shortlist of teams. It's really just them and the Steelers that don't do any guarantees beyond year one. Other than in Pittsburgh's case, the quarterback they've bent in the past to get like a Ben Roethlisberger deal done. Are the Bengals willing to go anywhere near a fully guaranteed structure for Joe Burrow, which listen, he's one of the best young quarterbacks in the game.

He can kind of, he has the leverage to command anything, but he's also under contract to one team for the next two years. Are the Bengals going to make that tight? Are they going to be willing to go to the types of structures that Joe Burrow and his agent might want? That's going to be worth monitoring.

Justin Herbert, again, we'll ask Staley about that in a little bit. That's going to be another one that is right up there at the top of the market. At some point, does a DAC deal get done? A new deal with two years left on his contract? Does Patrick Mahomes deal get redone at some point? We've continued to see the quarterback market skyrocket. I mean, the first $40 million quarterback was not that long ago, and now I believe there's 10. I mean, that's how much this has changed over the past several years here. Now we're talking about $50 and $60 million quarterbacks, which of course changes your whole dynamic.

There's other extensions too. Does Justin Jefferson get done at some point? He did show up and was practicing with his teammates. He actually said yesterday, regardless of the contract, he's going to show up on time to training camp, which makes sense. He's a three-year player. Again, they've got him under contract for the next two seasons, but he's also a guy who, if Quasiadofo Mensah and the Vikings are trying to figure out, okay, when should we do this deal?

You want to get the deal done sooner than later. Not only because you want Justin Jefferson to feel loved and because you want him to be there and be a leader for your team, but also because the receiver market keeps going up and up and up. There's a lot of three-year wide receiver deals. Is this a three-year, $90 million deal for Justin Jefferson? I don't know.

I don't know that it's far off. And if his agents are looking at this, no one has told me this, but I'm looking for something that's pretty close to that range, just seeing what all these other wide receivers have been getting paid. So you have to keep an eye on that one. There's obviously the quarterback competitions as well. Not going to be seeing a whole lot on that prior to training camp, obviously, once we get past many camps here. You got the drama with the tagged players. We heard from Saquon finally a couple of days ago.

That's going to be, it's going to be a big deal. You got Saquon Barkley is one of the highest profile players in the league, former high draft pick in New York. And you got Josh Jacobs, who is the reigning NFL rushing champ with the Raiders, in addition to Tony Pollard and Evan Ingram. But Barkley, Jacobs, especially with the state of the running back market right now, we talked with Dalvin about that yesterday. We talked with Leonard Fornetta on the show yesterday too. Like these guys, as Leonard said, we do talk. There's no group thread, but we do talk. I really wish they did have one. A running back group thread? I mean, I was convinced for a while.

I'm glad that he answered that question. I was convinced there had to be because they all seem to know what's going on with everybody else. And if you're trying to figure out, am I going to get a deal done? You want to have a pulse on what's going to happen someplace else? Am I about to take a deal and somebody else is going to outshoot it by $3 million?

Or if there's not a deal coming to me, am I the only one? Because it's hard out there right now on the running backs. And those guys are right up at the top of the list. So those are the biggest storylines in my mind going into training camp here.

Those are the biggest loose ends, let's say that. Obviously, you've also got the commander's sale that you would hope is wrapped up. The league actually sent a memo out to the owners yesterday telling them to hold two day to lose July 20th and August 8th. Actually, I'm not sure what people would be rooting for there. July 20th, you're interrupting vacations. August 8th is like middle of training camp.

Neither one's ideal. They would have liked to approve it back in May. But the fact they're even saying hold those dates indicates this thing's tracking to get done sooner than later here. And that'll have a big effect on a lot of different people, even if they're not on hard knocks, which kind of have to be rooting. I mean, imagine that.

It's August 8th that the sale gets done. It'll be the first time in hard knocks history you literally have an ownership change. I would put the percent chance solo that Dan Snyder even appears on the show. But that is a scenario where maybe, maybe you get a Dan Snyder look.

I don't see him putting on a microphone and getting interviewed, but maybe he pops up on the show. Is the league and HBO and NFL films, are they just waiting for someone to volunteer? Just any team? I know they created this new eligibility list for hard knocks.

No rookie coaches. Nobody who made the playoffs last year has to do it. Are they just waiting for anybody to volunteer, it seems like?

I mean, to an extent, that's true. But at this point, you can force teams to do it. Usually they want to somehow incentivize people and somehow kind of make clear, OK, we need you to do this.

Here's the benefits to you. There's teams that want to do it. There are teams. Detroit last year actually wanted to do it organizationally because, listen, everybody's reduced Dan Campbell for two years to one quote in his opening press conference. It was a great quote.

It's a memorable quote. I've told I've told many people we need a moratorium on the biting kneecaps joke because like there's so much more to Dan Campbell. And you saw it on that show last year. Yeah, he was great. There's also Metallica lyrics.

There's oh, yeah, there's all kinds of great titles and all kinds. Dan is way smarter than everybody gives him credit for. He's built a hell of a staff in Detroit. The fact that Ben Johnson, who is the hottest head coaching candidate in this cycle besides D'Amico Ryan's, turned down.

I mean, he very possibly would have been the Panthers coach right now if he had not decided he wanted to go back to Detroit. He wanted to take another run at it. A big part of that for Ben is wants to go to the playoffs. He wants to see this thing through. He wants to finish it off. And he thinks that, you know, he can grow and he he's got a loyalty to Dan, too. He wants to be there with him.

They've known each other a long time going back to Miami. He wants to be a part of that thing. I mean, just think about that. When's the last time we talked about the Lions having a chance to do something, having a chance to be? I mean, I think I have no idea what the Vegas odds are.

You look those up, Brockman. But I got to think they are one of, if not the favorite to win the division, certainly to make the playoffs. And I think that the first taste of this Lions program that a lot of people got was Hard Knocks last year. You cannot argue, even though the Lions started slow last season before they really turned things on.

You can't argue that Hard Knocks was anything but great for the Lions because they were able to show, here's the depth of this program. Here's what we're about. This isn't some clown show operation here. This is the real deal. Dan Campbell is a real dude. Like he's exactly, it's not a caricature. It's not him putting on an act. Authenticity is a wildly underrated trait in head coaches. If you are faking it, just like we just heard from Stefanski talking about Jonathan Gannon. People are looking at Gannon and his opening press conference and things like that. That's JG. That's his real personality.

If you are faking it, players see through that stuff. And there are plenty of examples of coaches through time who, once they got into that big role, they weren't cut out for it because they were trying to act like what they thought a head coach should be. Dan Campbell came in and he's unlike any head coach in the NFL, but he's Dan Campbell.

He's exactly himself. And Hard Knocks benefited that. I don't know that if you're a team like the Commanders that this helps you, just because you've already got enough going on in terms of you've got coaches under fire. You've got a potential ownership change. You've got a quarterback competition.

There may be too much on your plate. And I think Ron Rivera at this point just kind of wants to keep his head down in all likelihood and just get to the season and try to play well, win some games and make sure that you're sticking around as part of this new regime. With the Jets, I don't know if they need any more attention. They're going to be the number one story in a lot of ways in the NFL going into training camp. We didn't really see Aaron do a whole lot in the spring.

What he looks like, how he plays. They're on Monday Night Football in week one. They've got a really talented young roster. Do you need Hard Knocks?

I don't know that you need Hard Knocks in a place like that. Who's the other eligible team? There's one more. Saints. The Saints are eligible to go back.

I don't know that that necessarily benefits them either. And we've already seen Derek Carr and Hard Knocks. The Raiders just did it a few years ago. That's right. I feel like that season was mostly about them going out to eat, wasn't it? Wasn't it mostly? That was the Selman episode, right? Antonio Brown too, right?

Wasn't that year also? Antonio Brown. He occasionally showed up on that show. My guy Mike Mayock had to come out and tell the reporters that he wasn't there.

I can't remember if that was the helmet or when he froze his feet off falling asleep in the hyperbaric chamber. I love that Antonio Brown is still hovering around in the universe too. He's still popping up claiming he's playing for an Arena League team in Albany, New York. Well, he owns the team. But he's also claiming he's playing. Oh, really?

Well, no. He denied in a legal filing that he owns the team. But then also claims he is playing and owns the team. It's a whole thing. I keep a spreadsheet with all the free agents in the NFL just so I don't forget things.

I'm trying to jog my memory. Okay, who's still out there? I can't delete Antonio Brown yet, even though he has not played since he took his pads and jersey off and ran off the field in New York. Hold on. You won't delete Antonio Brown, but you've deleted Tom Brady already? Tom Brady is also still on the list. Just in case. So is Gronk. Okay. You happy over there, Boston?

I am happy. They're both still on the list. Colin Kaepernick's still on the list. There's a lot of things that can happen in the NFL. I mean, do you realize Tim Tebow was on a team two years ago at this time? Tim Tebow was on the Jaguars as a tight end in 2021. That's a real thing that happened. It did.

And then did not end well. Urban Meyer was a head coach. Urban Meyer was a head coach two years ago. Weird things happen in the NFL, man.

There's not a lot. Just like with Diggs, when I say like, there's no way. Well, there's really no way he could get traded here. But odd things happen.

Logistically, it makes zero sense. There's no reason for the Bills to do it. But weird things happen in the NFL.

We got to take a break. Brandon Staley, Chargers coach, going to join us after this. What is the state of the Justin Herbert contract negotiations? How things go with Kellen Moore out there? And how they knock off the team that seems to be the Super Bowl favorite year after year after year and the MVP favorite year after year. Patrick Holmes and the Chiefs will get into all that with Brandon Staley coming up right after this.

It's Tom Pellicero in for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show. 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 one-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 arm's distance from the ones you care about.

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Seriously though, see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com slash match. Seattle is hosting New Orleans in a playoff game. Correct. In Seattle. And we played them earlier.

Played them earlier. The first thing in the morning when I get up is I have a waffle, you know, the whipped cream, strawberries, and I'm flipping through the networks trying to get either ESPN or NFL Network. Who's going to give me the forecast? There's NFL Network.

I got it. I'm eating my waffle and they pan down on Russell Wilson and Drew Brees throwing a football on the field in their graves. I'm going to tell you where I'm supposed to be at that moment when they're throwing a football. I am supposed to be meeting with the officials discussing the inactive's.

All right. And getting ready to say the Lord's Prayer and give our players a peptide. That's where I'm supposed to be. When I run to the shower, call my assistant, can't get him.

The waffle is spilled on the floor. I get back. My assistant says, Hey, what's up? And I said, when did the buses leave? No one called. He said, Coach, the buses haven't left yet. They had taken B roll from the Monday night game. Someone in the tape room ran the wrong tape. Can you imagine? I text Falk. He's on set with Rich. I said, what are you guys doing?

I had a cow. I'm telling you, you have no idea. We're talking about being like, this is the divisional playoff game. Not being there for the kickoff as the head coach. That's how late I was at Sean. Just Marshall showed me the text.

We went back and forth. I arrived. This guy now is live on the field. And I peek out at the stadium only because of the conditions. And I take a look and Rich says, good to have Sean Payton here at the stadium.

Just some slight comment that not one person is going to understand until we tell this story. Amazing. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I am 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, click grainger.com or just stop by. Tom Pelissero in for Rich today. Pleased to be joined right now by a guy who's entering his third season as the Los Angeles Chargers head coach. One of my favorite people in the entire league to talk to. Brandon Staley is with us.

Brandon, appreciate you coming on, man. I know it's a busy week over there with minicamp. How are we doing?

I'm doing great, Tom. Thanks for having me. So you're in minicamp this week. Training camp's six weeks away here. You've had, I would say, an eventful offseason.

Give me the state of the Chargers entering year three for you. Yeah, I think this group is really hungry, really focused. Tom has been really, really pleased with the professionalism. I think the overall culture of the team. I think we've done a lot of work over the last three years of onboarding the right people.

And I just think you see a really high-level group out there that's doing all the right things, and that's exciting. And we've just handled our business this offseason, and the real work's going to begin in training camp here in July. I know you were really happy with the way that the draft came together for you guys. Take me through, I mean, first of all, your first-round pick. But just as the draft board fell, just kind of take me through how that all unfolded for you guys. Yeah, Tom, we were in a position that we want to be in, which is drafting towards the end of the first round. And we thought that there were a lot of good options for us, whether it was staying put, moving back. I think we had a group of players that were really comfortable with drafting.

But we certainly got the one that we were after. And Quentin Johnson and Q's had a really good spring for us. And it just really gives us a dimension that we were looking for within our offense.

We have a very, I think, explosive offense and a complete offense. But I just think he gives us a dimension that I think brings out the best in some of the other players that we have. He's an outstanding run-after-catch player.

He's a guy that played really, really well outside the red line. And what that does is I think it makes covering Mike Williams and Keenan Allen and Josh Palmer and Gerald Everett, Austin Eckler, it's going to open things up for them and create more space and just give Justin more options. And so I think to get a young receiver like that, Tom, and especially him not having to do everything right away, where he comes into a room where he can just really develop and grow and be himself and learn from two veteran players who I think are as good as anybody in the NFL.

And then Josh Palmer, Tom, he had over 70 catches for us last year. So I just think we've got a deep group. And he's been awesome to work with so far in the spring.

And then just in terms of the other draft picks, Tom, there's a lot of proven production from these players. And I love the makeup of these guys. They really fit the culture that we have here.

They handled their business. They fit in well with the veterans. And I'm excited to see them during training camp. You've got a basketball team in that receiver room.

I mean, you've got just some big skill weapons. Is there an analytic aspect to having big men at that position just in terms of the way that the matchups unfold and then how defenses have to play? Yeah, Tom, I think you've got to start with this, is it's a pace and space league.

We really believe in that. And it's become a three-receiver league. And so no matter who those receivers are, whether they're tight ends or wide outs or even running backs, it's become that type of league.

And to me, the NFL has always been a big man's game. And I think that you're seeing it in basketball, Tom, where everyone's looking for that 6'7 to 6'10 player that can do everything, that can dribble, pass, and shoot, that can guard every position. And that's how basketball is.

I've spent a couple days with Steve Kerr and his staff at Golden State, and that's how the NBA is, and you can see it all over that league. And that's really what we're looking for on offense, is to have a bunch of guys with size, speed, skill set that you can take advantage of and that can truly force the defense to cover everybody. And that's what you want to be on offense, you want everybody on the field to have a chance to touch the ball and to be a threat on the defense. And I know that's been important to Tom, Telesco, JoJo Wooden, our personnel staff, our coaching staff, and certainly where Kellen came from in Dallas. That's a lot how they were structured.

So if you look at the premium offenses in the NFL, that's sort of the formula. So we're excited to get that group on the field together. When you spend time with Steve Kerr, are you looking for cultural things?

Are you looking for competitive things? What did you take away from that experience? Oh, Tom, it was just an incredible two days. I went there in their playoff series against the Kings. I was there for game three and just spent two days with his staff.

He was gracious enough. He and Bob Myers were gracious enough to give me a ton of access, and it was just one of my favorite things that I've ever done from a professional development standpoint, and Steve has just got so much knowledge and experiences as a player, as a coach. There was so much to draw from, and it was tactical stuff.

It was culture stuff. It was just all the things, little things, big things, and one of the best coaches in all of sports, and he was gracious enough to spend a bunch of time with me, and his staff was amazing too. Kenny Atkinson, those guys, they were fantastic. Mike Dunleavy, some of the personnel guys, they were awesome to me.

Have you done things like that before in terms of, you got the U.S. Open down the street from you. Have you done cross-sports things and tried to find things from other games? Yeah, I love that aspect of coaching. I draw a lot from that, and so basketball, I'm a huge tennis guy, so I was able to spend some time with Rafa Nadal's coaches last year. I went to Indian Wells, went to Wimbledon, and one of my good friends here in Orange County is a professional tennis coach, and you're always looking for that. One of my good friends is the general manager for the Cleveland Cavs.

We kind of grew up playing AAU basketball together, and you're always looking for other ways to improve, and it's been a big aspect of me trying to be as good as I can be. Brandon Staley is our guest head coach of the LA Chargers. You mentioned Kellen Moore, new offensive coordinator.

That was a pretty substantial move in the course of your offseason because you guys had had success offensively, obviously. Kellen has also had a lot of success in Dallas. Without giving away all your schematic secrets here, Brandon, on June 14th, what is this offense going to look like, and how do you hope Kellen, from what you've seen so far, is really going to help your young quarterback? Number one, I think, Tom, it's been fantastic to team up with Kellen from a culture standpoint, from a leadership standpoint.

Anyone that knows Kellen, son of a coach, a great high school coach who was his father, played at Boise State for Chris Peterson, and played in the NFL for some great coaches, Jim Caldwell, Jason Garrett, and has been around a lot of ball. And then as a coordinator, me having to defend this guy, I just know how special he is. And to be able to team up every day with him as a coach before you get to the actual X's and O's, that's been a highlight for me. He's been great for our staff. Him and Doug Messmeyer on offense have been really fantastic for our staff. And he's just the type of guy that can go into a game plan and you know that he's going to bring out the best in your players. And I love the way that he makes the game simple for our players. I love how he's thinking about our players first and thinking about them and then creating a scheme for them, both in the run game and in the pass game, and then how that fits within the football team. But his production speaks for itself as a play caller.

I don't need to speak on that. I mean, you can see the productions in Dallas with Dak and that group of skilled players and that offensive line. You know, it's just been great to team up with them. And I know that during training camp, we're going to be able to figure out how to best use our guys. I know you've been asked 600 times over the past couple months about a Justin Herbert extension.

I'm going to make it 601 here, Brandon. Are we getting closer? Do we have optimism?

Could this be done before camp? Where do we stand with Justin right now? I would say yes on all three of those points you just made. The talks are ongoing.

That's the word I've used, ongoing, and we are confident and optimistic. There's been a lot of debate, I think, at least externally in the media and among fans about how difficult it is to win once you have a quarterback get paid. It takes up 20% of your salary cap or whatever the number might be. Are you a believer that you can win and win big paying a quarterback top dollar? Yeah, I do, because I think that it's a lot about structure, of how you're going to structure the contracts too. And then I think that if you have an organization that has a healthy cap and a good number, the right amount of premium players, and as long as you don't have to sacrifice your draft capital, I think that's where people go wrong, as long as they're in an unhealthy cap situation to begin with or they don't have the amount of draft capital, because obviously if you're paying someone that much money, you've got to continue to replenish it through the draft, because that's where you can save the cost.

And at the same time, you know that you need the premium players in order to win. So I think if you look at our football team, I know that we have that. We have our draft capital intact for the future, now and in the future, and we have the right amount of premium players on both sides of the ball. And so we've tried to really plan for this since I became the head coach in terms of where we are with the offensive line, skilled position players, and surround them with a defense and kicking game that can make us a complete team. Obviously things are going to change when this contract happens, but what's not going to change is that Justin is going to be leading our football team and playing like how he always does, and that we have a team around him that is really special. So I'm looking forward to the season and getting to work in training camp. Obviously Austin Eckler was a big topic through the offseason, too.

You were able to come to an accord. How does he seem? He's a pretty intellectual guy. It seems like he understands the business of it.

In terms of his mindset, his focus, is he where you want him to be right now? Yeah, Tom, he came in here yesterday and he just lit it up like he always does. I think, as you know, and you probably had some insight into this that others didn't, is just we love this guy. We totally understand the business side of this, and you're seeing other running backs go through the same thing. We know how good of a player this guy is. Since I became the head coach, he's got 38 touchdowns. This guy has become one of the top players at his position in the league.

So I think we were able to come to a really fair agreement, and I think the respect was high the whole way. He came into practice yesterday, and he plays like he always does. No one's in better shape.

No one cares more. No one's a better professional than Austin, and we're certainly a better team with him. I think one of the undersold things about last season for you guys, Brandon, was you won 10 games and you got into the playoffs, but you did it with a remarkable number, in a bad way, of injuries. You played without your left tackle. You didn't have your pass rusher. You spent a lot of money on a corner who didn't really play at all. Your receivers were kind of in and out of the lineup through the course of the season.

You had to overcome a lot. When you look at this roster, you know, beyond your draft, beyond signing Eric Kendricks, I have to imagine you feel like you've got a couple of extra free agent additions just with, hopefully, Rarshan and J.C. coming back and being fully healthy. I do feel that way, Tom. We feel really strongly about our team, and that's why we've done what we've done. You know, I thought last year we were aggressive in free agency. You know, we traded for Khalil, and we made those moves because we believed that that team was going to get to play together, you know, and grow together, and that's what we're doing. And, you know, we know the level of our team that's out there. You know, when I was out there yesterday at minicamp, we know the level of player and the level of team that we have, and now, you know, I just think you're going to get to see it play together and grow together, and that's something that's hard nowadays is to get a team that can really grow together. I think you saw it with the Nuggets, you know, winning the NBA championship. You know, that was a build from 2018, 2019 to now, and we know that if this group gets to play together over the course of a few years that it's going to be where we know it can be.

And, you know, I'm really looking forward to this group to getting out there in training camp, competing together, and making each other better, and really building us for 2023. So when you look at the division, you've got, you know, maybe the greatest player who's ever lived, 27, Patrick Mahomes, you're always going to have to get past him. You've got Sean Payton coming in now to Denver. Obviously, the Raiders are still building that thing there with Josh, and they've got a new quarterback in Jimmy. But, I mean, it comes down to the Chiefs, Brandon. When we're talking about the AFC West, we're going to be constantly saying, how does somebody knock off the Chiefs? How does somebody knock off the multi-time MVP, the multi-time Super Bowl winner?

What's the path? How do you process that from a coaching standpoint, but also just from a messaging standpoint with your team? And how do you ultimately, you know, take down the team that everybody's looking at as a dynasty? You've got to focus on your team, number one. You've got to focus on your team and being a complete football team, because when you're playing against someone like Pat and Kelsey, and obviously Andy does a great job coaching, you've got to do it as a team.

You know, it's not going to be one person that's doing it for sure. You've got to do it as a team. And you also know that we have what it takes as a team. You know, we've faced this team now four times since, you know, I've been here and, you know, you can see how we've performed in those four games. And you just know the level that we've played at.

All four of our games have been fantastic. And, you know, we've got full respect for them. And, you know, we play them two times, you know, for sure, and probably more, you know, in the playoffs. And, you know, that's what you're hoping for as a competitor, is to go head-to-head with the best.

And I know that that's how our guys are wired and how our organization is wired. You know, they've got a fantastic team. And they've proven to be the top team in the NFL over the last, you know, five to seven years. And, you know, we're excited to go head-to-head with those guys. You know, and there's a lot of time between now and then. Because, you know, obviously they're the team to beat. They've proven that. But, you know, there's 15 other games on the schedule that you've got to win to and prepare for. So, but full respect for those guys. And I think our rivalry has been great for the NFL because whenever we've played them it's been a fantastic game.

And certainly with Pat and Justin going head-to-head with as many marquee players that are on both sides, it's been awesome for the league. So, what are you going to do with yourself these next six weeks, Brandon? Do you get away? Do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking of new schemes? Like, what do you do with yourself from now until training camp?

All of it. You know, just spend a bunch of time with family. You know, work out like crazy.

Read, you know, tape, plan, prepare, you know, repeat, you know. But make sure that we're making a lot of memories as a family. And you're never too far away from this job. And that's what makes it so special. There's a lot to do.

And that's what makes it so fulfilling. But I'm really excited about this football team. You know, really looking forward to this last day at minicamp. And, you know, a great summer ahead.

And like you said, you know, we're going to spend this five weeks getting better and making a bunch of memories as a family. You're the best, Brandon. Thanks a lot for coming on, man. Tom, thanks for having me, man. Have a great summer.

You too. It's Brandon Staley, head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. That division, the AFC West, I think was the one, I know it was the one that we talked about so much last offseason because it was Russell Wilson is going to Denver. We got the Raiders bringing in Devontae Adams to reunite him with Derek Carr. And then obviously the Chargers, they had made the big moves to bring Khalil Mack. They brought in J.C. Jackson. The Chiefs were the team that everyone was like, well, they're the man that they trade away Tyreek. How are they going to replace that production?

Then you sit here 12 months later, we know how all those situations played out. One team is once again the Super Bowl champions. The Broncos, you know, made it a ton of changes.

Coaching change to try to get Russell back on track. The Raiders have moved on from Derek Carr. The Chargers are the team that I don't feel like anybody has been talking about.

I don't feel like everybody realizes how talented they are. They load up even more like we were just talking about at the wide receiver position. They got all these big dudes who are mismatched threats.

Justin Herbert. Listen, I get the bias against the Chargers because of what happened in the playoff game. The fact of the matter is they were up big in the playoff game. They overcame so much throughout the course of the season. If J.C. Jackson is J.C. Jackson, that's a massive addition for this team. Rashawn Slater comes back, which all indications are he's fully healed now. That's a massive addition for that team. Injuries impact everybody.

I get it. The Chargers, I mean, historically have had more than everybody else. They're the team that constantly, guys don't come back as soon as they could have.

There's setbacks that occur. But this team, when healthy, I mean, I think are as talented as anybody in the AFC. And this is a big year, no doubt about it, for Brandon Staley and Justin Herbert and everybody else. They've got a veteran roster. They finally got the defensive pieces where they want them. They got a new OC with Kellen Moore. I would just fairly say, and not just because Brandon was kind enough to grace us with his presence today. Popped out of a team meeting, jumped on with us for 15 minutes, which we appreciate. I just don't think anybody should be sleeping right now on the L.A. Chargers.

We got to take a break. Got a lot more to come throughout the course of the show. I believe we're going to have Alan Shipnick on to talk about the complete chaos in the sport of golf right now as the U.S. Open gets set to begin right down the street from us in L.A. tomorrow.

A lot more NFL talk as well. It's Tom Pelissero in for Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show. I've been looking for this all my life. On June 30th, Indiana Jones, a final triumph, a legend will face his destiny.

A few times in my life I've seen things and I've come to believe it's not what you believe, it's how hard you believe it. His last adventure, give him hell, Indiana Jones, will be his greatest. This is it. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters June 30th.

Tickets on sale now. This episode is brought to you by Zillow. You've probably spent hours Zillowing on Zillow, scrolling through beach houses, looking up the zestimate of your boss's house. But Zillow is so much more than searching for homes. Now, Zillowing means finding a top agent, someone who can answer all your home buying questions, even the ones you're embarrassed to ask. They'll take you on tours, offer expert local advice, and help you get into the home of your dreams, whether it's on a beach or not. Zillow, let's get you home.

Download the Zillow app today. You met Prince, correct? Yeah, yeah. I'll never forget, we were at Madison Square Garden. Security came to my seat at the end of the show, or towards the end of the show, and said, Prince wants you to come on stage. I was like, okay. He wants you to come on stage now. Oh, all right. So I'll go on stage.

It's me, it will be Goldberg, Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, a bunch of other people on stage. And we went to this after-hour spot after the concert, a place called Village Underground in the village. Oh, it's famous.

Yeah. And so, you know, because Prince likes to jam afterwards. Well, Prince just went to go listen to the musicians. So it's Prince, his assistant, and myself. And I see Prince lean over to his assistant. And then all of a sudden, the assistant leans over to me and says, I don't know why I do this voice, but it's like, Prince wants you to come back and have pasta and pizza. I was like, oh, okay. And then Prince got up and left, and she got up and left.

I don't know why her voice is so deep, because it was a woman. Because you were summoned. You were summoned by royalty. And there was, you know, an array of people in the living room. And I went back to find Prince, and he was back there holding court with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.

And he looked up and smiled and gave me the peace sign. And I went back in, and we had pasta and pizza at 4 o'clock in the morning. How did Prince like his pizza?

This is very important, the toppings. First off, there was no meat on the pizza, and I didn't see Prince eat any pizza. We would go to his house, man, for the house parties, and it would be Stevie Wonder playing the piano, Malcolm Jamal Warner on bass, you know, Rachelle Pharrell singing lead. It was just amazing, man. And then it was like 5 o'clock in the morning, his chef is serving you breakfast.

You're like, why am I at Prince's house at 5 o'clock in the morning, man? It wouldn't be the end of hockey season without some crazy story about the injuries that players gutted it out through during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Postgame last night, Paul Maurice, the head coach of the Florida Panthers, revealed Matthew Tchuck fractured his sternum in Game 3. Broke his chest!

That seems dangerous. Also, Aaron Eckblad played through a broken foot, popping his shoulder twice, and tearing his oblique. Some players, according to Maurice, may not be ready for the start of next season. Fractured sternum, I think, actually wins for me over broken foot, popping shoulder twice, and tearing oblique. Dude, Eckblad broke his foot in Round 1 against the Bruins, played for six weeks on a broken foot. Seems painful. Scored a goal last night. What's the worst injury you've ever had to gut it out through, Brockman? Worst injury? Well, I ate part of Mike Del Tufo's hat once and had to finish the show. Can you give me the context on the hat eating? Yeah, I fell for the McLovin bait. Andrew Perloff, formerly of the Dan Patrick show, had tweeted something about the Eagles making the playoffs or something. And I had a lot of faith in the Cowboys that year to win the division. When was this? Like four years ago, TJ?

Something like that? And so I was like, if the Eagles make it, I'll eat Mike, I'll eat a hat. Eat Del Tufo's hat. Anyway, how did you fast forward?

I'm sorry, I know this isn't the point. Cut out part of Del Tufo's hat into small little swatches, put it inside of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I ate it. You got sick, right? We felt sick. Yeah, you got sick.

Yeah! I mean, look at Del Tufo's hat! I mean, I wouldn't want to eat mine. Oh no, it was disgusting.

It was a Rich Eisen show hat, had the logo on it, we cut a piece from the back. It was disgusting. I'm eating sick just thinking about that.

Yeah, I felt bad for Chris having to do that. I didn't. What about you, TJ? Worst injury you've had to get it out through here? Three years ago, it was three years ago. Here on the show or just in life?

Yeah, here on the show. Oh, and having to, you know, do a show the day after I got in a car wreck when a van hit me with my back, it seemed like somebody was holding a blowtorch in the middle of my back, and then multiple migraines that I got during the NBA playoffs because the Sixers and the Clippers almost made these two veins on my temples explode. So, as these guys know, I went through about two weeks of just, like, feeling like my head was literally going to explode on air.

But, you know, that's about it. Del Tufo? In real life would be when I dislocated my kneecap, though. You dislocated your kneecap? Yeah, that was one of the most painful things that I've ever had. Seems gross. Yeah, it hurt.

Del Tufo? Rotator cuff, sitting on a plane next to a really big guy, bigger than I ever was, and I had to hold my shoulder like this for five hours, and I literally tore my, I'm not kidding, I got partial tear. And it just healed within the last, like, year. It took five years.

I've had a partially torn rotator cuff for a long time, but mine's from pitching in high school, not from sitting awkwardly on a plane. Yes. And, by the way, I got 20,000 miles from that thing because I ditched at the airline. Because he didn't buy the second seat? No, because the guy shouldn't have been in the middle.

He was 350 pounds. Oh, he was in the middle seat. Well, technically, I don't mean to side against you, but technically the person in the middle does have the right to both armrests.

Yeah, but no, no. You see, the problem with that, I didn't have a problem with that, but he was too big for the middle seat. Mike, you just double fat-shamed and seat-shamed. That's what, I was a fat guy, I'm getting skinnier now, but I can claim, I can actually fat-shame because I was big. I also had a ungodly-sized bruise on my back when I fell off a hoverboard and crashed on my mic pack in Washington, D.C. Chris, that was the, I felt so bad.

When he says ungodly, I mean, this thing was bigger than a softball, but not quite as big as a basketball, so somewhere in between. It looked like my kidney exploded. Yeah, yeah. It was not great.

That seems bad. Oh, there's videos of all these things that I'm talking about. He's got it. He's got it. Sure, at some point. And you'll get to see him.

We will get to it. Break his back. I've had a few dumb things, like in the field, you know, being a reporter. The one, the most recent one was at the Senior Bowl, you may have seen the video where I arm wrestled the quarterback Tyson Bajant's dad, Travis the Beast Bajant, who has, I think he's a 27-time World Arm Wrestling Champion.

I did not see this, but I know about this guy. I don't know if we can bring it up, but so, you know, I decided to go for it, right? Like, I was like, I told him before, I'm just like, just don't hurt me. Because what my fear was, it was going to be like a full slam situation and like, my whole arm was going to fall off, right?

So he's like, I gotcha, I gotcha. So I was like, if you see the video, I'm like going, clearly I'm not moving him with one hand. So I put a second hand on, I'm trying to pull, and then he just kind of slowly moves my entire body over like this. And for like the next 15 minutes, I couldn't feel my right hand. And so I'm like, I don't know if I did actual damage or if it's just like I was using muscles that didn't exist before.

But like holding a microphone when you can't actually feel your hand is a different, that's a different type of an experience, I would say. Sitting here is a lot simpler in this seat. Lower chance for injury, don't make me eat anything. Lamar Jackson mentioned earlier that he was talking about the new offense in Baltimore. Let's just play a little bit about what Lamar is saying they're going to look like with Todd Monken now calling the place for the Ravens. I feel like making an adjustment at the line of scrimmage is becoming more comfortable.

Yeah, absolutely. And the more I'm being here, it helps both of us out a lot. And like I said before in another interview, Coach Todd Monken just giving us the keys to the offense to let us do our thing is pretty much helping us a lot as well. You started really feeling good about Greg Roman's offense. How long did that take? And how long do you think it will take you to really feel comfortable in Todd Monken's offense? I don't think that long. G-Roll's offense, it didn't take that long.

I believe 2019, that's when he got the OC job. And, you know, I feel like we went 14 to 2. And Coach Todd Monken, I don't know the sky's the limit with his offense. We're going to see. They've obviously been very productive with Lamar as quarterback. A big part of that is the running aspect of it.

I'm really interested to see. Todd Monken's had a good reputation always as an offensive mind. He obviously spent the last couple of years at Georgia, won national titles with Stetson Benedict quarterback. A little different skill set for Lamar Jackson here. And it certainly seems, based upon where they've used their resources here, that the offense is indeed going to evolve. Now, I don't think that you're going to see Lamar throwing the ball 50 times a game and running it three.

I don't think that that's going to be that drastic. But you don't give Odell Beckham Jr. 15 million dollars guaranteed when he hasn't played in a year. And you don't draft Zay Flowers in the first round of the draft if you're not intending to open things up in terms of the passing game. Now, there's a fine line there always when you have quarterbacks who the run threat is what makes them their most dangerous. When years ago, Colin Kaepernick, I think it was in 2015, and they tried to make him into more of a pocket passer and like evolve his game that way. And it just took away a lot of what Kaepernick had done well, which was, you know, his one time a GM told me he goes, the greatest skill at Kaepernick is when you get home as a rusher on him, seven out of 10 times, he escapes.

He makes you miss. The play breaks down. He gets outside the pocket. He's got a big arm so you could throw it down the field. But if you start just having him try to play within rhythm, it's not you're not facing the same type of a guy.

It's a different type of a challenge. So how Todd Monk and John Harbaugh and those guys walk that line, I think it's going to be a big storyline for how well this all works out for Lamar Jackson. He's been paid now. He's, you know, he's had injuries the last couple of years. Does he keep himself on the field? Does he stay healthy?

Does he take care of his body? And then how do they adapt with this offense? I think it's one of the big storylines throughout the season. We're finally done talking about Lamar Jackson's contract.

Now it's a matter of, is there another layer to Lamar Jackson that we have not seen previously? And I think that, you know, the AFC North in general, that's going to be one of the things that kind of drives how that division goes. I mean, it's always last year, the AFC West was the one that we were talking about going into the season. They're like every matchup, you're going to want to see every matchup in this division. We got to like October and it was like, maybe not.

Maybe this is maybe we set the bar so high. We were bound to be disappointed. I feel like the AFC North for years has been one that like you don't really want to miss, definitely since Joe Burrow got there, you don't want to miss any of those, those matchups. Is Lamar Jackson in this offense playing with different types of weapons than he's had in the past, enough for them to challenge the Bengals in the division? Is Deshaun Watson, who Kevin Stefanski was just telling us, looks a lot different than he was a year ago and they're continuing to evolve. You know, is that enough for the Browns to be in that conversation?

And then can Kenny Pickett stay on the field? And is this kind of the new, the post-Ben Steelers team ready to be more than just a team that like were, were impressed that they got to nine and eight with their challenges? Are they ready to get back to competing to try to go to another Super Bowl? I do believe that that's going to be a really competitive division throughout the season, barring obviously injuries and other freak things that can happen here.

It should be one, again, without the Sun the AFC West last year, but it should be a division where those games are must-see TV. Alan Shipnick's going to join us, talk about the U.S. Open and the chaos in the game of golf coming up in the second hour. And after this, it's what's more likely time, Brockman. Get yourself ready over there.

Tom Pelissero in for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show. Conspiracy theories. Paranormal UFOs. Science teacher Andrew Greenwood stated that a child ran into his classroom and was hysterically screaming and talking about the flying saucer outside. Hundreds of children ran out of their classrooms to go outside and see this unidentified flying object that was just above the school. Just imagine a bunch of kids running out of school. Most of them just ran home. Theories of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen.