REShow: Gabe Lucques - Hour 2 (7-6-2023)

Taste some of this. This OMG is the Rich Eisen Show. No other way to put it. With guest host, Brian Weber.

Oh my gosh. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not talking to you. I talk to anybody out there. Haters. Rich Eisen. I talk to the haters right now.

And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Another large hour of the program. Just getting underway. Got a lot to get to. We move quickly whenever I'm lucky enough to be in the chair. But the goal is to be interactive. Always open to. Carving out time for your phone calls. They are taken selectively.

However, 844-204-7424 is the phone number. Hit me up on Twitter. B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's in 20 minutes. The latest on Aaron Judge. Remember, he went down with the toe injury over a month ago.

June 3rd. When he got caught up with the fence in right field at Dodger Stadium. Still no definitive timetable for his return. Yankees scuffling, understandably, without him. We'll talk about the Dodgers rotation. Getting crushed by injuries. Most importantly, no Mike Trout needed surgery on that broken bone he suffered in his hand. Fouling off a pitch in San Diego the other night.

San Diego completing the sweep of the Angels last night. Coming up on August 1st. We'll get there coming up in 20 minutes. In 40 minutes, more NFL conversation. As we are 20 days away from the start of football training camps. What's the outlook in Denver? Sean Payton.

One of the best coaches of his generation. Is he sharp enough to save Russell Wilson's career? That's on the docket as well. Primarily on a TMZ report that allegedly, reportedly, again, I am treading lightly as the fill-in host. I am not going to, in the span of a couple loose words, blow up everything Rich has worked so hard to build, but the TMZ report, and I just checked the Twitter feed and I appreciate all of you who have decided to follow me as we move forward.

Always pick up a nice chunk of followers thanks to the social media equity of Rich. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's on Twitter. Number one trending story, on my feet at least, involving Britney Spears. Being, and I'll read verbatim from TMZ once more, their words not mine, smacked in the face by San Antonio Spurs security as Brit-Brit wanted a picture with the new sensation of the NBA, Victor Wimbunyana, last night in Las Vegas. I'm not going through all of the details.

I was probably too comprehensive in the last hour of the show, although it was just such a surreal story and a bizarre merging of sports and entertainment. But the quick overview is, Wimbunyana having dinner last night in Las Vegas as he gets set to make his summer league debut tomorrow night in Nevada. What do you know, Britney and her husband also came into this upscale restaurant that celebrities frequent. Apparently Britney is an NBA fan, recognized Wimbunyana, went over to his table. He happened to be seated with his back towards Britney.

She reached out, made physical contact. That's going to be the defense claim by the Spurs director of team security. So as Britney politely, I'm going to clean this up because I'm going to give you my opinion as we go, tapped when be on the back on the shoulder in an effort to get his attention and say, would you mind taking a picture with me? The Spurs director of team security responded by back handing her according to TMZ, knocking her glasses off, and Britney fell to the ground. There is a police report alleging battery. As of now, no charges have been filed. According to TMZ, this is not going to be handled as a criminal matter because the director of team security has the defense that he was just doing his job trying to defend when be at all costs. Still, somebody from the Spurs or their insurance company is going to be writing Britney a check if she decides to pursue this.

This strikes me as an easy payday because she didn't do anything wrong. It also speaks to the star power of Victor Wemenyama. We're going to spend a lot of time tomorrow talking about a player who is beyond a unicorn. We're looking at a guy who's once in a century. I'm not going to try to turn up the hype machine too much.

I already did, right? Once in a century. But we've seen the evolution of hoops and I'm 53 and I've been watching basketball since, here's your old school reference, the NBA finals were on tape delay like the Rocket Mortgage Classic was on CBS on Sunday for very different reasons. But I've been watching hoops for a long time. It was certainly nothing we could have foreseen even 30 years ago that the 3-point shot would take over the sport the way it has thanks to first, F. Curry and the Warriors, and everybody who's followed suit. But to have somebody with the skill set say of Nikola Jokic or Joel Embiid, big guys who can handle and shoot 3s and now Wemenyama is taking it to the next level because he's what, 73, 75, can dribble all the way down the court and can bury 3s at will.

What are realistic expectations for Wemenyama? We'll talk about that tomorrow. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.

844-204-7424 coming up in the final hour of the program, beyond the football I'm going to address in just over a half hour. Looking forward to checking in with Brad Spielberger, a pro football focus, as we'll run through all of the key subjects, including big name players as we're less than 3 weeks away from the start of training camp, veterans who don't need the reps at training camp, but if you're joining a new team, and that's going to be the case for both the Andre Hopkins and Dalvin Cook, you need time to figure out the nuances of the offense. Look through the landscape and try to make sense of the best potential landing spots for two pro bowlers, and Hopkins not that far removed from being one of the top three running backs, rather wide receivers in all of football. Dalvin Cook, if you're just looking at the pure numbers, four consecutive thousand yard seasons for Minnesota, four straight pro bowls, you put him on Miami. I think the difference between Miami and Buffalo, and remember the Dolphins played the Bills tough in that playoff game.

Despite going to number 12 on the depth chart because of all the injuries at quarterback, if you send Dalvin Cook to South Beach, presuming Tua can stay healthy, and that's a big supposition on my part, I think that changes everything at the top of that division. So, when B moves on, we'll see in our time together if the Spurs have to release a statement, I'm not alleging Victor did anything wrong. This is a bad episode of Three's Company on a celebrity level stage. Giant misunderstanding, although if we're going to assign responsibility, the Spurs director of team security got to chill out a little bit.

I don't know that you need to backhand anybody coming over to take a selfie, especially a woman, so I'll leave that to the lawyers to handle. But it does speak to the massive cult of personality surrounding Wembley, and expectations we have not seen going all the way back to Lebron, I think they're higher because of the global nature of what Wembley represents. Just think about the recent slew of NBA MVPs, this was the vision of David Stern, he wanted the game to go international.

The foundation laid in 1992 with the Dream Team, and what rock stars they were. We've gone from Giannis to Joker with back to back MVPs, in retrospect maybe should have won it for a third time in the regular season, although I think a lot of that was voter fatigue. Remember, nobody's won three straight MVPs since Larry Bird in the 80s, but if we're just looking in the context of the regular season, very difficult to parse what MB did.

He was magnificent, but that just reflects the international dynamic that has taken over hoops with Wembley moving it to even higher heights. There was a move yesterday, and you're hopefully noticing, we're closing in on the 10 minute mark of this hour of the program, I have not mentioned Damian Lillard. I'm going to pat myself on the back, no I don't want to knock the mic off its moorings, but there was a business decision made by yours truly, putting the show together last night and this morning. I'm getting the sense many of you, when you hear a host, even one with a lovely voice who enunciates the way I do, you hear Damian Lillard and you say, I am out. I get it. Audience is never wrong. I cannot abdicate my responsibilities to talk about the biggest quote unquote story in the NBA, but I'm trying to do it in more concise chunks and do it differently.

Because this is my fourth straight day and I'm back with you tomorrow, we're going to wrap it up with a lot of gusto. There was a move though yesterday, and I'll tie it together with Portland and Boston because the Celtics were directly involved. The Mavs are rounding out the roster after they made the predictable decision to re-up with Kyrie. Look, if you make the decision to be in the Kyrie Irving business, that's a you problem because you know everything that comes with it. Now, Kyrie didn't do anything that outlandish off the court, small sample size while he was auditioning in Dallas. On the court it was an unmitigated disaster.

It just did not work at all. If you're a Dallas hunk, you're going to tell me, well, Luca and Kyrie need more time together. Okay, fair. Secondly, they need more pieces on the roster. So they made a marginal move, talking about Dallas. They picked up Grant Williams, and because it's the NBA of course, it was not a straightforward transaction. They signed a trade, three teams involved. When we get to Lillard coming up, I'm reading different scenarios that have four and five different teams involved to make sure Portland gets the kind of haul they want in return for letting the face of the franchise walk with multiple years left on his contract as a sign of respect for everything that Dame has meant to the organization and his loyalty and allegiance.

They don't quote unquote owe him anything, but I think they're trying to handle this with a proper amount of class and consideration. So you got Williams going from Boston to Dallas, and that's a move that strikes me as, all right, it helps, beefs up the front line. Williams, part of the deepest roster in all of basketball. Boston, if we were just stacking up lineups, have more talent than anybody. And remember, they were in the NBA Finals a year ago, had a 2-1 series lead over the Warriors.

Williams, 8.5 rebounds last year. Expendable because of the Porzingis deal, which makes sense on a strategic level. I can understand why Boston wanted Porzingis. Remember when he was the unicorn that was going to change the paradigm?

Speaking of the hype machine being cranked up to 140. Well, it didn't help that he was playing for the Knicks, but the issue with Porzingis is, tell me the game he took over that mattered. And the context will be he's not going to have to carry a team in Boston because allegedly, Jason Tatum can do that.

Although we saw in this playoff run, step one is don't have a bunch of nonsensical turnovers in the fourth quarter if you want me to believe you're a top five player. Taking nothing away from Tatum in the regular season, but he was very unreliable. And another part of that massive meltdown by the Celtics. And theoretically, if your 1-2 is Tatum and Jalen Brown, you're not asking too much from Porzingis. My other issue with Porzingis is he's made of glass.

He just can't stay healthy. But I understand why Boston wanted to make that move because if you're thinking upside, he gives them another option on the front line. He is a dependable scorer and I think they view it as addition by subtraction. I was surprised that they gave up Marcus Smart, especially given his rugged defensive play, his intensity.

But there's something from a distance lacking on that team from the standpoint of cohesion, chemistry, and harmony in the locker room. And Smart might have been part of the problem because that guy runs hot. That's why he's maximized his abilities. That's how he's hung on and thrived in the NBA that long. I'm not bashing his mindset. That's what he needs.

He's got to have that kind of fuel because he's not the most talented player out there. But Boston, in the midst of reworking things on the margins, still has not gotten a signature from Jalen Brown on the line which is dotted. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. You can be a part of the program.

844-204-7424. Twitter's still working as of this morning here on the West Coast. We'll cover you Weber. Weber with you bees in 10 minutes. We talk baseball with Gabe Lacks and he'll be reporter for USA Today. I'm not going into the realm of black helicopters and tinfoil hats.

I'm not saying there's a grand conspiracy going on. I'm coming out after the avalanche of moves going back to Friday and I'm more immersed in this every summer than most people because I fill in on a variety of platforms so this is what I do during the summer. Plus, on some level, I find the transactions in the NBA as compelling as the action because in the NBA it's always about who's going where. And I know I'll be here if I'm lucky enough to guest host for Rich a year from now. It'll be the summer of somebody else. I didn't necessarily think it'd be the summer of Dame because that could have been, probably should have been two years ago.

He was far too patient and squandered a couple more years in his prime. But that's the whole foundation of how the NBA has become a year-round entity. You kids with the NBA Twitter love going through all of these different permutations on the big word Thursday.

So you're well aware, if you're a hardcore hoop fan listening, Jana Brown, because he landed on the second All-NBA team, became eligible for a supermax. Five years, $295 million. That's big money. That's why I read it slowly. And here we are, on a Thursday, the deal has yet to be signed.

So, what's going on? And I will steal with attribution from Brian Wintouris, another national hero. How great was it when Wendy flew all the way to France, interviewed him on lottery night at what, 3 o'clock in the morning Parisian time, and they were so pressed for time because they had to wrap up the show to go to a playoff game, he got two questions. But that's what Wendy does.

Wendy and Wembe is the podcast I need to be a part of. Oh, and Webb's in there too as I go third person. Wintouris said today on ESPN, and in his brilliant I'm-not-saying-I'm-just-saying, I remember when he had that piece of performance art last year about Utah, and he was tying it together like Kevin Costner in JFK. Wembe said, well, it might not be anything, but it is interesting that the details are still being hammered out, and for now, because beyond the astronomical dollars that Brown is set to make with the Supermax coming his way once the deal gets finalized, $295, thank you very much, once that happens, he can't be traded for a full season.

He is heading into the last year of his current deal. So, if you're doing fantasy trading, and you have a five-team deal that lands Lillard in Boston and Brown in Portland, and Lillard in Boston to me is fascinating. They clearly become the team to beat. I'd even put them in front of the Nuggets, who I've, like everybody else, overlooked to a degree, even though they lost two rotation pieces in Jeff Green and Bruce Brown. You put Lillard in Boston, everything changes.

They're clearly the best team in the NBA, but for that to happen, Portland would have to accept the rental of Jalen Brown, and remember, according to reports, Jalen Brown is still miffed that his name came up in the Kevin Durant trade speculation. If you're Boston, do you want to run the risk of that happening again? The longer this deal goes unsigned, the more you're going to hear about it, and Rich always tries to give you a different slant, so that's why I'm devoting more time today. I acknowledged it yesterday, and we'll get back to it tomorrow. Watch the minute I sign off this show. Breaking news! Brown has signed the Supermax deal, so I'm glad we addressed it presently. 8-4-4, 2-0-4, 7-4-2-4, the number to call.

You can have a conversation on Twitter if you like. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. An hour from now. Take you round the NFL with Brad Spielberger, a pro football focus. Up next, we are rounding the bases. A lot of baseball to get to.

The latest in iron judge. When's he going to feel fit enough and good enough to come back from that lingering toe issue? Plus, an L.A. story with Clayton Kershaw on the injured list. Dustin May needing another elbow procedure.

How concerned should the Dodgers be about their rotation? Heading into the All-Star break. Looking forward to our conversation with Gabe Lacks, MLB reporter and baseball editor for USA Today. I'm Brian Weber, always having a good time with you when I'm in for Rich. We continue. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Rest in peace, Stitcher. And thanks for 15 years of service to the podcast community. So switch to another podcast app and follow this show there.

Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm Brian Weber and I'm 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, clickrainger.com or just stop by.

844-204-7424 is our phone number. Conversation heating up on Twitter. That's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Let's talk baseball. Pleased to be joined by Gabe Lacks, MLB reporter and baseball editor for USA Today.

Gabe, I appreciate you taking the time. How are you? I'm good, Brian. How are you doing?

I am doing well. And it sounds like we share location, location, location. I'm based in Southern California, just like Rich. So let's start with the Angels.

And I would start there even if we both did not enjoy living in SoCal. One and seven, as you know, over the last eight games. Swept by the Padres last night and the schedules getting more challenging. Getting set to take on the Dodgers again in the freeway series, then taking on the reigning champs from Houston, then the Yankees. You're throwing Mike Trout now, needing surgery on the broken bone in his hand. If the Angels continue to struggle, as we get closer to the trade deadline coming up August 1st, do you think they'll be open to moving Shoei Ohtani? It would definitely move them off of their previous stance or all their other previous stances and would certainly merit as a surprise.

But things happen really quickly in July, so it's hard not to imagine them at least considering it. And if it's just so painfully obvious, if the bottom absolutely falls out without Mike Trout, certainly greater consideration can be given to that because fans are pretty sophisticated these days. And as much as they love Shoei Ohtani, they would certainly understand if somehow they're 10 games below.500 and maybe they've been passed by them by the Seattle Mariners and maybe they're in fourth place in the NL West, that it might make a little more sense to do so.

But I don't think it will get there. I think they'll probably play just well enough to maintain something of a puncher's chance at the playoffs. And yeah, this recent cold spell has been pretty dispiriting just because maybe, you know, this was shaping up as maybe the year they were kind of defying some of the mediocrity that's kind of been the hallmark of the peak Trout Ohtani era. But no, it's a tough series down in San Diego. Again, as you mentioned, the schedule getting a little bit bumpier, the Mariners waking up a little bit, the Astros passing them, the Rangers still doing really well. So the, you know, the playoff chances are certainly not great.

So it's going to change quickly in one way or another and that's really going to be pretty fascinating to watch. Talking MLB with Gabe Lacks of USA Today. Gabe, I thought you summed up the Angels situation well using the word mediocrity. So if we take Ohtani at his word, that in addition to the astronomical money that he's going to get, which he deserves because he's a once in a century kind of talent, if he wants to win, why would he stay with the Angels as a free agent?

Yeah, certainly it would just be comfort level and maybe, you know, wanting a, you know, wanting a singular kind of legacy in one place. But, you know, he's been, you know, he kind of plays his cards close to the vest. But in terms of, you know, what he said about a year ago this time at the All-Star game, similarly, you know, similar sentiment that he wants to play for a winner.

And I don't think he's going to find that in Los Angeles. And I think, or at least in Anaheim, I think Perry Minazian, GM of the Angels, has done a pretty good job working the edges this year. When you look at a Hunter Renfro, a Brandon Drury, Carlos Estevez, probably the best closer in the American League this year. So, you know, I think they've done the very best to kind of build around him.

But the injuries definitely hurt. Zach Neto's been out a while. Obviously, Trout's going to be out almost a couple months. So I think the handwriting is going to be on the wall. And I think, you know, I mean, just it's just kind of obvious just up the road in L.A. You know, they're going to have a ton of money to offer him. The San Francisco Giants, a very clean payroll going forward.

They can offer him, you know, offer him the Transamerica building. And it's along with kind of a proven track record of being able to build a winner. You know, Farhan Zaidi, X Dodger, GM really has produced a couple of winners in a couple of different ways in San Francisco.

And I think that could certainly be a selling point for Otani. So it kind of is pointing to anywhere but Anaheim unless things really, really turn around here in the next month. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. We are spotlighting MLB with Gabe Lacks of USA Today. Since you hit on the Dodgers, let's transition to, quote unquote, L.A.'s other team. So Clayton Kershaw on the injured list. Haven't seen Walker Buehler at all this year coming back from the Tommy John procedure.

Unfortunately, Dustin May needs a second round of elbow surgery. How concerned are you about the Dodgers' rotation at this stage of the season? Yeah, and kind of the totality of their pitching staff. You know, it's a, bullpens and rotations kind of don't operate in a vacuum.

You know, one kind of affects the other. And it's kind of getting increasingly harder to imagine, you know, the Dodgers' pitching staff as a whole really kind of clicking and providing continuity. Really, really nice to have Daniel Hudson back for them. Obviously, he managed to close it out last night. Evan Phillips, a bit gassed the night before, pitching three nights in a row, couldn't close it out against the Pirates. So, you know, Hudson will maybe solidify things a little bit in the back end, back from his ACL injury, and maybe Phillips picks up, you know, a little more oomph without having to carry all of the back end load there. But yeah, it's definitely concerning just because, you know, he really did have high expectations for May and then he had a good first few weeks of the season and all that kind of stuff.

So, it's very tricky. You know, the big question right now, is this just a one-start blip for Clayton Kershaw? Will he be back off the I.L. for their first series against the Mets coming out of the All-Star break?

A lot of unanswered questions. Also, you know, Julio Odias, very, very sketchy coming back off the I.L. You know, will he get back off the beam and will he kind of set himself up for a platform year in free agency? There's still some time, but, you know, sitting there with a 4.94 ERA is certainly not what he and the Dodgers envisioned. So, it's going to take a little bit of a superior performance from the guys they have, and it's probably going to take some reinforcement with the trade deadline. And they could certainly use that either in the rotation, in the bullpen, maybe even both.

Chatting with Gabe Lex, MLB reporter and baseball editor for USA Today. How about the Yankees? Seems like everything has been intertwined with these questions, but Aaron Judge, as you know, got hurt at Dodger Stadium, tangled up with the fence. And we've not seen him since June 3rd.

Toes are tricky, so he's been candid about not having a definitive timeline, maybe need surgery in the offseason. Do you think the Yanks can continue to tread water with Allen? Because, as you know, they've been struggling at the plate, and you have any sense of when we're going to see Judge again on the field?

Yeah, I think they're okay. And I think they have enough to kind of stay in the mix. You know, they're still in wildcard position. Not only that, but the Rays are kind of leaving the door open. We sort of wrote off that division that they're going to play 650-700 ball all year. They're starting to feel the effects of a lot of those pitching injuries that they've had. And now they're just playing just 640 ball, only five games up on Baltimore and the Yankees. Again, all it takes is winning for the Yankees to take care of a lot of matters.

They will get back in the division race if they do win. The question is, and sometimes Brian Cashman doesn't get a lot of credit for some of the kind of fringe moves that he makes, but it's just been interesting to watch them piece this together with Billy McKinney and Jake Bowers. I mean, those guys track records don't suggest that they'll continue to really be viable options. You'd rather have Aaron Judge back.

But I think he's done a pretty good job keeping them afloat. The thing that I find a little scary is that Aaron Judge estimated himself at about 10 percent running, which can change. I'm sure there's a leap to be made there, whether it's from 10 to 60 or if you get up to 30 and boom, you feel better and you're up to 70. That's not to say that he's just 10 percent of the way through the process. There's probably going to be a point in time where he turns a corner. But offseason surgery, a little daunting.

Just running at 10 percent right now, a little daunting. At the very least, certainly you can't count on him until at least into August, maybe even a little bit later. It's a pretty rare injury with regard to what ballplayers are used to dealing with and the way that staffs are used to rehabbing things. It's not an oblique. It's not a flexor tendon. It's not a hamstring. Kind of uncharted waters here, but not looking great.

If they can maintain contact with the Orioles and maintain contact with the Rays, I think they do have it in them. It's just a little bit hard to see right now. Gabe, I enjoyed the conversation. Greatly appreciate the insights. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us today here on the Rich Eisen Show.

All right. Appreciate that, Brian. Gabe Lex, MLB reporter, baseball editor for USA Today. I am a long time consumer of USA Today.

I'll take it back. Back in the day, kids, USA Today used to be 50 cents. Now, USA Today, most famous for airports and hotels. Also, it was color and it had graphs. It was called McPaper. It was for people who don't like to read.

You just look at the pretty pictures. But USA Today used to be 50 cents. Nobody had a more comprehensive Friday sports section than USA Today.

All the college football previews, all the NFL advanced type. I might have, and I don't want to self-report. I think the statute of limitations has run out. I might have been so neurotic with my prep as a young broadcaster, literally cutting and pasting, which I still do. If I'm ever lucky enough to finagle my way into the simulcast host opportunity. High threshold, as you know. Only the big names. Filming for Rich on the Roku channel. But I still cut and paste with a series of weird index cards.

There's a Rain Man dynamic going on. But for 50 cents, I may have helped myself to three or four old USA Today's on a Friday because the information I needed was on both sides of the page. And I'm not going to Xerox, right? So yeah, blame me. It wasn't the internet. It wasn't 5,000 channels. It wasn't TikTok that killed the newspaper. Video killed the radio star. Uncle B. Webb took down USA Today.

844-204-7424 is the phone number. I'm scanning your tweets. I don't read them all, but I process your thoughts, and I appreciate the company on social media. B. W. Weber, Weber with 2B, is going to pick up the pace with one more guest on the docket coming up. The final hour of the program.

2.20 Eastern Time. We talk NFL with Brad Spielberger, Pro Football Focus, and we're going to jump into the NFL next. Russell Wilson has been in decline going back to the end of his run in Seattle.

So, can a coaching savant like Sean Payton jumpstart Russell's career in Denver? That's coming up. I'm Brian Weber. I'm in for Rich Eisen as we continue on a Thursday edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Brian Weber, back with you.

This is The Rich Eisen Show. You can be a part of it. 844-204-7424. Hit me up on Twitter.

B. W. Weber, Weber with 2B. No Instagram. You don't need to see me in a bikini. And I'm not making the move to threads. If this whole thing implodes, we can write letters to each other.

I got a telegram informing me that I had gotten into college in 1987. That's how urgent it was. So, I think I'm tapping out.

I'm going old school. But nothing like that is going to happen in the remaining hour and 15 minutes together. So, as we tip off the final hour of the program, we'll get back to the NBA. The audience is always changing, so I'll give you another thought on the most bizarre confluence of basketball and entertainment. How in the world did Victor Wambunyama, Britney Spears, and the Spurs' director of team security cross paths last night? And why did the Spurs' director of team security think it was appropriate to backhand Brit-Brit according to TMZ?

We'll approach that with an economical mindset. We'll talk more about Damian Lillard. I was mentioning the duh-duh-duh, connect the dots, that Jalen Brown has still yet to sign his supermax offer. And if it is maxed out, he can get $295 million over five years from the Celtics. I saw a report moments ago from the Boston Globe saying it is highly unlikely Boston will jump into the Damian Lillard sweepstakes. I'll give you some of the context there. And again, do my best to reframe Lillard and everything else going on across the NBA, entertainingly and from a different point of view, because that is my job, after all.

When I'm lucky enough to be in for Rich during this holiday week, I want to make sure we are not being unnecessarily redundant and repetitive, even though the word means the same thing. Back to the NFL, and it is odd to me, maybe this is East Coast bias to a degree, and I'm originally from the suburbs of New York, if you care, but I came west, as mentioned, when I got that telegram, no joke, a telegram saying I'd gotten in off the waitlist, came to California 1987 for college. So I've been here ever since, but I still go back to see family on the East Coast. East Coast bias is a thing.

60% of the nation lives east of the Mississippi River. We're talking college football, and the Pac-12 hasn't done much to generate national attention. And don't you know USC is finally relevant again? Caleb Williams is going to be the first pick in next year's draft on their way to the Big Ten, but NFL stories can be overlooked as well. Understanding everything in the NFL is consumed and examined on a granular level. But I feel like Sean Payton joining the Broncos hasn't gotten nearly the buzz I thought it would, and we're still 20 days away from the start of training camps. And I watched Rich on Radio Row in his setup during Super Bowl week, and I saw Sean Payton making the round. So I'm not pretending the story has been neglected, but for all of the constant Aaron Rodgers talk, and I realize a franchise quarterback, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, just a year removed from going back-to-back with MVP awards, and landing on a team that has been looking for a quarterback since Joe Willie Namath.

That's my favorite exercise, which I'm going to have to retire now that Aaron has taken his talents to the Jets, although I could probably do it this way. Who's the third-best quarterback in Jets history after Namath and Rodgers? Answer is Chad Pennington. That's how long they've been looking for a suitable QB one. But it does feel like the rock star head coach moving to a franchise with a Hall of Fame quarterback normally dominates the conversation. So maybe it's because Denver is tucked away there in the Rockies. It's bizarre to me that the Nuggets were overlooked every step of the way, and we know how all-consuming football is in Denver. Probably the two things are related. But in the NFL, Denver is a football capital. In basketball, the Nuggets were viewed as if they were playing in some outpost on the prairie.

But I don't know what is leading to this. I have not heard a ton of, what is Sean Payton going to mean to Russell Wilson year one? I think the other reason for the analysis being limited is that we all assume, and it's a fair presumption, Kansas City is going to win the division again.

Why shouldn't they? They have the best roster, and they have dominated that division. If you want to come up with a summation of the impact of Andy Reid, go back and look at how many NFC Easts the Eagles won in all those trips to the NFC title game. Well, what a smooth transition he's made to Kansas City. They keep stacking AFC West division crowns, and still are the team to beat. So I think some of it also is the mission that even if Payton does a masterful job on two fronts, restoring the confidence of Russell Wilson, and secondly, coming up with a scheme that fits where he is at in terms of a decline in his skill set heading into this year. Denver certainly can't compete for a wild card.

Why not? Have you looked at the roster? There's still a lot of talent on that team. But so much of what happened last year came down to maybe the most overmatched head coach that we have ever seen. And remember, it's pretty clear in retrospect, Nathaniel Hackett got that job because he was tight with Aaron Rodgers. That's it. And because he was on the coaching staff in Green Bay.

Now, it was clear there was no sleight of hand. He wasn't the play caller for the Packers. He was the offensive coordinator in name only.

Matt Lafleur runs his own offense. But that was a ploy by the previous ownership group from John Elway to maximize the possibility that if Aaron Rodgers had been able to force his way out of Green Bay last year, he might seriously entertain coming to Denver because clearly, he just likes hanging out with Nate Hackett. You've probably seen the video of Aaron on his first day with the Jets, bear hugging his boy. It was like they were going to go play quarters off a ping pong table at the Jets' facility. But Hackett, as a head coach, was a disaster.

We saw it on Monday Night Football in his very first game. Playing for what, a 63-yard field goal in the return game for Russell Wilson to the Emerald City? And it didn't get anything close to better moving forward. Abysmal clock management. Just couldn't get the play in on time. So, if we're going to be fair in assessing Russell Wilson last year, a lot of what we saw in the field came down to coaching malpractice. And Peyton certainly is going to tighten up all those areas. But even if Sean Peyton is able to have the same kind of beautiful mind relationship between head coach and quarterback as he did in New Orleans for all those years with Drew Brees, Brees had to make the throws.

It's not a video game. So I think the real question and the focal point of what's going to happen in Denver comes down to how much do you believe in Russell Wilson? Because I can give you arguments about, well, he's got playmakers like Jerry, Judy, Judy, Judy, and Cortland, Sutton. There's talent on that team. But if Russ continues to make terrible decisions and throw into tight windows believing blindly that he can still get it done, not much is going to change.

Because last year, while it was a catastrophe in a football sense, it was grisly to watch. A lot of that was foreshadowed by Russ' final year in Seattle. Whatever term you want to use, slippage or regression, the career arc is in decline. For all of the hot take guys who were waiting for Tom Brady to finally fall off that cliff, and it happened to a degree last year, if you're looking for a QB one running off the edge like Wile E. Coyote, that was Russell Wilson. I'm not sure that he gets it back fully because so much of what allowed Russ to thrive in Seattle was his ability to extend plays and ad lib. Well, he's not outrunning dudes anymore, because as you get older, you lose a step.

So that to me is going to be a fascinating story to track, and I think I summed it up appropriately. We're all conceding to the vision to Kansas City, and we know what the Chargers have on both sides of the football. It is astonishing to me, and he seems like a heck of a nice guy, that Brandon Staley still has that job. After that meltdown against Jacksonville, you can argue he should have lost his job the year before after bizarre coaching decisions in a game in which all he had to do was tie against the Raiders in the final Sunday night game of the season.

He butchered that. But still, Chargers have a ton of skill on both sides of the football, so I fully get why expectations might be tamped down in Denver, but it feels like we should be talking more about what Peyton's going to do with Russ this year. More football coming up, final hour of the program, 2.20 Eastern Time, we'll say hello to Rad Spielberger, of Pro Football Focus coming up, we head back to the NBA, and more of Wimby and Brittany. I'm Brian Weber, leave Brittany alone as we continue, here on the Thursday, this is the Rich Eisen Show. It was this huge star, CM Punk, I said he was going to be the biggest financial flop in wrestling history and I think I'm being proven right every minute of the day. We'll see you in the next three weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.