RE Show: Mike Garafolo - Hour 1

This is The Rich Eisen Show. Please welcome Rich Eisen. What a story, can't believe it. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

This was done out of the goodness of the giant's heart. Take one Barkley had resigned himself to the fact that he just needed to show up. Now Josh Jacobs, not inclined to show up anytime soon. Today's guests, NFL Network reporter Mike Garofalo, former NFL executive Joe Banner, Grammy award winning artist Tim McGraw. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Oh yes, oh yes. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show, live on the Roku Channel. And we're free every single day, 12 to 3 Eastern Time.

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Every National Football League team is up and adamant active in trying to win football games this fall, starting right now with training camps. Let's go. We are up and running and Chris Brockman's not here, which is another great thing. Wow. Good to see you over there.

Mike Del Tufar. How are you? I don't miss Chris. No, you do. I do actually. I do, I miss. Good to see you over there, TJ Jefferson. How are you? What's up, Rich? How you doing, Rich? I'm great, man.

I am just doing fine. You know who it might not be? Saquon Barkley. He's not talking today. He just turned down the opportunity to talk today. And you just got to wonder what's going on in his head. Joe Shane, the general manager of the New York Football Giants says he's at peace with the way everything went down.

He said, I tried, he tried. I'm at peace. He's ecstatic that Barkley's there. Of course he is. He's got Saquon Barkley for 10.1 million bucks plus incentives. And it's got to sting Saquon.

It has to sting Saquon. Because Joe Shane, the general manager who is at peace, signed a big piece of the Giants offensive line, the biggest piece of them all. Andrew Thomas, five years, $117.5 million announced today.

Now, it's fascinating, too. Daniel Jones getting his long-term deal and Thomas getting his long-term deal. Dexter Lawrence getting his long-term deal, four years, $90 million. And Saquon does not get his long-term deal. He'll get nothing more than the franchise tag plus incentives and have to like it. And as I told you yesterday, it felt like that moment in The Godfather Part II where Frank Pantangeli got a $100 bill from one of the Rosado brothers and he said he didn't like the C note. The $100 was like commemorating their partnership.

And that's what this incentive kind of feels like, even though teams rarely do what the Giants did for Saquon. But Saquon's not talking today. Why not? He's at peace. Why wouldn't he get out there and talk? Is he? He's not at peace.

That's the only way you can get it. Obviously that could change in the next 20 minutes or so. He can step out there and talk. He can talk tonight. He can go on a podcast. He can do whatever he wants. He can go on his social channels. Call in here. He can call in here. Yeah. Yeah.

Mines are always open. I'll give him the direct line. But it's also the realities of this sport. It's the realities of this sport. You pay the quarterback. It's a quarterback-driven league, and then you pay the guy who protects the quarterback the most, the left tackle, the blind side. Daniel Jones, four years, $160 million. And his blindside protector, five years, $117.5 million. And the running back who essentially makes it all go. $10 million.

And no more than just the one year. That's the way it goes, the defensive tackle. Dexter Lawrence, he gets the money too.

Yeah. The defensive end, he gets the money too. Trevon Diggs, he got his aid, did he not?

Yes, he did. Cornerbacks who shut it down. Aiden Diggs' dad got that money. He gets paid. The wide receiver who could potentially take the top of the defense off, he can get paid. The running backs don't.

And a quarterback-driven league, you got to pay the guy who protects him. A running back sometimes protects the quarterback physically, although not like a left tackle. It is going to occasionally be the running back's job to pick up the free blitzing individual that's ready to detach the quarterback's head from his body. Sometimes that running back will step in and save the day and make the play happen. Schematically though, the running back protects the quarterback by running it. By sometimes slowing the pass rush because they can't stop the run on the way to the quarterback because the running back's so good. I still don't get it that the Giants are ready to go into this season in this manner with Saquon. And again, I know it's July 26th and that when September the 11th, Sunday Night Football, Giants and Dallas Cowboys are out there, he's maybe going to be thinking about it saying, I'll show everybody here. But when it all comes down to it and ball gets snapped and number 26 is back there, he's not sitting there thinking, I am making 29 and change less than the guy who's handing me the football, I don't think.

And that's what happens. This is the game that is played right now, but where it really will reside if this is an issue, on the lap of the coach of the year, reigning coach of the year, Brian Daybal, is going to have to make it work. Because there are sometimes, I've heard in my 20 years now of NFL Network, factions break out in the locker room. Certainly if the quarterback has a two interception night, if Diggs proves out his new huge contract at Daniel Jones' expense. That's the way these things work and materialize and it's going to be up to the coach of the year to make sure that doesn't happen. Because as you know, things occasionally go sideways in the NFL. Mike Garofalo, my colleague from the NFL Media Group is at Giants Camp. He will be joining us in 13 minutes time to give us the update on what is going on there.

He and Ian Rappaport broke the news of Justin Herbert becoming the best played, paid player in the history of the National Football League. He's got a new contract. The Los Angeles Chargers, no longer the old San Diego Superchargers, right? The Los Angeles Chargers ripped open the Spanos Velcro wallet. That was the noise you heard yesterday.

Some moths and butterflies flew out. Fifty-two and a half million dollars. Rich, can I play the Brockman role real quick because I know what Chris would say. Please, go ahead.

This is, I'm pretty sure what my brother Brockman would say in this instance. For how many playoff wins? I get it. I understand. How many playoff wins? I understand.

How many points scored in the second half of that playoff? This is all part and parcel of the puzzle. And one of the reasons why we're having former league executive Joe Banner on this program as well. Quarterbacks get paid. Austin Eckler is told, thanks for all these touchdowns you score. Thanks for taking the pressure off of Justin Herbert for not having to force it in to a window he should not from the 10-yard line. Thanks for getting us to the three. Thanks for then creating the matchup problem from the three-yard line so we could flip it to you in the end zone or using you as the decoy so someone else is wide open taking the pressure off of Justin Herbert or we hand it to you and you just jam it in the end zone.

Thank you for all that. We're paying Justin and then we're going to pay his protector. That's the way it goes in this league right now. Austin Eckler will take the field and go, all right, all right, Justin's all that, but he gets all that and I can't get even a fraction of that.

And I'm not doing this to stir it up. I'm not doing like Eckler could, I'm sure is sitting there this morning going way to go. Love that guy. We need that guy. Let's go win with that guy.

Now if this was New York, it would be a whole different ball of wax. And again, Aaron Rodgers is going to learn that as we learned the Jets redid his contract. Another thing I'm going to ask Joe Benner, how do you reconfigure a contract where somebody gets paid 1 million this year and $107 million next?

By the way, that's apparently the numbers here. How do you make that work? He's going to have to play multiple years or just, you know, give him a piece of the Jets. Maybe, you know, I don't know, make him an honorary Johnson. I have no idea. Well, the Superbowl wouldn't get him that he's suddenly Aaron Johnson, the fourth. I have no idea.

Get some free talcum powder, little head and shoulders. I don't know. He's not too old to be adopted, is he? That's the way this league is going today, where on April, whatever it was, Jalen Hurts is the highest paid player in the game. And then draft day hits and Lamar Jackson becomes the highest paid player in the history of the game. And then two months later, Justin Herbert's the highest paid player in the history of the game. And he might have a stint atop this list, shorter than the one that Jalen Hurts even had because Joe Burrow was right around the corner.

And Patrick Mahomes gets further and further down the list. And the only reason why I bring all of this up right now is not only to put into place what's going on with the running back spot, but also to put into place the fact that even with Hurts hitting it and Lamar hitting it and Justin Herbert hitting it, none of them have as many guaranteed dollars in their contracts as Deshaun Watson has. He's still the outlier at 225 million guaranteed, all of it, every dollar. He's still, that contract still stands as the outlier. It's probably going to stand for a while, right?

I think so. I mean, at some point, somebody will make more guaranteed dollars because the contracts keep going up and every single time it's a new average annual salary that's just a little bit higher than the one before. Hurts beating Rogers out by 0.7 million and then Lamar beating out Hurts by a million and Herbert beating out Jackson by half a million. And then Burrow might come in at what, 53 million, 54 million now that that's hit and what will the guaranteed dollar, at some point, some will make more guaranteed dollars than Deshaun Watson, but not every dollar of it will be guaranteed.

That's still, still, and we're all wondering which one is going to be the one to break that log jam and the answer is nobody. And the same thing is happening with the running backs, but that at least unfortunately for them is just being paid multiple years. Honestly, it's just like Joe Shane is paying 117 million dollars to his tackle and I understand market value and I understand that may not be fully guaranteed, all of it. I get all of that, but there's not another nine million left in the till, three this year, three the following year and three the year after that to give him the 13 million back on the table or if he wanted 16, okay, so that's 18 over three to keep him happy in the locker room cool.

Like I said, I don't get it. And Rich, like I was asking you pre-show, like I understand we know the left tackle, the importance, they got to get paid, but optically, isn't this just bad for them? Like you couldn't have let 48 hours go by?

You kind of low balled your best player and then the next day. This is all, but the way that these are all for a general manager who generally manages, these are all, you know, tracks that are trains that are running on multiple tracks at the same time. You know, it's entirely possible that this negotiation with Andrew Thomas's representation has been going on longer than the one that he had with Saquon.

I don't know. It just happens and you got to pay these guys. And the whole point of it is, is I'm sitting here saying, I don't get why the giants couldn't come up with the scratch to make Saquon Barkley happy. And the general manager of the New York football giants has paid his quarterback left tackle and defensive lineman. And those are the boxes you do check to build winning football teams. You get the quarterback, you get the left tackle, you get the defensive back paid and there'll be more to come. So I'm sure he's sitting back there saying, I'm building this team and I've got Saquon on the field. And that's the way Joe Shane gets a pat on the back going way to go, Joe. But Saquon's not talking today.

Some point he will. It's New York city. They don't let you just sit back. Tim McGraw's on the show and Arthur Smith has a new mustache.

I don't think that they are related at all. I'm just throwing things out there now. The Dallas Cowboys have opened up training camp. The owner has spoken. TJ Jefferson, you are going to finally put down out there for everybody. What do you think the Dallas Cowboys will finish as USA today said they were nine and eight.

That was a little disrespectful. In 20, 2023, they say they're going to be nine and eight. I don't have the patience to Jack with Josh Allen has spoken about his relationship with Stefan Diggs.

Diggs is talking right now. As you know, I've been pounding the drums on this story to the point where I don't think they're very happy with me. Oh, really? I don't know. I mean, this sort of thing. Oh, and by the way, Jim Harbaugh is going to miss four games for buying somebody a cheeseburger. So that's apparently happening too. Wow. And telling the NCAA what cheeseburger.

What a world. We'll talk about it all. You have a top five today, too. I got a top five, top five training camp story lines that I'm looking forward to getting answered. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, NFL Media Group, NFL Plus. Let's throw it out there too. There you go.

Yes. Mike Plus will join us next on the Rich Eisen Show and what in the world is going on in Giants Camp. If you're looking for plump lips that last, you need to know about Juvederm lip fillers. With Juvederm Valbella XC and Juvederm Ultra XC, your lip look, whether it's subtle or bold, can last up to one full year with optimal treatment and no additional maintenance. Find a licensed specialist and see if it's right for you at Juvederm.com today.

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Talk to a licensed specialist to find out if it's right for you. You know, I don't think we should just gloss over the fact that Jalen Brown got a $304 million contract that pays him $60 million a year to play the sport of basketball professionally in the United States of America. I don't think we should. You're right. We kind of did yesterday.

We kind of touched on it. We didn't, but we, I mean, what's more to say other than the fact of like, he's really good at the game. He's arguably one of the better supporting all-stars of a team and that's a fact. That's true.

Okay. I mean, he's not the best player on his team. He's a remarkably talented player who is the compliment to Jason Tatum. He's you know, a fan favorite in Boston. He's a needle mover in terms of wins and losses. There's no question about it. The Celtics needed him. Yeah.

I feel a butt coming on here. Best played paid player in the game. More than Jokic, more than Giannis, more than, I mean, that's the point of this. I know it sounds denigrating to him, but he played the market.

It's perfect. He's a super max. He can make that much. The Celtics are a team, the only one that could pay him that much and he got it from him. He gets to stay put where I imagine he's very happy there. But somebody is being paid $60 million a year annually to play a sport in the United States of America.

Anybody else? Not the best player on the team. Is there anybody else who's making a $60 million annual salary in the United States of America? Could it be a professional golfer?

I would say probably a race car driver. Maybe we're stopping that might be making that much. Jalen Brown, two salud, man.

I mean, that was pretty, and Tatum's going to beat it. That's coming at some point. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger is the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Last time we chatted with him, it was when he was kindly keeping both hands at ten and two driving the car that was taking himself and our colleague Tom Pelosaro to play golf with Ian Rappaport is from the NFL media group. My colleague, Mike Garofolo, back here on the Rich Eisen Show. How you doing, Mike? You know, when you talk about us, I'm doing great, Rich, how are you? When you talk about us all playing golf together as we're all sitting in three different locations, I know Ian's on the West Coast, I don't know where Tom is today, but I'm at Giants camp right now.

It just feels like somebody else's life, like, oh, wait, it's just a couple of weeks ago we were all playing golf together. Well, forget that. It's over. It is over, pal. It is over. Tea times are done at present. What's the mood in Giants camp right now, Mike?

A little bit of, it's a little mixed, right? Because they're happy, Saquon Barkley is back. He did not speak today. No shame the general manager did for the first time in a while, Brian Dable as well.

Saquon expected to talk in the coming days, but did not speak to the media today. So it's kind of, I don't know, bittersweet, right? Like he's here, that's great, there's no worry that, oh, he'll come in late in camp and maybe he won't be in football shape and he'll get hurt or something like that, like that's all been taken care of. He had a diving toe-tapping catch that he made in the side of the end zone today, so you see his ability and his importance to the offense.

But by the same token, he's getting paid less than what he should be. And I know that's the case for a lot of running backs these days, but all along the way there were contract negotiations and better deals that were on the table to be had and he didn't take them and now we're where we are right now, which is not to say that a long-term deal might not be possible after the season, but right now for him to be playing on $900,000 of incentives that, by the way, would have been more reachable in one of the recent contract offers that the Giants made that could have helped sweeten that potential deal, it's kind of, I think bittersweet is the best way to phrase it. Well, Joe Shane used the words, I'm at peace, when he said he tried, Saquon tried, I'm at peace with the way things are right now. We're assuming Saquon not talking today means he's still in search of that piece before saying a piece today. So what was the best, you know, or, and can share with us the actual negotiation sticking points between these two sides that could not result in a long-term deal?

Mike? Well, let's go back to last year at the bye week when they made their first run at it. And I remember Ian Rappaport and I reported on game day morning that Sunday, and the way that I phrased it was the sides felt that it was a good starting point, or at least Barkley's side felt that it was a good starting point for all season negotiations. Well, that was around, I want to say 12 and a half average per year, 12 and a half million dollar average per year at that time. And if his side felt like it was a good starting point, the Giants felt like, no, we just made a run at it.

Like, we're not just doing this to, hey, let's put a pin in it and come back. Like, when we negotiate, we're negotiating to get it done, and they didn't get it done, so they came back to the table. And there were varying offers throughout the offseason, 12 a year. There's one that even got up to 13 per year. Now along the way with these numbers that I'm throwing out, the guarantees weren't as high as Barkley and his camp would have liked, along with trying to go for a higher average per year. But then when we came down to the wire, now the Giants were at their lowest point of everything they had offered. It was around 11 million dollars per year in base value. There were incentives that could have gotten it higher. And at that point, when Barkley had seen numbers on the table that, again, were 12 and a half, 12, 13, now we're down to 11.

Let's get back to where we were. The Giants just wouldn't go there. My understanding, Josh Jacobs got an offer from the Raiders around 12 million dollars per year. Jacobs and Barkley were in communication that final day when the deadline had arrived. And my understanding is, if the same deal that the Raiders had offered Jacobs, Barkley would have taken, but the Giants just wouldn't go there at that point. So I gotta be honest, I was shocked that day that nothing got done, because the Giants were at 11, Barkley was at 12.

Really a gap that small, you're able to bridge it when the deadline approaches. And they just didn't get there, the Giants just didn't want to go there at that point. And it's stunning to me because Barkley had 900,000 in incentives this year, was not allowed to get them into camp.

So it's like, it really wasn't that far away. So I still remain surprised nothing got done at the deadline on July 17th. And then of course it doesn't help that, you know, Andrew Thomas gets 117 million dollar contract today.

And when I say help, I mean in terms of repairing any relationship that could be frayed by all of this. And just to finish the thought here, you know, I know the way you build a team is from quarterback spot and then the line. That's what you do. And that's what Joe Shane is doing, right? I mean with Andrew Thomas, Dexter Lawrence, right, getting these deals. And then, you know, Daniel Jones getting his, I just don't understand why you hold the line with somebody like Saquon or we had this deal, we told you if we pull it, we're not putting back on the table and we are sticking to that. And then, you know, the actual dollars that we're talking about that might be different is what, one eleventh the amount of Thomas's entire contract. It just, it doesn't compute is what I'm saying, Mike.

Yeah. And he's, now from a roster building standpoint, and they'll never say this publicly, and nobody's really necessarily stated this outright to me when I talk to them behind the scenes. I don't believe that Joe Shane in this current regime would ever draft a running back second overall.

I also don't believe that they want to pay a running back in the 10 million dollar plus range. But when Joe Shane takes this job, he's inheriting what Dave Gettleman had already kind of laid the groundwork for. And that's a player who is really good, number one. He's really popular inside the locker room.

He is a really good kid. There's certainly no question that they think that he's a outstanding individual. So now it's like, well, we got to kind of pay him, right?

But we don't want to necessarily go to a certain point. I know that after those deals that I talked about that were on the table were turned down, certainly the fact that they wouldn't go back there when the deadline approached tells you that they didn't want to go there in the first place. And certainly looking back, we're kind of like, geez, we really overextended ourselves on that one. So the positions you're talking about, Dexter Lawrence at defensive tackle, Andrew Thomas at left tackle, Daniel Jones at quarterback, those are certainly the ones that I believe that this regime, along with a bunch of other regimes, would love to pour most of the money and then figure out where the running back position goes, which the running back market and all those guys out there, I feel for them, but that's kind of the way it goes for most of the league right now. They also have a high price tight end. So I guess we'll just put a button on this Giants conversation by talking about, okay, bottom line is Joe Sheen does have Saquon Barkley and Cam and Daniel Jones paid and Thomas paid and they've got Darren Waller in the mix here. So what is the general sense of how improved the Giants are from last year's breakout, if you will, season to this one? We were about 20 questions into the press conference today when it was kind of like, oh, what do you expect from Daniel Jones in this offense going forward, which by the way, getting Barkley in the camp, that's great because now you have these questions for today and then whenever Saquon talks and then boom, you're moving on to a team that overachieved last season and feels like they can get going this year. Now when they brought in Waller, they kind of looked at him as a wide receiver, adding another downfield threat in a market where, listen, the wide receiver market and the free agent from a free agent standpoint was not the greatest this past off season. So to be able to add a guy that they feel was almost a wide receiver, they were thrilled about that and that certainly lends to Daniel Jones having to open up a little bit more. Now they're walking that fine line, and this was a big topic in the spring here when they were in OTA, they're walking that fine line of he's got to take shots, but he's also got to make smart decisions.

Well, sometimes when you take the shots, it's not going to be the greatest decision. So Daniel Jones and a Giants offense that we're going to see open up this season is going to be a fascinating watch early in the season. He's capable of making those throws and making those decisions. They were just schooling him last year to kind of keep it simple and shrink the field wherever they could to kind of play some smart football, because from a roster standpoint, they weren't where they expected to be.

Well, now they are. So they feel good about him and that's why they paid him. You know, everybody says, Daniel Jones, you paid him for that production.

Nevermind the production in the past, but you pay a guy on a contract extension. It's what you're expecting from him going forward and certainly they expect more from him. I mean, you talk about it Sunday night against Dallas, week two at Arizona, and then a Thursday nighter at San Francisco, home for Seattle on a Monday night at Miami, Sunday night at Buffalo, Washington, and then the Jets before visiting Vegas, Dallas, Washington, home for New England, then a bye. That is a heck of a first dozen weeks and everything you talked about fascination, right? You're going to see it nationally televised against big time opponents. You know, the Jets Giants game, my goodness, week eight is going to be a total, you know, New York media festival, certainly since I'm assuming the Yankees and Mets will be long gone from the scene by week eight, just to mix sports. So that's pretty big, man. That's pretty huge.

No doubt about it. I deserve this. I deserve this. I live in Hoboken. I live in North Jersey.

Yes, sir. And I've been, I don't, I tell people, I don't root for teams. You know, I grew up an Eagles fan, but I stopped being an Eagles fan when I covered the Eagles.

You can't, you see that how the sausage is made, you're too close. It's tough to root. Anyway, so I don't root for teams, but to be in this New York market for the last decade or so, these teams could not be relevant and not only not be like, like before October, they've been out of it.

Some of these years, they've started a combined oh, and six or one. And so I, trust me, I'm reveling in the fact that both of these teams should be a good watch and a good, a good team to report on this year. Mike Garofalo, NFL Network, NFL Media Group with us right here on the Rich Eisen Show. You and a rap sheet broke the news about Herbert's contract. What leaps out to you about Justin Herbert's contract and how long do you think he'll be the highest paid player in the league? Could be hours, could be days, but Joe Burrow is going to jump him eventually for sure. We'll be into the mid-fifties at that point, which is crazy.

I tweeted this out last night. It was just six years ago. I mean, you can go back and say, well, 10 years ago Aaron Rodgers was at 22 a year. Six years ago, Derek Carr was at 25. And now we're more than double that. And Joe Burrow looking to stretch it into the mid-fifties. So yeah, what surprises me or stands out to me, I should say, about the Herbert contract is the sheer size of it, because this is not a guy who's very, I'm going to say this and everybody's going to say, you've got to be kidding me, he's not a very materialistic guy. He's a very simple guy.

So through the whole thing, it was like, okay, well, Justin may just say, all I need is so much. How much money do I possibly need? Well, you've got people around you, whether it's financial advisors or agents, let us do our job. And let's make sure that you're not just allowing this money to burn a hole in your owner's pocket. Like, it's your money. You made it.

You deserve it. Now, do we want to do some things to help keep your team competitive throughout it? Certainly not a Patrick Mahomes decade-like deal, and I know that these teams right now, when they have their franchise quarterbacks, are all starting the negotiations with that thing. Hey, look what Mahomes did, and look at the flexibility that he gave the Chiefs moving forward. So it's not quite that, and it's half the length of that deal, but the Chargers still feel like they've got enough flexibility despite the fact that they're doling out 100 million dollars, 100 million dollars to Justin Herbert in the first new year of the contract. That's pretty good. As Tom Pelissero pointed out, it's a little better than making four million.

So from four to 100, nice little raise. Exactly. And so Burroughs around the corner, right? And then what was it, just he was waiting, or what is going on with Cincinnati and Burrough on that front prior to the season? Yeah, the sides have done a really good job of keeping this one tight.

I do credit them for that. But Joe Burroughs got an agent in Brian Ayrall who will drive a hard bargain and will make it not contentious at times, but you're going to have to work for it as the team. So that's going on right now, and I do believe, from my understanding, they wanted to see where Herbert came in.

Because if you're the guy that's really going to set the top of the market, you didn't want to do a deal. Let's say you did a 53 and Herbert comes in a 52 and a half, and you say, boy, it should have been a bigger spread. So now that they have Herbert kind of locked in, they know where that bar is to clear. So yeah, I keep saying sometime before week one, he's not running out in the field without a contract extension, could be closer to today than that, but should be done in short order. Let's finish up with some running backs that are still out there.

I had Dalvin Cook on a couple days ago. He said the Dolphins never put anything on the table for him. He's got nothing on the table right now. He's waiting, is what he said.

What do you think? Because it's not just him, it's Zeke, it's Fournette, it's Kareem Hunt. I mean, my goodness, is there a glut of productive running backs sitting ATC right now waiting?

What's the scoop here on that? And you're looking at one-year deals, teams willing to pay, let's say for a guy like Dalvin Cook, the number I've heard for teams on one-year deals is somewhere around four to five million, and then maybe you add incentives on top of that. Now if you're Cook and you wait, which I think is the right move right now, I mean, what's the rush?

I go back to a couple of years ago, I think it was their first preseason game when the Ravens lost JK Dobbins. He goes out there, he tears an ACL, and all of a sudden that changes things if you're a running back out there looking for a job. So I think that that's probably the best move for him now. Do you wait all the way into the regular season? That's something he's going to have to decide, because if you don't have one of those injuries creating a need, then what do you wind up doing?

So I'll be curious to see what happens if we're into the late August and he still hasn't jumped. Just for Zeke, to me, and I know folks tried to connect him to Tampa Bay, skip Pete is running back coaches down there, it just always made the most sense for me, in my mind, for Zeke to go back to Dallas, and they've certainly left the door open for that, so perhaps that's where that one winds up, Rich, but yeah, Cook is the interesting one, because he's definitely got tread left on those tires, and in the right situation, boy, he could see a little career renaissance. Does Belichick and the Patriots bite in any of these guys?

What do you think? Yeah, they brought in Fournette, and again, they're not going to spend a whole lot at that position, so I think they're still in the market for sure for a running back, so maybe they wind up tapping one of these guys. Last one for you, I'll ask the question to you that I asked Pelosero when I spoke to him last day. The people that you talk to, your ear to the ground, your phone burning up, the team that nobody's talking about that the rest of the league is talking about having a good 2023 is filling that blank, if you don't mind, you got one? You asked me, and I said the Packers. Oh, that's right, you did say that.

People still think, but I want to give you another one. The New Orleans Saints are the team that everybody says, the combination of the schedule, right, it sets up really nicely, they play obviously the NFC South in their own division, and then I think they play the AFC South, so that's the kind of team that really could fatten up its record and almost play yourself into the record. I've seen the Eagles do that both times they went to the Super Bowl, it was kind of like, oh, you start to get so many wins and now that builds your confidence and you believe what your record is almost kind of that way. So I could see the Saints be in that team, and I know from a talent standpoint, the way that they're constructed definitely impresses some folks around the league, and they're higher on Derek Carr than the average fan is as well, so that's the team. I gave you the Packers, and maybe they sneak into the playoffs, I'll give you the Saints as a, not sneak into the playoffs, but maybe go deep into the postseason, I'm really bullish on that. Then that week three Saints at Packers game is huge in your mind. For me?

Yes. This is about you, Mike, this is about you, we heard about before about the Giants and the Jets, and I'm just throwing that out there, that week three game, it's got a lot on the line that maybe others might not realize. I'm gonna have to ask for that assignment for game day, Mark. Fantastic. In the meantime, let's chat again, greatly appreciate it, good seeing you at the Summit the other day. You got it, pal, thanks for having me. You bet right back at you, that's Mike Garofalo, check him out on Twitter, a must follow, I follow him, you should as well.

Check him out where, Rich? On X, sorry. Don't get it twisted. Put up the Saints schedule one more time here. Okay.

That was kind of interesting. Alright, so let's just throw this out here. Their first game is against Tennessee, the new DeAndre Hopkins offense with Henry and Tannehill and everybody thinks that Tennessee is ready to be pushed over, you know, but take your heart pills and buckle up, that's the Sunday first game against the Saints, there you go, in the Superdome, then they're at Carolina on a Monday night against the new confirmed QB, one of the Carolina Panthers as of today, Bryce Young, at Green Bay, okay, Jordan Love just game three coming in for Jordan Love, home for Tampa, at New England, at Houston, home for Jacksonville, at Indiana, at Indianapolis, home for the Bears, at Minnesota. Compare that to the Giants first six games, 12 games, the Jets first six games, eight games.

How many wins you see there, Rich? I mean, what, again, the issue is with this and what you will find later on when we have you play the Dallas win-loss game for the Cowboys schedule is we're just looking at that schedule through the prism of last year and just also baking in Carolina's gonna have a rookie quarterback. Put that up one more time if you don't mind, I mean, Dennis Allen in that defense, I know he's the HC, but he's a defensive minded head coach, he's got, look at the quarterbacks he's taken on, Tannehill to start, rookie at Carolina, Jordan Love, defacto rookie at Green Bay, Tampa, Baker Mayfield's first month as the quarterback there, Matt Jones in his rebound from the quick game F and sucks season, and rookie Houston in CJ Stroud, there's then on a Thursday night short week home against Trevor Lawrence, then rookie Anthony Richardson, then Justin Fields' second season at Minnesota. Carson's is the first vet that they're facing, first guy with like, you know, 10 years of neck up, pre-snap ability. At Atlanta, it's gonna be Desmond Ritter's first full season, then there's Jared Goff, another vet, Carolina, young again, then they've got Daniel Jones at the Rams, we're assuming Stafford's healthy, you wanna talk about 10 year vet neck up ability, Baker and then Atlanta again, so it's not like they're facing- A murderer's role. Or at least some veteran quarterbacks that can really, you know, maybe give them trouble, like you named all those quarterbacks out there, how do you think the Saints feel right now facing those quarterbacks? I mean with that defense that they had led by Cam Jordan, you gotta suspect- How do you think Cam Jordan in particular, if I had him here, and as you know, he's human sodium pentothal, he cannot- Tell a lie. He has very little filter, how do you think he feels, do you think he's like- He's probably- He's sticking a napkin in his- He's tying a napkin around his neck right now and sharpening up the knife. Yeah, bam, kick it up a notch.

Let's go. Yeah. Especially with these rookie QBs, you know that's gotta make his eyes just blow out. That's what I'm saying, that's why maybe Garofalo is saying, hey don't sleep on the Saints, that's why USA Today has them winning that division at 9-8, same record they have the Cowboys in 2023, we'll get that later on, see how I'm working it, I'm working it.

You love that so much. Hey man, Peyton Manning's got an issue with the quarterback series. Oh really?

Yeah, people tapping out on turning it down like it's hard knocks. Wow. So we'll hit that coming up here on the Rich Eisen Show, we also still have Josh Allen talking about his relationship with Diggs and Diggs talking about his relationship with Allen, trying to put this thing to bed before training camp even really begins. Joe Banner on the latest of the running back and quarterback markets as well in hour two, Tim McGraw in studio hour three. Are you currently enjoying the show on the Stitcher app? Then you need to know Stitcher is going away on August 29th, yep, going away, as in kaput, gone, dead.

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. There's somebody on Twitter and it could be Bob, at real underscore Bob Costas. Then you read the Twitter bio and you begin to think something could be up. How are you Bob? I'm good Rich, late last night and then again this morning when I woke up, dozens of texts, some claiming it must be real, some saying this can't be true and one said, this is the best indication that hell has frozen over since the 04 Red Sox or the 2016 Cubs, but I am here to assure you and everybody else that the fires of hell are still very much blazing because I am absolutely not on Twitter. They have taken the bogus account down and I began thinking, you know, what would actually, what would I have to do before I ever deigned to be on Twitter?

What, like binge watch the Real Housewives of Orange County, make a return trip to Sochi just for the nostalgia of a pink eye episode, star in a school to basketball or just for you, just for you Rich. Yes Bob. Make a special trip to the NFL combo, all those things will happen before I'm ever on Twitter. Okay, so this is the real Bob Costas, we can confirm that now. Twitter needs that. Oh my gosh.

Your son tweeted it out that this is not you. When I saw the first screen grab that Keith sent to me, one tip off should be, look, I'm a reasonably humble and self-effacing guy, but would I knowingly shortchange myself seven Emmys? You guys didn't even get the number of Emmys right. Exactly. I said that.

I said 21 seems a little high. You gotta pull a scam, get your ducks in a row. The great Bob Costas, back here on our show. So the quarterback series on Netflix right now that is, you know, NFL films produced along with Peyton Manning and the Manning family's production company, Omaha Productions, and I do believe Mahomes forms his own production company in time for this, and this is the first such show involving his production company, which is, by the way, a terrific offer to a quarterback in the NFL right now. If you, A, form your own production company, you get a label and you get to hang your shingle out and you can start doing what Brady's done and obviously what Manning's done, your own production company, it's a content-driven business right now. Don't forget, Peyton Manning is the reigning Emmy Award winner for best game analyst and he doesn't go to the games. So this is what your future can be if you form a production company and obviously have the smarts and the people behind it and the content creation brain that clearly they have. So Mahomes said yes and so did Kirk Cousins and so did Marcus Mariota. I think that's the head scratcher for people. But what you want to do is you want to have guys in different varying stages of their quarterbacking career. The issue is, however, in this day and age is that if you say yes to this, now that it's out there, now that it's a hit and people are seeing it and talking about it and it is a terrific watch.

It's so much fun. No question. You're seeing Mahomes in a way that, you know, you always heard Mahomes has got that dog in him, he's got like that red ass in him, he's got that competitor in him, that type of Jordan type, Kobe type competition blood boiling through his veins and you see it. Oh yeah. It's there front and center.

Oh gosh, do you see it? And it does wonders for him. It also helped that he won the Super Bowl while doing it. And it's even helped Kirk Cousins, a lot of people have a lot of respect for him, a lot of higher register compliments for him like, hey man, I was watching that quarterback series and that Kirk Cousins, kind of, you know, I mean, I kind of like what he's been, you know. Hey, Kirk Cousins says he's tough, Rich. That helps, but that helps when his reputation amongst a lot of fans, I shouldn't say reputation, his MO from a lot of fans is that soundbite, one win in the playoffs against the Saints in overtime a few years ago in the Superdome and then the rest of it has just been a disappointment in a way that Marshall Faulk came on here when trying to talk about the running backs being underpaid and how quarterbacks are being overpaid used Cousins as the example and savaged him on this program. There's also a line in the series, Rich, about 1pm, Kirk Cousins against like primetime Kirk Cousins.

They even bring that up because that's part of his story. So now they're looking for quarterbacks to do it for year two and Jalen Hurts said today at Eagles camp, he turned it down and I would bet you they offered him the Mahomes role in it by like, hey Jalen, why don't you form your production company and you could do this and I bet you they offered the whole thing. And he said no. Justin Fields said last week he said no. Really?

Yes. Because for young guys from Mahomes to say yes, and I'm sure that's what greenlit it for Netflix, okay, what greenlit it is like NFL films saying we're in production company business with Peyton Manning and we got Mahomes to have a camera following around. Imagine that's the first sentence of your pitch. Will you Netflix actually start putting this type of sports programming on your on your on your platform?

Remember when you're a kid, do you like me yes or no, check the box. So I'm sure this again, I'm just assuming this is the way these shows get pitched and formed and sold in greenlit around this town when it's in business. So Hertz saying no and field saying no is them saying I'd imagine Hertz is like he hasn't done anything yet, even though he did get to the Super Bowl last year and had a remarkable playing season. He dominated in the Super Bowl. Right. And so Hertz saying, you know, he's not he's not going to do it is significant. And then Fields, because what if what if Fields is like having, you know, cameras following around year two. What do what what what does that give off to the guys in his locker room? Right, Hertz said, quote unquote, didn't feel it was appropriate.

Interesting. So in the same thing that you're seeing teams like we don't want the attention for hard knocks, some quarterbacks are sitting here saying. I can't sit here and say, yes, cameras follow me around in there in the locker room all year long. I mean, it's tough enough as it is, and I'm sure NFL Films is like, you know, we're we got through it with my home's won a Super Bowl last year doing it.

But I think you're seeing some quarterbacks being uncomfortable with this whole notion of having cameras. And I'm wondering who the three would be. Who are you going to get? Jordan Love would be one that I would I'd want to peg. I would want to see what he's doing all year long.

Obviously, Rogers, I don't think that's going to happen. Josh Allen, you got to get somebody up on that tier A tier A. So Josh Allen would be one to certainly follow.

He's just a dynamite human. He's great with kids, just following him around town in his life. I don't know if he wants that.

You know, Mahomes is married with a kid. That's a different a different ball of wax of who you're putting out there would borrow. Say yes to doing something like that. Yeah. Chris and I were talking about that a couple of days ago. That would be he'd be a guy you'd want for sure, right?

But Hertz would be it was a great choice. And he's like, he didn't feel it was appropriate because I bet you he's sitting here thinking I haven't won anything yet. Well, you won the NFC and you damn near won the MVP. So what do you think? His answer is not yet, I guess.

And feel like to see quickly, I just I don't know. I'd love to. Stafford apparently said no last year.

Oh, really? Because I'd love to see what he's up to. Dak would be phenomenal. Phenomenal. But does he have to throw in double digit interception saying it won't happen again? Want to have cameras following him around? And the answer is maybe because as he says, pressure makes diamonds, but from the outside end, it's just like, well, what is the season about you being chronicled or you not throwing the interceptions, whether that's a fair assumption or not. 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. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.