RE Show: Kevin O'Connell - Hour 1

Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, this is The Rich Eisen Show, right now, now, now, now, now, now, live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. It made me feel bad that someone who's accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure. I still had my fox hat on and not my coaching hat on.

I thought I was way out of line and appropriate and I think he needs to keep my coach's names out of his mouth. The Rich Eisen Show, today's guests, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, Bears general manager Ryan Polls, MLB insider Tom Verducci. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Ah, yes, welcome to The Rich Eisen Show live from Los Angeles, California. I'm your humble host back in the chair, greatly appreciative of Kirk Morrison and Mike Hill sitting in the chair for me last week. Good to have you back here with me and me with you here on the Roku channel, this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate. We also want to welcome in two new radio affiliates, the Blitz 1170 KTSB in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Talk Radio 1360 WKMI in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We want to welcome both of those two affiliates. Smart, smart of you to join us right here on The Rich Eisen Show. We are thrilled that you are part of us. We are also here for you to talk to us.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Thrilled that you're either listening to us on our podcast or potentially watching us on a rear, which is what happens on the Roku channel. Basically, we say hello to you on this Monday. How are you doing over there Christopher Barack?

What's going on? Rich, I'm great and I just want to let you know I'm not going to ask for a trade. Okay. I'm not asking for a trade. Okay.

I'm very happy with my situation and I'm not asking for a trade. All right, good. Still, you'll have to see me on my luxury bus later on. Good to see you over there DJ Mikey Diaz. I may hold out. I'm a running back. Good to see you guys.

Good to see you. TJ Jefferson, has the candle lit? Did you light the candle?

The candles lit. What these two don't realize, Rich, is if they die today, this show's still going to go on tomorrow. True. So what are we doing?

It's still going to go on. You guys. You guys.

True. You guys. Hey, here's the deal folks.

Jonathan Taylor's learning a very hard lesson in the National Football League. It's a leverage league. The people that he deals with are very into leverage. If they have it, they will use it. If they don't have it, they will seek it and potentially they might just do away with it.

It's rare if they have the leverage on you that they will not exact it. As you know, I love Jonathan Taylor's. For the first minute I saw this kid from Jersey run all over my Michigan Wolverines. I couldn't be happier. I was so happy for him being drafted in the NFL because not only did he deserve it, but that meant he wasn't playing for Wisconsin anymore. So that was great.

It was a win-win for me personally because the kid has got heart, he's got guts, he will run you over. But he found out, what a lot of running backs have found out lately, that the way to stop a running back in the National Football League is not a heavy box. It's not putting eight men in the box. It's an NFL owner. It really is just one individual.

That's it. Now you could say it's a group of individuals who have decided to not pay running backs. I don't think there is some sort of meeting when the members get together, as they're called, all 32 members of the NFL sitting around and going, yeah, we're going to collude here against running backs. I don't believe when Josh Harris became the new majority owner of the Washington commanders, hey, Josh, sit down.

Let's tell you about the first things first. If you pay a running back, you're going to run into 31 other very unhappy people. Here's the script for this season.

Here's the script for the season. And don't pay running backs. Don't pay running backs.

Doesn't work that way. But running backs have found themselves in a very, very difficult spot. Jonathan Taylor had a terrific rookie season in the COVID year of 2020. 2021, he leads the league in rushing. 2022, he was essentially your number one overall pick in fantasy football. We took him TJ. But as we found out last year, an injury marred campaign for him. Everything went sideways for the Indianapolis Colts. And one of the people to place the blame on that for is definitely the owner of the team. You know, I think Jim or say will tell you some impetuous moves were made.

But this one is not impetuous. This one is running backs in this league right now. If you are under contract, that is what you are going to get paid. In the rare situation, Saquon getting a little extra cash thrown his way.

But, you know, $909,000 in the form of three incentives that if he reaches, it'll be the first time he reaches the amount of rushing yards necessary in his career. For instance, hey, Austin Eckler, you want a new deal? There's sand.

You were invited to pound it. And before that sand is pounded, there's the pavement you need to pound first to go find a spot for your services that's potentially willing to pay what you're willing to be paid. And at that point, he does that due diligence, comes back, and the Chargers do him, I guess, a solid by giving him incentives on top. But long-term deals, I guess that's just for McCaffrey and Derrick Henry and everyone else can go find the sand and pound it. And Jonathan Taylor says he wants a trade. Okay.

Really? There's a rookie quarterback the Colts just drafted in Anthony Richardson, and it's clear that the owner wants him to start. And it does seem clear over the first few days of training camp, that is the plan. And he is going to start week one for the Indianapolis Colts. We're going to see three rookie quarterbacks start week one in Bryce Young and C.J.

Stroud. And Anthony Richardson is going to take the field against the Jacksonville Jaguars in front of Indianapolis Colts fans in week one. And many of them will have Jonathan Taylor jerseys on because, as you know, as we mentioned here many times, the Colts lead the league in fan base that wears jerseys of the team. So Jonathan Taylor wants a trade. And I guess the owner, Jim Irsay, either that's what caused him to invite him onto his luxury bus that was outside of training camp.

He goes on the bus for an hour and they come out. And not only is this thing not resolved, but Jim Irsay texted my buddy Albert Breer that he's not going to trade Jonathan. End of discussion. Not now and not in October. Albert has since sent me the tweet. I mean the text, pardon me.

He texted me a screen grab of it. There is an exclamation point after October. That wasn't added for effect by Albert.

And I've seen it. Not only is he not intending to trade him, but he went, as his Jim Irsays want, deep. He went existential. He went celestial.

He went, he shuffled off everybody's mortal coil. That's how much he's not going to trade this kid. Or pay him.

Hit it. I mean, if I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor's out of the league, no one's going to miss this. The league goes on. We know that. The national football rolls on.

It doesn't matter who comes and who goes. And it's a privilege to be part of it. And now's the time for us to do our work.

It's now's the time as an organization. And players that are 24, 25 years old, now's the time to seize the moment of greatness. Or get paid. I don't blame Jonathan Taylor. He's on the fourth year of a four-year contract. Again, he was drafted in the second round, which means the Colts do not have a fifth year of contractual control on him.

Because if that happened, if they did draft him in the first round, they would have already picked up his fifth year option. That would have been done. Done. Done deal.

Forget it. This wouldn't even be an issue. Well, unless Jonathan Taylor wanted to get paid way earlier than expected. Again, his issue is running backs right now are not respected as big time, big paid players in the NFL.

We have had that established. The running backs are not considered wide receivers. They're not considered defensive ends, left tackles, cornerbacks, quarterbacks, wide receivers. They're not even considered, in the case of our second hour guest Ryan Polls, Chicago Bears. They're not considered tight ends. Cole Komet has a much better contract than Saquon Barkley right now.

That is the landscape. And Jonathan Taylor is going to be coming off of an injury marred season, two years removed from leading the league in rushing saying, I want a new contract. And if I don't, I want to get traded. That is just not going to work out for him. Certainly, we're after Ursay made these comments, out comes a report from ESPN that Jonathan Taylor reported to camp, complaining of back pain. And it was deemed to be from a pre-existing issue. And the team is now considering placing him on the non-football injury list, which could result in his not being paid for the regular season. They could just NFI their guy. Jeez.

Rushing champ to NFI? And so Jonathan Taylor, seeing this, then tweets out, never had a back pain, never reported back pain. Not sure who sources are, but find new ones.

As Florio pointed out, the problem isn't that you need to find new sources. It's that clearly the source is coming from within the House of Indianapolis. And if that's the way that they're really going to play it, this is a hard ball lesson for the youngster. Now, he has two options.

One is say, OK, I'm in. And then run a ball during practice and go, oh, my back. Yep. Pre-exists this. It just exists.

And it happened during training camp. He could do the he could do the he could do the Rodney Dangerfield from cancer. Oh, my own. My own. The doctor said it needed a bacchiatomy.

It feels like it's broken. Or he could just report and go crush it and know that his next option is to be franchise tagged by this team. And I also don't blame him for saying I want to get paid now, but Saquon didn't get the long term contract. Josh Jacobs still hasn't.

Come in from the cold, right? And he's going to get it. And again, I I understand he could sit here and say to Jim Irsay on the bus, hey, how many playoff games did Andrew Luck win for you? What was the grand total number of that? I think it was one or one or two. How many playoff games did Andrew Luck win for you, Jim? Now, I know I haven't won a playoff game for you, but you want to win playoff games with Anthony Richardson, right?

Oh, sorry. Luck was four and four. Four and four. He won four for you. He won five hundred. If it wasn't for the deflated footballs, he might have taken to the Super Bowl, right?

Right. Am I right, Jim? And and and what happened when he retired on you at the last second on the outset of a season? He owed you twenty five million. Did you collect that money, Jim? When you had the leverage to take it from him, did you take it?

You know what the answer to that question is? No, he didn't. He did luck a solid. He let Luck go off to Stanford and go do it, live his life for four playoff wins and a nice run. You let him have twenty five million dollars as a nice gift of retiring on you at the last second.

And I'm asking for maybe what do you think he's looking for? A twenty five million dollar extension? No. Like for two years, like would he take a two year twenty five million dollar extension being paid more than Saquon for two more years? Is that something you would like?

Honestly, I'm just trying to play along with the similar figure. You might want sixteen million a year like McCaffrey. And Jim Erce's response could be, hey, I run the team the way that I want. And in terms of playing hardball, my dad sent moving vans into Baltimore in the middle of the night and took the team out of town. You want to talk about history and the way things work in this league that will turn on and has turned on after my dad went? And shuffled off his mortal coil.

And when I go, we're going to. What a scene this is. And what it is, is they are messing with some of the most favorite players of some of the most ardent fans of the National Football League, fantasy football players. We're all like fantasy football players saying, really, he's not worth it?

And the answer back from the reality football general manager is like, no, they're not. And he's learning that the hard way. They're going to NFI him.

Wow. That is some hardball tactics. He's got no choice but to come in and play football.

He really doesn't. And go crush it and then fight your battle with a franchise tag and then call your union rep and say, what are we going to do? With six years left on a collective bargaining agreement, which it will be after this playing season. Wow. So much to talk about on this show. When I was out of the chair, Joe Burrow looked like his Achilles blew up, but they're saying it's not.

Several weeks out, I've got two cents to talk about that subject matter. Aaron Rodgers, QB, one of the Jets, and acting like it, like he's been there his entire career. I mean, he gave Peter Schrager the soundbite of the summer.

And and I don't even need to see hard knocks. That's the soundbite of the summer right there. And we'll talk about that overreaction Monday.

Your phone calls 844-204-rich number to dial. Ryan Polz, general manager of the Bears. I'll ask him about the running back market and his two cents on it. What's going on with the Bears? He got D.J. Moore in that trade for keeping Justin Fields. Hey, we're going to keep our terrific young quarterback. And for that right, we'll take D.J. Moore up the Carolina Panthers, too.

Check of a deal. Yeah, we'll keep our guy. And we'll take D.J. Moore and stick him with him. Looks good. I kind of dig it.

Looks good. And we'll we'll see what the Bears are setting up shop. Tom Verducci will call us the day before the trade deadline. The Mets have sent Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers. Is Verlander potentially next on the move?

David Robertson is now in Miami. The Mets are clearly sellers. Should the Yankees sell? And by that, I mean the Steinbrenner family. Oh, I thought you meant Aaron Judge. There's that.

I hate baseball. 844-204-rich is also the number to dial right here on Monday. We'll take a break.

Kevin O'Connell, the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, is next. Let's talk sleep number, people. My sleep number setting is 60.

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Check them out or sleep number dot com. Are you currently enjoying the show on the Stitcher app? Then you need to know Stitcher is going away on August 29th.

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Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. As you know, we're a people show here and we're we're a dog show here. We love people.

We love dogs. So this is one of my favorite tweets I've received in recent days. Did you see this one? I saw it last night. OK, this is from a viewer of our program named Alicia Taylor.

And I know I'm pronouncing the name correctly because it's phonetically spelled in the handle. Alicia, one of my dogs is very invested in rich eyes and safety because every time someone walks in the background of the rich eyes and show, he howls and barks as if to alert him of imminent danger. And here is the video that came with the tweet. You should believe the situation. We're watching Suspiria. What's Suspiria? I'm like, you're not going to like it, but I want to see it.

Did you get it? He's protective. He's protective of her choice. Oh, he's such a sweet boy.

Hey, are you protecting Rich Eisen? Fantastic. That's really funny. They call him Spud. Is that what it was? Spudly?

Yes. Do not mess with this dog, because if you mess with me, you mess with this dog. We need this dog here to tell the workers who always stand in the five foot square radius that places them right behind me. We need that dog here. Thank you, Alicia.

Thank you for that. Back here in the Rich Eyes and Show 844204 Rich is, in fact, the number to dial here on the program. Okay, let's get to our phone lines. Right now, he is the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Let's go right to it here on the program.

Kevin O'Connell, back here on the Rich Eyes and Show. How you doing, coach? I'm doing great, Rich. How you guys doing?

I'm doing fine. Is it true you are going to be one of the quarterbacks in the Netflix series next year? Are you now one of the quarterbacks to follow you around? When I went to the tryout, I thought I was spinning it around pretty good. Peyton walked over and said, Hey, who let you in here?

I think you're at the wrong place, man. I just missed the cut, but having experienced that through last year and having it be such a positive thing for our quarterback, there's nothing but positive things that I can say about it. I was really happy with the way it all came out.

What a cool thing for our fans and fans around our league to see what these guys go through day in and day out through the season, not only themselves but their families and everything in between. It was really something, but unfortunately, Rich, I don't think I'm going to get the call for that one. What would have happened if this Netflix was back in the day and they asked you to do it when Belichick was your coach? What do you think would have happened there, Kevin, back in the day? What would have happened? Like most times, I would have tried to direct that request to our head coach. It more than likely never would have been heard from again. Definitely at that time, Rich, not only in my career, but at that time in my life, I would have not have felt capable.

I don't know if Netflix would have quite the numbers they had on season one with using my career for the limelight into the NFL quarterback position. I do bring this up, obviously tongue firmly planted in cheek, but you, I imagine, had to have given the green light to this, right? Did Cousins approach you? What was your role in the green lighting of letting cameras follow your quarterback around all season? Your first as a coach? First and foremost, it was about figuring out what kind of access, not only did they want, but what we could provide. I did know we have a beautiful, unbelievable facility here with a lot of capabilities to help that process be what it ended up being. But my second requirement, just talking with Kirk, knowing him from our previous relationship and just knowing what people would be able to learn about him, I just wanted it to be a positive experience for him. I wanted it to be something that he could look back on and be happy that he did it, and any role that I could play in helping that, while ultimately being smart about year one of the Minnesota Vikings with me as their head coach.

That took priority, and we made some decisions on things we would allow or maybe not allow. And then ultimately, working with the folks that put together the show, they do an unbelievable job of communicating. They film hours upon hours of material, and then you get a chance to have some discussions with them once they've been able to cut that down and dialogue, just to make sure that it's authentic, it's accurate, and most importantly, I was proud of the season Kirk had. So when it was all said and done, I just wanted to make sure that that was reflected, and I can't say enough positive things about just the way they went about it. And then Kirk and his wife, Julie, and just their willingness to really open up more than just the quarterback room, more than just Kirk's preparation for games, but open up the door for fans to see what a family goes through.

Not only just a day in the life, but an entire season in the life of a guy that's been playing quarterback for a long time. So I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page, and in the end, like I said, I was really happy with the way Kirk was portrayed, because it was an accurate portrayal of what fans learned about him is who he is, and authentically who he is, and why last year was such a positive for him and I working together. Yeah, that was going to be my last question, so I'll ask it anyway before we move on to other matters with the Vikings. Again, I don't know how much of quarterback you were able to see, but that said, what do you think fans watching that documentary learned about Kirk Cousins that you already knew?

Yeah, I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing. I have seen all of the Minnesota Vikings and Kirk's parts in it. I just think it's really two things that are really hard to quantify in the world we live in with stats and fantasy football and being able to look at a stat sheet and see how a quarterback played. I think the two things are just his preparation, both from a football standpoint, what he goes through every single week to prepare to run our offense week in and week out, but then the physical toll. You'd love to sit here and say our quarterback's never going to be hit, our quarterback's going to be able to stand back there and just throw from the pocket all day long, but there's a lot of really, really good defenses and defensive players in this league. I think Kirk even said it at some point, maybe he is a little bit crazy, to week in and week out be back there taking some of those hits and standing in there with just staring down the barrel and throwing balls and finding JJ and KJ and TJ all over the field.

That's part of the requirement of playing the position. These guys know what they sign up for and to truly maximize what they can be from a skill set standpoint, throwing the football, there's got to be some real traits in there as far as your work ethic to prepare, but then when that ball gets kicked off and so much of the game is in your hands, regardless of circumstances, the quarterback controls everything and their toughness and their mental toughness to withstand all that goes on in an NFL game in that three and a half hours, I think that's hopefully what people saw and will come to expect out of our guy. I've got Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings here on the Rich Eisen Show. Everybody talking about the running back market coach in the NFL right now and headlines all popping. And the Vikings were front and center in this conversation a few weeks ago when Dalvin Cook, somebody of his remarkable production over the last few years, despite even a shoulder injury, released.

And I understand, you know, the money doesn't just sit around. I mean, Danielle Hunter just signed a big one year deal for you, which I'm sure you're very happy to have him. In the fold.

Why? Why did this happen with Dalvin Cook? Coach? Yeah, I think, Rich, it's one of those things, first and foremost. And I think Dalvin knows this wholeheartedly, just how much I care about him, what he meant to me in year one. Very few people understand just the type of leader that Dalvin Cook is, how he practices every single day, regardless of, you know, if he was dealing with his shoulder over the last few years. I mean, that guy shows up every single day and is a vital, vital part of a lot of the things we were able to accomplish a year ago.

And that's not lost on me. There's always a business side and an element to putting together rosters in this day and age. The salary cap is a real thing.

I know from time to time people like to talk about it as being something that's not, but it is an absolute real thing. And the decisions that Kwasi and our front office, you know, have to make year in and year out in regards to our roster, they're never easy. There's going to be some throughout our tenure here that, you know, you maybe don't feel great about.

And you have to explain that and articulate that. And then once a decision like that is made, Rich, you know, as I told Dalvin, I want to be there with him every step of the way. You know, even as he's trying to find his next opportunity, if he's got any questions for me, maybe a scheme question, maybe a, you know, hey, what do you think this would look like compared to that?

You know, I want to make sure I offer that up because there's a relationship there and the respect I have for him. And quite frankly, you know, the career he had here in Minnesota is one that, you know, he should be, not only he should be proud of, but I know all of our Vikings fans and everybody in this organization will always put Dalvin Cook in a place, you know, high up on the mantle of somebody that did it the right way and poured it out for this organization. And I have no doubt, you know, whoever's lucky enough to sign him for this season and beyond is going to get, you know, a really, really good player. And as you said, I do think he's healthy now, and I think people will get a great version of that player. So is Alexander Madison, in your estimation, ready to roll? Like, Bell Callum?

Like, is that the plan here? Yeah, I think Alex is, I think Alex, over the course of his career, when he's gotten some opportunities to, you know, kind of be that featured back when, you know, a couple, you know, various times when Dalvin maybe hasn't been able to go, he's demonstrated that. He's clearly, you know, a different style of a back from Dalvin Cook, but Alex is absolutely ready. He's off to a great start in camp.

He had a great spring. And we're really looking to feature him as that guy and allow him to get comfortable in that role for us while also seeing if we can develop some good depth and competition behind him to make sure we, you know, feel as good as we can about that running back room. Well, I mean, you know, and just so you're aware, Dalvin Cook had nothing but great things to say about you.

And you mentioned Kwesi, the, you know, the general manager of the team, Adolfo Mensah. And, you know, he did say, however, he got a sense that his time there was done during the playing season last year and said that the relationship of the run and the pass wasn't there all year. Do you have any sense of what he was referring to on that, Coach?

Yeah, I mean, Rich, there's, you know, there's a lot, there's a thousand things when you look back on last year. Me personally, the first thing that I always like to do is, you know, reflect personally and look inward of, you know, the things that I could control and the things that I did to try to help us win and some things that I could have done better. And that's every facet of not only being the head coach, but the play caller. And I think truly, you know, living day to day and speaking on our offensive philosophy, Dalvin knows this as well as anybody, that that's a big part of who we ultimately want to be as an offense and we'll continue to try to strive to consistently be that. But at the same time, in some of those moments when games are close or you've got to try to find a way, like we did 10 or 11 times that come from behind in the end and win a one score game, there were some critical moments there where, you know, we relied on our pass game and Kirk finding guys, Dalvin included, just like he did on, you know, against the Colts for that 64 yard screen for a touchdown, where the pass game had to thrive for us in those moments.

Each and every Sunday is different and you got to find a way to win a football game some days completely different than maybe how you drew it up, how you thought you would have to win that game. And I think playing complimentary football in all three phases, Rich is a big part of it, you know, showing some improvement and a little bit more consistency with Brian Flores running our defense and our special teams continuing to be a strong phase for us. Then we got to do our part offensively and we got to run it better. We got to run it more efficient and nobody takes more responsibility than that, than myself and our coaching staff. And that's what we're working towards throughout the rest of August as we get going here in the media training camp and preparing for our season. And then before I let you go, you mentioned Brian Flores, obviously defensively, you know, that will, he brings the fire and the intensity. There's no question about that. But you do have a remarkably special player in Justin Jefferson.

I'm not telling any tales out of school. You got a good story for me where you're like, and you can't choose the one handed grab against Buffalo. I will take that one out of the mix because that was like an alien that had life form on a football field. But you got one for me, coach, where you look at him and you're like, my God, he's a difference maker.

Honestly, Rich, there's probably a few more that tend to lean towards the alien category in my mind than just that Buffalo catch. But I think back, you know, there was a play the first time we played the Giants where it was one of our one score games. We were coming from behind to try to win the game.

We're down kind of in the high red zone area. And everything about the play that I called, you know, the ball really should have gone elsewhere, as he did for much of the 2022 season. He was facing a double team, kind of not to get too technical, but the corner was pressed, you know, had him pressed hard inside leverage where that corner's only job is to not let him in the middle of the field.

We're about the 15 yard line. So there's not a bunch of vertical grass for him to then get the safety from depth who's doubling him off of him. But he was able to release, get vertical. And then while maintaining his speed and explosiveness, he makes a move at the top of that route to then run an in-breaking route, which not only was spectacular, but then to finish the play, Kirk to have the trust. We're really, you know, on a chalkboard, you'd be saying, I can't go to Justin here, but he still gives him a look and puts it on him and Justin's able to score what essentially was the game winning touchdown for us. It was just, it just was a real good lesson for, you know, not only myself, but our whole entire offense that, you know, even when, you know, the chalk on the chalkboard should say that this is not possible, trusting and just doing things with an elite skill set like Justin has, no doubt. But he did it with such unbelievable technique, fundamentals, awareness, understanding exactly what he was selling the route off of to try to get open when he shouldn't be able to get in there. I remember saying to myself, and I think I told him when he walked off the field, that might have been the best route I've ever seen. He's unbelievable, man.

And you're obviously, you know, so, so lucky to have him, as you know. So I guess in the minute I have left with you, what's your message to Vikings fans? A little nervous that Cook just gets released. I'd imagine, you know, there were changes you mentioned on defense, which is so crucial. You won 13 games last year with Rogers in the division.

Now he's gone. What message do you have to the Vikings fans as you embark on the season, Coach O'Connor? Yeah, I would just say first and foremost, you know, we were proud of a lot of the things that we did a season ago, but it was just the starting point. And, you know, we're still building, you know, this year's version of our team, this year's version of what we're going to become. But we're doing it with the principles that allowed us to have success a year ago in a lot of phases of our team, while also understanding that it didn't feel good, you know, week one of the playoffs to be going home after hosting a playoff game. We have not allowed that feeling to be lost, and we know there's a long way to go, and we've got to earn the right to be back in that conversation to possibly have that opportunity again. But along the lines, we've started talking about the daily process being one of, are we living up to what we hope to be a championship standard?

Are we giving ourselves an opportunity to truly look ourselves in the mirror and say we've earned the right with that daily championship standard of how we do all things around here to feel like we're, you know, entitled to throwing our hat in the ring and trying to compete for a world championship because it's a long way away, but at the same time, it's so important that all of our guys, coaches, players, everybody in this building understands that is now, that now needs to be the standard if that's where we want to go as an organization, and no better fan base in all of professional sports to, you know, get to speak with through your microphone, Rich, because we got the best fans and they deserve that, and I know September 10th against the Bucks, they'll be right back doing their thing at U.S. Bank Stadium. Skoll, sir. Skoll, thank you for the time. Greatly appreciate you taking time out of training camp, and let's talk down the line. See you soon. Always appreciate it, man. Thank you, Rich.

Right back at you. That's Kevin O'Connell, second year head coach, defending NFC North champion, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings here on the Rich Eisen Show. Tampa home at Philadelphia, first Thursday night game. Allen Amazon in the house, home for the Chargers at Carolina. I can thank their Bears brethren to see Bryce Young in that uniform. Ryan Poll's coming up shortly. Home for Kansas City.

Oi, oi, oi. And then at the Chicago Bears for their first division game. That's the first six before the 49ers at Green Bay at Atlanta. That's the first nine games of the Minnesota Vikings. I think we're sleeping on that, man.

Well, Brian Floor is being in at Marcus Davenport wearing purple. So much lion stock. Dude, I know. I get it.

It really is, honestly. Can Cousins keep finding Justin Jefferson? Yes. Well, he didn't in the last two games of the regular season. And then that second time against the Giants, they weren't letting him beat him.

That's for damn sure. And they needed him. They fell down early in that one. Well, actually, they scored. Then the Giants hit him in the mouth multiple times.

And then that thing felt like a wrap. We got a full year now, a Hawkinson. That's correct. Jordan Addison is going to be there.

It is definitely 100 percent on Alexander Madison. I'm sorry, man. Oh, running back supposed to be fungible. OK, I get it. Until it's time to play the damn game. And then we will see. And then we will see.

Because when it's 20 degrees out and you're in Chicago or 20 degrees out and you're in Green Bay, although they're in Green Bay, you can't predict the weather anymore anyway. But they're still going to be throwing it. OK. I got it. Am I going to be the only one dying on this running back hill or what? I think so. OK. Maybe I'll be the last one. Last man standing. I like where your head and your heart's at. I know.

But we'll take a break. 844-204 Rich, number to dial on the program. Ryan Polz of the aforementioned Chicago Bears, the general manager of that team. Coming up an hour or two before hour three hits. We'll talk baseball deadline with Tom Verducci here live on the Roku channel in this Rich Eisen show.

Terrestrial Radio affiliate. This is a little early. I don't do lunch martinis. You're pouring a martini now into the martini shaker. I poured just a little in.

It looked like there may have been some ice in it. But you won't complain. Don't send the drinks back. We need to be all the olives are already in the glasses. Don't bruise it. Don't bruise it.

Some people at home. What about stirring? There's a great bar called the Edmond over on Melrose. They like to stir. I like that. I like to shake a little bit. So are you more like bond, shake and not stirred? I prefer I prefer actually bruising the vodka. Make it ice cold. OK. You know, I'm saying. Sure. These are vermouth wash glasses. We have a little vermouth in there earlier. OK. And then. Worn it out.

Why don't you take that one? This is my friend, Rich Eisen. Are we toasting? I just want to toast to you. Seeing you again. You want to toast the Aspen, correct? We're toasting to ESPN's 40th anniversary. There is a big event going on this weekend.

My invitation is probably where yours is right now. So we just figured, why not just do it ourselves? What a nice thought. You know what I mean? I haven't seen you in a very long time.

My arms getting sore. I know. Here he goes. I like to toast.

I haven't seen you in a long time, Craig. You know, I've been cultivating this caper to try and get you to come on this show. What if I only do your show? I'd love to just do that.

You're smooth and natural. Sold. I like Rich. There you go. I like Rich. Let me just see what this is.

The ice was sitting there. Cheers to you. Nice to see you. Nice to finally meet you. Cheers.

Cheers. It's watered down. Don't say anything. It's watered down.

But let's pretend it's not. This is what I say at a bar or restaurant, the big four up in San Francisco and Nob Hill. I take a sip. I go like this.

I go, this is the greatest moment of my life. Back here on our Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio feed. What did you think of that interview over there, Chris?

What do you think of that one over there? Interesting. Interesting.

You know, it's always interesting to talk to head coaches this time of year, you know, as we're kind of getting in the swing of things, training camp. Yes. You know, that one cooks criticism. Kind of fair that they were throwing a little bit too much.

How about him saying, how about Kevin O'Connell going, you know what, I know what he was talking about. Yeah. I think that's fair. Kevin O'Connell going, is that HC? Yeah. Nice of him to acknowledge that.

That maybe, you know, you get a little kind of wrapped up in things. They let Dalvin Cook walk. They let him go. Dude.

They feel like they can get similar or a little less than production from a guy at the fraction of the cost. I mean, the Bears. Ryan Polls is joining us. Devin Singletary. I mean. David Montgomery. David Montgomery. Right. David Montgomery is in Detroit.

Yeah. In the division. Detroit takes David Montgomery and sends DeAndre Swift to Philadelphia.

I guess I need to wrap my head around this a little bit more 21st century. Like, what? What's up with the running back? We need to see the season play out. Damn straight you do. And if it, if it becomes clear, Herbert's their number one guy there, but if it becomes clear that, hey, you know, these teams are right, then we're going to see a total rethinking of the position.

I really should, I should correct myself. Khalil Herbert is not the number one guy there. Justin Fields is the number one guy there.

Justin Fields ran for 1,143 yards last year. So if you got your quarterback doing that, but the idea is maybe to keep him from doing that. I think you look at what Baltimore has done, hasn't really led to playoff victories.

So let's, you know, let's change that mindset a little bit. Allen Dallas. What's up, Al? How you doing, Al?

How are you? Nice little vacation you had there, Richard. It's two days, Al. Give me a break. No, I mean, yeah. No, I mean, yeah. Nice. It's nice to show some of the pictures. Oh, I see.

I see what you're saying. I, I, I, I apologize. By the way, I was really good on this one.

I sent out like one or two. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't do a photograph of food. I didn't do any of that. I truly tapped out this time around. You're maturing. Not maturing. You're all grown up. Not maturing. I'm just sharing less.

Which is sad. You know, it's kind of like you're, you're, you're NFL management on the running backs. You're making me the a-hole. You're getting me off my game. Think about it, Al.

Saquon and Jonathan Taylor, two of the sweetest guys you will ever meet in pads and cleats. And they're like, you know, I should go F over my teammates. You know? That's why I'm a little surprised of your take on this. Look, you don't want to call it colluding.

That's fine. You know, the last two situations that they had was the Colin Kaepernick situation and Lamar Jackson. Right? Lamar Jackson ended up signing with somebody, but he wanted guaranteed money and nobody was willing to do it. I have a, like, if they're not colluding, Rich, the running backs franchise tag number is 5 million higher than a kicker.

That well, but let's, let's take this one at a time. First of all, the reason why Lamar didn't go anywhere is it was two number one picks two. And the Ravens would match.

You would basically be doing their work. It wasn't like he was in our free agent tour where you could just go and sign him. That's number one. Number two, you know, like, like what, what, I guess the Titans and the Niners got kicked out of that meeting about paying running backs. Is that what it was? Did they just, I don't know, I don't, but it just seems like, so you're telling me right now to, to make a, uh, for, for the benefit of the New York Giants, it wouldn't have behooved them to give Saquon Barkley a two year contract at $23 million or, or yeah, of course, dude, I'm with you.

I'm with you. But your guy, Joe Shane got him in and he's there and, and, and you know, and Saquon came in and agreed to those incentives. We had Joe Biner on last week. He said that maneuver guaranteed him being franchise tagged. Like he would have suggested Barkley stay out until the Tuesday before the regular season, just to, just to tell the Giants, you can't F with me next year if you're going to start to do it. But then also just one last thing, I'm looking, our, our, our buddy Greg Rosenthal, uh, of NFL media group, um, you know, he tweeted out, here's the 2024 running back free agent class.

Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Austin Ekla, Josh Jacobs, JK Dobbins, Tony Pollard. I mean, come on, like that's your lookout. Like that's the glut. And so general managers will end up, they're going to end up depressing each other's markets.

It seems like this is the only, this is the only position in professional sports where their salaries are decreasing. It is really, I mean, look again, I, I would not be surprised, would you be surprised if next year there's not some sort of, uh, it wouldn't be a class action suit because they don't have, I don't have like, uh, they don't have any antitrust or anything, but you don't think that there's going to be some sort of, uh, uh, lawsuit by these guys in an organized way? I don't know. I don't know.

Well, because it's not like that they're not, you know, able to apply their craft at all. They're, they're, as a matter of fact, like, you know, the Khalil Herbert's and Rashad whites and, um, you know, Alexandra Madison, they're going to get their shot. They're going to get their chance and we will see if it actually works out. You know, we will see if it actually, and thanks for the call out on the good shopping it up here.

We're going to see, aren't we? Look at that list though, that, that Greg tweeted out, who are you giving three years, 50 million to who's worth it with a guaranteed of 30 guaranteed to 35, you know what I mean? Or coal clump, uh, would you, would you, if you're a running back, take a four year, $50 million deal with 32 million guaranteed right now? Yeah, I would sign it in blood. Right.

Just got that from our next guest in six minutes. Brian polls will join us. Would you agree that Cole commit is more valuable to the success, future success of the bears than Khalil Herbert? Uh, certainly if the quarterbacks can run for 1,143 yards and needs a target that's easy to find.

And that's the argument now sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger is the right product for you call click Grainger.com or just stop by. Tom Verducci will stop by an hour. Number three, the baseball trading deadline is tomorrow. And there's some interesting options out there for teams like the Yankees, red Sox on the periphery. The angels made a big deal.

They made a couple. I mean, they can't quit CJ Chrome. They just can't in Southern California. And I mean, getting G Alito is a big deal. Yeah, that's true too. We talked about that last week.

Harvard Westlake's finest. Oh, and by the way, Randall Grichuk too. Yankees couldn't use him in left field.

Could they? All right. Our number two coming up here on the show, let me just say this. Back in the day, George M Steinbrenner, the third would go on a rampage when the Yankees lost on national television. Different times.

I get it different times. Last night on national television, the Yankees threw out a starting pitcher who gave up seven runs before recording it out. And then the offense struck out 18 times, just in case you need the math, there's 27 outs in a game. 18 of them were by strikeout. Start and pitcher gave up seven runs before recording it out. Offense struck out 18 times in 27 games as the Yankees lost to the young upstart Baltimore Orioles. Back in the day, somebody's ass would have been in George M Steinbrenner, the third's briefcase by the end of the evening. Hal's like, okay, my baseball people say Aaron Judge, who homers for 447 feet on a Saturday night after being out for six weeks, got to arrest him, got to arrest him. That's what my baseball people say.

Get new baseball people. That's the idea. I'm beginning to start to rally around. That's the idea I'm beginning to rally around. My buddy Jimmy Trainor has been planting that flag.

Forget about rallying around it. Last night is exactly the night there would have been a war path and blood on the streets of the Bronx, figuratively. But instead, okay, can we play the A's and the Royals again? Because those are the only two teams the Yankees are beating. Get the hell out of here.