REShow: Mike Florio - Hour 1 (8-8-2023)

This is The Rich Eisen Show. By the way, you know, the realignment with the Big Ten.

I don't think folks realize, live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles, that the Big Ten is going to a one big mosh pit of standings like the Big 12. Today's guest, prime video TNF analyst Andrew Whitworth, recording artist Jason Derulo. And now it's Rich Eisen. Okay everybody, welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show. We're live on the Roku channel everybody, which is free on every Roku device known to man. We are also on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio outfit. Sirius XM, Odyssey, our podcast, YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show is a nice backstop of anything you might want to see that you missed. The same thing with the Roku channel, channel 210, which is again free on Amazon Fire TV, select Samsung Smart TV, as well as the Roku app and the rokuchannel.com. As soon as we're done, we re-air.

And then there's a video on demand service as part of our relationship with Roku. We've got ourselves Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk joining us in 18 minutes time. We are two days away from the full-on preseason beginning. Zach Martin's holdout is still going on with the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones is digging in.

We've got different depth chart announcements going on around the National Football League, including an interesting one in Tampa, Florida, which we'll get to in a second. Andrew Whitworth, our friend from Prime Video, Amazon, a Thursday night football. He's here in studio, in person. Hour number two, we'll have a great football chat with him. And in hour number three, in studio as well, the author of this book, Sing Your Name Out Loud, 15 Rules for Living Your Dream, Jason Derulo will be here.

Love it, right. And you know, it's interesting, he writes this. What does he know about singing? His 78 million Instagram followers will tell you, if you don't already know.

Very talented man. He'll be here in studio talking about his book and his music and so much more. 844-204-RICH number to dial. Phone lines are already ringing. Gosh, I love seeing that already.

If you want to have a chat with us, and we have tons of time on that front. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman, how are you? Hey Rich, hey man, how are you? You went lime green today. I did.

Okay. Cage picked it out. Look who's there. Look who's to your left.

I'm back. I can't even see him, he's so tan, it's ridiculous. Tan, rested, and back.

You know, it's true. I just see a very tan Mike Del Tufo. Very tan. With your white Super Bowl 50 hat, and then your white teeth. And then your dark shirt, your NFL shirt that matches the Mike cover. It's just tough. It's kind of like... Mike, you're like... You're just a hat and teeth, he's a hat and teeth.

Like Polly Walnuts right now, like outside tanning. Rich, it's seven days a week until after the Super Bowl when we get back from Vegas. I hear you. So now we're all... Dude, we're using the talent. But I'm here working. Wait, so you're here now every day? No, no, no, that doesn't mean I'm here, I'm working every day. How are you, TJ Jefferson? Well, you know, Rich, 25 years ago today, I hopped on a plane in Pittsburgh.

Is that right? I took my first flight to LA to come visit. And my life has not been the same since, and it just got me thinking about it. Quarter century you've been here in LA. No, no, it was the first time I came to visit.

Oh, okay. And then I realized, okay, this is where I want to be. When did you first arrive in Los Angeles, California? I moved here.

As a resident. The day I got here, believe it or not, was September the 11th, 1999. And then, and you've been here ever since? Been here ever since.

Okay. And my LA anniversary was Sunday. 14 years.

How about that? My anniversary of coming out here is coming up. I got to look at that date. It was around October I moved out here for good. I was already out here for, you know, house searching purposes 20 years ago. Our first assignment... Oh, so this is your 20th? 20 years.

Nice. 20 years. I'm coming about 30. 20 years.

Wow. Of your, of your, I guess 23 years, 24 years of living here. 24 living here.

24, okay. Half of it indoors? In your house?

Rich, you just, you always love to say that like everybody that comes into this show and everybody that you see out the street say, you know TJ, do you think I earned that reputation by being in the house? No, I was outside, baby. That's why I stay inside now. I was outside so much.

That's true. My bad. I was in these streets.

My bad. TJ's in the clubs, streets. So yesterday, Chris, you had a topic that let off over Reaction Monday, the highly popular segment of this show that, by the way, we are going to bring to podcast form every Monday during the football season.

Get ready people. You and I'll chop it up and TJ, if you want to, you know, chime in every now and then you can. Thanks.

I mean, he's got nothing to say about the Cowboys during the regular segment. It's all right. It's okay.

It's all right. Well, Chris gets mad that I just don't fly off the handle with stuff, so you know. But your first subject matter of over Reaction Monday on this past Monday was Kyle Trask is going to start the season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because of all the reports of interceptions and training camp practices. And you know, that's a major problem because coaches don't like it when the ball just even hits the ground in a practice, certainly in training camp when it's beginning to have a road with rubber meeting it like this is it. And if you're doing balls hitting the ground and seven on seven or even on 11 on 11 and throws there and you're throwing it to your teammates, that's a problem. Although nobody ever sits here and says, boy, the defense looks good. It's always the offense.

Screw it up. The quarterback stinks. I was thinking that as you were saying that it's as if it's just practice guys credit practices just for offensive players and later on Andrew Whitworth is going to be in studio and he's going to I'm going to have him tell the story. He told me last week that I've mentioned not once but twice on this program since is that Micah Parsons, that the Cowboys have essentially had to pull him off the practice field so the offense can actually do work. I love it.

Yeah, you should. I love it. That he's ready. OK, that year three for him, maybe the year he takes a leap into the Hall of Fame status that he's talking about.

Right. But anyway, long story short is we're now trying to read into what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are saying here, what's Todd Bowles saying through his depth chart? Because the starting quarterback usually is just there's a one and then there's a two. There's a three. And, you know, depending on the time of the summer, there's a four. Or in the case of, you know, last summer for Jimmy Garoppolo at this point, he was five and there were only three in camp.

You look at their quarterback and you see two firsts, Baker, Mayfield, Kyle Trask. It's an or. There's nobody under two.

I've never seen this before. There's John Walford's three and I feel for John, like, can we at least move them up to two? Right. Like, we're leaving two blank. I'm sorry, John, you're beaten by a blank.

It's like match game. Oh, that's Tom Brady's spot, the two in case. I don't know. I say maybe.

But by the way, also keep it up on the screen. Do you see who's the an author? Unfortunately, you can't name it fourth on the wide receiver line that's at the bottom above the quarterback. See the name right there? Name of Cade Warner. Kurt's kid is tearing it up. Nice. By the way, in training camp.

And I hope he makes the team. But I mean, two players listed, I imagine alphabetically Baker, Mayfield and Kyle Trask. What are they trying to say here? What's going on? Trying to say they got zero quarterbacks on that team. They need to just tank right now. I keep trying to push back on your notion. I keep trying to push back on your notion.

And it's, it's getting increasingly tough to do that. But preseason games are coming and we're going to see it. And again, I'll repeat what I said yesterday, I believe coaches look at situations when it's a coin flip. When it's like, yeah, we'll just put two names in the coach. Who's first? Who's second? Who's third? Leave second blank.

Put them in alphabetical order, one on top of the other in the under, under the depth chart of who's won. Have the Patriots put out their death shot yet? Good question.

Because if there's anybody that would do this, if you told me any team would be doing this, I think it would be New England. Okay. Right. You know, because you know, Bailey Zappi will be the last one because he's the starter. Last name of the Z. The following depth chart is unofficial and compiled by Patriots.com staff.

Okay. So it's, it's, it's like the yellow line. It's the first and ten yellow line. It's unofficial. It has Mac Jones first, but you know.

And Belichick's just like what? Yeah. It's not official a team issue.

You guys, you guys in the internet and then internet tube offices, you take care of it. I think coaches look at it and say, all right, starting Baker, if he falters, we go Trask. And if that doesn't work, we go Caleb Williams, full Caleb. That's the way I see it. Not like Baker, you're here.

Now we're going to go with the kid, see how far we go and then throw you in. This team has too many veterans, too many guys from their championship squad to go ahead and throw them in the mix with Kyle Trask to see what he can do. I think because if that doesn't work out, Tampa's scheduled to start the season at Minnesota home for Chicago, then a Monday nighter against the Eagles at New Orleans in a bye. Let's just say Baker performs and flops on Broadway in a way that I don't think he will. The bye week is the time to make that change. That's the way I think Bowles has seen it. Wants to keep Trask in this mix.

Again, I'm not there. I'm not seeing if Kyle Trask is just tearing it up, but I don't think he is. This one fascinates me because in the same way when Andrew Whitworth comes in, he was in Rams camp and he's going to, I'm sure, talk about what's the number of rookies there? 36 is the number of rookies that are in Rams camp right now.

He might be the youngest team in the league. And so in the same way that you look at these youngsters and have to go for it because it's now time for all of the eggs in the Super Bowl basket from two years ago and then last year trying to run it back best they can until the wheels fell off the health wagon for them. This is the time where we knew it was coming. We all knew it would happen eventually. And this is what's going to happen with the Jets and Aaron Rodgers at some point. And it does appear that Zach Wilson is their off-ramp. He was the second overall pick of a draft just three years ago now, or three seasons ago, two years ago now, and we'll see how it all works out there.

But this is the time we knew it was coming. Tom Brady's gone and he's not coming back. You saw his Instagram post today?

I did. He was on a nice African safari. He's not thinking about the NFL. These zebras he's looking at are actual zebras. Not telling Ed Hockley, Sean Hockley stopped calling all the penalties through Twitter.

Not Dan Campbell or Jared Goff like real lions. Or Sean Hockley actually calling him for a penalty that, you know, or that he was complaining he was bleeding. And then he got called for the zebras. The zebras are actual zebras that he's seeing in the wild.

He's not coming back. This is it. So it's time for the Buccaneers to make this move here in a wide open division. So that's what fascinates me about this and the fact that I see a depth chart I've never seen like that. I've never seen that. This again, my 20th season in the NFL, I've never seen two under the column of one and then nothing in two. And then poor John Walford, I mean, he's battling a blank space right now.

Losing to the blank. It's bottom line. It's like, we're telling you, John, hey, John, it doesn't matter which one of these guys gets the gig. You're not getting second string.

I'm sorry to say, this is what it looks like. Tristan Werff's at left tackle as well. He's the one who's going to be protecting this guy and, you know, he was moved from right tackle to left tackle.

Did you hear him say that he needed to talk to, needed some mental help in dealing with the pressures of that? So a fascinating season, because if you don't mind putting that depth chart up one more time for me, please, Mike Hoskins, Evans, Godwin, Werff's, Jensen. And those are guys who are all guys from their Super Bowl winning team who are terrific football players. Cody Mauck, who's their right guard, a terrific draft choice. I mean, Russell Gage is no slouch as well. This is a team that can win some football games in this division, Rashad White getting his shot.

You never know with him. And of course, there's Cade Warner. Come on, give him a shot, Todd Balls. Here we go. Let's make a movie. Let's do it again. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. We will definitely take your phone calls.

Mike Florio is on the line. I went to the Angels Giants game last night with Coop. News took Zan, our oldest, to see Taylor Swift.

Our daughter is coming home from camp. So we split up. We divided.

We conquered. I cannot wait to tell you about my experience in Anaheim, California. Los Angeles, by the way, the Los Angeles Angels. Forget about my two-hour commute to the game. But it was a wild night. And seeing Otani up close and personal and seeing what the Angels did with Otani setting a record last night as well. Just makes you sit there and wonder if this is the last time we're going to see him in this stadium over the next six weeks. So we'll talk about that. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. Jason Derulo in studio hour three. Andrew Whitworth in studio hour two.

But Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio when we come back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk about AG1, people. A new partner of the Rich Eisen Show, a daily foundational nutritional supplement that helps support whole body health. And if you're like me, then it's so hard to keep up with a supplement routine throughout your busy day when it comes with a bunch of products on top of it. So when you drink AG1, you notice an overall feeling of health.

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Drink AG1.com slash eisen. 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. Okay so I took some photographs of the game last night. Giants at Angels, Angels Stadium, and the photographs I took were of the scoreboard and whoever was in charge of the factoids, the nuggets for the scoreboard, they were deep in their bag last night. This was for J.D.

Davis of the San Francisco Giants. Every game ritual includes eating a grilled cheese sandwich before every game. Sounds pretty good.

And I thought to myself, Ed, could you imagine, can you imagine if that was my ritual before every single Rich Eisen show? It'd be kind of early for that. True. Says the couple of the guys who, if I'm not mistaken, have brought some chicken in here around 7 30 in the morning previously. But that's like breakfast chicken. Yeah. What do you mean breakfast chicken?

What does that mean? Breakfast chicken. Breakfast chicken.

What do you mean? I mean the Chick-fil-A offers a breakfast chicken biscuit. Breakfast chicken. It's breakfast chicken. It's breakfast chicken. As opposed to dinner chicken. But it's, yeah, it's because you just. You put jelly on it.

So like that's pregame grilled cheese. And by the way, his next at bat, not that one, homered. And went very deep. I mean that thing went 431 feet. Did he hit it into the rocks?

He did. Straightaway center, into the rocks, boom, ball hit straight up in the air. Every single time a home run hits those rocks, I think of my drives that hit a cart path.

It's balling. Rich, is this your way of telling us we're getting like a breakfast bar in here now? Because that'd be dope, I'll eat grilled cheese in the morning. Just ask Susie, because she's the one who brings stuff for you guys. I just bring myself. Yeah, you really. She always brings stuff for you guys.

You lacking the bringing stuff for us department. I mean, you know. Compared to your wife.

All I'm saying is that I'm inspired by J.D. Davis now. And I took some more photographs of the scoreboard. That's not just the only one.

They were deep in their bag last night, no question. 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 has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. To have Mike Florio pro football talk, stopping back by again every single day. You can check him out on the Peacock NBC Sports on Peacock fast channel that we used to reside every single day, surfing off of the or drafting off of Mike Florio and Dan Patrick every single day. How are you doing there, Mike? Doing great, Rich. How are you today? I'm doing fine. Right now, I've put my guys, Chris Brockman and TJ Jefferson on the same designation on our death chart.

They're both ones. Thank you, Orr. That is just, again, I'm just inspired by what, you know, Todd Bowles is doing with his quarterback situation right now. Did you see that?

You put Baker Mayfield and also Trask Mayfield. And it happens every year, there's something like this. And, of course, they put out the death chart and then they say it doesn't mean anything. Well, then why are you putting it out? The league requires them to put it out before the preseason opener. They downplay it.

They say a PR person put it together. Well, it's at least some educated idea of where things stand. And, obviously, they don't want to tip their hand as to whether it's going to be Mayfield or Trask starting week one. The key, I think, is going to be the third preseason game. Bowles has been asked about that before, which guy's going to start that one. That's going to go a long way toward letting us know who's going to be the week one starter.

And that's the bottom line. At some point, you've got to get one of these guys ready. And the longer you dilute the reps, the harder it is for the guy who's going to have the job to be fully prepared for it. Well, I just thought to myself with a bye week at week five, if Mayfield for some reason doesn't perform well enough in the first four weeks and things are really taking on water, that's when you go with Trask after a bye. And if that doesn't happen, then bye-bye to everybody and in comes Caleb Williams' attempts. And then, you know, then damn the torpedoes as opposed to starting Trask and having Baker come in there and hold a clipboard, which is, I think, the demoralizing way to go.

I just don't see that happening, Mike, you know? He picked his shot in Tampa and he took a very, very low dollar contract. The Ravens reportedly were interested in him.

That was back when Baltimore didn't know what was going to happen with Lamar Jackson. And if Baker Mayfield loses this competition with Cal Trask. Now look, Trask was brought in ostensibly to be the guy who takes over when Tom Brady goes and now Tom Brady's gone, why would you need Baker Mayfield if Trask is developing the way you want? I think the fact that he signed Mayfield was interpreted by many as an indication that maybe Trask isn't what they need him to be. And if Trask is winning this thing, it's just not a good sign for Mayfield.

And you're right, too. Anytime there's a protracted competition like this, more often than not, the guy that wins it simply wins the right to be the first guy benched. It didn't happen last year with Geno Smith and Drew Locke because Smith was great from the start of the season and never let up.

But if you struggle, if you're teetering toward being out of playoff contention, if it's just time to see what the other guy can do, that guy that started the season number two is going to get a chance at some point sooner or later. So what are you hearing about the quarterback scenario in San Francisco and the ordering of the depth chart there, Mike? Well clearly Brock Purdy is the starter if he's healthy. And all indications are he's healthy.

Now they're not using him every single day, they're giving him time off, they're letting him ease into it. But anytime anyone is asked about Purdy, the response is positive and glowing and Purdy is saying all the right things, the question becomes, is it Sam Darnold or Trey Lance's number two? And 49ers fans get curiously upset when I say it sure seems to me like Darnold is going to be number two. When you look at all the glowing things that Kyle Shanahan says about Darnold, it started in the offseason, they were putting out the word that he's the most talented thrower of the football that the 49ers have perhaps ever had at quarterback. And there were some comments from Shanahan to Mike Silver, now with the San Francisco Chronicle that kind of compared, while saying I don't want to compare him to Steve Young, why can't he be another Steve Young? So I think it's going to go Purdy, Darnold, Lance when it's all said and done, but they're going to keep all three of them because last year they needed QB3 by the time they got into December.

And if any team is cursed at the quarterback position, it's the 49ers and if any team needs to have three that they feel good about, and I think at one point Shanahan was talking about keeping four on the 53-man roster, the 49ers are the team that needs more quarterbacks not fewer. You know, and I know, you know, I get the same thing whenever I say anything about Trey Lance on the old social media machine, and I understand, you know, if there's anybody who understands fans' comments on subject matters, it would be you, Mike. You know, but I don't understand the sensitivity about that because I'm not trying to stir anything up, and the stirring up normally would be, well, if this guy craps out, then the coach and the general manager who drafted him would be in trouble. But that is the furthest thing from the absolute truth with San Francisco, and if Lance doesn't work out there, then, you know, I mean, I had Daniel Jeremiah on yesterday say, you know, this is, he said, this has no insider information, just looking at rosters and looking the way things work out. He goes, if it doesn't work out for Lance in San Francisco, Atlanta would be a nice landing spot if Desmond Ritter doesn't pan out. I don't understand the sensitivity on the subject matter here, Mike.

I don't get it either. I think part of it is there are plenty of people who use their voice on social media but don't otherwise use their eyes and ears to listen and hear what's being said and aren't following it as closely as you and I do, so they're stunned by the idea that Trey Lance would fall behind the guy who was seen ghost against the Patriots on Monday Night Football and the guy that we just assumed is done because it failed for him in his first couple of starts and look at everything they gave up to get Lance, there's a certain organizational pride that goes into seeing Lance thrive, and you don't want to admit that your team screwed up, but they did. And they balanced it out by getting Brock Purdy with the last pick in the draft the next year. It's not like they're walking around saying, oh, woe is us, we made a horrible mistake with Trey Lance, but they did make a horrible mistake with Trey Lance, and that's okay. You can't wallow in it, you just move on, and I think the main reason he's still on the roster is as the third overall pick, the slotted rookie contract, as veteran backup contracts go for quarterbacks, this is a pretty good deal to keep them around at that number. They know they need three. They would trade him if someone blew them away. Let's say there's another Teddy Bridgewater torn ACL like what happened late August of 2016, and someone comes calling with a one and a four like the Vikings did for Sam Bradford when they were desperate to replace Bridgewater, then I would think they would consider it. But they know they need to have him around.

He's inexpensive, and he's got two more years before he just walks away as a free agent, and I fully anticipate that to happen unless they do trade him maybe next year in the final year of his contract. Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk here on the Rich Eisen Show. Jonathan Taylor getting work on his ankle. Is that the same way that Rodney Dangerfield needed work on his arm, or what's going on? Well, my arm, it's broken.

What's happening there? Yeah, the ankle got injured last year, and he had surgery, and then we had that dust up a week and a half ago about the possibility of him moving from the physically unable to perform list to the non-football injury list, the ankle that is clearly a football injury, the back that was supposedly injured while he was working out, getting ready for the season. So the best news for the Colts has been that everything has died down the last week and a half, and this is the first new item as it relates to Taylor since the last back and forth with Taylor saying he didn't have a back injury, and someone from the Colts, probably Jim Irsay being the one telling the reporters, multiple reporters, that they might put him on NFI and then reserve the right to not pay his salary. So they're hoping, and I said this last Thursday night on the pregame show for the Hall of Fame game, they're hoping that this all settles down and they want Taylor to be on the team over the long term. They just don't know what form that takes, and I think they want to reserve the right to go year to year, rookie contract finishes this year, franchise tagged next year, franchise tagged the year after, the numbers are very favorable for the team in lieu of a long-term deal that would pay him a lot of money because teams just don't want to do that with running backs anymore.

So they just want him to get healthy, to abandon his desire to be traded, and to realize he's in checkmate. That's the reality with most of these running backs, it's a bad system, but it puts them in checkmate. Saquon Barkley was in checkmate, Jonathan Taylor is in checkmate, Josh Jacobs is in checkmate but he doesn't care. The system is bad, the teams have the upper hand, and Taylor, the Colts hope, is going to accept that and go out and play football this year, have a big season, and then they'll decide what to do after the year ends. Well I mean, again, Daniel Jeremiah said if there's anybody who has leverage at the running back spot, he did say it's Jonathan Taylor, that the rest of the offense, that there's nothing else really out there that would scare you, although Anthony Richardson might show that he can do that. Zach Moss got hurt too, so it's just one of those many, many issues as to what somebody realizes is checkmate or not. There's Zach Martin as well right now in Cowboys camp, is there anybody out there do you think that might actually take this into a season, do you think? I don't think so, but you know, we can say that and then somebody does it. There's a knee-jerk reaction among many in the media saying, oh they're never going to miss game checks.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they will. Now with Taylor, he had leverage but the problem is when he showed up for camp, that dramatically undermined his ability to use his leverage. Chris Jones of the Chiefs and Zach Martin of the Cowboys did the smart thing, staying away now.

You've got some significant daily non-waivable fines since they're both on their second contract. Taylor could have held out at $40,000 a day and it could have been waivable since he's under his first contract. And you know what, maybe if you flip year two and year three for Taylor, if his most recent performance had been 1,811 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns, he would have held out.

Because I think that's one of the keys. When you understand it's a bad system for running backs, what you need to do is have a big third season and then make your play for your contract, whether the team gives it to you like the Panthers did for Christian McCaffrey after he finished his third season being the third guy ever to have more than a thousand rushing yards and receiving yards in the same campaign, or it's Ezekiel Elliott who holds out deep into training camp and gets a great contract from the Cowboys. Taylor just shouldn't have shown up if it was going to be ugly like this. That would have put more pressure on the team to do something to get him in there.

They hold all the cards now that he's there. He's limited in what he can do once he shows up for training camp. So I said this from the get-go, I said this the moment Jim Irsay took to Twitter and started launching Scud missiles about the running back position generally.

Taylor should have never shown up. Mike Florio here on the Rich Eisen show from Pro Football Talk as well as NBC Sports on Peacock every single day. So what is the story that we're not talking about? What are you hearing from people when you got your ear to the ground of what everyone is discussing that we need to talk about more? Mike, how about that one?

I went real macro on you. There were some interesting comments recently from Jamar Chase at the Bengals about his preference that Joe Burroughs stay out until he's completely healthy. And the headline was Chase says miss week one if you have to.

When you look closer at what he said, he said something about like as long as he's back after week five will be fine and it makes me wonder what does he know about the chatter in the building about how long Burroughs going to be out. If he wouldn't miss the first five weeks of the season, what does that do to the Bengals chances? I mean Chase seems to think oh it will be fine, but yeah you have 12 games left.

You're in a tough conference, tough division, you know one and four, two and three the first five games. I don't know what kind of hole the Bengals are going to dig for themselves, depends on what everyone else does, but that's a concern and there's been so much quiet about Burrough and his calf and his contract. And several weeks, what does several weeks mean? Zach Taylor said several weeks means several weeks. Well thanks captain obvious, but what is it that Burroughs going to miss and when will he be back and how good will he be when he comes back? Week one last year after he missed time after an appendectomy he had five interceptions against the Steelers.

So that's one that you know when you look at how many great teams there are in the AFC and we just assume the Bengals are going to be in the mix, that's one that is just odd and it's just kind of been forgotten, like that's a big deal. One of the best quarterbacks in the NFL isn't healthy right now and we don't know when he's going to be healthy and there's a chance he may miss time into the regular season. Yeah I mean when he said that I just, again when Burrough went down and they're saying it's a calf injury and it's several weeks, that's what Zach Taylor said, and I just thought to myself of Kevin Durant, I don't know why, it's just the most famous calf injury that turned into an Achilles, and I thought to myself they better, you know, better now than obviously week two when then the season drones on in a six to ten week thing, right, normally when somebody's out four to six you say four to six but the several weeks designation for me was an interesting choice by Zach Taylor and I guess Jamar's saying you know we rip, we started 0-2 and we made it to the AFC Championship game last year, we could do it again if it's a 1-3 or even you said 2-3 start. That's the way I looked at it and that maybe just take ten weeks off, it would be six weeks from the injury if he comes back week one and then the Cincinnati Bengals take ten weeks off and hope Trevor Simeon with everyone else can wing it around well enough to get through it. Certainly if you're not ready in week one, you know, Miles Garrett is the one who's showing up in week one, or he's going to Miles Garrett's building, that might not be the spot to give it a whirl, you know, Mike?

So I looked at it. I think about the soft tissue injuries, you think they're healthy and then you go out and you accelerate to your full capacity and you find out it's not healthy and it grabs and it sets back and he had a sleeve on that leg in the first place that surely wasn't a fashion statement by Joe Burrow the day that he pulled up and hopped around on one leg after he injured the calf and, you know, you mentioned the Achilles, they're all kind of tied together, like we don't know what's really going on, they have no obligation to tell us anything, they don't even have to tell us several weeks. They could have said, we have no comment, you'll see our week one injury report.

That's all they have to disclose. There is no injury disclosure obligation of any kind in the preseason. The first time we'll hear anything officially from the Bengals Wednesday of week one is they're getting ready to play the Browns and it'll be as simple as he practiced, he didn't practice or he was limited in practice and then we'll get the designation on Friday of out doubtful or questionable if there's a possibility that he'll go and that's it, that's all we're entitled to.

So I'm kind of surprised they said anything but you're right, several weeks, who the hell knows and when you get that whole calf and Achilles thing tied together, who the hell knows and that's the thing and this all started because what aren't we paying attention to I feel like we're not nearly paying enough attention to that. Mike Flora, a couple minutes left with our friend from Pro Football Talk here on the Rich Eisen Show, which rookie are you hearing the most about, like hey watch out for this kid he's dominating, he's doing this, he's doing that, which one is lighting up your text and your phone more than anything else? Well there's a lot of fascination about Anthony Richardson, I think the Jonathan Taylor situation kind of overshadows that Richardson is the guy with the highest ceiling of any of the guys taking a quarterback in this year's draft, he's the one that can be the superstar, Chris Ballard, the GM of the Colts has said it bluntly, if he ends up being the star, I don't want to be in the star for somebody else, I'd rather be wrong about him being a star and having him bust on my team and I'm paraphrasing that that's the message, I'd rather draft him and be wrong one way than pass on him and having become that superstar and I really do think the Seahawks would have taken him at number five if he'd have been there, I really do believe that, I was hearing that before the draft but the Colts get him at four and he's got that high ceiling and let's see what he can do and the other thing too, we were talking about this yesterday on PFT Live, I feel bad for Bryce Young because he's just in a tough spot, when you think of everything the Panthers gave up to get him, that puts extra pressure on these, the number one overall pick, they make this huge sacrifice to get him to give up receiver DJ more, they're going to start him right away, I just want people to be patient with Bryce Young, don't expect him to walk right through the door and have the same impact Cam Newton did right away, it could take time but they really haven't, I wonder how much teams think about this, they really have put him in a tough, tough spot, not just by making the first overall pick but by moving up there and making him this focal point, the face of the franchise and he's never done anything in the NFL and I hope he gets a chance to really settle in and perform and people don't put more pressure on him than the situation already does. What about CJ Stroud, I mean he's in an interesting spot as well, he's going to start the preseason, he's going to start, I mean Houston's going to throw him out there in their first games at Baltimore, at the bank, good luck, you know, that's going to be a rough one. But I think he's in a great spot Rich because nobody expects anything from the Texans so in turn who really expects anything from him, I feel like he's playing with house money. With Bryce Young, when you consider how wide open the NFC South is, and it's as wide open really as any division as I can remember, any of those four teams can win it, last year the Buccaneers were 8-9 and the other three teams were all 7-10 and the Panthers have a pretty good team, there's a lot of pressure on Young, with the Texans, they're the one team. If you had to pick one team in the AFC that has no chance of making the playoffs this year and watch they'll make the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl, but the Texans would be the team that most people would say, yeah they got no chance, and then maybe the next team out would be the Raiders. But the Texans are the one team that they've been so dysfunctional lately, Stroud, whatever Stroud does, you know, who cares, what do we expect, what kind of a team does he have around him? He's actually in a position to maybe surprise us because we don't expect anything from him. And he could get off to a good start and lay the foundation for the Texans to become contenders maybe as soon as next year, who knows. So again, just to bring it all full circle here, you think week one we'll see Jonathan Taylor with the Colts and Josh Jacobs with the Raiders and Zach Martin with the Cowboys and again, Jonathan Taylor's left the facility to rehab on his ankle off-site even though Coach Steichen saying, hey, we knew about it, so he's rehabbing, I mean that's weird man.

There's just no other way to say that he's holding out without saying it. So do you think this is going to eventually just land with everybody's in because they just want to make their money, is what you're saying. I'd like to think they'll figure it out with Taylor now if he's truly injured he still makes his money but he doesn't play and that's one of the realities here too. If you want to play football, and I think teams use that against players, they use their love of the game, their love of competition, their desire to play against them, whether it's big picture with the NFLPA or individually, hey, you ultimately want to play football, let's go play football. So I think of the guys you mentioned, yeah, look, I'd like to think Taylor will be there but who knows, Zach Martin seems pretty damn dug in and stubborn and Jerry Jones, we know how stubborn he is, who knows what happens there, I think Chris Jones will get a deal done with the Chiefs before the season starts, you mentioned Josh Jacobs, that's what we haven't talked about. Look, you get that $10.1 million franchise tender and I think when I look, and I know that some of the people cover the team will disagree with me, but when I look at the big picture and how this is all played out, I think the Raiders possibly are pointing toward just before the season removing the franchise tender from Josh Jacobs and saying good luck getting paid when the rosters are set, the money's been spent, the season is upon us and then Josh Jacobs is going to be stuck. If I were him, I'd take that $10.1, I'd accept that I'm a checkmate and I'd take that $10.1 because at this point you're not getting $10.1 from anyone else but he's so upset about what the Raiders have done to him by not picking up a fifth year option, forcing him to have a big year and then using the franchise tag instead of giving him a new contract, it's a matter of principle for him, he doesn't care about the money and I just wonder if he lingers too long and not showing up, do the Raiders wake up one day and say, we'll just take that $10.1 million and we'll spend it elsewhere and we'll go with Jameer White or sign Dalvin Cook or do whatever and just save that money. Yeah, I mean, they'd have to sign Dalvin Cook, one would think, if he's out there because Devonta Adams might revolt, you know, I mean, he's been very vocal, you know. But this gets back to the ultimate test of the running back position.

And you put another guy in who's a lot cheaper and he does, you know, almost the same thing as the guy he's replacing, that's where this whole problem came from anyway, the supply outweighs the demand, so you wonder at what point the Raiders are going to say, fine, we'll remove the tender and we'll save our $10.1 million. You the man, thanks Mike, greatly appreciate it. And anytime I could return the favor, you just let me know, please. Anytime.

Thank you, pal. Right back at you, at Pro Football Talks, Mike Florio, check him out every single day, PFT Live, as you mentioned, on Peacock, and follow, must follow, at Pro Football Talk on Twitter. I mean, Jonathan Taylor's left camp.

How weird is that? I'm leaving off site to go rehab my ankle. I've got to leave here to rehab. I mean, they have everything there. They've got the staff there, they've got his teammates there, they've got everything there. It's not like what, what needs to be left off, like, other than the fact that I don't want to be around you.

That's essentially the message. And you know, just trade him now. They're not going to trade him. Why would they trade him? There's no way to trade him. Because he doesn't want to play for you. Yes, he does. If you pay him, he will play for you.

If you build it, they will come. That's anybody, but he doesn't want to play for them. But if you pay him, he will forget it. Why would you pay him?

It'll be in the back of his head, like in the typical, like, I'll never forget it. But I'll run my ass off because I'm being paid in the manner and I feel respected enough. And I do love my teammates and I love the fans. And I'm not the a-hole that, you know, you're making me be. Sometimes you got to be the guy.

No, and that's what he's doing right now. Remember I said when this was all happening, I'm like the Rodney Dangerfield, ooh, my arm. I'm here. It's not my back. It's something I did when I was non-footballing. I'm footballing. And man, that ankle that needed, you know, medical attention last year, boy, it's acting up.

Just in time for the season. Isn't that something? But you know, the coach says it's, quote, part of his rehab process. If you don't see him out here, it's part of his rehab.

Okay. So basically what's happening now is the coach is having to answer all this stuff. The rookie quarterback doesn't have his best offensive weapon at his disposal. Their best offensive weapon is rehabbing offsite. You've got to play the Jacksonville frigging Jaguars in less than a month or a month from Thursday. And the owner's trying to free Willie.

Literally saving a whale. Well, Willie doesn't have a contract. And it's just wild. And we were supposed to have been past the last year's churning of constant non-football conversation.

We're supposed to be through all that. You got the coach from the defending NFC champs who made Jalen Hurts look, or help Jalen Hurts achieve his heights. Now you've got Anthony Richardson who can both run and pass. You need that. You need Jonathan Taylor. You know, you're getting Leonard back on defense. You know, you've got everything going in the right direction and then this, because you don't want to what, pay Jonathan Taylor?

Like find the middle ground and hit it because you don't have to? Okay. 844-204 Rich, number to dial here on the Rich Eisen show. We'll be back with what's going on in Baltimore with the Orioles announcer in a minute. It's time for kickoff and the Believe Podcast will get you ready for the new season. How do you live through this as an approach sports fan? Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams and many of your favorite college teams too. You solidified your defense.

You got better. Sideline to sideline. Zone to end zone. If you don't do those things, then you're not even trying your hardest to win at football and I don't know what we're doing.

There was a lot of great players on those teams that I was fortunate to be part of. Search BLEAV Podcast wherever you listen. Just a real basic question. What the hell were you thinking? What are you doing out there? You know, just tackling a challenge that most wouldn't do. I would say so. Why why did you do it? I just trying out my new bat booster package that I was working on this year. For me, though, is is literally like, would you rather live and die?

Would you rather die and never lived? So when I jumped to the first time, everybody started like cheering and yelling, I was like, OK, that's pretty cool. And then I did it the second time and I heard his word El Salvador, El Salvador. And I didn't know what that means. I left that one day and then I started hearing that through the streets and I was like, OK, whatever.

And came back the second day, did it again. And they stopped the music and everything. They just started yelling at in the stands to you, to me, like me now.

I'm a football player here in the States. Correct? Yes, sir. They don't know me from Adam House. Josh.

Josh Norman is not out there in Pamplona else. I get there. Yeah.

And they started sharing their name. So I'm like a hero in Spain almost. Not even back here. Let me. So hold on a second. This is bananas. Let me get this down so I can use this on on any host of shows this NFL season. El Satador.

Yes. It's like the jumper. El Satador. Like the matador, like the matador is like the jumper.

So I would love to just one second in my life to have the words El Satador chanted to me. YouTube dot com slash Rich Eisen Show for all of the Rich Eisen Show archives. We're turning nine years old this fall and thrilled to be coming up on our one year anniversary on the Roku channel right here back here on our program, eight four four two oh four rich number to dial. So I saw on Twitter yesterday. See Chris. Thank you. Thank you. I'm calling it the old name. You don't have to announce that you're calling it the name. Just call it the name.

Got it. If I did, if I keep doing that, that would be awful announcing well done, which is where I saw on on the old Twitter machine that the the play by play man for the Baltimore Orioles, Kevin Brown. His name has been suspended indefinitely. And I'm like, OK. And here's the video of his last appearance. Apparently, this is what he suspended for. And I I hesitated to click play. Because he looks like this young guy and I'm like, oh, this would be terrible if his career is significantly harmed here. And I watched the video of him explaining how the Orioles in Tropicana Field in Tampa has for the last several years struggled against the Rays.

By the way, join the club. Red Sox, Yankees, they've been equal opportunity abusers. And he starts explaining about how the Orioles have not performed well against the Rays who have dominated the series.

And then I keep waiting for the turn. Is he going to say something inappropriate, offensive? Is he going to say something about a particular race, color, creed? He says nothing except the facts of what's supported graphically on the screen about the Orioles having been terrible and have an opportunity to actually win a friggin series against the Rays, who I believe they were 0 15 and one in their last 16 series against the Rays. And that's what he gets fired for or suspended for.

This happened in late July. He really just pointed out that they had more wins this year against Tampa than the previous two years combined. And so it's apparently part of the Orioles ownership team that has had problems with them mentioning about past Oriole players who are not with the team. And there's an issue also of just talking about the past. Hey, listen, if this is the case from Orioles ownership, can I just address them?

What do you think? You've stunk. You've stunk to high heaven. But part of the reason of stinking, I imagine, was to get the high draft choices.

And guess what you've done? You've turned them into incredibly talented players and an incredibly talented roster that, do we have the American League standings? They're leading the friggin division.

Like can you live in being excited about the present? Can we do that? Can you, instead of focusing on parsing the words of your announcers, like you're Dan friggin Snyder, what's with the Mid-Atlantic ownership? What's with them?

Except for Beshati, who I adore. What's with, what's with, what, what's with the Angelos? I saw what this guy said, and if this is why he's been suspended, you're out of your minds. Leave the guy alone, put him back in the booth.

The fans clearly dig him. And he's just talking facts about how terrible you were, past tense, were. You're great now.

Can you focus on this one? You're beating the crap out of the Yankees. Aaron Boone got ejected again last night. He went nuts drawing lines in the dirt where the home plate umpire Laz Diaz missed a call and mimicked his strike three call. Like he's going to get suspended. The Yankees are in a pile of ash.

You're in first. Put your announcer back in the booth. Jeez.

Can you just, people just can't help but be miserable sometimes. The Boone thing was kind of funny. No, I, I, but he's, Boone has lost his mind and I don't blame him because the Yankees are circling the drain. And the Orioles are not. The Orioles are really good with a ton of really good players. And I'm even saying to you, as I'm watching the Yankees circle the drain, I would just take one of these kids that come out of the minors and instantly rake and change your fortunes and they keep having one after another after another, because you've stunk. For a decade.

Right. It's about how your stinking has actually led to decisions that you've wisely made to put a team on the field that is now performing well for a fan base that's excited to celebrate it. Not look at their screen and say, why are we suspending? Why are you suspending a broadcaster for what he or she is saying about facts? And again, I am just going by what awful announcing is saying, what's out there from people who are confirming Roy Firestone, by the way, confirmed that, that Kevin Brown got suspended for what he said on the air, got put on the radio, which by the way is a terrific thing and then got taken off. What are you doing?

Just enjoy winning, geez. For over three decades, nobody has had a wrestling career like Arn Anderson. Conrad Thompson gets all the stories with Arn. After watching AEW's Double or Nothing, Amy wants to know what does dinosaur taste like? It ain't chicken. It's like biting into a sinewy charcoal briquette. But chewy. Oh wow, that's disgusting. It sure is. And check out Arn every week, wherever you listen.