REShow: Trent Baalke - Hour 2

Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Eisen.

Voice of God. Live from the Rich Eisen show studio in Los Angeles. I still can't believe Aaron Rodgers is a New York Jet. The Rich Eisen show.

Which is really weird for me because most quarterbacks of the New York Jets want to get the hell out of there. Earlier on the show, NFL network analyst Steve Mariucci. Coming up, Jaguars general manager Trent Balkey.

From CBS's Young and the Restless, actor Eric Braden. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen show is on the air.

844204 Rich is the number to dial. Trent Balkey, the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars is going to be joining us in about 20 minutes time. I can't wait to chat with him. A man who's put together a defending AFC South championship roster. And took the steam wound up in the second round of the playoffs last year. So he'll be joining us to talk about all of that.

Our number three, the actor Eric Braden who plays Victor Newman in Young and the Restless. He came on, what was it, three, four years ago? We had him do some... Was that a while ago?

Yeah, it was a while ago. We had him do a Victor Newman style reading of famous rants. Sports rants. Allen Iverson's practice, right?

March of 2019. Dennis Green. Dennis Green, they are who we thought they were. So we've got three more now for him to do today with a celebrity true or false on top of it. It'll be a lot of fun in our number three of this program. We already just spoke with Steve Mariucci. Preseason football tonight.

Alright. Bailey Zappi looks like he's going to get the start. ESPN's saying Mac Jones will not start. And then if you look at all the reports from Patriots practice yesterday, it was Bailey Zappi getting all the snaps. Getting ready.

Come on, get Zappi. Here we go. Great. Starters aren't playing.

I know that. Obviously. Finally, confirmation from the Patriots that he's the starting quarterback.

But not verbal confirmation. Just like, hey, here's who's playing tonight. Yeah.

Starters are out. There you go. Bailey Zappi. Hey.

Who had a hot minute in 2022 to have Patriots fans chanting for him. Yeah. Mac Jones pulled right against the Bears. He was injured. Okay.

I mean, he had a broken ankle, basically, and he's trying to play through it. Let's give the guy some credit. I am.

I will. This is the absolute worst coaching job in the history of the NFL last year. I wish he just had the credit of his coaches coming out and just saying he's the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots. I mean, Matt Patricia made Nathaniel Hackett look like Vince Lombardi. I mean, the offensive coordinator. One thing I want to see from Bill O'Brien tonight is him able to stand upright and walk around without a limp because he contorted himself so much to avoid saying that Mac Jones was the starting quarterback when he was interviewed about a week and a half ago. He might have hurt himself.

About a week ago. So, you know, because the rest of the division has talked about who the starting quarterback is. Like, we know it's Tua, and he's even taken, what, Judo, Jujitsu? Something. Yeah.

Learning how to fall. I know. And we all know who the starting quarterback of the New York Jets is. He's the one behind an offensive line that... Can't block him.

Can't block for him. All right, here we go. I mean, I'm going to get that one ready.

I know we were planning on doing something else, but that's how we started the show. Already, just one practice in. And then today, the Jets had their own practice.

And when I saw that, I'm like, uh-oh. Did Salah just say, we're just canceling this whole business with the Panthers. We're done.

We're done practicing with them, because Rogers is not getting protected. It was apparently a weather issue. Oh, very convenient. Yeah. Because the forecast yesterday called for rain.

Figuratively, it was raining down. Poor blocking for Aaron Rodgers. Robert Sohn. What's your concerning level right now, offensive line, Robert? You know, my optimistic side will say, we got time. Dwayne's coming back.

There's still a lot of pieces. We've got some cards in our back pocket that we can use. But yeah, as a coach, you wanted it done yesterday. We want these guys rolling. We want confidence.

We want to start humming. But I also understand all the different moving parts and verbiage and new scheme. You know, Keith has a different style to the way he coaches and his technique. So there's a learning curve. So that part of it, I have empathy for and an understanding that it is going to take some time for them. But yeah, I'm a coach.

I always wanted it yesterday. There you go. Another reason why Robert Salah is so good is that he is measured. It's kind of like a Joe Torre way about him. Yeah. I mean, which is you never know how great it is.

You never know how bad it is. And he never yells. He's not a screamer. Even his speeches and hard knocks about crows on top of eagles are not, you know, let's have a GD snack type stuff.

You know, I kind of dig it. Well, obviously it works if you win. It's a very measured approach, because if you say the wrong thing, it gets blown up.

Like, say, letting it be known that your newly hired offensive coordinator is rankling the troops with his old school approach. If you hire Eric Bienemey to coach on your team, you are hiring somebody who is going to get in, to use the JB Smoove phrase, with Larry David. He's just going to open up and just get in there and wipe your feet and just say, Eric was here. Write it on Eric was here. And then he's going to get in that you know what. Just go look up that Curb Your Enthusiasm soliloquy that was apparently right off the dome by JB Smoove, as I've been told.

Full Leon, that's what you're getting with Eric Bienemey. And the players, I guess, learned it. And Ron Rivera said something about how players are coming up saying, hey, can you talk to coach for us? And the answer that Rivera was like, you speak to him, he's on your side. He's just a little rough, little gruff. And Bienemey had to go third person and explain to people, you know, this is who Eric Bienemey is.

But I'm also one of their best fans and biggest fan on their biggest fan. Tough to tell when somebody is expletive, deleting your yes, getting in that, you know, wiping his feet and spray paint. And Eric was here. So Ron Rivera had to make a couple with the media on Wednesday. We did. We talked about it. And it's, you know, and it was just I basically told him, I put my foot in my mouth.

I think what I said wasn't as clear as it needed to be. And I think the understanding of of it is just the fact that I think everybody's making, in my opinion, a little bit more than needs to be made of this, because, again, the results are what you're looking for on the field. So far, the last couple of days have been outstanding. I think Eric has done a great job of communicating his message. Now that guys, you know, have opened up, talked with him, he's opened up to them. It's been it's been a great bit of growth the last couple of days that guys are starting to have the aha moments. That's why we do this. That's why we want that. Okay.

Look, it's it's it's a sign of the times as well. I think I was seeing that I had I had an old school boss when I my first job out of college Staten Island advance. The editor, his name was Les Troutman, and he would smoke in his office. And he never, ever, ever, ever complimented you ever. Never once. Now he would criticize it, he'd pull you into his office, tell you everything he did wrong.

Never once. You know, we would have a on a bulletin board. He would once a month give out, you know, called the big A awards for the advance is what it was. And if you were your name, like if you won the big A award like that was huge.

And it was never like to your face, it would just be typewritten out, pegged to the bulletin board. And that's how you would that's how you would get your once a month, if you were lucky to even get your name on it for one article you wrote. And it kind of got me ready for my career, that I don't, you know, it'd be nice to get a pat on the back. But don't expect it. It's your hard work.

And the pressure you put on yourself, and the standards you hold yourself to is what will get you through the day. It kind of taught me that. And then I went after three years, writing for that newspaper, I kind of had enough, I wanted to do this for a living. I'll be honest, I want to do this for a living, okay. And this is sports broadcasting, I want to do that.

And I went back to graduate school, after three years of being in the real world, and everybody else that was in my graduate class had just come from college, no real world experience, if you will, just academia and what have you. And so the professor in charge of the final quarter at the Medill School of Journalism, which was a setup in Washington DC, interestingly enough, in Washington DC, where our bureau was set up for a bunch of small market television stations that could not afford to have their own correspondent in Washington DC covering the local issues on Capitol Hill that are being discussed by their representatives in the House and Senate. And so they would hire us as the correspondents through Northwestern, and we would get real world experience, and they would get actual stuff that they would put on the air. So we would get stuff for our resume reel, and the folks that were putting it on the air would get reports from Washington DC. And the guy who was in charge of the bureau was named Lou Prado, diehard Penn State guy. And he broke his foot off in everybody's you know what.

And I was used to it. So like my first piece that I did for the Medill School of Journalism, Washington DC Bureau, was to cover, because I wanted to do everything with sports, it was to cover the Arkansas Razorbacks National Championship team, National Championship game, the Nolan Richardson 40 minutes of hell, Corliss Williamson. I went on Capitol Hill and watched that game at a bar with a bunch of Capitol Hill staffers from the local Arkansas, you know, for the senator staff and the House of Representatives who were representing Arkansas on Capitol Hill. And I did that piece for one of the bureau's stations in Little Rock. It went national. I don't know why they picked, somebody picked it up and it was on Good Morning America.

I don't know why they did it, but it happened and I thought to myself, this is great. Like I went national and my first piece for Northwestern, I don't stink. And I walked in the next day and Lou Prado ripped me a new one, like, what are you going to do next? Not even like, hey, good job? No.

What are you going to do next? Because that's the real world. Because you can't just rest on your laurels and a bunch of the students there complained about it. And they complained about it. And I think, you know, the school spoke to Professor Prado about his style. But it served me very well. Now, did you appreciate that type of? I could handle it because I had the real world experience of my editor telling me nothing positive, ever. Now my style as somebody who's now with us in a role of management, which I can't believe I'm saying about myself, I have a different style, but I can see what the enemy's doing.

And I understand that a certain maybe millennial has a problem with it. But this is my long winded way of saying the commanders hired somebody. This is not a leopard who has suddenly changed his spots because he's punch drunk with coordinator power.

This is Eric Bienem. And you know, Tyreek Hill took the coaching. Patrick Mahomes took the coaching. The cheetah tweeting out, no other coach has your back like EB. Take that coaching and get better. We all been through.

It's tough, but I promise you it will make you better. Yes. Jamal Charles added two cents. Remember the great Texas Longhorn?

I love EB. I know he coaches differently, but I know one thing. He can take another level though. You know, I mean, he, look, we heard he got on Adrian Peterson.

I know I've seen it, but it's not for everybody. And I think Rivera does say he put his foot in his mouth because he's letting what's going on behind the scenes out there. But to me, it's just like, you hired him. And you know, I know Mooch said, you know, you do go to him and just say, hey, maybe you want to take it down a little bit.

I don't know if I'd do that. Thing is too, my high school basketball coach used to just scream at us nonstop. And at a certain point you start to tune him out. You're just like, all right, man, whatever. Like you just sit there. It's just noise, noise, noise, noise, noise.

And then I'm going to go play. And so at some point you got to wonder if it's going south here in Washington, if it's not going the way in a positive direction, they're not going to fire the players. Well, the ultimate problem for B enemy, I think may not be as coaching style, maybe thorough in experience at the most important position in quarterback. How is Sam Howell going to perform? Maybe he's coaching Sam differently. I don't know. I doubt it.

I have no idea. But if, if Sam Howell has a problem with B enemy, you know, don't talk to the coach. Talk to Mahomes.

Now Mahomes said Andy Reid as well. I just might, I go back and forth on it, but it's just like, some people just can't take the hard, the hard approach. And I wouldn't have him change a thing. I wouldn't have him change a thing because you hired him and now he might be, you know, let him go.

You know, you can talk to him and say a bunch of people are, you know, Hey, I'm just letting you know people are knocking on my door. You handle it how you want to see fit. And then if week one, week two happens and it's suddenly going south, then you got to step in. Maybe. But you know, unfortunately I find it unfortunate what this is, is it's setting up the enemy for the fall, that it's his style.

That's going to be the cause of the problem. This is Ron getting ahead of it. I know you're always thinking it's like three dimensional chess with coaches, but I also just think sometimes coaches just, you know, are like players. They hit send too soon when they're in front of a live microphone. That's why Robert Saleh kind of like sat back when asked about his offensive line, you know, it's okay if you take two to three seconds to think about your answer. And I always appreciate coaches sharing, but I just say again, I had some really hard management early on in my career. And it definitely at the time was really tough to take. And if I had some ability to go to another coach or another editor and say, Hey, this guy is such an a-hole. I didn't. Might've taken that. I doubt it.

Different times we're talking about late eighties, early nineties anyway, but just let BnB be enemy. You hired him. Tell the guys to just, you know, bow up and talk to the chiefs who have won Super Bowls with this guy in a position of barking at him.

Talk to Adrian Peterson, who's going to the hall and see what he can do. There's a guy you hired, see what you got. This Washington team's last 18 games over the last two seasons. So clearly what was going on there was not working right. So make the change. You can't get any worse. Let's take a break.

Trent Baalke of the Jacksonville Jaguars calling in the general manager eight four four two oh four rich number to dial. Let's talk about AG one people, a new partner of the rich eyes and 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 to the bunch of products on top of it. So when you drink AG one, you notice an overall feeling of health.

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Drink AG one dot com slash eyes. Are you currently enjoying the show on the Stitcher app? Then you need to know Stitcher is going away on August 29.

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Apple Spotify or wherever you listen. Back here on the Roku channel, our radio audience is going to rejoin in a matter of moments. I prattled on a little bit with what's going on with Eric Bienemy in Washington DC.

So just I want to be as on time as I possibly can for the channel manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars. And again, normally I wait until the radio audience returns to bring in a guest, but let's bring in Trent Balke, GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you doing Trent? Good Rich, how are you?

I'm doing great. Did Parcells give you your start? I'm just trying to figure out who's the one who gave you a start when you were a scout with the Jets back in the late 90s.

Is that how you got your start? Yeah, it was with Coach Parcells and Mr. Haley at the time. And so did you know Bill at all? Like how did you get that role Trent? No, there was this long time scout Lionel Vitale was on the scouting staff there and he used to come into South Dakota State and North Dakota State when I was the pro scout liaison and we developed a great relationship and he had passed my name on to them and they had an opening for a Midwest scout back in 1998-99 and I was fortunate enough to get in with them. And so do you have a Parcells story or you were just not too high on the flow chart and never really crossed paths with Bill? Trent? Oh no, I still talk to Coach probably every once every two, three weeks. Oh yeah? Yeah, we've kept in contact, he's been a big influence in my career and certainly got me at my foot in the door through him and had the utmost respect for him and what he's done for the game of football. So do you know when the race goes off, wherever he's looking at a horse and avoid calling him at that time?

Is that how it works? Trent? Oh I say yeah, he's got a big winner right now, he had won four races in a row and I haven't checked in with him to see if it won the fifth race but if it did, he's got a pretty valuable horse on his hands. Okay, all right can you google that for me Chris and maybe we give Trent this information before the end of the video?

Yeah, let me know if he's won the fifth race in a row. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show with Trent Balke, the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars. So let's just jump right into this here Trent and what is the general mood there? I can only imagine it's great, Doug Peterson is as sunny as it comes and you had a great finish last year but just roll me through the general mood of Jacksonville Jaguar camp right now.

Trent? I think that the mood is very good, I think we just moved into a brand new facility, state of the art facility so we've got all the tools we need here to do some good things. I think there's a lot of excitement coming off of last year and coach and I talk all the time that last year's over, it's a new year, new challenges, new football team, even though there's a lot of the same faces every year the team's a little bit different.

So we're excited about the way they're working, the way they're coming to work every day, the attitudes that they have, it's a young group, it's a fun group, it's got a lot of energy and of course coach I think does as good a job as anybody in messaging these guys and working with these guys. Based from your perspective, when did things click? When did things take a turn? I know Doug mentioned the London game in which Trevor had a poor outing and took it to heart and he completely turned things around on the turnover front there, but I'm just wondering where you would peg a turning point last year to the momentum carried to this conversation right now. Yeah, I think it was kind of a transition throughout that stretch where we were coming up short and I thought coach did an outstanding job of messaging the guys and the guys believing in the message and they just never quit working.

You could tell that at some point it was going to turn, you didn't know when but you just felt that at some point it would get there. Coach mentioned the game in London and Trevor and how he had taken that loss to heart and changed some of the ways he went about his business, but I just think it was a young group that coach just kept the faith in and they kept the faith in themselves and they worked through it. Trent Baalke here on the Rich Eisen Show and your expectation level for Trevor Lawrence is for 2023.

Well, I think the sky's the limit for Trevor. You know, he's got all the talent in the world, it's important to him, he's really taken on a leadership role, it's the second year in a system where he's got a great connection with obviously the head coach and the coaches that work with him on the offensive side of the ball, he's got great faith in the skilled position players around him and the offensive line, I think the sky's the limit but there's a lot of work to be put in before we get there. Give me your favorite Trevor Lawrence story where, because again you've been around some quarterbacks that are difference makers, certainly arms and legs, Kaepernick's a good one as well, I'll throw his name out there as well, but give me one story about Trevor Lawrence where you're like, okay, this is a special kid.

You got one for me, Trent? Well, I think you go back to his rookie year and just all the things that he dealt with and the way he handled the media through a time when he was the first time he'd ever experienced losing in his career, in his life, and just the way he handled it. For a young guy to come into this league with all the expectations, the weight of the world on his shoulders, and to fail for the first time in his career, his lifetime, in athletics, in the sport of football, and just the way he handled himself. I think every day I was more and more impressed with the way he just came to work and never got too high and too low and I think one more story, I guess, Rich, would be you throw four interceptions in a playoff game and it's like water off a duck's back and he just battled back through it and it was like he just expected it of himself. I think you can learn a lot by watching a guy like that and how he handles adversity. Was there any point in that rookie season where you were concerned about his development stunting, Trent? I think no because of the way he handled himself and the way he handled just the setbacks and the adversity was just, you know, it taught me a lot, you know, just looking at him and the way he handled himself and so I wasn't worried about his development.

I knew it would come, you know, sometimes you got to go through some tough times to get to the good times and he showed that. Is there a plan in your drawer or anywhere in your desk knowing that Trevor's gonna come with a bag sometime next year, Trent, and say, fill it up? Is that part of your generally managing the situation right now? Yeah, I think that's an expectation that we're all aware of and it's going to happen sooner rather than later but, you know, we got a lot of ball to play this year and we'll worry about that when the time comes.

But you know it's coming, clearly, right? I guess the safe that would be to say yes. Well, I'm assuming that's why you won the Mega Millions, right, Trent? There in Jacksonville, the winning ticket was sold there, right? Was that part of that? Well, in order to win the ticket, you'd have to have bought a ticket.

I wasn't the winner but I live not too far from where the winner bought the ticket. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah. So you, I mean, not to rub it in but you could have, right?

It's entirely, let me ask you this question, had you won the Mega Millions, would you be on this phone call with me right now, Trent Paukey? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay.

This is too good a situation to walk away from. It's Trevor Lawrence and Doug Peterson and Shahid Khan for crying out loud and this facility, I can't believe I'm going to ask you this but I'm going to ask you this, I saw a photograph of these urinals that test people's, you know, hydration levels. You didn't even know what my question is. So is that really, so have you, I mean, does it work? Does it actually work? Yeah, it absolutely works.

I can't believe this. I mean, this so, so you're testing hydration levels based on somebody unhydrating themselves? Is that what you're saying, Trent? Like this actually is a metric that's used by the Jacksonville Jaguars for sure?

Well, I think that all trainers use it, they usually have just a color chart up there that tells you, you know, does your urine look like this and if it does, this is your level of hydration. Now that we got a little gizmo that does it for us. Okay, there you go.

Gizmo. All right. A new way of saying Jacksonville's number one is basically what you're saying, Trent.

Okay, I get it. Very good. So tell me somebody that you drafted that you're particularly, obviously they're all important to you, that you're excited to see out there in pre-season and what they can do based on what you saw and scouted, Trent. Well, it's interesting to see all these guys, I mean, at different levels, you know, you get from the first pick on through the thirteenth pick, we had thirteen guys that we drafted this year, we feel good about all of them at this point, you know, now they got to go out and Saturday will be a great opportunity to, in front of the lights, under the lights I should say, to show us what they can do in a game situation, but, you know, just want to see them compete.

Okay, very good. And then just your general sense of playing starters in pre-season play now or in this kind of new world with three pre-season games, an extra regular season game that won't be called extra for much longer, what's your opinion on that generally, Trent? Well, usually defer to the coaching staff on that, but, you know, Doug and I are on the same page there, we like to get the guys in, the starters are going to play a little bit in this game, you know, how much, one series, two series, three series, that's up to coach obviously, but we're going to get them out there and let them throw the ball around a little bit and then we'll get the young guys in. So Trevor's going to play or not, what do you think? Yep, he's scheduled to play as of now. Okay, and then just before I let you go, I asked this of every general manager coming on these days, the running back market, Trent, you know this is a major conversation in the National Football League right now and I'm sure you know you've got some special running backs right there, including one that was chosen in the first round with Trevor Lawrence, what's your opinion of the running back market and what people are saying is a market being squeezed unfairly?

Trent? Yeah, I think every situation's different, I think every team's in a different position relative to the cap and where they want to allocate their dollars, you know, we place a strong emphasis obviously, you know, we drafted one in the first, we drafted another one in the third, we got another one of our guys in the fifth, you know, we do put draft capital into that position, I think it's a position that's very valuable, you know, and why the market is what it is, I think again every circumstance is different, but we're going to continue to surround Trevor and our offense with high level, high quality backs. But it just seems that teams are obviously cognizant of the cap at all times, but more so when it comes to running backs and willing to overspend or spend market value based on what others are making for other positions, is it because you can use draft capital on the position and they do perform as well or close to as well as somebody who might be making 10x of what they're making as a rookie? Yeah, I think that certainly plays into it, you know, and again, you know, what they bring to the table relative to individual offenses and, you know, the injury history of the position, the length, the duration of their productivity in the league, I think all those things factor in.

You know, I was fortunate in San Francisco when I was there to have Frank Gore, you know, he was a timeless guy, I mean, 14 years in the league at the position, you know, certainly not the norm at that position, so I think the injury history of that position does factor into this thing and the length of time that they're highly productive factors into it as well. Well, Travis Etienne strikes me as a, got a great head on his shoulders as well. Has he walked up to you down the road saying, hey, the running back market is going to be, you know, is going to be expanded by me to look out or like, hey, what's going on? Has he spoken to you about this at all? Not at all. Not at all.

Okay. In fact, he's a guy that he's just going to come to work and do his job and he's going to let that thing play out, you know, he's in his third year, obviously the first year he missed, he missed the entire season with a foot injury, so last year was really his rookie year for us, so we're looking forward to what he brings to the table year three. We obviously brought in Tank and a couple other guys to help spread the wealth in that position group and keep guys as healthy as we can. And then the last one for you, Trent Balke, is I had a list of some of the top under the radar difference makers, people that are not being talked about significantly and how they can make a major difference for the team that's added them this year, and I mentioned Calvin Ridley at the top of the list.

What does he look like to you, knowing what he's looked like before in Atlanta? You know, I don't think Calvin's really missed a beat, to be honest with you, you know, we were pretty in tune with what he was doing in his off time, you know, knew some people that were real close to him and working with him during that time, you know, he's hungry, he's ready to get back to being who he was on the football field, and I think he's kind of picked up where he's left off. He's a tireless worker. You can tell it's extremely important to him to get his name back, and we're just pleased with where he's at and pleased that he's a part of the program right now. What are you willing to share about what you learned about what he was up to in his, as you said, down time, what did he do? We just knew he was training and training hard, you know, he was putting in the time when a lot of guys wouldn't have been, you know, and he was in the weight room, he was running, we were getting his GPS times, you know, what he was running and who he was doing the work with, and so we had kept a pretty close profile on him, knowing that there was a possibility we were going to make a trade for him, or try to make a trade for him. Trent, really appreciate the time, send my best to coach, he's one of my favorite people I've gotten to meet and talk to in the league, and thank you for the time, appreciate it, have a great preseason, we'll talk down the road.

Thanks Rich. You got it, it's Trent Baalke everybody, right here on the Rich Eisen Show, 844-204 Rich number to dial, here on the program, what'd you glean from that? I think they're ready to win. I think they're ready to win too, don't you?

Sounds like it. I think we're ready to see Trevor Lawrence become the person we all thought when we first saw him play at Clemson, and you're like, wow, this guy's going to be the number one pick someday, and he was only a freshman, and it was kind of his, almost his weird birthright in the NFL that he was going to be a starting quarterback and a superstar in this league, and you see the projections, you see all the fantasy stuff about Jacksonville heading into this year, and it's like, okay, this is it, it's go time for these guys. Travis Etienne proved that he's a really good running back, and Calvin Ridley apparently, just read Twitter, he is dominating camp. Yeah, he sure is. And it's go time. I think the only worry about Ridley would be, Chris, that he's only played five games since 2020, but like you said, according to what everyone says on Twitter, he's killing it.

I saw on a few Twitter clips, he has not missed a beat. Back running back, wide receivers tight end. Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk, Calvin Ridley, Zay Jones, Evan Ingram. As good as a group in the NFL. Don't you think? Absolutely. And I think too, if you look at the age of all those guys, man, they're all going to get a chance to grow together in the next four or five years. And that's why I'm, you know, if I gave the quarterback running back three wide receiver tight ends of other teams, you'd take this over most of them, wouldn't you? With the coach who knows how to dial it up, too. Yeah, I mean, you've got your Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and then I think there's no reason why Jacksonville can't be right there in the top five.

You can protect for them too? It's Brandon Sherriff. Of course, I just said three teams in the AFC. No, I know.

I know. I'm not ahead of them, but yeah. They have their own Josh Allen on defense? Josh Allen sacked Josh Allen last year. The bandwagon's full, that's for sure.

I think so, yeah. Jaguars-Lions Super Bowl, go. Man, I know it's not sexy on paper right now, but man, that'd be a fun game to watch. Can you put up the Jacksonville Jaguars schedule, if you don't mind, real quick?

Let's go deep down the Duval wormhole here. First up against Anthony Richardson, then at Houston, no, pardon me, and then at home for KC. I mean, right off the bat. Right off the bat. That's got to be, is that a late window CBS week two?

Let's see. 10 a.m. right now. No, that's a straight up. That's a straight up 1 p.m. Eastern. Home opener.

Look at that. Oh, of course, late window CBS that day, Jets at Cowboys. My apologies to Jacksonville and Kansas City, but that's home for Houston. Then they're in London back to back weeks. So Buffalo, that is a significant, by the way, disadvantage that Buffalo comes in and Jacksonville's already on London time.

They've been there. So that'll be, I mean, the Brits are getting a piece of filet mignon with Jacksonville versus Buffalo. That's a playoff game. And then they wrap up their season series with Indianapolis right away.

Also nice. Nice three wins in a row, possibly to end the season for Jacksonville. Well, again, I am not going to say Tampa, Carolina, and Tennessee all. And I counsel everybody, don't look at a season's schedule through the prism of the previous season.

Just don't. Invariably, one of the teams that you think is a dub in the final parts of a season is far from it. Honestly, how many people looking at the 2021 Bengals schedule was like, that's a win. When the Bengals come to town, that's a win.

And then Joe Burrow showed up and it's like, oh, okay. That's not a win. So I'm just counseling against that. Jacksonville's an incredibly talented team that finished strong with a good coach and a terrific quarterback and a defense that can put the scare in you and turn you over and take it to the house as they proved against Dallas last year. And the whole business of, can they do it? Can they not?

Do they have it in them? They're coming into the season saying, oh, we've got it in us. As opposed to the end of last year when, you know, the question was, can they just somehow some way win a division with the Titans collapsing? Different story.

Different story. Clearly, they're the class of this division with all due respect to Tennessee. I'm not sure why you had to bring Dallas up though, because they beat a lot of teams.

That was how they made their bones last year. I'm just saying, like you could have said, you know, they beat Houston 31-3 or, you know, hey, listen pal, you just didn't have to throw us in there is all I'm saying. The whole business of like, don't talk about us, but we're the varsity. Yeah.

You know, it doesn't make sense. We are the varsity. That's square.

That's square doesn't get certain. It's your damn act together. All right. We'll take a break. 844-204 Rich, numbered dial on the Rich Eisen Show.

Our three beckons with the great Victor Newman, Eric Braden in studio. It's time for kickoff and the Believe Podcast will get you ready for the new season. How do you live through this as a Detroit 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. End 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 podcasts wherever you listen. First one up, Herm Edwards on October 30th, 2002, after a week eight loss to the Cleveland Browns. Here is play to win the game as told by Victor Newman. This is great about sports is what's the greatest thing about sports is you play to win.

Hello. You play to win the damn game, right? You don't play just to play it.

When you start telling me it doesn't matter, get your ass out of here, then retire cause it matters. Well done. That's number one. Next up in October 16th, 2006, after the Cardinals blew a 20 point lead against the Bears on Monday night football. Oh man.

Dennis Green. They are who we thought they were as, as portrayed by Victor Newman. Bears are who we thought they were, you know, that's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, then crown their ass.

They are who we thought they were and we let them off the damn hook. Very good. Very well done. All right. Last one for you. I can feel it.

I'm glad that we got it rolling. Cause here's the last one. On May 7th, 2002, the famed practice press conference of one Allen Iverson as recounted by the man who plays Victor Newman, Eric Braden hit it. I mean, listen, man, you're talking about practice. Okay. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game.

All right. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. I know it's important. Yeah, I do. I do. I do.

I honestly do. But you're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice. You're talking about practice, man. Oh, we got more coming up too. We have got more coming up as well. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show Desk, furnished by Grainger, by the way, for supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger is the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just simply stop by please. 844-204-RICH, number to dial on the program.

Tom in Brea, California. Let's take your phone call. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the call.

What's going on? Wanted to chime in on this Be Enemy coaching style. Yes. I've been a manager of people for like 30 years or more, probably. And I went through three different kinds of styles. And I think it took a lot of learning and experience. When I was very young, my first managing of people, I was kind of like Be Enemy. You know, you got to be hard.

You got to be on them. You got to start yelling at them. And it didn't work. You know, I found that people started to resent kind of what Brockman was saying.

They just kind of like tune it out. Then I saw a movie. I know you guys like movies a lot.

We do. I reference them a lot. But I saw the movie Brewbreaker. Remember that movie? Yeah, sure. And he had a style that was more of, hey, you know, we're all in this together.

You know, I remember seeing him, you know, sitting there helping move product around or when the prison got flooded out and all that kind of stuff. So I tried that style. I said, well, maybe that's the way that I need to do things is be their friend. And so I tried that the next time I went to a different location and I tried doing that. And that didn't work either because they ended up just taking advantages of you. You know, they thought that you were just one of the guys. No big deal. You weren't a threat.

You didn't have any concern about worrying about what you might do because you're just a buddy. And that old phrase that you never go out and drink with your subordinates, you know, that type of thing. Right. And so what I've always found or what I ended up doing, and this worked the best, it's also the hardest way to do it, is that you have to adjust your managing or coaching style to the individual.

Yeah. There are some people that you just got to kick them in the butt. You got to yell at them to get them to go.

And there's some people that just need a hug. And that's the way that you motivate them and get them to go. And again, to me, the best managers, AKA coaches, are the people that will adjust their style to the individual. You have to understand what the individual wants, what motivates them, and then you change.

And you change and you do it per individual rather than just, it's my way or the highway or, hey, we're all in this together. Let's all be friends. And I appreciate the call, Tom. Thanks so much. And that's kind of the secret sauce.

It's just also just being a human and understanding as possible. We're going to have to see what it looks like on the field. Game on.

Washington, home for Arizona at Denver, Buffalo at Philly. That's it. We'll see in the crucible of a game.

Can't wait, man. But in the meantime, this is the conversation. And again, the reason why we're paying so much attention to it is because it's the coach who, you know, by all accounts, should have a head coaching job by now based on the fact that coordinators from highly successful teams get gigs.

Take a look. Both the Eagles coordinators got jobs. Matt Nagy from the role that, he's got the enemy's role right now.

And he's lucky to have that back after the fact that the Bears hired him from Andy Reid's staff. So Dan in Cincinnati, Ohio, you're on the Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Dan? You there, Dan? Hey, Rich. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, sure. What's going on?

I grew up in Western New York, I'm 60. You gotta put him on hold. I'm sorry.

But we'll get him back. Yeah. He's got something going on with his phone there. Sorry. I mean, this is a fascinating subject matter. It is. It's interesting.

You think it's a prism into what, Chris? Why he doesn't have a head coaching job? Or it's the head coach letting it out there, right? And also the head coach kind of being like, look, if this goes south.

It wasn't me. It's because my guy that I didn't bring in was a little too hard on my guy. If that's what Ron, and you know what I feel about Ron, right? Love him. He's also coaching for his job.

Hey, pal. Correct. They all are.

They all are. A new management team in. Oh, okay. Just because it's the way it's been done, normally new management teams come in and just because of the way it's been done is absolutely not a sacred cow at all. Any idea that's new is something we're interested in. And remember I told you the three things they should they need to do to start is put that letter in the newspaper and say, hey, fans, it's a whole new regime. Thank you for sticking with us.

We're open to anything you want to say us say to us. And I said, the next thing is get involved with the business community and hire somebody that knows how to build a stadium. Apparently they've done exactly that in the last 24 hours smart. And the next thing is to change the name. And is it anything to do with the Dan Snyder administration out? We're new in even if it means calling us team, the football team again, or anything else, except Redskins, obviously. And I'm, I've been somehow attached to some people tweeting out that they're, you know, putting a petition together to get the team to be named its previous name.

Once again, I'll just tell everybody that that is not happening. Yeah. So you could stop adding me, but you know, who would be included in the Snyder way ain't the way anymore. Every coach, every last one of them being evaluated. So if you're thinking that Rivera might be playing this three dimensional game of chess, setting up a fall guy, he's going to fall to the, that guy's going to fall to if it doesn't work out.

My opinion, Eric Breeden coming up, you know, I don't think that's, I just think again, sometimes he didn't, he say something about the quarterback situation once upon a time last year, didn't something happen? Yeah. Ron just likes to talk.

Some guys do, you know, and it just kind of get them in trouble, but wait, wait, no, I mean trouble. Like I said, we are, we're, we're, we're in that period. Like, if, if you don't want to get talked about, don't talk in like early June, early July or, or, or in the 24 hour period, right before preseason, this thing's going away tomorrow. We're overre, we could do an overreaction Friday tomorrow based on what happens tonight. Gladly, but it's been three days of it because there's nothing else going on.

So this, this be enemy stories in day three, because again, it's about the guy who hasn't gotten the job that we, that normally he should have gotten by now. And this may be something as well. Like an owner's like, do I want somebody coming in here, tearing people a new one? I mean, I don't know.

But again, like I said, this is a new millennial where, where some players are kind of like, what gives? I mean, you, you watch Hard Knocks every single year there, and mind you, it's a coordinator. It's not the head coach who uses language. Oh, I'm not saying it's language. I don't know.

I think it's just the way the language is being employed in your face. I don't know. I'm not there. All I know is that, you know, there's a bunch of Kansas City Chiefs who said, I was cool with it. Yeah.

And they're champions. Hour three coming up. 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's this dinosaur taste like? Um, it ain't chicken. It's like biting into a sinewy charcoal briquette. But chewy. That's disgusting. It sure is. Check out Arn every week, wherever you listen.