REShow: Matt Schneidman - Hour 3

This piece of filet mignon. The Rich Eisen Show.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I've identified these five teams. One of them is Miami. Would Denver do this? Do the Bears go for it? What about the Los Angeles Rams?

What about Dallas? You want to get Jonathan Taylor? The Rich Eisen Show. Earlier on the show, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith. Still to come, Packers beat writer for the athletic, Matt Shneidman. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with Jeff Passan of ESPN about what in the world is going to happen with Shohei Ohtani, his best guest, just a day after Ohtani blew out his pitching elbow, it appears, headed for Tommy John surgery. We also spoke with Jonathan Smith, the head coach of Oregon State football at a crossroads of that football program.

Tom Pelissero joined us from behind a medical tent in in Minnesota. As the Vikings are going through, as he said, one of the final interest squad scrimmages of the of the preseason. The Minnesota Vikings are taking on let me get this right here. I don't know I can't see they're taking on the Cardinals. Cardinals are apparently going to flip Isaiah Simmons to the Giants for seventh round pick. So Trey Lance isn't the only draft choice that was a first rounder that all of a sudden is changing teams potentially.

Anyway, if you missed any of the first two hours, it's going to re-air right here on the Roku channel as soon as we're done with this hour. Suzy Schuster sitting in Chris Brockman spot good to see you, Suze. Good to see you. Mike Del Tufo.

How are you Mikey D? Good to see you and TJ Jefferson in his spot and you're where you are at 844-204-rich being the number to dial. I've been fascinated by Jordan Love, because that is a major storyline going into this National Football League playing season. We talked about it with Steve Young yesterday and Steve said he knows a thing or two about backing up a legend. Well, not backing up a legend, but replacing one being the guy after the guy. Well, in Green Bay, he's the guy after the guy was after the guy. And you don't really want to be the guy after the guy and Aaron Rodgers proves you can actually be that guy.

I think everybody might have made sense on that front. So Matt Schneiderman of the Athletic joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show to discuss this and more. How are you Matt?

Rich, I'm a three time guest on the Rich Eisen Show. I couldn't be doing any better. I like it. Very good. Look at you. You're like Aaron Judge. You're going to hit three home runs.

Fantastic. So, what's the latest on Love? Is he going to play this weekend?

What do you think? Yes, he will play as will, you know, his supporting cast on offense and most of the starting defense will play as well. Matt Lapler was talking this morning about just needing those guys, this young offensive core to get as many reps as possible together and also their lack of energy, lack of focus, slow starts, whatever you want to call it in week one.

The last couple seasons kind of also factors into Lapler's decision to play his starters. Now, Jordan told us yesterday he feels ready for week one already. He feels ready for week one and beyond. Anything he does against the Seahawks on Saturday isn't really going to change how he feels heading into Soldier Field week one, but it's just another opportunity for a couple more people to come on the Jordan Love Band wagon baby. Well, I mean the first two preseason games have been for me enough that I need to see and to know that he is he's not struggling.

He's not trying to grasp things. He looks comfortable. What he did against Belichick's defense to start the second preseason game was, for me, all I needed to see. What what do the Packers need to see other than just him getting more live game reps to put him out there? You know, I saw the clip that your show account tweeted the other day and I responded to it with the gift from my favorite Christmas movie of all time Polar Express with a conductor of Polar Express saying all aboard because it feels like there is some momentum you know coming along here of people are starting to realize he might be a guy and I think what they want to see getting back to the original question is maybe for him to put together a complete performance and I understand it's you know maybe only three series max, but against the Bengals in his first series, he missed Luke Musgrave wide open on a crosser. He missed the screen to Musgrave and then he comes back and leads a touchdown drive. The next drive against the Patriots scoreless first two drives believe he started three for six. He played a part in a snap that the Patriots recovered on the first drive, but then he comes back and leads a 93 yard touchdown drive. So it's good that he's shown the ability to respond from slow starts, but maybe it'll be good to see him put together a complete three drives instead of starting slow, but the kid can throw the ball.

He can move. I mean I'm here at practice right now. I just saw the Packers run two triple options in like a span of five plates. I don't know what the hell they think they're doing right now, but it looks like Matt Lafleur is getting a little creative with a kid who can run at quarterback getting in his bag getting in his bag and what's it been like watching him operate when not on the field. You know I asked him yesterday if he's been able to maybe take stock in where he is the position he's in because after the first day of training camp, he was asked what kind of reception he got from fans and he said, you know, I didn't really notice that I was so locked in and I asked him yesterday at any point over the last three plus weeks.

Have you been able to take a breath and say you know this is pretty cool. I'm the starting quarterback. These fans are showing me love and he hasn't really been able to. I mean I have not seen anyone around here.

Granted. I haven't been doing this for as long as some other people on this beat, but his temperament his leadership nothing seems to rattle him and you brought it up earlier. He doesn't seem to panic on the field off the field. everything seems calm and who knows if he's going to be any good on the field, but all the intangibles the makeup how he's handling the pressure the expectations any chaos around him on the field.

It seems like all that stuff is going to set him up for success. Well, his first game at Chicago where he can prove that ownership of the Bears just changed quarterbacks right and then at Atlanta, which is breaking in a first time full time starter as well. He strolls into week three opener against New Orleans two and oh and then takes on Detroit on that Thursday night.

He'll be feeling the love in Green Bay. That's for sure if that happens and it's possible you know they don't play a team that made the playoffs last year until week eight and that's the Vikings through the Packers curb stomp here in week seventeen last season. They start with those teams you mentioned and then it's the Raiders on Monday night week five and they have a bye week six. Then it's the Broncos week seven and then week eight. It's the Vikings then the Rams week nine. So this is a very favorable schedule for the Packers.

The first half of the season now the second half. There's the Chiefs the Giants the Chargers, but you know there is a chance I'm not saying it's going to happen, but there's a chance the Packers enter their bye in week six at or in one three and two. I think would be successful, but if Jordan Love can not lose Packers games if he can do enough to you know keep them in it. I think he's going to be an above average quarterback.

They have the talent around him to you know not only win this division, but maybe make a run in a what I think is a week NFC conference. The Athletics match Schneiderman head of the pack podcast host and beat writer of the Packers right here on the Rich Eisen Show and one of the reasons why I thought it was set up for Love to succeed this year is last year with Rogers and the young receivers and the conversation around that even if we were half right about it. Love is a contemporary of these kids and might have spent more time in certain practice situations with these young receivers and now we might see the fruits of the labor right there. Am I off close?

What do you have for me if somebody who's on it on a daily basis? Yeah, I don't think it can hurt certainly how often last season did we hear Aaron Rogers say you know guys are missing routes. They're not breaking out of the routes at the right time. These young receivers don't know what they're doing now. I'm paraphrasing there, but yes, we kind of heard the same thing on hard knocks this week when Randall Cobb kind of gave that speech to the Jets receivers about what Aaron expects now.

I'm not saying Jordan doesn't expect that, but there isn't that monstrous gap between what the quarterback knows and expects and demands on an everyday basis every minute from his decades in the league to what the receivers can do. You know in years past, they've been able to kind of mask that gap with the Davante Adams, Allen Lazar, Jordi Nelson, Randall Cobb. Last year they weren't able to because Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs were their top two guys.

With all due respect, Allen Lazar. This year, everyone's kind of learning it together and I think there's something to be said for that. Now I don't know if there was immense pressure on the Dobbs and Watson's last year to say, oh boy, we need to live up to what Aaron's asking or else he's going to get mad, but there's something to be said for letting the kids all figure it out together. Whether it's chemistry wise, energy wise, or maybe it's just easier for them to learn it all without the aura of number twelve here standing over them, but by all accounts, it's gone well so far for those two positions. Speaking of hard knocks narratives, how are Packer fans dealing with Rogers living his best life and apparently being invigorated by the youth as opposed to potentially chafing because of the youth?

How's that hitting cheesehead nation? Yeah, the response I've seen is that they're letting Jets fans have this honeymoon period because they think Jets fans are going to realize here in a little bit that, you know, it was honeymoon period for the Packers too and then he got mad at the receivers and he started getting angry and all this stuff, but listen, anytime you have a bad breakup with an ex and then you see them go on to be happy, it's never great. So I think it might be a little insecurity from Packers fans, but there's only one number they care about and that's sixty-five and if Aaron Rogers plays 65.01% of the offensive snaps this year, I don't think they'll care much about how happy he is on hard knocks.

No, I hear you. That means a first round pick goes to Green Bay. Is it really a bad breakup with Packers fans or just with, you know, with Gudekunst and the face timing and all that sort of stuff? Really? Yeah, it's definitely more so with Brian Gudekunst, but I think Packer fans feel that Aaron should have done it in a more gracious way.

I don't know. I will go to my grave. Now, he didn't tell me this specifically when I spoke with him earlier this offseason, but I will go to my grave thinking Aaron wanted to still come back to the Packers and finish his career and it was the Packers who pushed them out and then Aaron, after he realized he was on here, kind of then shifted his perspective to, okay, I want to go play for the Jets. Now, I'm going to make it seem like I wanted to play for them all along. So, I think that kind of twist from him, which he kind of had to do to not make it seem like it was just a one-sided thing. The Packers pushing him out. I think that has maybe rubbed Packer fans the wrong way a little bit, but as we talked about last time I was on, I think all will be forgotten in however many years when he comes back here and his jerseys retired and there are 80,000 or some odd fans filling Lambeau Field cheering him on and, you know, time heals all wounds and I think they'll remember all the good he did for this franchise someday. Dude, Favre used the Jets as a transfer portal to get to the Vikings to get back at the Packers and they, the Packers and Favre, still got back together in Lambeau Field.

You know, and I know I guess money might talk on that front too, but come on. I mean, the Packers flew down to Favre to offer him his actual locker back when he thought they were coming to offer him his job back. That's how bad that breakup was, Matt.

That was way worse. And so this is nothing compared, like literally the Favre breakup is holding the beer of what we're talking about right now. You know, so when it all comes down to it, though, I'm just wondering like here's Rogers going to Broadway.

Here's Rogers going to Taylor Swift. Here's Rogers, you know, smiling and talking about staying here for a while and handing things off to Zach Wilson and here he is talking about how young this team is and how that has reinvigorated him and I'm just wondering how that hit Packer fans. You know, it just is. I think the Green Bay loyalists like to they have a lot of pride in what there is to do around here in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

I'll put it that way. So I think a couple of us when we saw Rogers gallivanting around New York City, I think it went to a caution. That's just because there's that stuff to do in New York and not here in Green Bay.

So maybe that's why, but going back to your point about how different those breakups were. I mean I wasn't here in 2008 for Favre because this is only my fifth season covering the team, but I mean Aaron got booed at family night their their big scrimmage inside Lambeau Field during the season and Favre was in attendance this year. Jordan Love gets resounding cheers when John Coon is interviewing him on the field after. So just in terms of a fan reception point, it was not only more contentious, but just awkward back then and this time it seems like there's a lot more energy and fan support going love's way, which has to feel good for him and I think it just speaks to the fact that the fans too were ready to turn the page on the Rogers era. Maybe not like they were 15 years ago.

Okay. When when Mahomes comes to visit Green Bay in week 13, are they going to put his wife in the last row of Lambeau Field now that Love's taking over? Is that what's going to happen? Like a little turnabout? Mahomes' family is in the top row? Jordan Love's mom and his his girlfriend back in Arrowhead. They were closer to touching the Lord than they were to their son on the field or or her son and her significant other on the field. Yeah.

So that'll be funny to see if the Packers maybe try and get Brittany Mahomes back on that one. Yeah, put him in just put him in the Upper Peninsula. You know what I mean? Just put it all the way. Just keep going. You know, let's do it. Thanks for the time, Matt. Great use of gallivanting. I caught that as well. Let's catch up when the season starts.

I'd love to get your thoughts. Appreciate it. Sure thing. Thanks as always, Richard.

You bet. That's Matt Schneiderman of the Athletic right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Oh, you know, Bridget Mahomes, right? It's at Brittany. Brittany. Pardon me. Brittany.

My apologies, Matt. Brittany Mahomes? She ain't going all the way up to the top. Let's get her an oxygen tank because they're going to put her way up.

Yeah. I don't think Brittany will stand for it. I don't think she's going to. Maybe she don't even go to the game. You have much better view at home. True. I want you remember that when you always yell at me for not leaving the house. Just remember.

Great point by Matt. By the way, the Packers don't play a playoff game from last playoff team from last year until week eight. Did not realize that but I always counsel like don't view the current schedule through the prism of last year. I mean Detroit.

If the Seattle Rams week eighteen game didn't go the way Seattle needed, there were some remember the crazy **** calls in that week eighteen game too that was leading to that final game. Detroit was a playoff team at the end of the last year. So, let's let's not forget that New Orleans is definitely a team that hey, you don't know. Oh, don't know. You don't know.

Denver but the schedule is compare this to Rogers' first eight, six, eight weeks. You're in. Go ahead.

Let's do this. This is just for me. It's certainly since Matt's like old Packer fans. They're all like, enjoy the honeymoon.

You got all the Packer fans. Enjoy that honeymoon. You're going to know how good. Go. Go.

Cuz Aaron at some point is just going to be Aaron and it's it's going to be ugly. You're going to learn really quick how good. Look at this. Look at this. How would Jordan love to take a bite out of this?

That is insane. Come on. Like rich. Forget about salty to us. It's going to be salty rich. I'm I'm already there.

Before the buy? That's that's that's one of the only the only teams that pair are Denver. That's it. Yeah. You realize what's going to happen if Rich's dream with the Jets goes south after the Yankees series.

This season. Yeah. It's going to be insufferable. No, hold on a second.

How do you. You're going to be Costanza. You're going to be in the toilet for so long. Excuse me. Brian Cashman, the general manager of the Yankees yesterday rightfully called the Yankee season a disaster. The Jets season being a disaster. Would be what? I don't know.

Like what? Six wins? Seven wins? Even if like. That's a tough first bank before the buy. But that's but that's tough.

Excuse me though. The Jets have the reigning offensive and defensive rookies of the year. They have Dalvin Cook to go along with Breece Hall if his knee is anything close to ready. They've got Quinnen Williams up front. They have a defensive minded head coach that knows how to get that side of the ball ready as evidenced by last year. They have Alan Lazard to go along with Randall Cobb and Mikko Hardman. Offensive line. Okay, it's up to the offensive line. They protect Rogers. They should.

Yes, with that six-week start. Would you go if you. Mike, Mike. Don't if or but me. I'm going to tell you.

They should win four their first six. Alright. I was going to say.

They should go to Dallas with all due respect and show Aaron Rogers. I don't own the Bears anymore because I'm not with Green Bay but there's still a team I do own. Where your losses? Oh, you haven't done it yet. Look, man.

I already gave you the W that week, okay? Yeah. So. Alright. I'm sorry.

He said Rogers already got it. I'm fired up. Easy. By the way, that's that's I'm on a roll here.

Yeah, let's go. Because I have given a nice wet kiss to the Packard Nation in terms of Jordan Love because I do believe that about this kid and Lafleur and they have set it up. I'll just say this. To Packers fans everywhere. Not everybody's going to be a hall of famer at the quarterback position, okay?

True that. Some that's what I said to Brockman. When Brady left New England, I said, on the day Brady went to Tampa and it became official. Welcome to the rest of us.

The rest of us. And this year, for Jordan Love, who I do believe will perform well and I think the Packers have a shot at making the playoffs a good one. But there's going to be some ups and downs they haven't felt at the quarterback position in a while. So, if they in Green Bay, as Matt Schneiderman just pointed out, think Jets fans eventually will have the honeymoon spoiled by Rogers inevitable behavior. I'll just push back and say, at some point, your quarterback's not going to go into the Hall of Fame.

What's up? And right from the get-go as well. Uh not from the get-go either. I mean, we're talking about. Hall of Famers, you know. By the way, don't just leave it to Brockman.

There's someone else sitting over there who I love a lot but she's also that's also her team. I don't understand that. Wait a minute. Are you coming for me?

No, not necessarily. Hold on. I'm in the middle.

Your team. I'm saying. Don't you dare. You know, Susie, I would never. Oh yeah. I'll never disrespect you. I've never seen him moonwalk like that. You are a Patriots fan so I was just like he could he could.

Yeah but you know, he's not nearly as obnoxious as Chris. You want to put that back in the box, TJ? No, it's the bottle. It's a bottle. We talked on the way to work. I know that your idioms are always off by your preposition or a noun.

See, now you're using words we don't understand. It's just because if your team doesn't win the Super Bowl, it's a colossal failure and you're already sweating and flop sweating and like flop sweating. No, I flop sweat real quick though. There's only been two teams that have had back-to-back like Hall fame quarterbacks in the last like 30 years. That's the Giants with Eli and Daniel Jones. Yeah. San Francisco. Yeah.

San Francisco. He just looked that up by the way. I did not. Adam and I talked about this the other day and you can ask him.

He'll type it in. That's we actually. Yeah. No, I know. That's what I'm saying.

It's rare. And at some point. It's all Montana guy. With Tim Rattay and Ken Dorsey with all respect to them. It's hard to do that. Your Hall of your quarterback is not going to Hall of Fame. Yeah. And I'm I hope for Jordan Love.

I am wrong. TJ TJ. But I'm just pushing back. Again, this is all because Matt Schneiderman's like, yeah, you know what we're sitting here saying to Jets fans or package fans are like, at some point, the Honeymoon's going to be over.

So, we'll let you have this hard knocks one. When Aaron Rodgers stops gallivanting across. Gallivanting. It was a great word.

It's an underrated word. Gallivanting. I like to gallivant. Let's take a break. We must gallivant to break. As I lurk. Let's talk.

Let's Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch on their quarterback room coming up. How would you like to look 5 years younger? In a clinical study, people that had volume added with Juvederm Voluma XC in the cheeks perceived themselves as looking 5 years younger at 6 months after treatment. Look younger.

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Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So I made reference to this earlier cuz Mike Hoskins alerted me to this. Kirk Cousins has new facial hair.

Let's check it out. Oh my goodness. Very Fumanchu. Fumanchu. Rod Beck. He looks like Rod Beck. I was gonna go another reliever. Al Roboski. I'm going further back. The Mad Hungarian.

The Mad Hungarian. This is a choice. Oh yeah. Suze, what if I came home with this? I would murder you.

It looks like he he left their hair here and then this is to wipe with the napkin when he drools or spill some spaghetti sauce. Okay. That's your that's that's your two cents on it.

I saw Rod Beck too. Okay. That is an awful look. Who said to him this is a great idea. What if his wife did?

There's no chance she did. Now, Rick says you have a record of liking his beard. You like that? You like that? Suze does not.

No. That beard is ridiculous. I thought Taylor didn't like it. I like Rich's beard. That's what I'm saying. Taylor hates it.

Yeah. She wants me to shave it all the time. She thinks it's very like scratchy. Daddy, you look old.

I think it looks great. We were talking about it. The girls know we're talking in the back because that interview that we showed in one of the commercial breaks. Huh?

With Larry, David. Where I didn't have a beard. A darker beard. Oh yeah. Yeah, Rich, you look good with it.

Thank you guys. That's not what I'm going for. All I know is we need eight more new facial hair individuals in the NFL. Why eight?

Because then they're going to get a power ranking because Arthur Smith right now still won in the power ranking. Yeah. We think this is your license and registration please.

This is where he puts the the rest of the NFC South banana in the tailpipe. That looks like would you like a an extra large juice with your Cinnabon? Okay. Right.

Okay. Very Gene Takovic to use more of that that name that I had thrown in my direction to make fun of me recently. He's got that do you know why I pulled you over mustache. Yeah definitely.

But anyway, that's the latest on the facial hair front in the NFL. The Rich Eisen Show Radio Network's back on the air with our live stream here on the Roku channel. 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 clickgranger.com or just stop by. Alright, let's do it. We haven't done this all week long. Win loss game.

I believe a fan wants to play one. Corbin in Texas. You're here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's up Corbin?

Hello, Rich. Thanks for taking my call. It's an honor to talk to you.

I appreciate you saying that. Uh an honor to talk back to you unless you're way off on your predictions that you're about to apparently have. Well, what do you want to do here?

Corbin, what do you want to do here? I want to talk about Baltimore. Okay. The Ravens. Okay. Yes, sir. You want to win loss game? You want to play the win loss game on the Ravens? I do.

Okay, very good. That means uh we need the schedule. Mike's already give it up.

Mike's and Del Tufo. Here we go. We're just ready. Del Tufo paying attention. Alright.

Gotta love it. First up. First up. What's normally known as fresh meat in the NFL, a rookie quarterback making his first career start. CJ Stroud in the Houston Texans week one.

What do you have? I have Baltimore with a win. Win.

At the Bengals. If Joe Burrow is healthy, I think Cincinnati wins. Well, you just gotta say the words win and loss.

What do you got for me? Win or loss? Uh loss.

Okay. Home for the Colts. Win.

At the Browns. Win. Three and one at the Steelers. Win.

Four and one against the Titans in London. Win. Home for the Lions. Win. That's a five-game winning streak. That is now six and one at the Cardinals. Win. Seven and one home for the Seahawks.

Law. Seven and two home for the Browns. A win. I mean, I I should have said that for you, right?

I mean, you're not going to you. No Ravens fans ever thinks they're losing to the Cleveland Browns. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and two against the Bengals on a Thursday night at home.

Win. Nine and two against the Chargers here in LA. He's two against them.

He's they're going to win. That's what are they now? Ten and two?

Is that what you got now? Okay, against the Rams. A win. Eleven and two at Jacksonville. Loss. Eleven and three at the Niners on a Monday night. Loss. Eleven and four home for the Dolphins and Tua. Win. Twelve and five home for the Steelers. They win. Thirteen and five.

Corbin in Texas. Alright. Rich. Thirteen and four, pardon me. Thirteen and four. Thirteen and four. My bad.

Thirteen and four. Yes sir, Corbin. I think Harbaugh knows and I think he's tired of all the Mahomes, Allen, Joe Burrow, Chatter. Why doesn't he talk to management saying, give Indy, JK Dobbins, and whoever else they want in our backfield and a first-round pick, Miskit, Taylor, we will be the cream of the crop in the AFC.

No, I've been a great, great question. Thank you, Corbin for the call. I just don't think the Ravens are paying their quarterback all of that cash. They gave Odell Beckham Jr. what? Fifteen million with incentives.

There's that that and they've got all the running backs that they have there. Nah, I don't think they're doing that. Eighteen, one year eighteen. Yeah. Thirteen point eight signing bonuses. Yeah, they're not doing that.

They like what they've got and they're gonna go, they're gonna go to work. With an offense, nobody knows what it's gonna look like. Thirteen and four. That would be quite a season for the Ravens.

I mean, that's like one seed type material. Everyone who's picked callers, they've really, and our guests, they've really think they have high hopes for their teams. I mean, I picked Dallas at what, eleven and six and now I'm like, let me get this one right because I wrote it down. DJ, when we wrote it down. Hold on a minute.

Nick in Corona who had the Denver Broncos fifteen and two. Jerry Judy just got carted off of practice. Oh, no. No.

A cart called for Jerry Judy. Never know. We're hoping. It's a hamstring.

Okay. Well, so the knees but that that that that is definitely not with a hamstring injury carted off two weeks before the season kickoff between the Chiefs and the Lions that would I would think put his readiness home for the Vegas Raiders at least in week one in jeopardy but it's for later on. Let's talk a little bit more about the San Francisco 49ers decision to start the season with Sam Darnold as their backup quarterback. You could see it coming.

You could see it coming down the pike. And I just always want to root for I want to root for everybody, right? And so but but Trey Lance in particular, he had us at hello here on the show and he was with us in in Arizona at the Super Bowl. He's our first guest at Super Bowl week and him talking about I just want to compete. I'm happy to compete. I know I'm the third overall pick in this draft from a couple years ago. That has earned me anything. I'm going to go there and compete. I'm going to I'm I'm going to get better.

You know, health wise and I'm going to go compete and that video went viral because Niner fans were like attaboy. Yep. And then Sam Darnold shows up.

After that. Cool. And I'm like, do they have Sam Darnold there as Purdy Insurance or Lance Insurance? That's been the question I've asked literally everybody. Yeah.

And how many how many of the information men and women who've been on the show have said both? But at the time, it was probably Lance Insurance because Lance might have been the Purdy Insurance. Or. It's always been Lance Insurance. That they just figured Purdy is going to be the guy and if he's not, we're going to go with somebody who's got a lot of experience because we just don't know if Lance is going to be ready.

Just don't know. And the kid is just had nothing but bad luck. COVID in his final year as a collegiate. Hurt his finger in the final preseason game of his first year and it messed him up for his rookie season. But Jimmy G was there anyway and the concept of Lance coming in was he's going to maybe be the red zone guy. Jimmy G will matriculate down the field and then Kyle Shanahan and his offense and all his bag of tricks inside the ten. Lance is going to get in and Lance threw again the first touchdown pass of the year in his rookie season for the Niners because they brought him in.

In the red zone. And then Jimmy G just took it over. And Lance in his one shot when Jimmy G was hurt, he got a little dinged up himself again. And it was Jimmy G's show and then they were going to start the season with Lance come Hecker Highwater and signed Jimmy G as Purdy Insurance because Lance was their guy and if Lance couldn't go, what are they going to go with the last pick in the draft?

No. So Jimmy G was brought on as Purdy Insurance and wound up being Lance Insurance and then Purdy wound up being. The guy.

The man. So coming into this season, it's going to be Purdy and they needed to have somebody there in case Lance wasn't going to be ready in case Purdy wasn't going to be ready and it turned out to be Sam Darnold who now has the job over Lance. And I honestly, I think if Lance didn't get hurt last year, they were ready to go with the ups and downs that come with a kid quarterback just to see what they have in him and if somehow someway middle of the season, it was so bad, in comes Jimmy G because we're not going with Purdy.

And that got blown up. So here was Kyle Shanahan on local radio yesterday about what is what is this one about right now? If Lance is going to be a niner still in week one because they do love him but not love him enough to send him out there against the Steelers if Purdy somehow gets knocked out in week one. Here was the answer from Shanahan there.

I'm really hoping so. I mean, this isn't a thing that we're giving up on Trey. This is more of how Brock played in his seven games and that was decided before the season started and then how good Sam's looked. They both looked good but we do have to make a decision here and you only get so many reps at it and we feel, you know, starting about 10 days ago, Sam really separated himself and we gotta keep it real in that way but I feel very, very fortunate to have both of them here. I really hope when it's said and done that all three of these guys are here and you never know when that's going to come up.

We needed four guys last year. Doesn't happen much but if we can have Trey as an option here, I would feel extremely happy about that. We'll always try to do right for Trey. If there's a better situation that his heart's in and something like that, we're going to make sure not to do something that hurts him in that way. So, that's stuff that I talked to him about this morning. That's stuff I'll talk to him about tonight and continue to talk to him about but Trey knows how I feel about him and I hope he ends up being able to be here and that's the best thing for him but we gotta see what is the best thing from now until then.

I mean, say what you will. Kyle Shanahan, let him know as soon as he knew and I know there's a lot out there. People think either, you know, I think RG3 is on tomorrow's show tweeted out. Shanahan knew the minute they signed Arnold. I don't know about that.

We'll talk about that with Robert. Does this then go down if this is the outcome as one of the worst trades in NFL history? Well, again, the answer to that has to be no because the draft is such a crapshoot and neither of the coach or general manager is going to lose his job over. Normally, you make a move like that, the coach and GM are out. Unless you can sign someone like Aaron Rodgers.

Think about it. The Jets earned the second overall pick in the same draft and took Zach Wilson and that didn't work out to the point where they're like Aaron Rodgers coming in in the GM and the coach who have been there last 2 years. They're in a good stand.

Good stead. The reason why Shanahan and Lynch are in good stead with Jed York and for many reasons is they made the NFC Championship game the last 2 years with all this stuff going on. So, it's not, it hasn't torn the franchise asunder and you heard what he said about if Trey has his heart in something that they're going to do their best to give it to him.

That means finding something else. I don't think they've made it known. Is it possible they're going to let his representation seek a trade to where he wants to go? One person who I think would counsel against that because he does believe in Shanahan's ability to know what quarterbacks can do and help that quarterback become better is Steve Young who was on the show in the first hour yesterday before this news hit but read the writing enough on the wall about Darnold and his standing to say this about what Lance should do moving forward. My advice is claw your way to stay here because again, there's a lot of places that he would go that he's not going to he's not going to find out those answers and he's going to flail because he doesn't have the opportunity and so just get figure out a way to stay here so he can continue to develop in a place or find or if it is somewhere else, you know, just pray that it's one of those, you know, half a dozen or a dozen teams that are can take care of quarterbacks. Now, maybe he does have the ability to decide where he goes next because as you heard Steve Young say, pray that it winds up being a spot where they take care of quarterbacks. II don't know if the Niners would just say it doesn't matter. We'll take the highest draft choice we can get because man did we spend a whole ton of draft capital just to go draft him. They might as you heard Shanahan saying he's honestly how many times do I say it's like a coach on sodium pentothal right and didn't Young say that yesterday like Kyle Shannon just tells you what he's thinking.

Yeah. So it's possible they're going to let him decide you heard Tom Pelissero say in hour one Minnesota would be good. Kevin O'Connell. Is the guy who comes from the Shanahan system through McVeigh, meaning Mike big big Mike Shanahan, obviously Kyle does as well and who are the people that. Can't quit Kirk Cousins, according to Daniel Jeremiah every time he comes on everybody from this system, even Mike Florio was saying I should say even Mike, but Mike Florio said in addition is what I meant by even in addition he's has said all the time. Kirk Cousins is going to pop free and Shanahan in San Francisco is going to be all over him right if Purdy doesn't work out so who would be able to take Lance in.

Then Kevin O'Connell with Kirk Cousins right there. Maybe that's where you go and he's from Minnesota as well. John Lynch this very morning talked about Lance's trade market.

This is Lance locally in San Francisco. That's probably the most likely option is that he's here. If we could find a landing spot for Trey, that is is you know it's a really good one for him and you know works for our organization. That's not something we we turn a blind eye to, but that's not where our focus is right now. You know I think our focus is on Trey getting back here and us being the best football team. We're getting close to Pittsburgh and that's kind of where we're at and John. I saw another report yesterday from Diana Ruscini from ESPN, who reported that you guys have been shopping Trey lands as far back as the NFL draft. So I just wanted to give you a chance to address that report and whether or not you guys have had Trey lands on the trading block for the last couple of months. Yeah, it's not accurate.

So you know look at that people are going to if I responded to every report, I'd be have no time in my day, but that is not accurate. That's Lynch John Lynch, obviously. My Hall of Fame friend.

Hey IIII, you might be sitting there saying they don't know what they're doing right and left hander don't know what they're doing. If you're the coach who's all about quarterbacks like I feel for the kid. We're going to try and do our best to help him out and get him to a spot of his hearts in it and the general manager is like. Hey, we're 2 weeks before going to Pittsburgh. I'm going to have the best team out there and last time we were in the state of Pennsylvania. I had to play a fourth quarterback on our roster and then the running back at McCaffrey had to run you know Wildcat and then we brought back a one-armed Brock Purdy. So yeah, we're going to have Lance on this team because they that is making the Niners better. That's the reality of this whole situation. So I know you ask like is it a big bust.

I don't know the kid's 23. He has hardly played if he winds up in his home state of Minnesota and winds up being the Minnesota Vikings quarterback of the future because the coach knows exactly what to do with the quarterback in this system and then the Niners you'll say well you blew it on him except I don't know Brock Purdy is pretty damn good and we were going to do it with him if he wasn't carted off in his second year here in the second game. Let's take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show 844-204-rich number to dial.

It's 824. That means one thing in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant Day will wrap the show up with that. 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 different sports fan?

Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams and many of your favorite college teams too. You solidify 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 Podcast wherever you listen. There's about a 0% chance that I come back and play. Zero. You're toast. You're finished. Done. As a player.

That's it. Did last year at any point with you going through your first season not playing basketball? Never. Not once did you think about it?

Never. Here's the thing is for us athletes, it's really hard to transition from that right and I was really personal about it when I wrote Dear Basketball but that is the true challenge of finding what comes next and finding something that you love to do every bit as much as you love your first passion. That is a challenge for us and I think unfortunately for us athletes, we've been pigeonholed into thinking that we can only be one thing. So, when I retire, everybody is saying, okay, he's too competitive. He's not going to know what to do with himself.

He's going to have to come back. I took that as a personal challenge of them thinking I'm this one-dimensional person that all I know is how to dribble the ball, shoot the ball, and play basketball and compete at that level. So, I took it as a personal challenge.

I will never come back to the game ever. I'm here to show people that we can do much more than that and creating this business, winning an Oscar, winning the Emmy and the Emmy. Those are things that are showing other athletes that come after. No, no. There's more to this thing, right?

So, I would never, it's not even a not even a thought. So, the goal is an EGOT. You want the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, the Tony? The challenge became how do I take the lessons that I learned through the game of basketball and translate them into building the studio, right? What are the things that I can take from that? The discipline, the commitment, the team, and community. How do you get the best out of each other?

How do I take those lessons and move those here? That is the challenge. How do we do great work? Uncompromising great work. You're not looking at the bottom line. You focus on the product first, right?

It's just the best thing that we can possibly make no matter what and having that sharp focus is something that I got from the game of basketball. That was five years ago today right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Back here on 824 Day, Kobe Bryant Day. It was yesterday.

Kobe would have been 45 years of age and I don't forget Susie Schuster walking in New York City. Was it two days before our wedding? Three days before our wedding on Central Park South, right? Yeah, and we ran into a friend of yours and his name was his name was Kobe Bryant. Oh yeah, and I had just done a SportsCenter commercial with him like 2 years before it was literally like 90 minutes of his time and the two of you like stopped like old friends on the street. You invited him to our wedding.

I had to. I know because you did that with Michael Irvin. I think the day before I wasn't with you with Irv Irv showed Kobe said I don't think I'm going to be in town, but you gave him an invite to the wedding. I did Michael of course didn't miss it and he showed up on the record, but he was my guest right.

That's true. He showed up in an electric blue tuxedo, but this is this is not 88 for Michael Irvin Day. This is 824 for Kobe Bryant Day. So what's your favorite memory of Kobe when you covered him and got to know him and well, you know I friend him. I was with him almost every night for 3 years, but my favorite memory is the first day that I showed up at Lakers practice in my first day at Fox Sports because I had just covered him and done a piece on him for real sports with Bryant Gumbel. My last job before I got my Fox job right and he looked at me. He's like what are you doing here?

I said I'm on the air now. This is my my new gig and he was so great about it and he was so excited for me. He gave me a big hug.

You know I was new in LA. People wondered why I knew him and how I knew him and he never said no. There was one time where he was like you can't do this to me. It was right after one of the Shaq Kobe fisticuffs fights in the back kind of thing scuffling would you you might say, but he was always great and always took the time to do interviews and it was because we'd had a bond from when I had done the real sports piece and so I watched him grow up here and I watched him because of having covered him before I watched him mature and go through the different processes and obviously Shaq talks about it all the time when he's on with me. I saw a lot of what happened behind the scenes and chose to share some and chose to shelf others, but you know my favorite memory was running into him on a court recently or before he passed and I went to go to a game and he was there with one of the girls and we just sat there and we just laughed. I had the boys there our boys. Thank you and we looked at each other like can you believe this happened like look at all these kids, but I never had a bad moment with Kobe Bryant. I loved covering him. It was an honor and a privilege.

We spoke Italian sometimes in the locker room. I thought he was just the greatest and and I think it's nice that the Lakers are going to unveil the statue on two eight. It was John's number was two and so on February 8th when the defending champions, the Nuggets are in town for a game. They will unveil the statue out front and Vanessa made that announcement today on the Laker social media account and he belongs out there with the Laker greats and his daughter again. War two for February and eight obviously for him and so what should the what should the in our minute we have left?

What should the statue be? Should it be his follow through? Should it be on the way up? I think it's him soaring. Don't you think TJ? Wouldn't it be him soaring?

Maybe him shooting that fade away fade away in the corner. But does that is the statue? Is it young Kobe with the fro? Is it older?

Kobe? Is it eight? Is it twenty-four? That's what I'm interested to see.

Okay, I'm going to guess it's going to be eight on the front and twenty-four in the back. That's a good one. I like that. I like that.

That would be sick. How about him waving off Carmelone in his first off? I got it or the day or the day he stopped and looked at me wearing a Clippers shirt while I was sitting courtside one time and looked at me and said, are you crazy? That's the only interaction I've ever had with Kobe Bryant. He would wave off Carmelone in the locker room. That was the weirdest. That was a weird combo. But I hope it is like of his of his follow through.

I don't know but you think soaring in the air. I just feel like look he always loved Mike. He wanted to be like Mike. He modeled himself after Mike and I just think he was happy as soaring.

That's just me. Great show. Great show everybody. I want to thank Tom Pelissero and Jonathan Smith of Oregon State Football and Jeff Passan and obviously Matt Schneiderman of the Athletic. RG3 will be on tomorrow's show. Sus will be back as well. We hope you will too.

Happy Kobe Bryant Day wherever you are everybody. 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? It ain't chicken. It's like biting into a sinewy charcoal briquette. But chewy. Oh, that's disgusting. It sure is. Check out Arn every week wherever you listen.