Rich Eisen Show with Brian Webber Filling In Hr 1

Taste some of this. This OMG is the Rich Eisen Show. No other way to put it. With guest host, Brian Weber.

Oh my gosh. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not talking to you. I talk to anybody out there. Haters. Rich Eisen. I talk to the haters right now.

And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. About to try to work hard on this show. It's Labor Day. I know you'll counter with the old Jerry Lewis observation.

Working hard or hardly working. Yes, I went Jerry. A contemporary reference. Although, if I'm thinking Labor Day, I'm thinking about the telethon a long time ago.

I'm Brian Weber giving you my frame of reference within the first 60 seconds. Always outstanding to sit in for Rich. Have the opportunity to support his tremendous brand. I'll be in the chair because Rich has been so generous in going to the bullpen in the past Memorial Day.

July 4th. Unless I destroy this program over our next three jam-packed hours together, you might get the gift that keeps on giving and I'll return on Thanksgiving. I got a ton to get to. But, as always, I understand the spirit of the program. I listen every day. I watch the Emmy-nominated simulcast on the Roku channel.

So, I get what Rich is all about. The goal is to be interactive. Pick up the phone with the caveat on the big word holiday edition of the program. I take phone calls selectively at 844-204-7424. But, I'm in a good frame of mind. There's a lot of football to discuss. So, I'll open it up to you.

844-204-7424 and all candor. Your best way to have your opinion expressed is to hit me up on social media. I will not continue to confuse X, Twitter. Just go with B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's.

That'll cover everything you need to know. We're going to jump right in talking college football. What a wild weekend it was.

And a lot of folks in the media. Yours truly included. Oh, Deion Sanders, an apology. However, I'm going to tell you why we should pump the brakes on the unbelievable euphoria surrounding Colorado football. Although, that was a debut for the ages. A wildly entertaining game. Coming up with that epic upset. A road victory for Colorado, which they only do over the last 20 years or so.

Ah! Once a decade. Knocking off a top 20 opponent TCU in Fort Worth. Going to make the move as well to the NFL.

Let me reach over and hit the button here. The countdown, the kickoff is officially underway. Looks like we made it. Just three days away from the start of another NFL season.

So coming up in 20 minutes, I will follow the wisdom of crowds. You folks keep telling me on social media you can't get enough of AFC East conversation. We'll put it in this framework as we're just three days away from the start of another highly anticipated season in professional football.

One of the chances, the rugged AFC East will generate three postseason teams this year. We'll get there coming up. And hopefully by now, in addition to being full of myself and dropping arcane references, I don't try to overwhelm you with guests if you have any idea who I am.

And maybe you do. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen. You can slide in at 844-204-7424.

Hit me up on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's.

Just one guest per hour. In 40 minutes, we'll talk NFL. With Trevor Sikkema, pro football focus, data-driven analysis to counter the lava-filled hot takes, I'm going to be spewing your direction. Hour number two, in addition to the college football that I'm about to address presently, we will take you around the nation with an old friend, Pete Futak, publisher of collegefootballnews.com.

And because I am old school and antiquated, on Labor Day, I still think of baseball. But I'm also in the business of keeping this audience engaged. We're not going to talk baseball until the final 20 minutes of the program last hour. We'll spotlight a rejuvenated grand old game when we check in with Joe Sheehan. You've read his work for Sports Illustrated. Other platforms, he's now bet on himself with the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter. And yes, in the midst of all the college football and prepping for another NFL season, I watched a lot of the Dodgers and the Braves confirmation that Ronald Cooner Jr. is a unicorn, a once-in-a-generation talent, and Atlanta is significantly better than Los Angeles. We'll get there coming up final hour as the Braves took 3-4 from the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. So, as I was deciding where to start today, there was a part of me that said, hey, you're sitting in for Rich Eisen.

He is the personification of the shield. And what a week this is going to be for Rich. And I really do relish every opportunity to sit in for Rich and the guys. Rich, on Thursday, you'll hear him on Westwood One, part of the kickoff broadcast as the season gets underway in Kansas City. We're all in on the Lions, aren't we?

Well, I guess the league is drinking that Kool-Aid as well. Lions against the reigning World Champs Chiefs. And of course, on Sunday, you'll see Rich starting another season of the best pregame show of them all on NFL Network Game Day. We'll get you fully lined up for all the games. But, because DeonMania is running wild, and when I flipped on the talking head shows today, and I'll be totally transparent, I am one of the 13 million people being held hostage by this corporate battle between Disney and Spectrum, as my brand in Southern California. Are they announcing anything on this program? Look at me going through the pile of the reeds. No, okay, so I can be honest here.

If I had to do a read for Disney Plus, I wouldn't give you this rant. I could not watch any of the college football on my big screen TV. Now, thankfully, even though I'm tight with a buck, I can be frugal at times, I shell out a few dollars for the streaming platform, so I watched enough of the games in real time. Plus, as you know now, it's not the old days with just Keith Jackson on ABC, although I missed that broadcast dearly.

As I was flipping around, I watched a lot of Ohio State, Indiana. They keep you constantly updated as to what's going on around the nation, so I feel like I have a good sense of what happened in the games I could not watch with my own maniacal focus. But, I'm just going to name names here because I used to work there.

I have a lot of friends working at the Pico lot here in Southern California. Fox should just change their name to the Deon Sanders Network. And I can fully understand why they feel like they are programming geniuses, because if you watched, say, their Thursday night coverage of that incredibly, unless you're a Nebraska fan, incredibly dramatic conclusion between Minnesota and Nebraska, half that game was an infomercial for the debut of Coach Prime. Well, what do you know? Fox maybe knew something. And maybe we should have had some doubts about TCU, but flipping around watching the talking head shows that I had access to today. And I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich Eyes, and I appreciate the company. We are live on this Labor Day. You can be a part of the program.

844-204-7424. In 30 minutes, we talk NFL with Trevor Sikkema, a pro football focus. One program, which I will not name, did 60 consecutive minutes of Coach Prime analysis, although they had a good get.

Before I left the house, they kept teasing. Deon was going to join them later in the day. So I will give you five to seven minutes on Deon, and then we'll cruise around the nation, because there was a lot of compelling action and some very interesting takeaways, at least from my estimation, albeit with the smallest of sample sizes. Week one, which is yet to wrap up, and if you still have access to this platform, a little thing called ESPN or ABC, we have Monday Night College football. Number 9 Clemson will try to keep up with what Florida State did against LSU last night. What an impressive performance by Mike Norvell's team, demonstrating that their strong start last year. Remember, they lost a bunch of games in the middle of the season.

People were wondering, is Mike the guy? Because last year was that make or break third year. Then they got incredibly hot, won their last six games, including the bowl victory of Oklahoma. But based on what Florida State did undeniably running up the score last night against LSU in the top 10 showdown, hanging 45. I'm Brian Kelly, the most likable wink, wink, nudge, nudge coach in all of college football. Clemson has something to demonstrate tonight just from a standpoint of pride.

And secondly, it's all about impressing the selection committee. Yes, even in week one, because one of their data points comes down to the eyeball test. Clemson is taking on an unranked Duke team tonight, although if you follow the sport closely, and I assume if you're listening on a holiday, you love football as much as I do. You know Duke was one of the biggest surprises in the nation last year. Mike Elko, longtime defensive coordinator, used to work at premier schools like Notre Dame, Texas A&M, finally got his shot, and he rejuvenated Duke in a major way.

Their four losses came by a combined tally of just 14 points. They have a very athletic quarterback in Riley Leonard. I looked up this morning just to confirm because I hadn't seen him since obviously last year, no preseason in college football. Check out these numbers for Leonard.

Almost 3,000 yards in the air, 20 passing touchdowns, plus because of his mobility, another 700 on the ground and 13 TD. So we have a game tonight, but nothing, even if Duke upsets Clemson. Remember that's in Durham under the lights, so we'll see if the Cameron crazies can duplicate the energy that we always have demonstrated in hoops in a much bigger setting over the football stadium. But anything that happens tonight will not overshadow what we saw in the game between Colorado and TCU. And the doubts I expressed the last time I was here filling in for Rich during July 4th week were valid and legitimate. I can't speak for everyone in the media, and let's just take a step back, and I'm not getting political, but the notion of fake news has become so pernicious on a big word Monday that conspiracies have now gone mainstream even in sports. Folks, we don't, we, members of the media, don't have conventions where we get together and decide we're going after Deion. The questions I raised, and I used the catalyst of pit head coach Pat Narduzzi's criticism of Deion, which I thought was fair and grounded in reality, how in the world can you expect a program to integrate over 80 new players? I'll say it again, Deion blew the whole thing up, over 80 new players.

They only returned 10 scholarship players from a team that was abysmal last year. I'm based in Southern California. If you've been listening closely, I've dropped a lot of nuggets. I don't want to say it too loudly, but I'll say it in my inside voice. I love college football as much as the NFL, which makes radical realignment all the more painful, and I will get there.

I have a soapbox in here. Good thing we're not having the simulcast streaming a Roku channel. I got strong opinions about what happened on Friday with the ACC now adding SMU, Stanford, and Cal.

We'll get there coming up in the next hour of the program. But as somebody who's actually covered college football, gone to practices, hosted college football coaches shows, traveled with teams on charters, this was not a reach by yours truly when I echo what Pat Narduzzi said, how can this work? These are not professional athletes. These are 18 to 22-year-old young adults with no preseason, and cohesion and chemistry and teamwork are not just buzzwords, especially in college. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, here's what I overlooked. I knew Deion was going to bring excellent players with him.

They all jumped into that giant Louis Vuitton bag. I did not realize how dynamic Travis Hunter was. Now, I was well aware of who he was and what a splashy signing it was when Deion got the number one or two, depending on which recruiting service you endorse, but the most highly decorated high school player ever to sign with Jackson State, Travis Hunter went there for one reason and one reason only to play for Deion.

And I knew all about him, and I knew how good he was at Jackson State. My question was, how is it going to translate to a more rigorous level of competition, taking the next step to a power five program, especially because Colorado was hideous last year. They only won a single game, and I mentioned the huge challenge of going on the road to take on a ranked opponent. Colorado's win over TCU on Saturday was the first time this century they achieved the feat. They were 21-point underdogs, so it was logical to pose the question, what is this going to look like, and it looked insanely good, because Hunter is a transcendent athlete, played 129 snaps. I would say that is Deion Sanders-esque, but Deion never piled up 129 snaps when he was locking it down in the secondary, returning punts and occasionally being a wide receiver. Hunter is a phenomenal athlete with a high football IQ. He hauled in the 11 grabs, came up with that huge interception as TCU was driving inside the tent. So Hunter is the real deal, and irrespective of what happens to Colorado moving forward, I can't wait to see him and if he can sustain this because I just worry about getting burned out, and I know we're talking about people in their late teens, early 20s, but there's a reason we don't see two-way players anymore.

It is incredibly taxing, and my goodness, what stamina and conditioning an athletic skill Hunter has to put it all together to play as well as he did when the team needed him the most. I knew that Deion's son, Chidor Sanders, was an outstanding quarterback. I did not envision him throwing for better than 500 yards. So let's have the TCU conversation and just back up a bit, and I'm not bashing TCU in any fashion. Remember, TCU was a remarkable story in their own right last year. Nobody thought they would even compete to win the Big 12, although they didn't win the conference title game because their defense was porous, and Kansas State ran all over them. We saw Michigan score a ton of points on them, although they lost that game to TCU in the national semifinals, and you know how they got destroyed by Georgia in what you kids call the Natty. So TCU had defensive liabilities last year when they made it all the way to the national championship game.

They lost a bunch of guys to the NFL, foremost among them, Max Duggan. So there were reasons to believe TCU would take a step back, and there were legitimate concerns about the defense. Still, the folks who theoretically know within their conference picked them to finish 5th in the preseason Big 12 poll.

They were top 20 team in both the coaches and AP poll, and I'll say it again, I don't do a gambling show yet because I've yet to get compensated for it, but I track the view from Vegas. 21 points is not a normal spread to see in college football. Now you can see the ridiculous ones in the body bag game, so you see 21, you expect it to be a blowout. So I give Deion all the credit and all the flowers he deserves. I didn't love what he did to Ed Warder postgame, but that's Deion back to when he followed Tim McCarver around the clubhouse when he was playing for the Braves and doused him with the Gatorade because Deion didn't like the criticism. McCarver was dropping from the CBS broadcast booth.

Deion has a degree of sensitivity, but when you win, you can do anything you want. The question becomes moving forward, what are reasonable expectations for this team? Because if you haven't looked at the schedule, and another reason why not only did Vegas have Colorado installed as a 21 point underdog, under over four wins for the entire season was three in part because they came off a cataclysmic disaster of a season last year. Secondly, they play a rugged schedule but suddenly that Nebraska game coming up on Saturday in what's going to be a raucous atmosphere at Folsom Field in Boulder, Nebraska v Colorado looks a lot more manageable because unfortunately Husker fan, even though Matt Rule is a huge upgrade over Scott Frost, Nebraska is still Nebraska-ing. Top seven with less than three minutes to go on the road to Minnesota on Thursday, they found a way to lose in part because they had four costly turnovers so that becomes a winnable game for Colorado. The following week they take on Colorado State, should win that game.

Suddenly we're looking at the buffs at 3-0 and then things get much more challenging. Did you go to Eugene to take on Oregon pre-season number 15? Did you catch what the Ducks did this weekend? They scored 80.

I know it was against Portland State but they scored 80. The following week they take on USC. Did you watch? Probably not because it was on Pac-12 Network.

I can say that because I work for them for the time being. Did you see the highlights? It is so sad. It is so sad is what has happened to my beloved Conference of Champions. The highlights of Caleb Williams. Lightening it up once more for USC as they were in total control over Nevada. Only had to play roughly three quarters, had five touchdowns, men of Troy dropped 66 points on Nevada. So it's going to be a referendum in the waiting for Colorado football.

3-0 is straight forward. We'll find out what happens in back to back weeks against a formidable Oregon team and even better USC team. But for now Deion should do his victory lap all week long and he will.

He'll be on every show and they deserve all the hype they are getting because they're the rare school that defied expectations. Although in fairness we were all guessing to a degree because we had no conception of what it would look like. I'm Brian Weber. I am now guilty of being officially a member of the media because I wandered into 15 minutes on Deion.

I had not mapped out. So I'm going to be more diligent with my clock management. If you watch college football over the weekend I probably should go work for a school or two. Nobody knows how to work the clock. Oh by the way I love that new rule.

Should have been instituted 20 years ago. Keep that clock rolling. Did you catch how much more watchable those games were? Because it didn't take 4 hours and 20 minutes to finish a college football game.

Another reason I was so pumped up over the weekend. But I got takeaways on Florida State LSU. I will give you my slight bias here. I am not a Brian Kelly supporter. Sorry LSU family. What a disaster that was in the second half and clearly Florida State ran up the score as they got up to 45 with that late touchdown.

We'll talk about that. Thoughts on Ohio State? You knew the bill was going to come due under center at some point after you had the marvelous run of Justin Fields and CJ Stroud. Kyle McCord? I'll be kind because he's a college player.

Let's just say a wobbly debut. Any reasons for real concerns in Columbus? We'll talk Michigan because this is the Rich Eisen show after all. And a little bit of North Carolina, South Carolina Drake May demonstrating second to Caleb Williams. Although Michael Penix Jr. continues to shine in Seattle and nobody's paying attention because he plays in the Northwest. But big game for Drake.

Better game for the North Carolina defense with 9 sacks of Spencer Rattler. We will talk more college football coming up in hour number 2 of the program. Since I want to have the ability to come back for that hour, I got to get to the NFL and I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. You can slide in at 844204.

7424 will check out what's happening on social media coming up. That's B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's in 20 minutes. We take you across the league with Trevor Sikkema, a pro football focus straight ahead. We'll tackle the most intriguing division in all of football with the NFL kickoff now just three days away.

Will there be three playoff teams emerging from the fascinating AFC East? That's coming up. Just getting warmed up on a very busy Labor Day. I appreciate you spending part of your holiday with us.

I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen show. We'll be right back. Thanks for watching. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen show radio network on this Labor Day. I'm Brian Weber and I'm 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 clickrainger.com or just stop by.

844-204-7424. Social media is your best avenue. BW Weber. Weber with two B's. And to be more self-indulgent than normal, I realize that is tricky to execute. I got to pick up the pace and I speak quickly. I am aware of that.

But I went long on Dion. So, I'm going to call a little bit of an audible. More college football coming up now in just over 30 minutes to kick off the second hour of the program and then we'll go in-depth when we're joined by Pete Futak of collegefootballnews.com.

That conversation comes your way. 140 eastern time in less than 15 minutes. NFL in addition to what I'm going to tackle here, data driven analysis provided by Trevor Sikkema, pro football focus among the topics we'll get to coming up with Trevor. Realistic expectations for Ezekiel Elliott at this stage of his career and how much support is he going to get from the Patriots offensive line. You might have heard that Aaron Rodgers has taken his talents to the New York tri-state area. And it's been all AFC East all the time. But much like the Dion conversation this morning, it is justifiable. But in the interest of trying to be balanced and to pay off my forward promotion, will three teams from the AFC East be able to parlay their way into the postseason as we're just three days away from the start of the regular season?

And the answer is no, because they are going to cannibalize each other. But I have been guilty, a lot of folks have gone this way, but I'll self report, of ignoring teams other than the Bills and the Jets. I have been fascinated by both those teams. I've overlooked New England because I think that's a good strategic call from a content standpoint because they're mediocre.

And again, that is not hyperbole. They are precisely a 500 football team since Tom Brady went to Tampa Bay. They were 8-9 last year. If you care about the view from Las Vegas, the under-over for wins, 7.5. I mentioned the addition of Zeke.

Okay. Can't hurt, especially based on what they're paying him. From a standpoint of Mac Jones rebounding from last year's loss season, at least he has a competent, functioning play caller in Bill O'Brien. I don't like this analysis.

It's so basic, but sometimes the intuitive answer is the right answer. It can't be worse than what we saw from Mac Jones last year with the coaching malpractice that was on display from Matt Patricia and Joe Judge who had no business being put in those roles other than Bill Belichick can do whatever he wants because he's got all those rings. To me, beyond a solid New England defense, which is going to be consistent, I got real questions about their ability to score points just like last year, but I think the more salient conversation is all about Bill Belichick. He needs 30 regular season wins to pass Don Shula. Also, by the way, only needs 13 losses to become the losingest head coach in the history of the NFL.

Well, let's just say I'm wrong. Let's round up and give them 9 or 10 wins. I'm not great with math, but I can do that pace. Is Bill Belichick going to have the opportunity to coach long enough to set that record? Bill Belichick is 71. Robert Kraft is 82. Robert Kraft has made it clear he wants to win and he wants to win now.

You can understand that urgency before he's called to the big owner's box in the sky. So I expect marginal improvement from New England because that defense is going to be the solid through line as it's been in recent years since Brady left. But the offense remains puzzling and Mac Jones, unfortunately, from the perspective of Patriot fans, is just a guy and we knew that at Alabama.

No slight directed towards Mac. He's very limited and he does not have much athletic ability, but last year he had no opportunity to do anything that was resembling a productive NFL quarterback because of the dereliction of duty in the coaching staff. Let's talk a little bit about Miami and I'll go off the board because it's been all Tua all the time and understandably so. And I am a Tua fan personally. I thought Ryan Clark was justifying his new jobs and Ryan Clark is a tremendous analyst. When I worked at NFL Network, Ryan would come on the ill-fated morning show that we did at three o'clock in the morning here in Southern California when he was an active player for the Steelers because he knew he wanted to be a member of the media. He's phenomenal.

Deserves all the success that he has gotten. However, we all get caught up in our own brand and Ryan, this was before he was announced as the new host of Inside the NFL, coming to you on your CW affiliate, put up the old rabbit ears, in addition to chopping it up on the Monday night pre and post game shows. I think Ryan was trying to show his bosses, okay, not only can I break it down skillfully and take the inside of the game, you want a thermonuclear take, I'll take down Tua comparing him to an Atlanta stripper.

Just not fair. And I'm glad that Tua stepped up for himself because from a distance, Tua seems like too nice of a guy. But it's his make or break year. Franchise made that clear last week again when they said we're going to table conversations about a long-term extension having already picked up the final year of the rookie deal. Tua understands he has to demonstrate that he can stay healthy for an entire season. Some of that will be a byproduct of not having to be on the field as much because the Dolphins defense should be more formidable. I think one of the more overlooked aspects in what developed in the offseason was Vic Fangio being hired by Miami to coach up that defense reunited with guys like Bradley Chubb. So here's a Miami team without Tua down to their third string quarterback on the road in Buffalo and they gave the Bills all they could handle in that postseason loss. Miami to me ready to take the next step.

It would not surprise me if they make it to the AFC title game if, huge if, Tua can stay healthy. That gets us to Buffalo. I'll steal from Larry Bird or your gym coach, your dad, your uncle.

Maybe you have it already on your mirror when you shave every morning. You're not staying the same in life. You're either getting better or getting worse. Unfortunately for Buffalo, I think they're getting worse. Just look at the postseason trajectory. AFC title game in Kansas City a few years ago, then the dreaded 13 seconds. I don't know that they ever recovered from that.

Last year, unfortunately, the tragedy, although the triumph of the return of DeMar Hamlin, but that was a real life crisis. And I don't want to be Dr. Phil, but I think it clearly emotionally impacted the Bills who look so flat getting pushed around at home by the Bengals. And Sean McDermott, while he just got the contract extension, has a lot to prove.

Ask Cliff Kingsbury the value of getting your contract extended and what that means when you get fired less than 12 months later. I'm not saying that's the case for Buffalo. This feels like a very important year for the Bills, although objectively, and we'll talk about it coming up shortly with Trevor Sikkema, Pro Football Focus. If we're just looking at overall skill, they have a top three roster in the NFL. And that gets us to the Jets. And I did a better job of navigating the clock here because I didn't want to do five minutes on the Jets. I fully understand the enthusiasm surrounding a team I watched when they were terrible as a youngster at Shea Stadium.

Here are my questions. Who is going to block for Aaron Rodgers, who's about to turn 40 and is statuesque at this stage of his career? Jets major question mark surrounding the offensive line. And just as I did with Deion, have you looked at the Jets schedule hosting the Bills coming up on Monday night? Go to Dallas, who have better Super Bowl odds than the Jets, deservedly so. Home for the Patriots, with that good defense I alluded to. They play the defending Kansas City chief championship team. They go to Denver. I think the Broncos are going to be a lot better. Can't be worse than Nate Hackett's reign of terror on the sideline with Sean Payton coming to the Mile High City. They host the Eagles coming off the run to the Super Bowl.

What's that translate to? I don't know. 3 and 3? Is that good enough to get you into the playoffs? Coming out of that division, I got major doubts. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. You can chime in at 8442047424.

You can also express your opinion on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Coming up, we'll keep the NFL momentum going and we'll continue to focus on the AFC East. We'll get the outlook for Ezekiel Elliott with a fresh start this year in New England. And we'll pose this question to Trevor Sikkema, Pro Football Focus.

Which of the rookie quarterbacks have a chance to have the biggest impact this year understanding all three are playing in challenging situations? We roll on on this live Labor Day edition of the program. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

We'll be right back. You You You You You You You You You We continue on this Labor Day edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Brian Weber with you. Always a delight to keep the chair warm for Rich who's back with you tomorrow. Let's keep the NFL conversation going.

Looking forward to more insights and data driven analysis from Trevor Sikkema, Pro Football Focus. I always learn something when I'm lucky enough to chat with Trevor. Trevor, thanks for taking the time on a holiday.

How are you? I'm not hearing Trevor. Perhaps I've hit the wrong button. Can you hear me now? I can hear you now. Hello, Trevor. I guess my phone was on Labor Day vacation.

Actually, that was me accidentally hitting mute button. But it is great to be with you as always. My pleasure. Excellent ad lib. You should be hosting. I should be the guest. And we've all been there, especially coming out of the Zoom era. Always hit mute.

You never want people to hear you coughing or doing other things in the privacy of your own home. Hey, let's start with the most newsworthy question I'm going to pose to you because we're just a handful of days away from the kickoff game in Kansas City. From a casual fan standpoint, trying to ascertain the impact of Chris Jones in the holdout. We know about the sacks, but you take it much deeper. What does Jones represent to this defense? He's not there coming up starting with the kickoff game against the Lions on Thursday. How big of a setback could that be for Kansas City?

No, it's absolutely huge. I mean, Chris Jones is doing what he's doing for a reason. And that's because he has the leverage.

Like he has the ability to do it. There's not many players in the NFL that can truly take a holdout and go all the way into the regular season and say, all right, I'm not going to blink because he knows that the team is going to have to blink first. The Kansas City Chiefs have Super Bowl aspirations. You know, anytime that they're going to be sitting here in this winning window of Patrick Mahomes, of Travis Kelce and of Chris Jones, that's going to be the case. But Chris Jones is absolutely one of those three focal points. And if you take him off that defensive line, it's so much more than just the sacks.

You have to game plan entirely around this guy. And I think without him along the defensive line, things get a lot different when you're game planning for Kansas City. And I think that you're demanding so much more of the offense. It's already trying to figure things out, a receiver beyond just Travis Kelce. And the offensive line's got a couple of new pieces as well. They're placing both of their offensive tackles and Donovan Smith and Juwan Taylor, who are there now. And there's just no question about it that the reason why Chris Jones is doing this is because he is that valuable to the team, because he has the talent to do it and the impact to do it.

So I don't know if it's going to get done before kickoff, but I know it's going to have to get done at some point. And I know that Kansas City is going to be the team that has to blink because Chris Jones has all the leverage. Unfortunately, if they want to truly continue to have this Super Bowl window open, they need him.

Well said. And just from context of where Aaron Donald is as the outlier and the other impactful sackmasters, Chris Jones is under pain. We're taking across the NFL with Trevor Sikkema, a pro football focus. Trevor, prior to you joining us, I was spotlighting the AFC East and wondering and really pleased that you have the opportunity to chime in about Ezekiel Elliott and what he is capable of this year at the age of 28. When you factor in the Patriots offensive line, what's his outlook?

You're one in New England. Yeah, I think that, you know, when you say their offensive line, I actually take a different approach to it. I think that Elliott has the size and the ability to be a better pass protector than other running backs that they would have had on the roster. So I think that that's honestly why you add him. You know, fantasy football, I think, freaks out about it because they go, Oh, look, is Ramondre Stevenson? Is he getting the carries taken away?

Sure. Ezekiel Elliott is going to get some of the carries, but I think Elliott was added much more for that third down specialist type of role where he's a pass catcher and a pass protector. I don't think he's going to be bolstering as many early down or even red zone carries as some people were thinking.

So that, to me, was always the sign of the addition. It was simply getting more awareness and more experience on that offensive side of things, knowing that the offensive line was not up to par at points throughout last season, and I think that Elliott definitely helps that out. Let me hold you to the offensive line as we pivot to the Jets because I'm wondering, is Aaron Rodgers going to have time to throw? Will it be holes for Dalvin Cook? What's the state of the line for the Jets? Yeah, so ultimately, I have the Buffalo Bills winning this division. I still think the Bills are the most complete team there. I would have the Jets as that number two team barely ahead of Miami, although there's a lot that can go for and against that team that could move them up to that two spot.

That's very close between the Dolphins and the Jets. When you look at the Jets, and this is a team that I got to see in person this preseason, I genuinely believe this can be not only a top five defense in the NFL, but perhaps even the number one defense in the NFL. That defensive line is unbelievable. The corners and the talent that they have in the secondary paired with it make for a defense that's going to hold a lot of opponents to very low scoring outputs, I believe. But going back to your question, the biggest worry I have for them is along the offensive line because just as much as I was impressed with that defensive line when I saw them in person, I was, I don't want to say equally as worried because I was really impressed with the defensive line, but I was definitely worried watching that offensive line play in person. Aaron Rodgers had some frustration, and I think that you saw that throughout the preseason.

Now it didn't overflow because I think that they're saying, hey, we got a lot of time, we can still figure it out, but there's no question about it. That is the area of concern, and any time offensive line is your number one area of concern, it's a big, at least yellow flag for me. I mean, you've got to pay attention to it because as much as we want to talk about the quarterback and the skill positions and all that, I think that the Jets had every single other box checked. But football is one up front, and until they really figure it out, especially at their offensive tackle spots, that's going to be their big question mark. And unfortunately for them, their schedule is pretty rough right out of the gate. I just went through the whole thing. I had them at three and three after six weeks, and I think I might have been optimistic.

And I've said the same thing to people. Honestly, if they start three and three, that's almost a win for the Jets. And can you imagine it now? If the Jets start three and three, all we're going to hear about on national radio shows, TV shows, whatever, what are we making of the Jets? They're 500. How are they going to get out of this hole? And in reality, when you look at it, if they go three and three, I agree with you. That's basically a win going into the next portion of their season.

Trevor, you are so terrifically comprehensive. I will give you the time alert. We got about four minutes left. I'm just letting you know because I'm giving you a multi-pronged question here so you can do better clock management than most NFL coaches. So we got Bryce Young. We got C.J. Stroud. We got Anthony Richardson all making starts.

Deservedly so. If you're going to invest a top five pick in the quarterback, you want him on the field. Which of the three do you think has the best opportunity to be impactful? You're one, understanding they're playing for lousy teams. Yeah, I think the answer to Richardson is the answer there. And this is coming from somebody who had Bryce Young as his QB one going in the draft. Who I thought that Bryce Young should have been the number one overall pick and he was to Carolina. And so I'm not trying to go back on that at all, but you look at Carolina's situation. I think that their offensive line is another conversation that people need to have when it comes to the output of Carolina. And for as much as I think people are excited for this next era of Carolina Panthers football, it's going to take a little bit more time. You know, the receiver room, they definitely need to get more dynamic there.

That is an evolving situation. Like I mentioned, the offensive line is something that I'm a little bit worried about. And even though I like to how Bryce handles things when you got to go off script, you know, when you're under pressure, which I think he's going to be quite a bit, unfortunately, this upcoming season, I have faith that he's going to be fine. But I don't think that's going to make for the most impactful year of the rookie starters for that. I go to Richardson because of what Shane Stike and his head coach there in Indianapolis was able to do with Jalen Hurts. And I think that when you have the rushing ability that Anthony Richardson does, it raises your floor so much of how impactful you can be, even when you don't know exactly where to go with the ball yet in the passing game. And I just feel as though his dual threat ability is the one that you have to bet on when you are saying, hey, who's going to have the best rookie year?

I'm going to say that it's Anthony Richardson amongst those three guys. Trevor, phenomenal information as always. And you did it with brevity. I appreciate the conversation. Thanks so much. Enjoy the game. Starting on Thursday and looking forward to chatting with you down the road. Yeah, appreciate it. You enjoy the game as well. Trevor Sigma, terrific information.

Plus, as a member of the media, great delivery. And I took you behind the curtain because Trevor was so good, he could have broken down the entire 53-man roster for all three of those franchises. I'll give you my thoughts on Anthony Richardson coming up. Hey, Florida fan, you better hope Richardson balls out this year to give you something to root for. I realize Florida never leaves the state of Florida for non-conference play. We were reminded of why on Thursday against a damn good Utah team, Florida should have gotten off the bus. What was the penalty? They had two dudes wearing the same number on special teams.

They gave up a 70-yard bomb to start the game. Florida Gator football has not had three consecutive losing seasons since the 1950s. Buckle up, Gator fan. I'm Brian Weber, trolling entire states. Maybe I have a future in this business if I follow that formula. As we ease our way towards our number two of the program, you can hop aboard at 844-204-7424.

Always share your thoughts on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Just one guest coming up in the next hour of the program. We'll talk college football with Pete Futek of collegefootballnews.com.

That comes your way at 1.40 Eastern Time. And in advance of that chat, I'm going to split the monologue. I'm going to call an audible. We're going to hurry up to start the next hour of the program. More takeaways from the college football weekend because I got intoxicated with Deion Sanders to start the show. And I'll connect the legacy of Aaron Rodgers that's on the line to the brilliance of Patrick Mahomes as we always focus on the stars that are shining. Always appreciate the opportunity to sit in for Rich and the fellas.

And always try to cram four hours of content into a three-hour bag. Can I keep it going? Find out as we continue here on the Rich Hyzen Show. Thank you. Thank you.