REShow: Tom Pelissero - Hour 1

This is The Rich Eisen Show.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present for your intellectual and philosophical pleasure. The Rich Eisen Show. Dion pressing all the right buttons. Henry Blackburn, he made a tremendous hit on Trappers on the Sideline.

Whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats. Love you, Dion Sanders. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, Bengals head coach Zach Taylor, Fox Sports college football analyst Bruce Feldman, comedian Gary Goleman. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Yes, welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show. So much to talk about today.

It's so great. And then you're wondering, what are you going to talk about today? How are you going to open a show right in the middle of the week, right in between college football and professional football weekends? What is to talk about the day before the Giants take on the 49ers to kick off week number three? And then within seconds of going on the air, you see one of your top-notch members of your staff, your crew, who you lean on and you trust chiming in from home.

Editor Jordan Sherrow sending me an email of a screen grab of apparently James Dolan complaining about owning sports teams. Oh my God. Wait, really? Oh gosh. All I'm just going to say is the wormhole's taking effect and at some point over the next three hours, this gravitational force will pull me in. Oh no. And it's going to be fun.

This is going to be great. That's later on in the program. I don't know when we're going to talk about it.

I mean, it is a burden. Oh my God. You know, gosh.

So that'll be later on. What scarf are we going to wear tonight? Chris.

Who's going to sit next to me at the games? Chris, save it. Save it.

Save it. I know we're workshopping. We don't normally come on the air workshopping. Normally this happens pre-show.

We figure out what we're going to talk about, but that's later on. Tom Pelissero is going to join us from NFL Network. So much happening going on right now.

Absolutely so much happening in the National Football League. Joe Burrow, what's going on with his calf muscle? We're going to attempt to get some information from his head coach.

Zach Taylor zooms into this program live top of hour two. Bruce Feldman strolls in fresh back from Boulder. I guess he must be on the Denver Los Angeles flight. Does he know the flight attendant's names by now? Like we'll ask him these questions. The pilot lets him sit in the cockpit. He's like Norm walking at the chairs.

Afternoon, everybody. As he just strolls right to his seat. Drake is on the table. I don't believe he's going to Boulder this week because they're not there. Oh, he's for sure going to Eugene, right? Yeah.

No, I don't know. I mean, doesn't he normally go where Fox sends him for a Fox game? Oh, hold on. I'll tell you where he's going.

Don't even. Mike, you should know. You should know the Fox schedule.

By the way, the Brockman and Del Tufa when they're spots. Hello, TJ. Sorry, I'm where we're. He might be going to Oklahoma. Cincinnati is the noon Fox game. Yeah, that's not. Or maybe he's going to Utah.

UCLA, Utah. Stop it, Mike. Nobody wants to hear that nonsense. You think Bruce has a flophouse in Boulder? He better. Let me tell you this.

The shared apartment. The game of the weekend is obviously Colorado and Oregon. Ohio State, Notre Dame, probably.

This is the Dion effect, folks. Penn State, Iowa. Big 10 action where Big 10 play teams are with all due respect to Minnesota and Nebraska and Ohio State and Indiana.

This is where, you know, we're going to start hitting rubber meeting road at top 10 showdown in the in the Big 10. And I know the SEC has got a nice, shiny game on its docket. But Fowler's going to Arkansas, Florida. I mean, Arkansas and what's he doing? LSU, right? That's that's on his docket. LSU, yep.

But it's it's the world we're paying rent in right now. It's Dion, it's Colorado and it's Oregon. And the news today is that Dion said his son's not going anywhere. His sons aren't leaving.

Chidor and Shiloh. And, you know, it's funny because on Friday, Dion, when we asked him about ranking his children publicly. Right. And by the way, I heard you guys after I left yesterday when what the football was being recorded with Susie and Amy Trask. By the way, get it. Ian Rappaport, great guest.

World podcast can be acquired. I heard you. You started talking to her about ranking children. She told me this.

Both you guys. That is not true. This is what she told me.

Either either it was recording it or you guys have been texting her or something like that. OK, so you didn't hear kids. I already know. Stop. Don't even say it.

Dion does that. Susie and I do not. We don't have time. We don't have time for it while we're building our empire.

I'm just looking at mock drafts, Rich. You know what I mean? I'm just saying for my children. I don't know what I'm talking about. Not for your children.

What are you on? If I'm Dion, I'm telling Chidor, you want no part of Caleb and Drake May and all of that. You want no part of that. How about number 14 to the Denver Broncos? OK. Or he could stay put.

And what? He's a first round quarterback. And or he can stay put and try and win the Heisman again next year with his dad and be the number one pick. Yeah, with the best recruiting class coming in and show up and show up to the combine like Dion did, which is walk up to scouts and say, what pick do you have? General managers and go, what picked you out? Oh, you have 13, 14. Yeah, no, no, no.

I'm not interviewing with you. And keep walking. Yep. Dion walked into. That's another one of the many great stories Dion has told me. Dion walked in to the Giants meeting room at the combine. He walked in and apparently they handed him like that huge ass test that they give to. You know, this is before the Wonderlic and all that. I'm not reading that. I'm not doing any basic. I'm not doing this.

Like what pick do you have? And they're like, yeah, we're we're eighth, ninth. He goes, yeah, you have no chance at me. And he turned out and walked away. That's how he wants a door to show up to the combine. So when I heard this, when I heard that, he's like, yes, my kids aren't going anywhere. Even though on Friday he said that his kid, when we asked about ranking them, is that, you know, the reason why should doors not number one, he referred to leave me is because he might leave him. And he also said, unless he holds him up for something extraordinary, like, what do you say, a phantom? Yeah. Rose Royce. Oh, my gosh.

That video has gone viral, too, because everything Dion touches right now is gold. Did you see Colorado sold out their. Home games for the rest of the year for the first time in Colorado, Buffalo's history.

They did. We got to go to a game. Let's go to the coming to UCLA. I know, but let's go to Boulder. I'm. You know, I told you show on the road.

It's not to interrupt. I make this quick. Should we do that? We'll be the latest ones.

Just show up on campus. We do a show. Yes. Rich, an old roommate of mine. I'm building an empire. I'm the one in charge.

So an old roommate in my work security there. And he worked last year and I was talking to him like last week and he said, it is incredible. He gets to run the sideline with Dion and he goes, this is the most incredible thing I've ever seen. He goes, the amount of people, just the way the fans are taking them, he is literally like the Pied Piper and everyone's following this guy. And again, don't take that cheese that Dion's not. Coming for Oregon in the best way that he knows how and preparing his kids in the best way that he knows how. Just because we're focusing on the all our other razzmatazz, if you will. I saw a video of Dion of Colorado's practice yesterday.

Did you see this? That they're blasting stadium music and the Oregon fight song over and over and over again. So it just becomes noise, not distraction. But they're used to, oh, yeah, I heard that fight song 50 million times already this week. It's going to be loud. So Dion's come and prepared and I cannot wait for that game.

I cannot wait for that game. I see TV every week. So that's the latest on. Look at us leading the show with Colin. We are.

We did not plan that. It is kind of natural to talk about. This is the story of sports right now. This is absolutely and it might come, you know, it's first speed bump turbulence step back on Saturday.

And I need to see everything that I'm saying. Front my commentary with that, with the reality that Travis Hunter isn't there, one of the best players that they have won't be there. However, if they're foreign all going into USC week in Boulder, look out.

I don't think that I don't I don't think our universe can handle it. I mean, he's already been on 60 Minutes. Like, what's next?

Well, he was on the Rich Eisen show. That's true. Yes. I forget first. Come on. I understand.

That's right. We got humble. We got him before 60 Minutes. Exactly out here.

He loves us. You turn on that magazine show and it's like, what's with the stopwatch? Who has a stopwatch anymore? Yeah. Can we update it? Can we update it?

Like an iPhone. Yeah. It's amazing. What are they doing? It's amazing.

What do you guys do? It's amazing. It is. And it's amazing. It's so much fun to watch. I love it. That's your man, Mike.

Oh, and two teams. Again, Zach Taylor is coming on this program top of hour number two. I imagine he won't give us very much on Joe Burrow and him limping to midfield and saying, yeah, I could have kept playing if the game required me to keep playing. And now we're wondering, is he going to play on Monday night?

Because if his calf cannot handle full 60 minutes of action, I imagine Aaron Donald will be the one to test it. The one who got Geno Smith to scream, oh, my God, when he came around the end. That is the funniest clip of the year. By the way, Geno shook it off. Geno shook it off to the tune of being my top performer of week two. What he did in Detroit was terrific. But so that's why we got Tom Pelosoro joining us in about 10 minutes time to tell us the latest there and everything else.

And again, Ian Rappaport was on what the football check out out where all podcasts are acquired, please, with Suzy and Amy. But, you know, there are other teams in this world. And the NFC, for instance, where there are the lion's share, and I'm not making a play on words because Detroit's not one of them, seven 2-0 teams, nine 2-0 teams, seven of them are in the NFC. So if you're 0-2 in the AFC, OK, you're not terribly far away from getting out, not just in your own division, but getting out of a hole in your conference, right? I mean, you got three 2-0 teams in the NFC East, three 2-0 teams in the NFC South, only one 0-2 team in the NFC South. That's Carolina.

And it's just you figure it's a tough hill to climb because they got their rookie quarterback. I don't mean to put my thumb on the scale because I know we have a poll question. Chris, why don't you completely unveil it before I make a choice here. Which 0-2 team is in the most trouble? Yes, sir.

Is in the most trouble. Alright, Bengals, Chargers, Broncos. Are you literally typing it in as we do this?

Yeah, because I was doing something else. OK. Who is our fourth team? Vikings. Vikings. They're in big trouble. They need to trade everybody. Which 0-2 team is in the most trouble? At Rich Eyes and Show.

Vote right now. And again, we didn't include the Patriots because I guess we're not used to them being 0-2. Well, the last time they were 0-2-2, Rich, they, oh, wait a minute, won the Super Bowl. Well, the reason why is because they fell to 0-2 and had Mo Lewis send Drew Bledsoe to the hospital in that second consecutive loss to start the season. The Patriots are 0-2 for the first time since the 70s with them being 0-2 with the first two coming at home.

Yeah, that's rough. You don't want to lose. So we left them off because we figured they would be the ones to just win that poll since one of the only 0-2 teams in the AFC to have a division being led by a 2-0 team. But no one expected them to be a playoff team anyway. All four of these teams, except the Broncos, were playoff teams. Although the Bengals are the other 0-2 team to be led by a 2-0 team.

That's why they're on this list. We're the banged up quarterback. Ravens 2-0, Bengals 0-2.

I would have to sit here and say, are the Vikings the ones in the most trouble? Even though they're only a game out of their division. They're taking on a Chargers team this week equally 0-2.

What a huge game that is. The loser drops to 0-3 and then this is a whole moot point. Maybe the Bengals are because they're 0-2. They're not just 0-2. They're 0-2 in division. 0-1 at home in division. The 2-0 team that's atop the division is the one that just beat them at home and Burrow's banged up. And you look at the Bengals schedule here. After this weekend, after Aaron Donald tries to chase around a gimpy, one would hope he's better than that, Joe Burrow there at Tennessee, which as you know, loves to bang Joe Burrow around, sacked him nine times in a playoff win for Burrow. At Arizona, home for Seattle and then a bye before they visit San Francisco, where I would certainly hope Burrow's ready for this gamut of at San Francisco, home for Buffalo. A game at home against Houston before a visit to Baltimore and then Pittsburgh at Jacksonville.

That's the meat here. That's after a bye, which makes you wonder, do you sit Burrow now? Hope for the best. Get through this first six weeks. Give him another bunch of weeks off for rest.

I don't know. This is something we'll try and get out of Zach Taylor later on, but our poll question is which team at 0-2 is in the most trouble? Part of me wants to choose the Cincinnati Bengals just because of what I just said, but part of me thinks it's got to be either the Vikings or Chargers because one of them is going to be 0-3. Or worse, both of them are going to be 0-2-1, which you don't want to be either. Better than 0-3, technically. Maybe you choose the Chargers because they're in the division with the Chiefs.

And they were a playoff team last year with pretty big expectations. What say you, 8-4-4, 2-0-4, Rich? Get in while the getting's good because we have people calling in from Vietnam like yesterday. We're international, baby. Yes, we are. Let's take a break when we come back. Tom Pelissero on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show before Zach Taylor joins us.

And then Bruce Feldman in studio and the comedian Gary Goldman will join us in a funny conversation hour three. Wait, are you gaming on a Chromebook? Yeah, it's got a high res 120 hertz display plus this killer RGB keyboard and I can access thousands of games anytime, anywhere. Stop playing. What? Get out of here. Huh? Yeah, I want you to stop playing and get out of here so I can game on that Chromebook. Got it.

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Marvel Studios Loki season two new episode streaming October 5th only on Disney Plus. So if you watched yesterday, I believe you heard me reveal my first class problem of when people call and I can't answer their call and my iPhone gives me options to send them the voicemail with a text saying, can I call you back? Can't talk right now. They're either too impersonal or too short for me to send to people I truly care about.

Like, say, Suze. So I created Gimme One Sec. Okay. Which I did on the air in the latest edition of Rich. Rich's First World Problems?

No, no, no. I was just Rich's iPhone settings. That's a terrible segment. So I used it for the first time. You got to use it yesterday. And? Here's the problem.

I talk about these things on the air. Suze wrote, is that a personalized Gimme One Sec or did you hit a button? Suze. That was serious. She voiced that.

Yes, she did. Yeah, interesting. Look at you guys. Well, I'm just saying I talk about it on the air. I need to, if I'm going to make, you know, I shouldn't telegraph my moves.

You know what I mean? Or change it and be like, this is a personalized message. Gimme One Sec. Or should I personalize it like, you know, sweetie or a hun or something like that? You should just have one just for her.

Yeah. Be like, hey, baby, I'll get right back to you. But do it in a Barry White voice.

Yeah, I think we're past those days, brother. Yo, girl, I'm going to call you back. You got to keep that fire up. Should I say, yo, girl, I'm going to call you back?

Should I try that? Yo, girl, yo, girl. Nice, yeah. Right, yo. Yo, baby. I'm going to hit you. What if I, can I, can I, can I include that sound with it? You should.

You should be able to. Honestly. Can you look that up for me while I talk to Tom?

We can do everything else with our phone. Tommy P. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. He and Ian Rappaport and Mike Garafolo, Judy Batista, part of NFL Insiders every day on NFL Plus and NFL Network right in the middle of the day. Chock full of information, kind enough to join us right now is our buddy Tom Pelissero back here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, Tom?

Doing well, Rich. We're in week three and I feel like, you know, the past 48 hours has been one of those explosions that we get a few times a year where it seems like everything is happening at once. And, yeah, away we go into the season.

And it's an unfortunate cadence through the first two weeks. Monday Night Football, shocking season ending injury, two star player that Super Bowl hopeful puts a lot of their eggs in that person's basket. Aaron Rodgers, week one.

Nick Chubb, week two. We were wondering in week one if it was a career ender for Aaron Rodgers. You heard from Rodgers post-surgery that he intends to keep playing, it appears, if not speed bridging his way back in January. Nick Chubb, what can you tell us about the injury that he suffered on Monday night as we're sitting here Wednesday?

Any extra news on that, Tom? Well, obviously, Rich, when you see the replays and even if you avoided the more gruesome ones that apparently the international audience got, you knew that it was a bad injury. You know, the question really is whether or not he had a full dislocation or a partial dislocation. Either way, you're talking about not playing for the rest of the season. That's just a matter of kind of what is the road back going to look like.

To my knowledge, he's not yet undergone the surgery, and there's always some parts that in the surgery, they sort of make some of those determinations. And so we'll continue to stay tuned. It's obviously a horrific injury. And for the Browns, you know, who certainly Nick Chubb is a big part of what they do, they had to, I don't want to say scramble, because you always have contingency plans, but they had to figure out what they wanted to do. They definitely were checking around on who potentially might be available. But ultimately, within the past hour here, you know, they were able to sign Kareem Hunt to a new deal.

It's one year, up to $4 million. A guy who knows that system very well, he scored a bunch of touchdowns for him over the past four years here. It still sounds like Jerome Ford is going to get a big part of the workload, which I'm sure is good news for everybody playing fantasy football with Blue there and play a free agent budget on him in the past 48 hours here. But Kareem Hunt is, you know, a guy who they think can step right in.

And so he came in and worked out for him on Tuesday. He had a bunch of opportunities. He had a handful of different offers over the past couple of months here. This was waiting for the right opportunity. There was no way you could foresee that it would involve this Kareem Hunt going back to a team to remember he requested a trade from at 1.1.

His contract upgraded, didn't happen, goes into free agency, waited it out. And now here it is. The big opportunity comes right back there in Cleveland.

Yeah. And now he's, as they say, plug and play. And Cleveland, no doubt, will plug him in against Tennessee in one of those, you know, paint swapping affairs. I'm sure he will get some touches right there. What about Jonathan Taylor?

I mean, that was a first blush thought. Obviously, he's got two more games left until he can return. But what about Jonathan Taylor?

Here's what I would tell you, Rich, right now about Jonathan Taylor. He's in the building every day doing his rehab work. From what I've been told, he looks really good doing that rehab work. He may not be 100 percent right now, but certainly he's getting really close to being ready to be back on the field. His trade request has stood for over a month now.

The Colts asking price has not changed. And there is certainly a scenario where Jonathan Taylor is back in a Colts uniform come week five. Now, I would anticipate that, you know, we're right now, as we're talking here, we're about 11 days up from his pups stint potentially coming to an end.

So I would think this next week here is where if there's going to be any action on the trade front, this is where it would happen. You certainly understand where Jonathan Taylor does not want to play for the low number he's on this year. Maybe at some point there is a possibility of a bridge deal that could happen, that could bring him back and get him a raise and get him a little bit more security to get back onto the field.

Those are all conversations you're going to have to have. And, you know, as we've seen, if anybody was going to do it, you'd think the Cleveland Browns, with $34 million in cap space and losing Nick Chubb, might have had an interest there. From what I understand, that was not the direction that they were looking at this point. They like what they have in Jerome Ford. They've obviously got another guy they like in Kareem Hunt.

Does somebody else step up to the table here? It might take an injury for that type of an offer, both financially and in terms of trade compensation, to come about. But what I can tell you is I fully anticipate we're going to see Jonathan Taylor back on the field at some point in the near future here. And there is a possibility that that is back with the Colts. Well, you could make the case, Tom, just, you know, supposing from afar as we are right now, although you are the NFL insider here, that the timing wasn't right for the Browns. They needed someone right now.

They could not wait even 11 more days for his pup to expire or wonder what he's like physically, like they needed somebody now and they have a plug and play in Kareem Hunt. I'm just thinking back to about a month ago when the Colts pulled the plug on the we're going to trade Jonathan Taylor, or you have the opportunity to be traded Jonathan Taylor part of our summer. The Dolphins and the Packers were the ones interested, one that we were supposing, one that we were surprised by.

I couldn't imagine they'd be interested in him right now. Maybe the Packers, depending on Aaron Jones is feeling. But Ryan, I mean, don't you think those takers would be gone in terms of what his trade market looks like right now, Tom?

Well, even the Packers. I mean, I believe that Ian Rappaport reported our colleague that the offer from the Packers was something like two mid-round picks. And my understanding was it was nowhere close to what the asking price was going to be for the Colts. If you're Brian Goodacost and you're looking at that situation, you're going, hey, if he's going to be available for relatively cheap, yeah, why wouldn't we be in on a really good football player? But the Colts have wanted upwards of the Christian McCaffrey compensation. So you're talking about a first round pick or the equivalent of a first round pick.

It's a hard sell. I mean, in Miami, where he most heard up a really good start this season, they obviously got a little bit banged up with Sivan Akhmet getting nicked last week. They're kind of getting Devon A-chain involved as well.

If there's an injury, you know, again, certainly they may come back to the table. But what's been really interesting about Miami, because they've been connected to, I think, every running back that's been available, like the entire off season, they never really made that top of the market type of offer to Delvin Cook. They never really made that type of compelling offer the Colts would have taken to move Jonathan Taylor. Mike McDaniel comes from San Francisco. And obviously the 49ers have the highest paid running back in the NFL, Christian McCaffrey right now. But they've also used a lot of different backs. Scheme matters to a team like the Miami Dolphins. And I feel like they've got guys who can run that scheme really well.

Tom Pelissaro here on the Rich Eisen Show. We were a few days away from the Jets taking the field against the Patriots in a huge week three game. Patriots 0-2, Jets licking their wounds with the Cowboys beating up on Zach Wilson and making it feel like it's 2022 all over again. What's your reporting on what the Jets are doing with that quarterback room that appears to be a second straight week of status quo post-Rogers blown out as Achilles? I'm glad you asked that, Rich, because like every time I turn on the TV, all I see is debate about should they trade for Kirk Cousins? Should they call Tom Brady?

I would tell you this. What the Jets saw the first three quarters of that game last week in Dallas against maybe the best player in the game, Micah Parsons, and maybe the best defense in the entire NFL was not all bad from Zach Wilson. He made some plays. He was relatively efficient. He was executing things the way that they wanted to see him in terms of getting through his progressions. Again, dealing with all the pressure. When Micah Parsons is living in your lap, it's hard for any quarterback to function. The three interceptions all came once you're down three touchdowns. He's trying to make things happen. Yeah, could he change the decisions or make a better throw on some of those?

Absolutely, but you really got into a game scenario there where it got away from him. What the Jets have to do right now and the viewpoint that they're taking is the offensive line has got to play better. Again, you're not going to see a lot of fronts, a lot of pass rushers like Micah Parsons, but the offensive line has to play better. They've got to give Zach Wilson time and they've got to get the run game going.

That's it. Now, maybe we're in a different place. If we're come week eight and the Jets are still alive, they're five and three or whatever, then maybe you're talking about going and getting a quarterback. But I don't sense right now that they're sitting there going, there's somebody out there who's going to be this huge upgrade. I mean, even Kirk Cousins.

And again, we're dealing, we're way into the hypothetical realm here, Rich. But Kirk Cousins is on a team with the Vikings. It's 0-2. A lot of season left coming off a 13-4 season. He has a no trade clause.

There's no telling would he want to go anyplace else, would he even allow a deal to happen anyplace else. And if you're the Vikings that just paid Danilo $120 million to come back for this year, you've got Justin Jefferson, another one of the best players in the game. You've got a team that you think could be competitive. You're not looking after 0-2 to go, well, that's it. We're going to get roll with Jaron Hall or Nick Mullins or whatever. Again, maybe things changed down the line here.

We're still really early in this process. Let's see what Zach Wilson does this week. Again, against the Patriots defense that causes all kinds of challenges and they aim to confuse the quarterback and they want to take away what you do well. Let's see how they react in this game where maybe you're not quite into that same type of feed-out lopsided game mode like they were last week. I hear you, Tom, and I appreciate the clear-eyed, calm, clear-headed approach. I'm trying to balance you out here.

No, no, no, no, Tom. I appreciate that. My question wasn't so much about Zach Wilson because short of the Jets petitioning the NFL to shorten games to just three quarters, they have to ride it out with him. I appreciate you saying they've got to get their run game going. That is a Nathaniel Hackett question to answer Breeze Hall with his four football emojis that he X'd out and then literally X'd out by deleting it. I'm talking about the Zach Wilson decision-making where he winds up in a blue ten and then Tim Boyle's out on the field against Bill Belichick.

Good luck to the gang green then. So why aren't the Jets, maybe have they not kicked the tires on any veteran that's ATC right now to come in and learn the system in case they're the ones that they have to turn to by week eight? Because there aren't any other quarterbacks on the market and the Jets aren't ready to win the Super Bowl because of what Zach Wilson has done over the first eight weeks. You see where I'm going with this, Tom?

Why just sit tight with the room as it currently is? The depth thing is certainly a question. One of the options went off the table when the Rams promoted Brett Ripen to the 53. Not that that's going to be somebody you're anticipating stepping in. At least he's been with Hackett.

He knows the system. I mean, look who's available out there right now, and this is not to cast aspersions on any of these guys, but from the Jets' point of view, Zach Wilson's the former number two overall pick. No, I get it. I'm not talking about supplanting Zach now. You have to.

But think about the makeup of the room, though. If you go sign Joe Flacco, you sign Carson Wentz. Foles. Foles is the one. I don't know if Nick wants to play anymore, but if he did, that's another thing that's out there.

Good to know. Andy Dalton. There's a bunch of guys who potentially could be out there. The moment you bring that guy in, and this is not about Jets fans, Rich, but you also know that the back page headlines and what's chanted in the stadium, if Jack Wilson throws one interception, it's going to be for Andy Dalton or whoever it is. There is a level, and I'm not saying this, nobody's told me this with the Jets, but I would just say from a quarterback room perspective, when you've got a young quarterback, especially one who's in this type of spotlight with this type of team, and you're trying to bring the best out of him, not bringing in somebody that lends this idea that, hey, were you going to go to this guy?

Well, at what point are you going to Flacco? It seems to me, again, just my opinion from the outside looking in, that they are trying to give Zach Wilson every show of support, not just verbally, but in terms of what they do. That, hey, we believe in you. We're not panicking.

We're not going out and getting somebody else. If we lose these next couple, we might be having a totally different conversation, Rich, but I think that there's a little bit of that here where you're just looking and saying, okay, we can't have any signs that we are panicking, because that's going to have a negative impact on the quarterback who are just trying to believe in himself as much as we're saying we believe in him. Tom, I'm having Zach Taylor on a Zoom in about 20-something minutes time.

What do you think he's going to tell me about Burrow? I would imagine with Zach, he'll do what he did when I interviewed him on NFL Network at, I think it was Back Together Saturday, where he just kept saying the same thing over and over with a smile on his face. Zach is not a big timeline guy. He had a bad experience with that back in his first season with A.J.

Green. He's really never touched timelines in the past. What I would tell you about Joe Burrow is that, yeah, there was absolutely significant concern coming out of that game when he's using that Hyperice device on the sideline, when he's grimacing the way he was and limping. When you've got these calf injuries, they can be long-term, and either you rest them or you try to push through them. And if you try to push through them, you could be like Aaron Rodgers back in, I want to say it was 2014, where he had a calf injury like the whole year. By the time they got to the MC championship game, it's the game where they were up like 16-0 on the Seahawks. Seahawks roared all the way back, fake punts and all that.

Rodgers that day couldn't even get up on his tiptoes. That's how much the calf deteriorated throughout the course of the season, so that impacts your play calling and everything else. So for the Bengals, week seven bye. The thing you have to work through here is, do you rest him? Do you say we're sitting you down for four games, we're going to try to get a month of this and then bring it back? Or on the flip side, since you already tried the rest thing for four weeks, and then he came back and the calf is still an issue, do you say, let's just try to push through it for the next four weeks, then get you a little bit of rest surrounding the bye there and hope that that improves things? From Joe Burrow's perspective, or I should say, from what people have seen with Joe Burrow, he is feeling better. The past couple of days, I was told he was in the building for a workout yesterday. We'll see how this plays out.

They got the extra day with the Monday night game here. But absolutely, I would say that his status is a question mark at this point, and the Bengals are going to have to make some decisions because Joe Burrow himself is probably always going to say he can play the Bengals with the highest payback. The Bengals with the highest paid quarterback in the NFL are going to have some decisions. Well, I guess the wrong time to test out to whether your calf can survive running from Myles Garrett and then the Ravens defense is Aaron Donald. I mean, that's a rough test, one would say, on Monday Night Football.

I don't know what the options are. It's Jake Browning, right? That's who it would be, if not. Jake Browning, who's never completed an NFL pass, and they have Will Greer, who I also think has not completed an NFL pass. He's played well in preseason. Preseason finale after the Cowboys traded for Trey Lance. They still cut him.

Ends up on the Bengals practice squad. Yeah, it would seem to be Jake Browning. Browning's been around. He was out of the University of Washington.

You can go back. Jake Browning was a Heisman. He was like top 10 in Heisman balladine. I want to say it was his freshman or sophomore year at Washington. Nobody remembers this because he ended up going undrafted. He had some injuries and he kind of became completely forgotten. But they always liked him in Minnesota.

He's just kind of a gamer. He can sling it around a little bit. He beat out Trevor Simeon in training camp here. He's not Joe Burrow. Not many guys are Joe Burrow. Technically only one guy is Joe Burrow. But Jake Browning's there for a reason.

They think if they had to play a game that he could go out there and do it. Alright. I know you're up against it. My usual way out the door with you is what do you got in your notebook you want to talk about? We're not talking about enough. Your two cents on that subject, Tom.

What do you got? Let's talk about the Panthers, Rich, and Bryce Young. Because I think that a lot if you didn't completely turn off that game and go over to the other one on Monday night. I think that the Panthers offensive performance definitely raised some questions if not concerns just about how it looks right now. It's rare that you have a new head coach like Frank Reich in his second game and is already facing post-game press conference questions about giving up play calling. And they do have a Bright-Young offensive coordinator in Thomas Brown. Frank Reich at some point decides to turn it over to Thomas Brown. That wouldn't totally shock me during the course of the season.

But they're not there yet, especially on a short week. To me, and just talking to some people around the league, it does look like right now Bryce Young is swimming a little bit in that offense. Obviously, he's a guy with a really high capacity. He's a fast processor. He doesn't wear a wristband on the field. He can repeat things really well.

None of that's an issue. But for whatever reason, you look a lot of times, they're snapping the ball with just a second or two on the play clock. It looks a little bit panicked. He's not able to just go play. And the beauty of Bryce Young at Alabama was he was the guy you watched him.

Everything was so instinctual. Everything was just this free flow and he just went out and played. It doesn't look like that right now. They had receiver injuries in training camp.

He missed a bunch of reps. I think that a big part of it is, and this is not just about the coaches, it's everyone. It's the offensive line play. It's the consistency with the wide receivers.

He needs some help. Bryce Young needs some help around him. I think you'll see that incrementally get better here in the coming weeks. But that's definitely, you know, because there he is, the number one overall pick.

That's something to keep an eye on. Meanwhile, the other rookie quarterbacks, real quick, Rich. In Houston, every week from talking to people there, you're seeing him get a little bit better.

How about Tank Dell, who you look really smart. If like me, you drafted him in a fantasy league because everybody, when you go through Texans camp was like, that guy's open on literally every single snap. You got 10 targets last week. The little guy from Houston, he's got the potential to be a really good player here. And you're going to see CJ Stroud. There's a lot of challenges on that team. The Texans have a long way to go personnel wise, but you're seeing growth right now from CJ Stroud. And then Anthony Richardson, obviously, you know, in the concussion protocol, he's got to find ways at times to minimize that contact. You talk about Zach Wilson and the decision making. Same thing with Anthony Richardson. I mean, he's a quarterback who's built like a tight end. We know he can take on the contact.

There absolutely have been flashes in these games as much when he's running this, throwing it where you go. That's what Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen saw. That's why they took that guy number four, because the potential is off the charts. But first game, bangs his knee. Second game ends up in the concussion protocol. It's going to have to protect himself a little bit here. But make no mistake, the Colts are really excited about what they've seen from him when he's able to stay on the field.

You think he'll be ready for at Baltimore, Anthony Richardson? Obviously, it's still early in the week. Yeah, the concussion protocol had several different steps. Usually you can tell based upon what the practice participation is listed as through the week. So if Wednesday, Thursday, he's a non-participant, you know he's probably not going to make it because you've got to go gradual. You've got to come back to limited. Then they examine you, make sure your brain's functioning well. Then you go to full.

They see how your body and your brain is functioning here. So if those steps don't accelerate in the next, let's call it, 48 hours here, Rich, then he's not going to make it. If we see him out on the practice field on Thursday, because he's not going to practice today. If he's out there tomorrow, then maybe there's still that slim hole. But I would not, you know, the average for quarterbacks for anybody is one game missed for a concussion. At this point, I wouldn't hold my breath, but we'll see. It's all guided by doctors, not by the team.

Right, and last one for you. You talked about Frank Wright giving up play calling potentially. They're not there yet.

Mike McCarthy took it on. And two weeks in, I mean, he's going to be my guest on Friday's show, Tom. So far, so good, right? I mean, the points are a palooza and it seems in rhythm in the same way that we were talking about. Obviously, you got a rookie quarterback in Bryce and somebody like Dak.

They look to be fully loaded right now. What do you think? Rhythm is the key word there, Rich. You nailed it because, you know, Kellen Moore is a really great offensive mind. He's very creative. He came up playing for and coaching with Scott Linehan, who basically brought the spread offense to the NFL 20 years ago and is all about spread it out, vertical routes, get the football down the field. Well, when you talk about Dak Prescott, he's had a lot of success doing that over the course of his career. But at the same time, we talk about interceptions. Some of that comes when you're trying to push the ball down the field a lot.

Mike McCarthy comes from a West Coast background, came up under Paul Hackett, Nathaniel's dad in Kansas City and San Francisco and then obviously in Green Bay. So he's all about the rhythm passing game. It's about getting easy throws for the quarterback.

It's going to be slants. It's going to be getting the ball of his hand quickly. Also getting the ball into space, getting it to the perimeter. But it's not all a vertical type of offense. When you've got a defense like the Cowboys have, you don't want to call it ball control because I think people think that means running it 50 times. When you simply just don't give the football away and you get your quarterback in rhythm, that's going to give you the opportunity then to just control the game, let your defense rest a little bit and then come out there and do what we've seen them do. I don't know that we've seen Dak Prescott have to put up a lot of points so far this season based upon who they've played and the style of games. And that probably doesn't change this week either. But this style of football is what Dallas is built to do.

It's not a personal level. I'm happy for Mike just because I know how excited he is, how much he loves calling plays. This is a big part of what he's done. He told me years ago that after one year he gave it up to one of his assistants, Tom Clemons, and then took it back in December. He told me that following year.

I'm never giving play calling up again. In a different spot in Dallas because Kellen Moore was there. Obviously the Jones family loves Kellen. Dak was comfortable with them. And Mike, to his credit, said, you know what?

I'm going to try to embrace this. Well, a few years later now he goes, all right, it made sense for everybody to move on. Kellen had a great opportunity with the Chargers. Mike had the opportunity to do something that he loves. And finally, just about this rich, he even last year, in the past couple of years, was still showing up like seven hours early to the stadium. I'd be in Dallas getting there, you know, on your show game day morning, five hours before. Mike would be like, you here yet?

He'd come out and see me. He's got nothing to do because he was just in there. He'd normally be in his play calling sheet together. Now he's actually got things to do when he's at the stadium.

So he's excited about it. And the Cowboys, I mean, to me, they look like one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL. Taking on the Arizona Cardinals in week three. Tom, thanks for the time.

NFL insiders on NFL Plus and NFL Network with Tom Pelosero and also the rest of the gang. Thanks for the time here, Tom. Thanks Rich. And meanwhile, Kellen Moore is here in L.A. Again, that's our poll question right now, is which 0-2 team is in the most trouble? I want to hit that poll question when we get back here on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show.

Zach Taylor, zoom in with us. Top of hour number two. And then Bruce Feldman in studio, middle of hour two.

With a big weekend of college football afoot to say the least. 844-204 Rich, also the number to dial. We've got some phone calls to take with you here on this busy Wednesday. Hey, it's Rich Eisen. You want an exciting and fast paced podcast based on one of the most popular segments in the history of the Rich Eisen Show? Well, you got it. Overreaction Monday hosted by me, Rich Eisen, and my compadre, Chris Brockman.

And every Monday we're going to dive into the headlines from pro and college football and overreact. Are you ready, Chris Brockman? Yay or nay?

Yes, Rich. No holding back, buddy. I'm coming for you. Absolutely what you need to hear. Overreaction Monday, every single Wait For It Monday, wherever you listen.

Back here on our show, 844-204 Rich being the number to dial. How's Cage doing, brother? How's your little boy?

Let's talk about you, the dad. What do we got over there? What's going on?

Let's see. Not really interested in going to bed. 1 a.m. wake up, 4 a.m. wake up, 5, 30 a.m. wake up. What's going on? When it's 1 a.m. wake up, does he come in your room and just go, hey, what's up? Here's the thing, though. It doesn't often affect me because I'm on the far side and I'm just asleep. He goes right to Sarah's side and is just like, hey, mom, mom. Hey, I don't think it's I don't think it's a spatial thing.

I don't think it's a geographical thing. I think it's just the mom always gets it. Mom always gets it. Yeah.

So she's she was a little she's a little off a lot of tough to write comedy coming off of that little out of it this morning. It's good. It's a solo dad weekend, so. Oh, so he'll be getting me back.

I'll be getting I'll be getting my dad. We I'm just trying to think if I can help you with any of this Saturday. So we're we're all good. We're full up at the end now. It's all good.

So Paul's not ready yet. So you're on your own. Yeah, that's figured out. We're happy to help figure it out.

You know, happy to help. You know, my kids love love helping out with cage. The book comes in the water day, Brock, when you come down on the boat. Oh, bring cage on the boat. So I don't get a solo invite. I have to bring my son to go on the boat.

I've invited you guys. That's a lie. That's a lie.

That's a lie. If you had invited us, we'd have already been on the boat. I would have said no. But at least I don't know if I don't get invited because you think I'm either too busy or uninclined to say yes. But you have not invited. I've invited everybody. That's a false statement. That is a statement that is either true or not, and that is not. Back here on our radio program where Mike Del Tufo just said he's invited us on his boat and he is not.

The problem is I go out last minute. Global. So you have to be on like this is like kind of like we're like the, you know, the AWAC. As we just described with Chris with a four year old at home. He's four now. Three and a half. Three and a half. Rounding up.

Rounding up. OK. And three kids with Susie and I have. We're not last minute people.

No, that's what I'm saying. You guys got a plan. Like, hey, what's going on? You want to go on my boat? Meet me at the marina. Meet me at the marina in 45. Because my boat's like a quarter mile from my place. Oh, thanks.

Thank you, though. So we just have to randomly be in Redondo and then like, hey. I'm a fart. Like we're Jack Tripper. Come on, open our boat.

All right. So, you know, we were just talking to Pelicero about Mike McCarthy calling the plays so far. So good, man. And I can't wait to have him on Friday's program to. I'm fascinated why he chose to win, you know, when he won the toss, why he chose to keep the ball against the Jets. When you want to put Micah Parsons out there and just make Zach Wilson's day long from the get go.

And instead, he put his offense out there and he made it longer from the get go. And it worked out. I mean, everything was he's just pushing buttons right now. And one would assume I won't mention this to him on Friday. Like, hey, that button you're going to push in Arizona is going to be a hard one for Arizona.

Like you're going to really you're going to you're going to really push that button. And the reason why I bring this up is Kellen Moore, who was the offensive coordinator the last couple of years in Dallas, or predated McCarthy's two years there in Dallas, there now is here in Southern California. And the whole I mean, one of the. Off season narratives was Kellen Moore is going to unlock Justin Herbert in a way that what the previous OC Joe Lombardi was just way too conservative for him. And, you know, let let Justin Cook is kind of the phrase around here that I'm coining. So first two games in their own two. And the question is, is why? I mean, you can't other than that, you can't just say that the charges, you just can't do that.

You can't do that. No, they're going to charge is going to charge. Brandon Staley is going to do this or that or, you know, trust his gut, all that business.

And then the gut blows up on you. Bubble guts they have right now. Justin Herbert and these Los Angeles Chargers, 58 points for coming in. The only team with more points in the first two weeks is Miami. Two more than them.

No offense. That's the margin of victory they had over the Chargers. So the problem is the Chargers have given up 63. And that is let me make sure that is the most in the AFC through the first two weeks. That's the most. And again, they gave up more than half of them to the Dolphins.

And then Ryan Tannehill and the and the Titans and Derrick Henry and just made plays down the field. Maybe maybe it's the. It's it's their defense not getting home enough. Because it certainly doesn't appear to be Kellen Moore yet.

I look this up. I don't talk about next gen stats a lot. But according to that organization that this past week, Justin Herbert averaged 10.6 air yards per attempt, which is the most in a game since his rookie season. Getting the ball downfield.

Right. And and and they damn near went on the road in a tough spot in Tennessee, which it is. I don't want to hear about, you know, you don't believe in the Tennessee Titans. OK. You know, the Saints were in a Donnybrook in week one with them at home, almost lost that.

And they went on the road with that Austin Eklund almost won it. So do you not choose the Chargers in our poll question of the own two team you're concerned about the most? Because of that, or the fact is they are going to another going to Minnesota on the road and a team that's given up. The most amount of points in the first two weeks in the AFC are going to face Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. You want to believe, I guess, Addison with his cup of coffee out here in Southern California wants to ball out against the Chargers. One would think, you know, and the defense that Brian Flores is trying to tune up, having gotten tuned up, you know, by the by that run game against Philadelphia.

I mean, what do you what do you do? I don't pick them because I don't think they're having as many issues as the other three teams. Right. Herbert's healthy as opposed to Burrow. Herbert's healthy. Offense looks great.

Austin Eklund will be back. You know, they had 200 yards rushing when he was out there in week one. They're giving up a lot of points. The Bengals have injuries. The Broncos defense is not playing well. Russ, a couple of turnovers there at the end. And then the Vikings are just a hot mess.

I don't want to call him a hot mess. I don't know. And they're only a half. They're only a game out of first place. They win this one. They're one and two and then their next game is at Carolina.

You can go two and two. You're home for Kansas City. They better win this one. And then the Chargers, if they lose this one, if they win this one, they're they're one and two. And then they're home for Vegas, which is kind of a home game for Vegas. The Raiders usually before bye week.

Then they come out against Dallas on a Monday night. This one's still up in the air. Our poll question. What are the current standings right now? Oh, I was going to say who you got in the game because right now Vegas has Chargers. Vikings is a pick them.

Oh, poll question. What Joe and two team is the most trouble. Vikings 16 percent. Chargers 18 percent. Bengals 26 percent. The Broncos, huh? Broncos 40. 40 piece.

40 percent. Just because they feel that Russ might be still washed, even though I think he has looked better in the first two weeks. I think so, too. I think it has more to do with the division. Or or they're playing like the Raiders last year. They had leads in two. They led by six against the Raiders week one loss. They led by 18 week two at home to Washington and watch Brian Robinson Jr., another Friday guest of our program, run all over them with Sam Howell doing his thing. Got to figure them and the Chargers should at least have a win.

It should be one to one at the very least. I'd lean towards taking the charges against the Vikings. I'll tell you that. I think so.

Chargers have a more talented roster. That's what he thinks. I think so, too.

I agree. You know, Vikings have a coaching edge. I don't know about that. Who knows? Come on. Coaching edge. I mean, I don't know.

Close. Because you want to turn Justin Herbert loose, but after what you just saw, what the Eagles just did? Well, that offensive line may be the best in football. You just saw what DeAndre Swift did. You could think Eckler could do that. Josh Kelly could do that. And you just roll it right up. Don't make a mistake.

Get the hell out of Dodge and come home. Zach Taylor of the Bengals coming up next with Bruce Feldman in studio behind him. For World Conversations, we are going super deep to bring you weekly guests that you won't find anywhere else. It is What the Football with Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask, wherever you listen.