REShow: Tom Pelissero - Hour 3

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That's Dell.com slash gift guide. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rich Eisen Show. And we thank you for sharing that with us. With guest host, Steve White. Let's go live. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. I'm sorry for saying that you're an average wide receiver that they eventually will move on and when teams call me and ask him, should they trade for you?

I will say no. Earlier on the show, from NBC Sports Bay Area, Matt Mayoko, NFL Network. Network reporter, James Palmer. Coming up, NFL Network insider, Tom Felicero. And now, sitting in for Rich, Steve White. All right, we're ending our three of the Rich Eisen Show. And as you heard, I am Steve White from the NFL Network.

And make sure to call us at 844204rich. Watch us on the Roku channel, which some of you are already doing. That's channel 210 on DirecTV. Listen to Sirius XM on channel 218 on Sirius, channel 202 on XM. Stream for free on the Odyssey app or odyssey.com.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at at the Rich Eisen Show and subscribe to the YouTube page, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. Again, I'm Steve White showing by TJ Jefferson, Jason Feller and Chris Brockman. Guys are coming off of a Thrill Over Thursday Night Football game.

The Rough One for the Broncos. We've been talking about that for much of the morning. Got some Major League Baseball. The division championships are settled.

We got the Texas. We have the Rangers against the Astros. You know, we've got the Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks, Phillies.

It's the Phillies. And that is about the extent of the Major League Baseball conversation that we're going to be having on this show because I am way out of my depth right there. But guys, let's talk a little college football.

Let's do it. Let's talk a little bit about the University of Colorado or do you guys when you guys talk college football, TJ, you talk about Colorado, you talk about Dion. I mean, I want to say we say the name the University of Colorado, but in essence, yeah, it's, you know, those tissues when you blow their nose. No one calls them tissue. They're clean.

They're clean. That's right. You're supposed to take your fandom, kind of put it to the side or behind you for professionalism. But, you know, Rich is a huge Dion fan as are the rest of us.

I know I am. He's the reason I became a Florida State fan back in the late 80s. So, yeah, when you kind of referenced the school, it's let's talk about Dion. Let's talk about Prime and you're talking about the Colorado. It's been really cool to Steve because they were the big story for the first three weeks of the college football season.

It was so fun. They came out of nowhere. Everyone knows Colorado won one game last year, one of the worst programs in the power five, uh, their win total coming into the season. Vegas had them at three wins.

They've already surpassed that already in five weeks. Like it's been such a fun story. It was really cool. And we knew that look, we knew they were going to face. Tougher opponents once they got into the meat of the PAC 12 schedule, they had tough games at Oregon. They, we knew they were going to have a tough time with USC, but they made that game fun and exciting.

And it seemed like maybe they turned a corner in the second half of that game. They play tonight in front of a national audience on ESPN against Stanford. It's just a fun, cool story. No matter if you're a big college football fan, but we all know who Dion Sanders is.

We all know that he has very talented sons who play on the team. It's just been great for the whole sport. It's been awesome. It is what it is. I mean, to me, I mean, he, he is a brand and Dion understands it and he embraces it, you know, with a smack entertainment, with the cameras following him everywhere.

There was a great video clip of him this week about accountability, you know, where he is preaching to his players. Like it's over, comes real soon. And it's a message. Not enough young people here is that you think it's all going to be going on all this riding high and all this great stuff going on with the bus, getting your tuition paid for getting free meals. Getting your rent paid for that.

It's going to go on forever, but you better have a plan because it's over is coming soon. And that's what Dion and I love the fact that he's sharing this publicly. But the interesting thing to me is not many guys are going to be able to pull that off. I mean, one, he comes in with the gravitas being a Pro Football Hall of Famer. He's well known because of what he did on TV at the NFL Network and other places where he's worked. But I love the fact that, you know, even though he's no longer at Jackson State. And we talked about him when he was at Jackson State and HBCU, more people, even over the past few years, who had no idea who or what Jackson State was now do because Dion has that in his contrails. Right? It's on his resume of what he's doing at Colorado. He pulled Jackson State into national recognition.

This is an HBCU. Right? Jackson State. This is where Jackie Slater and Walter Payton and Robert Breazeale.

Right? Pro Football Hall of Famer. Went to school and so many people have no idea about that until Dion kind of put that on the map. So I love the fact that he's bringing all of Dion with him.

The history of these HBCUs and elevated Colorado now into a national program. He's going to get recruits because when Dion sits down with mom and dad, it's a wrap. Yeah, you know, and TJ, this is we give you credit here that you've been saying this the whole time. You think Colorado is going to win an ad in like four years just because it won't take that long. You don't think it's going to take that long. It won't take that long.

Really? I believe that, Steve, because these kids now they're going to see all the hype that Colorado gets. These kids are going to want a piece of this, right? You're going to look at what the kids like. They like, in addition to the football, they want the nice gear, right?

That's what you want when you're 18, 19. You're going to get the fresh gear. You're going to get the dope locker rooms. You know you're going to be talked about all the time. And you've got a coach who's done it at the highest possible level. And you're going to get more coaches.

SAP is talking about going there. You're going to get other gold jacket coaches are to come in there and teach you and only help you to become a better football player, but a better man, a better human being. This is just he's going to be the Pied Piper.

And there's no doubt. And like you said, how are you coach be going to follow Coach D when after he leaves a recruits living room? It's like, what are you going to say after Dion was Deon to your parents? Like, I don't I don't know how you follow that up.

I went through the process, right? So when they come to your room, we want your son to graduate. You want him to be become a better man.

You know, you want you as parents to feel secure that we're going to take care of your son. So that message part for Dion isn't new. He's making it public right on their practice jerseys.

They have their Instagram handles the app, whatever, right? He's embraced it. He's made it public. He's speaking. He's speaking the language of the of the young kids. He's speaking the language of the microwave.

He's also using his history. Again, his gravitas to make these guys, but and I think the biggest accomplishment Deon Sanders will make it. It's how I led this conversation off. If we're no longer calling it, Dion, we're calling it the University of Colorado and his players are more of a household name than he is and that will happen. I know the man that will happen.

He loves a limelight, but he loves nothing more than shining the lights on other people as well. And I think that absolutely is going to happen. Okay, so that starts it off, but we have some we have a couple of big games this weekend and look folks down in SEC country aren't going to try to hear this, but this Washington Oregon game huge is fantastic. I mean, these are these are two teams that are very much in the national championship conversation. They've got players. They've got quarterbacks. They've got physicality.

Any thoughts on this? The Ducks go Ducks like Michael Pennix, the lefty, the quarterback out of Washington, who's might be the leader in the clubhouse for the Heisman. I like Michael Pennix. He's your betting favorite right now. He's having a phenomenal year, 2,000 yards, 16 touchdowns, only two picks. He's the betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy. He might sneak into the first round of the NFL Draft. Most I mean could be a day to pick Bo Nix.

Could he be a first round pick? It's going to be an awesome game. I think Oregon has a little bit of an edge here, even though the visiting team. I kind of like Oregon with the points if we're going to talk that game, Steve, but this is going to be this is national championship, you know, implications. The winner of this game has an inside track to being in the getting themselves into the playoff with USC having a tough game at Notre Dame. That's going to be a good game, too.

We're going to talk about that in a second. But this is going to be awesome. Two top 10 Pac-12 teams. It's funny, the last year of the Pac-12 as we know it, and this is the greatest season they've had probably since USC, Pete Carroll's game.

You're right, since they were like the Pac-10 or even like the Pac-8 back in the day. Absolutely, absolutely. So this is going to be awesome. 3-30 Eastern, ABC game. It's going to be great. The betting favorite Michael Pennix when nobody's really seen him, you know, think I mean, we, you know, we live on the West Coast, so we see a lot of these games, but folks down in Athens, Georgia.

Oh, no, they're saying a plate. They're playing at 10 o'clock Eastern. Washington is playing all these late games ESPN Pac-12 Network isn't even on a lot of the providers. So I guarantee you this is going to be the first time a lot of the casual National College football fan audience has seen him play and he's a lefty.

How many people are going to be like, whoa, the Washington quarterback is a lefty. That's weird. I know that. Yeah.

Wow. And the next two are it's it was what to me that when you see the betting favorite, he can go out and throw for 400 yards of Caleb Williams. He gets Notre Dame, which everyone's going to be watching. He has a good game.

Throw those bets out the window unless you know, you're playing some long shots right there. So teach you that game. SC at Notre Dame, right?

We know the SC defense couldn't stop us. Yeah. I mean, it's an issue.

I can hit you on the seam all day. That's right. You know, once one time. It's a mistake.

What it is. It's a trend. It's an issue, but the Notre Dame. They can't score. I mean, they're there. They have problems going, but this is the rivalry going back to him like Anthony Davis back in the day was beat Notre Dame.

Catch it, but that's how old I am guys. I'm referencing Anthony Davis. My father leading up to this game when they play these old clips are just going to be incredible. Oh, yeah.

I mean, they always are that those old school games and oh, man. Yeah, I didn't really think I cared that much and now just this conversation is going to go. I can't wait to see you got Sam Hartman. Who's got I mean, man. He has got the flow. He's got the beard. He looks like he's 35.

I don't even care. You know, he looks like he looks like Charlie Whitehurst son. Yes, he does. Charlie. Yeah. Yes, he does.

He's got all the flow. But like you said, you know, they've lost a couple games now. They got upset by Louisville last week. They should have lost the Duke. They should have beat Ohio State. They got kind of robbed on the goal line with the only having 10 guys on the field. Yeah.

No, not good. You know, they're struggling. They're in a gauntlet stretch right now. And here comes SC Notre Dame is favored in this game. Do you what do you think about that? I mean, that's because SC has just it's like every year they lose a game. They shouldn't right.

And so this is almost like tipping the scales back in us. He's favored because oh, they're saying that we shouldn't win, you know, against going to be pouring down rain terrible conditions. Yeah. I mean that works both ways, you know, even though it takes the kind of Caleb Williams magic element. I down a little totally disagree. Totally disagree to me bad weather favors quarterbacks because he knows what he's doing. He's got his hands in the ball, right? Maybe he can't go out there and shake eyes out on the run, but he's such a poised type of player where he's running to throw the ball. I mean, he's he's so good.

Everything you hear and read. He is that guy. He's that good.

I don't think this weather is going to disrupt him. Let's at least a bunch of drop passes. But again, that goes for both teams right there. Hey, the game. I'm looking forward to my alma mater, Howard University against Harvard. Yes, the Battle of the HU is, you know, this usually is used as a big debate, not the game who's going to win, but like a debate. An actual debate law schools are going to get in here and win an actual case, but you know, we'll see how that goes.

I got us got to support my HBCUs and especially my alma mater. All right, guys, let's get back a little bit to the Thursday night game. You know, I don't I don't think we can talk about what's going on in Denver. No, I'm so fascinated by all this enough, you know, again, we've been hitting on Russell Wilson with James Palmer also talked about some of the pieces around him how they just have not been able to surround their quarterback and it went from, you know, ever since Peyton Manning, they haven't able to find a quarterback. They haven't been able to find guys to build a team and I'm just interested after the season because you know, we think if things keep going the weather they're going to blow this thing up how Sean Payton is going to go about building this team to be successful in a division where Patrick Holmes isn't going anywhere and Justin Herbert isn't going anywhere because if things keep going the way they're going people are going to start saying, okay. Was it Drew Brees? I mean look and I think it's a fair conversation if we're going to say with Bill Belichick was a Tom Brady people can say was it you breeze with Sean Payton?

I you know, look, I think the world is shopping. I think he's one of the most brilliant play designers and schemers and things like that when it comes to quarterbacks, but does he need someone like a Drew Brees who can decipher, you know, the Matrix some of the things were saying about Brock Purdy the way he decided, you know, the way that he deciphered defenses can Sean Payton if he were to get a Caleb Williams is he somebody who can develop a young guy would he be able to work with a young team and develop that's not why that's not why he came there. That's not why he's making the money. He's making they're supposed to win right now, right? So the whole read potential reset for the Broncos to me is very intriguing because as you mentioned Chris if they cut Russell Wilson, there's a significant cap hit that they will have to take it. I don't think it's as much of a cap as if they keep him which is why he's probably gone if things don't turn around, but you might not have the free agent money to kind of go transfer portal.

So to speak and upgrade your roster right away either. Yeah, it's a good point, you know and to if you look at Denver, they've kind of had bad injury luck the last few years. Yeah, you know, you got Tim Patrick second year in a row. I think that loss last year and this year you can kind of see that out there. Gervonta Williams having a great season last year gets injured.

They've kind of had that bug a little bit. Greg dulcich supposed to be this kind of dynamic tight end. He gets hurt in the first game. This is four weeks comes back immediately gets injured.

You know, re-aggravates that hammy. They've had bad luck in that sense too. But also, you know, the year off for coaches.

Sometimes it's good to reset. It seems like Sean Payton kind of needed that right, but the NFL game can quickly pass you by if you've been out and I don't want to get there with Sean Payton yet, but he struggled to this season. It's not just been Russell Wilson. It's not just been, you know, the bad defense. They can't stop the run. Sean Payton's kind of struggling to and I'm wondering if that's just shaking the rust off a little bit and he'll have a better second half of the year or part of a bigger issue with him.

Well, I don't know if it's with him. I mean having a better second half of the season. I don't think we'll do with Sean Payton. I think it's with the personnel and we'll see how busy they are on the trade market. I tell you another interesting when you talked about injuries Daniel Jones quarterback for the Giants out this week with that neck injury and Deshaun Watson is out with that shoulder injury as the Cleveland Browns get ready to play host to the San Francisco 49ers coming up next. We have NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero who's going to have more on those injuries. Where could Frank Clark the defensive lineman who was just released by the Denver Broncos.

Where could he end up in a whole lot of other news circulating around the NFL? Alright, you know, I've had the situation. I'm sure you have to where you tried to buy some tickets to an event concert a game this like this like sometimes I'll get on the computer and I've got my sheets reserved and then I'm looking to see. Okay, this the price will change something will happen.

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Co for terms again create an account and redeem the code rich for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guarantee. Guaranteed millions of listeners and thousands of five star reviews rave about the hit podcast series in the red clay the unbelievable story of Billy Sunday Burt the most dangerous man in Georgia history. He was a whiskey man bank robber hit man.

He was a murderer. He's also my father seasons one and two are available to binge right now and bonus episodes are coming soon imperative entertainment presents in the red clay get the podcast wherever you listen. Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask present offbeat conversations and expert sports commentary as they ask what the football when my family found out how long it took me to figure out why Charles Woodson named his wine intercept. They said there's a reason that you had trouble in school, you know, not everyone knows, you know, what I think about intercept. They don't know that I play football. Well, what I've learned is a smooth defensive back can make smooth wine. That's what it's all about.

What the football with Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask the podcast is available Tuesdays wherever you listen. Philadelphia Eagles. We have that to talk. Yes. Yes as I'm draped. You are Eagles paraphernalia.

Now that's that's like your guts. You got the green hoodie. Yeah, I went green hoodie and then I went satin black jacket just noticed that eagle on it. This is subtle. Yeah, you know blatant with it. This is a subtle guy didn't notice it.

It's sort of like a watermark sort of situation. Yeah, you have right then you get up close to you like, whoa, he really is a Eagles fan. He's got a lot. Yes, got a lot of Eagle stuff. I'm wearing a jersey to the Super Bowl with Jerome Brown patch. That's what you want to do.

Yes. Okay, random Cunningham Jersey. My Jersey has Jerome Brown patch. Well, what will it say on the back will say heart will it say your name say Cunningham? It's a real Jersey. Okay. I can't make it say heart. I'm no longer authentic.

If I make it say heart, it's got to be a real Jersey. This is a real moment understand. It's a big moment for me.

This is it. It's a big game. What do you think?

What do you mean? Well, I think it's going to be 80 83 to 6. I called it. I put my prediction out there a long time ago.

Okay, I had a dream. I saw it and how many to that. So how many touchdowns then for Nick Foles then out of that? Nick Foles going to throw for 32 touchdowns. It's going to be a grinding game and Foles is going to this game with so much confidence after the last game. He's got so much confidence.

I don't care what you say. You can't beat confidence. You know how much confidence I have? You can't beat my confidence.

I don't care what you tell me. I'm so confident. I'm so confident.

Foles has confidence. Our defense has confidence. We are here.

This is what we said. We are here. We will be in the beginning of the season and we got here as confidence.

They used to being here. That's cocky. That's this little nonchalant shoulder shrug.

Yeah, we'll do it again. It's not the same type of confidence. It's not the same type of hunger.

It's a different level of hunger and these dogs got to eat get it because they was calling us understand. Yes, I know. Alright, back in our three of the Rich Eisen Show. I am Steve White sitting in for Rich who is over in London and we're listening to the Rich Eisen Show and we're talking to you on the Rich Eisen Show on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Furnished by Grainger. They're at the show desk. They furnish the show desk where I'm sitting and there's supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. I am Steve White again joined by Chris Brockman, Jason Feller, JJ Jefferson. We're here hanging out.

We got some good sound effects. Steve, you said my name? I never thought in my life I'd hear you say my name, man. This is Steve White, guys. Come on. How is that your boy? Say my name.

I've been watching this man for years. We were sitting there swapping like Tribe Called Quest lyrics here. I was doing the Q-tip.

You were doing Five Dog a little while ago. We're there. We're good.

I think there's a friendship in the bond now that's never going to leave, Steve. Well, there we go. I can feel it. I can feel it. Anybody can go with Tribe. We're good to go. I can feel it. Shout out to Michael Holly for putting me on Tribe way back when.

There we go. Guys, Tom Felicero from Annabelle Network. That's our guy right there. You know, I hear you, Steve.

You know, joking around with the fellas, but I always know those are my boys in the studio. Tommy B. has had this year much more than I have. So I just want to hold him to the standard, man. You know, we've got to raise the bar. What's up, Tom? I'm here, man. Week six, getting going in full force. We got quarterback injuries. We've got trade deadline 18 days away. It's an interesting time, man.

These are always a busy few weeks here. And I think that one of the themes that you see around the league is there's a lot of teams that are kind of trying to figure out what are we. And the trade deadline, there was discussion last year, you know, the GMAC, the competition committee talked about who pushed the trade deadline back a week. Two, the concern with that is always you have teams that are going to then the later you get, the more teams know that they're out and you might have teams just getting rid of a bunch of assets. But the issue is, last year, the Lions were one in six at the deadline.

You could have easily said, well, they should trash everything and start over. Instead, they largely stayed the course at the bank in a run and they're a tiebreaker away from making the playoffs last year. That's something we talked about with Brad Holmes on the insiders the other day. It's just, it's a unique spot for GMs. It's the earliest trade deadline in all of major American pro sports.

You have to navigate this. No owner wants to hear after five weeks the season's over, but there's complicated decisions that need to be made. And Tom, just for those who don't know, give us the date of the actual trade deadline. Halloween, which I'm very excited about because that means at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, 3 p.m. Central, where I live, it's over.

There's no more trades at that point. So come 6 p.m. when the kids want to get me into whatever outfit they come up with to get a screening, this year I can do it. I'll never remember it being in October. This is fantastic. Oh, right. Hey, first, you got to tell us what your daughter's like. Are you giving them options as to what they can dress you as, or they just get to pick? It's free reign.

Here's the thing, Steve, and you've had kids this age, mine are nine and six. Whatever they tell me today, they may or may not remember it come Halloween. So I've heard a couple of different, we want you to be this, but I'm just hoping that they forget about it, and then we'll see as it gets closer what exactly they decide to do.

Not going to happen. Okay, anyway, quarterback injuries. I want to go to this Deshaun Watson injury because this is real funky because of the timing. A couple weeks ago, pregame workout, a lot of discussion whether he said he wasn't going to play, the team decided not to play him, whatever.

They have a bye. So it went from a pregame workout where he's kind of on the fence to playing, to a bye, to him already being ruled out with the shoulder injury. What has developed for them to go ahead and pull the plug on him as they get ready to face the 49ers this week?

I'll start with this, Steve. Deshaun Watson still has not practiced since he suffered that injury. He did not practice during the course of week four. They did think, Deshaun Watson thought, the coaches thought, everybody thought that come Sunday he was going to be able to go out and function to the best of his ability. They got to that pregame workout. He really didn't throw a ball over 10 yards. They made the decision that he was not going to go that week. He went home, rested and rehabbed or went somewhere, rested and rehabbed during the bye week, came back and still wasn't there to the point that he didn't practice again this week here.

Now I think that part of it, there's a lot of different things involved here. Kevin Stefanski had said the initial thing of he was medically cleared and Deshaun, we listened to Deshaun, which is kind of what teams do when you get down to it. Which is, can the player go?

If the player says, I can't do this, you're not going to force a guy out there. Andrew Berry did some cleanup on that the following week, trying to explain it. I think that the fact that this was referred to as a shoulder bruise did not necessarily help people because when I think shoulder bruise, I think, hey, I walked into a doorframe at 4 a.m. when I was in my not bed. I'm not thinking it's what it is, which is a rotator cuff contusion, which is an internal injury in the ball.

If you have that, you lose strength and you have discomfort and all those different things. So Watson has been throwing, he's just not doing it in a practice setting. We'll see what develops here in the coming weeks. What we know for this week is it's going to be PJ Walker going up against the 49ers.

If I'm Jim Schwartz, I'm going, alright boys, we're figuring out a way. Are we winning this thing 18 to 15 or are we winning it 13 to 11? It's going to be potentially a sloppy day, a windy day, a rainy day in Cleveland. Use that lake effect to your advantage here and hope that you can kind of grind this thing to a halt, play really good defense and a touchdown or two is enough to get you through.

Yeah, windy days still do not necessarily help when you face the best running football team and it felt like the 49ers. Let's go to Daniel Jones, Tom. This neck injury, now I know they said this is different or he said it's different than the one he had a couple years ago. If you could clear that up because to me, a different neck injury seems almost more worrisome seeing as though you've had a previous one. My understanding is it's in the same area of Daniel Jones neck to the one that he had back in 2021, but when he had that injury a couple of years ago, it was a disc issue.

It required surgery and it was season ending. This one is not believed to be that severe for Daniel Jones. I know that the Giants initially back in 2021 had referred to it as a neck strain, but he did not end up playing again.

In this case, they've been more vague, just continually saying it's a neck issue and this comes at a time that the Giants are really battling it. Not just in terms of their record and the way that they've performed, but it's been hard when you're down several different starting offensive linemen. Andrew Thomas's left tackle is out again this week. John Michael Schmidt's one of your high draft picks, another starter, he's out this week. You haven't had Saquon Barkley for three weeks. He's been limited in practice this week. I believe he's listed as questionable for the game on Sunday night against the Bills.

That's a lot of different moving parts offensively and now Tyrod Taylor, of course, played for the Bills, the last quarterback to lead the Bills to the playoffs prior to Josh Allen. He had to go up against his old team on Sunday night, but he's not going to have a couple of his starting offensive linemen. He may or may not have Saquon and you would think that if Saquon does play, it's not going to be a 30 carry type of a night in his first game in a month.

So they've got their challenges. Darren Waller also listed as questionable. He's been dealing with a groin injury through the course of this week. Can the Giants put it together against a team and a defense that's been playing really well? We'll find out here. They're hoping Daniel Jones gets back sooner than later, but collectively as an offense, they just haven't functioned at a high enough level.

Yeah, it's real tough because that snowball is really rolling downhill for them. Indianapolis, Anthony Richardson, we know he's got that shoulder injury. He's going to be out for a while. Is there any update in terms of prognosis as to how long or is that still up in the air?

It's still up in the air, Steve. I would tell you that at this point, they don't believe surgery is necessary. It's not been ruled out, but they don't think it's going to have to go that route. They think it's likely somewhere between a month or two until Anthony Richardson comes back. It's not thought to be anything season-ending for him, but it's a significant AC joint sprain. And when you've got a player who has a physical type of playing style like Anthony Richardson, and frankly has had injuries in three of the four games he's started so far this season, there's a concern with that in terms of you don't want to put him back out there before he's 100% healthy. And if anybody knows that, it's the Colts, it's Chris Ballard, they've dealt with it with Andrew Luck's shoulder injury, specifically with Andrew Luck, among a variety of other things that were happening through the course of his playing career.

One of the things that made Andrew Luck special, but also was part of his ultimate demise as an NFL player, was he played quarterback like a linebacker, and he initiated contact, and he wanted to be physical, and he would run the football. I don't think that you look at the hits or the injuries Anthony Richardson has suffered so far and go, man, he's setting himself up and he's just getting blasted. No, like when he banged his knee, that was just, he's stretching out for the goal line basically, it kind of hits his knee weird. You know, when he had the concussion, that wasn't a crazy type of a hit. He's getting to the pylon and takes a shot, and then the shot last week, obviously his reaction to it lets you know that it's significant, but he goes down and you're not going, oh man, that was such a brutal hit. It's just he hit the ground and something happened.

That happens sometimes with young players in the course of their career. You know, you have an injury phase and then you hope that you get out of it here, but he is very much the face of the franchise and you're not going to expose him before you're 100% confident that he's where he needs to be physically. Well, their former face of the franchise, Jonathan Taylor, is coming back, right?

And I think you're reporting he should have a more expanded role this week. I mean, that could help offset things because Gardner Minshew, we know he's a very capable backup there in Indianapolis. Let's go to the trade talks. The Denver Broncos, we keep hearing like, man, if it doesn't look good, they may be sellers at the deadline. They got a couple pieces that they could get equity for in the last year of their contract.

Let's start with someone like a Jerry Judy, a wide receiver. You know, do we expect Denver to be in play and teams to be calling them about taking some of their players and Denver being willing to move guys? Well, Denver is definitely getting calls about a lot of different players. And that's in part because it's been apparent for weeks now within the league that they're willing to listen on practically anybody on the roster. And that's not unusual, I don't think, especially a guy like George Payton, who's an experienced NFL executive.

He's going to take every call because why would you not? I think that, you know, when you zoom out and you look at where the Broncos are right now, and you look at a game like Thursday night against the Chiefs, you know, there's an uncharacteristic error made by Sean Payton in that game, losing track of the downs, calling a timeout and basically gifting the Chiefs a field goal before halftime here. To me, and knowing Sean Payton's history, you get the sense that there's so much swirling around and he's trying to fix so many things at once that maybe some of those types of things happen because they're just kind of slipping through the cracks right now.

That's not an excuse. You know, if Nathaniel Hackett did that, they would have, you know, phoned in Jerry Rosberg and have him come and become a game management specialist. You wouldn't, you know, you're not thinking that with Sean Payton, but you know, in terms of building that culture, building the roster and the personnel the way that he wants it to, I think that Sean was, you know, optimistic. He's very confident in his abilities, but I won't say underestimate how far he had to go, but you watch them play right now and it's obvious the parts don't entirely fit together. Denver also, between the Russell Wilson trade and the Sean Payton trade, they're missing a lot of premier draft capital.

Well, how do you get that draft capital back? It's not flipping Randy Gregory for a 6-7 flop, even though that's better than getting nothing for him. It's certainly not cutting Frank Clark, who is never going to be a good fit with what they were doing in Denver, not a good fit with Sean Payton and the way that he wants to build that team.

It's moving, you know, is it a Justin Simmons, is it a Jerry Judy, a Courtland Sutton? Could they get calls on, you know, Javonte Williams? I'm just listing names of guys who tend to be in demand someplace else.

Pastor Tan is probably the one who it's going to cost you an exorbitant amount to go get, but why would you not listen on everybody? Because this is a long-term type of a building plan. I shouldn't even say long-term because Sean Payton's not thinking, okay, we're going to be bad for three years and then come back. He doesn't want to be bad this year. Maybe there's opportunities for teams to offer him something, you know, in terms of players that might be able to help him right now, but they do need to replenish the draft capital. They do need to flip over that roster. In order to do that, you know, to get good players, whether it's now or next April or in the future, you got to probably give up good players.

And you got 18 days to do that before the deadline. I don't know that it's a complete fire sale and they pull off eight trades here, but I do know that they're going to listen and we'll see what deals are able to get done. I think, Tom, what is interesting to me, and I think maybe it's just more media chatter, speculation, whatever, Kirk Cousins getting moved.

I don't see it. I mean, I know he's in the last year of his deal, but he seems like somebody, if he plays well, the Vikings could maybe even get him to a new deal for two or three more years after the season. To move him now would seem very peculiar, not only for the Vikings, but for whomever would be bringing him in and having to get adjusted.

I just look at this logically, Steve. If you're Kirk Cousins and you have a no trade clause and you're going to hit free agency in March and you got family, you got young kids, you've got roots in Minnesota, you're still on pace to throw for like 6,000 yards and an offense, you know, you finally have the same offense, the same play caller for two years in a row, which was not the case. If you go back through the course of Kirk Cousins career, why would you be willing to roll the dice, go someplace new for like nine games and oh, yeah, you're set to become an unrestricted free agent in March.

You're going to put up numbers no matter what. It gets harder without Justin Jefferson for the next four games. There's no question about it, but you know, far in a situation where if something were to happen in, let's say, San Francisco where they've got an MVP candidate right now in Brock Purdy, what other coach do you know?

What other system do you know? Everybody talks about the Jets. How are the Jets paying him? Where are they getting the picks to trade for him?

How is Kirk Cousins and why is he going to accept the trade to a place with a completely different offense in midstream and all the pressure that would come with it? I'm not saying, hey, this is impossible. I'm just looking at this logically speaking. At this point, the Vikings are not punting on the season anyway.

If they were to lose to Chicago this week, they got the 49ers coming in on Monday night. Yeah, then you're one and six and you're having different conversations on a variety of different levels. But again, you can't even trade Kirk Cousins unless he's on board with it. It's hard to imagine.

There's a lot of scenarios where he'd be willing to accept the trade to go someplace else. They're not there yet. We'll see what plays out here, but I'm with you, Steve. It's hard to envision everything lining up. We say all that and then some quarterback can go down this weekend and things change.

But right now, it doesn't make a lot of progress. I just don't see that happening with the coach-quarterback dynamic and everything that they have up there. You mentioned Justin Jefferson being hurt.

Everyone says, oh, their season is doomed. But I know when I was up there in training camp, Jordan Addison, the rookie, is someone they really had expectations for. Do they feel that maybe he can handle an uptick in workload and things like that? Because he seems like he's a pretty special dude.

Absolutely. They've been really impressed with Jordan Addison. I know that Kevin O'Connell, one of the things he really liked about Addison, going back to the draft, was his route-running ability.

He was able to create separation for himself. He took over the spot that was really Adam Phelan's before. Phelan is not nearly as physically gifted as Jordan Addison. He made his bones by being able to run those types of routes and get himself open. Now with Jefferson out, we'll see how they play it coming up on Sunday against the Bears. I don't think you suddenly take Addison out of everything that he's doing at his position and just say you're now playing the Justin Jefferson role.

You've got a guy in KJ Osborn who's been there, who also knows that spot. But yeah, you're looking for a little bit more out of Jordan Addison. I think that any time Steve Ulu is a superstar type of a player, particularly a receiver, part of the challenge is now for those other guys on offense, every time you were in a jam before, it's okay, Justin can bail us out.

Now he's not there. You think the next guy up is TJ Hockinson. Hockinson hasn't played the best. He basically sat out all camp, waiting for a new contract.

He came back, he had a key drop last week. He's not playing the way that you would like to be to see him play in one of the highest paid tight ends in the NFL. You'd like him to step up, you're going to need Addison to step up. You're going to need that backfield to step up where they just haven't created explosive plays so far in the running game. And that's the fumbles. I mean, the Vikings offense has been unbelievably productive, Steve. When you look at yards and you look at the way that they've moved the football consistently, they've lost fumbles at a historic rate. And recovering fumbles is pure luck. So you'd think that over the course of time, you're going to lose a lower percentage of the fumbles. But the fact of the matter is, I think it's three weeks in a row, they've fumbled on their opening drive. They've lost the fumble on their opening drive. When that consistently happens, coaches can only do so much. I know O'Connell was out there a couple weeks ago poking guys with the stick and emphasizing ball security. That continues to be an emphasis.

At some point, it's personal responsibility. Hold on to the football or else you're not going to be out on the field. Last question, Tom. Is there anything out there floating in the NFL atmosphere that we may want to keep an eye on that could develop over the next couple of days or weeks? Well, I mean, the trade market, Steve, is the biggest thing here. And you're going to have significant questions about whether it's a team like Minnesota, whether it's a team like Chicago or Carolina. Some of these teams right now are kind of on that tipping point of all those teams thought that they were going to be better record wise than they are right now.

You know, if they lose a couple games or they win a couple games, you go into buy mode, you go to sell mode. That's a big part of what we're tracking. I think right now within the league, obviously, you're also coming up on that time of year where you start to talk about potential coaching changes. Whether it's head coaches or coordinators, we have not had outside of the Allen Williams situation in Chicago, which is a whole other story.

We haven't had a coordinator change so far in the NFL. Right now, the second half of October, as much as everybody says, OK, the best coaches, whether that's Mike McCarthy or it's Mike Tomlin or it's Bill Belichick, all their records get better. September is always their worst month.

They get better as time goes on over a long period of time. You get into October, you start trying to figure out, OK, what type of team are we really? And those teams that are going a certain direction, you know, you're going to have, I don't want to say desperation, but certainly reality, perhaps setting in here where you may have to shake some things up.

And so for now through Halloween, man, it's going to be a really edgy time in some buildings. That's an unfortunate reality within the NFL. And there's going to be some teams on the flip side of it who realize they're good and might think they're a piece or two away who are going to get aggressive. Just like the 49ers who remember last year, Steve, when they made the McCaffrey trade and a losing record. I think there were two and three roughly at that time when they made the trade that ended up being part of their, you know, massive term here. And oh, yeah, they also pulled a seventh round pick out of the woodwork and he's been a pretty good quarterback for him. Real quick, Tom, other than Lions OC, Ben Johnson, a coordinator who we should look out for as a potential head coach.

That's a great question, Steve. I mean, look at some of the coaches right now. I think that, you know, right, wrong or indifferent, you know, there's a lot of good coordinators around the league who right now, the teams may not be doing the best. There's a couple of them in Carolina, Thomas Brown and Adrian Rivera, who are, you know, going to be, they had, they had interviews last year. I think a variable interview for every job in the league. He's got to be on some short list.

Doesn't necessarily, doesn't necessarily disqualify them at all. But you know, if you're looking for like the hot coordinator candidates, I mean, look at the job that Bobby slow it's doing right now. Uh, down in, down in Houston with a young quarterback and CJ straw, look at the work that Frank Smith is doing in Miami. Um, you know, he works with Mike McDaniel. Mike's going to get a lot of the credit, but Frank's one of the respected coaches, uh, in the entire league. I think that that's another name you're going to be hearing here and there's a long way to go here. Steve, I'll put up my young, uh, my young coaches can't wait for it. It's uh, it's always interesting because you know, listen, there's, there's different criteria for every team.

Um, you know, so it's not just a hard and fast. This is the list. Every team's going to have their different list.

Every team interviews different guys here and they are influenced by recency bias on some of these different things. But you know, when it boils down to it, you're going to hear some of those familiar names are going to be in the cycle. Again, guys like Dan Quinn will be back in that, uh, back in that mix certainly here. And we'll see, you know, some of those other Eric B enemy, you know, it's certainly going to be in that mix again.

And we'll see how it goes. He's obviously the offensive coordinator in Washington. Now they've had their ups and downs so far of the season. He's always going to be on the radar. It's very, very early, but it gets late fast, Steve in the NFL. And I don't think it's going to get late for the 49ers and hopefully Steve Wilkes, our defensive coordinator, uh, gets another shot to be a head coach.

Tom P you can watch him with Ian Rapoport, Mike Garofolo every day on NFL network and NFL plus on the insiders. Always appreciate you, man. And I'm sure Rich will be calling you soon when he needs a breather to come join the rest of the crew out here in LA. My boys. Thank you. All right, jets coming up next on the rich eyes and show, we are going to close things out with more NFL talk.

Steve White will be back right after this break. I'm losing the goalpost. Why, why are there goalposts? Okay. Why, why are kickers?

Okay. Who have, they don't have football skills. They're not football players.

I'm sure they're wonderful people, but they're not football players. Why, why, why are they kicking a ball through goalposts to decide games? It doesn't make any sense at all. It's a, first of all, goalposts are a relic from the old English rugby, I think.

Okay. You know, when they used to actually run and kick a ball through goalposts, but they don't do that in the NFL. There's no need for goalposts.

What, wouldn't the game be better without them? Think about it. Why not just have leaping frogs to decide games? See if a frog can leap through a little goalpost that you set up, okay, on the floor. And if the frog can leap through the goalpost, then do that. Why kick it through a goalpost? Well, it's not called leaping frog ball.

It's called football. So you're saying take the feet out of footballs? Is that what you're saying? Is that what you're saying?

Yes. Why feet are deciding games and they shouldn't? Why should one player, one player with this skill like the guy on the Ravens.

Justin Tucker, yeah. Why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing? And this one person, this 53rd person, is deciding games?

It makes no sense whatsoever. Hi, welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. I am Steve White and you can stream the NFL on Westwood One for free, sponsored by AutoZone. All season long, you can listen to every Westwood One, Westwood One broadcast of the NFL Live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open WWO Sports or on your Westwood One affiliate station's digital platforms. That's right, stream Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner and Rich Eisen all season long for free and get in the zone with AutoZone.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the zone, AutoZone restrictions apply. Alright, let's go to the phones. I understand that we do have a call from one of my favorite cities on the NFL Tour from Baltimore, I believe. Hey, Patrick in Baltimore. What's up, brother?

Nothing much. Thanks for taking my call, guys. Happy Friday to you all.

Happy Friday. What do you reckon? So I have been looking at Russell Wilson's contract on Spotrak and I'm thinking there's a 0% chance they cut him after this year. Because next year his cap hit is $35 million. But if they cut him, his dead cap hit balloons to an unfathomable $85 million.

Okay, I do think you can do a post-June 1. You can designate him a post-June 1 cut and you can spread some of that pain out. Because if it was an $85 million cap hit, he ain't going nowhere. But that cap hit is still going to remain for some way.

But I do think there's a little bit of what we like to call salary cap gymnastics that can be performed on a balance beam to make it a little bit more palatable. And, of course, they would try to trade him before they cut him. But, Patrick, we really appreciate you doing that, playing a little general manager for us with the salary cap.

What do you think they do, Patrick? Do you think they keep him or cut him? I think they keep him for one more year. And then try to run it back with him and Peyton and see if it gets any better. If not, then they cut him.

Alright, alright. That might be something painful for people to swallow if things don't go well. Usually teams don't try to do that. But maybe they say we build around Russell a little bit more.

I thought that's what they were trying to do. But we absolutely appreciate the phone call, Patrick. Thank you so much for listening to the Rich Eisen Show. I just don't know how it gets better around him. Is it by getting younger and a little more athletic? I just don't know what the move is. I don't think they mortgage draft picks to do that. I mean, they've got to get draft capital back. As Tom Pellicero just pointed out, they gave up so much to get Peyton and Russ. They've got to try to get draft picks back.

Quickly, guys. To me, the game of the weekend is Seattle and Cincinnati. In Cincinnati 2 and 3, Joe Burrow looked better, much better on that calf than he has all season long.

He has said this week it's the closest to 100%. We saw Justin Jefferson catch like 900 yards and passes on like 27,000 targets in that game. But they are playing a good Seahawks team. Win or lose, though. And this is what I'm saying because I'm a big Bengals guy. I think they're excellent.

But win or lose, can we put up their schedule? And let me read this off to you. You've got to put on my glasses.

Where did they go? Man, this type is not great. Okay. But their schedule coming up after Seattle, they have a buy, then are at San Francisco, Buffalo, Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville. That gentleman is a gauntlet.

Dude. That's a gauntlet. So if they, so if they get back on the winning track, they will have earned it. I mean, when you look at that right there and you see that if they win, they get the 500. But if they lose, they dropped the two and four, um, two and four under the buy, uh, no bueno, especially the way the season started and what's coming afterward. Uh, presumably a loss at San Francisco, uh, a Sunday night game against Buffalo that they've struggled against the last few years.

Houston is nobody's pushover now with the way CJ Stroud is playing. They might be in playoff position by week 10, uh, for all we know, and then divisional games, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, those are slobber knockers at Jacksonville. The Colts are tough. And then the three to finish at Pittsburgh, at Kansas city, Cleveland, that could be for a playoff spot in week 18, for all we know.

I mean, there's not much margin now, you know, there's not much margin right there. Again, I just think they're good enough to deal with it. I mean, those teams still have to play Cincinnati, Cincinnati's defense, I think is starting to turn a corner. Those young safeties are starting to play a little bit better. That was, you know, they lost, uh, you know, two, two veteran safeties, one of them being a stud and Jesse Bates, who was just bawling out absolutely in Atlanta. Um, but that, that's a legitimate, legitimate schedule, but Hey, it's the Bengals. We'll see. This is why the NFL is so great.

It's great. We have no idea what's going to happen. We have no idea. Well, guys, that's not necessarily true because, you know, I do have a script. I know some things. Okay.

Well, that's script. I'm sure did not have me sitting in this chair right now. Thanks for joining me.

You guys were having me on the rich eyes. So have a wonderful weekend, everybody. I knew you were here before you did, Steve. Oh my. Unless I'm right. Yeah. Uh, chiefs dolphins, bills, Ravens Ravens final four over reaction Monday, the podcast, wherever you listen.