REShow: Matt Maiocco - Hour 1

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That's Dell.com slash gift guide. This is the Rich Eisen Show. And we thank you for sharing that with us. With guest host, Steve Weiss. 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. Today's gasps from NBC Sports Bay Area, Matt Mayoko, NFL Network reporter James Palmer, NFL Network insider Tom Felicero. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Steve Weiss. Welcome to the Rich Eisen Show. As you heard right there, I am Steve Weiss with the NFL Network here with the gang. I am tremendously humbled to be here with this fantastic cast and flat flattered by my guy Rich Eisen saying, Steve, come sit in the chair. You know, it was just a week ago or so when I sat in the studio for the first time since Rich hosted the show. Come up, Steve. I mean, I have leveled up. You don't play around. Eight feet to the right. There you are.

I really view that more of an of an act of desperation. There was nobody else to get in this chair. But look, we've got some Major League Baseball, the Diamondbacks against the Phillies. Phillies are red hot. We've got the Texas American League Championship World Series, Houston against the Rangers.

Think about that. All Texas Championship Series. All Texas Championship Series.

And you know what? They're all going to be talking about the Cowboys regardless. Sorry, MLB. This is where we are in the world. It's all about the NFL. That's hilarious. And Mav's preseason too.

They may, you know, they may get a little bit of love. But Thursday Night Football, guys. Let's do it. 19-8.

Dandy. Wasn't great. Wasn't great. But Kansas City Chiefs prevail over the floundering Denver Broncos. And you know, this is weird because, you know, do you want to say the Chiefs are the real story? Because they're continuing to win besides their offense, not functioning at a high level, even though Patrick Mahomes threw for 300 some yards. Only got 19 points. Or is it the Broncos? I mean, this is a situation where Russell Wilson, 95 yards. Is that it? He was sub 100.

Am I, if I'm looking at this right? 13 of 22, 95 yards, two interceptions, four sacks. Man, at one point, he was like five for 11 for 37 yards. In the first half. It was awful. In the first half.

And you know, I can't watch this. I'm such a huge Russell Wilson guy, right? I think about those great days in Seattle where he's moving around, where he's dropping 20 yards in the pocket and throwing it 40 yards downfield, a 60-yard throw. Because he had that big bazooka of an arm. And then I'm watching him last night, getting passes batted down at the line of scrimmage because he's only six yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Is it a chicken or the egg thing? Because he doesn't have a ton of support. This offense isn't working. Was it his bad game? You know, because they said he looked good.

And he has played fairly well. But it's just one of these things where, okay, what's going on with Russ? And, you know, we're going to have James Palmer and Tom Pellicero, both my NFL Network colleagues, on a little bit later. In the show, because Palmer was there and he lives in Denver. He's very tight to the franchise. But you're looking at this picture for those not listening on the radio, watching on Roku, that of Sean Payton and Russell Wilson.

How much longer is this going to work? Because Russell is there for this year. They're paying him too much money. Sean Payton is not going anywhere. They're paying him too much money. But how long can they continue to put this product on the field that's losing?

And in a game where their defense actually played well last night. And so we're kind of looking short and long-term at the Broncos here. Could they be sellers at the trade deadline? We're hearing Jerry Judy's name.

Oh, in a lot of different ways. But, you know, he could be someone that could be on the move. That Denver could be shopping their players. And there will be takers for guys like, you know, Jerry Judy or whomever else. They want to, you know, want to potentially move.

But, you know, we were talking about this, Chris, you know, a little bit earlier. When you look at the potential draft for next year and where the some of these teams could be, Denver's right in the mix. You're looking at a team like the New York Giants. Oh, by the way, Daniel Jones is not playing against the Buffalo Bills this week.

He has been ruled out with a neck injury. So Ty Taylor is going to be in the mix right there. But you're looking at teams like this New England. Who could be drafting top five?

It is, you know, Minnesota. It is amazing to see where things have shaped up after just five, six weeks in the NFL, where you don't think there's hope, you know, when you look at the Patriots, when you're looking at the Denver Broncos, when you're looking at some of these teams, Carolina Panthers, you know, they get Bryce young and they're saying he's the guy who could salvage our franchise from what? Speaking of Carolina, by the way, Steve Wilkes, what about him on the come up? Doesn't get the head coaching job, but now he's coaching the defense for the San Francisco 49ers. I think we need to touch on that. We're going to do that with Matt Mayoko from NBC Bay Area Sports a little bit later on, too. About what's going on with Steve Wilkes, but Rockland.

Yeah. And Steve, you know, you look at the top of the shutout tankathon. If you look at the top of the NFL draft right now, it's a lot of teams are aren't used to be picking this high. You know, you're talking about New England, you're talking about Denver and Minnesota and the Giants.

It's bad. And these are teams that you can probably throw the Minnesota might win a few more games. I would expect Chicago to kind of win a few more games, but they have Carolina's pick.

You can throw the dirt on these teams already Panthers. They're not making the playoffs Patriots. They're not making the playoffs. It's certainly doesn't look like the Giants and the Cardinals. They're not making it. If you go to the teams with two wins, Green Bay really didn't look good.

Last week, Las Vegas. I expect them to beat the Pats and to get to 500. But that's not a really a good football team. Washington and the Jets.

They're not good football teams. They're going to all be in that top 10. And you think about, are you sellers trade deadline in 18 days? Are they sellers here after weeks six, seven and eight?

It's a real conversation. And I think when you look at Denver, Ari release, Frank Clark got to expect that he's going back to Kansas City. Guys, a lot of guys are going to be available for Denver.

Russell Wilson is really just playing out the string for the rest of this season. And it's going to get a lot worse for some of these teams. It's so weird because, you know, we're sitting here talking about, you know, teams are going to be sellers, but this isn't Major League Baseball. You know, we talk about this every year in the NFL, but rarely do trades happen. But I do think Denver is going to be in one of those situations because right now they're going to get as much draft capital as possible because we don't know who their general manager is going to be next year.

George Payton, you know, he was there. He's nowhere to be seen or heard from for their general manager. Maybe Sean Payton goes down to New Orleans and brings up Mickey Loomis or go goes and gets Kai Harley off that staff. They change their scouting department because there's going to be significant upheaval in Denver.

So I think they're one of the few teams that are going to do this. You know, I don't think someone like Kirk Cousins as much as we want to talk about him being traded. I don't know why the Vikings would trade him. I don't know why cousins would want to be traded. I mean, I think the Vikings might try to sign him long term longer term ish after the season.

So I don't see a move like that. But with Denver, it's just absolutely intriguing to me. We're week six talking about playing out of string. And again, this is just not a good football team right now and on a night when their defense finally plays well against one of the most high octane offenses in the NFL Russell Wilson and this crew can't get over the hump. And guys, when you look, you know, again, when I will look at Russell Wilson and I look at the crew with and we were talking about this earlier guys, you know, when he was in Seattle, you had Tyler Lockett. You had Doug Baldwin these guys getting open.

That's not happening in Denver and you say to yourself. Is it coaching or they're not coaching scramble drills. I'm sure they're practicing this stuff right like what is happening when they get in games when they're not executing.

There's no juice to this. And you know, and I have the utmost respect for Sean Payton is the head coach. I think he's one of those brilliant offensive coaches in this era, but why isn't it working like some semblance of something and I know coming into this game Thursday night. We were saying this offense is playing better and Thursday night is often not a good truth teller true of what a team is. I mean, especially in a divisional game which is always tight. But the lack of hope is just, you know, it's just it's absolutely staggering to me as someone who's covered this league for a long time when you're looking at Denver with a Russell Wilson, New England. You talk about it, you know, a situation up there with the Patriots who they're ready to bail.

Let me ask you this guys. If the Patriots pick top five, would you trust anybody in their leadership and talent acquisition to make a top five pick in New England in New England? They've whiffed on so many being a Pats fan. It's like they've whiffed on so many first round picks in the last decade. I'm just trying to think of the last truly time Christian Gonzalez looked like he was a great pick. He was a great pick. He fell in the draft to them. You kind of in it. If you do a redraft his injury notwithstanding, he's probably in the top 10.

Sure. Imagine, you know, defensive rookie of the month. Key on white fell in the draft. He looked like a great pick, but outside of those guys, nobody on offense. They're defensive guys. Bill has, I have zero faith in Bill to pick a offensive player who is going to stick in this league. He's whiffed so many times, looked like he's whiffed on Mac Jones.

And now what? I mean, it seems like are these quarterbacks that can't miss to you? If you talk about Caleb Williams, you talk about Drake May, but you have to be number one or number two to get one of these guys. But if Caleb Williams, Drake May, Tom Brady, Tua-Tunga Vailoa were with the Patriots this year, to me, they'd be having pretty much the same type of success or lack thereof of Mac Jones.

I think you're right. I think it's completely unfortunate that we don't have a barometer on Mac Jones because this is an offensive line that cannot run block. It is an offensive line that cannot pass protect. It is a receiving crew that needs a tugboat to get guys off the line of scrimmage, and they're not the only team with receivers like that. I think that's going on in Carolina. So it's really hard, again, to get a gauge on where Mac Jones is.

Let's go to another team we talked about briefly, and that's the New York Giants. Daniel Jones is out with a neck injury, and to me, this is concerning. He's had a neck injury before. I know they're saying this is different. Well, I think a different neck injury on top of another neck injury is not the most encouraging thing.

It's still a neck. Also this week, Deshaun Watson for the Cleveland Browns has been ruled out, so it's going to be Ty Taylor for the Giants against the Bills, and this is going to be P.J. Walker, the XFLs. He had a moment last year. He should have beat the Falcons if D.J.

Moore doesn't take his helmet off, but he can sling it a little bit. He can play a little bit, and they've used him to leapfrog, DTR, Dorian Thompson Robinson, the rookie. Yeah, he struggled last week. He struggled in his appearance, so that's a different one as well, but I want to go back to the Giants because this was a playoff team last year, and people with that organization will tell you, hey, there were some smoke and mirrors happening with them last year, but they had Saquon healthy doing an incredible amount for their offense. We don't know if Saquon is going to play this week.

Even if he does, they're playing the Buffalo Bills. When you see what's happening with the Giants, do you have more or less hope than what the Jets have going on? I think I have more hope for this season. I have more hope in the Jets.

Yeah. TJ, what do you think? I mean, that's an NFC East question, too. At least the Jets have great defense, decent offensive line, and Breece Hall is really coming on. I think we had the same discussion with Rich about a month and a half ago, and I think it is the Jets right now based upon what you just said, based upon the fact that they've got a quarterback.

Well, I'm about to say the Giants have a quarterback we're not sure of, and I guess the Jets do, too, but just in terms of where they stand today, most definitely, I think the answer is the Jets. I'm interested to see what Ty Taylor. I mean, yeah, we know Ty is risk averse, but he's someone who's mobile.

He's someone who teammates trust, and he is the ultimate guy you want in your building. Right. Against the Buffalo Bills team this week that looked pretty decent. I would say that, you know, they lose the game over in London.

But I do think, you know, some things you hear about, they got there late. They were a little bit off kilter. Defensive injuries didn't help either. Trey White, they lose Matt Milano on Sunday in London.

Just devastating for that defense that had been playing really well the weeks leading up to the London game. Now your Buffalo seems like they're in a situation where let's all right, screw it. Josh Allen, let's outscore. Yeah, let's outscore everybody. Well, I mean, they they have the potential to do that. Right. Capable.

You know, they're playing a Giants defense that's trying as hard as it possibly can, but it seems like they're on the field for, you know, 47 minutes. Yeah, a game as well. But, you know, I think kind of going back, you know, we're looking at this tankathon, by the way, thanks for helping me to this website.

Great website. I mean, this is absolutely, this is absolutely great. I made real-time draft info updated. You know, we're looking at this pick number one. Of course, Carolina's winless, but that's the Bears pick.

So they, Chicago may end up with the number one pick and then they may end up, you know, being, you know, in the field for trade offers. Gosh, we're talking about this in week six. It's real. It's real time though. This is like tankathon.

This is like dreadathon. Got the Broncos at number two. I mean, we're thinking they're probably not going to move off of that too much. And then Chicago has its own pick at one and four. I think Chicago is about to win some ball games. So there's some, there's some positive signs right there that I like with the Barrett, the Vikings, who they, I think they play each other this weekend. They're, they're at number four. I think Minnesota is going to end up winning some ball games as well.

Patriots at five, Giants at six, Arizona at seven. I think we're looking at, or I think, you know, we're, we're not going to have a whole lot of movement. No, no, that's kind of what we said with Rich too. Rich did his power rankings the other day and it was, I think it's been five weeks now.

Like the cream is kind of rising to the top a little bit. The standings are kind of shaken out generally how I think they're going to finish through the rest of the year. You got, you got all these two win teams kind of in the middle and they're going to be in the mix. If they can go on a run, maybe get to the, get a playoff spot, but you got your top of the league, your, your Niners, your Eagles, your Chiefs, your Dolphins. And then you got the bottom of the league, the Cardinals, Panthers, Patriots, like that's how it's going to be this year. Yeah, right now there's some two-win teams that are, they're actually, you know, they're going to move. I mean, we think Cincinnati is going to get better, even though, you know what, let's talk about this later. Their schedule coming up is a nightmare, right? When we're thinking Joe Burrow and these guys are going to turn the corner, their schedule is really rough. I think, I think the Rams are two-win team. That's going to get better. Yep, the Chargers another two-win team.

What the New Orleans is a three-win team that there that there's an interesting watch right there to see what they do. We have a lot of good discussions guys. You mentioned Rich, Rich Eisen is over in London. He will be calling the Titans game this weekend Titans Ravens game this weekend over in London on NFL Network. He's going to join us a little bit later in the show.

So we'll have fun. I'm in his chair, but Rich is always present. You know, we're always with that guys, you know, I'm not a big Major League Baseball guy, you know, usually not till this time here.

I'm a Saint Louis Cardinals fan grew up in Saint Louis have been to like seven World Series in my life. So I'm you know, I'm good. Good man.

You're good. I am and you've won. You've won recently. So yes, and you know and in my child and I'm an 80s kid, you know, we've won so and he's a Red Sox fan. I'm a Mets fan.

So if anyone shouldn't be a DJ doesn't have much you're bitter right now, but we had one year and it was great. But you know, it's crazy. This is like the first time this like the first time in my lifetime. The Cardinals have actually like been bad too. So I'm so like I said, I'm I'm good but props to all the teams in Major League Baseball, but I'm an NFL Network guy and we're talking heavy NFL. Let's do it this show.

So hey, so we're getting ready to hit break and coming up. We're going to have Matt Mayoko from the NBC Bay Area. He's also a Pro Football Hall of Fame selector in boy. Do I have some Hall of Fame questions for my guy Matt Mayoko? So we are getting ready to head out to the other side of the hour here on The Rich Eigen show and I'm Steve White.

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Now you told him about how you, you are the Bill Walsh of audio executives. You can't screw these up. Your favorite catchphrase from the original predator. Go ahead. Here's one.

If it bleeds, we can kill it. All right. That's number one. Here's number two. Okay.

Get to the chopper! Okay. You cannot hear them. You can't hear them.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to, I'm doing this blindfolded. Wait a minute. Did Bill Walsh not have the volume up? Did the Bill Walsh of sound engineers not have the volume up for the second? Oh my God. This is not Bode well. Can you go?

Oh, there's a method to his madness. Do you want to try one more time now? Okay. Go ahead.

Go ahead. We can kill it. Okay.

If it bleeds, you can kill it. Okay. Here's the next one. Get to the chopper! Get to the chopper. And here's the other one. One ugly motherf***er. Okay. There's that one. Start bench cut.

All right. Get to the chopper. It's cut because it's only an incidental line. And the only reason we remember it is because he's Austrian. If anybody else said get to the choppers, it wouldn't have been a line. It wouldn't have been a line.

It's only because he's Austrian. Cut. Cut. It's superfluous. We're going to bench your one ugly motherf***er. So what you're going to do is you're going to start, if it bleeds, we can kill it.

Because it's a succinct line and it's done in a very naturalistic way. If it bleeds, we can kill it. Very well done. Now, for everybody else who comes in here on the Rich Eisen Show, I'm setting the bar here. We're going to show them this start bench cut because you have raised the bar. Setting the bar right here. We're going to edit out Del Tufo.

We're going to edit that out. It's too good. Perfect.

All right. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I am 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, click grainger.com or just stop by. I am Steve White at NFL Network, sitting in for Rich Eisen, who will be joining the show later from London.

I am not going to say across the pond. That is a pet peeve of mine. Yes, as is the word chippy. Like things are getting chippy.

I hate that. Yeah, it's just a little lightweight for me. But we're bringing in a heavy weight.

No lightweight stuff. Joining us right now, I want to bring in my good friend Matt Mayoko from the NBC Bay Area Sports. Matt is a long time 49ers, writer, beat reporter. He's done it all.

He's doing a lot of TV now. Matt, thanks so much for joining us. We know you're at a fantastic fundraising golf tournament today, too. So we really appreciate you taking a couple minutes.

Always my pleasure. Raising money for a good cause. Jim Kapu, an officer in Vallejo, killed in the line of duty what, 12 years ago.

So police athletic league fundraiser for him. But always a pleasure, Steve, to see you. Because when I see you in Santa Clara 49ers land, I know the 49ers are relevant. And I've seen you a lot. So I know the 49ers have been relevant now for several years.

That is a great, great chance. Because before we get to Brock Purdy and Fred Warner and all these guys, I want to discuss this because the Niners are playing the Browns this week. And the Browns are right now with Deshaun Watson not playing. Oh, we're a team in perpetual doom and gloom. They've yet to establish a culture, basically since they've been back in Cleveland after, you know, they were taken away to Baltimore and all that.

So we're not going to get into that. But you've covered some lean times with the 49ers. And look, you had the Jim Tomsula, which dovetailed into the Chip Kelly era, that record of 7-25 total before Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch took over. Both first-timers in those positions, Matt, what have they done to actually flip the culture to where now the expectation is winning, not just in games, winning every day of practice?

I would say it starts before John and Kyle's arrival. When the 49ers were going through that rough patch, the organization was completely dysfunctional, with general manager and head coach often not seeing eye to eye, maybe at times even when things started to go wrong, pulling in opposite directions. And so what Jed York, the CEO, decided was that he looked up north into the Pacific Northwest and said, that's the kind of organization I want. So he actually used the Seattle Seahawks, John Schneider, Pete Carroll, as the template for what he wanted the 49ers to be. So it's basically, he went out and found Kyle Shanahan first, and then basically allowed Kyle Shanahan to find a general manager that he felt he could work with. And I think a surprise to everybody at the time, the guy he decided on was John Lynch, who had never been in an NFL front office, had done just a little bit of scouting, consulting work with the Broncos. But really the dynamic at the very top, Kyle and John, they work so well together, they're always on the practice field talking, they have their disagreements, but they work through it.

No one's ever going to try to force a player or something down the other one's throat that he doesn't want. So it really starts right there, and I think that really transforms its way or carries down to the locker room, where everybody can see, all the players can see, that the two guys who are the most powerful people in the football organization are in it together, and you've been in that locker room, it's a very selfless locker room, and with so many offensive stars, no one's crying for the football. So they've really done a great job of establishing that team culture, and I think having a Hall of Fame safety like John Lynch in charge of player acquisition, he's able to look beyond just what a guy can bring on the field, but he also pays particular attention to what a player brings off the field in the locker room as well. Yeah, I mean, look, that chemistry is a huge thing, and some teams, they may have the good leadership, you know, from the top of the building, but they can assemble that chemistry with the players or a coaching staff like these guys have done. And remember, this is a coaching staff that's got continual drain on it because the assistants keep getting hired away. One thing I really appreciate about Kyle and John and some of the assistant coaches they have is the transparency, right, their openness to kind of be pretty honest, you know, the majority of the time, and I think that's a trickle down to the players as well because when I see you and others and we interview them, there's really no pullback. I mean, you know, it's a really good culture there. You talked about player acquisition, Brock Purdy, dumb luck, or just saying, we did like this guy, and he still happened to be there when he came around when we picked in the seventh round.

I'd say a little bit of both. I know when the quarterbacks coaches, Clay Kubiak and Brian Griese, Kubiak being the assistant quarterbacks coach, Brian Griese, the main quarterbacks coach, when they were tasked with the assignment of, here's a list of guys who are late round or undrafted guys, who do you like, it came back, the consensus was Brock Purdy. So, you know, we can give the 49ers a lot of credit for selecting Brock Purdy, but also if they knew he was anywhere near this good, they wouldn't have waited until the final pick in the draft to take him. But I think it speaks to just how sometimes you just don't know until you get the guy in the building and maybe at that position more than any other where, yeah, I remember talking to people that draft night, people with the 49ers, and they kind of dismissed it a little bit as, you know, he's kind of like Nick Mullins. No disrespect to Nick Mullins.

He's still a backup in the league. Nick Mullins has already played a long time in the NFL, but no one thought that Brock Purdy would be able to step in in the middle of his rookie season and then just lock down the starting job to the point where now that position is considered, you know, in very good hands for the foreseeable future, including this year and next year for sure, playing for the minimum salary. Brock Purdy is an MVP candidate, and he's the 47th highest-paid player on the 49ers' 53-man roster.

I mean, you think about that, and that's where you're like, wow, they really did strike gold. And, you know, the thing, when I look at Brock Purdy and watching Kyle Shanahan and the evolution of this offense and things like this, everyone's like, Brock Purdy is a system guy. He runs Kyle's offense the right way. And you would know this, and this is just me observationally, but to me, he has allowed Kyle to expand his playbook in a way that we haven't seen Kyle run this offense before. Am I off base and watching this, or are they doing more things, not because of the chess pieces, but because they've got Brock Purdy? Kyle Shanahan has more trust in Brock Purdy, for sure, than any quarterback he's had with the 49ers.

Just the ability, the confidence that he feels in installing a game plan. I mean, case in point, 49ers had a Thursday night game, week three. So you would think that the playbook, the game plan would be kind of a stripped down version. It was a regular game plan plus. They put so much in for that Thursday night game against the Giants.

Why? Because Kyle Shanahan has confidence that Brock Purdy can handle it. So it's all of the adjustments off of the adjustments, all the motions, all the shifts, all the variations of certain plays. He puts a lot on his plate, and Brock Purdy has shown that he can handle all of that. So what Kyle Shanahan hates more than anything is to tell a quarterback during the course of the week, here's the play call. Here's the defense you're going to see.

This is going to be open. And when that play comes on Sunday, if it's that play call, and if it's that defense, and the guy is open, and the quarterback doesn't see him or the ball's going somewhere else, Kyle Shanahan, that drives him crazy. You would often see in Shanahan's first few years with the 49ers, and I'm sure every coordinator job he's been, you know, he would be a horrible poker player because you can tell what's going on.

You would see the clips on the sideline, maybe him just in the background throwing his hands up, showing some form of disgust because the quarterback did not do what he was told to do or what he was instructed to do. You haven't seen any of that with Brock Purdy. Matt, mind you, he's coming off of significant surgery to his arm. Real quick, Matt, we know that Brock Purdy's first win came against Tom Brady. Listen to what Tom Brady had to say about Brock Purdy. You don't hear of guys like Brock Purdy until Brock Purdy's doing amazing things out on the field, so it's kind of a fun story. And I hope it continues for him because he seems like he's a really humble young man, and he wants to go out there and do great things, and I think the more you kind of have that chip on your shoulder like he does, and there were not quite the expectations, it's nice to go out there and continue to prove people wrong. It's nice to have people that can show up every day, put the team first, do what they're asked to do, and he's done a good job of that.

He's really exceeding a lot of people's expectations. And that came from Brady's Let's Go podcast that he does with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald, but hearing that from a late round draft pick quarterback who's the greatest of all time, there is some type of synchronicity, so to speak, I guess at least for the mental aspect of it that he has with Brock Purdy. Yeah, he probably sees a lot of himself in Brock Purdy.

I mean, they're different body types, they're different skill sets, but kind of the same general idea applies to both. The late round draft pick who felt like he was underestimated in the case of Brock Purdy, he was told he was irrelevant. Before he knew what that meant, the whole festival down in Newport Beach in Southern California, the Mr.

Irrelevant Festival. Early on, I think Brock wasn't too fond of hearing his name associated with Mr. Irrelevant, but the measurables are one thing, the velocity of the football, the height, the weight, the speed, all that, but so much of playing quarterback are the things you can't see, and maybe only the things the quarterback can see. I mean, I feel like Brock Purdy has this rare ability, as did Tom Brady, of seeing, and very few quarterbacks by the way, had this ability to basically see a picture of the field a second and a half or two seconds before that actually occurs. I mean, you watch some of the throws that Brock Purdy makes and when he's letting the football release, when he's throwing it, if you pause the film, nobody's open, and it's that anticipation of knowing where those windows are going to come open and his ability to deliver it accurately, precisely, timing rhythm and all that, that's really the strength that Brock Purdy has. In addition to all those intangibles, he's well-liked in the locker room and everything else.

And you know what? He's got that killer, right? He's got that Joe Burrow, okay, you're going to give me an opening, I'm going to freaking squeeze my way through it. Matt, but some of those things you were just talking about are some of the things we were saying four or five years ago about Russell Wilson, who now, with the Denver Broncos, it is not going well. He comes off a performance Thursday night in a loss to Kansas City where he throws for less than 100 yards. You are a pro football Hall of Fame selector, and I'm someone who's very involved with the Hall, although not a selector. It seemed as though Russell was on his way to join the greats in Canton.

Is there, at this stage of his career, and we're just talking not even one and a half seasons with the Denver Broncos, but also maybe the last couple seasons with the Seahawks, that he is playing his way out of a legitimate shot to join the pro football Hall of Fame? Boy, that's a tough one. Way to put me on the spot. Hey, man.

Hey, man. No, I would say this. I mean, I watch Russell Wilson play a lot, at least twice a year, covering the 49ers and seeing him just destroy the 49ers in many iterations of the 49ers. Clearly, there was a point late in his Seahawks days where that wasn't even a conversation, right? He won a Super Bowl, been to another, but I would say that, yeah, absolutely, there's some pause now. That time is going to come up at some point. I don't know when his final season is going to be, and then it's five years after that when he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame. But you look at, there's so many Hall of Fame-worthy quarterbacks, just in the recent past, guys who haven't come up yet and guys who are playing now. So is he a slam dunk? Absolutely not. Is he still in that conversation, in that very serious conversation?

Absolutely, yes. The roughest part about the Pro Football Hall of Fame is that we can only select, the bylaws stipulate, only five modern era players can be selected every year. So that's why it takes some people so long to get there because you might be sixth on that list one year, and then the next year here come four or five really quality candidates and it just keeps, it's a numbers game. It's difficult to figure out, but I would say right now, I would not consider Russell Wilson a lock. I think that he still has a very strong argument, but not a lock. Yeah, he's probably right now in the whole Philip Rivers, Matthew Stafford type of discussion, like they've done the great things, but have they done enough to breathe the rarest air? Matt, real quick, before we let you go, Randy Gregory, now with the 49ers. You know Chris Kocerik, the best defensive line coach in the NFL. He's joining the part of the team that is the strongest, which is amazing when you think about all the great talent to have on that team. What type of impact could he have, like soon?

Yeah, it could be very impactful because I would say on that defensive line, the one area where they're looking to upgrade would be the edge rusher opposite of Bosa. And so to bring in Randy Gregory, maybe even Sunday as a pass rush specialist, put your hand in the ground, go get the quarterback, and Chris Kocerik's already working him up. If you've ever seen the practices, he's in those guys faces and he's all about the get off. And so Randy Gregory has a great attitude.

When I spoke to him Wednesday coming in, he said no expectations. I want to fit in wherever they want me. They know what I can do.

I know what I can do. And so he wants to just kind of accentuate all those positives. And so that would be an area where if Randy Gregory plays up to that vast, vast potential that he has, man, I don't know if it'd be a game changer for the 49ers because they're already really good, but it could take them to an even higher level. Oh, it could be a game changer. I mean, when you think about Armstead and Kinlaw and Bosa and you're rotating, well, you got Hargrave in there too, and you got Drake Jackson.

I mean, you've got depth and they have got a lot of high-end talent. Matt Mayogo, thank you so much for taking your time, giving that insight. Hit him straight for a great cause up there at that golf tournament, my man. All right, Steve, always my pleasure. And I have a feeling I'll be seeing you real soon again.

I really hope so. All right, coming up next, the man whose name is on the show, Rich Eisen, is going to be chiming in from London when we come back after the break here on The Rich Eisen Show. All right, welcome back to The Rich Eisen Show. And speaking of Rich Eisen, I'm Steve White sitting in for Rich here in Los Angeles. Rich, over there in London. Yes, sir.

And how are things going over there? It's great. By the way, word did filter here that Taylor Swift was at last night's game and I got to share something that popped into my Instagram reels about how Chiefs fans are handling the whole Kelsey situation.

Hit it. Travis Kelsey dating Taylor Swift. That's pretty cool. Unless they broke up in the middle of the season.

Yeah, well, I'm sure if they did, it would be fine. Oh, totally. Yeah. How long did her flings usually last? I mean, I don't follow her life or anything, but I think the average is like six weeks.

That'd be like, what, week nine against the Dolphins? The game, yeah. Oh, pivotal. But all of her breakups have been amicable, right?

I'm not like a big Swifty or anything, but I think it's been cool for everybody. Except for Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, the guy from L-City. Obviously, John Mayer. What happened with John Mayer?

He hasn't smiled since 2009. How long do the breakups last? One was over text.

One was a 25 second phone call. But that's when the guy does a Joe Jonas-style. You ever heard of Joe Allen? No. How do you know this, though? I don't. These are only whispers. What happened? Some say he's dead. God swallowed, in my opinion.

I think he's out there somewhere, biding his time, too weak to carry on. But he's got Mahomes. Their chemistry is... Taylor doesn't let her boyfriends have chemistry with anyone else.

She weeds it out, root and stem. Again, I'm not a big Swifty. Well, maybe they'll date long enough to get through the whole season and, like, you know, pass the Super Bowl. You know what the week before the Super Bowl is? It's the grannies. That's when Taylor Swift s**t out whatever man she just had for breakfast.

I'll never forget 2013. She put Harry Styles in a clown suit. Not that I follow any of this stuff. That is amazing. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. Wow. Radio back.

Wow, that's so funny. And Richard, welcome back to Radio Audience. Back to the Rich Eisen Show.

I'm Steve White sitting in. And, Rich, you know, back, you know, that video we just saw of the conspiracy theorist of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. Are you buying in? Because Philadelphia Eagles fans are saying that she is a plant, she's from Philly, that she is a plant to blow up the Chiefs' season from the inside and let the Eagles slide in, even though different conferences.

Is that right? Well, right now, as we are talking, the Chiefs are 3-0 with Taylor Swift in the building. And Travis Kelce certainly doesn't feel like the weight of the world is on his shoulders that he needs to perform, as he was easily the best Kansas City chief out there on the field on Thursday night.

And, you know, it really is just amazing that they keep chugging along. It's, you know, wasn't Mahomes' most prolific effort. You know, they got some tough yards from Pacheco again and Kelce couldn't be covered again. And the defense may be the most consistent outfit of the Chiefs this year. And this may be the best defense the Chiefs have had in their run. And all Mahomes has to do is find Kelce enough and have someone else not drop the ball and somebody else catch a touchdown. It was Tony's night last night.

And then the rest of it is just taken care of. Is this the Kansas City Chiefs of 2023? Are we just needing to get used to the fact that they don't have some dynamic receiver to take the top of the defense off? Or somebody outside of Kelce that's going to actually be a big problem for the defense and it's just the Chiefs defense that's going to rule the day? Is this what we're seeing right now?

It may be. And Rich, this defense might be getting Frank Clark back. He was just released by the Broncos. And so the word is, he could be going home. He could be going back to the Kansas City Chiefs. Alright, a little bit of pushback, alright?

Go for it, yeah, sure. Every team that they've beaten outside of the Jaguars is going to be picking in the top 10. Nobody that they've faced has anyone on offense that scares you. And the one good team they did play, they lost to. So are you playing the, who have they really played card in the Kansas City Chiefs right now?

Absolutely, absolutely. And who have they really played? They've played, they've beaten a bunch of bad teams and didn't look good doing it. How about beating the teams that are in front of them? That's what you need to do in the NFL instead of tripping up.

Great, great. How are they going to do against the Chargers? Awesome offense. The Dolphins, awesome offense. The Eagles, awesome offense. And the Bills and the Bengals, awesome offense.

These are all coming down the pike. Very good to point that out and we will see. But maybe, just maybe, the Chiefs defense will rule the day. And that's all that's going to matter from here up until, you know, championship Sunday again. But Mahomes is looking pretty sloppy through some bad interception against the Jets. He threw a couple last night, one got called back on a penalty, kind of a phantom penalty. And he had another pick. I mean he hasn't looked good at all either.

It doesn't matter though. It doesn't matter when you're 5-1 and you could say the one good team that they lost to, they didn't have two of their best players on the field and could have won that game as well. They could be undefeated right now, you know, but these are all valid points that you're making right now as we are just six games into the season for those two teams. And as for the Broncos, I mean what in the world has happened to Russell Wilson? I mean seriously, Steve, Steve, you must be hearing everything too. What in the world has happened to Russell Wilson? And Rich, think about when we were watching him with Seattle. We just had Matt Mayoko on from NBC Bay Area and he was talking about watching how Russell Wilson used to destroy the 49ers back in the day. Just think about how he would line up, you know, in shotgun, take five-step drops. He's 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage running around throwing the ball 40 yards downfield to Doug Baldwin. He just looked automatic every time. It didn't matter what his offensive line was and he looked great. And now he's throwing the ball from like six yards behind the line of scrimmage, getting it batted down like there's 10 JJ Watts in front of him.

He does not look confident whatsoever and clearly Sean Payton is about at his wit's end with him. Yeah, he used to wear people out. Remember he used to wear people out and it's just like, oh he's rolling out again?

Really? You couldn't get him down. Like he would extend plays and extend plays and extend plays and look down the field and just wear you out with his legs and with his arm. And now he just looks worn out, period.

I cannot believe what has happened. He was on the track and the path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There's no question about that. And right now you have to wonder if, you know, out goes Randy Gregory, out goes Frank Clark. If, you know, if they're just pruning the tree a little bit here to keep on pruning the tree a little bit here and, you know, Sean Payton's not getting one and done like, like Nathaniel Hackett.

So all you got to do is just keep on keeping on like this and talk about how, as Sean Payton said after the game, he's disappointed but not discouraged because they tried hard. And that, that just sounds to me, unlike he's just trying to keep a brave face on right now. He knows what's going on, I imagine, with his team and what everything else is going on, potentially down the road as well.

And why in the hell wouldn't he want, what I'm sure Belichick maybe in the heart of hearts is thinking about, any other coach that knows that they've got a trophy or trophies in the case and certain amount of road in front of them that remains for their legacies, for their own hall of fame resumes. Caleb Williams sitting out there. I mean, let's not kid each other.

This kid is so damn good and so amazing. How do you not sit here and think about that right now? Well, I'm sure, I'm sure they're thinking about it Rich. I mean, the Broncos can actually get out from under Russell Wilson. There is, there will be some cap cost if they do that, but after the season, they can get out from under him. And I think that's happening and you know, I think there's going to be significant change with that staff next year and this roster.

It is just amazing. I, again, I'm a big Russell Wilson fan and just watching him last night, Rich. And I know he played some decent games before then, but it still didn't look, you know, it is like you were saying, it's like he is a shell of himself and I can't imagine with quarterbacks playing into their 40s now that him at his age. What is he now about 34, 35 that he looks because you know, he's trying hard. It is not like he's just out there going through the motions, but he just looks so unsure of Russell Wilson when just a couple years ago.

We're seeing him all over, you know, with him and Sierra everywhere where he was the most confident guy in the world. Well, I mean, listen, he's just not the same anymore and it's not like they don't have any weapons. You know, I mean, yeah, or what happened with Steve Smith and him last night?

Okay. I know I only got two minutes left in the segment here, but I mean, what happened? Well, I mean, so Steve said on his, Steve said on his podcast that, you know, he said something about Jerry Judy and he went up to apologize into him last night and Jerry in some quite profane terms basically said, I don't mess with you, Steve. And so Steve said, okay, I'm trying to be nice on air, but if a team calls me asking if they should trade for him, I said, you can trade for him. You're getting a tier three guy. But I think it was a little bit more emotional than that.

But Steve held himself together on TV, but we know Steve too. Hey, Rich, real quick. I'm being told you got a top five. You got some top five stuff. I do.

Here's what I'd like to do. I've got a, I've got a sec. I've got one more segment coming up at the top of the next hour.

I'll do my top five there and then a little bit of what's more likely with Chris Brockman. And then I'm going to tap out. I've got my board right here.

Ravens and Titans. See, I got my notes. I'm a, I'm a lead pipe building professional. Here it is. Yeah. I got it all working here.

Love it. Yeah. You know, and the Titans arrived today. The Ravens have been here since Monday and the Titans didn't learn anything from Buffalo last week. I don't know.

I don't look man. Like again, I'll tell this story real quick. Again, last year in Munich, Seattle showed up four games in a row. They won. They were bouncing off the walls. Typical, you know, um, Pete Carroll practice, music, blaring Pete's running around, catching, throwing passes.

Everyone's having a good time. They were going out to go bowling at a local bowling alley for drew locks birthday. It was a team building team chemistry. They were so loving each other.

The bucks were the exact opposite. They were coming in struggling. Brady was like, what the hell is going on here?

And what appears to be my last season, um, his personal life, as we all know, we didn't know at the time was blowing up completely. And, um, and we all thought no chance. The bucks are winning this game. Bucks had played their best game of the year. I have no idea, man, but the bills, as you know, they look like they were sleepwalking.

Um, and totally jet lagged. It was the, the team that came in the latest possible against the team that had been there the longest possible, pretty much in the history of the series. So, uh, I don't know, but the Titans come in, they just arrived this very morning. I'm seeing them tomorrow. We saw the Ravens yesterday.

They're talking about how happy they are and how well rested they are. So that's coming up. That's the next game, um, to kick off week six here in, uh, in London, it's supposed to be a chilly morning.

Um, here it'll be about in the late, um, it'll be in the high forties, uh, low fifties on Sunday. All right. Great.

So rich, we're going to go ahead and go to break here on the rich eyes here. We're going to see you on the other side of the break. And you could also tell us about those great John Harbaugh production meetings.

So, you know, so we're, we're still, we're still in Roku. So real quick, you heard me tease the John Harbaugh production meeting. We were in one last year with him.

Yeah. He might be one of my favorite coaches to go through a production meeting with because he wears his emotions, honestly, when he really kind of tells you what he's expecting from his team and his players. And you know how much he loves Lamar Jackson. Remember that at last, you just, he just laid it out there for us.

Oh yeah, absolutely. And, um, so we saw him the other day and, uh, and then we zoomed with Lamar after I hung up, um, on the zoom on yesterday's program, uh, chatted with the Roquan Smith or Quan as he likes to be called. Um, yeah, so, and tomorrow, uh, we're slated to talk to, uh, Sir Ryan of Tannehill, um, Mike Vrabel.

Um, oh yeah, we are slated. I, I can't wait to chat with the Andre Hopkins to do what? The King, the King. The King. Well, he, we are, he's not slated to sit down with us. Uh, well, I mean, I guess he might be at the palace.

I don't know. And, uh, and Kevin Bayard, that's, who's talking with us too. Kevin Bayard. He's great. Great conversation.

Yeah. I look forward to all that tomorrow and then a little bit of rest and then Sunday, call the game Monday, fly home, do overreaction Monday with Chris for the pod. And then, um, and then, uh, back in the chair Tuesday, I appreciate you doing this today. Well, and I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity, Rich.

Now we're going to break again. We're going to see you back later where we're gonna hit your top five here on the Rich Eisen show. The other three final four teams. If you were asking me to call my shot, this is the overreaction Monday podcast. Entertainment purposes only, unless I'm right. Uh, Chiefs, Dolphins, Bills, Ravens. Final four. Overreaction Monday, the podcast, wherever you listen.