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Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call one eight four four dupixent. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody!
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Now. On with the show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Welcome. This is the Rich Eisen Show.
Today's guests: ESPN analyst and Super Bowl champion Jason McCourty, ESPN senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler, ESPN NFL analyst and three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Alex Smith, Brewers manager Pat Murphy, and now. It's Rich Eisen. Welcome to this Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show, live on Disney Plus, live on the ESPN app, and in that regard, we have a bit of news to break later on in the first hour of this program and how we're distributed. And how many people get to see us live every day? There's also our ESPN Radio and Sirius XM Channel 80 audiences.
We say hello to Pat Murphy of the World Champion Milwaukee Brewers. We've been cultivating that caper. He'll be joining us in hour number three, which is where I guess we put the the outstanding humans together. Oh, hour Alex Smith. I'm not denigrating Jason McCourty; he's a great human too.
We're just getting to know Jeremy Fowler. Also, those are our guests. Is basically what I'm saying. You're in a busy day, and I start the program realizing I should probably button the the top button here. I don't think so.
I think a lot going on there. Let your freak flag fly. It's all right. How are you, Chris Brock? What's going on?
I'm gonna. I mean, I'll unbutton if you unbutton. You never unbutton. I know. I don't like it.
Good to see you, Jason Feller. How are you?
Now I need some buttons done, dude. Good to see you, TJ Jefferson. What's going on, Candlestick guys? What's up? What up, TJ?
All right, let's start the show with Thursday night football. We just saw. Have to. No, we saw another Jaguar mauling. Jaguar, and usually when the result is lopsided, we'll we'll go to the team that's most in trouble to start.
But I'm not doing that. I don't want to piss off the people of Duval County. Very, they take very sensitive fan base that wants its respect when it is earned. Respect. They want their their jaguars when they're on the clock in the draft.
They want to see it happen. They don't want a commercial break thrown to. Don't joke at us. Ever joke at us.
Well, yeah, we don't want to, we don't want to be watching some sort of fast food commercial while they're drafting someone in the second round. We don't do that anyway. Listen, the Jaguars can be a wagon. The only reason why I'm saying can be is those two games in in London stick out. Yeah, but we'll place that aside for the moment.
And say if you play the Jacksonville Jaguars and you are not buttoned up, if you play this team and you have mistakes or there are holes, Achilles' heels, the the Jaguars are going to find it and they're going to rip you apart like it's the Wild Kingdom. I'm going in a very old pop culture reference there. Fair. All right, it's like a nature show. Here's the jaguar in its natural habitat, destroying the raven.
Oh my goodness, Richard Attenborough, and and you know, in the rain, David, David, they took a team starting their third string quarterback and dismantled them, took them apart. Didn't really want to give them much hope. There was mid second quarter a little bit of hope. And then it all went right down the tubes when Parker Washington grabbed one over the middle and took it to the house with his fingertips and grabbed the ball and see you later. He's emerging as one of the top receivers in the game.
Quite frankly, that's the reason why you're hearing Brian Thomas Jr.'s name bandied about as a possible trade piece for the Jaguars. I don't know why they would do that, as we're seeing wars of attrition fought. By Super Bowl contending teams throughout the landscape, and that's what the Jaguars are—Super Bowl contenders. Fact. Fact.
They are right now making the case. They are right now the best-positioned team in the National Football League through nine weeks. What do I mean by that? They're six and two, just like the Chicago Bears, for instance, who are atop my power rankings. They have six wins, just like the Bills, six wins, just like the Vikings and the Niners, six wins like the Steelers.
But the Steelers are in a division where the two teams from Ohio behind them are above five hundred. The Bills have a team from New England that won the conference last year. Right behind them, the Broncos, who are also six and two, have got the Chiefs right behind them at five and two. The Jaguars could essentially print playoff tickets because the next best team in their division has got two wins, and the other two win team might be trading Jonathan Taylor in the next seventy-two to ninety hours. They're positioned for the one seed.
They're basically ready to print playoff tickets to win the AFC South. Trevor Lawrence is talking about fine tuning. They're talking about fine tuning in Jacksonville after the destruction of the Ravens last night to the tune of thirty three to ten, and it was basically a. A late touchdown to make it even that close. Looking on the board, here's what Trevor Lawrence, their MVP candidate at quarterback, had to say.
It's been good as far as scoring offensively. I think we've done a nice job. Honestly, today should have been more. You know, defense gave us a few short fields, and we kicked a bunch of field goals.
So that's something that we need to improve on. I think we're all realists enough to where we can look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "This is, you know, we won the game. That's what we came here to do. Did some some good things, but we do have to improve." And I think you look at our The stretch coming up, we get a few days off here, and then it's go time. You know, it's going to get real, and I think we do.
We we need to make some improvements, and we will, and that needs to be the emphasis. And I'm I'm sure. Listen, the Titans went into Indianapolis, won their first game of the year in Indianapolis, and set that up franchise in a downward spiral, and and then almost took out Cincinnati. Last week, and the Titans are on the schedule for the Jaguars twice in the next three weeks. And that home game against Tennessee is something they're looking forward to on the 29th of of November, because if you look at their schedule, Week Three, when they beat New England at home on September 27th.
They played one home game in Jacksonville, one, and that was the one that they go went ahead and you could see they go to London for two a bye week, and the one game they played in Jacksonville, Indianapolis, because they're at Baltimore now, and their next two are on the road.
So between the twenty seventh of September and the twenty ninth of November. When they set up at home against Tennessee, one game in Jacksonville. That's it. And if they can go through that stretch with only one loss in that stretch, pretty good. The one against Houston in London.
Well, Liam Cohen has got that in his sights. The second half challenge is going to be. You know, being at our best when our best is truly required in some of these games that we got coming up. Being road warriors in a lot of ways, with one game being played in Jacksonville in a sixty-five day span, we've got to continue to be focused and together as a group on the road. Yeah, because they have a shot at the one seed.
That's a fact. Six wins overall, five in conference right now, including two over Cincinnati and New England. We've been down this road before. Oh, I know that. Oh, trust me, I know that.
And then injuries hit, and but they're a deeper team than the years in which they fell apart. Feels different, you know. You know, this doesn't have the feel of where's the golf cart for Trevor Lawrence when he's limping up the tunnel type feel. Like that's not even in the realm. They're playing their asses off, and so kudos to them.
The Ravens are the team right now at a crossroads. I'm not telling any tales out of school here, okay? And the real difficult thing I think for some Ravens potential fans to potentially swallow. Because they're on their third-string quarterback, and there, but for the grace of the football gods, go so many franchises, right? They're on Joe Finiano of UConn, watching him in the rain run a playbook that you was it unsurprising to me, looking basic and.
And a lot of direct snaps to Derrick Henry, and they're doing their best. They tried their best. I mean, for for a kid to get his first career start against the Jacksonville Jaguars in front of the whole country on short on a short week, it's it's a tall order. It was a very tall order to ask. And that said, Joe Fignano is not playing defense for him.
And the Jaguars took the ball and marched it right off jump.
Okay, and they they moved it, and Basile Tootins running it, and the Ravens defense gave up a big play to what one of their Jaguars started one of the board Kercher, I think it was right, yeah. Humphries gets turned around. That's part of the problem here. You you want your kid quarterback to perform well under dire circumstances. You can't just give up a touchdown to start the game, basically.
And took a lot of wind out of the buildings, but but the game was still in their sights until. The rain comes down and and the roof caved in. And again, it it it feels, it feels like the season's over. I'll say this though, because you know Jacoby Brissett is gonna be the guy moving forward, and he's a vet. I think the division's gone.
I think the division's gone. Are they two and a half back now?
Well, they they've they lost at home to Cincinnati, which is a problem. And Pittsburgh is on their schedule, finishing the season in week fifteen and in eighteen.
So they're gonna have to start winning some games with Jacoby Brissett and winning the games in the division. Um, is going to be particularly difficult, you know. But can Brissett come in and save the day and be the Nick Foles here? Sure, sure. I I think a wild card is a more realistic possibility.
That's not too far off, you know. Ten wins, but you'd have to think the defense has got to hold its own. And they're they haven't tasted victory in over a month. You look at their schedule. There's a lot of red there.
You start four and one. Snoop Huntley comes in and gets one of the wins to give you three in a row. And then the Ohio teams take them out. Just when you think here comes Lamar back, disaster hits in the span of a half a football. You lose both your quarterbacks.
That's a tough one.
So there's a Monday night against the Chargers in Week Ten. Two trips at Carolina, at Houston, and then a bye week. If Brissette can win two of those three, okay, and this team pulls it together, and they can, they really can.
Now you know you're six and six going into the bye, and. Out of it, Tampa, Pittsburgh, twice, and that you you finish in the division.
So if you potentially get healthy through the bye, where everybody else is nicked up, come out and Brissett starts winging it around, and the offense starts to hum. Can they go into that stretch of games in the last month and win the division? I, they can. I just think realistically, the way everyone else is playing. A wild card's more like it.
One thing that I definitely don't think is pulling the plug and trading Derek Henry. Where did that one come from? Is this just like a rumor that started during the game? Is that what happened? No, it's remember I asked the question to Chris the other day.
Maybe they were the game. They were watching us.
Okay, I don't know. Derek Henry sounded really frustrated after the game. Here he is. Kind of take us through how were you guys? Wasn't good enough.
Got to be better. They were the better team. Same story. I believe. Yeah, wasn't good enough.
Got to be better. How frustrating is it when it's the same story? I mean, we lost four times. It's frustrating.
So, got to be better. Watch the film. Get better from it. How do you find a way to get some? Go back to work.
Go back to work. Go back to practice. Got eight games left. Got to go back to work. That's all I can tell you.
I mean, I don't know. I don't have the the magical answer. We got to go back to work. I mean, he's not going to sit here and yeah. I mean, that that all makes sense.
And then he was asked about being on the block. In all seriousness, where where's this come from? I saw rumors earlier in the week. Really? I think it might have been wish casting by some by other teams or whatever.
Yeah.
Well, I mean. The Ravens don't pull the plug on the season when there's they're under one game under five hundred. This franchise doesn't pull plugs. They're not winning the Super Bowl though. Hey, listen, stranger things have happened.
But one thing that they're definitely not going to win the Super Bowl if they trade Derrick Henry for what? For what? For day? For if you're lucky, night two draft choice. Day three draft choice.
That's what we're. That's that's what the Ravens are going to do now. Maybe a third rounder. Yeah, for Derrick Henry. Hit it.
Do you plan to still be with this team? I have not mentioned me going anywhere else. I'm saying let's go back to work. I'm sure there are teams around the NFL that would love for the Ravens just pull the plug on Derrick Henry, but they they acquired Jacoby Brissett for a reason, which is to see how it goes. And again.
I know I'm sitting here saying I think the division's gone, and they have four division games to finish the season. And if they they sweep them all, the division's not gone. But the problem is they're starting this hopeful final eight game stretch from the position of being the only sub 500 team in in the division. They got then again, Derrick Henry's just got to be, and the rest of these veterans. Like, like, what the hell happened five days ago?
We're going in a, you know, the Bills' new stadium with Lamar back, and we can beat the Bills, and we can go on a run, we can win the division, we can win the conference. Five days later, Derrick Henry's like, "Yeah, I want to be here." What? The hell happened? To your point, it started long before last week in Buffalo. They've given up thirty three points or more in three straight games.
Yeah, their defense is definitely they they've.
Well, that's the one they played Buffalo and and Cincinnati and Jacksonville, three really stout offensive teams. But still, it's a lot of points. It is, and losing Lamar has to just take the air. I mean, they're playing without. They're like, I've not got my guy.
I get it, but they're used to playing without him last couple seasons.
Well, they're they're not used to playing with a a kid getting his first career start. I was great to see his family out there in the stands. You know, but but Brissett's coming for a reason, and we'll see what happens. But I, it's crazy how things quickly things can change in the NFL. Let's talk about it with Jason McCourty, who is getting ready for a Monday Night Football visit to Minnesota, where Carson Wentz is taken over for the week, for a week to week, or is this for good, potentially?
We'll hit that with Jason McCourty and big news involving our show at the end of the hour. Rich Eisen here. Get into the Hyundai Getaway Winter Sales Event and get away with a deal so right it almost feels wrong. Right now, you can get great deals on our most popular models, including our adventure-ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe or Santa Fe Hybrid, and the Tucson or Tucson Hybrid. Plus, there's our bold and stylish Elantra loaded with the latest tech, or go all electric with the Ionic Five or Ionic Nine.
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Throw it a hat back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Our friend from Monday Night Countdown. Known him from back in the day with NFL Network, he was he was at ESPN before anybody else. Ladies and gentlemen, Jason McCourty, back in the program. How are you doing, Jason?
Good to see you. I love it, Lombardi and the Emmy Award behind you. That's a flex. Those are flexes. Those are a little bit.
I like it. All right, let's jump into the Monday Nighter, even though. We have a Thursday night game to discuss because the Thursday night game was kind of a blowout, as we know. We'll get to that in a second. Do you think the Carson Wentz move here for injury purposes is something that could be made permanent, Jason?
What do you think here? Yeah, I do. Look, Kyler Murray hasn't played great. I would challenge and say Kevin O'Connell hasn't done a good job of figuring out the best ways to utilize Kyler. And it seems that as moments when you're watching the game, that it's not a good fit.
There's times where there's guys that aren't open, and Kyler's forced to scramble around. And then there's times, specifically with Justin Jefferson, it looks like the play is designed to go to him. It's play action. The window's there. He's open.
And for whatever reason, Kyler Murray's. Not throwing the football, so I think for Carson Wentz, this is a great opportunity on a football team that has a Super Bowl caliber defense to get in there. You have to be able to score more than points in the team. You can't average 19 points a game and think that this team is going to get through the gauntlet of the NFC to get to the Super Bowl.
So you're going to need a quarterback at the very least. When Wentz gets in there, throw the ball to 18. Figure out where he is on the field and just give him a chance.
So I definitely. There's an opportunity for him to take over this job if he goes out there and performs well against the Buffalo Bills. And again, I know that Lombardi over your left shoulder is part and parcel of winning one with the ultimate backup quarterback getting the gig when the the starter's down due to injury, right? But Clearly, you you were not there for that moment in New England. What is it like in a in a locker room when somebody does potentially lose their starting job due to injury?
And I know I'm front loading a lot here. I know that's what I'm doing, but I'm also giving voice to what I hear from some Vikings fans that are eager to see what Carson Wentz can do with the gig. It's tough, and it's it's also a part of our business. And I'll I'll say this: my second year in the league, I go out there and compete for the starting corner spot with Altrion Werner opposite of Corlin Finnegan. I win the job.
We get to I think week three or four, I end up fracturing my forearm. Werner gets in there, performs well. Four weeks later, I'm healthy. I have a meeting with our defensive coordinator, and he's just like, "Yeah, he's playing really well, so we're going to keep him in the starting lineup." You'll slide in a little bit on nickel. I'm pissed off.
One of the veterans even came had a conversation with me because it sucks, but it's just the nature of our business. In a sense of you got to ride with who's hot and who's playing well.
So for Kyler Murray, the fact that you may potentially lose a job due to a hamstring injury is that fair? Absolutely not. But when you're on a journey to try to win a Super Bowl, there's no time for fairness. You're trying to put the best guy out there to win. And I think the truth of the matter is, if Kyler Murray was performing really well and he was putting in.
That they felt really good about him leading the way to get to a Super Bowl, he'd still be in the lineup when he got back healthy. I think the truth is everyone's watching, and you see that this offense needs to be better.
So I think the hope, if you're Kevin O'Connell, that maybe Carson Wentz gets in there and gives them a spark. And I don't, I don't want to be on the Carson Wentz hype train either. I don't want to act like this guy has done something that you feel amazing about him entering the lineup. But if you're the Vikings, you got to do something to see if you can get a little bit more out of Jason McCourty here on the Rich Eisen show, and that that is again just a massive game on the back end of Week Nine that just kicked off last night about the Vikings in this very difficult division. Do you come out of last Monday night's game in Seattle with the sense that the Bears are now the new team to beat?
Jason, it sure as hell feels like that. We're we're standing there in pregame, and we're talking to Jeffrey Simmons, and you can see the. The unease on his face about getting traded, like obviously excited to be a Chicago Bear, but didn't really know how to feel about leaving Nashville. Been there his whole career, and you can see it. And then the game started, and he started throwing grown men out of the way and throwing them out of the club and tackling quarterbacks.
And it was just like, oh Nelly, like this is a football team when he's out there with those bright orange sleeves.
So that was a huge impact for them defensively, of just even how Dennis Allen called the game. He didn't blitz nearly as much as he had been doing all season long to try to generate pressure because of Jeffrey Simmons' presence. The amount of times they double team and then Montez Sweat ends up with the sack.
So the defense was rolling on Monday night, and then I think it's the Ice Man on the offensive side of ball. What Caleb Williams has been able to do every game they started and finished. Obviously, the Vikings game he played the whole game and they got shut down, but they put up 30 points in every other game that he started and finished, and he's been just A multiplier out there on the football field, whether he's at the line of scrimmage and he's getting him in the right play, or whether he's scrambling around to make a throw down the field, he's been unbelievable.
So I think the ceiling is sky high for him.
So watching the Bears, you still have no idea how good this football team is going to be by the time January hits. Yeah, and and again, the the the the Bears have another nationally televised game. They've. Was a third in a row Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in front of the whole country, and the different style of defense clearly than what Seattle plays because they're going to be blitzing the minute that Todd Bowles lands at O'Hare Airport, right? And and they just took care of the Super Bowl sixty teams back to back in front of the whole country.
There's just a sense that the Bears are must see TV. Gotta beat them, and then you are going to be seeing the Bills on Monday nights. I guess that's my question here. The long windup to this pitch is Bears Bills. Would you put your finger on that right now for Super Bowl sixty one?
I I wouldn't mind. I don't want to dismiss what we just watched last night. Obviously, the Ravens were down bad, but this Jacksonville Jaguars team from 42 to seven to then the way they beat up on the Ravens last night.
So I don't want to dismiss the Jags by talking about putting already putting Buffalo in the AFC to representing the Super Bowl. But Buffalo, I'll say this: watching their defense coming out of the bye week against the Ravens, the Ravens are just just passing them around right now on. The offensive side of the ball, but that Bills defense—they were aggressive. They blitzed a lot more. They were playing a ton of man-to-man.
I was impressed with the way they came out of the bye week, opposed to those first few weeks of the season where they're giving up 30 points a game. And you're like, I know Josh Allen is incredible, and he's going to be potentially an MVP again. But you can't play like that on defense, and then you're going to get to where you need to get.
So if they continue that trend, I think this week is a huge test. Are you going to come out there and? Carson Wentz, are you going to go one on one with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on the outside? I'm intrigued to see what plan Jim Leonard comes up with. But man, Buffalo—they've taken a step that, as a fan, you would hope when they went to Joe Brady.
You wanted to see another gear from this football team, and I feel like we've seen that. Whether it's James Cook running the ball a ton, whether it's Josh Allen scrambling and doing what he's always done, this just feels like a complete football team if they can get rolling. On the defensive side of the ball, because offensively they're just so hard to stop. They can put all the tight ends on the field and run you over. They can spread out and use the arm of Josh Allen and throw the ball all over the field.
So just a very tough opponent to try to match up with on a week in and week out basis. Jason McCourty, Monday Night Countdowns, Jason McCourty, and so many other shows on ESPN. Right here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, let's get to Jacksonville because they are. A wagon.
When you present a team with holes, mistakes, anything, they will just jump and and take you straight out. And then you look at their record: six and two in the division. Where the second best team has two wins, yeah, and then you look at the conference; they've got five wins there, with wins already over New England and Cincinnati, and now Baltimore, which coming into the season was considered Super Bowl worthy. What do you think about these Jaguars again? Let's cycle back on that, seeing them from last night.
I love watching him. I love Liam Cohen. I think he does a tremendous job. Of he has the right amount of like a hole and passion for a head coach. He's going to challenge the guys, but also build them up.
I think you can just start with the work that we've seen him do with Trevor Lawrence and how well Trevor's playing from towards the end of last year all the way through the beginning of this year during OTAs. He had a bunch of us retired guys come out to Jacksonville and sit through about three OTA practice.
So that's in meetings, out on the field. Maurice Jones-Drew was there, myself, Dev, Demarcus Ware, a ton of guys, Mercedes Lewis, just to be able to witness and be able to give some type of knowledge back to those guys. And the one thing that continued to come out of there from Lamb was he loved his quarterback and he wanted Trevor Lawrence to understand that you are the guy and you have to believe that there's nobody better than you on the football field, no matter who you're playing against on any. Any given Sunday, and that's what they look like right now. Trevor's distributing the ball; they have weapons all over the place.
The way two ends running the ball, and I think conversely on the other side, their defense they fly around and they hit you, they blitz you, they play coverage, they do so many different things. And I feel like in the AFC, there's no team that's more balanced than the Jacksonville Jaguars.
So to me, they are the ones that are playing the best football in the AFC right now. And if you had to pick.
Somebody, you are like. I feel really comfortable saying they're going to be the ones in LA representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. Where do the Ravens go from here, Jason?
Well, again, hopefully Jacoby Brissett will be there after this week, and you get a veteran, you get a professional in there. But the truth of the matter is, this is a Baltimore Ravens team, and maybe Jacoby keeps them relevant, and they find a way to win some games. But this is a team that we were hoping we're going to be competing for a Super Bowl. If Lamar Jackson is not in the lineup, like they're done, stick a fork in them. There's no way you're going to look at this team and think they're going to beat a Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville.
Just not up to par if you don't have that guy out there on the football field.
So I feel like for the Ravens right now, the question marks are about the future. It goes so far beyond just the end of this season. Are they going to be able to ink that extension with Lamar Jackson and keep him there? And everyone's going to be happy and move forward. That's the big question to me going forward.
When you're talking about the Baltimore Ravens, it's not this season. It's the seasons to come. You need that guy for that Super Bowl window to still be open. Yeah, I mean, we played the soundbite at the start of the show, Jason, of Derek Henry being asked if if he's on the block. You know what I mean?
Like, which is nuts. Just five days ago, five days ago, they're in Western New York. Lamar's back from a three-game absence, and now five days later, there appears to be no hope. And Derrick Henry's being asked if if if he's hurt, if he's on the block, and he, I mean, he didn't want to even think about that. It seemed, Jason, you know.
So the Ravens can't pull the plug, because the trade deadline's around the corner. I don't think. No, I don't. I don't think they pull the plug. I think because the hope is that Lamar Jackson is going to have his thumb surgery.
Don't I don't know that he's out indefinitely. Is he back this year? But the hope is that by the beginning of next year, you have number eight in the lineup.
So I think you're not pulling the plug. You're not building and saying, "Hey, we're trying to gain draft capital to go make a run in the next two to three years." You're hoping that Lamar's back next year, and you're trying to run it back with a lot of the. Guys that are on the football team this year to go make a run at the Super Bowl.
So I think that's the difference. If you're Derek Henry, you're like, "Well, this has become home since I've left Nashville. I'm not looking to go make another place home or be a rental for one season and go chase the Super Bowl ring." So that's the hard position that they're in right now. But that's why you go out and you make the trade for Jacoby Brissett. You're not just punting on the season.
You're going to try to do the best you possibly can. I just think it's tough, like. I think about being on that team, and if I'm in that locker room, and what our mindset was going into the team, into the season, you're not going to convince me that without that guy in the lineup, we still have a chance. He is one of maybe three quarterbacks in the league that you say what he can do is unmatched by anyone else. Without him, we're not we're not making that type of run.
That's just being realistic. Last one for you here, Jason. The trade deadline around the corner, and Jonathan Taylor spoke in Indianapolis on Thursday. And he's basically like, "Can we, can we get some resolution here?" I, he, he just wants to know: Am I staying? Am I going?
Why is he not gone yet? If he's going to go, which is a great question. If I want Jonathan Taylor, I want him immediately, and I want him running on Sunday. You know what I am saying?
So, my question for you is: Which team do you think should? Shoot the moon and go get Jonathan Taylor for now, and obviously the future, Jason. I got two teams for you. I'm going to say the Bengals. I would love to see him in their uniform, and the other one would be the Minnesota Vikings.
I feel like there's two teams right now that have Super Bowl potential. That you go out and get a guy like that that can change the dynamic of your offense. For Joe Burrow, he's playing at an MVP level. I don't want Joe Burrow throwing the ball 40 times a game. Like, let's take 18 to 20 of those snaps away.
From you and hand the ball off to Jonathan Taylor and see what he can do. I think for the Vikings, you're just looking for any form of a spark.
So getting a guy like Jonathan Taylor, if he can start to move the chains and do some things in the run game, it'll open it up for Justin Jefferson and just make life on the quarterback a lot easier. My sleeper team that I don't think they're in Super Bowl contention, but if you're talking about building for the future and getting a guy, New York Giants. Like why not? Obviously, Cam Scattable is a A really good running back, and he's a nice piece to have back there. But if you had a guy like Jonathan Taylor, as Jackson Dart is coming back off of a major injury, that you can hand the ball off to, and you're talking about the team that Harbaugh is building, that's going to continue to get better, I think that would be a magnificent piece to have in the backfield, especially if you want to play bully ball the way they want to in the NFC East.
He'd be a great addition. I'm with you. I said it on the show a couple days ago because you know Jonathan Taylor is from New Jersey, yeah. And you know the Giants have a history of superb Wisconsin backs, but it is a way for them to run back their Saquon mistake. To be honest with you, like great player, great guy in the community, and we'll pay running backs what they're worth.
You know we'll take that contract on, and then just one last little pushback here. With all due respect to Jackson Dart, I mean, we're going back to the conversation of losing one's job due to injury. There's a Michigan man that's out there, Jason, that's got an opportunity to go to three and O. Speaking about a five day span, can go three and O as the Giants' starter and ensconcing this team potentially as a six win NFC East leading team. If they can beat Philadelphia in Philly, and then Washington to kick off Week Ten at home on Thursday night, like why not?
Go for it now! Go for it now! Listen, I'm not gonna argue with the six quarters that we've seen from JJ McCarthy. Yeah, but well, okay. Is that was that a was that just a little passive shot there, Jason?
No, it's been six. Am I wrong? It's been six quarters, right?
Okay, okay, guys. Fantastic. It might be. It's fine when he says it, but when we say it, it's like the worst thing ever. Yes, I'm sorry.
I don't mean to interrupt. You finish, Jason. Go ahead. It's been a fantastic six quarters, and and I'm I'm being honest. He's been really good.
Yes, and I think for Giants fans, you're like, yes, JJ, keep it up. You're right. Go on a roll. Beat the Eagles. Beat the Commanders.
And if at the end of the season, we're talking about a team that's won ten, eleven games, and JJ McCarthy has led the way. Absolutely, there will be a comp a quarterback competition next season to see who's going to be the guy. Is it double nines and JJ McCarthy, or can Jackson Dart win back the job if he can? Things to play the way is nothing but respect, and you got to give him a shot. Double nines.
It's numbers eighteen, Jason. Numbers eighteen.
Okay.
Sorry, I'm picking all this up. Have a great Have a great Monday night coming up in Minnesota. I'll be out there watching. Always great chatting with you. Always good to see you.
That is Jason McCourty of Monday Night Countdown here on the Rich Eisen Show. I think we have a new fantasy team name: a hole and passion, or is that a great ventriloquist team from the '70s that was in Hollywood Squares? I'll take a hole and passion for the block.
Okay, let's take a break. We got big announcements, news on the other side about this show, massive, internationally massive. Coming up next. Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on. Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly VeriScan.
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Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixen. dot com or call one eight four four DUPIXEN. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. Getaway Winter Sales Event and get away with a deal so right it almost feels wrong because right now you can get a great deal on our most popular models, including our adventure ready SUVs, the Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe Hybrid.
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You know, just know that we're constantly working at broadening the scope here. There's many days, for instance, that I'll wake up and say, you know, how do I help broaden ESPN's global expansion strategy within Disney Plus? I'll I'll say good morning to Susie first. Yeah, you better. And then I'm like, how do I smart?
How do I broaden this strategy of ESPN within Disney Plus? Here's how you broaden it. I got it. Eight international spots.
Now get the Rich Eisen show live every day. And there's a 48 hour window if you miss it.
So, hey, folks, in the UK, in Ireland, in South Africa, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, go. You don't have to watch us live. We'd like it. It helps broaden the ESPN strategy globally within Disney Plus. But you can watch us for 48 hours after that.
So, in order to celebrate this, we figured let's put a segment together. Del Tufo's not here; he's in West Point. Correct. Otherwise, we'd have him try to pick these countries off a map. By the way, we should save that maybe for next week when he comes back.
He's in West Point because he's shooting the sequel to Officer and a Gentleman. Right? Called a student, an audio, and an executive.
Okay.
I'm sorry. That was the that was Navy pilots, not West Point. At any rate, we've assigned countries to two to each one of us, and we've all come up with facts, right, that will let our new audiences know we're learning you as much as you're going to start to learn us. We're broadening ESPN strategy within Disney Plus globally together.
Okay, so I've got two. You've got two. Yep, fella, you've got two. TJ, you've looked up two facts. Yes, sir.
I'll start off. Hey, let's go. I've got this fact about Sweden. Didn't know about this. They've got over two hundred sixty-seven thousand islands, more than any other country in the world.
Wow! And somebody from an island called Staten. I'm impressed. Did you know that? I did not.
That's a lot of islands, man. Wasn't Jamie Lee Curtis's character from Sweden at the end of Trading Places? I think her from Sweden, right? What you wearing later, Hulda? All right, she's from one of those islands, perhaps.
Maybe I've got a Finnish fact.
Okay, okay. Finland has roughly three million saunas for a population of about five point six million people.
Okay, they like their saunas. Erling Holland, I'm going to likes to take a little sauna. Before he dominates, had no idea. No idea. Finland, we're getting to learn.
TJ, what do you have facts over there? What do you have?
Well, I have Ireland.
Okay, what do you have? What's the crack lads and lasses? What I learned about Ireland is you know here in America, Chris, we had the Cubs had the curse of the Billy Goat, right? Sure.
Well, over there, I found out they have something called Mayo for Sam, and this club country Mayo, they won the title in 1951. The all Ireland, and as they were traveling home, they went past the funeral. They dis. Urupted it, and the priest put a curse on them. A curse, he said.
No, this team will never win again, and let until the last living member of the team dies.
Well, the last living member of the team died in nineteen in twenty twenty one, and this year for the first time they went back and they won the Isle of Ireland.
So. They have a kind of like a curse of Cubs thing. A Billy Goat. Full story. That's more than a fact.
You gave us a whole famous story. You know, we're a sports, we're a sports show.
So I wanted sports fans. I like it. You got a UK fact. I got the UK. You know, the UK is four countries.
I wasn't really aware of that. And there's, they love their sports like we love our sports: football, rugby, golf, motorsport. But what I found out most, Chris and Rich, is because I love tea, the Brits drink roughly 100 to 165. Wow! Tea every single day.
That's a whole boatload of digestives.
So I could relate to that. All right, that was the fact that I was tea a day. I also just learned another fact. TJ's regular. Yeah, good job.
No figure. TJ, who are you? We have facts. All right, I got. Let's start with Denmark.
Yep. What do you got? Lego was invented in Denmark in 1932. Fantastic. We need legat, which means play well.
Okay.
Oh, oh, yep. I want to also say to the people of Denmark. I don't know of. I only know one person who really wants Greenland. Just got to let that.
I'm using this platform. Come on, Rich. Not anymore. What else you got? All right, the Netherlands.
Aside from having the tallest people, men averaging six feet, women averaging five foot seven. They have more bicycles than people. Ah, twenty-three million bikes to eighteen million people. I've been there. I've seen it.
I can confirm. There's a lot of bicycles there. They really are. Yeah.
Okay.
I'm doing Iceland, which I went to for Christmas a few years ago. Very great place. Oh wait, South Africa first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, I'll do South Africa first.
South Africa, I've never been.
So, by the way, they're learning that too. Not the fact.
South Africa is home to the world's largest ever discovered diamond, the Cullinan diamond, which came in at three thousand one hundred and six carats, named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, which was the mine's founder.
Okay, it was intended as a birthday gift for King Edward the Seventh, and they were going to send it to Germany, but they didn't want it to get stolen, so they sent a decoy. Diamond shipped with detectives, while the real stone was sent in a plain box. Goodness, this is a whole to do. That was smart. You guys came up with to dos here, yeah, as opposed to facts.
This is great stuff. Yeah, the Rich Eisen Show podcast. Hey, before you go, if your Saturday setup involves a packed living room, big reactions, and maybe a celebration that goes too far, your walls need to be ready. Bare Ultra interior paint adds an extra durable, stain-blocking finish that holds up for the whole season and beyond. It covers in fewer coats, goes on smooth, and helps walls stay looking new for longer.
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