REShow: Albert Breer - Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Don't make me angry.

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College football does not care that it takes four hours long. Today's guest, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Brier, host of Nothing Personal Podcast. David Sampson, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, Sam Amick. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yep, our number one. We're kicking this show off on the Rich Eisen Show. Live in Los Angeles, California on the Roku channel. Also this terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM, Odyssey and more. We say hello to everyone out there who might be listening later on in our podcast listenership. We adore you and we appreciate you listening to all three hours of the show. It's split up all three hours into three different podcasts thanks to the Cumulus Podcast Network. And we appreciate anybody who listens there.

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YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. We appreciate that. Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask have What the Football coming into your podcast inbox later on today. A very special guest that they have. It's me.

And I look forward to being on What the Football with Suzy and Amy later on. Nice. No, actually, what do you mean? I don't dress this nicely. Normally is what you say.

It's a sweater and a dress shirt underneath. You're so easy. No, you know what? You think I'm easy. You think you know.

No, no, no. Excuse me to quote the great Jim Morris senior. You think you know, but you don't know.

And you never will. The reason why I'm dressed quote unquote this nicely is, first of all, I respect this show. 2.

I am emceeing a Q&A at NFL Network after What the Football with Brian Rollap, who's only one of the top executives in the NFL. And I have a sport coat in my car for that to go because I'm a pro. How about that? We just spent a minute on your wardrobe.

No, you're the one who brought it up. Good to see you. Hey. Mike, how are you? I have no response. Good morning.

TJ, good to see you, sir. You know, Rich, Chris, Mike, instead of us risking a quarterback getting hurt like last night, how about we do this? Let's stop the season now. Let's the four of us vote on the last four teams and then have them play and let's just get this over with. By the way, that would probably be better. It'd be the four best teams. Honestly.

It would. You know what, though? It's unfortunately part of the NFL this year that quarterbacks can't stay healthy. We saw it five snaps into the Jets season, and now Trevor Lawrence is going down.

We're kind of holding our breath here. And it looked bad. The good news is it doesn't appear to be broken because if there was a break, you know, he would have been air casted and not, you know, couldn't walk. You know, he had to gamble, ambled his way all the way up the the tunnel to the locker room last night. They said he didn't have an air cast. Well, I mean, and again, so that's not that's not well, a walking booty apparently had a walking boot on when he was leaving. So and any and he was seen telling his colleagues what's going on with his injury. And there seemed to be some smiles in the locker room. And again, these are the metrics you hang your hat on until you get MRIs back, you get. You know, X rays back. And however, his reaction was the reaction of somebody who knew he got significantly hurt, angry, slamming his helmet, knowing this is not just something he could go into the blue tent and come out and play. And knowing this is something that's going to last longer than this week and knowing that this is something that's going to require some form of a rehab, knowing that this is significant.

And even if it's four to six weeks, right? Jacksonville has a home date with Baltimore on Sunday Night Football coming up in week 15. And that's pretty big. You know, they got to go to Cleveland next.

That ain't easy. And you take a look at this stuff and see here, like, is it now two teams that are in playoff positioning, the Cleveland Browns at seven and five at the six seed taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now the four seed could have been the one seed had they won last night. And now it's part and parcel of the of the NFL that it's looks like C.J. Beathard versus Joe Flacco in that game and Flacco became the 53rd different starting quarterback in the NFL this year.

C.J. Beathard would become the 54th. You know, if Trevor Simeon starts for the Jets, that would be 55 and so on and so on and so forth. Mitchell Trubisky is going to start Thursday night for the Steelers.

It's his first start of the season as Pickett has been hurt before and left games, but made his appointed round the next week a couple of times. And I don't know what the answer to this is. And but for the Jacksonville Jaguars, I'm not going to sit here and say that their season is over because, you know, this isn't the college football playoff committee.

Sorry. You know, you got your backup quarterback in Florida. So your season's over.

Go enjoy some oranges, you know. But this is this just in not good. And when we had Trevor Lawrence on last week and I don't want to hear any Rich Eisen Show jinx talk from any of you folks out there because I saw he was on ESPN sitting down, too. OK, so in advance of this game and we were talking to Trevor last week and the conversation with him that we had was, OK, last year you took a major step forward out of the.

Urban Meyer darkness retreat and Doug Peterson is now here and he was kept talking about how Peterson is a guy who, you know, treats him like men and and they love playing for him and he has a great relationship with him and he's got a collaborative relationship with him. And so that step forward led to a division crown and a playoff win in a game where, man, it was seeming like a lifetime of of experiences for him in Jacksonville to be down as much as they were to the Chargers and then coming back. And winning that, then going into Arrowhead and getting that experience as well, right? And then this year, stumbling in the beginning, but winning a ton of games, they were seven and one going into last game last night since October 1st.

That's the best record in the NFL since October 1st, including gutsy wins short week on the road in New Orleans with him wearing a knee brace for the first time all season and then going into Pittsburgh and winning that game. And then coming out of the by. And then going into Houston after Jacksonville came out of there by. And taking on San Francisco, getting boat raced there.

Coming back, winning the game against Tennessee and then going into Houston and letting the young Texans know, OK, you got us in our house. This is not your division. We're coming in and we're showing you we have the medal.

We have the experience. Not today, winning that battle. And I asked him about putting stamps down.

And he was he agreed that this is the way they feel they're putting stamps markers down. And last night was a marker opportunity with the Bengals and their backup quarterback and burrow in a sling. And they had an opportunity to win that game and be the one seed in the AFC.

Through 13 weeks. And they could not stop Jake Browning and they could not take advantages of Cincinnati's mistakes like. Turning to Tyler Boyd after Jake Browning went up top to Jamar Chase like he's Joe Burrow and like, OK, now let's let's go deep in our trick bag to have Tyler Boyd try to throw him back across the field to Joe Mixon and then Josh Allen picked him off. And I tweeted out on the spot, that means his two career interceptions is against. Buffalo's Josh Allen and Tyler Boyd go figure. Jacksonville takes the lead there. And then Trevor Lawrence goes down. After. Jake Browning ties the game.

And. Amidst the fog of looking at Lawrence, go down and banging his helmet on the turf and needing help. To get off the field and then go up. The tunnel and again, I don't know, you know, I know there's.

Tons of golf carts in Jacksonville, Florida. I don't know why he was he could have refused saying I want to walk to the I don't know the answer as to why he was. You know, trudging his way up with who knows what. Of an ankle injury. And then Brandon McManus misses a field goal.

Right on the spot. They tie the game, lose it in overtime after C.J. Beathard can't. Do anything with the opening possession, Browning leads the Bengals down the field methodically and then. McPherson splits the uprights and we'll talk about the Bengals in a second.

Here's what. Doug Peterson had to say after the game. We'll see where Trevor's at first and but listen, we got a hundred hundred percent confidence in C.J. I mean, he did a nice job, you know, getting us down the field there and you know, tying the football game.

Should have been the game winning field goal, but it wasn't but you know, got a lot of confidence in C.J. And you know, he's he's a veteran player. He's played a lot of football and if he happens to be the guy then then, you know, we get behind him and support him.

Yep. McManus taken, I think, a little bit of a stray right there. And if there's anybody who knows a season is not over with your backup quarterback, it's this guy. We were talking about with Chris Long yesterday, talking about the college football playoff committee would have what dispatched with the Eagles years ago. He pushed back on that notion. And I, you know. I hope we hear later on today that it's not season ending for Trevor Lawrence.

As of this conversation right now, we don't know. And then I guess again, the college football playoff committee would have looked at Joe Burrow in a sling and saying, yeah, you're done Bengals. And Jake Browning's raising his hand saying.

I've got a ton of experience in college. You know, he didn't look all that great in his first start against Pittsburgh, but I think we're learning maybe that might be more about the Steelers defense than anything else. Talk about a performance. I mean, we're going to be talking about this one for a long time and I hope for his sake, it'll be just at the beginning of a long career. Obviously, I would imagine for someone else because Burrow's coming back easy. He ain't going anywhere to use the Magic Johnson reverse. He's going to be there. And just watching him throw. And watching him spin it and watching him stay calm and watching him push it down the field. And watching him run for first downs and then getting it in position for mixing the score twice.

And then the one that was the breathtaking one was, okay, let's go up top to Jamar Chase. Big play touchdown. Then they take the ball out of his hands. Tyler Boyd throws the interception.

Now they're down. He leads them back. You know, I mean, talk about adversity that he faced in the game and talk about the same way. You know, we were saying Jordan Love, we went high register. He kind of looks like Rogers. Does he look like Burrow to you a little bit? I mean, just the way that he's his demeanor. Like, you can't tell it's third and 15 or it's, you know, first and goal because you've just spun it all the way down the field. You can't tell the difference. Seems to have that same look about him.

And in case you're wondering, where did this come from? Well, I guess you weren't watching in late November when we had Jordan Palmer on who was Burrow's throwing coach. He's his QB consultant. And he told us when we had him on that Browning reached out to him knowing that he's Burrow's guy.

And asked for some help just in case he gets the shot in Burrow's offense. And sure enough, this is what Jordan Palmer had to say a couple of weeks ago here. I got hit up by Jake this past offseason and ended up spending basically January to July with him. And, you know, it was almost week by week I started going, wait a second, this dude is really good.

Like, he can spin it, his movement, a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff that we work on that happened quickly. Well, when I look back on Jake's career, several of the things that I look for in a quarterback I saw in Jake. And one of them is, and this might sound silly, but at any point in this guy's career was he like a baller? And I don't even care if it was high school. Did he like run around and make plays and like be the reason they won the game? Jake Browning threw 91 touchdowns his senior year in high school.

That's a California State record at a good school in Folsom. So he was completely dominant in high school. And then you go look at Washington, great staff, some good receivers, all that. He's a four-year starter. I mean, he's almost a four to one touchdown interception ratio. He was offensive player of the year multiple times, won the Pac-12 two out of three years. Like he was a great college football player and he was making plays.

I'm bullish on this. I think Cincinnati's offense is going to look really good with Jake Browning at the helm. And the other thing that backup quarterbacks sometimes do not have or not afforded is when you take over for a bad team that's out of it. You get bad play from teammates around you.

They're in it. Statistically speaking, the Bengals are in it and both of his receivers are in a contract year. He is going to be playing with highly motivated teammates on offense and defense. So I think he's set up to have a very successful run here. Jordan Palmer. Nostra Palmer. He was on it. Yeah, he was. And so the question is, how does Jake Browning handle this, right?

32 or 37. Come on. Just crazy. How does he handle it, right?

Is he going to his head? This is what he had to say after the contest, after he crushed it on Monday night to save the Bengals' season. Because guess what? If they went to five and seven, they would lose all contact with the group of seven and five teams. There's a Texan seven and five team that's not even in the playoffs right now because there's three others in front of them.

This is what he had to say. I mean, we got two games in 12 days, so kind of got to get moving quickly. You know, I haven't played a lot of football, but it's not like I'm not used to winning. I've won a lot of games in my career. None of them have been in the NFL until today, which is obviously noteworthy. But, you know, I'm used to winning. I've won a lot of football games in my life.

That's right. All the Washington Husky fans that are excited for the Sugar Bowl are like damn straight you did. The issue are the numbers. The numbers, for them moving forward, that's the issue. They're 0 and 6 in conference, I mean. Or 2 and 6 in conference. 2 and 6. 2 and 6 in conference. 0 and 4. 0 and 4 in division.

The tiebreakers are not very good. But they do have one over the Bills, which may come in handy at some point. Right now it's got them 10th over the 11th place Bills. The Broncos are sitting above all of them. You know, because the Broncos... 3 and 5 in conference. As we know... Oh, the Bengals are?

Broncos. The Broncos are right. Yeah, that's why they're ahead.

That's right. And they've also beaten the Bills. So, that's why they're ahead of the Bengals and the Broncos take care of the Bills. Anyway, long story short is there's a long way to go, but if they win out, there's a shot. And you could sit here and say, good luck winning out. Well, Cincinnati's next game is home against Indianapolis, one of the teams they have to be in front of.

So, they could get that tiebreak taken care of like that. Minnesota at home, that's the first game of the NFL Network triple header. I'll be doing the Steelers at Colts after that game. And then they have the Steelers at home. And Cleveland.

They visit them. Those are the two teams that have beaten them already in division, but they haven't played them again. We'll see what happens there.

And then they've got to go to Kansas City. Stranger things have happened, including Jake Browning going 32 of 37 against the Jaguars D, that is pretty damn good. Josh Allen is one of the best defensive players in the sport, period. And there's a ton of guys you've never heard of who go from sideline to sideline buzzing all over the place.

And he buzz sawed them last night. Jake Browning, man. And again, it's unfortunate that they're not making the playoffs because there's a group of people who say there is the backup. Except that's the NFL.

And so it's not the I know there's an apple and there's an orange, but the concept is the same. Sorry, you're not good because it's your backup. We don't trust you.

And the one that the one game that the kid who is the backup, he gets concussed, he doesn't even get another shot. We'll just take care of you. We'll just remove you. We all love Josh Dobbs, too.

And then we saw. I know. Well, it's just one game. Maybe he's going to come back. Never know.

Unlikely. Josh Dobbs, that one good game. The Raiders game that the Eagles won that Chris Long pushed back to take your side of this whole point with me saying that the college football playoff committee would have eliminated the Eagles. They won the Super Bowl because they lost their MVP quarterback.

They won that game, they look terrible in that game, and it's exactly why they were underdogs every game during their stretch that they won the Super Bowl and beating Tom freaking Brady. With falls. So I'm just saying you don't know you don't you don't know. And we're going to discuss this a little bit later on.

A little bit more amongst us. Tomorrow's Bruce Feldman will have another conversation with him on that. Jerry Jones has chimed in on the subject matter, or at least he was asked about it in his media availability today. His answer is, shall we say, classic Jerry Jones. I don't have the patience to jack with you. I would not move. All right.

So how are you on this program? David Sampson is going to join us. The former Miami Marlin front office executive. Was he Florida Marlin at the time?

But it looks like Otani's in play like right now for all for the Marlin. No, for a bunch of people. No, but for all of us to finally get the answer. Absolutely.

And so it's going down. So we need to talk with him. We will call him.

Or zoom with him. Sam Amick chatted with James Harden. No. And I will ask Sam the question, because he was talking to James saying, you know, a lot of people don't know you.

He goes, that's right. A lot of people don't me. I'm one of them. I'd like to know who is James Harden, please.

Can somebody tell me? He's a man. He said he was taking care of his family. By making this business decision, because it's real money that he was promised a max contract by Darryl Moore, he's finally filling in some blanks. Meanwhile, there's Tyrese Halliburton raising his hand and saying, Brock Purdie is not the only dominant Iowa State athlete out there right now.

Low key. So there's that. And Zion has moved on as well in the the in-season tournament that's moving on with the Knicks and the Bucks this evening. So there's lots to talk about 844-204, Rich. There's overreaction Monday on Tuesday, the segment. There's also coming up a top five list of the top five NFL teams I believe will crash the playoff party. Albert Breer is joining us next with the latest on everything. Rich Eisen here. If you love football as much as we do here and want to be in the game every day, there's something the guys on my show have been enjoying. Prize picks Daily Fantasy Sports, the number one daily fantasy sports app. Brockman, tell everybody about prize picks and your strategy this season. Rich, it's fun and easy. Pick two players or more based on their stats and place your entry.

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Visit prizepicks.com for restrictions and details. Get an inside look at Hollywood with Michael Rosenbaum. Let's get inside of my father, John Glover. You know, we've watched Talk, Phil, and most of these episodes I never saw. I didn't watch the show.

You never once saw yourself on Smallville. In the beginning, I used to look at myself all the time and love to. And then as I get older, I stopped. Why is that? I don't know. Maybe because I'm older. I was going to talk to you about that because you're 79. Yeah. How old do you feel?

11. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. Back here on the show, Albert Breer is going to join us in a second here. Just real quick.

We were talking off the air. I don't think Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have ever been better. They're as better as they're. I really love listening to them on Monday night.

I totally agree. And I'll be like, I love the Manning cast, but I haven't. I'm watching Joe and Troy almost exclusively. And the broadcast, I'm loving it. Lisa Salters too.

And she's know, you know how we feel about her in the Schuster Eisen household. And also there, I don't know, their camera work when they they had, you know, Jamar Chase and overtime. Could he get it? Was he reaching for the first out or not?

Was out of bounds? Yeah, I know. But they had that camera in the pylon and they were moving it around. I didn't know. Mike, I didn't know you could move the camera in the pylon around or they were zooming in or zoom in. It's actually, I don't know.

That was unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah.

You manipulate the actual camera. Right. And then when Trevor, when Browning scored the touchdown on, you know, on the sneak, they had like six different angles of it and every one of them was useful. I was awesome. Yeah. I was a fun game.

And one last thing too. Let's give it up. I thought the officiating with the exception of one Phantom five yard illegal contact penalty at the top of the fourth quarter that gave Jacksonville a fresh set of downs. And I thought the hold when Beathard rolled out, I thought that was a hold and you could see, you could see there was, I don't know, but played by Beathard, great honestly, I get it.

But I thought that was old. I really did. I thought last night's game was, was well officiated.

Maybe it's cause I bet on the jacket. Well, okay. I hear you. But I mean, again, compared to the night before, Oh my God, it's night and day, night and day.

Then there were two night games. You know, so that's my two cents there. The rich eyes and show radio network back on the air, sitting at the rich eyes and 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. It's one of our favorites. And I'm not just saying that because he's hearing me introduce him.

He is from sports illustrated the author of the M M QB, our friend Albert Breers back in the program. How are you doing Albert? Hey, right. You're going to make me eat it now. Cause I know this is the first time I've been on since the 25th. No, you know what? I'm taking the high road.

Cause that's what apparently Ryan day was doing prior to the game. You know, so I'm taking my cue from him, which means later on, or we could start this thing off with me blowing a whistle and everybody hopping up and down around me. We could do that if you want. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's not, it's not 20 like it was for you, but it's three years in a row. So I don't know that I don't have much I can say, I guess, but in all seriousness is, is there any truth to the rumor, Ryan day sniffing around the NFL or, or, or there's 0.0 there.

What do you got for me? I don't, I think eventually like it had happened you know, whether or not it happens now, I would doubt it. You know, and I think he's always had aspirations of coaching at that level. Obviously he coached for two different teams, his core recs coach for the Eagles and the, and the Niners under Chip Kelly. And so do I think he's got goals of getting there someday? Yeah. Or is that in the back of his head? If new England offered him the chance to come home, do I think that'd be really hard to turn down?

Yeah, I do. And now I think if new England is not Belichick, I think it will be Gerard Mayo. So I bet that's going to be kind of a moot point anyway. My guess would be he doesn't leave yet.

But I think eventually it's something that would intrigue him. No. And the only reason why I bring that up is because there was a whole host of transfer portal activity out of Ohio State on, on, on Monday.

Everywhere. Well, I guess so. I guess so. It seems like this is free agency now, right?

This is the free agency month in college football right now. You know what I mean? You know what's crazy about it? Somebody was telling, somebody told me this last year and I thought this was such an interesting point that I hadn't thought of, right?

Okay. That in some of these cases, like kids are putting their names in the transfer portal after year one or year two. It's not necessarily they want to leave. It says, somebody's telling them that that could touch off a bidding war. And so like, if you're one of these kids, if you're 18, 19 years old and you got X amount of money to come to a school in the first place, and now like someone's whispering in your ear, oh yeah, like if you put your name in the transfer portal, you know, there'll be a half dozen schools that'll line up with offers for you. I mean, that's a different dynamic now, isn't it? You know, if it's just, all right, I'm going to force my school to give me even more money now because like a bidding war, I mean, it's just, it's so far beyond, like, I like it's so far beyond what I think people had even thought it would be now. It's pretty crazy, you know? And then on the other end of it, I think like there's some, like, I mean, I have heard this, like at some schools, like there are broken promises and that's why guys are in the, in the transfer portal, like where there were monetary promises made to kids. And I think one at A&M actually went public with it, right?

Where they were promised X amount of money and that money didn't come through. So it's just, it's the wild west, Rich. It is absolutely the wild west. Yeah, it's free agency. It's a free agency month right now in college football.

That's exactly what it is. Albert Breer here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's jump in about Trevor Lawrence. Obviously we don't know anything concrete right now, but I know you and many of your colleagues already start hearing, you know, drumbeats or see smoke or give it a little bit of a heads up.

What do you know about Trevor Lawrence as you and I are conversing? Cautiously optimistic is the way that they put it to me. And I don't, like, I think we always have to be careful until they get the imaging back and they're going through that today, the tests and all that different stuff, but they're cautiously optimistic that he'll be okay. Now, what does this mean for this week against Cleveland?

You know, I'm not sure. Obviously now the game's become more critical for the Jaguars because I don't know how many people woke up and look at the standings this morning, but they're only a game ahead of the Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts. So suddenly the AFC South is hotly contested. But yeah, I'd say for right now, like the word you're getting out of there is cautiously optimistic pending the imaging that they should have if they don't have it already later today. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and obviously that would be terrific news. Certainly, you know, if it's possible, I mean, again, the images were just so striking and Trey Hendrickson immediately taking a knee right next to him as well.

It just was one of those jarring moments where again, I mean, what can be done about the rash of injuries at quarterback? Is it just a shrug honestly, where it's just like, that's the way it is. Like I really joke about that. I don't know. I know.

Right. But it's just, I don't know. It's, this is a trend. It's awful.

It's so, it's so, it's so weird, you know, Rich, cause I'm like everybody else. And you know, I grimace when I see some of the flags that are thrown, right? Like there've been some real bad ones this year where it was like a guy is being flagged literally for playing football, you know? And then, you know, you think about like the other end of it, well, you know, like the NFL is a business and the business, the top of the business is the quarterbacks and it's good, it's good business for the NFL to have their quarterbacks out there. And I, you know, I, that's why you see the flags.

That's why you see the fines. And I, you know, I don't know how much further they can go. I mean, the way Trevor was hurt yesterday, it's just football. You know what I mean?

Like there's nothing, there was nothing like weird about the way that that one happened. I mean, we've seen in the past where there's stuff they can legislate. Like, you know, when Brady got hurt, you know, 15 years ago, like they banned like lunging when lunging low at a quarterback, right? So there are, you know, certain plays where you can take these things out and what do you do about Joe burrow?

You know what I mean? Joe burrows, his wrist popped, you know, like it's just, it's, it's a, it's a contact sport and like the reality is these guys are going to get hurt. And so, you know, I, I, I think, you know, one of the things that these teams are always doing and you continue to do is like, you look into the training and the way that the guys are preparing themselves for the season and you know what you can do to, you know, put them in a position where they're calloused enough to take it on a week to week basis. You know, all that stuff's obviously constantly being looked at, but as far as the rules go is, you know, with what happened with Trevor last, last night, like getting stepped on the way you did. I mean, that's just going to happen in football. Now we're here on the rich eyes and show now the next game is Patriots and Steelers. And we, you know, we, we've been monitoring the Belicheck if you will situation all year long and it's zappy versus Trubisky.

Now to keep continue on the conversation we're having about the lack of starting quarterbacks in this league and the churn at the position, where are we right now? Is there a situation with Belicheck because the defense is crushing it, balling out, you know, honestly there, this is, and that's his, if you will, side of the ball, I mean, is this truly just playing out the string or, or is there a way to maybe come up with a construct similar to, all right, bill, you're getting an OC and then, all right, bill, you're getting another grocery shopper. You know what I mean?

Like, what do you have for me on that? Yeah. So I think, you know, well, there, there are two people who know, and they both have the same last name, you know, and so it's the owner and the team president. And you know, I, I think, you know, one thing I know about Robert Kraft having covered him for as long as I have and Jonathan Kraft too, is they won't take a decision like this lightly.

And I, you know, Robert's whole saying has always been measured nine times and cut once. And you know, I think he understands the implications of letting go of a legend because that's what happened three years ago when they let go of Tom Brady and he saw the result in the fallout of that. And so as a guy who, you know, is up for the hall of fame, I think he understands the risks there would be in walking away from Bill Belichick after what happened when he walked away from Tom Brady and walking away from Tom Brady without any compensation, you know? So you know, I think that there's a couple of roads he can take here. He can try to get compensation for him if, uh, if this is it and he can go talk to him and he can say, I want this to be elegant the way that we have our separation.

And I don't want this to be acrimonious and I want to do this the right way. And if he does that, he risks Bill saying, well, I want to still coach and go somewhere else. So I like, I don't want that team giving up a first round pick that I could use on a player or a second round pick on a, I could use on a player. So Bill could sit there and force him to fire him, right? So that's one thing he could do. He could just outright fire him, which I don't think is the path that he wants to take. And the other path would be the one that you're talking about, which would be like forcing a GM on him or changing the structure of the organization. And you know, like that one, I think is interesting because, you know, Bill has contractually power over a lot of these things.

And so that's, you know, another one where you risk losing him. Now, I guess if you kind of want to workshop that in your own head, you can say, Robert, what Robert could do is he could say, all right, we're going to hire this GM. You know, John Robinson say, who worked in the New England organization for years and years and years was the Titans GM hired John Robinson and say to Bill, all right, so you know what, like, you're not going to report to John Robinson, Bill, but he isn't going to report to you either.

You're both going to report to me. And then you see how Bill takes that. And if Bill walks away at that point, at least maybe you have the safe harbor of saying like, I didn't fire him.

Like I just set the place up differently and tried to address a problem and he walked. So like, I just, I don't see them coming out of this without changes. And I think it's either Bill's gone or Robert is imposing some level of change on Bill and then it's up to Bill what he wants to do.

This has potential to get awfully awkward. Albert Breer here on the Rich Eisen show. And then there's the Steelers coming off of a dreadful home loss to Arizona on the previous show.

Albert, I pointed out, that's what got Mike McCarthy got in Green Bay, right? After a long time, sorry. You know, we know you got a trophy in the case. You've been here a while. Things aren't going as well anymore or as consistently great as they used to be. You lost to Arizona at home. Fans want you out. I mean, is there any chance, because Steeler fans are just beating drums about getting rid of Tom and I, every single time I hear that, I come back here, Albert, and I'm like, you're out of your minds, okay? And then my Twitter feed right now, and I know that shouldn't be a metric, it's lit with Steeler fans saying, you don't know what you're talking about. You know, we used to be in the AFC championship game every four years. It's now been 12, you know, it's blah, blah, blah.

So what do you give me on the temperature there? Well, I would agree with you. I would agree with you that Twitter is the wrong place to... Exactly.

Or X. The factory of negativity. But it's nonstop.

I mean, it's truly. And I might get some phone calls today, too, from... Yeah, I don't think they'd fire Tom. Never. Let's start there. Right.

But I do think, I mean, look, the Rooney's are there every day. This is their family business, and they're in there every day, and they understand the ins and outs of the way things work in their organization. So for there to be a mid-season firing of an offensive coordinator is, I mean, antithetical to the way that they've run their business over the last 50 years. And I think it was the first time a coach has been fired in mid-season since the 40s. Was that the number? Right?

I think it was Burt Bell in 1941. Yeah, right. Yep. Mm-hmm. Is that right?

Yeah. I think part of this is going to be Mike Tomlin having a good plan to modernize where the Steelers are offensively. And remember, his first two offensive coordinators, one he inherited, that was Bruce Arians, and the other one was Todd Haley, who did a really good job there on balance over seven years. And Todd was sort of a Steeler legacy.

His dad was the guy who built the rosters in the 70s. So in both cases, it was sort of somebody that Mike Tomlin inherited. So what's happened since then hasn't been good on the offensive side of the ball. Whether you're going back to hiring Rothlitzberger's buddy as your offensive coordinator, to going to Mike Canada, going from Randy Fickner to Matt Canada, and then going from Matt Canada now.

And we'll see how this works out with Faulkner and Sullivan. I think a big part of where they're going is like, okay, so we need a plan for modernizing the offense. And we need a plan for developing the quarterback. Because if you look at the roster, Rich, they've got a lot of good things going on in that roster. And I think you could make an argument that if they had, say, a top 25% quarterback, and that's a big ask to have a top eight quarterback if you go down the names, right? But if they had a top 25% in the league quarterback, a top eight quarterback, they'd be a real Super Bowl contender right now. And so I think that that's where some of the urgency is coming from. And I think having that plan to modernize the offense and develop their next quarterback is going to be an important piece of the conversation when Mike sits down with the Rooney's at the end of the year.

All right, last one for you. Let's talk about quarterbacks being developed coming up. The Heisman Trophy finalists that have been mentioned, three quarterbacks, none of them Caleb Williams. And then a very well-deserved spot from Marvin Harrison Jr., period, end of story, okay? But I don't think anybody here that I've spoken to believes in Caleb Williams that it's a game time decision on January 15th.

Everybody believes. He's gone, okay? By January 15th though, it's entirely possible he will not know who he's leaving USC to go play for because the number one overall pick may be in Chicago's hands and it could be Chicago or it could be anybody that makes a deal with Chicago.

It could be New England. Do we know what his preference is? Are there any conversations that you've been privy to about Caleb Williams and anything of that nature that he might kind of play games here with his eligibility?

What do you think? I thought it was asinine, like the idea that he would give up that. Because to me, like Rich, what this is all about and what smart people around Caleb Williams will tell him, what this is about is not about the first rookie contract. It's about starting the clock towards a contract that eventually, like when we get there three or four years from now, like could pay you 60 or $70 million a year, right?

Like the one year of delay in getting to that contract, to that second contract is massive as far as injury risk, as far as just having that money in your pocket, all of it. And I would say the way I put it, I don't know if I put it this way with you before, if you're Caleb Williams, it's better to be Eli Manning than Peyton Manning. You remember Peyton Manning stayed in school an extra year because maybe he wasn't wild about the idea of going to the Jets. So he stays in school the extra year, winds up with the Colts, right? Eli Manning didn't have a choice, like he had exhausted his eligibility, but the Eli Manning path was to force your way somewhere, right? I think in this case, if you're Caleb Williams based in that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in three or four years, it is better to be Eli Manning than Peyton Manning. Because it's just, there's less risk involved, there's no guarantee that a team you like is going to have the number one pick in 2025.

It makes no sense. So my sense is that Caleb is going to get that advice from somebody. And I think a lot of the noise that's come out since then, and I hate to pin this on one person, but a lot of NFL people think it's his dad. And that's going to be what NFL teams are going to be cutting through and assessing Caleb Williams over the next three or four months, is how much of the noise about having equity in the team and driving yourself to this team or that team or staying in school if you don't like the team with the number one overall pick.

Like how much of that's actually coming from the kid? That's something teams are going to be, the teams at the top are going to be digging through on Caleb Williams. And especially the team at number one, that's going to have to make the choice between Caleb Williams, who is seen as a generational talent, right? And then Drake May, who's considered a guy who will be worthy of going first overall in a lot of drafts. And by the way, you talked about the Heisman finalists. I would not, I mean, if there's one guy who has a chance to sneak into that stratosphere, I mean, do not sleep on Jayden Daniels. I would just say that right here, right now. Do not sleep on Jayden Daniels. I think he wins it, Albert.

I think he wins it. I mean, I'm not saying about winning the Heisman. Oh, you're talking about top five next year? The draft, yeah. I don't know.

Like, I mean, the drumbeat, and this started in October for me. You know, I'll check in with these people over the course of the season. Some people that are out on the road at the colleges and are looking at this stuff every day.

It's their job to do it. Yeah. You know, it started in October. Like, keep an eye on the LSU kid. Keep an eye on the LSU kid. Like, he's making headway. And so I'm not saying he's going to go in front of Caleb Williams or Drake May. Could it be a conversation for somebody at number two, Drake May or Jayden Daniels?

I think that that's certainly in play now. Albert, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it. You the man. We'll do this again very soon. All right.

Thanks, Rich. Thanks for having us on Twitter. He's a must follow. Yeah. Jayden Daniels.

Shooting up. I know you're interested in him. Oh, man. Well, I mean, I was seeing mock drafts. Like Albert said, in mid-October, he was top of the second round, late first round. I saw him fifth last week.

Yeah, I know. You know who held him between underneath 100 yards rushing, too, which is tough to do this year? Florida State.

Let's take a break right here on The Rich Guys' show. It was week one. Florida State. It was week one. That counts.

The Texas win over Alabama was week two, and apparently that's why they're ranked third over Alabama pre-season. Roll your break. Stacking Benjamins with Joe and his good friend OG not only has great financial insight, it's laid back with humor, too. Joe talks with Stacking Deeds co-host Crystal Hammond. I've always been a fan of nosy neighbors. I want nosy neighbors. They can tell you what's going on 10 times faster than you would know. Again, what's she talking about, Doug?

Really? Stacking neighborhoods, but then we're into nosy neighbors, and I built a career off of that. Find out more by searching the Stacking Benjamins podcast, wherever you listen. What's your favorite Morgan Freeman movie? What's my favorite Morgan Freeman movie?

Shawshank Redemption 7, Unforgiven, Driving Miss Daisy, Million Dollar Baby. Yeah. What's your favorite? Those.

All of them. Got to pick one. I got to pick one. Got to pick one. Life's about making decisions, Morgan. Driving Miss Daisy.

Why did you choose that one? So far away from me. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. I see that character when I look at the movie. Everything else, I just see me.

You know what I'm saying? So you became someone else? Well, I... Wait a minute.

Okay. A little bit of a caveat here, because Clint Eastwood, being one of my favorite directors and acting partners, Million Dollar Baby was pretty good. Well, I mean, you won the Oscar for that one, for Million Dollar Baby. Oh, that's right.

That is true. Although, Unforgiven to me, I've been talking about it the last two hours. That's a perfect movie. Perfect movie. I mean, from beginning to end, what was it like working with Gene Hackman in that film?

Gene's one of the masters. He's so believable. We had a scene in Unforgiven where he had me tied to a bars in jail, and he was beating me and questioning me, and he came up in one scene and whispered in my ear, I'm going to hurt you. Same questions that I asked for you, whoever that was, and if the answers don't match you, I'm going to hurt you. I believed him.

Couple of Morgan Freeman appearances, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show for our full archive, 844-204-rich, numbered here on the program. Okay, there's been an update from Jacksonville. We'll get to the top of the next hour. For the moment, though, everybody's got an opinion on the college football playoff quartet. And look, I know I've been having my fun with Florida State out, and if there was a committee, then Jacksonville would be out and Cincinnati would have been out. Everyone would be out. I mean, name anybody that's got a backup quarterback.

You can't play. And I understand, you know, the whole business of these four making it, I understand, I get it. I just think it's, you know, you're telling a team in a power five conference, hey, 13 and 0, you know, and there's a deep dive on ESPN.com about how they came to this concept and that they spoke to a member of the committee who said they knew this would suck going through this endeavor. So everybody's got this opinion on what they should have done and what they should do. Jerry Jones in his weekly 105.3, the fan in the Metroplex appearance was asked about this. I imagine after, you know, the whole business of about having a big game on Sunday night against the Eagles was finally handled and back and forth. This is what he had to say.

Jerry, did you have any hot take or opinion on the college football playoff committee and whether they got it right or wrong? I didn't. I didn't. And I wouldn't touch that with yours.

I mean, I got a new drop. Is that like the old Bea Arthur joke? I don't know.

With his what? That's right. Jeff, that's a Bea Arthur joke. That's it. Yep.

10-foot pole. Yeah. Was he talking about he went in touch with his pen? I don't know.

His pen. Arkansas is not involved. There's no Texas schools involved that, you know, that could have knocked the Longhorns out. I don't know.

What's yours? I guess, you know, like right there is... Jerry Jones. Can I also just say something here?

In all honesty, you know what's going on right now? How should Michigan have reacted to Alabama being announced as their opponent? How should they have? Should they have cheered? The opposite of what they did.

Honestly, like what did they do other than take in the news? Their reaction was... Was what? Oh, crap. Yeah. No, that's your interpretation of it. No. No, that's the whole free world except Michigan fans' interpretation of it.

But how should they have reacted? Great. Let's go. Great. Oh, crap. Did you hear that? You heard the... Is that what it was? I mean...

So what if the other way should have been what? Yeah? Then that's suddenly, oh, you're disrespecting Alabama. How about clapping? All right. Alabama. Let's go.

Bring it on. There are some claps. Listen to the room.

There are some claps. It would have been Michigan doesn't fear Alabama. Exactly. Exactly. And if it was Florida State, it'd be like, yeah, oh, we're disrespecting the opponent. If we're going to look at it that way... How should Michigan have reacted?

First off, they're 20-year-old kids. So yeah. If I was in that room and it was Florida State, I'd be like, great, this is a much easier game for us. So again, maybe we should get the sound.

There are... I've listened to it over and over and over again because all I'm hearing is Michigan's peeing down its leg because they're playing Alabama is the general sense of what's being great. Again, I love it.

I love it. I love it that everybody think that we are afraid of Alabama. And if we come out and say, oh, we're not afraid of Alabama, then we're disrespecting.

Now you're asking for it. That's what I'm saying. How should they have reacted? Or if it was Florida State, they would have, what, done the wave? They'd have to have batted beach balls around like it's the Dodgers? You're trying to make light of this.

I'm not. Like it isn't a real thing. Like that was their reaction. Oh, man.

Oh, we're in for it now. That's how it came on. Is that really what it sounded like to you?

Yes, absolutely. That's your sense. That's your read of it. I'm not alone. I know you're not. I'm pushing back. I'm like, what? What should it have been? Could have been, could have been nothing, but they're just reacting, right?

Some of them are clapping and some of them might have your reaction you're talking about, but it's not the general sense of it. I got the sound. Oh boy. You do? Okay.

Go for it. Play. Or is that a surprise that they actually let Florida State out?

I don't know. It's like that video. It's like that video from the NBA Finals when LeBron is at the foul line and Kawhi comes into the game and LeBron goes, oh bleep, now this guy is going to guard me. Or you have, honestly, so a team that has been so braggadocious about us versus everybody and hashtag bet covering now because they know they got busted cheating. Oh my God.

Dude. I mean, there could be an argument that Michigan shouldn't be in because their coach was suspended twice and there was a gigantic cheating scandal. So they should not even be in at all. Is that what you're saying?

Literally with 40 seconds to go in the hour. I'm saying there could be a case to be made for that. But that has nothing to do with what we're discussing, right? How should they have reacted? They're reacting with surprise.

I don't know why you're getting so mad about this. Because it's a sense that we're afraid. That's what it is.

And then we're peeing down our leg. And I think that that is a misappropriated. View of what there's possibly is in the room, so I'm saying, how should they have reacted? OK, I'm just not going to talk anymore about this. No, I'm just saying, how should they have reacted? Just nothing.

Cheers. It's not like they were surprised that it happened. Some might be like, oh, yes. And a bunch of them are like clapping, saying, let's go. That's the first time I heard it.

So. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson II. 1995, when WCW announces they're going to be live and head to head with Monday Night Raw feels like this would have been something Vince would have kind of laughed off. No, we did not like them moving to Monday nights. There were a lot of hotels. They all carried CNN, TBS and TNT. Vince was convinced that Ted Turner had deviously done this deal to get in the hotels and keep us out. Something to Wrestle. Wherever you listen.