Tom Pelissero on NFL injuries and potential head coaching vacancies

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Limitations apply. Hello, everyone. Happy holidays. This is the Rich Eisen Show. It's a holiday. Everybody get a gift.

New jewels, new cars, it's a new outfit. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The top JUCO signing in the United States of America. Deion Smith showed up to his signing at Ole Miss in a Lamborghini.

Good for him. Earlier on the show, actors and comedians, Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer. Coming up, NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer in studio, our number one. And it was so funny. My sides are truly still hurting.

And that is not an exaggeration. If you missed it, stay tuned right here on the Roku Channel. We re-air as soon as this hour is over and then we're going to nonstop rear for quite some time, as this is our last show, live show of the calendar year. T.J. Jefferson is already, if you will, jumped ship. Now that he's gone, I will castigate him for leaving early. Man, we're still here. No, no, but he's got to catch a flight home.

So he is already off on his holiday break. I am hopping a plane to Denver as soon as this is over. I'm calling the Patriots and the Broncos on Sunday night.

Nice. And that'll be great. Patriots and Broncos to wrap up the week 16 Sunday. There's a triple header on Monday night as well.

Chris Brockman and Jay Fellier in their spots. We're going to get Tom Pellicero joining us in a matter of moments. And this is a big, this is a big fantasy weekend.

This just in. We're already in a hole in our fantasy footballers final. We were dominant in the regular season. But we're going against Jason Kleiman of our buddy, our buddy from NFL Network. He had both Stafford and Nakua going off last night. And we had Camaro and he didn't did nothing to do very much. Yeah. And so it's a big weekend and many people didn't make it.

Or got crushed in there last week. That was me and one of those people for you. You're one of these people is because you went ahead and chose rookie running back Bijan Robinson in the first round. And you took the approach of I'm going to take him because I love him and I think he's going to have a huge year.

It doesn't matter if I'm reaching for him. I know I'm not going to get him when it comes back to me in the second round. So even though I might be going four or five picks early for him, doesn't matter. I'm going to go get him, which is an interesting approach. And then you instead of you took him instead of who would you go? No big deal. Just Christian McCaffrey.

OK, so you made that choice. And so in terms of his first year in professional football, from the fantasy point of view, a four letter word was Arthur Smith for you, because the head coach who is calling the plays in Atlanta would frequently remove Bijan from a game and put in Tyler Algier. And then when Cordero Patterson came back in, they would be sharing time. And you would think by now, week 16, it would have been this is Bijan's show and we're going to run him 20. We're going to get 20, 25 touches and we're going to run everything through him.

Similar to what you're seeing from the Bills and James Cook or what we've seen from McCaffrey and things of that nature. And that never materialized. But the reason why I'm bringing all of this up now is the one time where this was crystallized more than any other time is when in week seven, the Atlanta Falcons had Bijan and he was on the sideline and he hardly went in except for one touch. And we found out the reason why he basically had one cup of coffee that day is because he had what, a migraine of some sort?

Something like that. And they didn't deactivate him. They activated him and he was there and on the sideline. And the reason why after the game is he was he had an illness. Something was going on.

And we found out after the fact. And a lot of folks were like, so if you knew before the game something was up with them, how come you didn't let everyone know about it? As you're supposed to, I guess, with the injury report. Well, the NFL had conducted an investigation and today they fined the Falcons seventy five thousand dollars and Arthur Smith twenty five thousand dollars because of it.

He wasn't feeling well. But he wasn't on the injury report. The league looked into the matter and is now popped.

The team and the coach. So does that mean I can go back to my week seven roster and then put somebody in in his place and that could have potentially affected the rest of my fantasy season? Nope. Oh, you may not do that. Bummer.

That is not what you can do. So that's something to and again, you know, obviously we live we live in a fantasy football world, of course. But this is a real world where Arthur Smith Smith may be coaching for his job. And the Falcons did, despite all that, win the game against Tampa, which is why he still has a shot to win this division. As Atlanta has three games remaining, Indianapolis at Chicago and at New Orleans. And he's still in this mix and the NFC South is completely wide open. Certainly if Tampa Bay loses at home, the Jacksonville and Tampa Bay finishes up against New Orleans at home and at Carolina.

Yeah. And ask Arthur Smith that that's a gimme at Carolina. No, I think Trevor Lawrence is practicing today, so.

Well, he's practicing, but still not out of the concussion protocol. We shall see. And we'll see. I mean, I don't know if Arthur Smith just might be like, all right, every torpedo be damned.

Bijan, get ready. You're going to touch it 25 to 30 times over the last three, like give him 90 touches over the last three weeks. I don't know. Or if that's not really the answer. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes. And we have zero concept. But Arthur Blank does. And he did not give a full throated support to Arthur Smith going into the final three games of the season. And one last thing, too. Everyone should know this.

Arthur Smith and I know I'm sure he doesn't really appreciate it always being brought up, but he is one of the heirs to the Smith family that of the FedEx empire. He does not have to be doing this. He could be literally living in the Maldives doing whatever he wants to do in whatever house he so chooses.

And the fact that he chooses the life of an NFL head coach is a window into his acumen and his hard work. But I don't understand. And he's smart enough to know maybe he'll just say, screw it.

Everybody wants to see Bijan. All right, kid. It's on you. And maybe he does see see it through. They got to win games. But he is so smart and living with a Falcons fan.

I know this. A lot of people think that he's too smart and tries to get too cute in the red zone and down by the goal line. And that has led to some of these Ritter turnovers and inefficiencies getting points. And instead, they come up empty handed. Seth and Richmond, Virginia, you're here on the Rich Eisen Show, been hanging on for an hour and a half. What's up, Seth? What's going on, Rich? What's going on in your mind?

Nothing much. I wanted to get into the Saints before that. Just wanted to touch on Mike Trout to the Phillies. If that ever happened. My God, I grew up a Phillies fan in South Jersey, next town over from Mike Trout.

You know, my sister's boyfriend used to play him in high school, so that would be a dream come true. But I got a lot to say about the Saints, and I know your time is precious, so I'll let you decide. You want to hear about quarterbacks or coach? I have something to say about some of the decision making last night.

So you choose whatever you wish, Seth. All right, let's get into the coach, because Mr. Dennis Allen, he got to pretty much hand pick the quarterback that he wanted, and it was the same guy that they had failed once before. I don't think in my time watching football I've ever seen a quarterback and a head coach reunite after several years, and still be awful.

Dennis Allen, I just don't know. You know, we talk about Brandon Staley and his fourth down decisions, and then you got two fourth downs in the first half of the game where you just turn the ball over right there in the middle of the field, and you're supposed to be our old defensive coordinator. You're giving up 30 points a game now.

Our defense is gassed because our offense couldn't catch up. P. Carmichael should have been gone a long time ago. I'm just at my wits end right now with New Orleans. You know, I'm praying that this is it with Dennis, and that next year we might luck out. Maybe Pittsburgh lets Tomlin walk. Maybe Harbaugh wants to come down to the bayou. I don't know. Well, I hear you, Seth, and you know, it'll be interesting to see what the Saints do, and I appreciate the call.

Have a good holiday and a happy new year. They got two games to go. Their only way in after losing to the Rams, who are sitting there in the seventh seed right now, their only way in is winning the division. They're lucky because usually seven and eight teams don't have a path to winning the division. But the New Orleans Saints have a big game next up at Tampa, and you take a look at the Saints schedule if we can after this, because the Buccaneers have a game against Jacksonville this very week.

So it's entirely possible that they are all tied. The problem is, is that Tampa has Baker freaking Mayfield who came into, you know, their house and beat them in week four. So they lose next week. It's over. Period. End of story. Seven and nine, eight. Eight and nine is not making the playoffs in the wild card, and then you would lose to Tampa for a second time.

That would be all she wrote. And last night, the Saints had a winnable game. I mean, they showed Shohei Ohtani on the Oculus. Everyone's going nuts. Matthew Stafford comes out, balls out, touchdown to Nakua on fourth and two. The Rams go up whose house the whole thing was happening. The Saints defense did stiffen up inside the five yard line the next time in the Rams settled for a field goal and up top to Rashid Shaheed. And all of a sudden, here we go. Right.

Yeah. And that was the score with the Saints having the ball with a minute forty one left in the half. And the Rams getting the ball first in the second half.

And this is where the game changed. Because the Saints have a first and ten on the Rams. Forty seven with a minute twenty three to go after Chris Olave, who had a very nice game at an 18 yard drive starter. And two plays later, Carr has Olave on third down right over the middle.

And they couldn't connect. He was wide open. He could have run for days. So that brought up fourth and five at the Rams. Forty two with fifty six seconds to go. And I thought to myself, well, that's the way that one went. You had a shot here. I thought on third down they should have run it. Now, this is an easy second guess. They should have run it. So at that point in time, you at least force the Rams to use one of their time outs.

And you might get a more manageable fourth down or who knows, you could get a first down because they're not expecting a run. I don't know. You know, I know they have ninety nine there, so run away from them if you want my exes and o's.

What do you think? Good advice on that. I'm an all twenty two guy. Good advice. See ninety nine, go the other way. Run away.

Run away. So I thought, now you're punting. So at least with the Rams having all three time outs left, you try and pin them or at least have them start on their own twenty for crying out loud.

They went for it. They went for it and turned the ball over on downs and gave the ball back to the Rams on their own forty two with all three time outs left. I'm not sitting here saying at least try for your sixty yard field goal.

I'm not saying that. Just punt and say, let's play defense. Let's go to the locker room ten seven and come up with a game plan for the second half and go to work. And instead, of course, the Rams scored a touchdown and of course the end of the half happens. And of course, the Rams had a field goal on the next drive and then Carr throws an untimely interception that leads to a Rams touchdown. Boat races on, and even though the Saints had a comeback, it wasn't enough. It was garbage time, except the Saints did score twice, got the two point conversion, and I thought we had a game. Coop Coop Taney sitting next to me says it's a game again, Dad, because damn straight it was like four minutes left, thirty to twenty two.

This is honestly thirty to twenty two with three fifty three to go. And the Saints are out of time outs. So play defense, get a stop. You got a two minute warning on the back end here. You get one stop and then you can get the ball in decent field position and go to work.

Exactly. They went on side kick. I couldn't believe it. I turned to all my Rams friends that were running around me.

I'm like, they did you a favor. You know why? Because in this day and age, with the onside kick and how you're not allowed to get a running start, you got to have a certain number of people.

It's impossible to recover. Going into that decision this year onside kicks prior to that had been tried thirty times. You know how many times it worked? Probably zero. One.

One for thirty. So you're going to take a one for thirty chance instead of sticking your defense out there and all the momentum and saying, hey, Cam Jordan, go do it. I couldn't believe they went onside because now all you're doing is one first down. It's over because at least they're going to kick a field goal, potentially. I couldn't believe the decision making and I don't mean to go all in here on it, but I think I'm giving a viewpoint to Saints fans right now.

And if they don't make the playoffs and they do turn to their coach, this moment, like right here, they could have beaten, they had the Rams in a position and they let them off the hook, to use the phrase. And I know our caller was making it sound like Derek Carr was the wrong choice at quarterback. Honestly, at the time, I thought it was a terrific choice. I thought it was a terrific choice. I understand it hasn't worked out, but they weren't going for Lamar. They didn't have any other options, really. Honestly, I'm back with Jamis.

I don't know. I honestly don't believe that that this was the wrong choice at one point because I didn't think Rogers was going to happen or the Jets would ever go for Lamar. Don't forget the Jets once had Derek Carr in the building. Remember that and told him he'd be a Hall of Famer if he signed with them.

That's right. Maybe just maybe he signed with the Saints. But I didn't think that that move sealed their fate. Well, Derek Carr's not going anywhere, Rich. I mean, Saints fans may not want to hear this, but he will be your quarterback next year. He threw dimes to get him in the mix. And most likely in 2025, he has a lot of guaranteed money left. And unless he asks for a trade, he is going to be the Saints quarterback next year.

All right. Well, our director, Don Bowie, is a diehard Saints fan. Take Chris Brockman right now if you want Derek Carr to stay.

He just went back to me. Come on, man. He took his son to this game last night. Derek Carr had 33 fantasy points last night. It's not a fantasy world, but I have Derek.

If it was, you could go back in time and choose Christian McCaffrey instead of Bijan. What was I thinking? All right, we will take a break and more of your phone calls before you get out of Dodge. Tom Posero, when we come back here on the Rich Eisen Show, 844204 Rich, number to dial. So we'll ask him about who's in, who's out, who's injured, who isn't.

And then obviously, what's going on with the Falcons being fined and any coaches on hot seats? Don't go anywhere. That's so clearly you dot com. So tick to do crevice. It is a prescription treatment for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who may benefit from systemic therapy or photo therapy. Don't take if you're allergic to so tick to serious reactions can occur before treatment get checked for infections, including tuberculosis. So tick to can lower your ability to fight infections. Don't start if you have one serious infections, cancers, including lymphoma, muscle problems and changes in certain labs have occurred.

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Limitations apply. I'm on the Rich Eisen Show radio network with the Roku Channel live stream, I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you. Call click ranger dot com or just stop by as our friend Tom Pelissero and his usual Friday spot and a film network insider. Good to see you, Tom. How are you, sir? Good to see you, Rich.

What's up to the fellows in the studios? Here's new voices over there today. How's everybody doing? Tom, what's up? So if just again, because I pay attention to these things when you had trouble zooming in a couple of weeks ago, you chose a different spot in your house that had the golden Minnesota light on you.

Are you back in that place or is this your new place? I think this is I don't know how Zoom works. And so I hit a bunch of buttons and eventually it looked like something out of an Austin Powers film. This is, I think, the genuine article is how we actually look like in here.

OK, it's just by the way, I think this works. We see footballs. I see your beautiful family behind there. Look at that set up. It's very nice. Very nice.

I feel like I feel like the room raider right now. We need nothing. We need to show. None of that stuff's mine other than the starting lineup, guys.

Everything else was curated for me. Who are the starting lineup guys? Who are they? Well, yeah. So those are my originals from childhood. Like we're coming up on Christmas here. You get, you know, I got Eric Dickerson.

I vividly remember it in a stocking Christmas morning. Also got that Warren Moon's up there. Nice.

Phil Simms, Jim Everett, Darren Nelson, because you can tell I grew up in Minnesota and the Boz. That's my that's my favorite was fantastic. He's got hold on. Hold on. Let me grab it.

Go for it. There you go. Tom Postero is going to go grab the Boz. I want to see this. Let me see the best part.

You know, the starting lineup guys, the second generation that you could remove the helmet. And he's actually got the haircut. Wow. Look at that very nice.

That is some extreme detail right there. It's great. It's kind of funny, Tom. I had to explain to my 12 year old son watching the Fansville commercial that the sheriff is named Brian Bosworth. And he's his presence in these commercials is a neat little Easter egg for people my age. I had to tell him that who the Boz is and everything like that. There was nobody cooler when you were nine years old, like the dude with the shaved stuff in the sides. He wore the Oakleys.

He's given out band, the Boz shirts, you know, and then he got run over by Bo Jackson. And then here we are. Tom Postero, always with facts right here on The Rich Eisen Show. OK, so AFC South quarterbacks, who are you seeing this weekend?

What do you got for me right now? There's certainly a lot going on right now. Trevor Lawrence was on the practice field today, which is a good sign, because then if he can upgrade from a limited capacity to a full capacity on Saturday, there's at least a chance that he could end up playing on Sunday. Again, you got to make big decisions on this, too, in terms of do you want to put him out there even if he gets medically cleared? Most coaches would say once the independent neurologist signs off, you're going to have him on the field.

But there's a lot of different things that go into this in terms of how your brain and your body react to making their way through the protocol. Same thing with CJ Stroud. He's going on two weeks of this year. So no expectation that we see him on the field, although D'Amico Ryans yesterday kind of laughed off a question about whether we see Stroud again this season does not sound like they're concerned about a long term issue. And then he got Will Levis, who was on the practice field today.

I think we've seen Mike Vrabel do this a number of times, having somebody at least out there to take a couple of reps in order to create the appearance that perhaps the player could go. You know, but considering the fact that this was an injury that the broadcast crew would not even show a replay of during the day, the fact that it's a sprained ankle and he's practicing, at least in some capacity, five days later would give you a decent degree of confidence that a player who, you know, let's be honest, he quite possibly could be the quarterback of the future in Tennessee that even if he doesn't play this week, should get back to see. Do we see Tyree kill against the Cowboys?

What do you think? Everything sounds like it's trending in a positive direction right now for Tyree kill. He's been back on the practice field the past couple of days. There was a chance that he was going to go last week.

He went through that pregame workout, just wasn't doing a lot side to side at that point. So certainly sounds like barring a setback. You'll see Tyree this week doesn't help fantasy owners like me who lost last week, plugging in Rashid Shaheed for Tyree at the last second. But hey, for those people in the playoffs, Tyree, it seems like he's ready to help you out.

OK, I see what you're saying right there. And Jamar Chase, how long do you think he's out, Tom? They're hoping that it's not a lot more beyond this game. They knew pretty early on once he underwent the testing that he was not going to be able to be out there this week. You know, you're getting down to that point in the season two, Rich, where an injury that maybe if this were week three, week four, week five, you're saying, OK, he's going to miss two or three games. Now that you're down to the end here, as long as somebody is medically clear, in other words, the doctors say it's OK for you to play. You do have a little bit more license as the player to say, I want to be out there for the team to be perhaps more open to. I don't want to say taking chances because I don't think that you're taking chances medically.

But if you're you get the sign off, you're able to be out there. It would not surprise me at all if you see Chase continue to push these back out there before the regular season. So why are teams releasing players right now? Like I just saw Sebastian Joseph Day is now on the market. I mean, why what's the point of it? It's not like cap ramifications, is it? I mean, how do these things work? Because I mean, that's a that's a guy who can show up on a playoff team tomorrow and make a difference.

Tom, no question. There's a couple of different reasons the teams release players after the trade deadline. One being if you are trying to get some money back, because if a player, let's say, has several million dollars still guaranteed for the rest of the season, another team, if they claim off waivers, they pick up the whole contract. If he clears waivers, then you sign him, you at least get out from under however many hundreds of thousands of dollars would be on on the minimum salary. The other part of it.

And I don't know which of these is the case with Sebastian Joseph Day as of now. But there's other times where it's a player's like, listen, we're eliminated from the playoffs. You're not I'm probably not going to be around here next year either.

I want to go and play for a different team. You know, the Chargers are going into their first game with a new head coach with Giff Smith taking over. Obviously, Jo Jo Wooden has been making moves as the interim GM. You're down toward the end of this thing. They're just trying to find ways to put it together. Surely an interesting move, because, you know, along with Justin Houston, Jason Pierre Paul, Zach Ertz, you got some name players that are out there right now and they're all trying to figure out one thing, too, is you have to remember, even though you have offsets in your regular season money, the player does a deal for the playoffs.

There are no offsets there. So for guys who are still making money right now, your real opportunity to cash in is once you get to playoff time and you get your playoff shares in full. NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero here on the Rich Eisen Show. What are you hearing from people as the most attractive job that that will be open? And it can conclude already that something that is.

What are you hearing right now? This is this is a fascinating thing here, Rich, because, you know, you've obviously got three jobs open right now between the Chargers and the Raiders and Carolina. That's been open.

Each of those, I think, has both their positives and negatives. You know, I think that a lot of people believe externally the Chargers job is the best one out there. But just in talking to people realistically about that team, where they are and the roster, this can be some hard decisions that the next regime is going to have to make. I mean, do you trade one of those wide receivers?

Austin Eckler is probably leaving in free agency. You've got a lot of older, expensive players on defense. Even a guy like Joey Bosa, who's making a lot of money, hasn't played a lot in two years because of injuries.

Do you potentially look to trade him? And those are all broader conversations that, you know, in the past, the Chargers have not liked to do that in terms of moving on from some of their marquee, their star players, so to speak. But a new GM coming in is going to say, listen, if we're going to kind of remake this thing, this is the opportunity to potentially move on from some of those big salaries, clear cap space, clear cash moving forward and rebuild this thing. You don't want to say entirely from the ground up because you've got a quarterback in Justin Herbert.

But in other words, this is not a plug and play. The next coach comes in, let's go in the Super Bowl right now. You could find somebody, if that's what you want to hear, to tell you that. But realistically, if you're looking at this roster right now, there's certainly a good case to be made that you need to start over a little bit. In Las Vegas with the Raiders, you know, that's obviously a unique opportunity.

I believe and based on conversations, I think that that job is better than what people externally tend to think. Mark Davis is a unique guy, but all he really wants to do is win. He wants to figure that out and get the right people in place. He's taken a couple of big swings with Jon Gruden and Josh McDaniels for completely different reasons.

Neither of those worked out. You're going to have to figure out the quarterback position. You got Jimmy Garoppolo, who's still guaranteed money into 2024, so you have to do something there.

Is Aidan O'Connell the guy? You know, what do you do with Devante Adams? Again, you can make the case that right now, if you can still get substantial capital, maybe a first round pick for Devante Adams where you are programmatically, you know, maybe you should move on.

Carolina, you got to be buying in on Bryce Young and you got to be buying in on David Tepper. And I think that's another one that's a better job than people externally might think if you're a believer in the starting quarterback. There's obviously other jobs that potentially could open here. Washington is one that's been in focus. I would say this, Rich, one of the really interesting things is that after 20 plus years of everybody making jokes about why would anyone go to Washington? You're going to get fired.

You got to deal with the owner. All of a sudden, people are really intrigued by Washington. They've got a lot of draft capital because they trade away those pass pressures before the deadline. They've got enough flexibility financially. You got a guy in Sam Howell, a quarterback who maybe you can build with them, but you're also not overleveraged into that position. He was a fifth round pick a couple of years ago. You're not spending any money at the position. So you could draft one and keep Powell for the short term. And you've got Josh Harris there who is going to try to build this thing the right way. So in the end, Rich, you know, we'll see what jobs end up opening up.

But I would not be surprised at all if Washington is one of, if not the most attractive jobs in the cycle. Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to use this real estate with you, Tom, to help me prepare for Sunday night's broadcast on our network with the Patriots taking on the Broncos. And what what should I know about Belichick and Kraft and the way this is playing out over the final three weeks of this regular season? Tom, here's what I would fairly tell you, Rich, about where things stand in New England. There is no firm decision.

There is no firm plan. There is a lot of different things that could play out here in the coming weeks. And this may well extend deep into January, if not February, before it gets sorted out. So let's go through the various things that could take place here. Obviously, Bill Belichick could get fired. I'm not anticipating that that's how this is going to be framed at minimum.

And I don't envision that's how it's going to play out. You could work out a trade for Bill Belichick. Obviously, last year you've got the precedent of Sean Payton, the way that Mickey Loomis handled that, which was, here's the price. If you're willing to pay this in terms of draft picks, go talk to whoever you want. Go find that. Go find the contract. Come back to me.

This is the price. This is what we're moving you for. Bill Belichick is, you know, he's in his 70s. He's quite possibly the greatest coach who's ever lived.

But in terms of it being a long term type of a build, it's probably not a fit. So where does Bill Belichick potentially fit in terms of head coaching vacancies? I do think that there's something to be said. I don't know that this is going to be what what takes place by any stretch, but there's something to be said for a team like the Chargers that has a quarterback, that has a veteran team that maybe is not quite as far away as if, say, you went to, you know, I mean, pick another team here. He's not going to the Raiders, but let's say the Raiders, where realistically there's probably a lot more surgery that needs to take place and it's a longer term build.

So a trade is possible. But what are people willing to give up on what timeline would you do that? And there is certainly also a possibility and I would fairly tell you, Rich, this is a possibility that you could retain Bill Belichick in New England for 2024, potentially with some changes organizationally, changes with the coaching staff. They're not going to come back with the exact same staff, the exact same structure, everything the same and run it back in 2024.

I think that that's fair to say that there's, you know, a lot of frustration there for everybody involved. You look back in recent years here and it seemed like you've had at various times different plans for what New England wants to do. It was OK. Josh McDaniels almost took the Indy job in twenty eighteen. We bring him back. OK, this guy's going to be the quarterback of the or the coach of the future.

Well, no. A couple of years later, he ends up moving on. Bill Belichick's still there. He goes to Vegas. Now it's been looked at in a lot of corners as Jirad Mayo is the next head coach of the Patriots.

And quite possibly he will. Mayo at this point, well respected in terms of the guy he is. He obviously had a really good playing career there, has not coached that long. Bill Belichick runs every aspect of that football operation.

So are you going to take 30? I think he's like 35 year old Jirad Mayo and drop him in and say you're running the entire thing. Is he ready for the magnitude of that? Is he ready to be a head coach?

Those are all questions that they need to ask here. And if the answers are we don't have the successor in the building right now for twenty twenty four, then potentially your best option is try to adjust some things, make roster changes, coaching staff changes, maybe front office changes and keep Bill Belichick in place. It's not now again, Bill Belichick has a lot of control over everything, again, including personnel.

There are certain things he may not be comfortable with. And there's on a certain level when you've got Robert Kraft putting out a statement about Jirad Mayo coming back, when you have fingerprints on like the Bill O'Brien offensive coordinator move that appears to be a Robert Kraft driven move. How does Belichick feel about his ability at this point to thrive and run the program the way that he wants to in New England? All of which is to say, Ridge, you've already had various reports about this has been decided, this is done, he's gone. I would tell you this, and there's a lot of moving parts here. I do not believe, based on every bit of information I have, that there is a final decision.

I do not believe that there is a singular plan that they're driving for. These are conversations that Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft have not yet had. And the Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft and others are trying to figure out what the best way is to navigate these waters going forward. Yeah. And I think you said the most important thing is what does Bill think?

You know what I mean? Like his thoughts on what he wants out of this, I think will play a large role in it, regardless maybe of how the last three games go. Certainly if they wind up maybe with the first overall pick.

I mean, like that is entirely out there as a wrinkle, if you will. And then, you know, there's the Steelers also. I just saw them and Tomlin to me looked as engaged and as into the gig as ever, as ever. You know, and TJ Watt was telling me, this guy doesn't change and I will run through a wall for him. And then you see the results are very un-Tomlin-like, you know, with George Pickens basically saying, I don't want to turn into Tank Dell. And he's going to go back out there again because these are the best players the Steelers have. And the sense I get from Steelers fans is many of them want to try something else.

What do you think is happening there before I let you go? I would argue the George Pickens thing is the most Mike Tomlin type thing that's occurred simply because in terms of wide receivers with various levels of attitude issues for a team that's had Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant and Chase Claypool. This is kind of what Mike Tomlin does, which is as organizational philosophy, wide receiver.

Those guys a lot of times are different cats. So you take the guy who other teams might be downgrading because of various character quirks that they have or different issues. And you say, this guy's really talented. We can plug him in. We can get the most out of him. And at the point that that goes to a different direction and we no longer can get the most out of him, then we move on and we trade Claypool for a two. We trade Martavis Bryant for a one to say John Gruden go up a three for him once upon a time. There's different ways you can obviously Antonio Brown was also traded out there to the Raiders at one point. So in terms of Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, I know that there's speculation when they're going through a rough patch.

And it feels like we have one of these rich every year. But the Steelers go through a rough patch and is what's going to happen with Mike Tomlin? Is he going to move on? What I would tell you that I know is Tomlin's got one year left on his contract. Historically, the Steelers have redone coach contracts for two years to go. So that was a little bit unusual that they did not extend him. However, from everything I have been told, that's not an indication that they don't view Mike Tomlin as a long term part of the plan.

I believe and again, we're sitting here December 22nd. There's plenty of time for different things to play out. But I believe the only way Mike Tomlin would not return as the head coach of the Steelers would be if Mike Tomlin decides there's someplace else that he wants to go.

And he initiates that conversation with our Rooney. If that were to take place, if Mike Tomlin were to one way or another become available here. I do believe that there would be a trade market. I do believe that there potentially would even be some teams that have current head coaches in place that would be willing to move on from their head coaches to bring Mike Tomlin in.

But again, we're so far away from that. It would be unlike the Steelers to trade a head coach or to move on. They obviously I think it's well documented, Rich, that they rarely move on from their head coaches. And you have to ask yourself from Tomlin's perspective, he's well paid at this point in Pittsburgh. He has a tremendous amount of authority over every aspect of the football operation there. Is there someplace else that he feels like he could go and have as good or better of a situation? Or on some level, there's not a lot of coaches who last 17 years in one building. Does everybody at some point say it's just time to move on? Again, I believe that's a conversation Mike Tomlin would need to initiate.

And at this point, there's no signs inward or outward that that conversation has or will take place. Tom, thanks for the time. Have a great Christmas holiday and a happy New Year and send my best to your family.

And that also includes Brian Bosworth in that little toy that you have there. Thanks, Tom. Greatly appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, Rich.

There you go. That's Tom Posner. Hey, Tom. Hey, Tom. Love our chats with him. 844-204-Rich-Number-Dodd will take your calls to take us into the Christmas weekend. That's next. This is The Rich Eisen Show, everybody. With SOTIC-2 for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, you could show off your skin again.

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The free AutoZone fix finder service can help you find a fix for free. Get in the zone. AutoZone restrictions apply. Jimmy in San Antonio, how are you doing, Jimmy? Jimmy.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero año mi hermanos. What's going on? Well, I don't need this a little quiet, but I do have an R.E.S. consulting idea.

Two words, Rich Hanukkah Pinatas. I think it's huge. OK, thank you.

A lot of money. Appreciate that. All right. Here's my problem.

Brockman, I need you to chime in. I have a conundrum. I have Purdy winning the MVP plus 700 and I put a hundo on that a couple of months ago. Well done. But for me to hit that, he's probably has to beat my Cowboys, doesn't he?

No, the he already has already did so. This is a play. It's a regular season award. Oh, yeah. No, you're good. The awards get voted on two weeks from now, I think. So it's done.

OK, so then if he wins. I will fly to Carl's Bar and buy a round for Terzo in the bar because that would be a nice win. That would be a way to do it. Please do it. Send us a photo. Oh, we would love that.

That would be lovely. He's a big favorite right now. So I think you're in good shape, Jimmy. It would make him feel better since my Dodgers got Yamamoto. Dude, it's unbelievable, Jimmy. It really is.

The yachts get bigger. How do you offer this to your son, Cooper? How about Koopa Modo, Koopa Modo, Koopa Modo and Koop Tani? I don't know. I don't think he likes I don't think he likes any variation of he likes his name. Are you kidding?

Are you telling me somebody doesn't like the nicknames you came up with? Jimmy, I am shocked. Happy New Year, brother.

Thanks again, pal. Appreciate you. I love that.

That's great. I don't usually take somebody. What's what's with the question marks next to Cody? I don't know. Where's Cody calling in from?

No idea. I was trying to. Indianapolis, Cody. How you doing, Cody? Good. How you doing, Rich?

What do you want to talk about? First of all, I just want to say happy holidays to everybody. Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas.

Happy Hanukkah. And then I just wanted to I actually called in before the season and I did the win loss for the Indianapolis Colts this year. What do we got? Well, I'm pretty dang close. I was pretty close. No, I'm going to have it right here.

I have it right here. Cody in Indianapolis, she's had nine and eight. He had nine and eight. You had them beating the Falcons, losing to the Raiders and beating the Texans in the final few weeks. You also had him losing to the Steelers. You had him losing to the Bengals and the Titans. Listen, Cody, your team is really good and I think they do make the playoffs right now.

I really do. I think they could win out personally. I was going to say I had my question was going to be because the Jaguars to steal and with all respect. They ain't him.

They ain't him. So I was going to say with two part question, who do you think wins the South and do you think either of the other two teams that don't win the South make playoffs? I think the wow.

Great question. I think the Browns make it. Thank you for the call. I think the Browns make it. Someone else from the AFC North makes it.

No, I how about this? I think the Bills make it, the Browns make it, and then. Man, I think the I think the Colts win the whole thing and Jacksonville maybe gets in as the wild card from the West. The problem is that Jacksonville swept the Colts. So I think Jacksonville wins a division and the Colts make it.

Yeah, that seems the most. I'll take that. Like by the way, the Colts and Texans might be the final game of the year.

Winner and loser goes home. Which is, as you know, what they're looking for. Stroud most likely out this week. So let me say a couple of things here before we go.

As you know, tomorrow. It's festivals. So in the vein of festivals, I don't have a feat of strength right now, but I got a lot of problems with you people in the front office of the New York Yankees. You have the Jack Curry tweet, by the way, bless Jack Curry. He was all over this thing with Yamamoto.

And he works for yes. So this tweet is going to only serve to enrage Yankee fans. He said, as the Yamamoto negotiations inched to a finale, they told teams he wanted three hundred million. The Dodgers, Yankees and Mets pushed to three hundred million. Then the Dodgers and Mets elevated to three twenty five while the Yankees coveted the player.

They felt three hundred million was a generous final offer. Now they must pivot. Great. Pivot to who? Who are we pivoting to?

You know who's pivoting? By pivoting and pivoting and pivoting, rolling over in his grave is George M Steinbrenner III. I never thought in my life I would say, where is George Steinbrenner for the Yankees?

I used to hate that guy when he was all over Mattingly and doing stupid stuff and needed to be suspended by the league in or by baseball in order for the Yankees to reset and get their dynasty going. Never thought I would ever say that. But here I am as a 54 year old guy. What in the hell is twenty five million dollars to these people? Now, you could sit here and go, 12 years is too much.

I totally get it. It sounds like it's malpractice for a pitcher. But if you're letting the Dodgers and the Mets outbid you. The Yankees, the New York Yankees, twenty five million is too much. Three hundred million so generous. Yoshinobu, we think we're being generous.

What do you think? Oh, he's not wearing a Dodger uniform. Airing of grievance here.

Run it. Pivoting to who? Are we pivoting? I cannot believe it, that we are getting beat monetarily. By other teams, including the Mets, that now that would have been longtime listener, first time caller meltdown in New York City if the Mets and that's going to happen because this guy, Steve Cohen, is taking his ax cap and he's there, he's he's spending it.

I saw that tweet, I just got enraged. I'm sitting here every single day watching the Yankees day in, day out. You know, whatever money you get from my viewership, it's it's coming in. I'm not there to spend money to go to the games because I live out here in L.A., but I can't wait to take my kid to Yankee Stadium and I hope the team will be good enough.

But when you know, these are the wins, these are the battles the Yankees used to win hands down. And now they won't put their hands deeper in their pockets. I got a problem with you people, as Frank Costanza once said, as the father to the assistant, to the assistant general manager, once said, I got a lot of problems with you people. And here's what I think.

Assistance to the traveling service, to the assistant traveling, whatever the hell it is. That's how upset I am. I can't even get my facts straight. Well, everything you just said, replace Yankees with Red Sox. I hear you. Oh, I'm with you. We're not even in it. Great tweet from my guy, Steve Perrault.

Now that Yamamoto is off the board, the Red Sox can finally focus on not signing other big name free agents. Great job, guys. You have a lot of problems.

You have a lot of problems. Happy Festivus to you. We're going to be watching the Dodgers kill it. Kill it.

Just kill our team. It's a Festivus miracle. No, it's not.

It is for me. Enjoy your Dodgers. I also just want to spend the last minute here saying that this is our last show of the calendar year. We will be doing overreaction Monday, the next two weeks via Zoom, because we're taking New Year's Day off as well. I'll be at the Rose Bowl. I'll be there, too, probably.

Next time you see me, I'll be either very happy or very disappointed. But what doesn't disappoint me is what this show was able to accomplish in the calendar year of 2023, where we went to our first Super Bowl with the Roku Channel. We're planning to go on another, obviously, and for many more to come. And for all you folks out there who consume the show, on the Roku Channel, this Rich Eisen Show, Terrestrial Radio affiliate, Sirius XM, Odyssey, more. Our podcasts are doing very well overreaction Monday and What the Football with Susie and Amy. And we appreciate you taking in all the content that we churn up and give to you for your consumption. And we do not take it for granted whether you call into the show or you take us in and however you do. So we want to say to everybody out there, have a happy and safe holiday season and a safe New Year. And check out our stream every now and then over the next couple of weeks. We might be chiming in on some breaking news, but other than that, we love you and we'll chat with you in 2024. Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for Give Them Lala wherever you listen.