Robert Griffin III - Mike MacDonald is a phenomenal hire

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Learn more at Discover.com slash credit card. Limitations apply. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Arthur Smith is, in fact, the new offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Love the hire. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. What's the world of Bill Belichick right now, Albert? Well, somebody throwing the keys the way Robert Kraft throwing the keys in 2000.

And the answer to that really has been no. Earlier on the show, host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. Coming up, ESPN NFL analyst Robert Griffin III. Host of This Is Football podcast, Kevin Clark. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air every single year.

It's like a tradition unlike any other. I'll give you a power rankings, the top 10 storylines for the upcoming Super Bowl. I got my finger on the pulse. I'm not like Schrager where I get everything right, you know, eight months in advance.

It's crazy, like five years in a row. But although I picked it this year preseason, Chiefs and Niners. Oh, but what would you, did you mull again? Did you stick with that? No, I did not.

I got offered. Right, right, it doesn't count. Okay, I'll accept that. But I got the storylines down pretty pat, I think. And that's coming up this hour.

Kevin Clark will be joining us in hour number three to give us his two cents on what's going on in the Super Bowl and other storylines of that nature. Jerry Jones says the Cowboys are all in on next season. I don't know what that means. Does that mean they were kind of like, what, just slow playing their hand until they could suck out on the river? Is that what it was this year? It's like the Red Sox saying they're full throttle. Oh, they sucked out. The river sucked out on them, I think. Brutal.

This past year. But a friend of the program and a friend in general back here on the program, the great Robert Griffin, the third on the Rich Isaac show. How are you doing RG3? I'm doing good, Rich.

Always a pleasure to be on with you. And man, we got some interesting storylines, don't we? Don't you think?

Don't you think? Before we get to the Super Bowl, I want to hit you on the Ravens. Obviously, you know Lamar, you know the system, you know the area, you know all of it. What went wrong for them, do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think that the bottom line for the Ravens was they needed Lamar Jackson to be Superman, but they didn't allow him to use all his powers.

I think that's what it boiled down to. They dropped back to throw 82% of the time in the game, and that's not to say that that doesn't put Lamar Jackson in a good spot. He's a great thrower of the football and great from the pocket. When you watch that touchdown at the beginning of the game, to Dave Flowers, Lamar held the ball for eight seconds, broke an unbelievable tackle in the pocket, and then made a play on an off-schedule throw.

And I think that that's what he was looking for for the majority of the rest of the game. Just giving his guys opportunities to make plays down the field, but I think that Todd Monk and, you know, looking back on it, we'll see that in the AFC Championship game, when you're at home and you have a team and the Chiefs that is banged up, you've got to run the football. And it's not just handing it off to Gus Edwards or Justice Hill. They needed to run Lamar Jackson from the beginning of the game early and often, get him at least 15 carries, because you've got nothing else to play for. You've got nothing else to lose.

That's your opportunity. You have to put Lamar in the best situation to win, and that's allowing him to use his arm and his leg. So the question I have as a follow-up is, what does this mean for Lamar?

And by that, I mean this. All season long, we're talking about how he's the MVP because Todd Monk and brought in a system that allows him to have ownership of an offense as a passer. And now here we are having a conversation how he didn't make the Super Bowl.

And it's likely he will be named MVP of the season at the Super Bowl the Thursday before. And he's not there as a player because he didn't run it enough. And so what do we make of Lamar's ability to overcome all this himself? Yeah, I don't think the way you phrase that is a little, I don't agree with the phrasing of it. It's not that Lamar and the Ravens aren't in the Super Bowl because he didn't run it enough.

I think you have to look at this and not be so, I'm not saying that you are, obviously our industry is very reactionary, right? So Lamar and the Ravens come up short. It's, hey, we got to hold him to hold his ass to the fire and charge him up here and compare him to the great quarterbacks that have ever played the game, like the Peyton Mannings, who didn't win a Super Bowl till his ninth year. And this is Lamar's sixth year. So Peyton Manning never won a Super Bowl game or should I say a playoff game where his team ran the ball six times outside of him running because Peyton wasn't a runner.

So I think some of those comparisons need to be thrown to the wayside. And I also think for when it comes to Todd Monken, it's okay that it's okay to say that he had a bad game when it comes to calling the plays in the AFC Championship game. Like this is one of the best Ravens teams of all time, not just on paper, but in reality, they hadn't been to an AFC Championship game in 11 seasons, 11 years. So they should celebrate the fact that they have a young core and they should celebrate the fact that they have an offense that's only going to continue to get better. But I don't think that the Ravens offensively were in sync since they took that break in week 18. You look at them against the 49ers, you look at them against the Miami Dolphins, they were dominant on both sides of the ball. But that break and then getting back to playing the Houston Texans in the divisional round, they just weren't really clicking. Lamar ran for 100 yards and they won that game, but they weren't firing on all cylinders.

I think that's something that they should look at moving forward and they should play their guys through the entirety of the season, whether they get that by or not. And I don't think that this is the time to say that Lamar Jackson, the Ravens can't get it done. Like it's really hard to make it to an AFC Championship game. It's really hard to win Super Bowls.

And Peyton Manning, one of the greatest that's ever played this game, will be the first one to tell you that, you know, you got to keep just throwing darts at the board. And I think the Ravens made championship moves this past offseason. They went and got Roquan Smith last year. They brought in a bunch of guys, OBJ, Zay Flowers and Monckett to surround Lamar. And they just got to keep making those moves. And eventually they will get there because Lamar Jackson is that dynamic of a quarterback. All right, then let's turn our attention to the Lions before we turn our attention to the Super Bowl itself. What's your opinion of the Lions' second half performance and throw the coach in that mix as well?

Yeah, Rich, you're hitting them out the park right now. I'm a huge, you know, bite the kneecaps kind of guy. You know what I mean?

Some people don't even think I have kneecaps anymore because of some of the things that I went through. But Dan Campbell, he made the mistake of being, I feel like he felt like he was forced to do what he had been doing up into that point, right? His identity was aggressiveness on fourth down. His identity was I'm going to put it in the hands of my quarterback and my team, and we're going to go make it happen. And that's what got them to the NFC championship game. But at some point, your gut has to tell you, because this is not about the analytics. And I'm not a pro or against analytics guy.

I think it all works in conjunction together. But your gut has to tell you momentum is a real thing. And getting those three points on the board on one of those two fourth down where they went for it was going to pay dividends for them for the rest of that game. There's no excuse for running the ball on third down and having to burn a time out there late in the game on the goal line, which they ended up needing on the next would have needed on the next possession to get the ball back anyway and not kick that onside. But the bottom line is they ran the ball 21 times for 148 yards in the first half and only ran it seven times in the second half.

That could be circumstantial based off the flow of the game. But the Lions should have won that game. There's no doubt about it being up 24 seven and a half. They were dominant. They should have won that game.

And they didn't because of some of the decisions that they made in the second half. The host of RG three and the ones podcast, I've been on it, everyone should check it out. It's a great show. And RG three back here on the Rich Eisen show, Super Bowl 58 is going to come down to what, Robert? Oh, it's going to come down to defense. I'll tell you the quarterback stories, right? Patrick Mahomes, he's the greatest quarterback in the Galaxy. He's he's doing this and made it to the Super Bowl with the worst receiving core he's ever had, but also the best defense that he's ever had.

Brock Purdy is not a game manager. I don't know how many times I can continue to say that he's a difference maker. He is the difference for the 49ers from that Super Bowl 54 rematch with the chiefs because he's, he's a better player than Jimmy Garoppolo is, but it's going to come down to the 49ers defense. In my opinion, the chiefs have shown all year that they will show up on the defense side of the ball.

Chris Jones, even though he didn't have a bunch of splash plays in the AFC championship game, his presence alone helps the rest of that defensive line. But the 49ers, the fact that they gave up so much to the Lions was alarming. This defense doesn't seem to be quite as dominant as we all remember them to be from those earlier years in 2019 when they made it to the Super Bowl. If they show up the same way that they showed up against the Lions, they're going to get beat by the Kansas City Chiefs. And I think the Chiefs are going to try to take advantage of that with Isaiah Pacheco.

And they, they really gotten into a rhythm. Now, Travis Kelce's reemergence has been amazing. And I know people will say, well, what do you mean his reemergence? Well, the last three games of the year, he only had 29 yards per game and zero touchdowns. Now I think he's averaging 82 yards per game here in the playoffs and he's got three touchdowns. So he's, he's playing at a high level.

They're attacking teams the way that they know they can. And Mahomes is managing the game, which is kind of shocking for a guy who we all consider to be the best quarterback many of us have ever seen. Well, and again, the whole game manager game changer conversation is every game changer needs to manage the game at some point.

And every manager of the game needs to change it every now and then. And the question is, is who's, who's excellent at both to be quite, quite honest with you. Like that's honestly, Tom Brady's the greatest game manager maybe we've ever seen because, because he knows what to do.

And Peyton Manning is maybe on par with him, if not better than Brady, right? Like neck up ability to, to figure out what's going on pre snap. And honestly, my, my Wolverine's almost lost in the, or I know everyone keeps thinking that the game against Washington was in the bag. That's, that's such a way to look back at it. But at the time, I mean, Pennix has a great ability to see pre snap what's going on. That's that's again for another day. But what do you see in Purdy though, when there's mistakes that are made where the ones he threw to the Packers, one of them was caught by the lions.

And if that happens in this game, that's going to be an issue. Is he still growing, right? Is he still kind of young enough to still be figuring out what it is, but at least the light goes on at the very end, right? Yeah.

I mean, Brock Purdy doesn't even have 30 starts. So he is certainly continuing to learn. And your point about game managers needing to be able to make game changing plays and game changers, being able to know how to manage is you're spot on. It's a, it's not a catch 22.

It's just a never ending cycle of continue to talk about the same things over and over again. When I look at Brock Purdy, I hear people say that they don't think he's a great player, that they don't think that he is a driving force for the San Francisco 49ers. And I do agree, I do believe he's a great player. And I think two guys you mentioned, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, they're two of the best system quarterbacks the league has ever seen. And people get upset when you say that to like, Oh, you can't call Tom Brady, a system guy. You can't call Peyton Manning, a system guy. Okay, well, what did Tom Brady do when he went to Tampa Bay? He brought a system with him. What did Peyton Manning do when he left Indy and went to Denver?

He brought a system with him. These guys have a system that they play their best in Brock Purdy has that. If you move Brock Purdy to another team and put him in a different system, he's probably not going to play as well.

But that's the truth for almost every quarterback that has success in their system. So I'm not going to sit here and punish Brock Purdy because he's the last pick in the draft. I'm not going to punish him because he's in a situation that everybody dreams of with countless weapons around him and the best play caller and all the football and Kyle Shanahan called in place for him.

I'm not going to punish him for that. I'm going to reward Brock Purdy by watching the tape, seeing that he's making the throws, putting the ball where it needs to be at the time it's supposed to be there. And the number one thing that he does that he adds an extra element to this offense for the Niners is his ability to make off schedule plays with his feet.

I'm talking about extending plays and scrambling. You saw that in the NFC Championship game, but I've seen that since he was playing at Iowa State in college. So I'm a believer in Brock Purdy. I do think that he is a great player. And I know he's not Michael Jordan if they're the Chicago Bulls. But, you know, he he ain't a bench player either. You know what I'm saying? He like Tony Cucco.

He can give you 20 if you need it. But he also knows how to get those other guys in position to score and be the best players that they can be. So if he's Cucco, choose the Pippen piss that he's starting. Is it Garoppolo? Is Garoppolo the Pippen? You know, the one that he's on the floor?

No, I'm just saying, you know, I mean, no, no, no. Listen, if we're talking about the Bulls because I was a huge Bulls fan growing up. So I think their Jordan is Christian McCaffrey. That's their Jordan. Devo is their Scottie Pippen. I would say that Brock Purdy is their Tony Cucco. And, you know, then they got like Kyle Juszczak, who's their Steve Kerr. He's going to give you a couple solid points here and there that are going to be impactful, just like that catch on the sideline where he was tiptoning his Jordans.

I could keep going, breaking this thing down. But the bottom line is that Brock Purdy is he might not be the MVP of that team, but he is playing at such a high level. You can't win without him. Kittle is Rodman, right?

Has to be. Come on now. Kittle is the Rodman here?

Kittle is Rodman. I like the joke you cracked at the end of the game and on the podium too. Sure. Okay.

We got some good cops here. Obviously, Shanna hands the Phil Jackson if he just, you know, had the rings to go with it and he might have one in a couple of Sundays. Who do you think wins it, Robert?

What do you think takes it? Yeah, I mean, I got to start it off by saying, you know, I got a ton of respect for both teams and what they've accomplished and how they got there. But I'm not going to bet against Patrick Mahomes. We're talking about the Bulls. Well, he's got a Jordan-like trait. You know, one of the biggest mistakes that Raymond's made going to that game was they got the kicker to beef with him in pregame.

What was that about? You know, I mean, I know Tucker said there's nothing to it. Like, you know, this is just part and parcel of his warm-ups and normally 90 minutes before this is what he goes through. But that's Mahomes, you know, that you're stretching directly in front of with Pat. And I love Tucker and I love, you know, I cape for kickers more than anyone else. But, you know, Kelsey called him, you know, an F and D on his pod this week.

You know, if that's what you want to be like, then I'll oblige you by removing your gear. And it's just like, I don't kind of get that, Robert, you know? You know, Rich, I don't like to see goats beefing with each other. You know, you got the greatest kicker of all time, in my opinion. And I think the opinion of a lot of other people and Justin Tucker going up against soon-to-be goat Mahomes and the soon-to-be goat tight end, if he's not already the goat tight end in Travis Kelsey. I just don't like seeing them all butting heads. I understand both sides of it. Does Tucker use both sides of the field to warm up?

Yes. Yes, after maybe the first time they kind of threw his stuff away, maybe he should have been like, all right, I'm just going to leave. Because I don't think anyone would have noticed. But as it kept going, then it became a storyline. Now you pissed off Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey.

And I don't know if you noticed this, Rich, but they seem to play with a little bit more fire, just a little bit more fire early in the game. Everything meant everything. And I'm like, God dang it. What are we doing here?

I didn't quite get that whole thing. Before I let you go, breaking news. It looks like the Seahawks are hiring Mike McDonald as their next head coach. What's your first blush opinion on that, Robert? Oh, phenomenal hire.

I didn't know that that was happening. Mike McDonald had an opportunity to be in meeting rooms with him, see how he runs, not necessarily the defense at that time, but how he ran his position group. I got a chance to obviously see what he was doing there at Michigan as well. So McDonald is a great hire. They're going to play defense at the highest level, bringing back that lesion of boom type of defense where it's going to be very multiple.

And I think for the what do they call the 12 for the Seahawks? I mean, my God, I don't think they could have got a better hire. I know some of them wanted Dan Quinn, but what they're getting at Mike McDonald is a guy that's going to know how to build a roster, know how to build a defense and allow his quarterback to go out there and do what he does best.

OK, yeah. And then obviously the Seahawks have a pick 19th overall and there could be some quarterbacks available, including a kid from Michigan. You know, that's been some of the mock drafts that they've been thrown out there. I don't know if they'll go in that direction.

Obviously, if you've got a defensive minded head coach, you never know. But I'm just throwing stuff out there. And do you have any opinion on what the Bears should do before I let you go now?

You got any opinion on that? Yeah, yeah, no, the Chicago Bears, they should trade the first pick, in my opinion, and build around Justin Fields. But I have a differing opinion on why they should do it. I know in the NFL, the use of the fifth year option is always it's a negotiating tactic, right? You get to keep the guy for a little bit longer and not have to pay him as soon. But I think the Bears should decline Justin Fields fifth year option and allow Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus to basically play out the year for the jobs. And I say that, Rich, because if you they decided to keep the head coach, if you decide to keep the head coach and bring in a new quarterback, the likelihood of that team being great is very slim. So now you're going to fire that head coach and bring in a new head coach and you're starting quarterback. The new franchise guy is going to have two head coaches in two years. I wouldn't do that. Justin Fields is an ascending player.

I believe they went four and one down the stretch. He's showing you that he has all the skills to win in this league today. Beat you with his arm, beat you with his legs, beat you with his mind, fully plus that out, build the roster around him.

And if it doesn't work out, guess what? Your team will be better now when you bring in your new head coach. Your new head coach and you bring in your new quarterback and they'll be able to start from a much higher place.

That's what I would do now. I'm a believer in Justin Fields. I think he will be the biggest franchise quarterback. It's just a matter of how they build around it. Wow.

I mean, that would be dicey that you you don't even pick up a 50-year option and pass up on Caleb Williams. We call that zagging when everyone else is zigging, Robert. Wow, that is quite something. All right, brother, thank you so much for your time. It's always great to chat with you. I love it. I love your energy.

I love your thought process. And I love what you're what you're doing with your pod. Thanks for having me on there. And thanks for for completing a home and home, I guess the last few times you've had it. Appreciate you, Rich.

It's always a blessing. And you've always been supportive of me, man. I just want all your listeners to know just how great of a guy you are. And I appreciate it because you know, this industry can be can be pretty cutthroat and backstabby. You're not that guy. And I appreciate you fully for that. You bet. That's Robert Griffin, the third.

Check out RG3 and the ones his pod, of course, whenever he appears on ESPN. All right, we'll take a break. We will discuss what's going on with the Seattle Seahawks, what that might mean in terms of a ripple in a pond.

And I've got my power rankings of the top storylines coming up at the Super Bowl. I'm Jennifer King. I'm Clayton. I'm Kevin Carr. I'm Archie Zaraleta. Concise, accurate and fresh each day.

America in the morning. The podcast available wherever you listen on the Bigger Pockets real estate podcast. Co-host David Green and Rob Abasolo interview real estate investors and entrepreneurs about successes, failures and hard earned lessons. Joined by author Dave Meyer, who wrote a book. I did write a book. It seems like you're coming out with a book every four minutes. You are one to talk. You've released two books this year. I've done half as many as you.

It is more about strategy than it is about just finding whatever the new buzzword happens to be. Bigger Pockets real estate podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. I did not approve this, but, you know, that's that's part of me delegating to you, our social media grand maester. You put out on Instagram a photograph. It says Breaking Bears trading for Russell Wilson. And what's today's date? What's today's date is April 1st. And that is what it is. April Fool's Day.

So it's five minutes to air. My phone's on the desk and it's buzzing. And yeah, and I see it is, you know, it's it's it's Jeff Garland is the caller there is the caller there on the rich.

Jeff from Chicago. What's funny about it? Nothing's funny about it.

Nothing is funny about it. Our friend Doug Robinson texted me. Yes. Capital Russell Wilson. He says, you know, Rich doesn't usually get the scoop. Adam Chester should be on this. Well, that should have made me suspicious. But no, I have so much respect for the Rich Eisen show that I know that they have connections that nobody else has.

That's true. Well, you know what, Rich, I'm not going to swear. But I got to tell you, you're a little social media boy. He's going to get it. T.J., do you have anything to say to Jeff Garland? Yeah. Happy April Fool's Day.

All right. Hey, T.J., you don't know what you brought down on yourself. You don't even have a clue of the power that I have, especially in practical jokes. And I'm going to nail you so hard. Pause. You know what? I hope you enjoy your testicles right now because they're going to disappear.

No, but I need them. Ah, yes. Jeff Garland returns to Curb on Sunday night. You can catch that right here on Roku. 844-204-RICH. Number to dial back here on the Rich Eisen show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. All right. So we have one more coach hired. The Seattle Seahawks have made their move.

And we all thought they were waiting for somebody that was competing and coaching on Championship Weekend with their job staying open. And sure enough, it's Mike McDonald, their new head coach, the man who's replacing Pete Carroll, who was the oldest coach in the NFL, and they're replacing him with now the youngest coach in the NFL at age 36. The defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens is now the HC in Seattle, joining the mix up there.

So here's my initial thoughts. Listen, I'm biased. I saw what Mike McDonald was able to do as defensive coordinator at Michigan before John Harbaugh took him back from his brother, Jim, and said, I need him to coordinate my defense here. And we all saw what he's been able to do since he's been the defensive coordinator the last two seasons in Baltimore. And he joined the Ravens organization as an intern in 2014. Look at him now. 10 years later, gone from intern to head coach of the Seattle Seahawks in 10 years.

That's a come up. And he's a Georgia guy. He's a Georgia guy. That was his school. And he was a high school coach and then a graduate assistant at Georgia in 2010 before he's a quality control assistant before he became an intern for John Harbaugh.

That's his ascent to this role. And clearly Seattle is looking at what is needed in this division with the Niners and the Rams doing what they're doing on the offensive side of the football. And here, let's go get a coordinator that's going to defend it and then we'll figure out what to do on the offensive side of the football to support it. And so I don't know how much appreciably different, like that was Pete's mantra was let's play defense, let's hold on to the ball, let's do ball control, let's run it, let's not do anything crazy, and everybody always accused him of not letting Russ cook. And I'm not saying that that's, there's clearly a philosophy of how they want to build a team and how they want to run a team up there in Seattle. And it looks like they're going to continue with that.

Normally you switch it up, right? You go with somebody completely different than the coach that you had in terms of philosophy, but they're going defense again up there. Interesting. And it's a six-year deal according to Tom Pelissaro, which is one more than what everybody seems to have been getting in this cycle of coaching right now. And the other thing is, hey, TJ, looks like you're keeping Dan Quinn, looks like Dan Quinn will be the defensive coordinator in Dallas still.

It's like my initial thought right off the bat. It's because when they bounced Pete, the Wednesday after the season, and we were all thinking, that's Dan Quinn's gig, and guess what it's not? Dan Quinn's gig.

It's not. Dan Quinn's gig is going to be staying put in Dallas, which is great news for the Dallas Cowboys, and we'll discuss their upcoming season shortly because on the show in hour number three, because we heard from Jerry Jones yesterday. So these are my thoughts on the process is guy, Mike McDonald is a terrific coach. He clearly knows what he's selling and the players clearly buy it, collegiately, professionally, and now he's going up to Seattle and trying to put the bank in the right place. And trying to put the bank thing on two very tough defenses to control in that division and and Kyler Murray as well.

That's the task at hand. It's going to be even tougher when Kyle's still in the Marvin. Even so, even so, unless he's in New England, that leaves the quarterback. Again, Gerard Mayo already came out and said, no, we're going. Yes, he did. No, he didn't. He came out and said, we're taking a quarterback. Did I miss that? He said, we are taking the best player at the most important position, and you can figure out what that means.

Wide receiver. Got it. Got it, Marvin.

So 844-204-rich number to dial here on the program, and we'll get to your calls shortly. I do this every year, folks. We talk, we deal with narratives here. I mean, we're not really X's and O's. We have a lot of analysts come on and tell you what they see on film, what this match up means. We had Brian Baldinger yesterday. We've had Dan Orlovsky on the program, Lewis Riddick, Kurt Warner, a lot of the all 22 folks that you may follow on Twitter and whatnot. We're more of a narrative program here. And I like to front load for you what you're going to be hearing, like to make you smarter.

I think you're about to hear a lot of what I'm about to tell you. Every year, I give you a list of the top storylines of the upcoming big game. And last couple of years, I've been doing it in a form of power rankings. It is now time for my power rankings of the top 10 storylines of the upcoming big game brought to you by our friends at Subway. All right, those are your power rankings presented by Subway. Here we go, the top storylines of the upcoming big game in Las Vegas, Nevada. Number 10 on this list. It's quite simple that you're going to be hearing a lot about this.

Hell has officially frozen over. There's a Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada. Who would have thought it? I got to tell you this, folks, never thought we'd ever see the National Football League say we're going to Las Vegas and we are bringing not just the draft, but that's just going to be a dry run for a Super Bowl in Las Vegas. And of course, of course, there's going to be a whole conversation about sports betting this and sports betting that and about how that might affect this and it might affect that. And there's a lot of tinfoil hat theories that are out there about who was going to play in the game and why people are playing in the game and who's in the crowd for the game.

That's going to be a long conversation that we're going to hear all next week. That's the number 10 storyline for the big game. Number nine is the 49ers offensive superstars because much has been made about who's not catching the ball for Kansas City and much has been made about who is quarterbacking and playing tight end for Kansas City. But the Niners have quite the quintet of individuals.

And I am including Brock Purdy. They've got not one, but two MVP candidates. And guess who doesn't have a single MVP candidate? The defending Super Bowl champs.

Yeah. So eventually I think a lot of folks are going to come around to, well, Debo is one of the best and McCaffrey is an MVP candidate and Purdy's an MVP candidate. Certainly when NFL honors happens on Thursday night of Super Bowl week and two of these guys are going to be up for an MVP award.

And then there's Kittle who is just, you know, dynamite in terms of an interview and figuring out that he is terrific at the football as well. Number eight on this list is Andy Reid's goat status. If he wins this Super Bowl, Andy Reid would be up there with four other guys who have at least three or more. Their names are Belichick, Chuck Knoll, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Walsh. Right now, Andy Reid is in a group of coaches that have two Super Bowl wins.

He would separate himself there just making this Super Bowl. He now has five Super Bowl appearances that matches Tom Landry and is one behind Don Shula by getting to this Super Bowl and winning the AFC championship game, the sixth in a row that he's coached for the Chiefs. He's got 25 career playoff wins as a coach. The only other guy who's got 25 or more is named Bill Belichick. And he did it with an 11 win team. This could be the best performance he's had as a coach if he wins the Super Bowl.

That's going to be quite the conversation. Number seven on the list involves a coach who he's currently tied with for Super Bowl wins with two. Get ready to hear a lot about the Shanahans and the McCaffreys because back in the day, Mike Shanahan went to two Super Bowls with Ed McCaffrey, number 87 in your program. Now his son, Kyle, has Ed's son, Christian, running and catching and being an MVP candidate in his offense. So Kyle's trying to get his first Super Bowl. And then you're going to hear quite a bit a lot about the number nine on this list, the offensive players for the Niners, and the fact that Kyle's going to try and match Mike in terms of having a Super Bowl win at the Thanksgiving table as a coach in the two times that Shanahan's been involved with the Super Bowl as offensive coordinator with Atlanta and previously as the head coach of the 49ers, the last time these two teams faced zero fourth quarter points in both of those games for Shanahan's offense.

Zero. And Christian McCaffrey, as we know, was a kid roaming around the field. Look at this boy running around the field in his daddy's jersey when the confetti was on the ground when Shanahan and McCaffrey won two.

That is a cool photo. In a row, as we all know, and you know, the Chiefs are trying to do what Shanahan and McCaffrey's dads did, which is do the whole back to back thing. And now the Suns are trying to prevent the Chiefs from matching. It's just a lot of family stuff you're going to be hearing next week, certainly since it was all about the Kelseys last year. Number six, we've been talking quite a bit about it, and it's been a conversation all season long. Get ready for game changer versus game manager with the game changer. Clearly being my homes and the game manager being pretty two different styles of quarterbacks. Can you win a Super Bowl, not just with pretty period, but with anybody whose game is pretty like when there are games like my homes out there that are second to none.

So get ready for this whole thing happening. And then number five on the list. As we start moving into the territory of the obvious, anything Brock Purdy, name it, his way of getting into the league and how he was overlooked even in his home state of Arizona. And he had to go to Iowa State, and he was Mr.

Irrelevant, and he wound up being the starter only because of injury, just like Tom Brady and everything about his personal life and the fact that he looks like when he was strolling in to work the other day for the NFC Championship game, and somebody tweeted out that he looked like a dad that showed up to the airport five hours early to make sure they didn't miss the flight. You know, like that sort of stuff. Get ready for that. And then number four is anything Travis Kelsey, anything Travis Kelsey. This guy is one of the most red hot public figures on planet Earth now because of his game on and yes, off the field, everything Travis Kelsey, anything Travis Kelsey, which leads to number three on this list is will his girlfriend make it to the game? Basically, Taylor Swift FlightAware. Any flight that has a tail number on it that leaves Tokyo, Japan on the night before the Super Bowl is going to be tracked and followed, and it's going to be all about like, you know, how sometimes, you know, NORAD has the Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve on Super Bowl Eve. There will be Taylor Tracker and the question about, can she make it? Is she going to make it?

You know what's going on with her tour and all of that? That's number three. Number two is the talk of the Chiefs dynasty and where they rank, if they win and if they lose, they some I'll use the word Schmohawk in our media will there will be a topic bar. Do the Chiefs need to win to be considered a dynasty? That's going to happen at some point when people are bored.

I don't know if there's any option. Ford, I don't know if there's any odds in the town that we're going to that you could bet who is the person in our business or the show in our business. They're a dynasty. We are seeing a dynastic team. Can they be beaten in the Super Bowl?

Absolutely. Would that mean that they're not a dynasty? No chance. No chance at all. Don't even be that guy, Chris.

Don't even go in that direction. Do they need to win in order to be considered a dynasty? Is that a dynasty? Well, guess what? Oh, out of four, the Bills were a dynasty back in the day.

I'll say it's not hot. Number one on the list is a very Brady Patrick Mahomes. It's going to be all about Mahomes. Anything about Mahomes and how great he's already been through age 28. We've been talking about that for a couple of days now and how he's had a better career at this point of his NFL tenure at age 28 than Brady did.

And then the only way for him to get the number. Look at that shot of Brady on the left. Seven rings. The only way for him to even steal get in the realm is to do what Brady did through age 28, which is win three out of four. And he has a chance to do that. And if he does it, does he have a chance to catch Brady at some point in a postgame press conference if he wins here? I think someone will ask him how long he intends to play just in terms of getting ahead of this conversation. These are all my predictions for you.

Those are my power rankings for the top storylines of the big game in Las Vegas, Nevada. And that has been presented by our friends at Subway. Every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick.

Sidekick drop everything and tried. Try a delicious new footlong cookie pretzel or churro at Subway today. Power rankings presented by Subway. And there you have it. You know what?

I just wanted to separate what I'm about to say from those power rankings. So I'll go one more. You think we need one more? All right, we'll get one more. Because, you know, I went in and you could turn. Don, I don't need music here. You could, you could have basically, I could have done this when I mentioned Taylor Swift in my top 10.

I just went with the fun stuff. Can she make it or not? And this is conversation about Taylor Swift has gotten so out of control. And I'm not referring to people saying she's on TV too much and all of that. I think that's been already conversed. And the pushback that I have seen, I am all in agreement with. Certainly the New York Times came out with a piece actually putting together the amount of time that she's been on the screen and how it's a fraction of even a minute of a game that lasts three hours long and people reacting to it and how they get sick and tired of seeing her. This has now entered a different realm. And that was going to be my topic bar in the, in the, in the, in the power rankings.

And I'll put it up here. The tinfoil hats, full on Swifty boating of Taylor is gotten out of control. I don't know if you've seen the conversations that's even being had about how the chiefs are making the Super Bowl, not because of their superior talents on the field and in the coaching staff meeting rooms and how they're executing on the field, but because apparently Taylor Swift wants to affect the upcoming election. And the league is putting her on the stage of the Super Bowl, by the way, in a suite where she'll only be seen about 25, 30, maybe even 60 seconds of a Super Bowl broadcast that will probably last about three and a half hours with halftime segment put in there that she's tried. And that the league is putting her in there because the league wants her in there. There's $300 million worth of free advertising that she's giving the league. And so, and that she wants to affect the upcoming election, which is why the league is having her be on the biggest stage possible from which she can affect what's happening at the ballot box in November. I saw a topic bar on the screen where somebody said she's a Pentagon asset.

A psyop. I mean, what in the world are we talking about? So you're saying you're saying that a league that includes just just Google what you think are the political bents of ownership in the NFL. And then somebody like Jerry Jones is going to say to the Cowboys, lie down to the Packers, guys.

Let's continue this 28 now 29 year long conference championship list streak here. Let's do that because the league wants Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl because she wants to be there to affect the election. And it's kind of crazy. I'm seeing all this stuff from people upset about it because apparently I thought a lot of these folks stopped watching the NFL when Colin Kaepernick took a knee a few years ago. But they're still watching. To be upset about this and talk about a relationship that started as one of the most likable pop stars on planet Earth. Being an incredible role model for girls everywhere, including my 10 year old. Hooking up with one of the sweetest, nicest guys in the NFL who happens to be terrific at the sport, and now we're talking about a psyops operation.

What the hell is happening? You know, a lot of those folks who say right now, hey, Rich, stick to sports. We're probably on a ton of stations. People like Rich, stick to sports. And I'm saying to those folks, stick to news. Or what you consider fake news and talk about that, leave the sports out of it.

Let them just hook up in their own private time and then love each other in public and let her go support her boyfriend and stop reading into it. Stick to news. Keep the sports out of it. Let's take a break.

All right, we're back here, everybody. Uh, you know, I mean, I just felt the need to say that. And, you know, I saw what Colin said also, and I'm thrilled to see him say that, you know, on behalf of people at Fox Sports.

Because I sometimes sit there and wonder, like the people of Fox Sports have got to interview Kelsey. You know what I mean? They've got to, they've got to reach out to the chiefs and say, hey, um, can we get read?

Can we get, and they work their asses off putting together those games. And then the folks on the news side of their division just start demonizing the hell out of one of the top tight ends in the game. You know what I'm saying? Like, and you wouldn't have to blame them saying, I'm not talking to Fox ever again. But nobody ever kind of connects those two dots. Like it's the same company, right? Yeah, but news and sports don't talk to each other.

Clearly they don't, and they clearly don't care that the sports people have a job to do. Yeah, well, right. So I'm glad to see Colin on behalf of Fox Sports say something that was completely, you know, clear eyed and full hearted.

And full hearted. Although he was, he was talking about some guys who weren't having intimacy with women. Did you see that? Did you see, I did. I heard about it.

There was a study where like, he cracks me up sometimes, man. You know, but all right, we put that to bed. I got that off my chest. Stick to sports. Let's stick to news, you know.

Stick to news. Just watch the game. Watch it.

And deep fake conspiracies. Just watch the game. Don't watch the game. I know, you know, don't say, I'm not watching the game. Okay, good.

Yeah, don't tell us you're not going to watch it. Back on the Rich Eisen show here. 844204 Rich, number to dial. All right, let's go to Dave in Colorado Springs. You're here on the show. What's up, Dave?

Hey, Rich. Longtime Raider fan. Thanks for having our back this year. I don't know how much I had your back. I kind of had to turn my back on the team after having them all year long last year. And then the Chief's Kingdom still won't let me forget it from last year.

I appreciate it. So does Raider nation. Hey, I think what nobody is saying is the obvious. And I don't know if it's forest through the trees here, but with $331 million added to the NFL with Swifty being shown on the broadcast for over three months, what do you think that's going to do to the spot rate of the NFL Super Bowl commercials? I mean, there's going to be so many more people watching. They could go ahead and make this the highest revenue grossing Super Bowl ever by more than just the regular leap it normally takes from year to year. And the viewership ought to be just off the charts. So I think there is a bit of a monetary interest here. And I don't mind it, by the way, I don't mind having this discussion about what I guess free advertising or new eyeballs that Taylor Swift is brought to the NFL.

And thanks for the call, Dave. I mean, again, my 10 year old, my Taylor said to me that her favorite team is the Chiefs because of she loves Patrick Mahomes. I guess maybe Taylor Swift has introduced my Taylor to watching Patrick Mahomes more than she ever would have. But it's not like your daughter has never seen football. No, I know the reason why I just bring that up is I don't. Great. I don't know how you come up with that figure.

I have no idea if that's accurate or not or how you quantify it. But the NFL is not going out of its way to assure the Chiefs of being in there. You think the Buffalo Bills, who asked all of their fans to come shovel the stadium out and all those fans were thrilled to do it or crying. And the bills were like, yeah. Hey, this is what we're going to do to make sure the Chiefs get past us.

We're going to relive wide right. Everybody in? Everybody in? Anybody? Y'all in?

Everybody came and shoveled for free. You guys are cool with that. Ladies are cool with that, right? Bills nation. We're going to come back from a six and six record just to finally get the Chiefs where we want them and let them off the hook because we need to get Taylor Swift through for the league because of, I mean, look at all that money she's bringing in.

I mean, that's the tinfoil hat stuff. That's nuts. Oh yeah. That's what the Ravens, the city of Baltimore is hosting its first AFC championship game since the 1970 season. What we're going to do is just run the ball only six times to running backs and have Lamar Jackson being throw thrown to the wolves of once again losing a playoff game just because we got to get the Chiefs moving on because we got to get Taylor Swift there because there is some sort of conspiracy theory that we need to actually prove is correct. Come on, get out of here. And by the way, those are just two of the 29 other teams. What again? The Niners are going to lie down.

Got it. Get out of here. That nonsense.

Hour three coming up. Who else? Who else is lying? Who else lied down?

The Dolphins lied down. The Ravens didn't get, the Raiders didn't get the memo on Christmas. But that's the Raiders.

That's the Raiders, right? Al Davis has told the league, screw you. We know everything you want. But then the referee assignments. Referee assignments. All of that. Absolutely. All of it.

All of it. Marquez Valdes-Scantling didn't get it. By the way, Caderius Toney. Maybe that's why he was inactive all these weeks because he didn't get the memo. Stop dropping the ball, man. We got to get Taylor Swift in a better position to affect the election. Get out of here, man.

And they benched him because they have to because the Pentagon said so. What? Honestly, what the hell am I seeing on my screen?

It's coming on my timeline. It doesn't stop. It doesn't stop. And I'm trying to stick to sports.

At least the Steelers fans are leaving you alone. You know what? It's true. I mean, you got that going for you. Not really, because there's something like your take on Arthur Smith. Really? Is that good? If he was that good, he'd still be coach of the Falcons. Well, how did he get coach of the Falcons? Stay by your phone, man.

I may need you. Oh, God. You know what he said that to?

He said that to whoever from the Pentagon called him to say, you've got to make sure that if you face the Chiefs, you lose. Now, this all sounds like plausible to me. Again, back. Barbiturates are kicking in.

Doctor send me the back pain. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer, Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with Tierra Whack. I've never been to a fashion show.

I never did any Paris fashion week, New York fashion week. And I'll tell you why, because I would always go to events and people would say to me, Oh, man, Yachty, man, I love your music, bro. And I should be like, what song? I didn't even at the time, I didn't love my music. I always feel like I'm in a room with all these artists and they are like, I don't know what I'm talking about. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.