Kurt Warner: Brock Purdy Gave 49ers A Chance To Win

Hey, it's Valentine's Day. This is The Rich Eisen Show. I love the fit. With guest host, Susie Shuster. I love it.

You do? I love it. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. How best to describe how the Niners are processing everything. I'd never been in a more devastated locker room.

And that's saying something because I've covered this team for several years now. Earlier on the show, veteran NBA reporter, Howard Beck. Coming up, Pro Football Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner. Fox Sports College football analyst, Bruce Feldman. And now, it's Susie Shuster. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there. Susie Shuster in for Rich Eisen taking a well-deserved Valentine's rest. I think he needs it.

Andres Siciliano will be in for the rest of the week. I got things to do, people. I'm just saying. Great to be with all of you. Chris Brockman, how are you? Happy Valentine's Day. Hello.

You sound a little blase and jaded with that. Mikey D, good to see you. TJ, of course. I'm not sure what you could be doing that would be more fun than kicking it with the three of us. Dude, you know I'd rather do this than almost anything else. But when I add Kurt Warner to the mix, my Hall of Famer, that's when it really becomes a Valentine's for me. That's all you do. You get Hall of Famers and all-time greats when you host. That's how I roll. And here he is, Kurt Warner here, joining us on the Rich Eisen Show. What's your plan for Brenda?

Because nobody loves his wife more than you love Brenda Warner. What's the plan? That is true, but I have absolutely nothing planned. Valentine's, meh, I'm not all into Valentine's. And as you know, Super Bowl last week, I got a wedding this week for my son, so we're not going all out. We've got people coming in from all over the place, so last night it was just, I love you, happy Valentine's Day, and we're kind of moving on.

I'm not a huge Valentine's Day guy. That is a veteran move on your part. There's a cute little trophy over your shoulder. I wonder if it was welded or if it's, oh, we demand a Super Bowl trophy. Sorry about that.

Just wondering about that. She could weld it though. She could weld the second one if she wanted to, so maybe I ought to have her do that. Weld like three Lombardi trophies back there, even though I haven't won them, just to look really cool.

I think one is enough. I think no need to be selfish, but Kurt, we spoke at length on what the football about Brock Purdy ahead of the Super Bowl, and you taught me so much about anticipation, and we spoke about how under-appreciated it seems like he was, and your inside thoughts on how he plays all season long. I'm just curious about what you thought about his play at the Super Bowl. I thought he played well in the Super Bowl.

Now, it was kind of a tale of two halves for both teams. I didn't think the Chiefs offense, and I didn't think Patrick played great in the first half. I thought Brock played really well in the first half, not as well in the second half, although give credit to the Chiefs defense, give credit to the fact that he didn't have a lot of guys open. There wasn't a lot of good things going on for the 49ers as a whole in the second half, but he didn't play quite as well. I think if you take it as a whole, I thought Brock, he looks the part. He's looked the part since he's taken over as a starter. He looked the part in the Super Bowl. He made a bunch of big throws. He put him in a position to win.

That's all you ask for. What you realize in the Super Bowl is there's a lot of emotions, a lot of things that go on. We understand what's at stake.

Let's just flip it. I understand that we're going to look at Patrick Mahomes and what he's done late in games because he's special. He's gifted, maybe the best quarterback we've ever seen. If you look at his four Super Bowls, he hasn't played great in any of those Super Bowls in my opinion. A lot of it was you go two, three quarters where he's not playing great football. Now, he's got the ability to turn it on and his defense keeps him close enough that he's special down the stretch.

That's what we remember. If you look at the whole of his Super Bowls and then compare it to what Brock did in this game, I think very comparable. If not, maybe even a little bit better from Brock when you look at the whole of it. Not as many special plays, not as many game-changing plays as Patrick makes, but that's kind of a given. Who is he going to play against where he doesn't make more of those plays than the other quarterback?

I just think you have to look at it as a whole. I thought Brock looked apart and played well enough to give his team a chance to win. Well enough to put to rest the conversation about him being good enough to be there? I've said it since day one.

What does that mean? Good enough to be there. He was there. We got a lot of quarterbacks in this league that were good players that never get to this point, that never get that opportunity, that never make the plays in the moment that get you there.

I was the first one to say it. The first two playoff games were maybe the two worst games I've seen Brock play in the time that he's been a starter. But he did enough and he made the plays down the stretch and he gave credit to the team. The team keeps him in it or the defense makes the plays to keep him within reach and then he made the plays that he needed to. It's kind of like with Patrick Mahomes. We throw this whole Super Bowl on Patrick Mahomes where if you look at it, you got to give credit to their defense. I mean they were down 10 points but they gave San Francisco nothing in the second half. Gave them no chance and smothered them giving Patrick chance after chance after chance and hanging around to get there. These wins and losses in Super Bowls are team efforts.

The bottom line is you got to play well enough to give yourself a chance and then everybody's got to come along for the party. Then sometimes you've got to make a couple extra plays as the quarterback because there were a couple things that Brock missed in this game where you say man if I could have just had that one back or that one back. But there was plays all over the place and bottom line give yourself a team a chance to win. You give your team the lead in overtime and the defense has to come up and do their part.

I mean I could go back to my Super Bowl victory. We did our part and we scored a touchdown and the defense had to do their part and make the tackle on the one yard line to solidify the game. That's the beauty of football is that it's a team sport. Sometimes that's the worst part of football. It's a team sport that you can't do it by yourself and you got to count on other guys to do their part or sometimes I can take another Super Bowl against the Steelers. Sometimes there's just great players on the other side and those great players make the play or a couple plays Antonio Holmes, Ben Roethlisberger and you tip your hat to them and go man you know when it counted that guy made one more play than we did or made a special play in that moment to seal the deal. That's kind of what it comes down to a lot of times and you're playing against the best quarterback on the other side.

You've got to just do everything you can possibly do to try to separate yourself. Kurt Warner joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Susie Schuster in for Rich. You're three days removed from calling the Super Bowl on Westwood One. What are your takeaways? I think the takeaway is that it wasn't a great football game and probably more so offensively because I'm an offensive guy for about three quarters and then the game just was awesome. It was back and forth and it was the chess match and when the Chiefs needed to make a play they made the play and then all the drama at the end of what Kyle Shanahan is going to do and then taking it to overtime and then the decisions. It becomes a great game because of all the stuff that happened late in it even though I don't know if it was a great game specifically offensively for three quarters.

But who cares? At the end of the day we want the drama, we want a great finish, we want some controversy so we can talk about it after and this game had all of that along with great play making and one of those guys that will go down as one of the greatest ever doing what he needed to do in the moment which to me when it's all said and done it's probably going to be Patrick and Tom and that's where the debate's going to be and what made Tom so great? What made Tom great was in the moment when they needed him to make a play he always made the play and gave him a chance and that's what we got to see again from Patrick Mahomes to kind of keep stacking up his arguments or his resume to one day stack against Tom Brady. We know the Chiefs are having their parade right now. What's it like being in a parade? I mean it's just you know it's awesome because what you realize in sports and especially in our game you know I mean fandom is awesome and it's awesome to be a part of a really good team because it's not just the 53 guys in the building or it's not just you know everybody that works for the team you bring an entire community with you. An entire community comes together whether that's you know on a Sunday afternoon in Arrowhead or whether that's when you're out in public and you're talking about it and everybody's excited about it or whether that's at a parade is that you bring a community with you you know I mean you guys know everybody's it's our team and we should have done this and we did this that's the beauty of sports and that's the beauty of our sport is that it brings our fan base along with us and that's what the parade is it's like all of us we were all in this together it wasn't just the guys on the field but it was it was the fans the fan base and the excitement and uh the energy and the community that was brought together by it and so the you know the parade is that celebration of all of us together um you know accomplishing something and fighting for one cause and loving each other you know because we're a part of of your team and you're a part of our team and so that to me is what the parade was all about and it was so much fun and you get hundreds of thousands of people coming down and everybody just having a great time and celebrating together anything crazy happened that you remember I mean clearly you're not the kind of guy who's gonna toss a Lombardi anywhere no no I mean I yeah there was there was not a lot of drinking going on in uh in my truck I had a couple little kids in my lap it was cold outside um you know so but you know it was pretty uneventful from that standpoint I think um just like everything else in our world the parades have ramped up over the years and the craziness has ramped up over the years um fun to see uh fun to watch as long as it's all in control and you know nothing outrageous happens but um you know it's it's your chance to party you know as Travis says Travis Kelsey says right you've earned their right to party um and uh let's do it let's do it together on uh on parade day before we let you go we're inching towards the combine who you're looking forward to seeing there I'm looking forward to seeing all the guys you know I love to watch guys compete I love to watch them come out and throw and more importantly you know try to meet them and connect with them in hopes that if there's a way that I can help them down the road uh I'll help them but you like to see everybody throw in person I don't get a chance to go to all the pro days or I don't get a chance to sit down in meetings with these guys so to uh to rub elbows and talk to them a little bit build that relationship watch them throw in person even though you know I'm not a huge combine guy you don't tell a whole lot from guys throwing against air um but there's a little bit that you can you can pull from it and um you know and I haven't got to see any of these um you know these these top quarterbacks play in person and we've got a number of them so I'm excited to see them all go out there and compete who are you most curious about um you know that's a good question uh you know I think I'm curious about all of them because I watch a lot of college football because in the NFL season I'm fully engrossed in the NFL and it takes all my time um but but you know I want to see them all throw first and foremost um you know because there's there's a difference between being just a playmaker and being a thrower and understanding how to throw the football not just can I throw it from point a to point b but do I understand how to throw it and that's usually what I take from the combine is do you know how to throw the different throws are you trying to throw everything like a laser you're trying to see how far you can throw a go route or you understand how to throw it and you're trying to complete every throw and so I want to see that I want I want to see the capabilities of all these guys when they make the different kinds of throws and they have the footwork and and all of that stuff is what I look for kind of the nuance that you were talking about with Brock Purdy that's kind of the nuance that I watch at the combine and so I look forward to seeing all of these top guys because they were all great and they all had great seasons in college football but you know what we know is there's great quarterbacks in college football it doesn't translate to being great at the NFL level there's average college players that can be great at the NFL level so not all of that stuff translates um but understanding how to throw the football I think is something that always translates um and so that's what I'm looking forward to and I'm looking forward to watching all these all these guys around tj got a quick question I do hey kurt so rich brockman and I we always have this thing we talk about at the end of the game when it's all said and done would you rather be blown out or would you rather lose a tight game now I was driving home from watching the Super Bowl I was listening to you and I thought I heard you say that at that point you may have rather have taken the blowout and that's kind of Chris and I kind of agree with that sometimes because it feels like when a tight game you can just second guess everything you've done for the rest of your life but if you kind of get stomped out earlier then you know it just wasn't your day so I'm just wondering what what's a player's perspective on that yeah you know that was probably more tongue-in-cheek um you know but but I think bottom line is that I think there's something too if you go into a Super Bowl and the other teams just flat out the better team okay you kind of reserve yourself and go you know what hey we got here and it was great we made a run but we just the other team was just flat out better than us and then sometimes when you play a really good game and it goes back and forth and then you lose you know you do you think about it like oh my gosh if that one play would have been different or if this would have been different or we were so close to to make it history and we lost it on one play here or there I think that definitely can be more painful because that's what we do as players is when you play close games you scrutinize everything you do and you beat yourself up over gosh why didn't I make that one throw or why did I make that decision right there and those things hang with you when you get blown out usually it's kind of just like yeah you wipe your hands a bit like oh well but it wasn't our day or they were just a better team we can't really scrutinize anything because you know there's a million different things that went wrong and and sometimes easier to put it aside and move forward but but I think at the end of the day if I'm playing in the Super Bowl I want to be in a position to give my team a chance I want to be in a close game I want to have an opportunity and I want to leave going hey we could have been Super Bowl champs you know kind of like the Arizona game against the Steelers you score with two and a half minutes to go and and at the end of the game it was about great players making plays but you at least walked off that field going you know what we were good enough to be Super Bowl champions we represented ourselves well in this moment even though we're not walking away with the trophy. Jay would you have wanted the ball in your hands then to start overtime?

Absolutely not. You know like for me it over to like I understand you know when you say you know we want the third possession of the game but when I go into overtime there will be no third possession like my mentality is not playing for the next possession like if we punt on this possession well maybe we can win it on the next my mentality is give me the football tell me what we need to do and we're going to go do it like we're going to go finish this thing right now I'm not playing for a second possession in overtime all those things can make sense I can understand completely why Kyle would do that and what that would mean but to me that's the first part is the winning mentality and what I thought was interesting was at the end of the game well I mean we could look at a couple times you know San Francisco's down in the red zone tight in the second half and they go for it on fourth down okay I thought probably should kick right there take the points they go for it then they score a touchdown then at the end of the game they're playing with the win mentality third and five we're throwing the football we're trying to finish this thing right now and then you have overtime and you're going oh well we're going to play for the third possession and again not that they were just playing for the third possession but they're thinking about it completely differently than the way I thought they thought about it during the game was we're going for it we are going forward to finish this game and to make plays but then I thought the mentality changed and that's the biggest thing to me is mentality wise I want to say we're finishing it on the first possession we're not thinking about anything beyond this is overtime what do we have to do to not give the other team the football back and you know and the other thing I think of it from strategic standpoint is you know we saw San Francisco come out and they get the ball and in this day and age you're going to get the ball on the 25 yard line for sure you know you're going to have a touchback so you're going to have to go the long distance and what I think in those moments is that sometimes when you when you take the ball first or you give the other team the ball first they're thinking about it like okay we can't make a mistake right here we've got to play and you might play a little bit more conservatively from your own 25 yard line so if you can get a three and out which almost happened to San Francisco now you're stealing not only the possession but you're stealing the field position which oftentimes can be so huge because when the kickers are as good as they are in this league if you get stopped on a three and out and you have to punt then you're 20 yards away from getting an opportunity to win the football game so even from a strategic field position kind of the way it plays out I would want the other team to have the ball first so they have to play a little bit more tentative and then more importantly when the ball gets back in my hands I know exactly what we have to do to to win and and I'm thinking about you got to get a field goal or at least getting a field goal but I'm thinking about we're getting a touchdown and if we need a two-point conversion we're getting a touchdown or two-point conversion and I am not handing the ball back to the other team on the third possession last question for you Kurt Warner because football season never ends what should the bears do at quarterback I mean you know I've been outspoken on this and um you know and we can sit here and and I can you know fully buy into that it hasn't been fair with Justin Fields because of the different coordinators and the lack of talent around Justin Fields and all of that stuff but if I'm making this decision um again and I'm the Bears brass I simply have to ask the question has he proven to me that he's a franchise quarterback now it might be unfortunate well we didn't give him the pieces to prove it or you know like I said well we changed coordinator so many times that we didn't give him an opportunity to be his best I get that but the bottom line is we're in this moment and that is the question you have to ask and if the question if the answer to that question is not definitively yes we believe he's a franchise quarterback we have seen him enough to say he's a franchise quarterback I believe you have to move on you've got the number one pick there's other quarterbacks out there that you know project to be really good no guarantees we know that but project to be really good that unless you know without a shadow of a doubt that Justin Fields is that guy I believe you have to go the other route um because now it's still speculation and uh it's still the fact that we're going to have to pay him a big dollar deal um you know whether he's proven to that to us or not and so I just I feel like there is only one way to go in this if the answer to your question is he hasn't proven it yet not that he isn't going to be that guy or he can't be that guy but if he hasn't proven it to you yet I don't believe you can move forward with him and sign him to the big deal when you're sitting in this position that you're sitting in um because you just don't know there's still too much unknown with Justin Fields uh to go that route in uh in in my opinion Kurt have the greatest wedding enjoy every single second of it thanks again for being so unselfish with your time really appreciate it you got it always a pleasure to be on give my love to Bren will do that is Kurt Warner he is our MVP our Hall of Famer and it's just great to have him on the show Bruce Feldman is here I will ask him what the heck is happening in college football probably nothing else it's a long question I'm hoping he unpacks a lot of the money ahead it is staggering that's ahead on the Rich Eisen Show you need parts O'Reilly auto parts has parts need them fast we've got fast no matter what you need we have thousands of professional parts people doing their part to make sure you have it product availability just one part that makes O'Reilly stand apart the professional parts people let's talk about DoorDash people we are a huge DoorDash family in my household as a matter of fact my wife loves DoorDash so much she almost named one of our kids door and the other one dash I'm serious we got everything DoorDash to the house kind of like what we saw during the big game right DoorDash went all out for game day and DoorDash stuff from all the ads to one lucky winner cars snacks even tax software what a football game that was for sure it was one heck of a delivery for the winning team and whatever watch party or anything party you've got coming up get it delivered to DoorDash you're gonna love it we sure do in my house football season may be over but we are still in the thick of basketball games the school year and let's face it winter I can think of a million reasons daily to order DoorDash so hop on the app and make your day a little easier get dinner for tonight groceries for the week or a consolation prize for your sad friends in San Francisco all on DoorDash DoorDash your door to more head to the DoorDash app to get everything you need delivered. This is a letter okay written in March of 1998 two Colts owner Jim or say what at the time a month away in the draft the decision between you and Peyton Manning right it's from Hunter S. Thompson dear James dear James dear James in response to your addled request for a quick 30 million dollar loan to secure the services of the Manning kid I have to say no at this time but the leaf boy is another matter he looks strong and Manning doesn't or at least not strong enough to handle that welcome to the NFL business for two years without a world-class offensive line how are you fixed at left OT for the next few years James think about it you don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in okay let me know if you need some money for leaf I expect to be very rich when this depth movie comes out your faithful consultant Hunter and it's signed HST the absurdity of the fact that a Hunter S. Thompson knew who I was and be that he was he was trying to persuade Mr. or say to draft me instead was just comical and not to see it for 20 years how does it it just it's just nowhere to be found to be found right I call John Walsh of ESPN it's a thousand percent real wow and Hunter S. Thompson was a huge NFL fan and obviously an opinion on on the 1998 well I think now that we know that a lot of people had an opinion on the 1998 NFL draft this is amazing it's not I love that line is that you don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in the irony of all this right the irony of this he would go on and play start the most consecutive games of anybody and I would be injured going into year two and missed the entire season so we're just just reminding people strong underlined yes strong welcome back to the rich eisen show radio network I'm sitting at the rich eisen show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger's got the right product for you call click ranger.com or just stop by by the way I'm Susie Schuster in for rich my husband who is home sick on Valentine's Day Bruce Feldman so happy Valentine's Day Bruce happy Valentine's Day hopefully I don't get the cold for you and pass along to my wife and then it'll be full circle oh no it's the full flu and you don't want any part of it I'm on the other side of the house I'm wearing a hazmat suit I mean someone's let's face it a mom flu and a dad flu are very different how are they different interesting a mom's is a hot take a mom is up making dinner the next day and my family's like you don't make dinner a mom is up attempting to make dinner the next day a dad's out for three to five don't you don't this is fact anti-dad be careful you can't shatter the guy's impression of what rich eyes is like his intestinal fortitude his toughness his character like I mean you're just basically telling these guys that there's no Santa Claus I'm saying that dad is no I'm saying that rich is an all-time dad but like this sign says best mom ever and like you're so full of it Brockman because you know that I'm true this is so true anti-dad is taking shots of my guy I don't know this is so lame are you kidding me I'm not taking any shots he fancies himself as like the Jim Marshall of dad rich was literally vomiting in between questions with Orlovsky yesterday he was in the middle of an interview luckily they were on a one-shot Bruce does Orlovsky know this that he drove a host he does not know this actually he literally made a host sick I mean he's a lovely guy I don't think it was anything about that it could have just been just the non-stop vomit yesterday but that's a whole different conversation to be had hi Bruce hi how are you you know I'm just great you heard our conversation with Kurt Warner you thought it was interesting what he had to say about the Bears quarterback position yeah it's a tricky spot because you have a really gifted athlete who's done some good things and Justin Fields he's not old he's just I mean and he's also had as as her told you he had a lot of transition around him you know in terms of offensive coordinators and everything else now if you sit there and say all right we believe that Caleb is special and we think he is as close to can't miss as we can get then I do think it's a movie probably made because I don't think there's anything again and I'm not in the building with in the Bears building but I don't there's anything they could say definitively oh he is you know he he's a sure thing because it's not it's not like he's done what CJ just did right in Houston he could be really good he also could be like pretty good and if he's just pretty good and he's up and down and you're sitting there going man we we we passed up a chance to have a legit franchise quarterback and look maybe they feel that way about Drake May I have no idea it's it's it's almost like it feels like it's safer in an optics way to trade him and then hit the reset button but I know that that's not a great answer either it just really depends to me on what you feel like about these other quarterbacks coming out and again Caleb does some remarkable stuff on film he's also you know I don't know if he's picked up some bad habits because he's played beyond a bad offensive line this year because he's had a bad defense that you know has been on the other side of the team for much of his career in college I don't know what you know he certainly had good good skill guys around him he just didn't have a good offensive line so if you're the GM do you put everything all of your eggs into the Caleb Williams basket I would I would I just think he is such a gifted passer I think the things you have to feel really comfortable about you know and this goes for anybody I think you have to have a good offensive line in front of them but I think Justin Fields can do some spectacular stuff when he has nothing around him ultimately I think you know that could be a five win team and with some spectacular highlights the question is can you be the franchise guy and again I'm not saying Justin can't be that guy I mean he's still really young and by the way he's had a bunch of different you know coordinators over his college times he started at Georgia then obviously went to Ohio State did really well there you know again I'm not in the you know it's like we're not in the meetings with that are going to happen in Indianapolis they're not in the meetings that are going to happen after the after the combine to see okay what do we really believe like I know enough people at inside USC that think really highly of Caleb I think there's some circumstance around him that makes it you know there's no such thing as a sure thing there just isn't you know I mean I remember last year not around this time but maybe like a month after the draft there was a lot of debate over how much this cognitive these cognitive tests really mattered compared to what people saw on film from CJ Stroud I thought CJ Stroud was the safer pick because he's a physically bigger guy than Bryce but that's not what this discussion is now this is it's just a different question but that's why it's so interesting of the draft and CJ Stroud has made it that much more difficult for every other quarterback coming out because he's made it look so easy and I mean you can't compare and then you see how these are the two guys that everyone's talking about it depends on who the coach is what the lines look like but who do you expect to shine in this combine? As the quarterbacks you know Caleb's skill set is really impressive just is it you know he's almost built like a running back in a lot of ways he's really sturdy he is very elusive and strong I get why he's compared to physically some sometimes to Patrick Mahomes that's unfair to both of them because one guy is on track to be one of the greatest NFL players in the history of the sport the other guy hasn't really done anything he's just you know just had a team that won seven games at USC but I think I could see that part you know doing well I'm interested to see what Jayden Daniels how he is in the draft process because he had an amazing year and he improved so much at UCLA from what the guy he was at Arizona State now physically he's not a big guy I think people will see he's pretty wirey he's gotten a lot bigger since he was you know first got to Arizona State but I think he's gonna be an interesting evaluation the other one I think will be interesting is JJ McCarthy because you know JJ is also a really gifted you know I think similar to Daniels where you know he's a guy who might run in the four fours or at least low four fives and unlike the other guys he was not asked to do a ton as a passer I'm not saying they didn't throw it at all because he you know he definitely throws well on the run there's a lot of stuff that I think would impress people and he's a winner I mean you see what what he did and I think some of the character stuff I think for him I think will play well in regards to maybe the statistics and some I don't think the NFL gets caught up in oh this guy threw for 4,000 yards or this guy threw for 2,500 I don't I think they want to see certain things on film and I think they'll see it I think those are two really interesting evaluations and the other one that to me is the biggest one and Rich and I talked about him probably a month ago was Michael Penix Jr. just because of it's just a lot I think the NFL is going to be sorting through but he had a spectacular time at Washington those last two years. It's Valentine's Day Bruce and thank you for joining us in the studio I don't know if I'm getting in the way of your planning for some kind of exciting elaborate Valentine's Day ahead but since I have to give Rich some kind of Valentine's Day let's talk about some of the other Michigan guys that you expect to do well in the combine. Yeah I think Chris Jenkins his dad was a great player in the NFL he was a guy Jim Harbaugh told me in July he thought he could be a top 10 pick Chris Jenkins has gotten a lot bigger and stronger and more explosive since he first got to Ann Arbor.

Really good player I don't think he will sorry I don't think he will end up as high as that but I think I could see him being a first round guy you know again we wrote about this yesterday I think there's 18 guys from Michigan which is a combine record invited to Indianapolis and when I saw Harbaugh over the summer he predicted that they would break Georgia's draft record and said that they would have you know last year it was 15 that Georgia had and people kind of snickered about that Michigan what and then you started to see all these guys now there I don't think there's a ton of top you know 25 kind of guys in this group but I think it's a lot of guys who will be middle round players who are really good college players and there's a handful of them you know it'll be fascinating to see how Roman Wilson who was their top receiver is not very big but is very explosive really quick you know when he was at Michigan the strength coaches told me he was testing off the charts there and so we want to see he did really well in mobile at the Senior Bowl I don't think he's a guy who's big enough to play himself into the first round especially it's a really deep draft of receivers but I think he's a guy that will be an interesting one to watch in Indianapolis I think there's a bunch of other guys who are really good players like Mike Sander still is a smaller you know a smaller defensive back who is just a great college player he's a really good athlete he's just physically I remember before the Ohio State game I was with an NFL scout in warm-ups and we talked about him he was like just you know he's a really good college player just don't know if he's going to hold up in the NFL and certain people want bigger and he's physically not a huge guy but I to me I would not bet against that guy because he's one of the best players I've seen in college football on defense in like the last five years and he stepped up he made a ton of good plays he you know he's really athletic and I just think there's something about guys who just have this kind of savvy and knack where they're always around the football you know and he's got that so I think he's one to keep an eye on wherever he ends up. I feel like I'm broadcasting for an audience of one so I'm going to keep talking about Michigan football how good can they be it seems like Harbaugh has just taken so many coaches along with him. He has I mean look Ben Herbert to me was the biggest loss and if you were a Michigan fan I know we had reported that when Harbaugh left that Herbert was expected to go and people were like kind of incredulous because honestly the role of the strength coach is seems to be a lot more significant with a college team than it is in the NFL where in the NFL you have some guys have their own trainers and it's really more of a developmental aspect in college I think losing him is significant they replaced him with a protege of his which I think is probably as close to that as you can get. I'm fascinated to see how Wink Martindale does you know long time NFL guy big reputation in the NFL but now he's going to the college game there's still some good pieces on the side of the ball defensively they lost a ton on offense Donovan Edwards is still there but and Colston Lovelin who's a really good tight end he's a borderline all American kind of player so you have some pieces to work with. What I wonder about is if you're a Michigan person if you're Rich Eisen for instance you sit there and go okay you can take a deep breath we just won the national title we won it three years in a row you know if we win eight games we go eight and four I know you don't want that but it's like I don't think you're gonna be pulling your hair out after this past year because it was such a rollercoaster ride I mean given all the guys like I said 18 guys are going to the combine this team is very depleted there's still some good players but it's not like they have coming back what Ohio State has coming back they haven't added Ohio State in the portal added arguably the best defensive player in the country this year who was at Alabama people thought he was going to go to Georgia and then Ohio State was able to win that recruiting battle and you know again first time Sharone Moore he has had coaching experience but I think what you want to see is does it do they play like what we're used to Michigan playing because I just I think that you know again if they can get to get to anything north of eight wins I think after last year after all the guys have lost and certainly after you lose Jim Harbaugh and the core I mean there's still a handful of guys who were on that coaching staff who will be there I think that would be anything above that would be a positive sign you have time for a second segment sure okay let's take a quick break when we come back let's break down this new college football deal with the SPN because the dollar signs are insane well unpack that when we come back with Bruce Feldman right here on the Rich Eisen show America starts the day with America in the morning hi I'm John Trout your host for the latest news politics entertainment business and weather our staff of correspondents provide a fast-paced look at the world with specialized reports from where news happens in New York I'm Sue Allard I'm Charles Dilettesma Sagar Meghani Washington 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're 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 will say this yes I am a man that knows when he's defeated yes I was beaten this year yes so my business manager is supposed to have the hat for us he did not oh we're throwing under the bus by the bus just right now see he didn't even show his face he's I was willing to wear this hat he had it made well he told me that the hat he made up had the final score no he had the hat on there whatever it was a hat I don't know what that the hat is supposed to read the following I am going to listen okay hear this yes hell to the victors valiant hell to the conquering heroes hell hell to Michigan the leaders and best wow that is for you only wow I honestly did not want me to do that I honestly can't have thought of anything else that you would do that would make me think that you would not have to follow through on your end of the wager which is where and I should have gone to Michigan hat on the vaunted field of Notre Dame with touchdown Jesus behind you but do I let him out of that end of the bet now he's that was pretty epic actually and he nailed all the words he grew up in the state of Michigan he should know them he should know them I mean that was like 40 years ago I had to look them up to make sure I was saying it correctly for you also also I'm getting visions of like Jerome practicing before he came out yeah it sounded rehearsed that was great that took a lot out of me great job Jerome you know that that was awesome that was awesome all right back here on the Rich Eisen show Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen Bruce Feldman joins me now of course the Fox Sports and the athletic Chip Kelly why leave a head coaching position to go be the OC at Ohio State I think really the job he had at UCLA changed dramatically in the time he was there you know the six years and it really did right when NIL came in I think for him it was you are going to be constantly fighting with a short stick they would lose recruits as it became more and more of a thing where NIL really turned into pay for play and I think they really had a hard time reconciling hey are we going to have boosters involved in the process and then I also think you have a guy who honestly would much rather coach football and call plays and try to develop players as opposed to go spend a lot of time out on the booster circuit with donors and trying to really rally for NIL and I think that was a that became increasingly harder honestly over time because I think there was a lot of UCLA fans who are over Chip Kelly you know a few years ago so it was just a more of a disconnect I think it grew further than that I know this this past year and they had a bowl game his quarterback coach left to become the offensive coordinator of Oregon State so Kelly jumped in to be the quarterback coach and I think he was very happy with that and liked being able to be hands on in the meeting with the players where he was you're you're much more involved than you would be as a head coach so when he interviewed for some NFL offensive coordinator jobs I think that was appealing to him as opposed to some of the other stuff and look he's not alone in this where there's a lot of college football coaches right now are frustrated by all the other stuff that now is a part of the job now in terms of the job requirement I don't see him wanting to be a carnival barker guy to rally to get money I mean he's also not even on social media so I think some of these things just really did not line up and the fact when the Ohio State offensive coordinator job came open I think it was very you know compelling for him because his relationship with Ryan Day I mean he grew up a mile down the road from Ryan Day he recruited Ryan Day to New Hampshire then Ryan Day broke in as a coach under him and then Kelly brought him with him to Philadelphia and then to the 49ers their families are close so I think it's a I think it was probably a win win I don't think he would have left for any probably any other college offensive coordinator job but I think to go work with Ryan Day there were the resources they have and I don't think he's gonna have to be involved in some of the stuff he didn't want to be involved in I think that probably seemed like a really good fit you have to wonder if some of these coaches just don't want to deal with college football anymore with the NIL rules no I mean I've heard from a bunch of them that like it gets to be really frustrating I think gets to be really frustrating because on one hand there is there is the aspect of you are recruiting and then all of a sudden that once the conversation could turn to money and I've talked to guys on the UCLA staff about this in the last two weeks and one of the assistants was like yeah whenever they would ask I'm like we have zilch we have no money so they're competing against teams that are their NIL war chest is into the eight figures and UCLA is from what I was told was not even in the seven figure so that's an uphill battle and the flip side of it also is there's a there are some coaches also or see some of the challenges that come from NIL in terms of what it can do to the locker room it's not to say that players aren't deserving or that this it shouldn't be going into some of this direction but I think there's also some challenges that come with it I think it's not you know it's not insignificant that the team across town didn't even win it you know UCLA won eight games and beat USC pretty handily and USC didn't even win that many and they have three collectives and were much more involved on the NIL front so it's not to say if you're if you're all in on that you're you're assured of you know it's gonna everything's gonna be better I think it gives you probably a better chance but there's challenges that come with it too.

I'm all for these players getting paid and getting reimbursed or if there's any other word to say it for the time and effort that they put into it I think you're a hundred percent right about the division in the locker room we've seen images of players pulling up in Lambos and that's not exactly what people had in mind when they said you know give them a shot to be paid for what they're doing. You mentioned UCLA, Deshaun Foster announces that new head coach I love that so much from my years covering him when he came straight out of Tustin and went right up the 405 to go to UCLA and I'm wondering how successful do you think he can be there? You know it's gonna be interesting to see like everybody likes Deshaun right you know you've been around like he is he's just a good guy he has a good way about him he was a great player there it wasn't just like they hired a guy who was a great player in the NFL but like he was one of the best position coaches in the Pac-12 he developed really good players I know from guys I've talked to on the staff said he's a disciplinarian he knows how to solve problems he had the pulse of the team all those things are really good I would not worry that oh he's never been a coordinator because he's gonna hire somebody to call plays I also think the fact that he was a great player there and is really well liked not just by people inside the program but by former players now it's the thing is all the UCLA fans who are kind of over what they've had for the last five six years now they you know really need to step up and support the program in a big way and it'll be interesting to see if they can ramp that up I think he's gonna probably keep a lot of the same assistance that Kelly had and look I think that there's because he's been there for a long time he has a lot of familiarity I know he left for the Raiders for like a couple weeks but I think given the circumstances to me this is what this is probably about as good a hire I think of all the people I heard were in the mix as serious candidates when this started including Deshaun I think this is probably as good a hire as they could have made. How are you seeing the relationship of coaches to players change as college football progresses from the Nick Saban's of the world who were that paternal like coach who were full disciplinarians to having some of these coaches that are younger and perhaps can communicate with these players and perhaps more effectively? Well we've seen obviously in the NFL a bunch of younger coaches about a lot of success obviously Sean McVay really really young doesn't mean that they're not you know didn't grow up in the business not really you know savvy I think what has changed in the last few years is college football has become way more transactional and there's no way around that and so it doesn't mean just because somebody's young doesn't mean they can't be a real disciplinarian and I think in a lot of ways and I'll use again the Foster example like he's a guy who had a really good room that he coached and I think he had commanded respect and now it's like what like to me the job as being a college head coach has changed a lot in the last few years especially if you don't have like certain programs have way more support than others I'm not just talking about financial I'm talking about the resources to hire a lot of other people and I think what what you have to see is okay it's one thing to be a great x and o's guy but there's so much more that goes into the job of running a program now and whether it's like across town lincoln riley's a brilliant offensive mind but there's you know like right now they're trying to find that balance they shook up the whole defensive staff because obviously it wasn't good enough and I think it gets to be a part where it's like okay what's the identity of this program what is our culture and I think that starts with the head coach it has to let's quickly we've got one minute left let's unpack this new college football deal with the spm yeah I mean I think a lot of people initially thought it was going to be split because if you look at the nfl model nfl you know there's a bunch of big networks that have different investments in it and spread around that's what not this that's not what this one's going to be now it's possible that espn ends up farming out a game or two to one of the other networks in full disclosure I work for one of the other networks at fox so we'll see how it goes I mean obviously for espn it's a college football has been a big part of its identity whereas like some of the other networks I think are way more invested into the nfl side of it six year deal 1.3 billion dollars it is crazy how much money college football brings in it really is kind of insane isn't it yeah well look the ratings aren't what they are for like big nfl the ratings are still really big compared to almost everything else in a in one last question we've got 30 seconds to go here who's in best position for college football as we head into the fall in terms of team or teams you know there's a lot of turnover alabama new coach michigan new coach ohio state a lot of new stuff ohio state honestly is the way they've gone all in on nil and the portal this off season they are the most intriguing team to see right now new big ten but you know ryan day adds his buddy to to help run the offense or to run the offense I think that's the team that everyone's going to be fascinated by boy rich are you okay out there I know it's not what you want to hear on valentine's day you know but oh he's got a national championship from a couple weeks ago he'll be fine he'll be moving on to the next season so fast bruce I really appreciate your time this has been bruce feldman here from the athletic and fox right here on the rich eyes and show hour three ahead don't go anywhere yeah I mean I think what you said is so true that he will relish in the championship for about another 15 seconds but the minute the game starts in the fall he's going to go back to pacing in the back of the room because that's what he does he can't sit and watch a game I think he's going to really am I right about this honey you're watching at home on roku I really think that he is worshiping the very the idea of being a national champion to him like his heart explodes but the minute the game start in the fall sweat yeah I get that it's not like the it's not like next season is not going to happen I just still think if you are like everything that jim harbaugh did I think kind of validated the michigan way right so you know it's going to be growing pains I think like look as long as there's promise and say hey we can they could still be a playoff team if they win nine games next year because the playoffs is going to be 12 teams so you know I guess the question is going to be what is success but they just lost so many guys so many guys so many coaches yeah I think the coaches is significant too but it's just like to lose like his washington's in a similar wet place washington is only has two returning starters back at a 20 like I can't imagine that they're going to be jed fish is a really good coach but he's not taking over the team the calendar board just you know played michigan with no it's totally different all right bruce thank you so much for your time I wish you a happy valentine's day you too hopefully you don't get what rich has uh that's gonna be my valentine's day present from me to me is staying clear of the flu bruce thanks again for your time hour three ahead you