NFL What's More Likely: Who returns to the Big Game?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Anthony Siciliano. Andrew Siciliano. I have a man crush on one Andrew Siciliano.

Hey, hi. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. If they had won, would Steve Wilkes still be the DC today?

I think there's a strong chance that Kyle makes a change anyway. Today's guests, pro football focus analyst, Brad Spielberger, ESPN NBA reporter, Dave McMenamin, NFL network analyst, Bucky Brooks. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. Also been known as Anthony before, I've been called worse. Hi there. Good morning.

Also been called better, regardless. A little frog in my throat, excuse me. Sinuses. Hey, it's a Friday, everybody. Hope you're having a great day. Hope you're having a great week. The week is almost over.

Hey everybody, it's the weekend. I am happy and ready to be here. I'm grateful, grateful that Rich has allowed me to sit in this chair. I'm grateful as well for the unnecessary and at times insincere laughter because I can't be that funny for all three of you, chuckleheads.

And when I say insincere, I'm not, not taking a shot at you. I just know sometimes I'm not that funny, but you laugh either way. That's family. Hey, my good day, sir. Come see us at Riviera in about four hours. You know what?

I just got a text from my buddy. I think I'm down for that. Hey everybody. Thanks for getting me seats.

Brock, man. You didn't Michael Del Tufo. It's amazing. You're here on a Friday and not shitting off somewhere.

You're not hopping on some private aviation vehicle and doing it for the gram. It is great to see you. Okay.

And TJ Jefferson. Good to see you as well. Happy Friday, sir. Happy Friday. I just want to let you know, I don't give courtesy laughs.

I laughed at the beginning because of what you said pre-show. Inside joke outsider. Yes. Okay. Yes. Somebody once told me back in the day when you're doing the TV and the radio, never, never do the inside joke because then if, if the listener, the viewer doesn't get it, then they don't, they, they don't feel included, right?

They'll be all right. Right. Like, like you're with your significant other and you don't bring them into the conversation and explain what it is you're talking to. And then you're going to get a talking to later about that. Yeah.

You can't do that. Oh, we got breaking news. Oh, wait, really?

Wait, the Cowboys. Oh man. I'm trying to put that right. This is from Adam Schefter. By the way, I'm NFL network, but like Adam's a friend.

So we could do the Adam Schefter breaking news here. Anthony Siciliano Raiders quarterback, at least for now, you know, for three more weeks until possibly he gets cut. Jimmy Garoppolo has been suspended two games for violating the NFL's performance enhancing substances policy per sources.

Schefter says the policy violation is related to him using a prescribed medication without having a valid therapeutic use exemption per sources. Look, we all know what that is. Jim Garoppolo, Jim Garoppolo, two games suspension. So many jokes for PEDs.

Remember when the Raiders signed him and I said his nickname was the chicken Hawk. I think that all falls into a falls in the line there. Listen, I don't know what it's for. Everybody has a story as to why they get popped.

The the story going around the last couple of years when guys get popped. And by the way, this is legit. This is legitimate. It it's hair restoration stuff that all that often gets flagged. Really?

Correct. Now I'm sitting a little bit. I think I don't think so. People say I have a good head of hair, but I could see Andrew in the beginning. It's bald as all heck. But if you look there at James Garoppolo, I I'm I'm just this is just reckless speculation. You could see on the screen here.

You could see a little bit thin in there at the front. I don't know. He's a good looking man. So I'm told. Brockman will tell you. I think we can all be objective about this.

He's very handsome. Brockman your tweet just now. That is reckless speculation. Well, I wasn't going to say it. I'll put it in print. I won't say. OK, I think we were all thinking.

He put in print that his performance enhancer is a blue pill. Oh, come on. Everyone's going to have job today. I listen. Hey, hey. So when I when I talk to college kids, when I when I talk to journalism schools, right, like mostly kids from Syracuse calling and asking for advice. The one thing I always say this goes for social media. Brockman Syracuse graduate snark is not analysis. OK, snark is not analysis. Now, that doesn't mean you can't go for the funny. It doesn't mean you can't go for the low hanging fruit here to quote Mike Mayock.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Low hanging fruit. OK.

But you are just recklessly speculating that that's what it could be. I have no idea. Everyone's reading about the financial implications. So Field Gates could void his eleven point two five base salary guarantees from the Raiders. Jeff Darlington jumps in. Probably just some awesome anti aging serum that he must be taking. Right.

Handsome man to handsome man there. Yep. Ian Rappaport, the end of Jimmy Garoppolo era sources confirm he is heading for a two game suspension and release. Ian Rappaport says Jimmy Garoppolo to be released.

Now, it has nothing to do here with his suspension, but if it does, maybe it does. If it voids some guarantees, it makes it easier for them to get out. The Raiders were not going to have Jimmy Garoppolo. I will go back to the trade deadline and I talked to some teams saying, why didn't you just go get Jimmy Garoppolo the deadline?

Right. Or give up anything at the deadline. Isn't Jimmy Garoppolo better than what you have? Like if I'm the Falcons, I go get Jimmy Garoppolo. And then I find a way out of his deal here in the off season.

You could have made a playoff push down the stretch. He's better than Taylor Heineke, who's likely about to get cut. Now do seven million and we'll get into that coming up in a bit here. There are a whole bunch of NFL contracts.

Brad Spielberg is with us in an hour here. He's from PFF knows the salary cap. We're going to work the numbers here because the bears yesterday caught cut Cody white hair, their longtime center, offensive lineman, interior O O L and they cut Eddie Jackson, the center, I'm sorry, the safety former all pro former pro bowler. They are, you know, clearing money, free agency. And there is going to be a long list of notable names between now and the beginning of the new league year on the 13th of March that are going to get cut. Now, some guys may save, may save it and not get cut because when they go to the combine in two weeks, their agents sit down at the front offices with GMs and maybe they work out a redone deal and, and guys don't get cut. But Jimmy Garoppolo is not going to play again for the Raiders. We knew that, but this will truly, I think, lock it in. We'll get to the NFL stuff coming up in a second. Literally the Garoppolo thing happened as we came on the air.

Let's get the phone number out of the way. It is as always 8 4 4 2 0 4 rich. You can watch us. Hopefully you are in the Roku channel here, channel 2 10 on Sirius XM on the Odyssey app or odyssey.com.

Regardless of how you are taking in this television radio multimedia program today, we thank you kindly for it. The biggest story in sports today is not the NBA all star game. It's not the fact that tiger is right on the cut line after blowing it on 18 yesterday at Riviera. And it is going to be an uphill climb today for him to make the cut heading into the Genesis Invitational here in LA, his own tournament for the weekend. Brockman will be going out there later, hopefully with some sunscreen. I'll wear a hat. Obviously I forgot a hat today.

I likely will be going out there later today as well. I think maybe we'll see. The biggest story in sports right now is Kaitlin Clark. Kaitlin Clark, who dropped 49 yesterday and did it a couple of minutes into the game from the timeline.

Just Steph curried it, or I'll say Kaitlin Clark did, pulled up and nailed it from the timeline in transition. So awesome to set the NCAA women's scoring record. She is still close to the all time women's college basketball record because we used to have different governing bodies. She's 80 away from that. She's 98 away from Pete Marovitch friends.

Now Marovitch did it in three years, not four. Kaitlin Clark is selling out every arena she goes to. She is printing money for Fox college basketball on weekends because those numbers are bunkers. She is the draw right now in college sports. Can you name a Duke basketball player? Can you name a UNC basketball player?

How about the orange beating them a couple of nights ago as well. Hey everybody. Yeah. We don't need to hang out and hit threes. We're going to attack the rack like Adrian Audrey used to do.

Anyway, you get my point. She's the biggest thing going on right now. Like what else do you have to say?

Like she's an inspiration, not only for young girls who want to play sports, she's an inspiration for anyone who wants to play basketball. Okay. We agree on that.

Do we all agree on that? She's amazing. She's amazing. She is must see television. Absolutely.

All right. Turn on your TV, Kaitlin Clark, right? Hey, or Kaitlin Clark is coming to town. Hey honey, let's get the kids and let's go down to the arena. Let's hop on your favorite ticketing app. Game time, by the way, we'll read that spot later in an outdoor stadium. Let's go, right?

Because she's coming to town. So I'm leaving NFL total access yesterday after doing that show at NFL network, two shows daily. And I'm, and I'm driving down Prairie to go home, just, you know, LA geography here, driving past the Intuit dome, almost done. The Clippers new arena for next season looks beautiful.

Odd inside though. We'll get to that later, but I'm flipping around on the sports radios here on, on the touch screen on my electric vehicle. And, and I'm flipping through and I don't remember which one it was.

And that's the truth. I'm just flipping through the sports stations are on the top of my presets, but I hit one and this wasn't an angry rant. This wasn't like, you know, veins popping from the host's neck or he wasn't pounding the table, but Kaitlin Clark had just done her thing.

And all I hear as I'm flipping through just one sentence, a snippet here, a snippet there, a snippet there, right? The guy says, you know what? I tell you she's great, but I don't think she could score even like 10 in a G league game. And I go, I mean, come on. Really?

Really? Is that what we're doing? Is that the low hanging fruit lowest common denominator sports talk that we're doing? She's the greatest women's basketball player we've seen.

She just broke the NCAA record. Now, do you want to have a Cheryl Miller debate? Let's do that debate. That's a better debate. You want to do a Lynette Woodward debate? You probably don't remember seeing her play.

I certainly don't right before my time. I couldn't have that debate. And I realized basketball is all about the barbershop debate, whether it's Russell or bird or magic or Michael ready or Kobe or LeBron, right? Those conversations will go on when we are all six feet under.

They will never end. And you throw seven of the conversation and basketball player or players to be named later. Inevitably, they will come down the pike and win championships and they'll be part of that conversation. But are we really at the, at the spot in women's sports right now where you have to throw in the yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but yeah, she's good, but you know, G league, I don't think she can hack it. Yeah, but yeah, that women's softball championship was great, but yeah, you know what?

Let's see her dig in against her oldest Chapman. Yeah, but I mean, just shut up. It is so stupid. It's offensive too. It's offensive to her. It's offensive to all women who play sports, celebrate it, celebrate it for what it is. We live in a day and age and a screaming head world on sports talk where it's gotta be the loudest, the loudest person on air to diminish an accomplishment, right? That's what gets the ratings and the numbers and the clicks and the viral and the like, I'm done with it. Now, as I said, I didn't stop and listen and maybe it was just a throwaway line.

Maybe the host I was listening to and flipping around and caught a snippet of was, was actually pushing back against something somebody else said. I don't know, but all I know is that I'm flipping through the dial and I hear, eh, you know, I don't know if she could even score 10 in a, in a G league game. You know what? I bet you she can, but I don't care if she can.

I don't because I celebrate it for what it is, which is amazing. Tell a story real quick that I've told before. So this goes back a number of years, and sadly, this person is no longer with us, but I used to be that guy who was on the radio as much younger, honestly, immature at the time I was at Fox sports radio.

This was 2005 ish, maybe. Okay. I was old enough to know better, but I was still doing the brash sports talk thing. Okay. And I don't remember who it was. I just don't help me, help me Tennessee women's star. Candace Parker. Thank you. I was drawing a blank there. Okay.

Anyway, long story short, I'm doing a, doing a radio show here in Los Angeles syndicated Fox sports radio. And I was going off about the WNBA. Like no one really watched the WNBA angry, immature Andrew said, you know, it's all propped up by the NBA. No one's ever bought a ticket. They, you know, they hand out all the tickets.

They paper the house. They only have a TV deal because the NBA makes the networks take the WNBA again, young immature Andrew. And there is some truth to that, what I was saying back then, but I didn't mean to say it in such a negative derisive tone. It just, it wasn't necessary because like, who am I tough guy on the radio ripping women's sports.

Anyway, there's a point to the story. I promise I'll get there. My show syndicated, as I said couple hours later, I get a phone call from somebody I know at Fox on the TV side and said, Hey, Pat summit would like your phone number. May I give it to her? And I went, sure. Of course, Pat summit legendary Tennessee coach. We lost unfortunately in 2016, but a hall of Famer legend among legends, right? Legend. We were on in Tennessee. Pat summit heard what I said.

Pat summit. The next morning I get a phone call. Hey, didn't know the number back in the day. Maybe answer it was a Tennessee number. He said, hello, Andrew.

Yes. Pat summit here said, hi, coach. She goes, Hey, I would love to invite you. We are at UCLA tomorrow night. You want to sit on the bench with me? And I said, sure. I go, well, coach, my show's on until seven.

Your game tips at seven. I'm going to be a little late. She goes, don't worry. Seat will be there. Wow. And I said, okay, I'll be there.

My, Oh boy, here it comes. Like anyway, what did you step in anyway? So I get down with my show. I high tail it over the Hill. I get down to Westwood.

I probably double park and I run inside. So she had the seat at the end of the scores table directly next to her. It's not on the bench, but literally directly next to her. Cause she was coaching on the seat at the far end, directly next to the scores table. So I got there maybe five minutes left in the half, sitting there.

I'm like, all right, what's coming anyway? UCLA was pushing for an upset. UCLA was leading at the half Tennessee was either number one or number two at the time, Candace Parker's there. Anyway, we go to the half. She hadn't said a word to me cause I mean, she's coaching the game, the horn sound.

She looks at me and goes, Hey, Pat summit. Hey, coach Andrew, thanks for having me. Hey, you want to come to the locker room? I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Is that okay? It's like, no, no, I was taking the clothes off. Let's go.

I'm like, all right. So I come to the locker room and she gives her halftime speech. Candace Parker says something at halftime. They go back out there and whip UCLA stale and win right. Candace Parker's amazing. And then afterwards you saw the Tennessee team and the UCLA team stand there at the, on the floor, right up against the rail and sign autographs for a half hour of every little girl and fan that had lined up in the aisle to come down to the court.

I then go with Pat summit at the locker room after the game, she gives a post game speech, all of that. And then she said, Hey, let's go step outside and talk. I said, okay.

I'm like, okay, here it comes. And she says to me, Hey, I got like your show. I was listening to you a couple of nights ago. Obviously you figured that out by now. Yes. So I heard you talk a couple of weeks ago about nieces or cousins you had in Chicago, young girls.

I said, yeah. So have they ever gone to a Chicago sky game? I said, no, just, they should because it's an inspiration for them. And these are good role models, right? They may want to play sports. They may want to pursue a career and get a scholarship and get a better education and have a better life because of these girls playing basketball here on the biggest stage and playing basketball in the WNBA. No, could they go compete in the NBA all star game?

No, they couldn't right. Are we going to get great TV ratings? Not necessarily. We're not.

We're just not. Is the WNBA going to sell out everywhere they go? No, but they serve a purpose and it's a good purpose and it's an inspiration and it drives young girls to have a better image and to play sports. And that pays dividends years later. And I went, you know what? You're absolutely right. And I am absolutely wrong. And I meant it. I wasn't just saying to get out of the conversation.

Thank you for being so cool and professional and inviting me the way you did, because this was an amazing experience. Said hi to Candace Parker. Like, I mean, she's a force of nature.

Like, thank you for opening up my eyes. And I have had a different view on it ever since. And Pat Sumba, may she rest in peace. That's why she's a Hall of Famer. She won a lot of games and a lot of championships. Obviously, that's a huge part of it as well.

But as someone willing a teacher to teach, she's awesome. And I've looked at it differently ever since. And it just gets under my skin when I turn on the radio or I turn on the TV and I do and I hear the yeah, but yeah, but I get it.

No one is paying $5,000 to sit courtside at a WNBA game. I get it. But you know what?

Just change your perspective a little bit and see the good in it. And Kaitlyn Clark is the not good great in it. Well beyond good.

Great like Mount Rushmore of it. And the positive influence she has on young women cannot, cannot be put into words. And oh yeah, she's making everyone money too. Everybody because she's filling up arenas.

Anyway, congratulations to Kaitlyn Clark. Did we want to play the SOT? Are we too late on that already? Because I've been talking too much. We'll save it for later. Michael Hoskins. All right, coming up next.

What's more likely? Brockman, are you ready for that? Yeah, let's go.

Okay, we're coming up soon because you just look surprised. It's the Rich Eisen Show. 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 going to 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 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. What goes through your mind when you hear everybody wants one of you? You know, it's flattering and humbling, rich, but it's a result of the success we've had as a team. And you know, it's just like, you know, but it's, but you know what though?

It is true though. Like we got great coaches on our staff. We got good players. It's a, it's a great reflection of our organization and what we've done. And I think, you know, that's the biggest thing. And to see guys that we've worked with over the last couple of years, get opportunities with Matt and with Zach Taylor, you know, they're deserving of it because of what they've done on their own merit. And when they go in and compete for jobs, people say, man, we can see this guy leading our organization.

And, you know, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing those guys thrive. Have you told Kingsbury that he has a job because of you too? No, that's the game. Cliff got his deal on his own. Okay. No, I'm sure he did. I mean, you know, Matt, you, you know, you were, you were, you were knocking on his door too, to join your staff.

I know that. So you, well, he was, you passed him, according to you, told that to Schefter that you totally, what did you do to him? Well, basically, you know, we, he, he obviously has a preexisting relationship with, with Patrick Mahomes.

He was out here doing some things and Cliff was, was having dinner with him and a group of people. And we have a mutual friend and I tricked him into thinking that, you know, he was tampering and that he was going to lose some picks. It was what you changed. Somebody's, somebody's name in your phone to Roger Goodell. Our mutual friend, he, yeah, I couldn't let this go on too long. So our mutual friend, a guy named Chaz Gessner, we put, I put his number in my phone as Roger Goodell and had him send me a text that said, you know, Hey, this is tampering.

You know, better than this. You guys are both, you know, and, and I showed it to Kingsbury and I said, you know, Mr. Goodell, he never texted me. I said, you better call Steve kind of right now. And his face, he was like, he said, I thought I was going to throw up. He's like, that's wrong. I mean, I couldn't let it go on for more than 30 seconds. It was a, it was a good, but a bad joke, man.

I mean, he's like, you ruined dinner, man. That is a great story there. If you're watching the TV side, the Sean McVay, Cliff Kingsbury, Patrick Mahomes, Roger Goodell, fake phone number tampering story, a one for all time. We are at the Rich Eisen show desk, by the way, I am Andrew sitting in for the aforementioned rich. This desk sturdy, strong is furnished by Grainger.

It's a well-made desk with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you call or click Grainger.com or just stop by updating the Jimmy Garoppolo story. He's been suspended officially now from the NFL for two games to open up next season.

The NFL has confirmed that they've done the release here, two games. It is for a PED suspension. Now, look, you could get flagged at a PED suspension, probably for taking those Empic or something. I can't, I'm just making stuff up. I have no idea. It could be anything. It could be a legitimate performance enhancing drug.

It could be hair pills. I have no idea. But the key point here is that Garoppolo was due a roster bonus of roughly 11 million. That was the guarantee on the contract this year. The Raiders are now expected to release him, which was likely the case regardless, but now they're off the hook for the 11. So whatever it is that Garoppolo got flagged for is basically gonna cost him 11 million bucks, 11 million American dollars. Now who signs him knowing that he's going to miss the first two games of the year? It's a good question. I think along with that Brockman, you have to ask, would he have signed somewhere to start?

So does it factor? But it is certainly going to complicate things. Now, that doesn't mean he can't go through training camp. He could play in the entire preseason. He just can't be available for weeks one and two. I mean, at this point, I'll take him in New England to be the backup. Would you or Jayden Daniels or Drake May?

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people think Jimmy Garoppolo's next job would be as a bridge quarterback while you draft somebody. I think he can still play.

I don't think he's gonna take it to the playoffs. But hey, there's a long list of teams last year, like I said, even when Garoppolo got benched and didn't play well. He had a litany of injuries, but didn't play well.

And staying healthy has been a thing for him that they would have mid season gone up. Gimme him. Like before the Browns struck gold with Flacco, Jacoby Brissett, Jimmy Garoppolo, they would have been a better team instead of P.J.

Walker. Go to the Vikings. Josh Dobbs had his three weeks of magic there, but Mike Garoppolo had been a better answer to finish out the entire season if you got him mid season. Garoppolo in Atlanta, better than Taylor Heineke or Desmond Ritter, might have gotten you into the postseason. I mean, you can go on and on and on. Jimmy Garoppolo is still a valuable piece to an NFL roster.

Value in terms of what he gives you on the field, value of what you want to pay him. Those are two different things. But now 11 million, the Raiders are off the hook. Anyway, do we want to play what's more likely now? Brockman, you're making a face. I'm not in charge. Are we doing it? All right, let's do it. Let's do it. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. Hey, guys, what's up? Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you and yours. Everybody good? T.J., you all right?

Chillin, chillin, chillin, chillin. And to you and yours as well. I mean, your lovely partner as well who just texted.

Doc Tufo? I'm good. You're good? You're here. Everybody chime in.

I want to hear everyone's opinion on this, but be brief. Who is more like going to make it back to the Super Bowl next year? 49ers or Chiefs? Chiefs. Chiefs. Wow. Yeah. AFC is better top to bottom.

It is better top to bottom. They had this conversation a little bit on Good Morning Football today where they ranked with their whiteboards, the top five teams to win it all next year. And everyone had the Niners on the list, but it is so hard to get back after losing the previous season. Look at the Eagles this year.

I'm not suggesting that, you know, the Niners are going to face plant the entire second half of the season. Last team to do it. Lost to the Eagles in the 2018.

It is hard to get back after losing. So I would say the Chiefs are more likely, although three peat is even more difficult. It hasn't been done since the Packers in the sixties. Non Super Bowl era. Non Super Bowl era, but they count. And you know, that's a stickler.

That's a something that always grinds my gears to quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy. The NFL is a hundred and four years old. This was Super Bowl 58, right?

There's a big Delta there. 104 years of Super Bowl. I'm sorry, 104 years of the National Football League, 58 Super Bowls. There were championships and hall of famers and games and legends long before we started calling the final game, the Super Bowl.

I digress. 49ers your betting favorite in case anyone cares about that. All right, TJ, what do you think Niners or Chiefs? Well, I mean, it's just, it's been said already the last team to get back after losing. I don't know even the Chiefs when they lost, they didn't get back.

They just did it five years ago. Even when the Chiefs last lost, they didn't get back the next year. It's hard to get back. So I'm going to have to say the Chiefs. All right. Two of the young QB darlings of this past season, who is more likely to go further in the playoffs in 2024, Jordan Love or CJ Stroud. That's a tough one. I'm there is no wrong answer here.

No. And which is part of the fun. Yeah, obviously it's just massive speculation. I'm going to say CJ Stroud, even though, and I never thought I would say this. I now here's why, because the division's tougher in the NFC North. I think that a vision is pretty darn good in the AFC South.

It is a lot better as we sit here today than we did a year ago. Then we thought a year ago, the AFC South, but I'm going to take CJ. Ooh, TJ, he's right about the, the Norris division being tough, but that's being said, I would go Jordan Love and the Packers. I think that I think I said this during the playoffs, Chris, I think the Packers in the next five years are going to win a Superbowl.

And so, and that pains you to say that kills me to say they'll do phone. Can you know either of these guys are all right. All right. How about this team? Most likely to go worse to first next year, when the division Bengals or chargers.

Ooh. So if I say chargers, they're going to win the division, which has the chiefs in it, has the chief said Bengals or chargers, where's the first, I'm going to say the chargers. Here's why. Because the division is better top to bottom the AFC North.

Okay. The division is better top to bottom AFC North. And also the Bengals always start poorly. So I think the Bengals are a playoff team. I think that the division is too good right now for me to simply hand them the division.

I think Jim Harbaugh is going to win coach of the year. Oh, period. And I think that includes, I'm not going to give them a division title right now, but for the interest of this game, I'll take the chargers. TJ thoughts.

This is a good one, man. You know, I didn't think the Bengals played that awful last year when Joe burrow was out. Right. And it kind of made you think, well, man, could you imagine if Browning was nice, if he was actually playing and then you got to chargers and the Harbaugh effect, I think, I think the Bengals division is tougher. So yeah, I think the chargers believe it or not, but their division is also really hard, but let's just say the chargers for, you know, for poops and giggles as they say, I think it's fun. It'd be nice if we could see the lightning bolt this year, right? Show me your lightning bolt. React to me.

All right. You on the five parking lot, Rancho, Kooka, Monga. I'm looking for a golf call. Who's more likely to be the Falcons starting quarterback this fall. Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins or the field of mystery quarterback. I will take, that's a good one too. I don't believe it's going to be cousins.

I will. It's either to me fields or the field, right? Fields or the field. I'm going to say Justin Fields. Justin Fields. Yeah.

That's the most fun scenario. Justin Fields running around the Georgia dome, coming back home at the Georgia dome. Mercedes Benz stadium.

Yep. DJ like fields down there or, you know, somebody we talked yesterday. I would love for the Steelers to do something that's unstealer, like a move for, for one of these quarterbacks. Justin Fields in Pittsburgh. I mean, I think that's a question better served for Steelers fans. I just think that they should do something that they don't normally do, which is make a big move.

That being said, they probably won't. So I'd say fields in Atlanta is probably fields related one. Who's more likely to plank the playoffs. If fields is their quarterback bears, Falcon Steelers. I just made bears Falcon. I say the Falcons. Yeah.

How about this though? I have an ESPN.com article up right now as they go through their experts with their round table, just, you know, a bunch of dudes trying to make predictions for next year. So it's Matt Bowen. It's Mike clay, the fantasy writers, Jeremy Fowler, Dan Graziano, Matt Miller, Jordan Reed, Mike Tannenbaum, our friend, Lindsay theory.

These are all friends. Field Yates, Seth, Walter, Seth, Walter's the analytics guy, right? He says the Browns should trade for Justin Fields said Deshaun Watson is sunk cost. He's going to get injured anyway. And why not have Justin Fields as your backup style quarterback, same style.

Yes and no. I mean, Sean saw a far better passer. Sure.

But that's interesting. I don't know that I buy it because Justin would have to be willing to sit there and be the number two extension, right? They have far bigger needs than to flip a valuable second round pick for Justin Fields.

You couldn't give up a two. If you keep Flacco for all that, right? Flacco is not going back there. I mean, Andrew Berry says they would welcome him back and they would, but like if you're Joe Flacco, easy thing to say, if Flacco, I'm going to get paid somewhere. Go ahead.

All right, two more. Who's more likely to be the second position drafted in the first round in a couple of months? Wide receiver tackle.

That's a good one. It's going to, I would say wide receiver, but nothing would surprise me. The issue here is both of those positions in the first round tackle and wide receiver have amazing depth, right? Much like in what year did Jedrick Wills come out? 2020 when it was Wills and Worfs and Makai Becton and all those tackles at the top of the draft. Andrew Thomas was in that draft.

It's like, I just need one of these guys right now. You certainly had preferences. Some people thought Worfs couldn't play left. He didn't play left until this year.

Why do I draft a right tackle that high? Some people thought Becton was too big and you know, he couldn't stay in shape. Those people were kind of right.

Some people didn't love Wills. He's just the next big Alabama tackle coming up, but either way, right? You had all those guys at the top.

This year is similar with Alt and Olofishonou and Fuwaga from Oregon State, who's a right tackle but could kick inside, could play left. You have all those guys. And then you have Marvin Harrison, Roma Dunze, Malik Nabors, Keon Coleman.

How fast is he going to run? By the way, Bucky Brooks coming up later. You have all those guys. I would say I'm going to go Marvin Harrison because I think he is the first non quarterback taken. But I will tell you that as we get closer to April 25th, Roma Dunze is going to be in the conversation potentially passing Marvin Harrison. You will hear that. I still think Harrison goes ahead of him, but there will be chatter after we leave Indianapolis.

Some people like Roma Dunze. Wow. All right.

Last one. And this is fun. This is just for us.

This is fun just for us. Okay. Who's the more likely person on this set to enjoy their baseball summer the most?

Andrew, TJ or myself. Okay. Obviously, that's Guardians, Mets, Red Sox. Sorry. Yankees don't matter.

Who is more likely? Did you hear Brockman tossing it to you that Netflix is doing a Red Sox show, but it doesn't come out until next year, right? It's not going to be a as the season goes hard, hard knocks, which to me is disappointing. Why would I want to watch a baseball show a year later?

That's just me. But I'm sure it'll be good. I'm glad we're focused on that and not signing free agents.

Right. So I don't think it's going to be the Red Sox. No, we're going to be terrible. I think the Guardians have potential here. New manager. I have no idea what Steven votes going to be like.

I have no idea. The Guardians need young hitters and whether it's a rule five guy or whether it's a Brian Rochio to actually hit, they need that to happen for once. Okay. We Steven Kwan can't happen once every ten years. You need somebody from your farm system. Kyle Manzardo, who obviously came over in the Savale trade, somebody to actually hit Jose Ramirez.

Best player nobody knows about Jose Ramirez Hall of Fame track. No one knows. Okay. He got anxious, baby. I'm anxious about anxious about the Guardians. As for the Mets, are they are they going to cheat and put guys on the injured list this year? Like, what are they going to do?

I have no idea. TJ, your thoughts. So, Chris, you're saying Alonzo's back. But David Stearns, the team president, says Adil is not likely for him until his free agency.

It sounds crazy. What are you guys doing? How am I going to enjoy my summer knowing that my favorite baseball player, Pete Alonzo, could be mere months away from getting traded back, either getting traded or just going to the other side of another borough and suiting up for them to town.

How am I supposed to enjoy my base? None of us. None of us are going to have a great summer. I plan to have a great summer.

The Guardians will give me anxiety every day. And that's the thing about baseball, too. I know everyone has felt this.

Like, TJ, you and me are our football seasons ended the same weekend. Yes. Right.

As Browns and Cowboys fans. And then you sit there. I don't know if you do this, but I have a self-loathing then wash over my body.

Right. Where it's why did I expend this much emotional energy actually time as well? Because I just you know, I'm always it's not just emotional energy. It's energy with your favorite team. Like, what have I done?

Like, what could I have done better with my life the last six months? Baseball takes a different form because it is part of your life for three hours every single day. Every single day.

Like the hours of it is the background noise in my home for six bleeping months. And if your baseball team stinks, it makes for a really long summer. We say that all the time when your team's out of it at the beginning of a long summer.

May or June. I'm going to say the Guardians. I'm going to say it's going to be the Guardians. Right. I'm going to go out there. Okay. It's going to be the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

That literally is the center of the baseball universe this year. I'm wishing that into existence. I am. Okay. I might believe it might. Maybe I believe it, but I'm wishing it in to existence.

All right. Right around the corner. Who is going to get cut in the next few weeks?

It is cut season in the NFL. We have some names that is straight ahead. Which day America in the morning, the podcast available wherever you listen.

Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying the show on Google podcasts? You should know that the Google podcast app is going away this spring.

That's right. Going away, gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy the show elsewhere though. Try out Spotify or Amazon music, or maybe tune in is more your style.

Whatever app you switched to. Be sure to follow. So you've never missed the next episode and thanks for listening wherever you listen. What's great about it is, you know, we do a lot of NFL NBA shows on family feud for celebrity.

It's great, man. When regular people discover that celebrities don't know nothing, they don't. You think cause a person is famous. They know more. They actually know less than anybody else. Cause they're exposed to less. Rich people don't know how much milk costs. You get out of touch, man. And when they come on celebrity family feud, you find out how out of touch they are.

They don't know anything, man. Like one of the questions for the NFL team was, and we were asking the guy running back for the Packers. Uh, can't think of his name, but the question was complete the sentence strip. And you spoke, you know, like strip mall strips, strips, poker strips, sack, strip sack. I said, name, complete the word strip. He said, per strip per I went, hold on, man. I quit breathing. How is that your point of reference to complete the word strip per P R that was it. I was done. That was one of my great moments.

And again, you just walk away and you just, you realize that in the moment, like, okay, this is it. And I'm going to let this thing go after the show. He asked me, he said, Steve, is there any way we can edit that? I said, sir, we're not editing that out. Matter of fact, we're going to embellish it.

You're going to say per so loud. I have a really bad habit of playing only to the TV audience on this show and reacting to the clips we have on the Roku channel, the radio audience. For those who don't know, I do this every time. We just had a thing here with an old Superbowl clip with rich and the great Steve Harvey stopped me. If I've told you this before, I once sat across the aisle on a plane on a flight with Steve Harvey and he had his assistant with him who was dressed exactly like Steve Harvey with the hat and the outrageous suit. Like that's an idea, right? Like you must dress if you have an assistant exactly like your boss, like go to white Lotus to Portia.

What if she dressed exactly like what's what's Portia anyway, I digress like Jennifer Coolidge, Jennifer Coolidge, Portia. You have to leave anyway. 844-204 Rich, let's take some calls. Let's go to I don't bring this up, right? You have it. You can look at it and see if we could just go right up top. No, no, no.

But I don't hit the button. Oh no. AJ in Michigan. What's up? What's going on, man? Hey, how we doing? Good. What do you say? I want to throw a take out there about the Bears draft.

Throw it out, AJ. What if the Bears take Williams at one and I'd call up New England or somebody and offer fields and my nine pick and maybe even a third rounder and try to get Barb Harrison Jr. Throw him out there side by side with DJ Moore and you got Caleb Williams and no no excuses.

Then you got him some weapons. I like the idea of trading Justin Fields to the Patriots. I don't like the idea, just me, of trading nine.

I would trade Justin Fields for a two, right? And then I have one, nine, and what would it be? Thirty-five. I'd rather have one, nine, and thirty-five than one and three. That's just me.

Yeah. You don't want to give him Barb Harrison Jr. I think that'd be a great, great thing for him on his rookie season. I totally agree, but I would also not mind taking Malik neighbors at nine and go Caleb Williams, Malik neighbors. AJ, thanks for the call, man.

And then something at thirty-five, like an offensive lineman at, right? Something there. Just me, potentially.

But hey, we got three months to do this, right? Joe is in Florida. What's up, Joe? Joe, what's going on? Hello? Hello.

Hey, what's going on? Hey, man, I was wondering what y'all think about the Bucks. We all think about what they're going to do at Baker. And if Mike Evans decides to bounce on us and decide to go to Dallas or something and play with CB Lamb. I wouldn't blame Mike Evans if he did.

But Joe, I'll say this. I spoke to Baker last, what day was it? Wednesday, I think.

Maybe last Monday, whatever it was. I spoke to Baker last week and he said that, and this is a quote, we want to get the band back together. And he pounded the table for Mike Evans. I think he also would love to see, and Joe, thanks for the call. He would also love to see what free agency looks like, but he and his wife Emily are expecting.

There's a little girl coming in April. I think Tampa fits him well, like on so many levels. And I think he really wants to be back there.

I'm not saying there's a hometown discount. Baker's made plenty of money off the field. I think Baker again, no hometown discount wants to stay there and wants to have Mike Evans with him. He said when I was interviewing him that, quote, Mike Evans deserves to be a buck for life, end quote.

Yeah, we had Baker on in our Super Bowl show, said the same thing, even though off air, I was really lobbying him to come to New England. What do you say to that? He just kind of, he was very polite about it. He gave me a lot of laughs and was like, yeah, they got a lot of my old guys. And I was like, what do you think? And then he just, he kind of walked away and didn't want on the top. I have somewhere else to be.

I don't want to get accused of tampering, but I was doing my best. I've interviewed Baker a whole bunch. My favorite part of the Baker interview last time, I don't remember how the Browns came up, but I said, hey, can we just, oh, he said, I said, you're rooting against the Chiefs, right?

Because because Rashard Higgins should have gotten the flag when Sorenson hit him on the helmet, the helmet at the end of the second quarter, reaching for the pylon. And you guys got screwed then. Right. And he just kind of smiled and nodded.

I'm like, okay, man, I love you again. Baker's Baker's good people, man. Yeah.

You know, it's funny with him. I didn't like to pick. I'll say this, but the second the pick was made, I wanted Sam Darnold.

Okay. I would have been wrong as well. Josh Allen should have been the pick or Lamar Jackson. Josh Allen went seven.

You're playing the results. Of course. So Lamar Jackson went 32, but Baker turned out to play well.

All right. When healthy Baker has been great. Baker Baker brought life back to the building. They made the playoffs, won a playoff game. I maintained Rashard Higgins should have drawn a flag there on when Sorenson hit him helmet to helmet, regardless, regardless. Could have won in Kansas City. Mahomes is hurt. Should have won like the what ifs in that game, by the way, if the Browns had pulled that off, but I digress. So I wasn't a fan of the pick when it was made.

But then maybe a month after that, a couple of weeks after that, I went to Cleveland for NFL network and we did a show from Browns camp, mini camp and talk to Baker off air for about 15 minutes standing off to the side of the field. And after about two minutes, I went, Nah, I'm I'm good. This guy's this guy's cool.

He's not who you think he is. Yeah, totally. Like totally gets it. Had a conversation about anything other than football for 15 minutes. And I remember my brother, big Browns fan season ticket holder.

When I got done with that conversation, I texted my brother. I'm like, they're going to be fine. Like, he's he's cool. And Baker is not necessarily what you see in the commercials. I'll just say that way. All right.

NFL cap and casualties coming up. 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 all respect each other. I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.