Gerry Dulac: Steelers Are Committed To Kenny Pickett

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See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. Coming up, Steelers Radio Network host, Jerry Dulak. Host of NBC's Steeler No Deal Island, Joe Manganiello. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat-in studio with Chris Mannix, who just leaves us after we chopped up the NBA All-Star game. It spat it out, quite frankly. Soup to nuts, NBA. It didn't taste great. It was less filling. It didn't taste great. Not a great NBA All-Star game, to say the least. The weekend was somewhat to be desired, to say the least. We'll talk about Sabrina versus Steph and the genius of that event and how watching it was, in my household, ruined.

And we'll discuss that later on in this program. Overreaction Monday, later on as well. Joe Manganiello is going to be joining us in about an hour plus time. He's the host of NBC's Deal or No Deal Island. Available the next day on Peacock, which means, guess what?

You can see it right here on Roku, through this here portal. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. We'll take your phone calls as well. Jerry Dulak of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette will be joining us on this program in about 20 minutes time because I saw his report over the weekend and I'm like, I need Jerry to come and explain to me what's going on in Pittsburgh because, just like the rest of us, I woke up on Sunday saying, what the hell am I going to do today? How many people did that this weekend?

Everybody. I'm walking the two lady dogs. I'm walking Halo and Dylan. And I'm pointing that out just to show you how useful I am around the house. That you're a dog walker? No, I'm sorry. Did I say that? I may not. No, no, no. Don't hurt yourself. Patting yourself on the back.

I love walking my dogs. Oh, is that what it is? Did I not say that first? No.

Oh, okay. No, you know, I'm back. But I'm walking the dogs and I'm thinking to myself, one week ago at this time I was in the fourth hour of an 18 o'clock freedom show.

So much television. Did you wake up super early just by your internal alarm clock? Of course. Well, not 4, not 3.30, 4 in the morning. Okay. No.

That's what I'm saying. At least you got through that. It was great.

Actually sat in bed, had a cup of coffee, and then I'm like, what am I doing today? I failed to say, wait, man, I just, for whatever reason, I went on YouTube and I watched George Foreman and Muhammad Ali fight. Did you really? Whoa. I don't even know why. That's old school. I just decided that's what I was going to do.

Okay. And I rewatched that fight and Ali is the greatest man. Well, that's why he's called that. I was like at the edge of the couch watching. This happened like 50 years ago.

Well, I guess then the exact opposite in terms of the current sports day would be me being focused on who's the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers this fall. I went to Riviera yesterday and it was amazing. Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah, it was fantastic. It wasn't raining? No, it did not rain yesterday.

It was cloudy and cool. I see you saw the final round of the Genesis. Watching the final round at Dekimatsuyama. Started what, 62? Lit up the course, 62.

Wow. Tiger dropped out, correct? Yeah, Tiger had a case of the flu. No, he didn't have a case of the flu.

Sorry. Influenza. That's what he called it. And withdrew on Friday after seven holes. That's what he called it as if World War I was being fought at the same time.

Who calls it influenza? Tiger was playing Friday afternoon and Andrew Siciliano, guest hostess, we were going over together to watch Tiger play his Friday round. Yeah. As we're walking in, alert, Tiger has withdrawn.

What? Did you heel turn and leave? Oh, you didn't even make it in? No, no, I stayed. You didn't even make it in?

Because I knew it happened pretty early. We were there to kind of watch his back nine on Friday at RIV and he withdrew after seven. Influenza. I think the last one who said I'm withdrawing with influenza was Bagger Vance. Francis Ouimé I think once withdrew with influenza. Did someone else have dysentery?

Exactly. Scurvy. I'm Braveheart once withdrew with scurvy.

You're just listing Oregon Trail? I don't know. I'm just trying to come up with old sounding afflictions. Dysentery.

Who the hell is Tim Horton? I had a leave Tuesday show. Scarlet Fever?

I would have called it influenza, but I really couldn't say very much. At any rate, what am I doing Sunday? I'm just reading about the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback situation because now as we're entering that first week of post, what the hell are we going to do with our lives of us football folk? Guys, there's only 50 weeks left. Sir, the combine is around the corner. I'm telling you, tomorrow is when it really starts when teams can start franchise tagging people.

And it gives you some sense of their intentions. How they're going to attack this non-playing season because guess what, gents? We are less than a month away from free agency in the new league year beginning and then next week we're going to be in the combine and I am going to be hearing a whole bunch of rumor and innuendo in my ear gate, to use the Michael Irvin phrase. Well, that's always one of the best parts of the week, you doing the top five of things you heard coming back from Indy. Me saying, don't sleep on Tom Brady being retired. Kind of lit things up. But apparently that was basically going to happen.

Or he wasn't coming back. Can we name our new band, Rumor and Innuendo? We can't. Rumor and Innuendo.

I think that would be good. Or Influenza Withdrawal. Who honestly, like who wrote Tiger's press release? Like somebody who's 120 years old?

Did his mom write it? Old Jen Stones. Old Jen Viruses. Come on, the band's going through a lot. I know. You know what I mean? Come on. At any rate. Also the way he said it, due to illness, which we now know is influenza.

Influenza. Okay. It was a bummer not to see Tiger. That was what I was getting at.

I understand. I mean, this is what, you know, you want to watch Tiger Woods in a golf tournament when there's no NFL going on. So, Jerry Dulak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

My former employer. He wrote an article that said, let's zoom with Jerry. Steeler's positional analysis is the headline.

They could have dressed that up. Colon, Kenny Pickett stands alone in QB room, which means he is the only one currently on the roster. Because they released Mitchell Trubisky. Honestly, what the day after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl with the guy the Bears didn't draft instead of him. And then Mason Rudolph's free agent.

So the only one that's under contract for the 2024 season is Kenny Pickett. That's it. And him with his Hamburger Helper gloves. That's it. It's all I got. What?

It's the truth. So he looks like with those white gloves on his hands. But does Hamburger Helper only have three fingers? No. He's got five. Stop it.

Hamburger Helper still has bigger hands than Kenny Pickett. Stop it. That's what I read in the report.

That's a cold. I had to pretend to realize this. Okay. Not everything needs to take the hammer and hit the nail on the head. All right?

Sorry. So according to Jerry, you know, this is the wild thing here is that there is a conversation in the building right now that it could be Rudolph or it could be they re-sign him. And the one thing it's not going to be is anybody outside of the building, quote unquote, this is the one that he dropped. This is the second to last paragraph, the penultimate paragraph.

It starts with this. In any event, the Steelers are not interested in bringing in a quarterback who wants to be a starter. That would include Justin Fields and Kirk Cousins and probably even Russell Wilson, who has a connection with the Steelers. They're committed to giving Pickett a third season to see if he's got to do more than just win a playoff game, something they haven't done in a franchise record seven years.

Interesting that the name there, and I'm sure he just, you know, didn't throw it in there. Tannehill is out there. And the reason why you might be like, what Rich, why would you even bring up Tannehill? Arthur Smith's the new offensive coordinator and Arthur Smith has coordinated a one-seeded offense with Ryan Tannehill and a big bruising running back like, say, Najee Harris. And if anybody's out there going, why wouldn't the Steelers do their due diligence to go get somebody and bring that individual in? It's because, well, they're the Steelers and you know who knows that? Rod Woodson.

At the Super Bowl, we had Rod as one of our first guests and he was dropping the breadcrumbs. I shouldn't be surprised that they're not interested in bringing a quarterback who wants to be a starter. This is what he had to say when I asked him, who's going to be the starting quarterback for the Steelers this fall? Whoever they draft.

Is that right? I don't think their starting quarterback is in the roster. I just don't think he's there. I mean, Pitt got hurt, you thought you didn't see enough of him, you were already talking about letting somebody develop, right? I just don't know if he's that guy. Like if they would have took Dan Marino years ago, I probably wouldn't say anything today about them taking a Pitt quarterback. I just don't know if the quarterback of the future is there. I just don't know.

What about if Justin Fields is available because the Bears draft, would you go there? They normally don't trade. The seniors don't do that. That's just not who they are. Well maybe it's time to be that way. I would be really surprised if they did something of that nature. That's not who they are as an organization.

Would that be a good idea? I think it would be a really good idea if you get Kirk Cousins, who's been there, who's done it. He's an older guy. He knows how to play. He knows how to distribute the football. He can throw the football down the field.

He has some great little social media content with his little five chains and all that. So I mean, he fits into the black and gold era. So I wouldn't be surprised if they can do that more than trading for Fields. And Jerry Dulack says that's not going to happen.

Either one. I don't know if he thought about drafting kids just because we were surrounded by an absolute Nickelodeon lunacy on that day. Nickelodeon lunacy?

You could hear the kids screaming in the background. But they draft 20th. Is that who? My guy, JJ McCarthy? Pennix?

McCarthy's going to be gone by then. You think so? Bo Nix? Why would they start from scratch?

That's Bo Nix range. But why would they start from scratch? Because the other two guys stink. Well the other guy is maybe Mason Rudolph.

They kind of finished up strong. But I don't, again, the number of times that I cape for the organization and the coach and if you're Arthur Smith, wouldn't you want to put, I guess maybe you could say, let's take Pickett and put him in the hands of somebody who's actually a bona fide real deal top flight offensive coordinator as opposed to three years with Big Ben's buddy Randy Finkner and then Matt Kanner. Those have been their OCs the last six years. So they just plug in their usual with somebody who's now unusually interested to give you some dynamic offense compared to your previous two guys. You think it's that Arthur realizes he's going to run the ball so much it doesn't matter who the quarterback is? But the quarterback runs with him. He can run the quarterback. That's what Tannehill was his secret sauce. Don't forget, I mean everybody thinks it's Derrick Henry every single time from inside the tent. Tannehill used to take it.

And he'd take it in the chops too. Rich, Joe Flacco had more touchdown passes this year with Cleveland. I'm with you.

And Kenny Pickett in his career. I get it. And this is the sort of stuff like maybe the Steelers that's why the Steelers are like fans are like get out of here with this stuff. I don't know. I don't think Justin Fields is going to be that expensive either.

I don't. But when Justin Fields you've got to make a decision on a fifth year option and then so you're trading for somebody new who's more expensive than drafting somebody new or sticking with Pickett and then hopping on somebody who's what? Like a Kyle Allen? You want to you can't who else you're not you're going to bring in somebody who doesn't want to be a starter.

So Pickett gets concussed and goes down again. That's your guy. Or do you just say Mason Rudolph look pretty damn good. He's been here the whole time.

Let's go. Players apparently dig him. Teammates dig him. But if you can get Kirk Cousins, why wouldn't you go in the other direction? Well, Rudolph would be a fourth of the cost of Kirk probably right.

Kirk's going to be 40 plus million dollars a year. This is a fascinating conversation with Deshaun Watson coming back and Joe Burrow coming back and the Ravens needing to come back from what they can with what what this season. And they might have Derrick Henry next year who the Ravens? I still think TJ's team should just say damn the torpedoes and do it already.

They had their chance and all their dates coming up in two weeks, bro. They had the chance at the trade that the trade the I know and now they can just sign him. Jerry Jones is money. He's figuring out his cap.

He's coming. It's what you said. He's got a lot. You said money. I'm like, he's got a lot of it.

Jerry Jones. Oh, I know. But the question is, is why are they still like, I guess they're just going to keep zigging. There's no zag. There's just no zag. And man, there's a ton of Steeler fans saying, when are we zagging?

Because this zig is not put a playoff win in the case for seven years. And going into next year, you would have them fourth in the AFC North, right? Yeah. Yeah. You had to think about that. I didn't. It's like I said last week, Rich.

I just love them, man. I know. Go the Costanza route. You've been doing this. The fan base, as you well know, doesn't seem that what they've been doing has been working to their liking. So do something different. Well, the ultimate do something different would be getting a new coach.

Well, they're not going to do that. But you can switch up what's going on within the team. You know what?

Don't get me in this place again. You know how I feel about the coach. Guy coaches his ass off. Let's just get some points on the friggin board and let T.J. Go to work.

And the reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year go to work. We hang out with Rich. Oh, he's a good people. He's a good dude in here. That's a big man.

All right. Giant. I want to thank the people for the Steelers talk eight four four two oh four rich number to dial overreaction Monday coming up. And then there's the Sabrina versus Steph conversation I want to have eight four four two oh four rich number to dial Jerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

All right, Jerry, I want answers. Let's talk game time tickets, people. It's the fast and easy way to buy tickets for events near you. Right now, all users get one hundred dollars off when they buy a big game ticket with code Vegas one hundred game time is the ticketing app that gives you complete peace of mind with your purchase. I get to see the view from my seat before I buy with game time tickets. I also have all in prices with game time tickets shows you your total upfront before you buy. Take the guesswork right out of buying tickets with game time. Right now, all game time users get one hundred dollars off a big game ticket with code Vegas one hundred restrictions apply. Visit gametime.co for terms. Just download the game time app and use code vegas one hundred for one hundred dollars off a big game ticket. Or if you're not going to the game, use code eisen for twenty dollars off your first purchase.

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That's code Monday 50 at factormeals.com slash Monday 50 to get 50 percent off your first box and two free wellness shots per box while your subscription is active. Trust me, you'll love factor. Do it now. So what you do after you watch the fight between Foreman and Muhammad Ali with the rest of your day? Give me the rest of your day. Your first Sunday without football. What's the rest of your day do after that?

After that, I mean, I'm trying to blink after I walk the dogs. I went to Taylor's basketball game, OK? She came off the bench both times, played starter's minutes off the bench. Clay Thompson. Ask. Well, I was explaining to Cooper, who turned 13 last Thursday, that James Harden started his career as a six man.

He did not know that information. So I watched her. She made her all star team, by the way. Nice. Congrats. And then I watched Cooper play tennis in a. Play doubles and then singles in a tournament.

It's grueling. And between Susie and I, we bought him a sweat headband. Oh, nice.

Oh, yeah. Bjorn Borg style. Well, I would go Federer.

I would go Federer. He's a lefty, right? He serves lefty, plays righty.

And then when he can't make some of his backhands, he will flip from one hand to the other and hit a forehand. Wow. It's amazing. I don't know whose child he is.

Susie would say he's hers. That's interesting. Yeah, man. Great. So that's what I did. I watched some of All Fears when I got back from Riviera.

OK. And then I had the all star game on the small TV, so I didn't have to listen to. OK. You didn't pick up any influenza while you were at Riviera, did you? I don't think so.

OK. Got a lot of steps in. How about Rubella? Rubella. Oh, measles. Mumps. Did you pick up the mumps?

Keep going. Smallpox. Smallpox. There's nothing funny about smallpox, guys. A smallpox outbreak in 2024 would be terrible. Hashtag.

Let's see. No, I'm good. No influenza.

Honestly, nobody in Tiger's group said, let's just call it the flu. Reprocy? Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger, with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. As I mentioned just moments ago, my first Sunday without National Football League football in season started with me just reading, like, what football can I read? And this man's article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback situation. I mean, to say it's filled with nuggets is an understatement.

And I think it's an affront to nuggets. Jerry Dulak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Zooming with us here on this Monday show. How are you, Jerry? Rich, I am good. And I spent my first Sunday without NFL football since August.

Let's see. I had to do a two hour radio show at the Pittsburgh Car Show. I watched Riviera and then I binge continued binge watching Suits. So that was my day without NFL football. Jerry, you're a Suits guy.

You're a Suits guy. Oh, big time. I mean, I can't stop watching the darn thing. I bet I started, I don't know, maybe last week, two weeks ago, and I'm up to season six already. And each season has like, what, 15 episodes.

Jerry, wow. You're not binge watching. You're just, you're just, you're suiting up.

Right, exactly. I'm swallowing every episode I can as fast as I can. Okay.

Look at you, Jerry, fantastic. So I don't even know where to start with your story. So let's just jump right into it here. Kenny Pickett, the only quarterback currently in the quarterback room. You said though, there is quote unquote, some internal division that maybe Mason Rudolph should be the starter.

What can you tell us about that? Well, well, I think that's among the players, um, because when you go back to the end of the season and you have players like the receivers, such as Deontay Johnson, um, such as George Pickens acknowledging their support of Mason Rudolph, not taking a poll, but coming out and saying, um, that the offense effectively has worked better with Mason Rudolph, which of course it has, um, it has enabled those two guys. Of course, they're probably going to say that to make a bit more, to have more catches and make more big plays. And the other thing about that too, rich is the day after the season, after they lost in Buffalo two days after, because the players had a day off, I went up to Isaac Siamalo, who the guard, who doesn't say a whole lot, he's not a talkative guy. And I asked him, I said, what does this team need to do to take the next step?

Meaning win a playoff game and maybe advance a little something they haven't done in seven years. Um, first thing he said without hesitation was we need to figure out the quarterback situation. And that right there tells you there is some division internally amongst the players that they feel, okay, not that they're down on Kenny picket, but you saw what Mason Rudolph did.

And what is it? What is there to figure out? Well, maybe amongst the players, there's something needs to be figured out. No, I can't sit here and give you a straw poll as to what the percentage is, but obviously there are starters on that offense who feel that the, you know, what they saw with the way the offense performed under Mason Rudolph, that, you know, quite possibly that could be the way to go. Now we'll see what will happen, of course, because Mason Rudolph is an unrestricted free agent. So it's not in the management coaching level.

I'm not so sure about that either. Um, I, you know, I, I will say this after the Cleveland game, which if you, if you recall, that was the, it was the third of that three game losing streak, the embarrassing losses to Arizona and new England back to back to win teams. And then they go up to Cleveland and play poorly.

They lost like 13, 10. The offense had just been performing like that basically for two and a half seasons. They had considered that it was discussed about benching Kenny picket at that point because they just needed to do something after those three losses. Well, what ended up happening is that's when Matt Canada was then fired. And so when Kenny picket got hurt, look, if this were, if that would have been September, October, Kenny picket would have gone back into the lineup because he's their number one quarterback. But it was late.

It was mid to late December. And all of a sudden the first two games that Mason Rudolph plays, they put up 34 and 31 points and the offense all of a sudden looks like an NFL offense, which it really hadn't since a, since Ben Roethlisberger left. So they had no other choice but to play Mason Rudolph and he kept performing and they kept winning, uh, right into the post season. And so when, you know, now all of a sudden what they were hoping to be and hoping to look like they suddenly were, and the fact that they were winning and got into the post season because of that, well, I mean, you know, those players want to win and they saw the guy, they saw not only the guy who was winning because Kenny picket does have a winning record as a starter, he's 14 and 10 as a starter, but it's the way the offense looked and performed and was energized under Mason Rudolph. And I'm, I, you know, I'm not going to sit here and limit it to just say, um, uh, that it was amongst the players, but look, the coaching staff, the front office, they see what Mason Rudolph did and they're not going to turn a blind eye to it. Jerry Dulack of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette here on the Rich Eisen show. Let me get to, I mean, man, this is the lead as far as I'm concerned, not to tell you how to do your job. You've been outstanding for as long as you've done it, Jerry, but in the penultimate paragraph, you write in any event, this side here, the Steelers are not interested in bringing in a quarterback who wants to be a starter and, and listen, I know the Steelers have a certain set way of doing things, but why not? Why, why wouldn't they?

Rich, because they're committed to Kenny picket. Now, let me say this, nothing of course is going to surprise me. And I say that because when Justin Fields was coming out and at the time I said this at the time that if Justin Fields were on the board, when the Steelers pick, which of course he wasn't and probably wasn't going to be, right. I think the Steelers were picking 23rd and he went what eighth or sixth or whatever he went. I said, if he were on the board and the Steelers had the opportunity, they would take Justin Fields.

I was told this by a coach over any other player. And I said, and I mentioned whoever else was in that class and he said, I'm just telling you, if Justin Fields is on the board, they're going to take him. And the point of that is that's how much they really liked Justin Fields. So if all of a sudden they brought in Justin Fields, I wouldn't be shocked.

I'd be a little mildly surprised. And I say that because they are committed to one more year with Kenny picket. And that being said, I can't imagine Justin Fields wants to go to a situation where he is not the entrenched number one quarterback.

Why would he want to do that? I don't even think he'd want to go somewhere where there would be a competition. But that aside, their commitment for this third year is Kenny picket. And again, he is 14 and 10 as a starter.

You go back to the end of his rookie year, to the beginning of last season, during that stretch, he was 12 and five. That's not bad. That's a playoff team right there. I don't think they're not ready to give up on Kenny picket.

And I hear you. But we just saw a Super Bowl in which we are all freshly reminded we're rent payers in Patrick Mahomes' world. So you're going to need to have somebody at the position who can go point for point with him. And Brock Purdy, I understand, damn near pulled it off as well. And maybe picket can have that sort of accuracy and using his legs in the same way that Purdy can.

I totally get that. But when you're talking about Justin Fields, he could be available as soon as, what, this point next month entirely possible for a second or a third round draft choice, potentially, because the Bears might just need to trade him, quite frankly. And you brought in Arthur Smith. Why wouldn't he be a perfect quarterback for something that Arthur Smith can do? Running, passing, creating a situation for a Steelers offense that we haven't seen since obviously Big Ben in his running around days or even Cordell, right?

I mean, you could really start slashing it up with him, Jerry, no? You know, Rich, if you had more time on your first Sunday with NFL football yesterday, you could have gone back maybe six more days. And I brought up that very same point that Patrick Mahomes reminded everyone. Not that anybody needed to be reminded, but you need that quarterback if you want to win the Super Bowl. Let's face it, go back to 2001 and almost without fail, look at who won the Super Bowl, the quarterbacks. Quarterbacks who were either in the Hall of Fame or going to be in the Hall of Fame with very few exceptions. You know, Nick Foles, of course, you can debate Joe Flacco. But nonetheless, they were all marquee elite quarterbacks. And yeah, when you have that guy, if you don't have that guy, you're not going to get there for the most part. The odds show that, the percentages. And I'm not, I don't think, do I think Kenny Pickett is that guy?

No, I don't. I think Kenny Pickett is a nice quarterback. Do I think he's an elite quarterback? I didn't think that when he came out.

Now, obviously, he could prove me otherwise. But I just believe that whatever it is that the Steelers believed in Kenny Pickett two years ago is unchanged. And so I don't see them taking that on, if anything. I see them bringing back, well, I know they want to bring back Mason Rudolph, and he is not averse to coming back. He's also not averse to maybe exploring free agency, which is why if the Steelers want him back, they better move swiftly. But you know, what they saw with Mason Rudolph was a guy who can win games for him. Is he an elite quarterback?

No, I don't think so either. But I just don't think they're ready to give up on Kenny Pickett. But that's why this year is a big year for them, Rich. You know, they'll give these guys quarterbacks, especially three years. And if they don't believe he's that guy after three years, then they'll kind of move on for him.

Let's face it. Kenny Pickett isn't five and 11 or six and 12 as a starter. He is 14 and 10. And that's, you know, counting that ugly stretch when he started as a rookie. So he has proven that, you know, he was seven and four when he got hurt.

So he has proven that he can win games for him. Any sense what was the framework of hiring Arthur Smith with this being the most important question as to who's going to be the quarterback? Yeah, well, I will say this about Arthur Smith. He fits the exact kind of framework of what Mike Tomlin said he wanted with an offensive coordinator, a guy with NFL experience who has run an NFL offense. And his previous two coordinators, Randy Fittner and Matt Kanter, were internal promotions who had never run an NFL offense. Now, Randy Fittner didn't do a bad job. And of course, we know how much Matt Kanter struggled in that job.

So what he described that he wanted is exactly what he did hiring. And, you know, everybody talks about, you know, the two years that he was a coordinator at Tennessee. They were highly successful. And everybody wants to say, yeah, he had Derrick Henry and he was a 2000 yard runner. Well, look, I'm not going to compare Najee Harris to Derrick Henry, but he is that type of back. And my point is, Ryan Tannehill, in that second year in that offense, had the best year of his career. He was re-energized and rejuvenated at 35 touchdowns, I think only seven picks, 3,800 passing yards in a run-oriented offense. I mean, he made Ryan Tannehill look the best he's ever been.

No doubt. And I'm not saying that's going to happen with Kenny Pickett, but I like the hire I did. And maybe Tannehill would be a guy that, if they do stick with Pickett, that's the guy that they bring in for the quarterback. Right.

If Mason Rudolph leaves, he is that, the type of quarterback, a veteran with proven NFL starts who they might bring in, even though he is 36 years old, I believe. Again, but I'm, Jerry, not a lot of these names are going to excite Steeler fans. I'll be straight up with you. You know that. You're exactly right.

You're exactly right. And you know, they want to, you know, look, Kirk Cousins, that's not going to happen. But Justin Fields, for the reasons I stated earlier, I don't believe they are interested in doing that.

But if they did, I would only hark back to the way Mike Tomlin and the Steelers felt about him when he was coming up. All right. One last one for you, Jerry Dulak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, from your article.

And by the way, thank you for writing this. There's so much that jumped out at me. Guys, I don't know if you heard this one, but did somebody tell Trubisky after he was signed when Pickett got drafted, hey, why don't you text him a welcome to the team? That really happened? It not only really happened. And if you noticed, I think in that sentence, in that paragraph, I said, among other things, and it was probably, you know, based on what I was told by two people who would know, the other part of that message was probably more surprising to me. But the mere fact that he was texted, you know, we're talking one month after they jumped in the free agency and signed him immediately to be that quarterback, that when they draft Kenny Pickett, he receives a message from somebody who would matter to say, what? Okay, now we have Kenny Pickett.

Could you text him and congratulate him? And no wonder, no wonder Mitch Trubisky spent the next four or five months looking over his shoulder as to when all that was going to come down. To me, to do that was kind of not just, it was tone deaf. And believe me, that did happen, yes.

So while we're serving tea and maybe spilling, what's the among other things that they asked Trubisky to do? Well, I didn't put it into paper, Rich, and on your highly wildly popular show that is viewed by many, I don't think I should then say what it is here. Maybe when I run into you and you ask me again or we see each other, I'll tell you, and believe me, you won't believe it when I tell you. Okay, Jerry. Well, what if I said I can hook you up in a conversation with one of the stars of Suits, Jerry? What if I could do that? There you go.

Well, Meghan Markle's out, of course, we know that's not going to happen. And you know, maybe Donna, that might work, you might be able to convince me that. Jerry Dulock, I never thought I would ever say these words to you, but I once took a Pilates class with Donna, so it's possible. Come on, come on, really?

For a man who has rubbed elbows with the greatest, that is your moment at the shine with the greatest. Okay, take a look at our new graphic for you at the bottom of the screen. Jerry Dulock, confirmed Suits guy is what it says at the bottom of the screen right now. They're doing a reboot and it's coming back. Oh, really? What, Suits LA, right? Without Meghan Markle. Yeah, they're coming back.

Exactly. I might have to put that Suits reference in my Twitter bio. Hey, well, hold on a second now though, Jerry.

Next time we can put this all together and cut me out, even though I'd like to be your middleman. Cameron Hayward, Cameron Hayward received the Walter Payton Man of the Year award from Prince Harry. So gushed all over him. I don't know how that happened, but Prince Harry gave Cam Hayward his Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Maybe Cam could call Prince Harry to tell Meghan Markle to give Jerry Dulock a call.

How about that? Well, I will tell you, Rich, when he won that award, you know, hey, look, I don't get into, okay, TJ Watt didn't win Defensive Player of the Year. Believe me, it didn't ruin my appetite or keep me up at night. But I was never more thrilled for a guy because Cam is such a giant as a person and as a player. And I go back to when I started in a business, I covered pit football and I covered his dad to the point that his dad even invited me to their wedding. And Cam Hayward Ironhead is one of my favorite people of all time. And to see that tribute that they had at the NFL Honors and for Cam to win that award after being a quote finalist six times, I couldn't have been more thrilled for a person in all my life. And I texted Cam that night and the kind of guy he is, he got back to me the next day and said, thank you. And like I said, it was just a wonderful, wonderful honor for him and I couldn't have been more thrilled. He is good people. You are correct, sir.

Yes, he is. Jerry, thanks again. I appreciate your suits binging, but I appreciate the time. That's coming up later. Don't worry. We'll chat again soon.

We'll see you soon. Thanks, Jerry. Yeah. Good. Good chat. Right back at you. Jerry, do like everybody. Great chat. Wow.

That was fun. That would be the only person not watching suits. Una's not walking through that door. Kirk Cousins not walking through that door. Pittsburgh. Maybe Justin Fields will.

Man, would that light things up? Their second round pick is number 51. That gets it done, right? 51? That's a, that's a, that's a meaty choice, brother. A second and a fourth.

Get that deal done. I don't know. Not if you love Kenny Pickett and you're like, let's go.

But as I said, the words Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Ryan Tannehill are the three names that Steeler fans do not want to hear right now. You just put me to sleep. Did I? Sleep take?

It's not what you picked up at the golf course, is it? No. Okay, good.

No influenza. All right, let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen Show. 844-204 Rich. Number to dial.

Sabrina versus Steph. My two cents on that. And also overreaction Monday with Joe Manganiello coming up. Looking for an assist with your credit card but can't get ahold of anyone? Luckily, with 24-7 US-based live customer service from Discover, everyone has the option to talk to a real person any time, day or night. Yep, you heard that right. You can talk to a real human in customer service any time. Sounds like a real game changer if you ask us. Make the right call and get the service you deserve with Discover. Limitations apply.

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The podcast available wherever you listen. You're 6'7", correct? Correct. Is that what you were?

Correct. You were born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Born and raised. So did you ever try football? Did anybody ever throw you out there on the field and as a tight end or something like that? Oh, yes. Yes.

Been being from Tuscaloosa, you know, it was, you know, we see football day in and day out. So as a child, yeah, you want to do what you see. And that was my goal and plans, you know, until I was in college and I had a daughter that was on the way that was born with spina bifida. So, you know, it's just like to say, like, for me, it's like sometimes we have plans because God has other plans for you.

And those plans that I had set for myself, he's seen it in another light, a different way. And I found one of my purpose, you know, at that point in time, my life coming up, having a child that was born with a disorder, you know, it was very tough. It was difficult being that you young yourself and you only pray for a healthy child.

And then when you don't get that, you got to you got to you got to you got to set responsibilities and do what you got to do as a as a human being in general and as a father. You know, I love being a father. You know, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be in boxing when, you know, I'll probably be, you know, in football or basketball or something like that. But having her, she changed my world completely. And and I'm forever grateful for her because I wouldn't be in this position. I probably wouldn't be here. Who knows where I'd be, you know, without my children and their blessings.

Many people say when you have kids and not playing that, you know, there's a mistake, but no child is a mistake, you know, and I just love being a father is number one for me. You know, even my two year olds understand boxing. All my kids will be at the fight.

Yeah. And my two year olds say, I want to go see Daddy Boom Boom, YouTube dot com slash Rich Eisen Show for all of our archives right here on the program. All right, we're back here with our radio audience and our Roku channel audience together. Terzo and I'll all rise. How are you, Terzo? I'm doing well, my dude. I'm happy to see you back in the chair, man.

Thanks, pal. Well, I like to see that. I like to be seen that way as well.

So, Rich, my first Sunday without football was spent also walking the dog. We played D&D and kind of funny that you have Joe coming on today because I actually introduced one of the characters he created in D&D for our campaign, Arcanda Cruel, very cool character. And so I find it a little I find it a little a little enjoyable that that was something that came about yesterday. He's as big a D&D guy as I know. He's he's all about the 90 sided die or whatever it is, a D20, a D20, D20, pardon me. And I can't I can't say how much I like hearing the interview with Chris Mannix talking about LeBron playing, you know, kind of into his mid 40s.

A funny, funny story. I was a junior in high school when he was a senior and I actually got to meet him at a at a basketball tournament in Las Vegas. It was the Reebok big time tournament. And he obviously and his team, they were in a whole different class than us. But it was one of the cooler moments that I had as a kid.

I still have his autograph to this day, so I really hope that he plays that long. Me too. Thanks for the call, Terrizo.

Appreciate it. It's Terrizo in Iowa where Kaitlin Clark is not great because she hasn't won a championship. Listen, it wasn't a great weekend for people who I like watching on television. Like watching Jay Williams, I like watching Kenny Smith. But Jay Williams saying Kaitlin Clark isn't great yet because she hasn't won a championship. And so I guess Larry Bird wasn't a great college player, right? We go out on the list of people who aren't great players because they didn't win a championship. And by the way, Iowa, not exactly the hotbed of women's college basketball prior to Kaitlin Clark's arrival there.

And I didn't get that one. And I can't wait to see more Kaitlin Clark. This tournament, I will be watching Iowa tournament games and I will be following her career. By the way, does anybody shoot a basketball like Kaitlin Clark and have the rim swallow it up?

Right? Like, I don't know what it is with her. Is it the rotation, the spin where the ball just hits the air and just sucks right in?

Like it's a gravitational pull. She's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

And then to say, well, I don't consider her great until she wins a championship, which is what does that even mean? What does that even? I don't know. Okay.

And then laugh. Can I ask you a question? Sure. Is anyone ever in any argument about who is the GOAT in anything? No one ever gets credit for being great unless they've won a championship. I mean, if that were the case, that wasn't the case, then all these quarterback conversations, we'd be talking about Dan Marino, who in my opinion, yeah, but no one ever when you do your Mount Rushmore's, when you do your greatest quarterbacks, Dan Marino was never listed in there.

Why? Because he never won a Super Bowl. But he's on somebody's. But I mean, I understand these people saying she can't be considered the greatest because no one ever gets that title until you win a championship. She is a great player, though. That's ridiculous. I mean, I don't think you can be in the all time greatest category without and I'm not making these rules.

You just seem like no, I understood going on for generations. I think if I'm not mistaken, Jay said she's not great. Yeah. Not great. Yeah.

I mean, he compared her to Diana Taurasi, who, you know, three time championship be honest to everyone. I hear you. But I mean, high school, too. It's just not some some things don't need to be parsed. It's what I'm saying, and that leads me to the three point shootout between Steph Curry and Sabrina Yonescu.

And in my household, where my daughter Taylor is an all star for her current rec league or her team, she plays for the Liberty. Hey, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, you laugh, sir. You laugh yesterday. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. Hold on. Hold on. You laugh, sir.

But yesterday, before their game, when they all huddled up, and instead of saying Liberty on three, they sang that theme song and I'm like, OK, 10 year old girls will do very catchy sort of music. I did laugh. I was. I know that. But you said that it's funny.

You think like a child is basically what I'm saying. You're not just figuring this out, you knew this. So at any rate, in our household, it's funny that I turn to Susie, I'm like, did you hear what they just did to break the huddle? That's hilarious. So I guess they'll bring an emo out next for halftime. And a guy with a fake mustache. And Doug. Doug. I hope Doug doesn't show up.

That would be creepy. Liberty, Liberty. OK, bottom line is this. So Sabrina is a New York Liberty. My daughter's a Liberty, you know, like. And she's getting into basketball more than ever. So and obviously she knows who Steph Curry is and she knows who Sabrina is. So we're going to watch this thing.

And sure enough, we're watching this thing. And thank goodness Taylor's not picking up on some of this stuff, because I have no idea why in the moment that the competition was over after Sabrina cleans out the first rack perfectly and puts up twenty six points, which was enough to make the men's actual three point shooting contest final. Right.

Right. That Steph when Steph puts up twenty nine, this now sparks a debate as to why Sabrina didn't shoot from the WNBA three point line. As opposed to where she shot it from the NBA three point line, because the whole point of this is it's about shooting and skill. And that's what it's about. And how if you have a great shot like Sabrina Janescu, then gender doesn't matter. It's about skill and shooting and guts and determination and focus.

That's what it's about. Not like, well, she used this ball and he used that ball and she shot she should have shot from this point. And if you make that point once, that's, you know, annoying enough, but they just kept going on.

Him and Reggie Miller start sparking a conversation. Well, there's a men's team, a women's team in golf. You're missing the point. And we were just sitting there going, what's the matter with people who I adore normally listening to? Like, why are we this is not the real estate. To use this super tweeted out, you know, why essentially like you needed a woman on the microphone here because there's nuance and backstory.

And part of the backstory is, you know, Sabrina told the story that she wanted to play with boys because she could be, she was good back when she was a kid and she was told that she should go home and play with her dolls or something like that. And even one point Kenny Smith goes and at the very end of this moment that I'm trying to enjoy with my daughter and in peace. And instead there's some sort of alpha male argument that I would want to step away from at the bar. If I was hearing it between two guys at a bar, I'd step away and go down at the other end of the bar to avoid this. I'm subjected to this nonsensical, missing the complete point of this moment that is the pinnacle of the weekend, as it turned out, I'm like, what is going on here?

I'm subjected to this and I didn't quite understand it. And then so Kenny at the end goes, ends this whole thing with, oh, by the way, and I tell my daughters, it's okay to play with dolls. What did that even mean? Because it's not like Sabrina said, Hey, I don't want to play with dolls. I want to play with the boys.

She could do both because she's that good. What does that even mean? I tell my daughter, like, it's not like she's telling girls it's bad to play with dolls.

She's telling girls, if you're good enough, go kick the boy's ass. I don't know what the hell happened there. So like I said, I love Kenny. That was just disappointing.

Say the least. It's kind of a rough weekend for Kenny and Reggie. It's just how I looked at it.

I think Kenny, maybe I'm looking too deep. I think Kenny was trying to make a point that, like, she usually shoots from that line and if she had shot from that line, she would have won. I think that's where he was going. But in my opinion, she was jarring it from the NBA. I'm just saying like, this is how I heard it.

But in my opinion, Reggie and trying to defend it kind of made it worse. Well, because it made it a conversation. Reggie said something about, oh, you want her to just go play with dolls, making it seem like that's what Kenny was saying. And I don't think that's what he meant personally.

But look, I don't know. It was just an alpha male conversation we didn't need at the moment. In the same way, and I'll point it out too, remember when Jim Gray asked Pete Rose, in Pete's moment, like back at a stadium, questions like, you know, questions that didn't meet the moment. Right.

It had nothing to do with what's actually happening. It's just like, that's for another time. This is a celebration of these two outstanding shooters coming together for a once kind of in a lifetime event. Well, hopefully it's not. Hopefully, we'll do this more. It seems like it's going to keep going. Someone had a great idea.

Let's have Steph at the WNBA All-Star. That's what Manic said. Yeah, hold on.

Yeah, it's great. Great idea. Let's keep going. Let's keep it going.

Let's add more people and get, you know, add Caitlin, add Dame. Let's keep it going. Yeah. And then just enjoy the competition. How about that? I did. Up until, you know, I was looking for the mute button.

Straight up hour three 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 pairs 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's wrong? 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. And I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.