Tom Pelissero: All Options Are On The Table For The Broncos

This is The Rich Eisen Show. You're not going to like it, but the call on the ice was correct.

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Elbows, feeling them, you touched them, we in the head mentally, physically, emotionally. This is part of the reason why he's the coach right now. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, co-host of Six Trophies Podcast. Jason Concepcion, Academy Award nominated actor Jeffrey Wright. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number one of our Friday show is on the air. In other words, it's the start. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show 844204, Rich is the number to tell. Hey, we're coming up on 10 years, I'm trying to find out different ways to start the show every single day. You know what I'm saying?

You like saying that kind of? I don't know. Welcome to our show.

844204, Rich, number to dial today. I'm fired up about our guest list, Tommy P. Tom Pelissero is going to join us in about 20 minutes time and I'm demanding answers from him. I want answers. It's the Friday before the combine. Like what?

What kind of answers? Tom Pelissero, my colleague from NFL Network is going to be joining us. Jason Concepcion, the co-host of Six Trophies with Jason Concepcion and Chase Orano is here. Diehard Nick fan, great to chat with him.

As the NBA second half of the season is tipped off. And lots to talk about with him in studio in hour number two and then in hour number three in studio. Gentlemen, we have an Oscar nominee for best actor in our midst later on.

And he's a big time Nets fan and Washington football fan. He fights for old D.C. And he is fantastic in the movie American Fiction. Jeffrey Wright will be here in studio. A lot of fans might know him from Westworld.

And he is spectacular and well deserving of an Oscar nomination for best actor. He's been here once before, but it's been several years. Can't wait to see him here on this Friday show, which means it's a what's more likely Friday on the Rich Eisen Show. Good stuff. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. Hello, Rich. What's up? D.J.

Mikey Diaz and Deez Nuts. Good to see you. How are you? Good, good, good. Everything's taken care of.

Your boat's taken care of. You're not going to like it. OK, very good. That's all right.

You're not going to like it. I'm good. That's that's very good.

That's a new drop that I was going to set up later on, but go ahead and play it whenever you want. Good to see you, T.J. Jefferson. What's going on?

How are you? Not much going on other than the Jefferson Cleaners T-shirt because we're moving on up. Oh, I like that.

Let's go. I've never seen that. You know, that is awesome.

I like to break out something new every now and then. You know, George Jefferson ran a fantastic dry cleaning business back in the day. Seven of them, to be honest. You know, just a poor sharecropper son just trying to make it. And he moved to a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Make it in the mean streets of Manhattan. Very good. Good to see you, T.J. Jefferson. Good to see you. So listen, when I said before that I want answers from Tom Palacero, I mean.

But like Chris asked, what type of answers? I understand that. We're in this part of the calendar year in the sports world, OK, where the NBA just came back from its All-Star break. The NHL is going through its season. Soon we'll be focusing on those eighth and final playoff spots and whether the Toronto Maple Leafs will break hearts again and things of that nature.

Who will hoist the cup? All that sort of stuff. NCAA tournaments around the corner. We're we're we're getting to see a lot of Major League Baseball players in spring training. Yep.

More than pitchers and catchers have reported. I see through what I'm saying. I see. We'll discuss that later. OK. But in the NFL world, we're removed from the Super Bowl now.

A couple of weekends, the combines around the corner, free agencies right around the corner there. And we're in that period where there are so many questions and you're just not going to get answers. No matter how much you try, no matter how many newsmakers who perhaps have the answers are placed in front of you.

For instance, go figure. Chicago Bears decided to have a press conference yesterday to introduce their new offensive coordinator. And it was led by their head coach. Eberfluss, Matt Eberfluss took no questions.

No questions. Just went up there, read a statement and confirmed he is calling the plays defensively. And here is our new offensive coordinator.

Shane Walter. Here he is. And they brought him out. And he's the guy who the Seahawks once upon a time hired, just like it seems everybody else from the Rams coaching staff.

And when he showed up, this was. The time when Geno Smith ascended one comeback player of the year because he was coming back from lack of opportunities. And Shane Waldron was, as we all might imagine, let go when Pete Carroll was let go.

And the Chicago Bears hire him to be the offensive coordinator with the first overall pick sitting out there. And all of us wondering, as we have all week, this has been the week of Justin Fields unfollowing the Bears on Instagram. People noticing that him telling the St. Brown brothers, I unfollowed them just because I'm going on vacation and the algorithm keeps feeding me stuff about my future.

And it's totally up in the air. And I just want to have a complete total break from this algorithm. What a 21st century story. The rare guy to admit it that he unfollowed.

I unfollowed my team because of this crazy ass algorithm. I can't escape it. And then here comes Shane Waldron stepping up to the podium. It's just boom, boom, boom. And Shane Waldron asked questions that are just absolutely infused with who the hell are you drafting first overall? That's all that you're trying to figure out any way, shape or form, because I've asked a number of folks here on this program, how does the hiring of Shane Waldron potentially inform us about what the Bears are going to do with Justin Fields or their first overall pick? And nobody knows.

So this was the back and forth between the media and Shane Waldron yesterday. Having a system that's that's speaking the same language, that's multiple in its ways that it can attack a defense. You know, then you start to get the players and you start to know what your personnel is going to look like for that season. And then you build it around the players skill set. And I think, you know, for me, that's been a part of my core beliefs. And I feel like it's worked out well with the different quarterbacks that I've had a chance to be around over the past several years. Is it safe to say this is an offense, though, whether it's Justin or a college quarterback to be named later, that could work for either one of them?

Yeah, I totally believe that. You know, I think in the past experiences, like I said, with different quarterbacks, different experience levels, whether I was in the coordinator role or in a role as a position coach, you know, I felt that way. I felt different quarterbacks have been able to step foot into the system, be able to learn it quickly, you know, and that starts with us being able to teach it in a good and efficient manner where they understand it and then being able to go. And again, it just because each guy is going to have a different skill set.

So what direction does it go? You know, the players really take ownership and control of that. Whoever asked the question about college quarterback to be named later is very funny. You know what this reminds me of because everything goes back to pop culture for me, as you know, and Seinfeld. Do you remember the episode where Kramer got a new phone number and it was only one number off from movie phone? Yeah. Back in the day when people used to call a number to find out movie times in their area.

And welcome, George winds up calling and Kramer just gives up and just decides to provide the service when people call the wrong number. And it's so it's like. The media here is like you are selecting. Caleb Williams, and they're like, well, no, you can't say that.

Oh, you are. You are selecting Justin Fields or keeping no. And it's just we can't tell you that.

Yeah. And this is the media's just want to say, well, why don't you just tell us the name of the quarterback you are selecting? Can you please give us an answer? Because, well, listen, he's not going to sit there and go, well, my system absolutely, as you saw with Gina Smith, is more attuned to somebody who's less green and has more veteran experience. No offensive coordinator.

Well, my scheme is going to be very difficult for a player who has not played football at all to be named later to pick up like. So they tried another one. God, by the way, excellent job by these reporters that were there. Have you spoken to Justin Fields? Oh, have you connected with them?

And this is what he had to say. Have you had a chance to talk to Justin Fields yet? And are there challenges maybe that come with trying to build that relationship with his sort of uncertain future? I think whether it's with him or all these guys, you know, part of it's the rules because, you know, you can't go out and meet with the guys right now.

And, you know, we're in that set. But, you know, trying to reach out to each guy and, you know, give that introduction. And then knowing that the real, like I said, the real relationships, the real conversations are in the future right here in the near future as we get ready for this thing.

But, you know, leaving it at that with all these guys. And like I said, I can't wait to get to meet all the guys in person, get a chance to talk with them more. So have you talked to him yet or no? Yeah, we've exchanged messages there.

Exchanged messages. Well, here's the thing, you know, the new collective, it's not so new anymore, collective bargaining agreement. Because back when I first started with NFL Network, the voluntary activities were actually communicated by management as mandatory. When players didn't show up for voluntary stuff, it was really pressure packed for these guys. And coaches made it feel like it may be voluntary, but you better be here. So they eventually just codified that after the season's over, you can't have a guy, you can't put a playbook in their hands. And you can't have a guy in person in your facility.

I imagine you can in terms of, you know, rehabbing. But in terms of just talking about plays and getting you in a playbook, nuh-uh. You can't have contact with him.

So that's what he's referring to there about the rules. So then finally it's like, have you texted with a guy? Of course he has. What do you think the new OC is not going to reach out to Justin Fields? And we're desperate in the media. We want an answer and we're just not going to get it for a while.

Because guess what? They are going to have Caleb Williams in a meeting room in Indianapolis next week. They're going to put him on a grease board and they're going to say, let's talk X's and O's. And they're going to see how they vibe right from get-go. And then they are going to have the kitten for a visit.

There's no question in my mind. They are going to show him Hallis Hall. They're going to show him everything. They are going to have him in. They are going to kick tires in a way that they did not last year.

Unless somebody offers them the Godfather offer that our friend Mike Tannenbaum threw out on ESPN, the Giants, two firsts, two seconds, and Kayvon Thibodeau to move up from six to one this year. And then suddenly those tickets, those plane tickets for Caleb to show up in Hallis Hall might be like, where did those go? I don't know where those are. You can just go visit Giordano's on your own. Geno's East. I was a Geno's East guy when I was at Northwestern. Rich, what if he would have said when they asked had he talked to Justin, would have been like, well, we tried to DM him, but he unfollowed us.

So the message won't go through. So after a while, it's just now time to just say, let's talk Caleb Williams. Just throw that at Shane Waldron. What about Caleb?

Hit it. What are your early impressions of Caleb Williams and who he is as a prospect? I think, you know, from afar, you know, mainly my impression of a lot of these quarterbacks, all the college quarterbacks was, you know, what an unbelievable college season we just came, you know, off of with these guys making some of these dynamic plays down the stretch, you know, whether it was leading into the championship games or the bowl games leading up to that the regular season. Obviously, for me, being out on the West Coast, get a little bit of more exposure to the Pac-12. I guess the Pac-12 still last year, you know, as that thing evolves every day in my mind. But so, you know, just in terms of that, it's been more of, you know, generalities, seeing all these guys perform at a high level under the national spotlight, especially there's multiple quarterbacks that have already performed on the highest stage, you know, in big games, and obviously he's one of them.

And I'm excited to really, you know, when we start this afternoon with some of our draft process, then the combine kicks off, you know, to me that's the chance to really dive into this and get going. He's not going to get an answer. He said a lot of nothing there. Did he say he watched the games?

Did he say, well, I was out there on the West Coast, so I saw a lot of the games. Oh, my goodness gracious. Go ahead, Mike. Hit it. Hit it. You got it? You don't have it?

You don't have it? Oh, I froze. I froze.

What were they really thinking? All right, everybody. Listen. I just got hired. The HC came up here.

He didn't answer questions. He just threw me out here. I'm excited to be here, all right? What do you want from me? I'm going to be part of this conversation. You think I'm going to be the one to make this decision around here?

You don't think that's going to go straight up to the McCaskey family, where it involves Justin Fields? What do you want from me? What do you want me to say? My scheme's more for a veteran instead of a kid?

Because what the hell does that mean? I should be able to scheme for anybody. I'm Shane Waldron on offensive coordinating league. Will you please just leave me alone so I can get the hell out of here? I watch a lot of football. You don't think I want to be the coach for Caleb Williams?

You don't think I have watched this guy and watched him light it up? You don't think that I don't know that this is the golden friggin' ticket? If he shows up here and that it's going to be my ass on the griddle if he suddenly can't figure stuff out? Because it sure ain't going to be Ava Flus. Because he's just a defensive play caller and he's handing this off to me and I get... you get the drift.

We're not getting answers. You know how I feel. I'll just say this though. And then we'll get to Tommy P. Let me say this. The more I think about it, the more I think that if Ryan Pol sits back while he's doing his due diligence and let everybody else meet Caleb Williams too Bears aren't the only one to meet Caleb Williams this coming week.

Nuh-uh. And let everyone else check him out. Let the Washington commanders have him in. Let the Giants have him in. Let the Patriots have him in. Let the Falcons have him in. Let the Broncos have him in. Sit back and see who does want to put the gun next to the contract and say either your first round draft choices or we'll blow your brains out with Caleb Williams ourselves.

We'll be on this table. And then they figure out let's keep Justin Fields. Everybody loves him. We love him. We know him. We've got 39 games with him. And then we're going to build around him and we are going to dominate as well. Because you're going to get two outstanding kids in the top ten of the draft because you're not moving out of the top ten. The Broncos would have to literally give up the state of Colorado to move up from 12 to 1 and they don't have the capital as they're still digging out from the Russell Wilson stuff, right?

So the more I think of it, I'm wondering do they stand pat to? You know how I've been sitting here saying it's a no-brainer. I think Caleb Williams is the guy. Then I see Kurt Warner tweeting out this morning and I, as you know, love this man and I listen to him. But put up on the screen, Kurt's getting ready for the combine. And he tweeted out, I'll be the first to admit I'm not a college football expert. I really only watch intently when preparing for combine and draft.

But try to do a piece on relatable throws top guys made that they will be asked to make at combine. After six games of two of top guys, I saw slants, outs and two in-routes. I'm sure there are.

Just hard to believe it's taking me so much time to find them. That's where my perspective is coming from, this A.M. And his perspective is he can't figure out. He cannot figure out how you can make an evaluation on these kids because of what he's seeing on tape is just not enough of kids thinking for themselves. He just can't see it.

He wrote also, I know many of you love college football, but as I start to dive into these college QBs, it's hard for me to even watch very few plays on schedule. The past concepts are a mess most of the time. They run the same play over and over. A million bubble screens. Can't find many concepts that translate to the next level. And then people are asked to figure out how good they are will be at the next level.

Nearly impossible in my mind. For me, C.J. Stroud is a great example. Obviously really good in college.

And Ohio State runs more pro-style concepts than most. But they didn't ask him to process and get the ball out as quickly as he did last year in Houston. So I had no idea he would be so good at processing so fast. He's better in the NFL than what we got to see in college.

But many times you just don't know until you know. And as you heard, one of the two people he saw film of, top two guys. One of them has got to be Caleb Williams. Wow.

Justin, you've seen 39 games of them. Food for thought, man. And I can't wait to go to the combine next week and hear exactly what people are thinking.

Because they will let you know. Let's take a break. Tom Pelissero will be joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Tommy Peake, we want answers from him too. Do you think he's going to give them to us?

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America in the morning. The podcast available wherever you listen. All right, Tom Palacios will join us momentarily on the program. But do you see what I mean? Like, yeah, if Kurt's looking at this concept and he's seen a whole bunch of stuff that. Does not show processing. And he's got concerns about it.

Because that's the way you're going to have to work in the next level. How can you tell? Certainly, by the way, if the way you can tell processing. Is with these tests that no one is going to take anymore because C.J.

Stroud's was released last year and it did not. Speak well of him. And certainly how valid are those tests for processing when he turned out to be one of the most dynamite processors in the history of rookie quarterbacking? Right. Right.

So at least you got thirty nine games on him. Or do you just not overthink it and go, that kid's so special. Let's worry about the processing later. We'll teach it. We do this every year on the show. I want to I love giving you an idea of pulling back the curtain on the evaluation and the tape grinding and the hammering and the rumor mongering and the conversations.

Because it just heat up and it's only going to get hotter. Yeah. Bears and Panthers made the trade on March 10th last year. But right now, I think they saw enough and I think they they had no intention of going in the rookie quarterback market last year. Do you think if there's a trade, it'll be before or after then? I think after they got to have Caleb in unless somebody just says, screw it and offers them an insane package that Ryan plays for fields. It's a trade for fields.

I mean, to either either guy. I see. Yeah.

I don't know. That's why we got Tom Pelsera coming up. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grange has the right product for you.

Call clickgrange.com or just stop by. And it's Friday spot here on the Rich Eisen Show. My colleague from the NFL Network, NFL Media Group, the great Tom Pelsera. How are you, Tommy P? Doing fantastic, Rich.

What's up to my boys in the studio? Hey, you're such a great. You're such a panderer, Tom. We're friends, Rich. That's the check.

Keeps clearing. That's our guy. That's a pandering. Come on. All right.

The audacity download. Sorry. Yeah.

Apologize. All right, Tom. The story yesterday that the NFL PA released a list of agents and who they represent of the kids at the combine and coming into the draft did not feature the name Caleb Williams on it. And it appears he is going to enter the combine at the very least, unrepresented by a league certified agent.

What's your reporting on this, Tom? I would say, Rich, anybody who had kind of done research on Caleb Williams throughout the fall and knew where his head is at would not have been surprised by that. There was never an intention for him to hire an agent, not for a lack of trying by the agent community. But, you know, Caleb Williams is, I think, in a lot of ways emblematic of the modern college athlete where, remember, he's had NIL deals. He's had, you know, been able to be paid at the college level.

He was brought up to be a star quarterback. He's had different people in his life. His dad certainly has been very involved as well. You know, his dad is kind of a disruptor in the business community.

And so he has a lot of experience on doing different sorts of things. I don't think that anybody really ever believed Caleb Williams was going to hire an agent. He's not the first quarterback to forego an agent during the pre-draft process. Lamar Jackson is a recent famous example of it. Certainly, you know, I think that you can make a fair case that there's a lot of different things an agent would do for you besides the contract, which, yes, those are slotted.

Those are your arguing over offset language and bonus structure and things like that that might be relatively minor. There's a lot of other value that a good agent can bring you throughout the course of the process. Caleb's opting not to go that direction. He does have other people involved who are very experienced, either on the media relations side or on the legal side of things. So he's not, it's not as if Caleb Williams is going through this process and he's going to be sitting at the table crunching a 50-page contract here when it comes down to actually doing the deal. He is going to have help, but he's opting not to have an agent, which, again, I don't think should surprise anybody.

But it's one of the many nuances of Caleb Williams as an NFL prospect that teams like anybody else who's doing something different are going to be sifting through. So what, all right, let me figure this out here. So discard the conversation. Well, he just doesn't want to pay two to three, one, two, three percent to somebody when he feels he's going to be number one overall. And he's got other people who will help with offset language and things of that nature. When you say disruptor, you know, are you saying essentially he's doing this just to do because it's different? He doesn't want to conform? I kind of don't understand that.

Tom? Well, again, I was referring to his dad being sort of a disruptor in the business community. His dad has, you know, for a good chunk of Caleb's life, been a significant force in terms of not so much the teaching of football, but just everything else. You know, it's guiding Caleb's career from Oklahoma to USC and now into the NFL.

Again, there's other people that are involved in this process. You know, I think that for Caleb and again, for a lot of young athletes coming up, they're not the guys coming up from 20 years ago. They're not the ones who lived in a world where if you transferred, you had to sit out in a world where if you got any money to play the game, it was in an envelope that was glad handed you by a booster after the game. I mean, this is, you know, college football is now pro football. And so guys are coming in with a completely different viewpoint of, well, I operated this way in college. Why would I have to operate differently in the NFL? Then on top of that, the other factor with Caleb Williams is, you know, he's that rare prospect that maybe doesn't need to play the game like some other people. Again, there are plenty of NFL people and I've got text messages from them who don't like anything that's different. Certainly not with the top prospect and they're going to have these kind of predisposed opinions about anybody who does not follow the normal process. But let's be honest, no matter what Caleb Williams says or does in the coming couple of months here, he's probably still going number one. And there's a limited number of teams, you know, even if the Bears were willing to move, that would be able to move up into that spot.

So do you need to play ball with every single team? I mean, last year, Bryce Young canceled his visits late in the process. You know, for years, some of the big agencies didn't have their quarterbacks throw at the combine. These are not unusual that certain quarterback prospects do things differently. I think the difference with Caleb is he's been in such a spotlight for so long. He is viewed as one of those, again, opinions vary among different scouts and coaches, but he's viewed as one of those can't miss types of prospects here. There is an intense spotlight on him and anything he does throughout the course of the process that is not the way that other quarterbacks have done it is going to be picked apart. Well, then where does maybe trying to influence who chooses him fall into that, right?

Normally, that's where an agent might be able to work behind the scenes and try and influence. What if he doesn't want to go to Chicago? Because if you're saying that, you know, the father is a disruptor and he's the one who basically came out and told not basically told GQ in September, hey, might be better off in this day and age for player to go undrafted because he could choose wherever he wants to go. Like the draft is kind of, you know, anti player in that regard.

And that's an argument you can make, too. Right. So that's the question is what, what, what's your tea leaf reading of how Williams is going to approach the draft process based on just the small pieces of information we're trying to pull from right now?

I would say at this point, Rich, and we're what, two months and like four days out from the NFL draft, two months and two days somewhere around there. There's been no communication from Caleb Williams and his team to clubs that I want to go to X or I'm going to refuse to go to Y. That has not happened. That could still happen throughout the course of the process. It's like any player could try to manipulate the process in that regard. I mean, there's different circumstances through the years of agents actively trying not to get their clients drafted by certain teams or not get drafted at all because they felt like it was better off if they didn't end up doing that.

But it's normally not the number one pick. You're talking about John Elway, you're talking about Eli Manning, you're talking about a few occasions through history. Caleb Williams quite possibly would have the power to try to engineer something like that. What you're referring to too, Rich, I think is some of the complications when you don't have a certified agent because you don't want to Ken Francis yourself. If you remember the name Ken Francis, he was the inventor of the entire gym who was also working with Lamar Jackson at various points and reached out to teams trying to get them to make an offer sheet. The NFL sent a memo to all the teams saying, hey, you can't talk to this guy, Ken Francis, the Florida man who invented this gymnast suitcase and is trying to negotiate a $50 million a year deal for Lamar.

You can't talk to him. It would be the same thing. Now, your parents are different because remember, Lamar's mom was a big factor in it. So hypothetically, if Caleb wanted his dad to call around to teams, that's more of a gray area and it's probably permissible. But again, that has not happened at this point. Carl Williams is not operating like that.

It doesn't mean that something can't evolve over the next couple of months here. But I would anticipate that Caleb Williams will be in Indianapolis next week and teams will have an opportunity to have him answer some of those questions himself. I love, by the way, great use of Ken Francis as a verb, Tom. Well done. Tom Pelissero here. One of my favorite, favorite stories in recent years. It has been something else. Tom Pelissero here on The Rich Eisen Show. The sense of what the Bears are going to do and the timeline here.

What are you reporting on that? I would say all the evidence, I know we've talked about this, Rich, but everything that they've done, all the moves that they've made, have indicated to me that they're preparing to take a quarterback at number one in all likelihood that's going to be Caleb Williams. But if you're the Bears, and you guys just mentioned March 10th is when the trade happened last year, trading number one pick to Carolina, so they could take Bryce Young, I would think Chicago wants to have a pretty good plan in place prior to the start of free agency. Because if you're thinking we want to make, as our friend Ian Radport put it on Super Bowl Sunday, a historic type of an offer, you want to know that and have everything on the table prior to the start of free agency. That's what Ryan Polis has done in the past. He talked about that after the trade involving Bryce Young, or the number one pick. He wanted to have the answers in advance.

So I would think that you again want to have the answers to the test. You are going to with Justin Fields, again, if you wait to trade Justin Fields until closer to the draft, some of those teams that we've talked about being logical fits for Justin Fields may have pivoted and gone another direction. It's the same teams that are involved or potentially involved on all these quarterbacks. Everybody's going to circle Atlanta on their list. Depending what Washington wants to do with the number two pick, they're a team that could pop up here.

I keep seeing Pittsburgh brought up. I personally find that hard to believe, Rich, that they're going to go out and sign Kirk Cousins for $50 million a year or trade for Russell Wilson. They do want to get a competent and a good number two backup plan, but everything that I've understood about the Steelers' approach here is they want to give Kenny Pickett a real opportunity for the different offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, to go out there and show that he's worthy of being the first round pick that he was. So you could sign, let's say, Ryan Tannehill who's got a relationship with Arthur Smith, and I would certainly anticipate Arthur would like to get Tannehill in there to help Kenny Pickett learn as much as anything, but also give himself a backup option.

You can do that at a way more economical level than making a trade for these other things. But again, to the point of what teams are involved on quarterbacks, it is Atlanta, it's Washington, it's Pittsburgh. What do the Giants do? They've got Daniel Jones. They're fully locked into that for, I believe, $35 million again this year. But could they be in the market to draft one, to sign one, whatever? Denver needs a quarterback answer. Minnesota needs a quarterback answer.

You can go right down the list. Tampa hasn't wrapped things up with Baker Mayfield yet, and he potentially could have a market elsewhere. All those teams, the moment that you start crossing them off because they signed a guy or they traded for somebody else or they draft a guy, you lose your leverage to potentially get the maximum value that you can get for Justin Fields. So all of which is a long way of saying, Rich, I would anticipate what the Bears are going to do over the next week here is gather all the information that they can. They're going to be able to interface not just with agents of other quarterbacks, but also with the other teams who potentially would be involved, I would think. I don't know, but I would think that there are probably some face-to-face meetings in which they'll find out what exactly you would be able to get in a Justin Fields trade or in a trade for the number one pick. They then can reset at the end of the combine. Teams will get back from that on March 3rd, 4th, somewhere in there on that Sunday, Monday.

The franchise tag deadline for applying, it's March 5th. Right around there is where, okay, we've got all the information now. We probably have a good idea what direction. And again, my belief, based on reading the tea leaves, nothing final.

I believe that is them using the number one pick and probably taking Caleb Williams. But you gather all the information possible. You take a step back and you go, okay, are we still all on the same page?

If you are, then you proceed. And you probably are seeing if you can get the type of value you want for Justin Fields and moving on from him. So you're saying before the new league year, which is the 13th, the window to negotiate is the 11th.

So right there, that's where we're going to probably get. That's where all the, you know, if you go back over the last couple of years, Rich, and look at the trades, you know, two years ago was when we had that ridiculous run of trades where it was, going off the top of my head here, but it was Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, Devante Adams got traded during that week, Khalil Mack got traded. It was an unbelievable run. And all those things happened, I want to say, between like March 5th and March 15th, somewhere in there. We call that the hell going on week here on the Rich Eisen Show. The hell going on month, because it finished with Bobby Wagner winding up with the Rams. That March was insane.

It was an unbelievable run. But that's really where a lot of these trades have happened. You obviously then always have those aftershock trades that occur draft week. But really, if you don't trade somebody by, if not March 13th, but at least by the weekend, because you've got a bunch of guys who have your 30 or 50 or roster bonuses. So you're talking end of day March 14th, end of day March 16th.

Some of those might take place there. But if you get past that week, there's usually not a lot of trades until you get closer to the draft, because then everybody kind of takes that step back. Okay, who are the guys that are still sitting out there?

They didn't get signed, they didn't get traded for. What would that take? All right, let's assess that now against, you know, everyone's going through pro days. All right, let's look at all this.

Let's gather more information. Reset after pro days, and that's in April, where sometimes you have those aftershock trades. Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. So what do you think the Broncos' plans are at quarterback? Well, I would tell you, Rich, is all options are on the table for the Broncos at quarterback. And I still, as I told you on game day morning at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, I still can't rule out the possibility that the Broncos take one more swing next week at Indianapolis at trying to get Russell Wilson to tweak his contract. As hard as it is to believe that Russell Wilson could play another down for Sean Payton and the Broncos, listen, you know, Russell Wilson's agent, Mark Rogers, who only has one client, it's Russell Wilson. You know, he's only really done big deals for Russell Wilson. This will be the first time that he's involved in anything like talking to other teams. You know, obviously there was Russell Wilson trade rumors for years, but this is the first time that you've got a guy who's not on top, that's not just commanding a monster contract.

I would think that Mark Rogers, through the course of next week, will get a pretty good handle on what the market might be. The Broncos will have a pretty good handle on what the market might be if they go a different direction here. And maybe if everybody looks on the other side of the fence and doesn't like what they see, the best scenario could be Russell Wilson back in a Denver uniform. Again, I don't believe that that is a likely outcome, especially with everything that happened from the Broncos making, you know, what they perceive to be a good faith effort to get Russell Wilson not to give up money, not to give up guarantees, but to push back the vesting date so that it would lock him in as their quarterback for 2024, but give them the flexibility in 2025 to get out of it. Instead, Mark Rogers ran to the players union, said they're trying to take away his money.

It became this, you know, massive issue that then they pushed publicly saying he got benched for money and they're leaking narratives and leaking documents and all this other stuff. Hard to believe that you come back from that, but listen, Rich, anything's possible in the NFL. Having said that, you know, I know that the track record on Sean Payton is he really has not played with a rookie quarterback a whole lot. Doesn't mean he wouldn't this year, but I believe the only time he's done that in, what, 15, 16 years as a head coach was when everybody got COVID and they had to roll out Ian Book for a game in December with the Saints several years ago.

That's really it. He's always wanted to have a veteran. I would fully anticipate that they're looking at everything. Jared Stidham's the guy that got in house. They've got him on an economical deal. Sean Payton has said before he thinks that Stidham can be a starting quarterback in the league, but I would think that they're going to look at all these free agent quarterbacks. I wouldn't even rule out the possibility that the Broncos would make a run at Kirk Cousins.

It'll depend on the number, and you can certainly look at the numbers on paper and say, how in the world are they going to get this done? They owe Russell Wilson $39 million, whether he's on the team or not. But again, Sean Payton is going to want somebody. Sean Payton believes. He said it before last season. He believed this was a playoff team that was overshadowed in the same USA Today interview by some other stuff Sean said.

But part of what he said was, yeah, this team should be a playoff team right now. He's going to have the same mentality this year. They're going to be aggressive. Everything that he's ever known about team building is you're willing to move those chips forward.

You're willing to take your run right now. If he believes Kirk Cousins gives them the best chance to compete in a really, really tough division that now has your guy Jim Harbaugh in it too rich, I wouldn't take anything off the table. They're going to do their research on all this stuff. And that includes, again, the possibility that Russell Wilson could end up hanging around since they're paying him anywhere. Before I send you to the weekend, Tom Pelissero, give me some names of who might shock us that they turn into a cap casualty over the next couple of weeks. And they're going to be available when it's free agency time.

I don't know that there's any real shocks in terms of, you know, the cap casualties. There's a bunch of the running backs that need to get things figured out. We know how much the Packers value Aaron Jones, but, you know, he took a haircut last year. He's probably going to have to take a haircut again this year. Joe Mixon took a two-year haircut last year.

So I wouldn't think there's anything there. What happens with the Browns and Nick Chubb? He's coming off of a devastating injury. Their options may well be limited, but they're going to figure out what their plan is at the running back position. There's a bunch of the wide receivers that I think are going to be really interesting.

I'll give you the team to watch. Rich is the Chargers. You know, Jim Harbaugh, Joe Ortiz coming in.

It's a new regime. And no matter who is taking over, you're going to have surgery to do on that roster because they had a handful of guys who ate up like 85% of their salary cap last year. So you've got Joey Bosa, who's barely played in two years because he's had so many injuries. Yeah, Khalil Mack went like 17 sacks last year.

Everybody missed it because the Chargers weren't very good. Khalil Mack had an unbelievable year. He's still young enough that if they choose to trade him, there'd be value there. Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Derwin James has a huge number. By the way, Austin Eckler is a free agent. The Chargers are a team that, whether it's trades, whether it's cuts, they're going to have to do a lot of different things. Again, Jim Harbaugh is another guy who, he's not coming in thinking, okay, let's tear it down and we'll slowly build. He's going for Super Bowl right now, but they're going to have to make some decisions here because they've got some other spots in that roster that they need to fortify.

And if they can turn one or two of those veteran players into picks or additional assets, I think that they are going to be fully exploring that. What's your best guess? All right, I got a minute for you here on this about Saquon. What's your best guess in 90 seconds?

What do you have? It's a great question on Saquon because, Rich, remember, they took an initial run back at the bye week in 2022 of getting a deal done with Saquon. They offered him a significant, significant deal prior to the franchise tag deadline last March. And their plan, based on their actions, was get the deal done with Saquon, somewhere in that $12, $13 million per year range, and then franchise tag Daniel Jones.

Instead, Saquon shocked, I think, everybody by turning that deal down, thinking he should be at the McCaffrey number. The Giants then have to pivot, tag Saquon, sign Daniel Jones. They still made another run at Saquon in July before the franchise tag deadline, albeit at a lower number than they were offering him in March, because now they had him for $10.1 million, and they had him a bargain on the tag, all of which is to say the Giants clearly value Saquon Barkley. I find it hard to believe that he's going to play this year on the tag. I do think, I do believe that there will be an effort made on the Giants' part to see if they can get a deal done with Saquon.

But at some point with some of these guys, you might want them to get out a little bit closer to the market, see what their value is. I wouldn't remove the possibility of another tag reach on Saquon, just to buy the Giants a little bit more time here. But there also might be some value in him going out there. We know he said he wants to be a Giant for life. We know John Mara and Giants Brass wants him to be a Giant. Let's see, can he do way better elsewhere? Does Jim Harbaugh go out and think, I've got to have a top-level run game, I'll offer him $15 million a year? Maybe that happens. I do believe the Giants will try to get a deal done.

Will that actually happen prior to March 5th or March 11th or March 13th? We'll see. Tom, you're the best. Have a great weekend.

We'll see you in Indy. OK? Glad to be here, Rich. That's good. You bet.

That's Tom Pelsara right here on The Rich Hasen Show. Let's take a break. Lots to discuss.

We'll be right back for Fort 204 Rich Number 2 here on the program. What's the oldest Olaf fan you've ever come across? Oh, man, I've come across people in their 90s who are Olaf fans.

Exactly. Like, have all the stuffed animals, have all the... Oh, yeah, you'd be surprised. Olaf connects multi-generationally. I mean, there are people who are in their 80s and 90s who, like, have Olaf paraphernalia, who let me know how important that character is to them.

And I think the reason that so many people connect to that little guy is there's a sense of, like, childlike wonderment that I think a lot of us forget that we have even when we're older, and it reminds us of the purity of looking at the world with the glasses hat or optimism that Olaf brings to the table. How many Olaf items do you have in your house? What's the grand total? I have the full-size one. Okay. Then every miniature. Yeah.

I have, like, the full-size one, and then I have... Multiple. Multiple. I'm thinking one, two, three, four, five.

Probably six. I'm about half the time I have to sign something for you. Yeah. All right.

I'm gonna put you on the spot before I go. How would Olaf term the drafting of Tua Tungovailoa to the Dolphins? Can you tell me what Tua thought about that draft or beating the Patriots and knocking them out of the bi-week position? Do you got something for me on that front, Josh Gad?

I love everybody in Tua Tungovailoa, and I can tell you that it never gives me joy to see any team down on the duck, except if that team is the New England Patriots, who've had it coming for a long time. So bye, bye. Have fun in the gutter. Ladies and gentlemen, that was fantastic. Happy 43rd birthday to our friend Josh Gad.

Back on The Rich Eisen Show. Just had a nice chat with Jason Concepcion, who did us the courtesy of wearing a suit. Wow.

No. With a sort of, looked like a Hawaiian shirt underneath the, I don't know, I shouldn't say that, but definitely a vacation type shirt underneath the suit. Love it. I appreciate that.

You know? Respect. He's a suit guy. Sound of respect. Out of respect. Like the bear, he's a suit guy. Yeah. What'd you make of Tommy P?

I love Tommy P. How about this one? I got it. What the hell are the New York Giants gonna do? After they made the playoffs, then Daniel Jones, before getting hurt, shows that- There's maybe something there. That he could've hit his head on the ceiling in beating the Minnesota Vikings. But that performance by the Giants in the playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings, where Daniel Jones looked like Colin Kaepernick, 2.0.

Yep. It was like, okay, he finally unlocked Daniel Jones, and then they didn't score a point in week one on that Sunday night disaster against TJ's Cowboys. And then they wind up needing to pull something out of their orifice in Arizona to avoid going, what, winless to start the season.

Then the Giants fall completely off a cliff, he gets hurt, and that was the end of that. And then off of that evaluation, they have to say, okay, we're sixth overall, but we got to deal with Saquon first. And I just still don't understand, why wasn't Saquon worth the McCaffrey money?

The difference between, we're offering you an incredible contract of 12, $13 million a year, and they were surprised he turned that down. When Christian McCaffrey makes 16, and the Giants, that was just apparently a bridge too far, so we're going to sign Daniel Jones long-term. And now we saw again how significant Saquon is to this offense. It's difficult to watch him get hurt as much as he does, or dinged up, I should say.

And now Jones is under contract long-term coming off of a neck injury again and a blown out knee. What do you love more than anything in the world, Rich? Money.

Second. Being right. That's you. Man, I was right about Daniel Jones. All they had to do is do the opposite.

Just flip it. Did I say money first? Franchise. I would argue that.

Love. Franchise Daniel Jones. You like being right more. That's true.

Can you talk about how right I was about this? All they had to do was franchise Daniel Jones and sign Saquon to a long-term deal, and they're in such a much better spot right now. Right. Give yourself a steak dinner, Chris, from a caller which never got paid.

My man. But if they had signed Saquon to that 16 million per, just met, said, okay, you're our McCaffrey, and we're going to show it to the locker room that if you ball out here, you're going to get paid top of the market. Instead, they hold the line on Saquon. And then when they try again, they're like, well, now we've got them on a market value deal at 10 million. So we got you by the you-know-what hairs. So we're going to offer you less than what you rejected beforehand. Why are you holding that sort of line to Saquon?

I'll still never understand it. So you're right. Do you think if they could wave a wand right now and give Saquon what he wanted, and you also are now just a franchise tag decision on Daniel Jones right now? Exactly. God, they'd be in such a much better position. I would think.

I sure would think Jason Concepcion's about to join us in studio talk some NBA in a second. And then they'd have this number six pick, and they can kind of do whatever they want. Do they want to take a wide receiver? Well, they can still do whatever they want. One will be the...

They can still do whatever they want here. But how does that help them in 2024 if they don't take a quarterback? Who's going to play quarterback next year? Daniel Jones. And they hope he shows up like the Daniel Jones that we last saw him in a win in the playoffs for the Giants. 0.0 chance of that happening. Yeah. And you know that's not the percentage.

0.1. Quarterbacks, the year after a knee injury, they're not the same guy, especially someone like Daniel Jones, who relies on his legs. It's over. Trade up and take one of these three quarterbacks. Trading up is really going to be expensive, pal.

Again, Rich. Unless your Patriots want to be a part of it. If you get it right, it doesn't matter what it costs.

Well, if you don't, though, then you just set yourself back another 10 years. They're already set back. They're already up the creek.

Without a paddle. Unless you think last year was an outlier. And they did play well with Tommy Cutlets.

Yeah. Cutlets was good. So all you got to do, you figure Daniel Jones comes back, it'll be better than Tommy Cutt. Or the playoff year was the outlier.

Or Tommy Cutlets should be the starter. I just, again, I still just don't understand, I mean, Saquon's a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. I mean, he's just the man.

They really screwed the perch on this one. I don't get it. It's four million extra a year. I know cap space is cap space.

But this is your guy. And you also look at the locker room and go, when you ball out for us, you get market, top market contract, regardless of position. Is it evident, Portland TJ, where's my steak?

Jason Concepcion 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 would 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.