Tom Pelissero: Everyone Is Going To Like JJ McCarthy

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See terms at discover.com slash credit card. From Pelissero, 40-yard dash maven Rich Eisen, pro football hall-of-famer Marshall Fogg. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster. Happy Friday to everybody out there.

Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen, obviously at the combine. Say hi to my guys here. Hi, TJ. Hey, Suzy.

Mikey D, Chris. Hi. It's mimosa Friday. We've already hit the ball. Holla, holla, holla, holla.

When the boss is away, the kids will play. Hey, we cheer on, we make a toast to Caleb Williams, who took the podium in Indy this morning and absolutely crushed it. I mean, goodbye, have fun in Chicago.

I think the decisions have been made, don't you believe? Deep dish. Christopher, I mean, hello. Deep dish. A lot of pizza coming your way. Start looking for real estate. That's right. He's not hiring a sports agent, but you can get a real estate agent. Well, think about all the money he's going to save in those fees.

He's going to get into buying a permanent place to reside in the greater Chicago area. Big question, though, at the combine. Marvin Harrison doesn't show up. Marvin Harrison Jr. does not show up for his press avail, which I have to say, like, what happened there? I guess he came out.

I guess not he. I guess an NFL spokesperson came out and basically said, stand by, and then people stood by. And he just didn't show? Didn't show. No show. That's crazy. Oh, he was getting skips of media availability. Skips of media availability. What is happening, kids?

And, you know, it's so funny. We spoke yesterday at length. We're talking about the quarterbacks.

And could there be movement within one and two? Clearly, that's over. But we forget that Marvin Harrison Jr. is projected to go number two. Who knows what's going to happen? But as Louis Riddick was saying the other day on What the Football, to him anyway, so much of this is about character judgment. And you have to wonder what happened with Marvin Harrison Jr. this morning and why he would have skipped his avail. Well, Chris Carter is saying that Hall of Famer Chris Carter is saying that he was getting a body scan with the medical people. Relax. And that the NFL would reschedule his time.

So I guess we'll see if that is actually the case. But, I mean, Marvin Harrison is making all kinds of firsts this week. Not working out, not even having a pro day.

And now he's like, you know what? I don't even need to talk to you guys. Just watch my game tape.

Double check what my name is. Were you drafted 13? No, I'm not going to be there. I mean, look, we know how good these guys are. Even Caleb Williams said glibly when he was at the podium.

He's like, you know, I don't need to be here throwing. I got 30, 32 games on tape. You can see how I play.

I won the Heisman Trophy. Check it out. He also said there's 32 teams and not all you're going to get me. Hey, I'm not going to be here, right?

I'm not going to be around. I know this type of behavior is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. I kind of think it's hilarious. It's just a new style, man. It is how the world is working now.

And you either have to, you know, hop on board and understand things are going to be said on social media, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. It's not like, you know, it was when we were younger and it's a new generation, man. And it's not as differential as it was. Is it, TJ? And maybe is it the NIL? Is it that Caleb Williams walks in and already has reportedly up to 10 million dollars in his pocket? Is it that the world has changed and the NFL will have to play catch up with it? Who knows? But boy, things are different there.

Yeah. I just think these kids have grown up in a in a different time. Everything they've ever wanted information wise or entertainment wise has been in the palm of their hand. They're scrutinized to the next level because there's a 24 hour news cycle and there's countless talk shows like this one and and many, many others. And they don't have time for it. And they don't have they don't need the traditional media either. If they want to get something out, they have their own platform. They can have a YouTube channel.

They can have all their social media pages and they can deliver the news about themselves first and accurate, the most accurate, where they don't need the shefters and the traditional old head media types. So like you said, TJ, it's get on board. So you're going to get left behind.

And also, Chris and Susie, when you talk about someone that might not to leave you out, when you talk about someone like Marvin Harrison Junior. Right. Of course, there's going to be people on social media who are going to take what he did as an affront.

You're going to read tweets and stories, I'm sure, about what's wrong with him and what did he do, like what he did wrong. But the thing is, this kid has a man who's provided him with food and shelter for the last 21 years of his life, who also has a gold jacket and a bust, a statue in the most hallowed grounds of football. So he has someone at home who can tell him exactly what he needs to do.

That's right. He doesn't need to do. And can you you're not going to argue with Marvin Harrison because he's been there and done that. He knows what his son needs to do to get ready.

Like Dion said, Jerry Rice never laid on my chest and I had to lift him up 25 times. This kid knows he's been surrounded by this his entire life. So I'm I'm on board with whatever he chooses to do, because I know it's coming from a place of someone who's been there already. And as the great Brent Musburger would have said, we're looking live at the changeover of old NFL, traditional NFL, and these new guys coming in and saying it's our game now. And we're seeing it happen right in front of our eyes. If you missed the Brent Musburger interview in the first hour, please go find it on YouTube. Obviously, we re-air on Roku, which is fantastic.

You can watch him to the ground because he was stellar, as he always is. Other news out of the combine. Michael Pennix, of course, saying I'm fine. I'm ready to be the franchise quarterback.

We're not too surprised about that. J.J. McCarthy saying that he's got a strained hamstring and won't be running and doing many of the other drills that he would normally do. He will be out there throwing through it.

I saw some really funny video I sent it to Rich last night. He was basically playing catch in the hallway of his hotel. Pennix or McCarthy? McCarthy and throwing daggers. I saw the Pennix video, too. Someone had posted literally kind of the same type of thing. Him just, again, violently throwing the ball in a hallway. And it's like, oh, OK.

I remember I watched that very every Saturday. And again, with Michael Pennix, it's the medical. It's the multiple shoulder injuries, the multiple knee injuries. He was a six year college player. Those are the questions surrounding him. And with McCarthy, it's other issues.

It's slight of build, perceived slight of build, I guess. But as McCarthy said, I'm a winner. I'm the winningest quarterback in Michigan history.

I just went 15 and 0. You watched me. And that's what he's going to focus on in the interviews, which lean on your strengths. Right.

When you're in a job interview, lean on what you're good at. And this kid, literally all he did was win. Yeah.

Say hello to my little friend. And it's a trophy, the national championship trophy. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you're if you're J.J., focus on that stuff, man.

Focus on what you do great. And one of the best winners in college ever. I think that's exactly what he has to say to them. We'll ask Tom Pelissero as he joins us shortly from NFL Network.

We'll ask him what he thinks about what he's hearing in the hallways, because obviously all the gossip happens in the hallways. But yeah, I mean, what's a better interview? Scheme, what's a better interview strategy than to say, oh, I can win.

That's it. That's all he has to say is like, look, game management, I manage the game. I have Blake Corum here.

I've got a couple of great guys on receivers and tight ends, what have you. I can run the offense and I can run your offense. That's all he has to say. And it's so clear. And when you're a winner and you've got Harbaugh out there saying this is one of the best quarterbacks I've played with. That's a really good coach.

That's a really, really great calling card. As for is he lanky or not? We all know that Rich lingered in that hug a little bit longer than he might have fessed up to yesterday on the back, which is a hugger and how he was a hugger. Yeah. You know, you know, you know that it might have done a second or two longer than J.J. felt comfortable with.

It was like, all right, we good. Also, guys, the thing about when you're lanky is you can always add on. That's right. You know, I guarantee you in five years we're going to be watching Spurs games and Wimby is going to be big.

It's going to be like 230. Look, Giannis was just as skinny when he came into the league. And now he's look at him now, Jack. So, I mean, for anybody out there who's concerned about J.J. McCarthy and his lankiness, sit down.

He'll be fine. Sit down. Well, just got to eat. The boy's got to eat. The question is, where will he go to lunch? What city? Well, he can't see the Tony Sopranos booth at Holstons anymore because that's up for sale.

Did you guys read that? No, Mike. You can actually bid. I just read that you can bid on Tony Sopranos booth from Holstons. The last scene, that booth is for sale. Whether they're selling the booth or selling the restaurant.

No, the booth, the actual booth. I'm so confused. What? I just saw this. I'm sorry. I was paying attention. You guys. That was a good transition. By the way, that was perfect, Mike. Yes.

I was actually I just said this. I'm like, how like what piece of television history would you want? Like the Cheers bar.

Like if you could have the Cheers bar at your house. Now we're talking. You know what I mean?

Like what would you like? You box from Happy Days. You box from. Yeah. Like what would you and how much would you pay? That's a good question.

I was just that was the first thing that came to my mind. Mike, please, please buy the Soprano booth. Oh, that's going to be expensive. That is good.

What are you working all these jobs for? It doesn't matter. That's going to be. You know what I mean? That's going to be five zeros, if not more. Five, zero, six figures for that thing. Someone's going to pay a lot.

A hundred percent. You know who's going to have some coin pretty soon? Caitlin Clark. Oh, Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark declaring she is ready for the WNBA draft. And why wouldn't she be? And why is anybody surprised that she's not taking this COVID year? People are like, well, she's got another COVID year. She can come back.

All of her friends are graduating. Oh, by the way, she's one of the greatest basketball players. Basketball players. There I said it in the history of college basketball. Also, there's the idea that she's suddenly going to lose all our sponsors because she's like NAL money because she's going to the WNBA.

That's the dumbest thing. This this girl is going to be rolling in dough. You were about to see her in every.

You thought Kelsey was in a lot of commercials. Get ready. You're going to see Caitlin Clark in everything.

Well-deserved. She's going to show up in subway commercials in the homes. Get that money. She is about to get paid. And I want every single cent of it to go to her. She's going to be fantastic.

She's already in the State Farm commercial. The fever, right? The fever. Yeah, Indiana fever at the number one pick. So she's going there.

And that's going to be amazing. Why? Why in God's name would anybody say, well, why isn't she staying for that COVID year? Get out. Go to the WNBA. I mean, my daughter, Taylor, is fired up to go to WNBA games now.

All these kids. It was funny. I was driving down. I was listening to Holly Rowe, my my old colleague from ESPN and ABC on with Dan Patrick this morning. And she was talking about the little girl screaming and yelling.

And I thought to myself, here's the analogy. She's the Taylor Swift of sports. She's the Pied Piper. That is Caitlin Clark is the Taylor Swift of sports. Whatever she sells, these girls are going to want to buy marketers out there, branders. By the way, sink your money into Caitlin Clark because she is gold.

And I can't wait to watch her when she comes next year to Los Angeles. And I don't want to hear any more about the Pistol Pete comparisons. Oh, he didn't. It was a different line.

He had different. She was she was Ponytail Pete as a kid. That's the coolest nickname I've heard in a long time. We talked about nicknames. Is that what she used to tell Pete? That's pretty cool.

That's cool. She's making balling fun. She's making hooping fun for these little girls. And I probably little girls. I mean, don't you think next year at the NBA All-Star game, she'll be out there with Sabrina?

I'd imagine. Well, I mean, who will be the first T.J., everyone's going to take credit for this. But yeah, there's going to figure out something they're going to do. Like I said, get her and Dame out there and have a two on two thing with Steph and Sabrina.

It's going to be that was the highlight of All-Star weekend. Like, let's be honest, the other stuff was kind of lame. So let me ask you a question.

Any way to get them more involved? Did you actually watch anything else besides that? I did.

I ended up watching all of it, but it was just so not interesting. And then Steph and Sabrina, that was really cool. So, you know, you get more of it involved, more of it out there.

Let's go grow the game. Yeah, I love it. I was nervous watching that. Actually, like I so wanted Sabrina to win that I was like she empties. You know, it's funny because Steph had a slow start. Right.

Then he just spent money with Steph. Oh, well. Well, Tom Pellissero will join us shortly. We'll ask him what's going on in Indy. We'll find out from Rich Eisen who he had breakfast with this morning, because I know that's really what you want to know. Right. I mean, is that what we're waiting for? Mike, you just want to know what he had for breakfast.

No, no, no. I know we had enough. There's a lot of great places to eat. Steak and Shake, Steak and Shake, Steak and Shake. I love Steak and Shake. Steak and Shake is at 2 a.m.

I went there every night. But I mean, that was before I lost weight. But back then. Now look at you.

Yeah, but Steak and Shake is great. That's the place to go. Because you see all the coaches there. Like they all are there.

Rich, you know, he's told you. It's like packed with all the coaches and all that. It's amazing. But you're right.

But so many coaches didn't go this year. That's what's kind of fascinating. Like Rich said, it's actually because the TV, it is amazing. It's great. I was watching it. Coverage is amazing. I watched all four hours yesterday. You watched all four hours. It was just on.

It's watching these big guys run. It was cool. You know, I love the name Chop Robinson. Come on. Chop, Chop, Chop.

What a name. Who else was good? Because I mean, I don't have the time to sit back and watch. Like I said, Dallas Turner and and Patrick Wilson, those guys ran faster than McCaffrey ran in his 40. It's tonight's tight ends, right? And today's tight ends.

Who do you want to see out there? You want to see the tight end from Georgia? Well, Brock Bowers could be a top 10 pick. I think we all expect him to test off the charts. And so watch this dude play at Georgia the last three years. Absolute monster. And he's going to be instantly, you're going to draft him high in fantasy and he's going to instantly have production next year. So that's that's what we want to see him work out today.

I again, I have to push back on that as I do. We don't know that for a fact. Like we all thought Kyle Pitts was going to guess what?

I know that for a fact. We all thought Kyle Pitts was going to change the game. And Kyle Pitts got into a system where he wasn't allowed to or he wasn't able to to use his full abilities. So it all would depend on where Brock Bowers goes.

I'm not going to sit here. A top 10 pick on the tight end. You better be very, very, very sure that this guy is going to be the next Rob Gronkowski.

I mean, tight end is, I think, just a name only. These guys are these guys are not wide receivers. Look at Samuel Porter last year. And I respect Brock Bowers to put up very similar numbers to what Sam did.

But look at the Super Bowl we're coming off of. And who was the guy on offense that went to that? Patrick Mahomes goes to the most Travis Kelsey. Why wouldn't you want a tight end in the top 10? And he's a tight end in name only. He's a he's a receiver, but he's big like Gronk. There's a block like Gronk. No, but if only Travis Kelsey's grew on trees, they don't.

They do not. That is not just someone you can go, oh, he's going to be Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey is special, you know, like there aren't there ain't many Travis Kelsey's.

No, you know, so I think this guy has a chance to be better than Travis Kelsey. Oh, my goodness. That is a bold statement. Let's ask Tom Pelissero what he thinks about that statement, sir. All right. Let's go to break when we come back.

Tom Pelissero joins us from the Combine. With threats to our nation waiting around every corner, adaptability is more important than ever. When conditions change without notice, quick strategic thinking is crucial. And with obstacles consistently impending, determination is essential in overcoming them. It's this willingness, decisiveness and resilience that sets Marines apart. With our fighting spirit, we don't just fight battles, we win them. Marines are the constant our nation counts on to fight the unknown. And through adaptable problem solving, we do just that.

Learn more at Marines.com. Welcome to Talkville, the Ultimate Smallville Rewatch Podcast. Title Transference aired October 27, 2004.

Director James Marshall, writers Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer. I really like this episode and I'm surprised that you don't like it as much as you thought you did. I actually respect your opinion more than I respect my own in general. When you say things are good and I check them out, they are.

Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen. Well, I mean, and that's why I'm wondering why you would go by the name of Matty Iceman. That's why I'm what I mean, that's a beer infused nickname and it doesn't fit. Would you agree it doesn't fit anymore, Matt?

Are you the natural coming back or are we making a push for the natural here? No, I'm well, I'm pointing out that certain nickname that you've had for a long time. Just just I like beer. I do like beer. Right.

So when it comes to it, though, you just you're not you're not slamming them back, right? Is what you're saying? No, I guess I'm drinking responsibly.

OK, something that would be a natural light of some sort. Matt, are you what are you drinking? What are you drinking? It's been a long time. You keep making my point. Why won't you take the natural from me? Why would you just why won't you do it? I mean, how many times do I have to ask?

How many times do I have to ask? It's just nobody else wants it. Are you aware I offered it to Stafford, your buddy? Is that right?

Yes. He didn't take it either. Well, I mean, he that's a no, Matt. Excuse me.

Hold on. He I gave him full disclosure that it was a retread and that you had rejected it. Because I know you guys talk. I know you guys. You guys are tight, right? He forgot to mention it to me the last time I saw him.

I can't believe that wasn't top of mind for him. OK, so just just on behalf of all my loved ones who are cringing right now. Just tell me to move on, Matt, and I'll move on. Just tell me to move on. You got to move on. You got to move on. I love you, but you got to move on. Thank you, Matt. Thank you so much.

Even if I gave you a T-shirt or. All right, Matt, I can take a hint after nine years or so. Welcome back to 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's got the right product for you.

Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Tom Pelosaro joins us right now. He stops by here to talk about the combine with us. And Tom Brockman says that Brock Bowers is going to be better than Travis Kelsey.

I mean, what are we doing? That's what he said. First of all, throwing you under the bus is what you. Wow. You said in the last segment, he's going to be better than Travis Kelsey. You heard it here first. Didn't he say that, guys?

He did. OK, so, Tom. Tom wants to say hi to us. I can tell. Hi, Tom. No, I was going to. But now I feel like I got to disassociate myself from Brockman. Well, you can say hi to me.

Yeah. What's up, TJ? How are we doing, baby? Tommy P. What's up, kid?

You're the worst. How did I get along with it with Brockman? You didn't say hi to me, Tom. Tom, what's happening?

By the way, Tom, the front door was open. I'm never sure if you're there. You take a lot of time off on Fridays. I thought maybe you were you were out, you know, on the beach somewhere doing something a lot more fun.

I didn't know. He left in the middle of the third hour yesterday, like in the middle. He just left. I never know if he's there or not. And I am not the worst.

You open the front door and I went in it. Completely not. But OK, whatever. Hi, Tom.

Good stuff. It's Friday. We've been drinking since nine a.m.

So I mean, most of Friday things for most of Friday. So I'm still OK. I'm still caffeinated in here. Do you want to hose?

What are you drinking? The fellas. Yeah, this is the Uribe. Yeah, it's in the back. Plant based energy.

There's some backers. You should try one. Very good.

Now I've got I've got I've got coffee, old fashioned coffee. Half and half. So I can't go Uribe. Sorry about that.

All right. So do we want to do we want to hose him or not? We want to hose who? Brockman for saying that Brock Bowers will be better than Travis Kelsey.

Sorry, I lost track. Too many brocks in that in that equation right there. Listen, I mean, Brock Bowers, when you go through with scouts and executives right now of like the surefire top 20 picks, let's call him. Brock Bowers is one of the first ones that comes up on the list. You got three quarterbacks at least that are going to come off the board in the early going here. You got probably three receivers that are going to go pretty high.

There's several tackles that are going to go. And then Brock Bowers is probably the next one. Now, Travis Kelsey is about as high of a bar as you can possibly clear the side of Rob Gronkowski.

And Travis Kelsey obviously had a unique back story in terms of where he got drafted, why he slid in the draft. Bowers is not going to be somebody who you're looking at on day two here. He's going to be off the board. I would anticipate in those first 20 picks. We'll see whether or not and to what extent he actually works out when the drills get going over Lucas Oil Stadium.

3 p.m. Eastern Time on NFL Network here. But there's no question. I mean, he's one of the best prospects in this draft, obviously got dinged up a little bit last season. But, you know, he's going to go early and then context matters a lot. If he goes to Kansas City and plays with Patrick Mahomes, who knows how good he potentially could be. He goes someplace else without a quarterback. We've seen plenty of other tight ends disappear. I think, I think, Tom, my point was that he's NFL ready. You know, you look at some of the tight ends who've come into the league the last few years. Just look at Sam Laporta last year. And I would expect Brock Bowers to kind of have a similar year like Sam. Sam Laporta is a really rare individual.

I don't know if you guys have gotten a chance to talk to him. But he is the most mature, whatever he is, 22 year old you're ever going to meet. You know, I still like even at my age, I got 42 and I still talk to players and like in my head intellectually. I think because these guys are much bigger and better looking and more well built to me that they must be older than me.

This guy's 22. And you would think he is already a coach in the NFL. I haven't had a chance to talk to Brock Bowers yet. But when you're talking about that position, there's a lot of smart guys who play tight end because you have to do so much. You have to understand so much of the concepts of the run game, the pass game, the blocking phase, the receiving phase.

You know, if Brock Bowers is up to that, that type of a challenge, that's obviously going to go a long way. That's why I would never go back to college football. I would be like their mom.

That would be humiliating and not at all cool. Hey, Tom, what was the reaction like at the combine with Marvin Harrison Jr. being a no-show? You know, it wasn't really surprising between him and Caleb Williams.

They're both going about this process a little bit differently. And they are two of the top, you know, depending who you ask, two of the top five, if not two of the top two prospects in the entire draft. What I find fascinating, Susie, is there's other sports where this is not uncommon. For instance, in the NBA, and somebody could fact check me on this because I'm not an NBA insider, but I believe the last number one pick to go through the full combine with the medical and everything was John Wall.

It's been a long time. Those top prospects who aren't going to help themselves through the process of going through something like the combine, if anything, they might potentially hurt themselves, even though if you're Caleb or Marvin, you're probably not too concerned about that happening either. But those guys traditionally don't work out. You're talking about a new generation of athletes here. You're talking about, you know, this is really the first class of those NIL babies, the guys who have been professional football players for a couple of years before they come into the NFL.

I think the really interesting thing will be to see what sort of trend, if any, this creates. Because now with those guys, and neither one has a traditional agent. Caleb has a team of advisors. Marvin Harrison also is going without a true agent. I'm sure he can lean on his dad, among others, for advice through the course of this process.

It just makes me wonder, do we start to have this become a regular thing where more than a couple of the top prospects simply say, you know what, anything I do here, good or bad, is not going to impact my draft stock in a positive fashion. I'll show up. I'll do the interviews.

Maybe I'll do the media. Caleb did that today. And I thought that he did help himself from a public perception standpoint.

Marvin Harrison, for reasons that have not been fully explained yet, was not at his media session. Does any of this really matter with those two guys? Probably not. For the 99.9% of other draft prospects, this is a pretty big week.

This is sewn up, isn't it? Isn't Caleb going to the Bears? I mean, it seems like you might as well just call the draft tomorrow. Well, what the Bears wanted to do was really use this week to gather data points in terms of, you know, they had never met Caleb. So they wanted to, you know, at least in terms of the top brass, had not met Caleb. So, you know, Kevin Warren, the team president, was down here along with Ryan Pols, Matt Eberfluse, among others. They took their, you know, 15-minute formal interview, one of the 45 that they get. I talked to Caleb Williams today, and I asked him about that, just kind of, what was it like?

You've been mocked and photoshopped into a Bears uniform for months here, and everybody assumes that this is a done deal. I thought it was interesting. He said that they really used that 15 minutes not to get to know him personally, but to test him on football and to see his mental and do some of the traditional things the team is doing in these interviews, like showing a play at the start of the interview, then coming back 10, 15 minutes later and asking him to go up to the board and draw that play again. You know, Caleb comes from a different type of an offense.

Lincoln-Riley's run an air raid derivative type of a scheme. Caleb's best fit just in talking to people is probably in the style of offense, that's Shanahan-McVay derivative offense, that Shane Waldron's going to be installing in Chicago. That's one more reason to believe what you said, which is that a lot of signs here point toward Caleb Williams going number one overall to the Bears, but Ryan Paul said he was not yet ready to share a quarterback master plan when he got to the podium earlier this week. I would imagine that come Sunday when they get back from the combine, they're going to be circling up, meeting, seeing what they have on the table, if anything, for the number one pick, what they have on the table, if anything, for Justin Fields, and finalize a decision that, to your point, they probably had a pretty good idea about for several months now. All right, Tom, let's talk Patriots here. It seems like the word is circling quarterback at number three.

Who's it going to be? Is that the move? Any chance they trade down?

I think there's a chance of all those things, Brockman, because there's still another team in between, obviously, the Bears and the Patriots. Do the commanders stand in? Do they take the second best quarterback? Can they?

And it's a long shock, so it would cost so much, but could they get up to number one? If not, and if Washington is convinced that it needs more than the quarterback and wants to build in another direction, they could trade down. I think that it's informative if you look through who is conducting interviews with the top quarterbacks at the combine. And listen, the whole, when I see just a million tweets about this guy met with this team, it's like, yeah, every team is going to meet in some capacity, formal, informal, at the All-Star game or at the combine or on a pro day or 30 visit. Everybody's going to talk to every player because even if they have no chance to go up and get the guy, they at least want to have some frame of reference.

So if that player becomes available a year or two down the line, if there's a trade possibility, if they get released, whatever, they've met them and they've done the homework and they've got the background, the medical and everything else. So who are those other teams that right now are doing interviews with Jayden Daniels and Drake May and Caleb Williams? It's the Giants who have the number six pick. It's the Falcons who are at number eight. It's the Vikings who are at number 11. It's the Raiders who are the furthest from striking distance of those teams. But they obviously have a big need for quarterback.

I reported on Super Bowl Sunday on NFL Network that in every one of the GM interviews that were conducted, Mark Davis and Antonio Pierce were grilling the candidates about saying, all right, how do we go get the quarterback? How can we move up? What would it take?

What would you do? It's a pretty clear sign. And Mark Davis said to me, yeah, it's the most important position.

Of course, I'm going to ask him how they would pull it off here. It certainly seems like the Raiders would like to find a way to move up. They've also got a new general manager in Tom Tolesco who might to some degree be the voice of reason for lack of a better term here. Tolesco was the Chargers GM for 11 years.

I believe he only moved up once in the first round. He was supposed to go and get Melvin Gordon. No team wants.

That's one of the misconceptions. No team wants to move up. In a perfect world, things fall to you and you end up with the right guy, which is how the Chargers stood patent number six. And Justin Herbert came to them in the draft several years ago here. Can the Raiders afford to do that and get one of these top quarterbacks?

That's probably going to be tough. But that's not to say that, you know, whether it's J.J. McCarthy or it's Michael Penix or it's Bo Nix or one of these other quarterbacks, that guy couldn't be the one that's sitting there and maybe you save yourself a couple of extra high draft picks that you would have to trade to move up into one of those top spots. Yeah, New England also, the rumor is draft one of these young kids and maybe sit them behind a veteran.

Who could the veteran be that could come in and start next year? Well, they've got a ton of money to spend, the Patriots, you know, because they've got a really low cash span. They've got tons of cap space and like half their team's free agents. If you go right down the list, Brockman, I mean, a lot of those guys, you know, their receiver core seems to be entirely free agents, Kendrick Bourne's a free agent, Trent Brown and Riley Reeve, Ezekiel Elliott, who played quite a bit last year. I mean, this can be wholesale turnover on that side of the football. Defensively, they've been pretty good, but they got key free agents on that side as well.

All of which is to say, I think that there's a lot of different scenarios that are on the table. Elliott Wolf, who's their new I mean, he's still the director of scouting, but he's the guy who's going to be making the final decisions on these picks. He, of course, is the son of the legendary executive Ron Wolf, a Hall of Famer who built the modern day Packers back in the early 90s with Favre and Reggie White and company. And one of Ron Wolf's longtime tenants was you always draft a quarterback. You keep swinging, even if you got one, even if it's in the seventh round, you get a quarterback every single season. And that's why through the years, you know, a lot of the backups they had in Green Bay, whether that was Ty Detmer or Kurt Warner, who was in camp with them at one point. I believe Mark Brunel was in camp with them at one point. They drafted Aaron Rodgers when they still had Favre, and they drafted Jordan Love when they still had Aaron Rodgers. All the people who were making those decisions, Ted Thompson, Brian Goodacoon, learned from Ron Wolf.

And if any of you is going to take that sort of a philosophy to heart, you would think that it's Ron's own son, Elliott here. So one way or another, yes, I anticipate that the Patriots are going to make over that quarterback room. It doesn't sound like at this point there's anything imminent in terms of trading. Mike Jones, Patriots have only said that, yeah, he's still on the roster. I would be surprised if that's the case by the time that we get to training camp, perhaps even not by the time that we get to the NFL draft here.

They know that they need to flip things. Bailey Zappi might be a part of that room in some capacity as a backup or whatever it might be. But they're going to be adding one, if not two, quarterbacks one way or another. And again, if they choose to compete for any of these top guys, I haven't really heard Kirk Cousins.

But again, you rule nothing out at this time of year. Baker Mayfield could potentially be that. They've got the capital if they want to go and try to make things real interesting and convince one of those guys to come into what is essentially a rebuild in New England. It's funny, we talked about that yesterday, about where Max should go, where Zach Wilson should go to get some rehab, mental rehab, physical rehab after going through what they've gone through the last couple of years. What are you hearing about this second tier of quarterbacks? And I kind of hate to call them that because, you know, J.J. does have a national championship. But what are you hearing about the reaction teams are having to Pennix, Knicks and McCarthy?

I like the Rich isn't there, but we've still got those little reminders about Michigan winning the national title. I would say this. J.J. McCarthy, everyone is going to like the guy and just watching him interact with people. It's so funny because, you know, teams are always observing everything the guys are doing at the combine. Who they're eating lunch with, what they're like walking through the halls. I become attuned to that stuff, too. And J.J. McCarthy, when he's just coming and going today, he's talking to relatively low level staffers or event staffers here.

And everything is, you know, sir and ma'am and being very polite and thank you. Like there's nothing that's going to turn people off about J.J. McCarthy, the person and the leader. The question is just going to be the football. He played in a style of offense in Michigan where they really ran the football a lot. There's a lot of NFL style throws. You haven't seen J.J. McCarthy do a ton of. And so it'll be really interesting to see him up against some of those other guys in, as you put it, the second tier of quarterbacks.

Because Drake May, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, they're not throwing here. But you are going to have J.J. McCarthy. You are going to have Bo Nix. You are going to have a couple of the other quarterbacks that are talked about at the top of the draft. The really interesting ones to me become Michael Pennix because he obviously is a phenomenal athlete. A phenomenal quarterback, I should say, that we saw win in a lot of different ways when he was at the University of Washington.

Won a ton of games last season. But he's got a lot on the medical report and those examinations were taking place here over the past couple of days. He intends to go out there and sling it tomorrow and show people what he can do. And then the guy who I had one executive tell me the other day has helped himself the most coming into the combine is Spencer Rattler from South Carolina.

Because I think everybody knows some pieces of the Rattler story. He was a highly recruited high school player. He was on a Netflix documentary in which he did not come off well at all. He had a little bit of trouble toward the end of high school. Goes to Oklahoma and Caleb Williams goes to Oklahoma. He ends up transferring, going to South Carolina. I would tell you everybody that I've talked to through this process, other South Carolina players for instance, say that they've never seen any of that negative stuff on Spencer Rattler. The teams I've talked to, the NFL teams have said his interviews have been really good. He seems to have learned a lot.

He seems to have matured. And he played kind of only a series I believe. But he was the best quarterback out there in the Senior Bowl game. Led touchdown drive, had a beautiful touchdown pass.

You know those are those little types of things. Now I still don't know that Spencer Rattler plays his way into let's say being a day two pick or even a high day two pick. But I would not totally rule out somebody liking the upside because there are reasons he was recruited the way that he was.

There were a lot of circumstances involved. If he's got some of those things figured out from a leadership perspective and off the field and figuring out who he is, the talent's all there and maybe somebody takes a stab at him a little bit sooner than everybody's expecting. Is Drake May being overshadowed? Are we not talking about him enough? Well, I think that any time you've got a Caleb Williams, it's hard to talk a lot about the number two quarterback. Just like a couple of years ago, there was so much talk about Trevor Lawrence. I don't feel like we talked that much about Zach Wilson, even though coaches at the time, some of them would tell me Zach Wilson's tape last year was better than Trevor Lawrence's. Obviously, that bore out the way that it did.

But there's circumstances, Suzy, in all this stuff. I mean, think about the five quarterbacks that were taken at the top of that draft just back in 2021. It was Trevor Lawrence at number one who, you know, he's battled through a bunch of injuries over the last season here. There's been some inconsistencies in this play, but he's been probably exactly what we expected Trevor Lawrence to be, which is a good, solid quarterback who's going to make some plays, may not be spectacular, may not be the maximum homes. You absolutely can win with them in the NFL. Zach Wilson goes to the Jets.

There's all kinds of stuff going on there. You know, show some things early on, gets benched. It goes badly. They bring in Aaron Rodgers. He's supposed to sit for a year and learn. Instead, four snaps later, he gets forced out there. He actually played well the first six games last year. Zach Wilson played pretty well at times.

And then, obviously, he goes sideways. He gets benched multiple times. There's things written and said about him. His days are probably numbered now with the Jets, and they've granted him permission to seek a trade. Trey Lance, number three, already is not on the team that drafted him. He's now a Dallas Cowboy.

Justin Fields, quite possibly, is not going to be able to Chicago Bear much longer. He was drafted at number 11. And then, Mack Jones was the last one drafted, and we just talked about him being traded.

So, that's three years ago, Suzie. Four of the top five quarterbacks, by the time we get to this year's draft, probably are on different teams. That's how fickle, I think, all this stuff is when you're talking about the landing spots for quarterbacks.

There is a contextual piece of this. And so, for Drake May, I'm less concerned if I'm Drake May that, hey, why isn't anyone talking about me being the number one overall pick? We've been talking about Caleb Williams being the number one overall pick for two years now, going back to his freshman year at Oklahoma. With Drake May, obviously, he comes from an athletic family.

His brother is playing basketball. I stood next to him today. I had no idea how tall he was.

I hadn't seen him. His measurements, I guess, are going to be taken tomorrow. He is bigger than you think when you just stand next to him here, and he's got a really cool confidence about himself. I talked to some coaches last night who spent time with him in the formal interviews here. And they talk about, like, he kind of comes in, and he's got all this energy, and he wants to tell you all this stuff. And I've looked at your quarterbacks, and I know about this guy.

And they're just like, whoa, this is a lot. And I asked him about that today, and he said, yeah, that was the plan. I wanted to show him how much I want this thing. I also asked Drake May in our NFL Network interview, okay, make me the pitch.

This is a big organizational decision. Make me the pitch down the face of your franchise. And he talked through it and said, listen, I can win in every way. I can do it with my arm.

I can do it with my legs. And his best quote was, you don't want to game plan for me. You want to game plan with me. So Drake May certainly asserting himself as he goes into this process. Not going to throw out here, but he's going to do a ton at his pro day.

And it'll be fun to watch that one for sure. Sold. Bring him to New England, Tom. You like him? Let's go.

He looks good with holding the donkeys. Let's go. I already have, like, the Matt Jones 10 jersey for Cage. I can just put May over the top of Jones. Cutting pace, baby.

You don't have to change numbers. Save me some money. All right. Last question for you. What's the craziest thing you've heard yet at the combine?

That's a tricky one. I think that one of the interesting things, like the dynamics of how the combine has changed, is when they sort of changed up the cadence of it and had free agencies start, I want to say, a week later after the draft instead of starting right after, you stopped having teams float numbers. You stopped having anything, like, kind of progressing in terms of deals with free agents. Those meetings, if it's not your own free agents, aren't supposed to happen anyway.

They happen all over this city. But what teams don't want is agents to get a number and then go shopping around for a week and a half and then try to find something that's better here. So I think that you're going to see the trade market ramp up here even this coming week. Obviously, the franchise tag deadline is on Tuesday.

I know I've seen some things about who is and isn't getting tagged. I would just say there's a lot of things that are still possibilities as we run up here. There's a lot of teams that hope to get deals done. When the salary cap all of a sudden spikes up by $30 million in a year, those numbers where you thought you might be able to get long-term deals done now might be increasing by 10%, 12% from the agent's perspective. And there's teams like, for instance, the Colts, who have never used the franchise tag under Chris Ballard, who might now find themselves in a position where Michael Pittman is going to get paid if you don't tag him at a number that right now for wide receivers is like $10 million below where the wide receiver market on long-term deals is probably going to go in the coming months. Tom, you're the greatest.

Thank you so much for your time. If you see Rich with J.J. McCarthy, just make sure he keeps a respectable distance. You know what I mean? He went in for a hug yesterday. We were laughing. We said he might have lingered a little bit too long in a Seinfeld Larry- He's going to have to recuse himself.

Shouldn't he just have to like, you know, when it's J.J. McCarthy's throwing session, it's like, all right, D.J., I'm now legally required to turn it over to you. I mean, do you remember the old- Tom, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Talk to you later.

Thanks a lot. Do you remember? I was going to- then I'm like, I'm going to let him go. He's so busy. Do you remember in the olden days when Roger Clemens retired? Do you remember this?

Yeah, Susan Walden might have lost her mind. He's your friend! He's your friend!

Roger Clemens is in the box of George Steinbrenner! And she came out and she's like- and John Stern was like, Susan, shut up. But he was like, it was just so funny because- Like, calm down. She was like, he's your friend.

And that's what I think. I think Rich is going to be so verklempt when he sees McCarthy out there. I mean, Blake Hormy loves these guys so much. I mean, he was really caping for J.J. the other day, T.J. He's like taking it personally that someone called him lanky. I mean, that's not a bad thing.

Like, what are we doing? You know, were you surprised by that? Lanky. He's not lanky.

No, but he really- I don't know. I think if someone lanky, you need to be like 6'8 in your lanky. You're not 6'2 in lanky. You know who's lanky?

Winvin Yama. He's lanky. But he's muscly for lanky. I was thinking, I remember interviewing, what was his name? The Seven Foot- Sean Bradley. Rest in peace. No, he's still alive, bro. He is? He had a bike accident and he got paralyzed. I just killed Sean Bradley. I apologize.

Yeah, he is paralyzed, unfortunately. Oh, gosh. Well, I remember interviewing him for a piece and all the guys were coming to sit on the floor cross-legged. I don't remember.

It was the Sports Center piece. You never ask a 7'6 guy to go sit cross-legged on the floor. That's lanky.

That is lanky. We've got callers waiting for us. We're going to get to you after this break. But let's go to break. And when we come back, let's go to the phone lines. We've got things to talk about. Suzy Shuster in for Rich Eisen.

This is The Rich Eisen Show. Oh, absolutely. I can't wait. I'm excited.

Sign Hustlers makes its debut tonight on the Roku channel hosted by Ashley Graham. Let's take a little looksy, shall we? If you close your eyes and think about your future, what do you really want? We are really passionate about supporting women entrepreneurs.

But did you know that less than 2% of women-owned businesses get funding? Everything is on the line. I just can't let it die. I know that this is going to be successful. These hopeful entrepreneurs are ready to ditch their day jobs to build the businesses of their dreams.

I don't go to sleep. That's me. All signing for a life-changing investment from two of the world's top businesswomen. Hi. I'm truly freaking out. Every part of these businesses will be tested. Everything is fine.

Everything is not fine. You have to get the cost down. That's killing your business. Some will receive a life-changing investment.

I'm obsessed with Ashley Graham. She actually invested in a company worth half a billion dollars. Emma Greed has made a name for herself as a powerhouse entrepreneur. If these businesses have the potential, Emma and I are willing to put up a serious investment. We're looking for ideas, innovation, and potential for huge growth. This is business, baby. I'm just so excited about this. Let's get down to brass tacks. Whose business will flourish? It's really good. I like it.

And who will remain? I see so many holes. A side hustler. You've got to have thick skin to be an entrepreneur. And I just don't know if they have what it takes. Emma wants me to change the name of the company.

You have to shift your money. Psychology. I have three daughters and I'm not going to fail my kids. I'm rooting for her.

She just needs a little push. We have to decide if we're going to invest in your company. And you have to decide if you're going to quit your day job.

Wow. You're actually doing it. You're going to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. We just took a look at Side Hustlers, a new show that is debuting on the Roku channel. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network, by the way. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen. So Side Hustlers I thought was a great idea because Mike Del Tufo's got a side hustle and he's here and leaving all the time.

He posed us in the middle of Hour 3 yesterday. So I thought, Mikey, this might be a new show for you, Side Hustle. Perfect show. Plus Hot Chicks.

Whoa, I'm in. What? They're Hot Chicks?

It's Ashley Graham. Yeah. Right?

Suzy's right. This is my side hustle, right? Exactly. You've got to always have one.

You've got to have a side hustle, Mikey. I agree. I'm with you here, by the way. Exactly. But I like it when you stay for all three hours.

I'm here all three hours. I like to see it. See?

Fantastic. We've got callers, people, because I love callers. Let's go first.

Who's been holding the longest? Shane and Boulder. What you got for me, Shane?

Shane. How are you? Hey, how's it going? Haven't called in a long time. Big Bears fan. What's up, dude?

But got to say, if the Bears draft Caleb Williams, I'm done. Why? Wait, what? What do you mean? Are you serious? Yeah. Are you serious? I'm dead serious.

Why? Go look at Matt. Go look at Matt Leinart's stats and compare them to Caleb Williams and tell me they're not the same player. Matt Leinart got hurt when he was in Arizona. I mean, Caleb Williams behind a Bears maybe decent offensive line, terrible at pass blocking, going to get destroyed.

I got to tell you, I got to push back, Shane, and thanks so much for your call. I covered Matt Leinart at USC and watched every single game of his. You can't... These are apples and oranges. I mean, Matt's not a mobile quarterback like that. I mean, this kid makes moves that are Mahomes-ish.

And I just think... I understand numbers, but we're talking about game tape. And I mean, I don't see any comparison other than the fact that they both played at the Coliseum. Chris?

Yeah, I don't see it. TJ, I felt like Matt Leinart was kind of a lawn deer compared to Caleb Williams. This guy can make plays with his feet, off-schedule throws.

I don't think they're the same player at all. What do we just... USC Heisman Trophy winner? That's what we're doing? Yeah. I mean, there's your comparison. I think Matt was one of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time when you don't disagree with that.

Don't disagree with that, yeah. Caleb's more, I think, slightly more athletic than Matt and more mobile. Matt plus Matt is 6'5", 6'6".

Caleb's like 6'1". 6'1"? Yeah.

6'1-and-a-half-ish on a good day? Yeah. Yeah. So... Matt was more of a prototypical big quarterback, sees over the line, accurate passing. He was, in the best way, a great game manager. Really smart on the field. Had great vision.

He didn't make mistakes. He played outstanding. Had a great line. You know? It was awesome. Yeah. I mean, that was a really fun moment. There you go.

How about this? Also, Susie, here's a little thing. After Matt Leinart won the Heisman, I asked him to take a picture with me while we're doing the pose, and he was like, you're actually the first person asking me to do this. Really? So I have that with Matt.

Yeah, we have a picture of us striking the Heisman pose about two weeks after he won it. So we're college rushing stats, minus 70, Kayla Williams, 966. Matt wasn't bad. Different players.

Matt didn't need to run. He had Reggie Bush and Lindell back. Lindell White. Lindell White. Oh yeah.

Lindell White was a big guy. True. True, true, true. And again, I hate when game management gets misrepresented. To me, that's what a quarterback should do.

I feel like that's become one of those things that people throw around to denigrate a player or a position. What's the opposite of game manager then? People say it all the time, but okay, so if you're not a game manager, then what are you? No one has an answer. Well, that's a fascinating question. So this word, this phrase that gets thrown out like it's a negative, I don't ever look at that.

You're a game cashier or something? Yeah, I don't ever look at that as a negative. And while I totally appreciate Shane's call, I just feel like, okay, they both played at the Coliseum. They're both Heisman Trophy quarterbacks.

I mean, Scarlet. He may not be the only Bears fan that feels that way. There might be a lot of Bears fans who don't want Caleb Williams. They want him to take Marvin Harrison and keep Fields or trade down or who knows, take one of these other kids.

I don't know. But Chris, I bring this up a lot. If you're a Bears fan, right, are you willing to take the chance that another Mahomes slips through your hands? Just to see Justin Fields, I think, is going to be a good NFL player. By all accounts, people are saying Caleb Williams could be special. So are you willing to let that go through your fingers again a la Mitch Trubisky or you? Right. I think it's almost worth it to take the chance because if Caleb Williams goes on to become a Mahomes, then the Bears fans are just besides themselves. We'll ask Rich what he thinks when he joins us in the next hour.

We'll ask Marshall Faulk as well and we'll talk to him about this continual denigration of the running back position. Look at that picture. I also think... Look at that picture.

I was just going to say, I like that one. Oh yeah. He took that yesterday. He sent me a bunch of beauty shots he took yesterday, by the way. Beauty shots. He did. I love it. He did.

He did. There's a set up there in Indy where you can go kind of like the Vanity Fair party in Los Angeles for the Oscar awards. They have... We've never been to those. We've never been to those, so we don't get the invite. But I've seen pictures. Let me casually drop.

Yeah, talk down to our level. Let me casually drop that they hire people like Andy Leibovitz to shoot all these pretty people. Now, I don't think Andy Leibovitz showed up in Indy today or yesterday.

Great use of her time. More like Ben Leibenberg. Ben Leibenberg, I was going to say. That's Ben. He's the official photographer of the NFL, Ben, our buddy. Well, he's fantastic. I have a bunch of his pictures, and they're gorgeous. Maybe he is the guy that shot those yesterday.

Looks like a Ben shot. Rich did send me like seven or eight different poses. I'm just saying.

You look very handsome. We run through all these in the break. Yeah. You want him? You would figure that he would send them to the guys who we put them on social media. Smitch got them.

Well, me and Brock did. Yeah. Smitch obviously got them. Why don't I send them to you? We can break them down. I don't want them now.

It's a beautiful picture. You don't want to come in last. He's like Randy Moss waiting for Brady to throw him the ball. Chris, he's open right now. I'm shocked he's not wearing those Michigan dunks.

That's true. Well, he wore gray. He did the right thing.

I think he looks great, guys. Now, let's cut him a break for all those people out. No, all these people like... Susie hoses her husband on TV all the time.

He's coming up next. Movies, TV shows, books, podcasts, and more. It's What Women Binge with Melissa Joan Hart and her friend Amanda Lee. We have Lauren Bosworth with us.

Yay. The Hills. So what is your number one question from fans? The primary question I still get asked was, is it real? In 2024, to me, is a surprising question to get because I feel like everybody has been through the reality TV gauntlet at this point. At What Women Binge, wherever you listen.