Dion Dawkins: NFL Olinemen sigh relief as Aaron Donald retires

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See terms at discover.com slash credit card. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Kirk Morrison. Buckle up, he's gonna put on a show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. What steals the show is when Del Tuco just left. The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guests, Bill's offensive tackle, Deion Dawkins. Senior Steelers writer for the athletic, Mark Cavalli. Plus, senior NBA writer for the ringer, Howard Beck. And now, filling in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. Hi, welcome in Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison here on a Friday March 15th. That is my new open, by the way. I've been trying to figure out ways to how do you start a show. Everyone has their own specific way so I'm working through it. If you liked it, please let me know. Give me all the feedback as well. But, hud hud, hi, how we doing as always. Rich is out today.

I'm in for Rich. Can't wait to spend the next three hours with you guys and talk a lot of sports. More importantly, football, which has been at the top of mine. But first of all, introduce my guys as always. Great to see you, Brockman.

Thank you. Kirk, what's up brother, man? Been a long time. Good to see you, man.

We'll get into that a little bit. Del Tuco, great to see you. Good to see you, my friend.

And TJ, man. Great to see you. You got the oils and candles and all that going. You know, it's the atmosphere over here.

Yes, Mr. Herbal Essence himself is in the middle of that. But last time I saw you guys, we were in passing at the Mandalay Bay at the Super Bowl. We were walking in, you were chilling outside, laying on the car. Yeah, you know, it was one of those things, and look, I just always love to tell people like the stories of like of Super Bowl or big events. It was one of those things where it's like, hey, bud, and we're, you know, you shake hands, you say what's up, knowing that I may not see you the rest of the week, but it was like, hey, we're going to try.

It won't happen. But it was like it was like a hello and goodbye at the same timeline. Yo, what's up? Oh, great to see you. What do you got this week?

What you got this week? All right, all right. I see. OK, we're going to get you. All right, let's meet up here. Let's do that. Let's link. Let's link. We never going to link. And I was like, first time we linked since then.

That's it. That's what happens. It's like we all have great intentions of hanging out, seeing each other, but in a whirlwind of a week, man, it was just great to see you guys. And it was like for a second. Yeah, it was like, you know what? I'm glad that we did meet.

I'm glad that we did see each other, because if if we hadn't passed by each other, we wouldn't have seen each other the whole week. Right. Exactly.

Because it was a great time, by the way. I know you guys have already talked about it. The Las Vegas Super Bowl.

Yes, they are now on the list. Roger Goodell, let's go ahead and do that again, right? Like, let's keep it moving.

Yeah, keep it moving. I was saying like, let's just do it every year. Making a residency in the other city that has the Super Bowl.

I don't care about any of these other cities. We got Vegas. We got all the hotels. We got all the restaurants. We got all the shows. Throw a little craps on top of it.

Let's get to work. Super Bowl residency. That's what it is.

Fire playing craps one night. Oh, really? So that's why he wants to. Yeah. Wow. See, we had a 40 minute heater.

Wow. We weren't allowed. I wasn't allowed.

Yeah, you can. I was not allowed. I was not allowed.

I was not allowed to partake in some of the gambling in Las Vegas. I had to keep it, you know, because when you're that close to the teams and obviously you've been in the locker room with a lot of the guys and the media days and the behind the scenes had a couple of great sit downs, you know, with general manager John Lynch. And I believe so it's like I can't, you know, partake in the game because I'm too close to the game. You're on the inside. I wouldn't say on the inside, but I was very close. Very close.

He plays those underground games. We understand. No, man. But it's been it's been it was great to see you guys then.

Great to be here now, especially in this week, because this is the week that you've finally people had to put their money where their mouth is. One thing that I hate and my my my my mom always says, you don't don't use that word hate. But I hate it sometimes. I hate speculation. Speculation is a monster, man. Speculation is it can just eat away at you because we're in an age now in media where everybody has not just an opinion, but they also have either a source or a thought. And sometimes people's thoughts get taken as factual evidence of what may happen. Can I throw in there? They also have an outlet, unfortunately. Yes, they do.

To project those. So that so if someone goes out and they message out, I'm hearing player X to this particular team. Oh, that just raises everybody's like, what did you hear that? Did you hear this?

Did you hear this? Trust me. A lot of reason why I know this is because I have civilian guys who are in my group chat. And they were like, man, saw her. We get in such a I'm like, who did you hear that from?

Like, please tell me. Oh, yeah, I saw it on the net. I said, quit believing if it don't come from our group of guys. Right. And I think we should have our maybe we should do that a little bit later today. I know we got a long show coming out, a long show, but we got a great show coming up. All right. Talked about the guest Dion Dawkins coming up in about, what, about 25, but about 35 minutes. Dion Dawkins left tackle for the Buffalo Bills.

He had a interesting X. We call it now a tweet. We won't have it. Oh, we don't have it.

It's just forever, baby. Okay, let's make sure I'm gonna call them Twitter. We're gonna call it Twitter. Okay, I'm gonna call them. Okay, there we go.

So he had an amazing tweet. We'll talk to him. Mark Kabali will talk about my new favorite team in the NFL this year. We'll talk about that. I'm just saying my new favorite team to watch. They're not my team. We're gonna talk some Steelers. Oh, we're gonna talk some Steelers. Here we go. And Howard Beck, just to get me caught up, because I do need to get some of my NBA news in now, because I'm not looking at the NBA for about two, three weeks.

Let's just be honest. I'm not watching NBA for about two or three weeks after this weekend, till playoffs. So NCAA tournament is going on and I just got to get my news in now. My first time with the BPR, Brockman's Powerless rankings. Yeah, that'll be coming up in the next segment, BPR.

And I got something later in the show too. My top five games that I cannot wait to see next season, pre-draft. We're already looking ahead. Oh, you have to start looking ahead. And then you're gonna have to redo this after the draft too.

So you're gonna come back. I have a buddy of mine in my group chat who's already booked his hotel for New Orleans. He's a Ravens fan.

Oh, so he's suing the Ravens. He's all in. He's all in. He's like, oh, he's showing me, hey, Kurt, you think the Hilton is a better hotel?

Because the Marriott's already sold out. I'm like, bro, you already thinking this is what it's going to be, but yeah. So I have friends who are already in the know. That is amazing. If I'm a Ravens fan, I'm feeling good though. You got to feel good. But that's the queen is gone though. I get it. But you know, this is what everybody's saying.

Yeah. We traded a queen for a king. That is the Ravens mantra right now.

That is on t-shirts. We traded a queen for a king. This is what I love about having fandom from everywhere. Having fandom from all. I got a buddy who's a Dolphins fan. Buddy who's a Patriots fan. Buddy who's a Niners fan.

So we get perspective from everybody. And the perspective is like everyone feels like they've got an opportunity. They've got a chance, right? And free agency this week fellas has kind of presented that to us. Free agency has given us that opportunity that you feel that at the moment, man, my team got better today.

My team is now so much better. And then just when you think like, oh, okay, I can relax. I can't relax. Here I am last night. I've got OKC in Dallas on in the background.

I'm typing up my show, kind of run down, going through my thoughts. And all of a sudden, our guy, one of the old school insiders, decides to just drop some little scoopage on us. Scoopage.

We haven't seen scoopage in a while. And that's what I love about, see, I can go off on all these different tangents, but shout out to our guy, Jay Glazer. Yeah, man. See, Jay Glazer. And I remember I asked Jay, I said, Jay, man, you kind of got out of the insider business, man, you kind of got out of, you know, dropping the bombs on us. He was like, I come in when I need to.

He said that. And so last night, Jay Glazer had to let everybody know I'm still in the game, but I'm not in the game as much as you thought I was. He went out there, just dropped a little bit.

You know, he just sprinkled a little bit on us and said, I've got scoopage. That was the big trade last night. The Los Angeles Chargers are trading Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears for a fourth round pick. Now, I had a chance to catch up with Keenan Allen at the Pro Bowl.

Okay. And we had the conversation and you can tell, he was like, he understands the business. He's been in his league a long time, man.

Once you get to 10 plus years, it's like, we understand that the loyalty kind of goes out, especially with the new regime coming in, right? Jim Harbaugh, you know, head coach, Joe Hortis, their new general manager. They're going to do things a little bit differently, but to see that now Keenan Allen will go to the Chicago Bears. Everybody's already thinking out loud.

Wow. Look at the weapons for Caleb Williams. Like, everybody's already saying that Justin Fields is already gone. And for all the people right now who are not necessarily golf fans, go watch TPC from yesterday.

They have the Ponte Vedra, the Players Championship. Caleb Williams was there yesterday watching a group of, what is he watching? Roy McElroy, Victor Hovland, and Justin. Jordan Spieth. Jordan Spieth yesterday.

So I watched some of the video. Caleb Williams is already accepting he's going to be a Chicago Bear. Like everybody's walking around and they say, Caleb, hey, go Bears. And what is Caleb Williams doing? I appreciate it.

Thank you. He's already accepting of, yes, he's going to be a Chicago Bear. It may not happen. And I know people out there say the Bears are getting all of this talent now for Justin Fields. And I'm like, nah, Caleb Williams has already got something going on. We got Breaking News.

We got Sounders. I love this. This is live radio at its finest. I'm going to let you handle it. Go ahead. Do your thing.

What you got? This is actually shocking. Okay. Hold on. Let me get ready because this is Breaking News.

I got to get ready for this because this is raw emotion, raw reaction. And this is real. According to Adam Schefter, it just happened. Future first Ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Donald has announced his retirement. Wow.

And it's not according to Schefti. I believe this is on Donald's Twitter account. Wow. Aaron Donald tweeted out, cheers to what's next. Extending a big thank you to the Rams and all the fans for your support over these last 10 years. Much love. Wow. And then he has a whole statement on it.

He has a big statement on his Twitter. Thanks to the fans of St. Louis. Thanks to Los Angeles.

His shirt was holding the Lombardi Trophy. The Cronkey family. Wow. And as you just said that, I just got the email from Los Angeles Rams Communications. Wow. The email just popped up. This is a real thing.

Yeah, the email just got into my inbox right here. And the header is legends live forever. The Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald announces retirement. The Los Angeles Rams All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald has announced his retirement. Donald was, wow, look at the little, you hear that? The was, the past tense, was a three-time AP defensive player of the year, eight-time All-Pro, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection, the NFL's defensive rookie of the year, and a Super Bowl champion during his illustrious 10-year NFL career. Wow. That's huge. That's a big one.

That is the... Dang. Wow. Greatest defensive tackle ever? Greatest defensive tackle ever.

I think we can all put that in there. I've been a big fan of Aaron Donald for a very long time. That's shocking. Shocking?

It's shocking because... It seems that the Rams are trending, they're back. They were back.

Made the playoffs last year, almost won a playoff game. You know, honestly, this is a lot to really kind of digest, only because I'm the radio broadcast pregame, halftime, and postgame for the Rams. This is what I've been doing since they moved back to Los Angeles. I started this in 2016, and I've been kind of on this ride, this journey with Aaron Donald. I even tell you, you know what? I got to take a break.

I got to take a break. Only because there's a lot to... Because I actually started my broadcasting career on television, NFL game on Fox, and I have an Aaron Donald story. And these are the stories where you're never surprised why some players are great, why some players are special, why some players are always at the top of their game. So I'll get to that story next.

My BPR, Brockman's powerless rankings. I can't wait. We'll get to that next segment. But more on the breaking news of Aaron Donald, future hall of famer, future first ballot hall of famer, Aaron Donald, announcing his retirement. Just when you thought the news would slow down, boom, right back at you. More Rich Eisen Show coming up next. Limitations apply.

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You need Indeed. I'll never forget my first big slick when I came here and it was Royals versus Tigers. Gene Lamont strolls out to the third base coaching box. I'm standing in the dugout with the rest of you guys. And then you start getting on this gentleman.

You didn't do a thing. You just strolled out to his position. And then you guys start screaming.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. Gene Lamont made the sorry mistake of standing in front of us. The name Lamont is so fun to scream. And I didn't realize it until Will Ferrell started screaming. Hey, Lamont! See?

It just rolls. And you go, this is Bush League, Lamont! And he just got on him. And so when he started, we all started. And then it just became a never ending. For the entire ending, we would just scream at him.

Nothing terrible because we're not rude and we're not tacky. But it was just, this is Bush League, Lamont. What are you doing, Lamont?

Take that stuff back to Detroit, Lamont. Finally, I think it was year two of writing. Somebody had whispered in his ear, by the way, there's Will Ferrell and these guys were in there and they're giving you a hard time. And so finally, because all we wanted was him to acknowledge us. I don't know, it was like seventh inning of the second. He turned around and just looked at us and gave him a head nod. And it was as if we won the World Series.

We started screaming and jumping up and down and we were waving our hat in the air. We go out and sing the seventh inning stretch, take me out to the ball game. And we end it now. We end the song with Gene Lamont. Is that going to happen tonight? That's going to happen tonight.

It's tradition. But when he used to come out, we used to sing like the Death Star March, like the Darth Vader. We'd go, Gene Lamont, Gene Lamont.

Oh, Gene Lamont, Gene Lamont, Gene Lamont. Anything we could, nothing. He gave us nothing. But now he's a royal, so we embrace him with open arms. Now it's all about love.

Before it was harassment. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, Kirk Boorstin here filling in for Rich and The Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Sorry, I'm sitting at Rich's desk, which is the desk furnished by Grainger, by the way. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Well, our show rundown, let's just rip it up because of the breaking news that we got to, wow, just a couple of minutes ago. Adam Schefter reporting that Aaron Donald, the future Hall of Famer is now retired.

This is Aaron Donald's statement. Cheers to what's next. Extending a big thank you to the Rams and all of the fans for your support over these last 10 years. Much love. Wow.

This is a lot, a lot to really kind of break down. I would say this, man, 10 years ago, I retired from the NFL. No, no, a little bit. Yeah, about 10 years. So in 2013 is I retired from the NFL and I knew I was going to get into broadcast and I had already started my journey. And 2014, the people over at Fox gave me the opportunity to call games, to be a broadcaster. I wasn't on the Buckman and Aikman team.

I was on like the 17 though. But my shout out to my guy, Dick Stockton, right? He was my play-by-play. And I remember we got our first broadcast, our first game.

It was Vikings at St. Louis Rams. And so here I am, I'm wide-eyed, just out of the league. I'm about to call a game and I'm doing all my research and everything. And so when you go do these games, you get there a couple days before. So I'm in St. Louis and we ride over to the Rams football facility. Well, we got over to the facility, you know, meeting with head coach, Jeff Fisher, no less need general manager. And we were having meetings before the team went out to practice a little bit later on. And if we wanted to watch practice, we could, it's a Friday practice. And I said, what time is practice today, coach? And I remember he said, oh, practice today is at, I think I wanted to say practice started at about 11 o'clock. So we're having meetings at about 9, 9.30. But in the conference room that we had the meetings in, it overlooked the practice field. And so I said, okay, cool. So we had a meeting. And then after that, there was this player out there on the field.

There was nobody out there. And he's out there full uniform working. I'm talking about hitting moves, hitting the bags. I'm like, okay. So you see the young guy out there getting in some work. And then he was out there for such a long time. And I'm like, practice is until 11.

It's 9.30 now, 10 o'clock. And then I remember I said, coach, which player is that? He said, that's Aaron Donald. And everybody was just like, yeah, he's different. I was like, how different? He's different. And I'm like, whoa.

And I saw it then. And you wonder why some guys are great. You wonder why some players are special. You wonder why you have the accolades of three time defensive player of the year. And I feel like I had an up close and personal, I saw what it looked like.

I knew what it looked like. And then all of a sudden he got, remember, he didn't even start in the beginning. They actually did not start Aaron Donald as a rookie in the early part. He worked his way into the rotation and then they just couldn't keep him off the field. And I'll never forget that moment of seeing this young player rookie out working. I mean, he's out there where, let me think, his defensive line had Robert Quinn and Chris Long. And this dude is just scrapping, trying to find a way.

Michael Brockers was on there. I mean, he's just trying to say, hey, I belong. Let me show what you guys, what I can do. And Aaron Donald has just had, he's got moments, right? He's got plays, sealing an NFC championship game against the 49ers, making the play to end the Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals. He's got moments. And to think that he was in his 10th year this year and to see not one, not two, but sometimes three offensive linemen committed to blocking number 99 upfront. This is one of the game's best players. I think I'm more upset because that we don't get a chance to see greatness.

What hard work is. Aaron Donald at training camp this year, having to talk to him, this was going to be different for him. This was going to be, the Rams were considered a rebuild this year. They drafted 14 players and they were saying, hey, Aaron Donald, Papa Smurf, we need you to help us out.

We need you to go help and bring these young guys along. And there was a point in this season where the Rams didn't look like they were going to have much of a season. I want to say they were about three and six. They go to a bye week or something like around there. And then all of a sudden, something changed after a bye week, after I lost to Green Bay and they went on the streak. And I remember at the end of the season, I had told my partner, I said, do you see that?

And he said, well, see what? And there was a picture of Aaron Donald or a video of Aaron Donald walking off the sideline with the younger guys, skipping and laughing. And he had a joy about him that I said, hopefully this gives us two or three more years of Aaron Donald because he's found that new joy.

What energizes you? Because we always ask a lot of these guys, especially as kind of bringing this back to free agency a little bit, fellas, a lot of guys get these big contracts. A lot of guys have won Super Bowls, have accomplished a lot in their career. So what drives you? You've already won everything. That's what made Aaron Donald for me so special was that here watching him in year 10 at Rams training camp, practice starts one o'clock.

Guess who was out there at 1130? In full gear, a guy who's been to 10 Pro Bowls, all pro every year, three time defensive player of the year, but his work ethic never changed. His number of defense, the amount of money that he gets paid is now the standard for defensive linemen that they can't touch that. People keep saying, oh, it's not Aaron Donald money, but he's getting closer. He has set the standard. And again, I think I'm just more, I'm hurt because I want to see more of it because more players need to see the example that Aaron Donald led. And man, I just, I'm thankful for the time of watching him.

I really am. His pro football reference page, guys, he played 10 years. He made the Pro Bowl all 10 years. He made seven first team, all pros in a row from 2015 to 2021, then made first team all pro this past year, TJ at age 32.

He has 111 career sacks as a defensive tackle. Yes. Insane. Insane.

Yeah. You know, I think, Kirk, like you talk about his work ethic from Pittsburgh and one of my best friends works for the Post Gazette. It's not Ed Bouchet, though.

It's not everyone. So I was aware of Aaron Donner back in like 2008, 2009, when he was a high school kid at Penn Hills and Penn State. And the stories that you read about him, you know, at 12 years old, he'd wake up at four thirty in the morning with his dad and go work out in the basement gym that his dad made for him.

So that work ethic you talk about, that was instilled really, really early in his life. And he just continued it on all the way until, I'm sure yesterday, where hopefully he decided to maybe have a cheat day, as they say, take a break. I don't know if there's a cheat day.

I don't know if there was a cheat day with Aaron Donald. I still have never seen a guy who's 285, 90 plus pounds with a chiseled six pack the way that I do. Dude, he's like a pro wrestler. Like that is different.

You know what I mean? And they also, I think they renamed the weight room at Pittsburgh is like the Aaron Donald weight room. And I understand why the Aaron Donald weight room, because how much time he spent in it. But man, it's just, you know, it's just these certain players you just like, man, you watch and you see and you're like, man, like, that's what made him great. We watch basketball players and it's always about the shots and they make it look easy. But yet when you think about it, how difficult it truly is though. Like Steph Curry can make it look easy, but the amount of work that he put into that, we don't see those hours, those countless hours. Whereas like I saw that Aaron Donald stuff and I'm like, I understand why. Like I truly understand why. I mean, many times just posted, you know, kind of a congratulations. And then it was just four pictures of him getting triple teamed.

It's just four pictures of him getting triple teamed. And that's how you had to block this guy. Cause if you had to, if you didn't, he was going to blow up your backfield. That, I mean, the, I remember Sean McVay said we, in order for us to have a good practice offensively, we actually had to make Aaron Donald sit out drills. Like, think about that. Like, Hey, big dog, we need you to sit this one out. We're trying to work on some stuff. We got some things we want to accomplish.

We're trying to work on this and you're blowing it up, man. I mean, the Rams just tweeted out a picture, quarterbacks rejoice. Quarterbacks rejoice. I would say that his own offensive lineman for his team rejoiced and look at Kyler Murray has chimed in.

All caps. Thank God. That is incredible. I think that was one of the quarterbacks that he sacked. No, Russell Wilson also was another one of those guys.

Oh, long time. NFC West has doing it. We got him. We got him.

We got, oh man. I noticed his late notice, but super bowl champion for the Rams, DeMarco Farr played the same position, the defensive tackle position for the Rams. He covers the Rams now as their sideline analyst for the Rams radio network. And he's joining the program right now. Sorry to wake you up so early this morning, DeMarco, but no one had a better seat to the career of Aaron Donald and from St. Louis to Los Angeles, the super bowls, the pro everything.

Your perspective is one that I think people just need to hear. And you were there for it. So when you heard the news that Aaron Donald announces his retirement, DeMarco kind of take me through your emotions. Man, I'm shocked. I'm out for a walk.

I do my walk every day, but my phone starts ringing off the hook and they start saying, you know, your boy, AD, your boy AD. And I'm thinking, they're talking about the Lakers retired and I'm like, what? He retired. Didn't he just restructure his deal?

So you can start finding some of these guys. You can make another run at the super bowl and then he's done. So I'm, I'm shocked. I still don't believe it. If he's done then salute, in my opinion, nobody better. It's him.

And it's Reggie white. Everyone else takes a back seat to those two guys. So if he's done, he's done everything. Salute, retire, have a good retirement. I'm still trying to process this whole thing.

I am shocked by it right now. You know, DeMarco, you had a chance to see him when he first came in. What stood out to you about Aaron Donald when you first saw him? Oh, Kirk, day one, it was day one, like his first practice rep. He blew up the field, blew up the play, and he didn't stop from there. You know, some guys slash, like Kobe Turner, it took him a while to get going in practice.

It took him a while to get going in game. With Aaron, it was day one, it was immediate, and it never stopped. You've seen a lot of, you've seen every play of Aaron Donald's career.

Which is the one that stands out to you the most? Well, I heard you guys talking about Russell Wilson. Yes. To me, Aaron absolutely ruined him. Really did.

Wow. It was just maniacal the way he went after Russell. It seemed like something personal, like between just those two guys. But watching him go after Russell, watching him go after every single quarterback in this division has been fun to watch. But my favorite play, this is going to sound grotesque. New Orleans came to town, Drew Brees was still their quarterback, and Aaron Donald gave Drew Brees a high five and broke his thumb. I thought that was phenomenal. That was phenomenal. He just caught the thumb, like Drew Brees was coming through, Aaron took his hand up, and it's like he hit a brick wall, and his thumb stayed, and the rest of his hand kept going. So just watching him do stuff like that over and over and over and over again, tremendous. The other thing, up in Seattle, you've seen this video a thousand times, when he puts the helmet on after the game and goes after Justin Britt. I thought that was funny as hell. I'll remember that one. The game was over, everybody, he puts his helmet on and starts running after him, man.

Oh yeah, no, no, no. The clock read zero. The game wasn't over. The game wasn't over until Aaron went out there and corrected what went wrong in that game.

And believe me, Justin Britt deserved every bit of that. Ah, man. Demarco, the last one for you.

I know you're out there on your walk, man. We appreciate the time, but you know, well, you mentioned already Reggie White, Aaron Donald, but when you think about Aaron Donald, his size, the speed, his strength, like they didn't make defensive tackles this way. So I think that he also kind of had to overcome what people thought he couldn't be, and he outperformed everybody. Well, what they call undersized, we call perfect.

And I've had conversations with Aaron about this. Being six foot one for draft stock, when they're measuring you, weighing you and all that stuff for the combine, it's a detriment. You seem short, you seem undersized, but as a player, a defensive tackle, six one is actually an advantage.

You got to come down here to block me. If you're six, six, six, seven, you got to fold that big body down to catch me. And I'm rocking it off the ball.

I'm flying off the football. I am tough to defend at this height. So if you add super quickness, you add intelligence, a high football IQ to a super strong individual, a super humble individual, you got somebody that's almost unblockable. And that's what we saw for Aaron Donald's career.

That's exactly what he saw. He used his height, his weight, his speed to his advantage with that football IQ and that superhuman strength. That's why he was so good or as good as we, we saw him for his career. Well, now we have to wait till 2029 until he's inducted into the pro football hall of fame.

So he'll wait his five years, but he's a first ballot hall of famer for sure. And DeMarco, we appreciate the time, man. I know it was last minute, but I want to thank you and enjoyed the walk brother. We'll catch up soon. You got it, man. Talk to you soon.

All right. That was a super world champion with the Rams DeMarco for talking about Aaron Donald. I mean, he saw it right there. I mean, he was the guy who I was telling you when I first got to the meetings, he was like, that's different. And this was a guy who played his position, who played DeMarco played on the greatest show on turf. So he was that rookie that came in and had to be, you know, you know, had to show everybody I'm, I'm, I'm a part of that. I can be here and get Aaron Donald from day one.

That's just a lot to, a lot to get to in terms of that. I'm thinking about a poll question. If I do it best defensive player since 2000, what's the list? Aaron Donald, JJ Watt. Who are the other two? Aaron Donald, JJ since 2000?

Since 2000. Aaron Donald, JJ best defensive players or defense alignment? That's a player. I was going to put defensive player, but okay.

I got throw Darryl Revis in there. I was going to, that was, that was my third choice. And who's our fourth? Our fourth from 2000? 2000.

I've been this century, 2000 on. Troy Polamalu? That's a good one.

I mean, yeah. Ed Reed. Ray Lewis. Yeah.

That's a good one. Well, Ray Lewis was already drafted. We're talking about players who were drafted 2000 and after.

Oh, you're saying draft. I thought you meant just players who were drafted 2000. That's Troy Polamalu.

Drafted after 2000. That's Ed Reed. That is JJ and JJ. Donald, Darryl Revis. Who else?

Man. Is it too early to start putting the younger guys in, the TJ Watts? Is it too early? Ooh. You know what I mean?

Too early? I mean, those are okay. Just make sure. These guys have Super Bowl. JJ Watt doesn't have a Super Bowl, but Revis was on the Pats team.

I got you. Donald's Super Bowl. Ed Reed, Super Bowl. All right, I want to hold this, man. We put that out there.

We're going to put it out there for everybody to respond to. Troy Polamalu or Ed Reed? I know. It's like choosing your favorite son. Yeah.

Everybody has their own flavor, man. I got to, I'll talk about that. I kind of mean Ed, TJ, tiebreaker?

I mean, I'm a Troy guy, but I love Ed too. Yeah. All right. We got to hold it. We got to hold it.

I don't want to keep my man Dion. We didn't go to Troy Polamalu's Hall of Fame party. That's all I'm saying. There you go. All right, we got to go.

We got to go. We got to get to Dion Dawkins. Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins coming up next right here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. Named one of the best personal finance podcasts, The Stagging Benjamin Show with Joe and his friends makes financial literacy fun. I got an email today from the LenPenzo.com HR department. I find it really interesting. I'm an employee of one at this company. So, but somebody from the HR department sent me an email telling me that I had a raise, but I just opened the attachment.

I could see how much my raise was. Make sure you click on the links that are in there too. Oh, absolutely.

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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. What is the furthest you've ever thrown a football, Josh? The furthest was in Wyoming.

So I did get a little assistance from the elevation, yes. But it was right around 83 yards. Right around 83. Yeah. Are we rounding up or are we rounding down at the 83, Josh?

We are probably rounding up just a little bit, but yeah, 83 was, that was the number. So I don't know, am I looking up to see if you're playing in Denver at all so you can play, you can get a little bit of some altitude. Can you do that in an NFL game, you think? I mean, there was one game, I think it was my rookie year against the Dolphins. I threw a ball, getting near as hard as I can. And my receiver was 60, 70 yards down the field and I overthrew him just by a little bit. You air-pailed him. I did. And that was just one of those, like, I didn't feel like I threw it as hard as I could, but my hip fired so hot and it just came out of my hand extremely well and it was spinning.

And it was a little warm in Miami, so it might've flown a little farther, but it's just one of those that just kind of even blew me off guard. So something I've toned down a little bit though, and I feel like I've got a little more control on my ball right now. Understood.

No, accuracy is something that you definitely have improved on as we have seen. So let's just walk me through this at some point during a game in your career. Let's just say it could even happen this weekend against New England where you have to throw a Hail Mary to win it. At what yardage do you say to your coach, I still got this. Give it to me. Your own what? I know I can get the ball in the air and get it probably a good four or five yards even. I'm probably around the 35. Your own 35? Yeah. Okay. Because you're probably going to have to avoid a rush a little bit, even if they're coming at you with three man, you're going to have to roll out a little bit. So right around your own 30 something yard line, you can get it in there. You think so?

Yeah, I think so. Unbelievable. Back here on the Rich Eyes show, Kirk Borson here filling in for Rich. Man, still digesting the news about Aaron Donald.

He's released a couple of video on his Instagram. I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but just was showing a lot of the memories for him as a Ram and a lot of the accolades that he has now picked up over his illustrious career. Dion Dawkins left tackle for the Buffalo Bills should be joining us momentarily. But just when you get that kind of news of a player like Aaron Donald retiring, I know it does send shockwaves throughout the National Football League, because it's not like he walked away because I felt like the team had to release him or he was a diminishing player. Yeah, you're not watching tape coming.

No, you're like he walked away because he wanted to walk away. He was first team all pro last year. I remember watching recently. I'm getting caught up, fellas, on a lot of the movies, documentaries and stories that I couldn't watch during football season. So I try to get it caught up in the off season. I just had a chance to finally watch the Barry Sanders documentary about kind of why Barry retired. And you kind of watch it and you go through sort of his life and things who we are. And you realize, like, what our perception of Barry is, we are.

And you realize, like, what our perception for some players is totally different than what the player is really all about. Like watching that Barry Sanders, like, I'm not about records. I just want to go play. I don't need the limelight. I don't need the cameras in my face.

And this was pre social media and all that. It was like, I just want to go play. Just get me out there. Let me go do my thing. And he walked away because he just said, hey, it was time. I just was ready to go.

I was done. I don't know, Aaron Donald and he'll probably have a press conference to announce all of this. But Aaron Donald, one of the best defensive tackles ever in the National Football League. And I know our next guest is probably happy as a offensive lineman in the National Football League left tackle for the Buffalo Bills. Dion Dawkins joined us. Dion, just your reaction, Dion. Man, when you hear that Aaron Donald retiring from the National Football League, your thoughts as a current player. You know what?

My thoughts go all over the place, brother. I'm sitting here with AJ Ebenessa and he just broke out the news, which he just gave the head nod. And he said, AD, I retired. And I was like, man, I kind of knew it was going to happen because eventually, who wants to get triple team and double team over and over and over and over and over, man? Does nobody want to get triple team and double team for years and years and years and years like so.

But either way, great player. As a competitor, I would have loved to compete against him at least one or two more times. But you know, the interior guys definitely just got a large chip off of their shoulder because I know there was some guys that are looking at their teams. They're like, all right, we got to play Aaron Donald twice a year. And now he's out.

So a lot of guys just took a nice little sit back in their chair and went, but you know, it's all good. What about your interactions with Aaron Donald? Because a couple years ago, we know the Buffalo Bills came into Los Angeles and kicked the door in to start the season. And we thought he was going straight to the Super Bowl that year, but your interactions with him on the field. Yeah, it's been good. I don't have too much conversation with AD, but playing wise, the respect is there, which is all I can ask for. And he's made a lot of good and good plays against our team. And as a competitor, you know, it's an honor to be able to be on the football field with guys like that and to compete and a game plan against. And even like, he's an interior guy, but even when he comes out over the tackle, like, I'm like, all right, here we go.

I got to make sure everything is on point because here comes like AD. But the interactions like have been cool, neutral, calm, and good, you know, as a competitive standpoint, you know, never been left, never been right. He's always been super straight and I respect it. So Dion, you know, I got a bone to pick with you. Because in a week in which NFL news is coming from left and right, north, south, east, and west, Dion Dawkins decides to send a tweet out, an X out, whatever it is, talking about it was good while it lasted, Buffalo.

Excited for this next chapter of my football career. Wonder if it's okay to eat ranch now. So let's just start with the first part of ranch now.

Soon as I saw that, I said, come on, I'm literally about to call the people in Buffalo like, what are y'all doing? First of all. And I'm like, how? Like, why? And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, right. And I start texting people like, is this real?

Like, why would they do it? And then all of a sudden you say, I'm just joking. Like, how could you play with so many people's emotions, man? I would never leave Buffalo. I'm never leaving.

I'm Buffalo for life. Why give us this emotional rollercoaster, Dion? You know, cause when it comes down to it, we're entertainers, man. And, and I enjoy to entertain as well as I enjoy to play the game.

Certain things I find funny. And for the people that believe that, it just shows that people really don't be listening when you talk. Cause in every interview and everything that I speak about, I speak about Buffalo and how I would never leave. So for y'all to think that I would turn my back on you is crazy. So I'm like, look, let's, let's test their loyalty. Let's see, let's see where, let's see how they really feel. So I took it there and I, you know, kept it to where it is.

I got you. You know, it's, it's just a little laugh, but entertainment is entertainment. Well, it was funny because it had everybody going and it was like, wow, cause you got to think all these insiders are like, how does he know something that we don't know?

And I'm like, this is the actual player. Like he's going to know, but you were rewarded with a three-year extension as well. You go into that final year of the contract and I know a lot of players are like, man, what's going to happen.

And it decides, you know what? We don't even worry about this last year. We're going to extend you another year. Congratulations on the new deal. I know you're happy that you got extended. And now the Buffalo Bills making some news, obviously with their signings and their pickups now, but what's now the outlook so far this off season, having signed that new deal and where the team is heading?

Yeah. Well, number one, as a leader and as a player, I'm happy about the deal that I signed because it leaves room for my teammates and for us to build a Superbowl team. It comes to my heart of doing my part and doing my job and with the picks that we're getting and the picks that are in there and the moving around that's going, it's definitely eye-opening.

It's like, wow, like what? Poirier's gone. What? Saran is gone. What? Trey is gone. What? Mitch is gone. What?

It's just like, wow. But you know, in this league, it's a chess game and the pieces are always going to move. And I think that it's the saddest thing of this league that you build relationships over a short period of time with guys.

The NFL, it sucks, but for a lot of people, it's not for long. I was with Mitch for five years and those five years seemed like forever, but now those five years have come to an end. But I trust in my organization. I trust in Bean. I trust in McDermott. I trust in my teammates and I trust in the people that have to do their job. I don't ever want to question Bean and what are you doing? Like, why did you cut this guy? Or why did you let him go?

That was a big mistake. I'm not a GM. I am a left tackle. I do my part off of the football field because that's where my heart is. And I'm going to do my job, which is to protect the 17.

And I'm going to do it to the best that I can do. But I don't question Bean, man. I think that Bean knows exactly what he's doing as well as McDermott, as well as Pagula. So I trust in it. They're going to keep the right guys here to give us just that chance to be in a position to win, which it seems like we're in every year.

And we just got to overly kick that door in and get over that hump. But, you know, those guys do what they do. And I'm proud of them. Yeah.

Dion Dawkins left tackle for the Buffalo Bills. So you said protecting 17, but you protect your chicken wings away from ranch. Why is that? Are you not a ranch guy? Are you only root cheese and barbecue?

Like you protecting the quarterback. How do you protect the wings from the ranch? I'm not a ranch guy either, but always want to know your perspective. Cause I know that maybe in Buffalo, home of the Buffalo wings and Anchor Bar and all the other spots that I've been to.

There you go. So no ranch for you, no ranch for you, huh? Yeah, listen, now I can't say it was never, never ranch, right? Before I got to Buffalo, it was definitely blue cheese with sometimes I might have ranch on my plate to dip my fries in. But when you get to Buffalo and you sign that deal at Buffalo, ranch is out of the picture. Simple as that.

It's either you're on board or you're not. We eat blue cheese in Buffalo. The blue cheese and Buffalo is different from the blue cheese in Carolina, Texas, California, Arizona is different. Like our blue cheese, I, you can think about it as nasty. They make it, they make their own blue cheese and I love it.

It's good. It goes good with the wings and it's crazy because almost every restaurant there, the blue cheese tastes different. So when you go to Barbell there, blue cheese is a hint different from mulberries and from Lenovo's and from Ilios. Everybody's blue cheese has a different hint, but I'm a big boy.

So I definitely taste my sauces. You just broke down blue cheese dressing in like five different ways. Like this one has a hint of this. This one has a hint of this. This one got more chunks. This one got no chunks. This one's just a little bit more runny.

This one's a little bit more thick. So, Hey man, it's the truth. And when you're a big boy and you've been there for eight years, you tend to have touched every spot that has a stove. So I've definitely touched every spot that has a stove and an oven.

And the blue cheese is definitely pink over ranch. Man, Dion, man, always a treat, man, to see you, brother. You look good this off season.

I can't wait. Congratulations on the new deal and enjoy the rest of the off season, brother, and look forward to seeing you down the line. Man, thank you, bro. It's always an honor whenever we get together, you're definitely a king in this world. And I appreciate you, bro.

I really, really do. So keep doing what you're doing for guys and that me that have one day to inspire to doing what you do and to be in the role that you're in. It's an honor. So I take it with all respect and all love that you even had the honor to, or I even had the honor to speak to you. So I appreciate you. See you soon. So love. You got it, brother. Appreciate it. That's Dion Dawkins, everybody. On YouTube or wherever you listen.