Chris Ballard: Draft Board Is Not Set

Out of the pocket McCarthy keeps the play alive. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Long throw across the field. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Chris Jenkins Jr. you want to chime in on the conversation that JJ McCarthy might not be top five worthy. I don't know who's saying that. Respectfully the trip is he's obviously a hundred percent a top five quarterback. Today's guests Colts general manager Chris Ballard. NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Actor and host Dulé Hill. And now it's Rich Eisen. Yes, yes, yes. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show.

My goodness. You know the the NHL playoff field is set. There were no NBA games last night.

Major League Baseball had about two games. So the biggest news we come on the air with is that Taylor Swift dropped an album at midnight last night and then two hours later revealed it's a double album. She dropped another album two hours later which means the Kansas City Chiefs will win the NFL draft. That's the way we're coming on the air today. You wake up in the morning and you check your timeline you're like did I miss anything overnight?

Anything happen on the east coast while we're sleeping? Yeah. No my whole timeline is talking about Taylor Swift. That's it. There's two songs about Kelsey apparently. That's correct. And Goodbye London or Hello London.

I came home last night from a from a school event and Xander was already listening to the first entire album and he says this is good for Travis Dead. Oh. That's what he said. Oh.

He was he was he was giving me what he thought I wanted to know about this information. Well they were at Coachella over the weekend. Look all I know is that the Chiefs are winning the NFL draft right now. We can go home now.

That's correct. Maybe she'll be in Detroit. Who knows? But any rate the NBA play-in tournament wraps up tonight. The NBA playoffs begins this weekend. One week from today we will know what happened in the first round of the NFL draft. We will be in Detroit wrapping everything up with our third day of our Detroit residency next week. We'll be live on the Roku channel This Rich Asn't Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey and more. We say hello to our podcast listeners as well checking us out every single day whenever you're darn well pleased through your ear gate thanks to the Cumulus Podcast Network. 844-204-rich is the number to dial to have a chat with us throughout the day. Three guests at the end of this hour an actual bona fide general manager of the National Football League accepted our invitation to talk a week before the draft which means Chris Ballard will be lying from start to finish. What a way for me to welcome him to this program. Flying season. No no no Chris Ballard he it's it this is great he isn't he he has no ability to lie like the guy cannot he's just a walking he seriously is walking sodium pentothal this guy he is a walking lie detector test chopped down a cherry tree next I know it's gonna be a great chat when he joins from Liar Liar he's gonna pretty much GM GM he's joining us if you believe that's correct and uh and and Chris Ballard's joining us and and he's gonna be on the record now Tom Pelissero spoke to a bunch of people coaches scouts executives coordinators dozens of them and said you can be anonymous just tell me what you think of these quarterbacks available in this year's draft class 13,000 words later he's joining us on this program articles every draft season man and and sure enough you know he tears them round one two three what have you and how many quarterbacks are going to be having a first round grade based upon the opinions of dozens of unnamed executives which means a lot of salacious talk a lot of f-bombs got a lot of dashes put in there long story short he's joining us an hour or two with a lot of great information and Dulé Hill will be on this program many of you know him from the West Wing many of you know him from Ballers Suits making a major renaissance comeback out back from the you know he's he's he's joining us and on this program later on in our number three in studio PBS the expressway with Dulé Hill he is joining us in person talking PBS and all these other aspects I can't believe uh uh we're less than a week from the draft and it's good to see you Chris Jason Feller good to see you what's up you know what now that I see you here today I understand why those cones were around those manhole covers outside of Fox today because Del Tufa went underneath the ground to connect the wires for this weekend's ufl game Ghostbusters 2 he went right down there looking for stuff yeah he's personally moving manhole covers yeah couldn't be here today to make sure you get uh you get your ufl uh good to see you over there tj jefferson what's going on sir hey it's good to be seen and I'm kind of happy to admit I knew nothing of any double album that none of that talk got into my oh sir my midnight last night 9 p.m pacific 9 p.m pacific she dropped a whole album and then thank goodness xan went to sleep because if he knew an entire other album was coming that night he would have just hopped himself up on whatever sugar he could go find and steal and uh and eat it my timeline is just all all pro wrestling and uh biggie oh great that's all i really see well done so uh at any rate that's how we're rolling into we've got today rolling adam peters the general manager the washington commander spoke just as we were going off the air yesterday and um clearly um this is the inflection point of this draft we've been talking about it daniel jeremiah was a guest on what the football with susie shuster and amy trask that's up there for everybody to listen to on uh on your in your podcast um and your podcast ear gate as well as checking it out on youtube he said flat out the draft starts with the washington commanders because we're all saying caleb williams is going number one overall and so um clearly um everybody's wondering what they're thinking of the washington commanders fresh off of them having every prospect known to man inside their building in one get-together one little family picnic the washington commanders threw for 22 prospects could you imagine you're one of the prospects there and you're looking around and you're like oh man i shouldn't ask my buddy is he coming to the washington commanders the other day because he's not there could you imagine you're or you're one of those people you know are you going to rich's birthday party what party right you're calling up you're calling up your snap and all of a sudden you see penix is in uh is in ashburn virginia you're not thanks for the invite well at any rate what'd you glean from it adam peters where are you right now what are you thinking because everybody wants to know what you're thinking so everyone else can make their draft moves yeah we're real close um there's still a few more things in the process we have to do and as you guys may be getting i'm pretty process driven process oriented so um we have uh we have to debrief on our 30 visits with with the whole staff talk about everybody there we haven't done that yet and then uh later tonight we have a medical meeting as well to go over all the medicals in the combine and get that information as well and just ask pointed questions if there are any uh on certain players if we have some questions on that so um so we have a few more things dq and i will huddle up and and probably have an answer really sometime next week now i will say this also you know you don't really need to make a decision until you need to make a decision so there's no rush with that but um i think we'll have a pretty good idea what we're doing early next week yes you will they know what they're doing right now i mean process oriented i understand it and it's going to take a lot to sift through the top 30 visits since they had 22 of them all at once this past week how many staff members is that did one staff member get a kid were they like their own like a chaperone yeah well you know like a campus visit you got somebody who welcomes you at the airport picks you up brings you in they didn't throw them all in a van right who knows they threw everybody in the same the top 30 visit just one guy at the airport and it's like 14 names that browns fan who had had that jersey of all the all the names of the quarterbacks the joe thomas protected daniels may one jersey penne there you go it's like actors fell when they go to an audition and you walk into a room and there's 20 dudes that all look exactly like you and they're dressed like that same way they're all i can't get enough of this uh top 30 visit i can't get enough of it because it's so absurd it is you know and and and we'll ask tom pelissero what his reporting on all that is and is it is it true that daniels and penix and mccarthy and may all shared a car and they were all upset because drake may packed a bag and they had to wait for his bag to come off the carousel there at dallas airport that's what i want to know did somebody check a bag who checked a bag that's a red flag i would not draft that person as you know like sound arnold wearing a hat that would be terrible i can feel it see brockman and i look at it as that person thinks critically and they think they're planning ahead they're planning ahead you know what chris they all know what if you got to go to a fancy dinner in all honesty i think it's just going to come down to what i heard at the combine because an evaluation is basically the eye in the sky plus the medical and then comes the rest of the stuff to grind to grind the decision down to the ultimate which is the decision you have to you don't have to make until you have to make one to use adam peters phrase and i think it's going to be jaden daniels and and and and the reason why late latest is because what adam peters had to say when he was asked about trading the pick you heard um what joe shane he was kind of open for business for the giants and you heard elliot wolf basically say i am holding up a sign to say we are open for business for the third overall pick here we'll trade for food here's what adam peters said about trading the pick adam are you still considering trading down or have you guys decided to use that number to pick um you know i we feel great about staying at number two i don't see a whole lot of scenarios where we trade down to be honest with you yeah we feel great about sticking there yeah i mean because you know his his answer could also have been essentially you know uh is mike ditka going to trade his entire draft to us i don't think he's in somebody's draft room anymore honestly that really happened can you believe that for ricky williams my goodness gracious i mean seriously so it's jaden daniels it's going to be jaden daniels i heard it was jaden daniels at the combine i heard that they loved him straight from the get-go they loved this tape and let's just see if the medical was going to check out let's just see if they learn anything kind of crazy between the combine and the time when they have to make a decision and i think it's going to be jaden daniels and welcome to uh the nfc east jaden daniels jaden versus dak jaden versus jalen twice a year and then jaden versus tommy cutlets drew lock or or jj mccarthy or or daniel jones and then let's see what this kid can do and go to work and you know as you'll hear from tom pelosaro later on in hour number two based on the consensus of everybody the two things that they're they're if there are red flags about about him is he's slight of build and he takes hits and the other thing is the way that he left arizona state but that's so many moons ago but this stuff all gets parsed out and and drilled down well this is jaden jaden daniels is going to be a washington commander and then it's going to be caleb williams is going to be jaden daniels and then the question is do the patriots like drake may enough or do they get the godfather offer from somebody who loves drake may enough because they unlike the commanders unlike the commanders have a virtually empty cupboard because i i did make this statement yesterday and i'll repeat it again and this is no offense this i i don't intend to offend but i just speak what i what i believe outside of remandre stevenson you look at the patriots roster offensively and i know this is not the metric by which you're measured to win games we're not in the nfl but how many players are you going to take in the top 10 rounds of your fantasy football draft currently on the patriots offensive roster you even looked at that chris yeah yeah i looked it up the other day espn some fantasy you know rankings from like a month ago and i think the high reminder stevenson was the 18th running back but then pop douglas yeah damario douglas was 51 at wide receiver and he's got some ability but even that felt high like i said yesterday hunter henry would be but he was hunter henry was the 25th tight end so that's top 10 round and again fantasy and reality football are two totally different things because obviously you know hunter henry's yeah i you know these these guys can bring blocking skills they can bring special team skills they can bring you know skills in the locker room leadership and things of that nature but they that's just my way of saying boy do the patriots have holes to fill and if they can move down to six and they feel like somebody is going to give them enough capital to move off of drake may and look robert craft in the face inside that draft room and say mr craft trust us trust the process we know what we're doing and then maybe they move down and they do get jj mccarthy i don't know and move back up and get him they move around just like what arizona did but later on we're going to give you some draft nuggets about why arizona might not trade out they may not trade out at all and uh the reason why may just be numbers we'll talk about that but i i think i'm confident going into the weekend before the draft into my weekend of the run i'm running my 40-yard dash at the rose bowl on sunday stjude.org slash run rich run please give whatever you can for the kids of st jude and the folks who are researching at st jude to keep kids healthy i'm fully confident fully confident caleb williams jaden daniels and then the patriots are on the clock and we'll see what happens i think if i had a guess right now i think you got drake may coming and the cardinals are on the clock love it we'll see what happens tom pelissaro will talk about that with him uh when we come back uh here on the rich isin show we're gonna get to those draft appetizers that what we're doing is that we decided what we're doing great and i'll explain to you why i think the arizona cardinals might actually stay put when it's all said and done and then there's a couple of teams that are are sitting in draft positions going into the draft that they haven't been in a long long time give you the sort of heads up before chris ballard joins us uh the indianapolis colts head coach uh pardon me general manager joins us and uh here's what i'm going to get him to do um show us his draft board it'll be great it'll be great so uh that's going to be a lot of fun with an actual bonafide general manager in the national football league willing to talk on camera mere days before the draft how'd you do it uh you know we asked oh that's simple simple sent us a screen grab of like the big boy why not just like hey take a picture yeah he's gonna he's gonna take a picture so oh look harrison's on the big board and it's marvin senior on the stadium let's talk o'reilly auto 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knowledgeable helpful and the best of all friendly stop by o'reilly auto parts today or visit us at o'reilly auto dot com slash isin that's o'reilly auto dot com slash isin our house is a mess come on in i'm amber wallin internet comedian and host of your new favorite podcast fly on the wall okay that's pretty presumptuous to assume that this is going to be their favorite podcast by the way anyway that wasp that you just heard interrupt me is my husband and co-host benjamin wallin listening as we discuss relationships and keeping our sweet baby kid alive fly on the wall and wherever you listen all right back here on the rich eisen show everybody what are you talking about over there uh if elli was asking me who the kings are playing in the first round of the hockey playoffs as they say in hockey let's do that hockey they're playing edmonton not good not good for the kings nope okay why is it because gretzky's gonna come down and yeah and messier and yarik or the modern day gretzky yeah yeah dude when connor mcdavid steps on the ice you do not have to ask where he is nope who's the best player on the ice he kind of like stepsy doesn't he just look that guy he he's like when bunyama like he steps on the court he's just bigger than most faster you know bigger blue outline stronger yeah he good fast he good you know you've got the you've got the leafs bud we got the leafs not worried why why because it's the leafs are you really gonna just gonna go there because at some point that broken clock's gonna be right time they won was it doesn't matter forties dude at some point look at you you you you just forget what the red socks used to be you forget and then that broken clock was not just right once i get old it wasn't just right twice that broken clock became right three times chris sorry that last one in 60 i don't want to shortchange at least fans what i'm just saying like how do you how of all people that should understand that at some point last year the bruins were the best team hold on a second in nhl history what happened lost in the first round correct so so you know you just made i'm figuring it's like it's like a virginia situation they lose to the 16 then they win the title the next year you know what i mean okay i'm banking on that to happen for the bees you want just because you want the cup to come back and you'll put i'm honestly right on the top the most casual hockey fan i only care well you'll do that hockey yeah fantastic so hockey playoffs beginning fantastic very good to know all right back here on the rich eisen show radio network sitting at the rich eisen show desk furnished by granger with supplies and solutions for every industry granger has the right product for you call clickgranger.com or just stop by terzo and iowa is chiming in he usually calls in on a friday good to chat with you all rise terzo how are you sir oh no oh what happened oh no he's not there okay we lost reception at carl's all right put him back on hold man i don't know what happened seeing is he in jury selection is that what's happening is he sleeping like trump trump he says no excuse me resting his eyes oh sorry please no diet coke's in court okay very good um it's he's he's gone and he left that wasn't me i think that was that oh sure though okay that was adam marcal screener he's just so excited about caleb williams he can't handle himself he's dropping calls weird group he's dropping calls playing tonight no jimmy butler listen you have one balls might advance you have one job well and the kings might advance too right because there's no zion tonight do you think both road teams win feels like it feels like i mean look miami's a tough place to play oh so let me ask you a question who is rooting for the bulls more tonight adam our call screener the die-hard bulls fan of this place or you who wants to see no i actually want you want the heat to pull this pull this out so you want it you want a jimmy butler i wanted to play miami but i wanted jimmy butler to play because it wouldn't have mattered we would have swept them anyway i wanted i wanted to rip their hearts out because their fans are the worst okay now that's have you for later on in hour three set up what's more likely i have to finally put in front of the rich eisen show nationally televised audience and internationally internationally i don't know streamed and listened to yeah international shout outs back in the day we're big in japan are you finally gonna put that out there um honestly we gotta see how what's more likely goes what does that mean if i'm having a good segment if you're if you're picking sides if you're not riding the fence no no no tjs involved i'm gonna get feli involved whatever his outfit is we discussed this yesterday and then we're and then we're gonna like you know if i'm feeling it we're gonna bam we're gonna do his take on the celtics in the playoffs you are trying tj to get him to say it for weeks he's got one more show in which to to put it out there and today's that day because it's involving the nba playoffs which begins this weekend for those boston celtics i don't know if i want him to say it because then once he says it no we do people are going to come at him with furious great vengeance and furious anger and i don't know if okay i want that for him necessarily i mean i got ezekiel 2517 just locked and loaded terzo's back on the air all rise what's up terzo hey sorry about that guy what the hell man i know man i've just got a weird phone call from the court and i had to jump on oh my goodness i need to ask you a point-blank question a point-blank question and you have to give me a straight answer was it stormy daniels no it was not okay all right just had to know now we can move on if i could if i could tell you it was sunny leone what's up as a secret swifty i still haven't listened to the new release but i plan on putting it on the jukebox at carl's this afternoon and uh playing next so everybody has to listen to it with me um and i'm kind of excited for that uh but i think i think about like two weeks ago i called in i i think i said that the bucks were going to get bounced in the first round and i think you guys talked about it a little bit last week is there's a possibility um i just don't with that team and where they're at right now i just don't foresee them having the strength to get through the east and i think a sneaky team if indeed as healthy as those 76ers and i think brockman's a little scared to give his opinion because i think those 76ers might be kind of scaring him oh no terzo terzo terzo terzo terzo hold on i gotta clean my no no no no it's okay terzo um you've you've offended two-thirds of the rich eisen show with that comment chris obviously laughed it off and i i you know you you you have led me into um something i wanted to say so thank you for that terzo i forgot to say it yesterday we didn't have the time to say it yesterday thank you terzo and enjoy uh listening to the double album in front of everybody there at carl's that'll be fantastic let me know how that went you guys have a great weekend terzo in iowa there he goes so he's saying that the sixers of the team that will surprise and suddenly maybe threaten you your celtics atop the eastern conference in a way that preseason folks were supposing yeah they had a shot to do with the bucks however preseason that was the team because they had just added dame lillard now we're entering the playoffs and the bucks are the three seed having dropped from the one because the celtics were generationally incredible and from the two seed because they just you know they fired the coach middle of the season and they didn't really they were spinning their wheels enough to you know let others catch up and then yanis gets hurt and so the bucks are three and sixers is seven because mb missed how many games half the season pretty much 32 minus 30 well i mean that's just in one fell swoop but then there were all those times where he was uh load managing and resting and all that business long story short is the nicks are the two seed not because that they have arguably the best player in the eastern conference of the 2023-24 season not because they are a gritty bunch that has overcome injuries no it's because yanis got hurt and the way when they pounded the celtics in the last couple weeks of the season it's because the celtics had nothing to play for and now the sixers are constituted again like they were going into the season and is it true there's a certain spot in the uh united states where mo green has no plaque or a signpost that says the sixers are expected to win the series right uh it's it's actually flipped a little bit uh well that's good it's uh to here it's basically even okay yeah all right very good so i get it some nicks money you know what the nicks should just do what the eagles did in 2018 get the dog masks out and warm up in the dog masks and win it all you know why not right why not dante divan cenzo will be the nick foals plus you know playing like a third of the team it played in philadelphia you know in college so one titles in philadelphia oh you say that again they won titles in philadelphia very good that series is going to be nuts i can't wait for it that being said joel mb it exists and he walks on the earth and he's the most unstoppable player in basketball limps on the earth that's him limping is still better than 90 of the mba he falls weird on the earth you know what else he puts up a game he gets weirdly injured in the playoffs apparently told france he wants to play for him for the olympics and he's not going to do that that's weird yeah no one turns their back on france who turns their back on france well most of the world a lot of weirdos in the comment section upset that he he's playing for america let me get let me get to this guys uh i've got some draft appetizers for you oh i'm hungry nfl draft appetizers and guess what it's presented by applebees right here on the rich eyes oh look at that i got a chef's hat on right it's a knife there's no knife just a fork and a spoon yeah who needs a knife applebees baby swings please yes indeed jalapeno poppers and i look at the the nfl shield on there too i'll tell you why in a second oh this is great i like apple so here are my draft appetizers for you because we're we're a few days removed for the national football league draft right now and um i i love this these national i love this these nuggets right here they were appetizers these apps for you and um do you know who has the most picks going into the national football league 2024 draft a very deep draft and certain positions that you need to protect your quarterback linemen to sack a quarterback not so deep at the top but there's enough guys in this draft then clearly wide receivers catch the ball from your quarterback or if you need a quarterback uh you want to have a lot of picks in this draft and um you want to guess you want to guess the bears no sir that's exact opposite way too here on that front the most total picks belongs to three teams the cardinals packers and rams each have 11 whoa the 49ers bangles and bills each have 10 now for the bills a deep wide receiver draft that's good because you know your top two aren't there anymore they go they gotta move up and if you're the arizona cardinals why do you need more picks you know what you need from kyla murray after hollywood brown's gone now you do have rondell pew pew pew more but why wouldn't you just sit there for and welcome marvin harrison jr to uh the desert yeah that's what they better do why unless unless you get the godfather offer from somebody who wants jj mccarthy but if you don't what do you need you need 12 picks 13 picks 14 what are you gonna do you can't sign them all either now maybe you say i need one next year right i need one next year i'll move down but i need one next year and i need a couple more this year yeah but i'll take one next year i need a tasty two or three now next year wouldn't be a bad idea but if you don't throw in a next year i'm monnie austin ford i'm saying pound santa i got 11 of them and in terms of the packers and the rams how about this the last time the packers not only have 11 picks they have five in the top 91 the last time they drafted five players that early in an nfl draft was back in 2006 when ted thompson took five in the first 75 you know who he took the first one was uh a guy who's uh hanging with pat every day oh aj hawk and then greg jennings was taken in that first five as well so it's been a while ted thompson was the last gm to draft five in the first 91 of an nfl draft and now here comes brian gudekunz with a rarity for this organization but not nearly as rare as the la rams the team that has famously effed all the picks has 11 would you care to guess well don't guess i'll just tell you the last first round selection for the los angeles rams 17 incorrect todd girly no jared golf oh wow in 2016 when they moved from st louis back to los angeles wanted a splash they traded up for golf right that's the last pick that's the last pick which means the last time they they used a first round draft choice sean mcveigh was the offensive coordinator for dc and puka nakua was a high school freshman sean mcveigh has not had a first round selection as head coach of the la rams and in this entire span you know what the rams did by not having a first round selection six winning seasons five playoff seasons three nfc west titles two super bowl appearances and one trophy in the case could you imagine now that they have 11 picks uh-huh now how about this draft appetizer least picks you ready for this one team with the least picks the team that you guessed had the most oh really bears have just four picks oh that's it four picks browns dolphins and giants have six maybe they should trade number one nice well at least for the bears two of their first four picks the two of their four picks are our top ten yeah that's pretty good they have top ten and then smoke them if you got them if you're a bears fan so and another reason why maybe the giants aren't going to trade up they got six picks they got holes to fill they have holes to fill man and so if they trade up they might have only like three picks in this entire draft one would think they'd have to use a couple in this year's draft to trade up and they might have to dip into next year too interesting food for thought the cardinals have 11 the giants have six going into this draft and they're gonna make a trade with each other hmm obviously it doesn't matter how many picks you give up if you go and draft the right quarterback yeah seems unlikely but the dolphins have only six the browns have six and the bears have just four so they'll draft two in the top ten we assume and then sit back what hit rush street you know go to the wiener circle but have your order right if you go there um so that's um those are my draft appetizers presented by applebees and that's the official grill and bar of the national football league all right celebrate the nfl draft with 20 free boneless wings with any 40 online purchase from thursday april 25th through saturday and saturday april 27th it's the start of a delicious partnership between applebees and the nfl let's take a break when we come back chris ballard of the indianapolis colts is going to show us his entire draft board that's going to be great wait a minute what oh maybe not i'll ask can't hurt um america starts the day with america in the morning of three pushes of storminess hi i'm john trout your host for the latest news politics entertainment business and weather speech with political overtones our staff of correspondents provide a fast-paced look at the world with specialized reports from where news happens decision was based on finding there is a far the central bank appears to be threading that concise accurate and fresh each day america in the morning the podcast available wherever you listen back here on the program 844-204 rich number two down we've got uh our friend chris ballard about to zoom into this program with the indianapolis colts the general manager look forward to chatting with him so we got that going the last time i saw him was at the was at the nfl scouting combine you coming by to the uh to the run sunday or no uh i think i think it's gonna work out there's we have a birthday party later that afternoon on that side of town so i think it kind of works out all right are you coming uh i don't know that's a no that's okay i mean i don't know no no that's a no you did because i'm trying to hold on a second let me let me let me let me rephrase that do you have in your apartment complex a 40-yard spot that i can run there so you don't have to leave yeah hallway okay yeah is it for your hallway another 40 in your suit good move running the hallway rich you should do that running in a hallway hallway adds you know i mean shave shaves the tent the hallways much longer than 40 years yeah shave the 10th okay yeah so i'm doing that got that how's the training um i worked out today and um have you sprinted 40 yards at all um let me think no i think that's part of the the the beauty of this don't you i think you're running around i think you're running a risk of you know no but i'm tearing something no i i appreciate that swing thought but you know um what do you want me to do like actually train you think i should actually train i mean we've been having the same conversation for 20 years 20 or 70 it was just you and i personally for like seven or eight you know i just you know i want you to do your best best i appreciate that it's a good drop that one call me back here on the rich eisen show radio network uh chris ballad is logging in from the indianapolis colts headquarters as we speak um just talking about my 40-yard dash i'm running it at the um rose bowl on sunday in front of family and friends gathered there and um i have not uh i have not it'll be the first 40 i run but i've cut weight yeah yeah yeah i've cut great job i would i've 100 very noticeable hit my weekend of the run the goal was to be down 15 pounds and i have hit that goal boom i am down 15 pounds from last year's run great job so i might not be faster but one thing that for sure i wanted to address is the super slow-mo replay will not be something i feel like i have to completely look away from it's good i honestly when i saw the super slow-mo replay last year i'm like i gotta cut the weight okay we got the shirt tie suit picked out got all picked out okay joining us here on the rich eisen show kind enough to join us less than a week before the draft an actual bona fide general manager in the national football league and not just anyone but somebody who is one million percent incapable of lying he must always tell the truth that he's a very zero filter the great chris ballard of the indianapolis cults good to see you chris how are you sir good to see you too thanks rich thanks for um no yes it's it's you're right so you don't ask any questions where you know um i'm gonna give an answer help me help you chris is that what you just basically said you just went full jerry mcguire on me help me help you oh yeah okay so please oh my gosh okay so let me cross out the first question uh chris show me your draft board you got it is it in that room is it in that room the draft board it's not in this the good news is it's not in this room so i don't have to lie okay very good okay uh but in all seriousness is that set i'd love to get the process down here for a general manager in the nfl is your draft board set right now friday before the draft absolutely not no i'd laugh when people give you that crap answer of you know our board set before the combine you know we don't make that's a bunch of crap you know we're trying to find we take as much information as we can we don't ever um close the door on something until we feel like we got everything it'll be set the night before the draft like always tell our scouts and our coaches like this seat this thing is not the semen is not dry until we get to draft day when it's draft day that semen's dried it's not moving but up until that point we are still having major discussions okay so um and then and then what uh in terms of hold on let me let me go with this one what about potential trades with other teams do you already call up colleagues of yours with if but possible scenarios and we'll call you back at another time if that happens chris oh yeah i mean and everybody's playing possum i mean you call and you talk and hey we'd like to either move down or move up but really rich until i mean it's it's nice because at least people know you know you're interested but until draft day and you get close to your you know on the clock um it might be two or three picks out four just depending on where you want to move that's when the majority of the discussions start to really take place um i mean look there's been teams before that i had no idea i wanted to trade up um and i'm getting calls on draft day hey we want to move up so of course you have discovered you're talking to other gms anyways just because we talk to each other um and we'll talk about hey if you're willing to move up i am but rarely do you get the answer hey will you move down and move up you don't ever get no don't ever get so so i interesting everybody keeps the door open right now why close the door right now you know they keep it open just in case you know just in case you never know just in case someone trades you're their entire draft like ditka years ago chris you never know i wish i could get that lowish i'd get that lucky but um no that's not happened okay so you have will you allow this then you have called other general managers as of right now to say we we would do this if you would do that or or if a certain time hits look for my call draft night if this is when you're on the clock that sort of thing correct yes are those are those dr are those draft uh possibilities in that office right now written down on a piece of paper somewhere in the not at all i've got a nice thank you note here from a kid that we came to our local day which i thought was really cool nice um i've got matt connie's press notes that he does an unbelievable job getting ready for my press conference that he gets he does this he just is incredible then i go off script how nervous do you make matt chris yeah he's trained me well because i'm okay i've tamed my potty math mouth down i think he always is more worried about the dirty words that come out of my mouth just naturally because i'm sometimes even though i'm educated you wouldn't know it yes um exactly right so and last year again you you were kind enough to let the uh roku channel and nfl films cameras into the draft room for for that outstanding documentary the pic is in and just watching you just wait and just hold on for for i guess dear anthony richardson life fourth overall to see the a trade happen right before you and then you learned it was the texans again and you knew you were going to get the quarterback that you were going to get uh what what do you think of how do you get through a moment where you know you got to hold tight chris walk me through stuff like that on a draft night for you it's even better when you've got your owner sitting right your owner and your head coach sitting right next to you and yeah we don't need to trade up we'll be fine we're gonna get the guy we want it for and then all of a sudden there's a trade and i'm just thinking oh you got to be freaking kidding me um and you know it gets a little tense moment but i mean we do our work and our research and we're not a hundred percent always right but you just feel good about the preparation and work that your team has done to put yourself in position and hopefully uh i mean it's an inexact science anyways getting this thing right um and then but when you're when you're at number four where we were last year it's a look i mean look there's only three guys that can go in front of you so it's a little easier to at least hopefully figure that out and in terms of uh anthony richardson how is he chris he's good no he's good he threw he's throwing um he's not fully cleared medically yet but he's getting close he's worked really hard to come back i mean uh i think i told you at the at the compound when i saw y'all shane and i had watched him throw on that sunday and you would never know he was hurt um he threw the other day and looked great so now it's just building up strength making sure he finishes the rehab the correct way um and get moving forward so we'll be ready for ota's which we think it will be give me give me uh some insight uh because i heard this um you know offline at the combine about how much of a professional he is already um despite having snaps on the field what you know reveal the curtain pull back the curtain a little bit on what he's been like around the building despite not playing chris he's uh i mean look with any player that gets hurt it's hard on them because it's hard to feel a part of it i mean it's human nature and what i really appreciated about anthony was you know sometimes and like i told him i said there's always light in the darkness anthony and i said i know right now it feels dark but if you can use this time to really grow um both physically as you rehab but also mentally and he went to work um and he's a really fun kid to be around um he's just what i love the most about he's the same guy every day like there's not these high highs and lows with him um that you know some people have and some players have he's the same guy every day um and i know he spent a lot of time working you know with not only with me just visiting about life in general but then shane and you know our staff he he it was great for him to learn sometimes watching is a good thing well and in terms of getting him uh some more weaponry obviously you you got things done with michael pittman jr and there's a ton of really good wide receivers in this draft including some that might not be there by the time that you're 15th overall and i'll just go straight through the front door with you chris as i always do any thoughts of looking up at that ring of honor and putting marvin's kid in a blue horseshoe on the side of the helmet eight nine times a year and lucas oil with his dad's name on that stadium chris yeah sure there is when i when i go into fantasy land um he's a talented guy um but there's also a lot of other good talented players you know in the draft but he's a he's a very talented young man um of course raised you know the right way by marvin i've gotten to know marvin you know being here in indy and um i enjoy marvin a lot and you know he's he's done a really good job raising his sons and they are very very talented young men and he's got a younger one i think he's very talented too um but marvin is uh definitely a unique talent okay and when you say fantasy land it would be just too too hard to go up to from 15 to go get him you always got to have a you you've always got to have two to to do it um and it would be very difficult it'd be very difficult we need we need them as it would be very difficult two isn't first round picks you mean is what you're saying it'd be very difficult to no two team you gotta have another team that's willing to trade with you to get up that high and that's not exactly been my nature um you know to to move up and give up what it would take to get that high now he's a really good player and i don't want to downgrade that but it'd be very difficult for us to get up that high and and was the draft and how deep it is part of the reason why you weren't as active and free agency as some other teams chris no i mean i don't know if i i mean we signed a bunch of good players and they just happened to be our own right i think sometimes you we forget that i mean grover stewart's a really good football player kenny moore's a really good football player michael pittman's a really good i mean these are good players julian blackman's a really good player um look i'm always going to lean our way you know especially when they're good players i mean we dabbled with some guys and we went we just didn't get them i mean that happens um but i just truly believe like we know i've always said this that you know who your guys are you don't always know in free agency who you're getting i mean there's usually a reason they're in free agency and i'm not saying that's a bad thing but there's usually a reason and you know i felt really comfortable we felt really comfortable with you know getting our guys back there was other guys we went you know after two we just didn't work out and the players we got back are really good football players all right and to turn you into a pundit before i let you go chris do you think four quarterbacks go to start this draft clearly you're out of that market but what do you think no no no no i've definitely thought about it because it pushes all these other guys right which is a good thing right i wish can we get five or six well be awesome hey it could be five in the first you you know 11 12 13 they're all they're all quarterback needy uh according to all of us in the punditry so yeah there could be four five could even be six that go before you oh that would be awesome i mean we would be that'd be awesome rich like you get that you get that done i'm on your show whenever you want me you know i can't no one else is showing me their draft board either chris you know but you're the you're the one kind enough to to say yes a few days before the draft it was great to see at the combine great to see on my screen yeah you too thank you i always appreciate you thank you right back at you thanks chris ballard that's chris ballard the gm of the indianapolis colts i love that guy man he's honest right he's very very honest he's not going to tell you i'm drafting this guy but he's like oh that would be amazing let's keep everybody draft quarterbacks in front of us and yes he has called general managers to say we're interested in your pick if our guy is there clearly not going to say if our guy's there but who's your guy somehow the gm might say back well who's your guy we might want that guy so that's the end of that right but i don't think you're going to share those conversations but there's general parameters what would it take for me to move up from 15 to your spot well this is what it would take okay thanks or or let me think about it or i'll get back to you and then comes back and says that and he writes it down puts it in a drawer although not in that office pops it out if it's that time say remember what we talked about god i love the wheeling and the dealing in the behind the scenes and all that stuff tom pelosero talking to some unnamed gms and scouts on the quarterbacks hour two you know it's like draft day you know all the fun stuff going on behind that's right i think rich might remember that a little bit vante mac no matter what no matter what i like to tweet that every year during the draft vante mac no matter what just i screenshot that that part which is on the post-it note i will never forget being in that draft day scene with frank langella you know owner of the brown oscar nominated and tony award winning i believe and there he was playing the owner of the browns coming to the set at the nfl draft in radio city music hall and i'm like okay the script will just be on my desk because it just looks like notes right right and i just didn't have it in my hands and he walked up to the set for the first time with sunglasses on it looked exactly what you would think frangela was just walking in and he goes would you like to run lines and you're like i don't know i didn't know my lines at all because i was gonna read them off the script and i'm like uh sure like and he goes would you like to do it on the set and i'm like absolutely why don't you go up there i'll be right there i'll be right there frank and i ran lines with frank langella reading straight off of my script nice and now you get eight cents totally unprofessional with frank fantastic we'll never forget mike mayock telling uh the uh the director of the film who also directed stripes the great ivan reitman how that movie went downhill when you went to germany my goodness gracious only movie he knows though all right back with hour two tom pelicero coming up the rolling stone music now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with rolling stone senior writer brian hyatt now here is my conversation with jacob null your story is is an amazing one and obviously you lost your dad when you're only one year old it was definitely a screwy way to grow up i think that a lot of people never heard of who i am and then they see me join this band and they must think this kid must have just abandoned everything or nepotism kid there's a gift that i have an opportunity to sing in such a big band like my father and my uncle's band sublime rolling stone music now wherever you listen