Chris Mannix: Timberwolves made a statement in sweeping the Suns

I'll tell you what. This is the Rich Eisen Show. All about the quarterbacks and the draft did not disappoint on that front.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. He said he thought that Michael Penix Jr. was a better choice at quarterback than Drake May, which is saying a lot. Earlier on the show, NFL Network analyst, Daniel Jeremiah. Coming up, Eagles general manager, Howie Roseman. Senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix.

Plus, your phone calls, latest news and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's right. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Hour number two, hour one. We have Daniel Jeremiah, fresh off of the NFL draft.

Fresh off of his personal NFL draft. Howie Roseman, the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles is going to join us right in the middle of this hour. If you aren't, stay on hold. The entire third hour is just for us to hang out and chit chat. For all three hours right here on the Roku channel and all of our radio affiliates coast to coast, Terrestrial Series, XM and Odyssey. To my right, kicking off hour number two, talking about this remarkable NBA playoff season that we've had in this round one is Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. Good to see you, Chris.

You too, Rich. It started a little slow, but now we're cooking with a little bit of gas. What leaps out at you just writ large right now through the first few games of round one? I mean, I think the star turns by a couple of key players is most notable. In the Eastern Conference, you've got Jalen Brunson continuing to prove to people that he is capable of being the number one guy on a championship level team. And that was kind of the knock on him when the Knicks signed him.

They said, all right, you're paying this guy all this money. He's a really good player, but can he be your number one? Well, he just arguably had the greatest performance in Knicks playoff history against the Sixers in game four. He is showing that he can be that number one guy.

And at West, it's Edwards, right? Like he's, you know, we knew how good he was coming into the series, but, you know, metaphorically putting his foot on the neck of the Phoenix Suns and just stomping them out in four games, just playing Bradley Beal literally right off the floor in that game four. That's another guy that has taken his game to another level in this playoff.

So those two guys have really stood out. Did Bradley Beal slap Frank Vogel's hand away coming off the court? And here we are, you know, knives out for Frank Vogel because it's always the coach's fault, right? Like it's not maybe the multi-billionaire owner that put together this train wreck. I mean, you know, I like Matt Espia. I sat in his office last fall and had this exact same discussion about the downside of putting a team like this together.

And he believed wholeheartedly that there was no downside. Well, this is it. In the NBA, you can't cheat the system. Like in the system is you've got to go through some growing pains before you get to a championship level. I mean, look at the Denver Nuggets. How many years did they get bounced early in the playoffs till they won at a championship level? Boston has been near the mountaintop a few times, a bunch of conference finals. This is the year people think they are going to get to a championship level. Even Oklahoma City, like, you know, there's a learning curve there for Shay Gilders Alexander and some of those guys. And there'll probably be a learning curve for them in these playoffs.

The Suns tried to cheat the system by getting a whole bunch of stars together and hoping that they would mesh in a way that stars very rarely mesh together. I mean, effectively, Phoenix built a team that would have looked pretty awesome in like 2010, but isn't really built for modern day NBA. It doesn't have a traditional playmaker.

It doesn't have a rim protector. I mean, to me, the buck stops at ownership. Matt Ishbia pushed hard to go all in on the Kevin Durant deal, which cost them some draft capital. He pushed hard to get the Bradley Beal trade off the ground and bring Beal in when they didn't really have to do that. And then he traded DeAndre Ayton, who, look, was kind of a malcontent in Phoenix. But Frank Vogel, the handpicked head coach that he signed, has had the most success when he has had a big seven footer backstopping that defense.

Roy Hibbert in Indiana, Dwight Howard and company in L.A. when they won a championship. These decisions that were made at an ownership level have put the Suns in the predicament that they're in. And they don't really. What's the next draft capital that they have? I mean, they've got because you because of the step in rule where you can't trade draft picks in multiple years, they will have a first round pick.

But I don't think they have control over their first until 2030, 2031 because of the swap rights that exist. So they're they're in a tough spot. I don't know their pathway to getting better.

Look, they've got friends of their own. Royce O'Neill is going to be a free agent this summer. They've got a couple other supporting cast members. They're going to be a free agent. There's going to be roster turnover. And you look at the West. I mean, is there any move they can make that is going to put them on Oklahoma City's level, on Denver's level?

I mean, look down the bracket. Houston's going to be better next year. I mean, the West is loaded, not just in the short term. And this Phoenix team is a short term team. Kevin Durant is not getting any younger. I just don't see their path to becoming a title contender.

Chris Mannix here on the Rich Eisen Show. So the Mavs and the Clippers, boy, what a game that was where it looked like the the Cliffs were going to blow them out. And then it looked like the Cliffs were about to have the worst loss that we can possibly conjure up. And then Paul George to the rescue. Harden had a terrific game. Is Kawhi anywhere in the horizon?

I don't know. You read between the lines with what Lawrence Frank said yesterday, and it sure sounds like this is going to be an extended absence for Kawhi. And you could see in the games he's played in this series, he's not himself.

There's no lift. You watch his three-point shots. They're kind of bouncing short off the rim. He's not the same defensive player. I mean, Kawhi, you know, was a sneaky MVP candidate.

Like he's not going to finish in the top five, but he will in the top ten. I think that's warranted because he was brilliant throughout the year. He played the most games he's played, I think, in his entire career. The most minutes he's played since like the San Antonio days. So he was a workhorse for that team this year.

But you watch him out there now and 50 percent of his former self, 60 percent of his former self. And look, when you go up against a good team and a smart team, they're going to find ways to take advantage of that. And I think the Mavericks did in the games that Kawhi played.

I just it's hard to be optimistic that we're going to see him back, at least in this series. And who knows if they get the advance going forward? Well, and then obviously the Bucks, you know, did whatever I guess best they could. You know, Brook Lopez launching threes right around half court sometimes to try and keep them in games. And I guess what do you make of the Bucks chances down 3-1 right now with Lillard missing the game with the sore Achilles and whatever's going on with Giannis, right? Yeah, I mean, look, they were one injury away, it seemed like, from Thanasis Antetokounmpo getting minutes in a playoff game. Like you saw Chris Middleton hobble off the floor in the second half of that game four. It's like who else are they going to go to on that bench?

I don't see the path here. I mean, Giannis is going to push to come back, right? He's going to try to play.

He's going to try. But the Bucks have to balance the desire to win this series against the desire not to see Giannis in that Kevin Durant situation, excuse me, where he is tearing his Achilles. Same thing with Damian Lillard, right?

Like he's got an Achilles strain right now, was in a walking boot, I guess, a couple of days ago. You can't roll the dice in situations like that. Look, I don't think Indiana is good, but at full strength, I think Milwaukee's probably better. It's just I don't think you're going to see Milwaukee at full strength for the rest of the series. That's disappointing because that's another team, like Phoenix, where the window to win is pretty small. I mean, Lillard is in his mid-30s, Giannis getting a little bit older as well, Chris Middleton mid to late 30s. You know, they have to treat every year like it could be their last year to win with this group. But to see kind of this unravel for them is pretty disappointing.

Chris Mannix here from Sports Illustrated on the Rich Eisen Show. So it's interesting, there's no reseating in the NBA playoffs like there is in the NFL. So you've got two, three games to one leads right now with the Knicks over the Sixers and the Pacers over the Bucks. And it's interesting how many folks out there were like Knicks should not have gone for that two seed because you want to avoid all this stuff. You want to, you know, and now here come the Pacers potentially coming anyway in the second round. So let's not, I guess, count chickens there.

Anything can possibly happen. But what do you think is happening today with the Philadelphia 76ers and Nick Nurse and, you know, the Nick fans, echoes of Nick fans still reverberating around, you know, the Sixers home court. What do you think is happening in Philadelphia today? First of all, it's not surprising that so many Knicks fans were at that game.

I mean, I lived in New York for a lot of years. You hop on the Amtrak, you're at Philadelphia in 45 minutes. You look at some of the ticket pricing for Maz's Square Garden. It costs like a grand to get in the building for some of these games.

You can get good tickets to a Sixers game for like a hundred bucks like these playoff games. So if I'm a Knicks fan and I can't afford four tickets to go to see the Knicks play at MSG, I'm sure as hell hopping on that Amtrak. You're probably going, you're probably still even, you know, clearing. Probably even plus, you're up. You're in the black.

Even with the cost of the train ticket. Yeah, a hundred percent. So I'm not surprised at all to see that many. In fact, if they play Indiana, they'll probably be in Indiana too.

They'll probably outnumber or at least be well heard. But this scene though, this scene in the first union, man, is just something happening. Knicks fans do have a habit of like over-celebrating sometimes. Listen, it's been dark times, but even I'm back now. Was it last year when they played Atlanta when, you know, I think they won the first game and it was like pandemonium. No, I think that was actually the first regular season win, actually. That was the video of them actually winning their first regular season when I think Brunson had just arrived and Randall was there. And it's just been really dark times.

And again, what Brunson stands for and how he has performed, you alluded to it at the beginning of this conversation. It's infectious. It's infectious. And hope is more, it's concrete, you know, because obviously the Pacers are a very good team. Knicks fans, I'm sure, are looking at the Eastern Conference Finals right now and thinking, well, we just dismantled the Celtics towards the end of the regular season. I know that's just one game out of seven.

Yeah, that's the one. I was at that game in Boston and look, the Celtics spent like a month and a half with nothing to play for, really. So they were kind of going through the motions at the end of that regular season. That's the matchup I think is most problematic for New York. Maybe for anyone in the league. But Jaylen Brunson is the head of the snake with the Knicks and the Celtics have waves of elite defenders they can throw at him.

Derek White, Drew Holliday, Jaylen Brown. I mean, they can cause Jaylen Brunson a lot of problems without having to send multiple defenders that Jaylen is able to play off of in that sense. So that's a matchup that I don't think is great for the Knicks. I think the Pacers, though, is a good one. That's kind of a frenetic pace the Pacers want to play at. But that's a series I think the Knicks can win as well. It's just that if you get to Boston, that's a tough one. That's a tough one, I think, for them to win. Well, again, like I said, it could be a tough one for anybody to win this year in the NBA playoffs.

But I guess I digressed us when I started talking about Knicks fans. But what is going on in, I mean, one point for MBE in the fourth quarter, all sorts of rebounding problems on their defensive glass. I'm wondering what they are thinking today.

Your best guess in Philly. Well, I think what they should be thinking is that even though we're down 3-1, this is still a winnable series. Because there's certainly a scenario where they could be up 3-1 right now. I mean, the end of Game 2, the NBA already admitted they blew some of those calls down the stretch. They could have won that game in New York.

Last, you know, if they didn't blow that game in the fourth quarter, if they didn't allow Oji Adanobi to turn into Ben Wallace out there defending Joel Embiid, they could have won that game as well. So I think if they can get their minds right here, if they can believe that this is not a series where their opponent is not on their level, they can win. Now, the Garden is going to be chaos on, what is it, Tuesday.

The Garden is going to be nuts. So there's going to be a lot of momentum on the side of the Knicks going into that game. But if the Sixers can ease into it, take the crowd out of that game a little bit, Embiid is still a lot of times the best player on the floor. He had a 50 piece in Game 3. He's still ridiculous.

The problem is, you look at the numbers, right? The on-off minutes for Embiid, they're awful. The Sixers cannot win the minutes when Embiid's not on the floor. That's forcing Nick Nurse to play a guy that is still working his way back into shape after coming off the injury. He had the second half of the season and it's clearly still injured. You see him out there, every time he goes down the wrong way, he comes up a little bit gimpy. So the combination of that and Nick Nurse having to keep him out there so often in the first three quarters that you see a lesser version of the fourth, that's a problem the Sixers have to solve going into this Game 5.

Chris Mannix here on the Rich Adzins show. Game 4 of Thunder Pelicans has been moved to Galveston, Texas, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, I believe, yes.

Is that where it is? I think they should just wave the white flag on. Oh my God, Barkley talking about sending the team to Galveston. Last night he also found a way to insult San Antonio as well, his usual... The only thing only Barkley can get away with, you and I sit up here and insult the figure of the fairer sex and we're going to probably get fired. Barkley is just like, it's just a gimmick.

It's great. So next up for them will be the winner of the Clippers, Mavs. I mean, if they sweep the Pelicans out and then just watch the Clippers and Mavericks beat the crap out of each other. Which series right now do you think has got the best chance of going 7?

Is that the one? Because obviously you got Cavs and Magic as well. That's a weird series. Like the home team or the road team can't seem to score and that's surprising on Cleveland's part because watching those first two games you just didn't think that Magic would have had problems all season long scoring. That's been their biggest weakness. Great defensive team, can't score a lick. Watching the Magic roll over them in the way they did in these last two games makes you think that can be a seven game series.

I would probably pick that to go seven first. I think the winner of game five against Clippers and Mavericks, good chance they can win that game six and close it out there. But that Cavs Magic series, I can see the home team winning all the way through in those games.

Which second round series do you think might actually happen that you're looking forward to the most? Oh, Denver, Minnesota. That's great.

You didn't even stutter. No, and look, Minnesota made a statement in that first round. We talked about Anthony Edwards, but Minnesota, there were a lot of people that still wondered like this Timberwolves team with its two bigs and Mike Conley, is he going to be enough defensively at the point guard spot? Is that enough for them to win at a playoff level? Can you play Gobert and Kat together in the fourth quarter of playoff games? Well, they can and they can win. Now you get the big boys.

You get the real test. You get Gobert against Jokic and they're not going to guard each other because they don't do that that much. They put Towns on Jokic, but that is a great matchup.

You know, the point guard matchup with the guard matchup with Conley and Jamal Murray or Jamal Murray, rather, and Anthony Edwards. That's just a fun series from start to finish. I love it.

I can't wait for that. So Chris Maddox here on the Rich Eisen Show, you just said that the statement that the Timberwolves made in their sweeping out the Suns was a significant statement. And it is, but it's not nearly as significant as this statement right here that we have here. Mike Tyson running. Oh, I knew you'd go there. You know, hold on. Can we get the sound on this, Mike, please? That's him.

I'm coming for you. That was a couple of weeks. I'm assuming that was Jake Paul that he's referring to. I believe so. And we have some we have rules now.

We do. You were saying this is, by the way, this is our favorite storyline that we've seen grow with you. Yes. In your third appearance here in the last few weeks that this was a reality of Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul, a fight that you look at with some skepticism. Not skepticism.

I look at it. So the news today is that it will be a sanctioned pro fight, which I think is a little bit goofy, right? Like, I mean, a little bit. You don't like if any other 58 year old went to a commission and said, I would like to fight a pro fight.

Ninety nine times out of 100, that 58 year old is is overruled. Right. Like it's like it's like when in the Rocky movie, when Rocky comes back. Right.

And the was at the Philadelphia Commission, Pennsylvania, which is like, no, no, that's this is not not a good idea. And then they're right. You know, you shouldn't be getting hit in the head when you're 58 years old. So simple as that. It's also kind of a little odd because they're sanctioning it apparently as a pro fight, but it's eight two minute round. That's like men's fights are eight three minute rounds. So there's still uncertainty. I like this is what Jake and Mike both wanted.

This is what they believe correctly. I think we'll help sell the fight even more. Tyson versus Paul. Real fight. I guarantee you, mark my words, they will get one of these idiot sanctioning bodies to put a title of some kind on the line. It'll be like the WBC crossover championship or the WBA eight round heavyweight championship of the world.

It's one of these greedy leeches of sanctioning bodies will will put a belt on the line for this fight. I am sure my only follow up question to that is. So what? Right. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. But it's just like I don't like look, I'm still a purist at heart.

Yes. I'm sorry. I'm still the guy that loves the guys that fight for regional belts, that shows up at a fight at, you know, the very first bell for the very first right fight rings. I have no one in the crowd. I'm there to watch that. I don't like when you you kind of make a bit of a mockery with the bell part. The bell part is all I really care about.

OK, the sanctioning part. I'm a little iffy with the fight itself. I've said this many times sitting here.

I love it. I'll be there in Texas to watch that fight. I think it's fascinating to kind of see this this show unfold and see if Mike Tyson can turn back the clock and land one haymaker to the head of a guy that's 30 years younger than him or will be 30 years younger than him on fight night.

Can he do it? Because if he can't do it in the first round now, all that video is nice that the sprinting and the pad work. But he's still going to be 58 in the ring. And Jake Paul is still going to be a 27, 28 year old boxer who is a pretty good boxer. I should point out this point. I mean, come on now. He's not Mike Tyson.

Look at him. Just like any draft. We just came up the NFL draft. All it takes is one team. All it takes is one team to make somebody a first rounder or second rounder or whatever professional.

It takes one punch, one punch, one moment. Now we're channeling Eminem on that one. By the way, who is at the NFL draft? I know. OK, so yeah, man, like that's what we're we're all in on it. And that's what the audience will be all in on. But you're not in on it.

No, I'm I'm all in on it in that respect. Again, like the purist in me says, like, don't say I don't want this to be a loss on Mike Tyson's resume. Like this doesn't look at Mike Tyson's box wreck and see the last fight of his professional boxing career, which comes nearly two decades after the previous fight to be a loss to Jake Paul.

Everything else I'm on board with. I mean, the build up is already going to be great. Fight week's going to be outrageous.

They're going to sell a bunch of tickets. I love that they put the rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano on that card. That is a massive women's boxing fight. The biggest fight you can make in women's boxing. I called their first fight at Madison Square Garden. They sold out Madison Square Garden, the big room, sold the whole thing out. They'll put a ton of butts in seats for that. That is a real fight they're having as the co-main event. And then I'll be there waiting like when they drop the music and DMX comes on and Mike Tyson comes out in the towel. I love it.

I love everything about. They're just little things. It's like, do we have to, does this have to be a loss for Mike? Does there have to be like three judges there scoring it? Do we have to?

No, you're looking at it the wrong way. It's a win for Mike. It's a win for Mike. It's a win for Mike.

His last, his last fight will be a W as a 50, 31 years older than the guy he's just beaten. And I think you're underestimating Jake because Jake's pretty good. Like Jake is not, you know, Jake's not one of these kind of other influencers that's out there doing their thing. Like I've been to his gym in Puerto Rico. Like Jake takes this stuff seriously. He brings in like former champions to spar with him.

He's got great training staff. I get it. I'm just saying, I don't know what it is. Maybe because I'm 54.

I want to see if I could just, you know, have one, one last moment in the sun. Would you volunteer to get punched in the head? Not at all. It's different endeavors.

I'm just, you know, kind of broadening out what it, what it means writ large, Chris. 14 ounce gloves, does that matter? Not really. Okay, because I know that was one of the metrics you were looking forward. You wanted to see how many rounds, how long they're going to be, what the gloves are. It's good that they're bigger, yes.

That's, that's a good thing. For who? I think probably for Jake.

Okay. I think 12 ounce would have been better for Mike. Okay, so he gets the gloves he wants. The smaller, like the way it goes, the smaller the gloves, the better for the power puncher, right?

You want less in between your fists and, and somebody's face. So that would have been better for Mike. I just, I don't know how this thing plays out because look, it is one thing to look at Mike sprinting on Instagram or wailing away on some guys on the pads. I want to see the next 30 seconds. I want to see the next three minutes. I don't know how many days he's in the gym and working and how ready he is to go eight, two minute rounds. The two minute rounds works for Mike too, like that's better. If it was three minute rounds, I think he'd be in a world of trouble because I don't think he can be Mike Tyson for three minutes. He might be able to do it for one and then kind of hold on for the last minute of each round. All right, so Jake gets the gloves he wants and Mike gets a minute per round shaved off.

And we fans get the belief that one punch, that's all it takes. 30 million some odd fans probably. I've been trying to calculate how many people would watch. I think anyone from 30 to 50 million is like a broad scope. And I do think globally though, again, adding Katie Taylor to that. Katie Taylor is the, she is the biggest star in Irish sports history, men or women. Like she is massive over in Ireland. That's going to draw a huge European audience to watch that.

Netflix is a global platform. It's going to be a huge event. Things I never thought I would say. It's crazy that a Mike, well I guess to put it that way, that a Tom Brady roast would help get the juices flowing. I love that Brady's doing that.

Netflix live sporting events for a Mike Tyson, Jake Paul fight. Is there going to be, are there going to be punches pulled on Brady in this? I don't believe so. Well, no. No. Okay, good.

I mean, Sarah Tiana is part of the writing staff. So you know, you pretty much know what's happening. Yeah, I know what's happening, yeah. Good, because I love, those roasts are my favorite thing to watch.

I rewatch all of them all the time. There will be no padding between the punch. Everything's on the table then, right? Pretty much, yeah. Everything.

Because you got to. Thanks for coming on, sir. My pleasure.

Appreciate it. It's Chris Mannix right here, everybody. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. I'll tell you what's next is you coming back here in a few weeks talking about the NBA playoffs and we'll see the latest Mike Tyson video.

I mean Lakers and Clippers, they don't stay in. Oh, well, we'll have you on the Zoom. See you in Boston.

Speaking of the Zoom, that's next. Howie Roseman, the man of the hour in Philly, joining us next. Howie Roseman. A man of the hour in Philly. Howie Roseman. A man of the hour in Philly. Let's get into the show. We're going to start with a quick break. We're going to talk about the edition smart bed for a limited time.

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Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. The general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, Harry Roseman, is going to join us in a second. So uh what did you make of Daniel Jeremiah saying the the Patriots received remarkably he said very very very good offers and stuck and picked. Had to have been similar to what we've heard and speculated right multiple number ones uh maybe three uh maybe a third or fourth rounder and additionally throw in it just seems like New England was locked in Bob Kraft put his you know thumb on the scale we need to get a young quarterback in this draft so why move off of number three when you got one of the top three guys just sitting there waiting for you to take. Uh I love it I just hope uh the fans and the front office has patience with Drake May and that he's not brought along too quickly.

He's a guy that has some things that he needs to work and improve on and I hope uh he gets the opportunity to do that. Did you hear Daniel also said he thinks the second half of the season would be I think that sounds I think that sounds great like even post Thanksgiving you know I forget who said it on Friday when we were talking uh when we were in Detroit but yeah a December situation that would be awesome like let's give Jacoby a chance to kind of see if we can gain some momentum this season and if not then great let's throw them out there but let's wait a while. Dude it's just the cupboard is quite there and you know the Patriots did draft a lot of picks on receivers first five their first five picks were on offense. I love it it's a you know and then they got Joe Milton too.

I know. By the way first Tennessee Vol that the team drafted since. Rod Mayo.

The coach and Drake May's the first top 10 draft choice they made since. Yeah Rod Mayo. Yeah same guy.

Yeah same guy. I'm done with my Joe Rod Mayo trivia by the way. I love Rod Mayo I love them as a player I hope he's a great head coach. Uh I hope this also means that Bailey Zappi see you later that would be nice.

I think that that they were discussing that on uh Ian Rappaport popped in and said that they are they are gonna move on. Yeah so let's go with a great quarterback room of Jacoby, Drake and Joe Milton. I love it we're gonna throw the deep ball throw deep baby because the receivers we got uh same situation they excel at catching the deep ball. Javon Baker uh had the line of the press conferences when he said I make people in wheelchairs stand up get your popcorn ready so this guy is exciting and he's willing to talk to talk let's see if they can they can walk it uh because anything the opposite of what's been done the last few years is new and exciting because it hasn't been that way in a long time. You got Jacoby, Drake and Milton you said?

Yeah that sounds like either like a law form or a space exploration. Yeah Jacoby, Drake and Milton. They're gonna throw the deep ball. I saw a clip of Joe Milton throwing an orange a hundred yards. Yeah we we we heard that one too. Let's do it. We heard that one. Marshall, Will and Holly. I'll tell you that was the most fun obviously listen you're not just throwing on air in the NFL but Milton at the combine had had the crowd electrifying.

Let it rip. Yeah but you don't want him playing clearly. No if Joe Milton's playing things have gone seriously wrong but you know that's a fun quarterback room and it's a fun wide receiver room now. Just want a fun team. Right.

Hasn't been a fun team to watch in a couple years. Is the man ready? Is he ready right now? Okay fantastic. He's the executive vice president and general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles.

I'd like to call this a tradition unlike any other. Joining us again on the Rich Eisen Show after another NFL draft Howie Roseman. Good to see you. How are you? How are you?

Good to see you Rich. I'm noticing I just want to know was that a unanimous selection as best dad ever or were were there other people? I don't know just just you know Howie it's that time of year everything's an evaluation.

Everything's an evaluation but if my family's anything like yours it's a very very difficult evaluation. You know that's what I'm saying. I'm saying like you know for the amount that you work and you put into I mean best dad ever that's that's that would be impressive. Thank you. It's all about being present that's otherwise it's a red flag you know what I mean? That's that's good to see you. Good to see you. Good to see you.

So let's just jump right into it. Going into the draft did you identify corner as a need and you said we're gonna you know I don't know if it's like the movie draft day you know Quinion Mitchell no matter what but something was that something that you said we're gonna hit it we're gonna hit it hard. I don't know that I've ever felt about anything no matter what but I would say that for us we just got to be careful that we don't change our evaluations based on need and I think the way that the board fell with the offensive players going with the quarterbacks going it fell nicely for us. I think there was a point in the first round where we've had an opportunity to trade up and we felt like we were gonna sit at our pick and get a really good player which which is a pretty unique feeling certainly for me I'm usually of the mindset of like let's go up and let's make sure we get it but it fell kind of nicely for us and we felt like we were a good spot in at 22 and actually had a couple of first rounders still on our draft board you know we don't have 32 first rounders but we had a couple of first rounders still on our board at 22 and obviously getting Mitchell filled a spot that we were looking to address this offseason that we hadn't addressed other than you know getting Isaiah which was kind of a different look from us we do have some young corners and some veteran corners that we like as well but it kind of met needs and evaluation. Well you had your choice essentially of corners why did he jump out at you as the one for you? Yeah a lot of good players there and I think it's it's a beautiful situation that we had a lot of good players that we would have been happy to select that we didn't know that would be there at 22. We just felt like he fit his skill set fit what we were looking for not that the other guys didn't because we would love to have them and obviously we went back and got another one of those guys there on day two but just felt like he had a great mix of skill set and mentality and intangibles to come in and help our football team. And you know if you if you dug the kid I imagine you know getting him where you did you might be surprised going in that you'd be able to stick and get him and knowing you and not leaving anything to chance if you want somebody I imagine you might have called around to see if you could move up not to turn you into a pundit here Howie but why do you think there were so few first night draft trades from moving up it was kind of a difficult nut to crack it seemed from my seat on the set do you have any theories on that at all? Yeah I feel like the teams in the top 10 had options at positions that made sense for them I felt like once you got to 11 through 20 the two quarterback the three quarterbacks going kind of affected that range of players and that allowed guys to fall down that normally wouldn't fall down in other drafts and so I think when teams were sitting there they felt very comfortable who they were picking in the first round and when you do that you're not willing to move off that spot and the flip side is you don't have to move up because you know you look at your board and say hey there's three picks left to my pick I have three guys that I still really like I'm in a good spot. Is that how it works like you know you draft your board your draft board's not just vertical but it's also horizontal that you know you that's exactly right that's exactly right really you got to look from you got to look at it from both perspectives and so you know for us the draft kind of fell and we didn't say that just because we were picking 22nd we felt like there were about 24 first round talents including the quarterbacks and so when you get to a point you get to a point where you kind of go all right well we're five picks away we still got five first round talents for us it kind of worked out from like you said from a horizontal perspective where those grades were equal and they were positions that we were looking to address anyway so it didn't make a lot of sense for us to move up and use draft capital to do it and it's you must have been because we had Chris Ballard on last Friday and he was obviously just like you not quarterback needy going into this draft and he told me if I could get five or six quarterbacks drafted before he picks he said he would come on this show anytime and and I'm imagining you you had to have been high-fiving right watching all the quarterbacks go in the top 12 you sitting where you were sitting right yeah rich one of my many negative qualities as I always expect the worst and hope for the best so you know you sit there and you go what what's the least amount of quarterbacks that that will go before we pick and you kind of work off that so I think for us to have six quarterbacks go was probably the the best case scenario in any of the hypotheticals that we did and Cooper DeGene you do you see him playing a role in this newfangled kickoff return world we live in Howie do you see that well we we couldn't be more excited to get him he was certainly among the considerations at 22 you know when we when we came back after the first round and met as a staff just trying to figure out a way was there a possibility that we could get him because of what kind of player and person he is the roles that he can fill you know this this guy he's just a heck of a player I think whatever he does he does at a high level what's a whether that's a defensive player whether that's as a returner I mean shoot this was this was a quarterback in high school you know this guy could have played quarterback in college as well he's that kind of athlete he's that kind of intangible so I'm really excited to get him and kind of add to what we're trying to do defensively and in terms of your career of calling a prospect saying you know hey you're ready to become a Philadelphia eagle where does Jeremiah Trotter Jr rank for that for you oh I thought you were going to talk about a third round pick who called me Big Pimpin um all right let's go there I thought you were going in order so you went with Mitchell you went with Cooper and then I thought you were going to talk about you know me and Jay-Z being in the same ballpark there with Hunt what happened say what what what I called him and I congratulated him told him we were going to draft him I said hey uh this is Howie Roseman and he said what's up Big Pimpin uh is that a first for you Howie I'm just gonna go that is that is a first for me um you can find that on our website I was taken aback I was like I was literally like it took me a second to kind of understand what he was saying to me but um it's a positive I'm not I'm not sure it will be a last now um based on the text messages I got over the weekend that's funny um but yeah I guess I just wanted to switch it up because it's more to talk to you about than just your draft and uh but Jeremiah Trotter Jr can you I mean talk about feeling old but but right unbelievable yeah I mean you talk about a kid that um you you saw um when his dad was playing here and then obviously he played at Saint Joe's Prep and then following him at Clemson and this is a guy that we had high grade on we know what kind of player and person he is I can't wait for him to kind of be himself you know he he doesn't have to have be his dad he's his own player he's his own leader felt really fortunate to be able to trade up and get him where we got him dude that said is he going to wear 54 is because I know that's available a lot of folks are wondering what do you know what that's a good question I have not talked to uh Greg Delamitros our esteemed equipment vice president of equipment he's got he's got that title so we'll give him a lot a lot of say there but um I felt like that was one of the more emotional moments that I've had in a draft room just thinking about that player you know obviously him going later than he thought in the draft and the adversity he'd gone through obviously the situation with his mother um you know passing away here and to be able to stay home and be around his family and um you know just I thought it was really special Harry Roseman here on the Rich Eisen show and obviously listen you you're you're very well known for building around the lines and the trenches and making sure that that's taken care of uh and yet you're also now the same executive and general manager that has uh extended the two wide receivers on your team with generationally enriching contracts including another for AJ Brown right at the outset of the draft and then Saquon uh in a world where running backs are supposed to be just you know sixth seventh rounders not not guys that you pay top of the market what what's your philosophy on on all of that Howie writ large if you don't mind yeah I I think that the most important thing is you started with you know we start with the lines and when you look at our offensive line to start you look at Jordan Malotta who we also extended this offseason Landon Dickerson who we also extended this offseason we took Cam Juergens in the second round to go play center last year at the top of the third round we took Tyler Steen we extended Lane Johnson last year as well and then we drafted two guys and we had signed a couple of guys in free agency and his futures that we have a lot of faith in and we extended our other tackle Fred Johnson and today um you know not breaking any news but we have um we have another offensive lineman in the building uh former first round pick uh Makai Becton so it's really important to us and then you look on the defensive line and um obviously our last two first round picks were defensive tackles um we also have Milton Williams who who was a third round pick we have a bunch of young guys uh inside and then you look at our edge rushers um we signed Bryce Huff as a pre-agent we drafted Nolan Smith in the first round last year we signed Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham we drafted a guy in the third round we have a bunch of young players of that position we like as well so I think it starts there and and us being able to do a lot of the things that we're doing this year started because of all the resources we put on the offensive defense aligned and then adding those two guys back and extending AJ and Devante who we think you know are the best to receiver tandem in the league obviously we're biased there's a lot of good ones but that's how we feel about those guys um and then Saquon you mentioned you know and I think for us we thought this was an elite player and an elite person um and we have always felt a little bit differently about the running back position here and how important it is you're talking about a guy who you know should get 300 touches he's going to touch the ball 300 times he's a special player we've done that before you know me when I was the personnel director we had done it with Brian Westbrook when I was a GM we did it with LaShawn McCoy so um we think it's an important position and um obviously we think this guy is is a special player 300 huh that that'd be a heck of a number of touches that's the that's essentially the plan going to the season Saquon 300 touches and Jalen can figure out the rest after all of that right are you holding me to something you're gonna get me in trouble with our coaches I don't mean to get in I just when you just look at when you look at the history of running backs I don't think 300 touches is a big number when you talk about rushes and receptions right um but yeah certainly I think the you want the ball in his hands and we got a lot of playmakers we didn't even mention Dallas Goddard or a couple of the guys we got in this draft um so we're excited we're excited obviously we got a long way to go yeah Will Shipley no listen man Saquon is one of my favorites and I pound this table all the time running backs you so many people think oh you don't have to pay him you don't have to pay him and then they're the most important players that you have to lean on when games get tough fourth quarter weather gets rough you know January comes around February comes around that's it that's the end of the story for these guys and they're touching the ball more than any player other than the center and the quarterback on offense pretty much hey Howie I appreciate the time right here uh love checking in with you also wanted to see if you're okay you didn't draft anybody from Georgia I want to make sure everything's fine with you everything well you know what you know what Rich um I um I am a gator and I think that at some point that I had to make sure that I was getting back into the university because I care very much about the University of Florida so I want to make sure they understand you know that I am a big advocate of the University of Florida as well and um I thought it was important that we got back to baseline here understood yeah it's called homecoming for a reason you want to go back that's what I'm saying okay no doubt always great to see you right back at you I want to see if I can get something on my desk that merit them images the same you're you got it yeah I it you know based on the the sticker that my kid left on it it doesn't cost very much so don't worry about it take care thanks for having me man that's Howie Roseman he can fit this in into the cap very easily right here on the Rich Eisen show love chatting with that guy one of the best of the best uh let's take a break we're up against it as they say in the radio business we'll be back with more hour threes all for us eight four four two oh four rich prescription products require completion of an online medication consultation with an independent health care provider through the LifeMD platform and are only available if prescribed subscription required individual results may vary additional restrictions apply at LifeMD.com read all warnings before using GLP-1s side effects may include a risk of thyroid c cell tumors do not use GLP-1s if you or your family have a history of thyroid cancer if you've struggled for years to lose weight and have given up hope did you know you can now access GLP-1 prescription medications at TrilifeMD.com we're now offering 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cancer if you've struggled for years to lose weight and have given up hope did you know you can now access GLP-1 prescription medications through LifeMD LifeMD is now offering eligible patients online access to GLP-1s the breakthrough prescription medication that can help you lose body fat and weight listen to what people are saying you just take your shot it doesn't feel like you're on a diet what I wasn't expecting it to do was to shut off the food noise this was life-altering and if I can do it I feel like anybody can do it and here's the best part your insurance may cover 100 percent of the cost of your medication so go to trilifemd.com to have your eligibility checked right now get started today at trilifemd.com that's T-R-Y-L-I-F-E-M-D dot com back on the Rich Eisen show game time tickets make sure that you get this app on a mobile device right now certainly with the basketball playoffs going on what an amazing time let's just say you're a New York fan and you know there's a game say in Philadelphia and you're looking for tickets game time tickets would be a great place for you to look for ticket you can see the view from your seat so you might be able to you know like yell and and and have fun and get on camera make your presence felt and the best thing about it is like you could just take the train down from New York and think you know I'll wait I'll wait till I get off the train at Union Station you know what I mean and because the game time act prices actually go down the closer gets the tip off and then you can go and then uh go have a good time and and um and uh and make your presence known it's basically what I'm saying last minute deals save up to 60 percent off buying last minute for sports concert comedy theater and so much more so download the game time app and create an account and use the code rich for twenty dollars off your first purchase take the guesswork out of buying basketball tickets with game time restrictions apply visit gametime.co for terms again create an account and redeem code rich for twenty dollars off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed now it's just as a for example you know no no don't worry about it we've got more time in the third hour it's just we have no guests it's just gonna be us me and you and Jerry Ferrara and everybody else that decided to go to Philadelphia maybe they just wanted to see the Liberty Bell you know I literally got confused in the fourth and beads at the foul line and all I heard were boos and I literally for like I went wait a minute we're home right yeah oh yeah what's going on very good because it was half Nick fans so much to talk about in our number three of this program but hey good news is you got Zeke back so there's that I don't I don't think you really are congratulations 844-204-rich is the number to dial we'll update the tote board your phone calls and so much more you know so we actually have the sound we have the sound Howie Roseman said this is a first in his career I believe it's Jalex Hunt who got drafted okay here it's the moment Jalex what's going on man it's Howie we're gonna pick you right here brother welcome to we're excited to get you man what's up big pimping what's up big it's just funny how funny is that I mean he rules every draft the guys when was the last time the Eagles lost a draft I don't know I mean I don't know how you win a draft and lose a draft right away you know what I mean like you do still have to see it but he does he does the things that are like let's sign Devante Smith let's sign AJ Brown let's sign two of the guys on the line he's signing Makai Becton today yeah he snuck that in there real sneaky like well it's apparently a one-year six million dollar deal for them and they have the space that's the question is how the hell they keep finding the space I'm getting a little tired of them okay I'm just gonna be honest with you we're gonna sign Saquon Barkley we're gonna draft the hell out of the cornerback position two of Mike of Daniel Jeremiah's top four cornerbacks he got two of them you know they drafted Will Shipley to add to their running back group they just keep supplementing that's the key they keep supplementing hour three coming up Mike Carruthers shares little pieces of intel and interviews you can use to improve your life on the something you should know podcast the next time you're looking for a job and have to write a cover letter here's some advice from skip Freeman author of a book called headhunters hiring secrets add a ps to the bottom of that cover letter that can actually increase the chances of that letter being read by up to 75 some people actually glance down and read the ps first something you should know search on youtube or wherever you listen