Trevor Sikkema: Saquan Barkley is going to be playing behind one of the best offensive lines in his entire career.

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That's dell.com slash deals. I'm living my best life yeah yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host Brian Weber.

Yeah big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television. I have my own show.

And now sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. Great to have you with us on this Independence Day. Indeed we are live. We'll do it live. How can I demonstrate that I did not stick around after yesterday's program and put down three hours of lava-filled sizzling sports hot takes on tape so I could have the day off.

Well I could count with the clock in front of me but I could have done that yesterday with time shifting. I can take a phone call that would be a proof of life 844-204-7424 is the phone number although since I am a veteran of working holiday shifts for Mr. Eisen I can tell you from experience most people prefer to enjoy the audio experience on a holiday especially when you have priorities like the beach, a barbecue, and fireworks coming up tonight. Although did I miss something?

Did we start July 4th 20 hours ago or so because when I left this studio here in Southern California. I'm Brian Weber. You can also hit me up on Twitter.

Forget about the x thing. I don't work for Elon. I'm not in his pocket.

You can tweet at me. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two b's. Here in Southern California people were shooting off fireworks during the daylight hours and then because I take this role seriously believe it or not and I don't know why I'm this defensive 90 seconds into the program I go to bed early. I get up early just in case there's breaking news.

Good luck trying to sleep when my neighborhood became Beirut circa 1984 last night on the 3rd of July. So Uncle Brian has already put aside the Togedal PM for tonight because the pyrotechnics will be off the hook. So if I'm even more over the top tomorrow because I'm sure right now I have reeled you in with this scintillating opening in advance take my apology sometimes you got to take a sleeping pill to do your job and with that we're off and running because there's a lot to get to. I will have a conversation with you either by picking up the phone or heading over to social media and we're going to follow the same winning blueprints winning in my estimation of not overwhelming you with outside voices unless you want to contribute to the program as a phone caller just one guest per hour and because I have reached the moment of saturation with NBA conversation although I'm going to give you some general thoughts in about 90 seconds with the opening monologue football is going to be a major focal point today as it's always is the case on this program it is the football show of record after all Mr. Eisen the face of NFL network in 40 minutes we take you across the NFL with training camps now less than three weeks away and a lot of interesting business decisions still out there on the horizon when are the dolphins going to pay to them one of the cowboys going to figure out they have to do something anything with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb looking forward to checking in whichever Sikkema a pro football focus I still believe in baseball especially on the 4th of July in fact part of me thinks we should just open the program by playing the greatest speech in the history of sports the Lou Gehrig I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth speech which happened on July 4th decades ago we'll be more current though 1 40 eastern time coming up in the next hour of the show we'll take you round the bigs with Gabe Lux of USA Today all-star starters announced last night Shohei and Aaron Judge continue to do historic things and then we'll wrap it up 2 40 eastern time our third and final guest talking MBA with my old friend Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report we will spin it forward because there are moves still to be made they're just not that earth-shattering but remember as we saw with the Celtics yes you need the titanic tandem as we go with a literation you need massive star power in the case of Boston that's Tatum and Brown but you also need valuable role players Boston would not have won that title without say Derek White who got a nice payday this week or I think the more important acquisition coming in last year's off season was the pickup of Drew Holliday with his lockdown defensive skills I guess to demonstrate I'm live I could paint the word picture as to what's going on in Coney Island but I have never had any interest whatsoever in the gluttony of the hot dog eating contest now maybe it's just self-loathing because I know I'm gonna have probably a dog or two more than I should if you're gonna have a hot dog today do not put ketchup on it that is a culinary crime but once Kobayashi was not allowed in the competition I didn't care I realized Joey Chestnut is a gastronomical freak but he's not there due to the political divide in the world of competitive eating so do not call me or tweet me with views on what's going on in the realm of hot dog eating as much as our outstanding technical producer Art Martinez is not listening to a word I'm saying because he's engrossed with the action in Coney Island I could make the argument transition that there is more drama potentially with a new champion to be crowned with Joey Chestnut not in Brooklyn not part of the proceedings who's going to walk away with the coveted golden mustard more inherent tension in that quote-unquote competition and look let me just back up for a moment I'm not pretending that I'm better than the hot dog eating contest as a person or broadcaster if you have any idea who I am I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eyes and we're live on this 4th of July hop aboard at 844-204-7424 or slide over to the X platform BW Weber Weber with two B's I have done watcher polo men's and women's I have called horse jumping in Wellington Florida I have done arm wrestling at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas should I keep going I have called field hockey I've called bowling not once but twice not only was it bowling it was college bowling so I am a broadcast courtesan if there's a check to be had I will get on the plane fly there pick it up and call your event I handle weddings birthdays and bar mitzvahs I just don't care about competitive eating I guess I finally am drawing the line in my mid-50s I used to care a great deal about NBA free agency and if you've had to endure me every step of the week so far because I've been with you Monday Tuesday Wednesday thanks to the generosity of Mr. Eisen you might have gotten the sense that I fancy myself as a poor man's NBA insider not the case I just love basketball aesthetically even more than I love football understanding that football pays the bills and the only reason I'm here is that I work with rich at NFL network and I've done other things connected to the National Football League but if I'm just talking about what I want to watch I prefer to watch a basketball game to a football game I just think it's better action it's more constant it was one sport I could play a little bit in the backyard I gave up on football in the sixth grade because I had no talent whatsoever I could play horse with my old man when I was 15 and as somebody who has handled these shifts for the better part of a decade in the early stages of July the NBA dominated the conversation because we had big names to talk about and Beyonce the summer of Durant or LeBron taking his talents not only to Miami and then to Cleveland and then to here in the Southern California region there was always someone to build the conversation around and then you got to the next year of names and they were compelling not the case this year and I'm not just zigging when the world is zagging because as I mentioned if you've been with me day one day two day three now day four it should come through that I'm really passionate about basketball and I follow it closely and I do like to go through the scenarios and the dominoes that fall based on transactions but what did we have to talk about this week and this is not a shot at Paul George or Klay Thompson but beyond them absolutely nothing for a casual fan stood out and I think unfortunately this is by design now some of it comes down to just the luck of who was up contractually and again I don't want to come across as anti Paul George because I do think Philadelphia played things perfectly and I keep going back it sounds like I'm a member of the Daryl Morey fan club with a slide rule in my hand and I'm going through algebra when I'm not on the air but I just respect Morey immensely because he's a bright guy who's always two moves ahead of the competition just like Sam Presti in Oklahoma City if you become an NBA personal executive and Sam calls let it go right to voicemail because I could make the argument as I did yesterday the additions of Caruso and if you're a Laker fan and you give me a call at 844-204-7424 tell me precisely what your team has done in this off season to get better and I can tell you the answer is nothing because as of right now with other moves potentially pending the only additions to the roster are first round pick Dalton Connect who I like more than other people because I actually watch college basketball and I thought that was a steal at number 17 for the Lakers to get him mostly because it was good fortune they never thought he'd still be there he dropped on their big board and go back to him being a volume shooter and scorer in Tennessee led the SEC in scoring last year SEC player of the year that's a nice addition the other new face on the roster Bronnie James and I just can't have that conversation again today today it has become tedious it has become tiresome I think it is self-evident that Bronnie being on that team not only on his way to the G League but having the distinction of being a second round pick who got effectively three and a half years of guaranteed money I won't get into the minutia of how that breaks down but he got more guaranteed money than virtually any other second round pick who went as deep as he did a number 55 in the draft because of his last name and he never should have been drafted if the Lakers wanted to have him on the ability to play his way onto the roster or have him there a training camp on his way to the G League they could have invited him as an undrafted free agent as was the case for Austin Reeves years ago who has competed his way into the starting lineup it's the same exact starting five for the Lakers because they have botched free agency thoroughly because it is a poorly run franchise that has not only thrown the keys to Lebron James but they've given him total control so Bronnie James is on that team as a second round pick because his old man wanted it to be that way and JJ Redick is the head coach because Lebron wanted his podcast co-host and red wine drinking buddy to be the bench boss and I do think that Lebron might have been open to taking quote unquote less if the Lakers could have found someone anyone to take their money but Klay Thompson whose old man was a part of the Showtime Lakers and still is part of the franchise as their longtime radio analyst Klay said thanks but no thanks I'd rather go to Dallas and he made the right decision undeniably because there's more reporting from ESPN and Ramona Shelburne an outstanding basketball journalist saying that Klay viewed the Warriors as analogous to the Lakers and that if the Warriors didn't want him back and he was willing to go down to about 20 million bucks for two years so 40 million all in and the Warriors kept saying we can't make a decision now they kept slow playing it which effectively if you don't get a yes you're getting a no and you can file that into your personal life if you're still out there looking for someone to hang out with if you're looking for a significant other on July 4th that would be depressing do not get on a dating app although there's a lot of lonely people out there Klay said I'm leaving a dysfunctional situation now in Northern California an aging roster with one star in Steph and a complementary player in Draymond Green and what am I going to do I'll join the Lakers who have two stars and I can't bash Anthony Davis other than his health concerns throughout his career and remember if you combine the number of games LeBron and AD played last year it adds up to over 140 they were healthy and they were still a play-in team that was one and done getting swept round one by the Nuggets in the playoffs so Klay said I don't want to be a part of that situation instead he joins a team that made an unlikely run to the NBA Finals they're ahead of schedule and he can be the third option with no pressure whatsoever also got a nice payday with the three-year contract and you can always throw in the kicker of no state income tax in Texas put it all together nothing has changed for the Lakers and you're either getting better or you're getting worse when the competition has improved I mentioned OKC the top seed led by a dynamic young star and Shay Gilgus-Alexander they get Caruso and they get Hartenstein because Sam Presti knows what he's doing and Rob Polinka has done nothing other than clean up the mess of the Russell Westbrook deal which never should have been made in the first place so I can't give him much credit for rectifying a horrendously misguided decision that he made himself if you knock over all the china in my house and you help me clean it up I'm not giving you a high five you're responsible for your actions and that's why the Lakers continue to be the morass that they are because they are a rudderless organization that has given total control to the king who come to find out got every single dollar he could with the max contract and he's going year by year to hold the hostage situation in a holding pattern one more time with the Lakers because they're beholden to LeBron next year when he opts out and he'll threaten to leave again and more to the point when he opts out he'll get more money because the salary cap is going up but if I mention the salary cap that gets me to the dreadfully boring conversation of a collective bargaining agreement and I'm sure I've already lost you so let me do my best to salvage the program after we have taken the long and winding road to get here mentioned it yesterday with kurt helen of nbc sports part of the lack of action this week is not only because the names weren't that sexy and paul george to philadelphia is hugely impactful philadelphia now in my estimation becomes the second best team in the east although there's still a substantial gap between them and boston and if you're nick fan you're going to say hey radio man whoever you are what about us nicks did outstanding work in this off season love the deal for mchale bridges they are prioritizing culture and the team concept and importantly they locked up og i don't know b so they're running it back with the same core and they'll get a healthier julius randall of course missed the postseason so i'm not bearing the nicks i just have to give credit to philadelphia for amassing a war chest of cap space targeting the best available free agent although he's 34 and he's never even reached the nba finals and paul george and you're thinking about the liabilities of paul george health concerns pop up because he's been breaking down physically more often in recent years and he's going to a franchise that has their entire outlook hinging on joellen bean who's a transcendent talent already won an mvp but unfortunately he can never stay healthy still paul george to philadelphia moving the needle and that was the splashy move early on we knew once he decided to move to the sixers clay was on the clock that got settled pretty quickly in fact that was on the air monday it monday it happened within the final 20 minutes of the program okay that gets us to tuesday in a normal free agency window there's a longer runway but because of who was available and because of i've been avoiding it now i have to get into the cba what is happening is by design the mba has killed the drama that was associated with their free agency period because of this new collective bargaining agreement and even if you are a casual fan you've heard this term now second apron i am not an accountant i would recommend if you have four dollars spend the money on the accountant they can help you in a variety of ways uncle sam can be devious so do not wind up on the wrong side of the irs but in terms of this second apron terminology what it means is this the luxury tax did not do enough to slow down the big spenders so the small market teams came together and they got enough support from teams that do have the economic firepower like denver who has done nothing since winning the title last year they let bruce brown go and then in this cycle they let cantavious callwell pulp go because they didn't want to wind up on that second apron when you get there it becomes virtually impossible to make any deals you can't do the sign and trade you can't buy a draft pick and the whole point of that was to have more competitive balance in the league i understand that's a good goal but the mba in my estimation has grown in popularity because they took over the summer and they had a whole week to themselves instead what do we really have a free agency 36 hours and that's that and i cannot get excited as much as i love this stuff tracking where is damar de rosa gonna go as he hits 35 next month and don't say the lakers because the only way that works financially because of this second apron nonsense is the lakers would have to trade d'angelo russell to get to rosen and i don't think the bulls even with all their dysfunction would be dumb enough to take that contract coming back so the mba had a goal in mind and owners can run their league any way they want to but the consequence of this new collective bargaining agreement was they have killed what used to be a week filled with drama tension unpredictability and now we had one big move in paul george and then the complementary transaction in clay thompson and after that a whole lot of nothing and look we can talk about where lowery marketing is going to go and i spent a lot of time in arizona i am part of a family group that owns a home in tucson i watched him play for the wildcats i am well aware of his versatility i just can't get that worked up over where he might go plus we know danny ang is a masterful negotiator if say the warriors or kings are going to extract marketing from salt lake city they're going to have to give up a lot in return to get him from utah i'm brian weber in for rich eisen the reason i am live is to be interactive with you eight four four two oh four seven four two four is the phone number bw weber weber with two b's to demonstrate that i am backing away from the mba they lost bill simmons and they lost me that's it for the basketball conversation in this first hour of the program in fact i have so much football and baseball coming up we may not get back to it until hour number three so if you're not a hoop head like i am i'm trying to offer a full service radio program especially when you have more exciting things to be thinking about primarily what's coming up on your grill a reminder fill the grill and fire up your party on this fourth of july get the weber sear wood pellet grill smoke roasted sear all on the same grill go from low and slow on smoke boost mode at 180 degrees all the way to high heat sear at 600 degrees getting hot in here it's got a full great sear zone so you can put more food on the flame food will look as good as it tastes this grill gets hot in 15 minutes cleanup is easy you'll cook on two levels at the same time so you can make enough for everyone at your holiday party and you can add a heavy duty rotisserie or rust resistant griddle insert get fired up for your new weber sear wood pellet grill the ideal purchase this time of the year you can head over to the x platform i check your tweets during the break that is bw weber weber with two b's because i got fired up for some reason about the collective bargaining agreement in the mba in less than 20 minutes now we talk nfl with trevor sickema a pro football focus straight ahead i appreciate history that was my monkey trick to get into this industry 35 years ago today i would be replaced by a search engine so i mentioned july 4th to me is always synonymous with lou garrick's remarkable speech and it got me thinking about other historical developments on independence day so two men were born on the 4th of july who proved to be two of the most impactful figures in sports history who were they and will we ever see anything like them again that is a professional tease on a holiday i'm brian weber having a great time with you just getting warmed up on this thursday edition of the program we roll on on the rich eisen show let's talk o'reilly auto parts people you love their jingle you're going to love their friendly helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs they've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock either in store or online so you never have to worry if you're in a jam the team at o'reilly auto parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car if it needs to be replaced they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle need your windshield wipers replaced a brake light fixed or quick service they'll help you there and find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help the professional parts people at o'reilly auto parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto do it yourself and you can find what you need in store or online so stop by o'reilly auto parts today or visit us at o'reilly auto dot com slash eisen that's o'reilly auto dot com slash e i s e n o o o'reilly auto parts hey everybody this just in it's summertime it's time to go and do all those summer things like going to a baseball game during the summer i'm about to do exactly that and i know exactly what to do and you should too you should go look forward to making new memories this year by going to a ball game using game time the authorized ticket marketplace of major league baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch so you can wait to buy your tickets with killer last minute deals the all-in-prices feature you get to see how much everything is before your purchase views from your seat you know exactly where you're getting your seat and the view of the field from it their lowest price guarantee of course that's game time takes the guesswork completely out of buying mlb tickets download the game time app create an account and use my code eisen for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply visit game time.co for restrictions again create an account redeem my code e i s e n for twenty dollars off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed welcome back to the rich eisen show radio network i'm brian weber and i'm proudly 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 click ranger.com or just stop by 844-204-7424 is the phone number getting good interaction with the rich eisen show radio network granger has the right product for you call click ranger.com or just stop by 844-204-7424 is the phone number getting good interaction on the x platform today let's keep that going bw weber weber with two b's and if you have an opinion and you feel confident i realize i use a lot of big words and i speak quickly i will give you the platform the floor is yours if you pick up the microphone i'm going to be talking about the free agency cycle and i have one quick footnote on that but coming up in 10 minutes now we'll talk nfl with trevor sickema a pro football focus the whole contradiction of the cba slowing down transactions is this it was unnecessary because we already had remarkable parity across the mba think about it the celtics winning this year means we've had six different champions over the last six seasons that has not happened since the late 1970s i will not go through all 30 mba teams but even the dregs of the association has at least one star we've never seen the big names spread around the league more evenly than today so what's really happening is rich people try to hang on to every dollar they can and i don't want to get political on the 4th of july but that seems like a parallel to what we see in daily life so for example i mentioned the nuggets their ownership group led by stan kronke has walmart money and they spend every dollar they want to on the broncos that's the other side of the family how much money did they eat to let russell wilson go to pittsburgh because sean paton dropped the hammer on russ because sean's got total control of the organization so you can spin things any way you want to and talk about competitive balance to me this came down to ownership putting guardrails in place to allow them to spend less understanding that the players are guaranteed a portion of total revenue and now this is getting really tedious i love sports history love history in general and now i've been replaced by a search engine so as someone who was sat in this very chair if you follow me on x you can head over and check out the behind the scenes photo i posted i'm in a studio that i first occupied in 2012 so i've been in the same chair fact i'm having flashbacks to memorial day two years ago when this chair was so poorly elevated i got a sciatica that's how much i love this industry and love sitting in for rich and the other shows that i'm proud to be affiliated with but as someone who's been here on many july 4th i can't help but to think about what's in the back of my mind and if i think july 4th i instantly think lou garrick and if you've never listened to the speech i've said in the past i played it that's too self-indulgent also i think i was being lazy years ago just to be upfront with you if you've not heard the words from lou garrick delivered on this day in 1939 do yourself a favor and listen later today it's just the most eloquent heartfelt impassioned reflection on a career that was cut short tragically and i hate to be as cliched as to say it puts things in perspective but the way lou handled that knowing he was on his way to a certain death is just remarkable at the same time because i want to have some levity on a holiday if you do follow me on the x platform bw webber webber two bs i reposted from the great old takes exposed feed evidence that hot takes are not new after that speech some columnist in new york came up with this take personally i don't care what garrick has got and he goes on to say essentially that lou was faking a disease because his production was slowing down here is the money quote it seems to me that garrick was merely getting too old to play hell for leather baseball and that the scientists of ailments or advertising gave him a graceful exit you talk about a bad take so whatever talking head show you despise whoever this fellow was in 1939 forget about a mount rushmore this man has his own continent to himself in terms of horrendous perspectives but since i mentioned the historical angle and if you think about sports birthdays and this is lame but these things stick in my head december 30th the prominent day in terms of impact performers that stand out across the world of sports that's lebron james and tiger wood sharing a birthday and a receding hairline july 4th the birthday of both george steinbrenner and al davis and if you think about two of the greatest mavericks in sports history and you think about two men who however you viewed them and they did a lot of things that were less than stellar especially george steinbrenner remember he was convicted of a crime for trying to bribe richard nixon then he was banished from baseball because he paid off a weasel named howie spira to dig up dirt on dave winfield because he was so pissed he gave dave all that money and he didn't deliver called him mr may famously steinbrenner for all of his foibles and weaknesses so desperately wanted to win he was all in and who was more all in than al davis and yes al at the end was a shadow of himself but if you think about bigger than life personalities the boss and the godfather jump immediately to the forefront of my mind and i do think sports has gotten too corporate i'm not saying everybody has to be a tyrant like george steinbrenner and al davis were but sports was better talking as somebody who's been around for a few minutes when we had these bigger than life personalities who were so committed to winning they would do whatever it takes even if they had to maybe bend the law or two i'm brian weber in for rich eisen or they would sue pete roselle and win in the case of al davis let's not bring up the topic of irwindale because i'm here in southern california coming up we'll get to the baseball in less than 25 minutes otonnie and judge are absolutely taking things to a new level we'll give you context at the start of our number two straight ahead i promise football will get there presently every year we see a team go from worst to first who's going to be the most improved club this season looking forward to checking in whichever sycama a pro football focus i'm brian weber in for rich we continue live on the 4th of july on the rich eisen show shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business shopify is there to help you grow shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person pos system shopify's got you covered shopify helps you turn browsers 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change the culture and he wanted me to be a part of that with believe you get immediate reactions game previews and expert analysis from all 32 teams plus all of your favorite college teams he's just rare in just about everything he does sideline to sideline end zone to end zone this was good for everybody just search believe that's b-l-e-a-v podcast wherever you listen i'm brian weber infra rich eisen appreciate you spending part of your july 4th with us eight four four two oh four seven four two four is the phone number or hit me up on x b w weber weber with two b's this is the football show of record so always a pleasure to get the insights from one of the best in our industry it's trevor sickima check out his outstanding work at pro football focus and be sure to enjoy the nfl stock exchange podcast trevor greatly appreciate you taking the time on a holiday how are you i am doing fantastic brad appreciate you having me on the show always a pleasure did you happen to catch the debut of the off-season edition of hard knocks spotlighting the giants i only saw some of the clips okay they were the they were the draft clips so that's actually what gets me the most excited as a draft guy you know they're sitting there on the sideline of the senior bowl and they're basically making trades just like any of us will which is funny right i mean we we listen to those clips and we go wait a second these guys are operating nfl teams like i operate my football team they're just just sitting there with their buddies throwing crap at the wall and seeing if it sticks and you know kind of going from there so it's always fascinating to me how some of the biggest trades in one of the biggest sports industries in the world that's how it begins that's how it starts and then you kind of flesh it out you get a lot more data and some people involved but uh those are the clips i've seen so far so i got to check out the full episode and when you do you'll get a sense and it was obvious from the outside what the giants were thinking about saquon barkley but a lot of talk about running backs now hitting the wall at the age of 27 28 when 30 used to be the magic number and we know that economics drove this decision so from a football standpoint what do you think the eagles offense looks like with the addition of barkley yeah no i think it's i i think we'll get to i want to talk about the eagles in a second but i can link this a little bit to another clip that i saw um from the hard knock show with the giants where um you know they were kind of sitting in that room and they were talking about barkley and they were talking about his value of bringing him back and i think both uh joe shane and marl were on the same page and they're like well he's a good player we'd love to have him back but you know shane even says at one point they were not paying dana jones 40 million dollars just to hand off football so now all of a sudden you do kind of get into this situation where even these really good running backs there's only so much of the piece of the pie that can go to running backs because you're giving more money in the salary cap to quarterbacks and if you're doing that well you want the ball in their hands more sure i think it's all complement and it's all well and good when head coaches say that they want to be as balanced as possible but at the end of the day you're also balancing the books too you're also balancing where the money's going and you're hoping that the money reflects the value of what a player brings to the team and so that sort of thing is obviously fascinating when it goes into it but now that with barkley on the philadelphia eagles i'm really excited about this because he just has not had the same sort of efficiency since that 2018 rushing season that he had as a rookie and you know the thing that i like about the most with the eagles um it's sort of an obvious but it needs to be stated saquon barkley is going to be playing behind one of the best offensive line that he's played in in his entire career eagles have been a top three run blocking unit in the nfl over the last three over the last two seasons even with jason kelsey out i think that they're still a top five group absolutely and in the last two years they have had two separate 1 000 yard backs with more than a 4.4 yards per carry in miles sanders and then d'andre swift and now you got a new guy in there but history tells us this eagles offensive line this eagles offense you can still get a guy to peruse so now you get a player who's even more talented in there i'm very excited about what he can be with this team specifically though as a receiver feels like we haven't seen saquon barkley as a receiver in as effective as a rate as we did since that rookie season so i think we'll see a lot better uh more or more of that i should say in philadelphia i'm brian weber in for rich eisen taking you across the nfl with trevor sycamore be sure to check out his stellar analysis on pro football focus.com trevor in the world of sports talk we spent a lot of time using words like deserve so you know it works for quarterbacks getting back to the economic component whoever's next gets paid so jared guff and trevor lawrence have reset the market and tua and dak prescott are on the clock from what you see on the tape and what the data-driven analysis tells you where is tua tangovailoa at in this stage of his career? look when it comes to data and and sort of our metrics and our grades no those are things that are grading efficiency they're grading how you perform in an offense what you're kind of being asked to do how successful you are it's high it's hard to find many quarterbacks over the last two seasons better than what tua tangovailoa has been in mike mcdaniels offense last year he had the highest passing grade of any quarterback at 88.9 he had 35 big time throws which is third best in the league and so when it comes to operating that offense in an extremely high level he's able to do that now you can sit here and say oh yeah he's got all these athletic running backs to hand the ball off to he's got tyra kill he's got jayden waddle well i i agree with you but he's still putting the ball in those guys hands he's still facilitating that now the issue that you get into if you're playing devil's advocate whether you know you use the word deserved or is he valuable enough for that next record setting contract his turnover worthy play rate was still higher than every single quarterback in the top five when it came to those big time throws so yeah you have those quarterbacks who are at the top of the category but those guys are normally throwing the ball at a high ceiling rate but their floor is a lot higher it seems like than two of this because with two of the problem is is that when it goes awry right what happens when it's not according to plan in mcdaniels offense to add one of the fastest time to throws of any quarterback last year 2.33 and that means that he knows exactly where the ball is going before the ball is snapped because him and mcdaniel are very instinct and he kind of sees the offense he sees the offensive play call and he goes yes this is where the ball is going and it's kind of a real um a real sign that mcdaniel just understands offense so so well but it's those times when tua has to adjust or change course or play under pressure that he starts to really struggle there starts to be a really big drop off and i think a lot of people out there would tell you that's where the value should be it should be in what a guy is going to give you when it's not going according to plan and i could agree with that sentiment but at the end of the day he is producing at such a high level that he gives miami a chance to win the division make playoff runs who knows if it's the super bowl but you know you get to that point and it's just you cannot let that type of a player out of your building i don't think so it's just the cost of doing business with quarterbacks that you give these guys the next biggest contract and now it's up to the dolphins to play better in the month of december and play better against teams with winning records we're taking you around the nfl with trevor sick of a pro football focus trevor we know the entire business model of the nfl was built on parody every year at least one team goes from worst to first last year houston rises up from three victories to reach the division around the playoffs so as you survey the league are there a team or a handful of teams that jump out to you on a list that could be the most improved clubs yeah no i think that there's three that immediately come to mind when i think of teams that are really improved they can really make some noise as soon as this season the commanders are one of them i know the division's tough dallas obviously is playing really well uh philadelphia i think is going to be able to be strong once again even though they didn't finish the year last year nearly as strong i think giants are going to be a little bit better but man i'm a big dan quinn guy i thought it was a long time coming to dan quinn kind of deserved another head coaching gig i'm excited for him in washington they now have jayden daniels a quarterback and of course it's going to be its ups and downs like it is with every single rookie quarterback but a ton of moves and free agency to really reset the core of that team a really impactful draft class that i am very very excited about even beyond just jayden daniels and so i think washington could really make some noise this season the next team it's because their new head coach it's the los angeles chargers now the chargers roster top to bottom i mean even with justin herbert in there it's it's not one of the best rosters in the nfl if i'm just kind of speaking bluntly there but i have so much faith in jim harbaugh he has just been a winner everywhere stanford winner san francisco 49ers winner michigan winner at the highest level taking these teams to elite bowl games and super bowls and national championships he is one of the best football coaches that we have on the planet and now the chargers have them uh wearing a chargers hat and being in charge of that organization so for him being the guy who's leading the charge there i think that he is somebody who i have a ton of faith in i think that they're going to surprise some people this year you know i don't think it's going to be a playoff berth for them but that team's going to turn around pretty quickly even with all the turnover that they had this past year and then the last team i'll shout out here is in the cardinals cardinals last year i get it they didn't win a lot of games and you know they're still in that building block part of their rebuild here but man they look a lot more competitive than i thought they were going to last year they looked they looked like they were much further ahead of their timeline than i thought when i was looking at that roster on paper i mean they had two first round picks going into last year and on our mock draft simulator at pff we had them projected to get the number one and the number two pick now one of them was the texans and obviously you mentioned texans took a big leap but arizona didn't get that number one pick either and i think it's how competitive they look under jonathan gannon and under their new leadership and where that direction is going with monnie ossinport is the general manager so those are three teams that i'm really excited about not just for 2024 but beyond as well trevor i always learn something every time we have the opportunity to chat so i really appreciate you taking the time on the 4th of july great information as always and i hope you have a great holiday weekend i appreciate it brian you as well my friend trevor sycamore is outstanding check out all of his great content at pro football focus and if you enjoy the audio experience and i can presume that you're listening to me on a holiday after all be sure to check out the nfl stock exchange podcast 844-204-7424 is the number to call about to reload the x machine so you tweet at me bw weber weber with two b's i spent a good chunk of the final hour yesterday talking about jim harbaugh and the chargers and i was also up front with you i have a charger bias they rank among my least favorite franchises in all of sports i can't stand the radio broadcast here in southern california they played in a soccer stadium and couldn't sell it out at the same time i have to have a degree of objectivity as trevor laid out and you forgot san diego jim harbaugh won at san diego then my alma mater then the 49ers then michigan yeah they probably i think it's not even probably it's documented they stole signs but they still were able to get it done on the field he is a culture changer and i mentioned stanford and i didn't tell this story yesterday i'll do it briefly when he was introduced as the head coach at leadland stanford junior university i have good relationships there i started my career there i'm an alum i knew the media relations director at the time who said hey coach i need your cell phone number so i can fill out these documents just to make sure we have all the contact info and harbaugh looked at me said you don't need my cell number just call me at the office and walked away and that was jim and he won he won big and he's won big everywhere so when you win that way you can do it any way you want to and for once the chargers have some relevance i'm gonna have to change my mindset although i've got a lot of mileage spewing anti bolts perspectives over the year our number two straight ahead talking about the greatness of otani and aaron judge i'm brian weber happy fourth of july here on the rich eisen show welcome to talkville the ultimate smallville rewatch podcast season four i'm glad that it's over i'm glad that it's over um as as we know now that season five is supposed to be one of our better seasons obviously the tattoo storyline you know how i feel about that you were hating that storyline probably a lot of joy because i kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it binge seasons one through four of talkville before season five begins wherever you listen you