Albert Breer: Players Are Realizing Their Worth

This is the Rich Eisen Show. I don't even know your name.

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You saw the deke mentioned practice yesterday wearing a Egypt inspired t-shirt. You know at this point Aaron it feels like his entire life is trolling everybody who's not in his inner circle. Earlier on the show Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Patrick Willis. Still to come, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer, comedian Chad Daniels. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

If you're on hold, stay on hold. We're going to take your calls by the end of this hour. The comedian Chad Daniels will be joining us in studio in hour number three. We had a great chat in hour number one with Patrick Willis going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One week from tonight's the Hall of Fame game, Matt Eberfluss just said they're going to make a decision quote unquote very shortly about whether Caleb Williams plays in that game. Let me tell you what very shortly means. It means no way.

Put him out there. It's a TV show. I'll tell you right now. It's no chance. But we should just stop guessing because we have one of the top information individuals in the business of the National Football League from Sports Illustrated.

Our friend Albert Breer and his wonderful Nantucket tennis here in person. I'm working on it. Usually I get you a little later in camp. So I'd say this is like my base layer. OK. So very good. So so here's here's the scoop in in our in this business. OK. Of the National Football League and so much more.

Del Tufo's. Come on. You can you can correct this, Mike. Doesn't matter about that. It's all good.

Mike Del Tufo is correcting things. There you go. You sitting back.

Thank you. So you have to multitask, right? You've got to you've got to look at your phone. You've got to be able to focus in terms of conversations. And you're excellent at that.

And right now we're we're about to see how excellent Albert Breer is, because as he's appearing right here on this program, his family just got off the plane here in Los Angeles trying to make their way to an Uber to make their way to the studio. And I'm a little nervous. I'm going up of like, you know, where do we go? Whatever. I mean, you know, what scared me was when I started to talk to to the people here about the Uber situation at L.A., which apparently is unconventional. It's called it's a little dicey. Yeah.

So you can't just walk out to the curb. It's better than it used to be. Let's be honest. It's a little dicey.

Yeah. But you're so far so good. If you need to, you know, they'll be good. They'll be good. They'll be good.

I trust them. We will. All they got to do is get within the vicinity of here and we'll we'll get a minute. Got it. We're good. Yeah.

So the story of training camp 2024 writ large, because you're kind of kicking off our training camp coverage right here on the program. Appreciate you doing. Well, thank you for having me. Of course. Is what? What would you say?

You know, I like it just kind of hit me last night. You know, you see the Trent Williams thing and where he's not. He's not there. He's holding out.

Not holding in, holding out. Right. And, you know, I just it's almost like players are again realizing their worth.

And, you know, you see these contractual situations bubbling up like everywhere now and how one thing relates to the other, which is so interesting. Right. Like, so you see what happened earlier in the off season with the Dolphins, with Jalen Waddle, with the Lions, with the Monroe St. Brown, with the Eagles, with Devante Smith. And A.J.

Brown. Yeah. And with the Texans, with Nikko Collins. And like those teams were super aggressive getting deals done. Well, why?

Because they knew Jefferson Jefferson was going to get done. Definitely. You know, and so now you have the Niners and the Cowboys hanging out there with Ayuk and Lamb. Right. The Cowboys obviously have more than just Lamb hanging out there. They also have Dak and potentially Micah Parsons. And, you know, like the Trent Williams thing to me relates back to Christian McCaffrey.

Right. Now, the Christian McCaffrey thing was quietly, it quietly began after the Super Bowl. Like, and this is a guy who felt his football mortality as a running back, felt like he was worth more than he was being paid, was correct about that. They felt like they had to do a contract adjustment before they did Ayuk. Because if you do Ayuk, then all of a sudden Christian McCaffrey is going to say, well, wait a minute, like, maybe I want a little bit more. But then you have to consider, OK, how's that going to affect the rest of our roster? And then you have Trent Williams over here, whose number for this year is a little lower on the contract than it has been in other years. He said, well, if you give him an adjustment, I'm the best left tackle in football.

I'm your most indispensable player. So it's just interesting to see these things bubbling up across the league now. You know, and I mean, at the highest level, the quarterbacks, you know, we never really have quarterbacks hold in. Hold in, right? Because Jordan Love's not holding out.

But, you know. He might as well be. But in that case, it's like, generally, in the past, we've seen quarterbacks approach it like I'm a little bit different than the rest of the guys here. It's hard for the team to function without me out there. Now, Jordan's a great person.

I'm sure he's doing everything he can, but he feels like, I got to get mine now. So the question is, as you know more than anybody else, certainly since the times when we worked together at NFL Network, the hallmark of it was wondering when the hell midnight was going to strike on the collective bargaining deal and the holdout and the lockout of 2011, where you were on a street corner in Washington, D.C., and I was sitting in the NFL Total Access Studio in L.A., and we were talking daily, like, when the hell is midnight striking? You know it's a midnight strike league. The question is, when does midnight strike on these situations? Because quarterback, wide receiver, whatever. You know, there is obviously week one is a midnight strike, correct? But there's also tons of practices that you need to get under your belt here. And so I don't, and in this day and age now where we're going to end up talking about maybe expanding the offseason and things like that for more off days and moving the start of training camp up, I'm just wondering, and there's also the midnight strike of, you knew Justin Jefferson was going to get done, so why wouldn't you not have midnight strike for you first?

When does midnight strike? I think it's interesting because when the owners did the CBA with the players, they strengthened the holdout rules again. And maybe didn't anticipate, like, okay, well how are the players going to react to this?

Now obviously it's different in the case of a C.D. Lamb or Trent Williams who are holding out, so they're accumulating fines now. And those guys' contracts are going to be big enough where they can say, okay, well I may be losing this much money a day, I think it's $50,000 a day.

I could be losing this much money a day, but I'm going to force them to give it back to me in the end, right? Whereas guys who aren't making as much money can't do that. And the problem with holding in, and again, this is something maybe the owners didn't anticipate, is that is right in front of the team's face. Like Bill Belichick always had that line, like we're only going to discuss the players who are here.

Well now the guy's there, you know what I mean? So the guys who are holding in are actually there, and it's a way to create leverage, it's a way to kind of have it right in the team's face and the teammates see it and everything else. And other teammates observe how their star teammate is being treated, so it's tricky for the coaches, you know?

It's tricky for the front office. And I think ultimately, does Brandon Iuke need a month and a half of practice to be ready to go? Does CeeDee Lamb need a month and a half of practice to be ready to go?

Probably not. But there does come a point where you're like, you're going to increase the chance of injury, it could affect performance. So you're saying middle of August is a mid-month's run? Yeah, I mean I think that there's a point where it's like, you know, maybe going into that pre-season game where you're going to play the guys, whether you use the second pre-season game or the third pre-season game that way, that's changed a little bit since they shortened the pre-season. But I would say when you kind of shift from camp mode into, like we're going to do a mock game week, and we're going to put in just the bones of a game plan. That's when the teams really shift from, all right, this is like we're in competition mode to we're in getting ready for the season mode. And I think that that's sort of, I guess, the first unofficial checkpoint that's coming if guys are committed to staying away early on.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer here in studio. So let's drill down on Iuke and CeeDee Lamb a little deeper. What is the holdup? Do they want more than Justin Jefferson? Do they want to be paid the highest at their position?

I don't think it's that. I think it's more where the market was and where the market is now. And I don't think, like, now CeeDee Lamb might have a little bit more of an argument.

He went for 1,700 yards last year and 12 touchdowns. But I think those guys in an honest moment would tell you, like, no, like, you know, what Jefferson's done is historic. And we've been really good players, but like, yes, like that guy deserves to be the highest paid receiver in football. But that also affects how they're going to be paid, whether you want to pay more or less.

Like, if you're the agent for CeeDee Lamb, if you're the agent for Brandon and Iuke, you're going to say, like, look, like the market changed. And we may not be asking you to pay us 35, but you're not going to get away with paying us 28. The way Waddle got paid, the way Smith got paid, the way St. Brown and Collins got paid, right?

Like, they're right in that range. Well, that's, I mean, I'm not great at math, but 80 percent of Jefferson's deal? Do you think Iuke or Lamb are going to go for 80 percent of what Jefferson got? Do you think those prideful guys are going to say? Well, I think there's probably some people out there who are looking at Iuke and not putting him in the same category as Lamb. I think you could do that, because I have some numbers here.

I don't know how I'm going to find them here on my phone, but. Here's what I would say about Iuke, though. Yeah. I would tell you, and I think I've said this to you before, I have, I think if you ask people in the Niners organization, who they would rather keep long term, Brandon Iuke or Deebo Samuel, I think it would be 10 out of 10 Brandon Iuke. No kidding. And I think when you look at that, plus the fact that George Kittle is older, plus the fact that Christian McCaffrey is older, plus the fact that you've got this young quarterback who you're going to pay, who you're going to want to invest in.

I think it is a priority for them to get Iuke done. And I know the numbers don't reflect it, but like you have to think about the circumstances he's in, too. Like, who was the number two guy for the Cowboys last year? I mean, obviously it's what cooks.

You'd say it was him. No, I understand it's a big step. There's a big, the next step's a Lulu. The numbers, like just the number, like Brandon Iuke's numbers by definition aren't going to be what some of these other guys are, because Kittle and McCaffrey and Deebo. But in terms of Lamb, here I found the number from NFL Network Research. Most receptions in the first four seasons of a career in the history of the National Football League, Justin Jefferson is fourth with 392, C.D.

Lamb 395. He's third. So he has at least some metric to put on the table.

To say I should be paid that way. Yeah. And here's the other thing.

If you are him, right? You've been eligible for a deal for a year now. Same with Justin Jefferson was, right? You took on the extra year of injury risk. You waited, right? Like you didn't take what they were offering in March or April.

And the benefit to that is the market could change. And you played all 17, which Jefferson did not. Right. And the Vikings off of that season where Jefferson did not paid him.

And Lamb, I mean, his numbers last season. It almost caught me. But when I look back at it, like this is a few months ago and I was doing something on that.

Like I looked at my guy. I didn't realize 1750. Seven. Yes. 1749.

Rounding up is very, very accurate. One hundred and thirty five receptions. Those are the that's the most in both of those categories in the history of the Dallas Cowboys franchise of Drew Pearson and Michael Irvin. Yeah.

He's an 88 clubber of for sure. The receptions ranked first in the NFL, receiving earned second and receiving touchdowns. Twelve ranked third. So it's an after the Cowboys. That's your walk.

That's that's your that's your resume that you go in and walk in like that. And that's why he's working out in Houston right now and didn't fly. Right.

And that's where, again, like those numbers, they tried to strengthen the holdout rules by making the fines more expensive. Right. Now, but now when the salaries start to escalate, well, now that becomes less relevant.

Right. Like a couple of million. I was a couple of million dollars to get thirty five guaranteed. Thirty five million a year. Yes. Plus a huge guarantee. It's worth doing that.

You know, so and I think what's what's what's interesting to again, like how these things tie into each other. You think Micah, say C.D. Lamb signs next week. You think Micah Parsons is taking a dime less? You've just set the floor for Micah Parsons. Well, you know, Justin Jefferson helped set the floor for Micah Parsons.

That's the whole point. Right. You know, it's simply Nick Bose is at the floor for Micah Parsons. And guess and guess guess who's setting the floor for Dak. I mean, Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. And when Jordan Love gets paid and that's the way that's the problem with waiting.

Jared, of course, that that's the thing. And, you know, because I'm going on and on and on about this since Jerry Jones came up with the, you know, a new definition for all in. And he's from Texas, you know, so I don't know what sort of hold him he plays. But I guess hold him is just hold on your roster and not really improve it through free agency. And that's the same thing with Ayuk with what John Lynch because he knows Brock Purdy is coming around the corner.

Yeah. And and you're not going to sign him now, obviously. But you can't.

You can't buy really. So so at some point you got to you got to save all that. So you're saying the contracts and everything. That is the story of training camp rather than because I don't see too many. Quarterback competitions, which is normally another story line, right?

Yeah. So I would say the contract situations, just because I would say to go back to 11 when they made it hard to hold out, we've seen a lot fewer holdouts, I would say over the last what would that be, 14 training camps now. So I would say the uptick in guys who are willing to go to the mat with their teams, because what we've seen, I think, as, you know, kind of a result of the new rules is guys are rattling cages in the spring now and staying away from the spring stuff and like trying to get it done earlier.

So like they don't have to take on the fines in the summer, like T Higgins. Right. And so now you're seeing that a little bit more in the summer. Right. Which is, I think, an interesting development. And so like, yeah, I'd say the uptick in training camp holdouts.

And maybe that's just me being a prisoner of the moment because it's happening right now. Right. The quarterback competitions, I would say like there's that there's that difference in the way that each rookie quarterback is being handled. Right. Like Caleb is the starter. Yep.

Jayden Daniels is likely the starter, but not yet. What's going on there? I don't understand that. Why?

What's with the you're you have to say the word likely. I'm not complaining what you're saying. Why aren't the commanders just treating him like like like Caleb?

What's what's what's with the fig leaf here for what's on the you know, on the altar. We compete. So, yeah, there's one word that like defines Pete Carroll's program. It's always compete, which is OK. Now, I guess that's that's where that's where Dan Quinn comes from.

It becomes it becomes hard to say. I think the big thing is I know people see these as artificial sometimes, but it's it's really hard for a new coach to come in and sell that to a guy who might be in the might have been in the league for five years. And then he sees a rookie quarterback being handed the job. But no, I mean, it's not just any rookie quarterback here, right? It's the second overall pick and somebody that you you as a veteran know that the kids the kids got up. Well, I think I think when I think what it comes down to for DQ, though, is like he wants the veterans to see it and he wants them. And he's the coach.

Yeah. I mean, he want I think you can get the you make up the reps. Like, I think a big part of it for like we need the veterans to see that he won the job. And once it becomes obvious, which I think it will, because he had a good spring, you know, it's a little bit of a different philosophy than, you know, like what they're doing in Chicago, which the Chicago situation is fascinating because they started installing with him before they drafted them. Like they were installing with him in March. Like when they used those, you're allowed three one hour Zoom calls. They were installing the offense.

I mean, what do you mean? Well, they were putting the offense in with them. They think they had Shane Waldron, who's new offensive coordinator there, Matt Eberfluss, they were putting in the offense and they didn't call it that at the time. But when they brought him, that's what putting putting them on, he was putting them on the board with their with their playbook, but they're putting in the offense and they and then they get to, you know, like they get to the 30 visit in April. And they had him at a table with Cole Kamet and Tevin Jenkins and the leaders on that team. You know, DJ Moore, like those guys were like, so we're going to get the veterans comfortable with him.

So when he shows up at the end of April, he can hit the ground running. And when we get to training camp, we're flying, you know, and I think part of that's the makeup of the team, too. Like, I mean, look like, you know, like they've been building for three years there.

They've got, again, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen and Montez Sweat and Jermaine Edmonds. Yeah, I mean, but I'm talking about veteran players where it's like those guys aren't sitting around waiting for a rookie quarterback to develop. So in that way, Matt Eberfluss is serving what he's doing.

But yeah, they were creative about the way they did that. And again, like they were trying to position him with his teammates and with the scheme where he could hit the ground running when he was drafted. And how about all of this stuff, too, that he's going to demand this, demand that. He's taking different approaches.

He winds up going to the team that drafted him and signing the rookie contract. Signing the conventional contract, right. I think that that was part of that.

And look, from everything I've heard, his dad's a really, really smart, accomplished businessman. Yes. One thing that was interesting that I heard about that, and we'd all kind of talked about that over the last year, right? Like, is his dad going to be a problem or an issue?

Yes. So going back, and I can remember when they interviewed Cliff Kingsbury in January. And that was actually a fact-finding mission for Ryan Polz and Matt Eberfluss coming out here to interview Cliff Kingsbury. They interviewed a couple of guys in L.A. And Cliff flat out told them, like, I've seen his dad in our facility once, one time.

That's it. It's like his dad handles the business side. His dad advises him on the business side.

His dad is not involved in football. So they had all of these business ideas that obviously not a lot of them came to fruition. But they're trying to maximize him from a business standpoint.

Makes sense. I think the concern was, for a lot of teams, was that that's going to spill over into football. And Cliff, who was with him here at USC last year, assured them, like, his dad was no problem, you know. And so, I mean, and Cliff's been through those sorts of things before. He obviously is a college coach with the Cardinals and all that. You know, his process was really, really interesting.

And I think the business end of it was, like, let's see what we can do, you know. And he's thrown enough darts, you're going to miss a few. Albert Breer here in studio. We'll take a break, come back, talk yet more NFL training camp news with him. And we're taking this break as well so Albert can see if his family got into that room. They're on the ground. I know that.

They're on the ground. Okay, good. Check your phone, Albert. Everything's going to be fine. Phone calls as well.

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Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer here. We just showed in our Roku channel only segment the Jim Harbaugh introductory video that was put out by the outstanding Chargers social media team where he was, I guess, reading a poem or something like that? It's off on the welcome to the locker room.

A mission statement that nobody's born on third base. Inspired by that. You know what? I think I texted you and Money Manager to the Stars. Don, the two of you are my Ohio State buddies in a text chain that we all have together. I think I texted something similar to this to you is that Paul Finebaum replacing Jim Harbaugh with Ryan Day as his favorite punching bag is a plot twist I didn't really see coming. I think he just isn't like the North.

Is that it? It's a geographic thing? He knows his audience. Paul's smart. You weren't going geography when Harbaugh was the punching bag. You were just letting that happen.

But we all grow and learn things every time. So you saw Jim just yesterday, right? Yeah.

It was great catching up with him. OK. Yeah. So he, you know, I've said this like in all seriousness. One of the things I one of the things I respect most about what he's been able to build is it looks exactly the same everywhere.

And you know this better than anybody. What it looked like at Stanford, even when Andrew Luck was there, right? Like how physical they were, the multiple tight end sets, what they did with Toby Garrard to then San Francisco with Frank Gore and how physical the defense was. Then to the nine years at Michigan. And, you know, like he knows what he wants. And you know what stuck out to me the most, though? This is going to sound corny. The world would be a better place if everybody liked their job as much as Jim Harbaugh does.

I mean, he legitimately loves his job. It is it. It jumps out to you. And I wish I had kind of I wish when I covered him before. Yeah.

With the Niners, I had that in mind going out there, because I like going out there yesterday, like I like you see him walk out there and kind of some of the things that he's doing in early practice. Like there's one point is a funny story. So they had the El Segundo government officials, firefighters, police out there in the field for a ribbon cutting for their new facility, which is beautiful. Right across the street. Right down the street.

Right. So they bring they bring Jim over. And one of the Chargers guys said to him, OK, so here's what we're going to do. Just come over and say hello and say hello and, you know, like kind of meet everybody. And and Jim says to this person, well, like, you want me to bring the team over for for the photo op?

No, Jim, you don't need to do that. Right. So he goes over and he spends probably 10 minutes, like shaking hands, having conversations with all the El Segundo people and then walks away. Fifteen minutes later, right before the ribbon cutting, you hear like three whistles and he's waving the entire team over.

And so like this ribbon cutting now, all of a sudden you see this massive picture with like 90 Chargers behind the ribbon cutting. And it was like it was one of those things where it's like such a hardball thing. And you can see now like the buy in he's getting, you know, it's just it's a guy who loves what he does for a living and genuinely wouldn't rather be anywhere else. And it just it I think maybe there's a little bit of a better understanding of who he is and what he is now than there was even in 2011 when he came to the Niners, which I think makes the charges really dangerous. A few things just to comment about what you just said there, because you speak to people with the Niners and obviously I don't think he was enjoying that job towards the end.

You know, like it got a little dark. Everyone would tell you that. OK. And then it's so it's great to see him back in the NFL smiling like, you know, Jim and haven't. And it's because it is infectious for everyone around him. And, you know, the buy in for people here in L.A., Charger fans. And this is why I'm glad the Chargers went ahead and got him for them. Obviously, you know, it was it was a little bit of a blow to lose Jim to the pros. But, you know, that's that's for another day.

Because we don't know too many like the OB who gave birth to my three kids and yours, Chris, the great Bobby Katz. Yes. He's like the only Charger fan we know. Smitch. Smitch. Yeah. OK. Of our staff. We can count on one hand the number of Charger fans that we personally know. Yeah.

How about you, TJ? You know, many Charger fans like personally to Frankie Delgado and Janita Peraza. That's it. OK. And the fifth one, I think that we all know is that woman who got her 15 minutes of fame going nuts on ESPN. She's the number one. That's it.

You put them all together. But if you do run into Charger fans, they'll all like, wow, wait a minute. I mean, Keenan Allen, we let him walk and Mike Williams, let him walk. And who's going to catch the ball?

I mean, Quentin Johnson was a total, you know, bust as a first round pick last year. Is he going to be the guy and whatever? Just know what you just said about Jim knows what he's going to bring.

It's the same everywhere. Yeah. The same sensibility, mentality, playbook. And and he got two Ravens, you know, Gus and J.K. Dobbins. And he's going to get a fullback and got Joe all got Joe all for the right side, which is not even what he plays.

But now he does because he got Rashawn Slater on the left side. Yeah. And they're going to go to work and they're going to hit you in the mouth. And that's not what you got out of the Chargers. You just got weird fourth down decisions, crazy charging type things. And and it's going to happen in a league that's built that's got full of teams built to beat Patrick Mahomes. And I mean, like I like it's just I profit to say, you know, I never I never want to say Kelsey can't or won't. But I mean, Kelsey has owned the Chargers more than the Spanos is. Yeah. I would imagine that changes. Yeah.

Like for starters. Obviously, he and Mahomes would kind of have their say. I find and again, obviously I'm biased when it comes to Jim. Like this is top five story. I already have the number one story.

That's why I was there the first day. Number one story is the Chiefs, you know, having an opportunity to three-peat. Yeah. But a top five story is what will Harbaugh do come back? Because he if he pluses the chart, he plus the Niners up seven. Right.

His first year, he does that. The Chargers are a 12-1 team. I'll do respect to the other guys who he's never had a quarterback like this.

That's another point, too. I mean, like and I think about it and I think I've used this line with you before. And this is no affront to Andrew Luck or Alex Smith or or J.J. McCarthy. But I think the genius of Jim is he's always gotten more out of his quarterback by asking less of them. Like the temptation always for a coach is I have this great quarterback.

I'm going to put everything on him and like everything to me about him and he's going to have to carry the team. And Jim kind of goes the other way with it. Like, you know, like it's letting go of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams because he knows what he's going to build. And it's like instead of second and 11, now we're in second and five and things are so much easier for Justin Herbert. And, you know, I remember having this conversation with Greg Roman on how they fixed Alex Smith.

And he talked about how Alex Smith had been through, you know, five different offensive coordinators his first five years in the league. He's like, we needed to slow everything down with him where he could just go out there and play. And we needed to get to a point where, like, he's doing the things he does well.

And everybody else around him is supporting him and doing their job. And they fixed Alex Smith, which at the time it sounds like not a big deal. It was a very big deal then. And so you look at a guy who did that with Alex Smith in San Francisco and then got Colin Kaepernick to the level that he did. And, you know, at Michigan, what JJ McCarthy knew all the right buttons to push, even if JJ wasn't throwing for numbers that would have won him the Heisman. And now he's got this. Now he's got Justin Herbert.

And you might not be asking the world of Justin Herbert, but, hey, Justin, convert third and four. You know what I mean? Like, it's it's really intriguing, like what they could do. And certainly here in this town where the Rams literally own the building and and and this town, I think, you know, in terms of football, there's more I you know, there's more Rams fans in this town. Yeah. And the Rams are coming off an excellent season, Buzztown. And he's as buzzy as they come, man. You know, and I can't wait for this season. It's unbelievable.

Albert Brie here on The Rich Eisen Show. The and another fascinating aspect, I think, is the Steelers and Tom and getting his contract again. And what Arthur Smith can do is sort of an outside, if you will, guy coming in offensively. And what I believe is Russell Wilson's last chance, I believe.

Yeah, maybe I'm wrong. No, I think that last chance to start to be like the established starting quarterback. And to not only start in this league, but last chance to start for him rebuilding a path to the whole thing. Right. Like that is what I believe is on the line here for a team that that has young stars in the toughest division in football. Right.

Am I wrong? I'm that's the way I think. I mean, like, how many years has have we had where, like, people would pick a Mike Tomlin team to finish last that division?

He wouldn't blank. And that's not a commentary on Tomlin or the Steelers. Just how strong the division is.

Sure is. I mean, the Browns with, what, five different quarterbacks went to the playoffs last year. The Bengals were in the Super Bowl two years ago and were really competitive even without Joe Burrow last year. You know, then obviously the Ravens are the Ravens number one seed last year.

Derek Henry on that team, I can't wait to see. Yeah. Yeah. So I think what's interesting about the Steelers is the name you mentioned, Arthur Smith, and how he has been over the course of his career, able to rehab or build up quarterbacks in a certain way. And I think it kind of bit him in Atlanta. Right. Like where, like in Atlanta, it was like, well, we can make it work. Right.

Like maybe they went a little too far with it. But you look what they did with Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee and how they were able to build an offense. Derek Henry wasn't Derek Henry until Arthur Smith got control of the offense, you know? And then Derek Henry became this, like, absolute monster because the run game they built for him. And you've got these two quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields that are a little different.

And how do you use them? You know? And I think the addition of Justin Fields to the room is really interesting, too, because so many of the questions on Russell are personality based. Right. Like, will he be like just a foot soldier? Can he do that? Can he be like a guy that teammates will rally around? Well, Justin's not perfect, but Justin's like, Justin's like militaristic with his with his approach. You know what I mean? Like, well, yes, sir.

No, sir. We'll listen to his coaches. We'll do everything you ask of him.

His teammates will love him because he's tough as nails. Right. So I think the addition of Justin Fields to that room is really interesting because now it's like, OK, like Russell, like this is what you're going to be compared against personality wise, work ethic wise, all that.

Not that there's been a question about Russell's work ethic, but we all know what's been out there with him. Right. Exactly.

So Justin's sort of the opposite of that. The weird stuff. Yeah. I mean, let's be honest.

I haven't heard any of that out of Pittsburgh. Seriously. Like nothing like different offices, different this, different that. Yeah. It just it seems like because it was weird to me that he was signed and it's just like he's going to be the starter to the point where Kenny Pickett's like, what gives I want out. Yeah. And now it's his gig, man.

This is his gig. And they have some weapons. They got Arthur Smith. They got the defense. They got Tomlin buzzing around.

There's some reason for optimism there. You draft an offensive tackle in the first round. You know, you hope George Pickens can benefit from Arthur Smith as well. Friar moves a good young tight end.

Another team that a lot of people aren't talking about, too, are the Dolphins, I think. And, you know, the fact that whereas Love's not unsigned right now is because the general sense is they're crossing T's and dotting I's. Tua is unsigned right now. The general sense is because Miami still can't buy in to the tune of 50 something million, you know.

And he was at practice today, didn't suit up. So he's I don't know if he's announced he's holding in. Yeah. But but other than that, I mean, I don't know, like the coach loves him and the players love him. And if you look at the way that they have built to like they've built in a way that really is for him.

It's for him. Right. Like they let Christian Wilkins go. They cut Jerome Baker. They cut Savion Howard. Like that defense has taken some body blows. Vic Fangio is gone now. And yet they paid Jalen Waddle. They're getting ready to pay Tyreek Hill again.

And they draft more fast people. Right. And so like you look at like their setup and it's like this is going to have to be about Tua. Yeah. Right. Right. And so and if you're the Dolphins, like let me let me take you through this scenario. If you're the Dolphins, do you look a year off into the future and say we can draw a line? Because you look at Atlanta and Mike McDaniel and Kirk Cousins were together in Washington.

Right. And everybody knows what Kyle Shanahan thinks of Kirk Cousins. Well, Mike McDaniel was Kyle Shanahan's right hand man forever. And you see that they've got Michael Pennix there. And Michael Pennix might be the most pro ready of the quarterbacks who came out this year.

Do you look at it and say, you know what, we can draw a line because I'm not sure exactly where this is all going to be in March. But what if Pennix looks really good in practice? What if Cousins goes down for three weeks and all of a sudden Pennix really shines? Could the Falcons be looking to offload a guy who would really work for us and we can get him for a lot less than we'd be paying Tua because the big numbers on the front end of that deal are gone? I think about things like that, like where it's like so many of these quarterback situations are like and I think that this is like the way all of them work. It's like what's behind door number two?

Right. Like so like if you're the Dolphins, like with most teams, it's like that's really scary. The idea of like detaching for a quarterback like the Giants with Daniel Jones. Like, well, what do we do if we don't have him? Can the Dolphins look and say, we got Mike McDaniel and we got these weapons and like yes, we love Tua. But like there might be an option for us behind door number two.

That's a roll of the dice, man. It is. Because after just one year, the Falcons would would consider for the right offer.

It's just an example. No, no, no. But I'm sure that's what people think in the NFL.

It's their job to look at options while they're going through what they think might not be their best financial option right now. But Tua has got to be signed. The concussion thing complicates it too, don't you think? He didn't have it last year though, brother.

He didn't. But like I do think like all the and it's not just the concussions, it's the hip. It's like he's been hurt a lot. But not last year? Not last year. But I think where it does complicate things is if you're the Dolphins, are you comfortable guaranteeing money three years out, four years out? And then if you're Tua, like and you want to think about this with some level of empathy, Tua is like, I just played an extra year when I was eligible for a deal to prove to you guys that I could stay healthy and you're still giving me crap about it. Right. And you're still saying to me like you won't guarantee year three or year four. And I want that.

I want that guarantee because I have had the injury problems. It does complicate it that way. Huh. What am I not asking you about before I let you go? What am I not asking you about?

What are you? Well, I don't have any travel updates yet. OK, good.

What's in your what's in your what's in your quiver here? Yeah. You know, I'm really interested to go and see a few of these teams over the next few weeks. Like I I think the Rams are really interesting because they've reset and they do. They're good. Yeah, they're really good. They got these young players. They're all young. Yeah. And everybody just thinks that that they're, you know, last year be a little bit of an outlier or Stafford.

Stafford is, you know, brittle or whatever. I don't I don't know what it is to look at them last year. What's fascinating about last year with them is that that was their reset year.

That was the year that we talked for years about. They're all in. They're all in. They're all in.

Eventually it's going to come crashing down on. Yeah. Last year was supposed to be the credit card year.

They took on seventy five million dollars in dead money. Right. And they made the playoffs and they did it with these guys who were going to be on rookie contracts the next few years. And Puga Nakua and Byron Young and Kobe Turner. And then.

And now you're looking to say, OK, like, Aaron Williams. Right. And like now they've now they've, you know, got a couple of guys for the defensive front now losing Aaron Donald's a big deal. But they're really interesting because it feels like they're back on the way up and they now have the capital to go get aggressive again. If they want to over the course of the next few months. Well, they lost Aaron Donald for the regular season. Yeah.

We had less need on a few weeks ago and he's already thinking like he could be like an Eric Weddle deal. Yeah. Yeah.

Make the phone call. Top of the top of the playoffs. What do you think, big fella? Why not?

Why not? It's not like he's sitting around eating, you know, the devil dogs. You know what I mean?

Putting on a weight, you know, sitting around screaming for mom's meatloaf. You know what I mean? Like he's just crushing little Debbie.

I bet you he's I bet you he would be ready. Yeah, it's all I'm saying. It's kind of interesting, too, is like I feel like them in the night. Do you guys feel like them in the Niners are sort of reversed? Like the Rams were always that team that was all in and like now or never or whatever. And the Niners are the team that was the young team coming up. And now it's like almost flipped where it's like the Niners are now the team.

It's like how long are they going to be able to keep this together? Yeah. And the Rams are the team that's kind of on the way up. With Jimmy Garoppolo is the backup.

Yeah, which is wild. How about them apples? Yeah. All right.

Albert Breer, thank you for coming here, sir. Absolutely. Greatly appreciate it.

Go see your family. I'm hoping that they're there in our green room right now. I appreciate the time. Absolutely.

Anytime. I mean, you're never out here. That's the point. I know. I know. I know. But I made it out this time.

Maybe I'll be out a few more times during the season. Excellent. You know, I would tell you about a great pastry place here in Los Angeles, but just look at the Ohio State schedule and you're fine. Wow.

How's that for going out the door? Man. Just as pastry as Michigan's. Is it really?

Kind of. We're playing Texas. All right. What?

I don't know your schedule. You're at Oregon and then you're at Northwestern at Wrigley Field and everything else is in the Horseshoe Pub. I would say I would say.

I saw that. I didn't mean to forget Penn State, TJ. I mean, who's been on the non-conference flight for Michigan the last few years?

I don't know. I mean, we played home and home at Notre Dame the last two years. Because Notre Dame will play you. I don't know why they're afraid of playing Michigan. They took us off the schedule. Is that right?

Yeah. By the way, Michigan plays Texas in the big house on the Saturday. Before the season starts, right? That's week one. It's week one. And then the Lions host the Rams on Sunday night. It's a big football weekend in Michigan. Yeah. It's going to be great.

Quinn Ewers going back. Yeah, Michigan's schedule's harder. Huh? Your schedule's harder. Thank you.

But that's an outlier. It's been the other way around for a long time. That's all right. We got to play USC. That's my other shot at UCLA, right? And at Washington. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who else did they get? They got UCLA, right?

Pretty much. I don't even think they have UCLA. It's OK. Listen.

They don't. That's all right. That's what happens when you're national champions. You just got to come with the king. Thank you for coming on, Albert.

I understand that you never came back after this, after the way you just did. No, Albert and I are all right. End of November can't come soon enough.

Rich deserves his time. I came in here a lot of years with my just fucked out. I had to sneak in here this time. It's been three years since. That's OK, Mike. Thank you for that reminder. Yeah. Good job, Mike.

Well, on those countdown clocks, they all count the COVID year, too. What nickname are you most proud of that you did? By the way, I knew that's when I arrived, is when you called me. Bette Davis.

Rich Bette Davis. The thing about the nicknames, and I know we talked about it, is they never. This is revisionist history.

When people read, well, he really wanted to do this to be famous. Garbage. I did it because it was two thirty in the morning and it said Seattle five, Kansas City two with no pictures for a minute. Yeah, right. You got to go with something. Right. There's Julio, won't you let me take you on a seat.

Cruz had three doubles for the Mariners. OK, so it's just it came out. It worked. That's not the question you asked me.

The ones that work the best are the ones that they're all plays on names. None are derogatory, but you don't have to eat. So Burt be home by 11. Right. That was a good one. So, well, you don't have to know he's a pitcher. You don't have to know he throws a curveball. You don't have to know anything. Right. Every kid's heard it.

Every parent said it. You don't even have to be a baseball fan to get that. So a lot of them are food.

Some of them are. I mean, John, tonight, let it be Lowenstein. I mean, there I mean, there's Jose, can you see Cruz? Oh, to be young again.

McDowell. I mean, there was Jim, two silhouettes on the shades. I mean, that's music.

Joe, actual retail price. I mean, there's just it's great. But there's it's a game everyone can play, you know, and then then with football, you go over to high only under highlights. And, you know, Eric, sleeping with the end of the night, sleeping with Leonard, innocent until proven, proven guilty. Everybody has their bad moon rising. Well, that was next. Well, he tattooed bad moon right here on three tattooed days. Andre is great on the left. On the left. No, no way.

He knew who created Clearwater Revival. No way. But bad moon rising. You know, there's tons of them. And we use the Gilkey line earlier. And then it's something back here on the program. Fun stuff with the the Breers as they're leaving. The whole Breer family is here. Just so just to give them an update here. Well, we're on the subject of housekeeping.

Oh, housekeeping. So yesterday, Sue's sitting in this chair wife had a had a power rankings of her top 10 pet peeve. It was great. Might be the best power ranking we've ever done.

It's OK. I would agree. I always I'm always a fan of you know, I'm always a fan of her and supporting her. And now watching that segment yesterday.

It's a great power rankings graphic there. Well done by Smitch. Watching it back with her. She was accusing me of not laughing and maybe not enjoying it as much. She thought I would. Oh, it's hard when it's about you.

And I know you guys anybody's name. You guys were accusing her of some of her pet peeves being about me. They were just wildly specific, like, you know, throwing clothes on a floor in front of a hamper rather than in it. All right. Three words on there.

Guilty as charged. Also, cabinets being open, being left open, being left open. Well, when I lived in Redding, California, starting off my career, I lived in a domicile that was split up into four apartments. So every apartment kind of had, I guess, a common wall. Right. And so my next door neighbor complained to me about my cabinets were too loud when they closed. And actually left me on my front doorstep these sort of plastic circles that you could attach to them.

So it would be quieter. Wow. So guilty as charged. But I had about a year and a half of not closing cabinets on purpose.

Thirty years ago. OK. As for everything else, though, I was going to start this segment by saying here's my top 10 list of things that my wife pisses me off about. The thing about that, Rich, is you want to go home. I want to go home. The thing about about getting on a plane as soon as you're not. But you brag about you love that.

You love it. The reason why I do it is because I Susie and I mostly also travel with carry on bags. Don't want to check if we don't have to space. Right. You want to get on right away and and get the space if you can.

Yeah. Because if you get on too late, if you're just hanging out in in at the bar or whatever area or whatever. Now I'm with you on that. You have to check your bag eventually. You're in danger of that could be in the back of the middle. You're in danger of that screwing up your whole plan.

And you understand you understand me. It's all about the exit strategy. You want to be first in, first off, first in, first off and you're out the door with your bags. That's why it is. It's not like, you know, right.

So there's a method to the madness. Oh, low seat number guy me. There's always space up front, Rich. I mean, hello, low seat number guy. Mike, you're not helping the cause. He wants a teammate because I love Susie.

I am who I am. She married me. She probably didn't know about she she has probably assumed the clothes on the floor thing. You know, it's probably surprised by the cabinet thing and didn't see the plane thing coming. You wouldn't have seen the plane.

If you had to start bench cut the three. Exactly right. You wouldn't have seen the plane coming. Couldn't see it coming.

That's weird. But purposeful with a plan. Understood? As long as you get it. That's all that matters. But that is that is the one that she is most accommodating about. The other ones are what non-negotiables to use the bear phrase. Non-negotiable.

That's the housekeeping. Good, good. Otherwise, a solid segment. Oh, wow. All right. I see. Look out.

Disrespected. Oh, the Joneses are talking. Oh, baby.

Joneses are talking. Let me log in here. Let me log in. It's got shades on. Oh, yeah. I saw. Kirk Cousins spoke.

Oh, he did, huh? What up, Cousins? Football's back, baby.

I'm going to be I'm going to be in Oxnard on Saturday. Russell Wilson didn't practice today. He's got a little bit of a calf thing. And so now Fields threw this amazing 50 yard dart.

Everyone's like, Fields, Fields. I see. All right.

I love just the one off. Great throw. Great catch.

And then it just like kind of takes off. Oh, well, Mahomes to Xavier Worthy. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. I love that.

That's how we know it's true. Apparently, Rogers had one to Garrett Wilson today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Treck May had one on Monday in Brockman 3.

Treck May. I've watched it 8,000 times. Does it get better every time?

It gets so good every time. New Jersey Jets. I was looking up May jerseys yesterday. Were you really? Are you going to get one? For Cage. Yeah. Was he wearing 10?

Yeah. So I got him a Mac Jones one last year. So do I just peel the name off the back or do I get a whole new one?

No, no, no, no. In the same way that my nephew Lee years ago wanted for Hanukkah a Tim Tebow jersey, I said, I will get it for you. You will just most likely wear it ironically as a Halloween costume for the rest of your life.

I was right. So just keep it. Keep it. He'll outgrow it anyway, just like the Patriots. Very soon.

It's like the Patriots did. He's a giant. So there's that. By the way, I now put my clothes in the hamper.

Any case what he wants to know. I've evolved. I'm an evolved man. Good job, man.

Hello, everyone. Longtime motorsports commentator and ER physician Dr. Jerry Punch here. Speeding on a racetrack can make you a winner, but speeding on a street or highway almost always makes you a loser. Time and again, I've witnessed these stories of speed unfold with one yielding triumph and the other tragedy. Unlike highly trained racers, when you speed, your ability to steer safely around vehicles, hazardous objects, pedestrians or that unexpected curve just ahead is reduced. In 2022, speed related crashes accounted for almost 30% of total traffic fatalities. Speeding is illegal. It endangers you, your loved ones and almost everyone else on the road. So slow down. Take a breath so that you and others can keep breathing because eventually speeding catches up with you. Paid for by NHTSA.