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NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Who's more likely to win more games next season?
Caleb Williams or all other rookie quarterbacks? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'll still take the rest of the field because you know these teams don't sit, these quarterbacks anymore. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Kirk Morrison. Today's guest, host of the Business of Sports podcast, Andrew Brandt. Patriots writer for The Athletic, Chad Graff.
MLB writer for The Athletic, Levi Weaver. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. What's up, everybody? Welcome in to the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison, yes indeed.
Filling in for Rich. Great to be with the guys as always, man. Great to be here.
Yes, that's my intro. Hi. That's how you know I am here. I am here.
Brock Mendel, two-fold TJ, man. Great to be here. It's been way too long. Yes, football season is almost here. Because we got to get through this little patch of the pre-season. A little patch of pre-season training camp. Get caught up on all the NFL news and notes today. Get a little baseball going on. There was a big trade in the NFL. There's still a lot of sports.
And you know what? I haven't even had a recap with you guys about the Olympiad in Paris. Olympics were great.
Olympics were great. And I feel like we're going to forget about them. We're going to talk about them in the next three years or four years as we get ready for Los Angeles in 2028. Specifically the next two days.
Yeah, next two days. Let's talk about them. You know, we're going to talk about just a little bit because there are some things that I saw. I saw probably one of the most amazing games ever last Saturday.
Shout out to Steph Curry, by the way. So we're going to get into all of that a little bit later on. But I've been around training camps. I've been to, wow, four camps so far this offseason. I started on a training camp tour.
And I, and this is, I don't even want to, I guess I'm going to start off with this already. This whole notion that, remember how training camp was heat. It was toughness. It was go, you know, barely go get water. We're going to grind and be tough.
Oh man, we used to drink out of the hose in high school. Training camp was where, you know, you separate the men from the boys. That was training camp. And then I looked at the NFL now and I said, you know what? Training camp is a breeze. It ain't what it used to be. Everybody's soft. Oh my God.
And I'm not get off my lawn guy. I went through, I went through these NFL training camps. I went through both of them. I've been through the tour days and straight pads for six day consecutive days. And then I was in the post 2011 CBA lockout where we changed the rules to where there weren't back to back tour days anymore. I say that because it was all about this toughness, this old school mentality of the NFL.
And then I realize. You start to see, especially here in California, I noted before training camp, everybody. Wow, there's a lot more people here training in California than it was in years past.
So a little bit easier for my training camp tour, by the way. Why were the Saints here? I went to University of California at Irvine because the New Orleans Saints were here, was down over in Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount. It's where the Los Angeles Rams had their training camp. OK, there's a nice little spot right down the street from here, not too far from the luxurious Rich Eisen Studios called the Bolt. The Bolt. The Bolt where the Chargers are.
Bolt looks like the truth. Yeah, not too far away in Oxnard, California. A tradition unlike any other Dallas Cowboys training camp. Then all of a sudden there was a team from Las Vegas that said, you know what? We don't want to do training camp in Las Vegas, in Nevada, in the heat.
Let's go to Costa Mesa, California. So I was at Raiders training camp. I've been to all of these camps and it just dawned on me. Like NFL training camp is not about toughness anymore. It's not about the heat and getting exposed to it. I looked at something the other day that the Detroit Lions will play 14 of their 17 games indoors. Yep.
I'll repeat that. They play 14 of their 17 games indoors. What is the purpose of going out beating yourself up in the heat and training camp for knowing I'm going to play 14 of my 17 games in a nice, cool, calm environment outside of the Green Bay game, which I believe Brockdale twofold.
TJ help me out. When is that Green Bay game for Detroit? I don't even know that that's their one road game. Oh, is that week nine? Week nine, November 3rd. Look at that.
November 3rd. Might be a little chilly then. Chilly?
You can grab a coat in Green Bay. Not too bad. Not too bad. Look, Chicago at the end of the year, week 16, that may be one. But let's be honest, 14 of the 17. Come on, look at that. All indoors. But Kirk, let me ask you. Let's just be real. Let me interject real quick.
Go ahead. Wouldn't you think that would be better to go out there and test yourself in that heat even though you don't? Because if you can survive that heat, then you can survive. Indoors?
Anything. Indoors. You can survive that heat. I can survive. I like to be in my air-conditioned home sometimes.
That's not a humble brag. We love watching sports on your couch. Air-conditioned and blowing right there.
Or would you rather go outside in the backyard with the heat blared down. This is a tough way to watch football. Old school football mentality seems like that would be a soft way to do it. Am I wrong about that?
I'm just saying, being at these training camps, TJ, I understand your point, but I'm telling you this. It was different because I'm like, the New Orleans Saints, they love New Orleans. Trust me. That's their play. Love it. But it was a nice change-up to come here and get work done and not have to worry about the heat. Not have to worry about putting our guys through such strenuous work. And have you been to New Orleans in August?
Yes. It is muggy. It is not fun. And no offense, they love their city where they play it. And remember, they play what?
Indoors. Their home games are in the Superdome. So it's like, yeah, we go out and we're in training camp mode, but a lot of times it puts too much on the players. Same thing, I talked to the Raiders players. First thing I asked them, how's training camp? Man, this beats being in Vegas. I'm like, you're not talking about the quarterback battle or the upcoming season?
No, we're happy that we're here in Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, Orange County. So I just had to start off with that. I want to get that off my chest a little bit. But the NFL, it's not necessarily going soft, but let's be honest.
It's going into a direction that I feel like more geared toward what the season is going to be about. Why am I going to put my team through this? I want them healthy. I want them ready to roll.
And if I'm playing indoors, I don't have to worry about these factors of playing in the sun. So I had to put that out there for a little bit. I get it. I want to take you back for a second, guys.
Take you back. Not too long, but Thursday, April 25th. Thursday, April 25th, there's this big showcase. Big showcase. It's called one of the biggest showcases of the National Football League offseason. I think we were there.
Yeah. You guys were there. City of Detroit put on the showcase. I call it a showcase because it's a great event. It's called the NFL Draft.
And I remember it like it was yesterday. Because it was so much unknown outside of maybe the first pick. Maybe even the second pick.
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels. We kind of knew those two guys may go one and two. And the draft would start at three. What would happen at pick number three? And we kind of sat back and said, what would the Patriots do? Are they trading it out? A lot going on.
But I go back to that night, Thursday, April 25th. Because with pick number eight on the clock, the Atlanta Falcons probably shocked the world. When they put that card in, they handed that card in.
And it says, with the eighth pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Atlanta Falcons select Michael Pinnix, quarterback, Washington. Did it not break the internet? It was like, what is going on? What is this? And immediately, what did we do? That was nuts. You talk about flame.
The Atlanta Falcons got flame that night. How could you pick, Mike? What are they doing?
How could you pick? You just gave Kirk Cousins all of this money. I'm like, first of all, is that your money? Why are you worried about them?
So many people worried about what everybody else is doing. Hey, Terry Fontenot, the general manager, Raheem Morris, their head coach, they had a plan. They said, look, we got Kirk Cousins, but we also have an opportunity to maybe draft our quarterback for the future.
Kirk Cousins, 36 years of age, coming off of an Achilles injury. Yes, we gave him a financial investment, but we also wanted to back up that investment with an insurance policy. And Michael Pinnix was one of the better quarterbacks in his draft. And they went out and did that. Now, look, I'm not going to lie to you. I didn't agree with it.
I probably wouldn't have done it. I'm going to be real with you. But I've always, you know, my mom always told me, you don't worry about yourself. Don't worry how that home polices their home.
You know what I mean? Don't worry about how they live their life. Okay, because you can't affect what they do. But I did see so many people decide to rip the Atlanta Falcons.
They're not going in the right direction. They should have drafted a Dallas Turner, the outstanding linebacker from Alabama who got drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. They should have went and got Liatulatu, one of the Polish pass rushers in the draft who got drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. They should have got Jared Verse, the kid out of Florida State, got drafted to the Los Angeles Rams. There were all these pass rushers because they needed a pass rusher.
Atlanta needed a pass rusher. The one thing I could tell you about the NFL that I love so much about it, I really do, is you have to have patience. You have to have patience. What they always say when the NFL draft comes around, let the board play out.
I got to say that that may be what training camp in the offseason is about. Let the board play out. Let things happen. Because you have no idea what may happen along this journey.
Every single year is a new journey. And I love it. I love asking coaches. I asked a couple of coaches on the training camp tour, I said, hey, what's the mantra this year? And Dennis Allen tells me, he says, it takes what it takes. So I like that.
I'm going to start doing a little flag football coaching. I'm taking all of these little notes and I like that one. It takes what it takes, meaning that whatever it takes from us, you won't know until we get there.
But it takes what it takes to win when we're in that environment. I remember Antonio Pierce told me, I need you squared. It's like, what does that mean? You squared. He said, I need you plus you. So I need you, but I need more out of you every single day. So I already know you in the physical presence, which you can give me.
But can you give me even more of you? So you squared every day, meaning giving more. And I say all of this because the Atlanta Falcons went into an offseason, had a plan. They executed their plan. They got the quarterbacks, not back quarterbacks, and Kirk Cousins, Michael Pennix, and then just letting the board play out, just relaxing, being patient.
You never want bad things to happen. They drafted a kid, Braylon Trice, out of Washington, towards ACL, out for the year. There was a need, and because other people have things going on, they were able to find a way to grab Matthew Judon from the New England Patriots for a third round pick. Wow. This is what patience gives you.
This is what being able to sit back and relax. I just got a premier NFL pass rusher for a 2025 third round pick. This is where Rahim Morris and his experience, I feel like, come into play, because he realizes we have a need. I can't worry about the 2025 draft. Some people, oh my God, they're giving up a third round pick. No, no, I'm getting Matthew Judon.
I'm getting a resume. I'm getting a dude. I'm getting a game breaker, a game record. It's funny, because there are certain players in the league who you just remember. I want you to take a listen to Rahim Morris, because there's a reason why certain players are always at top of mind.
When a player is available, you inquire, but to be able to get that player and remember what he did to you as a coach and going up against him, take a listen to Rahim Morris on how they came about this Matthew Judon acquisition. Any time you can add a dog, really, to your group and have him be able to come and be a part of that, that is exciting. I think we have excitement for that. I think he has excitement for that. I think a couple of our players that actually know him personally have excitement for that. His reputation precedes himself. The Pro Bowl thing is impressive, but actually going out there and playing against his dog when he was in Baltimore when we were here in 2016. I remember Muhammad Sanu having to sift him and saying, Man, I'm not doing that. He said, Let's spread this thing out, man.
Let the big people block the big people, man. Having that type of recall from that type of a player and what he does and what he can bring to the table is always fun, particularly when you talk about adding to that group. Losing Trice was critical for us the week before, knowing he's out for the season, but being able to add him to Zo and AK and Damone Harris and JSW and all those guys that have been out there working for us provides a quality player, dog mentality, potential game changer to your outfit. Potential game changer. I love when coaches call their teams outfit. I love that.
Yeah, you got a potential game changer to your outfit. I like that. But that's what happens. I love when we talked about the sift block for people who don't realize the sift block and I love that kind of educate a little bit. The sift block is where you have that wide receiver. He's close to the line of scrimmage and the run play goes one way and the wide receiver kind of goes behind the line of scrimmage to seal that defensive end. Usually, it's a small receiver going against a much bigger player and you're like, I don't want to set that up. I don't want to do that. But it does set up the naked play, right? The bootleg that you faked that you're going to hit the defensive end and you're wide open.
I see Cooper Cup do it all the time, by the way. But this is a great acquisition for the Atlanta Falcons. But there is the caveat to it.
There is the other piece to it. You make the trade for Matthew Judon because of a contract. He's going to get another contract. How much are they willing to give Matthew Judon?
Is this a one-year, two-year? What's the compensation possibly for Matthew Judon, which is yet to be agreed upon? The trade is agreed upon, but what's the dollars and cents going to look like?
So I had to think about it. That's why I reached out to my guy, Andrew Brant. Andrew Brant, the Business of Sports podcast, former NFL executive. He can help me out and understand what are the parameters? What are some of the hoops that go into making a trade, a deal like this, but then getting a contract favorable for a guy who's, what, 32 years of age, a little bit older in the league.
What's the numbers usually look like? And then let's get caught up on some of these other news and notes. C.D. Lamb, he still ain't got a deal. What are we doing? Are you holding in? You're holding out? What are we doing? We got a lot to get to, man. Andrew Brant coming up here, right here on the Rich Eisen Show.
Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. Let's talk about sleep number, people. We all know in the NFL there's no margin for error.
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Sleep Number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the National Football League. See store for details. 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.
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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. I will say this. I am a man that knows when he's defeated. Yes. I was beaten this year.
Yes. So my business manager is supposed to have the hat for us. He did not bring the hat to the bus. Oh, we're throwing Jamal under the bus right here. He did not bring the hat. Who is thrown under the bus by the bus just right now?
Yeah, we're looking for him. See, he didn't even show his face. I was willing to wear this hat. He had it made up and everything. Well, he told me that the hat that he made up had the final score. No, he had the hat on there. It was a hat. I don't know what that was.
The hat is supposed to read the following. I am going to listen to this. Okay. Hear this. Yes.
Mm-hmm. Hail to the victors valiant. Hail to the conquering heroes.
Hail, hail to Michigan, the leaders and best. Wow. That is for you only. Wow. I honestly did not put me to do that. I honestly can't have thought of anything else that you would do that would make me think that you would not have to follow through on your end of the wager, which is where an I should have gone to Michigan hat on the faunted field of Notre Dame with touchdown Jesus behind you.
But do I let him out of that end of the bet now? That was pretty epic actually. And he nailed all the words. He grew up in the state of Michigan. He should know them. I mean, that was like 30 years ago. I did not know them.
I had to look them up to make sure I was saying it correctly for you. Also, I'm getting visions of like Jerome practicing before he came out here. That did sound rehearsed.
Yeah, it sounded rehearsed. That was great. That took a lot out of me. Great job, Jerome.
You know that. That was awesome. That was awesome. Thank you. I appreciate it.
All right. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by none other than Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.
So call clickgrainger.com or just stop on by. We go to the phone lines. A guy who I just respect so much, love his intellect and knowledge when it comes to the NFL, but more so the financial aspect of it from the executive side of it. He's the host of the Business of Sports Podcast, former NFL executive, my guy, Andrew Brant joined the Rich Eisen Show.
Andrew, so much to get to with you. So little time, but just sort of help me out here because the NFL has this, we have training camps and then guys hold in, they hold out. And we have the Matthew Judon trade, which happened yesterday between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. Now I believe he started with a hold in, then he was withholding his services, but yet was forced to practice.
Then it was a distraction. And finally the Patriots just said, you know what? We're going to trade Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons. The trade goes down. But then I said, there's the next step to it, Andrew.
They don't have the contract that he was looking for in New England. When does that come about? What are those discussions like?
Yeah, good to be with you as always, Kirk. There's three of these going on in the NFL right now, Brandon Aiyuk, Hassan Redick and Matthew Judon. These are all going on right now. And you mentioned it, when you acquire a player in the last year of his contract, it's important to have a two-part transaction. One, the trade compensation going back to the team. Two, a conversation with the agent, negotiation to make sure that player's not coming with only 16 games left on the contract.
Let's go to Redick. Redick was acquired by the Jets from the Eagles for a third-round pick that could go with a second with performance levels. There was no new contract. We don't know what the discussions were between Hassan Redick and the New York Jets, but it seems like the Jets feel. There was some kind of discussion like, yeah, I'll be fine with the new contract. The same contract, come on in. And for Redick's point of view, well, I need a new contract, and there's no new contract. What we have now is, in the words of the movie Cool Hand Luke, a failure to communicate will be no new contract, and we have a problem with the Jets and Hassan Redick who have paid a third-round pick. The exact same thing goes on with Matthew Judon and the Falcons. They acquire a player for a third-round pick, same position, same draft compensation, but no new contract. I would think, Kirk, that the Patriots have learned the lesson from the Jets in their division that they're going to get a new contract.
Now reports are it has not been done, but perhaps this is on the way. But you understand what's going on here. If you're giving up a third-round pick, that's fine for a pass rusher.
That's great. But is it only for 16 games? That's not as valuable as giving up a third-round pick for multiple years of performance. So this is really interesting here that these transactions part two have not been done with both Redick and Judon. You know, Andrew, I would ask you, what is the conversation like, though, between team, agent, and maybe even player, because we're talking about guys who are either at that 30-year-old mark, or in the case of Judon, 32. What is that number for a player like this? We're talking about some of these guys who had great careers at early part in their 20s, but we know there is a dip and decline in their play.
Look, last year, Matthew Judon only had four sacks for the New England Patriots. Does that come into a factor of what the contract looks like? And does that keep the dollar amount down, because a long-term guarantee won't be there?
Yeah, I think it does, but I think more than that, it keeps the, like you said, the future guarantee down. So a guy like Judon, first of all, the process is, Terry Fontenot, the general manager of the Falcons, will call Elliott Wolff for the Patriots, and they'll talk. And they'll say, well, yeah, we want to do something, and we're going to be in this range. But first, I would hope the Falcons have said, first, we want to contact his agent.
So let's talk about that. And then we'll revisit the trade terms. Now, when you get into contract discussions for an older player, the issue becomes length, guarantee, and early money up front. So when you look at past rushers, oh my god, Kirk, these are the second highest paid position in the NFL, compared to right behind quarterbacks. They're making $26, $27, $28, $30, $31 million a year for a player like Nick Bosa.
So defense and subliming are a premium position. So what are you going to pay? Now, if he was 24 years old, yeah, you're looking at that market. But his 32-year-old is looking at a different market. So is it going to be $18 million a year, $20 million a year? Is it going to be a one-year deal, two-year deal, two-year extension?
That's what you have to look at with an older player. As I started saying, I hope, for the Falcons' sake, this is not something they're starting right now, that this was done during the trade negotiations with the Patriots and is almost consummated. Otherwise, they may have a New York Jets-Hassan Redick issue on their hands. He's the host of the Business of Sports podcast, former NFL executive Andrew Brant joining the Rich Eisen show with Kirk Borson here filling in for Rich. I would say this now, Andrew Brant, when it comes to some of these other players who are quote-unquote holding in, C.D. Lamb, I guess, holding out now with his services. But Jamar Chase, C.D. Lamb, wide receivers.
And we saw this explosion in the wide receiver market, especially this year. And I know I've got a hard time seeing it. I don't know if it's to Jerry Jeudy, but I look at the resumes of C.D.
Lamb and Jamar Chase. I'm like, this dude got paid. Come on, man. Let's see.
What about me? How do these things get fixed? How will these be solved before the season starts? Because I feel like this is what's dominating the Cowboys' training camp. People say it's not a distraction, but it is a distraction if you don't see that player out there on the field and expect them to be ready by week one.
Yeah, let's talk the difference in definitions first, Kirk. In my day, I negotiated contracts for the Packers for 10 years. We never really dealt with a hold in.
That's a different situation, relatively new. It started a few years ago with Jalen Ramsey and the Jacksonville Jaguars kind of being there but not really being there, being a pain in the you-know-what to management where they had to do something. That strategy seems to be working. And in my experience, we worried not a lot about holdouts.
Out of mind, out of sight, out of mind, well, they'll be here at some point. We worry about hold ins because that can be infectious in a negative way. That can be contagious to younger players, bad attitude within the team. So that's why the strategies of Chase perhaps and IU perhaps may be more successful than the holdout. In the case of Lam, he's negotiating.
That's the good news. So if we believe what we read about, it's really just between a $30 million a year number or a $32 million a year number, which is up by Justin Jefferson, whether he's going to be the number one guy, the number two guy, the number three guy. The more when we stay with Dallas for a minute, Kurt Scott, it just seems to me blow out by the Packers of the Cowboys last season that they're going to ride it out with Prescott, that they're just going to ride it out with Prescott. Like he's got one year left.
He's got no tag. He's going to be a free agent. Either sign him for huge money next year or he makes even bigger money for somewhere else. They didn't fire Mike McCarthy after that game.
So we'll see where that goes. Andrew Brant, the Business of Sports Podcast, former NFL executive, just spending a couple more minutes here with us. Andrew, I guess my last question probably for you will be this, is that I looked at some other contracts before the season or training camp even started. Why were these deals able to get done so quickly?
It just didn't have this, I guess, suspense like these other deals in turn. And I'm talking about the quarterbacks, how Matthew Stafford's deal got done, how Jordan Love's deal got quickly done, or even Tua's deal got done. Those are the three guys. We just lost Andrew. Okay.
That's fine. But my question will be, and I can ask you guys this, why the quarterbacks' contracts got done so quickly? The Jordan Love had no idea what happened as quick as it did. The Tua contract, we knew that was, was that a year too late or was it right on time? Because I felt like Tua has shown us the last two seasons that he's healthy.
He's doing the right things. So I felt like his contract... I feel like last year he had to prove it. You know, two years ago was all the concussion stuff. He talked about maybe retiring.
That had creeped into the back of his mind. And then last year he plays all 17 and kind of proves it. So you knew that he was going to get a deal done. Trevor Lawrence was kind of due.
You know, TJ, I hate talking about this. He was going to get done. And then Jordan Love, I mean, props to that dude. He got paid off of nine good games. That's my question for Andrew joining us again here on the Rich Eisen Show. Andrew, like these quarterbacks got their deals done quickly, right? Matthew Stafford, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailo, they got their deals done before they even took a snap in training camp. Why were these deals able to get done so quickly and yet we have all these lingering other contracts amongst other skill position players? Yeah, I mean, what's happened with the quarterback position is really unique where this market is 50 plus million a year. And the discussion, Kirk, about how quote unquote good they are or how long they had a good season last year or two has got injury issues or two is up and down.
It's really irrelevant. It's like you're the next guy. You're making 50 million a year or just don't do a deal like Prescott. Like if Jordan Love was going to get a deal, that's what he was going to get. There's no agent out there for a young ascending quarterback that's going to say, you know what, we'll play for 30, 35 million a year, even though that's an incredible number. Because that's where we are with quarterbacks. Let's lose the discussion of is this guy quote unquote better than others? Is he better than Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts? What really is the issue is timing and marketplace. Are these guys the next guy and what's the market? And it's why this, I keep saying it, Dak Prescott's got the most leverage in the league because either he gets 60 million now or he gets 65 million next year.
So it's an extraordinary place to be with timing and marketplace. Andrew, I'm going to get you out of here on this one. Just it's the kind of, it's not a yes or no answer really.
Because honestly, I just want to get your opinion. Who gets the deal done first? Is it CeeDee Lamb or is it Brandon Aiyuk? Who has a deal in place first?
I'm going to say Aiyuk. You know my saying, Kirk, deadline spur action, there's no deadline with CeeDee Lamb. The deadline is start of the season basically. And Jerry Jones is known to just not really get serious until the deadline. So Aiyuk first, then Lamb.
Yeah. No urgency from Mr. Jerry Jones. He's already said, hey Andrew man, appreciate the time as always and yeah, I'll be following everything that you do always. Like you said, follow the money like I always do. Appreciate it, Andrew. Appreciate it, Kirk. Talk to you soon.
Sounds good. It's Andrew Brant, the host of the Business and Sports Podcast, former NFL executive. Get in these rooms, understand how to handle these conversations with the agent.
You can also follow him on Twitter, X by the way, at Andrew Brant. Yeah, that's a difficult one because look, I saw the Jerry Jones comments earlier in the week and I saw CeeDee Lamb's response, the LOL, right? Because he said he didn't find it.
What did Jerry, what was the actual quote? Was no urgency? No urgency to get a deal done.
No urgency to get a deal done. Yeah, wasn't feeling it. If I'm a player, wait, what you got over there TJ? What is that? What we got over here? That CeeDee's response.
Oh, so you've made a billboard out of it. LOL, you know. I say that because if I'm a player, and I know Jerry Jones has had to walk these comments back, but how important am I to you? See there are certain teams where they just don't allow these contract negotiations to get messy. Messy contract negotiations, now you're drawing a line and it's whose side are you on? Are you on the player's side? Are you on the team's side?
Nobody truly wins in that. I want to feel like, how do you come together and say, look, we're working diligently on a deal. This is very important to us. We love him. Is it that difficult for Jerry Jones to say that?
We won't win games without this player because that's how much we believe. Is it that hard to say for an owner or is that showing too much favoritism? That's a great question.
Because I know if I'm an owner of a football team, I'm going to go out there in front of our meeting and say, look, I love all of our players. I'm trying to get a deal done. We are working diligently. We're working hard.
These things take a little bit more time and the resume that he's put out there has proven and shown that he's very deserving of a contract. Please bear with us, relax, have a little patience. There will be something getting done. There will be something getting done. Is that hard to say for an agent, I'm sorry, for an owner or a team just to calm it down a little bit? We kind of talked about this yesterday.
It seems, I'm not going to say that it's a hundred percent fact. It seems when Jerry starts talking, he doesn't know where he's going or where he's going to end up. Right. And it ends up just being a word salad of, I went to high school, I went to college, I ate at Nobu and I'm not, I'm not a real emergency.
I like CD. We want him here and Dakin too. And then, all right, I'll see you guys later. And it's like, what did he just say? Does Cowboy's PR not prep him before the... No, I don't think maybe ever. And I think that's part of Jerry Jones's charm.
That's why, you know, that's why he's on TV all the time. That's why he speaks a lot because we know we're going to get some gold, but he doesn't know what he's saying and he doesn't know where he's going when he starts speaking. And it hasn't really worked out well a lot lately in terms of negotiating with these players.
He's negotiating against himself. That's the thing, right? And like you said, Kirk, it would be so much easier if you just came out and said what you said, that you never get that with the Dallas Cowboys.
No, but why though? I mean, look, because he runs the Cowboys like we run our fantasy teams. That's true. Sometimes little to no plan and we're just kind of winging it and then, oh, well, we're on the clock. There's a deadline. I better just pay this guy. And the thing is, Kirk, the Cowboys are known when they want a guy, they will pay and keep him. They keep all three of these guys that we're constantly talking about, but they could have saved themselves so much money. It's like if had I went to Geico instead for my car insurance, they could have just saved so much money by just getting this done and moving on and getting prepped for the season. I don't understand it, guys.
I really don't. But how much money are we really talking for these players? I know we're talking about the highest average amount per year. These are going to be record contracts.
I get it. But I watched so many other teams get it done. I watched the Philadelphia Eagles seem to sign every single body. I'm watching the Cleveland Browns signing all of these different guys.
I'm like, where are they getting the money from? But I've always thought that the NFL, we're all on the same checkbook, right? We all have a salary cap.
We all have money invested into this. So why am I watching one team do this and another team? And look, I've had a lot of people to say, hey, relax on the Cowboys only because they've got a, they've drafted really well. They've got a team full of guys that are young, but in the coming future, what happens? Those players develop and everybody's up for a contract at the same time. So why not pay the guys who you know you need today?
I know I need C.D. Lamb today. I know I need Dak Prescott today. And I think it's a great point by Andrew Brant. I will try to, I will try not to look at, I would say maybe numbers as much because it we start looking at numbers of the quarterbacks, we're going to say, oh my God, like he only threw for 27 touchdowns versus eight interceptions.
That's not the case anymore. It's when a quarterback or player is up, they're going after the number one spot. There's going to be a receiver. Maybe it's C.D., maybe it's Jamar Chase. To me, they're not better than Justin Jefferson, but they're going after that number one spot.
Now are they deserving of it? I guess. But I know if I had number one wide receiver, Justin Jefferson is the guy.
But the job of the agent is to get more than the top guy. So it's just this continuous, continuous pendulum that just, it just going to keep on going. Nope. Next to the front of the line. Here you go. Next to the front of the line. We'll keep on going.
At some point you pay and then move on because I'm going to keep talking about it every single day. I didn't know Brandon Aiyuk was Jerry Rice. I just talked about him so much, I'm like, is this the second coming of Jerry Rice? Every day it's a Brandon Aiyuk update.
He's WR2 on his own team. I'm just saying, Brandon Aiyuk, C.D. Lamb, I want them to get the deals done so we can stop talking about it. Let's start evaluating the true team that's going to take the field because right now they're not a part of the team. Yo, like literally wake me when it's over.
Like I'm just ready to move on at this point. We've had to talk about it every day. But you know what? I've got some takeaways from the first week of preseason. We've got a preseason game tonight, by the way. Eagles at Patriots. We get a chance to see a little bit of Drake May.
Drake? It's not pouring down rain in a hurricane in New England so we're going to watch football tonight. We're going to watch real football tonight. Real football.
Real football tonight. Good. Will we get Zolack on the call possibly? Maybe?
Is it in New England? It should be. Yeah. Yeah.
Let's go. Last week we had Zo and the McCourty twins. I saw that. That was great. Then they were kicking it to Brian Hoyer who was in this other set and he was like, I don't know which McCourty is talking. Yes.
But whatever they said. Oh, it was so great. It was so funny.
I want to talk about that. That's one of the great pieces. This is one of the great things about preseason football. The local announcers. It is not traditional by no means.
It is a little bit of everything. Brian Hoyer looked like he was locked in a cave with another guy. He's trying to educate him on football and I'm like, what is going on? I can't tell the McCourty twins please put up a graphic put Jay McCourty and put the other McCourty. And they sound exactly alike. They look exactly alike.
I get it. They're twins. But at least one guy has to go with a beard. One McCourty has to do beard. One McCourty has to do a small little something. Give me something.
Cause I can't tell you, all right, anyway, more rich eyes and show coming up next, man. Twins. 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.
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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Are you tired of losing your fantasy football league year after year? Lindsay Rhodes, Emmy winning sportscaster and football analyst is your new secret weapon on the Believe Fantasy Football Show. Watch the quarterbacks and his ADP. I think he has massive high end upside. Get expert analysis on player rankings. Wide receiver 22 in fantasy. Cecil Schwartz. That kid can run. So I'm thinking he can have a breakout season this year.
And you can too by searching the Believe Fantasy Football Show. That's B-L-E-A-V wherever you listen. Can you tell me the story, the famous story of you noticing John Candy in the crowd before that two minute drill at the Bengals? Harris Barton was a people person. So we were free for dinner during the week, but in practice and meetings and then come back after dinner and more meetings. So when he would come back from dinner, he was like a little kid.
He could not wait to tell you about all the celebrities that he saw while he was at dinner. And so we were just standing there in between the tight end and his shoulder was framed John Candy. In the crowd. He was on the sideline. Oh, he's on the sideline. And so I was, and I sat there and I looked and I go, dang, I don't remember Harris saying he saw John Candy.
This is what you're thinking in the Super Bowl with minutes to go needing to drive down the field. Okay. And so I walked over and said, Hey, age, man, there's John Candy and Harris stood like this for eight minutes, perfectly still, he's a little bit anal that way. He would not move. He was like little, I didn't do it to unwind him. I just thought he would appreciate seeing John Candy. Did you ever meet Candy or that was the only time? Yeah, no, I had met John a few years before that. My contract was up and he was, you know, one of the owners of the Toronto Argonauts.
He was trying to get me to go to Canada. Come on. Yeah. They just didn't have enough money, but if the price was right, I might've been wearing an Argonaut. Yeah.
You'd have a 55 yard line. So he legitimately said, you know, Hey, we had a couple of meetings about, you did. So this is real.
Like it wasn't just like, Oh, by the way, no, no, no, no, no, I love that. Wow. Back here.
Rich eyes in the show. How's your summer been, Kirk? It's good to see you, dude. Yeah, we can get caught up on my summer. There is no summer anymore.
There is no summer anymore. No, because your kids are at that age. Yeah, that's true. Busy, busy, busy, right?
So my kids are in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Their summer's eight weeks. Yeah. It's so short now. Yeah. Not when we were kids.
Not when we were kids. It was like three months. Three and a half months.
Three months. Yep. Hey, June hit, see you September. Yep.
Yep. It was June, July, August. Post labor day. Post labor day. Post labor day. We're going to school. Yep.
I, it's just different. It's eight weeks. So I've been trying to get on the sticks, you know, golfing.
I'm trying to get, it's so hard to do it when you've got three different things going on at one time. You're trying to set up for, you know, the, your training camp tour. You got a daughter that goes to sleep away camp. You got a son that's going over to football camp. You got, this one's like, and the next thing you know, summer's gone.
It's over. Yeah. Then you got like a college football seminar last week. So I'm at the college football seminar for ESPN and I'm excited about all the new things that we're going to have for college football this season.
I'm getting excited about that. You weren't a tank top at that meeting? No, I'm not wearing a tank top.
Yeah. That's not, I'm hanging out. I'm having a good time.
It's always a great time. Trust me. There's a lot.
There's a lot. One thing I took away and I took away, it's just want to make sure you guys understand this. In the NFL, there will be the two minute warning. Let's come into college football, right?
College football. Yeah. It's the two minute timeout. I can't say, oh, they got the two minute warning.
I can't say warning. That's not what it is. It's the two minute timeout. That's my biggest takeaway from my college football seminar.
I like it. They need, Belicheck has said this for years, make the rules universal across college football to the NFL. Correct.
I don't know if they're going to do it. Are we going to get to two feet in bounds? College football is still one foot on a catch. Yeah. High school is still one foot. I think it's ever evolving. So you got the two minute timeout.
Another big thing I can't wait to see as well. Coach to player. I call it C2P.
Coach to player communication. Yeah. That's in the green dot. That's in.
The green dot is in. Yeah. So I've got some pushback.
I like it. I've got some pushback from some of my colleagues because I feel like with the coach to player competition, it kind of makes me feel like I can slow the game down rather than speed it up. Some people are like, oh, no, no, no, teams are going to go faster now because they can tell the coach.
I mean, they can tell now. I mean, the quarterback, hey, what the play is, and they get up to the line of scrimmage and they're playing. I was like, if I have the ability to tell them up to 15 seconds on the play clock, if I have the ability to tell my quarterback where to go with the football, I'm going to use that full time. I'm not going to rush up and, no, I'm going to say, hey, here we go, line up on the line of scrimmage, let's run XZ3, our wide slant, change the protection.
Let's go hot protection, hot protection. Look at that free safety in the middle. I can now guide my players to get in the right spot where last year it was trying to hurry up and catch the defense off guard and the whole sign stealing situation, which obviously still ongoing, this investigation with Connor Scallions, I cannot wait to figure that all thing out with Michigan, but that's where you're going to be able to see a different version of college football this year.
I'm excited about it. That's why I watch preseason NFL because I want to see some of the nuances. What's new?
What are we seeing? Even in preseason football, you're still watching how things are happening. Yeah. The new kickoff, is it wonky? Is it different?
Is it weird? Yes. But at the end of the day, it's still a play that is going to happen. I've seen more returns and yeah, all it takes is for one person to break one for a touchdown and everybody's going to kick out of the back of the end zone and just say, start the 30.
People don't understand that. If I'm a head coach, like I said, I'm doing flag football. I get, I kick off.
I get one returned on me. It's over. Oh, it's over. Hey, I'm going to my kicker.
Guess what? Yeah. Kick out of the back of the end zone. Hey, we got to defend 70. Sean Payton has said, let's move it up.
Yes. Let's make it 35. We got to make this a real penalty. If you want to discourage correct kicks through the end zone. It's Hey, I'm telling my defense, we got to defend 70 every time. Yep. All right. This is, this is what it is.
Fellas. Let's defend 70 after a touchdown. Can you do that?
I was like, cool. That's it. That's just what basically that first 20 yards is what we got to make because once you get over across the 50, it's a totally different football game. Now they're in field goal range, almost we're defending that first initial series of downs as I would call it. How about that?
All right. I got a lot because we still got talking Eagles Patriots tonight. This Matthew Judon, Matthew Judon fallout his trade from the Patriots over to the Atlanta Falcons. My guy, Chad Graff is going to join us.
He's the Patriots writer for the athletic. We'll get the lowdown on what else is going on in New England when it comes to Drake May. Will we see Drake May for a series? Not one, not two, maybe not three. We will see tonight.
Also as well. We better see Drake May for like two quarters. You need quarters? But the thing about it is the Pats offensive line is he's not going. He's not ready. And I think we all know that.
We want to speed up the process and I get it. Everybody wants the CJ Stroud, right? That's our, our new, that's our new case example. He's the guy in class who ruins the bell curve. He's our new case study.
He's, he's ruined it for everybody. But unfortunately, some news that came out of Minnesota is that they're going to be without JJ McCarthy, their quarterback for the season. I see it as a redshirt year, very similar to what we saw last year with Anthony Richardson.
That's something we're going to talk about tomorrow too. I can't wait to get to Anthony Richardson. Second year quarterbacks. Everybody's so caught up on the first year quarterbacks. What about the second year dudes?
They're the ones I need to see more of. The first year dudes, we give them a grace period, right? It's your first year. Like Bryce Young, we say, oh, it's okay, Bryce. It was your first year.
It's like the kids are in kindergarten. You count Jordan Love, does Jordan Love count as a second year quarterback? Interesting. Jordan Love could be a second year quarterback.
Could be. You know why? He hasn't started enough games. He hasn't played. He only played one year and was only good in about half those games.
There's a lot of evaluation that I need to go over with second round quarterbacks, but I'm excited to see these rookie guys go out and play starting again, week two of the preseason. More Rich Eisen, hour two coming up. Former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people from all walks of life on The Sean Ryan Show. Tucker Carlson.
What is it that you think that people gravitate towards? I'm not self-aware. I refuse to be self-aware.
I don't even like mirrors at all, which you can probably tell from my appearance. I don't have a crazy high IQ or I really don't have that many skills. I would say my main skill is I believe my instincts. I don't hesitate to follow my instincts ever. The extent that I have, I've gotten in trouble. The Sean Ryan Show on YouTube or wherever you listen.
