Kevin Fishbain: This Is A Big Year For Matt Eberflus

This is The Rich Eisen Show.

What was it called? The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Kirk Morrison. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I saw the Jerry Jones comments earlier in the week, no urgency.

I thought I'm a player and I know Jerry Jones has had to walk these comments back, but how important am I to you? Today's guests, senior NFL writer for the athletic Kevin Fishbane, Big Three commissioner Clyde Drexler, Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. Hunt, hunt, hi!

52's the mic, 52's the mic. Welcome in this Friday edition of The Rich Eisen Show. That's right, Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich, man. As always, got the guys with me, Brock Mendel Tufo, TJ, great to be with you. On a Friday, we made it, we made it. We got to Friday. It's been a crazy week here in Los Angeles.

We've had, for people out there watching, listening, it's been a week. Kids started school, we had an earthquake, two earthquakes. I maybe, I heard, could have been three, three, three earthquakes.

Yeah, could have been three earthquakes here in Los Angeles. The Intuit Dome opened up last night, the new Clippers Arena, a little snafu with the tickets. So it's just been a crazy all-around week here. Yeah, but it looked nice. You know, we'll get into that too, these new arenas and new places to watch your sporting events.

It's all great, all great. But we made it to Friday. More importantly, we made it to a football weekend. And I'm trying to explain to people that we're going to have football every weekend. It started last weekend, but it really carries over. You really understand it in week two because you realize football, college, professional, there will be a football event every weekend all the way until Valentine's Day. Presence day weekend, baby. There you go. Yes, I can't.

Let's go, we made it. Y'all don't understand. I'm one of those people who, I love these. I watch football, I really do, because there's so much to learn from. Even if you're just watching an old game. You know, you ever turn the channel and they got one of those classics on all the time and you stop and you know the result. I think me and you were talking about this, Brockman.

It doesn't matter. We know the result. We know how it ends, but man, it sure does look amazing watching it over again, right? Because you're like, oh, I know what's coming right now. He's about to throw it. It's the lead up.

Oh, that's great. You forget about how you got to a certain point in a game. How the touchdown or the missed extra point earlier in that half or the missed tackle.

How would it come haunt that team a little bit later on? I saw some graphic the other day and it was the Patrick Mahomes when he had like a thousand yards of offense, Texas tech. It was the Texas tech Oklahoma game that was triple over time. Yeah, it was Mahomes versus Baker Mayfield. I remember exactly where it was that day, where I watched it, who I watched it with.

Yeah. That game was incredible. It was like, what was it like 58, 54, some, I just knew that the defensive coordinator should have been fired the next day because there was no coaching job. There was no defense being played, but yeah, it got Cliff Kingsbury a job.

Everybody got a job. Baker Mayfield goes on to win the Heisman. It was just one of those times in which I love sitting back and watching games.

Mahomes and Baker Mayfield had 1300 passing yards. It was insane. The game was drunk, but I love watching these types of games, the throwbacks. I also like watching the live events. And I also like the standalone preseason games.

See, I am of maybe the minority when it comes to this. I am of the minority because I look at the preseason with a different eye, a different lens, because I truly understand the war of attrition of an NFL season. I never played a 17 game season, but I played in the 16 game season, over 17 weeks. There's going to be bumps, bruises, guys are going to miss games, guys are going to miss time. And I've been on rosters when I was in the National Football League where I saw the last guy on the depth chart in the preseason is starting a game for you in week 16. And you're trying to win a playoff game or trying to get to the playoffs, I should say. I understand about that. So I watch and look at some of the names and players who may be on the bubble of a roster, who maybe already solidified a roster spot or positioning.

Is he going to be the first team or second team? So I watch preseason football a little bit different. Now, this weekend will be difficult.

And I'll get to that a little bit later on in the second hour about my top five things I can't wait to talk about. I'll be looking for in preseason week number two. But when it comes to last night, I got a chance to watch one game. There was only one preseason game on last night, Eagles Patriots.

And so obviously yesterday we talked about some of the storylines going into it. Fresh off the Matthew Judon trade, the Patriots trade Judon to the Falcons. And a long time away, a player who was with the franchise, who was a key contributor is no longer there. How are they going to go out and play defense without him? And you've got a quarterback situation with the young rookie and Drake May and Jacoby Bresets there.

New head coach, no more Bill Belichick. So many storylines. So many. So many.

And Brockman, you know it already. You don't understand. You bleed the Patriot colors. But last night I will say this, and this is where I have to sometimes as an analyst, I have to catch myself. I have to stop.

Yeah, I like that. You got to stop sometimes because it is such a week-to-week league, right? When I say week-to-week league is that sometimes you change your opinion. Sometimes for me by the series, maybe by the quarter, by the half. Definitely by the half.

Right? I've seen a guy go from trash in one series to a Hall of Famer by the end of the game because of his performance. Half an hour difference. But there's always questions after you watch something. And my big question going into last night's Eagles and Patriots game is like, what can you find out? What will you, what will tonight show you? What will, what will this game tell you? Well, it is a preseason game, but let's be honest. When it comes to 2024, the preseason, the thing that we look at the most is what? The quarterbacks. The new quarterbacks, the young quarterbacks, the class of 2024. Like they're graduates or something, right?

Like it's these new graduate quarterbacks who are entering the National Football League. So you want to see, where's Drake May? Where's he at in his, in this process?

Where's he at on his football journey? But before we got to Drake May, here's Jacoby Brissett and Jacoby Brissett goes out there. And I'll be honest with you, Jacoby Brissett was three of seven, 17 yards. And I said, oh, but it's okay.

It's okay. He's just the bridge quarterback. But for the first time, I was very unimpressed with Jacoby Brissett. I mean, unimpressed. And then he threw an interception, a bad interception, like something that you don't do in that situation.

And I just said, I shrugged it off and I was like, you know what? It's a bad play. It's preseason week number two, everybody. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's preseason week number two, everybody.

It's going to be okay. Until I saw Drake May. I saw Drake May last night and guess what? They finally took the handcuffs off a little bit. They actually allowed the young man to go play football. They didn't give him the seven play scripted of we hand the ball off and here's a naked bootleg to the right and the open fullback's going to be there.

They allowed Drake May to actually play football. And for the first time since he's been drafted, I saw something. I saw it. I said, you know what? This kid's probably going to be okay.

It may not be right away, but it's probably going to be okay. I saw the confidence. I saw the swagger.

I saw a guy who was in command. I saw enough for the Patriots and their fan base to feel like they've probably have a shot. Now look, you can say, Hey, y'all said this about Mac Jones a couple of years ago when he came into the league and we all crowned Mac Jones, the next coming, we found the quarterback after Tom Brady. But what I am saying is that this dude Drake May is different than these quarterbacks.

I think of the post Brady era. What I saw last night from Drake May, especially in his touchdown run, things that I could never say before about a Patriots quarterback, almost to the point where I would have never thought going into the pre-season that there was a competition at quarterback. This was Jacoby Percet's job, everybody.

This is his job. He's got this until Drake May comes along. But then all of a sudden you watch, you know, Drake May go six of 11, find a way on a little read option to go into the end zone near the goal line. And I'm saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We may not be that far off. And I've said this before, is Drake May the backup? Or are you really truly trying to put him in a situation where you want him to develop? Cause I'll tell you this. If Jacoby Percet is your starter, he gets hurt.

Drake May goes in, Drake May's not coming out. He is now the quarterback of the new England Patriots, but it has put the head coach Jerrod Mayo. First year head coach Jerrod Mayo in a precarious situation now, because I saw it, you saw it, we all saw it. Let me tell you what I saw last night, Kirk. Let me tell you what I saw. Tell me, what did you see? I saw the future. And I saw, you know what else I saw TJ? I know you can't see it.

I mean, your eyes have gone bad. I saw the seventh Superbowl trophy. I saw the eighth and I'm not talking about this year or even next year.

I saw it. Eventually it's coming. Drake May will win a Superbowl with the Patriots. He will get his Jersey retired and he will get that gold jacket someday. Drake May is him. Drake May can do it all.

And Drake May is the next great Patriots quarterback book it. Okay. Make sure we take that right. We take that, right? That sets on the books. That's locked in on the books. Yeah, we're good to go. You all know it.

And that's why you're deflecting with jokes because you know it. That throw to Javon Baker yesterday. Oh my God, it was so pretty. That was the prettiest incompletion I've ever seen.

I can't even, I can't believe I'm going to say that. In the old days that was a catch. In the old days that probably was a catch. But I've never seen a more better, prettier incompletion.

It was also a point we just obviously assumed that it was a completion. We're celebrating incompletions. We're celebrating incompletions. CJ, when they're that pretty, you celebrate. I'm not going to lie to you.

It doesn't matter what the result was. I jumped out of my seat. Even the, oh, you heard the fans. You heard them. They were like, I scared the dog. It was so pretty.

I jumped out of the, out of the couch. But now the scarier part now is. Preseason though, right? Yeah, it's preseason, but still you saw it. But Jerrod Mayo, the head coach now, he's seeing Jerrod is seeing it now. And he had this to say after the game, because guess what people in Foxboro, we got a competition. Do you see this as being a competition between the two of them right now as to who's going to be, you know, the starting quarterback against Cincinnati?

I do. You know, we have three more days of training camp practices and it's our job as coaches to, to evaluate and the competition isn't over. They're still going to go out there and they have to show not only their, you know, themselves and the coaches, but also their teammates. So it's definitely still a competition.

This there is still a competition. So I got to go to my resident Patriots fan because I like to, I know there's only one here, but I want to go back to Mac Jones rookie year. You remember that one?

He was great. But you remember in the pre-season Pro Bowl, it was Cam Newton's team. Remember that?

Oh yeah. And we didn't know it was a competition, but it was a competition. And at some point, when did we like, we knew the competition was over when they did what? They released Cam Newton. Everyone was like, whoa, what just happened?

I think we all forget that that competition ended when this just in. Cam Newton has been released by the paper. We're like, excuse me? Well, we know who the starter is now in New England. It's Mac Jones. And to a point where, do we think that Mac Jones was ready or Bill Belichick felt that he was ready or knew that there was going to be some bumps along the road, but Hey, this guy gives us the best option. I would have never thought that I would have never seen that. And I would have said the same thing right now, currently with these Patriots. Jacoby reset is the best option for the Patriots until last night.

And maybe we could say it was just one bad game. But to me, the bigger thought process in this was me watching the game with my analytical hat. You got one of those? I got one of those. Cause I had a coach used to always say, Kirk, remember the hat that you're wearing at the time.

Kind of a metaphor for life too, by the way. It's like, remember the hat that you wear when you come home, you got to put your dad hat on, right? You walk out the door, you got to put your work hat on. And when I'm at home, when I'm quiet and I'm alone, I turn on my little NFL premium plus package. Boom.

I turn on my analytical hat. And when I watched the game over, cause yes, I did. I watched the preseason game all the way over again. But what I saw in watching Drake May was that they were able to call plays for him in a part of the field that you could not do for Jacoby Brissette. This may be the most athletic quarterback in the Patriots history of their franchise.

I'll say it again. With all due respect to Doug Flutie. Doug Flutie or Drake May. Let's be real. Doug Flutie is great.

No, by the way, but let's be honest though. Drake May has an athleticism that you have to utilize his ability to put pressure on the defense. I know it's just preseason game number two, but I saw that pressure. I saw what it did to a hungry, aggressive Eagles defense. That they were able to put Drake May in a situation that allows him to just use your feet, read option, have options and the ability to take off and go. That interception thrown by Jacoby Brissette was one and because Jacoby is not going to take off. That's not his ability.

He doesn't have that. So he's going to stare down and try to go through progressions. And instead of throwing the ball away, he throws an interception where Drake May has that ability to get out of the pocket, to move the pocket.

And then look, if everything's all covered, Hey, I'll do it myself. Run into the end zone with this nice little flip. And that's why before the draft, Drake May was getting loose.

Justin Herbert, Josh Allen comps. It's he showed that last night. Now it was on display. And to me, looking at or listening to that sound right there from Jerrod May or the head coach. I agree that it has to be a competition a little bit more now because I saw enough to where they're going to have a meeting right before the season starts. I've never been in one of these meetings, but I can only imagine.

And I will call a couple of people over the weekend and figure out, what's being said in that final meeting. When you get to that final cut down day and it said, Hey, look, we got Jacoby who's been in it. Who's been a starter in this league.

He's done a great job. But at some point Drake may have to play. He has to play. And are we stunting his growth by sitting him?

Is he truly learning the game or is it to what we've seen before from paid Manning, who led the league and interceptions, I believe his rookie year is trial by fire. Just throw them in there. Let's just go. Yeah.

Remember this is a defensive team. Anyway, I did a top five yesterday guys. And now the number one was, I want to see lots and lots of Jacoby preset.

Well, I was wrong. I don't need to see any more Jacoby percent week one. That's it. I mean, you haven't said for the last couple of weeks, you don't want to see Drake. I don't, I want him to learn and develop, but like, but you saw last night, what we all saw, like, whoa, I saw the fire in my eyes last night. Like let's go. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

It's just how it is. I mean, I understand the idea of wanting to sit at quarterback and have them learn, but it's super overreacting by the way. It's really hard to learn when you're just listening or watching someone else give you the lesson.

Like for me to learn, I have to get in there, put my hands in something like kind of be in the mix. So I would assume Chris, like you want that, right? He can't get better sitting on the sideline. He's only going to get better.

And the thing is Kirk, and you know, this, I know we have to get the break, but during the season you're prepping for the next week. So he's not going to get that many reps. If he's the backup, they're all going to go to the starter and whoever's QB one. And the only way to ensure that he's going to get those reps is to just name him QB one and let's get on with it. And just let everybody know this is right. This is our guy.

This is the future. The future is now that when you pick a quarterback third overall, at some point, he's not sitting very long. He's not going to sit. He's going to play at some point, who knows when, but see in Chicago, they didn't have to worry about that. When you draft Caleb Williams, number one.

Oh, guess what? Before you even put a turn to pick in, this was, he was the first round. He was a, he was the pick of the bears once the season of 2023 ended. And so it's funny to say that it's different for Drake May. Drake May, we don't know if he's ready yet.

Drake may or may not be, may or may not be starting, but Caleb Williams, he will be starting. And I can't wait to see him in pre-season week number two, but he had a little joint practice. Let's get caught up on bears camp. The team that's a part of hard knocks, Kevin Fishbang, who writes for the athletic covers the bears. I can't wait to hear what he's got to say. What's going on in bears country coming up next here on the rich eyes and show. Let's talk O'Reilly auto parts.

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Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Granger.com or just stop by one of their local branches. I did not approve this, but, uh, you know, that's, that's part of me delegating to you, our social media grand maester. You put out on Instagram, a photograph, it says breaking bears trading for Russell Wilson. And, and what's today's date? What's today's date? It is April 1st. And that is what it is April fool's day.

So, um, it's five minutes to air and I have my phone's on the desk and it's buzzing and, yeah. And I, I, I see it as, uh, you know, it's, it's, uh, uh, it's Jeff Garland is the caller there is the caller there on the rich Jeff from Chicago. What's funny about it. Nothing's funny about it.

Nothing is funny about it. Our friend Doug Robinson texts me Russell Wilson. He says, you know, rich doesn't usually get the scoops. Adam Chester should be on this. Well, that should have made me suspicious, but no, I have so much respect for the rich eyes and show that I know that they have connections that nobody else has. Well, you know what, rich, I'm not going to swear, but I got to tell you, you're a little social media boy. He's going to get it. TJ, do you have anything to say to Jeff Garland? Yeah. Uh, happy. Hey, TJ, you don't know what you brought down on yourself. You don't even have a clue.

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As I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you call click Grainger.com or just stop by Chicago bears are in the news because they're the team on hard knocks. They drafted a quarterback one overall, and there is just so much, so much excitement in the windy city and the guy who is going to help us talk a little bit and understand more about what's going on with the Chicago bears. Kevin Fishbane, he's the NFL writer covers the bears for the athletic.

You can follow him on Twitter X at Kate Fishbane and Kevin, I want to start here because they did have the joint practices between the bears and the bangles, but it was a wet one. It was raining the whole entire time. Did they actually even get some good work and hopefully it wasn't enough so that we can actually see Caleb Williams in a preseason game instead of just saying, Oh, he got enough work during the joint practice.

No correct. They actually did get enough work. And I can tell you that because us reporters and the bleachers with our umbrellas and raincoats kept looking at the, at the clock, at the scoreboard being like another 12 minute sessions come about to start, it's still raining, Hebrew flutes and Zach Taylor that they, they wanted to keep rolling. And so Caleb Williams did get a lot of reps yesterday against the bangles. What's interesting was his first competitive rep seven on seven, his first pass picked off by bangles, middle linebacker.

So you're thinking, okay, this is a bit of an introduction to, this is not, you know, playing against your own defense, which is a very good defense. It's given him a lot of trouble in camp, but he started to get in the groove a little bit. And when they had some redstone drills he had a really nice touchdown pass. The Keenan Allen stayed in the pocket, went through his progressions, found DJ more for another score.

So I thought it was a, it was a positive day for him and just a great experience. You know, Maddie before who said that Cincinnati runs it a unique defense and for Caleb Williams to get those reps and, and then he's going to get some more, obviously tomorrow, it's just all building this up, building this portfolio, just kind of every, every day is a reminder, you know, you're not in Lincoln Riley's scheme anymore. You're not at USC anymore.

It's not, you know, university of Idaho on the other side. You know, this is going to be challenging and he's, he's passed a lot of different, a lot of tests so far this summer. Yeah. Kevin, I want to talk about his leadership skills though, because I feel like everybody was saying that he wasn't the greatest of leader.

He's, he's a different type of leader, but all that I've seen and maybe just a couple of episodes of hard knocks, but just listening to guys like yourself and watching and seeing on the television, he seems to be a leader that's still learning how to, but I think his play is backing it up that guys want to lead and they're showing him how to with some of those veterans that you mentioned who they were able to catch a couple touchdowns from yesterday. Yeah. Kirk, you know this so well that when a rookie gets into a locker room, you know, there's a lot of different ways you could do it the wrong way.

Right. And Caleb Williams just seems, he's just natural. He's not, you know, you know, there was the story about him telling guys to clean up, but that story was presented as a complimentary story. Like Kevin Bayard, when he told that was like very impressed that Caleb Williams was doing that.

Somebody needed to kind of get on the guys for making sure the areas that they were using were clean and he was the one who did it. So I think kind of the best compliment that he's been getting when you talk to different teammates is he's natural. He's comfortable in his own skin. He's not, you know, the moment and everything's not too big for him. He's just kind of assimilated really nicely into this locker room.

As you said, you've got Keone Allen, you've got 40 year old Mercedes Lewis, you know, you've got DJ Moore, you've got these guys on defense and Caleb Williams is just kind of one of the guys. And you talk to everybody, players, coaches, and yeah, you, you, you certainly aren't hearing anything about some of those kind of quote unquote reports that came out of USC that I think we've all learned were, you know, just, you know, just maybe a couple of people because look, Caleb is different. Like this is a guy who's been engineered to be in this position since she was a child. He's the first NIL superstar, you know, he's, he's obviously different than some of the quarterbacks were used to.

So I think a lot of, you know, when you see things that anonymous scouts say, well, these are scouts who have been in doing this for 20, 30 years. They've never come across somebody like him and people are afraid of different. And I think the bears have embraced it and you've realized that like his quote unquote different is just being one of the guys which everybody in the building seems to like. He covers the bears for the athletic. He's Kevin Fishbane joining the Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. So Kevin, I would ask you who or what kind of coach is Matt Iberflus? Cause I feel like we are seeing him again for the first time. I know he's been a coach in this league before as a coordinator and been the head coach the last couple of years in Chicago, but I feel like we're getting reintroduced to him. Maybe it's because the new hairstyle, the new beard, whatever it may be, but who is Matt Iberflus as a coach and what does he bring to this ball club in terms of his style, his culture, his philosophy?

Yeah, Iberflus is unique because he is a football guy. You know, he's in kind of an old school football guy, old school linebacker, but he still is embracing. He embraces analytics. He embraces the quarterback head coach relationship.

You've seen that in some of the scenes from Hard Knocks. He's in the quarterback room all the time, even though he's kind of the defensive guru. I think that he really hit a stride last year when he took over defensive play calling. Now it was obviously not for good reason.

It wasn't the ideal situation. There was a lot of drama with the bears last year that led to that moment, but you saw, okay, he's comfortable. He's confident. The players buy into him. Look, he's got some, you know, like a lot of coaches, he's got his little metaphors, his acronyms, he's different things that are a little unique, but it doesn't necessarily, you know, lead to a lot of eye rolls from, from players and coaches. I think that they, they respect him and, you know, you're right though, Kirk. I mean, this was somebody that shoot, I don't even remember if I had heard of him before the bears started that coaching search a few years ago.

You know, he's somebody who was in the college ranks for a long time. Then he had the defensive corner stint for Indianapolis and just, but he has come in and, you know, this is a big year for him, obviously. And I don't, I'm not calling it make or break because I think the bears are very comfortable with their leadership situation and do not want to go into that cycle. They've been in so many times over and over again, where head coach GM quarterback just aren't aligned. But I do think it's important for him that he's got all these, got the quarterback, he's got all these weapons on offense. He's got his defense for this team to make a playoff push.

You know, Kevin, you've been at training camp. So you see the fans, the reactions, what is like the fan buzz right now when it comes to this football team in the real life expectations? I mean, last year didn't make the playoffs, year before that didn't as well, but now you have Caleb Williams. We're expecting him to do what? Take this team to the playoffs. They want to see the CJ Stroud effect that we saw in Houston, but what is the real life expectation that these fans are putting on this football team right now?

Yeah. I like to make the distinction Kirk between excitement and optimism. Like everyone is incredibly excited about this team and where this team will go. I think that even the fans, even the most diehard, you know, over the top fans understand he is a rookie and it's going to take time. And I'm glad you mentioned CJ Stroud because I think CJ Stroud changed the conversation because you see what CJ did last year and you think, okay, if CJ Stroud can do it with that team, why can't Caleb Williams do it with this team?

And he might, and you could argue that he should. But it's not like CJ Stroud was playing the Superbowl last year, even the AFC conference championship. I think that getting to the playoffs thing would be a great step for the bears being in the conversation, being over 500, I think is fine.

A lot of this, I still think is building up into 2025. You know, I know bears fans have been patient for way too long and they want to see results right away, but you know, look, it's really hard for any rookie quarterback to make that kind of deep playoff run. And Caleb does have a unique situation, but I do think so, like there has never been more excitement about this team right now because they have a celebrity at quarterback.

I mean, they really do. And Caleb Williams, and you mentioned hard knocks. You mentioned kind of the star power they have, they haven't had for a long time, but I do think like, you know, the Vegas over under is eight and a half. I think that's a perfect number for it to be at. I think I've, I've kind of written like nine and eight seems to be a fair prediction for this team because it's a rookie quarterback.

You've got some questions about both lines. You're still not, you know, you mentioned Matty Bruce, you look at his record, it's fair to kind of have some skepticism, Shane Waldron play caller, you know, you can look at him. It's not like he's coming in here with this giant resume of tons of successful play client did great things in Seattle. I've liked what I've seen from the scheme.

I think it's going to be good, but again, we have to see it to believe it. So fans are into it. There's a lot of number 18 jerseys at training camp. But I do think people understand rookie quarterback, tough division too. You know, maybe just getting into the playoffs would be successful. What you obviously don't want at the end of the season, Kirk, like what if you and I talk in January, right.

You want bears fans to know, regardless of record, Caleb's the guy and they're set for however long he's going to be here. Yeah. I would say that's the opposite. Maybe that how Carolina Panthers felt fans felt at the end of their season. Like, Hey, do we have the guy? Do we not?

So yeah, I totally get that. Kevin, Kevin fish, fang, fish main joining us. He covers the bears for the athletic right here on the rich eyes and show with Kirk Morris and filling in for rich. Kevin had the bears landed Matthew Judon.

Would it have been the internet would have broke because everybody would have said, how are they, how are they getting all these guys? Are they cheating? What's going on? But how, I mean, were they in on the possible acquisition of Matthew Judon? I know he goes from the Patriots to the Falcons, but there was rumors that maybe Ryan polls was in on that deal too, trying to see if he can bring in Matthew Judon to team up with Montez sweat.

Yeah. Kirk, I'm starting to wonder if there's a trade conversation that Ryan poles is not in on at this point, because if anybody is a trade candidate, you got to assume. And look, I think that's what makes him a good GM. You know, he's always looking around and trying to find ways to improve a team. The bears. Like they have guys on the defensive at the defensive end spot they like, but they know that they can improve it. They know that somebody like Judon would have been an upgrade and would have been a great asset for them. And the other thing too, if you look at the window, the bears have, right. You think about, all right, assuming Caleb's the guy you're going to pay him in three years.

Correct. So you've got these three seasons because once you pay him, as you know, it's going to be harder to pay everybody else. And you've got to got a lot of guys. I mean, you look at last year rookie class Darnell, right. In a couple of years, you look at the tackle contracts, Tyreek Stevenson, if he continues to ascend Kyler Gordon, some of these guys, they're going to be up for new contracts in a couple of years too. So you look at that window, you could understand the aggressiveness from Ryan polls to go get a guy and say, I'm not worried about next year's third round draft pick. If I can bring this guy in right now, get them for two or three years, because this is our window. Obviously the bears want to sustain success for as long as possible, but you got to strike while Caleb's on that rookie contract, take advantage of that rookie wage scale.

So that's why it makes sense for them to have kind of been in those conversations. I, you know, I was a little surprised just because, you know, that there's going to be a big contract coming and the bears, they pay Montez Sweat the big money. They just gave DJ Moore the big extension. They, you know, they've given Jalen Johnson the big extension in March. So you kind of wonder how many more big deals can I do, but they do still kind of have a healthy cap situation.

So look, I think that this is about Ryan polls, Maddie, they will always say, and it is coach speak. Like you've probably heard it a hundred times, you know, we're always going to look to improve our team, but the bears have lived up to that too. When you look at the trades that they've made, they haven't always worked.

Obviously chase capable that trade didn't work, but he's now, you know, Paul's not afraid to take those swings. Kevin, when you talk Chicago bears, it's always about Caleb Williams, the expectations of the team, the offense, you mentioned DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunze. Why don't we talk about the defense?

I had a buddy of mine was texting me yesterday. Oh man, the bears, they go, they talk about offense, offense. I said, but there are some names on this defense. You mentioned a guy, this is a strong secondary.

I don't know where they rank, but I will put them at the top when you look at the names on this defense, especially at the linebacker position as well. What have you seen from this defense during training camp without the focus so much on Caleb Williams? Well, to use Caleb as the example, one of the things that the defense has done is they've, you know, made it really difficult for Caleb Williams all summer long. And that was one of the things that was interesting in the Bills game is you saw the offense playing at a level we have not seen in training camp because it's been so challenging. I wonder Kirk, how many people, maybe it's more now because of hard knocks, how many NFL fans know who Jalen Johnson is? How many NFL fans know who Montez Sweat is? And those are the Bears pro bowlers. Those are the two best players in the defense. Those are the two guys with the big contracts. They went to the pro bowl last year and I just don't know how widely, you know, and it's fair. I mean, Jalen Johnson has been on this team since 2020.

They had one playoff game that everybody forgets about understandably. So, you know, Sweat was kind of the third guy when you looked at that Washington D line that he was a part of. And, you know, he's obviously Sweat's not like that loud guy. So he's, you know, kind of keeps to himself a little bit.

So you're not going to be seeing him on social media all the time. And then you go to that secondary that you mentioned and it's literally, you know, in addition, Jalen Johnson, I think Colin Gordon's one of the best nickel corners of football. And if he stays healthy, like you, you should be talking about him being in that pro bowl category.

Cause when at his best, he's been really good. Who knows who Colin Gordon is outside of Chicago, Tyree Stevenson put a big numbers in the second half of last season. Jaquan Brisker again, needs to stay healthy, but he's somebody that bears believe in a lot. Kevin Byers and one of the more underrated safeties in football. And you talked about the linebackers too. And, and Kirk, I don't know if anybody knows this better than you, but people don't talk about off ball linebackers anymore.

Right? Like they don't talk about the guys like TJ Edwards and Tremaine Edmonds who are phenomenal, really came on strong in the second half last season. I just named all those guys.

You throw in a Jervon Dexter and Andrew billions. These are just not names of a lot of people outside Chicago know about you put them all together and you're like, Oh wow, all these guys individually are pretty darn good. And with that scheme, you can see how, you know, they can be the ones kind of carrying this team and making things easier for the rookie quarterback. You know, Kevin, I'll tell you, I'm a big fan of the Chicago bears defense. And as a team, you see the potential.

I get you mentioned, you mentioned it a little bit earlier. There is optimism because you can see this team. Now there's a ceiling. I think that they can get to 10, 11 wins possibly, but there's also that floor where we can say, man, Caleb could fall flat this year and they win six or seven games.

I don't see it that way. Cause I feel like there was just too much talent around this team. But the great thing is I feel like the teams who are on hard knocks, the training camp edition usually find a way to get over that hump. We saw it again with the Detroit Lions a couple of years ago. I think the bears are going to be that team. What are we learning from hard knocks that maybe people outside of the bears organization didn't know because of the quarterback situation with Justin Fields and trying to figure out what is this franchise right now? Who are they? Cause they haven't been to a conference championship game in a long time, let alone won a playoff game in a really long time.

Yeah. Well, you know, you start with Iberfluz and I think he has shown how comfortable he is in front of the, with the hard knocks cameras there and being mic'd up for everything. Again, not a head coach people knew a lot about. And if you look up Matt Iberfluz social media wise last September, it wasn't a really good look for him when the bears were going through those really tough situations and he had to kind of be the voice for the team.

And it was, it was an uncomfortable spot for everybody. And now he is confident. He's got the new look.

He is comfortable in his position. I think people are kind of seen the way that he relates to the players, the way he relates to the team and how that might work. And, and you'll learn about, you know, I think people are learning about who some of these guys are. I love the Jalen Johnson versus Keenan Allen clip from last week because like shoot Keenan Allen. I mean, he should be incredibly well known, especially when you talk about fantasy football, but when you play for the chargers, like it can be hard sometimes to break that, you know, breakthrough as, as being considered one of the best receivers in the game. So I think seeing that Keenan Allen Jalen Johnson matchup, I think it was good for the team. And Kirk, maybe the, maybe fans around the league have learned that the bears are just a clean cut organization because you have not had a cuss word yet on the show and one of the biggest surprises so far from the bears edition of hard knocks. So you're getting the rookie, you're starting to see him in his stories.

I'll throw another one out there. Cause he was a big part of last week's episode. DJ Moore is a phenomenal player. I mean, the word I always think of when I watch him run routes is smooth. He just as smooth. And again, you look at that position and you look, you, you, you think of the kind of the quote unquote prima donnas. You think about the guys who are always talking.

That's just not DJ. And he is such a good player. It means so much that team great work ethic.

You've seen his family. So I think it's nice. That's one of the reasons the bears were like, all right, we'll do, we'll finally do hard knocks. Cause we got this team that we want to introduce to the rest of the country. No Kevin, I got to get you out of here on one last one, 30 seconds, because I felt like this off season, there was this divide between the Justin Fields followers in Chicago versus why are we going to go get Caleb Williams? We should keep him and keep Justin Fields and build with what we think could be a better roster around Justin Fields. Where is that divide now?

Or where's those sides at now? Are bears fans finally gravitating to Caleb Williams? Are they still thinking about, man, we could have had Justin Fields and still a lot more money to surround him and maybe having a better talent.

If you think of the stages of grief, they are fully in the acceptance part. Okay. It was the guy. I think anybody was on the Justin Fields train. I totally understood it.

He did some phenomenal things here and you could think about the draft picks you would get and what you could build around him. I get it. But I think people have realized like this, Caleb just used the word I used earlier. He's different. And I think people are seeing that, you know, they saw the trademark for Justin Fields now materialize, you know, and I think a lot of them are rooting for Justin and they want him to succeed. But I think they've kind of realized, all right, we've got, we've got a guy here that we, you know, we might be able to finally get out of this cycle.

There it is. At K Fishbane on Twitter X. He's the NFL writer for the athletic covers of Chicago Bears. Kevin, man, I appreciate the time, my brother.

We will talk soon and we will have this discussion too at the end of the season where we feel Caleb Williams is at currently in his career. All right. I look forward to it, Kirk. Thank you. I appreciate it, Kevin.

That's Kevin Fishbane. Covers the Bears for the athletic. There is a update on the Dak Prescott contract negotiations. Just a quick update. I guess we'll get to that when we come back right here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison 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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Shopify.com slash Westwood One. Larry David, you are now the new commissioner of the National Football League. Really? Yes, congratulations.

Are you kidding? There you go. Congratulations. This is a dream, okay?

I quit Curb Your Enthusiasm in a second if this is true. Okay. Okay. What do you do first as the commissioner of the National Football League?

Larry David. Number one, and I really don't care if people like it or not, I'm losing the goalpost. Why, why are there goalposts?

Okay. Why, why are kickers, okay, who have, they don't have football skills. They're not football players.

I'm sure they're wonderful people, but they're not football players. Why, why, why are they kicking a ball through goalposts to decide games? It doesn't make any sense at all. It's a, first of all, goalposts are a relic from the old English rugby, I think.

Okay. You know, when they used to actually run and kick a ball through goalposts, but they don't do that in the NFL. There's no need for goalposts.

Wouldn't the game be better without them? Think about it. Why not just have leaping frogs to decide games? See if a frog can leap through a little goalpost that you set up, okay, on the floor. And if the frog can leap through the goalpost, then do that. Why kick it through a goalpost? Well, it's not called leaping frog ball.

It's called football. So you're saying take the feet out of footballs? Is that what you're saying, Larry? Is that what you're saying?

Yes. Why? Feet are deciding games and they shouldn't. Why should one player, one player with this skill, like the guy on the Ravens. Justin Tucker, yeah.

Why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing and this one person, this 53rd person, is deciding games if it makes no sense whatsoever? Ah, back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich on this Friday as we get ready for our preseason weekend number two. We got the FedEx Cup going on right now.

Somebody said Scottie Scheffler is a little upset. So I'll get caught up on that too in the next couple minutes. But the big update is Dak Prescott. He spoke to the media a little bit yesterday and kind of gave us a update on sort of what's going on between he and the Cowboys in the contract situation. I'm blessed to be able to do that, to have a family, girlfriend that takes care of the home, takes care of the business that we need, people in place that takes care of the contract, those talks, those negotiations. And that allowed me to, when I'm here, when I'm in the camp hours, I'm as focused can be on whatever it needs, whether it's the team, the locker room, maybe it's some of the coaches need or it's just me out there on the field, trying to become the player that I want to be and continuing to grow and getting better. I think that's what allows it to be easy for me as I have such good people around me. Good conversations are going, I will say that, calling negotiations, whatever conversations, a lot of good things are going on there.

So a lot of confidence, once again, as I said, anytime I feel like I've talked about it, I've got confidence in my guys, these guys getting something done. Yeah. The longest tenured quarterback with one team currently in the NFL. Dak Prescott.

Is that true? Yeah. This will be his ninth year as the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. No other quarterback in the NFL has been with one team currently for nine years, by the way.

Yes. So 2016 was his first year? 2016, I was at the game, by the way. When Romo got hurt? Well, not when Romo got hurt. We were just having this blast from the past. Obviously I do the Rams pregame halftime and postgame.

And I was thinking about it last week because this is my ninth year. And the first home game was a preseason game, but it was Dak's first started quarterback. Remember it was preseason week number two or three at the time. Remember Romo got hurt, then Kellen Moore got hurt and had an ankle injury at practice. And then they just threw Dak out there, the fourth round pick, like, hey, whatever. And he played well in the preseason and the rest is history. That was 2016. So nine years in the NFL.

Think about it. There's a game against the Rams in particular. I remember he came on a preseason game and that was that was it. Oh, that was the one at the LA Coliseum. That was the one that was the first game. That was the first game back in LA.

It was amazing. It was amazing, but I did the pregame show outside in the pavilion. So we have at the end of the pregame show, you have about 10 minutes to get to the press box.

So get done with the show, put my headsets down. I'm walking from outside where the, where the, where is it? The, the, the arc of the LA Coliseum, the opening. So that's where the pregame show was. So I'm leaving from there to walk to the press box.

There was this big, huge roar before I got there. The opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown, like the opening kickoff of football back in LA returned for a touchdown. And then Dak Prescott takes over at the quarterback position, his first start.

And then the rest is history. Nine now, seasons later, going into his ninth year, I should say he is the longest tenured quarterback in the NFL. And you think about it, he's been stable. He's been to a point that has given you enough to where I feel like he is your quarterback moving forward. This will be his last contract as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

I think that this is the one, get it done and move on. I don't know what the holdup is. Is it because they're waiting for CD Lamb to sign? Is this trying to see if we can keep a little bit extra for Micah Parsons?

I don't know what the case is. He says he's got his people working on it and I get it, but this is a huge distraction for the Dallas Cowboys. If I'm a quarterback knowing that at the end of this year, I'm going to be a free agent.

You start looking over your shoulder a little bit, fellas. You're like, oh man, I don't... We've seen there's moments where something may happen in a game similar to remember Lamar Jackson. Remember the knee injury? Oh, Lamar not playing because he doesn't have a contract. I don't want to hear that all year long. Why didn't Dak dive on that fumble? Why?

You know what? Why isn't Dak giving it his all? Why did he step out of bounds instead of lowering the shoulder to get one extra yard for a first down? That is upcoming, if they don't get a contract deal done. And I always say, what's the better option next year? Like the Cowboys are a really good football team. They're not going to be four wins, five wins, picking at the top of the draft.

They're not. So what's the better option at quarterback? I feel like Dak Prescott is a free agent.

I would want that. I think that he's capable of getting you where you need to go. Just the expectations put on the Cowboys, obviously are a lot different, but we'll see what happens. He's got his people working.

We'll see what happens in the coming days. As we get closer, three weeks from today, we got a Friday game for the NFL, less than two and a half weeks. We got our first game, but we got a lot, but I got coming up next, Clyde Drexler.

Can't wait to talk to him coming up right here on the Rich Eisen Show. This Rams Cowboys preseason game. Just looking at the box. Do you know who ran back the kickoff? You know, don't tell me.

Yeah. I remember the net. He was a, give me a hint. It's a very fun name. It was a fun name. I forget. It was like, he's got the same name as the Patriots mascot.

I mean the Celtics mascot. Oh my God. It was like McSore.

What is it? Lucky Whitehead. There it is. It was a different name. Dez Bryant caught a touchdown.

TJ. It was crazy. The Cowboys were up 24 to seven and lost. Dak was 10 of 12 for 139 yards.

And he was named the starter right there. That was the game. I remember that game. That was the game, which Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were like, that was it. Cause that was where Romo could just see his CV. I think McManus and everybody started calling Romo then.

They were like, Hey Tony, we may have a job for you over here on the TV side of things because he auditioned immediately. Dak Prescott that day looked like he belonged. He looked like the starter. No Romo, no Zeke, no Witten.

Like let's just be real. And then Romo got hurt the next week, right? Yeah. I wouldn't say he was hurt before he hurt in the back against Seattle. When was the Seattle game? But wasn't that? I thought that was like the first preseason.

This was the first preseason game, August 13th. Okay. There it is. Dak Prescott praise all on display. Crazy. Nine years later, guess what? He's still there, man. We're all love it. Clocked.

Love it. Former Navy seal. Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people from all walks of life on the Sean Ryan show.

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