Brett Veach: You Have To Be Able To Reinvent Yourself

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I want to hear you! This is the Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Eisen Show fantasy football team will be called?

Live from Kansas City. Sprinkle a little erise or Layers of Iberflus. Paul Rudd, who wins? Layers of Iberflus. Wow! Fantastic. Look at that.

Layers of Iberflus is our team name. Earlier on the show, actor Rob Riggle, Chief's Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt. Coming up, Emmy Award-winning actor Eric Stonestreet. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's correct, everybody. It's hour number three.

Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Live from Kansas City at the Total Wireless Studio. You get unlimited data that never slows you down for less than $30 a month.

That's the new Total Wireless. We are two hours into our first day of our three-day residency here in Kansas City. Home of the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. And also home to the Thursday night kickoff between the Ravens and the Chiefs on NBC.

Something that you can catch right here on the Roku portal on Thursday night. And then comes the Friday night kickoff to the International Series. As you've got the Green Bay Packers taking on the Philadelphia Eagles.

That's in Brazil. And then game the first week of the football season for all the Sunday games. Hit and then the Monday nighter. It's just going to be all kinds of awesome. Chris Brockman and TJ Jefferson are here with me in Kansas City. Eric Stonestreet is going to join us in just a couple minutes time right here.

You at 844-204-RICH being the number to dial. Great times with Rob Riggle in hour number one. And the chairman and CEO, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, Clark Hunt came by and hung out with us in hour number two. And we're just keeping an eye on everything going on in the National Football League.

Monitoring. And it's important to see Jamar Chase at practice for the Cincinnati Bengals today. However, he has not gotten his contract. And we will know Jamar Chase has gotten his contract. Not by him being back at practice.

Sorry to say. That's not going to be a telltale sign that he's back at practice. Because he was back at practice a couple weeks ago too. Then he wasn't. Then nothing.

Then he was gone again. And it was from, you know, Zach Taylor, the coach was like, you know, my bad to say this is a good sign or that we're close. It's day to day. It's fluid.

Whatever. You will know Jamar Chase has signed his new contract not by going on social media and seeing one of our terrific information men and women in the National Football League world sending it out. You will know Jamar Chase has signed a new contract when you hear the sound of Velcro ripping open. Because that's the wallet of Mike Brown in the Cincinnati Bengals front office. That's the noise that it makes. He's got.

Come on. If you're like, wait a minute, what's that noise at large, that loud Velcro noise? He paid Joe Burrow. And when you heard Velcro noise then. Like the Pope. Instead of white smoke, you hear the Velcro noise. You know he's got a Velcro wallet. And a swatch. A swatch.

A swatch is worth a move back in the day. I'm aware of that. He's 89 years old. He's got a Velcro wallet.

Well, if that's the case, he's rocking Jam shorts. Remember those? Yeah. You know? And so that's the deal. And there he is. Now this is him back at practice just walking with his helmet. This is the proof.

That's the proof? He's in full pads. He's got his helmet. Look at him run.

He ran up the hill. Look at him run right there. Now that looks like a guy who can't wait to get to practice, which might mean there's a good sign that he's having good conversations. That's what I'm saying.

Well, you also know how this works. You even heard that with Lynch. John Lynch when things are getting a little bit dicey with Brandon Aiyuk. Guys gotta be here, right? He's gotta get on the field. At some point you gotta play.

At some point you gotta go play. Well, the Bengals have the Patriots in town on Sunday. So they could wait till week two. They're fine. Oh, what? There's no disrespect. Every survivor pool entry in the world is the Bengals this week, right? Boy, they could upset. That's what I'm saying.

There's always one wonky week one result. That's right. And so are you calling Jamar Chase their immunity idol? Well, that's what I was saying. I said that yesterday and you guys really gave me a lot of pushback. It was an overreaction Monday subject matter. Chase sits out and upset alert.

Well, this is why it's important to know this information. Yeah. Right now. Because it's time for us to predict the American Football Conference North Division. We waited to have the North predicted and the West predicted in our first two shows here in Kansas City.

You know why? Because the Kings of the North last year and the Kings of the West last year are playing each other on Thursday night. We're not just spitballing here. We have a plan.

We come up with a plan and we execute the plan. Yes. It's now time for division predictions presented by Lowe's. And here we go. Chris Brockman, you are first.

Oh, all right. Predicting the AFC North, which you have said multiple times on this program. We'll get three teams in the playoffs just like it did last year when Joe Flacco led the Browns.

Yeah. And the only team that didn't make it was Jake Browning's Bengals. Mason Rudolph led the Steelers and the defending MVP led the Ravens.

What do you have for 2024? I think both Norths are the two best divisions in football. I think they're going to get five combined. NFC, AFC. Maybe two only come out of the AFC.

Not sure. But I think it's the Ravens and the Bengals at the top. All due respect to the champs. Got to keep them at number one. They got Derek Henry. We didn't say any more.

I mean, come on. We're going to see that tomorrow night. I like the Bengals number two. Jamar Chase, we'll be back out there. Joe Burrow, like you said, Rich, he could be MVP this season.

Yes, sir. I don't see a scenario where Pittsburgh wins it. And I just look at the quarterback situation.

It's a great unknown for them. And I know Deshaun Watson is coming off of an injury. But he was playing really well before he got hurt last year.

Five and one in the games he played before he went out. And I just like Cleveland a little bit better. They're third. TJ Jefferson, your AFC North predictions, please. Pretty close, pretty aligned with what Chris has.

You know, I like to start from the bottom and go up. I've got the Browns finishing in fourth. Not because I don't think they're going to be good. Oh, my God, your friend Nate's going to be so pissed at you. Yeah, my buddy Nathan Zagura, no disrespect. Remember last year I predicted that all four teams from the North would make the playoffs.

And then for 12 weeks I looked like TJ Domas. I think this, again, this is a tough division. They all don't like each other.

They all beat the crap out of each other. I got the Browns finishing fourth. I got the Steelers coming in third because I couldn't put them last or else I wouldn't be able to go home again. And then I got the Bengals finishing number two and I got the Ravens winning the division.

All right. So in terms of my AFC North predictions, I am with you, Chris, despite how much I do like the changes that they made in their offensive coordinator. And I do like their defense very much.

Yes. And I think Patrick Queen being added to the Steelers defense is huge. But once again I have taken this approach for three straight years with a guy who I would consider a friend because everybody who meets him considers him a friend. But for three straight years I've said I need to see it with Russell Wilson and I still need to see it again. So I am putting the Steelers in fourth place in this division because the Browns have a championship defense, sir.

And I need to see it from Deshaun. I know you said Deshaun Watson was 5-1. He didn't look all – I mean, win-loss for a quarterback is one thing. He was terrific in Baltimore in beating the Ravens.

Terrific. The Browns have a great defense. I can't see them finishing in last place with that defense. I can't either.

It was tough. I just can't. So I'm putting them there at three. And the reason why our crack staff has not put the predictions up on the screen yet is because I'm choosing the Bengals to win the division. Even though I put the Ravens higher than the Bengals right now in my power rankings into the season, I do believe that by the end of the day the Bengals will win this division.

I think the – all the Bengals have to do is just beat the Browns, man. Yeah. Because they usually – They can't. They can't. And it's – this is the year to try and do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Okay? This is the year for the Bengals to do that. And if they do what I do believe they do, which is, you know, beat the Browns, and I think Joe Burrow is going to have an MVP season. So I take the Bengals to return to the top of the AFC North. The Ravens are right there. I mean I think it's going to be neck and neck right to the end of the season. Browns and then Steelers. Maybe all four teams do make it.

That would be wild. I don't think there's any other division in the AFC North where there's no other wild card teams from any other division but the AFC North. That's how good this division is.

But I do think they kind of knock each other off. And the Bengals are the ones who eventually emerge with the Ravens still making it and maybe the Browns do. So those were our division predictions presented by Lowe's, official partner of the National Football League.

It's easier to make the right calls with the right team. So kick off your next home improvement project with Lowe's. Lowe's knows home improvement. So does our next guest. He knows it all. He knows Kansas City. He knows the Chiefs. He knows the funny. He knows what it's great to be a great human. Our great friend Eric Stonestreet is here and he's about to join us next on the Rich Eisen Show Live in Kansas City. He's making his way to the couch so he can get a nice shot of him.

We treat him the best we possibly can. Ladies and gentlemen, Eric Stonestreet is closing. Good to see Eric. Good to see you brother. No, you come on up here.

Eric Stonestreet is next right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk DoorDash people. If your family's like mine, it probably is. You want something to eat, your kids want something else to eat. How do you handle it all? How do you make sure everybody's happy? DoorDash.

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Alcohol available only in select markets. Three, two. Hey, everybody. There's a great new podcast that just launched I want to tell you about. It's called Throwbacks, and I know the guys who are doing it. It's hosted by former Entourage star Jerry Ferrara and former USC quarterback Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, who then went on to play in the National Football League for the Arizona Cardinals. So Matt has a ton of experience to tell you about, playing for an iconic college football team, winning that trophy, and then, of course, all the behind the scenes stories from his time in college and professional football. While Jerry is one of the leads of an iconic television series, he's got you covered on what it was like being a young guy starring in a show that everyone was talking about, and he's also the voice of the fans. So Matt brings that former player expertise, and Jerry brings that voice of the maniacal sports fan. Enjoy hanging out with your new favorite pair of Throwbacks every Thursday.

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Just go to LinkedIn.com slash direct and get started. All right, we're back here in Kansas City for the kickoff show, and joining us here on the program is the first man I called when I knew we were coming to Kansas City, so it's only fitting that he is here to wrap up our first day, the great Eric Stunsfield. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Rich.

Thank you, everyone. No, it's awesome. I can't believe you're here. No, I can't believe I'm here, too. And in this spot, the beautiful, the Harlow here, as soon as I called you up, and I'm like, hey, this is the place that we're looking at, and you're like, that's great. Fine. Yeah, my friend back there, he had his wedding reception here, and now he's divorced.

Well, it's not the fault of the place. No, no, no, probably not. I'm sure you'll be on the air for many years, Rich. I mean, how long were they married?

Yeah, I don't know. It's so awesome that you're here. And listen, look, I've teased you, I've talked about it on Twitter, I've texted you.

You cannot come to Kansas City without having a special surprise, something that we value, we love as Kansas Citians. And you know, Rich, we've been friends for how many years now? A long time.

A long time, at least 15 years. Yeah, and I'm not going to bring you the second best, I'm not going to bring you the third best, I'm going to bring you the best of the best. Okay.

So having said that, please, summon my surprise. Oh, okay, we're getting right to it. Whoa. What do we got?

Oh my God, it's not, it's not Meach, it's Veach. Hey. What's up, man? What?

I was like, wait a second. Wow. Fantastic. How about that? How about this, because I've texted this man to say come on the show. Oh, we have a story.

Okay, please pull that right in front of you right there. Hold on a minute. Good to see you. Hold on, great audience about to come back.

We've got a lot of moving parts. Now that's a surprise. The best of the best that Kansas Citians love. We're back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Eric Stonestreet is here. You said you brought the best of Kansas City, right? We thought it was barbecue, but instead it's the general manager of the Kansas City. It was a gracious intro, but what happened was he called me.

Yes. And he said, look, I got to bring a guest out to Rich Eisen. And Henry Winkler bailed on me. He was like, can you do me a solid and just run up and I was like, for you man, anything. No, it was funny because he hit me about coming on and then I think an hour later. I texted you? He texted me about coming on. Yeah.

So I showed Eric the screenshot and he's like, what are you going to do? And I said, well, I'm going to decline Rich's invite for a show and accept your invite. Yeah, it worked out.

It is better. Thank you. That's pretty cool, man. That's awesome. Well, I just said, man, you got to come out. I figured you'd reach out to him, but I thought it would be fun if he was the surprise for the show.

Dude. I heard you already had Clark on. Yes, we did. I'm sure that went well. It did go well.

I still have a job at NFL network. I haven't gotten a text or anything like that, but great to see you guys. What do you want to talk about?

Football? You threw him a curve ball. He's like, I don't have my questions for the general manager. There's so many questions, I don't know which one to ask.

It's all good. When did you guys first meet? Let's start with that. Because I know you guys are tight.

I know that. Well, here's the deal. Mitch Schwartz, member of the tribe, as you know, one of your favorite stories ever. He was like, dude, I feel like you and Veach are going to be friends. This was years ago.

And I said, well, you know, I've never met him. And I have a specific memory, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but of when you were hired. It was during big slick.

You very well could have been there. We were loading into the vans at the hotel and it came off that, you know, Doris had been fired or let go and hired Brett Veach. And I'm like, Brett Veach, who is Brett Veach?

Like Googling. And I was like, all right, well, this is a day that I'll remember forever. And so Schwartz had said that and then we bonded and clicked over his daughter being a fan of the toy box. I was at the Chiefs game and he was like, hey, will you meet my daughter real quick? And then we became friends.

The cool thing about Eric is when you meet people that are fans of the Chiefs, I mean, it's like one of those things where you can differentiate between a fan and a real fan. And so like quickly after we got to know each other, I mean, he was sending me texts asking about practice squad players and some guys I didn't even know about. How soon upon meeting you did he show you the picture of him as a fan back in the day on his phone? The picture of him in the end zone? Oh, that's like the first day.

That's like the first day. That's his intro to every Chiefs fan. Because it shows that he's... No, it's real. It shows that you're legit.

You're legit. Well, yeah, I mean, and we've had this run and I'll tell you the other, you know, Brett V story that for me personally and Lindsay personally and for you tomorrow night personally. Yes, sir. Literally, this man said to me, well, going on four years ago, what's your seats situation at Arrowhead? And I said, I don't have seats like I, you know, the Hunts are gracious enough to offer me tickets every once in a while. You're going to want to get seats for the next 10 years.

So Lindsay and I called and we're like, I mean, literal quote. You're going to want you're going to want seats for the next 10 years. Why would you? Why did you say that? Fulfilling your general manager obligations.

You're generally managing Eric Stonestream is what you're doing right there. He said, you're not going to want to miss a game with Patrick Mahomes. You're not going to want to miss a game. And so that year we got a suite. I flew back from it was the last year modern family. I flew back for every game on Sunday. I didn't miss a game that season in Arrowhead. We went on, of course, to win the Super Bowl that year.

And I thank him all the time for spending all that money of mine. But, yeah, he called a shot, dude. You saw you saw. So again, because I asked Clark Hunt, when was the first time you met Patrick Mahomes? And he said there was some sort of a Super Bowl party or something like that. And Lee Steinberg kind of put the two of them together because he had already, you know, had heard Mahomes was on the Chiefs radar screen or the Chiefs already had him on the radar screen. And he basically said it was you. He said it was you who saw Mahomes and you had worked on Mahomes for 18 months.

So what did you see out of him? Well, I got I got coached up right by the great Andy Reid. And and it's just one of those things. I think, you know, when you sit there and you evaluate tape all day, every day for a career, the good ones are going to stand out and then the great ones are just going to take your breath away, so to speak. So, you know, when you start watching his tape and I think I told the story a few times. You know, I think I was actually starting off watching an offensive lineman for Texas Tech.

And Pat wasn't even, you know, a name that was declaring for the draft and right watching this game. And you're like, oh, that's a pretty cool throw. And then you get on to say that's really interesting. And then all of a sudden you're not watching the lineman, you're just watching the quarterback. And then, you know, one game turns into two games, turns into a season. And then it was almost like one of those things that you think, looking back on it, that it was supposed to happen because it was like during that time when Coach Reed walked by the office.

And I don't think there was anybody in that day. And he just kind of said, like, what are you doing? And I jokingly said at the time, oh, I'm just watching the next quarterback. And it just so happened, you know, to work out that we ended up drafting him and here we are. And, I mean, it's crazy to think all the success we've had. But, I mean, it's been a blessing. And I think we all thought Pat would be good.

But, I mean, this is next level. And, I mean, I think you realize that you're around greatness every day. Obviously not just with the quarterback, but with the coach as well. So, it's just been a perfect marriage of a coach, quarterback that just clicks. And it clicked from day one.

And it's just, it's so rare to find a generational talent, but somebody who's also generationally enriching not just to himself, but everyone around him. The halo effect of pretty much everyone around him. And you legitimately did say to Andy Reed that I'm watching our next quarterback. What did he say to you?

Well, listen, again, this is like in the spring. So, he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you, I got you. And he kind of just peeked at the tape for a second and walked away.

And then it followed up with a follow. You start sending those videos from your phone and you're sending it to him. So, I started sending him a bunch of those. And it was funny because we got to like December and I was on the road.

I wasn't in the office. I was on the road scouting. And I sent him like maybe four to six clips of him in his most recent game. And mind you, coach is prepping for a game week.

Yes. And Pat Mahomes, he doesn't even know it's not on his radar. And he shot me a text back. Like, dude, cut it out. Like, we'll talk about this after the season.

No kidding. But, I mean, I just think it was a slow build up. And, you know, he got a little annoyed. And then after the season, once coach started to digest the film, I mean, he fell in love with them.

And then really, I mean, everyone did. And then we brought him into the facility. And coach is known to have like his quarterback academy type deal where he brings him in and we bring draft prospects in and they spend two, three hours with the coach.

And most of the time it's not bad because it's a lot of stuff. And I remember when he came out of that quarterback meeting in his pre-draft interview, I mean, coach was like, this kid nailed this thing. And I think it's still one of the things that people, I think they still get enamored by the highlight throws and the arm strength and the athleticism. And I think people think he's smart. But he is on that level of, you know, the Mannings and the Bradys, like his IQ. And I think that's, when you have both of those traits, it's super deadly.

And I think he doesn't get enough credit for how smart he is. Well, the deadliest part, too, in terms of the combination is the red ass that I think the quarterback series showed to a group of fans that I don't think people were quite aware of. That sort of Jordan, Kobe, Brady, Tiger-esque, Curry-esque. The Holmes-esque.

And the Holmes-esque, right? I mean, yeah. I mean, you've got to include him now, Eric.

You really do. And when did you see that? When was that revealed to you?

Well, I mean, Kansas State versus Texas Tech. That was to you. Revealed to you.

Yeah, I remember the deep balls for there. And I had no idea he would be on the radar of the Chiefs. But I'm like, damn, this guy is freaking great. My dad talked about him in college, too. Actually, the last game, I went to see him play before he declared. But they were, I think, they played at Iowa State. So I drove up to Ames to see him play. In the snow?

In the snow. I mean, there might have been 14,000 people there. It was brutally cold. And both teams were not bowl eligible. And they got off to a horrific start.

And I think Pat hurt her shoulder. And it might have been like 34 to 6 at halftime. And I'm thinking to myself, well, this kid is going to declare. We kind of know that now. And it's 34-6 at halftime.

Both teams aren't going to bowl. He has his draft future ahead of him and his pro future ahead of him. So I start packing up my bags. I'm like, I'm leaving because there's no way he's going back. And he didn't play the whole second quarter.

Right. He left the shoulder injury. So I start packing up my bag.

And as I'm walking down the stairs to leave, he's going back in the game. Again, it's a blowout. Hurt shoulder. Draft coming up. I mean, there's zero need to play in that game.

And sure enough, he goes out there and starts the third quarter. And you just feel like, you know, this is a competitor at the end of the day. That's a metric to somebody like yourself. I mean, most players that would be prepping for the draft. I mean, there's one aspect. If your team's fighting to get to be bowl eligible or fighting for something, I mean, they'll gut it out. But to gut it out just for your teammates. And the only reason they were getting out just for his teammates. I mean, that's a special and unique trait that you don't see nowadays.

And certainly something that kind of led you to believe everything that you had thought already. So he's just a special. And he's been like that since he's been here. I mean, he wants to win at everything. And whether it's golf in the offseason or basketball in the locker room, I mean, he's just wired that way.

And so I always wonder why people try to, you know, poke the bear. Because he has one of those unbelievable memories. And he never forgets anything. And he'll do it in his own way in regards to addressing situations.

And he's the best at it. So was it appropriate for us to say or at least view his response to that rookie in Vegas with the Muppet when he said that'll get handled? When it's handled. Pretty sure that's a t-shirt.

Is that a t-shirt? I'm pretty sure it is. I said that immediately. It'll get handled when it gets handled. It'll get handled when it gets handled. And we're like, uh-oh. Like, that's the way we viewed it.

Is that appropriate to view it that way? I mean, look, I mean, that's, I don't know exactly what's, you know, inside Pat's head. But that's how he deals with a lot of things. Like, he does it on his own terms. And he has a way of, you know, just writing it down in the mental box up there. And he looks for reasons, I mean, to get motivated.

But all great ones do. I mean, because when you achieve so much success and you've accomplished everything, you always wonder, like, what drives those people. And they look for reasons to get motivated. And that's why, I said, I question why people want to give him more ammunition than is already out there.

Because he's one of those guys that he really thrives off being challenged. Rich Eisen's show here in Kansas City for three days for the NFL kickoff. And when you go to a town and your great friend is there and you think that great friend wants to surprise you, you think it's with meat. But only the true great friends bring the general manager of the two-time defending Super Bowl champs in Brett Veitch, Eric Stonestreet, here on the Rich Eisen show. God bless you, Eric. You're a giver.

You're a friend. Well, it comes from a couple things. First of all, I don't think Brett, Brett's a very humble guy.

Right. You hear the tone of his voice. And I'm sorry, Brett, I'm going to talk about you for a second in front of you. He doesn't get enough credit. And like Andy Reid, when things go bad, it's his fault. And when things go good, it's the team's, you know. Success.

Team success. Right. Brett's the exact same way. He's cut from the same cloth. And so I don't expect him to go out there and toot his own horn.

I want to toot his own horn because I've had this crazy privilege of getting to know someone in the organization personally. And it's kind of the same way I felt like when I got to know Angie Kopitar. Like I watched him as a fan. Then I became his friend. And then I started getting worried about him on the ice. It switched to being like he just he just something happened to his neck.

He just got it, you know, or whatever. And it's the same with Veatch on Twitter. I mean, I love Kansas City. I love the Chiefs. I love Chiefs fans for the most part. But we, like other fan bases, just go level 10 so often. And when I read Twitter and see these people going after Veatch after three Super Bowls, it makes me angry.

It's because what I've learned is there's always so much more to the story. It's like, why didn't we cut so-and-so? Why didn't we sign so-and-so? The money, the cap, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, as his friend, it angers me.

You know, it's like it's better when I have a healthy distance from it and can kind of be a blend of that. You're like, why didn't we cut so-and-so or sign so-and-so? But anyway, I wanted Brett to be here. And then when you reached out to him, I was like, oh, well, he was, you know. But anyway, I appreciate it. No, I thank you for that. And I appreciate it. Honestly, you know, you can come anytime you want. You could lie to my face and say, I'm coming with Eric. I don't care.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I really appreciate it. Real quick thing about Mahomes from my perspective. Two things that I've seen from my own eyes.

Please. And then one that I've just heard through other people. One thing I noticed about Patrick is he's the type of guy in a large situation always sees everything around him. Like, I'm not going to be in a group of people and like step forward and be like, what's up, Patrick, or whatever.

I'll just kind of stand in the back and, you know, whatever. He always finds, he always finds me and he does that with everyone. He comes into a situation and knows exactly where he is and he sees all. Much like Coach Reed. They say Coach Reed can tell you everything there is to know about the game plan and also what the number one country song is on the radio right now.

They can tell you what the most popular TV show is. Like, he's got this mind that just sees everything around him. Patrick's the same way. The other thing is that, I forgot my second thing.

Hold on. I'm wearing his shoes right now. That he's great? Well, that he's great. Yeah.

Oh, that's it. That he sees everything around him. And then the thing I heard from the grapevine is that he loves watching one-on-ones. Like he likes watching tape of his offensive linemen's one-on-ones like at training camp. And I think that is such a cool, I don't know if other quarterbacks do that. I don't know if other players do that. But the idea that Patrick, when he's done, he's like, hey, bring up the one-on-ones.

I want to see how the tackles and guards did today. That says so much right there. A, that he loves ball.

B, it's such a leadership move because the next day he can say, hey, great rep yesterday on so-and-so or great rep yesterday on so-and-so. And then all of a sudden the tackle's accountable to Patrick Mahomes because gee, mini Christmas, Patrick was watching my one-on-ones yesterday. Incredible.

Blows my mind. And the aspect of the offense, Brett, this year, the conventional wisdom or the narrative in my business, is that the way that the offense was performing last year and sometimes struggled to score in second halves and things of that nature, you just said screw it. We're going to get faster. And that was a conscious decision. Is that true to connect those dots from last year's offensive struggles on occasion to drafting Xavier Worthy and getting Hollywood Brown?

For sure. I think there's a couple things. I think when you live in this era of cap constraints and managing players of this caliber, I think on one end you do have to be able to reinvent yourself. And we have Pat Mahomes and we have Coach Reed, so obviously we're always going to be inclined to win offensively. But because of maybe what cap space you have available and where you're picking and what's available, you do have to be able to sometimes, again, re-identify yourself and figure out different ways to win. And I think early on when Pat was here, we were going up and down the field scoring, and we had some defensive struggles. And then we brought in Tyron Matthew and Frank Clark and we kind of wore different mentality type defense. And then you have to do some things that are difficult, like trade a tie, re-kill.

Well, then you're picking and the best players on the board are Carl Office and McDuffie. Then all of a sudden you start to accumulate some of these great players on defense. And last year we were able to win because of our defense. But I think you have to be flexible to sustain success. And I don't know if you can go out there and win for 10 years in a row always by outscoring people.

I mean, you're going to have to just figure out different ways to win. But certainly if given the opportunity and having resources and having the right names fall in the draft, I mean, you're always probably going to be thinking Mahomes first. And I mean, last year was the year that it worked out. We were able to sign some, re-sign some guys on the defensive side. And then when we got to the draft, you know, Worthing and Kingsley, our left tackle where our first two picks want to protect them and give them more weapons. And then we brought Hollywood in, too. So we're going to add a ton of vertical speed and add more protection and just keep giving Pat things to work with. And I think, again, that's always our first priority.

But sometimes you have to take what is out there and do the best with what you have. Well, again, I knew him running for his life and the Super Bowl loss that you had to Tampa. You're like, OK, we're going to hit the offensive line.

You clearly did that. We had Crete Humphrey on the show last Friday. I mean, what a stud.

Just as an example, I want to put a pin in Worthing for a second. You also have to have the contract your quarterback, your generationally great quarterback, is under. So how often do you address that with Patrick, certainly in an offseason where we just saw a ton of mid-50s APY, you know, Dak, the whole conversation with him, he's going to hit the he might be the first quarterback whose contract starts with a six.

It's possible Purdy could be that guy. And you've got Mahomes and all the trophies in the case. How often do you revisit this contract with Patrick? Well, we as you know, we just we did just readdress it last year. And yes, and those are one of those situations that I mean, obviously we'll have ongoing dialogue. And we have a great relationship.

I think, you know, looking back on that deal, obviously, we're blessed to have that type of relationship. But a deal like that only gets done, obviously, if the person on the coaching staff are all on board, obviously, which we are. But the owner has to be all on board with something that long.

And obviously, Clark was. But the player has to be all on board. And I think to get the player on board, he has to have a lot of trust in the coaching staff, in the personnel staff. And I think, you know, we obviously respect that a lot. And we handle that relationship with great care because we know that he put his trust in us. And that's why the ongoing communication is something that we'll always have. And like I said, last year, we were able to move money up and make him, you know, the highest paid quarterback over that four-year span cash wise.

In terms of cash wise, like cash is cash rich. That's what puts the money in the bank. That's what's the most important aspect.

But the APY is not, you know, not top ten or whatever. And so when these contracts come, do you call them and just say, just to check a pulse check here where he's. Yeah, the API will always include years that aren't guaranteed though. So, I mean, really players just care about, you know, what's real. And again, we have that communication.

So over the next four years, there's no one making more and that's real. And then as this goes on, we'll continue to have open dialogue with him and, you know, that's the way we'll handle that relationship. And again, we're just fortunate that we're in that position.

Sure. And then let's unpin worthy. The combine moment where I'm in the booth with Daniel Jeremiah. I mean, I've done these guys know.

And you know, I've been doing combines now for 20 years. Never thought fans in the stands would happen and never thought that there would be a moment where a player like worthy would show up an athlete, a competitor would show up and do what he did. And in the same way that you're like saying Mahomes, you were surprised to see him come back in a game where he's got nothing, if you will, to play for when he's got his future ahead of himself. And he did. Worthy coming close to breaking the 40 in his first run. I thought he wouldn't run again. I was the only one. Everybody else is like, he's going to run.

He's a competitor or whatever. I don't know if it's because of fans in the stands or he just wanted to break it, but him going out and running again and breaking it is and the fans going nuts. Truly one of my favorite. I'm like getting goosebumps even thinking about it. My greatest moments as a broadcaster in the 22 seasons I've done with NFL Network. Were you in the building? Yeah.

I mean, that was special. It's one of those things, you know, when you go to Indianapolis, you know, obviously your scouting staff is there and your coaching staff is there. And depending on where they are when particular position groups are running, sometimes they're scattered throughout the building. So every team probably has similar discussions in that when you get to the combine, you're telling coaches this guy is around top ten pick, this guy two to three, this guy three to four.

Yeah. And I remember talking to our coaching staff about Worthy and they had done some tape work because we bring the guys in for the formal interviews and a lot of times we have the film, the college film on the board. So they have done some film work and obviously when you watch some of his film, his collegiate film, you get excited. And we had a great interview with him and I remember when he left the interview, the coaches were like, what are we thinking? Like, is this guy going to be around? And I was like, it's going to be close. You know, I think he kind of is going to be in that 25 to 35 and some of the teams will be scared off by the wait. And listen, you're always going to have O-linemen and D-linemen and quarterbacks go. So you account for all those guys. You're going to have some of the bigger receivers go.

I said it's going to be close. And then he ran that 4-2-1 and I remember texting like Coach Reed, Nags, Coach Blymeyer, well, take him off the board. He won't be there. And I don't think he would have been. If it weren't for six of the first 12 quarterbacks going? Well, yeah, but again, we moved up to get him.

Got it. So I'm pretty sure that, in fact, I know this because I talked to some GMs over training camp kind of letting me know that they were trying to get up to get Worthy too. So wouldn't have had him at 32. I mean, you know, would he have gone at 31 or 30?

I don't know. But I'm pretty confident he would have been at 32. But, yeah, after that 4-2-1, I mean, those guys typically, guys that are a late one usually go mid ones after a time like that. But again, listen, there were a lot of great players that were taken. And a lot of these young guys, I don't know what your take is on the preseason, but it's rare to see, like, all these first-round quarterbacks all look really good in the preseason.

One looks good and a couple struggle. And, I mean, it's exciting time for the league, obviously, with so much talent and so much parity. But, I mean, the young quarterbacks here are truly special and got a couple now in our division.

Yeah, for sure. And in terms of that, before we take a break, Eric Stonestreet here with Brett Feach, you just mentioned the young quarterbacks. Ryan Polz, who left Kansas City to go to Chicago. He was in the scouting department while Mahomes was doing his thing, right? Yeah. And I imagine you and he were in the same department pretty much, right? Yeah.

And everybody is thinking Caleb is the next Mahomes. Do you think that's a fair comparison? Well, I think he has a lot of traits. And, you know, unlike Ryan, you got to really be around the guy. Sure.

But physically, I mean, sure. Just watching tape. Just watching tape, yeah. I mean, he's got ad lib ability. He's got a great arm.

He's got great instincts. And, you know, Ryan's done a really good job of giving him some offensive weapons to work with. And, yeah, I mean, I think those Chicago Bears fans should be really excited. And I think they have a deep roster, too. So it should be a lot of fun. That division is going to be, I mean, all these divisions are great. But that's, you know, with the way Detroit played last year and now Chicago getting in the mix, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch. I know it's not your table, but, you know, obviously you're a guy who's scouted Mahomes and Ryan was around, too.

And it's amazing how he's got a guy that everybody's talking about is the next Mahomes with all these plays and his playmaking ability. All right. Let's take a break here and finish up this show with Eric Stonestreet, kind enough to bring Brett Veitch here. If you weren't bringing barbecue, the general manager's next place thing.

Yeah, 100 percent. Fantastic. So Eric Stonestreet here, Brett Veitch here, and we're going to wrap up this first show from Kansas City in a moment.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. When I said I wanted to bring a guest on, I'm like, well, I want to bring on who I wanted to be when I was a kid, and that was an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs. And I've been fortunate enough to get to know Mitchell and know what a good guy he is and what a great player he is, so I wanted to share this moment with the right tackle for the Chiefs. My favorite football team, not that I need to tell anybody that.

Yeah, I mean, it's really cool. I got to know him, I guess, at the end of last year, and we hit it off right away. We both like food. We both like food.

We have a lot of shared interests. He asked me where I got my meat, and we go to the same meat guy. He goes to the same butcher here in Kansas City. I said, serious question though, Mitch, where do you buy your meat in Kansas City? He's like, oh, this place called Bickelmeier's. And I'm like, okay, you're in.

You're good. Because I know how seriously you take your Kansas City food. You guys go to the same butcher here in the city.

We do, yeah. I mean, when I got here, I like to cook. I was confined to an apartment in my previous life. When I got here, I got a house, got a whole backyard set up. I mean, this guy's got the greatest backyard set up you could ever imagine for cooking.

He's sending me videos all the time, different stuff to try. The text exchange between me and him and some of his other offensive linemen that are into smoking is hilarious. Like, one night I put a brisket on, and it was like we were kind of coordinating with the time difference of putting a brisket on around the same time. And I woke up to check my brisket and texted Mitch at 4 in the morning L.A. time, which was Kansas City 6 a.m. time. And I told Lindsey, my girlfriend, I'm like, I texted Mitchell Schwartz in the middle of the night about a brisket. Like, what is going on? And I responded.

You responded? For whatever reason, I was up at that exact time. And we were, because I was doing a brisket the next night. So we kind of throw ideas off each other, see what we do.

I think he was doing like a 24-hour, super slow, got all jiggly and gooey, and the bark was perfect. That's the way Eric Stonestreet likes to roll, and that's why we love to roll with Eric Stonestreet. Back on The Rich Eyes and show game time tickets. Make sure you get game time on a mobile device near you as soon as you possibly can and start buying tickets to anything in your area. The all-in pricing feature is my favorite part because when you toggle this feature, it shows you the total up front.

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Eric Stonestreet here, and Eric, you ran the great Okie-Doke. You're like, I'm bringing a surprise. We all thought it was going to be barbecue, correct? Kind of. It's offensive. No, no, no. It's weightist.

Weightist. No, we just thought it was going to be, you know, especially since I agreed because you took the NFL network crew for the draft. You took us all out. That's why. You know, you took us, so we thought like that was going to be it to the point where we're like, hey, I don't know if we're going to have, we were talking about maybe pushing dinner back a little bit.

Yeah, overeating today. Instead, you brought us Brett Veitch, the general manager of the Kansas State University. Which is probably better. Even better. Even better.

Less filling. I know Brett, how he works, and I got to ask at training camp, some of his staff, like, what makes Brett great? And they had all these, you know, interesting things to say about him. But one of the things, and I can attest to, is Brett is a big picture and small picture guy. He's in the minutia, but in the best way possible. And he's, he again, like Coach Reed and Patrick, he's got a breadth of the room.

He's got a breadth of everything that's going on. And after we had, you know, doing this, said, well, tomorrow, last night I'm getting texts like, okay, so who's going to walk me out? Like, how am I going to know where to go?

Like, is there going to be an audience there? He wanted to know everything about it. And I'm just like, that's my GM right there. He's not walking into something without preparation. He's taking all of this into consideration.

So he is the best at the moment that he needs to be the best he can be. I love that. Fantastic. And I appreciate you taking the time here the day before kickoff. You have, I'm told a great Ed O'Neill story, which by the way, you know, that's one of our favorite subject matters. Yeah.

I'm doing everything I can to get Ed O'Neill to a Chiefs game this year. Like we have one tentatively penciled in. Which one? Well, I can't remember which one it is.

It's in November. Maybe the noon game in November that, you know, he's like, Eric, you know, it's hard to fly, you know, like this, you know, I'm Ed O'Neill, right? But we got to find somebody to fly Ed private. But so on the show, Jesse and Ty and Sophia and Julie, they always gave Ed and I trouble because especially on a Monday, you'd walk into the trailer and if Ed and I were in there together, we would be middle of what we had to eat over the weekend conversation. It was always people walking in and Ed being like, and then I put cheese on them.

And then, you know, you close the lid and you let it melt, just let it melt for a little bit. You know, always talking about food, always talking about food to the point where Jesse and Ty and everybody kind of made fun of us. Ed and I have only seen each other twice since Modern Family Wrapped, but he calls and checks in on me every time. And then I get, you know, text messages from him. Bring up the first text message of the peasant dish. This is a typical Ed O'Neill text, which is, there it is. So what's that say?

Peasant dish, chicken, sausage, potatoes, and peppers. Yeah. That's all I get. It's that picture.

And so then I call, I call him, bring up the conversation. Oh, you got that too? Listen to this. Okay. Here we go. Right. You actually call it that.

It's so low. It doesn't even move, you know, and you just, you can, you can cook it. And I do for like six hours. Oh, and potatoes and potatoes, of course. And so I'm just going to let it sit and simmer and simmer and simmer and simmer.

It has amazing results, you know, at the end of that time. Are you cooking it now or you're about to cook it? I'm cooking it now.

It's all, it's, uh, I'm, let's see, I'm three hours in. You know what I always do when I make stuff like that? I always make it so that it has 24 hours to sit. And then I eat it after, you know, when I make chili, I always try to make chili not to eat then, but eat the next day.

I do the same thing. I never eat it on the same day. This won't be eaten today. This will be, you know, I'll put this away at nine o'clock tonight. All right. So that's a typical conversation. No, it's still going. So the reason I recorded that is because Ty's, Ty's birthday was coming up and I thought, well, the best birthday present I could give Ty Burrell is to send him that audio clip of Ed talking about this peasant dish he was making.

But if you listen to that again, re rewind, he goes, Oh, and potatoes, potatoes. Of course. Of course.

He slipped in though. Of course. Of course. And then next picture. Yeah.

Three days later I get this. Asabuko. He's making an Asabuko.

That's Ed O'Neill in a nutshell right there. Just home, comfortable, making delicious dishes that he's not going to eat right now. He's going to make it and eat it tomorrow, right? He's the best. I know you have anything going on with that O'Neill is we're trying to get him to a game. Okay.

He says he wants to come. Uh, you know, you know, one of the most famous, uh, clips recently, who do you tell us to is it? Was he on Ellen's show when she was doing it? Oh, Taylor. Yeah.

He had no idea who Taylor Swift was. Yeah. Right. Did you hear that? So that doesn't surprise me. So getting the two of them together at a chief's game would be what we call incredible, incredible. He loves the internet.

I told you before he and Travis, we, the three of us have a text exchange, Travis, Ed O'Neill and myself. Oh my God. Yeah. It's an incredible piece of art.

It is incredible. But have I ever told you on the, I don't know if I've told you on the show before, but Ed, on a Monday after an award show, the best, I think I've done this bit. I can't remember. Eric. I saw, um, what's his name? Comedian. Uh, Jerry Seinfeld, no African American guy. Chris Rock.

No. Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy. I saw Eddie Murphy. It was great.

It was great. I hadn't seen him in years. He was with, um, Oh, what's her name? She does the voiceover stuff.

Um, I don't know, Ed. She's blonde. Cameron Diaz. Cameron Diaz. I saw Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz together. Great.

They are great. You know, they were in a, what's the movie called? It's got the green fat guy, Shrek, Shrek, it's a great movie. Shrek.

They offered me Shrek. I mean, that's see Brett, you should now send him photographs completely, uh, out of the blue on how you're creating the chiefs, you know, like your draft choice, you just send them to picture worthy. Well, you know what he'll do if I'm not giving up too much, he'll send me a clip of a player, a call, a college clip. Yeah. And then I have to hear it from Adam Schefter that we signed the guy. I'm like, my, my chop liver, like every, every breaking news, the chiefs, I'm, I just send them.

I'm like, I'm just a peasant on the street. Yeah. You've told me, watch out for the chiefs to draft this guy.

And then they do. Well, my favorite this year is an unsigned free agent that we got an undrafted free agent out of Marshall. Tackle. Okay.

Fantastic. You love the lineman, right? Well, I love the lineman. I went to the OTA or I went to the rookie mini camp and I was like beach, what's the deal? He's 6'9". He's 315 pounds. It's like, we'll see.

Then the preseason. It's like, guess who made the 53? Undrafted free agent. He's got a great eye. He's got a good eye for that, sir. Put him on the coaching staff. Yeah.

I want to be on some staff. It's Randy. When you guys were talking about the combine, I almost interjected and said, wouldn't know. Never been invited. We got to get him in the combine. Please.

Just for the Elmo steakhouse alone. Dude, we'd love to, I'd love to have you in the combine. Can you have me come on?

I want to go so bad. It's done. It's done.

Thanks for coming on. You're a good man. Have a great time.

Tomorrow night. Really appreciate it. Welcome to Kansas city guys. We hope you have a great time. You're going to a great steakhouse tonight.

Have fun. We'll be back on the air live from Kansas city at the total wireless studio on Thursday and back to wrap up this show on the Roku sports channel in a second. Hey, it's Rich Eisen here. Join me in my compadre Chris Brockman every Monday on the overreaction Monday podcast, a 2023 last place team will win a playoff game this year. I'm taking the Cincinnati Bengals to be that team. If you gave me safe bet, if you said two last place teams, I might say that's an overreaction come react or overreact with us. This one makes it much easier. So thank you for making it easier to tune in next week overreaction Monday, wherever you listen.